How can they still say nothing?

[Purplegurple]

So numbers today over 183,000. How can BoJo and his cronies still be making no statement? No clear guidance, nothing. I'm not wanting lockdown or anything but can't believe they're so quiet over all this.

Well that isn't what AQA are saying for her subject.
Possibly information on the focus but that it is.

@Purplegurple

So numbers today over 183,000. How can BoJo and his cronies still be making no statement? No clear guidance, nothing. I'm not wanting lockdown or anything but can't believe they're so quiet over all this.

That number I believe is people with a positive covid test. The death count is very low.

@Lifeisnteasy of course there are skivers and busybodies. There always are.
And there are people with mental health problems being mocked and people with disabilities being judged. I have seen people who have been told by their consultants to avoid large gatherings etc, being mocked by others for following this medical advice.
I think the pandemic has given permission to some people who have very negative feelings about disabled people and those with mental health problems, to express those.

yes I am in favour of disability benefits.

Disability benefits are absolutely needed for those too disabled or ill to work. But even better is avoiding the need in the first place. Allowing many people to lose their ability to have a livelihood long-term (due to Long Covid disability) unnecessarily is not acceptable. There is no justification for the failure to implement basic infection control mitigation measures. Mask mandates, vaccine passes, HEPA filters.

@FabriqueBelgique todays death count has not yet been released.

@Blubells

Personally I would and indeed she would prefer virtual lessons with well teachers.

Great if you have the set up for virtual lessons at home. Not all students do unfortunately.

But how would it avoid the problem of having only one teacher for two classes?

Blubelles did you not say before that being in school was a million times better for all children than remote learning? Now it's great for some but not others? Bit of a climb down.

@Lifenteasy because covid is a novel virus. It isn't flu. FWIW the BMJ mused about why in 17/18 the government attributed so much blame to the influenza virus for excess deaths when actually that wasn't the case at all. Wonder why ?

mobile.twitter.com/cjsnowdon/status/1476587915966877701

But if you have one teacher and a year 7 class and a year 13 class requiring a teacher what are they supposed to do.Prioritise the year 13 class as they have A level exams in 5/6 months! And they missed half of year 12

That still leaves Year 7 with no one in front of them. That’s a massive problem.

New modelling from Warwick Uni projects 1.4 million infections, 5,000 hospital admissions and 500 deaths per day by Saturday, if we’re lucky.

…

Not long to wait to find out if this will come true.

The death count is very low

You're not in the UK I take it. Here we have had on average a very high number of deaths. For months between 100-200 a day killed by Covid. Actually more than that because the UK government only includes deaths within 28 days of a positive test - and many patients are in hospital for much longer than 28 days before dying.

@Tealightsandd

yes I am in favour of disability benefits.

Disability benefits are absolutely needed for those too disabled or ill to work. But even better is avoiding the need in the first place. Allowing many people to lose their ability to have a livelihood long-term (due to Long Covid disability) unnecessarily is not acceptable. There is no justification for the failure to implement basic infection control mitigation measures. Mask mandates, vaccine passes, HEPA filters.

And how many people have lost their livelihoods due to restrictions? Particularly in hospitality?

Not going well is it - just wait till schools re-open.

www.standard.co.uk/news/london/southern-rail-cancels-all-services-london-victoria-covid-isolation-b974307.html

Even changing rules of self-isolation wouldn't remove the issue as a lot of them would still be unable to come work if actively unwell

I do wonder how many of them are actually actively unwell though and how many are sat at home perfectly well enough to go to work but are being forced not to.

500 Deaths a day

Honest to god, if that is the case we may well
Give up now as vaccines pointless.

@AlecTrevelyan006

New modelling from Warwick Uni projects 1.4 million infections, 5,000 hospital admissions and 500 deaths per day by Saturday, if we’re lucky.

…

Not long to wait to find out if this will come true.

Let's hope not.

Now what would be good is if the government has ordered decent supplies of Pfizer's new anti-viral, and the monoclonal antibody, sotrovimab. Both, if taken early, have up to 80% success in preventing serious illness. The Merck drug whilst not quite as effective will be useful too.

Obviously prevention will always be better than cure - so vaccines will continue to be the way forwards. But these drugs added to our arsenal will be hugely helpful.

These treatments are currently in worldwide short supply - but there is hope for the future, if we can eventually have wider availability.

In the meantime, yes we need to keep the economy going as much as safely possible. So let's get on with taking mitigation measures. Masks, vaccine passes, HEPA filters.

[quote AshLane]Not going well is it - just wait till schools re-open.

www.standard.co.uk/news/london/southern-rail-cancels-all-services-london-victoria-covid-isolation-b974307.html[/quote]
They should cut self isolation periods or just scrap them, it's causing more harm than covid 0itself at this point.

[quote Lifeisnteasy]@Tealightsandd a huge number of people are ‘vulnerable’, including me. The vulnerable group includes people with very high BMIs, asthma, diabetes, learning difficulties… if all their families were allowed to stay home we would have no workforce.[/quote]
This isn’t the definition of CEV though.

This rebranding of CEV to include self inflicted illness and general hypochondria is very troubling.

The true number of CEV who are of working age is a tiny, tiny proportion of society (fewer than 2%)

@Wizzbangfizz

500 Deaths a day

Honest to god, if that is the case we may well
Give up now as vaccines pointless.

No they aren't pointless at all.

Just that the booster campaign started far too late so that not enough people have had the booster and had time to develop the antibodies by the time this new surge of Omicron cases hit us.

Vaccines are still a really important part of the route out of the pandemic. But relying solely on the vaccines we currently have is not enough.

New vaccines are being developed that will work across all variants and last longer than our current vaccines. There is even a pan- Coronavirus vaccine in research and development. What we need is to have worldwide access to these new vaccines as they become available.

Our current vaccines buy us time and save lives in the meantime.

It's all very well advising that the content will be reduced. Not advising schools what will be left out ends up with a ridiculous level of cramming between now and May. They should tell schools what is being cut in January.

Leave poor bobo alone. He needs his holidays too.

Just there is a national crisis happening - the man still has a truckle of stilton and a case of port to finish before he can get back to all that nasty boring meeting/work stuff.

He needs a life work balance too.

They’re not cutting content in Feb, they are advising what the focus of the exams will be. For maths they have already said that other knowledge on the syllabus, not specified in Feb, may be required to answer questions.

They should cut self isolation periods or just scrap them, it's causing more harm than covid 0itself at this point.

Maybe it will happen, I see your point though

@AlecTrevelyan006

New modelling from Warwick Uni projects 1.4 million infections, 5,000 hospital admissions and 500 deaths per day by Saturday, if we’re lucky.

…

Not long to wait to find out if this will come true.

The trouble is, researchers have admitted they model what they're asked to model - and these have been worst case scenarios rather than most likely scenarios.

Now, that's fine as it helps to know exactly how bad things could potentially get. However, it gives no indication as to whether its 99% likely to happen with near-certainty or whether its only 3% likelihood with a 97% chance of something much less extreme.

To add, in case of any confusion. Some of the earlier monoclonal antibodies don't appear to be as effective against omicron. But sotrovimab, so far, is. The bad news is there's currently very limited supply and global demand, but it's a positive development for the future when there will hopefully be wider availability.

For now we need to take mitigation measures (masks, vaccine passes, HEPA filters) and get boosting.

We also need to get the rest of the world vaccinated. I have a friend with family from The Gambia. They've only been able to vaccinate a tiny percentage of the country so far.