Coronavirus - political views - supporting or otherwise...

[Hobbit]

Dont you think those two statements are a tad extreme. Kids are not "immune" to the virus: they can catch it and pass it on just like other people. However the health impact upon them is far less. For teachers the risk is there but it is actually quite small. There are areas of the country where the infection rate is very, very low so there will be many schools that will not be at any risk: going to supermarkets with parents probably is as risky to the kids and teachers.

Your last paragraph is again somewhat extreme "life or death" really: the vast majority of deaths are to the elderly and fat who have underlying medical conditions. Medical staff are well trained and know how the equip themselves. We also know that avoiding the viral load is very important to the severity of any resulting illness.

The 'viral load' is also important when you consider how exposed the average person is during normal external situations; few occassions of general public's interactions will be beyond the 10 to 15 minutes.

The situation is serious and need managing carefully but, if we're honest, the public on-mass can be pretty unintelligent and I think the statistics tend to become interpreted at the extremes: the risk of contracting it is low and the risk of dying is much, much lower. That said no-one would willing expose anyone if it is reasonably possible to prevent it.

Aren't we now playing with semantics for the sake of splitting a few hairs. You know what I'm trying to get across, just as I know where you're coming from. But to use your point of the public being unintelligent, doesn't the message have to be, er very blunt to get that message across in a language they understand.

Seriously, I'm not arguing with the thread of what you're saying, and I do think we're on different parts of the same page. However, you acknowledge the teachers are more in the at risk age demographic but seem to be willing to accept them as collateral damage based on the probability of a % of the age group, not their age itself.

Maybe I'm missing something there. let's just agree we're on different parts of the page. Besides, my brandy infused chicken and mixed herbs stew is ready.

 

[Old Skier]

are you sure you didn't confuse him with a Conservative MP... ?

Nah, sounds more like the chair of Momentum

 

[Hobbit]

Mick Cash the Leader of the Rail and Transport Union was on the last question time. Did anyone who saw it rate him well?

He spoke up for his members. He was a little bit of a dinosaur with some of what he said, and he wasn't the sharpest knife in the drawer but I thought he was fine. I didn't agree with some of his politics but that doesn't make his politics wrongs, just a different flavour. Too old school Labour for me, but Labour is supposed to be a broad church.

 

[patricks148]

Nah, sounds more like the chair of Momentum

what makes you say that?

 

[User20205]

It's actually part of an academy trust. My daughter is at secondary level and is not in one of the years they are focusing on at that level so she is still being home schooled. So I do not know what private primaries are planning. Although I'd expect they would be doing the same as state schools in terms of risk assessments. However there may well be a bit more pressure on private schools to open as parents are paying what is usually a fair whack for them to educate their kids in schools.

This is in fact another area where privately educated kids, who already have advantages, may be get even more advantages. As in general the quality of the private school home schooling set will be very high as again, parents are paying for it. So private schools want to keep the paying parents especially happy. I've done no home schooling myself as the school makes sure she has all she needs without parents needing to do anything. There is some great home schooling going on in the non-private sector, but for completely understandable reasons the quality is more variable. So on average the longer home schooling goes on for I'd say the larger the gap may be, which may well become visible in future years exam results.

As for how I feel about this then as a parent I am obviously OK with it. As a chair of governors at a non-private school I want to ensure that non-privately educated kids get the best chances in life and the best education. And that may, or may not mean going back to school as soon as possible.

Cheers for the insight. From a personal point of view I’ve really enjoyed the home schooling. It’s given us a structure & I’m happy to play the part of ‘teacher‘. I was determined before this, to be far more engaged in my kids eduction than my parents were in mine. This have given me a chance to step up. I am fortunate though, being furloughed.
I also know anecdotally, some of my kids peers are doing very little.
Mine are year 5 & 7, I genuinely reckon their schooling won’t suffer, as there’s no hiding place in a class of 1!!
Re private schooling, I’ve got a golfing mate who forks out a few quid so his kids can be educated. The parents at his school seem to be applying pressure for the pupils to go back, so they can get ‘value’.

