Wish I wasn't a teacher because of Covid

[NebularNerd]

In my family/friends circle, I am the only one who will be face to face with 150+ people per day with no PPE, no social distancing, nothing.

I have one relative who is not expecting to return to the office this year.
Another who now only works in the office two days per week, in a building where numbers are severely restricted, one way systems, spaced out desks etc.
Another friend who is also able to wfh for the foreseeable future.

I can't help but think that had I made a different career choice I would not now be faced with contracting a potentially life threatening virus and passing it on to my clinically extremely vulnerable husband or elderly parents.

I will go to work and try to ignore what's going on in the world and do my best. But I wish I could be made to feel safer - screens, masks, fewer pupils, something.

I hope I'm worrying for nothing, but it is getting difficult to sleep at night.

Flu is not more deadly than Covid, what on earth made you think that ? Flu is a lot less deadly, and many people already have some level of resistance to flu.
Here , from the World Health Organisation -www.who.int/westernpacific/news/q-a-detail/q-a-similarities-and-differences-covid-19-and-influenza

Also a significant number of relatively young people are being left with long term issues, such as heart problems, post Covid.

If flu is more dangerous than Covid, why the fuck has the whole world closed down (apart from British schools) because of Covid?

Also, there is a vaccine for flu.

🤪🤪

Appuskidu No social distancing in March or April? I too, find that very difficult to believe. All retail places round here had huge restrictions on numbers then-hence the long queues outside

I didnt say anything about social distancing did I?
I'm talk about
Retail staff working in March and April with no PPE
Retail staff working at the height of the infection
Retail staff being exposed to more people than teachers

There is no perspective in these teacher threads

I'd be happy with actual social distancing to be honest.
That is in itself a Covid-mitigation.

FrippEnos So are you saying that because retail workers didn't have screens and SD that teachers shouldn't have any protection now.

No.

I'm saying that the risk is minuscule compared to how it was for retail staff back in March and April

If you want to go looking for threads then do so, I have other things to do.

But then people shouldn't say there are loads of retail threads and not back it up

So you don't want to keep the risk levels down for everyone?
that seems self defeating

i want to show some perspective

Flaxmeadow

You do now that this is an online opinion forum and not an academic paper?

I could easily spin it around and say that you have not offered any proof either.

If you want to look at perspective

Retail staff working in March and April with no PPE
So did teachers

Retail staff working at the height of the infection

So did teachers

Retail staff being exposed to more people than teachers

Are you really going to so hypocritical that you are not going to offer any proof?

The general public were also told to try to shop online, to reduce shopping to once a week, not to go if shielded or vulnerable, to shop alone , not in pairs and definitely not with children, and made to queue to enter, using one way systems. Non essential shops were closed and most supermarkets allowed their shielded staff to stay at home.

Doesn't sound much like schools.

Teachers should definitely have the right to wear face masks and I support head teachers asking secondary school children to wear masks, but no to blended learning. Some children have already missed 6 months of school, blended learning would mean they missed another 6 months if carried on for a year or longer. Parents need to work as well so that we as a country can afford the NHS. I support any teacher deciding to quit though as there is a small risk and no one should be forced to take risks they don’t want to. I was also considering quitting my job during the peak but I decided in the end that the risk of death or long term problems was small. If this virus mutates and gets worse I’d quit no hesitation though.

@stairway

Teachers should definitely have the right to wear face masks and I support head teachers asking secondary school children to wear masks, but no to blended learning. Some children have already missed 6 months of school, blended learning would mean they missed another 6 months if carried on for a year or longer. Parents need to work as well so that we as a country can afford the NHS. I support any teacher deciding to quit though as there is a small risk and no one should be forced to take risks they don’t want to. I was also considering quitting my job during the peak but I decided in the end that the risk of death or long term problems was small. If this virus mutates and gets worse I’d quit no hesitation though.

Teachers who want to quit now will have to work until December 31st, unfortunately, so plenty of time to have to be somewhere they don't feel safe.

Just look at the stats. It’s not deadly for the huge majority. Children need to be in school. Teachers aren’t dropping like flies in Scotland.

