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Original poster

3 week plateau, 3 week falling, then schools open?

487 replies

AlmostThereKeepMoving · 07/04/2020 21:00

The figures being released are promising.

I’ve said all along that there is absolutely no chance the schools will keep closed until the end of July!

I think it’s looking like they will reopen after May half term.

OP posts:
MoltonSilver · 07/04/2020 23:08

My money is in September.

MoltonSilver · 07/04/2020 23:08

on September

GoldenOmber · 07/04/2020 23:09

It won’t be 18 months but it won’t be over the next few months either.

18 months until there's a vaccine. So either we keep kids at home until there's a vaccine, or we accept that at some point we'll need to send them back before.

Ideally what we will have in a few months is cases down close to zero, really good contact tracing and quarantine systems in place so we know of any new cases and we know where it's spreading, and ideally better antiviral treatments so the disease overall is less dangerous.

Forgone90 · 07/04/2020 23:10

To all those people thinking we will have more lockdown over the next year or so... Do you really think the government is just gonna pluck out £300 billion every few months for this? You are in for a big shock soon when you realise as sad as it sounds that at some point the government will have to say they have spent to much money tryng. Too fight itt and will just let it runs its course!

Sennetti · 07/04/2020 23:10

People are saying September because it’s beginning of the new school year. As if this virus will work in sync like that

Schools are not that important in the scheme of things. The nhs and commerce is more important. Kids can stay off school but businesses need to start to repair damage

MargotB7 · 07/04/2020 23:11

GoldenOmber

I'm not stupid. I know they do.

I work in an industry that is on hold and will be for a while. I would love for things to get back to normal.

I still do not want my child back in school till September.

GoldenOmber · 07/04/2020 23:12

Businesses can't work properly if there's no school and no other childcare, though. A lot of employees won't be able to work. And unless the government's going to continue paying furloughed employees indefinitely, which it's not, then a lot of people won't be able to afford to buy anything from those businesses either so they'll go under.

Rhianna1980 · 07/04/2020 23:12

Because the rise to the peak is steep and exponential but the way down from the peak is slower and flatter. Previous graphs of countries that are on way to recovering show this pattern.

Candodad · 07/04/2020 23:13

Quartz2208 Again you are ignoring the adults in schools. As for the temperature taking etc. Who will be doing that do you think? A teacher is not a medic and first aid does not mean take temps. Or maybe each parent will pop by twice a day?

Iateallthecookies000 · 07/04/2020 23:13

Schools are not that important in the scheme of things.

School staff lives are important and any one that believes otherwise can sod off.

MargotB7 · 07/04/2020 23:13

Yes, I think Businesses are more important.

GoldenOmber · 07/04/2020 23:13

But September is a totally arbitrary date, MargotB7. You have every right to feel safer about September than June or August or December 2021 but it doesn't mean people who aren't doing the same as you somehow care less about our kids.

HeyPizza · 07/04/2020 23:14

No vaccine is 100% effective anyway, there's no guarantee that that's going to solve all our problems. We will need to start getting back out there eventually, build up some natural immunity.

Remember this virus was circulating long before the lockdown, many people were already exposed to it, definitely in Feb, possibly in Jan as well.

You will never be able to fully protect your kids from everything nasty in the world. It's a balance.

CaroleFuckinBaskin · 07/04/2020 23:15

If the schools open before I am happy it is safe then I will be pulling them out. My dc's life may just be a number on a graph to those making the decisions, but not to me. So I'll make my own decisions accordingly.

Technically it won't be 'safe' for your kids to go back to school until either they get the virus and gain immunity or there is a vaccine. A vaccine could be well over a year away....

Quartz2208 · 07/04/2020 23:16

Life isnt safe though full stop. Covid 19 is just adding an admittedly very powerful and high(er) risk thing to life. But at some point we are going to have to accept we will need to learn to live with it just like we live with all the other risks that we take every single day.

That will be the only way through and we are going to have to balance it out. There will be no waiting for a vaccine or a cure before life restarts there simply cant be - as @Delatron rightly says there may well be other waves we have to manage our way through

@Forgone90 I agree I think the Government (and the US) have always been very clear about that.

JudyCoolibar · 07/04/2020 23:16

You can't trust the current figures, as they ignore the vast majority of people diagnosed and deaths that didn't happen in hospitals.

Rhianna1980 · 07/04/2020 23:17

If they open in June, for example, many people will be forced to make a personal decision based on their circumstances whether to send their children to school or not. There won’t be enough staff at school for all the obvious reasons. Plus the article that was in the news today from the lancet journal that everyone is sooooo excited about encouraging schools to reopen wants schools to do social distancing. Everyone knows social distancing doesn’t work in schools, and that same article contradicts itself. It first says shutting schools has no effect on spread of the virus, then finishes off the research by saying social distancing is needed in school settings.
I smell a very unreliable research paper with a whiff of ulterior motives.

SquashedFlyBiscuit · 07/04/2020 23:17

This is what has been scaring me. Im high risk, and I cant see how exposing my kids to people in september can be safe.

But losing a parent would be awful. Do I have to accept I will likely die in order to send my kids to school!?

GoldenOmber · 07/04/2020 23:19

Ideally SquashedFlyBiscuit it would be a lot safer when schools go back - whenever that is - because we'd be a lot more on top of the outbreak by then by getting the number of new cases right down and having better testing/tracing systems in place to make sure they don't go shooting straight back up again.

Candodad · 07/04/2020 23:20

Social distancing requires 2 square meters per child so class of 35 would need 72 square meters of space before walkways etc and 35 tables.

Not happening

Cismyfatarse1 · 07/04/2020 23:20

Will teachers get PPE?

We got extra soap in the toilets and some well below strength hand gel.

Will there be a huge drive to get teachers out of retirement to substitute for those off sick?

We ended up with 45 children in some lessons and no time to deal properly with vulnerable kids.

Will schools be expected to meet targets? Teach a full timetable? Teach reduced numbers of lessons with some babysitting?

There is a lot to think about.

None of it is insurmountable. The NHS has stepped up and schools will too. But it will need careful thought.

SomethingPhishy · 07/04/2020 23:21

With my 9 year old DS being an only child, my reason for hoping schools can open sooner is that he is lonely & missing interaction with his friends. I think it will be September but I hope it can be early June otherwise it is going to be hard mentally & emotionally for him. We do our best, he does play online with a few friends but I can tell he is lonely & that makes me sad.

Iateallthecookies000 · 07/04/2020 23:21

I smell a very unreliable research paper with a whiff of ulterior motives.

Who paid for that research I wonder Hmm

Quartz2208 · 07/04/2020 23:21

@Candodad it is exactly what the schools in Asia are doing. This is a study from the 2003 outbreak of SARS in Singapore which is the basis of it

Indeed it is what Disney are thinking www.10news.com/news/coronavirus/disney-parks-may-take-guests-temperatures-when-reopening-iger-says

Temperature taking may well become a fact of life in the short term if we are to navigate our way through this. Life wont be normal in the coming months but it cant stay in lockdown either. We are going to have to manage for the most part to learn ways of dealing with it.

Or we could just hope it goes away by September

MargotB7 · 07/04/2020 23:22

GoldenOmber

Don't be so sarcastic or try and be funny - December 2021.

LOL

I'm not going to argue. I don't think the children are going back before then. If I am proven wrong I will probably be stressed but will just get on with it.