Covid-19 pandemic

[Benjm]

The Archbishop of Westminster was arguing that Catholic churches could be allowed to open before other religious venues, seemingly on the grounds that they are the most lonely and depressing places on earth, unlike the premises of other, more party oriented faiths.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...es-coronavirus

[ad hoc]

Here religious services are allowed from this weekend but only outside and with the requisite 2m between people. Obviously that is less likely to work in the UK because it's more likely to be pissing down of a Sunday

[ursus arctos]

I have to admit that the general absence of choirs and overall crap level of signing are a plus in this context.

[Lurgee]

I'm sure those interpreting for the deaf will take your criticism on board.

Churches are fundamentally unChristian, anyway. Jesus was very down on performative displays of faith:

"And when ye pray, ye shall not be as hypocrites, that love to pray standing in synagogues and corners of streets, to be seen of men; truly I say to you, they have received their meed.

"But when thou shalt pray, enter into thy bedchamber, and when the door is shut, pray thy Father in huddles, and thy Father that seeth in huddles, shall yield to thee."

Text from Wycliffe's Bible as I like to rock it old school.

[Southport Zeb]

I have to admit that the general absence of choirs and overall crap level of signing are a plus in this context.

What have you got against the hearing impaired?

[Lurgee]

So, back to work yesterday, for a staff briefing on how we are going to maintain a safe learning environment in a secondary school. We re-open on Monday. Take home lesson is that ... um ... we're relying on there being no community transmission and if there is any, people staying home. Otherwise, everything is going to be ineffective and is essentially to make the students feel that something has been done - spacing desks (a joke in a small classroom with 31 students on the roll), students using hand sanitiser as they enter every class, getting students into classes ASAP instead of letting them mill about in the corridors. Because if just one person turns up sick, the chances of lots of people being infected by the end of the day is about a million percent.

Bit of a sense that we (and the students, of course) are being put on the line to allow the economy to open up again. Almost everywhere else, there are brutal restrictions on gatherings - 10 people per maximum unless distancing is applied - but these are waived for schools, with a logic that is - shall we say - hard to follow.

We will probably get away with it in New Zealand as we have done such a good job of stopping community transmission - but I think almost anywhere else it would be a recipe for mass infection.

[ursus arctos]

Zeb, it is precisely because I value the hearing impaired that I care about the quality of signing

[Jimski]

Charlie Brooker tonight was about as good a summary of the government's failure on Covid-19 as I've seen. (Reminds me of when Rory Bremner became the prime source of televisual truth on the Iraq War).

[Ray de Galles]

So, back to work yesterday, for a staff briefing on how we are going to maintain a safe learning environment in a secondary school. We re-open on Monday. Take home lesson is that ... um ... we're relying on there being no community transmission and if there is any, people staying home. Otherwise, everything is going to be ineffective and is essentially to make the students feel that something has been done - spacing desks (a joke in a small classroom with 31 students on the roll), students using hand sanitiser as they enter every class, getting students into classes ASAP instead of letting them mill about in the corridors. Because if just one person turns up sick, the chances of lots of people being infected by the end of the day is about a million percent.

Bit of a sense that we (and the students, of course) are being put on the line to allow the economy to open up again. Almost everywhere else, there are brutal restrictions on gatherings - 10 people per maximum unless distancing is applied - but these are waived for schools, with a logic that is - shall we say - hard to follow.

We will probably get away with it in New Zealand as we have done such a good job of stopping community transmission - but I think almost anywhere else it would be a recipe for mass infection.

SHUT UP AND BE A HERO!

https://twitter.com/alliehbnews/status/1261038695840391170?s=21

[Balderdasha]

4.5 million cases globally.

[S. aureus]

Holy Moly, I know I shouldn't be surprised but the sheer amount of BS on that Mail front page.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Holy Moly, I know I shouldn't be surprised but the sheer amount of BS on that Mail front page.

