That is fantastic, but in the queue well behind Covid health tourist Rupert Murdoch and citizen of the world Stanley Johnson.
Strangely you didn't mention the Labour mp who queue jumped
Who was that?
All I can find is a debunked conspiracy theory put out by Guido and Allin -Khan apologising for suggesting Conservative MPs were queue jumping. I have no doubt Floater is on the money but I can't find it.
Here is the story...
Any leftover vaccine should go to doctors or nurses' reaction as city MP gets jab by joining queue
The story is bollocks, he was kidney donor, he's was on the priority list.
He wasn't called though and the queue was really for NHS staff, but he didn't hide the fact and they proceeded.
What I think was very irresponsible was telling the public hey come down, there is a way to get a jab if you join this queue at the end of the day. That absolutely isn't what the deal is.
"They thought, "This is the thing we have been asked to do. Trump is telling us to do this, so we have to do it." But more than that, it must be important enough, the key to his winning. Because why would he ask us to come to Washington if it wasn't part of the plan? It wouldn't make any sense. There's a trend among the Trump fans—it's almost religious—to see him as basically infallible and any mistakes are caused by bad people around him. He wouldn't be calling us to Washington unless there was a purpose that would ultimately end in him winning the election.
The other part of it this is that since the late summer, when Trump was falling in polls and Biden was polling thoroughly ahead, the one thing I picked up from all parts of Trump World—from the QAnon-ish to the MAGA-ish to fairly moderate conservatives—is: Trump's gonna win. You didn't see that from people supporting Biden. You saw, you really hope he wins. The Trump people thought: Trump's going to win and not only is he going to win, you smug liberals, you're going to have the smile wiped off your face.
Come Election Day, he doesn't win. So all these people go, "Wait, it can't be. How could Trump possibly lose an election that everyone I know knew he was going to win?" I could just see a certain reality catching up with [them], and it would have to be on that day [of the certification]. And once they saw Trump saying to his supporters, come to DC on that day, I could see it going the wrong way.
You could see the discussion become less abstract. By last week, these people were sharing maps of D.C. They were talking about having enough of them that they would be able to erect basically their own cadre around the entire area of Congress. They had a map of the tunnels [in the basement of the Capitol], and they were talking about how they're going to be able to stop Congress from leaving. They imagined that this was the day there were going to be mass executions of Congressmen."
Anyone thinking that these were not people intent on murder wasn't paying attention.
Just read some of the earlier comments. Thanks for the kind words.
To add, before I log off for the afternoon, I did flag a lot of what subsequently happened, back in mid-Nov - though while I thought violence last Wednesday a credible possibility, I though Trump would pull back from it. You can't get everything right.
In truth, he did pull back from it, in that in some parallel universe he got his people to advance some sort of credible plan, and turned up at the Capitol to lead the revolution himself.
That is fantastic, but in the queue well behind Covid health tourist Rupert Murdoch and citizen of the world Stanley Johnson.
Strangely you didn't mention the Labour mp who queue jumped
Who was that?
All I can find is a debunked conspiracy theory put out by Guido and Allin -Khan apologising for suggesting Conservative MPs were queue jumping. I have no doubt Floater is on the money but I can't find it.
Here is the story...
Any leftover vaccine should go to doctors or nurses' reaction as city MP gets jab by joining queue
Hooray, a good news story about someone already on the vulnerable list helping out a frail relative lucking out and getting vaxxed, sometimes virtue is not always just its own reward! Also leftover vaccinations not going to waste as in dreadful, wokey NYC, which I believe is held to be a very bad thing.
Does anyone understand the rationale for take-aways still being open, with people queueing indoors? I saw this today in part of Greater London with a weekly infection rate of more than 1000 per 100,000 people
People are meant to be leaving home for only a very restricted set of reasons. Does anyone know which of these reasons take-aways are meant to be serving? Exercise? Work that can't be done at home? Health care? Worship? Medical emergencies? What???
A very considerable portion of the public can't or won't cook.
What I find interesting is that attempts to change that get curious pushbacks.
Star Wars is full of appalling inconsistencies. They've been putting Star Destroyers on screen for 44 years, through 9 films and endless spin-offs, but have they ever destroyed one single star? Noooo......
The stupidest thing about Star Destroyers is that they have a bridge, a la a sailing ship, in an exposed, raised, part of the superstructure, with windows so the officers can look out at battles taking place over unimaginable distances. Accordingly when a rebel fighter crashes into it the whole ship is crippled, as happened at the Battle of Endor The 2003 Battlestar Galactica reboot had it much better, putting command and control in the centre of the ship where it was much less exposed.
One of the many reasons why the BSG reboot is my favourite sci-fi series - I like a touch of realism in my fantasy universes.
Based purely on the trailer I saw and the source material I have high hopes for Apple’s take on Azimov’s Foundation - but I’m also prepared to be let down.
That is fantastic, but in the queue well behind Covid health tourist Rupert Murdoch and citizen of the world Stanley Johnson.
Strangely you didn't mention the Labour mp who queue jumped
Who was that?
All I can find is a debunked conspiracy theory put out by Guido and Allin -Khan apologising for suggesting Conservative MPs were queue jumping. I have no doubt Floater is on the money but I can't find it.
Here is the story...
Any leftover vaccine should go to doctors or nurses' reaction as city MP gets jab by joining queue
The story is bollocks, he was kidney donor, he's was on the priority list.
Technically he sounds like Group 4 (all those 70 years of age and over and clinically extremely vulnerable individuals) so a bit of a jump - but given it was that or waste the vaccine, hardly egregious.
To serve those that cannot cook, those who are key workers, who do not have the time to cook, low paid key workers whose only real option is takeaway food. When you're barely above minimum wage a £3.49 Fillet O'Fish from the Golden Arches might be your only option.
All very admirable, but should it really cover coffee shops in parks where people are strolling for recreation? (Leaving the house for recreation rather than exercise being illegal now, I think.)
I mean if there are really plenty of beds available in the hospitals I don't mind this kind of thing at all. I just got the impression there was a prospect of people being left to die at home in the next couple of weeks in London, because even if the Nightingale Hospital were used there would be no beds.
In a wildly depressing week, that thread still stands out as OMFG HELP
If he's right, the UK is completely fecked. There is nothing we can do now, because B117 is too widespread.
Have to say in the blizzard of graphs and spreadsheets churned out by some on a daily basis for information and by others to enforce or re-enforce a politically motivated point, I think the numbers of those 75 or older in hospitals have started to fall suggesting the vaccination of a sizeable minority of the very elderly population is starting to have the desired effect.
Unfortunately, the ravages of the virus aren't just physical or mental but linguistic. The term "vaccination" exists and while I realise that's a lot of typing for those used to Twitter or for those with the attention span of a bored amoeba, it's the appropriate term. What we are now seeing is "jabbed" or as some numpty tried a couple of days ago "stabbed".
Someone who has been vaccinated is apparently now described as "jabbed up" - honestly, civilisation teeters on the brink according to Martin Day but there's no reason why we should descend into the abyss taking the wonderful English language with us.
blizzard of graphs and spreadsheets churned out by some on a daily basis for information and by others to enforce or re-enforce a politically motivated point
Does anyone understand the rationale for take-aways still being open, with people queueing indoors? I saw this today in part of Greater London with a weekly infection rate of more than 1000 per 100,000 people
People are meant to be leaving home for only a very restricted set of reasons. Does anyone know which of these reasons take-aways are meant to be serving? Exercise? Work that can't be done at home? Health care? Worship? Medical emergencies? What???
A very considerable portion of the public can't or won't cook.
What I find interesting is that attempts to change that get curious pushbacks.
I have long believed that every child in Britain should be taught to cook ten iconic British dishes. Including a good Thai curry.
Seriously. It should be on the curriculum, and compulsory for all.
One point to add, in favour of David's thesis, is that much of the American Right believes there has ALREADY been a coup: America has inexplicably and "illegally" been taken over by a bunch of Woke liberal anti-patriots, pushing an alien, unAmerican agenda.
That would, morally, justify a counter-coup
It might if it were true but unless you are of the Q-Anon persuasion it's bullshit.
That's my point, duh. A lot of the American Right buys into the QAnon stuff, it is remarkably widespread
"A new survey has revealed that Americans increasingly believe in conspiracy theories such as QAnon, which claims that a deep state run by satan-worshipping pedophiles has worked to undermine Donald Trump.
"According to the NPR/Ipsos poll released on Wednesday, some 39 per cent of respondents said they agreed that the president was being undermined in this way.
"When asked whether or not “satan-worshipping elites who run a child sex ring are trying to control our politics and media,” only 47 per cent said the statement was incorrect. "
We can see where the alt-right, the Q-Anon loonies etc have taken the American right.
So how would you suggest going about "engaging" with people with those beliefs?
I don't have a clue.
It should also be noted, for balance, that a chunk of the American Left is just as bad: it has been captured by mad identity politics, insane racist Marxism like "Official BLM", proper anarchists like Antifa. Tearing down statues of Abe Lincoln in month-long riots. Not sensible.
America is in a very dark place, as I said yesterday. The polarisation is now so intense it is hard to see a way out. Neither side wants compromise. And they all have guns.
Eek.
Passing over the rare flash of self awareness in the first sentence, I tuned in to the Mike Gallagher show this morning. He is the Republican shock jock who I spent time listening to during my drive around the Great Plains in 2019, largely because the only alternative on the car radio was an even more loopy religious channel. Although I have to concede he’s a radio professional and his show can easily become compelling listening.
From yesterday’s show, his line is to condemn the violence at the Capitol unambiguously, playing the Trump ‘hostage tape’ over and over to underline the nonsense of any suggestion that Trump incited the riot, and then to major on the comparison between a range of Democrats’ comments after the BLM protests to try and establish the position that the Dems are the people who are really the ones soft on violent protest.
This then allows him to go into full-on attack mode toward the Dems seeking impeachment on the grounds that they are seeking to make unjustifiable political capital from an event where Trump’s own hands are completely clean.
As when I listened in 2019, it’s the adverts that I found the most shocking; the advertisers on the programme clearly know they have an audience of mugs. Fish oil tablets bigged up as an all-embracing pain cure on sale for $20 for a small pot. A religious firm selling ‘boxes of blessings’, each one supposedly prayed over before being mailed out. All manner of quack medical treatments and seemingly dodgy financial investments, and humdrum items like pillows marketed as if they were guaranteed to cure all insomnia, being pitched at people the suppliers must believe have more money than sense, even though in reality I suspect they have little of either. Products mostly endorsed by Gallagher himself as the host of the show.
One possibility is that we are now seeing the effects of the decline in human IQ, which has been going on since the turn of the century (and possibly much longer). Stupider people (of right or left) will believe stupider things.
I hate to be mean but I do think kids today are a bit thicker than they used to be. Nicer, but thicker
They are not the generation of whom 50%+ carried on smoking cigarettes, or indeed took them up, after the Doll report came out. We are. So I don't think the distribution of complete fucking idiocy is clear cut.
And I doubt the original hypothesis that intelligence is on the decline. A more credible theory would be that the internet and social media allows a much wider range of people to participate in debate and co-operate to advance their opinions; people who in previous generations would have simply been shouting at the television, or the wireless, or at their partner.
One point to add, in favour of David's thesis, is that much of the American Right believes there has ALREADY been a coup: America has inexplicably and "illegally" been taken over by a bunch of Woke liberal anti-patriots, pushing an alien, unAmerican agenda.
That would, morally, justify a counter-coup
It might if it were true but unless you are of the Q-Anon persuasion it's bullshit.
That's my point, duh. A lot of the American Right buys into the QAnon stuff, it is remarkably widespread
"A new survey has revealed that Americans increasingly believe in conspiracy theories such as QAnon, which claims that a deep state run by satan-worshipping pedophiles has worked to undermine Donald Trump.
"According to the NPR/Ipsos poll released on Wednesday, some 39 per cent of respondents said they agreed that the president was being undermined in this way.
"When asked whether or not “satan-worshipping elites who run a child sex ring are trying to control our politics and media,” only 47 per cent said the statement was incorrect. "
We can see where the alt-right, the Q-Anon loonies etc have taken the American right.
So how would you suggest going about "engaging" with people with those beliefs?
I don't have a clue.
It should also be noted, for balance, that a chunk of the American Left is just as bad: it has been captured by mad identity politics, insane racist Marxism like "Official BLM", proper anarchists like Antifa. Tearing down statues of Abe Lincoln in month-long riots. Not sensible.
America is in a very dark place, as I said yesterday. The polarisation is now so intense it is hard to see a way out. Neither side wants compromise. And they all have guns.
Eek.
Passing over the rare flash of self awareness in the first sentence, I tuned in to the Mike Gallagher show this morning. He is the Republican shock jock who I spent time listening to during my drive around the Great Plains in 2019, largely because the only alternative on the car radio was an even more loopy religious channel. Although I have to concede he’s a radio professional and his show can easily become compelling listening.
From yesterday’s show, his line is to condemn the violence at the Capitol unambiguously, playing the Trump ‘hostage tape’ over and over to underline the nonsense of any suggestion that Trump incited the riot, and then to major on the comparison between a range of Democrats’ comments after the BLM protests to try and establish the position that the Dems are the people who are really the ones soft on violent protest.
