Can we unlock the schools at start of Feb?

[MeandT]

I'm totally supportive of the lockdown BUT by the end of next week, case numbers nationally will be the same as they were at end of November. Hospital admissions are falling again.

Rather than going back into tiers with the shops and food pubs open (where all the spreading happened in December), can we not issue all the teachers with N95 masks (and vaccines for the clinically vulnerable), make all the kids wear triple layer face masks all the time, and just get on with the important job of educating this country's kids in person? Starting again 1st of Feb.

AIBU to ask if we can send the kids back as soon as we hit the case rate we unlocked at on 2nd December?

IABU= no way, the cases will shoot up too quickly again, even if they all wear masks all day.

IANBU = yes, get them back before half term, the only reason it went nuts in December was because everyone was out Christmas shopping and seeing family.

They need to go back.

No. Cases will rapidly rise again. Let's wait until Spring when more people are vaccinated, slowing down transmission and creating less pressure on hospital beds. If your DC or family member becomes seriously unwell with something non Covid, you want a hospital bed for them, don't you? You want an ambulance to attend accidents.
By Spring pressure on the NHS will be lower.
Plus if anyone in this country wants holidays abroad again, we won't be admitted to other countries while the virus rips through the population with mutations unchecked.

They need to go back but I don't like the thought of my DD having to wear a mask all day, she's 6 and barely manages to wear one if we go in a shop or to a hospital appointment (her choice to wear one). She also relies on lip reading a lot so I don't see how she'd progress in school without seeing her teachers speak.

Masks and teaching do not mix for many reasons. Kids cannot be trusted to wear one, keep it on all day and social distance between classes/getting to or from school. The virus was spreading through schools like wildfire before Christmas as well. Oh plenty will come on to say that they only ever had two cases in their school, it was all contained, but generally that wasn't the case. Schools, especially secondaries, were like ground zero.

I would love for mine to go back as well, they need the routine and home learning is bloody exhausting for us all. It's not feasible yet though. If lockdown and the vaccine work, I'm personally hoping that by Easter it can be a realistic possibility.

No. They're a huge vector for transmission.

The clinically vulnerable (many parents and teachers) wont be vaccinated until March.

If "chuck masks at the problem" was a solution, we'd all be getting on with life already.

Obviously it's not.

Kids will not wear masks 😷 all the time.

It sounds very reasonable when you suggest it like that, but where do you think the money for all of those N95 masks will come from? Also, there are so many parents whose children are too precious to wear masks so that will fall down before it starts. It wouldn't work in reality.

The papers claim that”The UK is leading the world” in their vaccine rollout at the same time thatwe are basically the only country still in lockdown. How nobody has noticed that all the other countries are operating normally while we struggle I don’t know. Our death rate isn’t much lower than that of the US which never properly locked down. Leading the world. Hahaha.

If you're opening schools then open pubs and shops. There was never proof it was being caught in pubs over any other area.

My teens need and want to go back. I would love for it to be as simple as you've said but I don't think they'll be back for weeks yet unfortunately. I'm just hoping my 14 year olds MH holds up ☹️

No. They’re clearly a driver of community transmission. Cases need to be much lower.

@Donotdelete

The papers claim that”The UK is leading the world” in their vaccine rollout at the same time thatwe are basically the only country still in lockdown. How nobody has noticed that all the other countries are operating normally while we struggle I don’t know. Our death rate isn’t much lower than that of the US which never properly locked down. Leading the world. Hahaha.

The only country still in lockdown ? France Spain Germany Italy ..........

The numbers in Nov/Dec are what caused the crisis that we are very much in the middle of now.

Doing that again would be lunacy.

And the very idea that a bit of Xmas shopping/people eating one Xmas dinner together (in areas that weren’t tier 4) was MORE risky than 30 kids being in school together eating in rooms of up to a 100, getting on crowded buses etc etc etc...

the only reason it went nuts in December was because everyone was out Christmas shopping and seeing family.

The reason it went nuts in December was the new variant which ripped through schools. Some badly affected schools were completely closed, others had a third or less of kids in.

If they’re going to re-open, we’d need assurances the same thing wouldn’t happen again, they need to open sustainably not Hokey Cokey.

It's already been announced that schools won't go back until mid Feb at the very earliest. Opening schools will just start the numbers rising again, we don't have the space or equipment for proper social distancing or PPE in any useful form.

Ever thought that perhaps the numbers are dropping BECAUSE the schools are closed??

We were doing fine at school, no cases at all from September until the last week of term then 4 children and three teachers contracted Covid, one of the teachers is still in hospital. We need to get cases right down and vaccinations up.

@RememberSelfCompassion

No. They're a huge vector for transmission.

Interesting as seems a million studies saying they're not. Does anyone in fact know? Probably not.

We need to look at how schools have reopened in the rest of the world. I'm pretty sure that the UK were in the minority with a full opening of schools with such huge class sizes and minimal mitigation.
Crowds of over 100s, or 1000s in Secondary are not a good idea at all if you're trying to get an out of control virus truly under control.
We are not far off 100,000 deaths. We are becoming desensitised to the horrific numbers. We are in a dire situation. Remote learning has ramped up to a decent level. Schools should be overseeing keyworker and vulnerable and checking in and monitoring other students there concerned about.
It is NOT ideal, far from it. Nor is the situation with the economy and many small businesses going under. It is truly dire. But we can't have the NHS being overwhelmed, that is the stuff of dystopian nightmares.

YABU - Hospital admissions are still going up (double the number in April) and still over 1200 deaths a day!

I agree, they need to go back. Primary full time and secondary part time for now I think.

Rather than going back into tiers with the shops and food pubs open (where all the spreading happened in December)

What makes you think that?!

Why are people still putting this rubbish forward?

If we go back with no more preventative measures than before the rates will go back up.

If you want schools back early petition the government to get the schools back sensibly.

They will be closed until April