Whoever writes the Guardian leaders has clearly gone raving bonkers (or perhaps I should say even more raving bonkers). He or she seems to be arguing that it's a dereliction of duty that Boris isn't planning, single-handedly, to wipe Covid-19 off the face of the earth:
I mean, how can anyone write down those sentences, and hopefully proof-read them, and not see that the proof that the conclusion is utter nonsense is given by the first two sentences?
Well....its just yet another example....I mean Sam Coates on Sky was moaning its totally unfair, no Easter holidays allowed, but will the PM have to resign if we ever have to go into a lockdown at any point ever in the future of the world no matter the circumstances.
Sooo, you think we aren't unlocking fast enough, but also the PM is not being cautious enough, such that he would be personally responsible for any future lockdown.
I am not sure how you deal with that Schrödinger's Cat level genius.
Whoever writes the Guardian leaders has clearly gone raving bonkers (or perhaps I should say even more raving bonkers). He or she seems to be arguing that it's a dereliction of duty that Boris isn't planning, single-handedly, to wipe Covid-19 off the face of the earth:
There's also a really important point that tends to be missed by the "oh my God, mutant strains are going to make CV19 vaccine resistant!" panicers.
The feature that enables the Coronavirus to do so much damage is the spike protein that allows it to bind with ACE2 molecules in our lungs. That is the feature targeted by vaccines. CV19 can evolve (some) resistance to vaccines by mutations in the spike protein. *But* doing so is likely to make the virus less effective at binding to cells in our lungs. Vaccine resistance probably means lower efficiency in harming us.
Whoever writes the Guardian leaders has clearly gone raving bonkers (or perhaps I should say even more raving bonkers). He or she seems to be arguing that it's a dereliction of duty that Boris isn't planning, single-handedly, to wipe Covid-19 off the face of the earth:
Whoever writes the Guardian leaders has clearly gone raving bonkers (or perhaps I should say even more raving bonkers). He or she seems to be arguing that it's a dereliction of duty that Boris isn't planning, single-handedly, to wipe Covid-19 off the face of the earth:
There's also a really important point that tends to be missed by the "oh my God, mutant strains are going to make CV19 vaccine resistant!" panicers.
The feature that enables the Coronavirus to do so much damage is the spike protein that allows it to bind with ACE2 molecules in our lungs. That is the feature targeted by vaccines. CV19 can evolve (some) resistance to vaccines by mutations in the spike protein. *But* doing so is likely to make the virus less effective at binding to cells in our lungs. Vaccine resistance probably means lower efficiency in harming us.
You expecting journalists to understand science.....
Whoever writes the Guardian leaders has clearly gone raving bonkers (or perhaps I should say even more raving bonkers). He or she seems to be arguing that it's a dereliction of duty that Boris isn't planning, single-handedly, to wipe Covid-19 off the face of the earth:
Whoever writes the Guardian leaders has clearly gone raving bonkers (or perhaps I should say even more raving bonkers). He or she seems to be arguing that it's a dereliction of duty that Boris isn't planning, single-handedly, to wipe Covid-19 off the face of the earth:
The man is a FBPE hashtag in (vaguely) human form.
Gaurdian. It’s the only sensible front page tomorrow.
118 days to Freedom screams the telegraph. How many mentioning at least another 30,000 to die under Bojo route to freedom and triumph.
Some of you guys on here are so politically biased you have lost all sense of being able to reason.
It showed a rapid easing of restrictions could lead to surge in deaths over the summer and a total of 80,000 deaths by the middle of 2022.
There is much uncertainty about scenarios like this - for one thing it did not take into account any seasonal impact that the warmer weather could bring by reducing spread of the virus.
The gradual lifting could, by comparison, may reduce that to around 30,000. That would bring it in line with the sort of deaths we could see during a bad flu winter.
UK chief medical adviser Prof Chris Whitty says that should be the context in which we judge Covid now.
Whoever writes the Guardian leaders has clearly gone raving bonkers (or perhaps I should say even more raving bonkers). He or she seems to be arguing that it's a dereliction of duty that Boris isn't planning, single-handedly, to wipe Covid-19 off the face of the earth:
Whoever writes the Guardian leaders has clearly gone raving bonkers (or perhaps I should say even more raving bonkers). He or she seems to be arguing that it's a dereliction of duty that Boris isn't planning, single-handedly, to wipe Covid-19 off the face of the earth:
The man is a FBPE hashtag in (vaguely) human form.
Gaurdian. It’s the only sensible front page tomorrow.
118 days to Freedom screams the telegraph. How many mentioning at least another 30,000 to die under Bojo route to freedom and triumph.
Some of you guys on here are so politically biased you have lost all sense of being able to reason.
550,000 die in the UK every year.
We just have to get used to a greatly elevated death rate this year, and for a few years coming, but increasingly less bad, as vaccines and treatments improve. Syphilis has revisited humanity, reminding us that we are very mortal, but, also, resourceful.
Whoever writes the Guardian leaders has clearly gone raving bonkers (or perhaps I should say even more raving bonkers). He or she seems to be arguing that it's a dereliction of duty that Boris isn't planning, single-handedly, to wipe Covid-19 off the face of the earth:
The man is a FBPE hashtag in (vaguely) human form.
Gaurdian. It’s the only sensible front page tomorrow.
118 days to Freedom screams the telegraph. How many mentioning at least another 30,000 to die under Bojo route to freedom and triumph.
Some of you guys on here are so politically biased you have lost all sense of being able to reason.
How interesting. Are you still advocating that we should leave most of our country unvaccinated and give the rest of our doses away for the sake of Christian feeling, or whatever it was? Because that would elevate our death rate quite seriously, wouldn't it?
Not quite going the full @bigjohnowls 10/10. But must say am very pleased with today. It's a fine needle to thread and I reckon they managed it. 9/10 for today. Any further reckoning is for another day.
Whoever writes the Guardian leaders has clearly gone raving bonkers (or perhaps I should say even more raving bonkers). He or she seems to be arguing that it's a dereliction of duty that Boris isn't planning, single-handedly, to wipe Covid-19 off the face of the earth:
The man is a FBPE hashtag in (vaguely) human form.
Gaurdian. It’s the only sensible front page tomorrow.
118 days to Freedom screams the telegraph. How many mentioning at least another 30,000 to die under Bojo route to freedom and triumph.
Some of you guys on here are so politically biased you have lost all sense of being able to reason.
550,000 die in the UK every year.
We just have to get used to a greatly elevated death rate this year, and for a few years coming, but increasingly less bad, as vaccines and treatments improve. Syphilis has revisited humanity, reminding us that we are very mortal, but, also, resourceful.
Whoever writes the Guardian leaders has clearly gone raving bonkers (or perhaps I should say even more raving bonkers). He or she seems to be arguing that it's a dereliction of duty that Boris isn't planning, single-handedly, to wipe Covid-19 off the face of the earth:
The man is a FBPE hashtag in (vaguely) human form.
Gaurdian. It’s the only sensible front page tomorrow.
118 days to Freedom screams the telegraph. How many mentioning at least another 30,000 to die under Bojo route to freedom and triumph.
Some of you guys on here are so politically biased you have lost all sense of being able to reason.
550,000 die in the UK every year.
We just have to get used to a greatly elevated death rate this year, and for a few years coming, but increasingly less bad, as vaccines and treatments improve. Syphilis has revisited humanity, reminding us that we are very mortal, but, also, resourceful.
It is a lesson for our entire species
I suspect that 2022 and 2023 will see deaths below normal levels, as we'll have culled the herd somewhat.
Whoever writes the Guardian leaders has clearly gone raving bonkers (or perhaps I should say even more raving bonkers). He or she seems to be arguing that it's a dereliction of duty that Boris isn't planning, single-handedly, to wipe Covid-19 off the face of the earth:
The man is a FBPE hashtag in (vaguely) human form.
Gaurdian. It’s the only sensible front page tomorrow.
118 days to Freedom screams the telegraph. How many mentioning at least another 30,000 to die under Bojo route to freedom and triumph.
Some of you guys on here are so politically biased you have lost all sense of being able to reason.
550,000 die in the UK every year.
We just have to get used to a greatly elevated death rate this year, and for a few years coming, but increasingly less bad, as vaccines and treatments improve. Syphilis has revisited humanity, reminding us that we are very mortal, but, also, resourceful.
It is a lesson for our entire species
The guy rolling a rock up a hill?
LOL. It has felt like that at times. For everyone I'm sure. Today it feels more like rolling a huge rock on slightly flatter terrain.
