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.