tartandon

They aren't answering incoming calls. They are doing outgoing calls to all the disabled supporters between yesterday and today. That's because the new ticketing system still doesn't have the facility to purchase wheelchair and ambulant tickets online. Your best bet would be to email supporters@scottishfa.co.uk with the following info Name SSC number email address contact telephone number One of them should then get back to you tomorrow.

Never had a colonoscopy, but have had an endoscopy (camera down the throat) and that was horrendous. If they ever want to stick a camera in any of your holes, get a general anesthetic!!!

On a human level, I thought it was a bit shite that they didn't wait the extra half hour until Harry got there before announcing the death of his granny. But it would have been a bit of a giveaway since he was wearing a black suit and tie when he arrived at Balmoral.

what time do we think she died? I personally think she died on Thursday morning, with the announcement embargoed until after 6pm. By the time the announcement was made about her 'ill health', she will already have been dead. It was strange that all the news presenters across all the different channels were already wearing black ties despite the fact that she was apparently only experiencing 'ill health'. There was that strange thing on Thursday afternoon with one of the Balmoral servants being sent to take down the no entry sign at the entrance - that was totally bizarre. Plus Huw Edwards on the BBC coverage made a reference to 'awaiting the announcement' mid-afternoon on Thursday, clearly implying that she was already dead but they were awaiting the thumbs up to announce it. I wouldn't be surprised if they pumped her full of steroids to get her through the handover meeting from BoJo to Truss

medical is apparently getting done over the weekend

we finally managed to get the app to work. wee tip for anybody struggling to get the photo match to work - if it fails, completely close the app and try again from scratch. Having built a couple of these apps myself, it looks like they have an issue with caching an invalid match, and clearing the cache by closing the app fixes this.

anybody had any luck getting the covid status app to work?

Wales have just announced that vaccine certification will be mandatory for entry to nightclubs and large events from 11 October https://news.sky.com/story/covid-19-vaccine-certificates-will-be-mandatory-at-nightclubs-and-large-events-in-wales-from-next-month-12410326

Has anybody seen anything in the news about them adjusting the existing vaccines to be more effective against the prevalent delta variant? I've not seen anything about this and that strikes me as being slightly odd given that it has been the dominant strain worldwide for several months now

I must have missed that. Anything they can do to boost uptake is good

Exactly. The current percentage of people vaccinated is not high enough to get population immunity. They have seen that the percentage of under-30s getting vaccinated is a lot lower than in the older population. The percentage of no-shows for second jags is also a lot higher in the younger population. The theory is that the best way to increase the vaccination rate in the younger population is to require proof of vaccination for entry to events that they are more likely to frequent. The first minister is speaking with a forked tongue. She has previously stated that she does not believe in the concept of vaccine passports. But she is now saying that she believes in them, rather than honestly stating that her scientific advisers have told her that the vaccination rate in the younger population is not sufficient. I personally support the introduction of vaccine passports. I actually prefer the French system where proof of vaccination is required to enter all shops etc. The French requirements have seen a considerable increase in vaccination of the younger population. Irrespective of my support for vaccine passports, I can clearly see that the First Minister has been less than honest in her justifications for their introduction. Failing to be honest opens her up to justifiable criticism for flip-flopping on a very important topic.

the return of schools cannot possibly account for the difference in numbers. There is definitely something odd about the difference

I think the increase in our numbers was pretty predictable with the easing of restrictions. But the English figures continue to baffle me. Although their schools have yet to return, they no longer have any restrictions at all south of the border. There is no requirement for masks indoors in England, unlike up here. Although the English cases are rising, the rate of increase is much slower than ours.Given the complete absence of mitigations and restrictions there, why are the performing relatively better than us?

That's why I also think there's something funny about the English numbers. Lateral Flow tests aren't all that reliable. Hence why if somebody has symptoms up here they are advised to get a PCR test rather than take a lateral flow test. Up here, LFTs should only be used if you have no symptoms, and if you get a positive results on a LFT, you have to book a PCR and isolate until you get the PCR results back. The unreliability of the LFTs is also why everybody is supposed to take a LFT at home before they leave home to go into any piublic space. By taking LFTs every day you leave home, this flattens the risk of false positives and false negatives from them. If you do not have Covid, but test positive via a LFT, you will test negitive from the follow-up PCR. If you do have Covid and test negative from a LFT, you are less likely to have another false negative when you take a test the next day. The fact that England is including LFT results in their figures is quite worrying. Given that their intended use is for asymptomatic people to confirm they do not have the virus, this means that the overwhelming majority should be negative. Counting these in with lab-tested PCR results will immediately lower the positivity rate by a significant margin. The growth in numbers of positive PCR results in Scotland over the past ten days is quite alarming. 3,000+ cases per day is very worrying. Imagine what the numbers would be if we didn't have such a decent amount of the population vaccinated.

There's certainly something funny about the English numbers. If we were seeing relatively stable numbers in North Korea while all the neighbouring countries were seeing sharp rises, we would rightly state that the figures were being under-reported. Although our schools have now started back, that is nothing compared to the English 'freedom day' where there are now zero restrictions at all in any settings south of the border. We should be seeing the English figures outpacing everybody else but that isn't happening.

People are generally manky, whether that be coughing everywhere or not washing their hands after going to the toilet. Because of this mankiness, I've carried hand santiser with me everywhere I go for the last 7/8 years. Since doing this, the number of colds I get has reduced dramaticaaly. If one good thing were to come out of the pandemic it would be people generally being more considerate, but I'm not holding my breath. I get the impression that all the idiots think they no longer need to wash their hands because they think the pandemic is over. It seems that they never considered basic hygiene pre-covid and nothing will change on that front going forward.

I agree. With restrictions easing further tomorrow, and the schools and universities returning, Case numbers and R will inevitably rise once more. While it is great that 16 and 17 year olds starting getting vaccinated at the weekend, the 8-week dosing interval means it will be late October at the earliest before they are protected. I'm surprised that the English daily case numbers haven't seen a marked increase since their so-called freedom day. I fear that our case numbers will rise following tomorrow's easing of restrictions because, unlike down south, we don't have any requirement in place to show proof of vaccination when entering large scale events

Each of the 4 'primary' mutations have emerged in areas of high prevalence. The longer the viirus is allowed to circulate, the higher the risk of mutations. The more mutations there are, the higher the risk that we could have a deadline version that is vaccine resistant. The only way to prevent this is to roll out the vaccine globally. A more deadly virus with a very short incubation period is actually easier to contain. This is the case with Ebola which has a short incubation and kills the host reasonably quickly. The longer incubation period of Covid 19 poses a challenge to contain it. If a deadlier vaccine-resistant variant with a longer incubation develops, we are in big trouble. Such a variant is more likely to emerge in a country with a lower vaccination coverage. SO global vaccination has to be a priority and the main challenge for that is production and supply.

This gave me a chuckle... https://twitter.com/SkyScottBeasley/status/1423539913350385664

What a surprise. The supposedly independent JCVI have now 'approved' vaccines for use in 16 & 17 year olds, coincidentally just as we receive our next big delivery of the Pfizer vaccine. A bit of transparency would not go amiss. What would be wrong with saying that they are happy to approve the Pfizer vaccine for use in all teenagers, but that there are currently supply constraints and vaccinations cant proceed until supplies permit.

he dies last year

just got a 6-month free trial of Apple tv+. Ted Lasso is good, as is Defending Jacob

You would have to be a complete and utter fucktard to think that lockdowns cause deaths. You can just imagine the cause of death on the death certificate - sitting in the house, watching the telly

English Premier League footballer held over child sex allegations https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-57899127