Northwind + another 1
I could be wrong but it seemed like “school is really low risk” is basically just a polite fiction to deal with the fact that school is inherently a bit risky but also one of the most important things we do and the risk is tolerable.
Absolutely it is Risk vs Benefit time.
Quietly in the background there are benefits beyond the education gains. That is that school is a connection for very vulnerable children - getting fed, other adults to check in and support, getting out of a tough situation for a few hours. (etc).
This is not something any politician want's to stand up and say publicly, but I do think they need to start levelling with us about the Risk vs Benefit decision, rather than a 'no issue here' attitude.
Quietly in the background there are benefits beyond the education gains. That is that school is a connection for very vulnerable children – getting fed, other adults to check in and support, getting out of a tough situation for a few hours. (etc).
Absolutely,and these were the bairns we saw every day. People also underestimated just how much socialisation was done in school and what an impact the lockdown would have on it.
This is not something any politician want’s to stand up and say publicly, but I do think they need to start levelling with us about the Risk vs Benefit decision, rather than a ‘no issue here’ attitude.
This.
Schools are basically a substitute for the social services the Tories have destroyed.
Schools are basically a poor substitute for good parenting.
FTFY 🙂
put this in the Corona virus thread but probably better in here.
Old firm game on the 2nd in doubt as the police assigned to it have been moved to other duties.
also rumblings that schools will finish on friday rather than going in for a couple of days next week.
also rumblings that schools will finish on friday rather than going in for a couple of days next week.
I'd be surprised if Nicola allows that.
also rumblings that schools will finish on friday rather than going in for a couple of days next week.
the Govt. wont allow that. I have seen the letter.
What I do know is that mini_oab has had last prelim today, and so there is minimal benefit to spending the next few days watching DieHard (see yesterday afternoon...). He is not returning until prelims resume in January.
“why can’t I go to the pub/spinning class/orgy, my kids are at school”
Northwind + another 1
Is this the role call for STW orgy that Northwind speaks about?
Interested yet wary
Looks like the auld Covid has finally caught up with me! Nearly got to 2 years. 😆
Had 2 positive lat flows today, been for PCR, awaiting result, will be stunned if it's no positive.
Symptoms, pretty much just a cold just, sneezing a lot and runny/blocked nose and yesterday I was quite tired. Bit better today after testing positive tbh. Symptoms started after waking up on Tuesday.
Got my 3rd jag last Wednesday tae.
Got my booster this afternoon at a drop in , whilst in the queue I read the Charlatans gig I was going to on tuesday is cancelled but my best mate from school still wants to go ahead with his 50th on saturday . I'll politely tell him im out as It's not worth the risk heading into Embra a week before Christmas. Despite having the virus two days after the first lockdown Im actually really scared that If one of my kids gets it we have to isolate and leave the mother in law on her own over christmas.
Weirdly I was at The Bicep gig last tuesday which seemed like a 2000 capcity rave and I didn't feel anxious at all . What a difference a week makes.
Still at least I can get down the valley biking 🙁
I'm trying to stay optimistic, I got fully vaxed on Monday. My folks have been having a rough time of it recently and they'd appreciate a day with the grand kids. But then my other half would like to go and see her mum, who went into care 6 weeks ago. Hey ho.
stanfree
Free Memberwhilst in the queue I read the Charlatans gig I was going to on tuesday is cancelled
It feels a bit like before the first lockdown, this- government says "carry on, all is well, gigs are fine" and it falls to Deacon Blue and the Charlatans to take charge and go "no they're ****ing not"
... seems like the venues are making their own mind up . My son's band have had three gigs cancelled today.....nae money for chrimbo..😕😕😕
cheers, get the sense it might be tbh, finger crossed anyhow.
School due to close 23rd. We'll be in until then. School is the safest place for many of our pupils for lots of societal reasons. When I look at our kids I realise that it really is a broken society let down by many governments wearing all the coloured ribbons
It's always the high flyers and the pains (because home life is worse) on the last day. Extremes of a rural school.
Last week, because she has a heart of gold my other made some soup and took some round to the neighbours because they don't have a proper kitchen just now whilst they are having an extension built. Today they announced that they've all tested positive and were self isolating last week, when they let my other half in the house to deliver her soup. Her heart of gold melted tonight, she's raging.
Cheers Matt 🙂
ta
Tell ye what, If i'm indicative of the vaccine efficacy. The boosters will smash Omicron, actually completely brand new today.
3 days of sniffles, then sound. Touch wood.
It’s always the high flyers and the pains (because home life is worse) on the last day. Extremes of a rural school.
You've just explained to me why some of the weans you least expected (as a pupil) to see diligently turn up on the last day of term were there. Depressing thought.
