thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-12-17--Ian McKellen Receives Coronavirus Vaccine: 'I Feel Euphoric'

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Sir Ian McKellen has spoken of his “euphoria” at being among the first people to receive the new Covid-19 jab.
The long-awaited vaccine arrived in GP practices across England on Monday, with those over the age of 80 receiving top priority.
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On Wednesday evening, award-winning actor Sir Ian McKellen posed for photos receiving the first of his two jabs, admitting he felt “euphoric” to have been given the vaccine.
“It’s a very special day, I feel euphoric,” he said.
Sir Ian McKellen receives the first of two Covid-19 jabs at Queen Mary University Hospital Jeff Moore
“Anyone who has lived as long as I have is alive because they have had previous vaccinations, the take up amongst the older generation will be 100% – it ought to be – because you’re having it not just for yourself but for people who you are close to. You’re doing your bit for society.”
The 81-year-old continued: “Of course, it’s painless… it’s convenient, and getting in touch and meeting NHS staff and saying thank you to them for how hard they’ve been working is a bonus.
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“I would have no hesitation in recommending it to anyone. I feel very lucky to have had the vaccine.”
Sir Ian said he felt "euphoric" after getting the injection Jeff Moore
Earlier in the week, Great British Bake Off judge Prue Leith shared a photo of herself getting the jab on social media, tweeting: “Who wouldn’t want immunity from #Covid19 with a painless jab??”
Since then, showbiz veteran Lionel Blair has also had the injection, stating: “I’m hoping it’s going to make me live a bit longer! And seeing my grandchildren and children growing up.
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“The whole thing means a great deal to me.”
The 92-year-old said he “hadn’t been out” due to coronavirus restrictions, and that anyone who refused the offer to receive the jab is “crazy”.
Lionel Blair WPA Pool via Getty Images
Two jabs are needed for the recipient to gain immunity from Covid-19, with an interval of three weeks required between injections.
While Sir Ian, Prue and Lionel are among the first high-profile celebrities to receive the Covid-19 vaccine, a number of other public figures have said they would receive the jab publicly, to encourage others to do the same when they were eligible.
Earlier this month, Piers Morgan said he would get the vaccine live on Good Morning Britain, saying: “I just feel like it’s really important if we are going to get through this that enough people take it.”


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-12-17--Liz Truss To Denounce 'Destructive' Focus On Race And Gender Issues As 'Tools Of The Left'

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Liz Truss has branded race, sexuality and gender issues as “tools of the left” in an overhaul of the government’s equalities brief, claiming they “do nothing to fix systems”.
But her speech comes just a day after it was revealed the gender pay gap has significantly widened at the Department for International Trade (DIT) which she heads.
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Under Truss, women earn on average 15.9% less than their male counterparts. Three years earlier the gap stood at 2.7%.
On Thursday, Truss laid out a “Conservative values” approach based on “freedom, choice, opportunity, and individual humanity and dignity”, in a speech titled The New Fight for Fairness.
Truss said the “narrow focus on protected characteristics” set out by the 2010 Equality Act – age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion, sex and sexual orientation – has led to a “narrowing of the equality debate that overlooks socio-economic status and geographic inequality”.
She called for the equality debate to be “led by facts, not by fashion”.
Speaking at the right-leaning Centre for Policy Studies think tank, she added: “This means some issues – particularly those facing white working-class children – have been neglected.”
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Liz Truss. NurPhoto via Getty Images
Labour has slammed the growing divide at the DIT, saying it “raises serious questions” about the government’s commitment to close the gender pay gap when Truss’s department is “clearly going backwards”.
The gap in the DIT, which Truss took over in July last year, has widened every year since the first report in 2017, when the mean stood at 3.6%.
Under Truss, the mean rose to 6.5% in 2020, while the median increased to 15.9% from 2.7% three years earlier.
The mean bonus pay gap has also gone from 14.4% in favour of women in 2017 to 7.3% in favour of men in 2020, PA Media reports.
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A DIT spokeswoman said the department had hired more women than men over the past year but claimed the gap was widened due to the “overall distribution of women across (pay) grades”.
But shadow women and equalities secretary Marsha de Cordova said: “It raises serious questions about the government’s commitment to closing the gender pay gap when the department run by the minister for women and equalities is so clearly going backwards when it comes to average pay and bonuses.”
Felicia Willow, chief executive of the Fawcett Society women’s rights charity, said there is a “real risk” the gender pay gap will widen across the country when the impacts of the pandemic are fully realised.
“To help push against that tide, employers need to take decisive action. The Department for International Trade has set out a proactive plan on its pay gap – they will need to explore the reasons for this negative change and adjust that plan accordingly,” she said.
“But government has a vital wider role to play. The Fawcett Society is keen to see gender pay gap reporting reinstated urgently, extended to all employers of 100 employees or more and to cover ethnicity, and to require all employers, not just government departments, to take action.”


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-12-17--George Clooney Defends Tom Cruise Over Leaked Footage Of Star Yelling At Crew Who Broke Social Dista

George Clooney Defends Tom Cruise Over Leaked Footage Of Star Yelling At Crew Who Broke Social Distancing Measures

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During an interview with US broadcaster Howard Stern, George was asked for his thoughts on the leaked clip, in which Tom is heard on the set of Mission: Impossible 7 threatening to fire anyone who breaks Covid-19 guidelines.
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“I’m on the phone with every fucking studio at night, insurance companies, producers and they’re looking at us and using us to make their movies,” Tom is heard shouting, in a recording posted by The Sun.
“We are creating thousands of jobs, you motherfuckers. I don’t ever want to see it again. Ever!”
“If I see you doing it again, you’re fucking gone,” he later adds.
Tom Cruise went ballistic on the Mission: Impossible 7 crew for breaking COVID protocols...pic.twitter.com/WbIpVlja7w — Rex Chapman🏇🏼 (@RexChapman) December 16, 2020
Speaking to Howard Stern on SiriusXM, George admitted that while it wouldn’t be his own style to speak to crew members in such a way, he doesn’t think Tom is “overreacting” in the clip.
“He didn’t overreact because it is a problem,” George said.
“I have a friend who’s an [assistant director] on another TV show who just had the almost exact same thing happen with not quite as far out a response.”
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Tom Cruise pictured in Italy last month Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images
The Gravity star continued: “It’s just not my style to, you know, to take everybody to task that way. I wouldn’t have done it that big. I wouldn’t have, you know, pulled people out...
“[But] I understand why he did it. He’s not wrong at all about that. You know, I just, I don’t know that I would have done it quite that personally, but I don’t know all the circumstances. Maybe he had it 10 or 15 times before.”
George Clooney Jeff Spicer via Getty Images
Production for the seventh instalment in the Mission: Impossible franchise was previously shut down in February due to the pandemic. It resumed in September, with shooting slated to take place in Italy, Norway and London.
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thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-12-17--9 Eco-Friendly Christmas Presents That Won't Cost The Earth

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Christmas used to be about buying as many throwaway items as possible, from plastic toys to single-use wrapping paper and cards. But as we’ve become more engaged with sustainability, there’s been a rise in eco-friendly Christmas presents too: things that will make you smile without costing the earth.
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Read on for some last minute ideas for the green-eyed giftee in your life.
Eco Bathroom Starter Kit
Supplied
This BBC Earth collection aims to eradicate single-use bathrooms items. It also promotes the reduction of bathroom waste more widely, featuring things like a body wash bar and shampoo bar, neither of which require plastic packaging as per normal shampoo. And it’s all comes into a cute ocean-blue wash bag.
Sustainable Crafting Kit
Either go monthly or buy a three-monthly membership from these folks, who send everything you need to make your own homeware items, all of them eco-friendly. One month, try making a beeswax candle, another some jewellery, then some string art. Gifting options are easy to set up from this award-winning site.
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Pastel Brekky Bowls
Supplied
We reckon these simple breakfast bowls in colours that pop will brighten any morning – lockdown or otherwise. They’re made from bamboo but they’re durable. Just don’t pop them in the microwave. Use them to serve hot or cold food, or lay them out on your table simply to give your mood a lift.
The Gift of Life
Okay, so that sounds a little dramatic, but it’s actually true. Why not gift someone with the opportunity to buy a luscious plant they can watch grow? Plant purveyors Patch Plants offer gift cards from £30 if you’d rather let your giftee choose their own, or order delivery of a certain plant to a pal’s house.
Accessible Art
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This site celebrates original art by talented artists at a range of prices – its gift cards start from as small a figure as £5, a great bet if you’re unsure of your giftee’s tastes. Or browse the new artists tab and support burgeoning talent. Pieces range from paint on canvas to digital art, sculpture, mosaic and collage.
Sustainable Fashion
Thousands of designers make sustainable clothing, often using upcycled materials, to sell on Depop. You can also find vintage items, most of which are one-offs so great for gifting. The site is easy to browse, with recommendations on the homepage leading straight through to the pages of individual designers.
Frank Green Coffee Cup
Supplied A reusable coffee holder
We may not be on-the-go so much for work, but park strolls with friends in the biting cold of winter require the soothing warmth of coffee in a trendy cup. We’re into these Frank Green ones, made sustainably, and in a range of colours. Design your own on the website; we’re really into this coral and blue combo.
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Journal For Good
In an ordinary year, buying someone a journal may feel like a bit of a predictable move. But if 2020 taught us anything, it’s the need to express ourselves and keep mentally occupied. Journalling, even if that means a sentence or two a day, is an accessible way to remember each day as it passes. Let’s face it, these months have been memorable. It’s worth documenting them.
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Studio Arhoj


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-12-17--We Are Key Workers And We Won't Be Seeing Family At Christmas

