With numbers rising is it on the cards again?
Why would masks make it mutate faster, what effect do they have on the molecular clock?
You lost me at "Let's go out there and make a difference"
And herd immunity can be best achieved via vaccines in a game of large numbers which is what we are dealing with here. Read serious medical research.
Morning
Let's get out there and make a difference
A good education is priceless and allows upwardly mobility
I think the position of teacher is a very important job and a good teacher has the power to change a students life and even to save lives
If I was teacher and had to enter a classroom with 30 children knowing most of those children will get the virus and not really be affected but the chances are high the teachers also get it and may be seriously ill or bring it home to loved ones,I don't know how I would handle it
Even the loss of taste and smell is worrying as that means its in your central nervous system and there may be health issues in the future
But air borne viruses cannot be stopped , if you try and limit them by restrictions on movement and masks the virus will mutate so it will spread quicker
Herd immunity is and was the only way forward, witness whats happening now
Herd immunity is way more effective than any jabs
Yep. Whether the windows are open or not.
School policy is just to open windows and if it stays red well.....
Trouble is. In a normal class of 30 they'd go red in about 15 minutes.
I wouldn't think Ms O'Loughlin has jurisdiction over CO2 monitors being a senator! Once it's red, all out!!
Whatever happened the 1400ppm limit on the co2 sensors. Is that gone now?
"Kildare's Fianna Fail senator and former teacher Fiona O'Loughlin is currently volunteering as a substitute, she says opening windows after classes may be a better option." KFMradio.com. Not allowed to post links yet.
It would nearly restore your faith in politicians!
This wan is a genius... and no this is not a spoof from Waterford Whispers
Predicted grades can't be announced too early, if they did so students would be doing the dog on playing the system with 100% monthly tests and parental pressure.
For once I think the department would be best to leave the announcement till the last moment.
...and to those students who "need certainty" , just keep studying and learning regardless of the assessment. Learning is good for you apparently.
I'm ploughing ahead with the course and I get the impression other teachers aren't easing up either.
Ya I put stuff up on teams too... I beg them to contact me if they get stuck or need clarification . But the absentees don't really engage.
Not to me. Someone said Omicron was like a cold, you said your friend had more than a cold, I said there's a possibility your friend had Delta.
It does when you have as an article of faith that there's no way anyone can get sick from Omicron. There are more hidden layers to some discussions that might appear superficially.
Does it really matter which variant he had?
yes similarly no guarantee that he doesn’t - Omicron appears to be milder than delta in terms of ICU admissions doesn’t follow that everyone who ends up with omicron will have a sniffle - there’s a wide range of illness between a sniffle and hospital admission and ICU.
Delta is still doing the rounds too though. Without genome sequencing, there's no guarantee your friend had Omicron.
Like I said, schools are open. That argument is redundant now.
Given that Covid is just a mild cold, why aren't you volunteering to help out in Covid ward in hospitals. I'm sure your multiple degrees would be of great value in there, and you've obviously nothing to fear in catching a mild cold, right? Still no explanation as to why my fit 40-something friend is unable to talk for more than a couple of minutes after his 'mild cold', no?
And feel free to present whatever data you like. With your multiple degrees, it wouldn't take you more than a couple of minutes to pull together and present this data, surely?
I don't agree that a "delayed opening would have been sensible and more pupils would have been reached"
From an educational point of view these weeks will be extremely difficult and I know just because schools are open it is not business as usual. But for me schools open is the least worst option. Closures for any length of time are harmful with very little benefit at this time.
Problems with exams are going to be an issue anyway but purely on the issue of the next few days/weeks from an educational point of view I believe the best way to reach the most pupils is schools to be open. With school s closed, there is virtually no education at all for 1000s of kids.
You don't have to be an expert or scientist to understand common sense
From the very start there should have been weekly reports showing
1. What are ICU numbers
2. What are deaths of people from covid ? What are total deaths?
3. What are corresponding numbers from 2019.
Why do you think the above format was never produced? Why is it 2020 total deaths are only 600 more of the total deaths 2019
And 2021 when released will be right back to the average
I find it very sad the people in charge have behaved the way they have and the media and human rights activists have sat back and said nothing
Is there anyone with a science or maths qualification on here , if so surely you would agree with me
If not why not and please don't say experts say so,
I don't know why people keep saying "I don't know understand why people want schools closed at this stage". I have not seen anyone looking for that.
Some people feel that with more courage and better judgement decided by educational arguments rather than political considerations, a delayed reopening would have been sensible and more students would have been reached. But schools have opened. Argument over. You need to move on.
But the day the government opened schools with 40k+ cases per day in the community was also the day Accredited Grades emerged again. Probably would have happened anyway, as the Fifth Year students of last year had lost so much time already, but classrooms with so many gaps will bring reality home to even the most reality denying don't-alter-the-process or delighted-to-be-back! teachers.
But the "keep schools open" is a very small echo chamber at this stage. Sorting out the fallout from the decision is the current challenge. ICU numbers do not fill classrooms. People quoting those are missing the point royally.
100% I cannot understand how anyone would want to close schools at this stage. Although infection numbers are sky high the hospitals are holding steady. Nowhere near the levels in ICU this time last year and ultimately that is the most important metric.
We will work through the absences this month and hopefully proper exams in some form will run in June
The only 'plan' would be the pre-2020 default. Dept officials will not create a fresh scenario unless they have no other option.
So the whole process is gone through in school anyway? If that happens everyone will get them. Otherwise you have a black market in close contacts in June. Going through the process anyway just invites this on.
There are also nitty gritty things like, say, on the morning of an exam if someone realises they'll probably be a close contact of someone should they go to the exam? If someone has symptoms and hasn't had an official PCR test is the government really going to say that they must do an exam in the meantime. So many potential problems with this idea.
To be fair I would say the actual dept officials probably can organise a plan,until political interference comes into play.
Oh we all know they should give ample notice, the reality with the department is they don't know their arse from their elbow and couldn't plan a piss up in a brewery so whatever "plan" happens will be a mad scramble just before it's too late.
Try telling that to my friend in his 40s who is still unable to speak normally for anything more than a couple of minutes after his recent infection . Have you ever experienced that after a mild cold?
Hospitals are on a war footing. Why don't you volunteer to assist in a Covid ward, that would be a really positive commitment to getting us through the pandemic.
It could also backfire because punishing people for getting sick during a pandemic isn't a great way to build solidarity.
A degree in Science no less.
Why would they stop at teaching one day a week. There is a staffing crisis in hospitals as well. And GPs are under serious pressure too.
Or is it just a case yet again that anyone thinks they can rock into a classroom unqualified and do a teachers job ?
Not having to be Garda vetted then as well
LOL
