Violet Affleck is clearly warning parents about the affect of Covid on children, so when will our children get finally get air filters in their schools/nurseries?

[Annemcc32]

I genuinely can't believe that the government/department for education are able to continue to ignore the now overwhelming, crystal clear evidence that Covid harms children's health. Violet Affleck gave a powerful, well documented, speech at the UN this week laying it all out and the media response? Accuse her of 'health anxiety'!
Other countries are taking action on indoor air quality to protect children in learning environments (e.g. France, Belgium, Germany, Thailand, Australia).
Bridget Philipson herself was shouting about ventilation and air filters before the election.
But still, nothing!
The department for education also had THEIR buildings upgraded so they have great indoor air quality, as did the Houses of Parliament, as do many private schools, as do DAVOS when the world leaders meet.
ALL of our children deserve clean air and to be safe in the classrooms/nurseries.
Why are we so bad at protecting our kids? Repeated Covid infections are ruining their health. ONS said in 2024 that we had over 111,000 children with long covid in Scotland and England alone.
It is SO simple to achieve this. The fact that we are doing nothing is shameful. Open the windows, get air filters, use a CO2 monitor to monitor the air. THAT IS IT. Why is that hard?

Violet Affleck gives long covid sufferers a bad name by reinforcing the impression that it is made up by people with health anxiety who don’t want to live in the real world. It is rather unhelpful.

Why on earth is this kid speaking at the UN? She is clearly not right in herself but she shouldn’t be indulged like this.

Out of interest is that on or off medication- have you reduced or increased the dose recently?

I agree clean air should be prioritised but not for the sake of avoiding COVID. Just for overall health in general.

I don’t think VA has had to live in a reality where resources are finite. Sadly, HEPA filters are very low on the list of priorities. It’s a very odd hill to die on.

Most young people are radical over much more interesting topics!

Why are you listening to her?

What's her qualifications?

Agree

I am not against air filters in schools. Sounds a great idea. But mass panic about kids getting covid is insanity. Kids cannot even get covid properly as they don’t have a build up of freely available ACE 2.

You need to educate yourself. Covid behaves in a far different way to colds. We hoped it would just be another cold. I thought the same a few years ago when I caught it for the second time and was just a bit tired for a week.

Latest strain is pretty bad. It’s constantly circulating even in summer. Nobody is getting any immunity. I now have long Covid. As do about 2 million people in this country alone. Previously fit and healthy people. Colds don’t do that.

I think we hoped that long Covid was only an issue in the first strain when nobody was vaccinated. But more and more are affected. Numbers will only keep rising. Health and fitness won’t protect you.

To the PP talking about the Royal palaces. Well Queen Camilla has recently had both a chest infection and sinusitis. Is she living in some sort of purified filtered air environment? Maybe she is but she has had to mix with people on her visits outside and caught it from them.
Windows were always open in my classrooms when I taught. It did bugger all except keep the room fresher smelling. Even if all rooms were hermetically sealed with only HEPA filtered air going into them if an infected person is in there the infection will spread to others surely?
I was teaching when Swine flu was on the go. The WHO also declared a pandemic then I believe? It didn’t last long. The bairns in our school were dropping like nine pins. I can’t remember much fuss about it? Now was this because it was children who were mainly getting affected to start with? Or was it because there was a different media reporting situation and less social media then? Or was it because Flu was a known entity while COVID was a novel virus? Someone cleverer than me might know. I often ponder the disparity in reaction to the two pandemics. Our school certainly didn’t close.
Staff at our school also ended up getting ill. I ended up with thyroid problems from the flu infection. A colleague developed heart issues due to the flu infection. Some staff and children were very unlucky and also ended up with post viral syndrome. Which is essentially what long COVID is now.
Unless we all go full on Howard Hughes we will catch illnesses. It’s all part of being human.I have had COVID several times it was very very unpleasant but I have had worse unspecified illnesses while teaching.

The mechanism may be different but most people will consider it no more annoying than a cold.

Who is the newest strain pretty bad for? School children?

Violet Affleck? I thought they had a son?

So sorry that you’ve been impacted by long covid.

Who had a son? Violet has a younger brother, Samuel, if by they you mean her parents.

No they had been on the same dose throughout of a steroid inhaler that has not changed but they no longer need the blue reliever inhaler as much previously it was daily and we had regular hospitalisations for nebulisers and since having the filters they’ve had no hospitalisations and need the reliever inhalers only after things like over exertion . It’s huge improvement. They also were having many more viral illnesses which was making their asthma worse and that has reduced too as when they were getting unwell so much we had to double the steroid dose which we haven’t had to do either since getting the filters I assume as the viral load when they do get ill is less?

Filters won’t stop kids coughing in their hands then touching door knobs. I can see filters could be helpful in polluted areas but that’s one of the reasons we moved to the West Country from the south east, better air quality. I’d rather do that than sterilise the air, but that’s my choice. My earnings went be what they could be in London but my health is better.

I think a huge issue for us in particular was pollution in the home from living on a main road and in a busy city

I’ve not seen anyone speak of royal palaces, although I am sure there have protection too.

Have you heard of the Swiss cheese model.

The effects are cumulative.

It’s about reducing infections. HEPA make a big difference here.

If you reduce infections, you bring the r down. It would benefit child with asthma and other allergies too.
www.coxhealth.com/content-hub/preventing-covid-19-using-swiss-cheese-model/

My windows are always open whenever I am at home; even when I'm not home, they are ajar. All year round I sleep with the window wide open. I do not know how someone could live in a house where the windows are always shut. I once had to stay overnight in a hotel where the window didn't open, and now I always check beforehand and won't book unless the windows open.

The children’s nurseries that are local here tend to be very focused on outdoor play and forest school. The children still lick each other and spread their germs all over the place. It’s not as straightforward as cleaner air stopping covid.

It’s not a “that’s my choice thing”

It’s science

Sterilize means remove bacteria

You might want to leave the bacteria in the air, but that’s only your choice at home

Or at least it should be

I believe @wondersun you quoted the post of @MaurineWayBack which mentioned the Kings palace having filtered air? My mistake if you didn’t. Anyway schools will never implement HEPA filtering of air so it’s all moot.

This is not true. And is an insult to the thousands of children with long covid in the uk.

www.longcovidkids.org/statistics

Yeah but qualifies her to address the UN

Is Violet Affleck (whoever she is) offering to pay for the thousands of filters needed in the nations classrooms? And corridors. And sports halls. And canteens.