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Christmas bubbles will stay permitted over Christmas, despite growing pressure for MPs to reconsider the relaxation of tier rules. But for many key workers, the official line makes no difference.
HuffPost UK has spoken to essential workers who won’t be forming bubbles over the festive period – either because they’re working, or because they’ve decided it’s too risky.
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Several of the workers feel they’ve been forgotten by the public and politicians ahead of Christmas – in stark contrast to the first wave of the pandemic, where key workers were vocally celebrated across the country.
Matt Tacey, 30, from Chesterfield, is an NHS nurse and will be spending most of Christmas alone, for the first time in his life.
“My wife is also a nurse and working, my daughter lives in London, my mum lives in Spain and my in-laws are in the high risk category,” he explains. “I’m devastated. However, even if spending time with family and friends was an option, I’d decline.”
Matt Tacey Matt Tacey
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Tacey views the relaxation of tier rules over Christmas as “another example of how undervalued the NHS is”.
“The government has clearly, time and time again, shown a complete and utter disregard for the staff working in the NHS,” he says. “We are tired, we are exhausted and we are literally on our knees. How does the NHS get repaid for our heroic efforts this year? The government rewards us by easing restrictions which will cause another spike in Covid, causing further pressure on the NHS.”
He doesn’t blame members of the public who are considering seeing family at Christmas. Instead, he says the onus lies with MPs.
“Personally, I feel appreciated by the general public but absolutely not by the majority of MPs,” he says. “We don’t want badges and we don’t want snack boxes. We want the government to invest in the NHS, protect the staff and reward staff for their efforts.
“We are unable to provide the care our patients desperately need as we are dangerously understaffed. Improving pay will retain and recruit more staff.”
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Pamela Craig, 43, who works in the social care sector in Glasgow, also disagrees with the relaxation of rules over Christmas. She’ll be spending it with her wife, who also works in social care, but they won’t be seeing any friends and family outside their household.
“It’s been a rough year already, but with people around us starting to get the vaccine, another couple of months of distanced measures is worth the end goal,” she says, adding that she understands the mental health strain that has been put on some people by the pandemic.
“But I cannot fathom the logic in relaxing at Christmas,” she says. “The number of households at least should be less. We’ve had a holiday to a cottage only 40 miles away cancelled for the first week in January, even though it’s just our household. But at Christmas, numbers of households can get together? It makes no sense.”
doble-d via Getty Images
Those pushing the regulations to their limits are “irresponsible”, she adds.
“I think overall, the general public don’t understand how much the pandemic has taken out of key workers,” she says. “It’s taken its toll on their physical and more importantly, mental health. If people thought about key workers in recent months as they did in the early pandemic, they wouldn’t be meeting multiple households at Christmas.”
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Some frontline workers won’t be seeing family over Christmas because they’re continuing the essential work they’ve been doing all year. Marzena, a catering assistant on a Covid-19 ward in a south London hospital, says she’s proud to be working throughout the holidays.
Marzena, who chose not to share her surname, had a difficult journey to becoming a key worker. She was homeless before the social enterprise Beam raised money for her to train as a beautician, but when the pandemic meant that work dried up, Beam supported her again towards securing her current role.
“It’s bittersweet [to be working at Christmas] as I won’t be able to celebrate with my family the way that I usually would – they live in Romania, where I am from originally,” she says. “However, it feels wonderful knowing that I’ll be able to serve Christmas lunch to those suffering with the illness over the festive period.
“I feel proud to be a key worker during the pandemic, so whilst it’s difficult to be away from loved ones, it’s a sacrifice that many others are also having to make.”
Marzena Marzena
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Marzena travelled to Poland between the national lockdowns to see family members who live there and doesn’t think people should be stopped from seeing loved ones over Christmas.
“In all honesty it makes me happy to know that despite such a difficult year, families will be able to celebrate with each other for a few days,” she says. “I think as long as people are doing what they can to mitigate the risks, they should enjoy the festivities.”
There has been growing tension around school policy in the run-up to the festive break. When Greenwich Council in south London said it would be closing schools early, following a rise in Covid-19 cases in the borough, education secretary Gavin Williamson ordered them to stay open. Meanwhile, the #CloseSchoolsNow hashtag has been gaining momentum.
Emma, a 25-year-old teacher from the East Midlands, who also chose not to share her surname, lives with her parents – and is relieved her school is among the few that have closed early, meaning she can relax a little over Christmas.
“Many students were choosing not to come in anyway as, if they were contacted, they would have had to self-isolate over Christmas,” she says. “After contact tracing, over half the students were self-isolating before the closure.”
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She’ll be with her parents for Christmas, but she knows of at least one colleague who’ll be spending the holidays alone, as they don’t feel they can travel across the UK safely to be with loved ones.
In general, Emma does not feel teachers have been taken into consideration in the run-up to Christmas. “During the first wave, a lot of the focus was on the NHS – and rightly so. As far as I can see, teachers have never been fully appreciated,” she says.
“It feels worse now in light of the recent Sun article [in which Rod Liddle questioned teachers’ attitudes to the pandemic] and Gavin Williamson threatening legal action over schools in Greenwich. Teachers are seen as the enemy, when in reality, we just want a safe work space. There’s no social distancing, class sizes are the same and we don’t have PPE. It’s really difficult.”
Overall, the plea from most key workers this year is for people to be extra careful. Tacey would like members of the public to remember key workers when making decisions about Christmas.
“Please, if you plan to spend Christmas with other households, be very cautious in making decisions,” he says. “You need to pay Covid the respect it deserves.”


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-12-17--Here's Why Normal Life Is Still A Long Way Off – Even With A Vaccine

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Many of us have been holding out hope that a Covid-19 vaccine will be the answer to all of our prayers come 2021 – but it won’t be an instant miracle.
In fact, more than half of the population probably won’t be vaccinated until 2022, according to a new report from the National Audit Office (NAO).
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Kate Bingham, chairwoman of the UK Vaccine Taskforce, previously said she was hopeful that by 2022 there would be no need for people to wear face masks, and that family gatherings and parties could properly resume.
But what about 2021? Well, how quickly we can return to normal will depend on plenty of variables such as how many vaccines are approved by next year, how readily available they are, and the logistics of getting them to the UK and distributed to those who need them.
Each potential vaccine requires a different plan for rolling it out to the public because each has different characteristics. These include the temperature it should be stored at, its shelf-life once opened, and how it should be prepared before it is administered.
The return to normality will also depend on the vaccine itself and whether it can reduce transmission of the virus – at present, we know the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine can reduce severe illness from the virus, but less is known about its ability to stop people from spreading the virus to others.
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Both the Pfizer and Oxford vaccines reduce the incidence of symptomatic infection and so are “likely” to reduce the R value and contribute to an overall reduction in transmission, says Professor Paul Hunter, an expert in medicine at University of East Anglia. It’s important to note that we do not know this for certain. Further data is needed.
Older people, NHS and care workers, and those with underlying health conditions are prioritised for the first Covid-19 vaccines. More than 137,000 vulnerable people in the UK have received the first dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine in the first week of vaccination.
The UK government has so far signed deals for five vaccines providing up to 267 million doses at a cost of around £2.9bn. But the NHS England and NHS Improvement team believes it can only vaccinate up to 25 million people with two doses throughout 2021. The population of the UK is around 67 million.
Over the coming weeks and months, the rate of vaccination will increase as more doses become available and the programme continues to expand, with GPs also offering the jab. But how quickly it will accelerate remains unknown.
Writing in the journal Anaesthesia, Sir Jeremy Farrar, a member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE), and Professor Tim Cook, a consultant in anaesthesia and intensive care, suggested that with 1,000 vaccination centres up and running, each vaccinating 500 people a day for five days a week, it would take almost a year to provide two doses to the UK population – and that’s without interruptions of supply or delivery.
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kovop58 via Getty Images
On Wednesday, Professor Chris Whitty, England’s chief medical officer, told a press conference that if we lift social distancing measures too early, such as around March, people who are vulnerable – but not the most vulnerable – would get infected in large numbers, putting them at risk of severe illness or death.
He emphasised that herd immunity will only occur if we have vaccines that can reduce transmission between people – and at the moment, we don’t fully know if they do.
We will not get to the point where there is zero risk of catching Covid, Whitty said. Rather, there’ll be a point where the country’s leaders will have to ask: at what level of risk do we start to raise measures like social distancing and wearing face masks?
Professor John Edmunds, an expert from the Centre for the Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, reiterates that without knowing whether the vaccines reduce transmission, “it is very difficult to say how quickly we are likely to be able to return to something like normality, apart from it is likely to be quite a long time”.
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He explains: “Remember, we are vaccinating relatively few people at the moment – we took receipt of enough Pfizer vaccine to cover 400,000 individuals, but there are 67 million of us in the UK – and we are targeting those that are least likely to contribute to community transmission (the elderly).
“Hence, there is a very long way to go before we will be sufficiently protected by vaccination to start to return to normal life in a safe way. Essentially, this will happen as we finish vaccination, not when we start it.”
Patients require two doses of thePfizer/BioNTech vaccine, 21 days apart, for the vaccine to be fully effective – a total of 40 million doses of this particular vaccine have been secured for the whole of the UK, which will be distributed over time.
Meanwhile, rolling reviews on the Oxford/AstraZeneca and Moderna vaccines are underway and, if authorised by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), will mean there are more doses available.
So, the matter of how many people will need to be vaccinated before we can get back to normal is currently impossible to answer.
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Dr Stephen Baker, a molecular microbiologist and infectious disease expert at the University of Cambridge, says that while it’s “great” we’ve got a vaccine (and potentially more lined up), for true herd immunity to kick in, we will need to ensure a high enough proportion of the population had received the vaccination, or endured natural infection, and had a sustained degree of immunity to then reduce the transmission of the virus.
Levels of immunity will vary from person to person depending on what vaccine they end up having, too. So it’s quite tricky to calculate.
Herd immunity against measles requires about 95% of a population to be vaccinated. We may need around 90% of the population to achieve herd immunity for Covid, Dr Baker suggests, which is a lot. Other estimates suggest we’d need two thirds of the population to be vaccinated to achieve it.
“Can we reach that? Well it’s a big ask because there are lots of unknowns: we don’t know how long immunity will last for with a vaccine,” says Dr Baker.
“If it’s long-term that’s great, because it means we’ll be protected for some years. If it’s only short-term protection and it lasts 12-24 months, then we may need another vaccine again, and that will complicate things more.”
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He also points out that the new Covid-19 variant could throw a spanner in the works. “It’s possible the virus could mutate slightly and therefore the vaccine may work less well – and therefore you have these problems called escape mutants ... where people could still become infected even though they’ve had a vaccine.”
A conservative estimate is that most of the extremely vulnerable people would be immunised by March 2021, he says, and if not, then certainly by summer. But then that leaves a large body of people – those aged 50 and under who are seemingly healthy – with some catching up to do.
“There’s no mention of young people receiving the vaccine yet,” he says. “We could argue that even though these people are probably not at the highest risk of severe disease or death, they’re probably at the highest risk of transmitting it between the age of 20 and 50.
“If none of those people are going to be immunised for some time and we start going back to normal, there’s going to be an enormous amount of transmission between those aged 20-50.”
This presents options, he adds. We either have to accept the situation and carry on as normal – potentially putting lots of younger people at risk of the long-term effects of the virus, dubbed long Covid – or we try to get everybody vaccinated as quickly as possible to stop the virus from spreading around. “It’s going to be complicated,” he says. “It’s not going to be as simple as we immunise everybody by the summer and it’s going to be gone.”
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That’s not to say that 2021 won’t be without a likely easing of some restrictions – people will likely be able to spend time with loved ones, particularly outdoors over the summer months when transmission is expected to drop. But it likely won’t be a 2021 that is free from stricter coronavirus measures like social distancing, mask-wearing and working from home.
“We may be very lucky and get to the point where we eliminate it through immunisation – but actually we’ve only really managed that once before with smallpox,” says Dr Baker.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-12-17--Spending 2020 Indoors Forced Me To Face My Hoarding

