News Round-Up

• “The NHS vaccine mandate was bound to fail” – When you are trying to persuade the general population to get vaccinated, the fact that many thousands of NHS staff have chosen not to be vaccinated – and are prepared to lose their jobs over it – is highly inconvenient, but the strategy of compulsory vaccination has merely served to draw attention to this group, writes Ross Clark in the Spectator.
• “Mandatory Covid vaccine U-turn came too late for us, say care homes” – Providers hit out at the policy’s impact on their services as Sajid Javid confirms plans to scrap jab mandate for NHS staff in England, reports the Telegraph.
• “Freedom Alliance demands reparations for sacked care home workers” – Care home workers sacked due to vaccine mandates should receive reparations, funded by a windfall tax on the pharmaceutical industry, according to the Freedom Alliance, writes Michael Curzon in Bournbrook.
• “Justin Trudeau tests positive for Covid as anti-vaccine truckers bring chaos to Ottawa” – The Canadian Prime Minister says he is “feeling fine” and isolating after being exposed to coronavirus, reports the Telegraph.
• “Canadian truckers stay in Ottawa; thousands pledging to create chaos” – The Ottawa truckers say there is no “end date” in sight and plan to stay in the capital “for as long as it takes” and until the Canadian government flips and withdraws its policy on vaccine mandates, reports the Mail.
• “Elites Vs. Blue collar, or Maybe Canada’s Yellow Vest Day: Here’s What the Media Won’t Say About the Truckers Convoy” – The more the media and cultural elites try to disparage the convoy on whatever flimsy grounds they find, the stronger support gets, writes Terry Etam in Watts Up With That?
• “Five unanswered questions from Sue Gray’s report” – The Spectator on what the ‘update’ didn’t tell us.
• “The rules themselves were worse than the rule-breaking” – While we continue to lambast one individual for breaking his own rules, we fail to question whether the rules themselves were ever humane, dignified or evidence-based, writes Julien Yvon in Bournbrook.
• “The Government’s Covid response could soon register as the biggest public policy disaster in Britain’s history” – Downing Street parties highlight the nascent scepticism about the Government’s pandemic response which, unless honestly confronted, will inflict long-term damage on the Conservative Party, writes Dr. Sarah Ingham on ConservativeHome.
• “Curfews have a dark history: no wonder people are resisting them in the pandemic” – Curfews are associated with a long history of racism and prejudice, write LSHTM’s Agnes Arnold-Forster and KCL’s Caitjan Gainty in the Conversation, in a rare deployment of wokery against Covid measures.
• “Scientific tyranny has captured America” – Political disagreements have become opportunities for public shame, writes Jacob Howland in UnHerd.
• “Mexican Institute of Social Security Large Observational Study: Home Treatment Kit with Ivermectin Reduces Hospitalisations and Death” – COVID-19 patients receiving the home treatment kit that included ivermectin and aspirin had a hospitalisation rate of 6.1% as compared to the cohort not receiving the home treatment kit at 11.7%, reports TrialSite News.
• “Japan’s Kowa says ivermectin effective against Omicron in phase III trial” – Japanese trading and pharmaceutical company Kowa Co Ltd said on Monday anti-parasite drug ivermectin has been found effective for treating the Omicron variant of COVID-19 in a Phase III trial, Reuters reports. Well, it did – that was the original headline and excerpt. Now corrected to clarify the drug showed an “antiviral effect” against Omicron and other variants in non-clinical research.
• “Israeli SARS-CoV-2 Omicron Cases Surge, as Do Deaths While Study Reveals a Fourth Booster Raises Antibodies Yet Doesn’t Appear to Stop Omicron” – Israel, one of the more heavily vaccinated nations, goes through its worst surge yet with record infections driven by both the Delta and Omicron variants, reports TrialSite News.
• “Lost but not forgotten” – The reality of severe absence in schools post-lockdown, a new report by the Centre for Social Justice.
• “Covid is a Battle Between World Views – Pro-Restrictions Lobby are Trying to Remove Johnson” – Peter Hitchens returns to the So What You’re Sayin Is sofa for a wide-ranging discussion covering Covid, partygate and the trials and tribulations of Boris Johnson.
• “Joe Rogan row triggers a blaze of publicity for Spotify’s podcast dreams” – Streaming giant’s refusal to capitulate to musicians’ complaints shows where its priorities lie, writes Ben Woods in a thorough analysis in the Telegraph.
• “Liz Truss and Nadhim Zahawi test positive for COVID-19 just hours apart” – The Foreign Secretary and Education Secretary are now self-isolating, reports the Telegraph. Perhaps this will bring home to them how ridiculous it is to be legally required to quarantine over a cold.
• “Immunocompromised children and young people are at no increased risk of severe COVID-19” – Welcome findings in a new U.K. study that immunocompromised children are at no higher risk of serious Covid and none died.
• “How Covid stole our privacy” – We have outsourced morality to machines, writes Timandra Harkness in UnHerd.
• “UnSAGE Covid Jeremiahs” – The repeated failures of the modellers suggests something more than mere incompetence, writes Christopher Snowdon in the Critic. “It suggests a systematic bias towards pessimism and a hankering for restrictions… There can be no way back for the modellers after this.”
• “Can population density really tell us anything about Covid?” – Felix O’Mahony in the Critic clears up some misunderstandings about population density and COVID-19.
• “Thousands of homes will need electricity boost for heat pumps to work” – One in three homes could need a costly electricity upgrade to make the green technology work, reports the Telegraph.
• “Why we should still invest in fossil fuels” – The widespread view that starving the world of the fossil fuels is ethical, will, in the absence of cheap and reliable alternatives, lead to lower economic growth, de-industrialisation, cold and hunger amongst the world’s poor, writes Barry Norris on Argonautica.
• “Hydrogen vs electric – which car is the better investment?” – Does the future of motoring really lie in electric cars or is hydrogen a more promising alternative, asks Martin Gurdon in the Spectator.
• “Majority of voters oppose Biden pledge to limit choice of new Supreme Court judge to a black woman” – More than three-quarters of respondents say the President should consider all potential candidates to succeed Stephen Breyer, reports the Telegraph.
• “The woke police are a menace to freedom” – They seem more interested in clamping down on gender-critical views than violent crime, writes Jo Bartosch in Spiked.
• “What’s so controversial about ‘woman – adult human female’?” – Natalie Bird, the former Lib Dem kicked out the party for a decade for wearing a t-shirt with this slogan on it, writes in the Critic about why respecting the biology of womanhood is important.
• “Racial guilt lesson for seven year-olds in Brighton schools” – Watch Andrew Lawrence on the skewed priorities and unlawful indoctrination of the woke comrades who run Brighton’s schools.

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