Taoiseach: “It’s our intention that schools will reopen in January. Schools are not drivers of the virus.” CMO: The “controlled environment” of classrooms means they are at the lower end of activity

48 comments

  6. These fucking cunts are unbelievable. They think we’re all fucking thick as shit or something. Easy to say school aren’t the cause when there’s no contract tracing yis bastards

  7. I have at least a quarter of every one of my classes empty this week due to parents or kids being infected or close contacts. School was also missing 10 staff this week due to being positive or close contacts. What the fuck is he smoking?

  8. Schools not being the drivers of the virus is the biggest most sustained lie of this two year shitshow, and I have no idea how they keep getting away with spouting this blatantly false garbage.

  9. >Controlled environment

    Good to know that nobody in charge knows what a classroom is or how it typically operates. Unless they mean ‘controlled environment’ in the sense that a petri dish is a controlled environment.

  10. I was in today in my ASD class. Covid is in my class and yet we were all in except those with covid. We were classed as non close contacts. Small close contact setting unlike mainsteam classes when kids can distance (other than infants possibly and even there it wouldn’t be as close contact as us). I am a nervous wreck hoping I don’t get sick and miss Xmas this year. I can’t go out this weekend until my PCR test comes back. No job is worth this and no other job would not have classed us working in the room as non close contacts. The government is a disgrace!! Who cares thats teachers don’t get an Xmas as long as the ministers do clearly!!! All the education government staff are working from home for a year and a half!!

  14. I wish they’d just say we believe that schools are too important to close and that they will open as normal despite driving infections.

    Whether you agreed with it or not it would be the government actually showing leadership rather than treating us like idiots and lying to us.

  15. If they said that schools will remain open because children very rarely become unwell with Covid and in-person learning and interactions in school are essential for child development I think most people would understand.

  17. Anybody with a child in primary school knows this is complete horseshit.

    The secondary schools are grand so far. The primary schools are fucking riddled with COVID.

  18. Unlike the uncontrolled environment of a theatre where everybody is vaccinated, wears a mask and sits facing a stage.

  21. The lies are really pissing me off.

    The early on lie that masks weren’t effective *really* bugs me, the whole notion that non medical professionals would be incapable of wearing a mask (which was at that time known to drastically cut transmission) was demented.

    Another one that does my head in is the continued “passing the responsibility” bullshit around hand sanitizer (which is largely irrelevant for an airborne virus that doesn’t transmit much at all via surfaces). This allows places to entirely palm off responsibility to you, as opposed to having decent ventilation.

    Claims that LFT antigen tests wouldn’t work here because apparently people are too stupid to follow pictogram instructions, they aren’t reliable enough, etc.

    The absolutely pointless theatrics around travel, with Gardai at the airport reducing people to tears and issuing fines even for perfectly valid travel reasons (I both witnessed, and was stung by this).

    Arbitrarily imposing entirely unworkable closing times, time limits, or minimum price “substantial meals” on hospitality, along with incoherent guidance (in a hotel bar non residents and residents follow different rules). All to try prop up an industry by itself and avoid paying social welfare/PUP/business grants.

    Schools being kept open with the myth that children can’t spread it (turns out, they absolutely can). Claims they can’t afford 90M for HVAC systems for schools while they hand over stacks of cash to the greyhound industry. Claims that children can’t wear masks.

    Claims that a fucking plastic visor is adequate face covering when it’s about as useful as a chocolate dildo.

    They keep being hoist by the petard of their own bullshit.

    It just gives antivaxers and muppets ammunition.

  24. Speaking as a teacher it’s tearing through my school one class at a time. As soon as one kid gets it there’s a big chunk of kids from the same room that are out with it within the next week or so. I was out with it myself last week and came back Tuesday to find that 10 of my 26 students are out. I’m not looking for school closures or anything like that, I just want them to stop lying to us admit that schools aren’t as safe as they’ve been saying.

  25. Absolute fucking horse shit. My wife and kids have all just had COVID despite 2 years of seeing almost no one because my wife was pregnant, then we had a baby and then we had a toddler, but we all ended up with COVID anyway because my 10 year old caught it in school.

