Fixtures released today, City right off the bat. Arsenal/Chelsea back to back as usual and we get to win the league at Liverpool!
Pretty good schedule. Not a lot of back to back tough games, and the end of the season looks fairly easy - be nice if we were in contention for something at the end of the season.
After a meaningless 2020, one of Summer's best days (for me, anyway) occurs today. The League fixtures are now out! That means Spurs matches can be coordinated with Wednesday's (and others) to ascertain the most advantageous times for a footy/beer-filled week in Blighty in the upcoming season. The Fall is always good when we're playing on Thursdays, as our League match will invariably go to Sunday, leaving a vast swath of Saturday options. Where to go? ... who to leave out? ... new grounds? ... the possibilities are vast. Early frontrunners include the Chelsea and Villa matches in September, as each will be preceded by a (hopefully at home) Thursday European game, Hillsborough on Saturday, plus Tuesday and Wednesday Championship fixtures. Non-League (or lower League) on a Friday night, perhaps? There's also the odd Rangers mid-week match in October ... maybe sneak a bit of Ibrox into the agenda? Just gotta get back to 100% capacaties now. Keep the vaccinations flowing, NHS!
Britain is having a hard time with the Delta variant, which is hitting unvaccinated people. We are seeing the same thing in Canada as has happened in other countries. Once the rollout gets up a head of steam, they get to 60-75% vaccinated with a first dose fairly quickly, and then it slows down considerably. Basically, this is because all those who want to get vaccinated are done. By my reckoning anywhere from 15-40% of the population will not get vaccinated (probably more in the USA), for a variety of reasons, while 99% of the people entering hospitals with covid are unvaccinated. I talk to people in my office every day who say they won't get the vaccine and when I tell them the above they kind of grin stupidly and shrug their shoulders.
Statistics are unpersuasive to the non-analytical person (and to almost anyone who's not using their analytical brain that day). Tell a story, it's more persuasive (personal stories are even more persuasive; if you have one, tell it).The IT department at a county office in Florida was hit with Covid. Five employees were definitely exposed by 'patient zero', only one of those five was vaccinated. The vaccinated person did not get infected. All of the other four caught Covid, and two of them died. The vaccinated person could have continued the spread to other departments, but that couldn't happen because they were never infected. Covid is highly infectious and virulent, unless you have the vaccine. Then, you will still be standing while others around you fall. https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/23/us/manatee-county-outbreak-spread/index.html