Political Information Social Service - Election Special

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Mar 17, 2021 15:42:21 GMT @johndaubneyslegs said:

Mar 17, 2021 14:56:47 GMT @oxford said:

According to the Telegraph (just a random google result on Ursula - my subscription has lapsed...):

"The WHO granted the AstraZeneca shot emergency use last month, widening access to the relatively inexpensive shot in low and middle income countries."

Thing is, The Who also sang "I hope I die before I get old" so they're possibly not the best authority on this.

Mind you, they also thought Boris was a spider...

Who?!

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Mar 17, 2021 14:14:17 GMT sennockian69 said:

You do know that Ursula secured brooms for the German army - when they were meant to have rifles.

So, if the Germans think maybe third time lucky, they'll have a clean sweep through Europe.

They'll wait until after 2038 -when the UK will be running all-electric vehicles (including tanks and other military ordnance?), the wind will be dead calm so that the windmills won't work, and they and the french (who own most of our leccy companies) will pull the plug.

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Mar 17, 2021 14:56:47 GMT @oxford said:

According to the Telegraph (just a random google result on Ursula - my subscription has lapsed...):

"The WHO granted the AstraZeneca shot emergency use last month, widening access to the relatively inexpensive shot in low and middle income countries."

Thing is, The Who also sang "I hope I die before I get old" so they're possibly not the best authority on this.

The Who can't be trusted.

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We won't get fooled again...

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So, the EU want us to send them more vaccines, even though they still have shitloads left unused in their fridges.
If the latest news is to be believed, many people across the continent are now fearful of the Oxford vaccine. So, well done EU, for scaring people shitless enough to pass up the chance of a potentially life saving jab.
Meanwhile even though it was only yesterday that the news was vaccination numbers were going to double in the next month, suddenly, they are not, because supplies are going to run out.
A basic question then: 'Just what the f**k is going on?'

[Deleted]

Mar 17, 2021 22:21:50 GMT @61666 said:

So, the EU want us to send them more vaccines, even though they still have shitloads left unused in their fridges.
If the latest news is to be believed, many people across the continent are now fearful of the Oxford vaccine. So, well done EU, for scaring people shitless enough to pass up the chance of a potentially life saving jab.
Meanwhile even though it was only yesterday that the news was vaccination numbers were going to double in the next month, suddenly, they are not, because supplies are going to run out.
A basic question then: 'Just what the f**k is going on?'

The 'government' slipped up and accidentally got the vaccine bit right, thus completely destroying their 100% record of totally cocking up the whole Covid pandemic. But now they've managed to get things back under control and the vaccine roll-out is going as well as the rest of their total cluster-f**k.

[Deleted]

SNAFU

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Mar 17, 2021 23:00:15 GMT @johndaubneyslegs said:

Mar 17, 2021 22:21:50 GMT @61666 said:

So, the EU want us to send them more vaccines, even though they still have shitloads left unused in their fridges.
If the latest news is to be believed, many people across the continent are now fearful of the Oxford vaccine. So, well done EU, for scaring people shitless enough to pass up the chance of a potentially life saving jab.
Meanwhile even though it was only yesterday that the news was vaccination numbers were going to double in the next month, suddenly, they are not, because supplies are going to run out.
A basic question then: 'Just what the f**k is going on?'

The 'government' slipped up and accidentally got the vaccine bit right, thus completely destroying their 100% record of totally cocking up the whole Covid pandemic. But now they've managed to get things back under control and the vaccine roll-out is going as well as the rest of their total cluster-f**k.

Disappointing news for you on bbc.co.uk:

"The UK experienced one of the worst rates of death in Europe in the first half of 2020, as previously reported, but in the second half of the year, six countries overtook the UK.

That meant by the end of the year the UK was in the top 10 worst-hit countries analysed but no longer at the top.

The worst-affected countries were Poland, Spain, Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and Slovenia.

Data was not available for the full year for Italy."

Meanwhile I've been unable to confirm that bringbackjay is running for the Tanzanian presidency...

[Deleted]

Mar 19, 2021 10:28:54 GMT @oxford said:

Mar 17, 2021 23:00:15 GMT @johndaubneyslegs said:

The 'government' slipped up and accidentally got the vaccine bit right, thus completely destroying their 100% record of totally cocking up the whole Covid pandemic. But now they've managed to get things back under control and the vaccine roll-out is going as well as the rest of their total cluster-f**k.

