Coronavirus (COVID-19)

[Monkey Tennis]

6 hours ago, DeeTillEhDeh said:

We were not allowed by the authority to run any assessments until the end of April unless we had permission. Some schools had plans to do prelims then final exams - they managed it but in a much shorter timescale. For one of our courses, Admin & IT, that just wasn't possible as we were still finishing the course in May - fortunately the pupils all did well in the SQA assessments. Dundee also didn't help themselves by having a deadline for schools to submit estimates of 4 June - so it was extremely tight for us - we needed to have all assessments completed within a 4 week window. For some pupils that meant they could end up having 3 assessments in one day.

If Swinney had made a far earlier decision with early issuing of assessments, then the stress would have been far less. It would also have enabled much more sampling by SQA for quality assurance purposes.

I'm just glad he's no longer in the role - hopefully Somerville will be a lot quicker at making decisions and be less trusting of SQA promises.

It's clear then that inconsistency across the country is a big feature.

[Bairnardo]

Re-enforces my view that anyone who complains about restrictions being eased, or is in favour of keeping them, should be banned from taking advantage of any easing.
Far better idea than vaccine passports IMO

I was working with a guy the other day who was telling me we will be locked down again in a few weeks.

Honestly, have no idea what the rationale is. Didnt even bother explaining to him that case rates are actually falling, having reached a huge peak showing the broken link between that and hospitalisation. I tend to think these people are now best just given the "enjoy your night pal" treatment.

[Jacksgranda]

11 hours ago, Aufc said:

 

To be honest, in the grand scheme of life, it’s hardly an issue. I hopefully should manage through without any major health issues as I am a healthy creature. However, in my own world, it is a fucking a nightmare

 

You seem to be changing into Tony Soprano.

[DeeTillEhDeh]

It's clear then that inconsistency across the country is a big feature.

I don't disagree - I still think it's a million miles away from what happened last year.

[Guest TheJTS98]

42 minutes ago, Bairnardo said:

I was working with a guy the other day who was telling me we will be locked down again in a few weeks.

Honestly, have no idea what the rationale is. Didnt even bother explaining to him that case rates are actually falling, having reached a huge peak showing the broken link between that and hospitalisation. I tend to think these people are now best just given the "enjoy your night pal" treatment.

The BMA had a statement out last week - I believe their leader reiterated it yesterday or the day before - that the recent relaxing of restrictions was likely to lead to a level of hospitalisation that would impact other areas of the health service. It was quite strongly worded.

‘We need to dispel the idea we’ve broken the link with hospitalisations. It’s diluted but we have about three times as many people on ventilators than this time last month and two and a half times more people in hospital than last month,’ he said and added that if the trends continue this will further increase the pressures on the NHS. 

Dr Nagpaul added that this was not simply a secondary care issue but there were now growing numbers of the population suffering from the condition not going to hospital many of whom will go on to have long COVID. '

Numbers are currently falling because we're only a few days after the relaxation of the rules.

Re-restricting is a distinct possibility.

I don't see why it would be considered such a shock. It's happened in other countries, and the UK government has a strong record of going back on their actions. The UK is still only 55% double dosed.

 

Edited July 24, 2021 by TheJTS98

[Monkey Tennis]

4 minutes ago, DeeTillEhDeh said:

I don't disagree - I still think it's a million miles away from what happened last year.
 

Indeed.

[Bairnardo]

11 minutes ago, TheJTS98 said:

The BMA had a statement out last week - I believe their leader reiterated it yesterday or the day before - that the recent relaxing of restrictions was likely to lead to a level of hospitalisation that would impact other areas of the health service. It was quite strongly worded.

‘We need to dispel the idea we’ve broken the link with hospitalisations. It’s diluted but we have about three times as many people on ventilators than this time last month and two and a half times more people in hospital than last month,’ he said and added that if the trends continue this will further increase the pressures on the NHS. 

Dr Nagpaul added that this was not simply a secondary care issue but there were now growing numbers of the population suffering from the condition not going to hospital many of whom will go on to have long COVID. '

Numbers are currently falling because we're only a few days after the relaxation of the rules.

Re-restricting is a distinct possibility.

 

"If the trends continue" doing Eddie Hall levels of lifting there.....

[Guest TheJTS98]

6 minutes ago, Bairnardo said:

"If the trends continue" doing Eddie Hall levels of lifting there.....

Yeah, but I haven't seen anybody anywhere of any persuasion predict that the loosening of restrictions won't lead to increased hospitalisation.

We're about two weeks from the end of the Euros now, and plenty of people think that was always likely to see a bit of a reduction, and we're not at the point yet where we'll see the impact of the loosening.

The UK is only 55% double dosed. Other countries have loosened then re-tightened. The UK government has changed its mind plenty of times on covid issues.

I don't see why anyone would consider it a surprise if restrictions were tightened again.

Singapore has a similar vaccination rate to the UK and has just reinstated previously lifted restrictions based on far lower case counts.

Edited July 24, 2021 by TheJTS98

[eez-eh]

10 hours ago, Donathan said:

Literally been four days since this c**t was virtue signalling on twitter on about how he was going to still be avoiding indoor spaces and now he’s saying how glorious ordering at the bar is.

 

I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and put it down as a Lovejoy redemption story but most likely he was always planning to enjoy freedom day and was just virtue signalling on Monday. 

 

f**k me.

[superbigal]

Here is an interesting but "strange" fact regarding the 1st vaccination take up in Scotland.

All adults over 18 is at 89.4% (and mostly dragged down by 18-29 at 71.2% & 30-39 at 80.2%) and rising.

