Is anyone not sending their secondary school child back initially?

[lastkisstoo]

I've decided to keep my 15 year old home, probably until the October hols to see what happens.

We are in Scotland. What just happened in the pubs in Aberdeen is exactly what I see happening in schools. Mostly young adults, enclosed space, no social distancing.

My child has asthma, and while not on the list for sheltering I still feel is vulnerable enough that I don't want to see him being used as a guinea pig while the government assess just how big the uptick in cases will be on schools re-opening.

@nostaples

Mosquitofeast not for children! Flu is worse for them than COVID

no it isn't.

Flu is not going to dismantle social order. Flu is not going to orphan them, flu is not going to leave them as carers for disabled parents , flu is not going to destroy the supply chains of their economy, flu is not going to threaten their food security. Flu is not leaving children disabled in the numbers that covid is.

There have been times when flu has done these things, but these days, there is a vaccine against flu.

And covid is approximately 100 x more deadly.

I am so sick of people with no knowledge or understanding trying to say "its just like flu". Flu kills and maims. But we have a vaccine against it. And covid kills and maims 100x higher rate anyway.

And would we close schools and lock down if there was a virulent strain of flu spreading across the country, and no vaccine. Yes of course we would.

Mosquitofeadt if you continue to ignore the actual facts there’s not much point in debating.

Children are not routinely vaccinated for flu.

It is a fact that more children died of flu and from falling off their bikes last year than COVID

@nostaples

You can see deaths by age group here www.cebm.net/covid-19/covid-19-death-data-in-england-update-2nd-july/

Under 25 is negligible. Significantly less than flu, much less than other childhood illness and RTAs. Children are at least risk.

Nearly 50% of deaths have been in care homes.

Some of you really do need to educate yourselves

you are the uneducated one. You have no idea of epidemiology at all, do you.

This threatens the whole of society. It isn't a matter of the threat to individuals.

It is completely irrelevant whether covid kills you or me. It only matters whether it is controlled or uncontrolled through society

"they need to know children can be taken off roll after 2 weeks. It happens"

No it doesnt, dont be ridiculous.

@nostaples

Mosquitofeadt if you continue to ignore the actual facts there’s not much point in debating.

Children are not routinely vaccinated for flu.

It is a fact that more children died of flu and from falling off their bikes last year than COVID

children are routinely vaccinated against flu

@Orchidsindoors

"they need to know children can be taken off roll after 2 weeks. It happens"

No it doesnt, dont be ridiculous.

|It does happen. You might be unaware of it, but that doesn't mean anything

60 deaths and 2500 serious injuries in RTAs for children each year

@Angrywife

A note to those in England, you will get a penalty notice if you don't send your children back and you could end up in court with a criminal record (may affect your job).

The government has taken the decision off head teachers & local authorities for this period and have said punitive action MUST be taken

No they haven’t, they’ve said fines are part of the system without good reason. And some of us are saying that the pandemic still provides good reason.

You can read there own explanation of the attendance policy in relation to a pandemic here. We are still in the middle of a pandemic.

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/300399

I also don't understand the fixation only on child death.

I understand the numbers for child deaths.

I think that me getting ill or their dad, or their grandparents, or their teacher, or a friend's relative, or a truckload of deaths generally, or continued social disruption, or school shutting, or continuously having to isolate, or further economic damage all affect them.

All of those things are made more likely by opening secondary schools with no social distancing.

"Under 25 is negligible. Significantly less than flu, much less than other childhood illness and RTAs. Children are at least risk.

Nearly 50% of deaths have been in care homes.

Some of you really do need to educate yourselves"

No parents I know of High school kids are under 25's?! Are you one of those people who dont realise kids mingle with others, such as their parents, grandparents, people on the bus, in the shops, teachers and other staff. None of whom are under 25.

Mosquito of you look at those graphs you will see no deaths from COVID. 0.8% of all hospital admissions have been for under 20s.

Children are not given the vaccine for flu.

What actual planet are you on?

@mosquitofeast please please could you outline the circumstances in which that happens?

Because I don't believe my school can legally do that so long as I communicate, without going through their written down process.

