My sonS school is about 160 kids a year. They are in year bubbles. 1 positive test and loads off unable to get tests has seen the whole of Y7 sent home for 2 weeks.

100% mask compliance in Asda yesterday afternoon too, that I could see. This cheers me up significantly as it was about 10% last week.

Presumably the one in Pentwyn? The one down the Bay had to call in the police after one of their staff was pushed over for reminding people to wear one if they could while handing them out.

My sonS school is about 160 kids a year. They are in year bubbles. 

All the time or just during lessons? I wouldn’t be surprised if he is still able to mix with others before school, during breaks, and shortly after school.

When challenged on reports of people struggling to get swabbed, Mr Hancock said it would take a “matter of weeks” to resolve the problems.

He said No 10 would update its testing policy shortly to prioritise the most urgent cases.

So they are going to solve ye lack of tests by doing less testing…thats going to work really well!

Stop moaning its a free service (according to Matt Handjob) and dont worry he is going to prioritise cases?

The above sums up what a usless set of **** this gov is. GP surgeries sat virtually idle with staff and resources available?

I found this guy’s analysis quite interesting. Some points made I’ve not heard before.

All the time or just during lessons? I wouldn’t be surprised if he is still able to mix with others before school, during breaks, and shortly after school.

We are going to considerable efforts to keep different yeargroups separate. It involves staggered start times, no bells, masks in all indoor spaces except classrooms, policed “bubble-zones” for yeargroups at break and lunch, one-way systems and gallons of hand sanitiser.

The common cold is still passing through the entire school population though, seemingly immune to all the Covid precautions. Nobody has told it that respiratory infections are not welcome…

SAS 9.4. I’ve used but am not a great fan of R. Python is fine for data, but for analytics I like SAS. Others like R because it’s free and flexible, but the language is far behind SAS for rapid simple plots and sums. Don’t get me started on speed of simulation!

As an amateur, I was thinking of spending a couple of months getting up to speed on Python. Would that be wise do you think? Or is R more useful?

In celebrity news, Noel Gallagher refuses to wear a mask while brother Liam says it’s gotta be done but doesn’t like it. I always thought Liam was supposed to be the bigger **** of the two but there you go.

I found this guy’s analysis quite interesting. Some points made I’ve not heard before.

But for the sensible among us it’s just psuedo-science clap trap.

He doesn’t even get the flu season right ffs!
Propagating this sort of shit increases the death count; has someone got a graph for that?

I utterly despair at how bad we are doing going into autumn.

I’ve lost count at how many times I’ve heard, from our government, the WHO, the informed on here etc, just how crucial a functioning mass testing program and track and trace are to getting through the coming Winter. Yet it seems that we have been simply treading water since Spring. We lost precious days/weeks before lock down and it seems we have now lost whole months due to indecision and a seemingly total lack of competence.

I’m not so much angry anymore as desperately, desperately worried about the next few months and beyond.

How did we get it this wrong?

Trust. Transparency. Timeliness.

Does the government know the damage that 2-3 weeks of ineffective testing could do to the UK and the UK epidemic……

— Alan McNally (@alanmcn1) September 15, 2020

[ double post ]

I think where you might be going wrong poopscoop is imagining that this lot GAS. They do not. Don’t think they’ve been wasting time either. They’ve been spending it very productively, figuring out how best to funnel money from the public purse to their backers and themselves, securing their ultimate objectives, and getting ready for the off. It’s all going swimmingly.

Still. I’m sure it’ll all turn out for the best.

Just last week Johnston was feigning conniptions at the very idea that testing wasn’t working perfectly. How dare that terrible Keir Starmer say otherwise?

The common cold is still passing through the entire school population though, seemingly immune to all the Covid precautions. Nobody has told it that respiratory infections are not welcome…

I’ve never seen the likes of this september before, bad colds are rampant, is this because the kids have been kept apart for 5 months? The teachers are dropping like flies too.

Isn’t the common cold a coronavirus?
If a cold runs through A school doesn’t it mean that all the alleged “Covid secure” plans are complete rubbish?

That’s the short version.

Here’s the long version [full thread).

This is deeply pseudoscientific and dangerous rubbish. I wouldn't normally amplify, but in this case given the public health emergency I've made an exception.

The full version is here: https://t.co/lVm7B2SXeM

Otherwise let's take it apart here: /thread https://t.co/vjS9GGcMuG

— Dr Dominic Pimenta (@juniordrblog) September 15, 2020

Full disclosure: I’ve read the thread, but haven’t watched the video… He’s an engineer that makes his money in the “diet” market… which was enough for me to stay clear.

Well the papers aren’t holding back on their front pages today. When the government have the Daily Mail, of all papers, launching a ‘campaign’ against you it’s time to rethink!

Paper’s front pages 16/09/20

Pupils now off school with constant coughs but cannot book a test, so as long as its unconfirmed the bubble stays in school!! Well done omnishambles.gov

I thought this analysis from a Sky news reporter was really good and easy to understand.

Pupils now off school with constant coughs but cannot book a test, so as long as its unconfirmed the bubble stays in school!! Well done omnishambles.gov

Government has screwed schools on this.

The schools are running on risk assessments that conclude they’re “covid safe” when the key part that reduces risk is out of their control and failing.

In a more traditional “risk assessment” industry, eg construction or similar, that would invalidate the risk assessment and method statement and potentially stop the work until it’s sorted.

Could be worth a read through your own RA and maybe writing a little email to whoever signed off the procedures as safe asking whether they still recommend using them as is.

