Thread by @drpaulclarke

▪️Children need to get back to school, they said.
▪️Education has suffered, is "simply too important”, they said.
▪️Mental health toll is unbearable, they said.

BUT there were always 2 sides to this coin.

Wake of Govt’s ‘let rip’ policy on my family, education & NHS – a thread.

So they had our kids return to quasi-normalised schools in Sept, unvaccinated.
No masks or bubbles.
No notice given about contacts.
Sad, pitiful deafening silence from my RCPCH - no siren call to demand measures known to limit spread in schools.

All pretending all was normal.

All was not normal.
Covid cases among schoolchildren were soon rocketing, as expected.

https://twitter.com/chrischirp/status/1445396939013595149?s=20

I now have big guilt that I didn’t keep all my kids home just as we *had* done prior to the belated first lockdown.

https://twitter.com/drpaulclarke/status/1239306160601288709?s=20

Wed 29/9/21: our 15 y/o unvaccinated daughter’s morning greeting was: “I think I’m dying” just as she proceeded to collapse downstairs. Her wails and shrieks of horror came 5 min later when her LFT showed +ve.

-> +1 isolating, off school, missing education.

+1 (me) unable to go into work, my hard working but worn out colleagues @NICUNNUH1 having to cover my NICU service at zero notice.

And so we all piled off to #CarrowRoad to have our drive-by PCR tests.

By that evening, our 17 y/o (x1 Pfizer vaccinated 4 weeks earlier) noticed her morning LFT strip had now turned +ve.

https://twitter.com/drpaulclarke/status/1443377144286138371?s=20

-> +2 now isolating, off school, missing vital education, no online teaching in place.

30/9/21: Their PCRs done 29/9 confirmed both +ve.

Fri 1/10/21: my x2 AZ-vaccinated schoolteacher wife @beckyhclarke tests pos on LFT.

-> +3 isolating & off school (2 missing vital education, +1 now cannot teach for at least 1 more week).

Mon 4/10/21: me and our 12 y/o youngest (both slight ‘cold’ Sx only) do home PCR (thanks to Zoe app

https://twitter.com/drpaulclarke/status/1444085453779525634?s=20

)

Tues: 5/10/21: 12 y/o’s routine daily LFT now shows +ve, mine neg.

-> +4 isolating/off school (3 missing education, +1 can't educate for at least 1 wk).

Tues eve: Mine and 12 y/o PCR tests results notified: both were POSITIVE. 😱😱

-> +5 (of 5) all now isolating: 4 off school (3 pupils, +1 teacher); plus I now cannot work in my NICU for another 10 days.

So, whole household has ended up stricken after our unvaccinated 15 y/o index daughter caught Covid at @NDHSNorwich school.

Chez nous, R value =4!

Hopefully our vaccinations will temper our illness, please God, and huge thanks to @pfizer #AstraZeneca @NNUH & #NHS vaccinations.

But what a shame it’s come to this after all the protections we’ve taken individually and as a family over the past 18 months.

It’s a direct result of the Govt’s ‘let rip’ policy, clearly designed to have Covid deliberately sweep through unmitigated schools this term.

Result?

⚠️ 3 of our kids will now miss >2 weeks’ education (2 are in GCSE/A-level yrs).
⚠️ Wife unable to teach for 2-3 weeks.
⚠️ Me missing from action, absent from frontline NICU duty for the best part of 3 wks, with knock-on effects on already overworked colleagues & tight staffing.

This is a wilful disaster of the Government’s own making and scheming. Enabled by the subservience and complete lack of challenge from professional organisations, sadly including my own, whose very foundation and existence is to protect children.

Unfortunate myopia on the part of #JCVI.
Should’ve vaccinated all 12-15 y/o kids in summer.

Then our index daughter wouldn’t have got #Covid and nor would we all.

And then our 3 daughters wouldn’t have missed all this education, and my wife and I would not be absent from work.

We are but one single family.

@BorisJohnson @sajidjavid @educationgovuk @nadhimzahawi @CMO_England @uksciencechief @RCPCHtweets @RCPCHPresident @RCPCH_CPP #JCVI
Just imagine what the compounded effects your disastrous policy/reticence now are, as being played out nationally?

You are *not* protecting children!
You are *not* protecting children's education!
You are *not* protecting the #NHS!

@BorisJohnson @educationgovuk @nadhimzahawi @CMO_England @uksciencechief @RCPCHtweets @RCPCHPresident @RCPCH_CPP

https://twitter.com/chrischirp/status/1445398055784787970?s=20

@SafeEdForAll_UK