However in the specific group Frontline Social Care Workers Specified Roles (Which are not specified !!!) the take up of 1st does is 88.8%.  This is not a small sample as there are more than 100,000 people in this group.  So less people in this part of the care sector getting jabbed than in the general population

So over 10,000 in this sector completely unprotected.  

And we shout at the kids !!!

Edited July 24, 2021 by superbigal

[Bairnardo]

12 minutes ago, Snafu said:

Could just be a chronic miserable b*****d who never sees anything positive in anything, enjoys being miserable and sharing it with anyone within earshot. Met plenty of them at various jobs, they complain about absolutely everything, even when getting a bonus.

In the case of this particular guy, I ak fairly certain its some sort of torybad (excellent sentiment, misplaced when it comes to burning entire industries to get it up the tories)

[Granny Danger]

5 minutes ago, superbigal said:

Here is an interesting but "strange" fact regarding the 1st vaccination take up in Scotland.

All adults over 18 is at 89.4% (and mostly dragged down by 18-29 at 71.2% & 30-39 at 80.2%) and rising.

However in the specific group Frontline Social Care Workers Specified Roles (Which are not specified !!!) the take up of 1st does is 88.8%.  This is not a small sample as there are more than 100,000 people in this group.  So less people in this part of the care sector getting jabbed than in the general population

So over 10,000 in this sector completely unprotected.  

And we shout at the kids !!!

Are you suggesting that we shouldn’t be critical of young people for not getting vaccinated or that we should be critical of young people and the frontline social care workers?

I trust it’s the latter.

If there was not already a massive shortage of people in this sector I’d imagine there would be far greater pressure on them to get vaccinated.

 

[superbigal]

32 minutes ago, Granny Danger said:

Are you suggesting that we shouldn’t be critical of young people for not getting vaccinated or that we should be critical of young people and the frontline social care workers?

I trust it’s the latter.

If there was not already a massive shortage of people in this sector I’d imagine there would be far greater pressure on them to get vaccinated.

 

I believe whatever it takes should be used to "encourage" all of these people to be jabbed.

Personally I would follow the European model for under 18s as well. Well some of the European countries.

European countries are almost evenly split on whether to administer coronavirus vaccinations to teenagers as alarm mounts on the continent about a possible fourth wave of infections.  
 
Sixteen countries, including France and Italy, are now vaccinating children above the age of 12 or plan to do so; while 17 countries have decided against, or will only jab teenagers, if they have serious underlying health conditions.

Another four countries remain undecided.

Studies show it is no more dangerous for teens than for 18-29 year olds.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/23/world/eu-moderna-vaccine-children.html

Edited July 24, 2021 by superbigal

[welshbairn]

14 hours ago, Snafu said:

 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/23/ministers-letting-young-people-catch-covid-to-prepare-for-winter-sage-adviser-claims

Sage adviser claims ministers trying to get as many as possible infected with Covid

Exclusive: Prof Robert West says rhetoric about caution is ‘a way of putting blame on public’

A scientist advising the government has accused ministers of allowing infections to rip through the younger population in an effort to bolster levels of immunity before the NHS faces winter pressures.

The allegation comes after England’s remaining Covid restrictions were eased on Monday, with nightclubs throwing open their doors for the first time in the pandemic and all rules on social distancing and mask wearing dropped even as infections run high.

 

It's not like this is a big secret, they said the plan was to increase immunity as much as possible before the autumn and that would include a daily case rate of up to 100,000.

[super_carson]

Got my 2nd dose of pfizery goodness into me this morning...when do the superpowers kick in?

Used the drop in at Ingilston, pretty deserted. Quite a lot of staff standing around, not sure if it's because it was early on a Saturday mind.

[mizfit]

Not sure if people are still discussing it, but Saints food kiosks are open for today’s friendly with Fleetwood. I think clubs are being left to make their own decisions.

Away fans are also allowed up at Ross county next weekend also.

[welshbairn]

8 minutes ago, Snafu said:

Not that anyone is being dishonest about it or holding back from being direct in telling us why this is now a Government strategy?

When has the UKG every been open and honest about their motives and tell us how and why they have come to these decisions. Just asking for transparency, which seems in short supply both north and south of the border after all it's nothing really that significant, just our health that they are playing with here.

 

Quote

"Because this is uncharted territory for any country in the world, as you go further out, week by week, the projections are even less reliable,” he said. “As we ease and go into the summer, we expect them to rise. They could go as high as 100,000. We want to be very straightforward about this in what we can expect in terms of case numbers. But what matters more than anything is hospitalisation and death numbers."

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/06/covid-cases-rise-above-100000-a-day-sajid-javid-concedes-england

Edited July 24, 2021 by welshbairn

[Lyle Lanley]

20 minutes ago, mizfit said:

Not sure if people are still discussing it, but Saints food kiosks are open for today’s friendly with Fleetwood. I think clubs are being left to make their own decisions.

Away fans are also allowed up at Ross county next weekend also.

How many tickets you getting for that? 
 

Hopeful Motherwell let some away fans next weekend for our game. 

[vikingTON]

Meanwhile, in the dystopian hellscape that is Australia:

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/jul/24/anti-lockdown-protests-across-australia-as-covid-cases-surge-to-record-levels-in-sydney

Quote

 

The Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, had labelled the idea of protesting against the lockdown as “ridiculous”.

“Protest against this virus by staying at home, following the rules and getting out of lockdown,” he said.

 

[mizfit]

How many tickets you getting for that? 
 
Hopeful Motherwell let some away fans next weekend for our game. 

Not sure how many, it was first come first serve basis, I think it wouldn’t be much more than 300 if it’s the away end with social distancing.