ariotofmyown

I hate it when we name our "hurricanes". Makes sense in Americas where their hurricanes are actually "sensational" and cause huge damage and loss of life over a number of days.
Our media sensationalise Hurricane Maureen which batters the South West on a Tuesday night with some bad wind and waves. No sensational names for our real weather problems: days of continual drizzle on the hills that lead to bad flooding.
Similar media rubbish with temperatures, when we see the mercury plummeting to minus 10. On a Scottish mountain. Where no one lives.
There is a weather station at Benson in Oxfordshire which has some weird microclimate that often gives really low temperatures. Better sensational news than giving the warmer temperature in Oxford where people actually live in large numbers.
 

I think we should name them like hurricanes. Variant Doug.

I would have gone for Disney characters but there might be trademarks issue. Can you imagine news headline
Vaccine X is not recommended against the Mickey mouse variant
Sleepy variant spreading rapidly
 

I must say the naming of the variants kind of passed me by a bit...but if Kent was Alpha from back in January and Delta is Indian now in June, I wonder once we get to Omega (Googled it) what will happen. Greek alphabet has got 24 letters (Google again), and our burning rate is quite high. it doesnt worry me but we might have created a bigger issue then what we were trying to solve. And i dont know what we were trying to solve either (didnt Google it)
those times when we cant travel i feel the variants provided a small dose of escapism, chinese, thai, brasilian, kent, indian, i preferred the old system. 

Obviously there is an element that (missing Albert) the thread remains the same people arguing from the same perspective. 
But I wonder what long term changes will remain, and will they be good. Personally I use Amazon a lot more now which is bad for the local area, jobs etc but I admit I love the ease. I also enjoy table service in pubs. 
When lockdown started at work we were all praised for carrying on, for schooling our children at the same time as working, for working flexibly etc. This week we had a meeting which was in person and 2 colleagues said 'I can't meet after 3 as I have the kids...' before lockdown that would not have been an answer that would have been accepted... 

Maybe, i think there will be a mix of people. Some would probably happily stand shoulder to shoulder in a packed pub right now vaccinated or not.
I wouldn't, i have had both my vaccines, but because of my medical condition its quite possible my levels of protection are lower than the general population, so I would avoid places like that. I would probably feel uncomfortable inside a packed cinema or theatre. Thats probably something i need to get my own head straight on, but i guess id want to see first if fully opening has any big impact on transmission, then hospitals and deaths and so on.
Of course I cant avoid them forever but yes id do it gradually, ease myself back in.
I have enjoyed going out for a beer, but its been outdoors, i have been in a restaurant since re-opening but felt safe as good social distancing was in place.
My biggest concern personally is returning to the work place, ive worked at home throughout and will continue to do so anyway most of the time but the plan is to return to the office partially at the end of this month. I still remain certain the workplace is where i pick up most of my bugs. Office environments are a breeding ground for bugs im quite positive.
If there is an extension i will certainly be asking my employer to refrain from bringing us back until that is over.

I think the frustrating part is that we have rarely been told how decisions are being made. Cummings said something similar about he thought things should be much more open.
If the decision making process was more transparent, then I think people would be more understanding. Well, assuming the decision process is actually reasonable, I'm not sure it is!
I also understand that decisions had to be made very quickly at the start and it was impossible to do this involving the whole of Parliament. But I can't see why decisions haven't been debated since. I read that this weekend it's still Johnson, Sunak, Gove and Hancock deciding what to do.  What's the point in the rest of the MPs during Covid?
Wouldn't it be more open and democratic if the evidence was presented to Parliament and they voted on the decision?  

Interesting point really and I think you have said to other people their answers are in their own posts. Because I want politicians to be interpreting the data that scientista provide. They are NEVER going to say 'we have conquered Covid and the data shows there is no risk'. 
They have passed the buck previously when decisions get tough saying they are looking solely at risk to health from the disease. Someone else who understands (yes I know) economics, society, growth, infrastructure etc needs to decide what is a worthwhile risk. 
The goalposts will keep moving now we have variants. What interests me is that over-use of antibiotics is supposedly creating super-strength infections we can't treat so are we going to just keep going with vaccinations until Covid produces a variant that escapes it and quickly becomes the prevalent one? 

This is complete guesswork...
The virus spreads more when people are in closer proximity. People are in closer proximity during winter months. because they are indoors. Texas and Florida are no longer in winter months. Saying that:
 between 3 and 5 times as many people are dying in Florida per day currently, compared with the United Kingdom (roughly 50 per day), with a population approximately one third of the UK, which makes their relative current death toll between 9 and 15 times worse than ours. The current situation in Texas is comparable to Florida. In the last 21 days, a total of 540 people have died of Covid-19 there, compared to 136 in the UK. The population of Texas is 40% of that of the UK, so their relative current death rate is, once again, in the order of 10 times worse than ours. What's your point?

If only we had listened to the experts last September rather than those chancers behind the Great Barrington declaration.

16 teams also makes the qualifiers more exciting too.

16 teams also makes the qualifiers more exciting too.

It was always harder to get out of a group in the Euros than the world cup.  Typically each group had 3 teams you'd expect to find in the worlds top 20 international teams and one just outside.  I'll be watching selective games in the group stage to be honest.

Did the Turkish coach swap notes with Rooney? Such a lacklustre performance from a team many tipped to impress.
Does anyone miss the previous format? For me, it was much better and much higher stakes. It meant that teams had to perform from minute one.
In the current format, teams start playing for draws more and more. I hope Hungary, Ukraine, North Macedonia and others don’t fall into the ‘5 points might be enough for the last 16’ trap. I hope they actually go for it.
It was painful watching Turkey tonight.

That is the most stupid pants-on-head thing I have read today. Congratulations.

Try telling that to the families and friends of the 128,000 who have died or more to the point those on here who have lost loved ones. You crass insensitivity is actually quite sickening. Whether you agree with lockdowns or not, it might make sense to actually consider what you are posting and what effect it may have on some before going off at the hip about #cultofcovid and other such bolarks.

Astounding isn't it? ?

I deliberately wrote that from a neutral position. I'd be interested to know which points you angrily disagree with or why you think I want to hide behind my sofa.
It's mostly pretty obvious stuff, with a question at the end about how much risk there is. Hopefully there is little risk and we can open up again.
I do find it pretty amazing how you can have so much conviction in your opinions though after all your posts last Autumn.

There's the schoolboy error. Believing a serial and confirmed liar. 

Is that factually correct?
Cases dropped but Im not sure that hospitalizations as a percentage of cases dropped. Even if they did Im not sure they dropped to the extent that they have now.

Well yes, but without a vaccine lots more were hospitalised and more died?

Pathetic excuses yet again , need a full enquiry into this mess , the Government are toying with peoples lives

Gonna give Time some time. Cast looks great.
 

The British public looks like having to wait for lifting of final lockdown measures , paying the price again for Government stupidity, not putting India on the red list immediately is costing us again,sick of this virus , sick of this government

Stephen Graham is always incredible. Sean Bean is great in it too. Watched 1 and a half episodes, brilliant stuff.