The U.K. has used just 142 million of the stockpile of 650 million vaccine doses it purchased, leaving an estimated £4 billion worth of vaccines unused and, at current levels of take-up, likely going to waste. The vaccines typically have an expiration date of six to 12 months after manufacture – though it’s not clear how many of the 650 million doses have already been manufactured and put in storage and how many are on order for future manufacture and delivery.
Officials have not revealed exactly how much was paid for the Pfizer vaccines, which comprise nearly a third of the total ordered, but the U.S. Government is reputed to have paid around $20 (£16) a dose.
The Moderna vaccine is said to have cost a bit less, perhaps about $15 (£12) per dose, and the Astra Zeneca considerably less, perhaps as low as $4 (£3) per dose as it was sold at cost. There are no data on the other five types ordered, all of which are as yet completely unused.
If an average price of $10 (£8) per dose is assumed, the total bill for all the unused vaccine doses will amount to around $5 billion or £4 billion. Will the public be forgiving of this massive waste of public funds on account of it occurring with good intentions during a state of emergency? That remains to be seen.
It is however far from the only example of pandemic profligacy. The losses due to fraud and delinquent business loans are colossal, with City AM reporting that the Treasury’s £4.3bn fraud write-off is likely to be eclipsed by £20bn of Covid loan defaults. The Government has also written off £8.7bn it spent on protective equipment bought during the pandemic, with £673m of equipment unusable, £750m not used before its expiry date, £2.6bn of equipment judged to be unsuitable for use in the NHS, and £4.7bn being due to the Government paying more for it during the acute global shortage than it is now worth. The Government also spent £569m buying 20,900 ventilators, of which only 2,150 (10%) were used, the rest being left idle in a Ministry of Defence warehouse.
This gross misuse of taxpayers’ money must be examined in the independent inquiry and by Government so the lessons can be learned and in future a robust management system applied in real time so that even stocks purchased in haste and with urgency are kept in reasonable proportion to anticipated demand.
The over-reaction and panic in spring 2020 resulted in decisions that have now turned out to be a huge waste of public money. If there was perceived to be a shortage of anything that might conceivably be needed to fulfil the needs of the public emergency, the public purse was always open.
Actually, the purse appeared to be treated more like Mary Poppins’ bottomless magic carpet bag, with no sign of any prudent oversight applied to funding decisions as long as they served the purpose of proving to the public that the Government was ‘doing something’ about Covid. The results of that fiscal incontinence are now clear for all to see.
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critique the government and get cancelled, this is respecting democracy how?
Yup it is open for a wide range of interpretation. Just like the (abuse of) Public Health Act 1984.
Those reasons include: “the interests of national security”, furthering the “foreign policy objectives of the Government”, promoting “compliance with international humanitarian law”, promoting “respect for democracy, the rule of law and good governance” and “for the purposes of compliance with a UN obligation”.
Just which of the above have the British government complied with these last two and half years?
Ok, perhaps “compliance with a UN obligation” – no surprise there.
As I keep repeating, switch any government pronouncements completely and you will be closer to the truth.
“respect for democracy and the rule of law?” – oh do ferk off you lying barstewards.
Tyrants throughout the ages use essentially the same language, and they share the same hypocrisy: “national security” means their security; “humanitarian” means anything they like.
But the outright and unabashed lying comes out with “respect for democracy, the rule of law and good governance”. Who, in their right mind, believes this? Are they laughing at us?
Sadly AE I believe the wannabee powers that be are now emboldened by the ease with which they have beaten down and infantilised the Western populations. So yes, they are laughing at us.
Yes – I think that’s the great danger we face.
People were beaten down and infantilised with an ease I think most of us here found shocking, but that tyrants (big and small) found enthralling.
We saw an explosion of self-righteous bullying. There are people who love their new normal, and they serve as the troops on the ground and the thought police.
The tyrants they serve will now push until we resist. We have to have our red line, and fight this – or abandon lives worth living.
Who will ever forget MattHancock laughing at us along with Piers Morgan? The problem with these people is they never learned or understood history.
“compliance with a UN obligation” is perhaps the most disturbing.
If the Paris Climate Accord is a UN obligation is the government now calling for any website that contains anything that could be classed as promoting a climate sceptic view to be blocked?
