[moonglow]

Yes you have 2 vaccinations with a 3 week gap between the first and the second
I don't blame you for not being keen on having it
I think I'll have it but I'm not especially rushing!

[Aileen]

It is a good article, but I think I'll pass on this one.  We get enough reminders about covid every day without adding to them!


And on that note, I reckon this has to be one of the stupidest U-turns Boris has ever made, and that at the eleventh hour as well, because I can't for the life of me see what difference five days is going to make, particularly as I suspect a lot of people will break the rules anyway.  Thankfully Nicola Sturgeon and Mark Drakeford aren't panicking the way Boris is.   

In fact -

Mark Harper, the chairman of the Covid Recovery Group, called for a vote in parliament. “Lockdowns and increasingly severe tiered restrictions have failed in their goal of slowing the transmission of Covid. And now the government is expecting people to sacrifice the chance to share Christmas with family, friends and loved ones, just a few days after promising the opposite.”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/19/johnson-u-turn-leaves-nations-plans-for-christmas-in-tatters


EDIT - Now people are queuing up at train stations to get out of London.  What better way to spread the virus?

[Aileen]

They've done the same.

No they haven't because Sturgeon anyway isn't starting the lockdown until Boxing Day.

[Aileen]

Aileen Mark Drakeford is doing the same, it starts today. They only one who is giving Christmas really is Nicola

Sorry I got that wrong about Drakeford - but it is all rather confusing!

[tamila]

Chris Whitty has been pushing for Christmas to be cancelled for at least one month. Wasn't he the one that originally wanted herd immunity( a fallacy as you need 80% f the population to become infected). I have a certain amount of sympathy with the politicians when even the scientists and medical boffins cannot make up their minds. I do agree that Christmas needed to go ahead but with perhaps 2 days instead.

[laundry]

The new strain is a game changer because Teir 3 restrictions will no longer be viable for suppressing it, the old measures are done for.

That means the only way forward from now on is Teir 4 for any areas where the new strain is prevalent, including I imagine school closures. There will be no coming out of Teir 4 any more once a region goes into it, they're going to be on a permanent lockdown. And given how prevalent this new strain is, and how slow the travel restrictions have been I imagine the new strain will and already has spread to many other areas of the country and rest of the world. So expect the whole country to be a permanent lockdown in the near future.

The only way out of a lockdown will be the eventual rollout of the vaccine. I think even the anti-vaxxers will be begging out for it because it's the only thing that will save and stop this now and end the dark oncoming winter and spring.

[boogers]

Influenza mutates rapidly and significantly. The COVID-19 mutations are relatively minor from a structural perspective, so there's good reason to believe the existing vaccines will work against them.