Secretary of State Antony Blinken and U.K. Foreign Secretary Liz Truss again rejected calls for a no-fly zone over Ukraine, saying such a step could draw their countries and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization into a direct confrontation with Russia.
The top American and British diplomats said their governments would continue to exert diplomatic and economic pressure on Russia, while providing defensive weapons to Ukraine.
Ms. Truss said the U.K. government would bolster Ukraine’s air defenses by supplying Starstreak anti-aircraft missiles.
Mr. Blinken warned that the creation of a no-fly zone using NATO aircraft and personnel would “almost certainly” bring the alliance into the war.
“Our goal is to end the war, not to expand it—including perhaps to expand it to NATO territory,” he said.
The Polish government’s offer of MiG-29 fighter jets for use by Ukraine via transfer of the aircraft to a U.S. base in Germany could have serious implications for NATO, Mr. Blinken said. “We have to make sure that we’re doing it in the right way,” he said.
Citing the Pentagon’s statement yesterday that the specifics of the Polish proposal are untenable, Mr. Blinken said: “It’s not simply clear to us that there is a substantive rationale for doing it in the way that was put forward yesterday.”
As Ms. Truss and Mr. Blinken detailed the effects of existing sanctions on the Russian economy, Ms. Truss called for an intensification of the global response.
“We must go further and faster in our response. We must double down on our sanctions. That includes a full Swift ban, and the G-7 ending its use of Russian oil and gas,” she said.
INDIANAPOLIS — Any team looking to make a trade for Russell Wilson will have a high bar to clear.
The Seahawks declined an offer of multiple first-round picks from the Commanders, according to multiple reports. The trade offer backs up what both teams said earlier this week at the NFL Scouting Combine: The Seahawks will entertain phone calls on all players, but are not looking to move on from Wilson, while the Commanders plan to be aggressive in pursuing a veteran quarterback.
“I don’t think you will see many quarterbacks on the move despite all the talk,” one NFL executive told The Post.
Wilson’s trade availability has been a subject for 14 months, but Washington’s is the first reported offer. Wilson has a no-trade clause and, even if the teams agreed upon fair compensation, it is unknown if he would waive it to go to the Commanders, who could become the favorites in the NFC East with a quarterback of the nine-time Pro Bowler’s caliber.
Russell Wilson Getty Images
Wilson’s agent said last offseason he would be willing to be traded to the Cowboys, Saints, Bears and Raiders.
Washington has a talented roster — perhaps more so than the seemingly fading Seahawks — but the organization has been surrounded by controversy for most of owner Daniel Snyder’s two-decade tenure and is being investigated over allegations of sexual misconduct. Wilson is a former NFL Man of the Year award-winner and is close to commissioner Roger Goodell.
Taylor Heinicke was 7-8 as Washington’s starter last season, when the initial plan to go with Ryan Fitzpatrick backfired when the veteran suffered a season-ending injury in Week 1.
“This year we are being very proactive, looking, searching,” head coach Ron Rivera said. “We are trying to truly cover every base. Every time you hear something, you’re checking into it. We’ve got to do our due diligence.”
Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst said he had not heard from any of his peers regarding a trade for MVP Aaron Rodgers, which could be about to change unless Washington saw Wilson as much more likely to be available.
BRUSSELS, Jan 13 (Reuters) – Poorer nations last month rejected more than 100 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines distributed by the global programme COVAX, mainly because of a rapidly approaching expiry date, a UNICEF official said on Thursday.
The big figure shows the difficulties of vaccinating the world’s population, despite growing supplies of shots, with COVAX getting closer to delivering 1 billion doses to nearly 150 countries.
“More than a 100 million have been rejected just in December alone,” Etleva Kadilli, director of the supply division at the U.N. agency, told lawmakers at the European Parliament, adding that the main reason for rejection was their short shelf life.
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Later in the day a spokesperson for the U.N. children’s agency said that of the 100 million doses rejected, 15.5 million were deemed to have been destroyed. Some doses were rejected by multiple countries.
UNICEF did not reply to a query on the total of rejected doses so far, in addition to those rejected in December.
Wealthy countries donating vaccines with a relatively short shelf life has been a “major problem” for COVAX, a senior official of the World Health Organization said last month. read more
Poorer nations have also been forced to delay supplies because they have insufficient storage facilities, Kadilli said, including a lack of fridges for vaccines – for which COVAX investments have been delayed for months. read more
Many countries also face high levels of vaccine hesitancy and have overburdened healthcare systems.
