I find this the laughable thing.
Kids who test positive have to stay home. But siblings still have to go to school despite studies showing the high rate of household transmission with Delta (which is higher for unvaccinated family members).
Even if you test multiple times a day to 'check' its easy to be negative in the morning but positive in the afternoon - meaning there is a window where you are positive and exposing everyone else. And most parents are not going to test multiple times even if they have a positive child.
This leaves schools in a ridicilous position with multiple children who are in school, but they know have covid positive siblings.
And they have to have those children in school otherwise its deemed unauthorised absence.
With that policy in mind, at this point, its merely a matter of time before it runs through the entire unvaccinated population (many children).
I am kind of clinging to the thought and logic of this being that at the moment, you want covid to spread like wildfire through primary schools rather than in three months time, because there has been a strategic decision not to vaccinate under 12s. That means they will all get it at some point in a big wave because they are a large unvaccinated population in close proximity. Come three months time we are going to hit bigger problems with waning immunity and thats what worries me more.
At least now we are at 'peak vaccination immunity' and that provides some insulation against it spreading further outside the school and related community.
Its the fact the booster programme seems to be behind where it should be at this point, which worries me.
Even then though, I do question why anyone in a household with a positive case isn't minimising their contacts as much as possible, especially given there is already a real gap in the new rules which actively almost encourages transmission for schools and workplaces.
If its not necessary socialisation why do it, knowing you are at high risk of developing covid from a household contact? The household transmission rate for Delta should make you sweat and give you cause to pause for thought regardless of what the rules do or done say.
I think that this is liable to become a growing concern coming into late November, early December when the penny starts to drop about the Booster Programme not keeping pace with those now eligible for it especially if we start to see a rise in hospitalisation rates and death rates.
Having said that, given my point above about peak vaccine protection, I also I don't think its a huge problem now and its more of an uncomfortable feeling rather than a fear. I do think that people will be even more lax the closer we get to Christmas and the more social events that start to crop up too.
And thats the point that worries me more and normalisation / acceptance of socialising whilst you have a household positive doesn't strike me as a good thing in that context.
Certainly I think many in their 50s and 40s with kids are going to start getting increasingly nervous and its will become more of a socially controversial issue than it already is whilst their children (including young adult children) are wanting to do more...
So I'm not in the black and white camp on this one. I personally don't like the idea of getting covid (again?) but I actually recognise having some exposure now might be a blessing in disguise which prevents worse issues further down the line. However my head is still going 'uh no covid BAD must avoid'. And I also think that I'm going to feel differently than I do now, in a couple of months about the same scenario.
Yeah. I don't think I'd be comfortable if I knew and I'd think people were being unfair, but I also am aware thats the reality of where we are and there is probably little I can do unless I am prepared to stay home myself (which might well be where I am mentally in about 8 or 9 weeks).
I think that people should be giving a lot more serious thought about what they do or don't do and how the situation is pretty fluid and changeable.