Infection control doesn’t seem to be working on colds!

[justfinefornow]

I had just assumed that given all the measures we we were taking In schools etc to limit the spread of Covid - colds etc would be limited too but it feels like the infection control doesn’t seem to be working very well against colds - which loads of kids at school seem to be suffering from at the moment.
If colds are spreading freely what hope do we have that the measures we have put in place will work against Covid, especially if we are indeed in the second wave with limited testing and no effective track and trace?

Our local secondary school (which I work in as well as being the school DS goes to) allows masks in class if kids/staff feel happier with them. But teachers can't teach in a mask - the kids can't hear so they have to come closer.

The kids don't wear masks as we have enough space to do one way systems etc., but that means any child with a cold is sitting next to all the others. At lunch time they all congregate around the canteen tables. The best our lunch staff can do is ensure the tables are wiped down after each group has left and do a big wipe down as the year bubble leaves, to stop the spread across bubbles.

All the kids walk or bus in together. They wear masks on the buses but, of course, they've not necessarily got them on for the time they wait for the bus. As they meet friends, that could be a 15 minute natter before the bus arrives with no-one checking they're socially distancing. On the way home they are kept in sensible lines with masks on but that's because the bus is waiting in its queue for pick up. Our teachers do watch over the kids who get the general buses and encourage them to put masks on in the queue outside the school. After that ... who knows?

Those who walk certainly don't use masks most of the time.

I help out in an SEN class first thing in the morning to allow teachers to get to classes - they're obviously moving rather than the kids so all staff are on 'class watch' duties where possible. We can wear masks but we have a few children in the SEN class that really find masks hard to cope with, so most of us use a visor or nothing - the kids come first and we're not going to cause them distress for the day. The problem is that a few of these kids are huggers or have no concept of space - which isn't a problem in normal times but with Covid around? So you're constantly reminding them to step back from each other (or you) or doing a social distancing 'waltz' with them coming towards you and you backing away!

There is no social distancing in schools - I can't understand how anyone who has a child at school would imagine there is. The best they can do is sanitise, clean and keep bubbles apart. Kids aren't robots so the best you can do is keep reminding them - but of course, that only happens after they've hugged someone or jumped on their mates or started to fight. You can't anticipate a child's mind or movements.

Round here the kids are mixing left, right and centre outside school. They don't have to be in school to catch it.

I agree with you OP. With all the extra measures being taken not just in schools, but in shops, transport and workplaces, I’d have thought transmission of everyday bugs like the common cold would have gone right down too. More hand washing, masks, more social distancing etc. Even if not perfect, it ought to reduce the likelihood of catching anything? If it doesn’t, what’s the point of it all ? Surely it just means if people are following the rules (not so much in schools where it’s hard, but elsewhere in the wider world) and they haven’t got Covid yet it just means they haven’t actually crossed paths with anyone who’s got it, not that the preventive measures are actually working.

@justfinefornow

I hope you were being sarcastic in your post of Thu 17-Sep-20 08:02:57.

Covid and the common cold are both spread by respiratory droplets projected into the air when someone coughs, sneezes, sings, shouts, clears their throat or breathes in close proximity to another person.

It's not that infection control measures aren't working, it's that younger children in bubbles in schools are not expected to socially distance (because they just won't) so they're all passing viruses to each other, including coronavirus. Then they're going home and they of course aren't socially distancing at home, so they're passing it on to all their family.

This is exactly why re-opening schools is going to result in an increase in cases. But the country would go mad if schools remained closed so the government have just decided to do it and see what happens, and hope that bringing restrictions back in to other aspects of life might slow things down a bit.

My DC did say that since masks have been made compulsory outside of the classrooms, colds have dropped off. Now maybe the one cold had made it all round the school already.

This was secondary school.

Because colds are more infectious and they're air bourne. Younger school children will go near each other and their hygiene is poorer. Plus "bubbles" are massive so there are over 30 kids in a small room as schools can't magic space out of their arses.

Also many people have been isolated so will be more susceptible to germs now.

I’m a teacher and half my class and me have a cold. We’re hand washing etc. but that’s just how it is.

[quote mathanxiety]@justfinefornow

I hope you were being sarcastic in your post of Thu 17-Sep-20 08:02:57.

Covid and the common cold are both spread by respiratory droplets projected into the air when someone coughs, sneezes, sings, shouts, clears their throat or breathes in close proximity to another person.[/quote]
I was!

@wintertime6

It's not that infection control measures aren't working, it's that younger children in bubbles in schools are not expected to socially distance (because they just won't) so they're all passing viruses to each other, including coronavirus. Then they're going home and they of course aren't socially distancing at home, so they're passing it on to all their family.

This is exactly why re-opening schools is going to result in an increase in cases. But the country would go mad if schools remained closed so the government have just decided to do it and see what happens, and hope that bringing restrictions back in to other aspects of life might slow things down a bit.

I don't have young children, I have 17 year olds and colds are spreading quite quickly throughout the school and their year. The Gov knew illness would spread because the measures they put in place were ineffective (well hopefully they knew this but Boris doesn't read what he signs, so who knows!), but they didn't up the testing to cope with the expected increased rate of infection - it''s crap. We have isolated for 6 days waiting for test results - kids missing school, dh missing meetings with clients - it's not good enough!