Coronavirus (COVID-19)

[DeeTillEhDeh]

One of the main outcomes of a blended learning model is that there would be fewer pupils at school at any given time, so I've no idea where you're going with this 'but there's not the space for that' argument. That is in fact an argument against the past 12 months of 'let's pretend that schools are magically exempt from distancing until oh wait we need to close down and/or isolate 30 folk at a time'. 
The proportion of students forced in self-isolation in Scotland's college system will be a tiny fraction of schools, because blended learning was in place for practical subjects and online only for the rest. There was no blanket closure in January and no laughable, back of a fag packet means of end of year assessment either - which will prove some laugh in the school system once the results come in. 

SD limited the numbers who could be accommodated at any one time with blended learning. A normal classroom for 30 pupils - maximum of 10 pupils. IT rooms for 20 pupils - a maximum of 6 pupils. That meant splitting classes into thirds or at best half to try and accommodate them. There is very little spare capacity in schools so it's no surprise there were issues trying to come up with a realistic blended timetable - one that gave pupils sufficient face-to-face contact and also allowed staff time to support remotely. The pupils who probably came out worst were junior phase where some has zero contact with certain subjects due to constraints fitting in Senior Phase classes.

Colleges were closed for the vast majority of courses this year - there was virtually zero in-college learning going on at our local college. It wasn't blended learning but remote learning for the vast majority of students.

I agree that self-isolation was an issue - the policy should have been temporary closures of individual schools far earlier than they eventually did.

Assessment - the real issue was not the quality of assessments - quality assurance procedures this year were far more rigid than last year - but the lateness in issuing assessments. Effectively we had exams in all but name. Again another shambles left by that clown Swinney.

[Big Fifer]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-57930820

Beautifully tucked away in the Politics section. 

"The Sunday Times has reported that, as a result of Mr Hancock's use of his personal account, the government does not have a record of much of his decision-making during the pandemic.

This, it said, included negotiating PPE contracts, creating the test-and-trace programme and overseeing the care homes strategy."

Seriously man, what's the point. 

[101]

Just now, Big Fifer said:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-57930820

Beautifully tucked away in the Politics section. 

"The Sunday Times has reported that, as a result of Mr Hancock's use of his personal account, the government does not have a record of much of his decision-making during the pandemic.

This, it said, included negotiating PPE contracts, creating the test-and-trace programme and overseeing the care homes strategy."

Seriously man, what's the point. 

(Tories +4)

[Michael W]

4 minutes ago, Big Fifer said:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-57930820

Beautifully tucked away in the Politics section. 

"The Sunday Times has reported that, as a result of Mr Hancock's use of his personal account, the government does not have a record of much of his decision-making during the pandemic.

This, it said, included negotiating PPE contracts, creating the test-and-trace programme and overseeing the care homes strategy."

Seriously man, what's the point. 

Fucking hell. 

Maybe I'm a cynic, but the only reason I can see for using private email is so that you can shield correspondence away from people you don't want seeing it. In this case, the Department of Health and the Government. 

I'm sure this applies to many of us on here, but if I'd used private email in the course of work, I'd be very rapidly dismissed for gross misconduct. 

Edited July 23, 2021 by Michael W

[Melanius Mullarkey]

12 minutes ago, Big Fifer said:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-57930820

Beautifully tucked away in the Politics section. 

"The Sunday Times has reported that, as a result of Mr Hancock's use of his personal account, the government does not have a record of much of his decision-making during the pandemic.

This, it said, included negotiating PPE contracts, creating the test-and-trace programme and overseeing the care homes strategy."

Seriously man, what's the point. 

Lets see the #torycunts defend that. 

[Florentine_Pogen]

26 minutes ago, Big Fifer said:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-57930820

Beautifully tucked away in the Politics section. 

"The Sunday Times has reported that, as a result of Mr Hancock's use of his personal account, the government does not have a record of much of his decision-making during the pandemic.

This, it said, included negotiating PPE contracts, creating the test-and-trace programme and overseeing the care homes strategy."

Seriously man, what's the point. 

Fuxake........of course, an effective opposition would be on this like a tramp on chips.

On a slightly different note :-

"The government’s current public infection control strategy is not working, it is leading to rocketing case numbers with more illness in the community, more people in hospital, and more people having to isolate. It is time for an urgent rethink rather than staying on the same course.

BMA members across the country are seeing patient care threatened as surges in Covid illness is resulting in hospitals having to cancel more non-urgent care and GPs are overstretched with demand. Local public health units are overwhelmed with calls from schools and businesses. These pressures are now being exacerbated by increasing numbers of health service staff themselves falling ill or self-isolating, and unable to work at a time when they are most needed. Other key services such as supermarkets are telling us that they are struggling to put food on their shelves due to staff absences.

The government needs to wake up. This is not a problem about excessive pinging of the NHS app, but is a direct result of lack of effective measures by government that is allowing the virus to let rip throughout the nation. The BMA has repeatedly warned that amidst the highest levels of infections in the world, now is not the right time to abandon legal restrictions such as social distancing and mask wearing - and we are likely to see this situation continue to worsen as a result."

