News Round-Up

• “Malfunctioning NHS app for Covid vaccine status causes travel delays” – Problems accessing the Covid pass has caused travellers to be turned away from flight and ferry, reports the Guardian.
• “Ditch ‘illogical’ Covid travel tests for under-11s, ministers urged” – England is the only country in Europe to require children younger than 11 to be tested on their return, exempting only those four or under, reports the Telegraph.
• “A response to the House of Commons’ pro-lockdown report” – “The report makes no attempt to evaluate the scientific evidence on lockdown efficacy, gives no consideration to focused protection as an alternative strategy, and shows no interest in weighing up the total costs and benefits of lockdown,” writes Noah Carl in his latest Substack update.
• “Locking down harder and faster is not the right conclusion” – “A door has been opened and we have walked into a place in which our health and well-being is worse, we are poorer and we are less free, in exchange for dubious claims of safety,” writes Jamie Walden in Bournbrook Magazine.
• “Is the economic recovery still on track?” – “If inflationary pressures continue to surge (a glance at yesterday’s labour market update gives no reason to think they’ll let up soon), the Bank of England may have no choice but to act,” writes Kate Andrews in the Spectator.
• “The U.K.’s National ‘Crisis’: Age-Adjusted Mortality Is at 2008 Levels” – Looking at the U.K., the overall death rate for 2020 is not unprecedented, and some of the increase in the death rate is likely the result of an incomprehensibly bad Covid policy, writes Mark Avis in Mises Wire.
• “Merck Ignores Molnupiravir’s Cytotoxicity” – “The broad use of Molnupiravir is a global catastrophic risk because the increased rate of coronavirus mutations is likely to create more dangerous variants,” writes ‘LeoG’ in TrialSite.
• “Southwest Airlines pilots and staff are flying in the face of corporate and Government vaccine mandates – and about time, too” – Southwest Airlines’ top brass can deny the massive delays they’ve been experiencing have anything to do with their insistence staff take Covid shots or lose their job till they are blue in the face… but no one is buying it, writes R.M. Huffman in RT.
• “Catholic Troops Can Refuse Covid Vaccine: Military Archbishop” – U.S. troops who are Catholic can refuse to comply with a Covid vaccine mandate if they believe getting vaccinated will “violate his conscience“, says the military’s archbishop.
• “Top virologist says Delta defeated, predicts 6 plus months of Covid quiet for Israel” – New variants will be held at bay for now, says Rivka Abulafia-Lapid, whose optimism comes as number of new serious Covid cases per day almost halves over two weeks, reports the Times of Israel.
• “Murray backs calls for mandatory vaccination to enter Australian Open” – The Victoria Government announced earlier this month that all professional athletes in the state must now be double jabbed by late November – a move that Andy Murray is fully supportive of.
• “Victorian post office licensee backs down over refusal to get Covid jab” – Angela Spedding had cited freedom of choice for her refusal to get the vaccine but now says she has booked an appointment for next week, reports the Guardian.
• “Should genetics make us socialist?” – “The Genetic Lottery, by University of Texas psychologist Kathryn Paige Harden, is a good book whose central ethical argument is unpersuasive,” writes Bo Winegard in the Washington Examiner.
• “Insulate Britain is in bed with the establishment” – It’s no surprise that one of its activists is married to a TfL boss, writes Ben Pile in Spiked.
• “M25 protests: Insulate Britain activists arrested after defying court order” – Insulate Britain protesters were dragged off the road by frustrated motorists in angry scenes by the M25 after the demonstrators blocked major routes despite injunctions granted by the High Court, reports the Times.
• “The madness of the green agenda” – Even as gas prices soar, the Government is planning to hike bills even higher, writes Fraser Myers in Spiked.
• “Cambridge Student Union trans guide claims being woman is not down to ‘biology’” – Cambridge Students’ Union’s “How To Spot TERF Ideology” accuses some feminists of being “transphobic” and linked to the “far right”, reports MailOnline.
• “Why is British Airways banning ‘ladies and gentlemen’?” – “You might think that after 18 months of turbulence, B.A. has more important things to worry about,” writes Annabel Denham in the Spectator.
• “Professor Kathleen Stock was abused by students accusing her of transphobia but her union chose to back students” – Toby tells talkRADIO: “Gender ideology has spread across universities. You are branded a transphobe, and activists will come for you.”