Sorry for going off topic but I wondered if people still use BT for their broadband. I have stuck with them, on the assumption that they would be no better than anyone else. But I have found them to be hard work. I had a problem with my router which means that it cuts out continually, I kept being told that I was imagining it or it was my computer that was at fault, I proved otherwise to them and they eventually sent an engineer around and it seemed to be fixed, only now the problems are starting up again, and I am stuck with another 9 months on my contract. The current situation is really bad because the WIFI is now so unreliable that I can't use it for work, mobile broadband is more reliable. I fear that I will need to go in to some kind of energy sapping consumer rights battle with BT. Am I just unfortunate or do other people experience/hear of these problems with BT?
Covid hospital-admission stats are looking pretty grim, in fact appreciably worse (or at least showing up slightly earlier) than the much-derided LSHTM model of mid-December.
Still, this isn't really a surprise. We knew that Omicron spreads super-fast, and the government took a deliberate decision not to impose tougher restrictions. I still think that was probably the right call, not least because by the time they got round to making a decision it was already too late for restrictions to have much effect.
Fortunately the triple-boosting looks as though it is working extremely well in avoiding too many of the most serious cases, and of course deaths, but the hit on the NHS is (as I expected) going to be dire over the next couple of weeks, and a lot of people are going to have a nasty bout of illness (albeit mainly the voluntarily unvaxxed).
What is clear is that the naïve takes on both extremes, ignoring the very real uncertainties and selectively picking snippets of data that supported their preconceptions, were equally irrational.
What percentage of those in hospital are unvaccinated or have not had their booster? Most of them. No Conservative Leader would survive imposing more restrictions in the vaccinated
Unfortunately the Conservative Party has gone so batshit-crazy that you are probably right, even if it were unambiguously clear that restrictions would save many tens of thousands of lives and that the economic hit from restrictions would be less than the hit from letting rip. Luckily it looks as though the booster programme will save us from having to face that.
Just 4% of Tory members would support new restrictions on the vaccinated, even fewer than wanted to stop Brexit. Yes, any Tory PM would lose a VONC if they imposed more restrictions even if hospitalisations rise further (though agreed the booster programme is minimising that risk)
Disclose.tv @disclosetv JUST IN - Netherlands plans to inject people with "up to six doses" of COVID vaccine - Health Minister (Newsweek)
I mean they've barely done third doses, what a joke.
They are doing Moderna, and aiui half dose boosters.
Do we do that for Moderna?
Same, half doses. You get a 37x multiplier for half doses 83x for full so the half dose was seen as fine. A full Pfizer dose gets a 29x multiplier iirc, so even the half dose of Moderna is a good option. There's been chatter that the next round could be quarter doses of Moderna and half doses of Pfizer.
1/4 Moderna or 1/2 Pfizer every 6-9 months might be the ticket.
Besides conserving doses for cost or supply purposes, what reason is there to only give a fractional dose instead of a full dose?
All drugs (including vaccines) are a trade off between side effects and efficacy.
As a general rule you want to give the minimum effective dose
What's the minimum effective dose of wine?
When the government came out with their "no more than 14 units a week" I took a look at the stats. In order to increase your chance of early death by 10% you would need to drink two bottles of wine a day
Now if the whole population started doing that the results would be catastrophic.....individually, on the other hand.....
The best and most constructive post in the history of PB. It is in line with the guidance you see on road signs in Scotland, "Twenty is Plenty," which I construe as a units per day limit.
10% is quite a lot n'est-ce pas?
Not really, your chance of an early death is quite small to start with.
A friend tells a story of when he was a DoH civil servant, working in Whitehall. This was when they were first giving out advice on how many "units" you should drink. So they gathered a panel of eminent doctors in a room and asked them.
They'd never thought about it. One said, "a bottle of wine a day is fine, that's what I have with dinner". They concurred.
What's that in units? 42. Bugger, seems a bit high, better halve it for hoi polloi.
(I think wine was weaker then, a bottle at 14% and I go to bed quite mellow).
