Roger will be along shortly gloating that its fewer cases than in Blighty.
I hope France get to grips with their antivaxxers because they really do need to catch up, the surge is on.
France's latest daily vaccination rate is higher than the UK's best day according to OWID.
No sign that they're running out of people wanting vaccinations; unlike the UK, sadly.
Have you noticed that France is nine million behind the UK on first does despite having vaccinated well over a million under 18s and that Macron had to resort to threats to the anti-vaxxers over a week ago ?
I'm certainly not criticizing Macron, he did the right thing in pushing hard against anti-vaxx sentiment.
Though he does have to take some blame for encouraging that sentiment during the winter.
How far and how quickly he can encourage further vaccinating in France remains to be seen.
Every chance France will end up vaccinating a higher proportion of their population than the UK imho. I certainly wouldn't have expected that at the outset.
If they are doing kids and we are not I would certainly hope they end up with a higher proportion.
Roger will be along shortly gloating that its fewer cases than in Blighty.
I hope France get to grips with their antivaxxers because they really do need to catch up, the surge is on.
France's latest daily vaccination rate is higher than the UK's best day according to OWID.
No sign that they're running out of people wanting vaccinations; unlike the UK, sadly.
Have you noticed that France is nine million behind the UK on first does despite having vaccinated well over a million under 18s and that Macron had to resort to threats to the anti-vaxxers over a week ago ?
I'm certainly not criticizing Macron, he did the right thing in pushing hard against anti-vaxx sentiment.
Though he does have to take some blame for encouraging that sentiment during the winter.
How far and how quickly he can encourage further vaccinating in France remains to be seen.
Every chance France will end up vaccinating a higher proportion of their population than the UK imho. I certainly wouldn't have expected that at the outset.
If they are doing kids and we are not I would certainly hope they end up with a higher proportion.
Notwithstanding the kids, six months ago I did not expect France to get anywhere the UK take up, given their historic vaccine reticence.
PS I am sure we will be doing the kids once HMG has completed another u-turn.
Roger will be along shortly gloating that its fewer cases than in Blighty.
I hope France get to grips with their antivaxxers because they really do need to catch up, the surge is on.
France's latest daily vaccination rate is higher than the UK's best day according to OWID.
No sign that they're running out of people wanting vaccinations; unlike the UK, sadly.
Have you noticed that France is nine million behind the UK on first does despite having vaccinated well over a million under 18s and that Macron had to resort to threats to the anti-vaxxers over a week ago ?
I'm certainly not criticizing Macron, he did the right thing in pushing hard against anti-vaxx sentiment.
Though he does have to take some blame for encouraging that sentiment during the winter.
How far and how quickly he can encourage further vaccinating in France remains to be seen.
Every chance France will end up vaccinating a higher proportion of their population than the UK imho. I certainly wouldn't have expected that at the outset.
If they are doing kids and we are not I would certainly hope they end up with a higher proportion.
Notwithstanding the kids, six months ago I did not expect France to get anywhere the UK take up, given their historic vaccine reticence.
PS I am sure we will be doing the kids once HMG has completed another u-turn.
Why would that be a u-turn? JCVI have advised against it for now.
In January 2021, several general media outlets and specialist railway/engineering publications reported that Highways England was intending to infill 116 disused structures and demolish up to 18 others as part of an asset management programme lasting five years. These numbers were based on a spreadsheet issued by HE in response to a Freedom of Information request.
The HRE Group evaluated these bridges and tunnels and found that around one-third were already proposed for reuse as part of new active travel routes, railway reopenings and heritage line extensions - or had the potential to play such roles in the future - and infilling could not therefore be regarded as the “most appropriate option” - as asserted by Highways England - due to its wider negative impacts.
In May 2021, HE told The Telegraph that only 69 structures were proposed for infilling, although the company subsequently refused requests to provide a list of them for verification purposes. This disenfranchises stakeholders who might want to make representations about a particular bridge or tunnel.
In response, The HRE Group questioned how the condition of 47 structures that Highways England had previously claimed were “unsafe” could have improved without any intervention. The company claimed that they were being “reassessed for maintenance”, prompting the question as to why this work hadn’t been carried out before the decision was taken to infill them.
Roger will be along shortly gloating that its fewer cases than in Blighty.
I hope France get to grips with their antivaxxers because they really do need to catch up, the surge is on.
France's latest daily vaccination rate is higher than the UK's best day according to OWID.
No sign that they're running out of people wanting vaccinations; unlike the UK, sadly.
Have you noticed that France is nine million behind the UK on first does despite having vaccinated well over a million under 18s and that Macron had to resort to threats to the anti-vaxxers over a week ago ?
I'm certainly not criticizing Macron, he did the right thing in pushing hard against anti-vaxx sentiment.
