Hard to believe people can be so stupid, as to refuse a very well proven and safe vaccine, against such a nasty and dangerous disease.
But on the plus side, every time I read about polio these last few months I'm reminded of Jim Jeffries polio bit, and that makes me do a little chuckle to myself.
It's a bit early to start blaming antivaxxers when polio has only been found in sewage up to now. Not a single cae has been reported in humans yet. Don't get me wrong, I'm not defending them, but we shouldn't be blaming them so early on.
It is never too early to start blaming antivaxxers. For anything. Rain on your wedding day? It's the antivaxxers' fault. A free ride when you've already paid? Antivaxxers. The good advice that you just didn't take, like getting vaccinated? DAMN ANTIVAXXERS.
I think my favourite part of "the police must solve more crimes" - aside from the implication that they already could but simply choose not to, which in the case of the Met... - is the fact that if the police did "solve" more crimes, as in charged more suspects, the court system couldn't handle it. The court system can't handle the number they're charging now. As of 2020, there was a backlog of half a million cases. Half a million people waiting to find out if they're going to pleasure Her Majesty. Half a million people, not all of whom are going to be guilty but who can't move on until they've had their (delayed) day in court. According to the National Audit Office, things aren't likely to improve through to late 2024. "The backlog in criminal cases," the NAO says, "means victims, witnesses and defendants are waiting longer for their cases to be heard. Between 31 March 2020 and 30 June 2021, the number of cases older than a year in the Crown Court increased from 2,830 to 11,379 (302%) and from 246 to 1,316 (435%) for rape and sexual assault cases. Waiting times increased most in London, with the average age of a case increasing by 63% from 164 days on 31 March 2020 to 266 days on 30 June 2021. Delays could increase the risk of individuals withdrawing from the process and cases collapsing." But sure, let's just get the police to "solve" more crimes. GG, EZ.
I saw that. Their mishandling of it and their slowness to action resulted in more deaths and the effects dragging on longer than necessary. Empowering scientists wtf? It was inevitable they'd blame the messengers even when they didn't listen to the message half of the time. I see more people died of COVID this summer than last summer too.
It's not even mishandling and delays: Sunak literally financially rewarded people for spreading COVID. "Eat Out To Help Out." Yeah, let's give people a massive discount to go in-person to enclosed, often poorly-ventilated restaurants during a global pandemic. Great idea! "But," Sunak's lackies will say, "we needed to financially support the restaurants whose businesses were at risk of failure owing to reduced revenue!" So... do that? Like, if you'd taken the money you spent on Eat Out to Spread Disease and just... given it to the affected restaurants, you would have spent exactly the same amount but not caused a massive spike in infections and the businesses would have seen a higher benefit 'cos they wouldn't have had the costs associated with serving meals to get the money. Don't want to hand out Free Money (ignoring the fact that's literally what you did)? Okay, support 'em in making the temporary switch to takeaway service: knock VAT on the head for takeaway meals for the duration, subsidise business rates, let 'em use red diesel in delivery vehicles... Any or all of these would have been a better option than Eat Out and Die Maybe. And this isn't even my job. I can come up with this, but Sunak and his team can't? Not exactly electing the best, here, are we?
All very true. We've not had the constantly delayed, tax payer funded lawyers gathering for the government, enquiry yet but even an MPs report said they were too slow to respond (shocker!). If i wasn't a forgiving man I'd say some people actively acted to prolong and worsen the effects because some people made a hell of a lot of money. Some still are. I also don't think that either of them realise that the Thatcher they want to mimic and worship is the one that whose government was kicked out after the poll tax riots and mass non payment.
Which, though I'm taking us off-topic here, is pretty much where we're headed. Our Glorious Leaders appear to be speed-running the 70s and early 80s, without even the benefit of bringing back the old WH Smiths logo or proper Brannigan's crisps.