Books finished this week:
The Light at the Bottom of the World – London Shah
The Light at the Bottom of the World tells the story of a 16 year old British/Afghan/Muslim girl named Leyla McQueen and her quest to save her papa. Set in a post-apocalyptic world flooded when an asteroid struck the earth, Leyla is a submarine pilot who enters the “London Marathon” – a submarine race – in the hopes that she would win the ultimate prize, her father’s freedom. What she finds instead are questions about every truth she holds dear.
Written in first person, the novel is ostensibly a travel story but Shah uses most of the narrative to explore the emotions of the 16 year old protagonist. We are often jarringly shifted from something that Leyla is looking at to the character’s thoughts. Instead of rich descriptions of action or even the environment, Leyla is consumed by fear of the unknown and torn between the comfort of her old way of life and the new reality she faces.
We dive more into the depths of Leyla’s thinking than we do into the depths of a world covered by water and full of strange new creatures. And for a story in which the earth is covered with hundreds of feet of water, Leyla’s emotions are surprisingly shallow.
Shah’s action scenes are well written but they are few and far between. Most of the book is dedicated to what Leyla is thinking and since Leyla seems to only think about a few things (mainly her papa – a word that Shah uses on roughly every page) the book quickly becomes repetitive.
There is also a love-hate story with a character named Ari. Shah “shipped” Ari on the journey with Leyla: Leyla was forced to take Ari when her grandfather insisted that he travel with Leyla on her quest to find and retrieve her father. Leyla and Ari butt heads over most decisions and after each we dive into Leyla’s head to find her gazing (another word that Shah uses on nearly every page) at Ari’s smouldering good looks or some other vapid conclusion. The love story, like so much else in this novel is frustratingly simplistic.
The Light at the Bottom of the World was recommended to me because I wanted a more hopeful science fiction novel to read with my child. So much fiction is dark and “post-apocalyptic” and reflects the fears of those of us living with climate and societal collapse. I wanted a break from that but sadly the Light at the Bottom of the World doesn’t even offer that break. It is just as dark and nihilistic as most fiction but with the added annoyance of poor writing and fanfic romance.
Sorry, but I cannot recommend this book.
Matches watched this week
Coincidentally, I watched the Atalanta-Bologna match this week. The coincidence being, of course, that Arsenal bought Bologna player Tomiyasu a few days later. In my match notes I mention that Arnautovich plays for Bologna now – in case you’re wondering where he went – and I have a note here that Atalanta’s Muriel seems to be confused where he should be playing at times but nothing at all about Tomiyasu. He didn’t start but he did come on in the 80th minute to play left wing back. I do vaguely remember him dribbling someone and putting in a cross but I didn’t note it in my book.
OM-ASSE: Guendouzi scored for OM as they ran out 3-1 winners over St. Etienne. Once again Cengiz Under stole the show for Marseille. It was his blazing run down the right and cross which set up the American Konrad to slot the final ball for Guendouzi to put away nicely. Marseille play a weird kind of football but Under has been the star this season. He benefits from having Payet in the middle and Konrad on the opposite side. In midfield, Marseille deploy a 343 diamond with Guendouzi ostensibly on the left. Saliba plays RCB in the back 3.
Guendouzi is the same as ever, falling over, holding on to the ball too long, and often running wildly all over the pitch. But he’s added some goals recently and that tends to paper over his negatives. Saliba is pretty tidy in defense, good in possession, but he did do the thing where he lost the ball and lunged in to win it back. I’m calling this “the Saliba” until I see someone else do it. He wasn’t carded as the referees in France are following the same guidance that the referees in England are following and letting more rough play go.
Squad news
Granit Xhaka tested positive for COVID this week and the Swiss national team coach revealed that Xhaka – it turns out – is not vaccinated.
Amazing.
I can’t figure out if Xhaka is an elaborate prank on us, a piece of performance art, or if we are living in a surrealist painting. Here is a professional athlete, whose entire career depends on his health and especially his lungs, a man who is supposed to be a leader on this team, who has just been awarded a huge new contract with Arsenal, and who has a responsibility as one of the older players on the team to lead the younger players, to show the younger players that standing up for each other, protecting each other, is one of the most fundamentally important things that a teammate can do, choosing not to take a vaccine against a potentially deadly virus.
What I also can’t understand is why Arsenal football club don’t have a vaccine mandate. I have one at my job. A lot of folks have a vaccine mandate for their jobs. How is it possible that Arsenal football club would take such a massive risk with long-term health problems of their valuable assets by not having a vaccine mandate?
And let’s say that they can’t do that? Ok, fine. But then why are we giving contract extensions to a guy who refuses to get vaccinated?? He’s not only putting his own health at risk, he’s potentially costing you points. Every time one of your players tests positive for COVID they need to isolate and quarantine. So, if he gets COVID and passes that on to other players who have had the vaccine and let’s say he gets Saka sick next and Saka can’t play for us for 10 days, that means he’s not just hurting himself, he’s hurting the rest of the team!
I just can’t understand this football club. I can’t understand the thinking of someone like Xhaka. And while I know we are supposed to “support the players in the shirt no matter what” I find it really difficult to support a guy like Granit Xhaka because he fundamentally doesn’t seem to support us.
Over here in the UK an employer cannot make vaccination a condition of employment as the government have not made it compulsory.
Not entirely sure about this but I would think that they can’t even ask them whether they have / intend to have it. All they can legally do is encourage people to be vaccinated.
Yes, and employers are not required to give moronic footballers who refuse the vaccine a longer contract with a pay raise.
Yes and to not do so they have to have the info which they are not allowed to ask about. Unfortunately, asking about such things can lead to discrimination claims in this country.
It’s bonkers but Arsenal may not have known that he was not vaxxed. I’m surprised the Swiss FA were allowed to disclose the info.
But, bottom line it is nuts to not be vaxxed especially when your job depends on your health.
Think about HIV vaccine unavailable close to half a century on yet a covid one here in less than a year. This vaccine and the silencing of its critics tells me… It is more than just a vaccine. m-RNA being a biochemist is a means of changing protein synthesis. Its potential is unimaginable once in the body system.
In addition, imagine getting a vaccine that only sets you up to 20 or 30% preparation for the next episode of infection while abdicating the protection offered by other drugs in the vaccine spectrum.
