Coronavirus: General discussion (see opening post for rules)

[FishCustard]

I hope you're right, but I think you're under-estimating many people's sense of entitlement.

 

It's this that really bothers me - entitlement. People feel entitled to go to the pub, entitled to socialise, entitled to a foreign holiday, despite the fact that we are nowhere near the end of this.

 

"Oh but waahh waahhh I'm missing out on parties and sex" (almost a literal quote from this article).

 

Yes, the Government response could've been (a lot) better, but people still have personal responsibility.

 

Don't go on nights out, don't gather in large numbers at the beach, don't go on foreign holidays, wait! We shut down society to save lives, don't throw that collective sacrifice away just because you want a tan!

[DrBeaker]

It's this that really bothers me - entitlement. People feel entitled to go to the pub, entitled to socialise, entitled to a foreign holiday, despite the fact that we are nowhere near the end of this.

 

"Oh but waahh waahhh I'm missing out on parties and sex" (almost a literal quote from this article).

 

Yes, the Government response could've been (a lot) better, but people still have personal responsibility.

 

Don't go on nights out, don't gather in large numbers at the beach, don't go on foreign holidays, wait! We shut down society to save lives, don't throw that collective sacrifice away just because you want a tan!

 

The magic (but dirty) word there is "personal responsibility." For whatever the reasons behind it, it's not the done/popular thing these days whether in the workplace with quality of work or outside of work with kids, parents, kindness towards others etc.

 

The idiots jumping off the cliffs last month https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-dorset-52864454 proved that.

[mthomas08]

Yes, the Government response could've been (a lot) better, but people still have personal responsibility.

 

Don't go on nights out, don't gather in large numbers at the beach, don't go on foreign holidays, wait! We shut down society to save lives, don't throw that collective sacrifice away just because you want a tan!

 

Oh I agree but when the PM is telling everyone that he's happy to just go to hospitals and shake hands with everyone... you are basically showing the whole nation that C19 is a joke and don't take it serious. No one in charge really took this serious.

 

It would be like me telling my team that safeguarding is serious but I can't be bothered to setup a filtering system, nor attend any mandatory training and just act all relaxed......

After-all safeguarding is about protecting us and others.

[LeMarchand]

don't throw that collective sacrifice away just because you want a tan!

 

Shouldn't tans be considered cultural appropriation, if not a step away from Blackface?

[Ditto]

Off today but drop me a message on Monday, got some spanking stuff in right now!

 

I think he was just after a faster machine at work

[6Foot2]

Link: Boris Johnson’s handling of coronavirus is being adapted into a TV drama [The Independent]

 

Michael Winterbottom is set to direct, but there is no word yet on who will portray the PM

 

Michael Winterbottom is set to direct a TV drama about Boris Johnson‘s handling of the coronavirus crisis.

 

To create the series, the Bafta-winning 24 Hour Party People filmmaker will team up with Freemantle, Revolution Films and True Detective production company Passenger.

 

The series will reportedly follow the UK Prime Minister from his appointment to office through to the thick of the pandemic, including the point in which Johnson was hospitalised after being infected with the virus.

 

Passenger’s Richard Brown described the concept as “a story which appears to demonstrate that fact is indeed sometimes stranger than fiction”.

 

The Sunday Times political editor Tim Shipman will serve as a consultant to the creators. Last year’s Channel 4 drama Brexit: The Uncivil War was based on Shipman’s book All Out War: The Full Story of Brexit...

[LeMarchand]

Link: Boris Johnson’s handling of coronavirus is being adapted into a TV drama [The Independent]

 

Sooooo many (political) jokes...

[stevejp]

Sooooo many (political) jokes...

 

...and we’re not allowed to use any of them!

[ICTDirect_Dave]

I think he was just after a faster machine at work

 

He did send me an email though

[6Foot2]

Link: Urgent search for 300 workers at Wrexham meat processing site hit by coronavirus outbreak [iTV.com]

 

Public Health chiefs are trying to trace hundreds of workers at a North Wales food processing site, following an outbreak of coronavirus.

They need to find around 300 people who work at Rowan Foods in Wrexham, where 166 cases of coronavirus have been confirmed so far.

 

There are more than 1,000 people working at the site.

 

In a statement, Public Health Wales said: "We are working with Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board to urgently contact just over 300 workers that have not yet presented for testing.

“As we would expect with any focused track and trace process, we will identify additional asymptomatic cases. Finding these cases does not mean that the rate of infection in the Wrexham area is increasing as a whole.