Somebody should invent and launch “Internet v2”, a place where none of this bollocks ever applies
It’s being done right now.
the Russia situation is being used in the UK as the patriot act is being used in the US, the patriot act was sold as a temp measure in 2001 after 9/11, its still on the books 21 yrs later. Same here, use the current situation to force through vague laws and regulations and then use them however you like.
“And who is a “designated person”? It is simply somebody designated by the Secretary of State as being on the Russia sanctions list”.
imagine how that will work in say “election time” “oh look, this info that we don’t like is coming from erm, russia, better block it”
Russia interfered in the elections, look 49 people from the CIA said Biden’s laptop is Russian misinformation…
Tell me, Boris, is the pandemic treaty a step towards World Government?
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/tell-me-boris-is-the-pandemic-treaty-a-step-towards-world-government/
Dr Deborah Ancell
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I’m certainly noticing ‘access denied’ on an increasing number of sites.
TCW Conservative Woman is still being blocked by Three 4G, after 2 weeks.
I hope LS stays with this, just at GB News is also exposing this silent insurrection.
Perhaps DS.org could earn money suggesting a VPN supplier to work around state censorship?
just use the Opera browser – it has a built in, free VPN
It’s not a full VPN and records your activity.
I use Private Internet Access (PIA) https://tinyurl.com/y357tyr6
Importantly, it does not hold records of your internet activity as many do, so it can never be compelled to hand them over.
It’s also dead easy to use and almost invisible.
Snap. And I use for the same reasons.
All I’d add is PIA makes it easy to switch locales. If for some reason you need pretend to be in Luxembourg you can do so. Or Ukraine, lol.
Another advantage of Opera is that it was designed with security in mind – so all the defaults are set high…
Surprised GBNews hasn’t got Ofcomcensored for this!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iExn7ogxWrs
Research suggests mRNA all-cause mortality rate is higher: Professor Christine Stabell Benn explains
The same government banning websites on the grounds of national security are welcoming in hoards of foreign nationals whom we know nothing about. Except the origins of those immigrants and the volumes means few will integrate in any meaningful way. A significant threat to national cohesion never mind national security.
Our world is a farce.
we know most of them are lying!
mangled after speelcheque
“Except the origins of those immigrants”
Most migrants are lying about origin, age and status. As soon as they get the paperwork, they often return home. Often the place they claimed they were at risk if they had not left.
I meant in the broader, cultural sense. As in, not like us. There is no greater longterm threat to our ability to hold the nation together.
And not enough return home.
I think some lads should Get together and descend on that Yorkshire village. Democracy is dead. I saw the GB News interview. If the villagers just get ignored in Parliament, well, there needs to be ‘other’ methods.
If you ‘get together’ the military will be called in to suppress a ‘right-wing terrorist plot’,,,,
If there is anyone out there who resents HM “government” censorship.
Yandex. Good luck censoring that.
I’d never heard of it before the delightful Liz Truss caused me to look.
We can expect to see the WWF (World Wildlife Fund) added to this list for torture, murder and gun running can we?
Translation note for Brits: when Tucker talks about “liberals” he means leftists, not anti-authoritarians, and NPR is a bit like the BBC. When he talks about “the American middle class” he’s talking about what we would probably term working and lower middle classes.
Tucker: This should make you nervous
watch Mary Poppins.
The middle classes could afford to employ full time servants…
Using this “formula” How many people are middle class nowadays?
very few.
While the everyone is distracted by daily life, our governments grab power that allows it to act arbitrarily against us.
It’s been happening for a long time. Now it’s just getting very creepy, because there is barely any self restraint any more.
In that sense the government reflects the people. Very little restraint there either.
People are voluntarily distracted. I’ve tried to discuss the basics of covid responses and vaccines with people around me. Total indifference.
Most people hate thinking. They’ll happily outsource it.
Maajid Nawas…Permium meat is Wagyu. The cow is pampered until it is slaughtered. If you see but cannot perceive, step aside so that those that are awake may fight this enemy for you.
That is why right now in the US, despite that horrible shooting, they need to defend their 2nd amendment. Biden would be only too happy to part people with Arms. Then, Canada or Shanghai here we come.
US citizens do need to defend the 2nd amendment, otherwise, if that can be altered then so can the rest of the constitution. You can imagine the politicians like biden going, “well you don’t need the first amendment, whats that? yes I would be quite happy to get rid of the 4th amendment” etc etc.
