‘Plan B’ covid response confirmed by Prime Minster

December 8, 2021 Kathy Bailes Covid, News 86

Covid

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has announced a move to Plan B covid restrictions due to the growth of the Omicron variant.

The announcement, which comes alongside furore over an apparent Christmas party at Number 10 last year despite stringent restrictions on the country, means the reintroduction of guidance to work from home as from Monday.

From this Friday (December 10) there will be an extension to the legal requirement to wear a face mask to most public indoor venues, including theatres and cinemas.

There will be exemptions where it is not practical, such as when eating, drinking, exercising or singing, said the PM.

From Wednesday 15 December, and subject to parliamentary approval, the NHS Covid Pass is also to be mandatory for entry into nightclubs, and venues where large crowds gather including unseated indoor venues with more than 500 people, unseated outdoor venues with more than 4,000 people and any venue with more than 10,000 people.

The NHS Covid Pass can be obtained with two doses but this will be kept under review as the boosters roll out.

PM Boris Johnson

The PM said: “We do not yet know Omicron’s severity, its exact rate of transmission, nor indeed the full effectiveness of our vaccines against it.

“But since I last spoke to you, it’s become increasingly clear that Omicron is growing much faster than the previous Delta variant, and it’s spreading rapidly all around the world.

“568 cases have been confirmed through genomic sequencing across every region of the UK, and the true number is certain to be much higher.

“Most worryingly, there is evidence that the doubling time of Omicron in the UK could currently be between two and three days.”

He added: “As we set out in Plan B, we will give businesses a week’s notice, so this will come into force in a week’s time, helping to keep these events and venues open at full capacity, while giving everyone who attends them confidence that those around them have done the responsible thing to minimise risk to others.

“As Omicron spreads in the community, we will also introduce daily tests for contacts instead of isolation, so we keep people safe while minimising the disruption to daily life.

“And of course we will take every step to ensure our NHS is ready for the challenges ahead. But the single biggest thing that every one of us can do, is to get our jabs and crucially to get that booster as soon as our turn arrives.”

Vaccination programme

Today marks one year since the UK administered the first covid vaccine dose. This was followed by the programme for second doses and now for boosters.

Great-grandad Kenneth Lamb was the first patient in Kent and Medway to have the vaccination against Covid-19. Now, 365 days later, more than three million vaccinations have been given in the county.

The rollout involved a huge effort from GPs, community pharmacies, NHS providers  including Kent & Medway NHS, and volunteers.

So far that has resulted in vaccinations of 83 per cent of people with a first dose, 92 per cent of eligible groups with a second dose and more than 500,000 booster doses to date.

Since 15 December 2020, to-date, GPs have given more than 1.8 million doses to people across Kent and Medway, including those in care homes and people who are housebound.

An army of volunteers has given up time to help make sure people have had access to the Covid-19 vaccine, including those at the Saga centre in Ramsgate.

Chief Nurse at Kent and Medway Clinical Commissioning Group Paula Wilkins

NHS Kent and Medway Clinical Commissioning Group’s Chief Nurse Paula Wilkins said: “The Covid-19 vaccine rollout has been the biggest vaccine programme in NHS history.

“The past year has tested us all to our limit, but particularly my NHS colleagues across Kent and Medway. We’ve had to plan and manage a service and teams had to hit the ground running and be able to plan and implement the programme in ever changing conditions.

“I think everyone involved in the vaccination programme can look back at the past year and be very proud of the work that they have done.’’

Latest statistics for Kent and Medway show:

  • 3,145,664 total doses, of which 497,554 are third booster doses.
  • 93 per cent of cohorts 1-9 have had two doses.
  • 74 per cent of those eligible have had their booster.
  • 69 per cent of everyone over 18 has had two doses.
  • 62 per cent of 16 to 17-year-olds have had one dose.
  • 46 per cent of 12 to 15-year-olds have had one dose.

Thanet

The seven day rolling infection rate up until December 3 stands at 522.4 per 100,000, taking Thanet over the national average. The UK average is 488.2.

