I notice the much hyped and predicted surge in EU vaccinations after Easter is looking decidedly unimpressive.
It hasn't surged, but the number of EU vaccinations has been slowly moving in the right direction. France / Germany / Italy all seem to be at or around 400k/vaccinations a day - which is still too slow, but it's a lot quicker than it was six weeks ago.
Interestingly (to me at least) Finland has not used Sputnik, but is well ahead of other EU countries in terms of first doses - they're now at 32.6%. I presume they've gone the sensible British route of not reserving second doses but just getting them in arms as soon as they get them.
France has been at around 350k per day on a weekly average.
Which is an improvement but still significantly below the UK.
Given that France is looking to ease restrictions imminently and has over 30k in hospital ...
Don't forget that France is probably going to exceed Alabama on the proportion of adults with at least one jab by the end of next week. And Alabama (and a bunch of other Southern states) have basically removed all restrictions.
I'm not as confident as you are that Alabama is the place to imitate.
Alabama doesn't have an equivalent city to Paris...
Stewart Wood @StewartWood · 18m If, as some suggest, there is a recording of the Prime Minister making the “bodies pile high” comment after an internal meeting in No. 10, my first thought will be: Why on earth is there a recording of the Prime Minister making comments after an internal meeting in No. 10 at all?
Give it time.....Boris Johnson's duplicity and dishonesty was known to every Tory MP. It's all there in Alan Duncan's book. You can go round with a fire extinguisher all you like until it become out of control but it seems a terrible waste of time. He's a wrong 'un and it's only a matter of time until Tory voters get their moral compasses back and he's out on his ear.
No fire extinguishers needed
Boris is popular with the ordinary public and the so called educated Metropolitan elite just cannot accept that their self appointed 'we know better than you' is not cutting through or is the best way to persuade them to back your case
Of course Boris will go at sometime as all political careers end, but he may be there to irritate you for some time yet
Of course Johnson is "popular with the public"... He spends all his time working for cheap instant headlines to make everybody feel good - especially himself.
If he spent a fraction of that time facing up to the real problems the citizens of this country are facing - and even finding a solution for some of them - we would all be much better off.
I think the main problem that we face is loss of trust in the government, and indeed in everybody in positions of authority.
You do not get any better than a world class vaccine rollout to the British people saving lives and opening the economy much earlier than was expected
Johnson had nothing to do with it, except get in the way and confuse people - and make things worse, of course.
You are just being ridiculous
He is widely credited for its success
As the incumbent, Johnson takes the rough with the smooth. Vaccinations happened on his watch, thus he is entitled to take the credit as the incumbent.
Despite the pictures in the news of Johnson wearing a lab coat at Oxford University he didn't invent the vaccine. Neither did he administer the vaccine to anyone, despite us seeing him on the news at several vaccination centres throughout the rollout.
No he didn't invent the vaccine.
But he* did fund its development, prior to it being developed.
He* did fund the creation of of manufacturing, much of it based domestically.
He* did get contracts signed.
He* did choose to steer clear of the EU's disastrous procurement scheme.
He* did choose to prioritise speed of procurement over cost.
He* did choose to prioritise supply over cost.
He* did choose to ensure bottlenecks to supply, such as vials etc were available and wargamed a year ago.
He* did choose to ensure that distribution of the vaccine was planned and wargamed a year ago.
He* did choose to ensure that distribution went based upon clinical need and not vested interests like those in popular jobs.
That's a lot to get started with. The people who did distribute the vaccine would have struggled to do so if the government hadn't procured supply to begin with.
* Some of these maybe not him personally, but his ministers in his government that he appoints and is responsible for.
And as the incumbent, I have accepted that he is entitled to claim the credit. That is how incumberency works. Had something gone wrong with his Covid programme last year, he would have been expected to take the blame for that too.
But my point is its not just that he's entitled to the credit, but that he deserves it too.
This didn't just coincidentally happen on his watch. They made the decisions that led to this. Only a few decisions done differently and we could have been in the EU's procurement scheme, dawdling along still, with vaccines going to special interest groups first instead of clinical need.
It got done because he stayed out of it, having been told to do so by our scientists, lest he f**k it up, as is his want.
There are two types of voter: those who already know the clown is a crook, and those who tomorrow will come to see him as such.
(OK, there’s also Big G, but let’s not complicate matters unnecessarily)
No, it was Boris who convinced Kate Bingham to take the job, that was a gamechanger for the UK as it turned a bureaucratic approach by a nameless civil servant into a VC approach by someone with real experience in early stage pharmaceutical investment.
