You need to be logged in to your Sky Poker account above to post discussions and comments.
You might need to refresh your page afterwards.
Vaccine Passports.
Boris Johnson to unveil vaccine passport trial 'starting next month' in theatres and stadiums before being rolled out to restaurants and pubs - as 72 MPs brand the move 'divisive and discriminatory'
Trials of vaccine passports (concept pictured bottom-left inset) could begin as early as next month, the Mail has revealed, with theatres and stadiums being lined up to pilot the controversial scheme under plans discussed by ministers. The passports could also be used eventually in pubs, restaurants, nightclubs and cinemas. The pilot scheme will begin after work is completed on an updated version of the NHS Covid app which will let users prove they have been vaccinated. The plan is a sign Boris Johnson will give vaccine passports the go-ahead on Monday, when he is due to report the interim results of a study led by Michael Gove. But their introduction is certain to trigger a huge political row. Last night 72 MPs - including libertarian Tories and senior Labour figures - issued a joint statement branding vaccine passports 'divisive and discriminatory' and vowing to oppose them. This threatens a major headache for the Prime Minister if he needs legislation to bring the scheme in. Yesterday, the Prime Minister dropped a further hint he has come round to the idea, saying vaccine passports could help to provide 'maximum confidence to businesses and customers'. He stressed any scheme would also allow people to show a negative test result or proof they already have Covid antibodies. Speaking (pictured left) on a visit to Middlesbrough, the PM said vaccine passports now looked inevitable for foreign travel. But he suggested they would also have a 'useful' role to play domestically. Right: Graphs showing the number of people vaccinated in the UK per-day (top) and daily news Covid-19
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9428665/Covid-passport-trials-begin-Boris-Johnson-set-unveil-test-scheme-venues-Monday.html
Trials of vaccine passports (concept pictured bottom-left inset) could begin as early as next month, the Mail has revealed, with theatres and stadiums being lined up to pilot the controversial scheme under plans discussed by ministers. The passports could also be used eventually in pubs, restaurants, nightclubs and cinemas. The pilot scheme will begin after work is completed on an updated version of the NHS Covid app which will let users prove they have been vaccinated. The plan is a sign Boris Johnson will give vaccine passports the go-ahead on Monday, when he is due to report the interim results of a study led by Michael Gove. But their introduction is certain to trigger a huge political row. Last night 72 MPs - including libertarian Tories and senior Labour figures - issued a joint statement branding vaccine passports 'divisive and discriminatory' and vowing to oppose them. This threatens a major headache for the Prime Minister if he needs legislation to bring the scheme in. Yesterday, the Prime Minister dropped a further hint he has come round to the idea, saying vaccine passports could help to provide 'maximum confidence to businesses and customers'. He stressed any scheme would also allow people to show a negative test result or proof they already have Covid antibodies. Speaking (pictured left) on a visit to Middlesbrough, the PM said vaccine passports now looked inevitable for foreign travel. But he suggested they would also have a 'useful' role to play domestically. Right: Graphs showing the number of people vaccinated in the UK per-day (top) and daily news Covid-19
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9428665/Covid-passport-trials-begin-Boris-Johnson-set-unveil-test-scheme-venues-Monday.html
Comments
Firstly, being used like a British passport. It is inevitable. Countries do not trust other countries. If you want to go abroad, it is going to be necessary. There should be careful consideration as to the whens and exemptions. But it is going to happen
Secondly, being used like an identity card within the UK. I'm distinctly uneasy about this. As an example, there are people who cannot have the vaccine because of a severely compromised immune system. My next door neighbour died a year ago of lung cancer. His last pleasure was going down the pub. Anyone comfortable with banning someone who could not have a jab? But, similarly, pubs that did ban people like that would get more trade. It is difficult.
Those that wont be vaccinated include pregnant women, those that plan to get pregnant soon, people with allergies, kids under 16.
Then there are those that refuse the vaccine.
The other thing to consider is that none of the vaccines have 100% efficacy.
All of this amounts to an increasing number of people that will be put at risk if there were no passports.
Staff is also a consideration. Should unvaccinated people be allowed to work behind bars, serve people in restaurants, shops etc, drive taxis, or in any position where they are able to infect large numbers of people.
The silly thing about all this is that they're not needed. Opinion polls indicate that around 90% of people will take the vaccine without government coercion. I suspect that number will be even bigger once people realise that they'll struggle to travel abroad without one (the hesitant are disproprtionately likely to be immigrants or have family overseas). A lot of the remaining unvaccinated will have already had covid, so we'll likely end up with over 95% of people who have had a jab or covid itself.
Turning to jobs, there is going to need to be compromise.
Can see that Care Home workers will need a jab. NHS? Not necessarily-can be redeployed to less risky areas. I expect Covid to involve risk in the same way as flu as time goes on.
Bar workers? No. Not least because I want a pint next month. Not wait until some 20-yr-old has had a jab. But that is easy for me to say-as I have had Covid, as well as a jab
Alarming how the odious Blair has been hanging around this issue. Saw an opportunity to issue ID cards through the back-door.
The government extension of free lateral flow tests to everyone in England leads most front pages.
"Covid tests twice a week to set us free," the Daily Express declares in its headline.
The Daily Mail calls it "a multi-billion pound scheme".
The Daily Mirror says Boris Johnson will describe testing as "now more important than ever" with ministers believing, according to the Independent, that it will "stop outbreaks in their tracks".
