But if you are young and healthy and catch Covid, and only have mild symptoms, you still spread the virus around, and potentially infect vulnerable people. If you take the vaccine you protect others.



Same with this I suppose. The masks aren't perfect, but their main purpose is to stop the virus getting out through the mask to other people, rather than to stop it getting in. Masks are more about protecting others than about protecting yourself. Yes, I agree they're by no means 100% effective - but any protection, even partial, is better than none.



You're right, I shouldn't group together everyone who doesn't want the vaccine. But regarding the point that 'if you get vaccinated, you don't have to worry about me getting vaccinated'... yes, I personally don't have to worry, but you can still infect others who haven't been vaccinated.



Finally, I totally agree with this. Almost all of the blame for the current situation lies with politicians not wanting to be unpopular. If every government around the world had implemented immediate 2-week quarantining of people entering the country, and had done so as soon as it became apparent that China had a problem in January 2020... then the result would have been no pandemic, no lockdowns within countries, no masks, etc. But governments aren't like that. They don't take action to prevent a problem, instead they wait until something becomes a problem, wait a bit longer until it becomes a really big problem, then finally, much too late, decide to try to do something about it.

Yes, that's how it works. Some we sanction, some we regard as trusted friends, some we sell weapons to.

And as shocking as their treatment of women is, that's not even the main issue in the UAE... 88% of the 'population' consists of migrant labourers who are effectively slaves. Look at this report from the International Campaign For Freedom in the UAE.

It is to an extent about young and old, though. If you're young and healthy then chances are you won't suffer serious effects... but that's not really the point. If you're young and healthy and coughing Covid onto everyone, chances are you'll infect someone who is more vulnerable.

For the young and healthy, vaccination isn't so much about protecting the individual as it is about protecting the more vulnerable people in society. Same with face masks, social distancing, etc.
Anti-vaxxers can kill other people by refusing to take the vaccine.


I think it's more about morality and empathy. The selfish, and those who want to protect everyone.

Absolutely. I'm eagerly awaiting my chance to take the vaccine.


I would guess that's not as effective an approach. But why guess? Let's await the data.

If anyone from the UK is reading this thread, it's the same here, too. Converting, for example, some Bitcoin into Ethereum is a taxable event, based on the price as at the moment of conversion. If you keep your trades below the capital gains threshold, you should be okay... but any gains over that need to be reported, as I think do trading volumes above a certain threshold, irrespective of whether or not you profit.


Me neither. There are plenty of qualified accountants who are happy to provide advice on crypto. By all means listen to random forum posters like me, but if you want proper advice then go to the experts.

Villa are difficult to work out, too. They look solid defensively, but obviously with Grealish out, you'd think they might struggle to create chances. As it was, it took them only 5 minutes to break through, with El Ghazi continuing his superb 20/21 goal-scoring form, and then Villa just closed the game down. Once they go ahead, they're difficult to beat. But if you can score against them first, the game remains more open, and it's a different story.

The transmissibility/virulence trade-off does intuitively make a lot of sense... the more deadly a thing is, the less likely an infected person is to pass it on to others. If someone is incapacitated with Ebola, they're very obviously sick and precautions are taken around them. Or they die and the virus dies with them. Compare with someone with mild Covid coughing and sneezing it out around the community.

It seems reasonable, but from the latest meta-analysis I've found, I don't think the evidence is yet conclusive. More study (or study of studies) needed!

The crux of this is science vs faith.

BADecker, those of us with scientific backgrounds use science as a tool to determine truth. We start from a hypothesis, an idea of a thing that might or might not be true. Then we gather data to test the hypothesis. We analyse the results and use these to reach a conclusion as to whether or not the original hypothesis is correct. We start from an idea, and then gather facts to determine whether or not the idea is correct. This is how science builds up over centuries, experiment after experiment, evidence upon evidence.

Your arguments aren't like this, they're faith-based. You start from a conclusion, and then seek out opinions and selective facts that back-up your pre-conceived idea of what is true. I challenged you last month to give me an example of one single occasion when you have changed your mind on something after being presented with facts and evidence. You failed to do so.

We are using logic, and facts obtained through the application of the scientific method, to try to convince you. We are linking to datasets, papers, charts. I've done this I don't know how many times, and I'll concede that it's the wrong approach, because science will not defeat a faith-based position. God of the ever-diminishing gaps, but for as long as we don't have a scientific explanation for every single aspect of reality, then faith-based arguments, although ever-weakening, will persist. We can't use science, logic, facts, evidence to convince you.



But similarly, as your argument is faith-based, you shouldn't be searching for 'facts' to reinforce your position. If you want to use facts, then use them correctly. Start from an idea and use facts to reach a conclusion, not the other way around. If instead you want to start from a conclusion, then fine, do so, just don't try to support a faith-based conclusion with facts.

Confidence plays a huge part in sport, and in the form of football teams especially. If you start on a bad run it can be difficult to shake yourself out of it. But the effect does seem to be stronger than usual this season. Perhaps the absence of fans plays a part? If you're low on confidence and struggling for form, you can usually still get a big lift from a home match with thousands of screaming fans... but with a silent stadium you're alone with your thoughts and I'd imagine it can be difficult for teams in this situation to start winning again.