Thank you! I don’t just get it. What’s the difference between those who took the jab and those who don’t when a fully vaxxed person can still contract it when close to an infected person?
It doesn’t appeal to sense
I was reading elsewhere today that 30% of English footballers have chosen not to be vaccinated.
I’m digging this book review format. I like when you share what you are reading. Did you get a chance to read Jessica Luther’s Loving Sports…? I remember you mentioned something some time ago.
I’m going to keep this brief. I come on here because Tim’s a good writer and most of you have thoughtful comments.
I think football is a beautiful way to express and explore our emotions through the prism of our respective teams. I think that may be one of the great benefits it offers, because it’s not often that we are given outlets like that in this world.
However some comments made on the last post were upsetting and in reference to our female director of football. Look it’s fine if you want to pile on Chelsea, and make the implication that we are no financially honest. We are; although it’s kinda rich coming from you guys, who needed an internal audit.
Simply put it’s not ok to discredit and devalue the work of one of the foremost women in football because a) she is a woman and b) she happens to be Russian.
I agree and I found your responses both measured and civil in the face of provocation. Well done.
PS I also love your nickname. Well played.
PPS: And now that I’ve complimented a Chelsea fan I feel like I need to take a shower. Not personal of course. It’s just… friggin Chelsea. I’ll never forgive your club for taking over football in the mid 2000’s.
X2
A provocation doc?
Jesus, a Chelsea bantz on an Arsenal blog , whoever thought this was even possible.
I don’t care how well Chelsea are being run these days , we all know where Roman’s money came from.
Fu#k Chelsea and any Chelsea fans who get easily offended on an Arsenal blog.
Maybe after a bit of introspection you’ll understand that what you said is disgusting…?
As someone brought up in a broken home by my single mother, I saw first hand how women are marginalized, demeaned, defamed and taken advantage of. As an entrepreneur my mother rose from a position as the MD’s secretary to eventually replacing her boss as the majority owner of the company- the only woman owned company in that industry in the country.
As a result my mother worked 18 hour days- she had to work so much harder than her male peers whilst providing for her children without any support from my biological father. My younger sister and I hardly ever saw her whilst she worked herself to an eating disorder and peptic stomach ulcer. The ulcer was so bad that she didn’t go a day without vomiting and in her old age she has lost all her teeth as a result.
And you know what the perception of her was? That she slept her way to the top.
As a (male) Arsenal supporter, I take serious umbrage to what you said. That’s not banter, man. Get a life.
Not sure if this will get censored or not https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slut-shaming
The backlash for my joke has been quite stunning considering the Sharon Stone character in the movie referenced was just about the most clever person in every room she entered and she achieved her position through her brilliance.
Your “joke” implied that Chelsea closed deals via a woman’s vagina. Not through said woman’s brilliance or intelligence, purely through her vagina.
You deserved the backlash. And rather than apologise, you went on the offensive and tried to dress it up as “banter”.
100% with you on this. That comment made me uncomfortable as well, and I should have said something.
I’d be happy if Arsenal had an employee as competent and successful as Marina has been in that role.
I’d rather support a club that stumbles around mid table or worse before I respected what Chelsea stand for.
Fu#k me, Wenger couldn’t get a transfer over the line because Chelsea would swoop in and offer more money for his targets soon after Roman took over.
How quickly we forget.
meh, i took it as a joke. you’ve been around the forum long enough to get a feel for some of the personalities. i think you would know tom’s by now. likewise, i took it as more of a criticism of arsenal’s transfer business than a degradation of a russian woman.
A fan of a club that had at one point 41 players out on loan clutching his/her pearls on Arsenal blog at some banter suggesting Chelsea might be taking advantage or abusing regulations is priceless.
“What I also can’t understand is why Arsenal football club don’t have a vaccine mandate.”
In my line of work, I’d love for there to be a mandate on lots of things. There were anti-vaxers well before COVID, so I’d love to see an MMR mandate. We had measles in schools presumably because of an overabundance of anti-vaxers. There should also be an insulin mandate for diabetics and a blood pressure drug mandate for people with hypertension. Let’s stamp out diabetes and hypertension. Why not? It would save hundreds of lives. But this can be a slipperly slope. How about a no smoking mandate? And what about all that crap we put into our bodies? Bacon? Candy bars? Definitely no sugary beverages. And alcohol is just straight up poison. Oh wait, we just legalized marijuana, that’s got to go too. Do all that and people will live longer and be much healthier and even happier. But we all know it’s not happening because that would require living in essentially a police state.
It comes back to that old freedom vs. the common good thing, doesn’t it? Fundamental to any democratic government is the premise that its citizens should be free to make bad choices for themselves. Being a doctor doesn’t stop me from enjoying bacon and beer just like anyone else. And if I want to blow my money on a fancy sports car, I don’t need uncle sam to tell me it’s a bad idea and take away my keys. I already know. I’m doing it because I can. It’s going to be bad for me and bad for my family but somehow it’s even worse if the government steps in to stop me. After all, isn’t that the idea that America holds most dear: The pursuit of happiness? It’s also our country’s greatest downfall precisely because of issues like this. Overly obsessing about freedoms mean we can’t come together on basic societal issues like vaccination. This kind of tension between freedom and the greater good will always exist and I’d argue it’s for the better. A dominance of any ideology tends to lead to extremism and that’s never good for anyone. At the end of the day it’s going to be up to the judiciary to figure this kind of thing out.
Gotta take issue with you slippery slope here, Doc. Diabetes and hypertension aren’t contagious. You fail to take your meds, you’re the only victim. You fail to get a vaccine and you are potentially endangering lots of other people, including immunocompromised people who are vaccinated and children who can’t get a vaccine. That “freedom” endangers other people. It’s a lot more like cigarettes. Your freedom to smoke indoors creates second hand smoke that kills. So restaurants and office buildings mandated no smoking indoors. Boo hoo about your freedom to smoke in public spaces if it kills me.
This vaccine has been proven safe and effective, and anyone not taking it (without a legit medical reason) is being willfully reckless and dangerously uncaring. If someone chooses not to take it, they should not be allowed access to public spaces, including offices, schools, restaurants, etc. Yes, they can have their freedom, but it comes with big consequences.
