News Round Up

A summary of all the most interesting stories that have appeared about the virus in the past 24 hours – not just in Britain, but around the world.

By Jonathan Barr 17 March 2021 1:43 AM

4 min read

“Major report warns damage done to non-Covid care threatens ‘decade of disruption’ and will cost extra £12 billions a year” – The Daily Mail highlights new research into cost of disruption in non-Covid care, a side effect of lockdown restrictions
“Britain’s daily Covid death toll halves to 110 victims” – Britain’s daily Covid death count has halved in a week, MailOnline reports
“Back to school: The urgent need for normality” – “In the obsession with infection metrics, we seem to have lost sight of what’s important about school itself,” says Jennie Bristow in the Critic
“UK Government announces list of pilot events without social distancing” – WhatsOnStage reports on the Governments experiments in live events without social distancing
“Greggs to open shops despite first loss in 36 years” – The bakery is betting on a post-pandemic recovery and opening 100 new shops, the BBC reports
“SAGE’s covert coup, Part Three – The mass behavioural science experiment” – Third part of Sonia Elijah’s investigative series for the Conservative Woman. This one look at SPI-B, the “behavioural science” arm
“Boris Johnson is accused of bending the knee to China” – Boris set out a review of foreign and defence policy yesterday, which urged “deeper trade links” with China. MailOnline reports that a number of Tories are accusing him of naivety
“Repeal Coronavirus Act and end all COVID-19 restrictions” – A Parliamentary petition with over 43,000 signatures calling for an end to all restrictions
“‘Giving a voice’ – an unfortunate confession from ONS” – Data analyst Simon Briscoe picks up on a comment from Sir Ian Diamond on Marr that illustrates the direction of travel in the Office of National Statistics
“There’s no proof the Oxford vaccine causes blood clots. So why are people worried?” – We should “resist drawing causal links between events where none exists” says Professor Sir David Spiegelhalter in the Guardian
“How safe is the AstraZeneca jab?” – At least 37 people suffered a potentially life-threatening blood clots after taking the AstraZeneca vaccine, says Tom Chivers in UnHerd. But it needs to be put in context to be properly understood
“The precautionary principle is literally killing Europe” – European countries are “pushing the precautionary principle to the point of absurdity” over the AstraZeneca vaccine says Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in the Telegraph
“Don’t blame the EU for the latest Covid vaccine clash” – Ross Clark in the Spectator points out that it’s not the EU that is suspending the vaccine rollout but individual countries
“Pfizer’s Covid vaccine is linked to MORE blood clots than AstraZeneca’s – so why isn’t the EU banning it?” – MailOnline wonders why the side effects of the Pfizer jab are not being picked up on in the same way
“Suspension of AstraZeneca shots is ‘political decision’: Italy’s medicines regulator head” – Reuters reports on the comments of Nicola Magrini, Director General of Italy’s medicines authority AIFA, who says that the AstraZeneca vaccine is safe and the decision to suspend it political
“The curious case of Geert Vanden Bossche” – Rosemary Frei in Off-Guardian analyses the claims in Geert Vanden Bossche’s recent letter and interview
“When it comes to vaccines, suddenly “from vs with” matters again” – Off-Guardian‘s Kit Knightley notes that, when it comes to the vaccines, many media commentators are suddenly insisting on a distinction between dying from something and dying with something
“EU to lay out plan for lifting lockdowns amid astra setback” – Bloomberg reports on the European Union’s plans to get out of lockdown. They involve a tier system across the union and a legislative proposal for a vaccine pass
“Huge rise in checkpoints and gardaí to quell St Patrick’s Day protest in Dublin amid concern over violent clashes” – The gardaí will be on patrol tomorrow to prevent St Patrick’s day anti-lockdown protests, the Irish Independent reports. Apparently, “disinformation analysts” have been looking at social media
“Why isn’t Britain adopting the Danish roadmap?” – Denmark’s Prime Minister and opposition leader have agreed “in principle” that the country should reopen once all its over-50s have been fully vaccinated. James Lewisham at the Spectator asks why our leaders can’t make such a bold promise
“UAE reports need for a third dose of China’s Covid vaccine” – UAE health authorities are reporting that some who have received the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine are needing a third dose to boost their response, the Times reports
“China to Allow More Foreigners In – If They’ve Had a Chinese Covid Vaccine” – The Wall Street Journal reports a slight hitch in any plans to visit China
“Hong Kong’s tough COVID-19 rules see babies isolated, families cramped in tiny spaces” – A report for Reuters on the rules in Hong Kong which have seen babies separated from parents and those with newborns herded into tiny quarantine quarters
“New research highlights risks of separating newborns from mothers during COVID-19 pandemic” – Research from the World Health Organisation into the damage done by separating mother from newborns as a Covid precaution
“Across virtually every key measure of childhood, progress has gone backward, UNICEF says” – A press release from UNICEF marking a year of lockdowns
“Lockdown Anniversary! Reviewing ALL the Lies and the Liars Who Told Them!” – Steven Crowder looks back at a year of lockdowns
A listener tells Julia Hartley-Brewer how maternity staff called security on her partner as he asked to be present at the birth of their first child during lockdown

“I had to do it all alone”

talkRADIO listener Skylar tells Julia how maternity staff called security on her partner as he asked to be present at the birth of their first child during lockdown.

Watch talkRADIO LIVE ► https://t.co/38Qrdgp3zl @JuliaHB1 pic.twitter.com/zp6CqEFloe
— Talk (@TalkTV) March 16, 2021