Coronavirus (COVID-19)

[ICTChris]

From reading about it it seems that the Indian variant is likely to be more transmissible but that the level of community transmission is a lot lower than was seen in Kent last winter. 

All available vaccines seem to be highly effective against the variant. Initial evidence from Bolton and Blackburn is that the vast majority of people who are being affected are unvaccinated.  The vaccines can crush the curve and it seems like that’s what they are trying to do. I’m not sure if similar work is being done in Glasgow, you’d hope it is.

Another piece of good news is that the latest data on the AstraZeneca vaccine is that its efficacy against symptomatic illness is around 95%, higher than previously thought and higher than Pfizer.

 

[Bairnardo]

It looks like the Indian variant will be susceptible to the vaccine in the way that others are.

] It's almost as if vaccines and the sophisticated human immune system that they kick into action are playing on a different dimension altogether to some shan variant of the same fucking virus. Who could have possibly predicted this outcome? 
NB: And this is solely based on antibodies present, which is not even remotely the only trick available for a primed immune system. 
It's past time that heads rolled in the ranks of SAGE and clownshoe government advisors. This isn't just a one-off, everyone makes mistakes in a crisis moment: there needs to be accountability for unelected advisors consistently getting it wrong and needlessly screwing up people's lives across the country as a result. We expect (though rarely get) this degree of responsibility among politicians: it's time that the public health brigade had their tenure revoked and grant funding cut off for making nonsense hysterical claims to advance their own careers. 
Leitch meanwhile can go back to being the world's shitest dentist. 


Yeah, making a mistake is forgivable.

Making the exact same mistake again and again, whipping the public into a frenzy on a monthly basis isn't.

[stumigoo]

[Inanimate Carbon Rod]

Theres a rumour that several people in Glasgow hospitals were fully vaccinated against covid etc and it was breakthrough infection, heard from a respiratory consultant that any such rumours are utter mince. 
There will be some minor breakthroughs with people who are vulnerable as with all vaccines, that said the covid vaccines are massively massively effective and such breakthroughs will be far rarer. 

[Michael W]

9 hours ago, Elixir said:

Yousaf really is an insufferable tosser.

'Endangering lives' ffs. 

Obviously the protests against the eviction in Glasgow and the support marches for Palestine weren't 'endangering lives'...

Of course, these are fantastic causes, and the Buns are vermin, but you don't get to pick and choose your virtue signalling nonsense.

 

Agreed, particularly this bit:

“I understand the significance of this day for Rangers fans but I am extremely disappointed that supporters have once again ignored Covid regulations and chosen to gather in large numbers in Glasgow.

“The rules are the same for everyone and the evidence is clear – when large numbers of people gather in close proximity, there is an increased risk of transmission.

Clearly this doesn't apply when said mass gathering is for a cause that Yousaf agrees with. It's a smart virus after all - only infects the gatherings you don't like. Ignoring of course the numerous examples of such gatherings over the last year for numerous reasons, none of which resulted in a case spike. 

By all means condemn the behaviour last night that lead to numerous arrests and investigations being launched as these were out of order and worthy of condemnation. As for the gathering itself, the "endangering lives" line is birthday caird pish doing nothing but playing to the galleries of Lovejoys. Lives were equally as endangered at the Palestine marches and the Deportation protest, not least considering the latter took place in the area with Scotland's worst rates of coronavirus infection. However this passed without comment from Yousaf. 

The inconsistency is rage-inducing, but not unexpected. More worrying is that the disorder on display will undoubtedly be used to bash all football fans with. 

[NotThePars]

10 hours ago, Elixir said:

Yousaf really is an insufferable tosser.

'Endangering lives' ffs. 

Obviously the protests against the eviction in Glasgow and the support marches for Palestine weren't 'endangering lives'...

Of course, these are fantastic causes, and the Buns are vermin, but you don't get to pick and choose your virtue signalling nonsense.

 

In fairness maybe he's talking about the bears that spent the day kicking each other's heads in 

[Billy Jean King]

Yet the authorities actually thought it was fine to propose 600 fans as a good option in Hampden, before NS burst that bubble. I actually said the the wife a fortnight ago that Tannadice or Pittodrie should have been considered as a test event with 10k fans minimum, if Hampden actually was contracted to UEFA (which I still can’t understand the need for 3 week takeover).
It is clear the government will bend their own rules to fill churches a month ago but can’t bear to see football, rugby, nightclubs etc open in any form without attempting to control by fear.

Didn't religious groups win a court case to force churches to open earlier than planned ?

[Scosha]

If England are going to start ramping up the first doses, are Scotland going to follow? Our figures are still woeful IMO if the supply is there. 

[Billy Jean King]

Anyone else have goosebumps watching Leicester fans and players celebrate with the fans?
It will be a while before we see that in Scotland. 

June 14 Hopefully.

[Michael W]

Just now, Scosha said:

If England are going to start ramping up the first doses, are Scotland going to follow? Our figures are still woeful IMO if the supply is there. 

It seems that supplies in England have built up a bit. Not sure if this was due to schedules or if there's been a deliberate action to build them up and deliver them in huge numbers very quickly. What I would say is that England has been quite slow recently in delivery and I get the impression Scotland has been too, to a slightly lesser extent. Wales you would imagine had not slowed given their numbers. 

I'd therefore expect to see Scotland accelerate as well. Supplies are distributed proportionately so no reason for Wales to motor ahead as we all have the same stocks to work from. 