As the old saw goes
“What’s a safe drinking limit?”
“Less than your Doctor”
Hence the possibly apocryphal annual report on the ship's medic on HMS Made-up;
"Thanks to the efforts of Dr X, we have no alcoholics on this ship."
Covid hospital-admission stats are looking pretty grim, in fact appreciably worse (or at least showing up slightly earlier) than the much-derided LSHTM model of mid-December.
Still, this isn't really a surprise. We knew that Omicron spreads super-fast, and the government took a deliberate decision not to impose tougher restrictions. I still think that was probably the right call, not least because by the time they got round to making a decision it was already too late for restrictions to have much effect.
Fortunately the triple-boosting looks as though it is working extremely well in avoiding too many of the most serious cases, and of course deaths, but the hit on the NHS is (as I expected) going to be dire over the next couple of weeks, and a lot of people are going to have a nasty bout of illness (albeit mainly the voluntarily unvaxxed).
What is clear is that the naïve takes on both extremes, ignoring the very real uncertainties and selectively picking snippets of data that supported their preconceptions, were equally irrational.
What percentage of those in hospital are unvaccinated or have not had their booster? Most of them. No Conservative Leader would survive imposing more restrictions in the vaccinated
Unfortunately the Conservative Party has gone so batshit-crazy that you are probably right, even if it were unambiguously clear that restrictions would save many tens of thousands of lives and that the economic hit from restrictions would be less than the hit from letting rip. Luckily it looks as though the booster programme will save us from having to face that.
Just 4% of Tory members would support new restrictions on the vaccinated, even fewer than wanted to stop Brexit. Yes, any Tory PM would lose a VONC if they imposed more restrictions even if hospitalisations rise further (though agreed the booster programme is minimising that risk)
Sorry for going off topic but I wondered if people still use BT for their broadband. I have stuck with them, on the assumption that they would be no better than anyone else. But I have found them to be hard work. I had a problem with my router which means that it cuts out continually, I kept being told that I was imagining it or it was my computer that was at fault, I proved otherwise to them and they eventually sent an engineer around and it seemed to be fixed, only now the problems are starting up again, and I am stuck with another 9 months on my contract. The current situation is really bad because the WIFI is now so unreliable that I can't use it for work, mobile broadband is more reliable. I fear that I will need to go in to some kind of energy sapping consumer rights battle with BT. Am I just unfortunate or do other people experience/hear of these problems with BT?
Been using Zen Internet - consistently top or high in the Which member rankings for some years. But what I don't understand is if they also rely on the BT infrastructure. If the router is the problem, however, then it should be replaced anyway when you change.
Covid hospital-admission stats are looking pretty grim, in fact appreciably worse (or at least showing up slightly earlier) than the much-derided LSHTM model of mid-December.
Still, this isn't really a surprise. We knew that Omicron spreads super-fast, and the government took a deliberate decision not to impose tougher restrictions. I still think that was probably the right call, not least because by the time they got round to making a decision it was already too late for restrictions to have much effect.
Fortunately the triple-boosting looks as though it is working extremely well in avoiding too many of the most serious cases, and of course deaths, but the hit on the NHS is (as I expected) going to be dire over the next couple of weeks, and a lot of people are going to have a nasty bout of illness (albeit mainly the voluntarily unvaxxed).
What is clear is that the naïve takes on both extremes, ignoring the very real uncertainties and selectively picking snippets of data that supported their preconceptions, were equally irrational.
In which country are the restrictions having an effect? France? Germany?
It's pretty hard to argue that restrictions didn't have an effect in Germany:
As an aside, are you going to withdraw your lie about Gibraltar?
It really isn't, seeing as that's exactly what the German authorities themselves do seem to be claiming
"I know many of you will be watching UK and international news channels and you will be seeing nations around the world IMPOSING conditions and rules and cancelling events and celebrations.
You may ask yourselves why your Government is not doing that here."
Hmmm... interesting.
"As a result of the vaccination programme, I fully expect we will now be able to enjoy Christmas with our loved ones without the need for any further restrictions."
