Will history write we have failed children over this time?

[Bewareofisms]

I have just read a BBC article stating that 6 healthy children (in the UK) have died from Covid over the course of the pandemic. Six. We have closed schools and imposed all these "bubble" rules for this, the impact on children's mental health will remain to be seen.
I have an acquaintance working with social services that has personally been involved in dealing with children that have lost their lives from abuse over this period. She, one person, has personally been involved in many more than 6 cases over this time. She hasn't stopped. Vulnerable children have been "lost" due to school closures. The impact of that will far outweigh the deaths from Covid. I wonder if they will ever release the true figures here...

In 100 years time will it be written that we utterly failed children over this pandemic? 😞

@loulouljh

Yes. We have failed them without a doubt. Lack of education. A tsunami of mental health issues. Massive fail. |History will judge this very badly.

How utterly condescending to all the teachers who have worked so hard through all of this

Nope I think the history books will focus on the thousands dead because the government dithered and acted too late.

We don't know the impact it would've had on children if we had let it rip through schools during the bad peaks.

This is really eye-opening because my take on 6 healthy children dying even with lockdown is that more should have been done to prevent this. Imagine how many could have died if there were no lockdowns!

The history books will look at our crap government and the huge death rate. Kids will hardly get a mention.

[quote RockingMyFiftiesNot]@Bewareofisms I really was being serious. Easy to become so cynical on MN that even a compliment sounds sarcastic. I honestly meant it! [/quote]
I came on here ready to discuss. This is the first thread I've posted. But already finding that out myself so had to check! 😅 Thanks 😊

1. I think 1st and 2nd wave peaks would have been higher, hospitals overwhelmed, more people dying or seriously unwell with long recovery and some permanent side effects (few children but including frontline workers, teachers, parents). Higher mortality for non-covid conditions due to hospitals being overwhelmed. Oxygen rationing. PTSD for those on coping with hospital meltdown or losing loved ones.

2. yes - but I think they would have had to take swift action in multiple areas (borders, quarantine, lockdown, mass testing) and maintain some of these for longer if needed. I think 2nd wave would have had lower peak and probably shorter in duration (depending on how many restrictions they Maintained).

@TotorosCatBus

They closed schools so the kids didn't make their parents and grandchildren fill underfunded hospital last and get sick /die.

Politicians of all parties fail kids regularly- just look at the lack of catch up investment in schools compared to other countries.

Hopefully the JCVI will at least often vaccines to CEV children so that they can get back to "normal" with the rest of society.

I would air on the side of caution here. I am currently on this thread in bed with Covid. I'm double jabbed. No one else in my family has it. No idea where I've picked it up from. I'm not that ill - much like a bad "cold" virus, but I'm normally healthy and I would not want someone with a vulnerable person who is jabbed thinking they are safe after taking the vaccine.

Yes, I think we will be judged on how we failed children.
But not in the way you think.

We'll be judged that they were sent into schools with next to no safety measures except propaganda saying "Schools are safe".

We'll be judged that the government was not prepared to spend money to try and make them safe.

We'll be judged that teachers were told that they weren't allowed to wear masks-a very simple an inexpensive measure to reduce spread.

We'll be judged that schools who tried to put safety measures such as staggering years were threatened with legal action.

We'll be judged that children who were shielding or who have family members who were shielding were told to get into school or deregister.

We'll be judged for not putting serious research into place in September to see how spread was happening in school so safety measures could be taken before the Kent variant hit.

We'll be judged for not reading the situation correctly in December and sending the primary children back for one day when it was clearly unsafe.

We'll be judged for not caring about the mental strain that children have been put under knowing that they can pass it onto vulnerable family members.

We'll be judged for only caring about the "healthy" children. Not caring about the vulnerable children who already have the odds stuck against them.

Yes, we will be judged for not standing up and saying this is wrong.

Ah so you don't actually care about the kids, just have a moan about covid, the government,school closures bla bla bla. I'm going to take a wild guess that you were personally affected this time.

Kids have been failed for years. Of course a global crisis will have a negative effect. So many of them were barely hanging by a thread.

However, where were you in 2018? 2016?
Where were you in the election years?
Where were you when funding was cut?
Where where you when SEN schools were shut, when children's centres, sure start centres, youth centres were shut?
Where were you when kids with SEN and/or trauma were excluded?

Yes the pandemic made things worse, but they were abysmal before. Not so many vocal people about unfairness, equality, equity. Not so many vocal people talking about the failed kids, the lost kids, the excluded kids, the forgotten kids.

I'm normally healthy and I would not want someone with a vulnerable person who is jabbed thinking they are safe after taking the vaccine.

Agree that being vaccinated doesn't stop you catching Covid but I'd imagine that CEV people will be happy to take measures that might improve their lives whatever small the percentage improvement may be.

@Romanoff

No I think the most shocking situation is how we were clearly failing children before and will continue to fail them after.

^ this

Did none of those people develop any symptoms?

Of course they did. But only after they were isolating. No one who was in school had symptoms at the time of catching Covid. We all caught it from someone symptomless.

@Bewareofisms

I'd love to hear some ideas of how the school situation could have been managed differently. I was hoping I'd get some here - I certainly didn't come pretending to have answers.

This has been answered many times and normally ends with teachers (and others) being called all sorts of names by many posters, many name changers and many claiming that this is their first post.

