Quote Originally Posted by ramAnag View Post
Why do you always have to do that, GP? You make a fair point and then make some silly ‘teacherspeak’ reference. Do you somehow think teachers are in some way ‘immune’ to all that’s going on. Would it be fair of me to say in ‘accountantspeak’ and then suggest you know the cost of everything but the value of nothing?

Where have I said we should all ‘hunker down for another 3 to 6 months sat at home watching Netflix’?
I want a return to work/normality as soon as it is SAFELY possible just as much as you. I haven’t put any sort of time frame on things but it won’t be possible for schools to return normally before September and I firmly believe that a reliable ‘test, track and trace’ system needs to be in place before any full return.

I can provide four scenarios to illustrate the point. The public school kids who are my near neighbours have now been told that they will not be returning to school until September but will have online lessons for the remainder of this term. My five year old Y1 grandchild is meant to be returning for a 50% timetable from June 2nd. My daughter is meant to be returning to work as a Y6 teacher working in Staffordshire on the same day and my grandchildren in the USA have been told, like the Scots, that there will be no return until next term.

Like the government you, Tricky and Swale seem to believe that there is a ‘magic date’ when the virus will have been overcome or the risk will have diminished to such an extent that everyone can return to school and work as normal.

There is, imo, no such thing. It will vary from country to country and region to region as I have described above, and it is best to let the experts within those countries and regions make the judgement call. I understand the economic argument but what could be worse than a second wave that starts the whole thing off again because we try and kick start things too quickly?

Sorry RA you have completely misread and misinterpreted what I have said. because the exact opposite is true, there is NO magic date (barring a vaccine becoming available which is effective) that the virus will have been overcome. Its here to stay and as such those comfortably settled into their homes have to understand that
1) They will need to come out and resume life in as normal way as possible
2) That the risk of them (assuming they are not in an "at risk group") dying from Corvid-19 is remote and actually less likely than other risks which up until this pandemic I'd wager they never even thought about.
3) If we don't get the economy working again soon, then those 20,000 deaths as a result of the lock down which are not directly due to the virus will increase and more than likely outstrip those deaths from the virus.
4) Thousands of people from NHS staff care home staff, transport workers, supermarket staff etc have been working normally throughout this crisis and coming into contact with hundreds if not thousands of strangers every day and surprise surprise there has not be a huge number of deaths amongst those workers in percentage terms.
5) It simply isn't going to be possible and never has been possible to guarantee that life is safe, risks have to be managed and in a measured sensible way, admittedly society seems to think (when it suits it) that all risk of death can be avoided but in reality that s not true and we seem happy to drive in what are basically mobile bombs on our roads and accept the 6,000 plus casualties per year as an acceptable hazard and I could quote a fair few other things we do that could be easily avoided and actually reduce thousands of people dying every year, but which by and large we don't.

Italy which was very badly hit by the disease - largely it seems due to the high numbers of elderly people is now coming out of lock down, Denmark has got schools back up and running and Sweden and South Korea never had lock downs.

Its not simply the economy, its peoples lives, especially the younger generations who have had and will have their lives blighted by this approach, the cure will if continued be much worse and much longer lasting than the virus.