That looks very much like the as-yet-not-vaccinated teenagers are now the main victims...

One could posit they are culprits not victims.

---

That looks very much like the as-yet-not-vaccinated teenagers are now the main victims...

One could posit they are culprits not victims.

That's all a question of viewpoint and circumstances...

Other than for some 'hotspot' areas, teenagers have not yet been offered any vaccine.

Yet meanwhile, restrictions have been reduced and that age group are precisely the group that are most encouraged to socialize with the newly reduced restrictions...

They are also the group that were sent back to schools and colleges into high density living quarters...

It is almost as though they have been sacrificed by their 'elders' for the sake of boosting the economy and in the hope that not too many of them are killed or become long term disabled...


I'd describe that as victims.

As for the wider consequences...


Stay safe folks!
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

Latest from the BBC tends to confirm what you posted. Covid: Unvaccinated most at risk from Delta variant

Nearly two-thirds of people infected with the Delta variant, and more than half of those who have died with it, have not had a Covid vaccine at all, the latest official data suggests.
There have been nearly 30,000 new UK cases of the variant in the past week. The Public Health England report says it is likely to spread more easily and could make people more seriously ill. Officials say two doses of the vaccine provide "significantly more protection" than one.
The Delta variant, which was first identified in India, is now the dominant variant in the UK - accounting for 90% of cases. It is being closely monitored by PHE, who are using new genotyping tests to detect the variant more quickly as cases continue to rise.

These suggest that the Delta variant is roughly 60% more spreadable than the Alpha, or Kent, variant.

Analysis of hospitalisation rates suggests people infected by the Delta variant are twice as likely to end up in hospital than those with Alpha.

what I haven't heard anyone say is whether the current vaccines protect against the Delta variant. If the vaccines work why do I still have to wear a mask everywhere I go??????????????????????????????
I can also see it now, in 10 years we will see ads from lawyers like Dewey,Cheatim and How telling you that if you received the covid19 vaccine from ????? contact our offices for legal advice.

---

Bob DeWoody

My motto: Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow as it may not be required. This no longer applies in light of current events.

... If the vaccines work why do I still have to wear a mask everywhere I go??????????????????????????????...

Good question.

It is all a question of biology...

Yes, even when vaccinated, out in the wild, a mask should still be worn so as to be safer for yourself and for everyone around you.


As to why?: It is all a game of biology.

In brief, whichever of the vaccines will give your immune system a "head start" in the race to ramp up producing antibodies to neutralize whatever invaders got into your body.

From getting infected, having that "head start" can make all the difference between not noticing any symptoms to whereas un-vaccinated you may lose the race and die. Or for the un-vaccinated, there is any outcome anywhere in the range between from being poorly, to being badly poorly, to suffering long term disabled (or death), depending on many factors including how much virus you were exposed to and for how long.


One of the reasons we have such a rapid widespread pandemic is that the SARS2 virus, very soon after infection and before your immune system even knows anything is wrong, very rapidly replicates and spreads. Only some days later do you notice any symptoms to know that you are ill. By that time, you've unnkowingly infected everyone else around you.

The masks are to stop or at least slow down that early silent spread. (The masks also help to reduce your exposure to virus from others that might be infected around you.)


If vaccinated, your immune system (with the advantage of a 'head start' from being vaccinated) then quickly catches up and hopefully you quickly get better with hopefully only mild symptoms.


Note that I am no medical doctor. That scenario should be authoritatively available online... One to look up!


Stay safe folks!
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

what I haven't heard anyone say is whether the current vaccines protect against the Delta variant. ...
I can also see it now, in 10 years we will see ads from lawyers ... vaccine from ????? contact our offices for legal advice.

Due to the predatory lawyers and due to good science, there are no guarantees given in this game.

Getting inoculated with a vaccine against a deadly disease greatly improves your chances of surviving that deadly disease.