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I can’t pinpoint the exact year, day or second I realised I had a problem with things.
It must’ve built up over time, much like other addictions or mental health issues where we often only take them seriously when they become extreme.
Even though there was a gentle gnawing feeling that something wasn’t right, the giddy sensation I’d get from buying, the rush of owning something new or the comfort in the familiar always far outweighed any desire to de-clutter.
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I was not a hoarder, I told myself; I was a collector of beautiful clothes and other trinkets. They surrounded and encompassed me with their promise of great things to come. Trying to navigate leading a ‘successful’ life left me winded, and I convinced myself that my things were a safety net, a refuge from the anxiety of the world and the people in it. I could be anything with them around.
Over the years there were nights where I’d pour a glass of wine, put on some music and try to sort it all out only to end up sobbing and tipsy beneath a teetering pile, overwhelmed and angry with myself. I was often embarrassed to have people over, especially love interests, worried it might put them off.
But I could just as easily pretend to myself it was fine when a sample sale or charity shop was nearby. I didn’t identify with the hoarder stereotypes: I didn’t have to climb over mounds to get into my home, and there weren’t rats or terrible smelling piles. I could simply vacuum-pack my things away and just about move around my room.
“It was only when coronavirus, and lockdown, hit this year that I couldn’t run away from my things any longer.”
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It was only when my landlord decided to sell the house I’d rented for years I felt the full weight of what I’d built up. Opening up the hundreds of suction packs to go through them, I felt shame in myself, in the looks of the friends who came to help me move, and in the sharp intakes of breath from my parents.
I managed to get rid of over 400 things before I left. I held a sale over two weekends, meeting some absolutely lovely people; a lot of women dropped by who didn’t like shopping on the high street, who liked the idea that I’d built up this wardrobe and had a story attached to everything. Trying to tessellate the rest into the moving van it was obvious things would have to be left, so I laid out a few bags of clothes and bits of furniture, put a note on them and they were all taken.
Although this was all a great achievement, it didn’t seem to scratch the surface. I vowed to sort myself out and sell more. But in the following years of (pre-pandemic) life I would work in coffee shops, libraries and bars. I was often away, back to London and other cities for work, to visit friends, or stay with family. There was an ebb and flow to the suffocation – I didn’t buy anywhere near as much, but I didn’t shed myself of anything much either.
It was only when coronavirus, and lockdown, hit this year that I couldn’t run away from my things any longer. I was forced to exist inside what I thought were my ideals for myself – and instead realised they only brought me misery.
Most of the clothes were bought in smaller sizes for when I’d eventually lose weight. I could never find specific items when I looked for them. I had no energy to read or work on some new writing – the things I wanted to do, because I had no breathing space to think about anything outside of work and my stuff.
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Though painful, it turned out this time was exactly what I needed. I began working through things with a therapist, who helped me acknowledge I had obsessive compulsive disorder, which manifested not only in this hoarding but also in intrusive thoughts that would leave me paranoid and exhausted.
“It has felt freeing to not be tied to the impulse of needing new things... I doubt I’ll ever be a minimalist, but I know something has shifted.”
I stopped buying clothes – at first because I couldn’t and then because the desire left – and since March I’ve only purchased a £4 swimming costume to have an impromptu swim in Penzance. It has felt freeing to not be tied to the impulse of needing new things, and just buying things when I need them. I doubt I’ll ever be a minimalist, but I know something has shifted.
Being with my things has forced me to finally confront them. Before, I couldn’t let go because I believed I would be letting go of the person I wanted to be. But in reality I’ve made more moves towards that person this year than any other year in my life.
Though I have a long way to go, just starting the process feels galvanising. I’ve cleared a little area for myself to write. I ignore the feeling of failure as a reason not to try. I’ve had an offer accepted on a small flat of my own.
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And most importantly I am starting to feel like, as lovely as they may be, I am enough without my things.
Laura Horton is a writer, campaigner, publicist and the new Plymouth Laureate of Words 2021-22. Follow her on Twitter at @LauraCHorton


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-12-17--19 Relatable Tweets About Having A December Birthday

I just remembered when i was small..
Children church pastor was like "Someone special was born in December, today we would honour our December baby"
I came out and climbed the stage happily in front of the whole congregation.
He was talking about Jesus😭😭😭


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-12-17--Our Most Vulnerable Were Left To Die And Not Even Their Families Were Told

