To be annoyed that we already have a sickness bug from school

[Flamingolingo]

Only been back at school 5 minutes, after 5 months of education disruption, and eldest child has spent most of today vomiting. He hasn’t been anywhere else all week, so it must have come from school which means that someone has probably sent a child in after sickness (I checked with child that nobody was sent home sick this week).

So now I’m feeling dizzy and sprawled on the sofa, and I’ve got DC1 here with me on Monday now missing a day of school. I mean obviously kids get sick but seriously? Already?

He hasn’t been anywhere else all week, so it must have come from school which means that someone has probably sent a child in after sickness

How can we have had 8 months of discussion of a virus, and people still not understand that asymptomatic carriers exist, there's no reason to believe it was due to anyone sending in a child with a sickness.

It does more indicate that his hand washing was poor.

@Teateaandmoretea

Noro makes you feel rubbish but doesn’t kill you

^^and here lies the route of the covid panic. YES IT CAN. I cannot believe people don’t know you can die of viruses that aren’t covid.

YANBU OP. But you can’t stop viruses spreading, whatever it is.

No policy is being made on the basis on a few members of the public misunderstanding what can kill you. The risk covid poses is not just that it can kill, as you say, so can countless other illnesses.

It's a new virus and the risk of exponential growth, the combination of R and the actual effects are all factored in.

You seem under the misapprehension that social distancing is happening/possible in school. It isn't.

And people were told that before schools went back full time for all students with no extra funding or facilities.

We have a nasty cold bug here too. Runny noses, sore throats, fever.

In our case we got the bug from a known source - DCs school mate who was sent back home from the school on the second day, coughing non-stop, and told not to return without a test (results came back only on Thursday - negative). Well, several kids in the class are coughing and snotty now, not sure how the next week will play out. Now every child who got the bug will have to do the test, and apparently there are already no available tests in the area, unless you go private for £150. I cannot really afford to isolate for 14 days, so probably will have to pay £300 for two.

But it at least gives me some hope that maybe it will start dawning on the British society (both schools and parents) that no, sending a child to school with cough, runny nose and high temperature is not okay even if it is not covid. I am the biggest anglophile of all, but this attitude completely baffled me previously.

In our school the majority were in school June/July. I can only speak from experience.

I'm a teacher, I have a really thick snotty cold after 7 days back in a classroom with children. It's not C19, I don't have any of the symptoms, just a massively snotty nose. Haven't been ill with anything since March.

Viral soup!!

People just don’t bother with the 48 hour rule. I met up with a friend and her son at the park and later on she mentioned how the son had d&v all weekend... this meet up was Monday 🙄

@DobbyTheHouseElk

In our school the majority were in school June/July. I can only speak from experience.

So were ours, in fact every year group went back in my child’s primary, not just R, 1 and 6. However the figures show that overall in the UK, less than 50% of children were in school from March to September.

Norovirus is no where near as deadly as covid

Yearly estimated deaths in over 65s is 80. It kills approximately 50000 people in the developed world every year, UK alone has had over 40k deaths from covid

Dont get me wrong, theres not 0 risk from noro, but it is not as deadly as covid.

@DishRanAwayWithTheSpoon

Norovirus is no where near as deadly as covid

Yearly estimated deaths in over 65s is 80. It kills approximately 50000 people in the developed world every year, UK alone has had over 40k deaths from covid

Dont get me wrong, theres not 0 risk from noro, but it is not as deadly as covid.

No one said it was as deadly. Just responding to the uninformed poster who said Noro doesn’t kill. It does.

And people in the developing world are just as important as those in the developed world. Or do we only care about things that kill affluent white people?

I’m concerned that norovirus is going to spread even more than usual this year because people seem to think that hand sanistiser will kill any virus just because it kills Covid. It doesn’t make a hot of difference to noro - only hand washing does (or a very specific hand gel). If people are using hand gel and normal disinfectant type sprays for surfaces all the time they’ll think they’re safe from it but they won’t be.

