Chris Witty "We're at the limits of the contact we can allow"

[confusedandold]

I've been watching the Press conference and I always find Chris Witty the voice of reason. He is saying that we are at the limit of what we can open without the virus spreading further and we may even have to take a step back. So where does this leave the opening of schools in a few weeks time?

@labyrinthloafer

Maybe he does that because he is standing next to Johnson who clearly struggles to understand?

Quite possibly! Poor old Fauci though - can you imagine?

The bleach debacle was painful to watch! If ever I despair of the situation here I go browsing American media.

I do not know how fauci kept his composure!

@JacobReesMogadishu - I work in a pub & I've been to a pub - the pictures you are seeing are a few stupid pubs.
Most have stringent rules as far as one way systems, all seats tables wiped down when a customer leaves, no condiments on the tables, all staff have their temps taken before every shift... I could go on .
They are safe & everyone has been very respectful of SD & adhering to the ‘rules’ .

@FrankSkinnerFan2020, yes sorry. I probably should have clarified that I’m sure some/most pubs are bing very careful. Sadly the rest might spoil it for everyone else.

@JacobReesMogadishu

Yes, logically it makes more sense to close pubs rather than gyms. I’ve been back to the gym.....loads of cleaning and everyone social distancing. Gym staff patrolling and will jump in and tell people if needed but I haven’t seen them need to. Seems safer than the photos of pubs I’ve seen.

Except that unfortunately the increased respiration with being physically assertive really increases the distance that the virus can travel. I do think gyms are high risk and pubs are high risk, for different reasons.

Our gym isn’t doing any classes which involve movement. So no dance, no aerobics, no combat. There are spin classes though.

I haven’t been to any classes. Dd has been to yoga, there were two people inc her in the class. I went on a treadmill, I was the only one in there. Not sure this is sustainable for gyms though.

I know Frank. And even those stupid pubs in the pictures are nowhere near as large or as long a gathering of people from different households as your average secondary.

On a purely selfish note it would be a bit shit if everything else closed but school's stayed open. I wouldn't be allowed any contact or support from colleagues in school and wouldn't be allowed to see anyone outside of school. As a lone parent with mental health problems whose usually teetering on the edge by the middle of autumn term anyway I can't envisage how miserable that would be.

Currently I'm allowed a bubble household and so get to see my friend now and then and can go visit my parents in their garden.

And no before anyone pounces I'm not suggesting schools should be closed for my mental health and I'd do my very best if those are the circumstances we do end up facing. I'm just saying personally it would be pretty bloody miserable.

Teachers lucky enough to work in supportive departments rely on each other for moral support and 'talking down from the edge' after a particularly difficult lesson with an infamously challenging group. It's a bit of a relay of whose in tears whilst everyone else reassures them that no, they're not a shit teacher and they shouldn't quit and everyone struggles with that group/person/whatever.

It's funny now - at the time and when you're the one in tears having just restrained yourself from going 'fuck this' and walking out of a class and the school gates, it's not. That bit of support pulls you through and ready to get back to it again. Will be hard without it. Especially for new and/or inexperienced teachers in the school.

I do think gyms are high risk and pubs are high risk, for different reasons.
You may think it
but the evidence from countries that re opened their gyms in may is that you are wrong

Alcohol and social distancing are a BAD combination

Spin classes are cyclists together in a room right? Sound like movement required there!

Ours is doing zumba up to 40 in a class on booking list. I was a bit surprised by that, however less are actually booking.

If everyone just followed the guidance, we may just be OK. I am so frustrated seeing comments on here about how social distancing is overkill, pictures on Facebook of people ignoring the rules and meeting in groups, not distancing etc, news reports of beaches and protests and now just been in a shop and a chemist where no shop assistant or pharmacist is wearing a mask (I know they don’t have to but I don’t get it), no hand gel, no-one in the corner shop wore a mask apart from us, ignored the one way system, walked right past dd until I pulled her out of his path. We are trying to get back to some sort of normality but being careful, but unless everyone does, we’ll be back to square one and I personally cannot face another lockdown or failing at both homeschooling and my job again :(

@Orangeblossom777

Spin classes are cyclists together in a room right? Sound like movement required there!

Ours is doing zumba up to 40 in a class on booking list. I was a bit surprised by that, however less are actually booking.

Yes, when I say movement I mean no movement around the room. They’re worried if they tell a load of Zumba people to go left and one person goes right then they won’t be socially distanced.

Half the spin bikes have been removed from the studio.

Schools reopened in the Netherlands on May 11 without incident. I really don’t think it will be as bad as people fear.

Gyms are high risk because of the faster breathing/exhalation issues and aerosols. There may not have been outbreaks yet in Europe but I’m sure as community transmission goes up there will be. I was reading studies on aerosols which ranks gyms much higher than pubs etc as high risk similar to singing.

There may not have been outbreaks yet in Europe but I’m sure as community transmission goes up there will be. I was reading studies on aerosols which ranks gyms much higher than pubs etc as high risk similar to singing.
The gyms in Germany opened in May
if there were going to be outbreaks they would have happened by now

[quote FrankSkinnerFan2020]@JacobReesMogadishu - I work in a pub & I've been to a pub - the pictures you are seeing are a few stupid pubs.
Most have stringent rules as far as one way systems, all seats tables wiped down when a customer leaves, no condiments on the tables, all staff have their temps taken before every shift... I could go on .
They are safe & everyone has been very respectful of SD & adhering to the ‘rules’ .[/quote]
That's good to know. That was my experience in local village pub.

I do think though there needs to be more checks to ensure all pubs are adhering. Other than pandemic it's not fair some are flouting rules to get their income up and it's then affecting wider areas by causing businesses to have to shit and people unable to work due to infection.

@ListeningQuietly

There may not have been outbreaks yet in Europe but I’m sure as community transmission goes up there will be. I was reading studies on aerosols which ranks gyms much higher than pubs etc as high risk similar to singing. The gyms in Germany opened in May if there were going to be outbreaks they would have happened by now

Germany has low community transmission. Can’t get infected in a gym if no one infected using the gym.

What I’m really struggling to understand is why no one is talking about the context of the testing. Targeted testing in areas - such as they’re doing in Greater Manchester - is going to produce higher numbers of positive results, because it will pick up asymptomatic people. So it’s not necessarily representative of a big spike in cases, just that more people are getting tested and therefore more cases being picked up. So I’d really like to know the percentage of positive tests, rather than just numbers of cases, which doesn’t really tell us a great deal.

itsgetting - I think schools should have those checks too. In some countries they've had to pass an inspection proving they are covid secure. No school checks whatsoever.

Pubs patrons don't generally travel in and out on public transport from a 10 mile radius or stay 30 in one room for 6 hours.

Closing pubs would be a plaster at best.

Agree to some of that Moira. I was shocked when I went to give blood in late May that blood wasn't being tested.

That would have fantastic data on who was infected asymptomatically, who had already been exposed etc right across the country in a non selective way itms.

Sadly third world countries have been ahead of us on testing and track and trace and isolating positive countries. It has been bizarre how poor our response has been.

@Angelil

Schools reopened in the Netherlands on May 11 without incident. I really don’t think it will be as bad as people fear.

But kept bars and restaurants closed. Also have smaller class sizes normally.

@CarrieBlue
Bars and restaurants reopened in The Netherlands on June 1, so no, not really.

“Smaller class sizes” will also depend on the school...like anywhere.

well said dame fanny

Angelil that does sound encouraging, did they have any measures in place do you know? (Masks / SD etc)