Morrisandmoo

Sorry I mean actual death rate (not excess deaths). Actual death rates were worse in every year in the 20th century I think?

Yeah I don't think you can ask people not to see family. That can't be on the list of things we are prepared to do. It's a problem. Folk need to look through their disdain for the government though and be prepared to suck up lower cost / higher impact measures e.g. masks, restricted indoor meet ups etc. It doesn't help bringing in divisive, and unhelpful, measures like vaccine passports. Or having Cummings...or parties...or whatevers next.

Deaths (or mortality rate) as a % of the population doesn't come out as bad does it? I think I remember looking at it and every year before 2000 or something was worse than what we are experiencing. Is that correct? It's not the mortality rates that I find concerning. It's every cunt dieing at the one time in January 2022 that is pre-occupying me!

I am horribly sharing your pessimism. Hopefully my gut feeling is wrong and just normal human anxiety. We will get through it, either way, but a nasty way to end/start the year.

I wouldn't wait a couple of weeks. I think we should be mandating some of the most effective measures now (e.g. limiting large groups inside). I'd rather we protect Christmas itself (and the Ayrshire derby obvs) than Christmas parties. In all seriousness, I'm worried it could be out of hand in a couple of weeks. And I am generally very optimistic and risk tolerant (when it comes to living with the virus)! I think the signs that it spreads more easily is worrying. The potential for vaccines also to be less effective is another downside. In my opinion we should not be clutching to the hope that it causes enough less severe disease to bail us out.

Fuck sake man.

I agree with what your point - it is hard. But that guy is part of the problem. Once we are all vaccinated then who are we going to blame then. Folk are so divisive and hateful man. That being said, in this case it's not hard. It is a stupid measure that will cause lots of societal harm and do no good whatsoever. I feel I've said this about something before...

This is all going to end in tears. I'm sick hearing folk moan about Brexit and trump as it is. That will be nothing compared to the politics we get if we keep up with this totalitarian shite. Hopefully we are done copying the EU after the vaccine passport carry on.

As a Killie fan, I've been saying that about Aberdeen for 30 years....and yet here we are.

I don't want to play Wales. Bogeymen are real.

Thank you, appreciate this service.

Very pleased at this decision. It relegates the vaccine passport to just a waste of money and a mild risk to public health. Rather than a waste of money which does no good, while also excluding people from Scottish society (from communities we pretend we want to include). I honestly don't think the government had much of a choice, when I could work out 6 weeks ago it was impossible for this to be anything other than a very bad thing. Wish we hadn't paid those tech companies millions of pounds. But fuck it, no point throwing good money after bad.

Would appreciate an update on this at your earliest convenience. Thanks.

We should be making more out of his achievements (along with his brother), so good to see him getting some exposure.

Aye, the most popular one I see is a temperature chart that goes back to the 1800s or something. Alongside quotes like "it's the hottest year on record". Ok fair enough. But we've been keeping records for 2 seconds and it's just about the coldest it's ever been on earth. It's obviously just a point of irritation to me! The reason I think it matters though that people understand it's unusually cold today is (1) then recognising that it is going to get much hotter, with or without "net zero" (2) the planet and life as a whole will be fine when it does. I do, however, accept that humans don't adapt well to change and the faster the change happens the worse it will be. So good to slow that down and buy ourselves a couple of seconds to work out what to do next (e.g let it get naturally hotter or fuck nature and keep it artificially cold for us (and the polar bears)).

Got to say enjoyed most of the noises, re covid, from Sajid Javid on the Andrew Marr show. "We would never consider mandatory vaccines for the general population"; "vaccination should be a positive thing"; "boosters will make all the difference". That is exactly the political messaging which will maximise positive health outcomes, while minimising social costs. The EU on the other hand seem to be stirring up a public disorder nightmare, with their increasingly totalitarian approach to government.

PS regarding other species, i've already made it clear that I am on the side of the crocs not the polar bears.

The stated purpose of the chart is to represent "when people say the climate has changed in the past they mean things like this". But they are either deliberately mis-representing what those people mean or they are, themselves, very bad at understanding things and people. When people say things like the climate has changed in the past - in fact, they mean the ferociously fast changes that have occurred over the life of the earth as summarised in the chart I shared. You can make the argument about which bits of the Earth's history you think is most relevant in interpreting our current situation and you can make the argument that what matters most is the impact on the human race. However, they are not making either a relevance or humanitarian argument (that you are making). They are just being dicks and mis-representing what other people say to try to make those people look stupid. In internet speak, it's just a big straw man they have done drawed.

But loads of people are looking at the last 0.00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001% of the chart and pretending like it's the only thing that matters in the context of the earth's climate. In the context of modern human life maybe, but not the earth's climate.

I hate shit like that because it is pretending to show a long time-line when it's actually really short. Also the longer timeline shows that when the earth starts warming it often does so at ferocious speed. Whereas that chart tries to pretend it's always been smooth, except today. It's not to say that climate change is going to be good or anything or what is happening is "normal". But that chart suggests it's generally warmer today than in the past, which is not true, and that temperature variations in the past have been smooth/gradual process, which is also not true. Not a fan. I prefer the one that shows it being so warm not so long ago that there were swamps and crocodiles in the arctic 🤪

Boosters really can save Christmas (and lots of lives) if we get it into all the over 40s / 50s quick smart! Clarity of thought/communication needed from politicians here to see that this is the most important thing right now, in terms of covid. Yet yesterday the Scottish Government were pretending it's the Vaccine passport that (might) make the difference 😂. Dangerous nutters.

Lol. I am going to choose to believe this.

Yup will need years of effort and a change in mindset - we can't run the NHS down to the bone. Too few doctors, too few nurses, too few ICU beds, too little mental health provision; too much fat, too little exercise, too much alcohol (and that's just the TAMB on Monday nights 🤪)

I don't think we should ever allow people to be ill or dying on their own ever again. It's too traumatic. The family need to be able to make that decision (e.g. putting themselves at risk).

It's excellent and we should focus on that fact. It: (1) Sets expectations i.e. we can't vaccinate our way to zero deaths or anywhere close. Even if we close the 10% gap, it won't make that much of a difference, as we are already benefiting from a significant degree of protection. However, good to keep trying, but not obsess about it (e.g. through passports and punitive measures on the unvaccinated) (2) Therefore informs us that other complementary measures are needed e.g. increased NHS capacity to cope with higher intensive care demand; perhaps time-bound restrictions on indoor gatherings during periods of high infection; more general health measures to counter-act increased mortality rates e.g. fitness and nutrition, mental health, etc. Agree that in immediate term going turbo on boosters is the way to "save chrismas" as they say.