Covid 19 Part XXXV-956,720 ROI (5,952 deaths) 452,946 NI (3,002 deaths) (08/01) Read OP

Only if you are in the high risk groups. Anyone else is likely to be optional, like a flu jab.

HSE linking up with dating apps to get the vaccination message across!

"The HSE said the aim is to encourage users of these dating apps to support and receive their Covid-19 vaccine when it is offered to them."

Also a new HSE pitch!

Theoretically they can. But vaccines are like birth control. There's the tested and quantified effectiveness, and then there's the real-world effectiveness. Let's do some rough, back-of-envelope calculations:

Let's assume two-dose effectiveness is 90%, and one-dose effectiveness is 80%. When I say "effectiveness" I mean the percentage of vaccinated people who, when infected, will annihilate it in a few hours, be completely asymptomatic, and therefore for all intents and purposes cannot pass on the infection.

In the UK, you have 35,155,767 people fully vaxxed and another ~11m with one dose. That gives us about 5.7m vaccinated people who may become infected/infectious. You also have 22m other people who are not vaccinated at all. So ~27m people who may become infected. Which is a very big well of "suckers" for the virus to burn through.

The only way for the UK to offset what they're about to do would be to accelerate their vaccination programme. They have in fact done the opposite, it has slowed down to the point that we are vaccination nearly ten times faster than they are.

This is slightly separate from what we're talking about though. Yes, our hospital system is fairly poor and capacity is atrocious. And thus we have less ability to accommodate a surge. At peak, we were bursting at the seams with 2,000 covid patients in hospital, while proportionately the UK had 50% more in hospital. They were also bursting at the seams, but at that level, we'd have completely collapsed; makeshift field hospitals in car parks, etc.

On the topic of what we were discussing though, the UK is sitting on a potential surge that would have more covid cases than they've seen in the entire rest of the pandemic. And they're not doing anything about it. The same goes for a lot of US states.

Cases yes . They are manageable for the US. And the UK experts feel like they will be manageable aswel. However, our threshold is way lower due to the HSE. The truth is it was barely able to manage pre Covid . We will probably need close to all our adults vaccinated before we have our 'Freedom Day'. The only issue with that is it will be in Autumn/Winter. There will be no risk taken then . So probably thinking April 2022. Then the boosters will be needed. Thats the reality we are facing.

Its not Boris who is ploughing ahead though . Its their public health experts who are saying they are in a position to do so . I will have to take their expertise on it until proven otherwise .

Update on hospital numbers

Would be interesting to know of all those 80 in hospital ended up in hospital because of their covid symptoms or if they attended hospital and happened to test positive while there. As far as I know everybody who is admitted to hospital is tested so say 1000 people a day are admitted to hospital here surely some would happen to have covid especially now as cases are increasing. Maybe these people aren't included in the figures at all but would be interesting to know either way.

This guy can’t be for real? Needs a pint I’d say

Funny that NI and Scotland don’t seem to worried as much as he about delta…

i find it interesting watching some of these lads, they must be really afraid!

Great, fear and anxiety will be getting whipped up now for the next week or so.

totes agree, cant see how this opening up marlarky has gone on for this long !

on a total conspiracy head theory here, has the eu told our gov theres no more money and they need to get people back to work becuase the whole opening up thing just seems weird considering the stance a week or so ago.

Delta with a high level of hospital admissions is of concern, but just big case numbers among the 18-34 group not so much.

994 cases today, 22 in ICU.

Needs more stats to gauge how serious it is now in the post vaccinated world. They should tell us average age of those in ICU, what percentage of those in ICU have stayed overnight in a hospital in the last 3 years etc.

Even with vaccines, cases very high