Mayday for the over 50s
Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, has said that everyone over 50 will be offered a vaccine by May.
While the timeframe is “tentative”, the announcement of a date is surprising given the government’s recent reluctance to stoke optimism about the end of lockdown.
It is believed that the relaxing of certain rules will also start on 8 March, when children begin to return to the classroom. Restrictions on outdoor socialising and sport are thought to be the first which will be relaxed, possibly within weeks of this date.
The PM wants the rules simplified (no more haggling over “substantial meals”) and has said he does not want to return to a regional tier system. Instead, a new set of indicators to assess the speed at which lockdown can be lifted in England is being drawn up.
The news comes as ONS data shows the seven-day average of new cases has fallen by a quarter this week and deaths have fallen by a sixth. Ninety-eight per cent of areas in England recorded a drop in positive cases in the seven days to 31 January.
In other upbeat news, Oxford University researchers have found the AstraZeneca vaccine is nearly as effective at combatting the new Kent variant as it is older variants – 75 per cent effective compared to 84 per cent. And an MHRA study has suggested the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines are “extremely” safe, with around one in ten people experiencing only very mild symptoms such as sore arms and headaches.
In short, things really are looking up.
It even looks as if foreign travel could be back this summer. Having long denied that vaccine passports would be a thing, officials have started to draw up plans that would allow the vaccinated to travel abroad. Youngsters will be busy applying for jobs so shouldn’t mind that their parents and grandparents are jetting off to Alicante. What else are they going to spend those triple-locked pensions on after all?
Unfortunately, the range of destinations is likely to be pretty limited. Yet the vaccine passport issue raises a wider question: do we vaccinate people to stop them getting ill and dying, or do we do it to designate a new class of citizen who qualifies for their right to liberty being restored? The government should give this a little more thought.
Trump Show ratings slide
Former US President Trump’s legal team has said he will not testify at his Senate impeachment trial next week which they dismissed as “unconstitutional” and a “publicity stunt” in a letter to the lead impeachment manager, Rep. Jamie Ruskin.
Instead, Trump is reportedly plotting to embark on a “revenge tour” where he plans to drum up support against Republicans he feels are guilty of betrayal. The move would see Trump return to the campaign-style rallies he loves so much, and would keep the pressure on Senate Republicans who are considering breaking with him.
Deprived of his Twitter account, the ex-president has apparently resorted to composing mean Tweets about his many enemies for others in his circle to post.
Ever the showman, he’s found other ways of getting attention. Trump’s resignation letter to the Screen Actors Guild after it revoked his membership has been published. After boasting about his film and TV successes (such as the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and Home Alone 2), he calls the move to expel him a “blatant attempt at free media attention to distract from your dismal record as a union.”
Council coup
The extraordinary events at the Handforth parish council Zoom meeting have taken the internet by storm.
The video’s got the lot: petty sniping, procedural knit-picking, spit-flecked outbursts and cut throat ripostes (“Coming from you in Birkenhead, that sounds good!”). In short, everything you’d expect of a democratic forum populated by oddballs and filtered through the prism of lockdown madness and technical problems. Pundits were quick to label it a metaphor for life in the Covid pressure cooker.
“Read the standing orders! Read them and understand them!!”, the Vice Chair screams at the long-suffering clerk and hero of the piece, Jackie Weaver, who handles the jibes, rants and swearing with commendable calm, eventually removing the Chair, Brian Tolver, from the call after he refuses to acknowledge the legitimacy of the meeting.
Memes and merchandise have followed. You can buy a t-shirt emblazoned with one of the most memorable moments, the words from Tolver’s last stand: “YOU HAVE NO AUTHORITY HERE JACKIE WEAVER”.
We really need lockdown to end soon.
Have a good weekend.
Mattie Brignal,
News Editor