UK speeds up vaccinations: All adults get 1st jab by
July 31
The new target also aims for everyone over 50 or with an underlying health condition to get a vaccine shot by April 15, rather than the previous target of May 1.
CNBC,
21 February, 2021
The British government announced Sunday that it aims to give every adult in the country a first dose of coronavirus vaccine by July 31, a month earlier than its previous target.
The new target also aims for everyone over 50 or with an underlying health condition to get a vaccine shot by April 15, rather than the previous target of May 1.
The makers of the two vaccines that Britain is using, Pfizer and AstraZeneca, have both experienced supply problems in Europe. But U.K. Health Secretary Matt Hancock, who announced the new targets, said “we now think that we have the supplies” to speed up the vaccination campaign.
The early success of Britain’s vaccination campaign is welcome good news for a country that has had more than 120,000 coronavirus deaths, the highest toll in Europe. More than 17.2 million people, almost a third of the country’s adults, have been given the first of two doses of vaccine since inoculations began on Dec. 8.
Britain is delaying giving second vaccine doses until 12 weeks after the first in order to give as many people as possible partial protection quickly. The approach has been criticized in some countries — and by Pfizer, which says it does not have any data to support the delay — but is backed by the U.K. government’s scientific advisers.
News of the new vaccine targets came as Prime Minister Boris Johnson met with senior ministers on Sunday to finalize a “road map” out of the national lockdown, a plan he is to announce on Monday.
Faced with a dominant U.K. virus variant that scientists say is both more transmissible and more deadly, Britain has spent much of the winter under a tight lockdown. Bars, restaurants, gyms, schools, hair salons and all nonessential shops have been closed while grocery stories, pharmacies and takeout food venues are still open.
The government has stressed that economic and social reopenings will be slow and cautious, with nonessential shopping or outdoor socializing unlikely before April. Many children will go back to school beginning March 8 and nursing home residents will be able to have one visitor from the same date.
Johnson’s Conservative government has been accused of reopening the country too quickly after the first lockdown in the spring.
The number of new confirmed cases, hospitalization and deaths are all declining but remain high, and Johnson says his reopening road map would follow “data, not dates.”
But he is under pressure from Conservative lawmakers, who argue that restrictions should be lifted quickly to revive an economy that has been hammered by three lockdowns in the last year.
John Edmunds, a member of the government’s scientific advisory group, said British hospitals are still treating about 20,000 coronavirus patients, half the January peak but almost as much as height of the first surge in the spring.
“If we eased off very rapidly now, we would get another surge in hospitalizations” and deaths, he told the BBC.
Edmunds said there is added uncertainty because of new virus variants, including one identified in South Africa that may be more resistant to current vaccines.
Hancock told Sky News that the government would take a “cautious but irreversible approach” to reopening the economy.
UK Column News Special:
Care Home Whistleblower
UKColumn
UKColumn was recently contacted by an experienced Care Home manager. The individual was deeply concerned about the effects of Covid 19 and vaccinations, on both staff and the elderly, within care facilities across the country. Finally their personal concern had reached the point where they felt the need to speak out to the wider public. However, due to likely management pressure and kick-back, and likely punitive action from within the broader Care system itself, they needed to do so as an anonymous whistleblower. We take it as a significant compliment that they chose come to the UKColumn to tell their story. As will become apparent in the interview with them, to speak out from within the UK Care System in 2021, carries risks to both your job, and professionally qualified status. In short, whistleblowers are at risk of losing their job, and may lose the ability to find care work elsewhere if this also impacts on their vital professional registration. Against this background we applaud this person for their courage in blowing the whistle and speaking the truth. Please join us in this UKColumn news special, where we hear first hand about the mindset of the social care system, which has reacted vigorously to implement the UK government's Covid 19 protection policies - to the point of being zealous. But despite strict adherence to the government's Covid protection arrangements, and diligent care work in general, it now emerges that elderly people who remained free of Covid for many weeks and months, became Covid positive following vaccinations. A pattern that was also to affect hardworking staff, who until then, had been clear of the illness. Significantly this pattern was being seen by managers across the country’s care system, and sickness amongst staff of course placed both the care system itself, and those staff still working, under greatly increased pressure. Our whistleblower stresses that far from being one or two odd cases, there was a “dramatic increase’ in Covid outbreaks after vaccinations. Asked if this related to one particular, or all of the three vaccines, they stated that they did not have precise information on this, but believed the Pfizer vaccine was the most likely culprit. Moreover there was “huge confusion in Covid testing and the reliability of results." The testing policy and results such as they are, were described as an “ever changing landscape,” in which little confidence could be placed. Questioned as to the route by which these observations and concerns could be passed into official professional channels, the whistleblower commented that whether the reporting channel was the CQC or the Professional Care body, there was a reluctance to hear bad news about the Covid 19 and vaccination policy as a whole. To the point the system which should have received and acted upon concerns, was described as having “tin ears.” It did not want to hear and would not hear. The whistleblower also added that “increasingly social care provision was no longer a question of the application of appropriate professional care decided upon by the carer themselves, but rather professional social carers were now treated as an 'Agent of the State’ to follow guidelines and procedures.” As we see Covid 19 deaths amongst the elderly increasing, with further mortality increases (for whatever reason) post vaccination, the picture provided by this individual of some 30 years professional care experience at high management level, is deeply worrying. Vulnerable elderly people are becoming sick and are dying, their hard pressed carers are also becoming sick, and yet to speak out brings indifference at best, and real threats to the whistleblower’s job at worst. What is really going on in the care system around vulnerable elderly people? How has the UK care system come to this troubled state? Join us to hear this critical whistleblower testimony for yourself, and please do help them by sharing this report as widely as possible.
