Marketing, circumstances and availability helped on this. The booster was advertised as saving Christmas, the campaign was close enough to Christmas to make that plausible, cases are rising high enough that people believe the vaccine matters and huge numbers of appointments were made available. Plus the wider recognition of Long COVID as a thing (about 1.8% of British people currently have severe enough Long COVID that they have been diagnosed as requiring specific medical treatment for it, despite less than 40% of people having had COVID in the first place and despite some diagnosticians not knowing how to diagnose Long COVID). The UK doesn't yet have statistics for the relationship between Long COVID and vaccination (and definitely don't have any for boosters, since they've not been available long enough for post-booster Long COVID to be diagnosable yet).

My booster was given in a hospital (at its dedicated on-site vaccination centre - it would usually be giving flu jabs at this time of the year). Your suggested guideline is a reasonable one, although people are being told not to bring anyone with them unless absolutely necessary (e.g. they're children under supervision or the person being vaccinated requires a manual wheelchair) or they happen to have lucked into adjacent vaccination slots. Frontline healthcare workers in England are expected to have at least 1 PCR test a week (the care home some of my relatives work in requires two lateral flow tests a week as well, the hospital I work at requires 1 of either lateral flow or PCR depending on department). Most other people don't get PCR tests unless they are about to travel abroad, have been ordered to take one by the hospital (many elective hospital treatments require it, and long-stay patients have PCRs) or they suspect they are ill *and* have taken a lateral test already (which may or may not get entered into the system, depending on the circumstances). Apart from the latter, those are not situations where the chance of being positive is unusually high, while frontline healthcare is. (Note also that test policy for people in healthcare with no patient contact and not in a care home varies according to local policy in England). Thus, I would expect not only healthcare workers to be more likely than other categories to be PCR-positive, but also the elderly (because it would be the most generally frail elderly people who'd be most likely to take PCR in the first place, and we already know that frailty predisposes elderly people to catch illnesses of many kinds including coronaviruses). Update from my local hospital from yesterday: COVID cases are skyrocketing but hospitalisations are holding steady locally (unlike in London). There is expected to be an increase - next month. intensive care continues to be getting a break from COVID. One COVID-only ward for non-ventilated COVID-positive patients continues to be enough, though it is working harder than it was this time last week (some people who were in intensive care are now healing with regular hospital care, which is good news). New policies are in place to increase staff availability and health, including a (so far successful) nurse hiring spree (at regular wages) and barring visitors from certain catering areas. The recently-launched system for having patients queue in optimally-safe places has had good acceptance and caused few problems. However, NHS England are holding firm and expecting NHS staff who test positive or have a household member test positive to self-isolate for 10 days. English law recently changed so that almost everyone else need only stay self-isolated for 7 days, provided their last 2 lateral flow/PCR tests (taken more than 24 hours apart) are negative. Finally, the hospital is switching to an all-PCR policy from the end of next month, to take advantage of the new PCR testing/processing facility. It's hoped this will increase accuracy and prevent accidental transmissions that happen between initial infection and being tested (PCR has a wider detection window than lateral).

In my case, mandatory observation meant that when I collapsed after dose #1, I didn't end up in hospital and there was enough context for the doctor to figure out how I could have future doses, so I'm not a neutral party on the question. But it is true that collapses are relatively rare, especially among people who are there for boosters rather than initial doses and got through the initial doses fine. (In case anyone is wondering, I had a Pfizer booster and had zero side effects this time).

In England, PCRs for international travel are charged at £40-£200, depending on provider (only private providers can issue the travel certificate), and may have been pre-booked in advance as a full set (since tests are required before leaving and after returning). PCRs because someone thinks they may have the virus (or for any purpose not involving international travel) are free because they are part of the NHS. Given he tested at home first (home tests are generally lateral flow, and it is advised to back up lateral flow results with PCRs due to false positive risk), the latter is more likely than the former. Pricing policy may vary in Scotland/Wales/Northern Ireland. Test results are usually emailed and/or texted, so that detail makes sense.

