News Round-Up

• “England’s Covid care home deaths could be thousands higher than official figures, say providers” – Care homes have voiced concerns that the watchdog may not have registered a significant number of cases, says the SundayTelegraph.
• “The Delta variant has been caged. Whisper it, but this may all be over soon” – Covid cases are falling, herd immunity is approaching and even gloomy epidemiologists believe the worst of the crisis may soon be behind us, according to the Sunday Times.
• “Clubbers shun reopened venues in England amid confusion over Covid safety” – Owners blame ‘low consumer confidence’ and confused government messages for poor post-‘freedom day’ attendances, reports the Guardian.
• “How drugs dished out by GPs for everything from head lice to diabetes could be the future of fighting Covid” – A time may be approaching where the majority of patients never need hospital treatment, says the Sunday Telegraph.
• “Popular German Newspaper Issues Apology on Covid Deception” – Bild apologises to children for being complicit in their unjust treatment over the past 16 months.
• “Vaccine passports are the first steps to a biosurveillance state” – Joanna Blythman in the Herald warns against the introduction of a British version of China’s social credit system.
• “Mexico won’t be ‘hostage’ to Big Pharma, President says, as internet predicts trouble after country rejects Covid jabs for kids” – Social media users have theorised that the Mexican President could face severe repercussions after he refused to purchase Covid vaccines for children, according to RT.
• “In attack on CDC’s new school guidance, Florida Governor signs order allowing parents to decide whether children mask up” – Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed an executive order to ensure that parents – and not officials – will decide whether pupils don masks at public schools, reports RT.
• “Discounts from Uber and Deliveroo will lure young people in UK to get Covid jab” – Companies will offer credit and price reductions in government push to boost vaccination rates, says the Guardian.
• “Revealed: the eight Test and Trace ‘fat cats’ earning more than the Prime Minister” – MPs criticise exorbitant pay for civil servants running the system, which has cost the taxpayer vast sums, according to the Sunday Telegraph.
• “Sunak: Dump travel rules to save holidays” – Rishi Sunak has written to Boris Johnson calling for the urgent easing of travel restrictions as the holiday hopes of millions hang in the balance this week, reports the Sunday Times.
• “MPs assure UK tourists ‘traffic lights’ won’t change while abroad” – MPs have called on the Government to reassure tourists the status of their holiday destinations won’t change while they’re abroad, according to the Mail on Sunday.
• “Spare us from the mental torture of crazy travel rules” – It sometimes seems as if someone wants to punish us for wanting to live normally again, says this leader for the Mail on Sunday.
• “Boris Johnson to welcome thousands of delegates with unregulated jabs” – The PM has given the green light for officials and leaders to attend the COP26 climate change summit in Glasgow later this year, even though many have only received vaccines not recognised by British or European regulators, says MailOnline.
• “U.K. can expect thousands of Covid deaths every year, warn scientists” – Disease will circulate alongside flu and other seasonal viruses and become part of accepted winter illness, says the Guardian.
• “Anti-vaxxers march through London to protest children’s Covid jabs” – Hundreds of protestors, young and old, marched along the banks of the River Thames before arriving at Downing Street where they chanted “save our children”, reports MailOnline.
• “Israel and Covid: Is the drug deadlier than the disease?” – Nevile Hodgkinson in the Conservative Woman looks at the impact of Israel’s vaccination programme.
• “Let It Rip” – Andrew Sullivan in his weekly Substack newsletter explains how he learnt to stop worrying about the virus.
• “We know that the NHS had a woeful crisis. But we’re choosing to keep it just as it is” – The appointment of Amanda Pritchard proves the NHS is change averse, says Danial Hannan in the Sunday Telegraph.
• “Sky News Australia SUSPENDED from YouTube” – Rebel News reports that YouTube has banned Sky News Australia over concerns that some of its reporters are breaching its community standards on Covid. The suspension follows the Australian Daily Telegraph cancelling Sky News presenter Alan Jones’s column.
• “CDC Still Baffled People Are Paying Attention To Them” – The Babylon Bee takes aim at the CDC in its latest squib.
• “Sniffer dogs inherit unconscious bias” – The ability of animals to recognise human feelings has become a concern for the prison service, reports the Sunday Times, which is worried that handlers of sniffer dogs may be communicating “unconscious bias” to their canine charges.
• “I called it” – Andrew Doyle highlights how his satirical creation Titania McGrath correctly predicted that the sex of babies would soon no longer be recorded on birth certificates.