To ask when you think all schools will shut

[Helpmechangemymindsetplease]

Due to the corona virus.

Have been talking to a relative and am more worried than I was. Have three dc, one of whom gets ill at the drop of a hat.

Facts emerging from Italy are not great, so why aren’t we in complete shut down now? What is the government waiting for?

I'm sending my kids to school every day thinking exactly this.

Kids are vectors, they carry germs and spread them everywhere. We have over 1500 students. They don’t wash hands, they spit, they pick their nose, bite their nails, sneeze on desks etc etc. Then they carry it out into the wider community, even though they don’t have symptoms

I think our schools will end up shutting. There are nearly half a million signatures on the Uk online petition to close schools

The government never listens to petitions. We have no voice. We should all be going out and protesting - but what's the point? They won't take any notice of that either. And they know we're too scared to protest in case we catch the coronavirus.

I think political pressure in terms of what steps other countries are doing, will force him to act.

Why is England any different from the places elsewhere that have closed schools? It isn’t.

Well except that it is very densely populated so more opportunities for spreading the disease

We should all be going out and protesting - but what's the point?

I think a mass protest about the failure of the government to impose social distancing measures would be the height of irony...

I think a mass protest about the failure of the government to impose social distancing measures would be the height of irony...

Thanks for the first thing that has made me laugh in a fair old while.

I’ve written to my MP about it-I think that’s the only thing we can do.

DS has just told me that Southampton University has now shut, a week early.

We should all be going out and protesting

^^And in cities across Britain, thousands took to the streets today to protest at the Government not banning large gatherings and closing down schools.
"We should all be at home where its clean and safe, I don't want my kids around other peoples germs" said Gemma from Walsall, accompanied by her three children^^

In Italy they've shut the schools & shops other than grocery stores but people are still working.
A friend runs her own business with her husband. Their clients, still open, are still wanting their products and all their suppliers are still open so production continues. They've allowed their employees to bring children to work if childcare is an issue.
Like their family and friends, they work & do their shopping but have stopped all other activities.
They take food to self-isolating elderly relatives, leaving it on their doorstep however these relatives have nurses going into see them so they're having contact with the outside world whether they like it or not.

They’re not closing schools because they want some people to get it. Kids in particular don’t seem to be badly affected.

Listen to what they’re saying. They want to build up herd immunity and they can’t do this if they shut everything down.

Yes if they shut everything down it would stop the spread. But the spread would then happen when the schools are reopened. The virus is out there and isn’t going away. We can’t keep everything shut till there’s a vaccine.

The suspicion is that the states imposing stringent measures are just pushing the virus down the line, not stopping it,

TheEmoji I agree. I'm seriously thinking about keeping the kids home next week.

Herd immunity would need about 80% of the population to be infected. That’s 53 million people. With a death rate of 1% that would be half a million deaths. A death rate of 6% is 3 million deaths. Huge numbers of people getting infected in a short time period would result in a much higher than necessary death rate as the nhs becomes overwhelmed. We don’t have facilities for the 1-5 million patients who would need intensive care within a 2-3 month period, especially if the staff are off with sickness or grief. My children are old enough to be left while I go to work but I won’t be leaving them if they lose their father or grandparents to this. If I die I won’t be looking after patients, although I’m sure boris will expect me to. 30% of my department are over 60. We won’t survive the explosion. The curve needs to be flattened.

These countries (and some others) have closed all schools. Why do they not need ‘here immunity’?
Greece
France
Italy
Denmark
Japan
China
Ireland
Hungary
Portugal
Switzerland
Germany
Spain
Norway
Belgium
Poland
Czech Republic
USA
Regions of Canada

School closure may not be so they get it it just could be that the timing reasoning holds.

However here I reckon they’ll shut soon now given the reaction last night from govt and from Trump stepping things up.

If not people will keep their dc home anyway and teachers will stay off.

As a pp said- children are at low risk and therefore are seen by the govt to be important is reaching our herd immunity. They want the majority of the country to get the virus.... they will only close when the NHS is about to topple. Individually we have to decide about schooling- the schools won’t be able to close until we are in a bad place.

However here I reckon they’ll shut soon now given the reaction last night from govt

What reaction was this?

Fedup it’s on the main CV thread, stuff like cancelling mass events next week, mandate to open and close schools, police powers - best to look at the right list on there as I’m just trying to recall.

On another thread some people were expecting schools to close from easter until September. Really?

Herd immunity is a bit of a misnomer. If the virus mutates, we will see this happen again and there will be no 'herd immunity' as the virus will be different. As a pp has explained above, the death rate for allowing people to get infected will be very large, particularly during the peak phase. Not just of people with Covid-19, but those who are ill or injured and unable to access treatment. Social distancing is working well in Singapore - their government announced that after such measures were put into place they are now 'in control'. Trump and Johnson have both been widely criticized in their response. Trump because he has ignored it and Johnson because he seems to favour taking a risk on herd immunity despite the fact that there is no evidence it will work. He has admitted there will be 'many more' deaths. He is prepared to sacrifice half a million people to prevent the issues that a lock down would bring to the economy. I think it is right that we go into lock down to prevent the spread and I think schools will shut next Friday. Look back at my previous posts - I have hugely changes my tune since my first post. Things have moved on, as scared as I am about my kids GCSE results, I'm more concerned with them and their families staying healthy. I've put a good plan into place to teach remotely. I hope Johnson makes the call to shut from Friday.

Sadly what I think will happen is that in the next 1-2 weeks schools will have high levels of staff absence due to illness, and some schools will be forced to close but on a day to day basis which will make it incredibly stressful for parents not being able to plan what’s happening until the last minute.

This will focus attention away from the government and onto schools who will be blamed for it all.

Government will continue whistling (whilst not meeting as there’s 650 people in parliament and that’s more than their 500 cut off) and telling people to wash their hands, and blame work shy teachers for causing all the problems.

On another thread some people were expecting schools to close from easter until September. Really?
That’s what it will take and why they are reluctant to atart lock down.
This isn’t blowing over quickly, it’s also why the government are talking about herd immunity and people getting it.
There’s potential we lock down until September and come out, and it’s back in October. Will people want to lock down again? Will people be able to financially lock down again?

The countries that are shutting schools seem to be doing it for a couple of weeks or expecting to re-open in April. I’m not sure anywhere has shut down for that long?

Obviously they might plan to open and then not.

Good point Evilpea

I was in the gym last night listening to two teachers saying they hoped the schools would close so they could have a break. Everyone was like in the changing rooms...