This then allows him to go into full-on attack mode toward the Dems seeking impeachment on the grounds that they are seeking to make unjustifiable political capital from an event where Trump’s own hands are completely clean.
As when I listened in 2019, it’s the adverts that I found the most shocking; the advertisers on the programme clearly know they have an audience of mugs. Fish oil tablets bigged up as an all-embracing pain cure on sale for $20 for a small pot. A religious firm selling ‘boxes of blessings’, each one supposedly prayed over before being mailed out. All manner of quack medical treatments and seemingly dodgy financial investments, and humdrum items like pillows marketed as if they were guaranteed to cure all insomnia, being pitched at people the suppliers must believe have more money than sense, even though in reality I suspect they have little of either. Products mostly endorsed by Gallagher himself as the host of the show.
The pillow adverts may not be as innocuous as they sound the "My Pillow" CEO openly markets his overpriced products as part of a Trumpist insurectionist agenda.
Does anyone understand the rationale for take-aways still being open, with people queueing indoors? I saw this today in part of Greater London with a weekly infection rate of more than 1000 per 100,000 people
People are meant to be leaving home for only a very restricted set of reasons. Does anyone know which of these reasons take-aways are meant to be serving? Exercise? Work that can't be done at home? Health care? Worship? Medical emergencies? What???
A very considerable portion of the public can't or won't cook.
What I find interesting is that attempts to change that get curious pushbacks.
I have long believed that every child in Britain should be taught to cook ten iconic British dishes. Including a good Thai curry.
Seriously. It should be on the curriculum, and compulsory for all.
I went to a Boys State Grammar in Canterbury in the 80s. Our sister Girls School were taught how to cook but we were not. Even then the sexism stunned me.
Excellent header, Mr. Herdson. All the more reason that impeachment must proceed to a guilty finding in the Senate, even if it is after his departure from office.
That is fantastic, but in the queue well behind Covid health tourist Rupert Murdoch and citizen of the world Stanley Johnson.
Strangely you didn't mention the Labour mp who queue jumped
Who was that?
All I can find is a debunked conspiracy theory put out by Guido and Allin -Khan apologising for suggesting Conservative MPs were queue jumping. I have no doubt Floater is on the money but I can't find it.
Here is the story...
Any leftover vaccine should go to doctors or nurses' reaction as city MP gets jab by joining queue
Does anyone understand the rationale for take-aways still being open, with people queueing indoors? I saw this today in part of Greater London with a weekly infection rate of more than 1000 per 100,000 people
People are meant to be leaving home for only a very restricted set of reasons. Does anyone know which of these reasons take-aways are meant to be serving? Exercise? Work that can't be done at home? Health care? Worship? Medical emergencies? What???
A very considerable portion of the public can't or won't cook.
What I find interesting is that attempts to change that get curious pushbacks.
I have long believed that every child in Britain should be taught to cook ten iconic British dishes. Including a good Thai curry.
Seriously. It should be on the curriculum, and compulsory for all.
So what would replace on the curriculum. there is after all only a finite number of hours
Does anyone understand the rationale for take-aways still being open, with people queueing indoors? I saw this today in part of Greater London with a weekly infection rate of more than 1000 per 100,000 people
People are meant to be leaving home for only a very restricted set of reasons. Does anyone know which of these reasons take-aways are meant to be serving? Exercise? Work that can't be done at home? Health care? Worship? Medical emergencies? What???
A very considerable portion of the public can't or won't cook.
What I find interesting is that attempts to change that get curious pushbacks.
I have long believed that every child in Britain should be taught to cook ten iconic British dishes. Including a good Thai curry.
Seriously. It should be on the curriculum, and compulsory for all.
I went to a Boys State Grammar in Canterbury in the 80s. Our sister Girls School were taught how to cook but we were not. Even then the sexism stunned me.
Which caused cooking lessons to be dropped for a while.
In my youngest daughters school (*primary*) there were mandatory cooking lessons in the curriculum. Also a "home economics" type class which included things like sewing.
Being able to a sew a button on seems like a sensible thing to know - the prices you get charged at the average dry cleaners would pay for needle, thread, button & a coffee!
One point to add, in favour of David's thesis, is that much of the American Right believes there has ALREADY been a coup: America has inexplicably and "illegally" been taken over by a bunch of Woke liberal anti-patriots, pushing an alien, unAmerican agenda.
That would, morally, justify a counter-coup
It might if it were true but unless you are of the Q-Anon persuasion it's bullshit.
That's my point, duh. A lot of the American Right buys into the QAnon stuff, it is remarkably widespread
"A new survey has revealed that Americans increasingly believe in conspiracy theories such as QAnon, which claims that a deep state run by satan-worshipping pedophiles has worked to undermine Donald Trump.
"According to the NPR/Ipsos poll released on Wednesday, some 39 per cent of respondents said they agreed that the president was being undermined in this way.
"When asked whether or not “satan-worshipping elites who run a child sex ring are trying to control our politics and media,” only 47 per cent said the statement was incorrect. "
We can see where the alt-right, the Q-Anon loonies etc have taken the American right.
So how would you suggest going about "engaging" with people with those beliefs?
I don't have a clue.
It should also be noted, for balance, that a chunk of the American Left is just as bad: it has been captured by mad identity politics, insane racist Marxism like "Official BLM", proper anarchists like Antifa. Tearing down statues of Abe Lincoln in month-long riots. Not sensible.
America is in a very dark place, as I said yesterday. The polarisation is now so intense it is hard to see a way out. Neither side wants compromise. And they all have guns.
Eek.
Passing over the rare flash of self awareness in the first sentence, I tuned in to the Mike Gallagher show this morning. He is the Republican shock jock who I spent time listening to during my drive around the Great Plains in 2019, largely because the only alternative on the car radio was an even more loopy religious channel. Although I have to concede he’s a radio professional and his show can easily become compelling listening.
From yesterday’s show, his line is to condemn the violence at the Capitol unambiguously, playing the Trump ‘hostage tape’ over and over to underline the nonsense of any suggestion that Trump incited the riot, and then to major on the comparison between a range of Democrats’ comments after the BLM protests to try and establish the position that the Dems are the people who are really the ones soft on violent protest.
This then allows him to go into full-on attack mode toward the Dems seeking impeachment on the grounds that they are seeking to make unjustifiable political capital from an event where Trump’s own hands are completely clean.
As when I listened in 2019, it’s the adverts that I found the most shocking; the advertisers on the programme clearly know they have an audience of mugs. Fish oil tablets bigged up as an all-embracing pain cure on sale for $20 for a small pot. A religious firm selling ‘boxes of blessings’, each one supposedly prayed over before being mailed out. All manner of quack medical treatments and seemingly dodgy financial investments, and humdrum items like pillows marketed as if they were guaranteed to cure all insomnia, being pitched at people the suppliers must believe have more money than sense, even though in reality I suspect they have little of either. Products mostly endorsed by Gallagher himself as the host of the show.
The pillow adverts may not be as innocuous as they sound the "My Pillow" CEO openly markets his overpriced products as part of a Trumpist insurectionist agenda.
Star Wars is full of appalling inconsistencies. They've been putting Star Destroyers on screen for 44 years, through 9 films and endless spin-offs, but have they ever destroyed one single star? Noooo......
The stupidest thing about Star Destroyers is that they have a bridge, a la a sailing ship, in an exposed, raised, part of the superstructure, with windows so the officers can look out at battles taking place over unimaginable distances. Accordingly when a rebel fighter crashes into it the whole ship is crippled, as happened at the Battle of Endor The 2003 Battlestar Galactica reboot had it much better, putting command and control in the centre of the ship where it was much less exposed.
One of the many reasons why the BSG reboot is my favourite sci-fi series - I like a touch of realism in my fantasy universes.
Based purely on the trailer I saw and the source material I have high hopes for Apple’s take on Azimov’s Foundation - but I’m also prepared to be let down.
Oh, that does look interesting. Jared Harris is in it. And an Azimov is involved in production.
In a wildly depressing week, that thread still stands out as OMFG HELP
If he's right, the UK is completely fecked. There is nothing we can do now, because B117 is too widespread.
It's a not entire foolish thing to consider.
This is why there is such a push on the vaccine in this country, I believe.
I see that the world, after denigrating British decisions to prioritize first jabs over second and to consider, if production does not keep up with requirements, mixing and matching 2nd jabs, is following Britain's lead.
Biden has said that he will release the half of the US vaccine stocks currently held back to ensure enough supply for timely second jabs, and rely on future production to supply the demand for second jabs.
That is fantastic, but in the queue well behind Covid health tourist Rupert Murdoch and citizen of the world Stanley Johnson.
Strangely you didn't mention the Labour mp who queue jumped
Who was that?
All I can find is a debunked conspiracy theory put out by Guido and Allin -Khan apologising for suggesting Conservative MPs were queue jumping. I have no doubt Floater is on the money but I can't find it.
Here is the story...
Any leftover vaccine should go to doctors or nurses' reaction as city MP gets jab by joining queue
That is fantastic, but in the queue well behind Covid health tourist Rupert Murdoch and citizen of the world Stanley Johnson.
Strangely you didn't mention the Labour mp who queue jumped
Who was that?
All I can find is a debunked conspiracy theory put out by Guido and Allin -Khan apologising for suggesting Conservative MPs were queue jumping. I have no doubt Floater is on the money but I can't find it.
Here is the story...
Any leftover vaccine should go to doctors or nurses' reaction as city MP gets jab by joining queue
Chatting to a GP chum the other day. He has a box of 200 Pfizer allocated (though promised delivery has been delayed a week so had to cancel and rebook), but only 181 patients in priority 1 group. It is unlikely that all 181 will show.
He wanted to invite some of his priority 2 patients, but was refused permission, so is planning to immunise his staff with the leftovers. It would be criminal to just waste it.
That is fantastic, but in the queue well behind Covid health tourist Rupert Murdoch and citizen of the world Stanley Johnson.
Strangely you didn't mention the Labour mp who queue jumped
Who was that?
All I can find is a debunked conspiracy theory put out by Guido and Allin -Khan apologising for suggesting Conservative MPs were queue jumping. I have no doubt Floater is on the money but I can't find it.
Here is the story...
Any leftover vaccine should go to doctors or nurses' reaction as city MP gets jab by joining queue
Chatting to a GP chum the other day. He has a box of 200 Pfizer allocated (though promised delivery has been delayed a week so had to cancel and rebook), but only 181 patients in priority 1 group. It is unlikely that all 181 will show.
He wanted to invite some of his priority 2 patients, but was refused permission, so is planning to immunise his staff with the leftovers. It would be criminal to just waste it.
whilst it makes sense to prioritise , please dont let queue obsessives stop the vaccine being wasted
In a wildly depressing week, that thread still stands out as OMFG HELP
If he's right, the UK is completely fecked. There is nothing we can do now, because B117 is too widespread.
It's a not entire foolish thing to consider.
This is why there is such a push on the vaccine in this country, I believe.
I see that the world, after denigrating British decisions to prioritize first jabs over second and to consider, if production does not keep up with requirements, mixing and matching 2nd jabs, is following Britain's lead.
Biden has said that he will release the half of the US vaccine stocks currently held back to ensure enough supply for timely second jabs, and rely on future production to supply the demand for second jabs.
I linked to that story the other day.
While at the moment, they are not going for delaying second jabs explicitly, as a number of people have pointed out, by the time that Biden reaches office, his planed change wouldn't have any effect.
This is because by the time he reaches office, the stockpiles for the second doses will be being sent out.
That is fantastic, but in the queue well behind Covid health tourist Rupert Murdoch and citizen of the world Stanley Johnson.
Strangely you didn't mention the Labour mp who queue jumped
Who was that?
All I can find is a debunked conspiracy theory put out by Guido and Allin -Khan apologising for suggesting Conservative MPs were queue jumping. I have no doubt Floater is on the money but I can't find it.
Here is the story...
Any leftover vaccine should go to doctors or nurses' reaction as city MP gets jab by joining queue
Chatting to a GP chum the other day. He has a box of 200 Pfizer allocated (though promised delivery has been delayed a week so had to cancel and rebook), but only 181 patients in priority 1 group. It is unlikely that all 181 will show.
He wanted to invite some of his priority 2 patients, but was refused permission, so is planning to immunise his staff with the leftovers. It would be criminal to just waste it.
The biggest issue was really he broadcast anybody come down and join the queue. Luckily it doesn't seem like 100s or 1000s have. At a hospital, there are already plenty of people to be finding to give a jab to.
That is fantastic, but in the queue well behind Covid health tourist Rupert Murdoch and citizen of the world Stanley Johnson.
Strangely you didn't mention the Labour mp who queue jumped
Who was that?
All I can find is a debunked conspiracy theory put out by Guido and Allin -Khan apologising for suggesting Conservative MPs were queue jumping. I have no doubt Floater is on the money but I can't find it.
Here is the story...
