Generic Virus Thread

[DCJonah]

The hypocrisy shown by parts of this country is amazing at the moment. 

We really care about the NHS and their staff, out there clapping and cheering every week. Now we're really worried about children's education, especially disadvantaged children. 

And yet we have voted for a decade of Tory government. 

So yeah..**** off. 

[HanoiVillan]

9 minutes ago, DCJonah said:

I don't think they really care about the 'silent majority' they just want to portray the profession as cowards so that their brain dead readers will display the sort of aggression towards them that they usually reserve for Meghan Markle and immigrants. 

 

This is the correct take and the correct amount of anger. 

[bickster]

We'll be requested to clap for teachers on a Tuesday soon

[DCJonah]

6 minutes ago, bickster said:

We'll be requested to clap for teachers on a Tuesday soon

I know its in jest but I hope people in the education sector don't push for this. While teachers are still doing important things its nothing compared to the healthcare workers and deserves no extra praise. 

But they shouldn't be vilified for wanting things to be safe for them and their children before returning to work. 

 

Edited May 15, 2020 by DCJonah

[bickster]

8 minutes ago, DCJonah said:

I know its in jest but I hope people in the education sector don't push for this. While teachers are still doing important things its nothing compared to the healthcare workers and deserves no extra praise. 

But they shouldn't be vilified for wanting things to be safe for them and their children before returning to work. 

 

Personally, I think the clapping is utterly ludicrous.

It just serves to help the government, inceasing the guilt felt by NHS staff if they don't go to work because they are worried.

But yeah it makes the people clapping feel great.

As soon as Boris, The ROyals, Hancock et al were on telly doing a clap, it became redundant. Originally it was community lead and was a nice thing to do, it's no longer that and hasn't been since about week 3

[OutByEaster?]

41 minutes ago, DCJonah said:

I don't think they really care about the 'silent majority' 

If only there were a way that teachers could come together collectively to give a voice to their thoughts.

 

[DCJonah]

5 minutes ago, bickster said:

Personally, I think the clapping is utterly ludicrous.

It just serves to help the government, inceasing the guilt felt by NHS staff if they don't go to work because they are worried.

But yeah it makes the people clapping feel great.

As soon as Boris, The ROyals, Hancock et al were on telly doing a clap, it became redundant. Originally it was community lead and was a nice thing to do, it's no longer that and hasn't been since about week 3

100% agree.

I've stopped joining in with it. 

[Chindie]

2 minutes ago, OutByEaster? said:

If only there were a way that teachers could come together collectively to give a voice to their thoughts.

 

Down with this sort of thing./dailyheil

[Kingman]

And so it begins!.. 

[Stevo985]

1 minute ago, Kingman said:

And so it begins!.. 

Not sure if these are real. My sister sent me the exact same advert but it said Sutton park on it instead. I guess they might be producing multiple for different locations. 
 

Either way I wouldn’t expect a particularly large turnout

[bannedfromHandV]

23 minutes ago, bickster said:

Personally, I think the clapping is utterly ludicrous.

It just serves to help the government, inceasing the guilt felt by NHS staff if they don't go to work because they are worried.

But yeah it makes the people clapping feel great.

As soon as Boris, The ROyals, Hancock et al were on telly doing a clap, it became redundant. Originally it was community lead and was a nice thing to do, it's no longer that and hasn't been since about week 3

Yep, had this debate with my best mate last night after he triumphantly let me know how he and his missus had been out clapping with the rest of their street.

Its a distraction, what people should be focusing on is what they’re being distracted away from.

[Kingman]

7 minutes ago, Stevo985 said:

Not sure if these are real. My sister sent me the exact same advert but it said Sutton park on it instead. I guess they might be producing multiple for different locations. 
 

Either way I wouldn’t expect a particularly large turnout

At least eight events are said to have been organised by an anti-vaxxing group called UK Freedom Movement which claims the coronavirus lockdown is illegal.

Many of the group organisers appear to be conspiracy theorists who question how serious a threat coronavirus poses, and are angry at the imposition of lockdown rules. 

The gatherings have been promoted on flyers in London, Southampton, Nottingham, Sheffield, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Plymouth and Barnstaple in Devon.

In the posters circulating on social media over the past few days, the organisers have boasted that the events will be the 'largest mass gathering since the lockdown'. 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8314605/Coronavirus-UK-Mass-gatherings-picnics-live-music-advertised-Saturday.html 

[Stevo985]

6 minutes ago, Kingman said:

At least eight events are said to have been organised by an anti-vaxxing group called UK Freedom Movement which claims the coronavirus lockdown is illegal.

Many of the group organisers appear to be conspiracy theorists who question how serious a threat coronavirus poses, and are angry at the imposition of lockdown rules. 

