![\"Virus](\"https:\/\/www.diaryofanadi.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/virus3.png\" "\\"Virus")
This is a real example from a couple of weeks ago.<\/p>\nThis is a real example from a couple of weeks ago.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m teaching a brother and sister. The sister is virtually test-ready, and has been since before the lockdown in March. However, she is having problems with passing her theory test, so we have put lessons on hold until she gets that sorted (and she\u2019s doing daily private practice with her mum). Shortly before the lockdown began she got a job as a teaching assistant in a Nottingham school.<\/p>\n
Her brother started with me when I began working again last month. He\u2019d only had one lesson when he texted me and told me his sister had been sent home because one of the teaching staff had tested positive for COVID-19 (it quickly turned into three). His sister was awaiting her test result, so we cancelled his lesson for the following day. He texted me again to tell me that his sister had tested negative, but she still had to quarantine for 14 days (the guidance at the time on the NHS website). However, his mum had called 111 to find out about everyone in the house and been told that no one else needed to quarantine!<\/p>\n
That is (or was) stupid. If the person testing negative had to quarantine because (in the words of the NHS website), \u2018you might develop symptoms\u2019, what if they do<\/strong> develop symptoms? By then it would be too late.<\/p>\n I knew what I wanted to do, but I decided to let him make the call. He knows my situation as carer to my parents, and I made a condition before his lessons commenced that if there was any suspicion either of us had been near an infected person, we needed to be honest with each other. He\u2019s a decent lad (a very decent family, in fact), and he said he wouldn\u2019t mind holding off for 14 days. So that\u2019s what we did.<\/p>\n You see, that\u2019s me. I realise we are in the middle of a pandemic which has killed 50,000 people in the UK so far. I realise that we are not back to normal, and won\u2019t be for a while yet. And I know I have to try and make sure I don\u2019t bring the virus back home to my parents. And that\u2019s in spite of having a net negative income if I\u2019m not working. It all comes down to where my dial is set on the side of morality. But it seems that not all driving instructors would take the same approach.<\/p>\n Someone asked about a similar situation (though it might have been a shit-stirring hypothetical one), and asking the question \u2018what would you do?\u2019 A frightening number – mainly the same ones who spent the better part of the summer stating they were going to work because no one had specifically said they couldn\u2019t (even though they never actually did work) – appear to have taken the Ernie\u2019s College-o-rama online medical and epidemiology course during the lockdown, and are now expert enough to decide that just because a school has closed down due to a COVID-19 outbreak doesn\u2019t mean they\u2019re<\/strong> going to stop work for two weeks.<\/p>\n Others manage to reason that 2 + 2 = 5. Apparently, if a school gets a positive and sends everyone home, it\u2019s an \u2018overreaction\u2019, since not all the kids have been in direct contact with the positive subject – and certainly not your<\/strong> kid, of course. These \u2018experts\u2019 don\u2019t have a clue. All it boils down to is not wanting the hassle of having the kids home from school, and just wanting to earn money as if nothing\u2019s wrong right now. Their justifying \u2018explanations\u2019 are fabricated and twisted to fit in with that.<\/p>\n Take a look at the simple simulation below. The initial red dot is an infected person, and all the blue dots are uninfected people. Once they start moving, if a blue dot touches a red dot (there is more maths involved based on probability of infection by direct contact), it also becomes red. Just look how quickly it spreads to everyone.<\/p>\n