So I hope you can imagine how tiresome this has become for so many of us as so many of them are intent on rewriting the history of covid.

There was an article in the French newspaper Le Monde on how lockdowns have "amputated" the health of children, reducing the cognitive abilities by 40%, increasing the BMI by 2-3 points, and cutting the health when it comes to moving and the ability to run.
www.lemonde.fr/sciences/article/2021/06/28/les-confinements-ont-nettement-reduit-les-capacites-physiques-et-intellectuelles-des-enfants_6086079_1650684.html
You need to be subscribed to read it all, but even by copy/pasting the open part in google translator it will give you an idea of the damage.

I think there will be judgement when we find out how many people died from being unable to access NHS treatment. Sadly this will include children who may have recovered if NHS was operating as usual.

Mental Health services have always been even worse funded than "physical" health services. Nobody in power has ever cared about people struggling with mental health issues it's very much a out of sight, out of mind issue.

Our children will judge the money wasted by people like Hancock- money that could have made a difference and will be paid by them long after we are gone.

When I was in school and a child in the class had a parent undergoing cancer treatment (making them very vulnerable to infections) we were all extra hygienic, kept that child away from anyone that may be ill, informed the family if there were any bugs going round etc.

Ah, it’s the I went to school once so I know everything about schools.

MargaretThursday & ObviousNameChage

Good posts, but that seems to be what the OP wants to ignore.

lazylinguist

“Deaths of children arenot the only deaths that affect children.“

Absolutely. Some people are very blinkered about this.

@noblegiraffe

My original post gave the number of children with no underlying conditions as written in the BBC article I attached.

Indeed. All these restrictions and only six healthy children died.

Why did you not use the number of children who died? Given that your premise is that children have been failed, why are you not including all children in your death toll?

Do the others literally not count somehow?

Perhaps the error is with my English. Cut and paste from the article;

"...Six had no underlying conditions recorded in the last five years - though researchers caution some illnesses may have been missed"

That was the part I was referring to. I am not for a second saying any child is more or less important than any other. Another part of the article said, cut and paste;

"Data from the first 12 monthss_ of the pandemic in England shows 25 under-18s died from Covid.
Those living with multiple chronic illnesses and neuro-disabilities were most at risk, though the overall risk remained low."

The article states;

"Researchers estimate that 25 deaths in a population of some 12 million children in England gives a broad, overall mortality rate of 2 per million children."

25 or 6, all is awful. Both numbers are extremely low statistically. I bet much lower than those whose deaths are linked to government actions around handling Covid, such as abuse cases surging.

@ObviousNameChage

Ah so you don't actually care about the kids, just have a moan about covid, the government,school closures bla bla bla. I'm going to take a wild guess that you were personally affected this time.

Kids have been failed for years. Of course a global crisis will have a negative effect. So many of them were barely hanging by a thread.

However, where were you in 2018? 2016?
Where were you in the election years?
Where were you when funding was cut?
Where where you when SEN schools were shut, when children's centres, sure start centres, youth centres were shut?
Where were you when kids with SEN and/or trauma were excluded?

Yes the pandemic made things worse, but they were abysmal before. Not so many vocal people about unfairness, equality, equity. Not so many vocal people talking about the failed kids, the lost kids, the excluded kids, the forgotten kids.

Indeed.

Education has been in a critical state for years. So have children's mental health services, SEN services and social services.

Massive waiting lists and an incredibly high threshold for referral. CAMHs refusing to see children unless they have made an active suicide attempt, for example.

Can you link the article?

I may have missed it

@ObviousNameChage

Ah so you don't actually care about the kids, just have a moan about covid, the government,school closures bla bla bla. I'm going to take a wild guess that you were personally affected this time.

Kids have been failed for years. Of course a global crisis will have a negative effect. So many of them were barely hanging by a thread.

However, where were you in 2018? 2016?
Where were you in the election years?
Where were you when funding was cut?
Where where you when SEN schools were shut, when children's centres, sure start centres, youth centres were shut?
Where were you when kids with SEN and/or trauma were excluded?

Yes the pandemic made things worse, but they were abysmal before. Not so many vocal people about unfairness, equality, equity. Not so many vocal people talking about the failed kids, the lost kids, the excluded kids, the forgotten kids.

Caring about kids is my point?!

Where was I?..

• Teaching. I was teaching when funding was cut. I was petitioning against it. I was striking at one point. I was working with children's centres on and off my school site.
• I have taught excluded children.

I was also doing other things, such as raising a child by myself, but I think that is the stuff you would be interested in.

Things were bad before. They are now worse. What is your point?

@MarshaBradyo

Can you link the article?

I may have missed it

Sure;

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-57766717?atcampaign=64&attcustom4=340C704C-E094-11EB-8955-130A16F31EAE&atmedium=custom7&attcustom1=%5Bpost+type%5D&atcustom3=BBC+Family+%26+Education+News&attcustom2=facebookpage&fbclid=IwAR1ey0PWoV83xxeqMevM7K-nZKKHb7qUmQxp6nr0zqq-YQMd52bnjnUWlBw

Are you deliberately ignoring that it’s not only children who are in schools?

Even if children had some magical immunity to it and couldn’t spread it then closing schools would still have been the best option, certainly at the start.

Oh and if you remember, many schools had almost no children left attended in the days before lockdown.