Israeli vaccine passports
JERUSALEM -- Israel unveiled a plan on Saturday to allow people who have been vaccinated against the coronavirus to attend cultural events, fly abroad and go to health clubs and restaurants.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the plan at a news conference on Saturday night, saying those who have been vaccinated will be able to download the "green badge" in the coming days.
"The green badge is gradually opening up the country," Netanyahu said.
Israel has conducted the world's speediest vaccine campaign over the past month and a half, inoculating nearly half of its 9.3 million people. But with the coronavirus still spreading rapidly among the unvaccinated, the country only recently began emerging from a two-month lockdown.
On Sunday, retail stores, shopping malls, gyms, some middle school grades and other public services for limited crowd sizes are set to start back up.
Netanyahu said the government could not keep unvaccinated residents from places like medical clinics, pharmacies and supermarkets. But he said other services would be allowed only for those who have received two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine.
Israel's main international airport, for instance, remains closed to nearly all air traffic because of concerns of foreign variants of the virus entering the country.
https://www.fox13memphis.com/news/latest-israel-issue/W54B2JYAC7GEARNV4JCHA3NHYM/
Parents To Test Their Children
For Covid TWICE A Week.
https://richieallen.co.uk/parents-to-test-their-children-for-covid-twice-a-week/
18 February, 2021
The Daily Telegraph is reporting this morning that it has seen government plans to return children to classrooms, that involve parents testing their own kids for coronavirus twice a week. The families of secondary school children will be expected to administer rapid lateral flow tests to the students, throughout term time.
Schools will oversee testing one time, at the beginning of each term. Thereafter, parents will be expected to conduct the testing twice weekly for the remainder of each term. Schools are expected to reopen on the 8th of March, but secondary schools will be staggering the return of pupils.
The government had originally planned for schools to conduct the regular testing of students, but unions called the plans “inoperable” and “ridiculous.” According to The Telegraph:
The Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), the largest union representing secondary heads, has previously said pupils should be given home testing kits rather than schools being forced to become “field hospitals”. But The Telegraph has learned that a compromise is set to be reached, with schools agreeing to test pupils on site at the start of term and home testing kits used thereafter.
Geoff Barton, the general secretary of the ASCL, said: “We think that is a good idea. It reinforces the responsibility for families rather than assuming that bits of the state, like schools, will carry out the tests.”
I’m running out of words to describe the tyranny being imposed on us all by this fascistic and totally out of control government. But again, where’s the outrage this morning? Where are the opinion columns, filled with righteous anger, indignation and invective? They don’t exist. There is no dissent whatsoever. The Fourth Estate has collapsed.
I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again, are we dreaming this? Is it really happening? Will parents really be forced to test their children twice a week for a virus that is virtually harmless to them? Isn’t this child abuse or at the very least mental torture? I heard this morning that the same secondary school pupils will be required to wear masks in the school corridors. It’s insane and it’s like a juggernaut. There’s no stopping it. Is there?
UK TV Channels Unite To
Show Covid Vaccine
Propaganda Film
https://richieallen.co.uk/uk-tv-channels-unite-to-show-covid-vaccine-propaganda-
film/
A short film, urging people from ethnic minority backgrounds to get their coronavirus vaccine, will be shown across the UK’s commercial television channels this evening. The film has already been released online and stars the likes of Sanjeev Bhaskar, Meera Syal and Romesh Ranganathan. It will air tonight at 9.56 PM on ITV, Channel4, Channel 5 and various SKY channels.
The BBC says that it cannot show the film because its charter prohibits it from taking part in campaigns. I’ll pause here while you laugh your ass off….OK. The Beeb won’t be showing it then, but the film’s participants will discuss it on BBC TV and radio shows tomorrow instead. The short was coordinated by Citizen Khan creator Adil Ray. He said:
“We are in unprecedented times and the fact remains this pandemic disproportionately affects people from ethnic minority communities. It’s heartening to see all the major broadcasters come together in an equally unprecedented television broadcast at this crucial time.”
If the broadcasters keep this up, pretty soon someone will moot the idea that we really only need one channel. Then again, maybe I’ve been watching too much sci-fi or reading too many dystopian novels.
Comedian Romesh Ranganathan, speaking on BBC breakfast this morning said:
“My mum is a key worker, where she works it’s a lot of people from South Asian backgrounds and so my brother and I were obviously very worried about her and we just assumed that she was going to be willing and ready to take the vaccine. And then when it came down to us actually discussing it with her, she said, ‘I’ve actually got some doubts’, and so it took us by surprise but we were able to talk to her about and explain the various issues and now she feels OK to take it.”
I must have missed the news that Romesh Ranganathan had qualified as an epidemiologist. Apparently he was a maths teacher before embarking on his current career path, which has proven to be a very good move. He’s never off the telly even though he’s not very funny at all. Saying that though, there’s not much that makes me laugh these days.
I’ve never witnessed a propaganda campaign like this. It’s astounding. The entire political class, the whole of the media and the nations celebrities are relentlessly pushing this vaccination programme. Do they even know that the trials for some of the vaccines they h
Police called for refusal to wear yellow sticker at Morrisons
Was enjoying my weekly shop for the family until these order followers tried to spoil my day.
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