Coronovirus IS transmitted in schools

[mosquitofeast]

And lots of teachers have died

I am just clarifying this, as I don't know how many times I have read on Mumsnet that this has never happened. I don't know where this misinformation is coming from, but its rubbish

It was transmitted several hundred times in my school (secondary)before lock down. Hundreds of children and dozens of staff were affected. Some have been seriously ill and have been left with long term health problems, such as low lung capacity and loss of hearing.

I am a teacher and I was infected at school. I did not use public transport, or go into any shops or other businesses for the whole of March, and I was living alone. The only time I was in any contact with anyone else was in school

A school near us (also secondary) had to close a week before school closures were announced, as so many teachers were infected.

Thankfully, no staff or student in our school died, although several students have lost parents, and many have lost grandparents. One of my sixthformers has withdrawn her university application as her mum has lost a lung and a leg and now can't run her home and care for her younger children on her own.

However, according to the union, around 200 school staff have dies to date, so we have just been lucky so far.

So please don't repost this fake news that "no one has ever caught covid in a school" - because |I have watched it happen in front of my eyes, and experienced it myself.

Well said. The bias of some using evidence of school openings in low transmission countries etc to justify schools are safe. My 10 year old would know this wasn’t a “fair test”. Schools have started to open in one region of Germany (low transmission) already a lot of kids/staff testing positive. The disruption to most schools in U.K. will be immense even if “open”. Yet still the majority of U.K. public stick head in sand with fingers in ears.

Interestingly someone posted a link a few weeks ago to show that a taxi driver is one of the riskiest occupations... teachers was no more than anyone else

Then do post the link, perhaps? Show us how wrong we are.

@Genevieva just looking for basic safety precautions thanks!

If you are correct and it's now comparable with the flu treatment wise then why haven't I heard about this on the news and why haven't we just opened up completely as normal?

Happy to go back to work with the basic safety measures afforded to everyone else.

The stats on people of working age and with no health conditions are very favourable

Many school staff have health conditions. They are not allowed to use any form of PPE and in some cases are providing their own hand sanitizers and cleaning materials. There will be no social distancing.

Children need to be back in school- I have some and totally agree.

HOWEVER- the Government needs to stop pretending that Covid won’t be transmitted by children in schools. It’s totally illogical.

Playgrounds need to be cleaned regularly and soft play can’t open as too dangerous. Library books and clothes returned need to be quarantined for 36 hours. But magically in schools children are immune?

Colds, flu, chickenpox, hand foot and mouth etc are all easily transmitted child to child, more than adult to adult as children aren’t as clean and don’t stay apart. But magic Covid doesn’t conform to this? It’s apparently the only disease that children don’t catch or spread.

The risk isn’t to the children- I do believe they are asymptotic or have mild cases. The risk is to the teachers AND the risk is to the wider community. Children go home to their families everyday.

The answer isn’t to pretend that children in schools can’t catch and transmit Covid, but to take measures to mitigate and contain the risk. I would feel a lot more reassured by the Government if they admitted children, teachers and families would catch it. Pretending it is all fine is awful.

It’s not just teachers, support staff such as LSAs who may have to get closer than 2m to support children , they are at risk too. Then we have administrative staff, cleaners, catering staff, they all need protecting too.

I'm sick and tired of hearing accusations that teachers think they alone of all professions need to be protected from the virus (because they are 'golden heroes', as someone said upthread ).

All the teachers I know want to go back to school. Most if the non-vulnerable ones are happy to go back whatever the guidelines. The vulnerable ones just want to be allowed the same safety measures afforded to other workers.

At the very least they want the government to actually admit the truth, by saying 'Sorry folks - the proposed guidelines for schools opening are not actually safe and will be practically unworkable in many schools. We've pretty much left the details up to individual schools so that we can blame them when cases inevitably rise. We've told you all that there's little evidence the virus spreads in schools, but that's because schools have been closed or had very few people in them since March. But we need to open schools and that's that.'

There already aren't enough teachers in schools. Teenagers are pretty much adults and will pass the virus on even if they don't get symptoms themselves. Teachers will get the virus and there will be huge staff absence. Yet the government claims that schools will be the last things to close even if cases rise. How do you keep them open with not enough teachers?!

Teachers don't have a solution to all this because there is no full solution. Keep schools closed, kids suffer. Open schools, cases rise, people die, schools close again. Rotas and blended learning are the only way imo.

The thing is we should all want better measures to decrease exposure and keep transmission low in schools, because it will affect us all. When the numbers climb high enough we will have local lockdowns and schools will close. I think this will happen to every single person on this thread at least once if we're lucky. If we're unlucky it will be a winter term of kids being mainly out of school with no real plans for remote teaching.

Has anyone seen what happened in Israel when they tried to open schools without reducing contact numbers? It didn't work. It won't work. What our government is proposing hasn't worked in any other country.

I'm not a teacher but I agree with what teachers are saying. They are no more important than any other worker in society but my life, personally, would run a lot smoother if teachers and school children as a whole are kept safe.

Interestingly someone posted a link a few weeks ago to show that a taxi driver is one of the riskiest occupations... teachers was no more than anyone else

Yes I read this study too, the death stats bear it out. I’m not quite sure who has convinced so many teachers that they are the most at risk profession out there, but they’ve done a bloody good job with absolutely no evidence.

@Hearhoovesthinkzebras

[quote Alex50]
But OP and children in her school were not tested, how do you know it was coronvirus?

