The Ref Stop

Grass Roots Season Curtailment (?)

The Ref Stop
Big Cat said:
Gutted! Leg pain. Nerve compressed/irritated somewhere further upstream. This is what happens to finely tuned athletes
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:)

Most of my leagues have been curtailed, as I said above I might do the odd youth game, but tbh my son is moving house, my daughter is having an extension built, my uncle's place needs sorting - helping with that, plus have to keep an eye on my Mum - don't honestly think I could fit in much refereeing even if offered the chance!
 
Thought I'd bring the Covid discussion back to the fore. I chuckle when @RustyRef puts his pessimism on the line and I've often got a more optimistic view on this whole Covid thing. Like I thought, many Grass Roots Leagues would see the season out and County Promotion schemes would continue
But I think the Govt. have falsely sold us the notion of a 'one-way-ticket' out of Lockdown. I'm not optimistic that this is the last of it (in particular, as far as football disruption is concerned). News from Chile and Brazil is not boding well. Manaus (for example) thought they'd achieved 'herd immunity', but sadly new variants have seen to that. Also, Chile (third highest vaccinations per Capita) are back in the mire (although their Chinese vaccine efficacy is questionable)
So I thought I'd brighten up everyone's day with my cheery thoughts :cool:
 
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Big Cat said:
Thought I'd bring the Covid discussion back to the fore. I chuckle when @RustyRef puts his pessimism on the line and I've often got a more optimistic view on this whole Covid thing. Like I thought, many Grass Roots Leagues would see the season out and County Promotion schemes would continue
But I think the Govt. have falsely sold us the notion of a 'one-way-ticket' out of Lockdown. I'm not optimistic that this is the last of it (in particular, as far as football disruption is concerned). News from Chile and Brazil is not boding well. Manaus (for example) thought they'd achieved 'herd immunity', but sadly new variants have seen to that. Also, Chile (third highest vaccinations per Capita) are back in the mire (although their Chinese vaccine efficacy is questionable)
So I thought I'd brighten up everyone's day with my cheery thoughts :cool:
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One thing I've learnt in the last 13 months is NEVER try to predict what's coming next!;)
 
and some more 'cheeriness' for the attending fans amongst us.

At a recent QPR fans forum, CEO was asked about Season Tickets for next season.

He replied that without specific guidance from the government, he wasn't prepared to release prices etc as he had no idea how many fans would be allowed next season or what restrictions would be in place.

I think many, myself included, thought that by the start of next season we would be back to 'normal' - realise that was a foolish/optimistic assumption!
 
Population vaccinations or whatever else aside, the Chinese gift is something we're all gonna have to live with and react to on a sliding scale for a long time yet I think .. 🤔
 
Kes said:
Population vaccinations or whatever else aside, the Chinese gift is something we're all gonna have to live with and react to on a sliding scale for a long time yet I think .. 🤔
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Yep, think you're right, problem is HOW we 'live with it' - everyone's views on that vary enormously!
 
PinnerPaul said:
Yep, think you're right, problem is HOW we 'live with it' - everyone's views on that vary enormously!
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You're not wrong there Paul. Lol.
As far as grass roots football goes, government policy rather than money will dictate how our game goes over the next few years... 🤔
 
Might surprise you to know that I am reasonably confident that grass roots football will be fine now. The UK are way ahead of most other countries in the vaccination, and whilst it appears the variants might still spread through vaccinated people, and even make them unwell, there seems to be evidence that they will still protect against the most serious illnesses and prevent hospitalisation. And that is really all the government are worried about. The fact that I have received the vaccine ahead of my parents and other older family members who live overseas show just how far advanced we are.

I'm a bit less confident about the professional game, but I guess the forthcoming Euros will forecast what happens there. They will undoubtedly increase infections, but if hospital admission rates remain stable that may well lead to the government saying that stadiums can fully reopen.

The biggest concern I would have is that Boris and co celebrate success too early and take their eyes off the ball. Like not adding India to the red list (likely because big UK businesses have outsourced huge swathes of their operations to the big Indian outsourcers who rely on flying their staff to and from the UK), but not only that Boris is pressing ahead with flying there for a business trip at a time when they have one of the highest infection rates in the World and a new variant to boot. Will he be self isolating when he gets home, I somehow doubt it?
 
