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Apologies if already posted;
Good Law Project can now reveal that Michael Gove, and Cabinet Office Minister Lord Agnew, referred six firms down a fast track ‘VIP’ route to bid for lucrative Test and Trace contracts. This is the first time the names of the Ministers who referred testing firms for VIP treatment have been made public.
When we first revealed evidence of a VIP lane for politically connected suppliers to win multi-million pound testing contracts, Government claimed that what we were saying was “completely false”.
Now, after a lengthy battle with the Cabinet Office, it has admitted that senior ministers Michael Gove and Lord Agnew frequently made use of a ‘fast track’ lane.
In its FOI response, it confirms: “a total of 6 offers of help were received to the VIP email address: covidtestingtriage@dhsc.gov.uk from the Private Office of Michael Gove and the Private Office of Lord Agnew”.
Remarkably, the Cabinet Office is still refusing to publish the names of the firms that benefitted from the red carpet rolled out by ministers, saying the “public interest favours withholding this information”.
We don’t agree. Why should businesses who have the ear of a minister jump to the front of the queue, when other companies often had more experience? And why is it in the public interest to hide how the public’s money has been spent?
We will stop at nothing to unearth the names of the ‘VIPs’ who benefitted from a red carpet route to the Government’s eye-watering £37bn Test and Trace programme.
https://goodlawproject.org/news/michael-gove-lord-agnew-testing-vip-lane/
From Telegraph online:
Mass free Covid-19 tests must end because of the huge costs to the taxpayer, senior ministers believe.
Discussions are under way in the Government to scale back the arrangements that allow everyone to get a lateral flow test and some people to get PCR tests without paying, The Telegraph can reveal.
Absolutely correct icepool - the government want returning travelers to pay for their own tests and not use "free NHS" tests. The only way to do this for such large numbers is to approve at home tests of which I am confident Avacta via Medusa will be one. It is only a matter of time before this is announced.
Now there's an army of shorter paid lackeys. This board is littered with them. If you read their posts and sell then more fool you. Avacta is not a jam tomorrow company, it is a champagne and caviar company tomorrow. The shorters are taking on the get rich quick investors and winning. Avacta is a get rich company for those here for the medium and long term.
Victoria just introduced mandatory vaccines for all workers apart from those who can work from home. Once the lockdown lifts in November, then no jab means lay off without pay. Great news for those of us wanting to visit relatives. However in my view the best way is make the unvaccinated have a daily rapid test and have the cost deducted from their wages.
My interpretation is that if you are only dosing a patient with 90% of dioxyrubin in combination with the precision platform then any negative effects of the platform should be spotted. "Very pleased" suggests that so far all is positive.
Avacta is the type of share favoured by Scottish Mortgage who have recently upped their stake in Moderna. Run by Baille Gifford who own 4.5% of Avacta (although not sure which specific funds they are tucked away in), it would not be surprising to see them topping up their holdings at the expense of Jupiter.
Sorry it has taken so long to get back to you. I had difficulty getting hold of Bethell. Apparently he has had phone problems. Said his phone was getting hot and he did not want to be seen with a smoking phone, so he changed it. Anyway to answer your query he has revealed the criteria for government purchased tests. He said he had thought long and hard about it – even thinking night and day. In the end he decided we would only buy tests on Topcashback.
I’ve left it a little late to arrange the hols and, with this traffic light madness and PCR testing ramp, I thought we would holiday in the UK and wondered if you would let out your new house. There is no need to leave the Taddy Ales in the fridge as I am going teetotal till the next one is born and Nicola has sent me a case of Irn Bru to see me through. I poured the first can into Dilyn’s drinking bowl. Can’t be too careful Al! If you could leave your Whaler discount card then that would be just the ticket.
Kind Regards
Boris
Article illustrates the uselessness of covid passports and the double jabbed spreading of covid:
"While the vaccines are still doing a good job of reducing serious disease and death, their protection against catching Covid has proven disappointing. A combination of new variants and fading immunity has left those early hopes of 95 per cent protection in tatters. As Professor Neil Ferguson put it only yesterday, “92 per cent of adults may have antibodies at the moment, but only about half of those are protected against infection, so there’s a lot of transmission going on between vaccinated people.” His university, Imperial, now estimates protection against infection from two vaccines at 50-60 per cent.
Meanwhile, Israel, one of the earliest countries to vaccinate almost all its citizens and therefore a useful sign of things to come, is experiencing a surge in infections. In May, the Israeli Ministry of Health estimated the efficacy of two vaccines against infection at 95 per cent; by July 5, that estimate had fallen to 64 per cent; and the most recent estimate puts it at 39 per cent. They’re now rolling out booster shots to try to shore up the crumbling wall of immunity against infection.
As usual, there’s a lag of a month or two before the full implications of such a fast-changing situation sink in, but let me try to put it simply. If you have had your two vaccines, it doesn’t mean you will not get Covid: there is no way to remove that possibility. Happily, if you do get it you are much, much less likely to get seriously ill or die, so it is absolutely worth getting vaccinated, as well as taking booster shots when they are offered. But the case rests on protecting yourself from ill health, rather than other people. And you can leave behind any notion of dividing the world between the safe, clean, vaccinated majority and the scary unvaccinated hordes – Covid will continue to circulate among the entire population, hopefully at manageable levels.
The implications of this development in terms of policy are becoming clear. It delivers a final coup-de-grace to the “Zero Covid” movement, as if that goal was ever achievable; and it removes much of the moral argument for vaccinating the youngest, who will evidently be able to pass on the infection in any case.
Perhaps most significantly, it represents a hole under the water line for vaccine passports. If you are worried about catching Covid at a gathering, which would you rather: that everybody has done a quick test at the door, or that everybody presents vaccination papers? The former now makes more sense – whether the powers that be admit as much remains to be seen."
From Telegraph online:
Restrictions to be brought back in Isreal.
"The restrictions, which had been lifted in June, once again limit outdoor and indoor gatherings of any size to people who have been vaccinated, those who have recently recovered from the virus or people able to present a negative Covid-19 test."
Looks like we are going to be needing some good rapid tests.