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.

@Igglepigglepeppaandgeorge I'd rather not catch it from your baby thank you. Vaccine please! Then, you know, at least teachers may be protected so we don't have to martyr ourselves as much as the parents.

I am willing to chance post viral syndrome from the occasional scarlet fever and flu outbreaks in schools too.

We vaccinate primary kids against flu? As a teacher, my school pays for my flu jab too.

Not sure when we last had a case of scarlet fever in my school. There were loads of covid cases though.

@Igglepigglepeppaandgeorge surely you know that not all viruses are the same?
Would you be ok if the virus was killing off our babies in the numbers it's killing older people?
If you would be more concerned, why?
Do people's lives have equal value or not?

@Ahmnotacat

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?

I’m sorry but parents talking to their kids would not suffice, of course anyone would be able to tell their parents emotions and watching TV isn’t the same as real life interactions, but if that’s how you prefer to do things that’s fine

In regards to the job application, prior to beginning the assessment you can select if you have any disabilities/ require any reasonable adjustments which I’m sure would assist with this- and yes for a job in finance, most companies (especially MCNs) want someone who has more than mathematical skills

I'd rather not catch it from your baby thank you

I'm so sick of the way our children are talked about like disgusting little germy disease vectors.

You can catch any number of infections from children that could be nasty. My cousin was made deaf by measles. I suggest if you don't want to get infections from children, maybe consider a different career.

What I hate is the faux concern about ‘saving lives’ when it’s a completely selfish stance because it’s simply their own life they are talking about and are expecting everyone else to give up everything because of their own anxiety.

I don’t have faux concern about children, I have actual concern about children. My opinion is anyone who isn’t is concerned about children, particularly those who’s chances were already precarious, is a selfish twat

I'm not opposed to teachers being vaccinated if they want to. Children who are vulnerable need an education and social life too, so I support them attending school if they want to. I've never pretended to be right or a scientist, I'm giving my opinion. Parents will never be able to maintain the level of fear that the educational profession would like us to, and I'm truly sorry for how much that stresses you out.

The narrative certainly seems to have changed in the gutter press this week.

We can only hope SAGE, the unions and calm headed political leadership overrides the vocal, anti-lockdown backbenchers.

Otherwise schools will close again, and if schools close it will be difficult to justify having much else open.

But I agree the narrative seems to have changed.

@Snowsnowglorioussnow

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...

Don't be daft, nobody cares about this as it falls into that delightful realm of being 'someone else's problem'.

@hamstersarse

What I hate is the faux concern about ‘saving lives’ when it’s a completely selfish stance because it’s simply their own life they are talking about and are expecting everyone else to give up everything because of their own anxiety.

I don’t have faux concern about children, I have actual concern about children. My opinion is anyone who isn’t is concerned about children, particularly those who’s chances were already precarious, is a selfish twat

@hamstersarse 👏👏👏

Agree with every word OP. Every damn word.

@LivinLaVidaLoki

I'd rather not catch it from your baby thank you

I'm so sick of the way our children are talked about like disgusting little germy disease vectors.

You can catch any number of infections from children that could be nasty. My cousin was made deaf by measles. I suggest if you don't want to get infections from children, maybe consider a different career.

Sorry but children are disgusting little germy disease vectors.

It's the government's absolute refusal to acknowledge this universally known fact that's made people have to explicitly point it out.

Yes, you can catch lots of nasty infections from children. Excellent point about measles THAT MOST TEACHERS AND OTHER CHILDREN ARE VACCINATED AGAINST.

I think it's also worth saying that our children's mental health has something to gain from teaching about being community minded
Caring for others
Being able to be resilient
Sacrificing for the greater good
Being mindful of others' needs rather than just their own immediate needs
Learning how to survive and manage in hard circumstances
Being in touch with reality around them
Understanding about waiting and loss
Realising they are not the centre of the universe but that we care for them and will look after them as well as look after all the of the community
Learning that pandemics happen and that they are bloody hard

In my book all that is good mental health.
Need to add because I'm sure someone will comment on it: I am not a "lockdown lover". I hate what is happening. I hate the pandemic and what it's done to us and how children struggle. But I'm also in touch with reality and care about the wider community . I want us to get it right this time, that's all

@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.

