Coronavirus

[Paul]

The lockdown will only be successful if people take it seriously, the daughter works at a junior school in Rugeley and nearly everyday they have to tell parents to not congregate out the front, because you don't catch a disease chatting to your mate do you?

 

[Sniffer]

I’d say that the slowdown in cases is due to university students no longer being infected in such huge numbers.

 

[Sniffer]

The rise in positive tests in secondary school pupils is worrying especially as schools will remain open.

 

[The Saturday Boy]

A 4 week lockdown is not great but can be recovered from, what will kill businesses is the uncertainty. For huge swathes of the hospitality sector there is uncertainty as to when they might be able to trade before they even consider if. Ever changing restrictions means a business can’t plan properly - who is going to invest in Christmas if they can’t trade?

I was interviewing the leader of a local council on the radio this morning and they admitted that they can’t plan beyond the next few weeks and only yesterday was arguing that they shouldn’t be going into Tier 3. Two local Conservative MPs clearly had no idea about the plans for a national lockdown other than what they saw in the media.

I actually agree with the local lockdown model but it should have been introduced as an exit strategy from a lockdown (which is now what it has become). Using half term as part of the lockdown would have still been a little on the late side but there would have been some rationale behind it

Whatever happened in the last 48 hours has really spooked the government and I am not sure we are getting the whole story.

 

[Templeton Peck]

Problem is that businesses will continue to struggle until people feel confident that the government is on top of it. The economy didn't suddenly pop back into life in the summer when Boris decided it was all over. Even Eat Out to Help Out had a minimal impact but appears to have been responsible for a growth in the spread of the virus.

 

[AndyWolves]

Having slept on it I feel the "success" of this lockdown will depend on the measures more than counter-acting the spread caused by educational settings.

If we can just get through to getting vaccines rolled out, then things should start to slowly improve

 

[The Bear]

I can't see it making much difference when everyone is still at work and the kids are still at school.

I seriously doubt walking round a few shops and occasionally going down the pub was the driving factor behind the second wave.

 

[sycophantia]

Yeah its the schools/uni thing thats the disappointment for me, by all means keep primary schools open but most secondary and uni teaching could be online.
Not sure how many people have returned to work over the last 3-4 months that weren't already going in. Most factories and construction that I know carried on pretty much ad normal right through lockdown

 

[AndyWolves]

This is useful for trying to understand how people are moving around

https://www.google.com/covid19/mobility/

 

[MARKakaJIM]

I suppose by removing most social activities you isolate different groups more effectively. This second wave looks to have been driven by students, generally considered a low risk group, but if they're going out into town mixing with others then it'll soon cause more problems. Now you can allow low risk groups like those to be ravaged with it, hoping there's little risk of hospitalisation or serious illness for most, whilst preventing it leaking out into other communities.

 

[Keef]

Ian Duncan smith being a twat in this mornings Sunday telegraph, accuses Boris of giving in to the science! And then accuses the scientists of ' pressuring and publicly lecturing the government '

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

It sounds like there are going to a few Tory rebels on this when the commons votes on Wednesday. Boris might be relying on labour to shore him up.

Keeping the schools open is lunacy. The kids will spread it to each other and then they will bring it back to lockdown households.

 

[Paul]

I thought Labour where for keeping the schools open ?

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

They are. I’m not though.

 

[Tredman]

It sounds like there are going to a few Tory rebels on this when the commons votes on Wednesday. Boris might be relying on labour to shore him up.

Keeping the schools open is lunacy. The kids will spread it to each other and then they will bring it back to lockdown households.

Transmission in young kids is still very low, despite all the noise about schools being at fault. The lasting harm done to kids by closing schools massively outweighs anything caused by this virus.

It might not our kids who are disadvantaged but kids who already have massive odds stacked against them - doing anything other than keeping schools open at all costs is pretty reprehensible.

 

[sycophantia]

A couple of the 'experts' came up with whst seemed sensible ideas last night pre announcement.
One was to split classes week about with the half not in school following the lessons online.
Another was to keep primary schools open while secondary and Uni went completely online. Apparently primary school children are less infectious?
i'm not sure if any of those measures would have any effect but worth a try surely

 

[Tredman]

Why schools probably aren’t COVID hotspots

Young children are unlikely to spread the virus — but older kids are more at risk, say researchers.

www.nature.com

 

[Dire Wolf]

I work in several primary schools, one has had positive tests in 4 different class 'bubbles' which has resulted in those classes having to stay home for 2 weeks, and they have had 11 members of staff (teachers, teaching assistants, kitchen and office staff) either testing positive or having to isolate. Another school has had no positive tests, no bubbles closed, no staff having to self isolate. The 1st school is in a small rural community and has fewer than 200 pupils in total, the 2nd is in an urban area, with high levels of poverty and has almost 300 pupils. My work in either school has not been affected. It's just weird.

 

[Aikiwolf]

Coronavirus: NHS COVID app failed to record potential exposures due to error

The wrong threshold had reportedly been set for the app and was not recording those who were close enough to transmit the virus.

news.sky.com

Worth every penny...

 

[AndyWolves]

Have this govt done anything right or sensible during this pandemic?