- “Covid outbreak throws London G7 summit into chaos” – The Prime Minister is defending the decision to hold the G7 meeting in person after two members of the Indian delegation fell ill, according to the Telegraph
- “Pneumonia and flu now kill more people than Covid” – The Times reports that Flu and Pneumonia are killing more people than Covid
- “Almost a third of recent Covid deaths in England and Wales not caused by virus” – The weekly ONS data shows that nearly 33% of people included in the official Covid death count died primarily of other causes, with the virus simply mentioned on the death certificate, the Telegraph reports
- “The ‘Covid deaths’ which are not caused by Covid” – “We have become conditioned to hearing frightening daily death figures,” writes Ross Clark, commenting on the ONS figures for the Spectator, but “the wider picture is of overall mortality running only slightly ahead of a normal year”
- “The new care home scandal” – Writing in the Spectator, Kate Andrews highlights the new scandal in care homes – residents living in ‘prison-like’ circumstances
- “Britons fly via Turkey to avoid costly quarantine” – British travellers in ‘red list’ countries are stopping off in Istanbul to avoid border quarantine and the £1,750 bill, according to the BBC
- “Shame of Starmer, the Covid lapdog who didn’t bark” – Lockdowns were Starmer’s big opportunity to “live up to his core responsibility as Leader of the Opposition”, says Bill Wright in the Conservative Woman, but “he was just not man enough”
- “The Criminalisation of Dissent” – “One of the hallmarks of totalitarian systems is the criminalisation of dissent,” writes CJ Hopkins in Off-Guardian, and “Germany has been leading the way”
- “Boris, stop frittering our money on lockdowns – it’s time to listen to the science and let us out” – “We’re in £2 trillion of trouble now and the overwhelming majority of Britons want the freedom to earn our own livings,” writes Emily Hill in Mail+. “Not in 13 days or two months. Now.”
- “Covid Vaccines: Necessity, Efficacy and Safety” – Off-Guardian republishes the latest update from the Doctors for Covid Ethics after it was censored by Medium
- “Forgotten victims of the NHS Covid response” – Dan Astin Gregory and Professor Karol Sikora discuss the toll that prioritising COVID-19 patients has taken on people with other diseases, including cancer, for the Pandemic Podcast
- “As a society, adults are responsible for looking after children, not the other way around” – Watch Dr Ros Jones explain to Mark Dolan why she thinks healthy children don’t need the vaccine on talkRADIO
- “From Pandemic to Endemic” – The latest ZOE app data
- “Germany calls for ‘global reset’ to fight pandemics” – Heralding the launch of a World Health Organisation’s research hub, German Health Minister Jens Spahn called for a “global reset” in the fight against pandemics, Reuters reports. Yikes!
- “Serbia in ‘world first’ as citizens offered €25 to have Covid vaccine” – Euronews reports that Serbia will pay its citizens 3,000 dinars as a reward for getting the vaccine, a sum equivalent to around 5% of the country’s average monthly salary
- “Cabinet introduces Coronapass for access to venues after lockdown ends” – The Cyprus cabinet has decided to introduce a “Coronapass” for people to get into hospitality venues, churches, gyms, and shops, according to the Cyprus Mail
- “New Brunswick reports first death linked to AstraZeneca vaccine” – A person in their sixties received the jab mid April and died just over a week later, Global News reports
- “Lockdowns only delay COVID-19 cases, witness testifies at hearing on Manitoba’s restrictions” – Dr Jay Bhattacharya was an expert witness for a group of churches challenging lockdown restrictions in Manitoba, Canada, according to CBC. He argued that lockdowns only delay deaths from Covid, they don’t reduce the overall quantum
- “In critical shift, US now backs patent protection waivers for COVID-19 vaccines” – The Biden Administration has said that it supports waiving intellectual property protections for COVID-19 vaccines, ABC reports
- “Imperial College Predicted Catastrophe in Every Country on Earth. Then the Models Failed” – “COVID-19 has produced no shortage of doomsaying prophets whose prognostications completely failed at future delivery,” writes Philip W. Magness at AIER. “No greater example exists than the epidemiology modelling team at Imperial College-London (ICL), led by the physicist Neil Ferguson”
- “Is This Our 1914 Moment?” – In an article for AIER, Joakim Book seeks to reconcile his pessimism at the “long-lasting horrors that will come from last year’s authoritarian power grab” with his confidence in the world’s progress
- “The Liberals Who Can’t Quit Lockdown” – In the Atlantic, Emma Green examines the curious US phenomenon that liberals are more likely to be anxious about Covid than conservatives
- “Covid Vax Opponents and Rigid Proponents… Are Both Anti-Science?” – The U.S. pause on the Johnson & Johnson jab “illustrates deep issues with science communication”, writes Dr. Vinay Prasad in Medpage Today
- “Venezuela to begin clinical trials of Cuba’s Abdala vaccine candidate” – If the trials of the Abdola vaccine are successful, the Government of Venezuela is planning to produce enough doses for four million people according to Reuters
- “The Government seem only to be looking at the harm caused by Covid rather than the harm caused by lockdown” – “If the Government is going to set itself up as the nation’s doctor they ought to follow medical principles,” says John Lee on talkRADIO – one of them being “First do no harm”
By Jonathan Barr / 6 May 2021 • 02.02
