News Round-Up

• “The war on Covid should be over: We do not need lockdowns” – “The virus now joins 200 other pathogens (give or take) in regular circulation in human societies. The war on Covid should be over,” writes Jay Bhattacharya in the Express.
• “Will we ever put children first?” – Children could face a third year of disrupted education if we don’t stand up for them, writes Molly Kingsley of UsForThem in Spiked.
• “Professor Jay Bhattacharya: I stand by the Great Barrington Declaration” – “We’ve been vindicated. The lockdowns were the single biggest mistake in public health history,” says Professor Jay Bhattacharya of the Great Barrington Declaration in an interview with UnHerd.
• “GPs are improving their work-life balance while worsening the life-death balance of everyone else” – Distress at being unable to see a doctor in person has hardened into cynicism – it’s no wonder long-suffering patients are losing it, writes Allison Pearson in the Telegraph.
• “Volunteers may be required in staffing shortfall at English care homes” – There has been an “alarming” drop in the number of workers signing up, with many put off by the requirement to be fully vaccinated against Covid by November 11th, reports the Guardian.
• “Another pandemic like Covid likely to hit within 60 years, study warns” – A new study suggests that the number of diseases spreading to humans is set to rise threefold in the coming decades, reports the Sun.
• “Scottish Government plans public inquiry into pandemic handling by end of year” – The Government says the inquiry will be established by the end of this year to “scrutinise decisions taken in the course of this pandemic, and learn lessons for future pandemics”, reports Sky News.
• “Scottish health chiefs ‘considered suspending cancer screening programmes’ during second wave” – “Very live” debates took place over whether it was “ethical” to continue with life-saving plans despite limited capacity, reports the Telegraph.
• “What does getting Covid feel like for the fully vaccinated?” – The illness can still have a big effect on health and daily life, say three people in their 20s, 40s and 50s, who were double-jabbed, reports the Guardian.
• “Will Policymakers Let the Covid Crisis End?” – Reluctant to set the public free, policymakers and the public-health bureaucracy are setting unachievable and unnecessary goals, writes John Tierney in City Journal.
• “Two in five people with impaired immune system have ‘low or undetectable’ antibody response after two jabs, says study” – A new study has found that antibody responses were low for almost half of those participating but T cell responses were generally good, reports Sky News.
• “All Prem clubs vote not to release players for internationals in Red List nations” – Premier League football clubs have unanimously voted not to release players for internationals in Covid Red List countries, reports the Sun.
• “Cornwall tourists urged to ‘stay away’ as cases rise” – Visit Cornwall says only people who have booked should visit as cases nearly double in a week following the Boardmasters music festival.
• “South Dakota Governor vows to ‘take every action available’ to stop Biden from ‘illegally’ mandating vaccines” – South Dakota Governor and anti-lockdown advocate Kristi Noem has promised to do all it takes to “protect” residents from a hypothetical federal vaccine mandate, reports Russia Today.
• “Even Australia is realising that the moral case for zero-Covid has collapsed” – The Delta variant makes elimination of the virus difficult, if not impossible, while vaccines have long since made it a pointless goal, writes Matthew Lesh in the Telegraph.
• “A New Low for the FDA” – “Thanks to the FDA and others, we’ll now be mandating these very deadly vaccines for all our kids,” writes ‘VaccineTruth’ in Trial Site.
• “Can facial recognition be stopped?” – “Our love of convenience may be distracting us from the fact that facial recognition technology is the most sinister and uniquely dangerous surveillance mechanism yet invented,” writes Ben Kelly in the Spectator.
• “Rushing to UBI serfdom” – “Universal basic income is actually a lure on a hook. The hook is serfdom to the state,” writes Alexander Adams in his latest column in Bournbrook Magazine.
• “The radical potential of nuclear fusion exposes the folly of our net zero deadline” – Future technology that could power a city with a device the size of a shipping container may prove a better bet than harnessing the wind, writes Matt Ridley in the Telegraph.
• “The limits to protest are not for Extinction Rebellion to decide” – The confusion over how to deal with their disruptive antics shows the danger of our unclear protest laws, writes Philip Johnston in the Telegraph.
• “The woke war on our classical past is as lazy as it is wrong-headed” – Obsessing about the ‘privilege’ of our historical forebears strips all joy out of the humanities, writes Marie Daouda in the Telegraph.
• “Tiger Who Came To Tea ‘could lead to rape and harassment’” – Rachel Adamson, of Zero Tolerance, says Judith Kerr’s 1968 classic The Tiger Who Came To Tea is “problematic” because of its “old fashioned” portrayal of women and family dynamics, reports the Mail.
• “Roger in Devon’s mother died from a kidney infection after being treated over the phone by her GP” – “You could see mum was still ill. The GP said she was fine. She passed away having not seen anybody. Had she been able to go in, I feel this wouldn’t have happened,” says a caller on talkRADIO.