Boom: Vaccine's offered to every adult in UK ...

[AtW]

I don't think there's any evidence whatsoever that the MHRA is politically motivated.

The speed of approval was for sure (to make people feel good for Xmas right after/before lockdown 2 ended) - faster approval than USA? Give me a break.

[BR14]

The speed of approval was for sure - faster than USA? Give me a break.

Certainly, which vertebra?

[jamesbrown]

The PM is a huge part of the problem, and his personality was a bigger part of the Tory campaign than it would normally be. But he has made so many errors along the way which appear to be linked to him not wanting to be the Mr Killjoy. Not closing down Cheltenham. Telling people to get back to work if they can, against official advice to work at home unless you can’t. Returning hustle and bustle to the high street. These were all unforced errors and there are plenty of others. They are all the PM’s fault. They will have cost lives and hit the economy. I can’t think of any other PM who would have screwed thing up so regularly.

He's unable to take decisions. This is endlessly documented, including in some excellent recent articles in the Sunday Times. Not that anyone is surprised by this, but the pandemic has exposed his indecisiveness, big time.

[jamesbrown]

The speed of approval was for sure (to make people feel good for Xmas right after/before lockdown 2 ended) - faster approval than USA? Give me a break.

Sure, you can take a break. See you when you get back

[Old Greg]

He's unable to take decisions. This is endlessly documented, including in some excellent recent articles in the Sunday Times. Not that anyone is surprised by this, but the pandemic has exposed his indecisiveness, big time.

It turns out that being a ‘lovable’ clown isn’t the best qualification for running a country during a pandemic. I found it interesting comparing him to Varadkar. I didn’t think much of Varadkar pre Covid. He did a tulip job of healthcare and housing and almost everything else, except perhaps Brexit. But cometh the hour... the obvious difference is that his pre politics background was as a GP and Johnson’s as a particularly mendacious journalist.

Funnily enough, the Irish government which did a pretty good job most of last year ****ed it up in December badly and now the country is going down the u bend fast. And that’s not with the benefit of hindsight - it was pretty obvious that opening up restaurants and pubs serving food and then trusting people to behave sensibly over the Christmas period was going to end badly.

[malvolio]

He's unable to take decisions. This is endlessly documented, including in some excellent recent articles in the Sunday Times. Not that anyone is surprised by this, but the pandemic has exposed his indecisiveness, big time.

Or he is willing to take decisions but not with reference to earlier ones? In other words, is he being driven by his advisors more than he should be. The jury is out on that one, but personally I'm not convinced that this situation is manageable by anything other than quick, tactical decisions. A long term strategy is simply unviable when faced with moving goalposts and an intransigent population.

But the mistakes made at the outset are utterly irrelevant to the last three months' happenings. Some have been badly wrong or badly thought out, but we have to wait a while longer before we decide how well the end result was.

And while little countries like Israel, NZ, Singapore are doing fairly well, we are far from being the worst off around the world - or even Europe.

[jamesbrown]

It turns out that being a ‘lovable’ clown isn’t the best qualification for running a country during a pandemic. I found it interesting comparing him to Varadkar. I didn’t think much of Varadkar pre Covid. He did a tulip job of healthcare and housing and almost everything else, except perhaps Brexit. But cometh the hour... the obvious difference is that his pre politics background was as a GP and Johnson’s as a particularly mendacious journalist.

Funnily enough, the Irish government which did a pretty good job most of last year ****ed it up in December badly and now the country is going down the u bend fast. And that’s not with the benefit of hindsight - it was pretty obvious that opening up restaurants and pubs serving food and then trusting people to behave sensibly over the Christmas period was going to end badly.

Yup, he's just particularly ill-suited to the current situation.

Those charts for Ireland in the last week or two are, indeed, pretty scary, almost unbelievable.

[jamesbrown]

Or he is willing to take decisions but not with reference to earlier ones? In other words, is he being driven by his advisors more than he should be. The jury is out on that one, but personally I'm not convinced that this situation is manageable by anything other than quick, tactical decisions. A long term strategy is simply unviable when faced with moving goalposts and an intransigent population.

But the mistakes made at the outset are utterly irrelevant to the last three months' happenings. Some have been badly wrong or badly thought out, but we have to wait a while longer before we decide how well the end result was.

And while little countries like Israel, NZ, Singapore are doing fairly well, we are far from being the worst off around the world - or even Europe.

Take a look at some of the recent articles in the Times and Sunday Times. These journalists are well-connected and the pieces are detailed and well-researched. As I said, this was no surprise to anyone that has observed Boris over his career, but his indecisiveness over covid has made the Thick of It look like documentary.

Excellent example here:

Boris Johnson was last man standing over Covid school closures | News | The Times

This is why many political observers predicted that nothing significant would change when Cummings left, because it isn't about his advisers, it's about him.

[Old Greg]

Yup, he's just particularly ill-suited to the current situation.

Those charts for Ireland in the last week or two are, indeed, pretty scary, almost unbelievable.

They regularly have to update the scale on the Covid Tracker app daily cases chart. The ball is rolling now and inpatient number then ICU patient numbers will soar. One of the reasons Varadkar shut down early was that it was critical with the context of the serious weaknesses in the Irish healthcare system.

[AtW]

No healthcare system can cope with Covid going wild, it's always better to shutdown early as even just extra week would mean a lot more weeks in lockdown.

Pretty fooking basic math.