News Round-Up

• “Boris is fighting a lonely battle against his own officials to reopen Britain” – In his Telegraph column, Fraser Nelson says Boris is almost alone in Government in wanting to reopen on June 21st, but the retreat of the Indian variant has emboldened him
• “Just 15 positive Covid tests among thousands who flocked to Wembley and Brit Awards” – A late rate of infection among crowds at trial events is prompting hopes that mass gatherings can reopen this summer, the Telegraph reports
• “Doctors hit back at NHS bosses over orders to see patients face-to-face” – Doctors’ unions have turned on senior NHS officials after they told patients they had the right to face-to-face appointments, the Telegraph reports
• “Kind and caring soulmate’ Simon couldn’t cope with Covid restrictions” – A sad story in the East Anglian Daily Times about a Co-op worker who, unable to cope with the social restrictions, took his own life
• “Bank fails to pay dividend to Treasury for first time” – The Bank of England will fail to pay a dividend to the Treasury this year, according to the Times, after its loss-absorbing capital fell below a minimum threshold
• “NHSX – COVID-19 Vaccination Certification Programme” – A Department of Health and Social Care contract for the printing and mailing of COVID-19 vaccination paper documentation worth £21 million. Are they planning something, perchance?
• “Most Covid patients in East Lancashire hospital had jab, says council leader” – The Guardian hears from Mohammed Khan, the leader of Blackburn with Darwen council, who says that six of the nine coronavirus patients in the region’s hospital had received at least one jab
• “NHS vaccine passports are here – but will they be used beyond international travel?” – The vaccine passport was supposed to be just for travel, but writing in the Conversation Eerke Boiten takes a closer look at the privacy notice and the data the app has access to and reaches a different conclusion
• “The border closure debate is turning us into bigots” – “Once the preserve of fringe Right-wing groups, we are now seeing politicians of all stripes resorting to ugly tropes about people ‘surging’ in through the UK’s ‘leaky’ borders like ‘a sieve'”, writes UnHerd’s pseudonymous doctor Amy Jones
• “Who will make the case for liberty?” – Writing in UnHerd, Douglas Murray bemoans the fact that “while there is plenty of pressure on the Government to be more cautious, there is none at a party-political level urging the Government to be more favourable towards the case for liberty”
• “Lockdown has called last orders for the British Pub” – “The death of the British pub is not just found in the boarded up windows,” writes S.D. Wickett in Bournbrook. “It is found in the stale atmosphere of the ones that stay open”
• “What if we’re wrong” – “Local health authorities and the WHO can be wrong, as can we all,” says Professor Heather Heying in Areo – and shutting down voices that question their conclusions is “antithetical to science”
• “Travesties: The Covid Lexicon of Lies” – The latest blog from Omar Khan, in which he rounds up the lies told in the name of COVID-19
• “Covid: The Big Picture” – An update from the Swiss Doctor, covering the situation in Sweden, the virus’s origin, and more
• “The real cure for Covid is a halt to fearmongering” – Stephen McMurray wonders in the Conservative Woman if there would even be an epidemic were everyone to turn off their TVs and throw away their newspapers
• “Who are you calling fat?” – “Obese people are statistically much more likely to contract COVID-19,” says Kate Dunlop at the Conservative Woman, and “the Government’s response to COVID-19 is likely to have increased obesity rates thanks to lockdowns and disruptions of normal life”
• “Life inside the fear factory: how the Government keeps us on high alert” – Laura Dodsworth is the guest on Liam Halligan and Allison Pearson’s Planet Normal this week, sharing her damning take on the “unethical” use of behavioural psychology during the lockdown
• “The Ultimate Variants Update, in 3 Minutes Flat!” – The latest video from Ivor Cummins aimed at all those who’ve been terrified by “media, using unscientific exaggeration of variant data”
• “No happy ending’ as EU countries and MEPs clash over coronavirus certificates” – EU member states and MEPs are struggling to reach agreement over the fine print of the vaccine passport programme, Politico reports
• “Postcard from the Republic of Ireland” – After four years in the UK, Johnny Murphy was looking forward to going home to Ireland, he says in the Conservative Woman, but he has found that the country “has become a dystopia”
• “Nobel Prize Winner Reveals – Covid Vaccine is Creating Variants” – French Virologist and Nobel prize winner Luc Montagnier said in a recent interview, translated here by the Rair foundation, that “it is the vaccination that is creating the variants”
• “The Israeli People’s Committee Interim Conclusion Report” – The Doctors for Covid Ethics have highlighted a report of the Israeli People’s Committee on the country’s vaccine rollout
• “Child suicide attempts increased by up to 200% during pandemic in Canada, warn charities and hospitals” – RT reports the findings of Children First Canada that a combination of school closures, lack of physical entertainment, and isolation from friends and family has led to sharp increases in substance abuse and suicide attempts among children
• “How Team Biden Ended Covid Mania Overnight” – Jordan Schachtel offers an explanation as to “how the CDC and other Government Health institutions have gone from projecting a ‘sense of impending doom’ to ‘your health is in your hands’ in a matter of days”
• “Lockdowns in Taiwan: Myths Versus Reality” – Writing for AIER, Michael Gartz and Amelia Janaskie explore how Taiwan’s experience of the 2003 Sars outbreak has served the country well against COVID-19
• “Texas Governor Abbott ends COVID-19 Unemployment Benefits” – Greg Abbott has announced that COVID-19 unemployment benefits in Texas will come to an end on June 26th, Conservative Zone reports. The Governor’s reasoning is that the number of new job openings is roughly equivalent to the number claiming unemployment benefits
• “Has India’s second Covid wave peaked?” – New infections in India appear to have peaked at 412,618 on May 5th, Ross Clark says in the Spectator, and the number has been falling for about a fortnight
• “US doctor gives evidence to Senate on vaccine deaths and damage” – US physician Ben Edwards gives evidence to the Senate on deaths and damage caused by the vaccine
• “The Church and the Virus” – A lecture delivered by arch-sceptics the Venerable Dr Edward Dowler
• “The NHS app has been updated to include far more than vaccine jabs” – Big Brother Watch’s Silko Carlo spoke to Julia Hartley-Brewer yesterday about the implications of the NHS app’s data controls