I'm really scared. Not allowed to wear a mask at work

[LavenderLilacTree]

It's just to vent really as I know there is no way round it.

I am really scared. I am a TA and when all the pupils are back in school we aren't allowed to wear face masks or any PPE. Social distancing is not going to happen.

The government have said only go back to work if it's safe and you can ensure social distancing, well it's not going to be safe for me. Government say to wear face coverings in enclosed spaces but teachers and TAs are not allowed to.

I am scared. I am in my 40s and have 3 children in Yr 8, Yr 7 and Yr 5 . I know it's a 3% chance of dying but to me that's not an insignificant risk. I would never take part in any activity that had a 3% chance of dying.

I just feel like the government doesn't value my life. This is a deadly virus that KILLS, i want to wear a mask. My life matters to me, my husband and my children.

It's scary at work at the moment but we only have 4- 7 kids in. When we have a full school it's going to be impossible to stay 2 meters apart so therefore you feel I should at least be able to wear a mask.

I love my job and the children at school but I don't want to give my life for it. I just think I should be able to have some form of protection. It's like my life doesn't matter.

"But we need to be honest and say only 150 deaths of healthy people under 65."

Please stop repeatedly spreading this on every thread. Are you ever going to update your made up figure of 150?

If we have to wait a year to get longitudinal data we are overlooking the very real experiences of a large number of people, and putting people at risk of health problems in the interim

For balance I know a few people who have “had it” and are now absolutely fine - me included.

People I interacted with haven’t shown any symptoms but chances are they have also “had it”

@TP67 thanks for the correction, I don't know why but it made me smile. Little things eh. Tbf I thought you may have thought I meant the entire world population or that I'm very bad at math

Please stop repeatedly spreading this on every thread. Are you ever going to update your made up figure of 150? hmm

It’s not made up.

Google it.

Google the death rate by demographic. It’s approx 3000 on the governments numbers below 65.

Then google how many had underlying health conditions. It’s approx 95 percent.

Do the math.

You loose credibility when you can’t even be arsed to look.

It’s interesting looking at the VE Day pictures of crowds at a time when TB, diphtheria, polio, measles were all endemic . No one was hiding behind front doors , it really made me think about how complacent we have become about infectious diseases. It’s only in the last 70 years that we have not had to deal with these things . My father remembers two children dying of diphtheria at his primary school but the school remained open .

We cannot wait for a vaccine , there has never been an effective vaccine against a corona virus, it’s been 18 years since SARS arrived and there is no vaccine . We are going to have to get through the initial phase and then take our courage in both hands and get on with our lives hoping that drug treatments etc will improve .

Don’t get me wrong I am not one of these people who think we should not lock down and I am terrified of ds going to university but I know in my head that there is a higher chance of him dying in a car accident on the way there than of corona .

We seem to have a real problem in this country with understanding and evaluating risk and science concepts in general and this crisis is highlighting this .

However, they are still well below 3% and massively lower for a fit 40-something.

Thanks, agree.

@BigChocFrenzy. I am in my forties and I didn't die, like your stats say, but I very NEARLY did. And I can tell you, it wasn't fun. I still have issues breathing weeks after being released from hospital.

"Do the math.

You loose credibility when you can’t even be arsed to look."

Math? Loose? hmm, credibility flying out of the window there also.

We've had this discussion before. Twice. Your googled "statistics" aren't accurate as per previous discussions.

I understand how you feel, but you probably take part in other “risky” things without a second thought. Do you worry about being killed/badly injured in a car accident if you travel by car, same for planes? People are killed in awful random accidents all the time (scaffolding falling, chunks falling off buildings etc). Coved seems terrifying because we know so little about it and so much stuff is being written that is just untrue. But the truth is if we never took risks we would never leave home again

But the truth is if we never took risks we would never leave home again
True, but it would be quite nice if we could make our own decisions about risks we're prepared to take, and not have others decide them for us. It has pissed me off the number of posters on MN who have airily dismissed teachers' valid concerns and told us we're being precious (and worse), because it suits them to send their kids back to school.

