Current Affairs Coronavirus Thread - Serious stuff !!!

[Nymzee]

So the R is down when we're all locked in but the expect it to somehow go further down sending people back to work, onto trains/tubes etc., letting us go visit "one" person...

Bollocks.

 

[GwladysBlue]

Here comes Laura to help out her mate.

 

[roydo]

No doubt an air of flippancy running through the thread about COVID deaths.

And Government should have never started with the graphs and played the sillly game of one upmanship... And if we had the same graphs as South Korea or Germany Government and Tories here would be crowing all day long on every page.

Instead all they can be is flippant about deaths

I honestly havnt seen any Government briefing where they have trumpeted how great they are doing. Versus anyone. They have acknowledged that some countries seem to have different outcomes, and "perhaps there needs to be some investigation into the data."

 

[PhilM]

We do. And personally I know I am very lucky in that regard. But contrary to popular believe most of us are not "on holiday".

Many teachers are still going into school to care for key worker kids and everyone else is likely to be creating materials and delivering online lessons.

Some teachers I know have been busier then ever as they and their schools were ill-equipped for this new online era of teaching, and so it's been a frantic scramble to adapt.

My two girls, both in high school, have been provided online lessons from 9am till 3pm every single day, which has been marked and followed up over the day.

There teachers certainly aren't on some form of jolly and working pretty much as I'd expect them normally to. The teachers in my wife's school are working too.

The majority of workplaces will be a mess. People covering multiple roles and duties. It’s not unique to schools. They’ve got to get on with it and come up with solutions. As front line workers teachers need to do more. The work they been sending to our kids is slap dash drivel mass emailed out with a ‘just do this if you can type attitude. Nothing proactive from them in terms of following anything up.

As above, my own experience is that at least some schools are providing a detailed curriculum. Even my son, who is in nursery, is getting tasks sent every day.

We have to evidence these on an app and send them off, so the whole slap dash may not be the norm. Perhaps you should speak to your children's school?

With regards to the curriculum though, my wife works for a trust with primary schools and some of them are in very poorly deprived areas with mixed demographics.

Parents are struggling to pay for food and electricity let alone the internet, some aren't allowed phones, so providing an online curriculum isn't simple either.

Like I've previously said here, I know how hard it is to get my own child to socially distance, therefore to task thirty children is simply unrealistic.

If it isn't safe for them to work, I can really understand and appreciate their concerns. I work in the public sector and have PPE - why shouldn't they get it too?

 

[COYBL25]

Notice Tennis - Angling - plus golf ...are allowed in social distancing...,..like to see the golfers standing 2 metres apart at the tee?

Really easy Joey.

Most tee areas are big and wide and would easily accommodate social distancing.

I’m surprised it’s taken them so long to takes the brakes off Golf tbh, as it’s probably one of the safest mass participation sports going as far as social distancing is concerned.

Plus it’ll chase all the sunbathing teenagers off the course by me at the same time

 

[Nymzee]

Yes Boris we all speak French.

 

[Catfish Blues]

Thought this was an interesting article on the subject

Coronavirus found in Paris sewage points to early warning system

Rising levels of SARS-CoV-2 detected in wastewater before corresponding spike in clinical cases

www.sciencemag.org

Nice one, that's not the article I saw it in, but I suspect it's the underlying source for what I did read.

My brother in law used to work for a water company and did a fair amount of work abroad, and I remember him telling us about regular testing of the effluent for polio, which kind of blew my mind at the time, so the knowledge stuck !

 

[COYBL25]

Thought this was an interesting article on the subject

Coronavirus found in Paris sewage points to early warning system

Rising levels of SARS-CoV-2 detected in wastewater before corresponding spike in clinical cases

www.sciencemag.org

Read early on in all this that it was found in the sewers in New York too.

 

[scratchnsurf]

I know it’s a big concern all that. As it is for us all. But they’ve got to get on with it haven’t they unless they don’t want schools to open until the virus is eradicated.

I agree it's unrealistic to expect no risk but just getting on with it has cost NHS workers and care workers their lives. It's not unreasonable to take steps to stop people dying unnecessarily.

As I've said, the government's own guidance is part of the issue and until it is clarified schools have to wait and see.

Can only talk from my own experience and people I know. And I haven’t heard anything but complaints and gripes. Which is to be expected to a degree as teaching at the same level is obviously not possible. But what’s been provided to my kids and what I’ve heard from other friends and family sounds very similar.

I think there will be huge variations because, despite essentially doing the same job schools are hugely different from one another.

 

[Jebus_lives]

Notice Tennis - Angling - plus golf ...are allowed in social distancing...,..like to see the golfers standing 2 metres apart at the tee?

What is notice tennis and plus golf?

 

[NilSatisOptimum]

I honestly havnt seen any Government briefing where they have trumpeted how great they are doing. Versus anyone. They have acknowledged that some countries seem to have different outcomes, and "perhaps there needs to be some investigation into the data."

Do it at every briefing and Johnson just compared the stay alert to the French slogan, they can't help it... And we've been here before.

 

[daza_1973]

I think underneath all that guff it’s essentially ‘yeah your gonna have to either take unpaid leave or resign/be made redundant’

I read it as we would be lumped in with the leisure industry longer term furloughs (which reportedly is getting knocked down to 60%) until the schools reopen - what else can parents with school age children do.

 

[Nymzee]

Ah yeh cheers lad just send everyone up to the Lakes as long as they fan out a bit. Nice

 

[COYBL25]

We do. And personally I know I am very lucky in that regard. But contrary to popular believe most of us are not "on holiday".

Many teachers are still going into school to care for key worker kids and everyone else is likely to be creating materials and delivering online lessons.

Some teachers I know have been busier then ever as they and their schools were ill-equipped for this new online era of teaching, and so it's been a frantic scramble to adapt.

Do you know if there are any plans to extend the school year or catch up in anyway ?

If most kids don’t go back until September that’s a big chunk of the year they’ve missed and as much as online learning has filled a gap, there’s no way it’s a substitute for face to face teaching.

My lad knows lads in his year (9) who’ve hardly done a tap since they’ve been off, due to their parents being wasters who can’t be bothered. These are the kids who’ll slip through the cracks if not careful.

 

[NorthernBlue]

I read it as we would be lumped in with the leisure industry longer term furloughs (which reportedly is getting knocked down to 60%) until the schools reopen - what else can parents with school age children do.

Would a company still apply for furlough if they are fully back again but some workers can’t go back due to childcare? Will companies and bosses care? I bet loads won’t and workers will be given ultimatums.