Even before Covid-19 struck, people with learning disabilities in this country were dying at a disproportionate rate.
In an ordinary pre-Covid year, there were approximately 1,200 preventable deaths of people with a learning disability in hospitals.
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“There are a lot of people who think that a person’s life is less valuable because they have a learning disability – especially in healthcare,” says Jackie O’Sullivan, communications, advocacy and activism director of the charity Mencap. “Covid-19 has accentuated an awful lot of this.”
Lisa Hopkins, chief executive of the charity SeeAbility, agrees. “As a society, we don’t see people with learning disabilities as equal. They’re always tucked away or sent to special schools and not given access to work. They’re just not seen or heard, and therefore they apparently don’t matter.”
In March, Covid-19 guidance published by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) stated patients with coronavirus had to be assessed on a so-called “Clinical Frailty Scale” to determine whether they would be admitted to critical care.
This guidance led to some people with a learning disability – of which there are around 1.5m in the UK – having “do not resuscitate” orders (DNRs) placed in their medical files, sometimes even without them or their families being consulted or informed.
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“It was just awful,” says Lisa. “They were just these blanket ‘do not resuscitate’ orders that were sent out without any consultation and without any understanding of the person’s medical history.
“Everyone has a better chance of survival if they’re going to the hospital and people with learning disabilities are not an exception. They were just left to die.”
Steven, 43, was admitted to hospital in March after exhibiting symptoms of Covid-19. His father John received a phone call a couple of days later informing him that his son – who has Down’s syndrome – would not be given a ventilator if he needed one.
“I received a call from a doctor who told me that a decision had been taken. I was exercising in the park at the time of the call and had to find a bench to sit down – I was really taken aback,” John says.
“When I asked why, the doctor told me that Steven had ‘underlying issues’. It is true that Steven had been diagnosed with vasculitis last December and he’d undergone treatment which affected his immune system, but other than this, he was perfectly healthy.”
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Steven’s DNR notice was removed after direct intervention by his doctor and his health since has greatly improved. But some people weren’t so lucky and died after being denied potentially life-saving treatment based on their learning disability as a result of these notices.
“There were cases where three or four people with a learning disability were living in one care setting, and these DNR notices were applied on a blanket basis to all of them and without their knowledge,” Jackie says.
Between March 19 and May 19, 78% of people with a learning disability whose death was attributed to Covid-19 had a DNR notice on their file, according to a report by the Learning Disabilities Mortality Review (LeDeR).
Steven, 43, has Down’s syndrome and was admitted to hospital and tested positive. His father John was informed Steven would not be given a ventilator if he needed one.
The NICE guidance was challenged by charities and quickly revised, but there are some concerns that many otherwise healthy individuals with a learning disability may continue to have DNR notices on their medical records without their knowledge.
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“The genie was out of the bottle by then and letters were already sent out,” Jackie says. “We still haven’t managed to find out who’s gotten them and have them all removed.”
Lisa adds: “There are lots of people who don’t have a support provider or who live alone or with elderly parents. For sure there will have been people who received a letter and who wouldn’t have known what else to do.”
Data released in November showed people with a learning disability were up to six times more likely to die from Covid-19 during the first wave of the pandemic. In the 18 to 34 age group, the death rate for those with a learning disability was 30 times higher.
The use of DNR orders – which is unlawful if done without consulting the patient or their family – likely contributed to the shockingly disproportionate number of Covid-19 fatalities in people with learning disabilities. But that doesn’t explain all of those deaths.
“We haven’t got to the bottom to it,” says Jackie. “We’re still waiting on Public Health England (PHE) data as to what happened.”
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At the beginning of the pandemic, access to personal protective equipment (PPE) and testing was prioritised for the NHS and care homes, whereas most disabled people live at home or in supported living settings – homes shared by a few people with a similar disability, with support workers who help with personal care or simple tasks.
“The focus on PPE and regular routine testing has been on care homes for older people and then care homes for disabled people. Supported living and domiciliary care [where people receive care in their own home] have been at the bottom of the list, even though that’s where the bulk of people with a disability live.
“If you’re living in a supported living setting or you’re getting care at home, your carers aren’t necessarily getting tested every week. A lot of people are falling through the cracks.”
Many people with learning disabilities are dependent on their carers or family members and may struggle to communicate with healthcare professionals and be unable to pass on information about their medical history and needs.
But Mencap has reported nurses witnessing people with learning disabilities being transported to hospital wards unaccompanied by family members of support staff, in accordance with Covid-19 guidance that states an adult with symptoms cannot be accompanied in an ambulance.
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Not only can this be a terrifying and distressing experience for the patient, but it can mean vital information can be missed out when they receive medical treatment. For some, this could mean the difference between life and death.
“If you’ve got someone with a learning disability who has difficulty communicating with the staff about their symptoms or about how they’re feeling, then a support worker needs to be there,” Lisa says. “But they weren’t allowed to go into hospital and subsequently the death rates went up.”
Bradley, 27, has been hospitalised 15 times because of his severe epilepsy since March. He also has a learning disability, cerebral palsy, autism and other complex health issues.
“Learning disability is so badly understood in hospitals,” his mother Jo says, adding that in her experience there are few nurses who have the training, ability or time to support people with a learning disability.
On a previous occasion, Bradley ended up in an intensive care unit (ICU) after suffering seizures and was put on a ventilator. Instead of being transferred into another ward as is normal hospital policy, staff instead sent him directly home because they were concerned they could not manage him and his behaviour.
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As a result, each time he was admitted into the hospital this year, Jo was terrified he would contract Covid-19 and bring the virus back into the care home.
Bradley and his mother Jo: "Learning disability is so badly understood in hospitals."
For individuals who are prone to anxiety – which many people with a learning disability experience – the pandemic has forced an overwhelming pressure on their mental and physical health and on family relationships. “People with autism are generally more dependent on having a routine and losing that can be really significant and damage your well-being,” says Jackie.
A study published last week by the charity Dimensions found that 93% of people with learning disabilities or autism feel more isolated because of the pandemic. “If you think about how it’s impacted the rest of us, it’s been terrible. For people with learning disabilities, if’s been much, much worse,” says Lisa.
Emily Stewart, 34, has cerebral palsy and loves going outside to meet other people in her community in East Sussex. When lockdown happened in March, “all of that changed”. “I tried to stay connected with my friends and family, but I found it really tough that I could only email or phone them rather than seeing them face to face,” she says.
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“Now we can go out again, but it’s still not the same as it was. It’s difficult to social distance because it just doesn’t feel normal to keep your distance from your friends. I also can’t see how far two metres is because of my visual impairment. My friends like to hug – that’s what we do and we’ve been missing that as much as anything else.
“I can’t wait for things to get back to normal.”
Emily, 34: |I love being outside as it gives me a chance to meet other people in my community, make new friends and meet up with old friends for a catch-up. With the lockdown, all that changed."
Despite the abundance of evidence showing how Covid-19 has exacerbated the vulnerabilities and inequalities within the healthcare system faced by individuals with learning disabilities, the government has chosen not to put them at the front of the queue for the vaccine.
Instead, people with Down’s syndrome are classed as clinically extremely vulnerable and are in priority group four, while people with severe and profound learning disabilities are in priority group six. All other learning-disabled people are not included on the priority list.
“The problem is that GPs don’t actually have a determinant scale for severity of your learning disability, so it would be up to them to decide whether you are in category six or not,” Jackie says.
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The PHE report on the Covid-19 deaths of people with learning disabilities does not contain breakdowns of severity, but the case for prioritising all of these individuals to receive a vaccine is strong. “They should be up there with people with long-term health conditions and the elderly population,” says Lisa. “Their death rates are as high as those groups, but they’re just not treated as equal members of society.”
Vaccinations would also allow visits in care settings from loved ones, which would undeniably benefit the mental health of people who have suffered prolonged isolation. “A lot of people with learning disabilities have difficulty communicating verbally so a Zoom call or FaceTime just doesn’t work. What matters to them is touch – to hug and hold hands – that’s how they connect with their families.”
In response to HuffPost UK’s request for comment regarding the call from charities to prioritise all people with learning disabilities, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) said: ”The JCVI’s advice on Covid-19 vaccine prioritisation was developed with the aim of preventing as many deaths as possible.
“As the single greatest risk of death from Covid-19 is older age, prioritisation is primarily based on age.”


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-12-17--Cancel Christmas If It Means I Don't Have To Give Birth Alone

I’m almost eight months pregnant with my first baby, and dreading what a tougher lockdown in 2021 might mean for us. Dario Sintoni via Getty Images
It’s December, and after the year we’ve had, many are looking forward to a brief respite from Covid restrictions to allow families to come together for Christmas, albeit with the promise that tougher measures will be enforced in the New Year to stem the inevitable rise of cases.
But not all of us are feeling so filled with festive cheer. I’m almost eight months pregnant with my first baby, and dreading what a tougher lockdown in 2021 might mean for us.
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The government is now facing mounting pressure to scrap the Christmas easing, amid a resurgence in infections in recent days and fears that relaxations could cause the death rate to sky rocket. And quite rightly, in my view. How big a price are we willing to pay for five days of festivities?
We saw the consequences for pregnant women last time infections peaked. In March, they were placed in the “high risk” group, and ever since, many have been at the mercy of postcode lotteries as to whether or not they will be afforded basic support during pregnancy, birth and beyond.
During the first lockdown, women were forced to attend appointments, scans and even give birth alone. Antenatal classes and postnatal midwife visits – vital support systems for women navigating this huge life change – were also heavily disrupted.
When my baby went through an uncharacteristically quiet period last month, I had to go into hospital for assessment, while my husband had no choice but to wait at home for news. Happily, the baby was fine, but hospital-enforced restrictions added more anxiety to an already stressful situation for all of us.
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In September, the NHS dictated that all trusts should allow birth partners to be present for the entirety of labour, but social media was still flooded with stories from women who continued to be denied this supposed privilege.
NHS England has now issued further guidance to trusts, asking them to take measures so that partners can accompany women to all appointments and throughout birth.
It’s a step in the right direction, but there will be no obligation for trusts to comply and no set timeframe by which they must do so – women will still be at the mercy of a decentralised system. And how many of these measures will have to be dialled back if the R rate explodes early next year? The Royal College of Midwives has already expressed concern that “safety is being sacrificed in favour of popularity” and has urged trusts to use “common sense” when interpreting the guidelines, as the UK struggles to control another boom in infection rates. It hardly fills you with confidence that frontline care providers are on board.
“Pregnancy is already a time of huge emotional and physical upheaval, and during a pandemic, there is no “village”.”
Call me selfish, but I don’t want to go through early labour alone. I don’t want my partner to be forced to leave after the birth. While there’s no suggestion this will happen to us, pregnant women’s needs have been repeatedly overlooked during this pandemic. Where is the guarantee this won’t happen again?
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Even attending antenatal appointments without my partner feels unfair. We decided to have a baby together, and he wants to be involved as much as I want him there. Does his journey to fatherhood really matter so little that he should be excluded from these once in a lifetime moments? Where is the evidence that partners attending appointments is putting more people at risk than, for example, a heaving Oxford Street packed with Christmas shoppers?
There’s something very Handmaid’s Tale about looking round the maternity waiting room and seeing a sea of unaccompanied women. Covid has exposed just how gendered an experience becoming a parent is, above and beyond the obvious biology of pregnancy. The lack of acknowledgement of the vital role of partners has been maddening.
So call me scrooge, or selfish, or even naive for getting pregnant during a pandemic, but I’m dreading Christmas. As my February due date approaches, I’m filled with trepidation.
Pregnancy is already a time of huge emotional and physical upheaval, and during a pandemic, there is no “village”. The least we deserve is the recognition that this time in our lives matters.
Lucy Pasha-Robinson is opinion editor at HuffPost UK.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-12-17--New Christmas Songs 2020: Our Verdict