Though he does have to take some blame for encouraging that sentiment during the winter.
How far and how quickly he can encourage further vaccinating in France remains to be seen.
Every chance France will end up vaccinating a higher proportion of their population than the UK imho. I certainly wouldn't have expected that at the outset.
If they are doing kids and we are not I would certainly hope they end up with a higher proportion.
Notwithstanding the kids, six months ago I did not expect France to get anywhere the UK take up, given their historic vaccine reticence.
PS I am sure we will be doing the kids once HMG has completed another u-turn.
Macron’s threat that they could no longer eat out unless they got jabbed made a remarkably quick impact!
I noticed empty shelves in two mini-supermarkets today. It's definitely happening.
I've not seen evidence of it at all yet, but Heaven forbid we should return to the bad old days of bog roll hoarding again. Although it would be fascinating watching Johnson trying to wibble his way out of that scenario...
Zoe app data is bad....all those thoughts of well it was the footy and schools, will die down now, but zoe is real time, so footy is definitely out the picture and so will a lot of school transmission.
They've redone it.
So cannot compare to previous numbers.
We'll have to see how it changes from now on.
I don't think the raw number is necessarily the thing to note, its proportions and trend. but he explains the flaw, which some of us previously pointed out, too skewed to those who are vaxxed as the likes of Piers Corbyn types arent going to report their health every day to an app.
But didn't the Zoe data show much higher infection among the non-vaccinated to the vaccinated ?
Now if there's another segment of anti-vaxxers who weren't being picked up wouldn't that suggest that the proportion of infection among the unvaccinated to vaccinated is even higher than previously believed ?
One would like to think that they allowed for that in their overall calculation. I.e. if only 1% of Zoe contributors are unvaccinateed but the UK figure is 12% unvaccinated, they'd weight the proportion of unvaccinated Zoe contributors who are positive accordingly.
The problem arises when the number of unvaccinated Zoe contributors gets so small as to be unrepresentaive.
This is what Zoe were saying last week:
According to ZOE COVID Study incidence figures, it is estimated that among unvaccinated people in the UK there are currently 17,581 new daily symptomatic cases of COVID on average, based on PCR test data from up to five days ago [*]. A decrease of 22% from 22,638 last week. Suggesting that the wave in the unvaccinated population has now peaked in the UK. The overall number of estimated cases is 33,118 which remains similar to last weeks which was 33,723.
Comparatively there are currently 15,537 new daily symptomatic cases in partly or fully vaccinated people, an increase of 40% from 11,084 new cases last week.
So last week they thought:
17,581 symptomatic cases among the unvaccinated and 15,537 symptomatic cases among the vaccinated.
That's 53% unvaccinated and 47% vaccinated.
Now they think they've been undercounting the unvaccinated and recalculated to give a total 60,016.
Assuming that the 'extra' are all unvaccinated then the proportions change to approximately 75% unvaccinated and 25% vaccinated.
Given that there's many more vaccinated than unvaccinated then Delta must be going through the unvaccinated like shite and geese.
Which might explain the rapid increase in cases in European countries during July.
And which suggests that countries which don't manage a very high level of vaccination are in for a bad time from Delta.
I noticed empty shelves in two mini-supermarkets today. It's definitely happening.
I've not seen evidence of it at all yet, but Heaven forbid we should return to the bad old days of bog roll hoarding again. Although it would be fascinating watching Johnson trying to wibble his way out of that scenario...
The bog roll wars were the nadir of covid hysteria. A very unedifying episode!
I noticed empty shelves in two mini-supermarkets today. It's definitely happening.
I've not seen evidence of it at all yet, but Heaven forbid we should return to the bad old days of bog roll hoarding again. Although it would be fascinating watching Johnson trying to wibble his way out of that scenario...
The bog roll wars were the nadir of covid hysteria. A very unedifying episode!
Why anyone thought having a year's supply of bog roll was necessary when they only had a week's supply of food was totally beyond me.
Yes, two. Literally nobody was wearing a mask in either pub, and you had to order from the bar (no apps or table waiting).
I also went to Sainsbury’s today - no mask. I’d say in there it was more 50/50.
Not a pub but had a bit of a surprise in one of my local petrol stations tonight to find almost no-one wearing a mask. I was still wearing one.
Its mask over for about half the population, as far as I can see; the other half are sticking with them.
Judging by my WhatsApp thread lots of people binned them this week because they found them unbearable in the heat. They might return to them when it cools down a bit.
The public haven't had it explained why it is a bad idea. It is a national digital id trojan horse. We will never be rid of it and it will be expanded.
Not that Starmer would be up to that.
It's instant herd immunity in crowded venues.