Whoever writes the Guardian leaders has clearly gone raving bonkers (or perhaps I should say even more raving bonkers). He or she seems to be arguing that it's a dereliction of duty that Boris isn't planning, single-handedly, to wipe Covid-19 off the face of the earth:
The man is a FBPE hashtag in (vaguely) human form.
Gaurdian. It’s the only sensible front page tomorrow.
118 days to Freedom screams the telegraph. How many mentioning at least another 30,000 to die under Bojo route to freedom and triumph.
Some of you guys on here are so politically biased you have lost all sense of being able to reason.
550,000 die in the UK every year.
We just have to get used to a greatly elevated death rate this year, and for a few years coming, but increasingly less bad, as vaccines and treatments improve. Syphilis has revisited humanity, reminding us that we are very mortal, but, also, resourceful.
It is a lesson for our entire species
The guy rolling a rock up a hill?
That's what I feel like when I try and race others on Zwift up the virtual mountains. I am convinced somebody has attached a big boulder to the back of my bike.
Sir Keir Starmer will call on farmers and people living in rural areas to take a fresh look at the Labour party, vowing to push for new investment in food and farming and a revision of subsidy payments, in an effort to move beyond the party’s urban strongholds.
He will urge people to buy more British food, and for more of the public sector’s £2.4bn food procurement budget to be spent locally, as well as calling for subsidised wages for apprentices to shore up the UK’s ageing farm workforce.
Whoever writes the Guardian leaders has clearly gone raving bonkers (or perhaps I should say even more raving bonkers). He or she seems to be arguing that it's a dereliction of duty that Boris isn't planning, single-handedly, to wipe Covid-19 off the face of the earth:
The man is a FBPE hashtag in (vaguely) human form.
Gaurdian. It’s the only sensible front page tomorrow.
118 days to Freedom screams the telegraph. How many mentioning at least another 30,000 to die under Bojo route to freedom and triumph.
Some of you guys on here are so politically biased you have lost all sense of being able to reason.
550,000 die in the UK every year.
We just have to get used to a greatly elevated death rate this year, and for a few years coming, but increasingly less bad, as vaccines and treatments improve. Syphilis has revisited humanity, reminding us that we are very mortal, but, also, resourceful.
It is a lesson for our entire species
I suspect that 2022 and 2023 will see deaths below normal levels, as we'll have culled the herd somewhat.
Yes, I agree. The total deaths for 2020-2024 will look very like the total deaths for 2015-2019.
Whoever writes the Guardian leaders has clearly gone raving bonkers (or perhaps I should say even more raving bonkers). He or she seems to be arguing that it's a dereliction of duty that Boris isn't planning, single-handedly, to wipe Covid-19 off the face of the earth:
The man is a FBPE hashtag in (vaguely) human form.
Gaurdian. It’s the only sensible front page tomorrow.
118 days to Freedom screams the telegraph. How many mentioning at least another 30,000 to die under Bojo route to freedom and triumph.
Some of you guys on here are so politically biased you have lost all sense of being able to reason.
550,000 die in the UK every year.
We just have to get used to a greatly elevated death rate this year, and for a few years coming, but increasingly less bad, as vaccines and treatments improve. Syphilis has revisited humanity, reminding us that we are very mortal, but, also, resourceful.
It is a lesson for our entire species
I suspect that 2022 and 2023 will see deaths below normal levels, as we'll have culled the herd somewhat.
I think Covid will roll around the developing world, for two or three years, before vaccines are universal, ensuring lofted death rates. But nothing Black Deathy. Inshallah
FWIW I noted the other day that I haven’t had a cold in a year. Normally I get 2-4 a year (which is average), I am pretty sure this is down to obsessive hand washing, distancing, etc
So, yes, death rates from flu and its friends might fall, for several years, and the available victims will be fewer, even as Covid continues. Who knows how that data will play out
Sir Keir Starmer will call on farmers and people living in rural areas to take a fresh look at the Labour party, vowing to push for new investment in food and farming and a revision of subsidy payments, in an effort to move beyond the party’s urban strongholds.
He will urge people to buy more British food, and for more of the public sector’s £2.4bn food procurement budget to be spent locally, as well as calling for subsidised wages for apprentices to shore up the UK’s ageing farm workforce.
Whoever writes the Guardian leaders has clearly gone raving bonkers (or perhaps I should say even more raving bonkers). He or she seems to be arguing that it's a dereliction of duty that Boris isn't planning, single-handedly, to wipe Covid-19 off the face of the earth:
The man is a FBPE hashtag in (vaguely) human form.
Gaurdian. It’s the only sensible front page tomorrow.
118 days to Freedom screams the telegraph. How many mentioning at least another 30,000 to die under Bojo route to freedom and triumph.
Some of you guys on here are so politically biased you have lost all sense of being able to reason.
550,000 die in the UK every year.
We just have to get used to a greatly elevated death rate this year, and for a few years coming, but increasingly less bad, as vaccines and treatments improve. Syphilis has revisited humanity, reminding us that we are very mortal, but, also, resourceful.
It is a lesson for our entire species
I suspect that 2022 and 2023 will see deaths below normal levels, as we'll have culled the herd somewhat.
Yes, I agree. The total deaths for 2020-2024 will look very like the total deaths for 2015-2019.
Unlikely, if the average years of life lost due to COVID is around or over 10.
Cronyism in Britain is rampant and goes unpunished. We're turning into a banana republic - Polly Toynbee
No idea how a university drop-out burger flipper got a prime job at the Guardian. It isn't exactly how one gets on the graduate scheme. I am sure her famous family had nothing to do with it.
To be honest, what Johnson said today about zero Covid being impossible could have been stated at any time over the last 12 months. The problem was it felt almost dangerous to dare to say it until fairly recently.
Whoever writes the Guardian leaders has clearly gone raving bonkers (or perhaps I should say even more raving bonkers). He or she seems to be arguing that it's a dereliction of duty that Boris isn't planning, single-handedly, to wipe Covid-19 off the face of the earth:
The man is a FBPE hashtag in (vaguely) human form.
Gaurdian. It’s the only sensible front page tomorrow.
118 days to Freedom screams the telegraph. How many mentioning at least another 30,000 to die under Bojo route to freedom and triumph.
Some of you guys on here are so politically biased you have lost all sense of being able to reason.
550,000 die in the UK every year.
We just have to get used to a greatly elevated death rate this year, and for a few years coming, but increasingly less bad, as vaccines and treatments improve. Syphilis has revisited humanity, reminding us that we are very mortal, but, also, resourceful.
It is a lesson for our entire species
I suspect that 2022 and 2023 will see deaths below normal levels, as we'll have culled the herd somewhat.
Yes, I agree. The total deaths for 2020-2024 will look very like the total deaths for 2015-2019.
Unlikely, if the average years of life lost due to COVID is around or over 10.
--AS
Yes, the excess deaths in 2020/21 will be sufficient to make sure that for the five year period deaths will be well ahead of 2015-2019.
That being said... I'd still expect deaths to be below the 2015-2019 baseline for next year and 2023.
And moved to the head of the queue, right after HM The Queen?
Personally I find Price Charles to be outstanding. After decades of not being a fan.
But we don't have an elected monarchy. We can't pick and choose which Windsor comes next. Personally, I'm a big fan of the queen, I think Charles has improved to 'wouldn't necessarily be the death knell of the monarchy' in recent years, I'm a fan of William and my opinion of Harry has slid from second favourite royal to 'only just better than Prince Andrew'. But my opinion is irrelevant. They will come in whatever order you choose, and if you are a monarchist you have to accept that. (You could take the niche position of arguing for an elected monarchy like medeival Denmark or Poland, I suppose.)
In any case #2, Harry's older brother has so many children that his place in the line of succession is highly likely to remain of theoretical interest only.
Whoever writes the Guardian leaders has clearly gone raving bonkers (or perhaps I should say even more raving bonkers). He or she seems to be arguing that it's a dereliction of duty that Boris isn't planning, single-handedly, to wipe Covid-19 off the face of the earth:
The man is a FBPE hashtag in (vaguely) human form.
Gaurdian. It’s the only sensible front page tomorrow.
118 days to Freedom screams the telegraph. How many mentioning at least another 30,000 to die under Bojo route to freedom and triumph.
Some of you guys on here are so politically biased you have lost all sense of being able to reason.
Forget the politics.
You should look at the reverse equation too. If a months extra lockdown saved 20k extra lives (unlikely, given we've now vaccinated the most vulnerable), each of those lives saved would come at the cost of 270 man/years, or 3.5 lifetimes of lockdown misery.
Once you do this calculation, it should make you incredibly angry that the government is dragging its feet so much over releasing lockdown - there is no possibile justification for any restrictions by the end of April (there are barely any hospitalisations under 45, they will have jabbed all the over 50s by then), and a lot of things (e.g. outside meeting) should probably never have been banned, and certainly should be reinstated right now, not in over a month's time.