@poly - depressing, isn't it. Motivation for school = a square meal, someone to show some care and time out of all sorts at home 🙁
And now they get sent home for a fortnight... 😢
Sturgeon said:
“We are not banning or restricting household mixing in law as before. We understand the negative impact this has on mental health and wellbeing.”
Sturgeon meant:
“We are not banning or restricting household mixing in law as before. We understand the negative impact this has on our poll ratings.”
probably wouldn't effect her ratings negatively, loads of people are wanting locked up tbh. 😆
Aye, cos Sturgeon and the SNP are the only ones who do anything based on their ability to be elected eh?.
**** me.
BearGrease - your criticism only makes sense if you think she should have been more draconian, and would respect her more if she had. You get a kind of false logic then.
Replies to Graham Spiers complaining about the League Cup Final going ahead this weekend
https://twitter.com/redeamon1/status/1471789445804433410?s=20
I'm amazed anyone would admit to following Spiers.
And while pubs are still open, I don't really get why folk moan about fitba going ahead.
@nobeer I think both should be closed down but either one being closed down would be better than where we are now.
It's also a bit ironic that one reason Scottish football has not closed down itself is because of the compensation they would have to pay the TV companies when Scottish club games* the national team games are often not televised.
*With the exception of the old firm
Football authorities would be the only ones shutting their members down, I don't see anyone else closing themselves down.
Surprisingly, just walked through town and despite it being mad Friday, pubs are dead.
walked through town and despite it being mad Friday, pubs are dead.
This is on the whole the least bad choice from a shit list of options
Black Eye Friday quiet, FINALLY a positive of covid.
Nobeerinthefridge
Free Member
Football authorities would be the only ones shutting their members down, I don’t see anyone else closing themselves down.Surprisingly, just walked through town and despite it being mad Friday, pubs are dead.
Nothing surprising about that at all tbh. I've been saying for ages, if all sturgeon can do is warn with out payment that's all she'll do.... But to be honest looking at the stats, I still think people are jumping the gun about this omicron yet. Cases still mean nothing, if hospitalisation rise, then fair doos, we have to do something, but not before then. It's been long accepted that there is an acceptable level of issues.
Hospitalisations and deaths have been reducing for a long time, might rise in the next week or so, but we'll see SA data makes it ambiguous, at the minute, but the current panic has still to be verified!
Seosamh77 - two problems with that approach:
1. If it’s wrong the lag time from infection to hospital means you have a huge issue. typically it’s roughly about 10 days after exposure that you get admitted to hospital - with a doubling rate of 2 days you have 32x as many cases at that point if you act quicker. As “day 1” is probably too soon to tell us more likely 128-256x as many cases, and therefore 256x as many hospitalised as any intervention you take immediately. If you wait till an arbitrary date after Christmas (the virus has no knowledge of chrimbo) then is probably more like 2-4000 times worse than it would have been.
2. Even if nobody gets hospitalised from covid if it makes staff Ill enough to be unable to work then all employees are screwed - for critical services like NHS, police, prisons, social work, fire service etc this will result in deaths of non-covid people as nobody is there or those who are are overstretched even more than normal.
And that’s before thinking about long covid.
The longer we do nothing, the longer it will take to get an impact if/when we actually have to do something. Significant restrictions for 2-4 weeks could be the thing that stops us having to close schools etc for three months again.
Football authorities would be the only ones shutting their members down, I don’t see anyone else closing themselves down.
Well some musicians have cancelled concerts because they don’t think it is right.
I’m not a big follower of football but I did hear some CEO of a club on the radio this week proclaiming that “football grounds are PERFECTLY safe” but arguing that player isolation was the reason they should stop, I.e. it’s not about heath or fans, but my players can’t stay out the pub or away from parties so we might lose the season!
Cases still mean nothing, if hospitalisation rise, then fair doos,
By the time hospitalisations start to rise a further, massive rise would probably be locked in. The approach needs to be cautious now then relax if it turns out to be ok rather that try to claw it back once it's gone tits up. That didn't work out well the first time.
Back at the start of this a mate who works with exponential growth in modelling (engineering not diseases) told me that he felt most people failed to understand just how frightening exponential growth can be and how quickly it can go from manageable to sh!tshow.
Word is that Dundee utd had their Xmas do in Newcastle last week, ended up with half a team yesterday.
@poly were aren't doing nothing though. I think people are potentially voluntary doing plenty, I think many are thinking they don't want to ruin Xmas so are adjusting their behaviours.. Which I think is sufficient enough. Actual lockdowns, which won't happen till the Tories decide to pay anyhow, really need some kinda signal before they happen, imo. We've got a rising cases signal at the moment. But that's all. South africa isn't out of control on hospitalisations yet either btw. And they are much less vaccinated than us.
