News Round Up

• “It’s Bounce Back Monday! Seven million Britons will hit the High Street in £4.5billion spending spree” – The reopening of shops on Monday will herald a mighty spending spree, according to the Daily Mail
• “Clouds lift as data shows a single case in 1,000 is caught outdoors” – New analysis of contact tracing data carried out in the Republic of Ireland suggests that the risk from coronavirus infection while outdoors is very low, the Times reports
• “Hairdressers and beauty salons told to avoid lengthy treatments” – The Telegraph reports that the latest Government guidance is telling hairdressers and salons that they “should consider providing shorter, more basic treatments to keep the time to a minimum”
• “Boris will need Labour support for vaccine passports” – Writing in the Spectator, James Forsyth points out that Boris is likely to find himself relying on Keir Starmer’s support to get Covid status certificates through the Commons. Not a good look – and it may well not be forthcoming
• “Ten-day mandatory Covid quarantine could be slashed in half if people are tested daily with rapid lateral flow kits, SAGE says” – MailOnline reports on a major concession by SAGE – only five days of solitary confinement provided you shove a swab down the back of your neck every day
• “Jeane Freeman admits moving patients to care homes without right precautions ‘was a mistake’” – Scotland’s Health Secretary has admitted that elderly patients were moved from hospitals to care homes without the appropriate precautions, the Edinburgh Evening News reports
• “Bobbies’ shame” – Writing in the Critic, Paul Frew wants to know why police in Northern Ireland allowed a funeral to take place, contrary to the Covid restrictions, for former IRA man Bobby Storey
• “Weekly summary of Yellow Card reporting” – As of March 28th, there were 43,491 Yellow Cards reported for the Pfizer/BioNTech jab (10.9 million first doses administered), and 116,162 for the Oxford University/AstraZeneca vaccine (19.5 million first doses). Adverse reactions included anaphylaxis, bell’s palsy and thromboembolic events
• “New rules could make travel the preserve of the rich” – A Telegraph editorial on travel rules which could “relegate foreign holidays to the realm of the rich”
• “COVID-19 vaccine passports: access, equity, and ethics” – A letter to the BMJ from Maryanne Demasi and Prof Peter Gotzsche about vaccine passports: “This is a slippery slope and there’s no telling where this could lead if law-abiding citizens are expected to show documentation in order to eat out with their families or enjoy an afternoon at the pub”
• “Doubling down on the pandemic hysteria” – We are trapped in the great Covid lie, writes Andrew Cadman for the Conservative Woman: “That the disease is of such lethal virulence that almost any measure, no matter how repressive, is justified to combat it”
• “Boris: the phoney freedom-fighter” – In the latest Spiked podcast, the team try to figure out what happened to ‘freedom loving’ Boris Johnson
• “Bad Friday (and Monday)” – In this week’s Irreverend, the three clergymen give it both barrels on the subject of Easter Monday’s dismal, doom-mongering, life-sapping press conference, predicting imminent death for the entirety of the human race unless we wear masks forever
• “Johnson & Johnson vaccine to be reviewed by EMA over possible blood clot links” – The European Medicines Agency is reviewing the Johnson & Johnson jab over a potential link to four serious blood clot cases, according to the Telegraph. One of the cases was fatal
• “Germany: Federal government plans new powers over states to battle virus surge” – The federal Government in Berlin is planning new legislation to wrest control from states and impose uniform Covid restrictions, according to Deutsche Welle
• “Norway’s PM is fined £1,700 for breaking her own COVID-19 restrictions with 60th birthday dinner at a ski resort” – MailOnline reports another case of Covid hypocrisy, this time the Norwegian Prime Minister who held a large family gathering to celebrate her 60th birthday party
• “Covid-battered Malta to pay tourists who visit this summer” – Reuters reports that, in a desperate bid to revive the island’s tourism industry, Malta is planning to offer foreign visitors up to 200 Euros to stay for three days. Might just about cover the cost of the first PCR test on your return home
• “Russia demands Slovakia returns doses after Sputnik V Covid vaccine row” – Slovakia complained that it was a supplied with doses of the Sputnik V jab which differed from those tested in the clinical trials, the Times reports, prompting Moscow to demand their immediate return
• “Young people are particularly vulnerable to lockdowns” – “Although lockdowns have detrimentally affected the entire population, young people (primarily referring to those under the age of 30) have been particularly harmed by these policies at rates much higher than the general population,” says Ethan Yang at AIER
• “Loneliness, Anxiety and Loss: the Covid Pandemic’s Terrible Toll on Kids” – “A year of school shutdowns and family trauma leads to social isolation, stress and mental-health issues,” says Andrea Petersen in the Wall Street Journal
• “A NZ doctor speaks out against Covid policies” – An anonymous doctor shares concerns about the vaccine and media hyperbole on New Zealand’s Plan B platform
• “When are you joining me on the barricades? What’s your next excuse?” – Julia Hartley Brewer takes Grant Shapps to task on talkRADIO over the ever shifting goal post