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Theresa May is right to slam Johnson and his ministers for maintaining travel bans – politicalbettin
Theresa May is right to slam Johnson and his ministers for maintaining travel bans – politicalbetting.com
In all the years I have been following and writing about politics I cannot recall a speech from an ex-PM like the above one from TMay. Remember she was not attacking another party but the current Tory government for maintaining the rigid travel bans when other countries are loosening up.
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If only we had a massive supply of vaccines sitting in a warehouse doing nothing.
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/third-wave-pandemic-appears-be-broken-german-health-minister-2021-05-07/
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/var-lines-to-be-thicker-next-season-in-bid-to-end-armpit-offsides-p30srmd3f
Its all changed now. We are back to early Jan, when it was crucial just to get as many jabs in as many arms as soon as possible. We should have shifted several weeks ago.
Perhaps it is only natural, that a Prime Minster and government, who have turned muddling though into a cottage industry if not an art form, have stepped all over themselves on this front.
First by (apparently) giving preference to AZM (again apparently) because it was (at least half-way) British. Can still remember the howls of outrage that dirty EU politicos & bureaucrats were slandering a fine British product, just out of spite for Brexit! Until of course the UK itself cut back on AZN for the same reason as the foul Frogs etc, etc.
And subsequently by whipsawing the public over foreign holidays - regardless of vax status - while at the same time keeping an Open Door policy with respect to the Delta variant.
Certainly there is an element of special pleading in Theresa May's powerful blast, due to fact she represents a goodly number of airport & airline employees. But she is not speaking JUST for them, as commentary by OGH and other PBers makes crystal clear.
Personally am still wary of air travel - and weddings! - due to their demonstrated capacity for spreading the COVID. But muddle and blather are NOT solutions, they are the opposite.
WFH is fine; Zoom calls are great for induction, training and sales; no need for in-person contact at the office. But it is scandalous we are prevented from seeing our overseas friends and relatives.
G7 might not help, with dignatories flying in, and front-page photos of Carrie, Wilf, and Jill Biden on the beach.
Like that of Gov De Santis of Florida, who has banned them for cruise ships operating from Sunshine State ports (a large numbers) in order to please the MAGA base he hopes will propel him into the White House in 2024?
Am all for setting high goals, but "zero COVID" makes as much objective sense methinks as Luddism.
Alternatively, the government could commit to a genuine policy of herd immunity via a final "exit wave" (with the vaccines helping) and we'll probably see another 20k deaths before hitting it with this new variant, but least we'll be there. Unsure..
If Boris announces 21st June, freedom day, is basically weddings OK and hey you can order from the bar now and not do table service.. Expect mass protests and potentially riots.
Yet the UK is seeing a new spike and the US isn’t. I can’t help thinking that the UK’s long gap between doses is problematic given that the Delta variant seems to be resistant to just a single dose, and perhaps the US having vaccinations open to all over 12 is keeping the spread low among young people, especially st schools snd colleges.
According to Bloomberg COVID Tracker, in USA fully vaxed = 42.6%, in UK = 43.2%
It's a fact that some states in US are lower; vax coverage ((pop divided by doses I think) in Mississippi = 31.5% compared with Vermont = 67.2% (and WA State = 54.3%). For total US = 47.7%, for UK = 52.2%
So while UK is ahead of US it is NOT by leaps & bounds. And of course there are also regional variations in UK, as documented on PB.
Though our vaxing of teenagers versus UK not (or not much) so far, does mean that gap between US adult vax rate and UK is higher than for % of total pop.
US = 0.33 per 100, UK = 0.72 per 100
True, a sizable gap. But isn't part of this fact that higher % of current jabs in US (esp. among older adults) are #2, compared with #1?
No doubt that UK has higher uptake than US among adults, agree with you on that. With major shortfalls in US being among White MAGA-types AND Black people (which is why % coverage is so low in Mississippi, Alabama & Louisiana, all with large numbers of both groups.
https://ourworldindata.org/explorers/coronavirus-data-explorer?zoomToSelection=true&pickerSort=desc&pickerMetric=total_vaccinations&Metric=Vaccine+doses&Interval=Cumulative&Relative+to+Population=true&Align+outbreaks=false&country=USA~GBR
Again, we'll know more in a few months than we know today, as per usual. At least about that interval.
And UK has advantage of much more centralized system, plus much lower degree of politically-generated anti-vaxism. But seems that some of this advantage has bee squandered in various ways, as discussed in detail on PB.
Seventy-five years ago, an unlikely political duo teamed up to tackle a global famine. Their successes offer lessons as America gears up to help the world fight Covid19.