Ahhh...
What restrictions do they have?
"mask wearing in shops and on public transport."
Do you really expect us to believe that means "Christmas is cancelled"?
Do you take us for idiots?
Do you think you can spew lies without us being able to Google?
New modelling from Warwick Uni projects 1.4 million infections, 5,000 hospital admissions and 500 deaths per day by Saturday, if we’re lucky. 🤷🏼♂️ https://t.co/rbQGJAHHAXhttps://t.co/CjHxGbz4n6
The Tories think the rural vote is in the bag no matter what they do, just like Labour used to think about the urban poor in Scotland
It's been interesting that HYUFD has been emphasising the good old shire way of life in recent months - I forget his exact expression but it's along the lines of (I paraphrase in my own words, so I apologise for getting the tone hoeplessly wrong) how right and proper it is having people who own lots of land and are the jolly old lord of the manor in charge of the local area to knuckle one's brows to, what? Slightly startling from him as there are not many country estates in Epping, still less Jane Austen bodicerippers filmed there, so maybe it is something CCHQ has been pushing.
I did suggest @HYUFD for poster most likely to appear in an Austen novel some years ago. @Charles demurred ISTR. PS. Austen wrote no bodicerippers. Nor was much of a fan of landed inheritance. As far as anyone can discern.
I don’t think I demurred.
But she was briefly (24 hours I think) engaged to her neighbour - who lived in the house I grew up in
Alton? Very nice place. A friend lived there - amused himself by showing me where Fanny Adams was murdered, down at the bottom of his garden.
Manydown - albeit I grew up in the dower house rather than the main park which "accidentally" burnt to the ground a few months before its grade 1 listing was going to come into force
FTFYHIHBIDI
I don’t disagree but what does it mean after FTFY?
We're in for the ride. Actually, on the basis that decisions should be made on the information you have at the time, including where information is missing, and on the basis that early intervention is effective intervention, there was a good case for restrictions earlier. But there was no political appetite for restrictions and now it's almost too late for them to be effective.
So we'll see whether Omicron is better or worse than Delta in terms of hospitalisations. But there is a difference. This time we are choosing to have hospitalisations over restrictions. We fully locked down for Delta. We had no other remedies.
Alpha, not delta. Delta was over summer 2021 to nov 2021.
Covid hospital-admission stats are looking pretty grim, in fact appreciably worse (or at least showing up slightly earlier) than the much-derided LSHTM model of mid-December.
Still, this isn't really a surprise. We knew that Omicron spreads super-fast, and the government took a deliberate decision not to impose tougher restrictions. I still think that was probably the right call, not least because by the time they got round to making a decision it was already too late for restrictions to have much effect.
Fortunately the triple-boosting looks as though it is working extremely well in avoiding too many of the most serious cases, and of course deaths, but the hit on the NHS is (as I expected) going to be dire over the next couple of weeks, and a lot of people are going to have a nasty bout of illness (albeit mainly the voluntarily unvaxxed).
What is clear is that the naïve takes on both extremes, ignoring the very real uncertainties and selectively picking snippets of data that supported their preconceptions, were equally irrational.
In which country are the restrictions having an effect? France? Germany?
It's pretty hard to argue that restrictions didn't have an effect in Germany:
As an aside, are you going to withdraw your lie about Gibraltar?
That German curve is delta not omicron.
They are still below 50% of new cases being omicron.
Disclose.tv @disclosetv JUST IN - Netherlands plans to inject people with "up to six doses" of COVID vaccine - Health Minister (Newsweek)
I mean they've barely done third doses, what a joke.
They are doing Moderna, and aiui half dose boosters.
Do we do that for Moderna?
Same, half doses. You get a 37x multiplier for half doses 83x for full so the half dose was seen as fine. A full Pfizer dose gets a 29x multiplier iirc, so even the half dose of Moderna is a good option. There's been chatter that the next round could be quarter doses of Moderna and half doses of Pfizer.
1/4 Moderna or 1/2 Pfizer every 6-9 months might be the ticket.
