Oddly, you have nothing to say about the one Scottish item in this thread: the proof that Scotch primary schoolkids actually WERE being forcefed history propaganda including the SNP logo, until someone complained
We are going to have to say that no-one leaves or enters this country without proof of vaccination.
If the French anti-vaxxers don't want to take the vaccine, that's up to them but they cannot enter our country if so.
Vaccination is not a 100% guarantee against Covid and the unvaccinated could become a reserve for the spread of mutant strains.
Yes, for sure. Airlines will demand it, for a start. Who wants to share the stifling air of a plane with someone who has refused to take the jab?
You will not be able to fly without a vaccine passport. Airlines that guarantee this ("we demand vaccine passports! You are safer with us!") will have a HUGE advantage over those that don't. Ergo, it will happen.
Given the popularity of budget airlines, even during a pandemic, I'm going to disagree.
I actively avoid Ryanair because I find their general approach to customer service unattractive. I am a rarity amongst my mates.
You are a rarity. I would happily pay a premium to know that my plane will carry no anti-vaxxers. Planes are established vectors. Recycled air? For hours and hours? Who on earth is so keen to get to Malaga or Dubai or Bangkok they will accept the risk of death or horrible disease - or giving that disease to loved ones - just to save £50, or even £500?
Very very few. A proof of vaccination will be required to fly, in the end, by virtually all airlines, I suspect. The few airlines that don't will be *brave* and probably go under because they will be known as the Plague Airlines where you can still get the bug.
I fear your approach to risk is based on contemporary cognitive bias - i.e. we're in the midst of a pandemic. Once you're vaccinated, and the vast majority of the public in the developed world are, views will change rapidly.
People still have unprotected sex, despite the risks of horrific disease.
I bet travel writers, such as SeanT formerly of this parish, wouldn't be put off by what will be a decreasingly small risk of illness from travel on public transport.
I am clearly not SeanT, but the noises I hear from friends in the travel industry say the opposite: that vaccine passports are the only way out of this crisis, for an industry on the brink of collapse
They will give real reassurance, they are possibly the only way you will get the masses back into planes. Remember, most people exaggerate threats, not the opposite. Sure, the super rich, super smart or super young will either disregard risk, or cleverly avoid it, but they are not the majority, by any means. Look at the massive support for total lockdown.
Vax visas are coming, in some form
Why would the super smart disregard the risk or avoid getting a vaccine?
We are going to have to say that no-one leaves or enters this country without proof of vaccination.
If the French anti-vaxxers don't want to take the vaccine, that's up to them but they cannot enter our country if so.
Vaccination is not a 100% guarantee against Covid and the unvaccinated could become a reserve for the spread of mutant strains.
Yes, agree with that - with the proviso, which I am sure you'd accept, that anyone who cannot have the vaccine for certified medical reasons is exempt.
If the virus continues to mutate and spread I think we are going to have to have tighter rules on what you can and cannot do if you choose not to be vaccinated. Certain occupations should require practitioners to vaccinated, travel, hotels, employers may all have to empowered to require vaccination.
Agreed. For instance, I am sure that if Daughter is ever allowed to reopen before she goes bust she would want her employees to be vaccinated. Indeed, it may well become a H&S requirement.
Our workplace has already hinted that all staff must be vaccinated by September, I do wonder what might happen to those who choose not to.
For employees - no sick pay.
For patients - charged cost of care.
One wrinkle of low vaccine takeup amongst (some) BAME communities is that employers requiring vaccination certificates might be guilty of racial discrimination.
Also of interest, the 55+ immune response looks good except in the UK study, in the Brazil and SA trial it was as good as younger cohorts. Even in the UK study it still looks reasonably good, but in the other two it looks excellent.
I think Brazil and SA studies had a 4 or 6 week gap between doses, the UK arm 12. There were a number of other differences, but that was the main one.
It doesn't look like any of the over 55 cohort were in the 12 week spacing part of the study just under 6 weeks and 6-8 weeks.
This whole trial really does seem to have buggered up the over 55s part, but the immune responses do look good.
Well, we are about to get the result of a 10 million strong randomised trial of AZ and Pfizer on an advanced nation of nearly 70 million, so, brace.
Data Incoming.
Yes, only a couple of weeks longer, I did a few extra calculations. Daily hospitalisations have gone down by 34% for targeted cohorts and 28% for everyone else from the January peak. It doesn't sound like a lot but compared to the first wave in a comparable amount of time the younger untargeted cohorts fell by 60% from their peak while the older ages fell just 40%. This time with a more transmissive variant older people are seeing a larger fall in hospitalisation than younger ones, we know from last time the opposite should be happening.
Kudos to Hancock who clearly got us ahead of the field on vaccines, whatever earlier mistakes the government made on delaying lockdown and the stoppage of flights they have been ahead of the game on vaccination
Surely the vaccines success is down to Boris. I am sure I saw him inventing one in a laboratory in Oxford...or was he road testing a fridge for vaccine storage. I can't recall.
That's before we get the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. That's got to be worth 5% on the polls.
We are going to have to say that no-one leaves or enters this country without proof of vaccination.
If the French anti-vaxxers don't want to take the vaccine, that's up to them but they cannot enter our country if so.
Vaccination is not a 100% guarantee against Covid and the unvaccinated could become a reserve for the spread of mutant strains.
Yes, for sure. Airlines will demand it, for a start. Who wants to share the stifling air of a plane with someone who has refused to take the jab?
You will not be able to fly without a vaccine passport. Airlines that guarantee this ("we demand vaccine passports! You are safer with us!") will have a HUGE advantage over those that don't. Ergo, it will happen.
Given the popularity of budget airlines, even during a pandemic, I'm going to disagree.
I actively avoid Ryanair because I find their general approach to customer service unattractive. I am a rarity amongst my mates.
You are a rarity. I would happily pay a premium to know that my plane will carry no anti-vaxxers. Planes are established vectors. Recycled air? For hours and hours? Who on earth is so keen to get to Malaga or Dubai or Bangkok they will accept the risk of death or horrible disease - or giving that disease to loved ones - just to save £50, or even £500?
Very very few. A proof of vaccination will be required to fly, in the end, by virtually all airlines, I suspect. The few airlines that don't will be *brave* and probably go under because they will be known as the Plague Airlines where you can still get the bug.
I fear your approach to risk is based on contemporary cognitive bias - i.e. we're in the midst of a pandemic. Once you're vaccinated, and the vast majority of the public in the developed world are, views will change rapidly.
People still have unprotected sex, despite the risks of horrific disease.
I bet travel writers, such as SeanT formerly of this parish, wouldn't be put off by what will be a decreasingly small risk of illness from travel on public transport.
Unprotected sex only causes problems for the people involved. Being a Covid carrier harms lots of people. That's the difference.
You can take risks for yourself. Taking risks where the risks are borne by others is a very different matter. Society is allowed to say that, if you do, there are limits on what you can and cannot do. Specifically, a country should be allowed to say that vaccination is a condition of entry. Having a communicable disease has long been a bar for entry (see the US and Canada and TB) so this is not some new development.
While I'm sure that vaccination certificates will be the norm, I think you are underestimating the effect of mass vaccinations on (a) transmission rates, and (b) hospitalisation rates.
Once hospitalisations are down to negligible levels (which will happen sooner than anyone on this board seems to appreciate), then the focus of the government is going to be on what is needed to get the economy moving again.
We are going to have to say that no-one leaves or enters this country without proof of vaccination.
If the French anti-vaxxers don't want to take the vaccine, that's up to them but they cannot enter our country if so.
Vaccination is not a 100% guarantee against Covid and the unvaccinated could become a reserve for the spread of mutant strains.
Yes, agree with that - with the proviso, which I am sure you'd accept, that anyone who cannot have the vaccine for certified medical reasons is exempt.
If the virus continues to mutate and spread I think we are going to have to have tighter rules on what you can and cannot do if you choose not to be vaccinated. Certain occupations should require practitioners to vaccinated, travel, hotels, employers may all have to empowered to require vaccination.
Agreed. For instance, I am sure that if Daughter is ever allowed to reopen before she goes bust she would want her employees to be vaccinated. Indeed, it may well become a H&S requirement.
