Re about what month I am living in. No-one suggested it wasn't a problem that the variant is more infectious. The suggestion was that it is more deadly. That is that it is more deadly to any individual who has it than the old varient was. As Steve says the evidence for that is very flimsy and the PM was criticised by scientists for blurting it out. Re my comments about people in intensive care in Scotland. That is fact. The new varient is endemic here and more people were infected, and more were hospitalised than last spring. However less people ended up in intensive care here. About 75% to 80% compared to the Spring. Here in the Borders we went from Level 1 with about 35 cases per 100,000 to about 400 cases per 100,000 in a short time. However the same social distancing measures work on this varient and we have it back down to about 65 again. All the time the vaccine is rolling out.