More on covid pandemic 2020-2?
Ukraine – what you’re not told
Britain Number 1 in the world – for all the wrong reasons
As with many aspects of British society (especially) in the last forty years or so, if you wrote about events as fiction nobody would believe it as such ideas would be considered too fanciful.
Such is the case with the way the covid pandemic has been (mis)managed since the virus became known to the world at the end of 2019.
Even though it is far from an end already there are reports being published detailing the abysmal record of the Buffoon and his government to ‘lead’ the country through one of the most potentially destructive periods since the Second World War.
The innumerable ‘U-turns’; the hesitation; reports of cronyism and the awarding of billions of pounds worth of contracts to those who were no more than shysters and barrow-boys (at best, if not through and through incompetent and corrupt; the failed and ‘eyewateringly’ expensive Test, Track and Trace system (which was fundamental in getting on top of the virus) failing at every level, and still not really functioning as it should now, just before the winter when there could be potential spikes in infections; and now the vaccination programme, which was the one and only ‘success’ that the country can look back on over the last 18 months, is now faltering for some unknown reason. (For the time being we’ll forget the immorality of vaccinating more and more of the British population when there are so many others in the world more deserving. If you are going to be selfish, parochial and insular at least try and be efficient at it.)
So after more than 18 months of not being able to get to grips with the ‘unprecedented’ event Britain looks like it’s performing among the worst in the world when it comes to the future. It seems that lessons haven’t been learnt from either what went right (nor much) or wrong (a lot) in Britain and nothing at all from the best practice (again not much) in the rest of the world.
For the Buffoon and his cohort that’s not really a problem. They’ve been spending public money as if it were going out of fashion and in the process making more of their friends richer than they were already. At the same time there is a growing number of working people in Britain who are about to face an even harsher winter than the one last year. The hypocrisy of the Tories knows no bounds as they promise that the experience of the pandemic would lead to be better and fairer society although no independent analysis of their latest budget moves gives them any credence for the much vaunted ‘levelling out’. If there’s any equalisation it’s at the lowest common denominator.
Why the Buffoon acts in the way he does is not really a mystery. What is a mystery, however, is the compliance by the overwhelming proportion of the British population. The only ones protesting, in the main although not exclusively, are the fascists and the head-bangers.
When is the organised working class going to get involved in a meaningful manner and not just shouting on the side-lines ‘too little too late’ or ‘too much too soon’?
The vaccination programme in Britain ……
It seems that the moral issue of giving valuable vaccines to those who are less likely to suffer serious consequences of the virus rather than to those in the poorest parts of the world has been ‘lost’ in Britain.Consider the misinformation argument being stronger than the moral one
Covid vaccines for teenagers: what UK parents need to know amid a new wave of misinformation.
What we know about covid-19 jabs for kids.
Spurned Valneva covid jab ‘more powerful’ than AstraZeneca.
Covid vaccines are safe during pregnancy – but catching the virus isn’t.
New antibody treatment could offer up to 18 months’ protection against severe disease.
…… and the rest of the world
Covid vaccines: how to speed up rollout in poorer countries.
World Health Organisation (WHO) warns pandemic will drag on deep into 2022.
How developing countries can make mRNA covid vaccines.
India’s covid vaccine exports resume – but others must step up to vaccinate the world.
The global south is trying to produce more vaccines – but Moderna is standing in the way.
FDA panel approves Pfizer jabs for children 5 and up. This is in the USA. It will ony be a matter of time before the same sort of policies start to be implemented in the other rich, ‘western’ countries. So much for sharing! As time goes on the tribal, parochial approach to how to deal with the pandemic becomes even more pronounced. They’ll be vaccinating foetuses next.
Further on from a vaccination
AstraZeneca antibody cocktail study shows success treating covid-19.
In for a ‘twindemic’?
People who catch coronavirus and flu at same time this winter ‘twice as likely to die’.
Covid and flu: how big could the dual threat be this winter?
Covid variants
Delta ‘Plus’ covid variant may be more transmissible.
How worried should we be about the new AY.4.2 lineage of the coronavirus?