Yeah. You just know it won't mean squat when their next contract rolls around.

[Sporting]

Not much chance of schools reopening in Spain before the next academic year. And any debate is pretty polite:

https://english.elpais.com/spanish_n...emic-year.html

[Arturo]

Disgusting propaganda by the Mail. Shocking.

[Duncan Gardner]

I have to admit that the general absence of choirs and overall crap level of signing are a plus in this context.

We can resolve that on the next Zoom-a-thon. I'll join you in a Dylan cover- "Can you please crawl out your window"

[ad hoc]

Disgusting propaganda by the Mail. Shocking.

Disgusting yes, shocking no. This is the Mail after all. Racist hate sheet.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Charlie Brooker tonight was about as good a summary of the government's failure on Covid-19 as I've seen. (Reminds me of when Rory Bremner became the prime source of televisual truth on the Iraq War).

Charlie Brooker was fantastic last night. I'd urge anyone who can to watch it on iPlayer or elsewhere. "Antiviral wipe", I think it was called.

Edit - just checked, someone's bunged it on youtube - it'll get taken down later so get on it

https://youtu.be/AketCny7xoE

[Ginger Yellow]

Is it a one-off or a new series?

[Balderdasha]

South America has recorded more than 20,000 deaths. The big hitters are Brazil (14k), Peru and Ecuador (2k+ each).

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

A friend of mine is living in santiago, and they've reversed their minor relaxation of a super extreme lockdown. There was a big belt of cases announced. You can only go out on a very limited basis and it's one person per household. I don't know how well that city could handle things getting out of hand. There's about 7 million people living in a very small space, and the health system is not really geared towards providing much in the way of healthcare for the majority of its citizens.

[ad hoc]

The county I live in had experienced very few cases. As of yesterday there were 21 positive cases, most of whom had fully recovered (no deaths). However, now the next village over has suddenly reported 14 cases, all Roma. The fact that the Roma community basically operate apart from and at best on the fringes of society, means that the controls are sort of not really applied to them. In theory we're all obeying the same restrictions, but as the most marginalised people in the continent, the Roma don;t tend to follow such orders and the apparatus of the state sort of ignores them too (since the punishment for stepping out of lockdown is to get fined and Roma never end up paying fines, this results in the police or jandarmeria sort of not really bothering. Another community of Roma about 100kms away had had a lot of cases, and they are the same "caste" as this group, so presumably someone went from one village to the other and brought it in, and then there is pretty much no social distancing in those communities. Hopefully they'll all be OK, and that somehow the outbreak remains contained now that it;s been identified.

In other news in Romania, the "emergency decree" expires today and we're moving from a state of emergency to a state of alert. However the emergency decree was an instantaneous presidential action, while the state of alert is a law which has to pass through regular constitutional processes. It's been passed, but for complex legislature reasons cannot become law until Monday, so this weekend is Covid-lawless. Since people here seem to regard laws as only important if you get caught, it remains to be seen how the country will react to this weekend of freedom.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Absolute carnage on the Chorley websites about people taking their kids to parks to use the swings. The council themselves are officially imploring people not to, and the reaction is a growing mass of "Boris said we could so fuck off", "How is this more dangerous than queuing to get into B&M?", "I take dettol and disinfect the swings before I let my kids on them so I'm being so responsible" and "It isn't safe, you're shit parents and I hope your kids get it and kill you all".

Britain's "All in this together" blitz spirit at its absolute best.

[Sporting]

Is the Roma community there unaware of the dangers or simply don't give a fuck? Edit: to ad hoc

[ad hoc]

Is the Roma community there unaware of the dangers or simply don't give a fuck? Edit: to ad hoc

At a guess, a bit of both

[ursus arctos]

Insular marginalised communities are a challenge in any outbreak

There are elements of the Roma situation that echo the very serious problems we have seen among Ultraorthodox/Haredi communities here (including the prevalence of multi-generational family units)