In 2022 Boris needs to fire up the Tory base to get his numbers back up. That means particularly continuing to refuse to impose any new restrictions on the vaccinated
Even if a vaccine busting variant comes along that swifty kills us all in large numbers?
I thought the Summer was the silly season, it seems I was wrong. Some posters have been barking at the moon for the last week.
The only reason for more restrictions is if there is a new variant that emerges that is resistant to vaccination yes. Otherwise there must be no new restrictions on the vaccinated
Does anyone know how accurate the blood O2 measures are on a phone? And what numbers to look out for?
I've got a Galaxy S9+ and after testing positive yesterday I used the sensor for the first time in years to get a reading of 95. I then immediately tried it again a few times and got an 85, 86 and 88 which rather raises question marks against its reliability. Just tried again and got a 90.
I don’t think I’d ever trust my phone to do a medical diagnosis!
On topic, I'm a split personality on Johnson's prospects for 2022. Political Me believes it's all over for him, he's been sussed and he's on his way out. Betting Me disagrees and thinks he's far more likely than not to recover sufficiently to stay in place. I'm long of him at 1.9 to still be PM for the Tory Party Conf and I'm not laying it back yet even though it's shortened to 1.5. I think that's still too big. Should be 1.33 max and probably 1.25.
Paterson was bonfire night, today is NYE. So inside of two months we have had Paterson, peppa pig, wallpaper redux, kabul redux and partygate. Those last three still have life in them, but also why would one think BJ has Drawn a Line and the Fightback Starts Now, rather than the omnishambles will continue with new material in the new year?
My guess is someone is subbing his living expenses big time with undeclared loans.
Does anyone know how accurate the blood O2 measures are on a phone? And what numbers to look out for?
I've got a Galaxy S9+ and after testing positive yesterday I used the sensor for the first time in years to get a reading of 95. I then immediately tried it again a few times and got an 85, 86 and 88 which rather raises question marks against its reliability. Just tried again and got a 90.
Does anyone know how accurate the blood O2 measures are on a phone? And what numbers to look out for?
I've got a Galaxy S9+ and after testing positive yesterday I used the sensor for the first time in years to get a reading of 95. I then immediately tried it again a few times and got an 85, 86 and 88 which rather raises question marks against its reliability. Just tried again and got a 90.
I don’t think I’d ever trust my phone to do a medical diagnosis!
True but if its even semi-reliable then it might be useful as a yellow card to say its worth getting something checked.
Does anyone know how accurate the blood O2 measures are on a phone? And what numbers to look out for?
I've got a Galaxy S9+ and after testing positive yesterday I used the sensor for the first time in years to get a reading of 95. I then immediately tried it again a few times and got an 85, 86 and 88 which rather raises question marks against its reliability. Just tried again and got a 90.
My memory of what foxy has said is that sub 95 is a worry, and with 85 either the phone is unreliable or you are on the ouija board to us.
Does anyone know how accurate the blood O2 measures are on a phone? And what numbers to look out for?
I've got a Galaxy S9+ and after testing positive yesterday I used the sensor for the first time in years to get a reading of 95. I then immediately tried it again a few times and got an 85, 86 and 88 which rather raises question marks against its reliability. Just tried again and got a 90.
Get an oximeter off Amazon. Those readings are nonsense.
Does anyone know how accurate the blood O2 measures are on a phone? And what numbers to look out for?
I've got a Galaxy S9+ and after testing positive yesterday I used the sensor for the first time in years to get a reading of 95. I then immediately tried it again a few times and got an 85, 86 and 88 which rather raises question marks against its reliability. Just tried again and got a 90.
I don’t think I’d ever trust my phone to do a medical diagnosis!
True but if its even semi-reliable then it might be useful as a yellow card to say its worth getting something checked.
Does anyone know how accurate the blood O2 measures are on a phone? And what numbers to look out for?
I've got a Galaxy S9+ and after testing positive yesterday I used the sensor for the first time in years to get a reading of 95. I then immediately tried it again a few times and got an 85, 86 and 88 which rather raises question marks against its reliability. Just tried again and got a 90.
Lots of interweb resources, this says call the dr if 92 or below. i'd get a dedicated meter
On topic, I'm a split personality on Johnson's prospects for 2022. Political Me believes it's all over for him, he's been sussed and he's on his way out. Betting Me disagrees and thinks he's far more likely than not to recover sufficiently to stay in place. I'm long of him at 1.9 to still be PM for the Tory Party Conf and I'm not laying it back yet even though it's shortened to 1.5. I think that's still too big. Should be 1.33 max and probably 1.25.
I don't know about BoJo recovering (his default state is less popular than he and his acolytes imagine... 2019 was very much Devil vs. Deep Blue Sea), but I can see a pathway where it's never in anyone's personal interest to dump him... until it's too late.
Rishi being happy to serve under Liz, and vice versa... That's when Boris really has to worry. And I'm not sure I can see that happening.
Sunak and Truss are both definitely on maneuvers but it's too early for either. They need Johnson to take a lot more of the blame to come.
And that's their exquisite dilemma.
There's more unavoidable dung coming, and they would like Boris to absorb that. So he should stay until Summer '23, before a May '24 election. (I can't see the economy being perky enough before then.) But all the time he's there, he generates dung which won't be trivial to wash off when they do ditch him. So he should have gone already...
Am I the only PB regular that hasn't (knowingly) had the Rona yet? It is getting a bit last Boris supporter.....
Me too. Oddly enouigh however i had an odd episode of flu in Feb 2020 when spending a lot of time having dental treatment in the West End/Lothian Road area of Edinburgh at just the time there was an early outbreak there, so who knows?
@NickPalmer re average yes I agree but not really the point @HYUFD made a statement that was blatantly wrong and as @BartholomewRoberts@IshmaelZ stated the median average would be higher still.
As @Charles pointed out and as I have done on numerous times before @HYUFD can have a quite valid argument that he then completely devalues by using incorrect maths to justify it and thereby completely undermines it. On several occasions I have agreed with the point @HYUFD is making but have been embarrassed to support it because of the nonsense argument. And for instance in the last thread to top it all he answered my point be comparing two unrelated sets.
@Charles re your life insurance story. There was an example on the TV recently re a lady in France I think who had achieved a ripe old age who had outlived the person who bought her life insurance policy by decades. It has to make you smile even if you are on the wrong side of it.
Jeanne Calment.
If you want a nice conspiracy theory to while away the morning, there are those who say she is sooo many SDs to the right she can't actually be true, and was actually her own daughter claiming to be her precisely to keep claiming on the policy (which was a specifically French thing a bit like equity release on her flat).
Although I thought the switch was supposed to have happened in the 30s so incidental to the property
Does anyone know how accurate the blood O2 measures are on a phone? And what numbers to look out for?
I've got a Galaxy S9+ and after testing positive yesterday I used the sensor for the first time in years to get a reading of 95. I then immediately tried it again a few times and got an 85, 86 and 88 which rather raises question marks against its reliability. Just tried again and got a 90.
Get an oximeter off Amazon. Those readings are nonsense.
Does anyone know how accurate the blood O2 measures are on a phone? And what numbers to look out for?
I've got a Galaxy S9+ and after testing positive yesterday I used the sensor for the first time in years to get a reading of 95. I then immediately tried it again a few times and got an 85, 86 and 88 which rather raises question marks against its reliability. Just tried again and got a 90.
Lots of interweb resources, this says call the dr if 92 or below. i'd get a dedicated meter
Pulse oximeters are only £10 to £20 so you could buy a different brand for each member of the family, which will mean you can easily check their reliability.
Boris Johnson and Keir Starmer see Scottish approval ratings 'hit record lows'
VOTERS’ estimations of the UK and Scottish leaders of both the Tory and Labour parties have sunk to record lows, Professor Sir John Curtice [the president of the British Polling Council] has said.
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar’s rating has plummeted to a rating of -1, while his UK leader, Keir Starmer, has also seen a drop in his approval rating, which now sits on -35.
The news is equally poor for the Tory leaders, with UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson having an approval rating of -62. A massive 78% of people said Johnson was doing his job poorly.
Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross has also seen a drop in his rating, which now sits on -38. Just 17% of Scots said he was doing well in his role.
Alex Cole-Hamilton, the leader of the Scottish LibDems, has an approval rating of -16. However, the majority of respondents (55%) said they did not know how he was performing.
[Curtice] adds: “There is no sign of any electoral challenge to the grip of the nationalist movement on the Holyrood chamber. Meanwhile, the Conservatives are mired in sleaze, and the UK and Scottish leaders of the Conservative and the Labour Party have all sunk to record lows in voters’ estimation.”