By the end of 2021 the EU had made available to poorer nations 380 million doses, of which only 255 million have been delivered, the European Commission has said.
Many other doses are stored for use in poorer nations.
UNICEF data shows 681 million shipped doses are now stored in about 90 poorer nations, says CARE, a charity, which extracted the figures from a public database.
More than 30 poorer nations, including big states such as the Democratic Republic of Congo and Nigeria, have used fewer than half of the doses they received, CARE said.
A spokesperson for Gavi, a vaccine alliance which co-manages COVAX, said the high storage level was because of a surge in deliveries in the last quarter, especially in December.
Gavi added that most vaccines recently shipped by COVAX had a long shelf life, and so were unlikely to be wasted.
MORE SHIPMENTS
COVAX, which is co-led by the WHO, has delivered 987 million COVID-19 vaccines to 144 countries, Gavi data shows.
COVAX is the main supplier to dozens of poorer nations, but not the only one, as some countries buy doses on their own or use other regional programmes.
Supplies to poorer nations have long been very limited because of lack of vaccines, as wealthier countries secured most of the doses initially available from December 2020.
But shipments have increased exponentially in the last quarter, thanks to donations from rich countries that have vaccinated the majority of their populations.
In January, 67% of the population in richer nations had been fully vaccinated, whereas only 8% in poorer nations have received their first dose, WHO figures show.
Increased supply caught many recipients unprepared.
“We have countries that are pushing doses that are currently available towards quarter two of 2022,” Kadilli said.
Of the 15 million doses from the EU that have been refused, three-quarters were AstraZeneca shots with a shelf life of less than 10 weeks upon arrival, according to a UNICEF slide.
“You want to have adequate time to move vaccines from depots,” said Kenya’s health ministry spokesperson Mburugu Gikunda said, adding that doses near expiry would go to waste if accepted.
Reuters reported in December that up to one million vaccines were estimated to have expired in Nigeria the previous month without being used. read more
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Reporting by Francesco Guarascio; additional reporting by Maggie Fick in Nairobi; Editing by Alex Richardson and Clarence Fernandez
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Travis ScottPhoto: Jamie McCarthy (Getty Images for MTV/ ViacomCBS)
Following the deadly crowd surge at AstroWorld that killed 10 and injured hundreds in November, rapper Travis Scott announced he would pay for the victims’ funeral. Half of them have since rejected the offer.
Per Rolling Stone, the family of the youngest victim, nine-year-old Ezra Blount, was the first to refuse. Now, four others are saying, “no, thanks.” According to the attorneys representing the families, Scott’s offer was more about public optics than expressing remorse.
“It was not an offer [the Hilgerts] were going to seriously consider,” Richard Mithoff, the lawyer representing 14-year-old John Hilgert’s family, told Rolling Stone. “Of all the things this case is about, that’s the least of any concern. This family is set on making change and ensuring this never happens at a concert again. I find offering to pay for funerals frankly demeaning and really inappropriate to the magnitude of the tragedy that unfolded.”
Other lawyers agree. Philip Corboy, who represents the families of Jacob Jurinek and Franco Patino, both 21, said his clients “realized quickly that all he was trying to do was trying to lessen the public outcry on his case […] It took them each about three seconds to say ‘No, no no.’”
“If he’s trying to impress upon the families that he’s sincere and has concern for them and realize that funerals can be expensive, what Scott’s team did is not the way to do it,” Corboy said. “You don’t get a piece of paper in the mail from a lawyer in Beverly Hills who says he represents Travis Scott. These families are raw right now; that lacks any personal touch.”
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The representative for the family of Axel Acosta, 21, Tony Buzbee, also took offense to the offer. He didn’t even return Scott’s lawyer’s call. “It’s bullshit. If you gave a shit about these families, you wouldn’t have to put out a press release for everyone to see saying he’s willing to pay for a funeral.”
“Let the families grieve and shut up, that’s it. When something like this happens, there’s not a whole lot someone like Travis Scott could do to assuage their pain,” Buzbee said. “He says he feels sorry for them but he’s quick to say it wasn’t his fault. He’s no different than any defendant pointing fingers to someone else. They don’t want funeral expenses from him. Whatever we get from him we’re going to get through the court system.”