 

“There is no evidence that Rowan Foods is the source of the outbreak. The multi-agency team managing the outbreak with Public Health Wales will continue to review the situation and work with the employer, their workforce and wider community to bring this outbreak to a swift conclusion."

 

The owner Oscar Mayer Group confirmed the company had been working with Public Health Wales to implement a track and trace system for the virus to protect the workforce.

 

The Welsh Government said it was "closely monitoring" the outbreaks, including for any evidence of wider community transmission as well as confirmation of 30 cases at the Kepak meat factory in Merthyr Tydfil.

 

It has since issued new guidance for meat processing and food production plants about preventing and managing outbreaks of coronavirus.

 

Health Minister Vaughan Gething MS said it shows that the virus has "not gone away."

 

“These outbreaks show coronavirus has not gone away. They reinforce the importance of us all following social distancing guidance, continuing good basic hand hygiene and if we have symptoms, staying at home and not going to work.

 

“This provides clear advice and support for the sector to help it prevent and manage coronavirus in the workplace and ensure all necessary safeguards are in place to protect their employees and their families."

 

The Wrexham site first hit the headlines in relation to coronavirus earlier this year, when workers walked out in April in an apparent protest over what they felt was a lack of protection from the virus.

 

The firm supplies major supermarkets including Tesco, Sainsbury's and Asda.

 

The Rowan Foods outbreak and the cluster of cases around the Anglesey 2 Sisters abattoir have so far accounted for more than 300 infections.

[6Foot2]

Link: Exclusive: What Schools Will Be Told To Do In September So All Pupils Can Return [HuffPost UK]

 

Schools in England will be urged to deploy Covid-secure “year bubbles” of up to 240 pupils under government plans to get all children safely back in the classroom from September, HuffPost UK has learned.

 

Whole year groups of secondary school pupils should be separated from each other to offer protection from coronavirus, with staggered start and finish times and measures to keep them apart during breaktimes and lunchtimes, official guidance will state.

 

The move – which would in bigger schools mean up to eight classes of 30 pupils all kept in the same protective “bubble” – is seen as crucial to allow as full a curriculum as possible with subject teachers allowed to move between classes.

 

In primary schools, smaller bubbles of 30 pupils will be recommended because it is the norm for individual teachers to teach the full range of subjects to the same group of children.

 

But even with the new protections, the government will warn schools they may have to focus on core subjects like maths and English to allow catch-up from the lockdown, and a full curriculum may not be available until next summer term.

 

Education secretary Gavin Williamson is set to announce the full plans to parliament on Thursday, but HuffPost UK has been told the detailed guidance for headteachers will include:

 

• No in-class social distancing requirement for primary pupils, with secondary pupils advised to stay 1m apart but not at all times
  
• Teachers advised to keep 2m away from pupils, at the front of the class, and away from colleagues as much as possible as if in a supermarket
  
• Schools advised against routine temperature tests of pupils as it is “not a reliable method” for identifying coronavirus
  
• Compulsory engagement with the NHS Test and Trace system, with whole classes or year groups liable to be sent home if a pupil tests positive, but whole school closure not seen as generally necessary
  
• No face coverings for pupils or teachers, on Public Health England advice, as they “interfere” with teaching and learning
  
• Children seated facing forwards in same direction and not at circular tables, with pupils wearing normal uniform and washing hands throughout the day
  
• Teachers advised to spend no more than 15 minutes at any one time closer than 1m to anyone
  
• Fines of up to £120 for parents whose children fail to attend school. In contrast with the “softly softly” approach taken during full lockdown the message will be “education is not optional”
  
• “Robust” measures will be taken to engage with families where children had been persistently absent prior to the pandemic or who have not engaged with school regularly during the pandemic.
  
• Heads told not to put in any staff rota or physical distancing that would require extra space or make it impossible for all pupils to return full-time.
  
• Contingency plans for some or all of the school being put in local lockdown and any temporary return to “remote” teaching needing to be of a high quality
  
• Some subjects for some or all pupils may have to be suspended for two terms to allow catch-up on core subjects such as English and maths, with a full spread of subjects returning in the summer term of of 2021
  
• Some pupils may have to drop some GSCEs altogether in Year 11 to allow them to catch up and achieve better grades in English and maths. GCSEs and A-levels to take place as planned next summer but with some “adaptations”
  
• First year pupils at secondary school may have to be re-taught English and maths from their final year syllabus at primary level
  
• A new focus on tackling “persistently disruptive” pupils because increased poor behaviour is seen as more “likely” due to a lack of regular schooling and discipline in lockdown
  
• Routine Ofsted inspections will remain suspended for the autumn term but inspectors will visit a sample of schools to discuss how they are resuming classroom teaching.