I've never been in a courtroom, but I did visit a court in support of a homeless acquaintance who got a summons for begging and couldn't find the courtroom on the day. Case took about 15 minutes and the acquaintance, who represented themselves, got fined the minimum possible amount. Due to the size of the courtroom (it was the smallest one that particular court had and I don't think it had a proper viewing gallery), I was asked to wait outside rather than enter. The most memorable part was the metal scanner, which appeared to go off at a bunch of items that had no known metal (and didn't go off when the spare scanner was passed over them).

It's possible to tell Omnicron from PCR tests (not lateral) because it has a blatant tell-tale, but British test providers are hit-and-miss as to whether they relay that detail to test-takers (they are legally required to tell the government statistics people if it's Omnicron, to enable planning; they're no longer required to report Delta vs other non-Omnicron strains).

It gives false reassurance to parents whose children have no pre-existing conditions (false because, apart from people with pre-existing conditions being people too, COVID-19 is quite capable of initiating "pre-existing conditions" in its own right). I had my flu shot a few weeks ago. There is flu in the UK, including some in various hospitals, but not as severe as last year and nowhere near as many people as pre-COVID. The worldwide extinction of one major strain is definitely being felt here, even if the flu vaccine may not be hitting every variant that's circulating. My COVID vaccination went well. Queuing was an issue - the people in front of me weren't socially-distancing, so I made sure I put in a 2 metre gap and this seemed to encourage the people behind me to give each other space in turn. Someone did eventually tell the people in front to sort themselves out and give each other space. Nearly everyone wore masks (it's mandatory, lots of people checking, but exemptions exist). The system was organised, apart from forgetting to mention in advance that everyone was meant to bring ID. (This is a big deal - 24% of people in the UK don't have valid ID of any kind, although it turned out that less formal means of identifying people were also in use). Injection went well. The volunteer clearly knew what they were doing; there was only a little scratch at the time and at no point since did it hurt or display any symptom. Then came the surprise. No mandatory observation. I got observation due to my reaction to the first vaccine and me specifically requesting, but most people were told they could leave immediately. The vaccine uptake where I live means nearly everyone was getting a booster, and I suspect the medics reason that people who were going to react would have done so with one of the first two if their booster was the same vaccine (I got a third Pfizer, but Moderna and OxfordAstrazeneca were also available and I get the impression from questioning that matches were being aimed for where possible). Someone did collapse in my visit - I did not enquire about the circumstances, though I don't think hospital transport was required - so clearly observation has merits. I was just surprised most people didn't get asked to stick around for at least 10 minutes (the seating and staff were there for everyone to wait, it just didn't get used much). Everyone got a sticker, hand sanitiser and a cheerful "Merry Christmas!" on the way out.

My local hospital's latest news is mixed. Bad news first: in-community cases rose by 31% this week and Omnicron has been confirmed as the main reason. Aside from a couple of cities (that were hit at the same time as London), Omnicrom is moving from south to north and east to west through England, which is why the community increase is 31% and not several hundred percent like the more south-easterly London. Everyone expects those several hundred percent stats will arrive, most likely in January. Community masking and social distancing is fairly poor, except that shops are tending to enforce masks (as the law requires). As a result, a slight increase in restrictions for visitors is going to be applied from Monday. Good news: so far, COVID-positive patients are leaving and entering in equal portions, and on average hospitalised patients are getting less sick, meaning the intensive care beds get some relief for once. The standard beds still have capacity, and it is tentatively believed there's enough regular-bed capacity for the expected number of admissions. This has bought time to not only give staff relief and a morale boost, but also enable some upgrades; namely, a better same-day treatment facility for people not requiring an overnight stay and not COVID-positive, and an appointment/waiting area system that, aside from the obvious efficiencies for patients with planned visits, increases options for healthy waiting areas if there does happen to be a larger-than-planned COVID surge. By the end of January, there will be an on-site PCR testing facility to make that part of the process more efficient, as well as a new ward with extra staffed beds. The campaign to increase uptake of boosters and voluntary testing is going quite well. I would like to say "Bravo" to @Acadie 's husband's school for increasing nurse training at this time. It's difficult to do that when staff are overworked, but it is unfortunately something that will be needed, and not just for the pandemic. The stress from this is probably going to cause early retirement or premature burnout even in some people who appear to weather the pandemic at the time. Finally, I'm really excited because I'm getting my booster dose tomorrow morning. Yippee!

