News Round-Up

• “What will happen if schools are forced to shut again?” – The prospect of yet more closures is leaving both parents and children utterly exasperated by the overreaction, writes Kathryn Flett in the Telegraph.
• “Man killed himself after being made redundant by Covid-hit golf club” – “A veteran greenkeeper killed himself after being made redundant by the golf club where he had worked for 33 years after they made financial cuts because of the effects of the pandemic, an inquest heard,” reports MailOnline.
• “FDA’s forced hand drops Pfizer’s bombshell safety document” – “The highly confidential Pfizer documents, which have been synonymous with the extreme lack of transparency revealed by the actions of pivotal Governmental agencies… are finally being revealed,” writes Sonia Elijah, who examines the information previously hidden from the public in Trialsite.
• “‘Toxic spike proteins’ made by Covid jabs ‘often cause permanent damage’ in kids: mRNA inventor” – “The risk/benefit analysis is not even close with this vaccine, for children,” says Dr. Robert Malone, in a recent speech reproduced in Lifesite.
• “Care home chain bans residents’ families unless ‘essential care givers’” – Barchester angers families with rules on routine visits stricter than Government guidance, reports the Guardian.
• “Why don’t we introduce obesity passports?” – “The latest argument for vaccine passports is that we have to increase vaccine uptake to reduce pressure on the health service. By this logic, we should also consider restrictions for those who are overweight,” writes Dr. Noah Carl in RT.
• “We have been deprived a national conversation about moving on from restrictions forever” – The costs of restrictions have been devastating, as everyone can see. Yet we are poised once more to add to the collateral damage, writes Sunetra Gupta in the Telegraph.
• “Finally, some opposition to Covid authoritarianism” – Only a democratic fightback will get us out of this mess, writes Fraser Myers in Spiked.
• “There aren’t 10,000 patients in hospital with Covid in Wales” – The latest data from the Welsh Government suggests the correct figure is actually more like 500, reports Full Fact.
• “Get ready for tougher restrictions, Scots warned” – “The First Minister urged Scots to limit gatherings to three households and cancel work Christmas parties, while businesses are now legally bound to facilitate home working where possible,” reports the Times.
• “English football club beats Government Covid rules by reducing stadium capacity” – “Carlisle United has announced they are working around mandatory Covid rules set by the U.K. Government for any crowd of 10,000 people or more by reducing their stadium capacity to 9,999,” reports RT.
• “The end of the pandemic will not be televised” – “As an extraordinary period in which social life was upturned, Covid will be over when we turn off our screens and decide that other issues are once again worthy of our attention,” write David Robertson and Peter Doshi in the BMJ.
• “Ryanair boss says U.K. response to Omicron shaped by ‘idiots’” – Michael O’Leary blames Covid rules for 1 million fewer passengers flying with airline this month, reports the Guardian.
• “Over 65s in France without Covid booster jabs lose their ‘health pass’” – “Over-65s in France without Covid booster jabs will lose their ‘health pass’ under new rules being implemented from today,” reports MailOnline.
• “New furlough calls only reinforce the sense of blind panic” – It is inflation and not new variants or further support for business that we’ll be worrying about three months from now, writes Jeremy Warner in the Telegraph.
• “Unvaccinated U.S. Google employees set to lose pay & get fired” – “Google has said that more than 150,000 of its employees in the U.S. will be placed on unpaid leave and terminated if they don’t comply with the company’s Covid vaccine mandate,” reports RT.
• “Lockdowns fuelled massive rise in gaming and addiction, experts say” – “During the pandemic, nationwide stay-at-home orders handed gaming companies a golden opportunity,” reports the Epoch Times.
• “Almost 3,000 children in New South Wales hit with fines of up to $5,000 AUD for minor Covid rule breaches” – Fines worth $2.1 million AUD issued to 2,844 children aged 10 to 17 years-old since middle of 2020, drawing ire of legal and advocacy groups, reports the Guardian.
• “Having Covid in last six months leaves you relatively safe from Omicron” – “People who caught Covid in the past six months should be ‘quite well protected’ from Omicron, a leading expert on the virus has said,” reports MailOnline.
• “The new Dark Ages” – The woke assault on Western civilisation is taking us backwards, says Joel Kotkin in Spiked.
• “In Liddle-o parentis” – “As a society, we have raised a generation in which a significant portion of those who attend university are babyish, sociopathic tyrants,” says Collingwood, who comments on the student protests at Durham University following Rod Liddle’s speech in Bournbrook Magazine.
• “Temporary measures will become permanent restrictions” – In light of the recent vote to approve ‘Plan B’ measures, Lord Daniel Hannan talks about the danger of temporary emergency powers becoming a permanent feature of everyday life.