News Round-Up

• “Boris Johnson losing Tory support as storm grows over Downing Street garden party” – Prime Minister will not resign, says minister asked to face Commons, despite polls that show up to 66% of the public think he should go, the Telegraph reports.
• “Scientists believed Covid leaked from Wuhan lab – but feared debate could hurt ‘international harmony’” – Emails to Dr. Anthony Fauci show “likely” explanation identified at start of pandemic but there were political worries about saying so, reports the Telegraph, in the latest confirmation that sometimes there really is a conspiracy, but also that they’re useless at keeping it secret.
• “Matt Hancock gets Covid for second time as he tells fans he’s self-isolating” – Couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy. But what’s this about fans? Report from the Evening Standard.
• “Covid cash triggers plunge in public sector productivity” – In the three months to September 2021, the public sector’s resources were 18.6% higher than in 2019, but its output was only 8.9% higher, meaning productivity was down by more than 8%, reports the Telegraph.
• “End working from home to fire up economy, ministers urge Boris Johnson” – Ministers want to lift working-from-home guidance at the end of the month amid concern about the economic damage the measure is causing, reports the Times.
• “Sketch Notes On...” – The podcast from Lucy Johnston and Matt Gibson. Catch up on episodes you might have missed including Toby, Graham Brady, Robert Dingwall and Molly Kingsley.
• “It’s not ‘anti-vaxx’ to say people like Novak Djokovic don’t need to be jabbed” – Why would the world No.1, an incredible athlete in his mid-30s, want to get vaccinated against a virus which can do him little harm, asks Allison Pearson in the Telegraph.
• “The Novak Djokovic quandary reveals Australia’s Zero Covid failure” – Amid the row over visas, many Australians see a growing epidemic and rightly wonder what months of extreme sacrifice were for, says theTelegraph in its leading article.
• “Repeat Booster Shots Spur European Warning on Immune-System Risks” – Repeat booster doses every four months could eventually weaken the immune system and tire out people, according to the European Medicines Agency, reports Bloomberg.
• “Time for a rethink on forced jabs for health staff, Mr Javid” – HART’s Dr. Ros Jones writes in TCW about a letter from a concerned group of health care professionals and scientists to members of the House of Lords urging them to oppose vaccine mandates.
• “Ex-ITV boss: Are the vaccine mob getting worried?” – They’re turning up the heat on those who exercise their legal, moral and medical right not to be jabbed, writes former senior ITV news executive Mark Sharman in TCW.
• “Why living with the virus means living with the unvaccinated too” – While the jab can make sense to those who are young, healthy or already had Covid, others won’t be swayed – and they aren’t going anywhere, writes Harry de Quetteville in the Telegraph.
• “It Is Time to Face Reality about the Vaccines” – You cannot contain the viral spread of Omicron by boosting, writes Dr. Vinay Prasad on the Brownstone Institute.
• “What they REALLY mean by “living with Covid”” – Kit Knightly in OffGuardian on the threat of permanent interventions.
• “German health minister calls England’s Covid strategy ‘unethical’” – Karl Lauterbach says he would “never recommend” the strategy London has employed in the face of the Omicron wave, Politico reports – even though the infection rate is lower and dropping, Herr Lauterbach?
• “China locks down third city, raising affected to 20 million” – A third Chinese city has locked down its residents because of a COVID-19 outbreak, raising the number confined to their homes in China to about 20 million people, reports AP News. It’s not going to work, guys.
• “Banning tomato ketchup sachets won’t save the planet” – The Tory green welly brigade is at it again, writes Ross Clark in the Spectator.
• “Finally, Bloomberg Admits Renewables Mania Caused Energy Shortages” – Michael Shellenberger writes on his Substack page that media giant Bloomberg, whose owner, Michael Bloomberg, is directly invested in natural gas and renewables, has conceded almost every point he has been making.
• “Get used to sky-high energy prices – that’s the cost of going green” – Theoretically the cost of renewables will eventually come down, but not for a long while yet, writes Jeremy Warner in the Telegraph.
• “Investment star Terry Smith attacks Unilever for ‘ludicrous’ focus on social and environmental issues” – Unilever should spend more time worrying about profits than purpose, according to Mr Smith, reports the Telegraph.
• “The Covidian socialist state” – Laws on equality, ‘hate speech’, internet communication and Covid safety are so dense, vague and contradictory we are all guilty all the time just by leading normal lives, writes Alexander Adams in Bournbrook.
• “CDC Director Walensky: ‘The overwhelming number of deaths, over 75%, occurred in people who had at least four co-morbidities‘” – Old enough to remember when this was an insensitive right-wing conspiracy theory, asks Michael P. Senger on Twitter.