Once again, deaths down, mechanical ventilation down, hospitals flat, hospital admissions barely changed vs last week.
New record on cases, much bigger new record on number of tests done - frankly a very encouraging day's data.
I wouldn't yet call it encouraging with that many cases. If in a week hospitalisations have only nudged up a little then it will be fairly clear the pattern. The numbers of hospitalisations in the next week is the key figure to watch in my view.
Will they detail incidental admissions and for covid admissions as if not admissions are bound to look like they are going up.
@Philip_Thompson If I went on public transport I could give it to somebody who ended up dying, if I can avoid doing that I will. I don't like your attitude.
It takes two to tango. I don't like your attitude either, there is no avoiding getting the virus and the sooner we stop trashing people's livelihoods in order to prevent the spread of an entirely natural [unless you think it came from a lab] virus is a price not worth paying.
If you think that just because someone has a virus we should be destroying the livelihoods of people like Miss Cyclefree Jr and millions like her, then I don't like your attitude either.
If you want to stay at home voluntarily that should be your choice, but there should be absolutely nothing stopping you from getting on the bus or going to the pub or anything else if that's what you want to do.
How does me isolating at home destroy the livelihoods of Miss Cyclefree?
If you're telling people who want to go out and about that they have to stay at home because they either have or might get a virus, then that is destroying livelihoods.
People should be free to go out, even if they're positive for the virus, and live lives and frequent premises. To say otherwise is what is destroying businesses. If you choose not to, that's fine, I respect free choice. But compelling others not to (which further compels them to not go out even if not positive because they fear ending in isolation) is very wrong.
If you're ill and you go out into the world spreading it around then you're just selfish. End of story.
Oh give over.
Illness is part of nature. The immune system needs to get used to fighting illnesses.
I'm not sure it's all that encouraging. On the positive side, cases, and admissions, don't seem to be rising as fast as they were, but admissions are already up to 50% of the delta peak, with presumably further to go.
Hospitals are not under any pressure in Guateng (as the premier of Guateng confirmed today), it is completely different to Delta, these charts look a bit scary but the majority of Covid admissions are incidental i.e.they are not being treated for Covid. In a population of 15 million there are only 90 people on ventialtion and out of those some will not be for Covid. Compare and contrast to the number for the previous Delta wave when they run out of beds and oxygen.
Hmm, I think you are being complacent there. The peak in admissions in the Guateng delta wave was around 60 to 80 days after the start of the wave. They are only around 25 days into the omicron wave so far.
We just can't be definitive in our conclusions yet.
See this linear-scale version of the same chart, which is perhaps clearer:
While that's true, the more important question is what is the gap between peak in cases and peak in hospitalizations, surely? If cases have peaked, then one would expect hospitalizations to follow 7 to 14 days later. (Unless it is particularly quick or particularly slow to reach full severity.)
Bingo - no point comparing wave length to Delta when the whole reason we're discussing Omicron is it cycles so much faster.
It's not Londoners that are likely to move - it's the people with second homes. There's a whole class of people that lie and cheat. People that actually live in London - one home, and it's here, are not the same.
What exactly is the lying and cheating about.
Well tax obviously. I just bought a flat from a Jewish couple - they were/are clearly rotten to the core (which is very much not my experience of Jewish people). The extensive array of companies (many bust) that they were involved in is really rather interesting, and once I get it all together they're going to jail. They pissed off the wrong person.
WTF does it matter if they have an 'X' in their passport? It is a matter for them. It will not make the slightest difference to me or anyone else on here. The world will not stop.
It does matter because it changes the purpose of that field on a passport/
Just as a matter of interest, if I am post-op trans, do I get to put my new sex on the passport?
I think you do as you'd have a gender recognition certificate.
“Sex stereotypes are bad. Also a person's inner sense of gender, based on sex stereotypes, is more real and important than their biological sex'
More or less sums up where I am. Feeling a different gender doesn't even make any sense if you actually follow through on the liberation of people from traditional roles. Wear what you like, change your name to what you like.
I don't care what people want to wear. I don't care what they call themselves. I don't care who they have sex with provided it is consensual and above age. I do care that women and other vulnerable people are safe. I think that their safety and confidence is more important than the desire of those who claim to wish to call themselves women.
I do also rather care that rather more children than one would expect are going down the trans route. Two children - one boy and one girl - from my oldest daughter's old primary school class are now identifying as the opposite gender at the age of 11. I know of a third at another local school. This feels wildly out of kilter with how many one would expect and does rather suggest (to me) that 'trans' has become something of an easy answer to the normal pre-teen condition of not-quite-feeling-comfortable-in-your-own-body. Perhaps.
Asking a non-approved question, how much of it do you think is teenage or school fashion?
In all honesty, sceptical though I naturally am, example 3 above was going down this route from when I first met him before school. He's a troubled child in many ways but has always, always dressed as a girl.
My interpretation of the other 2 is that example number 1 is probably gay, flamboyant but not trans - just has a non-traditional approach to masculinity. I think he will have a significantly easier time of his teenage years than he would have done 30 years ago. My guess is that he'd flirting with trans as an ideology because it's fashionable. But, still, I suppose an unwise teenage dalliance with identifying as the other gender is probably less damaging than having your entire teenage years being bullied for being gay. So I'm certainly not saying the old days were better here. Example #2 is the saddest: she is a (fairly mentally immature) 11 year old whose body has matured very early. She is a girl currently not at home with the body she now has, as presumably has been the case for young girls for centuries. She was a nice kid when I knew her, but not that bright and worryingly easily influenced - always with a slightly desperate look for approval.
I know none of these children well and am rather uncomfortable psychoanalysing them on the internet, so please put massive bloke-in-a-pub-told-me caveats before all of this. I do so only to answer the question i.e. one was always going trans but the other two probably following fashion.
You got in before I withdrew the question, to avoid a potential bunfight.
I tend to think that there is always an element of 'fashionable' fringe around a core of real. And activists are willing to take advantage of the larger number.
I recall all those years where gay-rights people were shouting about 10% being gay.
@Philip_Thompson If I went on public transport I could give it to somebody who ended up dying, if I can avoid doing that I will. I don't like your attitude.
It takes two to tango. I don't like your attitude either, there is no avoiding getting the virus and the sooner we stop trashing people's livelihoods in order to prevent the spread of an entirely natural [unless you think it came from a lab] virus is a price not worth paying.
If you think that just because someone has a virus we should be destroying the livelihoods of people like Miss Cyclefree Jr and millions like her, then I don't like your attitude either.