Does anyone know how accurate the blood O2 measures are on a phone? And what numbers to look out for?
I've got a Galaxy S9+ and after testing positive yesterday I used the sensor for the first time in years to get a reading of 95. I then immediately tried it again a few times and got an 85, 86 and 88 which rather raises question marks against its reliability. Just tried again and got a 90.
I don’t think I’d ever trust my phone to do a medical diagnosis!
True but if its even semi-reliable then it might be useful as a yellow card to say its worth getting something checked.
Am I the only PB regular that hasn't (knowingly) had the Rona yet? It is getting a bit last Boris supporter.....
I've dodged it so far, even when Mrs Foxy had it. I did think that I had it first wave, but swab negative, albeit a bit delayed. No antibodies in summer 2020 though, so no evidence that I did.
Boris Johnson and Keir Starmer see Scottish approval ratings 'hit record lows'
VOTERS’ estimations of the UK and Scottish leaders of both the Tory and Labour parties have sunk to record lows, Professor Sir John Curtice [the president of the British Polling Council] has said.
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar’s rating has plummeted to a rating of -1, while his UK leader, Keir Starmer, has also seen a drop in his approval rating, which now sits on -35.
The news is equally poor for the Tory leaders, with UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson having an approval rating of -62. A massive 78% of people said Johnson was doing his job poorly.
Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross has also seen a drop in his rating, which now sits on -38. Just 17% of Scots said he was doing well in his role.
Alex Cole-Hamilton, the leader of the Scottish LibDems, has an approval rating of -16. However, the majority of respondents (55%) said they did not know how he was performing.
[Curtice] adds: “There is no sign of any electoral challenge to the grip of the nationalist movement on the Holyrood chamber. Meanwhile, the Conservatives are mired in sleaze, and the UK and Scottish leaders of the Conservative and the Labour Party have all sunk to record lows in voters’ estimation.”
Does anyone know how accurate the blood O2 measures are on a phone? And what numbers to look out for?
I've got a Galaxy S9+ and after testing positive yesterday I used the sensor for the first time in years to get a reading of 95. I then immediately tried it again a few times and got an 85, 86 and 88 which rather raises question marks against its reliability. Just tried again and got a 90.
Get an oximeter off Amazon. Those readings are nonsense.
It has to be wrong with readings like that
I would suggest you buy an oximeter asap
+1 - I can't see how you could position a phone to give you a consistent / sane reading. An oximeter on your finger or a smart watch has a consistent location but a phone completely impossible.
Boris Johnson and Keir Starmer see Scottish approval ratings 'hit record lows'
VOTERS’ estimations of the UK and Scottish leaders of both the Tory and Labour parties have sunk to record lows, Professor Sir John Curtice [the president of the British Polling Council] has said.
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar’s rating has plummeted to a rating of -1, while his UK leader, Keir Starmer, has also seen a drop in his approval rating, which now sits on -35.
The news is equally poor for the Tory leaders, with UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson having an approval rating of -62. A massive 78% of people said Johnson was doing his job poorly.
Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross has also seen a drop in his rating, which now sits on -38. Just 17% of Scots said he was doing well in his role.
Alex Cole-Hamilton, the leader of the Scottish LibDems, has an approval rating of -16. However, the majority of respondents (55%) said they did not know how he was performing.
[Curtice] adds: “There is no sign of any electoral challenge to the grip of the nationalist movement on the Holyrood chamber. Meanwhile, the Conservatives are mired in sleaze, and the UK and Scottish leaders of the Conservative and the Labour Party have all sunk to record lows in voters’ estimation.”
So at least a third are not there because of Covid. What’s that, about 4000? Coupled to likely shorter times in hospital and less requirement for ventilation, if the peak comes as soon as is suggested, we should be ok.
Boris Johnson and Keir Starmer see Scottish approval ratings 'hit record lows'
VOTERS’ estimations of the UK and Scottish leaders of both the Tory and Labour parties have sunk to record lows, Professor Sir John Curtice [the president of the British Polling Council] has said.
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar’s rating has plummeted to a rating of -1, while his UK leader, Keir Starmer, has also seen a drop in his approval rating, which now sits on -35.
The news is equally poor for the Tory leaders, with UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson having an approval rating of -62. A massive 78% of people said Johnson was doing his job poorly.
Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross has also seen a drop in his rating, which now sits on -38. Just 17% of Scots said he was doing well in his role.
Alex Cole-Hamilton, the leader of the Scottish LibDems, has an approval rating of -16. However, the majority of respondents (55%) said they did not know how he was performing.
[Curtice] adds: “There is no sign of any electoral challenge to the grip of the nationalist movement on the Holyrood chamber. Meanwhile, the Conservatives are mired in sleaze, and the UK and Scottish leaders of the Conservative and the Labour Party have all sunk to record lows in voters’ estimation.”
Am I the only PB regular that hasn't (knowingly) had the Rona yet? It is getting a bit last Boris supporter.....
I've dodged it so far, even when Mrs Foxy had it. I did think that I had it first wave, but swab negative, albeit a bit delayed. No antibodies in summer 2020 though, so no evidence that I did.
I've been fine so far - wfh, had a few dinner parties with open windows, masked in shops and on transport, generally avoiding unnecessary contact but not withdrawing from what I count as reasonable social life. Quite happy to continue at that level indefinitely.
One of my favourite things about Twitter has become painters' accounts (almost always fan accounts, what with mortality and everything), it's sort of the equivalent of thought for the day for irreligious me. This painting by Otto Dix of one of his kids has a strong resemblance to a young Boris, even the title could stay with a minor alteration.
One of my favourite things about Twitter has become painters' accounts (almost always fan accounts, what with mortality and everything), it's sort of the equivalent of thought for the day for irreligious me. This painting by Otto Dix of one of his kids has a strong resemblance to a young Boris, even the title could stay with a minor alteration.
I might ask the painting AI to create a young Boris....
Am I the only PB regular that hasn't (knowingly) had the Rona yet? It is getting a bit last Boris supporter.....
As far as I know, I haven't had it. I've had weird symptoms three times, but once was before testing was a thing, back in March 2020, and each of the other times I tested negative.
This is in its own way rather odd because at no point have I taken particular precautions and several times I have been extremely close (as in, less than a foot away) for prolonged periods to people who were symptomatic and subsequently tested positive.
So I don't know how I've dodged it but so far officially at least I have. My own guess is that I probably did have it on two of those three occasions but my family's over-active immune system made both the symptoms rather unusual and also made it hard for the test to get enough virus to identify it.
Does anyone know how accurate the blood O2 measures are on a phone? And what numbers to look out for?
I've got a Galaxy S9+ and after testing positive yesterday I used the sensor for the first time in years to get a reading of 95. I then immediately tried it again a few times and got an 85, 86 and 88 which rather raises question marks against its reliability. Just tried again and got a 90.
I don’t think I’d ever trust my phone to do a medical diagnosis!
True but if its even semi-reliable then it might be useful as a yellow card to say its worth getting something checked.
Am I the only PB regular that hasn't (knowingly) had the Rona yet? It is getting a bit last Boris supporter.....
Not me either, though my sister has.
I am also nearly the last PB Boris supporter
How on earth can you continue to support him? Why, beyond because he's somehow still the PM?
The same way I would have supported Thatcher to the end in 1990. She won a general election majority and in my view PMs who won majorities should see out their terms unless they decide to step down and only the voters as a whole should remove them.
Removing Thatcher midterm did see the Tories scrape home in 1992 but the bitterness from her and her supporters lasted for over a decade and the Tories were trounced in 1997 and lost 3 out of 4 post Thatcher general elections overall.
Am I the only PB regular that hasn't (knowingly) had the Rona yet? It is getting a bit last Boris supporter.....
I haven't. Mrs DA gets PCR tested at least once a week and there is no way I could have it and she couldn't. This could be the first trumpet Might as well be the last
On topic, I'm a split personality on Johnson's prospects for 2022. Political Me believes it's all over for him, he's been sussed and he's on his way out. Betting Me disagrees and thinks he's far more likely than not to recover sufficiently to stay in place. I'm long of him at 1.9 to still be PM for the Tory Party Conf and I'm not laying it back yet even though it's shortened to 1.5. I think that's still too big. Should be 1.33 max and probably 1.25.
I've been pondering this while I've been (supposed to be) working this morning. I think it all comes down to timing, and it means it's more likely than not he will survive, unless he himself decides he's had enough (and I think he enjoys the status too much to go voluntarily) or something turns up that forces him out.
There are two routes for challengers to becoming PM - oust Johnson before the election, and possibly lose, or wait until after the election, become LOTO and wait for a Labour government to struggle with the mess they inherit and win the next election.