On Monday the government announced that fully vaccinated frontline health and social care workers will be able to use daily testing as an alternative to isolation, if they have been in contact with someone testing positive, in some circumstances. (This is broadly the same policy extended to food depot workers, and to some critical workers, last night). But Nagpaul argued this policy was a mistake. He said:

"Exempting healthcare staff from self-isolation to get them back to work is a desperate and potentially unsafe policy that does not address the root problem. The safety of patients and staff must be paramount. People go to see healthcare professionals in order to get better, not to risk getting infected, and staff should not fear transmission of the virus from their own colleagues."

Dr Chaand Nagpaul, the chair of the BMA council.

Edited July 23, 2021 by Florentine_Pogen

[101]

I also see the NHS pay rise in England is to be paid out of existing NHS budgets, completely mental that the Tories are so comfortable in the polls.

[Melanius Mullarkey]

11 minutes ago, 101 said:

I also see the NHS pay rise in England is to be paid out of existing NHS budgets, completely mental that the Tories are so comfortable in the polls.

Not really when you see the likes of this. 

https://twitter.com/resophonick/status/1391288617449005058?s=20

Edited July 23, 2021 by Melanius Mullarkey

[Todd_is_God]

23 minutes ago, Florentine_Pogen said:

"People go to see healthcare professionals in order to get better, not to risk getting infected, and staff should not fear transmission of the virus from their own colleagues."

And yet, every day before March 2020, people went to hospital risking getting infected by all sorts, and millions of workers risked catching viruses from their colleagues without a second thought.

Is it shite being ill? Absolutely. But it's a part of life and always has been.

We have vaccines now which absolutely body Covid into an overall risk profile similar to seasonal flu. We need to get over the March 2020 esque hysteria of how deadly Covid is, recognise the main risk factors and, perhaps most crucially of all, improve infection controls within hospitals.

Being unable to treat people who are sick because people who are not are prevented from coming to work is more damaging to public health overall.

The impact of Covid-19 is now nothing like it was as recently as January 2021, and we, as a whole, really must give ourselves a shake and recognise that.

I think both the UK Gov and SG have started to do this, but the pushback each time they try to get our lives back closer to normal really needs to get fired into the bin.

[101]

11 minutes ago, Melanius Mullarkey said:

Not really when you see the likes of this. 

https://twitter.com/resophonick/status/1391288617449005058?s=20

Morons of the highest order.

[Melanius Mullarkey]

Just now, 101 said:

Morons of the highest order.

Moronpool

[Michael W]

If people don't have the virus, they shouldn't be isolating. End of story. 

This isn't last year and it isn't even the dark days of December/January when the vaccine programme had only really started. More than half the population is fully vaccinated now - their risks of catching and passing on the virus are reduced. There is no need at all to be insisting these people isolate as close contacts of someone that has tested positive - their chances of contracting the virus from doing so have reduced. Some people will still contract it, of course, but that's no reason to isolate hundreds of thousands weekly. We can catch this with daily testing, probably overkill in itself, but let's work with it for the time being. 

I don't see how healthcare settings are any different here; the workers are all fully vaccinated as a priority group and most the patients will be too. If a healthcare worker presents a negative test, the risks are minimal to the patient. The patient is almost certainly more at risk where enforced isolations diminish the standard of care available to them. 

There will be pushback, particularly from the usual suspects, but there is a lot we know now that we didn't then, and the measures we put in place when we genuinely didn't know are no longer appropriate. 

Edited July 23, 2021 by Michael W

[ParsJake]

17 hours ago, 8MileBU said:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Does she have a tattoo of herself on her neck?

Wouldn't surprise me tbh...

[Fife Saint]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-57930820
Beautifully tucked away in the Politics section. 
"The Sunday Times has reported that, as a result of Mr Hancock's use of his personal account, the government does not have a record of much of his decision-making during the pandemic.
This, it said, included negotiating PPE contracts, creating the test-and-trace programme and overseeing the care homes strategy."
Seriously man, what's the point. 

I'd be papped for this. They are ripping the pish here.

[101]

3 minutes ago, Fife Saint said:

1 hour ago, Big Fifer said:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-57930820
Beautifully tucked away in the Politics section. 
"The Sunday Times has reported that, as a result of Mr Hancock's use of his personal account, the government does not have a record of much of his decision-making during the pandemic.
This, it said, included negotiating PPE contracts, creating the test-and-trace programme and overseeing the care homes strategy."
Seriously man, what's the point. 

I'd be papped for this. They are ripping the pish here.

Honestly surprised the police or MI5 let him conduct and business on a private email account of their secure servers. 

Is the Health Minister not a member of the privy council, seems like a mental risk.

[Bairnardo]

Hancock now becoming the convenient excuse/scapegoat for various other indiscretions then?

[8MileBU]

9 minutes ago, ParsJake said:

Does she have a tattoo of herself on her neck?

Wouldn't surprise me tbh...

Not sure. I’ve only seen the ones on her buttocks.

[101]

2 minutes ago, Bairnardo said:

Hancock now becoming the convenient excuse/scapegoat for various other indiscretions then?

Except he's accountable to Boris so if he fucked up Boris takes the wrap

[Bairnardo]

Just now, 101 said:

Except he's accountable to Boris so if he fucked up Boris takes the wrap

Seriously tho.... Con: +3

[welshbairn]

Just now, 101 said:

Except he's accountable to Boris so if he fucked up Boris takes the wrap

Drug dealing too? Where is it going to end?