If you want to stay at home voluntarily that should be your choice, but there should be absolutely nothing stopping you from getting on the bus or going to the pub or anything else if that's what you want to do.
How does me isolating at home destroy the livelihoods of Miss Cyclefree?
If you're telling people who want to go out and about that they have to stay at home because they either have or might get a virus, then that is destroying livelihoods.
People should be free to go out, even if they're positive for the virus, and live lives and frequent premises. To say otherwise is what is destroying businesses. If you choose not to, that's fine, I respect free choice. But compelling others not to (which further compels them to not go out even if not positive because they fear ending in isolation) is very wrong.
If you're ill and you go out into the world spreading it around then you're just selfish. End of story.
Oh give over.
Illness is part of nature. The immune system needs to get used to fighting illnesses.
You're acting like some OCD clean freak.
We have jabs for that. If you can avoid giving COVID to your mother or granny you would and we both know it
Once again, deaths down, mechanical ventilation down, hospitals flat, hospital admissions barely changed vs last week.
New record on cases, much bigger new record on number of tests done - frankly a very encouraging day's data.
I wouldn't yet call it encouraging with that many cases. If in a week hospitalisations have only nudged up a little then it will be fairly clear the pattern. The numbers of hospitalisations in the next week is the key figure to watch in my view.
Will they detail incidental admissions and for covid admissions as if not admissions are bound to look like they are going up.
Released every Thursday, For the last week 40% of hospital beds use increase attributed to Covid was for people who are not in hospital for covid.
@Philip_Thompson If I went on public transport I could give it to somebody who ended up dying, if I can avoid doing that I will. I don't like your attitude.
It takes two to tango. I don't like your attitude either, there is no avoiding getting the virus and the sooner we stop trashing people's livelihoods in order to prevent the spread of an entirely natural [unless you think it came from a lab] virus is a price not worth paying.
If you think that just because someone has a virus we should be destroying the livelihoods of people like Miss Cyclefree Jr and millions like her, then I don't like your attitude either.
If you want to stay at home voluntarily that should be your choice, but there should be absolutely nothing stopping you from getting on the bus or going to the pub or anything else if that's what you want to do.
How does me isolating at home destroy the livelihoods of Miss Cyclefree?
If you're telling people who want to go out and about that they have to stay at home because they either have or might get a virus, then that is destroying livelihoods.
People should be free to go out, even if they're positive for the virus, and live lives and frequent premises. To say otherwise is what is destroying businesses. If you choose not to, that's fine, I respect free choice. But compelling others not to (which further compels them to not go out even if not positive because they fear ending in isolation) is very wrong.
There is no fucking way if I was positive I would leave the house. Just tested positive? Ah fuck that! I will go and see my immunocompromised relative, or cough and sneeze all over the place and on some granny doing her weekly shop at Morrison's!
Fair play to you Philip if you can live with actions and it's consequences like that, I simply couldn't.
David Gower will be part of BT Sport’s coverage of the Ashes from the third Test as a replacement voice for Michael Vaughan, who will not be heard by UK viewers as an investigation continues into his alleged used of racially offensive language.
BT have been using commentary from the host broadcaster, Fox Sports, for the first two Tests, with a team of pundits including Sir Alastair Cook offering analysis from their London studio. However, from the third Test, which starts in Melbourne on Boxing Day, Gower will feature on the BT coverage — from Australia — to broadcast whenever Vaughan appears on Fox. The 64-year-old is flying down under this weekend.......
....The return of Vaughan to the Fox commentary box means that BT have decided to change their plans for coverage of the last three matches of the series and will now, it is believed, cut to Gower in a separate studio in the ground, offering commentary and analysis along with pundits in London, during Vaughan’s commentary stints. They will continue to use the Fox Sports commentary when Vaughan is not on air.
I'm not sure it's all that encouraging. On the positive side, cases, and admissions, don't seem to be rising as fast as they were, but admissions are already up to 50% of the delta peak, with presumably further to go.
Hospitals are not under any pressure in Guateng (as the premier of Guateng confirmed today), it is completely different to Delta, these charts look a bit scary but the majority of Covid admissions are incidental i.e.they are not being treated for Covid. In a population of 15 million there are only 90 people on ventialtion and out of those some will not be for Covid. Compare and contrast to the number for the previous Delta wave when they run out of beds and oxygen.
Hmm, I think you are being complacent there. The peak in admissions in the Guateng delta wave was around 60 to 80 days after the start of the wave. They are only around 25 days into the omicron wave so far.
We just can't be definitive in our conclusions yet.
See this linear-scale version of the same chart, which is perhaps clearer:
While that's true, the more important question is what is the gap between peak in cases and peak in hospitalizations, surely? If cases have peaked, then one would expect hospitalizations to follow 7 to 14 days later. (Unless it is particularly quick or particularly slow to reach full severity.)
According to the Doctors in SA the five day thing with Delta (the worse symptoms can come on afetr 5 days) does not apply with Omicron. If you have it nasty you have it straight away.
It's really so frustrating that we could have had an extra 10-12m people into the third dose immunity funnel if the government had got a move on three weeks ago. AIUI only a trivial number of extra vaccine centres have opened and no additional staff had been made available until today/tomorrow depending on where in the country. The capacity utilisation of the current vaccine network was running below 50% for absolutely ages.
Once again, Boris is just playing catch up for absolutely no reason except bone idleness and stupidity. Two years into this crisis and we all hoped that he'd have learned the lesson of acting early and acting fast. The "get your booster" speech from Monday has done a good job of getting people to go and get it, but it should have been given four weeks earlier.
Three of the four great offices of State - the Prime Minister, the Home Office and the Chancellor of the Exchequor - are occupied by people of below average height (for their sex).
Given politics tends to be dominated by the tall, this is really quite extraordinary.
David Gower will be part of BT Sport’s coverage of the Ashes from the third Test as a replacement voice for Michael Vaughan, who will not be heard by UK viewers as an investigation continues into his alleged used of racially offensive language.
BT have been using commentary from the host broadcaster, Fox Sports, for the first two Tests, with a team of pundits including Sir Alastair Cook offering analysis from their London studio. However, from the third Test, which starts in Melbourne on Boxing Day, Gower will feature on the BT coverage — from Australia — to broadcast whenever Vaughan appears on Fox. The 64-year-old is flying down under this weekend.......
