Schools closed until March/April? (part 4) **Mod warning in OP 22/01**

Theboinkmaster

SusanC10 wrote: »

P

We are not testing any close contacts right now so we don't know the true numbers. Hopefully they will get that back up and running soon.

Thats not actually true they are testing some close contacts, just not all.

Paul Reid confirmed this morning on newstalk they'd be back to full tracing end of this week.

Smacruairi

Theboinkmaster wrote: »

W

I never said it was a game


I simply used the phrase in the context of the "game" being played out in public between the unions and the government.

Yeah the unions don't think it's a game. Maybe the DES does when they come out with rhetoric about "taking sides". Concerned about public health, and the health of its members. But you know that, you just want to have a bash.

Theboinkmaster

jimmytwotimes 2013 wrote: »

U funny. U seem to think we want this online nonsense

Any teachers i know are mad to get back to school and are embarrassed by their unions.

I believe the unions will use every excuse they can to delay it TBH.

Smacruairi

Theboinkmaster wrote: »

Any teachers i know are mad to get back to school and are embarrassed by their unions.

I believe the unions will use every excuse they can to delay it TBH.

Well that's like your opinion man.

Theboinkmaster

Smacruairi wrote: »

Yeah the unions don't think it's a game. Maybe the DES does when they come out with rhetoric about "taking sides". Concerned about public health, and the health of its members. But you know that, you just want to have a bash.

I'm not bashing anything. I believe as a country as a whole it's absolutely disgusting that our special needs children are not back to school like the rest of Europe.

I blame both the government and the teacher unions - it's shameful.

Wombatman

Theboinkmaster wrote: »

Children < 18 are in the lowest risk age group hence why vaccinated last.

If they or parents feel not safe to go in, they don't have to - they can stay at home.

They are at home. Teachers are teaching them online as a type.

Some people are under the impression teacher are on holiday or something.

Do go on...... administrative staff, principle staff, maintenance staff, catering staff, bus drivers.....etc.

Chopper Dave

SusanC10 wrote: »

Personally, I now think that they will make an effort to have Special/Additional Needs back at some point in February / early March.
Then LC Students.
Then JC (if going ahead but I feel it may be cancelled).
Those may get back before Easter.
Then everyone else after Easter.

Paddy's Day is too close to the Easter Break to bring everyone back between the 2.
Only 7 School Days.

But it all depends on Numbers (especially in Hospital and ICU), the Variants, the Vaccine Rollout etc

We are not testing any close contacts right now so we don't know the true numbers. Hopefully they will get that back up and running soon.

Just my opinion though. I am not a Teacher or a Doctor. Just a Parent.

You might be right but should we not stop using the scheduled holidays as a benchmark (this year anyway). What you might end up with is those kids who go back last (i.e. non exam Secondary Students) are also the kids who will finish for Summer Holidays first (usually end May if you don't have exams).

Surely there's a case for extending the term into June or even July to compensate for all the time lost. Otherwise these kids will only have had five weeks in school before September. Same for the primary kids too and if the term gets extended then it might reduce demand for foreign travel, etc. It would also be easier to ventilate the schools in June than it would be if schools were open now.

Teachers could reasonably expect to be compensated for the extra weeks in the class but lets have that conversation. It would be in their interest as much as the students to use the time to catch up on lost teaching time in both 2020 and 2021.

wirelessdude01

Theboinkmaster wrote: »

I'm not bashing anything. I believe as a country as a whole it's absolutely disgusting that our special needs children are not back to school like the rest of Europe.

I blame both the government and the teacher unions - it's shameful.

Interesting you don't have a bash off of Forsa though. How come?

SusanC10

Theboinkmaster wrote: »

Thats not actually true they are testing some close contacts, just not all.

Paul Reid confirmed this morning on newstalk they'd be back to full tracing end of this week.

What are the criteria for testing close contacts at the moment?

Glad that they will be back to full tracing this week.

Stateofyou

Theboinkmaster wrote: »

Children < 18 are in the lowest risk age group hence why vaccinated last.

If they or parents feel not safe to go in, they don't have to - they can stay at home.

