Perhaps also the fact that the study @GoneKloppo cites is from over SIX MONTHS ago and a lot more is now known about the risk of outdoor spread (it’s very low).
Providing numbers are limited there’s no significant increase in infections observed in those attending outdoor sporting events.
The risk continues to fall off a cliff as more people are vaccinated. More than half the UK population bow already has significant protection and Herd Immunity Threshold is expected to be reached within the next 6-8 weeks.
Except that is not what I said. I said that vaccines don’t eliminate transmission. Its right there. Unedited.
Even if you are already double vaccinated you can get infected. We have seen it several times, albeit with very mild or without symptoms. And if you can get infected, you also infect others. It will stay that way, and it will remain dangerous for anyone who has not yet been vaccinated.
The part that as a result of people attending the Liverpool homegames a few month’s back those people got COVID due to attending those matches.
Yeah fair enough. However, the whole question is how much does it contribute to hinder it on a collective level? I’d think a lot, just like people who have antibodies due to having had the illness, are less likely to transmit it for a time at least.
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I wouldn’t say they got COVID due to attending a football match. Who would know that unless there was a clear and obvious link? I would say that its a bad decision in a long line of bad decisions from our government that led to the second wave. It likely increased the spread on top of an already terrible situation that was building in the UK.
An environment where tens of thousands of likely drunk supporters are shouting and singing at the top of their lungs is a bad environment if you want to avoid COVID. I realise I am on a football forum for a team that on recent evidence is incapable of kicking a football without the fans, so I doubt its a popular opinion but I think the return of fans needs to be very carefully managed.
Are we at a point where we in the UK could actually have a third spike and not bring the NHS to its knees due to the successful vaccination programme? Potentially. But until we get the borders under control and therefore variants of concern under control, letting the virus run loose in a similar manner to management of the flu is not really the position I want this country to be in at this point in time when the severity of those variants is still very much in question.
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Perhaps we can say that vaccination effectively reduces the risk of serious illness. That includes a vaccinated person passing the virus on to an non vaccinated person (due to the effective reduced virale load). Theoretically of course.
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Yeah true. I am thinking more along the lines of the variants that don’t respond as well to the vaccinations. If those variants get a foothold here, then returning somewhat to a pre-covid lifestyle, including with football matches, could very well tip the scales back in the virus’s favour.
So the answer to my question is no. Thats why the Duch government is testing the water for festivals and football matches right now with speedtests before one can enter, should be possible in the UK too. .
I don’t understand why some posters are using evidence from pre-vaccination to say that allowing spectators back into stadiums now is a bad idea? The circumstances are chalk and cheese.
In the last six months greater studies have been done that ascertain the risk of outdoor transmission is significantly lower than being in a confined space. There is minimal risk of spreading the virus outdoors where social distancing can be maintained.
In addition to that we now have the impact of mass vaccination. The number of people now vaccinated in the UK further reduces the risk of outdoor transmission. This is the whole point of vaccines and we know that vaccines are working.
With more than 60% of the adult population now with good protection against the virus we are easily at the stage where limited numbers of fans can and should be returning to stadiums (as with the League Cup final this weekend just gone). Yes there are variants of concern but the numbers of those coming into the country are still restricted and we are now sequencing every single one of any positive test from new arrivals. The ability to track and suppress cases is vastly superior now to what it was and superior to almost every single other large country.
There is no evidence that any of the VOC’s have managed to escape the vaccines at this stage with all of them proving to be effective at preventing severe illness or death. Yes we’ll likely need boosters as we approach the winter and we also need to be alert to new variants that might escape the current vaccines (which we’re already primed for with the VGOC and Curevac collaboration) but allowing limited numbers of spectators to return to outdoor events is definitely viable right now without risking a further spike in infections.
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The best reason I can think of for not allowing fans into stadiums until next season is so the 3 city fans can’t watch them lift the title. Same goes for the parade, far too dangerous
https://www.astrazeneca.com/media-centre/statements/2021/statement-on-eu-legal-action.html
Statement on EU legal action
PUBLISHED26 April 2021
AstraZeneca regrets the European Commission’s decision to take legal action over the supply of COVID-19 vaccines.
Following an unprecedented year of scientific discovery, very complex negotiations, and manufacturing challenges, our company is about to deliver almost 50m doses to European countries by the end of April, in line with our forecast. AstraZeneca has fully complied with the Advance Purchase Agreement with the European Commission and will strongly defend itself in court. We believe any litigation is without merit and we welcome this opportunity to resolve this dispute as soon as possible.
We appreciate the work done by political leaders and healthcare professionals across the Member States that has made the rollout of vaccination campaigns in Europe possible, and we are committed to helping as much as we can. Vaccines are difficult to manufacture, as evidenced by the supply challenges several companies are facing in Europe and around the world. We are making progress addressing the technical challenges and our output is improving, but the production cycle of a vaccine is very long which means these improvements take time to result in increased finished vaccine doses.
Much work is ahead of us in the EU and elsewhere, as we continue to deal with the terrible pandemic and the roll out of vaccination programmes. AstraZeneca has an important role to play, and our intent remains to do that fairly and equitably at no profit during the pandemic in the EU and around the world.
The EU has supported the COVAX facility for equitable distribution of vaccines to low-and middle-income countries. AstraZeneca is currently the leading supplier to more than 100 countries through COVAX providing 97% of its supply to date. Each dose has been made with vaccine serum originating from outside the EU.
We look forward to working constructively with the EU Commission to vaccinate as many people as possible. Many thousands of our employees working around the clock have been driven by a passion to help the world at no profit; they remain firmly committed to delivering our vaccine to the people of Europe and around the world.
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The vaccination has been handled pretty well so far, but it has been controlled access to the most needed barckets to allow centres not to be swamped. I believe it is this week or next that they will start that age bracket 46-50.
And many that were in the brackets before have yet to get their 2nd dose. If I remember correctly, it was only the first bracket (I think +80yo) that got their 2nd shot before the government changed tac to get everyone having their first shot before focusing on the 2nd shot
45-49 has been open for a couple of weeks now. From today 44 yr olds are able to book appointments (I booked in both my first and second doses today).
They expect 40-43 yr olds from next week or the week after.
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Ah, I must have misread the headline. But still, until people get their 2nd jab it is too risky to allow mass gatherings like at the stadiums
Define ‘mass gathering’? The infection rate is extremely low across the country and in outdoor spaces it is almost zero. 1st dose already reduces the risk of transmission and nearly 2/3rds of adults in the UK have had that with more than 1/5th having had both doses.
Nearly all the priority groups 1-4 have been fully vaccinated.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/04/26/vaccine-priority-list-oxford-pfizer-moderna-who-next-covid-when-mine/
It’s 35 to 40 in Northern Ireland. Booked in next Saturday at the local Boots
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Yes, I think Wales is also ahead of England. Not sure about Scotland.
Quicker these can get to India the better
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