Finally there’s some sensible news re school isolations

[solarlights]

Refreshing to see a headteacher and doctor on bbc breakfast saying we need to only isolate the dc with covid. Feeling encouraged.

I also think it’s grossly unfair for school staff and CEV children if the rest of society keeps isolation of close contacts but it is abandoned in schools to keep attendance up. I do think this is the way it will go just like social distancing and masks - required everywhere else except schools unless the school goes out on a limb and overrides the DfE guidance.

Older and CEV teachers who want and are able to have the vaccine should already be double vaccinated btw. I never considered them "collateral damage". Terrible notion.

Isolations make no sense at all now (insofar as they ever did).
Luckily my school has slways taken a pragmatic approach so hardly anyone off and - no surprise Sherlock -no noticeable illness, let alone ‘deaths’ among pupils or staff.

125 kids (3 years) off in ds2's school atm. So sick of this!

@Cookiecrisps

I also think it’s grossly unfair for school staff and CEV children if the rest of society keeps isolation of close contacts but it is abandoned in schools to keep attendance up. I do think this is the way it will go just like social distancing and masks - required everywhere else except schools unless the school goes out on a limb and overrides the DfE guidance.

As I already said, they're already considering stopping some isolation (eg quarantine after holiday) for those who are double vaccinated. Children can't be vaccinated, so the issue has to be discussed separately if that's alright with you

And masks/ cleaning desks etc pretty much abandoned now other than the in the unhinged paranoid minority - countable on a couple of fingers 😀

Please let this be the way forward. My child's school has sent the two year 6 forms home plus 2 year 4 forms... it is soooo unnecessary and upsetting. 10 days of no education... totally pointless

Testing instead of isolation? Does anyone think the kind of parents who let their dc break isolation will actually make them test daily?
It could be looked at later on. Where I live now there are far too many cases. And, with pcr tests for contacts now, yes they are picking up more cases in the children.
Lots of people I work with are not fully vaccinated. I also know of three people who have still been ill with Covid despite 2 vaccinations - not hospitalised, but ill enough to be off work for some time.

Agree totally that isolation should be ended. I think the key thing is keeping children with symptoms out of school and the more unnecessary isolations your child has when healthy, the more desperate you feel for them not to miss any school and more likely you are to send them in with mild symptoms. So it could well be having the opposite effect to the intended!!

Ah right well if you know someone who caught it as a mild illness not requiring hospital, that changes everything. Close the damn schools. Teachers can't be expected to risk a mild illness now, can they? I'm sure they're never had one of those before.

[quote solarlights]@User5827372728 I think they’re thinking next academic year not now.[/quote]
Next academic year, so from September, when all adults have had the chance to have both vaccines, would be fine I think. Perhaps teamed with a couple of tests during the time.

Same as for self isolation for everyone else who is a close contact. I think it should apply across the board - or at least for fully vaccinated adults and (transmission and likelihood of catching it, etc is reduced greatly) and for those not eligible such as children.

I also would think by then it should be right to scrap it for holidays abroad too, unless a country is deemed 'red' - I would have that move to home isolation and testing. Amber moved to testing only. Green, nothing. Though tbh I'd just have most countries as green and only countries of a particular serious concern as being red. Scrap amber.

Would scrap pretty much all restrictions once every adult has had the chance to be fully vacated - and by September that's pretty much everyone

It should be discussed but many people don’t consider that school is a work place for thousands of adults. Adults all have the chance of being vaccinated so when isolation of close contacts goes in all work places then it should go in schools too. I don’t think this will happen though it will be no isolation in schools from September and do a test if you feel like it but isolation will stay in wider society. It is pure double standards.

Children do need to be in school but it does them no good if school staff are ill.

@HiHoSylvie

Ah right well if you know someone who caught it as a mild illness not requiring hospital, that changes everything. Close the damn schools. Teachers can't be expected to risk a mild illness now, can they? I'm sure they're never had one of those before.

Ha ha what a wag you are. A mild illness with a high transmissibility could close a school. How many teachers would need to be off at the same time for your school to close?

Thanks, glad you enjoyed it!