Also, buses may not be able to get home either, if there is a storm...

Trying to keep a healthy diet, get enough sleep, wash hands regularly and correctly, give space to people outside my social circle, avoid big crowds, monitoring and controlling stress levels, having non-COVID-related distractions and plenty of walking.

I insist on leaving two metres (or as close to that as possible) behind anyone not obviously masked (though I try to leave one metre behind masked people not in my social circle in any case). My nearest attended test centre is shut due to weather for the winter and may not return. However, my local library has free test kits on the table by the front door (in smart boxes to take home) and my workplace has a big container full of hygeine-sealed test kit components for DIY lateral flow testing. I test myself once a week despite not being in a group that's required to do tests (frontline medical staff where I work must do three tests a week, one of which must be a PCR test, and the places where most of my other close relatives work require everyone to do likewise regardless of role). Nobody is charged for any of it, though I prefer to use my workplace's test kits because it's clearly purchasing in bulk and that's cheaper for them than using the boxed ones are likely to be for the library. I am concerned that my same-level colleagues are still reluctant to test. (My manager, on the other hand, is pleased that at least one of his subordinates is routinely testing of their own volition). The most recent statistic for my local hospital is 11 in hospital at some point during the week before last (2% of capacity if all present at the same time), 6 of whom were/are in the ICU (50% of capacity if all present at the same time) and 1 death (the first my hospital's had of COVID for three weeks). The reprieve will likely not last long but everyone's mood visibly lifted this week as they realised they can get more of the elective treatments done than expected. Lateral flow tests are definitely best at telling you if you have it right now (they can't predict the future and don't know your past), but if you and those around you avoid public places between when you take the test and when you go, it will most likely be accurate enough. (Nonetheless, I'd take a lateral flow test each in your luggage, and use it if someone has to break the bubble during the gathering to get milk or something. The test materials are typically valid for 2 years, so if you don't use them this gathering, they'll still be available if you need them in future). Numbers of people masking is visibly dropping in some shops even though they're legally required for anyone not exempt. You can tell the places that enforced the rules well before or simply attracted cautious types, because everyone or nearly everyone expected to mask indeed masks in those places. Due to COVID-related hygiene issues, toys cannot be donated to hospital this year and people are instead being asked to donate chocolate for those children spending Christmas at the local hospital. (Tinsel is banned, but for different hygiene reasons). Also, I'm excited because tomorrow... ...er, Wednesday (per Laura Corin's comment), I can make a booking for my COVID booster! Everyone else in my family's already had one due to either their age or their occupation, and I don't want to be the odd one out any more

Apparently the people who were being tested on that plane spent a long time in conditions not normally associated with flights (firstly, multiple hours in a stationary plane with engines - and thus active ventilation - depowered, then multiple more hours in a small room with poor ventilation). Good ventilation is essential to prevent transmission. That at least one passenger had COVID-19 before the flight began is obvious. However, the airports could definitely help everyone out by having sanitary testing facilities.

In emergencies (and COVID-19 being a pandemic, it's treated as an emergency), all mainland EU countries have a degree of ability to transfer patients across borders if they can demonstrate there's no suitable bed space in their own country and a neigbouring country agrees to take them. Germany has an unusually large amount of capacity, plenty of neighbours and a history of co-operating with this sort of thing at need, so it's one of the countries most often asked to "lend" beds.

This is where I am thankful that my workplace (which has a high COVID rate due to patients) still requires basic anti-COVID protocol of everyone to the best of their ability. I feel safer there than in town (despite the scare I reported).

There was a COVID scare at my workplace yesterday. Thankfully everyone turned out to be negative and the "suspected original case" turned out to be a case of someone getting two weeks of work-from-home as a reward for good work in the office and forgetting to tell anyone (the manager informed us after we all got our test results, having not realised beforehand that the sudden mass of tests being taken yesterday wasn't entirely due to an abundance of caution...)

I've seen a book about permaculture from Timor-Leste called "The Tropical Permaculture Guide" but can't speak to how relevant it is to Haiti.

