Covid-19 pandemic

[Lang Spoon]

Stupid evil cunts.

[Patrick Thistle]

I passed a home made fly poster today saying there is HIV in the vaccine and citing Infowars and David Icke as the sources of this news.

I wish there was a virus that just targeted utter fuckwits.

[jameswba]

On February 3rd, the Slovak Minister of Education said schools could open for certain groups of students, including secondary school leavers, on Monday 8th. They did not appear to take much responsibility for this move, claiming they were making it due to 'public pressure'. There were a few basic (obvious) conditions, including that teachers and students took a negative antigen test. Still, for our region, it all seemed somewhat pointless since half-term holidays were due to start tomorrow (15th), and 18-19 year-olds are the age-group most likely to have got used to online learning and to be able to manage their own time. Plus there was growing talk of vaccinating teachers in the quite near future.

With case numbers not decreasing, the Zilina regional health authorities issued a statement saying that they did not recommend their schools to open and to wait till at least after half-term. Our school went ahead and opened anyway. On Tuesday, a student started to experience symptoms. On Wednesday, he tested positive via a PCR test. The school was effectively unsafe from the minute it opened its doors. The student's classmates, and teachers who had lessons with him, now have to quarantine. All other teachers were able to sign up for their first vaccine dose yesterday.

Does anyone in authority think anything through?

[Antepli Ejderha]

I hope you're OK James, a thoroughly needless risk that.

[jameswba]

Thanks AE.

No symptoms yet. Since my contacts with the student were last Monday and Tuesday, I guess that, if I get through today and tomorrow, I might start to be cautiously optimistic. I have a test booked for Thursday.

But yes, totally needless indeed. A few students stayed (or were kept) at home despite the reopening, in two or three cases because they have elderly grandparents in their bubbles. Our management said this was not good enough reason to stay away. I think we can now say that it was.

[ad hoc]

My daughter goes back to school tomorrow. I think she's had 3 weeks of school (school in school anyway) since March 13th 2020, and even she is happy and looking forward to going back. I think most of the teachers* have gone through vaccination shot 1 though I suspect most haven't got to the booster jab yet, so it's a bit of a risk.

Younger kids (up to 4th grade) and the exam years (8th and 12th) have been back for a few weeks now and the teachers say it's been a huge struggle getting back into a learning routine for them. A year of learning online has really made it hard for them to switch into classroom mode.

(*sadly there are some teachers - teachers ffs! - who are not being vaccinated as they have decided not to. The numbers of the population who have said they will get vaccinated are slowly creeping up but there are still getting on for 30% who are opposed)

[Kowalski]

Johnson again says he wants to open schools up fully on March 8th, that's in 3 weeks.

Confirmed cases are still in 5 digits, deaths have just fallen into 3 digits. Plainly not feasible as he's promised 2 weeks notice.

My guess is he'll announce a return then back track saying it's too soon. That way he can blame someone else.

I just saw it phrased like this on a twitter thread from The Times;

All schoolchildren will return to the classroom on March 8 under plans to start lifting the lockdown, Boris Johnson will announce in a national address next week.

The decision to reopen both primary and secondary schools goes against the advice of some government scientists. But the prime minister was swayed by faster than expected reductions in hospital admissions and infections.

Under the government’s blueprint to reopen society, adults will initially have only small new freedoms so as to prioritise the return of schools — a move ministers know will raise the coronavirus R number for infections.

The move to prioritise the return of pupils over reopening the economy will put the prime minister on a collision course with Conservative MPs, 63 of whom signed a letter this weekend demanding the lifting of all restrictions by the end of April.

"Downing Street regards a slow easing of social distancing measures as the price it has to pay. “Getting pupils in class is the PM’s top priority,” a source said. “We know that will increase infections and we need to move cautiously with everything else.”

I'm having trouble computing this I must admit.

They actually want to go to the trouble of totally reopening schools until the Easter holidays (a grand total of three weeks), despite knowing the pandemic is still with us and that this course of action "will increase infections" and potentially put "the prime minister on a collision course with Conservative MPs"?

I'm struggling to work out the politics going on here. If they want the pandemic to end why are they developing a policy that might allow it to stick around for a bit longer? Is the need to be seen to be "doing something, anything" too much to resist? Why do they still seem to think that a virus will respond to the positive spinning of a situation?

We are still more than a week away from the announcement, why have they released this information during half term when the potentially stressed school staff are trying to relax and recover after one of the most challenging half terms in recent history?

I'm ashamed to say that I've become rather cynical about claims regarding the wellbeing of "our" young people.

[Kowalski]

Deliveroo: Run Eat Out to Help Out again, says takeaway giant

[Antepli Ejderha]

I just saw it phrased like this on a twitter thread from The Times;



I'm having trouble computing this I must admit.

