Make the unnjabbed face their own lockdown so we can live our lives
LIKE many of you, it was with a heavy heart and a strong sense of déjà vu that I watched the Prime Minister announce our move to new Covid rules.
Having already cancelled West Ham United’s much-deserved and well-planned Christmas party, I found myself wondering what other lovely festive events and plans are at risk of being shelved if restrictions get ramped up further, just like they did last year.
The Omicron variant is clearly riding roughshod through the country. But the big difference compared to this time last year is that the first dose of vaccine had only been given on December 8, and had yet to roll out.
So the only weapon in our arsenal then was to stay at home and try to dodge the virus.
This year, though, a good majority of us are double, even triple, vaxxed. Since I followed all the rules, I have never had Covid, so I do not have antibodies acquired that way.
But I do have them from being double vaccinated and have also had my booster. I really feel I have little to worry about when it comes to facing this virus.
If only everyone shared my approach. But an estimated five million people in the UK remain unvaccinated.
Despite the fact our lives, the economy and the mental health and wellbeing of a nation of children were in jeopardy as a result of several brutal lockdowns last year, some people still seem to prefer not to get the vaccine.
It would be fine if it just affected them, but it doesn’t. In recent weeks some 39 per cent of Covid patients in hospital have not been vaccinated; a number that rises significantly within intensive care units.
I have lost count of the number of stories involving people who refused to get vaccinated, then were in hospital with Covid and whose dying words were, “I wish I’d got the vaccine”.
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But even when it’s not fatal, any unvaccinated Covid patient in hospital is taking up a bed they would not have needed had they been vaccinated.
It’s a medical fact that being vaccinated substantially reduces the risk of serious illness and going into hospital.
As the Prime Minister said on Wednesday, booster jabs are our not-so-secret weapon when it comes to fighting this new wave. They are clearly the answer and yet there remains a sector of society who resolutely refuse to get them.
Austria is making jabs mandatory. Germany is considering that, too.
My view is that we can’t force people to have jabs, but we can force vaccine refuseniks to live a far more difficult, inconvenient and restricted life.
My view is that we can’t force people to have jabs, but we can force vaccine refuseniks to live a far more difficult, inconvenient and restricted life, one that will also be more expensive because of mandatory testing.
I was in Italy for the Monza Grand Prix in September.
It is impossible to be served in any café, restaurant or bar — or even enter some shops — without first proving you have been double vaccinated.
It’s a fuss-free process that takes only seconds.
We should do the same here.
And what’s the big deal with wearing a mask on public transport and in a shop?
If you can’t provide evidence of the vaccine, you should have to show a negative PCR test before going anywhere public, whether shopping or the cinema.
Spreading like wildfire
Because what is abundantly clear to anyone with half a brain is that without those jabs, things are not going to get better. And they could get a lot worse.
The medics have told us that the more people who get the vaccine, the better the chance we all have of beating this virus. Surely we all want to do that?
Refusing to have the vaccine, unless you have a medical reason to avoid it, should be as socially unacceptable as smoking.
And MPs have a part to play in that. They should be spelling out it is selfish not to have one and highlighting the fact that unvaccinated people are putting the health service at risk.
This variant is not scarier or more dangerous, but it is spreading like wildfire.
Government advisers have warned that, by the end of the year, hospital admissions from it could reach 1,000 a day — a third of whom are unvaccinated.
Yes, it comes down to choice, and some people choose not to be vaccinated just as others chose to get the jab partly to avoid yet another life-sapping lockdown.
Well, I think that by choosing not to be vaccinated, people should be made to face their own personal lockdown.
While the rest of us should be allowed to live our lives as freely as possible.
Amazing Michelle’s stylish to the bone
GOODNESS, I love Michelle Pfeiffer. At the age of 63, she is poised, elegant and jaw-droppingly beautiful.
She looks awesome in photos of her at The Hollywood Reporter’s 2021 Power 100 Women in Entertainment gala in LA this week – but not in a “face-lifty” way.
I guess that’s what great bone structure does for you.
But her style is terrific as well. And she looks pretty happy.
Having said that, if she has had surgery . . . please can she share the surgeon’s name and address?
FUMING OVER CIG BAN
IT MIGHT sound like a good idea, but I’m not sure I agree with New Zealand’s ban on young people ever being allowed to buy cigarettes.
In its new rolling scheme, which aims to make the entire country smoke-free, people aged 14 and under in 2027 will never be allowed to purchase cigarettes in their lifetime.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s new laws mean the age limit will be increased each year until it is illegal for the entire nation.
Whatever happened to freedom of choice? If you want to smoke, smoke, as long as you know that it can kill you – and if someone “invented” the cigarette today it would be illegal.
But the same could be said of anything else that is addictive and not good for you, like alcohol, food or gambling.
New Zealand is not a dictatorship but this is the behaviour of one.
It’s enough to make you wonder if politicians have got a taste for ordering people around during the pandemic and now they cannot stop doing it.
Court rape crisis
I AGREE with the lawyers who are calling the measures suggested by the Government and Director of Public Prosecutions to boost rape prosecutions “soundbites”.
Last week it emerged that rape victims are “lucky” to get to court within four years of making an allegation.
In the year ending March 2020, 99 per cent of rapes reported to police in England and Wales resulted in no legal proceedings against alleged attackers. Those that did proceed took four years.
And that same year the Crown Prosecution Service completed 1,490 rape prosecutions, compared to 4,643 in 2016.
No wonder that the Victims’ Commissioner, Dame Vera Baird QC, said last year that rape had been effectively “decriminalised”.
I know it was inevitable that there would be a backlog in the courts due to the initial Covid lockdown and it is not only rape cases that are delayed.
But the psychological effects on someone who has been raped and then made to wait four years to even attempt to get justice must be devastating.
This is a crisis.
Gleam is no dream
BEYONCE shared a picture with her 222million Instagram followers this week showing her wearing a dazzling Gucci x Balenciaga suit that cost $13,000 (£10,000).
I guess it is fitting in some ways for a woman who has just landed on the Forbes’ 2021 World’s Most Powerful Women List to be wearing a suit that looks like it’s made of diamonds and cost a fortune.
But someone needs to tell her that sometimes less really is more.
Ten grand for a trouser suit – really?
And I hate to say it, but it’s not even nice.
SINS OF ORGIES PRIEST
IT is right and proper, of course, that the Italian churchman who stole parish funds to throw drug-fuelled gay orgies has been sentenced to three years and eight months in jail.
Father Francesco Spagnesi, 40, who has been dubbed the “pusher priest”, also allegedly failed to tell the various partners he had unprotected sex with that he was HIV-positive.
All in all it’s pretty abysmal behaviour, and somehow all the worse for the fact that he is a priest.
It brings new weight and a whole new dimension to the words, “Bless me father, for I have sinned”.
EMPIRE actor Jussie Smollett has been convicted of faking a racist and homophobic hate crime against himself.
He faces up to 20 years’ jail for concocting a “ridiculous story”, lying to officers and wasting police time.
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His motive was to boost his career. It spectacularly backfired and instead it has ended it.
Tonight Smollett can rest knowing his attacker has been convicted – even if it is himself.
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