I work in a school and retail. Believe me, all the way I've felt safer in my retail job, told from the start we could wash our hands as much as we wanted, sanitizer to hand, told if we weren't happy about distancing we didn't have to serve/help customers, extra cleaning on shop floor and staff areas. At the same time at the school no distancing, no extra cleaning, no sanitizer. During the summer santizer was available at school. At that time we were provided with vizors/masks in shops as well as above applying..

The above still applies in my shop job, even distancing with masks. Going back to school, hopefully sanitizer available on entry/exit, I can still wash my hands when leaving which I've always done and I'm limited to a year bubble of 100 and staff. I've been really careful still living well within restrictions, but have no control over how the families/friends of children at the school live their lives and where they go. It's a hard one to get my head around.

Would you like them to?

Crass insensitivity aside, there hasn't been enough time to measure this.

I am sure that comment was made on another thread and deleted.

@Flaxmeadow, I must have imagined all those queues I waited in outside Sainsbury's and my local village shop back in March/April then, whilst they only allowed very limited numbers inside to protect staff (and us).

KatherineOfgaunt if a teacher, nurse, police officer or whatever feels they are seriously at risk of dying from this or any virus for that matter then they should just quit and not work their notice period. They won’t be thrown in prison. No one should be expected to risk their lives for anyone else.

So did teachers

No they did not.

Not one of the 3 different schools my grandchildren went to had any input at all with a teacher. Those whose parents weren't key workers had one "education package" sent in the post and then nothing for 6 months

Those of my grandchildren whose parents were key workers went to school and there wasnt even a teacher there. Just the teachers assistants and it was like an after school club. Out of one large primary school, only 5 children, of key workers, were there anyway

"I'm saying that the risk is minuscule compared to how it was for retail staff back in March and April*

@flaxmill, at the present time the risk is low, but you've seen the uptick in cases: it won't be for long. That's when we'll see who's better protected.

Teachers should definitely have the right to wear face masks and I support head teachers asking secondary school children to wear masks, but no to blended learning. Some children have already missed 6 months of school, blended learning would mean they missed another 6 months if carried on for a year or longer. Parents need to work as well so that we as a country can afford the NHS. I support any teacher deciding to quit though as there is a small risk and no one should be forced to take risks they don’t want to.

Nice of you not to join in the bashing, but ultimately you'll have no say in blended learning once too many teachers become ill. No-one is going to give up their livelihood either - if the public doesn't want to listen now, perhaps they'll be listening when we're on our paid sick leave and wishing they'd defended our right to social distancing in the workplace from the outset.

I’m not teacher bashing, blended learning is a disaster for many children. If schools lockdown then so be it but I’m an optimist and I believe there is a good chance most children will get a full or near full academic year rather than a guaranteed 6 months no school. Most NHS staff were not on sick leave during the peak, most remained healthy. It will be the same for school teachers.

at the present time the risk is low, but you've seen the uptick in cases: it won't be for long. That's when we'll see who's better protected.

Even so. It is still nowhere near the rate of infection now as it was in March and April.
When retail staff, and many others, worked.
Why should teachers be any different to everyone else?

BINGO!

I am a TA. I would like to have physical distancing, masks for all and ventilation - the same protection as everyone else.
Oh and to not have bubbles of 200.

I realise the government has people who post on MN/Twitter etc whose job it is to try and influence people's opinions and I guess at the moment they are trying to make all teacher's concerns look bad but I hope people can see past them.

Filled up my Bingo card on the wish I wasn't a teacher thread.

Got one to add

'teachers aren't dropping like flies'

Am going to report that. Every. Time.

Well anyway it doesn’t matter what anyone on Mumsnet think, schools are going back full time thank god, otherwise the next generation will really suffer. Any teacher genuinely at greater risk needs to get a risk assessment done like any other employee. No one vulnerable should be working outside the home.

@stairway

I’m not teacher bashing, blended learning is a disaster for many children. If schools lockdown then so be it but I’m an optimist and I believe there is a good chance most children will get a full or near full academic year rather than a guaranteed 6 months no school. Most NHS staff were not on sick leave during the peak, most remained healthy. It will be the same for school teachers.

Most NHS staff, in the end, had preventative measures.

The clinical department I used to work in has not been offering face to face appointments for six months (as an aside, it is top heavy with band 7s and 8s. Guaranteed the band 3s are doing the graft).

Blended learning hasn't even been tried yet.