Current rules on isolation are counter-productive

[Warhertisuff]

I can't be the only one who isn't doing lateral flow tests or overlooking mild symptoms because of the consequences to, not just my family, but the school community.

For instance, last week my 9 year old son had a headache and sore throat... nothing serious and a good night's sleep meant he was well enough to go to school the following day, and he was fine in the days ahead. I didn't do a LFT or get him tested as, had he been positive, he, and his entire year group, would have missed the last 10 days of school, with all the activities and end of year shows etc.

I took the view that the possible damage caused by him having Covid - if he indeed did have it which he probably didn't - and passing to other children (and other adults who largely would have had the chance to have been vaccinated) was less than having the end of the school year ruined for everyone.

If the rules were similar for other illnesses, which I'd argue they can be now that vaccines have made the impact of Covid more like the flu, then more people would take common sense precautions about keeping their kids off school if unwell.

What about the vulnerable adults and children who can't be vaccinated that he could pass it on to, totally irresponsible you should be ashamed.

Confused. He’s 9 so is too young for LFTs. He didn’t have any of the 3 Covid symptoms, so you weren’t eligible for a PCR test anyway. You have followed the rules, not rebelled against them.

However, I really hope you would have kept him home and got a test if he had fever, a cough or loss of smell. Otherwise that would be incredibly selfish, potentially spoiling the summer for many many families (not just a few days at the end of term).

Please don’t assume that the vaccines are 100% at preventing illness. Vaccinated teachers and parents will not thank you for sending in a symptomatic child as they can still catch it and pass it on.

A parent ignoring symptoms placed my DP in hospital 3 times, lose over 2 stone and still not be back at school full time 5 months later. My daughter (and I) caught it from him and whilst I am functional I am not right. Our daughter still has a heap of digestive issues as most of her symptoms were digestive related. Having a teenager worried about explosive diarrhoea at school is not fun.

So many teaching staff are still not fully vaccinated, so thank you for your care and consideration. I hope you, your family and your school community do not have to face what ours have. Explaining parent deaths, the death of a teacher in our MAT and staff being off on long term sick when students have missed so much for their GCSEs and A Levels is not my favourite part of my job.

I was with you until you said 'I didn't do a test because if he was positive...'
I think there's a difference in feeling its a sore throat and see how they are in the morning, from thinking there's a possibility of a positive result and not testing because it will cause disruption. If you thought he could be positive it's shit not to test.

I am a teacher and on my first week of isolation after testing positive. I am pretty poorly right now. I would be so angry if I found out I caught this because of a parents selfishness.

He didn't have a testable symptom.

LFT are for asymptotic surveillance testing and not for any symptoms.

You are incredibly selfish to send him to school if you think he possibly had any chance of having COVID.

Those under 30 have only been vaccinated in last 4-6 weeks which is likely a huge percentage of his teaching staff in primary.
They wouldn't have had their 2nd and the further 2 weeks to gain full protection.

I find it concerning you think your oh so clever for doing what you did yet your list is full of so much incorrect information.

But as long as you're proud of yourself eh?

However, I really hope you would have kept him home and got a test if he had fever, a cough or loss of smell.

Those were the symptoms of the old variants. The Delta variant has a much wider range that are most similar to a cold/flu, and loss of taste doesn't feature at all!

I didn't do a LFT or get him tested as, had he been positive, he, and his entire year group, would have missed the last 10 days of school, with all the activities and end of year shows etc.

Ah yes who cares if others get ill, so long as your child doesn't miss out on the end of year activities.

@Whyarewehardofthinking

A parent ignoring symptoms placed my DP in hospital 3 times, lose over 2 stone and still not be back at school full time 5 months later. My daughter (and I) caught it from him and whilst I am functional I am not right. Our daughter still has a heap of digestive issues as most of her symptoms were digestive related. Having a teenager worried about explosive diarrhoea at school is not fun.

So many teaching staff are still not fully vaccinated, so thank you for your care and consideration. I hope you, your family and your school community do not have to face what ours have. Explaining parent deaths, the death of a teacher in our MAT and staff being off on long term sick when students have missed so much for their GCSEs and A Levels is not my favourite part of my job.

What you are saying is "pre-vaccine", where deaths and serious illness were a massive issue. We are now emerging into a post-vaccine world where we just have to live with Covid. I don't see why we can't treat Covid like the flu for all practical purposes of living our lives.

I took the view that the possible damage caused by him having Covid - if he indeed did have it which he probably didn't - and passing to other children (and other adults who largely would have had the chance to have been vaccinated) was less than having the end of the school year ruined for everyone.

This is bullshit. You can't and shouldn't risk assess for 20+ children, their teachers and their families.

