Three mothers considering legal action over impact of social distancing on children

[Fantasisa]

I have to admit that I hadn't even thought the long term impact through of social distancing on children although it has made me so sad when my DC have seen their friends around and only waved sadly at each other from a distance.

My DC's primary school hasn't reopened today and no words from the headteacher to update us on their plan.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8374849/Three-mothers-considering-legal-battle-Government-school-closures.html#comments

[Hearhoovesthinkzebras]

@Uhoh2020

Exactly you dont know but you want to focus on the 1 negative aspect of the story in the media. If they told story's from the opposite perspective people would feel and act differently. Headline "999 out of 1000 schools have remained open during the Coronavirus outbreak " doesnt quite have the same impact does it

And what are you basing your predictions on? A wing and a prayer.

When this first came to.light one of the consultants looking after me told me to shield because this is a novel virus, so little is known about it and how it might affect me and the sensible advice is to be extremely cautious. I think that's eminently sensible advice for the entire country. The way they're going about it now, if s second wave starts to show in a couple of weeks they won't be able to rein it in without going back into lockdown with all of the implications - further hit to the economy, detriment to the NHS, difficulty for the people - if they proceed cautiously and slowly, gradually unlocking once they see that the previous easing didn't have an adverse affect, and with test and trace in place ( interestingly track and trace that other countries depend on has been abandoned) then maybe this could have been done successfully.

You seem to want us all to be guinea pigs in a country wide science experiment. How is that ethical?

[Mascotte]

Aaaaargh!!!

[Derbygerbil]

Not once has anyone said "oh don't worry. For the vast majority it's a mild illness over done with in a couple of weeks".

Indeed, all the evidence suggests it’s about 10 times more deadly that the flu. The statistics can be misleading though, and an individualistic perspective of personal risk can lead to the wider issue being unappreciated.

It’s true that a significant majority recover, and an overwhelming majority of those under 50 and in good health. Personally i’m happy for my children to go back to school as I appreciate their risk is tiny. My risk is not quite as minuscule, but still very low.

However, with a the 1% death rate (an approximate figure based on 50,000 or so UK deaths and 7% with antibodies), applying that figure very roughly, 90% or so have very low risk indeed, whereas 10% or so have much higher risk, say around 10%. Given that each genuinely “at risk” person will have 1 or 2 others living with them on average, that’s 25% or so of the population for whom catching Covid will be akin to playing Russian roulette with their or their loved ones lives. A society can’t expect to function if it disregards the reasonable life-or-death fears of such a sizeable proportion of its population. So whereas most people’s individual risk - including mine and my children’s - from Covid is tiny, in the wider public context, it’s a much bigger issue that can’t simply be dismissed.

[Uhoh2020]

And you are basing your views on 1 consultant at the start of something they admittedly knew nothing about....... wing and prayer also spring to mind

[Msmcc1212]

”Mascotte
@Msmcc1212 that has absolutely no basis in fact and is just scaremongering“

I so wish it was but the the fact that ICU beds were filled with under 50s was a direct quote from ICU doctor working there. It was a personal communication but he was also featured in a news article. This was earlier on. People who were fit and healthy (e.g. personal trainer). I know people that have had it - one said they ‘thought they should start getting their affairs in order’ because they thought they were going to die. Feeling like you can’t breathe is potentially traumatic. Even if you get it and don’t need hospitalisation you might be left with some horrible post viral symptoms.

The numbers of people that could die if we hadn’t been in lockdown were published early on. I’m sure if you do some research you’ll find it. It was too great to risk.

If you look at counties who locked down harder and sooner their death toll is much lower.

Then there is the pressure on the NHS, the impact on staff (loads of research on that) and the knock on effect to us all in terms of availability of healthcare.

Young, fit healthcare workers, transport workers etc have died. Children can also get a nasty reaction due to the immune response. They can need hospitalisation.

I can’t be arsed to go on. Just do a small amount of research.

[Ratbum]

What a selfish course of action these women are suggesting.

[Mascotte]

I think it is you who should do research @Msmcc. It's not fair to frighten people with this mince.

[DippyAvocado]

Action like this is pointless because this was an emergency situation and emergency legislation was passed. And if they wanted to be taken seriously, they shouldn't have gone down the Daily Mail sad face route.

Quite honestly though, if you want to take action against the government it should be for their total mismanagement of the whole pandemic. If they had acted effectively early on, as many other countries did when they saw what was happening in Italy and Spain, then we would probably now be in the position that Austria, Germany, Norway etc are of being able to safely loosen restrictions. The UK government acted too little, too late, allowing the virus to take hold in the community so that containment measures would not be effective not that they attempted to put many measures in place.

They now want to replicate the re-opening that's happening in other countries who have a much better grip on the virus than here because they handled it better earlier on. In trying to make economic gains over countries that went into earlier lockdown with their ridiculous herd immunity policy, the government has ended up with a situation that is probably far more economically damaging than if they'd just done a short, hard lockdown in the first place.

If there is successful legal action at any point, it will be from the families of health workers and carers who died because of policy failures, not some Mums who are complaining that schools are closed. For a small minority of kids it will have been genuinely shit, yes, and in schools we've been working hard to identify who those kids might be and get them back in. But these Mums are not fighting on behalf of genuinely vulnerable kids. Most kids, as long as they are safe, loved and well-cared for are extremely adaptable, far more so than many adults.

[Chillipeanuts]

Not sure how you sue a natural phenomenon?

[Msmcc1212]

Mascotte

If people are starting to minimise this then we need to speak the truth. I’m sorry if that is frightening but it’s why we need to pull together and work to minimise the damage. There is no easy way out of this. I have read lots, I have medical friends and colleagues and I know people that have had it. I speak from a fairly well informed place. Up to you if you believe it or not.

Your ‘let the old die’ attitude is what I’m finding frightening tbh.

[bombaychef]

They've zero chance.

[YetAnotherSpartacus]

If there is successful legal action at any point, it will be from the families of health workers and carers who died because of policy failures, not some Mums who are complaining that schools are closed. For a small minority of kids it will have been genuinely shit, yes, and in schools we've been working hard to identify who those kids might be and get them back in. But these Mums are not fighting on behalf of genuinely vulnerable kids. Most kids, as long as they are safe, loved and well-cared for are extremely adaptable, far more so than many adults

Indeed.

If there is successful legal action at any point, it will be from the families of health workers and carers who died because of policy failures, not some Mums who are complaining that schools are closed. For a small minority of kids it will have been genuinely shit, yes, and in schools we've been working hard to identify who those kids might be and get them back in. But these Mums are not fighting on behalf of genuinely vulnerable kids. Most kids, as long as they are safe, loved and well-cared for are extremely adaptable, far more so than many adults

Another indeed.