News Round Up

• “Push for one million jabs a day to save summer” – The Government expects to increase the daily jab count from 500,000 to 800,000 within a fortnight and is aiming to ramp it up to one million a day, according to the Telegraph
• “Johnson must think again on plans to relax Covid rules” – Forces are gathering against the relaxation of lockdown restrictions, the Observer reports, with Professor Andrew Hayward of NERVTAG warning that it would drive up the numbers infected with the India variant and that unvaccinated younger adults would be most at risk
• “Has South Wales reached herd immunity?” – Immunity levels in Merthyr Tydfil may be as high as 67.5%, says Oliver Johnson in the Spectator. “This isn’t 78%, but it’s not so far away”
• “Why do so many vaccinated Britons still feel too frightened to leave home?” – Speaking to the Mail on Sunday, Britain’s top mental health specialists warn that the worst of the U.K.’s mental health crisis is yet to come
• “Taxi driver is found dead in his car at Heathrow as desperate cabbies sleep inside their vehicles in the hope of picking up a fare” – A taxi driver in his 50s was discovered in his sleeping bag and, according to MailOnline, he is believed to have been dead for at least three days
• “Is the Indian Covid variant more dangerous than other strains?” – Writing in the Spectator, Ross Clark flags up an observational study of 3,235 healthcare workers at the Indraprastha Apollo Hospital in Delhi, all of whom had had been vaccinated. 85 were found to have the infection and the hospitalisation rate was 0.06%. None died
• “There’s no case for delay in reopening” – “We will never be 100% free of the coronavirus,” says this leader in the Telegraph. “Are we going to lock the country up every time there is the threat of a surge in infections?”
• “India’s Covid Crisis in Context” – A detailed update on the rapidly evolving situation in India from Jo Nash at LeftLockdownSceptics
• “Use of fear to control behaviour in Covid crisis was ‘totalitarian’, admit scientists” – Members of the SPI-B committee have expressed regret about the use of fear to control behaviour, the Telegraph says, following the revelations in Laura Dodsworth’s new book A State of Fear. We will be publishing an excerpt on Monday
• “Reader competition – How do you deal with the vaccine cult?” – Kathy Gyngell announces a competition for readers of the Conservative Woman: “In no more than 350 words please design the best answer or rebuttal to being told you ‘ought’ to have the vaccine”
• “Variants, Votes and Voters” – In the latest episode of Bournbrook‘s Week in Review, Michael Curzon, S.D. Wickett and guest contributor Peter Tutykhin discuss SAGE’s doom-mongering about the Indian variant, and much else
• “A Monumental Waste of Time” – Revs Tom, Jamie and Daniel discuss hugging and Michael Gove’s reply to their letter about vaccine passports in the latest episode of the Irreverend Podcast
• “Denmark begins excavating bodies of decomposing mink over pollution fears” – Denmark culled its population of mink last year, fearing the animals could transmit a mutation of COVID-19 to humans and is now disinterring the bodies due to the risk of pollution to drinking water, euronews reports
• “Germany classifies U.K. coronavirus risk region” – German health authorities have reclassified the U.K. as a coronavirus ‘risk area’, according to Deutsche Welle. Yes, it’s our old friend the Indian variant
• “Turkey’s tourism minister face calls to resign over ‘insulting’ video” – Turkey’s tourism minister released a video promoting the country as a “safe haven” for holidays with “sanitised resorts and vaccinated staff” but is now facing calls to resign, according to euronews
• “Restricting Freedom Didn’t Defeat Covid” – One justification for lockdowns was that they would “flatten the hospitalisation curve” but such a view “vandalises reason” says John Tammy in AIER
• “Three Persistent Myths Keeping Americans Stuck With Outdated COVID-19 Rules” – In the Federalist, Cathy Stein picks out three major Covid narratives – asymptomatic transmission, COVID-19’s severity and the effectiveness of lockdowns – and sets out the scientific rebuttals to each one
• “Trinidad and Tobago implements State of Emergency to combat COVID-19 spread” – Trinidad and Tobago has entered a state of emergency, with a stay-at-home order in place and a curfew from 9pm to 5am, the Trinidad and Tobago Newsday reports
• “Taiwan tightens curbs after reporting 180 new domestic COVID-19 cases” – Taiwan has raised its COVID-19 alert level in the capital Taipai, according to Channel News Asia, introducing new rules which will close hospitality venues, limit gatherings and require masks to be worn outside
• “Australians are safe in their Covid fortress – they just can’t leave it until 2022” – A dispatch from fortress Australia by James Salmon in the Sunday Times
• “People are dying in ambulances: Health ministers say nation gripped by health crisis” – Australians are getting more seriously ill in greater volume as healthcare systems have been switched back on, the Sydney Morning Herald reports. State Health Ministers believe a likely driver is the impact of delayed care
• “Covid mRNA Medications: The Peer-Reviewed Evidence” – On the Model Health Show, medical researcher Dr. Ron Brown discusses reporting bias in the COVID-19 vaccine clinical trials and the distinction between relative risk reduction and absolute risk reduction
• “The Two Nations of Covid” – In the latest episode of the Tom Woods Show, Tom asks why so many vaccinated Americans are keeping their masks on even though the CDC say they can discard them
• “It did nothing to stop infections increasing in Bolton” – Local lockdowns are not the right response to new variants or local outbreaks, says Economics Professor David Paton