Anti-lockdown campaigners using children to push their agenda

[noblegiraffe]

I can't be the only one disgusted with how certain groups are using faux concern about children to push the earliest dismantling of lockdown restrictions.

They are loudly catastrophising on the front pages of the press about our kids. The lost generation. £40,000 in lost earnings. Articles about schools full of traumatised kids suffering PTSD caused by lockdown.

And the solution they propose is always to re-open schools as early as possible. Even before March 8th. Regardless of covid.

Now, the situation in schools before Christmas was awful. Some areas of the country had less than 50% attendance due to the new variant ripping through secondary schools. Secondary school kids were the most infected subset of the population by far, and are now the second least infected subset of the population behind the 70+ age group after schools were closed, demonstrating that there was a massive problem with transmission in secondary schools. It wasn't good for pupils' mental health or education to be in a situation when they didn't know if they'd be in school or out at the drop of a hat. But before Christmas, there was complete media silence on the impact that this was having on children.

CAMHS has been devastated by cuts. Waiting lists are intolerable and children in dire need of support don't even qualify. Same for social care around vulnerable children.

Yet you won't hear these people clamouring for schools re-opening as soon as possible talking at all about how to improve safety measures in schools to prevent the scenario we had before Christmas happening again. You won't hear them demanding more funding for children's mental health services and for more support for social care services.

And the reason you won't hear that is that THEY DON'T GIVE A SHIT.

The reason that they want schools re-opened as quickly as possible is because the message was that schools had to open first.

They can't get what they really want open (everything else) until schools are open, hence the massive focus on schools and how terrible things are for children.

This catastrophising isn't good for parents or kids. It's scaremongering and unhelpful.

I know that there are kids (and parents) really struggling with their mental health and worried about their education. Blaring out messages about how terrible things are and how they will never recover because you want to hype up the message about schools going back is irresponsible and sickening.

We need sensible and calm conversations about how to support children and parents. We need funding for schools and massive investment in support services. We need a long-term program of recovery, not 9 months of a Catch-Up Tsar and quick fixes. We need a measured and sensible approach to schools re-opening that won't see kids in and out and in and out due to lack of mitigation measures causing rampant covid spread (particularly with the new variant).

We need these anti-lockdown campaigners to shut up and stop dominating the narrative.

Schools could stay open by only making people stay at home if they are coughing.

But then covid would run through schools and kids would bring it home to their families like before Christmas?

The infection rates in secondary school kids were out of control.

Agree noble I always felt something didn't add up, but it does now... Anti lock down.

I'm anti lock down but it's clear it works.

@TrustTheGeneGenie

Yeah anyone who's not part of your little gang.

How old are you? Five?

That's quite some bunch of accusations in the OP.
Horribly polarising, no attempt at a balanced conversation just slurring any opposing viewpoints.

There will be people who’ve had their eyes opened to other problems in society. It’s highly judgemental to lump everyone under the same umbrella. I, for one, certainly didn’t have my eyes open to some things going on right in front of me until a significant event affected me. It’s human nature. You care about the things that impact on you, your loved ones and your community.

For a finance job application I did one of the assessments was reading strangers emotions, matching their facial expression to what mood you thought they had etc I think children of a certain age will really struggle with things like that in the future as they won’t be used to seeing a lot of strangers faces, especially in their development stage

This is ridiculous. You're raising kids at home, not raising them in a barrel. Assuming you talk to them and they watch TV, I think they'll be fine identifying people's facial expressions.

Also, it's very, very odd that you were made to do an assessment like that for a job interview. Were they trying to rule out applicants with ASD? For a job in finance?

The other flip side is the dc who find school so stressful and awful they self harm and suffer mh issues... It's not the land of milk and honey people like to pretend it is.
I know personally that many schools cannot sort out bullying, they cannot educate dc with small sometimes quirky learning needs, and sometimes they are just holding bays... Whilst a hand full might get lucky and I eave e with a few grades.

I hope the militant, kids need school brigade turn their attention to these issues also...

There is a hell of a lot wrong with mainstream education

As evidenced by parents panicking their reception aged children are "falling behind".

@MaxNormal

That's quite some bunch of accusations in the OP. Horribly polarising, no attempt at a balanced conversation just slurring any opposing viewpoints.

LOOK AT YOUR POST

@Chollok. I completely agree with you. I can't believe schools are phoning and stressing parents out because they're unable to keep up with homeschooling for 6/7 year olds. The schools should leave the parents alone and come up with a plan to catch these children up gradually when they're back at school.

