pandemic

Life’s little graces: Small Rain, by Garth Greenwell, reviewed

5 October 2024 9:00 am

An unnamed narrator, confined to hospital with a torn aorta, reminisces about his past life in Bulgaria, his love of poetry and the happy domesticity he shared with his partner

Why were Germany’s Covid files redacted?

27 April 2024 9:00 am

There are two kinds of long Covid. One is a medical syndrome, the other manifests as a healthy obsession –…

In the grip of apocalypse angst

6 April 2024 9:00 am

Dorian Lynskey lays out the many ways in which we have imagined the world ending – through pandemic, nuclear holocaust, climate change, asteroid impact or, most unnervingly, AI

Fast and furious: America Fantastica, by Tim O’Brien, reviewed

9 December 2023 9:00 am

As the avalanche of lies issuing from the White House morphs into the pandemic, Covid becomes in an engine of justice in this rollicking satire on Trumpworld

Why was an erroneous graph used to justify the second lockdown?

11 November 2023 9:00 am

Two stories are emerging from the Covid Inquiry: one that it wants to tell and one that it does not.…

A feminist finds fulfilment in derided ‘women’s work’

22 July 2023 9:00 am

Like many women in mid-life, Marina Benjamin found herself caring for the very young and the elderly – leading her to ‘a radical feminist turn’

Isolating with the ex: Lucy by the Sea, by Elizabeth Strout, reviewed

8 October 2022 9:00 am

Elizabeth Strout’s fourth book about Lucy Barton comes on the heels of Oh William!, shortlisted for this year’s Booker Prize.…

Farewell, St Anthony Fauci

23 August 2022 3:30 pm

So farewell, Anthony Fauci, the unfortunate face of America’s pandemic response. Well, not so unfortunate – the doctor is stepping…

Has the lab leak theory really been disproved?

28 July 2022 1:19 am

The BBC carried a story this week with the headline ‘Covid origin studies say evidence points to Wuhan market’. Bizarrely…

The Everybody Inn: what happened when a hotel opened its doors to the homeless?

23 July 2022 9:00 am

What do you do when you pass someone sleeping or begging in the street? I’ll tell you what I do:…

Sheila Hancock takes pride in her irascibility

11 June 2022 9:00 am

This book begins with Sheila Hancock wondering why she is being offered a damehood. I must say I slightly wondered…

Travels in time and space: Sea of Tranquility, by Emily St. John Mandel, reviewed

21 May 2022 9:00 am

It’s a bold writer who confronts a major historical moment such as a pandemic before it’s over, but Emily St.…

Murder, suicide and apocalypse: Here Goes Nothing, by Steve Toltz, reviewed

30 April 2022 9:00 am

Angus Mooney is dead. Freshly murdered, he’s appalled to find himself in an Afterworld, having always rejected the possibility of…

Should we worry about the BA.2 Omicron variant?

20 March 2022 8:53 pm

When the Omicron variant (now categorised as BA.1) swept across the world at the end of last year it was…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…