Coronavirus (2021) thread

[Claytop]

Now that is absolutely awful news.

I mean, there’s no evidence to back this up yet. We seem to love the constant doomsday stories.

Hopefully there’ll have done studies on the new variants soon.

 

[twosips]

Now that is absolutely awful news.

To be honest, I am now reading other scientists saying there is no evidence it is worse yet. It's a right head fuck. All hugely qualified and respectable too. Just never know who to believe these days ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[artfuldodger]

To be honest, I am now reading other scientists saying there is no evidence it is worse yet. It's a right head fuck. All hugely qualified and respectable too. Just never know who to believe these days ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I just wish they wouldn’t say these things until they have some evidence.

 

[ZenHalfTimeCrock]

TBH my ex partner and children's mum is a teacher, and that time off thing is just plain nonsense from people who dont understand what work teachers do. Pretty much work through the holidays marking or setting assignments then planning for the next term...

This was my experience as a teacher throughout my career. For the last decade of it I worked an estimated 55 hour week plus, spread over six days, and a substantial part of each and every holiday. This was required for frequently detailed planning, writing course notes for topics that were not treated adequately in the existing A level and GCSE textbooks, coursework marking, and reading around my subject, as subject knowledge is not set in granite and one does not arrive in the classroom with it necessarily already in place from a degree course.

One summer, I kept a record of how much I worked. It amounted to about180 hours (though that was in an unusual year and to do with a fascinating topic).

It was a very stressful job and is almost certainly responsible for some of the chronic health issues I have now been lumbered with, such as high blood pressure, as well as me retiring from the job early to live off personal savings. And in order to afford to do that, I didn't go on holiday for 15 years.

Having said that, it was also an extremely rewarding career, and so I have no desire to play the world's smallest violin here. Also, people in other lines of employment work similar hours without experiencing the same levels of fulfilment but with similar burdens of stress.

Just wanted to dispel the myth that teachers don't do much outside of school hours. Probably some do but they would be a minority.

It is also the case that in some instances, from what I can gather from former colleagues who are still in the classroom, setting work for pupils who are self-isolating as well as those who remain in class has been very demanding, as well as the extra liaising with parents that this entails. The most recent term seems to have been the hardest of their careers for many.

Lastly, it is also mistaken to regard teachers as militant, or their unions. For example, in addition to the frequently voiced complaints about excessive workload and bureaucracy in the form of excessive paperwork, there has been a cull of older, more expensive staff in state schools over the last decade, one undertaken simply as a money-saving measure. Many of these staff were forced out on the pretext that their teaching had suddenly become inadequate. The unions did little or nothing about any of that. As a consequence, they are currently perceived as pretty useless and toothless.

It is also unusual for teachers to take strike action (though it has been known in recent times). Most of the ones I worked with were reluctant to do so and almost all never did. Many would also prefer to return to school tomorrow but are anxious about the risks to their own health, that of their own family members who may have underlying health issues, as well as the families of their own pupils (as we sometimes develop personal attachments to parents we get to know down the years), and the pupils themselves if they have health issues of their own.

Lastly, it is even a mistake to imagine that the profession is uniformly left-wing. Many are but most of the ones I knew were probably centre-left like myself. I have also worked with some terrific staff who vote Conservative and were in favour of Brexit. It's not common, but less unusual than many think.

It really is the media who create the false impression that some people still often maintain about teachers, though I get the impression that a majority can see past all that these days.

 

[Ric]

It's pretty irresponsible for journalists like Newton-Dunn to post sensationalist stuff like that when there is no real evidence to back it up yet.

 

[Claytop]

This is the issue with Twitter etc and also an issue in general. So many different experts with differing views on it.

Then you have the media who will jump on any negative stories and push them.

 

[Claytop]

It's pretty irresponsible for journalists like Newton-Dunn to post sensationalist stuff like that when there is no real evidence to back it up yet.

It’s nuts, you had the doctor on the radio saying the wards were full of kids which obviously panicked people enough that the RCPCH had to make a statement last night.

