COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 28th Nov 2022

Chinese Protests Spread Over Government's Covid Restrictions

Protests are erupting in major cities in China over President Xi Jinping’s zero-tolerance approach to Covid-19, an unusual show of defiance in the country as the economic and social costs from snap lockdowns and other strict restrictions escalate. Demonstrations occurred throughout the weekend in Beijing, Shanghai and the eastern city of Nanjing, according to witness accounts. Video footage and photos circulating on social media, which The Wall Street Journal wasn’t able to independently verify, suggest protests broke out in several other cities, including Wuhan, the original epicenter of the pandemic. The protests followed demonstrations on Friday in Urumqi, capital of the remote region of Xinjiang, where a deadly fire enraged residents who had struggled with lockdowns of more than 100 days. Residents flooded social media with comments suggesting that Covid restrictions contributed to a delay in putting out the fire, in which officials said 10 people died.
27th Nov 2022 - The Wall Street Journal

Videos Show How Covid Protests Are Spreading Across China

Since Friday, opposition against China’s zero-tolerance Covid policies has been gathering steam across the vast country. Protesters have taken to the streets in a public outpouring of anger and frustration, with some even calling for President Xi Jinping to step down, a level of national dissent unheard of since he took power a decade ago. Others have clashed with officials at residential compounds, defying orders to go into quarantine, while students have also been demonstrating at university campuses.
27th Nov 2022 - Bloomberg

Chinese Protesters Use Tricks to Evade Censors, Vent Covid Anger

Many are posting a blank white image on social media in defiance of officials who are deleting content so quickly that some internet users complained nothing meaningful could be expressed at all. One video featured a blank piece of paper on WeChat with the caption “Silence speaks louder here, those who understand know.” It was deleted. Others are posting a single, seemingly innocuous word, repeated many times, including “good,” “okay,” or “sure,” as a sarcastic expression of discontent.
27th Nov 2022 - Bloomberg

Blank sheets of paper become symbol of defiance in China protests

Chinese protesters have turned to blank sheets of paper to express their anger over COVID-19 restrictions in a rare, widespread outpouring of public dissent that has gone beyond social media to some of China's streets and top universities. Images and videos circulated online showed students at universities in cities including Nanjing and Beijing holding up blank sheets of paper in silent protest, a tactic used in part to evade censorship or arrest.
27th Nov 2022 - Reuters

Huge COVID protests erupt in China's Xinjiang after deadly fire

Public anger in China towards widening COVID-19 lockdowns across the country erupted into rare protests in China’s far western Xinjiang region and the country's capital of Beijing, as nationwide infections set another record. Crowds took to the streets on Friday night in Xinjiang's capital of Urumqi, chanting "End the lockdown!" and pumping their fists in the air, after a deadly fire on Thursday triggered anger over their prolonged COVID-19 lockdown according to videos circulated on Chinese social media on Friday night.
26th Nov 2022 - Reuters

Protests erupt in Xinjiang and Beijing after deadly fire

China's Covid protests grow after apartment blaze kills 10

Scenes of protest from the locked-down western Chinese city of Urumqi have spread on social media after a fire killed 10 people, as nationwide unrest over the country’s strict Covid policies continues to build. Social media posts alleged that restrictions in the capital of Xinjiang province, which has been locked down since August, hampered rescue efforts and the ability of residents to escape the fire in an apartment block on Thursday evening. Unverified videos of protests in the city on Friday evening were widely circulated. Officials on Saturday denied some of the claims about the fire and said certain images online of locked doors were fake, China’s state media agency Xinhua reported.
26th Nov 2022 - Financial Times

Beijing reports 424 symptomatic, 1436 asymptomatic COVID cases for Nov 24

China's capital Beijing reported 424 symptomatic new locally transmitted COVID-19 infections and 1,436 asymptomatic cases for Nov. 24, local government authorities said on Friday. This compared with 509 symptomatic and 1,139 asymptomatic cases the day before. Authorities said 400 cases on Thursday were found outside quarantined areas.
25th Nov 2022 - Reuters

Beijing shuts parks, museums as China's COVID cases rise

Beijing shut parks and museums on Tuesday and Shanghai tightened rules for people entering the city as Chinese authorities grapple with a spike in COVID-19 cases that has deepened concern about the economy and dimmed hopes for a quick reopening. China reported 28,127 new domestically transmitted cases for Monday, nearing its daily peak from April, with infections in the southern city of Guangzhou and the southwestern municipality of Chongqing accounting for about half the total.
22nd Nov 2022 - Reuters

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 21st Nov 2022

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‘There’s no protection’: South Africa faces Covid legacy of sex for money

A couple of months into the Covid lockdown in South Africa, Dimakatso, 25, resorted to sleeping with an older, married man for 1,000 rand (£50). It was the first time she had had sex for money. She did it because she needed to feed her two children, aged five and eight; she was unemployed, and her mother, the sole earner in the household, had lost her job. “I was desperate and thought I was safe, even though it’s super risky,” says Dimakatso. “It was because of Covid. There were no jobs. If you didn’t do it, you would starve with your children.” Dimakatso is not alone. The latest UN Aids report, which surveyed 2,812 South African women who are either HIV positive or live in high-risk areas, found that since the start of the Covid pandemic in 2020, 15% more women reported using sex work or transactional sex – where money, gifts or services are given in exchange for sex – to sustain their livelihoods.
20th Nov 2022 - The Guardian

World Leaders Sign Declaration to Introduce COVID Vaccine Passports

While the details are scant at this stage, the statement says this will be done under the framework of the International Health Regulations to “facilitate seamless international travel, interoperability, and recognizing digital solutions and non-digital solutions, including proof of vaccinations.” Indonesia’s Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said that a Digital Health Certificate using World Health Organization standards would be introduced during the next World Health Assembly in Geneva, in May next year. “If you have been vaccinated or tested properly, you can move around. So for the next pandemic, instead of stopping the movement of people 100%, you can still provide some movement of the people,” Mr Sadikin said. Surprisingly, this news has not really grabbed the attention of mainstream media, despite its very serious implications for freedom of personal choice and freedom of movement.
20th Nov 2022 - Sydney Criminal Lawyers

FEMA grants $5 million to National Guard for COVID work at Holyoke Soldiers Home

FEMA will grant the Massachusetts National Guard more than $5 million for the cost of providing medical staff and setting up temporary hospitals to handle COVID patients between March and September 2020. That includes, according to a Federal Emergency Management Agency news release Friday, the Guard’s response to the Holyoke Soldiers Home where a COVID outbreak in early 2020 cost 84 elderly veterans their lives. It was the largest outbreak of its kind in the country. The guard also planned, coordinated, and performed large scale mobile COVID-19 sample collection; and to provide care at long-term care facilities, rest homes, and assisted living facilities and warehoused and distributed personal protective equipment.
19th Nov 2022 - Stars and Stripes

COVID-19 cases drop slightly in Florida, but positivity rate creeps up

Florida saw a slight decline in COVID-19 cases last week, though the positivity rate for new cases rose slightly, state data showed Friday. Between Nov. 11 through Nov. 17, there were 11,632 new cases of COVID-19 throughout the state, according to Florida Department of Health statistics. That's a small drop from the previous week, when there were 11,783 cases statewide. Despite the small drop in cases, the new case positivity rate rose slightly, going from 7.8% the previous week to 8% this week, the department reported.
19th Nov 2022 - Yahoo! News

John Kerry Sidelined by Positive Covid Test at Climate Summit

US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry is isolating in Egypt after testing positive for Covid-19, complicating efforts by nearly 200 nations to reach a new international agreement on global warming. Kerry’s positive test was disclosed late Friday, which was meant to be the official end date for two weeks of UN negotiations in Sharm El-Sheikh over how to mitigate climate change and compensate countries bearing the brunt.
18th Nov 2022 - Bloomberg

Hong Kong’s Bananas-Only Rule Shows Struggle to Exit Covid Curbs

As Hong Kong lifts most pandemic curbs, officials are maintaining a web of confusing rules. Take trail running. The government just removed a ban on race organizers providing food to competitors. Yet the easing came with a strict provision at a race last weekend: Only bananas could be served and runners had to eat them on their own, in silence, away from checkpoints. Participants also needed to put on a mask two minutes after crossing the finish line.
18th Nov 2022 - Bloomberg

Covid Lockdowns Spark Violent Protests in China's Guangzhou City

China’s ongoing Covid lockdowns are fueling increasing public anger, with some residents in Guangzhou, one of the country’s biggest cities, staging rare protests against the stringent rules. In videos circulating on social media, hundreds of people can be seen marching in the streets and pushing over police barriers in Guangzhou’s Haizhu district, which has been in lockdown since late last month. The demonstrations took place in several “urban villages,” mainly poorer neighborhoods where migrant workers live, Hong Kong Economic Journal reported. The local government sent multiple police vehicles to the protests, according to the report.
15th Nov 2022 - Bloomberg

China Reopening Stocks Rally; Street Cautiously Optimistic

Shares of Chinese firms tied to reopening rallied after China’s top leaders called for a more targeted approach, while reinforced the need to stick with the Covid Zero policy. Market watchers are cautiously optimistic that such policy fine-tuning could spur appetite for battered Chinese assets. The following is a selection of reactions from market participants and economists.
13th Nov 2022 - Bloomberg

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 14th Nov 2022

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North Macedonia to pardon violators of pandemic measures

North Macedonia is planning to pardon more than 1,200 people who face prison sentences because they have failed to pay fines for violating restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Justice Minister Nikola Tupancheski said the criminal court in the capital of Skopje has proposed the amnesty, noting that there’s not enough room in jails for those people. “People who violated the COVID-19 measures were usually fined, as our criminal code stipulates. We are talking about more than 1,200 people for whom, if they do not pay the fine, in a short time the punishment will be transformed into a prison sentence,” Tupancheski said. He said the criminal court’s amnesty proposal has been passed on to North Macedonia’s parliament.
12th Nov 2022 - ABC News

U.S. hotels reel from China COVID curbs amid travel boom

U.S. hotel operators expect more pain from China's strict COVID-19 lockdowns which have halted construction of some luxury properties and impeded travel to one of the world's key tourism markets. Growth in China has been stuttering at a time when companies are rushing to open hotels and capitalise on pent up travel demand, with construction of new properties picking up pace in the United States after the pandemic halted expansion plans.
11th Nov 2022 - Reuters

Biden wants to extend the COVID emergency into Spring

Biden's administration will extend COVID-19's status as a health emergency past January and possibly through the spring. Extension comes amid fears of a resurgence of cases this winter with some worried about a 'tripledemic' of COVID, flu, and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). Public emergency order allows makes it easier to stay on Medicaid and allows for controlled substances to be prescribed via telehealth. President Biden previously said the pandemic was over
11th Nov 2022 - Daily Mail

U.S. Supreme Court's Sotomayor rejects challenge to N.Y. COVID vaccine mandate

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor on Thursday rejected a bid to prevent New York City from enforcing its COVID-19 vaccine mandate for municipal workers against a group teachers, firefighters and others who challenged the policy. The justice denied an emergency request, received by the court on Nov. 4, to block the policy by individual municipal workers, as well as a group called New Yorkers For Religious Liberty, while their appeal of lower court decisions siding with the city proceeds.
10th Nov 2022 - Reuters

NYC Public School Enrollment Drops as Pandemic Exodus Continues

New York City is continuing to bleed students in its public school system even as pandemic restrictions are lifted. Enrollment in the largest school district in the US is down 1.8% in 2022 from a year ago, representing 16,000 students in 3K through 12th grade, according to preliminary estimates released Monday by the city’s Department of Education. The drop marks the continuation of a years-long trend that rapidly accelerated during Covid lockdowns and remote schooling. The exodus has begun to slow, though, and this year’s dip is the smallest decline since the onset of the pandemic. Public schools have lost nearly 100,000 pupils, or about 10% of enrollment since the 2019-2020 school year, the data show. The data includes the 7,000 kids that officials have said enrolled in public schools amid an influx of migrants from Central and South America.
9th Nov 2022 - Bloomberg

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 7th Nov 2022

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The Beijing Marathon Returns, With Some Covid-Zero Conditions

The Beijing marathon is back. Probably. No one will really be certain until the starting gun goes off on Nov. 6. The race, once one of the world’s top city marathons, has been on hiatus for two years, and with China sticking to its Covid-Zero policies, the marathon’s return has been marked with delays and uncertainty. Runners didn’t even know if they’d be competing until results of the entrance lottery were announced a week ago. “Even though there’s a short time to prepare, and my condition may not be as good as before, it’s good for it to be held,” said Tao Zhan, 49, an office worker who started running marathons six years ago and broke the three-hour mark in the 2019 Chicago Marathon. “This is very good news for runners.”
6th Nov 2022 - Bloomberg

Matt Hancock – live: I’m A Celebrity deal ‘cashes in on Covid misery’, say bereaved

Matt Hancock is coming under fire for a deal worth a reported £400,000 to appear on I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here during the cost of living crisis. The West Suffolk MP and former health secretary has landed in Australia for the reality TV show, which starts on Sunday. Reports say Mr Hancock will pocket around £400,000 to appear on the popular show and the payday has sparked a backlash among some of the constituents facing higher food and energy bills. Sharon Twite, 50, landlady of The White Swan, in Exning, in Hancock’s constituency, voted for him at the last election but hit out at him for “letting us all down”. “He’s getting £400,000 to go and eat grubs in the jungle, Jesus Christ,” the mum-of-four told The Sun.
2nd Nov 2022 - The Independent

Wuhan lab at centre of Covid claims 'worked on a shoestring budget'

Wuhan lab at centre of Covid leak theories was run on a shoestring budget under huge pressure to deliver results quickly, new analysis suggests. Staff complained of lack of expertise running such a high-security environment. Reports suggest they also had problems with disinfectant corroding equipment. Lab may have suffered a broken air filter just before Covid emerged, expert said
2nd Nov 2022 - Daily Mail

Covid: Boris Johnson WhatsApp messages requested by inquiry

The Covid public inquiry has asked to see Boris Johnson's WhatsApp messages during his time as prime minister as part of its probe into decision-making. Counsel for the inquiry, Hugo Keith KC, said the messages had been requested alongside thousands of other documents. He said a major focus of this part of the inquiry was understanding how the "momentous" decisions to impose lockdowns and restrictions were taken. The revelations came as he set out the details of how this module will work. The inquiry is being broken down into different sections - or modules as they are being called.
2nd Nov 2022 - BBC News

China Dismisses 'Fabricated' Virus Leak Theory Vanity Fair, ProPublica Revived

China lashed out at a report about a lab in the city of Wuhan where the coronavirus first appeared, saying it was driven by politics in the US. “US politicians are rehashing the lab-leak theory to smear China in disregard of facts,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said Monday at a regular press briefing in Beijing. “Such acts are driven by ill-intentions. This will only hamper science-based origins tracing and undermine international anti-Covid cooperation.”
1st Nov 2022 - Bloomberg

China reports 2105 new COVID cases for Oct 29 vs 1658 a day earlier

China reported 2,105 new COVID-19 infections on Oct. 29, of which 401 were symptomatic and 1,704 were asymptomatic, the National Health Commission said on Sunday. That compared with 1,658 new infections on Oct. 28, of which 377 were symptomatic and 1,281 were asymptomatic, which China counts separately. There were no new deaths, the same as a day earlier, keeping fatalities at 5,226. As of Oct. 29, mainland China had confirmed 259,438 cases with symptoms.
30th Oct 2022 - Reuters

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 31st Oct 2022

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Shanghai Disneyland reduces operations as China tightens COVID curbs

Shanghai Disneyland will operate at reduced capacity from Saturday to comply with COVID-19 measures, the resort said in a statement, in another sign of tightening curbs across China as it seeks to contain the spread of coronavirus infections. The amusement park will operate with a reduced workforce on a temporary basis, which will have an impact on the operation of certain attractions, restaurants and shops, it said on its official Wechat account.
29th Oct 2022 - Reuters

Italy to end ban on health workers not vaccinated against Covid

Italian doctors and nurses suspended from work because they are not vaccinated against Covid-19 will soon be reinstated, new Health Minister Orazio Schillaci said on Friday. The move is motivated by a worrying shortage of medical personnel together with declining cases of Covid-19. The new government will also cancel fines imposed on all people aged over 50 who had not got vaccinated, he added. "A measure is being finalised that will allow the reintegration into service of health staff subject to suspension proceedings for non-compliance with compulsory vaccination before the expiry date of the suspension," he said in a statement posted on the ministry's website.
29th Oct 2022 - Reuters

China's Covid Fight Disrupts Businesses, Food Supplies as Cases Spread

China showed no signs of easing its zero-Covid policies that are taking a heavy toll on its economy, as fresh cases disrupted businesses in major cities and food supplies in a remote northwestern region. On Thursday, the central Chinese city of Zhengzhou, which is home to Foxconn Technology Group, the largest iPhone assembler, said the virus was spreading quickly there and identified 50 affected areas. The city reported 69 cases over the past three days. Foxconn said a “small number” of its workforce had tested positive for Covid-19 but that its operations were “relatively stable.” It also said a rumor circulating that 20,000 workers had tested positive wasn’t true.
28th Oct 2022 - The Wall Street Journal

Experts Pessimistic on China Exiting Covid Zero Any Time Soon

Three years into the pandemic, China is sticking to its Covid Zero policy despite heavy economic costs, growing unrest and isolation from the rest of the world. Many expected President Xi Jinping to signal a pivot away from what has become a signature policy when he took the podium at the Communist Party’s congress this month. Instead, he defended the zero-tolerance strategy as one that saves lives, but offered no steer on when it’s likely to end. Xi’s absolute control over the party leadership and China has left experts debating what that means for the future of an approach that’s brought misery to millions. The brutal Shanghai lockdown earlier this year, overseen by Li Qiang — a Xi loyalist and China’s likely premier from 2023 — saw businesses upended and the city’s 25 million residents struggle to get even basic necessities.
28th Oct 2022 - Bloomberg

Carnival borrows $2bn as investors clamour for cruise ship-backed bond

Carnival has borrowed $2bn through a bond offering that used a dozen of its ships as collateral, as it works to refinance its huge debt pile amassed during the pandemic. The world’s largest cruise operator was able to borrow more than the $1.25bn it had initially planned to raise and at a lower interest rate than Carnival was prepared to stomach just hours earlier, according to two people briefed on the deal.
26th Oct 2022 - Financial Times

Fear of Catching Covid Has Cost US Economy $250 Billion This Year

Persistent worries about catching Covid kept about 3 million Americans out of the workforce, reducing the nation’s economic output by $250 billion in the first half of 2022, according to new research on a phenomenon dubbed “Long Social Distancing.” Close to 60% of respondents to a monthly survey of tens of thousands of adults said they wouldn’t completely return to pre-Covid activities like riding crowded subways and elevators, and were staying out of the labor force as a result. Those not working or looking for a job in part due to infection fears totaled about 2% of the labor force, which translated to the 3 million figure, the researchers found.
25th Oct 2022 - Bloomberg