Our workplace has already hinted that all staff must be vaccinated by September, I do wonder what might happen to those who choose not to.
For employees - no sick pay.
For patients - charged cost of care.
One wrinkle of low vaccine takeup amongst (some) BAME communities is that employers requiring vaccination certificates might be guilty of racial discrimination.
I think that would only apply if there was a genuine reason for the BAME community or a subset of it to avoid the vaccine. If for example there was an issue on religious grounds. Fortunately, no major religion seems to be against vaccination.
Kudos to Hancock who clearly got us ahead of the field on vaccines, whatever earlier mistakes the government made on delaying lockdown and the stoppage of flights they have been ahead of the game on vaccination
Surely the vaccines success is down to Boris. I am sure I saw him inventing one in a laboratory in Oxford...or was he road testing a fridge for vaccine storage. I can't recall.
That's before we get the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. That's got to be worth 5% on the polls.
Johnson and Johnson? Stan and Boris? Nah. more likely Stan and Ollie.
I think it would be rather funny if reports came out Trump was fuming that his son in law was nominated instead of him, when he was the one who appointed Jared.
For someone who was thought to be struggling early on in the pandemic, Hancock has long seemed like he has grown into the role.
But the farsighted focus on the vaccine from the early days - and the "brave" (and right) decision to veto Oxford partnering with Merck and insisting upon a British outfit instead of an American one Trump could put controls on - was undoubtedly a masterstroke a long time in the making.
It isn't over until the fat lady sings, but it does feel with this vaccine like she is very much warming up her vocal chords. Fingers crossed we can put this bastard bug behind us soon.
Is there a wider significance to the Merck veto? Perhaps a realisation by HMG that a full trade deal would be very much on America's terms and a damn sight worse than what we'd just Brexited.
The Government continues to make positive noises about a US trade deal, but one has to wonder whether, if they can gain membership of the Pacific trade bloc (as was discussed here last night,) then they might just sit there and keep their fingers crossed that Biden decides to follow suit?
Obtaining trade deal lite by the back door might end up suiting the Government much better than years of tortuous negotiations (infinitely complicated by all kinds of special interest pleading in Congress) to try to seal a full-fat bilateral accord?
Biden won't follow suit, because the US doesn't enter into equal free trade agreements*: they already have one sided deals with Canada, Mexico, South Korea and Australia, so what would the US gain?
* By equal I'm talking about enforcement systems. The ISDS tribunals are all heavily skewed towards the US, and I simply can't see CPTPP rewritten to make it so America ran dispute resolution.
We are going to have to say that no-one leaves or enters this country without proof of vaccination.
If the French anti-vaxxers don't want to take the vaccine, that's up to them but they cannot enter our country if so.
Vaccination is not a 100% guarantee against Covid and the unvaccinated could become a reserve for the spread of mutant strains.
Yes, for sure. Airlines will demand it, for a start. Who wants to share the stifling air of a plane with someone who has refused to take the jab?
You will not be able to fly without a vaccine passport. Airlines that guarantee this ("we demand vaccine passports! You are safer with us!") will have a HUGE advantage over those that don't. Ergo, it will happen.
Given the popularity of budget airlines, even during a pandemic, I'm going to disagree.
I actively avoid Ryanair because I find their general approach to customer service unattractive. I am a rarity amongst my mates.
You are a rarity. I would happily pay a premium to know that my plane will carry no anti-vaxxers. Planes are established vectors. Recycled air? For hours and hours? Who on earth is so keen to get to Malaga or Dubai or Bangkok they will accept the risk of death or horrible disease - or giving that disease to loved ones - just to save £50, or even £500?
Very very few. A proof of vaccination will be required to fly, in the end, by virtually all airlines, I suspect. The few airlines that don't will be *brave* and probably go under because they will be known as the Plague Airlines where you can still get the bug.
I fear your approach to risk is based on contemporary cognitive bias - i.e. we're in the midst of a pandemic. Once you're vaccinated, and the vast majority of the public in the developed world are, views will change rapidly.
People still have unprotected sex, despite the risks of horrific disease.
I bet travel writers, such as SeanT formerly of this parish, wouldn't be put off by what will be a decreasingly small risk of illness from travel on public transport.
Unprotected sex only causes problems for the people involved. Being a Covid carrier harms lots of people. That's the difference.
You can take risks for yourself. Taking risks where the risks are borne by others is a very different matter. Society is allowed to say that, if you do, there are limits on what you can and cannot do. Specifically, a country should be allowed to say that vaccination is a condition of entry. Having a communicable disease has long been a bar for entry (see the US and Canada and TB) so this is not some new development.
See, indeed, the requirement of certain Third World countries for proof of Yellow Fever vax, etc. This is not some weird Victorian revenant, it is required as of now, in places.
We are going to have to say that no-one leaves or enters this country without proof of vaccination.
If the French anti-vaxxers don't want to take the vaccine, that's up to them but they cannot enter our country if so.
Vaccination is not a 100% guarantee against Covid and the unvaccinated could become a reserve for the spread of mutant strains.
Yes, for sure. Airlines will demand it, for a start. Who wants to share the stifling air of a plane with someone who has refused to take the jab?
You will not be able to fly without a vaccine passport. Airlines that guarantee this ("we demand vaccine passports! You are safer with us!") will have a HUGE advantage over those that don't. Ergo, it will happen.
Given the popularity of budget airlines, even during a pandemic, I'm going to disagree.
I actively avoid Ryanair because I find their general approach to customer service unattractive. I am a rarity amongst my mates.
You are a rarity. I would happily pay a premium to know that my plane will carry no anti-vaxxers. Planes are established vectors. Recycled air? For hours and hours? Who on earth is so keen to get to Malaga or Dubai or Bangkok they will accept the risk of death or horrible disease - or giving that disease to loved ones - just to save £50, or even £500?
Very very few. A proof of vaccination will be required to fly, in the end, by virtually all airlines, I suspect. The few airlines that don't will be *brave* and probably go under because they will be known as the Plague Airlines where you can still get the bug.
I fear your approach to risk is based on contemporary cognitive bias - i.e. we're in the midst of a pandemic. Once you're vaccinated, and the vast majority of the public in the developed world are, views will change rapidly.
People still have unprotected sex, despite the risks of horrific disease.
I bet travel writers, such as SeanT formerly of this parish, wouldn't be put off by what will be a decreasingly small risk of illness from travel on public transport.
I am clearly not SeanT, but the noises I hear from friends in the travel industry say the opposite: that vaccine passports are the only way out of this crisis, for an industry on the brink of collapse
They will give real reassurance, they are possibly the only way you will get the masses back into planes. Remember, most people exaggerate threats, not the opposite. Sure, the super rich, super smart or super young will either disregard risk, or cleverly avoid it, but they are not the majority, by any means. Look at the massive support for total lockdown.
Vax visas are coming, in some form
Why would the super smart disregard the risk or avoid getting a vaccine?
Private jets
Er, I think you have answered the 'how'; I was after the 'why'.
Why would anyone who is 'super smart' disregard the risk or avoid getting a vaccine?
Oddly, you have nothing to say about the one Scottish item in this thread: the proof that Scotch primary schoolkids actually WERE being forcefed history propaganda including the SNP logo, until someone complained
Colour me surprised, with a tartan motif
Never interrupt a Scotch expert in the act of self frotting.
But you’re right, this is probably the tipping point in the fight to save the Union, just as an unsacked Handelsblatt journo presages the end of the EU.
How has Israel done this? They are using approved vaccine exactly as the manufacturer regime states.
They are simply looking for an excuse, any excuse.
Its more than that, its a nasty smear.
But although there's some occasional negative articles, are all indications that most Europeans are not angry about the vaccine crisis (since it will probably last only a few months), and are buying the explanations of the Commission and their national leaders? That is - AZ doesn't work, problems are the fault of AZ and the UK, faster vaccination is a bad thing, unity unity unity.
How has Israel done this? They are using approved vaccine exactly as the manufacturer regime states.
They are simply looking for an excuse, any excuse.
Its more than that, its a nasty smear.