So far, we are seeing very good results from giving everyone a vaccine against COVID. We've now vaccinated over 70 Million people here in the UK. However, we've still another 12 Million or so adults to vaccinate yet. There's ever greater efforts being put in place to catch up with those remaining adults including special teams giving some vaccinations at home. We now have no-booking-needed just turn up and "grab a jab".


Meanwhile, the only guarantee you have is that the no-morals predatory lawyers will increase the medical bills for everyone. Best is to avoid the need to deal with such cold games.

The vaccines are vastly safer than the painful/deadly side effects from the wild SARS2 virus...

Best is to actively improve your chances!


Stay safe folks!
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

If the vaccines work why do I still have to wear a mask everywhere I go??????????????????????????????

Forgery of Vax cards.

I can also see it now, in 10 years we will see ads from lawyers like Dewey, Cheatem and Howe telling you that if you received the covid19 vaccine from ????? contact our offices for legal advice.

Doubt you will have to wait ten years for those ads, likely later this year. "Did you suffer death from the Covid VAX, call 1-888-SHYSTER call now!"

Ok...

So this is one that wouldn't pass our posting rules, but compared to postings in previous years, this is so 'gentle' from Linus as to be a tremendous triumph of understatement!

See:

Linus Torvalds tells kernel list poster to 'SHUT THE .... UP' for saying COVID-19 vaccines {supposedly} create 'new humanoid race'
wrote:

'Any Linux discussion list isn't going to have your idiotic drivel pass uncontested from me'...

And quite right too!


Stay safe and sane folks!
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

Here's an unwelcome side effect of our present measures here in the UK not being effective enough:


21 June: End of England's Covid lockdown could be delayed by one month
wrote:

The government is considering delaying the lifting of England's remaining Covid restrictions by up to four weeks...

... It comes amid growing concern over rapidly increasing cases and the higher transmissibility of the Delta variant...

... Pushing the date back would allow the vaccination programme to take greater effect, as the rollout moves through to younger age groups...

... "It's not just about the number of hospitalisations, but also the risk to the health of large numbers of younger people, who can suffer long-term symptoms."...

We are very much into a "3rd wave" and the infection numbers appear to be doubling each week. In one hotspot not too many miles from myself, the infection numbers have gone up by x2.5 over the last week!


Stay safe folks!
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

Even though there are reports that this year's death numbers from COVID-19 have already surpassed last year's, that's not quite true as China's numbers arn't included in those numbers just for starters, but it will happen in the next few of days. :-O

Anyhow by the end of the last reporting period the world's total case tally had passed 176.7 million while deaths surpassed 3,819,100 (there were just over 1.92 million deaths recorded last year).

The only change at the top end of the death list was Chile replacing Czechia in 21st place so let's now move onto the changes on the case list.

It seems of late that most of the changes are going on down at the lower end of this list starting with Fiji who suddenly leapt into the top 200, then became the 196th member of the 1K+ club and then promptly jumped into 195th place while Mauritius hopped from 193rd to 191st, Liberia performed a long jump from 186th up to 181st as Burundi moved from 171st to become the 170th member of the 5K+ club, Timor-Leste became the 161st member of the 8K+ club along with moving up to 160th and Vietnam became the 158th member of both the 9K+ as well as the 10K+ clubs (they've also completed their voyage through the void to finally catch up with the next pack of runners.

Taiwan again took a long distance flight from 154th to land in 148th along with becoming the 152nd member of the 12K+ club and is now enjoying last drinks at the bar there, the Seychelles moved up 1 spot to 146th and is also enjoying last drinks at the 12K+ club (but Taiwan could rob them of becoming the 146th member of the 13K+ club) while I can't as yet give P.N.G 137th as yet until Guadeloupe gets their next dose of numbers in, but I can now confirm Suriname claim on 136th, Réunion toppled the up and coming French Guiana from 126th and Trinidad/Tobago replaced the up and coming Rwanda in 124th, but all 4 are closing in on Australia who is slowly closing in on that cheeky little Malta (though I expect that 3 of those 4 will pass us before we pass Malta).