Along with Drake, Apple, and Live Nation, Travis Scott is currently facing a $2 billion lawsuit on behalf of 282 plaintiffs. Another suit, representing 125 plaintiffs and asking for $750 million in damages, was also filed. Buzbee, however, believes they will be “consolidated in a single courtroom in Houston.”
The Lagos-appointed panel concluded the shooting of peaceful protesters at the toll gate by the military could be described as a massacre. But the report was fiercely discredited by the country’s federal government with Information Minister Lai Mohammed describing it as “nothing but the triumph of fake news.”
Speaking at a press conference in Lagos, Sanwo-Olu called for “a walk for peace” next month for reconciliation.
“In December, I will be leading a walk for peace to herald the healing of our land,” he said. “Let me use this occasion to extend an open invitation to our youths, members of the diplomatic corps, civil society groups, students, and the media as well as other stakeholders to join me.”
Nigerian entertainers Folarin Falana (Falz) and Debo Adebayo (Mr. Marcaroni), who were among celebrities invited to the peace walk have rejected the governor’s invitation.
Falana posted a tweet Tuesday evening describing the proposed peace walk as “disrespectful” and “a joke.”
“This suggestion of a ‘walk for peace’ sounds like a joke and a very disrespectful one at that. People were murdered in cold blood and absolutely no iota of justice has been served more than a year after. How can there be peace without justice?” the tweet read.
Adebayo argued that reconciliation efforts should begin with the implementation of the judicial panel’s report.
“I humbly decline the invitation of Mr Governor. The Government themselves set up a panel. The panel has made recommendations. I believe that genuine peacemaking will begin by first implementing the recommendations of the panel. Then we can begin to trust the government,” he wrote in a tweet.
The Lagos governor did not directly comment on the federal minister’s denouncement of the report but remarked that “it is far too easy to take sides and choose emotion over fact, even when the truth is to be found in shades of nuance… Today, I stand before you to declare that I reject this path; and I invite you all to do same.”
He added that his administration’s response will be guided by law and evidence.
“As I have stated earlier, we have no intention to engage in histrionics or further inflame passion on a matter that has generated intense interest and controversy nationally and internationally. Our decisions and actions will be based entirely on the law, the weight of evidence, and unblemished respect for the truth.”
The Nigerian government has persistently denied that protesters were shot at the toll gate despite an abundance of video evidence and witness accounts pieced together by CNN.
Members of the Judicial Panel of Inquiry and Restitution at the Lagos Court of Arbitration told CNN that the panel’s findings which contradicted official accounts of the incident were based on objectivity and facts.
A member of the panel, Majekodunmi Temitope Oluwaseun, told CNN that the rejection of the panel’s report by the federal government was only an attempt “to evade responsibility and justice.”
“The federal government is looking for any means possible to evade responsibility and justice,” Oluwaseun said. “The minister’s statements literally suggest that the government was not, in the first place, waiting for the panel’s report. It only speaks to their level of insincerity.”
Oluwaseun urged authorities to “take responsibility” to “ensure that people’s feelings are assuaged.”
The panel had, among other things, recommended that victims of the toll gate shooting and others who are proven to have suffered human rights abuses should be compensated.
Governor Sanwo-Olu stated in his speech that more than 1 million dollars (420 million naira) have been paid to victims of police brutality in line with the panel’s recommendations.
Giants first baseman Brandon Belt was the only one of the fourteen players tagged with the QO this offseason to accept the deal, reports Mark Feinsand of MLB.com (Twitter link). That means players like Justin Verlander, Freddie Freeman and Robbie Ray have all declined the offers, as had been anticipated.
Verlander was the only one of the aforementioned trio who ever looked like a realistic possibility to accept the QO, as he’s coming off a season lost to Tommy John surgery recovery and turns 39 years old in February. Astros owner Jim Crane told reporters last month that Verlander was looking for a contract “of some length,” though, and early interest in the future Hall of Famer seems to be robust. It seems likely the two-time Cy Young award winner will be able to find a multi-year deal, even with draft pick compensation attached.
Freeman and Ray, meanwhile, made the very easy call to turn the QO. They’re among the top handful of players in this year’s class, with each likely to land a five or six-year deal that pushes well north of $100MM. There was no incentive for either player to entertain the possibility of taking a QO, since declining has no impact on their ability to continue to negotiate a longer-term arrangement with their incumbent clubs.
The status quo-affirming result is a setback to both citywide and national efforts to fundamentally reduce or eliminate the role of police in America.