I agree there’s a need for some tension between freedom and the good of society, but in the case of Covid vaccine it’s tipped way in favor of the latter.
Forced vaccination? Really? You appear like you won’t mind forced worship ang punishment for those who will choose to worship according to their conscience.
A wide variety of vaccines are already required for children to attend (mandatory) school, and for travel to a variety of countries. This has been in effect for decades in the US. It has not led to “forced worship” in any setting. I can assure you of this as a person who eschews worship despite having been vaccinated.
To me the UK failing to implement/allow vaccine mandates is absurd.
freedom vs. the common good thing,… This mantra is deeply religious agenda meant to take away conscience and force worship on a particular day and way.. Forced rest apparently to save the earth bla bla thing. A very poisonous agenda “common good” thing is. Even the matter to force vaccination is part of its agenda.
Your analogy here is not apt. Communicable diseases cannot accurately be compared with diabetes, hypertension, or personal consumption decisions. If you are a physician you should not need other people to remind you of this distinction. As you are surely aware, numerous vaccines are already required for people to attend school or travel abroad, and these requirements have not led to a police state.
Hey Joe, LA and Okesano, thanks for your replies.
I’m not coming down on either end of the spectrum here. I’m a centrist and a moderate, always have been and I suspect I always will be. I hate extremism in all forms. It’s not that I’m afraid to “pick a side” it’s that I don’t believe we should be picking sides. These issues are not simple. I’m merely attempting to highlight the complexities and moral repercussions on both ends of the spectrum.
Doc, I’ve a younger brother who was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes aged 8. It’s a highly volatile condition requiring constant monitoring and correction. In recent years that has become easier as tech development like insulin pumps and wearable glucose measuring devices are now available. But for twenty years despite regularly taking meds he suffered diabetic fits and hospitalisations. From my personal experience I think you have to be very careful not to make generalisations such as mandating the use of insulin. I can assure you that for those whose life depends on it they don’t need telling.
Matt, surely I don’t need to explain the difference between type 1 and type 2 diabetes to you then. While type 2 diabetics can develop insulin resistance and need tons of insulin and their bodies slowly fall apart with time, surely you must remember that your brother would’ve died in one day without it. The two diseases share very little except the name.
Doc, you didn’t make the stipulation regarding type so please don’t go there. Have to say I do find some of your comments condescending. As others have said I really don’t understand why you extended a conversation regarding inoculation for communicable diseases to conditions such as diabetes. Bad faith arguments which you seem keen to double down on.
You’re the 3rd one to call my arguments in bad faith. All you can see is that I don’t agree with you and therefore I must be against you. So sad.
Doc, your distraction strategies aren’t working. Let’s just focus on some facts:
– You brought up diseases such as diabetes and hypertension without any prompting. You wrote ‘there should be an insulin mandate for diabetics’.
– You didn’t specify type 1 or 2 and I’ll explain why this important. Type 1 is a random condition which can affect anyone through no fault of their own. It occurs when the pancreas fails to produce insulin. The patient requires an external source of insulin to survive. This is in fact a treatment, not a vaccine, immunisation or innoculation. I do not understand why you have associated it with a discussion on Covid vaccination. The two topics couldn’t be less related.
– There is no cure today for type 1 diabetes. So when you make assertions such as ‘Let’s stamp out diabetes’ that’s an utter nonsense.
– If I was to extend the logic you apply about mandating insulin for diabetics then would you apply the same mandate for cancer sufferers for chemotherapy? What are the limits of the logic you’re applying?
Finally, I did call your arguments bad faith and I stand by that and have gone out of my way to explain here. There’s no attack on you, real or imagined.
Mandates. Having this same discussion in church WhatsApp group, and I said this:
“(Mandate) policy adoption is tricky. The split is too deep. Churches have no choice but to try persuasion (which I support). The real difficulty will come when church buildings re-open. What will be their congregation policy be then? Im all for respecting choice not to get vaccinated, but the difficulty I have with some people who exercise that choice, is that they want engagement with everyone else to remain the same as it was before the pandemic. In other words, they do not see choice as reciprocal. It doesnt apply to everyone in that camp, of course…”
Choice should be reciprocal. There’s a lot of focus on the right of choice those who chose not to; not so much on the right of choice of those who chose to.
We do not live on individual desert islands. Someone else’s choice can affect me, but even so, I would not want to deny them that choice. Just respect mine as well. And respecting mine means that it can’t be business as usual. To use Doc’s good analogy about a sports car, you then cannot unilaterally choose to drive it at 150mph on a public road. Potentially, you alone are not affected by that decision. Or even if you drive it normally, you shouldn’t expect that not wearing a seatbelt in the eventuality of crash is the same as wearing one.
p.s. Doc, +1 for your response to Kante’sInferno.
Thank you for the support Doc and Claude.
One of my geriatric patients recently passed due to Covid. A facility wide vaccination mandate at his ALF may have saved his life, but who’s to say honestly. All I know is he was vaccinated and internally there was a struggle to get all workers vaccinated. Regardless of our status however, this disease could still be spread. And unfortunately, it could have been anyone from staff, to providers, or family that gave him COVID.
This is a problem that extends past just being vaccinated. A full scale public health response would not only encourage vaccination but also upholding preventative methods that allowed us to decrease case incidence in the first place.
What I’m saying is vaccination efforts and numbers should never have been the end goal. The U.S. CDC failed by removing the decree that mandated we wear masks in public and remain as socially distanced as possible if vaccinated. It relaxed health standards, made those who were vaccinated feel as though they were invincible and gave those who were not vaccinated a way to masquerade as so.
Yes, we need herd immunity, but more importantly before that, we need to reaffirm as a society that vaccination does not mean you can do as you please. In keeping social distancing and the mask mandate we could help stem the loss of life. But honestly, the situation we in the U.S. are steeped in speaks volumes about our individual accountability and societal culture, one that puts a person’s freedom and free will above all else.
How free are any of us really if a person’s free will tramples over our ability to live a healthy, safe life.
Don’t know where you guys are on Covid passports but they’ll very much be our (UK) reality soon. Seems we’re not as free as we like to think….
