COVID infected child coming into school

[Dancerinthedark01]

Sorry - rubbish title

But DD11 just came home and says BoyA came into school this morning saying his whole family has COVID. He was late in because he’d just been tested. He then sat there sniffing and squinting his eyes. DD’s description.

Then half an hour later he was taken out of school because test came back as positive.

Is this normal practice now?

@rrhuth

They'll prioritise the health of children, unlike here. But all their children will be vaccinated, in the end, if they follow the US.

Children's health and well-being doesn't begin and end with Covid...

I've no particular issue with children being vaccinated - my 13 dd is due to get her jab next week - but given the JCVI assessed that the benefits were marginal for this age group, and there are some (albeit tiny) risks of vaccination, its not completely clear cut
and is hardly a game-changer in terms of improving the Covid risk for children.

twitter.com/chrischirp/status/1449437841260531717

Schulte

It doesn’t have to be masks for years. And masks are not the only thing you can do. Again, look at what’s happening in other European countries. Why are we so reluctant to learn from others?”

Because we’re British, damn you, and all of those Johnny foreigners 🙄

Chrischirp - Christina Pagel is extremely tedious.

@Delatron

Surely the only way for your child or yourself never to get a Covid (since it’s now endemic in the population) is either constant suppression (and even then cases will be circulating) or zero Covid (not an option).

There will be Covid every year. How are you going to stop your child from catching it? You won’t. I know this is very hard to comprehend. But half hearted mitigations merely artificially suppress it.

I would rather my child have it now rather than not be exposed then get it when they are 40/50/60 when it will be more serious.

I know this is very hard to comprehend, but vaccinating secondary school children efficiently and adopting masks over the winter would help to control spread and manage covid over what is likely to be a very difficult next few months.

I would rather not have a nightmare of infection and deaths and overwhelmed hospitals this winter (it looks as though we are in line to fare far worse than continental Europe)

Kicking the can down the line a little gives us the chance to improve medical strategies and treatments.

oh and Christina Pagel is entirely right on that thread

@herecomesthsun

I know this is very hard to comprehend, but vaccinating secondary school children efficiently and adopting masks over the winter would help to control spread and manage covid over what is likely to be a very difficult next few months.

I don't necessarily have an issue with this... If numbers become unmanageable then I'd support more restrictions, but it would be with the clear aim of "squashing the curve" only for as long as necessary.

The issue I have is that some posters (including you it seems) don't really have that outlook at all, which is more about keeping Covid suppressed indefinitely, with the implication that restrictions will continue without end, and that it's somehow a realistic goal for children to be protected from Covid for their entire lifetime.

@Warhertisuff

I am thinking mainly of getting us through the difficult winter ahead.

Pandemics usually last only a couple of years, you know.

If we wear masks for 1 winter, that does not condemn us to wearing masks for the next 40, does it?

(It's not THAT difficult to understand these sentences is it?)

[quote TheSunIsStillShining]twitter.com/chrischirp/status/1449437841260531717[/quote]
Thanks. Bang on the money.

I'm hearing this a lot right now. I think it's bonkers that you could have two children at home with Covid and the other child is still able to go to school. Given how contagious the virus is it would make sense to continue asking people to self isolate as a household (winter will be hell otherwise).

Ohhh this is why cases are going up!! 🙄🙄

Didn’t Scotland keep masks?

They still had the peak which passed in a few weeks. They will be in same position with majority dc having had it going on to Winter.

Maybe they slowed it down by a week? But can’t have been much as it was even quicker than here (fewer students though)

[quote TheSunIsStillShining]twitter.com/chrischirp/status/1449437841260531717[/quote]
I also read this, and also don't understand why UK parents are so sanguine. Parents in other countries wouldn't stand for it. Why are we so passive?

This is Scotland with masks I assume

What caused the sharp decrease? It wasn’t a change in restrictions

How would you change the shape further.. if you wanted it flattened so it ran over winter (or other)

That’s a great thread @rrhuth

@Delatron upthread wouldn’t hold Spain as an example as they locked kids up for 7 weeks. That’s true and was awful for them but has since been overturned as unconstitutional and all fines returned and apologies issued.

Spain also did not see a single day of school closure in the last academic year and decided to get their secondary kids fully vaxxed before term started. Other than indoor masks (which we’re doing in London anyway a lot of the time by common sense of lot by law) life there is back to normal.