The D.R.C. moved up 1 place as well as becoming the 119th member of the 35K+ club, Cambodia jumped up 2 spots to 116th while Singapore was replaced by Namibia in 107th, Mongolia also decided to take a flight from 106th to 101st as Cameroon became the 100th member of the 80K+ club, Afghanistan was the 99th to join the 90K+ club as well as knocking China out of 98th and Zambia 94th to 92nd place.

Algeria moved up 1 spot to 88th, Myanmar (86th) looks to be picking up the pace again after being passed by South Korea (or more people are less worried about being arrested by the military junta than they are of dying anyway) as Cuba has finally caught up with North Macedonia claiming 83rd (though they have some well spaced out entrants to get through still), Thailand finally moved up to 79th and is preparing to enter the 200K+ club as well as making an assault on the next pack while Sri Lanka is taking its 1st bites of that pack taking 76th, Bahrain jumped up 2 spots to 69th and Guatemala took over 67th place.

Costa Rica as well as Uruguay moved past Azerbaijan into 57th & 58th places respectively, Tunisia took 54th from Croatia while Paraguay jumped over both Panama and Slovakia into 51st, Bolivia jumped over Slovakia and Kazakhstan into 49th becoming the 49th member of the 400K+ club (Kazakhstan then joined that club) as Nepal became the 40th member of the 600K+ club, Malaysia took 38th off of Austria and Switzerland became 37th country to enter the 700K+ clubhouse.

Rounding out the changes are Peru becoming the 17th country to enter the 2M+ clubhouse while Spain passed Germany before Colombia zipped past both into 10th place.

Meanwhile here down under it looks like we might hold onto 123rd place on the case until the end of the week and we're now down to 106th on the death list, but we likely lose that before the week is out. The Victorian out break is still growing slowly (approx. 93 now, but they stopped reporting the actual numbers involved), but thankfully all those cases have come from those already in isolation, though another 2 Victorian couples and a single male have been caught in Queensland without travel permits to enter the state so they're all laid up there for 2 weeks of quarantine now (at their expense and with some hefty fines pending). Anyhow, other than the 1st couple that turned up positive in Queensland from Victoria or the family that went on tour around southern N.S.W. there have so far been no locally reported infections happening in either Queensland or New South Wales because of these fools.

Well that's it for this mega update and I need a beer.

I think you tally would have more meaning if it were listed as a percentage of the country's total population.

---

Bob DeWoody

My motto: Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow as it may not be required. This no longer applies in light of current events.

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/#countries, this page has cases and deaths per million of population listed as well as country populations if you want to work out percentage numbers for yourself Bob, but no matter how you cut it or dice it if all things were equal then that page would look more like this one, https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/population-by-country/. ;-)

Sadly things like attitudes, greed, politics, poverty, war and how well some countries' governments are/were willing to look after their populations' well being while some others didn't/havn't bothered with them have greatly screwed what should be equal. :-(

That doesn't work either. The Worldometer site allows you to sort by 'per capita' but if you do that most of the top twenty countries are places with very small populations. Like Monaco and Andora, with only a few of countries with populations over 10 million in the top twenty, but for cases the U.S. is in 14th place. India with its huge population, and probably inaccurate numbers, is at about 100th place in both lists.

What is probably more important for those that travel or want to restrict visitor for high rick countries is the "Trends" listings, but again these have to be taken with a bucket of salt handy as some countries numbers are not believable. And the numbers from countries you can trust are probably not gathered with the same standards.
i.e. some countries report all deaths where Covid appears on the death certificate and other only say it is a Covid death when it is the number one cause. This also occurs in the U.S. as not all states agree to the same standard.