Whoever writes the Guardian leaders has clearly gone raving bonkers (or perhaps I should say even more raving bonkers). He or she seems to be arguing that it's a dereliction of duty that Boris isn't planning, single-handedly, to wipe Covid-19 off the face of the earth:
The man is a FBPE hashtag in (vaguely) human form.
Gaurdian. It’s the only sensible front page tomorrow.
118 days to Freedom screams the telegraph. How many mentioning at least another 30,000 to die under Bojo route to freedom and triumph.
Some of you guys on here are so politically biased you have lost all sense of being able to reason.
550,000 die in the UK every year.
We just have to get used to a greatly elevated death rate this year, and for a few years coming, but increasingly less bad, as vaccines and treatments improve. Syphilis has revisited humanity, reminding us that we are very mortal, but, also, resourceful.
It is a lesson for our entire species
I suspect that 2022 and 2023 will see deaths below normal levels, as we'll have culled the herd somewhat.
Yes, I agree. The total deaths for 2020-2024 will look very like the total deaths for 2015-2019.
Unlikely, if the average years of life lost due to COVID is around or over 10.
--AS
I'm not convinced that stat is accurate.
Yes the median life expectancy from 80 may be 90 but that's median across the country. Different things vary that.
The median life expectancy for an 80 year old moving into a care home is 81, not 90.
This bug targets comorbidities etc so it's entirely possible that while many have lost 10 years, a great many won't have.
Sir Keir Starmer will call on farmers and people living in rural areas to take a fresh look at the Labour party, vowing to push for new investment in food and farming and a revision of subsidy payments, in an effort to move beyond the party’s urban strongholds.
He will urge people to buy more British food, and for more of the public sector’s £2.4bn food procurement budget to be spent locally, as well as calling for subsidised wages for apprentices to shore up the UK’s ageing farm workforce.
Sir Keir Starmer will call on farmers and people living in rural areas to take a fresh look at the Labour party, vowing to push for new investment in food and farming and a revision of subsidy payments, in an effort to move beyond the party’s urban strongholds.
He will urge people to buy more British food, and for more of the public sector’s £2.4bn food procurement budget to be spent locally, as well as calling for subsidised wages for apprentices to shore up the UK’s ageing farm workforce.
And moved to the head of the queue, right after HM The Queen?
Personally I find Price Charles to be outstanding. After decades of not being a fan.
But we don't have an elected monarchy. We can't pick and choose which Windsor comes next. Personally, I'm a big fan of the queen, I think Charles has improved to 'wouldn't necessarily be the death knell of the monarchy' in recent years, I'm a fan of William and my opinion of Harry has slid from second favourite royal to 'only just better than Prince Andrew'. But my opinion is irrelevant. They will come in whatever order you choose, and if you are a monarchist you have to accept that. (You could take the niche position of arguing for an elected monarchy like medeival Denmark or Poland, I suppose.)
In any case #2, Harry's older brother has so many children that his place in the line of succession is highly likely to remain of theoretical interest only.
I'm no Harry fan, but 'only just better than Prince Andrew' is absolutely brutal.
Nonetheless. This appeal to farmers is interesting. What, exactly, has the Consevative Party done recently for rural areas? Other than weigh their votes? It is a possible mirror image to the Red Wall.
Whoever writes the Guardian leaders has clearly gone raving bonkers (or perhaps I should say even more raving bonkers). He or she seems to be arguing that it's a dereliction of duty that Boris isn't planning, single-handedly, to wipe Covid-19 off the face of the earth:
The man is a FBPE hashtag in (vaguely) human form.
Gaurdian. It’s the only sensible front page tomorrow.
118 days to Freedom screams the telegraph. How many mentioning at least another 30,000 to die under Bojo route to freedom and triumph.
Some of you guys on here are so politically biased you have lost all sense of being able to reason.
Forget the politics.
You should look at the reverse equation too. If a months extra lockdown saved 20k extra lives (unlikely, given we've now vaccinated the most vulnerable), each of those lives saved would come at the cost of 270 man/years, or 3.5 lifetimes of lockdown misery.
Once you do this calculation, it should make you incredibly angry that the government is dragging its feet so much over releasing lockdown - there is no possibile justification for any restrictions by the end of April (there are barely any hospitalisations under 45, they will have jabbed all the over 50s by then), and a lot of things (e.g. outside meeting) should probably never have been banned, and certainly should be reinstated right now, not in over a month's time.
No.
That calculation emphasises that the lives are overwhelmingly worth saving.
Sir Keir Starmer will call on farmers and people living in rural areas to take a fresh look at the Labour party, vowing to push for new investment in food and farming and a revision of subsidy payments, in an effort to move beyond the party’s urban strongholds.
He will urge people to buy more British food, and for more of the public sector’s £2.4bn food procurement budget to be spent locally, as well as calling for subsidised wages for apprentices to shore up the UK’s ageing farm workforce.
Farming is a low wage, low productivity sector that shouldn't be subsidised any more. The government should be encouraging flourishing industries, not ones that already need propping up.
Whoever writes the Guardian leaders has clearly gone raving bonkers (or perhaps I should say even more raving bonkers). He or she seems to be arguing that it's a dereliction of duty that Boris isn't planning, single-handedly, to wipe Covid-19 off the face of the earth:
The man is a FBPE hashtag in (vaguely) human form.
Gaurdian. It’s the only sensible front page tomorrow.
118 days to Freedom screams the telegraph. How many mentioning at least another 30,000 to die under Bojo route to freedom and triumph.
Some of you guys on here are so politically biased you have lost all sense of being able to reason.
Forget the politics.
You should look at the reverse equation too. If a months extra lockdown saved 20k extra lives (unlikely, given we've now vaccinated the most vulnerable), each of those lives saved would come at the cost of 270 man/years, or 3.5 lifetimes of lockdown misery.
Once you do this calculation, it should make you incredibly angry that the government is dragging its feet so much over releasing lockdown - there is no possibile justification for any restrictions by the end of April (there are barely any hospitalisations under 45, they will have jabbed all the over 50s by then), and a lot of things (e.g. outside meeting) should probably never have been banned, and certainly should be reinstated right now, not in over a month's time.
No.
That calculation emphasises that the lives are overwhelmingly worth saving.
What, you'd cheerfully lockdown 3.5 people from birth to death to buy someone probably in their 80s an extra ten years?
I wouldn't opt for a whole life lockdown so I could live ten years longer, never mind if I had to rope in 2.5 other people!
Whoever writes the Guardian leaders has clearly gone raving bonkers (or perhaps I should say even more raving bonkers). He or she seems to be arguing that it's a dereliction of duty that Boris isn't planning, single-handedly, to wipe Covid-19 off the face of the earth:
The man is a FBPE hashtag in (vaguely) human form.
Gaurdian. It’s the only sensible front page tomorrow.
118 days to Freedom screams the telegraph. How many mentioning at least another 30,000 to die under Bojo route to freedom and triumph.
Some of you guys on here are so politically biased you have lost all sense of being able to reason.
Forget the politics.
You should look at the reverse equation too. If a months extra lockdown saved 20k extra lives (unlikely, given we've now vaccinated the most vulnerable), each of those lives saved would come at the cost of 270 man/years, or 3.5 lifetimes of lockdown misery.
Once you do this calculation, it should make you incredibly angry that the government is dragging its feet so much over releasing lockdown - there is no possibile justification for any restrictions by the end of April (there are barely any hospitalisations under 45, they will have jabbed all the over 50s by then), and a lot of things (e.g. outside meeting) should probably never have been banned, and certainly should be reinstated right now, not in over a month's time.
No.
That calculation emphasises that the lives are overwhelmingly worth saving.
What, you'd cheerfully lockdown 3.5 people from birth to death to buy someone probably in their 80s an extra ten years?
I wouldn't opt for a whole life lockdown so I could live ten years longer, never mind if I had to rope in 2.5 other people!
While your point is a good one, it's not only the deaths, you need to include the tens of thousands of people who go into hospital too.
There must be a word to describe the situation where you spend all day doing almost nothing but end up feeling totally exhausted anyway, without having any ordinary illnesses. Probably a lot of people have experienced this during the lockdown.
There must be a word to describe the situation where you spend all day doing almost nothing but end up feeling totally exhausted anyway, without having any ordinary illnesses. Probably a lot of people have experienced this during the lockdown.
Lethargy. Seems quite normal now among peer group. There’s nothing to do, yet at the end of the day you’re still tired. And even if there are things to do, they can always be done another time.