Whatever else one thinks of Macron, his past statements on vaccines, or even the questions on vaxports (which I think are a different issue in U.K. to France - we are far more likely to build a whole massive digital infrastructure behind them), I was very impressed by the simple way he sold them today with just a single, powerful sentence, that probably sums up ultimately what millions are thinking.
Can you quote it.
I think the one Scott tweeted was not actually in his speech.
I don’t know where he did (or didn’t!) say it. It was the line about basically saying he was damned if he was going to continue to lockdown, to deny his children an education etc etc for the sake of people who refused to get the vaccine. And that they can bl**dy well be the ones to stay at home from now on.
Probably the sort of thing that Johnson would get into trouble for if he said it off the record to Cummings.
I'm getting confused here. Macron hasn't got any children. Please can you link to what you are referring to.
I don't think anything Macron could say would be able to sell the passport to the millions in France who oppose the idea, which includes many who are vaccinated, but I'm interested in how he's going about trying.
@Alex_: I think I've found the Macron quote that you mean. It's fake.
***WARNING: FAKE QUOTE*** "I no longer have any intention of sacrificing my life, my time, my freedom and the adolescence of my daughters, as well as their right to study properly, for those who refuse to be vaccinated. This time you stay at home, not us."
I noticed empty shelves in two mini-supermarkets today. It's definitely happening.
I've not seen evidence of it at all yet, but Heaven forbid we should return to the bad old days of bog roll hoarding again. Although it would be fascinating watching Johnson trying to wibble his way out of that scenario...
The bog roll wars were the nadir of covid hysteria. A very unedifying episode!
Why anyone thought having a year's supply of bog roll was necessary when they only had a week's supply of food was totally beyond me.
This was discussed extensively at the time. There was always food available. It might not have been particularly healthy food (I don't recall there being a chocolate shortage at any point during panic buying,) or food that one might particularly want to eat (even when the chiller aisles were pillaged, I remember there still being vegan ready meals available,) but if one's luck ran out when one went foraging in Tesco one could survive at a push. Aided by the fact that there were never wine shortages, either.
Loo paper, on the other hand, regularly ran out completely, and it's also one of the few comestibles for which there is no acceptable substitute. Folk, generally speaking, will not accept wiping their backsides with their bare hands or with crude non-flushable substitutes (newspapers, bad paperback novels, Bacofoil and so on.) Hence the fact that, once a few people started buying more bog roll as a precaution, everybody started to join in. If you were one of those who tried to encourage sensible behaviour by resisting the urge, it simply made it more likely that you'd end up looking miserably at your hand, the roll of Bacofoil, and back again.
Roger will be along shortly gloating that its fewer cases than in Blighty.
I hope France get to grips with their antivaxxers because they really do need to catch up, the surge is on.
France's latest daily vaccination rate is higher than the UK's best day according to OWID.
No sign that they're running out of people wanting vaccinations; unlike the UK, sadly.
Have you noticed that France is nine million behind the UK on first does despite having vaccinated well over a million under 18s and that Macron had to resort to threats to the anti-vaxxers over a week ago ?
I'm certainly not criticizing Macron, he did the right thing in pushing hard against anti-vaxx sentiment.
Though he does have to take some blame for encouraging that sentiment during the winter.
How far and how quickly he can encourage further vaccinating in France remains to be seen.
Every chance France will end up vaccinating a higher proportion of their population than the UK imho. I certainly wouldn't have expected that at the outset.
If they are doing kids and we are not I would certainly hope they end up with a higher proportion.
Notwithstanding the kids, six months ago I did not expect France to get anywhere the UK take up, given their historic vaccine reticence.
PS I am sure we will be doing the kids once HMG has completed another u-turn.
Macron’s threat that they could no longer eat out unless they got jabbed made a remarkably quick impact!
Roger will be along shortly gloating that its fewer cases than in Blighty.
I hope France get to grips with their antivaxxers because they really do need to catch up, the surge is on.
France's latest daily vaccination rate is higher than the UK's best day according to OWID.
No sign that they're running out of people wanting vaccinations; unlike the UK, sadly.
Have you noticed that France is nine million behind the UK on first does despite having vaccinated well over a million under 18s and that Macron had to resort to threats to the anti-vaxxers over a week ago ?
I'm certainly not criticizing Macron, he did the right thing in pushing hard against anti-vaxx sentiment.
Though he does have to take some blame for encouraging that sentiment during the winter.
How far and how quickly he can encourage further vaccinating in France remains to be seen.
Every chance France will end up vaccinating a higher proportion of their population than the UK imho. I certainly wouldn't have expected that at the outset.
If they are doing kids and we are not I would certainly hope they end up with a higher proportion.
Notwithstanding the kids, six months ago I did not expect France to get anywhere the UK take up, given their historic vaccine reticence.
PS I am sure we will be doing the kids once HMG has completed another u-turn.
