Day: 5 July 2021

The eighth 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 row has broken out after Richard Madeley asked Susan Michie on GMB if her communist beliefs have influenced her lockdown zealotry. Some other lockdown zealots are now threatening to boycott GMB unless it apologises.

After 15 long months of heavy restrictions, the Welsh Government says it will not rush out lockdown, warning that "this may not be the end of the road".

Almost all Coronavirus rules – including limits on the no. of people who can meet together, face masks, and social distancing – will be ditched as part of step 4 of the roadmap for lifting lockdown restrictions in England.

We're publishing a guest post today by David McGrogan, a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Law and Business at Northumbria University, about the recent twitter rant of Stephen Reicher, a lockdown zealot who sits on SAGE.

As infections resurge in Israel, the Government reports that the effectiveness of the Pfizer vaccine has dropped to 64% from 94% before. However, the effectiveness against serious disease is holding up.

Boris Johnson is set to announce the end of face mask rules later today, but with continuing mask-wearing "advice", and with some pubs, shops and trains likely to enforce their own rules, how much will really change?

Ugandans have been warned that, if they break lockdown rules by operating "banned" businesses, praying in open spaces or by not wearing a face mask when outside, they could be put into prison for two months.

50,000 more young people are already out of work compared to pre-lockdown levels, and the IFS says that a further 350,000 people aged 19 to 24 could lose their jobs in the coming months as the furlough scheme winds down.

The case against lockdowns is simple: "benefits small, costs large". A data scientist has found that states with more stringent lockdowns haven’t had fewer COVID-19 deaths, but they have seen higher unemployment.