Whoever writes the Guardian leaders has clearly gone raving bonkers (or perhaps I should say even more raving bonkers). He or she seems to be arguing that it's a dereliction of duty that Boris isn't planning, single-handedly, to wipe Covid-19 off the face of the earth:
There's also a really important point that tends to be missed by the "oh my God, mutant strains are going to make CV19 vaccine resistant!" panicers.
The feature that enables the Coronavirus to do so much damage is the spike protein that allows it to bind with ACE2 molecules in our lungs. That is the feature targeted by vaccines. CV19 can evolve (some) resistance to vaccines by mutations in the spike protein. *But* doing so is likely to make the virus less effective at binding to cells in our lungs. Vaccine resistance probably means lower efficiency in harming us.
I agree with one quibble. The spike protein is key to infection, not to pathogenicity. By binding to the ACE2 receptor and being activated by surface polysaccharides, it enables the virus to enter the cell. It is other viral proteins, not the spike protein - and aspects of our own immune system's response to the virus - that cause the morbidity.
So it would be that vaccine resistance is likely to coincide with poorer viral binding to cells (and the ACE2 receptor is present in virtually all human tissues, so infection need not be via the lungs) and hence lower transmissibility, i.e. a lower R0 (all other things being equal)
Whoever writes the Guardian leaders has clearly gone raving bonkers (or perhaps I should say even more raving bonkers). He or she seems to be arguing that it's a dereliction of duty that Boris isn't planning, single-handedly, to wipe Covid-19 off the face of the earth:
There's also a really important point that tends to be missed by the "oh my God, mutant strains are going to make CV19 vaccine resistant!" panicers.
The feature that enables the Coronavirus to do so much damage is the spike protein that allows it to bind with ACE2 molecules in our lungs. That is the feature targeted by vaccines. CV19 can evolve (some) resistance to vaccines by mutations in the spike protein. *But* doing so is likely to make the virus less effective at binding to cells in our lungs. Vaccine resistance probably means lower efficiency in harming us.
I agree with one quibble. The spike protein is key to infection, not to pathogenicity. By binding to the ACE2 receptor and being activated by surface polysaccharides, it enables the virus to enter the cell. It is other viral proteins, not the spike protein - and aspects of our own immune system's response to the virus - that cause the morbidity.
So it would be that vaccine resistance is likely to coincide with poorer viral binding to cells (and the ACE2 receptor is present in virtually all human tissues, so infection need not be via the lungs) and hence lower transmissibility, i.e. a lower R0 (all other things being equal)
Whoever writes the Guardian leaders has clearly gone raving bonkers (or perhaps I should say even more raving bonkers). He or she seems to be arguing that it's a dereliction of duty that Boris isn't planning, single-handedly, to wipe Covid-19 off the face of the earth:
There's also a really important point that tends to be missed by the "oh my God, mutant strains are going to make CV19 vaccine resistant!" panicers.
The feature that enables the Coronavirus to do so much damage is the spike protein that allows it to bind with ACE2 molecules in our lungs. That is the feature targeted by vaccines. CV19 can evolve (some) resistance to vaccines by mutations in the spike protein. *But* doing so is likely to make the virus less effective at binding to cells in our lungs. Vaccine resistance probably means lower efficiency in harming us.
I agree with one quibble. The spike protein is key to infection, not to pathogenicity. By binding to the ACE2 receptor and being activated by surface polysaccharides, it enables the virus to enter the cell. It is other viral proteins, not the spike protein - and aspects of our own immune system's response to the virus - that cause the morbidity.
So it would be that vaccine resistance is likely to coincide with poorer viral binding to cells (and the ACE2 receptor is present in virtually all human tissues, so infection need not be via the lungs) and hence lower transmissibility, i.e. a lower R0 (all other things being equal)
Damn, and I was totally just going to say the same thing but have had my thunder stolen.
There must be a word to describe the situation where you spend all day doing almost nothing but end up feeling totally exhausted anyway, without having any ordinary illnesses. Probably a lot of people have experienced this during the lockdown.
For many, it also seems to be coupled with poor quality, fractured sleep.
Sir Keir Starmer will call on farmers and people living in rural areas to take a fresh look at the Labour party, vowing to push for new investment in food and farming and a revision of subsidy payments, in an effort to move beyond the party’s urban strongholds.
He will urge people to buy more British food, and for more of the public sector’s £2.4bn food procurement budget to be spent locally, as well as calling for subsidised wages for apprentices to shore up the UK’s ageing farm workforce.
I'm not sure Boris's barnet can hold out until April.
I'm sure he could have had Carrie cut it, but it was probably a decision to keep in step with everyone else (except footballers, obvs).
I thought he seemed much brighter today. Either finally recovering from Covid, or just happy not to have permanent bad news.
Boris was impressive. He handled it well and didn’t jump back at the couple of journalists who were spoiling for a fight. Sam Coates of Sky News has been in a belligerent mood for weeks.
I too thought it significant that they picked up Hancock’s comments from last week that we’ll just have to live with this like the flu virus. It wasn’t that major as the idea has been floating for some time but good to see it acknowledged at the highest level.
My only complaint about the whole thing is that many of today’s papers have printed the dates as if they are set in stone. They are NOT. They are the earliest dates by which those things may re-open and it will be driven by data. Data not dates was repeated several times. Our press are so irresponsible sometimes.
I'm not sure Boris's barnet can hold out until April.
I'm sure he could have had Carrie cut it, but it was probably a decision to keep in step with everyone else (except footballers, obvs).
I thought he seemed much brighter today. Either finally recovering from Covid, or just happy not to have permanent bad news.
Boris was impressive. He handled it well and didn’t jump back at the couple of journalists who were spoiling for a fight. Sam Coates of Sky News has been in a belligerent mood for weeks.
I too thought it significant that they picked up Hancock’s comments from last week that we’ll just have to live with this like the flu virus. It wasn’t that major as the idea has been floating for some time but good to see it acknowledged at the highest level.
My only complaint about the whole thing is that many of today’s papers have printed the dates as if they are set in stone. They are NOT. They are the earliest dates by which those things may re-open and it will be driven by data. Data not dates was repeated several times. Our press are so irresponsible sometimes.
They may not be set in stone; but those dates are predicated on worst-case scenarios going forward, not best. In short, we are going to have to see something utterly unexpected not to meet them.
But leave even the slightest opening for those same belligerent journos to go on about earlier openings - and it is all they will ever talk about.
Maybe we will see some of the 5 week breaks between changes become 4. But even that would lead to questions like "Were the scientists wrong to say they needed five weeks of data to assess the impact? Or are they still right and you are the one taking risks with our lives? Which is it, Prime Minister?" So unless the results are massively ahead of their base case on the good news stakes, I don't expect changes to the timetable. I certainly don't see them making any changes until we are other side of Easter at least.
The polling is solidly enough behind him that the PM doesn't need to take risks with ANY level of tinkering. The only thing that blows us off course is if a new variant rips through schools and starts badly affecting the young. Pray that doesn't happen.
Whoever writes the Guardian leaders has clearly gone raving bonkers (or perhaps I should say even more raving bonkers). He or she seems to be arguing that it's a dereliction of duty that Boris isn't planning, single-handedly, to wipe Covid-19 off the face of the earth:
The man is a FBPE hashtag in (vaguely) human form.
Gaurdian. It’s the only sensible front page tomorrow.
118 days to Freedom screams the telegraph. How many mentioning at least another 30,000 to die under Bojo route to freedom and triumph.
Some of you guys on here are so politically biased you have lost all sense of being able to reason.
550,000 die in the UK every year.
We just have to get used to a greatly elevated death rate this year, and for a few years coming, but increasingly less bad, as vaccines and treatments improve. Syphilis has revisited humanity, reminding us that we are very mortal, but, also, resourceful.
It is a lesson for our entire species
I suspect that 2022 and 2023 will see deaths below normal levels, as we'll have culled the herd somewhat.
Yes, I agree. The total deaths for 2020-2024 will look very like the total deaths for 2015-2019.
Unlikely, if the average years of life lost due to COVID is around or over 10.
--AS
I'm not convinced that stat is accurate.
Yes the median life expectancy from 80 may be 90 but that's median across the country. Different things vary that.
The median life expectancy for an 80 year old moving into a care home is 81, not 90.
This bug targets comorbidities etc so it's entirely possible that while many have lost 10 years, a great many won't have.
It's a well-evidenced statistic, taking comorbidity into account. It's been established by several different researchers in several different countries (and is often more like 12-15 years in other places). I believe there's a Lancet article for the UK but I'm too bleary-eyed to find it just now.
It's true that many won't have lost 10 years, of course, that's merely an average.
