There is a vote on Friday on whether or not to play a shortened season, hopefully once the number of games is agreed on the fixtures will be soon after.

First SL game against Wakefield.

The email with the fixture has really ‘upset’ me for want of a better word.

Wonder when we’ll be allowed back

It will be when a large majority of society have been vaccinated.

Be a long time before we see a full Headingley im afraid

I know, that's what's depressing.

hopefully we will be able to get reduced capacity crowds sooner rather than later.

I suspect the summer before fans allowed in. Maybe June or July when 3/4 of vaccines have been given. Could be earlier depending on if they successfully stop any new variants coming in. Better days will come. Chin up everyone

Yep im sure it will cone round soon enough, like a lot of people this latest lockdown has really taken its toll mentally, so at least the rugby returning will provide a lift.

Just imagine that first few games back. It will be electric, and I hope close to a sell out here and there.

I think it will be quite emotional to be honest!

It’s taken a huge toll Christopher, know exactly how you feel. Personally very tough at times. I’m just keeping as positive as possible to get through it. Can’t bloody wait to be on the Headingley terraces with a pint. Imagine how good it’ll feel... I think we’ll all appreciate it a bit more

I'm not sure it will be.

Cases are plummeting as is the death rate (still too many).

Boris hasn't got much right but touch wood he seems to have been spot on this time.

Vaccinations are way ahead of expectations and hospital admissions are down so even more resources can now be thrown at the vaccination programme.

I don't want to count chickens just yet but a bit of cautious optimism is now possible.

I can see full grounds by July maybe even June unless the damn thing mutates and bites back.

Quote ="vastman" Quote ="Marty Grrrrrrrrrr!"Be a long time before we see a full Headingley im afraid'" I'm not sure it will be. Cases are plummeting as is the death rate (still too many). Boris hasn't got much right but touch wood he seems to have been spot on this time. Vaccinations are way ahead of expectations and hospital admissions are down so even more resources can now be thrown at the vaccination programme. I don't want to count chickens just yet but a bit of cautious optimism is now possible. I can see full grounds by July maybe even June unless the damn thing mutates and bites back.'" The scale of the roll-out has been fantastic, I still can’t get my head around how over half a million vaccinations have been done on some days. However, the attached article indicates that although you can lead a horse to water.... https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theg ... rs-england

Quote ="vastman" Quote ="Marty Grrrrrrrrrr!"Be a long time before we see a full Headingley im afraid'" I'm not sure it will be. Cases are plummeting as is the death rate (still too many). Boris hasn't got much right but touch wood he seems to have been spot on this time. Vaccinations are way ahead of expectations and hospital admissions are down so even more resources can now be thrown at the vaccination programme. I don't want to count chickens just yet but a bit of cautious optimism is now possible. I can see full grounds by July maybe even June unless the damn thing mutates and bites back.'" The scale of the roll-out has been fantastic, I still can’t get my head around how over half a million vaccinations have been done on some days. However, the attached article indicates that although you can lead a horse to water.... https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theg ... rs-england

Quote ="Mark Laurie"The scale of the roll-out has been fantastic, I still can’t get my head around how over half a million vaccinations have been done on some days. However, the attached article indicates that although you can lead a horse to water.... https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theg ... rs-england'" Madness and makes my blood boil. Won’t be liking when they can’t go on holiday where they’ll require vaccine proof. Our county may not implement it (but I think it’s likely) but vast majority world wide will. I think once the majority are vaccinated it’ll kill off a lot of the conspiracy theory nonsense.

Quote ="Mark Laurie"The scale of the roll-out has been fantastic, I still can’t get my head around how over half a million vaccinations have been done on some days. However, the attached article indicates that although you can lead a horse to water.... https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theg ... rs-england'" Madness and makes my blood boil. Won’t be liking when they can’t go on holiday where they’ll require vaccine proof. Our county may not implement it (but I think it’s likely) but vast majority world wide will. I think once the majority are vaccinated it’ll kill off a lot of the conspiracy theory nonsense.

Quote ="Mark Laurie"The scale of the roll-out has been fantastic, I still can’t get my head around how over half a million vaccinations have been done on some days. However, the attached article indicates that although you can lead a horse to water.... https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theg ... rs-england'" That's annoying but it's also press sensationalism. I may be telling you something you already know but vaccines work on percentages to create the near-mystical 'herd immunity'. Covid is not the flu virus, it can mutate but not in the almost daily way influenza does. You can't create a 'herd immunity' against the flu. Covid you can or at least in theory. Apart from the millions now vaccinated there are also many millions who have had Covid and as such have similar resistance to the virus, Note, you can never be 100% inoculated from any virus, though some like smallpox it's close. This is where the R number plays in. The battle with Covid is all about denying it a host, Once a percentage of the population is either immune or vaccinated the virus simply runs out of places to live and it dies. Now I don't know what that figure of people is but it's clear with the sharp decline in cases we are closing in quite rapidly. At some point, hopefully not too far off, anybody with Covid will find it harder and harder to come into contact with a potential new host, until such point that it simply dies in it's the existing host and can spread no more, Clearly, it's not that simple and there is still a way to go and of course the fear of a massive mutation. However, I was taking the best-case scenario and if that's right normal service will resume sooner than you think. To be fair the Government can't afford to be so optimistic, it needs to keep control for now and as we have seen a rush of euphoria too soon can have disastrous effects. So with luck, it could easily be as soon as July but luck is fickle. Note: I'm not a health professional in any way, I do try to talk to those who are and read from reputable sources but please don't book two weeks in Spain on my say so

