People will have various views as to the reasons, but what is clear from the Danish Health Authority is that it is no longer recommending vaccination to the under-50s.
The Danish Health Authority expects that the number of COVID-19 infections will increase during autumn and winter. Therefore, we recommend vaccination of people aged 50 years and over as well as selected risk groups.
It’s true that the “selected risk groups” include healthcare workers and those vulnerable. Also buried in the text is the recommendation that those between 40 and 50 should finish any vaccination course started. But the overall message is clear: vaccination is for the over-50s.
We can contrast this with U.K. policy, where the NHS continues to promote vaccination to all, even down to the very young.
Compare the Danish advice – “Children and adolescents rarely become severely ill from the Omicron variant of COVID-19” – with that of the NHS – “Two doses are being offered to all children aged 12 to 15, and some aged 5 to 11, to give them the best protection against COVID-19”.
The Danish advice shouldn’t surprise us. From the first days of Covid, those who looked at the numbers saw that Covid has two completely different faces: to the young it is irrelevant; only to the old and infirm can it present a significant risk.
Why does that matter nowadays? Because to ignore that basic arithmetic is to present ourselves with financial burdens which are both substantial and unnecessary. By advocating vaccination to the under-50s, by extending it even to young children of five years and over, the NHS is targeting about 32 million more people than under Denmark’s rules. Denmark is a comparatively rich country with GDP per capita more than 20% larger than the U.K. Yet, having assessed the evidence, Denmark baulks at vaccinating the under-50s. How much more should we in the U.K., with our straitened economy, be alert to this poor use of public funds?
Published figures give us only partial insight into the costs of vaccination. The National Audit Office report put a figure of £11.7 billion on the 267 million “potential COVID-19 vaccine doses secured by the U.K. Government’s signed contracts”. That works out at £44 a dose.
As for the ongoing costs, part of that will be the purchase costs of the vaccine. AstraZeneca agreed to make no profit from the initial rollout of the vaccine and take profits from ongoing sales. Initially, the U.K. Government was paying £3 per dose but, in view of the initial agreement, it is hard to imagine AstraZeneca keeping these prices to that level when the other vaccines are about £15 a dose. It would be unrealistic optimism to imagine the U.K. programme acquiring vaccine at less than £15 a dose, particularly as AstraZeneca is barely used anymore, particularly in younger people. Then there are the costs of delivering the vaccine: the latest figures I can find are of GPs being paid £12.58 per Covid vaccine jab administered. Together with NHS overheads, a reasonable estimate for the total cost per Covid vaccine dose is around £30.
The U.K. decision to continue a vaccination programme to the 32 million under 50s, at an estimated cost of £30 per dose, thus comes in at a figure of around £1 billion.
Let’s compare this with other things the NHS could spend £1 billion on. Cancer care, for instance. The annual total costs of cancer care are around £5 billion. So, by having a Covid vaccination programme which includes those 32 million under-50s who are at very low risk of suffering from Covid, the NHS is embarking on a course to spend an amount equal to up to a fifth of the cancer budget on something that Denmark isn’t even doing. True, only a portion of the 32 million will take up the jab, but in principle the NHS is committed to injecting all of them.
The answer is clear. We should stop vaccinating the healthy under-50s; it’s a huge waste of scarce public funds that would be better spent on other much more pressing health needs.
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https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13608687/Now-Tory-post-mortem-begins-earnest-Ex-ministers-claim-Britain-instinctively-Conservative-say-party-failed-deliver-migration-tax-NHS-amid-anger-idiotic-Rishi-leadership-hopefuls-declare-hand.html
Otherwise known as gaslighting.
“22 year-old MP hits back at claims he doesn’t have ‘experience’
and asks why critics think “being older makes you better at the job”,
If you have to ask the question, then your lack of wisdom is self-evident.
Because all the old people with experience have done such a good job?
No one says experience is sufficient but it is necessary for many roles.
As EppingBlogger correctly points out, we’re not arguing experience is sufficient – I’d rather have an inexperienced person with good sense and the right attitude than an experienced idiot, but I am struggling to think of a human activity where experience is not helpful. If a person is intelligent and able to learn, which you would hope was the case, then if they do not improve with experience then you have to wonder what’s going on. Politics especially seems to me a field in which experience is going to be highly valuable.
