Coronavirus

[Batch]

I don't agree it was a PR stunt.

More not planned properly response to a possible worse case scenarion that didn't happen.

[pauld]

3 month old article, but this shows the majority of it is earmarked for/has been spent on testing i.e. the bit that we actually seem to be getting right, not tracing which we are failing woefully at.

https://fullfact.org/health/local-national-contact-tracing/

Thanks Samdy, that's very illuminating. Still not sure it adds up though - £22bn is amount expected to be spent in 2020-21, but according to the figures in there "only" £4bn had been spent by October 2020. Test and Trace started in May 2020, so they spent £4bn in 5 months, and then expected to spend £18bn in the remaining 6 months to April 2021.

According to PHE the UK has carried out some 94m PCR tests since April 2020 (https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/testing). You can buy a test privately for £120 (https://www.boots.com/covid-19-testing/covid-19-testing-service). Given the govt have been buying them in bulk, you'd assume they're getting them for substantially less than that, but let's assume for the sake of argument they've made as shit a job of PCR test procurement as they have of everything else, and they're paying £120 each for them. That's £11.2bn, half of the annual £22bn, and likely to be more like half that. According to the full-fact article, which is using govt figures, around 70% of the cost of test and trace is testing i.e. £15bn is supposedly being spent on testing. So where is the other between £4bn - £9bn going? (lower end assumes £120 per test, upper end assumes around half that). And presumably there is similar featherbedding* in the contact tracing as well.


*theft, let's be honest

[BambooToTheFuture]

Rivoting stuff

Ravioliting stuff.

[BambooToTheFuture]

Entire UK Primary Care budget - £9 Billion
Entire UK Police Budget - £15 Billion
Entire UK Fire Service Budget - £3 Billion
Cost of 5% pay rise for NHS nurses - £500 million
Money handed out to a retired jockey to run Test and Trace - £37 Billion.

Jobs for the boys - Priceless. For everything else, there's corruption...

[horlock07]

Thanks Samdy, that's very illuminating. Still not sure it adds up though - £22bn is amount expected to be spent in 2020-21, but according to the figures in there "only" £4bn had been spent by October 2020. Test and Trace started in May 2020, so they spent £4bn in 5 months, and then expected to spend £18bn in the remaining 6 months to April 2021.

According to PHE the UK has carried out some 94m PCR tests since April 2020 (https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/testing). You can buy a test privately for £120 (https://www.boots.com/covid-19-testing/covid-19-testing-service). Given the govt have been buying them in bulk, you'd assume they're getting them for substantially less than that, but let's assume for the sake of argument they've made as shit a job of PCR test procurement as they have of everything else, and they're paying £120 each for them. That's £11.2bn, half of the annual £22bn, and likely to be more like half that. According to the full-fact article, which is using govt figures, around 70% of the cost of test and trace is testing i.e. £15bn is supposedly being spent on testing. So where is the other between £4bn - £9bn going? (lower end assumes £120 per test, upper end assumes around half that). And presumably there is similar featherbedding* in the contact tracing as well.


*theft, let's be honest

Was reading apiece from a lass whose son works in the T&T programme. Gets paid 40 hrs a week, £10 an hour, has to provide his own lap top to use and had to buy own headset, pays for own Wi-Fi.

Wherever that cash has gone its not going to the people on the ground!

[pauld]

Johnson finally admits he fucked up delaying the first lockdown but tries to blame it on the scientific advice. But no apology or acceptance of his own responsibility and no mention of all the very many fuckups and delays after that. That first delay is reckoned to have doubled the death toll in the first wave. Likely to be similar in subsequent delays.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/03/14/exclusive-boris-johnson-accepts-made-mistake-delaying-first/

(unpaywalled)
https://archive.fo/LSgZK

[The Artist Formerly Known as Audrey]

Their consistent ‘following the best advice’ mantra was always going to be their get out of jail card when things inevitably went tits up.

[pauld]

Their consistent ‘following the best advice’ mantra was always going to be their get out of jail card when things inevitably went tits up.

Yup. Even when they consistently didn't.

[Hunk]

The decision amongst some EU countries to suspend the Oxford vaccine has left me completely and utterly baffled. From what I understand the number of blood clots amongst the millions who have been vaccinated is, if anything, less than you would expect amongst a random sample of the same size who haven’t had the vaccine. Anybody have any idea the rationale behind this as I’m thoroughly stumped.

[Batch]

looks like supply issues are about to hit the UK in April.

so it's over 40s probably won't be done until may

[The Artist Formerly Known as Audrey]

Get the stuff from Europe that they don’t want to use.

[Hunk]

Get the stuff from Europe that they don’t want to use.

They won’t give them up, which suggests this is all political. Which, if true, is completely unacceptable

[Hunk]

looks like supply issues are about to hit the UK in April.

so it's over 40s probably won't be done until may

Seems unlikely. Good job we’ve had such a successful rollout so far, hopefully will mitigate the damage done.

[Bogus Dave]

The decision amongst some EU countries to suspend the Oxford vaccine has left me completely and utterly baffled. From what I understand the number of blood clots amongst the millions who have been vaccinated is, if anything, less than you would expect amongst a random sample of the same size who haven’t had the vaccine. Anybody have any idea the rationale behind this as I’m thoroughly stumped.

From what I’ve read, it’s the nature of the clots not the volume. And the thinking was it was a batch of the vaccines, rather than the vaccine itself

[Hunk]

From what I’ve read, it’s the nature of the clots not the volume. And the thinking was it was a batch of the vaccines, rather than the vaccine itself

Was not aware of either of those things, thanks. Really hope this doesn’t create distrust of the vaccine. I’d still get it in a heartbeat