The thing Boris got right was (this time - the vaccine rollout) to know his known unknowns and allow himself to be kept out of those.
And not to complain too much when Zahawi put Tigger back in the Toybox and sat on the lid.
Whilst supporting bits that needed political support.
Give it time.....Boris Johnson's duplicity and dishonesty was known to every Tory MP. It's all there in Alan Duncan's book. You can go round with a fire extinguisher all you like until it become out of control but it seems a terrible waste of time. He's a wrong 'un and it's only a matter of time until Tory voters get their moral compasses back and he's out on his ear.
No fire extinguishers needed
Boris is popular with the ordinary public and the so called educated Metropolitan elite just cannot accept that their self appointed 'we know better than you' is not cutting through or is the best way to persuade them to back your case
Of course Boris will go at sometime as all political careers end, but he may be there to irritate you for some time yet
Of course Johnson is "popular with the public"... He spends all his time working for cheap instant headlines to make everybody feel good - especially himself.
If he spent a fraction of that time facing up to the real problems the citizens of this country are facing - and even finding a solution for some of them - we would all be much better off.
I think the main problem that we face is loss of trust in the government, and indeed in everybody in positions of authority.
You do not get any better than a world class vaccine rollout to the British people saving lives and opening the economy much earlier than was expected
Johnson had nothing to do with it, except get in the way and confuse people - and make things worse, of course.
You are just being ridiculous
He is widely credited for its success
As the incumbent, Johnson takes the rough with the smooth. Vaccinations happened on his watch, thus he is entitled to take the credit as the incumbent.
Despite the pictures in the news of Johnson wearing a lab coat at Oxford University he didn't invent the vaccine. Neither did he administer the vaccine to anyone, despite us seeing him on the news at several vaccination centres throughout the rollout.
No he didn't invent the vaccine.
But he* did fund its development, prior to it being developed.
He* did fund the creation of of manufacturing, much of it based domestically.
He* did get contracts signed.
He* did choose to steer clear of the EU's disastrous procurement scheme.
He* did choose to prioritise speed of procurement over cost.
He* did choose to prioritise supply over cost.
He* did choose to ensure bottlenecks to supply, such as vials etc were available and wargamed a year ago.
He* did choose to ensure that distribution of the vaccine was planned and wargamed a year ago.
He* did choose to ensure that distribution went based upon clinical need and not vested interests like those in popular jobs.
That's a lot to get started with. The people who did distribute the vaccine would have struggled to do so if the government hadn't procured supply to begin with.
* Some of these maybe not him personally, but his ministers in his government that he appoints and is responsible for.
And as the incumbent, I have accepted that he is entitled to claim the credit. That is how incumberency works. Had something gone wrong with his Covid programme last year, he would have been expected to take the blame for that too.
But my point is its not just that he's entitled to the credit, but that he deserves it too.
This didn't just coincidentally happen on his watch. They made the decisions that led to this. Only a few decisions done differently and we could have been in the EU's procurement scheme, dawdling along still, with vaccines going to special interest groups first instead of clinical need.
It got done because he stayed out of it, having been told to do so by our scientists, lest he f**k it up, as is his want.
There are two types of voter: those who already know the clown is a crook, and those who tomorrow will come to see him as such.
(OK, there’s also Big G, but let’s not complicate matters unnecessarily)
No, it was Boris who convinced Kate Bingham to take the job, that was a gamechanger for the UK as it turned a bureaucratic approach by a nameless civil servant into a VC approach by someone with real experience in early stage pharmaceutical investment.
The thing Boris got right was (this time - the vaccine rollout) to know his known unknowns and allow himself to be kept out of those.
And not to complain too much when Zahawi put Tigger back in the Toybox and sat on the lid.
Whilst supporting bits that needed political support.
Hands off. Eyes open. Penis confined.
I've not seen or heard much from Zahawi recently.
Perhaps he's busy doing his job rather than gossiping and scheming as others are.
I notice the much hyped and predicted surge in EU vaccinations after Easter is looking decidedly unimpressive.
It hasn't surged, but the number of EU vaccinations has been slowly moving in the right direction. France / Germany / Italy all seem to be at or around 400k/vaccinations a day - which is still too slow, but it's a lot quicker than it was six weeks ago.
Interestingly (to me at least) Finland has not used Sputnik, but is well ahead of other EU countries in terms of first doses - they're now at 32.6%. I presume they've gone the sensible British route of not reserving second doses but just getting them in arms as soon as they get them.