Macron’s threat that they could no longer eat out unless they got jabbed made a remarkably quick impact!
Shame Johnson doesn't have the balls to do the same here!
Tbf France's vaccination rate has been over 0.8 per 100 for the past six weeks.
I'm going to take my cue from the staff in shops. If they're wearing a mask I'll stick one on; similiarly if they've got a sunflower lanyard I'll pop it on. Otherwise off it stays.
Roger will be along shortly gloating that its fewer cases than in Blighty.
I hope France get to grips with their antivaxxers because they really do need to catch up, the surge is on.
France's latest daily vaccination rate is higher than the UK's best day according to OWID.
No sign that they're running out of people wanting vaccinations; unlike the UK, sadly.
Have you noticed that France is nine million behind the UK on first does despite having vaccinated well over a million under 18s and that Macron had to resort to threats to the anti-vaxxers over a week ago ?
I'm certainly not criticizing Macron, he did the right thing in pushing hard against anti-vaxx sentiment.
Though he does have to take some blame for encouraging that sentiment during the winter.
How far and how quickly he can encourage further vaccinating in France remains to be seen.
Every chance France will end up vaccinating a higher proportion of their population than the UK imho. I certainly wouldn't have expected that at the outset.
If they are doing kids and we are not I would certainly hope they end up with a higher proportion.
Notwithstanding the kids, six months ago I did not expect France to get anywhere the UK take up, given their historic vaccine reticence.
PS I am sure we will be doing the kids once HMG has completed another u-turn.
Why would that be a u-turn? JCVI have advised against it for now.
My brand of ciggies is only sporadically available. Which is annoying. Not as much as when six month's supply to Taiwan was sunk by the Kobe earthquake.
I noticed empty shelves in two mini-supermarkets today. It's definitely happening.
I've not seen evidence of it at all yet, but Heaven forbid we should return to the bad old days of bog roll hoarding again. Although it would be fascinating watching Johnson trying to wibble his way out of that scenario...
The bog roll wars were the nadir of covid hysteria. A very unedifying episode!
Why anyone thought having a year's supply of bog roll was necessary when they only had a week's supply of food was totally beyond me.
This was discussed extensively at the time. There was always food available. It might not have been particularly healthy food (I don't recall there being a chocolate shortage at any point during panic buying,) or food that one might particularly want to eat (even when the chiller aisles were pillaged, I remember there still being vegan ready meals available,) but if one's luck ran out when one went foraging in Tesco one could survive at a push. Aided by the fact that there were never wine shortages, either.
Loo paper, on the other hand, regularly ran out completely, and it's also one of the few comestibles for which there is no acceptable substitute. Folk, generally speaking, will not accept wiping their backsides with their bare hands or with crude non-flushable substitutes (newspapers, bad paperback novels, Bacofoil and so on.) Hence the fact that, once a few people started buying more bog roll as a precaution, everybody started to join in. If you were one of those who tried to encourage sensible behaviour by resisting the urge, it simply made it more likely that you'd end up looking miserably at your hand, the roll of Bacofoil, and back again.
And of course half the world's population uses water to wash their backside, so presumably that would always be available as an alternative.
I've had the vaccine myself but think it is very unlikely I will let my young son have it, if it is offered.
As far as I can gather the facts are that COVID does not particularly affect kids. The vaccine is an experimental treatment. It seems to be effective in reducing symptomatic covid, but we don't really know what the side effects are, including long term side effects.
It is probable that the reason why it is not currently being given to kids is a version of the reasons above - the pressure to do it is all political. The vaccines have been elevated to being the saviour of the human race and we have invested everything in them, people don't want to know about problems. Such is human nature.
If you are scared about long covid; then go and look up the yellow card reports about adverse reactions to the vaccines.
I'm going to take my cue from the staff in shops. If they're wearing a mask I'll stick one on; similiarly if they've got a sunflower lanyard I'll pop it on. Otherwise off it stays.
Anyone who thinks they need (as opposed to doing so in order to be polite) to wear a mask should now be wearing a higher quality mask.
I noticed empty shelves in two mini-supermarkets today. It's definitely happening.
I've not seen evidence of it at all yet, but Heaven forbid we should return to the bad old days of bog roll hoarding again. Although it would be fascinating watching Johnson trying to wibble his way out of that scenario...
The bog roll wars were the nadir of covid hysteria. A very unedifying episode!
Why anyone thought having a year's supply of bog roll was necessary when they only had a week's supply of food was totally beyond me.
This was discussed extensively at the time. There was always food available. It might not have been particularly healthy food (I don't recall there being a chocolate shortage at any point during panic buying,) or food that one might particularly want to eat (even when the chiller aisles were pillaged, I remember there still being vegan ready meals available,) but if one's luck ran out when one went foraging in Tesco one could survive at a push. Aided by the fact that there were never wine shortages, either.