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 24th Oct 2022

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‘Fractured’ pandemic response failed the most vulnerable, independent report finds

An independent review of Australia’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic has found ill-conceived policies, politically driven health orders and excessive use of lockdowns failed to protect the old, disregarded the young and abandoned some of the nation’s most disadvantaged communities. The review, led by former top public servant Peter Shergold, urges federal and state governments to learn from mistakes and overhaul planning, to broaden the advice provided to national cabinet and restore trust in how decisions are made.
22nd Oct 2022 - Sydney Morning Herald

Former top doctor claims ‘fear persisted far too long’ in pandemic response

Former deputy chief medical officer Dr Nick Coatsworth believes Australia’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic was dominated by fear for “far too long” after health experts knew who the virus affected and how to protect from it. The comments follow the release of an independent review into governments’ response to the pandemic which found they veered into overreach by overusing lockdowns and failed large swathes of the community with inadequate economic support packages. Dr Coatsworth was part of the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee which comprises all state and territory Chief Health Officers and is chaired by the Australian Chief Medical Officer and was central to the pandemic response. He said the discussions and spectrum of views presented in the AHPPC were effective but admitted when states CHOs began applying their own recommendations to state governments the response was dictated by fear rather than evidence.
22nd Oct 2022 - Sky News Australia

Australia failed to rescue citizens during the global Covid emergency – we can’t let it happen again

The release this week of a review into Australia’s Covid response has attracted wide attention for its headline recommendations at a time when Covid-19 now rarely reaches our front pages. The Fault Lines review, led by former public servant Peter Shergold, is critical of the extent of restrictions, border closures and lockdowns put in place by state and federal governments – particularly so in relation to extended school closures. It raises concern about those parts of our society either disproportionately affected by Covid itself or the levels of support provided by government.
22nd Oct 2022 - The Guardian

Pfizer expects to hike U.S. COVID vaccine price to $110-$130 per dose

Pfizer Inc expects to roughly quadruple the price of its COVID-19 vaccine to about $110 to $130 per dose after the United States government's current purchase program expires, Pfizer executive Angela Lukin said on Thursday. Lukin said she expects the vaccine - currently provided for free to all by the government - will be made available at no cost to people who have private insurance or government paid insurance.
21st Oct 2022 - Reuters

Trump Aides Interfered With CDC Over Covid for Political Gain, House Says

The CDC bowed to the Trump administration’s demands to change the editorial process of its weekly scientific journal after warnings from then health secretary Alex Azar to “get in line,” a House investigation found. The pressure faced by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to change the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report‘s procedures was one of several instances of political interference by former President Donald Trump’s aides that the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis identified in a report released Monday. The report was provided to Bloomberg Law ahead of the official release.
20th Oct 2022 - Bloomberg

Chinese capital steps up COVID measures as cases quadruple

China's capital, Beijing, has dialled up measures to stop COVID, strengthening public checks and locking down some residential compounds after a quadrupling of its case load in recent weeks, just as a key Communist Party congress entered full swing. The city of 21 million people on Thursday reported 18 new locally transmitted cases for the previous day, bringing the tally for the past 10 days to 197. That is four times more than the 49 infections detected in the previous 10-day period. While the number of cases is very small compared with other countries, China's zero-COVID policy has compelled the capital to ratchet up preventive measures, particularly with the Communist Party holding its once-every-five-years congress this week, during which President Xi Jinping is expected to win a precedent-breaking third term as its leader.
20th Oct 2022 - Reuters

Low-Income Kids Should Get Free Covid Shots, CDC Panel Says

Low-income children should be able to receive Covid-19 vaccinations at no cost under the federal Vaccines for Children Program, according to a panel of US health advisers. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices voted unanimously to recommend Covid-19 shots from Moderna Inc. and Pfizer Inc.’s shot for children six months to 18-years-old. Making Covid inoculations part of the Vaccines for Children program would ensure that kids who are uninsured or underinsured can still get access to shots when the federal government stops paying for vaccines population wide.
19th Oct 2022 - Bloomberg

China Traders See Tech Focus, More Covid Gloom After Xi's Speech

President Xi Jinping’s two-hour address to the party congress on Sunday left traders poring over the nuance of each phrase as China’s leader ranged from Taiwan to semiconductors, pollution, housing and the coronavirus. Those expecting a shift away from the Covid Zero policy that has weighed on the economy were disappointed, but there were strong comments in specific areas, such as technology, the environment and national security, that could indicate support in some market sectors. Overall though, Xi did little to lift the gloom that has encompassed China’s markets in the lead-up to the five-yearly leadership meeting.
16th Oct 2022 - Bloomberg

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 17th Oct 2022

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As China doubles down on ‘zero-COVID’, some have had enough

A few months ago, a box was left outside the door of 34-year-old Yu Ting Xu’s* apartment in Beijing. Inside, there was an electronic monitoring wristband and a demand that she wear the wristband at all times as part of the fight against COVID-19 in her residential area. While telling her story over a video call, Yu shuffles about in the background. When she returns to her screen, she is holding up the wristband, which looks like a smartwatch but has a plain white plastic surface instead of a display.
15th Oct 2022 - Al Jazeera English

Not 'lying flat': China to persist with tough COVID policies

China will persist with its COVID-19 policies to guard against new coronavirus strains and the risks they bring, the official newspaper of the Communist Party warned in a commentary for the third straight day, crushing hopes of any near-term easing. "Lying flat is not advisable, and to win (the COVID battle) while lying flat is not possible," People's Daily wrote on Wednesday, referring to a phrase in China that denotes doing nothing.
12th Oct 2022 - Reuters

Construction Contracts Unworkable; Defense Costs Blow-Out

Infrastructure construction contracts signed before the pandemic have become widely unworkable because of the surging cost of labor and materials, supply-chain blockages and difficulties in securing manpower, according to builder Webuild. The firm is wrestling with a 2019 agreement with the Australian government to construct the country’s largest hydroelectric power station for A$5.1 billion. The Snowy 2.0 project has come to highlight the challenges of completing large-scale projects on terms that were struck before Covid-19, and before Russia invaded Ukraine.
11th Oct 2022 - Bloomberg

China holiday tourist trips fall 18% on year on broad COVID curbs

China recorded 422 million tourist trips over the week-long National Day holiday beginning on Oct. 1, down 18.2% from last year's holiday season, government data showed, as the sector remains hit by stringent COVID-19 curbs. The number of trips was 60.7% of the pre-COVID 2019 level, state broadcaster CCTV reported late on Friday, citing figures from China's Ministry of Culture and Tourism. Domestic tourism revenues, at 287.2 billion yuan ($40.37 billion), were down 26.2% on the year and just 44.2% of their pre-pandemic 2019 level, the data showed.
9th Oct 2022 - Reuters

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 10th Oct 2022

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Singapore to ditch rules linked to Covid vaccination status from October 10

The health ministry said its vaccine-differentiated safe management measures will no longer be applied in eateries and nightlife venues. The government will also vaccinate children aged six months to four years and roll out bivalent jabs as boosters for those aged 50 and older
9th Oct 2022 - South China Morning Post

Hong Kong's U-turn on quarantine is a sign Beijing still needs its gate to the West

As China doubles down on Covid lockdowns, restricting movement for tens of millions of people, a very different scene is unfolding in Hong Kong. The mood in the Chinese-controlled city is perhaps the lightest it has been in three years, after authorities scrapped mandatory hotel quarantine for incoming arrivals in September – prompting a mad rush to book flights out of the city among travel-starved residents. It was a significant U-turn, given how stubbornly city authorities had stuck to the quarantine requirement, despite a nosediving economy, a worsening international reputation, and an ongoing exodus of residents.
8th Oct 2022 - CNN

Zero-Covid: How Xi's flagship policy is spoiling his party

The idea was to have China in stable and tip-top shape when thousands of delegates gather in Beijing to usher in a historic third term in power for Xi Jinping. However, the coronavirus is not playing nicely. In recent weeks, tens of millions of people have again been confined to their homes in lockdowns across 60 towns and cities and this is bringing political pressure on the man who has become the most powerful Chinese figure since the first Communist-era leader Mao Zedong. The government's ongoing "Dynamic zero-Covid" strategy is inextricably linked to Mr Xi. Its success is his success. Its failure? Well, it would be a brave person who tried to pin it on him.
8th Oct 2022 - bbc.co.uk

American Express to End Covid Vaccine Requirement for Offices in November

American Express Co. is ending a requirement that employees need to be vaccinated against Covid-19 to enter offices as virus cases decline globally. The decision, which takes effect Nov. 1, applies to offices across the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, according to an internal memo to staff seen by Bloomberg. Staffers also will no longer have to be vaccinated to attend company-sponsored in-person events.
8th Oct 2022 - Bloomberg

Biden Vaccine Mandate for Health Workers Survives Supreme Court Appeal

The US Supreme Court turned away a renewed challenge by 10 states to the Biden administration’s Covid-19 vaccine requirement for workers in facilities that receive federal health-care funds. The rebuff of the Missouri-led group follows the Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision in January to let the requirement take effect. The rule, issued by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, requires shots for workers in nursing homes, hospitals and other facilities that receive federal dollars. The requirement took effect April 15, covering about 10 million people. In its Jan. 13 decision, the court said Congress had authorized the agency to protect the health and safety of Medicaid and Medicare recipients.
5th Oct 2022 - Bloomberg

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 3rd Oct 2022

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China's Tibet COVID-19 lockdown causing 'extreme hardships': campaigners

A weeks-long COVID-19 lockdown in Tibet has brought an "expansion of already suffocating living conditions", a rights group has said, after a top regional official issued a rare apology this month over virus restrictions. Cities across Tibet have been under Covid curbs since the start of August, with authorities mandating mass testing and keeping locals at home as China sticks to its strict zero-Covid policy. Complaints of chaotic transfers to mass quarantine facilities, lack of supplies and poor quarantine conditions have surfaced on Chinese social media in recent weeks. The vice mayor of Tibet's capital Lhasa issued a public apology earlier this month admitting to problems with how Covid had been handled, pinning the blame on individual officials. But "no meaningful remedial measures have been implemented to ameliorate the harsh lockdown and quarantine conditions", the Washington-based International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) said in a report Thursday.
2nd Oct 2022 - Mizzima News

If you think scrapping COVID isolation periods will get us back to work and past the pandemic, think again

COVID is an exceptional disease and was at its deadliest this year, causing more deaths in Australia between June and August 2022 than at any other time. There have been 288 deaths from influenza so far this year compared to more than 12,000 deaths from COVID. The number of deaths from COVID in Australia in the first nine months of 2022 is more than ten times the annual national road toll of just over 1,000 – but we are not rushing to remove seat belts or drink-driving laws so people can have more freedom. Isolation flattens the COVID curve by stopping infectious people from infecting others, and is a key pillar of COVID control.
30th Sep 2022 - The Conversation

Mandatory COVID-19 isolation periods scrapped by National Cabinet from October 14

Rules forcing people to isolate for five days if they test positive to COVID-19 will end from October 14 for everyone, with support for some workers to be able to continue isolation if needed. Mandatory COVID isolation will end from October 14 Financial support will be continued for some workers to be able to isolate if needed The chief medical officer says it marks the likely end of the emergency pandemic response. States will determine how to implement the change, but national cabinet agreed to continue targeted financial support for casual workers in aged care, disability care, Aboriginal health care and hospital care.
30th Sep 2022 - Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Covid-19 inspired people to circumvent censorship in China

A paper published in PNAS, an academic journal, argues that covid-19 inspired Chinese citizens to circumvent censorship and access sensitive content on banned websites. Although most VPN applications are blocked in China, the researchers found one available on China’s Apple App Store. They noted a sharp increase in downloads of the app, sending its App Store ranking higher, just as Wuhan, and the wider Hubei province of which it is part, went into lockdown
28th Sep 2022 - The Economist

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 26th Sep 2022

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COVID-19 cases rise in England and Wales for first time in two months

COVID cases in England and Wales have risen for the first time in two months - marking an end to a steady fall since early July. The increase means the total number of infections in the UK has also gone up, but levels are estimated to have fallen in Scotland and Northern Ireland. About 927,900 people in private households across the country are likely to have tested positive for coronavirus in the week ending 14 September, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). That is up 5% from 881,200 for the week before
24th Sep 2022 - Sky News

PM agrees to lift pandemic border measures, source says

The federal government has decided to drop the vaccination requirement for people entering Canada, end random COVID-19 testing at airports and make the use of the ArriveCan app optional by the end of this month, a senior government source told CBC News. Earlier this week, sources told CBC that Ottawa was leaning toward ending the measures but a final decision hadn't been made because it was awaiting the approval of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The current COVID-19 Emergency Order-in-Council relating to border measures was set to expire on Sept. 30. The government had the option of extending the measures. The government is expected to make an official announcement on Monday, the source said.
24th Sep 2022 - CBC News

Fraudsters likely stole $45.6 billion from U.S. COVID unemployment insurance program

Fraudsters likely stole $45.6 billion from the United States' unemployment insurance program during the COVID-19 pandemic by applying tactics like using Social Security numbers of deceased individuals, a federal watchdog said on Thursday.
23rd Sep 2022 - Reuters

Danish queen tests positive for Covid day after Queen Elizabeth II's funeral

Queen Margrethe II has cancelled her appointments for this week after the diagnosis on Tuesday evening. The 82-year-old monarch was one of 2,000 guests who attended Queen Elizabeth II's state funeral on Monday.
22nd Sep 2022 - BBC News

Beijing’s Zero-COVID Policy Draws New Anger After Fatal Bus Crash

Commenters in China’s tightly controlled online communities are raising an angry howl at what they see as the latest outrage stemming from President Xi Jinping’s draconian zero-COVID policy. After at least 27 people died when a bus in southwest China’s Guizhou Province crashed while transporting them to a coronavirus quarantine facility, online comments revealed the magnitude of frustration of ordinary citizens enduring a policy that forces them into lengthy lockdowns and daily testing in the effort to contain COVID.
21st Sep 2022 - Voice of America

What Good Leadership Looks Like Now vs. Pre-Covid

Just as in the first study, among the 20 traits that Korn Ferry tested, “tolerance of ambiguity” had the strongest positive correlation this time with the Drucker Institute’s best-scoring companies. “Trust,” “risk-taking” and adaptability” all remained in the top five, as well. Given how deep-seated traits tend to be, this isn’t surprising. “It’s not that leaders have changed their spots,” says Stephen Lams, the vice president of data and analytics at the Korn Ferry Institute.
19th Sep 2022 - The Wall Street Journal

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 18th Sep 2022

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Jacinda Ardern's Feted Covid Response Could Yet Be Her Undoing

The pandemic response that swept Jacinda Ardern to a second term as New Zealand’s prime minister may end up costing her a third. Ardern this week scrapped what was left of the rules she deployed to battle Covid-19, bringing an end to two-and-a-half years of tough restrictions that initially served the country well. But their removal hasn’t come soon enough for some voters, who have grown tired of controls on daily life and are deserting Ardern’s Labour Party ahead of the 2023 general election. An economic slowdown also looms next year as the full impact of pandemic measures such as the closed border plays out.
18th Sep 2022 - Bloomberg

The Truth About Those Viral Tweets Questioning the Omicron Boosters' Safety

So far, enthusiasm for the Omicron-specific Covid boosters is just so-so. In a University of Michigan poll conducted last month among adults over age 50, just 61 percent of those surveyed said they were “very likely” to get the new booster this fall, and 23 percent of adults ages 50 to 64 said they were “not likely” to get it. There are likely many reasons for this tepid reception, including the fact that many people have recently recovered from Covid and are waiting a few months before getting boosted in order to optimize protection. But there’s another factor, too—one that we’ve seen before. Influential physicians who have opposed Covid protections since the beginning of the pandemic continue to downplay the effectiveness of vaccines.
17th Sep 2022 - Mother Jones

'Untrustworthy and ineffective': Panel blasts governments' covid response

In a 45-page editorial, the Lancet Covid-19 Commission warned that many governments proved “untrustworthy and ineffective” as the pandemic tore across the world, citing examples such as richer nations hoarding vaccine doses and failing to fund global response efforts, and politicians such as former U.S. president Donald Trump and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro playing down the virus’s risks, even as hundreds of thousands of their citizens died of it. “What we saw — rather than a cooperative global strategy — was basically each country on its own,” Jeffrey Sachs, a Columbia University economist who chaired the commission, told reporters in a briefing convened by the respected medical journal.
15th Sep 2022 - The Washington Post

Members of New York Times, NBC News Digital Unions Defy Return-to-Office Plans

Some union members of the New York Times and NBC News’s digital properties vowed not to come to the office this week and instead work remotely, defying their respective employers’ back-to-the-office plans. Starting this week, the Times and NBC News expect employees to return to the office at least part of the week, both news organizations have told staff in recent memos. The Times union on Sunday said it has more than 1,280 signatures from members pledging to stay home, some of which come from a coordinated effort with the Times’s tech and Wirecutter unions. The three Times unions collectively have around 2,000 members. A Times spokeswoman said the news organization believes a hybrid work environment best suits the New York Times at this moment. She also said a collaborative work environment is a driver of success.
13th Sep 2022 - The Wall Street Journal

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 12th Sep 2022

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Anger at plans to roll back Covid vaccines to under-11s in England

The decision to reduce the number of children who are offered Covid jabs has prompted outcry from parent groups and academics. The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said children who had not turned five by the end of last month would not be offered a vaccination, in line with advice published by the UK’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) in February 2022. UKHSA said the offer of Covid jabs to healthy five to 11-year-olds was always meant to be temporary. UKHSA’s Green Book, which provides information on the vaccine rollout for public health professionals, states: “This one-off programme applies to those aged 5 to 11 years, including those who turn five years of age before the end of August 2022.
10th Sep 2022 - The Guardian

New York Governor Lifts Mask Mandate for NYC Subways

New York Governor Kathy Hochul lifted the state’s mask requirement for public transit, removing one of the last remaining government mandates of the Covid-19 pandemic. Hochul announced the decision on Wednesday after months of confusion among commuters befuddled by varying national, state and local rules on where face coverings are required. Covid numbers are stable, putting the state “in a good place now,” she said. “We haven’t seen any spikes, and also people are getting back to work, back to school,” Hochul said during a press conference at a health center in New York City, shortly before receiving her omicron-targeted booster that’s being made available this week. “We have to restore some normalcy to our lives.”
8th Sep 2022 - Bloomberg

