Schools not having to isolate when in contact of virus

[Baileysforchristmas]

There is hope this will stop after September.

www.theguardian.com/education/2021/jun/28/ministers-set-to-end-automatic-isolation-for-pupils-in-england

@siestalady ‘gently as possible’. Wtf? Is that the accepted response to excluding thousands of CV ECV children?

I think given the way the numbers are going now, September is too far away to speculate how things should be. .

So the parents who are refusing to allow their children in Secondary school year twice weekly, will you let them test daily instead if they are a contact?

@PeonyTime

Yeah, and who do you think is do the tests? Because I can promise you here it was the technicians and librarian. And it was all done in the sports hall. If I'm processing 150 lateral flow tests a day, there is absolutly no way I am also preparing the practical lessons for your child. I cant physically do both.

They wouldn't be doing many practical lessons at home isolating behind a laptop either 🤷‍♀️

Independent and expert MHRA has approved the Pfizer vaccine as safe and effective in over-12s (so as scientists, statisticians, doctors, pharmacologists etc, they have already weighed up the benefits and risks and judged that the benefits outweigh the risks - so non-expert and non-independent Johnson, Williamson, Gove and Javid don't need to repeat this exercise).

Actually allowing over-12s to receive the vaccinations approved for them before September is key in reducing transmission and infection in schools.

It should be optional. The trouble is people who are against it for their own children feel the need to stop other people's children getting it (to ensure their own children don't miss out).

Plus stop the mass self-isolation of students with negative tests. They are not infected or infectious. Do daily testing if really necessary, but it is rather a waste of plastic, room space, time and human resources at an accuracy rate lower than 50%.

@dippymootoo

What about CV and ECV children? Especially those in primary. Some have been vaccinated but less likely the younger they are.

My son is CV and only 7 so no hope of a vaccine at present, Covid is likely to life changing and possibly life limiting for him. What about the guilt his siblings would feel bringing it home if they gave it to him?

Once again this feels very rushed and ill thought through, especially given how cases are rising.

Feels like an alternative way to achieve herd immunity as the JCVI haven’t given the go ahead yet to vaccinate 12 plus.

Problem is they are at non-trivial risk even now.

All the dance to isolate is too late.

It keeps numbers lower than they would be. But still hugely high overall.

If you are really concerned, then you should probably not be sending them in now.

Actually herd immunity would be a better strategy as it’d at least get it over with quickly. Afterwards numbers should drop substantially.

@motherrunner

I’m just wondering as a teacher whether I’ll be allowed/expected to work if I contract Covid, and whether as parents they would be happy knowing their teacher could be potentially exposing 200+ pupils a day to the virus?

It is a good job there has been no such suggestion then isn't it....

@OliveTree75If you read my next post you will see I acknowledged I had misread the article so no need to sound so superior.

Thank god for that. Once teachers have had both jabs I think it’s completely fair to expect us to keep teaching the children who haven’t tested positive.

They wouldn't be doing many practical lessons at home isolating behind a laptop either 🤷‍♀️
Not the isolating kids no, but the rest of the school can.
Dont get me wrong, the isolations are shit. But in school lateral flow testing is not the panacea being touted in here.

@dippymootoo

What about CV and ECV children? Especially those in primary. Some have been vaccinated but less likely the younger they are.

My son is CV and only 7 so no hope of a vaccine at present, Covid is likely to life changing and possibly life limiting for him. What about the guilt his siblings would feel bringing it home if they gave it to him?

Once again this feels very rushed and ill thought through, especially given how cases are rising.

Feels like an alternative way to achieve herd immunity as the JCVI haven’t given the go ahead yet to vaccinate 12 plus.

@dippymootoo they've been doing trials in schools since September last year. Different types of trials in terms of testing.

This trial regime (testing instead of isolating) has been going on for several months.

I'm sure they started testing in school earlier this year. Iirc it was a logistical nightmare for the school having to test 1k+ students. And not all schools have staggered starts, none of the secondaries round here do because form groups and lesson groups differ.
Even with several rooms taken over to implement this it was time consuming. So we were sent tests and continue to get them, to test at home..

It's my belief that we can now all freely get access to the free crappy tests that either aren't being used or not picking up cases. If we were testing as standard before leaving our homes surely this would help to prevent the spread.

To help protect those CEV students more sanctions should be introduced to stop the feckless doing things like calpol and send to school. The NHS guidelines around temperature should be adhered to across all industries.

Tbh as a member of staff in school I happy about this. I had to isolate the other week as a child I work with was postive and missed my friends mini hen party. I would be very happy to not have to isolate if a child in school was positive! And I'm sure a lot of kids would be too, means they dont have to miss school but also dont have to miss any clubs, seeing their friends or family outings which are really important for young people.

