Oh - Sunak and Johnson are now isolating

[Dustyboots]

How more confusing can this get?

Although I agree that Boris should stay in Downing Street running the country (which he can do from home in Downing Street) instead of the country retreat of Chequers.

OK so ignoring the batshit and rather random 'communism' comment...

They have rather painted themselves into a corner. Would be funny if it wasn't so serious.

At best, i don't want to get covid again. At worse, i don't want to hear more mental health troubles from my students and colleagues in hospital. Or deaths.

Thing is @Tealightsandd he would only be doing what he’s proposing for the rest of the vaccinated population in August. That’s what the pilot with testing is primarily to back up. When push comes to shove running the country is actually a pretty important job (even if it’s a bonobo scratching it’s arse and flinging shit around in parliament).

A leader of any substance could have justified his position convincingly and given good arguments for it. He can’t. He can only regurgitate one liners someone else with the brief to make him sound like Churchill has thought up for him. The u-turn is the most damaging thing here for trust - he’s not confident he can defend his own actions.

Even smarmy Blair has a defence for WMD’s and Iraq when this twat can’t defend being on a pilot scheme.

It's all a bit ridiculous to make someone like Johnson isolate - we know he's had covid (badly) and has been vaccinated. It is vanishingly unlikely that he could catch, or pass it on, again. Time they changed the rules - goodness knows why we've got to wait until the middle of August for common sense to reign.

is vanishingly unlikely that he could catch, or pass it on, again.

Really? Have we had very new data published? Experts (until now) have warned that people can catch Covid more than once. Particularly with new strains.

I did read something about Pfizer ages ago. Study looking at it possibly reducing the likelihood of transmission. But I can't remember if I read the results of the study or just that it was being looked into. And anyway, we were told that Boris had Astrazeneca.

PMQ’s will be a laugh this week. Wonder what non-answers he’ll bust out on Wednesday.

In a perfect world this would be the nail in his coffin.

@Cornettoninja

PMQ’s will be a laugh this week. Wonder what non-answers he’ll bust out on Wednesday.

In a perfect world this would be the nail in his coffin.

He can duck out of it if he's isolating.

There should have been greater publicity for the pilot schemes before this happened. I’d never heard of it before today. I heard RMT man on Radio 4 explaining it and that it relates to essential services in the case of the railways a signalling office (But only for a short period, not a long-term pilot). From what he said participation was voluntary so employees that preferred to follow the non pilot scheme could.

Much as I hate how the current government has handled things I think it is part of essential infrastructure- I wonder if some of the officials present at the Javid meetings, that will be implementing the plans will still be on pilot.

He’d better bloody not @User135644. Other MP’s have attended PMQ’s via video link.

@Cornettoninja

He’d better bloody not *@User135644*. Other MP’s have attended PMQ’s via video link.

He hid in a fridge to get out of being interviewed before the election. Last PMQ's before recess, if freedom day goes badly and figures are bad Monday/Tuesday, Starmer will have enough ammunition to give him both barrels.

Really @User135644? What’s the story with the fridge?

It’s quite an achievement to be able to make Starmer appear to be the stronger statesman!

@Cornettoninja

Really *@User135644*? What’s the story with the fridge?

It’s quite an achievement to be able to make Starmer appear to be the stronger statesman!

www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/dec/11/boris-johnson-hides-in-fridge-to-avoid-piers-morgan-interview

Omg what a tool!

I can’t believe that one passed me by!

It’s quite an achievement to be able to make Starmer appear to be the stronger statesman!

Nonsense. Starmer makes BJ - a PM with an 80+ majority - squirm during PMQs. Thats one thing the Tory press can't manipulate.

@Cornettoninja

I can’t believe that nobody chipped in and said something

They’re all too busy sticking their thumbs in the massive holes in all their other policies.

Let’s face it, we’ve given the reins of this country to a bunch of chimpanzees. They don’t know what they’re doing and have no capacity to plan or risk assess unintended consequences. These are the people who were crowing last year that there was absolutely no way anybody could have foreseen an increased demand for PCR testing when the schools returned.

I think that you are being massively unfair on chimpanzees. Some of them can even communicate clearly with each other.

I reckon Boris has done yet another hiding trick to avoid being in London and/or uncomfortable presenting anything when cases might hit 100k nationally.

After all he had avoided those cobra meetings last year and will probably just "isolate" aka start extended summer holiday holed up well out of sight in his countryside bunker.

I recall vaguely Gove was also under this newly invented "pilot scheme" recently, may have been after his trip to Portugal.

What’s the point of being vaccinated @Tealightsandd if everyone who is vaccinated still has to isolate in the same way as the unvaccinated?

This reopening really is turning into a shitshow. When I heard this morning that Johnson and Sunak were not going to isolate because they were part of a “pilot” program I knew there was going to be a climbdown from that but I thought it would be to scrap isolation for all double jabbed people, not that they would go into isolation themselves! Gah!

The point of being vaccinated is to reduce the risk of getting seriously ill and/or dying.
Also, if and when majority of the population are vaccinated, to limit opportunities for transmission and mutation.

In America, where most people are having mRNA vaccines (Pfizer and Moderna) almost 100% of the deaths are in the unvaccinated.

I might be recalling wrong but I think I read about research looking at if Pfizer protected against transmission. Don't know if what they found. But we were told that Boris had Astrazeneca so that research would be irrelevant in his case.

I think if we got to a point where 80-90% had mRNA vaccines, it would be safer (but not completely risk free) to relax the self isolation guidance. Obviously that relies on no vaccine resistant variant popping up. The right mitigation measures would limit that risk.

Astrazeneca is currently working on boosters tweaked to protect against some of the variants, so perhaps we can use that as well as the mRNA vaccines. Fingers crossed.

Are the tweaked boosters ready yet @Tealightsandd?

I'm not sure. I think they were talking about autumn, but it depends on how the trials go. It would be great if they were successful. Hopefully.

@Mommybunny

What’s the point of being vaccinated *@Tealightsandd* if everyone who is vaccinated still has to isolate in the same way as the unvaccinated?

This reopening really is turning into a shitshow. When I heard this morning that Johnson and Sunak were not going to isolate because they were part of a “pilot” program I knew there was going to be a climbdown from that but I thought it would be to scrap isolation for all double jabbed people, not that they would go into isolation themselves! Gah!

It is scrapped, from mid August.