News Round-Up

• “No face masks rule from July 19th” – Boris Johnson is pushing for the lifting of mask laws in almost all settings, the Daily Mail says, to help return life to “as near normal as possible”
• “Schools must return to normal on July 19th, Tory MPs warn Boris Johnson” – The Prime Minister is being threatened with a backbench rebellion of up to 50 Conservative MPs unless schools are returned to normal on July 19th, the Telegraph reports
• “Hospitals can cope, so let’s end restrictions soon, Chris Whitty tells cabinet” – The chief medical adviser has warned ministers of a challenging winter but said that England is on course to ease restrictions on July 19th, according to the Times
• “‘Children better off catching Covid naturally than having a jab’” – Professor Robert Dingwall, a member of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, has said that vaccines had to be “exceptionally safe” not to do more harm than good, given how mild illness was in teenagers, the Times reports
• “SAGE expert says Britain should not open until all children are jabbed” – Professor John Edmunds, an epidemiologist at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and member of SAGE, has insisted the “safest time” to reopen fully would be after all children have had a Covid vaccine, according to MailOnline
• “Millions of over-50s could be given third Covid jab from September” – Over-50s, vulnerable Britons and NHS and care home staff could be offered a third dose in a roll out of booster jabs set to start in September, MailOnline reports
• “January lockdown forced savers to put away billions of pounds more” – ONS figures suggest that the economy shrank by 1.6% in the first quarter, more than the expected 1.5%, according to the Times, and the saving ratio has jumped to 19.9%, the second-highest level on record
• “Gap announces the closure of all of its stores in Britain and Ireland” – Fashion retailer Gap has announced the closure of all 81 of its UK stores, MailOnline reports, citing the changed “market dynamics”
• “Self-isolating students in end-of-tenancy ‘nightmare’” – Students self-isolating at the end of their tenancy are facing a costly situation the BBC reports. Either they must extend their tenancy and pay more to their landlord, or break their isolation and run the risk of a fine
• “July 19th is far too late. We must unlock on Monday to save the economy!” – “Continuing to hobble our economy makes absolutely no sense,” writes Toby in his latest piece for Mail+
• “Does Long Covid really exist?” – Stuart Ritchie, having initially claimed on Anti-Virus: the COVID-19 FAQ that Long Covid is a reason to keep the lockdown in place, now thinks it may be an imaginary illness. He sets out his doubts in UnHerd
• “What will life look like on 19th July?” – There is increased optimism that ‘Freedom day’ will come on July 19th, says Katy Balls in the Spectator. But there remains many questions over how ‘normal’ life will be afterwards
• “The Covid battle Sajid Javid still has to face” – In the Spectator, Richard Dobbs outlines the task that lies ahead for the new Health Secretary
• “London’s Freedom Fighters” – “London is leading the world in mass rallies to end Covid lockdowns and go back to normal,” says Niall McCrae in the European Conservative
• “Daily Covid reporting has its place, but we’re doing it all wrong” –  “Don’t suppress information about estimated infection levels,” argues on-again, off-again lockdown sceptic Andrew Lilico in the Telegraph. “Give us more, and let us choose how to behave in response to it”
• “How long must we put our children through a pointless Covid charade?” – “Our children have suffered enough,” says Allister Heath in the Telegraph. “Gavin Williamson should demand that today be their Freedom Day”
• “This punishment of the young must end” – “The least we can do for the children who have sacrificed so much for others is make sure all restrictions end on July 19th,” says this leader in the Telegraph
• “Cheer up Matt!” – Gina Corladengelo’s consolatory letter to her hapless boyfriend, courtesy of Andy Lambeth at Lockdown Satire
• “Covid’s dark winter: How bio war-gaming robbed us of our liberty” – Writing for the Conservative Woman, Neville Hodgkinson highlights the work of German investigative journalist Paul Schreyer who’s been looking at the pandemic simulation exercises which have been going on for over 20 years
• “Game, set and virtue signal” – “Wimbledon was just a huge virtue-signalling, pro-vaccination, NHS-clapping event,” says Roger Watson in the Conservative Woman. “If ever there was an example of politics being firmly embedded in sports, this was it”