Trust me Gunner,I don’t know how old you are but the fact is, experience isn’t everything but it is preferable compared to ideology!
“Business Secretary U-turns on digital ID cards after refusing to rule them out”
Like many citizens, have a driving licence and and a passport, both as photoID. Can they explain to me HOW having another card is going to reduce immigration. It seems an un-necessary layer of control, bearing in mind that criminals can fake these things for the right price. The fact that Blair is pushing it, also means its probably just another bit of ‘up to no good’.
Two comments:
1. In both this, and the similar DT article, the locution “digital ID cards” is used. I think we can safely say that although digital ID is inevitable, nobody is ever going to carry a ‘card’. A QR code on their phone maybe, or an RFID chip in their arm, but no ‘card’.
2. All the UN/WHO/WEFs plans require digital ID to function. There is simply no way the UK is going to be an exception here.
The digital dystopia has not come to an end with this announcement.
China has the Digital Bank ID,s , convid was used to start bringing then in elsewhere , it’s the Main Weapon the TPTB will use against us , if they can just get rid of cash as well , then Bingo they’ve Won !
The immediate problem is not identifying immigrants but stopping them coming. Labour and Tories will not stop them coming so ID does not help.
references to immigration are a diversion so they don’t have to say it’s part of elite control over us.
Those who do not want to comply will always sidestep the law, not abide by it.
Now a special Immigrant ID Card would be useful to track them. No card, no free services.
That’s a good idea
track them by what they don’t have, You ain’t got it ,you ain’t coming in!
Alternatively, they could have said, “No ID from your home country, no free services.” That would have had the same effect, but discouraged illegal immigration in the first place.
Passports and mobile phones go to the bottom of the English channel! How are Id cards going to fare any better?
Anything that has Bliar attached to it is definitely NOT in our interests. That is simply a fact of life.
“Le Pen’s party blocked from power, shock exit polls show”
Proof if needed that the slippery b’stards will do anything, and I mean anything, to hold on to power.
Sort of, but the voters had a choice and made their decision. I know some here have mentioned possible fraud and while I am sure it happens, I doubt it’s on a large enough scale to have changed this result – but perhaps my faith is misplaced. Anecdotally in the UK though, the declared results tally with my own experience of people’s views and how they approach voting.
Disagree. This from Tommy Robinson;
”In the second round of French elections.
-9,300,000 French people voted for the RN.
– 5,100,000 for the NFP.
The people voted for their sovereignty, closed borders, fixing their nation.
The other parties, who hate each other, but France more, joined forces to f*ck them.”
34% voted for the RN in the second round, 66% voted to continue the destruction of France. I guess that’s democracy. We need new countries.
As somebody commented online;
”The collusion by smaller parties to thwart the will of the French people to have safety and security is a damning abuse of Proportional Representation as a democratic process. The UK needs to learn the lessons from this French-left way of gaming the system.”
What happened in France is not how a true democracy works. However, I acknowledge that we’re living in post-democratic times, and this ”D” word is just another term banded about, much in the same way as ‘free speech’, which has come to have a completely fluid meaning, depending on who’s using the term to suit their own ends, so much so that these terms are now effectively meaningless, as substantial and enduring as gossamer. That’s my stance on it anyway. We’re living with the *illusion* of an actual democracy with only the illusion of freedom of speech.
These things are being abused and manipulated from all angles all of the time by TPTB who make the rules, and yes, we must defend them and our other rights with all of our might ( hat tip to our Toby ), but the reality is that you either have something or you don’t. It should be a black and white issue but the corrupt ‘PTB’ have made it more ’50 shades of grey’ and the goal posts are constantly moving.
Wasn’t the whole scamdemic experience proof enough of just how few rights we actually have in reality and how easily they can be removed or messed about with by the ruling class? When even the judiciary ( and we know all about the police by now ) demonstrably aren’t on our side then you know you’re scuppered. Therefore ‘justice’ is another term that appears to have become entirely meaningless nowadays.
We’re basically living in The Truman Show, it’s just that only a percentage of us are aware of this.
I agree with some of what you say but ultimately there was a clear choice and a clear majority for one side of that choice. No secret was made of what the left were doing – it was all out in the open. Nobody forced the French to vote against RN.
