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.

[quote Walkaround]@Bizawit - the JCVI is not fit for purpose during a pandemic if, despite the number of experts on the panel, it is incapable of working out the likely impact of its pronouncements. It was perfectly capable of assessing the impact on schools of its decision-making process. Also, in pure science terms, the MHRA had already deemed the vaccine safe for 12 year olds and above, so the only contribution the JCVI made was obfuscation and delay.[/quote]
I would be very interested to see what its minutes say.

The data is finally acknowledging that teachers are at greater risk of catching covid. They didn't collect data about catching it for a long time, just hospitalisation. It makes some sense that a population of youngish females are less likely to need hospital treatment for covid. However many teachers have needed 2-3 weeks off work to recover from covid.

[quote Walkaround]@Warhertisuff - it hasn’t burnt through my children’s school, yet, and I do not appreciate the notion of it burning through the school at the height of the winter flu season, plus having their teachers off sick for weeks, when they are both in important exam years, thank you very much.[/quote]
Nobody wants Covid through their schools, but do you genuinely think you can realistically prevent Covid from infecting a significant number pupils between now and summer in your children's school? Personally I'd prefer it before the middle of the winter flu season or during exam season. King Canute comes to mind...

@Warhertisuff - except we are coming into flu season now and it hasn’t happened at our school yet - damn that half term getting in the way… Tbh, if covid is such a minor thing for teens, I would rather my teens got it after having been fully vaccinated and after their teachers had finished teaching the exam syllabus, not at the height of the most important teaching time, when I want their teachers to be as healthy as possible and for them to miss as little school as possible.

It will be interesting to see if those countries that vaccinated teens in the summer, put in ventilation in schools, kept cases lower through masking in the community and opening up after more were vaxed etc (i.e. genuinely tried to help school communities and education) have less interrupted schooling, better mental and physical health etc. Wonder if kids/teachers feel catching covid is 'inevitable' at school there, or just a risk like any other setting.

@herecomesthsun

See, I think this is a misconception shared by Whitty and Vallance, who were expecting a very difficult winter, and weren't expecting covid to burn itself out before December.Personally, I would tend to listen to them? As they seem to know what they are talking about, and all the people hailing normality within a month have so far been dismally wrong.

I wasn't trying to claim that nationally we would have an easy winter and that a Covid wouldn't be a significant contributor to NHS pressures, I was referring to
specific schools who are currently in the throes of a Covid outbreak. It won't continue like that for those schools, and they should be able to expect to return to something closer to normality over the next half term. But that doesn't suit the doom and gloom narrative of some.

What is it about some people that frame things as 'project fear' or 'doom and gloom'? It's infantile and not helpful. I don't say 'it doesn't fit your don't give enough of a shit about teachers or children or not getting us to a more 'normal' normal' narrative.

@beentoldcomputersaysno

What is it about some people that frame things as 'project fear' or 'doom and gloom'? It's infantile and not helpful. I don't say 'it doesn't fit your don't give enough of a shit about teachers or children or not getting us to a more 'normal' normal' narrative.

yes, the "doom and gloom" stuff = "dumb dumb covid minimiser" most of the time. Not that I ever express it like that

Or you could call it just being realistic.
Think of all those who were accused of scare-mongering back in February 2020. And it has all turned out even worse than we feared.

@CallmeHendricks

Or you could call it just being realistic. Think of all those who were accused of scare-mongering back in February 2020. And it has all turned out even worse than we feared.

Yep.

Boosters should be offered to teachers that want them. And trying to prove that teachers were never at greater risk of covid like @bizawit is doing is unhelpful.

I'm really hoping I can get a booster later this year. I'm CV but not CEV so not sure if I'll be eligible tbh. It's not yet been confirmed. It won't be til mid November anyway.

But a year ago Covid put me in hospital, with a blue light ambulance called due to the very real risk I had of having a stroke or heart attack. Covid affected my blood pressure to such an extent I now need two different BP medications, most likely for life. A year on I'm not fully recovered regarding breathing and some other long Covid/post viral type symptoms. I'm not sure my body will like a second go of Covid itself!

@Abraxan

Boosters should be offered to teachers that want them. And trying to prove that teachers were never at greater risk of covid like @bizawit is doing is unhelpful.

I'm really hoping I can get a booster later this year. I'm CV but not CEV so not sure if I'll be eligible tbh. It's not yet been confirmed. It won't be til mid November anyway.

But a year ago Covid put me in hospital, with a blue light ambulance called due to the very real risk I had of having a stroke or heart attack. Covid affected my blood pressure to such an extent I now need two different BP medications, most likely for life. A year on I'm not fully recovered regarding breathing and some other long Covid/post viral type symptoms. I'm not sure my body will like a second go of Covid itself!

Sorry to hear this. It's a real shame we have not behaved like countries which have put teachers on the booster list. We absolutely should.

@Warhertisuff the OP was essentially complaining about kids missing 1-2 days of school every time they had a PCR. Letting covid rip through schools so they all need two weeks off isn’t going to improve/address that situation.

We haven’t had it rip through my school yet - we were an outbreak school for a short period of time, but our time is still likely to come.

I don’t understand why masks can’t be implicated in secondary. Improved ventilation. Alongside boosters for teachers and less fucking about and confusion around vaccines for secondary school children.

Why, during these winter months particularly would you NOT want to do this?surely anything that reduces strain on our schools and our chronically underfunded NHS would be a good idea?

@abraxan sorry to hear it and I do hope you get your booster.