This year is going to be a bad one for the government, whoever is in charge. In the next few months there will be a lot of economic bad news - inflation, tax rises etc. All the short term pain of Brexit will start to become clear, without any clear long term gain. Then as we (hopefully) pull out of the worst of Covid there are going to have to be some very unpopular decisions on how to fund it, and also fund all the extra spending that's going to be needed over the next couple of years. Or make some very hard decisions on what to cut, accompanied by loud squealing.
If I wanted to become PM, I think I'd rather let somebody else deal with the mess and carry the can.
If you are under 50, you are probably best to wait, and become PM in 2029. So that leaves us with the likely runners who are over 50, whose only likely shot at the Premiership is before a GE - Messrs Hunt, Javid and Gove. Will any of them want to force the issue this year? I think if I was them I would wait until 2023, which will give a year/18 months to calm troubled waters a bit, blame the previous bloke for the mess and hope to appear sane enough to hang on (possible).
Boris Johnson and Keir Starmer see Scottish approval ratings 'hit record lows'
VOTERS’ estimations of the UK and Scottish leaders of both the Tory and Labour parties have sunk to record lows, Professor Sir John Curtice [the president of the British Polling Council] has said.
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar’s rating has plummeted to a rating of -1, while his UK leader, Keir Starmer, has also seen a drop in his approval rating, which now sits on -35.
The news is equally poor for the Tory leaders, with UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson having an approval rating of -62. A massive 78% of people said Johnson was doing his job poorly.
Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross has also seen a drop in his rating, which now sits on -38. Just 17% of Scots said he was doing well in his role.
Alex Cole-Hamilton, the leader of the Scottish LibDems, has an approval rating of -16. However, the majority of respondents (55%) said they did not know how he was performing.
[Curtice] adds: “There is no sign of any electoral challenge to the grip of the nationalist movement on the Holyrood chamber. Meanwhile, the Conservatives are mired in sleaze, and the UK and Scottish leaders of the Conservative and the Labour Party have all sunk to record lows in voters’ estimation.”
And Scotland is now almost irrelevant in relation to UK General Elections.
In that case we may as well just call them England & Wales General Elections, or my preference, Wangland GEs.
At some point Scottish voters will decide they want influence over Westminster politics
IT's called "voting in a Westminster election". So, yes, already.
'Look Jocks, just think of the influence you had over Westminster politics from 1979-1997, or that time you you voted in 56 out of 59 mps from a single party.'
48% (lol) of incremental admissions in London in the last week have been incidental or "with COVID" rather than "for COVID". This is why NHS trust managers aren't worried by the numbers we see on the public dashboard. The proportion usually hovers around 65-70% for COVID.
The only major worry is the rate of increase in hospital numbers for COVID but part of that is due to the funnel not having Omicron patients leaving yet, we'll have to wait until the second week of January to really know what the entry vs exit stats look like for the hospitalisation funnel. It could be that it levels out quite a bit lower than it did for Alpha or Delta because of reduced severity.
Based on the trend of incoming patients in England it looks like the "for COVID" number in hospital is about 7k. Unfortunately we can't compare that 7k figure to the Alpha wave because this statistic wasn't produced until the Saj became health sec so the data doesn't exist before June 18th.
Am I the only PB regular that hasn't (knowingly) had the Rona yet? It is getting a bit last Boris supporter.....
Not me either, though my sister has.
I am also nearly the last PB Boris supporter
How on earth can you continue to support him? Why, beyond because he's somehow still the PM?
The same way I would have supported Thatcher to the end in 1990. She won a general election majority and in my view PMs who won majorities should see out their terms and only the voters as a whole should remove them.
Removing Thatcher midterm did see the Tories scrape home in 1990 but the bitterness from her and her supporters lasted for over a decade and the Tories were trounced in 1997 and lost 3 out of 4 post Thatcher general elections overall.
Except no-one outside of the people of Uxbridge voted for Boris. They vote for their local MP to represent them in Parliament.
And as my local MP is currently a Tory MP he has the right to determine who should be the leader of the Tory party and through that who the Prime Minister should be.
As for the rest of your argument - I don't think it was bitter Thatcherites who voted for Labour in 1997.
One of my favourite things about Twitter has become painters' accounts (almost always fan accounts, what with mortality and everything), it's sort of the equivalent of thought for the day for irreligious me. This painting by Otto Dix of one of his kids has a strong resemblance to a young Boris, even the title could stay with a minor alteration.
(((Dan Hodges))) @DPJHodges · 11h The Times: "NHS chiefs do not believe that the threshold for new Covid-19 restrictions has been crossed despite a surge in hospital admissions". Not evil Boris. Not his evil advisors. Not his evil Cabinet. Not his evil MPs. Not his evil media cheerleaders. NHS Chiefs.
Yeah, though the same source (Chris Hopson, Head of NHS Providers), has clarified: on R4 (source: PA): "It is the Government who sets the rules on restrictions, not the NHS. We still don’t know if a surge will come, and indeed we are exactly talking about the preparations we are making for that surge right now.
So, in terms of restrictions, I think we are in exactly the same place we’ve been for the past fortnight, which is the government needs to be ready to introduce tighter restrictions at real speed should they be needed.
And just to make the point that that is somewhat different to a headline that states NHS leaders think there is no need for more curbs - they may be needed at pace if the evidence warrants it.
And just one more important point, I think - it is worth remembering that it does take about a fortnight for any new restrictions to affect the level of hospital admissions, so the pattern of hospital admissions for the next fortnight has already been set."
So the headline is sort of correct - they don't think the threshold has been crossed yet. But it's also correct to say they think it could be crossed shortly. That's a perfectly consistent position, politicised by Hodges as usual.
Am I the only PB regular that hasn't (knowingly) had the Rona yet? It is getting a bit last Boris supporter.....
I've dodged it so far, even when Mrs Foxy had it. I did think that I had it first wave, but swab negative, albeit a bit delayed. No antibodies in summer 2020 though, so no evidence that I did.
I've been fine so far - wfh, had a few dinner parties with open windows, masked in shops and on transport, generally avoiding unnecessary contact but not withdrawing from what I count as reasonable social life. Quite happy to continue at that level indefinitely.
The number of times @Leon has had the virus more than makes up for all us PBers who have avoided it so far.
Mr. Dickson, I don't think Boris Johnson believes anything. He's a vacuity, defined by the absence of conviction, driven solely by what he deems his own interest.
No place for this here, Morris. PB.com is for opinions which can then be debated. It's our lifeblood.
This is like coming on and saying "I think horses are bigger than squirrels".
PB pedantry! That is actually entirely arguable. Squirrels go up to 15kg and horses down to 9kg. So you are being unfair to Mr Dancer.
Am I the only PB regular that hasn't (knowingly) had the Rona yet? It is getting a bit last Boris supporter.....
I've dodged it so far, even when Mrs Foxy had it. I did think that I had it first wave, but swab negative, albeit a bit delayed. No antibodies in summer 2020 though, so no evidence that I did.
I've been fine so far - wfh, had a few dinner parties with open windows, masked in shops and on transport, generally avoiding unnecessary contact but not withdrawing from what I count as reasonable social life. Quite happy to continue at that level indefinitely.
The number of times @Leon has had the virus more than makes up for all us PBers who have avoided it so far.
Is that once but it counts as 50, or three times so it counts as 150?
So at least a third are not there because of Covid. What’s that, about 4000? Coupled to likely shorter times in hospital and less requirement for ventilation, if the peak comes as soon as is suggested, we should be ok.
It's not two thirds of the incoming funnel though, she's picked (unsurprisingly) the most misleading statistic. What we need to know is the proportion of with/for wrt newly hospitalised patients that will be largely Omicron related and that looks like it is around 50/50, probably less once Delta related admissions are history.
Am I the only PB regular that hasn't (knowingly) had the Rona yet? It is getting a bit last Boris supporter.....
I am not sure that any of us really know. My son's partner produced a vaguely positive LFT last Wednesday, which led to them eventually getting positive PCR results (this Tuesday). She produced negative results on Thursday and Friday but Saturday's test also came up positive. My son's tests have been negative on a daily basis.
Emboldened by this negativity, my son dropped our presents off on Saturday, and despite a masked, and most fleeting encounter with my line manager wife alongside an open external door, he managed to infect her. So I am now living with Covid, but my daily LFTs continue to show negative.
Am I the only PB regular that hasn't (knowingly) had the Rona yet? It is getting a bit last Boris supporter.....
Not me either, though my sister has.