 

[chrisd]

Mans brain obviously went AWOL

Agreed! It was one of the most stupid interviews I've heard during the pandemic ?

 

[bobmac]

I had a bit of a low day this week after seeing a couple of experts on the tv discussing the pandemic. One who was talking about vaccines was pressed on when we might get one and, when pushed, he said his "optimistic" guess was that it's 50/50 whether there will ever be an effective vaccine.

Who was the expert saying that Karen?
For balance........

Sarah Gilbert, professor of vaccinology at Oxford University, previously said she is ’80 per cent’ confident that the vaccine her team are working on would be successful.


Read more: https://metro.co.uk/2020/05/17/uk-l...vaccine-early-september-12716031/?ito=cbshare

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MetroUK | Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MetroUK/

 

[chrisd]

Re private schooling, I’ve got a golfing mate who forks out a few quid so his kids can be educated. The parents at his school seem to be applying pressure for the pupils to go back, so they can get ‘value’.

I played this morning with a friend who's 2 children are in private education and he has written to their school as, despite paying a pretty penny for their schooling, they have had no direct help from the teachers, and his wife is having to do it all

 

[Swinglowandslow]

I had a bit of a low day this week after seeing a couple of experts on the tv discussing the pandemic. One who was talking about vaccines was pressed on when we might get one and, when pushed, he said his "optimistic" guess was that it's 50/50 whether there will ever be an effective vaccine.

From what I have read over the last few weeks, Oxford Uni is working hard on a vaccine. I'm not saying they will succeed, but they have been doing trials on humans for some while, and the vaccine they are trialling is being produced in quantity already in case it works.
Other countries no doubt are also working on trying to get a vaccine.
iMO, the reason the PM , and others , are not being seen as optimistic is to avoid the S...tstorm that would be thrown at them , if no vaccine was forthcoming.
"You promised us a vaccine..... you lied.... etc etc."

I don't think things are too bleak- stay positive ?

 

[Swinglowandslow]

what makes you say that?

What made you say what you said ? Not any desire to be contributory to this thread.

 

[Hacker Khan]

I played this morning with a friend who's 2 children are in private education and he has written to their school as, despite paying a pretty penny for their schooling, they have had no direct help from the teachers, and his wife is having to do it all

I'd probably be asking for a refund and that's a dangerous policy by any private school.

 

[Old Skier]

what makes you say that?

His rather extreme views

 

[Hobbit]

Don't know, Bob, I think it was on either Newsnight or C4 News. But he was an expert in the field (and obviously aware of the Oxford work) but pointed out scientists have been trying for years to get a vaccine for SARS. There just isn't a scientific consensus - and I certainly prefer Prof Gilbert's assessment! But until hearing that I'd been going on the assumption that it was only a matter of time until we had a vaccine whereas now I'm thinking more about how we might just have to learn to live with it.

I see Alok Sharma today announcing a grant to the Oxford team to help them gear up for manufacturing and suggesting we might have it ready for mass vaccination in September. I think we've just got to hope for the best but be ready for the worst.

Whilst there is a possibility of there not being a vaccine there will be plenty of medicines developed that will significantly mitigate the symptoms. And there already is, e.g. Aspirin to bring down temperature. Throat lozenges to ease the throat. Humidification to ease breathing. And its early days in developing the mitigations too. Things are already better than they were 2 months ago. Stay strong, we'll get there.

 

[Hacker Khan]

Cheers for the insight. From a personal point of view I’ve really enjoyed the home schooling. It’s given us a structure & I’m happy to play the part of ‘teacher‘. I was determined before this, to be far more engaged in my kids eduction than my parents were in mine. This have given me a chance to step up. I am fortunate though, being furloughed.
I also know anecdotally, some of my kids peers are doing very little.
Mine are year 5 & 7, I genuinely reckon their schooling won’t suffer, as there’s no hiding place in a class of 1!!
Re private schooling, I’ve got a golfing mate who forks out a few quid so his kids can be educated. The parents at his school seem to be applying pressure for the pupils to go back, so they can get ‘value’.