New Christmas Songs 2020: Our Verdict

Vevo/Apple/Brian J Ritchie/Hotsauce/Shutterstock
We get it, putting your festive playlist together is no simple task, and with a deluge of brand new songs to sift through every year, it’s hard to choose exactly which of them are deserving of a spot alongside the usual suspects at this time of year.
To help make it less of a chore, we’ve had a listen through some of the biggest new Christmas songs released in the last few weeks, which includes new tunes from artists like Liam Payne, Lil Nas X, Amanda Holden and even the Queen of Christmas herself, Mariah Carey.
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Here’s our verdict on this year’s new Christmas tunes...
Mariah Carey, Ariana Grande and Jennifer Hudson – Oh Santa!
Nothing against All I Want For Christmas Is You – the reason it’s so successful every year is because it is straight-up amazing. But the song’s huge impact means Mariah Carey’s other Christmas bops can sometimes fall by the wayside.
The biggest example of this would be 2010′s Oh Santa!, an undeniable banger that doesn’t always get the attention it deserves because of its more well-known cousin.
That’s why we were thrilled to hear Mariah would be shining a light on Oh Santa! in 2020, not just giving it pride of place in her new Christmas special, but roping in Jennifer Hudson (!) and Ariana Grande (!!!!!) for a brand new festive remix.
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Obviously, we don’t expect it to reach the heights of All I Want For Christmas Is You or anything, but surely even the biggest of Scrooges will want to rock around the Christmas tree to this one.
Our rating: 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄
Sample lyric: “I saw them shopping last week, and his new girl was so bleak, and then I swore to myself Santa’s gonna come and make him mine this Christmas night.”
Lil Nas X – Holiday
After dominating the radio last year with his breakthrough hit Old Town Road, singer and rapper Lil Nas X is setting his sights on Christmas this time around, with his new festive tune.
Admittedly, besides the title of the track and one line of the chorus (yes, the “hoes on hoes” one), we’re not sure whether we’d even consider this a seasonal tune at all, but it’s the song’s music video where Nas really cranks the festivities up to 100.
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Already known for his elaborate visuals, we knew we weren’t expecting a phoned-in lip sync in some fake snow, but Lil Nas X really takes things to the next level in the Holiday video, which turns ideas of traditional Christmas on their head.
The clip sees the chart-topping star portraying a futuristic Santa Claus in a winter wonderland, flying a sports car led by robot reindeer through a snowstorm, as well as playing various action figures in Santa’s workshop. It’s a lot, but we wouldn’t expect anything less.
Our rating: 🎄🎄🎄🎄
Sample lyric: “Ay, it’s a holiday, I got hoes on hoes and they out of control, yeah.”
Dolly Parton – Christmas On The Square
The queen of country music bestowed us with two early presents in 2020, first the brilliantly-titled Christmas album A Holly Dolly Christmas and the new Netflix film Christmas On The Square, featuring new music from Dolly.
Christmas On The Square is the title track from the film, and it’s pretty much the thigh-slapping, call-and-response, fiddle-led kind of country-fied tune you’d expect when Dolly Parton put her efforts to a Christmas tune.
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As the song was written to go with the film, Dolly spends most of the the track coming up for imaginative rhymes for “Christmas on the square” (including “lovers walk in pairs”, “nothing ordinaire” and, naturally, “thermal underwear”), and while it’d be easy to pick apart… it’s Dolly Parton, so why would you really want to?
Our rating: 🎄🎄
Sample lyric: “Carolers sing and gifts exchanged, lovers walk in pairs, trees a-glow and mistletoe, it’s Christmas on the square.”
Robbie Williams – Can’t Stop Christmas
For the reissue of his album The Christmas Present, Robbie Williams has taken on the events of the last year with his trademark sense of humour, with new track Can’t Stop Christmas.
While the song itself might sound reminiscent of festive classics like Wizzard’s I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday, the lyrics are far more acerbic, right from the opening line: “Oh what a miserable year, but what a time to be alive.”
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Even the obligatory children’s choir are fed up, moaning: “Why oh why are we all waiting, the whole damn world anticipating.”
Those who prefer a bit of escapism with their Christmas tunes might want to swerve this one, but anyone looking for something timely in 2020 should definitely check out Robbie’s efforts.
Our rating: 🎄🎄🎄🎄
Sample lyric: “Santa’s on his sleigh but now he’s two metres away, the people gonna need something to believe in after a year of being in.”
Jess Glynne – This Christmas
Seemingly hoping to follow in Ellie Goulding’s footsteps last year, Jess Glynne has teamed up with Amazon to cover a classic Christmas song, opting for Donny Hathaway’s This Christmas (look out for a surge in streams to this one after everyone unwraps their Alexas on Christmas morning).
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The track itself is perfectly fine, if not a little by-numbers, but for fans of both Jess Glynne and background Christmas music, this should serve them just fine.
We have to say, though, This Christmas just isn’t the same without a legendary diva frantically asking where her backing singers and lyric cue cards are over the top of it...
Our rating: 🎄🎄🎄
Sample lyric: “Fireside is blazing bright, we’re carolling through the night, and this Christmas will be a very special Christmas.”
Carly Rae Jepsen – It’s Not Christmas Till Somebody Cries
If the usual Yuletide lyrics about unity and togetherness always ring a little hollow for you, we’d like to point you in the direction of Carly Rae Jepsen’s new festive tune.
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As the title suggests, It’s Not Christmas Till Somebody Cries tells the story of a dysfunctional family Christmas, voicing what many of us go through at this time of the year, from getting into political rows with distant relatives to spending an uncomfortable night in your childhood bed.
Those who’ve been following Carly Rae Jepsen’s latter-day tunes will be pleased to hear her festive tune is as twinkly and 80s-esque as recent cuts like Too Much and Julien (with added sleigh bells, no less).
And if the Canadian star has been off your radar since Call Me Maybe topped the charts eight years ago (!), we implore you to take this opportunity to check out her whole back catalogue.
Our rating: 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄
Sample lyric: “My boyfriend is a vegan so they fed him fish, my uncle made it worse by talking politics.”
Liam Payne and Dixie D’Amelio – Naughty List
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Liam Payne actually put out his first Christmas tune last year, with the James Newman-penned melancholic piano ballad All I Want (For Christmas). However, it’s fair to say his latest offering is decidedly more… Liam Payne.
Naughty List starts off innocently enough, with Liam offering to walk a love interest home after a night out at (where else?) “the club”. But it’s there things take a less gentlemanly turn in the chorus, with the former One Direction star crooning the, frankly, unforgivable line: “Santa saw the things we did, and put us on the naughty list.”
We don’t even want to know, tbh.
Our rating: 🎄🎄
Sample lyric: “I said, ‘there’s no way I’m not walking you home’, next thing you know it we were drying our clothes, but I didn’t mean to get you in trouble.”
Sam Smith – The Lighthouse Keeper
We’re going to be honest, we’ve been listening to this song a lot, and it took us a long time to decide whether we actually liked it.
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It’s certainly experimental and untraditional for a Christmas pop song, the introduction suggests you’re in for an almost religious, Silent Night-esque carol, but then veers in a completely different direction, with the harmony-laden choruses performed completely acapella, putting us in mind of Anohni or even Björk.
The Lighthouse Keeper is not a Last Christmas or All I Want For Christmas Is You rip-off, let’s just put it that way.
Those who’ve followed Sam Smith’s career will not be surprised to hear their take on Christmas is an emotional one, with The Lighthouse Keeper’s lyrics telling the story of a powerful love guiding someone back home at Christmas, which will ring true in a year when many of us have been kept apart from our families and those we care about most.
Eventually, it was the message and delivery of The Lighthouse Keeper that won us over, and even though it’s definitely not going to please everyone, we certainly applaud the Grammy-winning star for trying something different.
Our rating: 🎄🎄🎄🎄
Sample lyric: “Don’t resist the rain and storm, I’ll never leave you lost at sea, I will be your lighthouse keeper, and bring you safely homе to me.”
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Liam Gallagher – All You’re Dreaming Of
A perhaps surprising contender for Christmas number one, the former Oasis frontman’s new track puts us immediately in mind of his band’s classic material, not sounding a world away from the piano-led Don’t Look Back In Anger, but with a bit of a festive twist.
Lyrically, All You’re Dreaming Of is actually rather beautiful and poetic. It’s full of yearning for a better world (relatable, right?), preferring to stray away from Christmas clichés in what could be an attempt to snag those who would otherwise have turned their noses up at a straightforward festive tune.
For existing fans of Liam Gallagher, All You’re Dreaming Of is going to be a must-listen, and judging from the way it’s already climbing the UK charts, the charity single could be a big one this year.
However, whether or not we’d return to it in future years is probably another matter.
Our rating: 🎄🎄🎄
Sample lyric: “Paint the night sky, while the morning waits, with a field of stars, to keep the dark at bay.”
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Ava Max – Christmas Without You
We have to be honest, when we heard that Ava Max was releasing a Christmas track, we were bracing ourselves for a completely ridiculous festive banger in the style of Lady Gaga's Christmas Tree or Kylie and Dannii Minogue's 100 Degrees.
Instead, we got a more traditional midtempo pop song about missing the one you love at Christmas that definitely ticks a lot of boxes, but we're not sure it's bringing much new to the table.
Christmas Without You is, unfortunately, not the stuff of future office Christmas party scenes that are never spoken about again we were hoping for. Still, if all you're after is a brand new inoffensive Christmas track to add to your playlist, this does the job perfectly
Our rating: 🎄🎄🎄
Sample lyric: “I wanna hold you while the bells are all ringing, want you to be here while the angel's singing.”
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Amanda Holden – Home For Christmas
With lyrics like “I want to go home for Christmas, let me go home this year”, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Amanda Holden’s first Christmas song was a little heavy-handed and on-the-nose in 2020, so it might surprise you to hear it’s actually a cover of a 2010 track by Norwegian artist Maria Mena.
If you’re a fan of a teary ballad, then Home For Christmas’ message about the comfort of being around loved ones at Christmas time will hit especially hard, given the events oft his past year.
And while admittedly, we’d probably have picked something a bit more upbeat (and, yes, probably a lot more camp) for Mandy had we been in charge of her festive release, there’s no denying her voice does sound lovely on this song, which fits snugly alongside the musical theatre covers she’s already released in the last few months.
Our rating: 🎄🎄🎄
Sample lyric: “There’s a place where I erase the challenges I’ve been through, where I know every corner every street name all by heart... I want to go home for Christmas”
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Tegan And Sara – Make You Mine This Season
Taken from the soundtrack to the much-awaited queer holiday film Happiest Season, Tegan and Sara have returned to the shimmering 80s-esque sound of their Heartthrob and Love You To Death albums for this festive tune and, in short, we absolutely love it.
Full disclosure: it’s not winning any awards for imaginative lyrics – and you can scratch the “star at the top of the tree” and “snow falling all around” off your Christmas song bingo cards.
But in a year when so many singers have veered in a maudlin direction, with tracks reminding us just how rubbish a year 2020 has been, a straightforward synth-y Christmas love song has well and truly hit our sweet spot.
Our rating: 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄
Sample lyric: “I write your name, I know it’s foolish, but I chase the feeling, ’cause you keep me dreaming, that I could make you mine this season.”


