International News Covid-19 .....

No argument from me on that score...the laudable aim of vaccines for all in the EU before individual countries has descended into muddled messages and inertia over here. But again, it depends on how you measure success. The UK is getting darts players to fire syringes at people, it's so quick. Meanwhile elsewhere people are focusing on getting the second jab....

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When the UK figures here far dwarf the others then we can say who has been a success.

(Not that this should be a race, mind, no matter how much the Daily Fail are trying to present it).

EDITED TO ADD: "Very cautious"? Everything open including festivals, clubs and no social distancing in four months...will believe that when I see it!
I believe that the World Health Organisation backed the plan to get one vaccination to at risk people suggesting that the strategy had worked and had saved a significant number of lives.
Whitty and Valance explained clearly today how 3 new reports have shown how well the vaccine results are going.
Of course there needs to be a second jab (although Chris Whitty was suggesting that the first dose made a huge effect and seemed to be lasting a long time).
The very cautious comment relates to the fact that music venues etc will not happen if the numbers don't back it up. This can't go quicker and could go slower ( it was explained clearly that evidence of the numbers on change takes 4 weeks so the next relaxation would always be after 5 weeks)
Agree that it isn't a race but the European handling of the vaccine ( including Macrons comments on the Oxford vaccine) seem to be shambolic and bordering on the totally negligent.
 
Look at the impact that vaccines are having on the disease, the stats are coming through now.

Of course the schools have all got to go back on the 8th, childrens development has been horribly stunted by lockdown. There are still 2 weeks left to plan for their return. Stop prevaricating.

it’s the first step back to normality.
Well the stats are good because no one is mixing!

I’m surprised teachers haven’t been prioritised for the jab
 
One of my friends who lives in France has just posted they only did 1500 vaccinations yesterday, because Sunday.
 
I love the way Johnson passes every question he doesn't like to Whitty and Vallance. A*****e.
No he passes a question to them that they can answer and he answers the question put to him, like the t**t who said about all Boris and his bluster and what’s he doing now. He passed the first question to Whitney and then to Balance before he answered and said he wouldn’t be Buccaneer in relaxing all the lockdown to soon.
 
No argument from me on that score...the laudable aim of vaccines for all in the EU before individual countries has descended into muddled messages and inertia over here. But again, it depends on how you measure success. The UK is getting darts players to fire syringes at people, it's so quick. Meanwhile elsewhere people are focusing on getting the second jab....

View attachment 5686

When the UK figures here far dwarf the others then we can say who has been a success.

(Not that this should be a race, mind, no matter how much the Daily Fail are trying to present it).

EDITED TO ADD: "Very cautious"? Everything open including festivals, clubs and no social distancing in four months...will believe that when I see it!

It will if people act responsibly and behave, then there is no reason as to why not.
 
Maybe we get out of this in June or maybe we don’t but f**k it, I am going to hope that we do and look forward to it. This is a s**t way to live, nothing to look forward to and no hope of better so if the chance of more comes along I will grab it. If people want to stay in for the rest of there lives then that’s up to them but you don’t have the right to force it on others.
 
It really has hammered it home today just what absolutely mad times we are living through. People on my timeline praising Boris for being given permission to go for a coffee with a friend outside!

When i watched him years ago making an a**e of himself on HIGNFY, i certainly never predicted that 15 years later id need his permission to leave my house!
 
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Maybe we get out of this in June or maybe we don’t but f**k it, I am going to hope that we do and look forward to it. This is a s**t way to live, nothing to look forward to and no hope of better so if the chance of more comes along I will grab it. If people want to stay in for the rest of there lives then that’s up to them but you don’t have the right to force it on others.
Nothing to look forward to?! There’s football on your little laptop!

I think the year anniversary of lockdown has been a factor in them providing a clear way out. I’ve been really good but I’m not signing up for a year more of this once the weather gets better.
 
Look at the impact that vaccines are having on the disease, the stats are coming through now.

Of course the schools have all got to go back on the 8th, childrens development has been horribly stunted by lockdown. There are still 2 weeks left to plan for their return. Stop prevaricating.

it’s the first step back to normality.
Just felt they should have waited until after the Easter holidays for schools to return. That way they may have vaccinated another 15m+, warmer weather (hopefully), lighter evenings, and a good chance for the cases and hospitals numbers to reduce, but hey ho, let’s see what happens.

Just think another 3 weeks wouldn’t have that much impact on children, but could have reduced the risk.
 
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Well, it does in some ways feel like the beginning of the end. I can't praise the government's handling of the pandemic particularly highly but the ending of this form of lockdown does seem more logical than the bullish attempt in the summer. It's more gradual, based against the R-number dropping and vaccinations occuring.

I do worry about public interpretation of it. BoJo says 'data not dates' and then throws in a load of dates anyway. Yes, they are earliest possible dates for the lifting of restrictions and can only be met if certain milestones are met to avoid mass hospitalisations, but the public and some news outlets seem to have jumped on all of these dates as absolute. The amount of 'me on the 22nd June' memes and gifs I've seen and the Beeb saying that holiday companies phones are ringing off the hook seems misguided. There's being positive and optimistic but a healthy dose of realism is needed too. All it takes is a different variant spike from the schools returning and - boom - we're back into revising those milestones again.

Forgive my caution, but I think there is still a long way to go. I'm certainly not booking any foreign travel or expecting to be shoulder to shoulder with fellow fans at the Euros this summer.
 
One thing I don't completely understand is "cautious and irreversible" line that keeps being used, especially as BJ and a few other MPs have already said they couldn't rule out another lockdown in the future. What's that, if not a "reversal" of position?

I think schools should've been staggered and teachers offered the vaccine. It would have taken a day or two at our current rates of vaccination.

Generally though, I can't argue too much; data not dates seems a more logical, science-driven approach that will provide a slow and steady return to something a little more normal over the coming months. 🤞

Kind of unrelated but I saw someone call Johnson a ‘liberal hack’ yesterday. Not sure where you have to sit on the political spectrum to think that but hey-ho. 🙃
 
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