Are our kids being thrown under the bus

[Pixxie7]

Chris Whitney has said that children are safe to go back to school because they are at low risk of complications from Covid.is this another case of politics being more important than lives?

Yes children, especially vulnersble children, have been massively let down by prolonged school closures.

There is no evidence the virus has changed. The reason there are less hospitalised cases and deaths at the moment is because it's infecting younger age ranges. The reason for that is, in the main, older people are still being very cautious still and not socialising etc. Also testing of everybody with symptoms means we are recording a lot higher percentage of cases now which means the milder cases are counted too.

www.newstatesman.com/2020/08/why-are-covid-19-hospitalisations-falling-despite-cases-rising

@Pixxie7

Chris Whitney has said that children are safe to go back to school because they are at low risk of complications from Covid.is this another case of politics being more important than lives?

That's not quite what he said. He's said the overwhelming body of evidence concerning the short and long term effects of children not being in school is greater than their risk of being in school.

Chris Whitty is right to say risk to children is minute (and I'll take the opinion of an eminent immunologist over a bunch of randomers on MN).

This is the same Chris Whitty who presided over briefings when ministers told us there was no risk to care homes right? Working with the same govt who told us there was no evidence of Russian interference because they didn’t look for it.

You’ll forgive us for listening more closely to what he’s NOT saying than what he is saying.

If course it's different @allfalldown47 you'd almost think they were different jobs 🙄 lucky supermarket staff having a visor as protection when being abused by customers.

If you're going to see it all through your situation then is your dh living elsewhere for a little while worse than the children who now have MH issues? To the kids that have taken their own lives because of lockdown? To the ones who have had their colleague or university places compromised?
Is loosing a generation acceptable to you? Or a further decline of the economy, which would have a worse effect than choosing to live apart for a short time.

Can someone please give a link to where Chris Whitty said this, the last I heard was when he said it's likely some things would need to close to allow schools to reopen.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing isn’t it........

Not so, Germany sat exams (as did other european countries) even though schools closed, we went our own way and walked wide eyed straight into he exams chaos we now see, shocking incompetence (Williamson as defence sec wanted to sent an aircraft carrier to China to scare the Chinese, later sacked for lying)

Europe has smaller class sizes and more space compared to our predominantly 1970s schools estate and whilst children may not be affected by CV, their teachers will be, CV spread with older children is similar to that in adults and no one on here would like to work in a packed office!

The under investment in education is about to bite us on the arse!

Our infection rate is creeping up too, 1300 officially tested positive.

I think the teachers are being forgotten about. Kids can catch it but it’s unlikely to make them very unwell, teachers can obviously catch it though and some will have underlying conditions, some will be older, some maybe pregnant but no one seems to care about this?

I’m all for my kids going back but if I was a teacher I would be very anxious about returning.

It feels like everything’s an experiment and no one truly knows what will happen until it happens.

@Pixxie7

Of course they need to go back to school but the government has had months to come up with some imaginative ideas. They did it with the nhs so why not schools?

I work in the NHS. There's no imaginative solutions there I can tell you. The only things they brought in stopped us from seeing patients and those have been lifted now.

younger means 20s, 30s and 40s i understand

You were especially thrown under a bus by the education system: 'our' not 'are'.

@StepAwayFromGoogle

Schools need to go back full time. How on earth are we ever going to get back to a functioning country otherwise? Just indefinitely have a part time school system? Chris Whitty is right to say risk to children is minute (and I'll take the opinion of an eminent immunologist over a bunch of randomers on MN). Covid is not the only thing that will kill people. A recession and it's resulting poverty for a portion of the population could be devastating.

The risk to children is small it’s not small to the adults who you need to keep a school open, I’m not keen on a Lord of the Flies type experiment in schools.

As an aside I’ve been able to get on with my job fully working from home. Many people are also able to do so, why can’t we encourage those who can work from home to continue to? It’ll reduce the risk to those who need to leave home for work as there will be less people travelling for the sake of it.

@ConiferGate

Chris Whitty is right to say risk to children is minute (and I'll take the opinion of an eminent immunologist over a bunch of randomers on MN).

This is the same Chris Whitty who presided over briefings when ministers told us there was no risk to care homes right? Working with the same govt who told us there was no evidence of Russian interference because they didn’t look for it.

You’ll forgive us for listening more closely to what he’s NOT saying than what he is saying.

Absolutely agree. You really do have to listen to what isn't said.

Also the WHO recommend face coverings for over 12s who are in a situation where they cannot SD. Sounds like schools to me.

Time to recommend masks for everyone's safety. I trust the WHO more than woolly words from our expert and shouting from hysterical anti-maskers.

No, they were thrown under the bus when their schools were closed for as long as they were, playgrounds closed and the exam debacle. Opening schools is of the utmost importance for our children, how can anyone be so dim witted to not see that.

It is essential IMO that kids get back to school and stay there
Should be the number 1 priority

I think as time goes on we will realise what a big mistake this lock down was.

Kids are at very very low risk.

@angelfishrock

Not true re lack of distancing in German schools

maybe it's regional but I have family and friends (in the East) and apart from staying within your class (not mixing with others) it is all back on (and no masks).

We're also in the E. There are absolutely masks for moving around indoors. I heard of a school head in the wider (not closer) region who got into a lot of official trouble for deciding to dispense with the requirement for masks in his school. The pupils are also supposed to distance wherever practicable, certainly outside their immediate class. And I was replying to a comment that referenced June, when there absolutely was distancing as in 'only half the class in at any one time'.

@majesticallyawkward

If course it's different *@allfalldown47* you'd almost think they were different jobs 🙄 lucky supermarket staff having a visor as protection when being abused by customers.