Whoever writes the Guardian leaders has clearly gone raving bonkers (or perhaps I should say even more raving bonkers). He or she seems to be arguing that it's a dereliction of duty that Boris isn't planning, single-handedly, to wipe Covid-19 off the face of the earth:
The man is a FBPE hashtag in (vaguely) human form.
Gaurdian. It’s the only sensible front page tomorrow.
118 days to Freedom screams the telegraph. How many mentioning at least another 30,000 to die under Bojo route to freedom and triumph.
Some of you guys on here are so politically biased you have lost all sense of being able to reason.
550,000 die in the UK every year.
We just have to get used to a greatly elevated death rate this year, and for a few years coming, but increasingly less bad, as vaccines and treatments improve. Syphilis has revisited humanity, reminding us that we are very mortal, but, also, resourceful.
It is a lesson for our entire species
I suspect that 2022 and 2023 will see deaths below normal levels, as we'll have culled the herd somewhat.
Yes, I agree. The total deaths for 2020-2024 will look very like the total deaths for 2015-2019.
Unlikely, if the average years of life lost due to COVID is around or over 10.
--AS
Yes, the excess deaths in 2020/21 will be sufficient to make sure that for the five year period deaths will be well ahead of 2015-2019.
That being said... I'd still expect deaths to be below the 2015-2019 baseline for next year and 2023.
Yes, I'd also expect that, unless COVID has more long-term consequences than we realise. There's also the possibility that undiagnosed cancers etc, due to hospital unavailability during the acute pandemic, start to show up in future years: let's hope those numbers aren't too high.
Whoever writes the Guardian leaders has clearly gone raving bonkers (or perhaps I should say even more raving bonkers). He or she seems to be arguing that it's a dereliction of duty that Boris isn't planning, single-handedly, to wipe Covid-19 off the face of the earth:
The man is a FBPE hashtag in (vaguely) human form.
Gaurdian. It’s the only sensible front page tomorrow.
118 days to Freedom screams the telegraph. How many mentioning at least another 30,000 to die under Bojo route to freedom and triumph.
Some of you guys on here are so politically biased you have lost all sense of being able to reason.
550,000 die in the UK every year.
We just have to get used to a greatly elevated death rate this year, and for a few years coming, but increasingly less bad, as vaccines and treatments improve. Syphilis has revisited humanity, reminding us that we are very mortal, but, also, resourceful.
It is a lesson for our entire species
I suspect that 2022 and 2023 will see deaths below normal levels, as we'll have culled the herd somewhat.
Yes, I agree. The total deaths for 2020-2024 will look very like the total deaths for 2015-2019.
Unlikely, if the average years of life lost due to COVID is around or over 10.
--AS
I'm not convinced that stat is accurate.
Yes the median life expectancy from 80 may be 90 but that's median across the country. Different things vary that.
The median life expectancy for an 80 year old moving into a care home is 81, not 90.
This bug targets comorbidities etc so it's entirely possible that while many have lost 10 years, a great many won't have.
It's a well-evidenced statistic, taking comorbidity into account. It's been established by several different researchers in several different countries (and is often more like 12-15 years in other places). I believe there's a Lancet article for the UK but I'm too bleary-eyed to find it just now.
It's true that many won't have lost 10 years, of course, that's merely an average.
--AS
I'd be curious to see a citation for that. Because a fifth of all deaths are from care homes and the median for care homes is to die within a year of entry.
I've seen that stat repeatedly bandied about taking age into account, not comorbidities.
Whoever writes the Guardian leaders has clearly gone raving bonkers (or perhaps I should say even more raving bonkers). He or she seems to be arguing that it's a dereliction of duty that Boris isn't planning, single-handedly, to wipe Covid-19 off the face of the earth:
The man is a FBPE hashtag in (vaguely) human form.
Gaurdian. It’s the only sensible front page tomorrow.
118 days to Freedom screams the telegraph. How many mentioning at least another 30,000 to die under Bojo route to freedom and triumph.
Some of you guys on here are so politically biased you have lost all sense of being able to reason.
550,000 die in the UK every year.
We just have to get used to a greatly elevated death rate this year, and for a few years coming, but increasingly less bad, as vaccines and treatments improve. Syphilis has revisited humanity, reminding us that we are very mortal, but, also, resourceful.
It is a lesson for our entire species
I suspect that 2022 and 2023 will see deaths below normal levels, as we'll have culled the herd somewhat.
You might have put that more scientifically? An excess over an inexorable trend today is inevitably a deficit tomorrow.
Whoever writes the Guardian leaders has clearly gone raving bonkers (or perhaps I should say even more raving bonkers). He or she seems to be arguing that it's a dereliction of duty that Boris isn't planning, single-handedly, to wipe Covid-19 off the face of the earth:
The man is a FBPE hashtag in (vaguely) human form.
Gaurdian. It’s the only sensible front page tomorrow.
118 days to Freedom screams the telegraph. How many mentioning at least another 30,000 to die under Bojo route to freedom and triumph.
Some of you guys on here are so politically biased you have lost all sense of being able to reason.
550,000 die in the UK every year.
We just have to get used to a greatly elevated death rate this year, and for a few years coming, but increasingly less bad, as vaccines and treatments improve. Syphilis has revisited humanity, reminding us that we are very mortal, but, also, resourceful.
It is a lesson for our entire species
The guy rolling a rock up a hill?
That's what I feel like when I try and race others on Zwift up the virtual mountains. I am convinced somebody has attached a big boulder to the back of my bike.
Whoever writes the Guardian leaders has clearly gone raving bonkers (or perhaps I should say even more raving bonkers). He or she seems to be arguing that it's a dereliction of duty that Boris isn't planning, single-handedly, to wipe Covid-19 off the face of the earth:
The man is a FBPE hashtag in (vaguely) human form.
Gaurdian. It’s the only sensible front page tomorrow.
118 days to Freedom screams the telegraph. How many mentioning at least another 30,000 to die under Bojo route to freedom and triumph.
Some of you guys on here are so politically biased you have lost all sense of being able to reason.
550,000 die in the UK every year.
We just have to get used to a greatly elevated death rate this year, and for a few years coming, but increasingly less bad, as vaccines and treatments improve. Syphilis has revisited humanity, reminding us that we are very mortal, but, also, resourceful.
It is a lesson for our entire species
The guy rolling a rock up a hill?
That's what I feel like when I try and race others on Zwift up the virtual mountains. I am convinced somebody has attached a big boulder to the back of my bike.
I'm not sure Boris's barnet can hold out until April.
I'm sure he could have had Carrie cut it, but it was probably a decision to keep in step with everyone else (except footballers, obvs).
I thought he seemed much brighter today. Either finally recovering from Covid, or just happy not to have permanent bad news.
Boris was impressive. He handled it well and didn’t jump back at the couple of journalists who were spoiling for a fight. Sam Coates of Sky News has been in a belligerent mood for weeks.
I too thought it significant that they picked up Hancock’s comments from last week that we’ll just have to live with this like the flu virus. It wasn’t that major as the idea has been floating for some time but good to see it acknowledged at the highest level.
My only complaint about the whole thing is that many of today’s papers have printed the dates as if they are set in stone. They are NOT. They are the earliest dates by which those things may re-open and it will be driven by data. Data not dates was repeated several times. Our press are so irresponsible sometimes.
Nonsense. Politicians know very well that if they announce a timetable with dates, they can add whatever words they like, people are going to expect those things to happen on those dates. The press is just reporting it as it is.
And moved to the head of the queue, right after HM The Queen?
Personally I find Price Charles to be outstanding. After decades of not being a fan.
But we don't have an elected monarchy. We can't pick and choose which Windsor comes next. Personally, I'm a big fan of the queen, I think Charles has improved to 'wouldn't necessarily be the death knell of the monarchy' in recent years, I'm a fan of William and my opinion of Harry has slid from second favourite royal to 'only just better than Prince Andrew'. But my opinion is irrelevant. They will come in whatever order you choose, and if you are a monarchist you have to accept that. (You could take the niche position of arguing for an elected monarchy like medeival Denmark or Poland, I suppose.)
In any case #2, Harry's older brother has so many children that his place in the line of succession is highly likely to remain of theoretical interest only.
I'm no Harry fan, but 'only just better than Prince Andrew' is absolutely brutal.