How Pfizer and BioNTech Modified Covid-19 Vaccines for Fall Boosters

Before new versions of the Omicron strain took hold in the U.S., Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE had begun tinkering with their widely used Covid-19 vaccine. In May, researchers tracking how coronavirus strains behave saw the potential for Omicron subvariants to predominate. Just in case, the companies started building blueprints of shots reformulated to target BA.4, BA.5 and other substrains, and laid the groundwork for testing them. The preparations proved prescient, a big reason, along with manufacturing enhancements, that tens of millions of doses of Pfizer-BioNTech boosters modified to target BA.4 and BA.5 are now rolling out. “If we’re going to be ready for the disease and its migration, I don’t have the time to wait,” said Mike McDermott, Pfizer’s chief global supply officer.
5th Sep 2022 - The Wall Street Journal

Boris Johnson's Father Halts Xinjiang Trip After Covid Lockdown

Stanley Johnson, the father of the UK’s outgoing prime minister, has left China after being caught in a Covid lockdown that spoiled his plans to shoot a travel film in Xinjiang, where London has accused Beijing of widespread rights abuses. The former Conservative member of the European Parliament, who has pushed for closer ties between the UK and China, was in quarantine in the megacity of Chengdu when it went into lockdown last week. His youngest child, Max, who studied for an MBA at Beijing’s prestigious Tsinghua University and had been due to accompany his father to Xinjiang, told Bloomberg News that Johnson had “left for the UK.”
5th Sep 2022 - Bloomberg

UK has classified $1.3 bln of COVID 'bounce back' loans as suspected fraud -source

The British government is set to release data showing around 1.1 billion pounds of small business loans ($1.27 billion) made under a COVID-19 emergency lending scheme has already been classified as suspected fraud, a source told Reuters.
2nd Sep 2022 - Reuters UK

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North Korea repression grows with anti-Covid measures: UN

Human rights violations in North Korea have increased further due to the reclusive country’s “harsh” anti-Covid measures, the UN chief said in a report that warns the situation could be referred to the International Criminal Court. “Information received confirmed that the State had further increased its repression of the rights and freedoms of the people” of North Korea, and that the downturn “occurred in the context of the maintenance and subsequent increase of strict Covid-19 restrictions,” United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres wrote in the assessment released this week.
4th Sep 2022 - Thai PBS World

Viral claims are blaming a surge in excess deaths in Europe on vaccines. But experts say that's not the case

This week, CheckMate investigates whether excess deaths among children have increased by more than 1,000 per cent in Europe, which some have linked to COVID-19 vaccines. We also debunk claims that AstraZeneca's vaccine causes monkeypox, and ask: is there really ‘no one in the world’ making electric utes?
2nd Sep 2022 - ABC News

Covid boosters: surge of dangerous vaccine misinformation emerges online ahead of new jab programme

Anti-vaxxers are ramping up up their campaigns of misinformation as medics prepare to launch the autumn booster jabs against covid. Pregnant women and the overall safety of two of the most common jabs have already been targeted in recent days and experts expect further misinformation to be posted on social media through the autumn. The authors of a paper published this week in the journal Vaccine claim that the risk of serious adverse events following a Pfizer or Moderna jab, compared to those in a placebo group, “points to the need for formal harm-benefit analyses”.
2nd Sep 2022 - iNews

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Covid: Pregnant women targeted with false vaccine claims

Inaccurate messages shared by thousands claimed that pregnant or breastfeeding women were now recommended not to take the vaccine. In fact, the NHS says the vaccine is both safe and strongly recommended for this group.
1st Sep 2022 - BBC News

UK's COVID-19 inquiry starts work – EURACTIV.com

The public inquiry into the government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic has started its work in a process that will lead to key government ministers, officials and scientific advisors giving evidence in public. The inquiry will begin to take evidence from witnesses, which are likely to include former health minister Matt Hancock and outgoing Prime Minister Boris Johnson, early next year, The latest stage of the inquiry’s investigations, known as Module 2, will focus on decisions and announcements made by the UK government between early January and late March 2020 at the start of the pandemic. The Johnson government earned a mixed report card during the pandemic. After being slow to introduce lockdown measures to curb the spread of the first wave of the virus and struggling with shortages of ventilators and personal protective equipment, leading to one of Europe’s highest death tolls, the government then earned praise for the speed of its vaccine rollout programme.
1st Sep 2022 - EURACTIV

Covid inquiry 'must spend significant time examining lockdown impact on children'

The Covid inquiry has failed to confirm whether it will examine the closure of schools when it considers the decisions taken by the Government in the early stages of the pandemic. On Wednesday, the inquiry opened its second phase of investigations, which will explore decisions taken by the Prime Minister and the Cabinet, as well as the advice from officials and experts. There will be a particular focus on the first months of 2020 until the first lockdown was imposed in late March. It will later examine decisions taken throughout 2020 until Feb 2022. In a document setting out the provisional scope for module two, the inquiry said it will examine the Government's initial strategies for community testing. It will also look at the decisions behind national lockdowns, local and regional restrictions, circuit breakers, social distancing, working from home and the use of face masks.
1st Sep 2022 - The Daily Telegraph on MSN.com

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 1st Sep 2022

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COVID-19 vaccine opponents slapped with $214,000 in legal costs after failed lawsuit

In dismissing the case in June, Justice Debra Mortimer said it had many flaws. “Their case is a general attack on the government response across Australia to the COVID-19 pandemic through the use of a vaccination program,” she said. “In a likely complex and resource-intensive case such as this, the court must be able to identify the material facts pleaded to support the allegation, or some probative basis in the primary material for the contentions. “Counsel for the applicants did not even attempt to point the court towards one.”
31st Aug 2022 - 7NEWS

Covid-19 inquiry to examine NI Executive's response to pandemic

Article reports that the UK Covid-19 Inquiry has begun examining the Northern Ireland Executive's decision-making in response to the Covid-19 pandemic between early January 2020 and May 2022. It will examine the decision-making of key groups and individuals within the government in Northern Ireland. This will include the first and deputy first ministers and other ministers. Particular attention will be paid to early January 2020 and the start of the first national lockdown in March A preliminary hearing will be held in the autumn.
31st Aug 2022 - BBC News

China's factory activity extends declines as heat, COVID hit output

China's factory activity extended declines in August as new COVID infections, the worst heatwaves in decades and an embattled property sector weighed on production, suggesting the economy will struggle to sustain momentum. The official manufacturing purchasing managers' index (PMI) rose to 49.4 in August from 49.0 in July, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Wednesday. While the PMI slightly beat expectations for 49.2 in a Reuters poll of analysts, it remained below the 50-point mark that separates contraction from growth for the second straight month, suggesting protracted weakness in the sector.
31st Aug 2022 - Reuters

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Low vaccine booster rates are now a key factor in COVID-19 deaths – and racial disparities in booster rates persist

Article reports that more than 450 people are dying of COVID-19 in the U.S. each day as of late August 2022. When COVID-19 vaccines first became available, public officials, community organizations and policymakers mobilized to get shots into arms. These efforts included significant investments in making vaccines accessible to Black, Hispanic, American Indian and Alaska Native populations. These groups experienced exceptionally high COVID-19 death rates early in the pandemic and had low initial vaccine rates. The efforts worked. As of August 2022, vaccination rates for the primary series – or required initial doses of COVID-19 vaccines – for Black and Hispanic people exceeded those of white Americans.
30th Aug 2022 - The Conversation

‘American rebellion’: the lockdown protests that paved the way for the Capitol riots

It started in Michigan. On 15 April 2020, thousands of vehicles convoyed to Lansing and clogged the streets surrounding the state capitol for a protest that had been advertised as “Operation Gridlock”. Drivers leaned on their horns, men with guns got out and walked. Signs warned of revolt. Someone waved an upside-down American flag. Already – nine months before 6 January, seven months before the election, six weeks before a national uprising for police accountability and racial justice – there were a lot of them, and they were angry.
30th Aug 2022 - The Guardian

Supreme Court Justice Rejects NYPD Detective on Vaccine Mandate

US Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor rejected a bid by a New York police detective to block the city’s requirement that employees be vaccinated against Covid-19. Sotomayor made no comment, denying the emergency request from Anthony Marciano without asking the city to file a brief in response. Sotomayor is the justice assigned to handle emergency matters from New York. New York in February fired more than 1,400 municipal workers for not getting vaccinated. Thousands of other employees have filed for religious or medical accommodations. Marciano said in court papers that the city denied his bid for a religious exemption and that he expects officials to reject his appeal as well.
30th Aug 2022 - Bloomberg

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 30th Aug 2022

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Top Thai Hospital Bets on Tourists to Counter Covid Revenue Dip

Bangkok Dusit Medical Services Pcl, Thailand’s biggest private hospital operator, expects a rebound in international patient arrivals to make up for an expected decline in revenue from Covid-19 treatment and services. Foreign patients seeking treatment at Bangkok Dusit’s 53 hospitals in the Thai capital and other tourist hotspots have reached about 90% of the pre-pandemic level, Chief Executive Officer Poramaporn Prasarttong-Osoth said. The recovery in fly-in patients are led by those from the Middle East, Australia, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam. But a slower-than-expected return of European tourists may still weigh on earnings in the second half, especially of hospitals in places such as Phuket, Koh Samui and Pattaya as they serve visitors from the region, she said.
28th Aug 2022 - Bloomberg

China’s Industrial Profit Falls on Covid-19 Measures, Bad Weather

China’s industrial profit dropped in the first seven months of the year, reversing a year-on-year increase in the first half of the year, as sporadic Covid-19 outbreaks and bad weather weighed on the world’s second-largest economy. Industrial profit dropped 1.1% from a year earlier in the January-to-July period, offsetting a 1% increase reported in the first half of the year, the National Bureau of Statistics said Saturday. A record heat wave and drought cut into China’s industrial production, and Beijing recently unveiled tens of billions in economic support for power generation and agriculture.
27th Aug 2022 - The Wall Street Journal

Biden Team Aims for Omicron-Targeted Shots in Arms by Labor Day

The Biden administration plans to begin offering next-generation Covid-19 booster shots as soon as the Labor Day weekend, according to people familiar with the matter, aiming to stave off a fall surge in cases of the disease. Food and Drug Administration regulators are expected to clear the use of Covid-19 vaccines reformulated for omicron variants next week, the people said. They asked not to be identified ahead of an official announcement.
27th Aug 2022 - Bloomberg

The Long Tail of Covid-19 Disinformation

“Two shots, three shots, four shots, five — how many shots will you survive?” Every Saturday afternoon, protesters collect outside Parliament House in Melbourne, then stream down through the city center toward the waterfront. In November, when I moved to the city, those protesters were a tsunami of frustration and anger. They closed off streets and disrupted public transportation, the chants of thousands echoing off the glass-and-stone skyscrapers. These days, the protests are more of a trickle — a few hundred people most weeks, railing against scientific consensus, Covid-19 vaccines and restrictions, the media and the government, among other institutions.
27th Aug 2022 - The New York Times

Three-quarters don’t believe COVID cases will rise

More than three-quarters of Australians expect COVID-19 cases to drop or stay stable, suggesting that the country is getting less spooked by the pandemic.Only 7 per cent of Australians expect COVID numbers to increase in the coming months, down from 20 per cent in the same survey in March.
27th Aug 2022 - Sydney Morning Herald

SEC fines top medical group chief over 2 million baht for 'false' vaccine claims

Dr Boon Vanasin, chairman of Thonburi Healthcare Group (THG), was slapped with a 2.34 million baht fine for allegedly releasing a false statement that could affect THG’s share price or investment decisions. SEC fines top medical group chief over 2 million baht for ‘false’ vaccine claims. Apart from hitting him with a fine, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has also banned Boon from sitting on boards of listed companies for three and half years. SEC said that from July 12 to August 4, 2021, Boon had released statements through several media outlets saying that THG had purchased the mRNA Covid-19 vaccine from Pfizer and that the first lot of 5 million doses were to be delivered within July 2021.
27th Aug 2022 - Nation Thailand

Conservative party hustings: Covid lockdown went too far say Truss and Sunak – video

Liz Truss joined Rishi Sunak, her rival in the Tory leadership contest, in saying the Covid lockdown was too strict when both candidates said school closures during the peak of the pandemic were wrong. At the eleventh of 12 hustings in Norwich, Sunak and Truss talked out policies they would implement on policing and the NHS if they became prime minister
26th Aug 2022 - The Guardian

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 26th Aug 2022

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Novak Djokovic Will Miss U.S. Open Due to Federal Vaccination Policy

Novak Djokovic spent his summer closely monitoring news about restrictions related to the U.S. border. His hope was that the country might relax certain rules about admitting non-citizens unvaccinated against Covid-19 in time for him to play at the U.S. Open. But on Thursday, Djokovic’s time ran out. Three days before play is due to start, he said that he would not be flying to New York. Though the 21-time Grand Slam champion skipping the U.S. Open will change the complexion of the tournament, Djokovic’s withdrawal hardly came as a surprise. Even he had been pessimistic about his chances.
25th Aug 2022 - The Wall Street Journal

House panel: Trump sought to pressure FDA on covid vaccines, treatment

Trump officials repeatedly stalled the Food and Drug Administration’s plan to extend safety studies of coronavirus vaccines in fall 2020, as President Donald Trump pressed the agency for a faster timeline so the vaccines could be authorized before Election Day, according to emails, text messages and interviews by a congressional panel probing the pandemic response. White House officials such as trade adviser Peter Navarro and outside allies such as TV host and physician Mehmet Oz also pressed federal officials in 2020 to authorize the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine as a coronavirus treatment, with Navarro and a deputy working behind the scenes to have a hospital craft a request to the FDA for widespread access to the debunked therapy touted by Trump, the House select subcommittee on the coronavirus crisis concluded in a report released Wednesday.
25th Aug 2022 - The Washington Post

Novak Djokovic confirms he will miss US Open due to Covid vaccine status

Novak Djokovic has announced that he will not play at the US Open due to his vaccine status. The world No 6, who has not been vaccinated against Covid-19, said last month that he was hoping “for some good news from USA” with the country requiring non-citizens to be fully vaccinated against coronavirus to enter. However, a recent update on the US Centers for Disease Control website confirmed the rule will remain in effect for the immediate future. On Thursday, the Serb confirmed he will not play in the tournament.
25th Aug 2022 - The Guardian

Twitter labeled factual information about covid-19 as misinformation

Over the past week, Twitter has flagged dozens of tweets with factual information about covid-19 as misinformation and in some cases has suspended the accounts of doctors, scientists, and patient advocates in response to their posts warning people about the illness’s dangers. Many of the tweets have since had the misinformation labels removed, and the suspended accounts have been restored. But the episode has shaken many scientific and medical professionals, who say Twitter is a key way they try to publicize the continuing risk of covid to a population that has grown weary of more than two years of shifting claims about the illness. In interviews with The Post, Twitter acknowledged the problem. The company removed the labels and restored the accounts after queries about 10 specific tweets and accounts.
25th Aug 2022 - The Washington Post

Rishi Sunak: Covid Scientists Get Too Much Say on Lockdowns Leaving Us 'Screwed'

Scientists on the Government's Sage advisory committee were given too much influence over decisions on coronavirus lockdowns and not enough consideration was given to the social and economic impact, Rishi Sunak has claimed. The former chancellor said he "wasn't allowed to talk about the trade-off" during the early phases of the pandemic and suggested the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies edited its minutes to hide dissenting opinions. Mr Sunak said "we shouldn't have empowered the scientists in the way we did" and suggested he had been left "furious" during a meeting because colleagues refused to acknowledge the wider impact lockdowns was having.
25th Aug 2022 - Bloomberg

UK leadership candidate Sunak attacks COVID lockdown response

Former finance minister Rishi Sunak, one of two candidates vying to be Britain's next premier, criticised the way outgoing Prime Minister Boris Johnson handled the COVID-19 pandemic, saying it had been a mistake to "empower" scientists and that the downsides of lockdowns were suppressed.
25th Aug 2022 - Reuters UK

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U.S. first lady Jill Biden tests positive for rebound case of COVID-19

U.S. first lady Jill Biden has tested positive in a rebound case of COVID-19 but is not experiencing any symptoms, while President Joe Biden continues to test negative for the virus, officials said on Wednesday. Jill Biden tested positive on Wednesday by antigen testing, following a negative test the previous day, and the White House's medical unit has notified close contacts, her deputy communications director said.
24th Aug 2022 - Reuters

Misinformation is a common thread between the COVID-19 and HIV/AIDS pandemics – with deadly consequences

Since health officials confirmed the first COVID-19 cases, misinformation has spread just as quickly as the virus. Social media may have made the amount, variety and speed of misinformation seem unprecedented, but COVID-19 isn’t the first pandemic where false and harmful information has set back public health. Misinformation altered how people trusted their governments and doctors during the 1918 influenza pandemic. It fueled the 19th century smallpox anti-vaccine movements through some of the same arguments as those currently used against the COVID-19 vaccine. What sets the COVID-19 pandemic apart, however, is the sheer magnitude of damaging disinformation put in circulation around the world. Data shows that regions and countries where disinformation thrived experienced more lethal pandemic waves despite vaccine availability.
24th Aug 2022 - The Conversation Indonesia

Djokovic missing U.S. Open over COVID vaccine status would be 'a joke' - McEnroe

Four-times U.S. Open winner John McEnroe said it would be "a joke" if Novak Djokovic is unable to compete at the U.S. tournament starting later this month due to his COVID-19 vaccination status. Djokovic has refused to take the vaccine and appears set to miss out on the year's last Grand Slam due to current U.S. rules that require travellers to show proof of full vaccination to board flights to and enter the United States.
24th Aug 2022 - Reuters

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 24th Aug 2022

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People less willing to comply with Covid-19 rules, or listen to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern according to Government survey

New Zealanders are complying less with Covid-19 rules as people's attention shifts to issues like the cost of living, according to research from the Government's own Covid survey. The survey shows a significant drop off in the willingness of people to trust the Prime Minister as the main source of truth about the pandemic. People remain confident in their ability to identify misinformation, and twice as many people use mainstream media for Covid information as use social media. At least every eight weeks, the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet receives a survey of how New Zealanders feel about Covid-19. It looks at how much people are willing to comply with health rules and whether they trust health messaging on the virus, along with broader health messaging.
24th Aug 2022 - New Zealand Herald

WA police officer Ben Falconer loses legal challenge against COVID-19 vaccine mandate

Ben Falconer lost his legal case against WA's vaccine mandate. The judge found the measure was justified in a pandemic. He said the vaccine mandate was supported by experts
23rd Aug 2022 - ABC News