So you like teachers but believe they should have to teach Covid positive students? Knowing that the infection will be worse for the adult than the child?

[quote stilllovingmysleep]@Igglepigglepeppaandgeorge surely you know that not all viruses are the same?
Would you be ok if the virus was killing off our babies in the numbers it's killing older people?
If you would be more concerned, why?
Do people's lives have equal value or not?[/quote]
No as long as her babies are ok its fine.
Personally I would prefer that my young child who has already suffered enough in a short life did not contract covid just so that someone elses baby could have an education without mitigation whenever mine is already having to sacrifice their education.

@LivinLaVidaLoki we are all germy disease vectors. None of us is disgusting.

We always were disease vectors, which usually is fine enough, it's just that with Covid it's a situation where we have to address it

I live in south London zone 2. Covid is a bit endemic here so we campaign for open schools I guess? In case you haven’t noticed cases are now back from a high of over a 1000 per 100k to under 200 as a result of lockdown and closing the schools. Admissions to hospitals are down too though ICUs are still full as a result of the wave. Why would you want to open up the schools again to be covid factories and drive the infections up again and fill our hospitals back up? Surely you learn from experience even if our government doesn’t. It is wilful ignorance to deny our lived experience.

We need to get more vaccinated, improve test and trace, incentivise people to isolate, and control our borders effectively and invest in improving infection control in schools before we can safely open schools up without them initiating another wave like we just experienced

@Igglepigglepeppaandgeorge

I'm not opposed to teachers being vaccinated if they want to. Children who are vulnerable need an education and social life too, so I support them attending school if they want to. I've never pretended to be right or a scientist, I'm giving my opinion. Parents will never be able to maintain the level of fear that the educational profession would like us to, and I'm truly sorry for how much that stresses you out.

Children who are vulnerable do need these things but no matter how much supporting you do, they cannot return under the current school circumstances while we allow covid to run freely through because people like yourself don't care about contracting it. I don't have much confidence that people who don't care about contracting it will be doing their best to reduce transmission. I'm not confident that if their DC has a fever on a Saturday night that they will go and get them a test on sunday and keep them at home until that is negative rather than just 'we will see how they are on monday' and then when they send them on into school without knowing if they have covid and this has been one of the most problematic things for our school has been parents doing exactly that.

@stilllovingmysleep

I think it's also worth saying that our children's mental health has something to gain from teaching about being community minded Caring for others Being able to be resilient Sacrificing for the greater good Being mindful of others' needs rather than just their own immediate needs Learning how to survive and manage in hard circumstances Being in touch with reality around them Understanding about waiting and loss Realising they are not the centre of the universe but that we care for them and will look after them as well as look after all the of the community Learning that pandemics happen and that they are bloody hard

In my book all that is good mental health.
Need to add because I'm sure someone will comment on it: I am not a "lockdown lover". I hate what is happening. I hate the pandemic and what it's done to us and how children struggle. But I'm also in touch with reality and care about the wider community . I want us to get it right this time, that's all

Agreed !

Ah I see Iggle Your opinion is equally valid to the scientific consensus arrived at by experts who have spent years training in their areas of expertise. I get it..... I’ll stick with the latter, just as well we have a government who listen to the science, oh wait......

@noblegiraffe
but you have an agenda too. You are always here posting the same stuff.

FWIW, I think teachers should be offered the jab much sooner as front-line workers (I get really annoyed that many of the NHS workers who have been vaccinated are back office admin while other key workers aren't seen as priority). However, when I spoke to teacher friends about lobbying for teachers to get an earlier vaccine (age 40s and 50s) they all demurred saying that wasn't really the issue ...

I'm fed up with lockdown lovers using children as virus spreading devils.....
they need to go back to school!!!!

I think schools are so important I dont care how high they make the R rate, I just want them open.

Surely a child who is vulnerable to covid would also be vulnerable to any fever/respiratory illness? And it's always been encouraged to send your kids in with them until March 2020.

Are you in the inner city @gallbladderpain? I'm keeping everything crossed that your child has antibodies already xxx

Exactly at @Emilyontmoor.. they arent following the science they are following those who shout loudest! So it's worth us all shouting!