On the topic of freedom you guys have the subject of abortion back in the spotlight. That’s a very relevant example of what truly defines freedom.
The US right have never been consistent on the subject of freedom. No mask mandates, but mandating what a woman does to her body, sure. Six weeks… that’s one missed period. Madness. How do you kill Roe without appearing to kill it?
I saw Neil De Grasse Tyson once stun Ben Shapiro into silence with a simple piece of logic on transgenderism. Being what you want is the very essence of freedom, isn’t it?
So right, Claude.
The Texas abortion law is ludicrous. So if the government is not the one enforcing it, then it’s ok? I heard a pundit say that logic may lead to anti-gun laws of the same ilk in blue states. Anyone carrying a weapon can be sued by a citizen to enforce such a law. Conservatives have opened Pandora’s box here, unwittiingly.
Your country is too divided such that there is no nuance in moderation. Everyone is just shouting and turning the volume to the maximum because the fellas on Youtube are doing so.
If there is no middle ground or if the middle ground is not willing to stand up to be counted, there will be nothing left.
It is like Arsenal Fan TV of politics.
Well said Hei. The louder one end shouts, the louder the other side shouts back. It doesn’t help anyone.
Agree with everything you said about Xhaka. Shocking…
No doubt he’ll be as “brutally surprised” when he passes on the infection to someone else as he was when we was given the red card.
In the context of his past actions, it’s not surprising but it is surprising that he’s not alone amongst footballers.
There must be a sense of invulnerability because of their fitness and good health, and because no footballer who’s caught it has, yet, thankfully, had lasting complications from it. However, it’s hard hard to see why the dots haven’t been joined and that although they might not feel threatened personally, they’re bound to know someone who might be and who might catch it off the person they’ve passed it on to.
I sincerely hope the contract extension was just a way to ensure a fee of some sort next transfer window. Leaden slow on and off the field.
Well the ancient Roman football gods are definitely punishing us for failing to ensure they get a bite of this (very awful) Swiss Cheese and went in with a two footed tackle on us. They won the ball alright, but Xhaka got the virus as a result. Pray that he didn’t spread it to the rest of the team. We can only hope…
Aubameyang and Lacazette also got the virus.
But only the white guy is the anti-vaxxer.
We do not know their vaccination status. We do know that the delta variant infects the vaccinated regularly but that the vaccine greatly reduces the severity of breakthrough infections. We also know that Xhaka is not vaccinated. Thus, calling him anti-vax is merely factual, while doing the same with Auba of Laca would be speculative.
I also should point out that the vaccine does not prevent infection with COVID. Vaccinated persons can still carry and pass on the infection in the first few days after becoming exposed. That’s why we still have to wear masks. So Auba and Laca could’ve been vaccinated and still acquired either the original or any variant of the virus. That would also explain their rapid recovery. That’s what the vaccine does: it supercharges the immune system and that greatly speeds up how fast the infection resolves.
Tim I disagree with you on the vaccine verbal attack on Xhaka. I don’t intend to get and can’t force nobody to. He probably got it from a person already vaccinated so? Auba and Laca are vaccinated and so is Ben white…. Remove Tha hate anything Xhaka glasses while talking matters health omera.
I’m a science teacher, I understand how vaccines work and I understand data well enough to see that covid vaccines are overwhelmingly safe and incredibly helpful. Vaccines are probably the greatest human invention, period. That said, I will never attack someone who has chosen not to be vaccinated (unless they are actively spreading anti-vax propaganda). The simple fact of it is that it doesn’t work; ridicule and disdain almost never changes anyone’s mind, ever. All the evidence suggests it just tends to make people more defensive of their erroneous beliefs.
Is Xhaka wrong to be unvaccinated? Unless he’s had prior adverse reactions to vaccines, then yes, absolutely. But is he being mendacious? No probably not. We live in an era of weaponised disinformation. All of us are bombarded with bullshit and lies, almost constantly, via whichever devices this is being read on. If you were lucky enough to get the right education, maybe you have a decent enough filter to cut through the noise, but that’s far from a given. One (pre-covid) study found 60% of British respondents believed in at least one of the ten conspiracy theories they were asked about. This was true of both the left and of the right (though the right were found to be more susceptible overall, interestingly, certain conspiracist claims appealed to both right and left, with anti-vax being among them…). We can all fall for nonsense and expecting footballers, who mostly leave school pretty early, to keep a better standard seems naive to me.
Changing someone’s mind is hard and takes patience, empathy and building a shared understanding, piece by piece. I have a girl in one class who keeps taking her mask off. She’s terrified that it will give her cancer, because of some nonsense a social media algorithm decided to feed her. While I might find it intensely frustrating that she is more concerned about internet fairy stories than an actual pandemic killing millions, that’s humans for you. It’s my job to try and bring her round, and that’s a hard task. But if she thinks I’m her enemy, the odds of success dwindle to zero pretty fast…
Obviously, Xhaka is unlikely to read anything on this forum, but out there somewhere someone is reading this thread who is scared and unsure about what to put inside their body. Even if we think their fears are unfounded we’ve got to be there for them and still treat everyone with dignity, I reckon.
Beautiful
If the sometimes captain of Arsenal Football Club wont take the responsibility to get vaccinated, perhaps the decision should be taken out of his hands. He’s not living on his own individual desert island — he’s interacting with staff, Arsenal players, Switzerland players, opposition players for club and country. There’s a good chance that he’ll interact with immunocompromised people and cause them to die. He is a person of uniquely high visibility.
I have sympathy for the young lady with the mask; less so for Grant Xhaka. His is not the situation that calls for kid gloves. The club that increased his wages took a big financial hit from a year and more without spectators, and had to take out a bridging loan. He is being extremely irresponsible; and moreover, he’s in a better position than most to take advantage off world-class medical access and advice to get properly educated on covid-19. Then there’s long covid… is he — any of the intentionally unvaccinated — going to be the same player physically? I guess we’ll find out soon enough. Long covid is especially relevant to a professional athlete who relies on lung power and endurance.
I spoke in favour of choice earlier on this thread. And yes, vaccinated people can still get and spread covid — but the harsh effects are mitigated, and the mutant strains thrive in an environment where there is no vaccine-conferred resistance. Neither choice nor understanding can be unlimited, nor can it apply equally to everyone. Working in a hospital, for example, SHOULD circumscribe that choice, as much we wont like a restaurant staffer coming straight from the toilet — without washing hands — to serve us our food.