The stats in the header show people like the idea of relaxing stated measures but less so on the general idea of relaxing "lockdown". Shows how effective the brainwashing of the population was I suppose in engineering a concept of "lockdown" as being a good thing. Caveat of course that these and other lockdown surveys are done with no bias to get a certain answer ( I have my doubts) . Anyway PT on here absolutely right to challenge the absurd claim that covid victims would have ten more years of life on average, Care home residents survive in normal circumstances no more than about a year ,and that year is the worst year of their life in terms of quality and loneliness . The whole country needs to get back to normal a lot quicker than the roadmap yesterday and judging my observations people are ignoring the OTT fetish laws about not sitting on benches etc in parks which is a good start
Whoever writes the Guardian leaders has clearly gone raving bonkers (or perhaps I should say even more raving bonkers). He or she seems to be arguing that it's a dereliction of duty that Boris isn't planning, single-handedly, to wipe Covid-19 off the face of the earth:
The man is a FBPE hashtag in (vaguely) human form.
Gaurdian. It’s the only sensible front page tomorrow.
118 days to Freedom screams the telegraph. How many mentioning at least another 30,000 to die under Bojo route to freedom and triumph.
Some of you guys on here are so politically biased you have lost all sense of being able to reason.
The lack of self-awareness here is extraordinary and quite frightening.
I am very critical of the Telegraph and Mail headline writers (said so earlier) but that doesn’t give you permission to blame the PM for 30,000 deaths nor to tar everyone with the brush of political bias.
The bitterness and bile from a few presumably Labour supporters on here is remarkable.
I think we all acknowledge that there have been some big mistakes in the way the UK handled this pandemic early on. But that we’re now one of the most successful countries on the planet with our vaccine rollout.
Sir Keir Starmer will call on farmers and people living in rural areas to take a fresh look at the Labour party, vowing to push for new investment in food and farming and a revision of subsidy payments, in an effort to move beyond the party’s urban strongholds.
He will urge people to buy more British food, and for more of the public sector’s £2.4bn food procurement budget to be spent locally, as well as calling for subsidised wages for apprentices to shore up the UK’s ageing farm workforce.
The bitterness and bile from a few presumably Labour supporters on here is remarkable.
I think we all acknowledge that there have been some big mistakes in the way the UK handled this pandemic early on. But that we’re now one of the most successful countries on the planet with our vaccine rollout.
Will lefties never be happy with British success?
Let's judge relative success at the end. We have a few months' advantage, to pitch against the relative handicap of our climate.
The bitterness and bile from a few presumably Labour supporters on here is remarkable.
I think we all acknowledge that there have been some big mistakes in the way the UK handled this pandemic early on. But that we’re now one of the most successful countries on the planet with our vaccine rollout.
Will lefties never be happy with British success?
Of course we are. It would appear that among the few things the Govt has done right in this was to appoint someone to take charge who knew what they were talking about and leave them to get on with it. A second, of course, was to leave the NHS to run the vaccination programme, and not interfere..
The bitterness and bile from a few presumably Labour supporters on here is remarkable.
I think we all acknowledge that there have been some big mistakes in the way the UK handled this pandemic early on. But that we’re now one of the most successful countries on the planet with our vaccine rollout.
Will lefties never be happy with British success?
Of course we are. It would appear that among the few things the Govt has done right in this was to appoint someone to take charge who knew what they were talking about and leave them to get on with it. A second, of course, was to leave the NHS to run the vaccination programme, and not interfere..
It will be interesting to see what happens to the NHS after this. I expect any lingering “let’s just privatise everything” tendency left in the Conservative party to be buried deep. There have been indications that the internal market is on the way out. Could the Tories finally shoot Labour’s fox on this, making it impossible for them to campaign on the idea that the NHS is only safe in their hands, or will they blow the opportunity?
£350 million a week for the NHS has a nice ring to it...
The bitterness and bile from a few presumably Labour supporters on here is remarkable.
I think we all acknowledge that there have been some big mistakes in the way the UK handled this pandemic early on. But that we’re now one of the most successful countries on the planet with our vaccine rollout.
Will lefties never be happy with British success?
Of course we are. It would appear that among the few things the Govt has done right in this was to appoint someone to take charge who knew what they were talking about and leave them to get on with it. A second, of course, was to leave the NHS to run the vaccination programme, and not interfere..
It will be interesting to see what happens to the NHS after this. I expect any lingering “let’s just privatise everything” tendency left in the Conservative party to be buried deep. There have been indications that the internal market is on the way out. Could the Tories finally shoot Labour’s fox on this, making it impossible for them to campaign on the idea that the NHS is only safe in their hands, or will they blow the opportunity?
£350 million a week for the NHS has a nice ring to it...
Hancocks reforms abolish competitive tendering, but not privatisation. Perhaps just a cover so his mate from the pub can be given a contract running orthopedics...
The stats in the header show people like the idea of relaxing stated measures but less so on the general idea of relaxing "lockdown". Shows how effective the brainwashing of the population was I suppose in engineering a concept of "lockdown" as being a good thing. Caveat of course that these and other lockdown surveys are done with no bias to get a certain answer ( I have my doubts) . Anyway PT on here absolutely right to challenge the absurd claim that covid victims would have ten more years of life on average, Care home residents survive in normal circumstances no more than about a year ,and that year is the worst year of their life in terms of quality and loneliness . The whole country needs to get back to normal a lot quicker than the roadmap yesterday and judging my observations people are ignoring the OTT fetish laws about not sitting on benches etc in parks which is a good start
It certainly has more in it for families than me. My running club isn't going to be able to meet until 29 March, I'll be able to meet someone outside socially from the 8th but I can meet someone for a walk or a run anyway. Six people in a garden from Easter but I don't normally socialise with people at home. So I suspect I'm being locked up for a few extra weeks so their kids can go back to school. (And that may well be the right decision). If we can meet up under the Rule of 6 at Easter I don't see why we can't do that in a pub garden.
The bitterness and bile from a few presumably Labour supporters on here is remarkable.
I think we all acknowledge that there have been some big mistakes in the way the UK handled this pandemic early on. But that we’re now one of the most successful countries on the planet with our vaccine rollout.
Will lefties never be happy with British success?
Of course we are. It would appear that among the few things the Govt has done right in this was to appoint someone to take charge who knew what they were talking about and leave them to get on with it. A second, of course, was to leave the NHS to run the vaccination programme, and not interfere..
It will be interesting to see what happens to the NHS after this. I expect any lingering “let’s just privatise everything” tendency left in the Conservative party to be buried deep. There have been indications that the internal market is on the way out. Could the Tories finally shoot Labour’s fox on this, making it impossible for them to campaign on the idea that the NHS is only safe in their hands, or will they blow the opportunity?
£350 million a week for the NHS has a nice ring to it...
Hancocks reforms abolish competitive tendering, but not privatisation. Perhaps just a cover so his mate from the pub can be given a contract running orthopedics...
In this context does “privatisation” mean sell off something that was run by the public sector, or keep something in the private sector that was already there?
On Starmer and farming, I cannot see him winning in truly rural areas, but it may well work in liminal areas. Remember that he comes from one such area himself, donkey sanctuary and all.
I think the flaw though is that there is little agricultural employment in such areas, and a lot of that is migrant labour, so fishing for votes in a very small pond.
He needs to think more Worcester Woman, the issues in rural areas and smaller urban areas are not just about farming.
Strikes me the major news of the day just isn't being highlighted by the media.
The PM has said there will be no zero covid strategy, the disease will be endemic and we will need to live with as we do with flu.
This is a massive development. And very welcome imho. We can finally put out to grass any ideas about keeping lockdown going for months and months in a pointless attempt to get case numbers down towards zero.
Seems to me that this is much more important development than the precise date on which the pub gardens will be open.
I read a sobering article that there have been serious pandemics roughly every three or four years over the last two decades (SARS, MERS, Swine Flu, Zika, Ebola - we have of course been living with AIDS for 40 years now) so the warning signs were there even before this kicked off. It would be niave to think this is the last one. Save maybe for swine flu this was the first beginning in the 21st century that could be described as being truly global and it would be niave to thing it is going to be the last.
Strikes me the major news of the day just isn't being highlighted by the media.
The PM has said there will be no zero covid strategy, the disease will be endemic and we will need to live with as we do with flu.
This is a massive development. And very welcome imho. We can finally put out to grass any ideas about keeping lockdown going for months and months in a pointless attempt to get case numbers down towards zero.
Seems to me that this is much more important development than the precise date on which the pub gardens will be open.
Yes, my Trust is making plans for a permanent expansion of infectious disease ICU and respiratory wards. I think that realistic.
I read a sobering article that there have been serious pandemics roughly every three or four years over the last two decades (SARS, MERS, Swine Flu, Zika, Ebola - we have of course been living with AIDS for 40 years now) so the warning signs were there even before this kicked off. It would be niave to think this is the last one. Save maybe for swine flu this was the first beginning in the 21st century that could be described as being truly global and it would be niave to thing it is going to be the last.
