Prime minister announcement at 12

[Hugglespuffed]

Is it going to be drastic changes? Or just 'work at home if you can'?

I think this will be a very minimal change, I highly doubt they will announce immediate school closures today.

I think it will lean more towards:

Stay home if you have a cold
WFH if you can
Possibly some more definitive bans on air travel into the UK from certain locations

Following with interest I really think the government needs to move to the next phase now. Unbelievable that Cheltenham went ahead unnecessary large scale gatherings and events could have been the first thing to tackle weeks ago. It’s all happening at bit late at this point

I work in retail, so no WFH is possible. Can't see shops shutting.

The 3000 Madrid fans was much worse, in my opinion.
I would think that most sensible people are going to start isolating themselves now, as much as they can.

I'm not in the UK and we only have a handful of cases here but I'm on an island that has very close links and regular flights to the UK. It's just been announced that all our schools and education centres will be closed for a week from tomorrow. It wouldn't surprise me if the UK does the same.

Is it possible that it will be containment scenario if people can e.g partial closures of schools and universities. I can't see this country coping with a complete lockdown. We are a complex and individualistic society.

The government seems to blame their lack of action on what the scientists tell them. Are other countries which have closed schools and stopped large gatherings not being guided by scientists too?

Most countries seem to be doing temperature checks at airports, the UK isn’t, they just feebly wave a leaflet at you or something. Temperature checks can catch over half of people who have Coronavirus so why on earth aren’t we doing it?

@mrsnec where are you?

I just honestly can't see how they can say isolate with a cold, people can't afford that. They need to roll out testing.

Someone posted in the other thread about the attitude of the public-school educated that gives them a misplaced sense of confidence that they are right and the ordinary masses must be wrong. Our CMO, deputy CMO, BoJo, Cummings are all privately educated. This cabal convinces themselves that all the international experts don't know what they are talking about, and all we need in this country are behavioural nudges

Am I the only one who doesn't see the logic in closing schools? Surely it will just rise again once they're reopened? They can't close everything indefinitely

I work in a small air conditioned office which seems to just circulate germs. From March- Sept I have cold symptoms from hayfever then the rest of winter I have a cold on repeat. I better hope I can live off £95 a week until the end of time

Am I the only one who doesn't see the logic in closing schools? Surely it will just rise again once they're reopened? They can't close everything indefinitely

It's all about delaying things. Apparently the NHS will be able to cope better in spring/summer than they can in winter.

Also, it gives the scientist time to develop a vaccine.

Children are now vaccinated en masse in primary schools against the flu, because they are super spreaders. Yet, because we have no vaccination for covid-19 and people still have to go to work, we conveniently ignore that children are the ones giving it to everyone else and continue to have them mixing together...

Schools need to close now, children are super spreaders who rarely show symptoms due to vaccination.

It's going to make my life harder because I work in an essential service with vulnerable people so we won't close and I can't work from home but I still think it's the easiest solution (short term atleast).

I don't think they should close schools. If they have to allow classes of 40+ (as my mother used to teach alone afer world war II) because a teacher is off sick then that might be a better option. We may need to say people should keep away from older people as the better method and just accept all younger people are going to get it anyway.

OUR scientists must be extra special brainiacs, seeing as we have better science than the rest of the world

I’m worried about the work thing. I work for a contract cleaning company and I clean offices after the workers finish at 5pm most nights a week.
Obviously I can’t wfh but if the offices close down I’ll have nowhere to clean so won’t be paid? I’ll literally not be able to pay my rent or buy food without my wage. My company is crap for things like sick pay, my office closed for two weeks over Christmas and we don’t get paid at all over that period. Is there going to be a special government provision for people like me?

I don't think they should close schools. If they have to allow classes of 40+ (as my mother used to teach alone afer world war II) because a teacher is off sick then that might be a better option. We may need to say people should keep away from older people as the better method and just accept all younger people are going to get it anyway

What about teachers who are classed as vulnerable? Older? Diabetic? Asthmatic? Who go home to care for eldery parents or have a partner with cancer or other serious condition? At what point are we going to give a damn about the fact that if children are spreading en masse without any real symptoms, teachers are people with lives and responsibilities that supersede the classroom?

My dc have been off a week already (school open it’s our choice) I’m not waiting for the government to finally decide its time as they are too slow on this one and it’s risking lives

if children are spreading en masse without any real symptoms

Are they?

Re schools; an SEN school cannot safely remain open if a certain number of staff are off.

I don't think they should close schools. If they have to allow classes of 40+ (as my mother used to teach alone afer world war II) because a teacher is off sick then that might be a better option

Yes, because if a teacher if off sick with the virus, the best thing possible would be to put that teachers class in with another class to give it them and their teacher .

Classes of 40/50 were totally different post WW2 as everyone well knows. Classes often worked in silence, ruled by fear of the cane/ruler and just rote learnt facts. I don’t have space for 32 children and if forced to have 45, finding somewhere for them to sit let alone doing all the other crap that the government deems necessary, would simply drive the few remaining permanent teachers left into a nervous breakdown.

45 children sitting in rows copying from the board with draconian punishments if they put a toe out of line is completely different.

I don't think they will close the schools when it's only two weeks until the Easter holiday. I think you're all getting your hopes up for nothing!

I think they will just stop public events, tell the over 60's to stay at home and recommend more working from home.

I don’t think this will work. Some people will still feel bad about calling in sick so will carry on going to work.

Of course it won't work fully, but if it helps slow down the virus, then it's a good thing. If only half of those self-isolated and/or worked from home, it's going to help slow it down. We know we're not going to stop it spreading - it's all about flattening the curve so that people get it over a longer period of time to help the NHS cope. We need a shallow upward line graph rather than an exponential curved one!

Schools need to close now, children are super spreaders who rarely show symptoms due to vaccination.

Vaccination against what? No one has been vaccinated against this. There isn’t a vaccine.