Loo paper, on the other hand, regularly ran out completely, and it's also one of the few comestibles for which there is no acceptable substitute. Folk, generally speaking, will not accept wiping their backsides with their bare hands or with crude non-flushable substitutes (newspapers, bad paperback novels, Bacofoil and so on.) Hence the fact that, once a few people started buying more bog roll as a precaution, everybody started to join in. If you were one of those who tried to encourage sensible behaviour by resisting the urge, it simply made it more likely that you'd end up looking miserably at your hand, the roll of Bacofoil, and back again.
And of course half the world's population uses water to wash their backside, so presumably that would always be available as an alternative.
Of course, the small minority of bidet-equipped properties excepted, that is not how sanitation facilities in this country are configured.
Generally speaking, folk can get by without eggs, courgettes, pasta* or microwave lasagnes. They can't get by without bog roll.
* I finally moved the last tins from my Covid/Brexit emergency crate to the pantry quite recently. But I still keep a spare 1kg bag of pasta in one of the other cupboards.
The trauma of pasta hoarding has clearly made a lasting impression - along with that of bog roll hoarding. I may have to buy an extra nine-pack of Andrex tomorrow. Just in case...
The i newspaper: "Vaccine passport plan looks doomed".
Thanks to Labour voting against plus Tory rebels.
Disagree, the reports have about 42 Tory rebels.
Given the government has a majority of 80 even if all the opposition parties voted with the rebels it would still be 323 MPs in favour of vaccine passports and 319 MPs against (SF of course will not take their seats).
It also says Boris will not consider dropping it until over 85% of young people are vaccinated which is still a long way off
In January 2021, several general media outlets and specialist railway/engineering publications reported that Highways England was intending to infill 116 disused structures and demolish up to 18 others as part of an asset management programme lasting five years. These numbers were based on a spreadsheet issued by HE in response to a Freedom of Information request.
The HRE Group evaluated these bridges and tunnels and found that around one-third were already proposed for reuse as part of new active travel routes, railway reopenings and heritage line extensions - or had the potential to play such roles in the future - and infilling could not therefore be regarded as the “most appropriate option” - as asserted by Highways England - due to its wider negative impacts.
In May 2021, HE told The Telegraph that only 69 structures were proposed for infilling, although the company subsequently refused requests to provide a list of them for verification purposes. This disenfranchises stakeholders who might want to make representations about a particular bridge or tunnel.
In response, The HRE Group questioned how the condition of 47 structures that Highways England had previously claimed were “unsafe” could have improved without any intervention. The company claimed that they were being “reassessed for maintenance”, prompting the question as to why this work hadn’t been carried out before the decision was taken to infill them.
By way of anecdote, I met a delivery guy: very courteous, wore a mask etc.
He said that he didn't take the vaccine, because one of his friends had the vaccine and died shortly afterwards. Totally healthy, just died. I am not sure what the follow up to this was or what the post mortem said, and people do drop dead occasionally irrespective of vaccination, but it put him off the vaccine, and understandably so.
But this is not the only example of deaths linked to the vaccine, there are many others; it is clearly a problem. I am not at all confident it can be properly looked in to, such is the weight of belief in vaccination.
The i newspaper: "Vaccine passport plan looks doomed".
Thanks to Labour voting against plus Tory rebels.
Disagree, the reports have about 42 Tory rebels.
Given the government has a majority of 80 even if all the opposition parties voted with the rebels it would still be 323 MPs in favour of vaccine passports and 319 MPs against (SF of course will not take their seats).
It also says Boris will not consider dropping it until over 85% of young people are vaccinated which is still a long way off
Plus Labour would amend it so testing could be used instead of passports, then support the proposal anyway
Roger will be along shortly gloating that its fewer cases than in Blighty.
I hope France get to grips with their antivaxxers because they really do need to catch up, the surge is on.
France's latest daily vaccination rate is higher than the UK's best day according to OWID.
No sign that they're running out of people wanting vaccinations; unlike the UK, sadly.
Have you noticed that France is nine million behind the UK on first does despite having vaccinated well over a million under 18s and that Macron had to resort to threats to the anti-vaxxers over a week ago ?
I'm certainly not criticizing Macron, he did the right thing in pushing hard against anti-vaxx sentiment.
Though he does have to take some blame for encouraging that sentiment during the winter.
How far and how quickly he can encourage further vaccinating in France remains to be seen.
Every chance France will end up vaccinating a higher proportion of their population than the UK imho. I certainly wouldn't have expected that at the outset.
If they are doing kids and we are not I would certainly hope they end up with a higher proportion.
Notwithstanding the kids, six months ago I did not expect France to get anywhere the UK take up, given their historic vaccine reticence.
