Well, this place is open...

:yuk:

"Wuhan has long since recovered from the world's first outbreak of Covid-19. It is now being remembered not as a disaster but as a victory, and with an insistence that the virus came from somewhere - anywhere - but here."

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-55765875

Hi Duck

Tennis players are little different...it’s all charter, and the numbers are additional to the arrival caps.

And as much as I like to watch Tennis the AO is being reported as if it might end in tears..hopefully not though, we need some inklings of normality.

And wrt Airlines selling seats for future flights, no problems...provided there is an immediate refund if the flight is cancelled. And really if the airlines want to start building confidence in travel (not that the individual Countries (States) of Australia are) immediate refund is one way of starting confidence.

Early data (and I must stress early) from Israel is showing a 30-60% drop in infections after the first dose compared to those who are unvaccinated, regardless of lockdown status. The vaccine doesn't reach full effectiveness until 2 weeks after the second dose, which has barely begun. And a few weeks yet for the numbers to show a decline in hospitalisation, ICU admission and death, which is it's real purpose. Still early days but it looks promising so far.

Another study showed 98% of healthcare workers vaccinated with two doses had high levels of antibodies, far higher than those who were infected with the virus and recovered:

Israeli hospital: 98% of staff who got 2nd shot have high-level COVID antibodies

Depends if you are a glass half full or half empty

Boris Johnson says UK COVID-19 variant could pose higher risk of death - ABC News

taken out of context completely. What they actually said was that for a male over the age of 60 (at risk) there is an “possible” increase in mortality from 10 in 1000 to 13 in 1000 could expect to sadly die. The news outlets have reported this as an increase in mortality of 30%...lies lies and damn statistics I guess.

Well the last time I was in school......10/1000 to 13/1000 was a 30% increase!

Perhaps you didn’t pay enough attention at school then to enable you to look at the detail behind the headlines?
what if you’re not an “at risk 60 year old male”? Turns out there’s not much change from the “old variant”; so it’s far from a 30 % increase in mortality. But perhaps it was a long time since you were last at school?

And I thought that we only needed to divide by 3 or was that multiply by 3 or was that add 3 to be an airline pilot! This is getting hard now. :uhoh:

With very few deaths occurring worldwide in the under 60’s.....and the overwhelming majority of deaths occurring in the over 60’s......your argument just doesn’t stand up!

i wouldn’t pay any attention to anything coming out of the UK. . Boris Johnson yesterday revealed that the Kent coronavirus strain - responsible for the soaring Covid cases recorded in the last month - could be 30 per cent more deadly than older versions of the virus.

However the PM has been accused of 'scaremongering' after failing to present any evidence to back up the terrifying development.

And the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) - the body of scientists which has advised the Government throughout the pandemic - are only 50 per cent sure the new variant could be more fatal.

Professor Robert Dingwall, who sits on the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (Nervtag) - the subcommittee of Sage which discussed the deadliness of the new strain on Thursday - said the claim that the variant is 30 per cent more lethal is on a 'very fragile' base of evidence and accused the Government of 'exploiting public fear' over the virus.

He told website Reaction: ' The 30 per cent more lethal claim about the virus rests on a very fragile and uncertain base of evidence. NERVTAG has expressed limited confidence in this figure, which should not be the basis for public alarm.'

'It is right not to hide possibly bad news but it is also quite wrong to exploit it to increase public fear and to try to shut down debates about the exit strategy from the current restrictions.'

Chief Scientific advisor Sir Patrick Vallance said during the press conference that evidence the strain is indeed more deadly is still 'weak'.

Public Health England medical director Dr Yvonne Doyle today revealed it is not 'absolutely clear' if a mutation of the virus first found in Kent is more dangerous.

Graham Medley, professor of infectious disease modelling at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said it is an 'open question' but not a 'game changer' in terms of dealing with the pandemic.

He said: ''The question about whether it is more dangerous in terms of mortality I think is still open. There is evidence it is more dangerous but this is a very dangerous virus," he said.

'In terms of making the situation worse it is not a game changer. It is a very bad thing that is slightly worse.'

And Dr Mike Tildesley, a member of Sage subgroup the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling, said it was still too early to be drawing 'strong conclusions' about the suggested increased mortality rate.

He said he was ‘quite surprised’ by the announcement and recommended waiting ‘a week or two more... before we draw really strong conclusions’.

Really, got a source for that wisdom? Never mind the consequences of the illness in many.

Maybe have a read of this, pretty horrid

https://www.theguardian.com/commenti...-at-their-door

Many sources for the age related age deaths.......
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....d6154a6afa.png
And never was implying that any death or consequences from Covid were acceptable!

I'm pretty sure that death is guaranteed? Regardless of whether coronavirus is involved. I'm also pretty sure that older and immuno compromised people are at higher risk to a whole range of infections when there are co-morbidities, or have people forgotten that?

Or as Twain said "lies, damned lies and statistics :}

Foxxster,

BoJo has previously been accused of not taking strong enough measures, now he's accused of over-reacting to a potential escalation event; Damned if he does, damned if he doesn't.

Noted that you've cherry picked statements from 'Experts', only 3 months ago 2 SAGE models were acknowledged as being grossly over estimated.

By all means ignore everything in the UK - Except the death rate, we're the 6th highest death rate globally and barring a miracle will hit 100k deaths today, the death rate has been increasing, some of it down to Xmas/New year get togethers admittedly but we're at a point where being over-cautious might just save a few lives.

To go back to the original post, there is no way Europe will be opening up before Easter.

Mortality data coming out of the UK as of the end of 2020: 80,830 registered deaths with Covid-19 in the UK.
Under 10 years: 4 deaths
Under 20 years: 20 deaths - 0.02% of all deaths
Under 30 years: 124 deaths - 0.15%
Under 40 years: 436 deaths - 0.54%
Under 50 years: 1,499 deaths - 1.85%
Under 60 years: 4,969 deaths - 6.15%
Under 70 years: 12,806 deaths - 15.84%
Under 80 years: 31,505 deaths - 38.98%
Under 90 years: 63,426 deaths - 78.47%
Over 90 years: 17,404 deaths - 21.53%

Clearly it is astonishingly small for someone under the age of 30 to die from this disease and with vaccination, we hope within the next month 85% of deaths will be prevented. That said, one of the real concerns of recent weeks is the number of 30-50 years olds currently admitted to hospital with the newer strains. We simply cannot let our guard down but this virus is also not going to go anywhere anytime soon. If we lockdown forever, we won't be able to pay for the nurses and doctors to take care of us.

I was browsing FR24 yesterday; Emirates have A380's operating a daily service to LHR, MAN and CDG, not sure of the loadings, or if this is because they've run out of B777's

QR8831(77W) departed Doha at 294 tonnes bound for Sydney which is somewhat heartening!

https://www.stuff.co.nz/travel/30021...after-new-case

BA scam
 

I bought a DFW budapest ticket with BA with a 2 hr stop on London for March. Got an email from BA cancelling my London budapest leg. Was able to get a refund for that. When I tried to get a refund for the DFW London leg = impossible
all I get is a voucher value for a year. BA does not answer the phones anywhere
talk about a scam ......