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-12-17--Greater Manchester Police To Be Placed In Special Measures

Dave Thompson - PA Images via Getty Images
England’s second largest police force is to be placed in special measures after a watchdog raised concerns over its failure to record more than 80,000 crimes in the space of a year.
A report issued by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) last week said it was left “deeply troubled” over how cases handled by Greater Manchester Police (GMP) were closed without proper investigation.
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They also said GMP’s service to victims of crime was a “serious cause of concern”.
Inspectors found that around one in five of all crimes, and one in four violent crimes, reported by the public to the force were not recorded.
In a statement issued on Thursday night, HMICFRS said the force had been moved into the “Engage” stage of its monitoring process.
This requires GMP to develop an improvement plan to “address the specific causes of concern”.
The HMICFRS report found that GMP failed to record an estimated 80,100 crimes reported to it between July 1 2019 and June 30 2020, amounting to around 220 crimes a day.
A higher proportion of violent crime was not recorded, including domestic abuse and behavioural crimes, such as harassment, stalking and coercive controlling behaviour.
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Inspectors estimated that the force recorded 77.7% of reported crimes, a drop of 11.3% from 2018.
An HMICFRS spokesperson said: “The level of scrutiny on Greater Manchester Police has been raised and the force has been placed in the Engage stage of the HMICFRS monitoring process.
“This is due to the causes of concern raised in HMICFRS’s recent reports which have highlighted the poor service the force provides to many victims of crime.
“In the Engage stage, a force is required to develop an improvement plan to address the specific causes of concern that have led to it being placed in the advanced phase of the monitoring process.
“The process is intended to provide support to the force from external organisations including the Home Office, College of Policing and the National Police Chiefs Council to assist in achieving the required improvements.”
Ian Hopkins has been chief constable of GMP since October 2015, leading a force of 6,866 officers.
Following the publication of the HMICFRS report, Hopkins revealed he had decided to take a break from his role to recover from Labyrinthitis – an inner ear infection which affects balance.
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In a statement provided on Wednesday, Hopkins said he had been suffering from the condition since the end of October.
“I continued to work throughout with the support of the rest of my chief officers team until Sunday 13 December, despite feeling very ill,” he added.
“I finally made the decision over last weekend that in the interests of my health I needed to take a break and recover properly so I can return and lead GMP with the same passion and strength of character that I have always demonstrated.
“Despite feeling ill I remain in contact daily with members of my Chief Officers team.”
Last week, HM Inspector of Constabulary Zoe Billingham said victims of crime were “too often being let down” by GMP.
Inspectors found the force wrongly and prematurely closed some investigations, some with vulnerable victims, a proportion being domestic abuse cases, where although a suspect was identified, the victim did not support, or withdrew support for police action.
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And “in too many cases” watchdogs said there was no evidence to confirm the victim’s wishes had been properly considered before the investigation was closed, and inspectors could not be sure that victims were properly safeguarded and provided with the right service or support.
GMP’s deputy chief constable Ian Pilling said last week the force was “disappointed” by some of the report’s findings, “particularly where we have let victims down”.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-12-17--Why Is Boris Johnson Keen On The Late, Late Show On Everything Other Than Christmas Curbs?

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On March 29, as he was self-isolating in Downing Street after testing positive for Covid, Boris Johnson decided to pen a letter to every household in the country. You have probably forgotten what he wrote, but here’s a reminder of a key sentence.
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“It’s important for me to level with you - we know things will get worse before they get better,” he wrote. “But we are making the right preparations, and the more we all follow the rules, the fewer lives will be lost and the sooner life can return to normal.”
Just days later, the PM was himself in hospital and struggling to breathe. Some 81,000 deaths and nearly nine months later, we face another scarily severe spike in cases, hospitalisations and deaths. But this time, Johhnson isn’t properly levelling with the public that things will get worse before they get better.
Today’s deteriorating statistics certainly point to a third wave building at an alarming rate in key parts of the country. Even when you strip out Wales’ IT blunder, today saw the second highest Covid case numbers for a month. In eastern and south east England, hospitalisation rates have either passed or are due to pass the awful peak of the first wave.
The numbers are rising in three quarters of English council areas, including sadly much of the north west region that had desperately hoped to come out of many months of the highest level of restrictions. It’s a bitter blow, especially after Matt Hancock only on Monday gave heavy hints to MPs like Hilary Benn that their areas would get some good news.
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Of course, a lot can happen in a short space of time with this virus and it appears that even since Monday the cases have shot up, giving Hancock little option but to keep the curbs unchanged in many areas. Yet it’s precisely because he is clearly so worried about the strain on the NHS that the Christmas relaxations look even more risky.
The big unanswered question is just how big this curve has to be in order to impose another national lockdown. A blanket crackdown in January seems inevitable, not least because it appears that the bluntest and hardest restrictions are the only thing that flattens the curve (as shown by the first wave, the second wave and the Welsh firebreak).
The depressing fact that Tier 2 doesn’t really seem to work (and Tobias Ellwood’s gathering suggests even MPs don’t understand its rules, let alone Kay Burley) will alarm many. Just imagine if Liverpool – the poster child of the tier system – has to be moved back to Tier 3 when the next review takes place on December 23. Maybe, as with test and trace, the tiering is just rendered irrelevant when the virus reaches a certain level.
The key issue is whether the PM is reacting as quickly as the virus is spreading. I’ve written before about how Johnson and Rishi Sunak jointly seem to have a lastminute.com approach to governing. A Brexit trade deal certainly looks like it’s going to be a late, late show.
Today, teachers were told the day before the end of term that they would have to spend the Christmas holiday putting in place rapid testing regimes from January 4. Shambolic is how many teachers viewed that decision, and it followed a string of similarly eleventh-hour changes to guidance for headteachers that have characterised the pandemic and education policy.
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Sunak also left it pretty late to announce he was extending the furlough scheme to next April. While hugely welcome, the chancellor’s decision came less than 24 hours before firms would have had to start issuing redundancy notices. It also prompted fears that tiers will be in place longer than the March end date many expected.
Which brings us perhaps to the real problem with the government’s refusal to change tack on Christmas relaxations. By making a January lockdown inevitable, that refusal risks even more economic pain as well as medical pain. Johnson’s late, late show on everything else has set a precedent for him tightening the festive regulations even further in coming days.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-12-17--'Very Likely' Brexit Trade Deal Talks Will Fail, Boris Johnson Tells EU's Von Der Leyen

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Boris Johnson has said it looked “very likely” a post-Brexit trade deal would fail to be agreed unless the European Union position changed “substantially”.
His pessimistic tone was expressed during last-ditch talks with European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, with a Downing Street spokeswoman saying negotiations were now in a “serious situation”.
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By contrast, von der Leyen said there has been “substantial progress” in talks over a deal following a call between the two.
Yet while the Brussels chief sounded a note of optimism on many issues in post-Brexit negotiations, she added “big differences remain” and “bridging them will be very challenging”.
Negotiations between the UK and EU will continue on Friday, but time is running out to reach a deal with just a fortnight until the end of the transition period.
In the first statement published on Thursday night, von der Leyen said: “This evening I took stock with UK prime minister Boris Johnson of the on-going negotiations for a comprehensive Partnership Agreement between the European Union and the United Kingdom.
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“We welcomed substantial progress on many issues. However, big differences remain to be bridged, in particular on fisheries. Bridging them will be very challenging.
“Negotiations will continue tomorrow.”
But a Downing Street spokeswoman later said: “The prime minister spoke to Commission president Ursula von der Leyen this evening about the state of play in the UK-EU negotiations.
“The prime minister underlined that the negotiations were now in a serious situation. Time was very short and it now looked very likely that agreement would not be reached unless the EU position changed substantially.
“He said that we were making every effort to accommodate reasonable EU requests on the level playing field, but even though the gap had narrowed some fundamental areas remained difficult.
“On fisheries he stressed that the UK could not accept a situation where it was the only sovereign country in the world not to be able to control access to its own waters for an extended period and to be faced with fisheries quotas which hugely disadvantaged its own industry. The EU’s position in this area was simply not reasonable and if there was to be an agreement it needed to shift significantly.
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“The prime minister repeated that little time was left. He said that, if no agreement could be reached, the UK and the EU would part as friends, with the UK trading with the EU on Australian-style terms.
“The leaders agreed to remain in close contact.”
The UK’s chief negotiator Lord Frost meanwhile warned that progress in the talks “seems blocked”, tweeting: “The situation in our talks with the EU is very serious tonight. Progress seems blocked and time is running out.”
Lord Frost and his EU counterpart Michel Barnier have been holding discussions in Brussels all week aimed at breaking the deadlock on key issues which have plagued the talks for months.
They include fishing rights, the “level playing field” to ensure neither side can unfairly compete with the other on environmental standards, workers’ rights or state subsidies, and the legal mechanisms to govern any deal.
Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove, who has been in charge of the Government’s no-deal planning, said earlier on Thursday that the chances of an agreement remained “less than 50%”.
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He told the Commons Brexit Committee the “most likely outcome” was that the current transition period would end on December 31 without a deal.
“I think, regrettably, the chances are more likely that we won’t secure an agreement. So at the moment less than 50%,” Gove said.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-12-17--As 2020 Comes To A Close, Do We Dare Ask What 2021 Brings?

