Is it ok we are just letting our kids get Covid?

[Moonopoly]

DD5 has just tested positive for Covid. There have been several cases in her Year 1 class but school remains the same. Under the old rules the ‘bubble’ would have closed and she would perhaps have stood some chance of not getting it.
Is it ok that we are letting the government pursue a herd immunity policy with a novel virus amongst our kids?
We seem to be the only country doing this?

Is she ill?

Knowledge is power. And many with Long Covid are getting the same scorn and brush off as in your post as we did and still do in some quarters

I couldn’t agree more that we need more knowledge.

The problem is right now there are so many different ways of defining LC and so many different ways of measuring prevalence that we have no clarity. It’s being used by various factions to push their own view and yet we don’t actually know how extensive an issue it is, despite all the numbers being thrown around. This is my point

Am I ok with my child’s class no longer shutting for every case? Yes.
Am I ok with her not isolating at home for 10 days when she is well? Yes.
Am I ok with not having to take unpaid leave several times a term? Yes.
Am I ok with the fact my child caught Covid at school last year? Yes.

Because it’s a virus. We as a family have isolated so many times in the last 18 months that I’m not prepared to do it anymore.

Yes. It's almost completely harmless to them. It's endemic. The ealrier they get exposure and build immunity, the better for them. Adults have all had a chance to of vaccination which is close to breaking the hospitalisations. At this point, it's like any other nasty resp virus that is in circulation at any time.

How do you know it is completely harmless? Isn’t there also a higher risk of developing T1 diabetes, that’s not a barrel of laughs for someone to live with for the rest of their life.

Sticking our heads in the sand due to a lack of data is exactly what our government did in February/early March 2020.

What you’re doing is scaremongering based on totally inadequate data. That’s not an answer either.

I'm really pleased that my kids will have less isolation and disruption. The vaccine rollout has gone great and it's time to just crack on. We can't kick the can down the road forever.

My son caught it last year. And never passed it on to Anyone else on the house.

My dd who 11 has it now she's been in her room. And touch wood she has not passed it on to anyone in the house.

My other children are in school and seem to be fine.

I wounder if there is a way to give people a choice if they are vulnerable or live with someone vulnerable

@toomuchlaundry

How do you know it is completely harmless? Isn’t there also a higher risk of developing T1 diabetes, that’s not a barrel of laughs for someone to live with for the rest of their life.

No, there is not a higher risk of developing Type 1 diabetes from covid anymore than from any other viral infection.

As I said on a covid/diabetes risk thread someone started last night any viral infection can trigger an autoimmune disease like T1 diabetes, not just covid.

Also T1 diabetes isn't just diagnosed in children it can be diagnosed at any age hence it being renamed Type 1 diabetes rather than juvenile onset diabetes as it used to be called.

Yes, some people have developed diabetes after having covid but some people also develop T1 diabetes after having flu, measles, the common cold, etc etc

Any autoimmune disease can be triggered by any viral infection if you have a genetic predisposition.

I do wonder if a T1 diabetes/covid scare story is going to be the next 'thing' to scare encourage parents to vaccinate their children.

I'm fine with it. DS had it last month.

But if we are saying all children are going to get COVID then that will still be a large number who could develop T1. Do all children get all viral infections doing the rounds?

@DoubleShotEspresso

I'm not good with this at all. I don't accept that children and all those working within schools should be thrown under the bus like this, with parents afforded no choices. It's an act of pure evil on the part of this shitty government . There's no reason why we couldn't have begun to "live with it" whilst retaining a few sensible mitigating measures. I hate this with every fibre of my being.

Totally agree…it’s disgraceful 😡

Do all children get all viral infections doing the rounds?

Not all of them get everything, but most children catch most of the really common ones at some point, yes. RSV for example, most kids have caught it before the age of 2.

Do all children get all viral infections doing the rounds?

Mostly, probably, but we don't test them do we? And that's the difference with Covid. At present we are still doing "routine" testing. If we stopped LFT's many of those cases wouldn't be logged, nor indeed noticed, and the child possibly wouldn't even be aware they had the virus.

DD was run down/ill during lower sixth, as it affected her quite badly, she had a full panel of tests, privately, you don't get the full panel on the NHS. Turns out she had a number of markers for various viruses, but hadn't actualy been "ill" with any of them. She had, if you like, a form of long covid. Lasted a couple of months, but all was well. On the NHS, we wouldn't even have known what she had.

