Coronavirus (COVID-19)

[scottsdad]

1 minute ago, PedroMoutinho said:

I believe it’s Scottish government guidance that unis should have distancing in place and no classes bigger than 50

That was last semester. I taught a class of 450 students in a room that could take 600, but could only take 50 per week. Used a rota system and broadcast the class online for the students at home. It was nuts. 

[Ron Aldo]

Who are these weirdos? 

 

I also only saw this because Nicola Sturgeon retweeted it. She will never, ever admit that she might have got it wrong. 

[Honest_Man#1]

The University I deal with through my job have said that it is mostly pushback from teaching staff and Unions which will mean that even if all guidance/restrictions are lifted by government they currently plan to keep their own in place for a significant period afterwards. 

[deegee]

8 minutes ago, Honest_Man#1 said:

The University I deal with through my job have said that it is mostly pushback from teaching staff and Unions which will mean that even if all guidance/restrictions are lifted by government they currently plan to keep their own in place for a significant period afterwards. 

Personally, I do worry that the majority of the Scottish public have been so beaten and are so meekly submissive, that there actually is a push back from getting back to normal. You see it in lots of anecdotal areas where shops, education and many businesses never did let up on social distancing, obsessive mask wearing and forcing hand sanitiser the second anyone looks in their direction.

I frankly fear this type of forum is the occasionally mocked “ echo chamber” of sanity and for years we’ll be seeing folk walking around in goggles, hoods, masks and gloves whilst shopping in case a stranger coughs and they catch a cold.

[Dons_1988]

14 minutes ago, Ron Aldo said:

Who are these weirdos? 

 

I also only saw this because Nicola Sturgeon retweeted it. She will never, ever admit that she might have got it wrong. 

 

It’s unfortunately guaranteed that we’ll be playing this game for months until we eventually see sense. 

Its incredibly tiresome. 

[Honest_Man#1]

1 minute ago, Dons_1988 said:

 

It’s unfortunately guaranteed that we’ll be playing this game for months until we eventually see sense. 

Its incredibly tiresome. 

I absolutely hate that the approval of a terrified public, which the government themselves created and have maintained since with their messaging, is constantly used as apparent proof that restrictions are justified. It’s absolute nonsense.

[Halbeath Raith Rover]

https://www.ons.gov.uk/aboutus/transparencyandgovernance/freedomofinformationfoi/covid19deathsandautopsiesfeb2020todec2021

 

[Todd_is_God]

20 minutes ago, Ron Aldo said:

Who are these weirdos? 

 

I also only saw this because Nicola Sturgeon retweeted it. She will never, ever admit that she might have got it wrong. 

 

I don't really understand this view tbh.

"The additional restrictions were good even though my whole family caught it anyway" is odd enough, but the "imagine it was delta" line makes no sense.

People like this are really weird - they'll only ever feel safe again once Nicola, Jason or Gregor tell them it's ok.

[vikingTON]

Horrendous that I caught a glorified cold, in winter, from a child of all sources. Would never have happened like this in 2019!

[Dons_1988]

10 minutes ago, Honest_Man#1 said:

I absolutely hate that the approval of a terrified public, which the government themselves created and have maintained since with their messaging, is constantly used as apparent proof that restrictions are justified. It’s absolute nonsense.

Im conscious of sounding a bit tinfoil hat but it’s a fact that all the UK governments have been acting on the advice of behavioural psychologists throughout this due to the inability to actually enforce any of the lockdown measures with any great authority. 

A combination of the NHS love-in and generating palpable fear of the virus have been key tools in getting people to abide by the rules. This all had some merit back in March 2020 to be honest but we’re way past that. 

They need to realise the long term damage they’re doing to millions of individuals but they don’t care because right now it’s getting people to play along. This suits them as they can’t fund actual restrictions. 

This technique has been so pronounced since the arrival of omicron and it is one of the main reasons I’ve lost any patience with this whole thing. 

[scottsdad]

19 minutes ago, deegee said:

Personally, I do worry that the majority of the Scottish public have been so beaten and are so meekly submissive, that there actually is a push back from getting back to normal. You see it in lots of anecdotal areas where shops, education and many businesses never did let up on social distancing, obsessive mask wearing and forcing hand sanitiser the second anyone looks in their direction.

I frankly fear this type of forum is the occasionally mocked “ echo chamber” of sanity and for years we’ll be seeing folk walking around in goggles, hoods, masks and gloves whilst shopping in case a stranger coughs and they catch a cold.

We have weekly drop-in meetings that I attend every other week, run by the Head of School. I find it very depressing as it starts with a Covid update, and the same 3 or 4 people are first to jump in. These people are in the Deepti camp, thinking that this is still March 2020. 

For months now these guys have been talking about the "very worrying" case numbers, and really pushing hard for us as a School to go it alone and do just online teaching. There are a few others who go to that meeting every week and agree. 

This isn't the only echo chamber! 

When I said last autumn that my plan was to do my teaching face-to-face (as indeed the school management were trying to get everyone to do), one of these guys called me "brave". The eye rolling that went with it - these guys thought I was utterly nuts. 

