Lots of good news at the moment!

[FrugiFan]

www.bbc.com/news/health-53467022
A trial of a drug which could reduce ICU admission by 79%, and is already in use for other things so doesnt need human trials for side effects etc.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-53469839
Promising news about one of the many vaccines in production.

Hospital admissions have not increased, more than 2 weeks after pubs and restaurants reopened.

Lots of reasons to think positive at the moment

@thereplycamefromanchorage

What does CFR stand for?

Case fatality rate

@TheEmojiFormerlyKnownAsPrince

I’m not sure that about schools is true. At one point there were more cases in schools than in NHS workers.

Studies from Israel and Korea show that children do spread it and are highly infectious. Israel closed it’s schools 2 weeks after opening them as so many were sick.

I also have read somewhere that a lot of Swedish teaching staff have been ill.

uk.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-sweden-schools/swedens-health-agency-says-open-schools-did-not-spur-pandemic-spread-among-children-idUKKCN24G2IS

According to this report keeping the schools open (which Sweden has done) has not have an impact on spreading of the virus.

@TheEmojiFormerlyKnownAsPrince

I’m not sure that about schools is true. At one point there were more cases in schools than in NHS workers.

Studies from Israel and Korea show that children do spread it and are highly infectious. Israel closed it’s schools 2 weeks after opening them as so many were sick.

I also have read somewhere that a lot of Swedish teaching staff have been ill.

There is a study from sweden and finland that said teachers were at no more risk than other occupations.

It’s also not the case that Israel just shut its schools again after 2 weeks - not saying their reopening went well obviously!! But they just closed schools as and when there were cases, they didn’t close all schools back down.

"Very positive article from a doctor in Sweden"
"i read that this morning. Their hospital admissions are low arent they"

Good news is that all Scandinavian countries have v low deaths and hospital admissions atm
e.g. Norway had zero deaths and < 40 daily cases for the 2nd half of July

I agree it is particularly encouraging from Sweden, because their deaths took ages to come down, far later than their neighbours
and Sweden has comparatively high total deaths (5-12 deaths / million compared to their Scandi neighbours)

However, they and some other countries with high deaths have massively improved testing and contact tracing,
and also protecting the vulnerable elderly

So it shows what can be done, no matter the starting point

@TheEmojiFormerlyKnownAsPrince

I’m not sure that about schools is true. At one point there were more cases in schools than in NHS workers.

Studies from Israel and Korea show that children do spread it and are highly infectious. Israel closed it’s schools 2 weeks after opening them as so many were sick.

I also have read somewhere that a lot of Swedish teaching staff have been ill.

The paper discusses and considers most of this.

Low deaths in German schools when they opened pt from 4 May to late June

Only 1 child died (they had serious underlying health conditions)

Only 7 staff died - that's teachers & all other staff, staff at kindergardens. nurseries, other childcare, children's homes, holiday camps

There are nearly 700,000 teachers total in Germany, about ¼ million aged 50+, about 90,000 aged 60+
I don't know how many other staff and childcare staff

There are about 65 million people aged under 65
So something over 1% of the population in total are education or childcare staff

There were 439 deaths aged under 60 in the whole population of 83 million and 881 aged 60-69

7 deaths from the 439 deaths aged under 60 plus whatever portion of the 881 are 60-65

==> looks very roughly about average risk for pt at least

ft schools here (I'm in Germany) started reopening last week, so I hope risk stays about average for staff & kids

Thank you for that information @BigChoc very useful

@BBCONEANDTWO don't say that the others on schools not opening threads will go mad :-)

I am sick of the word Israel to be honest 😂

Oy, Israel did brilliantly in their first wave !
and they have the know-how to get this under control again soon

Problem in Israel was only because they dropped the restrictions on other things too, wher they reopened schools
and that was due to Netanyahu wanting to divert attention from his private legal problems
Like Trump, putting his own selfish interests before the country during a pandemic

However, the UK has relaxed measures gradually, like the rest of Europe
So there shouldn't be too many other things suddenly adding to R0
(just the holidaymakers flying abroad, that no other country dared stop either)

This is a fascinating and reassuring article from The Washington Post
apple.news/AaJ9XJVnERlm0nRMAc7BooA

Good news for children, if BJ sticks to his guns and prioritises schools:

https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-pm-says-it-is-a-national-priority-to-get-all-pupils-back-to-school-in-september-12045538

No. 10 source:

"The PM has been clear that businesses including shops, pubs and restaurants should be forced to close first, with schools remaining open for as long as possible,"

[quote TrindleGin]@BBCONEANDTWO don't say that the others on schools not opening threads will go mad :-)[/quote]
I know it's really sad that there's so much opposition to schools re-opening. I know some teachers may be more vulnerable etc etc - but kids need an education. Let's be honest - what about all the supermarket workers, NHS staff (including cleaners, porters etc), police, social workers, care staff who have had to work all the way through the pandemic.

I seriously think that if teachers don't feel safe, and don't want to go back maybe they should consider resigning and let some of the trainee teachers take the posts.

That would be a great shame as we need experienced teachers. Seems like a very permanent and punitive way to solve a hopefully temporary problem. If you're trying to twist their arm to force them back, why not just say so.

People are being ridiculous in thinking that schools opening to a few children, in summer, who were not being taught (my nephew had a wonderful time watching films and colouring which can be done from a distance in a way that reading and writing cannot) is anything like schools opening to everyone on a full curriculum in winter.

We simply didn't have schools doing what we're about to do so no data on it can exist. Public Health England's report is either extrapolating oddly or totally exploited for political and economic gain.

[quote MarcelineMissouri]This is a fascinating and reassuring article from The Washington Post
apple.news/AaJ9XJVnERlm0nRMAc7BooA[/quote]
That is a good article thank you! That list with the % asymptomatic is very high in some places isn't it. I think I have asked on another thread before if the asymptomatic people actually have some immunity. It is very interesting

Has anyone got good news on oxford vaccine now saying only 50% chance it will work i hope that is bs

@BBCONEANDTWO that would be very dangerous in the current circumstances of a critical teacher shortage? What would be so bad about funding schools for additional cleaning and allowing staff / children wear appropriate PPE? If 15 billion hadnt been spaffed up the wall on unusable PPE contracts for the NHS, we'd have the funds to make our children and teachers safe.

As you probably know, no teacher can resign now until Christmas, so your solution isn't very helpful at all. But if teachers do resign, why shouldn't they? They have every right to find a different workplace for any reason they see fit.If that results in a shortage of teachers it's not as if we weren't all warned?

Oh no @TrindleGin where did you read that? I had high hopes for it :(

@Yetiyoga

Oh no *@TrindleGin* where did you read that? I had high hopes for it :(

Daily mail I hope I am wrong I can read things wrong 😬

This thread is surreal.

@icecreamvan

This thread is surreal.

No one is forcing you to stay better than hearing about schools not opening etc and scaremongering