And again I’ll make the point — understanding and patience around Covid-19 have to be reciprocal. The unvaccinated owe that to their brothers and sisters who took the job too. I’m kind of tired of hearing that we should consider their fears and feelings, and hearing not so much about those on the other side of the divide. The unvaxxed have no problem ridiculing the choice of others to take the jab. Reciprocity.
Firstly, I agree with almost everything you’ve written here. We all have a responsibility to each other and anyone who wants to heard needs to be willing to listen too. We don’t have to look too far to see what happens when a chunk of society chooses to treat the rest as an ‘other’ to be silenced – US democracy is teetering on the brink as a result. I’m absolutely not trying to make a ‘both sides’ argument here.
Bad actors need to be confronted; reason and science need to be defended against them. That said, how much of this applies to Xhaka? I have no idea. Maybe he’s hardcore MAGA, with a Qanon telegram account. Or maybe he likes UFC and pays too much attention to Joe Rogan’s podcast. Maybe he watched a David Icke film and is worried about microchips. All these ideas and more are out there, boosted by algorithms that prioritise ad-revenue, and foreign security services trying to destabilise their competitors. Xhaka didn’t create this environment, just fell for something unpleasant floating in it. Unfortunately, that’s a more common occurrence than we’d like to think. Can we deny someone employment because they got suckered? If I thought it would work to increase vaccine uptake, I might be tempted to say yes. Unfortunately, I think it would only harden resistance, which leaves us in a tough spot.
How do we drag people back from the brink of the disinformation sinkhole forming under us? Covid, the world-wide rise of authoritarianism and the climate crisis – these are genuinely existential threats, right on our doorstep. I don’t have any great answers, but I do think finding ways to restore compassion and mutual respect has to be a part of it. That and burning Facebook, YouTube and twitter’s servers down to the ground, but I digress….
Fair points, Copper.
Look hey, Im not suggesting that he has embraced the beliefs of the nutty right that thinks that Fauci is Josef Mengele. There are a lot of people who won’t go anywhere near Rogan or Ivermectin who are hesitating. Some are people I love and I’m close to and had to back off, for the sake of our relationship. But by virtue of who he is and what he does, either Xhaka needs to be made to see his responsibilities, or Arsenal need to take a tougher line with him. Must as much as Im in favour of choice, the hard line needs to be drawn in some instances. This is one. Increasing the risk to staff, teammates and opponents is unacceptable. Choice isnt unlimited. You cant drive as fast as you like on a public road, or drink booze before performing delicate surgery. And we dont need to burn down Facebook to send that message..
True. Where to draw the line really is the question, I guess. There’s an unfortunate trend in British media and (Tory) politics to try and blame various social ills on footballers (particularly black ones) getting payed too much, which perhaps makes me wary of coming down too harshly here. If, as a matter of leadership, Arteta chose to make vaccination a ‘non-negotiable’ for his squad, I do think that would be a powerful message. Xhaka wouldn’t be the only high-profile player we’d be cutting ties with though, and I suspect an employment tribunal would take a dim view of it regardless. That’s out with our control, though. We have to try and spread the right message ourselves, and I think, wherever possible, ‘playing the ball, not the man’ is an important part of that.
Having read the various takes on this issue, I still agree with Tim on this. It is shockingly irresponsible of Xhaka (and any one else on the team for that matter) not to be vaccinated at this point in time.
1. Declining the vaccine is not a crime. Nor should it be, any more than any one of thousands of actions we do every day without a thought of how it could adversely impact others: smoking, consuming fossil fuels, running your air conditioner, leaving your lights on, buying and discarding plastics, using aerosols, buying merchandise from shady online sources, applying sunscreen and then swimming, etc etc. The vaccine does NOT prevent becoming infected with or transmission of the virus. Thus, not being vaccinated in and of itself cannot be seen as irresponsible. You are just as likely to spread the virus either unknowingly, if you’re being an idiot or in any other way regardless of whether you’r vaccinated or not.
Irresponsibility would be seeking close contact with others when you know or suspect that you might be infected with COVID. A vaccinated person is just as likely to unknowningly spread COVID as an unvaccinated person; perhaps even more so because, as Kante’s Inferno said above, the vaccine created an air of invincibility. My position is that although I encourage and support vaccination for all, making the informed choice not to get vaccinated should be respected as a basic human right, much the same as declining a potentially life saving surgery or medication. Bad idea? Maybe. As long as it’s an informed choice, it’s not ours to make for someone else. That so many people in America are making this choice says a lot about the nation’s lack of trust of authorities and public systems.
2. Someone above pointed out that neglecting one’s own health by failing to treat diabetes and hypertension will only harm the patient who carries those diagnoses. I’m here to say that’s absolutely false. This country has spiraling healthcare expenses, healthcare systems bursting with patients, burned out providers, incredibly long wait times, limited access care and so many more problems. So much of this could be eliminated with lifestyle interventions. The burden of healthcare costs and the expensive, inefficient and money grubbing monster that is the US healthcare system has become is in large part due to ordinary Americans who don’t take care of themselves. Shouldn’t we mandate exercise and fitness camps for them, for the greater good? It would save thousands of lives and billions in healthcare costs, and it wouldn’t really harm anyone.
3. Please don’t preach about the risks of COVID to healthcare people. We know better than anyone. We come to work every day knowing we could take the virus home to our families.
someone not taking diabetes or hypertension meds is not going to KILL someone else the way not taking a vaccine will. that’s not the same thing. your argument is not made in good faith.
Yes they can, Josh. If a hospital cannot accept any more patients and that means a delay of care for someone, that could be a fatal event. If a pharmacy runs out of a certain drug due to demand (i.e. insulin) that could be a fatal issue for someone living in a rural environment. If a hypertensive man has his hemorrhagic stroke while driving a truck, that could kill dozens. If a diabetic man has a foot ulcer that needs to be treated with antibiotics and his nurse contaminates his room mate with the same bacteria… if you lose your spouse to a heart attack and then die yourself a few months later…
There are so many examples, and I’ve seen them all.