But although there's some occasional negative articles, are all indications that most Europeans are not angry about the vaccine crisis (since it will probably last only a few months), and are buying the explanations of the Commission and their national leaders? That is - AZ doesn't work, problems are the fault of AZ and the UK, faster vaccination is a bad thing, unity unity unity.
That story is going to be a real hard sell in a few weeks.
Eight players on the scoresheet has to be some kind of record, shirley?
Ok - one was an own goal. Bednarek will want to forget this one og and red card, eh?
Bednarek scored -7 in the Premier League Fantasy Football. I hope nobody had him as their captain. I had the good sense to bench him this week.
In our mini league, the player at the bottom picked Wan-Bissaka and captained Fernandez. His closest rival included Bednarek for a total of 0 points from three players. Agony and ecstasy in 90 minutes!
The Nobel for Literature is surely his for the taking.
Tank topped bum boys!
Surely the Peace Prize for his victorious influence channelled through Churchill in World War 2. Have you read The Churchill Factor?
To be fair to Boris he has more right to the award than some previous winners. The lady currently in military custody in Myanmar springs to mind, for one.
Also of interest, the 55+ immune response looks good except in the UK study, in the Brazil and SA trial it was as good as younger cohorts. Even in the UK study it still looks reasonably good, but in the other two it looks excellent.
I think Brazil and SA studies had a 4 or 6 week gap between doses, the UK arm 12. There were a number of other differences, but that was the main one.
It doesn't look like any of the over 55 cohort were in the 12 week spacing part of the study just under 6 weeks and 6-8 weeks.
This whole trial really does seem to have buggered up the over 55s part, but the immune responses do look good.
Well, we are about to get the result of a 10 million strong randomised trial of AZ and Pfizer on an advanced nation of nearly 70 million, so, brace.
Data Incoming.
Yes, only a couple of weeks longer, I did a few extra calculations. Daily hospitalisations have gone down by 34% for targeted cohorts and 28% for everyone else from the January peak. It doesn't sound like a lot but compared to the first wave in a comparable amount of time the younger untargeted cohorts fell by 60% from their peak while the older ages fell just 40%. This time with a more transmissive variant older people are seeing a larger fall in hospitalisation than younger ones, we know from last time the opposite should be happening.
Encouraging. BTW You are an excellent resource on this and other subjects
Indeed, PB as a whole is superb at informing me on Covid. We have just the right mix of skeptics, experts, anti-vaxxers, maniac vaxxers, sufferers, healed sufferers, statisticians, the informed-but-interested, brainiacs-dropping-by, plus actual doctors, politicians, scientists.
Also of interest, the 55+ immune response looks good except in the UK study, in the Brazil and SA trial it was as good as younger cohorts. Even in the UK study it still looks reasonably good, but in the other two it looks excellent.
I think Brazil and SA studies had a 4 or 6 week gap between doses, the UK arm 12. There were a number of other differences, but that was the main one.
It doesn't look like any of the over 55 cohort were in the 12 week spacing part of the study just under 6 weeks and 6-8 weeks.
This whole trial really does seem to have buggered up the over 55s part, but the immune responses do look good.
Well, we are about to get the result of a 10 million strong randomised trial of AZ and Pfizer on an advanced nation of nearly 70 million, so, brace.
Data Incoming.
Yes, only a couple of weeks longer, I did a few extra calculations. Daily hospitalisations have gone down by 34% for targeted cohorts and 28% for everyone else from the January peak. It doesn't sound like a lot but compared to the first wave in a comparable amount of time the younger untargeted cohorts fell by 60% from their peak while the older ages fell just 40%. This time with a more transmissive variant older people are seeing a larger fall in hospitalisation than younger ones, we know from last time the opposite should be happening.
Encouraging. BTW You are an excellent resource on this and other subjects
Indeed, PB as a whole is superb at informing me on Covid. We have just the right mix of skeptics, experts, anti-vaxxers, maniac vaxxers, sufferers, healed sufferers, statisticians, the informed-but-interested, brainiacs-dropping-by, plus actual doctors, politicians, scientists.
It is, genuinely, peerless.
Lol - I agree with you there. But do we have any PB anti-vaxxers?
Kudos to Hancock who clearly got us ahead of the field on vaccines, whatever earlier mistakes the government made on delaying lockdown and the stoppage of flights they have been ahead of the game on vaccination
Surely the vaccines success is down to Boris. I am sure I saw him inventing one in a laboratory in Oxford...or was he road testing a fridge for vaccine storage. I can't recall.
That's before we get the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. That's got to be worth 5% on the polls.
When the Pfizer boffins headed to the lab to design a world-saving vaccine, Bozza Johnson was already stood in the kitchen with the recipe
How has Israel done this? They are using approved vaccine exactly as the manufacturer regime states.
They are simply looking for an excuse, any excuse.
Its more than that, its a nasty smear.
But although there's some occasional negative articles, are all indications that most Europeans are not angry about the vaccine crisis (since it will probably last only a few months), and are buying the explanations of the Commission and their national leaders? That is - AZ doesn't work, problems are the fault of AZ and the UK, faster vaccination is a bad thing, unity unity unity.
In Germany people are extremely unhappy I think, one of my German colleagues is pretty upset that his grandparents won't get jabbed until April/May because the German government went anti-science in his view and didn't fully approve the AZ vaccine. I've got a virtual coffee with him tomorrow and I'm sure he will be incensed now that the new AZ data is out showing >80% efficacy and 76% with a single jab for the first 12 weeks.
That's just one guy but he says his friends back home are unimpressed by the government trying to shift the blame onto the EU and by the EU shifting the blame onto Britain for doing better.
Also of interest, the 55+ immune response looks good except in the UK study, in the Brazil and SA trial it was as good as younger cohorts. Even in the UK study it still looks reasonably good, but in the other two it looks excellent.
I think Brazil and SA studies had a 4 or 6 week gap between doses, the UK arm 12. There were a number of other differences, but that was the main one.
It doesn't look like any of the over 55 cohort were in the 12 week spacing part of the study just under 6 weeks and 6-8 weeks.
This whole trial really does seem to have buggered up the over 55s part, but the immune responses do look good.
Well, we are about to get the result of a 10 million strong randomised trial of AZ and Pfizer on an advanced nation of nearly 70 million, so, brace.
Data Incoming.
Yes, only a couple of weeks longer, I did a few extra calculations. Daily hospitalisations have gone down by 34% for targeted cohorts and 28% for everyone else from the January peak. It doesn't sound like a lot but compared to the first wave in a comparable amount of time the younger untargeted cohorts fell by 60% from their peak while the older ages fell just 40%. This time with a more transmissive variant older people are seeing a larger fall in hospitalisation than younger ones, we know from last time the opposite should be happening.
Encouraging. BTW You are an excellent resource on this and other subjects
Indeed, PB as a whole is superb at informing me on Covid. We have just the right mix of skeptics, experts, anti-vaxxers, maniac vaxxers, sufferers, healed sufferers, statisticians, the informed-but-interested, brainiacs-dropping-by, plus actual doctors, politicians, scientists.
It is, genuinely, peerless.
Lol - I agree with you there. But do we have any PB anti-vaxxers?
I think anti-vaxxers are thankfully about as common on PB as non wine drinkers - vanishingly rare
Kudos to Hancock who clearly got us ahead of the field on vaccines, whatever earlier mistakes the government made on delaying lockdown and the stoppage of flights they have been ahead of the game on vaccination
Surely the vaccines success is down to Boris. I am sure I saw him inventing one in a laboratory in Oxford...or was he road testing a fridge for vaccine storage. I can't recall.
That's before we get the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. That's got to be worth 5% on the polls.
When the Pfizer boffins headed to the lab to design a world-saving vaccine, Bozza Johnson was already stood in the kitchen with the recipe
Kudos to Hancock who clearly got us ahead of the field on vaccines, whatever earlier mistakes the government made on delaying lockdown and the stoppage of flights they have been ahead of the game on vaccination
Surely the vaccines success is down to Boris. I am sure I saw him inventing one in a laboratory in Oxford...or was he road testing a fridge for vaccine storage. I can't recall.
That's before we get the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. That's got to be worth 5% on the polls.
When the Pfizer boffins headed to the lab to design a world-saving vaccine, Bozza Johnson was already stood in the kitchen with the recipe
It came to him in a flash of light in the ICU, hallelujah.
