AIBU That we learn to accept COVID is here to stay!

[Jakie7700]

That now a massive number is double vaccinated those who want to be and that teenagers have started to be offered them, it seems so ridiculous that kids are still losing out on school because they are being sent home as they have a minor cold with minor cough. Covid will still be around in years to come, so will children still be sent home then with a mild cough due to colds?

Many missed days of school waiting for PCR results, parents usually mothers missing work over and over. Nobody seemed to care two years back when these same children were spreading flu, chicken pox etc which can all kill or cause serious complications both in adults and children.

Nothing is going to change you can get COVID again like a cold. Just last week I heard of two friends kids being sent home because of mild cough (coughed three/four times the whole day) missed days of school waiting for results only to be negative and then told this will happen every time they have a cough which as most will know in primary children will be alot over winter! These same parents who have nearly lost jobs due to having to juggle childcare through lockdowns. Surely it is just time to accept COVID is isn't going anywhere and stop making kids espeically suffer.

@Jakie7700 🤣🤣🤣 yes your OP definitely was asking about kids not to be sent home in 2 years time and you definitely weren’t saying they shouldn’t be sent home now…. 🙄

I suspect there wasn’t the outcry about chickenpox as it kills on average 25 people a year… so not very comparable and all comparisons to flu have been fully debunked many many times…. There’s a difference between highly infectious and having a high mortality rate.

@MrsHerculePoirot
Not once did I compare covid to flu or chicken pox.
I actually asked both about now and in years to come please feel free to have another read if you need to refresh your memory....
Love how you decide to compare with chicken pox and not flu in children as you probably well aware many more each year die of flu. And no I am not comparing flu to COVID just stating it does kill many more children than chicken pox each year.
Anyway safe to say we will agree to disagree.

You do realise you do not have to read or post sweetheart. Have a good night x

Oh this made me cringe. How patronising.

Yes I am aware that flu kills more than chickenpox. If they aren’t comparable in any way then why did you refer to them in the OP? What was the point? It’s very confusing.

You say you were asking about two years time but now you say you’re asking about now AND in two years time.

You are saying I’ve brought up chicken pox and flu - but if you are’s implying any kind of comparison then I have no idea why you’ve written about them?

As a school if a child has chicken pox they have to stay at home and we’re informed in case of pregnancy etc. If a child had flu they’d clearly be too unwell to be in school and we’d ask parents to collect. Very weird to say schools didn’t care about flu or chickenpox. Or to throw them in the OP and then claim they weren’t there for comparison reasons.

Perhaps it would be better to clarify exactly what you were trying say rather than claim everyone is not understanding what you’ve written.

Do you think kids should be sent home to take a PCR test if they’re coughing or not?

What was your point about chickenpox and flu?

@MrsHerculePoirot
Let me ask you then if schools are so concerned pre covid at kids being in school unwell even with minor illnesses, such as a cold and coughs which can spread the flu before the child becomes seriously unwell too unwell to attend school then why do many schools push kids to have 100% attendance.

Even penalizing those who have been unwell and kept of school by not being given a treat day or getting a 100% attendance award.

If schools cared so much pre covid about them being ill in school why do teachers support this and not stand up and say how wrong it is?

Yes, I didn't understand the point the OP was making about chickenpox and flu either.

It's the Government who impose attendance targets and will send in Ofsted to any school who they perceive has absence rates too high.
Take it up with them; we teachers have got enough to do.

That’s a whole different thread - happy to discuss that another time. I’d rather you answered the question I asked as to what exactly is the point or question this thread was trying to make.

@MrsHerculePoirot
You were the one who started throwing stats around of how many children die of chicken pox I simply stated more children die of flu which is true.
@CallmeHendricks
I am aware of that, but the school do not have to do the attendance rewards or certificates. Nor are they forced to exclude children who through no fault of their own been unwell and kept off. If you believe kids should be kept of when I'll with all viruses why have teachers not stood up before and stated how wrong this is.

OP, you are contradicting yourself. At the start of the thread you were saying kids shouldn’t have to isolate whilst waiting for a pcr and how they are losing essential learning time etc. Towards the middle and end you are now saying that you never stated kids shouldn’t get a test for one of the 3 main symptoms??? But, your friend’s child has a new cough. If the school want a pcr they are well within their rights. It’s a cough. One of the main symptoms and coupled with other cold like symptoms, it makes sense for the school to ask for a pcr. Let’s not forget we are a country with the highest rate of covid infections especially amongst school aged children. Cold like symptoms in a child with a cough are quite likely to be covid considering.
So are you actually saying that kids should be allowed in school with covid type symptoms (including one of the main symptoms-cough) ??
Have you thought about the fact that if schools are not taking extra care and staff end up becoming infected, then the kids will be in a much worse situation with cover/supply staff or possible school closures as not enough staff to open the school? (My youngest DS school had to close for 3 days as so many staff were off.)

