Covid-19: Worst-yet infection & death rates; hospitals breaking… & Johnson is pinning all his hopes on vaccines?
Boris Johnson: he has relied on mindless optimism and wishful thinking, and he has failed. The NHS in London is at the point of collapse and it is his fault.
The UK has recorded 1,325 Covid-19 deaths and 68,053 daily cases – the highest level of both in a single day.
Total – official – deaths are nearly up to 80,000, and nearly three million infections are known to have happened in the UK – almost one-twentieth of the population.
Meanwhile London Mayor Sadiq Khan has declared a major incident as the number of Covid cases in the capital’s hospitals hit “critical” levels.
He said the virus in London is now “out of control” and the NHS is “on the cusp of being overwhelmed” with 7,000 Covid patients in hospital – almost 2,000 more than the first peak last April – and almost 1,000 on ventilators.
The UK now has more Covid-19 cases per head of population than any other nation in the world.
This Writer has yet to see evidence that the Nightingale hospitals have been pressed into service, though.
There is good news: apparently the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine is effective against the new variants of Covid-19 – both from the UK and South Africa.
Another vaccine has been approved by the UK’s regulator – made by Moderna – but the 17 million doses on order won’t arrive until March.
And a fourth – single-dose – vaccine by the Belgian arm of Johnson & Johnson could be approved in early February.
Finally, it seems two arthritis drugs may be able to save the lives of Covid patients, also.
But the speed at which the emergency has fallen out of control shows how ill-advised Boris Johnson has been in his strategy. He has relied on wishful thinking, and it has let him down.
His current plan is to put all his eggs in one basket and rely on the vaccination programme – which is stuttering due to supply issues and a failure to inoculate the designated number of people on time.
Only days ago he was promising an early release from lockdown with the creation of “mega-vaccination” centres in the Nightingale hospitals (indicating we may finally get some use out of them).
It is sheer, boneheaded stupidity.
All the way down the line he has adhered to a slack-jawed, mindless optimism. He thought Covid-19 was just a touch of flu – and was proved wrong. He thought it would be all right to let the infection run rampant through the population until herd immunity was established – wrong again. He thought it was okay to sell off personal protective equipment before the pandemic arrived, even though he knew it was coming.
He thought ventilators wouldn’t be needed.
He thought lockdown didn’t have to last very long.
He thought he could send people back to work and they wouldn’t catch or spread the disease.
He thought he could send children back to school and they wouldn’t catch or spread the disease.
He thought it would be okay to prioritise the economy – his friends’ bank balances – above our lives.
And he forced his opinions on the rest of us.
And 80,000 people are dead.
And three million people have been infected.
And millions of people will suffer the lasting effects for a long time to come.
And the National Health Service is at the point of collapse – exactly as he and everyone else in the Conservative government were told after Operation Cygnus in 2016.
He thought it would be okay to let that happen.
Well, if you live in London, with your health service in critical condition, I’d like to know: do you think it’s okay? I’m especially keen to hear from people who voted Conservative.
Remember: Johnson knew Covid-19 was coming.
He knew what he needed to do, and didn’t do it.
He knew it was likely to mutate, and ignored that.
And that’s how we got where we are.
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This man deserves a manslaughter charge for mass deaths he has caused with nothing but blunder and bluster, lie and arrogance. Now he thinks giving a few vaccinations will get him out of trouble while numbers go mad after HE told IDIOTS to spend Christmas TOGETHER!
That’s why numbers have exploded as expected he is incompetent just like the rest of the Tory scum!
The article from which you have sourced (The Independent) is riddled with inaccuracy. This is not the third lockdown for the UK. It is the second. Some parts have had another lockdown but they were not nationwide. Whilst the statement made that UK has the highest number of cases per head, isn’t quite accurate. This refers to new cases only and only includes countries with more than a million cases. The new variant seems to have originated in the UK so this is hardly surprising. It looks like this is spreading and, unfortunately, cases are likely to multiply exponentially as the new, highly infectious variant spreads throughout the world Removing the other qualifying factors to the statement then renders it untrue.
There is mention of underuse of the ‘Nightingale Hospitals’ I am not sure if the author is only referring to English overspill COVID hospitals, or not. They aren’t called Nightingales elsewhere in the UK. And, certainly in other areas of the UK they are in use, I cannot speak for the English hospitals though.
There is plenty to criticise the Tory government for, please do so accurately lest it be used as a straw man by rabid Tories looking to deny their own incompetence.