I am also nearly the last PB Boris supporter
How on earth can you continue to support him? Why, beyond because he's somehow still the PM?
The same way I would have supported Thatcher to the end in 1990. She won a general election majority and in my view PMs who won majorities should see out their terms and only the voters as a whole should remove them.
Removing Thatcher midterm did see the Tories scrape home in 1990 but the bitterness from her and her supporters lasted for over a decade and the Tories were trounced in 1997 and lost 3 out of 4 post Thatcher general elections overall.
Except no-one outside of the people of Uxbridge voted for Boris. They vote for their local MP to represent them in Parliament.
And as my local MP is currently a Tory MP he has the right to determine who should be the leader of the Tory party and through that who the Prime Minister should be.
As for the rest of your argument - I don't think it was bitter Thatcherites who voted for Labour in 1997.
Plenty of Thatcherites voted for the Referendum Party in 1997. It is often forgotten Sir James Goldsmith's party and UKIP got almost a million votes in 1997
Penny Sarchet @PennySarchet As we go into the third year of the pandemic, the New Scientist team has been delving deep into what we can expect in 2022. I urge you: do not expect the pandemic to end next year. Let’s all go into the new year with realistic expectations.
Penny Sarchet @PennySarchet · Dec 30 I’m hopeful that we will increasingly be able to return to a more normal life, but it’s clear that “living with the virus” will continue to necessitate testing, masks, ventilation and other measures for some time yet . These save lives and prevent long covid.
Am I the only PB regular that hasn't (knowingly) had the Rona yet? It is getting a bit last Boris supporter.....
I am not sure that any of us really know. My son's partner produced a vaguely positive LFT last Wednesday, which led to them eventually getting positive PCR results (this Tuesday). She produced negative results on Thursday and Friday but Saturday's test also came up positive. My son's tests have been negative on a daily basis.
Emboldened by this negativity, my son dropped our presents off on Saturday, and despite a masked, and most fleeting encounter with my line manager wife alongside an open external door, he managed to infect her. So I am now living with Covid, but my daily LFTs continue to show negative.
Am I the only PB regular that hasn't (knowingly) had the Rona yet? It is getting a bit last Boris supporter.....
I haven't. Mrs DA gets PCR tested at least once a week and there is no way I could have it and she couldn't. This could be the first trumpet Might as well be the last
As Saint Bob said...
Granddaughter-in-law has had it, Grandson hasn't. And they're in the first couple of years of their marriage.......
Mr. Dickson, I don't think Boris Johnson believes anything. He's a vacuity, defined by the absence of conviction, driven solely by what he deems his own interest.
No place for this here, Morris. PB.com is for opinions which can then be debated. It's our lifeblood.
This is like coming on and saying "I think horses are bigger than squirrels".
PB pedantry! That is actually entirely arguable. Squirrels go up to 15kg and horses down to 9kg. So you are being unfair to Mr Dancer.
Am I the only PB regular that hasn't (knowingly) had the Rona yet? It is getting a bit last Boris supporter.....
Not me either, though my sister has.
I am also nearly the last PB Boris supporter
How on earth can you continue to support him? Why, beyond because he's somehow still the PM?
The same way I would have supported Thatcher to the end in 1990. She won a general election majority and in my view PMs who won majorities should see out their terms and only the voters as a whole should remove them.
Removing Thatcher midterm did see the Tories scrape home in 1990 but the bitterness from her and her supporters lasted for over a decade and the Tories were trounced in 1997 and lost 3 out of 4 post Thatcher general elections overall.
Except no-one outside of the people of Uxbridge voted for Boris. They vote for their local MP to represent them in Parliament.
And as my local MP is currently a Tory MP he has the right to determine who should be the leader of the Tory party and through that who the Prime Minister should be.
As for the rest of your argument - I don't think it was bitter Thatcherites who voted for Labour in 1997.
Plenty of Thatcherites voted for the Referendum Party in 1997. It is often forgotten Sir James Goldsmith's party and UKIP got over a million votes in 1997
Care to tell me which seats that cost the Tories in 1997?
It's not like 2019 where I can easily point out 5 seats which Labour won because Farage took enough seats from the Tories to stop Boris winning.
Penny Sarchet @PennySarchet As we go into the third year of the pandemic, the New Scientist team has been delving deep into what we can expect in 2022. I urge you: do not expect the pandemic to end next year. Let’s all go into the new year with realistic expectations.
Penny Sarchet @PennySarchet · Dec 30 I’m hopeful that we will increasingly be able to return to a more normal life, but it’s clear that “living with the virus” will continue to necessitate testing, masks, ventilation and other measures for some time yet . These save lives and prevent long covid.
[my bolding]
That doesn't pass the sniff test because an endemic virus is something that everyone is going to get at some point, probably multiple times. NPIs may kick infections into the future a bit but they will no longer prevent them, vaccines and anti-virals will reduce severity and save lives, NPIs won't.
Am I the only PB regular that hasn't (knowingly) had the Rona yet? It is getting a bit last Boris supporter.....
I am not sure that any of us really know. My son's partner produced a vaguely positive LFT last Wednesday, which led to them eventually getting positive PCR results (this Tuesday). She produced negative results on Thursday and Friday but Saturday's test also came up positive. My son's tests have been negative on a daily basis.
Emboldened by this negativity, my son dropped our presents off on Saturday, and despite a masked, and most fleeting encounter with my line manager wife alongside an open external door, he managed to infect her. So I am now living with Covid, but my daily LFTs continue to show negative.
Big O really is highly infectious. I don't see how we all avoid getting infected over the next few months.
Am I the only PB regular that hasn't (knowingly) had the Rona yet? It is getting a bit last Boris supporter.....
I've dodged it so far, even when Mrs Foxy had it. I did think that I had it first wave, but swab negative, albeit a bit delayed. No antibodies in summer 2020 though, so no evidence that I did.
Is that Cromwell's standard doc?
Husband and I harbour a lingering suspicion that we were sick with Wuhan plague back at Xmas 2019, but probably wrong and impossible to prove in any case. No suspicious symptoms since.
The UK has seen bad outcomes from the pandemic, even compared to European neighbours. However, it's striking how the comparison improves once vaccines became widely available (around March 2021).
Boris Johnson and Keir Starmer see Scottish approval ratings 'hit record lows'
VOTERS’ estimations of the UK and Scottish leaders of both the Tory and Labour parties have sunk to record lows, Professor Sir John Curtice [the president of the British Polling Council] has said.
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar’s rating has plummeted to a rating of -1, while his UK leader, Keir Starmer, has also seen a drop in his approval rating, which now sits on -35.
The news is equally poor for the Tory leaders, with UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson having an approval rating of -62. A massive 78% of people said Johnson was doing his job poorly.
Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross has also seen a drop in his rating, which now sits on -38. Just 17% of Scots said he was doing well in his role.
Alex Cole-Hamilton, the leader of the Scottish LibDems, has an approval rating of -16. However, the majority of respondents (55%) said they did not know how he was performing.
[Curtice] adds: “There is no sign of any electoral challenge to the grip of the nationalist movement on the Holyrood chamber. Meanwhile, the Conservatives are mired in sleaze, and the UK and Scottish leaders of the Conservative and the Labour Party have all sunk to record lows in voters’ estimation.”
And Scotland is now almost irrelevant in relation to UK General Elections.
In that case we may as well just call them England & Wales General Elections, or my preference, Wangland GEs.
At some point Scottish voters will decide they want influence over Westminster politics
Yeah, a rather abrupt influence.
It’s on the assumption that there is a Labour minority government that will trade with them for support. How many have there been in the last century? 1? (Vague memory of something in the 70s)
In return they have no meaningful input on foreign affairs, defence, tax policy etc.
It may be they are content with effective control of the main public facing aspects of domestic policy however
BBC - Whiff of infected breath enough to catch Omicron - Openshaw
More from Professor Peter Openshaw, who says someone only needs to be exposed to "a whiff of infected breath" to catch the highly transmissible Omicron variant of coronavirus.
"Omicron is so infectious. We're lucky really that it wasn't this infectious when it first moved into human-to-human transmission," he told BBC Breakfast.
"We've had several iterations of this virus going through different stages of its evolution.
"It has ended up being so infectious that it almost needs just a whiff of infected breath and you could get infected."
Am I the only PB regular that hasn't (knowingly) had the Rona yet? It is getting a bit last Boris supporter.....
Not me either, though my sister has.
I am also nearly the last PB Boris supporter
How on earth can you continue to support him? Why, beyond because he's somehow still the PM?
The same way I would have supported Thatcher to the end in 1990. She won a general election majority and in my view PMs who won majorities should see out their terms and only the voters as a whole should remove them.