But orchids are you seriously saying that children, who are least at risk, should be denied an education to protect old people when the R rate is falling snywsy?

@Diplidally

When I was at school several kids on my class travelled with their parents who worked in fairgrounds for half the year. So they were only in school the half the year they lived near us. They weren’t forced to deregister

A girl in dcs class is allowed to go to visit family abroad for two months. She isn’t forced to deregister.

Ditto dc’s friend who has to take many weeks off frequently because of a condition.

Schools obviously need to make welfare checks if they haven’t heard from the parents and have no idea what’s going on.

But if the parents work with them and it’s known that the children are safe and well and bring educated. And the school is aware of health concerns... I really don’t think there’s think there’s going to be the mass forced deregistering that some seem to expect (and sadistically hope fit for inexplicable reasons).

Exactly, I find it so weird. If the do deregister everyone they will lose a lot of funding, we are not some sort of weird tiny minority.

Loads of people will be keeping their children off. And it will make the schools safer for those that attend and teachers.

We aren’t world beating in our coronavirus response by any stretch. Boris holding his hands up in a couple of months and saying he’s learning and has made some mistakes isn’t a good enough response to what happened to care homes and it won’t be good enough for schools either.

He needs to adopt a cautious approach, slowly growing numbers based on need/wants. He seems intent on having a gamble.

If you Google the flu vaccine you will see that it is offered annually to those over 65 and children at risk. That is because flu is more dangerous to children than COVID.

But it is not routinely given to anyone partly because it is a different vaccine each year

The flu spray is offered to all 2 and e year olds and all primary. However I have been teaching primary 10 years and always found the uptake quite low when the nurses come into school to do it. Less than half. May be just my experience though. I dont know if secondary get it

There are around 12 deaths from flu in under 25 to each year. Google it if you don’t believe me.

That is more than COVID which is zero

@nostaples

But orchids are you seriously saying that children, who are least at risk, should be denied an education to protect old people when the R rate is falling snywsy?

You seem not to see these 'old people' as loved relatives. Many of the people were not very old and would have lived many more years.

My children are definitely not more important than other people's relatives.

My children are part of a society and once we start trading off like this, I fear society is in a very bad way.

"21:38nostaples

But orchids are you seriously saying that children, who are least at risk, should be denied an education to protect old people when the R rate is falling snywsy?"

So you think anyone over 25 is classed as "old people"

Dont you think people over the age of 25 deserve to not catch covid, just so as kids can go to school, when there are perfectly good alternative options.

And nostaples...you talk as if kids are being denied an education for life. It's a temporary issue. Noone is denying children an education for life. How silly you are.

It’s not about deserving to not deserving to catch Covid. It’s just that it’s wholly unrealistic to accept that no one will. And there are not “perfectly good alternative options” to schools opening.

"21:43nostaples

There are around 12 deaths from flu in under 25 to each year. Google it if you don’t believe me.

That is more than COVID which is zero"

Are you being deliberately ignorant? It's already been explained to you that children dont exist in a bubble. It's not just about the children, it's about everyone else they come into contact with. I know you dont think anyone over the age of 25 is worth anything and can be written off, but not everyone thinks like that. Tell me, are you under 25 by any chance?

It's also not just either death or no symptoms at all. Its about the terrible symptoms inbetween.

And there hasnt been no deaths under 25, you've made that up entirely.

No orchids that is not what I’m saying at all.

There is an extremely low risk to children. They are the lowest risk group there isx

Risk increases with age v dramatically. Check but you are something like 36 times more likely to die over the age of 75.

50% of deaths have been in care homes because 1. Old people are more vulnerable and 2. It was badly managed such that there was no ppe for care workers and old people were discharged from hospital back to care homes which were decimated.

The figures over all are scary and no it’s not ok to just say well you’re old so it doesn’t matter but what happened in care homes and national stats have almost no relationship to the risks faced by children which IS less than the risk from flu whether you choose to believe it or not and certainly less than the risk of getting in a car or on a bike

Orchids I am a teacher over 45 who had been and will be working in schools with absolutely no anxiety