....The return of Vaughan to the Fox commentary box means that BT have decided to change their plans for coverage of the last three matches of the series and will now, it is believed, cut to Gower in a separate studio in the ground, offering commentary and analysis along with pundits in London, during Vaughan’s commentary stints. They will continue to use the Fox Sports commentary when Vaughan is not on air.
It's not Londoners that are likely to move - it's the people with second homes. There's a whole class of people that lie and cheat. People that actually live in London - one home, and it's here, are not the same.
What exactly is the lying and cheating about.
Well tax obviously. I just bought a flat from a Jewish couple - they were/are clearly rotten to the core (which is very much not my experience of Jewish people). The extensive array of companies (many bust) that they were involved in is really rather interesting, and once I get it all together they're going to jail. They pissed off the wrong person.
Your Jeremy Corbyn Labour party membership card is in the post.
@Philip_Thompson If I went on public transport I could give it to somebody who ended up dying, if I can avoid doing that I will. I don't like your attitude.
It takes two to tango. I don't like your attitude either, there is no avoiding getting the virus and the sooner we stop trashing people's livelihoods in order to prevent the spread of an entirely natural [unless you think it came from a lab] virus is a price not worth paying.
If you think that just because someone has a virus we should be destroying the livelihoods of people like Miss Cyclefree Jr and millions like her, then I don't like your attitude either.
If you want to stay at home voluntarily that should be your choice, but there should be absolutely nothing stopping you from getting on the bus or going to the pub or anything else if that's what you want to do.
How does me isolating at home destroy the livelihoods of Miss Cyclefree?
If you're telling people who want to go out and about that they have to stay at home because they either have or might get a virus, then that is destroying livelihoods.
People should be free to go out, even if they're positive for the virus, and live lives and frequent premises. To say otherwise is what is destroying businesses. If you choose not to, that's fine, I respect free choice. But compelling others not to (which further compels them to not go out even if not positive because they fear ending in isolation) is very wrong.
Do you think it is someone's free choice to get in a car when they are pissed and kill someone's loved one? Anyone that goes out and about knowing they have Covid is almost as bad as someone having unprotected sex while knowing they are HIV positive. Scum, nothing less. Anyone that supports the "rights" of someone to do so has particularly twisted morals and logic.
Three of the four great offices of State - the Prime Minister, the Home Office and the Chancellor of the Exchequor - are occupied by people of below average height (for their sex).
Given politics tends to be dominated by the tall, this is really quite extraordinary.
I'm sure having a short male prime minister has nothing to do with it.
But I'm in favour anyway - tall people are far more likely to be over promoted and cock things up, even if this particular set of short stacks are all useless too.
@Philip_Thompson If I went on public transport I could give it to somebody who ended up dying, if I can avoid doing that I will. I don't like your attitude.
It takes two to tango. I don't like your attitude either, there is no avoiding getting the virus and the sooner we stop trashing people's livelihoods in order to prevent the spread of an entirely natural [unless you think it came from a lab] virus is a price not worth paying.
If you think that just because someone has a virus we should be destroying the livelihoods of people like Miss Cyclefree Jr and millions like her, then I don't like your attitude either.
If you want to stay at home voluntarily that should be your choice, but there should be absolutely nothing stopping you from getting on the bus or going to the pub or anything else if that's what you want to do.
How does me isolating at home destroy the livelihoods of Miss Cyclefree?
If you're telling people who want to go out and about that they have to stay at home because they either have or might get a virus, then that is destroying livelihoods.
People should be free to go out, even if they're positive for the virus, and live lives and frequent premises. To say otherwise is what is destroying businesses. If you choose not to, that's fine, I respect free choice. But compelling others not to (which further compels them to not go out even if not positive because they fear ending in isolation) is very wrong.
Do you think it is someone's free choice to get in a car when they are pissed and kill someone's loved one? Anyone that goes out and about knowing they have Covid is almost as bad as someone having unprotected sex while knowing they are HIV positive. Scum, nothing less. Anyone that supports the "rights" of someone to do so has particularly twisted morals and logic.
And doing that with HIV is a crime in E&W (not sure about Scotland).
Three of the four great offices of State - the Prime Minister, the Home Office and the Chancellor of the Exchequor - are occupied by people of below average height (for their sex).
Given politics tends to be dominated by the tall, this is really quite extraordinary.
Three of the four great offices of State - the Prime Minister, the Home Office and the Chancellor of the Exchequor - are occupied by people of below average ... [BLANK]
Sorry. I've got the virus. The idea that I am capable of doing anything whatsoever much beyond reading this, brewing up and taking a nap is for the birds. I couldn't go out and "support any bugger's economy" whether I wanted to or not. And. I would be incapable of doing any kind of manual work. Or anything that compromised another's safety. Because I'm not well enough. To circle back to the beginning of this thread. Pseudo-libertarian feelz about the issue don't trump facts.
WTF does it matter if they have an 'X' in their passport? It is a matter for them. It will not make the slightest difference to me or anyone else on here. The world will not stop.
It does matter because it changes the purpose of that field on a passport/
And what difference does it make?
Why not just abolish the field? I don't see it's much more use than vegetarian/vegan/prefer not to say.
Quick ID for the guy on the desk?
That is the job of the passport photo
So the doc says male and the officer sees what's apparently a female is standing in front of him?
@OldKingCole - It happens to effeminate men and to butch women. For example
"A 22-year-old who has never had a serious relationship fears his effeminate appearance is putting off potential suitors."
"A Detroit woman has filed a lawsuit against restaurant chain Fishbone's after a frightening incident in which she was mistaken for a man and tossed out of a women's bathroom, reports TV station WXYZ.
Cortney Bogorad wears her hair cropped short and is cisgender, meaning she is not a trans woman. "
Sorry. I've got the virus. The idea that I am capable of doing anything whatsoever much beyond reading this, brewing up and taking a nap is for the birds. I couldn't go out and "support any bugger's economy" whether I wanted to or not. And. I would be incapable of doing any kind of manual work. Or anything that compromised another's safety. Because I'm not well enough. To circle back to the beginning of this thread. Pseudo-libertarian feelz about the issue don't trump facts.
No, you need to get on the train now, maskless and spread it around, for the sake of public health! Do your duty!
Three of the four great offices of State - the Prime Minister, the Home Office and the Chancellor of the Exchequor - are occupied by people of below average height (for their sex).
Given politics tends to be dominated by the tall, this is really quite extraordinary.
I'm surprised that the Foreign Secretary isn't below average too?