Removing Thatcher midterm did see the Tories scrape home in 1990 but the bitterness from her and her supporters lasted for over a decade and the Tories were trounced in 1997 and lost 3 out of 4 post Thatcher general elections overall.
Except no-one outside of the people of Uxbridge voted for Boris. They vote for their local MP to represent them in Parliament.
And as my local MP is currently a Tory MP he has the right to determine who should be the leader of the Tory party and through that who the Prime Minister should be.
As for the rest of your argument - I don't think it was bitter Thatcherites who voted for Labour in 1997.
Plenty of Thatcherites voted for the Referendum Party in 1997. It is often forgotten Sir James Goldsmith's party and UKIP got over a million votes in 1997
Care to tell me which seats that cost the Tories in 1997?
It's not like 2019 where I can easily point out 5 seats which Labour won because Farage took enough seats from the Tories to stop Boris winning.
Harwich, Castle Point, Braintree, Romford and Torridge and West Devon just 5 seats in 1997 where the Referendum Party and UKIP vote was bigger than the Labour or LD majority over the Tories
Boris Johnson and Keir Starmer see Scottish approval ratings 'hit record lows'
VOTERS’ estimations of the UK and Scottish leaders of both the Tory and Labour parties have sunk to record lows, Professor Sir John Curtice [the president of the British Polling Council] has said.
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar’s rating has plummeted to a rating of -1, while his UK leader, Keir Starmer, has also seen a drop in his approval rating, which now sits on -35.
The news is equally poor for the Tory leaders, with UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson having an approval rating of -62. A massive 78% of people said Johnson was doing his job poorly.
Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross has also seen a drop in his rating, which now sits on -38. Just 17% of Scots said he was doing well in his role.
Alex Cole-Hamilton, the leader of the Scottish LibDems, has an approval rating of -16. However, the majority of respondents (55%) said they did not know how he was performing.
[Curtice] adds: “There is no sign of any electoral challenge to the grip of the nationalist movement on the Holyrood chamber. Meanwhile, the Conservatives are mired in sleaze, and the UK and Scottish leaders of the Conservative and the Labour Party have all sunk to record lows in voters’ estimation.”
And Scotland is now almost irrelevant in relation to UK General Elections.
In that case we may as well just call them England & Wales General Elections, or my preference, Wangland GEs.
At some point Scottish voters will decide they want influence over Westminster politics
IT's called "voting in a Westminster election". So, yes, already.
My point is that the SNP only has marginal influence over Westminster so the voters input is more limited than if they voted for a member of the government or opposition
BBC - Whiff of infected breath enough to catch Omicron - Openshaw
More from Professor Peter Openshaw, who says someone only needs to be exposed to "a whiff of infected breath" to catch the highly transmissible Omicron variant of coronavirus.
"Omicron is so infectious. We're lucky really that it wasn't this infectious when it first moved into human-to-human transmission," he told BBC Breakfast.
"We've had several iterations of this virus going through different stages of its evolution.
"It has ended up being so infectious that it almost needs just a whiff of infected breath and you could get infected."
No matter. Table service in pubs and banning parkrun will deal with it.
BBC - Whiff of infected breath enough to catch Omicron - Openshaw
More from Professor Peter Openshaw, who says someone only needs to be exposed to "a whiff of infected breath" to catch the highly transmissible Omicron variant of coronavirus.
"Omicron is so infectious. We're lucky really that it wasn't this infectious when it first moved into human-to-human transmission," he told BBC Breakfast.
"We've had several iterations of this virus going through different stages of its evolution.
"It has ended up being so infectious that it almost needs just a whiff of infected breath and you could get infected."
No matter. Table service in pubs and banning parkrun will deal with it.
And early closing time.....
I thought the Quebec one being 10pm was particularly funny on the "we are doing something that won't make a blind bit of difference" scale.
BBC - Whiff of infected breath enough to catch Omicron - Openshaw
More from Professor Peter Openshaw, who says someone only needs to be exposed to "a whiff of infected breath" to catch the highly transmissible Omicron variant of coronavirus.
"Omicron is so infectious. We're lucky really that it wasn't this infectious when it first moved into human-to-human transmission," he told BBC Breakfast.
"We've had several iterations of this virus going through different stages of its evolution.
"It has ended up being so infectious that it almost needs just a whiff of infected breath and you could get infected."
No matter. Table service in pubs and banning parkrun will deal with it.
New NPI in Wales - no more breathing to prevent Omicron from spreading.
Am I the only PB regular that hasn't (knowingly) had the Rona yet? It is getting a bit last Boris supporter.....
Had a very bad cold/flu just before Christmas 2019 but have no idea whether it was The Virus or not. Otherwise, haven't had it.
I've not knowingly had it. I haven't had any type of flu episode that could be COVID. Been travelling around a lot and eating out etc. Mrs D has taken more tests because of her work, and they have always been negative. Its actually the same situation for my extended family, come to think of it, and my immediate neighbours. I would guess that there is a lot of asymptomatic infection going on or (possibly) aversion to testing.
Am I the only PB regular that hasn't (knowingly) had the Rona yet? It is getting a bit last Boris supporter.....
Not me either, though my sister has.
I am also nearly the last PB Boris supporter
How on earth can you continue to support him? Why, beyond because he's somehow still the PM?
The same way I would have supported Thatcher to the end in 1990. She won a general election majority and in my view PMs who won majorities should see out their terms and only the voters as a whole should remove them.
Removing Thatcher midterm did see the Tories scrape home in 1990 but the bitterness from her and her supporters lasted for over a decade and the Tories were trounced in 1997 and lost 3 out of 4 post Thatcher general elections overall.
Except no-one outside of the people of Uxbridge voted for Boris. They vote for their local MP to represent them in Parliament.
And as my local MP is currently a Tory MP he has the right to determine who should be the leader of the Tory party and through that who the Prime Minister should be.
As for the rest of your argument - I don't think it was bitter Thatcherites who voted for Labour in 1997.
Plenty of Thatcherites voted for the Referendum Party in 1997. It is often forgotten Sir James Goldsmith's party and UKIP got over a million votes in 1997
Care to tell me which seats that cost the Tories in 1997?
It's not like 2019 where I can easily point out 5 seats which Labour won because Farage took enough seats from the Tories to stop Boris winning.
Hastings and Rye the only one that springs to mind. Although it certainly assisted the LDs winning seats in the south.
Boris Johnson and Keir Starmer see Scottish approval ratings 'hit record lows'
VOTERS’ estimations of the UK and Scottish leaders of both the Tory and Labour parties have sunk to record lows, Professor Sir John Curtice [the president of the British Polling Council] has said.
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar’s rating has plummeted to a rating of -1, while his UK leader, Keir Starmer, has also seen a drop in his approval rating, which now sits on -35.
The news is equally poor for the Tory leaders, with UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson having an approval rating of -62. A massive 78% of people said Johnson was doing his job poorly.
Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross has also seen a drop in his rating, which now sits on -38. Just 17% of Scots said he was doing well in his role.
Alex Cole-Hamilton, the leader of the Scottish LibDems, has an approval rating of -16. However, the majority of respondents (55%) said they did not know how he was performing.
[Curtice] adds: “There is no sign of any electoral challenge to the grip of the nationalist movement on the Holyrood chamber. Meanwhile, the Conservatives are mired in sleaze, and the UK and Scottish leaders of the Conservative and the Labour Party have all sunk to record lows in voters’ estimation.”
And Scotland is now almost irrelevant in relation to UK General Elections.
In that case we may as well just call them England & Wales General Elections, or my preference, Wangland GEs.
At some point Scottish voters will decide they want influence over Westminster politics
Yeah, a rather abrupt influence.
It’s on the assumption that there is a Labour minority government that will trade with them for support. How many have there been in the last century? 1? (Vague memory of something in the 70s)
In return they have no meaningful input on foreign affairs, defence, tax policy etc.
It may be they are content with effective control of the main public facing aspects of domestic policy however
It'll be interesting to see whether the Scottish MPs can have any meaningful influence even if they do hold the balance of power in theory. In practice the SNPs positioning is such that English Labour will probably feel that they can write it off. They can't do anything to damage a minority Labour administration that doesn't help the hated Tories.
Boris Johnson and Keir Starmer see Scottish approval ratings 'hit record lows'
VOTERS’ estimations of the UK and Scottish leaders of both the Tory and Labour parties have sunk to record lows, Professor Sir John Curtice [the president of the British Polling Council] has said.
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar’s rating has plummeted to a rating of -1, while his UK leader, Keir Starmer, has also seen a drop in his approval rating, which now sits on -35.