Yes, I can imagine that will be the case. Personally I'm relaxed about it for my daughter. I'm lucky in that I kind of know what to look for in any risk assessments the school produces and what questions to ask to find out what steps the school is taking to make the school environment as safe as possible. And assuming I get the assurances I need I'll be happy to send her back. But I won't be pushing them to open and get kids back until they feel they are ready.

 

[patricks148]

What made you say what you said ? Not any desire to be contributory to this thread.

it was a question for OS

 

[bobmac]

Don't know, Bob, I think it was on either Newsnight or C4 News. But he was an expert in the field (and obviously aware of the Oxford work) but pointed out scientists have been trying for years to get a vaccine for SARS. There just isn't a scientific consensus - and I certainly prefer Prof Gilbert's assessment! But until hearing that I'd been going on the assumption that it was only a matter of time until we had a vaccine whereas now I'm thinking more about how we might just have to learn to live with it.

I see Alok Sharma today announcing a grant to the Oxford team to help them gear up for manufacturing and suggesting we might have it ready for mass vaccination in September. I think we've just got to hope for the best but be ready for the worst.

They wouldn't be spending all that money producing millions of doses of the vaccine if they didn't think it would work.
Doctors and nurses are doing a brilliant job saving 1,000s of lives but it's the scientists who will save millions.

 

[User20205]

I played this morning with a friend who's 2 children are in private education and he has written to their school as, despite paying a pretty penny for their schooling, they have had no direct help from the teachers, and his wife is having to do it all

We’ve had lessons provided online, structure, materials etc. It’s been communicated via a school gateway & Microsoft teams. We have to make sure the kids are doing the work, I’ve found that the best way is to sit down with them in a pseudo classroom environment. Left to their own devices, I’m not sure it would get done! My youngest has different educational needs to my eldest, as he’s been diagnosed with dyslexia, but his school have provided the appropriate materials on top of what we already have, to give him some learning resource. Both are at state schools, albeit ones with decent ofstead results and good parent/teacher communication.

If I was fee paying, I’d expect the above as a bare minimum.

 

[patricks148]

His rather extreme views

TBH i don't really know anything about him, but there are extreme views on both sides of the div, which wouldn't make you stupid...

just looked him up, quite an interesting guy.

 

[Lord Tyrion]

I had a bit of a low day this week after seeing a couple of experts on the tv discussing the pandemic. One who was talking about vaccines was pressed on when we might get one and, when pushed, he said his "optimistic" guess was that it's 50/50 whether there will ever be an effective vaccine.

My wife reads too much stuff in the online papers, what is in the news, intreviews with journalists looking for a headline. She is frequently winding herself up. When she gets too bad I'll remind her of the basics that many of the scientists and health experts keep reverting back to:

Wash your hands
Don't touch your face
You are very unlikely to catch this
If you do catch it, most are likely to feel minimal symptoms
If you are below age x, healthy, have no underlying issues, are not overweight then you are even more unlikely to have bad symptoms
We will get through this
Don't let fear rule your life
(Okay, I added the last two in ?)

My point is, fear is grabbing us at the moment and can affect us all. When you look at the list above, particularly when you hear the calm and matter of fact manner in which they reel this off, it is very calming and helps to peel back the fear. We all have low days, it is inevitable when we are being bombarded with negativity, but keep going back to that list, it will help ?

 

[SocketRocket]

They wouldn't be spending all that money producing millions of doses of the vaccine if they didn't think it would work.
Doctors and nurses are doing a brilliant job saving 1,000s of lives but it's the scientists who will save millions.

The UK is providing an additional £84m to accelerate the search for a vaccine.