Johnson has overpromised and under delivered constantly. He has no way to ensure the supply fast enough to do what he claims and I see the time between doses has been shifted already, much to the chagrin of many health professionals. He has CONSTANTLY been behind the curve. It’s as true now as it was six months ago to say that if you want to know what he’s going to do next month look at what Sturgeon is doing today. Hence Scotland’s much lower infection rate compared to the rest of the UK. There is both a national and international ‘playbook’ for handling pandemics and Johnson thinks he knows better than those who have made it their life’s work. We heard how children weren’t at risk some months back as they were sent back to school, we shook our heads as we realised that even if they couldn’t get it at all they could be vectors for it and infect grandparents etc who would be caring for them until parents returned home from work. Only now is this thought penetrating through the thick skull of Boris.
At the start of this pandemic I was quite proud that in this country it had not been politicised in the way it was in the US. But now that same attitude has infected us too. It has even resulted in the same anti-mask, anti-lockdown right wingers who think it’s exaggerated, a hoax or who justify their lack of care because ‘those who died were old or had other conditions’ They are certainly willing to throw more than 80,000 under the bus every year (the best case scenario without mitigation or vaccination) They play into the hands of the likes of Tim Martin who care only about how much they can squeeze out of their employees, perfectly willing to risk their lives for HIS bank balance..
Little fascist dictator dick johnson is an airhead whose sole ‘expertise’ is in uttering inane sentences! Still never mind his fascist tory crooks have amassed huge sums during this pandemic and everything is fine for them!
Fascist little dick johnson instigated and is responsible for state sanctioned mass murder of thousands and thousands elderly women and men because he forced them to be incarcerated in care homes and thereby ensured coronavirus will kill more elderly women, men and care home staff!
The fascist state sanctioned mass murder of women and men continues unabated – track and trace is not worth paper it was printed on! Little fascist dick johnson promised 50,000 nurses would magically appear but just as magic doesn’t exist so too 50,000 nurses also do not exist!
Little fascist dictator dick johnson and his criminal fascist cabal are constantly blaming us peasants for transmitting the coronavirus and this is a common fascist ploy – blame everyone else but them!
Compounding all this is the fact little dick johnson and his crooked pals have stolen our public money and given it to their bros! Corruption is rife within the fascist tory government as is breaking the law – remember little dick johnson illegally prorogued Parliament because this is what dictators do and labour party does nothing because the boys are too busy fighting each other for a tiny crumb of mythical political power!!
Think the lockdown will end in 2021 – think again! But remember we peasants are to blame for the pandemic not the fascist tories!
Dear Vox Political,
We got here because most of Labour fought for this Tory government to continue in power.
We also got here because Labour has not held the government to account, with the millionaire presenter Piers Morgan on ITV morning programme more of an opposition than the quisling, Tory collaborating, Labour.
Hungary is complaining about the slow EU approval of each of the Covid19 vaccines, when Europe is getting Moderna jabs now, when UK has to wait til Spring, despite approving Moderna now.
The biggest loss is Jeremy Corbyn’s manifesto pledge of a government drug making company, like they have in Holland. Politicians knew Covid19 was coming in November (was in Holland) 2019, and yet the selfishness of majority of Labour MPs means they can never be forgiven for throwing election after election against the Labour party winning.
We didn’t catch the Wuhan Covid19 strain, but most the European strain first. We knew in January / beginning February 2019 Covid19 was coming, but did not quarantine the businessmen from the Singapore conference, left to wander about down South and in London.
The high death rate is as much a fault of the Tory party (who at least are the elite who always left us to die throughout history) and Labour (whose betrayal to the working class dying the most should not be forgiven and told in the local elections, if we ever get them).
Where is the uproar from Starmer against Pfizer and AstraZeneca being only 1 jab, or 2 jabs 3 months apart, both of which are against the human trial science research findings, and World Health Organisation advises against.
With that, there is NO vaccination programme at all, save the last few who had their jab before the New Year, and will get the 2nd Pfizer jab within the 21 days.
I say, again, thus government has got a lot of things wrong, make no mistake but at the end of the day, WE are spreading this, WE know what we need to do and that hasn’t changed, since March. The numbers have been increasing, to frightening levels, for months yet people still don’t keep their distance, won’t wear masks and don’t wash their hands. How many more videos of exhausted doctors and nurses do we need to see, how many videos of people who have lost people to this virus, how many videos of people who are on the brink of death, telling people to take it seriously, because they didn’t, before people wake up to the gravity of this? People are still behaving like nothing has changed, blaming the government yet acting irresponsibly. A “major incident” was declared, here, on the 30th of December yet to look around, you would think that there was nothing here! we can blame the government all that we like and rightly so, for what it deserves but unless WE change OUR behaviour, people will continue to get sick and die. This is the grim reality. the power to defeat this lies entirely with us.
Please stay safe, people.