- “Covid deaths just one sixteenth of level seen in previous waves” – Despite the rise in case numbers, the seven-day rolling daily death rate stands at only 40 compared to 654 on Dec 26th, reports Sarah Knapton, the Telegraph’s Science Editor
- “Pressure mounts on PM Boris Johnson to end self-isolation crisis” – It is estimated around 1.7million people are still self-isolating after being pinged by the NHS Covid app or contacted by Test and Trace, MailOnline reports
- “Pingdemic chaos continues as rail services and tourist sites are hit” – MailOnline reports that the “Pingdemic” has hit Marks and Spencer, National Trust sites and Shakespeare’s Globe, where a performance of The Tempest had to be cancelled
- “UK Covid cases could hit 200,000 a day, says scientist behind lockdown strategy” – Professor Lockdown has warned that it is “almost inevitable” that there will be 100,000 cases and about 1,000 hospitalisations a day, the Guardian reports, and he thinks it could be twice that
- “How Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak took just two hours 20 minutes to back down on self-isolation” – The Telegraph reports how the Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Exchequer came to be spending Freedom Day in self isolation
- “Nightclubs throw open their doors as Freedom Day arrives” – Thousands have eagerly piled onto dance floors for the first time since March last year, MailOnline reports, but as many as 73% of clubbers say they don’t want to return quite yet
- “Athletics-Britain’s Butchart gets suspended ban in ‘faked’ Covid test row” – U.K. Athletics handed 5,000 metres runner Andrew Butchart a suspension after he admitted to changing the date on a Covid test result to get back into the U.K. He will be able to compete in the Olympics, Reuters reports
- “Church of England vicar, 52, faces the sack for breaking Covid rules” – The Reverend Charlie Boyle may be sacked from his job and forced out of the vicarage where he and his family have lived for eight years, according to the Mail On Sunday, for hugging a mourner and singing a hymn without a mask
- “Vitamin D supplementation and COVID-19 risk: a population-based, cohort study” – A new study carried out in Barcelona and published in the National Library of Medicine has confirmed that Vitamin D supplements are associated with better Covid outcomes
- “The freedom divide: Why are politicians able to side-step their own rules?” – Kate Andrews examines the “double standards that exist for those inside Whitehall” in the Spectator. “To be furious is one thing, but to be surprised is another”
- “The art of selling vaccines” – In the Spectator, Laura Dodsworth takes aim at the use of places of worship, shops, sport venues, and art galleries as vaccine centres. It makes the public health service “more like a creepy cult”, she says
- “Narrow and unbalanced SAGE leaves the Government in a lockdown bind” – Steve Baker argues in the Telegraph that membership of SAGE ought to be decided on by Parliament
- “It makes NO sense for the vaccinated to be kept isolating ” – “Any sensible view of risk would start from the proposition that we should treat vaccinated people differently from the unvaccinated,” says Tony Blair in the Daily Mail
- “Eight decades on from Churchill’s V for Victory, Boris Johnson’s freedom rhetoric rings hollow” – “Churchill understood instinctively that people needed to hear straight talking,” writes James Holland in the Telegraph. “From this Government, we have mixed messaging, floundering, shifting goalposts and empty catchphrases”
- “COVID-19 vaccine: EU overtakes US in first jabs injections” – 55.7% of EU citizens have had a first dose of a Covid vaccine, Euronews says, compared with 55.5% of Americans
- “Mike Yeadon, a vilified prophet of our times” – The Conservative Woman’s Kathy Gyngell celebrates the moral courage of the former Pfizer research scientist who has been “subjected to a campaign of vilification and smears”
- “Masks, lockdowns, vaccines – the comfort blankets of Generation Woke” – “Adults tend to cling to ingrained bad habits in place of their soft toys or blankets,” writes Nicholas Orlando in the Conservative Woman
- “The Endgame” – Bournbrook contributors S.D. Wickett and Luke Perry discuss the culmination of a global crisis; mandatory vaccinations, civil unrest and internet freedom in the latest episode of Week in Review
- “Over one hundred thousand rally against ‘COVID-19 tyranny’ in France” – RT highlights footage of the 114,000-strong protest in France against Covid passports and vaccine mandates
- “France tempts teens with chance to shoot-’em-up” – Authorities in Avignon in southern France are trying to tempt 12- to 30-year-olds to get jabbed by with a chance to win tickets to a concert and a chance to try out military helicopter and target-shooting simulations, the Sunday Times reports
- “Dogs debut on Cannes red carpet to detect COVID-19” – The Cannes Film Festival is only admitting the fully vaccinated and those with a negative COVID-19 test, the Telegraph says, but as an additional precaution there will be specially trained dogs at the event to sniff out Covid
- “French self-isolation rule does not apply to Indian Ocean territory – despite being Beta variant hotspot” – The requirement to quarantine upon return from France, whether vaccinated or not, does not apply to Réunion and Mayotte, the Telegraph says, where the Beta strain is believed to be dominant
- “Is the Delta variant spreading only in highly vaccinated countries? No” – The Swiss Doctor challenges the analysis from Corona Realism which maintains it is the vaccinated populations that are seeing surges while the least vaccinated are not facing any problems
- “Entrance of vaccinated to Israel postponed again amid outbreak” – Double-jabbed tourists will not be permitted to enter Israel from August 1st, as was planned, the Jerusalem Post reports. A new date has not yet been set
- “No need for mandatory vaccinations or vaccine passports” – “Vaccine passports will be needed for international travel as countries demand to know who is coming across their borders,” says Brian Lilley in the Toronto Sun. “That is vastly different from being forced to show your vaccine status to a waiter before ordering dinner on a night out”
- “Is the State Your Single Source of Truth?” – Writing for the AIER, David McGrogan, a Lockdown Sceptics regular, responds to Prime Minister Jacinda Adern’s recent statement that her Government will continue to be “the single source of truth” for the people of New Zealand
- “The Panic Pandemic” – “Fearmongering from journalists, scientists, and politicians did more harm than the virus,” says John Tierney in City Journal
- “S. Korea to expand curbs on private gatherings beyond Seoul” – The Government in South Korea is to expand its ban on gatherings of more than four to cover the whole country, Reuters reports. Until today, it had only applied in Seoul
- “South Korea to bring home sailors aboard virus-hit destroyer” – South Korea on Sunday is replacing the entire 301-member crew of a navy destroyer on an anti-piracy mission off East Africa, AP News reports, after nearly 70 of them tested positive for Covid
- “‘I’m very pleased she’ll be leaving’: Australian Government cancels Katie Hopkins’ visa” – Katie Hopkins is to be kicked out of Australia as soon as possible, according to the Sydney Morning Herald, after she joked on Instagram about breaching the country’s hotel quarantine rules
- “Victoria records 12 new cases of COVID-19 as lockdown likely to extend” – Victoria has recorded a whopping 12 new cases of COVID-19, and, according to 9News, the snap lockdown is likely to be extended
- “Let’s not forget when Boris Johnson spelled out this roadmap, the fourth step was intended to be irreversible” – “At some point the Government has got to say, ‘Look, this is enough and we’ve got to trust people to take their own risks’,” says Paul Embery on GB News, “And I think we’re probably at that point”
By Jonathan Barr / 19 July 2021 • 01.55