Kudos to Hancock who clearly got us ahead of the field on vaccines, whatever earlier mistakes the government made on delaying lockdown and the stoppage of flights they have been ahead of the game on vaccination
Surely the vaccines success is down to Boris. I am sure I saw him inventing one in a laboratory in Oxford...or was he road testing a fridge for vaccine storage. I can't recall.
That's before we get the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. That's got to be worth 5% on the polls.
Johnson and Johnson? Stan and Boris? Nah. more likely Stan and Ollie.
Suddenly, I want to hear the story of the black sheep of the Johnson clan.
George Johnson. Or Penelope Johnson.
Who studied biochemistry and quietly got on with being good at it.
The Nobel for Literature is surely his for the taking.
Tank topped bum boys!
Surely the Peace Prize for his victorious influence channelled through Churchill in World War 2. Have you read The Churchill Factor?
To be fair to Boris he has more right to the award than some previous winners. The lady currently in military custody in Myanmar springs to mind, for one.
The only interviewer to rip Boris a new one on his shameless channeling of Churchill was (fx: drumroll) Chris Evans on The One Show. This may be what caused Boris's dislike of the BBC.
Sorry to divert to Scotland, but remember that argument from last night, where it was claimed Scottish schools were pumping out Nationalist indoctrination, up to the point where they put the SNP logo on history literature for Scottish primary schoolkids?
Many of us (me included) thought it was so ridiculous it was probably a hoax. Scotland is not North Korea, etc. And yet I did notice none of the PB Nats actually denied it, which was curious.
The propaganda has now been withdrawn, with this excuse from the Office of Josef Goebbels, sorry, the makers:
"However, we recognise that including the SNP logo in this resource and not including the political party of Donald Dewar was not consistent and so we have now amended this.”
We are going to have to say that no-one leaves or enters this country without proof of vaccination.
If the French anti-vaxxers don't want to take the vaccine, that's up to them but they cannot enter our country if so.
Vaccination is not a 100% guarantee against Covid and the unvaccinated could become a reserve for the spread of mutant strains.
Yes, for sure. Airlines will demand it, for a start. Who wants to share the stifling air of a plane with someone who has refused to take the jab?
You will not be able to fly without a vaccine passport. Airlines that guarantee this ("we demand vaccine passports! You are safer with us!") will have a HUGE advantage over those that don't. Ergo, it will happen.
Given the popularity of budget airlines, even during a pandemic, I'm going to disagree.
I actively avoid Ryanair because I find their general approach to customer service unattractive. I am a rarity amongst my mates.
You are a rarity. I would happily pay a premium to know that my plane will carry no anti-vaxxers. Planes are established vectors. Recycled air? For hours and hours? Who on earth is so keen to get to Malaga or Dubai or Bangkok they will accept the risk of death or horrible disease - or giving that disease to loved ones - just to save £50, or even £500?
Very very few. A proof of vaccination will be required to fly, in the end, by virtually all airlines, I suspect. The few airlines that don't will be *brave* and probably go under because they will be known as the Plague Airlines where you can still get the bug.
I fear your approach to risk is based on contemporary cognitive bias - i.e. we're in the midst of a pandemic. Once you're vaccinated, and the vast majority of the public in the developed world are, views will change rapidly.
People still have unprotected sex, despite the risks of horrific disease.
I bet travel writers, such as SeanT formerly of this parish, wouldn't be put off by what will be a decreasingly small risk of illness from travel on public transport.
I am clearly not SeanT, but the noises I hear from friends in the travel industry say the opposite: that vaccine passports are the only way out of this crisis, for an industry on the brink of collapse
They will give real reassurance, they are possibly the only way you will get the masses back into planes. Remember, most people exaggerate threats, not the opposite. Sure, the super rich, super smart or super young will either disregard risk, or cleverly avoid it, but they are not the majority, by any means. Look at the massive support for total lockdown.
Vax visas are coming, in some form
Why would the super smart disregard the risk or avoid getting a vaccine?
Private jets
Er, I think you have answered the 'how'; I was after the 'why'.
Why would anyone who is 'super smart' disregard the risk or avoid getting a vaccine?
I was kinda conflating the super smart with the super wealthy, to be honest. If you are a billionaire anti-vaxxer, you will probably be able to fly into, say, Dubai, on your private jet, thus avoiding the vaccine cert requirement that all commercial airlines will surely impose.
This is presuming that some countries allow in non vaxxed people.
If all countries go for vax visas, then no one can go anywhere, unless they are jabbed. But I wonder if a few niche tropical island, or emirates, might see a small advantage in allowing the ultra-wealthy to circumvent the rules
However, my main conclusion is that most if not all countries WILL require proof of a vax, and certainly all big commercial airlines will do the same. The cruise industry (destroyed otherwise) is already on the case
Oddly, you have nothing to say about the one Scottish item in this thread: the proof that Scotch primary schoolkids actually WERE being forcefed history propaganda including the SNP logo, until someone complained
Colour me surprised, with a tartan motif
Never interrupt a Scotch expert in the act of self frotting.
But you’re right, this is probably the tipping point in the fight to save the Union, just as an unsacked Handelsblatt journo presages the end of the EU.
Also of interest, the 55+ immune response looks good except in the UK study, in the Brazil and SA trial it was as good as younger cohorts. Even in the UK study it still looks reasonably good, but in the other two it looks excellent.
I think Brazil and SA studies had a 4 or 6 week gap between doses, the UK arm 12. There were a number of other differences, but that was the main one.
It doesn't look like any of the over 55 cohort were in the 12 week spacing part of the study just under 6 weeks and 6-8 weeks.
This whole trial really does seem to have buggered up the over 55s part, but the immune responses do look good.
Well, we are about to get the result of a 10 million strong randomised trial of AZ and Pfizer on an advanced nation of nearly 70 million, so, brace.
Data Incoming.
Yes, only a couple of weeks longer, I did a few extra calculations. Daily hospitalisations have gone down by 34% for targeted cohorts and 28% for everyone else from the January peak. It doesn't sound like a lot but compared to the first wave in a comparable amount of time the younger untargeted cohorts fell by 60% from their peak while the older ages fell just 40%. This time with a more transmissive variant older people are seeing a larger fall in hospitalisation than younger ones, we know from last time the opposite should be happening.
Encouraging. BTW You are an excellent resource on this and other subjects
Indeed, PB as a whole is superb at informing me on Covid. We have just the right mix of skeptics, experts, anti-vaxxers, maniac vaxxers, sufferers, healed sufferers, statisticians, the informed-but-interested, brainiacs-dropping-by, plus actual doctors, politicians, scientists.
It is, genuinely, peerless.
Lol - I agree with you there. But do we have any PB anti-vaxxers?
Yep. Dura Ace
Amazingly. As he is clearly very intelligent and scientifically informed. I relish his comments for this reason. It is like hearing Flat Earthism from an Oxford Don. Fascinating.
The EU will be 60-70% vaccinated (i.e. effective herd immunity when you include those that have already had CV19) by the end of June. We'll be there by the end of April.
That's my forecast.
Does anyone know what has been done about delivery mechanisms?
- The US had their vast healthcare system. Chaotic and over-priced, yes, but vast amounts of capacity. The Trump warp speed stuff wasn't a total bust either. - Israel had small size, health care system with deliberate over capacity (think war reserve), a country where just about everyone has been in the army, the deal with Pfizer and a logistical plan. - The UK etc etc
To get a smooth, fast, roll out, you need more than just a pile of vaccine. Is the groundwork happening in Europe?
Trump did an incredible job of ordering vaccines, and being (from the start) America first. (And there was no confusion. You want Moderna? You get it after America.) Of course, he also tried to persuade CureVac to upsticks and move to America...
But the US rollout is a bit of a mess. I could well see California being almost as bad as France for getting jabs into peoples' arms.
Given the nature of US Government, is it even possible to estimate how much of the rollout mess is down to him, or down to various States?
Kudos to Hancock who clearly got us ahead of the field on vaccines, whatever earlier mistakes the government made on delaying lockdown and the stoppage of flights they have been ahead of the game on vaccination
Surely the vaccines success is down to Boris. I am sure I saw him inventing one in a laboratory in Oxford...or was he road testing a fridge for vaccine storage. I can't recall.
