France – the country of Pasteur, Marie Curie, Descartes, and Pascal – has a problem with vaccine hesitancy. Their own President, in a bizarre moment of self-harm, decided to declare the Oxford/Astra-Zeneca vaccine as “quasi-ineffective” for older people. Add this to long-standing issues with skepticism about vaccines generally, and you have a recipe for a country that is going to struggle to get jabs into arms – potentially resulting in France never being truly free of Coronavirus.
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Nobody in front, nobody behind for an hour or so.
Is there really more than one?
On the subject of media trash, the tories have increased their poll lead in the latest YouGov. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/tories-increase-lead-over-labour-despite-boris-johnson-flat-row-qc9n36pdw
Will the flat redecoration cut through eventually? I don't know. But I do know that I couldn't give a flying f*ck about it. I don't vote to put a parish priest into No.10. I know he's not a saint. I know he can be deceitful. I don't care. I really really don't give a shit. All I care about is that he does his job and does it well. On vaccinations he is. He can syphon-off £10m for his flipping curtains for all I care providing he gets jabs in our arms.
A keen raconteur, Marten told a story of a tour he took around the Palace of Westminster with his Banbury constituents. Touring through the maze of corridors they turned a corner and met Lord Hailsham, the Lord Chancellor, wearing the full regalia of his office. Recognising his Parliamentary colleague in the midst of the Banbury constituents, Hailsham boomed, "Neil". Not needing to be told again, the tour party fell to its knees with some haste.
Eli Beer, director of an Israeli volunteer ambulance service, Hatzalah, said he was shocked by the size of the crowds at Mount Meron overnight, estimated at around 100,000. “Close to 40 people died as a result of this tragedy,” he told Army Radio on Friday morning. Children were among the dead.
January in the UK: 30,000 Covid deaths
April in the UK: fewer than 600.
"About 22 million people in the UK are living in areas that have not reported any Covid-19 deaths in April, according to BBC News analysis.
By comparison, in a four-week period during January's peak, fewer than 50,000 people lived in such places."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-56923757
If the former, those statistics are encouraging.
If the latter, however, they’re not necessarily showing a lack of vaccine hesitancy.
'If it had been dealt with straight away then people would have thought nothing of it. But the attempt to cover up what happened looks dodgy.'
Another veteran Tory said: 'I genuinely think we are in trouble. You can argue that none of the things add up to much on their own. But there is a carelessness and arrogance in No 10 that is very dangerous.'
There was also resentment in some quarters toward Ms Symonds, with the PM's fiancée dubbed 'Carrie Antoinette' on Tory WhatsApp groups over her allegedly expensive tastes.
https://www.connexionfrance.com/French-news/France-Covid-19-vaccine-campaign-calendar-and-key-dates-for-2021
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/causesofdeath/articles/deathsduetocovid19interactivemap/2021-02-25
Gibraltar has administered over 200 doses per 100 est population, which indicates a hesitancy of ~ 0 and a higher than given population
Israel's numbers I work to about 86% done and lots of children.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p053r2q1/waiting-for-work
Getting warmer...
Is a collapse of Tory self-confidence on the horizon?
Let’s hope that feeds through into the younger age groups and that it doesn’t turn out that’s where all the conspiracy theorists were.
https://twitter.com/robpowellnews/status/1388006815003197441
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-56925878.amp
As ever, it is the left behind towns that are most affected.
"The areas with the highest vacancy rates were the North East (19.3%), Wales (19.2%), and North West (17.7%). Greater London had the fewest empty shops at 10.7%, followed by the South East (12.7%) and East of England (14.1%)"
It's about politics.
Why do you come here if you are not interested in political news?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-56937428
Look at Alabama and Mississippi, they had big vaccine inventory issues very early on, and it was a clear sign of vaccine hesitancy.
I also recall Heseltine, as the early results came in, late that May evening, telling the Beeb that expected very good ones soon.
The EU is roughly 8 weeks behind us in take up, so will be in our fortunate position by the summer. That isn't going to stop PB Tories acting like an embittered ex obsessively stalking on Facebook though.
https://docs.cdn.yougov.com/5wmdyo10ta/TheTimes_Voting_Intention_Track_210428__W.pdf
Worth noting that when the 2017 local election seats were fought, the Tories also had an 11% lead over Labour on the actual result - albeit on 38%-27%. If Labour are to make any gains, they look to be from LibDems (7% now versus 18% actual in 2017). Labour will stand still as against the Tories at best (note YouGov has 3% for Refuk, but as most seats won't have a candidate that could add a point or two to the Tory lead).
Those seats last fought in 2016 could prove to be horrible for Labour, where they actually finished one point ahead of the Tories on 31%, Tories on 30%, LibDems 15%, UKIP 12%. Looking at projections for these seats - where they won 1326 Councillors to the Tories 842 - may be where the gloom in Labour's internal machine is coming from.
Starmer could be down 200-250 councillors after next Thursday.
I am trying to give independents a chance rather than the big companies.
This excludes AZ who can supply my 2nd dose on 5th May.
They started reopening schools last week, and a week later numbers are :
- active vaccine is currently at 16% of the pop,
- R is 0.9 for the last couple of days and
- cases are at 400 per million. 30k per day.
UK numbers for when schools reopened - March 8th
- active vaccines was 26%,
- R was at 0.75,
- and confirmed cases were at 90 per million.
I'd say they are at least 3 weeks too early, possibly quite a lot more, on top of the one week difference above.
https://www.france24.com/en/france/20210426-covid-19-schools-reopen-across-france-despite-spike-in-icu-admissions
It's always been a supply issue, and that's increasingly fixed. The "millions of unused doses" stories all came just after big deliveries. Even now, AZ is tending to come in spurts, rather than a smooth flow.
