Saner parts of the world, such as Australia, New Zealand and South Africa (and I never thought I’d write that) are managing to go ahead with their matches, but in the Pro-14, non-cancelled matches scheduled for today are rarer than gracious election concessions by Donald Trump.
There are a couple of not-cancelled Top 14 matches that don’t appear to be available for your viewing pleasure in the UK, and the Sunday and Monday (boo, hiss) Pro-14 matches are so far still on. The English Premiership appears to be having a wee rest.
Maybe it’s just a plot to make us all savour the prospect of Friday’s Ireland v Wales supershowdown. Supposing it doesn’t get cancelled.
Fixtures not yet nixed onna telly this week
Saturday 7th November
| Australia 24 – 22 New Zealand | 08:45 | Sky Sports Arena |
Sunday 8th November
| Ospreys v Leinster | 15:00 | TG4 / Premier Sports 1 |
| Scarlets v Zebre | 17:15 | S4C / Premier Sports 1 |
Monday 9th November
| Ulster v Glasgow | 20:15 | Premier Sports 1 |
| Edinburgh v Cardiff | 19:45 | Premier Sports 2 |
Friday 13th November
| Ireland v Wales | 19:00 | Channel 4 / S4C |
Ovally Balls 
Do you mean SARS-COV-1?
SARS-COV-2 is the one that causes what we’re got now so “didn’t” should be “hasn’t” no?
Apparently, Sars the illness is really easy to spot, though. You can isolate the people without really quickly and easily. The bugger with Covid is it’s stupidly tricky.
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@craigs
I honestly don’t know why. You have the Chief Scientific Advisor in March talking one way, and more recently saying the complete opposite banging on about a decline in antibodies showing falling immunity (he knows his virology and knows full well antibodies do not form long term immunity to viruses, but T-cells do that). The recent excess deaths data suggests a perfectly normal year for respiratory illnesses plus we’ve stopped diagnosing people with influenza. Take a look at page 3 of this WHO report, you’ll see worldwide flu diagnosis dropped to zero in about April of this year – https://www.who.int/influenza/surveillance_monitoring/updates/2020_10_26_surveillance_update_379.pdf
It’s all sounding very similar to this whooping cough cock-up that occured in the States around 2006. That also used very sensitive PCR for diagnosis ….
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@tomp
Of course I did.
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OT – so the increased testing and therefore higher results lead to the govt shitting the bed?
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@craigs
It looks like that, I don’t know for sure. But the daft thing is if I know, they know too (Vallance is no idiot) and I can’t explain why they have made the decisions they have.
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Pfizer’s announcement about their apparently successful vaccine right after the election in the US strongly reminds me of the liberation of the American hostages in Iran right after Reagan was sworn in.
This is an information the Pfizer bosses must’ve had a few days ago. Cheeky if true… if not, poetic justice.
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OT – it could be The Network (I’ve been re watching Utopia recently).
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@flair
There is far too much politics around for my liking (see below). On a more technical note:
– No medicines regulator anywhere in the world has ever approved an RNA or DNA vaccine. This would be the first – it uses an “experimental approach” so we need to be very cautious.
– It also needs to be stored at -80C (liquid nitrogen temp). How stable is it when it gets above that temperature? Quite a challenge for a mass rollout of a vaccine.
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so the increased testing and therefore higher results lead to the govt shitting the bed?
I thought the issue was that there is a higher percentage of positives than earlier in the year, so that is why there is still a big worry?
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‘there’s plenty of evidence there is something like 30% residual immunity in the population already so taking into account the number of people who have had it already only a minority of us need it to achieve herd immunity.’
Herd immunity typically needs 90% plus of a population to be effective – this has typically been achieved only via use of vaccines (smallpox, polio etc.)
if 30% of people may have residual immunity in this case that’s an awful lot of people who still need to get it or a vaccine is it not? official figure for UK is 1 million odd have had it, appreciate this is likely an underestimate but if:
30% have a residual immunity – say 25 million for argument sake – plus 5 million have had it, that leaves somewhere in the region 35 million in the UK without immunity without a vaccine.
Looks a long way from achieving herd immunity unless I’m missing something.
Also, hasn’t immunity been shown to be temporary in at least some cases?
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@chimpie
No. That was part of the horseshit that was being fed to the media a fortnight ago. It was saying antibody counts drop over time so therefore immunity drops. Antibody counts fall over time after a viral infection (they ALWAYS do) and immunity comes from T-cells. Counting antibodies after a viral infection tells you bog all.
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So is immunity (however you want to measure it) been proven to be permanent?
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@thauma
There has been a massive roll out of PCR testing in the community since earlier in the year, and is increasingly done by untrained inexperienced people. The inventor of PCR said something like “with PCR if you look for something you will always find it”. It’s hugely sensitive and prone to error in the wrong hands. I don’t trust any case data from pillar 2 testing.
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@chimpie
Only time will tell. There was a T-cell paper last week that said it lasts at least 6 months (there are no studies longer than that yet).
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Not that I’m particularly a fan of lockdown.
An effective test, track trace, isolate would seem a rather better way to go about things when infection rates are low. But if infection rates are high and you want to actually prevent infection spreading what are the other options (genuine question).
Unless just not bother trying to manage it & let those who are going to peg it get on with it.
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OT – okay, but there’s still the risk of the NHS being overwhelmed, which does seem very real.
