Would the schools problem be solved by masks

[notevenat20]

If all secondary school children wore masks all day and we only then sent home people who sat next to them at lunch if they got covid, would that solve most of the covid schools problem?

It's exactly what they do in France.

I bet your children are not doing GCSEs in practical subjects, or hoping to pursue practical careers, @notevenat20, or you might not be quite so sanguine about it!

@Walkaround

I bet your children are not doing GCSEs in practical subjects, or hoping to pursue practical careers, *@notevenat20*, or you might not be quite so sanguine about it!

They are clueless. Unless they are in a school, they have no idea, which is obvious. I feel for all the children taking practical subjects, such as engineering and music.

PE
Science
Art
Music
Dance
Drama
Textiles
DT

All have changed.

Have track and trace given up in schools? For definite?
Our HT told staff that the local public health official said cases in our borough had come from the outside, and no students had passed it on within schools

Have track and trace given up in schools? For definite?

Teachers have been advised to turn off the APP in some schools.

My kids are in a large secondary school. They wear masks in common areas, they touch them constantly. I’ve seen them thrown around at lunch, shoved in pockets etc. There is no social distancing going on either. No cases in the school and no closures.

Look facts:

Formite transmission including touching a mask is transpiring not to be an issue at all.

It’s all aerosols in badly ventilated environments.

Yes masks help a lot indoors. Should kids wear them. Yes.

For those saying it didn’t work in France who knows how much mask wearing has helped? The situation may he far worse without them.

Masks reduce viral dose. There’s a theory that even if not preventing transmission 100% it limits severity of infection.

Kids wear masks happily (in the main). It’s adults that project their irrational fear of them!

@Cheetosforbreakfast

My kids are in a large secondary school. They wear masks in common areas, they touch them constantly. I’ve seen them thrown around at lunch, shoved in pockets etc. There is no social distancing going on either. No cases in the school and no closures.

I’ve found they make quite good sling shots too, apparently.

Sorry food tech colleagues... Food tech as well

My Dd's school made masks compulsory on return. Unless eating obviously. They went down the "only send dc nearby home to self isolate" route.

They have far more cases than other local schools of the same size who only wear masks in common areas. 3 out of the 5 years are now isolating in their entirety.

@Itisasecret I bloody wish we would all stop putting our 'game faces' on (I'm not) as it's not helping keep us safe. The government are relying on our guilt..'won't someone think of the children!'

Kids wear masks happily (in the main). It’s adults that project their irrational fear of them!

Whilst there are obviously a tiny minority who can’t tolerate masks, on the whole they are not afraid to wear masks fgs!!
They don’t want to, forget to wear it, can’t be bothered to get it out of their bag, have lost it, have dropped it so it’s unwearable, their friends aren’t so they aren’t etc...

I’ve found they make quite good sling shots too, apparently.

They love flicking them in other people’s faces too. 😂🤨

Nope. Masks don't work.

Since masks have been mandatory in supermarkets etc here there has been no decrease in numbers.

@Wimbledon11

Nope. Masks don't work.

Since masks have been mandatory in supermarkets etc here there has been no decrease in numbers.

Why do the WHO recommend them for over 12s, then?

@FatimaMunchy

If you Google compliance with mask wearing you will.find that 100% compliance is rare. In Germany people seem to be complying with social distancing and hand washing more than mask wearing. I am not sure why Germany is always seen as a country with high levels of compliance.

When the rules were social distancing and hand washing here cases went down dramatically so the Germans are focussing on the important things. Cases have gone up here since masks came in because most people stopped social distancing . Also you have to shout louder or move closer to speak to someone wearing a mask which means expelling more droplets

@LeanishMachine

I don't know what it's like in other counties but I do have full knowledge of all the cases in secondary schools in our area, I've been involved in the decision making re bubble isolation etc. We are in a currently low risk area, so there haven't been masses of cases but most schools have had "a" case.

However, we haven't had a single case of transmission between students in school. The vast majority of cases have been staff. Some staff were reprimanded after attending social events that breached restrictions, some of the cases were staff living with young adult children who brought it home.

Where the have been cases in more than one student in a year group, it has been predominantly sixth form students who had been socialising outside of school.

On that basis, in our LA, the existing measures are working. We've had some cases, which have been contained with no onward transmission in school.

This. Predominantly adult spread and year 12.... I am really happy that with are schools back 5 weeks the really low number of closures. The schools stats are available for all to see at the ONS....

They are clueless. Unless they are in a school, they have no idea

I know I should just ignore it but there is so much self righteous insulting on this site. Would you like us all to talk about you in these terms?

@monkeytennis97
The number of 10-19 are increasing but I would argue it's probably due to University students 18-19. Covid is rife in Universities at the moment. I would love to have a breakdown of those numbers by each year group and not just grouping them all together.

@notevenat20

They are clueless. Unless they are in a school, they have no idea

I know I should just ignore it but there is so much self righteous insulting on this site. Would you like us all to talk about you in these terms?

Well you are ironic, I’ll give you that.

@follygirl yes of course I understand COVID is rife in unis but it is also pretty rife in schools. The difference being the kids in schools are probably in more contact with older adults than those in uni (eg lectures online, living together in student houses/halls vs physically being with school staff and parents) so therefore the risk of spreading in communities I would say is bigger from schools. 10% of schools now have cases, over 3000 schools. It's increasing week on week. The government want the focus on the unis to shift the focus away from schools.

10% of schools now have cases, over 3000 schools

It's difficult to know what to make of that as that could be a tiny fraction of children. Or it could a large fraction.

No, I'll be honest, I don't think masks do enough. I think the point was made quite early on that wearing a mask was "not necessary" in a school or workplace, but it was left hanging in the air that the reason it was "not necessary" was that after a certain amount of close contact there was "no point" as there was too much aerosolised virus around for the mask to make an appreciable difference.

Because this wasn't explicitly spelt out, many people jumped to the conclusion that schools / workplaces didn't need masks and would not increase infection because you were with the same consistent groups / children didn't spread / insert dodgy science here.

I work full time and would obviously prefer to continue doing so with my children in school full time. However, I'm not going to bend reality to what personally suits my needs. The reality is that we need fewer bodies in buildings, spread out more, to lower incidence rates. If that's what has to happen I won't have a lot of choice about it.

@notevenat20

10% of schools now have cases, over 3000 schools

It's difficult to know what to make of that as that could be a tiny fraction of children. Or it could a large fraction.

Unless we have mass regular testing in school, we won't know. Someone earlier posted a link to the ons testing data but that just showed that you get children have similar infection rates to the older adult category - the parent adult category rather than the up to 24 yrs. that's not reassuring!

Unless we have mass regular testing in school, we won't know. Someone earlier posted a link to the ons testing data but that just showed that you get children have similar infection rates to the older adult category - the parent adult category rather than the up to 24 yrs. that's not reassuring!

Yes I agree. I think it is believed that children infect adults less than adults infect each other so that is good news at least.