Rates rising > Kids off school > WTF is the plan??

[HoppingHamster]

I want things to open up. I want vaccines to work. I’ve had my vaccines.

But.

There will soon be thousands of kids off school isolating because they’ve come into contact with someone who tested positive. 10 days off school. I already know of about 50 in our local area through various schools.

If June 21 goes ahead. And we can’t slow the spread among unvaccinated people. And the spread is already increasing statistically among children and younger ages (which it is), where is the plan for keeping kids in school?? For preventing more disruption to their education.

How is it possible to let things open up (and let numbers fly over next few months before more people vaccinated) AND keep kids equally in school? Either you open up and lift all quarantine restrictions. Or you have to do something to plot the spread amongst youngsters.

I’m worried this has been forgotten and it’s going to go wrong again.

I’m hoping the rates in Scotland will drop dramatically when our kids break up in two weeks. I can’t see the 21st going ahead at all.

*to stop (not plot).

You just can’t let it run, AND tell people to quarantine…. (especially if the only way to avoid quarantine might be through vaccination which right now, is not applicable to younger kids).

I don't need things to open up more than now. Let's keep going like this until the summer holidays. it's only another 6 weeks. There might loads of kids SI for a couple of weeks here and there but we just need to get trough it and Strat vaccinating kids asap.

They need to stop isolating kids. If things are ok enough to open up society and allow travel, festivals and offices, then there's no need to keep isolating children, who aren't even affected by it.

Yes I suspect when they know to what extent vaccined have broken the link between cases and serious illness the rules about isolation and contacts will be reviewed. Plus maybe regular asymptomatic testing.

I very much doubt the 21st will go ahead. There may even be restrictions reintroduced.

I’m totally torn. It seems to be:

Stop isolation entirely (let it rip)

Or

Keep isolation until adults vaccinated (kids lose out unequally AGAIN)

There isn’t a middle ground. But more importantly…. Has this even been talked about?

If it hasn’t now, in two weeks it will be.

It's all going exactly as expected.

The government needs to talk about whether they're going for herd immunity among younger people or not.

I wonder what the situation would be if people stopped testing for cold symtoms. And only isolate if you are actually ill.

Yeah let’s stop isolating kids. They can pass it to each other as they don’t often get ill. Unfortunately it has been suggested that the delta variant spreads more easily within households. Yes most of the vulnerable have been vaccinated but not all.

Allow to run rampant = more variants.

On a different thread a poster talked about daily testing rather than isolation. So I'd assume you'd keep testing rather than isolate just in case. Isolation only if you test positive.

I think that's an interesting idea to explore - but I am not a scientist or a doctor!

@HoppingHamster

I’m totally torn. It seems to be:

Stop isolation entirely (let it rip)

Or

Keep isolation until adults vaccinated (kids lose out unequally AGAIN)

There isn’t a middle ground. But more importantly…. Has this even been talked about?

If it hasn’t now, in two weeks it will be.

Absolutely unethical to let it rip.

1. Mutations.
2. Long covid
3. The possiblity of Multi inflammatory syndrome.
4. Its been reported that children are more affected by this mutation

here in scotland with more children in hospital then ever was the case.

1. We do not have any idea what impact this virus can have on children long term.

I don't know what the answer is.
Maybe look at ventilation and other mitigations within school as they have done aabsolutely nothing!

@Topttumps

Yeah let’s stop isolating kids. They can pass it to each other as they don’t often get ill. Unfortunately it has been suggested that the delta variant spreads more easily within households. Yes most of the vulnerable have been vaccinated but not all.

and on top of that, most parents won't have had the second vaccine.

@Funfortheroad

They need to stop isolating kids. If things are ok enough to open up society and allow travel, festivals and offices, then there's no need to keep isolating children, who aren't even affected by it.

This is 100% pure insanity as a suggestion.

Talk about 'lalala this problem is too difficult so I am going to pretend it isn't happening'.

Next time you see a fire, remember to pour petrol on it...

@neveradullmoment99 do you have a link to prove children are more affected by the new variant with more being hospitalised please?

Yes think it was ONS.I dont have the direct link but in the first 10 minutes of indie sage on you tube professor christina Pargal takes you through it. You don't need to watch it all, just the beginning.

[quote DatingDickheads]@neveradullmoment99 do you have a link to prove children are more affected by the new variant with more being hospitalised please?[/quote]
'prove' is not possible but there is reported concern so they are watching metro.co.uk/2021/06/03/scotland-high-number-of-children-in-hospital-with-covid-14708552/

Yes, various newspaper reports saying this @PracticingPerson

[quote DatingDickheads]@neveradullmoment99 do you have a link to prove children are more affected by the new variant with more being hospitalised please?[/quote]
I haven't seen anything suggesting kids are disproportionally affected by the new variant.
Just that it's a lot more transmittable, so perhaps it's crossed a threshold where the measures taken in schools used to be very good at stopping super-spreading events, but that's no longer true.... and given that children are unvaccinated, it's spreading a lot more easily through schools than through vaccinated populations - although it IS spreading through mono-vaccinated people as well.

But - the Delta variant is believed to be significantly more harmful. PHE reports a 2.61 higher risk of hospitalisation than the Alpha variant, which itself was estimated about 1.6 times more harmful than the original variant
nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/06/covid-b-1-617-2-delta-variant-what-we-know.html

So kids while the risk is still low, it's over 4x higher than during the first wave.

Around 150 children plus siblings and teaches from my kids school sent home to isolate for 10 days last Friday. 5 positives alone in my daughters class. My son one positive in his class. Both mines had negative test results but still need to isolate for 10 days.

I think that as rates in wider society are so high (and reflected in schools) they are leading to children loosing out in their education, yet again, the answer is to roll back some of those relaxations, not to stop kids from isolating.

I know people’s livelihoods are on the line (e.g. If you work in a bar or restaurant) but I think kids’ education is more important.

There. I said it.

This really is worrying. @neveradullmoment99 I agree with you, letting it rip amongst children just can’t be the answer. But there have never been effective mitigation’s in school, ever.

There must be thousands of children off school already, and thousands more will be asked to isolate in the weeks before end of term.

I can’t understand the lack of attention being paid to this, what are the govt trying to achieve??

Loads of schools haven't had any cases at all since they re-opened. DD2's classmate had a positive lateral flow which turned out to be a false positive after a PCR test. Meh. They are only in a few more weeks before the summer holiday in England, and in Scotland they break up this month.

It is already completely out of control. My school is closed. More than half of our infected children are asymptomatic. However over a third are actually physically ill. And we have 3 children left permanently disabled from covid last year.

It’s made a lot worse by the parents allowing their children not to wear masks in the classroom. The government was plain stupid to say it was no longer compulsory, but they are clearly on a different planet.

Most secondary schools are trying to insist on masks, or at least saying it’s optional.

However it can’t be done without the support of parents, and you only have to look at Mumsnet posts to see how many parents are undermining this, largely out of ignorance. If they actually understood anything about the virus, and the current situation, no one who loved their child would want them sitting in lessons s without a high quality mask over their face, at this precise moment in time