“Covid has emboldened our modern censors” – “The past year has accelerated all kinds of trends,” writes Tom Slater in the Spectator. “Among the most concerning is the rise of Big Tech censorship”
“Vaccine passports for mass events might be the worst of all worlds” – They might look as if they hit “a middle point between the scheme’s advocates and sceptics”, writes Kate Andrews in the Spectator, but “we could end up facing a far more meddling system that was never fully considered”
“Beware the post-Covid surveillance state” – “Rather like the viruses they’re meant to fight, apps have a habit of mutating when no one’s looking,” says Peter Franklin in UnHerd, pointing to the example of Singapore
“Covid march: Answers needed from the BBC chief” – “The BBC’s director general Tim Davie has serious questions to answer,” writes Kathy Gyngell in the Conservative Woman, shocked, despite long experience, by the lack of coverage of Saturday’s protest
“A Tale of Three Barbers” – Writing for the Conservative Woman, Stuart Major recounts the lengths he went to in order to obtain a haircut. The story has a happy ending
“Boris’s nightmare and lockdown revisited” – “We’ve overemphasised, definitely, the effect of government-prescribed lockdowns and ignored other factors that are equally as important,” says Professor Tim Spector during a discussion on this week’s episode of The Week in 60 Minutes on SpectatorTV
“Police investigate death of German MPs after vote on lockdown law” – German police are investigating a document titled “The death list of German politicians” after it surfaced on social media, according to RT. It contains the names of MPs who supported the lockdown
“Severe illnesses, infections spreading rapidly through King County homeless camps” – Cases of shigellosis are increasing in number among the homeless of King County, Seattle, Komonews reports. The disease is transmitted in “unhygienic living conditions with poor access to sanitation”. The reason? The city turned off public water fountains as a precaution against Covid
“The CDC is still repeating its mistakes” – The CDC’s new recommendations on mask-wearing “are simultaneously too timid and too complicated”, says Zeynep Tufecki in the Atlantic
“Covid outcomes: Rankings versus reality” – At AIER, Ethan Yang and Amelia Janaskie analyse a recent report which named Vermont, Alaska and Maine as the States that had responded most effectively to COVID-19
“Today Is the One-Year Anniversary of the Worst Pandemic Headline of 2020” – A year ago, the Atlantic ran a piece entitled “Georgia’s Experiment in Human Sacrifice” about the state’s change of course on lockdown. “It’s lurid predictions did not come to pass,” Jon Miltimore points out for the Foundation for Economic Education
“Travellers from Brisbane urged to monitor health after green zone breach” – Travellers arriving in New Zealand from Brisbane are being asked to monitor their health, after two people from a red zone country ventured into a green zone section of Brisbane airport, the New Zealand Herald reports
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