 

[artfuldodger]

This is the issue with Twitter etc and also an issue in general. So many different experts with differing views on it.

Then you have the media who will jump on any negative stories and push them.

I agree. I’m not suggesting that we have wartime propaganda, but the media seem to relish every negative bit of news. And we wonder why people have just given up.

 

[Cheesy]

It’s nuts, you had the doctor on the radio saying the wards were full of kids which obviously panicked people enough that the RCPCH had to make a statement last night.

Then there's the people who believe what they read without checking if it's actually true and then repost the same stuff, probably because it reinforces their views.

That story appeared pretty quickly on here.

 

[Healdplace]

Headline should be - Liverpool leaders finally wake up to what some nobody on a football forum has been saying was true from the data and meant there should have been a lockdown pre Christmas but they and the government missed it as they only look at data a week after it happens. Even longer over Christmas.

Not much of a snappy headline but revealing a disturbing truth about why we are always reacting too late to obvious things not at all hard to spot as they are happening - provided you look in ALL the right places and do not wait for absolute confirmation but operate on a basis that the worst case scenario is likely unless proven otherwise.

It has been a huge problem throughout this pandemic - a desire to get finalised data before reacting ahead of a virus that is now mutating at disturbing levels. Something else scientists told them to expect months ago.

You do not have the luxury to be sure then very sure. You have to react before it is too late. And we are constantly reacting weeks too late.

 

[Healdplace]

Now that is absolutely awful news.

To which we will react when it is far too late as ever. AS they will not presume worst case scenario until it is obvious when the vaccine stops working. Hopefully this is a false alarm and it never gets to that point.

But a prudent country would be ensuring in every way possible that this did not get here or if it has not spread until we know the truth.

Not wait until we have all the facts and if bad it is unstoppable.

 

[wolfie1988]

These SAGE scientists should not be allowed to speak to the press. They are causing heartache and hurt by doing it with such regularity.

The constant negativity is counterproductive to what we need to achieve to end this pandemic or at least get some form of control back.

There should also be a control on non factual reporting of something like this. This isn't something for rumours. People genuinely can't see a way out of this because there is constant negativity and stories based on outlandish predictions and not fact.

 

[Summerbuzz]

Then there's the people who believe what they read without checking if it's actually true and then repost the same stuff, probably because it reinforces their views.

That story appeared pretty quickly on here.

It's somewhat disengenuous to pretend that you can check this one is untrue. Members of the scientific community will be looking at the evidence available to them, and it takes time for evidence to proliferate be reviewed. It takes time for the consensus analysis to appear, and even then, there will be different takes upon it.

If many scientists are now saying there is no evidence, then consider that nearly all said at the start that there was no evidence that the SE variant was driving the increase in cases. I'm still not sure how they have ensured that whilst satisfactorily excluding seasonal and other varients. It's typical that in this year, the story moves very quickly and questions are left unanswered.

Dealing with uncertainty is the norm.

 

[Nellies left peg]

Teachers who are not allowed to put suncream on children on scorching hot days now expected to put test swaps up noses
Not going to happen
I had to do the swap for my 10yr old at etihad and she was not comfortable with dad doing it, lots of kids will find it distressing

Exactly right teachers can't put suncream or sticking plasters on in this mad world so this would seem unlikely to go down well

 

[Marvin]

There are reports that the variant formed following the treatment of immune-compromised patient with an antibody cocktail (convalescent plasma). So now we are going to vaccinate ten million elderly people, many of whom are immune compromised, and then we will leave them for 12 weeks. I thought this was a good idea at first and it's supported by a lot of people but it has also been criticised too. I hope that UK virologists/immunologists are considering this.

We are in the end-game for Covid-19 now with just one proviso: vaccine evasion. Providing the vaccines are effective all we have to do is deploy them. If Israel can vaccinate 12.5% of their population with vaccine in a fortnight with a vaccine requiring -75 C storage then the UK can deploy 4m vaccine doses in a fortnight and that will impact on the hospitals.

I think they should shut the schools until the infection comes under control. It would take a month I believe and then we'd start to see an effect, and we could start to gradually return back to normality step by step.