First dose – 106,591

Second dose – 97,950

Booster- 53,217

86 Comments

    • Last Christmas I gave you the bug, but the very next day you gave it away. This year to save me some tears I got a jab to stop me giving it to someone special.

  2. What baffles me is why the wearing of masks was made voluntary, and working from home discouraged. Neither of these things restricts our “freedoms”, but they do help to slow the spread of the virus.

    • Yes they do. They restrict my freedom not to wear a muzzle and they restrict my freedom to go to work. #brainwashed

        • Mask-mandates in cinemas, theatres and most other indoor venues make us a nation of virtue signallers, constantly being prompted into unnecessary fear of our muzzled neighbours, even though there’s minimal evidence cloth masks do any good halting the spread of Covid-19.

          • Not “virtue-signallers” but “sensibly careful”.

            Are you really frightened of people with little face-coverings or is this just an exaggeration?

      • Your a Pillock Parti wit whatever! I like millions of others who are elderly, infirm, or are registered by the NHS as being “Extremely Clinically Vulnerable” which means should I get the virus it will almost certainly kill me! Its reported at least a third of people with the virus do not know they have it, and if they don’t wear a mask, will unknowingly be spreading it around! I have the right NOT to be infected and possibly killed by Pillocks who refuse to wear mask, so don’t be Pillock wear one, and get vaxxinated!

    • Couldn’t give a crap how many jabs I have, rather that than get covid, 4 out of 5 covid patients in hospital are the unvaccinated, bring on ‘vaccination passports’ as well, no antivaxers in my pub thank you, the ‘Pass Sanitare’ works wonderfully in France.

      • Big Nose, the jab doesn’t stop you getting covid though does it. It might stop you getting seriously ill, but it might not. This is the issue with the current vaccine’s, it does not stop you getting or spreading covid or getting seriously ill, it might. People have gone around thinking because they are jabbed they are untouchable, this is not the case and has bitten many

        Think you will find if you look at the info available on the ons.gov website that most people in hospital are now in fact vaccinated, the level of unvaccinated people in hospital has been falling since the summer, natural immunity better perhaps?

        Until there is a vaccine that stops you getting covid and stops you spreading it then vaccine passports are a total waste of time and pointless. It just gives people false hope that they are not at risk when in fact they still are.

        • It is a fact that vaccinated people are less likely to spread the virus than those not vaccinated.
          The important thing about vaccination is that it drastically reduces the severity of illness in infected people (94% for 2 jabs plus booster), thus preventing an unnecessary burden on the NHS.
          Getting vaccinated won’t stop you completely from catching CV, but it does mean that if you are vaccinated and catch CV, you are unlikely to be very ill.
          Get vaccinated. Get boosted. It makes sense for you and the rest of society.

          • That is not a fact Andrew, you are just as likely to spread C19 if vaccinated, hence why there are so many cases.

            It is a fact that most people in hospital are fully vaccinated with underlying health conditions, just the same as those that are dying from C19, fully vaccinated with underlying health conditions. So if vaccination drastically reduces the severity of the illness and means you are unlikely to become very ill then how come most people in hospital are fully vaccinated. Look it up on the ons.gov website is all there for you to see.

            I am not anti-vax in any way, I just don’t agree with this unnecessary two tier society that the powers that be are trying to create. I also don’t agree with the lies being told by the media that the vaccine means you are safe from covid, far from it is the reality.

            Many of the underlying health conditions that people are suffering from have been caused by drinking, smoking and eating habits, this is where the real issue lies and the real burden on the NHS.

          • More Orwellian doublespeak Andrew. The jabbed carry a higher viral load than the unjabbed, with many now struggling with debilitating on-going side effects, failing immune systems and sudden deaths (very sad to see amongst young sports people worldwide and the young). Interesting article here on the Ethics of Vaccine Refusal from the Journal of Medical Ethics (A British Medical Journal publication). It all makes no sense at all for a functioning society. But then Bill Gates is a depopulation cheerleader, Johnson is a liar, and Starmer looked the other way on the Savile abuse cases and Rotherham grooming gangs. The last people you would trust with your health. Or big pharma with their history of fraud (Pfizer biggest medical fraud case in US history). https://jme.bmj.com/content/early/2021/10/20/medethics-2020-107026?fbclid=IwAR0vzrG03UhYcnqncRFz4oaLlqPLdNAoSj6Vf3dJIjzL14m5RLduMtKILIA

          • How can you still believe this after a year? It helps Pfizer, the other drug companies & the politicians who have shares in them.

