When will this shit end?

[gigpusher]

3 minutes ago, PM87 said:

I love this and really hope it brings you comfort and makes you smile. All the best.

Yes it's one of my favourite films as well so always enjoyable to watch. Happy that his favourite film wasn't something miserable 😄 

[eFestivals]

12 minutes ago, Old_Johno said:

France have just announced they’ll allow festivals upto 5000 punters. Seating only. 

Think it’s more night at the proms than rave

they did something similar last summer

[gigpusher]

1 minute ago, gooner1990 said:

I've been playing a lot of my Nintendo Switch and doing the dinners for me and my girlfriend that's about it.

I was actually furloughed for a few months last summer too, I think the difference this time round as someone else said is the time of year and weather with it being bleak and misrable outside it just adds to it!

Definitely I have become obsessed with sunrise and sunset times. Can't wait for longer days!

[xxialac]

Primavera Sound have just announced indoor concerts in April in Spain.

[PM87]

13 minutes ago, Ozanne said:

I didn’t see that downvote when it was given, I’ve gone back and corrected it.

The NHS are doing incredibly well and we can be happy about it!

Thanks. Still getting my head around why some posts are downvoted on here. Oh well, it's not that deep. (i did try to DM this reply to you rather than carry on or start another debate about downvotes but it wouldn't let me. Also, I'm out of likes lol). 

[Toilet Duck]

13 minutes ago, Mark E. Spliff said:

Thanks - I get it: the adverse reactions to the vaccine are (probably) because when someone's immune system has been primed, it will kick off big-style when it thinks it sees the enemy.  Therefore, anyone who's had the virus or a first dose of the vaccine is going to get a stronger reaction to injections of vaccine.

Follow-up question: if the cause of serious illness and death from Covid19 isn't the virus tearing up our organs, but our immune systems going nuclear and causing inflammations in the lungs etc., why doesn't this happen with vaccines?  I.e. why is our immune system able to come to terms with this foreign invader quickly enough that we don't suffer grave effects from its response?

(This isn't a sneaky tin-foil-hatter questioning the safety of the vaccine by the way: I don't understand virology/immunology, but I do understand research methods, and I'm 100% satisfied that the clinical trials, and subsequent roll-out, have shown the approved vaccines to be safe.)

It’s a good question and not in tin foil hat territory at all! The mRNA that gets delivered by the vaccine doesn’t hang around very long, it’s a pretty unstable molecule, so we get a short exposure to it and our immune system is primed. In patients that progress to severe Covid, the virus continues to replicate, so the signal for our immune system to keep responding persists and the struggle between our immune system and the virus goes on a lot longer.

The virus does do some damage too, and multiple organs have receptors for it so the infection spreads to other places outside the lungs. Poor outcomes certainly have a strong inflammatory component to them, but there is undoubtedly damage caused by the virus itself in various organs (I remember looking at histology slides from the lungs of severe Covid patients early on and it looked really like COPD. Just this morning I was looking at x-rays of the lungs of Covid patients and again, the loss of elasticity seen in COPD patients is very clear on the x-rays of Covid patients (lungs are longer on x-ray, a few more ribs visible)). So there’s physical destruction of the lungs occurring. Whether that’s due to chronic inflammation, viral damage, a combination of the two or something else, we don’t know yet. But prolonged infection vs a short exposure via vaccination stimulate the immune system a bit differently. Of course, the immune system is complex and how different people respond is wide and varied (with many confounding factors). The trials haven’t noted any greater difficulty in those that get infected post-vaccination (quite the opposite in fact and mild/moderate disease predominates), so just like I don’t think we are stimulating ADE with the vaccines, I also don’t think we are predisposing for more severe disease on subsequent exposure. The quality of the immune response is key and the vaccines seem to stimulate a highly specific response. There’s still loads to learn, we’ll be studying this for years to come!!

[PM87]

10 minutes ago, gooner1990 said:

I will actually be working 2 1/2 days per week from home as of Monday, so at least that's something.  But its the staying in all the time that's getting to me. 

People have to realise that existing isn't living (well for me it isn't anyway) Usually I'm off at a football match most weekends and if I'm not I'm usually doing something else.  I don't mind downtime during the week but to have nothing to look forward to at the weekends is soul destroying. 

I just keep watching the news hopefuly something positive will come on Monday!

