Day: 10 February 2021

by a Former Nurse Back in November 2020, I read with interest on Lockdown Sceptics that St. John Ambulance were recruiting for volunteer vaccinators. The only qualifications required were to be educated to A-level standard, and perhaps have some sort of healthcare experience. Being suitably qualified, and having spent time as a nurse in the 1980s, I decided to apply for three reasons: 1) To help speed up the end of lockdown and aid our (purported) swift return to normal life: “The distant bugle of the scientific cavalry coming over the brow of the hill.” 2) To help the NHS, so their staff could focus on clinical care and catching up on backlogs, rather than being diverted to mass-vaccination centres, thus "relieving pressure on the NHS" and the "threat of being overwhelmed". 3) To get an inside view of proceedings and the vaccination roll-out. I therefore applied on December 1st. Initially things moved quite fast and I was interviewed, approved (with enhanced DBS) within a fortnight. However at that point the wheels came off the bus and applicants – including me – were being lost in the system. (I know this was widespread having spoken to fellow volunteers.) The order of events should have been: a) Submit online application.b) Have an online interview.c) Complete enhanced DBS.d) Complete nine St. John ...

by Guy de la Bédoyère I freely admit that of late I have tried to adopt a more conciliatory tone, frustrated by the polarisation of the debate about how to get out of this crisis and the apparent inability of people to listen to each other. But with the news getting worse every day, vaccines gradually diminishing as an escape as scientists reel back at the earth-shattering discovery that viruses mutate, and lockdowns turning into a permanent policy in the fantasy world of Zero Covid (now they are necessary to help the fight against mutations), I am close to the point of giving up. Living in Britain in 2021 is like cowering in a submarine while enemy depth charges explode all around you. You daren’t rise to the surface and instead just sink lower and lower. The only difference is it’s our own Government dropping them. I don’t mean to sound trite. I’m well aware what real despair and depression can do to people. I have seen it at first hand. But as things stand it’s getting more and more difficult to understand what the point of carrying on is, if the only vision of the future the Government and large swathes of the population have is of living in a country where we can’t do anything, can’t see anyone ...

Today's update on Lockdown Sceptics is here. Includes a list of other crimes for which you can get 10 years, e.g. burglary with intent to commit rape, a new essay by Dr Sinéad Murphy and an angry letter to Harriet Harman.