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Coronavirus

Had this discussion re schooling with my other half this morning.
We have no school age kids any more so just a theoretical conversation.
My personal experience of school was that I learnt many things but little of relevance to my eventual occupation.
No complaints about this but it makes me wonder just how vital everyday school attendance is to future life.
Plenty of parents have taken kids out of school for a year to travel the country.
So...I would leave the kids at home. VCE is an issue but you know what, in the end students will more often than not find their way
to the career they want/ are suited to in the end, regardless of VCE score.
Uni entrance interviews are flawed and skewed to better personal interviewees ie females, generally.
So... again, not sure going to school just now is really important.
There are some parents who can't be home and need their kids to be supervised, don't know the answer here.
I would close schools and just run with the year giving every chance for VCE kids to get into the uni course they want at years end.
Messy I know but not impossible.
Just a thought.....obviously not everyone will agree.
 
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pete and tys said:
Had this discussion re schooling with my other half this morning.
We have no school age kids any more so just a theoretical conversation.
My personal experience of school was that I learnt many things but little of relevance to my eventual occupation.
No complaints about this but it makes me wonder just how vital everyday school attendance is to future life.
Plenty of parents have taken kids out of school for a year to travel the country.
So...I would leave the kids at home. VCE is an issue but you know what, in the end students will more often than not find their way
to the career they want/ are suited to in the end, regardless of VCE score.
Uni entrance interviews are flawed and skewed to better personal interviewees ie females, generally.
So... again, not sure going to school just now is really important.
There are some parents who can't be home and need their kids to be supervised, don't know the answer here.
I would close schools and just run with the year giving every chance for VCE kids to get into the uni course they want at years end.
Messy I know but not impossible.
Just a thought.....obviously not everyone will agree.
Click to expand...

I've never been opposed to the school being open to kids who have no support/supervision at home and need to be there. It's low numbers and usually younger kids anyway (lower risk).

I reckon school is vitally important, not necessarily for a future profession, but for skills, knowledge, social interaction, critical thinking and generally diverse experiences. However, having that in a remote format for a short period of time won't have a big impact (there is evidence to back that up). And it is much less impactful for older kids.
 
100% agree schooling is vital for all those skills you noted.
I was referring to there not being an issue missing 6 or 12 months...not the whole 12 years.
 
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pete and tys said:
100% agree schooling is vital for all those skills you noted.
I was referring to there not being an issue missing 6 or 12 months...not the whole 12 years.
Click to expand...

Ive thought the same.

Imagine how many emerging voters Scott Morrison would have for life if he went

'Kids, take the year off' :rotfl2

makes me wonder when London was being bombed and kids were billeted to the country (some kids remember this time very fondly),

did they go to school? or just stuff about in the country?
 
AFL fans 'crowd' onto trains after western derby, despite coronavirus advice

Despite warnings about social distancing at Sunday night's western derby, AFL fans crowded onto the first few trains departing Perth Stadium after the match, according to the Public Transport Authority (PTA).

It follows last week's warning from the WA branch of the Australian Medical Association (AMA) that one infected fan sitting in the stands could make the derby the "dumbest" game of football ever played.
Click to expand...
 
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The casualisation of work in service industries, such as aged care, has a lot to answer for. The movement of staff between nursing homes - necessary only because the people who work there have no job security and will move between nursing homes because they are employed precariously. It is also why a lot of people are resistant to being tested - they get tested, it is positive: no shifts, no food to eat, no money for rent and bills.

The whole school closures issue is a bit farcical at the moment. The reality is that face to face teaching is better, and in normal times you only use online or distance learning when you need to. But these are not normal times. If they need to stop students from going to school to control the virus then asking that VCE students attend because of the sacred ATAR is just ludicrous. It all goes back to matriculation really, remember, that was run by Melbourne Uni back years ago when Melbourne was the only uni in Melbourne - then we got VTAC and it's ancestors (and HSC followed by VCE). Everyone at universities knows the ATAR is not a great measure of potential, then again neither was the TER or the Anderson Score. But it is cheap and easy, no need for entrance exams or interviews in most study areas. If they can't get an ATAR this year then universities will just need to find another way to determine entry, I'm sure it won't make much difference to student performance in undergrad courses. School is important, what kids learn at school is important, being at school is important, but the ATAR has overblown importance.

