Former Labour leader derided by centrists for criticising corporate influence on global vaccine distribution – but emergence of new superstrain shows him on right side of issue yet again
A Twitter thread summarising the response to Jeremy Corbyn’s call for the world’s coronavirus vaccine response to be taken out of the hands of big corporations has shown – yet again – the former Labour leader firml on the right side of history.
The new ‘Omicron’ strain of the virus that now threatens humanity appears to have emerged in Africa where vaccination rates are low because of ‘vaccine apartheid’ driven by corporate greed and the closeness of western governments to ‘Big Pharma’ – and unchecked infections in deprived regions have given the virus more opportunities to mutate during transmission.
And Corbyn’s call now looks – again – like foresight. But at the time it was greeted by howls of derision from centrists, as a thread by @jrc1921 has reminded us:
After 18 months in which the Tories’ corruption and determination to line their donors’ pockets have led to approaching 200,000 needless deaths in this country, it’s plain to see that yes, Jeremy Corbyn would have done a far better job of responding to the pandemic because, as has happened in New Zealand, he would have put the lives and health of the UK’s people first.
And his call for a global response to vaccines that was not in the hands of corporations and their political puppets would have meant far fewer opportunities for dangerous variants to emerge, keeping everyone in the world safer.
History | Jeremy Corbyn.
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Corbyn has been correct from the beginning -in March/April 2020
he said that a billionaire would be dependent on the poorest cleaner
on minimum wage .
He quoted “No man is an Island”
.. and how true that is ..
Democracy and medicine, just like the right wing of politics are unhappy partners. Socialism and religion are deadly enemies; more so in this instance perhaps? I am sure God forgives all of us these fears. Reading this my conscience pricks me. Money kills everything as pharmaceutical companies demonstrate: – “everything” includes us! I will not be popular …but, look at what, how vaccines are prepared and consider in that knowledge what, how viruses are capable of adapting! Although many …most people want these vaccines and I empathise with this fear look at the consequences. I have diabetes youth onset type 1 so have some auto immunity. Vulnerable? I do not think so. My conscience? Not as you possibly “normal” people would think …Socialists probably think I am psychotic (and doing what everyone else is doing is what makes you “normal”!) To me your probable definition of my “psychosis” is my faith and belief that God told me to avoid the vaccine. That is why I have remained silent until now. I try to fit in and I wear a face mask where expected and I have always only mixed with others where necessary. I have never had the flu vaccine and have never had flu, ditto Covid 19, all the varriants and all the vaccines and endless boosters. I do not and never have had these vaccines; have never had flu. I tested negative for Covid 19 repeatedly during my long stay in hospital for a broken ankle and the criminal neglect of my diabetes by under staffed and unqualified, untrained staff. I have faith. I do not have flu, Covid 19, nor any variant. If they make vaccines essential legally I will hide first and when necessary kill myself. By deffinition Socialists believe in themselves and not God. Being socially disadvantaged I live under the jurastriction of the worst hospital in the country. I choose to do what an omniprescent and experienced power says and not what those who believe only in fallible men and women. Please research this before you kill yourselves trying to stay alive. Human rights surely have the vaccine or not as you choose. Human respect honour others fears whilst safe gusrding yourself. There is no virus more deadly than people! …especially powerful politicians and doctors.
Wendy Andrews….The penny dropped finaly and many people across the world are realising that with the support of the media and politicians Big pharma are the big brother problem.I am especially pleased that Corbyn has spoken out against one of the biggest evils big Pharma against”the people”
Do not despair Wendy and remember that many good socialists have a strong belief in god and are motivated by the collective of working together for the people and is not exclusivel from one section of society.I found your comments very thought provoking and urge you to keep posting as like socialism which unites different people across the world so does a wide range of veiws..Like you say Wendy and I have said much the same “Theres much more deadly diseases than the virus and governments and media are more deadly than any flu like virus.
This is utter bollocks, I’m afraid. The continent of Africa as a whole (6% ‘vaccinated’) is well on the way to defeating the threat of the SARS-COV-2 virus and therefore the disease COVID-19. It’s achieved this without the ‘help’ of the experimental gene therapy you refer to as a ‘vaccine’.
Do a spot of research and you’ll quickly discover that the alleged ‘vaccine’ is in the throes of failing globally. Check out the UKHSA (formerly Public Health England) weekly figures for the last eight weeks and here you’ll witness a situation where it now shows that 80% of people dying from COVID-19 are fully vaccinated.
Do some research for yourself and it will encouraged you not to make the mistake of trotting out extended hostages to fortune.
p.s. After years of failed attempts, Pfizer where the first corporate criminal to create a treatment designed to remedy a coronavirus, which arrived late in 2020. If you do some more research, you’ll discover that the treatment was referred to by Pfizer as ‘gene therapy’. When it came to marketing their new ‘lifesaving’ treatment, some bright spark thought, AHA! We’ll never get this approved by the CDC if we refer to it as ‘gene therapy’, so they branded it a ‘vaccine’. The CDC obliged by giving it an ‘Emergency Use Authorisation’.
