REACHING the million mark for vaccinations was a milestone. There’s still worry and frustration for many but huge efforts are ongoing. In a briefing with the health board, I was advised they’re now looking to move on to all those under 65 and classified as being at risk, along with their carers. That’s welcome progress, even though that will take some time. There’s going to be a slight dip in daily numbers as available vaccine supply drops, although it’ll increase again in later weeks. Given that 130 countries in the world have had none, we should count our blessings. I’ve criticised the UK Health Secretary and still do for many things but not this issue. On available supply, great work has been done but this is a global pandemic and for our own safety as well as humanity, others also require vaccinating.
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The PM has said England will be restriction-free by June, despite saying he would be guided by data and not dates BY now, if the pandemic hadn’t intervened, the year-long festival of Brexit would just be getting under way. This would have reached its sweaty climax in the summer, adjacent to one of the Queen’s birthdays, when there would have been a public holiday and a morass of Union Jacks. The UK Tory Party and the British establishment it is sworn to defend is nothing, though, if not wily and adaptable. How else do you think it manages to persuade those whom it reviles and exploits – working-class people – to keep it in power? And so, another flag-waving festival will have to be arranged to replace the Brexit one.
KEIR Starmer is beginning to worry me. Take his performance today. He has done two things, each of which is wrong in itself. First, he has apparently told his MPs to not talk about Brexit. And then he refused to condemn Matt Hancock MP, the UK Health Secretary, for having been found to have broken the law last week when given the opportunity to do so by Sophy Ridge on Sky. Why are these issues worrying? Because both reveal that Starmer will not do the job required of the Leader of the Opposition, which is to hold the Government to account.
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UK to help Caribbean in its fight to identify new COVID-19 variants
February 18, 2021
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The UK will offer its world-leading genomics expertise to help identify new variants of the virus that cause COVID-19 in countries in the Caribbean and around the world.
The announcement comes as part of a speech delivered by UK Health Secretary, Matt Hancock at Chatham House. As part of the UK’s Presidency of the G7 this year, the Health Secretary outlined his vision for a stronger, more collaborative and effective global health system, not just in fighting the Covid-19 pandemic, but to ensure the international community is better prepared for future threats.