UK Covid inquiry bill already at £85m as government hires top law firms

Bills for the Covid-19 public inquiry have already hit £85m despite hearings not starting until next year, after the government hired top legal and public relations firms. Departments making key decisions during the pandemic have hired leading law firms on multimillion-pound contracts alongside specialist firms tasked with sifting through millions of sensitive documents and emails for disclosure. As current and former ministers prepare to face intense scrutiny of their actions when hearings begin in earnest in summer 2023, the Department of Health and Social Care, which oversaw controversial policies on admissions of potentially infected hospital patients into care homes, has hired Pinsent Masons on a £2.2m legal services contract, and the Cabinet Office has hired the same firm on a £7m “public inquiry response unit co-partnering contract”.
23rd Aug 2022 - The Guardian

US CDC announces major changes after criticism of its responses to covid-19 and monkeypox

The US national public health agency, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), will make major changes to its structure and systems in the light of a review of its emergency response to the covid-19 pandemic. Announcing the changes on 17 August, Rochelle Walensky, CDC director, admitted that the agency had failed in its responses to covid-19 and monkeypox. She said that the proposed changes would strengthen and speed the CDC’s response to public health threats and improve its communications. “For 75 years CDC and public health have been preparing for covid-19, and in our big moments, our performance did not reliably meet expectations,” she said. “As a long time admirer of this agency and a champion for public health, I want us all to do better, and it starts with CDC leading the way.” The CDC has been criticised for releasing a flawed test early in the covid-19 pandemic that delayed accurate reporting of cases; confusing advice about social distancing, masking, and vaccinations; and poor communications. Scott Gottlieb, former head of the Food and Drug Administration, also criticised the CDC’s response to the monkeypox outbreak for being slow and having problems with testing and vaccination
23rd Aug 2022 - The BMJ

Mexico to protest to U.N. over missing COVAX vaccines

Mexico will file a complaint to the United Nations over the failure to deliver vaccines against COVID-19 that the government bought under a program backed by the World Health Organization (WHO), President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Monday. Mexico was owed $75 million, Lopez Obrador said, for COVID-19 vaccines meant to be supplied under COVAX, which was established by WHO during the pandemic to help distribute vaccines equitably across the world.
23rd Aug 2022 - Reuters

Anti-mandate protesters converge on New Zealand Parliament

About 2,000 protesters upset with the government’s pandemic response converged Tuesday on New Zealand’s Parliament — but there was no repeat of the occupation six months ago in which protesters camped on Parliament grounds for more than three weeks. Many of the protesters said they had no intention of trying to stay. And police ensured a repeat was unlikely by closing streets, erecting barricades and banning protesters from bringing structures onto Parliament’s grounds. The previous protest created significant disruptions in the capital and ended in chaos as retreating protesters set fire to tents and hurled rocks at police. This time there was also a counter-protest, with several hundred people gathering in front of Parliament as the main march entered the grounds. The two sides shouted insults but a line of police officers kept them physically separated.
23rd Aug 2022 - The Associated Press

Part of Billionaire Soon-Shiong's Africa Vaccine Plant For Rent

Part of a Covid-19 vaccine manufacturing plant in South Africa launched by US biotech billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong and President Cyril Ramaphosa is available to rent after a plunge in demand for the shots. The facility in Cape Town, announced in January after the continent had struggled to secure vaccines, is meant to produce a billion doses a year by 2025. One of the two buildings in the A-grade facility with modern offices and a warehouse is available for lease as the owners of the campus wait for “their production requirements to scale up,” according to Shane Howe, Broll Property Group’s regional head of industrial broking.
23rd Aug 2022 - Bloomberg

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NGOs call on Covid-19 Inquiry chair to probe global impact of UK vaccine buying

A string of NGOs, including Oxfam, have called on the chair of the Government’s Covid-19 Inquiry to probe the impacts of UK pandemic policy on the global stage. In a letter to chair Baroness Hallett today, the NGOs said: “Given the inquiry’s focus on the impact of the pandemic on inequalities, this should include how this has manifested globally and the UK’s role in exacerbating or mitigating these differences.” Of particular interest is the impact of pre-purchasing high volumes of vaccines on global supply, as well as “the UK’s role in weakening the provisions of the Intellectual Property waiver”, they wrote. Signatories also include Global Justice Now, Save the Children UK, People’s Vaccine Alliance, RESULTS UK, Just Treatment, Health Poverty Action, MSF UK and STOPAIDS. Maaza Seyoum, Global South convenor at the People’s Vaccine Alliance, has called pledges to vaccinate the world from leaders of wealthy countries and pharmaceutical firms a “little more than rhetoric”.
22nd Aug 2022 - City A.M.

Covid-19: People Before Profit MLA slams Health Minister over lateral flow test changes in NI

An MLA has demanded free coronavirus testing be reinstated after most people in Northern Ireland were told they no longer need to use lateral flow tests. People Before Profit’s Gerry Carroll slammed Health Minister Robin Swann for introducing the changes which came into effect on Monday. He described the move, which restricts access to the most vulnerable and frontline healthcare staff, as “short sighted” and warned more people will be put at risk of infection. “Covid-19 is still a threat to the public and the Health Minister can’t simply ignore the problem,” Mr Carroll said.
22nd Aug 2022 - Belfast Telegraph

NGOs call on Covid-19 Inquiry chair to probe global impact of UK vaccine buying

In a letter to chair Baroness Hallett today, the NGOs said: “Given the inquiry’s focus on the impact of the pandemic on inequalities, this should include how this has manifested globally and the UK’s role in exacerbating or mitigating these differences.” Of particular interest is the impact of pre-purchasing high volumes of vaccines on global supply, as well as “the UK’s role in weakening the provisions of the Intellectual Property waiver”, they wrote. Signatories also include Global Justice Now, Save the Children UK, People’s Vaccine Alliance, RESULTS UK, Just Treatment, Health Poverty Action, MSF UK and STOPAIDS. Maaza Seyoum, Global South convenor at the People’s Vaccine Alliance, has called pledges to vaccinate the world from leaders of wealthy countries and pharmaceutical firms a “little more than rhetoric”.
22nd Aug 2022 - City AM on MSN.com

Japan PM Kishida's support tumbles, hit by questions over church and COVID

Support for Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's government has tumbled, battered by questions about the ruling party's ties to the Unification Church and its response to the coronavirus pandemic, according to a public opinion poll.
22nd Aug 2022 - Reuters

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Singapore to end most rules on masks indoors as Covid-19 wave eases

Singapore will scrap rules for wearing masks in most indoor settings as the country moves further toward casting off all its pandemic-era curbs. Masks will only be required on public transport and healthcare facilities like hospitals and nursing homes after the easing, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said in his annual National Day Rally speech on Sunday. Details will be released later, he said. The masking requirement is one of the last few virus curbs in the Southeast Asian city-state after authorities lifted most rules including limits on gatherings, and testing for incoming vaccinated travelers. Outdoor masks were made optional earlier this year as part of a pivot toward a strategy of living with Covid-19.
21st Aug 2022 - The Edge Markets MY

Japan PM Kishida infected with COVID, recuperating - govt

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has tested positive for COVID-19, forcing him to cancel a planned trip to Tunisia to attend a key conference on African development, a person close to him said on Sunday. Kishida, who has just returned from a week-long vacation, will work from his residence from Monday and will join the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) online, the source said, asking not to be identified because he is not authorised to talk to the media.
21st Aug 2022 - Reuters

National Day Rally 2022: PM Lee to speak about Covid-19, how Singapore can secure its future

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong will speak about Singapore's experience during the Covid-19 pandemic and set out how the country can secure its future at the National Day Rally on Sunday (Aug 21). He said this in a brief trailer posted on Facebook on Friday, which showed the preparations for his speech at ITE College Central in Ang Mo Kio. "When I first spoke (at ITE College Central) in 2013, I said the venue underscored my commitment to investing in everyone in this country, and emphasised that Singapore was at a turning point. Today, this is truer than ever," he said. PM Lee noted that this is the first year since the onset of Covid-19 when he could do the rally at full-scale. He had delivered his rally speech in a Mediacorp studio in 2021, while the event was called off in 2020.
20th Aug 2022 - The Straits Times

Police call for Bolsonaro to be charged for spreading Covid misinformation

Brazilian federal police have called for President Jair Bolsonaro to be charged with spreading fake information about a coronavirus outbreak that has killed more than 680,000 of his citizens, including bogus claims of a link between Aids and Covid vaccines. Bolsonaro’s anti-scientific response to a disease he called “a bit of a cold” has been internationally condemned and the subject of a congressional inquiry in which the far-right populist was accused of deliberately delaying vaccine purchases and promoting quack “cures” such as hydroxychloroquine.
19th Aug 2022 - The Guardian

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French fire service official tells of death threats over Covid vaccine stance

A French fire service official says he has received death threats and been harassed after calling for firefighters who have refused the Covid vaccine to remain suspended. France’s interior minister, Gérald Darmanin, condemned the alleged social media threats against Eric Brocardi, who has reported them to police. Cmdr Brocardi, who is spokesperson for France’s national federation of firefighters (FNSPF), came under attack after saying that in his view, full-time and voluntary firefighters suspended for refusing the vaccine should not be allowed to return to the service.
18th Aug 2022 - The Guardian

Covid-19: The government's gaslighting has left vulnerable patients feeling forgotten

McLellan and Abbasi say that we must “face the fact that the nation’s attempt to ‘live with covid’ is the straw that is breaking the NHS’s back.”1 The government’s unwillingness to confront the current reality of covid is also directly impacting some of the most vulnerable patients.
18th Aug 2022 - The BMJ

Margaret Ferrier Admits 'Recklessly' Exposing Public To Risk Of Covid-19 With Train Travel

The former SNP MP pleaded guilty to breaking Covid rules by travelling between London and Glasgow when she knew she had the virus.
18th Aug 2022 - HuffPost UK

CDC Director Outlines Restructuring Plans After Agency’s Covid-19 Response Fell Short

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will be restructured to strengthen its response to public-health threats, the agency’s director said, acknowledging shortcomings in its fight against the Covid-19 pandemic. CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said Wednesday that she intended to improve the agency’s communication, timeliness and accountability. The CDC has at times amended its guidance on masking, isolation and other mitigation efforts in ways that spurred confusion or lagged behind the trajectory of the pandemic. The agency has faced new criticism recently for its response to the monkeypox outbreak. “In our big moment, our performance did not reliably meet expectations,” Dr. Walensky said. “I want us all to do better, and it starts with CDC leading the way.”
18th Aug 2022 - The Wall Street Journal

Brazil federal police accuse Bolsonaro of COVID-linked scaremongering

Brazil's federal police on Wednesday accused President Jair Bolsonaro of discouraging mask use during the pandemic and falsely suggesting that people who got vaccinated against COVID-19 ran the risk of contracting AIDS. In a document sent to Brazil's Supreme Court, a police delegate said Bolsonaro's effort to discourage compliance with pandemic-linked health measures amounted to a crime, while his effort to link AIDS with vaccination amounted to a misdemeanor.
18th Aug 2022 - Reuters

Planning for COVID-19 vaccine rollout left too late, Commonwealth failed to adequately engage states, damning review finds

A review by the Auditor-General found the Coalition left planning for Australia's COVID vaccine rollout too late. It also found the former Morrison government failed to adequately engage with the states and territories before the rollout began The Department of Health has agreed to the recommendations.
18th Aug 2022 - ABC news

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The Morrison government's COVID-19 vaccine rollout missed key targets, major review finds

An auditor-general's report has criticised the previous coalition government's COVID-19 vaccine rollout for missing key targets. The report said while about 90 per cent of the eligible population were vaccinated by the end of 2021, the rollout was not implemented effectively. None of the five timeline targets set by the government were met, including the rollouts to aged care, the vulnerable and Indigenous people.
17th Aug 2022 - SBS

Morrison government failed to provide priority for at-risk groups in vaccine rollout, report says

The Morrison government botched the early planning of Australia’s Covid vaccine rollout, failing to provide priority for at-risk groups including aged and disability care, and First Nations people, according to a new report. The Australian National Audit Office report, released on Thursday, criticised the previous administration for not beginning to plan the rollout with states and territories until November 2020. It recommended a more comprehensive review and will likely fuel calls for a Covid-19 royal commission. The health minister, Mark Butler, seized on the findings, which he said confirmed “for much of 2021, Australia had one of the slowest vaccine rollouts in the developed world”.
17th Aug 2022 - The Guardian

California appeals court rejects COVID-19 fines for church

A California church that defied safety regulations during the COVID-19 pandemic by holding large religious services won't have to pay about $200,000 in fines, a state appeals court ruled. Calvary Chapel San Jose and its pastors were held in contempt of court and fined in 2020 and 2021 for violating state and county limits on indoor public gatherings. The rules were aimed at preventing the spread through close contract of the virus, which has caused more than 10 million confirmed cases and more than 93,500 deaths since the pandemic began in mid-2020, according to state public health figures.
17th Aug 2022 - ABC News

Senior doctor tells Newmarch House COVID-19 inquest of his 'crisis day' as the nursing home outbreak unfolded

19 residents died during the COVID-19 outbreak at Newmarch House. A three-week inquest into the circumstances surrounding the deaths has concluded, with findings due early next year. Lawyer Emily Clarke says Anglicare should have taken control of the situation as the operator of the home
17th Aug 2022 - ABC News

Planning for COVID-19 vaccine rollout left too late, Commonwealth failed to adequately engage states, damning review finds

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Albanese confirms there will be a Royal Commission into COVID-19 response

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese “made clear” there will be a Royal Commission into Australia’s COVID-19 response, says Sky News Political Editor Andrew Clennell. “Just not now,” Mr Clennell said.
16th Aug 2022 - Sky News

AFL fines Sydney, St Kilda, Richmond, Brisbane and Collingwood for COVID-19 breaches

An audit by the AFL has revealed five clubs breached COVID protocols through the season. Each club has been hit with a fine, with Sydney's $100,000 penalty the heaviest. The breaches are in regard to discrepancies surrounding RATs
16th Aug 2022 - ABC News

Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla Tests Positive for Covid With Mild Symptoms

Pfizer Inc. Chief Executive Officer Albert Bourla said he tested positive for Covid-19 and is receiving Paxlovid, the treatment made by his company. Bourla said he’s feeling well although experiencing very mild symptoms, according to a statement Monday. He’s received four doses of Covid vaccine, also made by Pfizer in collaboration with BioNTech SE. The CEO is one of many people who have contracted Covid despite receiving full vaccination and boosting. The mutating coronavirus has continually found ways to at least partially evade immunity induced by shots and previous infections, although usually causing milder cases.
16th Aug 2022 - Bloomberg

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Australia's PM says former PM Morrison took on secret ministerial roles during COVID

Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has sought legal advice following reports that his predecessor Scott Morrison secretly held key ministerial roles during the COVID-19 pandemic, duplicating some portfolios. Ministers are traditionally sworn in at a ceremony by the governor-general but that did not happen in the case of the additional roles, and Albanese said it was unprecedented that key cabinet members were not aware of the appointments.
15th Aug 2022 - Reuters

China Surveillance in Xinjiang, Tibet Used to Prevent Shanghai-Like Covid Unrest

To combat fresh outbreaks of Covid-19 in outlying areas like Xinjiang and Tibet, Chinese authorities are drawing on a security apparatus previously used to quell dissent against authorities in Beijing. Broad surveillance measures used over the years against Tibetan Buddhists and mainly Muslim Uyghurs, both minority groups in China, are helping enforce lockdown rules among people long at risk of arbitrary detention. That has helped ensure there’s no public displays of anger like those seen earlier this year during the monthslong lockdown in the financial hub of Shanghai. “It’s ironic but very convenient for the CCP that it first constructed Uyghur ethno-national identity as a religious extremist ‘thought virus,’ took draconian steps to eradicate it, and then a real virus came along for which similar techniques were useful,” said James Millward, professor of history at Georgetown University, referring to the Chinese Communist Party.
15th Aug 2022 - Bloomberg

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China Removes Three Tibet Health Officials From Posts Over Covid

China removed three health officials in Tibet from their posts for failing to prevent the spread of the recent Covid outbreak. The sacked officials include the party secretary and director of the municipal health commission of Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, as well as the party secretary of the city’s center for disease control and prevention, according to a statement published by the local government Sunday. The dismissals were the result of the officials “failing to implement Covid prevention and control work well,” according to the statement. Tibet last Monday reported four Covid-19 infections, the first sign of the virus in the isolated region since a single case was found at the start of the pandemic in January 2020. On Friday, Lhasa -- currently under partial lockdown -- logged 81 local cases.
14th Aug 2022 - Bloomberg

Creighton students' COVID vaccine mandate appeal dismissed

The Nebraska Supreme Court on Friday dismissed an appeal by a handful of Creighton University students who sought to be exempt from the private Catholic school’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate last year, arguing that getting the shots would violate their religious beliefs against abortion. The state’s high court said it didn’t have jurisdiction, citing its 150-year stance that people can’t appeal orders denying or granting temporary injunctions. In this case, a judge last year declined to issue a temporary injunction that would have blocked Creighton University’s requirement that all students get the COVID-19 vaccination.
13th Aug 2022 - The Associated Press

Emergent receives FDA warning letter over quality control issues

Emergent BioSolutions Inc said on Friday it had received a warning letter from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, citing certain deficiencies at the contract drugmaker's manufacturing facility in Baltimore, Maryland.
13th Aug 2022 - Reuters

North Korea lifts mask mandate, distancing rules after declaring COVID victory

North Korea has dropped a face mask mandate and other social distancing rules as leader Kim Jong Un declared victory over COVID-19 this week, state media said on Saturday, three months after its first acknowledgement of the virus outbreak in the isolated country.
13th Aug 2022 - Reuters

A scientist in the public eye has taken her own life. This has to be a wake-up call

Lisa-Maria Kellermayr, an Austrian GP, was a doctor who dedicated her life to her patients and was vocal about the risks of Covid-19 on Twitter and in the media. She had endured months of death threats from Covid conspiracy theorists and anti-vaxxers. Colleagues expressed frustration with the lack of support she received for dealing with the daily abuse. Last month, Kellermayr took her own life. When the news of Kellermayr’s death was shared among the medical community, the reaction was one of sadness but little surprise. During the pandemic, scientists have suffered huge amounts of abuse and blame while just trying to do their jobs. I suffered far less than many of my colleagues, but still got my share of online attacks during the pandemic.
12th Aug 2022 - The Guardian

Hacker offers to sell data of 48.5 million users of Shanghai's COVID app

A hacker has claimed to have obtained the personal information of 48.5 million users of a COVID health code mobile app run by the city of Shanghai, the second claim of a breach of the Chinese financial hub's data in just over a month. The hacker with the username as "XJP" posted an offer to sell the data for $4,000 on the hacker forum Breach Forums on Wednesday. The hacker provided a sample of the data including the phone numbers, names and Chinese identification numbers and health code status of 47 people.
12th Aug 2022 - Reuters

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Thailand's hotel-based COVID-19 isolation facilities to be phased out from September