Great news on wfh a few days from next week. But I agree, staying home is feeling tougher in the winter. It's big weekend followed by little weekend but with nothing to do to fill the time. Only about 6 weeks until the clocks change though and I do think longer days and being able to meet people outside (hopefully) will make us all feel a little better. 

[MEGABOWL]

45 minutes ago, st dan said:

As the good news emerges regarding vaccine effectiveness etc, Sky News go all out with new headlines to keep people’s hopes as low as possible. They’ve been disgusting in how they have reported this pandemic throughout. 

Agreed

[gooner1990]

3 minutes ago, PM87 said:

Great news on wfh a few days from next week. But I agree, staying home is feeling tougher in the winter. It's big weekend followed by little weekend but with nothing to do to fill the time. Only about 6 weeks until the clocks change though and I do think longer days and being able to meet people outside (hopefully) will make us all feel a little better. 

I think the other thing is me and my gf don't have children so a lot of our time is now just being bored.  Was fine for a few months but now its starting to tick on for a year and like everyone else I've had enough!

Yes hopefully by mid march/start of april things will be a bit better with loosened restrictions and longer days.

[JoeyT]

Just now, gooner1990 said:

I think the other thing is me and my gf don't have children so a lot of our time is now just being bored.  Was fine for a few months but now its starting to tick on for a year and like everyone else I've had enough!

Yes hopefully by mid march/start of april things will be a bit better with loosened restrictions and longer days.

More than happy to trade lifes with you for a bit mate!

Honestly throw a 1 year old child or any aged child in to the mix and it gets even tougher I swear 😂

[gooner1990]

1 minute ago, JoeyT said:

More than happy to trade lifes with you for a bit mate!

Honestly throw a 1 year old child or any aged child in to the mix and it gets even tougher I swear 😂

Nah you're alright. 🙂

[Henrik]

2 hours ago, Matt42 said:

Sorry if I’ve missed some news. Can someone explain to me why mainland Europe’s rollout of the vaccine is painfully slow?

Germany I think have only vaccinated 120,000 people so far. We are on 17m.

 

It's far easier for one country like the U.K. to source a vaccine and agree a deal than it is for a group of 27 countires to agree on a deal together. Hardly shocking. The E.U. are completely useless.

[Mark E. Spliff]

15 minutes ago, Toilet Duck said:

It’s a good question and not in tin foil hat territory at all! The mRNA that gets delivered by the vaccine doesn’t hang around very long, it’s a pretty unstable molecule, so we get a short exposure to it and our immune system is primed. In patients that progress to severe Covid, the virus continues to replicate, so the signal for our immune system to keep responding persists and the struggle between our immune system and the virus goes on a lot longer.

The virus does do some damage too, and multiple organs have receptors for it so the infection spreads to other places outside the lungs. Poor outcomes certainly have a strong inflammatory component to them, but there is undoubtedly damage caused by the virus itself in various organs (I remember looking at histology slides from the lungs of severe Covid patients early on and it looked really like COPD. Just this morning I was looking at x-rays of the lungs of Covid patients and again, the loss of elasticity seen in COPD patients is very clear on the x-rays of Covid patients (lungs are longer on x-ray, a few more ribs visible)). So there’s physical destruction of the lungs occurring. Whether that’s due to chronic inflammation, viral damage, a combination of the two or something else, we don’t know yet. But prolonged infection vs a short exposure via vaccination stimulate the immune system a bit differently. Of course, the immune system is complex and how different people respond is wide and varied (with many confounding factors). The trials haven’t noted any greater difficulty in those that get infected post-vaccination (quite the opposite in fact and mild/moderate disease predominates), so just like I don’t think we are stimulating ADE with the vaccines, I also don’t think we are predisposing for more severe disease on subsequent exposure. The quality of the immune response is key and the vaccines seem to stimulate a highly specific response. There’s still loads to learn, we’ll be studying this for years to come!!

Thanks - if I've understood that correctly, an analogy for the virus versus the vaccine would be that the former is a basketful of angry kittens, whilst the latter is a basketful of angry kittens which have been neutered.  If you let the former into your home, it could be overrun to the extent that they're popping up faster than you kill them, whereas if you let the latter into your home, you can learn how to quickly despatch them so you'll have the right weapons at the ready should any wild kittens get in.

The more I think about that analogy, the more resentful I feel towards you virologist types, but I guess this is a case where the ends justify the means: I'm not so highly-principled that I'd turn down the vaccine on animal cruelty grounds.

