News Round-Up

• “Europe heads for Covid ‘ceasefire’ that could lead to END of pandemic, says WHO” – The Europe director of the WHO, Hans Kluge spoke of “a ceasefire that could bring us enduring peace”, with high vaccination rates, the milder Omicron variant and the end of winter in sight, reports the Mail. What happened to being at the “halfway mark“? More mixed messages again.
• “When will the pandemic be over? It’s complicated, scientists say” – Don’t expect President Biden or the World Health Organisation to tell you when the COVID-19 pandemic is over. They’re not sure themselves, writes Tom Howell Jr. in the Washington Times.
• “UK’s Covid wave falls as cases, hospitalisations and deaths drop” – Government dashboard data shows there were another 88,171 infections over the last 24 hours, a fall of 9% compared to last Thursday, reports the Mail.
• “London Covid hospitalisations return to pre-Omicron levels” – NHS data show that the number of patients in hospital primarily with Covid is 788, the lowest primary level since October 25th, according to the Telegraph.
• “Ex-SAGE scientist calls for vaccines that stop people spreading Covid” – Sir Jeremy Farrar says the “long-term solution” to Covid is better vaccines, reports the Mail. How ever did humanity survive coronaviruses before we had vaccines? Life must have been one long pandemic.
• “Covid lab leak theories ‘have put world at risk of a new pandemic’” – Despite being caught conspiring to suppress the lab leak theory, Sir Jeremy Farrar has doubled down, claiming ‘misinformation’ over the origins of the virus ruined international co-operation on preventing future outbreaks, according to the Telegraph. In other words, it upset China.
• “Now ‘Prof Lockdown’ slams study that found lockdown cut deaths by 0.2%” – Professor Neil Ferguson said the finding that lockdowns cut the Covid death rate by just 0.2% ‘does not significantly advance’ understandings of how effective the draconian measure is, reports the Mail. He never was too keen on data.
• “The lockdown establishment will never accept that its disastrous policy failed” – New research suggesting that shutdowns made little difference to mortality is likely to fall on deaf ears, writes Fraser Nelson in the Telegraph.
• “Frozen: can China escape its Zero-Covid trap?” – There’s no easy way out of China’s self-imposed isolation, not least because Zero-Covid has become a part of Xi’s political legacy, writes Cindy Yu in the Spectator.
• “Trudeau vs truckers: a head-on collision” – “On the Left – Trudeau’s base – there has been an audible public clamouring for more and stricter rules,” writes Leah McLaren in the Spectator. “I have a number of good friends who have kept their children out of school voluntarily post-lockdown because they are frightened for their kids’ safety, in spite of the fact their kids are vaccinated.”
• “Five Freedoms: Julie Ponesse’s Speech to the Trucker Convoy” – “To our Governments: the cracks are showing. The dam is breaking. The facts are not on your side. You can’t keep this up any longer. The pandemic is over. Enough is enough. You are our servants; we are not your subjects” – read the speech by the Professor of Ethics removed from post for being unvaccinated.
• “Freedom Convoy: Organisers pledge to stay ‘as long as it takes’” – “Patience is wearing thin over trucker vaccine mandate demonstrations, now in their sixth day,” states BBC News, apparently unaware that running patience thin is largely the point.
• “France bans tourists with no Covid booster” – Britons wanting to go skiing or on city breaks to Paris for the half-term break will have to get a booster if they received their second dose any earlier than May last year, reports the Mail.
• “Fire safety concerns raised over Nicola Sturgeon’s plans to chop off classroom doors” – Scotland’s fire service criticised the ventilation measure, warning that classroom doors “play a key role in preventing smoke and fire from spreading within buildings”, the Telegraph reports.
• “Panic-built NHS’ Nightingale surge hubs cost £10.6million” – The NHS rapidly constructed eight overflow units at the height of the fourth wave in December as Boris Johnson put the health service on a ‘war footing’, but they have mostly stood empty, despite costing nearly £11 million.
