- “Matt Hancock hints at delay to June 21st reopening” – The Telegraph reports on the Health Secretary’s comments yesterday on delaying the end of restrictions
- “Wales records no new coronavirus deaths for tenth consecutive day” – Public Health Wales data published on Sunday revealed there have now been 10 consecutive days without a recorded coronavirus death, ITV news reports. Nonetheless, First Minister Mark Drakeford has said social distancing could remain in place until the end of the year
- “Low-paid UK workers ‘most at risk of losing jobs when furlough ends’” – Analysis by the Resolution Foundation says low paid workers are at the highest risk of losing their jobs when the furlough scheme is brought to an end in September, the Guardian reports
- “Covid testing for schoolchildren likely to continue after summer holidays” – Writing in the Telegraph, Lord Bethell has claimed that lateral flow tests allowed the reopening of schools to be “a resounding success”
- “Boris Johnson urged to delay knighthood for Chris Whitty until after Covid inquiry” – The Chief Medical Officer is widely tipped for a gong but, according to the Telegraph, Tory MPs say any decision should be delayed until after the enquiry
- “End of lockdown poses Boris Johnson one of his toughest decisions” – Towards the end of next week the Prime Minister will “make one of the trickier decisions even of this pandemic period”, the Guardian says
- “Waterloo and City line in London reopens for first time since March 2020” – The tube line, closed for over a year, reopens today, the Guardian reports, and will provide extra capacity for commuters at peak times
- “Dan Osborne rants that Covid isn’t dangerous and he won’t get vaccine” – Sharing his views on Instagram, the TOWIE star Dan Osborne says that the coronavirus “is not dangerous enough to be forcing a vaccine on the world”, according to MailOnline
- “NHS closures raise amputation risk for those with skin conditions, experts warn” – Health experts have warned that people with treatable skin conditions are at greater risk of amputation than before the lockdowns, the Telegraph reports
- “Concerns regarding the estimated efficiency of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine in two large-scale observational studies in Israel” – A rapid response by Professor Retsef Levi and Professor Avi Wohl in the BMJ, questioning the studies that suggested the Pfizer jab is 94% effective in Israel
- “Cabinet bust-up over Portugal and Malta put paid to holiday hopes” – “Two senior sources” told the Sunday Times that the Joint Biosecurity Centre recommended adding Malta to the green list but the proposal was killed off by Michael Gove and Matt Hancock. Cabinet ministers were furious that they were given key scientific papers 10 minutes before the meeting
- “Scientists fear future leaks as top-level labs proliferate” – “At least 59 maximum biosafety level four labs are planned, under construction or in operation across the world,” the FT says, “spanning 23 countries including the U.K., U.S., China, India, Gabon and Côte d’Ivoire”
- “Boris Johnson has defied the pro-lockdown groupthink” – Dominic Cummings famously approves of “weirdos and misfits” but, says Matthew Parris in the Spectator, he overlooked his Downing Street boss who was “prepared to challenge the gathering consensus about how to tackle the spread of a virus that might (or might not) turn into a deadly pandemic”
- “Who’s selfish now?” – “There is no reason to vaccinate most children and, given the potential side effects, many not to do so,” writes Michael Curzon in Bournbrook
- “Please get your vaccine: British tennis legend Murray hails that ‘first jab feeling’ as critics ask if he was paid for ‘advert’” – Andy Murray rejoiced in that “first jab feeling” last week and urged all his followers and tennis players to get theirs as well. According to RT, critics are wondering if his post was a paid ad
- “Why in God’s name subject our children to the risk of death from vaccination?” – “It’s being driven mostly by two things,” says Elephant City in the Conservative Woman, “the profit motives of Big Pharma and Big Tech, and a cult-like religious movement in which masking and vaccinations are the sacraments by which one demonstrates their virtue”
- “Portuguese PM criticises U.K. for removing it from quarantine-free travel list” – “We can’t have this system of instability and changes every three weeks,” Portugal’s Prime Minister says, according to Reuters
- “COVID-19: Vaccination for juniors starts, hundreds already jabbed” – Hundreds of young Israelis aged 12-15 have received their first shots of the Pfizer jab, according to the Jerusalem Post
- “U.S. is on track to fall short of Biden’s July 4th vaccine goal” – President Biden wants at least 70% of adults in America to have received one vaccine dose by July 4th but, according to the CNN, it’s not likely to happen
- “Trump rips into Fauci during GOP convention speech: Wrong on almost every issue” – Former President Donald Trump took aim at Dr. Anthony Fauci, claiming the nation’s top infectious disease expert is a “great promoter” but not a “great doctor”, according to the Washington Examiner
- “Fauci slams ‘fabricated’ attacks against him” – Dr. Anthony Fauci is hitting back at his critics, the Washington Examiner reports, claiming he’s “become the object of extraordinary, I believe, completely inappropriate, distorted, misleading, and misrepresented attacks… and that is unfortunate”
- “California county cuts COVID-19 death toll by 25%” – The Daily Mail reports that after adjusting the parameters for what is considered a Covid death, Alameda County in California has revised its death toll downwards by ~25%, from 1,634 to 1,223
- “Royal Caribbean reverses, won’t require passengers on U.S. cruises to be vaccinated” – The cruise company will not require passengers to be fully vaccinated as it had planned, the Miami Herald reports, but will ask customers to undergo “testing and other protocols”
- “‘No magic number’ of vaccinated Victorians will stop Covid lockdowns” – Residents of Victoria, Australia have been warned by their Deputy Chief Health Officer Allen Cheng that there is no “magic number” of people getting jabbed which would guarantee that the Government would stop implementing lockdowns, the Australian Associated Press reports
- WA Health taking cautious approach to ‘moderately positive’ Covid case who spent a day in the community” – A man has returned a “moderately positive” Covid test result one day after finishing quarantine in Perth, Australia, the ABC reports. He has been put back in quarantine
- “FNC’s Carlson: ‘Will Fauci Face Any Consequences?’” – Breitbart highlights a clip from Tucker Carlson Tonight where host Tucker wonders if Dr. Anthony Fauci will be held accountable for what appears to be ties to gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology
- “Authoritarian Covid responses show the folly of giving unelected health bureaucrats unprecedented power” – “The most powerful men and women in the country right now are not our elected leaders but the public health bureaucrats,” says Rita Penahi on Sky News Australia
- “Covid Lab Leak, Kid’s Vaccines, Fauci Emails & More” – Zubin Damania and Dr Vinay Prasad consider the implications of the lab-leak hypothesis, the risks and benefits of vaccinating children and more in the latest ZDogg podcast
- “Children should not be vaccinated for COVID-19” – “If this goes ahead, children will die from the vaccine,” says Dr Ros Jones. “I’m not wanting to be melodramatic. There may not be a lot of children die, but there will be children who will die who wouldn’t have done”
By Jonathan Barr / 7 June 2021 • 01.47
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