The Prime Minister and his wife have been accused of breaking lockdown rules last Christmas by having a friend at Number 10 while other Londoners were told not to mix with different households.
The House of Commons’ report says that our first lockdown “should have come sooner”. But it ignores the risks of postponing the epidemic. Many countries that missed the first wave got hit even harder in the second.
The new parliamentary report on Covid repeats the claim that locking down a week earlier would have saved tens of thousands of lives. This is contradicted by the data which shows infections peaking before lockdown.
Last month saw one of the first public debates about the lockdown policy. It was hosted by the Modern Review and the sceptics won a thundering victory. You can now watch the debate on YouTube.
Researchers analysed data from eight countries, and found a consistent gender difference in attitudes to lockdown, with women being more pro-lockdown. This is despite the fact that COVID-19 is more lethal in men.
The fallacy of 'politician's logic' was popularised by the much-loved British sitcom Yes, Prime Minister. And it seems to explain lockdown: 'Something must be done; lockdown is something; therefore we must do it.'
Restrictions are gone in the private sector, but in the public sector, where more customers just brings in more work rather than more money, there is conspicuously little rush to return to normal.
We're publishing another "Postcard From Manilla" on the Daily Sceptic. The Philippines boasts the longest continuous lockdown in the world and there are no signs it's about to be lifted. Sounds even worse than Australia.
Today, Australia posted its largest daily total for the number of new infections since the pandemic began. Yet parts of Sydney have been under lockdown for almost two full months. Is it time for focused protection?
There is ample evidence that school closures have hurt student achievement. And the World Bank estimates that “a school shutdown of 5 months could generate learning losses that have a present value of $10 trillion”.
