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If they open up schools all at once, I'm done with every other precaution

830 replies

BettyBoomerang · 21/02/2021 23:21

If the 'leak' is true and they are stupid enough to open up all schools to all kids at the same time (thus leading to uncontrolled transmission of variants and increased risk of vaccine escape, further lockdowns and a redo of the vaccination programme) then I'm done with any kind of compliance.

I'm not staying at home like a fucking stupid sitting duck, waiting for my kids to come home with Covid anymore. The kids can see their friends, have sleepovers and we'll go out and about and visit friends and relatives and do the maximum we can.

You can pile in and call me selfish or whatever - I genuinely don't care anymore. I'm not putting my life on hold just for the government to fuck the recovery up again. I'm the most compliant of pretty much everyone I know but this is it for me, and many others I suspect (most of whom are already doing way more than me). If it's safe for my kids to go to school, then everything is safe.

OP posts:
Thomasina2021 · 22/02/2021 15:10

@rossclare

I mean this with the greatest respect, but if you are aware that being overweight makes you more vulnerable, then are you taking steps to reduce this vulnerability? Or are you just sitting at home waiting for a vaccine.

I am aware that there are mental/medical reasons why you might be overweight - but i am also aware that a lot of people are overweight is simply because they eat too much of the wrong thing and don't move enough.

Rather than sit about and fret about the possibility of being poorly, get up and start exercising!!!!!!!!

And you should be aiming to lose weight to prevent many more illnesses then just CV.

Totally and our kids are being locked up which will make them also more prone to being obese and dying of covid and many other diseases
Devlesko · 22/02/2021 15:12

If schools do open up more, let's face it they never closed, then there is no point in any further restrictions.
I'll be seeing my family and friends as soon as they go back.
Kids are the biggest spreaders and can't socially distance, so it will be pointless.

BessMarvin · 22/02/2021 15:14

@Devlesko

If schools do open up more, let's face it they never closed, then there is no point in any further restrictions. I'll be seeing my family and friends as soon as they go back. Kids are the biggest spreaders and can't socially distance, so it will be pointless.
No point?! Have you just not even bothered to read the thread?
MarshaBradyo · 22/02/2021 15:14

@Devlesko

If schools do open up more, let's face it they never closed, then there is no point in any further restrictions. I'll be seeing my family and friends as soon as they go back. Kids are the biggest spreaders and can't socially distance, so it will be pointless.
🙄
RedGoldAndGreene · 22/02/2021 15:15

There's a happy medium between wiping shopping and breaking all the rules all of the time unless there's special circumstances like somebody in your family or circle being CEV.

Personally giving up my social life to keep schools open is a sacrifice that I'm happy to make and I have no problem with my kids meeting friends outside even though they should technically only see one of them at a time. Our family risk is low - dc1 worked through the pandemic and dc2 has a part-time job as a barista but other than that it's just school that is our family risk. We are in an area that was hit hard with the new variants but numbers are below average now.

ineedaholidaynow · 22/02/2021 15:15

@Devlesko and that is why schools won't stay open for very long!

Inastatus · 22/02/2021 15:16

And the prize for not RTFT goes to @Devlesko!

HopingForOurRainbowBaby · 22/02/2021 15:17

Do as you please, but don't come back on here bitching when we're locked down yet again by summer.

Devlesko · 22/02/2021 15:18

[quote ineedaholidaynow]@Devlesko and that is why schools won't stay open for very long![/quote]
They only gave lip service to schools closing in the first place.
Still plenty of roads full and school drop off and pick up rush hour.
Tbh, I'd rather they were closed, properly, until everything is else is up and running.

Violetlavenders · 22/02/2021 15:20

If schools do open up more, let's face it they never closed, then there is no point in any further restrictions. @Devlesko* *

Are you being serious or ironic Confused

Have you a read the responses on this thread?!Hmm

TheKeatingFive · 22/02/2021 15:20

Tbh, I'd rather they were closed, properly, until everything is else is up and running.

Good job you’re not in charge then. Way to throw the nation’s children’s prospects under the bus. Nice.

BiBabbles · 22/02/2021 15:21

It's absolutely my stance that the bracket of the population who are currently - almost a year on - still foaming at the mouth with "selfish!" at people daring to visit their own flesh and blood, were likely well-adjusted to lonely, boring, uneventful lives pre-2020.

If you think lonely people are the main ones foaming at the mouth and judging everyone, then I'd question your understanding of social isolation. We're not all curtain twitchers who hate other people, the stats on it show it's largely around life circumstances and health -- and many aren't "well adjusted" to it (hence lonely and not just alone - and why would those happily alone automatically care about what others do?).

Pre-2020, there was a lot of discussion about the epidemic of loneliness and isolation in the UK and similar nations. A lot of it was around the health problems associated with loneliness - some have discussed how lack of social connections has a greater correlation to some medical problems including early death than more notorious things like smoking and obesity. There was a lot of discussion on the distress and pain of loneliness, and there has been quite a bit on how badly its affected people now that even the kind of bumbling social interactions with shop staff and similar has been reduced/cut off.

Whether the same dramatic language will be used again I'm not entirely sure, but I'm someone who has fit in that category - when the person you've seen the most in person in the last year that you don't live with is your dentist, that becomes pretty obvious. I'm not well-adjusted to it, I end up in tears about it regularly. Most of my close family members died within the last 5 years so I'm not sure I'd call that uneventful, but yeah, maybe I'm boring and don't have loved ones beyond my home that want to see me, I fully recognize that I'm not anyone else's priority and when people can pick 1-5 people to see, it's unlikely to be me. Few pick the sickly one who struggles to go for a walk (though I really miss hiking) and anything I could to change my situation would involve meeting with strangers - guess what's kinda hard to do in-person right now and is likely the last thing to come back in a way someone with a mobility disability is likely to be able to access? My life in general hasn't changed much, even with a major workshift it's the same type of digital format, but lockdowns have taken pretty much any option and hope for better, closest I have now is moving to a more accessible home and having a better Groundhogs' day there until in-person groups for meeting people open again.