Beginning September 1st, all hotel-based COVID-19 isolation services will be phased out and private and state hospitals will get direct access to supplies of antiviral medication, as the country is transitioning into a post-pandemic period. Prof. Dr. Udom Kachinthorn, chairman of the national reform committee on public health said today (Thursday) that both private and state hospitals can claim refunds from the government for the drugs prescribed to COVID -19 patients. He said that, as COVID-19 is to be re-classified as an “infectious disease under watch”, instead of a “dangerous infectious disease” on October 1st, pharmacies should have access to antiviral drugs as well, pending an announcement to be issued by the Thai Food and Drug Administration (TFDA), adding that drug stores can dispense the medications to patients, but they need a doctor’s prescription to prevent misuse.
12th Aug 2022 - Thai PBS World

Flush with wins, finally COVID-free, Biden to hit the road ahead of U.S. midterms

President Joe Biden plans to travel across the United States in the coming weeks to tout a series of legislative wins on climate change, gun control and drug pricing in a bid to boost his party's chances in the looming midterm elections, White House officials said on Thursday. His Democrats face an uphill battle to retain their narrow control of the House of Representatives and Senate in the Nov. 8 elections. Biden, whose public approval rating rose this week to its highest since early June, plans to use the recent victories in Congress to rally support for Democratic candidates, White House officials Kate Bedingfield and Anita Dunn wrote in a memo distributed to allies in the party and shared with reporters.
11th Aug 2022 - Reuters

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Cathay Pacific narrows loss but COVID rules on crew cloud outlook

Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd said Hong Kong's strict COVID rules for air crew were crimping the airline's ability to exploit rising demand for travel, even as its first-half loss narrowed to HK$5 billion ($636.98 million). The carrier is falling behind traditional rival Singapore Airlines Ltd (SIA) in restoring international capacity as roster preparations are complicated by a quarantine requirement for Hong Kong-based crew of passenger planes to spend three nights in hotels on their return from each trip. The financial hub is also one of a few places in the world, along with mainland China and Taiwan, to still require COVID-19 quarantine for arriving passengers, though such hotel stays are to be cut to three days from seven, officials said this week.
11th Aug 2022 - Yahoo Finance

Pharmacies, GPs at odds over antivirals

A push to allow access to COVID-19 treatments without a prescription could jeopardise patient safety, the general practitioners body warns. There are two oral antivirals available in Australia, and while early treatment is critical to lessen the effects of the virus, access is restricted. All Australians over 70 and those over 50 at risk of severe disease from COVID-19 are eligible to access the treatments, with patients requiring a prescription from a GP or a nurse practitioner.
11th Aug 2022 - The West Australian

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Sperm not affected nine months after COVID-19 mRNA vaccination

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines are effective in reducing deaths due to infection with the causative severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Furthermore, widespread vaccination against COVID-19 has successfully reduced infection rates and severe COVID-19 outcomes. SARS-CoV-2 infection has previously been reported to adversely affect male fertility, as demonstrated by a temporary reduction in sperm production. Although current COVID-19 messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) vaccines have been associated with minimal or no effect on male fertility, concerns regarding their potential reproductive toxicity remain a major cause of vaccine hesitancy.
9th Aug 2022 - News-Medical.Net

Most Parents Are Saying No to Covid-19 Vaccines for Toddlers

Parents are having their say about the Covid-19 vaccines for children under 5, and for most, the answer so far is no. More than a month after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended shots for about 17.4 million children ages 6 months through 4 years, about 4% to 5% of them have received a shot, according to the most recent agency data and population estimates from the American Academy of Pediatrics. By contrast, the vaccination rate for children 5 to 11 years reached about 18% a month after the CDC first recommended shots last November. The rate now stands at about 38%. “The rates of uptake are just not what we would hope,” said Brannon Traxler, director of public health for the Department of Health and Environmental Control in South Carolina, where recent data show about 2% of the state’s babies and toddlers have received at least one dose. “This is a common theme across the country in many places.”
8th Aug 2022 - The Wall Street Journal

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Australia cricketer wins in Commonwealth Games gold medal match after positive Covid test

Tahlia McGrath was allowed to play for Australia in their Commonwealth Games T20 cricket final against India despite testing positive for Covid-19. The all-rounder is the No1 ranked side’s hottest property and Aussie chiefs were desperate that she started the Edgbaston showpiece. Despite experiencing “mild” symptoms, and following consultation with health experts, team and match officials delaying the toss by 10 minutes, the International Cricket Council gave her the green light. Under Games Covid rules, affected players across all disciplines are assessed on a case-by-case basis. McGrath, who contributed 126 runs and eight wickets to Australia’s previous four matches, sat apart from her team-mates in the dressing room wearing a mask.
7th Aug 2022 - The Mirror

Biden Tests Negative for Covid-19 After Rebound Case, White House Doctor Says

President Biden tested negative for Covid-19 Saturday after a rebound case, but will remain in isolation until he has a second negative test, his physician said in a letter. Dr. Kevin O’Connor said in a letter made public by the White House that Mr. Biden tested negative on an antigen test and “continues to feel very well.” A White House official said a second test was planned for Sunday morning. Mr. Biden first tested positive for Covid-19 on July 21 and tested negative five days later following treatment with the antiviral drug Paxlovid. But he tested positive again on July 30, in what his doctor described as a rebound case. Following the positive test, Mr. Biden returned to isolation at the White House residence.
7th Aug 2022 - The Wall Street Journal

Biden tests negative for COVID, White House physician says

President Joe Biden has tested negative for COVID-19 after testing positive with a breakthrough case for days, the White House physician said on Saturday. The Democratic president, "in an abundance of caution," will remain in isolation until he tests negative on a second test, Dr. Kevin O'Connor said in a memo released by the White House. Biden, 79, emerged from isolation at the White House on July 27 after testing positive for COVID-19 for the first time on July 21. He tested positive again on July 30 in what O'Connor described as a "rebound" case seen in a small percentage of people who take the antiviral drug Paxlovid.
7th Aug 2022 - Reuters

Prada Navigates Tricky COVID Curbs to Hold Beijing Show

Prada on Friday became the first major luxury house to host a show in China this year, navigating strict COVID curbs to send models down a catwalk in a historic Beijing mansion hotel, a move aimed at underscoring its commitment to the market. Livestreamed on multiple online platforms including Weibo, more than 400 celebrities and customers attended the event held by the Italian group in the Prince Jun’s Mansion Hotel, where it showcased its men and women's fall and winter collections. Shows in Chinese cities by global luxury giants, from Prada to LVMH's Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior, used to be a familiar sight and continued even in 2020 and 2021 after China curbed the spread of the virus relatively quickly thanks to tough border curbs. But much has changed in 2022 with China's continued insistence on a "dynamic zero COVID" policy that uses harsh measures to cut any virus transmission chain, even as the rest of the world opens up in the face of infectious Omicron variants.
6th Aug 2022 - U.S. News & World Report

Three years in prison for man who threatened US Covid-19 advisor Fauci

A West Virginia man has been sentenced to three years in prison for threatening top US Covid-19 advisor Anthony Fauci and other officials over their handling of the pandemic. Thomas Connally, 57, of Snowshoe, pleaded guilty to making email threats between December 2020 and July 2021, the US attorney's office for Maryland said. One of the emails threatened that Fauci and his family would be "dragged into the street, beaten to death, and set on fire," the attorney's office said in a statement. US District Judge Paula Xinis sentenced Connally on Thursday to 37 months in federal prison followed by three years of supervised release.
6th Aug 2022 - News24

Gas company to pay $184000 to worker with cancer fired over COVID risk

A Pennsylvania gas well service company will pay $184,000 to settle claims that it unlawfully fired a longtime employee because his cancer made him more vulnerable to COVID-19, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said on Thursday. The settlement with Gas Field Specialists Inc (GFS) was announced by the EEOC a day after it was filed in Scranton, Pennsylvania federal court, ending a 2021 lawsuit by the agency. The company denied wrongdoing.
5th Aug 2022 - Reuters

Japan PM Kishida to reshuffle cabinet as COVID, Taiwan in focus

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said on Saturday he will reshuffle his cabinet next week to address mounting issues including Taiwan tensions, COVID-19 and economic stimulus measures to counter inflation. "We need to set off a new formation as soon as possible considering the various issues," he told a news conference in Hiroshima after attending a commemoration for the 77th anniversary of the world's first atomic bombing in the city.
5th Aug 2022 - Reuters

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Northern Ireland families who lost loved ones to Covid-19 mount legal bid for central role in UK inquiry into pandemic

Families who lost loved ones to Covid-19 in Northern Ireland are mounting a legal bid to secure a central role at the UK-wide inquiry into the pandemic. The tribunal has been set up to examine the response of government and impact of the public health emergency. Lawyers representing campaign group Northern Ireland Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice confirmed they are applying for core participant status at the hearings. A statement issued by the group said: “It is difficult to conceive of a group who have been more tragically affected by the pandemic. “Our key objectives are to secure answers and accountability for the deaths of our loved ones and to learn lessons to help save lives in the future and the most effective means of achieving this is by participating in the Covid-19 Public Inquiry.
4th Aug 2022 - Belfast Telegraph

Calls to rethink 'immoral' removal of Covid-19 sick pay policies

Nurses are among those urging governments across the UK to reinstate special Covid-19 sick pay policies for NHS staff and are appealing for support from the profession and the public via an online petition. The petition, which demands that special Covid-19 sick pay is reintroduced, has received more than 38,000 signatures in just under a month. It was launched by midwife Maria Esslinger-Raven on behalf of health professionals like herself who have long Covid.
4th Aug 2022 - Nursing Times

Austrian doctors speak out after suicide of GP following Covid threats

Austrian medical representatives have called for greater protection for doctors after a GP who faced months of violent threats from anti-vaccination activists and pandemic conspiracy theorists took her own life. Lisa-Maria Kellermayr was found dead in her practice in the lakeside resort of Seewalchen am Attersee on Friday. Prosecutors told the media they found three suicide notes and were not planning to carry out an autopsy. Her death prompted a wave of vigils and demonstrations. There have also been calls for laws against bullying and psychological warfare to be tightened, including making it easier to prosecute perpetrators in other EU countries, after at least two of the people believed to have targeted Kellermayr with death threats were identified as coming from Germany.
2nd Aug 2022 - The Guardian

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Capital records five deaths as Covid cases cross 2000 mark

The capital reported 2,073 fresh cases of Covid-19 Wednesday, with the incidence crossing the 2,000-mark for the first time in 71 days since February 4 when there were 2,272 cases recorded as the omicron variant-driven wave was receding in the capital. The positivity rate — the proportion of samples tested that return positive — stood at 11.64% on Wednesday, according to the daily health bulletin released by the Delhi government. The average positivity rate over the last three days is 11.23%, which is also the highest since the third wave waned in the city.
4th Aug 2022 - The Indian Express

Tennis-Djokovic likely to miss U.S. Open over COVID-19 vaccine status

Djokovic has refused to take the COVID-19 vaccine yet the 21-times Grand Slam winner remains on the entry lists for the ATP 1000 events in Montreal and Cincinnati that serve as tune-ups for the Aug. 29-Sept. 11 U.S. Open in New York. In the case of the U.S. Open, which does not have a vaccine mandate, organisers previously said that per the Grand Slam Rule Book, all eligible players are entered into the main draw based on their ranking 42 days prior to the first Monday of the event. U.S. Open organisers also said that while they do not have a vaccination mandate in place for players, they will respect the U.S. government's position regarding travel into the country for unvaccinated non-U.S. citizens.
3rd Aug 2022 - Reuters on MSN.com

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Austria mourns suicide of doctor targeted by anti-COVID vaccine campaigners

Djokovic likely to miss U.S. Open over COVID-19 vaccine status

There is a petition circulating to allow Novak Djokovic to play at the U.S. Open but the Serbian appears likely to miss the entire North American hardcourt swing barring a sudden change in COVID-19 protocols in the United States and Canada. Djokovic has refused to take the COVID-19 vaccine yet the 21-times Grand Slam winner remains on the entry lists for the ATP 1000 events in Montreal and Cincinnati that serve as tune-ups for the Aug. 29-Sept. 11 U.S. Open in New York.
2nd Aug 2022 - Reuters

Thousands of small firms go bust owing millions in bounce back Covid loans

More than 16,000 businesses which took out a type of government-backed Covid loan have gone bust without paying the money back, the BBC has found. Hundreds of directors, who got loans they were not entitled to, have also been disqualified. The cost to the taxpayer of these insolvencies could be as much as £500m, and is likely to grow as more companies go under. Questions are now being asked about what is being done to recoup the money. The figures, obtained by the BBC under a Freedom of Information request, have been described as "shocking" by a former head of the Serious Fraud Office.
2nd Aug 2022 - BBC News

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Will anti-vaccine activism in the USA reverse global goals?

In the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, anti-vaccine activism in the USA accelerated, amplified and formed an alliance with political groups and even extremists. An organized, well-funded and empowered anti-science movement now threatens to spill over and threaten all childhood immunizations in the USA and globally. Many countries now face declining immunization rates as a result of anti-vaccine activism. In the case of the USA, an anti-vaccine movement that began with false assertions linking vaccines to autism accelerated roughly a decade ago in Texas (where I live and work) around a libertarian framework known as health freedom2. At present, many conservative elected leaders in the US House of Representatives actively promote this health freedom anti-vaccine agenda, as do several US senators, sitting governors and federal judges. Far-right extremist groups such as the Proud Boys march at anti-vaccine rallies.
1st Aug 2022 - Nature.com

How Some Parents Changed Their Politics in the Pandemic

They waved signs that read “Defeat the mandates” and “No vaccines.” They chanted “Protect our kids” and “Our kids, our choice.” Almost everyone in the crowd of more than three dozen was a parent. And as they protested on a recent Friday in the Bay Area suburb of Orinda, Calif., they had the same refrain: They were there for their children. Most had never been to a political rally before. But after seeing their children isolated and despondent early in the coronavirus pandemic, they despaired, they said. On Facebook, they found other worried parents who sympathized with them. They shared notes and online articles — many of them misleading — about the reopening of schools and the efficacy of vaccines and masks. Soon, those issues crowded out other concerns.
1st Aug 2022 - The New York Times

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 1st Aug 2022

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China's factory activity contracts unexpectedly in July as COVID flares up

China's factory activity contracted unexpectedly in July after bouncing back from COVID-19 lockdowns the month before, as fresh virus flare-ups and a darkening global outlook weighed on demand, a survey showed on Sunday. The official manufacturing purchasing managers' Index (PMI) fell to 49.0 in July from 50.2 in June, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said, below the 50-point mark that separates contraction from growth and the lowest in three months.
31st Jul 2022 - Reuters

Government's slow COVID-19 response worsened health inequalities, warns BMA

The final instalment of a BMA review that will be submitted to the public inquiry on the pandemic also said that disabled people across the UK were more likely to die of COVID-19 than non-disabled people, and also to experience worse mental health. The BMA said the UK entered the pandemic ‘on the back foot’ because of underfunding of public health and an absence of cross-government accountability exacerbating health inequalities. BMA chair Professor Philip Banfield blamed the tardiness of the government’s response to COVID-19 for worsening health inequalities.
29th Jul 2022 - GP online

Over Half of Brits Receive More in Benefits Than They Pay in Tax During Pandemic

More than half of Britons received more in welfare than they paid in tax last year as the government response to the pandemic drove a big reduction in inequality, according to the Office for National Statistics. A value-added-tax cut, increased spending on welfare and health, and a steep reduction in household consumption meant that 54.2% of individuals took more support from the state than they contributed in the first year of the pandemic to March 2021. The ONS said it was “both the greatest proportion and the largest annual increase” since records began in 1977. In 2020, 47.5% were net recipients. Income support programs, such as furlough, were not a benefit.
29th Jul 2022 - Bloomberg

Austria mourns suicide of doctor targetted by anti-COVID vaccine campaigners

Austrian leaders appealed for national unity after a doctor who faced death threats from anti-vaccination activists and coronavirus pandemic conspiracy theorists took her own life. "Let's put an end to this intimidation and fear mongering. Hate and intolerance have no place in our Austria," President Alexander Van der Bellen said, hailing Lisa-Maria Kellermayr as a doctor who stood for healing people, protecting them from disease and taking a cautious approach to the pandemic. ZURICH, July 30 (Reuters) - Austrian leaders appealed for national unity after a doctor who faced death threats from anti-vaccination activists and coronavirus pandemic conspiracy theorists took her own life. "Let's put an end to this intimidation and fear mongering. Hate and intolerance have no place in our Austria," President Alexander Van der Bellen said, hailing Lisa-Maria Kellermayr as a doctor who stood for healing people, protecting them from disease and taking a cautious approach to the pandemic. "But some people have been enraged by this. And these people scared her, threatened her, first on the internet and then also in person, directly in her practice." The body of the doctor -- who had often given media interviews about fighting the coronavirus pandemic and promoting vaccinations -- was found in her office in Upper Austria on Friday.
29th Jul 2022 - Reuters

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Outrage in Brazil as Jair Bolsonaro avoids five charges related to Covid response

Brazilian senators are calling for an investigation into one of the country’s top prosecutors after she shelved several charges against the president, Jair Bolsonaro, over his mishandling of the Covid-19 pandemic. A damning congressional inquiry had recommended that Bolsonaro be charged with nine offences, including crimes against humanity and charlatanism, for promoting false treatments such as hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin. The far-right president constantly downplayed the severity of the pandemic, initially calling it “a little flu” and telling Brazilians to man up because “we are all going to die anyway”.
28th Jul 2022 - The Guardian

Covid-19: “Impossible” to be confident that government awarded Randox contracts properly, say MPs

The UK government’s failure to follow basic rules in awarding £777m of contracts for covid-19 testing to the diagnostics company Randox Laboratories make it “impossible to have confidence” that the contracts were awarded properly, says the parliamentary watchdog on public spending. In a highly critical report, the Commons Public Account Committee accuses the Department of Health and Social Care of “woefully inadequate record keeping” and failing to meet basic requirements to publicly report ministers’ external meetings or deal with potential conflicts of interest when awarding testing contracts to the company.
28th Jul 2022 - The BMJ

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 28th Jul 2022

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MPs criticise government award of £777mn Covid contracts to medical group Randox

The UK government’s “woefully inadequate record-keeping” means it is “impossible to have confidence” that £777mn of contracts won by medical diagnostics company Randox as part of the country’s Covid-19 testing programme were awarded properly, according to a new report. The House of Commons public accounts committee on Wednesday accused the Department of Health and Social Care of failing to “show any evidence of taking any care” over potential conflicts of interest, despite officials being aware of contacts between former Conservative minister Owen Paterson, a paid consultant to Randox, and the then health secretary Matt Hancock.
27th Jul 2022 - Financial Times

