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Tony Blair has said it is “time to distinguish” between people who have and haven’t had a coronavirus vaccine.

The former prime minister has warned it “makes no sense at all to treat those who have had vaccination the same as those who haven’t” – and said relaxing measures for those who have had both jabs will provide a powerful incentive.

Mr Blair’s remarks came as it emerged that 13.5 million first and second doses of a COVID-19 vaccine were given out in May, setting a new monthly record.

The ex-Labour leader also described the NHS app that proves someone is vaccinated as 'inadequate'
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The ex-Labour leader also described the NHS app that proves someone is vaccinated as ‘inadequate’

The ex-Labour leader also described the NHS app that proves someone is vaccinated as “inadequate”, and warned it needs to be simpler and more effective.

His remarks came in response to a new report by the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, which says “vaccine status matters” and that health passes can “allow citizens to prove their status in a secure, privacy-preserving way”.

The report’s authors said that, if a health pass system was used at home and abroad, “we can move beyond blunt, catch-all tools and align with other countries by removing certain restrictions for the fully vaccinated, thereby enabling us to sustainably reopen the economy”.

And they added: “For as long as the world goes largely unvaccinated and the risk of a new variant remains significant, it’s vital that we have an alternative to the blunt tool of lockdowns to enable the country to live freely and safely.”

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Mr Blair said: “It is time to distinguish for the purposes of freedom from restriction between the vaccinated and unvaccinated, both for citizens here for domestic purposes; but also for our citizens and those from other countries in respect of travel on the basis that being vaccinated substantially reduces risk.”

The 68-year-old, who served as PM from 1997 to 2007, made it clear that this would involve discriminating between the vaccinated and unvaccinated, adding: “Other than for medical reasons, people should be vaccinated.”

In response to his remarks, a senior government source told the PA news agency: “Once again Mr Blair appears to have learned of things already in the pipeline and decided to publicly call for them.

“It’s becoming something of a habit. Nonetheless we thank him for his continued support.”

Meanwhile, people who have been contacted to bring forward their second coronavirus vaccine appointment are being urged to rebook as soon as possible.

Last month, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation recommended that the interval between doses should be reduced to eight weeks for the clinically vulnerable, as well as everyone over the age of 50.

The move aims to combat the spread of the COVID-19 variant first detected in India, also known as the Delta variant.

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Vaccine uptake on the increase

Overall, more than 1.7 million people have been sent texts by the NHS that invite them to reschedule their appointment.

Dr Emily Lawson, the NHS lead for the COVID-19 vaccination programme, said: “The vaccine is our most effective weapon against the virus and there has never been a more important time to get protected.”

More than half of people in England are now fully vaccinated, with 23,077,511 people having received both doses.

Some 33,525,485 people – more than three-quarters of the country’s adult population – have received their first dose.

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Huge queues outside vaccination centre

All of this comes as the government “draws up other options” before making a decision on whether to completely lift COVID restrictions on 21 June.

While Number 10 is still planning to go ahead with the final step in the roadmap, it is waiting for more data before taking any decisions.

Options under discussion are said to include retaining the wearing of face masks in certain settings, or delaying the end to legal limits on social contact until July.

Until now, the government has only ever said there is “nothing in the data” to suggest ending lockdown should be delayed.

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Firms nervous of further lockdowns

Conservative MP Andrew Bridgen told Sky News the “public appetite” for restrictions could “wane very quickly” if all measures are not removed on 21 June.

He added: “Lockdowns were there to protect the NHS. We know hospitalisations are a fraction of what they were at the peak. We’ve been told we’ve got to get used to living with this virus. Living with the virus doesn’t mean we have to be in lockdown forever – that’s not a solution.”

Meanwhile, an NHS boss has told Sky News that vaccines appear to have “broken the chain” between catching coronavirus and becoming seriously ill.

Chris Hopson, the chief executive of NHS Providers, said while the number of people in hospital with the variant first detected in India, also known as the Delta variant, was increasing, it was much lower than what was seen in previous waves.

On Saturday, the UK reported another 5,765 coronavirus cases – significantly up on the total on the same day last week, but down on Friday’s two-month high.

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Matt Hancock: The key questions facing ex-health secretary when he gives evidence to COVID inquiry

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Matt Hancock: The key questions facing ex-health secretary when he gives evidence to COVID inquiry

Former health secretary Matt Hancock played a key role in the UK’s response to the COVID pandemic – and his decisions will today be scrutinised by the official inquiry.

Mr Hancock was a familiar face at the regular press conferences that took place during that period, giving updates to the public about social distancing measures, the state of the NHS and the vaccine programme.

In 2021, he was forced to resign after he admitted he broke the government’s own coronavirus guidance to pursue an affair with an aide.

Today it is his turn to give evidence to the COVID inquiry.

He will follow a string of high-profile witnesses who have already shared their experience of the pandemic with inquiry chair Baroness Hallett, including Dominic Cummings, Boris Johnson’s former chief adviser, Lord Simon Stevens, who was the chief executive of the NHS at the time, and former chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance.

Mr Hancock has already featured heavily in the testimonies of the witnesses who have given evidence to the inquiry so far.

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A spokesperson for Mr Hancock said he has “supported the inquiry throughout and will respond to all questions when he gives his evidence”.

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Former NHS CEO Lord Stevens made this assessment of Mr Hancock when he appeared before the COVID inquiry at the beginning of November.

“The secretary of state for health and social care took the position that in this situation he – rather than, say, the medical profession or the public – should ultimately decide who should live and who should die,” he said in a written statement to the inquiry.

“Fortunately, this horrible dilemma never crystallised.”