Any leftover vaccine should go to doctors or nurses' reaction as city MP gets jab by joining queue
Chatting to a GP chum the other day. He has a box of 200 Pfizer allocated (though promised delivery has been delayed a week so had to cancel and rebook), but only 181 patients in priority 1 group. It is unlikely that all 181 will show.
He wanted to invite some of his priority 2 patients, but was refused permission, so is planning to immunise his staff with the leftovers. It would be criminal to just waste it.
Was the refusal to vaccinate anyone lower down the list explained at all? Surely not because it would result in quarrels and complaints??
That is fantastic, but in the queue well behind Covid health tourist Rupert Murdoch and citizen of the world Stanley Johnson.
Strangely you didn't mention the Labour mp who queue jumped
Who was that?
All I can find is a debunked conspiracy theory put out by Guido and Allin -Khan apologising for suggesting Conservative MPs were queue jumping. I have no doubt Floater is on the money but I can't find it.
Here is the story...
Any leftover vaccine should go to doctors or nurses' reaction as city MP gets jab by joining queue
The story is bollocks, he was kidney donor, he's was on the priority list.
Technically he sounds like Group 4 (all those 70 years of age and over and clinically extremely vulnerable individuals) so a bit of a jump - but given it was that or waste the vaccine, hardly egregious.
The list is the prioritisation - not a rigid everyone-in-the-first-category-then-the-second.
Which is why the majority (60%) has been going to the over 80s, who are first on the list. But not all.
Quite bit has been going to NHS staff who aren't first on the list.
One point to add, in favour of David's thesis, is that much of the American Right believes there has ALREADY been a coup: America has inexplicably and "illegally" been taken over by a bunch of Woke liberal anti-patriots, pushing an alien, unAmerican agenda.
That would, morally, justify a counter-coup
It might if it were true but unless you are of the Q-Anon persuasion it's bullshit.
That's my point, duh. A lot of the American Right buys into the QAnon stuff, it is remarkably widespread
"A new survey has revealed that Americans increasingly believe in conspiracy theories such as QAnon, which claims that a deep state run by satan-worshipping pedophiles has worked to undermine Donald Trump.
"According to the NPR/Ipsos poll released on Wednesday, some 39 per cent of respondents said they agreed that the president was being undermined in this way.
"When asked whether or not “satan-worshipping elites who run a child sex ring are trying to control our politics and media,” only 47 per cent said the statement was incorrect. "
We can see where the alt-right, the Q-Anon loonies etc have taken the American right.
So how would you suggest going about "engaging" with people with those beliefs?
I don't have a clue.
It should also be noted, for balance, that a chunk of the American Left is just as bad: it has been captured by mad identity politics, insane racist Marxism like "Official BLM", proper anarchists like Antifa. Tearing down statues of Abe Lincoln in month-long riots. Not sensible.
America is in a very dark place, as I said yesterday. The polarisation is now so intense it is hard to see a way out. Neither side wants compromise. And they all have guns.
Eek.
That's just the apologists current line of deflection.
Yes there are idiots within the BLM ranks but in essence the movement has a valid raison d'être, the racism and brutality of the police in the US. I doubt anyone could seriously argue they don't have a case. The BLM movement does don't dominate the Democratic Party, Biden and Harris have explicitly criticised the notion of defunding the police.
Whats the equivalent case for storming the Capitol to try to overturn the Presidential election? The GOP is dominated by that ideology.
The madness of the American identitarian Left is evidenced more in its philosophy than its storming of buildings (tho they do quite a lot of that, as well - see Seattle, Portland, LA, and many more, this year)
One example are the concepts of White Privilege and White Fragility, which have completely captured much of the Left (Google it if you don't believe me). These assert that white people are intrinsically racist, and that if you deny your white racism, that just PROVES you are racist.
What does this attitude say to the poor white American in middle America struggling to get by on minimum wage? It says a big F you, you horrible racist. Don't try to deny it. You're racist.
No wonder America is polarising. And both sides are stoking the fires.
White Privilege = Not having to think about skin colour.
White Fragility = Anger and denial at being presented with this insight.
I could elaborate but do not wish to sacrifice clarity for the sake of nuance.
That is fantastic, but in the queue well behind Covid health tourist Rupert Murdoch and citizen of the world Stanley Johnson.
Strangely you didn't mention the Labour mp who queue jumped
Who was that?
All I can find is a debunked conspiracy theory put out by Guido and Allin -Khan apologising for suggesting Conservative MPs were queue jumping. I have no doubt Floater is on the money but I can't find it.
Here is the story...
Any leftover vaccine should go to doctors or nurses' reaction as city MP gets jab by joining queue
Chatting to a GP chum the other day. He has a box of 200 Pfizer allocated (though promised delivery has been delayed a week so had to cancel and rebook), but only 181 patients in priority 1 group. It is unlikely that all 181 will show.
He wanted to invite some of his priority 2 patients, but was refused permission, so is planning to immunise his staff with the leftovers. It would be criminal to just waste it.
whilst it makes sense to prioritise , please dont let queue obsessives stop the vaccine being wasted
Why does a GP need permission? They are allowed to prescribe medication.
In a wildly depressing week, that thread still stands out as OMFG HELP
If he's right, the UK is completely fecked. There is nothing we can do now, because B117 is too widespread.
It's a not entire foolish thing to consider.
This is why there is such a push on the vaccine in this country, I believe.
I see that the world, after denigrating British decisions to prioritize first jabs over second and to consider, if production does not keep up with requirements, mixing and matching 2nd jabs, is following Britain's lead.
Biden has said that he will release the half of the US vaccine stocks currently held back to ensure enough supply for timely second jabs, and rely on future production to supply the demand for second jabs.
That sounds like using the vaccine and relying on resupply for the second dose (3 weeks for Pfizer, 4 for Moderna) rather than planning a 12 week delay.
Provided further deliveries occur on schedule, it is perfectly compatible with recommended regime.
One point to add, in favour of David's thesis, is that much of the American Right believes there has ALREADY been a coup: America has inexplicably and "illegally" been taken over by a bunch of Woke liberal anti-patriots, pushing an alien, unAmerican agenda.
That would, morally, justify a counter-coup
It might if it were true but unless you are of the Q-Anon persuasion it's bullshit.
That's my point, duh. A lot of the American Right buys into the QAnon stuff, it is remarkably widespread
"A new survey has revealed that Americans increasingly believe in conspiracy theories such as QAnon, which claims that a deep state run by satan-worshipping pedophiles has worked to undermine Donald Trump.
"According to the NPR/Ipsos poll released on Wednesday, some 39 per cent of respondents said they agreed that the president was being undermined in this way.
"When asked whether or not “satan-worshipping elites who run a child sex ring are trying to control our politics and media,” only 47 per cent said the statement was incorrect. "
We can see where the alt-right, the Q-Anon loonies etc have taken the American right.
So how would you suggest going about "engaging" with people with those beliefs?
I don't have a clue.
It should also be noted, for balance, that a chunk of the American Left is just as bad: it has been captured by mad identity politics, insane racist Marxism like "Official BLM", proper anarchists like Antifa. Tearing down statues of Abe Lincoln in month-long riots. Not sensible.
America is in a very dark place, as I said yesterday. The polarisation is now so intense it is hard to see a way out. Neither side wants compromise. And they all have guns.
Eek.
Passing over the rare flash of self awareness in the first sentence, I tuned in to the Mike Gallagher show this morning. He is the Republican shock jock who I spent time listening to during my drive around the Great Plains in 2019, largely because the only alternative on the car radio was an even more loopy religious channel. Although I have to concede he’s a radio professional and his show can easily become compelling listening.
From yesterday’s show, his line is to condemn the violence at the Capitol unambiguously, playing the Trump ‘hostage tape’ over and over to underline the nonsense of any suggestion that Trump incited the riot, and then to major on the comparison between a range of Democrats’ comments after the BLM protests to try and establish the position that the Dems are the people who are really the ones soft on violent protest.
This then allows him to go into full-on attack mode toward the Dems seeking impeachment on the grounds that they are seeking to make unjustifiable political capital from an event where Trump’s own hands are completely clean.
As when I listened in 2019, it’s the adverts that I found the most shocking; the advertisers on the programme clearly know they have an audience of mugs. Fish oil tablets bigged up as an all-embracing pain cure on sale for $20 for a small pot. A religious firm selling ‘boxes of blessings’, each one supposedly prayed over before being mailed out. All manner of quack medical treatments and seemingly dodgy financial investments, and humdrum items like pillows marketed as if they were guaranteed to cure all insomnia, being pitched at people the suppliers must believe have more money than sense, even though in reality I suspect they have little of either. Products mostly endorsed by Gallagher himself as the host of the show.
One possibility is that we are now seeing the effects of the decline in human IQ, which has been going on since the turn of the century (and possibly much longer). Stupider people (of right or left) will believe stupider things.
I hate to be mean but I do think kids today are a bit thicker than they used to be. Nicer, but thicker
I'd say that that, such as it is, is simply a function of them not being taught how to think and being exposed to all sorts of different views in a free speech environment.
It makes you a poorer thinker, because you've never had to do it, more receptive to and accepting of dogma and therefore "thicker".
Does anyone understand the rationale for take-aways still being open, with people queueing indoors? I saw this today in part of Greater London with a weekly infection rate of more than 1000 per 100,000 people
People are meant to be leaving home for only a very restricted set of reasons. Does anyone know which of these reasons take-aways are meant to be serving? Exercise? Work that can't be done at home? Health care? Worship? Medical emergencies? What???
It looks to me as though the Govt have given up with lockdowns.
It is now being implemented in a pretty half-hearted manner -- why, for example, change the definition of key workers so now the schools are very much fuller than in the previous lockdown ?
Or, why tell students to stay at home, but that they can return to University if their home working environment is not as good. Given a choice between stay at home with mum & dad, or go to University for druggy fun & sex, most students will decide their "working environment is better at University".
I think the Govt have concluded that too many people are not going to lockdown hard any more. In fact, I think among young people, that is probably a correct assessment.
Many of them are thinking: "Why should I sacrifice the magical youth of my life just for some boring geriatric?"
I’ve been thinking this for nearly a year. In a stand off between the libido of the nation’s teens and twenty somethings and Matt Hancock, it’s hard to see Matt Hancock winning. We don’t have enough police, surveillance, to ensure a lockdown. It’s going to fray and they know it is.
As a 20 year old friend said to me the other day (as she headed out for a student party) how often are you 20 years old? Not very often. Many of these kids have spent long lonely months without fun, drugs, sex, booze, friends, and flirting, through 2020. They've had enough now. They want to get laid.
Also, for a young woman, it is particularly hard. A woman is at peak physical attractiveness from about 18-25. That's just seven years when she is a head-turning stunner, when she has incredible power over men.
We have asked her to hide that beauty under a mask for many months, and we're also saying give up one year of your seven years of sexual power.
They are rebelling.
Yes, I posted on here a couple of weeks ago that I can quite understand the point of view of the youth.
I might take my chances too were I that age again.
That is fantastic, but in the queue well behind Covid health tourist Rupert Murdoch and citizen of the world Stanley Johnson.
Strangely you didn't mention the Labour mp who queue jumped
Who was that?
All I can find is a debunked conspiracy theory put out by Guido and Allin -Khan apologising for suggesting Conservative MPs were queue jumping. I have no doubt Floater is on the money but I can't find it.
Here is the story...
Any leftover vaccine should go to doctors or nurses' reaction as city MP gets jab by joining queue
The story is bollocks, he was kidney donor, he's was on the priority list.
Technically he sounds like Group 4 (all those 70 years of age and over and clinically extremely vulnerable individuals) so a bit of a jump - but given it was that or waste the vaccine, hardly egregious.
The list is the prioritisation - not a rigid everyone-in-the-first-category-then-the-second.
Which is why the majority (60%) has been going to the over 80s, who are first on the list. But not all.
Quite bit has been going to NHS staff who aren't first on the list.
Surely the system in practice should be who can be vaccinated right now who most needs it until its gone. That will change from day to day and needs common sense decisions by local medics not authority from elsewhere
I wonder what Bill Gates will do with his first day in control of Her Majesty?
I for one welcome our new nerd overlords, and feel the Word paperclip thing in Windows 98 was unfairly maligned.
If only Steve Jobs had become our overlord through vaccination. At least the world government controlling our minds would be sitting in nice looking Jonny Ive designed chairs.
That is fantastic, but in the queue well behind Covid health tourist Rupert Murdoch and citizen of the world Stanley Johnson.
Strangely you didn't mention the Labour mp who queue jumped
Who was that?
All I can find is a debunked conspiracy theory put out by Guido and Allin -Khan apologising for suggesting Conservative MPs were queue jumping. I have no doubt Floater is on the money but I can't find it.
Here is the story...
Any leftover vaccine should go to doctors or nurses' reaction as city MP gets jab by joining queue
Chatting to a GP chum the other day. He has a box of 200 Pfizer allocated (though promised delivery has been delayed a week so had to cancel and rebook), but only 181 patients in priority 1 group. It is unlikely that all 181 will show.
He wanted to invite some of his priority 2 patients, but was refused permission, so is planning to immunise his staff with the leftovers. It would be criminal to just waste it.
