“Students have been wronged – we deserve a refund” – “After three years and tens of thousands of pounds, I cannot even collect my degree certificate in person,” writes Sabrina Miller in the Telegraph. “A refund really is the least we can ask”
“Call to lift the care home quarantine” – The Relatives and Residents’ Association is calling for blanket 14 day quarantine for care home residents who venture outside to be lifted, Care Management Matters reports
“Test and Trace is watching you…” – We may be heading “to the creation of a surveillance society”, says Lucy Wyatt in the Conservative Woman, “with Test and Trace just the beginning of an excuse to monitor us all”
“Non-vaccinated, non-person” – “Covid vaccine passports are on the way,” writes Kathy Gyngell at the Conservative Woman, and she urges all to watch a France 24 report into how they’re working out in Israel
“Doctors Without Facts: Médecins Sans Frontières gets it wrong on Brazil” – According to MSF, Brazil’s COVID-19 situation is the result of its failure to implement mask mandates and social distancing. Harry Dougherty points out that Brazil’s excess mortality rate, though high, is not as high as in some countries that have adopted such policies
“Covid’s IFR just keeps dropping” – Kit Knightley notes in Off-Guardian that estimates for Covid’s Infection Fatality Rate keep falling, from the WHO’s first calculation of 3.4% last year to Professor John Ioannidis’s recent paper which put it at 0.15%
“Solace, hope and even joy” – This week’s Irreverend podcast looks into Boris Johnson’s recent doom-mongering, asking “is he a ‘floundering buffoon’, a puppet or something even more sinister?”
“Parliamentarians in favour of first lockdown relaxations” – Most members of the Netherlands House of Representatives are in favour of the planned easing of lockdown on April 28th, the NL Times reports, even though the Outbreak Management Team from the Health Department think its a bit too early
“‘Short sharp’ lockdown from April 26th to May 9th” – The Cyprus Mail reports that the island is to go into a fresh lockdown on Monday. Once it is lifted, visitors to crowded venues will need to have had a negative test, a vaccine, or to have had the illness within the last six months. It is unclear whether this will include supermarkets
“Greek police set up checkpoints, turn back Easter travellers” – According to Euronews, police have set up checkpoints around Athens to stop people leaving the city for Orthodox Easter, as infection rates are still too high for the Government to allow free travel
“Track coach fired over masks” – Tom Woods interviews Brad Keyes, who lost his position at New Hampshire’s Pembroke Academy when he refused to make his athletes wear masks while racing outdoors
“This is art” – German social media was set alight on Thursday, according to Spiegel, by the publication of a series of videos of celebrities delivering short reflections about Covid policies, most laced with irony. For instance, the actor Jan Josef Liefers thanked the media for doing its bit in keeping the panic right where it belongs at the top of the news agenda. A few more are available with subtitles on Dr Simon’s twitter feed, and many more are available here if your German is up to it
53 famous actors stood up against the #COVID measures of the German government. The video clips communicate their criticism brilliantly and cynically. I subbed @JanJosefLiefers' message for you. Thanks, Jan-Josef et al., for giving us hope.
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