Coronavirus: General discussion (see opening post for rules)

[mavhc]

Bad news, deaths 1000 higher than the previous week, 6700 vs 5700, 17% jump in 1 week.

 

Good news, vaccines are starting to show results. Bad news, current frontrunner requires liquid nitrogen storage until 24 hours before you administer it

[mikeprice]

Bad news, deaths 1000 higher than the previous week, 6700 vs 5700, 17% jump in 1 week.

 

Good news, vaccines are starting to show results. Bad news, current frontrunner requires liquid nitrogen storage until 24 hours before you administer it

 

not quite that bad - minus 70C

so dry ice will cool it enough

 

transport carriers are available which are designed to have the contents packed in dry ice which a surgery can keep topped up

 

but that will be a major problem and will dramatically limit the ability of places to store them in bulk

 

won't stop it being used

 

but could seriously slow down the speed of delivery to the polulation

[Ditto]

I saw an article that suggested viable for 5 days in a fridge after -70C. Taking us back to end of last year through March 2020, I think many would be glad to have this problem than what historic vaccination development offered. Too early to celebrate the scientific advancement just yet, but I hope it inspires some of the current generation of pupils to pursue a career in that direction.

[sonofsanta]

I think the announcement of the vaccine is a little premature given that the sample size so far is only what, 60-odd people?, and was made more in the spirit of "this'll really help our share prices!" than anything else, but this was one of the experimental approaches using RNA so it's very cool that it's bearing fruit at all IMHO

[jthompson]

Yeah, I'm not quite sure I follow the arithmetic of the 90% figure. Out of something like 45000 people, fewer than 100 later tested positive for the virus, with around 90% of those being in the placebo group. Is that still within the realms of statistical significance? I guess this is why peer-review is a thing.

[caffrey]

How is everyone managing Remembrance Day today - virtual ? We've done a pre recorded video with timings, but with streaming it's going to be messy (and destroy the b/w)... should be fun - we couldn't find a happy medium for sharing so just had to share via Google Drive, live streaming was laggy and glitchy

[Katy]

How is everyone managing Remembrance Day today - virtual ? We've done a pre recorded video with timings, but with streaming it's going to be messy (and destroy the b/w)... should be fun - we couldn't find a happy medium for sharing so just had to share via Google Drive, live streaming was laggy and glitchy

Ours is virtual, with the hall open for staff to (individually) visit the memorials if they want to...presumably pre-recorded, I don't know, will find out when I watch it at 10:45. Probably makes less change to the timetable this way as normally we run two services, a "light" one earlier in the day for lower school then the full one with the external guests and the piper around 11am.

[smurfomatic]

Our remembrance readings are being done in the school chapel, streamed via Google Meet to classrooms. Staff not teaching at that time can stand by the area where there is a cross and remembrance markers.

[caffrey]

It's going to be a case of if it works it works. I found with meet live stream it had the username of the person doing the meet on the right hand side instead of full screen video which wasn't ideal - couldn't find an option to remove them

 

Thought about youtube live stream, but you need to be verified for that - so a Drive link it is and instructions for people to press play at a set time...

[6Foot2]

On top of all this - there has been an outbreak of Bird Flu down south somewhere

 

and - apparently - a chicken farm (not free range from the sound of it - so could be contained) has been found to have a big outbreak - and it is not far from here

 

They are trying to determine if the 2 are connected but it looks like a different strain...

Link: South Korea confirms H5N8 bird flu in wild birds, issues warning [The Straits Times]

 

SEOUL (REUTERS) - South Korea's agriculture ministry said on Tuesday (Nov 10) it had confirmed the highly pathogenic H5N8 strain of bird flu in samples from wild birds in the central west of the country and issued its bird flu warning.

 

The virus was discovered in samples collected from wild birds last week in Cheonan-si, Chungcheongnam-do, about 84km central west of capital Seoul, the agriculture ministry said in a statement.

 

The ministry said it has ramped up prevention measures to contain a wider spread of bird flu and issued a highly pathogenic avian influenza warning as there are increased risks the virus will spread.

 

"This is a serious situation where the pollutant can flow from the migratory bird land to the farm though various routes," Agriculture Ministry Kim Hyeon-soo said in a statement, urging the thorough implementation of quarantine measures at farms, such as the daily disinfecting of farmyards.

 

Following a separate bird flu outbreak on Tuesday in the Netherlands, Dutch health officials ordered a cull of chickens.

[caffrey]

We've got chickens on site....

[kennysarmy]

How is everyone managing Remembrance Day today - virtual ? We've done a pre recorded video with timings, but with streaming it's going to be messy (and destroy the b/w)... should be fun - we couldn't find a happy medium for sharing so just had to share via Google Drive, live streaming was laggy and glitchy

 

Pre recorded video here too - everyone to watch from their teaching rooms at 10.48 so it finishes in time for silence.

