“Enjoy freedom… but don’t overdo it!” – Boris is urging Brits to ‘behave responsibly’ as they head out to shops and beer gardens today, the Daily Mail reports
“Come what may, the roadmap must not be delayed” – “Cases may well rise when more restrictions are eased,” says an editorial in the Telegraph, “but now the vulnerable have been vaccinated, that must not get in the way of unlocking”
“Shutting up shop: high street names we’ll see no more” – As non-essential retail reopens, the Observer has published a round-up of some of the big high street names that have gone out of business as a result of the lockdowns
“Why I will not be returning to the pub next week” – “The conditions for drinkers next week are far removed from the convivial and relaxed atmosphere of this British institution,” says Niall McCrae at the Unity News Network
“Villages near Salisbury want Novichok litter-pick ban to end” – The BBC reported last week that villages near Salisbury are calling for an end to the litter pick ban which was put in place after the Novichok attack in 2018 and, per the very cautious advice of Public Health England, is still in force three years later
“EU commissioner takes another jab jibe at UK” – The Spectator’s Steerpike responds to Thiery Breton’s assertion that Britain is “largely dependent on the EU for its vaccination campaign”
“The inequality pandemic” – The cost of lockdowns and other Covid containment measures has harmed the poorest most, says Özgür Polat in the Brussels Times
“Iran enforces 10-day lockdown amid fourth wave of pandemic” – The Associated Press report that Iran has begun a 10-day lockdown that will see most shops closed and offices restricted to one-third capacity in cities declared to be ‘red zones’
“The damage of lockdowns to young people” – Writing for AIER, Ethan Yang details the damage lockdown policies has done to young people, including increased incidents of suicidal thoughts, skyrocketing anxiety and setbacks to their education and career prospects
“Will Covid hysterics ever let our children live normal lives?” – For more than a year, children “have suffered from irrational, unscientific and downright superstitious policies inflicted upon them by adults”, says Karol Markowicz in the New York Post, “and there is no end in sight”
“Top U.S. diplomat criticises China, says ‘need to get to the bottom’ of COVID-19 origin” – US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has said that it is important to “get to the bottom” of the origins of Covid, arguing that China’s failure to provide global health experts with proper access to the country last January made the pandemic worse than it needed to be
“China considers blending vaccines to bolster effectiveness” – According to the Irish Times, China is considering mixing and matching different vaccines after the head of the country’s centre for disease control admitted its domestically produced jabs are not very effective
Over the coming weeks and months, we can expect a large number of preprints and papers reporting 'breakthrough infections', i.e. infections in vaccinated individuals. 1/
— Prof Francois Balloux (@BallouxFrancois) April 11, 2021
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