Ditto

I used Google Forms and it had a fair bit of validation built in. It worked well for me. There are a number of third party add-ons that extend basic functionality too. I've less experience with MS forms, in spite of running a brief meeting on them this morning! I had always assumed there is a way to extend ME forms functionality but perhaps I'm mistaken. I'm looking forward to hearing from others as I may need to build knowledge on the MS solution soon. Possibly related, have you looked at MS Power Automate as an option?

Djokovic story rolls on as expected. If the timing of the test and subsequent mixing is confirmed, given the Serbian requirement to isolate for 14 days, then he is irresponsible and not showing respect to others. If his travel declaration is false, regardless of who filled it in, I think he's in even hotter water.

The Aussie authorities have not handled this well and we will have to see how things proceed, but questions remain. No matter the outcome, this will rumble on. Given recent events, which country in the world suggests to their citizens that they go and mix widely after a positive PCR test. Remember, after he tested positive test in June 2020 he (sort of) apologised for organising a tournament and spreading the virus. It doesn't look like he's learnt any lessons and I'm afraid as a role model beyond tennis, he's failed utterly.

The article quotes "a senior Whitehall source". The same was true in October from "a senior Whitehall source". I wonder if it was the same one? In October it drew criticism because case numbers were running at over 30,000. Given current numbers, I don't see it changing in the immediate future. Of course, when it says free, it isn't really. We all pay, it's just a question of when and how. Related, who knew most employers stopped getting free texts last July, bar a few recent exceptions? I didn't until today's news.

I thought the current thinking for LFT is for testing when you don't have symptoms and can pick up cases before the viral load peaks. It's all got very confusing. I agree PCRs can show positive longer after you can transmit and that you are beyond being infectious. I don't see any benefit in that and can be negative keeping people isolating longer than needed.

Every PCR test I've done was self administered in exactly the same way as LFT so I can't follow that logic. Sure some were done in a car park but hardly monitored. One was postal, so identical to LFT.

I'm confused. What figure is the 55% referencing? I'd be interested to know more on LFT vs PCR. @mavhc says 99% specific. How does PCR compare? What about sensitivity comparison? A couple of things on PCR's. One, I think they are more 'official' and do trigger Track and Trace. Also, a percentage get sequenced so that tells us more about how variants are spreading. I don't think either of those happen with LFT, but happy to be corrected.

I think it is coronavirus is related. Basic good hygiene will provide some (maybe not a lot), protection against transmission. It will protect against other nasties too so that's a good thing. When I visited the lead school with the CEO of the trust I am a governor for, the CEO had a rota kitchen cleaning/tidy up by staff. I suspect this changed post covid, but I can guarantee the kitchen would be spotless and there were no cups or spoons lying around. He had a passion for this and would not tolerate a messy environment. He regarded it a necessary part of being professional and beside could have visitors at anytime. Anyone not following the lead would find life very uncomfortable. Ultimately, my point is that this is about leadership and management. No school needs to be left in a mess.

@penfold, I'd be interested to hear how this turned out. I've a family member looking at a tablet for her son. The Lenovo M10 seems to be top of the list currently but just checking the details. Amazon Fire was ruled out due to the need to have easy Google Play access. Odd question - any idea easy these tablets can work with an Echo Dot. They are looking to use the tablet to access streamed music and would like to consider playing through a Echo Dot - should I be advising to look at google nest audio devices for simplicity?

All three Pfizer for me. Pfizer and Moderna are both mRNA based vaccines. An interesting study comparing these two can be found at https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/moderna-vs-pfizer-is-there-a-best-mrna-vaccine-69229. One point I didn't realise until I read this article, is that Moderna has over 3 times the amount of mRNA in it per dose than Pfizer and appears to make a difference. The time between first and second dose looks to be a factor too but is still a lot of research to be completed.

You could compromise with one of these!