The view expressed by Chris Whitty and Patrick Valance at one of the briefings was that, at that time, all other respiratory illnesses were rare and so anyone showing symptoms almost certainly had Covid 19[/quote]
How is that true? More people are dying of flu and pnemonia now than covid so it wad obviously still around in march as were colds, RSV etc. My 4 year old was off with a cough and fever the two weeks before schools closed. No idea if it was covid but nobody else in the house got it. The school closed a week before schools officially closed because of such high levels of absense. It is a 3 form entry with 30 per class but of all of those children and families, nobody became seriously ill. Unlikely it was covid

The lack of strategy over the schools issue has been appalling. Provision for children while schools have been closed has been patchy and inconsistent, with some children getting high quality face-to-face zoom lessons from teachers, while others were only sent links to worksheet sites. The government has has months to get a proper fit-for-purpose online education platform sorted out, but has it done so? They should also be providing laptops for pupils who haven't got one. The science is unclear as to how much children are symptomless or mild-symptomed spreaders, so surely we need to be cautious and have PPE and SD properly implemented in schools. If I was teaching, I'd be putting most of my effort into getting my online lessons sorted, as I think it highly likely that many schools will have to close quite quickly, and I'd see it as my responsibility that my pupils were getting as good an education as possible.
The "bubble" idea is ridiculous, as you can't isolate children from their siblings, who will be in different bubbles. Also, the school bus problem is completely unsolvable.

[quote MoreListeningLessChatting]**@mosquitofeast

You are asking people not to spread fake news and you come on here with the hundreds of teachers have died - no research/evidence to back you up at all just the usual scaremongering/trolling type post. In the last few weeks lots of people have posted information with ACTUAL LINKS to research that suggests that children are not the great/mass spreaders that was originally thought. SAGE advisers have also suggested this.... yet you @mosquitofeast with your catastrophising come along with your 'news' and we are all supposed to sit up and listen to you...

You appear to be completely oblivious to the fact that any school staff might actually catch the virus from other household members/whilst mixing with others/ out and about etc etc.

Interestingly someone posted a link a few weeks ago to show that a taxi driver is one of the riskiest occupations... teachers was no more than anyone else[/quote]
I am surprised not many are questioning the OP and just accepting the anecdata as fact. Instead, we have another thread about schools returning.

This has the potentional to be an irresponsible thread. If what OP says is true, this is massive.

@mosquitofeast FWIW (I live in the UK but am not from here) I think you can get the virus from anyone, anywhere, and schools seem to me only a step away from gyms and such. I admire teachers that bravely go and do their job knowing this.

The thing that makes people take it "lightly" in schools is, that "kids" go to school and in absolute numbers a relatively small amount of them died/had it really bad (as much as things get reported). So parents somehow think it's lesser chance.

The logic evades me, because if my 7yo catches it, brings it home, and we all catch it, and then go to grandparents (bubble, remember) and they catch it and so on, with the UK having no track and trace and no viable testing, it is only a question of time.

Having said that kids miss school, parents need to work, it is really unsolvable unless the government stops stealing and lying and does something (so ever). Keep (as) safe (as you can), is all I can say.

If what OP says is true, this is massive

It isn’t

Yes I read this study too, the death stats bear it out. I’m not quite sure who has convinced so many teachers that they are the most at risk profession out there, but they’ve done a bloody good job with absolutely no evidence.

@RubyWow nobody thinks that. What we think is that we are the only profession being forced back to absolute normality with absolutely no safety precautions in place.

I’ve noticed descriptions of this school from op.

It sounds out of kilter even with Israel, which was in world news, where there was only one hospitalisation. Vast majority asymptomatic or mild symptoms.

When did this happen, which month? When 1/4 of secondary students were in? Whereabouts in country are you?

@RubyWow

If what OP says is true, this is massive

It isn’t

One school with hundreds of cases?

[quote sonicbook]@Bananabread8 you aren't comparing like for like. Of course parents are going to suffer with childcare issues - I certainly will! That doesn't make it any less true that going back full pelt is going to result in staff absence and school closures anyway. [/quote]
You are assuming!! You don’t know and neither do I. I will be interested to see how the kids get on in Scotland.
We are going kind in circles here.

I do not believe that in March, before lockdown, you touched not one other surface outside of work or home.

I can understand your concerns OP, but it's very different now. No-one understood how prevalent COVID was at the time, staff and pupils were being told to come into schools with a cough/temperature.

My DS had it, a couple of weeks after half term, was off sick for a few days and then went back in (as per the rules at the time) and probably infected quite a few people. That would not happen now.
Testing and tracing is much better.

Pupils at his secondary school have been told that they must not approach the teaching staff - unlike most professional jobs you mention. I'm an optometrist and we wear PPE for patient examination simply because we have to get within a few cm of them at a time. There is no need for teachers to do that. In my other occasional role as a Brownie leader, we don't use PPE at all (unless tending to an injured child) we stay 2m apart.

I think you are worrying unnecessarily. Teachers need to get back and teach our children, or we our going to have thousands of children who are academically disadvantaged.
The on-line teaching at my son's state school was appalling and no substitute for the real thing.

@Bananabread8 ok

Nursery's are different because under 10s don't spread the virus as much. They breathe less. They don't carry as much of the virus (hence the extremely low death/hospitalisation of children)
Over 10s spread the same as adults. Secondary schools will be bad but should be able to wear masks and social distance better than young ones.

The amount of hysteria on here is more frightening than a virus with a very low death rate.

"The answer isn’t to pretend that children in schools can’t catch and transmit Covid, but to take measures to mitigate and contain the risk. I would feel a lot more reassured by the Government if they admitted children, teachers and families would catch it. Pretending it is all fine is awful."

This ^^

@underneaththeash do your patients wear PPE too?