Really? I had no idea! You must try to mention that more often, Andy.

Originally Posted by: NickR 

What's the saying... "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it"

First waves always fizzle out eventually, or rather die down to background noise, so the professor isn't saying anything new.

The key is not to repeat what happened in the likes of 1918!

(Chart from Wiki, showing the second and third wave of the 1918 flu outbreak in the UK).

Edited: chart is the whole of the UK, not just London.

Originally Posted by: Retron 

What's the saying... "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it"

First waves always fizzle out eventually, or rather die down to background noise, so the professor isn't saying anything new.

The key is not to repeat what happened in the likes of 1918!

(Chart from Wiki, showing the second and third wave of the 1918 flu outbreak in the UK).

Edited: chart is the whole of the UK, not just London.

Originally Posted by: Retron 

It's a shame it need mentioning.   But you rich kids seem to forget that we don't all have unlimited income. 

Originally Posted by: Essan 

My friend owns a small business. She was hoping to expand and employ 2 more staff this year.

For the past 2 months she has been working every day to keep her business going. She has drawn exactly £0.00 in income over this period.

She has sleepless nights because she may have to make some of her staff redundant if she cannot fully reopen and trade returns to what it was. Bearing in mind that social distancing rules makes it difficult to have 2 members of staff in the same area, even if the customers are there ......


Not everyone is bothered about whether they can get 2 weeks holiday this year. Not everyone has a guaranteed job.


Not everyone on TWO has the faintest idea what some people are going through.

Originally Posted by: Essan 

My friend owns a small business. She was hoping to expand and employ 2 more staff this year.

For the past 2 months she has been working every day to keep her business going. She has drawn exactly £0.00 in income over this period.

She has sleepless nights because she may have to make some of her staff redundant if she cannot fully reopen and trade returns to what it was. Bearing in mind that social distancing rules makes it difficult to have 2 members of staff in the same area, even if the customers are there ......


Not everyone is bothered about whether they can get 2 weeks holiday this year. Not everyone has a guaranteed job.


Not everyone on TWO has the faintest idea what some people are going through.

Originally Posted by: Essan 

 You're the walking definition of inverted snobbery.

Originally Posted by: NickR 

Yes, though, aiui, there we no measure at all to flatten the first peak back then?

Originally Posted by: Devonian 

If we were in a similar situation now I guess all those most likely to be killed by this virus would already have been (and it's a vast number, hence lock down). So, we aim to (well, this is old news - but worth repeating as some think the virus has simply gone away)  flatten the peak(s) so health services can cope.

My friend owns a small business. She was hoping to expand and employ 2 more staff this year.

For the past 2 months she has been working every day to keep her business going. She has drawn exactly £0.00 in income over this period.

She has sleepless nights because she may have to make some of her staff redundant if she cannot fully reopen and trade returns to what it was. Bearing in mind that social distancing rules makes it difficult to have 2 members of staff in the same area, even if the customers are there ......


Not everyone is bothered about whether they can get 2 weeks holiday this year. Not everyone has a guaranteed job.


Not everyone on TWO has the faintest idea what some people are going through.

Originally Posted by: Essan 

Yes, I've heard of similar relationships between public schools and those in the state sector. 

There are often bursaries and scholarships available in public schools to help those who cannot afford the fees.

Where the school has an entrance examination then the abilities/potential of the pupils will be higher than in a comprehensive school. Then you have the aspirations of the parents and the home environment: if you're paying thousands of pounds for your child's education you are expecting it to give them an advantage in life through bother higher academic qualifications and extracurricular activities.

From talking with my brother over the years it seems that there are the disruptive minority in every class that makes it more difficult for the others to be taught and to learn. In my experience you just don't get that in a public school.

As for getting kids away from their parents, that's only true of boarding schools and even then only those where you board for the entire term/half-term. 

Originally Posted by: Gandalf The White 

Maybe we do, and maybe we all have stories we can tell of ourselves or people we know, but we don't choose to plaster it all over a weather forum. Maybe you shouldn't assume you have a monopoly on understanding what poverty is.

Originally Posted by: NickR 

  It really would!  I’m not sure I’d want to be the first to get vaccinated though.  

Originally Posted by: Caz 

Let's all hope the trials go well and the Oxford vaccine proves to be the answer.

Originally Posted by: David M Porter 

The question for me (and I'm salaried, I chose not to be a businessman) has always been: which is the lesser of evils? Carry on as normal, let the virus rip (several 100K deaths by now), or flatten the peaks, or a combination? Which would have been be you choice?

Originally Posted by: Devonian 

Italy

• 675 new cases 


• 145 new deaths

Originally Posted by: Gavin D 

  It really would!  I’m not sure I’d want to be the first to get vaccinated though.  

Originally Posted by: Caz 

The danger from schools reopening isn't to children or the vast majority of staff, it is to the vulnerable family members of those children and staff. While it appears that children are largely unaffected by the virus we don't understand fully their ability to spread the disease. When the infection rate remains relatively high, as it does currently in the UK it's not unreasonable to question the wisdom of putting lots of people in places where social distancing is difficult and in many places impossible.

Originally Posted by: Northern Sky 

He's a dangerous twat. He is not an expert in this field, but tries to pass himself off as such. Check him out on wikipedia.

Originally Posted by: NickR 

 Wikipedia, yes that must be true.

Originally Posted by: bledur 

Ah that tired old cliché  Wikipedia is a lot better than it used to be. It'll never be a primary source for reference, not like scholar sites such as JSTOR, Google Scholar and twitter 

Originally Posted by: SJV