The news is equally poor for the Tory leaders, with UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson having an approval rating of -62. A massive 78% of people said Johnson was doing his job poorly.
Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross has also seen a drop in his rating, which now sits on -38. Just 17% of Scots said he was doing well in his role.
Alex Cole-Hamilton, the leader of the Scottish LibDems, has an approval rating of -16. However, the majority of respondents (55%) said they did not know how he was performing.
[Curtice] adds: “There is no sign of any electoral challenge to the grip of the nationalist movement on the Holyrood chamber. Meanwhile, the Conservatives are mired in sleaze, and the UK and Scottish leaders of the Conservative and the Labour Party have all sunk to record lows in voters’ estimation.”
And Scotland is now almost irrelevant in relation to UK General Elections.
In that case we may as well just call them England & Wales General Elections, or my preference, Wangland GEs.
At some point Scottish voters will decide they want influence over Westminster politics
Yeah, a rather abrupt influence.
It’s on the assumption that there is a Labour minority government that will trade with them for support. How many have there been in the last century? 1? (Vague memory of something in the 70s)
In return they have no meaningful input on foreign affairs, defence, tax policy etc.
It may be they are content with effective control of the main public facing aspects of domestic policy however
You are, I suspect, thinking of the Lib-Lab pact(s) There was a tentative one between March & Oct 74 and a more formal on in 1977-8.
Wikipedia says that there were similar arrangements in 1924 and 1929.
Blair was going to offer one to Ashdown in 1997, but the massive majority and John Prescott's powerful opposition stopped it, as it did electoral reform.
BBC - Whiff of infected breath enough to catch Omicron - Openshaw
More from Professor Peter Openshaw, who says someone only needs to be exposed to "a whiff of infected breath" to catch the highly transmissible Omicron variant of coronavirus.
"Omicron is so infectious. We're lucky really that it wasn't this infectious when it first moved into human-to-human transmission," he told BBC Breakfast.
"We've had several iterations of this virus going through different stages of its evolution.
"It has ended up being so infectious that it almost needs just a whiff of infected breath and you could get infected."
No matter. Table service in pubs and banning parkrun will deal with it.
And early closing time.....
I thought the Quebec one being 10pm was particularly funny on the "we are doing something that won't make a blind bit of difference" scale.
Wasn’t the 10pm pub closing thing tried for about a week in England, with the predictable result that you end up with thousands of people all milling around drunk on the street at the same time, therefore making the problem worse?
BBC - Whiff of infected breath enough to catch Omicron - Openshaw
More from Professor Peter Openshaw, who says someone only needs to be exposed to "a whiff of infected breath" to catch the highly transmissible Omicron variant of coronavirus.
"Omicron is so infectious. We're lucky really that it wasn't this infectious when it first moved into human-to-human transmission," he told BBC Breakfast.
"We've had several iterations of this virus going through different stages of its evolution.
"It has ended up being so infectious that it almost needs just a whiff of infected breath and you could get infected."
No matter. Table service in pubs and banning parkrun will deal with it.
And early closing time.....
I thought the Quebec one being 10pm was particularly funny on the "we are doing something that won't make a blind bit of difference" scale.
Wasn’t the 10pm pub closing thing tried for about a week in England, with the predictable result that you end up with thousands of people all milling around drunk on the street at the same time, therefore making the problem worse?
Yes it was dumb versus far less infectious variants, but versus Omicron.....its literally infected individual walks into a bar, scores will be infected situation.
BBC - Whiff of infected breath enough to catch Omicron - Openshaw
More from Professor Peter Openshaw, who says someone only needs to be exposed to "a whiff of infected breath" to catch the highly transmissible Omicron variant of coronavirus.
"Omicron is so infectious. We're lucky really that it wasn't this infectious when it first moved into human-to-human transmission," he told BBC Breakfast.
"We've had several iterations of this virus going through different stages of its evolution.
"It has ended up being so infectious that it almost needs just a whiff of infected breath and you could get infected."
No matter. Table service in pubs and banning parkrun will deal with it.
And early closing time.....
I thought the Quebec one being 10pm was particularly funny on the "we are doing something that won't make a blind bit of difference" scale.
Wasn’t the 10pm pub closing thing tried for about a week in England, with the predictable result that you end up with thousands of people all milling around drunk on the street at the same time, therefore making the problem worse?
Yes and getting on public transport all at the same time drunk.
BBC - Whiff of infected breath enough to catch Omicron - Openshaw
More from Professor Peter Openshaw, who says someone only needs to be exposed to "a whiff of infected breath" to catch the highly transmissible Omicron variant of coronavirus.
"Omicron is so infectious. We're lucky really that it wasn't this infectious when it first moved into human-to-human transmission," he told BBC Breakfast.
"We've had several iterations of this virus going through different stages of its evolution.
"It has ended up being so infectious that it almost needs just a whiff of infected breath and you could get infected."
No matter. Table service in pubs and banning parkrun will deal with it.
And early closing time.....
I thought the Quebec one being 10pm was particularly funny on the "we are doing something that won't make a blind bit of difference" scale.
Wasn’t the 10pm pub closing thing tried for about a week in England, with the predictable result that you end up with thousands of people all milling around drunk on the street at the same time, therefore making the problem worse?
Yep but the 10pm Quebec one was like announcing a pub closing time of 5am in Britain, well after everyone has gone home for the night.
Does anyone know how accurate the blood O2 measures are on a phone? And what numbers to look out for?
I've got a Galaxy S9+ and after testing positive yesterday I used the sensor for the first time in years to get a reading of 95. I then immediately tried it again a few times and got an 85, 86 and 88 which rather raises question marks against its reliability. Just tried again and got a 90.
Lots of interweb resources, this says call the dr if 92 or below. i'd get a dedicated meter
Pulse oximeters are only £10 to £20 so you could buy a different brand for each member of the family, which will mean you can easily check their reliability.
Seems an odd way to check the reliability of your relatives. Which is an odd thing to do, anyway.
Am I the only PB regular that hasn't (knowingly) had the Rona yet? It is getting a bit last Boris supporter.....
I am not sure that any of us really know. My son's partner produced a vaguely positive LFT last Wednesday, which led to them eventually getting positive PCR results (this Tuesday). She produced negative results on Thursday and Friday but Saturday's test also came up positive. My son's tests have been negative on a daily basis.
Emboldened by this negativity, my son dropped our presents off on Saturday, and despite a masked, and most fleeting encounter with my line manager wife alongside an open external door, he managed to infect her. So I am now living with Covid, but my daily LFTs continue to show negative.
Big O really is highly infectious. I don't see how we all avoid getting infected over the next few months.
Probably best to get it over and done with if you are reasonably fit.
BBC - Whiff of infected breath enough to catch Omicron - Openshaw
More from Professor Peter Openshaw, who says someone only needs to be exposed to "a whiff of infected breath" to catch the highly transmissible Omicron variant of coronavirus.
"Omicron is so infectious. We're lucky really that it wasn't this infectious when it first moved into human-to-human transmission," he told BBC Breakfast.
"We've had several iterations of this virus going through different stages of its evolution.
"It has ended up being so infectious that it almost needs just a whiff of infected breath and you could get infected."
No matter. Table service in pubs and banning parkrun will deal with it.
New NPI in Wales - no more breathing to prevent Omicron from spreading.
Hmmm, on the one hand a lot of deaths, on the other no new cases or hospitalisations. Drakeford and his cabinet have probably discussed it.
Am I the only PB regular that hasn't (knowingly) had the Rona yet? It is getting a bit last Boris supporter.....
Not me either, though my sister has.
I am also nearly the last PB Boris supporter
How on earth can you continue to support him? Why, beyond because he's somehow still the PM?
The same way I would have supported Thatcher to the end in 1990. She won a general election majority and in my view PMs who won majorities should see out their terms and only the voters as a whole should remove them.
Removing Thatcher midterm did see the Tories scrape home in 1990 but the bitterness from her and her supporters lasted for over a decade and the Tories were trounced in 1997 and lost 3 out of 4 post Thatcher general elections overall.
Except no-one outside of the people of Uxbridge voted for Boris. They vote for their local MP to represent them in Parliament.
And as my local MP is currently a Tory MP he has the right to determine who should be the leader of the Tory party and through that who the Prime Minister should be.
As for the rest of your argument - I don't think it was bitter Thatcherites who voted for Labour in 1997.
Plenty of Thatcherites voted for the Referendum Party in 1997. It is often forgotten Sir James Goldsmith's party and UKIP got over a million votes in 1997
Care to tell me which seats that cost the Tories in 1997?