            Are you really willing to be a human guinea pig for these companies with very dubious histories of fraud, data suppression/cover-ups etc for the rest of your life? A report was just released on the jab & it makes for grim reading. First it was two jabs, now it is three jabs & never ending boosters.

            If Omicron is highly resistant to this strain as the evidence thus far indicates then what is the point of getting these jabs/boosters now when they will be redundant & they are making new ones you will need to get in short order, along with boosters for that & then the next variant comes along & you start all over again.

            The whole point to was to ‘Save The NHS’ sorry-but the NHS is unfit for purpose, so much has been poured into this virus & yet all the NHS do is complain even with the jabs how many are coming in-they have also created more of a problem by putting uninfected people on Covid wards-thus killing many & infecting others & making them seriously ill, thus making their own life harder & causing unnecessary harm due to their incompetence.

            All it is has done is create waiting lists of millions dying of cancer & other things who cannot get treatment, people waiting in pain for operations & others who cannot even join the line because the doctors are still hiding away not seeing patients. All for something that has claimed the lives of so few-the average age of death being or above life expectancy(83.5) & as all these things do overwhelmingly taking the poorly elderly, obese & those with other serious existing health problems.

      • Actually Big Nose, looking at public health data, the majority ill or dying are double or treble jabbed. Their immune systems are now not doing well. All confirmed by those working in hospitals in the UK. Don’t believe all you read in the bought mainstream media. And have you seen the enormous protests in France? It’s not going well over there.

      • Not true-the overwhelming majority are still the fully jabbed elderly & doesn’t it hurt from being bent over so much? What freedom under the guise of being for the benefit of mankind will you not give up next? Just think while you were following all the rules the government who made them have been & still are laughing at you-holding parties, having affairs with their secretaries, driving all over the country etc.

      • today we have daily word riots on social media to inflame opinion and fuel paranoia. Already many antivaxers see themselves as part of a tribe, proudly standing apart from the credulous mainstream; mandatory vaccination would only build higher walls around that tribe. Antivaxers trying to evade the legally mandated needle might take on some of the romance of resistance fighters, drawing more teens and twenty somethings to their cause.

        • Didn’t you have a locker? Anyway, anti vax is a different breed from those who ask legitimate questions & in fact are pro vax-those that have been tested over a long period & proven to work with minimal side effects, studied & peer reviewed-rather than something rushed out with no idea what long term issues could arise from it, but also pro freedom of what goes in their bodies.

          Do you really want to live in a society where people are forced to have injections & where would it end?

  6. Everyone has the freedom of choice – whether to be vaccinated or not. But those who choose not to be vaccinated should not have priority for hospital beds – those with cancer and other serious illnesses, urgently need joint replacements etc did not have a choice and have as much if not more right to treatment. So antivaxxers – don’t vex, but don’t expect the hospital bed if you do get ill with Covid.

    • Ha, they are in a backlog of millions or not being seen-because the doctors are still hiding from seeing patients & everything is being thrown at Covid still.

      • Perhaps if more people in society took their responsibilities seriously then GPs and other NHS resources would not be so diverted to treating CV.

        • Maybe if the NHS stopped putting non Covid patients on Covid wards-infecting them to where they would have been out in hours, instead means days, weeks or months of blocking a bed & exhaustive treatments & in many cases killing them things would have gone better.

          Please explain to me the logic how doctors are not afraid to sit in SAGA centre vaccinating people for months on end-a huge risk, but then refuse to see them when those jabs are in them? So they insist people get jabbed for something where the risk of death or serious illness is incredibly low, yet are happy to scrap their health checks & ignore them potentially having heart disease, cancer etc & even if by some miracle they do get seen & referred they then join a potential five year waiting list because the NHS has thrown everything at something that has claimed so few lives.

