Covid-19 the second wave.

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Depending on which tier he emerges in, he may well be able to.

This is the least limiting rule when meeting indoors i wonder how many the village pub holds, how big the toilets are and how wide corridors are leading to them and how many villagers like him will be in there, its one day of the year can they not just stay at home and keep themselves and others safe for one Christmas day.

Tis the season to be jolly - careful!


Meeting with othersYou can see people from different households both indoors and outdoors, but only in groups of up to 6 people.
You should maintain social distancing from anyone not in your household or support bubble.
 
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An agreement to relax Covid rules over Christmas is not "an instruction to meet with other people", Wales' First Minister Mark Drakeford has said.
Three households from around the UK will be able to meet from 23 December until at least 27 December.
It follows an agreement between the UK government and ministers in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Mr Drakeford said he believed people would be unwilling to stick to "strict rules" over the Christmas period.
Under the agreement:
  • Travel restrictions will be eased to provide a window for households to come together
  • Up to three households can form an exclusive "bubble" to meet at home during the period
  • When a bubble is formed it is fixed "and must not be changed or extended further"
  • Each Christmas bubble can meet at home, at a place of worship or an outdoor public place
Mr Drakeford told BBC Wales: "People will be allowed to do what the law will allow them to do, but this is not an instruction to travel, it's not an instruction to meet with other people.
"People should still use a sense of responsibility, should still ask themselves whether what they are doing is keeping themselves and other people safe.
"But we will have a modest period of relaxation, where people will be able to do it in a controlled way."
He added: "If we ask people just to stick to the strict rules we have now I'm afraid lots of people will not be prepared to do that.
"So it's not a choice between relaxation or no relaxation.
"It's having a form of relaxation where there are rules that people will recognise that will allow people to enjoy Christmas, but we'll do it in a controlled way."
 
So a substantial meal in a pub could be just a Scotch egg, could give some wet pubs a chance.

Except it was Useless Eustice saying it, who appears to have no understanding of the considerable legal framework surrounding food in hospitality.

This is the kind of thing that can be really dangerous to hard-pressed publicans, who think that "It's OK cos a minister says so" and then runs up against local enforcement who reads the law rather than what Eustice would like the law to be.
 
Covid: Shops in England can open 24 hours a day over Christmas


Shops in England will be allowed to stay open for 24 hours a day in the run-up to Christmas and in January, the housing secretary has said.

Local authorities will be able to temporarily waive the rules restricting retail opening hours.
Writing in the Daily Telegraph, Robert Jenrick said the relaxation of the rules would allow shopping to be "more pleasant and safer".
Shopkeepers and councils would decide how long stores stay open, he added.
Primark has become one of the first to say that it will take advantage of the new rules.
The clothing retailer plans to open 11 of its stores for 24 hours when they are allowed to begin trading again once England's lockdown is lifted on Wednesday.
Months of restrictions to curb the spread of coronavirus have hit the High Street hard, and the hope is the relaxation of opening hours will boost business.
The new rules would run from Monday to Saturday.
"None of us, I suspect, enjoys navigating the crowds, and none would relish that when social distancing is so important to controlling the virus," Mr Jenrick wrote.
"These changes mean your local shops can open longer, ensuring more pleasant and safer shopping, with less pressure on public transport."
Mr Jenrick urged local councils to offer retailers "the greatest possible flexibility" when determining trading hours. Shops and supermarkets would also be given more leeway over stock delivery times he said, to keep the roads clearer during the day.

Full article - Covid: Shops in England can open 24 hours a day over Christmas
 
Does anyone know when it comes to vaccines the % that it doesn't work is this because it just doesn't provoke an immune response at all, it makes a week response sometimes which may not last long, it always creates an immune response but in some people it offers less protection but still offers some or it always creates a similar response but having a very high virus dose can still make you ill. Also is it possible that an extra or larger dose of the vaccine could help in some people.
 
@simon12 - remember you're talking about really small numbers - Pfizer vaccinated 10,000's, but had fewer than 10 cases of Covid among them. So when you're dealing with such small numbers, there's always room for random events to account for a percentage of the cases - it could be something daft like someone got innoculated with the ampoule nearest the freezer door that warmed up just enough to be deactivated, these things happen.

And more likely there will be some people who have problems with their immune system that they're not aware of, either genetic or just being "run down", we know how flu can sometimes just hit you much worse than other people if you've been overworking or not eating properly or something.

Also worth emphasising that this stuff is complicated and we just don't know all the details yet - for one thing all we have is a press release and not a proper study report, and eg it's impossible to tell how long immunity lasts because there just hasn't been enough time - these results are all looking at whether they got Covid within 7 days of the second jab.

Another factor could be the person's individual exposure to other viruses - and there it can get really complicated, some existing antibodies in your blood can enhance the fight against SARS2, some can get in the way.

One thing that's been a bit of a pleasant surprise is that they've worked pretty well in the elderly, there was an expectation that the weaker immune systems of the elderly might need a higher dose (and vice-versa for kids), but the RNA vaccines seem to work pretty well regardless. The Oxford "accident" where they gave a lower first dose to some people could reflect something that's been seen in other vaccines, where a lower dose actually causes a better response, as it's more like a natural infection, but again that's one of those things where there's not really enough information been published about the trial to really know what's going on.

But it does seem that even if you get it, vaccines do generally help reduce the intensity of it, and could eg make the difference between being in hospital and not, or in intensive care and not.

