Wednesday 20th May 2020
Posted: Wed 20 May, 2020 6:37 am
Morning all.
Serco is one of the companies hiring, training and operating the 15,000 contact tracers who do not have clinical training.[
But the mistake may leave the firm in breach of data protection rules. It is understood that at least one member of staff has raised the issue with the Information Commissioner.
So would we all.frog222 wrote: I'd prefer LOCAL environmental health officers and other career people to be involved!
Something for Starmer to raise in PMQs today?RogerOThornhill wrote:Morning all.
Serco displaying their usual level of competence I see...
Coronavirus: Serco apologises for sharing contact tracers' email addresses
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-52732818" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Serco is one of the companies hiring, training and operating the 15,000 contact tracers who do not have clinical training.[
But the mistake may leave the firm in breach of data protection rules. It is understood that at least one member of staff has raised the issue with the Information Commissioner.
So we have another arbitrary target that will potentially need to be fudged to save Johnson's face. Always about appearances rather than substance. Unlike 100,000 tests a day, though, the difference between actually achieving an effective track and trace system by the 1st June and merely appearing to is more than cosmetic. This target really matters if we're going ahead with schools re-opening in 2 weeks time.So Johnson got through this without the humbling he has endured last week. But to do so, he had to make quite a specific promise. When he first said that a contact tracking scheme capable of tracking 10,000 contacts a day would be up and running by 1 June, he made a firm commitment.
Yes, I doubt ours will differ much - it's certainly not a case of "If we don't open on 1st June then that's it until September" that seems to be the more frenzied media assumption.Sam Freedman
@Samfr
5h5 hours ago
More
Kids' school emails to say they're not opening on 1st June. Aim to get year 6 back on the 8th. Reception won't be till June 15th. I expect this will be quite common.
andEU response chief warns of second wave
The prospect of a second wave of coronavirus infection across Europe is no longer a distant theory, according to the director of the EU agency responsible for advising governments – including the UK – on disease control. “The question is when and how big, that is the question in my view,” says Dr Andrea Ammon, director of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). In an interview with the Guardian she added: “It’s not the time now to completely relax.” (Politics Live, Guardian)
MoD set to scale down size of Covid support force
The Ministry of Defence is poised to announce a reduction in the numbers of military personnel ready to tackle the coronavirus crisis in the UK to 7,500 from 20,000. These are soldiers and other members of the armed forces “held at readiness” so they can be deployed quickly if needed by civilian authorities, but with only 4,000 currently being used and the national situation slowly improving it has been decided fewer troops are required on standby. (Politics Live, Guardian)
Labour has criticised the data breach by Serco after the outsourcing firm revealed the details of hundreds of contact tracers who have signed up to work on the government’s programme (see earlier).
Helen Hayes, shadow Cabinet Office minister, said:
The government’s contact tracing programme will rely on people having the confidence to pass on sensitive personal data to contact tracers.
This data breach raises serious questions for the government about the capability of Serco to command public confidence.
It is concerning that the government has so far failed to publish any information about the contract it has awarded to Serco. Far greater transparency will be needed if the public are to have faith in the companies entrusted to deliver key elements of the government’s response to coronavirus.
(Politics Live, Guardian)
I'm fairly sure that they indicated no such thing. In response to a journalist's question, I think Jonathan Van-Tam (or JVT, as he is affectionately known by Matt Hancock) said that the matter needed closer scientific\medical investigation.Campsites are experiencing a surge in bookings after health officials indicated they could be lower risk holiday destinations than hotels, PA reports.
Experts have raised questions about Boris Johnson’s pledge to have a UK-wide tracing operation in place by 1 June and cast doubt on his claim that it would be “world-beating”. (Politics Live, Guardian)
Whilst returning to the workplace and school?Dowden says for majority of people 'staying alert' means staying at home (Politics Live, Guardian)
Does anyone know if many countries lifting lockdown started with schools? The few I've seen details for seem to have allowed non-essential shops to open before schools. I'm struggling to understand why the rush to re-open schools while the rest of the country is essentially in lockdown as South Korea has only just started re-opening schools despite never going into full lockdown at all. I'm trying to work out if this schools first, while the infection rate is still high, is as experimental as it seems or whether there's a precedent out there that the presumed low risk is based on.PorFavor wrote:Whilst returning to the workplace and school?Dowden says for majority of people 'staying alert' means staying at home (Politics Live, Guardian)
I mean, "world beating" - he just can't help himself can he?PorFavor wrote:Experts have raised questions about Boris Johnson’s pledge to have a UK-wide tracing operation in place by 1 June and cast doubt on his claim that it would be “world-beating”. (Politics Live, Guardian)
I've only now taken a look at the news todayUK death toll rises by 363
A further 363 Covid-19 deaths were announced in the UK, taking the total to 35,704. The number of coronavirus patients in hospital in England had fallen below 10,000 for the first time since March.