    Almost his entire class ended up sick. Schools are a melting pot of infection.

  26. We’re the lower end of activity? So the kids hacking directly into each others mouths is actually fine and perfectly safe? Oh thank god

  27. “We can trust children and teenagers to go to school and act responsibly but we can’t trust grown ass adults to socialise responsibly”

    Basically they think we’re stupid

  28. The schools are not drivers of the virus as children and teens don’t even breathe before age of 18 anyways, duh

  30. And we’re supposed to take everything they say at face value? They are lying to our fucking faces.

  32. Horse shit. I’m in rural Ireland and some schools have had huge numbers per class. It’s transmitting like wildfire due to previous policies to not contact trace in schools. The parents in this school are not mixing, so it’s not community transmission, unless you classify the school as community transmission

  33. What gets me are the inconsistencies.

    Nearly 6 months ago, Florida, Texas and a whole bunch of other states in the US decided Covid19 was over. If you want a vaccine get one, fuck it get 5. Masks? Yeah wear it if you want.

    Stadiums full, conferences packed, concerts packed house, bars full, restaurants full.

    Cases, Hospitalisations and deaths are not a whole pile different to lockdown states/countries.

    This does not add up.

  34. Primary school teacher here, it’s getting annoying at this stage hearing schools are “safe” etc. I’ve lost count of the cases of Covid in my school and I teach in a small school. We are told to keep quiet about cases and the principal had been told to do the same by DES. Windows open for ventilation is all we have to protect us which makes the classroom freezing. The reality is 30 little kids in a small room wearing no masks, if somebody gets Covid it will spread. As a teacher I’m not considered a close contact if a child I teach gets Covid.

    No, I don’t think schools should close. But I just wish we’d stop being told schools are “safe”. We need more than just an open window to help. Our pupil teacher ratio is the highest in Europe. We need to do better for the children in this country.

  38. Thing is government knows as soon as they admit to the issue, education would likely soon have greater issues. Also, they know education is core to a future source of employment so if that goes things become ‘troublesome’ for corporations setting up and existing.

  40. Gotta hand it to the Gov, it’s true that the schools aren’t the drivers of the virus, they mainly consist of prefabs. The people within them however,

  41. Secondary school teacher here. In my school there was an outbreak recently in one of the bubbles (year group) where 14 students tested positive. None were considered school cases as the original infection came from outside, like a student got it at the weekend and then came into school with it unknowingly. That’s how they’re phrasing this shit to lie that schools aren’t spreaders.

    On the flip side, I would like schools to stay open. I don’t think lockdown helps overall when you weigh up loss of education, socialising and most importantly, mental health. But still, just be honest at this stage and let parents make a choice, the lies are more tiring than the pandemic at this stage for me

  43. No nooooo, not the publicly provided child minding facilities, don’t close them ~ how else would parents play videogames in their underwear the whole day calling it a “remote office” while underpaid public servants try teaching their kids some manners?!

  44. I absolutely hate the restrictions on pubs and restaurants closing at 8 but we absolutely must keep schools open. They are far more important

  45. I really don’t understand how they can get away with saying that schools aren’t drivers of the virus.

    My daughters primary school currently has something like 30 children out with covid. The school has sent out messages begging parents not to send in children if there’s even the slightest hint of a runny nose, a sore throat or anything like that. A lot of parents have already pulled their children out of school because they don’t want them catching covid before Christmas and therefore stopping them meeting family they haven’t seen in a long time.

    As a family we are being very careful to control our contacts, and the reality is is that the only place we would really get exposed to covid is through our daughters school. We have a son who’s at secondary school, but I’m not too worried about him because he’s fully vaccinated.

    Edit: even though my sons school is now officially on Christmas break, first year students have been asked to come in on Monday to learn how to use Microsoft teams and various other online learning systems.

  46. Just stop digging this hole. Like I think most reasonably intelligent people can accept an argument that we want to keep schools open despite it being a place for virus to spread because education important for our children’s development and well being. Like that was always my assumption. Don’t outright lie about it and treat people like idiots.

    The virus doesn’t just stop spreading because it’s a school.

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