The US data is unsurprisingly horrible so you have to look to countries like the UK for guidance. In the UK (another nation with high obesity levels although not as high as the US), hospitalizations and deaths have remained relatively stable compared to the period before the onset of omicron. The UK does have significantly higher vaccination rates than the US (45% of adults have had a third shot).
This dude continues to have the best data interpretation summaries I have seen:
Contemporary possession-based soccer is predicated on 3 CMs (ask Pep Guardiola). As is Klopp's pressing system, which is actually the best fit the USMNT in Concacaf but would get us killed in the World Cup.
We frequently struggle to maintain possession against CONCACAF teams with 3 CMs much less 2. Adams' passing and ball control is nowhere near good enough to play in a MF 2. Imagine Acosta there.
4-2-4/4-4-2 is also a system no one plays and international soccer with a middling coach is not the place to effectively implement an unfamiliar system with unfamiliar roles.
The outside midfielders in a 4-4-2 or a 4-2-4 are by definition wingers (see Ryan Giggs). Wingbacks don't play in front of fullbacks. They replace fullbacks in a 3-4-3, 3-5-2 or 5-3-2. Any team with a pulse that plays 3 CMs against a 4-4-2 is going to overrun CM. There is too much room both in front of them and behind them. That is the primary reason no one plays a 4-4-2 any more. You can still play only two CMs in a 3-4-3 because one of the CBs effectively serves as a CDM while in attack and the wingbacks can pinch in defense if the wingers track back.
Recruiting, NIL and the coaching carousel (and conference realignment and playoff expansion) elicit interest (arguably more interest than the actual games) because they represent opportunities for changing the stale and boring status quo. Most college football fans (and Texas fans in particular) are desperate for change/evolution in the sport.
Alabama, Ohio State and Clemson have won 18 of the 23 playoff games (LSU, UGA and Oregon the other 5). Absolutely riveting competition.
The past decade of college football has arguably been its worst, but the future should be much improved. Players will be compensated for their efforts, the playoff will expand, and Saban will retire.
"Children have been hospitalized at nearly twice the rate of adults in the past 4 weeks." Incredibly misleading fear porn headline. The most shocking part of the story to me is that we averaging only 2,000 hospitalized children (40 per state up from 25 per state) who have tested positive for COVID, particularly in a nation with as much childhood obesity and asthma as the US.
Why won't O just mutate again within one of the hundreds of millions of people who will become infected to an even more virulent and contagious strain?
Also, plenty of double vaxxed and boosted people are getting quite sick from O. The vaccine generally protects from hospitalization/death but don't assume you will just experience a runny nose, particularly if you received a Pfizer booster more than a month ago and haven't previously had covid.
The vaccines will need to improve to move beyond covid.
Not with respect to omicron aside from immediate lockdowns comparable to those imposed at the beginning of covid, which won't happen. It is way too late to implement a massive vaccine/booster rollout to the unvaccinated/unboosted.
The bottom line is that there is nothing we can do at this point to limit the spread of omicron throughout the world short of massive lockdowns which isn't going to happen.
The vaccines are clearly less effective in preventing breakthrough omicron cases. Boosters appear to help but only 28% of the US population has received a booster. As a result, a significant majority of the US population has very limited protection against omicron. Fortunately, omicron appears to be much milder with symptoms generally akin to a standard cold or allergies (runny nose, mildly sore throat, fatigue) compared to previous variants (fever, bad sore throat, loss of sense of smell or taste). Unfortunately, most Americans will think they have a cold instead of omicron because the difference in symptoms is not understood by most of the population. The asymptomatic and carriers who think they just have a winter cold will spread this through the population like wildfire. Many states are at or approaching record case levels and those totals don't include many asymptomatic or minor cases.
I'd be more interested in what percentage are obese, elderly and/or have health problems. At this point, almost all of those hospitalizations are still delta.
Exactly. Omicron will hit the US harder than other Western democracies because of the lower vaccination rates and higher obesity rates. The early data certainly suggests that Omicron is accompanied by less severe symptoms than previous variants (potentially significantly less severe) despite its virulence but fatties and the unvaccinated remain at high risk. For boosted individuals in relatively good shape, omicron looks like a mild cold if you even experience symptoms at all..
Urban is not a complicated person. He is an incredibly arrogant and condescending asshole who occasionally experiences a moment of self-awareness and briefly modifies his behavior only to almost immediately revert to his true nature. His tenure with the Jags is unquestionably a historic failure that significantly tarnishes his legacy. I would be shocked if he doesn't return to the college ranks in the near future in an ego-driven effort to rehabilitate his record/image. The floodgates will probably open with anecdotes regarding his behavior, but the vast majority will just further underscore what a garden variety dick he is.