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/06/10/biden-world-covid-vaccines-hoover-famine-relief-493228
As the United States watches its Covid-19 rates decline, the next looming challenge will be fighting the disease in the rest of the world, where new variants are spreading and could continue to emerge, and the pandemic may dig in for years. To fight the virus overseas, President Joe Biden has just announced a plan at this week’s G7 Summit to donate 500 million vaccine doses to mostly lower-income countries. This pledge should make Americans proud.
As big as that number is, however, it is only a down payment on the long-term effort to stamp out the pandemic globally. Of roughly 7.8 billion people, around 85 percent are not yet fully vaccinated. As the administration gears up to help with the daunting challenge of vaccinating the world, there’s a model that could point a way forward: the American-led post-World War II famine relief program. It’s a story of bipartisan cooperation, and it involves the return from political exile of an unexpected hero: Herbert Hoover.
The food shortage after the war was dire. As Winston Churchill said in his “Iron Curtain” speech, “famine stalk[ed] the earth.” The U.S. was one of a few countries with a mostly intact economy and a surplus of food. . . .
Democratic President Harry Truman turned to the Republican Herbert Hoover because of his unmatched qualifications. Hoover, the only living former president at the time (a title he held for 20 years), left office unpopular. But he also had earned the nickname “The Great Humanitarian” for leading the Commission for Relief in Belgium to feed 10 million people during World War I. . . .
. . . . Truman, the man who had ordered the dropping of atomic weapons, wrote that a famine-relief session with Hoover was “the most important meeting held in the White House since I had become President.”
To assess needs and rally the world, the 71-year-old Hoover went on the road. He traveled 50,000 miles to nearly 40 countries across five continents. He also met with everyone from the Pope to Gandhi to Chiang Kai-shek. While in Cairo, he and Truman gave a joint radio address urging their fellow citizens to fight the famine. Truman called for Americans to make real sacrifices and, on two days a week, to “reduce our food consumption to that of the average person in the hungry lands” so that more would be available to export. . . .
Getting the postwar recovery right was key to keeping the peace. America exported 6 million tons of grains to Europe by July 1946, with more to come. Lives were saved, goodwill at the start of the Cold War was born and organizations like the United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) were born. From tragedy came triumph. . . .
he man who won the first $250,000 prize in Washington’s COVID-19 vaccine lottery claimed his award Thursday, the Washington Lottery announced.
“I got lucky,” the winner, identified as Lance R., said in a statement released by the Lottery. “Mainly, I was lucky that I didn’t get hit with COVID before the vaccines were developed and available. Millions around the world haven’t had such good luck.”
Winning the money was “icing on the cake” and “totally unexpected,” he said.
The Lottery did not say which part of the state Lance R. lives in or provide further information about him.
His name was selected in Tuesday’s drawing, and he was reached by phone Wednesday. Lottery officials are waiting to hear back from this week’s other winners for merchandise prizes, after having to leave many voice mails, according to lottery spokesperson Dan Miller. Winners have 72 hours to claim their prizes.
The state will continue to hold drawings each Tuesday through the month of June, with a drawing for the biggest prize — a $1 million jackpot — scheduled for July 13. The state is also giving away airline tickets, sporting-event tickets, Xboxes and other prizes in an effort to encourage Washingtonians to get the COVID-19 vaccine. . . .
https://olis.oregonlegislature.gov/liz/mediaplayer/?clientID=4879615486&eventID=2021061057
Let me break it down for you?
UK = Demand > Supply
USA = Supply < Demand
To sort this the government authorises younger ages. Simple.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Nearman
"2020 Oregon Capitol riot
During a December 21, 2020 special session, Nearman let armed protesters into the Oregon State Capitol to protest against health restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic in Oregon. Joey Gibson, political activist and founder of Patriot Prayer, posted a video on Parler indicating a state representative let the group into the capitol, and in January 2021 security video was released of Nearman allowing similar right-wing protesters to enter the Oregon State Capitol Building through a door.
Oregon House Speaker Tina Kotek fined Nearman $2,000 and stripped him of his committee assignments and appointments. Kotek also asked him to resign. Kotek and others are planning on filing a formal complaint about Nearman's actions creating a hostile workplace. Nearman also gave up his Capitol building badge; he agreed not to let unauthorized people into the building and must give 24 hours notice before he enters the building. Oregon State Police opened a criminal investigation against him.