I get the point you are making though regarding doubling times. But I still think lockdowns need to be based on more than just fears something might happen.
Data over the next week or 2 will be interesting anyhow. London in particular being a big signal.
Seosamh77 - I’m not necessarily in disagreement but I’ve spoken to people this week who have still met up with more than 3 households because “it’s only guidance” and others who say “it would be unfair on hospitality if I didn’t go out anyway”. So we have a two tier approach - people who want to maximise their Christmas and are minimising contact now and people who are the other way round - the latter group are doing nothing.
I don’t have an easy answer without U.K. borrowing to support it. My worry is U.K. procrastination will mean we end up locked down for a long period rather than an early circuit breaker.
The bad news is after a long period of covid hospitalisations falling the numbers have started to climb again in Scotland.
yeah I think the Scottish numbers will be instructive too next week, think we are on a similar level to London with Omicron.
My son had a positive lateral flow test on Saturday, now waiting for the result of the PCR. So we've stayed at home all weekend. Which is fine but we all feel fine and in a few days I'm sure we'll all be climbing the walls. My other half will be working from home with three other people in the house and my son is desperate to get back to training. I think that's what people are going to struggle with.
Given that the majority of our senior pupils were missing Friday as they were getting ready for the cancelled dance but hitting pubs anyway. I'm expecting numbers to rise by Wednesday in schools, but then they'll be off on holiday. Probably in long enough to spread it through the innocent bystanders.
I think my thinking is drifting towards the fatalistic.
Kingussie High School now closed - lack of staff due to isolation.
Youngest heading back to school today after 2 weeks off with a head cold.
Mainly going in to catch up on the prelims she's missed!
She reckons at leats 20 from her year group are off with either CoVid or awaiting a PCR test result.
On a personal note, trying to limit contacts by cancelling a Christmas lunch today.
Unfortunately due to the nature of my job I'm unable to WFH so still need to face the CoVid badlands. Not all bad though, I go on call from Thursday 🙁
And Boris still canny be arsed going to Cobra meetings.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-59727020
Covid absenses hitting Scotrail hard, 118 services cancelled.
If there's no restriction on numbers on the Scottish trains, those wanting/needing trains for their Xmas plans will be even tighter packed, increasing the risk of a massive Omicron spike.
Now that you mention it the only time through this entire thing I was a bit governed was when I took the Sunday Edinburgh to Glasgow train during the strike. Seriously overcrowded and about 15 strangers within 2m of me for over an hour.
My sympathy for anyone who needed to use buses or trains regularly.
My school has 3 days left. Talk if collapsing classes but mixing classes increases risk. All teaching staff being hit with cover today. No Christmas spirit when taken to limit and asked to do more.
Game's a bogey! Tbh could have went further. Can accept the cautious approach. Just a pain but guess needs must.
This means I'm missing going to see Monster Trucks! It's taken 2 years, but things are now serious...
A sense of inevitability with todays restrictions, but I guess it is either a short one now or a longer one in January.
According to our youngest, he knows of 7 from his whole year who turned up today.
He (and we) decided he wasn't going in these two days, as watching the second half of Die Hard in a classroom of mixed year kids for the last couple of days was less productive and significantly more risky that the munro he climbed with brother instead....
Game’s a bogey! Tbh could have went further. Can accept the cautious approach. Just a pain but guess needs must.
which bit is a pain? football fans will now have an excuse to watch the match from the warmth of the local pub with table service or comfort of their own sofa rather than standing in the pissing rain; traditional new year house parties will be reinstated.
A sense of inevitability with todays restrictions, but I guess it is either a short one now or a longer one in January.
I don't want to ruin your hopes - but the steps announced today don't come into place until 27th so you still have another week of high virulence mixing and a typical 2-5 day incubation period before symptoms so ideal for asymptomatic transmission at hogmanay! I'd say it's very much still possible that there's actual restrictions that affect us all in January. This is very much tinkering rather than decisive action. Perhaps so they aren't accused of dithering or perhaps because she has no evidence of hospitalisation soaring and so only immediately need it to free up police and paramedics (I wonder if table service and 1m distancing reduces pub fights etc too?).
Mouth breathing rangers fans apparently planning to congregate en-masse outside ibrox on boxing Day as a protest.
Covid absenses hitting Scotrail hard, 118 services cancelled.
If there’s no restriction on numbers on the Scottish trains, those wanting/needing trains for their Xmas plans will be even tighter packed, increasing the risk of a massive Omicron spike.