Which is why the extent of obsession about it and the OTT measures taken this year is worrying given why would anyone invest in any business that is going to be shut down by government order every few years? The key is to build the NHS capacity and forget lockdowns because nobody is going to invest in business or indeed (more tragically even) in themselves
The bitterness and bile from a few presumably Labour supporters on here is remarkable.
I think we all acknowledge that there have been some big mistakes in the way the UK handled this pandemic early on. But that we’re now one of the most successful countries on the planet with our vaccine rollout.
Will lefties never be happy with British success?
Of course we are. It would appear that among the few things the Govt has done right in this was to appoint someone to take charge who knew what they were talking about and leave them to get on with it. A second, of course, was to leave the NHS to run the vaccination programme, and not interfere..
It will be interesting to see what happens to the NHS after this. I expect any lingering “let’s just privatise everything” tendency left in the Conservative party to be buried deep. There have been indications that the internal market is on the way out. Could the Tories finally shoot Labour’s fox on this, making it impossible for them to campaign on the idea that the NHS is only safe in their hands, or will they blow the opportunity?
£350 million a week for the NHS has a nice ring to it...
Hancocks reforms abolish competitive tendering, but not privatisation. Perhaps just a cover so his mate from the pub can be given a contract running orthopedics...
In this context does “privatisation” mean sell off something that was run by the public sector, or keep something in the private sector that was already there?
I don't think we know yet, but effectively Private Hospitals have been bailed out by generous NHS contracts in the last year. I see that as a likely pattern.
If giving out contracts, I cannot see ending competitive tendering as progress. It does bring scrutiny, and questions over value.
It amazes me that you get articles in the glossies all of the time saying things like "Queen decides to hand crown to William" when any rudimentary knowledge of the law would tell you it's not in her gift.
The bitterness and bile from a few presumably Labour supporters on here is remarkable.
I think we all acknowledge that there have been some big mistakes in the way the UK handled this pandemic early on. But that we’re now one of the most successful countries on the planet with our vaccine rollout.
Will lefties never be happy with British success?
Of course we are. It would appear that among the few things the Govt has done right in this was to appoint someone to take charge who knew what they were talking about and leave them to get on with it. A second, of course, was to leave the NHS to run the vaccination programme, and not interfere..
It will be interesting to see what happens to the NHS after this. I expect any lingering “let’s just privatise everything” tendency left in the Conservative party to be buried deep. There have been indications that the internal market is on the way out. Could the Tories finally shoot Labour’s fox on this, making it impossible for them to campaign on the idea that the NHS is only safe in their hands, or will they blow the opportunity?
£350 million a week for the NHS has a nice ring to it...
Hancocks reforms abolish competitive tendering, but not privatisation. Perhaps just a cover so his mate from the pub can be given a contract running orthopedics...
In this context does “privatisation” mean sell off something that was run by the public sector, or keep something in the private sector that was already there?
I don't think we know yet, but effectively Private Hospitals have been bailed out by generous NHS contracts in the last year. I see that as a likely pattern.
If giving out contracts, I cannot see ending competitive tendering as progress. It does bring scrutiny, and questions over value.
I had a cystoscopy earlier this month at a nearby private hospital, rather than the local one I usually go to. Nicer facilities, but I could have done without the bonus infection...
The stats in the header show people like the idea of relaxing stated measures but less so on the general idea of relaxing "lockdown". Shows how effective the brainwashing of the population was I suppose in engineering a concept of "lockdown" as being a good thing. Caveat of course that these and other lockdown surveys are done with no bias to get a certain answer ( I have my doubts) . Anyway PT on here absolutely right to challenge the absurd claim that covid victims would have ten more years of life on average, Care home residents survive in normal circumstances no more than about a year ,and that year is the worst year of their life in terms of quality and loneliness . The whole country needs to get back to normal a lot quicker than the roadmap yesterday and judging my observations people are ignoring the OTT fetish laws about not sitting on benches etc in parks which is a good start
It certainly has more in it for families than me. My running club isn't going to be able to meet until 29 March, I'll be able to meet someone outside socially from the 8th but I can meet someone for a walk or a run anyway. Six people in a garden from Easter but I don't normally socialise with people at home. So I suspect I'm being locked up for a few extra weeks so their kids can go back to school. (And that may well be the right decision). If we can meet up under the Rule of 6 at Easter I don't see why we can't do that in a pub garden.
Yes there seems to be a bit of puritanical nannying built into this as well .
On Starmer and farming, I cannot see him winning in truly rural areas, but it may well work in liminal areas. Remember that he comes from one such area himself, donkey sanctuary and all.
I think the flaw though is that there is little agricultural employment in such areas, and a lot of that is migrant labour, so fishing for votes in a very small pond.
He needs to think more Worcester Woman, the issues in rural areas and smaller urban areas are not just about farming.
This is bang on.
I live in Dorset. There simply isn't the level of rural employment that there used to be; or rather, not in the farming industry.
I read a sobering article that there have been serious pandemics roughly every three or four years over the last two decades (SARS, MERS, Swine Flu, Zika, Ebola - we have of course been living with AIDS for 40 years now) so the warning signs were there even before this kicked off..
It's not going to change while we have an obsession with eating partially charred bits of chopped up animal.
The stats in the header show people like the idea of relaxing stated measures but less so on the general idea of relaxing "lockdown". Shows how effective the brainwashing of the population was I suppose in engineering a concept of "lockdown" as being a good thing. Caveat of course that these and other lockdown surveys are done with no bias to get a certain answer ( I have my doubts) . Anyway PT on here absolutely right to challenge the absurd claim that covid victims would have ten more years of life on average, Care home residents survive in normal circumstances no more than about a year ,and that year is the worst year of their life in terms of quality and loneliness . The whole country needs to get back to normal a lot quicker than the roadmap yesterday and judging my observations people are ignoring the OTT fetish laws about not sitting on benches etc in parks which is a good start
It certainly has more in it for families than me. My running club isn't going to be able to meet until 29 March, I'll be able to meet someone outside socially from the 8th but I can meet someone for a walk or a run anyway. Six people in a garden from Easter but I don't normally socialise with people at home. So I suspect I'm being locked up for a few extra weeks so their kids can go back to school. (And that may well be the right decision). If we can meet up under the Rule of 6 at Easter I don't see why we can't do that in a pub garden.
Similar for me.
But the 'large events' in May should get our book fairs back running. Which is excellent. They're linked to around 1/5 of my business, and about 4/5 of my joy in working life; cannot wait to get back to those!
I read a sobering article that there have been serious pandemics roughly every three or four years over the last two decades (SARS, MERS, Swine Flu, Zika, Ebola - we have of course been living with AIDS for 40 years now) so the warning signs were there even before this kicked off..
It's not going to change while we have an obsession with eating partially charred bits of chopped up animal.
Much as I would like to be able to I can't really argue with that.
I read a sobering article that there have been serious pandemics roughly every three or four years over the last two decades (SARS, MERS, Swine Flu, Zika, Ebola - we have of course been living with AIDS for 40 years now) so the warning signs were there even before this kicked off..
It's not going to change while we have an obsession with eating partially charred bits of chopped up animal.
Indeed. Until we learn to cook them thoroughly, there will always be risks.
It amazes me that you get articles in the glossies all of the time saying things like "Queen decides to hand crown to William" when any rudimentary knowledge of the law would tell you it's not in her gift.
1) I don't read the glossies; and 2) I would be amazed if they ever printed that; because 3) you are right she can't.
I read a sobering article that there have been serious pandemics roughly every three or four years over the last two decades (SARS, MERS, Swine Flu, Zika, Ebola - we have of course been living with AIDS for 40 years now) so the warning signs were there even before this kicked off..
It's not going to change while we have an obsession with eating partially charred bits of chopped up animal.
Much as I would like to be able to I can't really argue with that.
I can.
"Charring meat" is safe, not a single one of those pandemics came from domestic meat consumption.
I read a sobering article that there have been serious pandemics roughly every three or four years over the last two decades (SARS, MERS, Swine Flu, Zika, Ebola - we have of course been living with AIDS for 40 years now) so the warning signs were there even before this kicked off..
It's not going to change while we have an obsession with eating partially charred bits of chopped up animal.
Much as I would like to be able to I can't really argue with that.
Not hard to argue with.
@Dura_Ace taking an edge case and pretending that it is all like that.
I read a sobering article that there have been serious pandemics roughly every three or four years over the last two decades (SARS, MERS, Swine Flu, Zika, Ebola - we have of course been living with AIDS for 40 years now) so the warning signs were there even before this kicked off..
It's not going to change while we have an obsession with eating partially charred bits of chopped up animal.
Yes: making sure meat is properly cooked is very important.
