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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

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

706 replies

JustCantShakeIt · 14/04/2020 12:11

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?

OP posts:
PhilCornwall1 · 14/04/2020 15:24

I'd send mine tomorrow and they would happily go. The whole point of this lockdown isn't to stop everyone getting it, it's to stop the health service being saturated.

If people are going to keep their children off school until a vaccine is found and fully tested, write the year off. Same for people going about a normal life.

alloutoffucks · 14/04/2020 15:24

@Watertorture Exactly. Why would you tell your employer about your medical conditions if you don't have to?

@Kazzyhoward The vulnerable groups is based on who gets the flu jab. They have already been assessed as vulnerable to developing complications of flu. I know this is not flu, it is more likely to kill you than flu.

LaurieMarlow · 14/04/2020 15:25

A lot of people are still working and paying taxes, including teachers.

The public sector doesn’t generate money.

Tax revenues are falling off a cliff.

nobodyimportant · 14/04/2020 15:29

Also interesting how some people don't care about the vulnerable children suffering abuse, who are missing education- those who will never catch up. The MH costs to many children and young people from this extended period.

The hard truth is there wasn't much being done to help those children when schools were open. I know that there are families in our school who have been repeatedly referred to social services only to be batted back. That's what you get for repeatedly voting for Conservatives. Schools are supposed to provide education. If children are not safe in their homes they shouldn't be left there whether schools are open door not. You have not idea how much I care about these children or the things I do to try and help them in school. I worry about them a lot.

tinytemper66 · 14/04/2020 15:29

We are going to have to open eventually, with or without a virus. We can't stay open to the few for an infinite amount of time.
I do not know when but I cannot see us waiting for a vaccine.

Astrabees · 14/04/2020 15:29

I wish someone could do some figures on how unsafe it is for children to be at home, in all accident statistics home comes out as the least safe place to be, and for fatal accidents. cv is very low risk to children. If I had school aged children at the moment I'd be very worried about their long term education and social development, I think the schools should re-open as soon as possible. Social distancing for parents taking children and extra busses so tat the driver and passengers can be safe are a priority.

Quartz2208 · 14/04/2020 15:30

Research should really be done though at the end of this month to discover who is actually vulnerable and what the underlying conditions were.

As I said earlier 50% of deaths have been over 80 (and I expect that will increase as and when care homes are added) going to 92% over 60 so those are at risk from if schools spread. Which we just dont know.

It will have to happen before a vaccine - but not until transmission has been properly suppress and other data such as what underlying conditions and where.

Watertorture · 14/04/2020 15:30

I love how some posters act as if schools are staffed by robots (now there's an idea)

justanotherneighinparadise · 14/04/2020 15:31

@Alialialiali how long do you honestly think you can lock the vulnerable up for until 80% of the population get it assuming the current 4% figure is somewhere near correct?

nobodyimportant · 14/04/2020 15:33

Social distancing for parents taking children and extra busses so tat the driver and passengers can be safe are a priority.

That's not going to happen.

LondonJax · 14/04/2020 15:33

@Astrabees. So social distancing for the bus drivers...what about the teachers? How does a teacher with one TA deal with 30 children in year three whilst maintaining social distancing when children sit 6 to a table - so similar to the table you would have six adults sitting at for dinner? Or, to ask the question again, don't teachers matter? Because if a bus driver matters then a teacher or TA matters. Otherwise stick all the kids on a bus and let the bus driver get on with it. Because that's what people want teachers to do.

PhilCornwall1 · 14/04/2020 15:33

how long do you honestly think you can lock the vulnerable up for

A fair chunk are also working. I'm in the so called shielding group (if that's a thing) and WFH, but a large chunk of my job is client site consultancy, which has to be done, it's my job.

cantkeepawayforever · 14/04/2020 15:34

The staffing difficulties in schools were not just the shielding group - and in fact most of the 'vulnerable' group were in school until the end of the final day.

The difficulty was the self and family isolation rules, which are absolutely unchanged: if you, or anyone in your household, develops a new temperature or a new dry cough, stay at home for 7 days (if it is you) or 14 days (if it is someone else in your family).

Teachers do not live in isolation - they live with partners, children, elderly parents etc. If a school or nursery-aged child of a teacher gets a new cough or temperature, that is an automatic 2 week absence.

