What will happen with schools from Friday?

[Kabs30]

No pcrs!
No free lfts!

I have a couple boxes of lft's for now but when they run out, I won't be able to afford to buy them every time my kids have cold like symptoms. Plus let's face it, lft's aren't overly accurate so a negative lft does not mean someone hasn't got covid either.

are we just treating it as an illness as we would before covid? Keep them off if too unwell and send them back with better. Send them in with mild sniffles?

Covid is quite high at my kids school at the minute!

@GreenWheat

I don't know anyone who is testing for school any more.

Neighbour on one side was told to send her covid positive child in to secondary school Last week as there was no reason for child to be at home under the ‘living with covid guidance’. Neighbour on the other side, child Goes to the feeder primary school and He had a bit of a cold, she LFTd him before school, negative, so she took him to school as normal. By 10.30 she had a phone call to collect him as he had a cold. They would not accept that he had tested negative 3 hours previously and she had to collect him.

So yes, depending on the school, some people are still testing for school, because the schools are insisting on it. Although it’s frustrating that schools do not all have the same policy on this (although that’s the fault of the high school Who are not following the local LAs policy On this).

Don't know, but our primary is still very strict. Insisting on masks on pick up drop off, years 3 to 6 go in gates by themselves, teachers wearing masks. They regularly send kids home for testing... eee he coughed once.. test.

'NO IT IS NOT A COLD or FLU'
Amen. Frustrating isn't it?!

[quote Eyedropeyeflop]@carefullycourageous

It’s not silly. We have successfully managed to eradicate the likes of smallpox etc via vaccination but unfortunately covid we cannot seem to eradicate.

What do you suggest then? Any pearls of wisdom? I can’t wait to hear.

Move on! Even the mitigations that have been in place over the past few years have failed to curb this.[/quote]
Almost no illnesses have been eradicated, so I am not sure anyone expected it to go the way of smallpox.

The advice on COVID remains the same - ventilation, air filtration, masks, testing. No it isn't exciting, but yes it would work.

Who are you saying 'move on' to - to the virus itself? Do you think if we pretend the virus has gone away that people will not feel unwell, be off work, need hospitalisation?

It is a cold. All coronaviruses are colds, this is no different. Initially when there was zero immunity it was dangerous but we are really not in the same place right now.

Even pre 2020 some colds floored people.

@carefullycourageous

Masks forever in the likes of educational settings? Give over love you’re on another planet.

I’m saying move on because covid is here forever so you better get used to it as opposed to having tantrums on mumsnet over testing and mitigations going away. And rightly so. That is living with it.

That’s not true, I’m required to test daily for work and my eldest has to test twice a week for school

About bloody time. @Eyedropeyeflop and @smartiepants79 are bang on

Roughly one person per week dies in the UK from the common cold. Currently after all our vaccination efforts we have 1000+ people per week dying from COVID.

It is genuinely embarrassing to waffle on about COVID being 'a cold'.

Have you got the stats on how many people died from colds prior to 2020 because I would bet your bottom dollar it would be in the thousands. A simple cold always turned into the likes of pneumonia, certainly in older people.

You’re the embarrassing one.

We’ve got classes closed. In some off them the staff had covid in February too.
This disruption will just go on and on in schools.

[quote Eyedropeyeflop]@carefullycourageous

Masks forever in the likes of educational settings? Give over love you’re on another planet.

I’m saying move on because covid is here forever so you better get used to it as opposed to having tantrums on mumsnet over testing and mitigations going away. And rightly so. That is living with it.[/quote]
Everyone knows it is here forever. The things you say - you seem to think they are new insights but they are not new at all. We knew at the beginning it was a coronavirus, we have known since the first lockdown eradication was all but impossible barring an amazing vaccine that radically suppressed transmission.

There may be an argument for not having masks in education settings. That does not change the basic scientific facts that to reduce the amount of COVID nothing has changed - ventilation, masks, filtration, testing all make a difference in additon to vaccination. Whether a country chooses to deploy any or all of them doesn't change the scientific fact they would reduce infection rates.

Shouting 'move on' is meaningless. I mean you are fine to shout it if you want, but the virus is not moving on so all you are telling us is you want to pretend it has gone away.

No one on here is having a tantrum.

I'm a teacher, I've got covid. I tested because I felt dreadful. So far I'm struggling to get better whilst trying to set work. Maybe if people were still testing rather than refusing because we 'have to get on with life' I'd have had a chance to avoid it.

I'm young and healthy, I dread to think how someone vulnerable would cope with this. I don't remember the last time I called in sick for work and I've been off for over a week. We should still be testing so we can stay away from vulnerable people when we pose a risk to them.

And no, it's not a fucking cold!

@Eyedropeyeflop

Have you got the stats on how many people died from colds prior to 2020 because I would bet your bottom dollar it would be in the thousands. A simple cold always turned into the likes of pneumonia, certainly in older people.

You’re the embarrassing one.

I think you are confusing bacterial pneumonia and viral pneumonia.

@Chloemol

Just to shout at all you ‘it’s just a cold/flu’

NO IT IS NOT A COLD or FLU

It can absolutely knock you out, it can hospitalise you, jabbed or not jabbed and it continues to kill.

