Seeing tonight's awful events on Clapham Common jogged my memory of something Patrick Vallance told MPs this week about outdoor protests, but which was not picked up at the time: there is little evidence such events cause Covid spikes. 1/3
Vallance said outdoors not completely risk free but stressed: "It is the case that it is difficult to see how things like large beach gatherings and so on can cause a spike. The same was the case in a protest march in New York. *They did not really see any spikes
after that*" 2/3
Vallance then said to Chris Whitty: "Chris, do you want to add to that?"
Whitty replied: "No, I completely agree."

Surely ministers + @metpoliceuk need to take heed of this, quite apart from all the other failures tonight?

[This was evidence to @CommonsSTC] 3/3
For all those wrongly comparing this vigil to a football match, he added: "The other thing that can happen with outdoor events...when indoor things are also open, you start to get people congregating indoors around that. That can increase risk, but outdoors itself is lower risk."
And of course *indoor things* ie restaurants/bars are not currently open.
Committee chair @GregClarkMP has tweeted the clip of this here:

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More from @paulwaugh

12 Mar
Love podcasts cos they allow a topic to breathe a bit more.
Among @RishiSunak words to @Jack_Blanchard_ I was struck by
- his biggest regret of pandemic was he hadn't helped more of the 'excluded'
- his hint UK will adopt more local hotdesk offices

politico.eu/podcast/meet-c…
Asked what one thing he wd've liked to do differently: "I think that there will be people who feel they haven't been helped in the way that they would like to have been helped and supported". Suggests real answer is real-time digital data for self-employed + others
Also suggests ppl will commute less but will still want v local office to get away from working at home. Cites New York.
"It's a slightly different serviced office, hot-desking thing, in neighbourhoods."
Read 5 tweets
11 Mar
Agreed by Labour's NEC today: the party will introduce new codes of conduct and training on Islamophobia and anti-Black racism – to both complement its disciplinary procedures, and support the culture change pledged by @Keir_Starmer and @AngelaRayner
Separately, new training courses on Islamophobia and anti-Black racism will be developed for elected representatives and staff, in particular those who handle complaints. This complements training on antisemitism as part of action plan agreed with EHRC
The NEC also agreed to create a new party-wide organisation for Black, Asian and ethnic minority members, with a national committee and annual conference.
All Labour BAME members will automatically be part of a new Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Members Organisation (BAMEMO)
Read 6 tweets
10 Mar
NEW: PM's press secretary Allegra Stratton refuses at least TWELVE times to answer this Q: does @BorisJohnson accept he was wrong to say Labour voted against an NHS pay rise?
Instead, she repeatedly says the Speaker has accepted @JonAshworth's "clarification" [ie saying the PM lied] and the matter is now closed.
A reminder that during the 2019 GenElxn live tv debate, when @BorisJohnson was asked "Does the truth matter in this election?”, and he responded “I think it does", the audience burst into derisive laughter.
One of the few memorably uncomfortable moments for him in that campaign
Read 6 tweets
10 Mar
So proud to work for an editor, @jessbrammar, who was the first to call out the Society of Editors on this.
To suggest that none of our media are bigoted was so obviously wrong.
Latest SoE statement: “The Society of Editors has a proud history of campaigning for freedom of speech and the vital work that journalists do in a democracy to hold power to account... 1/2
"Our statement on Meghan + Harry was made in that spirit but did not reflect what we all know: that there is a lot of work to be done in the media to improve diversity + inclusion. We will reflect on the reaction our statement prompted +work towards being part of the solution”2/2
Read 4 tweets
10 Mar
‘No Clear Evidence’ Test And Trace Has Cut Covid Rates Despite £22bn Cost, Spending Watchdog Says

huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/test-and…
Today's withering PAC criticism follows our @HuffPostUK report last month:
Secret Document Reveals Ministers Bet On Test And Trace To Stop Second Lockdown
huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/test-and…
As @didoharding points out, 80% of costs of Test and Trace go on testing. And testing is expensive.
She says service has improved on lots of metrics and it is now doing unprecedented mass scale testing. "Yesterday alone we conducted over 1.5million tests."
Read 4 tweets
9 Mar
Chris Whitty underlining repeatedly to @CommonsSTC that easing lockdown too early would lead to 'substantial' number of deaths. Even if vaccine was 99% effective, even if take up as good as it is now, that risk remains, he says.
Valuable backing for the PM's roadmap
"People should remember that things can turn bad very fast if you don't keep a very close eye on what's going on," Whitty says.
Key line from Whitty on vaccination of older people: “The idea that is a sort of get out of jail card, in terms of a surge of transmission, I think is to misremember where in the age spectrum the drive of transmission is - and it's in younger adults.”
Read 7 tweets

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