That's before we get the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. That's got to be worth 5% on the polls.
When the Pfizer boffins headed to the lab to design a world-saving vaccine, Bozza Johnson was already stood in the kitchen with the recipe
How has Israel done this? They are using approved vaccine exactly as the manufacturer regime states.
They are simply looking for an excuse, any excuse.
Its more than that, its a nasty smear.
But although there's some occasional negative articles, are all indications that most Europeans are not angry about the vaccine crisis (since it will probably last only a few months), and are buying the explanations of the Commission and their national leaders? That is - AZ doesn't work, problems are the fault of AZ and the UK, faster vaccination is a bad thing, unity unity unity.
That story is going to be a real hard sell in a few weeks.
Rule 1 of an EU crisis - kick the can, and deal with it later.
We are going to have to say that no-one leaves or enters this country without proof of vaccination.
If the French anti-vaxxers don't want to take the vaccine, that's up to them but they cannot enter our country if so.
Vaccination is not a 100% guarantee against Covid and the unvaccinated could become a reserve for the spread of mutant strains.
Yes, agree with that - with the proviso, which I am sure you'd accept, that anyone who cannot have the vaccine for certified medical reasons is exempt.
If the virus continues to mutate and spread I think we are going to have to have tighter rules on what you can and cannot do if you choose not to be vaccinated. Certain occupations should require practitioners to vaccinated, travel, hotels, employers may all have to empowered to require vaccination.
Agreed. For instance, I am sure that if Daughter is ever allowed to reopen before she goes bust she would want her employees to be vaccinated. Indeed, it may well become a H&S requirement.
Our workplace has already hinted that all staff must be vaccinated by September, I do wonder what might happen to those who choose not to.
For employees - no sick pay.
For patients - charged cost of care.
One wrinkle of low vaccine takeup amongst (some) BAME communities is that employers requiring vaccination certificates might be guilty of racial discrimination.
You might be right. If so, it's proof, if it were ever needed, that the laws on indirect discrimination are bat-shit crazy.
Also of interest, the 55+ immune response looks good except in the UK study, in the Brazil and SA trial it was as good as younger cohorts. Even in the UK study it still looks reasonably good, but in the other two it looks excellent.
I think Brazil and SA studies had a 4 or 6 week gap between doses, the UK arm 12. There were a number of other differences, but that was the main one.
It doesn't look like any of the over 55 cohort were in the 12 week spacing part of the study just under 6 weeks and 6-8 weeks.
This whole trial really does seem to have buggered up the over 55s part, but the immune responses do look good.
Well, we are about to get the result of a 10 million strong randomised trial of AZ and Pfizer on an advanced nation of nearly 70 million, so, brace.
Data Incoming.
Yes, only a couple of weeks longer, I did a few extra calculations. Daily hospitalisations have gone down by 34% for targeted cohorts and 28% for everyone else from the January peak. It doesn't sound like a lot but compared to the first wave in a comparable amount of time the younger untargeted cohorts fell by 60% from their peak while the older ages fell just 40%. This time with a more transmissive variant older people are seeing a larger fall in hospitalisation than younger ones, we know from last time the opposite should be happening.
Encouraging. BTW You are an excellent resource on this and other subjects
Indeed, PB as a whole is superb at informing me on Covid. We have just the right mix of skeptics, experts, anti-vaxxers, maniac vaxxers, sufferers, healed sufferers, statisticians, the informed-but-interested, brainiacs-dropping-by, plus actual doctors, politicians, scientists.
It is, genuinely, peerless.
Lol - I agree with you there. But do we have any PB anti-vaxxers?
Yep. Dura Ace
Amazingly. As he is clearly very intelligent and scientifically informed. I relish his comments for this reason. It is like hearing Flat Earthism from an Oxford Don. Fascinating.
Dura Ace is a crank.
Trump supporter who wanted the Donald to win because it would be funny.
That said, I didn’t know he was also anti vax, although it doesn’t surprise me.
When all said and done, with tweaks to the various vaccines and the dosing regimes, I wonder if we will basically end up with them all being pretty much the same in terms of effectiveness.
The original bar was hoping to get something above 50, now it seems all bar the odd one are 80%+
Kudos to Hancock who clearly got us ahead of the field on vaccines, whatever earlier mistakes the government made on delaying lockdown and the stoppage of flights they have been ahead of the game on vaccination
Surely the vaccines success is down to Boris. I am sure I saw him inventing one in a laboratory in Oxford...or was he road testing a fridge for vaccine storage. I can't recall.
That's before we get the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. That's got to be worth 5% on the polls.
Johnson and Johnson? Stan and Boris? Nah. more likely Stan and Ollie.
Suddenly, I want to hear the story of the black sheep of the Johnson clan.
George Johnson. Or Penelope Johnson.
Who studied biochemistry and quietly got on with being good at it.
Johnson Johnson.
The double dose of Johnson cancelled out all the shameless, prickish, self serving attention seeking and willingness to use every connection for self advancement. Works as a driving instructor in Blackburn, very patient and forgiving with his charges I hear. Top first test pass rate in Lancashire so a high achiever in his own way.
Kudos to Hancock who clearly got us ahead of the field on vaccines, whatever earlier mistakes the government made on delaying lockdown and the stoppage of flights they have been ahead of the game on vaccination
Surely the vaccines success is down to Boris. I am sure I saw him inventing one in a laboratory in Oxford...or was he road testing a fridge for vaccine storage. I can't recall.
That's before we get the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. That's got to be worth 5% on the polls.
Johnson and Johnson? Stan and Boris? Nah. more likely Stan and Ollie.
Suddenly, I want to hear the story of the black sheep of the Johnson clan.
George Johnson. Or Penelope Johnson.
Who studied biochemistry and quietly got on with being good at it.
Kudos to Hancock who clearly got us ahead of the field on vaccines, whatever earlier mistakes the government made on delaying lockdown and the stoppage of flights they have been ahead of the game on vaccination
Surely the vaccines success is down to Boris. I am sure I saw him inventing one in a laboratory in Oxford...or was he road testing a fridge for vaccine storage. I can't recall.
That's before we get the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. That's got to be worth 5% on the polls.
When the Pfizer boffins headed to the lab to design a world-saving vaccine, Bozza Johnson was already stood in the kitchen with the recipe
Wow! Coronavirus, according to WHO, may actually have escaped from a nationally unique Chinese laboratory investigating novel bat coronaviruses, which was situated about a mile from the Wuhan wet market, or its neighbourhood, where the novel bat coronavirus first appeared
How can that possibly be the case? Surely not. A special team of pathetic, vaguely leftwing doctors said it was impossible, about ten months ago
The EU will be 60-70% vaccinated (i.e. effective herd immunity when you include those that have already had CV19) by the end of June. We'll be there by the end of April.
That's my forecast.
Does anyone know what has been done about delivery mechanisms?
- The US had their vast healthcare system. Chaotic and over-priced, yes, but vast amounts of capacity. The Trump warp speed stuff wasn't a total bust either. - Israel had small size, health care system with deliberate over capacity (think war reserve), a country where just about everyone has been in the army, the deal with Pfizer and a logistical plan. - The UK etc etc
To get a smooth, fast, roll out, you need more than just a pile of vaccine. Is the groundwork happening in Europe?
Trump did an incredible job of ordering vaccines, and being (from the start) America first. (And there was no confusion. You want Moderna? You get it after America.) Of course, he also tried to persuade CureVac to upsticks and move to America...
But the US rollout is a bit of a mess. I could well see California being almost as bad as France for getting jabs into peoples' arms.
Given the nature of US Government, is it even possible to estimate how much of the rollout mess is down to him, or down to various States?
Well, it's a bit of both.
There are Federal Healthcare systems for the old (Medicare) and for Veterans, which have different hospitals, doctors and standards of care. The states also have their own insurance markets as part of Obamacare, with perhaps half a dozen insurance providers, and then multiple chains of hospitals and doctors in each state. Plus you have state run (separate) health provision for poor people (Medicaid) that is often run completely separately. And then there are "free" (i.e, charity) and university health systems than run in parallel.
