Day: 12 February 2021

by Neville Hodgkinson Gibraltar’s 34,000 residents are unwitting participants in the battle against COVID-19 that may hold lessons for the rest of the world – on the one hand, as a success story, and on the other, as a tragic mystery. Since the start of a vaccination programme on January 9th, about two thirds of the tiny British enclave’s population has received the Pfizer/BioNTech jab. Only 3.5% declined it, and with a new delivery being rolled out, Dr Krish Rawal, acting Medical Director of the Gibraltar Health Authority, said this week that community protection could be close and “a normal summer” expected. The mystery, however, is that with 83 deaths related to the disease so far, Gibraltar currently has the highest COVID-19 death rate in the world. The first was only registered in mid-November last year. By January 6th the toll rose to 10, and by January 18th it had more than quadrupled to 45, prompting Chief Minister Fabian Picardo to tell a news conference: This is now the worst loss of life of Gibraltarians in over 100 years. Even in war, we have never lost so many in such a short time. The fact that some of these deaths occurred at the same time as the vaccine rollout led to claims on social media that the jab could be ...

by Dr Alberto Giubilini The idea that “we are all in it together” has polluted ethical reflection about lockdown. Slogans often do that. At best, the idea is misleading. At worst, it is simply false. In either case, it has turned ethical analysis of lockdown into ideological moralism. COVID-19 did not put us in it together. That slogan is a legacy of the initial uncertainty around the virus. In February-March 2020, we knew very little about it and we thought it was way more dangerous and lethal across all population groups. We now know COVID-19 is a serious threat to the elderly and certain vulnerable groups. But to young people, it is not (that is, if we look at the data, not at individual stories). The mortality rate is estimated to be below 0.1% in the under 40s, to double approximately every eight years, and to rise above 5% in the over 80s. The mortality rate of COVID-19 in children is comparable to that of chickenpox, that is, almost non-existent. “Long-covid” is often invoked to justify restrictions also for the young, but it has a similar pattern to mortality rates: the risk is low for the young and increases with age. This does not mean that COVID-19 is a made up problem or that we should not take it seriously. ...

by Mark Percario I have been enjoying all the great content you have been creating and I greatly appreciate your efforts! The postcards are especially interesting, and I thought I’d write about a recent visit to the state of Georgia in the good ’ole USA. My wife and I travelled to Helen, Georgia, a small town in the foothills just north of Atlanta that had proclaimed itself a Bavarian themed town in 1969. It had been a logging town prior to this and is now the third most visited town in Georgia even though its population is only 430. The town is very charming and is 100% modeled in an Alpine/Bavarian style – even the fast-food restaurants! Georgia has been a mostly open state throughout the pandemic drama and does not have a state mask requirement. This was very evident during my first encounter at a gas station/convenience store where mask usage was very mixed and there was no signage regarding restrictions of any kind. Our first night in Helen we dined at the Bodensee where they took our temperature and sprayed hand sanitizer on our hands. I was wearing gloves and the matron would have happily just sprayed the gloves instead of my hands! Everyone was very friendly and mask usage was very mixed. The staff were all donning ...

Today's update on Lockdown Sceptics is here. Includes a brilliant critique of Neil Ferguson's latest doom-mongering by a maths student, a devastating letter in the BMJ by a retired GP and a debunking of double masking.