But, moving on from my hilarious joke, are you arguing that even when every adult is vaccinated, children should have to isolate for ten days in case a vaccinated teacher catches a mild virus which doesn't require any treatment other than a few days off? As for highly transmissible, that happens most years with norovirus, which is an absolute bugger. Occasionally schools have to close with norovirus too. But that doesn't mean that every time it appears we start sending home 90 pupils at a time. Cliché, but we do need to learn to live with this eventually. That doesn't make teachers collateral damage any more than it makes me collateral damage, sending my DCs in to school where there might be a virus which I might still catch from them after being double vaxxed (which I am).

I teach. I am CV - I have arthritis which affects my immune system, as does some of the medication I take for it. So not the type of health condition that would ordinarily shorten my life, etc.

I caught covid, almost certainly from a child at school, in autumn term. I was working across the school, mixing with no SDing and no masks with nearly 300 children.

I was rushed to hospital with a serious risk of heart attack or stroke. Dh and Dd had to say goodbye to me from a distance unable to come with me or know what was going on. I was off work for 7 weeks and it's been 8+ months and I'm not totally better and will be taking additional medication for life.

And that was a 'moderate' case.

Sadly covid isn't always a mild illness, a bit like a cold.

Sadly covid isn't always a mild illness, a bit like a cold

Of course not! My sister is a junior doctor and my sad is a chest specialist who worked throughout despite being in his seventies and CEV. I'm more than aware of how serious an illness it is

We are talking about double vaccinated people, of which very few end up in hospital. If that isn't an acceptable risk then we are in trouble.

Hope you're ok now. Sounds terrifying .

Dad*

Despite this, however, I do believe that by September all adults will have had the chance to be fully vaccinated.

A minority of CEV people are not able to have the vaccine due to health concerns and they do need some protection - in the way that they need additional protection from catching other illness that can be serious to them.

But I don't think continued self isolation for contacts is sustainable long term for anyone, not just in schools.

If people chose not to have the vaccine, but are eligible, then I'm afraid that is their choice and a risk they have also chosen to take. We shouldn't be isolating to protect those people.

If people chose not to have the vaccine, but are eligible, then I'm afraid that is their choice and a risk they have also chosen to take. We shouldn't be isolating to protect those people.

Harsh as it sounds, I tend to agree.

HiHoSylvie

If you saw my post prior to the one you responded to, then you'll see that I do agree, once all adults have had the chance to be fully vaccinated.

And not just for in schools but across the board.

@Daisydoor12

That’s fine as long as ALL close contacts stop isolating. Not just school children. With cases rising as they are don’t think that’s a clever move.

I think it’s worth and experiment. Just to see how long it takes from the removal of the only Non-pharmaceutical intervention we have in school to shutting everything down.

@HiHoSylvie

If people chose not to have the vaccine, but are eligible, then I'm afraid that is their choice and a risk they have also chosen to take. We shouldn't be isolating to protect those people.

Harsh as it sounds, I tend to agree.

I'm not sure it's harsh tbh. Surely it's just a natural consequence of their choice.

Same as if the government or other countries bring in different restrictions for those fully vaccinated and those who aren't around the same time - choices have consequences.

I don’t think there’s stringent enough testing at home for this.

Plenty of people (on here and real life) are either not testing kids or are talking about stopping testing to being reported cases down

I think medical ethics is a difficult thing to navigate. Whether we should protect the vulnerable even if it's their choice to be vulnerable is a difficult one and will sound harsh to some.

I was agreeing with you though, but if you're looking for a disagreement, I'm sure you'll find one!

@Chillychangchoo

This needs to fucking happen from September. I am absolutely FURIOUS. Children NEED to be in school.

Sure healthy children need to be in school but those with Covid not so much! Sounds silly but what has happened is that in schools impacted - must families don’t home lateral flow screen test and even if they do it’s superficial as sone don’t test the whole household as can’t be bothered until anyone show symptoms. What transpires is incubation and silent asymptomatic silent spread in school until someone is visually physically ill and then the dreaded official track and traced PCR laboratory diagnostic test looking specifically for Covid. Moral of the story is to test test test so that healthy children can attend school away from the ill who may need to recover at home or with NHS hospitalisation. The newer more contagious Indian Delta variants are infecting many young primary age children over the past month. It’s serious again now as third wave may hit!