Children are not super spreaders, but answer me this...

[Happymind]

We can contract Covid 19 from objects so must take precautions... but not so much from children?

And children can go to school and be in contact with teachers, as they're not "super spreaders" but can not be around family members or grandparents outside their household?

The UK are following guidance from other countries regarding sending children back to school. They are reassured that there will be little or no covid outbreaks judging by other countries success. Yet the UK appear to be the only ones not providing PPE for students and staff?

Am I missing something?

There were paragraphs when I pressed send!!

Didn’t you know being a teacher makes your immune to Covid-19?

Australia has provided very little for teachers apart from extra “cleaning”, hand sanitisers and hand soap (which the teacher union said hasn’t happened yet)

Very good points Happymind

I'm all for the country getting back on its feet, but dont lie to us, or try to convince us that it will all be ok because X Y and Z are doing the same and they are fine. We are NOT going to he doing the same are we?

A lot of what they preach lacks logic. I'm also sick of them dodging questions during each conference.

The most important thing is that filthy germ-ridden children should be kept locked up in their houses forever.

Our complaints about how noisy and uncouth they are and not properly controlled by their parents have been ignored for years.

Now we have the annoying little fuckers where we want them, let's bloody well keep them there.

You're quite right, it would be crazy to allow the fact that they are not super spreaders of this disease to get in the way of the Big Dream of a child-free society.

Nihiloxica Are you quite well?

yes, it's like that child catcher on Chitty Chitty Bang Bang - [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LehcJeNbFBw
]]. We are ridding the nation of children being out and about. Rhe Victorians would be pleased with their children being seen and not heard and some shut up on the top floor of a big house with their nanny and then Governess (no school) and others out of the way at work by age of 10 (if they lived to age 5 in the first place).

When I lie in the garden now there is no sound of them shouting from the local school at break time.....

The reality is about 300 people under age 45 have died of CV19 and we are choosing to destroy the lives of the many to save the very few.

Totally agree nihil absolutely disgusting of the little buggers to go about being 'shudder' children. They need to get with it and stop being so selfish! #bigdream we are so not all in this together.

I was just saying this to dh. We're in Melbourne and school's going back soon but I can't work out why it's not safe for dh to be back in the office but dd1 can go back to school.

Xenia that's also the exact image I get in my head, that or the group of lovely ladies from the NSPCC on Roald Dahl's the Witches! A CHILD!! how disgusting!!

I found your OP a bit confusing @happymind. What's the actual question, is it about PPE? Or about why they can see teachers and not other people?

I mean yeah we are saying they can be around teachers but not grandparents, not because teachers are safer but because teachers are necessary for teaching them. They could just say fuck it, if they're at school they might as well mix with everyone. But I imagine they are trying to limit spread where they can and they would rather resume school than resume socialising and family time as that is the priority for society as a whole.

I’d heard kids have only spread it to grown ups in their house and not in school.

Funny that

The Victorians would be pleased with their children being seen and not heard

We've gone one better - our children are neither seen NOR heard.

So little are vulnerable children seen at present that their abusers don't even have to bother hiding their injuries.

A great couple of months' work. Long may it last.

@sailingawayintosunrise because if people can work from home then it's better than them being at work. Your DH working from home isn't damaging society or children's welfare.

Keeping all children out of school for an extended period of time is extremely damaging to a lot of children's welfare.

Yeah I dont get it either, if it's safe enough for my 5yo to be in school why cant she see her low risk 60yo nana who has barely left the house in god knows how long?

Why didn't teachers protest when they had to look after key workers children? Why am I expected to go to work and mix with frontline and 2nd stage keyworkers and risk my family? It's about minimising risks as much as you possibly can. You know this wont be gone by September right?

If they’re seeing the same people day in day out they’re not going to be super spreaders. In contrast take someone who sees dozens of different people each day like a GP (before coronavirus) or an event that brings lots of people together that ordinarily wouldn’t come into contact like a large wedding or a football match.

I’m in another country where children have come back to school successfully without causing further outbreaks, we have no ppe, the only adjustment now everyone is back is that cleaning and hand washing are more frequent. However the outbreak always felt like it was more under control here than it feels like it is when I talk to people in England.

Use your brain. It is not that there is NO risk of children catching it or spreading it to their teachers, or each other, but that the risk of it being deadly is practically nil. That also goes for the majority of young (less than 60) healthy teachers.

What is high risk is those children visiting their elderly grandparents. The biggest risk is age, then certain diseases. I am very supportive of those teachers who are older, or who have shielding issues, to be allowed to stay at home, but really all others, and children can reasonably attend school without great risk (even without PPE), although I would also support the wearing of basic masks for all.

If children 'don't really get it' and 'don't really pass it on' 🙄🙄🙄🙄

Then why do schools need to take all these government 'guidance' social distancing measures? Might as well have them
ALL back in and give all the adults in the school decent PPE.

Easier & cheaper - but there's a reason they're not doing that ....

We are NOTHING LIKE the countries where schools have started to go back. NOTHING & look at the countries we are more like, the kids are not back.

why cant she see her low risk 60yo nana who has barely left the house in god knows how long?

She can.

I'd be very worried about a woman in her 60s who is not leaving the house. She might be low risk for Covid, but that kind of sedentary lifestyle at her age is risky.

@redskylark

I don't understand why people don't understand this!

They are not saying it's safer to do one thing than the other. They are easing the lockdown one thing at a time. What you are essentially asking for them to do is to throw out all the rules and go "back to normal" and have children visiting everyone they want.

In order to limit the spread as much as possible, they are holding back on social connections while reopening schools in stages.

You may be pissed off and think that you would rather your child see their grandparent than their teacher. Go for it! Make that decision if you want.

But society as a whole needs teachers in schools and kids in class. There are a lot of kids really suffering without school. They need to be there for the most vulnerable in society.

All the superspreaders that I can find reference to in relation to coronavirus (This outbreak and previous) appear to be adults.
It's a rare status for coronavirus it seems, but those that exist have caused issues in various regions.
I stayed at the Metropole in Kowloon, when the SARS coronavirus superspreader doctor triggered the outbreak in Hong Kong. My claim to fame (I didn't catch it)

The biggest risk to my child when he returns to school is people who are continuing to visit family indoors.

It's about trying to limit contact as much as possible and reduce chains of transmission. While at the same time trying to balance need. Children need education. It's only been a legal right since 1870.

Exactly the same reason supermarket workers need to go to work.

Construction sites are reopening with SD measures.

Few children will be getting anywhere near as good an education as they'd be getting in school.
The only child of a middle class SAHM is probably getting on great.
The 3 working class kids sharing Google Classroom on mums phone, probably not.

We can't hide from the virus indefinitely.