The World Health Organisation along with several captured, on message dictionaries later changed the definition of the word ‘vaccine’, along with the definition for herd ‘herd immunity’, just so it suited the twisted, manipulative narrative that you’ve swallowed without any problem.
I am not sure of the contents, but the nations who homegrown their vaccines are also the ones who sent it out free/not for profit,
to poorer nations and they appear to be of higher efficacy, that I find most interesting, possibly less EGT and more Vaccine. If I am forced, somehow, to take a vaccine/EGT, it would have to be Cuban, Russian or Chinese, the latter two with also with some hesitancy, but like the first they have an invested interest to keeping their citizens fit and healthy, against the big threat called The West and it’s Chihuahua Bitch Nuke Central in the ME.
‘Experimental gene therapy’? I am appalled that such a view can be propagated on such a serious site as this.
It’s factual. Are you being serious here, Paul Smith?!
“‘Experimental gene therapy’? I am appalled that such a view can be propagated…..”
‘
Stop getting your knickers in a twist Paul Smith.
‘Experimental’ is the proper term (used by cellular- and biochemists) for any gene manipulation therapy/vaccine where the result of it (I.e. the effect of the chemical agents) is unknown.
Every effective vaccine on the planet was at one stage ‘experimental’.
The classification (‘experimental’) only stops applying to a vaccine or gene therapy once it has completed its ‘phase 2’ testing – and it can be verified to achieve its biological purpose/function in at least 37% of its target population.
A ‘new’ vaccine can only progress from being ‘experimental’ to (say) a ‘flu/covid/whooping cough/ whatever’ vaccine or medicine when meticulous testing shows the product is safe and capable of achieving its objective (without unacceptable harm).
WHO standards prescribe a 6 – 12 years timeframe for this to be achievable.
Obviously, even the oldest of the world’s 27 covid vaccines are not yet 1 year old. They have not , therefore, undergone efficacy testing and are properly characterised as ‘experimental’.
All the new covid vaccines also claim to be mRNA-based vaccines. mRNA vaccines have never yet been tested or used on humans (they did some worrying things to sheeps’ fertility and neural functioning though). This double unproven and untested status gives mRNA-based covid vaccines an extra reason for being described – perfectly appropriately – as ‘experimental’.
For me, even though I have worked in the biochemical and vaacine field, knowing the survival rates and the infection-fatality rates of covid causes me to not want to risk taking an untested and possibly dangerous vaccine – YMMV.
Paul Smith….I wouldn’t even bother to argue with your comments as per usual follow the herd.Wirrel init together has a veiw that is very much supported by many of us who haven’t fallen for the media that brought us AS and a evil Corbyn something that we knew instinctively was the neo liberal alliance propoganda much the same as those that are in this appalling government.You smiffy seem to be ” appalled “every week.
I was devastated in Dec 2019 when we lost the General Election. Then along came Covid.
I am absolutely certain that if Jeremy had been PM he would have acted swiftly to save the hundreds of thousands lives lost needlessly to the pandemic and we would now be in a New Zealand situation as mentioned in the Article. I am also absolutely certain he still would have been pilloried for it.
If even one person had died Jeremy would have been blamed and held personally responsible by the MSM, BBC, Tories, PLP, Southside, the Establishment, the Board of Deputies, CAA, JLM and all his other detractors.
As it is, he has been proved to be right once again and the bodies mentioned above which conspired to keep him out of Downing St must carry some responsibility for the Covid disaster which has cost so many lives and left families bereft and grieving. Shame on them all.
You are right, Smartboy.
And the lessons are obvious enough to be generally understood, despite the anti-socialist propaganda. The pandemic has been a series of object lessons in the necessity of socialism and the reality that the alternatives-look around you- are forms of barbarism.
Unfortunately while history has been making the case for Socialism Now, the internet has been swamped by capitalism’s useful idiots explaining that there is no pandemic, no harm is done by making life saving vaccines sources of corporate profit, that there is no need for any of the quarantine measures that the capitalists find so inconvenient and damaging to business. And that Bolsonaro, Trump, Johnson and all the other extremely antisocial leaders who watch with indifference as the poor and the elderly die by the million, rather than Corbyn and, for example, the Cubans are right.
Were it not for these agents or dupes of the worst elements of imperialist greed, such as Wirral, see above, the struggle for socialism would have advanced greatly during a period in which successive failures of capitalism have laid out the case for a re-socialised NHS (in the US for Medicare for All), the public ownership of vital infrastructure, including utilities and the nationalisation of medical pharmaceuticals. Unhappily though in precious forums like this one, energy is wasted and solidarity shattered by show-offs playing silly contrarian games.