Was the refusal to vaccinate anyone lower down the list explained at all? Surely not because it would result in quarrels and complaints??
From PCT management because other practices hadn't done all their priority1 group.
He also said he gets barraged by calls from patients demanding a vaccine NOW!!
"They thought, "This is the thing we have been asked to do. Trump is telling us to do this, so we have to do it." But more than that, it must be important enough, the key to his winning. Because why would he ask us to come to Washington if it wasn't part of the plan? It wouldn't make any sense. There's a trend among the Trump fans—it's almost religious—to see him as basically infallible and any mistakes are caused by bad people around him. He wouldn't be calling us to Washington unless there was a purpose that would ultimately end in him winning the election.
The other part of it this is that since the late summer, when Trump was falling in polls and Biden was polling thoroughly ahead, the one thing I picked up from all parts of Trump World—from the QAnon-ish to the MAGA-ish to fairly moderate conservatives—is: Trump's gonna win. You didn't see that from people supporting Biden. You saw, you really hope he wins. The Trump people thought: Trump's going to win and not only is he going to win, you smug liberals, you're going to have the smile wiped off your face.
Come Election Day, he doesn't win. So all these people go, "Wait, it can't be. How could Trump possibly lose an election that everyone I know knew he was going to win?" I could just see a certain reality catching up with [them], and it would have to be on that day [of the certification]. And once they saw Trump saying to his supporters, come to DC on that day, I could see it going the wrong way.
You could see the discussion become less abstract. By last week, these people were sharing maps of D.C. They were talking about having enough of them that they would be able to erect basically their own cadre around the entire area of Congress. They had a map of the tunnels [in the basement of the Capitol], and they were talking about how they're going to be able to stop Congress from leaving. They imagined that this was the day there were going to be mass executions of Congressmen."
Anyone thinking that these were not people intent on murder wasn't paying attention.
One point to add, in favour of David's thesis, is that much of the American Right believes there has ALREADY been a coup: America has inexplicably and "illegally" been taken over by a bunch of Woke liberal anti-patriots, pushing an alien, unAmerican agenda.
That would, morally, justify a counter-coup
It might if it were true but unless you are of the Q-Anon persuasion it's bullshit.
That's my point, duh. A lot of the American Right buys into the QAnon stuff, it is remarkably widespread
"A new survey has revealed that Americans increasingly believe in conspiracy theories such as QAnon, which claims that a deep state run by satan-worshipping pedophiles has worked to undermine Donald Trump.
"According to the NPR/Ipsos poll released on Wednesday, some 39 per cent of respondents said they agreed that the president was being undermined in this way.
"When asked whether or not “satan-worshipping elites who run a child sex ring are trying to control our politics and media,” only 47 per cent said the statement was incorrect. "
We can see where the alt-right, the Q-Anon loonies etc have taken the American right.
So how would you suggest going about "engaging" with people with those beliefs?
I don't have a clue.
It should also be noted, for balance, that a chunk of the American Left is just as bad: it has been captured by mad identity politics, insane racist Marxism like "Official BLM", proper anarchists like Antifa. Tearing down statues of Abe Lincoln in month-long riots. Not sensible.
America is in a very dark place, as I said yesterday. The polarisation is now so intense it is hard to see a way out. Neither side wants compromise. And they all have guns.
Eek.
Passing over the rare flash of self awareness in the first sentence, I tuned in to the Mike Gallagher show this morning. He is the Republican shock jock who I spent time listening to during my drive around the Great Plains in 2019, largely because the only alternative on the car radio was an even more loopy religious channel. Although I have to concede he’s a radio professional and his show can easily become compelling listening.
From yesterday’s show, his line is to condemn the violence at the Capitol unambiguously, playing the Trump ‘hostage tape’ over and over to underline the nonsense of any suggestion that Trump incited the riot, and then to major on the comparison between a range of Democrats’ comments after the BLM protests to try and establish the position that the Dems are the people who are really the ones soft on violent protest.
This then allows him to go into full-on attack mode toward the Dems seeking impeachment on the grounds that they are seeking to make unjustifiable political capital from an event where Trump’s own hands are completely clean.
As when I listened in 2019, it’s the adverts that I found the most shocking; the advertisers on the programme clearly know they have an audience of mugs. Fish oil tablets bigged up as an all-embracing pain cure on sale for $20 for a small pot. A religious firm selling ‘boxes of blessings’, each one supposedly prayed over before being mailed out. All manner of quack medical treatments and seemingly dodgy financial investments, and humdrum items like pillows marketed as if they were guaranteed to cure all insomnia, being pitched at people the suppliers must believe have more money than sense, even though in reality I suspect they have little of either. Products mostly endorsed by Gallagher himself as the host of the show.
One possibility is that we are now seeing the effects of the decline in human IQ, which has been going on since the turn of the century (and possibly much longer). Stupider people (of right or left) will believe stupider things.
I hate to be mean but I do think kids today are a bit thicker than they used to be. Nicer, but thicker
I'd say that that, such as it is, is simply a function of them not being taught how to think and being exposed to all sorts of different views in a free speech environment.
It makes you a poorer thinker, because you've never had to do it, more receptive to and accepting of dogma and therefore "thicker".
I think it's a decline in general health. We don't think of that as affecting mental health, but of course it does, because the brain is an organ like any other. It's an optimistic prognosis, because we can envision general health improving, and it will also improve general mental ability, and a decline in the incidence of mental health issues, all in one.
One point to add, in favour of David's thesis, is that much of the American Right believes there has ALREADY been a coup: America has inexplicably and "illegally" been taken over by a bunch of Woke liberal anti-patriots, pushing an alien, unAmerican agenda.
That would, morally, justify a counter-coup
It might if it were true but unless you are of the Q-Anon persuasion it's bullshit.
That's my point, duh. A lot of the American Right buys into the QAnon stuff, it is remarkably widespread
"A new survey has revealed that Americans increasingly believe in conspiracy theories such as QAnon, which claims that a deep state run by satan-worshipping pedophiles has worked to undermine Donald Trump.
"According to the NPR/Ipsos poll released on Wednesday, some 39 per cent of respondents said they agreed that the president was being undermined in this way.
"When asked whether or not “satan-worshipping elites who run a child sex ring are trying to control our politics and media,” only 47 per cent said the statement was incorrect. "
We can see where the alt-right, the Q-Anon loonies etc have taken the American right.
So how would you suggest going about "engaging" with people with those beliefs?
I don't have a clue.
It should also be noted, for balance, that a chunk of the American Left is just as bad: it has been captured by mad identity politics, insane racist Marxism like "Official BLM", proper anarchists like Antifa. Tearing down statues of Abe Lincoln in month-long riots. Not sensible.
America is in a very dark place, as I said yesterday. The polarisation is now so intense it is hard to see a way out. Neither side wants compromise. And they all have guns.
Eek.
It’s funny. The wife and I (pandemic permitting) are making firm plans to move back to Connecticut in Spring/Summer 2022. I don’t wholly disagree with you (save perhaps to the degree of Anarchist/Marxist infiltration - the Black Panthers were also Marxist and they similarly were used to tar the whole civil rights movement) but I feel more detached from the arguments than the divisions we have here, into which I am deeply emotionally invested. New England as a whole is not really as divided - Republicans can win but not Trumpists (see Phil Scott, Susan Collins, Mitt Romney...). Also New Haven has much better pizza.
I think that is more the reality for the vast bulk of Americans than the version 'as seen on TV' and as painted here. Even in relation to Trumpists.
I am in the Bluest of Blue states (Maryland), in the Bluest of Blue counties (Montgomery), but in the blood red part of that county (Up County). Two of my neighbors have posts on the FB pages arguing that the peaceful demonstration was hijacked by antifa, and it is antifa who is responsible for the insurrection. The brother of one was at the protests.
But, in everyday life, one neighbour ploughs the road for everyone when it snows, mends our long drive when we get potholes (sometimes for free) and helps us bury horses with his skid loader when they die (again for free). The other will call if any of our animals get out, will house sit while we are away and walk our dogs an a moment if we need her to. She does much good volunteer work.
So yes, we have huge political divisions, including on interpreting this absolutely critical moment in US political history, but will it really change our lives and how we treat each other?
The key is not to vilify and dehumanize the other side, but to continue to treat each other as humans and with common decency and kindness. That is what will prevent a nation deeply divided on political perspectives (which it is) from actually descending into worse.
I spent some time in India teaching English at an English medium secondary school. The head used to write the days headlines from the Times of India up on a blackboard headed “News” for the kids. One morning he wrote the headline of an editorial about German investment in Indian Railways that read “Looking a German Gift Horse in the Mouth”. I hadn’t read the piece and my pupils spent the whole lesson asking me what it meant just to waste time and enjoy my increasingly wild speculation.
That is fantastic, but in the queue well behind Covid health tourist Rupert Murdoch and citizen of the world Stanley Johnson.
Strangely you didn't mention the Labour mp who queue jumped
Who was that?
All I can find is a debunked conspiracy theory put out by Guido and Allin -Khan apologising for suggesting Conservative MPs were queue jumping. I have no doubt Floater is on the money but I can't find it.
Here is the story...
Any leftover vaccine should go to doctors or nurses' reaction as city MP gets jab by joining queue
Chatting to a GP chum the other day. He has a box of 200 Pfizer allocated (though promised delivery has been delayed a week so had to cancel and rebook), but only 181 patients in priority 1 group. It is unlikely that all 181 will show.
He wanted to invite some of his priority 2 patients, but was refused permission, so is planning to immunise his staff with the leftovers. It would be criminal to just waste it.
whilst it makes sense to prioritise , please dont let queue obsessives stop the vaccine being wasted
I dare say there will be many on PB with such tendencies. I expect a high crossover of Queue Obsessives with Lockdown Authoritarians.
French teenage ravers who happen to have a GP for a dad with a few spare jabs are their ultimate trigger.
In a wildly depressing week, that thread still stands out as OMFG HELP
If he's right, the UK is completely fecked. There is nothing we can do now, because B117 is too widespread.
It's a not entire foolish thing to consider.
This is why there is such a push on the vaccine in this country, I believe.
I see that the world, after denigrating British decisions to prioritize first jabs over second and to consider, if production does not keep up with requirements, mixing and matching 2nd jabs, is following Britain's lead.
Biden has said that he will release the half of the US vaccine stocks currently held back to ensure enough supply for timely second jabs, and rely on future production to supply the demand for second jabs.
That sounds like using the vaccine and relying on resupply for the second dose (3 weeks for Pfizer, 4 for Moderna) rather than planning a 12 week delay.
Provided further deliveries occur on schedule, it is perfectly compatible with recommended regime.
Did you get your second jab ok @Foxy or are you caught up with the switch to 12 weeks?
In a wildly depressing week, that thread still stands out as OMFG HELP
If he's right, the UK is completely fecked. There is nothing we can do now, because B117 is too widespread.
It's a not entire foolish thing to consider.
This is why there is such a push on the vaccine in this country, I believe.
I see that the world, after denigrating British decisions to prioritize first jabs over second and to consider, if production does not keep up with requirements, mixing and matching 2nd jabs, is following Britain's lead.
Biden has said that he will release the half of the US vaccine stocks currently held back to ensure enough supply for timely second jabs, and rely on future production to supply the demand for second jabs.
That sounds like using the vaccine and relying on resupply for the second dose (3 weeks for Pfizer, 4 for Moderna) rather than planning a 12 week delay.
Provided further deliveries occur on schedule, it is perfectly compatible with recommended regime.
Yes, that is the initial plan but with an explicit acknowledgment that 1st jabs will continue as a priority if there is a supply issue.
That is fantastic, but in the queue well behind Covid health tourist Rupert Murdoch and citizen of the world Stanley Johnson.
Strangely you didn't mention the Labour mp who queue jumped
Who was that?
All I can find is a debunked conspiracy theory put out by Guido and Allin -Khan apologising for suggesting Conservative MPs were queue jumping. I have no doubt Floater is on the money but I can't find it.
Here is the story...
Any leftover vaccine should go to doctors or nurses' reaction as city MP gets jab by joining queue
Is that the MP with a kidney transplant or something like that?
Should that be relevant? It's still effectively insider trading.
My 93 year old mother in law in Herefordshire hasn't had hers and won't be jumping any queues.
My point was that if he was in the critically vulnerable list, giving him spare vaccine (they were giving vaccine to NHS staff so as not to waste it), was not complete queue jumping.
If he had such a medical condition, it actually seems rather sensible to give him the vaccine.
She can have cell phones! I'm not giving her any of the others though, including the Wright Brothers and Benjamin Franklin, all of whose status remains up for debate.
She can have cell phones! I'm not giving her any of the others though, including the Wright Brothers and Benjamin Franklin, all of whose status remains up for debate.
That is fantastic, but in the queue well behind Covid health tourist Rupert Murdoch and citizen of the world Stanley Johnson.
Strangely you didn't mention the Labour mp who queue jumped
Who was that?
All I can find is a debunked conspiracy theory put out by Guido and Allin -Khan apologising for suggesting Conservative MPs were queue jumping. I have no doubt Floater is on the money but I can't find it.