In the oldest age group(75+), they're at 75% single dosed and still going.
As of now, France etc are about two months behind the UK, but that gap will take less than two months to close; deliveries are due to accelerate in May and again in June.
And because of the whole open data thing, that the UK hasn't done, most of this has been knowable for a while.
It is only right that an individual should be able to choose which laws apply to them. It is only right that when a complaint is made and an investigation carried out to determine if that individual has broken the strict professional code that directs their behaviour, that the accused is able to discard the findings against them and carry on in role.
Its only fair. Lawyers get to dismiss professional misconduct convictions. Doctors. Bent Coppers. People who steal from work. So it is an outrage for people to think there is something wrong with the Prime Minister being able to simply dismiss the professional misconduct findings that are presented to him about his behaviour.
Veteran Tory - George Osborne
If people aren’t willing to be named it’s just bitchiness
I think though that a number of other developing countries remain as vulnerable as India, as very low vaccination rates, including China.
https://twitter.com/TheLocalItaly/status/1387803509270007814?s=19
Anonymous people claiming on social media that he has done something wrong is not a court of law.
Once all the first doses are done we can use all ~20m monthly supply to work through second doses so we may only need until the end of July to get almost all second doses done.
In other breaking news, George Galloway didn't like Tony Blair after he kicked him out of the party.
You? Just a bitchy re-running of the Brexit wars. Grow up.
And he is so bitter
(edit... I see the point is so clear that it’s already been noted.)
https://www.politico.eu/coronavirus-in-europe/
Are you the arbiter of what gets posted, if you don't like it go to the next one.
Paris prosecutors specializing in health-related investigations have opened an involuntary manslaughter probe into three deaths that occurred following Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccinations, AFP reported on Wednesday. They are taking over and combining three investigations from local prosecutors that began on a regional level following complaints from the families of the deceased.
https://www.politico.eu/article/manslaughter-probe-into-deaths-following-astrazeneca-vaccines-launched-by-french-prosecutors/
Mr. B, this charge of English nationalism continues to confound me.
How are the English Democrats doing in the polls?
It sounds like a simplistic slogan to try and denigrate those (primarily English) who had the temerity to oppose the EU. A continuation, lower grade, of Cameron's foolish 'Little Englanders' attack line.
It's especially ironic as England, unlike Scotland or Wales, doesn't have a major nationalist party.
https://twitter.com/BritainElects/status/1387791371491237889
Westminster voting intention:
CON: 44% (-)
LAB: 33% (-1)
GRN: 7% (-)
LDEM: 7% (+2)
REFUK: 3% (+1)
via @YouGov , 27 - 28 Apr
Chgs. w/ 22 Apr
"But his wallpaper ..."
And do NYC, LA ?
8. So naturally good old Blighty had to be whipping boy.
It's worth keeping in mind that even if AZ had capitulated & given UK manufactured vaccines to the EU, the numbers would have made little difference due to population size.
9. Assuming stocks were split 50/50 EU/UK, the number of vaccines exported to the EU would have been maybe 1.5 - 2 million a week. Not enough to make a significant improvement to the EU rollout. But enough to hinder the UK's rollout significantly.
14. So the EU cannot win, no matter the outcome of the litigation.
If, as expected, the EU loses, it will look like a vindictive neighbour, hell bent on causing harm & disruption to the UK & its people. UK cases were much higher than Europe's when vaccine demands were 1st made.
Thread:
https://twitter.com/BarristersHorse/status/1387595778764464131?s=20
Mr. B, does the Conservative Party advocate England leaving the UK?
Bring it on. 🏴🏴🏴
Front page headline 'What a boost for Britain ' on vaccine rollout and plummeting infections
And on the inside 'The Jokes on you , Sir Keir' referring to his woeful photo stunt
It was an avoidable error by Starmer and he needs better advisors
Are there any statistics on the rate of missed second dose appointments?
I would be happy to give Boris the benefit of the doubt. If you remember I supported him here recently on another issue. But why the hell is he unwilling to answer a very easy question?
Does anyone know the financial year in which this work was done? I wonder if the reluctance to reveal who repaid the loan was that it was a bridging loan - ie Boris claimed 2 years worth of the refurbishment allowance (£60k) and used the loan to bridge the gap.
I’ve no idea if that would be in the rules (strikes me as a bit of a grey area) or if it happened but it’s a possibility he might not want to put out there as it is certainly a but cute
If the inquiry is by the Police and the CPS then the PM can't veto it, can he?
If you're eg Director of a company and you hire someone to create a report for you and to report to you, then I don't see why you couldn't.
Now people have moved on to other questions as they tend to do. It becomes one of those process stories that you answer one question and then people drag it out and out and out. He's paid for it, there's a report ongoing and if any further declarations are needed then they'll be made. Big freaking deal. Millions of people are worried about their jobs, around the world there's thousands of people a day dying from the virus and this is what the media want to talk about? Its narcissistic puerile nonsense.
But honesty, from Johnson? I wouldn't hold your breath.
My mentor spent around 20 years in the Cabinet. He said that during that time Cabinet made 3 important decisions.
1 of them was wrong, and on 1 on them he had no influence… but he was very proud of the other decision that he made*
* the history of Ireland could have been very different if he has not persuaded Heath to step back from an action that was very very wrong
The constitutional fiction is that government ministers are appointed by the Sovereign, and that the Prime Minister only provides advice. This means that the PM is not in any position to give the power of dismissing her Ministers, including themself, to someone investigating impropriety.
The constitutional remedy is for the Commons to use its powers of impeachment - but the strength of the party whip makes that a distant prospect at present.
So 50% for the EU would be around 800k a week tops.