To think schools just won’t be able to stay open in the medium term

[Schoolgrand]

In the medium term we are having thousands of people mixing from different households at a time of high community transmission and now we are hearing reports of an October lockdown. Aibu to think schools in their current form with no mitigation’s just can’t stay open in the medium term.

Whinge

Peteycat

So much so that I really want some mitigations as well, to protect that.

Good for you. You can have them. Just stop asking everyone else to do it because as you will see on this thread alone, they don't want to anymore.

I disagree. I think the vast majority of parents / carers want some mitigations, such as isolating if your close family members test positive.

No I've not come across many that want those things. How many years do you think that could go on for? Just read the pages and pages of this. Yes I'm sure some people do, but most do not.

YABU:
68%
YANBU:
32%
Total votes: 502

The proof right up to date on this thread. So, Whinge I think you are wrong.

@MarshaBradyo

I think the vast majority of parents / carers want some mitigations, such as isolating if your close family members test positive.

How do you know?

You don't think the vast majority of parents want some mitagations? I'm not saying they want to isolate entire bubbles, but sensible measures like isolating if your close family test positive.

@Peteycat

So much so that I really want some mitigations as well, to protect that.

Good for you. You can have them. Just stop asking everyone else to do it because as you will see on this thread alone, they don't want to anymore.

Well, it depends if we want schools open.

We all want schools open, pretty much, I would gather from this thread.

Therefore, we need to think - what situations are going to shut schools?

One option - lots of teachers coming down with covid, despite being vaccinated, which is possible still.

Another option is health services being overwhelmed with the combination of covid/ flu/RSV. Hopefully, even if we have some sort of mini lockdown schools wouldn't shut - it's not impossible.

So we need to think what will help us through. Mitigations - masks, vaccines etc could keep schools open.

The world's largest study on long covid is fairly good evidence, if we are discussing long covid in children.

Your post is quite funny as it is so bizarre.

Why is this funny? I don't find millions of childrens education being disrupted funny. How odd of you. I'm purely stating that I do not know of any child that has suffered with long covid. Yet you scream about it non stop.

@Herecomesthsun

"So we need to think what will help us through. Mitigations - masks, vaccines etc could keep schools open"

The schools are already open. With no mitigations, no plans of mitigations so we don't need to think about them.

You don't think the vast majority of parents want some mitagations? I'm not saying they want to isolate entire bubbles, but sensible measures like isolating if your close family test positive.

I couldn’t be sure but no but thread seems to highlight not wanting more disruption, which it would be. I prefer changes to isolation rules and am not at extreme end of spectrum generally. Plus others who do want something more seem to focus on masks and vaccines not above.

Masks really don’t work. I’ve just caught covid from someone who was wearing a mask throughout the contact.
I have worn a mask as part of my PPE for the last 20yrs at work. There have been many studies carried out on the effectiveness of masks in my specific healthcare field. None of these studies show that masks we are wearing are effective barrier for viruses for more than 30seconds. We use masks and face shields combined to prevent droplet transmission, they have never prevented us catching colds etc from patients. Over the years I have learnt that it is easier just to cancel patients who have active viral infections such as colds, flu and cold sores and have operated a policy quite rigidly.
Social distancing was much more effective, putting on a mask just gave people too much confidence to ignore distancing. It was no surprise that infection levels sky rocketed last September when mask wearing became mandatory. We blamed it on schools but evidence suggests that the variants around then were not infecting schoolchildren easily. However, the delta variant is spreading like wildfire in the under 25s so we will see a massive increase in cases over the next month. I think this will be in the under 12s, the over 12s have been busy infecting each other all summer.

@Peteycat

YABU: 68% YANBU: 32% Total votes: 502

The proof right up to date on this thread. So, Whinge I think you are wrong.

I think that probably shows people want schools to stay open.

We all pretty much want our kids back in school.

The next question is how much do we want to do to keep the schools open, and most parents would be very keen to make sure we have the best chance of education in person continuing over the winter (from my "real world" experience of parents I know).

Kids in school in masks would be better than kids at home trying to work on line.

That looks like the sort of choice we have.

@Bettyboopawoop

They should have left everyone with masks including schools and kept smaller bubbles so less children are sent home but again that is too simple and now they will have problems reintroducing these measures.

