When will kids be allowed to just have a cold again?

[HugeAckmansWife]

Snotty, phlegm. No temp. But school sent child home and can't go back til PCR comes back. So I'll be off too while my A level and GCSE classes are mid-assessments. At what point are we going to move the goalposts on this and remember that kids get colds that aren't Covid? What's the point of vaccinating if we're still going to have to isolate etc?

My son is asthmatic. His only asthma symptom is a cough. It's usually controlled via a brown inhaler but sometimes it flairs up. He's been tested multiple times as a result, with us all isolating each time.

At this point, if he has a flair up at the weekend, I ignore it. I also refuse to isolate us all when we wait for his results. It's just getting ridiculous.

My children never got a cough with covid. I had an horrendous continuous cough same time as they had it and I had a negative test and later, a negative antibody test, yet if anyone had been observing it would have seemed i was the one with covid by the given symptoms.

Their worse symptoms were a horrible headache, temperature and a week later loss of smell and taste but not really a cough or cold like symptoms.

I wonder if the answer is maybe never I mean, we've never shifted the whole world's habits like covid did. Maybe the situation is permanent. Japan used to have plenty of bad flu every year but maybe that risk is unacceptable now, forever more.

Nobody allowed in public with 'cold' type symptoms.
Legally not allowed.
You watch.

The school are wrong to send home a child without him having one of the main 4 symptoms.

Schools did this last year when kids went back to school. It should not be allowed.

I don't think they can send kids home without them displaying the main symptoms. If you call the EWO for that school and say you're having to keep your son off school for 14 days because school won't have him but the NHS says he's not eligible for a test, the school will likely be told to wind their necks in.

I kept my 8yo DS off for three days last week because he had a cold. I didn't get him tested as he had none of the Covid symptoms which trigger the need for testing. He coughed a little due to mucous, but nothing like a continuous cough. He was feeling really grotty, so I probably would have kept him off anyway, but under normal circumstances I would have sent him back in after a day, two at most, but was cautious about causing a fuss because people think everything is Covid now.

Maybe parents will be less hung-go about sending ill children into school to spread their germs, covid or otherwise. Then maybe everyone else will miss less time at work or school as there will be fewer infected people (with whatever disease).

We may have fewer covid variants too if schools are playing their part in preventing children (who aren’t vaccinated or likely to be anytime soon) spreading it unchecked.

Hung-go? Gung-ho!

Maybe parents will be less hung-go about sending ill children into school to spread their germs, covid or otherwise. Then maybe everyone else will miss less time at work or school as there will be fewer infected people (with whatever disease).

We may have fewer covid variants too if schools are playing their part in preventing children (who aren’t vaccinated or likely to be anytime soon) spreading it unchecked

This. At my DD's school the HT has a strict policy on not sending visibly contagious and sick kids in. Overall attendance has gone up because there are fewer kids being sent in to spread disease.

If we send kids into schools with what could be covid (rather than waiting a day for a test result - hardly a huge inconvenience) then we're asking for variants that will affect kids more and / or evade the vaccines.

We'd be idiots to throw away the great vaccination progress that's been made by creating the perfect conditions for vaccine evading variants. I wouldn't be surprised if we do it though.

But how would that sit with all those employers of working parents? It's perfectly possible to carry on at school with a bit of a cold, so even if it does get spread around, so what? Mild illness is a part of life. The amount of schooling and working days that would be missed if this became a permanent law would be unsustainable. Covid aside, I would not support a policy of zero tolerance of any form of minor ailment. Just in the teaching profession it would cause absolute chaos both for staff and absent kids.

Youngest DS has been allowed to pre school this week despite having a runny nose and occasional cough. School were fine but said he must have temperature checked before going (already had) and they would check it hourly whilst he was there.

They were also satisfied that myself and older DS are lateral testing 3 x a week for secondary and work.

My son (aged 7) had a dry cough yesterday and a sore throat but was otherwise well on himself and didn’t have a temperature. We performed an LFT on him which also came back negative.

I spoke to his teacher about whether he was ok to be in school and she said absolutely and that she couldn’t wait for the day where parents didn’t have to panic about every little cough.

My husband has got an horrendous cough, (he’s really phlegmy and bunged up too) and feels really rotten but his employer has said that as long as his LFTs are negative then he’s fine to be in work. I find this quite surprising actually considering how bad his cough is and thought they’d tell him to get a proper PCR test but they’ve said it’s not necessary.

I spoke to his teacher about whether he was ok to be in school and she said absolutely and that she couldn’t wait for the day where parents didn’t have to panic about every little cough.

This is how we’re getting outbreaks of over 100 kids.