I agree. Corbyn would have reacted very diligently and several hundred thousand lives would not have been lost to the disease.
He would quickly have realised that for most of the population (everyone without immunosuppressed immune systems and the elderly with co-morbidities) the survival rate of covid was over 99.5%.
He would never have forced 300,000 hospitalised elderly into care homes that were unable to provide adequate and appropriate care, would never have allowed a massive increase in the use of “unlawful” DNRs, never have forced/encouraged the over-60s to use a experimental vaccine and never have allowed the NHS to promote a dangerously wrong covid narrative.
Moreover, he would quickly have realised that the entire covid narrative business case was not, as claimed, about health, but instead about achieving increased biometric control, reduced access to health care and increasing the uptake of as yet untested vaccines – with possibly extensive harm to the vaccinated .
In short, the covid ‘pandemic’ that we have been subjected to would not have happened.
Wow, careful bevin. It is not ‘rightwing’ to say that the pandemic is not as claimed by HMG and SAGE/WHO, etc.. There is certainly a disease called covid and it kills the immuno-compromised and elderly with co-morbidities/acetylcholine deficiency – but, it is not the mask-necessitating, lockdown/social distance-requiring, vaccine-needing medical response that has been proffered by (mostly) neoliberal countries like Britain and USA.
Evidence is what sustains both my socialism and my clinical belief in health and how we can achieve it. The dichotomy you outline is maybe a bit too simplistic. The pharmaceutical industry and (anti-democratic) authoritarianism are the only benefactors of the current approach which you seem to be defending. Right wing neoliberals, do, however, seem to be doing a better job of critiquing the covid narrative than democratic socialists and this distresses me greatly.
Yes we have to be carefull not to keep falling into The Same Elite/Establishment Division Traps as many did 2015 to 2020! Equating “Brexiteers” as “Right Wing” now Anti-THIS-Vaxxers, Anti-Maskers, fight the Cause not the Effect! Get vaccinated,wear PPE, You’re “protected”! Get on with your life, keep alcohol cleaning your hands, steering wheel, door knobs, light switches, but FFS let others live THEIR lives!
It’s the same as that horrid Potter Woman and her Anti Trans BS, just live and let live if a problem arises deal with it in a way that still allows people to live their lives. Just don’t keep being the Elites/Establishment’s division tools!
https://ibb.co/GWQFRSF
Qwertboi
Those lives would’ve still been lost before too long, just not all at the same time.
I’m kind of relieved Corbyn wasn’t in charge. Given the lack of fortitude he showed in pushing back against the AS scam, I’m not sure he would’ve withstood the pressure to go Full Australia/Zero Covid.
I am sure at one point Jeremy talked about a UK/Cuba NHS/Medical exchange program, perhaps Pharma would have gone the same way. Perhaps the Antivirals Cuba Sent to the UK would not, like BoJoke, ended up in the bin and saved a few infected people. However, along with ALL the GREAT could haves comes the sick reality! Some BIG GUNS would stand to lose BILLIONS, not just Pharma, but every Corrupted, Tax Avoiding, Materialistic, Commercial, Warmongering Piece Of SHIT would have been gunning like 2015 to 2020 was a Sweet Dream!
A worthy fight if ever there was one, I know Corbyn has what would have been required, but I also know it would have taken a fair few Stumbles before ‘Neil turned Vivian’ he trusted People, he trusted especially “helpful”, “kind”, “gentle”, etc, etc people, most serial killers also displayed such characteristics!
Anyway it certainly would not have been plain sailing, I’d imagine Maduro x 1000s!
nellykskelly
Now that would be a giant leap forward, if we adopted a Cuban style health system
Great boxers as well, a gym on every corner, the training alone would be good for everyone
Synergy
Agh, Doug we can all but dream. : )
Smartboy: “I am absolutely certain that if Jeremy had been PM he would have acted swiftly to save the hundreds of thousands lives lost needlessly to the pandemic and we would now be in a New Zealand situation as mentioned in the Article”.
You say that as though Zero Covid is a sane objective!
And Bevin, stop blaming other people (ie Wirral) for your retrograde, blinkered worldview. A showoff playing conformist games.
The safest group in the country are the unvaccinated who have had Covid19
v true Doug. If the NHS/PCR figures are to be belived, it is unliely that more than 3 – 5% of the population has not been infected by SARS-CoV-2. The unvaccinated certainly have produced antigens I hope the vaccinated have too – but mRNA vaccines are an unknown entity in humans. Despte some of the nonesense in today’s papers, 93 of the 97 known cases of omicron variant covid have occured in the vaccinated. Seems some of the exalted biochemists I tend to respect might be correct. Covid Vaccines might reduce your immunity.