Talk of curbing police departments by cutting or limiting their resources has run into a countervailing wall of concern over public safety and waning support from early allies — including leading Democrats who largely view “defund the police” messaging as political poison.
The vote marked a significant setback for activists dedicated to defunding or dismantling a police department that had for years been confronted with accusations of racism and the use of excessive force. Tuesday night was the first time voters in Minneapolis had the chance to weigh in on a concrete proposal to overhaul policing, and they rejected it by a 13% margin.
Voters on both sides of the public safety measure agreed that the way Minneapolis police operate now is not acceptable. The question on the ballot posed one way of changing that, and voters found the plan to give control of public safety related departments to the city council and eliminate the requirement to employ police officers unacceptable.
Proponents of (the ballot measure), the burden was on them to demonstrate to voters they had an implementable vision that addressed aspects of policing and public safety important to Minneopolitans,” said Leili Fatehi, spokeswoman for the campaign opposed to the measure. “They did not do that. They did not present and amendment that changed the way police are recruited, changed the way they’re disciplined, changed the way they’re held accountable. It didn’t do any of those things. That’s ultimately why people rejected a vague hope for restructuring without specificity.”
City council candidates who opposed the public safety measure appeared to retain their seats, while two challengers who opposed it unseated incumbent councilors who supported the measure.
Minneapolis City Councilmember Phillipe Cunningham, who spearheaded a similar ballot initiative, called the results “really unfortunate.” He lost his seat to a challenger Tuesday.
“We have just seen a clear backlash to progress in our city,” said Cunningham.
Floyd’s murder on Memorial Day in 2020, captured on video by a bystander and the video went viral on social media, set off a tinderbox. In response to protests that drew national attention, Minneapolis city councilors gathered in a city park and pledged to dismantle the police department.
Mayor Jacob Frey was confronted outside his home in June 2020, shortly after Floyd’s murder, and jeered when he refused to commit to abolishing the police department — a much more ambitious step than was proposed in the ballot initiative on Tuesday. A day after Frey’s confrontation with protesters, nine members of the city council announced plans to begin “the process of ending the Minneapolis Police Department.”
“We committed to dismantling policing as we know it in the city of Minneapolis and to rebuild with our community a new model of public safety that actually keeps our community safe,” Council President Lisa Bender told CNN at the time.
Weeks later, the council voted unanimously to begin a process that would dismantle the police department and replace it with a “department of community safety and violence prevention.”
The move was greeted by activists who, as surges of anger pulsed through cities (and even some suburbs), saw an opportunity to realize reforms that had previously been viewed as impossible. What followed was almost 18 months of litigation and other fights through city bureaucracy about the scope of possible change, largely because of a constitution-like document governing the city’s structure and the police department’s role that is not easy to change.
Despite the measure’s failure, proponents hope city officials will take into consideration the thousands of voters who signed a petition to get the measure on the ballot and who voted for its passage.
“We didn’t lose the campaign because our vision for expanded public safety was radical, we lost because (opponents) repeated the same vision and told people they could deliver it without structural change,” said JaNaé Bates, spokeswoman for the “Yes” campaign. “Attaching to that lie and selling it to folks is frustrating, but it does make me proud to know we have expanded the conversation in Minneapolis, that policing and public safety are not synonymous.”
The question on the ballot Tuesday, of whether to do away with the Minneapolis Police Department and replace it with a Department of Public Safety, resulted from a petition drive following Floyd’s murder.
More people cast their ballots early this year than any other Minneapolis election in 45 years. Early voting was up 143% compared to the 2017 municipal election, and up 488% compared to the 2013 municipal election. By about five hours into Election Day, about 30% of registered voters had cast a ballot early, by mail, or in person.
Voters in Minnesota’s largest city have rejected what would have been an unprecedented move to dismantle the police department at the ballot box Tuesday following calls for reform following the death of George Floyd.
The measure asked voters if they favored amending the city’s charter to replace the Minneapolis Police Department with a Department of Public Safety. The initiative would have removed language from the charter related to the agency, including minimum funding requirements, and would have divided control of public safety between the mayor and City Council.
The question failed 57% to 44%, according to the results released by the Minnesota Secretary of State’s office with 133 of 136 precincts reporting. It needed 51% of voter approval to pass.