One possible list is here, adapted from this British national curriculum list. I'd tick off anything you've already taught or you think your children already know, then start from wherever appears to make the most sense, adapting to what's available wherever you happen to be. Bear in mind that most of this list doesn't have pre-requisites: just teach/re-teach anything that appears to be in the way of understanding what's in front of the children at the point of need. Also, you can ignore the notes: they're designed for schools. Also note that these overlap - you can easily swap topics from one category to another in most cases. I've further separated the scientific processes from the topics since the age ranges for those are wider than for the topics Scientific process as simplified for 3rd grade and below: Ask questions -> consider what sort of answer would make sense -> do simple tests with available materials -> observe closely -> write down what happens -> use the data to answer the questions 2nd grade and below: - Plants, animals and the human body (mostly identifying, describing and comparing) - Materials (describe and compare common materials) - Seasons (including weather in each season - if you travel across climate boundaries, it's worth doing it again for each location) Grades 2-3: - Life and habitats (living/dead/never-alive distinctions, describing habitats, what lives where and why, food chains, possibly introduce evolution) - Plants (life cycles, what plants need to grow) - Animals and humans (how animals/humans change across the lifespan, what animals/humans need to live, nutrition, exercise and hygiene) - Materials (what different materials can be used for, how to change certain materials) Scientific process as simplified for 4th-6th grade: Ask relevant questions to the matter the student is considering -> consider what tests might help answer the questions -> make the test fair and possible to do with available resources -> observe closely -> measure accurately using common units (think centimetres and inches, not "finger widths") -> recording findings using simple scientific terms familiar to the students -> link results to knowledge about theory students already have -> presenting the results in multiple ways (including charts, tables, drawings, written and spoken words - these don't all need to be done for the same experiment, however) -> use scientific evidence to answer the questions -> suggest improvements and further questions Grades 3-4: - Plants (what different plant parts do, differences in requirements between plants, how water moves through plants, pollination, seed formation/dispersal) - Animals and humans (nutrition, construction and purpose of bones and muscles) - Rocks (compare rocks, fossil formation, soil) - Light (link to sight, reflections, don't look into the sun, shadows and how they change) - Forces and magnets (movement on different surfaces, magnetism acts at distance but friction does not, attraction/repulsion, magnetic poles) Grades 4-5: - Life and habitats (classification, changing environments including changes humans can do) - Animals and humans (describing the digestive system, tooth types, food chain interpretation) - States of matter (solid, liquid, gas, plasma, effect of temperature, water cycle) - Sound (how sound is made, vibrations needing a medium to move, effect of volume on vibrations, effect of distance on sound, effects of objects on pitch) - Electricity (items that use it, series circuits, troubleshooting series circuits, effect of a switch, conductors/insulators) Grades 5-6: - Life and habitats (differences between different animal species' life cycles, reproduction, changes associated with ageing) - Materials (different ways to compare materials, dissolution, separating mixtures, reasons why materials are used in certain ways, reversing dissolving/mixing/state changes, irreversibility of creating most new materials, burning and acids) - Earth and space (solar system movement, Moon's movement around Earth, moons/planets/stars are spherical, how day and night happen) - Forces (gravity and falling objects, effects of: air resistance, water resistance, friction, simple machines) Beyond this, you're heading into middle school topics.

That's a bad system. I have a low opinion of the train companies who serve my local station, but they do text with cancellations, route changes that involve your stations, and rail replacement service information if you book a specific service online. Delays aren't mentioned, admittedly, but at least there's some reason for the number to be provided...

