All these big wigs telling us how great the new vaccine is...

[dutchman]

Bosses can tell staff: no Covid vaccine means no job



Companies will be able to bar people who have not been vaccinated from working for them under plans for vaccine passports.

On Monday Boris Johnson will announce plans for certificates that could be used to allow entry to pubs, theatres, nightclubs and sports venues.

A senior government source said that ministers were “resigned” to the fact that they would not legally be able to stop companies from demanding them as a condition of employment.

The prime minister is facing a mounting backlash from MPs from all parties and government advisers over the plans, amid warnings that they are “discriminatory” and risk creating a “checkpoint Britain”.

The Chartered Institute of Management conducted a survey recently that found that more than half of managers wanted to make coronavirus vaccinations mandatory for staff returning to work. Unions oppose the approach.

Although ministers have been clear that they will not make certificates mandatory for offices, there are no plans to forbid bosses from establishing their own schemes.

Under the plans venues could demand certificates so that they could open without the need for social distancing. They will be issued through the NHS app and provide proof that people had been vaccinated, tested negative or developed natural immunity.

Professor Robert West, a psychologist at University College London and member of the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), told Times Radio that the “balance of evidence is against” widespread use of vaccine certificates, citing discrimination fears and uncertainty over the level of protection provided by vaccines.

“And the other issue with it is the idea of creating a false sense of security. We don’t know exactly what the level of protection is going to be [with the vaccines] but it certainly isn’t going to be 100 per cent. I think, at the moment, the balance of evidence is against widespread adoption of vaccine passports domestically.”

[rebbonk]

Piling the coercion on, aren't they?

[dutchman]

Boris Johnson to give go-ahead for trials of Covid passports



Football cup finals, the World Snooker Championship, a comedy club and a cinema will be used to test vaccine passports over the next few weeks, as the government unveils its route out of lockdown.

The pilot venues will be unveiled on Monday by the prime minister, Boris Johnson, with the NHS drawing up a system that will allow people to use an app or a paper certificate to gain access to major events and reduce social distancing measures.

However, with details of the certificate system still being finalised, Johnson continues to face a mounting political backlash over the use of vaccine passports in the UK. Some MPs are examining whether they could force a vote on the issue. On Monday, Johnson will reassure people that the passports should not be used on public transport or essential shops.

The system being piloted will take account of whether someone has had a vaccination, a recent negative test, or natural immunity after a positive test in the last six months. The pilot events begin in less than two weeks. They will first be deployed at the Hot Water Comedy Club, Liverpool, on 15 April. Others include an FA Cup semi-final and the final; the Carabao Cup final; the World Snooker Championship in Sheffield; the Luna Cinema, Circus Nightclub and a business event in Liverpool, and a running event in Hatfield.

Evidence from the trials will be used to inform the wider use of passports. There will also be safeguards to ensure that those who cannot receive the vaccine for health reasons are not discriminated against.

News of the trial events comes as senior Tories among a cross-party group have declared they will oppose the use of vaccine certificates, with 72 MPs signing a pledge to oppose the “divisive and discriminatory” scheme. Some have described their use as the creation of “checkpoint Britain”. A government scientific adviser has also warned that they could give people a false sense of security.

Ministers will use the trial events to see if the certificates could be deployed in other settings. They will not be required in pubs, restaurants and non-essential retail, but Whitehall insiders fear many businesses will set up their own systems.

[rebbonk]

I personally think he's flying a kite. He's already backtracking (see what I did there?). At some poiont there is going to be an inquiry as to what really happened and where all the money was spent. Wasting lots of tax payers money on a fancy flu vaccine that wasn't taken up particularly well, for various reasons, wouldn't show the blond womble in the best of lights.

We also have elections coming up and I suspect he's using this to try to give his party and edge before dropping it as 'un-British' shortly afterwards.

Either way, he can shove it up his fat white ar$e!

[rebbonk]

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) announced on Sunday that a series of mass gatherings and indoor events planned in April and May would take part in a trial to assess how venues might operate safely this summer. It said “Covid status certification” would be trialled as part of the programme.However, organisers of five of the nine events listed as part of the pilot programme said they would not require people to show certificates, with one saying they had received abuse since the announcement.

Source: https://www.theguardian.com

Bozo has seriously misjudged this one.

[rebbonk]

Oh dear, passports aren't popular so now you can take two rapid response tests per week. - Covered in all of Monday's Dailys.

Panic management in action.

Hand-on-C*ck has also been given until Tuesday to respond to High Court action reference justifying why pubs etc. are not allowed to open up inside facilities until May 17th, whilst other facilities are able to open from Monday 12th April.

[dutchman]

The system being piloted will take account of whether someone has had a vaccination, a recent negative test, or natural immunity after a positive test in the last six months.

Given the number of false positive tests, that last bit is a complete nonsense.

[rebbonk]

UK health regulator may restrict AstraZeneca shot for younger people

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s health regulator is considering a proposal to restrict the use of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine in younger people over concerns about very rare blood clots, Channel 4 News reported on Monday.

“Two senior sources have told this programme that while the data is still unclear there are growing arguments to justify offering younger people - below the age of 30 at the very least - a different vaccine,” the broadcaster reported.

The UK’s regulator, the MHRA, has previously said the benefits of the vaccine in the prevention of COVID-19 far outweigh any possible risk of blood clots.