Disappointing news for you on bbc.co.uk:

"The UK experienced one of the worst rates of death in Europe in the first half of 2020, as previously reported, but in the second half of the year, six countries overtook the UK.

That meant by the end of the year the UK was in the top 10 worst-hit countries analysed but no longer at the top.

The worst-affected countries were Poland, Spain, Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and Slovenia.

Data was not available for the full year for Italy."

Meanwhile I've been unable to confirm that bringbackjay is running for the Tanzanian presidency...

If you fail an exam, but then learn later that several other people also failed, you feel a bit better. But you've still failed your exam.

I suspect the problem in Europe is three-fold: first the lack of physical borders, then a false sense of security at having tackled the virus reasobably well so far, and possibly also too much reliance on a rapid vaccination roll-out to stem a 'third wave' (which, of course, hasn't happened).

From what I've heard from Hungary, I think they simply mistook luck for ability. They were much more organised than us with lockdowns, border control, testing, isolation, etc, and had a very limited infection rate in the early days, so they thought they'd beaten it. When my wife and kids went over there last August, there were no restriction, no social distancing, etc, and the traditional kiss on each cheek thing was still going strong. My wife said it was like another world compared to here. But then the 'second' wave hit and they were caught unawares - they had huge infection rates, deaths, etc before they knew what had hit them. Not just Hungary, either, Slovakia was even worse.

It's still early days though, there's every chance of a 'third' wave over here yet, as the vaccinations done so far won't have much impact on the infection rate once lock-down is lifted (as I may have mentioned before...). It all depends on how quickly the next 40-50% of the population can be vaccinated. I've been impressed by what I've seen so far, but there's a long way to go and plenty of things can happen yet.

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Yeah different countries, different ways of screwing up. At least the O/AZ vaccine is back in use in the big EU countries.
On the daily stats on BBC News I notice that daily cases are stabilising around 5000 but deaths and hospitalisations are tumbling. This suggests the cases are less serious ones, as the vulnerable people have been jabbed - I wonder how many are secondary school children? OS Junior has had 3 (negative) tests since going back to school 10 days ago. There have been 2 positive cases in the whole school. He's now got home testing kits for next week.
Looking forward to the Easter holidays and being able to go for a walk with another family, legally.

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These stats has us fourth now for deaths per capita behind Czech Republic, Belgium and Slovenia.

www.statista.com/statistics/1104709/coronavirus-deaths-worldwide-per-million-inhabitants/

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We're in with a good chance of a play-off place.

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Mar 19, 2021 11:33:10 GMT @oxford said:

We're in with a good chance of a play-off place.

Still that tricky away tie in Hungary yet

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Isn't that where Liverpool get all their home wins?

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Mar 19, 2021 11:01:30 GMT @oxford said:

Yeah different countries, different ways of screwing up. At least the O/AZ vaccine is back in use in the big EU countries.
On the daily stats on BBC News I notice that daily cases are stabilising around 5000 but deaths and hospitalisations are tumbling. This suggests the cases are less serious ones, as the vulnerable people have been jabbed - I wonder how many are secondary school children? OS Junior has had 3 (negative) tests since going back to school 10 days ago. There have been 2 positive cases in the whole school. He's now got home testing kits for next week.
Looking forward to the Easter holidays and being able to go for a walk with another family, legally.

Interesting comment on the news this afternoon - the plants currently making the various vaccines can't actually make enough to vaccinate everyone in the time-frames governments are indicating (and that people are expecting). And that's not just the world as a whole (which would come as no surprise), but also just in the developed countries themselves.

Which made me wonder if the current expected delay to our vaccination programme and the fuss over vaccine exports from the EU isn't just a blip, but is the first signs of a problem that could be serious - effectively a vaccine 'war' in the making. Countries that make the vaccines will effectively control it's supply to other countries - and, not just the poorer countries, buy maybe some of the richer ones too won't get enough to support their vaccination programmes.

We are heavily reliant on importing vaccines to achieve the government's targets, so if we can't get enough of them, the timetable will start to stretch out beyond the summer. And, as the whole government strategy is to vaccinate enough people in time to counter the inevitable increase in infections once lockdown is eased, this could mean either a much bigger 'third' wave than they are planning for, or a delay in the relaxation of the lockdown. Both of which will have a serious impact on their plans to get the economy moving again.