Doug I belong to that group but it still means that I am not allowed to fly and have effectively had my wings clipped .I had the C19 flu and was treated by a German doctor along with the rest of my family who along with my grandchildren and son and daughter in law cover the age groups from 2 years to my seventy years old.All recovered very quickly except me who struggled with high temps and loss of taste and smell including breathing difficulties all part of a flu like virus except for a rash on my stomach..Dengue fever and malaria are far worse and they are basically being sidlined along with many other world killers including poverty because a not so dangerous virus and a jab that could kill you.but will ensure the health of big pharma for years to come.
Dont forget Joseph, even though u r in a tropical sunny environment, as a ‘senior’ you probably have lower levels of vit D3 and zinc than you need to repel viral attack/infection as quicly as your younger relatives. Bloody well source vit d3 and zinc (4,000iu and 15mg per day). While your at it, source some selenium tablets and iodine too for you and carol.
quertboi thanks for the good advice much of it we are following due to research and wanting to live without resorting to big pharma sub standard products including enforced propoganda with every jab and no guarantee other than filling their bank accounts.Almost to our family it feels like legalised drug pushing backed by sanctions if you don’t follow the herd.
I kinda agree with that J!
Even before the staged covid ‘pandemic’ and although I have a pretty nasty chronic health condition myself, I deliberately avoid using ‘allopathic’ doctors (which, since about the mid 80s/early 90s icludes every NHS GP). Their diagnosis and treatment of disease is entirely pharmaceutical based. They are drug pushers for big pharma not medics. FWIW I was trained to be a doctor and know that plenty of practicing GPs share this view.
Once budgetary reform and product licensing of “medicines” are changed (that’s a NHS reform we need every bit as much as kicking virgin health out of the NHS), then people-centred medicine (or ‘orthomolecular’ as we call it) will return to that wonderful edifice that Bevan and the working class created for themselves and their offsprings.
qwerboi
Purely on pound notes, biggest difference to the NHS, in no particular order, reform of
PFI
INTERNAL MARKET
AMBULANCE CHASERS
quiz question, which one wastes the most money but is the easiest to fix
My pick Doug would be PFI first. Didn’t Johm Mcdonnel have some plan for a future Labour government to buy out/review the £200bn pfi costs that tories like osborne and brown inflicted on the nhs? https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-41379849
Legal is £8 billion a year, they have set aside £80 billion in accrued claims
Switch to a mediation scheme and most of that could pay for the buyback for PFI
The internal market could be dismantled and no one would notice
Medically speaking, Peter Lazenby’s article in yesterday’s Morning Star, that Compulsory face mask wearing against Omicron strain ‘useless’ unless enforced, unions warn is wrong. Very wrong.
Masks are bad for your health and can make you more susceptible to respiratory infection. Neither do we need to socially distance ourselves to reduce infection. If people are made ill by coronavirus infection, more than 99.5% will survive – in fact more than 80% will be asymptomatic (the way it is with most viral infections).
Don’t panic, stay calm!
First – did anyone see the David Hare play – or rather monologue – regarding
the playwrights anger at the way the pandemic was handled by the Govt?
He speaks as a previous sufferer from the disease.
Second – I wont attempt too argue with earlier posters about efficacy
or otherwise of vaccines ..
All I can say is that as an 80yr old with no serious health problems when I was
offered the vaccination in Dec 2020 I regraded it as an extra Christmas present.
I might add that it was produced and distributed I this country as a collaboration
between Big Pharma and the NHS . A lot of this was because of a highly
competent Lady*** with a first class hons degree in Biochem and other
relevant experience. .. It was then distributed via the organisation of the NHS
and VOLUNTEERS . She also raised money for the project.
However this is only part of it – the efforts of the scientists did ameliorate
somewhat the incompetence which started early on. Thus we we saw
extreme care with early sufferers – testing quarantine etc
(eg passengers on the cruise ship who were tested frequently then put into
strict quarantine both on the ship and over here). This segued into the
“herd immunity” and stoopid Mexican hat schtick wherein “testing and tracing”
was abandoned and the pandemic numbers exploded .. We were treated
like idiots ..No – Corbyn would NOT have behaved like this ..
Since the early days it has been shown that the virus is principally air based –
hence the masks. WE also need good ventilation and this has NOT
been implemented – in particular ing schools.
*** There were many other highly competent women I hasten to add!
Track & trace? No travel restrictions? Fish will swim & the rich will fly, all over the world! Keep spreading…………
Reads OP & comments, rolls eyes, and exits thread*
Well just read the Canary and read the comments from the first judge who said he shouldnt be extradited because of his health and the risk of suicide “…so it looks to me that the establishment have covered all the exit clauses for the USA and the ultimate sanction whilst being banged up for being a journalist.Does anybody know any real journalists nowadays?…
Ps…The continued agony of Julian Assange and the exploits of British justice.