Scientist at forefront of China's early investigations into Covid-19 steps down

George Gao, head of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, has stepped down after five years at the helm of the health body, ending a tenure that placed him at the fore of early investigations into the first outbreak of Covid-19 in central China and the country's rapid development of Covid-19 vaccines. The leadership change, announced by the agency on Tuesday, comes amid a restructuring that has seen the China CDC moved from its position directly under the monolithic centrally controlled National Health Commission and placed within a new nominally streamlined bureau, borne of pandemic-era calls for reform.
27th Jul 2022 - CNN

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 27th Jul 2022

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Encouraged by right-wing doctor groups, desperate patients turn to ivermectin for long Covid

Almost two years have passed since Dean Fritzemeier fell ill with Covid in October 2020. As the rest of the world moves on, shrugging off new variants and traveling with a vengeance, he remains trapped in a life weighed down by the virus. Fritzemeier is always tired, but can’t sleep. The 52-year-old once walked 7 miles a day, but now can only get outside if he’s pushed in a wheelchair. Along with millions of others, the Michigan resident has long Covid. He’s sought treatment at a rehab hospital and traveled to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, one of dozens of U.S. hospitals that have created programs to treat the still-mysterious syndrome. Nothing has helped. Out of desperation, he turned to an unproven remedy. Fritzemeier’s wife, Karen, heard about ivermectin from a cousin.
26th Jul 2022 - STAT News

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Newmarch House COVID-19 inquest told residents went without food, oxygen during outbreak

During the outbreak, 37 of Newmarch House's 97 residents contracted COVID. The facility is owned and run by Anglicare Community Services. One witness said his mother’s breathing apparatus was not operating when he went to visit
25th Jul 2022 - ABC News

The Covid vaccine no Aussies wanted

Deemed the “alternative” Covid vaccine, there were high hopes for Novavax in Australia when the more traditional formula got the tick of approval from the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) in January. Due to its similar composition to hepatitis B, tetanus and diphtheria vaccines, a large amount of interest was shown for Novavax, or Nuvaxovid, by those who were reluctant to take either AstraZeneca, Pfizer or Moderna vaccines. Additionally experts, like TGA boss Adjunct Professor John Skerritt, believed the increased interest would see vaccination rates rise from 95 per cent fully vaccinated to at least 98 per cent. “I would have had several hundred emails from individuals and groups who have said for whatever reason we would like to have [this] particular vaccine … this just gives them further choice,” Professor Skerritt said upon Novavax’s approval in January.
25th Jul 2022 - News.com.au

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Biden's health improving, no close contacts tested positive for COVID

U.S. President Joe Biden's health has improved considerably and his predominant symptom now is a sore throat, his physician said on Sunday. Biden's cough and body aches have diminished since he tested positive for the coronavirus on Thursday and he is not experiencing any shortness of breath, the physician, Dr. Kevin O'Connor, added. "His pulse, blood pressure, respiratory rate and temperature all remain normal," the physician said in a memo released on Sunday. His predominant symptom now is a sore throat .... His voice remains a bit deep."
24th Jul 2022 - Reuters

Does Joe Biden Still Have Covid? President Continues to Improve

President Joe Biden continues to improve with mild symptoms as he isolates with Covid-19 at the White House. White House physician Kevin O’Connor wrote in a memo on Saturday that the president -- who is being treated with Pfizer Inc.’s drug Paxlovid -- is “responding to therapy as expected.” “His pulse, blood pressure, respiratory rate and temperature remain entirely normal,” though Biden now has body aches among his symptoms, O’Connor said in the note. “His lungs remain clear” and he’s “experiencing no shortness of breath at all,” the doctor said.
23rd Jul 2022 - Bloomberg

Doctor: Biden likely has highly contagious COVID-19 strain

Joe Biden was likely infected with the BA5 subvariant of Omicron, the current dominant Covid-19 variant in the US, according to his physician, who reported that the US president’s symptoms “continue to improve” after he tested positive on 21 July. The BA5 subvariant of the highly contagious disease accounts for nearly 80 per cent of recent infections in the US, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Mr Biden has completed a second full day of the antiviral treatment Paxlovid and will contine the treatment regimen “as planned,” Physician to the President Dr Kevin O’Connor reported on 23 July.
23rd Jul 2022 - The Independent

Biden has sore throat and body aches, but COVID symptoms improving -physician

President Joe Biden's COVID-19 symptoms continue to improve and now include "less troublesome" sore throat, runny nose, loose cough and body aches, his physician, Dr. Kevin O'Connor, said in a memo on Saturday. Biden's lungs remain clear and his oxygen saturation "continues to be excellent on room air," the doctor said.
23rd Jul 2022 - Reuters

Vigorous but coughing, COVID-postive Biden appears virtually at White House meeting

U.S. President Joe Biden appeared virtually at a White House meeting of economic advisers on Friday to highlight his good health a day after testing positive for COVID-19. Speaking remotely at the meeting to discuss White House efforts to lower gas prices, Biden appeared vigorous and in good spirits but with a noticeably deeper voice, hours after his doctor released a statement saying his symptoms had improved.
23rd Jul 2022 - Reuters

Vigorous but coughing, COVID-postive Biden appears virtually at White House meeting

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 22nd Jul 2022

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China investors call it quits as Xi, ‘zero COVID’ sap confidence

Once a regular investor in Chinese tech companies, Lian now views China as an increasingly risky bet as the country’s autocratic turn under Xi Jinping and ongoing “zero COVID” lockdowns cast a cloud over the economy. Overseas investors shed more than $150bn in China-based yuan-denominated assets in the first quarter of this year, the largest decline on record. Chinese bonds alone saw a $61bn sell-off between February and May. Roughly $300bn could exit the country this year, more than double last year’s outflow of $129bn, according to forecasts by the Washington-based Institute of International Finance
21st Jul 2022 - Al Jazeera English

President Biden Tests Positive for Covid-19

President Biden, the oldest president in U.S. history, tested positive on Thursday for Covid-19, as new variants keep case numbers high after 2½ years of pandemic disruptions. The White House said Thursday the president, 79 years old, has mild symptoms and has begun taking the antiviral drug Paxlovid. He plans to isolate at the White House residence and continue to carry out his duties during that time. Dr. Kevin O’Connor, Mr. Biden’s physician, wrote in a letter released by the White House that the president was experiencing a runny nose and fatigue “with an occasional dry cough,” which began Wednesday evening.
21st Jul 2022 - The Wall Street Journal

Biden Tests Positive: We’ve Come a Long Way Since Trump’s Covid

Biden’s treatment has been a much more straightforward affair. He’s isolating while continuing to work from the White House and taking Pfizer Inc.’s antiviral pill Paxlovid, a standard treatment for higher-risk patients. His wife said he was doing fine. The different therapies reflect the evolving course of the virus and medical countermeasures against it. Back when Trump got sick there were no vaccines or FDA-authorized pills against the coronavirus. Earlier versions spreading at the time were associated with higher rates of severe complications. “Trump was unvaccinated, and that was in the pre-vaccine era,” says infectious disease specialist Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.
21st Jul 2022 - Bloomberg

COVID puts a stop to Froome's encouraging Tour de France

Four-time champion Chris Froome's encouraging Tour de France came to a frustrating halt on Thursday when the Briton pulled out of the race after contracting COVID-19. The Israel Premier Tech rider took third place on stage 12 atop L'Alpe d'Huez, which was his best performance since a career-threatening crash three years ago. "A test has revealed that I have contracted COVID so I am not going to be taking the start today," Froome said in a video on Twitter just as stage 18 was beginning.
21st Jul 2022 - Reuters

Public inquiry into UK Covid-19 response opens

Ministers will have a year to prepare before cross-examination at the UK’s Covid-19 public inquiry, its chair, Heather Hallett, announced, as she opened what is likely be one of the broadest statutory investigations in the country’s history. The first cross-examinations of the government response to the pandemic, including decisions on lockdowns, maintaining public confidence and handling of scientific advice, will begin in summer 2023, three and a half years after the arrival of coronavirus, which has claimed more than 200,000 lives in the UK. Hearings on the UK’s preparedness will start in late spring 2023, as Lady Hallett said she wanted to move as “speedily as possible so lessons are learned before another pandemic strikes”. Boris Johnson had been repeatedly criticised by campaigners for the bereaved and Labour for delaying the launch of the inquiry. Hallett said it would scrutinise the “performance and effectiveness” of central government decision-making and its messaging – topics likely to expose current and former ministers.
21st Jul 2022 - The Guardian

Californian sentenced for $27M phony COVID aid attempt

A Southern California man who tried to obtain $27 million in unemployment benefits by falsely claiming his business was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic was sentenced Tuesday to more than 11 years in federal prison. Robert Benlevi, 53, of the Encino area of Los Angeles received a 135-month sentence following his March conviction for bank fraud, money laundering and making false statements to a financial institution, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a statement. In 2020, Benlevi submitted 27 applications for forgivable loans under the Paycheck Protection Program, prosecutors said.
21st Jul 2022 - Associated Press

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Bring Covid curbs back AGAIN, say top medical journals: Editorial calls for new clampdown on Britons

No10 has batted away calls to bring back pandemic-era curbs in response to soaring infections. Surveillance models suggest 3.5million people in the UK (one in 20) people were infected in week to July 6. But editors of two health publications accused Government of 'gaslighting' public about threat Covid poses. They say it is time to face the fact that attempt to 'live with Covid' is 'straw that is breaking the NHS's back'. Authors blame 'failure to recognise that the pandemic is far from over' and call for return of virus curbs. Face masks, free Covid tests for all, WFH guidance and restrictions on social gathering should return, they say
20th Jul 2022 - Daily Mail

S.Africa arrests 13 police officers over lockdown violence

South Africa’s police watchdog said Tuesday it arrested 13 officers over the death of a man in custody, the first major breakthrough in several cases of alleged brutality during the Covid lockdown. The man, who has not been named, was held along with three others in April 2020 in a Johannesburg suburb for breaching lockdown rules, the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) said in a statement. He was then allegedly assaulted by the police officers and members of a private security firm, before being taken to a police station, where he complained about stomach pains, it said. “An ambulance was called in, the paramedics declared the one civilian dead,” the police watchdog said in a statement, adding that a murder investigation was subsequently opened.
20th Jul 2022 - Macau Business

Cyprus president tests positive for COVID-19, mild symptoms

The president of Cyprus, Nicos Anastasiades, has tested positive for the coronavirus, a government official said Tuesday. Government spokesman Marios Pelekanos said Anastasiades tested positive during routine testing. Pelekanos said Anastasiades has exhibited mild symptoms and his condition is considered very good. In line with existing protocols, the president cleared his schedule, including commemorations of the 48th anniversary of Turkey’s invasion of Cyprus, an event that cleaved the east Mediterranean island nation along ethnic lines. According to Health Ministry figures, Cyprus had a 12.6% coronavirus infection rate between July 8 and July 14. The country reported 7 COVID-19-related deaths during the same period for an overall death toll of 1,086 since the start of the pandemic.
20th Jul 2022 - The Associated Press

Jan. 6 panel chairman has COVID, prime-time hearing still on

Rep. Bennie Thompson, chairman of the House Jan. 6 committee, has tested positive for COVID-19, but the panel will still hold its prime-time hearing on Thursday, according to a spokesman for the panel. Thompson, D-Miss., announced Tuesday that he tested positive for the virus on Monday and is experiencing mild symptoms. Thompson, 74, said he will be isolating for the next several days, but Jan. 6 committee spokesman Tim Mulvey said the committee’s eighth hearing this summer will proceed. He did not say if Thompson will participate virtually. The news of Thompson’s diagnosis comes as the nine-member panel is preparing for the hearing, which is expected to focus on what President Donald Trump was doing in the White House on Jan. 6, 2021 for several hours as his supporters were breaking into the Capitol and interrupting the certification of Joe Biden’s presidential victory.
20th Jul 2022 - The Associated Press

Authorities in south China city apologise over COVID-19 break-ins

Authorities in southern China have apologised for breaking into the homes of people who had been taken to a quarantine hotel in the latest example of heavy-handed virus-prevention measures that have sparked a rare public backlash. State media said that officers had forced their way into 84 homes in an apartment complex in Guangzhou city’s Liwan district in an effort to find any “close contacts” hiding inside and disinfect the rooms. The front doors were later sealed and new locks installed, according to the Global Times tabloid. The Liwan district government apologised on Monday for such “oversimplified and violent” behaviour, the paper said. An investigation has been launched and “relevant people” will be severely punished, it added. China’s leadership has maintained its “zero-COVID” strategy despite the disruption to the lives of residents who are subjected to regular testing and quarantines, and mounting economic costs.
20th Jul 2022 - Al Jazeera English

Faulty Covid Gear May Cost UK Taxpayer £2.7 Billion, Report Says

The UK has made little progress in settling disputes with suppliers of personal-protective gear that turned out to be of little use in the pandemic, potentially wasting as much as £2.7 billion pounds ($3.2 billion) in taxpayers’ money. The country’s department of health and social care is left with “billions of items that are unusable or not needed,” some of which will just have to be incinerated, according to a parliamentary report released Wednesday. Meantime, these products cost £7 million a month to store. The quality issues, lack of supervision and fraud by some suppliers is coming under scrutiny as lawmakers investigate how Boris Johnson’s government handled the pandemic.
20th Jul 2022 - Bloomberg

GOP senator declares ‘pandemic is over’ despite rise in cases across US from dangerous Covid variant BA.5

Tennessee senator Marsha Blackburn has been rebuked online after she claimed Covid-19 was “over” amid a new spike in cases. “What we know is the pandemic is over,” she told Fox News on Tuesday morning. “You can get on a plane, you can go without a mask, people are back to work”. The Republican continued her Fox News appearance by attacking the Biden administration for continuing to oversee the pandemic response at the federal level and added: “This White House wants to declare the pandemic in effect against our US military.” It was unclear what her comments were specifically in response to, although Republicans have long complained about military members being mandated to be vaccinated against Covid.
12th Jul 2022 - The Independent on MSN.com

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 18th Jul 2022

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In Prolonged War Against Covid, China’s Economy Is a Victim

Article reports that China’s daily Covid-19 tally hit a seven-week high, with growing outbreaks in key transit hubs in Henan and Guangdong provinces adding to the gloomy prospects for the country’s economy on the same day it posted a sharper-than-expected slowdown in growth. The 419 new locally transmitted infections China reported on Friday were the most since May 24. Almost 40% were from Guangxi province, where cases jumped to 165 from just 25 on Thursday, National Health Commission data show.
16th Jul 2022 - The Wall Street Journal

China's zero-COVID policy blamed as economy contracts by 2.6% in second quarter

China's zero-COVID policy is being blamed for a return to the red for its economy, with experts warning that recovery will be hampered by the darkening outlook for output globally. The authorities said the world's second-largest economy contracted by 2.6% between April and June compared to the previous three months. It meant that Chinese growth stood at just 0.4% on an annual basis. Both figures were far weaker than economists had expected, with those polled by the Reuters news agency having forecast a quarter on quarter decline of 1.5%.
15th Jul 2022 - Sky News

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 15th Jul 2022

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Ombudswoman says missing EU Pfizer vaccine deal texts are "wake-up call"

The European Union's ombudswoman criticised the European Commission for failing to find and publish text messages between the executive's president, Ursula von der Leyen, and the head of Pfizer negotiating a massive COVID-19 vaccine deal. The Commission said last month that it no longer has the texts that led to the biggest contract ever for COVID vaccines in which the EU committed to buying 900 million Pfizer-BioNTech shots, with an option for another 900 million.
14th Jul 2022 - Reuters.com

4,000 lockdown fines are dropped by Met

About 4,000 Covid fines handed out by the Metropolitan police during the pandemic were abandoned before cases were brought to court. The Met used the emergency laws more than any other force in the past two years, issuing over 16,500 fixed penalty notices to Londoners suspected of attending illegal gatherings, breaking lockdown rules, not wearing a mask or ignoring the need to self-isolate. Scotland Yard said 56 per cent of the fines were paid up front, leaving several thousand people at risk of criminal prosecution.
14th Jul 2022 - Yahoo News UK

For China’s nightlife scene, ‘zero COVID’ an unceasing ordeal

Ai Jing, a concert booker in Beijing, often feels like business never has a chance to pick up from the latest COVID-19 curbs before another round of restrictions brings operations grinding to a halt. Ai, who runs the concert booking agency Haze Sounds, struggles to find musicians these days since a ban on live events in the capital introduced in April forced many of them out of the business.
14th Jul 2022 - Al Jazeera English

Trump's credibility 'unravelled' after claiming bleach could cure COVID, top US doctor says

The leader of the US COVID taskforce has revealed how the government's credibility "unravelled" after President Donald Trump claimed bleach could combat the virus. Dr Deborah Birx, who served as White House coronavirus response coordinator in the Trump administration between 2020 to 2021, told Sky News there was a "failure" in providing "clear and consistent communication" to the American public during the pandemic. Mr Trump made the widely condemned remark after a study was conducted to establish the effect of sunlight compared to disinfectant on playground equipment.
14th Jul 2022 - Sky News

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Three million people in England yet to get a Covid jab

Three million people remain unvaccinated against Covid as MPs call for renewed push on vaccine roll out. The Public Accounts Committee warned on Wednesday many of the unvaccinated individuals are “young city-dwellers” with just five cities accounting for a quarter of those not jabbed. MPs warned people remain at risk of death and hospitalisation, calling for the NHS and public health authorities to “redouble” efforts on vaccinations.
13th Jul 2022 - The Independent

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Long Covid Patients Leave UK to Seek Unproven Cures, Report Says

Thousands of UK patients with long Covid are leaving the country to seek expensive unproven treatments such as “blood washing” abroad, according to a report. Many travel to private clinics in Cyprus, Germany and Switzerland for apheresis -- a blood-filtering procedure -- and anti-clotting therapy, according to the investigation published Tuesday in the BMJ medical journal. One patient reported paying more than 50,000 euros ($50,185) for apheresis, hyperbaric oxygen therapy and an intravenous vitamin drip at a center in Cyprus and returning home with no improvement. Researchers are still puzzled as to the exact cause of long Covid, which can appear with vastly different effects in various groups of patients.
13th Jul 2022 - Bloomberg

When it comes to Covid, Australia must confront reality – not choose between extremes

It finally got me: double lines on a Rat, summoning 24 hours of denial and then a week of surrender to the global plague that has stopped the world in its tracks. In my Covid fug I contented myself that I was not 10 years older, or immunocompromised, or a person with a disability, at the same time praying I would not become one of the one in 20 who draw the short straw in long-Covid Lotto. As I gave myself over to the virus, the death toll in Australia jumped over the 10,000 mark, a remarkable increase of almost 8,000 since the start of the year, although a mere drop in the ocean compared with the official global death toll of 6.35 million.
12th Jul 2022 - The Guardian

