Coronavirus (COVID-19)

Yes.

I've said it before, but I'll say it again: thank god for the likes of Whitty, Vallance and (even) Van Tam (I wish he'd drop the rather strained football analogies - but otherwise I think he is very good). 

Whitty was impressive on all fronts: his extremely clear presentation of facts, and logical reasoning on things like why not to think 'its OK Omicron is less dangerous'; his careful management of the 'restrictions' aspect and in essence explaining o those who might not get it what 'personal responsibility' really means (without using those words).

I thought tonight was one of his best. I wonder whether he recognises both that the PM has lost a level morality  of moral authority and is politically damaged goods, and hence felt less reticent about being stronger talking about things that he might otherwise defer to BJ. To give BJ some credit (yes I had to swallow hard on that one), perhaps he knows that and they had agreed beforehand on how things would play.

On the other hand, my impression of Robert Peston, who I used to have some regard for, goes down with every COVID briefing question session. I'm not sure there is any further for him to go in my ratings scale. 

P.S. I wish WHO had not labelled this Omicron. Watching BJ do his address the other day, I can't watch him reading out lines referring to 'an oncoming wave of Omicron' without picturing it as an audition for a bit part role in Star Trek (done badly). 
EDIT: Correcting typo

As a customer, what would you say was a fair price tag for Track & Trace ? 

could be of interest. Linking to it here does not mean I have done anything to dig below to see what the provenance of the article is.

Wuhan lab leak 'now the most likely origin of Covid', MPs told

Declaration of interest: I have to say that for quite a long time now I have felt that the lab engineered virus + lab leak was an entirely plausible candidate.

This is not by way of defending it, and I suspect politics has some role to play, but nonetheless one could probably make some form of rationalisation:

- IFF (and I don't know whether its true or not) Fr's 65k current cases are almost entirely Delta with very little Omicron
    THEN it is rational to attempt to slow the speed at which Omicron infection points are introduced into the country. 
- In contrast,
    o the UK is already on a path where Omicron will  dominate, and already pretty much is in London (a major transit centre/mixing pot, including Eurostar)
    o its a racing certainty that the UKs 75k total cases today will be much larger than that in even 2-4 days time (so the 'only 10k more' comparitor will shortly be old news if 'O' has not yet got much of a foothold in Fr)

If Fr's case load is currently nearly all Delta, then a big wave of 'O' on top is going to be a hammer blow. How much time in reality any of this will buy them - if any - is debateable. 

yeah the muppet filming it !

Earlier this year, I went out to see a movie in a very “quiet” cinema.

youtu.be/DwYjs_gmbPE

It made me wonder if there is anything like Staro on earth. Secret collaboration between nations and nobody is supposed to know about the “data”.