Possibly some good news.

moggy#9

Well-Known Member
#3
I can see us all being expected to carry vaccination certificates to access hospitality and entertainment venues. Definitely some good news though.
 

kingmo19.1

Well-Known Member
#4
Fantastic news - hat's off to the scientists, that's an amazing breakthrough.

Next (equally difficult) challenge being the logistics for deployment and when administered, how does one prove he/she has been vaccinated (certificate).

I'm sure Boris & Co have already thought all that through o_Oo_Oo_Oo_Oo_Oo_Oo_Oo_O

God help us if Coco the clown (Hancock) has anything to do with it !
 

pjj365

Well-Known Member
#5
US news talking about mass availability Q2/3 next year even though they're manufacturing now

No indication of European manufacturing yet
 

Kevlar68

Well-Known Member
#6
I do medical studies and have done 13 in total about to do my 14th next month for vaccines, parkinsons disease, cancer, diabetes etc.
That 10% has to be found and in medical terms that 10% is a long way to go BUT i really hope they can find that 10% quickly.
I did a first in human study for a drug for Kidney disease and that study had been on going for over a year and that was just testing effects on human subjects even though they knew the drug worked on the disease.
The testing will start in rats, then maybe on to rabbits and then first time human testing for side effects and then final human studies but all that comes after a drug has been found that eliminates the disease. If the drug fails at the first testing stage in rats then it's back to drawing board to alter formula.
That's why it can take years but depending on when the first in human study will or has taken place and if successful first time it could be out next year, i'm guessing April.
 
Last edited:

rocketbob

Well-Known Member
Thread starter #7
As a biomedical researcher in the past I do have a little bit of inbuilt scepticism about research data (especially as the study is as yet incomplete) but this does look like promising preliminary data. Lets hope the completed study backs this up. As Kevlar mentions, it is a long process where the outcome is not guaranteed even for promising candidate drugs/vaccines. If it does work however, lets hope we can get it into the essential workers hands ASAP. Apparently we have ordered enough for 5 million people over the next few months.
 

kingmo19.1

Well-Known Member
#9
Wouldn’t surprise me to see the league return with a reduced import level for a couple of seasons. As Chalmers alluded to for them it’s going to be heavily budget focused.

For any return, there would need to be league parity in import levels for it to be somewhat competitive. Pointless the big teams having more imports than the smaller ones as that’ll be naff to watch.
 
Last edited:

moggy#9

Well-Known Member
#10
Wouldn’t surprise me to see the league return with a reduced import level for a couple of seasons. As Chalmers alluded to for them it’s going to be heavily budget focused.

For any return, there would need to be league parity in import levels for it to be somewhat competitive. Pointless the big teams having more imports than the smaller ones as that’ll be naff to watch.
The problem with reduced import levels is that the team places need to be made up with Brits. I'm not convinced there's adequate depth of talent to do that. It'd just end up with the rich teams buying up all of the top players and we'd still end up with the poorer teams unable to complete, but with a far inferior level of hockey.
 

Kevlar68

Well-Known Member
#11
For the future of the sport in Britain i see a positive side to this, yes the quality of hockey will suffer but for those who have been watching since the 80's we have seen it go from backyard hockey to impressive British hockey to ex-NHL imports.
The positive side is that the young British players will get a chance to step up which is also good for Team GB and any team with a youth development scheme gives them a chance to break through.
The days of high profile import players will come back, not straight away but we either build it back up or scrap it. I'd prefer to see it build back up again than British ice hockey disappear all together.
We have been spoilt with the players and level of games we've seen in the past but we can't be selfish and spit our dummies out demanding better hockey, we have to be supportive for it to survive during these trying times..
 

kingmo19.1

Well-Known Member
#12
The problem with reduced import levels is that the team places need to be made up with Brits. I'm not convinced there's adequate depth of talent to do that. It'd just end up with the rich teams buying up all of the top players and we'd still end up with the poorer teams unable to complete, but with a far inferior level of hockey.
Completely agree with you, but I'm just saying if teams reduce import levels then there is little choice but to back-fill with Brits - will probably be 3 lines maximum with imports rotating (bit like the good old days!) Hopefully after a season or two with some form of normality things would begin to return to the 2019-2020 level.
 

moggy#9

Well-Known Member
#14
For the future of the sport in Britain i see a positive side to this, yes the quality of hockey will suffer but for those who have been watching since the 80's we have seen it go from backyard hockey to impressive British hockey to ex-NHL imports.
The positive side is that the young British players will get a chance to step up which is also good for Team GB and any team with a youth development scheme gives them a chance to break through.
The days of high profile import players will come back, not straight away but we either build it back up or scrap it. I'd prefer to see it build back up again than British ice hockey disappear all together.
We have been spoilt with the players and level of games we've seen in the past but we can't be selfish and spit our dummies out demanding better hockey, we have to be supportive for it to survive during these trying times..
Point taken however I think the real underlying problem is the lack of joined up development as far as EIHL goes - with the honourable exception of the Steelers (I almost choked on those words ). I think someone pointed out previously the problems that Cardiff junior teams have had to overcome, but at the moment we have a problem. When I look back at the level of some players around the leagues in the late 80s, some of them would be considered rec level today. I have no desire to go back to those days.
 