Besides conserving doses for cost or supply purposes, what reason is there to only give a fractional dose instead of a full dose?
All drugs (including vaccines) are a trade off between side effects and efficacy.
As a general rule you want to give the minimum effective dose
Travel from the UK to France Travel Update for those transiting through France
The French government has updated the travel rules applied since 28 December 2021.
Passengers travelling from the UK, with residency permits for other EU countries under the Withdrawal Agreement, can now transit through France to return to their homes. This is subject to their journey to the UK having been completed before the 28th December 2021.
You're going for the "Stopped Clock" award, aren't you?
Anyone calling for lockdown in this Omicron wave is essentially saying one or both of these:
1. The UK population is completely different from that of South Africa or Denmark in our susceptibility to severe disease from Omicron, or 2. The NHS in London is less able to manage an Omicron wave than the healthcare system in Johannesburg.
Travel from the UK to France Travel Update for those transiting through France
The French government has updated the travel rules applied since 28 December 2021.
Passengers travelling from the UK, with residency permits for other EU countries under the Withdrawal Agreement, can now transit through France to return to their homes. This is subject to their journey to the UK having been completed before the 28th December 2021.
Covid hospital-admission stats are looking pretty grim, in fact appreciably worse (or at least showing up slightly earlier) than the much-derided LSHTM model of mid-December.
Still, this isn't really a surprise. We knew that Omicron spreads super-fast, and the government took a deliberate decision not to impose tougher restrictions. I still think that was probably the right call, not least because by the time they got round to making a decision it was already too late for restrictions to have much effect.
Fortunately the triple-boosting looks as though it is working extremely well in avoiding too many of the most serious cases, and of course deaths, but the hit on the NHS is (as I expected) going to be dire over the next couple of weeks, and a lot of people are going to have a nasty bout of illness (albeit mainly the voluntarily unvaxxed).
What is clear is that the naïve takes on both extremes, ignoring the very real uncertainties and selectively picking snippets of data that supported their preconceptions, were equally irrational.
In which country are the restrictions having an effect? France? Germany?
It's pretty hard to argue that restrictions didn't have an effect in Germany:
As an aside, are you going to withdraw your lie about Gibraltar?
That German curve is delta not omicron.
They are still below 50% of new cases being omicron.
I'll say it again, death penalty for these utter Michael Masis.
Police have arrested a man after a group of Covid deniers stormed a hospital and accused staff of “aiding and abetting genocide” as they tried to remove an elderly patient.
Video shared on social media showed a group entering the University Hospital Aintree in Liverpool before confronting nurses and accusing them of “kidnapping” the patient, who is understood to be receiving treatment on a Covid ward.
A man filming the incident is heard incorrectly ranting that Covid has been “downgraded to a non-infectious disease” and telling one nurse “you’ll be the first under open arrest” while referring to the group as “common law constables”.
At one point, he tells medical staff pleading with the group to leave that “you are all aiding and abetting genocide”.
Nurses and security staff joined efforts to ask the group to leave the ward after they entered the hospital at around 8.20pm last night before police arrived.
The patient being targeted is said to be the father of one of the men in the group. At one point, the man filming accuses hospital staff of having “murdered” the patient’s wife. He then bizarrely claims Chris Whitty and Boris Johnson have been arrested.
A nurse is heard telling police officers that the patient’s son’s mother had died of Covid, adding: “But he doesn’t believe in Covid. Since then we have had multiple threats from them that he was going to come to the ward and remove his dad.”
Merseyside Police confirmed that officers were called to the hospital following reports of a disturbance on a ward.
I'll say it again, death penalty for these utter Michael Masis.
Police have arrested a man after a group of Covid deniers stormed a hospital and accused staff of “aiding and abetting genocide” as they tried to remove an elderly patient.
Video shared on social media showed a group entering the University Hospital Aintree in Liverpool before confronting nurses and accusing them of “kidnapping” the patient, who is understood to be receiving treatment on a Covid ward.
