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Aaaargh!

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After a couple of weeks of friendlies tomorrow was to be my first competitive fixture since last October. I've just been informed that the game is off as several players from one of the teams are isolating due to COVID links. Very frustrating, hopefully I'll pick up another game somewhere.
 
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After a couple of weeks of friendlies tomorrow was to be my first competitive fixture since last October. I've just been informed that the game is off as several players from one of the teams are isolating due to COVID links. Very frustrating, hopefully I'll pick up another game somewhere.
Indian variant this time, some other variant next time. I can't see full Premier League grounds come August. Local Lockdowns etc. It's always been folly of the Govt. to talk about a one-way ticket and it's always been folly of Football's Governing Bodies to think next season will be OK
That said, I can't ever see another National Lockdown, but hey ho
 
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Indian variant this time, some other variant next time. I can't see full Premier League grounds come August. Local Lockdowns etc. It's always been folly of the Govt. to talk about a one-way ticket and it's always been folly of Football's Governing Bodies to think next season will be OK
That said, I can't ever see another National Lockdown, but hey ho
It all depends on the efficacy of the vaccines. If the vaccines continue to be dispensed and are effective against the variants (which so far seems true), things can get towards normal. But if variants develop that easily evade the vaccines, it will be a huge setback. (While it sounds like it will be easier to develop vaccines against variants than to develop the original vaccines, there would still have to be distribution.) Unfortunately the places in the world where there is high density and low vaccination rates are breeding grounds for variants.

I don't know what it is like in the UK, but in the US we have a surprisingly high vaccine resistance. There are extreme examples of a school refusing to let teachers come back if they got vaccinated for fear that students would somehow get infected with the vaccine :)wall:) and of people who refused to wear masks to avoid the virus but are now wearing them to avoid somehow getting infected with the vaccine from those who have had it. Those are obviously outliers, but the resistance to getting vaccinated is definitely affecting the ability to develop adequate herd immunity to rein in the virus effectively.
 
It all depends on the efficacy of the vaccines. If the vaccines continue to be dispensed and are effective against the variants (which so far seems true), things can get towards normal. But if variants develop that easily evade the vaccines, it will be a huge setback. (While it sounds like it will be easier to develop vaccines against variants than to develop the original vaccines, there would still have to be distribution.) Unfortunately the places in the world where there is high density and low vaccination rates are breeding grounds for variants.

I don't know what it is like in the UK, but in the US we have a surprisingly high vaccine resistance. There are extreme examples of a school refusing to let teachers come back if they got vaccinated for fear that students would somehow get infected with the vaccine :)wall:) and of people who refused to wear masks to avoid the virus but are now wearing them to avoid somehow getting infected with the vaccine from those who have had it. Those are obviously outliers, but the resistance to getting vaccinated is definitely affecting the ability to develop adequate herd immunity to rein in the virus effectively.
There is some vaccine resistance this side of the pond too. Whilst it could never be mandatory to get the jab, I wouldn't hold back with anyone taking a stance against the vaccine. People have some strange ideas in their heads about some things like this
If they wanna get ill, that's their lookout, but the reality is they're perpetuating the problem and deaths will result indirectly even if 'they' don't get really ill themselves. Anyway, we're Refs, not Ethics Police, but I don't think the problem is going away by a long stretch
 
UK vaccine resistance is about the lowest in the free World, lower take-up in certain ethnicities.
If we had the stocks we would have already offered first doses to all adults.
Some countries have to give incentives to get people vaccinated.
 
The figures in Bolton, whilst worrying, are actually promising. The infection rate isn't that high in the older age groups, and the districts where it is spreading like wildfire have by far the lowest vaccine take up rate, presumably due to the religion and beliefs of the population. But there is clear evidence that the vaccine is doing its job even against the Indian variant.
 
Can't see the June final stage of lifting restrictions happening

That does seem a tad optimistic, although by then if cases have risen but hospitalisations deaths haven't gone up significantly there would be an argument to say it can go ahead.
 
That does seem a tad optimistic, although by then if cases have risen but hospitalisations deaths haven't gone up significantly there would be an argument to say it can go ahead.

Yep at the end of the day, the goal is not to stop the spread, it's to limit the risk of the infection being serious enough to lead to hospitalisation, intensive care, ventilation and/or death.

We could potentially have a situation where we have thousands of daily cases, but a tiny number of those need any treatment and it becomes akin to the flu in terms of prevalence in society.
 
Indian variant this time, some other variant next time. I can't see full Premier League grounds come August. Local Lockdowns etc. It's always been folly of the Govt. to talk about a one-way ticket and it's always been folly of Football's Governing Bodies to think next season will be OK
That said, I can't ever see another National Lockdown, but hey ho
It appears to be more transmissive but not more deadly. More UK people that it affects have had jabs or we have nearly achieved herd immunity.
 
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