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Full national lockdown (not education) 4/11 - 1/12 possible
- Thread starter Bozza
- Start date
I am a university lecturerer in London. My college is hell bent on getting students back on campus. They are all back in London (apart from some sensible ones who saw some small print that asked them if they wanted to come in and said 'you're OK, mate, I'll work online'). I won't go into details now - it will take too long, but I am being coerced by my head of teaching to provide 'wet' labs (perfused tissues) in January to classes of 2 (instead of 16), repeated on 15 days (instead of 8) providing one quarter of the lab time each student would normally get. A bit like the Albion spending twice as much as as the entire matchday income in order to let 5000 fans into the ground. WTAF? 
I told my head of teaching my plan is to not catch Covid as my risk of death if I do is 5-20%, greater than the risk associated with mainlining heroin (if you get a supply of the good stuff, and decent hypos and needles). I said if it is safe to come in to work I shall do so. Otherwise I won't. Because of this she has requested I have a meeting with my head of research (what?) to discuss my 'plans for returning to work'. Passive aggressive coercion.
Elsewhere in the uni, staff are being openly bullied into contact teaching by simply being emailed a timetable. I am supposed to write my own. What was initially contingency is now fact - timetabled, online, rooms booked etc.
The students are very generous with staff right now. We do nearly all lectures online and the students like it. I have teams meetings with individual students, as well as give lectures recorded and live (all online) and my workload has shot up (but not commuting 3.5 hours a day balances that).
The university sector will collapse next year if it isn't bailed out. This is controversial but.....I would close 70% of unis. I have worked as an external examiner around the country and some places are simply silos to keep kids off the dole for 3 years. They seem to get some sort of work at the end of it so why not cut out the middle man? Workplace apprenticeships.
Anyway.....I actually agree with [MENTION=6886]Bozza[/MENTION] that it hardly matters what choices HMG make. They are damned if they do and damned if they don't. I disagree with him slightly, though, in as much as my impression is HMG have succeeded in garnishing each decision at every turn with little curls of poo, and putting these decisions on display in the worst possible light.
I told my head of teaching my plan is to not catch Covid as my risk of death if I do is 5-20%, greater than the risk associated with mainlining heroin (if you get a supply of the good stuff, and decent hypos and needles). I said if it is safe to come in to work I shall do so. Otherwise I won't. Because of this she has requested I have a meeting with my head of research (what?) to discuss my 'plans for returning to work'. Passive aggressive coercion.
Elsewhere in the uni, staff are being openly bullied into contact teaching by simply being emailed a timetable. I am supposed to write my own. What was initially contingency is now fact - timetabled, online, rooms booked etc.
The students are very generous with staff right now. We do nearly all lectures online and the students like it. I have teams meetings with individual students, as well as give lectures recorded and live (all online) and my workload has shot up (but not commuting 3.5 hours a day balances that).
The university sector will collapse next year if it isn't bailed out. This is controversial but.....I would close 70% of unis. I have worked as an external examiner around the country and some places are simply silos to keep kids off the dole for 3 years. They seem to get some sort of work at the end of it so why not cut out the middle man? Workplace apprenticeships.
Anyway.....I actually agree with [MENTION=6886]Bozza[/MENTION] that it hardly matters what choices HMG make. They are damned if they do and damned if they don't. I disagree with him slightly, though, in as much as my impression is HMG have succeeded in garnishing each decision at every turn with little curls of poo, and putting these decisions on display in the worst possible light.
- Thread starter
- #203
Presumably he ran out of characters to also say:
Throughout: Lots and lots of people saying "What's the fuss all about? Hospitals are empty. Rampaging packs of llama killed more people than Covid-19 this month. False positives. WITH Covid not OF Covid. T-cells. Herd immunity. We have to get back to normal and learn to live with it."
Indeed and if that is really the case and I am not saying it is, that then begs the obvious question.
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Weststander
Well-known member
In Aldi this week there was a bloke wearing no mask. About 40 years old, he had what I call the bald, Chelsea thug look. People weren’t going to challenge him. Yes I know he could be severely asthmatic or highly vulnerable ... I wonder.
Some simply don’t agree with the whole thing, so give a 2 fingers to their fellow man.