Has a virus of this nature and of this pandemic scale ever been denied the process of natural selection before by means of a global vaccination effort?
No
Can we therefore predict which (otherwise minor) variants will become locally dominant and whether they will kill their hosts and have an R of 7?
I wouldn't have thought so
It would be interesting if those Epidemiologists, Virologists & Mathematicians, would get on that there Tele to share their thoughts on whether Grass Roots footy will be OK, or if this is the end of humanity
 
Big Cat said:
Has a virus of this nature and of this pandemic scale ever been denied the process of natural selection before by means of a global vaccination effort?
No
Can we therefore predict which (otherwise minor) variants will become locally dominant and whether they will kill their hosts and have an R of 7?
I wouldn't have thought so
It would be interesting if those Epidemiologists, Virologists & Mathematicians, would get on that there Tele to share their thoughts on whether Grass Roots footy will be OK, or if this is the end of humanity
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Polio? Nowhere near as infectious as Covid but certainly a pandemic that a vaccine has all but wiped out. Measles, TB, there are several that used to be real problems but have been effectively controlled using vaccines. The difference from now to the past is that much more is known about viruses and pandemics. Something like the Spanish flu, technology just wasn't there to quickly create a vaccine, but there were serious lockdowns. Countries implemented quarantines, people were confined to home, shops / pubs, etc were forced to close, mass gatherings banned (all starting to sound familiar ... ?!).

Pandemics happen, this wasn't the first and it certainly won't be the last. The difference is now they can be managed better, hence why there have been 3 million Covid deaths as opposed to as many as 100 million from Spanish flu, and we now have TV, Internet, working from home, so managing pandemics are much, much easier.
 
RustyRef said:
Polio? Nowhere near as infectious as Covid but certainly a pandemic that a vaccine has all but wiped out. Measles, TB, there are several that used to be real problems but have been effectively controlled using vaccines. The difference from now to the past is that much more is known about viruses and pandemics. Something like the Spanish flu, technology just wasn't there to quickly create a vaccine, but there were serious lockdowns. Countries implemented quarantines, people were confined to home, shops / pubs, etc were forced to close, mass gatherings banned (all starting to sound familiar ... ?!).

Pandemics happen, this wasn't the first and it certainly won't be the last. The difference is now they can be managed better, hence why there have been 3 million Covid deaths as opposed to as many as 100 million from Spanish flu, and we now have TV, Internet, working from home, so managing pandemics are much, much easier.
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I don't believe the dynamics of Polio are much the same as Covid. Measles yes, except for the 100% vaccine
I don't know though. Of course I don't
However, for all the politically motivated documentaries about how Governments have responded to the pandemic, I've not seen anything of interest addressing the science or mathematics or modelling of where the pandemic is likely to take us all
 
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Big Cat said:
I don't believe the dynamics of Polio are much the same as Covid. Measles yes, except for the 100% vaccine
I don't know though. Of course I don't
However, for all the politically motivated documentaries about how Governments have responded to the pandemic, I've not seen anything of interest addressing the science or mathematics or modelling of where the pandemic is likely to take us all
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The closest pandemic to Covid, in terms of how it spread, was the Spanish Flu. It died out after four waves, but that was over 100 years ago when life expectancy, hygiene, medical knowledge and capability, and nourishment / general health levels were all vastly lower than they are today.

There's reason to be positive, potentially rocky roads ahead yes, but I'm confident we are over the worst now.
 
RustyRef said:
There's reason to be positive, potentially rocky roads ahead yes, but I'm confident we are over the worst now.
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I mostly agree with this, at least as it applies to the US, Europe, and some other wealth countries. I think things are still going to be awful if many poor countries. And a variant immune to the vaccines could throw a wrench in everything. that means those of us in wealthy countries have a strong interest in helping poor countries reach herd immunity, too, as that reduces the opportunities for mutation.

I still haven’t been on a soccer field since this all started. :(
 
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