It's not like 2019 where I can easily point out 5 seats which Labour won because Farage took enough seats from the Tories to stop Boris winning.
Hastings and Rye the only one that springs to mind. Although it certainly assisted the LDs winning seats in the south.
Had Kinnock narrowly won the 1992 general election, the Tories may also even have won the 1997 general election not lost it by a landslide and been in opposition for 13 years
Does anyone know how accurate the blood O2 measures are on a phone? And what numbers to look out for?
I've got a Galaxy S9+ and after testing positive yesterday I used the sensor for the first time in years to get a reading of 95. I then immediately tried it again a few times and got an 85, 86 and 88 which rather raises question marks against its reliability. Just tried again and got a 90.
Lots of interweb resources, this says call the dr if 92 or below. i'd get a dedicated meter
Pulse oximeters are only £10 to £20 so you could buy a different brand for each member of the family, which will mean you can easily check their reliability.
Seems an odd way to check the reliability of your relatives. Which is an odd thing to do, anyway.
We got ours from St John Ambulance rather than some random vendor on Amazon, in the hope that the SJA would sell reasonably decent stuff ...
Am I the only PB regular that hasn't (knowingly) had the Rona yet? It is getting a bit last Boris supporter.....
Not me either, though my sister has.
I am also nearly the last PB Boris supporter
How on earth can you continue to support him? Why, beyond because he's somehow still the PM?
The same way I would have supported Thatcher to the end in 1990. She won a general election majority and in my view PMs who won majorities should see out their terms and only the voters as a whole should remove them.
Removing Thatcher midterm did see the Tories scrape home in 1990 but the bitterness from her and her supporters lasted for over a decade and the Tories were trounced in 1997 and lost 3 out of 4 post Thatcher general elections overall.
Except no-one outside of the people of Uxbridge voted for Boris. They vote for their local MP to represent them in Parliament.
And as my local MP is currently a Tory MP he has the right to determine who should be the leader of the Tory party and through that who the Prime Minister should be.
As for the rest of your argument - I don't think it was bitter Thatcherites who voted for Labour in 1997.
Plenty of Thatcherites voted for the Referendum Party in 1997. It is often forgotten Sir James Goldsmith's party and UKIP got over a million votes in 1997
Care to tell me which seats that cost the Tories in 1997?
It's not like 2019 where I can easily point out 5 seats which Labour won because Farage took enough seats from the Tories to stop Boris winning.
Hastings and Rye the only one that springs to mind. Although it certainly assisted the LDs winning seats in the south.
Winchester would surely have been another one.
Assuming, of course, that RP voters would have voted Tory rather than not vote at all. But even three of their 1,598 votes would have swung that. Or indeed, the 476 from UKIP.
Does anyone know how accurate the blood O2 measures are on a phone? And what numbers to look out for?
I've got a Galaxy S9+ and after testing positive yesterday I used the sensor for the first time in years to get a reading of 95. I then immediately tried it again a few times and got an 85, 86 and 88 which rather raises question marks against its reliability. Just tried again and got a 90.
Lots of interweb resources, this says call the dr if 92 or below. i'd get a dedicated meter
Pulse oximeters are only £10 to £20 so you could buy a different brand for each member of the family, which will mean you can easily check their reliability.
Seems an odd way to check the reliability of your relatives. Which is an odd thing to do, anyway.
We got ours from St John Ambulance rather than some random vendor on Amazon, in the hope that the SJA would sell reasonably decent stuff ...
Kinetik Wellbeing Finger Pulse Oximeter is the one they endorse. You can get it via Amazon (or at least you could, as that is where I got mine). I think its available in places like Argos as well.
Does anyone know how accurate the blood O2 measures are on a phone? And what numbers to look out for?
I've got a Galaxy S9+ and after testing positive yesterday I used the sensor for the first time in years to get a reading of 95. I then immediately tried it again a few times and got an 85, 86 and 88 which rather raises question marks against its reliability. Just tried again and got a 90.
Lots of interweb resources, this says call the dr if 92 or below. i'd get a dedicated meter
Pulse oximeters are only £10 to £20 so you could buy a different brand for each member of the family, which will mean you can easily check their reliability.
Seems an odd way to check the reliability of your relatives. Which is an odd thing to do, anyway.
Boris Johnson and Keir Starmer see Scottish approval ratings 'hit record lows'
VOTERS’ estimations of the UK and Scottish leaders of both the Tory and Labour parties have sunk to record lows, Professor Sir John Curtice [the president of the British Polling Council] has said.
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar’s rating has plummeted to a rating of -1, while his UK leader, Keir Starmer, has also seen a drop in his approval rating, which now sits on -35.
The news is equally poor for the Tory leaders, with UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson having an approval rating of -62. A massive 78% of people said Johnson was doing his job poorly.
Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross has also seen a drop in his rating, which now sits on -38. Just 17% of Scots said he was doing well in his role.
Alex Cole-Hamilton, the leader of the Scottish LibDems, has an approval rating of -16. However, the majority of respondents (55%) said they did not know how he was performing.
[Curtice] adds: “There is no sign of any electoral challenge to the grip of the nationalist movement on the Holyrood chamber. Meanwhile, the Conservatives are mired in sleaze, and the UK and Scottish leaders of the Conservative and the Labour Party have all sunk to record lows in voters’ estimation.”
And Scotland is now almost irrelevant in relation to UK General Elections.
In that case we may as well just call them England & Wales General Elections, or my preference, Wangland GEs.
At some point Scottish voters will decide they want influence over Westminster politics
Yeah, a rather abrupt influence.
It’s on the assumption that there is a Labour minority government that will trade with them for support. How many have there been in the last century? 1? (Vague memory of something in the 70s)
In return they have no meaningful input on foreign affairs, defence, tax policy etc.
It may be they are content with effective control of the main public facing aspects of domestic policy however
It'll be interesting to see whether the Scottish MPs can have any meaningful influence even if they do hold the balance of power in theory. In practice the SNPs positioning is such that English Labour will probably feel that they can write it off. They can't do anything to damage a minority Labour administration that doesn't help the hated Tories.
I think discussions of the SNP in such a situation are completely secondary to the crucial point that there would be a huge crisis solely in England right from the start if the Tories still had a majority of English seats; they would be screaming at the illegitimacy of Labour deciding on English domestic issues. That's (so to speak) independent of what happens in Scotland (and Wales and NI for that matter).
Of course, that would be the Tories' fault for not setting up an English parliament in the years since Mr Blair's administration.
Their abolition of EVEL remains a huge anomaly unless it is a trap to try and get the SNP to fall into.
Boris Johnson and Keir Starmer see Scottish approval ratings 'hit record lows'
VOTERS’ estimations of the UK and Scottish leaders of both the Tory and Labour parties have sunk to record lows, Professor Sir John Curtice [the president of the British Polling Council] has said.
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar’s rating has plummeted to a rating of -1, while his UK leader, Keir Starmer, has also seen a drop in his approval rating, which now sits on -35.
The news is equally poor for the Tory leaders, with UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson having an approval rating of -62. A massive 78% of people said Johnson was doing his job poorly.
Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross has also seen a drop in his rating, which now sits on -38. Just 17% of Scots said he was doing well in his role.
Alex Cole-Hamilton, the leader of the Scottish LibDems, has an approval rating of -16. However, the majority of respondents (55%) said they did not know how he was performing.
[Curtice] adds: “There is no sign of any electoral challenge to the grip of the nationalist movement on the Holyrood chamber. Meanwhile, the Conservatives are mired in sleaze, and the UK and Scottish leaders of the Conservative and the Labour Party have all sunk to record lows in voters’ estimation.”
And Scotland is now almost irrelevant in relation to UK General Elections.
In that case we may as well just call them England & Wales General Elections, or my preference, Wangland GEs.
At some point Scottish voters will decide they want influence over Westminster politics
IT's called "voting in a Westminster election". So, yes, already.
My point is that the SNP only has marginal influence over Westminster so the voters input is more limited than if they voted for a member of the government or opposition
Given that most SNP supporters are voting for the SNP to get to a situation where there is no longer any influence from Westminster then...
Scottish voters might ultimately want more influence over Westminster politics, but I don't see that happening this side of an indyref2. If a second referendum happened and was lost convincingly then perhaps voters will flock back to Labour, which is the only meaningful UK GE input they would have in that situation given that if they vote SNP they get Conservative most likely anyway.
But I'm not sure I'd be holding my breath waiting for that if I was Labour.
Am I the only PB regular that hasn't (knowingly) had the Rona yet? It is getting a bit last Boris supporter.....
Not me either, though my sister has.
