CityCyclingEdinburgh was launched on the 27th of October 2009 as "an experiment".
IT’S TRUE!
CCE is 15years old!
Well done to ALL posters
It soon became useful and entertaining. There are regular posters, people who add useful info occasionally and plenty more who drop by to watch. That's fine. If you want to add news/comments it's easy to register and become a member.
RULES No personal insults. No swearing.
Suspect we are about to see numbers we can't comprehend.
Must admit, before now only really my son and his class that I personally know has had Covid.
Now my FB feed is full of relatives posting pictures of +ve tests.
Hopefully the vaccines do their job...
I'm seeing some discussion of figures in South Africa for hospitalisations and deaths being lower than previous waves of Covid. Several possible explanations, including demographics (younger population); co-morbidities (fewer obese, etc.); vaccine rollout (older people better vaxxed than younger); and more alarmingly, "herd immunity" from prior infection.
This latter is supposedly because SA had a big wave earlier of the Beta variant, which some virologists claim is closer in mutated structure to Omicron. UK did not see much Beta, but had a big Delta wave (which is still going). Beta variant (and likely Omicron) is apparently better at negating effects of AZ vaccine, which as you may know was largely administered in UK to people between ages of 40 and 60. Omicron apparently also shares some characteristics with Gamma variant, which caused big death toll in Brazil but which UK didn't see much of.
TL;DR: - 1. Don't rely on AZ vaccine and get a booster (Pfizer/Moderna) ASAP. 2. Observe social distancing, mask up, etc. Now.
P.S.:- Neighbours in flat downstairs have covid. Big notice on their door, and I can literally hear them coughing through the floorboards. I hope they get better soon.
Note to self: don't host nor attend any parties anytime in the near future.
In other news, EICC will once more become a mass vaccination centre. Not before time! Baffled as to why NHS Lothian closed it in the first place...
I am struggling to cope with irony that after however many months in which we have been very, very isolated, with only a few, carefully chosen events, mostly outdoor, I am stuck* on a ward of a children's hospital surrounded by coughing children (PCR tested) and their unmasked parents (not tested). Now, of all times, when the FM is saying "'stay at home much more than you normally would'"
(alternating each 24 hours with MrSRD)
@crowriver: Re. the EICC: maybe the council hoped to be able to start running events there again soon?
It looks like the NHS came within a whisker of losing the Ingliston facility this week: Rave cancelled over threat to vaccination centre
The first minister was asked by Scottish Lib Dem leader Alex Cole-Hamilton about Saturday's planned event at the Royal Highland Centre.He said operators were contractually obliged to begin dismantling the vaccine operation on Tuesday.
But Ms Sturgeon said action was under way to cancel the rave.
Regardless of how individual people are responding to the current situation, it seems that there are plenty of businesses out there who want to [continue to] behave as if life was somehow back to normal.
@SRD - nothing serious I hope. Sending you all best wishes.
@ejstubbs, that's capitalism!
@SRD, hope your wee one gets better soon.
List of drop-in centres/opening times for boosters:
https://theedinburghreporter.co.uk/2021/12/coronavirus-drop-in-clinics-in-edinburgh/
https://www.ft.com/content/020534b3-5a54-4517-9fd1-167a5db50786
"The study finds no evidence of Omicron having lower severity than Delta, judged by either the proportion of people testing positive who report symptoms, or by the proportion of cases seeking hospital care after infection,” said the research team, led by Professor Neil Ferguson, an infectious disease modeller and government science adviser."
Covid in Scotland: EICC to open as mass vaccination centre on Tuesday
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-59698098
^ It's a bit dispriting to read that people are trying to get their second vaccinations so that they can spend time with their families at Christmas. Do they not understand the time it takes for the vaccination to take effect. I mean, we've only been getting information about the vaccines for a year.
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A third piece of hopeful news is that scientists have uncovered a possible biological explanation for Omicron’s apparent reduced severity. This work was carried out by Michael Chan Chi-wai at the University of Hong Kong who found that although the new variant is much more efficient, compared with Delta, in reproducing in the upper respiratory tract, where it can be coughed out onto others, it is far less efficient in spreading in the lungs where it would pose the greatest danger to an infected person.
In this way, the variant may spread between individuals far more quickly but not reach more vulnerable parts of their anatomies. This would reduce the severity of illness it can trigger.
“
Hospitality disconnect?:
1. We need compensated for staying open while our customers stay at home.
2. We're sorry - we are closed today due to staffing issues caused by Covid.
It's strange why people can't understand that customers may also have jobs too, often in hospitality!
In an alternative reality no-one would have cancelled and we could all have got on with Omicron faster. But... surely that would have closed pubs and cafés completely?
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Scotland cancels Hogmanay street parties and makes sporting events spectator-free for three weeks
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Gillian Keegan, the care minister, refused to rule out lockdown measures being introduced in England shortly after Christmas and said 129 people had been hospitalised and 14 had died with Omicron in the UK.
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NHS may set up ‘field hospitals’ in carparks to cope with Omicron
Hospital canteens, offices and meeting rooms could also be turned into wards if health service is overwhelmed
“129 people had been hospitalised and 14 had died with Omicron in the UK.”
Omicron was only identified in South Africa on 23rd November.
Given the previous pattern of around 10 days to hospitalisation/14 days to death of previous variants then those figures aren’t pointing towards it necessarily being any milder.
Got to hope the boosters do the trick.
Got to hope the boosters do the trick.
I am really hopeful. Mr Bill got his booster a week before I tested positive and kept testing negative all the time during my recovery. He felt tired but that was probably his body fighting off the virus.
@bill, if his body was fighting off the virus, I think he would have tested positive.
Why is it always fitbaw fans? Not doing much for the perception of the sport as being for knuckledragging primitives there lads.
Fitbaw cancelled, but presumably riots in George Sq still permitted...
Yodhrin - not surprised at this, especially the age group of folk concerned. I often attend football matches and am one of the very few to wear a mask in my seat (you don't have to!).
Also despite being told you need to wear a mask if you leave your seat a significant number don't.
I actually skipped this match due to concerns about catching COVID then travelling to visit vulnerable relatives during the holiday. For me it’s not actually in the stadium where the risk lies (allocated seating, an older/more sensible crowd where I am all double vacced and boostered) but the getting to and from it. Public transport and crowds of people in varying states of inebriation made me feel nervous at the Cup Final on Sunday and we drove there and back as we considered the supporters buses just too risky
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However, scientists have continued to stress the need for extreme caution over the next few weeks and to consider further restrictions. “The wiser course is clearly to do everything we can to minimise transmission while the size and nature of the impact of Omicron clarifies itself and while everyone who is willing gets a booster and gets time to mount an immune response to it,” said Professor Adam Finn of Bristol University. “Better to take the flak for overreacting than for failing to act when there was still time.”
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https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/dec/25/now-tory-mps-warn-dont-toughen-covid-new-year-rules
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