Covid the *** and the final stage.

[Chippy_Tea]

I wonder if all the party animals/covid deniers who have generally not given a toss about the possibility of spreading the virus by their actions will get the *** when offered?
Cheers. Tom

Probably not but by then (with luck) they wont be able to harm the rest of us who have.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Police broke up two house parties and issued 15 fines following breaches in Covid lockdown rules in Swansea.
Nine people were fined for watching the England v Scotland rugby match at a house in Uplands on Saturday.
And six people were also given fixed penalties after South Wales Police broke up a birthday party in Ynystawe.
People are required to stay home and only mix with their household or support bubble, with £60 fines issued for breaches in lockdown rules.
Police tweeted about both parties on Saturday evening advising people to "stay home".
Officers also stopped traffic in Penarth, Vale of Glamorgan, as householders expressed worries about numbers of people on its narrow streets on Saturday.
Jayne Harding said on one road, 75 people passed homes in just 15 minutes.
She said she would welcome them when there was not a pandemic. "But this Covid is a completely different kettle of fish," she said.
People are advised not to travel to exercise outdoors, with restrictions on all but essential travel.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-55963999

 

[Chippy_Tea]

 

[Covrich]

https://news.sky.com/story/covid-19...zeneca-***-due-to-limited-protection-12211970
Oxford only 22 Percent effective against the SA variant.

 

[BeerCat]

I wonder if all the party animals/covid deniers who have generally not given a toss about the possibility of spreading the virus by their actions will get the *** when offered?
Cheers. Tom

No

 

[marshbrewer]

Oxford only 22 Percent effective against the SA variant.

Against 'mild to moderate infection'. Death rate was virtually zero (usual caveats - small study, etc etc). There appears to be a lot of scaremongering today in the media.

 

[Covrich]

Against 'mild to moderate infection'. Death rate was virtually zero (usual caveats - small study, etc etc). There appears to be a lot of scaremongering today in the media.

I agree with that and tbh its better than nothing.. I am sure they sad by the fall we can have boosters for vulnerable people at least anyway

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Oxford only 22 Percent effective against the SA variant.

That's not good news but at least it is still effective, they did say they can tweak the vaccines in a matter of weeks so lets hope they are telling us the truth.

 

[strange-steve]

My Mrs works in a Tesco express who have a policy that customers must have either a mask or an exemption card, and what I don't understand is why people get so angry when asked to put on a mask or show their card. They get genuinely furious and I really don't get it.

They're effectively saying either "how very dare this little shop worker tell me what to do" or else "I don't give a **** about other people", but either way it just shows the disgusting selfish arrogance of people.

 

[marshbrewer]

They're effectively saying either "how very dare this little shop worker tell me what to do" or else "I don't give a **** about other people", but either way it just shows the disgusting selfish arrogance of people.

Yes and no.

This crisis has certainly shown that there are people who, as you say, are unthinking, selfish a***holes, but there are also those who mentally are at the end of their tether. I saw some chap have a basically full on breakdown in a local shop when asked why he didn't have a mask, and you could tell the whole episode was just the straw that broke a very ill man's back. It was really upsetting to watch.

I sometimes wonder if some of those making a fuss aren't really halfway down that road, rather than being tossers. Not that this excuses giving staff grief in any shape or form, but ill people can often loose any sense of perspective or how badly they are acting.

I'm lucky that I have a family and happy home life to balance things out when the situation gets me down. Those living lone, perhaps working alone at home or furloughed, can often have no release at all.

Kudos to your Mrs, and her colleagues however, for being in the firing line of all this. It can't be at all pleasant.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

My Mrs works in a Tesco express who have a policy that customers must have either a mask or an exemption card,

My son works in Tesco and he has had a couple of customers moan at him when he has requested they wear masks he says the worst think the muppets do its ignore the one way system.

 

[strange-steve]

there are also those who mentally are at the end of their tether.

You're right of course, I have several family members and friends who suffer from terrible anxiety and the events of the last year has certainly exacerbated this. However call me a cynic, but I suspect the vast majority are in the "a**hole" camp.

 

[marshbrewer]

he says the worst think the muppets do its ignore the one way system.

To be fair, I get confused by one way systems in supermarkets with an odd number of isles. How does that work?

 

[marshbrewer]

However call me a cynic, but I suspect the vast majority are in the "a**hole" camp

You are probably right there unfortunately, but I like to at least try and hope that there is a glimmer of humanity in people, even if I am deluded.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

To be fair, I get confused by one way systems in supermarkets with an odd number of isles. How does that work?

I haven't been in a supermarket since this all started non mask wearing people going the wrong way round one way systems make me nervous.

 

[An Ankoù]

It seems to me a basic lack of leadership. Putting on a mask in a confined space is such a little thing compared with creating an explosion of infected droplets from a cough or a sneeze. I remember to this day seeing posters when I was very liitle (I can't remember where, though) saying "Coughs and sneezes spread diseases" and "Cough those germs in a handkerchief". Is there a similar national educational campaign today? I don't know; here you're not allowed in a shop without a mask and somebody without one would receive little sympathy from his or her fellow customers. The only time I saw a confused old fellow in Lidl, who genuinely didn't get what was going on, he was given a mask by a fellow customer. I don't believe the French are an less stroppy than the Brits, more so, if anything, but this is a matter for common sense.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

they did say they can tweak the vaccines in a matter of weeks so lets hope they are telling us the truth.

Oh, I wouldn't worry about that, it's a feature of these new vaccine technologies that it's super-easy to create new ones. The original versions were created within a couple of weeks of this entirely new virus being reported when we knew almost nothing about it. Obviously they then had to go through the full testing process, not least because some of these technologies had never had gone through the full testing process. Now within a year we've had 10's of millions of doses delivered, it's incredible when you think about it.

So yes, they'll be able to generate new versions very readily - the real issue is how they get tested. The expectation is that it will work something like the process for approving the new flu *** each year, with a small trial of a few thousand people, but I don't think that's been officially confirmed yet.

+1 to not getting too stressed about the Oxford-Zeneca vaccine just yet - one problem is that all the trials tend to have different definitions of "does this work?" which can mean hugely different headlines for vaccines that are fairly similar in efficacy. It's important to note that this headline is just about mild illness, but there's nothing yet to show a big difference in whether it kills you or not. And it's quite possible that the Oxford-Zeneca is less good against the South African variant but is better against other variants, it just has a slightly different range. So it's definitely something to watch, and you'd be expecting them to be working on a version optimised for the South African mutation, but no panic just yet.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Viruses mutate - so what is happening is not surprising.

The mutations seen in South Africa change the part of the virus that the vaccines target.

It means all the vaccines that have been produced so far are likely to be affected in some way.

Trials for Novavax and Janssen vaccines that were carried out in South Africa showed less effectiveness against this variant. Both are currently before the UK regulator.

Therefore the news about the Oxford-AstraZeneca does not come out of the blue.

The fact it now only has "minimal" effect according to reports is concerning - the other vaccines showed effectiveness in the region of 60% against the South African variant.

But we should be careful about rushing to judgement. The study was small so there is only limited confidence in the findings.

What is more, there is still hope the vaccine will prevent serious illness and hospitalisation.

What this once again illustrates is the pandemic is not going to end with one Big Bang. Vaccines are likely to have to change to keep pace with the virus.

Progress will be incremental. But vaccines are still the way out of this - and as things stand they remain very effective against the virus that is dominant in the UK.

BBC News.