The Daily Telegraph suggests it could lead to staff and customers being asked to show they have a negative result, while the Guardian notes the scepticism of some scientists, who emphasise "the high possibility of false negatives".
The shadow health secretary, Jonathan Ashworth, tells the Times it should go "hand in hand with community public health-led contact tracing".
And the Scotsman says there are calls for people in Scotland to have the same access to the tests.
The Telegraph says it has learnt that MPs will be given a vote on any vaccine passport plans.
This raises the prospect, the paper suggests, of Mr Johnson being defeated in the Commons.
The i reports on a senior researcher who is analysing vaccine passport pilots around the world.
He suggests that, based on his findings so far, a scheme in the UK would be "an expensive waste of time" and a huge distraction.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-the-papers-56635277
Government sources said the 'focus' would be on enabling certain businesses to reopen without the need for social distancing rules that would make them economically unviable.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9435793/Social-distancing-rules-bars-scrapped-early-bosses-demand-Covid-certification.html
Hospitality venues were first ordered to start collecting customer details last year to help track down the contacts of anyone who subsequently tested positive.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9435973/Now-drinkers-diners-Test-Trace-details.html
The Daily Mirror hails what it calls the country's "grand reopening". "Cheers, we're opening for business", says the Daily Express.
Noting that pubs will reopen next Monday but holidays are still on hold, the Sun delivers its verdict - "glass half full."
But there is also a sense of disappointment that the road ahead is unlikely to be smooth and full of uncertainties.
"Call this Freedom?" is the question posed by the Daily Mail, pointing to the prospects of weekly tests, no foreign travel, jab passports, social distancing and what it calls a new doomsday warning of a third wave.
The paper points to the warning by Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) that hospital admissions could once again hit the levels seen in January.
The Daily Telegraph finds Boris Johnson's caution on lifting the coronavirus restrictions hard to justify.
It reminds us that the prime minister once said he would be guided by data not dates. Yet, the paper says, even though the number of Covid cases have fallen faster than predicted - with no surge caused by the return of schools - it is the roadmap dates that are determining the pace of relaxation.
The paper argues crisis measures are only defensible when the emergency is in full flood.
But the i newspaper sees merits in the prime minister's caution. It warns of new cases which could see a surge because of the South African variant of the virus.
The paper says this could lessen the impact of vaccines and begin to cause real harm. It also reminds us of Sage's forecast of a third wave which could hit the UK in late summer or autumn.
Passports and tests
The government's suggestion that "vaccine passports" could be used by pubs and restaurants to relax social distancing rules is covered by many papers and websites.
The Guardian says Sir Keir Starmer is expected to vote against the move.
HuffPost UK recalls that more than 70 Tory MPs have already signed a cross-party letter opposing the introduction of Covid certificates.
The website notes that the government is to begin trials to enable the safe return of crowds to mass gatherings including FA cup finals at Wembley and indoor events such as comedy clubs.
Meanwhile, a professor of public health at Newcastle University, Allyson Pollock, has told the Daily Mail that regular testing for the coronavirus will do more harm than good.
Calling it a "scandalous waste of money", she argues that such tests will result in a public health disaster with thousands forced needlessly to self-isolate.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-the-papers-56644717
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/coronavirus-live-latest-updates-vaccine-passports-third-wave-b927983.html
The Sun's editorial pours scorn on the idea - not, it says, because of concerns over the infringement of liberties, but because "by the time they are finally introduced they may be a pointless, disastrous waste of money".
The Daily Mirror's leader urges ministers to provide evidence to back up why such widespread checks would be needed, to avoid the prospect of a backlash from the public.
But the Financial Times welcomes the idea in its leading article, saying that it could help to reopen society and assist businesses while also protecting the country from the risk of new strains of the virus.
However, it cautions that "chaos and confusion could still ensue... if the gap between intention and implementation is as wide as it has so often been" over the course of the pandemic.
In terms of parliamentary support, HuffPost UK reports that Labour has sent a briefing note to its MPs confirming that the party will vote against plans to introduce the Covid certificates.
A senior party source tells the website the current proposals are "poorly thought through... and run the risk of becoming another expensive Whitehall project."
The Telegraph says the government will receive support from an unlikely source if the matter goes to a parliamentary vote.
The Scottish National Party's Westminister leader, Ian Blackford, tells the paper his MPs will vote for the plan, despite Scottish parliamentarians usually abstaining on issues that only affect other parts of the UK.
The front page of the Daily Mail claims that ministers are considering allowing people to take rapid Covid tests after returning to the UK to make holidays affordable.
Currently, people arriving from abroad need to pay hundred of pounds to buy the "gold standard" PCR tests - and sanctioning the cheaper lateral flow tests would significantly reduce costs for travellers.
The head of the Airlines UK trade body, Tim Alderslade, welcomes the idea in the Daily Express writing that the country's recovery from the pandemic will be hampered if "travel becomes a privilege of the few".
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-the-papers-56657519
I am sure that many small pubs couldnt possibly be profitable if they had to maintain social distancing.
While so many remain unvaccinated, surely the same reasons would apply to UK covid passports, as those that apply to the need for them when travelling abroad.
In the case of pubs, If I had a choice of going to one of two locals, and one was insisting on passports while the other wasnt, I would definitely choose the one that required passports.