AUSTIN, TEXAS, DEFUNDED ITS POLICE DEPARTMENT. NOW VOTERS WILL DECIDE IF CITY NEEDS MORE OFFICERS
Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo addresses the media regarding the proposed charter amendment that would replace the police department, during a new conference at St. Mary’s Greek Orthodox Church lasy week in Minneapolis. (Elizabeth Flores/Star Tribune via AP)
It would have essentially removed power from the mayor and police chief in an effort to re-imagine policing. Tuesday’s vote comes as Minneapolis is experiencing an uptick in violent crime similar to other cities.
MINNEAPOLIS POLICE DEPARTMENT REFERENDUM: MULTIPLE CARJACKINGS IN 90 MINUTE PERIOD DAY BEFORE CRUCIAL VOTE
According to the ballot language, the public safety department would have employed a “comprehensive public health approach” to policing, putting a greater emphasis on public health, specifically mental health.
The measure was spearheaded by Yes 4 Minneapolis, a coalition of businesses and other groups, which gathered 22,000 signatures to put it on the ballot, which was a battle in itself after it became the subject of legal challenges. The Minnesota Supreme Court ruled in September that voters could decide on the matter.
Lawn signs conflict with each other outside of a polling place on Tuesday in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Christian Monterrosa)
The goal, the group said, was to have options other than officers for responses to non-police-related calls. Fox News has reached out to the organization and the Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis.
Advocates insisted the measure was not meant to defund the police. As of Oct. 9, the police department had 591 sworn officers, down from 853 in 2018, a police spokesperson told Fox News.
“I am disappointed that people appear to be coming from a place of fear,” Erica Mauter, a Minneapolis resident who supported the measure, told Fox News Tuesday night. “When we’re uncertain about the future or when change feels tenuous, we want to go back to what made us feel comfortable and to what we already know. We have to challenge ourselves to have some imagination about different paths to a safer Minneapolis.”
Even in defeat, Mauter, 43, said she is hopeful incremental steps can be taken.
Opponents raised concerns over the measure’s vague language and a perceived lack of a transitional implementation plan if it were to pass.
Another question on the same ballot also asked voters if they favored consolidating the rest of the city’s municipal departments under the mayor, similar to how the police department is currently organized.
Voters emerge from Sabathani Community Center after casting their ballots during municipal elections Tuesday in Minneapolis. (David Joles /Star Tribune via AP)
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Tuesday gave Minneapolis voters their first chance to give their input on police reform since the May 2020 death of George Floyd by former White Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin and the subsequent nationwide protests, riots, court battles and promises by elected officials to overhaul how communities, particularly ones of color, are policed.
The ballot question split Democrats with some like Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, who is running for a second term, and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz opposed. Others like State Attorney General Keith Ellison and U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar supported the measure.
The Saints and Seahawks are squaring off on Monday night, but neither side is nearly as entertaining as Marshawn Lynch, the former Pro Bowl running back. Always one to deliver colorful commentary, the longtime Seahawks star was the first guest on Peyton and Eli Manning’s ESPN2 broadcast of Monday’s Week 7 finale, and he had no shortage of quips. In between a live F-bomb and jokes about the Manning brothers’ legacy, Lynch also pondered a hypothetical comeback with the Buccaneers and recounted stories of teammates hunting Skittles for him during his game days.
“Oh, shit,” Lynch said when asked if he’d return to the NFL if Tampa Bay offered him a contract this week. “No. As much as I would love to go (play) with TB, I just … nah, I’m satisfied where I’m at. And I would have some stipulations … It would probably work out for me, because I wouldn’t wanna run too much. If I could take one of ya’ll with me so (you) could be sitting on the bench having conversations like this, hell yeah.”
Lynch, 35, hasn’t played since 2019, when he had a one-year second stint with Seattle. But after admitting he took three shots of Hennessy in preparation for his “Monday Night Football” appearance, he recalled his playing days with joy, adding that his perceived obsession with candy was real throughout his playing career.
“What they (my teammates) did was, if we was having a bad night, they for sure would go to the depths of the Earth to find some candy for me,” he said. “(They’d be like) ‘Is your mama in the stands? I’m gonna go find your mama so we can get some candy for you.'”
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Firefighter Matt Smither is seen working alongside critical care nurses in the Intensive Care Unit at Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth, southern England.
ADRIAN DENNIS | AFP | Getty Images
LONDON — An increasing number of doctors in the U.K. are warning that the country, and its health service, are facing a renewed health crisis due to rampant Covid-19 infections and a rising number of hospitalizations and deaths.
The warnings, from several big British medical bodies over the last couple of days, come as government officials have insisted that more restrictions on public life are not yet necessary, despite Health Secretary Sajid Javid warning Wednesday that Covid cases could reach 100,000 a day as we enter the winter period.
