Schools being open is herd immunity in practice

[squiddybear]

I've heard this a few times from different teaching colleagues that by keeping schools open it is allowing herd immunity to 'work it's magic'. In theory and from what we know majority of children will only get a mild form of the disease. If we also take the idea that most parents of school age children are under 50 then granted they have no underlying health problems then it won't affect them as badly either.
Just for disclosure I'm fully against this but it's something that has been playing on my mind. Do you feel there is any truth behind this?

Possibly, possibly not, most of what we think is hersey because we are not in the chain of command. Regardless, the benefits outweigh the risk in nearly all cases. Children should be at school, it is fundamental to their health and development.

Yeah, or, if you allow a massive herd to get together without basic protections, maybe the mutations of the virus that make it more transmissible will have a massive population in which to proliferate, succeed, and become the dominant form.

Most countries have masks in schools. Maybe if we'd had the same this mutation wouldn't have had such a free run.

@IloveJKRowling

Yeah, or, if you allow a massive herd to get together without basic protections, maybe the mutations of the virus that make it more transmissible will have a massive population in which to proliferate, succeed, and become the dominant form.

This!

@IloveJKRowling with some of the kids in my school that thought is terrifying

And the staff ? Or can they all just die ?

@mumsneedwine staff are sacrificed for the greater good! At least that's what the feeling is in our school

Greater good should have been in ''

@squiddybear does feel like we are some kind of sacrifice. When there is a massive shortage of teachers in Sept maybe someone will wonder why.

It's simple really, we've known for ages this virus mutates. If a mutation happens in a person who is social distancing and mask wearing then the chances they'll pass it on is remote. If they don't pass it on the mutation simply doesn't have the chance to become the dominant strain.

If it happens in a child in a crowded classroom of 30.... well, they will pass it on, definitely. Then the children affected spread it to their siblings who spread it to their classmates (who they are with for hours a day in crowded schoolrooms with no masks or social distancing). And so on. And then here we are.

It's not a surprise that a mutation that is more transmissible by children occurs in the only country not to have social distancing or masks or both in schools really is it?

Actually I worded that wrongly:

There may have been many more transmissible mutants which didn't take over and which we never knew about.

What I should have written is that it is not surprising that a mutant which is more transmissible in children SUCCEEDS in the only country not to have basic protections in schools.

@IloveJKRowling to some people it does seem to have come as a surprise. Wish it was just 30. Our bubbles are 300. And then they all get on different buses. The kids know it's stupid.

@mumsneedwine

You're right, with the insane 300 kids in a 'bubble' in secondary and the buses to and from school it becomes even less surprising that a more transmissible mutant would succeed and take over here.

I was thinking of my kids primary classes when thinking up that scenario but of course in secondary the situation and the chains of transmission are far, far worse.

What's surprising is that no-one thought this was a possibility.

Masks are so basic, so cheap. Most other countries get kids to wear them from age 6. And of course those countries, who haven't given the virus a perfect environment for a strain like this to succeed, are more likely to have open schools for longer.

It's just so sad. I'd much rather my kids were in school - masks seems a small price to pay for them to be in school for longer.