covid

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.…

The problem with 'vaccine equity'

4 January 2022 5:03 am

‘A stain on our soul’. That was how Gordon Brown, in his latest missive on the subject, described the failure…

Does Warwick’s Omicron modelling make restrictions more likely?

1 January 2022 4:32 am

Two weeks ago, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and Imperial College both published modelling showing frightening…

Will Trump's pro-vaccine stance prove his undoing?

29 December 2021 2:55 am

Donald Trump famously boasted that he could ‘stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody’ and still not lose voters. That…

Remember panic-buying? Here's what will happen next time

29 December 2021 12:18 am

It’s post-Christmas, and there are already murmurs about supermarkets with empty shelves. Just as with the petrol shortage in September and…

The churches must stay open

26 December 2021 6:00 pm

Hooray for Cardinal Vincent Nichols, who used the one day of the year when his pronouncements are amplified by the…

The misery of Macron’s Covid clampdown

24 December 2021 10:16 pm

My daughter’s Christmas won’t quite be the same this year. She and I are in England but her French mother…

Sage modellers start to accept that Omicron is milder

23 December 2021 6:00 pm

Public health officials in Britain and South Africa were on different planets for about a fortnight. While those in South Africa…

Sage memo makes the case for lockdown

23 December 2021 4:55 am

On Monday, Covid restrictions were rejected after the cabinet debated the issue robustly for the first time since the pandemic…