Masks in classrooms secondary

[Hummmmming]

www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/01/schools-in-england-told-wear-masks-in-class-as-fears-mount-of-omicron-surge?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

Until the 26th of January

Another leak and then an announcement on a Sunday. Shocked I tell you. Shocked

@Shitfuckcommaetc

We only get surgical masks working with covid patients in hospital so I very much doubt they'll make kids wear ffp2

This is so awful. I still can't believe they're not providing HCPs with more protective masks.

@CallmeHendricks

"Many schools here have indicated its adults passing to children and other adults and not the other way around."

What is your evidence for this? How many schools? Where? How did they measure and communicate this "fact?"

I'm am assuming the same way people are indicating its children spreading to adults?

I'm actually going to agree with the people saying 'masks aren't going to do much'. I think they're right. Even the Telegraph was reporting yesterday that the government have fucked up, gambled and lost, and that we are now headed for a worrying period of chaos. The Telegraph author was free to report this (the Telegraph being famously anti-restriction so generally presenting covid data in its most positive light) as it is now too late to introduce any restrictions that will prevent it from happening.

It's too late for the government to be doing anything in schools that will significantly ameliorate the impact of omicron. Staff absences will happen. Schools will be in dire straits and start falling over.

The mask guidance is accompanied by various other panicky guidance about remote teaching, combining classes and so on. They've already put out their emergency call for anyone with a teaching qualification to return to the classroom.

They are only introducing masks in classrooms because they know other, much worse measures (kids being sent home, maybe exams cancelled) will be necessary due to their fuck-up.

They don't want to be in a situation where kids are at home with no teacher having to answer questions about why they didn't implement 'simple' measures like masks in classrooms to try to prevent it happening.

I am not stating its wrong either way just relaying what I have been told. Its common sense surely that masks should be worn in all settings if they work as suggested they do. The fact remains this variant was around before Christmas - no masks in schools. After Christmas when adults have done their socialising - masks are deemed appropriate now?

If they had wanted protection and schools to stay open with minimal effects masks would have been on throughout winter

@Onthedowns

I am not stating its wrong either way just relaying what I have been told. Its common sense surely that masks should be worn in all settings if they work as suggested they do. The fact remains this variant was around before Christmas - no masks in schools. After Christmas when adults have done their socialising - masks are deemed appropriate now?

If they had wanted protection and schools to stay open with minimal effects masks would have been on throughout winter

They don't care about schools staying open or hospitality or saving lives. They care about being reelected and will do what ever they think the public want in order to achieve this.

@GhostTypeEevee

Another leak and then an announcement on a Sunday. Shocked I tell you. Shocked

I'm shocked it wasn't Monday....

[quote AnInspectorBores]@LadyIckenham

there's a long article in the Times today (behind a paywall, or I'd link) about what would have happened if we hadn't locked down. One of the points made by the journalist was that school children were not significant drivers of infection until Delta arrived in 202l, and that cases fell in November 20 despite schools being kept open.

And yet the ONS survey published in the week before Christmas found that education staff are 37% more likely to be infected by Covid than the general public

We knew. We knew. And yet many continued to vilify us as workshy lefties.[/quote]
uhuh (agreeing with you)

There was a lockdown in November 2020. It would be surprising if cases didn't fall in a lockdown. That doesn't mean that schools don't transmit infections to at least some degree.

There was always transmission in schools, children were always susceptible to covid, thank goodness though at lower risk than adults. There was a lot of nonsense expounded about that, some of it by so-called experts.

It's a fairly meaningless argument about what a "significant" driver of infection is. Infections always have been transmitted through schools; if every other section of community is protected from infection by mitigations and vaccinations, but not children, then the role that schools play in the transmission of infections will become more dominant.

They care about being reelected and will do what ever they think the public want in order to achieve this

Obviously. But normally what the public want is in their interests!

Noble That’s mostly why I’m so rabid about people wearing masks properly. The government has had a half-arsed, last minute idea, with no resources or funding given to schools to make sure it can happen, half-arsed messaging, and half-arsed support. If kids are then wearing their masks half-arsedly it’s going to achieve nothing.

I’m sure even the anti-maskers can admit that if kids have to wear masks they might as well wear them properly - after all it’s no more or less comfortable - so there’s at least a chance of scraping some advantage out of this situation.

