Risk to under 20’s

[Alex50]

So five people have died from Covid who are under 20 so far in the UK, 3 of those had under lying health issues, so only 2 with unknown health issue have died. There are over 4 million school age children in the UK. Do you think children are at risk if they return to school? Children are the least at risk category, surely a strategy should be put in place so they can return to school?

even just thinking about children going back to school terrifies mumsnetters.

I’m hazarding a guess that that’s because we’re in the middle of a global pandemic where no one is supposed to stand within 2m of someone not from their household? And people are worried about even going to the supermarket?

Stop acting like it’s a totally irrational concern.

Wow I didn’t think even the suggestion of thinking of a plan to open schools would upset people so much. Are people that scared they are not going to let there children out for months on end?

www.thelancet.com/journals/lanres/article/PIIS2213-2600(20)30184-3/fulltext

This is interesting article and suggests that asthma is not featuring highly in Covid death s

@alex50 If you think there's a low risk to teachers, then you gather people with your mindset and go and open a school so your children can see their friends...if that is more important to you that keeping your family safe.

I'm a teacher, I cannot be in work as I'm in a vulnerable group and I'm 33.
I want to be at work, I want to see my class and be able to teach and do what I love.

I can't because it is not currently safe for me, for my colleagues, for our families & most importantly for our children and their families.

Your attitude of 'I'm not keeping my child locked up in the summer holidays, I'll have their friends round in the garden' is everything that is wrong right now.

We don't know the risks, this is why the best thing to do is to stay home and safe.
Yes it is very difficult but teachers will be able to support the children when they go back, plans will be put in place. The most important thing right now is to do what we need to do we can go back to normal.

Having people round and ignoring what we are being advised to do will be what will prolong this situation

I never said there was low risk to teachers I haven’t any data to say one way or another. I said there is low risk to children.

OP what's it like there in your moral vacuum? Your idea is that we open schools to test out the theory that it won't lead to lots of sick or dead children and adults - especially when there are countries at different stages to us we can learn from.
There are not lots of teachers dead from CV in the area I live (Scotland) because there were very few deaths at the time we closed the school. So that tells you nothing about transmission here.

@alex50 You literally said there is a very low risk to under 40's even those with underlying conditions.

I don’t think JoJothesquirrel is being over dramatic. The reality is that nobody knows what the long term effects might be for those without symptoms and for those recovered from this illness. She is simply asking very valid questions.

Wow the hatred for even suggesting to look at opening schools 😞

Yes in general not just teachers, I have no idea on numbers re teachers if there is an extra risk like there is with NHS staff?

@Mistressiggi there are hardly any deaths of children worldwide from coronvirus, the risk to children is minuscule

No the hatred is towards the fact you have suggested this, showing disregard to teaching staff, suggesting we are all 'scared' and that's why we aren't working.

Yes we are scared, scared for our class children & their families, hoping they are staying safe and well and don't have to face loosing relatives.
We are scared that school life won't ever be the same.

But what we mostly are is sad. Sad that we can't spend the summer term preparing our children to move up to the next class or to leave school, sad we had to leave so suddenly that we couldn't prepare our children for this, sad that we cant offer that opportunity to talk to our children in person.

We are not staying away from school because we are 'scared', we are actually staying away as we have no damn choice in it & it will go on longer if people like you start to think they know better

I agree with you OP and I think fortunately we will be seeing more and more research coming out in the next weeks with regards to children and this virus. Not one study has shown them to be super spreaders.

It is frustrating many people on here won’t even entertain how a return to school would work.

It’s obvious we can’t keep kids at home for 6 months or until there’s a vaccine. It’s great news they are largely unaffected by the virus and in some research are shown not to spread the virus. Yes I know this isn’t conclusive but it’s positive! Imagine if we were dealing with a virus that targeted children. This is the opposite.

Fortunately there are some well informed posters who are happy to discuss the research and risk sensibly. And have a discussion on how a return to school could work. Rather than the ridiculous ‘they must stay off for years’ brigade.

I know we have no choice at the moment but can’t we look at suggestions and discuss safety measures that could be in place without the hatred? I have never seen such anger on a thread, maybe it’s the way i’m wording thing.

Maybe we should get sixth formers to teach the younger children, they'd all be under 20 then?
I can imagine some posters would have some worries about their dc sitting next to someone else's dc who happens to be a frontline NHS workers exposed to Covid-19 daily. And on the other side is a kid whose dad delivers for Amazon.
If children don't get it that is fantastic, but I would want more than the ski-child-study to show that the children won't take it home to their parents, as well to all the adult school staff.

Yep, it’s definitely the way you’re wording things.

Alex absolutely the way you word things affects the responses. Sentences like this:
I would really like to see the numbers of teachers who have been working in schools who have died from coronvirus? I can’t find them anywhere? make you sound massively callous I'm afraid.

So how would you like to see schools start re open in a safe way?

You can’t re-open schools in a safe way if ‘safe’ involves social distancing.

So we just can’t open schools?

We have to keep remembering that the goal is not to stop us all from getting this virus it’s to control NHS capacity and ability to cope.

There is plenty of spare capacity and it is coping. Therefore, probably in another three weeks or so some measures will be relaxed. Nobody knows if this includes schools. But we do know we won’t all stay in lockdown for months and months.

A far more sensible discussion would be how do we live with this virus? No I don’t think social distancing is possible in schools and the risk will never be zero. But it is very low. So maybe schools will go back part time. Just for 4-5 weeks. Then they’ll shut for the summer. We’ll see what effect reducing various measures has had etc.

Alex what I mean is you can open them but admit that it is not safe and put in measures to mitigate the impact, rather than say ‘we are opening schools but it will be safe because the kids will stay 2m apart’.

The assumption should be that social distancing doesn’t work in schools and will not form a major part of the planning.

Alex50 some of the post all over MN can be harsh. It’s the nature of the beast. There definitely needs to be a discussion about it, you are right. But we can’t discuss much it if we don’t have actual studies and proper observations let alone research. About how/if the virus affects the under 20s and mortality trends for those over 20s working within the education sector where they interact with the younger age group.
Also, we really have to be mindful of how survivors of this virus are faring. It has not been touched in much in the media but as far as I understand it, it can and it does take weeks to recover to a level where one can be a functioning useful member of the society and, even for those with mild and moderate symptoms. A lot of these mild and moderate symptoms don’t sound that easy to ignore, they actually appear to be very serious. Recovering from pneumonia on your own at home will make that person susceptible to getting pneumonia for the rest of their life. It’s a very serious threat to one’s health. in some cases, it can lead to 10-20% permanent lung damage. None of these are negligible aspects.

Branster for PM!

I agree with everything you are eloquently saying.

10-20% in Some cases of recovered covid patients not recovered pneumonia sufferers. Because we don’t know exactly what is causing this long lasting damage in recovered covid sufferers.