@kaktus no if course not, but if I am comparing two figures they need to be about the same place and I couldnt find any for the whole of the uk. Theres no point comparing noro deaths in the developing world with covid deaths in the uk.

We're full of cold here. Ds has been in school a week 😭😭 knew was going to happen mind as he hasn't seen anyone to catch anything from

It's a new virus and the risk of exponential growth, the combination of R and the actual effects are all factored in.

So you really think we can avoid Covid? Long term?

And people in the developing world are just as important as those in the developed world. Or do we only care about things that kill affluent white people?

In most people’s eyes they quite clearly aren’t. Or there would be horrors on mumsnet daily about the death tolls of Malaria, TB, Cholera, famine.

Twelve children in one of the classes I am in (TA) were off on Friday with a combination of colds, sickness and temperatures.

One was sick in class.
Streaming noses in around half that were still in.

Primaries cannot socially distance the children, which is why bubbles are so important to slow the spread throughout school as best as can be expected.

Some viruses - including Covid - are airborne. All the hand washing, sanitising, spraying and scrubbing (multiple times a day!) will not help when your classmates are coughing and sneezing in each others faces, or just into the air in class. Yes we've taught the elbow, but no, not all are reliable at doing this at this age.

Yes, I have a streaming nose now too.

My 5.5 year old somehow has mumps. I have no clue how- and no I’m not an anti vaxxer. He had the MMR jab. Apparently you can catch it anyway if it’s a different strain from the one they vaccinate against.

We’re facing 10 days off school now when he’s only been back for 4 days after 7 weeks off....

the school are trying their best but they need to realise that their measures are not working.

Schools don't need to realise anything. Believe me, schools know full well that the measures the government have ordered them to implement aren't sufficient. What can they do? They've been told blended learning isn't an option, all kids must be in full time which means no SD, bubbles of 180 in some secondary schools and no funding for extra cleaning. YANBU to be annoyed but make sure you're directing the annoyance at the right people.

And, once again, they repeatedly tried to tell people all this ^ before they opened! It’s no good complaining about it now, it’s what you were told would happen.

@Ilikeviognier I know someone else whose child got mumps post MMR, she was literally repeating the phrase ‘She DID have her MMR’ to everyone she met. Hope your DC feels better soon.

*And, once again, they repeatedly tried to tell people all this ^ before they opened! It’s no good complaining about it now, it’s what you were told would happen.

What that dc would catch noro and mumps?

Well an immune system is needed and helpful against covid also apparently. Stopping mixing is highly counter productive.

The problem is not that schools aren’t doing enough to prevent illnesses from spreading. The problem is that children don’t and won’t socially distance from each other when they are together so at break times and lunch and many will not wash their hands or wear masks properly despite having been shown.

In my school they have changed the layouts of the classrooms, briefed kids on good hygiene, provide them with wipes at the beginning and end of classes to clean their desks, staggered start times and finish times as well as breaks, changed the activities we do in classroom, masks in corridors, I could go on... but if kids aren’t socially distancing during break times and in their own free time in evenings and weekends or following correct procedures regarding masks and hand hygiene. there’s nothing schools can do about it.

The problem is that children don’t and won’t socially distance from each other when they are together so at break times and lunch and many will not wash their hands or wear masks properly despite having been shown.

The problem is that viruses are part of life and we need an immune system to fight them. Lockdown and everyone existing in sterile families means that when they meet again the viruses have field day. Who’d have thought it? 🤷🏻‍♀️

Well an immune system is needed and helpful against covid also apparently.
Being exposed to, and recovering from, any sort of "bug" often boosts also a non-specific immunity response. Or vaccine, by the way, many vaccines provide not only protection against a specific pathogen, but also a (much weaker, of course) non-specific protection across the board. So yes, it could be that the prolonged isolation was not very beneficial for the protection against common colds, vomiting bugs, even flu etc.