Tony Blair this morning

[LaLoose]

Did Tony Blair's four-step plan - explained on the Today Programme this morning - make clinical sense, does anyone know? And, if so, why the FLIP aren't we / all European countries doing it NOW???

I didn't see it, but intrigued. What did he say?

Oh good, Tony Blair has come to save us all

I heard it. Basically about planning. If the vaccine is safe, roll it out. Doesn't matter if it is uncertain on its efficacy (provided it's at least 40% effective or so) as long as it works and its safe. 40% effective is better than nothing and its likely to be 60-70.

I see the point. The only way out of this is immunity. Either let the virus rip through (take the death toll) or immunise. Or keep on as we are very slowly reaching some level of herd immunity. Can see why he would advocate immunisation.

Interesting to hear him say it reduces severity of illness not prevents it totally. That wasn't my understanding.

I heard some but not all of Today OP - can you say approx when he was on, I'd like a listen? Ta.

Yes he was the last item - so start at 8.50ish.

Blair has a brain, unlike this lot @BertieBloopsMum

@LaLoose

Blair has a brain, unlike this lot *@BertieBloopsMum*

Well I'm sure that all European leaders, as you say, will be so grateful to him for showing them the way! How on earth have any govts coped without his input?

My gosh if we're resorting to listening to Blair again we really are fucked.

I wish Blair was back in charge.

@Eyewhisker

I wish Blair was back in charge.

Who would you like us to invade this time?

Really?! Are we the that desperate?

One of the men partly responsible for the current carnage from the Middle East?

This vaccine is being fast tracked enough, thanks.

Oh fgs - what was the four step plan?

Or keep on as we are very slowly reaching some level of herd immunity.

Isn't "herd immunity" only applicable when you have a vaccine - or indeed evidence that exposure once prevents a second infection ? Neither of which is true at the moment ?

Or did I miss something ?

Basically spend November:

Getting enough of the Astra Zeneca vaccine to run a vaccination programme
Give safe therapeutic drugs to hospitalised C19 patients
Set up mass testing, particularly for students at universities and secondaries
More efficient data collection

I'm no advocate for Blair, but to come on to this thread just to bash him rather than comment on the subject at hand is a little thick. Just scroll past.

I wish Blair was in jail.

@LaLoose

Basically spend November:

Getting enough of the Astra Zeneca vaccine to run a vaccination programme
Give safe therapeutic drugs to hospitalised C19 patients
Set up mass testing, particularly for students at universities and secondaries
More efficient data collection

I'm no advocate for Blair, but to come on to this thread just to bash him rather than comment on the subject at hand is a little thick. Just scroll past.

Which of those isn't currently being done?

1. Accelerate vaccine use - roll out the Astra Zeneca/Oxford vaccine now to key groups as it is proven to be safe. It doesn't matter how effective it is 'don't let perfect be the enemy of good'. Even if it is only 40 per cent effective we should take that in a heartbeat. It is probably up to 70 % effective - but anything will help now. No reason to wait.
2. Therapeutic drugs - as long as they are safe - accelerate deployment of them before Christmas. Extend Recovery trial to more people - enrol as many people as possible on it to get more data back. Likelihood is that they are effective - we are holding them back from people now, nothing to lose by rolling them out. Would allow hot spot areas to be dealt with much more effectively.
3. Appoint a Minister and Gov team to do nothing other than making sure every uni is testing every student and school pupil before they return to school.
4. November should be the month of organisation and preparation.

Then in December we could open up again.

If we don't do this, we are damaging the economy. This needs to be the last lockdown. We need to get out of this.

From the programme. I agree with him.

His plan seemed a very clear and sensible one to me, that I could understand and get behind. I don't really have a clue what plan Boris is working too and I'm not sure that he does either.

If they want volunteers to start being vaccinated tomorrow, I'm in!

I heard this item on Radio 4 this morning. What he said (as @Fantasisa lays out above) made total sense. Most importantly, he emphasised that repeated lockdowns will never solve this thing and are simply too damaging. I think we can all agree with that. The current myopic approach is getting us nowhere.

Thanks @Fantasisa, a much better explanation than I gave (and I got point four wrong, too).

Has he told Macron and Merkle about his brilliant plan? I'm sure they will cancel their lockdowns immediately!

@LaLoose I listened back to it, it wasn't off the top of my head. Thanks for starting the thread - I had missed the interview and would much rather Blair was in charge now.

I am not a Blair fan, but he was very impressive this morning. I missed the intro, and when I came back in the room where the radio was, at first assumed it was him because of his voice, but came to think that it was actually someone who worked in a related field; that's how well-informed and competent he sounded. He was very good.

@BertieBloopsMum

He hasn't advocated cancelling lock down?
If you want to criticise Blair's proposals at least know what they are

I suspect among the trillions of debt we’re now in there will still be a fucking great wodge still owing from the futile war he dragged us into.

He always appears from his hole to criticise others after doing a rather shit job himself.