So....you all want schools open? For whatever reason - good of the economy, so you can work, child mental health, adult mental health.....,we want schools open and functioning on 100% of their usual timetables with all children able to be in school all day, every day. That's what we're aiming for, right?
Those of you who say no to masks, what do you think will happen in a room where a child is asympomatic with covid and sits there for 5 days, laughing, chatting, singing, shouting in the corridors, eating with huge groups, peeing in toilets used by 300 other students, getting in his friend's faces, getting close to the adults, the adults getting close to him to help him with his work....at the very minimum, other people are going to pick it up asymptomatically because we know that's how it works. And all those children who have it asymtompatically will walk it out of school into their parent's homes, their grand parent's homes, the GP surgery, dentist, Post Office, the bus ride home and leave their virus everywhere. And remember, the more people in the bubble - 300 in some high schools - the more chance you have of coming into contact with an asymptomatic case as a child.
What happens when the teacher (1) in that same bubble (primary school) gets sick? Bearing in mind, that teacher will also use the same toilet as colleagues and will be touching communal items such as guillotines, photocopies, lightswitches, tap in the bathroom, switch on the kettle...Teacher (1) is off. Potentially for weeks. No local supply available because they are tough to get at the best of times (and many, many teachers work supply because it fits with, for example, caring for elderly parents or disabled children so they aren't going to be wanting to go into schools with known cases). Teacher 1 has left her mark all around school. Teacher (2) gets sick 5 days later and is also off whilst Teacher (1) is still sick. Teacher (3) gets it asympomatically so is bombing around the place leaving a virus trail behind him. Teacher (4) is off by the end of the second week by which point Teacher (1) is critically ill in hospital. The classes teachers (1), (2), (3) and (4) teach are now closed until supply can be found (less and less likely by the day) or until the teacher has returned. We know enough to know this could be months in some cases and certainly weeks in many, many cases.
In secondary, the issue is less acute in that staff have free lessons and will be expected to cover whilst teacher (1) and (2) go off sick. However, covering (3) and (4) as well starts to be problematic because supply is in short supply (pun absolutely intended). But it doesn't end there because asymptomatic child has lessons with no less than 8 teachers over a 5 day period and wanders in and out of the loo without bothering to wash his hands. By the end of day 14, teachers (5), (6), (7) and (8) are off too and the school has closed one year bubble and has to close 2 others because the staff are dropping like proverbial flies. So that's 10 and 11 in only. Again, potentially for weeks.
Now, I am not saying that masks will solve the issue. I can see that fiddling with them etc. etc. is problematic. And the same asympomatic children will be wandering about touching all sorts. But it will help to prevent some transmissions and if only teachers (1) and (5) go off sick, the school remains open. The school remaining open is key. It's what you, as parents, want. So why not just try to do everything possible to keep transmission low so we can acheive that.
What people really don't seem to get is that this is NOT about reducing transmission between children - we get that for the vast majority it will be unproblematic - but children cannot go into a school without staff and I am quite sure that you would want to do everything possible yourself to keep safe. So just do it. Masks are about all we have if we are all in school at the same time so why stop us using them?