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I’m largely guessing here but I can’t imagine wholesale/maximum output manufacturing of vaccines was considered prior to regulatory approval, committing to millions of doses with a risk that approval isn’t given would have been madness especially for the Oxford one which is a non profit venture.
I suspect the ‘full steam ahead’ button was only pushed (in Oxford) six days ago so ramping up vaccinations to the required levels shouldn’t be as tricky as people fear...
Yes fair point Ista. My worry is more about the administering of the vaccines than the actual doses. NHS staff already at full capacity. Where are we going to find enough qualified people to stick the needles in?!
Think I read its approx 300 per GP per week as General Practice will be doing the vast majority. . No idea if they are still quiet or very busy again tbh!
Last edited by Can't Catch Me; 5 January 2021, 10:02 PM.
Yes fair point Ista. My worry is more about the administering of the vaccines than the actual doses. NHS staff already at full capacity. Where are we going to find enough qualified people to stick the needles in?!
Yep, valid concerns, but we manage to administer tens of millions of flu jabs every Autumn, I have mine done at local pharmacy so presumably they’ll look to use chemists ?
Also worth remembering that many/most/all (?) doctors surgeries are conducting consultations by phone, presumably there is capacity for surgeries to administer vaccines ?
I know they’re asking retired doctors/nurses to help out.
One thing I will add is that this process has been considered for some time, I know the NHS are acquiring numerous buildings nationwide that will be vaccine centres.
One professional cricket club agreed a deal in October to lease their building, you would hope those who had the foresight to secure properties for vaccine rollout also had the foresight to secure the people to administer them...
Yep, valid concerns, but we manage to administer tens of millions of flu jabs every Autumn, I have mine done at local pharmacy so presumably they’ll look to use chemists ?
Also worth remembering that many/most/all (?) doctors surgeries are conducting consultations by phone, presumably there is capacity for surgeries to administer vaccines ?
I know they’re asking retired doctors/nurses to help out.
One thing I will add is that this process has been considered for some time, I know the NHS are acquiring numerous buildings nationwide that will be vaccine centres.
One professional cricket club agreed a deal in October to lease their building, you would hope those who had the foresight to secure properties for vaccine rollout also had the foresight to secure the people to administer them...
You certainly would... Seen some great offers from many businesses like Brewdog to use their premises. Certainly don't think that will be the issue. As you say, they have had plenty of time to plan... We live in hope!
Its a load of shit IMO, but just posting because its on the RP website so someone must think this has merit
Come March, it will be 20 years since the Cheltenham Festival fell to foot and mouth. It hasn’t been lost in the intervening two decades, escaping by the skin of its teeth last year.
Notwithstanding how rapidly everything changes from day to day during this pandemic, you’d like to think it will prevail again in 2021.
Again, while the same caveat applies, there now seems to be an acceptance at government level internationally that, once stringent protocols are applied and there is no added threat to public health, professional sport provides an outlet that distracts and entertains people.
Although racing isn’t testing its participants beyond what it was for international forays prior to the recent travel ban, we’ve seen – especially so in Ireland where both the Flat and jumps perennial champion trainers were hit – how robustly the rules are being applied.
The Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board has long had a redoubtable creative ingenuity when it comes to making rods for its own back, but Dr Jennifer Pugh’s oversight of the implementation of the protocols has been one of the regulator’s few unmitigated triumphs.
In Britain, the situation appears to be similarly well policed, and racing has advantages other sports and sectors don’t, in that it requires movement of a relatively small number of people to allow it to function and, because it is non-contact, is ideally suited for social distancing.
That keeps the industry going, and the racing is only a shop window anyway, as the care of animals means that the work going on behind the scenes is very much in the essential category.
As such, within each country, it’s not unreasonable to envisage the sport continuing, and the government's decision to leave the situation unchanged when unveiling its heightened lockdown on Wednesday corroborates that.
The persistent fear, though, is just how disruptive travel restrictions are going to prove, and it’s worth casting your mind back to March 1, 2001. At that stage, despite the foot and mouth crisis ravaging Britain, the Cheltenham Festival was still going ahead.
However, it was going to do so without any Irish-based horses. At the end of February, the late Joe Walsh, a hardcore racing fanatic who received widespread applause for his management of the foot and mouth threat during his time as minister for agriculture, had asked racing stakeholders not to travel to Cheltenham.
On March 1, the Irish Racehorse Trainers Association – chaired by one WP Mullins – acquiesced, meaning there would have been no Irish horses on duty at an event so defined by its Anglo-Irish rivalry had a flock of “rogue” sheep not subsequently thwarted the meeting. 'Silenced by the Lambs', the Racing Post front page screamed.
