News Round Up

• “Plans to ease social distancing in ‘disarray’ as Indian variant cases rise” – Hospitality bosses fear they may continue to face restrictions beyond June 21st, according to the Telegraph
• “Why is UK taking a risk with the variant?” – The BBC’s Nick Triggle puts some of the claims made for the Indian variant into context, pointing out that the picture is more complex than the headline-grabbing figure that it is 50% more transmissible
• “UK’s daily Covid deaths plummet 65% in a week as seven victims are recorded and infections remain flat with another 2,412” – Deaths have continued to fall over the last week, according to MailOnline, and positive tests are down 2.5% on last week
• “Boris told to stop terrifying Brits with ‘totalitarian’ Covid warnings” – Psychologists are now calling on the Government to coax the public back to normality, the Express reports
• “Post-menopausal women report periods coming back after having Covid vaccine” – Researchers are investigating whether there might be a link between the jabs and a disruption to the menstrual cycle, according to the Telegraph, after hundreds of women reported experiencing the symptoms
• “Belfast restaurant expands to three times its size as Republic shutdown forces diners north” – Restrictions on dining out in the Republic of Ireland have improved business in some eateries on the U.K. side of the border, according to the Belfast Telegraph
• “Enough is enough Boris, we’ve done what we were told to do, so don’t dare deny us our freedom” – “If the Government wants to protect people from their own decisions in order to save lives, society is going to have to tell them it can’t,” says Emily Hill in Mail+
• “We can’t let them cancel Freedom Day because of another scariant” – “The Government needs to sack SAGE, stop talking up the Indian scariant and act decisively to quell the coronafear,” says Alison Pearson in the Telegraph
• “The shocking role of fear in managing the pandemic” – Jon Dobinson reviews Laura Dodsworth’s book, A State for Fear, for Think Scotland. “Essential reading,” he says
• “Direct your anger at the lockdown obsessives, not the unvaccinated few” – “The understandable anger of people like Lord Lloyd-Webber needs to be directed at ministers and the SAGE modellers,” says Peter Johnston in the Telegraph, for they are “urging them to take disproportionate and unjustified decisions to extend the lockdown even in the face of a waning pandemic”
• “Isolated” – In a post for the John’s Campaign, Melanie tells the story of her mother Jean who was diagnosed with dementia back in March and placed in a care home at short notice where she was then isolated
• “Why COVID-19 treatment has been ignored and banned” – A transcript of Tucker Carlson’s interview with Dr. Peter McCullough, courtesy of Kathy Gyngell at the Conservative Woman
• “Can the Covid vaccine change our DNA?” – Neville Hodgkinson explores the evidence related to DNA, RNA, the virus and the vaccine for the Conservative Woman
• “SAGE cannot be serious” – “It seems odd that no one from SAGE stopped for a moment to check the numbers against the real world,” writes Professor David Paton for Spiked
• “Britain is suffering from freedom hesitancy” – “There will be life after lockdown,” says Fraser Myers in Spiked, “but only if we insist on living it”
• “Do not vaccinate children against COVID-19 until Phase 3 trials are complete” – Any rollout of the vaccines to children should not start until trials are complete and all findings are published and peer-reviewed on long-term safety data,” says this new parliamentary petition
• “Ministers say the Indian variant could delay reopening on June 21st” – “It’s time to get back to normal,” says Julia Hartley-Brewer on talkRADIO, “enjoying life and the risks that come with that”
• “A distressing interview on the BBC Today Programme” – BBC Today’s Mishal Husain talks to the father of the child who was refused an exemption from hotel quarantine despite suffering from severe disabilities. He is being represented by lawyer Adam Wagner
• “Nina” – James Delingpole talks to the receptionist of a large NHS medical practice for the Delingpod. She tells him about the adverse reactions to the jabs that her patients have had
• “Government to extend emergency Covid powers until November” – The Government of Ireland is extending COVID-19 emergency powers, due to expire next month, until November, according to the Irish Independent
• “In Bulgaria, even doctors aren’t sure COVID-19 vaccines are a good idea” – A Euronews report from Bulgaria, where just 13.5% of the population has been vaccinated
• “Gaza medics struggle to save COVID-19 patients, bombing casualties” – Medics in the Gaza strip are struggling to cope both with a high number of Covid cases and with the wounded, according to the Jerusalem Post
• “Ontario will open outdoor recreation on or before June 2nd” – Citizens of Ontario will be allowed outside for recreation, the Post Millennial reports, after a report from Sick Kids called Let the children play laid bare the impact of the lockdown on children
• “This Article Is Partly False” – Writing for City Journal, John Tierney demonstrates that FaceBook and its fact-checkers are “stifling scientific debate” and “enforcing progressive orthodoxy”
• “How the CDC is manipulating data to prop-up vaccine effectiveness” – New policies at the CDC will make the vaccines look better than they are, says Kit Knightly in Off-Guardian
• “Everything we know about DRDO’s COVID medicine, 2-deoxy-D-glucose” – The Times of India reports on 2-deoxy-D-glucose, a new treatment for COVID-19 which is being hailed as an “innovative Holy Grail”
• “Tokyo doctors call for cancellation of Olympic Games due to COVID-19” – The Tokyo Medical Practitioners Association, representing about 6,000 primary care doctors, says the Olympic Games should be cancelled, Reuters reports
• “Who counts as ‘immediate family’? Not your parents, the Government says” – Australians are permitted to travel into or out of the country to see “immediate family”, but this covers spouses and dependents, not parents, according to the Sydney Morning Herald
• “Declaration for the protection of Children and Young people from the COVID-19 Response” – An open letter to Save the Children from PANDA urging action to protect children from the COVID-19 response. Parents and concerned citizens are invited to sign
• “The WHO investigation in January and February was so farcical that it has backfired” – Matt Ridley was on talkRADIO yesterday to talk about the scientists’ letter calling for a proper investigation into the ‘lab leak’ theory, a hypothesis that’s gaining traction