The covid becoming endemic argument…well Boris extended our freedom day to give as many people as possible the chance to be vaccinated before being exposed. But when it came to children they flip flopped back and forth until coming up with a half hearted delayed single vaccine and co monitor solution, neither of which are anywhere near being in place half way through term one. Not that these kids can travel in half term anyway because they’ll only have one dose. I’m raging on behalf of kids.

Please don’t use me as an example of someone who supported the delaying of kids vaccinations. Of course it would be much better to do it over the summer!

I still wholeheartedly disagree with Spain locking children up with no exercise and fresh air for 7 weeks. Our delay on vaccinations for kids has nothing to do with that.

Life is back to normal here. The NHS is still not fit for purpose and hugely underfunded but we have all our freedoms.

I didn’t!! Just pointed out you wouldn’t hold Spain up as example because of one thing they did.

What we need to stop doing is seeing this as a competition, or assuming any one country has done everything right. People keep looking for the perfect response, NZ borders, Israel early vax, France covid passes, - but there isn’t one - we COULD try to learn from what countries have done successfully and discount what they haven’t. And as I said, life is back to normal in Spain too aside from indoor masks AND they don’t have a school year to catch up on.

Do people think being able to go maskless into a shop or school is worth the endless hokey cokey of school attendance among teachers and children?

[quote herecomesthsun]@Warhertisuff

I am thinking mainly of getting us through the difficult winter ahead.

Pandemics usually last only a couple of years, you know.

If we wear masks for 1 winter, that does not condemn us to wearing masks for the next 40, does it?

(It's not THAT difficult to understand these sentences is it?)[/quote]
There's nothing magic about two years. The virus won't think "well, my two years is up, I'd better stop infecting people now!"

If you suppress virus spread, all that will do is ensure it takes longer to reach the point of equilibrium necessary for the pandemic to be over. That may be sensible given healthcare capacity and other considerations, but there's "no virus expiry date" that we just have to wait for.

Previous pandemics have only died away when there is sufficient immunity in the population. Vaccines are a massive assistance in this, but unfortunately with Delta, they are sufficient to do the job alone.

Thinking Covid will go away if its own accord because "two years is up" despite the fact that it will have hosts it can infect is wishful thinking and completely unscientific.

I have no idea what Jenny Harries said either so please don’t misquote me!

I said for me personally (and I’m allowed an opinion) I worry about far more other things than Covid for my two healthy children. Considering half of DS 1’s class had it last week and were not particularly ill and they were all back the following week. In the real world people don’t feel the hysteria that is on here.

And yes for those at the back, we should have vaccinated 12 year olds over the summer. That isn’t a ‘mitigation’ and that doesn’t restrict anybodies lives in any way. Constantly masking children does.

Do people think being able to go maskless into a shop or school is worth the endless hokey cokey of school attendance among teachers and children?

But look at the Scotland chart and how steep the rise and decrease is, with masks.

Ah @herecomesthsun you think when this pandemic ends after precisely two years Covid will disappear. It’s not endemic then? Best tell the scientists.

God people place so much faith in masks. (Worn half heartedly by most kids)I’d actually like then to bring them back for a month and we can then really tell or have some evidence of their super amazing protective qualities. If only we’d have known how effective masks were last year we’d never have seen the exponential growth we have here...oh wait...

I don’t know who Jenny harries is.

Half of the class were off. That’s not a normal, consistent education. But okay. I’d rather my kids were masked but received a full year of uninterrupted education, but tbf my dc coped well with masks (better than me) and very badly with isolating.

A week off school in a year? (Apart from lockdown) Not massively disruptive to be honest. Or are we trying to stop all illness now?

Most children will have a few days to a week off sick every year.

Thank god isolations and bubbles have stopped. That was very disruptive. Oh and closing schools but opening the pubs and garden centres. That was disruptive.

I think there's a misconception on here that those of us such as myself and @Delatron who aren't advocating the tightening of restrictions are somehow Covid deniers.

@Delatron has explained her position but, for the record, i did support earlier lockdowns - the first because Covid was novel and it appeared to be out of control, and the second because vaccines were imminent. Also I wholeheartedly supported the vaccine roll out and think, on balance, that the roll out to 12+ should have occurred over the summer.

My main gripe is the naive view that more restrictions at this stage will make any real difference to the progress of Covid infection other than delaying the inevitable. Covid won't simply "give up" after two years, and anything short of a completely unfeasible worldwide lockdown could even hope to prevent infection spread (look at NZ - their very harsh lockdown after just one case in Auckland failed).

There may be some good arguments for "delaying the inevitable" to prevent services from becoming overwhelmed if that is necessary, but they shouldn't be dressed up as "stopping kids from getting Covid".