On April 30, 2021, prosecutors charged Nearman with official misconduct in the first degree (Class A misdemeanor, punishable by a maximum 364 days in prison and a US$6,250 fine) and criminal trespass in the second degree (Class C misdemeanor, punishable by a maximum of 30 days in jail and a $1,250 fine). Nearman did not appear in court on May 11 when he was arraigned on the charges, and his attorney did not file a plea. Nearman must appear in court in person or remotely for a June 29 hearing.
In June 2021, video was discovered of a meeting at the office of the Freedom Foundation on December 16, 2020, during which Nearman detailed his plan to allow protestors entry to the capitol, which he dubbed "Operation Hall Pass". He couched it in a layer of irony, claiming to know nothing of the plan and saying that the cellphone number he gave out was just random numbers."
Live feed from Oregon State House of Representatives:
https://olis.oregonlegislature.gov/liz/mediaplayer/?clientID=4879615486&eventID=2021061057
Only way to convince them is with a good dose of fear. Like a new variant that is way more transmissible or something.
Gotta love them Indians!
In meantime, suggest that Boris Johnson follow Joe Biden's example, by taking his finger out - for a change - and REALLY focusing on boosting the vaccination rate.
Why the feck not?
Yea 59
Nay 1
It’s impotent rage from the double-vaxxed.
The govt needs another couple of months, at least, to finish the jabbing before we can talk about reopening to the world.
Patience, Theresa.
There are special prizes reserved for teenagers in WA and elsewhere, generally connected with college tuition & expenses.
Guns & pickups are being offered in WVa which is a smart idea; tailor the prizes to the audience. BTW, would personally trust the average West Virginian with a gun a damn site quicker than the average Washingtonian, or Briton for that matter. Certainly way less danger of getting shot by accident!
Do we re-open them? I'd say so. Unfortunately with this new Indian/Delta variant we will probably see an exit wave of about half the peak of the first wave. Travel, yeah, that seems sensible to remove from the point of variants.
Am I missing anything here?
What is the difference in principle, with security versus pandemic?
That's your choice?
As for vax passports, think they should be limited, say to air travel and large gatherings, again with some flexibility.
Avoidance of the categorical where feasible!
EDIT - In general, am in favor of opening up rather than closing down, no doubt about that. In large part, because I'm double-vaxed and thus my level of personal concern about either catching OR transmitting the Crud is nil, or close enough!
Hopefully there will be more episodes.
Hilarious.
The government chose to only offer Moderna/Pfizer to younger age groups, which is good in some ways - but reduces the speed at which whole country herd immunity is reached.
The right strategy is to allow the AZ stockpile to be used in a mixed vax strategy: AZ first jab, Pfizer/Moderna second. The evidence from Spain is that AZ followed by Pfizer results in a stronger immune response than either AZ-AZ or PZE-PZE, and it is a much more efficient use of existing resources.
It would - for a start - allow us to get pretty much everyone over the age of 18 who wants one a first jab by the end of this month.
The UK government was absolutely spot on to prioritise first jabs in Feb/Mar/Apr, it seems insane that they have (a) forgotten this, and (b) are ignoring the emerging evidence that mixed vaccination strategies work better.
You can see from the County's COVID page if you scroll down to the percentage vaccinated graph that the curve is flattening off at about 65% total population first jabs.
https://covidactnow.org/us/maryland-md/county/montgomery_county/?s=1916835
I am wondering if 65-70% total population (until they permit vaccination of kids 6 months - 12 years) will be the upper limit in the US.
And while I understand that principle, the reality is that double vaccinated people who take a Covid test before travel are negligible risks.
EDIT - Would you expect that % of people who contracted (and survived) COVID is highest, in just those places where the vax rate is lowest, or thereabouts? Which is helping the cause, albeit the hard way? The Donald Trump, Boris Johnson, Ted Nugent way?
"TMay’s core argument is that the UK, “one of the most heavily vaccinated countries in the world”, is the nation that is the one that is “most reluctant to give its citizens the freedoms those vaccinations should support”."
Luddism created jobs, at least for machine repair men, as well as being aimed at saving the jobs of those who saw the machines as a threat.
‘Zero Covid’ would, and is, destroying jobs.
The government has political capital from the one thing that has gone right, being also the one thing that the PM was deliberately kept well away from. This, on the other hand, has all the hallmarks of something he has been actively involved with: inconsistency, capriciousness, confusion, a stance that changes depending on whether his last phone call was from the travel industry or SAGE. I think people will take losing our long-promised ‘freedom day’ very badly. Anyone running a business certainly will.
Had Mrs May slowed down a bit, her speech could have become one of those heavyweight, devastating ones. A shame she tends to gabble when she is under pressure.
