Decision on masks for primary in Ireland?

[SuperDuperC]

Hi all, we're in Cork! Just keeping an eye on the news today that they may be deciding on whether children in primary will have to wear masks. Just wanting to see how everyone feels about it? I will personally feel really sad if it comes to this, they've been affected so much already and wearing a mask for 5 odd hours will be uncomfortable and block all facial expressions between each other 😕

@Lockdownbear
Nicola Sturgeon does everything even more ott than Boris to seem bigger than him..she is like a giant toddler ! I know masks on kids is ridiculous as once its starts who is going to be brave enough to call them off !!

The thought of it breaks my heart, its bad enough secondary kids are masked from the minute they get school bus until they get home again excluding lunchtime.

I cant believe any parent is ok with this and if they are im lost for words.

Sorry haven't RTFT, but I have primary aged kids and I'm okay with mask wearing for over 9's.
Anything that will help to stop transmission in the classroom is good in my opinion. My girls have missed weeks since September, having picked up one bug after another in school. Social distancing doesn't work in overcrowded classrooms populated with small children. Masks might help.

I know most of you don't fear your child catching Covid. I do. Mine have asthma and always seem to get the common viruses that bit more seriously than their peers. Then it's nebulisers, strong steroids, occasional trips to hospital for oxygen.
Just last week I have spent the night watching over a child with laboured breathing (just from some bug, it wasn't Covid.) I watched the little chest heave in and out and listened to the ragged breathing and it's horrible, let me tell you. And these are children with mild/moderate asthma, as so many do, not with severe asthma. And modern medicine means my fears are nothing compared to, say, those of my grandmother or grandaunt, who both lost children to colds. What I'm trying to say, I suppose, is that not all children brush off colds and 'mild' illnesses.

So, yes, I'm nervous of Covid, and anything that will prevent transmission gets a big thumbs up from me. I can't wait until they get vaccinated, the sooner the better, as far as I"m concerned. I do understand completely that not everyone feels the same way.

Thats just it they dont stop / reduce transmission only ffp3 ! In the USA in states wiith no mask mandate,cases are lower than states with one. Scotland and northern ireland have higher case rates than england who have just made masks mandatory from Today.
Your kids may have picked up bugs from freezing cold class rooms. Im not nervous of covid and one of my kids has asthma as the incidence of death from covid in children is 1 in 500k thats some odds
. To a parent like yourself covid is of course a massive worry.
That stat 1 in 500k children makes the idea of kids made to wear masks to save adults / save christmas/ be child soldiers against this pandemic just ludicrous and just will lead to joyless school lives and a reduction in learning and socialisation. Since when are kids dally lives to be sacrificed to protect the older generation!!
I was in a queue at the weekend and a woman turned around and said could you move away
I was on a sticker on the floor to soc
Distance and in a cafe where vaxx certs were checked. I said of course but felt like saying if you are nervous 2 years in to this with me vaccinated boostered and soc. Distanced you need to stay at home love.

When will this nightmare end ... perspective and common sense needs to be applied to the whole handling of this pandemic. Fgs what more do the public want.

What i want is these unvaxxed muppets in icu told to pay for their treatment and that will make them not clog up beds for weeks for the people who have had social responsibility and free up spaces thus giving the powet drunk govt a free get out of covid jail card not that they deserve one mind you !!! So its a massive no from me to mask 9 yr olds end of and and NPHET need to do one .

Thats just it they dont stop / reduce transmission only ffp3 !
The studies I've read indicate that only ffp3 masks protect the wearer from inhaled particles, yes, but say that the lighter surgical masks do trap droplets being exhaled, so in this manner they also help (if all/most people use them). I don't think you can easily compare case rates from state to state or country to country as you've done upthread - there are just too many other variables at play to allow this.

Your kids may have picked up bugs from freezing cold class rooms. Im not nervous of covid and one of my kids has asthma as the incidence of death from covid in children is 1 in 500k thats some odds
No, mine get loads of bugs every year, I'm afraid. I was hoping with all the hand sanitising and social distancing this year that things might be better, but they're not. But then, I never believed Norma Foley's claim that schools were safe.
I do know that most children get a milder version of Covid. But, though a minority, some are sick for longer than the average, maybe 4 to 8 weeks or, rarely, even longer. A number get PIMS too. So I'm worried about the impact of the illness on my children's health in general. I'm not paranoid - they're in school - but I'd be happier if things were a bit safer, which is why I'd allow and support masks and vaccinations for my own children. It's their health and safety I'm considering, nothing to do with 'saving Christmas' or anything like that. Of course, it's not what I'd like. I'm much prefer not to be in a pandemic situation, but here we are.

