The Hawk

Fair enough, each to their own. I’d rather see us kick on and establish ourselves in the top echelons of both English and European football than win a 3rd tier trophy that West Ham won last season.

Am I the only one thinking that the Conference league has to take a back seat after England’s results last night all but ruled out a 5th Champions League spot? Brentford on the weekend now has more importance than this game in my eyes so personally id be starting the likes of Iroegbunam and Duran this evening.

Every week we complain about how rubbish the referees are in the UK and that they favour the big sides. But i've never seen a more incompetent refereeing performance in my entire life. He wasn't biased, just blatantly incorrect for an unbelievable amount of decisions. It was like watching the referee from Balls of Steel...

I think that’s exactly what they think. As much as I respect the FA Cup, our current league position (and even the conference knockouts) is far more important in my eyes.

Agree on the hospitalisations argument, much more compelling than the transmission argument. How likely is a professional footballer in their 20s to end up hospitalised with Covid? It does happen, but in exceptionally rare numbers. On that basis, if a player doesn’t want a vaccine because they are concerned with long term effects for example, I personally don’t believe the circumstances deserve vitriol and hatred.

With all due respect Stevo, that is not how it works. It caps out long before reaching such numbers as the previously infected aren’t continually reinfected. Nor did I frame this as a reason not to get vaccinated. I framed it as a reason to not blame all of our COVID woes on the unvaccinated. Those sorts of irrational accusations belong in the post-match threads

You’re correct in that the initial virus was roughly 3 as you say, Alpha strain roughly 4-5 and Delta 5-8. The difference between 5 vs 6 is irrelevant because in both scenarios, everyone will still eventually be infected, which isn’t necessarily the worst thing if we can manage severe outcomes (hospitalisations/deaths) via treatment protocols. Like other viruses, if the above pattern continues then over time it will become more transmissible but less deadly. Circling back to why I agree with the likes of Villalad, based on the above it isn’t going away and we must learn to live with this. Freaking out over cases and shutting down is an outdated approach.

I never thought I’d be entering a vaccine debate on VillaTalk let alone agreeing with Villalad21 but here we are. Some frighteningly simplistic viewpoints being put forward in this thread eg false equivalences comparing all vaccines as the same - they’re not... The more traditional protein-based vaccines in most cases provide sterilising immunity whereas mRNA Covid vaccines barely reduce transmission and are more of a therapy designed to reduce symptoms. A close associate of mine develops vaccines and believes the basic reproduction number (R nought) of a COVID vaccinated person at the height of their immunity period (note: these vaccines quickly wane) is roughly 5 whereas for an unvaccinated person it is 6, meaning an unvaccinated person is likely to pass on the virus to one more person than a vaccinated person at their peak immunity. Exponential mathematics show the difference between 5 vs 6 is irrelevant. Bill Gates himself says so below. I’m all for vaccinations, but blaming the unvaccinated for all our problems is a lazy, uninformed and divisive stance. We need better vaccines (or other therapeutics) before that argument stands up.

We’ve had the exact same journey my friend.

Is that why up until tonight we and Leicester were the only remaining teams that had a 100% win record after scoring first??? What a load of nonsense.

Spot on

Woah woah woah... Careful bringing those sorts of realistic expectations and rational thinking here, this thread does not tolerate it.

He would be expensive

People who can’t move on

Triple post