News Round-Up

• “Why Britain should follow Denmark’s lead and declassify Covid” – We have learnt that at this stage of the pandemic there are costs to being over-cautious, writes Scientific Advisor to the Danish Government Professor Michael Bang Petersen in the Telegraph.
• “There’s no alternative to post-pandemic pain” – We cannot expect easy answers to the worst cost-of-living squeeze since the Napoleonic wars, writes Jeremy Warner in the Telegraph.
• “Israeli study offers strongest proof yet of vitamin D’s power to fight Covid” – Bolstering previous research, scientists publish ‘remarkable’ data showing strong link between vitamin deficiency, prevalent in Israel, and death or serious illness among patients, reports the Times of Israel.
• “The troubling normalisation of mask wearing” – One dimensional journalism, lost scientific debate and severely unappreciated costs to our long term health and psychology are among the problems discussed by Achilles Heel.
• “Covid officially over in Sweden!” – With the Swedish Government ending all restrictions and calling off the pandemic, Dr. Sebastian Rushworth, who is based in Sweden, discusses what we can learn from the statistics after two years.
• “France relaxes testing requirements for fully vaccinated British travellers” – Vaccinated travellers can now take a PCR or antigen test up to 48 hours before departure, reports the Telegraph.
• “‘We were forced to quarantine in our freezing motorhome at the mercy of French police’” – A British family fell foul of the French rules when they relied on a NHS certificate of recovery for their son, which was not recognised, reports the Telegraph.
• “I congratulated the BBC for inviting the unvaccinated to Question Time. That might make you cringe, but I meant it” – The Telegraph‘s Tim Stanley was on the panel and he found the free exchanges between doctors and audience members refreshing.
• “UK is ‘set to bin 3.5million Pfizer vaccine doses’” – Tens of millions of jabs were sent out at Christmas after Boris Johnson turbo-charged the booster drive to ‘one million doses a day’. But NHS sources say many are still sitting in fridges owing to low take-up since Christmas, reports the Mail.
• “The indomitable popularity of Joe Rogan” – The trouble with Joe Rogan – as far as the establishment media is concerned – is he’s more popular than they are because he’s doing a better job: he asks questions, listens to the answers and never tries to score points by prefacing a gross misinterpretation of what he’s just been told with a ‘so what you’re saying is…’ or editing the results afterwards, writes Emily Hill in the Spectator.
• “Ep 38. The Blonde Blob – The Real Normal” – Listen to the latest podcast episode, where the guys talk Sue Gray’s report on ‘Partygate’, a Government U-turn on mandatory vaccination for NHS workers, and Holocaust Memorial Day, among other topics.
• “Spain to drop masks outdoors as Omicron surge decelerates” – Spain will end a mandate to wear masks outdoors (yes, really) next week, in its version of lifting restrictions, reports AP News.
• “Spain’s First Study on Omicron Finds Vaccinated People Spread Covid at Same Rate as Unvaccinated” – Public health officials in Catalonia announced they were scrapping Covid passports in light of this new evidence, as did several other Governments in Spain, writes Jon Miltimore at the Foundation for Economic Education.
• “Joe Biden is the most dangerously radical President in U.S. history” – Whether it’s Biden’s push for vaccine mandates or his massive spending programmes, Biden is proving more divisive than perhaps any President in history, say Steven Edginton and historian Victor Davis Hanson as they discuss his impact in the latest Off Script podcast.
• “Long Funeral Homes, Short Life Insurers? Ex-Blackrock Fund Manager Discovers Disturbing Trends In Mortality” – Tyler Durden on ZeroHedge looks at disturbing trends in non-Covid excess deaths in America and elsewhere.
• “‘The case for masks became hugely stronger’: scientists admit their Covid mistakes” – Mixed article in the Guardian where a group of Covid ‘experts’ including Neil Ferguson and Devi Sridhar say what they got wrong. Comrade Susan Michie saying she regrets not being more of a mask fanatic from the off is a low point.
• “How working from home put the brakes on Britain” – The Great Return to Work after the pandemic is yet to happen – and it might never as staff hide behind the HR handbook, writes Gordon Rayner in the Telegraph.
• “University fat cats have abandoned students” – Shocking research suggests the majority of colleges are continuing with virtual lectures despite the retreat of Covid, writes Camilla Tominey in the Telegraph.
• “Self-inflicted misery of our energy insanity ” – Successive Governments ignored warnings about the insanity of having no long-term strategy to safeguard energy security; now the chickens have come home to roost, says the Daily Mail in a leader article.
• “Britain’s energy crisis is self-inflicted” – It has been a 30-year shambles, with successive Governments failing to exploit shale gas and nuclear energy, says the Telegraph in its leader article.
• “The Zac Pack: the well-connected group quietly shaping Tory policy” – Zac Goldsmith is the original vote-blue, go-green Tory and there is something of a ‘Zac Pack’ at the heart of Government, and it includes Carrie Johnson, writes James Heale in the Spectator.
• “Ministers tell Boris to cut green plans to help cost of living crisis” – The Prime Minister is facing pushback from senior politicians over his plans to make the U.K. Net Zero in carbon emissions by 2050, reports the Mail.
• “Ross Clark analyses the state of Britain’s energy reserves” – If Ofgem’s decision to hike domestic energy bills from April by almost £700 confirmed one thing for us, it should be that now, more than ever, we must rapidly work towards energy security, writes Ross in the Mail.
• “Now Parliament comes for the woke National Trust” – Conservative MP Andrew Murrison is launching a new All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on the National Trust next week in light of “the intense interest its recent activities have provoked throughout the country”, reports Christopher Hope in the Telegraph.
• “The student forced out after standing up for women” – Raquel Rosario Sanchez is taking the University of Bristol to court for allegedly failing to protect her from trans activists, the Telegraph reports.
• “The Guardians in Retreat” – Redefining its purpose as antiracism, the Art Institute of Chicago abandons its core mission of preserving history’s treasures and instructing future generations, writes Heather Mac Donald in City Journal.
• “This is the Canada I know and love!” – Watch the video from ChickenGate on Twitter showing what the Freedom Convoy protests in Canada are actually like.

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