@noblegiraffe

Schools could stay open by only making people stay at home if they are coughing.

But then covid would run through schools and kids would bring it home to their families like before Christmas?

The infection rates in secondary school kids were out of control.

Yes that's right. Elderly family will be vaccinated by now and all the parents I know are willing to catch covid to get our kids an education 🤷🏽‍♀️.

LOOK AT YOUR POST

What about it, other than it doesn't worshipfully agree with that little rant of yours?

all the parents I know are willing to catch covid to get our kids an education

That doesn't mean that it's a sensible course of action for the country as a whole though, does it?

Do those parents know how many non elderly people are in hospital with COVID?

@Igglepigglepeppaandgeorge

I'm genuinely worried about my children and all children. I don't support social distancing in schools. I don't support part time school. I don't support isolating unless you are ill so in iggles world opening schools wouldnt impact children's attendance negatively unless they repeatedly caught covid. I don't support cold classrooms or washing your hands when they are not dirty. I think masks in class are distracting and ineffective. I don't believe PE and lunchtime are a risk.

I think that what the government have done to teachers in terms of workload, lack of notice, underpaying and project fear has been awful. I like teachers. My children learn more in 1 day at school than they do in 1 month at home. They are happy in school and speak highly of 99% of their teachers. We don't want schools open because we hate teachers, please don't believe that.

@Igglepigglepeppaandgeorge that's all well and good but it's wishful thinking. All the things you listed are in fact a real risk as Covid is transmitted through air. You may not believe or want to believe it, and I wish you were right, but you're not

@MaxNormal

LOOK AT YOUR POST

What about it, other than it doesn't worshipfully agree with that little rant of yours?

It does exactly what you're accusing me of doing.

Would you like to engage in a sensible discussion about campaign groups scaremongering about kids to hype up calls to dismantle lockdown or just continue having a go?

Igglepiggle I don’t know where you live but in London when the second wave, and the new variant, hit it was fuelled by school transmission. A poster upthread described the apocalyptic situation in her London school. 46% of cases in our borough were transmitted in schools with only 14% in the hospitality sectors Yet teachers and pupils were not enabled to take even the most basic precautions like masks that were required in restaurants. It was frightening the way the case rate escalated in the space of a couple of weeks from below average to over 1000 per 100k.

You make a lot if statements about what you don’t believe in, but what do you base those beliefs on? Sounds like hot air. Personally I trust the scientists and the evidence of my own experience, and the experience of friends and family in other countries that did listen to the scientists and have kept deaths and cases down.

The children in my childrens’ former school in Hong Kong socially distance, wear masks, wash their hands regularly (as they had been doing since the SARS epidemic as it is good basic hygiene) , and they are in school, able to mix outside school and nobody is complaining even though there is very little risk of them catching Covid because they have kept cases low. They don’t complain because they know that those measures have helped keep cases low.

@noblegiraffe

all the parents I know are willing to catch covid to get our kids an education

That doesn't mean that it's a sensible course of action for the country as a whole though, does it?

For the vulnerable no. For the rest of us yes, that is far more sensible than our kids missing school. These are our BABIES. We like them getting an education.

just continue having a go?

That's is literally what your entire post was. An accusatory rant. There wasn't anything nuanced or sensible there to engage with.

all the parents I know are willing to catch covid to get our kids an education
Which is fine as long as they don't get it badly like my previously healthy colleague who now has a stent as a consequence of catching covid. Her kids would probably rather have their healthy mum back.

I live in south London zone 2. Covid is a bit endemic here so we campaign for open schools I guess?

These are our BABIES. We like them getting an education.

I'd prefer my baby not to get covid actually.

@Igglepigglepeppaandgeorge what about the whole of the country? An infectious disease is not about what an individual person is willing or not willing to do

For the vulnerable no. For the rest of us yes

What about those whose BABIES are vulnerable? Or family members?

If you're going to talk about vaccinations, how far down the groups will we be by March 8th that means that reopening schools and just letting covid rip through with no attempts to stop it is a sensible idea?

@MrsHamlet

all the parents I know are willing to catch covid to get our kids an education Which is fine as long as they don't get it badly like my previously healthy colleague who now has a stent as a consequence of catching covid. Her kids would probably rather have their healthy mum back.

The same is true of any virus. I am willing to chance post viral syndrome from the occasional scarlet fever and flu outbreaks in schools too.