News Round-Up

• “It’s funny how it’s always children who lose out from Covid restrictions” – If any other sector of society were discriminated against in such a brutal manner, we’d be up in arms, writes Robert Taylor in the Telegraph.
• “World Medical Association boss compares new strain of Covid with Ebola” – “The chairman of the World Medical Association, Frank Ulrich Montgomery, believes that a new strain of the Omicron could become as dangerous as the Ebola virus,” reports Armenia News.
• “Top U.K. cardiologist: be on the right side of history and put an end to vaccine mandates” – “Dr. Malhotra declared that public policy leaders must now consider an end to all Covid vaccine mandates. Malhotra reminds all that the healthcare profession is all about serving the patient, and not the pharmaceutical industry,” reports Trialsite.
• “Lockdown looms and our liberties are in tatters” – We have normalised the extraordinary and let fundamental British values be trampled by Covid, writes Tim Stanley in the Telegraph.
• “Teachers call for masks to be mandatory in English secondary schools” – Heads say advice is ‘too vague’ as sceptical MPs warn additional Covid restrictions will cause further disruption, reports the Guardian.
• “An opportunity to turn the tables?” – “We can refuse to wear masks on public transport and in shops. By simply behaving in a normal, natural way we can, en masse, reclaim a vital human right,” says Our Decision Too.
• “Travel bans aren’t the answer to stopping new Covid variant Omicron” – Given that the Omicron variant has already spread beyond southern Africa, a ban on travellers from those countries will slow the spread, but won’t stop this strain in its tracks, writes Anthony Zwi in the Conversation.
• “Take a Covid test when you meet someone from another household, says Nicola Sturgeon” – First Minister warns that ‘this is a moment again for collective national vigilance’ after discovery of Omicron cases, reports the Telegraph.
• “Totalitarian taffy and the new scariant” – “There are overwhelming perversions in the toxicology of Covid policies. And they veer towards enabling the stripping of liberties fecklessly and pointlessly – unless creating an oppressive state structure is your aim,” writes Omar Khan in Uncommon Wisdom.
• “Biden caught disobeying indoor mask mandate in Nantucket” – President Joe Biden was caught disobeying an indoor mask mandate this weekend in Nantucket just hours after being ‘fully briefed’ on the new Omicron variant, reports MailOnline.
• “Don’t cancel holidays but accept ‘element of risk’ with Omicron variant, says Minister” – Edward Argar says further cases of omicron must be expected but ruled out any further additions to the red list in the next three weeks, reports the Telegraph.
• “A murder most foul” – The impact of lockdown restrictions on the young played a part in the murder of 13 year-old Olly Stevens, argues S. D. Wickett in a narrated article available to listen to on Bournbrook Magazine’s YouTube channel.
• “We must reject this Covid safetyism” – “A mask mandate and tighter travel rules may not be a lockdown. But they are a reminder that all these months into this pandemic we are still not in control of our own lives,” writes Tom Slater in Spiked.
• “Why many on the left want another lockdown” – There is a lack of empathy for people who do not work in the public sector who cannot bet on having a job once this is all over, writes Tom Harris in the Telegraph.
• “Biden won’t boot out unvaccinated federal workers until after holidays” – The Office of Management and Budget sent a memo to federal agencies instructing them to hold off booting out their unvaccinated workers despite the deadline passing on November 22nd, reports the Mail.
• “Climate: the next Covid” – “The rhetoric surrounding climate change is merging with Covid. That it is a disease to be eradicated at all costs – and the people are standing in the way,” writes Luke Perry in Bournbrook Magazine.
• “‘Slow disaster playing out’ as Germany moves to shut down 8.5 GW of baseload nuclear capacity” – “It will put supply security further under pressure and them choosing to do so in the middle of winter is pretty crazy,” writes P. Gosselin in Watts Up With That?
• “Benedict Cumberbatch needs to man up about toxic masculinity” – “Sherlock star Benedict Cumberbatch has shrewdly deduced that ‘men are bad’ and has shared that revelation with the world. Elementary wokeism, my dear Watson,” writes Frank Furedi in RT.
• “Deafening silence on hounding of JK Rowling” – Reluctance to defend writer targeted by trans-rights activists is shameful, writes Alex Massie in the Times.
• “The Covid theatre” – Julia Hartley-Brewer tweets that: “The Prime Minister and half the Cabinet are currently at a huge lunch in Westminster. There is not a mask in sight (apart from the waiters, of course)… It’s all theatre, folks.”