Also, some people have been confirmed to have caught it a second time, so there certainly doesn’t seem to be any long-term immunity, be it from antibodies or T-cells.
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@thauma
“Covid-19: T cell response lasts for at least six months after infection”
https://www.bmj.com/content/371/bmj.m4257
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Not sure about blanket lockdown, Craigs. Seems a bit odd, seeing as schools still open, so more like a crochet shawl lockdown.
Also, lived with a girl who worked in clinical development for Pfizer in the late 90s, thats why I was in Kent. I wouldn’t trust anything the fuckers say. One of the more interesting instances of their lack of moral fibre was the suggestion from Senior management in the US that all records of a site in Poland be shredded after several serious adverse events, which would have affected the FDA Approval. Note also that Viagra was developed as a heart drug, then a Diabetes drug, and it didn’t work, but they discovered a handy side effect which made them billions. They also forgot to mention that as well as increasing blood flow to certain specific areas that are well known, it also dilates the blood vessels to the retina, with occasional unfortunate results. yes, wanking can indeed make you go blind.
Another peach was the way they ran trials. Many local people in East Kent would take their hols doing a two week trial for a couple of thousand quid. Nice. My ex was always trying to talk me into it, until a local guy in his 20s with 2 young kids dropped dead . Never even made the papers, his family accepted a 7 figure pay out within weeks, and had to sign a non disclosure agreement, or risk waiting years in court to maybe receive a coupe of hundred thousand.
Note also they were lobbying very strongly to have all herbal medicines and supplements subject to full regulation in line with modern pharmaceuticals, while setting up several subsiduary companies to develop and patent the active ingredients in them.
Another cracking story from one of said girls mates, working for a Swiss based global company, whose entire career was based around a range of heart drugs. Turns out that the scientist who invented them 20 years before had totally faked his results, and they still got passed and rolled out commercially, and were one of the biggest sellers for two decades. Quietly withdrawn from the market by said company, but still in use as a generic drug in third world countries .
Also of interest, when the FDA testes drugs in the US, as they don’t have anyone with specific experience with that drug, they often second people who do, from the company that makes the drug. Nice little earner sabbatical for a couple of years. Always seems to work too, cos they all seem to get approval.
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:-)
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Ticht – some great screaming from Nige and maniacal laughter from Wayne their.
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I do not approve of Monday night matches. Particularly when they don’t kick off until 20:15. Harrumph.
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From what I can see over here is that lockdown measures are mainly about protecting capacity in hospitals so that other serious or emergency demands can still be dealt with. A small example being MrsIks, who’s slipped disc problem hit the buffers and she urgently needed an operation last month.
I think the lockdown measures are more to do with protecting governments from being exposed regarding the healthcare systems and funding put (or not) in place, than controlling virus spread.
Trump’s let it rip approach was pretty racist and cruel knowing there is no safety net in place for a huge underclass trapped in poverty and poor health, when dying from the virus when a real possibility. He might have killed enough potential voters to scrape past the electoral college, for example.
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21:15 in Old Europe, Thauma.
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Ouch! Best wishes to MrsIks for a speedy recovery.
Re Covid in the US, my suspicion is that the numbers of deaths (let alone cases) are probably hugely under-reported due to the number of people without medical insurance.
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@thauma
I found this data on excess deaths in the US: https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/LWq2f/6/
Looks quite nasty. They had the usual spike in April like us but had a second one in August as it obviously spread to other parts of the country. It looks like it is now declining to more seasonably normal levels but we’ll see
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Thaum (are you called Murphy?):
Agreed re numbers…………….fits with their high obesity levels as well…………………….
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These reports of a vaccine are very good news for the Tory MP’s family member who’ll get the contract for delivering it to the UK public.
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‘Mon ra Weedge! Time to move from mid-table mediocrity to slightly-higher midtable mediocrity.
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OT – well found. It seems to be running rampant in the US at the moment, but each state deals with it very differently.
Slade – no, I am not called Murphy. ;-)
Rage against the universe: Premier Sports is fucking crap this year! Stream constantly freezes.
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@tomp
She’s been eased out….
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/nov/09/uk-vaccine-taskforce-chief-kate-bingham-expected-to-quit
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@BB – will be back for a Placebo chat later. Brace yourself.
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TRY Ulster, to respond to Glasgow’s!
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‘Nother TRY Ulster (Coetzee).
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Marcell Cornelius Coetzee, apparently. I like that Cornelius.
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Matawalu starts a very dangerous play, but just stopped in time.
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John Andrew has really impressed in the last couple of matches. Flawless line-outs (yes, really!), and has just made a try-saving tackle.
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Madigan decides to go himself instead of passing for a certain one. TMO checking, but I’m not sure about this.
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No try.
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TRY!!
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Premier player is terrible tonight
And when it does work can’t see a thing cos of some lovely embra fog
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Yellow for Matawalu for a deliberate knock-on.
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Chimpie – enquiries@premiersports.com to complain.
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Thanks, fucking Premier Sports – missed Cooney’s BP try.
At first, it was okay when I took it off full screen, but now it’s also freezing in its wee version.
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So – 28-10 at HT.
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I’m not a complainer, but I will on this occasion as it’s been pish.
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It doesn’t seem to freeze during the HT adverts, for some strange reason….
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Looks like we’re moving to lower-table mediocrity…..
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Switched over for HT – that is serious fog! Bad luck Cardiff, it would seem.
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Chimpie – please do, or else they won’t fix it!
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