Mutating Corona Virus

[honeybee13]

More on that story in the Commons yesterday. The tax and NI increases are at least in part due to colossal mismanagement of public money.

 

 

[honeybee13]

Labour haved forced the DHSC to release emails which include ones between Owen Patterson amd Matt Hancock about Randox. Embarrassing stuff.

 

Private texts suggest Owen Paterson personally lobbied Matt Hancock for Covid firm - Mirror Online

WWW.MIRROR.CO.UK

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The private messages, which emerged after a standards probe into Owen Paterson's lobbying for Randox, also show the MP asked Mr Hancock to...

 

[honeybee13]

I'm sure the civil servants did their best, UB and of course meetings, calls and so on should be documented, it's normal or should be.

 

As for ministers, breaching the code doesn't seem to be a huge problem at the moment as the PM is arbiter of that. I don't agree with that either fwiw.

 

I think it was Jolyon Maugham who commented that it always seems to be the controversial cases where the records go missing, like Lord Bethel's phone, for instance.

[honeybee13]

PM held to account by Isobel, age 7. He won't listen but well done Isobel for understanding all this and cutting to the chase.

 

Girl who followed party rules asks Boris Johnson for apology

WWW.BBC.COM

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Isobel - who missed her 6th and 7th birthday parties - said she wanted Boris Johnson to "say sorry".

 

[honeybee13]

Ministers have misled Parliament over the size of the VIP lane for PPE. The Good Law Project has been given a huge data leak that shows there were more companies than they said and the value of the extra 18 contracts is nearly 1bn sterling. Shocking stuff, according to Jolyon.

 

Revealed: Ministers have misled Parliament about the size of the VIP lane - Good Law Project

GOODLAWPROJECT.ORG

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Good Law Project has seen documents showing the Government misled Parliament, the National Audit Office and the High Court about the size of...

 

[honeybee13]

Poor man, I hope he gets better soon. It's a shame he had no one to go to the chemist for him.

[honeybee13]

I agree, TJ, but she did at least apologise. I hope she meant it.

 

Meanwhile, Peston says he hasn't found anyone from the SAGE and Nervtag who thinks there was scientific advice to stop self-isolation for people testing positive. The consensus is that it's political, to keep Tory backbenchers happy.

 

 

[honeybee13]

Here are Will Hutton's thought on the dropping of anti-covid measures.

 

Like most, I relish life opening up. But this libertarian dash for the Covid exit is reckless | Will Hutton | The Guardian

WWW.THEGUARDIAN.COM

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Will the end of restrictions usher in a change in Britons’ behaviour, or will we continue to live by our own calculations of pleasure and risk?

 

[honeybee13]

I wouldn't be surprised if the immunity there is doesn't work against all the variants. My other question is how long natural immunity from infection actually lasts compared with vaccinations.

[honeybee13]

Christina Pagel has put her thoughts about 'going back to normal' into a Twitter thread. Interesting reading.

 

 

 

[honeybee13]

The i newspaper thinks the number of covid cases is being under-reported. I think one of the Sage/Indie Sage statisticians said numbers were likely to be higher than government figures as well.

 

180,000 Covid infections per day still being missed from Government figures

INEWS.CO.UK

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An average of 101,000 cases of coronavirus per day were recorded from January 16 to 22, according to the Government's Covid-19 dashboard. But it...

 

[honeybee13]

I'm sorry to hear that, TJ. I hope she feels better soon and doesn't overdo the work part of her life.

[honeybee13]

The BMA aren't the only ones saying that, by any means.

 

HMG has just made it everyone else's problem, the public, employers...

[honeybee13]

Medics, academics and others have signed an open letter to Chris Whitty and Patrick Vallance asking about the scientific basis for dropping all restrictions.

 

Open Letter from UK Scientists and Medics Re: Early End to England’s Isolation Rules

OPENLETTER.EARTH

 

[honeybee13]

Are you considering not self-isolating, UB? I hope your symptoms don't get any worse and that the treatment works, if you decide to take it.

[honeybee13]

Yes. A colleague of OH had her son test positive with an LFT but on taking a PCR, he was negative.

[honeybee13]

I hope so, MD.

[honeybee13]

29 minutes ago, unclebulgaria67 said:

Latest Covid data released today has over 120,000 new cases. 

 

 

 

So they are still being reported then. Has that gone up or down?

[honeybee13]

  Sorry to hear that, UB. How are you feeling?

[honeybee13]

I'm glad you're feeling better, UB, hope you're over the worst now.

[honeybee13]

Hopefully it did its work and lessened your symptoms.

 

Case numbers and hospitalisations are going up in the UK and France, I'll be interested to see if they insist on dropping anti-Covid. I said at the beginning I thought it was premature.

[honeybee13]

I know I've already said it but I think masks should stay for now, especially as cases and hospitalisations are going up. A study came out recently that said mask-wearing in schools proved to keep case numbers down.

[honeybee13]

That is good news, UB. Please let us know about the next test result.

 

TJ, that's a criminal waste of money. Why is everyone still in their jobs? I think Jolyon might have a higher estimate because I think I read nearer to £12bn.

[honeybee13]

That's the big unfairness of it all, TJ. Clearly no one thought of asking for the money back when the kit wasn't suitable.

[honeybee13]

I'll report that, TJ. But links are working, aren't they?