Self Isolation going to be scrapped

[Overthebow]

www.reuters.com/world/uk/uks-self-isolation-law-set-be-scrapped-telegraph-2022-01-16/

So that’s it then, the pandemic really is going to end in the UK in a couple of months time. I’ve never been so happy to read a news article!

[MummyPop00]

Great news imo, the damage from unnecessary staff absence is arguably more damaging than the virus itself.

[Northsoutheastwest76]

Strikes me that it is another attempt to pass the buck like with masks. So use your judgement and if it goes wrong I can blame general public. Also a way to stop isolation payments.

[Northsoutheastwest76]

@Silverswirl fine if you can a supply Teacher though. Tough shit if you are an A level student having to take A Levels this year with two teachers off

[Blubells]

Tough shit if you are an A level student having to take A Levels this year with two teachers off

Schools should absolutely be prioritising Exam years. They need to plan as best as they can to cover those years.

In my experience at our school that's been happening very successfully.

[Northsoutheastwest76]

Well maybe dds school is at fault but no they have No cover for 6th form just as they are not reducing content for exams. It isn't as if an English Teacher can take an A Level Maths class is it? Therefore it is difficult to find someone with the appropriate knowledge to teach. I think the last time a Teacher was off for 3 weeks without supply and so far this week she has lost 2 teachers for a week.
You seem to spend alot of time minimising the disruptions students like my dd are facing now @Blubells and implying they are getting all sorts of concessions when they are only getting some idea of the focus of the exams with grade boundaries between 2019 and 20/21 I guess you aren't a Teacher or have a child in year 12 or 13 in a Bog standard state school.

[Northsoutheastwest76]

So do you have a year 12 or 13 and please tell me how you school is managing to get supply?
The kids are still being set work if course but it isn't the same as face to face or even a virtual lesson

[Blubells]

You seem to spend alot of time minimising the disruptions students like my dd are facing now @Blubells and implying they are getting all sorts of concessions when they are only getting some idea of the focus of the exams with grade boundaries between 2019 and 20/21 I guess you aren't a Teacher or have a child in year 12 or 13 in a Bog standard state school.

I do happen to have a child in year 13. Hence I'm very aware of the disruption caused to their learning.

[Northsoutheastwest76]

@BlubellsOK thanks for your reply. Sorry I misunderstood but I still don't understand why your child's school is giving you the impression that kids will have reduced content or how they can be prioritised if their subject teacher is off sick when cover doesn't happen for sixth form.

[Blubells]

@Northsoutheastwest76 My understanding from my DC is that A level exam content will be reduced or specified in advance of exams. This was also done for mock exams recently. It meant less areas needed revising.
In terms of prioritising exam years, thankfully hardly any lessons have been missed so far this term so it seems that the school is managing to prioritise exam years? Or has just been lucky with very few teacher absences?

[Northsoutheastwest76]

Content is definitely not being reduced sadly for the exams DD is taking. Just some advance notice I believe.
I think maybe dd has just had the wrong teachers absent ie hers. Luck of the draw sadly with no level playing field.

[Richtea2]

It really makes me laugh when people say that it's ending. We got to learn to live with Covid. Because so many people been vaccinated this why too.
More stronger variants could still come we just don't knows. How about other illness that's not Covid could be worse may come to the UK.
We all just have to do what's best for ourselves.

[herecomesthsun]

However, right in the middle of maybe the highest wave of cases that we have had in the UK, in January which is peak respiratory virus season, is not the optimum time to take away all restrictions.

Could we not "learn to live" with the virus when cases came down a bit, in the spring maybe?

[BungleandGeorge]

[quote Northsoutheastwest76]@BlubellsOK thanks for your reply. Sorry I misunderstood but I still don't understand why your child's school is giving you the impression that kids will have reduced content or how they can be prioritised if their subject teacher is off sick when cover doesn't happen for sixth form.[/quote]
Not sure about a levels but the announcement about content for gcse hasn’t been made yet.
Unfortunately amount of disruption is going to vary hugely according to circumstances. I can imagine those in sixth form colleges might be worse affected overall as there’s been less focus on face to face and it’s not unusual to have one lecturer per subject (or one for more than one subject!) so no chance of cover. Our school is great when they’re in school but far below others during lock downs/ isolations. I’ve no doubt all children have been affected to some degree though, they’ve all surely had teachers off and had time off themselves for a start!

[altmember]

I think it's happening too fast. A knee jerk reaction by Boris for political reasons. Been the same throughout the pandemic in this country - too slow to lock down and then too quick to open up again.

It's basically putting the responsibility on to the general public/individuals to do the right thing off their own bat - feel unwell, test for covid, if you have it stay home/avoid busy settings for 5 days. Same as you probably would do naturally with flu etc. But will most people do that themselves when rules are relaxed? We've seen what's happened every time lockdowns have been eased - quite a lot of people gone crazy with it straight away. Suspect it'll be the same here, everyone'll just shrug and say they've only got a cold. Especially when home testing ceases to be free. How many people are really going to pay £30 for a LFD kit?

It's easy to just look at the death count, and decide 'well the hospitals aren't overflowing, the bodies aren't piling up, we just need to get on with life'. That may be true, but there's still the economic and logistical impact of a mass spreading virus keeping a significant percentage of the workforce off sick, kids off school, so parents have to stay off work etc.

It's not just like flu. Omicron is way, way more transmissible than flu. It's about the most transmissible virus humans have ever been exposed to. So it'll spread way more and faster, certainly until society has built up a herd immunity to Omicron. Covid vaccines were designed to work on the wild type, they don't give any measurable immunity to catching Omicron (even if they might save you from a bad case of it).

So unless there's an Omicron specific vaccine comes on stream (and we all get yet another booster), we can only rely on immunity developing from natural infections. To put that in perspective, if it carries on spreading at the current rates of around 100,000 cases per day, it will take two years for everyone to catch it. Obviously it won't carry on spreading in a linear fashion, it should diminish over the next 6-9 months. But will probably pick up again next winter (just as most people's natural immunity will have waned). We'll go through cycles of that for a couple of years at least.

So I think it does need an element of managing the transmission rates, but a very light touch rather than rigid restrictions like we've had the last couple of years.

[herecomesthsun]

Current (real) rates are much higher than 100k per day though, see the ONS infection survey. There were 3.5million approx with covid in the UK a week ago.

[Wellbythebloodyhell]

It's not about how many people had it last week at peak respiratory season, its about how many of them needed hospitalisation because of it. If ICU beds and ventilators are being taken up by mainly covid patients like they were last Jan then we have an issue if not and the NHS can cope then why not now? We could do many things as a nation to reduce hospital admissions overall like adopt a healthier lifestyle, that would be more beneficial than living with restrictions and isolations just to keep one specific virus at bay

[herecomesthsun]

You're right, it's peak respiratory season, not a good time to play games with public health for political expediency.

[Wellbythebloodyhell]

Plan B restrictions were always going to be reviewed end Jan and the ideas to end PCR testing and isolating in March have been bubbling about long before Partygate arose

[JanuaryBluehoo]

Here comes the sun I have often agreed with your posts over the years.

I have felt extremely optimistic in recent months and really hope this is the end game of covid.
But like you I would rather tread cautiously until we see warmer months in sight.
Why all this unleashing in the dead of winter? There must be something else behind it.

[herecomesthsun]

Whitty and Vallance (purveyors of scientific and medical good sense) have not been to the fore of this, have they?