Bear in mind that a lot of the vaccines we use already only have efficiacies of 50-70% by the same measure, so though they may not be perfect these Covid vaccines are looking pretty good by vaccine standards. So far at least - and certainly what really matters is getting enough people resistant to new infections that the virus stops propagating within the population.
 
To me relaxing everything for Christmas will give a lot of people the wrong impression that everything is on the mend leading to risk taking PLUS in an entirely different league we have the covidiots.!!!!!

All for ONE Christmas????
Its not even as if we were a deeply religious country anymore.
Nowadays Christmas/New Year is just parties,binges,blowouts for the adults and toys for the kids.
Nice to have,But this is the worst health crisis in a century
Surely the health of our elderly family,friends and vulnerable neighbors trumps parties,??
 
To me relaxing everything for Christmas will give a lot of people the wrong impression that everything is on the mend leading to risk taking PLUS in an entirely different league we have the covidiots.!!!!!

All for ONE Christmas????
Its not even as if we were a deeply religious country anymore.
Nowadays Christmas/New Year is just parties,binges,blowouts for the adults and toys for the kids.
Nice to have,But this is the worst health crisis in a century
Surely the health of our elderly family,friends and vulnerable neighbors trumps parties,??

Yep, just because the government say it’s ok for you to go out and catch this thing it doesn’t mean you should do so. We all know what we need to do to keep safe.
 
To me relaxing everything for Christmas will give a lot of people the wrong impression that everything is on the mend leading to risk taking PLUS in an entirely different league we have the covidiots.!!!!!


The government were yet again in a tough place if they had said we were to be locked down from late November to early January there would have been uproar and people would have taken to the streets in protest, covidiots would have ignored the rules and would have done their own thing, a lot of sensible folk have been ringing 5 live saying they would have visited elderly parents if they had been locked down over Christmas saying they would keep a distance and wear face coverings as they don't see why that would be any more a risk than trying to stay 2 meters from strangers in a supermarket.

I think the November lock down then allowing Christmas with rules in place was the best way to handle the festive season, we may not all be practicing Christians but its the one time of the year when families traditionally get together, peoples mental health has suffered locking down at Christmas would have been the last straw for a lot of venerable people i think its the best thing they could have done in the circumstances. .
 
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But it does seem that even if you get it, vaccines do generally help reduce the intensity of it, and could eg make the difference between being in hospital and not, or in intensive care and not.

Just been looking at the details of the new Moderna press release - 30,000 patients, 50:50 split of placebo vs vaccine, the placebo:vaccine split was 185:11 cases of COVID19 , and 30:0 severe cases at 2 weeks after the second dose.

Obviously it's difficult to say anything concrete when you're dealing with relatively small numbers of severe cases, but zero severe cases in the vaccine group is really encouraging and is good news in terms of pressure on the health system.

Although it's obviously not as exciting for us biology geeks as the DeepMind protein-folding news, but we're not normal!
 
I doubt there will be many reading this that wont have already heard the good news but for those that haven't -


The UK has become the first country in the world to approve the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine, paving the way for mass vaccination.

Britain's medicines regulator, the MHRA, says the jab, which offers up to 95% protection against Covid-19 illness, is safe to be rolled out.
The first doses are already on their way to the UK, with 800,000 due in the coming days, Pfizer said.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the NHS will contact people about jabs.
Elderly people in care homes and care home staff have been placed top of the priority list, followed by over-80s and health and care staff.
But because hospitals already have the facilities to store the vaccine at -70C, as required, the very first vaccinations are likely to take place there - for care home staff, NHS staff and patients - so none of the vaccine is wasted.

The Pfizer/BioNTech jab is the fastest vaccine to go from concept to reality, taking only 10 months to follow the same steps that normally span 10 years.
The UK has already ordered 40 million doses of the jab - enough to vaccinate 20 million people.
The doses will be rolled out as quickly as they can be made by Pfizer in Belgium, Mr Hancock said, with the first load next week and then "several millions" throughout December.
Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said the first people in Scotland will be immunised on Tuesday.
The bulk of the rollout will be next year, Mr Hancock said, adding: "2020 has been just awful and 2021 is going to be better."

Full article - Covid-19: Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine judged safe for use in UK from next week
 
Even if this vaccine does only reduce the severity of covid rather than prevent it with total immunity it will be a godsend.
As someone who has been hospitalized several times with lung complaints,I know how it feels when doctors are powerless to deal with "internal" problems.
Its very scary.
In my case it wasn't even a disease it was the result of inhaling acid fumes.All the hospital could do was put me to bed,Thats it bed and keep an eye on me nothing more.
Lying there coughing up blood (by the bucket full.) was the most terrifying experience of my life.!!

So i can imagine how those covid patients must feel,They have my deepest sympathy.
 
I think the issue with the Pfizer vaccine will be the logistics of moving and storing at -70C. I think it would be ok in hospitals but not sure about surgeries and care home. Also listening to R5 this morning they are saying that they will vaccinate 1 million people a week so it would take over a year for full vaccinations or over two if they mean both doses.
 
Lets hope this is the beggining of the end

If I heard this right yesterday we will have to get used to this being amongst us (like the flu) the difference being it won't kill anywhere near as many people as it does now.
 
I will be interested in seeing what comes from the research and testing at Swansea uni. They are testing boots flu and cold nasel spray. It contains some sort of seaweed that they believe will either prevent you catching covid or at least suppress the symptoms. Only £5.99 or there about d
 
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