Quote ="Mark Laurie"The scale of the roll-out has been fantastic, I still can’t get my head around how over half a million vaccinations have been done on some days. However, the attached article indicates that although you can lead a horse to water.... https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theg ... rs-england'" That's annoying but it's also press sensationalism. I may be telling you something you already know but vaccines work on percentages to create the near-mystical 'herd immunity'. Covid is not the flu virus, it can mutate but not in the almost daily way influenza does. You can't create a 'herd immunity' against the flu. Covid you can or at least in theory. Apart from the millions now vaccinated there are also many millions who have had Covid and as such have similar resistance to the virus, Note, you can never be 100% inoculated from any virus, though some like smallpox it's close. This is where the R number plays in. The battle with Covid is all about denying it a host, Once a percentage of the population is either immune or vaccinated the virus simply runs out of places to live and it dies. Now I don't know what that figure of people is but it's clear with the sharp decline in cases we are closing in quite rapidly. At some point, hopefully not too far off, anybody with Covid will find it harder and harder to come into contact with a potential new host, until such point that it simply dies in it's the existing host and can spread no more, Clearly, it's not that simple and there is still a way to go and of course the fear of a massive mutation. However, I was taking the best-case scenario and if that's right normal service will resume sooner than you think. To be fair the Government can't afford to be so optimistic, it needs to keep control for now and as we have seen a rush of euphoria too soon can have disastrous effects. So with luck, it could easily be as soon as July but luck is fickle. Note: I'm not a health professional in any way, I do try to talk to those who are and read from reputable sources but please don't book two weeks in Spain on my say so

The virus which causes COVID is a coronavirus type based on RNA, like flu viruses, and therefore mutates readily because of its structure as far as I know.

You have two problems of letting the lid off too early. One is that although we may have built improved resistance to infection in the most vulnerable, the sheer scale of infections in the rest of the population could mean that your end result numbers of hospitalisations and deaths still overwhelm healthcare services.

Secondly, letting the virus run amongst the "healthy" encourages mutation, and it's not impossible that a mutation may prove more deadly than what we see now (various significant mutations have already occurred with this coronavirus).

We need to bear in mind that there is a LAG between the numbers and statistics which are reported, and where the virus is at in the real world. By the time you see a huge spike of cases coming through it's already too late because you could lock down again and still have to wait weeks before the measures turn your oil tanker.

Having said that, I don't personally believe we can afford to wait until everyone in the country has had their 2x jabs before we open up again. If you haven't yet had COVID, you're flipping likely to after lockdown ends - but there comes a point where we have to take our chances in my view. We're not going to get to 100% vaccination anyway (and the vaccine itself is never 100% effective as has been mentioned), so we have to make a judgement.

Lockdown is not a victimless or harmless policy. People don't like it but the truth is that a human life does have a monetary value as far as the collective and the state is concerned - we cannot protect everybody from this virus 100% before the gates re-open.

Be prepared for more rolling roadblocks this year, but if common sense prevails we might have more normality for the Summer. Crowds at games? Not sure. I can see social distancing policies being in place for some time yet - maybe with significantly reduced capacity but it's so hard to predict what Govt will do. My guess would be late Summer, hope I'm wrong.

Interesting. The last paragraph is most pertinent. Following the Government's logic has proved hugely difficult even if, like me, you accept that no response to the pandemic can be even remotely close to perfect.

The battle will always be between politics, which by nature seeks the most optimistic scenario and the Science, which again by its nature seeks the most pedantry approach.

The problem with Boris is far too often he talks like a scientist but acts more like a politician. He is extreme in this duplicity even by the standards of a politician, which to be fair is what he actually is.

Sounds coming out of gov roadmap sound very promising and reasonably quick in re opening the economy. However crowds back at stadiums are a different matter.. interesting to see if pro sport gets a mention on Monday

Quote ="Mark Laurie"The scale of the roll-out has been fantastic, I still can’t get my head around how over half a million vaccinations have been done on some days. However, the attached article indicates that although you can lead a horse to water.... https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theg ... rs-england'" Vaccinations are optional folks. Let's not forget that, as that's the law! Much prefer listening to rugby debates on here, must say.......

Quote ="Mark Laurie"The scale of the roll-out has been fantastic, I still can’t get my head around how over half a million vaccinations have been done on some days. However, the attached article indicates that although you can lead a horse to water.... https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theg ... rs-england'" Vaccinations are optional folks. Let's not forget that, as that's the law! Much prefer listening to rugby debates on here, must say.......

Let’s just hope enough get vaccinated so that society can open up properly again.. but yes that’s not a debate for on here.

Agreed
And also useful to try and understand why other may have a diferent viewpoint to yours. Rather than getting angry and judgemental. That's how to build a more tolerant society...

I think that we should have a reduced of 22 rounds without the magic weekend since we do have the World Cup coming up.

Some very interesting points from Vastman and Jim, fingers crossed if we can a vaccine offer made to all adults by late June, early July we will be getting back to being a much safer country and hopefully see some live RL again.

Some very interesting points from Vastman and Jim, fingers crossed if we can get a vaccine offer made to all adults by late June, early July we will be getting back to being a much safer country and hopefully see some live RL again this year.

Levels of take up are key and in particular from those working in health care.

IF the vaccines prove 90% effective and overall take up is 80%, protection amongst adults is 81%.
If take up is only 80%, protection drops to 72% and extends all the negative impacts.
The minimum of 4million, probably twice that number who have already had Covid will also help limit further spreading.

It’s been a terrible time but we are now going in the right direction. good luck to all.

It is but only in an RL context. I've no wish to bore you with my opinions on Covid and society in general.