Lyndhurst 14
Well-known member
- Jan 16, 2008
- 5,241
Johnson's handling of the Covid crisis has been half arsed at best. At the start the UK only went into full lockdown about 2 or 3 weeks after most of Europe had already done so allowing the virus to proliferate at super spreader events like Cheltenham. This was then followed by the 'world class' test and trace fiasco and then the ill thought out Tier system. It seems that Johnson has always treated the virus as an annoyance or distraction preventing him from doing other government business. He must now be casting an eye over the pond at the US Election next week which has really become a referendum on the Trump Administrations handling of Covid and realizing at some stage he will be judged in the same way
This.
I have been consistent since it looked like it had 'gone', in early summer: let most people go back to normal and shield the old and immunocompromised. And yet I am not sure anywhere in the world is doing this, are they? China? Why not? It deals with health and the economy in a way the current u-turning and faff will never do.
Looking at the graphs of this second wave versus the first, this now looks exactly like seasonal flu. The peak will be Jan/Feb. The only difference is we have no vaccine, and rather feeble therapy (and I'm now on an American medics renegade Covid treatment internet group, and it is still all piss and wind, even for the Trump supporting conspiracy theorists among them). So there will be lockdowns, many deaths and general carnage.
At least SOME folk are enjoying 2020...
"With coronavirus there have been lots of ups and downs this year, and I also turned 60, so it was a good celebration of that. It’s a gorgeous spider, if you’re into that kind of thing,” said Waite.
https://www.theguardian.com/environ...extinct-in-britain-discovered-on-mod-site-aoe
"With coronavirus there have been lots of ups and downs this year, and I also turned 60, so it was a good celebration of that. It’s a gorgeous spider, if you’re into that kind of thing,” said Waite.
https://www.theguardian.com/environ...extinct-in-britain-discovered-on-mod-site-aoe
- Jul 10, 2003
- 27,766
I think leaders are worried if they do something different they will be hammered.
Without opening up the “do a sweden” argument - Using sweden as an example - the PM there got slaughtered everywhere for going down a different path.
You are fortunate you work in the public sector, your salary is guaranteed.
Many are not so well placed.
worthingseagull123
Well-known member
- May 5, 2012
- 2,687
Exactly. And with Furlough ending, this will be a disaster.
No much of that is in the subsequent tweets.
Even if Furlough is extended it will be a disaster.
Weststander
Well-known member
“If they (lockdowns) can’t stop the spread”.
Lockdowns of the March onwards variety do, it worked, no argument.
But no one ever said it wouldn’t stop future waves after a long spell of near normal living.
(Edit I just realised your post is not a reply to me. That said the same applies to me and the person to whom you were replying, so I'll not edit what I posted below.)
Indeed. Till I'm laid off at the drop of a hat, of course.
I'm not sure what your point is, though. Do you think I should just suck it up and go back to work? Nobody should be forced to work and catch Covid and die - that was half my point. The other half being everyone else should go back to normal life.
Obviously I feel for thosed forced to work or starve. That, happening in the UK, is a national disgrace. I know everyone keeps on saying HMG are damned if the do and damned if they don't, but if they are presiding knowingly over a situation where people are not financially supported and have no choice other than to go to work and risk their lives, Boris and his shower should resign now.
Soton Seagull
Well-known member
I appreciate the education motivation as kids have missed a lot of school; however the idea of keeping Schools, colleges & Universities open in an otherwise full on lockdown seems a bit like leaving the car window open in the rain and then wondering why your seat is wet. Education areas have played a huge part in fuelling the 2nd wave. If you want a short sharp shock to minimise contact I can't see this being it.
Yes, you are probably correct.
Are you old enough to have done the 'Untied Diaries' experiment at school? In 1967 out teacher wrote Untied Diaries on the blackboard and asked everyone to say out loud what was written.
Everyone said 'United Dairies' (the nations supplier of milk at the time) except one girl, Dianne Abbey, who said, blushing, Untied Diaries (half correct). The whole class laughed at her in mocking glee. We all felt somewhat foolish when the truth was revealed.
Safer in a herd, even, apparently, when the herd is galloping towards the edge of a cliff.
Deportivo Seagull
I should coco
That boat has already sailed. Cases in <21 are going down. This certainly appears to be backed up with the info from my two who are at uni. One went into isolation after 10 days, the other has fortunately been fine but the number of cases in both establishments have greatly reduced in the last week or so.
The issue now is that it’s in the >40’s so shutting schools is redundant. Not only has the horse bolted, it is now at the knackers yard being made into glue ....
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I’m not old enough no, but I seem to recall doing something along the same lines at school.
But yes, that’s a better way of putting what I mean!