When do schools take action?

[Tenpintonpin]

My kids' primary is currently swamped with Covid - rough estimate is that at least 25% of pupils have tested positive over the last week. The message we received from the school (before the weekend) is that Public Health England have advised them to carry on as normal for the time being. Is there a point at which they actually will be advised to do something? Not necessarily home learning, but at least trying to keep year groups separated etc...

@theemperorhasnoclothes

And I don't think it's pointless to vaccinate kids. Pointless in terms of omicron and delta - probably, but not pointless in terms of future variants.

I know lots of kids who got Delta who are now getting Omicron. Vaccines give better protection it seems than natural immunity.

I have had 3 vaccinations, Delta and Omicron.

So what? Did you end up in hospital? There have been record hospital admissions this time of children, don't we want to avoid that?

In other news, half the school are currently off with covid. The only class less affected is my DDs class, which has an air filtration device and many opening windows and a CO2 monitor and their teacher has been doing a lot of outdoor learning too. The only children in that class who have it have siblings higher up the school who caught it first.

It may still be coming for us, but it's notable that after the first case, other classes have gone down faster than the class with the greatest mitigations.

The air filter was bought by parents, so not supplied by DfE. I'm very pleased the school accepted the offer of help.

It may still be coming for DDs class but hopefully viral dose will be lower if it does owing to the air filters, and I will have the comfort of thinking that everything possible (other than vaccination) was done to protect children and staff, rather than the opposite.

@theemperorhasnoclothes

So what? Did you end up in hospital? There have been record hospital admissions this time of children, don't we want to avoid that?

I had oxygen in hospital when I had Delta, yes, but that’s entirely irrelevant to the point I was making. You said children are catching omicron after delta. I merely replied that yes, I also caught omicron after delta (and three vaccinations). It’s not yet clear to what extend vaccination prevents omicron infections. We know it helps to prevent severe infection (which children generally don’t get anyway). My point is that it’s best to leave these decisions to the experts. And that’s what the JCVI are, even if you don’t agree with some of their views. Of course some members of the JCVI will disagree with others, that’s the whole point of having a panel. I’m not anti vax which is what you seem to be implying, that would be weird as I’ve had 3 vaccinations. I’m not anti vax for children either, if that is recommended by the experts. I’m a lawyer, not a vaccine/child health expert, so I wouldn’t presume to be able to make that decision myself.

It may still be coming for us

You make it sound like some scary monster...!

Why are JCVI out of step with the rest of the world, and why did they have a sociologist making medical decisions?

The MHRA has approved 5-11 vaccines also.

The MHRA are also experts.

And JCVI initially refused to vaccinate 12-15, then changed their mind (but too late to prevent a lot of disease and disability in children, and some deaths too as Delta spread through schools) and then allowed only one dose, then changed their mind about that too and recommended two. They don't exactly have a good reputation for making a decision and sticking to it. Unlike other medical expert bodies.

They also failed to publish their risk assessment, despite many calls for them to do so. They are not transparent (unlike other medical expert bodies) so it is unclear whether or not they are using the best available data.