“Leaving home is hazardous”.

[motherrunner]

From my local news: www.expressandstar.com/news/local-hubs/sandwell/2020/11/10/leaving-home-is-hazardous-as-covid-deaths-climb/

I am a secondary teacher and we are currently closed to Key Stage 3 due to staffing levels. GCSE and KS5 have had between 3 and 5 periods of isolation since September.

It all feels so bleak today. The article says it’s not safe to go out but we have to work. Everyone I know is following the guidance but we can not WFH and this are having multiple contacts everyday. How can we get numbers under control in areas such as mine where people can not WFH?

We live in the same area.

I have no idea. But no one I know is taking any precautions. It seems life as normal. My Dd goes to school in Dudley (primary) and we’ve not had any info from the school about any cases.

My children are primary age and my son has only had one period of isolation. My friends who teach in other secondary schools are also suffering - definitely seems to be effecting secondary schools more.

I don’t have any family members in secondary - all primary and my Ds is 17 and year 13 at college - he’s only in one day a week at the moment though, they are teaching remotely the other days.

I can see how secondary would be affected more. I was expecting lots of cases at Ds college to be honest. We’ve heard of none but they must have some sort of bubble system. He says it’s as packed in as ever on the day he is in though.

I honestly don’t know what the answer is. I’m just slightly flummoxed as to why it’s been all quiet in Dd and Ds school/college while people here don’t seem to be taking much heed of anything.

Local newspapers are really struggling. Sales have plummeted, little advertising.

So they have to make money from online clicks via sensational headlines. I live in a low-incidence area, but judging by the local paper it is indeed “hazardous” to stick one’s nose out of the front door. Last week a headline was “COVID deaths INCREASE in local area!!!!!” The increase was one death since June.

Obviously online news needs the ‘clicks’ but there have been 1,386 cases in the last week alone in my postcode, up 285 from the week before. I gave details about my experience and it’s not unique to my secondary school.

I'm not sure what answer you're expecting? A virus is going around, you have an almost 100% chance of being fine if you get it. Does that mean it's 'hazardous' to step outside your door? Perhaps you need to apply some basic logic to the situation?

I'm in an adjoining authority- each of my children have had a two week isolation period from school, and my own school has had isolations in all year groups too.

Research from Kings College London that I read yesterday said only 11% of people are isolating properly for the full period when told to.

That's what the problem is!

@TheDailyCarbuncle

I'm not sure what answer you're expecting? A virus is going around, you have an almost 100% chance of being fine if you get it. Does that mean it's 'hazardous' to step outside your door? Perhaps you need to apply some basic logic to the situation?

I didn’t declare it was ‘hazardous’, those are the words of Dr Lisa McNally, director of public health.

My question is how can we reduce transmission when so many of can not WFH?

@IrmaFayLear

Local newspapers are really struggling. Sales have plummeted, little advertising.

So they have to make money from online clicks via sensational headlines. I live in a low-incidence area, but judging by the local paper it is indeed “hazardous” to stick one’s nose out of the front door. Last week a headline was “COVID deaths INCREASE in local area!!!!!” The increase was one death since June.

The headline is quoting Dr Lisa McNally, director of public health.

The obvious answer is that short of us all just killing ourselves and being done with it, we cant reduce transmission levels beyond a certain level. It's a highly contagious virus present in the entire community, the normal thing would be to accept that it's going to go around rather than obsessing about every 'case' (the vast majority of which are people with zero or very mild symptoms) and acting like the whole world is going to end.

These local directors of public health have probably waited their whole careers for this kind of thing, their moments in the limelight. They know if they say something like this it'll make headlines in the local rag.

And the local rag needs the clicks and sales of course.

Hazardous?!!! Well clearly not or people would be dropping like flies.

Gross exaggeration.

There are loads of areas eg Liverpool where numbers were very high for some time then finally dropped. (Beginning before lockdown of course). Its due to immunity. Same reason numbers in London fell before the first lockdown.

I think the reason why it feels so depressing at the moment is because, apart from the first week of term, my school hasn’t been open fully. The numbers in the community are so high it’s having an impact on our pupils. As I said above we are currently shut to key stage 3 and staff absences are increasing daily. Pupils are nervous about their exams next year because isolation is becoming the norm to them.

The obvious answer is that short of us all just killing ourselves and being done with it, we cant reduce transmission levels beyond a certain level. It's a highly contagious virus present in the entire community, the normal thing would be to accept that it's going to go around rather than obsessing about every 'case' (the vast majority of which are people with zero or very mild symptoms) and acting like the whole world is going to end

HELL yes, this!

I've just looked, and Sandwell has a case rate of 450 per 100k in the last 7 days. That's less than 0.5% of the population of Sandwell. Just to give some perspective...

I actually think that if that director of public health genuinely said that, and it hasn't been taken out of context, then they need to lose their job for that level of scaremongering. They will be making people frightened to seek medical help, to buy food, to collect medicine, which is far more hazardous to people's health than the chance of encountering one of the 0.5% of the population who have the virus, actually contracting it from them, and then being unfortunate enough to fall seriously ill from it (again, a very low %age for the majority of people).

@motherrunner

I think the reason why it feels so depressing at the moment is because, apart from the first week of term, my school hasn’t been open fully. The numbers in the community are so high it’s having an impact on our pupils. As I said above we are currently shut to key stage 3 and staff absences are increasing daily. Pupils are nervous about their exams next year because isolation is becoming the norm to them.

That's not due to transmission levels, that's due to the endless panic that says that it's more important for a completely well child to 'isolate' (fuck I hate that word) than to get an education.

The media needs to get a grip with their baseless fear mongering, they have crossed every possible boundary of good taste...