PS I am sure we will be doing the kids once HMG has completed another u-turn.
Macron’s threat that they could no longer eat out unless they got jabbed made a remarkably quick impact!
Has it? I can't see an inflection point on the French graphs but perhaps I'm looking in the wrong place.
"The West’s cultural revolution is over The return of censorship, speech codes and taboos suggests society returning to normal By Ed West"
True that much of Sacha Baron Cohen's work is similar to "Till Death Do Us Part" featuring the Alf Garnett character, and to the "The Black and White Minstrel Show" that preceded it.
By way of anecdote, I met a delivery guy: very courteous, wore a mask etc.
He said that he didn't take the vaccine, because one of his friends had the vaccine and died shortly afterwards. Totally healthy, just died. I am not sure what the follow up to this was or what the post mortem said, and people do drop dead occasionally irrespective of vaccination, but it put him off the vaccine, and understandably so.
But this is not the only example of deaths linked to the vaccine, there are many others; it is clearly a problem. I am not at all confident it can be properly looked in to, such is the weight of belief in vaccination.
Hopefully he's tried to find out what the post-mortem said. In the space of less than a year, my neighbour and the landlord of the local pub both died suddenly less than half an hour after mowing the lawn. I pay someone to do it now. And understandably so.
I've had the vaccine myself but think it is very unlikely I will let my young son have it, if it is offered.
As far as I can gather the facts are that COVID does not particularly affect kids. The vaccine is an experimental treatment. It seems to be effective in reducing symptomatic covid, but we don't really know what the side effects are, including long term side effects.
It is probable that the reason why it is not currently being given to kids is a version of the reasons above - the pressure to do it is all political. The vaccines have been elevated to being the saviour of the human race and we have invested everything in them, people don't want to know about problems. Such is human nature.
If you are scared about long covid; then go and look up the yellow card reports about adverse reactions to the vaccines.
Roger will be along shortly gloating that its fewer cases than in Blighty.
I hope France get to grips with their antivaxxers because they really do need to catch up, the surge is on.
France's latest daily vaccination rate is higher than the UK's best day according to OWID.
No sign that they're running out of people wanting vaccinations; unlike the UK, sadly.
Have you noticed that France is nine million behind the UK on first does despite having vaccinated well over a million under 18s and that Macron had to resort to threats to the anti-vaxxers over a week ago ?
I'm certainly not criticizing Macron, he did the right thing in pushing hard against anti-vaxx sentiment.
Though he does have to take some blame for encouraging that sentiment during the winter.
How far and how quickly he can encourage further vaccinating in France remains to be seen.
Every chance France will end up vaccinating a higher proportion of their population than the UK imho. I certainly wouldn't have expected that at the outset.
If they are doing kids and we are not I would certainly hope they end up with a higher proportion.
Notwithstanding the kids, six months ago I did not expect France to get anywhere the UK take up, given their historic vaccine reticence.
PS I am sure we will be doing the kids once HMG has completed another u-turn.
Macron’s threat that they could no longer eat out unless they got jabbed made a remarkably quick impact!
Has it? I can't see an inflection point on the French graphs but perhaps I'm looking in the wrong place.
Someone posted a chart on here the other day… not sure where it is!
I noticed empty shelves in two mini-supermarkets today. It's definitely happening.
I've not seen evidence of it at all yet, but Heaven forbid we should return to the bad old days of bog roll hoarding again. Although it would be fascinating watching Johnson trying to wibble his way out of that scenario...
The bog roll wars were the nadir of covid hysteria. A very unedifying episode!
Why anyone thought having a year's supply of bog roll was necessary when they only had a week's supply of food was totally beyond me.
This was discussed extensively at the time. There was always food available. It might not have been particularly healthy food (I don't recall there being a chocolate shortage at any point during panic buying,) or food that one might particularly want to eat (even when the chiller aisles were pillaged, I remember there still being vegan ready meals available,) but if one's luck ran out when one went foraging in Tesco one could survive at a push. Aided by the fact that there were never wine shortages, either.
Loo paper, on the other hand, regularly ran out completely, and it's also one of the few comestibles for which there is no acceptable substitute. Folk, generally speaking, will not accept wiping their backsides with their bare hands or with crude non-flushable substitutes (newspapers, bad paperback novels, Bacofoil and so on.) Hence the fact that, once a few people started buying more bog roll as a precaution, everybody started to join in. If you were one of those who tried to encourage sensible behaviour by resisting the urge, it simply made it more likely that you'd end up looking miserably at your hand, the roll of Bacofoil, and back again.
Bacofoil required for hats
The clue on the fake Macron quote is "adolescence of my daughters". He has no children of his own.
By way of anecdote, I met a delivery guy: very courteous, wore a mask etc.
