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?

Norovirus kills 200,000 a year and there's no vaccine, no-one is too worried about that.

What?
Norovirus kills less than 100 people a year in the UK. We understand the virus and we can manage the symptoms. The symptoms are pretty quick to take effect and extremely obvious, and vomiting kids aren't usually let into schools in order to spread it. It kills more people in the developing world because of a lack of clean water, hygiene, access to hospitals. We do not need a vaccine for it in the UK.

This new virus is entirely different. Even the risks from the seasonal flu are different. We can vaccinate against the flu to reduce the severity of the symptoms. We have treatments for flu. We have neither of those things for covid-19. How hard is that to understand?

They think only 4% of the UK population has been exposed to this virus so far. According to worldometers our population is 67,886,011. So 16,971,502.75 have apparently been exposed and a loose figure of 11500 of those have died. No idea what that is percentage wise.

Roughly 0.07%

Surely the biggest issue with opening schools back up, which seems to have been forgotten by many, is that a significant number of teachers and school staff are self isolating or in the shielding group. Dds secondary school shut before the majority of schools because they didn’t have enough staff to keep the dc safe and I know of other schools who were in a similar situation. Now that so many people have received letters telling them not to go out of the house, a proportion of those are going to be school staff plus any that show symptoms and have to self isolate for 2 weeks, I can’t see any way schools can reopen in the near future as they won’t have the staff to keep the children safe.

You will be told OP that children are low risk. Few seem to care about staff or that children will get infected and infect their parents. Many parents will be vulnerable. Asthma, diabetes, high blood pressure, these are all very common conditions.
You will also be told that getting people back to work matters more. Which means that some school staff and parents are supposed to sacrifice their life to get people back to work.

I have come much more aware of just how selfish a lot or even most parents are. I have always been the one to help others out. Well bugger it not anymore.

This new virus is entirely different. Even the risks from the seasonal flu are different. We can vaccinate against the flu to reduce the severity of the symptoms. We have treatments for flu. We have neither of those things for covid-19. How hard is that to understand?

This in spades.

I know it will be a problem for my local school as they won't have the staff to reopen. 80% fall into the shielding category for one reason or another. They had to close very early on

This is interesting - someone on another thread said that 2/3 of the 80 teachers at their school also fell into this category - seems disproportionately high when looking at the % of the population overall that have been asked to shield

The WHO said yesterday that lockdown restrictions should not be eased without vigorous testing and contact tracing protocols. We aren't doing that.

The 0.01% of children who die have serious underlying conditions. There is literally nothing to suggest that sending healthy children to school will lead to deaths.

@alloutoffucks absolutely right. Teachers will have to sacrifice themselves. I agree with you :(

You will also be told that getting people back to work matters more. Which means that some school staff and parents are supposed to sacrifice their life to get people back to work.

You do do understand though, that this is about keeping the economy afloat.

Without tax revenue, there is no money to pay public sector workers.

And have absolutely no idea why 80% of teachers at a school are claiming to need shielding. Sounds statistically improbable.

The 0.01% of children who die have serious underlying conditions. There is literally nothing to suggest that sending healthy children to school will lead to deaths.

Its not so much about the children individually, it is more about the risk it presents with spreading it to others.

Without tax revenue, there is no money to pay public sector workers.

That also means no money to fund the health service.

Of course closing schools would have limited effect if people still went to work and mass gatherings. The same could be said the other way.

Closing schools was one surefire way to make sure more people worked from home.

I believe in other countries schools partially reopen or children attend every other day/week to keep the spread slow.

Are you my SIL? Always looking for something to get worked up about, doom and gloom. As others say other illnesses have death rates in excess and if you want to keep your children at home that is fine (I presume you dont work) but if you are looking for 100% guarantee you will be waiting and waiting and waiting.

Statistically (under normal non-lockdown conditions) road accidents pose the highest risk of death for children. Are you people keeping your kids off school going to prevent them walking down any pavement next to a road as well? Have you always done that?

If you send all the children back to school, there will be a % of children who will die. Are you prepared to gamble its your child?

Let's try:
If you let your child go out anywhere near traffic, there will be a % of children who will die. Are you prepared to gamble it's your child?

@CaryStoppins you really cannot compare with other schools in other countries. I have heard that Denmark have class sizes that are up to 10 children and will have scrupulous methods of hygiene. No way can they do that here!

I will be sending my kid back, just like 90% of the people I know. The virus is very low risk for children. No, not zero risk but children die freak deaths from chickenpox and bee stings and a whole bunch of other things too, not to mention the risk of death every time you get into a car. Medically vulnerable families should be given full support to homeschool until a vaccine is invented. Medically vulnerable teachers should not be in school. We will all have to do school differently for a while (spaced out desks, shifted hours, staggered play time and pick ups, no "extras" like field trips or assemblies etc., bigger classes, more remote learning, more responsibilities being shouldered by parents). But society can't go on like this long term, with most parents trying to work from home and homeschool and doing a shit job of both things, and with children being isolated from peers and losing huge chunks of education.

If you let your child go out anywhere near traffic, there will be a % of children who will die. Are you prepared to gamble it's your child?

What a fucking stupid analogy

We will need to see how they are going to manage social distancing in school. Also the rise in the number of people using public transport when kids go back. Especially on trains and buses.

I'd be very surprised if it were 80% too Bitofeverything but it only needs to be what, 10%? before a school couldn't open. With the vulnerable including everyone who's recommended to have a flu jab and pregnant women, that's a large part of any workforce. Other workforces don't all have such strong unions or such high levels of contact.

From my staff of 70 teachers, in the last week before closure I had absences of :

2 x pregnancies
4 x asthmatics
3 x diabetics
2 x clinically obese
1 x heart condition
3 x vulnerable family members at home
2 x autoimmue conditions

@TimeAintNothing Except we are not reporting on deaths in care homes or at home. So we have no idea what our mortality rate actually is. A lot of people dying are not included in the statistics.

Social distancing in schools just will not happen.

If you send all the children back to school, there will be a % of children who will die. Are you prepared to gamble its your child?

Its not so much about the children individually, it is more about the risk it presents with spreading it to others.

Make your mind up @neveradullmoment99 whether you're scaremongering about the poor children, or about the other unfortunate people they may infect. You seem to be changing your tune.