As we have learned more about this virus the mask debate has moved, now there is more evidence of masks being effective. Bolt is just being Bolt in the quote above, in other words a clueless f***wit. Speaking of f***wittery, equating wearing of masks with communism would be laughable if it wasn't for the sheer idiocy of the comment.

We need to get a handle on this now and if masks and closing schools, and consigning f-wits to whatever hole they emerged from, is necessary, then it needs to be done.

It is all well and good to quote daily numbers but to get a real handle on this we need to see the trend, I just had a look at the daily numbers and calculated a 7 day trailing average of infections for Victoria from the start of July, it goes like this (starts 7 July to get the first 7 days in):
7 July: 102.29
8 July: 111.00
9 July: 123.57
10 July: 155.29
11 July: 170.71
12 July: 199.14
13 July: 206.29
14 July: 217.57
15 July: 232.43
16 July: 254.14
17 July: 274.14
18 July: 274.29
19 July: 287.14
20 July: 301.14

The trend is up and it is the trend we need to get down.

DS
 
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eZyT said:
Ive thought the same.

makes me wonder when London was being bombed and kids were billeted to the country (some kids remember this time very fondly),

did they go to school? or just stuff about in the country?
Click to expand...

Interesting point ezy. My wife's father was one of these kids. Got moved out of Salford (near Manchester) during the blitz and went to stay with some relatives in Herefordshire near the Welsh border. He died a long time ago and before I met my wife but we have letters that he wrote back home during this period. I can't recall him mentioning anything about school but will try and remember to check the letters.

The main thing I recall is that he really missed his old dog Bill who got left back in Salford with his parents.
 
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Face masks ‘reduce deadly power of virus’: US research (paywalled)
Lat Lay & Kay Burgess
The TImes
July 21, 2020

Masks do help to protect the wearer, as well as people they meet, according to research by infectious disease experts.
A report from a team at the University of California, San Francisco, says that masks can reduce the amount of virus that gets into someone’s system, meaning they do not get as badly sick.

In England, face coverings are mandatory on public transport and will become so in shops and supermarkets from July 24. The requirement appears to have strong public support, with only 19 per cent of Britons opposing compulsory wearing of masks in shops, according to a survey last week by the research company ORB International.

The paper is due to be published in the Journal of Internal Medicine but was made available in advance by the researchers. Monica Gandhi, one of the study’s co-authors, who is associate division chief of the infectious diseases program at San Francisco General Hospital, said: “You will get in a lower dose of virus if you wear a mask and are exposed to COVID-19 and are very likely to have mild or no symptoms.”

She told The Times that her research suggested the government should go further in its recommendations for the wearing of face coverings. “The research suggests that we should go towards universal population-level masking to control infections and to limit the severity of disease.”

That would include wearing masks in workplaces where employees did not each have a private office, she said. Matt Hancock, the health secretary, has said masks do not have a role to play in infection control in offices.

Under the “theory of viral inoculum”, a lower initial dose of Sars-Cov-2 gives the immune system a better chance of fighting the disease. The new paper draws evidence suggesting that masks reduce the amount of viral droplets that get through to the wearer’s airways.

One study, in hamsters, showed that animals exposed to the virus through a surgical mask partition had milder cases of COVID-19. Outbreaks on cruise ships where passengers wore masks typically resulted in higher rates of asymptomatic, or milder infection, the report says.

The authors concluded: “Exposing society to SARS-Cov-2 without the consequences of severe illness with public masking could lead to greater community-level immunity and slower spread as we await a vaccine.”

Some scientists continue to argue that masks give people a false sense of security. They point to a lack of high-quality trials investigating their use.

None of the evidence in the new paper comes from controlled trials in humans, because of ethical concerns about deliberately exposing volunteers to different doses of the virus.

Many proponents of masks say the government should make them compulsory in all indoor settings. The Church of England is expected to advise its congregations to wear masks in the pews. As well as outlining the requirement for masks on transport and, from July 24, in shops, official guidance now also states: “People are also encouraged to wear face coverings in enclosed public spaces where there are people they do not normally meet, such as a place of worship.”

