Covid-19 pandemic

[Moonlight Shadow]

One of my hiking mates who I know is missing the lonely hills a lot, it's been incredibly hard on his mental wellbeing, is out today. On his bike, in quiet countryside in the county next door to his. If that chap can resist the urge to head for the uplands or drive 100/200/300 miles for some scenery, there is no excuse for any of those waddling idiots to cram the Lakes....

[Glass Half Empty]

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.

What's the advice on face masks for pupils/staff Lurgee?

[ursus arctos]

https://twitter.com/IanLabour/status/1261231212363907072

[Balderdasha]

My son's school has just confirmed that they won't be opening the nursery on June 1st, only reception, year 1 and year 6. Government advice has been that private nurseries can reopen on June 1st if they want but my son's nursery is in a state school and they don't have the space or the staff for it to work.

My daughter is year 2, so that means neither of them will be going back to school before the end of June at the earliest. I'm quite relieved that I don't have to make that decision for a while. Plus, if the school isn't open they'll continue to provide home activities.

On the other hand, that means I have to do at least another six weeks of home school.

[Jimski]

Is it a one-off or a new series?

One off special, unfortunately.

[sw2borshch]

SHUT UP AND BE A HERO!

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

https://twitter.com/StevePeers/statu...088346112?s=19

[beak]

good to see the government here are taking care of the important stuff.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/15/dutch-official-advice-to-single-people-find-a-sex-buddy-for-lockdown-coronavirus

On the advice of scientists at the RIVM, the Netherlands has been on what the government describes as an “intelligent lockdown” since 23 March, allowing up to three visitors into homes on the strict condition that they keep their distance.

But the RIVM now concedes that “it makes sense that as a single [person] you also want to have physical contact” while warning that the risks of such intimacy should be managed.

“Discuss how best to do this together,” the RIVM suggests. “For example, meet with the same person to have physical or sexual contact (for example, a cuddle buddy or ‘sex buddy’), provided you are free of illness. Make good arrangements with this person about how many other people you both see. The more people you see, the greater the chance of (spreading) the coronavirus.”

[Sporting]

https://twitter.com/IanLabour/status/1261231212363907072

Good spot.

[That Night In Barcelona]

Has the government said why they're opening up year 6? Their summer term is typically the 'fun' one where not much teaching is done because the SATs are over and they're all moving to another school later in the year.

[Nocturnal Submission]

UK "R No." is up, apparently. The statistics from a number of different groups aren't particularly consistent but this is one English breakdown:

[Antepli Ejderha]

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

I'm supporting some of the Roma families in my school, I've completed FSM forms for them, accessed their vouchers and helped them get food bank vouchers amongst other things and I'd say that poverty, and they are living in poverty in the UK in the vast majority of cases, means that you cannot do the same things as we are able to do.

Here families are living together, be that two families or extended ones in extremely cramped conditions, 8 people in a one bedroom flat, no garden.

In most European countries they are living in ghettos with no electricity or running water, could you social distance in those conditions?

[Diable Rouge]

BBC reporting that the UK R number is increasing again, largely due to a spread of cases in care homes.

[Jimski]

Has the government said why they're opening up year 6? Their summer term is typically the 'fun' one where not much teaching is done because the SATs are over and they're all moving to another school later in the year.

It's supposedly so they can "say goodbye". Which ironically is precisely what many people can't do to their loved ones who die from Covid-19.

[Diable Rouge]

The Fine Gael donor base gets its way:

https://twitter.com/Junomaco/status/1261282501558972417

[Jimski]

This is a very scary illness, part 104:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/14/h...s-strokes.html

[Satchmo Distel]

DeSantis is currently announcing further easing in Florida (gyms, golf). Live stream:

https://www.wesh.com/article/watch-f...ement/32495239

EDIT: He says he is moving to full phase one except movie theatres.

[Jimski]

The medical advisers in these press conference are so compromised:

(from the Guardian live blog)

Kanani says that risk is relative; the government wouldn’t send children back unless it was safe to do so, which is why it will be phased and careful.

Yeah, says who. As the medical director of primary care for NHS England, she should be giving medical opinions, not toeing government lines.

[DCI Harry Batt]

People have connived for too long in the nonsensical pretence that these statements are about "the science".

[Satchmo Distel]

DeSantis now saying that children may not be vectors for COVID-19.

Restaurants, retail stores, museums and libraries are to be allowed to increase their capacities to 50-percent

Link: https://www.wtsp.com/article/news/re...d-d5f675c6d562

[S. aureus]

DeSantis now saying that children may not be vectors for COVID-19.

Restaurants, retail stores, museums and libraries are to be allowed to increase their capacities to 50-percent

Link: https://www.wtsp.com/article/news/re...d-d5f675c6d562

The linked article on cancelled summer camps at the bottom of that page is quite something:

https://www.wtsp.com/article/news/he...6-97484f5fde66

"Across the Bay area, parents are getting the news they’ve been dreading after two long months of homeschooling their children. Many of the summer camps parents were relying on for a much-needed break are now announcing they won’t be holding camp after all due to coronavirus concerns.

"It's been such a roller coaster not knowing what's going to happen and you think you’ll get a little bit of light at the end of the tunnel and then they take it away,” said parent Ashley Perez."

[San Bernardhinault]

Summer camps seem so odd to me. I'm pretty sure they never existed in the UK, yet here in the US many families (particularly at the higher income levels) seem entirely dependent on them and absolutely horrified at the thought of not having them.

[Balderdasha]

Yeah, the longest summer camp I ever went on as a child was a Brownie camp, which I think were five days max. But then again, the UK has loads of boarding schools where parents only have to interact with their children during holiday time.

[Satchmo Distel]

DeSantis went on about summer camps.

The governor also said he has not yet made a decision about whether summer camps can reopen. He said depriving kids of activities carries a cost which must be weighed against the health risk.

https://www.wctv.tv/content/news/Gov...570501521.html

But note that DeSantis has denied the risks of the virus to kids throughout this crisis:

https://www.fox10tv.com/news/coronav...017fce33c.html

I also get a strong feeling that, like Trump, he's not very bright.

[ursus arctos]

And yet many of those parents would never consider sending their children to boarding schools.

It is an interesting disconnect.

[Diable Rouge]

Summer camps seem so odd to me. I'm pretty sure they never existed in the UK, yet here in the US many families (particularly at the higher income levels) seem entirely dependent on them and absolutely horrified at the thought of not having them.

You do get GAA, rugby and soccer camps in Ireland, along with the long-standing tradition of packing kids off to the Gaeltacht for a month. Also see taking in Spanish students for a similar timeframe during July or August.