This is actually a smoke screen from wee Sturg . Scotrail drivers are on a unofficial overtime ban due to transport Scotland running trains on boxing day but not paying their staff an enhanced rate with 4 weeks notice. It gets reported as ' A member of traincrew is anavailable' but is more to do with O/T ban than covid.
poly
Free Memberwhich bit is a pain? football fans will now have an excuse to watch the match from the warmth of the local pub with table service or comfort of their own sofa rather than standing in the pissing rain; traditional new year house parties will be reinstated.
Well that's why the Scottish Governments actions here are atrocious.
They should have negotiated a winter break before announcing this. Now you've got 2 sides looking for an advantage... Rangers will want to be playing at an empty Celtic Park and Pittodrie, and we'll be looking for the advantage of the early break so we can get injured players back and do some strengthening, cause we are stretched at the minute.
The Scottish government has unceremoniously dumped this in the public domain, unsettled, when it could have been handled so much better. Bringing the winter break forward was the obvious thing to do(to avoid house and pub gatherings), but that just got complicated now.
It's a shit fest, of the Scottish Governments making.
Btw you do know most fitba stadiums have roofs, aye? 😆
BoardinBob
Full Member
Mouth breathing rangers fans apparently planning to congregate en-masse outside ibrox on boxing Day as a protest.
Don't blame them tbh. We'd want them played if the shoe was on the other foot.
This is actually a smoke screen from wee Sturg . Scotrail drivers are on a unofficial overtime ban due to transport Scotland running trains on boxing day but not paying their staff an enhanced rate with 4 weeks notice. It gets reported as ‘ A member of traincrew is anavailable’ but is more to do with O/T ban than covid.
Not a great idea, unofficial industrial action. Last time I seen this, in my old workplace, they paid off 200 people. And we weren't on 55k.
so long as we don't see hospital admissions sky rocket and increase in cases doesn't really make any difference. Won't see the effect of omicron for a couple of weeks though and by that time it will be too late. Should have shut down stuff before now.
poah
Free Member
so long as we don’t see hospital admissions sky rocket and increase in cases doesn’t really make any difference. Won’t see the effect of omicron for a couple of weeks though and by that time it will be too late. Should have shut down stuff before now.
I still think we should have seen the start of a rise already, this current rise, started on the 1st Dec, it's now the 21st.
We should have seen at least a bit of a rise but now surely? It's usually 8-10 days before hospitalisations show.
Interesting that it's obviously a stepped rise too, which is unusual, I wonder if that people changing their habits?
Some people may have stopped testing once the isolation period effects their festive plans.
How would that affect hospitalisations?
We should have seen at least a bit of a rise but now surely? I
My mate the retired virologist reckons we're not quite there yet but the next week or so will tell us what we need to know.
The state of a certain element of Scottish Twitter tonight.
"If I cannae get to the fitba, I'm no getting my booster"
Shakes head.
Psychiatrist I work with told me today they’ve been briefed that the second week in January is the biggie - massive staff absences across all industries and health and social care. Get the bog rolls in!
Tbh, this is the first time we seem to be getting a lot of positives amongst workforce since it started.
Genuine worries we may not have enough folks to keep plant running.
Tbh, this is the first time we seem to be getting a lot of positives amongst workforce since it started.
Genuine worries we may not have enough folks to keep plant running.
In education, the chat from on high has been about recovery since the end of the first lockdown. The reality is that we're still just firefighting and no where near thinking about building back up. For many sectors this is the toughest part so far because there's less support available as we're not locked down but the challenges of staff shortages are massive.
Positives are that we're more free to do stuff and many of us are less worried about getting really sick but I know there are plenty of folk still really concerned.
Don't worry can't get it at school if you're staff. Well we've got at least one unfortunate dept that seem to have all been simultaneously and separately infected.
this is the first time we seem to be getting a lot of positives amongst workforce since it started.
They need to start pushing that message more. This is not just the NHS under strain, it's absolutely everything. Police, fire brigade, bin men, council services, schools etc. Absolutely everything will be impacted and even if it's not severe illness, the impact on pretty much everything you ever interact with could be absolutely massive
, Absolutely everything will be impacted
I'm taking it that's one of the reasons for the restrictions coming into effect when they do. No old firm game or Edinburgh Hogmanay to police.
Poly, I should quantify; my idea of a "Short one now" is a month,with minimal restrictions rather than a lockdown now to Easter or July as previous. I think restrictions should have been introduced earlier with Christmas not being some sacred cow that can't be touched. Love how the schools will be back in a fortnight as well despite suggestions that infections will be peaking. Just like this time last year I have taken everything home that I need to set work for the next month and there is a depressing sense of inevitability about it all. Not all bad though;as a wee thank you for 2021 my authority have introduced return to work interviews conducted by senior management for anybody who has had more than 3 days off in a year,that might take them a while 😃
And another one, work colleague just messaged to say he's positive.
It's rife now.