The Kraken

Dig up, stupid.

The deaths I think will take a while to come down. Maybe another month until we start to see a noticeable difference from vaccinations. Case rates are down massively I guess thanks to lockdown. Still very high though, so a long way to go, certainly no room for complacency. The next target will be seeing just how effective the vaccine is in preventing deaths and severe illness amongst the elderly, the data just isn’t there at the moment to see.

👍 Im sure I watched the news the other night and they were warning about the scams going round by email, and they said it was letters only. So either I’m misremembering or they got that wrong.

Ok. I thought it was all by letter though. My mum has been in and out of her surgery for other issues and they told her it was by letter. As posted above, the link is there so you can check the booking site to see if you’re eligible.

Yeah, that

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/coronavirus-vaccination/book-coronavirus-vaccination/

Both my mum and dad said that their invites (which came through the mail) arrived around 4 or 5 days after the date printed on the letter.

It’s a theoretical nightmare for how you prioritise though. Who should get the most priority? If you assign shots based on population size, it seems “fair” that everyone gets assigned the same number per head. But do you then take the case rate and/or the death rate into account? Belgium have got the highest death rate in Europe at 182 deaths per 100,000, whereas Norway and Iceland are at 10 and 8 respectively. It surely makes sense to prioritise the trouble spots, but then those countries who have kept the virus down are “punished” by not getting enough jabs for their needy. Whichever way it goes, it can be argued to be unfair. The bunfight between EU and UK has been unedifying, and there’s definitely an essence of “I’m alright jack” in the British approach. But as a Uk citizen I take the selfish POV and I’m obviously glad they’ve done it this way, and certainly relieved that the country’s top 4 high risk groups will have received the vaccine by mid February.

Invites come by letter, not text or email, don’t they?

Yep. My dad is getting his at Boyatt Wood, my mum in Millbrook, both are temporary vaccine centres that have been set up and not surgeries. Just need to Europe to catch up and the chance of a foreign holiday could even be possible by the end of summer. Spain have said they want 70% of their population vaccinated before they open up to tourism again. God knows what’ll be left by then though, unemployment on the costa was running at 20-30% in the years before COVID alone.

Just been speaking to my parents on the phone, both in their 70s and both have got their jabs booked for next week. They said that pretty much all their friends of similar age have been done already or are booked in for next week. If you had told me just in December that they would be in line for a vaccine before Easter, I’d have been delighted with that. The speed of the rollout has been extremely impressive. Just hope the bloody thing works.....

While it would be an extremely Boris thing to do, and a big sticking up of the fingers to the EU, I think we know that right now it’s not something that is likely. UK Gov has consistently said that the only thing holding back getting jabs in arms is the supply rate; and that the UK has a priority to get the top 9 categories of people vaccinated as soon as possible (which is basically all risk groups and the over 50s). Boris would lose significant political capital from his base if he now prioritised European citizens over his own risk groups. But you’re right that if we get a massive increase in supply capability, Boris will be on board the very first truck in to Ireland wearing his high viz and grinning like a loon.

An almighty ricket by the EU here.

We got a (loan) fee for Cedric, and he left a few months before his contract ended.

Final ball tonight has been very poor. Defence looks like it could concede at any time, which is predictable as on paper it’s shite.

Fuck me. McCarthy, give your head a wobble.

I miss miltonroader. He was mental. I mean, maybe a little bit too mental when he started PMing me asking me if I wanted a fight. But he was funny in his own way. Does Dig Dig post any more? He was a good lad. Nineteen Canteen / Sundance Beast was a loony.

Stephens you twat.

No, apparently all Brexiteers knew exactly what they were voting for.

It does. But the system is ripe for manipulation. What classifies a critical worker is at this link. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-maintaining-educational-provision/guidance-for-schools-colleges-and-local-authorities-on-maintaining-educational-provision Importantly, there’s a stipulation that a child can be considered “vulnerable” and therefore eligible for school if they are classed as “those who may have difficulty engaging with remote education at home (for example due to a lack of devices or quiet space to study)”. Really, you could likely make that argument for many families where the parents WFH.

I remember seeing a briefing around Xmas time with Boris and his acronym buddy JVT. JVT said that the vaccine needs 2-3 weeks in the body before it actually becomes effective. From that article, Norway only began vaccinations on December 27. So, if the 2-3 week theory is indeed correct, people who got the jab then will only be seeing benefit now. And presumably that is only jab 1 of the 2 required. It seems like we know any realistically accurate information for quite some time yet. Edit: basically, what WG said. Edit again. It seems I missed the point of the article itself.....

I think the 2m per week target is already on schedule, yesterday had more than 300,000 vaccines administered, think it was similar Friday too. 👏

I can still call Boris a cunt though, right? 😉

It depended what you class by some sort of normality, but I’m not so sure myself. Certainly a loosening of restrictions but nowhere near normal imo. From what I gather this latest strain is seeing much more significant impact on younger people. Probably not enough data yet to call it, but i can see it being autumn or winter before we get back to anything like normal, and even then I think we’re going to have various sorts of lower level restrictions in place for some time to come yet.

I’d be the first to criticise this lying shitshow of a government, but you have to say that the vaccine rollout so far has been astonishingly good. If it keeps to schedule my folks (in their 70s) should get the jab by the end of February, which is better than I could have hoped just a few short weeks back.