If schools reopen they will be forced to put them in school without a choice of remote learning still in place.

And they might be lower risk, but they can still contract and spread from young ages "at least as well as adults do." - Mike Ryan of WHO
And that was before the new, more contagious and virulent strain. Preventing hospitals from not being able to care for people at all is the main thing.
So the "they can stay at home if scared" line has nothing to do with anything.

PowerToWait

Theboinkmaster wrote: »

I'm not bashing anything. I believe as a country as a whole it's absolutely disgusting that our special needs children are not back to school like the rest of Europe.

I blame both the government and the teacher unions - it's shameful.

Who do you blame for every other failing that contributes to the marginalisation of people with disabilities? Or do you not give a shît because it doesn’t suit your blatant agenda?

MerlinSouthDub

SusanC10 wrote: »

What are the criteria for testing close contacts at the moment?

Glad that they will be back to full tracing this week.

Anyone with symptoms get tested anyway (70%+ of all cases). Also a GP will refer anyone they deem higher risk (or anyone who says they have symptoms).

jimmytwotimes 2013

Theboinkmaster wrote: »

I believe the unions will use every excuse they can to delay it TBH.

Seems a bit of a stretch but you're entitled to your anti-Union stance

Stateofyou

Theboinkmaster wrote: »

I'm not bashing anything. I believe as a country as a whole it's absolutely disgusting that our special needs children are not back to school like the rest of Europe.

I blame both the government and the teacher unions - it's shameful.

Oh really - how is it the Unions fault that the government haven't planned properly and provided the right/enhanced resources.

It's pointed out that contract tracing MAY be back the end of the week - and who wanted to open the schools to hundreds of thousands going back without that in place? THey've made a mess of it, not the unions or the teachers.

PowerToWait

Theboinkmaster wrote: »

Paul Reid confirmed this morning on newstalk they'd be back to full tracing end of this week.

Lies. Just lies.

He said IF cases were below 2000 EVERY day this week they would HOPE to start testing close contacts.

SusanC10

PowerToWait wrote: »

He said IF cases were below 2000 EVERY day this week they would HOPE to start testing close contacts.

Thanks for the clarification.
I really think that full tracing needs to be back up and running properly before bringing back schools.

billy_beckham

C__MC wrote: »

Huge smell of last spring off this, schooling could be pushed out to September me thinks

You'd like that I'd say...

MerlinSouthDub

SusanC10 wrote: »

Thanks for the clarification.
I really think that full tracing needs to be back up and running properly before bringing back schools.

It does, and it will be. Contact tracing will be back within the next week unless something unexpected happens. And schools won't be open for a good while yet, can't open them until hospital and icu pressures have eased. I'm very much in favour of schools being open, but not when it's too risky to do so. Hopefully by end February things will look a lot better, and we will also know more about the new variant by then.

Theboinkmaster

Stateofyou wrote: »

I
And that was before the new, more contagious and virulent strain. Preventing hospitals from not being able to care for people at all is the main thing.
So the "they can stay at home if scared" line has nothing to do with anything.

a) there is no scientific evidence that new strains are more transmissible or damaging - isn't it interesting they appeared the exact same month as the country went mental over the Christmas period? I'm very dubious around these new strains - need to see a lot more scientific data not anecdotes.

b) So the "they can stay at home if scared" line has nothing to do with anything - I never said this, don't put words in my mouth.

Theboinkmaster

PowerToWait wrote: »

Who do you blame for every other failing that contributes to the marginalisation of people with disabilities? Or do you not give a shît because it doesn’t suit your blatant agenda?

Give me specifics and ill let you know - probably the government in alot of cases.

Theboinkmaster

PowerToWait wrote: »

Lies. Just lies.

He said IF cases were below 2000 EVERY day this week they would HOPE to start testing close contacts.

They will be back, there will be no excused as cases will be less than 2,000 all week.

People seem to think with increased contact tracing and testing our daily cases will materially increase - i don't think they will. Even with what we were doing before I think cases will easily be less than 1,000 per day in early Feb.

