Coronavirus (COVID-19)

[Wee Willie]

14 hours ago, Stinky Bone said:

I don't want anyone to die either, but at the moment I have chosen to stay at home the same as you have.  I believe that trusting the Scottish governments advice at this time is the best we have.  

 

Of course it is. The alternative is to trust BoJo  advice

13 hours ago, Stinky Bone said:

Royalists are self entitled b*****ds, selfish c***s and have nothing decent to offer the man/woman in the street. 

God knows why they are worshipped in royal deeside. 

Royalty I meant in first line.  Won't change it, same thing in a way.

I couldnae have said it ony better

13 hours ago, Thereisalight.. said:

The IHME predicting that the UK may see zero covid deaths on July 30th. 

Thank fcuk - let's have a party!

13 hours ago, Thereisalight.. said:

Then the negative by the Telegraph - “second more deadly wave of coronavirus to hit Europe this winter”. So there we have it, the fearful will be locked indoors until Spring 2021. What a wonderful life for them 

Fcuk sake - scrub the party

 

[Michael W]

56 minutes ago, ICTChris said:

If the perception is that schools are opening too soon then people won’t put their kids into school.

Currently around 20% of English school pupils are eligible to be in the school hubs. The actual number who are there is just under 1%. From what I understand the Scottish ones are the same.

Halycon days coming for local authorities in England - just think of the income from unauthorised absence fines. 

[Bairnardo]

The schools are going to require, like VT keeps saying, an easing back of the arbitrary 2 metre thing. It's all well and good recommending that as an effective distance but for things like schools and numerous other workplaces, and to stop folk needlessly acting like arseholes about it, it needs clarification that its keep your distance as much as is practicable.

In Scotland they have until August to modify the advice, and provide other mitigations such as masks or whatever else. The talk about how schools cant ever go back to how they were is fucking stupid. Kids arent going to listen. The gradual loosening of the lockdown by the public shows that adults will only listen so much, so we can forget about kids paying any heed on that basis. If you think the only way to get schools back is with consistent 2 metre distancing then you can forget about education at all.

[pandarilla]

Absolutely. We are a little bit ‘luckier’ in Scotland due to the timing. Being a couple of weeks behind England plus the holidays being a few weeks earlier than them, we can probably just about get to the summer without the same level of publicity/social media chat to get schools open again. We have six weeks to go but in England it’s roughly another 9?

I think we're luckier in that our unions, in general, have been around the table for all the meetings. There's an atmosphere of everyone working to find the best solution, which comes all the way from the Scottish government imo.

It's a little more divisive, do whatever you like down south. And that creates this kind of headline, which will no doubt have been nudged from the government. A bigger proportion of their public lap it up as well.

[trainspotter]

37 minutes ago, stumigoo said:

 

It really isn’t about ‘abandoning the pupils’, it is about the health of pupils, their families and the staff.

The schools are not yet designed to help re-integrate the pupils or implement a ‘normal’ working day with a safe environment for pupils and staff. That’s where the concern is.

It might be an interesting few weeks in England because the Government seem to be pushing this but up here schools in all likelihood will definitely not be opening this side of the summer holidays. That gives authorities and schools a chance to plan for the way forward beyond the summer.

 

My partner is a teacher and has COPD. I'm very happy that her union is acting in her and her colleagues best interests rather than worrying about what a bunch of random gobshites on Facebook think.

[Todd_is_God]

37 minutes ago, welshbairn said:

Are they planning to cancel the summer holidays then, or is it just a harmless wee experiment for a few weeks?

Well no. English schools don't finish up until 22nd July.

[Todd_is_God]

16 minutes ago, Bairnardo said:

The schools are going to require, like VT keeps saying, an easing back of the arbitrary 2 metre thing. It's all well and good recommending that as an effective distance but for things like schools and numerous other workplaces, and to stop folk needlessly acting like arseholes about it, it needs clarification that its keep your distance as much as is practicable.

In Scotland they have until August to modify the advice, and provide other mitigations such as masks or whatever else. The talk about how schools cant ever go back to how they were is fucking stupid. Kids arent going to listen. The gradual loosening of the lockdown by the public shows that adults will only listen so much, so we can forget about kids paying any heed on that basis. If you think the only way to get schools back is with consistent 2 metre distancing then you can forget about education at all.

