Current Affairs Coronavirus Thread - Serious stuff !!!

[Tubey]

Schools open isn't just economical. Its essential for ensuring kids aren't left behind. I dont understand how lightly people can just say, close all the schools.

If we want to be a country with any sort of social mobility then we need schools to be open. We already struggle enough with giving our young people the opportunities they deserve.

I understand that completely, but again I don't think you're getting my point - and that is that it's meant to be a lock down to prevent the spread of a disease during a pandemic.

So it either is a lockdown, or it isn't. If you keep schools open, you aren't locking down - you may as well keep soft play centres open and playgrounds and children's birthday parties for all the sense it makes.

 

[Lelouch]

What’s the snappy 5pm new slogan going to be ?

NHS must get a mention.

stay in
save christmas
be alert

 

[ToffeeTim]

stay in
save christmas
be alert

Gonna be something like that isn't it

Or Remember Remember to stay in this November

 

[coollino]

What’s the snappy 5pm new slogan going to be ?

NHS must get a mention.

Stay in

Christmas is cancelled

sharia law prevails

 

[Lelouch]

Gonna be something like that isn't it

Or Remember Remember to stay in this November

Oh it's gonna be a massive guilt trip about people not being able to see your family on Christmas or something along them lines, Basically blaming anybody but themselves.

 

[orly]

Stay in

Work from home

Oh you've done this all year cheers buddy

 

[coollino]

Wash your hands to

'All I want for Christmas is (not you) COViD'

 

[Tubey]

It's lost on nobody that it's a national lock down the moment London nears tier 2-3 right?

 

[coollino]

It's lost on nobody that it's a national lock down the moment London nears tier 2-3 right?

Yea the north were just little social experiments. Failed one, funnily enough.

 

[paultheblue]

Ok then, I’ll ask on behalf of anyone who missed it.
What was the joke ??!

The kid says "Im not a real welder"

 

[whiteshadow]

Yes of course, but that’s still nearly 5-6 months away at the earliest.
This time next year and beyond Covid will be the least of our problems if we continue like this.

The government has to tide over businesses until the vaccine arrives. If they don't support them well enough they deserve a lot of criticism.

Slight chance the first doses will be available in December barring any delays in phase 3 trials.

Most likely early spring. Probably 3-4 months I reckon.

 

[coollino]

Schools open isn't just economical. Its essential for ensuring kids aren't left behind. I dont understand how lightly people can just say, close all the schools.

If we want to be a country with any sort of social mobility then we need schools to be open. We already struggle enough with giving our young people the opportunities they deserve.

Personally, I think the universities is the main problem and pretty much unforgivable as it is purely directed by money. The worst is still yet to come with this too.

 

[BlueToff]

So, just posting this in here as it's relevant.

Been ill all week. Was bad last Sunday and Monday, but thought it was just an accumulation of working loads and then getting ill at this time of year which isn't uncommon. Felt really fatigued.

Anyway, Tuesday felt a load better and was fine on Wednesday. Worked 12 hours each day though so was doing a lot.

Thursday afternoon just a huge wave of fatigue hit me. Never felt anything like it. Completely wiped out and had to give up my shift as I just needed to sleep. As my housemate works in a hospital, they told her not to go in until I'd got a test, so I tried to book a test but had no luck. I had no symptoms of cough or fever (which is what you need to get a test) - just fatigue, sore throat and migraine type stuff.

Yesterday was a fair bit better. Aches, less pain and more of fluey symptoms. Due to my housemate being a key worker, her NHS trust rang me and gave me specific instruction to get a test - so I could use the online system and not be lying, basically.

The tests must reset each morning as loads came up for me and I managed to get in at 2:30 yesterday afternoon at my nearest drive-in one (about 20 mins drive away).

Took about 15 mins all in, including queuing. To be safe, I'd avoided leaving my room at all apart from going to the toilet, and my housemates did some shopping for me in case I'd need to isolate. Felt rough last night but loads better this morning and, luckily, got a negative result back at 12pm (so a quicker turnaround than I expected!).

It's really hard to judge, though.

If not for my housemate being NHS, I wouldn't have been able to get a test, so would have been up in the air about self-isolating. Not that it matters much now in the grand scheme of things with a new lockdown (which is gonna cost me one of my jobs, again), but if I hadn't have been able to get tested then I'd have been locking myself away for another 9 days at least, and also thinking I could have had it (my friend who tested positive a few weeks ago had the exact same symptoms as I did, for example).

Clearly I've just had a bug and working loads will have taken it's toll with a lack of sleep, but still a bit worrying that the symptoms seem so different from person-to-person.

 

[whiteshadow]

A working test and trace app would be a good start. 89% of people don't isolate, if they policed that better that would have a big impact on the spread of cases. Hospital capacity could have been increased in under pressure areas.

Agree about test and trace. They need to sack the woman running that as it's becoming a joke.

They increased capacity with the Nightingale hospitals but can barely staff those so not realistic for them to expand it much more without qualified staff.

Certain percentage of people need to hold themselves to account. Really annoys me when I know loads of people breaking rules, thinking they only apply to other people, when they are often the ones complaining about the lockdowns the most. Bit ironic.

 

[Catfish Blues]

Yes I know that's the evidence, but there's a slight problem with that. Well, no actually, many problems.

One, teachers exist. Two, parents exist, picking up kids. Three, receptionists and office staff exists, interacting with parents. Four, the load on public transport increases with schools open. etc. etc. etc. etc.

The evidence acknowledges one epidemiologically point about kids in school. And even that evidence is shaky - kids still spread the disease. It completely fails to recognise the periphery of the situation.

The point of a national lockdown is to "circuit break" the disease. You can't do that if you're half arsing it, which is what we've seen with this stupid tiered system.

Keeping schools open isn't an evidence-led decision; it's an economical one. Because it'd mean parents staying off work, or kids going to grandparents. But there's a simple answer to that - have people work from home, if they can't, don't work. Because it's supposed to be a lockdown ffs - and that's what I said; it's not a lockdown if kids stay in school.

In some ways, it comes down to if you thinks schools are essential or not really ?

Plainly, from a dictionary definition of essential, it's not essential they stay open, but equally it's not essential that lots of elective surgery takes place, so we could send a lot of NHS staff home until they're needed on COVID wards, and by doing that we'd be removing a fair amount of social / work contact and help get transmissions down.

On the face of it, that might seem like a silly comparison, but it's not as crazy as it first appears. Both involve not doing something which isn't essential but both would, as well as reducing transmission, cause hardship and long term issues for pupils or patients.

Plainly anyone working in the education sector will be nervous about working at the moment, so, if you're in that position then you have my sympathy, because it's a [Poor language removed] position to be in.