News Round-Up

• “Covid modelling cannot accurately predict numbers, admits Government expert” – Forecasts for Omicron death rates and hospitalisations were wrong because they did not account for changes in public behaviour, SAGE’s Professor Graham Medley has admitted, according to the Telegraph.
• “Two million Brits ‘gave up on the NHS and went private during Covid’” – Polling of nearly 3,500 adults by the Institute for Public Policy Research thinktank suggests 16 million people had trouble getting appointments on the health service, reports the Mail.
• “Pope tells Italian Army officers to remove their Covid masks” – Pictures show the Pope turning slightly behind him to speak to the Italian Army and telling them to take their masks off during his general audience at the Vatican on Wednesday, reports the Mail.
• “New Zealand police clear out anti-vax protesters outside Parliament” – Police officers have begun a dispersal operation on the protesters that have been camped outside New Zealand’s Parliament House since early February, reports the Mail.
• “Nearly 2,000 patients who contracted Covid virus in hospital have died” – Nearly 2,000 patients have died with Covid in Scotland after contracting the disease while in hospital, reports the Herald.
• “Is Science Having an Existential Crisis?” – The real problem is that something is wrong with the state of science itself – Roger Watson reviews Stuart Richie’s Science Fictions in the European Conservative.
• “#DontWearADamnMask” – My mask does not protect you, and your mask does not protect me, writes Laura Dodsworth on her Substack page.
• “17 Reasons why it is irrational to trust the medical community regarding the Covid vaccines” – Public health policies over the past two years have failed to curb Covid but wrought societal devastation. What exactly have they done right, asks Ashmedai.
• “Scandal of the jab victims who’ll wait years for compensation” – Sally Beck writes in TCW Defending Freedom on the scandal of the vaccine injury victims who’ll wait years for compensation.
• “Some care home residents ‘gave up and died’ because of the pandemic” – Jeremy Richardson, who will leave Four Seasons Health Care next month, said the “big scandal” of the past two years has been depriving residents of their liberty, reports the Mail.
• “Why Are We Ignoring Infection-Acquired Immunity?” – Antibodies derived from natural infection with COVID-19 are more abundant and at least 10 times more potent than immunity generated by vaccination alone. So why is it being ignored, asks Sheena Meredith in Medscape.
• “Government abandons official Net Zero cost estimate” – The Public Accounts Committee’s new report on “Achieving Net Zero” shows that plans to decarbonise the economy are in disarray, reports Net Zero Watch.
• “How the battle for energy independence was lost” – The hyper-emotional narrative and negativity around nuclear energy is not accidental, while big oil has long been an advocate for renewables because they require fossil fuels as back up, argues Zion Lights at CapX.
• “Ethical investors have weakened the West’s defences” – Rewind just a few weeks and City fund managers were demonising defence companies on the basis that making weapons was immoral or wrong, writes Matthew Lynn in the Spectator. 
• “‘Greenism’ has helped Putin fuel his war machine” – Rex Murphy in the National Post asks whether the horror unfolding in Ukraine will awaken Western governments to the folly of their ‘green’ policies?
• “Sexist and outdated term ‘chairman’ doesn’t sit comfortably with us, say business leaders” – Leading business groups are accused of “getting priorities mixed up” after they suggest using gender-neutral word “chair” instead, reports the Telegraph.
• “I shall not cease from re-education” – We are the first human beings who have ever existed who are right about absolutely everything, writes Titania McGrath in the Critic.
• “Duty of care laws will let ‘woke prejudice’ control internet, say Tory MPs” – Revolt, led by Lord Frost, calls on Government to take a fresh look at the Online Safety Bill because of a potential threat to free speech, the Telegraph reports.
• “The liberal case against pronouns” – There’s nothing progressive about compelled speech, writes Andrew Doyle in UnHerd.
• “The closing of the artistic mind” – Ceramic artist Claudia Clare has been pushed out of the artworld for expressing her feminist beliefs, writes Jo Bartosch in Spiked.
• “Why we must not ban RT” – Free speech must be defended, especially in times of crisis, writes Fraser Myers in Spiked.
• “‘Wrong sort of lesbians’ blocked from debating SNP trans reforms” – A gay rights activist claims that critics of Nicola Sturgeon’s gender change proposals are being “excluded from the political process”, reports the Telegraph.
• “Ep 40. Inside Ukraine: Tanya Shelepko Interview” – In a departure from the usual show, the Real Normal Podcast brings you an interview with Tanya Shelepko, who is an English teacher and a theatre director in Kyiv and currently somewhere in Ukraine.
• “The week Nicola Sturgeon abandoned women” – The SNP leader’s hardline stance on trans issues is leaving some of her natural supporters politically homeless, writes Hayley Dixon in the Telegraph.
• “Please take those masks, off, they’re not doing anything. We’ve got to stop all this Covid theatre” – Watch Florida Governor Ron DeSantis tell a group of young people behind his podium they don’t have to wear their masks.

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