And then there are state level vaccination drives, which bypass healthcare systems.
All of these groups get their own vaccine allotments. Sometimes the Veterans hospital will have 5,000 doses, but no patients, while over the road another hospital hasn't been delivered their promised load, while the County is only vaccinating people who have their own cars to go through the drive through.
Wow! Coronavirus, according to WHO, may actually have escaped from a nationally unique Chinese laboratory investigating novel bat coronaviruses, which was situated about a mile from the Wuhan wet market, or its neighbourhood, where the novel bat coronavirus first appeared
How can that possibly be the case? Surely not. A special team of pathetic, vaguely leftwing doctors said it was impossible, about ten months ago
Wow! Coronavirus, according to WHO, may actually have escaped from a nationally unique Chinese laboratory investigating novel bat coronaviruses, which was situated about a mile from the Wuhan wet market, or its neighbourhood, where the novel bat coronavirus first appeared
How can that possibly be the case? Surely not. A special team of pathetic, vaguely leftwing doctors said it was impossible, about ten months ago
Wow! Coronavirus, according to WHO, may actually have escaped from a nationally unique Chinese laboratory investigating novel bat coronaviruses, which was situated about a mile from the Wuhan wet market, or its neighbourhood, where the novel bat coronavirus first appeared
How can that possibly be the case? Surely not. A special team of pathetic, vaguely leftwing doctors said it was impossible, about ten months ago
Wow! Coronavirus, according to WHO, may actually have escaped from a nationally unique Chinese laboratory investigating novel bat coronaviruses, which was situated about a mile from the Wuhan wet market, or its neighbourhood, where the novel bat coronavirus first appeared
How can that possibly be the case? Surely not. A special team of pathetic, vaguely leftwing doctors said it was impossible, about ten months ago
Wow! Coronavirus, according to WHO, may actually have escaped from a nationally unique Chinese laboratory investigating novel bat coronaviruses, which was situated about a mile from the Wuhan wet market, or its neighbourhood, where the novel bat coronavirus first appeared
How can that possibly be the case? Surely not. A special team of pathetic, vaguely leftwing doctors said it was impossible, about ten months ago
Kudos to Hancock who clearly got us ahead of the field on vaccines, whatever earlier mistakes the government made on delaying lockdown and the stoppage of flights they have been ahead of the game on vaccination
Surely the vaccines success is down to Boris. I am sure I saw him inventing one in a laboratory in Oxford...or was he road testing a fridge for vaccine storage. I can't recall.
That's before we get the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. That's got to be worth 5% on the polls.
When the Pfizer boffins headed to the lab to design a world-saving vaccine, Bozza Johnson was already stood in the kitchen with the recipe
Kitchen? Surely you mean freezer.
Is he impervious to cold too?
You may recall during the 2019 campaign that Boris has the foresight to test refrigeration products on camera in anticipation of the Covid-19 pandemic to come.
Wow! Coronavirus, according to WHO, may actually have escaped from a nationally unique Chinese laboratory investigating novel bat coronaviruses, which was situated about a mile from the Wuhan wet market, or its neighbourhood, where the novel bat coronavirus first appeared
How can that possibly be the case? Surely not. A special team of pathetic, vaguely leftwing doctors said it was impossible, about ten months ago
Wow! Coronavirus, according to WHO, may actually have escaped from a nationally unique Chinese laboratory investigating novel bat coronaviruses, which was situated about a mile from the Wuhan wet market, or its neighbourhood, where the novel bat coronavirus first appeared
How can that possibly be the case? Surely not. A special team of pathetic, vaguely leftwing doctors said it was impossible, about ten months ago
Wow! Coronavirus, according to WHO, may actually have escaped from a nationally unique Chinese laboratory investigating novel bat coronaviruses, which was situated about a mile from the Wuhan wet market, or its neighbourhood, where the novel bat coronavirus first appeared
How can that possibly be the case? Surely not. A special team of pathetic, vaguely leftwing doctors said it was impossible, about ten months ago
Wow! Coronavirus, according to WHO, may actually have escaped from a nationally unique Chinese laboratory investigating novel bat coronaviruses, which was situated about a mile from the Wuhan wet market, or its neighbourhood, where the novel bat coronavirus first appeared
How can that possibly be the case? Surely not. A special team of pathetic, vaguely leftwing doctors said it was impossible, about ten months ago
First the Bank of England, then Italian PM, next the tech genius behind PB... where will it end?
That is the end. What more is there?
Don't you know? Sigh...
Goldman Sachs - The Vampire Squid?
When they have all their people in the right places... Why do you think that that the UK is joining the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership?
So we can be in the right place... For when the stars are right
Kudos to Hancock who clearly got us ahead of the field on vaccines, whatever earlier mistakes the government made on delaying lockdown and the stoppage of flights they have been ahead of the game on vaccination
Surely the vaccines success is down to Boris. I am sure I saw him inventing one in a laboratory in Oxford...or was he road testing a fridge for vaccine storage. I can't recall.
That's before we get the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. That's got to be worth 5% on the polls.
Johnson and Johnson? Stan and Boris? Nah. more likely Stan and Ollie.
Suddenly, I want to hear the story of the black sheep of the Johnson clan.
George Johnson. Or Penelope Johnson.
Who studied biochemistry and quietly got on with being good at it.
Amy Johnson was a genuine high-flier.
Michael Johnson was quick to run away from the consequences of his actions.
Wow! Coronavirus, according to WHO, may actually have escaped from a nationally unique Chinese laboratory investigating novel bat coronaviruses, which was situated about a mile from the Wuhan wet market, or its neighbourhood, where the novel bat coronavirus first appeared
How can that possibly be the case? Surely not. A special team of pathetic, vaguely leftwing doctors said it was impossible, about ten months ago
Wow! Coronavirus, according to WHO, may actually have escaped from a nationally unique Chinese laboratory investigating novel bat coronaviruses, which was situated about a mile from the Wuhan wet market, or its neighbourhood, where the novel bat coronavirus first appeared
How can that possibly be the case? Surely not. A special team of pathetic, vaguely leftwing doctors said it was impossible, about ten months ago
Not sure I would be making such statements while still in China.
Saying things loudly and quickly before they can stop you may be a good way to ensure you don't have a tragic accident.
Well, we'll see where the story goes.
Of course the bug came from the lab. The villainous species of bat, which carries the virus, does not even exist in Wuhan (or its environs). It almost certainly comes from Yunnan, or nearby regions (many hundreds of miles away, in the far Chinese south).
Yet this lab, in Wuhan, was specifically investigating novel bat coronaviruses. It takes a unique species of idiot not to cast a suspicious eye on that laboratory
Wow! Coronavirus, according to WHO, may actually have escaped from a nationally unique Chinese laboratory investigating novel bat coronaviruses, which was situated about a mile from the Wuhan wet market, or its neighbourhood, where the novel bat coronavirus first appeared
How can that possibly be the case? Surely not. A special team of pathetic, vaguely leftwing doctors said it was impossible, about ten months ago
Wow! Coronavirus, according to WHO, may actually have escaped from a nationally unique Chinese laboratory investigating novel bat coronaviruses, which was situated about a mile from the Wuhan wet market, or its neighbourhood, where the novel bat coronavirus first appeared
How can that possibly be the case? Surely not. A special team of pathetic, vaguely leftwing doctors said it was impossible, about ten months ago
Wow! Coronavirus, according to WHO, may actually have escaped from a nationally unique Chinese laboratory investigating novel bat coronaviruses, which was situated about a mile from the Wuhan wet market, or its neighbourhood, where the novel bat coronavirus first appeared
How can that possibly be the case? Surely not. A special team of pathetic, vaguely leftwing doctors said it was impossible, about ten months ago
You're overthinking it. Accomplished and confident bribers will just pay the repurposed REME spanner wanker administering it £100 to fire the vaccination into the bin.