The importance of basic hygiene
Yes, we should be keeping the healthier hand-washing habits we developed at the start of the pandemic.
What does the winter hold for Britain?
This is at a time when one of the richest countries in the world, together with it’s access to a seemingly unlimited supply of vaccines, still can’t get its act together. Towards the end of October 2021 the UK held the record as the ‘disease box’ of the world.
Labour calls for Plan B measures in England.
Increased restrictions in the UK look inevitable as winter arrives.
‘Herd immunity’?
Relaxing restrictions hasn’t made covid cases spike – but this doesn’t mean herd immunity has arrived.
Increased protection for babies?
Breast milk can contain covid antibodies – good news for babies.
Emergency Powers Act
How many people still remember that we are living under almost like wartime emergency laws. The Government hasn’t used them yet – and will, no doubt, make a big issue about them being abolished with the ending of this Act. But we should remember that they have introduced some of the stipulations from this act in new laws being brought in at the moment. When States have such draconian laws at their disposal they are very reluctant to let them go – whatever the Party in power. So people shouldn’t put their faith in any potential Labour Government (or a coalition of the present opposition parties) repealing the laws in the future. There will always be ‘more pressing priorities’.
Coronavirus emergency powers: parliament must not waste its third and final chance to review them.
The testing programme starts to grab the headlines – again, and not always for the right reasons
Why are people testing positive on lateral flow tests then negative on PCR?
Lateral flow tests more accurate than first thought.
Travellers now able to use cheaper covid tests. But even with the changes that came into force after 24th October 2021 people will have to use private companies for the tests to be valid. EVERYTHING the Government of the Buffoon does is to the advantage of private business – and most people seem to accept it.
NHS Test and Trace criticised as ‘eyewatering’ waste of taxpayers’ money.
The scientific advice
Not my job to sugar-coat advice.
Poverty in Britain
More information comes out about the effects in the cut of Universal Credit that took place on 6th October 2021.
Universal credit: what the £20 a week cut will mean for hundreds of thousands of households.
‘I don’t feel like a person any more’: the emotional side of claiming universal credit. But that’s always been the idea of ‘benefits’. Make people feel ashamed and they won’t make a claim.
‘Shameful’ Universal Credit cut ‘will push 22,000 children into poverty‘.
Universal credit uplift was a lifeline during the pandemic – our research shows cutting it will leave families with impossible decisions.
As stated many times in the Journal of the Plague Years, what happens in Scotland is almost exactly replicated in the rest of the UK – but on a bigger scale (due to the population difference).
Renters on low incomes face a policy black hole: homes for social rent are the answer. The technical back-up.
Ethnicity, poverty and the data in Scotland.
And who are allowed to benefit at the expense of the poor?
Most of these issues are not ‘covid related’. They are included here to remind people of the sort of society they have allowed to exist in Britain (and many other parts of the world).
Pandora papers: ‘it’s time to pursue lawyers and accountants who enable tax evasion’.
The secret owners of UK property worth billions.
Tax cheat schemes cost governments billions.
‘Collateral damage’
How covid may leave us with fewer friends if we are not careful.
Covid ‘strategies’ throughout the world
Zero covid worked for some countries – but high vaccine coverage is now key.
The secret to South Korea’s covid success? Combining high technology with the human touch.
Covid mortality
The statistics about death rates have gone quietly lately as the debate has moved on to the issue of vaccination.
How covid deaths compare with other deaths in the UK.
How did it all start?
New WHO group may be last chance to find virus origins.
The analysis
UK’s early response worst public health failure ever.
‘Serious errors’ by ministers and scientific advisers ‘cost thousands of lives’ during pandemic.
When it’s all over ….
Covid-19 could nudge minds and societies towards authoritarianism – that is of the extreme right. Interesting that after all the people have suffered, throughout the world, with the incompetence of the capitalist governments in their handling of the pandemic, and all the corruption that has gone with the incompetence, a study comes out suggesting that most people would want more of the same.
….. unless we fall into the next pandemic
Nipah virus: could it cause the next pandemic?