A church spokesman said on Monday that its own guidance was “being updated in light of this”. The church did go further than following government advice when it banned priests from places of worship – a move that was criticised by members of the General Synod last week – but it is not expected to make masks mandatory for worshippers.

The church has already advised that the risk of transmission during the administering of communion is “relatively low especially if face coverings are worn” and says in its latest guidance that churches should be “using protective screens and face coverings” but adds that this is voluntary.

The Muslim Council of Britain has advised mosques to consider providing “face masks for worshippers without their own” while the United Synagogue has made them mandatory for Jewish worshippers.
 
VIC
New Cases: 347 (374 with 27 reclassified)
Total Cases: 6289
Active Cases: 3078 (up 165).
3 deaths (42 Total).
29,464 tests (1,361,238 Total)

NSW
New Cases: 11
Total Cases: 3599
Active Cases: 96 (up 10).
0 deaths (51 Total). Note: NSW Government website says 51 deaths, other sites say 49.
15,903 tests (1,218,155 Total)
 
Wildride said:
374 cases today - no downwards trend evident :(
Click to expand...
Yeah we basically at the two week anniversary of the stage 3 restrictions and we are worse placed than at the start. I can't see how we avoid additional restrictions and harsher lockdown. The only possibility is that the delay in test results is still showing up results from tests done prior to the lockdown? Wishful thinking though.
 
Today's number is not good (374 new cases), so just to update:

7 July: 102.29
8 July: 111.00
9 July: 123.57
10 July: 155.29
11 July: 170.71
12 July: 199.14
13 July: 206.29
14 July: 217.57
15 July: 232.43
16 July: 254.14
17 July: 274.14
18 July: 274.29
19 July: 287.14
20 July: 301.14
21 July: 316.00

Unfortunately it remains the case that the trend is up and it is the trend we need to get down.

DS
 
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Police warn against Sydney Black Lives Matter protest (paywalled)

NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller has revealed that a Black Lives Matter protest being planned for Sydney could set the state’s economic recovery back by a decade if it sparks fresh outbreaks.

Commissioner Fuller warned protesters not to be “selfish” and argued it would devastate anyone’s political cause if their protest ended up being responsible for the next coronavirus outbreak.

“It is not a time to be selfish, there are many ways you can protest, there are many ways you can go online, in forums or even through the media you can get your voice,” he told Sky News.

Commissioner Fuller said it would be “devastating” to anyone’s cause to be responsible for the next cluster breakout in NSW.

“Do you want your protest to be the one that puts NSW back five or 10 years economically because that’s exactly what could happen and that’s exactly what we saw in Victoria.”

Commissioner Fuller also revealed his officers would issue fines to protesters breaching health rules even if he loses the Supreme Court bid to ban the upcoming protest on Tuesday, July, 28.

“We will take that matter to the Supreme Court and win, lose or draw we can still take action against people for breaching health orders and if a thousand people turn up maybe I can only write tickets for 500 people but do you want to be the first person to get the $1000 ticket, that’s the question,” he said.

“We will then use the health orders to fine people for breaching the laws put in place to protect all the people of NSW.”

Earlier, Commissioner Fuller urged people not to attend a Black Lives Matter protest in Sydney planned for next week, as the state’s coronavirus numbers continue to climb.

More than 4,000 people have expressed their interest in attending the event on Facebook.

Commissioner Fuller said protest organisers have lodged a formal application, but NSW Police will be taking the matter to the Supreme Court.

“Relying on some pretty good intelligence from Victoria, we know how dangerous these protests can be, in terms of health,” he told 2GB radio on Monday morning.

“At the moment, you just can’t take chances.”

Commissioner Fuller said the police would be able to fine people under the current health orders.

“If the numbers get above what is lawful at that time, then we can start writing tickets. That is the instruction I’ll be giving to police in relation to that matter.”
 
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Ridley said:
Yeah we basically at the two week anniversary of the stage 3 restrictions and we are worse placed than at the start. I can't see how we avoid additional restrictions and harsher lockdown. The only possibility is that the delay in test results is still showing up results from tests done prior to the lockdown? Wishful thinking though.
Click to expand...

well technically we are having harsher restrictions with facemasks being enforced from Thursday. It’s probably the last restriction before stage 4, which will have to happen if these numbers don’t drop within 2 weeks.
 
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