Ending Covid-19 health protections in England has turned out to be another great Boris Johnson decision, then.
According to The Mail (but I think we can trust it on this), 91,345 new cases were diagnosed between March 15 and 16 – up by one-third in a week.
Hospital admissions were up by 29 per cent on the previous week, to 1,541.
And 153 people died – a rise of a quarter on the week before.
A new sub-variant of Omicron – BA.2 – is thought to be the main factor behind the increases, in tandem with the easing of restrictions in England on February 24 and waning immunity from the vaccines – although the Office of National Statistics says it is too early to say for sure.
Health Secretary Sajid Javid reckons increases were to be “expected” and there is ‘nothing in the data at this point in time that gives us any cause for concern’.
But take a look at the trend in deaths…
… and in infections…
… and then try convincing yourself, let alone anyone else, that there’s no reason to be alarmed.
Two and a half million people infected and they think it’s a good idea to lift the restrictions that keep us all protected? It seems they really are genocidal.
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Mistaken identity: Boris Johnson took to our TV screens to announce new government measures to tackle the Omicron variant of Covid-19. But we thought it was another Christmas quiz. What was the first question again?
This Writer’s booster injection, if all went as planned, was due on December 20. Am I now to expect it on Thursday, after Boris Johnson’s announcement on Sunday evening?
Johnson intruded on our Sunday viewing to announce that the UK’s Covid alert level was being raised to 4 – the second-highest – indicating a high or rising level of transmission.
And he said the government was accelerating vaccinations and booster jabs, intending to fit seven weeks’ worth of injections into three. That’s how I calculated the schedule for my own booster.
No further social distancing restrictions were announced.
To be honest, the government could have made this announcement without putting Johnson out to broadcast it in a pre-recorded statement (that he still stumbled through like a drunkard who’s lost his reading glasses).
This Writer was most struck by what wasn’t said.
This could have been a press conference, with media reporters (and, preferably, members of the public) lined up to ask questions.
But it seems Johnson wasn’t having any of that. Was he afraid we would all go off-script and start demanding answers about his own failures to follow the Covid-19 rules last Christmas?
I think he was. I think he dreaded being asked why he told us all the regulations were followed in Downing Street last December when we now have photographic evidence that he, personally, did not.
Also – and I got this from Alastair Campbell who, whatever you may think of him, should know – it seems that, having allowed the Conservative government air time to make the announcement, broadcasters like the BBC are now obliged to provide the equivalent air time to the opposition political parties. When’s that going to happen, BBC?
Finally, it occurs to me that this announcement is only necessary because of Johnson’s laissez-faire attitude to Covid-19. He should have admitted that his government had made mistakes – in timing the vaccine rollout at the very least – but he couldn’t even get that right.
Given the nature of the announcement, which was that the government and NHS are going to do more, but we don’t have to do anything we wouldn’t have done anyway, I’m drawn to only one conclusion: that Johnson had used this as an opportunity to present himself in a good light.
To that, I can only say:
Tough luck, corrupt liar! You shouldn’t have come out of hiding for any reason other than to explain yourself, or simply to resign, and you bottled it! Don’t come back until you’re ready to face the consequences of your actions.
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Risk: this is a German advert showing how masks reduce the risk of catching Covid-19 and its variants. People in the UK should take heed because the advice from our own government isn’t worth the time taken to listen to it.
There comes a time when even the most tolerant observer must give in and admit that the government is deliberately sabotaging its own fight against the Covid-19 pandemic. Doesn’t there?
Surely, if you didn’t reach it in July when Boris Johnson condemned millions more people to catch the virus and at least 16,000 to die of it with his misnamed “Freedom Day”…
“Freedom Day” – what a bloody stupid and irresponsible slogan that turned out to be…
… you must have reached it now, with Sajid Javid’s contradictory and nonsensical plan to battle the so-called Omicron Variant that has apparently arrived here from South Africa.
We know from experience that certain steps need to be taken to stop the spread of a new variant – especially one that is considered highly-infectious:
Travel from its countries of origin must be stopped (or at least severely restricted), and all visitors from those countries tested – before they have contact with anybody other than those who were on the plane (or whatever transport) with them. There’s none of that in Javid’s plan.
Covid news South Africa passengers not tested, Javid admits. As always this Government is handling this pandemic dreadfully and putting everyone at risk. Please wear a mask. Nobody wants to lose their loved ones!!
Could @sajidjavid explain how you trace all the contacts of an infected person who’s queued at the baggage carousel, been on a bus & 3 different tube trains please.
Working people should be told to work from home, rather than being forced to come to offices where the disease could be spread. Javid absolutely will not permit this, for reasons unknown. It won’t even harm the economy so what is his argument against it?
#marr – Should people work from home where possible?
Sajid Javid – No#Marr – SAGE say the reintroduction of working from home is likely to have the greatest individual impact on transmission.. but you've ruled it out
We have an Ayn Rand worshipping banker in charge of health. Of course he would say that. Science be damned, the economy needs you at your desk and we'll make the same mistakes over and over again to make sure you stay there. https://t.co/PKCVvImWbL
If Boris Johnson really wanted to reduce transmission of the virus, he would stop forcing workers to choose between isolating & putting food on the table.
Raising statutory sick pay to the real living wage is a basic public health measure which must be taken immediately.
Everybody should go back to wearing masks in public places immediately. Javid said mask-wearing should resume on buses and in shops, but not elsewhere – and from Tuesday (November 30).
