This is interesting too. It lists what some of Captain Tom's money was actually spent on. Things you wouldn't think of off hand but which made a lot of difference to NHS staff.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-52758683

Are we remixing sound or changing language with the .m4a?

Now here's some interesting news. As some of you may know, the UK vaccination rules allow the second vaccination to be of a different type if exceptional conditions require it. That's a standard "field medicine" protocol and no one was suggesting mixing different vaccines on a regular basis. Nevertheless it provoked a howl of anger from abroad, especially from the USA.

Now trials are underway to see if this mix'n'match strategy might actually increase the protection offered by vaccination. It is, apparently, a standard practice with other viral vaccines such as Ebola and MMR. Volunteers will be over 50 (a contingent rather ignored in earlier trials) because they are likely to be the main beneficiaries if the strategy works.

New Yorkers have Covid parties. The goal is to get infected. Everyone who is tested positive receives $3,000 from local government and can stay home for a month. After this first month they will have another month off from their work, fully paid by their employer. This government just loves to give money away for doing nothing. How clever. Why didn't we start doing it long time ago. Everybody stay home, farmers don't farm, drivers don't drive, etc., etc. Government just will print money and give it to everyone. Ingenious.

I doubt that many more than a small percentage of English voters in the EU referendum even considered the implications of the Irish border...

It's certainly true that no one considered how the sudden appearance of an international frontier across the map of Ireland could be reconciled with an open and unguarded border on the ground. But as both sides were obviously keen to keep that border open in practice, nobody on this side of the Channel thought that it was going to be a serious problem in negotiations. You don't expect problems to arise about things you actually agree on.

It was the stubbornness of the EU negotiators that blew the whole issue up into a crisis that nearly derailed the talks (and would have done so if Boris Johnson hadn't broken off the discussions and gone to Ireland to hammer out a compromise with Leo Varadkar himself).

That should have been all water under the bridge by now if Van der Leyen hadn't reversed longstanding EU policy by closing the border again. It's the inconsistency that makes me roll my eyes in despair.

Here is a full and detailed account from Reuters (which most people regard as a reliable news source) of the discussions and actions that led up to the EU vaccine crisis :

https://uk.yahoo.com/news/countdown-...060523065.html

Yahoo is not Reuters, and that link redirects to consent.yahoo.com which is broken and displays a plain white screen (but would normally ask for your immortal soul and firstborn child before it allowed you to continue).

Going direct to https://www.reuters.com/ has the following as it's primary featured article:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-vaccines-europe-in/countdown-to-catastrophe-inside-europes-fight-for-covid-shots-idUSKBN2A50I1

(It suggests a 15 minute read; I'll do that later.)

Interesting, but not much new to me, except who said what when.

The whole thing is a fudge, because Trade must go UK <--> NOI & NOI <--> Ireland. But trade may not go UK <--> Ireland without copious layers of red tape at the EU end. Plainly, with the 'musts' laid out in the last sentence and an effectively unenforceable border between NOI & Ireland, trade can go UK <-->Ireland. NOI is effectively in the EU, keeping EU rules. Britain doesn't appear to have enough red tape yet to put layers of it on transactions . It seems they were late stocking up So the EU has a free pass for a few months. As I said, amusement there for some years yet. The only possible place to put border check is Ireland's ports, & the UK ports.

It will have to come to an Irish Sea border eventually - anything else is an unworkable mess. I think all parties involved knew that and it would have happened already if not for the DUP's insistence against it. This latest move by the EU may be just part of a general strategy to force the issue over the next several years.

I'm no deep student of politics. As I said before, I reckon this charade will go on until business get fed up with red tape and paperwork at each end. Then the EU businesses hopefully will find alternative sources, trade will largely dry up with the UK, and what happens then doesn't matter to the EU. In the meantime, the cost to the EU would have been ≅€500 Million per annum of a no deal Brexit, with businesses going bankrupt as well. Whatever millions they lose in duties is not as bad as that.

The UK is Ireland's biggest trading partner, so the road ahead is rough for us. But it's amazing what will change in 2 or 3 years. In 5 years time, EU <-->UK traffic will have dwindled, and tariffs can go up - sharply.

Another possibility is Scotland looking for the NOI Status, as the NOI is following EU rules. But I can't see them getting it.

This is way OT for Covid, and we should really get back to that topic. What do folks think about stories like this one?
https://www.mail.com/int/scitech/hea...-stage-hero1-6

EDIT: There is 'sort of' an Irish sea border. It's complicated, but it's there, on the UK side.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/05/t...ne_band_recirc

This is interesting. As this story reports it, Russia is using it's "persuasive IT techniques" (call them what you will) to big up the efficacy of their own vaccine in the Spanish speaking media and magnify any hitch with the others. And that was a post on the /coronaVirus topic, I think

The Russians invented the word "disinformation" and it's always been an important tactic for them. Also both Russia and China are desperate to use their vaccines (competitively to some extent) as diplomatic weapons. China is particularly targetting Africa, so it looks as if Latin America is the Russian sphere of interest.

The sad thing is that by feeding anti-vaxxer sentiment, they'll cause more deaths.

Tests have shown that the Russian vaccine is both safe and effective
Russian vaccine
The technique, modifying an adenovirus, is the same as that used to develop the Oxford vaccine.

Many false narratives have been uncovered in recent times. After seeing the lengths gone to to construct these, I personally would take very little seriously from any ideological extreme, including the USA & all their close friends & bitter enemies. Sadly that reaches into vaccines also, as they are a tool of political influence. Hitler was at least open about it; he established a ministry for Propaganda. My policy hasn't hurt me so far.