Ex Lion Tamer

It's a solution but I think any government that did it would get voted out by people appalled at the sight of people dying untreated in carparks. And you might even end up with too many vaccinated people going untreated

The vaccine has massively reduced the danger but so many more people are going to get it now, so the load on the NHS could end up the same. Example: these figures are made up but explain the principle: 10,000 cases leads to 1,000 hospitalisations before vaccines. NHS overloaded. 10,000 cases leads to 100 hospitalisations after vaccines. NHS not overloaded. 100,000 cases leads to 1,000 hospitalisations after vaccines. NHS overloaded.

The point is that we'll never develop enough immunity to stop catching the virus altogether, but we will develop enough immunity to stop having to be hospitalised in such large numbers. Vaccines have taken us a long way towards that, but we need infection-related immunity on top to be able to get back to normal

Those illnesses are different because the vaccines are 100% effective. Coronaviruses and flu mutate all the time, meaning we have to keep updating the vaccines (like we do with flu) and accept getting infected on a regular basis (like the common cold, which is causes by other coronaviruses)

It's a question of how fast we can go without the NHS being overwhelmed, but we're getting there

The vaccines are only 90% reliable so we all need the super immunity that comes from having had the virus as well as being vaccinated

Well the problem is covid on top of all the other things. And ultimately if hospitals are overwhelmed they're overwhelmed. It is true that we'd be in a better position if the Tories hadn't been underfunding the NHS for the last decade

I agree, most importantly loads of older people I know seem to be deciding they need to live their lives now and can't be bothered with caution. There might have to be a lockdown to protect the NHS but it will only be delaying the inevitable really

Well herd immunity is around 70% if I remember right. One way or another covid is going to move from pandemic to endemic by enough people getting it and building immunity. How quickly we get there depends on how transmissible this or a future variant is, how much it/they cause serious disease, how many people have already had it, whether pressure on the NHS forces lockdown(s), and the extent people tire of being cautious and decide to face the music. I honestly think we're not far away from people being widely infected in large numbers but who knows, even the experts don't

There's still a lot of uncertainty about how many people will get seriously ill from the new variant. I'm not in the group who are desperate for an immediate lockdown but if the NHS is going to get overloaded, then we'll have to. To answer Turkish's point, this variant is so transmissible that everyone is basically going to get it. Vaccines + natural immunity through infection mean covid won't be as strong against our defences in future. Just like how Spanish Flu was a huge killer during/after WW1 but now it's descendents are largely harmless because our bodies have had it so many times and built immunity. That's not to say that previous lockdowns were a waste because they allowed us to wait for vaccines, protect the NHS and wait for this potentially milder variant

That was one expert, he didn't say without a shadow of a doubt, and he later owned up to being wrong. When have the covid deniers ever admitted to being wrong?

I'm hesitant to wade in here having not read the whole thread but isn't the point that while most of us would agree that we need to get back to normal as soon as we can, we can't have a situation where the NHS gets overloaded and people die who could otherwise be treated. People dying outside hospitals is not something we can tolerate. And that is the concern at the moment - even if Omicron is less fatal, the sheer number of people who are going to get it mean that more people will be hospitalised. Personally I think we just need to get over this wave, potentially with restrictions, and then the pandemic will be basically over and we can go back to normal by summer

Most likely it'll be rearranged for the end of the season, they'll be safe from relegation and we'll need the points, we'll get the win

The best strategy is obviously to try to find a young goalkeeper who's on a learning curve. In practice they may not be ready or just not turn out to be good enough (like Lewis), in which case you bring in a short term loan. But if they are good enough then you've saved some money. Bringing these players through isn't an exact science and sometimes players won't make the grade

He took so much pressure off us defensively with his breakout runs

They're still playing for Ralph. Not sure how you could sack him after that. Brentford game is big though

Tella was great tonight

Man Utd's new manager is using it and indeed invented it

Pirlo is a terrible shout, he was a disaster at Juve

I think this is too harsh. He was decent enough defensively last season, just offered nothing going forward. Still streets ahead of someone like Danny Fox

There were people on here complaining that we didn't give him a new contract...

I for one welcome our new statistical overlords

Have not checked last season's score, I felt sure we were going to be dropping on the head to head front this week! Good stuff

People have been saying this on here for years and we somehow keep managing to stay up. That said, of course relegation is always a possibly for a club with our resources, and given how long we've been in the Premier League now, we're probably "due"