Salute.
Proof indeed ! If ever it was needed !
Yes, the nazis were a socialist party!
Freedom Is Hanging By A Thread – latest leaflet to print at home and deliver to neighbours or forward to politicians, your new MP, your local vicar, online media and friends online. We have over 200 leaflet ideas on the link on the leaflet.
“Battery maker SK On declares ‘emergency’ as EV sales disappoint, FT reports”
I think the situation with EVs is a clear and obvious indication as to where this net-zero business is heading. There are a number of reasons why EV’s are not selling;
.1. They are expensive
.2. The whole charging business is confusing, difficult, inconvenient and sometimes very expensive.
.3. The depreciationn on EVs is enormous.
.4. If EVs get damaged they are being scrapped much more readily than with ICE cars. And when ICE cars are scrapped they are often bought and repaired by enterprising mechanics but this is not happening with scrapped EV’s. Whilst I might buy a secondhand Fiesta with a cat s or n designation I would not risk that with a damaged EV.
.5. Consequently EV insurance is expensive and getting more expensive.
.6. EVs are like a smart-phone on wheels and if they run into problems repairs are difficult, expensive and sometimes impossible to fix.
.6. Scrapped EVs are already piling up at a faster rate than the scrap industry can handle and eventually the pile up of scrapped EVs will halt the sale of new ones.
The general public are a savvy lot and even if they have not done an in-depth analysis of EVs, they can sense a ‘pig in a poke’ when they see one. Would I drive an EV, yes if I could beg, borrow or lease one but buy one with my own money you must be joking!
If I and the general public can see all this, what does it say about our deranged net zero politicians? Do they really think EVs are the future of mass motoring or is this all some planned orchestrated mess leading to a future without private cars?
Batteries are just a big box of unstable chemicals, basing your future on them is idiocy!
A tankful of petrol or diesel is also unstable chemicals – but only when mixed with a particular quantity of air. The contents of an EV battery are unstable even in the absence of air which is why they’re a problem to ‘extinguish’ if they overheat.
Depending on the size of the tank there’s a hell of a lot more stored energy in a tankful of diesel (and the required amount of air) than in a similar size/weight of EV battery – which is why people get range anxiety. It’s just as well that the electric motors in an EV are smaller/lighter than most ICE engines/gearboxes or they’d barely get anywhere.
In cold weather drivers of most ICE vehicles keep warm by using the by-product heat from the engine to warm the cabin. There is no by-product heat from an EV – you have to use some of the precious stored energy to keep the cabin bearable. Not too surprisingly EVs are built to disable the cabin heating if the stored energy dips below a certain level – just in case the driver is too stupid to do that for themselves. I really don’t fancy an EV in something like a Wisconsin winter – but I guess ‘Global Boiling’™ will make sure that Wisconsin becomes liveable all year round soon enough.
Agreed, we know the pitfalls of ice vehicle’s, we ought to, they’ve been knocking around for over a century, but at least when they do go up, they are easier to put out!
“…is this all some planned orchestrated mess leading to a future without private cars?”
Yes.
Who has not “learned from mistakes” is David Paton. Why does he think Vallance made a mistake and might regret what he did? Vallance is clearly a power-hungry collectivist – convid was an opportunity not to be missed to put “public health” and “science” centre stage.
He never was anything but that didn’t prevent him being 100% complicit in helping to destroy thousands of lives , a proper B-stard !
Vallance: “Mistakes?”
France has just coverted the corse of true democracy, Vive la
I’m sure Germany will eventually and democratically end Afd in the same way!
“What does the New Popular Front’s election win mean for France?”
It means: “we’ll blow out your candle and we don’t care that ours is already flickering “
“Has Patrick Vallance learnt from his Covid mistakes?”
No!
“The German Government have no money and they can’t stop spending it”
No government has money! It’s tax payers money, not theirs
Monthly pub get-together in Surrey on Tuesday evening. All sceptics, free thinkers, speakers of truth and lovers of freedom, are most welcome
“Just one in four say Biden could stay awake through a Cuban Missile Crisis”
I think 48 minutes would be pushing it!
Unlikely to stay awake through another toilet crisis!
“Midsomer Murders viewers warned they will see crime scenes”
Imagine that! A crime series with scenes of crime!!!