I am also nearly the last PB Boris supporter
How on earth can you continue to support him? Why, beyond because he's somehow still the PM?
The same way I would have supported Thatcher to the end in 1990. She won a general election majority and in my view PMs who won majorities should see out their terms and only the voters as a whole should remove them.
Removing Thatcher midterm did see the Tories scrape home in 1990 but the bitterness from her and her supporters lasted for over a decade and the Tories were trounced in 1997 and lost 3 out of 4 post Thatcher general elections overall.
Except no-one outside of the people of Uxbridge voted for Boris. They vote for their local MP to represent them in Parliament.
And as my local MP is currently a Tory MP he has the right to determine who should be the leader of the Tory party and through that who the Prime Minister should be.
As for the rest of your argument - I don't think it was bitter Thatcherites who voted for Labour in 1997.
Plenty of Thatcherites voted for the Referendum Party in 1997. It is often forgotten Sir James Goldsmith's party and UKIP got over a million votes in 1997
Care to tell me which seats that cost the Tories in 1997?
It's not like 2019 where I can easily point out 5 seats which Labour won because Farage took enough seats from the Tories to stop Boris winning.
Hastings and Rye the only one that springs to mind. Although it certainly assisted the LDs winning seats in the south.
Had Kinnock narrowly won the 1992 general election, the Tories may also even have won the 1997 general election not lost it by a landslide and been in opposition for 13 years
Comments
My guess is someone is subbing his living expenses big time with undeclared loans.
But if its not, then its junk not to bother with.
https://www.england.nhs.uk/coronavirus/wp-content/uploads/sites/52/2020/06/Pulse-Oximeter-Easy-Read-final-online-v4.pdf
There's more unavoidable dung coming, and they would like Boris to absorb that. So he should stay until Summer '23, before a May '24 election. (I can't see the economy being perky enough before then.) But all the time he's there, he generates dung which won't be trivial to wash off when they do ditch him. So he should have gone already...
I am also nearly the last PB Boris supporter
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10358117/Jewish-leaders-set-confront-BBC-chief-Tim-Davie-demand-public-apology.html
Maybe they will get a Hamas leader on to discuss the case
I would suggest you buy an oximeter asap
Coupled to likely shorter times in hospital and less requirement for ventilation, if the peak comes as soon as is suggested, we should be ok.
Been a lot of shielding over last two years. I am now wondering whether might be worth taking the hit with the mild omi and getting it over with.
This is in its own way rather odd because at no point have I taken particular precautions and several times I have been extremely close (as in, less than a foot away) for prolonged periods to people who were symptomatic and subsequently tested positive.
So I don't know how I've dodged it but so far officially at least I have. My own guess is that I probably did have it on two of those three occasions but my family's over-active immune system made both the symptoms rather unusual and also made it hard for the test to get enough virus to identify it.
Removing Thatcher midterm did see the Tories scrape home in 1992 but the bitterness from her and her supporters lasted for over a decade and the Tories were trounced in 1997 and lost 3 out of 4 post Thatcher general elections overall.
This could be the first trumpet
Might as well be the last
As Saint Bob said...
There are two routes for challengers to becoming PM - oust Johnson before the election, and possibly lose, or wait until after the election, become LOTO and wait for a Labour government to struggle with the mess they inherit and win the next election.
This year is going to be a bad one for the government, whoever is in charge. In the next few months there will be a lot of economic bad news - inflation, tax rises etc. All the short term pain of Brexit will start to become clear, without any clear long term gain. Then as we (hopefully) pull out of the worst of Covid there are going to have to be some very unpopular decisions on how to fund it, and also fund all the extra spending that's going to be needed over the next couple of years. Or make some very hard decisions on what to cut, accompanied by loud squealing.
If I wanted to become PM, I think I'd rather let somebody else deal with the mess and carry the can.
If you are under 50, you are probably best to wait, and become PM in 2029. So that leaves us with the likely runners who are over 50, whose only likely shot at the Premiership is before a GE - Messrs Hunt, Javid and Gove. Will any of them want to force the issue this year? I think if I was them I would wait until 2023, which will give a year/18 months to calm troubled waters a bit, blame the previous bloke for the mess and hope to appear sane enough to hang on (possible).
https://www.politicshome.com/news/article/the-westminster-winners-and-losers-of-2021
Although if its in any sort of order (I think its random) I'd have Wes Streeting a lot further up the list
The only major worry is the rate of increase in hospital numbers for COVID but part of that is due to the funnel not having Omicron patients leaving yet, we'll have to wait until the second week of January to really know what the entry vs exit stats look like for the hospitalisation funnel. It could be that it levels out quite a bit lower than it did for Alpha or Delta because of reduced severity.
Based on the trend of incoming patients in England it looks like the "for COVID" number in hospital is about 7k. Unfortunately we can't compare that 7k figure to the Alpha wave because this statistic wasn't produced until the Saj became health sec so the data doesn't exist before June 18th.
And as my local MP is currently a Tory MP he has the right to determine who should be the leader of the Tory party and through that who the Prime Minister should be.
As for the rest of your argument - I don't think it was bitter Thatcherites who voted for Labour in 1997.
So, in terms of restrictions, I think we are in exactly the same place we’ve been for the past fortnight, which is the government needs to be ready to introduce tighter restrictions at real speed should they be needed.
And just to make the point that that is somewhat different to a headline that states NHS leaders think there is no need for more curbs - they may be needed at pace if the evidence warrants it.
And just one more important point, I think - it is worth remembering that it does take about a fortnight for any new restrictions to affect the level of hospital admissions, so the pattern of hospital admissions for the next fortnight has already been set."
So the headline is sort of correct - they don't think the threshold has been crossed yet. But it's also correct to say they think it could be crossed shortly. That's a perfectly consistent position, politicised by Hodges as usual.
Emboldened by this negativity, my son dropped our presents off on Saturday, and despite a masked, and most fleeting encounter with my
line managerwife alongside an open external door, he managed to infect her. So I am now living with Covid, but my daily LFTs continue to show negative.Penny Sarchet
@PennySarchet
As we go into the third year of the pandemic, the New Scientist team has been delving deep into what we can expect in 2022. I urge you: do not expect the pandemic to end next year. Let’s all go into the new year with realistic expectations.
Penny Sarchet
@PennySarchet
·
Dec 30
I’m hopeful that we will increasingly be able to return to a more normal life, but it’s clear that “living with the virus” will continue to necessitate testing, masks, ventilation and other measures for some time yet . These save lives and prevent long covid.
[my bolding]
It's not like 2019 where I can easily point out 5 seats which Labour won because Farage took enough seats from the Tories to stop Boris winning.
Husband and I harbour a lingering suspicion that we were sick with Wuhan plague back at Xmas 2019, but probably wrong and impossible to prove in any case. No suspicious symptoms since.
However, it's striking how the comparison improves once vaccines became widely available (around March 2021).
https://twitter.com/PaulMainwood/status/1476874843656237060?s=20
But as CEV, I have been v. careful.
In return they have no meaningful input on foreign affairs, defence, tax policy etc.
It may be they are content with effective control of the main public facing aspects of domestic policy however
More from Professor Peter Openshaw, who says someone only needs to be exposed to "a whiff of infected breath" to catch the highly transmissible Omicron variant of coronavirus.
"Omicron is so infectious. We're lucky really that it wasn't this infectious when it first moved into human-to-human transmission," he told BBC Breakfast.
"We've had several iterations of this virus going through different stages of its evolution.
"It has ended up being so infectious that it almost needs just a whiff of infected breath and you could get infected."
I thought the Quebec one being 10pm was particularly funny on the "we are doing something that won't make a blind bit of difference" scale.
Wikipedia says that there were similar arrangements in 1924 and 1929.
Blair was going to offer one to Ashdown in 1997, but the massive majority and John Prescott's powerful opposition stopped it, as it did electoral reform.
Which is an odd thing to do, anyway.
Assuming, of course, that RP voters would have voted Tory rather than not vote at all. But even three of their 1,598 votes would have swung that. Or indeed, the 476 from UKIP.
https://twitter.com/ONS/status/1476886507776618500?s=20
Of course, that would be the Tories' fault for not setting up an English parliament in the years since Mr Blair's administration.
Their abolition of EVEL remains a huge anomaly unless it is a trap to try and get the SNP to fall into.
Scottish voters might ultimately want more influence over Westminster politics, but I don't see that happening this side of an indyref2. If a second referendum happened and was lost convincingly then perhaps voters will flock back to Labour, which is the only meaningful UK GE input they would have in that situation given that if they vote SNP they get Conservative most likely anyway.
But I'm not sure I'd be holding my breath waiting for that if I was Labour.
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