God this thread is depressing. Why can’t people follow the rules by doing a proper PCR test and isolating until that’s back when they’ve got actual covid symptoms? It’s not as if it’s particularly difficult to get a pcr test now and they’re coming back quickly,

Better to have one child with a “cold” miss a day of school waiting for test results than have 100 children catch covid at school with all the risk to the wider community.

As a country we’ve been really poor at following test & isolate rules (a big percentage of people not even isolating when they test positive) so it’s not a huge surprise that the pandemic is still ongoing.

I spoke to his teacher about whether he was ok to be in school and she said absolutely and that she couldn’t wait for the day where parents didn’t have to panic about every little cough.

This is how we’re getting outbreaks of over 100 kids. God this thread is depressing. Why can’t people follow the rules by doing a proper PCR test and isolating until that’s back when they’ve got actual covid symptoms? It’s not as if it’s particularly difficult to get a pcr test now and they’re coming back quickly

The school say that unless the cough is accompanied by a fever or loss of smell/taste then it’s not of concern.

Last weekend we went to an outdoor event that was meant for children - and there were thousands of them milling around in very close proximity to each other - and obviously the children were accompanied by their parents and other relatives too. There were no masks and no social distancing.

I have a feeling that a lot of school children in my town are going to be suffering with cough and cold symptoms this week.

The school say that unless the cough is accompanied by a fever or loss of smell/taste then it’s not of concern.

They know better than public health England?

Schools should not be making that decision. It’s utterly irresponsible.

The school say that unless the cough is accompanied by a fever or loss of smell/taste then it’s not of concern.

They know better than public health England?

They know that children get coughs for many reasons and said that they know it’s impractical for children to miss school and parents to have to take time off work everyone their child has a cough ‘just in case’ it’s Covid.

Like many threads say, we have to return to normal at some point. Covid isn’t going to disappear and we just have to live with it.

It’s not ideal but life has to resume.

My son is otherwise absolutely fine, eating and drinking as normal, no fever, playing happily, running about etc - apart from the odd cough he’s his normal self.

I know carriers can be asymptomatic but the teachers stance is that children get minor coughs for many reasons, it’s not practical to panic, test and isolate when the child is otherwise well.

They know that children get coughs for many reasons and said that they know it’s impractical for children to miss school and parents to have to take time off work everyone their child has a cough ‘just in case’ it’s Covid.

Ultimately though, it's not their call to make.

I know carriers can be asymptomatic but the teachers stance is that children get minor coughs for many reasons, it’s not practical to panic, test and isolate when the child is otherwise well.

Since when was following expert scientific advice “panicking”? A new continuous cough is covid until proven otherwise. With reducing rates in the community, maybe that advice could chance but schools have absolutely no business overriding national medical rules based on fuck all medical training.

They know that children get coughs for many reasons and said that they know it’s impractical for children to miss school and parents to have to take time off work everyone their child has a cough ‘just in case’ it’s Covid.

Ultimately though, it's not their call to make.

True, but I know a lot of schools who have the same attitude.

And at the end of the day unless the child is constantly coughing or having infrequent bouts of coughing then there’s no reason for them not to be at school (based on government recommendations).

My son was coughing at school yesterday, but it’s probably about 5 coughs every few hours, so it doesn’t meet the requirement to need a PCR test.

When I dropped him off at school yesterday I said to the teacher to call me if the cough worsens and I will come and get him, but obviously they didn’t and they were happy to have him there.

1 100% agree that children who meet the ‘coughing rules’ in terms of when they need to be tested, should be, but otherwise there’s nothing to say a child with a typical cough shouldn’t be in school.

A new continuous cough is covid until proven otherwise. With reducing rates in the community, maybe that advice could chance but schools have absolutely no business overriding national medical rules based on fuck all medical training.

I’m not talking about new continuous coughing, just about a normal child’s cough.

If your child has a cough (beyond that which is usual for them....ie attributable to something like hayfever, asthma, reflux etc) then isolate and get a PCR test

My medically vulnerable son has to go to school, and will be at risk until he can be vaccinated, so please please try to avoid sending children in with possible symptoms.

If your child has a cough (beyond that which is usual for them....ie attributable to something like hayfever, asthma, reflux etc) then isolate and get a PCR test

How long is this supposed to go on for though? Until all school children are vaccinated? Is that even in the pipeline?

(I am just musing in general, not making it specifically aimed towards you as obviously your circumstances warrant your vigilance and concerns).

@ThornAmongstRoses

If your child has a cough (beyond that which is usual for them....ie attributable to something like hayfever, asthma, reflux etc) then isolate and get a PCR test

How long is this supposed to go on for though? Until all school children are vaccinated? Is that even in the pipeline?

(I am just musing in general, not making it specifically aimed towards you as obviously your circumstances warrant your vigilance and concerns).

I'd settle with until the teachers and any vulnerable DC have been vaccinated.