Schools and Covid 19 (part 5) **Mod warnings in OP**

If schools are not safe then why did Holohan say that children are more likely to get the virus at home or in the community?

Quick query that might settle a discussion I had with a someone today...

If someone in a house is sympthomatic and booked in for a test but isn't a contact of a positive case, what are the requirements of the other people in the house, particularly school going children (all fully vaccinated)?

Common sense would tell me to keep the children at home until test results come through (and then back to normal or isolation depending on positive/negative).

Advise is if you think its covid keep siblings home.

Do an antigen test, if its negative then you no longer think its covid so siblings can go to school.

Id sooner my children catch covid than wear masks in schools.

Our youngest child (now in 6th Class) has been wearing Masks all the time inside the school building since the kids went back to school after the 1st Lockdown. Also in shops etc. No problem for her.

Because schools are a politically sensitive topic.

One of Micheal Martin's core issues on taking office was the reopening of schools and keeping them open.

Therefore he will resist closing them again unless he has no other political option. What else has he achieved after all.

This... when this all started my (then 8 year old) son was having nightmares that he was going to kill his nanny with Covid.

That we're resorting to using young kids to cover HSE incompetence and placate fearful adults who should just stay home if they are that concerned is a new low IMO.

My 14 y/old daughter said to me this morning "I can't really remember a time before COVID".

She's in 3rd year now but didn't even get one normal year in secondary school before it all kicked off.

But, as a physician, Holohan's statements are motivated by concerns for health (physical and mental) rather than politics, aren't they?

Perhaps the discomfort that is caused to children who get nits or chickenpox and which justifies informing parents in general doesn't arise in most Covid cases. Even the Delta variant might not be as contagious as nits or chickenpox!

Maybe the numbers of cases will fall low enough by February to justify the lifting of the mask mandate in primary and secondary schools.

PH decide what is a notifiable disease / condition in a school context not the school. Staff have raised the issue of headlice etc being notifiable and covid not on numerous occasions over the last 2 years - standard response has been PH do not want individuals identified. It is only within the last week or so that parents are being advised to let principals know of a case - prior to this there was no onus on parents to inform the school of a positive case.

Schools ask parents to inform them if your child tests positive but won't return the favour. It's got nothing to do with severity of nits v covid it's the department not wanting to acknowledge the risk of going to school and intentionally hiding behind GDPR as a phony excuse. There are 13 kids out of my kids class today, some of that has to be covid. So telling us won't identify any child.

I get the kids need their education but there are ways for me to mitigate the risk of bring it down to my mother. Think we'll have no choice but to assume there is always a case in their class. I wonder will many parents take their kids out from the 10th of December so that they are safer to see the grandparents for Christmas

Doesn't the possible risk to grandparents depend on whether or not the grandparents live in the same home as the children?

Have there been many incidences of non-compliance with the mask rule in secondary schools so far? If I remember correctly, someone on this forum said that some teachers at a school were not wearing masks.

I agree with you on this. One of my boys has chosen to wear a mask at times too but I would never ask him to.

completely against masks in schools. I’ll be getting my lads vaccinated asap though. They are just about to turn five.