Coronavirus

[LHC]

Article in the Guardian online this morning - some employers in garment industry, it seems, have forced workers to work when they have Covid symptoms, also quite possibly claiming furlough payments at the same time. It references sub minimum wage rates (known from previous years) and workers who don't understand English so public health messages may not have got through.....

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/jun/30/some-leicester-factories-stayed-open-and-forced-staff-to-come-in

Also on Guardian online an article that the US has bought ALL stocks/production of Remdesivir for the next three months. This is the country we are treating as our next ally and principal trading partner. But at least we need be under no illusions where we (or other countries) stand.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jun/30/us-buys-up-world-stock-of-key-covid-19-drug

"....there [is] a way for the UK to secure supplies of this and other drugs during the pandemic, through what is known as a compulsory licence, which overrides the intellectual property rights of the company. That would allow the UK government to buy from generic companies in Bangladesh or India, where Gilead’s patent is not recognised.

The UK has always upheld patents, backing the argument of pharma companies that they need their 20-year monopoly to recoup the money they put into research and development. But other countries have shown an interest in compulsory licensing. “It is a question of what countries are prepared to do if this becomes a problem,”"

I'll be writing to my MP, and others asking them to pressure the Government to adopt that mechanism, in concert with the EU. I feel its likely Trump will take offence at any effect on US Pharma's profit margins, so Johnson won't want to do that as he's hoping for a trade deal pre No Deal Brexit.

I suspect the UK will be wary of undermining international drug patents because of the potential impact on the UK Pharma sector rather than any desire to appease the orange buffoon. GSK and Astra Zeneca are are both in the top 10 Pharma companies in the world and several of the top selling drugs worldwide were developed in the UK. I doubt they’ll want to overturn that applecart over supplies of one drug with an unproven benefit for COVID 19.

We have at least secured UK supplies of dexamethasone, which has also shown some benefits in treating COVID 19.

[Dave2002]

Interesting - https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020...hould-be-front

Typically (!!) the rest of the world doesn’t exist!

[Count Boso]

Interesting - https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020...hould-be-front

Typically (!!) the rest of the world doesn’t exist!

You mean, who gets priority after the US has bought up all the available vaccine?

[Dave2002]

You mean, who gets priority after the US has bought up all the available vaccine?

I don't even think there's any acknowledgement that there's anything going on anywhere outside the US, or that anywhere outside the US even exists.

I lived in California for a while - and not all the people are like that. Heck, most of the news is local - one half of that country doesn't know (or perhaps care) what the other half is doing.
There are loads of nice people, and some do know about the rest of the world, and some really care a lot, and there are many really bright people who think hard, but there are many who haven't a clue.

[Now I think of it, some of the comments above also apply to some other countries - but I think the insularity of the US is at times mind boggling....]

[Count Boso]

I don't even think there's any acknowledgement that there's anything going on anywhere outside the US, or that anywhere outside the US even exists.

Given the speed at which they've bought up the world stocks of remdesivir, I think they'll be quick enough to latch on to any new vaccine wherever it's produced, and be ready to outbid anywhere else to get what they need.

[Dave2002]

One rule for the little people .....

Just noticed on the Mirror site "The Prime Minister's father Stanley Johnson has posted pictures of himself flouting the travel guidance by travelling to Greece via Bulgaria."

[Dave2002]

Let's hope he catches something and dies
the world would be better off without him and his hideous offspring

I'm not as cruel as you are, but I understand, though do not condone, your thinking.

[LMcD]

Let's hope he catches something and dies
the world would be better off without him and his hideous offspring

We need the Johnsons and people like them around to keep us in our place. They are John Cleese and we are Ronnie Corbett (I'm not sure who's Ronnie Barker)

[Dave2002]

We need the Johnsons and people like them around to keep us in our place. They are John Cleese and we are Ronnie Corbett (I'm not sure who's Ronnie Barker)

No we don't. We don't need them at all. However, like the pigs in Animal Farm, "they" will always be with us.

[LMcD]

No we don't. We don't need them at all. However, like the pigs in Animal Farm, "they" will always be with us.

Hands up anybody else who thought I was being serious.

[Count Boso]

Hands up anybody else who thought I was being serious.

Not I. Though I was going to volunteer for the Ronnie Barker role - if looking at both sides of an argument from a position of dispassionate indifference.

[cloughie]

We need the Johnsons and people like them around to keep us in our place. They are John Cleese and we are Ronnie Corbett (I'm not sure who's Ronnie Barker)

Wasn’t he Able Seaman Johnson? - could have been related!

[LMcD]

Wasn’t he Able Seaman Johnson?

Golly, gosh - so he was - in a radio series about a strange-coloured bird.

[Cockney Sparrow]

Time to send Rachel out to say she doesn't agree with.... but....(Jolly style amelioration)..... what can you do? Stanley is Stanley, (Boris is Boris... - i.e. ordinary rules** don't apply, do they, chaps? ** You know - those rules we have to follow).

I don't know who taught whom but both Stanley and Boris have perfected the art, when exposed in public, of saying mostly drivel, with only a few key words repeated - those they want to hook the attention of the impressionable.

I'm sure their ambitions and opinions are expressed in private conversation, or amongst their elect groups with much more clarity..

p.s. I'm aware the grammar here might be imperfect..... I'm only an East End boy.....).

[DracoM]

https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/by-donkeys

Watch and despair.