News Round-Up

• “NHS carried out one million fewer emergency procedures last year” – There were 5.45 million emergency procedures carried out across all NHS England services in the 12 months to March, down 16% on the 6.5 million the previous year, reports MailOnline.
• “Boris Johnson has handed total power over the country to the NHS” – Be in no doubt: if this winter the NHS declares that it can’t cope, the public, not the health service, will get the blame, writes Jill Kirby in the Telegraph.
• “NHS Admits Vax Pass is Sharing User Facial Recognition Data With Police” – The NHS has admitted that it is sharing facial recognition with police from the NHS app, which has been used as a vaccine passport, reports Breitbart.
• “Tory lockdown sceptics hail Stephen Barclay’s promotion as ‘antidote to Michael Gove’” – The backbenchers who are opposed to more restrictions see the composition of the key decision-makers swinging in their favour, reports the Telegraph.
• “Long Covid symptoms in kids typically last between four and 12 weeks” – A new study shows that long-term Covid symptoms among children and teens typically resolve within four to 12 weeks, reports MailOnline.
• “Call for investigation of menstrual changes after Covid jabs” – A leading immunologist specialising in fertility says changes to periods and unexpected vaginal bleeding after having a Covid vaccine should be investigated, reports BBC News.
• “Major changes to travel rules could be announced tomorrow” – The ‘Green’ and ‘Amber’ lists will reportedly be merged into one category of low-risk nations and the number of places on the ‘Red’ list will be reduced, reports Sky News.
• “Brits will have to pay for lateral flow tests when they come home from holiday” – Lateral flow tests will replace expensive PCRs for returning holidaymakers – but travellers will still pay through the nose. The swabs, only for double-jabbed arrivals, will cost about £30 as the free NHS kits will not be accepted, reports the Sun.
• “Unmask… and make life smiles better for the deaf” – “Mask wearers have been told they are selfless, but most are oblivious to the social costs for 12 million U.K. people with hearing problems,” writes Dr. Gary Sidley in TCW Defending Freedom.
• “Professor Jay Bhattacharya in conversation with Lord Sumption” – Jay Bhattacharya and Lord Sumption discuss the legal, ethical and political implications of Covid policy responses on the Collateral Global YouTube channel.
• “Covid Heterodoxy in Three Layers” – Australian philosopher Peter Godfrey-Smith criticises lockdowns on three grounds: the balance of harms, liberty and aspiration, meaning and fear.
• “Group Think U.S.A. – Cleveland Clinic Removes an Important Study and Issues a Call for Vaccination” – “This study indicates that one’s antibodies are working to protect individuals naturally against reinfection, meaning that a vaccine isn’t necessarily required,” reports TrialSite.
• “Why ‘vaccinated covid deaths/hospitalisations’ are being counted incorrectly” – ‘el gato malo’ shows how Covid numbers should be counted in their latest substack update.
• “Courting the common cold” – “There’s a new sentiment I’m seeing everywhere – that many people want to continue wearing masks to avoid getting colds or the flu,” writes Mo Perry in a recent substack update. “I want to unpack this a bit from an immunological standpoint.”
• “Army could be called in to help Scottish ambulance service, amid reports man died after a 40-hour wait” – Scotland’s Health Secretary Humza Yousaf will make a statement to the Scottish parliament next week setting out measures being taken by the Government to ease the crisis, reports Sky News.
• “France suspends 3,000 healthcare workers for failing to get jabbed against Covid” – French Health Minister Olivier Veran says “some 3,000 suspensions were served on staff in health and social care facilities who had not yet entered into the vaccination course”, as is reported in Russia Today.
• “New iPhone 13 Will Require Vaccination To Unlock Screen” – Truth or spoof? As with most Babylonbee reports, it’s increasingly hard to tell!
• “On conservatism and the ‘Conservatives’” – “The Conservative Party cannot take its correct role as custodian when it prefers to be auctioneer, flogging the nation’s assets to the highest bidder and encouraging hyenas to pick at the unsold lots,” writes ‘Collingwood’ in Bournbrook Magazine.
• “Piers Morgan signs TV deal with News Corp” – Piers Morgan has signed a deal with News Corp and Fox News to launch a global TV show and become a columnist for the Sun and New York Post, reports the Times.
• “Why are the cops so soft on eco-protesters?” – Their treatment of those loons blocking the M25 was almost fawning, writes Charlie Peters in Spiked.
• “Cabinet reshuffle: Boris Johnson targets male junior ministers” – Boris Johnson has sacked numerous long-serving male ministers to make way for more women, reports the Times.
• “Social Justice and the Emergence of Covid Tyranny” – Signs of incipient totalitarianism impulses have been evident since the rise of political correctness, writes Michael Rectenwald in Mises Institute.
• “Where has the truth gone?” – “There were two remarkable things about Emma Raducanu’s wonderful win at the U.S. open last week,” writes Douglas Murray in the Spectator. “The first was the win itself. The second was the reaction to it.”
• “The Government Is Being Poorly Advised” – Labour MP Graham Stringer says on talkRADIO that he has been contacted by concerned scientists who “don’t believe the scientific advice the Government was getting was good advice or being challenged in the normal way” during lockdown.