    • You have let the media turn you against your own people. Look back in history and see what happens when populations are turned against their own. What a shameful woman you are Jane

    • I’ll go along with that if it also applies to the overweight and obese. The way in which Covid adversely affects those who carry too much weight has helped make covid look worse than it is, for a normal healthy population anyway.

    • Also Jane there may not be a choice much longer. The second attempt at passports is now coming in for clubs, pubs &outdoor super spreader events. As we have seen in other countries it likely will not be long before you are forced to get them for everything & will not be allowed outside your front gate if you don’t. This from a man who a few years back said any attempt at such a system would never happen in a free country like ours & he would tear his up & put it on his cornflakes.

      • And he wants to limit our ability to have judicial reviews! What a spiteful so-and-so Boris Johnson is!

        However, a covid passport is fine by me, unlike the attempt to limit judicial reviews.

        • Marva-there was no discussion over these latest measures-not much of a democracy. Think carefully before saying you want Covid Passports-you are effectively saying you support an apartheid society with Stasi type officials checking your papers & giving carte blanche for the government to do as they please in future & you would have no say in it. Also as we have seen elsewhere a passport will still not be enough-you will still be restricted as & when they chose.

          • I think covid passports are not that different from bus passes, passports in general, driving licences and so on.

        • Well they are-because you don’t need to get an injection to get on a bus. If you need an injection to go to the supermarket/shops to buy food to survive then you have a problem.

    • Thankfully the NHS doesn’t share your far right view. All get treated and no 2 tier NHS that you seem to want. We live in the modern age not the poorhouse age.

  7. Much as I support the vaccine, I do believe it is a MAJOR mistake to suspend all routine check-ups for several months. This could cause more deaths (and overloading of the NHS) than Covid.

    • I quite agree. But this government is obsessed with staking all on the vaccine/booster rollout as the panacea: they are loathe to introduce any other sort of intervention that could be construed as interfering with our “freedons”. They are in thrall to the likes of Steve and Democrat.

      • Andrew – if you advocate the forced injection of a gene therapy substance with no long term safety data (on emergency licence with legal liability for any damage waived for big pharma) you would certainly be at home in Nazi Germany. The amount of people suffering serious side effects, or dying, from these is absolutely unprecedented and there to see in public health documents globally. The top medical experts in their fields are speaking out weekly, while the bought mainstream media publishes proven lies (with some nuggets of truth). But luckily there are now vibrant other media platforms and, to show the direction of travel, a press conference in Poland recently regarding the Nuremberg Code violations. Be informed, not brainwashed.

        • Democrat. Maybe it’s you who’s brainwashed. What’s so attractive about subscribing to a world-view as paranoid as yours?

        • Mr Democrat, I am very informed. I am most definitely not brainwashed.
          A difference between us is that I’m a critical and logical thinker: I can distinguish between peer reviewed science and the drivellings of nutters.

      • Because Andrew it is quite clear that vaccines alone is not a solution-you can hold down at gunpoint & jab every person on the planet & there is no herd immunity, it is a fallacy & that is from the experts, not me. It will keep mutating & any vaccine will either be reduced greatly in efficacy or become totally useless. We are already reaching the stage where obsession with sticking antibiotics in everybody for anything means a simple cut will in the next decade or two mean huge numbers of deaths unless new ones are found & doctors stop dishing them out so readily.

        The simple answer is as the experts have long been saying that like every other virus we are going to have to learn to live with it.

        I compare this to the idea of a dirty bomb that was used to justify all manner of war crimes & atrocities by the US/UK governments-the actual concept of it is more damaging than what the reality would have been & thus it is with this. 5 million deaths in a population of nearly 8 billion-the average age of death is 83.5 years-the same or greater than the average life expectancy. The overwhelming amount of deaths have been in the elderly, the obese & those with long term health problems.