It’s really sad to hear that you actually think I’m making stuff up. I get it, this stuff fires people up. But once we cross over into the land of “with us or against us” then god help us.
Today I had the somewhat unique opportunity to talk to NHS workers and listen to the stories they had to tell about the last 18 or so months. It only served to redouble my admiration for their courage, diligence and selflessness and appreciate the toll it has taken on them all.
One nurse said that the overwhelming majority of covid cases taking up beds in her hospital currently were “unvaccinated 20-30 year olds who think they’re invincible”. A little hyperbolic maybe, but her frustration and weariness was palpable.
There is no doubt that healthcare workers know the risks better than anyone. They also know the costs, to themselves, and to the non-covid patients whose treatment will be delayed because of the lack of beds.
I suspect that the perceived difference here is a matter of degree. Getting doubled-vaxxed cost me half an hour out of 2 separate days, a personal sacrifice of virtually nil. I did not have to change my lifestyle or attend a fitness camp. Consequently we do not see anyone’s objections to it as being particularly valid or give much credence to the social and psychological factors underpinning the behaviour of those who are hesitant.
The issue of “where do we draw the line?” is by necessity a nebulous one. Like VAR we aren’t entirely sure. Should we mandate lifestyle choices? Being a Westerner I’m bound to say absolutely not. What about mandatory vaccination in the midst of an exceptional case? A case such as lets say, a deadly global pandemic that has wrecked lives, jobs and entire economies?
Meanwhile in London 4 policemen were injured in violent clashes with an anti-vaxxer protest. I can only imagine what effect an enforced vaccination policy might bring. Trust in our policy makers and a sense of collective responsibility will be the last thing on their minds.
What I will say is that I agree with Claude, freedom doesn’t mean what people seem to think it means, whilst at the same time acknowledging that removal of those freedoms is fraught with its own problems.
covid-19 is a virus. it is NOT a respecter of persons.
covid cares nothing about your race, age, ethnicity, sex, religion, rich/poor, or sexual orientation. it doesn’t care about your political affiliation, constitutional rights, or civil liberties. it’s a virus that’s meant to survive, adapt, and reproduce as effectively as possible. it lack morality so if a human has to die for it to survive, that’s acceptable. human’s know this, yet egomaniacal ignorance has given covid-19 a target-rich environment that’s induced a global pandemic in our species.
we’re better educated yet stupider than our grand parents and great grand parents. imagine if they were so stupid, arguing about vaccinations. thank goodness, they weren’t. as a result, we have no idea what it’s like to grow up in a world actively contending with measles, typhoid, polio, diphtheria, mumps, rubella, or many other infections scientists have developed vaccines for. now, it’s our turn to reduce the worries that our children and grand children will grow up in, yet we’re getting it wrong. while humans were busy whining about their civil liberties being infringed upon (and ignoring their responsibilities as people), there’s a delta variant of covid-19 that’s emerged.
like i said earlier, covid-19 is not a respecter of persons. it has no concept of right and wrong and doesn’t care about how you feel about it. if you don’t understand that, you’re a fool.
understand, i almost never use the word “fool” to describe someone. however, i haven’t said anything that anyone doesn’t already know.
I don’t see how it’s relevant to remind us that a virus has no morals…. care to explain?
The delta variant emerged as mutations in a viral genome always do: dumb luck and natural selection.
Dr Gooner, no one suggested criminalising refusal to take a vaccine. No one. Bad faith argument incoming from the get-go.
You can be pro-vaccine AND pro-choice, and that’s where I land. The point about choice is a nuanced one; the main conclusion being that your choice around not mitigating the effects of Covid, can sometimes affect other people. It’s one thing to say Im not vaxxing. Fine…good luck with Delta should you encounter that strain. It is another thing to say that I will not get vaccinated, but I insist on continuing to teach your kids in a classroom.
Nuance isnt hard.
Smoking is a bad example, because where it affects other people in public spaces, you increasingly are not allowed to. This is the key thing that people skip over…where it affects other people. And while I can’t speak for Kante’s Inferno, you are misrepresenting his/her argument… giving it a twist. Of course, even though the vaxxed can catch covid, it is a question of degrees (in terms of sickness and transmission) and the vastness in difference of those degrees can mean the difference between life and death.
It’s not a question of degrees at all. It’s a question of how soon you realize that you’re symptomatic and who you came into close contact with while you were shedding virus. If you’re dying of COVID in a critical care unit, you’re less likely to infect people because everyone knows you have it and proper precautions can be taken. Conversely, you can walk into a family reunion with a runny nose you’ve been blowing off and infect 30 people in an hour and walk back out without knowing what you just did. The vaccine will prevent the first scenario for most people, that’s why we need to have people get vaccinated. The vaccine will NOT prevent the second scenario. Why is this so hard???
Doctors and nurses have to get immunized for our own safety. That’s why immunecompromised, frail and elderly were first in line for the shots, not active young people who are most likely to spread the thing.
You hardly know the first things about epidemiology and yet you presume to lecture me on nuance and call me a bad actor. It’s just sad.
Neither of us is an expert on football, yet here we are.
I respect your expertise greatly, but i didnt engage you on the inner workings of medical science. I wouldnt be presumptuous to do that, my dear Doc. I was merely frisking your arguments. Which started with a straw man.
I think you did engage me on vaccines and public health policy. I don’t care what you think of my expertise. It just annoys the crap out of me that people who don’t even really understand this stuff can be so sure about their agendas.
And yes, I exaggerated to make a point. You got me! I didnt think anyone would take that literally.
– Everyone will get exposed and will have one of several outcomes
Illness
o Develop immunity following illness that may be mild (80-85%), moderate to severe (10-15% -if calling those who get hospitalized, and x% will end up in the ICUs) and survive
o Develop immunity following asymptomatic infection (unknown number)
o Severe illness leading to mortality (1-6%- depending on data source and region)
Get immunity from vaccine; efficacy to prevent moderate to severe disease is high; breakthrough illness suggest diminishing immunity over time (am surprised a little by this as thought that memory T cells would be working—they are behaving like my memory!)
