Mark Drakeford – who has consistently erred on the side of totalitarian when responding to the pandemic – has said he would "not rule out" recruiting NHS workers from England who are sacked due to the vaccine mandate.
The World Health Organisation has said we are only at the "halfway mark" of the pandemic and warned against treating Covid like flu, days after the Government said it intended to do just that.
New data from the ONS show that the pandemic year of 2021 was less deadly than 2015 – and that was pre-Omicron. Can we go back to normal yet?
Holidaymakers will no longer have to take any Covid tests for travel abroad, Boris Johnson has said – but only if double-vaccinated. Why, when no one now pretends two doses provide any protection against Covid infection?
Original antigenic sin could explain why infection rates are higher among the double-vaccinated. Now the New York Times has noted that getting boosters too often may be "harmful" because of "original antigenic sin".
Under France's vaccine passport, the vaccine is being treated as a mystical state that incorporates people into the collective body. Vaccination now is like a sacrament; through the vaccine we are joining the community.
A summary of all the most interesting stories that have appeared about politicians’ efforts to control the virus – and other acts of hubris and folly – not just in Britain, but around the world.