Government wants tourism to resume in July
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/li ... 782fa7e730" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
The World Health Organization gave a stark warning on Wednesday that the coronavirus pandemic is far from over, after 106,000 new cases were recorded worldwide over the past 24 hours – the most in a single day so far.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/ ... ns-the-who" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Excellent articleWhat is needed to inform decisions is information and real-time monitoring, at the local level, to tell us what the daily number of new cases and rate of transmission is. Those concrete numbers should be what drives policy, not a set of abstract arguments, even less an ideological battle.
When should British schools reopen? Here's what the science tells us
Devi Sridhar and Ines Hassan
Well quite.citizenJA wrote:I woke smelling the pollution we had a respite from for several weeks.
The noisy projects were back on.
Willow904 wrote:Does anyone know if many countries lifting lockdown started with schools? The few I've seen details for seem to have allowed non-essential shops to open before schools. I'm struggling to understand why the rush to re-open schools while the rest of the country is essentially in lockdown as South Korea has only just started re-opening schools despite never going into full lockdown at all. I'm trying to work out if this schools first, while the infection rate is still high, is as experimental as it seems or whether there's a precedent out there that the presumed low risk is based on.PorFavor wrote:Whilst returning to the workplace and school?Dowden says for majority of people 'staying alert' means staying at home (Politics Live, Guardian)
One of my colleagues was in yesterday, on rota. It's our school's turn to look after all of the children attending as vulnerable or from key workers families for the three local secondaries in our trust - there were 12 members of staff to oversee them, and for the three schools with a total of about 2500 children, around 500 of whom I think are entitled to attend, there were..... six.AnatolyKasparov wrote:And as I have said before, the "elephant in the room" here is that the government can insist schools "officially" reopen on a set date - but as long as a significant number of parents don't believe they are actually safe, a lot of kids still won't be going there......
My nephew and niece are at your school (and my sis works at the big hospital across the road)........the impression I got is my niece wasn't back before September - not sure where that has come fromadam wrote:One of my colleagues was in yesterday, on rota. It's our school's turn to look after all of the children attending as vulnerable or from key workers families for the three local secondaries in our trust - there were 12 members of staff to oversee them, and for the three schools with a total of about 2500 children, around 500 of whom I think are entitled to attend, there were..... six.AnatolyKasparov wrote:And as I have said before, the "elephant in the room" here is that the government can insist schools "officially" reopen on a set date - but as long as a significant number of parents don't believe they are actually safe, a lot of kids still won't be going there......
And this is why I'm being told I have to go back in, come what may, and it's my fault I've got a problem because I choose not to drive. And this is why I'm leaving as soon as I can.
The school have decided that 'some contact time for years 10 and 12' means half day every day timetables for half of each year group every other week. I have seen nothing to suggest that anything like this level of return was being anticipated. I get the impression that the school are just saying 'either you have a shielding letter or you attend, or you take four weeks unpaid leave and then you attend, or else'. In a seven week half term.howsillyofme1 wrote:My nephew and niece are at your school (and my sis works at the big hospital across the road)........the impression I got is my niece wasn't back before September - not sure where that has come fromadam wrote:One of my colleagues was in yesterday, on rota. It's our school's turn to look after all of the children attending as vulnerable or from key workers families for the three local secondaries in our trust - there were 12 members of staff to oversee them, and for the three schools with a total of about 2500 children, around 500 of whom I think are entitled to attend, there were..... six.AnatolyKasparov wrote:And as I have said before, the "elephant in the room" here is that the government can insist schools "officially" reopen on a set date - but as long as a significant number of parents don't believe they are actually safe, a lot of kids still won't be going there......
And this is why I'm being told I have to go back in, come what may, and it's my fault I've got a problem because I choose not to drive. And this is why I'm leaving as soon as I can.
adam wrote:She was one of ours.
It got better for a lot of regular people following the Second World War.Sky'sGoneOut wrote:Well quite.citizenJA wrote:I woke smelling the pollution we had a respite from for several weeks.
The noisy projects were back on.
Any notion that this hiatus would result in any positive 'progressive' difference has always made me laugh.
As if those who rip us off, pollute us, make a mockery of our democracy and press give a fuck.
The Daily Mail is demonising teachers unions while in the real world England has the worst excess mortality and morbitity rates in all of Europe. Other realities are available if you're paid thousands of pounds to ignore all that.
And that's what it's all about. Money. As it always has been.
These things can be a terrible anticlimax (election law...) but it would be nice if this is being buried today because there might be more to it tomorrow...The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) is to reveal its long-delayed decision on whether to investigate him for possible criminal misconduct over his friendship with Jennifer Arcuri. The watchdog will make the announcement at noon, after spending months on a scoping exercise into whether the prime minister has a case to answer.