Schools still a covid shitshow

[noblegiraffe]

"Schools have been forced to send year groups home this week because of "rapidly rising" Covid rates among staff and an inability to find supply teachers, it has emerged.

The removal of the need for Covid testing among staff and pupils was making the situation worse, with some schools now experiencing their worst absence levels of the pandemic, a headteachers' leader told Tes.

Heads warn that some schools are having to send year groups home on a rota or combine class groups in an attempt to protect exam year groups from more disruption."

www.tes.com/magazine/news/general/covid-schools-absence-send-year-groups-home-cases-spike

Some will claim that getting rid of testing would improve the situation, but clearly a situation where lots of teachers are getting ill and requiring a few days off school to recover, regardless of isolation rules, is not 'getting back to normal'.

The teachers that I know who have had covid recently would have required a few days off school despite it being 'mild' even without isolation guidance, even though teachers are well-known for dosing on Lemsip and turning up to school regardless of illness because setting cover work is worse.

Still, the covid catch-up effort has basically fizzled out, and it's looking like zero effort will be made by the government to support children in recovering their education from the impact of absences and lack of teachers.

Exams start in a couple of months for kids who are having an extremely disruptive time. The government has fixed the exam grades so that they will come out with better results than the 2019 cohort, this will basically cover up the impact on educational standards. How this will play out down the line at uni/college/sixth form is anyone's guess.

[quote OnceuponaRainbow18]@Itisasecret

It is, as clearly changes weren’t going to be made, so we just keep them home indefinitely?

I worked throughout so my kids had to go in anyway but it’s unrealistic to think we were happy sending them in, especially during the first lockdown when we didn’t know much about it and I was jealous of my friends who could keep their kids homes safe.[/quote]
They should’ve been made, that’s the point.

I taught throughout so do I win a prize too?

The lack of critical thinking and care to fight for what is right is unbelievable. People literally did not care about the situations in schools. That may now backfire in long term health complications which many parents didn’t consider, as they wanted their lives as normal as possible. That’s my problem and you only have to search certain user names to see how prolific it was.

People still don’t seem to care about the situation in schools, and it’s not just covid-related.

Well, quite.

To clarify for those that missed it:

The HSA has warned parents to be vigilant in the shadow of rising liver disease in children

Checks notes, liver disease/damage/inflammation can be caused by viruses which attack the vascular system

@Itisasecret

They should’ve been made, that’s the point.

Yes that is a point, but the point your missing is that they weren’t made so what’s the option? Send in or don’t, don’t isn’t any option for most.

If you go to the shop and ask for a red cup and they only have a blue or a green; but you keep insisting on a red which they don’t have, most people would do for the two options put in front of them- ie school as it is or not

People were happy to let their children go in to schools, unprotected with no care for how many times they caught Covid.

Yes, because for most children covid is very mild with no lasting health consequences, and parents have to go to work themselves.

I think most parents are still happy with sending their children in.

"no lasting knownhealth consequences"

Fixed this for you....

Yes thank you. Of course everything we do is based on what is known as of today. We can't make decisions on what is unknown!

" We can't make decisions on what is unknown"

Not familiar with the precautionary principle then?

We have known that other countries have vaccinated young children yet chose to not do so in the UK based on factors like kids getting infected would boost adult immunity etc. We assume that constant reinfection will get milder and milder and we don't know how or why some kids get long covid but did nothing to mitigate this risk.

We do know that absences from school due to infection and illness of staff etc causes educational disruption and early on there was a lot of rhetoric about mental health harms and sacrificing futures but nothing has been done to minimise this over the last 6 months or so

Not familiar with the precautionary principle then?

I think I am familiar, yes.

I was trying to make the point that many parents are not worried or concerned about their children catching covid, despite the potential risks. And yes, these are based on currently known risks. Many parents deem these to be small.

Link to the UKHSA jaundice alert mentioned above “ We’re asking parents and carers to be vigilant for symptoms of jaundice in children as we’ve detected higher than usual rates of liver inflammation in children. We are working with NHS and public health colleagues around the UK to investigate.

Read our thread for more info 🧵”

twitter.com/ukhsa/status/1511787036289679365?s=21&t=kRFpPHFdD6VD0uTe33i93w

It doesn’t surprise me at all but it is very sad. What a mess.

