What is covid going to do to education this year?

So teachers are already ringing in sick. Do they not mix with people in the holidays?
I work with around 200 people, quite closely and no upturn in sickness at all. They're hadn't been all the way through covid tbh, only those ordered to stay in ringing in. Not much actual illness.

No thanks, not hand sanitisers, cheaply mixed together chemicals entering your blood stream the minute you half heartedly apply this shit.

schools are like petri dishes.
Not this again. Such emotive hyperbole. Yawn.

Some people are really reluctant to give up this shtick.. There has been an uptick of scaremongering from the media but so much more pushback, thankfully.

That's fine - covid is airborne, so hand sanitisers do very little. You are however upping your chances of spreading noro, e-coli and a few other nasties.

Yes, schools are a good place to fuel transmission. Just because it makes you yawn, doesn't stop it being true.

70% of COVID-19 Cases Transmitted By Children (infectioncontroltoday.com)

I wonder if teachers are more susceptible as (like it or not) schools are Petri dishes of germs and they are surrounded by many young people who have not been vaccinated all breathing on them in usually crappily ventilated rooms. And some people seem more prone to catch it more than once. I would say 80% of friends who have had COVID more than once work in schools.

The answer is clean air in schools. There are multiple studies out there that show that ventilation (open windows), air purifiers, or better yet, a combination of both, lead to a significant reduction in covid infection rates.

The government invested millions in CO2 monitors for schools. Please use them, and if your monitor shows levels above 800 (ideally never above 600ppm) then open your windows.

If you are a science teacher or DT teacher, you can build Corsi-Rosenthal boxes which are cheap DIY air purifiers that are extremely effective. If your school won't invest in air filters themselves, ask your PTA to fundraise for SmartAir air purifers (the quiestest and most powerful of the commercial ones - see photo comparison below. Ironically the most expensive and least effective are the Dyson ones that the Dept of Education recommends).

Sick kids (and teachers) should not come to school (100% attendance is impossible) and if anyone has lingering symptoms they should be wearing a tightly fitting mask, preferably KN94 or N95.

We have the solutions. It's just a case of implementing them. Everyone benefits from clean air in classrooms - high levels of CO2 lead to cognitive impairment (that's why we all feel drowsy in a stuffy room), and it helps reduce spread of other airborne illnesses like flu, RSV and measles.

You can also encourage your school to sign up to the SAMHE project which is trying to achieve clean air in UK schools. Currently only provides one air quality monitor per school, but also lots of resources to help understand how to improve indoor air quality.
SAMHE

But your thread is about teachers/ children being off and affecting eduction? Nothing to do with death rates. So how would vaccines help that considering they don't stop people getting ill and potentially being off school or work?

No idea.

No requirement to test or isolate.!

But people are very unwell and not able to attend.

The only thing is in most cases it's not officially covid with no need to test. Some are testing so we know it's covid.

And I think because it's so easily transmitted it's just meaning a lot of illness.

Of course you can talk about whatever you want. But you asked what covid will do to education because being really ill multiple times is bad. I asked what we could do to stop that. And you said have vaccines to cut death rates. So the answer didn't match the question. But I know its hard. No one really ever has an answer to how we stop everyone catching it over and over.

How do you know it is the new strain, it's more likely the old strain.

@Sidslaw I'm glad your school has the sense to keep you off for a week at least, and is actively trying to mitigate spread of infection.

What really gets me is everyone shrugging their shoulders at constant covid (re)infection. It's not normal to get infected yearly or more with the same virus, and it's even more worrying when this is a novel virus! We're discovering new long-term effects of covid everyday - why are so parents so blase about letting their kids getting sick over and over again? Why are they not doing everything to protect their kids from constant illness? I genuinely don't understand this. Surely keeping your child safe from harm should be your number one priority - this means advocating for them, to make sure their schools are safe environments where they won't be exposed to harmful, novel viruses!

If it's the old strain, that would be extremely bad news. Because it would mean that susceptibility has increased (ie immunity worn off) and that, in a population that hasn't been vaccinated in a while, the protective effect of producing milder symptoms is gone.

If true, that would be likely to make the autumn extremely unpleasant, stall ant prospect of reducing NHS waiting times, and damage the economy. Plus the 10% risk of long covid per infection (which reduces the workforce for longer)

I really hope this is not right - can you link the evidence for current strain being an old one? (Which old one?)

It will likely be the one that has been knocking around for the last couple of months not the one that only four cases have been found as yet which is in the news

I'm not sure what the answer is either. I had covid twice in a year, and possibly when it first started and before there was testing. While my symptoms eased after a week ish, I felt like shit for best part of 2 months after. The sort of fatigue that derailed me completely. I don't want to go through that every year 😩. My friend has long covid and it has wrecked her.

I don't think covid is just another virus. Nobody yet understands the affects of it on our bodies long term, and similarly the effects of vaccines either.
It's very very difficult..

Yesterday it was reported there were 4 cases so I doubt it is that, maybe you should contact the authorities with your findings

So which strain is it OP and how do you know

You must be fortunate then. I don't work in school but know 8 people in my imeadiate circle who are too ill to be at work with it currently. Only one works in school. It's not a schools problem, per se, it's out there in the community, but having high numbers ill enough not to work for 2 weeks (usually, sometimes more) at a time is going to have an impact on all services.

There are lots of other bugs going round. I’ve just had a virus and it wasn’t Covid (I tested as I do visit my Nan in a Nursing home) I still didn’t visit my Nan, but this virus I had was worse than when I had Covid!

We’ve just had covid in our family after travelling over the long weekend. Youngest son has missed the first day back at school. He had 2 days of high fever, very chesty cough, no appetite and exhausted. I had the same although a milder fever. I did test as I was actually hopeful it was covid to get it out of the way. There’s no way he could have been at school with this.