Coronavirus ROI/NI number 4

[eggandonion]

I don't believe it, would it ever go away!

@thelegohooverer

What are the govt for if not making decisions? You’d understand a bit of faffing and dithering the first time you’re faced with it, but it’s gone on long enough and by now they should have their act together. Business needs time to plan. The economic costs of the time the govt spend flying kites and playing Chinese whispers with the media is huge. Anxiety levels are soaring round the country, not because people are going to have to take more pain but because they can’t plan. It’s an unnecessary level of torture. They shouldn’t be winging it at this stage. It should be a case of if we have to shut this sector this and this have to happen In the first wave Varadkar lost 3 days because he announced lockdown on a Friday night instead of the Thursday, not anticipating that businesses have to be physically in their premises on a weekday to sort out banking, shut servers, and set up safe remote systems. By now they should have some inkling that people need to know whether to order stock, builders need to know whether to order materials, teachers need to plan lessons, workers need to organise childcare. And when you’re dealing with exponential growth, everyday lost dithering loses lives. Just get on with it.

Hugs for everyone here who is struggling at the moment, particularly @Iblinkedandiamold and @lipz and I’m sure there are more too, feeling low even if you’re not saying so. I’d usually pop a flowers emoji in but I think a is more apt.

Thank you, that brought a tear to my eye.

I’d love to know what’s happening with ECCE.

Hopping in late to follow the thread.

Going stir crazy in this house the past year. Full time carer for my 72 yo CEV mother. Chronic illness sufferer myself. Barely left the house except to the shop. Waiting on vaccine info. We seem to be so damn slow here in ROI, although I really should not be surprised.

What I’ve just realised is that NPHET, who are always calling for more/harder lockdowns are remarkably quiet on schools and have not commented publicly on the current situation. It’s not like Tony to keep his mouth shut or miss an opportunity to recommend shutting something.

Tony has spoken publicly about schools, a couple of times at least. Last night, he said he was concerned about transmission in schools and cast doubt on them reopening Monday.

https://twitter.com/newschambers/status/1346205697357324290?s=21

Last night, he said he was concerned about transmission in schools and cast doubt on them reopening Monday.

Compared to his take on other parts of society though, thats very mild.

If it was anything else he would shutting it down for the foreseeable.

And does anyone think they’ll be opening on Monday at this stage.

I'd quite like to hibernate and be woken by a handsome prince with a vaccine.
I can't imagine it will be possible to open schools properly with the current figures. They need to work on specific groups, like leaving cert and lca, infants, special needs. But every parent has specific needs,and this is hard.
The rescheduled vaccine, leaving longer between doses, in England sounds strange. I remember with baby jabs the staff were quite strict about the schedule!

Apparantly the first dose is a sort of loading dose so kickstarts immumity( i am.not a vaccinologist !) So it does give some immunity. I will be in the first batch due to the area i work in but not a word yet (middle rank hospital ) at all for staffunlike CUH.fair play to them

@thelegohooverer I think you summed up how a lot of people are feeling at the moment. Take care of yourself too.

Well I just got a phone call to say one of my preschoolers has tested positive. Luckily we are not open so we are not close contact but the patent was told by the HSE that they are seeing more children testing positive this time around.
Maybe that's simply because more children are getting tested this time around but still.
I did have a moment of mild panic when they rang.
I knew when I saw the number that something was wrong, this parent didn't the type to ring unless there is a problem.
Right I'm going to buy a thermometer so I can obsessively check my temp.

I know of one person who got the vaccine. They were meant to get it last week but got it yesterday. Doctor in a big hospital with many cases of Covid19.

I was really hot when I woke up, but dh had been fiddling with the central heating, he isn't allowed near the controls because he just presses buttons at random!
Better than a thermometer... a box of After Eight. Eat one, make sure you can taste it. Losing the sense of taste seems a key symptom!

@eggandonion l'd eat the whole box just to make sure 😄

Re the schools, surely the obvious solution is to make up any missed weeks now by working through holidays later in the year?

This would be my preferred solution tbh. But (and this might sound money hungry but so be it) if that's the case I won't be doing any keyworker provision. It's either a holiday from work or it isn't. I imagine a lot of teachers might feel similar.

