School September Return
If you’re not a teacher or a parent with school age kids, give this blog a miss. I’m using it as a holding space for all the research I’m finding out about what the science, rather than the politicians say!
It seems to me, that whilst the unions do their bit, so can we. We can each read the evidence and make decisions for ourselves.
The decisions we all make, staff and pupils, when we go back in September, not only effect our health now, but, if we catch it, in the medium term and we don’t have research yet about long term impact.
Our decision also affect every single person we come into contact with; our parents, friends, shop keepers, bus drivers, schools are central to their whole community.
There is social pressure to not wear masks in school. The science simply does not support this. Denial is in operation here; denial that the virus can and will come into school and then into the wider community, again, this is not what the research is saying.
Summary
The data attached shows:
- Masks prevent transmission and reduce viral load – evidence is conclusive – we need to all wear masks and that mandate needs to come from the top so that it removes the social pressure which will prevent people from wearing them. Masks will also remind people the virus is still around and so it will be harder to pretend/deny things are ‘usual’. We also need to encourage young people to do the same and again make it ‘the norm’ to wear a mask so we are protecting our wider community
- That teenagers may transmit the virus – data unclear – so surely we should be safe rather than sorry – hence masks
- Primary school pupils don’t seem to catch or transmit the virus
- HSE – we need to be safe in work…no meetings, no student teacher training in the same room, no adults in groups together inside – This needs to be for all meetings/ NPQ trainings/ Student teacher trainings/ assemblies/ school trips everything. We have done it on line, we can do it on line, there is no reason we can not continue to do it that way…anything else is denial which leads into unnecessary risks.
Since collating the information below, the unions have started to come to the same conclusions:
Health and safety executive
These are the people looking after employees, whatever their work place.
– https://www.hse.gov.uk/coronavirus/working-safely/work-from-home.htm
The argument that there shouldn’t be whole staff or even dept meetings
Government guidance for working in offices and public buildings
United Nations Convention for the Rights of the child
Every child has the right to the following:
Medical evidence
Masks Video..especially from minute 30 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cio3rh6ta3w&feature=share&fbclid=IwAR1BK5YgmlBSPg5ABNXJAC-eXHO–GkZzQaFoB8iC86JC7OF_Ad4a537PX4
Re schools and different ages: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yh9gmca6o_A&t=3568s
World health organisation: https://www.facebook.com/WHO/videos/287753389107882/?t=11
Articles on the need to wear masks:
https://www.preprints.org/manuscript/202004.0203/v3
https://www.authorea.com/users/316109/articles/446320-masks-for-the-public-laying-straw-men-to-rest
Young people can transmit it
So although they can’t get as ill, they can transmit to staff, parents, grandparents, wider community.
https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/26/10/20-2403_article
https://fullfact.org/health/covid-19-in-children/
So the research at the moment is not conclusive…which for me means we need to wear masks until there is a conclusion…based on ‘better safe than sorry’. Also, I’m not sure how they are defining ‘children’ here.
https://www.rcpch.ac.uk/resources/covid-19-research-evidence-summaries
https://www.rcpch.ac.uk/resources/covid-19-research-evidence-summaries
How are we going to look after BAME staff and students?
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.20.20108126v1
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.27.20076778v1
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7324116/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666675820300011
Why testing won’t work because it doesn’t pick up on pre/asymptoms
https://coronavirusexplained.ukri.org/en/article/und0006/
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Julie
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