To wonder how schools can realistically reopen when there is still a killer virus about with no vaccine?

[JustCantShakeIt]

I’m not talking about them reopening now, in May or June or even September.

Who is prepared to send their DC into a school with hundreds of other DC, where social distancing and keeping a germ free environment is literally impossible, even with the best wills in the world, when there is a life threatening disease floating about which is highly transmittable and you have no guarantee it won’t make your DC severely ill or die.

Social distancing just between parents will be impossible at my DC’s school of over 500 where we all have to wait outside the main gates at pick up time.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m desperate for schools to reopen before my DC turn completely feral, but I don’t see how that can happen until we have a vaccine. We’re being told to stay home and keep our distance now due to the risk, the risk will be the same next month or in 5 months won’t it?

@fandajji of course they'd have to isolate! The NHS staff are under pressure because they have to isolate if a member of their family gets a cough. There were four paramedics on the news recently, all of whom at to isolate because one of them developed symptoms and they flat shared. I have no idea where no need to isolate came from but it's wrong.

Not happy to be in whilst I am ill, never! But if my son has a cough and is being looked after at his dad's then I imagine I'll be expected to be in. It was the household isolation that caused the problems with staffing. I'm not saying they will drop that policy, but I would consider it a possibility

The world has always been a dangerous place, rife with viruses and disease.
The reasoning that 'This is a new threat!' only really works if you were a bit stupid - i.e. thought there was never going to be a new pandemic.
Ditto the reasoning 'But this must be more dangerous or they wouldn't have shut the world down!'. What they've done is super weird, and there will be lots and lots of discussion in the coming months and years as to why this has been the approach this time.

If you truly understood the general risks to your kids from viruses, disease, and life in general - let's face it you wouldn't have had them!

Dc will not be going back until more is known about the long term problems that may be caused by catching the virus.

Especially worried about the mutterings in the medical community re: the immune system being destroyed, similarities to HIV, lung capacity etc.

I can keep them off for as long as necessary, up to years if need be.

So how do the teachers think this will be done?

Everyone works from home and looks after their children at the same time until there is a vaccine, even if that's 5/10 years away?

I caught my untested but almost certain COVID-19 from my DD2 (8), who either caught it at school or at her half-term gymnastics club. She had a high temperature, chest pain and bad headache and was achy all over. She was only unwell for 4 days, but mine has been taking weeks to clear.

The children are low risk but their parents or grandparents won't be.

Oh they will find a vaccine but my kids won’t be having it neither will I.

Have a read of what happened with swine flue vaccine, they are still paying compo out over it.

Why are some people so eagerly ready to inject stuff in to themselves?

• How will it work for older parents who are either shielding or almost at that risk level? The ones that stand a 1:10 chance of dying should they get it.

How can we let our children back into circulation knowing that they might lose a parent if they bring it home? *

My children (13 and 18) know that if I catch it, there is a very high chance it will kill me. I have been completely honest with them.

I have also told them that once this is lifted I'm back out doing my job properly (if I still have it) for reasons I have already said.

Life is a risk and we have to get on the best we can. The alternative is poverty and I know out of poverty and dying which personally I would choose. I am comfortable and at peace with the thought of death, as I know my life is going to be shorter than what could be seen as normal and I've had time to come to terms with that.

School reopening has to be done sensibly. If there is mass staff absence because social distancing/isolation rules are in place then it won’t be any sort of settled, safe experience for students.
If there is mass student absence due to isolation, then curriculum knowledge will be patchy, and this will have long term effects on students who have missed school.

The first few weeks of being back are going to need careful managing- much better done by the regular teachers than a patchwork of supply teachers. We cannot have the first weeks back the same as the last week or so before we closed - it’s hugely unsettling and damaging for the students.

I don’t know what the right time frame is, but I hope it’s done in a measured way.

The point of lockdown was never to get rid of the virus, merely to slow the spread. In fact people need to get it otherwise it will never be gone. It’s like a host pipe, if she squeeze or step on it you stem the flow and if you release slowly then the flow slows down, if you just let go the flow is really just as fast as before you did anything. This is going to take a long time and none can really predict what the removal of the measures will look like, it’s a political decision, but there is no way of preventing people from catching this

I bumped into a teacher from DD's school today and he seems to think schools may re-open as early as May. I'll be delighted if that's the case.

I'm chuckling at all the medical experts on this thread who know better and plan to keep their kids at home once schools re-open until they've decided "it's safe".

@PhilCornwall1 Who cares, you die, as long as people are back at work.
This is NOT what I think by the way. But it is what some are saying. Oh it is sad but lots of people die in car accidents, etc.

@Eastie77 The government wants us all to get infected. You may think that is a safe plan, I dont.

@Summersunandoranges are you referring to the 1 in 55000 people who got narcolepsy from pandemrix?

While a rushed vaccine can be risky due to less testing of small incidence effects, I can't see how it is more risky than staying in Lockdown for 18 months.

Everything in life is a risk. Cars kill 2000

Who cares, you die, as long as people are back at work. This is NOT what I think by the way. But it is what some are saying.

No one is saying that.

They’re saying, think of the impact of the economy sinking 35% and more. How will people (including teachers) put food on the table and roofs over heads? How will social and medical care be funded?

Thoughts?

*2000 people die in car accidents every year. That's a 1 in 33,000 chance. Should we all stop driving?

@LaurieMarlow I don't think logic is going to work here. Or raising concerns for the economy.

The government wants us all to get it, and the disabled and ill who are vulnerable to die

If that was the case they’d just have had no lockdown and not treated any elderly and vulnerable who got it.

Ultimately whether the government want us to get it or not most of us will in the end and sadly many more people will die. We can’t stay locked down forever. I am begging to think that we will actually return to “normal” sooner than we think with the very vulnerable remaining shielded. We can’t all stay off school/work for an indefinite period just to avoid trying to get it at all, when the aim was just so we wouldn’t all get it at once. I suspect the government might pull the rug on furlough which will force workplaces who closed by choice to open and this can only be done if parents can go back to work.

My dad is in the shielding group, he has stage 2 COPD. He said he will go back to work in a school straight away. He's also still going for a walk every day because it's good for his mh.

Life is for the living. He says he would rather live a shorter amount of time than live constantly frightened and locked away.

I guess you’re right. I just wish people would try to engage with the complexity of the problem here.

Rather than the ‘no one cares if we DIE’ shtick.

The government wants us all to get infected. You may think that is a safe plan, I dont.

And what do you propose can be done to stop it? It’s a virus which sadly kills people. There’s only so much the government can do.

I don't think logic is going to work here. Or raising concerns for the economy

'You care more abaht munny than LIFES!'

I jest but this is sadly who our leaders are pandering to...

The government only went in to partial lock down because it was forced to by teachers self isolating and parents withdrawing kids. It had explicitly said it did not want to before the Easter holidays.

qweryuiop it doesn’t matter. Look at thalidomide. They are going to rush a vaccine out and every one is going to leap on it because they a terrified every one is going to die. They are not.

The the kids will be back at school as soon as it’s open.

Ive seen a video clip of the Irish news with a spokes person saying we could be on lockdown till a vaccine is found, I seen an article this morning from the USA a chief medical Dr in Florida staying the same.

No I don’t want that. I don’t want it to be forced either, that you can only come out of lockdown when you’ve had the vaccine or a bloody pass to leave the country if you’ve had the vaccine.

This virus will only effect the minority. It’s shouldn’t be forced on everybody.

Schools will reopen because they have to. The current situation is not sustainable for any great length of time. There will come a point where we strike a balance between saving lives and saving the economy, much as some people find that unpalatable. That's the reality.