At an absolute minimum we need to establish a clear set of criteria, that can be met in real life (not potential risk of new variants for example), that will allow a return to normal life.
There’s a popular beach cafe down here, which several PB’ers know, currently running a restricted service (max 20 customers, distancing, queues to get in, restrictions on moving about, masks and sanitation, Covid deep cleaning between customers, etc.). He’s even had to employ an extra person as a Covid Marshall to direct everyone about and manage the queue.
It closes on Wednesdays, and as last Wednesday was a pleasant morning, the owner went out sea kayaking, from a beach full of holidaymakers.
Around lunchtime the weather changed and it started raining. Someone among the beachgoers got into the beach cafe (which is hard to make fully secure) for shelter, despite the signs saying no entry and that it was closed, and once the gate was opened lots of others followed.
The same turn in the weather made the owner head back to shore, and he returned to find his cafe rammed full of people, sitting about using his furniture, eating their lunches, leaving their litter. He tried in vain to get them to leave, and the local paper has a load of the pictures he took (faces blurred) of the crowd of people sitting about refusing to budge. Eventually he got them out and then he had to clean up.
You would think that the owner would be most upset about the breaking and entering and having to clean up other people’s mess. But the striking thing about the comments from the owner in the local paper is that the most angry heartfelt ones are about the crowd not having to observe any of the restrictions that he has been forced to, which have made running his business so difficult. When he talks about how there were twice the number of people in there that he is allowed and that they were all sitting about with no distancing or special cleaning or masks or nothing, you can really feel his pain.
@ping this morning is a honourable exception.
Tories have become lazy with their ‘we won, so suck it up’ attitude.
https://twitter.com/vtchakarova/status/1403120635883237379
The government should get a lot of credit if they do stand up to the zero covid arguments, and latitude if that goes wrong, but that does not seem to be what they are briefing the media. Expect a few restrictions to be eased, most to remain in place and then another review in 3-5 weeks. The problem is whatever risks we see now, are unlikely to not still be risks in 3-5 weeks time.
I think that the Government can get away with stalling once, BUT it will have to nominate a date (no later than the start of the school holidays) for letting us out of jail and then stick to it. Otherwise, the suspicion will (rightly IMHO) take root that the Zero Covidiots have taken over the asylum and this is never going to end.
It's also a matter of self-preservation for them. There simply aren't nearly enough shit-scared Covid hermits amongst the electorate to insulate the Government from the electoral consequences of collapsing public confidence, and the mass destruction of the hospitality trade that will happen if venues have to operate at fractional capacity for another year.
Perhaps this is the answer for Labour. Sometimes when armies have gone on the attack abroad the answer is to march into their own undefended capital. Might Labour do the same now? If Boris wishes to ape Labour and take their vote up north, let Labour ape the tories: unashamedly seize the south working in co-operation with the LibDems. It may not be that difficult for Starmer to produce policies which appeal to southern, remain, areas that are uneasy at the Alf Garnett vote steal by Boris and chums.
😜
What’s interesting is that those worrying about cases aren’t demanding that we rollback the unlocking.
And their biggest fear is of having to reverse direction once we are unlocked - arising from yet more rash promises from our loose tongued PM - the consequence of which is a stultifying excess of caution. The irony is that the timetable we are on was seen as over-cautious back when it was announced, as other countries are already ahead of us in terms of reopening hospitality and travel.
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Susan_Michie&diff=prev&oldid=1027912482
I don't blame Boris for being ultra cautious, imagine the outcry if early relaxation led to a third wave of the virus.. unthinkable..
It’s a manufactured race that may just be tiring us out for no good reason.
The one thing the UK has screwed up on is not putting India on the red list. Combined with the amber list being very much a middle class only quarantine on return and a proportionately large Indian diaspora has created great conditions for seeding delta.
The other issue is the missing of the boat for more Pfizer orders.
Travel is tricky, I think the double vaxxed should get an easier time mind and we ought to have South America, India, Africa on a red list but could probably do all of Europe and the USA on double vaxxed green.
It is the PM’s idiotic desire to please that finds us in the position where keeping us locked up is better for the government than giving us parole.
Even if we wait for 75/75 or similar, it is only days or weeks.
So far, it isn’t. Almost everyone getting seriously ill is in groups that could have had the vaccine and failed to do so. I am afraid my sympathy for these people is wearing thin.
Have we any advance on the figure of four who have died despite being double jabbed? That’s where my sympathy would be. But equally, on a national level such small numbers are no reason to delay unlocking. That’s statistically likely to end up as a smaller proportion than of drivers who die in road accidents.