Either you get the vaccine and hope that it is protective, or you hope you are in the first of two outcomes following infection
Wearing a mask
Decreases your risks of getting infected
decreases the rate of spread so that
if you get infected, hopefully there is a hospital bed/resources for you-
doctors etc can figure out how to take care of patients- it did take several months but we can understand how the virus behaves and can manage patients better and save their lives
when you talk about human beings as being at the top of the intellectual evolution, clearly the viruses are far more advanced… they can survive outside a host, constantly evolve to survive …. whereas we are unable to use any common sense and are still debating the value of a mask!
Vaccines are safe and effective. As with everything, there are risk and benefits and clearly the benefits here outweigh the risks and side effects
As parents we get our kids vaccines to prevent them from diseases that kill
As adults we seem to think it is ok to be irresponsible- all in the name of choice
Just another doctor
Immunity is a dangerous word. In the sense you’re using it, it means that the immune system becomes primed and this we acquire “immunity” to a bug. It does not mean that it makes you immune to the disease in the colloquial sense of the word. I think that’s a confusing term.
Tom, “joking” that a woman had to show her privates to get good business done is not “banter”, my man. Do better. Don’t care how terrible Abramovich hurt Arsenal’s prospects or hurt football in general in the noughties. Kante isn’t “pearl clutching.” I’m with him on the tastelessness of the comment.
And BTW, that prospective standup comedy career is dead in the water. Just saying, bro.
+1
@ Tom, I enjoy your comments & humour, so please take this as a constructive comment rather than a criticism. For me the way to think about it is to remove Chelsea from the equation, and think how I would feel if someone said that about my wife/daughter/sister/mother (as Zola heartbreakingly experienced). If there is any ambiguity then best not said
I agree with this.
What seems to have escaped scrutiny in the overarching discussion here concerning– ‘choice’?
Regards segments of the population who are immuno-suppressed– such as transplant recipients and cancer patients. Including a large number of individuals who take Rx drugs– known as inhibitors– for conditions like rheumatoid arthritis, ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s disease and the like.
A much larger number than most realize– are not protected to the extent of vaccine efficacy as stated by the manufacturers. This demographic wasn’t central to the scope of research during development of the vaccines. Yet are probably effected most by the behaviors of both the unvaxed– and those whose social attitudes have relaxed since receiving their jab(s).
Amongst our families, friends and acquaintances– are a great number of people more susceptible to Covid infection– even if they are vaxed. By the numbers? Everyone reading this is separated only by degrees from many individuals who are more prone to being stricken by Covid– due to common, underlying health conditions.
Only a continued responsibility toward others in social and public settings can change the current dynamic.
Acting responsibly– in whatever manner a situation dictates? Is on you alone.
This has been an interesting discussion, with the 2 polarised views, including, to my surprise doctors seemingly taking the side of those people who refused to vaccinate.
Can I, possibly, direct this debate, which appears to have taken its course, to the the subject matter of this and many other blogs, our beloved team.
I have mentioned this before, but no one has commented but, we have now had 5 players testing positive.
Whether they have been vaccinated or not is not relevant, especially as it seems that none of our infected players have had serious symptoms, The fact is that they placed themselves in a position whereby they could become infected.
Now, you will say that the virus can attack anyone, and yet most people are intelligent and responsible enough to take precautions, being careful where they go, who they mix with, and how they mix and yet we have here players who earn per week, sometimes, many times more than people like myself earn in a year and yet show minimal responsibility to their employers or their fans to be careful, and seem capable of catching the virus at the drop of a hat.
It is surely not beyond them to be careful like most of us are.
But their lack of responsibility is equalled by that of the club to take measures to ensure that the players are careful where they go etc.
We do not expect the club to wrap them up in cocoons between games, but why is it that our club seems to be incapable of ensuring that our highly paid assets do not put themselves at risk of illness, debilitating side effects or even death.
What I find astonishing is that Arteta seems to feel that he can control what the players do every second that they are on the pitch but cannot take steps to ensure that they are always available to do so.
IT is symptomatic of the weak leadership in the club from top to bottom.
To be clear, I’m not “siding” with the anti-Vaxers. I think the vaccine is safe and effective and should be administered to everyone. Any suggestion that the vaccine is harmful is not based in any legitimate science. However I do believe in an individual’s right to decide for themselves and that trumps my judgment of what’s best for someone.
‘ To be clear, I’m not “siding” with the anti-Vaxers’
Oh, but you are when you keep insinuating that vaccine hesitancy could be an ‘informed’ choice, when in the real world, most vaccine hesitancy is the result of misinformation and hyperbole, mostly spread due to political reasons.
It’s amazing that the same people who hate my takes on Arsenal also attack me on this. I’ve been called a bad actor for stating my views by two longtime posters who I considered, very loosely but still, friends. Now it’s you. You’ve had nothing but acrimony for me since you showed up here. I wonder if it’s coincidental. It is very sad.
Anyway, I’ll honor this blatant attack on me with a response for one reason: anyone reading this deserves accurate information.
It became clear to me at some point during this discussion that most of you don’t know what vaccines really do. That didn’t stop you from yelling at me which is sad but another story. I consider this a highly intelligent and well informed group of posters. Therefore it makes me think that most voters have no idea at all what vaccines do. That explains a lot and it is quite frightening. That’s because it means we have two misinformed groups both pointing fingers at one another and claiming that the other side is x y or z. All of you should be smart enough to predict what happens when you preach to someone. It only hardens the hearts of those you preach to. This isn’t even about science or the vaccine. This is about stubbornness and a need to be right and a sense of belonging to your political tribe.
Stuck in the middle are moderates who increasingly feel like they have to pick a side because the din from both sides is unbearable. At least when you’ve locked a side you feel like you belong somewhere. However it also creates a with us or against us mentality, a zero sum game just like PVC posits above. Because I don’t 100% agree with his views, I must be aiding and abetting the death of innocents. I hope you can all see how destructive this is. We need more patience, kindness and understanding and less fire, brimstone and pitchforks. It’s up to each of you to decide that.
Doc, let me be clear, I have nothing personal against you.
There is something about the mealy mouthed , ‘centrist’ , ‘moderate’ , ‘both sides’ style, that assumes having a firm stance on anything is ‘extremist’, that pisses me off. It’s PR and political consultant talk and is the death of logic, truth and progress.
