If the government were honest about the next 4 months

[RuleWithAWoodenFoot]

They'd say that children are probably going to catch covid, there is nothing to stop this happening. Lots of families will probably catch it off their children, school staff will probably catch it off children too.

Education is going to be disrupted again if the above happens. No way around it. But it could be 'over' by November when the bad weather kicks in and older folk start getting ill as per usual circumstances. At that point booster vaccs could start.

It's definitely 'an approach', but not telling people that this is the plan is unfair. Do you think people have realised this yet? Or are the Emperor's new clothes still in view?

Actually I said I do care about them

Just not enough to restrict the entire country no

@Peteycat

Oh I won't scroll on by, because I'm here to speak up for people who are tired of the behaviour that is displayed on these threads.

@Peteycat - very first page… fits within the definition of white knighting from my point of view.

Anyway, I thought you were ignoring me now? I was looking forward to that.

wearing a mask for 10 minutes in a shop is not going to bring the country to a standstill

I think the shop would probably rather have the trade to be honest

testing only takes a minute or so and then a few seconds to check the result, hardly a major chunk of your day.

At least you’re honest. I really don’t think your attitude is the majority (or popular) though. Would you mind telling the teachers in your child’s school how you feel so they can distance from your child? Genuine question.

how will you live with yourself when all you needed to do was to stay away from others whilst you were infectious

I’d live with myself the same was as if I gave a vulnerable person any other kind of illness that I didn’t even know I had. Every one of us has likely unwittingly passed along an illness which eventually (following a chain of transmission) has made someone quite sick or killed them. It is part of being human. Fortunately for me, social distancing is my natural default (I need a lot of personal space) and even over the last two weeks where I’ve been living life perfectly normally, I can only think of three people who would be classed as close contacts.

I would, of course, take additional precautions if I had reason to believe I had covid (eg identified as a close contact or if I had symptoms).

plus some mitigation in places where we KNOW Covid spreads easily seems sensible

The kind of mitigation measures being talked about (face coverings in school corridors for example) are simply pissing into the wind when covid is so prevalent in the restriction-free community. Window dressing nonsense designed to make people feel better without actually making them safer. Minimum standard masks used properly would be a different matter, of course. And I’m 100% behind better ventilation in schools, but I think it’s appalling we don’t have decent ventilation regardless of covid tbh.

testing only takes a minute or so and then a few seconds to check the result, hardly a major chunk of your day.

Would you still do it if you were on a zero hour contact so no sick pay and when the loss of 10 days wages mean you can’t pay you bills? I wouldn’t, and I simply do not believe anyone who says they would risk making their kids homeless when they don’t have symptoms.

Chloe crocodile, I know someone who that happened to. It was truly awful, no money new baby self employed. Hey, but if you have enough money available and help then you can shout at finger wag at others can't you?

The government have changed the isolation criteria for a reason to all you testing and isolation stalwarts out there.

I've asked this question before. I'm going to ask again.

How can you say that the constant use of this plastic is justified in line with the current climate change crisis?

Nobody ever answers my question.

At least you’re honest. yes I was thinking this also.

zero hours contracts I would feel very sympathetic to someone who wasn't testing or isolating properly because they just couldn't afford it.

Herecomesthesun, you would still think they were wrong though?

@Peteycat

Chloe crocodile, I know someone who that happened to. It was truly awful, no money new baby self employed. Hey, but if you have enough money available and help then you can shout at finger wag at others can't you?

The government have changed the isolation criteria for a reason to all you testing and isolation stalwarts out there.

They haven't changed the recommendation to test for school students, which was what we were discussing, and what PP is proposing to ignore (and not, from what they have said, because they are on a zero hours contracts).

When I go out around here, people are wearing masks inside. I realise you don't get it x

I wear a mask in shops out of a combination of courtesy and not really wanting to be the odd one out... Equally, in an indoor setting where masks don't tend to be worn, I don't, and it doesn't concern me. Given the numbers who don't wear masks in theatres, restaurants, theme parks etc. I don't think I'm the only one.

I can't quite believe that the almost
fully masked shoppers in Tesco yesterday are a completely different set of people to the almost fully unmasked customers in the busy hotel I stayed in last week, or in the queue for an indoor ride at a theme park (both of which were arguably far more "risky" than being in a well ventilated sparsely populated superstore.)

Recommendation. Key word there. No, but she is simply highlighting the situation on a bigger picture. Why are you so obsessed with testing kids?

@Peteycat

Herecomesthesun, you would still think they were wrong though?

