pandemic

America is a nation divided

11 December 2021 9:00 am

New York Imagine a European country today in which a newspaper in its most populous city launches a mendacious project…

Should we be scared of the Omicron variant?

11 December 2021 6:47 am

Why is the government so scared of the Omicron variant? So far, most of the evidence we have for transmissibility…

Boris takes his colleagues for fools

9 December 2021 7:15 am

Is Boris Johnson really deploying a ‘diversionary tactic’ in announcing vaccine passports on the day he has had to perform…

What’s the evidence for England’s vaccine passports?

9 December 2021 6:02 am

The Prime Minister has just announced Plan B. Working from home has been all but mandated and large venues —…

Omicron: cause for hope?

7 December 2021 1:31 am

It will be weeks before we know just how worried we should be about Omicron — but the first indications seem…

After a lifetime in nightclubs, now I party at home

4 December 2021 9:00 am

New York   It’s party time in the Bagel, and it’s about time, too. Good restaurants and elegant nightclubs are…

Unless Omicron changes everything, Covid is on the way out

2 December 2021 4:00 am

There are good reasons to be concerned about the Omicron variant. For starters, this strain has 50 mutations, twice as…

Do masks really halve the risk of Covid? A note on the evidence

29 November 2021 11:40 pm

‘Most of the trouble in life comes from misunderstanding’ as Willy Loman said in Oscar Wilde’s masterpiece An Inspector Calls.…

Satire misfires: Our Country Friends, by Gary Shteyngart, reviewed

20 November 2021 9:00 am

It is, as you’ve possibly noticed, a tricky time for old-school American liberals, now caught between increasingly extreme versions of…

The vaccine cheer is gone

19 November 2021 6:55 am

I am 45, which means I’ve now had my third Covid vaccine. The experience of getting that injection crystallises a…

Did Covid first emerge at the Wuhan Institute of Virology?

3 November 2021 7:49 am

The net around the Wuhan Institute of Virology continues to tighten. A letter from Lawrence Tabak, principal deputy director of the…

Why did we decide that Covid was over?

25 October 2021 12:45 pm

Look, I don’t know much epidemiology. Can’t pretend to. So what follows is, necessarily, a personal finger to the wind.…

No. 10 moves to kickstart the booster campaign

23 October 2021 10:12 am

In a move that as important as any in the recent Cabinet reshuffle, Emily Lawson is returning to run the…

Why Covid means the big state is back

15 October 2021 9:31 am

History suggests that when the state expands in a crisis, it doesn’t go back to its pre-crisis level once the…

China and the WHO are given an easy ride in the Covid blame game

25 September 2021 9:00 am

Are you ready to relive 2020? That’s what Adam Tooze is offering as he tells the story of Covid-19 through…

Javid avoids Tory Covid powers fightback – for now

15 September 2021 7:34 am

Tory MPs were not happy when Sajid Javid unveiled the Covid winter plan in the Commons this afternoon. They’re dissatisfied…

Why isn't the vaccine UK approved for 12- to 15-year-olds?

4 September 2021 10:20 am

This afternoon, the JCVI has essentially passed the buck on vaccinating 12- to 15-year-olds. It has declared that the health benefits…

A volte face over what caused the pandemic needs explaining

31 July 2021 9:00 am

Sir Jeremy Farrar, the head of the Wellcome Trust, writes that ‘the last year has been an eye-opener for me.…

Can Boris and his ministers agree on the point of the Covid app?

21 July 2021 7:51 am

What is the point of the Covid-19 app? Ministers seem to be as in the dark about the answer to…

What happens next? Gauging the fallout from the pandemic

5 June 2021 9:00 am

What just happened? Some 15 months after the pandemic first struck, it’s still horribly unclear, which is perhaps why there…

The myth of American freedom

6 February 2021 9:00 am

Gstaad Imagine a beautiful, sexy woman, an Ava Gardner or a Lily James, with a wart on the end of…

The joy of my new British passport

30 January 2021 9:00 am

‘Anything you want?’ says Catriona on her way out of the house to go to the shop. I’m standing at…

civilization costs debate

The big debate: is lockdown wrong?

26 May 2020 6:52 pm

Is lockdown a gargantuan mistake? That’s the view of a growing number of thinkers and critics, including The Spectator’s very…

Could this pandemic be the death of veganism?

11 April 2020 9:00 am

‘Do you want some of the private stuff from out the back?’ said the butcher to the builder boyfriend, leaning…

Our exile in NW1

11 April 2020 9:00 am

Laikipia The sweetest sound to me now is the dawn chorus of birdsong at home on the farm. I lay…