The full guidance to state and private school headteachers is set to go out this week, with the caveat that a “full return” of all pupils will be reconfirmed on August 11 after the latest Covid-19 data is considered...

[jthompson]

With all that staggering of changeovers and break times going on, the corridors will be permanently full!

[mikeprice]

Have these people ever talked to anyone who has ever worked in a school

 

or been in a school

 

 

 

 

other than Eton I suppose - which may work differently

 

 

on which point

 

anyone know (without revealing any employer detail if necessary) how Eton will cope with this?????

[Ditto]

Have these people ever talked to anyone who has ever worked in a school

anyone know (without revealing any employer detail if necessary) how Eton will cope with this?????

Most spiffingly my good man, most spiffingly!

[mikeprice]

Have these people ever talked to anyone who has ever worked in a school

 

or been in a school

 

 

 

 

other than Eton I suppose - which may work differently

 

 

on which point

 

anyone know (without revealing any employer detail if necessary) how Eton will cope with this?????

[Ditto]

Have these people ever talked to anyone who has ever worked in a school

 

or been in a school

 

 

 

 

other than Eton I suppose - which may work differently

 

 

on which point

 

anyone know (without revealing any employer detail if necessary) how Eton will cope with this?????

Ditto above from ditto:D

[Arthur]

 

Flu virus with 'pandemic potential' found in China (BBC News)

 

A new strain of flu that has the potential to become a pandemic has been identified in China by scientists.

 

It emerged recently and is carried by pigs, but can infect humans, they say.

 

The researchers are concerned that it could mutate further so that it can spread easily from person to person, and trigger a global outbreak.

 

While it is not an immediate problem, they say, it has "all the hallmarks" of being highly adapted to infect humans and needs close monitoring.

 

As it's new, people could have little or no immunity to the virus.

 

The scientists write in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that measures to control the virus in pigs, and the close monitoring of swine industry workers, should be swiftly implemented.

[caffrey]

 

Flu virus with 'pandemic potential' found in China (BBC News)

 

Just in time for July...

[6Foot2]

The tape on the floor marks out a safe corridor which is 2 metres wide.

 

Apologies for the naff image/footwear.

 

[jmak]

A huge proportion of our local school kids get THE school bus. So presumably they'll queue up together (not how the teenagers round here typically arrange themselves near the bus stop), sit on a bus together for >40 minutes on a nearly full bus, hang around in town for 30, 60, 90, 120 minutes then repeat the process in reverse as the ones who were allowed in first in the morning have longer to hang around in the afternoon.

 

Sounds perfect.

 

Edit: Forgot to mention that our village has the choice of 2 secondary schools and the bus for each leaves within 5 minutes of the one to the other school.

Edited June 30, 2020 by jmak

[Andrew_C]

 

other than Eton I suppose - which may work differently

 

 

on which point

 

anyone know (without revealing any employer detail if necessary) how Eton will cope with this?

 

Nope, definitely not Eton. However, it certainly throws a spanner in 'Plan A' around here.

 

We had been aiming at bubbles in eack of the 11 boarding houses for 2 weeks (with remote learning in the house), then combining 3-4 houses to create 'super-bubbles' that would be taught in classrooms while the others continue remotely. These super bubbles would cycle through remote and class teaching.

 

Expect yet another change imminently.

[stevejp]

 

anyone know (without revealing any employer detail if necessary) how Eton will cope with this?????

 

Probably just charge the parents a few grand more per term and touch up a few of the old boys to get some more classrooms built and some more staff hired.

[6Foot2]

Link: GCSE and A-level autumn exams offered in all subjects [bBC News]

 

Students who are not happy with the GCSE and A-level grades they are awarded this summer will be able to sit exams in all subjects in the autumn.

 

This summer's exams were cancelled due to the Covid-19 outbreak and school closures, and so students' results will be based on teacher assessment.

 

Now England's exams regulator, Ofqual, says a "full suite"of exams - not just core subjects - will be available.

 

But head teachers are concerned about the practicalities of the announcement.

