Masks are a bad idea in secondary schools

[underneaththeash]

DS was back at school 4 days before he developed a cough, temperature (highest 38.2) and sore throat. We paid for a covid test as there were none available.
But how has he contracted it? We've not visited family/freinds, been inside for a leisure activity.
My thoughts are that he's touching the mask so much to put it on between lessons and then transferring microbes to his face. They even have to out it on outside.
YABU - teens need to wear masks at school
YANBU - repeatedly putting and taking off of masks can contribute to the spread of infections

underneaththeash, nobody knows how many of his mates he would have infected if he had not been wearing a mask. Nobody has suggested it is perfect- but it does serve to lower the rate of infection.

If he doesn't know how to put his mask on properly I'd suggest it's your job as his parent to teach him.

The same way viruses spread every year.

Masks (as in the face coverings most of us are using) were never meant to prevent transmission. They reduce the risk of spreading bugs. They don't eliminate it.

If you want your child not to get any bugs then you need to ensure that your child has permanently clean hands, never touches any surface that others have touched, never comes into contact with anyone else, has a surgical grade mask on at all times (indoor and outdoor), and never breathes the air that someone else has breathed.

There will be lots of students at your child's school who don't have a bug as well as your DC with one.

This sounds like you're seeking an echo chamber to agree with you.

To me what you're saying sounds analogous to "my son picked up a tummy bug despite all children being told to wash their hands after they'd been to the loo, washing your hands after going to the loo clearly isn't working, so I don't think it's right to tell children to do that".

You're not going to eliminate norovirus by telling people to wash their hands, but you will cut down on the number of infections.

The other thing is that there are strong reasons to believe that how ill you get with Covid depends partly on the size of the virus load. SO if you can cut down on at least some of those germs, people (including his teachers) might have a chance not to be quite as seriously ill.

How can taking off and putting on of masks increase infections in the school environment? They either have a bug or they don't. The mask will limit infection, but can't stop it entirely. It didn't cause the illness all by itself.

I know lots of patents saying their kids are full of cold after only a week in school. The main thing to remember is the mask is to stop any infection from spreading to others and not the other way round iirc.
Just goes to show how strong the general cold bug is as has been mentioned on other threads recently that despite all the safety measures in place, within a few days of children gathering loads of them have runny noses and colds.
Classrooms in the UK are just not built to keep children of whatever age distant from each other, they are generally cramped as are buses, and so kids are bound to catch every bug going.

How would a mask work as a means of viral protection if he's not wearing it in class?

My ds2 returned to school last week. Day 1 and the boy sitting next to him was sneezing. Day 2 that boy was off. Day 3 ds2 started a cold.

You should supply multiple masks for your son to change it regularly.

Wearing the mask outside is ridiculous.

My dc secondary school is mask on inside any building, all day, only time it comes off is outside.

Masks don’t work full stop - but there is a solution, don’t wear one

Thanks all, I'm just going to give him numerous masks, insists he washes his hands before touching his face and speak to the head about them wearing masks outside.

He's in Yr10 and I really do not want him missing any more school/

It's unlikely that he caught this at school if he was showing symptoms within four days of going back.

Op, the virus is airborne... Someone on a bus with covid passes it to lots of people.
Wearing a mask in a corridor isn't going to stop covid.

I'm not sure if I'm missing something, but I don't get why people think masks are dirty and need to be disposable/changed regularly. They contain your germs, from your breath that are already in your body. They are there primarily to prevent your germs from infecting other people. Unless you are a healthcare worker and people are breathing directly onto your mask when you are getting close to examine them then surely there are no more germs on a mask than there are on your forehead, your hair, your neck etc?

What PocketFluff said.

When I take my mask off at the end of the day it is no more full of other people's germs than my clothes or my hair or anything else that has been sharing a space with them.

It is full of my germs, but then so is my body. It's other people's masks you don't want to be touching.

And the only danger with touching your own face is if you fail to disinfect your hands and then touch something other people might touch. It's about the danger to other people.

(In that one respect, Covid is probably safer than a snotty cold since it doesn't come with added conjunctivitis.)

@PocketFluff, it’s stems from professional PPE training when they’re taught how to remove and dispose of working PPE.

For the purposes of general population it matters less since the aims and risks are different. Even with bad usage there is a benefit in the context of slowing covid spread.

We shouldn’t let perfection get in the way of good.