covid

Is China’s zero Covid game up?

16 March 2022 5:31 am

Omicron has broken through China’s Covid wall. On Tuesday, the country saw a record-high of more than 5,000 cases, the…

Will Nicola Sturgeon’s mask restrictions have any effect?

16 March 2022 4:29 am

As England axes the last of its Covid regulations, Nicola Sturgeon is extending Scotland’s – saying that mask wearing in…

China’s zero Covid strategy is a threat to the global economy

16 March 2022 1:12 am

Aside from deterring a few tourists, and people filming fantasy epics, closing down New Zealand during the Covid pandemic didn’t…

Covid is rising again. Should we worry?

11 March 2022 11:50 pm

For some time now, Covid has been rising in Scotland – there are now more Scots in hospital with Covid…

Sage admits its models were ‘at variance to reality’. But why?

5 March 2022 6:00 pm

The Sage committee was set up as a pool of experts on tap to advise government. During the pandemic, it mutated…

Ending restrictions won’t save Boris

22 February 2022 4:37 am

Boris Johnson certainly managed to rally the troops on their first day back from recess this afternoon as he told…

The pointless tyranny of Italy’s Covid pass

20 February 2022 6:25 pm

While most European countries, especially Britain, are relaxing their Covid restrictions, Italy which has the toughest of the lot, this…

On Sage’s Covid models

20 February 2022 6:00 am

In the confusion that has arisen from the demonstrable inability of a certain type of mathematical model to predict the…

What is Boris’s partygate defence?

16 February 2022 5:00 am

The presumption of many MPs — and maybe many of you — is that the Met is bound to issue…

Are ethnic minorities still more likely to get Covid?

15 February 2022 1:45 am

Is there a genetic element to the risk of being infected with Covid — and are some disadvantaged ethnic groups…

Can Macron really lecture Putin about democracy?

9 February 2022 10:09 pm

A penny for the thoughts of Vladimir Putin on Monday as he stared at Emmanuel Macron from the end of…

Britain’s unethical Covid messaging must never be repeated

6 February 2022 7:30 pm

Over the last two years – under the guise of a Covid-19 communications strategy – the British people have faced…

Two years on, what’s the evidence for lockdown?

3 February 2022 6:00 pm

Did lockdowns save lives? We will never have a definitive answer to this vital question because it was impossible to…

Johnson’s defence deteriorates

1 February 2022 3:50 am

That Boris Johnson regards the Gray update as an opportunity to come up for air was very clear from his…

The NHS vaccine mandate was bound to fail

1 February 2022 12:00 am

Health Secretary Sajid Javid now looks set to drop his plans to sack unvaccinated NHS staff. It was almost inevitable…

Can the Czech Republic challenge Europe’s vaccine orthodoxy?

30 January 2022 9:30 pm

The Omicron wave has left European counties standing at a crossroads this year. Despite the relative mildness of Omicron compared…

Why Denmark has called for the end of Covid restrictions

28 January 2022 12:48 am

England has been described by some as an outlier in that the government is lifting Plan B restrictions in spite…

Why Sage got Omicron wrong

23 January 2022 7:00 pm

Given that lockdown was very nearly ordered on the advice of Sage last month, it’s worth keeping an eye on…

We must never abandon children during lockdown again

23 January 2022 1:09 am

Schools are far more than mere exam factories. Across the UK, teachers in 32,000 schools and colleges care for children…

Omicron is on its way out

19 January 2022 11:11 pm

Omicron peaked in England in early January, according to figures just released by the ONS. The estimates from the weekly…

The Netherlands is growing tired of lockdown restrictions

16 January 2022 12:58 am

On Wednesday at De Kleine Komedie, the oldest theatre in Amsterdam, the sound of comics on stage will be interspersed…

Boris Johnson is running out of road

12 January 2022 5:05 am

There has been no good news for Boris Johnson today. After an email leaked on Monday evening showing that the Prime…

Masks in schools: how convincing is the government’s evidence?

8 January 2022 6:00 pm

Why has the government changed its mind and asked children to wear masks in school? When Plan B was announced…

Get ready to start paying the cost of Covid

8 January 2022 1:40 am

Forget the desirability (or lack thereof) of tax hikes: can Britain survive them? That’s the economic question that kicked off…

Boris Johnson rejects lockdown (again)

5 January 2022 5:27 am

Boris Johnson latest Covid press conference was slightly confusing. The Prime Minister spent nearly an hour saying nothing particularly new.…