He said that he didn't take the vaccine, because one of his friends had the vaccine and died shortly afterwards. Totally healthy, just died. I am not sure what the follow up to this was or what the post mortem said, and people do drop dead occasionally irrespective of vaccination, but it put him off the vaccine, and understandably so.
But this is not the only example of deaths linked to the vaccine, there are many others; it is clearly a problem. I am not at all confident it can be properly looked in to, such is the weight of belief in vaccination.
Hopefully he's tried to find out what the post-mortem said. In the space of less than a year, my neighbour and the landlord of the local pub both died suddenly less than half an hour after mowing the lawn. I pay someone to do it now. And understandably so.
I noticed empty shelves in two mini-supermarkets today. It's definitely happening.
I've not seen evidence of it at all yet, but Heaven forbid we should return to the bad old days of bog roll hoarding again. Although it would be fascinating watching Johnson trying to wibble his way out of that scenario...
The bog roll wars were the nadir of covid hysteria. A very unedifying episode!
Why anyone thought having a year's supply of bog roll was necessary when they only had a week's supply of food was totally beyond me.
This was discussed extensively at the time. There was always food available. It might not have been particularly healthy food (I don't recall there being a chocolate shortage at any point during panic buying,) or food that one might particularly want to eat (even when the chiller aisles were pillaged, I remember there still being vegan ready meals available,) but if one's luck ran out when one went foraging in Tesco one could survive at a push. Aided by the fact that there were never wine shortages, either.
Loo paper, on the other hand, regularly ran out completely, and it's also one of the few comestibles for which there is no acceptable substitute. Folk, generally speaking, will not accept wiping their backsides with their bare hands or with crude non-flushable substitutes (newspapers, bad paperback novels, Bacofoil and so on.) Hence the fact that, once a few people started buying more bog roll as a precaution, everybody started to join in. If you were one of those who tried to encourage sensible behaviour by resisting the urge, it simply made it more likely that you'd end up looking miserably at your hand, the roll of Bacofoil, and back again.
Bacofoil required for hats
The clue on the fake Macron quote is "adolescence of my daughters". He has no children of his own.
Macron has step-children, no? Not sure if any are adolescent girls though. The reason it was a clue might be that French politicians tend not to talk about their families.
"The West’s cultural revolution is over The return of censorship, speech codes and taboos suggests society returning to normal By Ed West"
I agree with the analysis - is in line with the view that wokeness is a (pretty poor) replacement for religion. However, it will ultimately be replaced by something else.
"The West’s cultural revolution is over The return of censorship, speech codes and taboos suggests society returning to normal By Ed West"
I agree with the analysis - is in line with the view that wokeness is a (pretty poor) replacement for religion. However, it will ultimately be replaced by something else.
In what way was belief in an infallible all-knowing "invisible hand" any different?
The same story is happening in Canada, there are a cluster of polls that have the Liberal in double figure leads, two or three others have them just ahead. Cons support ranges from 32% to 23%!
Comments
Didn't they go out when car heaters came in ?
I suppose some motor racing fans might wear them and there's certainly a few on PB.
I really do hope I am wrong - not least because I have stuff planned, I'd like to do.
PS I am sure we will be doing the kids once HMG has completed another u-turn.
That’s the bread update from my corner of suburban north London.
In January 2021, several general media outlets and specialist railway/engineering publications reported that Highways England was intending to infill 116 disused structures and demolish up to 18 others as part of an asset management programme lasting five years. These numbers were based on a spreadsheet issued by HE in response to a Freedom of Information request.
The HRE Group evaluated these bridges and tunnels and found that around one-third were already proposed for reuse as part of new active travel routes, railway reopenings and heritage line extensions - or had the potential to play such roles in the future - and infilling could not therefore be regarded as the “most appropriate option” - as asserted by Highways England - due to its wider negative impacts.
In May 2021, HE told The Telegraph that only 69 structures were proposed for infilling, although the company subsequently refused requests to provide a list of them for verification purposes. This disenfranchises stakeholders who might want to make representations about a particular bridge or tunnel.
In response, The HRE Group questioned how the condition of 47 structures that Highways England had previously claimed were “unsafe” could have improved without any intervention. The company claimed that they were being “reassessed for maintenance”, prompting the question as to why this work hadn’t been carried out before the decision was taken to infill them.
http://thehregroup.org/threat/
According to ZOE COVID Study incidence figures, it is estimated that among unvaccinated people in the UK there are currently 17,581 new daily symptomatic cases of COVID on average, based on PCR test data from up to five days ago [*]. A decrease of 22% from 22,638 last week. Suggesting that the wave in the unvaccinated population has now peaked in the UK. The overall number of estimated cases is 33,118 which remains similar to last weeks which was 33,723.
