Vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi says ‘firebreak’ measures could be brought in if booster programme is not done ‘well’ – and suggests he wants UK to be ‘plague island’
The Tories are preparing to blame the NHS if further anti-Covid measures are required this year because of the rise in infections and hospitalisations.
Vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi told Sky News this morning that ‘firebreak’ restrictions would be required if the ‘booster’ vaccine programme is not done ‘well’, which ignores the effect of rising new variants and lower vaccine effectiveness – but allows the Tories to point the finger of blame at the NHS when their determination to end all mitigations, against expert scientific advice, sees the current increases in cases, hospitalisations and deaths continue and accelerate.
Among all the murderous disasters and fiascos of the pandemic so far, the vaccine roll-out has been the one bright spot – and the one part that the NHS was allowed to carry out with least interference and imposed privatisation-to-unfit-providers. Now the government is preparing to blame the NHS for more insane and counter-scientific Tory policies and decisions.
Zahawi also said that he was working toward a situation in which the UK has worse infection levels than elsewhere. He said that he wants the virus in the UK to go from ‘pandemic to endemic’ – which in scientific terms means the UK being a hot-spot for infections compared to other countries:
The difference between pandemic and endemic is that a pandemic disease has taken hold in multiple countries, while endemic means one particular country:
Presumably – though many might argue, given the Tories’ record of more than 150,000 needless deaths so far during the pandemic – this meant that Zahawi didn’t understand what ‘endemic’ means. But that’s a very worrying phenomenon in the minister responsible for the vaccination programme.
Incompetent, malignant and getting their blame-dodging game ready in advance. Tory government in a nutshell.
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soon i will be travelling, not through choice, i expect to see a socially distanced train with a certain percentage of masks, i will not be putting people at risk for a tory vanity project
You are a hero to us all. Not like those self righteous pricks who want to boast about how good at virtue signalling they are.
I recently travelled by train from Liverpool to Torbay (family illness). Outward journey, train empty; one week later return journey packed like sardines. Social distancing?
i heard similiar from someone else, my bottom line is no unnessential travel, forced travel such as jury service will be subject to social distancing, masking rules and any expense that i have to pay due to that not being complied to will have to be re-imbursed for, this thing is not over, there all acting like it is, double vacc people are still getting it, personal responsibility is i am not catching it and risk passing it on, we had 2+ a+e where i am telling you not to attend a+e that to me means this is not contained at a safe level
i expect to see a socially distanced train with a certain percentage of masks
You’d better stay at home then!
An amoeba has more intelligence than the combined membership of the scum that make up the tory party
The Tories announce they have dropped the wages element of the Pension Triple Lock for one year.
The correct decision at long last
Yes, we need people like you so that they can continue to pay the lowest pension in Europe and be thankful for it.
GB lowest pensions in Europe.
How benevolent of zawahi to want to have the UK public shoulder the brunt of the virus on behalf of the rest of the planet.
…Mind you, he once transitioned his electricity bill from ‘private’ to ‘taxpayer-paid’ status.
Tell you what nadim; how about you and your family cop for it, so me & mine don’t?
Gobshite.
His horses electricity bill.
I just think that it’s strange that the Tories haven’t used ‘the money tree forest’ that they found to give Branson £2bill. There seems to be no problem at all with money supply and can’t understand why we still have austerity; unlimited amounts available for big business and war. It’s the Tories; what can we expect, but a grunt from a pig?
Now the LP, lagging behind the Tories in the polls, maybe could have suggested another trip to the magic money tree to sort out the NHS, or maybe called for an increase in Corporation tax, or increasing the tax on the very wealthy. Even small increases in these areas could easily sort out the NHS, and many other issues affecting millions, predominantly poorer sections of society.
Don’t worry, the cavalry have arrived. It’s Andy Burnham on his white stallion coming over the hill to help. I was wondering if at last he’d got a whiff of the coffee to give some logical arguments, inspiring the masses to vote Labour again.
I’m only kiddin’, Andy of course, could only offer the usual pathetic response to Tory ideology, and that’s to try and be more Tory than the Tories. He wants to tax us when we die! 🙂 I kid you not, my father used to say that ‘they’d tax you to die if they could’. I doubt he’d have believed it would be a LP campaigning slogan. Is that it Andy? That all you can of offer? The Tories must be shaking in their boots when Andy and the other pathetic spokespeople for the LP open their mouths.
A bit like Paula Barker, the MP for Wavertree who boasted that she’ll be working with the Tory commissioners who now run Lpool in a Red/Blue alliance, instead of rallying support to fight them. Having said that, if Lpool LP were’nt so corrupt (European Capital of Corruption) then we wouldn’t have the Tories in charge of the City.
ps Mbe I’m being a bit too harsh. The clrs had a peace vigil, praying for peace re the Arms Fair that they booked into a Council owned venue. Possibly more brown envelopes involved in that one too?
Even now it’s been proved that the magic money tree exists and we don’t owe anyone anything for the money created during the pandemic, all politicians speak with the same voice telling us the money must be repaid. The only danger to the economy comes from the billions squirreled away in tax havens. The extra money created for the UC uplift, loans and furlough was all spent so it kept the economy going and no longer exists. We don’t owe anything.
ps Mbe I’m being a bit too harsh.
Not a bit of it.
Thank God they’re not charging people who bought their houses for 3 grand, which are now worth 500 grand to any more for social care. It’s only fair that people who can’t afford to buy houses fund social care.
You can’t blame people who were born at the right time.
I save my frustration for the party that ushered in rapidly rising excessive house prices. That would be Labour.
“…the vaccine roll-out has been the one bright spot”. I could not disagree more.
If Zawahi is going for naturally-acquired immunity, which is much more effective against all variants than via the rapidly-tarnishing vaccination route, then let’s get it over with. Bring it on.
But it won’t stop the October lockdown happening!