Without rapid testing to establish whether this really is COVID, then numbers of absences can go up rapidly.

LucheroTena · 14/04/2020 15:34

We have to come out of this hysteria and think rationally. We can’t keep the whole country in lockdown when a large proportion of that population are no more likely to fall very ill from this virus than the other risks they face. It makes sense once the apex of this first wave is reached that we start to release the least vulnerable back to work and school. We can shield / socially distance the rest.

A 35% reduction in the economy is a big fucking deal and will kill or harm far more of us than this poxy virus ever will.

LucheroTena · 14/04/2020 15:35

@cantkeepawayforever hopefully by the time the kids go back the testing will be in a position to be rolled out to other key workers such as teachers, public transport workers etc.

LondonJax · 14/04/2020 15:35

@cantkeepawayforever

^ this

PhilCornwall1 · 14/04/2020 15:38

A 35% reduction in the economy is a big fucking deal and will kill or harm far more of us than this poxy virus ever will.

Agreed, it's time to open up and get the country working again.

To be honest, I'd be out there tomorrow if I could. The need to put food on the table and keep a roof over our heads is more important to me. If that makes me selfish in the eyes of others, I can live with that.

Bewareoftheblob · 14/04/2020 15:38

I don't think it's so much that people/government don't care that folk will die, rather that there is not a great deal anyone can do about it :(

fandajji · 14/04/2020 15:40

Teacher here! Most of those who went off before schools were closed was due to the cough or fever isolation policy. I can't imagine that will remain when schools open as this is about flattening the curve.

I hope schools open after may half term, I miss my students and because I have 3 children I am off of the rota for now. Most of my teacher friends are also bored and feeling awful about setting pointless revision worksheets. We can't teach new knowledge as we risk widening the academic gap further therefore we feel useless.

Once schools reopen I will be running in! (And sending my children in too!)

I feel for the teachers who are feeling overworked and stretched, but this isn't the reality for a lot of us.

cantkeepawayforever · 14/04/2020 15:42

There are, IIRC, about 500,000 teachers in schools in the UK.

Plus TAs, lunchtime supervisors, cleaners, office staff, school transport drivers etc.

Even if each of those people only live with 1 other person (because obviously the testing would need to be for the member of the family who became ill, in order to release the teacher or not), then you are talking about a million or so people.

With a highly contagious virus, how many tests would this need, and how many would be repeated? So I get a cough this week, and it's just a cold, but DS gets a temperature a week later - we all need another test.

Is that feasible within the timeframe (say late May, early June now seems to be being talked about), especially as demand for tests from healthcare professionals isn't going to be falling?

LondonJax · 14/04/2020 15:43

I still think the government will open gradually. I can't see cinemas, theatres, restaurants opening in a first wave whether the kids are back or not. They're not necessary and encourage people to congregate so don't help with social distancing. I think they'll be among the last to open. The government is hardly going to open for business on Monday having been in lockdown for umpteen weeks until Sunday evening.

So some parents will still find themselves working from home (if they can) or, unfortunately, not working at all. It's not going to all change overnight.

planningaheadtoday · 14/04/2020 15:44

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?

I'm in this situation with four teenagers all at different schools/ university.

I'm pretty terrified to be honest. My GP has warned me that the odds are not in my favour and I should do everything in my power not to get it.

We have one family bathroom so isolating isn't possible. I'm just a bit stuck. I can't put their lives on hold for 18 months and I also don't really want to die!
I would put myself in harms way if I thought there was a treatment that meant I would be extremely ill but likely to pull through. But as yet there isn't.

It's all a bit miserable, it's being stuck between a rock and a hard place.

SmileEachDay · 14/04/2020 15:44

Macron announced yesterday that schools are to go back on 11th May

if teachers can be as protected as medical staff, is what he actually said. Which I guess would mean PPE? 🤷🏻‍♀️

Watertorture · 14/04/2020 15:45

So fandajji you're happy to be in and to be expected to stay in even while you're coughing or have a temperature - and to have many students in front of you each day doing the same? I have not heard anyone say before that going back to work meant that anyone with symptoms should no longer isolate, that's very worrying.