[Paco]

It’s probably been covered but SAGE were claiming yesterday the Indian variant could be 50% more transmissible than the Kent variant, which they once claimed was 70% more transmissible than the variant we had over autumn. It’d be absolutely fucking hilarious if such tripe didn’t have such an impact on our lives. The Indian variant does look fairly likely to become the dominant one here, but that is no real problem - the vaccines smoke it, unequivocally. There is no problem, an outside chance of a slightly bigger than expected bump in hospital numbers with the relaxation measures but that’s about it.

It’s little more than a bump in the road. And if it does cause any local lockdowns, arguably Glasgow being denied Level 2 has already done with areas like Bolton and Blackburn potentially following, it is 100% the fault of Boris Johnson and his pointless red list charade.

[Billy Jean King]

That patter went out with th Arks last voyage.
Think what you want, as I couldn't give a flying fcuk what you think. 

For reference, your responding to the resident expert who declared the pandemic over last summer, doesn't actually believe Covid is a thing and is also a self confessed climate change denier.

[Billy Jean King]

From reading about it it seems that the Indian variant is likely to be more transmissible but that the level of community transmission is a lot lower than was seen in Kent last winter. 
All available vaccines seem to be highly effective against the variant. Initial evidence from Bolton and Blackburn is that the vast majority of people who are being affected are unvaccinated.  The vaccines can crush the curve and it seems like that’s what they are trying to do. I’m not sure if similar work is being done in Glasgow, you’d hope it is.
Another piece of good news is that the latest data on the AstraZeneca vaccine is that its efficacy against symptomatic illness is around 95%, higher than previously thought and higher than Pfizer.
 

It's worrying that evidence of non vaccination only seems to come to the surface in instances like this. Seems overall in Bolton and Blackburn uptake was about 80% but in certain neighbourhood's it was down below 50%. There is the obvious elephant in the room in those discussions but it's absolutely certain that any flare up will rip through neighberhoods with such low protection levels. The upside is they should be containable and remain isolated pockets.

[Bairnardo]

This is verging towards what would previously be considered a bit tin foil hat, but im going with it anyway.

Despite the obvious cigaring of the Indian Variant, which should place us firmly in "as you were" territory, scotgov will start peddling some pish about how this particular occassion represents a "lucky escape" or a "close one" that we got away with and adjust the roadmap for longer infringement into our lives. Devi etc will try to attach this variant and yet unknown others like it (or bigger badder ones [emoji451])to public behaviour and social activity.

[Left Back]

16 minutes ago, Paco said:

It’s probably been covered but SAGE were claiming yesterday the Indian variant could be 50% more transmissible than the Kent variant, which they once claimed was 70% more transmissible than the variant we had over autumn. It’d be absolutely fucking hilarious if such tripe didn’t have such an impact on our lives. The Indian variant does look fairly likely to become the dominant one here, but that is no real problem - the vaccines smoke it, unequivocally. There is no problem, an outside chance of a slightly bigger than expected bump in hospital numbers with the relaxation measures but that’s about it.

It’s little more than a bump in the road. And if it does cause any local lockdowns, arguably Glasgow being denied Level 2 has already done with areas like Bolton and Blackburn potentially following, it is 100% the fault of Boris Johnson and his pointless red list charade.

The BBC talking about the meeting discussing this.

And if the variant was 40-50% more transmissible than the current dominant type, they warned proceeding to step three of England's roadmap on Monday would likely "lead to a substantial resurgence of hospitalisations (similar to, or larger than, previous peaks)"

how on earth is anyone expecting hospitalisations to hit anything like previous peaks when the majority of the vulnerable…?

[superbigal]

There must be huge amounts of people aged between 50-65 who were vaccinated for the 1st time between 6 & 10 weeks ago.

They are now (Myself) included to receive the 2nd dose at 8 weeks.

Health Service needs to be very busy sorting those numbers out.

On the flip side as they are not using AZ for under 40s there should be shitloads available to ramp up these 2nd doses.

[stuart87]

Someone with more knowledge than me can tell me if this right but if viruses become transmissible, do they not become less deadly? I don’t hear anyone mentioning this.

[madwullie]

1 minute ago, stuart87 said:

Someone with more knowledge than me can tell me if this right but if viruses become transmissible, do they not become less deadly? I don’t hear anyone mentioning this.

There's no hard and fast rule.

Technically, in a vaccine free world, if it becomes more transmissible but lethality remains the same, you will have more deaths because more people catch it and therefore proportionally more die from it. 

This isn't a vaccine free world though. 

[djchapsticks]

Just now, stuart87 said:

Someone with more knowledge than me can tell me if this right but if viruses become transmissible, do they not become less deadly? I don’t hear anyone mentioning this.

I don't think as a rule of thumb.

A virus can (and does) mutate to become more transmissible, it also can mutate to not be as deadly to the host but the two are not mutually exclusive to one another.

[Chester Desmond]

1 hour ago, Billy Jean King said:

16 hours ago, deegee said:

It is clear the government will bend their own rules to fill churches a month ago but can’t bear to see football, rugby, nightclubs etc open in any form without attempting to control by fear.

Didn't religious groups win a court case to force churches to open earlier than planned ?

Yes that's right, although they were due to reopen the following day anyway. It was more about the principle of the government having power to close places of worship. 

Churches certainly aren't permitted to be full currently, 2 metre distancing applies which severely restricts numbers.