[ICTChris]

I don’t think it’s any surprise at all that the majority of people support these measures. Lockdown measures have been popular throughout the pandemic. This thread and forum is an echo chamber. Most of the population aren’t really affected by the restrictions that were enforceable - members of this forum were.  Most people don’t care about pubs and football.

 

[anotherchance]

27 minutes ago, Ron Aldo said:

Who are these weirdos? 

 

I also only saw this because Nicola Sturgeon retweeted it. She will never, ever admit that she might have got it wrong. 

It is very easy to give the thumbs up in a poll.

A different story when faced with having to justify your views in a debate or discussion. I’m sure the reasons for supporting the restrictions are exclusively based on nonsense.

This should be a warning to Sturgeon, there’s a hell of a lot of work to do to wean these people off restrictions and get them thinking/acting with sanity.

[Dons_1988]

2 minutes ago, ICTChris said:

I don’t think it’s any surprise at all that the majority of people support these measures. Lockdown measures have been popular throughout the pandemic. This thread and forum is an echo chamber. Most of the population aren’t really affected by the restrictions that were enforceable - members of this forum were.  Most people don’t care about pubs and football.

 

Are they actually supportive or indifferent? 

anecdotally of course, but I generally come across people who either just shrug their shoulders and accept what they’re told or are annoyed about it.

Ive only met a couple of people who are really ‘supportive’.  

 

[Abdul_Latif]

Jason Leitch on the radio this morning suggesting mask usage in schools is away to get binned.

No doubt this is part of the slow roll back of all restrictions, now that even the SG have to admit this is all pretty much over.

Edited January 21, 2022 by Abdul_Latif

[Jacksgranda]

12 hours ago, red23 said:

One of my mates mrs refuses to go outside the house now as shes so anxious, she can't even face going to the shops. Did have a kid during lockdown which always turns woman a bit more mental but shows it does impact people in strange ways,

You really have the empathetic touch...

[Michael W]

48 minutes ago, Honest_Man#1 said:

I absolutely hate that the approval of a terrified public, which the government themselves created and have maintained since with their messaging, is constantly used as apparent proof that restrictions are justified. It’s absolute nonsense.

A terrified public are easier to control. Meant they were compliant when the government served up a load of draconian measures and didn't question them. 

The damage the messaging has done to some is all still too apparent. Look at some of the crying in England about masks no longer being compulsory, for example. A load of people up in arms because *they* will no longer be "protected", as if their own health is exclusively the responsibility of someone else. Responsibility for our own health starts and ends with the individual and this has been entirely forgotten after nearly two years of state authoritarianism. Worried that the man no longer wearing the cloth mask that's been in his jacket pocket for three weeks means you're not "protected"? Then buy a proper mask and replace the ill-fitting surgical effort you're currently sporting. It will actually protect *the wearer* and that's what it's all about, isn't it? Dressed up as concern for 'Public Health' but really they think they have some right never to catch the virus. 

There are far too many people that aren't prepared to take responsibility for their own health and instead want it outsourced to the government. 

Edited January 21, 2022 by Michael W

[Sergeant Wilson]

1 hour ago, ICTChris said:

I’ve not paid much attention to university restrictions. 

I doubt they'd let you in.

1 hour ago, deegee said:

Personally, I do worry that the majority of the Scottish public have been so beaten and are so meekly submissive, that there actually is a push back from getting back to normal. 

Don't kid yourself. We just can't be arsed going back to work.

[Honest Saints Fan]

That's me boostered.

Ive now had 2 Astrazeneca and 2 Pfizer! Hopefully that's the last vaccine for a while!

[craigkillie]

3 hours ago, Monkey Tennis said:

I've genuinely no idea what you're on about here.

I really did not at any stage suggest that classes of 200 should be divided into sections of 15 for the purposes of lectures.  You seem under the impression that I've said something along such lines.

In the case that most interests me, and the one you were helpful with back in September before I became the anti-Christ, the smaller lessons haven't run at all either.

You appear to have jumped the gun a little here.

 

I can't speak for every university, but where I work the university (quite rightly I think) started off on the principle that every single course should expect to have some sort of on-campus presence this year. If all the small classes ran completely as normal then there would be no capacity left for the bigger classes to have any on-campus learning at all. That was what I was getting at - making a decision about one course impacts directly on every other course too due to staffing and room capacity.

Therefore your suggestion that your daughter (I think) in her class of 15 could have attended as normal would have been to the detriment of many other students on many other courses.  Perhaps they are at a different university to mine and absolutely no on-campus provision has been provided, which I think would be wrong.

The comment you made which started off this discussion with was along the lines of (and I'm paraphrasing because I can't be bothered to go back and check) "teachers have been turning up and teaching so why shouldn't lecturers also be?" Given that I've been exceptionally busy over the last two years putting together online teaching resources - which takes far more time than just turning up and talking, since you have to edit your videos, sort out subtitles and so on - you can surely understand why that sort of comment would bristle.

The pandemic and the subsequent restrictions have absolutely been detrimental to my career and to most others at an early career stage, since all that time spent doing the extra teaching preparation (and now sometimes having to teach on-campus things more than once due to the restrictions) has taken away from research and other career development activities. Therefore an insinuation of laziness or being unwilling to work as hard as teachers over the pandemic is not something that sits well with me.

Edited January 21, 2022 by craigkillie