Coronavirus

[Spy Bee]

https://goodlawproject.org/news/special-procurement-channels/

 

Exposed: Special procurement channels for ‘VIPs’ and Cabinet contacts

 

Leaked documents seen by Good Law Project set out special pathways by which “VIP” and “Cabinet Office” contacts could be awarded lucrative PPE contracts at the height of the pandemic – and at inflated prices.
Lord Bethell, a junior Health Minister, promised that “suppliers will be evaluated by Departmental officials on their financial standing.” But questions arose over how enormous contracts came to be awarded to dormant or new entities and those of dubious financial standing including:

• PPE Medpro won two contracts worth over £200m to supply PPE to the NHS. The £100 company, set up by the former business associate of Conservative peer Baroness Mone, won the contract just seven weeks after it was set up.
• SG Recruitment UK Limited, a staffing agency, won two PPE contracts worth over £50m, despite auditors raising concerns about its solvency. Tory Peer Lord Chadlington sits on the Board of its parent company, Sumner Group Holdings Limited.
• P14 Medical Limited, controlled by former Conservative Councillor Steve Dechan, who stood down in August this year, was awarded three contracts worth over £276m despite having negative £485,000 in net assets.

The leaked documents disclose that special procurement channels – outside the normal process – were set up for VIPs.

 

 

They also show that Cabinet Office was feeding its contacts into the procurement process, outside the normal public channel. 

 

 

Good Law Project is also aware that successful contractors – like Ayanda which received a £252m contract for supplying facemasks most of which were unusable – were guided through the process by the Cabinet Office.

 

 

 

The leaked documents also evidence a startling opportunity for price gouging by favoured suppliers.  It is only if prices were more than 25% above the average paid to other suppliers that questions were to be asked about value for money.

 

 

Good Law Project understands that most suppliers were operating on 10-20% margin. The leaked documents reveal that Cabinet Office contacts and others were helping ‘VIPs’ sell PPE to Government outside normal procurement channels. The information that Government would buy at 25% above the price paid to ‘regular’ suppliers was a licence to make enormous margins – 35% – 45% – on contracts sometimes worth hundreds of millions of pounds. Although Government has tried to cover up the per unit prices it paid to connected suppliers, we know that Ayanda enjoyed staggering margins above the prices paid to others. So there are certainly questions to be asked about whether other politically connected ‘VIPs’ benefited from lucrative inside information about pricing.

[Bruce Spanner]

2 minutes ago, Bjornebye said:

He's a robot, a face for goings on behind the scenes. I hope he gets pushed under a tube. Utter cunt. 

 He’ll be thrown under a bus soon enough, don’t worry.

[Bjornebye]

8 minutes ago, Spy Bee said:

https://goodlawproject.org/news/special-procurement-channels/

 

Exposed: Special procurement channels for ‘VIPs’ and Cabinet contacts

 

Leaked documents seen by Good Law Project set out special pathways by which “VIP” and “Cabinet Office” contacts could be awarded lucrative PPE contracts at the height of the pandemic – and at inflated prices.
Lord Bethell, a junior Health Minister, promised that “suppliers will be evaluated by Departmental officials on their financial standing.” But questions arose over how enormous contracts came to be awarded to dormant or new entities and those of dubious financial standing including:

• PPE Medpro won two contracts worth over £200m to supply PPE to the NHS. The £100 company, set up by the former business associate of Conservative peer Baroness Mone, won the contract just seven weeks after it was set up.
• SG Recruitment UK Limited, a staffing agency, won two PPE contracts worth over £50m, despite auditors raising concerns about its solvency. Tory Peer Lord Chadlington sits on the Board of its parent company, Sumner Group Holdings Limited.
• P14 Medical Limited, controlled by former Conservative Councillor Steve Dechan, who stood down in August this year, was awarded three contracts worth over £276m despite having negative £485,000 in net assets.

The leaked documents disclose that special procurement channels – outside the normal process – were set up for VIPs.

 

 

They also show that Cabinet Office was feeding its contacts into the procurement process, outside the normal public channel. 

 

 

Good Law Project is also aware that successful contractors – like Ayanda which received a £252m contract for supplying facemasks most of which were unusable – were guided through the process by the Cabinet Office.