 

They say accommodating a full set of autumn exams alongside getting all pupils back to school in September will be a "huge challenge".

 

In a statement issued on Tuesday, Ofqual said students would be awarded calculated grades this summer, "giving them the opportunity to move on to further study or employment, despite the cancellation of exams".

 

"Students will be able to appeal - through their school or college - if they believe the process this summer was not followed correctly in their case; and centres themselves can appeal if they believe something systemic has gone wrong in relation to their results.

 

"Any student unable to receive a calculated result, and others who would like to improve their grades, will have an opportunity to take the full suite of GCSE, AS and A-level exams in the autumn."

 

The watchdog says that following the autumn exam season, exam boards will have to issue replacement certificates for the summer results - "if students request this", meaning students can keep the summer grade if it is higher.

 

Boards will also be expected to have the usual arrangements for reviews of marking and appeals.

 

'Managing the risks'

 

But Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said there were practical issues to address.

 

"We are concerned about how schools and colleges will be able to accommodate and manage a full suite of autumn exams alongside the huge challenge of bringing all their pupils back in September, identifying learning gaps, and putting catch-up support in place," said Mr Barton.

 

This would have to be done while managing the risks associated with coronavirus, he said.

 

"We had argued for the autumn series to be restricted to A-levels, and GCSE English and maths.

 

"However, we understand the pressure on the government and Ofqual to provide the option of a full suite of exams in the event that pupils and parents are unhappy with centre-assessed grades in August."

 

Mr Barton said families should be assured that the process by which schools assessed grades this year is "robust".

 

"These qualifications will be every bit as valid as in any other year and will allow young people to progress to the next stage of the lives without hindrance, and without the need to use the autumn series."

 

Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the NAHT school leaders' union, said while he supported offering exams for all of the GCSE, AS and A-level subjects this autumn, schools might need other "hub centres" to accommodate exams.

 

"An exam series which runs through October and November will be very difficult for schools and colleges to manage, in a term where they be focused on their current students and mitigating the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on their pastoral wellbeing and academic progress."

 

Mr Whiteman added: "The government and Ofqual must act to ensure that schools and colleges are given significant support - including the options of setting up local hub centres - to be able to meet the needs of students wanting to take these exams, as well as focus on what is needed for their current students."

[Andrew_C]

Probably just charge the parents a few grand more per term and touch up a few of the old boys to get some more classrooms built and some more staff hired.

Classrooms are almost the least of the problems.

[6Foot2]

Link: US buys up world stock of key Covid-19 drug remdesivir [The Guardian]

 

The US has bought up virtually all the stocks for the next three months of one of the two drugs proven to work against Covid-19, leaving none for the UK, Europe or most of the rest of the world.

 

Experts and campaigners are alarmed both by the US unilateral action on remdesivir and the wider implications, for instance in the event of a vaccine becoming available. The Trump administration has already shown that it is prepared to outbid and outmanoeuvre all other countries to secure the medical supplies it needs for the US.

 

“They’ve got access to most of the drug supply [of remdesivir], so there’s nothing for Europe,” said Dr Andrew Hill, senior visiting research fellow at Liverpool University.

 

Remdesivir, the first drug approved by licensing authorities in the US to treat Covid-19, is made by Gilead and has been shown to help people recover faster from the disease. The first 140,000 doses, supplied to drug trials around the world, have been used up. The Trump administration has now bought more than 500,000 doses, which is all of Gilead’s production for July and 90% of August and September.

 

“President Trump has struck an amazing deal to ensure Americans have access to the first authorised therapeutic for Covid-19,” said the US health and human services secretary, Alex Azar. “To the extent possible, we want to ensure that any American patient who needs remdesivir can get it. The Trump administration is doing everything in our power to learn more about life-saving therapeutics for Covid-19 and secure access to these options for the American people.”..

 

This is the same compound said to be, by Matt Hancock (UK Heath Secretary) "...probably the biggest step forward in the treatment of coronavirus since the crisis began..." while the Minister for Innovation, Lord Bethell, said:

 

This shows fantastic progress. As we navigate this unprecedented period, we must be on the front foot of the latest medical advancements, while always ensuring patient safety remains a top priority.

 

The latest, expert scientific advice is at the heart of every decision we make, and we will continue to monitor remdesivir's success in clinical trials across the country to ensure the best results for UK patients.

 

So much that could be said. So much that should be said. So much I want to say.

 

Please do not post politically weightred replies.