I've seen a few people on Facebook suggesting they will be happy for their kids to stay off until August 2021 and just be held back a year.

Absolute madness.

[coprolite]

1 hour ago, Blootoon87 said:

1 hour ago, Bairnardo said:

A dildo in Thatchers dead arse

That's a woman you're talking about.

Very inconsiderate eh? 

One in her mouldy snatch too. 

[Michael W]

Secondary schools in England won't be back until September. The govt is trying to get some time for those that will have exams, but might not manage it. 

Primary schools on the 1st of June? I can't see it. I have no idea how they can be distanced, and even if you manage it in class, the whole thing is out the window at break times. The return is to be phased, although I don't really see the point in bothering as the last year's back will get perhap 3 weeks of teaching at most. If you did the same in Scotland there really would be no. Point at all as anyone not back on he 1st of June would again get around 3 weeks at best. Seems pointless causing disruption with all the relevant measures for distancing etc, so sensible to scrap it and work towards trying it again in August. 

[Bairnardo]

I've seen a few people on Facebook suggesting they will be happy for their kids to stay off until August 2021 and just be held back a year.
Absolute madness.

Would be utterly fucking seething with that tbh.

In all honesty I am starting to get pretty seething with the lack of any visible attempts to use what has been learned in the past few months about this disease to tailor the measures we are taking.

I have held to the lockdown as much as I possibly could have, but if I am being very honest, I am being worn down. It's been spoken about here, but if targeting the old and the vulnerable for shielding whilst getting the rest back to work isnt feasible I'd like to know why. I'd like to see it in the public discourse among other things. The longer this blanket approach goes on and the more I see people sinking into financial trouble, and the more I hear that my kids will never get a foreign holiday or that they will only get schooled 3 days a week or whatever, the more disillusioned I am getting with the response to this.

This isnt some sort of covid denial nonsense, just how I feel and how my thoughts are changing as time drags on. Genuinely feels like we are not learning, reviewing, reacting and adjusting anything at all.

IMO If furlough goes down to 60% and we remain under blanket lockdown conditions, the baws burst. At that point we will reach the point where the cure is worse than the disease because jobs and businesses will go en masse

[Paco]

The teaching conundrum should be a side issue in Scotland until August. Little point going back for a week or two, and if they want to open in the summer holidays to ‘catch up’ then teachers will need to be paid. I can’t see it being an option beyond the current key-worker provision and that’s probably a good thing.

 

England appear to have completely forgotten about their Test Track Trace policy. Lockdown ended, people back at work and cramming on to trains and buses before a trial of a potentially useless app is even a week old, and contact tracers are nowhere near ready to go. Schools might even be back before the system is in place. I’m not sure what ‘science’ is telling them that’s a good idea, but I’m sure they’re following it closely in any case. Over 4000 cases in the North East yesterday and yet they can crowd into parks and beaches? Just don’t see your mum and dad at the same time and it’ll all be fine.

 

Scotland isn’t much better to be honest. We won’t be ready for TTI by the end of the month, which was the aim, so are we stuck in lockdown until we are ready? Or will we just follow England’s path but a week or two later? It’s all very unclear because Sturgeon is too reluctant to say anything beyond stay at home.

 

Hope for the best appears to be the UK policy right now. It might even work, there’s some evidence that in London for example the virus might just be burning out, but it’s fairly clear we’re no longer strictly following science, if we ever really were. All the talk of learning lessons from elsewhere is exceptionally cheap when you actually look at the measures taken in places like Hong Kong, Singapore, New Zealand etc. Unless the virus burns out or a vaccine is ready soon I don’t see how things get normal even on a loose basis like Australia is now at with restricted numbers allowed to book slots in pubs and restaurants.

 

Sake.

 

[Gaz]

5 minutes ago, Bairnardo said:

if targeting the old and the vulnerable for shielding whilst getting the rest back to work isnt feasible I'd like to know why.