Nice of Omicron to give us til Tuesday before it decides to become transmissible.
And of course schools should be masked up and ventilated, and all efforts made to ensure that children don’t catch and spread the virus in any form. We’re seeing no changes in schools at all.
Back to the magic variants … the ones that are transmitted in buses and shops, but not in #schools. #Variant#Omicron
I think it’s deliberate lying; Govt know covid affects children, they see figures for deaths, hospitalisations& long covid but don’t see need to act, so they lie to the public & DFE have an attendance crackdown on those who won’t comply bec don’t want to spend our £ on Education
Possibly the worst act of sabotage is the one the Tories pull all the time – creating a false division between “us” and “them”.
In this case, it seems our capitalist vaccine manufacturers decided that, having provided protection to the UK (and others, I’m sure), Johnny Foreigner could pay double and more.
In January 2021, South Africa was charged more than double for doses of the vaccine.
Not only did they not waive the patent, not only did they not share the vaccine, they exploited the very poorest countries.
Vaccine capitalism is the ugliest type of capitalism.
This doesn’t mean they have been more successful at stopping the spread of the virus – as some have insisted.
According to the BBC, high numbers of cases increase the risk of mutations, thereby increasing the risk of a mutation that leads to a new variant – because it has changed in a way that helps it survive.
So while the Omicron variant is likely to have come from a single “Patient Zero” who was unable to defeat the virus, it is likely to have been made possible by the virus infecting a large number of people; this particular person was just the one whose illness created a new threat.
So it is also important to take action now that will ensure that everybody is vaccinated against the virus and able to fight it. Sajid Javid has said and done nothing about this.
It’s not too late to waive the vaccine patents & end vaccine apartheid.
Pressure must be applied to G7 leaders to do the right thing.
Meanwhile, the parade of Covid-19 nonsense continues to march across our TV and computer screens.
Andrew Marr, who should have known better, actually asked Health Secretary Sajid Javid whether Omicron was more transmissible than the others because “it transmits through the air” – just like every single form of Covid-19. But most of the public will have heard this without engaging their brain to spot the error.
I can’t believe Andrew Marr asked Sajid Javid whether omicron was more transmissible than other variants because “it transmits through the air”. He’s been interviewing the world’s top scientists every Sunday morning for almost two years now 😬
Of course the NHS is being ramped up with 50,000 new nurses – right? Wrong. Instead, Javid has announced “NHS Reserves” – a scheme to drag retired NHS staff back out to cover the gaps in care created by 11 years of Tory resource starvation and nearly two years of a deadly pandemic.
What happened to the thousands of 'new' nurses you were bragging about last week? https://t.co/aCffLcPilb
— Jen Wood – est optimum simpliciter (@unojen_wood) November 28, 2021
I think this plan is known as “Everybody get out and push”.
The NHS is, in fact, less well-equipped to fight Covid-19 than it was in March last year because Javid and his forerunner Matt Hancock have quietly closed 5,000 NHS beds in that time, with no explanation given.
Why have the Government been allowed to get away with getting rid of 5000 beds in the NHS since March 2020?
Oh, and if you thought the Covid-19 gravy train had stopped rolling…
Randox dramatically increased the cost of a PCR test yesterday. Wonder did they get the heads up from the tories. #RandoxProfiteeringScum
— Matt Dunne ☘🌹3.5% #FBPE #GTTO #FreeNazanin (@Mattladd1) November 28, 2021
Put it all together and it seems unreasonable to ascribe this level of wrong-headedness to simple incompetence.
It’s a deliberate attempt to sabotage the fight against Covid-19, isn’t it? And just in time for Christmas.
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Back in the UK? A new Covid-19 variant could be spreading here because western governments refused to provide vaccines to Africa in good time.
Health Secretary Sajid Javid has reacted in typical slow fashion to the threat of a new Covid-19 variant from South Africa.
He said the variant “may pose substantial risk to public health” as it has “an unusually high number of mutations” and added that “we must move quickly, and at the earliest possible moment” to prevent its spread in the UK.
6 days ago England vs South Africa rugby union match in front of 81,623 people at Twickenham. Those people all left en-masse and went into London. Few people wearing masks due to @BorisJohnson's actions.
It's already here isn't it?
— LincolnMoby1 #FBPE 💙 #JohnsonOut (@LincolnMoby1) November 26, 2021
And if it is, our Tory government is probably doubly to blame.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t vaccine distribution to many African countries delayed because the manufacturers wanted more cash, and then because they couldn’t be used, having reached their expiry date?
Refusal to give Africans the vaccine gifted the virus a chance to mutate.
It’s no good saying Africa had managed to restrict the virus more successfully than the so-called developed nations if this has only given it a chance to become more deadly!
And it lends credence to conspiracy theorists who want us to believe organisations like our Tory government are using the virus and its variants to control us – pitching us from one threat to another while they follow their own selfish agendas in the background where they can’t be seen.
Think of the £300 billion spent on Covid-19-related commercial contracts, most of which were not honoured.
Boris Johnson and his Health Secretaries Matt Hancock and now Sajid Javid had the opportunity to show the world how to defeat a deadly pandemic and they didn’t. Instead they sank into a mire of duplicity and “let the bodies pile up in their thousands”.
It seems this latest scare is simply the next chapter in their catalogue of corruption.
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