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?

*because of

@Wnkingawalrus

We had 3 go home today all of which have had it once before since coming back in January.

All the more reason just to crack on. It’s just a cold now.

But 'cracking on' would see those 3 go home anyway, since they are ill?

I understand some want the isolation of currently asymptomatic people to stop - so those who test positive when without symptoms, or those whose symptoms have abated, would work circulate normally - but if 3 people when home ill, they went home ill.

IME, at the moment, school staff who are off with Covid are ill. I returned within the 10 days and am the only one to have done so. Several are struggling post 14 days. I assume that those who expect 'cracking on' do not expect school staff who are too ill to be in school to remain in the building??

Does anyone know roughly what percentage of kids it is just initially a cold for?

Yes, covid has never been a cold, however much some may want it to be, and the number of children who've now got long covid when the numbers of ill children could have been hugely reduced with measures like air filtration and ventilation in schools is a total scandal.

If you compare the number of deaths and hospitalisations among children in winter term 2020 (more protections - isolation of close contacts, bubbles etc) vs winter term 2021 (fewer protections) it's clear that we could have saved a lot of children a lot of pain and suffering had there been more protections in schools. And I bet the numbers would look even better with air filtration & ventilation. www.bmj.com/content/375/bmj.n3149

Quite a lot of research suggests that viral dose is important - which I suspect is partly why teachers tend to be quite ill with covid - they're getting a massive viral dose. If you do nothing at all to remove the virus from the air, given it's airborne, outcomes will be far worse.

@Orchid876

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.

This. There are strong arguments for minimising the disruption to children’s education. I think the best option is air filtration, which would substantially reduce transmission in schools. The other measure I’d take is allowing vaccination for age 5-12 as has been done in many other countries.

The stupid just get stupider!

Yes allowing the choice of whether or not to vaccinate 5-12s plus air filtration would make an enormous difference without really causing any problems.

This stuff should be a total no brainer. Especially when set against rising numbers of children with long covid plus hospitalisation of children.

Instead....

WHY is anyone actually using their thumb muscles to reply to this. It’s a wind up. Don’t feed it / fall for this shit. Just don’t.

It would also be common sense to me to implement a rota system, to allow social distancing in classrooms. Why not have half the class in Monday and Tuesday, Wednesday for deep cleaning and teacher planning, and then the other half in Thursday and Friday?

It really wouldn't be common sense.

[quote BewareTheLibrarians]@Wnkingawalrus Take it you didn’t bother to watch that video then?

For anyone else who won’t bother, it’s interviews with 2 children, both previously healthy with no underlying health conditions (10 and 11) who have long covid, talking about how their life has changed.

Recommended viewing for those who say “it’s just a cold” or “long covid is just a sniffle for a few weeks” or “it’s just anxiety” or even better “it’s because of over-anxious parents”.

Not entirely sure that doctors and physios hand out morphine and wheelchairs like sweets just become of over-anxious parents or a sniffle.[/quote]
Oh bloody hell. Here we go again. These posts are like catnip for you.

Will the madness never end. We already have a mental health crisis amongst children.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-60197150

Air filtrations fine but masks and rotas absolutely not. The never ending testing will have to stop soon too. We can’t spend every school year living through this never ending cycle. Children need normal lives.

@treeflowercat thank you. That would make sense

@Silverswirl What on earth is wrong with you that someone talking about their child’s illness makes you this angry? You’re coming across like an absolute ghoul.

You lost me at ‘independent SAGE’

Comparing winter term 2020/21, when they were in school for approx 2 months, to winter term 2021/22 when we are entering month 4 in school, is totally pointless. Society is almost entirely open this time around, compared to the full lockdown shortly after Christmas 2020 until March/April 2021. We are also dealing with a more transmissible variant this time around, so again this will naturally impact on case numbers in children.

Those air filtration things are useless we have them at nursery and they have a huge outbreak!

No to sending whole year groups home are you crazy?

@Silverswirl

WHY is anyone actually using their thumb muscles to reply to this. It’s a wind up. Don’t feed it / fall for this shit. Just don’t.

The OP may well be, I'm not so sure some of the more supportive responses are.

@Greentomatoes21

Comparing winter term 2020/21, when they were in school for approx 2 months, to winter term 2021/22 when we are entering month 4 in school, is totally pointless. Society is almost entirely open this time around, compared to the full lockdown shortly after Christmas 2020 until March/April 2021. We are also dealing with a more transmissible variant this time around, so again this will naturally impact on case numbers in children.

The paper quoted is autumn term (I wrote winter by mistake) - so entirely comparable - and it's comparing Delta and whatever the variant was in autumn 2020. More than double the number of child hospitalisations across the same period.

The data won't be available for Omicron yet.

@AchillesLastStand

Will the madness never end. We already have a mental health crisis amongst children.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-60197150

Air filtrations fine but masks and rotas absolutely not. The never ending testing will have to stop soon too. We can’t spend every school year living through this never ending cycle. Children need normal lives.

What about the mental health crisis in children, their friends and families, who have long covid?

What about the mental health of kids whose parents have died or have long covid, or of the medics with PTSD?

Some children's mental health would be BETTER with masks and more protections in schools - with some tiny sign that anyone cared about their health. Those who are vulnerable for a start.

Mental health isn't just one thing, and it doesn't just support one argument. Some children would have much better mental health to have fewer substitute teachers and to not see their teachers getting very ill and struggling when they come back to work.

Just pretending we can 'crack on' just like before and that covid doesn't exist is a lie and kids know it is. They're not stupid. It doesn't do their mental health any good to be lied to.

If there had been better protections in schools then maybe there wouldn't have been a second lockdown where kids missed out on school - quite a lot of countries avoided this that had more protective measures.

Kids can see this. There are two schools in our locality that have had masks since September and their rates of covid are way lower and hence the number of kids off isolating and the amount of staff absences is correspondingly lower. Now masks do come with a downside which it's fair to discuss and decide what the trade-off should be - but the statistics are fairly comprehensive and convincing now. They do - to some extent - work to lower covid transmission.

It's not simple. There was a mental health crisis in kids pre-covid too.

There aren't any statistics that show masking 5 year olds in schools does anything to lower Omicron transmission. Not the general population and/or older strains, but the specific situation in which we find ourselves now.

Surely comparing any school term (autumn, winter, whatever) one to two full years apart and ignoring the context of wider society is questionable evidence on which to base restrictive mitigations on very young children in schools. Masking 5 year olds for 6+ hours a day is never going to be ok in my book. I'm not against some mitigations to protect children and staff (I'm a teacher of 5 year olds and also have a 5 year old) but by that I mean I would support the installation of air filtration systems, which can only benefit everyone.

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?

No. You homeschool your child and strap bizarre devices to your family members' faces if that's what you want to do. Nobody else is interested.

I'm very concerned about the number of DCs with Long Covid.

Some have been ill for months and unable to attend school.

We have to do something to make schools safer for children and staff.

@Remmy123

Those air filtration things are useless we have them at nursery and they have a huge outbreak!

No to sending whole year groups home are you crazy?

Same. My school spent a fortune on them and we have them installed in every classroom. Still had big outbreaks.