I suppose the key consideration is that a terrible season for Messi would still be a wonderful season for anyone else. The standards he has set over the years are so remarkable, but we have just grown used to them. A 'terrible' season for Messi means simply that his performances have slipped from the miraculous to the merely brilliant. This season's La Liga top scorers:

I think the points difference only tells part of the story. Recent form is the key factor. A few weeks ago I was saying that no-one could catch Atletico. That has really changed now. Atletico were winning everything and other teams were dropping points all over the place... but now Atletico look like they're stumbling whilst the other top teams have become remorselessly consistent. The way it's going, you can see that by say 27 or 28 games played, Atletico might no longer be top.

"Smallpox is estimated to have killed up to 300 million people in the 20th century and around 500 million people in the last 100 years of its existence, as well as six monarchs. As recently as 1967, 15 million cases occurred a year."

Smallpox has now been eradicated. Why would the Covid vaccine be any different?

_{https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smallpox#:~:text=Smallpox%20is%20estimated%20to%20have,million%20cases%20occurred%20a%20year.}


Of course I'm being flippant, but it's a fair point. In practice the Covid vaccine is more likely to be similar to the flu vaccine, and probably administered as an annual shot to cover new variants. Covid is unlikely to be eradicated, but the vaccine will be a life saver on a huge scale.

The premier league has been really unpredictable this season, and has thrown up plenty of weird results. But yes, I agree with this. The one (near) certainly in every round of fixtures is that Man City will win. West Ham are playing great, and would beat most teams at the moment... and yet City will likely just swat them aside.

Imagine if City get Messi this summer  

This is true of most governments around the world.

I don't think the issue is so much with 'normal' people who migrate from one country to another, it's more to do with the way that modern nations work. It's standard divide and conquer. Get the masses fighting amongst themselves, to distract from what's really happening: the powerful exploiting everyone else.

We've had the same in the UK. First it's black and Asian people 'coming over here and taking our jobs', then it's the Europeans, then it's Irish Travellers, then it's [insert next minority group to oppress and demonise]. The poor fight amongst themselves, whilst the rich get richer. So convenient that the rich control the media.

I don't think the quote in the OP's post should be any surprise to anyone:

"American imperialism rages on no matter which party is in power"

The 'American imperialism' part is true because the US are at present the most powerful nation in the world. It doesn't say anything really about the US, it's a general point and of course a truism: the powerful exploit their power. This is as true of nations as it is of individuals. Go back a century and the US were much less of a global disruptor, it was for example the UK and France who carved up the middle-east between them in 1916, leading to much of the modern-day trouble in the region. Go back further to Spain conquering South America, to Rome subjugating various European tribes, back nearly 5000 years to Sargon the Great unifying Mesopotamia... same story throughout history.

The 'no matter which party is in power' bit is reflective of the state of modern 'democracy', and probably deserves its own thread. The differences between Republicans and Democrats are very narrow; there is a consensus on almost everything. Same in a lot of countries. Same in 1726: How to eat a boiled egg

And if, as we expect, having the vaccine means you're less likely to transmit the virus, then there's less chance of that 94yo passing the virus onto her similarly-aged friends, or spreading it around a nursing home, etc.

The main reason that healthy people of any age should take the vaccine is to protect other, more vulnerable people. Same with face masks, etc.

The two ways to beat this thing are a) vaccinate everyone, or b) let everyone catch it, and in certain cases, die. That's it; they're the options. It won't just go away by itself.

This one is very difficult to call. As you say, both have been in good form, although Chelsea have had more wins and Man U have had more draws. I think it's too close to call, and a draw in this match is the most likely outcome, particularly with Chelsea being at home.

I'd say that every human in the US is a foreigner. And unless 100% of your ancestors came across the frozen Bering strait tens of thousands of years ago dressed in animal skins, then you're not an original settler, you're a foreign invader, too.

People move about, always have. A lot of recent migration around the world is due to difficult economic situations and unstable regimes in poorer nations - a large part of the cause of which is the various acts of transgression, colonisation and exploitation on the part of richer nations such as the western Europeans and, since WW2, the US.

'Foreigners' is misleading. 'Invaded' is provocatively emotive, and untrue.

The issue for me with this one is the difference between a trend and individual data points (a bit like bitcoin daily prices). 2021 will likely be hotter than most years in recorded history... but at the same time it is likely to be either slightly warmer or slightly cooler than 2020. In the absence of any information that could mark 2021 as a statistical outlier, I think 'slightly warmer or slightly cooler' than last year will be the outcome, with little to suggest which will be the answer.

Vettel still has a lot of doubters, me included. To some people he doesn't have to prove anything, to others he does. It certainly won't look great for him if Stroll outperforms him - not that I'm expecting that to happen, I think Vettel will beat Stroll, because Stroll on evidence so far is an average driver at best, whereas Vettel is a good (but not great) driver.