Bags of KP may contain nuts
“Karma catches up with Nicola Sturgeon”
The ipitome of stewing in your own juice!
As they say, a leopard can’t change its spots, so Macron has left the spots as they are..but changed the leopard instead!
https://www.gbnews.com/news/world/france-paris-riots-election-surprise-win-exit-poll-new-popular-front
“Suprise win”? Engineered I’d say!
UK: Huge increase in anti-Marxist vote, country gets more extreme Marxist government.
France: Huge increase in anti-Marxist vote, country gets more extreme Marxist government.
Hmmm.
Great analysis by Thinking Slow, btw: https://thinkingcoalition.substack.com/p/the-really-interesting-2024-election
80% of UK voters supported left wing parties
Of voters *who voted*. Seems like Labour won basically because the Tories lost 7 million votes and Labour lost a lot less.
Well, those people who didn’t vote had the chance to, but didn’t. I think it’s a reasonable assumption that most of them were happy with the status quo or don’t care. For once in my area there was a broad spectrum of choices – the most interesting ones that were on my shortlist all got a handful of votes.
Typo? Left-wing parties took just over 40%, with right-wing parties just under 40%, the rest are supposedly centrist parties. If you then consider the significant drop in voter turnout (7-8%), which would have been mainly right-of-centre people with various feelings of utter disgust, then the split is 50/50 at best. Not exactly the landslide it’s been made to look. The conclusion of the article is correct of course, it was a vote against the Tories not a vote for Labour.
Reform got 14% of the vote. All the other mainstream parties are left wing IMO, including the Tories.
Sure, but the vote split should be considered by what people believe they’re voting for, not what values the party actually upholds in practice. The masses are dumb, we have to factor in that stupidity.
That is one way of looking at it, yes. Other than Monro with his particular thing about Farage and Putin etc etc, I’ve not seen or heard any other Tory voter explain why they didn’t vote Reform. Baffling.
Interesting article – thanks for posting.
Russian missiles hit children’s cancer hospital in Kyiv
https://www.ft.com/content/4075caad-7bf0-48a0-9106-7b953ccb9ee9
What is really going on? There is a NATO summit on Ukraine starting tomorrow and Ukraine has failed to successfully counter-attack, so why not engineer a Russian atrocity?
Children – tick. Cancer -tick.
A call has gone out for make-up artists who specialise in injuries.
We have seen it before and the international community has failed to come up with any verifiable intelligence.
The Ukrainian correspondent won’t be happy with this.
Oh goody.
PS Latest view is that the damage was caused by a failed Uktrainian air defence missile.
The pictures I have seen are not even of the main hospital, a multistorey building which was built in around 2015; you can see it in the background. The truly sick people on this site are the ones who accept at face value every bit of propaganda from Ukraine.
Ask yourself, what value is there to the Russians to deliberately target a children’s hospital on the eve of a NATO conference.
There’s some pretty sick stuff on here.
I leave it to the readership here to draw their own conclusions about the atrocity itself and the state of mind of the commentators who first drew attention to it.
Kyiv children’s hospital bombed
By Svitlana Morenets in Kyiv
I have been in Kyiv for a few weeks, struck by how safe the city has felt thanks to its improved air defences. But that changed this morning when the capital came under a huge attack. Ukraine’s largest children’s hospital, Okhmatdyt, was hit by Russian missiles and I’m writing this from the scene. The area is strewn with collapsed concrete and smoke is rising still. Children remain trapped under the rubble.
People are rushing to help – queuing to deliver water, food and medicine. Some have come to donate blood. Children have been taken out of the hospital on trolleys and are now in the streets, while some continue to receive their cancer treatments via IV drips. Mothers stand with their bed-ridden children outside the collapsed ward that was only recently rebuilt.’
The Spectator 08 July 2024
‘Based on official air threat warnings, the attack might have involved Kh-47 Kinzhal air-launched ballistic missiles and Kh-101 cruise missiles, most likely, some other types were used, too.’
‘One of the russian missiles hit in the middle of a residential building, and another landed on the Okhmatdyt Children’s Hospital, a large medical treatment facility in Kyiv. As of now, 16 victims are reported as a result of this strike, including children. The rubble is still being cleared, and more information about the deceased and injured keeps coming.’