Three of the four great offices of State - the Prime Minister, the Home Office and the Chancellor of the Exchequor - are occupied by people of below average height (for their sex).
Given politics tends to be dominated by the tall, this is really quite extraordinary.
I'm sure having a short male prime minister has nothing to do with it.
But I'm in favour anyway - tall people are far more likely to be over promoted and cock things up, even if this particular set of short stacks are all useless too.
Napoleon was reputed to be a smaller man. He also appears to have been fairly adept at politics and war...
Sorry. I've got the virus. The idea that I am capable of doing anything whatsoever much beyond reading this, brewing up and taking a nap is for the birds. I couldn't go out and "support any bugger's economy" whether I wanted to or not. And. I would be incapable of doing any kind of manual work. Or anything that compromised another's safety. Because I'm not well enough. To circle back to the beginning of this thread. Pseudo-libertarian feelz about the issue don't trump facts.
On the flip side, my wife and I are bored to tears, neither of us feels ill, though we're also not venturing out of our house.
Semi anecdata: Seeing the London case rates rise has meant I cancelled my trip to London yesterday. It was planned for Friday but I felt going to a nightclub was an Omicron petri dish even with vaxports. The night got cancelled today anyway.
However, another friend has just returned from a weekend away in London on Sunday just gone and has just tested positive for Covid again on an LFT (although it was October 2020 when he got it the first time). I was due to see him on Tuesday but luckily cancelled for other reasons, but it seems that Omicron is finding many ways to get close.
Just an afternoon reminder that there remains a non-negligible risk of a white Christmas in the models.
This afternoon it's the turn of the US GFS. This is Christmas Eve: daytime temperatures in low single digits and some snow on high ground in the West country. But only a few spike mutations away from widespread snowfall.
Semi anecdata: Seeing the London case rates rise has meant I cancelled my trip to London yesterday. It was planned for Friday because I felt going to a nightclub was an Omicron petri dish even with vaxports. The night got cancelled today anyway.
However, another friend has just returned from a weekend away in London on Sunday just gone and has just tested positive for Covid again on an LFT (although it was October 2020 when he got it the first time). I was due to see him on Tuesday but luckily cancelled for other reasons, but it seems that Omicron is finding many ways to get close.
Unless you never leave the house for the next 2 months, everybody is going to come into contact with plenty of people with Omicron.
It's not Londoners that are likely to move - it's the people with second homes. There's a whole class of people that lie and cheat. People that actually live in London - one home, and it's here, are not the same.
What exactly is the lying and cheating about.
Well tax obviously. I just bought a flat from a Jewish couple - they were/are clearly rotten to the core (which is very much not my experience of Jewish people). The extensive array of companies (many bust) that they were involved in is really rather interesting, and once I get it all together they're going to jail. They pissed off the wrong person.
Your Jeremy Corbyn Labour party membership card is in the post.
I can be aghast at the actions of an individual within a community and yet be entirely positive about that community as a whole.
Three of the four great offices of State - the Prime Minister, the Home Office and the Chancellor of the Exchequor - are occupied by people of below average height (for their sex).
Given politics tends to be dominated by the tall, this is really quite extraordinary.
I'm sure having a short male prime minister has nothing to do with it.
But I'm in favour anyway - tall people are far more likely to be over promoted and cock things up, even if this particular set of short stacks are all useless too.
Napoleon was reputed to be a smaller man. He also appears to have been fairly adept at politics and war...
But of course he was actually normal height for the time, and the accusation of smallness was part of the general bias in favour of the tall I am complaining about.
Semi anecdata: Seeing the London case rates rise has meant I cancelled my trip to London yesterday. It was planned for Friday because I felt going to a nightclub was an Omicron petri dish even with vaxports. The night got cancelled today anyway.
However, another friend has just returned from a weekend away in London on Sunday just gone and has just tested positive for Covid again on an LFT (although it was October 2020 when he got it the first time). I was due to see him on Tuesday but luckily cancelled for other reasons, but it seems that Omicron is finding many ways to get close.
Unless you never leave the house for the next 2 months, everybody is going to come into contact with plenty of people with Omicron.
Oh I agree, I'm just wanting to be able to have my booster on Tuesday and be able to go back to my home town for Christmas, as I was self isolating last Christmas anyway. I wouldn't particularly care about close shaves like this otherwise and might even have braved London.
Sorry. I've got the virus. The idea that I am capable of doing anything whatsoever much beyond reading this, brewing up and taking a nap is for the birds. I couldn't go out and "support any bugger's economy" whether I wanted to or not. And. I would be incapable of doing any kind of manual work. Or anything that compromised another's safety. Because I'm not well enough. To circle back to the beginning of this thread. Pseudo-libertarian feelz about the issue don't trump facts.
You might not but according to the NHS one third of people who are positive don't even know they're positive without taking tests because they've not got symptoms.
So what "facts" apply to them? If someone is asymptomatic but tests positive should they be legally allowed to go out while they feel fine?
It's not Londoners that are likely to move - it's the people with second homes. There's a whole class of people that lie and cheat. People that actually live in London - one home, and it's here, are not the same.
What exactly is the lying and cheating about.
Well tax obviously. I just bought a flat from a Jewish couple - they were/are clearly rotten to the core (which is very much not my experience of Jewish people). The extensive array of companies (many bust) that they were involved in is really rather interesting, and once I get it all together they're going to jail. They pissed off the wrong person.
Your Jeremy Corbyn Labour party membership card is in the post.
I can be aghast at the actions of an individual within a community and yet be entirely positive about that community as a whole.
You'd surely not disagree.
Surely specifying their faith was inconsequential to your point. So why reference their faith?
Semi anecdata: Seeing the London case rates rise has meant I cancelled my trip to London yesterday. It was planned for Friday because I felt going to a nightclub was an Omicron petri dish even with vaxports. The night got cancelled today anyway.
However, another friend has just returned from a weekend away in London on Sunday just gone and has just tested positive for Covid again on an LFT (although it was October 2020 when he got it the first time). I was due to see him on Tuesday but luckily cancelled for other reasons, but it seems that Omicron is finding many ways to get close.
Unless you never leave the house for the next 2 months, everybody is going to come into contact with plenty of people with Omicron.
Yep, I spend most of Sunday with friends, one of whom has just tested positive. So far negative on my own LFTs but it feels only a matter of time.
Our office has been decimated by it, largely in the younger age groups. Some had nothing worse than a cold, but a couple had it pretty badly (with the very bad symptoms setting in almost immediately). All seem to be getting better now after about 3 days.
