Coronation Street legend Johnny dies
CORONATION Street star Johnny Briggs, famous for his role as ladies’ man Mike Baldwin, has died aged 85.
The actor was a fixture on the cobbles, making his name as the Cockney businessman, for 30 years and becoming one of the ITV soap’s most memorable characters.
A statement from his family said Briggs died peacefully after a long illness. “It is with great sadness that we announce the death of our father, Johnny Briggs,” the statement said.
“He passed away peacefully this morning after a long illness, with family by his side. He was 85.
“We politely ask for privacy at this time, so that we can quietly grieve as a family and remember the wonderful times we had with him.”
The Coronation Street Twitter account paid tribute, saying the Baldwin character was “one of the most iconic the Street has ever known”.
His storylines included an affair, in the early 1980s, that gripped the nation. Deirdre (Anne Kirkbride) and Mike had an illicit relationship two years into her marriage to Ken Barlow (William Roache), but she decided to stay with her husband.
THE US is getting a third vaccine to prevent Covid-19, as the Food and Drug Administration cleared a Johnson & Johnson shot that works with just one dose instead of two. Health experts are anxiously awaiting a one-and-done option to help speed vaccinations, as they race against a virus that already has killed more than 510,000 people in the US and is mutating in increasingly concerning ways.
The FDA said J&J’s vaccine offers strong protection against what matters most: serious illness, hospital admissions and death.
One dose was 85% protective against the most severe Covid-19 illness, in a massive study that spanned three continents – protection that remained strong even in countries such as South Africa, where the variants of most concern are spreading.
“The more vaccines that have high efficacy that we can get into play, the better,” Dr Anthony Fauci, the top US infectious disease expert, said ahead of the FDA’s ruling. President Joe Biden said the “exciting news for all Americans” was an “encouraging development in our efforts to bring an end to the crisis”.
“But I want to be clear: this fight is far from over,” he added, encouraging people to stick with masks and other public health measures. Shipments of a few million doses to be divided among states could begin as early as today. By the end of March, J&J has said it expects to deliver 20 million doses to the US, and 100 million by summer.
J&J is also seeking authorisation for emergency use of its vaccine in Europe and from the World Health Organisation.
There are clear advantages aside from the convenience of one shot. Local health officials are looking to use the J&J option in mobile vaccination clinics, homeless shelters, even with sailors who are spending months on fishing vessels. It is suited to communities where it is hard to be sure someone will come back in three to four weeks for a second vaccination.
The J&J vaccine is also easier to handle, lasting three months in the refrigerator compared to the Pfizer and Moderna options, which must be frozen.
Worldwide, the company aims to produce about one billion doses globally by the end of the year. On Thursday, the island nation of Bahrain became the first to clear its use. Meanwhile, Germany has announced that travellers from France’s north-eastern Moselle region will face additional restrictions due to the high rate of variant coronavirus cases there. Germany’s disease control agency, the Robert Koch Institute, said it would add Moselle to the list of “variant of concern” areas that already includes countries such as the Czech Republic, Portugal and the United Kingdom. Travellers from those areas have been told they must produce a recent negative coronavirus test before entering Germany.
The Moselle region in north-eastern France includes the city of Metz and borders the German states of Saarland and Rhineland-Palatinate. Clement Beaune, the French minister for European affairs, said France regrets the decision and is in negotiations with Germany to try to lighten the measures for 16,000 inhabitants of Moselle who work across the border.
IDON’T know who it was that wrote about the potency of cheap music. I was reminded of this the other day when out of the blue I heard the 1980s hit by Black, “Wonderful Life”, being played. Immediately I was taken back to when I used to live in Hebden Bridge, and the frequent train journeys I made to Manchester where I once worked. Why this association? Well I bought the single in its picture sleeve, which contained an image of a decaying industrial part of the UK. To me it looked like a scene at Vitriol Works, just before you approached Moston station. For travelling by rail you do see a lot of relics harking back to a different age, and this was a case in point. Hence the association with the Black hit. Other tunes also serve to bring back memories. Simply Red’s “Holding Back The Years” will always mean to me a specific afternoon when I went to take a birthday present to a dancing friend, before going with dad to watch the last session of a County Championship match at Leicestershire’s Grace Road ground.
Queen’s “Don’t Stop Me Now” and its lyric “tonight I’m going to have myself a real good time” has me recalling times when I used to cycle to a Thursday night dance, while when I now hear “Danny Boy”/”Londonderry Air” I think of it being sung by a sadly deceased resident at a care home I went to, it being the gentleman’s party piece. Music may well have its charms to soothe the savage beast, but we ignore its impact at our peril. Sports’ teams have played another Queen track, “We Are The Champions”, to mark on-field success, though New Labour preferred D: Ream’s “Things Can Only Get Better” after Tony Blair had triumphed at the polls in 1997.
But I ask, will there be any tunes we will think of when we look back at the nightmare brought by Covid 19?