Yes, 7m jabs or so a fortnight isn’t world-beating, but it’s not terrible. They should be approaching herd immunity (ish) in time for the European holiday in August.
It's mainly just system dynamics, and the inertia against change.
When it has a surge in, it will stress everything and expose more bottlenecks, which will bed in and stabilise at some level over a suitable period - guessing, 2 weeks.
Then it can take another surge. How big and fast surges are depends whether the growth has been planned for, and at some stage some factor will reach a hard limit - eg supply of trained personnel etc.
An example of prep was Hancock's "do it to be ready" obsession last year, or Germany getting round the Drs info not being accessible to the Pharmacies delivering the vaccine.
I'd say that the EU average will stick at about 0.6%, a little lower than ours as most countries do not have similarly integrated medical databases. Some countries will be better in full process capacity (Germany, Denmark, Latvia); some will be worse.
Obvs France will be somewhat chaotic .
We had the same pattern in Jan -> March - plateau increase plateau etc.
BREAKING - CNN) The US Census Bureau announced Monday that the total population of the United States has topped 331 million people, marking the country's second slowest population growth rate in US history. Amid that, Texas will gain two seats in the redistricting process, the results found.
Additionally, Colorado, Florida, Montana, North Carolina and Oregon will each gain one seat in Congress. California, Illinois, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia will all lose congressional seats ahead of the 2022 midterm elections.
BREAKING - CNN) The US Census Bureau announced Monday that the total population of the United States has topped 331 million people, marking the country's second slowest population growth rate in US history. Amid that, Texas will gain two seats in the redistricting process, the results found.
Additionally, Colorado, Florida, Montana, North Carolina and Oregon will each gain one seat in Congress. California, Illinois, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia will all lose congressional seats ahead of the 2022 midterm elections.
Metro: Slurry of sleaze Mail: Boris on the ropes Express: Boris denies ‘let bodies pile high’ outburst Times: Johnson ‘said he would let COVID rip” in lockdown row Star: [Boris]- My pants are NOT on fire.. Telegraph: PM fights to move on from leaks row Mirror: Now three people say Johnson raged ‘let bodies pile high’ Guardian: Pressure on Johnson after claim of slur on COVID dead i: Boris tainted by sleaze, say voters
BREAKING - CNN) The US Census Bureau announced Monday that the total population of the United States has topped 331 million people, marking the country's second slowest population growth rate in US history. Amid that, Texas will gain two seats in the redistricting process, the results found.
Additionally, Colorado, Florida, Montana, North Carolina and Oregon will each gain one seat in Congress. California, Illinois, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia will all lose congressional seats ahead of the 2022 midterm elections.
Not sure that comment about the DUP is correct. Ignoring their lack of strategic awareness, they have shown that they love being the centre of attention. I could easily see then supporting a Johnson government in exchange for a bit of air time and some sweets
Comments
Maybe.
And not to complain too much when Zahawi put Tigger back in the Toybox and sat on the lid.
Whilst supporting bits that needed political support.
Hands off. Eyes open. Penis confined.
1) Novavax being approved
2) If any of the AZ from Halix went outside the EU
Perhaps he's busy doing his job rather than gossiping and scheming as others are.
When it has a surge in, it will stress everything and expose more bottlenecks, which will bed in and stabilise at some level over a suitable period - guessing, 2 weeks.
Then it can take another surge. How big and fast surges are depends whether the growth has been planned for, and at some stage some factor will reach a hard limit - eg supply of trained personnel etc.
An example of prep was Hancock's "do it to be ready" obsession last year, or Germany getting round the Drs info not being accessible to the Pharmacies delivering the vaccine.
I'd say that the EU average will stick at about 0.6%, a little lower than ours as most countries do not have similarly integrated medical databases. Some countries will be better in full process capacity (Germany, Denmark, Latvia); some will be worse.
Obvs France will be somewhat chaotic
We had the same pattern in Jan -> March - plateau increase plateau etc.
Additionally, Colorado, Florida, Montana, North Carolina and Oregon will each gain one seat in Congress.
California, Illinois, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia will all lose congressional seats ahead of the 2022 midterm elections.
Metro: Slurry of sleaze
Mail: Boris on the ropes
Express: Boris denies ‘let bodies pile high’ outburst
Times: Johnson ‘said he would let COVID rip” in lockdown row
Star: [Boris]- My pants are NOT on fire..
Telegraph: PM fights to move on from leaks row
Mirror: Now three people say Johnson raged ‘let bodies pile high’
Guardian: Pressure on Johnson after claim of slur on COVID dead
i: Boris tainted by sleaze, say voters