The infection rate for pupils last week was 2,509 out of 100,000!!

[SoscaredforJan]

The Times today had reported that the infection rate for secondary pupils last week was 2,509 out of 100,000!! With the rate for primary school pupils close behind.

That’s absolutely shocking.

Rates of 300+ per 100,000 in the South East led to the emergency Tier 4 announcement at the weekend.

Rates among secondary school children are approx nine times this and primaries not far behind.

There can no longer be any conversation about schools remaining open. They need to close to all but key workers and the vulnerable and not reopen until the government has provided the money and means to make them truly ‘Covid secure’ or until enough people have been vaccinated.

How many deaths will we have in a months time when those infections have transferred to the elderly and vulnerable? How many more mutations will we have if the virus is allowed to carry on running through children? I for one do not want to find out that they vaccine no longer works.

It’s time to do what needs to be done. It’s tough and awful for everyone but it has to be done. The schools need to close.

mums enjoy your bubbly - you deserve it.

And the less said around the treatment of uni students the better!

There are lots of valid arguments to keep schools open but basing it on fictional numbers ain’t one of them

Like your one in a billion? Come on.

Schools 'may need to close to control new variant' www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-55437283

2.5% of ANYTHING is tiny

2.5% of a very big number is also a big number. For example (very roughly rounding), 2.5% of the UK population is about one and a half million people. Even if only one tenth of those felt unwell, that would be one hundred and fifty thousand people. That’s about the population of Oxford (or a little more than the total number of available beds in the NHS). If one tenth of those needed to be hospitalised, that’s fifteen thousand. Big numbers!

@bornatXmastobequiet

2.5% of ANYTHING is tiny

2.5% of a very big number is also a big number. For example (very roughly rounding), 2.5% of the UK population is about one and a half million people. Even if only one tenth of those felt unwell, that would be one hundred and fifty thousand people. That’s about the population of Oxford (or a little more than the total number of available beds in the NHS). If one tenth of those needed to be hospitalised, that’s fifteen thousand. Big numbers!

Exactly. 2.5% of something that has a new more infectious strain, should also be treated with extreme caution.

@bornatXmastobequiet

There are lots of valid arguments to keep schools open but basing it on fictional numbers ain’t one of them

Like your one in a billion? Come on.

Eh? Was that aimed at me? I was the one saying it’s 1 in 40?

It was to the person who suggested 0.000000001 (%)

Ah ok. Just that you quoted me.

Sorry if I misquoted you.

Or rather, sorry I misquoted you.

Neruto that's an extremely one sided article from the BBC, saying school may need 🔝 close then weighing in with psychologists and this and that to say how that will be damaging to dc mh. No balance there at all!

@noelgiraffe

Children don't "get to mix freely in large groups"

Bloody hell I wish people who had no clue what it looks like in secondary schools at the moment would stop telling people who do that they are wrong about what it's like.

Children. Mix freely. In large groups. In secondary schools.

All the time. Herds of them. Sometimes indoors in classrooms before teachers can get there, sometimes in corridors possibly wearing masks and definitely outdoors.

You quoted a small part of my post. My point was, if you'd read properly, they may be mixing (not all) but that's not what they're there to do. They're at school. Getting an education. My point was it's not equivalent to keeping pubs or clubs open, where people would be "allowed to mix in large groups"

@ceeveebee

To be fair they don’t mix in large groups in all schools. My niece’s school streamed all the kids into ability groups for year 7-9 and they stay in their class bubble all week. Our primary school (and think most primary schools) has been incredibly strict on keeping the kids in their class bubbles, which has meant that we have only had one class closure all term despite being in a tier 3 area.

And yes, primary schools I know are incredibly strict about bubbles and distancing. My son in yr 1 told me, matter of factly, he got told off for touching his friends desk with his back the other day.

@mumsneedwine

We had a year 11 coughing on others as 'a joke'. He tested positive & now 178 students are isolating for Xmas. And 4 members of staff. I had a year 10 telling me it's all a hoax so he won't wear a mask - wish I could force him into ICU to see his teacher who is struggling on CPAP. And a bunch of year 10s who decided to have a cheeky snog behind the snack bar. Yup all now isolating as one positive. We have windows open (where possible - not all rooms have windows), masks in corridors and attempt pods not mixing. Can't do 2m as rooms too small. But it doesn't work. Teens are teens. And parrot what they hear at home. Happy Christmas.

A child was intentionally coughing at my niece's school and was sent home and told not to return for the rest of term.

Why aren't schools widely implementing this?

@mumsneedwine

Dig 😂

Weird how some people absolutely thrive off this shit, isn't it?

@nicebreeze student was sent home. Then tested positive so bit late to give extra punishment then. His dad is now in hospital with COVID so I think that's punishment enough.

@nicebreeze and I have not idea what Dig means. I'm a grown up and I don't speak in abbreviations.

And if you think I thrive off all this then you are weird. I have lost a collegue, have 6 now in hospital, one who is v v ill, and a DD working full time now on COVID wards. I think this is all shit. I'd just like it to not get worse.

Mumsneedwine The "some people are just loving this" is wheeled out by the same old people. Some people thrive on eating little tip-tapping goats. Don't worry about them.

@Noellodee thanks. Some people are a bit weird I've found. They seem to think if they stamp their little feet loud enough then schools will stay open. That magic tape must be good stuff !!!

[quote mumsneedwine]@nicebreeze and I have not idea what Dig means. I'm a grown up and I don't speak in abbreviations. [/quote]
You wrote it...

[quote mumsneedwine]@Noellodee thanks. Some people are a bit weird I've found. They seem to think if they stamp their little feet loud enough then schools will stay open. That magic tape must be good stuff !!![/quote]
I am not stamping my feet for schools to stay open. All I did was question the OP's justification for it as they used dodgy stats. What I question is this desperation some people have to create a "them vs us" narrative. That's what I believe you're loving. This is that it's shit for you and people who disagree with your position (parents who don't want schools to close) are your arch nemesis. We all,'ultimately, want the same thing - fewest deaths possible, least harm to everyone (parents, children, teachers) and you just fucking relish someone saying they're suffering purely because they have a different position to you

@nicebreeze I wrote just dig ? Not sure where but no clue what it means.
Must be part of me enjoying watching my friends and colleagues get so ill. That and the students too. Because they do, despite what the press report.

@nicebreeze you have a very strange opinion of what I'm saying. I'm a parent too. I don't want schools closed. But I also don't want people to die. I want safe schools, open for all. Which can be done with rotas and masks. Please don't you dare say I am enjoying this. I have just spent an hour talking to my colleagues 3 young kids as they are upset today and missing their mum. She was 48 and is dead.

I think they need to close to save us from the idiots who arent taking this seriously.

One local parent sent their symptomatic child in pending the test results. Half the class became postive including 2 teachers, one is now in icu and another parent has died of it.

There is no justification for such a risk.