A man filming the incident is heard incorrectly ranting that Covid has been “downgraded to a non-infectious disease” and telling one nurse “you’ll be the first under open arrest” while referring to the group as “common law constables”.
At one point, he tells medical staff pleading with the group to leave that “you are all aiding and abetting genocide”.
Nurses and security staff joined efforts to ask the group to leave the ward after they entered the hospital at around 8.20pm last night before police arrived.
The patient being targeted is said to be the father of one of the men in the group. At one point, the man filming accuses hospital staff of having “murdered” the patient’s wife. He then bizarrely claims Chris Whitty and Boris Johnson have been arrested.
A nurse is heard telling police officers that the patient’s son’s mother had died of Covid, adding: “But he doesn’t believe in Covid. Since then we have had multiple threats from them that he was going to come to the ward and remove his dad.”
Merseyside Police confirmed that officers were called to the hospital following reports of a disturbance on a ward.
I'll say it again, death penalty for these utter Michael Masis.
Police have arrested a man after a group of Covid deniers stormed a hospital and accused staff of “aiding and abetting genocide” as they tried to remove an elderly patient.
Video shared on social media showed a group entering the University Hospital Aintree in Liverpool before confronting nurses and accusing them of “kidnapping” the patient, who is understood to be receiving treatment on a Covid ward.
A man filming the incident is heard incorrectly ranting that Covid has been “downgraded to a non-infectious disease” and telling one nurse “you’ll be the first under open arrest” while referring to the group as “common law constables”.
At one point, he tells medical staff pleading with the group to leave that “you are all aiding and abetting genocide”.
Nurses and security staff joined efforts to ask the group to leave the ward after they entered the hospital at around 8.20pm last night before police arrived.
The patient being targeted is said to be the father of one of the men in the group. At one point, the man filming accuses hospital staff of having “murdered” the patient’s wife. He then bizarrely claims Chris Whitty and Boris Johnson have been arrested.
A nurse is heard telling police officers that the patient’s son’s mother had died of Covid, adding: “But he doesn’t believe in Covid. Since then we have had multiple threats from them that he was going to come to the ward and remove his dad.”
Merseyside Police confirmed that officers were called to the hospital following reports of a disturbance on a ward.
I'll say it again, death penalty for these utter Michael Masis.
Police have arrested a man after a group of Covid deniers stormed a hospital and accused staff of “aiding and abetting genocide” as they tried to remove an elderly patient.
Video shared on social media showed a group entering the University Hospital Aintree in Liverpool before confronting nurses and accusing them of “kidnapping” the patient, who is understood to be receiving treatment on a Covid ward.
A man filming the incident is heard incorrectly ranting that Covid has been “downgraded to a non-infectious disease” and telling one nurse “you’ll be the first under open arrest” while referring to the group as “common law constables”.
At one point, he tells medical staff pleading with the group to leave that “you are all aiding and abetting genocide”.
Nurses and security staff joined efforts to ask the group to leave the ward after they entered the hospital at around 8.20pm last night before police arrived.
The patient being targeted is said to be the father of one of the men in the group. At one point, the man filming accuses hospital staff of having “murdered” the patient’s wife. He then bizarrely claims Chris Whitty and Boris Johnson have been arrested.
A nurse is heard telling police officers that the patient’s son’s mother had died of Covid, adding: “But he doesn’t believe in Covid. Since then we have had multiple threats from them that he was going to come to the ward and remove his dad.”
Merseyside Police confirmed that officers were called to the hospital following reports of a disturbance on a ward.
I'll say it again, death penalty for these utter Michael Masis.
Police have arrested a man after a group of Covid deniers stormed a hospital and accused staff of “aiding and abetting genocide” as they tried to remove an elderly patient.
Video shared on social media showed a group entering the University Hospital Aintree in Liverpool before confronting nurses and accusing them of “kidnapping” the patient, who is understood to be receiving treatment on a Covid ward.
A man filming the incident is heard incorrectly ranting that Covid has been “downgraded to a non-infectious disease” and telling one nurse “you’ll be the first under open arrest” while referring to the group as “common law constables”.