Three of the four great offices of State - the Prime Minister, the Home Office and the Chancellor of the Exchequor - are occupied by people of below average height (for their sex).
Given politics tends to be dominated by the tall, this is really quite extraordinary.
I'm sure having a short male prime minister has nothing to do with it.
But I'm in favour anyway - tall people are far more likely to be over promoted and cock things up, even if this particular set of short stacks are all useless too.
Napoleon was reputed to be a smaller man. He also appears to have been fairly adept at politics and war...
But of course he was actually normal height for the time, and the accusation of smallness was part of the general bias in favour of the tall I am complaining about.
Nelson was tiny. I have seen his uniform at the Naval Museum at Greenwich and he was about a size 8
Interesting that Professor Tim Spector is putting his head above the parapet and saying it is presenting milder symptoms. He must have hard data to back that claim so it will be really interesting to see it, of all the gold stars that should be given out at the end of this, his should be one of the biggest, I just wish the public policy makers looked at his realtime data instead of their not real models.
Semi anecdata: Seeing the London case rates rise has meant I cancelled my trip to London yesterday. It was planned for Friday because I felt going to a nightclub was an Omicron petri dish even with vaxports. The night got cancelled today anyway.
However, another friend has just returned from a weekend away in London on Sunday just gone and has just tested positive for Covid again on an LFT (although it was October 2020 when he got it the first time). I was due to see him on Tuesday but luckily cancelled for other reasons, but it seems that Omicron is finding many ways to get close.
Unless you never leave the house for the next 2 months, everybody is going to come into contact with plenty of people with Omicron.
Yep, I spend most of Sunday with friends, one of whom has just tested positive. So far negative on my own LFTs but it feels only a matter of time.
Our office has been decimated by it, largely in the younger age groups. Some had nothing worse than a cold, but a couple had it pretty badly (with the very bad symptoms setting in almost immediately). All seem to be getting better now after about 3 days.
It does seem to have silently got all of London's under 40s.
Sorry. I've got the virus. The idea that I am capable of doing anything whatsoever much beyond reading this, brewing up and taking a nap is for the birds. I couldn't go out and "support any bugger's economy" whether I wanted to or not. And. I would be incapable of doing any kind of manual work. Or anything that compromised another's safety. Because I'm not well enough. To circle back to the beginning of this thread. Pseudo-libertarian feelz about the issue don't trump facts.
On the flip side, my wife and I are bored to tears, neither of us feels ill, though we're also not venturing out of our house.
Yes. But I think you've had it before, haven't you? It affects folk differently too, always has done. At the very start there were asymptomatic folk, and others keeling over dead in quick time. My point is, for many it is going to be debilitating. I've spent 15 1/2 hours of the past 24 asleep. So I wouldn't, nor couldn't really, be carrying on as normal, and treating it like a cold, whether I wanted to or not. No matter how much I am exhorted too. May you continue to be asymptomatic.
Interesting that Professor Tim Spector is putting his head above the parapet and saying it is presenting milder symptoms. He must have hard data to back that claim so it will be really interesting to see it, of all the gold stars that should be given out at the end of this, his should be one of the biggest, I just wish the public policy makers looked at his realtime data instead of their not real models.
Hopefully....although his Zoe app data seems to not really be working now. Previously it has always been the canary in the coalmine, he reports cases rising, his numbers higher than official cases, 2 weeks later we see it in the official numbers.
This time, his case number are ~80k (which is clearly not correct)....now lets hope his model has broken because the shear number of extremely mild / no symptom cases and not some other reason. I think he statements are based on the presumption of the former.
It's not Londoners that are likely to move - it's the people with second homes. There's a whole class of people that lie and cheat. People that actually live in London - one home, and it's here, are not the same.
What exactly is the lying and cheating about.
Well tax obviously. I just bought a flat from a Jewish couple - they were/are clearly rotten to the core (which is very much not my experience of Jewish people). The extensive array of companies (many bust) that they were involved in is really rather interesting, and once I get it all together they're going to jail. They pissed off the wrong person.
Your Jeremy Corbyn Labour party membership card is in the post.
I can be aghast at the actions of an individual within a community and yet be entirely positive about that community as a whole.
You'd surely not disagree.
True but do you mind if I ask why you felt the need to mention their religion or ethnicity? You could have just said couple.
It's not Londoners that are likely to move - it's the people with second homes. There's a whole class of people that lie and cheat. People that actually live in London - one home, and it's here, are not the same.
What exactly is the lying and cheating about.
Well tax obviously. I just bought a flat from a Jewish couple - they were/are clearly rotten to the core (which is very much not my experience of Jewish people). The extensive array of companies (many bust) that they were involved in is really rather interesting, and once I get it all together they're going to jail. They pissed off the wrong person.
Your Jeremy Corbyn Labour party membership card is in the post.
I can be aghast at the actions of an individual within a community and yet be entirely positive about that community as a whole.
You'd surely not disagree.
Surely specifying their faith was inconsequential to your point. So why reference their faith?
Good point - it was just that it was about all I know about them. You're completly right though.
Semi anecdata: Seeing the London case rates rise has meant I cancelled my trip to London yesterday. It was planned for Friday because I felt going to a nightclub was an Omicron petri dish even with vaxports. The night got cancelled today anyway.
However, another friend has just returned from a weekend away in London on Sunday just gone and has just tested positive for Covid again on an LFT (although it was October 2020 when he got it the first time). I was due to see him on Tuesday but luckily cancelled for other reasons, but it seems that Omicron is finding many ways to get close.
Unless you never leave the house for the next 2 months, everybody is going to come into contact with plenty of people with Omicron.
Yep, I spend most of Sunday with friends, one of whom has just tested positive. So far negative on my own LFTs but it feels only a matter of time.
Our office has been decimated by it, largely in the younger age groups. Some had nothing worse than a cold, but a couple had it pretty badly (with the very bad symptoms setting in almost immediately). All seem to be getting better now after about 3 days.
It does seem to have silently got all of London's under 40s.
Three of the four great offices of State - the Prime Minister, the Home Office and the Chancellor of the Exchequor - are occupied by people of below average height (for their sex).
Given politics tends to be dominated by the tall, this is really quite extraordinary.
I'm sure having a short male prime minister has nothing to do with it.
But I'm in favour anyway - tall people are far more likely to be over promoted and cock things up, even if this particular set of short stacks are all useless too.
