Current Affairs

[screwy]

Another apparently ‘ Leaked ‘ document. No doubt from a civil servant.? Whatever happened to the Official Secrets Act.?

[david63]

A glimmer of hope - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-55768033 although the media will no doubt be wheeling out some "armchair experts" who will deride it.

[Mervyn and Trish]

Interesting news on vaccination rates this morning.

You have to take this in the context that to many it is well-known that the UK is the worst in the world at anything.

Well in terms of vaccinations per 100 people we are third in the world. Beaten only by Israel (population 9,227,700) and the UAE (population 9,890,400).

We are at 8.1 per 100.

The next nearest in Europe are Spain at 2.4, Italy at 2.1 and (super efficient) Germany at 1.7.

Nowhere else in the EU is in the top 10. All of them below 1.

And the EU has not yet approved the Oxford vaccine and is now worried about supplies of the others.

[david63]

And the EU has not yet approved the Oxford vaccine and is now worried about supplies of the others.

Eggs in one basket comes to mind!

[Manoverboard]

Interesting news on vaccination rates this morning.

You have to take this in the context that to many it is well-known that the UK is the worst in the world at anything.

Well in terms of vaccinations per 100 people we are third in the world. Beaten only by Israel (population 9,227,700) and the UAE (population 9,890,400).

We are at 8.1 per 100.

The next nearest in Europe are Spain at 2.4, Italy at 2.1 and (super efficient) Germany at 1.7.

Nowhere else in the EU is in the top 10. All of them below 1.

And the EU has not yet approved the Oxford vaccine and is now worried about supplies of the others.

Perhaps they are focussing instead on picking up lorry drivers with illegal ham sandwiches on board

[Mervyn and Trish]

Interesting news on vaccination rates this morning.

You have to take this in the context that to many it is well-known that the UK is the worst in the world at anything.

Well in terms of vaccinations per 100 people we are third in the world. Beaten only by Israel (population 9,227,700) and the UAE (population 9,890,400).

We are at 8.1 per 100.

The next nearest in Europe are Spain at 2.4, Italy at 2.1 and (super efficient) Germany at 1.7.

Nowhere else in the EU is in the top 10. All of them below 1.

And the EU has not yet approved the Oxford vaccine and is now worried about supplies of the others.

Perhaps they are focussing instead on picking up lorry drivers with illegal ham sandwiches on board

It is interesting that France, which quickly banned travel from the UK when we got our faster spreading variant, which no doubt accounts for our scary figures at the moment (oh no, I forgot, that's Boris's fault) is not in the top 10 for vaccination. When we get our numbers down I trust we will ban them until they catch up on vaccines.

[Stephen]

https://www.statista.com/chart/23833/co ... 00-people/

[Mervyn and Trish]

https://www.statista.com/chart/23833/co ... 00-people/

Yours puts us 4th, only one place lower. But your data is 4 days older than mine!

[Stephen]

https://www.statista.com/chart/23833/co ... 00-people/

Yours puts us 4th, only one place lower. But your data is 4 days older than mine!

I always was behind

[Mervyn and Trish]

If you click the link in your article to "Our World in Data" you'll get the very latest, where we are third.

Bahrain, the one above us in your article, is now below, and has a population of 1,592,000. We've vaccinated more people than they've got! My district could area has more people than they've vaccinated!

France has now crept into the top 10, but only just.

[david63]

It is interesting that France, ... is not in the top 10 for vaccination.

When they have a system that those in a care home have to have a consultation with a doctor five days before they have the jab what else can you expect?

Never mind about all the faffing about - get the biddies jabbed

[Stephen]

If you click the link in your article to "Our World in Data" you'll get the very latest, where we are third.

Bahrain, the one above us in your article, is now below, and has a population of 1,592,000. We've vaccinated more people than they've got! My district could area has more people than they've vaccinated!

France has now crept into the top 10, but only just.

At the end of the day does it really matter who is getting what and when. It is what it is.