I have a firm stance on vaccination. I support it. I also have a firm stance that those who make an informed decision not to get vaccinated are not by definition misguided or stupid. Extremism is not the presence of a firm stance, it’s the absence of any understanding or empathy towards dissenters.
‘I have a firm stance on vaccination. I support it. I also have a firm stance that those who make an informed decision not to get vaccinated are not by definition misguided or stupid. ‘
Ah, there’s the contradiction. So which is the ‘informed’ choice doc ? To get vaccinated or to not get vaccinated ? Unless there’s different definitions of ‘information’
Have you ever heard of shared decision making? It’s all the rage in medical ethics. You should read about it.
You haven’t answered the question, doc
“…most voters have no idea at all what vaccines do. That explains a lot and it is quite frightening. That’s because it means we have two misinformed groups both pointing fingers at one another and claiming that the other side is x y or z”.
Doc, respectfully disagree.
Even if people cannot explain in precise the medical terms that you can what vaccines do, I think you should give them credit for being intelligent enough to know what they do.
There’s a danger in painstaking equivalency (I’m deliberately choosing not to say “false equivalency”)… one avoids squaring up to the weight of the facts, because it’ll look like they’re taking sides. But, oh no, they couldnt possibly do that, because they are above the fray and sit in the reasonable centre.
That approach characterises people who have followed the advice of the medical authorities and those who are holding out for a range of reasons (some ludicrous, some genuinely medical-centered) as being characters of similar weight, energy and irrationality. They are not. Giving equal weight to everything and equal footing the the woman who followed the medical advice and got a double jab of Pfizer, and the preacher who calls it the mark of Satan (or a microchip injection), is not adopting the position of reasonable centrism. It’s virtue signaling.
People do have legitimate fears based on a variety of medical conditions. Some would take the vaccine if those concerns could be alleviated; some never would. It is not the two sides issue of the kind that you describe. It does not cleave neatly into two camps.
Lastly, lemme say this. Sometimes in disagreement, I dont temper my comments enough. Im never going to get that diplomatic post in Istanbul, I fear. I find myself disagreeing with you more than agreeing with you, but that’s not an attack on you, or because I “hate” your takes. I think you’re a good ‘un. None of this is personal, but if I’ve ever gone too far, I apologise. This is the most intelligent and eclectic blog comments section — a blog, remember, ostensibly about football. It’d be dead boring if we had consensus across everything. Was a time that Shard and I never agreed on anything. Now we rarely disagree on anything. Why, the bloke even suggested we have a beer, after it looked at at one point as if we’d we in London at the same time.
Claude, why would you assume the preacher in your example was not ‘informed’ ?
He was informed by a higher power
lol
I am not a medical expert, so on matters related to pandemic response, Im going to be guided by those who are. If I want spiritual salvation, Im going to the preacher. His pronouncements do not carry equal weight as that of the WHO, Fauci, the medical establishment in the country I Iive in, and my own doctor.
If anyone else wants to be guided on a medical matter by a doomsday priest, that’s their lookout. Just dont tell me that they and I are equally uninformed yellers.
Sometimes I think you wilfully misunderstand me. Or you only read parts of my posts and construct agruments against those without reading the rest. I don’t know.
I’m going to comment on this one last time because I’m getting tired of repeating myself and then being taken out of context on bits and pieces.
1. The vaccine is safe and effective. Pretty much everyone ought to have it.
2. Freedom of choice has to trump greater good in a democracy unless that choice violates the code of laws. We can’t make people get vaccinated, nor should we.
3. The vaccine helps its recipient get better faster. It does not stop individuals from spreading the virus.
4. The vaccine has become politicized and weaponized to mobilize public opinion by the left and the right. This has nothing to do with science and it’s a disgusting manipulation.
5. Understand the science. Stop crusading. Practice compassion and kindness towards others.
That’s it.
Doc, sorry I didn’t monitor the comments sections the last few days. If people were personally attacking you I apologize.
Just as a reminder to everyone that ad hominem arguments are one of the things that are out of bounds in the comments.
I will also say one thing about your position:
“3. The vaccine helps its recipient get better faster. It does not stop individuals from spreading the virus.”
The vaccine doesn’t stop people from spreading the virus, however it GREATLY reduces viral load and transmissibility. So, while what you’re saying is technically true, you’ve left quite a bit of important information out.
Thanks Tim.
Yes, the vaccine does reduce transmissability by reducing the duration of illness and thus the amount of time you are infectious after being exposed. What it does not do is make you “immune” in the colloquial sense. I’m trying to remind people that it’s primarily intended for the protection of the individual who recieves it and that being vaccinated doesn’t mean you can’t spread the disease to others.
I’m going to take one more deep breath and explain shared decision making since you clearly didn’t bother to look it up for yourself.
Shared decision making (SDM) is the practice of explaining the risks and benefits of any therapy to a patient and then letting them make an informed choice based on their own values.
https://www.healthit.gov/sites/default/files/nlc_shared_decision_making_fact_sheet.pdf
And “informed” choice is still a choice. I can understand that I have twice the risk of stroke due to afib if I don’t take my blood thinner and choose not to take it anyway. I can understand that I will die if I don’t go on hemodyalisis and be OK with that. I can understand that I have a risk of dying from COVID 19 if I don’t get vaccinated and still choose not to do so.
An informed choice is NOT what we think is best. And informed choice means understanding all the facts and making the choice that’s right for what you value. It’s kind of staggering that I have to spell this out.
Oh, I absolutely understood what shared decision making meant, and I didn’t think that was really relevant in this discussion. It was a red herring
What you’re trying to insinuate is, people have discussed the issue of vaccination with a qualified medical personnel, fully and accurately understood its risks and benefits, and then made a decision to not have it because of their own personal beliefs and values. Which is overwhelmingly not the case at this time.
Tim, your blog is amazing not just as a blog through which I enhance my football knowledge (including through the likes of Josh, Claude etc but also for the collective intellect that your commenters bring to such questions and issues as vaccine/no vaccine and Texas = good / Texas = fucking bonkers etc.
For the record, Texas = fucking bonkers, but there are two sides to every coin (even the Texan ones) and kudos for allowing tenuous (at best) conversations to carry out on your blog ♥️
Thank you!