They actually want to go to the trouble of totally reopening schools until the Easter holidays (a grand total of three weeks), despite knowing the pandemic is still with us and that this course of action "will increase infections" and potentially put "the prime minister on a collision course with Conservative MPs"?

I'm struggling to work out the politics going on here. If they want the pandemic to end why are they developing a policy that might allow it to stick around for a bit longer? Is it the need to be seen to be "doing something, anything" too much to resist? Why do they still seem to think that a virus will respond to the positive spinning of a situation?

We are still more than a week away from the announcement, why have they released this information during half term when the potentially stressed school staff are trying to relax and recover after one of the most challenging half terms in recent history?

I'm ashamed to say that I've become rather cynical about claims regarding the wellbeing of "our" young people.

This.

Delay it until after Easter and you've got an extra 2.5 weeks. Makes no sense. And the leak a week early is typical of this government and the contempt they hold the vast majority of this country in.

[Patrick Thistle]

You can't reopen the economy if people can't be in work because their kids can't be in school. It's a domino thing. Plus you can dress it up as concerns for the kids wellbeing because everyone* knows that being in school is the most important thing for kids.

*and anyone who doesn't know this will get told in no uncertain terms

[San Bernardhinault]

Has anyone told these people that you can't "reopen" the economy (which still seems pretty open just not all industries are running at 100%) if hordes of people get sick from their kids and everyone else is terrified of interacting with parents because they're likely to be disease vectors.

[Patrick Thistle]

Logic doesn't work on them.

[Nefertiti2]

Over 100 000 deaths ago

https://twitter.com/WritesBright/status/1360944255200600064?s=20

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

Surprised at the timing of that original tweet, it feels like we were much further into things by 19 March - though on checking it just now he did a u-turn and announced on 20 March that pubs would be closing (Scotland announced closures first, earlier that day).

[Antepli Ejderha]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...es-in-auckland

And compare.

This is the reaction in NZ to three cases. Not deaths.

[Snake Plissken]

Feels like all the stories of “ministers not going to listen to Tory MPs who want to ease restrictions” is softening the public up for exactly that.

[Antepli Ejderha]

https://www.thenationalnews.com/worl...ooms-1.1164928

A comparison of the UK and Australia quarantine hotels, I think we all know which ones are stricter yet despite that have had cases. In the UK this is another disaster waiting to happen.

Why can we not do anything properly? Because we outsource it and monetarise it.

[Paul S]

Deaths from covid were down to 258 yesterday which is quite a drop. But weekend deaths are always lower due to counting and today's death count will probably be around 800 but it's going in the right direction.

[Nocturnal Submission]

Deaths from covid were down to 258 yesterday which is quite a drop. But weekend deaths are always lower due to counting and today's death count will probably be around 800 but it's going in the right direction.

No, today's mortality figure will also be "low" because of weekend statistic collection delays. Tuesdays are the catch-up days when the figures jump upwards.

The figures, for cases, deaths and hospitalisations, are falling rapidly, but from a mountainously high point. There's an awfully long way to go yet and I'm looking to see if the steepness of the downwards trend begins to taper off.

[Mr Delicieux]

Deaths from covid were down to 258 yesterday which is quite a drop. But weekend deaths are always lower due to counting and today's death count will probably be around 800 but it's going in the right direction.

I swear I've seen you write that 'it's going in the right direction' a few times now.
Let's see if it stays on course this time.

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

No, today's mortality figure will also be "low" because of weekend statistic collection delays.

Absolutely. The UK COVID death numbers announced on the last two Mondays were 406 (Mon 1 Feb) and 333 (Mon 8 Feb). Based on the shape of the curve over the last few weeks, I would say expectation for today would be around 260-270. Anything over 300 would be extremely disappointing.

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

...and by way of further context for today's stats, the UK new case numbers on Mon 1st and Mon 8th were 18,607 and 14,104, and based on trends we'd be hoping to get under the 11k barrier with today's number. Let's see.

[Balderdasha]

And today's UK figures are in, 230 deaths today and fewer than 10,000 new cases. This is Sunday's figures being reported today. Tomorrow will be higher when the weekend lag catches up.

[Balderdasha]

And before getting complacent, I'd like to point out that today we've still recorded more than three times New Zealand's total number of cases in ONE DAY. New Zealand has reported 2,336 cases in total and recently locked down Auckland for three days to try and trace 3, that's THREE, cases of unexplained community transmission.

[anton pulisov]

Irish Times

[

Vaccinations will take place in 37 centres, at least one in every county, as the programme is ramped up, he said. Kerry, Tipperary, Westmeath and Wicklow will have two centres, Dublin will have four and Cork five.

No prizes for guessing where the current Taoiseach is from.