        The psychological impact of the media coverage & the actions of the various governments & world health bodies the last two years-leading to the public panicking in turn has taken a huge toll on both mental & physical health of people, far greater than the actual threat to the vast majority of people. You can keep rolling up your sleeve until the cows come up, it isn’t going to make a jot of difference.

    • This is the problem-it has been a total overreaction & everything has been focused on jabbing people. Despite this having caused a huge backlog of people waiting-which is creating more pressure on the NHS than Covid, more people unable to even get a diagnosis as doctors continue to refuse to see patients etc.

      That old adage about the cure being worse then the disease seems very apt. All this over something that most people fight off like a cold, or don’t have any symptoms-while people with things that do kill are ignored. What happened to all those ‘Nightingale Hospitals’ that were supposed to be Covid super treatment centres that would ease the regular hospitals burden & reduce spread-but instead were just left empty? Never any explanation for that I can recall.

        • Possibly, another costly government cock-up. Just like those ports sitting full of PPR-the contracts mostly given to government friends/cronies with no experience in the field. I cannot believe this lot of clowns are actually making me yearn for Thatcher-as much as I detested her, she was at least competent & had competent people working for her.

  8. Get your jabs, get the booster and then live your lives.
    Plan A, Plan B etc doesn’t affect my life at all. Not going to spend my life cowering behind the sofa due to whatever new variant diverts attention away from No 10 parties. Won’t be changing my plans this Xmas or at all.

    Done following the rules just for the elite and ruling classes to be laughing at us with their blatant rule breaking. Not playing ball any more.

    • I’ll only be changing my plans if restaurants are forced to close!

      What DOES annoy me, is that my house-bound elderly mother (in Herne Bay) who gets out of breath walking across the room is STILL waiting for both her Covid booster and her flu vaccines. A ridiculous state of affairs when they’re now giving a 3rd jab to healthy 40 year olds.

    • You’re following the rules mostly to protect yourself, but also your family, friends, colleagues and the wider community.
      If more of us had followed the rules a year ago, we wouldn’t be the CV capital of Europe.

      • We aren’t-we are actually better off than pretty much every other country. It had little to do with the rules & more to do with NHS being so incompetent they put non Covid sufferers on Covid wards spreading it further, killing people & bed blocking themsevles & not getting the airport situation sorted out.

        Even now people have been coming back from South Africa & other places where the Omicron strain has been & they weren’t made to quarantine, just asked to until they eventually made it mandatory-the government keep making the same stupid mistakes over & over.

  10. All I know from the majority of the posts above is that –

    A) Some people really are creepy human beings and no wonder so many people feel uncomfortable doing their jobs.

    B) The education system has failed many in this country.

    C) People believe what narrative suits them no matter no clear cut the facts are and the spread of misinformation is rife and dangerous.

  11. Not going too well is it one and a half years in. Coronaviruses continue to mutate (no surprise), nothing official looks safe and effective, the mainstream media maintains the fear message of the puppet politicians to frighten the sleeping folk, these little booster jabs with no long term safety data are designed to roll out FOREVER and deliberate confusing messages and illogical restrictions will destroy what’s left of independent businesses. The attempt to introduce the social credit techno passport will continue against mounting opposition (I wonder who will be happy when they are shut out of society for being too fat, drinking alcohol, smoking/vaping or not memorising the party line). Meanwhile, the health and education of our children are still being destroyed and mental health crises and suicides grow even larger. The absurd models of the likes of Neil Fergusson continue to be shown to fail and the behavioural psychologists on Sage struggle to continue to weave their black magic spells. The good news is that many are waking up to all of this now, are extremely healthy (and unjabbed), know full well how to look after their health and have now created vibrant new communities who don’t live in fear. This is happening right across the world and includes top medical, scientific and legal experts in their field who see thru’ it all. Who on earth would trust any tainted politician of any colour, or public health lackey, or Gates Foundation or big pharma mobster with their health after what we’ve seen. Question, research widely, wake up, look after your own health and laugh at the absurdity of it all. And watch what happens when accountability arrives one day with Nuremberg style trials mark 2.