Wow! Coronavirus, according to WHO, may actually have escaped from a nationally unique Chinese laboratory investigating novel bat coronaviruses, which was situated about a mile from the Wuhan wet market, or its neighbourhood, where the novel bat coronavirus first appeared
How can that possibly be the case? Surely not. A special team of pathetic, vaguely leftwing doctors said it was impossible, about ten months ago
Wow! Coronavirus, according to WHO, may actually have escaped from a nationally unique Chinese laboratory investigating novel bat coronaviruses, which was situated about a mile from the Wuhan wet market, or its neighbourhood, where the novel bat coronavirus first appeared
How can that possibly be the case? Surely not. A special team of pathetic, vaguely leftwing doctors said it was impossible, about ten months ago
This was always one of the most likely explanations IMO.
Thanks China.
That'll be £2 trillion, please.
Wasn't what the "pathetic, vaguely left-wing doctors" ruled out that the virus had been created or genetically engineered in a lab?
No, they dismissed the came-from-THAT-lab idea altogether
"Virus researchers say there is virtually no chance that the new coronavirus was released as result of a laboratory accident in China or anywhere else."
"The real risk is in the wild in the way people interact with wildlife around the world," says Peter Daszak, president of EcoHealth Alliance in New York City"
Sorry to divert to Scotland, but remember that argument from last night, where it was claimed Scottish schools were pumping out Nationalist indoctrination, up to the point where they put the SNP logo on history literature for Scottish primary schoolkids?
Many of us (me included) thought it was so ridiculous it was probably a hoax. Scotland is not North Korea, etc. And yet I did notice none of the PB Nats actually denied it, which was curious.
The propaganda has now been withdrawn, with this excuse from the Office of Josef Goebbels, sorry, the makers:
"However, we recognise that including the SNP logo in this resource and not including the political party of Donald Dewar was not consistent and so we have now amended this.”
Glad it was true since I posted it (I think. Difficult to remember everything that happens on here).
Day 7 of the brave, new Vaccinationalist age: on the basis of the phrase ‘does not rule out’ the Herd returns to an old favourite, the Wuhan Flu and how we can make China pay. Experience suggests this will involve weedy, impotent fist waving to absolutely no effect.
Wow! Coronavirus, according to WHO, may actually have escaped from a nationally unique Chinese laboratory investigating novel bat coronaviruses, which was situated about a mile from the Wuhan wet market, or its neighbourhood, where the novel bat coronavirus first appeared
How can that possibly be the case? Surely not. A special team of pathetic, vaguely leftwing doctors said it was impossible, about ten months ago
Not sure I would be making such statements while still in China.
Saying things loudly and quickly before they can stop you may be a good way to ensure you don't have a tragic accident.
Well, we'll see where the story goes.
Of course the bug came from the lab. The villainous species of bat, which carries the virus, does not even exist in Wuhan (or its environs). It almost certainly comes from Yunnan, or nearby regions (many hundreds of miles away, in the far Chinese south).
Yet this lab, in Wuhan, was specifically investigating novel bat coronaviruses. It takes a unique species of idiot not to cast a suspicious eye on that laboratory
I am just a humble artisanal dildo flint-knapper, but I can still follow a clear and obvious narrative, which requires no Ockham's razor to explain
There's some reasonably convincing data from Cambridge, who looked at mutations in the CV19 genes that Wuhan was not the source of the outbreak. The oldest (i.e. the source from which mutations diverge) was in another Chinese province.
Wow! Coronavirus, according to WHO, may actually have escaped from a nationally unique Chinese laboratory investigating novel bat coronaviruses, which was situated about a mile from the Wuhan wet market, or its neighbourhood, where the novel bat coronavirus first appeared
How can that possibly be the case? Surely not. A special team of pathetic, vaguely leftwing doctors said it was impossible, about ten months ago
Not sure I would be making such statements while still in China.
Saying things loudly and quickly before they can stop you may be a good way to ensure you don't have a tragic accident.
Well, we'll see where the story goes.
Of course the bug came from the lab. The villainous species of bat, which carries the virus, does not even exist in Wuhan (or its environs). It almost certainly comes from Yunnan, or nearby regions (many hundreds of miles away, in the far Chinese south).
Yet this lab, in Wuhan, was specifically investigating novel bat coronaviruses. It takes a unique species of idiot not to cast a suspicious eye on that laboratory
I am just a humble artisanal dildo flint-knapper, but I can still follow a clear and obvious narrative, which requires no Ockham's razor to explain
There's some reasonably convincing data from Cambridge, who looked at mutations in the CV19 genes that Wuhan was not the source of the outbreak. The oldest (i.e. the source from which mutations diverge) was in another Chinese province.
Day 7 of the new Vaccinationalist age: on the basis of the phrase ‘does not rule out’ the Herd returns to an old favourite, the Wuhan Flu and how we can make China pay. Experience suggests this will involve weedy, impotent fist waving to absolutely no effect.
Yes, a few comments definitely signals that and is not at all an equally absurd overreaction.
Wow! Coronavirus, according to WHO, may actually have escaped from a nationally unique Chinese laboratory investigating novel bat coronaviruses, which was situated about a mile from the Wuhan wet market, or its neighbourhood, where the novel bat coronavirus first appeared
How can that possibly be the case? Surely not. A special team of pathetic, vaguely leftwing doctors said it was impossible, about ten months ago
Not sure I would be making such statements while still in China.
Saying things loudly and quickly before they can stop you may be a good way to ensure you don't have a tragic accident.
Well, we'll see where the story goes.
Of course the bug came from the lab. The villainous species of bat, which carries the virus, does not even exist in Wuhan (or its environs). It almost certainly comes from Yunnan, or nearby regions (many hundreds of miles away, in the far Chinese south).
Yet this lab, in Wuhan, was specifically investigating novel bat coronaviruses. It takes a unique species of idiot not to cast a suspicious eye on that laboratory
I am just a humble artisanal dildo flint-knapper, but I can still follow a clear and obvious narrative, which requires no Ockham's razor to explain
There's some reasonably convincing data from Cambridge, who looked at mutations in the CV19 genes that Wuhan was not the source of the outbreak. The oldest (i.e. the source from which mutations diverge) was in another Chinese province.
The bats lungs evolved to avoid the virus, the virus evolved to evade the lungs defences, and eventually the spike protein evolved to a level where it could also infect humans.
That doesn't preclude a lab being involved, but not does it mean it definitely was. It would be great to be able to trust the Chinese government, but we simply can't.
Wow! Coronavirus, according to WHO, may actually have escaped from a nationally unique Chinese laboratory investigating novel bat coronaviruses, which was situated about a mile from the Wuhan wet market, or its neighbourhood, where the novel bat coronavirus first appeared
How can that possibly be the case? Surely not. A special team of pathetic, vaguely leftwing doctors said it was impossible, about ten months ago
This was always one of the most likely explanations IMO.
Thanks China.
That'll be £2 trillion, please.
Wasn't what the "pathetic, vaguely left-wing doctors" ruled out that the virus had been created or genetically engineered in a lab?
No, they dismissed the came-from-THAT-lab idea altogether
"Virus researchers say there is virtually no chance that the new coronavirus was released as result of a laboratory accident in China or anywhere else."
"The real risk is in the wild in the way people interact with wildlife around the world," says Peter Daszak, president of EcoHealth Alliance in New York City"
lol
Peter Daszak is one of the premier virus hunters. He has a blind spot about the dangers he is creating by amassing thousands of animal viruses in laboratories.
That said, I am convinced from the science I have seen that SARS-CoV-2 was not created in a lab, but we cannot rule out that it did not come from a collection in the lab until the Chinese are far more open with us than they have been.
Wow! Coronavirus, according to WHO, may actually have escaped from a nationally unique Chinese laboratory investigating novel bat coronaviruses, which was situated about a mile from the Wuhan wet market, or its neighbourhood, where the novel bat coronavirus first appeared
How can that possibly be the case? Surely not. A special team of pathetic, vaguely leftwing doctors said it was impossible, about ten months ago
Wow! Coronavirus, according to WHO, may actually have escaped from a nationally unique Chinese laboratory investigating novel bat coronaviruses, which was situated about a mile from the Wuhan wet market, or its neighbourhood, where the novel bat coronavirus first appeared
How can that possibly be the case? Surely not. A special team of pathetic, vaguely leftwing doctors said it was impossible, about ten months ago
Not sure I would be making such statements while still in China.