• “Spoilsport Johnson must lift this school ban on parents” – In the Conservative Woman, Cara Usher-Smith takes aim at the Government’s ban on parents attending school sports days. “We can let tens of thousands into football stadiums, but standing on the side of the school running track is forbidden”
• “Real Immunity and Variant Confusion: A Conversation with Dr. Sunetra Gupta” – In his latest podcast, Omar Khan interviews Dr. Sunetra Gupta on the “novelty” of COVID-19, the incoherence of lockdowns and the misunderstanding of variants
• “Live not by lies – an essay for our times” – Rev Phill Sacre explains why he thinks Solzhenitsyn’s famous 1974 essay “Live not by lies” is perfect advice for our times today
• “COVID-19 and Diet: Does what you eat matter?” – In the latest webinar from ZOE, Professor Tim Spector is joined by Dr Sarah Berry, Professor Andrew Chan and Emily Leeming to discuss how diet affects the likelihood of catching COVID-19
• “France headed for a fourth wave in autumn, government adviser warns” – Professor Jean-François Delfraissy, a scientific advisor to the French Government, warns that, due to the Delta variant, France is likely to experience a fourth wave of coronavirus cases, France 24 reports
• “Spain will require travellers from UK to show diagnostic test or be fully vaccinated” – Under new rules from today, Brits heading to Spain will have to show either a negative PCR test,antigen test or proof of vaccination
• “Chaos as Malta refuses to accept NHS app as proof of jab” – Authorities in Malta are insisting that all travellers over the age of 12 carry a printed Government letter to prove they have been fully vaccinated, MailOnline reports
• “President Erdogan receives third dose as Turkey’s vaccine shortage leaves key workers unjabbed” – Erdogan has come under fire after revealing that he has had three doses of the vaccine, according to the Times, while Turkey struggles to procure enough doses
• “COVID-19 led to 800% increase in domestic violence complaints” – Israel has experienced eight times as many domestic violence complaints during the coronavirus era, according to the Jerusalem Post, including 13 women who were killed by their partners, a 160% increase on 2019
• “Fear of maths could be hindering ability to interpret COVID-19 news” – People’s lack of mathematical ability may be the reason they’re so terrified of COVID-19, the Jerusalem Post suggests
• “Myocarditis Following Immunisation With mRNA COVID-19 Vaccines in Members of the U.S. Military” – A report in JAMA on the incidents of myocarditis among military servicemen who’ve had the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines
• “Censorship Kills” – Barry Brownstein reports on how Big Tech has moved to censor the evolutionary biologist Bret Weinstein for AIER
• “The Truth about Excess Deaths” – In the AIER, Amelia Janaskie and Ryan M. Yonk look at the recent study of the National Bureau of Economic Research which found that “following the implementation of shelter-in-place policies, excess mortality increases”
• “Follow the science: ‘Deadly’ Delta variant registers a 99.9+% recovery rate” – “You wouldn’t know it by following the corporate press,” says Jordan Schachtel, but the Delta variant “doesn’t fit the ‘deadly’ virus narrative that is being advertised to the public”
• “COVID-19 Vax Reaction” – A website run by an American support group for people who have experienced adverse reactions to the vaccines
• “COVID-19 Wuhan lab-leak hypotheses are “absolutely legitimate” and “plausible,” expert says” – CBS News talks to Stanford Professor and Microbiologist David Relman about the “plausible” hypothesis that SARS-CoV-2 leaked from a lab
• “We are the government and we are here to help” – Professor Ramesh Thakur explains in the Spectator Australia why, for the moment, he is passing on the jab
• “Led By Science: The COVID-19 Origin Story” – A Republican Party hearing into the origins of COVID-19, featuring contributions from Steve Quay, Richard Muller, David Asher and many more
• “Wuhan lab researcher linked to military scientists” – NBC reports that “bat woman”, Dr. Shi Zhengli of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, worked with military scientists Tony Yigang in 2018 and Zhou Yusen in 2019, who reportedly died in Spring 2020 after filing the first coronavirus vaccine patent
• “This is not a threat to you” – Dr Jay Bhattacharya talks to David Brody of The Water Cooler about the contradictory health guidance from the CDC and the World Health Organisation regarding the Delta variant
• “It’s absolutely bonkers” – “If you weigh up the costs against the benefits,” says Toby on GB News, making children self-isolate if someone in their ‘bubble’ tests positive is “absolutely bonkers, completely insane”