Wannabe2

Well-Known Member
#15
If we ever get back to normality, I can’t see any reason why the standard shouldn’t be around the quality we finished off with. Think all the clubs will have the same amount of imports, that has to be a must, and hopefully all the same clubs will be in it.
 

kingmo19.1

Well-Known Member
#16
If we ever get back to normality, I can’t see any reason why the standard shouldn’t be around the quality we finished off with. Think all the clubs will have the same amount of imports, that has to be a must, and hopefully all the same clubs will be in it.
Your assuming the sponsorship / revenue that each team was used to will be seamlessly there when COVID is over? Can’t see that being the case myself. Glasgow have already stated budget challenges when things eventually resume and they were import shopping at Canadian Usports level before things got bad!
 

moggy#9

Well-Known Member
#17
Your assuming the sponsorship / revenue that each team was used to will be seamlessly there when COVID is over? Can’t see that being the case myself. Glasgow have already stated budget challenges when things eventually resume and they were import shopping at Canadian Usports level before things got bad!
You raise an interesting point about the relative resilience of the various EIHL markets. While I'd say Cardiff, Nottingham and Sheffield are strong, others seem to have their weaknesses. Even Belfast, because of it's reliance on their arena and geographic position could easily become victim to circumstances not of their making. Unfortunately, at the moment I see little prospect of a rink building boom to sure up the base of ice sports in the UK.
 

Mazzoak

Well-Known Member
#18
The saying goes ”you‘re only as strong as you're weakest player”. That goes for the league also. Three strong teams will need to financial support the weaker teams. You can’t justify ticket prices for an inconsistent product with quality fluctuations dependent not on coaching and player performance but team budgets. The chances are ticket prices will likely need to increase across most teams.
As for vaccines, the good news is progress is being made, the bad news is the speed the virus mutates, as seen recently in Spain and now Denmark and the speed of vaccine availability in huge numbers across the planet. The impact is likely to require several more yrs of development and potentially several different vaccines requiring mammoth logistical resources. Even if the current vaccine is successful, getting it to everyone in the U.K. will l’ve heard take 9 months at least, at which point next Winter we could be facing a strain immune to the effects of the current vaccine. Then there is the threat of new viruses, a couple currently being tracked in bats in Africa. My fear is the risk of deadly air born respiratory viruses may reshape our lives dramatically, making indoor sporting events that attracted large audiences redundant.
 

kingmo19.1

Well-Known Member
#19
The saying goes ”you‘re only as strong as you're weakest player”. That goes for the league also. Three strong teams will need to financial support the weaker teams. You can’t justify ticket prices for an inconsistent product with quality fluctuations dependent not on coaching and player performance but team budgets. The chances are ticket prices will likely need to increase across most teams.
As for vaccines, the good news is progress is being made, the bad news is the speed the virus mutates, as seen recently in Spain and now Denmark and the speed of vaccine availability in huge numbers across the planet. The impact is likely to require several more yrs of development and potentially several different vaccines requiring mammoth logistical resources. Even if the current vaccine is successful, getting it to everyone in the U.K. will l’ve heard take 9 months at least, at which point next Winter we could be facing a strain immune to the effects of the current vaccine. Then there is the threat of new viruses, a couple currently being tracked in bats in Africa. My fear is the risk of deadly air born respiratory viruses may reshape our lives dramatically, making indoor sporting events that attracted large audiences redundant.
And on that happy note .......
 

rocketbob

Well-Known Member
Thread starter #20
The saying goes ”you‘re only as strong as you're weakest player”. That goes for the league also. Three strong teams will need to financial support the weaker teams. You can’t justify ticket prices for an inconsistent product with quality fluctuations dependent not on coaching and player performance but team budgets. The chances are ticket prices will likely need to increase across most teams.
As for vaccines, the good news is progress is being made, the bad news is the speed the virus mutates, as seen recently in Spain and now Denmark and the speed of vaccine availability in huge numbers across the planet. The impact is likely to require several more yrs of development and potentially several different vaccines requiring mammoth logistical resources. Even if the current vaccine is successful, getting it to everyone in the U.K. will l’ve heard take 9 months at least, at which point next Winter we could be facing a strain immune to the effects of the current vaccine. Then there is the threat of new viruses, a couple currently being tracked in bats in Africa. My fear is the risk of deadly air born respiratory viruses may reshape our lives dramatically, making indoor sporting events that attracted large audiences redundant.
I think the development time for vaccines may be reducing if the Pfizer vaccine proves effective. If it works, this would be the first RNA based vaccine with widespread usage and these could be significantly faster to adapt to mutations and produce at scale than traditional vaccines and antibody based therapies. Time will tell of course but hopefully it may not all be doom and gloom for the longer term at least.
 
Top