We are meant to believe that the new Covid-19 vaccines will be safe to use. I am prepared to accept that this is probably the case, but still believe that a little caution is in order before we all hug each other in excitement. It would ease my caveat laden imagination if government ministers were banned from even talking about it. When cabinet ministers tell the nation that the first vaccination was approved so quickly thanks to our leaving the EU, it reminds me of Trump claiming that his inauguration crowd was bigger than Obama’s. It is so easily disproved. So government ministers should keep their traps shut. They deserve no credit, governing a country with one of the worst death rates in the world. As scientists admit, there is a lot yet to learn about the overall efficacy of the new vaccines. They seem fairly sure that the vaccines will stop the spread of serious infection in most cases, but do not know whether and for how long immunity may occur. They do not claim that this ends Covid, but anticipate that like the flu it will remain in circulation and so will probably need annual vaccinations. We’ll have to learn to live with it, and hope that the worst of it will be contained. I read somewhere that the flu vaccination is between 40% - 60% effective. That hasn’t brought the house down. As regards the flu we’ll surely see a big decline in its prevalence this winter, as people isolate and distance themselves much more than usual.
0 Comments
Over sixty Constituency Labour Parties (CLPs) have now expressed in one form or another their discontent with dear leader Sir Keir Starmer—mainly because of his authoritarian stance on the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s report on anti-Semitism in the party and the suspension of Jeremy Corbyn. But the discontent is spreading to other issues, not without justification. Yesterday’s vote in the Commons on the Tories’ latest anti-Covid measures (the new ‘tier’ system) saw Labour MPs sitting on their hands again, whipped to abstain. This left Tory rebels leading the opposition debate, but unable to defeat the government. If Labour had been so concerned about the government’s legislation, why didn’t they strike a deal with the Tory rebels and find a way of satisfying both side’s critiques? Labour might have won some concessions. No, following Starmer’s new line in ‘opposition’ (abstain, abstain, abstain) we were left with nothing to show for it—except another Johnson victory. Perhaps the question could be asked of Starmer ‘what did you do in the war, daddy?’ Somebody needs to tell him that being leader of the opposition doesn’t just mean fighting members of the Labour Party.
|
Archives
March 2024
|