Coronavirus

[Anastasius]

This is quite "fun" though deals specifically with England and BJ's team, I think. https://www.politico.eu/article/how-...e-has-changed/

I wonder if there are similar articles which have timelines for Scotland, Wales or Ireland.

Fun? Fun? I find it profoundly depressing to be reminded of the pigs' ear that BJ and his lot have made of this.

[Dave2002]

Fun? Fun? I find it profoundly depressing to be reminded of the pigs' ear that BJ and his lot have made of this.

Of course I don't really mean fun in "that" sense, but amusing in that BJ's and other's antics have been well catalogued by some observers. I'm sorry if I've depressed you.

[teamsaint]

Fun? Fun? I find it profoundly depressing to be reminded of the pigs' ear that BJ and his lot have made of this.

No doubt they have made a mess of it, and a damaging one. But many governments have , and I think that relentlessly focusing on their failings ( not that the spotlight shouldn't be on those failings) can easily become a distraction from other areas for concern, such as the huge non-covid damage that is happening in healthcare, wellbeing issues, and other issues in medical and drugs research and industry, just as examples.

[johnb]

A comparison of 22nd September (based on yesterday's data) and 7 days prior.

I'm very far from optimistic about what the coming weeks have in store for us all.



In the boxes, "Pop" = percentage of the UK population that falls within the various ranges of Cases/100k (based on Local Authority populations).

[teamsaint]

I realise that it is a difficult job to accurately represent what is going on in graphs , charts etc, and that the press and media have agendas, but it would be good if they could stop using visuals that are both eye catching and very misleading, such as the graphs showing current infections way above those at the peak of the first wave, which is clearly very unrepresentative of the “ real” situation.

Maybe we could give them johnb’s phone number........

[Dave2002]

The grey areas in the displays are interesting. If these are correct - and they probably are as far as can be told from the data available. Parts of the south coast, and East Anglia seem currently little affected. Also the areas around but not including Aberdeen - must check my geography - the pinkish bit is roughly where I expect Aberdeen - which has had outbreaks - to be. Highland and Sutherland appear to be getting worse.

Thanks as always to John. I suspect he must have done some form of data analysis/presentation for a living - or maybe still does.

[Anastasius]

I can't help but think that the fines for breaking the self-isolation rule might be counter-productive. Surely a disincentive for anyone to sign up for the NHS Track and Trace app if you run the risk of being told to self-isolate. Quite a selfish outlook, of course.

This has all the hallmarks of a truly dystopian horror film.

With regard to universities, was it ever suggested that, to minimise infection risks, many of the Arts courses could have been done using distance-learning/Zoom etc ? Obviously not music ! But certainly history, social sciences, philosophy, politics, english, foreign languages, I would have thought.

[Dave2002]

I can't help but think that the fines for breaking the self-isolation rule might be counter-productive. Surely a disincentive for anyone to sign up for the NHS Track and Trace app if you run the risk of being told to self-isolate. Quite a selfish outlook, of course.

This has all the hallmarks of a truly dystopian horror film.

With regard to universities, was it ever suggested that, to minimise infection risks, many of the Arts courses could have been done using distance-learning/Zoom etc ? Obviously not music ! But certainly history, social sciences, philosophy, politics, english, foreign languages, I would have thought.

Why not music? Surely it depends on the course, and what its aims are.

I agree about some of the disincentives. Unless people were really ill, and needed help, I can imagine quite a number of people wouldn't want to have tests with the possibility of self-isolation. Consider a working single mother with a low income, and a couple of kids. She wouldn't be able to afford the loss of income, nor the fine if it turned out she had coronavirus and had deliberately kept silent. There are many other examples, if you put your mind to thinking about this. New immigrants - including illegal ones - would probably lie low too, and there's no point in pretending they don't exist, or that in some sectors there are not many of them.

[Anastasius]

Why not music? Surely it depends on the course, and what its aims are.

....

I'm not sure and have zero knowledge of this but would have thought access to an instrument of some sort would have been essential ?

[Richard Barrett]

I'm not sure and have zero knowledge of this but would have thought access to an instrument of some sort would have been essential ?

It does depend on the instrument of course. At the Royal Conservatoire of The Hague, the recommendation is that both instrumental lessons and group lessons should be a combination of in-person and online. The building is open for students to practise on non-portable instruments but there are strict limits on the number of people per room, varying according to the size of the room, rooms must be aerated for 30 minutes between occupations, social distancing is required everywhere and masks in all corridors and shared spaces, as many corridors as possible have been made into one-way streets, and so on (and so are staff meetings, which is nice!). All of my lectures and composition lessons are taking place online. Two buildings additional to the main building have been rented to create extra space. So far these policies don't seem to have led to a spike in infections even though the general situation in the Netherlands isn't too good at the moment. What's important of course is that the instructions are clear and that everyone sees it as for the good of the community that they're followed, both of which seem to be something of a problem in the UK.

[johnb]

The grey areas in the displays are interesting. If these are correct - and they probably are as far as can be told from the data available. Parts of the south coast, and East Anglia seem currently little affected. Also the areas around but not including Aberdeen - must check my geography - the pinkish bit is roughly where I expect Aberdeen - which has had outbreaks - to be. Highland and Sutherland appear to be getting worse.

Yes, that pink bit is Aberdeen.

There seems to be a correlation (though a very loose one) between cases/100k and population density. I guess you would expect that.

Sorry for yet another graphic. (I've used the same colours as before, to make the map easily to compare:

[Dave2002]

The south coast seems to have high population density but also low coronavirus incidence, so a pretty loose connection.

Could there be a reason for that? Partal immunity perhaps?

[Bryn]

The south coast seems to have high population density but also low coronavirus incidence, so a pretty loose connection.

Could there be a reason for that? Partal immunity perhaps?

Perhaps us soft southerners just knuckle under to the rules more readily. No, it can't be that.

[Frances_iom]

The south coast seems to have high population density but also low coronavirus incidence, so a pretty loose connection.

Could there be a reason for that? Partal immunity perhaps?

Higher income per household = less overcrowded accommodation + possibly an older population (many retirees) who are self isolating to a considerable extent.

The joker in the pack is the University towns - large numbers of youth looking for a social life (and who didn't at their age) in effectively covid-friendly communal living but many of whom will have interactions (jobs, pubs etc) in the outside non-University community - one would hesitate to suggest the covid equivalent of the pre-war measles parties to let the young catch it together and then rely on herd immunity but maybe that could have allowed a normal life after 2 weeks or so - the present system will just drag on for months as one small breach in the 'lockdown' will spread ...

[Dave2002]

Perhaps us soft southerners just knuckle under to the rules more readily. No, it can't be that.

You're not that close to the sea, I think.