There's an Indo piece on a possible scenario IF experts agree. It's not a plan anywhere.
For me it depends on the age of the kids. Our 11 year old wore a mask last school year - no problem. She is 12 now and 6th Class and will again wear a mask. For me, there is little difference between her and a child in 1st Year.
For younger kids (under 10 maybe) and certainly the first few years of Primary, I don't think it would realistically work.
We had asked our kids to wear masks on the return to school back in March. They mostly complied with the request but having seen the results masks on young kids are a no from me. Never mind the messing that goes on with them. Small kids dropping them into the toilet and putting them back on. Dropping them onto the bathroom floor and picking them up. Covid would be the least of my worries with masks in schools.
I wouldn’t be a fan of masks on primary kids. Some adults are hard enough to understand wearing them sometimes, but children especially those who may have speech issues might struggle more to make themselves understood. Restrictions are either coming to an end or they are not.
Here it is. I’m confident after meeting parents & children over the last few days, this will not be supported. Will the experts speak up? This is abuse, plain and simple.
So, NPHET has asked HIQA to review mask wearing for Primary School kids and it will decide in September. Surely, this could have been decided earlier in the Summer with the guidance being issued BEFORE the schools re-opened ??
Reviewing it, which is probably kite flying before they announce it, maybe for pe indoors or something, honestly think it might be a faster way to spread covid with younger kids, they will end up swapping masks, having their masks in contact with each other s masks when not in use, it will increase outbreaks of every bug etc.
It's in the independent this morning.
Where are you reading about NPHET wanting Masks for Primary ?
Fully agree with this. I was hoping the requirements for teachers wearing masks in the classrooms as it is pointless when there's up to 35 unmasked in some rooms and just the teacher in a mask.
So NPHET want to put masks on Primary School children? A New Normal? What about teaching & learning or the fact they won’t be able to keep them on? What an absolutely disgusting suggestion.
Cannot see parents or teachers agreeing to this. Teaching & learning would be severely affected, learning outcomes & children’s development would be severely curtailed. They’ve already lost so much school time. Let’s see will people who actually know their stuff in this area speak up.
Most adults are vaccinated now, we’re supposed to be getting back to more normality. Are we really going to let the dinosaurs that haven’t a clue about this area get away with this?
This is clearly a ploy to force the vaccine in the under 12’s if it gets approved for that age group.
I’m quite confident if there’s research being done on mask wearing for under 12’s, it would demonstrate that in this age group is not only ineffective, it’s akin to abuse.
Perhaps. I've used Nasaleze for a long time for allergies and it works well. The papers re: viral use were enough for me to give it a "what they hey" go, anyway.
Snake oil.
My kids are getting a puff of Nasaleze in each nostril before school in the morning.
The active ingredient is hydroxypropyl methylcellulose, also the active ingredient in Taffix, which has some (small) evidence of effectiveness (78%) against Covid and lots of evidence of effectiveness against viral infection more generally. Nasaleze tends to be a bit more widely available and a bit cheaper, since the company hasn't done covid-specific studies of its own, and it can be used by pregnant/breastfeeding women and children over 3.
Thought I'd mention it, for people concerned about their kids bringing the virus home to anyone vulnerable.
Thank you. That’s lovely to hear! I’m secondary too so I’m hoping between vaccinations and the distancing still there all will be well!
Can't remember when I last bought calpol/similar, it was pre covid anyway, not a sniffle between the four kids since this started, probably make up for it this year..
Every household must have a drawer full of these yokes?
The croup episode with no.3 recently made me realise that everything in the house needed restocking, so we are ready🤦♀️Well.As ready as we can be.
Might add in some probiotics to that stockpile though.
Our GP was telling us they've been seeing a lot of the usual winter stuff in the spring / summer months instead. I think I'll lose the plot entirely if there's another cough or temperature in the next few weeks.
Maybe we've just been really unlucky but I'd be making sure I'm well stocked up on Calpol and Nurofen! 😀
My youngest has been one on one with a childminder for the last year, with just his siblings there too outside of school, so I expect the coming months to basically be a continuous infection of some sort.
This summer has been a complete nightmare for us with sickness with creche/ECCE kids. By far the worst period we've ever had. Coughs and temperatures galore, we've had about an 8 week solid period where there was always someone who had a cough and temperature. Always tested, never Covid.
If any consolation, my very high risk vulnerable mother got AZ in April also. I had her for dinner on BH Mon evening. I came down with symptoms Tuesday morning and subsequently tested positive (fully vax pfizer). Thankfully Mam never tested positive and it would appear it protected her.
The very best of luck on the return to the classroom.
Very high risk teacher back to school today. So sick of being at home so I’m really glad in some ways and super nervous in others. Got AstraZeneca back before in April before it was taken out of my age group so here’s hoping it works well!
Local school went back in last Thursday. Today an entire junior class is out as close contacts because one of the children tested positive on Friday. A set of parents managed to send their symptomatic child in on the first day and shut down the entire class for a week.
Awful parents are a minority, but there are still 4 or 5 in every class and they will continue to wreck everything for the forseeable.
Context - the equivalent of 4 here. A small number of kids with always end up in hospital with respiratory viruses. 1 or 2 days maximum in almost every instance. There is an abundance of caution when dealing with children and the will often be admitted in a scenario where adults would not
Concerning comments from Scott Gottieb on how the return to schools is going in the US ....
Assuming the cause is 'immune deficit', then yes, you would expect things to settle down after a surge but the surge will last quite some time.
The NY Times reports that the RSV surge began in May 2021 and is now getting worse as schools return. i.e. the surge will go on for months. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/24/well/live/rsv-respiratory-synctial-virus.html
And this is on top of covid cases. A separate NY Times article this week documents the effect Delta has had on childrens hospitals as schools return in the US. Some ICU units for children are in "chaos" ... https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/27/us/children-covid-delta.html
Hopefully the 'immune deficit' principal will not also apply to flu this Winter. Too early to tell yet on what will happen with flu but the impact on RSV is clear.
Isn't this likely to be an intense but short term problem? It is something you'd expect to settle to normal levels quite quickly after a surge.
RSV is soaring in schools in the UK and the US. Case numbers are significantly above where things normally are this time of year.
It's not covid but it is another thing to add into the mix with the risk of hospitals been put under pressure.
Where are all the ‘close the schools ‘ crowd this year?. Or “I can’t go to get my hair cut but they say schools are safe. “. They’re gone very quiet.
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