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Category: Covid

Some worrying statistics from America

Some worrying statistics from America

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Those tweets from Ryan Struyk are quite worrying. I’ve pointed out for a while that this partisan divide on vaccines in America has the potential to swing American politics to the Democratic Party’s advantage for the next few electoral cycles. It has to change the demand and expectation of the health services in the United States, which also has to upend politics in America. Long Covid may make the GOP supporters of ObamaCare. This fits into a wider Covid-19 denialism…

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Some very encouraging polling worldwide and especially in the UK

Some very encouraging polling worldwide and especially in the UK

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Vaccines work and the public realise that but we cannot be complacent. As we saw with MMR causes autism hoax perpetuated by Andrew Wakefield, aided and abetted by the likes of The Lancet and Private Eye we need to be ahead of the game. If I were Boris Johnson, I’d set up a non partisan group to continually counter anti vax nonsense on social media and elsewhere, get really universally loved people like David Attenborough, Dame Judi Dench, and Jürgen…

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Why lockdown scepticism doesn’t resonate much with the voters

Why lockdown scepticism doesn’t resonate much with the voters

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Turns out it isn’t the economy, stupid. Ever since the beginning of the first lockdown one of the things I’ve noticed is pieces and comments along the lines of that the pandemic has ‘led to an extraordinary expansion of government power‘ but as a keen studier of history I know this sort of thing happens when there’s a genuine problem facing the country. For example the Emergency Powers Acts at the start of world war two or even the Thatcher…

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Ipsos MORI finds for the first time in a year optimists outnumber pessimists

Ipsos MORI finds for the first time in a year optimists outnumber pessimists

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This might explain the current voting intention figures with decent Tory leads, whilst the EU’s vaccine strategy, replete with export bans, has also had an impact, whether this is fleeting or a permanent shift will be interesting. On the subject of Brexit, this latest trend data is notable for the fact that roughly equal numbers of Britons now think the UK’s decision to leave the EU has had a positive impact on the country (39%) as negative (38%).  This represents…

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IN (FEINT) PRAISE OF URSULA VON DER LEYEN

IN (FEINT) PRAISE OF URSULA VON DER LEYEN

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Who would have guessed that a month and a half after Britain finally left the European Single Market and Customs Union that it would be the European Commission President who is under the most pressure with some calls for her to resign? Or that German press could be leading with headlines like “the best advert for Brexit”? The EU’s vaccine debacle has certainly become the main international story which has led to a renewed focus on the politician who heads…

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From Absence to Shortage to Glut – Covid 19 Vaccines in Just Nine Months

From Absence to Shortage to Glut – Covid 19 Vaccines in Just Nine Months

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Pic YouTube The COVID equivalent of the WW2 Manhatten Project Just fourteen weeks ago, at the beginning of November, there was scepticism from many about whether a Covid vaccine would be possible, even given the low bar (50% efficacy against moderate symptoms) set by the World Health Organisation and the FDA. And even if one of the vaccine candidates did work, could it be produced in volume? Since then, we have seen a few things happen in vaccine land. The…

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A Butcher’s Bill for EU

A Butcher’s Bill for EU

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On Thursday morning the number of “EU Citizens” who have been killed by COVID, based on current official counts, stood at 500,809. It has broken the big half-million. The death rate in the EU-27 has been constant at between 3000 and 3500 per day for three months now. Half of EU deaths from COVID have occurred since November 26th, at a rate of one hundred thousand per month. The rate is startlingly consistent, and has finally dropped below 3000 this…

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Lest we forget – the sheer scale of the UK COVID toll

Lest we forget – the sheer scale of the UK COVID toll

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For four years, the town of Wootton Bassett bore the sad duty of receiving the repatriated war dead from Afghanistan and Iraq.  It did so with dignified compassion.  For 345 men and women, the town’s people lined the streets reverently.  They comforted the bereaved.  They remembered the soldiers’ service.  The oak of the coffins and the brass of the fittings were polished to a mirror sheen and wrapped with union flags on their final journeys.  When the town’s duty was…

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