Stats on a lack of social interaction isn't evidence that everyone in that group enjoys/actively chooses that and there is no reason to think that they're automatically the ones against others doing so (those who have others in the house may enjoy if they could go out more). I personally have plenty of sympathy for others, things are hard for most people no matter if you've loved ones you're seeing, ones you can't see, or none at all, but I think the ones shouting others down as selfish are a complex mix of people with different reasons for it - from those who have been breaking the rules but like a good grandstanding to those who can't see their loved ones until things are far better because they live in other countries that are currently closed, are in institutions that have more control over visitation, or are at significantly higher risk and have been told to continue shielding whether or not they've vaccinated. I don't think it's mostly or mainly us boring fucks no one wants to see even for those of us who pretty much stick to the rules through lifestyle and disability limits.

Mythymist · 22/02/2021 15:21

Sounds like a lot of projection based on your own circumstances

It isn't. It is based on my professional experience in children's mental health services, which for the millionth time have been overwhelmed for years, when all your children were in school, long before covid.

TheKeatingFive · 22/02/2021 15:22

which for the millionth time have been overwhelmed for years, when all your children were in school, long before covid.

Correlation does not equal causation.

You’d think you’d know that.

Mythymist · 22/02/2021 15:23

Correlation does not equal causation.

I didn't say schools were the only reason. I said the current education system in this country was a contributing factor.

Violetlavenders · 22/02/2021 15:23

Tbh, I'd rather they were closed, properly, until everything is else is up and running.

You'd rather we open up society but keep children out is school?? So education and our country's human capital is not very important in our opinion?

BessMarvin · 22/02/2021 15:23

Excellent news everyone! There's absolutely no need to worry and we might as well just call off all restrictions!

According to the op, everyone is already breaking the rules, so given cases etc are dropping in a situation where everyone is breaking the rules, opening schools or anything else won't be an issue.

Similarly Devlesko has let us know schools are pretty much operating as normal now anyway, so 8 March isn't going to make any difference is it?

snowballer · 22/02/2021 15:31

@Devlesko

If schools do open up more, let's face it they never closed, then there is no point in any further restrictions. I'll be seeing my family and friends as soon as they go back. Kids are the biggest spreaders and can't socially distance, so it will be pointless.
600 odd messages into the thread, the vast majority of which explain why there is indeed a very good reason not just to do what you want 🙄
Devlesko · 22/02/2021 15:32

Yes, primary are nearly full round here, well, during term time, obviously.
Still as many grannies been thrown under the bus. But don't worry, the vaccine provides automatic immunity Hmm

Zandathepanda · 22/02/2021 15:32

Adventurecake what the OP is saying, and what most people who work in secondary schools understand, is that once schools are open for all, social distancing measures etc are all a bit futile.
Here is a short list just based on what my vulnerable 16 year old has had to experience at her 1600 pupil school:

  1. classes where pupils have symptoms and have tested but until they are ‘definitely’ positive have kept coming in because it’s only a hunch at this point.
  2. sitting shoulder to shoulder with unmasked classmates in a windowless room. If a classmate tests positive it’s only if you are sitting right next to them that you got sent home.
  3. pupils wearing 6 week old disintegrating masks that are stuffed in pockets for the corridors (for some reason corridors is where the virus lives?)
  4. sitting in huddles on the floor to eat lunch as year groups are designated a ‘common space’ to eat lunch
  5. few wearing masks on school buses
  6. being told off by the teacher for refusing to do joint physical exercise - a routine holding hands with someone, unmasked of course.
  7. an unmasked teacher leaning over her shoulder and going through her book on her lap, breathing on the side of her face. In context: he had just been teaching a class from a year group that were all being sent home as they had been overwhelmed by cases and they had been advised to isolate hundreds in that year.
  8. unmasked pupils walking home, holding hands and kissing
  9. pupils meeting round corners to smoke/deal drugs
  10. loads of unmasked sixth formers crammed in cars (windows closed) driving each other home
  11. unmasked parents standing by cars chatting to each other.

She guesstimated her bubble goes from 4 to thousands as soon as school opens up. We live in a semi rural area and the geographical area is huge. In one class she has a hospital consultant’s child on one side of her and a bus drivers child the other. The pupils worked out they live 20 miles apart.

We would like them to delay schools opening so that her teachers can get the vaccine and give it a few weeks to work. For her sake and theirs. Which is only a few more weeks.

A Level classes are particularly sensitive to teachers being ill as you can’t get supply teachers easily to cover work. It makes sense that the teachers are vaccinated at least 3 weeks before they go back for economic and educational reasons too.

seasidefishwife · 22/02/2021 15:33

@Devlesko

Yes, primary are nearly full round here, well, during term time, obviously. Still as many grannies been thrown under the bus. But don't worry, the vaccine provides automatic immunity Hmm
And what are the covid rates like in your area?
TheKeatingFive · 22/02/2021 15:36

It makes sense that the teachers are vaccinated at least 3 weeks before they go back for economic and educational reasons too.

If we wait until all 3 weeks after all teachers are vaxxed it’ll be the summer holidays or as near as makes no difference.

Zandathepanda · 22/02/2021 15:37

TheKeatingFive unless they do them now

TheKeatingFive · 22/02/2021 15:38

unless they do them now

It’ll still be months. And you’d be delaying vaccination of the CV to do that.

Zandathepanda · 22/02/2021 15:56

There’s CV teachers that haven’t been done.

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