 

 

 

The leaked documents also evidence a startling opportunity for price gouging by favoured suppliers.  It is only if prices were more than 25% above the average paid to other suppliers that questions were to be asked about value for money.

 

 

Good Law Project understands that most suppliers were operating on 10-20% margin. The leaked documents reveal that Cabinet Office contacts and others were helping ‘VIPs’ sell PPE to Government outside normal procurement channels. The information that Government would buy at 25% above the price paid to ‘regular’ suppliers was a licence to make enormous margins – 35% – 45% – on contracts sometimes worth hundreds of millions of pounds. Although Government has tried to cover up the per unit prices it paid to connected suppliers, we know that Ayanda enjoyed staggering margins above the prices paid to others. So there are certainly questions to be asked about whether other politically connected ‘VIPs’ benefited from lucrative inside information about pricing.

Scumbags profiting off dodgy gear. 

[Scooby Dudek]

The issue is no one cares, people call them out and they just ignore them and move on. They is no accountability, and once again the political journalists and media are complicit in this. A few days of outrage and move on to the next distraction to get people on side.

Oh look, immigrants coming across the channel, thank God the Tories are in power.

Oh look, lower foreign aid, good old Tories finally putting Britain first.

 

Even now, how much coverage is the government getting about being told the hostile environment in the home office would negatively effect the Windrush generation? Mentioned on day of report and then nothing else, move along nothing to see here.

 

A few programs that call the government out, so the government refuse to go on, not a single other media outlet called them out and refused to interview them. In fact many thought is was great.

 

It is all so depressing but predictable.

 

 

[Tj hooker]

41 minutes ago, Bjornebye said:

They just don't care do they. Starmer brought it up in PMQ's yesterday and yet again Johnson deflected it. So much for Gov Frameworks. It makes me sick that these twats will have sat there when this all kicked off thinking "get in can make a few quid here" while the rest of the country worked about jobs, loved ones, the future. 

The Trump effect working well in good old honest Blighty it would seem 

[Section_31]

[easytoslip]

12 hours ago, Bruce Spanner said:

Newsnight hinting that they’ll be no areas in tier1 tomorrow.

 

 

Tier 1 here in Southampton, its fucked my trip home again, there's no point if you can't walk around having a beer here and there, who the fuck wants a meal in a pub? Well sometimes but not when you want to embark on a good bevvy. 

Not to mention the visiting restrictions, fuck it all I tell you. 

[Bruce Spanner]

6 minutes ago, easytoslip said:

Tier 1 here in Southampton, its fucked my trip home again, there's no point if you can't walk around having a beer here and there, who the fuck wants a meal in a pub? Well sometimes but not when you want to embark on a good bevvy. 

Not to mention the visiting restrictions, fuck it all I tell you. 

The only areas in tier one are The Isle of Wight, The Isle of Scilly and Cornwall. 

Everywhere else is tier two or three, or lockdown lite.

[Mudface]

Hmm the AstraZeneca trial could be in trouble, not only did they mistakenly give a half doze initially, the people who got it were exclusively under-55 so were different to the 'main' group. Their trial data could basically be trash.

 

https://www.ft.com/content/4583fbf8-b47c-4e78-8253-22efcfa4903a

 

Oxford university acknowledges error that forced trial to switch dosing regimens

AstraZeneca said the trial of its Covid-19 vaccine was conducted to the highest standards 

Disquiet is growing over the way that Oxford university and AstraZeneca have handled the early readout from trials of their coronavirus vaccine, which much of the developing world may rely on to emerge from the pandemic.

The results were hailed a success for showing an average efficacy of 70 per cent — a figure reached by pooling the results from cohorts on two different dosing regimens.

One set of participants received two identical doses a month apart, while the other group received a half-dose, and then a full dose. The efficacy for the first, larger group was 62 per cent. In the second subgroup, it was 90 per cent.

It has emerged that administration of the half-dose started with a mistake. It was then given to a smaller number of participants than those who received two full doses, making the discovery of its greater effectiveness look like a lucky break.

Yet on Tuesday, Moncef Slaoui, the head of Operation Warp Speed, the US government’s funding programme for vaccine development, disclosed that second subgroup was also limited to people aged 55 or below, a demographic with lower risk of developing severe Covid-19.