No surprises here in the UK that we are suffering the consequences of:

• a more virulent COVID variant;
  
• not enough people usefully wearing masks;
  
• and not enough people yet vaccinated:
  

Covid: Lockdown easing in England delayed to 19 July
wrote:

... Mr Johnson said going ahead with stage four on 21 June would mean "a real possibility" of the virus outrunning the vaccines, leading to thousands more deaths which could otherwise have been avoided.

The delay would give the NHS "a few more crucial weeks" to get people vaccinated...

... "Our task is to make sure the vaccine can get ahead in the race between the vaccine and the virus... it isn't over yet."...

... Attendees will have to show proof of vaccination or a recent negative test. Capacity limits will continue at other venues and nightclubs will stay closed.

Advice to work from home where possible will remain in place...

Stay safe folks!
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

One may add to your list, to paraphrase someone being ejected from a shop last week
"Why bother wearing a mask, social distancing blah blah blah, lockdown ends next week and a few days won't matter"
Which I translate as. "The rules don't apply to me"

---

Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

Every Mask Wearer has their EYES EXPOSED.

Like Two Little BULLsEYEs. One on each side of Your Nose

So What GOoD is a Mask?

Yep

---

May we All have a METAMORPHOSIS. REASON. GOoD JUDGEMENT and LOVE and ORDER!!!!!

Problem solved Dull. ;-)

Provide info on size of CV 'droplet' and info on Size of mask pathways. Gots to have a 'Size' aka Length and Width between 'fibers'. Gotta breathe Right? And dA 'Size' allows 'Proper' Airflow so People don't 'Pass Out'. Also wat is 'Average' 'Gap' Size when Mask 'Seal' is Against Face. Depends a lot on 'bumps'; hair, and other skin/bone irregularities.

After You Provide these 'Measurements', then Tell Me there is NO WAY a CV droplet can 'Get Through'.

Is a CV 'Droplet' always One Alone Droplet or do they come in DROVEs of.......many?

C'mon. Get SCIENTIFIC and MATHEMATICAL and Give Us dA FACTs.

Yep

---

May we All have a METAMORPHOSIS. REASON. GOoD JUDGEMENT and LOVE and ORDER!!!!!

... Tell Me there is NO WAY a CV droplet can 'Get Through'. [a face mask] ...

The big help there is that the COVID coronavirus has to hitch a lift on water droplets...

• When we breathe,
  
• more so when we speak,
  
• even more so when we sing and shout,
  
• drastically so when we sneeze:
  

We spread water droplets and spit droplets out on our breath.


Everyone does so. Even if you cannot see the droplets and spit, if you are human and breathing, then you spread water droplets and spit.

Hence why we have a COVID pandemic!


Which is where face masks for covering you mouth and your nose are very effective and good.

Most of the spit and water droplets get caught in the face mask. Simple. Proven. Demonstrated and well tested.

Face masks, when worn over your mouth AND over your nose, work very well.

Face masks also can save yourself from the infected spit from others around you.


Obvious really.

Just like when workmen wear face masks (or should do!) when cutting building materials or working in dusty workplaces.

Just like when coal miners wear their masks for work.

Same thing. Just that the dust particles are instead: Infected water droplets and infected spit.


What is better? A face full of unprotected infection? Or a clean face behind a pretty mask?

Face masks have even become a trendy fashion item now!


Stay safe folks!
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

We really do need more people properly wearing their mask and getting vaccinated ASAP:


Covid: Epidemic growing across England...
wrote:

The Covid-19 epidemic in England is growing, ... with much of it being driven by younger people who are not yet vaccinated...

... Everyone over the age of 18 in England will be able to book their Covid-19 vaccine from Friday, Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced...

... "We can take quite a lot of comfort from the fact that when we look in the details, it does appear that there is very, very good protection in the older ages, where there is virtually everyone double vaccinated.

"The government has clearly announced that they want to vaccinate all adults in the period between now and 19 July...

Here's hoping we can get that done!

Or do we suffer the lockdowns lingering on longer yet?


Stay safe folks!
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)