The banner "Never fully vaxxed" is wonderfully not quite committed to the cause

It could be treble tomorrow - that's exponential growth in action. On a positive, by the end of today, we may be at 90% of all those over 12 having had a least one dose. You asked earlier about primary aged children. For under 12's, the medical advice may be that the benefits of vaccination for those individuals isn't strong enough to proceed with vaccination, which although small, has it's own risks. The JCVI statement quoted here puts it clearly as follows: "When formulating advice in relation to childhood immunisations, JCVI has consistently held that the main focus of its considerations should be the potential benefits and harms of vaccination to children and young people themselves. The benefits and risks from COVID-19 vaccination in children and young people are finely balanced largely because the risks associated with SARS-CoV2 infection are very low. Of all age groups, children aged 5 to 11 years are those at lowest risks of serious COVID-19." The 'whole society' question is a challenging one, it could be seen as offsetting the lives of the youngest against the eldest. Will vaccination be recommended for under 12's in the near future? I think there is a good chance, but I think it right UK medical advisors make that judgement based on research and data that they are willing to stand behind rather than do so just because other countries have.

An annual subscription to Coursera Plus is available for a couple of weeks at the discounted price of £221 - normally a smidge under £300. This will you allow you to complete certification in a variety of topics, not least including Google for Workspace. I managed to my managers to sign-off funding this, which I feel offers good value. One of my goals is to skill up on Power BI. https://www.coursera.org/courseraplus/special/holiday2022

One last post in this thread from me today. I recall Prof. Whitty in a recent briefing suggested we all 'raised a glass' to the scientists. I got our gathering to do so and added tothem, all the volunteers supporting Xmas day jabbing. So in the virtual world, once more I do so

I caught up with an old friend just before Xmas, who retired to the Leicester area from Surrey a few years ago. His daughter had a delayed reaction to the jab, one whole week later. The reaction was akin to anaphylactic shock and resulted in an emergency ambulance trip to hospital. Everything turned out fine in quick time and a lot of the treatment after was basically antihistamine. My friend used to work in pharma industries, so he researched it. It is a known, but rare side effect but it's the first time I'd come across this one. It's not clear what caused the issue, whether it's the active ingredient or the substrate used to dispense. The other situation I learnt of was a fellow badminton club player's 12 year old daughter ending up in ICU for a couple of days. Again, this was a very rare reaction. A couple of days later she was out and fine and back to school the following week.

I agree it is right to call out the sterling job done by the majority of delivery service companies in challenging times. Just locally I would call out DPD, Amazon and Parcelforce. Our post lady did extra shifts and explained she was delivering to known customers after dark that she wouldn't otherwise do so. I'd also add our local refuse and garden waste collectors who have done their jobs without a hitch whilst adjoining councils have cancelled garden collections for months on end. The reason Yodel got my wrath, is they were the only company that failed to deliver in time Xmas four years ago (pre-pandemic). I recall they were voted 3rd worst in some survey at the time. Whilst it's right to cut some slack at this time, a quick search on ratings shows Yodel now 2nd lowest in this survey. Whilst it is entirely possible that staff absence at Yodel could be a contributory factor, I suspect would hazard a guess their issues run deeper. *** Edit, P.S. I'm glad to hear your cousin recovered from covid ***

I've used a few jokes on here to get groans from the kids - result is this for Xmas... Be scared, be very scared I'll try to post the best 10, maybe one a week over the coming weeks! Hopefully by then the latest viral wave will have subsided to add to the cheer.

On hospital admissions that sounds dramatic and it is not welcome news, but to bring some better context, especially given the record recorded case numbers, here is a chart of those numbers. They are going to go higher yet and by mid January will show just how much so, but even if the current vaccines are less effective against Omicron, the picture today in reality is very different to last February.

Ditto from @Ditto

I don't disagree with the sentiment, but surely that's a political post? It even has the word government in it

Presumably the retired teacher could request some data to be deleted (right to erasure) to prevent unwanted approaches. Would you think a request to return to teaching comes under PECR regulations too?

In the spirit of Christmas, I think we do need to point out the silver lining for SIMS - they no longer need to worry about the Competition and Markets Authority treading on their toes

I was equally concerned when I saw the headline but in the article it said "go up in price by as much as 5%". In terms of BBC journalism, I don't think that really is newsworthy. To be honest, I think they are taking the biscuit.

Yeah, he was well p*ssed (and that's not passed ) that the outcome of the final race result wasn't purely as a result of the combination of car and driver. Not meeting contractual commitments is likely to lead to a fine, but at the end of the day there are people with emotions behind the saga. Remember the situation with Osaka in tennis, lots of sympathy, but still a $15,000 fine and treats of expulsion from the competition.