Napoleon was reputed to be a smaller man. He also appears to have been fairly adept at politics and war...
But of course he was actually normal height for the time, and the accusation of smallness was part of the general bias in favour of the tall I am complaining about.
Nelson was tiny. I have seen his uniform at the Naval Museum at Greenwich and he was about a size 8
It's not Londoners that are likely to move - it's the people with second homes. There's a whole class of people that lie and cheat. People that actually live in London - one home, and it's here, are not the same.
What exactly is the lying and cheating about.
Well tax obviously. I just bought a flat from a Jewish couple - they were/are clearly rotten to the core (which is very much not my experience of Jewish people). The extensive array of companies (many bust) that they were involved in is really rather interesting, and once I get it all together they're going to jail. They pissed off the wrong person.
Your Jeremy Corbyn Labour party membership card is in the post.
I can be aghast at the actions of an individual within a community and yet be entirely positive about that community as a whole.
You'd surely not disagree.
True but do you mind if I ask why you felt the need to mention their religion or ethnicity? You could have just said couple.
See reply above to @Mexicanpete - just all I know about them, and it's entirely an irrelavance.
Sorry. I've got the virus. The idea that I am capable of doing anything whatsoever much beyond reading this, brewing up and taking a nap is for the birds. I couldn't go out and "support any bugger's economy" whether I wanted to or not. And. I would be incapable of doing any kind of manual work. Or anything that compromised another's safety. Because I'm not well enough. To circle back to the beginning of this thread. Pseudo-libertarian feelz about the issue don't trump facts.
You might not but according to the NHS one third of people who are positive don't even know they're positive without taking tests because they've not got symptoms.
So what "facts" apply to them? If someone is asymptomatic but tests positive should they be legally allowed to go out while they feel fine?
No. Because nowt would destroy your precious economy faster than infecting a shedload of others who are then off work and not going out spending for a fortnight or more or worse. Is that really difficult to appreciate?
Interesting that Professor Tim Spector is putting his head above the parapet and saying it is presenting milder symptoms. He must have hard data to back that claim so it will be really interesting to see it, of all the gold stars that should be given out at the end of this, his should be one of the biggest, I just wish the public policy makers looked at his realtime data instead of their not real models.
Hopefully....although his Zoe app data seems to not really be working now. Previously it has always been the canary in the coalmine, he reports cases rising, his numbers higher than official cases, 2 weeks later we see it in the official numbers.
This time, his case number are ~80k (which is clearly not correct)....now lets hope his model has broken because the shear number of extremely mild / no symptom cases and not some other reason. I think he statements are based on the presumption of the former.
His sample overweights middle aged, middle class, more likely to be jabbed etc etc - not surprising he's struggling to capture this 20something wave.
Three of the four great offices of State - the Prime Minister, the Home Office and the Chancellor of the Exchequor - are occupied by people of below average height (for their sex).
Given politics tends to be dominated by the tall, this is really quite extraordinary.
I'm sure having a short male prime minister has nothing to do with it.
But I'm in favour anyway - tall people are far more likely to be over promoted and cock things up, even if this particular set of short stacks are all useless too.
Napoleon was reputed to be a smaller man. He also appears to have been fairly adept at politics and war...
But of course he was actually normal height for the time, and the accusation of smallness was part of the general bias in favour of the tall I am complaining about.
Nelson was tiny. I have seen his uniform at the Naval Museum at Greenwich and he was about a size 8
Someone shrank it in the wash and didn't dare tell him
Three of the four great offices of State - the Prime Minister, the Home Office and the Chancellor of the Exchequor - are occupied by people of below average height (for their sex).
Given politics tends to be dominated by the tall, this is really quite extraordinary.
I'm surprised that the Foreign Secretary isn't below average too?
He is below average, but I don't see what that's got to do with his height.
Interesting that Professor Tim Spector is putting his head above the parapet and saying it is presenting milder symptoms. He must have hard data to back that claim so it will be really interesting to see it, of all the gold stars that should be given out at the end of this, his should be one of the biggest, I just wish the public policy makers looked at his realtime data instead of their not real models.
Hopefully....although his Zoe app data seems to not really be working now. Previously it has always been the canary in the coalmine, he reports cases rising, his numbers higher than official cases, 2 weeks later we see it in the official numbers.
This time, his case number are ~80k (which is clearly not correct)....now lets hope his model has broken because the shear number of extremely mild / no symptom cases and not some other reason. I think he statements are based on the presumption of the former.
His sample overweights middle aged, middle class, more likely to be jabbed etc etc - not surprising he's struggling to capture this 20something wave.
As soon as we had the big roll out of vaccinations, I think this is where he started to run into trouble. He has consistently now struggled for samples from non-vaccinated, because they aren't signing up to an app where you put your health status in every day....Bill Gates is harvesting it all or something equally bat shit crazy.
Sorry. I've got the virus. The idea that I am capable of doing anything whatsoever much beyond reading this, brewing up and taking a nap is for the birds. I couldn't go out and "support any bugger's economy" whether I wanted to or not. And. I would be incapable of doing any kind of manual work. Or anything that compromised another's safety. Because I'm not well enough. To circle back to the beginning of this thread. Pseudo-libertarian feelz about the issue don't trump facts.
On the flip side, my wife and I are bored to tears, neither of us feels ill, though we're also not venturing out of our house.
Yes. But I think you've had it before, haven't you? It affects folk differently too, always has done. At the very start there were asymptomatic folk, and others keeling over dead in quick time. My point is, for many it is going to be debilitating. I've spent 15 1/2 hours of the past 24 asleep. So I wouldn't, nor couldn't really, be carrying on as normal, and treating it like a cold, whether I wanted to or not. No matter how much I am exhorted too. May you continue to be asymptomatic.
Wishing you a speedy recovery Dixie, hope you start to feel better soon!
One quarter of players in the Football League have no vaccination to Covid-19 despite months of encouragement from the EFL and clubs to get jabbed - and currently don't intend to have one.
Only 59 per cent of players have received two vaccinations, with a further 16 per cent having had a single dose and prepared to have another one.
Three of the four great offices of State - the Prime Minister, the Home Office and the Chancellor of the Exchequor - are occupied by people of below average height (for their sex).
Given politics tends to be dominated by the tall, this is really quite extraordinary.
I'm surprised that the Foreign Secretary isn't below average too?
He is below average, but I don't see what that's got to do with his height.