Saying things loudly and quickly before they can stop you may be a good way to ensure you don't have a tragic accident.
Well, we'll see where the story goes.
Of course the bug came from the lab. The villainous species of bat, which carries the virus, does not even exist in Wuhan (or its environs). It almost certainly comes from Yunnan, or nearby regions (many hundreds of miles away, in the far Chinese south).
Yet this lab, in Wuhan, was specifically investigating novel bat coronaviruses. It takes a unique species of idiot not to cast a suspicious eye on that laboratory
I am just a humble artisanal dildo flint-knapper, but I can still follow a clear and obvious narrative, which requires no Ockham's razor to explain
There's some reasonably convincing data from Cambridge, who looked at mutations in the CV19 genes that Wuhan was not the source of the outbreak. The oldest (i.e. the source from which mutations diverge) was in another Chinese province.
I stand by my *accidental* lab-release-theory but, if I were, say, a thriller writer, I would pursue this idea.
China wanted a bio-weapon which it could use, in extremis, against a mad, declining, hating-to-be-second America (under a Trump like figure) who might ACTUALLY launch nukes (to defend Taiwan or whatever, or just out of injured pride)
Bats are a known source of novel and hideous zoonotic viruses. China has lots of caves with billions of bats. Send a team down south, collect some of the worst bugs, study them in your special lab in Wuhan, as an Ultimate Weapon, just in case. Something that cripples western societies that don't follow rules and wear masks, but leaves obedient Asian societies relatively unharmed, But all this would start with a local lab, in Yunnan or Guangxi, etc
Comments
Colour me surprised, with a tartan motif
You decide, PB.
Once hospitalisations are down to negligible levels (which will happen sooner than anyone on this board seems to appreciate), then the focus of the government is going to be on what is needed to get the economy moving again.
Tank topped bum boys!
https://www.iamat.org/country/kenya/risk/yellow-fever#:~:text=A Yellow Fever vaccination certificate,risk of Yellow Fever transmission.
Covid will just be like that, but worldwide, and done with an app, not a piece of paper, or a stamp in your passport
First the Bank of England, then Italian PM, next the tech genius behind PB... where will it end?
Why would anyone who is 'super smart' disregard the risk or avoid getting a vaccine?
But you’re right, this is probably the tipping point in the fight to save the Union, just as an unsacked Handelsblatt journo presages the end of the EU.
To be fair to Boris he has more right to the award than some previous winners. The lady currently in military custody in Myanmar springs to mind, for one.
(Or if you meant how has Israel jabbed so many more arms than us, no-one seems very curious provided we beat the French.)
Indeed, PB as a whole is superb at informing me on Covid. We have just the right mix of skeptics, experts, anti-vaxxers, maniac vaxxers, sufferers, healed sufferers, statisticians, the informed-but-interested, brainiacs-dropping-by, plus actual doctors, politicians, scientists.
It is, genuinely, peerless.
That's just one guy but he says his friends back home are unimpressed by the government trying to shift the blame onto the EU and by the EU shifting the blame onto Britain for doing better.
George Johnson. Or Penelope Johnson.
Who studied biochemistry and quietly got on with being good at it.
This is presuming that some countries allow in non vaxxed people.
If all countries go for vax visas, then no one can go anywhere, unless they are jabbed. But I wonder if a few niche tropical island, or emirates, might see a small advantage in allowing the ultra-wealthy to circumvent the rules
However, my main conclusion is that most if not all countries WILL require proof of a vax, and certainly all big commercial airlines will do the same. The cruise industry (destroyed otherwise) is already on the case
https://thepointsguy.co.uk/news/cruise-ship-covid-vaccine-requirement/
Amazingly. As he is clearly very intelligent and scientifically informed. I relish his comments for this reason. It is like hearing Flat Earthism from an Oxford Don. Fascinating.
Well, it would make for a change. Given the nature of US Government, is it even possible to estimate how much of the rollout mess is down to him, or down to various States?
Trump supporter who wanted the Donald to win because it would be funny.
That said, I didn’t know he was also anti vax, although it doesn’t surprise me.
The original bar was hoping to get something above 50, now it seems all bar the odd one are 80%+
The double dose of Johnson cancelled out all the shameless, prickish, self serving attention seeking and willingness to use every connection for self advancement. Works as a driving instructor in Blackburn, very patient and forgiving with his charges I hear. Top first test pass rate in Lancashire so a high achiever in his own way.
How can that possibly be the case? Surely not. A special team of pathetic, vaguely leftwing doctors said it was impossible, about ten months ago
https://twitter.com/doufani/status/1356740714097479681?s=20
There are Federal Healthcare systems for the old (Medicare) and for Veterans, which have different hospitals, doctors and standards of care. The states also have their own insurance markets as part of Obamacare, with perhaps half a dozen insurance providers, and then multiple chains of hospitals and doctors in each state. Plus you have state run (separate) health provision for poor people (Medicaid) that is often run completely separately. And then there are "free" (i.e, charity) and university health systems than run in parallel.
And then there are state level vaccination drives, which bypass healthcare systems.
All of these groups get their own vaccine allotments. Sometimes the Veterans hospital will have 5,000 doses, but no patients, while over the road another hospital hasn't been delivered their promised load, while the County is only vaccinating people who have their own cars to go through the drive through.
Well, we'll see where the story goes.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9214343/Frenchmans-review-Greggs.html
That'll be £2 trillion, please.
Goldman Sachs - The Vampire Squid?
When they have all their people in the right places... Why do you think that that the UK is joining the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership?
So we can be in the right place... For when the stars are right
Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu CDO R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn!
https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/where-coronaviruses-come-from-67011
Nor are bats routinely - if ever - traded in the Wuhan wet market.
https://www.livescience.com/covid-19-did-not-start-at-wuhan-wet-market.html
Yet this lab, in Wuhan, was specifically investigating novel bat coronaviruses. It takes a unique species of idiot not to cast a suspicious eye on that laboratory
https://news.sky.com/story/covid-19-us-intelligence-claims-wuhan-lab-researchers-had-coronavirus-symptoms-before-first-reported-cases-12190416
I am just a humble artisanal dildo flint-knapper, but I can still follow a clear and obvious narrative, which requires no Ockham's razor to explain
Great fucking job China
"Virus researchers say there is virtually no chance that the new coronavirus was released as result of a laboratory accident in China or anywhere else."
https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2020/04/23/841729646/virus-researchers-cast-doubt-on-theory-of-coronavirus-lab-accident
"The real risk is in the wild in the way people interact with wildlife around the world," says Peter Daszak, president of EcoHealth Alliance in New York City"
lol
(a) mea culpa - ooops sorry folks
(b) blame someone else
(c) invade Taiwan as a distraction
The bats lungs evolved to avoid the virus, the virus evolved to evade the lungs defences, and eventually the spike protein evolved to a level where it could also infect humans.
That doesn't preclude a lab being involved, but not does it mean it definitely was. It would be great to be able to trust the Chinese government, but we simply can't.
That said, I am convinced from the science I have seen that SARS-CoV-2 was not created in a lab, but we cannot rule out that it did not come from a collection in the lab until the Chinese are far more open with us than they have been.
Far left in the photo is a friend (a fellow Brit).
China wanted a bio-weapon which it could use, in extremis, against a mad, declining, hating-to-be-second America (under a Trump like figure) who might ACTUALLY launch nukes (to defend Taiwan or whatever, or just out of injured pride)
Bats are a known source of novel and hideous zoonotic viruses. China has lots of caves with billions of bats. Send a team down south, collect some of the worst bugs, study them in your special lab in Wuhan, as an Ultimate Weapon, just in case. Something that cripples western societies that don't follow rules and wear masks, but leaves obedient Asian societies relatively unharmed, But all this would start with a local lab, in Yunnan or Guangxi, etc
Rules versus freedom re the virus:
https://twitter.com/GGuenter_Voss/status/1356662481314267137?s=20
Isolate Covid 19. In the Wuhan lab. Whoops, it (genuinely) escapes. The West convulses, the East endures.
Bingo.
BBC News - Wealthy home workers retreat to their sheds
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-55845735
They’re disrespectin’ our Space Force!
https://twitter.com/laurenboebert/status/1356752403807232003?s=21