More protections needed in schools?

[RocketFire7]

Zubaida Haque from independent sage is now reporting that covid is sending more DC are being admitted to hospital than ever before. She believes this is due to the lack of protections and mitigations in schools.

twitter.com/zubhaque/status/1489599939353186311?s=21

Do we now need to implement better protections in schools to keep DC, staff, parents and communities safe? There is also of course the risk of long covid.

Should we be looking to make N95 masks compulsory from age 5 (as many US states have done), air filtration units, rota systems so that social distancing can be maintained and sending home whole year groups when there is a positive test?

What percentage is that? Apparently 1 in 8 primary kids had covid last week so I’m guessing a pretty tiny percentage? And what’s the breakdown? What percentage vaccinated 12-15, what percentage unvaccinated 12-15, what percentage primary school? What percentage of vulnerable? What percentage of babies under 2? Are numbers with covid or because of covid? A huge amount of children have covid so obviously a lot are going to be admitted and testing positive incidentally. That graph is for 0-17 so could have nothing to do with schools. Really can’t tell that much from it..

Air filtration, yes.

Rota systems, absolutely not. Children need and deserve to be in school full time. As for sending home whole year groups, that's ridiculous.

No, HTH

So say you put all these mitigations in... When do you take them out? Covid isn't going to disappear so once you remove them, Covid will re-emerge...

That's the problem here. Those suggesting these measures have no plan, or even vaguely credible scenario, for when these could be removed without going back to square one. This excessive focus on Covid is warped.

If 1 in 8 kids are estimated to have had Covid last week, and there are about 9 million children, that's roughly 1 million children in total... and there are about 1,000 hospitalisations over that weekly period. A 1-1,000 chance of hospitalisation - most of whom will be discharged after a short period, and many won't even be in for Covid - isn't sufficient justification for indefinite measures like this. Some people have lost all sense of perspective in the face of Covid.

To clarify, that's 9 million school children

Should we be looking to make N95 masks compulsory from age 5 (as many US states have done), air filtration units, rota systems so that social distancing can be maintained and sending home whole year groups when there is a positive test?
Nope.

Nope.

It was 1 in 8 primary kids, less than that in secondary. Presumably partly because of vaccination. So as far as mitigations go it seems to me that it would be perfectly logical to offer them to vulnerable 5-11 as soon as possible. Many of that group want them. But the OP doesn’t even mention that so I presume the post was put there deliberately to goad

Should we be looking to make N95 masks compulsory from age 5 (as many US states have done), air filtration units, rota systems so that social distancing can be maintained and sending home whole year groups when there is a positive test?

On the basis of a scaremongering graph from iSage that is saying nothing of note when contextualised properly (see Alasdair Munro's replies.)

Absolutely not.

Nope. They've been through enough already.

No

No. I don't believe primary school children should have to wear masks in school at all. Children need to be in school full time not on a rota system. Sending whole year groups home if there is a positive test is massively disruptive to learning and mental health of the children going by last year.Air filtration units would be nice yes.
Long term social, emotional and educational development of children needs to be prioritised over the relatively low risk to their health from.covid.

There's really no justification for not installing air filtration systems where they are needed. Compared to what the government have spent so far spent on faulty unusable PPE/handed to their mates, the cost is a drop in the ocean. Other countries did this at the start of the pandemic to try and make schools safer, but our government have done nothing. Even if you ignore the hospitalisation of children, just to limit so much lost learning due to isolation and teachers being ill and off work, would be worth it.

Lol no

The Not Sage lot really don't help themselves sometimes.

We do need and should have air filtration units in schools, as well as sorting out some of the lower hanging fruit wrt ventilation: there are teachers on here who've talked about windows being painted shut etc.

This is what we ought to do, and it would bring clear benefit to children and adults working in schools. Those on the committee should be clearly and unambiguously demanding this, not trying to tie it to obviously awful, anti-child and unpopular measures like whole year isolation and masking 5 year olds.

this topic has been done to death and i hate the way twitter experts roll out the stats in this way with no further explanation. The increase in hospital admissions is being driven by the under 5's and particularly the under 1's and unless you are willing to go back into a strict lockdown or choose to become a hermit, you have to accept that everyone will get omicron sooner or later. There has been a surge in admissions for RSV in young children which is being blamed on the lack of exposure to the typical circulating viruses that is part of the normal development of the immune system.....so in our efforts to keep children "safe" from Covid we may be creating other health issues for them never mind the impact on their language/emotional/cognitive development from lack of exposure to other children, older family members etc. Why should school pupils be forced to study all day in high grade masks and miss even more learning when adults no longer have to wear masks, can freely go to the pub/nightclubs etc and do what they want socially?

Being fair to Not Sage, they aren't really keen on adults being able to do all those things either.

@s1h2o3na

The evidence shows that case rates at the moment are being driven by schools and DC, so it makes sense to put in protections and mitigations in that setting.

DC are wearing N95 masks all day from kindergarten to keep people safe in many US states, so for me this would be a common sense move to implement for DC here.

Would you be happy to work all day in a N95 mask? Still have to isolate for contact with a positive case? Why do you think kids should be restricted in a way that adults aren’t?

[quote RocketFire7]@s1h2o3na

The evidence shows that case rates at the moment are being driven by schools and DC, so it makes sense to put in protections and mitigations in that setting.

DC are wearing N95 masks all day from kindergarten to keep people safe in many US states, so for me this would be a common sense move to implement for DC here.[/quote]
We're going to need more than you thinking it's common sense to copy the parts of the USA that are doing it.

P.S. certainly not against any investment in school buildings, my kids were taught in portacabins for the majority of their primary school education, often too cold in winter and too hot in summer, I'm sure its not healthy for teachers or kids to try and learn in some of the school buildings that exist. Maybe one day we will really value and properly invest in schools which have to deal with the results of cuts to other childrens support services during the last 10 years of austerity ?(......pig flying past)

[quote RocketFire7]@s1h2o3na

The evidence shows that case rates at the moment are being driven by schools and DC, so it makes sense to put in protections and mitigations in that setting.

DC are wearing N95 masks all day from kindergarten to keep people safe in many US states, so for me this would be a common sense move to implement for DC here.[/quote]
have you seen the death rates in the USA??? do you think it sounds like making kindergarten age kids wear N95 masks is working well for them???

DC are wearing N95 masks all day from kindergarten to keep people safe in many US states, so for me this would be a common sense move to implement for DC here.

The fact that it's happening elsewhere doesn't meant it's sensible. In Spain they locked their children indoors for months. Should we do that too?

No, and it's quite frankly terrifying that people like you think that this is 'common sense'.

nope....this isn't the USA....so no