As 2020 Comes To A Close, Do We Dare Ask What 2021 Brings?
In the final episode of 2020 (usual Brexit caveats apply), Arj Singh, Paul Waugh, Rachel Weatmouth and Conservative MP Lee Rowley look back at the past week, as well as the past year, in Westminster, and wonder what might be on the horizon.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-12-17--Paul McCartney Reveals The Label He 'Hated' From His Beatles Days

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Paul McCartney discussed a certain Taylor Swift secret and got candid about a label he “hated” during his Beatles days, while appearing on SiriusXM’s Howard Stern Show.
The radio DJ brought up the fact that Paul was labeled as the “cute” Beatle way back when. He figured that the singer hated the title, because it could infer that Paul wasn’t a “serious musician.”
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As Howard predicted, Paul strongly agreed with him and explained why he got the label in the first place.
Don't call Paul McCartney cute. Mike Coppola via Getty Images
“I hated that,” the singer said. “That’s what happens ― just, ‘He’s the cute one.’ I’d go, ‘No, I’m not! Don’t call me that. I hate that!’”
“But once it’s said it kind of sticks. I just can’t help being cute, Howard,” the Beatle quipped. “They had to just say, ‘He’s the cute one, he’s the quiet one, he’s the witty one, and he’s the drummer.’”
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Paul has talked about his disdain for the broad characterisation in the past, telling the New York Daily News in 1989 that he was “not comfortable with being ‘The Cute Beatle.’”
“I’ve never really thought I was ‘cute,’ though I guess some people think so,” he said.
“Maybe there were a few moments of cute, mostly in the early days. As you get older, the harder edges come out,” the singer explained.
In the same interview, Paulalso revealed a secret sure to make any Swiftie jealous: He knew that Taylor Swift’s “Folklore” follow-up album, Evermore, was on its way.
“I did the Rolling Stone cover with Taylor Swift and she just emailed me recently. And she said, ‘I wasn’t telling anyone, but I’ve got another album,’” Paul recalled.
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“And she said, ‘So I was going to put it out on my birthday,’ which I think was the 10th,” he said. (Taylor’s birthday is actually 13 December)
“And then she said, ‘But I found out you were going to put out [your album] on the 10th. So I moved it to the 18th,’” he explained. “And then she found out we were coming out on the 18thso she moved back to the 10th. So I mean, you know, people do keep out of each other’s way.”


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-12-17--Exclusive: UK Has Already Begun Drafting Legislation For A Brexit Deal

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The UK has already drafted legislation to put any Brexit deal it strikes with the EU into law, HuffPost UK has learnt.
A 50-page “draft future relationship bill” is in existence with time running out until the end of the transition period on December 31.
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HuffPost UK understands that the current text forms a skeleton to which the details of any last-minute UK-EU trade agreement can be added.
MPs were on Thursday sent home for the Commons’ Christmas recess, but put on notice that they could be recalled before January to approve any deal Boris Johnson strikes with the EU.
A failure to strike a deal by December 31 would see the UK default to World Trade Organisation (WTO) terms for trading with the EU from the next day, which is predicted to be the most damaging outcome.
Earlier this week, Commons leader Jacob Rees-Mogg said it could take six days to put a Brexit deal struck at the negotiating table into UK law.
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He reportedly told the Moggcast, hosted by Conservative Home: “If there were an agreement today I think you would need six days in that you would have the text tomorrow, you would have 48 hours to write the bill and you would have a day in the Commons, a day in the Lords and a day for Royal Assent.”
The draft legislation forms part of the government’s contingency planning, which could see MPs sitting in the Commons on New Year’s Eve to ratify a last-minute Brexit trade bill.
One option is to bring any Brexit trade treaty before the Commons for a fast-tracked one-day approval on December 28, with the House of Lords told to get ready for a two-day scrutiny period on December 29 and 30.
The Commons would then complete the process on December 31, just hours before the UK leaves the “transition period” – under which it has operated within EU rules since formally leaving the bloc last January.
Boris Johnson and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen during Brexit talks last week ASSOCIATED PRESS
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The European Parliament has meanwhile set down a three-day deadline for post-Brexit trade deal negotiators to strike a deal, warning that MEPs will not have time to ratify an agreement this year unless it is ready by Sunday night.
Presidents of the parliament’s political groups said it was ready to organise a plenary session by the end of the month, but on condition that “an agreement is reached by midnight on Sunday December 20”.
But it is understood that the EU could choose to apply any deal provisionally and then seek the approval of MEPs later.
On Thursday, the UK and EU gave contrasting assessments of the chances of agreement, with Michael Gove suggesting it was “more likely” there would be no deal.
Despite a sense of optimism in recent days, Gove said the chances of a deal are now “less than 50%”.
The Cabinet Office minister also said the “most likely outcome” was that the current transition period would end on December 31 without a deal.
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“I think, regrettably, the chances are more likely that we won’t secure an agreement. So at the moment less than 50%,” he told the Commons Brexit committee.
But he appeared at odds with EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier, who described “good progress” in the talks with his opposite number from the UK, Lord Frost, while acknowledging the “last stumbling blocks remain”.
Barnier briefed European Parliament leaders about the state of the talks, which he said were in the “final stretch”.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-12-17--NHS Boss Criticised For Emailing Staff Member's Suicide Note To Entire Trust

Helen Greatorex, chief executive of Kent and Medway NHS Social Care and Partnership Trust Helen Greatorex/Twitter
The leader of an NHS mental health trust has apologised after emailing a staff member’s handwritten suicide note to thousands of workers in a daily newsletter.
Helen Greatorex, chief executive of Kent and Medway NHS Social Care and Partnership Trust, included a copy of the note left by the named colleague in her email to staff on Tuesday.
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Greatorex mentioned the death in the “daily message” after she had referred to “ten more sleeps until Christmas!” and having seen a “beautiful lesser spotted woodpecker” earlier in the day.
A member of staff told HuffPost UK that attaching the letter to an email had caused “absolute outrage in the organisation”.
They said: “Many people have never seen a suicide note and this was circulated to over 3,000 members of staff.
“The chief executive was warned only a few weeks ago at an engagement event called ‘the big conversation’ that she was out of touch. This, however, is not just further evidence she is out of touch – but dangerous and insensitive.”
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When reached for comment, Greatorex said she was “sincerely sorry” if her actions had offended anyone and that she had shared the letter with the permission of the author’s mother.
In the original email, she writes: “In the meantime, I am going to appendix to this daily message, an open letter that [the staff member] left for us all to read. It is a heartfelt and important letter from someone who felt that they could not go on. I think it was an enormously kind and thoughtful act on [the man]’s part to leave it for all those who knew and loved him and his dear mum, [the man’s mother’s name], has given me permission to share it with all of you.
“It is a very sad letter to read, but it is also something that I think offers us some comfort. [The man] had made a decision, he had a very strong Christian faith and he knew with certainty that he was going home at last.”
Earlier in the email, she refers to being “at this point in December when I start losing the thread of what day of the week it is”. “But this year, thanks to my daily reality orientation exercise of writing the daily message, I’m all over it! It’s Tuesday and there are ten more sleeps until Christmas!”
The email also mentions upcoming Christmas events and urges staff to “let us know what makes you smile these days other than rainbows of course!”
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In a statement released by the Kent and Medway NHS Social Care and Partnership Trust, Greatorex said: ”[The staff member] was a very well-known and highly regarded colleague whose suicide touched very many people both in our trust and beyond it. I am truly and sincerely sorry if by sharing [his] open letter I have offended or upset anyone. That was absolutely not my intention.
“I apologise personally and unreservedly and as always, would be happy to talk to any of my staff who are upset or have concerns about this or any other issue.”
She added the letter had been read out during the colleague’s funeral earlier this week.
“Many of our staff and friends of the organisation had joined the funeral remotely and many, myself included had found [his] letter comforting. It was clear from the letter that [he] wanted to help others understand that [he was] thankful for all that had been done for [him], which was exactly how [he] was, always thinking of others.
[His] mother kindly offered to share [his] open letter with us and because so many people had felt that hearing it had helped them, and with [his] mother’s permission, I took the decision to share it as part of my regular staff update as a support to many of [his] colleagues and friends in our trust who are grieving.”
Useful websites and helplines
Mind, open Monday to Friday, 9am-6pm on 0300 123 3393.
Samaritans offers a listening service which is open 24 hours a day, on 116 123 (UK and ROI - this number is FREE to call and will not appear on your phone bill).
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CALM (the Campaign Against Living Miserably) offer a helpline open 5pm-midnight, 365 days a year, on 0800 58 58 58, and a webchat service.
The Mix is a free support service for people under 25. Call 0808 808 4994 or email help@themix.org.uk


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-12-17--Brexit: Michael Gove Says There Is ‘Less Than 50% Chance’ Of A Deal