The jaundice outbreak is worrying, but I cannot find any evidence that it's linked to covid (or the vaccine). Hopefully the cause of the outbreak can be found soon!

No, we don’t know that it’s linked to Covid. We also don’t know that it isn’t. They are investigating.

But this sort of thing shows that it is premature to be saying it’s fine for kids to catch it in huge numbers, or that it’s not worth vaccinating them.

"The jaundice outbreak is worrying, but I cannot find any evidence that it's linked to covid (or the vaccine)"

Of course there is no evidence yet; they haven't been looking for it and or it may be a feature of ba.2 or reinfections. It seems unlikely to be the vaccine as most cases have occurred since march and are affecting younger children according to the BBC article on this.

But on balance of probabilities covid would be the prime suspect...

[quote Eyedropeyeflop]@BastardtheCat

Well that was sort of the point. Being shut down because you have an opinion that differs from a teacher.

I believe that teaching is the sort of profession whereby you would hope for a positive covid test
so you wouldn’t need to go in. I don’t believe all teachers are ill all of the time.

I don’t believe teachers have the monopoly on repeated covid infections. Most people I know teachers and non teachers are on to their second covid infection.

Suspicious of what exactly? Someone having an opinion?

You can’t compare teaching as it is now, to NHS workers right at the beginning of this pandemic.
They were treating covid patients unvaccinated.
Teachers were at home.[/quote]
See, that statement alone kind of tells me that you're just another teacher-basher. It baffles me why you're so, so critical of us as a profession.

FWIW, we had colleagues who we insisted didn't come in during lockdown but the rest of us did anything we could to keep our doors open - sorting food and distributing food parcels, caring for vulnerable kids, delivering paper lessons to our pupils with no effective internet access. Teaching online was, imho a killer and a day didn't go by where I didn't worry and agonise about some of the kids in my charge.

I'm not comparing myself or my profession to pre vaccinated NHS staff on the frontline at all, but I am curious as to why posters like you continue to try and belittle the opinions of those who know the system, and are trying their best to deliver a good education despite the flaws in the system.

@Lilaclavenders

The jaundice outbreak is worrying, but I cannot find any evidence that it's linked to covid (or the vaccine). Hopefully the cause of the outbreak can be found soon!

You do realise that scientists and doctors have been reporting for months that Covid can damage the liver?

The “it’s just a cold” brigade forgot that it’s an inflammatory, vascular illness which attacks organs, symptoms or not.

In this country we didn’t vaccinate our kids, we allowed it to run riot among children, many children are now on their 3rd go. We used our high rate of infection to falsely chase herd immunity in our adult population.

Now, allowing an inflammatory, vascular disease to run through our most vulnerable, unprotected, growing population maybe causing long term organ damage. Who would have thought it eh?

People were happy to let their children go in to schools, unprotected with no care for how many times they caught Covid. How many times has the “it’s swept through so it will be ok” has been proven wrong.

You're right that surely SURELY at this point people are going to have to accept it's not going to be a 'one time and that's it' with covid. That's the problem with a novel, rapidly mutating virus. I know kids who've had it 3 times since September.

And I'm definitely not happy with it - especially since decent ventilation and air filtration would cut covid rates in half (at least) which would improve health AND improve child and staff attendance AND cut illness from other viruses too.

It's such a basic thing to do and it drives me mad that so few people are demanding such basic, easy measures.

However, the alternative of homeschooling my children would be more harmful to them (both are sociable little things and hated lockdown) than going into covid cesspits of schools. So covid soup it is.

I'm not ok with not doing anything about it - and for one school I have contributed to air filters which do seem to have made a difference.

Now, allowing an inflammatory, vascular disease to run through our most vulnerable, unprotected, growing population maybe causing long term organ damage. Who would have thought it eh?

It's bloody awful. How so many were so dismissive about potential harm from something we knew so little about. And those who did express concern were often mocked and accused of suffering from health anxiety.

There are already numerous studies on organ damage. There are thousands of kids and teachers with long covid. Another 8 kids were added from the backlog of covid deaths yesterday. We still have denial/minimising/unwillingness to do anything about it. Hence why I hold the belief that govt does not give a shit about kids, teachers or education.

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