To want to know when school staff and children are going to have Covid vaccinations

[F1ftyF1fty]

I work in a primary school. I have dc in school.

Given the current surge I frankly don’t want to return to school next week and sit in a squashed classroom amongst 30 children all day without PPE or social distancing. I don’t want my dc in a similar environment.

There is now a vaccine but my age group seem to be way down the list. Surely school staff and children should be higher up the list and at the very least have some indication of when they will be vaccinated.

StillRunningUpThatHill there are children admitted to PICU with influenza. We vaccinate them for their safety as well as others.

Great story in the paper earlier this year about an eight year old who survived flu.....albeit with a month-long PICU admission, ECMO, six months in hospital and the amputation of a few fingers. Sadly she had not yet had time to get vaccinated before she found herself peri-arrrest on a helicopter to a major Paediatric hospital.

So if schools are deemed just “ a nice have” surely they need to be closed.

Question- are all the NHS staff working from home getting the vaccine in the first group? If so why are they getting it before education staff stuck all day in environments with high numbers of humans in small spaces and no social distancing.

These staff just considered “ a nice have” are supposed to be teaching and caring for children of all those getting vaccinated even if schools do close.

I get why those in direct contact with Covid patients should be first. I don’t get why those working from home should have it or even those working with patients who have been Covid tested prior to hospital admission and tested negative.

[quote IfOnlyOurEyesSawSouls]@Doublefaced i think pp is meaning admin roles.

However as with the twice weekly testing we are having as NHS workers , this is only done for patient facing roles initially, and i don't doubt the vaccine will be the same .

I mean I would be fairly angry right now if a PA to a Consultant got the vaccine right now before i did (as someone who works with covid positive patients) [/quote]
I'm in a non patient facing NHS role, and I'm not being prioritised for the vaccine (quite rightly). I assume this is the case across the NHS.

It is meant to be patient facing roles, but I think the wording allows for essential roles and some Trusts have certainly listed a few non-patient- facing key workers on their vaccination lists.

But as AZ approval announcement has been made, one hopes that de the programme considerably

Foxina

Teachers can wear masks same as all those people

Half my kids teachers wear masks

We predominantly need the vaccine for the very elderly & CEV. These are the people on ventilators blocking up intensive care units.

Children won't get it at all, certainly not until life is back to normal. It's probably more effective for children and adults under 40 to get Covid themselves than to vaccinate them, as a means of achieving herd immunity and giving a good t-cell response.

We don’t wear masks in primary- we are doing medical care, serving food and cleaning alongside teaching and sitting in small spaces without social distancing or PPE.

No testing pre entry and we all have families. Several will be in family bubbles with the elderly and vulnerable.

1 minute schools are deemed to be crucial, the next just a nice have. If crucial staff need vaccinating now. If not they need to be closed until staff at the very least are vaccinated or things settle back down. It seems morally very dubious not to.

I don't think children should get it. I do think that school staff should be offered it sooner though as they're vital to the running of the country. The most clinically vulnerable need to be first though.

surely they need to be closed

No. Statistically, it doesnt matter if loads of teachers and kids get it, as long as we can take other isolation steps to keep them away from older people.

Anyone got any statistics on how many teachers have died with this because it's getting bloody boring hearing teachers whinge while supermarket staff etc never do and work through every lockdown.

The teachers I know in RL don't whinge either, it's only the ones on here!

School staff worked all through lock down.

I’d love to have similar conditions to supermarket workers and be working in a supermarket sized room behind a screen and wearing a mask whilst socially distancing and not doing close care but unfortunately the job dictates I can’t.

Trust me in RL school staff are worried. We get on with it just like MNing school staff do. Doesn’t make it right.

@Pastanred

Foxina

Teachers can wear masks same as all those people

Half my kids teachers wear masks

I work in the baby room of a nursery. One of the workers everybody forgets about. We can't wear PPE. I put my reading glasses on and some babies look at me a bit worried, so PPE is definitely off. We hug and cuddle children who cough in our faces and sneeze on us.

I've got Covid right now.

OP patients are tested at various points through their hospital admission ... just because they test negative on admission it doesn't mean they won't develop covid in a few days , weeks etc.

Those working from home will have the vaccine so that they can return to the clinical area and be safe .

People like my colleague who has leukaemia who works from home because covid would kill her. Once she has the vaccine she will be able to return to clinical areas.

So we should see a huge increase in face to face services in a couple of weeks and the AA video appointment system largely redundant by then.

@F1ftyF1fty

So it will be ages until school staff get it then? Shouldn’t schools be shut until staff move higher up the list?

Only the vulnerable staff need it urgently though

@F1ftyF1fty

So we should see a huge increase in face to face services in a couple of weeks and the AA video appointment system largely redundant by then.

Are you being deliberately obtuse?! For a teacher, you should know better, assuming you’re not goading. No, it would not be a “couple of weeks”. It will take longer than that to give both vaccinations to ensure immunity. Do you have any idea how many direct patient facing health and social care workers there are? It will take a good number of weeks but it’s looking positive.

And you seriously believe that bollocks that the government are spouting?’

What bollocks are you referring to?

OP if you’re a healthy individual, not identified as one of the priority groups, you’re not going to be vaccinated anytime soon.
As it should be.
The news of the Oxford vaccine approval today is great and hopefully the vaccination program will really speed up now.
But no. You are not more worthy than those identified as priority groups.

@F1ftyF1fty it has been mentioned by the government previously that teachers /school staff might be bumped up the list if the Oxford jab was approved and now it has been which is hopeful.
There is a petition to debate the issue in Parliament running at over 100,000 so it will be interesting to see how that goes. I imagine there will be quite a lot of pressure to vaccinate school staff if we are going into a prolonged lockdown with school closure, but that's just my opinion.

I really think teachers need to be higher up the priority list. Not necessarily because they are a particularly vulnerable group (they do place themselves at more risk than most - 30 kids, no social distancing, no PPE in primary at least - but as a group are not majority CEV) but because staff isolations in schools leads to chaos with education for all children.

If you look to those high case areas, when staff become sick or are identified as close contacts of positive cases they need to isolate and this can quickly lead to whole school closures due to staffing levels being too low to cope. People who assume schools can simply and easily bring in supply teachers to cover sickness in these situations are not correct.

As a side note, I know I personally wouldn't willingly put myself forward to work in a teacher's working environment in these circumstances and I feel like they have been totally forgotten by this government.

@Pastanred

Foxina

Teachers can wear masks same as all those people

Half my kids teachers wear masks

Pretty sure its against guidance published by DfE for teachers (and kids) in Primary school settings to wear masks. Certainly, DC's school don't and DH's school actively told staff not to.

@ExeterMummaMia thanks for your supportive words. Although my school hasn't had a confirmed case, we've still been affected by self-isolation periods. It's really tricky for staffing.

Teachers wearing masks protect the children.

To protect the teachers and each other, students also need to wear masks.

I'm flummoxed that people still think that wearing a mask protects them?

@MrsBeltane

The current Pfizer vaccine isn't licenced for anyone under 18 in the UK.

So how come 16/17yo clinically vulnerable people are priority 6?

Genuinely asking because my ds (16) is in this group as has neurological disease.

I think school and nursery staff should be done alongside nhs workers.
Also anyone else who has to leave the house to work.