If you're going to see it all through your situation then is your dh living elsewhere for a little while worse than the children who now have MH issues? To the kids that have taken their own lives because of lockdown? To the ones who have had their colleague or university places compromised?
Is loosing a generation acceptable to you? Or a further decline of the economy, which would have a worse effect than choosing to live apart for a short time.

You really think teachers aren’t abused? Cool, I’ll tell that to the colleague who was handed a banana and had stones thrown at her. Or the other colleague who were spat at etc... Your comment doesn’t stack up anyway, shop staff are being afforded protections teachers are being told they can’t have (no one is telling them the reason). It doesn’t matter if they are different jobs, the point is shop staff have little contact with many people, senior school teachers have intense contact with many people.

@notheragain4

No, they were thrown under the bus when their schools were closed for as long as they were, playgrounds closed and the exam debacle. Opening schools is of the utmost importance for our children, how can anyone be so dim witted to not see that.

I don't think anyone says they shouldn't open. My concern is that they should stay open and not close due to lack of staff or burst bubbles.

Open safely is what most people want. Open at all costs is ridiculous.

@majesticallyawkward I'm not suggesting we continue as we are, I totally agree we need to get children back to school, where in my post have I suggested otherwise?

Unfortunately, as ever, the government has given very little thought to any of this. There are alternatives, for example many parents would be happy with a mixture of home & school learning, a simple way to reduce class sizes.
Of course our most vulnerable children should be back in school full time, nobody sane would dispute that.
Teaching staff that are vulnerable to covid could be responsible for the home learning and I'm in no way suggesting that would be me, at my school I would be pushing my type 1 diabetic colleague to the front of the queue to be kept wfh!

Nurseries have been open since June 1st. There will be no social distancing going on at these. Have there been many outbreaks? If not, it provides some evidence that primary schools will probably be ok. Children aren’t great at social distancing, but When we returned, my school required the children to at least try, and even reception were able to manage it a bit.it wasn’t perfect but they understood not to hug each other and so on. My year 6s managed it absolutely fine.

Remember we were all in school in February/March, and it is clear that the odd cases reported in the news at the time (which shut down pubs, schools etc for deep cleans) were the tip of the iceberg and in fact thousands of us were walking round with it , with no expectation that you’d stay at home if you had symptoms. I had it, went to work with it for a week, and not one of my students Or colleagues became ill, even with no social distancing.

@ConiferGate - I'm sorry, Chris Whitty is responsible for not spotting Russian interference? Somewhat outside his remit, no? Chris Whitty is a Government advisor. He advises the Government. The Government (more specifically the PM) advises Ministers on what to say. Chris Whitty isn't sitting in the middle like some great big puppet master trying to give false information to the general public.
Regardless, children need to get back to school. There really isn't a realistic Plan B. To a PP point, no, WFH with children is really NOT working. Parents are not teachers. The mental health impacts of expecting parents to work, and take on an additional job as a teacher, are immense.

Hands up I have from the beginning been one of those super cautious people and wasn't pleased when the govt said early years was to return first. I didn't send my 3yo back in June, but I was at home and well placed to educate her, so didn't feel a need. However, she's now 4 and both she and her older sister are beyond DESPERATE to get back to school. It's absolutely in their best interests and their mental health is suffering. My 4yo wakes with anxiety throughout the night and my 8yo now has an awful temper, equally as much she bursts into tears.

Yes I'm concerned about the risk to children, but believe that the risk of not returning is far greater. However, my primary concern lies with to the adults involved in getting children back to school. I think the guidance to facilitate it needs to be better, to protect both teachers and adults doing the school run. I have children in different year groups and drop offs will be staggered. This will mean waiting outside the front of school for 25 minutes with all the other parents waiting for the next drop. Of course I plan to distance myself as best as possible, but there really is no where to go. There will be at least 100 adults congregating daily and on a dangerous road that has accidents. This is one school. Childminders too are being expected to be in multiple locations at the same time and wait often with young children on a dangerous road.

I know many people are not worried about getting covid. But I am. I'm very overweight and while I'm losing, it does take time. My youngest child may have problems with her immune system. With multiple allergies and in and out of hospital for infections, she picks things up easily and gets them badly. I'm scared for her. My husband works in a nursery and I am a childminder. Really, the guidelines aren't good enough to protect adults. If more adults start getting, either displaying symptoms or asymptomatic, then we're looking at the R rate increasing further, which it already is nationally.

The children are more at risk of being hit by a car on the way to school than of Covid.

Schools must return to normal for the children and society’s sake. If local closures have to happen then so be it but nationwide closures can’t again.

A vaccine is many months away and still may not work.

@modgepodge

Nurseries have been open since June 1st. There will be no social distancing going on at these. Have there been many outbreaks? If not, it provides some evidence that primary schools will probably be ok. Children aren’t great at social distancing, but When we returned, my school required the children to at least try, and even reception were able to manage it a bit.it wasn’t perfect but they understood not to hug each other and so on. My year 6s managed it absolutely fine.

Remember we were all in school in February/March, and it is clear that the odd cases reported in the news at the time (which shut down pubs, schools etc for deep cleans) were the tip of the iceberg and in fact thousands of us were walking round with it , with no expectation that you’d stay at home if you had symptoms. I had it, went to work with it for a week, and not one of my students Or colleagues became ill, even with no social distancing.

You don’t know that you didn’t spread it to them and they in turn didn’t spread it to vulnerable people. Asymptomatic carriers have been well reported, I think I probably was one as DS and exDH had Covid like illness but I didn’t.