News Round Up

• “No more lockdowns – Britain will treat Covid like flu, says Chris Whitty” – Speaking at a Royal School of Medicine Webinar, Whitty said that lockdowns were unlikely to be needed again, the Telegraph reports. He added that the Government would only be forced to “pull the alarm cord” if a dangerous variant arrived
• “Boris Johnson to unveil vaccine passport trial ‘starting next month’ in theatres and stadiums before being rolled out to restaurants and pubs” – Vaccine passports are starting, and according to the Daily Mail, “Mr Johnson’s ‘roadmap’ for lifting almost all restrictions by June 21st could now be dependent on a functioning vaccine passport programme”
• “Lockdown extended: Could Boris Johnson delay roadmap? Expert’s four crucial conditions” – The Express looks at the roadmap tests that might prompt Boris to slow down further
• “Second vaccine doses outnumber first jabs for first time in single day” – According to Sky News, there were 270,526 second jabs administered on Tuesday, compared with 24,590 first jabs
• “The growing debate over vaccinating children” – Writing in the Spectator, Ross Clark looks at the vaccine trials involving children
• “Interim Head of Asymptomatic Testing Communication” – A job ad for an “exciting role” at the Department of Health, responsible for delivering a communications strategy supporting “the expansion of asymptomatic testing, that normalises testing as part of everyday life”. £750 a day, subject to IR35 status
• “Covid lockdown led to surge in schoolchildren suffering mental health issues” – New reports from the Education and Training Inspectorate indicate that the first lockdown led to a surge in mental health problems among school children, according to the Belfast Telegraph
• “All pupils to return to school after Easter break” – The Northern Ireland Department of Education announced yesterday that all year groups will be able to return to school on April 12th
• “Vlad says the vaccine’s my choice – why won’t Boris?” – The Russian president recently said that the vaccine is a voluntary decision for every person. “One waits in vain,” writes Frederick Edward in the Conservative Woman “for a similar commitment to individual autonomy from our self-described libertine [libertarian] Prime Minister”
• “The many scandals of the PCR test: Part 3” – The third of Sonia Elijah’s feature’s on PCR testing in the Conservative Woman. Here she looks further into the Corman-Drosten paper and covers Dr. Reiner Fullmich’s class-action lawsuit
• “How to lose friends and alienate people? On the problems of vaccine passports” – “Let’s stop discussing the use of vaccine passports as a criterion for basic social and economic participation,” say Stephen Reicher and John Drury in the BMJ. “This is an idea with few redeeming features and even talking about introducing them may be enough to do damage”
• “Britain is a nation of vaccine passport bootlickers, claims survey” – James Delingpole, writing in Breitbart, is sceptical about the results of a recent Ipsos MORI poll
• “An Englishman’s Prison” – “A government that seeks to destroy the essential English values of freedom and privacy cannot be said to be acting patriotically,” says Alistair Cavendish, but the current regime has sought to “make the Englishman’s home his prison rather than his castle”
• “COVID-19: What might have been” – Richard Lyon wonders what might have been if the Government had stuck to the Pandemic Preparedness Strategy when responding to COVID-19
• “COVID-19, Humility and Solutions” – Simon Brazier’s True Hope Podcast talks to Dr. Hugh Willbourn about simple strategies for dealing with feelings of isolation or despair
• “Breadcrumbs of freedom” – “We should hang our heads in shame over the way we have treated children in lockdown,” says psychologist Professor Ellen Townsend, a member of HART, in a visit to the Planet Normal podcast
• “Rebuttal letter to European Medicines Agency from Doctors for Covid Ethics, April 1st, 2021“– A letter to the European Medicines Agency from Doctors for Covid Ethics about side-effects of the vaccine – a rebuttal to the EMA’s response to the group’s first letter
• “Israel: Why Is All-Cause Mortality Increasing?” – The Swiss Doctor looks at the “continued increase in all-cause mortality” seen in Israel since mid-February, even as the numbers of Covid deaths have decreased
• “WHO data: Ivermectin reduces Covid mortality by 81%. WHO: We still don’t recommend it” – Writing in the Blaze, Daniel Horowitz is puzzled. The WHO has updated its guide on COVID-19 treatments to include Ivermectin’s positive results, and yet it still won’t recommend it
• “Dozens of Washingtonians test positive for COVID-19 after full vaccination, DOH says” – KIRO7 News reports on a strange episode currently being investigated by the Washington State Department of Health
• “The doom is impending, from lockdowns but not the virus” – The real ‘impending doom is the fact that the “apparatchiks who falsely seized power are not about to give it up – vaccinations, herd immunity and plunging cases notwithstanding”, says David Stockman at AIER
• “Biden and the Lockdown Governors Need Canute thinking” – If we choose to “look to government out of fear to save us from a natural force” writes Jon Sanders at AIER, then “few leaders will have the humility to admit that such a thing is beyond the reach of the state”
• “Japan puts Osaka, two other areas under virus semi-emergency” – New anti-Covid restrictions are being imposed on Osaka, Hyogo and Miyago, according to the Diplomat, focussing largely on restaurants and bars, which will have to comply with new safety standards
• “We are not supporting doing any vaccine passports in the state of Florida” – Governor Ron DeSantis explains why, saying of the vaccine: “We want to provide it for all, but mandate it for none”