Ditto

Thanks for that - I hadn't seen the graph before. I can't say I particularly like it as a style of presentation, I don't think a heatmap is the best tool for this data set. Just looking at the 40-49 age range, for England it shows 76.1% for 40 - 44 and 81.8% for 45 - 49. For Scotland it shows 91.9%. The wording at the outset perhaps leads to an explanation of the difference. It states "For English areas, these are provided for population surveillance purposes, and only people who have an NHS number and are currently alive are included. The denominator used is the number of people on the National Immunisation Management Service (NIMS) database. They will differ from NHS England daily outputs, which provide operational data for the management of the vaccination programme. For Scottish areas, the denominator used is the mid-2020 population estimate, published by National Records of Scotland. For this reason, comparisons should be made with caution." My highlighting. I can't say it really leaves my with the feeling of a full understanding of why the difference is so large.

NHS England published at https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/09/COVID-19-weekly-announced-vaccinations-02-September-2021.pdf on 2nd September. Their age based graph shows the following and that only as at 29 August. For 40-45, it's showing over 90% having had first dose and over 80% for second. Even at a month old, these data are showing much high percentages across the age groups than the other numbers presented. What's the source of the other, lower figures - perhaps they are out of date? Or maybe the population numbers used are different - I do believe their were some updates with the NHS numbers recently for some stats recently, but I don't think it could have made such a large difference.

Do you have a link and reference to that guidance, it will be useful @LeMarchand and others who come to the thread at a later time.

Another article, a couple of months old, that is worth reading is https://post.parliament.uk/covid-19-vaccine-coverage-and-targeted-interventions-to-improve-vaccination-uptake - apparently the government have worked with dating app providers to increase uptake!

For a recent, thorough analyses of vaccine rates, I'd recommend looking at https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/conditionsanddiseases/articles/coronaviruscovid19latestinsights/vaccines. The ONS includes research and data on vaccine hesitancy. The ethnic differences remain significant. One stand out dataset in there is the percentages by age (modelled) showing antibodies. All age ranges bar 16-24 are over 96%. I wonder how many of those in the lower age ranges have had and recovered from covid have decided against vaccination.

I agree, it is a tough decision. JCVI have been clear with their conclusion that it was based at looking at that age range only and not the wider community impact. It would be interesting to know if the same is true for flu vaccination. I also agree it makes the CMOs position harder and could impact take up rate if the government go ahead for 'community' benefit. On the upside, it does at least show a level of independence from the JCVI which I think is healthy. They're are, AFAIK, a few factors taken in to account with flu and flu vaccination. Firstly, flu is does not have the same age based profile in terms of impact as covid, so the risk of flu on young, whilst still lower compared to adults, is different. Under 2's are still higher risk though. Flu vaccines have been around for a while now, so there's a lot more data and risks are better understood. The risk with some Coronavirus vaccines leading to myocarditis or pericarditis is probably a factor versus the risk form Covid. However, taking all that in to consideration, CDC in the USA have come to a different conclusion, but they also mandate the continued use of masks and other strategies. I don't feel with term starting, that the level of risk reducing action is as high as it might be in the UK. I feel it would be better to have stronger DfE guidance as was the case up until the end of last academic year, and not get to the point where it is left to school discretion on the big decisions.

Maybe you are right. Having now read the BBC report, perhaps going against the advice due to other considerations is more likely than I originally thought. I think it would be the first time they have gone against advice? Tough call, either way.

So JCVI have decided not to recommend vaccinating all 12 to 15-year-olds. This is a real tough decision to make a call on and a brutal example of science and ethics being considered together. As I understand it, the decision was one based on what is best that age range, not the wider community. I'm not surprised it has taken some time to get to a decision, and I can't see the government deviating from the recommendation.

Too right, the complaints more likely come from the staff! However, with the right head in charge, I found the problem no longer existed. Sadly, given @LeMarchand 's OP, I suspect there is a battle ahead.

1st today! It's way higher than I'm comfortable with, but it isn't a per capita figure so this needs to be taken into account. I sure numbers of cases will rise with schools re-opening, how much is hard to know. How much that leads to an impact in the older age groups where the severity and risk is much higher, as are vaccination levels, is hard to judge. Monitoring the hospital admissions is going to reveal the picture over time.