The MHRA did not immediately respond to a comment on the Channel 4 report.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-health-coronavirus-britain-astrazenec/uk-health-regulator-may-restrict-astrazeneca-shot-for-younger-people-channel-4-says-idUSKBN2BS1QC

Draw your own conclusions! - It stinks.

[rebbonk]

Johnson is in trouble over vaccine passports – and it’s showing

The biggest question facing Boris Johnson at this evening’s press conference was so-called vaccine passports. Plans for his scheme were briefed to the weekend press. The Sunday Telegraph even published a government-supplied image of what a passport would look like (above). Today, No. 10 released even more plans — hence the questions. But bizarrely, the Prime Minister was unable to admit to this vaccine passports, and pretended to be confused by the questions. This matters. If he cannot acknowledge his flagship scheme, leaving such an indefensible gulf between what what his government has just published and what he has just said, he may already be in some political trouble.

His ministers use ‘vaccine passport’ as a euphemism but even this sounded awful to him. He referred to his plans as ‘Covid status certification’. But a certificate doesn’t have someone’s photo on it. What he is planning is a digital identity card - but loaded with personal health data, so a bioidentity card. The BBC’s Ian Watson asked about whether he would ‘like to take this opportunity to reassure sceptics that while they could be useful for big events, you will not need to take a certificate to the local pub to gain entry.’ Boris Johnson’s reply:

“A very important thing to say to everybody listening and watching is that there is absolutely no question of people being asked to produce certification or a Covid status report when they go to the shops or to the pub garden or the hairdressers or whatever… on Monday.

A disingenuous response. No one was asking about Monday. It’s about the new system he left Michael Gove is charge of, for use in the summer when his final 21 June roadmap deadline has passed. The conclusion of the government’s first lockdown review, published today, primarily looks at vaccine passports and international travel. It clearly says that vaccine identity cards could be demanded ‘in hospitality settings’ — in other words, in pubs. Contrary to what some of the weekend papers had been briefed and contrary to the thrust of the question. So a passport for the pub is a live idea. Boris really ought to have been honest about that, and explained why he thinks it’s worth considering.

Perhaps he evaded the question because the official explanation, as printed in today’s paper, is so absurd: that landlords and others are loudly demanding vaccine passports. So the pressure comes from them! Promise! Not at all to do with Michael Gove! The actual words used by today's paper say that it is ‘right that the government provides a means of easily demonstrating Covid status.’ But are employers really crying out for immunity passports? Other than Pimlico Plumbers, who have threatened a ‘no jab, no job’ policy, the PM would struggle to name many examples.

These press conferences don’t offer much scrutiny because the journalists can’t come back with a second question if — as happened with Ian Watson — the PM answers a different question to the one asked. But if the issue is important enough, the next journalist can pick up on it, as ITV’s Shehab Khan then did:

“I appreciate the plan to introduce vaccine passports isn’t coming in the next few steps [out of lockdown]. To expand on that idea: do you think it’s fair to expect people to show a certificate to do something that was once a normal activity?

In other words, is the PM seriously expecting businesses to turn people away who don’t have a vaccine certificate?

So again, Boris was being asked to defend his just-published plan. Again, he ran. ‘I direct you to what you said to Ian,’ he replied. Why? His response to Ian Watson had specifically been about Monday — Khan was asking about what comes later this year. Then, Boris thought of another deflection. ‘You’re taking too many fences at once,’ he said — as if Khan was making the whole thing up.

Too many fences? His own review lays out precisely that proposal Khan mentioned — using immunity status to dictate the freedoms to which citizens are entitled. ‘When we have proposals, we will be setting them out.’ Again, an evasion. Newspapers have been full of proposals for vaccine ID cards, hence yesterday’s Sunday Telegraph front page. Worse, officials serving in his own review into ID cards have been told that it’s no longer up for debate because ‘the Prime Minister wants them’. Johnson’s personal word is being used to stop discussion internally. How, after this, can he pretend it’s not happening?

Sky’s Beth Rigby was next at the press conference. Not so long ago, she said, he laid out ‘a roadmap to freedom’. Now something different is emerging — it’s a roadmap to a ‘papers, please’ society. What happened?

‘A great deal depends on the vaccine rollout,’ he replied. Again: wrong. None of his passport plans, as published today or briefed over the weekend, depend on the vaccine rollout. ‘If things continue to go well, for many people in many ways, our life will begin to get back to some semblance of normality. We’ve got to be guided by the data and follow the roadmap.’

His official review goes far further, suggesting social distancing guidelines may be used to punish pubs and other places that do not implement vaccine passports. (As ever, in our new Orwellian world, the reverse language is used: restrictions will be lifted for those who comply):

“It is possible that COVID-status certification could also play a role in reducing social distancing requirements in other settings which people tend to visit more frequently, for example in hospitality settings.

What does this mean? What’s the point of spending £2.6 million on a new communications centre if the PM is going to refuse to properly communicate? If the Prime Minister cannot level with the public, if internal debate about this has been banned in his cabinet committee, where will the scrutiny come from?

We had enough questions asked about vaccine passports today to know that the PM cannot, or will not, answer them. Given the ferocity of the debate ahead — and the depth of concern in his party — this bodes ill.

Source: https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/johnson-is-in-trouble-over-vaccine-passports-and-it-s-showing

[dutchman]

Worse, officials serving in his own review into ID cards have been told that it’s no longer up for debate because ‘the Prime Minister wants them’.

The Prime Minister or his looney girlfriend?