Are parents going to lie about symptoms to avoid having to test/isolate?

[Concerned7777]

Theres so many posts on here about the lack of testing available, and children not being allowed to return without a negative result, not to mention the added disruption to the rest of the family having to isolate.
Are parents going to be tempted to hang on to see if symptoms persist before informing schools? So many threads have said their dc symptoms are now non existent and its unlikely to have been covid but they still need to stay home for 14 days if they cant get a test in time.
If dc start showing symptoms at home like a mild cough or spike in temperature, would you be tempted to tell school that they are being kept off for other reasons like a sickness bug for instance to bide some time ? And possibly send them back in a few days later if they recover.
Of course its morally wrong to do it but I can totally see why some might given how hard it is to get tests at the moment.

Personally no I wouldn’t. But I think people will if desperate enough. Not many people can afford to take 2 weeks of god knows how many times. The government have put people in an awful predicament

Yes, people will definitely do this.

It's difficult for small kids to hide symptoms, so I can't see parents doing that so much as adults hiding symptoms so they can go to work. As an adult, I reckon I could hide having a temperature or losing my sense of taste if it meant I could continue to earn, particularly if tests are difficult to find. Thankfully I can work from home, and I have decent sick pay, but not everybody does. Morally, yes it would be wrong to carry on as normal with symptoms, but I wouldn't judge anyone that really can't afford to isolate. It's going to be an impossible situation for many people.

There are already threads on Mumsnet where parents are openly saying that they're sending the kid to school because the fever was only fleeting, because they're sure the cough is just a cold etc.

I understand the desperation to have the children in school after all this time but unless the vast majority of people play their part and isolate if they have symptoms, its game over for schools managing to run isn't it?

Yes that’s exactly what will happen if the access to testing does not improve. Parents will make their own assessment on underlying causes and turn a blind eye to the odd fever spike or cough if it is part of a collection of classic cold symptoms.

In the majority of cases they will be correct and many kids will avoid 10-14 days out of school, in many cases without work being set for them and parents can work.

I am a natural rule follower but I’d struggle to blame them right now TBH.

It’s not only morally wrong but parents that do this could be risking the lives of other medically vulnerable parents / carers who have little choice but to send their children into schools.
Unfortunately people will absolutely behave this way for various reasons that they will justify to themselves and others.
Just because symptoms abide it doesn’t mean it isn’t / wasn’t Covid.

Yes.

And it's one of the bigger contributory factors in why we can expect lots of burst bubbles. Because if it is Covid and they pass it round the class, then groups will be sent home. And if anyone in that group is particularly vulnerable or has a household member who is, the consequences could be significant.

I think it's inevitable there will be considerable disruption this term (and maybe next) and I really hope schools have got decent offsite learning plans

Yup ... I know a family doing exactly this (have just posted about it), it's the adults with symptoms but they can't get a test and have said they're happy to get a test and isolate if positive but if none are available, they're not all "bloody isolating just in case".

I have a DS with asthma so am keen he doesn't get Covid but I do see the point. The deal was meant to be you get tested and if neg (v likely, only 2 or 3% are positive) you get on with life.

A cough is harder to hide but i think with things like temperature people will just ignore it or not even check.

So this carries on, schools will again close

I said this to DH this morning; yesterday dd was sent home from school with ‘Covid symptoms’, school said we would all need to isolate etc, so we also picked ds up from his school, all done in a bit of a panic.

Dd was sent home because she complained of a sore throat, no other symptoms - I can see this happening regularly, but next time I wouldn’t think about pulling the other child out of school unless I was completely sure the other one did have symptoms and is it going to be a case of the boy who cried wolf?

Even if I attempted to do this my 7 and 5 year olds would tell school exactly why they were off!

But "sore throat" isn't one of the NHS's 3 covid symptoms.

Of course they will

It’s a clusterfuck

No, because if I send him back he will only make other children ill. He started a with a high temperature yesterday (38.3), upset tummy and a cough started in the night. After a negative test he also needs to be symptom free for 48 hours before returning to school, at the moment even without a test I would use the 48 hour rule before sending him back if he had symptoms that didn’t tick the NHS test boxes.

I have the luxury of working from home and my boyfriend is off work at the moment so I appreciate its a very easy decision for me to make. Since yesterday evening I haven’t been able to use the online system.

I agree that some people will. It's a major fuck up because if people can't get tested quick they will lie. We won't but we work for the NHS/ government so will get paid whether we're at home or not but others are not so lucky.

My DC has a bit of a sore throat and I have sent him in, I cant keep him off school everytime he sneezes etc and people are slagging everyone off for taking precious tests needed for the likes of front line staff etc or for having them with non covid symptoms which a sore throat is not a symptom.

Of course they will. And they are right to do so. Most of the kids it really is only a cold. And if they could get a test, they would be able to prove so. It's not the parents fault that the government is so incapable at providing a decent testing programme. You can't have parents being forced to keep their kids off at the first sign of a sniffle. They'll be off 1/2 the month, until April. That would be ridiculous.

ketchupbear exactly! Feel like the school are being too cautious, in future we’ll be downplaying/ignoring advice, which could mean we miss the time it’s genuine.

I will be really, really annoyed if parents do this.
I have codes on my register that tell me why a child is off. If a child has the code that they are self isolating and the symptoms are listed then I know to be extra careful outside of work. If it says they have a stomach bug then I won’t, because nothing there suggests Covid symptoms. Therefore I might see my parents if I just think the kid is off with a stomach bug, when I wouldn’t if they’re self isolating.

I get that it’s incredibly hard but it impacts other people.

@Ugzbugz

My DC has a bit of a sore throat and I have sent him in, I cant keep him off school everytime he sneezes etc and people are slagging everyone off for taking precious tests needed for the likes of front line staff etc or for having them with non covid symptoms which a sore throat is not a symptom.

That’s fine to send him in IMO. Anything not a cough/temp/loss of smell you can’t just keep them off for.

Based on threads on here I definitely think that some people will lie. However, I think they are probably lying to themselves too, in that they won’t accept there’s a possibility that their child has Covid...it will always be “just a cold”. We know Covid in children is mild, there’s strong evidence to suggest some of the strands have cold like symptoms if you look at other countries criteria or our own research available via Zoe (the app released by Kings College researchers). My real worry is, as a pp suggests, it being passed onto the parents who work in care homes and hospitals who could then pass it on to the most vulnerable, especially if the HCPs are asymptomatic.

Given how poorly the government has handled the care homes crisis, I really don’t think they care about deaths of care home residents, the elderly or those of any age with disabilities. So we’ll go on with this awful spiral of parents sending kids into school because they can’t take the financial hit of keeping them off and can’t get tests, their kids passing illnesses including Covid onto kids HCPs or with vulnerable relatives and then care home and hospital outbreaks as Care Home and NHS workers also cannot get tests. And that’s without getting onto clinically vulnerable children, teachers and parents.

The whole thing is just a giant mess.

@Ugzbugz you don't need to keep them off with a sore throat or if they're sneezing. Just if they have Covid symptoms.

Me and my 2 have a sore throat, full of snot and generally feeling grim. I rang the schools and they don't want them till there's a negative result back. We had to que 2 hours 30 yesterday in very hot sun. Local testing centre has had a que like that for a couple of weeks now. Everyone in the que almost had kids with them. Lots in uniform so been sent home.

Some people don't like to "be dramatic" or "make a fuss" or "cause needless trouble for everyone else". Oh it isn't a properly high temperature. Oh it isn't a lot of coughing. It is just a cold. It is probably tonsillitis. For mild symptoms people will convince themselves it isn't really THE symptoms.