[xxialac]

Just now, Henrik said:

It's far easier for one country like the U.K. to source a vaccine and agree a deal than it is for a group of 27 countires to agree on a deal together. Hardly shocking. The E.U. are completely useless.

What a simplistic take.

And it's far easier for a group of 27 countries to agree a major trade deal given their economic might and collective bargaining power than one country like the UK. Hardly shocking. The UK post-Brexit is completely useless. 

[Henrik]

1 minute ago, xxialac said:

 The UK post-Brexit is completely useless. 

lol...what are you talking about

[efcfanwirral]

33 minutes ago, gooner1990 said:

I've been playing a lot of my Nintendo Switch and doing the dinners for me and my girlfriend that's about it.

I was actually furloughed for a few months last summer too, I think the difference this time round as someone else said is the time of year and weather with it being bleak and misrable outside it just adds to it!

I'm scared to look at the number of hours I've played of Football Manager on my Switch recently 

[Fuzzy Afro]

1 minute ago, xxialac said:

What a simplistic take.

And it's far easier for a group of 27 countries to agree a major trade deal given their economic might and collective bargaining power than one country like the UK. Hardly shocking. The UK post-Brexit is completely useless. 

Ah right, you’re resorting to whataboutery. There are many good things about the EU and bad things about Brexit. The vaccine rollout is not one of them. 

[xxialac]

Just now, Fuzzy Afro said:

Ah right, you’re resorting to whataboutery. There are many good things about the EU and bad things about Brexit. The vaccine rollout is not one of them. 

I was responding to the OP's blanket statement: 

The E.U. are completely useless.

They may have failed with the vaccine but, as I mentioned earlier I don't expect it in the end to have much impact on the respective economic or health situation in the UK vs the EU. You realise most EU countries are not in lockdown and the case rates are falling, after all.

And the EU may prove to be a much stronger model in the next decade than going it alone. Certainly that's what all economic forecasters expect including the UK government itself.

It is feeble to analyse the merits of being in or our of the EU simply based on the vaccine rollout.

[Henrik]

@xxialac you really going to sleep in a wet bed for the rest of your life over Brexit?

Life goes on.

[xxialac]

1 minute ago, Henrik said:

@xxialac you really going to sleep in a wet bed for the rest of your life over Brexit?

Life goes on.

Political decisions are never for eternity so I'm going to campaign for the rest of my life until we are reinstated. I don't see what is wrong with peaceful challenge.

And over half the country want to remain. It's hardly a 'crazy take'.

[RobertProsineckisLighter]

7 minutes ago, efcfanwirral said:

I'm scared to look at the number of hours I've played of Football Manager on my Switch recently 

I'm currently in 2027. I got (rather harshly) sacked from my first job in 2024. The other day I was watching some football and a young player was mentioned, I don't recall who and I was sure then commentator was wrong and they played for a different team... Because they did in my game. 

[Toilet Duck]

11 minutes ago, Mark E. Spliff said:

Thanks - if I've understood that correctly, an analogy for the virus versus the vaccine would be that the former is a basketful of angry kittens, whilst the latter is a basketful of angry kittens which have been neutered.  If you let the former into your home, it could be overrun to the extent that they're popping up faster than you kill them, whereas if you let the latter into your home, you can learn how to quickly despatch them so you'll have the right weapons at the ready should any wild kittens get in.

The more I think about that analogy, the more resentful I feel towards you virologist types, but I guess this is a case where the ends justify the means: I'm not so highly-principled that I'd turn down the vaccine on animal cruelty grounds.

Just to reiterate...no kittens were harmed during the development of the vaccines!! 😁

[stuartbert two hats]

51 minutes ago, Fuzzy Afro said:

Telegraph are reporting that Hancock has now overtaken Sunak as the main voice in government lobbying Boris to relax the restrictions.

Cheers, I remember it being mentioned and went back a few pages, but couldn't find where.

[Henrik]

2 minutes ago, xxialac said:

Political decisions are never for eternity so I'm going to campaign for the rest of my life until we are reinstated.

WOW. Jolly good luck with it.

[jparx]

1 hour ago, st dan said:

As the good news emerges regarding vaccine effectiveness etc, Sky News go all out with new headlines to keep people’s hopes as low as possible. They’ve been disgusting in how they have reported this pandemic throughout. 

Christ when you actually click on to that, those two statements are from totally different stories, with the "tougher restrictions" thing being if we open up too early and cases rise...

No fucking shit we'll need more restrictions if cases rise again? Yes I get what clickbait is, but c'mon guys...