‘A local resident managed to film the moment a missile hit the Okhmatdyt hospital. This footage alone does not allow for a reliable identification of the exact type of the cruise missile. More importantly, there is no visible indication that this missile was shot down or damaged.’
https://en.defence-ua.com/news/childrens_hospital_hit_in_a_combined_40_missile_attack_on_ukraine_video-11105.html
The report doesn’t seem very sure:
“might have”, “most likely”, “does not allow for a reliable identification of the exact type of the cruise missile”
and the source seems a little biased:
“Defense Express is a partner of the Ukrainian Defense Industries (Ukroboronprom) State Corporation. Our Company has been a long-time promoter of domestic defense industry products at international arms exhibitions.”
And Ray McGovern “smells a rat” with this story coming so close to the NATO summit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmdL2eYJR2c (from 25:01).
The messages I hear regularly from Kiev is that they shoot down all Russian missiles.
It is also common practice in Ukraine to disguise videos of rocket attacks to deny the Russians any confirmation of targeting accuracy. It is therefore highly suspicious and unusual that so many videos claiming to be of the hit are appearing.
The missile in one of the pictures has been identified as an AIM-120 missile, used in the NASAMS Air Defense System of the Armed Forces of Ukraine,
As tragic as it must be, and whether a missile came off course or was hit by a defence missile, one can be sure that Russia did not fire intentionally at civilians.
Which is unfortunately not the case with the Ukrainian military. Patrick Lancaster (https://www.youtube.com/@PatrickLancasterNewsToday) has reported so many times in his videos on hospitals, schools and residential areas being targeted by Ukraine, either in the Donbas area or in Russia itself. Here are some of his video titles:
Thanks for the post.
Not to mention numerous attacks on civilians in Belgorod in southern Russia, and the recent gratuitous attack on Lugansk city.
Patrick Lancaster as a reference?:
‘Now, Patrick would admit himself that he’s not the brightest, maybe he’s just taken his eye completely off the ball after all that family time, maybe he just doesn’t have the appetite to cover the business end of the operation, after all his wide-eyed running around giving huge significance to random ‘gunfights’……..
……I’m sure you’ve already heard a hundred times that you should ‘like and share his videos’ and give him money. But, his absolutely inaccurate statement that ‘the major fighting is definitely done’, when the final battle is waging as we speak, cannot be left uncorrected. That is fake news.
I write this in a public forum because I have no direct communication with Lancaster. In general Lancaster is a harmless clown who runs around in a panic, like a rabbit in headlights spouting phrases in broken English, and doesn’t need to be addressed.
But, when he comes out with patently false statements, he needs to be dealt with the same way as anyone else.’
It may be that the readership here are delighted to read references on here put together by an ‘illiterate, grifting charlatan, with a journalistic acumen and ability lower than a potted plant.’ for all kinds of different reasons.
That is entirely a matter for them.
But pretending that ‘not the brightest’ ‘illiterate, grifting charlatan’ is an authoritative source doesn’t, at best, say much for your critical reasoning skills.
At worst, in the context of providing silly ‘whataboutery’ arguments concerning a Russian missile attack on a Ukrainian hospital, it shows you up as another deluded and eccentric, abhorrent and barbaric war crimes sympathiser.
….a number of Russian specialized platforms across social media openly stated that the facility had been hit by a Russian Kh-101.
‘Just look closely at the missile seen in the video, especially pay attention to its tail unit and the turbojet engine located there.’
‘…the Kh-101/102 is of all-Russian manufacture. It is powered by a TRDD-50A turbojet producing 450 kg (990 pounds) of thrust .’
https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/defense/2015-11-20/latest-russian-strikes-syria-employ-new-cruise-missile
‘Footage of the first minutes of the attack on Okhmadyt children’s hospital shows that it was a targeted terrorist attack……..hit Okhmadyt with a Kh-101 missile. The video of the attack shows that it was not a deflection of the missile….’
“The Kh-101 missile flew at an ultra-low altitude and before hitting the Okhmatdyt……….it ascended and hit the hospital. To bypass Ukrainian air defense systems, the missile could have used thermal (flares).
…..the combined strike included several Kh-22 missiles, two of which were not shot down.
‘…..there is no military sense in using such missiles, which have a deviation of 500 meters to several kilometers’