If someone is on the breadline and so they can't do that, I can see the difficulty - that's why there have been strong arguments for funding isolation a bit better for the poorest people.

@Peteycat

Recommendation. Key word there. No, but she is simply highlighting the situation on a bigger picture. Why are you so obsessed with testing kids?

It could keep infections down in schools if the infected kids go home? Not rocket science.

No it won’t

Because kids rarely get symptoms

They will only be sent home if positive and not contacts

Honestly hardly any kids get symptoms by comparison so why would they test? It’s certainly not for their benefit

The main way disruption will happen is if they do test it’s bloody obvious given the high rate of asymptomatic presentation

My dd is year 11 sept and has already isolated as acontact lots of times ‘for the benefit of others’. I am not worried about her catching covid one bit so won’t be doing anything that deliberately causes her to isolate

Why the hell would I?!

So no come sept I won’t test because she can’t afford to stay off for an illness which isn’t making her unwell

If she has covid and is asymptomatic I genuinely don’t want to know as she’s been inconvenienced enough

Her grades are already lower than they were end of year 9

ChloeCrocodile
Every one of us has likely unwittingly passed along an illness which eventually (following a chain of transmission) has made someone quite sick or killed them

I think the key word there is ‘unwittingly’. You don’t need to be unwitting if you test. By not testing, your actions are much more likely to impact on zero hours workers as cases will rise, businesses will close as not enough staff are left to run them, teachers will be off sick (because many people are ill even after double vaccinations) and it increases the likelihood of closed schools and more lockdowns - which impact zero hour workers.

I would like parents to say if they are not planning on testing their children so I can adapt my behaviour accordingly. I feel my first priority is my own health and, linked to this, my second priority is to be able to provide an education to ALL of the children in my class. Those who refuse to test are jeopardising both.

If the government provided wages for zero hour workers (not sure if you are in that category), would you be happy to test and isolate or is it an ideological decision? The tests are really very easy and no big deal.

If kids don’t test there may well be tons of covid but given most don’t get symptoms none of them would know

No tests, no cases, no isolations = no disruption

It’s obvious

@Peteycat

I've asked this question before. I'm going to ask again.

How can you say that the constant use of this plastic is justified in line with the current climate change crisis?

It is tricky to take your questions seriously because you seem to scattergun any thread with anything you can think of regarding arguments for anti-mask, anti-vaccine and basically anti any COVID suppression policies.

I'm pretty convinced that if the use of plastic was something that could be used argue the other way, you'd be all for it.

Are you talking about LFT or PCR testing specifically? I personally agree that LFT for green-light testing isn't worth it due to their low sensitivity but for things that someone was already going to be doing (ie, working as a teacher, in a university, going into school) they have a role as they will catch a certain number of cases we wouldn't otherwise know about, as long as the person isn't going to be penalised financially for it.

You just seem to argue that everything to do with coronavirus suppression is bad, but it's a lot more nuanced than that.

watapalava
But the rules have changed so she would ONLY isolate if SHE is Covid-positive. Her grades will be a lot lower if she is taught by a stream of cover teachers. Your actions will lead to more infections.

I think the kids in my DC's secondary school will continue to be pretty careful. There is no shame, of course, in having covid, and staying at home etc. However, I think they would not want to come into school, having not tested themselves, and then give it to all their mates and have a load of people needing to stay at home. I suspect that would be seen as "embarrassing".

So far, they have generally behaved pretty responsibly and interacted really well with the SLT and the information going back to parents has been very good.

Good for them & may it continue!

@Watapalava

If kids don’t test there may well be tons of covid but given most don’t get symptoms none of them would know

No tests, no cases, no isolations = no disruption

It’s obvious

But there will be disruption when a certain number of these children get significantly ill or have long term complications? And that's without considering the implication for contributing to rising cases in the community, increasing chances of new variants etc.

It's the denominator that's important, and even though it's a very small proportion who will be affected, this translates to a large number of affected kids when you consider how many will be exposed.

Coronavirus suppression cannot continue. There are various issues with them. So, I don't scattergun threads. Is that your new go to word for a different opinion because you have said that to me before.

Not testing doesn’t stop cases.
Your asymptomatic daughter comes into school and passes it on. Three teachers (all vaccinated) catch it, days apart. They don’t need hospitalisation but two feel pretty grotty. One has ten days off, one needs two weeks and the third is sick for three weeks. There is disruption .

And some children take it back home and the same thing happens to the police, nurses, factory workers, delivery drivers.

Not testing does not make Covid disappear. I wish it did.