The gatherings have been promoted on flyers in London, Southampton, Nottingham, Sheffield, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Plymouth and Barnstaple in Devon.

In the posters circulating on social media over the past few days, the organisers have boasted that the events will be the 'largest mass gathering since the lockdown'. 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8314605/Coronavirus-UK-Mass-gatherings-picnics-live-music-advertised-Saturday.html 

Urgh. What a bunch of words removed.

But they can definitely add Birmingham to that list of venues. I've seen the flyer! 

I quite want to go for a walk at 12pm and see if anything's actually happening, but I don't want to be accidentally included in the gathering  

[Kingman]

1 minute ago, Stevo985 said:

Urgh. What a bunch of words removed.

But they can definitely add Birmingham to that list of venues. I've seen the flyer! 

I quite want to go for a walk at 12pm and see if anything's actually happening, but I don't want to be accidentally included in the gathering  

Absolute Weapons mate, Should lock the gates with them all in and create a leper colony! 

[Seat68]

Isnt one of the organisers Jayda Fransen of the terrorist group Britain First. 

[It's Your Round]

I wish we could **** these people off somewhere else. I wonder if Australia has any more room? 

[HanoiVillan]

@DCJonah and I had a discussion on here a while ago on reopening schools, and I argued (and still do) that kids being out of school is doing serious harm to their life chances, and that that needs to be borne in mind. However, I also said at the time that schools need to be made *safe* for teachers and students. My objection (and I think the objection of teachers' unions specifically and I suspect most teachers more broadly) is not the idea of full classes returning, but the lack of action to demonstrate how schools will be made as safe as possible. Since then:

1 - PPE has not become widespread (we will know it is when we receive government-approved PPE in the post or at supermarket entrances);

2 - It has become clear to me (primarily through Panorama's investigation the other week, which has not been substantively challenged) that the government is playing tricks on NHS staff with regards to counting PPE (so everyday items like bottles of bleach have been considered PPE, and gloves appear to have counted individually rather than in pairs, for instance);

3 - The government has not published a comprehensive plan on how to keep teachers and other school staff and pupils safe. In a frankly horrific select committee appearance the other day (though at least he was honest), Osama Rahman, the chief scientific advisor for the Department of Education, gave absolutely no reason for confidence that there is an adequate and realistic plan for schools:

Opening schools could fuel coronavirus spread, DfE adviser admits

'Osama Rahman, chief scientific adviser to the Department for Education (DfE), appeared to undermine the government’s case for reopening schools when he gave evidence to the Commons science and technology committee on Wednesday.

Questioned by MPs, he admitted that a wider reopening of schools could bring together “hundreds of potential vectors” that could lead to the spread of the virus. He also said there was a “low degree of confidence” in studies suggesting children transmit Covid-19 any less than adults.

Asked whether there was a risk of the virus being transmitted when schools reopen, Rahman said there would always be a risk of transmission. “Even going to school anyway is not a risk-free environment,” Rahman said. “The question is to what extent that risk is acceptable.”

The adviser raised eyebrows when he was unable to give a figure for deaths among under-18s from Covid-19: “I don’t have those numbers to hand. It’s an important question.”

Carol Monaghan, a member of the committee, said: “As a former teacher listening to this, I don’t think the profession is going to be at all satisfied by what they are hearing at the moment.”

[...]

Rahman’s evidence is likely to result in headteachers thinking again about reopening, throwing the government’s timetable into doubt. It will also raise questions about the DfE’s level of involvement in the decision-making process behind the reopening, after Rahman told MPs: “That was not a departmental decision, that was a cabinet decision following advice from Sage.”

Patrick Roach, general secretary of the NASUWT, described Rahman’s evidence as shocking and disturbing. “The government has simply not provided a single shred of evidence that opening schools from 1 June will be safe for children or for teachers,” he said.'

(from: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2020/may/13/opening-schools-could-fuel-coronavirus-spread-dfe-adviser-admits)

PPE needs to be widely available to teachers and pupils before schools reopen. Since kids are what they are, that doesn't mean one mask and one pair of gloves per pupil, but multiple. It is indicative of how badly the government are handling the PPE aspects of this crisis that this is not available.

[wazzap24]

22 minutes ago, Seat68 said:

Isnt one of the organisers Jayda Fransen of the terrorist group Britain First. 

Yes, she’s named as a director for the Ltd co. behind it. 
 

Weirdly, I’d never heard of her until yesterday - did a quick google and she looked exactly as I thought she would (rough as f**k and seen more cock than a chicken farmer) 

[bickster]

19 minutes ago, wazzap24 said:

 (rough as f**k and seen more cock than a chicken farmer) 

Well there are indeed stories in that direction

[sne]

At least in the UK all these morons won't be carrying assault rifles.