This is especially problematic as people in the UK cannot choose their COVID test lab. It's not even always linked to regional geography. And some of us have very good reason not to want certain forms of biometric data in the hands of anyone who doesn't strictly require it. Depending on how the investigation goes, it may also reduce the accessibility of testing centres (which in my area is already reducing - from triangulation between different sources, it looks like only about 25% of local cases are being picked up on tests now, from a peak of about 40% in August). And the disablism review (there's currently a review going on in the UK about why people with autism and learning disabilities end up getting such bad outcomes for pretty much every element of the healthcare system, especially when combined with race and/or gender). It doesn't appear to be in Laura's original link, but 12% of Black patients assessed by one particular oxiometer model as being in the safe range were in fact in a dangerous range of oxidation. I am surprised nobody thought before that a light-based testing device like an oxiometer might be affected by the amount of light someone's skin reflects... Also, all British 16- and 17-year-olds will be allowed to get a second dose of COVID-19 vaccine from Monday if they had dose #1 more than 6 months ago. 40-50-year-olds will also be able to get boosters if they got dose #2 more than 6 months ago. I suspect nobody will be able to get a booster at 5 months until everyone's allowed to get a booster in the first place. Eligibility to go to venues with COVID restrictions will continue to be based on doses #1 and #2, without reference to boosters, but this means 16/17-year-olds who get dose #2 no longer have to get tests in order to visit mass events, for example. Also, the four countries have different policies about when the tests can actually be booked; for example, Scotland will not offer the booster to over-40s until all over-50s and clinically extremely vulnerable people are offered it, but England will have more of a free-for-all with online booking. (I'm keeping a careful eye on this because my current employer is strongly recommending everyone get every COVID and flu vaccine to which they are entitled, and for some of my colleagues both will become a formal contractual requirement from April due to a pay-rise-related contract change).

Yes, I do see some people smoking. Mostly right under the "No Smoking on Site" sign where I work (I'm told it is because the people doing it are creatures of habit, who haven't managed to break the habit despite considerable effort on their part, and management prefers to be able to monitor them in a known safe place than tell them off in the knowledge they will find somewhere less conspicuous to smoke). Seriously, it's a lot rarer than 15 years ago - the ban on public places gradually put off a lot of people from smoking, as did decreased visibility of cigarette purchase points. Even vaping, which I had worried for a time would replace cigarettes for a new generation, seem to have only taken off among a few, fairly isolated, groups of people. Partly this is because e-cigarettes are banned in most of the same places standard cigarettes are.

Currently, the advice I'm seeing is at least 28 days from the date of the first positive test (to give time for the cytokinal storm to reset itself as much as it is going to do, which also ensures quarantine will be respected) and no more than 6 months (since there is a good chance any natural resistance given by the infection will have gone again by that point). 3 months, as several others have suggested before me, seems like a good solid choice, but you have got some flexibility if you need to work around other things that are happening - for example, if your 6-year-old has a week-long sports meet in 3 months' time. either get the second dose 2+ weeks' prior, or have it 2+ days after the meet ends.

England's similar - every adult's recommended to supplement with a regular over-the-counter Vitamin D supplement of their choice (or multivitamin that includes Vitamin D) that has at least 100% recommended daily allowance of the vitamin, for at least October-April (or all year for people who spend most of their time indoors). For anyone who finds this curious, the Midlands in central England are on the same latitude as Moscow. Anything beyond that would only be tested for if reporting a specific condition that a doctor thought might be treatable/partially treatable with a stronger Vitamin D supplement. Those people are typically prescribed a Vitamin D supplement at whatever level is indicated appropriate for their condition, which would usually be more than 100% recommended daily allowance. Said testing and recommendation would most often involve a medical nutritionist, with a general practitioner's main job being to decide who needs to be put on the nutritionist's waiting list. Some other pathways may lead to a Vitamin D test for specific conditions affected by the vitamin. (Not routinely bringing up Vitamin D tests has an additional advantage to the NHS. By assuming everyone will get themselves a standard-issue Vitamin D/multivitamin from a supermarket/pharmacy as recommended means that prescriptions only need to be issued for people who either need it more than usual, or are eligible for free/reduced prescription costs due to poverty or already needing several other medications. This saves a lot of resources on processing prescriptions for standard-level vitamins).

My local hospital has started releasing figures for its own location. COVID patients are 20% of the intensive care unit and 6.6% of hospital patients (in a context where they are about 1% of the population - it seems my area's doing considerably better than the UK national average in terms of total infections). By the standards of the last two years, it's fairly quiet in most of the hospital, with about 30% of regular beds empty... ...but intensive care is full.

That particular quote leaves the matter of evolution/design open, but excludes young earth creationism.

"Slow Reading" is a movement which has existed for over a decade, though the lack of any sort of central hub may have impeded it in terms of recognition. I am a fan of tailoring one's way of reading to the text, and I think a good reading curriculum will involve at the very least learning fast and slow reading. (There are other ways to read, but simply knowing there's more than one way to do it, that it depends on the text, and getting practise at multiple ways to read constitutes a good start).