At one point, he tells medical staff pleading with the group to leave that “you are all aiding and abetting genocide”.
Nurses and security staff joined efforts to ask the group to leave the ward after they entered the hospital at around 8.20pm last night before police arrived.
The patient being targeted is said to be the father of one of the men in the group. At one point, the man filming accuses hospital staff of having “murdered” the patient’s wife. He then bizarrely claims Chris Whitty and Boris Johnson have been arrested.
A nurse is heard telling police officers that the patient’s son’s mother had died of Covid, adding: “But he doesn’t believe in Covid. Since then we have had multiple threats from them that he was going to come to the ward and remove his dad.”
Merseyside Police confirmed that officers were called to the hospital following reports of a disturbance on a ward.
Covid hospital-admission stats are looking pretty grim, in fact appreciably worse (or at least showing up slightly earlier) than the much-derided LSHTM model of mid-December.
Still, this isn't really a surprise. We knew that Omicron spreads super-fast, and the government took a deliberate decision not to impose tougher restrictions. I still think that was probably the right call, not least because by the time they got round to making a decision it was already too late for restrictions to have much effect.
Fortunately the triple-boosting looks as though it is working extremely well in avoiding too many of the most serious cases, and of course deaths, but the hit on the NHS is (as I expected) going to be dire over the next couple of weeks, and a lot of people are going to have a nasty bout of illness (albeit mainly the voluntarily unvaxxed).
What is clear is that the naïve takes on both extremes, ignoring the very real uncertainties and selectively picking snippets of data that supported their preconceptions, were equally irrational.
In which country are the restrictions having an effect? France? Germany?
It's pretty hard to argue that restrictions didn't have an effect in Germany:
As an aside, are you going to withdraw your lie about Gibraltar?
That German curve is delta not omicron.
They are still below 50% of new cases being omicron.
Yes, but that also shows that Omicron seems to be increasing more slowly in Germany - what is the explanation for this?
My thinking is:
Germany has recently had a very big wave of Delta. Prier infection is a very good if not perfect, 'immunity' against reinfection including for different variety's. however immunity from infection, like immunity form vaccination reduces over time, therefore a population, like Germany is more resistant, if it has had a recent wave.
This would also explain why much of eastern Europe has not been that badly effected so far.
Comments
https://www.conservativehome.com/thetorydiary/2021/12/a-plurality-of-our-panellists-say-no-more-lockdowns-but-a-quarter-back-vaccine-passports-instead.html
"Thanks to the efforts of Dr X, we have no alcoholics on this ship."
You lied repeatedly. On multiple occasions you claimed that Christmas was cancelled.
How about reading the speech from the Chief Minister last week - https://www.gibraltar.gov.gi/press-releases/chief-ministers-script-live-statement-from-no-6-convent-place-9552021-7552
Let me quote a few bits of it for you:
"I know many of you will be watching UK and international news channels and you will be seeing nations around the world IMPOSING conditions and rules and cancelling events and celebrations.
You may ask yourselves why your Government is not doing that here."
Hmmm... interesting.
"As a result of the vaccination programme, I fully expect we will now be able to enjoy Christmas with our loved ones without the need for any further restrictions."
Ahhh...
What restrictions do they have?
"mask wearing in shops and on public transport."
Do you really expect us to believe that means "Christmas is cancelled"?
Do you take us for idiots?
Do you think you can spew lies without us being able to Google?
How about you withdraw your claims.
On the other hand, hats off to our Prime Minister who has Catholic tastes when it comes to partying, particularly during lockdowns.
They are still below 50% of new cases being omicron.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/dec/30/germany-may-follow-england-in-cutting-isolation-time-as-omicron-spreads
How about the ferry?
Germany has recently had a very big wave of Delta. Prier infection is a very good if not perfect, 'immunity' against reinfection including for different variety's. however immunity from infection, like immunity form vaccination reduces over time, therefore a population, like Germany is more resistant, if it has had a recent wave.
This would also explain why much of eastern Europe has not been that badly effected so far.