That's exactly what they did in Scotland, masks are still required in class and shops etc. Doesn't seem to have made any difference at all.

Schools and universities need to be open.Covid is endemic, not going away and we sadly have to live with it.Public Health Messaging needs to be clearer re vaccination benefits .

@Tailendofsummer

Yeah - they've only given up a "tiny bit" of their childhood for the greater good - how much of YOUR childhood did YOU give up for the greater good or does this only work when it's making YOU feel safe? Feels like that to me. My mother's childhood was spent during and immediately after WW2. My own was spent during the troubles in NI. These brought their own limitations and restrictions on our lives. I work at times with children who are refugees from Syria etc. The children of the U.K. have suffered due to Covid but this is far from being the first time in history.

Which is an irrelevant strawman.

I'm so fed up with all of this right now.

If you’d like masks in schools are you talking about in class or communal areas?

@Angrymum22

Masks really don’t work. I’ve just caught covid from someone who was wearing a mask throughout the contact. I have worn a mask as part of my PPE for the last 20yrs at work. There have been many studies carried out on the effectiveness of masks in my specific healthcare field. None of these studies show that masks we are wearing are effective barrier for viruses for more than 30seconds. We use masks and face shields combined to prevent droplet transmission, they have never prevented us catching colds etc from patients. Over the years I have learnt that it is easier just to cancel patients who have active viral infections such as colds, flu and cold sores and have operated a policy quite rigidly. Social distancing was much more effective, putting on a mask just gave people too much confidence to ignore distancing. It was no surprise that infection levels sky rocketed last September when mask wearing became mandatory. We blamed it on schools but evidence suggests that the variants around then were not infecting schoolchildren easily. However, the delta variant is spreading like wildfire in the under 25s so we will see a massive increase in cases over the next month. I think this will be in the under 12s, the over 12s have been busy infecting each other all summer.

Masks really don’t work

FFP2s do work and are reusable.

My immunosuppressed child is going to school in one while we wait for his vaccine to take full effect.

He is starting his GCSE courses and is dead keen to be in school.

I also have no doubt that schools were a very significant factor in the rise in cases last autumn, though I'd agree that the lack of social distancing in schools is definitely a factor.

@ExceptionalAssurance

Posted too soon, meant to say @Exceptional Assurance, i agree. Totally irrelevant.

Reading through this thread it’s clear that everyone wants schools to remain open - great!

The disagreement seems to be between two camps:

• those that want to achieve this through applying practical mitigations, and

• those that want to achieve this through insisting “schools must stay open”.

[quote Peteycat]@Herecomesthsun

"So we need to think what will help us through. Mitigations - masks, vaccines etc could keep schools open"

The schools are already open. With no mitigations, no plans of mitigations so we don't need to think about them.[/quote]
You see, I was talking about keeping the schools open over the next few months.

This is the subject of this thread.

Mitigations will help that happen more securely,

@HipTightOnions

Reading through this thread it’s clear that everyone wants schools to remain open - great!

The disagreement seems to be between two camps:

• those that want to achieve this through applying practical mitigations, and

• those that want to achieve this through insisting “schools must stay open”.

Well put

And people on here writing "Schools Will Not Close" or whatever it was did not keep the schools open last year.

@Herecomesthsun

"Kids in school in masks would be better than kids at home trying to work on line.

That looks like the sort of choice we have"

Nope. Not the choice we have, masks have been ditched in schools by the government. There's no choice, they have gone.

Mitigations are not necessary. Normality is necessary.

@Peteycat

Mitigations are not necessary. Normality is necessary.

I wouldn't call what we have now normality. If you want normality then surely you disagree with children isolating when they have covid? As many children show no symptoms, or very mild symptoms that are no worse than a cold.

The Government have stated

Jay sis. Has no one seen the U turns the Government have made over the last 18 months; particularly in the last week as well?

So leading on from @Tailendofsummer 's point, our children have indeed been through a lot in the past 18 months.

Children are thank goodness resilient and we know that historically children live through difficult periods of history and can catch up with lost learning - we want to support them in that and to do everything we can to put them on the best possible footing.

I'm sure that many of us have given our all to homeschooling but feel that in person school is the right thing now.

And we want to do everything we can to keep the kids there.

That is the starting point for looking at what measures can make schools places where education can continue in a pandemic.

As whistling a happy tune and hoping for the best didn't work before...