Johnson says he takes "full responsibility" for the "record" 100,000+ Covid deaths.  Really?  Yet a day later, in PMQs he (yet again!) claims he and his government have been putting "our arms around the people of this country"!

    What a lethal embrace!  Like the "protective ring"around care homes, killing 20,000 people in the first wave.  Nothing has been learnt: it's happening again.

    Yes, this government did "everything it could have done to minimise loss of life and suffering":  it lied, ignored science, lavished millions on the bosses, gave lucrative contracts to chums and left the rest of us on SSP, UC+£20, reliant on charity, or if we are "lucky", exposed to the virus in "key worker" jobs, or those we "cannot do from home".

    At least a third of these deaths occurred since December - not because the public ignored the rules, but because the rules were rubbish!  November's lock-down didn't close schools.  Factories, sorting offices and construction sites remain open up to today!  Nobody mentions these as infection hubs!  Who is counting the mounting death toll of workers?  And now the early re-opening of schools is being mooted - again?!

    We're told to look on the bright side: the vaccine programme!  True, more have been vaccinated (so far) than in other EU countries.  But separating 2 vaccine doses by 12 weeks to make supply stretch further is playing with fire.  Vaccine-resistant virus mutations appear more easily if hosts have partial immunity.

    As for the hogging of large vaccine supplies (by depriving others), it's obvious that AstraZeneca and Pfizer were quick to cash in on Britain's go-it alone policy.  But when it comes to setting up production lines, they're in no rush: scarcity of vaccines raises the price.  Indeed, Britain can only boast of 7 million vaccinated, compared to 2 million in Germany and fewer in France, because it jumped in first - taking the risk of early approval and paying more - in its belated, futile, attempt to stop mounting deaths.

    There should be better news: over 230 vaccines are still in development; 10 have received approval and 78 are in trials.  Companies - like Merck - whose candidates proved ineffective, could turn their resources to making proven vaccines, so that there really could be enough to vaccinate everyone.  However, this system of private property, patents and profit, prevents that obvious solution!