School bubbles going. More testing - how will that work for primary school children?

[Tiddlywinkly]

Just that really. Plans will be announced today for a more 'proportionate' response to cases and close contact isolation. Testing will probably be cited as the way to achieve this.

I've had to get my 5 year old tested twice due to him displaying symptoms and it was truly horrendous. We both ended up crying. I'm just wondering if the government will have thought of young children in their plans. I guess if we can't perform the tests they'll have to isolate? Any thoughts?

The incidence of clots after Johnson and Johnson was in line with normal incidence levels in the general population so the link isn't as strong as with AZ.

There will never be any consequence-free vaccine. But when the countries around the world at our stage of vaccination have carried out their risk assessments and stated that the advantage to the teenager outweighs the risk, our delay makes no sense. What exactly are we supposed to be waiting for?

Having had both I actually think I would rather have Covid than chickenpox.
The itching and the scarring afterwards are pretty bad, there's the risks to pregnant women and the risk of shingles later when it reactivates which can cause nerve damage
I'm actually pretty surprised we don't vaccinate against chicken pox as the US do
I'm not sure you could make a case that Covid is worse than chickenpox for children as most children are asymptomatic or have mild symptoms with Covid. If I had a choice of the 2 I'd rather my child have a chickenpox vaccine.

You might be right @CovoidOfAllHumanity, looks like we’re on course to find out one way or another.

@CovoidOfAllHumanity

Having had both I actually think I would rather have Covid than chickenpox. The itching and the scarring afterwards are pretty bad, there's the risks to pregnant women and the risk of shingles later when it reactivates which can cause nerve damage I'm actually pretty surprised we don't vaccinate against chicken pox as the US do I'm not sure you could make a case that Covid is worse than chickenpox for children as most children are asymptomatic or have mild symptoms with Covid. If I had a choice of the 2 I'd rather my child have a chickenpox vaccine.

yy if you possibly can get your kids vaccinated against chickenpox, it is so so worth it.

@Beebityboo

Just watched Gav's update. No bubbles, no staggered starts, no masks or social distancing from September. Zero covid mitigations whatsoever. Didn't mention testing either.

Except that he failed to mention the small print in his own guidance published today - there will be bubbles in areas with outbreaks. My school is in an area where we were 1500 in 100,000 on June 28th, so I imagine ours will be kept it as high in September.

He did say schools could keep bubbles if they liked until they broke up, which was nice of him.

He also said we will keep the increased ventilation.

So that's still opening the windows (if you have them).

Wonder what increased ventilation is if you don't have windows that open. He very carefully refused to answer the question whether there would be any funding for ventilation for schools that can't provide adequate ventilation. After waffling on about the wonderful laptop scheme they had provided after an MP had described all the help schools had from charities/businesses providing laptops. If the Government scheme was so wonderful why did schools have to begging to charities etc to get laptops.

Oh and did I mention I am banning mobiles in January?’

Useless.