News Round Up

“This must have been what VE Day was like!’” – MailOnline’s account of the celebrations which marked the reopening of pubs yesterday
“Pubs and bars face being punished for Covid rule-busting queues” – Officials are threatening to crack down on popular venues over queues on the streets outside, according to the Telegraph. Landlords just can’t win
“Largest surge testing to date deployed in two London boroughs after South African variant confirmed” – The Telegraph reports that 44 cases of the South African variant have been found in Wandsworth and Lambeth, prompting a bout of surge testing
“The impact of lockdown on education” – Ross Clark takes a look at the Oxford study on the impact of lockdown on Dutch schoolchildren for the Spectator, highlighting the study’s conclusion that “even in the ‘best case scenario’ of a short lockdown and good broadband, the education of primary schoolchildren has been deeply affected”
“My staff are chomping at the bit to get back to work” – The thoughts of some business leaders about the challenges of reopening and the long road to recovery, published in the Times
“Covid early treatment update” – A round-up by the Swiss Doctor on the latest developments in early Covid treatment for high-risk patients
“How Vaccine Passports Will Worsen Inequities In Global Health” – “Vaccine passports will make it harder for global health professionals from low/middle income countries to travel, attend meetings, get training, immigrate, or assume leadership roles,” writes Madhukar Pai in Nature
“The Government is instilling fear in the public” – “What we have got at the moment is a desire to instil fear in people, notwithstanding the fact that the vaccine should be one of the greatest antidotes to fear,” says Jonathan Sumption in an edited extract of his recent conversation on Brendan O’Neill’s podcast
“Why lockdowns are immoral” – A short video by the Rev Phil Sacre arguing that lockdowns are wrong
“Red light on travel freedom” – In the latest Pandemic Podcast, Dan Astin Gregory looks at the Government’s latest thinking on “the safe return of international travel” some time after May 17th
“Doctors and scientists accuse medical regulator of downplaying COVID-19 vaccine dangers” – The Doctors for Covid Ethics group has updated and reissued its press release accusing the European Medicines Agency of misleading the public on the vaccines true risk-benefit profile
“Italians pelt police with stones, set off fireworks as hundreds descend on PM’s office to protest Covid curbs” – Footage from yesterday’s anti-lockdown protests in Rome, compiled by RT
“The Russian periphery of 100 million-plus people has suffered fewer state interventions than Sweden” – A postcard from Siberia on LeftLockdownSceptics
“Look at my morally righteous shot in the arm! This trend of celebrities posting vaccine selfies is silly and infantile” – After a CNN anchor criticised Fox News stars for not sharing vaccine selfies, Micah Curtis points out in RT that there’s no need for them
“COVID-19 drug prevents symptomatic disease in study, Regeneron says” – The Wall Street Journal reports that an antibody drug reduces the risk of symptomatic COVID-19 by 81%, according to the manufacture Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc
“U.K. Strain Doesn’t Result in More Severe COVID-19 Among Hospitalised Patients, Study Finds” – The UK variant has failed to live up to the hype, according to the Wall Street Journal
“Pentagon scientists reveal a microchip that senses COVID-19 in your body before you show symptoms” – A team at the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency, a unit within the Pentagon, have created a microchip that will detect the virus once inserted under the skin and a filter that can remove the virus from the blood when attached to a dialysis machine, according to the Daily Mail.
“Yes, 850 died of Covid recently in a day, but 27,000 die every day in India” – “Governments, international organisations and mainstream media continue to drum up fear and panic in India,” says Sanjeev Sabhlok in the Times of India, “even as the facts entirely contradict their claims”
“Australia abandons COVID-19 vaccination targets after new advice on AstraZeneca shots” – Australia has abandoned its objective to vaccinate its entire population by the end of the year, Reuters reports, after updating its advice that people under the age of 50 should not be given the AstraZeneca Jab
“Ardern tells New Zealand border staff: get Covid vaccine now or be redeployed” – The Guardian reports that mandatory jabbing has come to New Zealand’s border force
“The G7 must push for global vaccination. Here’s how it could do it” – In an article in the Guardian, Gordon Brown urges G7 leaders to put the vaccination of the world at the top of their agenda for their meeting in June
“A second lockdown is pointless if we don’t change our methods” – Watch Rajiv Bajaj’s interview with the Economic Times. The Managing Director of Bajaj Auto says more thinking is needed before the state of Maharashtra imposes another lockdown. Transcript available here
“I would encourage as many people as possible to get out there, go to the pub, go to restaurants” – Toby appeared on Mike Graham’s talkRADIO show yesterday, broadcasting live from a pub in Bermondsey. Worth watching in full

Lockdown sceptic Toby Young: “I would encourage as many people as possible to get out there, go to the pub, go to restaurants, but it’s ridiculous that we still have to sit outside.”@Iromg | @TVKev | @toadmeister pic.twitter.com/WppqQcXkA3
— TalkTV (@TalkTV) April 12, 2021

“Hard to believe this is central London on a Monday night as opposed to some decadent festival” – Some happy scenes from London last night, courtesy of Matthew Thompson

Hard to believe this is central London on a Monday night as opposed to some decadent festival.

Spontaneous cheering. People quite literally dancing in the streets- the liberation is palpable. pic.twitter.com/gxHeuKcood
— Matthew Thompson (@mattuthompson) April 12, 2021