Didn't know the royals have their own variant.Originally Posted by City123
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Didn't know the royals have their own variant.
just remember what Basil said
Given that Germany were considered to be a paragon of virtue that country has declared a third lockdown, described as a third pandemic, by Merkel today. Perhaps we are not doing so badly going forward after all.
Are they not already in one? Thought they were just extending it? Is it only us that’s been in lockdown since before Christmas? With half the adult population we aren’t doing too badly for once.
Isn't it the Kent variant which has now made it's way across the channel? If anything they're now experiencing the effects of resistance to science (in their case vaccine skepticism, but with a lack of vaccine protectionism also) that particularly England and Northern Ireland demonstrated this winter.
UK Covid figures v Germany (in brackets)
taken from here;-
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/#countries
deaths 126,284 (75,708)
cases per million 63,208 (32,023)
deaths per million 1,853 (902)
Things have got to change an awful lot before we can look upon Germany as being inferior to us when it comes to tackling the pandemic.
Maybe a reason why our death rate is more than double Germany's is that we had a policy whereby your chances of receiving intensive care treatment, or even being admitted to hospital decreased if you were over 60 and suffered from either hypertension or diabetes?
I've got that information from this book that I'm currently two thirds of the way through;-
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Failures-St...s&pageNumber=2
As yet, the test and trace shambles and the cronyism charges have barely got a mention, but I've just finished a couple of heart wrenching chapters about how older patients were, essentially, left to die after being refused the ventilator treatment they would have received in pre pandemic times.
I should emphasise that the two journalists who wrote the book do not work for the Mirror or the Guardian, but for the Sunday Times and former Minister for exiting Europe, David Davis, is quoted on the subject of refusing treatment to the oldest patients as follows;-
It had "fatal consequences for thousands whose lives could have been rescued"
"The policy appears to have given the least care to those who needed it most. It is profoundly wrong that the government did not come clean to the public about this tragedy.".
Boris Johnson says that there are many things he would have done differently in hindsight
'The single biggest false assumption we made was about the potential for asymptomatic transmission, and that did govern a lot of policy in the early days'
Sir Patrick Vallance says the one thing that would have made a difference early on would have been 'better data early on' so virus could be tracked
'We simply didn't have that data at the beginning'
https://twitter.com/Steven_Swinford/...09715401195532Few things to think about that:Though as I put to the Health Secretary last summer, SAGE were warning about asymptomatic transmission at the outset of the pandemic. This argument has previously been used by the government to explain the high death toll in care homes, but it was discussed from early on.
https://twitter.com/PaulBrandITV/sta...10666157568007
i) lack of data due to low testing capacity which is one area Germany had the advantage - cuts to capacity in UK over 10 years
ii) False impression being provided by the politicians
iii) Most deaths happened in winter when there was information - Sunak wanted to stop a lockdown.
It will be interesting to see what happens there now the UK variant has taken hold. A strict lockdown decision now reversed a day later, looks like a mess with the vaccine rollout going to slow....
I see Dr Jenny Harries deputy chief medical officer who has often been on the government press conferences is to head the New UKHSA ( UK Health Security Agency) which take over from Public Health England next month.
This will also include taking over Track and Trace from Dido Harding
A long read regarding the pandemic in Manchester/Lancashire which is well written: https://www.manchestereveningnews.co...north-20233278
The chances are it came from over there in the first place.
interesting stat released by the ONS from the week ending 12 March from England and Wales
There were 10,987 deaths from all causes registered in the week ending 12 March, Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures show.
This is 511 deaths (4.4%) below the five-year average of deaths registered during this seven-day period between 2015 and 2019.
And it's the first time since the week ending 4 September that overall deaths have fallen below the five-year average.
https://twitter.com/allthecitizens/s...127386114?s=19
been a while since one of these stories emerged.
days probably.
Looks like the USA are going to hit the target of offering a vaccine to all adults by July, they are giving a average 2.5 Mill jabs a day now ( they are aiming for 5 Mill per day ) If Trump got anything right, he got the ordering of the vaccines right, got in early, added " america 1st " to contracts, some of the bigger states are mid 20 % now, they will be back to normal life pretty soon
As did Johnson, and at the time of committing the recourse and millions early on there were no guarentees they would find a vaccine or roll it out this quick, he's certainly upset the vaccine and there dreadful organisation to the vaccine programme .
Indeed, Boris has shown the EU that it didnt pay to dither on getting the orders in, the early bird and all that
Bloody capitalism eh?Indeed, Boris has shown the EU that it didnt pay to dither on getting the orders in, the early bird and all that
Indeed, Boris has shown the EU that it didnt pay to dither on getting the orders in, the early bird and all thatAt least part of the story is not about the early bird catching the worm. A global problem is on it's way to being solved in some countries via protectionism and America acting in bad faith.UK was smart to start funding vax research before #Covid19 even hit Europe. But they made a consequential choice by (apparently) making funding conditional to Brits getting doses of any resulting vaccine 1st. Germany
funded BioNTech but did not include any Europe 1st clause.