• “Vaccines and conscientious objection” – In the war on COVID-19, have we made a casualty of conscience, asks Laura Dodsworth on her Substack page.
• “Romania sees the end of state of alert despite record COVID-19 incidence” – Romanian health minister Alexandru Rafila has said that the country “may return to normal” at the end of March, and thus there will be no need to extend the state of alert, reports Romania Insider. Is the trickle becoming a flood?
• “FDA Document on Moderna Vaccine Approval Removed From Agency’s Website” – A Food and Drug Administration document explaining why the agency approved Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine was removed from its website – one which included references to an unpublished analysis that found the rates of post-vaccination heart inflammation were higher than any U.S. agency had found before, reports the Epoch Times.
• “We must prepare the NHS for future pandemics now” – It won’t be easy to counter future calls for lockdown if we don’t think about how to surge NHS capacity, writes Andrew Lilico in the Telegraph.
• “France’s Covid vaccine pass to stay until ICUs are ’emptied’, says health minister” – France’s vaccine pass will remain in place until hospitals are able to function normally without cancelling non-emergency procedures to make room for Covid patients in intensive care, Health Minister Olivier Veran said on Wednesday, according to Reuters. So, er, every winter then.
• “The Cult of Masked Schoolchildren” – History will not look kindly on our evidence-free decision to make kids suffer most, writes Vinay Prasad in the Tablet.
• “Overdiagnosis and overtesting” – Are we dooming ourselves with too much COVID-19 testing, asks Dr. Sebastián González-Dambrauskas on Vinay Prasad’s Substack page.
• “Spare a thought for the Covid Never-Enders” – Even without restrictions, many don’t want to go back to normal, with 80% of Danes saying that despite restrictions being lifted they would still continue to socially distance, writes Amy Jones in UnHerd.
• “My Covid diary” – Wry observations from Tinderella in TCW Defending Freedom, including the poem “Lockdown Blues”.
• “Open Letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury” – Trevor in Trimley in OffGuardian with a satirical missive to the prelate praising him for calling out the selfishness and immorality of the unvaccinated and underlining the moral superiority of the vaccinated.
• “Ministers urge Boris Johnson to rethink Net Zero plans as cost of living crisis bites” – Cabinet members fear speed of switch to renewable energy will heap more pressure on households struggling with energy bill and tax rises, reports the Telegraph.
• “Green levies add £296 on to energy bills” – Dual fuel tariffs include a 15% ‘environmental and social obligation’ tax, reports the Telegraph.
• “Boris’s climate briefing: information editing or wholly misleading?” – Boris Johnson said he had a Road to Damascus moment about climate change when he was fully briefed on the risks and size of the problem, but Tim Worstall on Net Zero Watch fact-checks the slides.
• “Julie Bindel in conversation with Raquel Rosario Sanchez” – In the Critic, listen to Raquel Rosario Sanchez, who is going to court to fight a trial against the University of Bristol for failing to protect her from bullying and harassment by trans activists.
• “Amnesty publishes yet another anti-Israel report” – Amnesty International has continued its long-standing campaign against Israel with its most recent report – its 50th targeting the small Middle Eastern nation in five years – accusing the country of “apartheid” and committing crimes against humanity, writes Jake Wallis Simons in UnHerd.
• “Kamala Harris and the problem of affirmative action” – No matter how experienced or gifted, stand-out minorities are indelibly tainted by the presumption that they owe their ascendancy to a leg up, which really is ‘systemic racism’, writes Lionel Shriver in the Spectator.
• “Biden Quietly Withdraws Whoopi Goldberg SCOTUS Nomination” – President Joe Biden quietly withdrew Whoopi Goldberg’s Supreme Court nomination after she downplayed the murder of six million Jews, despite fitting the requisite person profile, according to the Babylon Bee.
• “Canada’s Saskatchewan province to lift all restrictions against COVID-19, Premier says” – Take that, Trudeau. Plus: Governor of Iowa says the public health emergency will end on February 15th, saying COVID-19 can be managed like the flu.

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