I don't like the 'child soldier', 'daily lives sacrificed to save the old' rhetoric either. The fact is the old and young don't lead separate lives. I know a family of young children who have very recently lost a beloved Granny to Covid. They are bereft, the whole family distraught, and they'll miss her love and support over the next couple of decades or more (she was a young grandmother). Her death is the tragedy here, not the fact that my DC might have to wear a mask at school next week.

What i want is these unvaxxed muppets in icu told to pay for their treatment and that will make them not clog up beds for weeks for the people who have had social responsibility and free up spaces thus giving the powet drunk govt a free get out of covid jail card not that they deserve one mind you !!!
I don't support mandatory vaccination (though of course, I'd prefer if people chose to get vaccinated). I certainly don't support withholding treatment from the unvacccinated. (In your proposal, only the rich get treated!?) Where does that end? 'Well, no, I'm afraid we're not going to be treating your lung cancer because you're a smoker'? 'You're haven't been exercising have you - you don't deserve a bypass operation'? I certainly don't think such an approach would give the government a 'get out of jail free card'. On the contrary.

People love to underplay and dismiss the effects of this on children all the time. Our schools were closed for much longer than the uk and other countries in Europe. No provision for dcs with sn, vunerable dcs or key worker dcs. Masks are one thing (it may slow things down but realistically not a huge deal) . Huge hike of cases in France and all dcs wear masks in schools there..

However telling people what their dcs can and can't do outside school while there are pubs and hotels full of people is too far.
My cousin is a paediatrition in a hospital and there's a huge increase of children with mental health issues, anxiety related disorders and kids in very unstable homes who were left too long in them with schools closed. Just this weekend I was around some who don't have children affectedpeople eyerolling at how precious parents are .

Btw , we weren't negatively affected and our dcs learned more being homeschooled tbh but socially they missed out and during the first wave were treated like walking diseases, remember the term "vectors"?
Sure masks aren't the end of the world but this is part of a much bigger issue related to the handling of this virus. We can't defeat this and if with the vast majority wearing masks and vaccinated the cases are still high then only solution is to improce capacity and asap.

I think this is a great idea. Large anount of current transmission is in National Schools. Any way this can be reduced - and masks DO help with that - should be used.

Agree with exceptions for kids with ANs. They are being impacted by having masks on, but much less than rolling class closures every other week.

They won't need them outside, so they will get to take them off and to see each other's faces at different points in the day.

They are also only there from 8.50 to 2.10, so they are only wearing them for part of the day.

While I agree with masks in school I am nervous re the messaging here in Ireland recently around children as none of this is their fault. The spread of the virus in schools is entirely down to the government messaging on "schools are safe" and removing the contact tracing in schools.

In spite of this it is now the "children" being blamed. I was out at the weekend with my 2 children in a restaurant and when another couple were shown to their table beside us they refused to sit there as the woman said "I am not sitting beside children as they probably have CoVID". This clearly heard by my children! It really upset them and me.

THIS is solely down to government messaging and I repeat it is NOT my children's fault that the government stopped contact tracing and claimed and still claim schools are safe! I have been a huge government supporter up until recently on all COVID measures but they have lost me on the continued insistence of "schools are safe" while simultaneously blaming children for the uptake in cases. It is NOT THEIR FAULT!

People love to underplay and dismiss the effects of this on children all the time.

I'm really not trying to do that Abitlost2. I was talking specifically about mask wearing, not about the school closures, and the lack of SN provision which happened for far too long during Covid. I think we can agree we don't want to go back there again. Masks might help.

I agree @LizzieAnt , I don't think it'll make a dent really on what's going on tbh but if it alleviates the pressure a bit that's something.
I totally agree with you @heretohelpGB

Anyway, at the moment it seems the government are going to recommend mask-wearing for children, but aren't going to make it mandatory.

www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/cabinet-set-to-approve-nphet-advice-on-face-masks-for-children-1221145.html

That woman was very rude heretohelpGB, your poor children.