But (and this might sound money hungry but so be it) if that's the case I won't be doing any keyworker provision. It's either a holiday from work or it isn't. I imagine a lot of teachers might feel similar.

I think that's fair enough.

Key worker provision right now is about childminding, it doesn't have to be education.

I wonder if they should be paying separately for this and the pool of potential recruits wouldn't have to be all teachers (though it would probably be useful to use school buildings).

@eggandonion

I was really hot when I woke up, but dh had been fiddling with the central heating, he isn't allowed near the controls because he just presses buttons at random! Better than a thermometer... a box of After Eight. Eat one, make sure you can taste it. Losing the sense of taste seems a key symptom!

Ha normally I eat dark chocolate but at one stage during the first lockdown there was nothing nice in the house except some Aero so I ate that and couldn't taste much. Thought oh fuck, I have covid.

I would be completely against the time being made up later in the year. As support staff I recognise that I am ok, but my teaching colleagues are on their knees - they need a proper break and there is no way they could get a proper break now - partly due to restrictions and partly because of students being mid way through courses.

As a parent, I would say the same thing. My DC will ALL need a proper break by the time summer comes - most of all my DS in 5th form who worked his butt off through 4th year, inc March-June, continued to self study over the summer to make up for lost learning during lockdown, worked at least a bit every day through one week of the 2 week Halloween holiday, and worked one week of the 2 week Christmas break. He has done this to ensure he is in the best possible place for his GCSEs, and even now, with the knowledge that they will be cancelled, he is still working hard to ensure he gets the best grades he can, however they are awarded. He can’t just stop now because the grades haven’t been awarded yet and no-one knows how that will be done. If he doesn’t get a proper break over the summer, he will be starting his AS year completely burnt out before he’s even begun.

He’s not unique either - I know plenty of his friends and plenty of pupils in my school who are the same

Once all the Christmas chocolate is gone, I will have to resume the lockdown baking. I'm better off being in work, and being super busy. Doing nothing makes me crave unhealthy food.

@eggandonion

I was really hot when I woke up, but dh had been fiddling with the central heating, he isn't allowed near the controls because he just presses buttons at random! Better than a thermometer... a box of After Eight. Eat one, make sure you can taste it. Losing the sense of taste seems a key symptom!

I dont have after eights but have boxes and boxes of other chocolate. Maybe I should eat them all just to see.

Also I went to put something in the attic and got so sick of the mess up there . I went out brought storage boxes whilst doing my food shop and now I am cleaning out my attic. My bins are overflowing so dont know where I am going to put the stuff.
Loads of copy books and random bits of paper.

A skip bag is a good holding pen if you have space, until you can bin it over time.
Eat things like orange creams to test taste, truffles and a bit same ish.

What ! How are teaching staff on their knees exactly? @AfingeroffudgeisNOTenough
Are u having a laugh ??
Frontline workers cant just opt in or out -and teachers are classing themselves as such

I really dont see teachers as the nations baby sitter snd i do agree with a month lockdown but time will need to be made up end of

I can see how they'd be on their knees, same as any other frontline staff, (obviously ICU is more draining than most of them but it's not too trumps). I won't be doing any catch up during the summer. If we make it to then, we will all need the rest.

I start minding children tomorrow & am really anxious about how much spreading there will be due to exposure from their various contacts

I don’t think they’ll get a huge amount of sympathy from the general population on the holidays front to be perfectly honest.

Everyone is stressed and tired. The stresses will have been different, naturally, but having to make half my team redundant wasn’t much fun let me tell you. Most of us have nothing like teachers holiday allowance and have worked throughout. My boss had a day and a half off between the start of March and Christmas.

Anyway, we have to address the degree to which some children are falling behind. Many won’t catch up unless they’re in a classroom.

We also need to be thinking in much more nuanced terms with SEN, infants, primary, secondary. The younger children and those with additional needs need to be back soon. Secondary could afford to wait longer, assuming a good standard of remote learning. Exam years should be prioritised. The government need to think hard about all this.

What primary teachers could do is keep classes working until the end of June. Ours had two sports days, which were run like Olympic events. One involved other schools. Expensive workbooks weren't completed, half the kids were camping in France.
My dd is a frontline worker, her boyfriend is a secondary teacher. She's tired. Hes less tired.