Long Covid patients urged to only access treatment through regulated clinical trials

Hong Kong’s new health chief said conditional quarantine-free travel could be allowed by November in time for a global bankers’ summit to be held in the city, the South China Morning Post reported Wednesday. The city doesn’t need to follow mainland China’s tough Covid-19 policies because it enjoys some degree of freedom under the “one country, two systems” principle, Secretary for Health Lo Chung-mau said in an interview with the newspaper.
12th Jul 2022 - ITV News

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Large Chinese Bank Protest Put Down With Violence

Hundreds of bank customers demonstrating over frozen deposits were attacked by men in plainclothes in the central Chinese city of Zhengzhou, marking a violent end to one of China’s largest public protests in recent years. Images of the clash, which was widely videotaped, spread quickly enough on Chinese social media to outrun the country’s army of internet censors, sparking a wave of online criticism. Video footage verified by The Wall Street Journal with protesters who were present on Sunday showed large numbers of unidentified men, many of them dressed in white T-shirts, barreling into peaceful crowds demonstrating on the steps of the local branch of China’s central bank. The clash resulted in several injuries, according to the protesters, who said they were themselves beaten by the men in plainclothes.
11th Jul 2022 - The Wall Street Journal

Biden Administration to Again Extend the Covid Public-Health Emergency

The US government will once again extend the Covid-19 public health emergency, continuing measures that have given millions of Americans special access to health insurance and telehealth services. The Department of Health and Human Services has repeatedly renewed the emergency since it was originally declared in January 2020, with the most recent extension set to expire July 15. The next extension is expected to take effect Friday, according to a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified because the details aren’t public. HHS didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
11th Jul 2022 - Bloomberg

Pandemic inquiry must question vaccine priorities | Scotland

In November 2020 the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommended priority vaccination against Covid-19 for key staff in education, municipal services, food, transport and the police. France had similar priorities while some US states also put teachers at the front of the queue. Scotland should have adopted a system based on the best international information to limit the pandemic’s toll. The country’s independent Covid inquiry has indicated that vaccine strategies will be investigated. Scotland’s prioritisation appears to have been based on a mixture of scientific evidence, lack of evidence and the possible political ramifications of taking more radical or rapid decisions.
11th Jul 2022 - The Times

Health experts say COVID-19 complacency has restricted freedoms of the immunocompromised and elderly

Australia's COVID hospitalisation rates have spiked back to February highs. Federal Health Minister Mark Butler has shot down any reintroduction of mask mandates. Health experts say Australia's COVID complacency is leading to higher transmission rates
11th Jul 2022 - ABC News

‘They gave her a bed to die in’: family of woman with Down’s Syndrome denied intensive care seek answers from Covid-19 inquiry

It was not until more than a year later, when they received her medical records, that the family made a crushing discovery. These suggested that, despite Susan being in good health and responding well to initial treatments, doctors at Barnet hospital had concluded she wouldn’t pull through. When Susan was first admitted on 27 March 2020, a doctor had written in her treatment plan: “ITU (Intensive therapy unit) review if not improving”, indicating he believed she might benefit from a higher level of care. But as her oxygen levels fell and her condition deteriorated, the 56-year-old was not admitted to the intensive unit. Instead she died in her bed on the ward without access to potentially life-saving treatment others received. In the hospital records, seen by the Observer, the reason Susan was excluded is spelled out: “ITU declined in view of Down’s syndrome and cardiac comorbidities.” A treatment plan stating she was not to be resuscitated also cites her disability.
11th Jul 2022 - The Guardian

China's Shanghai asks public to share 'heart-warming' COVID lockdown stories

The government of Shanghai has called on citizens to share "heart-warming" photographs, videos and stories about a punishing two-month lockdown imposed in April by the authorities to curb China's biggest COVID-19 outbreak. The government of China's most populous city has launched the propaganda campaign to "tell epidemic stories, spread volunteer culture and inherit the traditional values of solidarity, friendship and mutual help," local newspaper Wen Hui Bao said on Saturday.
11th Jul 2022 - Reuters

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 11th Jul 2022

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Beijing mandates COVID vaccines to enter some public spaces

The Chinese capital has issued a mandate requiring people to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination before they can enter some public spaces including gyms, museums and libraries, drawing concern from city residents over the sudden policy announcement and its impact on their daily lives. The health app that shows a person's latest PCR test results has been updated to make it easier to also access their vaccination status, according to Li Ang, a spokesperson for Beijing’s municipal health commission. The list of public places requiring vaccination does not include restaurants and offices. The mandate will go into effect on Monday, with exceptions available only to those who cannot be vaccinated for health reasons.
10th Jul 2022 - Yahoo Finance

Argentina president urges unity as anti-government protests build

Parts of the government, including powerful Vice President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, have called for more spending to alleviate the effect of COVID-19 and of the war in Ukraine, which have lit protests in countries globally such as Sri Lanka.
10th Jul 2022 - Al Jazeera English

How will Boris Johnson's handling of the Covid crisis be remembered?

Boris Johnson had been in power for six months when Covid hit Britain and sparked the greatest peacetime crisis in a century. His departure, with the worst of the pandemic surely behind us, means his tenure will be framed by his handling of the virus. To some he got “the big decisions right”. To others he oversaw one of the UK’s worst ever public health failures. Here we look back at the prime minister’s Covid battle and assess how he fared. Clear communication is crucial in a crisis, but confusion undermined public health messaging from the start. In February 2020, days after the UK confirmed its first cases, the government urged everyone to wash their hands regularly. On 3 March, Sage’s behavioural science experts said ministers should advise people to avoid hugging and shaking hands too. If the PM got the memo, he didn’t act on it.
8th Jul 2022 - The Guardian

The pandemic has eroded Americans' trust in experts and elected leaders alike, a survey finds.

As the coronavirus pandemic entered its third year, the American public had lost much of its trust both in public health experts and in government leaders, and was less worried than before about Covid-19, according to a survey conducted in early May and released Thursday by the Pew Research Center. Confidence ratings for public health officials, like those at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; for state and local elected officials; and for President Biden fell in a range from 43 percent to 54 percent in the survey — much lower than during the early stages of the pandemic.
8th Jul 2022 - The New York Times

After backlash, Beijing drops COVID vaccination mandate for crowded venues

Beijing's city government has dropped plans to allow only vaccinated people to enter crowded venues such as libraries, cinemas and gyms from Monday, following a strong online backlash to the measure announced earlier this week. The mandatory requirement would have marked a rare move in China, where the central government insists on voluntary vaccination and has quickly overruled other attempts by front-line officials to issue compulsory vaccination directives.
8th Jul 2022 - Reuters

UK Labour's Starmer cleared of wrongdoing after lockdown investigation

British opposition Labour leader Keir Starmer was cleared by police of breaking COVID-19 lockdown laws on Friday, having said he would quit his job if he was fined. A day after Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced he would resign following a series of scandals, including repeated lockdown breaches at his Downing Street office, police said Starmer had not broken the regulations. "I've always said no rules were broken when I was in Durham. The police have completed their investigation and agreed: there is no case to answer," Starmer said on Twitter. "For me, this was always a matter of principle. Honesty and integrity matter.
8th Jul 2022 - Reuters

Court: Health care workers in lawsuit must reveal identities

Nine health care workers who sued Democratic Maine Gov. Janet Mills over the state’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate have until Money to reveal their identities. The workers have so far remained anonymous, but on Thursday, a federal appeals court in Boston rejected a motion by the workers and gave them until Friday to file an amended complaint with their names, the Portland Press-Herald reported. The plaintiffs were later given an extension until Monday. Attorneys for Liberty Counsel, a law firm representing the health care workers, said in a court filing Friday that the one-day extension is needed to give lawyers time to speak with each plaintiff about whether they want to move forward with the lawsuit. The plaintiffs filed their complaint in federal court last August, before the state’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for health care workers at Maine care facilities went into effect on Oct. 20, 2021.
8th Jul 2022 - The Associated Press

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Medical office settles probe over asking workers for relatives' COVID status

A Florida medical practice has agreed to stop asking its employees to provide their family members' COVID-19 test results to settle an investigation by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which says the practice is illegal. The EEOC on Wednesday said Brandon Dermatology in Tampa will also review its COVID-19 policies and provide back pay or restore leave time to affected workers. The commission said that asking for employees' relatives' COVID test results violates the federal Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA), which prohibits employers from asking employees medical questions about family members.
7th Jul 2022 - Reuters

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Goodbye Shanghai: After 16 years, COVID curbs send American family packing

American Heather Kaye and her family, including cat Mochi, are part of a wave of residents departing Shanghai, leaving behind their homes and memories, driven out by two years of strict COVID-19 curbs, including a crushing two-month lockdown. Heather and husband George arrived in Shanghai from New York in 2006 for a one-year adventure, but 16 years later their two-bedroom apartment in Shanghai’s historic former French Concession is the only home their children have ever known.
7th Jul 2022 - Reuters

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Moshe Feiglin: Those under 30 need to avoid COVID-19 vaccine like fire

Former MK Moshe Feiglin, who is currently running for the Likud primaries, told KAN Radio on Tuesday morning that anyone under 30 years old should avoid the coronavirus vaccine "like fire." "We are horrified by the shtuyot (nonsense) that were said by someone with no understanding or knowledge on the topic," the Health Ministry tweeted in response. "It's unfortunate that a man without any professional backing is handing out suggestions based on knee-jerk instincts or delusions while going directly against existing medical knowledge and international studies on the subject, not to mention the instructions of every international organization."
5th Jul 2022 - The Jerusalem Post

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COVID-19 misinformation bolsters anti-vaccine movement

More parents are questioning the necessity of routine vaccinations for young children. Adults are skipping shots as well, even for vaccines with a long safety record. The trend comes amid a wave of misinformation and disinformation about COVID-19 and the vaccines that helped to stem pandemic deaths. Politicization of the COVID-19 shots has bolstered the anti-vaccine movement, contributing to the decline in routine immunizations for measles, polio and other dangerous diseases. "They ask if these are truly necessary, or if we can give them at later times," said Jason Terk, a Texas pediatrician and spokesperson for the American Academy of Pediatrics.
4th Jul 2022 - Medical Xpress

Matt Hancock’s blase attitude to the rise in Covid cases is alarming

“There are some saying that the pandemic is not yet over,” says Hancock. Indeed, the World Health Organization and most credible scientists agree that it is not over. By suggesting that calls for restrictions are scaremongering, Hancock misses the point. Yes, public health policy shouldn’t need to be alarming, but it should include measures to protect the public and help reduce transmission, such as free Covid testing, better sick pay, better ventilation in schools and workplaces, and the reintroduction of masks in medical settings.
4th Jul 2022 - The Guardian

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MorseLife, Florida nursing home, pays $1.7 million after giving donors early access to covid vaccines

The text message from the chief executive of MorseLife Health System, a luxury nursing home in West Palm Beach, Fla., was unambiguous. “Of course go after the billionaires first,” the CEO wrote to the facility’s fundraisers in December 2020, explaining who should get priority for scarce coronavirus vaccine shots intended for residents and staffers. He advised: “Do not be weak be strong you have the opportunity to take advantage of everyone who needs the shot and figure out what they have and what we can go after …” “I’ll go for the billions,” he promised. Eighteen months later, MorseLife has agreed to pay $1.75 million to settle claims that it defrauded a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention program that sought to steer limited vaccine doses to the most vulnerable Americans in late 2020 and early 2021, according to the Justice Department, which released excerpts of the text messages.
1st Jul 2022 - The Washington Post

North Korea claims Covid-19 arrived by balloon from South Korea

North Korea claims that “alien things”, apparently carried by balloon across the border from South Korea, caused an outbreak of Covid-19. According to a report in the state media, the outbreak originated in Ipho-ri in Kumgang county, not far from the South Korean border, when two people encountered unspecified objects that were carrying the infection. “It was known that an 18-year-old soldier surnamed Kim and a five-year-old kindergartener surnamed Wi contacted with alien things in a hill around barracks and residential quarters in Ipho-ri early in April,” the Korean Central News Agency reported. “And they showed the clinic features, to be estimated as early symptom of the epidemic infection, and tested positive for novel coronavirus.”
1st Jul 2022 - The Times

North Korea blames 'alien things' near border with South for COVID outbreak

North Korea claimed on Friday that the country's first COVID-19 outbreak began with patients touching "alien things" near the border with South Korea, apparently shifting blame to the neighbour for the wave of infections in the isolated country. Announcing results of an investigation, the North ordered people to "vigilantly deal with alien things coming by wind and other climate phenomena and balloons in the areas along the demarcation line and borders," the official KCNA news agency said. The agency did not directly mention South Korea, but North Korean defectors and activists have for decades flown balloons from the South across the heavily fortified border, carrying leaflets and humanitarian aid. South Korea's unification ministry, handling inter-Korean affairs, said there was "no possibility" of the virus entering the North through leaflets sent across the border. According to KCNA, an 18-year-old soldier and a five-year-old kindergartner who contacted the unidentified materials "in a hill around barracks and residential quarters" in the eastern county of Kumgang in early April showed symptoms and later tested positive for the coronavirus.
1st Jul 2022 - Reuters

U.S. Supreme Court nixes religious challenge to New York vaccine mandate

The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday declined to hear a challenge to New York's mandate that healthcare sector workers be vaccinated against COVID-19 brought by a group of doctors, nurses and others who objected on religious grounds.
1st Jul 2022 - Reuters

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COVID-19: Piers Corbyn fined for illegal gatherings held during lockdowns

Jeremy Corbyn's brother has been fined for holding illegal gatherings during coronavirus lockdowns. Piers Corbyn has campaigned against vaccines, face masks and COVID restrictions throughout the pandemic. The 75-year-old was found guilty of holding, or helping organise, a gathering of more than 30 people in Trafalgar Square in August 2020. Another illegal gathering that flouted COVID rules happened in the same place in September 2020, and in Westminster a month later.
30th Jun 2022 - Sky News

S.Korea says leaflets sent by defectors unlikely to be cause of COVID in N.Korea

South Korea's unification ministry said on Friday there is "no possibility" of COVID-19 entering North Korea via contaminated balloons sent by activists in the South. North Korea said earlier in the day the country's first outbreak began with patients touching "alien things" near the border with South Korea, apparently shifting blame to its neighbour for the wave of infections that hit the isolated country.
30th Jun 2022 - Reuters

N.Korea blames 'alien things' near border with S.Korea for COVID outbreak

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Elmo gets coronavirus shot, sparks another Muppet feud with Ted Cruz

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) shared the clip on Twitter — and blasted the popular PBS/HBO children’s show for allowing Elmo to “aggressively advocate for vaccinating children UNDER 5.” He added: “You cite ZERO scientific evidence for this.” The internet was quickly filled with comments on Cruz vs. Elmo, with one person tweeting: “I’m here for the right-wing meltdown because a puppet got vaccinated.”
29th Jun 2022 - The Washington Post

Covid-19: Paris court rules French govt did not stock enough masks in 2020

A Paris court ruled on Tuesday that the French government failed to sufficiently stock up on surgical masks at the outset of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 and prevent the virus from spreading. The ruling came as the number of registered infections with coronavirus variants rises sharply. It wasn’t immediately clear if the decision will lead to any specific sanctions for the government. Officials across France are contemplating new measures, including an indoor mask mandate in some cities, to curb the spread of the virus but keep the economy open amid the summer tourism season.
29th Jun 2022 - The Associated Press

Delayed public inquiry into UK’s Covid-19 response opens

The delayed public inquiry into the UK’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic has been launched after Boris Johnson accepted calls to widen the terms of reference to consider its unequal impact on minority-ethnic people, on children and on mental health. The inquiry chair, Heather Hallett, and her team of 12 QCs have begun work under the terms of the Inquiries Act, which makes it an offence to destroy or tamper with evidence. She will be joined by two panellists to be appointed by Johnson, although she had argued for presiding alone. The launch of what is expected to be one of the largest public inquiries conducted in the UK comes days after campaigners for the bereaved threatened legal action against the government over the delay to the prime minister’s commitment to set the inquiry up in spring 2022.
29th Jun 2022 - The Guardian

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Taiwanese drinks shop owners jailed for up to 7 months over social media posts calling on others to flout Hong Kong’s Covid-19 curbs

The owners of a Taiwanese drinks shop in Hong Kong have been jailed for up to seven months under a colonial-era sedition law for inciting others to flout public health curbs and refuse Covid-19 vaccines. A magistrate hand-picked by city leader Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor to oversee national security proceedings convicted the two women at West Kowloon Court on Tuesday upon their admission to a joint count of doing an act or acts with a seditious intent. Chinese University student Hau Wing-yan, 24, and Lam Yuen-yi, 21, were the administrators of an Instagram account for the now-defunct Ascohesion Cheese Tea shop in Mong Kok when nine posts criticising the government's anti-pandemic measures and vaccines were published on the platform between February 9 and 17 this year.
28th Jun 2022 - South China Morning Post on MSN.com

U.S. appeals court vacates federal vaccine mandate pending additional hearing

A U.S. appeals court panel said on Monday it would convene a full panel to reconsider President Joe Biden's executive order requiring civilian federal employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19, and set aside the order pending that hearing. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, which is based in New Orleans, had reinstated the vaccine order in April by a 2-1 vote after it was blocked by a district court judge in January.
28th Jun 2022 - Reuters

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Legal challenge underway over Covid vaccine rollout for children

A judicial review of the Government's vaccine rollout for children aged 5-11 has begun today at the High Court in Wellington. A group of parents - all of whom have name suppression - are seeking a judicial review on the basis that the provisional consent process for the children's vaccine was flawed and illegal. They claim the Government cut corners in its decision to expand the rollout to children and ignored concerns about the adverse side effects of the vaccine.
27th Jun 2022 - New Zealand Herald

Novak Djokovic won’t get Covid vaccine to enter US Open

Novak Djokovic remains adamant he won’t get vaccinated against Covid even if it means he misses the upcoming US Open later this year. The 35-year-old Serb missed the Australian Open after being deported for not having been vaccinated and will not be allowed to compete at the US Open for the same reason.
27th Jun 2022 - The Independent

Censors delete discussion of Beijing’s future COVID control

Digital censors quickly deleted a hashtag “the next five years” Monday as online discussion swirled in response to reported remarks of Beijing’s Communist Party secretary saying that the capital city will normalize pandemic prevention controls over the course of the next five years. Beijing’s Communist Party chief, Cai Qi, made the remarks Monday morning as part of a report on the Party’s management of the city. The citywide party congress is held once every five years, ahead of the national level party congress, which is slated for this fall. At the congresses, members generally review the work of the past five years while also announcing goals for the next five years. “In the next five years, Beijing will resolutely, unremittingly, do a good job in normalizing pandemic prevention controls,” according to a cached version of the remarks in Beijing Daily, the main Communist Party mouthpiece in the capital city.
27th Jun 2022 - The Associated Press

