News Round-Up

• “Evidence is insufficient to back mandatory NHS staff vaccination, says House of Lords committee” – “The committee said that the benefit of increasing the protection from vaccinating staff who had not yet taken up offers of the jab ‘may be marginal’,” reports the BMJ.
• “Science and politics” – “The latest decree that everyone must wear face coverings has nothing to do with science and everything to do with politics: our leaders need to be seen to be doing something,” argues David Seedhouse in Bournbrook Magazine.
• “Three little words we should use more often” – “Why do people find it so hard to say ‘I don’t know’? Look at the absurd Christmas parties situation we find ourselves in: politicians are tangled up in knots about what advice to give the public,” writes India Knight in the Sunday Times.
• “One in eight Covid hospital patients suffered heart damage” – Fears findings of national studies will mean big increase in demand for already hard-pressed NHS cardiac services, reports the Telegraph.
• “Maskless LeBron triggers debate after saying high school policy makes ‘zero sense’” – “LeBron James has courted further controversy after he opted not to wear a mask while watching his son play in a basketball tournament,” reports RT.
• “U.K. High Court sides with doctor who was fired over Covid narrative scepticism on social media” – The court cited the free speech section of the Human Rights Act of 1998, reports Reclaim The Net.
• “At least three children die, 120 hospitalized by Pfizer vaccine in Vietnam” – “Reported in multiple Vietnamese media including VN Express – yet no mainstream media – 17 of the 120 or so of the adolescents and teens had severe reactions,” reports Trialsite.
• “Will Christmas be cancelled again?” – December 18th is when Boris Johnson must decide whether the Omicron variant will allow a normal Christmas. Even if it does, there could be trouble in the new year, argues Tim Shipman in the Sunday Times.
• “‘Wall of secrecy’ in Pfizer contracts as company accused of profiteering” – U.S. company faces scrutiny over Covid profits after U.K. agrees to secrecy clause, reports the Observer.
• “Vaccine mandates: unscientific, divisive, and enormously costly” – “The Pfizer and Moderna trials show that in lower risk populations (which account for most of society) Covid vaccines do not reduce mortality. Therefore, vaccine mandates, which are enormously costly and terribly divisive, are a cure worse than the disease,” writes Allon Friedman for the Brownstone Institute.
• “World has stockpiled ‘more Covid vaccines than it can use’” – “The world has stockpiled more Covid jabs than it can use, according to the globe’s largest vaccine manufacturer,” reports the Sunday Times.
• “Covid outbreak on U.S. cruise ship despite fully vaccinated passengers” – “Despite every cruise line requiring passengers and crew to be fully vaccinated before boarding, a cruise ship returning from a sail across the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea with thousands of passengers onboard detected an outbreak of Covid,” reports ZeroHedge.
• “Covid a pandemic of fear ‘manufactured’ by authorities, says Yale Epidemiologist” – “The Covid pandemic has been one of fear, manufactured by individuals who were in the nominal positions of authority as the virus began to spread across the globe last year, according to Yale Epidemiologist Dr. Harvey Risch,” reports the Epoch Times.
• “‘Short sighted and ridiculous’ Boris deal could lead to diabetes time bomb – urgent warning” – The decision to push doctors into dropping routine appointments with their patients in favour of boosting the Covid vaccine roll-out has received a furious response from leading health specialists and commentators, reports the Express.
• “The AstraZeneca vaccine’s unlucky few” – Lisa Shaw was one of the tiny proportion of people adversely affected by the Covid jab. Her widower is now calling for better recognition, writes Paul Nuki in the Telegraph.
• “U.S. plans to fast-track revamped Covid vaccines” – “Federal regulators said Sunday that cases have been identified in 16 states and that the Food and Drug Administration is already in conversations about streamlining authorization for revamped vaccines,” reports the Wall Street Journal.
• “Is New Jersey a peek into the future?” – “In what may be a microcosm of things to come, New Jersey lawmakers defied Governor Phil Murphy and insisted upon entering the States’ Assembly chamber without proof of vaccination,” reports Trailsite.
• “Czech Covid restrictions quash Battle of Austerlitz re-enactment” – For a second year running the commemoration for the Battle of Austerlitz in the Czech Republic has been impacted by Covid restrictions, reports Euronews.
• “Why Covid is a disaster for individual freedom” – New public health totalitarianism gives government and officials endless chances for moral blackmail to enforce restrictions, writes David Quinn, who comments on the Republic of Ireland’s draconian Covid restrictions in the Sunday Times.
• “The Turner Prize is now a tool of woke” – Artistic excellence has been sacrificed at the altar of social justice, writes Alex Cameron in Spiked.
• “Spirited away to an Australian quarantine facility” – Australian citizen Hayley Hodgson talks to UnHerdTV about being forcibly taken to the Howards Spring quarantine facility.