When will bursting bubbles end?!?!?!

[perfectdoesntexist]

When will school bubbles stop bursting and school closures be a thing of the past?

After having the vaccine yesterday I am wondering regardless of when schools reopen, when will it be that the year group bubbles are bursting and pupils being sent to learn from home?

Once enough vaccines have been done to satisfy the most vulnerable will not over run the nhs, will mass testing then stop?
Today is a day where this pandemic feels like it will never end!

They won't stop until at least all school staff are vaccinated - you can't run a school without staff!

I blooming hope testing doesn’t stop, every audit and child deserves to be safe. You can’t let it run rife.

I am genuinely curious about this. I agree everyone needs to be kept safe. But surely mass testing isn't a permanent thing? It's a measure to try and stop outbreaks (that's the intention anyway?)

If enough of the older and ECV have their vaccination, the risk of the nhs being overwhelmed reduces. Then is that when restrictions are begun to be loosened? And schools may reopen, perhaps gradually?

I do agree that school teachers should be offered the vaccine, as I understand there is no intention to vaccinate under 18's. So if/when the schools re-open, what would need to be in place/happen to stop sending entire year groups home for 10 days at a time.

I can no longer imagine a world without isolating and testing. I guess it'll happen eventually

@Heartofstrings it certainly feels like that for me too. After having the vaccine this week I had started to feel like there is light at the end of the tunnel, however the reality of this feels very far away, too far to even consider in fact

It should stop when the elderly and vulnerable are vaccinated, as then it won’t matter who gets the virus as it won’t overwhelm the NHS.

That’s the only reason measures are in place, not to stop people getting it per se.

No need for teachers ti be vaccinated before going back unless they’re ECV.

There was a date of autumn 2021 for all adults in the UK to have been offered the vaccine. I am assuming that until then bubbles will continue to burst and self isolation will still be necessary. That is unless the ridiculous idea of 7 testing for close contacts in schools is resumed. Even when we get to the stage of all adults having been vaccinated we may then leave our children at greater risk due to possible further mutations. How successful will the vaccine be in people who were vaccinated 6 months previously? Are we going to be repeating this mass vaccination all over again? So much uncertainty still. I want to be positive but at the same time have realistic expectations.

@perfectdoesntexist

I am genuinely curious about this. I agree everyone needs to be kept safe. But surely mass testing isn't a permanent thing? It's a measure to try and stop outbreaks (that's the intention anyway?)

If enough of the older and ECV have their vaccination, the risk of the nhs being overwhelmed reduces. Then is that when restrictions are begun to be loosened? And schools may reopen, perhaps gradually?

I do agree that school teachers should be offered the vaccine, as I understand there is no intention to vaccinate under 18's. So if/when the schools re-open, what would need to be in place/happen to stop sending entire year groups home for 10 days at a time.

This has been the question worrying me that I keep asking and no one seems to be talking about. Pupils are vaccinated against the flu to stop spreading it to others so surely it will need to be the same for covid? Otherwise the disruption to schooling will be never ending.

Pupils do not need to be vaccinated first. The vaccine is not even licensed for children.

@WouldBeGood

It should stop when the elderly and vulnerable are vaccinated, as then it won’t matter who gets the virus as it won’t overwhelm the NHS.

That’s the only reason measures are in place, not to stop people getting it per se.

No need for teachers ti be vaccinated before going back unless they’re ECV.

🙇🏻‍♀️🙇🏻‍♀️🙇🏻‍♀️

It's reassuring to know I'm not alone in my thinking...

I think a lot of teachers will feel that they should be vaccinated as a priority.

I guess not everyone has the flu jab every year? Only if your of a certain age or have a vulnerability? So will the covid vaccine be viewed the same?

True I hadn't thought about children having the flu vaccine, they have that in primary but not in secondary I think?

Impossible I know but I want the answers yesterday...one of my flaws!

For now I'm readying to complete another day of home learning as DD bubble burst, carry on taking each day as it comes

It should stop when the elderly and vulnerable are vaccinated, as then it won’t matter who gets the virus as it won’t overwhelm the NHS.

That’s the only reason measures are in place, not to stop people getting it per se.

No need for teachers ti be vaccinated before going back unless they’re ECV.

This. I'm really worried that everyone is forgetting this. If we decide not to open schools until everyone is safe then we'll never be opening schools again. We're not going to eradicate this virus. We're only locking down to make sure the NHS isn't overwhelmed. When that isn't so much of an issue then we must reopen everything or else we won't have an economy, or an NHS. It's tragic but people will still die from Covid, just as they die from flu, all sorts of things.
I really do wish they'd prioritise teachers for the vaccine though, schools are essential and we need to be opening them asap.

Hopefully they will be able to create a child safe vaccine, like the flu vaccine.