Comments
Just Photoshop a pair of pink tinted sunglasses and a gold lame tracksuit. It might jog your memory, and then make you feel quite sick.
Head shaved or hair dyed for a successful 2024.
Sooo, you think we aren't unlocking fast enough, but also the PM is not being cautious enough, such that he would be personally responsible for any future lockdown.
I am not sure how you deal with that Schrödinger's Cat level genius.
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/02/22/politics/thomas-dissent-in-pa-election/index.html
"An election free from strong evidence of systemic fraud is not alone sufficient for election confidence"
There's also a really important point that tends to be missed by the "oh my God, mutant strains are going to make CV19 vaccine resistant!" panicers.
The feature that enables the Coronavirus to do so much damage is the spike protein that allows it to bind with ACE2 molecules in our lungs. That is the feature targeted by vaccines. CV19 can evolve (some) resistance to vaccines by mutations in the spike protein. *But* doing so is likely to make the virus less effective at binding to cells in our lungs. Vaccine resistance probably means lower efficiency in harming us.
118 days to Freedom screams the telegraph. How many mentioning at least another 30,000 to die under Bojo route to freedom and triumph.
Some of you guys on here are so politically biased you have lost all sense of being able to reason.
There is much uncertainty about scenarios like this - for one thing it did not take into account any seasonal impact that the warmer weather could bring by reducing spread of the virus.
The gradual lifting could, by comparison, may reduce that to around 30,000. That would bring it in line with the sort of deaths we could see during a bad flu winter.
UK chief medical adviser Prof Chris Whitty says that should be the context in which we judge Covid now.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-56158405
We just have to get used to a greatly elevated death rate this year, and for a few years coming, but increasingly less bad, as vaccines and treatments improve. Syphilis has revisited humanity, reminding us that we are very mortal, but, also, resourceful.
It is a lesson for our entire species
But must say am very pleased with today. It's a fine needle to thread and I reckon they managed it.
9/10 for today.
Any further reckoning is for another day.
It has felt like that at times. For everyone I'm sure.
Today it feels more like rolling a huge rock on slightly flatter terrain.
He will urge people to buy more British food, and for more of the public sector’s £2.4bn food procurement budget to be spent locally, as well as calling for subsidised wages for apprentices to shore up the UK’s ageing farm workforce.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/feb/22/keir-starmer-to-push-for-investment-in-uk-food-and-farming
He looks lost in that photo.
FWIW I noted the other day that I haven’t had a cold in a year. Normally I get 2-4 a year (which is average), I am pretty sure this is down to obsessive hand washing, distancing, etc
So, yes, death rates from flu and its friends might fall, for several years, and the available victims will be fewer, even as Covid continues. Who knows how that data will play out
--AS
No idea how a university drop-out burger flipper got a prime job at the Guardian. It isn't exactly how one gets on the graduate scheme. I am sure her famous family had nothing to do with it.
https://twitter.com/KebabAwards/status/1363895217456369668
The Guardian still feels this way, evidently.
That being said... I'd still expect deaths to be below the 2015-2019 baseline for next year and 2023.
Personally, I'm a big fan of the queen, I think Charles has improved to 'wouldn't necessarily be the death knell of the monarchy' in recent years, I'm a fan of William and my opinion of Harry has slid from second favourite royal to 'only just better than Prince Andrew'. But my opinion is irrelevant. They will come in whatever order you choose, and if you are a monarchist you have to accept that. (You could take the niche position of arguing for an elected monarchy like medeival Denmark or Poland, I suppose.)
In any case #2, Harry's older brother has so many children that his place in the line of succession is highly likely to remain of theoretical interest only.
You should look at the reverse equation too. If a months extra lockdown saved 20k extra lives (unlikely, given we've now vaccinated the most vulnerable), each of those lives saved would come at the cost of 270 man/years, or 3.5 lifetimes of lockdown misery.
Once you do this calculation, it should make you incredibly angry that the government is dragging its feet so much over releasing lockdown - there is no possibile justification for any restrictions by the end of April (there are barely any hospitalisations under 45, they will have jabbed all the over 50s by then), and a lot of things (e.g. outside meeting) should probably never have been banned, and certainly should be reinstated right now, not in over a month's time.
Yes the median life expectancy from 80 may be 90 but that's median across the country. Different things vary that.
The median life expectancy for an 80 year old moving into a care home is 81, not 90.
This bug targets comorbidities etc so it's entirely possible that while many have lost 10 years, a great many won't have.
No he didn't. Surely?
It is a possible mirror image to the Red Wall.
That calculation emphasises that the lives are overwhelmingly worth saving.
I wouldn't opt for a whole life lockdown so I could live ten years longer, never mind if I had to rope in 2.5 other people!
University of Oxford finds only two countries had more stringent lockdowns than the UK
(£)
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/02/22/britains-covid-response-ranked-one-toughest-world/
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-56163220
So it would be that vaccine resistance is likely to coincide with poorer viral binding to cells (and the ACE2 receptor is present in virtually all human tissues, so infection need not be via the lungs) and hence lower transmissibility, i.e. a lower R0 (all other things being equal)
*titter*
Don't want to go taking the knee in that field. Not unless you want it covered in bullshit....
I too thought it significant that they picked up Hancock’s comments from last week that we’ll just have to live with this like the flu virus. It wasn’t that major as the idea has been floating for some time but good to see it acknowledged at the highest level.
My only complaint about the whole thing is that many of today’s papers have printed the dates as if they are set in stone. They are NOT. They are the earliest dates by which those things may re-open and it will be driven by data. Data not dates was repeated several times. Our press are so irresponsible sometimes.
But leave even the slightest opening for those same belligerent journos to go on about earlier openings - and it is all they will ever talk about.
Maybe we will see some of the 5 week breaks between changes become 4. But even that would lead to questions like "Were the scientists wrong to say they needed five weeks of data to assess the impact? Or are they still right and you are the one taking risks with our lives? Which is it, Prime Minister?" So unless the results are massively ahead of their base case on the good news stakes, I don't expect changes to the timetable. I certainly don't see them making any changes until we are other side of Easter at least.
The polling is solidly enough behind him that the PM doesn't need to take risks with ANY level of tinkering. The only thing that blows us off course is if a new variant rips through schools and starts badly affecting the young. Pray that doesn't happen.
It's true that many won't have lost 10 years, of course, that's merely an average.
--AS
--AS
I've seen that stat repeatedly bandied about taking age into account, not comorbidities.
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2021/feb/23/facebook-reverses-australia-news-ban-after-government-makes-media-code-amendments
UK unemployment rate rises to 5.1%
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-56165929
I am very critical of the Telegraph and Mail headline writers (said so earlier) but that doesn’t give you permission to blame the PM for 30,000 deaths nor to tar everyone with the brush of political bias.
I think we all acknowledge that there have been some big mistakes in the way the UK handled this pandemic early on. But that we’re now one of the most successful countries on the planet with our vaccine rollout.
Will lefties never be happy with British success?
A second, of course, was to leave the NHS to run the vaccination programme, and not interfere..
£350 million a week for the NHS has a nice ring to it...
I think the flaw though is that there is little agricultural employment in such areas, and a lot of that is migrant labour, so fishing for votes in a very small pond.
He needs to think more Worcester Woman, the issues in rural areas and smaller urban areas are not just about farming.
I read a sobering article that there have been serious pandemics roughly every three or four years over the last two decades (SARS, MERS, Swine Flu, Zika, Ebola - we have of course been living with AIDS for 40 years now) so the warning signs were there even before this kicked off. It would be niave to think this is the last one. Save maybe for swine flu this was the first beginning in the 21st century that could be described as being truly global and it would be niave to thing it is going to be the last.
Which is why the extent of obsession about it and the OTT measures taken this year is worrying given why would anyone invest in any business that is going to be shut down by government order every few years? The key is to build the NHS capacity and forget lockdowns because nobody is going to invest in business or indeed (more tragically even) in themselves
If giving out contracts, I cannot see ending competitive tendering as progress. It does bring scrutiny, and questions over value.
I live in Dorset. There simply isn't the level of rural employment that there used to be; or rather, not in the farming industry.
Someone finally noticed. It's been an absolutely awful year.
But the 'large events' in May should get our book fairs back running. Which is excellent. They're linked to around 1/5 of my business, and about 4/5 of my joy in working life; cannot wait to get back to those!
Have a good morning.
2) I would be amazed if they ever printed that; because
3) you are right she can't.
"Charring meat" is safe, not a single one of those pandemics came from domestic meat consumption.
@Dura_Ace taking an edge case and pretending that it is all like that.
No it isn't; what complete baloney.
Edit: @ydoethur got there first!