When will our children get HEPA filters in their classrooms? I am so tired of my children constantly being ill and missing school!

[Annemcc32]

I can't believe we are still waiting for HEPA filters in classrooms, they were talking about this in 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 and STILL they have done nothing! What exactly are they waiting for at this point? There's tons of evidence that they work to remove viruses from the air.
My kids have had Covid 4 times so far and were both very ill. How can they defend doing nothing to prevent staff and children? They have a duty of care to provide a safe environment.
The MOST annoying thing is that clean air IS provided in the Houses of Parliament, many private schools and even the DfE!!
Other countries have already done this now and it reduces transmission of airborne viruses to offer a layer of protection and reduce illness/absence.
I noticed that one council has committed to it just recently (Herefordshire I think). Why is this not being sorted out ASAP before the kids go back in September?
Why are we so bad at protecting our kids?
Not to mention that IF bird flu takes off (no pun intended) this would help. Where did public health go? The UKHSA seem to have taken a sabbatical for the last four years.

Yes, I want HEPA filters in classrooms. I'd like them in all healthcare settings too.

My husband is immunosuppressed, he has Stage 4 cancer. I home educated my children for three years whilst pushing for some mitigations in schools.

My children's school now has functioning CO2 monitors in classrooms, if classrooms cannot be kept well ventilated naturally (less than 800ppm of CO2) then those classrooms have HEPA filters. It's not perfect but it reduces the risk.

Being a clinically extremely vulnerable family has meant that I keep up to date with research into Covid, that knowledge means that I absolutely do not want my children, anyone's children or teaching staff being regularly infected with covid.

Department for Education guidelines on classroom ventilation are being ignored in schools. There are so many benefits to good ventilation and clean air.

Oh dear, well ignorance is bliss 😂 must say I am not shocked to see the lack of intelligence as the majority of humans are stupid. We could maybe blame covid brain damage I mean how many infections have most of these people had?

Hygiene basics are the foundation that needs to be established in society. All the kids in the hepa filter classroom live outside that protected room. Get the basics in place and infections will be reduced. If hand washing and sneezing into the elbow cost as much or more than the filter then they would be thought helpful. The filter won’t help if the person next to you in the classroom coughs and sneezes out. You’ll get a full viral load of any respiratory virus. Teach skills of containing the cough, sneeze and the viral load in the air will be reduced. Viral load is a factor in infection and ability to fight off infection easily. The higher the load the more overwhelmed is the immune system. Opening a window and having a flow of air helps reduced viral load in the air. It’s simple and again costs nothing.

You're still ignoring breathing....

You don't have to shut doors and windows with Hepas, they are stand alone and not part of an airconditioning system. I can't afford aircon in my cake school so I have a hepa, plus enhanced ventilation (which helps air move through the indoor space) and the door open when weather makes it possible. The hepas are actually good in the hot weather too as they create a nice breeze. I wouldn't be without mine.

As I said further down in this post You can wear a mask, ventilation.

As I said in my previous response have you tried asking people to mask? You think you'll get a school masking in preference to a HEPA filter in the room?

I’m not a teacher in a classroom so I can’t answer your question. If it’s a matter of cash then the masks must be cheaper. The filter cost, safety check, running costs and maintenance costs multipled by the number of classrooms there are would certainly add up. Where would the money to meet this cost come from?

Where do you get your ideas from? You do not get lifetime immunity from Covid. You get it every 3-6 months. Wave after wave infections. All with new variants.
It does however appear to be causing lifetime damage to children’s brains, lungs, immune systems….
Why do some people appear to have had lobotomies?

What price do you put on children’s health?

Hygiene basics cost soap and water - ventilation is free as is not coughing and sneezing out.

The costs to run them are not that expensive. It's also down to compliance - how many kids (parents) are going to wear masks all day? HEPAs in schools have proven to improve attendance (less sickness). Not only does this improve learning outcomes but also health which will all feed into long term better economic outcomes.

But it doesn't work on its own! Seriously if it was that easy do you think there would be a pandemic?

I think we have to live with viruses and I think trying to eliminate everything isn't either practical nor desirable.

I think we can get overly hysterical about every little thing until we feel we can't live in anything but a hermetically sealed sterile environment and spending your entire life worrying about something which is in practice a tiny thing.

We should learn to have illnesses and cope with illness rather than being overly anxious about it.

And yes I think this has value. And no I don't appreciate the emotional blackmail of 'wont you think of the children'.

I already think we are wrapping up our kids in cotton wool to a point that's become healthy.

We should encourage fun things like playing in dirt.

And yes I'd rather my child was safe in class from children who lash out because they can't cope with the environment and that's far more of a priority. The number of school days lost from kids being afraid to go to school is too high.

Genuinely I think kids should be exposed to far more than they are.

I think that people who get so worked up about this issue quite frankly needs help with their anxiety.

Get these kids living in homes and in society in general with hygiene basics first. Look about you today at the high viral load transmission going on. If I’m wrong and the posters here are right that the only way to protect kids from covid is a hepa filter in every classroom in every school (no need for basic hygiene ) then what about countries that can’t afford these filters? Would you support financing, from government support and your additional donations, for these filters and the infrastructure required in countries that can’t afford filters?

Vaccination was the way forward. Basic hygiene helped as well. Now that people aren’t washing hands and minimising coughing/sneezing out there is a problem with all viruses and bacterial infections. In the pandemic there was less flu for example due to hygiene measures. After hygiene basics were removed flu came back immediately as a problem.

Such a strange response. The government advice already suggests the use of HEPAS in schools and provides a pathway to them. Many other countries installed them in 2020! And why would our use of them make us responsible for providing them elsewhere? What a strange thought process! And no where has anybody said stop normal hygiene!

If you mean in the lockdown there was less flu, yes you'd be right. But that was due to not mixing ...ie not sharing air with others. It had nothing to do with hand washing! Vaccines help prevent serious illness/death, they do not yet prevent infection. Sadly infection, even mild, can cause long term health conditions including damage to your immune system, which links into why people are getting more other illness too. But to be very clear - airborne illnesses- measles, covid etc are not only transmitted by coughing. They are expelled in your breath as you exhale and hang in the air - airborne - for a number of hours while others inhale them and catch the virus.

Not a strange response at all. You asked about the price on kids health. Your solution for your kids should apply to all kids not as well off as yours. Name a country that has a hepa filter in every classroom ?

Good hygiene helped. Of course not mixing outside the contact group helped as well but people still had to go out and about beyond the contact group for shopping, medical care, work etc. I’m interested to read your references that good hygiene was no help and remains no help at all to flu and respiratory virus control.

You are just trying to create a stupid argument by claiming things that simply have not been said and I am not going to engage anymore. Carry on with your ignorance.

Not my solution - proven scientific studies and government guidance. Many links to these all attached within this thread. I suggest you read them instead of trying to create arguments over proven scientific fact.

You need to do some reading. You genuinely have no clue what you are saying.
Pretending being repeatedly infected by a novel pathogen is the definition of denial/stupid IMO.

An infectious person only needs to be breathing.

Handwashing does not eliminate an airborne virus.