Two approaches

Wait till mass vaccination and low levels of virus in circulation which are easily whacked down, early summer at best
Or
Open up once the over 50s have been vaccinated, Easter at the earliest

The first approach takes longer but is less risky, and I think favoured by the scientists but not politicians

The second approach is risky partly because deaths will stay quite high, probably at acceptable levels, long covid victims will be a problem , but the actual risk then comes from virus mutation making the vaccine worthless and plunging us back to square 1. Significant virus mutation is much more likely with the second approach as there is more virus in circulation to mutate

Tough for the CEV children who have to go to school, CEV people aren’t just adults.

Hopefully, the vaccine will be available to children at some point.

To some extent it could depend on the uptake of vaccines in certain areas. Our local news reported yesterday that they're really trying to get the message out to a couple of areas close to our nearest city with a high level of cases. There's a high level of muslims in those areas, obviously can't do anything about the size of their families, but it's believed there's still household mixing and that the vaccine uptake is likely to be 28%. Maybe it'll come down to herd immunity in areas like this, but what do we do about protecting school staff and children in the meantime?

If virus levels are taken really low and lots of people are vaccinated, the risk to CEV children is much less than the risk of crossing the road. We can protect them if we want to .

@WouldBeGood until isolating for symptoms or positive cases stops then bubbles are going to burst. If you don’t vaccinate school staff they will continue catching it and being off work which creates a staffing issue immediately, plus others who have to isolate as a contact. This will still be a problem even if they don’t get ill enough for hospital or death and the NHS isn’t at risk of being overwhelmed

@Lifeispassingby no, because there will be no need for isolating when the elderly are vaccinated

@ineedaholidaynow

Tough for the CEV children who have to go to school, CEV people aren’t just adults.

Hopefully, the vaccine will be available to children at some point.

This. My seven year old is CEV. DH is front line NHS so is living away from home as, despite having the first dose his second is in April and we have no idea about impact on transmission from him even then.

On the other hand I'm a teacher and thinking about my students. We've had multiple bubble closures, although only about 20% of the school has had a positive test at any point. Two of our Y13s are still struggling after a September positive test and one has been formally diagnosed with long Covid this week. I hate teaching remotely, it's much much harder and I know my students miss each other and the collaborative nature of the classroom, however I can't see how bubbles will not continue to pop with positive cases.

[quote WouldBeGood]@Lifeispassingby no, because there will be no need for isolating when the elderly are vaccinated[/quote]
I'm not convinced of this at all. If the virus is allowed to run free and wild with no attempt to control it more and more people will be be infected so more will obviously become ill. Whether that will cause a problem for the NHS remains to be seen but just because most people get a mild form doesn't mean that the number of those getting ill won't cause a problem.

@TheOtherMaryBerry

It should stop when the elderly and vulnerable are vaccinated, as then it won’t matter who gets the virus as it won’t overwhelm the NHS.

That’s the only reason measures are in place, not to stop people getting it per se.

No need for teachers ti be vaccinated before going back unless they’re ECV.

This. I'm really worried that everyone is forgetting this. If we decide not to open schools until everyone is safe then we'll never be opening schools again. We're not going to eradicate this virus. We're only locking down to make sure the NHS isn't overwhelmed. When that isn't so much of an issue then we must reopen everything or else we won't have an economy, or an NHS. It's tragic but people will still die from Covid, just as they die from flu, all sorts of things.
I really do wish they'd prioritise teachers for the vaccine though, schools are essential and we need to be opening them asap.

Completely agree with you, but I’m worried they have lost sight of this as the prospect of re-opening schools gets pushed back further and further.

Mid/late feb made sense to reopen once all over 70 and cev had been vaccinated. The others are much less likely to be hospitalised and ventilated, but for the few that do need it, the hospitals should have more capacity by then.

My kids have been in school all this time, not a burst bubble, they also didn't experience a burst bubble the whole of Sep to Dec... and they mix at an Afterschool club with all year groups... so I conclude the schools should be open. All this caution and for what, to ruin a generations education.

@littertraywarrior

My kids have been in school all this time, not a burst bubble, they also didn't experience a burst bubble the whole of Sep to Dec... and they mix at an Afterschool club with all year groups... so I conclude the schools should be open. All this caution and for what, to ruin a generations education.

Your conclusion is based on your personal experience of one school which has up to now been very fortunate to have not been affected. Surely you must be aware of the precarious position our NHS is currently in. You must be aware of the exponential growth in cases and the carnage that a large percentage of schools endured up to the end of term. But yet you conclude that schools should be open? I take it you mean fully open to all students?

I think since September at DD school there have been 4 occasions where bubbles have closed, 3 of these have been since December. It's a 3 form entry school.

I guess with the notion of teachers needing to be vaccinated...if they are CEV then they will be a priority nonetheless and with the other vulnerable groups being a priority to be vaccinated the risk of teachers passing the virus on to their elderly family/CEV family and becoming seriously unwell is reduced, just like the wider population.

As I understand it the aim is to get infection/mortality rates to an acceptable level?

I think primary teachers will start Lateral Flow testing twice a week- not mandatory. I wonder when more data will be available as to whether asymptomatic carriers spread a viral load which causes serious disease in others?