@Philip_Thompson If I went on public transport I could give it to somebody who ended up dying, if I can avoid doing that I will. I don't like your attitude.
It takes two to tango. I don't like your attitude either, there is no avoiding getting the virus and the sooner we stop trashing people's livelihoods in order to prevent the spread of an entirely natural [unless you think it came from a lab] virus is a price not worth paying.
If you think that just because someone has a virus we should be destroying the livelihoods of people like Miss Cyclefree Jr and millions like her, then I don't like your attitude either.
If you want to stay at home voluntarily that should be your choice, but there should be absolutely nothing stopping you from getting on the bus or going to the pub or anything else if that's what you want to do.
How does me isolating at home destroy the livelihoods of Miss Cyclefree?
If you're telling people who want to go out and about that they have to stay at home because they either have or might get a virus, then that is destroying livelihoods.
People should be free to go out, even if they're positive for the virus, and live lives and frequent premises. To say otherwise is what is destroying businesses. If you choose not to, that's fine, I respect free choice. But compelling others not to (which further compels them to not go out even if not positive because they fear ending in isolation) is very wrong.
Do you think it is someone's free choice to get in a car when they are pissed and kill someone's loved one? Anyone that goes out and about knowing they have Covid is almost as bad as someone having unprotected sex while knowing they are HIV positive. Scum, nothing less. Anyone that supports the "rights" of someone to do so has particularly twisted morals and logic.
"Anyone that goes out and about knowing they have Covid is almost as bad as someone having unprotected sex while knowing they are HIV positive."
While I would certainly stay home in the event of testing positive for Covid, this does seems rather an overstatement.
I'd like to cast everyone's minds back to earlier this year when some of us were having a discussion about whether the booster would be open to just a few people or everyone. At the time I argued that it would be open to everyone and we'd get everyone triple vaxxed by the end of November because why take the risk, other's said they would be unnecessary so why bother, no one argued that they would be necessary but we also wouldn't do them in time. Boris proved me wrong, we took the risk.
I'm sorry to keep banging on about the same point but it really does irk me that we're a country awash with vaccines, (~35m doses in the fridge currently) yet we've got 17-18m people who want one before the end of this week so they've got high level immunity for Xmas. There's just no planning or foresight by anyone in the government. The target should always have been "how does everyone get their booster by the 17th of December" so we have high immunity and we can send the majority of vaccinators home for Xmas or back to their day jobs in the NHS because demand will be high.
More than any other major country the UK was in the best position to weather whatever happens with Omicron, we have vaccines, we have vaccine willing and we have a big wall of natural immunity. Yet we're now in a crunch position keeping all of our fingers and toes crossed the Omicron is a mild variant or our two dose immunity will be enough or that we can hold off the storm for just enough time to get people the third doses.
Far from a booster dose poll bump, Boris should lose the leadership over this singularly spectacular failure to prime the UK for this eventuality. If a lowly analyst such as myself could see it 6-7 months ago to not take the risk, why couldn't the PM?
Three of the four great offices of State - the Prime Minister, the Home Office and the Chancellor of the Exchequor - are occupied by people of below average height (for their sex).
Given politics tends to be dominated by the tall, this is really quite extraordinary.
I'm sure having a short male prime minister has nothing to do with it.
But I'm in favour anyway - tall people are far more likely to be over promoted and cock things up, even if this particular set of short stacks are all useless too.
Napoleon was reputed to be a smaller man. He also appears to have been fairly adept at politics and war...
But of course he was actually normal height for the time, and the accusation of smallness was part of the general bias in favour of the tall I am complaining about.
Nelson was tiny. I have seen his uniform at the Naval Museum at Greenwich and he was about a size 8
Someone shrank it in the wash and didn't dare tell him
It certainly needed a wash after he'd finished with it.
Philip is going off the deep end with this anti COVID stuff
I'm not anti-Covid.
I'm anti-restrictions. I'm quite fine to live with Covid, since we have vaccines rolled out. I got my third jab this morning.
I'm positive now and self-isolating. I am not going to go on the bus and give it to people.
And do you think that magically means the people on the bus are never going to get it from anyone else? That's it, Covid is over because you stayed at home?
Its my view you shouldn't have to self-isolate. The virus is going to spread either way. Trying to contain its spread is doing more harm than it spreading.
If all you've got is like the common cold, then you should treat it no differently to how you'd have acted in the past with the common cold.
Thank you Doctor.
The point is well made though. We have had tens of thousands of deaths per year from "flu and pneumonia".
Asian tourists aside I don't remember people not getting the bus or anyone wearing masks previously.
Maybe if they had done, fewer people would have died?
Maybe so. But no one was crying out for fewer deaths so we must assume that was a price people were willing to pay.
Or that we had imperfect knowledge.
I hate masks as much as anyone, but I think we do have to consider the possibility that the Asians were onto something with the idea that basic consideration for others implies you should wear one if you think you might be infectious, eg on public transport, and that now that we know it's potentially a life saving intervention, we should follow suit.
You could catch the flu from someone who had it? This was not commonly known?
We knew it hence the flu jab and no one decided you wear a mask.
No; I meant it wasn't generally known that you could substantially reduce the risk of transmitting it by wearing a mask.
Seriously?
OK, "known" is the wrong word. What I'm shooting for is something like "before the pandemic, people with flu-like symptoms didn't actively consider whether it would be courteous to wear a mask on public transport, to prevent others from catching whatever it was they already had. The reason for this was that it wasn't in our cultural awareness to do so. Now, it very much is, because of Covid, and maybe that should transfer across to ordinary (non-life-threatening) flu and colds, as a continuing matter of courtesy to those who aren't sick, from those who might be infectious".
I don't necessarily agree with this, and obviously our mutual friend Mr Thompson has transformed into William Wallace on this issue, but I think it's worth considering - honestly, it's hard to construct an argument against it that doesn't sound unutterably selfish.
Comments
Illness is part of nature. The immune system needs to get used to fighting illnesses.
You're acting like some OCD clean freak.
I tend to think that there is always an element of 'fashionable' fringe around a core of real. And activists are willing to take advantage of the larger number.
I recall all those years where gay-rights people were shouting about 10% being gay.
https://twitter.com/SebastianEPayne/status/1471514572896886786
North Lab 43% Con 27%
Midlands/Wales Lab 38% Con 35%
London Lab 58% Con 23%
Rest of South Con 39% Lab 32%
Scotland SNP 48% Con 21% Lab 18%
(YouGov / The Times Survey Results
Sample Size: 1714 adults in GB Fieldwork: 14th - 15th December 2021)
Fair play to you Philip if you can live with actions and it's consequences like that, I simply couldn't.