[Rob_D]

How is everyone managing Remembrance Day today - virtual ? We've done a pre recorded video with timings, but with streaming it's going to be messy (and destroy the b/w)... should be fun - we couldn't find a happy medium for sharing so just had to share via Google Drive, live streaming was laggy and glitchy

 

We've got the the Big Ben chimes through to the end of the last post (pulled from the BBC's Sunday Cenotaph coverage) going out over our Bodet speakers at 11:00 (hopefully) to mark the silence. Otherwise, I don't think there's any whole school planning (something might have gone out for Tutor time).

[JordanT91]

Each case we've had, it's been the whole bubble. If we could demonstrate that the positive case had only been in 1 room and around 1 class of pupils/TAs, then we'd probably just make that class isolate. But this hasn't been the case so far.

 

Since the start of October, we've had 14 positive cases, only 3 of which were pupils. At present, half of our bubbles are isolating.

 

Now 15 positive cases and more than half of our bubbles isolating. It's very quiet...

[kennysarmy]

Now 15 positive cases and more than half of our bubbles isolating. It's very quiet...

 

Crikey.

 

We've not had one year need to go off yet!

 

Are we unique?

[LeMarchand]

Crikey.

 

We've not had one year need to go off yet!

 

Are we unique?

 

One of my three has had a year off (plus various staff who realised that they had been sitting way to close to the teacher). Others just the odd pupils/staff for various reasons but no definite cases AFAIK.

[paulkerton]

Crikey.

 

We've not had one year need to go off yet!

 

Are we unique?

Think so. We had a year group out for the last week of term.

Everyone came back last week, and now we've got another year group out this side of term for two weeks.

We've got a lot of teaching staff out isolating at home now too, so two of the other year groups have had to split working at home for the week so we can stay safe on site and have the staff to cover lessons on-site.

 

It's all kicking off.

[Katy]

Crikey.

 

We've not had one year need to go off yet!

 

Are we unique?

We've not had any year groups going off yet, most of the cases we've had happened during holidays so well out of time for anyone in school to need to isolate. Although we have just been very lucky so far.

[caffrey]

Remembrance seemed to go without a hitch.. well apart from all the teachers not reading the email saying the thing wasn't live till a set time, then they sent a flurry of emails beforehand asking for access...

[bald_pig]

the sample size so far is only what, 60-odd people?

 

60-odd thousand people wasn't it?

[Ditto]

Crikey.

 

We've not had one year need to go off yet!

 

Are we unique?

No cases reported or bubbles sent home at my governance primary school - school size 400+ kids. Attendance consistently around 98-99%. My kids secondary have had somewhere between 5-10 cases. Whole Year 7 bubble and sixth form have been sent home a few weeks ago, but back in at start of half term - size ~ 1500.

[Ditto]

60-odd thousand people wasn't it?

Hmmm... some very mixed understanding on this topic in the thread. If I get time, I'll do some research beyond the figures tabloid media produce.

[Duranis]

Hmmm... some very mixed understanding on this topic in the thread. If I get time, I'll do some research beyond the figures tabloid media produce.

 

I think the misunderstanding is that both figures are somewhat true.

 

The phase 3 clinical trial started July 27 and has enrolled 43,538 participants.

 

I believe the "62" people figure comes from the most recent trials/test which I believe are part of the FDA regulations were a "minimum" of 62 cases (normally its 32). The actual cases ended up being 94 which I believe is split between actual doses and placebos.

 

So yes the most recent trials were on double digit numbers but it has been in testing and trials for months, on thousands of people from diverse backgrounds, before it got to that stage.

 

The Government really needs to get on top of information control here ASAP. I have seen a TON of people saying they don't want to have an untested vaccine. It has very much been presented as something which has only just been made and only tested on a small group of people. If the information isn't put out in easy to understand terms, right now, then by the time it's available the amount of misunderstanding and misinformation around it is going to greatly reduce the effectiveness as people will have had months of Facebook and social media junk telling them that it is unsafe or doesn't work.

Edited November 11, 2020 by Duranis

[mikeprice]

The mass testing in Liverpool is being extended to the whole Liverpool City Region - plus Warrington

(for those who are confused - the LCR is Merseyside plus Halton - because of reasons)

 

Which is good - we will be included and so can get a test

 

hopefully it will help - although the number of cases around here does seem to be dropping anyway - presumably due to the Tier 3 stuff

 

 

 

annoying thing was the number of seriously negative comments on the Liverpool Echo website about it

lots of "no-one is putting a swab up my nose" type comments

and a few implying the test will infect you with the virus (???????)

 

hopefully these are a minority - but sometimes you just despair of 'people'

Edited November 11, 2020 by mikeprice

[mavhc]

Once we have AR we'll be able to instantly add a symbol above the heads of people who post about such things, virtual dunce cap

 

9182 deaths yesterday, 12% increase on the previous Tuesday.

 

7 day average has been constantly rising since mid Oct. Third wave now higher than first wave.