"He was finished for the season, so it didn't matter, but we had to leave him there until restrictions were lifted, and his lad Tom Whitaker stayed with him for most of it," trainer Ted Walsh recalls.
At this stage, it’s only natural that people are beginning to wonder if similar eventualities loom in 2021.
During the summer, as noted by HRI chief executive Brian Kavanagh in these pages on Wednesday, ways were soon found to allow international participation, first at the highest level before the permissions were then broadened.
Right now, there are significant variables at play that complicate matters.
For starters, we are back in the thick of winter and, as many forecasted, Covid-19 transmission has become rampant once again. The new mutations are clearly inflaming the rate of transmission, and the pace at which the vaccine rollout can happen doesn’t look like it will nearly keep up with the rate of infection.
As had been mooted, the British travel ban will end on Friday night, but it is replaced by a requirement that anyone travelling from Britain will need to provide a negative coronavirus test on arrival.
While necessary, with an eye on Cheltenham, it's far from ideal, albeit a lot can change in ten weeks.
The problem is logistics. While it is reasonable to expect a handful of jockeys to provide negative Covid results under the elite sport exemptions before travelling to Ireland, it will be far more of an ordeal to ask the same of large numbers of staff who need to accompany horses home.
Apart from the practicality of it, when you consider the convoy of lorries that usually funnels non-stop in and out of Cheltenham for Willie Mullins and Gordon Elliott alone, the likelihood is those staff would still have to self-isolate for 14 days on their return.
That would have a knock-on effect on the extent to which yards would be able to function, and it would create massive operational issues in the middle of a season. Exemptions will be sought, but they won't be easily won.
As Kavanagh and Mullins have alluded to, basing staff in Britain wouldn't be a solution for such a large-scale undertaking.
One option might be for each trainer to send a handful of key personnel and draw on British-based staff, but most suitable candidates will already be spoken for, while sales hands wouldn't have the necessary security access.
It's not going to be easy – and we haven't even touched on the red-tape quagmire that is Brexit.
Bottom line? There will be far fewer Irish runners and fewer trainers represented at the 2021 Cheltenham Festival.
In 2020, Mullins and Elliott accounted for 97 festival runners, which equated to nearly 24 per cent of the total participants. Of the 412 runners, 181, or 44 per cent, were Irish, representing 37 different handlers. They are an integral part of its fabric – period.
Yet some Irish trainers are already planning an alternative route for horses that might normally be aimed towards the Cotswolds, and, if a variation of the original Flat restrictions that permitted international runners only in Group 1s is revived, that is going to reduce the numbers further.
Still, at this stage, most of us would settle for a depleted delegation. It would be a damn sight better than the alternative.
I honestly couldn’t think of anything more depressing than Cheltenham with no Irish horses. In fact I’m certain that it going ahead with British only would be even more depressing than it being cancelled outright, knowing what could have been, and quite frankly, I’d rather watch the shite at Dundalk on a Friday night.
I’m starting to think could it be a possibility that Irish runners coming over are restricted to Grade 1 races only? So no Irish horses travelling over for the handicaps?
The build up to last years festival wasn’t the usual enjoyable one with worrying if it’d go ahead or not! Now got to worry about it the Irish can travel over!
have a look at each of the markets and take the Irish horses out, it’d be garbage, and that’s putting it nicely.
If there is any merit to this article all it saying is there may be reduced numbers from Ireland. I would still expect Irish horses that have leading chances in any race to turn up. It may mean there are a few less of the outsiders turning up, while this would undoubtedly be disappointing for the Festival I would not expect this to have a significant impact on our antepost bets at least
If there is any merit to this article all it saying is there may be reduced numbers from Ireland. I would still expect Irish horses that have leading chances in any race to turn up. It may mean there are a few less of the outsiders turning up, while this would undoubtedly be disappointing for the Festival I would not expect this to have a significant impact on our antepost bets at least
Exactly this.
It's a long winded way of stating the bleeding obvious.
Any Irish trained horse in two minds about coming over, probably won't.
Due to it being a hastle.
Exactly this.
It's a long winded way of stating the bleeding obvious.
Any Irish trained horse in two minds about coming over, probably won't.
Due to it being a hastle.
You always have a great way of expressing exactly what I’m thinking in far less words ...haha
Exactly this.
It's a long winded way of stating the bleeding obvious.
Any Irish trained horse in two minds about coming over, probably won't.
Due to it being a hastle.
I agree. I only posted it more so non-members can see what's said than thinking its actually a good view
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