BT have been using commentary from the host broadcaster, Fox Sports, for the first two Tests, with a team of pundits including Sir Alastair Cook offering analysis from their London studio. However, from the third Test, which starts in Melbourne on Boxing Day, Gower will feature on the BT coverage — from Australia — to broadcast whenever Vaughan appears on Fox. The 64-year-old is flying down under this weekend.......
....The return of Vaughan to the Fox commentary box means that BT have decided to change their plans for coverage of the last three matches of the series and will now, it is believed, cut to Gower in a separate studio in the ground, offering commentary and analysis along with pundits in London, during Vaughan’s commentary stints. They will continue to use the Fox Sports commentary when Vaughan is not on air.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/the-ashes-bt-sign-up-david-gower-to-fill-in-the-gaps-when-michael-vaughan-is-commentating-gv06b6g2v
Once again, Boris is just playing catch up for absolutely no reason except bone idleness and stupidity. Two years into this crisis and we all hoped that he'd have learned the lesson of acting early and acting fast. The "get your booster" speech from Monday has done a good job of getting people to go and get it, but it should have been given four weeks earlier.
Given politics tends to be dominated by the tall, this is really quite extraordinary.
But I'm in favour anyway - tall people are far more likely to be over promoted and cock things up, even if this particular set of short stacks are all useless too.
https://twitter.com/MELANIATRUMP/status/1471468919810670603?s=20
But I could be wrong.
There are sooooo many possible words there
I couldn't go out and "support any bugger's economy" whether I wanted to or not.
And. I would be incapable of doing any kind of manual work. Or anything that compromised another's safety.
Because I'm not well enough.
To circle back to the beginning of this thread. Pseudo-libertarian feelz about the issue don't trump facts.
"A 22-year-old who has never had a serious relationship fears his effeminate appearance is putting off potential suitors."
- https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3673971/Single-man-sick-tired-mistaken-woman-given-makeunder-attract-boyfriend.html
or on the other side...
"A Detroit woman has filed a lawsuit against restaurant chain Fishbone's after a frightening incident in which she was mistaken for a man and tossed out of a women's bathroom, reports TV station WXYZ.
Cortney Bogorad wears her hair cropped short and is cisgender, meaning she is not a trans woman. "
- https://www.advocate.com/business/2015/06/17/detroit-woman-kicked-out-restaurant-bathroom-looking-man-sues
Betfair
Con 2/2.02
Ld 1.97/2.02
Lab 210/390
How's that @Philip_Thompson?
Do you remember the May fiasco... Pepperidge farm remembers...
However, another friend has just returned from a weekend away in London on Sunday just gone and has just tested positive for Covid again on an LFT (although it was October 2020 when he got it the first time). I was due to see him on Tuesday but luckily cancelled for other reasons, but it seems that Omicron is finding many ways to get close.
I should hammer them but the price is putting me off which I know is daft.
This afternoon it's the turn of the US GFS. This is Christmas Eve: daytime temperatures in low single digits and some snow on high ground in the West country. But only a few spike mutations away from widespread snowfall.
https://www.wetterzentrale.de/maps/GFSOPEU12_198_2.png
Or perhaps not?
You'd surely not disagree.
https://www.news24.com/sport
So what "facts" apply to them? If someone is asymptomatic but tests positive should they be legally allowed to go out while they feel fine?
https://twitter.com/RachelReevesMP/status/1471519408140931084
https://twitter.com/BenChu_/status/1471514414880735246?t=pQA3jhJxkVi2oWI0PSSq8w&s=19
Our office has been decimated by it, largely in the younger age groups. Some had nothing worse than a cold, but a couple had it pretty badly (with the very bad symptoms setting in almost immediately). All seem to be getting better now after about 3 days.
He's basically agreeing with Labour that he can't do his job in California
https://www.wetterzentrale.de/maps/GFSOPUK12_210_25.png
Up to 8cm of snow lying across the South Midlands and into the SE. 18cm in parts of central Wales.
Gonna let it run
https://www.theargus.co.uk/news/19789348.fred-dinenage-leave-itv-meridian-evening/?ref=ebmpn
My point is, for many it is going to be debilitating. I've spent 15 1/2 hours of the past 24 asleep.
So I wouldn't, nor couldn't really, be carrying on as normal, and treating it like a cold, whether I wanted to or not.
No matter how much I am exhorted too.
May you continue to be asymptomatic.
This time, his case number are ~80k (which is clearly not correct)....now lets hope his model has broken because the shear number of extremely mild / no symptom cases and not some other reason. I think he statements are based on the presumption of the former.
It looks like we are the same Human breed as South Africans
Is that really difficult to appreciate?
Only 59 per cent of players have received two vaccinations, with a further 16 per cent having had a single dose and prepared to have another one.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/sportsnews/article-10317535/One-quarter-footballers-EFL-NOT-intend-Covid-19-vaccine.html
Football is getting canned over Christmas and New Year isn't it....
A 58 year old male has been arrested
I just cannot start to understand the mentality of these people
No doubt we can expect a header about it.....
While I would certainly stay home in the event of testing positive for Covid, this does seems rather an overstatement.
I'm sorry to keep banging on about the same point but it really does irk me that we're a country awash with vaccines, (~35m doses in the fridge currently) yet we've got 17-18m people who want one before the end of this week so they've got high level immunity for Xmas. There's just no planning or foresight by anyone in the government. The target should always have been "how does everyone get their booster by the 17th of December" so we have high immunity and we can send the majority of vaccinators home for Xmas or back to their day jobs in the NHS because demand will be high.
More than any other major country the UK was in the best position to weather whatever happens with Omicron, we have vaccines, we have vaccine willing and we have a big wall of natural immunity. Yet we're now in a crunch position keeping all of our fingers and toes crossed the Omicron is a mild variant or our two dose immunity will be enough or that we can hold off the storm for just enough time to get people the third doses.
Far from a booster dose poll bump, Boris should lose the leadership over this singularly spectacular failure to prime the UK for this eventuality. If a lowly analyst such as myself could see it 6-7 months ago to not take the risk, why couldn't the PM?
I don't necessarily agree with this, and obviously our mutual friend Mr Thompson has transformed into William Wallace on this issue, but I think it's worth considering - honestly, it's hard to construct an argument against it that doesn't sound unutterably selfish.