- “MPs urge Boris Johnson to look at ‘data not dates’ and speed the end of Covid lockdown, as Britain records just one Covid death” – Political pressure is mounting on the Prime Minister to speed up the exit from lockdown, the Daily Mail reports, as Covid deaths dropped about as low they could get
- “Healthy children simply do not need a Covid jab” – “Covid poses an incredibly low risk to children,” says Molly Kingsley in the Telegraph. “We must be extra cautious in giving them the vaccine”
- “Calls for UK law securing right to care home visits for essential carers” – More than 225,000 have signed a petition calling on the Government to guarantee the rights of essential carers to visit care homes, according to the Guardian
- “Vaccinated but won’t go out? The rise of Covid anxiety syndrome” – Rosa Silverman investigates why some cling fearfully to the isolation of lockdown for the Telegraph
- “Other countries are restarting travel, so should we” – MailOnline reports on the Backlash from the travel sector to the PM’s remarks about the “influx of disease” which may result from relaxing border restrictions
- “The absurd cost of testing for holidaymakers is yet another insult to our freedom” – In the Telegraph, Annabel Fenwick Elliott details the astronomical cost faced by anyone who takes a foreign holiday after May 17th
- “Every reason to doubt the vaccine makers’ reassurances” – “The evidence is mounting,” writes Neville Hodgkinson in the Conservative Woman, that “the vaccine itself is creating or worsening the very illness against which it is supposed to be protective”
- “Lockdowns, vaccines and the trolley problem” – Michael McManus looks at the ethics of lockdowns and the vaccines rollout in the Conservative Woman: “Most decision-makers have taken the simplistic, utilitarian line that what is good for the majority is the best policy”
- “Covid restrictions did not work” – A barnstorming speech by Christine Padgham at a May Day gathering in Scotland. Read the transcript here
- “£320 Million On Adverts Till 2022” – A Hugo Talks video on a valuable Government contract for Covid ads which is set to run to March 31st, 2022
- “Naomi Wolf on the Delingpod” – Author and feminist Naomi Wolf and James Delingpole become the latest unlikely Covid bedfellows in a love-in about masks, lockdowns and jab fanaticism
- “Why lockdowns are immoral… explained using Brio” – The Rev. Phil Sacre has found a new way to illustrate why lockdowns are wrong
- “European countries cautiously ease coronavirus restrictions” – Euronews reports on how lockdown restrictions are being loosened across the continent
- “EU states ‘must monitor sewage systems’ for Covid” – The European Commission on Sunday called on EU member states to regularly monitor sewage systems for fresh outbreaks of the coronavirus, Deutsche Welle reports
- “Serious domestic assaults rise 23% during pandemic” – Ireland has seen a sharp increase in domestic violence over the last 12 months, the Irish Times reports, while other crimes have dropped sharply
- “Denmark drops Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine due to concerns over jab’s side effects” – Euronews reports that Denmark’s health authority has dropped the Johnson & Johnson jab from its rollout, stating that the benefits “do not outweigh the risk of causing the possible adverse effect”
- “Germany’s Oktoberfest cancelled again in 2021 due to coronavirus” – The Munich beer festival is axed once again as the pandemic is not yet under sufficient control to allow people to gather in tents, apparently. Deutsche Welle claims that the Bavarian Premier made the decision with “a heavy heart”
- “Cuomo blames Trump for nursing home death scandal, warns New Yorkers they will kill their grandmothers if they don’t get vaccinated” – Speaking at a press conference, Governor Cuomo said and that his administration is urging the “youthful and doubtful” to get vaccinated, warning them that they might wind up killing granny, the Post Millennial reports
- “Lockdowns are No Substitute for Focused Protection” – Writing for AIER, Paul E. Alexander explains why focused protection would have worked much better than lockdowns “which have not only been a distraction but actually enhanced the unequal impacts of severe outcomes of the virus”
- “Powerful teachers union influenced CDC on school re-openings, emails show” – The American Federation of Teachers lobbied the Centres for Disease Control to tighten up its guidance on the reopening of schools and even suggested the wording, according to the New York Post
- “Backlash after China Weibo post mocks India Covid crisis” – A social media post from an account linked to the CCP juxtaposed a rocket launching in China with a cremation of Covid victims in India, according to the BBC. It has been deleted
- “Queensland’s new approach to Covid outbreaks to avoid border shutdowns” – In order to avoid closed border, Queensland has passed a new directive requiring anyone who has been to a “declared COVID-19 exposure” site to go immediately into 14 days of quarantine at Government-arranged accommodation, according to the Brisbane Times
- “One in two people globally lost income due to the pandemic – Gallup” – A new Gallup poll of 300,000 people over 117 countries found that half of them saw their income drop, and one in three lost their job or business altogether, according to Reuters. Low income countries were particularly hard hit
- “Gov. Ron DeSantis announces he’s suspending all local COVID-19 emergency orders in Florida” – Watch the Florida Governor and next President of the United States explain why he’s suspending Covid emergency powers: “I think that’s the evidence-based thing to do”
- “The future of democracy is in our hands” – Irish political philosophy lecturer David Thunder warns that another bad flu season will trigger another bout of lockdowns unless we say enough is enough
By Jonathan Barr / 4 May 2021 • 01.38