    • Just stop being so bloody paranoid, Democrat. Not to mention boring.

      Black magic spells -indeed spells of any type- are not what scientists make and your use of this kind of language – synonym, metaphor or whatever- does not help your cause (Thank goodness.)

  12. I’m astonished that Kathy Bailes continues to allow this nonsense to be published.
    ” This is happening right across the world and includes top medical, scientific and legal experts in their field who see thru’ it all.”
    Give a couple of examples of credible peer reviewed published opinion to support your claims.

    • While I agree with a lot of what Democrat says, he does unfortunately also quote some heavily discredited people with vendettas, or who have lost the plot. I know you like to lump us together-but I don’t buy into Gates being the devil, or there being any great conspiracy.

      My issue is more the total incompetence, the profiting of the Tories friends regarding PPE contracts etc, the NHS incompetence of actually giving people Covid by forcing them onto Covid wards when they didn’t have it, the overreaction & the problems that has caused people all manner of problems & that the government have continually failed to follow the science & doing things too late over & over-despite their promise to follow it.

      If anybody seriously thinks the latest plan is anything other than a quick way to try to bury the parties story then they need their head checked-on Tuesday morning the government were still saying no Plan B as they have for weeks-suddenly after the events of Tuesday night into Wednesday within 24 hours they had done yet another reverse-ferret. That the spineless Labour & the Lib Dems just helped wave it through without any issue spells out what a state we are in.

      • Yes, to be fair I don’t mind debating with Steve and most other anti-vaxxers, but Democrat is at best misguided, and at worst a nutter (notice how “he” doesn’t even comment on other posts, which suggests he isn’t even a Thanet resident).

        • I would like to say Peter than I am actually pro vax. I have no issue with people having this jab if they chose to, but that it should not be mandatory-everybody should have the right to choose what goes into their body as an adult.

          Vaccines have eradicated or nearly eradicated so many horrendous things worldwide-my issue with these ones are purely how quickly they have been produced & rushed to market & the lack of small groups testing & peer review that they have to go through-these things usually take a decade or so to get to market & long-term as well as short-term effects are looked at before that point-this one the whole world is a test subject & that governments have made ridiculous promises about what will happen if people get them & they will need new ones as every new strain of any significance emerges, despite the experts making it clear there is no herd immunity & vaccines are not going to solve this.

          Ultimately we need honesty(not likely with this lot) & some realism-we are going to have to live with it & implement restrictions in certain areas at certain times in a timely manner. There has to be a better trade-off than the doom & gloom & hype we have seen to what the actual reality is. The media/government hype around Omicron to the risk the evidence has shown thus far, is like before totally over the top.

    • Andrew it’s the Wild West here now. I hope most of the people reading this realise the comments section is now a worthless stream of conspiracy theories and lies. I don’t know how these people have functioned through life with these outlandish beliefs and logic.

  13. today we have daily word riots on social media to inflame opinion and fuel paranoia. Already many antivaxers see themselves as part of a tribe, proudly standing apart from the credulous mainstream; mandatory vaccination would only build higher walls around that tribe. Antivaxers trying to evade the legally mandated needle might take on some of the romance of resistance fighters, drawing more teens and twenty somethings to their cause.

  14. SAGE: There is potential for peak of infections much larger than in January 2021 – and 1,000 Omicron hospitalisations a day

    Documents released by a SAGE sub-group last night suggest the UK could be set for a wave of infections bigger than in January 2021 due to the Omicron variant’s potential to evade immunity.

    The documents follow modelling for SPI-M-O – the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling (Operational) sub-group.

    There are caveats – namely that most of the data on the new variant so far is from South Africa, and “South Africa is not the UK, both in epidemiological terms but also socially”.

    Further, “it is not yet clear whether and or how Omicron escapes from natural immunity and or vaccine-induced immunity and which of these is the likely main driver of its apparent fitness advantage”.

    However…

    If initial estimates of transmission advantage and immune escape from South Africa are applicable to the UK population, there is the potential for a peak of infections much larger than that experienced in January 2021.