@CallmeAngelina I suppose we are free to make that decision though, but surely healthy adults in any profession don't expect to be allowed to choose not to work, but to do so on full pay?

And, ONCE AGAIN, we are not "choosing not to work," as many of us have continued working full-time since Lockdown began. We are just pointing out some major flaws in the proposed "plans" for re-opening schools, because they don't seem to include many considerations for our safety, beyond regular hand-washing, which I'm afraid, won't cut it.

@Bluntness100 even if your figures are correct, your maths relies on the 95% having underlying conditions and the under 60s being independent variables. They obviously aren't. The older you are, the more likely you are to have underlying conditions. You can't simply combine them in that way. The figures are likely still low, but the maths doesn't hold up the way you've done it.

@pointyshoes I did some back of a fag packet maths the other day and worked out you are approximately 300 times more likely to die from Covid than you are in a car accident.

There are roughly 1000 deaths in car accidents each year that don't involve alcohol. There have been roughly 50,000 covid deaths in 2 months, which would translate to 300,000 in a year.

Well no agree with you, we're not "choosing not to work" right now because the children are at home and so are we, doing our best to educate them remotely. However there is a very clear need for schools to restart and I think school staff should be doing our best to facilitate that and try to think of solutions to problems together. Our school staff have been amazing in their strength and positivity as, I suspect, most staff are. I just get frustrated with people who would rather sit at home and complain than try to work on the problem together.

“ There are roughly 1000 deaths in car accidents each year that don't involve alcohol. There have been roughly 50,000 covid deaths in 2 months, which would translate to 300,000 in a year.”

Well, I guess you could argue that most of the people who have died of COVID would never be in a car anyway as the issues they were already dealing with would have in a lot of cases prevented them from driving.

The risk to healthy, slim, white women is actually the lowest of any demographic other than children

Plus it’s much nearer 2000 traffic deaths (1870 last year) and less COVID deaths than you fag packeted

666 of which were alcohol related. I'm not including those, since people tend to talk about getting into a car, not getting into a car -drunk-. And the 50,000 comes from ONS excess deaths, which is likely to be a much more reliable estimate of actual Covid deaths.

The fact is, getting in a car is quite safe. Catching Covid isn't. By quite some factors of magnitude.

Well, I guess you could argue that most of the people who have died of COVID would never be in a car anyway as the issues they were already dealing with would have in a lot of cases prevented them from driving.

That's a strange comment. I have my own car and was driving it regularly before I became ill with COVID-19, and my DH, who has asthma, drives regularly. Or used to before lockdown. So he's more likely to be at risk from COVID-19 than in a car accident (seeing as he's living with someone who is self-isolating).

And a former colleague of his recently died of COVID-19; he used to give my DH a lift back home occasionally. So he used to drive regularly.

Please don't generalise.

Has OP been back at all? Or is this yet another post where a nugget of misinformation is dropped into a much broader post making some reasonable points that others may also be worried about, in the hopes that other people will believe it?

Plus, those who are not able to drive would very likely still be passengers in cars at some point or cross busy roads regularly. So everyone is at risk on roads, whilst some are more at risk of COVID-19 than others are, quite clearly.

JassyRadlett
Or is this yet another post where a nugget of misinformation

Its not misinformation the DFE guidelines have stated that masks (actually all PPE) shouldn't be worn and is only necessary under certain circumstances.

@JassyRadlett no sign from the OP, never quite sure why people post and don't return.

I work in a school and have been in through this whole time, including holidays, albeit not every day.

I would hate the idea of wearing a mask all day. It hasn't said you can't but that it isn't necessary. Much better to implement good habits and cleanliness I believe. The risk is also reducing as there are less cases. I am early forties and white, not (too!) overweight. I may feel slightly different if I was overweight and from a higher risk ethnic minority and male.

@FrippEnos I read that post as meaning the 3% dying bit being inaccurate.

Yep, @FrippEnos, @mooching is correct - it’s the 3% figure which is pure misinformation, whether intentional or not.