Coronavirus outbreak

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IaninSheffield

Veteran
Location
Sheffield, UK
I wasn't going to mention it, but it was noticeable Prof Whitty used both singular and plural for it during the show. I hope he doesn't suffer ribbing for it, but such unfamiliarity with modern English should probably be expected of fossils who lurk in common rooms!
Aren't common rooms closed at the moment? Well, at least until May 17, when the ribbing will even then only be from 5 colleagues at the most? ;)
 

marinyork

Resting in suspended Animation
Location
Logopolis
Aiui, (to flesh out your "sort of") only those uni/college students whose subject requires significant practical activity are scheduled to return before Easter.
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/university-students-practical-courses-set-182436108.html

I'm in a practical department that has "specialist facilities" by the bucketload or rather by the relatively unventilated room load. I've seen teaching and assistant jobs put up in haste. We've been here before with a lot of variations in interpretations. Various other vocational courses have been there throughout, the difference is at least large portions of those have been vaccinated and have PPE, although some definitely need that to protect others, but when you look at risks there's not really enough there for the new lot. Various other specialist stuff has been there throughout, with massive variations :laugh: between unis/departments/labs.

The bit that's new to me, the rest isn't, is the twice weekly testing which has previously been hinted at going back about two months. If you're going to test secondary schools you might as well do colleges and unis. At the start of term students were offered two lateral flow tests days apart. The only issue I had with this was at my uni there was the small issue of having to wait 24 hours for the result, rendering it somewhat practically pointless. Waiting 24 hours for a result for a test that's supposed to take 30 mins in a place with loads of practical people down the road. Ummm yeah, great job guys.

Easter Holidays start early so it makes this transition easier, but also means there's less meaningful data for PHE and unis to assess what means what from this change.

Campuses had a lot of other things in the past like libraries shut, but coffee shops open! It will be a difficult few months transitioning back.
 

mjr

Comfy armchair to one person & a plank to the next
French Health Minister Veran is appearing in Dunkirk this afternoon. I know not why. Nord is currently one of the areas with highest number in hospital but not as high a % as some, according to https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/world/europe/france-coronavirus-cases.html

PM Castex is giving a press conference tomorrow. The Alpes-Maritimes coast (around Nice) has gone into total lockdown, whereas case counts in parts of Brittany have fallen below 1 in 1'000, triggering relaxations like no masks required outdoors.
 

Oldhippy

Cynical idealist
Nice to know he has somehow convinced the virus to stop mutating and just go away. Judging by the tabloids it's all overs and just get out there and carry on as before! Nice to see they are being responsible. Not!
 

Ajax Bay

Guru
Location
East Devon
The virus has not stopped mutating: its doing so all the time. The bottom line is the likelihood of a variant of concern emerging, managing to spread, and the extent to which the current vaccines would continue to afford a good measure of protection.
Edit (VMT to the eagle-eyed one): Given this is the 'vaccine' thread, What actions do you think would minimise the chance of that @Oldhippy? How large a risk does that have to be before our community chooses to maintain severe restrictions on and continued damage to education, the economy, personal freedoms, being sociable with others, etc?
 
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Oldhippy

Cynical idealist
Complex problems as the government wants to be seen as solving the issue by way of science, good, but also they have an eye on the next election circus. Relying on the public across the board to play ball is a lucky dip as so much is unenforceable. On top of that the virus is still new in virus terms and there may be surprises in the future. There is no correct one answer.
 

Ajax Bay

Guru
Location
East Devon
Isn't the Minister just saying that mask wearing in schools is not compulsory? There's no law to make it so. But schools will make it 'compulsory' and extend that to when sitting at desks in classrooms. As far as testing is concerned, that's going to happen too, and for practical reasons that will mean a staggered restart for most schools (except the smallest) getting a proportion of years back each day.
Several papers have shown that infection spread in schools is small compared to the transmission in the local community generally. So the various restrictions on protective measures in schools is small beer, imo, and will have minimal effect.
do they never learn?
They learn slower if they are deprived of a good face-to-face education.
 
The virus has not stopped mutating: its doing so all the time. The bottom line is the likelihood of a variant of concern emerging, managing to spread, and the extent to which the current vaccines would continue to afford a good measure of protection.
Given this is the 'vaccine' thread, what actions do you think would minimise the chance of that @Oldhippy? How large a risk does that have to be before our community chooses to maintain severe restrictions on and continued damage to education, the economy, personal freedoms, being sociable with others, etc?
Actually its not - but good point otherwise!
 
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