Just realised why schools are not closing

[NearlyGranny]

Going by the Spanish experience, half the London chatterati would make a dash for their closed-up holiday homes where they would strip our supermarket shelves and no doubt create a virus hotspot among us privileged year-round residents. I'm pretty sure the unmanageable spike we're all fearing would only be hastened by a general school closure.

If we could rely on people isolating at home, it would be a different matter.

@WouldShouldCould Exactly. They are mixing with loads of kids in playgrounds.
Even if schools close and they go to local playgrounds they will be mixing with a small number of kids. Rather than the large number they currently do.

@lemongingercakes I am keeping my teenagers of school from Monday. I have already told them I will not be limiting screen time. They are excited.
I think sometimes people talking about the dangers of closing schools have never actually met a child. They are not Enid Blyton kids out cycling on jolly picnics every day.

Alloutoffucks....no childcare organised for essential workers in ROI. Just doctors warning not to let children go near GPs.

There are facebook groups trying to match up garda vetted people available with parents needing childcare.

Schools are remaining open for several reasons:

1. Children are the least at risk group and get CV-19 mildly;
2. Closing schools would create a crisis for their DPs who need to work - our economy is in enough trouble without doing that; and
3. If schools are closed and DPs have to work, where will the DC go? To their grandparents, that's who. The very group we need to protect from getting this thing. If DC and their DPs get it (hopefully mildly - the overwhelming majority do), then they will create a degree of 'herd immunity' to protect the vulnerable.

It has fuck all to do with second homes. What planet are you living on OP?

At least at school kids are constantly being told to wash hands and the environment is being cleaned, unlike at the park or in a museum.

And anywhere that has closed schools has also made it illegal to let out holiday accommodation.

This seems the right approach. Also not unreasonable imo to require households to stay at their principal address (council tax address?) bar a few exceptions. This is one of those situations where the otherwise ghastly and inhumane authoritarian approach of places like China has some benefit.

Children are the least at risk group and get CV-19 mildly;

Who then become 'super spreaders' precisely because they only get mild symptoms.

May adults in schools fall into the 'at risk' category. Or their families.

Grandparents are often involved in school childcare anyway.

Hospital workers whose children go to school, will potentially end up with a child with Cv-19 who can pass it to them.

No decision is easy, but it’s not as simple as keep schools open so key workers can work.

Yeah that has happened in Italy and Spain. The schools closed and the parents whisked their children away to 2nd homes outside of the big cities and spread the corona virus across the country in the process. It's selfish reallh. The whole point of closing schools is to encourage people to stay at home.

At least at school kids are constantly being told to wash hands and the environment is being cleaned, unlike at the park or in a museum.

You have no clue about school cleaning/ children's cleanliness, clearly. Many schools and classrooms don’t even have sufficient soap. Let alone children washing properly or at all.

I fail to see how being at school is different to community childcare anyway. If people need to go to work, their DC need to be looked after. If schools are closed then those DC will go to other group care situations, just ones where they won't be continuing their education. I don't want my DC's education interrupted for possibly months on end! On R4 this morning it was made clear that there isn't going to be a vaccine for 12-18 months. If we all put our lives on hold for all that time our country will fall apart. There will be no businesses left, apart from supermarkets and pharmacies. There were will mass unemployment and no tax revenue to support people. There will be life for us all to go back to. People seem to think that they can have a couple of weeks at home and then it will all be over. It won't!

I have a colleague whose sibling went to their lakes home in italy - the police knocked and sent them back to their main place of residence.

I’m in Ireland and I think the decision to close schools and practice social distancing has made it easier for easier for everyone to take the precautions they need to. I’m getting lots of emails from companies about the steps they’ve taken because no one is scared of being perceived as over reacting (even though it’s just sensible).
Companies are being much more flexible about combining wfh with childcare, and supporting employees to work different hours in order to support spouses who are frontline.
There isn’t the same confusion about self isolating as you aren’t trying to make the decision in a vacuum. There’s just more support all round. It’s tipped the balance from “it might be nothing, I won’t make a fuss, I have to pay the rent” to “this is the socially responsible thing to do and I’ll be sent home anyway if I turn up at work like this”

I’m not saying it’s perfect, or the right thing to do, but having a clear decision made by the people at the top makes it easier for everyone down the chain.

I’m in Birmingham which has two cases.

I saw this and I'm not sure I believe it 😬

I live in social housing. I don’t even own a first home mate.

I do think it's more so the parents that need to work (hcp) but if they did I don't think it's necessarily off to second homes.
I'm East midland and talking to one of my friends last week who had 2 in school and is a sahp to the 3rd said her first thought when the idea of shutting schools wasn't one of isolation it was "we can go out and do xyz" mainly soft play, which is probably akin to gyms with the spread of the virus.

@MollyMoss
Sorry, you’re right. There were five cases as of yesterday (but three were announced yest)

www.birmingham.gov.uk/news/article/555/further_confirmed_cases_of_covid-19_in_birm

Gosh, sorry about the spelling, apparently a night of little sleep renders me unable to type.

No one should believe the official figures for infections. For starters, they aren't mass testing anyone with symptoms any more. I don't know why and to me it makes no sense, since doctors and even Boris Johnson agree that we have thousands of cases. Not testing people so you don't know your true infection figures is not a way to contain a virus. It's the same as stupid Donald fucking Trump closing the US borders and thinking that is going to stop the USA having a mass outbreak. The US ALREADY has a mass outbreak, but it can't be confirmed, because they're barely testing anyone. If every country was testing everyone with symptoms then we'd have a clear picture of where and how many infections we have. Hardly any country is doing that.

The other reason is that the government's strategy is for most of us to have the disease and recover in the hope the population then has herd immunity. Since children are mostly at very low risk, it would be "best" if they all get. Just hopefully not all at once because that risks overwhelming health services.

As Johnson said "many more families will lose loved ones".

I'm in Ireland - they've shut the schools, all childcare, the libraries, the playgrounds, any child-centric places like softplay, half the gym is offlimits (spa area shut, every-other machine fenced off for social distancing), and the school has advised against playdates - it's a pretty severe lockdown they're suggesting.

It does occur to me that for a lot of parents that means kids are going to be cared for by grandparents, which isn't necessarily the best plan, but then perhaps they'd be visiting anyway.

It’s to do with money.

They have announced that they won’t fund places next term for kids who have been pulled out.

The fewer that are left, the less funding to find.

It's not just about shutting schools and having a nice holiday. Along with the shutdown comes clear instructions about what to do and where to go, or not in this case.

School = 400 children plus 20+ staff together in one enclosed space. Who then go home/ work

Community = small groups sharing childcare groups of 8-9 mingling in 2-4 homes. They’re mingling in homes, then go to their workplace.

School closures limit inevitable contact (inevitable in both cases)

@LemonGingerCakes

I can only speak for the classroom I work in, and the nursery classroom next door, believe me they were being cleaned constantly and children's hands were being washed constant last week. it didn't stop a child blowing a raspberry in my face though I took in my own provisions. Stuff making observations on the children, I was too busy scrubbing. The cleaner thanked me when she arrived at the end of the day as the room was sparkling I'm swinging between being obsessed and lamenting there is no point because we're all getting it anyway.

My DDs (secondary) teachers seem as obsessed with me. No pupil is allowed into the classroom without having used sanitizer and they are sending home anyone who coughs.

OP I agree to a certain extent. And similar happened in parts of Italy. My in-laws live on a beautiful island off the coast of Italy, as soon as the north went into lockdown, many wealthy families from Milan, and other areas descended onto the island to their holiday homes. The islanders were horrified, one small hospital with only 2 ICU beds during the winter months