The variants are a worry though. We need to be careful that we don't create the conditions that promote vaccine evasion. If this is a non-issue then great.

 

[denislawsbackheel]

I'm in CHESHIRE which is tier 4 I think, but our head emailed yesterday saying nothings changed as of yet the children go back on Tuesday. I think it's pretty simple keep them off but make up the time in the summer holidays, regardless after last year the summer break should only be two weeks tops this year but I'm sure the teachers union will have something to say about that, even though teachers have plenty of time off already.

Ignorance on a stunning scale.

 

[Tim of the Oak]

These SAGE scientists should not be allowed to speak to the press. They are causing heartache and hurt by doing it with such regularity.

The constant negativity is counterproductive to what we need to achieve to end this pandemic or at least get some form of control back.

There should also be a control on non factual reporting of something like this. This isn't something for rumours. People genuinely can't see a way out of this because there is constant negativity and stories based on outlandish predictions and not fact.

There’s enough facts about for most people to realise they need to be extra careful over the next couple of months.

 

[denislawsbackheel]

Don’t forget no child in any secondary school will be tested without written parental consent.

 

[johnnytapia]

This was my experience as a teacher throughout my career. For the last decade of it I worked an estimated 55 hour week plus, spread over six days, and a substantial part of each and every holiday. This was required for frequently detailed planning, writing course notes for topics that were not treated adequately in the existing A level and GCSE textbooks, coursework marking, and reading around my subject, as subject knowledge is not set in granite and one does not arrive in the classroom with it necessarily already in place from a degree course.

One summer, I kept a record of how much I worked. It amounted to about180 hours (though that was in an unusual year and to do with a fascinating topic).

It was a very stressful job and is almost certainly responsible for some of the chronic health issues I have now been lumbered with, such as high blood pressure, as well as me retiring from the job early to live off personal savings. And in order to afford to do that, I didn't go on holiday for 15 years.

Having said that, it was also an extremely rewarding career, and so I have no desire to play the world's smallest violin here. Also, people in other lines of employment work similar hours without experiencing the same levels of fulfilment but with similar burdens of stress.

Just wanted to dispel the myth that teachers don't do much outside of school hours. Probably some do but they would be a minority.

It is also the case that in some instances, from what I can gather from former colleagues who are still in the classroom, setting work for pupils who are self-isolating as well as those who remain in class has been very demanding, as well as the extra liaising with parents that this entails. The most recent term seems to have been the hardest of their careers for many.

Lastly, it is also mistaken to regard teachers as militant, or their unions. For example, in addition to the frequently voiced complaints about excessive workload and bureaucracy in the form of excessive paperwork, there has been a cull of older, more expensive staff in state schools over the last decade, one undertaken simply as a money-saving measure. Many of these staff were forced out on the pretext that their teaching had suddenly become inadequate. The unions did little or nothing about any of that. As a consequence, they are currently perceived as pretty useless and toothless.

It is also unusual for teachers to take strike action (though it has been known in recent times). Most of the ones I worked with were reluctant to do so and almost all never did. Many would also prefer to return to school tomorrow but are anxious about the risks to their own health, that of their own family members who may have underlying health issues, as well as the families of their own pupils (as we sometimes develop personal attachments to parents we get to know down the years), and the pupils themselves if they have health issues of their own.

Lastly, it is even a mistake to imagine that the profession is uniformly left-wing. Many are but most of the ones I knew were probably centre-left like myself. I have also worked with some terrific staff who vote Conservative and were in favour of Brexit. It's not common, but less unusual than many think.

It really is the media who create the false impression that some people still often maintain about teachers, though I get the impression that a majority can see past all that these days.

In 17 years teaching I’ve been on strike 3 times. 3 days in total. And did so very happily defending my pension and my pay ( and that of future teachers).
All those who think it’s a breeze soon go very quiet when offered the application form.

 

[denislawsbackheel]

There’s enough facts about for most people to realise they need to be extra careful over the next couple of months.

With or without being vaccinated everybody has to behave as if there is no vaccine for several months.