Comparatively there are currently 15,537 new daily symptomatic cases in partly or fully vaccinated people, an increase of 40% from 11,084 new cases last week.
So last week they thought:
17,581 symptomatic cases among the unvaccinated and 15,537 symptomatic cases among the vaccinated.
That's 53% unvaccinated and 47% vaccinated.
Now they think they've been undercounting the unvaccinated and recalculated to give a total 60,016.
Assuming that the 'extra' are all unvaccinated then the proportions change to approximately 75% unvaccinated and 25% vaccinated.
Given that there's many more vaccinated than unvaccinated then Delta must be going through the unvaccinated like shite and geese.
Which might explain the rapid increase in cases in European countries during July.
And which suggests that countries which don't manage a very high level of vaccination are in for a bad time from Delta.
***WARNING: FAKE QUOTE***
"I no longer have any intention of sacrificing my life, my time, my freedom and the adolescence of my daughters, as well as their right to study properly, for those who refuse to be vaccinated. This time you stay at home, not us."
Loo paper, on the other hand, regularly ran out completely, and it's also one of the few comestibles for which there is no acceptable substitute. Folk, generally speaking, will not accept wiping their backsides with their bare hands or with crude non-flushable substitutes (newspapers, bad paperback novels, Bacofoil and so on.) Hence the fact that, once a few people started buying more bog roll as a precaution, everybody started to join in. If you were one of those who tried to encourage sensible behaviour by resisting the urge, it simply made it more likely that you'd end up looking miserably at your hand, the roll of Bacofoil, and back again.
Tbf France's vaccination rate has been over 0.8 per 100 for the past six weeks.
JCVI advise; HMG decide.
I'm v close to Dane Rd tram stop/
Thanks to Labour voting against plus Tory rebels.
Not as much as when six month's supply to Taiwan was sunk by the Kobe earthquake.
As far as I can gather the facts are that COVID does not particularly affect kids.
The vaccine is an experimental treatment. It seems to be effective in reducing symptomatic covid, but we don't really know what the side effects are, including long term side effects.
It is probable that the reason why it is not currently being given to kids is a version of the reasons above - the pressure to do it is all political. The vaccines have been elevated to being the saviour of the human race and we have invested everything in them, people don't want to know about problems. Such is human nature.
If you are scared about long covid; then go and look up the yellow card reports about adverse reactions to the vaccines.
Generally speaking, folk can get by without eggs, courgettes, pasta* or microwave lasagnes. They can't get by without bog roll.
* I finally moved the last tins from my Covid/Brexit emergency crate to the pantry quite recently. But I still keep a spare 1kg bag of pasta in one of the other cupboards.
The trauma of pasta hoarding has clearly made a lasting impression - along with that of bog roll hoarding. I may have to buy an extra nine-pack of Andrex tomorrow. Just in case...
Grim stories coming out of Manchester Royal Infirmary where niece is consultant.
Given the government has a majority of 80 even if all the opposition parties voted with the rebels it would still be 323 MPs in favour of vaccine passports and 319 MPs against (SF of course will not take their seats).
It also says Boris will not consider dropping it until over 85% of young people are vaccinated which is still a long way off
When will Dick finally be kicked out?
https://www.change.org/p/highways-england-protect-our-railway-heritage-from-highways-england-s-wrecking-ball
He said that he didn't take the vaccine, because one of his friends had the vaccine and died shortly afterwards. Totally healthy, just died. I am not sure what the follow up to this was or what the post mortem said, and people do drop dead occasionally irrespective of vaccination, but it put him off the vaccine, and understandably so.
But this is not the only example of deaths linked to the vaccine, there are many others; it is clearly a problem. I am not at all confident it can be properly looked in to, such is the weight of belief in vaccination.
In the space of less than a year, my neighbour and the landlord of the local pub both died suddenly less than half an hour after mowing the lawn.
I pay someone to do it now. And understandably so.
The clue on the fake Macron quote is "adolescence of my daughters". He has no children of his own.
https://bjgplife.com/2021/06/14/book-review-lifeline-by-dr-barry-monk/
However, it will ultimately be replaced by something else.
This thread has just been pinged!
According to the Bloomberg vaccine tracker, the stats are as follows:
UK: first dose 69.4% of total population, second dose 54.5% of total population
France: first dose 59.5% of total population, second dose 49.1% of total population
And that's despite France vaxxing about a million 12-17 year olds.
Here are some other countries::
Canada: first dose 69.7% of total population, second dose 44.3% of total population
USA: first dose 56.3% of total population, second dose 48.8%
Chile: first dose 70.8% of total population, second dose 61.4% of total population
Israel: first dose 63.5% of total population, second dose 58.2% of total population
Chile has really knocked it out of the park, and Canada have come from nowhere to overtaking us.
But France has been mediocre, as has the USA.