Read on Twitter
1. I've been tweeting about airborne transmission of #COVID19 in schools, and thought it might be helpful to share how we've dealt with the issue. Every family is different, so what we've done might not work for all.
2. We're in this strange Orwellian world in which it is widely accepted #SARSCoV2 is airborne/aerosolised, but the UK government's guidance to schools is based on close contact and fomite transmission.
3. Our local authority and schools have been effective at communicating their risk assessments, but airborne transmission is not mentioned once. When questioned, they point to the Department for Education guidelines, which set out how to open schools safely.
4. The DfE does not acknowledge the risk of airborne transmission. SAGE/NERVTAG, Royal Society/DELVE, @WHO recommendations that we should minimise the risk of airborne transmission by asking children over 12 to wear masks simply aren't recognised by schools or local authorities.
5. They're trusting the UK government's advice to keep staff, pupils and families safe, and say they can't look to other sources to second guess the quality of the government's advice.
6. It's easy to complain about our hopeless and slow government, but how does one deal with the practical need to get children back to school safely when the official guidance fails to recognise a major transmission risk?
7. Our 8-year-old has been the first in our family to go back to his primary school. We've obtained permission for him to wear an N99 mask in class. He takes it off at break, stores it in a bag, and puts on a new one before he goes back inside.
8. Lunch looked to be a problem. The school is having 300 students eat in the same hall. They eat in bubble shifts, but a virus that can remain in the air for 16 hours doesn't care about such things.
9. The school isn't allowing pupils to eat outside due to staffing requirements, but the head suggested our son could come home for lunch. When we drop him off in the afternoon, he gets a fresh mask for the remaining 2 hours of the day.
10. We've told the school that he can participate in outdoor PE without his mask, but have excused him from any indoor activity that would require him to remove his mask.
11. He knows how to fit the mask and antibac his hands before and after. Recent case studies demonstrate the protective benefits of masks for the wearer: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-08-25/this-starbucks-in-south-korea-became-a-beacon-for-mask-wearing
12. The @WHO recommends masks for children aged 6 to 11 when they can't social distance, so while our approach is unusual in the UK, it's very much in line with the latest international guidance.
13. Our two older children are at high schools where masks seem as though they're going to be the norm. In the end, I suspect mask-wearing in all classes is the only way we're going to be able to minimise transmission through schools.
14. In the meantime, our risk won't be zero, but we're doing what we can to reduce it to a level we feel comfortable with. Our 8-year-old refused to go back without a mask. He sees people wearing them when we're out and knows they have protective benefit.
15. None of the other children commented on his mask (he was one of 2 kids wearing a mask in his class) and he said he felt completely comfortable in it. He read out a story to the class and wasn't hindered by his mask.
16. IMHO masks in schools are inevitable, but like so many other elements of this pandemic, the UK government refuses to follow the latest scientific evidence and insists on learning things the hard way.
17. The lack of foresight, refusal to adapt & innovate, and constant U-turns are paid for with higher infection rates, ill health and loss of life, which in turn harm the economy.
18. Talking to a few people in the know, the word on the street is that the government has decided to "suck it and see" when it comes to reopening schools. Seems a strange and reckless thing to do when lives and livelihoods are at stake.
19. Adding this interesting study, which highlights gastric issues as the number one symptom in children. https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/health/covid-19-symptoms-children-cough-18858587
20. The NHS (and therefore DfE) still only recognises three symptoms in children. https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/symptoms/coronavirus-in-children/
21. And according to the BBC, the NHS is advising parents to send children into school even if they have cold symptoms. In these circumstances a mask seems a sensible precaution. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-51643556