If you are really concerned, then you should probably not be sending them in now.
@puppeteer so the parents get fined and the kept home dc get to miss weeks of school?

At a school near me. Whole year groups sent home to isolate due to a handful of cases.... over a week later and kids are still testing positive - now over 30 confirmed and possibly more.

https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/hundreds-children-isolating-sutton-coldfield-20921187?utmsource=whatsapp&utmmedium=social&utm_campaign=sharebar

Aren’t they planning in ‘close contacts’ of a positive? Not every pupil every day?

Sorry - planning on testing !

@JS87

I really feel for the ecv and cv children but the risk of covid is going to be around for years, especially with any vaccine for under 12s likely some years off. We’re not going to get zero covid now in the U.K. so how can we manage this. I don’t think children can keep doing ten day isolations to protect the cv children for the next however many years until herd immunity is reached in children. What do you think should happen? Isolation for the next few years, license to vaccinate cv children? It’s very tricky and I understand the worry but what would you see as the endpoint when self isolation for school children should stop?

I think more mitigations in schools would be a good starting point - including investment in better ventilation, reduced class sizes and masks - and feel these should be put in place well before isolating close contacts is ended. Otherwise it will absolutely run rampant through schools. At the moment there is no plan whatsoever to address the issue of CV/CEV children and their families, especially those under 12 who have no vaccine in sight. And threads like this (and many others at the moment) seem totally oblivious to the heartache that many many families with CV/CEV children are currently going through - and how that will only get much worse if all restrictions are released before anything else is done to reduce spread in schools.

Staff are not fully vaccinated. Lots have just had one. Could have all been fully vaccinated if had been made a priority, but schools are COVID safe and children don't spread covid. Shoving 30+ people into small, barely ventilated rooms with no masks is such a good idea 🤷‍♀️.

@mumsneedwine

I doubt that would have stopped the disruption. The isolations are for community spread, not to protect teachers.

Staff who haven’t been fully vaccinated are either young or not CV so not at all vulnerable from being hospitalised with covid.

I think we are being prepared to be left to it.

Talk today of not even publishing numbers anymore and after dire predictions of the coming winter, that fills me with dread.

We just can't rush out of this. If deaths and hospitalisation stays low in the coming weeks, brilliant but I'd like to know what the hell is going on until next year at least June

It won't make me feel better to have bubble effect news reporting... Ie things get so fucking bad nurses etc are using the media to get the story out.

• also if this comes with no ventilation measures etc again I think we will be in for an absolutely dire winter, no masks, no windows open, no figures, no idea if the vaccine is waining!

@mumsneedwine

Staff are not fully vaccinated. Lots have just had one. Could have all been fully vaccinated if had been made a priority, but schools are COVID safe and children don't spread covid. Shoving 30+ people into small, barely ventilated rooms with no masks is such a good idea 🤷‍♀️.

But all staff who are at risk have been offered the vaccine. And by September, all adults will have been offered a double dose.

Humans spread covid; but education should be non negotiable. We have to live with this risk at some point. I'm not sure it gets better than it is right now...

@Lemonmelonsun

I think we are being prepared to be left to it.

Talk today of not even publishing numbers anymore and after dire predictions of the coming winter, that fills me with dread.

We just can't rush out of this. If deaths and hospitalisation stays low in the coming weeks, brilliant but I'd like to know what the hell is going on until next year at least June

It won't make me feel better to have bubble effect news reporting... Ie things get so fucking bad nurses etc are using the media to get the story out.

I think itll be a good thing if we are weaned off the daily sadly deaths. And I say that as someone who looks at the stats every day. We are being left to it, and thank god we are. Enough restrictions, enough of the population thinking we can control the grim reaper if our time is up.

Do you check the flu deaths on a daily basis in a normal flu winter? Do you look out on social media for oncology nurses to tell us how dangerous cancer is? Do you track down stats on deaths from domestic violence?

@siestalady my colleague was 43, had 3 kids and is now dead. Was healthy and had no 'existing conditions'. Covid does not just kill the vulnerable.
We have 3 staff with long covid who can not work full time anymore. But hey, let's just crack on and risk more school staff.

[quote mumsneedwine]@siestalady my colleague was 43, had 3 kids and is now dead. Was healthy and had no 'existing conditions'. Covid does not just kill the vulnerable.
We have 3 staff with long covid who can not work full time anymore. But hey, let's just crack on and risk more school staff.[/quote]
I'm genuinely sorry about your colleague. But with all respect, anything can kill anyone at any time. What else can we do? We've locked down again and again and again, we've vaccinated, what more do we do?? Do you honestly think that we should keep compromising children's education? If so- where is the end point?