Day: 21 June 2021

The sixth of our weekly round-ups of Covid vaccine safety reports and news from a group of medical doctors to inform the debate on vaccination.

A Lockdown Sceptics reader has shared a letter to their local Conservative MP about the role that lockdown scepticism may have played in the Conservatives' recent by-election loss in Chesham and Amersham.

We're publishing an original piece on Lockdown Sceptics by a retired Professor of Forensic Science and Biological Anthropology and an epidemiologist asking whether the recent case rises falsifies the seasonality hypotheses

The pre-Covid scientific literature indicates there are already four known coronaviruses in circulation, which are – like ’flu – predominantly seasonal in the northern temperate climatic zones, which include Northern Europe and the north part of North America. Although not entirely without exception, the typical pattern – as has been pointed out previously in Lockdown Sceptics – is for coronavirus infections to peak between late autumn and early spring and dwindle away in the summer. Scientific parsimony would – in the absence of evidence to the contrary – lead us to anticipate SARS-CoV-2 would behave in the same way. Indeed, infections in Spring 2020 did follow the typical pattern. Although peaking earlier or later in different places, infections fell to a baseline before picking up again from the autumn – including in countries of Eastern Europe that escaped the first wave altogether. Reported deaths followed a similar pattern. In the autumn and winter of 2020-21 positives and deaths again peaked, with shouldered or distributed peaks in some areas. This is not unusual for seasonal respiratory virus outbreaks as can be seen in the excess deaths reported to EUROMOMO during the 2017-8 ’flu season, for example (small summer peaks in excess deaths are attributed to heatwaves). What would be unexpected, other than in quite exceptional circumstances, would be substantial peaks in ...

Protesters have gathered in London today to demonstrate against the Government's delay to the lifting of lockdown restrictions, holding signs reading "no more lockdowns" and "your obedience is prolonging this nightmare".

The Prime Minister has said there may be a "rough winter" ahead. But since by the Government's own admission lockdowns appear to be the cause of the pressures on the NHS, the cycle of lockdowns will never end.

Plans for a "booster" Covid vaccine roll-out in the autumn will be set out in the coming weeks following results from trials of different combinations of vaccines, according to the Health Secretary.

The Government has ruined thousands of holidays by placing countries on the travel "Amber List", yet fewer than 1 in 200 travellers from countries on this list are testing positive for Covid when back in Britain.

Some countries have seen infections rise during the summer, leading to doubts about COVID-19's seasonality. However, a new study confirms that transmission is influenced by temperature, humidity and UV radiation.

A summary of all the most interesting stories that have appeared about the virus in the past 24 hours – not just in Britain, but around the world.