@Blubells

They care about being reelected and will do what ever they think the public want in order to achieve this

Obviously. But normally what the public want is in their interests!

I am sure the wider public would agree this is just a meagre last ditch attempt. It's funny no one was up in arms about this before Christmas the varient was spreading then. No general call for face masks then in schools - although many had already kept them.

It's bojo ignoring the tidal wave of disruption coming again as he has absolutely no authority

@BewareTheLibrarians

Noble That’s mostly why I’m so rabid about people wearing masks properly. The government has had a half-arsed, last minute idea, with no resources or funding given to schools to make sure it can happen, half-arsed messaging, and half-arsed support. If kids are then wearing their masks half-arsedly it’s going to achieve nothing.

I’m sure even the anti-maskers can admit that if kids have to wear masks they might as well wear them properly - after all it’s no more or less comfortable - so there’s at least a chance of scraping some advantage out of this situation.

Exactly

I’m sure even the anti-maskers can admit that if kids have to wear masks they might as well wear them properly

Except they'll be making sure their kids are 'exempt' from wearing them at all because 'it's just a sniffle'.

Experiences of poor children like your DS to prove that is not always the case are 'rare' and therefore to be ignored.

Unlike when its vaccines that are being discussed and then extremely rare and usually short-lived side-effects are 'unacceptable risks'.

Please stop giving them out, they're killing the planet.

No I won’t, Daisymum especially as even Greenpeace say it’s much more important to wear one than nothing at all

I will continue to educate my pupils about the responsible disposal of those face masks, as advised by Peta:

www.peta.org/blog/face-masks-litter-harms-animals/

The usual suspects are still perpetuating the same lies. Time MN threw them back under their bridges.

[quote ChloeDecker]Please stop giving them out, they're killing the planet.

No I won’t, Daisymum especially as even Greenpeace say it’s much more important to wear one than nothing at all

I will continue to educate my pupils about the responsible disposal of those face masks, as advised by Peta:

www.peta.org/blog/face-masks-litter-harms-animals/[/quote]
So keep putting them in landfill to sit and fester for decades. Well done.

@AlexaShutUp

Can anyone link to the data that shows that masks in Scottish schools had no impact, please?

Have only read to the end of 200 posts so far, but has anyone responded to this yet?

One word:

Opportunity cost.

Closing schools for a mild to very mild virus costs more than letting children have an education.

I can't get worked up about masks, it's nor problem to wear masks in school for a few week but equally it's ok to let it rip now. Omicron will hopefully give us all a lovely immune boost and protect us from other variants.

but equally it's ok to let it rip now

Even the Telegraph is reporting that it turns out it's not.

not to mention that the figure of masked schools being 3.5 times less likely to have outbreaks has itself been debunked). So, not hard to see that masks in schools there actually haven't helped.

Do provide the evidence that those studies have been fully debunked. Can’t find anything that isn’t driven by Us4Them on Twitter, back peddling on their claim that there is no evidence to support mask wearing to we don’t think there is any good evidence…

Oh no, ds is going to be so embarrassed that he’s been ill for 21 months thanks to the after effects of a “mild to very mild” virus. Lol!! What a sort 😂

“Mild to very mild” = “I am very privileged to not have seen the worse effects of the virus and simply cannot understand events that take place outside of my very narrow world view.”

I'm sure most of parents think their children wearing mask is small price to pay compared to school closing due to uncontrollable spread.
I'm really buffled, it's been done in many other countries for ages, and children seems to be fine. Why is it such a huge deal in small number of countries like England and US?

This predates Omicron, but is positive about the effects of masks in schools.

www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7039e3.htm?s_cid=mm7039e3_w

“The results of this analysis indicate that increases in pediatric COVID-19 case rates during the start of the 2021–22 school year were smaller in U.S. counties with school mask requirements than in those without school mask requirements. School mask requirements, in combination with other prevention strategies, including COVID-19 vaccination, are critical to reduce the spread of COVID-19 in schools.”

@JustALittleHoney

One word:

Opportunity cost.

Closing schools for a mild to very mild virus costs more than letting children have an education.

I can't get worked up about masks, it's nor problem to wear masks in school for a few week but equally it's ok to let it rip now. Omicron will hopefully give us all a lovely immune boost and protect us from other variants.

I wish I could genreously let you have the lovely immune boost for me

generously