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The UK and EU have given contrasting assessments of the chances of a Brexit trade agreement with Michael Gove suggesting it was “more likely” there would be no deal.
Hopes of a deal have been raised in recent days after Boris Johnson and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen gave the green light for talks to resume on Sunday.
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But time is running out to finalise an agreement by January 1 to avoid the UK defaulting to no deal World Trade Organisation terms for trade with the EU, predicted to be the most damaging outcome.
Despite a sense of optimism in recent days, Gove said the chances of a deal are now “less than 50%”.
The Cabinet Office minister also said the “most likely outcome” was that the current transition period would end on December 31 without a deal.
“I think, regrettably, the chances are more likely that we won’t secure an agreement. So at the moment less than 50%,” he told the Commons Brexit committee.
But he appeared at odds with EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier, who described “good progress” in the talks with his opposite number from the UK, Lord Frost, while acknowledging the “last stumbling blocks remain”.
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Barnier briefed European Parliament leaders about the state of the talks, which he said were in the “final stretch”.
He said: “We will only sign a deal protecting EU interests and principles.”
Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove on Tuesday NurPhoto via Getty Images
Gove similarly spoke of protecting the principles that people voted for in the 2016 EU referendum, with talks thought to be stuck on the issues of how much the UK and Brussels match each other’s standards, and punishments for divergence, as well as fishing rights.
“The process of negotiation has managed to narrow down areas of difference,” the Tory minister said.
“It is certainly the case that there are fewer areas of difference now than there were in October or indeed July.
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“The areas of difference are still significant and they do go to the very heart of the mandate which the country gave the government in 2016.”
Gove also ruled out returning to negotiations in 2021 if no deal could be reached by the end of the year.
December 31 was a “fixed point in law,” when the transition must end, he said.
“That would be it. We would have left on WTO terms.
“It is still the case of course that there would be contact between the UK and European nations and politicians as one would expect.
“But what we would not be doing is attempting to negotiate a new deal.”
The Commons breaks up on Thursday for Christmas recess but MPs have been put on notice that they may be recalled to ratify any Brexit deal.
The European Parliament has also said it will refuse to debate anything that is agreed after this Sunday.
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But Downing Street said it would not be necessary to require MPs to sit on Christmas Day.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-12-17--Liz Truss Denounces 'Destructive' Focus On Race And Gender Issues As 'Tools Of The Left'

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Liz Truss has branded race, sexuality and gender issues as “tools of the left” in an overhaul of the government’s equalities brief, claiming they “do nothing to fix systems”.
But her speech comes just a day after it was revealed the gender pay gap has significantly widened at the Department for International Trade (DIT) which she heads.
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Under Truss, women earn on average 15.9% less than their male counterparts. Three years earlier the gap stood at 2.7%.
On Thursday, Truss laid out a “Conservative values” approach based on “freedom, choice, opportunity, and individual humanity and dignity”, in a speech titled The New Fight for Fairness.
Truss said the “narrow focus on protected characteristics” set out by the 2010 Equality Act – age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion, sex and sexual orientation – has led to a “narrowing of the equality debate that overlooks socio-economic status and geographic inequality”.
She called for the equality debate to be “led by facts, not by fashion”.
Speaking at the right-leaning Centre for Policy Studies think tank, she added: “This means some issues – particularly those facing white working-class children – have been neglected.”
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Liz Truss. NurPhoto via Getty Images
Labour has slammed the growing divide at the DIT, saying it “raises serious questions” about the government’s commitment to close the gender pay gap when Truss’s department is “clearly going backwards”.
The gap in the DIT, which Truss took over in July last year, has widened every year since the first report in 2017, when the mean stood at 3.6%.
Under Truss, the mean rose to 6.5% in 2020, while the median increased to 15.9% from 2.7% three years earlier.
The mean bonus pay gap has also gone from 14.4% in favour of women in 2017 to 7.3% in favour of men in 2020, PA Media reports.
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A DIT spokeswoman said the department had hired more women than men over the past year but claimed the gap was widened due to the “overall distribution of women across (pay) grades”.
But shadow women and equalities secretary Marsha de Cordova said: “It raises serious questions about the government’s commitment to closing the gender pay gap when the department run by the minister for women and equalities is so clearly going backwards when it comes to average pay and bonuses.”
Felicia Willow, chief executive of the Fawcett Society women’s rights charity, said there is a “real risk” the gender pay gap will widen across the country when the impacts of the pandemic are fully realised.
“To help push against that tide, employers need to take decisive action. The Department for International Trade has set out a proactive plan on its pay gap – they will need to explore the reasons for this negative change and adjust that plan accordingly,” she said.
“But government has a vital wider role to play. The Fawcett Society is keen to see gender pay gap reporting reinstated urgently, extended to all employers of 100 employees or more and to cover ethnicity, and to require all employers, not just government departments, to take action.”


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-12-18--Mike Pence Becomes Highest Ranking US Official To Receive Covid-19 Vaccine

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Mike Pence became the highest ranking US official to received the first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine on Friday in a live-television event aimed at reassuring Americans the shot is safe. He celebrated the milestone as “a medical miracle” that could eventually contain the raging pandemic.
Conspicuously missing from the victory lap: Donald Trump, who has remained largely out of sight five days into the largest vaccination campaign in the nation’s history.
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Pence, meanwhile, has taken an increasingly visible role in highlighting the safety and efficacy of the shots, including touring a vaccine production facility this week. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell both said Thursday that they will get vaccinated in the next few days. President-elect Joe Biden expects to receive his shot as soon as next week.
“I didn’t feel a thing. Well done,” Pence told the technicians from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center who administered his Pfizer-BioNTech shot early Friday morning. Pence didn’t flinch during the quick prick, nor did his wife, Karen, or Surgeon General Jerome Adams, who also received shots during the televised White House event in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.
“Hope is on the way,” Pence later said. “The American people can be confident: We have one and perhaps within hours two safe vaccines,” he added, referring to the FDA’s expected authorisation of a second vaccine by Moderna.
He did not respond to shouted questions about why the president wasn’t headlining a similar event.
U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams gives the thumbs up as he receives the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine at the White House in Washington, U.S., December 18, 2020. REUTERS/Cheriss May Cheriss May / Reuters
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Adams, who is Black, emphasised the “the importance of representation” in outreach to at-risk communities and encouraged Americans to avoid disinformation around the vaccines.
Five days into the largest vaccination campaign in the nation’s history, Trump has been largely absent from the effort to sell the American public on what aides hope will be a key part of his legacy. He has held no public events to trumpet the rollout. He hasn’t been inoculated himself. And he has tweeted fewer than a handful of times about the shot.
Trump’s relative silence comes as he continues to stew about his defeat in the Nov. 3 election and embraces increasingly extreme efforts to overturn the people’s will. He’s pushed aside the plans of aides who wanted him to be the public face of the vaccination campaign, eschewing visits to labs and production facilities to thank workers, or hosting efforts to build public confidence in the shot, according to people familiar with the conversations.
The sheepish approach has been surprising, especially for a president rarely shy to take credit, said Lawrence Gostin, a professor at Georgetown Law who focuses on public health.
“The president’s relatively low profile on the Covid response since the election is curious and counter to Mr. Trump’s own interests,” he said. Gostin, who has criticised Trump’s handling of the pandemic in the past, said that he “deserves a great deal of credit” for Operation Warp Speed and placing a bet on two vaccines that use groundbreaking mRNA technology.
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“Having exhibited leadership in the vaccines’ development, he should take great pride in publicly demonstrating his trust in Covid vaccines,” he said.
U.S. Vice President Mike Pence receives the COVID-19 vaccine at the White House in Washington, U.S., December 18, 2020. REUTERS/Cheriss May Cheriss May / Reuters
Trump did appear at a White House “summit” ahead of the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the Pfizer vaccine last week. That event included an introductory video highlighting the past comments of those — including top government infectious-disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci — who doubted a shot would be ready this year.
Trump “will continue to update the country through a variety of means while giving medical professionals and hardworking staff at OWS the space to do their jobs and save lives,” said White House deputy press secretary Brian Morgenstern.
But many Trump aides are puzzled by his low profile now that the vaccine is actually being injected. They see it as a missed opportunity for the president, who leaves office at noon on Jan. 20, to claim credit for helping oversee the speedy development and deployment of the vaccine that is expected to finally contain the virus that has killed more than 310,000 Americans.
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Trump himself has tried to minimise any credit that might go to his successor, Biden, who will preside over the bulk of the nationwide injection campaign next year.
“Don’t let Joe Biden take credit for the vaccines,” Trump has told reporters. “Don’t let him take credit for the vaccines because the vaccines were me, and I pushed people harder than they’ve ever been pushed before.”
Despite Trump’s claims, FDA scientists were the ones who came up with the idea for Operation Warp Speed, the White House-backed effort through which millions of doses of coronavirus vaccines and treatments are being manufactured even as they are still being evaluated. And much of the groundwork for the shots was laid over the past decade, including through research on messenger RNA, or mRNA, used in the vaccines developed by both Pfizer and Moderna. Pfizer developed its vaccine outside Operation Warp Speed but is partnering with the federal government on manufacturing and distribution.
Trump’s low-key approach could have an impact on public health. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, told NBC News this week that 75% to 85% of the nation needs to be vaccinated to achieve “herd immunity,” making the public education campaign about the vaccine’s safety all the more pressing.
A survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that only about half of Americans want to get the vaccine as soon as possible. Another quarter of the public isn’t sure, while the remaining quarter say they aren’t interested. Some simply oppose vaccines in general. Others are concerned that the injections have been rushed and want to see how the rollout goes.
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Trump, who was hospitalised with Covid-19 in October, has yet to indicate when or if he will receive the shot.
According to guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there is not yet enough information to determine whether those who have had Covid-19, like Trump, should get the vaccine. Still, Fauci recommended that Trump take it publicly without delay.
“Even though the president himself was infected, and he has, likely, antibodies that likely would be protective, we’re not sure how long that protection lasts. So, to be doubly sure, I would recommend that he get vaccinated as well as the vice president,” Fauci told ABC News.
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany told reporters this week that Trump, who has previously spread misinformation about other vaccines “wants to send a parallel message which is, you know, our long-term care facility residents and our front-line workers are paramount in importance,” she said.
Gostin disagreed. ”It will be enormously damaging to public trust in the vaccine if President Trump isn’t visibly enthusiastic, including getting his shot on national television,” he argued. “It simply isn’t good enough to have Vice President Pence as a proxy.”