[Stephen]

I see the ferrel brain dead party goers have been at it again


https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-55778930

[oldbluefox]

And in a few weeks' time it will be they and their friends and relatives clogging up our hospitals or travelling to their country pads and passing it on to the rest of us. Fined £1000? That will be loose change to these people.

[Stephen]

It amazes me how stupid these people are that they thought they could get away with it. Why the police weren't using dogs I don't know. Anyone making a run for it let the bu99er off it's lead, they'd soon stand like a statue then. I'd round them all up and in small groups shove them on a Covid ward for a day......without any PPI.

[Kendhni]

I thought Johnson had said he was closing transport routes
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/big-heathrow- ... 25978.html
I wonder what is so necessary about the travel plans for these selfish vermin.

In another couple of days the likelihood is that more than 100K will have died from this virus in the UK - that is approaching 1 in every 650 people in this country (at Christmas it was about 1 in 900).

[oldbluefox]

Were they coming or going?
If they were going I presume they had all been tested and would be leaving the country anyway. In any case the airports should be doing more to make it possible to social distance. Wherever these people are going (and I thought we weren't supposed to be travelling ) there should be proper social distancing provision.

[Ray B]

Are smart motorways safe, my view is they are not. We have seen people lose thier lives on the conventional hard shoulder when a vehicle has drifted into it and hit a broken down vehicle, but a large number of breakdowns have had the safety that the hard shoulder should affords.
These smart motorways do not have that safety unless you are lucky enough to be near a refuge. If you have a problem on the new roads the chances of getting to safety is very slim.
Motorways are very safe, but when something goes wrong things happen very quickly.

[Mervyn and Trish]

I'm not comfortable with the smart motorways either. I think the variable speed limits work well, but the lack of a proper hard shoulder seems to be a cynical money saving exercise to me.

[Stephen]

No hard shoulder, dangerous as hell if you ask me. I wonder what bright spark thought that one up.

[towny44]

No hard shoulder, dangerous as hell if you ask me. I wonder what bright spark thought that one up.

Must have been a non driving accountant!

[Ray B]

No hard shoulder, dangerous as hell if you ask me. I wonder what bright spark thought that one up.

Ask the. Highways Agency, they are saying a smart motorway a safer than a standard motor way.
It does not help thinking that way when broken-down and stopped on the inside lane with a 36 ton wagon closing on you at 60mph.

[Mervyn and Trish]

I see various people are demanding Boris set out a timetable for schools to re-open. So let's say he does that based on current information. And then the virus chucks another spanner in the works, as it has shown it is well capable of doing. And he has to change the timetable in response. Will these same people then be screaming U-turn? Of course they will.

They say teachers need notice so they can prepare for a return. Well here's my suggestion. Let the teachers assume children are coming back in 2 weeks and get on with their preparations on that assumption. Once they're ready if it turns out it's going to be longer they'll be ahead of the game won't they? And have nothing to moan about.

[Manoverboard]

Some folk were born to moan ... just saying

[Kendhni]

I see various people are demanding Boris set out a timetable for schools to re-open. So let's say he does that based on current information. And then the virus chucks another spanner in the works, as it has shown it is well capable of doing. And he has to change the timetable in response. Will these same people then be screaming U-turn? Of course they will.

They say teachers need notice so they can prepare for a return. Well here's my suggestion. Let the teachers assume children are coming back in 2 weeks and get on with their preparations on that assumption. Once they're ready if it turns out it's going to be longer they'll be ahead of the game won't they? And have nothing to moan about.

There was a point last year when the teachers said they needed 6 weeks notice to get running again. I remember asking my mate how long it would take him to get his production line up and running again - he said about half a day. I agree with you about using a running assumption - it makes sense. However I think they should also spend a bit more time trying to make better use of remote learning (just in case).

According to SAGE a return to school is expected to add about 0.2 to the R number - but that was before these more contagious variants of the virus (so it could be more than that now). It looks like the government is finally getting on top of this latest wave - let us not rush to destroy that good work (especially since in the next 2 days it looks like we will cross the 100,000 deaths.