@Kelvin – in fairness, the Dr taking it apart is a cardiologist who quit government over the Cummings row, published a book about Dr’s experiences with the first wave and publicly stated his fear of a 2nd wave. So not exactly neutral! That being said, anyone who experienced that in hospital early this year has my respect and I absolutely get where he is coming from wanting to avoid a repeat of that.

I just watched it with an open mind. It hasn’t convinced me to ditch Covid measures, but some of it does give me both pause for thought and hope. As does the Sky guy above, which follows the same basic narrative (the worst is over, cases are being exaggerated, deaths are not following) without speculating much on the reasons why.

What neither address and is under-reported is the non-fatal effects. A Chinese study showed 55% of recovered patients had some neural structural damage 3 months after recovery. Exhibiting prolonged issues with memory, smell, taste etc. We don’t know what scale of a problem that might be here yet.

Would that be wise do you think? Or is R more useful?

Python for data science. R is much more specific. You can do basic stats and presentation in Python, but serious analysis and complex modelling requires the functionality of R/SAS.

You can run SAS for free on their servers too. https://www.sas.com/en_gb/software/university-edition.html

Isn’t the common cold a coronavirus?

About 1/6 of colds are caused by a coronavirus. The remainder are rhinovirus.

Python 100% have a look at Jupyter Notebook

I’ve never seen the likes of this september before, bad colds are rampant, is this because the kids have been kept apart for 5 months? The teachers are dropping like flies too.

Our immune systems have barely been challenged for 5 months, have stepped back and are now being hit as we expose them again.   My daughters cold lasted 24hrs and she was one of 5 in her class.  No other issues, and gladly no panic from parents or the school.

I just watched it with an open mind.

As long as you did some research into who the guy is before you listened to him. And that goes for all self proclaimed experts… there are plenty of very knowledgeable and genuine people contributing to our understanding currently… and engineer who knows how to use social media to gain attention to sell his diet is incredibly low down my list of people to listen to.

Python for data science. R is much more specific. You can do basic stats and presentation in Python, but serious analysis and complex modelling requires the functionality of R/SAS.

You can run SAS for free on their servers too. https://www.sas.com/en_gb/software/university-edition.html

Tried SciPy?

SAS makes me want to jump off a tall building.

Almost as bad as this crowd of kooks n’ charlatans selling bleach as a covid remedy , id make them drink the stuff on live tv

Stop moaning its a free service (according to Matt Handjob) and dont worry he is going to prioritise cases?

We’re self-isolating (again) after my six year old spiked a temperature last night.

Can’t get a test anywhere local. Mrs is an NHS Consultant. She couldn’t go in to work today and couldn’t book a test through her hospital because even though they have the facilities, the supply of reagent required for the test is being rationed by government.

We’re in Northumberland and currently the nearest available test, according to the NHS site, is Dundee!

the star slowly turning into the mash

@kelvin I’m a sceptic whoever I’m listening to. The key parts of the video that I found interesting where taken from other sources – scientists, epidemiologists. His T-cell cross-reactivity hypothesis (that the Dr downplayed) has been proven in labs as a mechanism and proposed for the low number of deaths in Africa. Accepting that isn’t proof, it’s still interesting.

It’s worth considering the foundation of our knowledge of bacteriology came from a fabric seller who built microscopes to inspect the quality of cloth, not a doctor. Without wanting to encourage anyone to ignore the experts (or imply this guy is legit), sometimes solutions do come from unlikely places!

taken from other sources

Misattributed, taken out of context, or just plain misrepresented. It might sound good to you, but look into who he is, and what people more knowledgeable than you, I, or him say about his “hot take” attention seeking video. Or better still, just ignore it.

Rhondda Cynon Taff going into local lockdown from 6pm Thursday. That’s the 2 areas closest to me now, how long before most of South Wales is under restrictions again?

This has been tested today.

Go online for a covid test, accept any location, get a QR code, jog slong to local test centre, present QR code, get tested…..

how long before most of South Wales is under restrictions again?

Having just got back from there (Pembrokeshire), I’m amazed it’s taken this long. We were gobsmacked when we got down there, coming from Greater Manchester where we’ve already had another lockdown. We went to the supermarket on the second day and we were literally the only people in there wearing facemasks. The first thing we witnessed in there was a bloke massively kicking off when being asked to stick to social distancing rules. Some gammon giving it the full ‘its an infringement of my human rights’ bullshit

The pubs were rammed with big groups, with absolutely zero social distancing going on anywhere. We cancelled some restaurant bookings we’d made for the week because it just looked like nobody was taking it remotely seriously.

We are meant to be going on holiday next week – wondering if a) we’ll actually be allowed to go and b) if its a good idea.
Regarding b) my thinking is that as we’ll be in self catering accom it doesnt really make a difference where we are and if anything we’ll be less at risk ourselves as child won’t be in nursury. Any thoughts?

Where are you going ferrals? We’re off to CP Whinfell on friday, wifes colleague was there last weekend and reckoned it was great, really well organised and quieter than ever.

Really looing forward to it as the wee one is 13 now, taking a pal, so plenty running and cycling time. Happy days.

Regarding b) my thinking is that as we’ll be in self catering accom it doesnt really make a difference where we are and if anything we’ll be less at risk ourselves as child won’t be in nursury. Any thoughts?

I’d go along with you on that. We were in self-catering accommodation so thought we’d be right. We were just out walking and riding during the day, so didn’t encounter many people. We’d booked some places for meals in the evening, which we canceled because we just werent convinced they were taking it seriously enough

I’d definitely just go away