“…promoting “respect for democracy, the rule of law and good governance”
By that token, the websites and social media of virtually every politician in the country would be blocked
Unlike in WW2, when the British government decided NOT to ban Lord Haw-Haw because doing so would make a mockery of Britain’s commitment to democratic principles. The Nazis, on the other hand, banned Germans from listening to BBC & US broadcasts and penalties were severe. My parents told me the family would just laugh when they tuned into Lord Haw-Haw before retuning to the BBC.
And what about the BBC? This quote from an article in The Conversation (written by the excellent Tim Luckhurst from Durham University): “The solution was not censorship but a determined effort to raise the entertainment value of BBC radio. Lord Haw-Haw played a part in shifting the BBC away from its policy of ignoring popular preferences to an understanding that “the barometer of listeners’ preferences” should help to define its output.”
I fell about laughing. The BBC in its current awful form could learn a lot from history!
Like the main political parties, the BBC has long since been hijacked. They still have to maintain appearances and pretend these institutions are fans of democracy and balance. But not for much longer.
The same kinds of people run the schools and the kids are being conditioned to reject democratic norms like free speech.
Look at the universities for what our future will look like. Fewer statues, less free speech, the condemnation of anyone who challenges orthodoxy. There is an authoritarian generation coming who will embrace slavery for themselves and us all.
I agree that these regulations are excessively censoring and restrictive. On the other hand they are being imposed extremely laxly, it is very easy to stream RT in the UK.
Most importantly they bear no relationship whatsoever to the level of extreme state-enforced silencing which takes place in e.g. Russia itself, including imprisonment for up to fifteen years for even questioning the invasion of Ukraine; and a long and extensive history of both internment and assassinations of any major dissenting political or journalistic figures.
It is vitally important to recognise the benefits of liberal democracy (which includes the right to challenge and ultimately overthrow these current restrictions) rather than let them fall by default.
Well I suppose that’s a “liberal” interpretation of the onslaught of tyranny.
One of the main propagandist tools that genuinely tyrannical ideologies and agendas use to undermine then overthrow multi-party liberal democracy is to claim that the proclaimed benefits are a sham, that there is no genuine freedom, voting is pointless due to actual control by unelected ‘elites’ etc.
So do you believe that there is more or less freedom of speech, democratic control, freedom from oppression (including threat of imprisonment or worse for expressing political views) in the UK or Russia?
If the latter please point me to the equivalent of this site based in the Russian Federation (just by way of example).
They’ll get their comeuppance when we get a Labour government and they block the Tory party for being “far right”.
‘UN Obligation…’
This would be the same UN that has China and Russia as permanent members of the Security Council and threw out founding member Taiwan?
And exactly how are they going to prevent me from logging into my vpn, typing ‘rt.com’ and reading Russia Today? I did just that a few seconds ago and there was no problem at all. Incidentally, I didn’t spend much time on the site but whilst I was there saw nothing that was blatant propaganda or any ‘anti Ukrainian rants’.
it’s a bit annoying that RT aren’t obviously biased … when the Biased Brainwashing Cult is.
Basically my whole conceptual model of a biased USSR media and “impartial honest” BBC, has now been totally turned on its head.
Give it a couple of months and the only thing available online will be the BBC showing Boris’ latest pandemic declaration on loop and youtube kitten videos.
RT is available through Rumble:
https://rumble.com/user/RTnews
However, it’s not exactly the most thrilling read and I am hoping the UK government stop behaving like spoilt children and grow up, so I don’t have to keep watching it … although to be truthful there’s the odd article on some obscure subject that usually grabs my attention.
Quis custodiet diet ipsos custodes?
Stop pussy footing around: our goverment and opposition, entire political/media/ngo/quango class are fascists. This has been evolving since 1997. Go read my old stuff about internet censorship on commentisfree.
So fascistic that you can freely publish unlimited amounts of material calling them fascists…
Have you ever tried doing the same thing in Russia or China?
We should hear the Russian view of what is happening in Ukraine and Russia. We should be making more effort to make our view of those things heard in Russia. The Russian people are not in favour of Putin’s despotic behavior but they only hear about it from his side, so how can we blame them for supporting the way he is indescriminatedly killing people, because they don’t believe it is happening. We should not discriminate against people just because they are Russian. If Russians come here or other western countries, they will have the opportunity to hear both sides of the situation and balance both sides propaganda output.
This is truly shocking. Thanks goodness for VPN connections. Most don’t have them though and will just assume the sites are dead. This is really, really bad.