Q1 - I think you know the rate of testing has changed over time. Here is a visual comparison of testing and case recorded from the gov.uk site. Q2. I presume you have a model for your last prediction? Perhaps the model doesn't need changing, just the data used for prediction. The thing with data modelling, is you need to test and tune your model. On your earlier comment "No such thing as facts"... in an earlier post you said people "need more facts". Why would you want to provide people with something that you claim doesn't exist

The last two days (week on week) have shown a drop in case rates - perhaps you might like to recalculate as the 'model' has changed. Besides, the level of testing currently completely different to earlier 'highest' peaks, so not a good comparison.

It's a frustration that it's not easy to find this. Keeping Children Safe In Education 2021 (just refreshed) highlights the need for monitoring. All staff and governors should be familiar and up to date with this document. For me, in the scenario of a safeguarding issue arising due to online activity, if a schools response was 'We are not sure which child as we use shared accounts", I don't think it would pan out well under scrutiny. I have heard some suggest the teacher keeps a log of which child sits at which desk and then track by hardware, but that's quite a faff! I'm less bothered, for the very young, about passwords, but being able to pinpoint activity against an individual is in my mind sufficiently important, that it is worth tackling the overhead of getting every child able to login easily. The KCSIE document links to https://360safe.org.uk/. It's been quite a while since I went through this, but if you can find time, it may be worth doing - I can't recall if it directly addresses generic accounts, but if you were to do the review and plan for incremental improvement, you'd be in a much better position.

I agree from a safeguarding perspective you need individual accounts - I'd get the DPO engaged with the proposal. Do the PC's have cameras? QR login can help - Clever Badges were ideal but support got pulled for UK. Now that the acquisition of Clever by Kahoot is complete (today by coincidence), it would great if the product was brought back to include UK. Wonde I think offer something similar.

Isn't this article uncertified by peer review and based on modelling, not real-world studies? I've no doubt the broad brush statement of increased ventilation and filtration is helpful, but to quote that number of data values as if they were fact isn't realistic in my view?

I see cases are back to their normal falling situation with yesterdays week on week numbers showing a drop. Watching MOTD with full stadia makes me wonder about the next month or so though. Hospital admissions and deaths lower 6 out of 7 days in the last week. With 28k identified positives a day it does still feel like a we are walking a tightrope, but it is good to see small steps towards a new normal and the benefits they bring.

Shockingly good - perhaps too good for Dad's joke thread?!

With two years of cancelled exams, this is what the A Level graph looks like now. If the traditional A Level examination comes back next year, it's going to be a hard bump. I can hear the outcry headlines already! *** Edit - congratulations to all who got their A levels this year - I know it's been a hard an unusual two years, and the vast majority put in a lot of hard work ***

Not exactly Coronavirus, but a consequence. Interesting to see "teachers, nursery teachers and support staff in close contact with pupils" listed as being invited to flu jab in Scotland this year. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-58131218. In England the list includes front-line health and adult social care staff but not (yet?) school based staff.

Spooky, just finished watching The Map of Tiny Perfect Things (Amazon Prime) where two people experience the same day over and over. Quite nicely done and enjoyed by the family.

I agree, it makes a lot of sense to offer this in schools/colleges.

Vaccines to be offered to 16 and 17 year olds. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-58091693. It's interesting no parental consent will be required. Exactly where jabs will be given is not yet clear, but NAHT have said "Schools should not carry any responsibility for vaccination promotion, enforcement or policing" - https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/geoff-barton-schools-government-department-for-education-england-b949105.html. No responsibility for enforcement and policing I think is understandable. 'Promotion' is perhaps too strong to use, but that's a little more grey for me - at the very least I think educating the risks of doing so or not could be covered as part of PSHE.

The weekday figure today published today for Monday does shows an increase on the previous Monday of 5.6%. Looking at a single data point is not best practice, but I fear the recent case rate lull may coming to an end. To coin a phrase, case rates may be somewhat bumpy over the coming weeks.

I suspect Neil and Jeremy are more interested in capturing headlines than anything much else, so I guess they have both been successful...

Our work devices are starting to ask us to to set up Windows Hello. Hasn't been needed in over a year. Our IT support provider are saying they didn't make a change in a recent update, but it's an all users have it or none. I'm not thinking that's likely so I thought I'd check a trusted source - i.e. Edugeek