Here's one resaon: https://www.ageuk.org.uk/latest-news/articles/2017/september/five-million-grandparents-take-on-childcare-responsibilities/

[Gaz]

3 minutes ago, Paco said:

if they want to open in the summer holidays to ‘catch up’ then teachers will need to be paid

Careful now, there are a good few on here who seem to think that being paid for doing a job shouldn't happen.

Edited May 15, 2020 by Gaz

[Bairnardo]

Aye, changing the measures might not take us back to normal, but it would be better than we are now. Not everyone could use their normal childcare provision clearly if grandparents over a certain age were under shielding, but it might help mitigate the colossal wave of joblessness heading our way.

Two fifths of grandparents previously providing care doesnt really make a compelling case for saying f**k it let's keep everyone in the same boat regardless of their statistical susceptibility to becoming seriously unwell from covid IMO.

[Gaz]

1 minute ago, Bairnardo said:

Two fifths of grandparents previously providing care doesnt really make a compelling case for saying f**k it let's keep everyone in the same boat regardless of their statistical susceptibility to becoming seriously unwell from covid IMO.

I didn't say it made a compelling case, I said it was one reason.

It's not a reason that can be discounted, though. Childcare is prohibitively expensive for a lot of families, and totally unavailable for more. That's why Grandparents provide so much. If that facility is taken away it's millions of people who can't go to work.

There are loads of families at my school who wouldn't be able to work at all if it wasn't for Grandparents watching the kids before / after school. On paper it might only look like they're providing ten hours of childcare a week, but those ten hours are at absolutely crucial times of the day.

[Gaz]

You've also got the issue that a lot of our school bus drivers, as well as those who provide private transport for the likes of disabled kids, are elderly. That raises another massive issue of how many swathes of kids are actually able to get to school in the first place.

[Billy Jean King]

Halycon days coming for local authorities in England - just think of the income from unauthorised absence fines. 

Bizarrely they have already confirmed that once reopening in June it will not be compulsory to send your child which seems like a 100% fudge. Yes it's safe but we understand if you feel it isn't seems to be the message which probably equates to "we really don't have a clue if it's safe or not, up to you if you want to take the chance".

[NorthernLights]

Manchester Uni claim 25% of people in the UK have been infected.

https://www.manchester.ac.uk/discover/news/over-25-of-the-uk-likely-to-have-had-covid-19-already/

We'll have to wait and see if this claim pans out.

[Bairnardo]

I didn't say it made a compelling case, I said it was one reason.
It's not a reason that can be discounted, though. Childcare is prohibitively expensive for a lot of families, and totally unavailable for more. That's why Grandparents provide so much. If that facility is taken away it's millions of people who can't go to work.
There are loads of families at my school who wouldn't be able to work at all if it wasn't for Grandparents watching the kids before / after school. On paper it might only look like they're providing ten hours of childcare a week, but those ten hours are at absolutely crucial times of the day.

I know. I rely on grandparents myself a lot of the time, although generally Mrs B can adjust her shifts to fit mine. Them being shielded would come with it's own problems for us, but since we are both key workers I guess we would be lucky enough to get at least some help.

My point really is just that we are taking a blanket approach to something that has a pretty specific range of danger, and to my untrained eye, the measures that we have taken are not being adequately reviewed from the perspective of the damage they are causing versus the question of could we achieve the same protection for those most vulnerable but make allowances for those who are able to start getting back to normality and try to mitigate the carnage that will follow this.

Basically, I am starting to lose faith in what we are doing. I cant be alone in that among people who have done their best to follow the rules and make sure I am not adding to the problem.

[Gaz]

7 minutes ago, Billy Jean King said:

56 minutes ago, Michael W said:

Halycon days coming for local authorities in England - just think of the income from unauthorised absence fines. 

Bizarrely they have already confirmed that once reopening in June it will not be compulsory to send your child which seems like a 100% fudge. Yes it's safe but we understand if you feel it isn't seems to be the message which probably equates to "we really don't have a clue if it's safe or not, up to you if you want to take the chance".

It's for deniability. It's so that when pupils inevitably contract it and pass it to others there is no legal recourse. "Well, you had the option to keep them off, but didn't... you chose to send them".