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Hancock ‘wanted to decide who should live’

However, although Lord Stevens suggested that Mr Hancock wanted too many powers in his capacity as health secretary, he did add that “for the most part” the former cabinet minister could be trusted.

“There were occasional moments of tension and flashpoints, which are probably inevitable during the course of a 15-month pandemic but I was brought up always to look to the best in people,” he said.

‘Nuclear levels of over-confidence’

The day before Lord Stevens gave evidence, the COVID inquiry heard from Helen MacNamara, who was deputy cabinet secretary during the pandemic.

She told the inquiry Mr Hancock showed “nuclear levels” of confidence at the start of the COVID pandemic and “regularly” told colleagues in Downing Street things “they later discovered weren’t true”.

For example, Ms MacNamara said the former health secretary would say things were under control or being sorted in meetings, only for it to emerge in days or weeks that “was not in fact the case”.

She also recalled a “jarring” incident where she told Mr Hancock that it must have been difficult to be health secretary during a pandemic, to which he responded by miming playing cricket, saying: “They bowl them at me, I knock them away” during the first lockdown.

‘Lied his way through this and killed people’

There is clearly no love lost between Mr Hancock and Mr Cummings, who told the inquiry that he repeatedly called for Boris Johnson to sack him.

Mr Cummings alleged that the ex-health secretary “lied his way through this and killed people and dozens and dozens of people have seen it”.

In a message sent to Mr Johnson in May 2020, Mr Cummings said: “You need to think through timing of binning Hancock. There’s no way the guy can stay. He’s lied his way through this and killed people and dozens and dozens of people have seen it.”

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COVID: No 10 in ‘complete chaos’

In August 2020, he wrote again: “I also must stress I think leaving Hancock in post is a big mistake – he is a proven liar who nobody believes or [should] believe on anything, and we face going into autumn crisis with the c**t in charge of NHS still.”

Mr Cummings also echoed Ms MacNamara’s accusation that the former health secretary told colleagues things that later were discovered not to be true, saying he “sowed chaos” by continuing to insist in March 2020 that people without symptoms of a dry cough and a temperature were unlikely to be suffering from coronavirus.

He also revealed that he purposefully excluded Mr Hancock from meetings because he could not be trusted.

Mark Sedwill wanted Hancock removed to ‘save lives and protect the NHS’

Messages exchanged by Lord Mark Sedwill, the former head of the Civil Service and Simon Case, the current cabinet secretary, revealed that Lord Sedwill wanted Mr Hancock removed as health secretary to “save lives and protect the NHS” – a play on the pandemic-era slogan at the time.

Lord Sedwill said this was “gallows humour” and that he did not use the work “sack” when speaking to Mr Johnson about his health secretary.

However, he did admit that Mr Johnson would nevertheless have been “under no illusions” about his feelings towards Mr Hancock.

‘He had a habit of saying things he didn’t have a basis for’

Sir Patrick Vallance, who was chief scientific adviser from 2018 to 2023, was another figure who claimed Mr Hancock would say things “he didn’t have a basis for”, which he attributed to “over-enthusiasm”.

He told the COVID inquiry: “I think he had a habit of saying things which he didn’t have a basis for and he would say them too enthusiastically too early, without the evidence to back them up, and then have to backtrack from them days later.

“I don’t know to what extent that was sort of over-enthusiasm versus deliberate – I think a lot of it was over-enthusiasm.”

Asked if this meant he “said things that weren’t true”, Sir Patrick replied: “Yes”.

‘I have a high opinion of Matt Hancock as a minister’

One COVID witness who did defend Mr Hancock was Michael Gove, who was minister for the Cabinet Office and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster during the pandemic.

He told the inquiry that “too much was asked” of Mr Hancock’s department at the beginning of the pandemic.

“We should collectively have recognised that this was a health system crisis at an earlier point and taken on to other parts of government the responsibility for delivery that was being asked of DHSC [department for health and social care] at the time,” he said.

He added: “I have a high opinion of Matt Hancock as a minister.”

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Brazilians may soon need to stump up taxes on crypto held abroad

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Brazilians may soon need to stump up taxes on crypto held abroad

Brazilians may soon be required to pay up to 15% tax on income derived from cryptocurrencies held on exchanges outside the country, after new income tax rules were approved by the Brazil Senate on Nov. 29.

The bill has already passed in the Chamber of Deputies and is expected to be approved by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, as his administration initiated the income tax rule changes, Cointelegraph Brazil reports.

Under the bill, any Brazilian who earns more than $1,200 (6,000 Brazilian reals) on exchanges based outside Brazil would be subject to the tax, effective Jan. 1, 2024. The change makes those funds taxable at the same rate as funds held domestically. Funds earned before that date would be taxed when accessed by the owner, meanwhile, earnings on funds accessed before Dec. 31 will be taxed at 8%.

The bill also affects “exclusive funds” — investment funds with a single shareholder — and foreign companies active on the Brazilian financial market. The government hopes to raise $4 billion (20.3 billion Brazilian reals) in 2024. Senator Rogério Marinho voiced his opposition to the bill. He said:

“The government is creating a tax because it is a poor manager.” 

Related: OKX launches crypto exchange, wallet services in Brazil

In September, the governor of the Banco Central do Brazil Roberto Campos Neto, announced plans to tighten regulations on cryptocurrency in connection with a sharp rise in its popularity in the country. At the time, he said he suspected crypto was being used for tax evasion

The Brazilian central bank was given jurisdiction over virtual asset service providers in June.

Crypto-based securities are regulated by the Comissão de Valores Mobiliários — Brazil’s equivalent of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.

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