What you actually mean is that it was more important to you for all those things to happen for your son/his class and you consider the risk to others to be irrelevant .

It's one thing to not test for every single bug and ailment. It's something completely different to decide for others that "they'll be fine anyways".

So.....you regarded his symptoms as possibly being the new variant (as per your last post) but just bashed on as normal, sending him to school.

This is exactly why we will take longer to escape from this loop.

Thanks a bunch.

You might place more importance on end of term activities but what if you passed it on to families that have to then cancel holidays at end of term, travelling to see family, pre-booked events etc. So no I don’t think not testing to save end of term fun is less damaging.

Ah yes who cares if others get ill, so long as your child doesn't miss out on the end of year activities.

They would all miss out.... the year group sent home.

Continuing to treat Covid in the way we did pre-vaccine is disproportionate.

@rosie39forever

What about the vulnerable adults and children who can't be vaccinated that he could pass it on to, totally irresponsible you should be ashamed.

I never failed to be amazed by some posts. There have been lots this week that have shocked me,

Never mind the staff, other children and their families. Or long covid for children.

I didn't do a LFT or get him tested as, had he been positive, he, and his entire year group, would have missed the last 10 days of school, with all the activities and end of year shows etc

They would all miss out.... the year group sent home

Refusing to test and sending your son in wouldn't prevent this from happening. If he had been positive for Covid chances are other parents would have done the responsible thing and tested their children, and they would have had to isolate anyway.

@Warhertisuff

Not everyone is vaccinated. I have a member of staff who spent a week in hospital and is only just home. She wasn't vaccinated as when her age group turned up she was waiting for PCR results back. She has been ill for nearly 7 weeks now.

But fuck the non-vaccinated hey?

I understand where you are coming from OP- but you can't make that decision on behalf of everyone else right now can you? Should your child have passed covid on to classmates, they would likely have had parents who would have done the correct thing and tested anyway, and therefore the class be sent home to isolate anyway. So the whole thing pointless and you have potentially infected more people unnecessarily...

Posts like this never amaze me. Why should OP's snowflake and class have their last 10 days spoilt!

I've been shielding for 16 months now because I've had a solid organ transplant and my immunity it shot. Yes I've had both jabs and yes I have a tiny percentage that it might has worked.

I can live with 'life is getting back to normal' but that is some serious I could give a fuck attitude and you should be ashamed of yourself.

Kinda similar OP, although it’s not so much for our own isolation as causing a huge impact on other people.

The implications of isolation are huge. DD developed a cough in the evening a few weeks ago. I did test her as it was worse than usual. But I was so anxious.. we’d spent the day in a couple neighbours houses having lunch & tea and we’d been to softplay, a cafe & my uncles the day before. I was horrified at the thought we’d cause them all to have to isolate! I was genuinely dreading it. Thankfully it was negative.

Until there is support for isolation, it’s shit. It’s been a really tough year. I’ve had to miss an unprecedented amount of work due to either burst bubbles or waiting for tests. I have 2 young kids who get constant colds, coughs & minor fevers. It’s all part of a normal childhood but now means they miss days & days of nursery, we lose £50 a day everytime they do and I can’t work (impossible to take phone calls all day with a 15 month old). My work have given me a warning that if I miss anymore, ill be considered unable to fulfil my job role. All because of bloody covid isolation.

So, it’s no real surprise people feel like this is it. Roll on the end of close contact isolation! That’ll help!

The Zoe app says the top three symptoms are now headache, sore throat and sneezing. Lots of doctors and scientists are saying that the NHS supposedly "top three" symptoms to get a test need to be updated as they are no longer accurate.

I'm being handed my arse to me on a plate - fair enough...

However, the fact that most pupils aren't doing LFTs mean that, rightly or wrongly, most people are making the same judgment as me... It's better overall just to get on with life now than to allow it to continue to cause mass disruption to people's lives.

This is a selfish attitude. Very unfair to all the other families of children in the class as well as the staff.

It has been a struggle all year in school where the minority choose to do their own thing without considering that their actions impact on everyone else. I’ve seen parents sending their children in with symptoms then refusing to collect them when the school phones, allowing children to play and mix outside of school when they have been asked to isolate, lying about getting a PCR test etc. All of this was pre vaccine too.

You maybe able to say what you say, we are post-vaccination world, and be justified once everyone has been fully vaccinated. But it isn't. So sending a potentially positive child, knowing the symptom of new variant is different from old is extremely selfish.

I agree. Hospitalisations and deaths are barely increasing. The damage to children’s education and mental health is now far greater than the mortality impact

We don’t take these steps for norovirus or flu both of which can be deadly to the vulnerable. We take a balance approach to risks costs and benefits. COVID now needs to be the same