Here is the story...
Any leftover vaccine should go to doctors or nurses' reaction as city MP gets jab by joining queue
Is that the MP with a kidney transplant or something like that?
Should that be relevant? It's still effectively insider trading.
My 93 year old mother in law in Herefordshire hasn't had hers and won't be jumping any queues.
My point was that if he was in the critically vulnerable list, giving him spare vaccine (they were giving vaccine to NHS staff so as not to waste it), was not complete queue jumping.
If he had such a medical condition, it actually seems rather sensible to give him the vaccine.
Indeed with the high prevalence of anti-vaxxing in the Asian community, good to have a public example.
She can have cell phones! I'm not giving her any of the others though, including the Wright Brothers and Benjamin Franklin, all of whose status remains up for debate.
I had not realized that the US had invented the two greatest inventions of all - the zero and the wheel.
Does anyone understand the rationale for take-aways still being open, with people queueing indoors? I saw this today in part of Greater London with a weekly infection rate of more than 1000 per 100,000 people
People are meant to be leaving home for only a very restricted set of reasons. Does anyone know which of these reasons take-aways are meant to be serving? Exercise? Work that can't be done at home? Health care? Worship? Medical emergencies? What???
A very considerable portion of the public can't or won't cook.
What I find interesting is that attempts to change that get curious pushbacks.
I have long believed that every child in Britain should be taught to cook ten iconic British dishes. Including a good Thai curry.
Seriously. It should be on the curriculum, and compulsory for all.
So what would replace on the curriculum. there is after all only a finite number of hours
Foreign languages. We are a year or two from perfect instant translation by smartphone. No need for them.
Does anyone understand the rationale for take-aways still being open, with people queueing indoors? I saw this today in part of Greater London with a weekly infection rate of more than 1000 per 100,000 people
People are meant to be leaving home for only a very restricted set of reasons. Does anyone know which of these reasons take-aways are meant to be serving? Exercise? Work that can't be done at home? Health care? Worship? Medical emergencies? What???
A very considerable portion of the public can't or won't cook.
What I find interesting is that attempts to change that get curious pushbacks.
I have long believed that every child in Britain should be taught to cook ten iconic British dishes. Including a good Thai curry.
Seriously. It should be on the curriculum, and compulsory for all.
So what would replace on the curriculum. there is after all only a finite number of hours
Foreign languages. We are a year or two from perfect instant translation by smartphone. No need for them.
No we aren't....its like self driving cars, getting say 90% of the way there sure, but no where near getting slang, subtle cultural aspects, implied context.
The systems at the moment don't understand language, so can't reason about things that are implied, but which humans know from context and wider understanding of the way people say things and the world around us.
In a wildly depressing week, that thread still stands out as OMFG HELP
If he's right, the UK is completely fecked. There is nothing we can do now, because B117 is too widespread.
It's a not entire foolish thing to consider.
This is why there is such a push on the vaccine in this country, I believe.
I see that the world, after denigrating British decisions to prioritize first jabs over second and to consider, if production does not keep up with requirements, mixing and matching 2nd jabs, is following Britain's lead.
Biden has said that he will release the half of the US vaccine stocks currently held back to ensure enough supply for timely second jabs, and rely on future production to supply the demand for second jabs.
That sounds like using the vaccine and relying on resupply for the second dose (3 weeks for Pfizer, 4 for Moderna) rather than planning a 12 week delay.
Provided further deliveries occur on schedule, it is perfectly compatible with recommended regime.
Did you get your second jab ok @Foxy or are you caught up with the switch to 12 weeks?
Had my second one last Sunday, 21 days after the first, before the rule changed.
Mrs Foxy won't get her second for 12 weeks though, but as she had Covid in November the vaccine will probably just boost her natural antibodies.
Does anyone understand the rationale for take-aways still being open, with people queueing indoors? I saw this today in part of Greater London with a weekly infection rate of more than 1000 per 100,000 people
People are meant to be leaving home for only a very restricted set of reasons. Does anyone know which of these reasons take-aways are meant to be serving? Exercise? Work that can't be done at home? Health care? Worship? Medical emergencies? What???
A very considerable portion of the public can't or won't cook.
What I find interesting is that attempts to change that get curious pushbacks.
I have long believed that every child in Britain should be taught to cook ten iconic British dishes. Including a good Thai curry.
Seriously. It should be on the curriculum, and compulsory for all.
So what would replace on the curriculum. there is after all only a finite number of hours
Foreign languages. We are a year or two from perfect instant translation by smartphone. No need for them.
A remarkably utilitarian view of the value of foreign language study.
She can have cell phones! I'm not giving her any of the others though, including the Wright Brothers and Benjamin Franklin, all of whose status remains up for debate.
I'm happy for her to have them all if it makes her feel optimistic and hopeful.
One of the things I consistently admire most Americans for is their optimism and belief that things will get better (which of course they will).
My personal take on the current situation in the US at the moment is that the events of the Capitol are being used to crush the political opposition. Rather than see the good and the rational in others and reach for that common ground, the aim appears to be to show these people to be so deplorable that all decent folk should turn their faces away in disgust.
The expected response to that might be to feel angry, betrayed, let down, singled out etc. However, I believe that most Americans in that situation will 'dig deep' into the optimism shown above and respond positively, with solutions that are positive and within the law. If Twitter bans you - start a new social network. If Google takes your social network offline - start a new mobile phone operating system. These things can only be positive, and create a proliferation of new media and new ideas. A lot of problems come from America, but they're also very good at finding the solutions too.
Does anyone understand the rationale for take-aways still being open, with people queueing indoors? I saw this today in part of Greater London with a weekly infection rate of more than 1000 per 100,000 people
People are meant to be leaving home for only a very restricted set of reasons. Does anyone know which of these reasons take-aways are meant to be serving? Exercise? Work that can't be done at home? Health care? Worship? Medical emergencies? What???
A very considerable portion of the public can't or won't cook.
What I find interesting is that attempts to change that get curious pushbacks.
I have long believed that every child in Britain should be taught to cook ten iconic British dishes. Including a good Thai curry.
Seriously. It should be on the curriculum, and compulsory for all.
So what would replace on the curriculum. there is after all only a finite number of hours
Foreign languages. We are a year or two from perfect instant translation by smartphone. No need for them.
Foreign languages are excellent brain training, dropping them would contribute to the decline of IQ that so concerns you.
Not that I believe IQ a very useful measure, as very open to bias in measurement.
Does anyone understand the rationale for take-aways still being open, with people queueing indoors? I saw this today in part of Greater London with a weekly infection rate of more than 1000 per 100,000 people
People are meant to be leaving home for only a very restricted set of reasons. Does anyone know which of these reasons take-aways are meant to be serving? Exercise? Work that can't be done at home? Health care? Worship? Medical emergencies? What???
Have to say my local cafe allowed people to wait inside until New Year but in the last ten days it's been outdoor waiting only which is fine. Not sure that's being universally applied at all food outlets.
And what the rationale is for them being open at all?
Just economic? Fine if we're being fed a lot of flim-flam just to make us behave, but if the NHS is in danger of collapsing in the next few weeks, at the cost of tens of thousands of lives ...
To serve those that cannot cook, those who are key workers, who do not have the time to cook, low paid key workers whose only real option is takeaway food. When you're barely above minimum wage a £3.49 Fillet O'Fish from the Golden Arches might be your only option.
At my fish and chip shop, we queue and wait outside for the most part. I for one will be glad when the temperature picks up next week.
Does anyone understand the rationale for take-aways still being open, with people queueing indoors? I saw this today in part of Greater London with a weekly infection rate of more than 1000 per 100,000 people
People are meant to be leaving home for only a very restricted set of reasons. Does anyone know which of these reasons take-aways are meant to be serving? Exercise? Work that can't be done at home? Health care? Worship? Medical emergencies? What???
A very considerable portion of the public can't or won't cook.
What I find interesting is that attempts to change that get curious pushbacks.
I have long believed that every child in Britain should be taught to cook ten iconic British dishes. Including a good Thai curry.
Seriously. It should be on the curriculum, and compulsory for all.
So what would replace on the curriculum. there is after all only a finite number of hours
Foreign languages. We are a year or two from perfect instant translation by smartphone. No need for them.
No we aren't....its like self driving cars, getting say 90% of the way there sure, but no where near getting slang, subtle cultural aspects, implied context.
The systems at the moment don't understand language, so can't reason about things that are implied, but which humans know from context and wider understanding of the way people say things and the world around us.
What I want is a lip-reading app, so we can know what footballers etc. are saying.
Does anyone understand the rationale for take-aways still being open, with people queueing indoors? I saw this today in part of Greater London with a weekly infection rate of more than 1000 per 100,000 people
People are meant to be leaving home for only a very restricted set of reasons. Does anyone know which of these reasons take-aways are meant to be serving? Exercise? Work that can't be done at home? Health care? Worship? Medical emergencies? What???
A very considerable portion of the public can't or won't cook.
What I find interesting is that attempts to change that get curious pushbacks.
I have long believed that every child in Britain should be taught to cook ten iconic British dishes. Including a good Thai curry.
Seriously. It should be on the curriculum, and compulsory for all.
So what would replace on the curriculum. there is after all only a finite number of hours
Foreign languages. We are a year or two from perfect instant translation by smartphone. No need for them.
Does anyone understand the rationale for take-aways still being open, with people queueing indoors? I saw this today in part of Greater London with a weekly infection rate of more than 1000 per 100,000 people
People are meant to be leaving home for only a very restricted set of reasons. Does anyone know which of these reasons take-aways are meant to be serving? Exercise? Work that can't be done at home? Health care? Worship? Medical emergencies? What???
A very considerable portion of the public can't or won't cook.
What I find interesting is that attempts to change that get curious pushbacks.
I have long believed that every child in Britain should be taught to cook ten iconic British dishes. Including a good Thai curry.
Seriously. It should be on the curriculum, and compulsory for all.
So what would replace on the curriculum. there is after all only a finite number of hours
Foreign languages. We are a year or two from perfect instant translation by smartphone. No need for them.
Well thanks for answering . Its an argument but seems insular to me to not teach foreign languages just because a computer can do it for you.
Does anyone understand the rationale for take-aways still being open, with people queueing indoors? I saw this today in part of Greater London with a weekly infection rate of more than 1000 per 100,000 people
People are meant to be leaving home for only a very restricted set of reasons. Does anyone know which of these reasons take-aways are meant to be serving? Exercise? Work that can't be done at home? Health care? Worship? Medical emergencies? What???
A very considerable portion of the public can't or won't cook.
What I find interesting is that attempts to change that get curious pushbacks.
I have long believed that every child in Britain should be taught to cook ten iconic British dishes. Including a good Thai curry.
Seriously. It should be on the curriculum, and compulsory for all.
So what would replace on the curriculum. there is after all only a finite number of hours
Foreign languages. We are a year or two from perfect instant translation by smartphone. No need for them.
No we aren't....its like self driving cars, getting say 90% of the way there sure, but no where near getting slang, subtle cultural aspects, implied context.
The systems at the moment don't understand language, so can't reason about things that are implied, but which humans know from context and wider understanding of the way people say things and the world around us.
What I want is a lip-reading app, so we can know what footballers etc. are saying.
There are already ML trained systems that can do this to a reasonable level of accuracy.
One point to add, in favour of David's thesis, is that much of the American Right believes there has ALREADY been a coup: America has inexplicably and "illegally" been taken over by a bunch of Woke liberal anti-patriots, pushing an alien, unAmerican agenda.
That would, morally, justify a counter-coup
It might if it were true but unless you are of the Q-Anon persuasion it's bullshit.
That's my point, duh. A lot of the American Right buys into the QAnon stuff, it is remarkably widespread
"A new survey has revealed that Americans increasingly believe in conspiracy theories such as QAnon, which claims that a deep state run by satan-worshipping pedophiles has worked to undermine Donald Trump.
"According to the NPR/Ipsos poll released on Wednesday, some 39 per cent of respondents said they agreed that the president was being undermined in this way.
"When asked whether or not “satan-worshipping elites who run a child sex ring are trying to control our politics and media,” only 47 per cent said the statement was incorrect. "
We can see where the alt-right, the Q-Anon loonies etc have taken the American right.
So how would you suggest going about "engaging" with people with those beliefs?
I don't have a clue.
It should also be noted, for balance, that a chunk of the American Left is just as bad: it has been captured by mad identity politics, insane racist Marxism like "Official BLM", proper anarchists like Antifa. Tearing down statues of Abe Lincoln in month-long riots. Not sensible.
America is in a very dark place, as I said yesterday. The polarisation is now so intense it is hard to see a way out. Neither side wants compromise. And they all have guns.
Eek.
That's just the apologists current line of deflection.
Yes there are idiots within the BLM ranks but in essence the movement has a valid raison d'être, the racism and brutality of the police in the US. I doubt anyone could seriously argue they don't have a case. The BLM movement does don't dominate the Democratic Party, Biden and Harris have explicitly criticised the notion of defunding the police.
Whats the equivalent case for storming the Capitol to try to overturn the Presidential election? The GOP is dominated by that ideology.