Oxford and AstraZeneca did not disclose the age breakdown on Monday, when results were released.

“There are a number of variables that we need to understand,” Mr Slaoui said. It is still possible the difference in efficacy was “random”, he added.

Markets have taken notice. London-listed shares in AstraZeneca have lost more than 6 per cent since the announcement. By comparison, since trial results from their vaccine were released earlier this month, showing an effectiveness of 90 per cent, shares in Pfizer and BioNTech have gained 6 per cent and 14 per cent respectively; Moderna is up 11 per cent since its vaccine trial data came out, on top of big gains in the run-up to publication.


One early critic this week, Geoffrey Porges, an analyst at SVB Leerink, said he thought it was unlikely the AstraZeneca jab would get approval in the US after the company “tried to embellish their results” by highlighting higher efficacy in a “relatively small subset of subjects in the study”.

John LaMattina, a former president of Pfizer’s global research and development unit, said in a tweet it was “hard to believe” US regulators would issue an emergency-use authorisation for a “vaccine whose optimal dose has only been given to 2,300 people”.

Much of the confusion stems from Oxford and AstraZeneca not being fully forthcoming on the reason for the two different dosing regimens — which changed unexpectedly as trials progressed.

In a statement late on Wednesday, Oxford acknowledged a difference in manufacturing and measurement processes meant later phases of its clinical studies resulted in half a dose being mistakenly administered instead of a full one.

The methods for measuring the concentration are now established and we can ensure that all batches of vaccine are now equivalent
The Wednesday statement said this was discussed with regulators at the time, who agreed to use two testing regimens. “The methods for measuring the concentration are now established and we can ensure that all batches of vaccine are now equivalent,” it said.

Richard Lawson, a UK trial participant who still does not know whether he was given the vaccine or a placebo because the trial has not yet been unblinded, told the Financial Times he was informed of the mix-up in July, before getting a booster shot.

As a general rule, vaccinologists usually aim for the lowest dose that is still effective, but the efficacy of the lower dose is still not explained. Oxford professor Sarah Gilbert has said it is possible that a smaller initial dose primes the immune system in a way that better mimics natural infection. But there is no precedent for other vaccines to be administered in this way.

“We just don’t have all the information we need to tell whether these results are reliable,” said Natalie Dean, an assistant professor of biostatistics at the University of Florida. “We certainly don’t have enough information in the public domain to decide whether this half dose is really working.”

Coronavirus business update

How is coronavirus taking its toll on markets, business, and our everyday lives and workplaces? Stay briefed with our coronavirus newsletter.

 

Prof Dean contrasted the AstraZeneca disclosures with those from other trials. “We had this precedent set by the other vaccines with Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech and these were single trials, with a protocol released in advance,” she said. “We had a chance to look through it . . . It was fairly straightforward.”

There are also concerns at variations in the trial of the Oxford vaccine in different countries. As well as different dosing regimens, there were also differences between the control groups in different countries: in the UK, participants who did not get the Covid-19 vaccine were administered a meningococcal vaccine; in Brazil they got a saline placebo.

These discrepancies have led to the suggestion that the data is too patchy to combine into a single convincing efficacy result.

An AstraZeneca spokesman defended the trial, saying they were “conducted to the highest standards” and met their primary efficacy endpoint. The company has said more data will continue to accumulate and additional analysis will be conducted, refining the efficacy reading and establishing how long the vaccine protects against the virus.

The results will appear in a peer-reviewed journal, and regulators have set an efficacy threshold of 50 per cent, meaning a jab with a 70 per cent efficacy would still get approved.

 

Despite the questions over efficacy, the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine does offer some undisputed advantages. It is cheaper than the mRNA vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech and can be stored in a refrigerator rather than a freezer.

Oxford university said it “completely” understood the interest in the discovery of the dosing mistake and the switch in dosing tactics, which was approved by UK regulators.

“As this is a complicated scientific area, our scientists would like to wait until the peer-reviewed publication of the interim phase 3 results in The Lancet [medical journal] before discussing this further, which we anticipate will be in the next few weeks,” it said.