Icyseanfitz

Theboinkmaster wrote: »

a) there is no scientific evidence that new strains are more transmissible or damaging - isn't it interesting they appeared the exact same month as the country went mental over the Christmas period? I'm very dubious around these new strains - need to see a lot more scientific data not anecdotes.

b) So the "they can stay at home if scared" line has nothing to do with anything - I never said this, don't put words in my mouth.

The new strains are scientifically real and vary from the original. They are too new to understand the ramifications of what they can do, much like covid-19 was in march. You can't just ignore the possibility that they could be much more dangerous, it would be beyond idiotic to do so while assuming everything will be grand.

MerlinSouthDub

Icyseanfitz wrote: »

The new strains are scientifically real and vary from the original. They are too new to understand the ramifications of what they can do, much like covid-19 was in march. You can't just ignore the possibility that they could be much more dangerous, it would be beyond idiotic to do so while assuming everything will be grand.

Yes, it's too early to tell and caution is the right approach. We should know more pretty quickly. It's encouraging that early estimates of 70% more transmissible seem well wide of the mark. We shall see.

As an aside, I do think that:
1) In the UK, they used the new strain as a cover story to justify a new lockdown (when they had promised there wouldn't be one)
2) In Ireland, the new strain was used an excuse for the bad decision to re-open for Christmas.

But the politics of it shouldn't distract us from the fact that it is a new strain, and it may behave differently

Icyseanfitz

MerlinSouthDub wrote: »

Yes, it's too early to tell and caution is the right approach. We should know more pretty quickly. It's encouraging that early estimates of 70% more transmissible seem well wide of the mark. We shall see.

As an aside, I do think that:
1) In the UK, they used the new strain as a cover story to justify a new lockdown (when they had promised there wouldn't be one)
2) In Ireland, the new strain was used an excuse for the bad decision to re-open for Christmas.

But the politics of it shouldn't distract us from the fact that it is a new strain, and it may behave differently

id be more worried about the south African or Brazilian strain from the little bity I've read, a real fear the vaccine wont work with some of these new strains

Theboinkmaster

MerlinSouthDub wrote: »

Yes, it's too early to tell and caution is the right approach. We should know more pretty quickly. It's encouraging that early estimates of 70% more transmissible seem well wide of the mark. We shall see.

As an aside, I do think that:
1) In the UK, they used the new strain as a cover story to justify a new lockdown (when they had promised there wouldn't be one)
2) In Ireland, the new strain was used an excuse for the bad decision to re-open for Christmas.

But the politics of it shouldn't distract us from the fact that it is a new strain, and it may behave differently

Yes I agree with this, I think the new strains have been blown up by media and government to suit their own agenda.

I'd like to see real scientific data on them.

rainbowtrout

And what agenda is that? Are you veering into conspiracy theory territory?

Theboinkmaster

Icyseanfitz wrote: »

id be more worried about the south African or Brazilian strain from the little bity I've read, a real fear the vaccine wont work with some of these new strains

From what I can see the efficacy may be impacted but they could still be good vaccines (so drop from 90% to 60% efficacy).

But also 2 out of the 3 current ones use mRna technology meaning they can be easily tweaked to suit new strains.

Theboinkmaster

The Wordress wrote: »

The Uk strain is 10 times more contagious than the first strain. That itself is a huge worry.

Where's the scientific data to support this? Link?

wirelessdude01

Theboinkmaster wrote: »

Yes I agree with this, I think the new strains have been blown up by media and government to suit their own agenda.

I'd like to see real scientific data on them.

So what's their agenda?

Theboinkmaster

rainbowtrout wrote: »

And what agenda is that? Are you veering into conspiracy theory territory?

Ah jaysus do i have to point out the obvious??!

- government agenda = cover their arses and blame new strain on December case rise rather than admit they opened up too much of the country too soon. They managed the message so bad basically telling everyone to go mad for December that we'd be in lockdown again in Jan.

- media agenda = negative sensationalist headlines draw in clicks/readers - COVID-19 has been a huge positive for media outlets, RTE viewerships and web visits significantly increased thanks to their negative propaganda