The madness of the American identitarian Left is evidenced more in its philosophy than its storming of buildings (tho they do quite a lot of that, as well - see Seattle, Portland, LA, and many more, this year)
One example are the concepts of White Privilege and White Fragility, which have completely captured much of the Left (Google it if you don't believe me). These assert that white people are intrinsically racist, and that if you deny your white racism, that just PROVES you are racist.
What does this attitude say to the poor white American in middle America struggling to get by on minimum wage? It says a big F you, you horrible racist. Don't try to deny it. You're racist.
No wonder America is polarising. And both sides are stoking the fires.
White Privilege = Not having to think about skin colour.
White Fragility = Anger and denial at being presented with this insight.
I could elaborate but do not wish to sacrifice clarity for the sake of nuance.
Nonsense. It goes way further than that. Take one phrase. There's tons of this stuff out there
Does anyone understand the rationale for take-aways still being open, with people queueing indoors? I saw this today in part of Greater London with a weekly infection rate of more than 1000 per 100,000 people
People are meant to be leaving home for only a very restricted set of reasons. Does anyone know which of these reasons take-aways are meant to be serving? Exercise? Work that can't be done at home? Health care? Worship? Medical emergencies? What???
It looks to me as though the Govt have given up with lockdowns.
It is now being implemented in a pretty half-hearted manner -- why, for example, change the definition of key workers so now the schools are very much fuller than in the previous lockdown ?
Or, why tell students to stay at home, but that they can return to University if their home working environment is not as good. Given a choice between stay at home with mum & dad, or go to University for druggy fun & sex, most students will decide their "working environment is better at University".
I think the Govt have concluded that too many people are not going to lockdown hard any more. In fact, I think among young people, that is probably a correct assessment.
Many of them are thinking: "Why should I sacrifice the magical youth of my life just for some boring geriatric?"
I’ve been thinking this for nearly a year. In a stand off between the libido of the nation’s teens and twenty somethings and Matt Hancock, it’s hard to see Matt Hancock winning. We don’t have enough police, surveillance, to ensure a lockdown. It’s going to fray and they know it is.
As a 20 year old friend said to me the other day (as she headed out for a student party) how often are you 20 years old? Not very often. Many of these kids have spent long lonely months without fun, drugs, sex, booze, friends, and flirting, through 2020. They've had enough now. They want to get laid.
Also, for a young woman, it is particularly hard. A woman is at peak physical attractiveness from about 18-25. That's just seven years when she is a head-turning stunner, when she has incredible power over men.
We have asked her to hide that beauty under a mask for many months, and we're also saying give up one year of your seven years of sexual power.
Does anyone understand the rationale for take-aways still being open, with people queueing indoors? I saw this today in part of Greater London with a weekly infection rate of more than 1000 per 100,000 people
People are meant to be leaving home for only a very restricted set of reasons. Does anyone know which of these reasons take-aways are meant to be serving? Exercise? Work that can't be done at home? Health care? Worship? Medical emergencies? What???
It looks to me as though the Govt have given up with lockdowns.
It is now being implemented in a pretty half-hearted manner -- why, for example, change the definition of key workers so now the schools are very much fuller than in the previous lockdown ?
Or, why tell students to stay at home, but that they can return to University if their home working environment is not as good. Given a choice between stay at home with mum & dad, or go to University for druggy fun & sex, most students will decide their "working environment is better at University".
I think the Govt have concluded that too many people are not going to lockdown hard any more. In fact, I think among young people, that is probably a correct assessment.
Many of them are thinking: "Why should I sacrifice the magical youth of my life just for some boring geriatric?"
I’ve been thinking this for nearly a year. In a stand off between the libido of the nation’s teens and twenty somethings and Matt Hancock, it’s hard to see Matt Hancock winning. We don’t have enough police, surveillance, to ensure a lockdown. It’s going to fray and they know it is.
As a 20 year old friend said to me the other day (as she headed out for a student party) how often are you 20 years old? Not very often. Many of these kids have spent long lonely months without fun, drugs, sex, booze, friends, and flirting, through 2020. They've had enough now. They want to get laid.
Also, for a young woman, it is particularly hard. A woman is at peak physical attractiveness from about 18-25. That's just seven years when she is a head-turning stunner, when she has incredible power over men.
We have asked her to hide that beauty under a mask for many months, and we're also saying give up one year of your seven years of sexual power.
Anecdata: just been out to the local north London high street.
It was almost.... bustling. All takeaways open, queues inside and out, cafes busy, lots of families and groups of teens and kids, couples, shoppers, everyone. If it weren't for the shuttered non-essential shops, and the masks indoors, you would not have guessed there was a plague goin' on
Lockdown isn't just loosening, it seems to be collapsing. And this is in a city in a medical emergency where maybe 1 in 20 are infected.
In a wildly depressing week, that thread still stands out as OMFG HELP
If he's right, the UK is completely fecked. There is nothing we can do now, because B117 is too widespread.
It's a not entire foolish thing to consider.
This is why there is such a push on the vaccine in this country, I believe.
I see that the world, after denigrating British decisions to prioritize first jabs over second and to consider, if production does not keep up with requirements, mixing and matching 2nd jabs, is following Britain's lead.
Biden has said that he will release the half of the US vaccine stocks currently held back to ensure enough supply for timely second jabs, and rely on future production to supply the demand for second jabs.
That sounds like using the vaccine and relying on resupply for the second dose (3 weeks for Pfizer, 4 for Moderna) rather than planning a 12 week delay.
Provided further deliveries occur on schedule, it is perfectly compatible with recommended regime.
Did you get your second jab ok @Foxy or are you caught up with the switch to 12 weeks?
Had my second one last Sunday, 21 days after the first, before the rule changed.
Mrs Foxy won't get her second for 12 weeks though, but as she had Covid in November the vaccine will probably just boost her natural antibodies.
Great, glad to hear it.
Deep in rural Dorset we have had two cases in our small village (pop. 300) in the past two weeks - one has sadly died, the other is in hospital, which brings it home. It's also hard to understand because no one seems to be going out at all.
I wonder if @Mortimer is still thinking this doesn't affect Dorset much?
That is fantastic, but in the queue well behind Covid health tourist Rupert Murdoch and citizen of the world Stanley Johnson.
Strangely you didn't mention the Labour mp who queue jumped
Who was that?
All I can find is a debunked conspiracy theory put out by Guido and Allin -Khan apologising for suggesting Conservative MPs were queue jumping. I have no doubt Floater is on the money but I can't find it.
Here is the story...
Any leftover vaccine should go to doctors or nurses' reaction as city MP gets jab by joining queue
The story is bollocks, he was kidney donor, he's was on the priority list.
Technically he sounds like Group 4 (all those 70 years of age and over and clinically extremely vulnerable individuals) so a bit of a jump - but given it was that or waste the vaccine, hardly egregious.
I was thinking that he sounds like he is in the same position as I am: extremely vulnerable. I'm not really expecting to hear anything until the end of the month at the earliest.
Does anyone understand the rationale for take-aways still being open, with people queueing indoors? I saw this today in part of Greater London with a weekly infection rate of more than 1000 per 100,000 people
People are meant to be leaving home for only a very restricted set of reasons. Does anyone know which of these reasons take-aways are meant to be serving? Exercise? Work that can't be done at home? Health care? Worship? Medical emergencies? What???
A very considerable portion of the public can't or won't cook.
What I find interesting is that attempts to change that get curious pushbacks.
I have long believed that every child in Britain should be taught to cook ten iconic British dishes. Including a good Thai curry.
Seriously. It should be on the curriculum, and compulsory for all.
So what would replace on the curriculum. there is after all only a finite number of hours
Foreign languages. We are a year or two from perfect instant translation by smartphone. No need for them.
Does anyone understand the rationale for take-aways still being open, with people queueing indoors? I saw this today in part of Greater London with a weekly infection rate of more than 1000 per 100,000 people
People are meant to be leaving home for only a very restricted set of reasons. Does anyone know which of these reasons take-aways are meant to be serving? Exercise? Work that can't be done at home? Health care? Worship? Medical emergencies? What???
A very considerable portion of the public can't or won't cook.
What I find interesting is that attempts to change that get curious pushbacks.
I have long believed that every child in Britain should be taught to cook ten iconic British dishes. Including a good Thai curry.
Seriously. It should be on the curriculum, and compulsory for all.
So what would replace on the curriculum. there is after all only a finite number of hours
Foreign languages. We are a year or two from perfect instant translation by smartphone. No need for them.
Well thanks for answering . Its an argument but seems insular to me to not teach foreign languages just because a computer can do it for you.
I was troilling, somewhat. I do see the intellectual utility of learning languages. I envy those that can speak foreigjn fluently.
That said, I also believe computer translation will get good ENOUGH very soon to render most interpreters jobless. And I do believe we should all be taught to cook ten dishes.
Anecdata: just been out to the local north London high street.
It was almost.... bustling. All takeaways open, queues inside and out, cafes busy, lots of families and groups of teens and kids, couples, shoppers, everyone. If it weren't for the shuttered non-essential shops, and the masks indoors, you would not have guessed there was a plague goin' on
Lockdown isn't just loosening, it seems to be collapsing. And this is in a city in a medical emergency where maybe 1 in 20 are infected.
WTAF
This sort of thing is why, whilst I understand there being anger at Boris' decision to allow Christmas, I can't help but wonder how many people would have obeyed him if he'd canceled it. We've all known from the beginning that there's a limit to how far you can push people.
Does anyone understand the rationale for take-aways still being open, with people queueing indoors? I saw this today in part of Greater London with a weekly infection rate of more than 1000 per 100,000 people
People are meant to be leaving home for only a very restricted set of reasons. Does anyone know which of these reasons take-aways are meant to be serving? Exercise? Work that can't be done at home? Health care? Worship? Medical emergencies? What???
Have to say my local cafe allowed people to wait inside until New Year but in the last ten days it's been outdoor waiting only which is fine. Not sure that's being universally applied at all food outlets.
And what the rationale is for them being open at all?
Just economic? Fine if we're being fed a lot of flim-flam just to make us behave, but if the NHS is in danger of collapsing in the next few weeks, at the cost of tens of thousands of lives ...
To serve those that cannot cook, those who are key workers, who do not have the time to cook, low paid key workers whose only real option is takeaway food. When you're barely above minimum wage a £3.49 Fillet O'Fish from the Golden Arches might be your only option.
At my fish and chip shop, we queue and wait outside for the most part. I for one will be glad when the temperature picks up next week.
So - you reckon the risk of infection is negligible so long as you're queueing outside? Or you reckon your risk of serious illness is negligible if you do get infected? Or you find fish and chips so delicious that you're willing to take the risk? Or you'd starve to death if you didn't? I'm just striving to understand, given that we're told every day that the NHS is on the brink of collapse as things are.
Does anyone understand the rationale for take-aways still being open, with people queueing indoors? I saw this today in part of Greater London with a weekly infection rate of more than 1000 per 100,000 people
People are meant to be leaving home for only a very restricted set of reasons. Does anyone know which of these reasons take-aways are meant to be serving? Exercise? Work that can't be done at home? Health care? Worship? Medical emergencies? What???
Have to say my local cafe allowed people to wait inside until New Year but in the last ten days it's been outdoor waiting only which is fine. Not sure that's being universally applied at all food outlets.
And what the rationale is for them being open at all?
Just economic? Fine if we're being fed a lot of flim-flam just to make us behave, but if the NHS is in danger of collapsing in the next few weeks, at the cost of tens of thousands of lives ...
To serve those that cannot cook, those who are key workers, who do not have the time to cook, low paid key workers whose only real option is takeaway food. When you're barely above minimum wage a £3.49 Fillet O'Fish from the Golden Arches might be your only option.
At my fish and chip shop, we queue and wait outside for the most part. I for one will be glad when the temperature picks up next week.
So - you reckon the risk of infection is negligible so long as you're queueing outside? Or you reckon your risk of serious illness is negligible if you do get infected? Or you find fish and chips so delicious that you're willing to take the risk? Or you'd starve to death if you didn't? I'm just striving to understand, given that we're told every day that the NHS is on the brink of collapse as things are.
All the evidence suggests that standing 2 metres apart, outdoors, basically eliminates any chance of infection.;
If you have evidence otherwise, then please tell me, because this is what I have been doing daily! - seeing friends outdoors but walking 2 metres apart.....
Does anyone understand the rationale for take-aways still being open, with people queueing indoors? I saw this today in part of Greater London with a weekly infection rate of more than 1000 per 100,000 people
People are meant to be leaving home for only a very restricted set of reasons. Does anyone know which of these reasons take-aways are meant to be serving? Exercise? Work that can't be done at home? Health care? Worship? Medical emergencies? What???
It looks to me as though the Govt have given up with lockdowns.
It is now being implemented in a pretty half-hearted manner -- why, for example, change the definition of key workers so now the schools are very much fuller than in the previous lockdown ?
Or, why tell students to stay at home, but that they can return to University if their home working environment is not as good. Given a choice between stay at home with mum & dad, or go to University for druggy fun & sex, most students will decide their "working environment is better at University".