And now people don’t care, so no masks, going to work when ill and the rest it is going to be shared and to be frank seeing what’s it’s done to a friend (long covid still not 100% since catching it two years ago) and how ill my sister and nephew in the last two weeks, so a supposedly milder version, both fully jabbed, have been I don’t want it

Exactly, no one has ever gone to hospital & died from a cold or the flu...... ... ............

Oh....wait

@Eyedropeyeflop

It is a cold. All coronaviruses are colds, this is no different. Initially when there was zero immunity it was dangerous but we are really not in the same place right now.

Even pre 2020 some colds floored people.

Ah you're one of those. No need to take you seriously then.

@EmilyEmmabob

I'm a teacher, I've got covid. I tested because I felt dreadful. So far I'm struggling to get better whilst trying to set work. Maybe if people were still testing rather than refusing because we 'have to get on with life' I'd have had a chance to avoid it.

I'm young and healthy, I dread to think how someone vulnerable would cope with this. I don't remember the last time I called in sick for work and I've been off for over a week. We should still be testing so we can stay away from vulnerable people when we pose a risk to them.

And no, it's not a fucking cold!

Avoid it til when?? The end of time?? When I caught it before Xmas we were all still in bubbles, still social distancing, still mask wearing and sanitising til our hands fell off, still testing… I still caught it. You can’t actually avoid highly communicable diseases unless you’re prepared to never leave the house again. The trouble is that from the beginning we were sold this story that is we did all the right things we would never catch it. It’s a fallacy. Practically everyone is going to get it in the end.

And yes I was pretty ill with it. The illest I’ve been since I had actual flu.

Maybe we need to qualify it.

For the majority it’s still just a cold.

Unfortunately, some people will suffer worse symptoms and for some inexplicable reason, it doesn’t always relate to age, fitness etc. and I do appreciate its pretty shit if you cop a nasty dose.

However, before November 2021, I knew hardly anyone who had tested positive, since then, I know hardly anyone who hasn’t and almost without exception, they’ve all had a mild infection and felt fine within 2-3 days.

Currently, it is estimated that 21 million people in the U.K. have had Covid. How many of those cases were actually floored by it and were unable to get out of bed? Most felt a bit under the weather or had no symptoms at all - so basically, a cold. We had several years prior with low incidences of flu so sadly, there was a lot of ‘dry tinder’ in care homes - not helped by the fact that the NHS cleared the decks in anticipation of the spreading pandemic and sent many already infected elderly back into the care homes, further spreading disease in the already vulnerable.

We need to get out of this ‘we’re killing granny’ mentality. It wasn’t us that was killing granny, it was government policy. It suited the government to push that message to ensure compliance at the time but the situation has changed massively since then. At that time, we were living in fear of the unknown, the Nightingale hospitals were being built and we were all in panic mode. ‘Granny’ is as well protected as she can be now.

We need to be aware the government didn’t bring in restrictions because they cared about whether you, me or Auntie Doris got ill and died, they brought in restrictions to prevent the NHS becoming overwhelmed because if it did, it would be political suicide and make them forever unelectable. The incessant testing was pushed hard for this very reason too, not to protect individuals, it was to protect political careers. Do you really think that if Covid was as dangerous as they made out, they would have been partying and meeting their lovers at the height of the first wave - particularly when those in authority knew the real risks and hard facts?

Do you really think that if Covid was as dangerous as they made out, they would have been partying and meeting their lovers at the height of the first wave - particularly when those in authority knew the real risks and hard facts? I think this is an erroneous argument for the following reasons:

1. Johnson was very ill, so he did know how risky it was
2. The staff at 10DS had already had it, and were testing more than the general public, so felt less at risk
3. Their behaviour demonstrates they are dickheads, not that they are wise

@knittingaddict

One of those? You mean one of those people who thinks logically and realistically about covid?

Indeed I am yes.

What’s the point in having ‘free’ mass testing if people aren’t going to isolate? Employers have - and will continue to - insist employees who have Covid but are well should attend work.

Just to shout at all you ‘it’s just a cold/flu’ NO IT IS NOT A COLD or FLU

For DH and I that's exactly what it was. A heavy cold for a couple of days. And we're both 50 which is edging into the age where risk starts to rise.

@Mickarooni

What’s the point in having ‘free’ mass testing if people aren’t going to isolate? Employers have - and will continue to - insist employees who have Covid but are well should attend work.

I still want to be able to test ahead of visiting DM and DMIL as they are vulnerable. Not so bothered about general testing now. I know plenty of people who have got Covid more than once now too, if sensible precautions that don't cause too much hassle (e.g. ventilation and filtration system, masks on buses, not going to work when you know you are sick) rhat could be difference between getting covid 2 times and year vs once ever 18 months.

@SulaSA

I despair. I am so ill with COVID eight weeks after infection. I'm now on reduced hours from my headship. I just can't get well.

I've no breath, I can't sleep, awful smell of smoke, feel as if I'm choking.
My skin is horrendous with what looks like open burns, on my face in four different patches and on my body. My GP has told me COVID can damage the skin's barrier to infection.

I used to run, now I struggle to walk more than 1k...unless I get better COVID will end my career.

I feel so discounted - 'get on with life, COVID is no more than a cold'. Oh how I wish that were true.

Oh @SulaSa that is awful I am so sorry you are still so poorly. I hope the GP can do something for you? Xxx