Poor wee kids having to wear masks all day add in bus travel and afterschool care, that is a huge proportion of a child's wakened hours. Fingers crossed they see sense.

So hospitalisations down
Numbers in icu down
But hold on a minute lets mask healthy children over 9 now asap. .
Oh and destroy businesses while they are at it for a virus with 99.9% recovery rate in people under age 17. So at the height of the pandemic with no vaccines it was ok for kids to go to school. This is just out outrageous. No rhyme/ reason. I dont care about cases alli care about is numbers in hospital . Its so insane the whole management of this. I was close to tears buying masks for my healthy kids today to prevent mild symptoms in other kids fgs and with 94% of teachers/ public vaxxed. I mean why arent vaccines mandated for teachers if masks are for kids !! I bet the INTO would have an opinion on that !!
The govt have no guts / no perspective / no common sense / no care for kids. As for the school is safe brigade and baddie govt to say this all along. I mean do this brigade want kids to have NOTHING / NO EDUCATION fgs. Was listening to Today FM on way home from work today. Owner of jumpzone on 200 parties cancelled in the last 48 hrs . Very easy for civil servants to close the private sector down in a milli second.awful times sooooo depressing

In spite of this it is now the "children" being blamed. I was out at the weekend with my 2 children in a restaurant and when another couple were shown to their table beside us they refused to sit there as the woman said "I am not sitting beside children as they probably have CoVID". This clearly heard by my children! It really upset them and me.

This is awful @heretohelpGB the messages about kids has to change it is not their fault. The virus is just doing what viruses do.

It’s actually children 8 and up, if they’re in third class. I can’t believe how fucking angry I am about this.

And there’s nothing we can fucking do.

Realistically the masks thing in schools is happening but just read the information and it's important to point out that the rest of the things mentioned re socialisation etc is absolutely not the law, also re masks from 8 years in shops. It's important to know and remember that, it's not the law.
Children are yet again being disadvantaged and parents being called hysterical etc.

My socially awkward 8 year old has no play dates or pantos lined up, but I just hate the idea of idea of him stuck in a mask for 6 hours a day. When I was briefly in the office I was always relieved to pull off my mask when I sat down a desk, he won’t have that option.

Honestly I'm not bothered by this. Covid is spreading through our local school at a rate of knots and I'm ok with anything that slows that down. The alternative is homeschooling, which My kids hated ( as did I) and they're used to seeing adults wearing masks around the place and don't seem particularly phased by it. Honestly no one is my circle of friend has batted an eyelid and I'm surprised by how venomous some people are about this. In fact my kids reported today that most kids in their class have already started wearing masks . I have a second, third and fifth class .

I think its soooo funny ( not ) how all these adults who had unrestricted childhoods and have careers in the dail can dole out these restrictions to kids and say its all ok. Like with a straight face take the management of their daily lives in their hands so flippantly.
I know we are in the first pandemic in a century but let parents have independent thought . Go on mask away if you want your own kids but if i had any choice tomorro mine would not be masked but that choice has been taken away from me . So any child with no mask can now be refused entry by the principal.
I hope some parents start legal action against the state over this .

@Crazycrazylady

Honestly I'm not bothered by this. Covid is spreading through our local school at a rate of knots and I'm ok with anything that slows that down. The alternative is homeschooling, which My kids hated ( as did I) and they're used to seeing adults wearing masks around the place and don't seem particularly phased by it. Honestly no one is my circle of friend has batted an eyelid and I'm surprised by how venomous some people are about this. In fact my kids reported today that most kids in their class have already started wearing masks . I have a second, third and fifth class .

Yup, agree with everything you've said.

I don't have kids affected, but I do not understand how anyone can honestly believe that making children wear masks to protect adults entitlement to get hammered in Coppers or for their teachers, principal whoever to enjoy a steak and glass of red.

Are people really that blind? Kids have to wear masks for 5hrs while adults get to sit and eat and drink spluttering all over each other in social settings for 2-3 hrs with no restrictions on theirs faces.

I can only assume teachers, principals, school staff who believe this is the answer will not be doing any socialising until mid February to ensure they do not bring Covid into their classrooms.