I think the Govt have concluded that too many people are not going to lockdown hard any more. In fact, I think among young people, that is probably a correct assessment.
Many of them are thinking: "Why should I sacrifice the magical youth of my life just for some boring geriatric?"
I’ve been thinking this for nearly a year. In a stand off between the libido of the nation’s teens and twenty somethings and Matt Hancock, it’s hard to see Matt Hancock winning. We don’t have enough police, surveillance, to ensure a lockdown. It’s going to fray and they know it is.
As a 20 year old friend said to me the other day (as she headed out for a student party) how often are you 20 years old? Not very often. Many of these kids have spent long lonely months without fun, drugs, sex, booze, friends, and flirting, through 2020. They've had enough now. They want to get laid.
Also, for a young woman, it is particularly hard. A woman is at peak physical attractiveness from about 18-25. That's just seven years when she is a head-turning stunner, when she has incredible power over men.
We have asked her to hide that beauty under a mask for many months, and we're also saying give up one year of your seven years of sexual power.
They are rebelling.
True, you are only 20 once, but you are only 40 once, only 59 (in my case) once, only 75 once. And the older you are the fewer years you have left, so one year is proportionately more of your remaining lifespan.
She can have cell phones! I'm not giving her any of the others though, including the Wright Brothers and Benjamin Franklin, all of whose status remains up for debate.
I'm happy for her to have them all if it makes her feel optimistic and hopeful.
One of the things I consistently admire most Americans for is their optimism and belief that things will get better (which of course they will).
My personal take on the current situation in the US at the moment is that the events of the Capitol are being used to crush the political opposition. Rather than see the good and the rational in others and reach for that common ground, the aim appears to be to show these people to be so deplorable that all decent folk should turn their faces away in disgust.
The expected response to that might be to feel angry, betrayed, let down, singled out etc. However, I believe that most Americans in that situation will 'dig deep' into the optimism shown above and respond positively, with solutions that are positive and within the law. If Twitter bans you - start a new social network. If Google takes your social network offline - start a new mobile phone operating system. These things can only be positive, and create a proliferation of new media and new ideas. A lot of problems come from America, but they're also very good at finding the solutions too.
"My personal take on the current situation in the US at the moment is that the events of the Capitol are being used to crush the political opposition."
People who try to overthrow democracies deserve to be crushed. There is no common ground between democracy and autocracy. If the one exists, the other doesn't.
In a wildly depressing week, that thread still stands out as OMFG HELP
If he's right, the UK is completely fecked. There is nothing we can do now, because B117 is too widespread.
It's a not entire foolish thing to consider.
This is why there is such a push on the vaccine in this country, I believe.
I see that the world, after denigrating British decisions to prioritize first jabs over second and to consider, if production does not keep up with requirements, mixing and matching 2nd jabs, is following Britain's lead.
Biden has said that he will release the half of the US vaccine stocks currently held back to ensure enough supply for timely second jabs, and rely on future production to supply the demand for second jabs.
That sounds like using the vaccine and relying on resupply for the second dose (3 weeks for Pfizer, 4 for Moderna) rather than planning a 12 week delay.
Provided further deliveries occur on schedule, it is perfectly compatible with recommended regime.
Did you get your second jab ok @Foxy or are you caught up with the switch to 12 weeks?
Had my second one last Sunday, 21 days after the first, before the rule changed.
Mrs Foxy won't get her second for 12 weeks though, but as she had Covid in November the vaccine will probably just boost her natural antibodies.
Great, glad to hear it.
Deep in rural Dorset we have had two cases in our small village (pop. 300) in the past two weeks - one has sadly died, the other is in hospital, which brings it home. It's also hard to understand because no one seems to be going out at all.
I wonder if @Mortimer is still thinking this doesn't affect Dorset much?
It's everywhere now. My own parish has a rate of 800 per 100 000 population, up there with the worst in the country.
London going into Tier 4, just before Christmas, created quite a spreading event as people fled the metropolis. Friends on the IoW and Norfolk reports lots of second homes arriving, I suspect the same of the West Country.
I am quite glad to be covered, as the press gangs are out for redeployment. My hospital is anticipating 50% covid cases by the end of the week, which shuts down most other activity.
Anecdata: just been out to the local north London high street.
It was almost.... bustling. All takeaways open, queues inside and out, cafes busy, lots of families and groups of teens and kids, couples, shoppers, everyone. If it weren't for the shuttered non-essential shops, and the masks indoors, you would not have guessed there was a plague goin' on
Lockdown isn't just loosening, it seems to be collapsing. And this is in a city in a medical emergency where maybe 1 in 20 are infected.
WTAF
This sort of thing is why, whilst I understand there being anger at Boris' decision to allow Christmas, I can't help but wonder how many people would have obeyed him if he'd canceled it. We've all known from the beginning that there's a limit to how far you can push people.
So - if you're telling us you understand why people behave like this, can you explain it to the rest of us?
Or are you saying people are simply beyond reason and brute force would be the only language they could understand, if the government really needed to defend the rest of the population?
She can have cell phones! I'm not giving her any of the others though, including the Wright Brothers and Benjamin Franklin, all of whose status remains up for debate.
I'm happy for her to have them all if it makes her feel optimistic and hopeful.
One of the things I consistently admire most Americans for is their optimism and belief that things will get better (which of course they will).
My personal take on the current situation in the US at the moment is that the events of the Capitol are being used to crush the political opposition. Rather than see the good and the rational in others and reach for that common ground, the aim appears to be to show these people to be so deplorable that all decent folk should turn their faces away in disgust.
The expected response to that might be to feel angry, betrayed, let down, singled out etc. However, I believe that most Americans in that situation will 'dig deep' into the optimism shown above and respond positively, with solutions that are positive and within the law. If Twitter bans you - start a new social network. If Google takes your social network offline - start a new mobile phone operating system. These things can only be positive, and create a proliferation of new media and new ideas. A lot of problems come from America, but they're also very good at finding the solutions too.
Have you ever been to the USA recently? It is a plural society of haves and have nots. The have nots are not happy and no one is even looking for, let alone finding solutions.
One point to add, in favour of David's thesis, is that much of the American Right believes there has ALREADY been a coup: America has inexplicably and "illegally" been taken over by a bunch of Woke liberal anti-patriots, pushing an alien, unAmerican agenda.
That would, morally, justify a counter-coup
It might if it were true but unless you are of the Q-Anon persuasion it's bullshit.
That's my point, duh. A lot of the American Right buys into the QAnon stuff, it is remarkably widespread
"A new survey has revealed that Americans increasingly believe in conspiracy theories such as QAnon, which claims that a deep state run by satan-worshipping pedophiles has worked to undermine Donald Trump.
"According to the NPR/Ipsos poll released on Wednesday, some 39 per cent of respondents said they agreed that the president was being undermined in this way.
"When asked whether or not “satan-worshipping elites who run a child sex ring are trying to control our politics and media,” only 47 per cent said the statement was incorrect. "
We can see where the alt-right, the Q-Anon loonies etc have taken the American right.
So how would you suggest going about "engaging" with people with those beliefs?
I don't have a clue.
It should also be noted, for balance, that a chunk of the American Left is just as bad: it has been captured by mad identity politics, insane racist Marxism like "Official BLM", proper anarchists like Antifa. Tearing down statues of Abe Lincoln in month-long riots. Not sensible.
America is in a very dark place, as I said yesterday. The polarisation is now so intense it is hard to see a way out. Neither side wants compromise. And they all have guns.
Eek.
Passing over the rare flash of self awareness in the first sentence, I tuned in to the Mike Gallagher show this morning. He is the Republican shock jock who I spent time listening to during my drive around the Great Plains in 2019, largely because the only alternative on the car radio was an even more loopy religious channel. Although I have to concede he’s a radio professional and his show can easily become compelling listening.
From yesterday’s show, his line is to condemn the violence at the Capitol unambiguously, playing the Trump ‘hostage tape’ over and over to underline the nonsense of any suggestion that Trump incited the riot, and then to major on the comparison between a range of Democrats’ comments after the BLM protests to try and establish the position that the Dems are the people who are really the ones soft on violent protest.
This then allows him to go into full-on attack mode toward the Dems seeking impeachment on the grounds that they are seeking to make unjustifiable political capital from an event where Trump’s own hands are completely clean.
As when I listened in 2019, it’s the adverts that I found the most shocking; the advertisers on the programme clearly know they have an audience of mugs. Fish oil tablets bigged up as an all-embracing pain cure on sale for $20 for a small pot. A religious firm selling ‘boxes of blessings’, each one supposedly prayed over before being mailed out. All manner of quack medical treatments and seemingly dodgy financial investments, and humdrum items like pillows marketed as if they were guaranteed to cure all insomnia, being pitched at people the suppliers must believe have more money than sense, even though in reality I suspect they have little of either. Products mostly endorsed by Gallagher himself as the host of the show.
One possibility is that we are now seeing the effects of the decline in human IQ, which has been going on since the turn of the century (and possibly much longer). Stupider people (of right or left) will believe stupider things.
I hate to be mean but I do think kids today are a bit thicker than they used to be. Nicer, but thicker
I'd say that that, such as it is, is simply a function of them not being taught how to think and being exposed to all sorts of different views in a free speech environment.
It makes you a poorer thinker, because you've never had to do it, more receptive to and accepting of dogma and therefore "thicker".
I don't think there's been a decline in IQ (whatever that is), nor do I think people suffer from not being exposed to different views in a free speech environment. People are just as intelligent as ever, but just not as well read.
I put this down to a longer-term decline in what I would call proper reading. People I know, even pretty bright ones, under 30 just don't read enough proper literature - fact or fiction - or proper newspapers, for example. Attention spans are much lower, because of the pervasive effects of TV (much more choice now, so more watching) and soundbites on social media. Those who teach will, I suspect, agree that it's pretty challenging to get young people to read an extended piece of 'challenging' writing.
It even shines though on PB, with a poster who complains that the headers are too long for s/he to digest......
Does anyone understand the rationale for take-aways still being open, with people queueing indoors? I saw this today in part of Greater London with a weekly infection rate of more than 1000 per 100,000 people
People are meant to be leaving home for only a very restricted set of reasons. Does anyone know which of these reasons take-aways are meant to be serving? Exercise? Work that can't be done at home? Health care? Worship? Medical emergencies? What???
A very considerable portion of the public can't or won't cook.
What I find interesting is that attempts to change that get curious pushbacks.
I have long believed that every child in Britain should be taught to cook ten iconic British dishes. Including a good Thai curry.
Seriously. It should be on the curriculum, and compulsory for all.
So what would replace on the curriculum. there is after all only a finite number of hours
Foreign languages. We are a year or two from perfect instant translation by smartphone. No need for them.
Does anyone understand the rationale for take-aways still being open, with people queueing indoors? I saw this today in part of Greater London with a weekly infection rate of more than 1000 per 100,000 people
People are meant to be leaving home for only a very restricted set of reasons. Does anyone know which of these reasons take-aways are meant to be serving? Exercise? Work that can't be done at home? Health care? Worship? Medical emergencies? What???
A very considerable portion of the public can't or won't cook.
What I find interesting is that attempts to change that get curious pushbacks.
I have long believed that every child in Britain should be taught to cook ten iconic British dishes. Including a good Thai curry.
Seriously. It should be on the curriculum, and compulsory for all.
So what would replace on the curriculum. there is after all only a finite number of hours
Foreign languages. We are a year or two from perfect instant translation by smartphone. No need for them.
Well thanks for answering . Its an argument but seems insular to me to not teach foreign languages just because a computer can do it for you.
I was troilling, somewhat. I do see the intellectual utility of learning languages. I envy those that can speak foreigjn fluently.
That said, I also believe computer translation will get good ENOUGH very soon to render most interpreters jobless. And I do believe we should all be taught to cook ten dishes.
Oof. I'd sooner drop the pretence that 90% of the population needs more mathematical training than that necessary to operate a calculator.
In a wildly depressing week, that thread still stands out as OMFG HELP
If he's right, the UK is completely fecked. There is nothing we can do now, because B117 is too widespread.
It's a not entire foolish thing to consider.
This is why there is such a push on the vaccine in this country, I believe.
I see that the world, after denigrating British decisions to prioritize first jabs over second and to consider, if production does not keep up with requirements, mixing and matching 2nd jabs, is following Britain's lead.
Biden has said that he will release the half of the US vaccine stocks currently held back to ensure enough supply for timely second jabs, and rely on future production to supply the demand for second jabs.
That sounds like using the vaccine and relying on resupply for the second dose (3 weeks for Pfizer, 4 for Moderna) rather than planning a 12 week delay.
Provided further deliveries occur on schedule, it is perfectly compatible with recommended regime.
Did you get your second jab ok @Foxy or are you caught up with the switch to 12 weeks?
Had my second one last Sunday, 21 days after the first, before the rule changed.
Mrs Foxy won't get her second for 12 weeks though, but as she had Covid in November the vaccine will probably just boost her natural antibodies.
Great, glad to hear it.