Making matters potentially even worse, U.K. experts are now monitoring a mutation of the delta variant that could be making the virus even more transmissible.
Read more: The delta variant has a mutation that’s worrying experts: Here’s what we know so far
‘Incredibly concerning’
The British Medical Association slammed the government’s sanguine perspective on the situation, stating Wednesday that it was “incredibly concerning” that Javid was not, as the association viewed it, “willing to take immediate action to save lives and to protect the NHS.”
“Especially as we head into winter, when the NHS is in the grips of tackling the largest backlog of care, with an already depleted and exhausted workforce,” it added in a statement, echoing numerous reports of exhausted frontline health staff.
Read more: UK doctors call for urgent return of Covid restrictions as experts monitor new mutation
The BMA backed calls, made earlier this week by the NHS Confederation (which represents organizations across the U.K. health care sector) for the government to trigger its “Plan B,” which it had said last month that it would do if Covid cases threatened to severely impact the health care service’s ability to function.
“The reality today is an unacceptable rate of infections, hospitalisations and deaths, unheard of in similar European nations. In comparison to France, we have more than 10 times the number of cases and almost four times as many deaths per million,” the BMA said.
The U.K. has been recording between 40,000 to 50,000 new daily infections in the last week. While the number of daily deaths and hospitalizations remain far below earlier peaks in the pandemic thanks to Covid vaccines, data shows these numbers are climbing too.
On Thursday, the U.K. reported 52,009 new cases and 115 deaths within 28 days of a positive Covid test. In addition, another 959 people were admitted to hospital, official data shows.
The government has rebuffed concerns over whether the health service can cope. Health Minister Edward Argar told the BBC Thursday that the NHS is not under “unsustainable pressure,” noting that there were about 95,000 beds in NHS hospitals, with 7,000 occupied by Covid patients and 6,000 currently empty.
“We know how those numbers can rise swiftly, which is why we’re looking at that day-by-day, hour-by-hour. But at the moment we do have the ability to manage,” he said.
Other experts beg to differ and say the data could be worse than it appears.
‘The UK really is in trouble’
The U.K.’s Zoe Covid Study, which collects and analyses Covid data with help from King’s College London, estimated Thursday that the number of daily positive tests in the country is much higher than government data suggests. The data suggested there were 81,823 new daily symptomatic cases, on average, based on PCR and LFT (lateral flow test) test data from up to five days ago. That’s an increase of 17% from 69,993 new daily cases last week.
Dr. Tim Spector, a professor of genetic epidemiology at King’s College London who runs the study, commented that “with over 80,000 new cases a day the U.K. really is in trouble.”
“This hasn’t happened overnight, but frustratingly our calls for a more cautious approach to Covid management have gone unheeded, despite the upward trends we’ve reported now for several weeks … The U.K. needs to act now to prevent the situation from escalating out of control ahead of winter,” he said.
Stalling vaccinations
Medical experts also agree that the U.K.’s vaccination program, which got off to a flying start back in Dec. 2020, has stalled. Official data shows 79% of the population aged 12 and over is fully vaccinated.
“There are a number of developments that lie behind the dramatic rise in U.K. infections. Adherence to non-pharmaceutical interventions such as mask wearing has declined; the favorable summer seasonal is fading; and a new sub-lineage of the Delta variant, known as AY.4.2, is increasing modestly,” JPMorgan Chief European Economist David Mackie said in a note Thursday.
“But, in our view, the main issue is the combination of a stalled main vaccination programme, fading vaccine protection and an only modest start to the booster programme.”
The number of fully vaccinated individuals in the U.K. reached 45 million at the start of October, Mackie noted but by Oct.19, 45.4 million people had been fully vaccinated, “representing an average daily pace over the past few weeks of only 27,600. The main vaccination programme has effectively stalled,” he said.
Spector agreed that “the two main reasons we’re seeing cases back at January peaks are the U.K.’s flagging vaccine programme … and lifting most restrictions too early.”
He said the government needed to encourage the unvaccinated to take up shots, and to reintroduce “simple measures, such as wearing masks on public transport and in crowded, poorly-ventilated places, avoiding large indoor gatherings and working from home where possible.”
“Doing nothing now will just make it worse. This pandemic is far from over, and whilst it seems some would rather bury their heads in the sand, Covid-19 and its new variants have other plans.”