Meanwhile in March 2020, President Trump tried unsuccessfully to steal BioNTech from Germany to bring it to the US. Despite this warning, apparently nobody in EU thought it might be a bad idea for BioNTech to be partnered with Pfizer, an American company.
That Germany nationality-agnostic approach to pharma partners was not the approach used across the channel in UK. Oxford was originally going to partner with American company Merck. But the UK gov overruled it and made them partner with UK-based AstraZeneca.
With BioNTech-Pfizer partnership secure, Trump seemed to be in no hurry to sign Pfizer purchase contracts. Why? He knew a US vaccine export ban would make a contract unnecessary.
Pfizer has massive production capacity in the US. If US law prevented any of those doses made on US soil from being exported, they would have to go to the US in any event. The result can be seen in the supply chain. United States plants used to supply United States, European Union plants used to supply europe-africa.
Also in December 2020, the UK & US used the emergency use authorisation method to approve Pfizer, while the EU used the more cautious conditional marketing approval method, resulting in EU approving 2-3 weeks later. UK gave emergency use approval to AstraZeneca on 30 December.
When European Union gave conditional marketing approval to AstraZeneca on 29 Jan, the company informed EU it would not be meeting original dosage delivery promise because of production problems in EU plant. Seems doses to be reserved for European Union had gone to United Kingdom The battle between EU & AZ began
The Commission said AZ signed a contract saying it would use all 4 of its production facilities, 2 in UK and 2 in EU, to deliver to EU - so the shortfall should be made up with exports from the UK. AZ's CEO said they couldn't because of a 'UK 1st' clause.
That battle has raged on without resolution. AZ will only deliver 30m out of promised 80m for Q1 and 70m of promised 180m in Q2, EC says. Meanwhile EU has exported 10m (mostly Pfizer) doses to UK, while 'UK 1st' clause stops AZ from meeting EU delivery promise from UK plants.
Across the pond, the US export ban has meant Canada, Mexico& Japan have to get their Pfizer doses from EU plants instead. (European Union has exported 4.6m doses to Canada, 3.8m to Mexico, 4m to Japan) Situation particularly absurd for Flag of Canada, which must get its Pfizer from Belgium instead of next door in Michigan.
Even US has received vaccine exports from EU: 1 million in February, and 3.9 million doses of Johnson & Johnson a few weeks ago according to the NYT. J&J doses made in US can't go to EU.
These export numbers were revealed last week and Europeans were furious. In was in this context President Von Der Leyen said on Wednesday the EU is considering an export ban to vaccine-producing countries who don't reciprocate. Germany, France and Italy are pushing this idea.
EU assumed good behavior. US & UK manoeuvred to benefit themselves. Many EU countries flubbed vaccine rollouts. EU negotiations & approval maybe took too long. But what's striking is, for many in US & UK there seems to be 1 set of rules for them and another for everyone else.
https://twitter.com/DaveKeating/stat...97635577761803
The Pharmaceutical Industry is a global success story for capitalism. Drug manufacture is complex and depends on many industries pulling together..manufacturers of pharmaceutical quality glass, pharmaceutical quantity rubber stoppers and seals, excipient manufacturers etc. Once politicians interfere the thing can fall apart.
Dave Keating is right in many of his comments but he brushes over some important facts:
The UK signed a contract with AZ in English Law based on supply of fixed quantities of product. The EU contract was in Belgium Law and based on best efforts of each party. Second the EU wanted product manufactured within the block if facilities existed.
It's all come back to haunt them and they seem willing to disrupt legitimate supply to other countries in order to get supply. A sad tale for everyone
Think I read somewhere that Labour were keen to break the big pharma global control up
An eye opener for everyone.....
I am shocked at there behaviour though the holding back of the vaccine shipment in Italy on what moral ground can they do that ,this saves life's, this is both embarrassing and revealing of their nasty controlling side , the fact they were advising folk not to rush and take the Astazenca Vaccine over a certain age and now complain they cant get enough of it all a smokescreen to cloud the fact the fecked up , Merkel is in big trouble with all this as well .Indeed, Boris has shown the EU that it didnt pay to dither on getting the orders in, the early bird and all that
haven't there been something like twice as many deaths per capita here than in Germany?
yet some people seem to think Merkel is in trouble (how many times have we heard that over the years?) and Boris Johnson is doing a fantastic job?
All about greed and capitalism according to the sainted Johnson. I wonder how many of his apologists on here will have the nerve to read
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Failures-St...ct_top?ie=UTF8
and whether it will change any minds?
You got your jab didn’t you Bob? No doubt many friends your age did too? I’m glad Boris got one thing right and ordered early. Surely it’s illegal for the EU to try and block a further delivery here, it’s not our fault they didn’t back it and order early.....a contract is a contract
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