@Merryoldgoat

I’m sick of these posts.

Accepting its here to stay doesn’t mean you just spread it all over the fucking place.

There are still 5m unvaccinated adults in the U.K. around 20% of unvaccinated people who get infected require medical intervention - that’s 1m people and with a mortality rate of 2% that’s still another 100,000 possible deaths if it’s left to run riot.

Yes, we need to live, enjoy life, accept its endemic but we can still try not to spread it everywhere.

Well said.

My school does not do attendance awards or certificates, but I can see how some schools might feel they are a tool to answer the Government's bidding. Again, the issue lies with people far higher up the food chain than Head Teachers.

I don't know what you're talking about, with schools "being forced to exclude" ill pupils.

@DifferentHair

Personally I think it was always a dick move to send your child to school with a cough/cold/flu, throwing their germs around like confetti.

Did you do that before OP? Because pandemic or no pandemic, it's a shitty thing to do.

If people kept their sick kids home as a matter of course, then those kids wouldn't be in class getting five other kids sick, whose parents would then have to keep them home and lose their time at work.

This. My Dds headteacher asked parents to keep their kids off with any obvious contagious illness during the pandemic, it seems everyone did this, and the attendance rate overall went up for the whole school. That's what happens when you don't spread your germs around - better for everyone.

Yes, it might be inconvenient for parents in the short term, but longer term if everyone does the same, you're probably going to end up taking less time off work overall, kids will be in education more, and also less ill.

@jakie7700

So you are worried about kids missing school, you are worried about parents with poor kids losing money if unable to work, your worried about SEN kids having to test.

BUT your not worried about the CEV kids who are also in schools

Its a pandemic its shit for everyone, we all wish it wasnt happening. But unless you want kids waiting hours to be seen if they break a leg, or poor kids not being able to get food bank items as the staff are too ill, or SEN kids losing the support they need due to illness, or CEV kids intensive care then you need to do what you can to minimise spread so that we can all get through this winter without a NHS overwhelmed disasater

@CallmeHendricks
Schools that did pre covid these attendance rewards or treats only allowed children to partake who had 100% attendance so children that had been off sick were not part of it so effectively excluded from the reward.

@Covidworries
Please point me in the direction where I said I do not care about CEV. I am asking do people really expect for years to come people are going to keep their child off school with every cough and cold as they have to now?
I got vaccinated so I protect myself and others. I take twice weekly LFT to protect CEV people. I still wear masks to protect others so do not make out I do not care.

Well, that is kind of a given, isn't it, in such a scheme? That if you don't achieve the target then you don't receive the "prize?"
But as I've said, my school doesn't do it so ...

"I am asking do people really expect for years to come people are going to keep their child off school with every cough and cold as they have to now?"
Well, it's a bit of a daft question really, isn't it? How do any of us know what lies ahead in "years to come?" We're living in the present and dealing with all the curve balls Covid is throwing at us.

What you're saying is that kids should be allowed to attend school with covid, yes? Infectious cases of covid?

@CallmeHendricks
Well obviously it encourages children to want to go in unwell as they do not want to be left out or miss out on a treat.

So such a scheme is not going to help with kids going to school unwell during pre covid so why do teachers not voice their opinion then and say how it encourages children to go in with unwell etc? As plenty did go in at our schools because they wanted to get 100% award even though they were sick.

@noblegiraffe
No I am not saying a confirmed case of COVID should be allowed to go to school. I am saying though is it realistic for another winter to expect parents to risk their jobs by taking days off every week or so to get their children tested as they have been sent home. Surely people cannot keep doing that forever.

No I am not saying a confirmed case of COVID should be allowed to go to school

You know that the kid still has covid and is infectious before it’s confirmed, right? You want them to attend school in that period, yes? The ones with covid who have symptoms like a cough should attend school until it’s confirmed that it is actually covid?

Who has said it is forever? But if your child is exhibiting Covid symptoms (and it's an absolute bugger that those symptoms now present very similarly to the common cold), then as things stand at the moment, then yes, you will have to take them to be tested.
It's tough, but it's the same for everyone and is necessary at the moment for all the reasons that so many people have articulated on this thread already.

@noblegiraffe
Well not every cough is covid but yes I do realise a cough can be a sign of covid. I am asking how realistic is it 18 months after this first started to keep asking parents who may lose their job to keep taking time off to do a PCR every time one of their children has a symptom. Surely we should be at a stage where people's jobs are protected if they have to take time off or they can recieve the lost money back from the government etc but we are not. And if people have to choose they will send their children in as they have no other choice.
Thankfully I am not in that situation but work with many people who had to make this choice

Surely we should be at a stage where people's jobs are protected

So why are you berating schools for sending kids home with covid symptoms instead of the government for not having sorted this shit out?

Why are you arguing that kids with covid, with covid symptoms should be in school to save their parents’ jobs as if saving parents’ jobs is a school’s responsibility?