COVID-19

[Babylon]

Staff and children in UK schools are not required to wear masks, and it’s not expected either.

The restrictions in place pretty much equate to staggered starting times and classes not mixing with other classes. Social distancing between the children themselves is almost non-existent, and it’s limited between staff and children. Oh and we’re also encouraged to have windows and doors open. That’s it.

A school community is equivalent to the population of a small village.

I live in a tier 1 town and we have at least 2 children off in each class every week for suspected Covid. We haven’t had to quarantine a class yet, but I know teachers all over the country and in every single one of their schools a class, year group or the whole school had to close during the past half term. I’m not sure how much this is being publicised.

 

[Trinu 3.0]

Staff and children in UK schools are not required to wear masks, and it’s not expected either.

But isn't that... idiotic?
Masks, distance, hygiene and ventilation should be enforced basically everywhere.

 

[Babylon]

But isn't that... idiotic?
Masks, distance, hygiene and ventilation should be enforced basically everywhere.

Completely idiotic. I literally have no fucking clue why it’s not in the guidance.

 

[SBK]

I think schools are the elephant in the room when it comes to the UK and Covid.

Classes of 30 mixing (lets be honest here), then going home with with maybe 50-60 parent/guardians with full time jobs + brothers/sisters who are probably in another class of 30, perhaps another school, a bus ride away, then every possible social scenario like Sunday lunch at the grandparents so long as there's less than 6 of you add the general relaxation of social distancing out and about.... What did they expect.

 

[theelusivechanteuse]

K12 schools haven’t been making too much of a dent in the U.S. yet. Colleges and universities on the other hand...

 

[RJF]

But isn't that... idiotic?

Yup! But God forbid the kids are inconvenienced!

 

[Empty Shoebox]

Sweden on the other hand, is doing absolutely fuck all.

Well, I say that. People in Uppsala were advised to avoid public transport and recommended to only meet with a small number of people, despite Uppsala akademiska sjukhuset running out of intensive care places.

And now FHM has applied it's strictest "please don't do that, if you could possibly" status to Stockholm (1155 cases today), Östergötland (140) and Västra Götalands region (506).

Companies have been advised to 'postpone business trips and conferences'.

The punishment for breaking these ranges from a quiet tut to an extreme wagging of a finger with a small shake of the head.



Bloody pathetic.
Oh yeah, and they're still not testing asymptomatic people outside of health and care workers.

 

[Trinu 3.0]

Maybe it's more like

Yup! But God forbid the British kids are inconvenienced!

Any type of gathering is going to be risky (hence the masks, the hand-washing, the distance, the ventilation...), but I think a supervised classroom should be considered safer than a pub. And when it comes to closing things up, they should be the last to do so.

But then again, the British system of having students change classrooms every 40 min might not be the best to enforce the whole bubble thing. I don't know if that has changed since the pandemic, but if not... welp.

 

[man.tis.shrimp]

But then again, the British system of having students change classrooms every 40 min might not be the best to enforce the whole bubble thing. I don't know if that has changed since the pandemic, but if not... welp.

This really doesn't make sense to me. The virus doesn't sit there with a stopwatch waiting for the clock to run out before starting to infect. It's not like changing rooms would help if other students are contagious too.

Unless I'm misunderstanding what's going on. There was a huge stink because a school in my state was attempting to do that to skirt contact tracing rules. No need to trace if you never cross that time threshold, apparently!

 

[Trinu 3.0]

This really doesn't make sense to me. The virus doesn't sit there with a stopwatch waiting for the clock to run out before starting to infect. It's not like changing rooms would help if other students are contagious too.

Surely if you don't cross paths with many people in corridors and whatnot your chances of encountering someone infected are reduced. On the other hand, if a person is infected, they can't infect many other people if they're sitting in one place and not changing desks every other hour.



The classroom setting is basically how schools are working over here.

 

[man.tis.shrimp]

Surely if you don't cross paths with many people in corridors and whatnot, your chances of encountering someone infected are reduced. On the other hand, if a person is infected, they can't infect many other people if they're sitting in one place and not changing desks every other hour.



The classroom setting is basically how schools are working over here.

Are viral loads still a thing? I'm picturing a scenario like this, obviously dumbed waaaaaaaaay down because I don't really know.

1. There is an infected person in a classroom. Students in the room are exposed to a certain amount of the virus for the length of a class period--say 45 minutes.
2. The students change rooms, but there is another infected person (or the same person) in the new classroom. Students are again exposed to the virus for 45 minutes.
3. Wash, rinse, repeat. Students and teachers may be exposed continually throughout the day.

Does that matter?

 

[man.tis.shrimp]

Also, all of those infographics discuss how important ventilation is. Meanwhile, I'm at work in a float lab/sauna/spa, which is just about the stuffiest and most humid place you could be. No windows to open here!

":("

 

[SBK]

All it takes is one infected person to touch the door handle and everyone who touches it after them is at risk.

We know how it spread like a cold/flu virus, so all this scratching our heads at it peaking again is really bizarre to me... Schools, colleges, universities have always been where the common cold spreads really easily.

 

[Trinu 3.0]

@man.tis.shrimp I honestly don't know, but there isn't going to be a scenario where the risk is an absolute zero.

 

[man.tis.shrimp]

@man.tis.shrimp I honestly don't know, but there isn't going to be a scenario where the risk is an absolute zero.

Oh, definitely. I'm just trying to wrap my head around choices being made. I don't have the answers!

 

[mylesofsmiles93]

I think the thing is in Schools, children/teenagers even if they have it aren’t producing massive viral loads and therefore what they’re breathing out contains very little virus, thus the risk for others catching it is a lot lower.

 

[TheDangerZone]

Ugh our city is iconic @superultra

Now can the Trump administration pls vacate & MAGAts stop flocking to the city so our positive case numbers stop getting inflated so we can open schools again k thx

 

[aniraz]

I honestly can’t believe that kids don’t have to wear a mask at school in the UK and moreover my mum isn’t allowed to wear one while she’s teaching (not sure if this is a universal rule?). I’m teaching in Spain right now and while there are many, many problems with this country’s handling of the pandemic, I at least feel relatively safe when I’m doing my job because we’re all wearing masks. I totally understand why schools need to be kept open but I agree that more rules should be put in place to protect teachers and other staff as well as the kids. Also going into a strict lockdown but still having full classrooms of unmasked kids and teachers who then go home to their families seems a bit... redundant?

Some schools are. I'm in the UK and in our school all students and staff have to wear a mask when not eating.

 

[KamikazeHeart]

The development in Europe over basically one week is fucking terrifying.

 

[SBK]

Its not really surprising, when you go out now, its back to normal in most places, shops have stopped making you social distance, the checkouts at Morrisons are a free for all again, the only difference is people wearing masks as chin warmers.