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The COVID Diaries – 214 18th November

Late on Tuesday, Donald Trump announced in a tweet that he was firing the official in charge of election security who had dismissed his claims of widespread voter fraud.

A senior Democrat described Trump’s firing of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency director, Christopher Krebs, as “pathetic and predictable from a president who views truth as his enemy”.

Officials have declared that the presidential election was the most secure US election ever.

The COVID Diaries – 213 17th November

One of Donald Trump’s legal bids to set aside Joe Biden’s election win has been dealt a body blow by the Pennsylvania supreme court, which has ruled that Philadelphia election officials did not improperly block his campaign from observing the counting of mail-in ballots.

Trump has repeatedly claimed, despite strong evidence to the contrary, that his observers were stopped from monitoring the count.

Meanwhile, Trump appears to be more interested in playing golf than dealing with the Covd-19 pandemic as new diagnoses and hospitalisations continue to rise sharply across the United States.

The COVID Diaries – 212 15th November

With Donald Trump still refusing to concede the Presidential election in the US and Boris Johnson having to self-isolate amid the turmoil in Downing Street, it’s encouraging to have some good news: Lewis Hamilton has won the Formula One World Championship and his seventh title. With it Hamilton has matched Michael Schumacher’s record and in doing so becoming the most successful F1 driver of all time.

He achieved this with a spectacular victory at the Turkish Grand Prix in what was truly a champion’s drive.

The COVID Diaries 211 – 13th November

A tumultuous week of factional fighting in Downing Street has ended in the apparent dismissal (or resignation?) of Boris Johnson’s much loathed chief advisor, Dominic Cummings. He of the famous lockdown breaking trip to Barnard Castle is reported to have been ordered to leave, together with his ally Lee Cain, following accusations Cummings had briefed against Johnson.

Conservative MPs and special advisors are said to be delighted by the departures.

The COVID Diaries 210 – 12th November

Reports from the Office for National Statistics, the National Records of Scotland, and the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency show that a total of 63,317 deaths have so far been registered in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate.

Sadly, with further deaths being recorded almost 67,000 deaths involving Covid-19 have taken place in the United Kingdom.

The COVID Diaries 209 – 11th November

Hopes have risen in the fight against Covid-19 as scientists believe there may be a major breakthrough after Pfizer and BioNTech this week announced that the vaccine they are developing appears to be 90 per cent effective in preventing disease.

Many wealthier countries have already ordered huge quantities of the vaccine and there are fears that the world’s poorest countries will be forced to the back of the queue.

The COVID Diaries – 208 9th November

Former Conservative Prime Minister John Major has accused his successor Boris Johnson of “negotiating failure” on Brexit which will make it be “even more brutal than expected”.

Speaking in London, Major warned of the “corrosive” impact to the United Kingdom’s reputation of a proposed law giving ministers the power to over-ride aspects of the Brexit Agreement.

The COVID Diaries – 207 8th November

Trump and many of his allies are still refusing to acknowledge that he has lost. However, former Republican President George W Bush has congratulated Joe Biden on winning the election.

Bush is quoted as saying:  “I extended my warm congratulations and thanked him for the patriotic message he delivered last night. I also called Kamala Harris to congratulate her on her historic election to the vice-presidency,” the statement read.

“Though we have political differences, I know Joe Biden to be a good man, who has won his opportunity to lead and unify our country. The president-elect reiterated that while he ran as a Democrat, he will govern for all Americans. I offered him the same thing I offered Presidents Trump and Obama: my prayers for his success, and my pledge to help in any way I can.”

The COVID Diaries – 206 7th November

Joe Biden has been elected the 46th president of the United States, promising to work in a spirit of national unity to tackle raging health and economic crises, and making Donald Trump a one-term president after four years of chaotic in the White House. Trump is only the third elected president since World War II to lose re-election, and the first in more than a quarter-century.

Although Trump, inevitably a very bad loser, is making unsubstantiated claims of voting fraud, Biden’s election was confirmed after Pennsylvania was called for him. This pushed him over the 270 electoral college votes needed.

Biden makes history as the oldest man to enter the White House: he will be 78 in January when he is inaugurated. The result also provided a history-making moment for Biden’s running mate, Senator Kamala Harris of California, who will become the first woman to serve as vice president.

The COVID Diaries – 205 5th November

As counting in key swing states continues, it appears we are moving to an inevitable conclusion that Joe Biden wins the US presidency. A case for celebration among all who have watched Donald Trump’s period in office in horror and disbelief. The challenge is to understand how so many people still voted for Trump, leaving Biden with a much narrower win than expected.

This evening Biden once again emphasised that election officials must count every valid vote that was cast.

“In America, the vote is sacred,” Biden said. “Each ballot must be counted.”

Biden went on to say that he and the Democrat vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris “continue to feel very good” about the ultimate result of the race.

“We have no doubt that when the count is finished, Senator Harris and I will be declared the winners,” Biden said.

As the USA remains on edge, waiting for the declaration of a winner in the presidential race, Biden said “I ask everyone to stay calm.”