Deep in rural Dorset we have had two cases in our small village (pop. 300) in the past two weeks - one has sadly died, the other is in hospital, which brings it home. It's also hard to understand because no one seems to be going out at all.
I wonder if @Mortimer is still thinking this doesn't affect Dorset much?
It's everywhere now. My own parish has a rate of 800 per 100 000 population, up there with the worst in the country.
London going into Tier 4, just before Christmas, created quite a spreading event as people fled the metropolis. Friends on the IoW and Norfolk reports lots of second homes arriving, I suspect the same of the West Country.
It would have been difficult to make more of a mess of the tiers, lockdown and timings of announcements than Johnson's administration did in late autumn/early winter to be honest.
In a wildly depressing week, that thread still stands out as OMFG HELP
If he's right, the UK is completely fecked. There is nothing we can do now, because B117 is too widespread.
It's a not entire foolish thing to consider.
This is why there is such a push on the vaccine in this country, I believe.
I see that the world, after denigrating British decisions to prioritize first jabs over second and to consider, if production does not keep up with requirements, mixing and matching 2nd jabs, is following Britain's lead.
Biden has said that he will release the half of the US vaccine stocks currently held back to ensure enough supply for timely second jabs, and rely on future production to supply the demand for second jabs.
That sounds like using the vaccine and relying on resupply for the second dose (3 weeks for Pfizer, 4 for Moderna) rather than planning a 12 week delay.
Provided further deliveries occur on schedule, it is perfectly compatible with recommended regime.
Did you get your second jab ok @Foxy or are you caught up with the switch to 12 weeks?
Had my second one last Sunday, 21 days after the first, before the rule changed.
Mrs Foxy won't get her second for 12 weeks though, but as she had Covid in November the vaccine will probably just boost her natural antibodies.
Great, glad to hear it.
Deep in rural Dorset we have had two cases in our small village (pop. 300) in the past two weeks - one has sadly died, the other is in hospital, which brings it home. It's also hard to understand because no one seems to be going out at all.
I wonder if @Mortimer is still thinking this doesn't affect Dorset much?
It's everywhere now. My own parish has a rate of 800 per 100 000 population, up there with the worst in the country.
London going into Tier 4, just before Christmas, created quite a spreading event as people fled the metropolis. Friends on the IoW and Norfolk reports lots of second homes arriving, I suspect the same of the West Country.
A close friend of mine went down by train to his partner's enormous second home in Cornwall, from London, the day AFTER lockdown was imposed. He justified it with some guff about "my work being down there" - by which he meant a couple of documents he needed, which could have been posted to him.
And now Cornwall is seeing a steep rise in cases. I had to restrain myself from calling him a selfish arse.
Anecdata: just been out to the local north London high street.
It was almost.... bustling. All takeaways open, queues inside and out, cafes busy, lots of families and groups of teens and kids, couples, shoppers, everyone. If it weren't for the shuttered non-essential shops, and the masks indoors, you would not have guessed there was a plague goin' on
Lockdown isn't just loosening, it seems to be collapsing. And this is in a city in a medical emergency where maybe 1 in 20 are infected.
WTAF
Pi***ng off to the provinces for the lockdown clearly isn't as attractive as it was during last year's spring sunshine.
Does anyone understand the rationale for take-aways still being open, with people queueing indoors? I saw this today in part of Greater London with a weekly infection rate of more than 1000 per 100,000 people
People are meant to be leaving home for only a very restricted set of reasons. Does anyone know which of these reasons take-aways are meant to be serving? Exercise? Work that can't be done at home? Health care? Worship? Medical emergencies? What???
A very considerable portion of the public can't or won't cook.
What I find interesting is that attempts to change that get curious pushbacks.
I have long believed that every child in Britain should be taught to cook ten iconic British dishes. Including a good Thai curry.
Seriously. It should be on the curriculum, and compulsory for all.
So what would replace on the curriculum. there is after all only a finite number of hours
Foreign languages. We are a year or two from perfect instant translation by smartphone. No need for them.
Does anyone understand the rationale for take-aways still being open, with people queueing indoors? I saw this today in part of Greater London with a weekly infection rate of more than 1000 per 100,000 people
People are meant to be leaving home for only a very restricted set of reasons. Does anyone know which of these reasons take-aways are meant to be serving? Exercise? Work that can't be done at home? Health care? Worship? Medical emergencies? What???
A very considerable portion of the public can't or won't cook.
What I find interesting is that attempts to change that get curious pushbacks.
I have long believed that every child in Britain should be taught to cook ten iconic British dishes. Including a good Thai curry.
Seriously. It should be on the curriculum, and compulsory for all.
So what would replace on the curriculum. there is after all only a finite number of hours
Foreign languages. We are a year or two from perfect instant translation by smartphone. No need for them.
Well thanks for answering . Its an argument but seems insular to me to not teach foreign languages just because a computer can do it for you.
I was troilling, somewhat. I do see the intellectual utility of learning languages. I envy those that can speak foreigjn fluently.
That said, I also believe computer translation will get good ENOUGH very soon to render most interpreters jobless. And I do believe we should all be taught to cook ten dishes.
Oof. I'd sooner drop the pretence that 90% of the population needs more mathematical training than that necessary to operate a calculator.
Is secondary school about "training " though or education? I am not anti cooking of course and agree its a great skill but its something you can and indeed (most people) learn anyway outside school.With the best will in the world its hard to learn maths or indeed foreign languages outside school on your own so to speak.
Comments
What I think was very irresponsible was telling the public hey come down, there is a way to get a jab if you join this queue at the end of the day. That absolutely isn't what the deal is.
https://twitter.com/elainejgodfrey/status/1347910427519414272?s=19
A property investment company has offered GP surgeries £5,000 for unused coronavirus vaccine doses.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-55593210
What I find interesting is that attempts to change that get curious pushbacks.
I mean if there are really plenty of beds available in the hospitals I don't mind this kind of thing at all. I just got the impression there was a prospect of people being left to die at home in the next couple of weeks in London, because even if the Nightingale Hospital were used there would be no beds.
Would you care to give an example?
Seriously. It should be on the curriculum, and compulsory for all.
https://twitter.com/DarranMarshall/status/1347930480444903424
https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a34930288/mypillow-guy-mike-lindell-trump-election-conspiracies/
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/full-text-alex-salmond-s-submission-to-the-hamilton-inquiry
I for one welcome our new nerd overlords, and feel the Word paperclip thing in Windows 98 was unfairly maligned.
In my youngest daughters school (*primary*) there were mandatory cooking lessons in the curriculum. Also a "home economics" type class which included things like sewing.
Being able to a sew a button on seems like a sensible thing to know - the prices you get charged at the average dry cleaners would pay for needle, thread, button & a coffee!
My principal feeling, listening to that show, and the crap that it was peddling, was to feel sorry for its listeners.
Biden has said that he will release the half of the US vaccine stocks currently held back to ensure enough supply for timely second jabs, and rely on future production to supply the demand for second jabs.
My 93 year old mother in law in Herefordshire hasn't had hers and won't be jumping any queues.
He wanted to invite some of his priority 2 patients, but was refused permission, so is planning to immunise his staff with the leftovers. It would be criminal to just waste it.
https://twitter.com/mtgreenee/status/1347891699733983233?s=20
While at the moment, they are not going for delaying second jabs explicitly, as a number of people have pointed out, by the time that Biden reaches office, his planed change wouldn't have any effect.
This is because by the time he reaches office, the stockpiles for the second doses will be being sent out.
Which is why the majority (60%) has been going to the over 80s, who are first on the list. But not all.
Quite bit has been going to NHS staff who aren't first on the list.
White Fragility = Anger and denial at being presented with this insight.
I could elaborate but do not wish to sacrifice clarity for the sake of nuance.
Provided further deliveries occur on schedule, it is perfectly compatible with recommended regime.
It makes you a poorer thinker, because you've never had to do it, more receptive to and accepting of dogma and therefore "thicker".
I might take my chances too were I that age again.
He also said he gets barraged by calls from patients demanding a vaccine NOW!!
"Trump’s career lies in tatters not so much because he attempted a coup but because it was a shambles." Brilliant.
I am in the Bluest of Blue states (Maryland), in the Bluest of Blue counties (Montgomery), but in the blood red part of that county (Up County). Two of my neighbors have posts on the FB pages arguing that the peaceful demonstration was hijacked by antifa, and it is antifa who is responsible for the insurrection. The brother of one was at the protests.
But, in everyday life, one neighbour ploughs the road for everyone when it snows, mends our long drive when we get potholes (sometimes for free) and helps us bury horses with his skid loader when they die (again for free). The other will call if any of our animals get out, will house sit while we are away and walk our dogs an a moment if we need her to. She does much good volunteer work.
So yes, we have huge political divisions, including on interpreting this absolutely critical moment in US political history, but will it really change our lives and how we treat each other?
The key is not to vilify and dehumanize the other side, but to continue to treat each other as humans and with common decency and kindness. That is what will prevent a nation deeply divided on political perspectives (which it is) from actually descending into worse.
French teenage ravers who happen to have a GP for a dad with a few spare jabs are their ultimate trigger.
If he had such a medical condition, it actually seems rather sensible to give him the vaccine.
The systems at the moment don't understand language, so can't reason about things that are implied, but which humans know from context and wider understanding of the way people say things and the world around us.
Mrs Foxy won't get her second for 12 weeks though, but as she had Covid in November the vaccine will probably just boost her natural antibodies.
One of the things I consistently admire most Americans for is their optimism and belief that things will get better (which of course they will).
My personal take on the current situation in the US at the moment is that the events of the Capitol are being used to crush the political opposition. Rather than see the good and the rational in others and reach for that common ground, the aim appears to be to show these people to be so deplorable that all decent folk should turn their faces away in disgust.
The expected response to that might be to feel angry, betrayed, let down, singled out etc. However, I believe that most Americans in that situation will 'dig deep' into the optimism shown above and respond positively, with solutions that are positive and within the law. If Twitter bans you - start a new social network. If Google takes your social network offline - start a new mobile phone operating system. These things can only be positive, and create a proliferation of new media and new ideas. A lot of problems come from America, but they're also very good at finding the solutions too.
Not that I believe IQ a very useful measure, as very open to bias in measurement.
"Yes My Dear, All White People Are Racists"
https://medium.com/age-of-awareness/yes-all-white-people-are-racist-eefa97cc5605
"Accept That You’re Racist. Then, Get To Work Dismantling Racism"
https://forge.medium.com/what-it-means-to-accept-that-youre-racist-fbeef3839e47
"Examining ‘White Fragility’ and why some disagree with the claim that all white people are racist"
https://www.wsls.com/news/local/2020/09/22/examining-white-fragility-and-why-some-disagree-with-the-claim-that-all-white-people-are-racist/
"All white people are racist, because all white people exist in a racist power structure that we aren't actively fighting to dismantle."
https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/elena-guthrie/racism-white-privilege_b_18147778.html
"Stop kidding yourself, white people are racist"
https://metro.co.uk/2017/09/01/stop-kidding-yourself-white-people-are-racist-6895283/?ito=cbshare
It was almost.... bustling. All takeaways open, queues inside and out, cafes busy, lots of families and groups of teens and kids, couples, shoppers, everyone. If it weren't for the shuttered non-essential shops, and the masks indoors, you would not have guessed there was a plague goin' on
Lockdown isn't just loosening, it seems to be collapsing. And this is in a city in a medical emergency where maybe 1 in 20 are infected.
WTAF
Deep in rural Dorset we have had two cases in our small village (pop. 300) in the past two weeks - one has sadly died, the other is in hospital, which brings it home. It's also hard to understand because no one seems to be going out at all.
I wonder if @Mortimer is still thinking this doesn't affect Dorset much?
That said, I also believe computer translation will get good ENOUGH very soon to render most interpreters jobless. And I do believe we should all be taught to cook ten dishes.
If you have evidence otherwise, then please tell me, because this is what I have been doing daily! - seeing friends outdoors but walking 2 metres apart.....
And the older you are the fewer years you have left, so one year is proportionately more of your remaining lifespan.
People who try to overthrow democracies deserve to be crushed.
There is no common ground between democracy and autocracy. If the one exists, the other doesn't.
London going into Tier 4, just before Christmas, created quite a spreading event as people fled the metropolis. Friends on the IoW and Norfolk reports lots of second homes arriving, I suspect the same of the West Country.
I am quite glad to be covered, as the press gangs are out for redeployment. My hospital is anticipating 50% covid cases by the end of the week, which shuts down most other activity.
Or are you saying people are simply beyond reason and brute force would be the only language they could understand, if the government really needed to defend the rest of the population?
I put this down to a longer-term decline in what I would call proper reading. People I know, even pretty bright ones, under 30 just don't read enough proper literature - fact or fiction - or proper newspapers, for example. Attention spans are much lower, because of the pervasive effects of TV (much more choice now, so more watching) and soundbites on social media. Those who teach will, I suspect, agree that it's pretty challenging to get young people to read an extended piece of 'challenging' writing.
It even shines though on PB, with a poster who complains that the headers are too long for s/he to digest......
And now Cornwall is seeing a steep rise in cases. I had to restrain myself from calling him a selfish arse.