 

[easytoslip]

20 minutes ago, Bruce Spanner said:

The only areas in tier one are The Isle of Wight, The Isle of Scilly and Cornwall. 

Everywhere else is tier two or three, or lockdown lite.

Yeah, she misinformed me fuckin' grim. I heard Southampton Brighton are allowed fans, it doesn't make sense, you could just well catch it in Fine Fare etc. 

All for Xmas bollocks, at least I can go to a place of worship which is main the thing. 

 

[Section_31]

Can you still not mix with other households in tier 2?

[Bruce Spanner]

7 minutes ago, Section_31 said:

Can you still not mix with other households in tier 2?

Not inside households, rule of six when spending money anywhere else.

 

 

[Moctezuma]

The thing that is really concerning me is the idea that the vaccines wont have been widely disseminated before we hit the third wave which was projected by NHSE to be around June (though that may need to be brought forward given the second wave started peaking earlier than projected in early November),  and that we end up in a situation where the public completely abandon any attempts at keeping the virus under control via behavioral actions in anticipation of the vaccine arrival.

[tokyojoe]

Be interesting to see how this is all enforced, at fucking Christmas or anytime.

[Bruce Spanner]

3 minutes ago, Moctezuma said:

The thing that is really concerning me is the idea that the vaccines wont have been widely disseminated before we hit the third wave which was projected by NHSE to be around June (though that may need to be brought forward given the second wave started peaking earlier than projected in early November),  and that we end up in a situation where the public completely abandon any attempts at keeping the virus under control via behavioral actions in anticipation of the vaccine arrival.

Sunaks briefing yesterday planned for vaccine roll out around late spring/early summer.

 

We’ll have another surge post Christmas and most likely another lockdown/circuit breaker then we’ll plod on towards the next one.

 

This was avoidable, it should never be forgotten. 

[Moctezuma]

I'm tired my colleagues are tired, yes there is a 'new normal' element to it, but the endless disruption it is causing to services and the attendant attempts at pushing through huge changes in structures and working patterns are not helping.

[Moctezuma]

Just now, Bruce Spanner said:

Sunaks briefing yesterday planned for vaccine roll out around late spring/early summer.

 

We’ll have another surge post Christmas and most likely another lockdown/circuit breaker.

 

This was avoidable, it should never be forgotten. 

 

Agreed, I remember the levels of disbelief and incredulity in the department at the time lag to implement the first lockdown. The tube still heaving with construction workers and other non-essential professions after they had reduced the services.

[Bjornebye]

2 minutes ago, tokyojoe said:

Be interesting to see how this is all enforced, at fucking Christmas or anytime.

They wont police fuck all at Christmas. maybe a few token stories for the media but by and large people will do what they want and be allowed to do so. Obviously so that hancock in January can say "Well we set clear guidelines for a tiered approach and yet again the majority of the public ignored this which is why we are now seeing 800 deaths a day" 

[Bruce Spanner]

2 minutes ago, Moctezuma said:

 

Agreed, I remember the levels of disbelief and incredulity in the department at the time lag to implement the first lockdown. The tube still heaving with construction workers and other non-essential professions after they had reduced the services.

I’m on the overground as I had an accident and can’t ride to work and it’s busier than ever.

 

Complete dereliction of duty by anybody in the cabinet, from simple messaging through complex testing, everything has been an abject failure. 

[Bjornebye]

1 minute ago, Bruce Spanner said:

I’m on the overground as I had an accident and can’t ride to work and it’s busier than ever.

 

Complete dereliction of duty by anybody in the cabinet, from simple messaging through complex testing, everything has been an abject failure. 

Who bummed you? 

[Bruce Spanner]

Just now, Bjornebye said:

Who bummed you? 

The Tories.

[Bjornebye]

Just now, Bruce Spanner said:

The Tories.

haha

[easytoslip]

If it doesn't get any more gloomy, I've just read that Carol fuckin' Kirkwood has trouble sleeping but at least the BBC news team have her back it said. 

It really is a tough old station. 

[Colonel Bumcunt]

Fucking sweet. 

11pm in pubs as well 

 

 

[easytoslip]

9 minutes ago, Colonel Bumcunt said:

Fucking sweet. 

11pm in pubs as well 

 

 

It won't be sweet when we all pile over to go on the lash.