    The documents say such a rise in cases will significantly impact upon hospitalisation rates despite the vaccine – with admissions from this variant alone potentially reaching 1,000 a day.

    Even assuming the lower end of this observed growth rate, many scenarios see hospitalisations close to or going beyond previous peak levels, if there is no reduction in transmission…. The rapid rate of increase currently observed suggests that Omicron-based hospital admissions alone could be of the order of 1,000 per day by the end of 2021.

    On pressures on the NHS, the documents continue…

    Even if severity of Omicron were half that of Delta, the sheer number of infections could lead to significantly more pressures on health and care settings.

    It is not yet known how much Omicron can evade immunity from the vaccine, but the group says…

    If Omicron’s immune escape reduces vaccine effectiveness against hospitalisation from, say, 96 per cent to 92 per cent, that would effectively double the number of vaccinated individuals who are not protected from hospitalisation.

    Plan B measures are being introduced in England but SPI-M-O suggests more might be needed.

    If Omicron in the UK combines increased transmissibility and immune escape, irrespective of severity, it is highly likely that very stringent measures would be required to.. control growth and keep R below 1.

    • There is also speculation that it causes far milder symptoms (a couple of days ago it was reported that of the several hundred UK Omicrom cases so far NONE had caused hospitalisation!).

      • I pity the first poor bugger that is hospitalised with omicron. ( even if it just happens to coincidental with an ingrown toe nail) they’ll be the most famous person in the country and probably develop epilepsy as a result of all the flash photography. Should anyone actually die with it, they’ll get the equivalent of a state funeral ( with no mention of the real reason for their demise).
        The country has gone bonkers.

    • Suggest,could,bigger,potential – all used in one sentence. Total lack of data or facts. What is the point of such useless statements? And why on earth would anyone pay anything more than scant attention to it , let alone form national policy around .

      • The SAGE statement consists entirely of “data” and “facts”.
        Understandably, as there isn’t much in the way of data and facts, SAGE scientists are being rather cautious.
        The Precautionary Principle says we should assume the worst; impose restrictions now, ease off when we can, rather than the other way round.

        • Really, where is the evidence to support vaccinating children? It’s generally accepted that the vaccines do little more than reduce the severity of covid in most people, but as there is no way of knowing how the same person would have reacted anyway it’s just further supposition and justification for the vaccines.
          Its patently obvious the the greatest risk factors are associated with age, underlying conditions, general health and fitness. As a result it should be pretty simple to protect those that need it and for the fat/unfit to improve their situation. But we have a population that’s become so lazy and ignorant that they just want free money and an elixir of eternal life.
          People need to grow up and accept the basics ( mainly that being healthy is your best protection ,in life generally) and not want to keep falling back on the flakey protections of the state funded by the taxpayer, the self same people will no doubt whinge when the hard decisions as to how its all paid for are revealed in the years to come.
          Does anyone really believe that we can be a nation where 60% of people take little or no interest in their health and yet expect we’ll be able to weather a serious sniffle and chuck billions at people to do nothing and still be successful and prosperous?
          A “give me , get me , i want” generation with expectations of zero risk alongside not wanting any personal responsibility is hardly one that’s going to strive to achieve anything.

          • That the nations attitude towards its well being has meant it’s resulted in our being negatively affected by covid more than would have occured in a more health oriented nation, this in turn means we have more negative covid outcomes which in turn leads to greater measures being put in place to protect us ( well namely those that have put themselves at risk) its an ever decreasing spiral of decline. It may be harsh but perhaps a degree of darwinism needs to be allowed to do its bit.

  15. The biggest moaner and childlike poster here constantly tells people to “grow up” – they spew half truths and nonsense like it’s fact – makes huge sweeping generalisations based on agist views and then tells anyone that disagrees to grow up.

  16. Judging by this morning’s news things are likely to become pretty tough in January.
    If you haven’t yet been boosted, and you’re entitled, get it done ASAP. It takes a couple of weeks to kick in.
    Don’t leave it till after Christmas- it’ll be too late

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