I only tell this tale, as it is indicative of you often only know what you have had, if you go looking for it.

We have to get away from testing and logging cases. Hospitalisations are key, as with flu. We have a vaccine, the population is something like 88% immune, it doesn't really get better than that.

@NannyOggsward

Yes, all 3 of mine, and me and 4 other members of my family currently have it after avoiding any cases really in the schools.

We can’t eradicate the virus forever, we don’t have a plan B if the vaccines fail, we can’t keep destroying the country trying to avoid illness and death or we cause more. Cancer victims, MH Issues, poverty etc.

The impact the isolation alone is having on my MH is far more dramatic than the symptoms of Covid.

We need to just let it run now, keep up the vaccination programme and only take action if it looks like the NHS might fall over (or better yet sort it out so they won’t!).

Agree with this.

I’d never heard of RSV before COVID came along

It’s not being thrown under a bus.
Pretty much every man woman and child is going to get covid during the next year. You may or may not know you have it. No mitigation’s except possibly full lockdowns will stop this or even slow it significantly.
Vaccines mean it will be mild for the vast vast majority of people.
Before covid, we’re you worried about every cold and vomiting bug that went around? Sometimes that would knock out almost whole classes at once.
If we weren’t testing and only being off when actually sick, classes would be running just fine with a couple of kids off at a time.
We are not in March 2020 panic mode. Genuinely don’t understand posts like this.

Spot on!

@toomuchlaundry

But if we are saying all children are going to get COVID then that will still be a large number who could develop T1. Do all children get all viral infections doing the rounds?

But to develop an autoimmune disease you would have to have a genetic predisposition and even then you could have covid and not develop any autoimmunity. it's not a foregone conclusion that if you have a genetic predisposition you will develop T1D after covid or any other virus.

100% of people get at least 1 viral illness in their life time and not all those with the genetic predisposition will develop an autoimmune disease after meeting a trigger like a virus - why some do and some don't is not known.

In fact to go back to T1D...this particular autoimmune disease has for years increased at a rate of 4-5% pa long, long before covid was around and no one knows why. Why is this? No one really knows, it could be an increase in viral triggers, vitamin d deficiency (it's rare at lower latitudes), poor diet, hell, it could even be childhood vaccinations if you want to put your tinfoil hat on.

As I said before though it's REALLY important to remember that T1 Diabetes isn't just diagnosed in children it can be diagnosed at any age hence it being renamed Type 1 diabetes rather than juvenile onset diabetes as it used to be called.

I think the problem is there just isn't a choice to be made on how to handle COVID that doesn't have negative consequences for children. Indeed there is no way that doesnt have negative consequences for us all.

So the question should be is there actually a realistic option that wont ultimately end up with the majority of children getting COVID and pretty much all of them to be exposed.

Because I dont think there is.

And I say now with DS on day 8 of COVID isolation and my Mum on day 6. Both of whom were the last two to get it. DD and I were in the first wave (antibody test for me), DH in the second Alpha wave.

[quote Moonopoly]@AnyFucker erm some mitigation like other countries? Masks? Better ventilation? Isolation for contacts?[/quote]
Masks in Scotland. Makes f all difference.

I don't think it is "being thrown under a bus"

I think it is being in a pandemic.

I don't understand why people don't seem to be listening more to Whitty and JVT who are advising cautious behaviour and speaking of a very difficult winter ahead?

We'll be able to get on with our lives better if cases don't rise too far, otherwise we might end up with more setbacks to trying to live a relatively normal life.

Yes, lots of kids are getting it now and the sooner the better. Hopefully by the winter we'll be through the worst. The more mitigations that are brought in, the longer this will take.

No it's not OK. But the government has fucked up and given up hasn't it.

@Silverswirl
Why not? How long would you like kids to keep missing week upon week of school for

I’m not talking about isolating classes when there’s a case. I’m talking about siblings going into school when they share a house with a positive case is madness.
They won’t be in and out like the bubble system. It will only be whilst there’s a positive case in the household, which isn’t going to be a weekly occurrence unless you live in the waltons or radfords house.

It just seems sensible to me

Totally agree…it’s disgraceful 😡

How long would mitigations delay your dc getting Covid?

Given how transmissible delta is and the harms some mitigations bring