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NZ coach, 2 players have COVID-19 ahead of 1st Ireland test

All Blacks head coach Ian Foster, assistant John Plumtree and two leading players have tested positive for COVID-19, severely disrupting the team’s preparation for Saturday’s first rugby test against Ireland. Foster and Plumtree are isolating at home and midfielders Jack Goodhue and David Havili haven’t joined the team in Auckland where the test will be played in front of a sellout crowd at Eden Park. Goodhue and Havili both had strong chances of being named in the New Zealand lineup for the first test of a three-test series. Assistant coaches Scott McLeod and Brad Mooar will take charge of the team in the lead-up to the match while Crusaders center Braydon Ennor has joined the squad to provide midfield cover.
26th Jun 2022 - The Associated Press

Team India captain Rohit Sharma tests positive for Covid-19

If KL Rahul’s groin injury that ruled him out of the England Test at Edgbaston from July 1 wasn't enough of a setback, India’s problems at the top of the order have compounded after skipper and fellow opener Rohit Sharma tested positive for Covid-19 in a Rapid Antigen Test on Saturday. He is in isolation at the team hotel in Leicester, a BCCI statement said. While his RT-PCR test result is awaited, his participation in the decider—India lead the series 2-1 after the fifth Test was postponed last year—is touch and go. Sharma batted in the first innings of India’s warm-up game against Leicestershire—it ended in a draw on Sunday—and scored 25, but he didn’t take the field thereafter.
25th Jun 2022 - Hindustan Times

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Grocery chain Publix refuses to offer Covid-19 vaccines to children under five

Federal authorities have finally expanded access to Covid-19 vaccines to children age six months to five years, but the major grocery chain and pharmacy retailer Publix will not offer vaccinations to the nation’s youngest children at its more than 1,200 US stores. The Florida-based chain said it will not administer vaccines to young children “at this time” but has not released a statement explaining its decision. Florida has overseen a complicated vaccine rollout for young children as the Food and Drug Administration and US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention prepared to expand access to vaccines more than a year after they became widely available for adults. State officials including the state’s surgeon general cast doubt on the efficacy of vaccines and clashed with federal guidelines and guidance from medical experts, among others. Florida was also the only state that did not preorder vaccines for children under 5, which the White House warned could stall deliveries to medical providers in the state for those who did wish to inoculate their children.
23rd Jun 2022 - The Independent

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SA parents with children under care of Department for Child Protection lose bids to prevent them getting COVID-19 vaccine

A man has lost an appeal to the Supreme Court to prevent his daughter being vaccinated by the Department for Child Protection. He also lost a separate application for an injunction against the vaccine being administered earlier this year A mother has also lost a bid to prevent her child in state care being vaccinated
21st Jun 2022 - ABC News

Twitter Accounts Hyped Company Seeking Covid Vaccine Trials

A network of Twitter accounts pushed messages to boost the share price of a biotech company as it sought approval to run a clinical trial of its Covid-19 vaccine, according to research provided to Bloomberg News. The tweets promoted stock for Ocugen Inc., which is based in Malvern, Pennsylvania, at rates well above market value, according to research by Alethea Group, a startup that tracks disinformation. The company’s share price nearly doubled in a little more than a week. The findings suggest a coordinated social media effort to sway interest in an otherwise little known medical technology company, according to Lisa Kaplan, Alethea Group’s founder and chief executive officer.
21st Jun 2022 - Bloomberg

COVID-19: Trainee police officer drew red lines on lateral flow test in bid to stay home from work

A trainee police officer tried to fake having COVID-19 by drawing red lines on a lateral flow test, a tribunal has heard. In a bid to stay home from work, Ahmed Anwari told his training officer last December that he could not come in because of a positive lateral flow test result. But his ruse was uncovered when he was asked to send a photograph of the result as proof and it became "clear that the test had been manually altered with drawn red lines", his disciplinary was told. The Lancashire Constabulary officer was then invited to take a coronavirus test on a Microsoft Teams meeting in which he again falsely claimed the result was positive.
21st Jun 2022 - Sky News

COVID mistakes can't be repeated this winter, says German hotel industry

German hotels are still limping towards recovery after the pandemic, and lawmakers need to prepare now to be ready for the coming winter, said the head of the DEHOGA hospitality body. Despite pent-up demand, the industry is facing a possible third year of losses in 2022, with 57% of businesses reporting lower sales last month compared with pre-crisis May 2019, said DEHOGA president Guido Zoellick at a news conference on Tuesday.
21st Jun 2022 - Reuters

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Boris Johnson breaks promise to deliver 100 million Covid vaccines to poor countries

The government has broken its promise to deliver 100 million surplus Covid vaccines to poor countries, after sharply cutting international aid spending. At a G7 meeting in June last year, Boris Johnson pledged to send the vaccines to developing countries within a year to help close the global vaccine gap and “vaccinate the world”. But a year later the government has delivered barely a third of the number of promised jabs, with just 36.5 million deployed as of the end of May – a deficit of 63.5 million doses. Figures published by the government also show that ministers have effectively charged developing countries for the leftover jabs by deducting them from existing aid, and even added a mark-up on the UK’s original purchase price.
18th Jun 2022 - The Independent

COVID vaccine injury plaintiffs face long odds in U.S. compensation program

“I thought it would be impossible to deny me.” That’s what Cody Flint, who used to work as a crop duster in Mississippi, said he expected when he filed a claim with an obscure government tribunal that provides compensation for COVID-19 vaccine-related injuries. Flint, 34, told me that he submitted hundreds of pages of supporting material, including reports from four doctors who attributed his episodes of vertigo, headaches, and partial loss of hearing and eyesight -- afflictions that have ended his career as a pilot, at least for now -- to a rare side-effect of the Pfizer vaccine.
16th Jun 2022 - Reuters

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'Anti-vaxxer' hurled rocks at Covid vaccine centres after seeing 'evidence on the internet'

A Warrington man hurled stones through windows at two vaccination centres injuring a security guard as part of an "anti-vaxx" campaign. Conspiracy theorist Paul Edwards, 58, struck in December last year at the centres in North Wales, where he was staying with his father after being kicked out of the marital home in Cheshire. Edwards was found guilty of two counts of damaging property at Mold Crown Court yesterday (Wednesday), after the attacks in Llandudno and St Asaph. He told the court he believed his actions were a "last chance" to get his anti-vaccination message across, reports WalesOnline.
16th Jun 2022 - Liverpool Echo

Tasmanian government spent $700k on COVID-19 hotel — only for it to never be used

The hotel was refurbished to be used as a COVID case management facility, but it was deemed unsuitable due to storm damage. Opposition Leader Rebecca White said the state government needed to try to recoup taxpayer money spent Deputy Premier Michael Ferguson said the facility was selected by the Health Department and he was not aware of who owned it
16th Jun 2022 - ABC News

Covid care home restrictions in Scotland caused harm, says report

Severe restrictions imposed on care home residents in Scotland during the Covid pandemic caused "harm and distress" and may have contributed to some deaths, academics have said. A 143-page report has been produced by Edinburgh Napier University. It had been commissioned by the independent inquiry into the country's handling of the pandemic. The report says that the legal basis for confining residents to their rooms and banning visitors was "unclear". And it said care home residents were arguably discriminated against compared to other citizens.
16th Jun 2022 - BBC News

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Fauci tests positive for COVID-19

Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease expert, tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday but is experiencing “mild symptoms,” the National Institutes of Health (NIH) said. “He is fully vaccinated and has been boosted twice,” the agency said. “He is currently experiencing mild symptoms. Dr. Fauci will isolate and continue to work from his home. He has not recently been in close contact with President Biden or other senior government officials.”
15th Jun 2022 - The Hill on MSN.com

Hong Kong police chief defends enforcement of Covid-19 rules

The head of the Hong Kong Police Force has defended officers’ enforcement of Covid-19 rules while attending a district council meeting on Tuesday. After the meeting, Commissioner of Police Raymond Siu told the press that the Force would reach “total mobilisation” for the 25 anniversary of the city’s handover to China, and that a new counter-terrorism reporting hotline had already received more than 1,000 calls. Siu attended the North District Council meeting to brief councillors on crime data in the district. He was also asked to explain the relationship between police enforcement actions and control of the disease and the effectiveness of anti-epidemic work in the North District, according to the meeting’s agenda.
15th Jun 2022 - Hong Kong Free Press

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UK pubs giant takes on insurer trio in $1.2 bln COVID trial

Britain's biggest pubs group Stonegate, which is suing Zurich Insurance and two peers for 1 billion pounds ($1.2 billion) over lockdown losses, battled the COVID-19 pandemic "day by day, venue by venue", a London trial heard on Monday. Ben Lynch, a lawyer for Stonegate, said the company's 760 insured pubs, bars and night clubs at the centre of the case had each faced separate challenges, opening and shutting at differing times according to regional rules - and seeing business drop by up to 90% below projections.
14th Jun 2022 - Reuters

Congress examines fraud in pandemic aid for small businesses

The U.S. failed to take basic steps at the start of the coronavirus pandemic to prevent fraud in a federal aid program intended to help small businesses, depleting the funds and making people more vulnerable to identity theft, the chairman of a House panel examining the payouts said Tuesday. Democratic Rep. James Clyburn blamed the Trump administration for the problems in the COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan program, overseen by the U.S. Small Business Administration, amid revelations that as much as 20% of the money — tens of billions of dollars — may have been awarded to fraudsters. Clyburn said the Biden administration has implemented measures to identify potential fraud and directed loan officers to address indications of fraud before approving loans, while Congress has invested in fraud prevention and accountability.
14th Jun 2022 - The Associated Press

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US Sen. Wicker of Mississippi again tests positive for COVID

Republican U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi has again tested positive for COVID-19, his office said Monday. His communications director, Phillip Waller, said Wicker took a required test and received a positive result. “He will be expected to miss votes and committee business this week until he is able to return in person to the Senate,” Waller said. Wicker, 70, attended the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in late May. Wicker was also diagnosed with COVID-19 in August last year and in February this year. He said in February that he is fully vaccinated against the virus.
13th Jun 2022 - The Associated Press

Philippine officials, governor clash over face mask policy

Philippine officials warned Monday that people can face arrest if they defy a presidential order to wear face masks in public to protect against the coronavirus even in a province where the governor has declared they are optional. Officials asked Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia of central Cebu province to cooperate with President Rodrigo Duterte’s order, but she insisted Monday that her decision to allow people to decide whether to wear masks in public in her province has legal grounds because provincial officials can decide on health issues.
13th Jun 2022 - The Associated Press

Rolling Stones CANCEL Amsterdam gig after Sir Mick Jagger, 78, tests positive for COVID-19

Sir Mick Jagger , 78, has tested positive for coronavirus , prompting the Rolling Stones to cancel their show in Amsterdam on Monday. The band, which also features guitarist Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood with Steve Jordan on drums, are on their SIXTY tour, which consists of 14 shows in 10 countries across Europe A statement on behalf of the band said: 'The Rolling Stones have been forced to call off tonight's concert in Amsterdam at the Johan Cruijff ArenA, following Mick Jagger testing positive after experiencing symptoms of Covid.' People who have fallen ill with Covid within the last 180 days must demonstrate proof of COVID-19 recovery when entering the Netherlands using the NHS Covid Pass, with the date of issue being more than 11 days ago
13th Jun 2022 - Daily Mail

HHS secretary Becerra tests positive for COVID-19 again

President Joe Biden’s top health official has again tested positive for COVID-19, less than a month after he came down with virus symptoms while on a trip to Germany
13th Jun 2022 - The Independent

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India’s Sonia Gandhi hospitalised with COVID issues

The leader of India’s main opposition party, Sonia Gandhi, has been admitted to hospital in New Delhi with health issues related to COVID-19. Her party tweeted the announcement on Sunday but gave no other details. Gandhi tested positive for COVID-19 on June 2. Italian-born Gandhi, the widow of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, is the longest-serving president of the Congress Party, which ruled India for decades after its founders led the country to independence from British colonial rule in 1947. Her parliamentarian son Rahul Gandhi also served as the Congress president. Founded in 1885, Congress is India’s oldest political party and dominated the country for decades after independence, led by generations of the Nehru-Gandhi family.
12th Jun 2022 - Al Jazeera English

New Zealand plans in tatters after Kane Williamson is ruled out with Covid-19

New Zealand saw their hopes of levelling the ongoing series against England suffer a significant setback after Kane Williamson, captain and leading batsman, was ruled out of today’s second Test after contracting Covid-19. Williamson was present at training on Thursday and in an upbeat pre-match press conference extolled the virtues of Test cricket in response to a recent forecast from Greg Barclay, chair of the International Cricket Council, that the format will shrink in future.
10th Jun 2022 - The Guardian

French sports minister tests positive for COVID-19

France's recently appointed sports minister Amelie Oudea-Castera has tested positive for COVID-19 and will self-isolate and work remotely for the time being, said the country's sports ministry. Oudea-Castera has had a difficult start to her job, having come under criticism over how France handled last month's Champions League soccer final between Liverpool and Real Madrid, which was marred by crowd disorder.
10th Jun 2022 - Reuters

Risk of myocarditis and pericarditis after the COVID-19 mRNA vaccination in the USA: a cohort study in claims databases

An increased risk of myocarditis or pericarditis was observed after COVID-19 mRNA vaccination and was highest in men aged 18–25 years after a second dose of the vaccine. However, the incidence was rare. These results do not indicate a statistically significant risk difference between mRNA-1273 and BNT162b2, but it should not be ruled out that a difference might exist. Our study results, along with the benefit–risk profile, continue to support vaccination using either of the two mRNA vaccines.
10th Jun 2022 - The Lancet

Covid-19: Unusable PPE worth £4bn will be burned, says spending watchdog

The parliamentary watchdog on public spending has accused the Department of Health and Social Care for England of wasting £4bn of taxpayers’ money on unusable personal protective equipment in the first year of the covid-19 pandemic and of planning to burn much of it to “generate power.” The House of Commons Public Accounts Committee made the claim in its report on the Department of Health and Social Care’s accounts for 2020-21, the first year of the pandemic. The report paints a damning picture of the fallout from the government’s rush to compete with the rest of the world to procure PPE, bypassing the usual due diligence in its race to secure supplies. Of £12bn spent on PPE, £4bn was spent on items that failed to meet NHS standards and have remained unused, the report said.
10th Jun 2022 - The BMJ

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 10th Jun 2022

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Over 1500 Kiwis were given compromised Covid-19 vaccines, report finds

More than 1500 people were given Covid-19 vaccinations that had not been monitored properly in cold storage and have been told they will need to be inoculated again. A report commissioned by the Southern District Health Board has found that 1601 compromised vaccine doses were given to 1571 people in the Queenstown Lakes and Central Otago area from December 1 2021 to January 28. The recipients of the affected vaccines were informed of the problem in March, and the majority have since had a replacement dose.
9th Jun 2022 - Stuff

Black and Asian frontline staff faced racial harassment during Covid-19 pandemic, watchdog finds

Lower-paid health and social care workers, who played a pivotal front-line role during the Covid-19 pandemic, experienced bullying, racism and harassment at work according to their evidence to an inquiry conducted by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC). Poor data collection by their employers could also be masking the extent of discrimination against them, the watchdog also found. Job insecurity in the health and adult social care sectors caused fear of victimisation among low-paid ethnic minority staff, particularly if they were to raise concerns, according to the inquiry which was launched in November 2020.
9th Jun 2022 - The Independent

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 9th Jun 2022

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COVID-19 information on Victorian government websites was often inaccessible, study finds

An education level of year 10 or above would have been required to understand much of the material, the study found. About half of the Australian population reads at an education level of year 10 or below. The state government defended its public health messages, which it said had been critical in reaching high levels of vaccination coverage
8th Jun 2022 - ABC News

Boris Johnson's COVID response 'a joke,' irked airline chief says

A leading airline industry official on Tuesday blasted British politicians for criticizing long airport lines and canceled flights once COVID-19 cases eased and in turn assailed Prime Minister Boris Johnson's own response to the pandemic. “You look at the UK, Boris Johnson, he highlights one of the reasons why he should continue to be prime minister as being the way he handled the pandemic. What a joke. They should have done a hell of a lot better,” Willie Walsh, director general of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), told the Paris Air Forum.
8th Jun 2022 - Reuters

Vietnam’s health minister arrested over COVID test gouging

Vietnam’s health minister and the mayor of the capital Hanoi have been arrested as part of an expanding investigation into massive price gouging of COVID-19 tests, state media reported. Nguyen Thanh Long was dismissed from his ministry post and Chu Ngoc Anh, who previously was the science minister, was fired as Hanoi mayor, Tuoi Tre online news outlet reported Tuesday. They are being investigated for abuse of power, according to the Ministry of Public Security, and have been expelled from the ruling Communist Party. An investigation concluded earlier that mismanagement in the science and health ministries had allowed Viet A Technology Corporation to inflate prices for test kits supplied to hospitals and health centers in Vietnam.
8th Jun 2022 - The Associated Press

Former St. Louis County top official indicted for alleged COVID-19 funding scam

A former top official at the St. Louis County jail, appointed by County Executive Sam Page, has been indicted. Anthony “Tony” Weaver Sr. turned himself in to federal authorities Tuesday. On May 6, 2020, the indictment alleged that he approached a man who owned several small businesses in St. Louis County with a plan to fraudulently apply for grants from the Small Business Relief Program (SBR) in exchange for a share of the proceeds. Weaver was indicted on May 25, 2022 on four felony counts of wire fraud.
8th Jun 2022 - KFVS12

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 8th Jun 2022

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Reasons behind COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and efficient strategies to address it

This article was exclusively written for The European Sting by Mr. Olivier Sibomana, an enthusiastic and highly committed medical student at University of Rwanda (UR), college of medicine and health sciences, department of general medicine and surgery. He is affiliated with the International Federation of Medical Students Associations (IFMSA), cordial partner of The Sting. The opinions expressed in this piece belong strictly to the writers and do not necessarily reflect IFMSA’s view on the topic, nor The European Sting’s one.
7th Jun 2022 - The European Sting

GOP-appointed judges less likely to require masks during COVID - study

Chief federal district judges appointed by Republican presidents were less likely to require masks in court as a response to COVID-19, but more likely to suspend in-person trials, according to a new study by four law professors. The study, made public Thursday, comes from Adam Chilton of the University of Chicago Law School, Christopher Cotropia of the University of Richmond School of Law, Kyle Rozema of the Washington University School of Law and David Schwartz of the Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law.
7th Jun 2022 - Reuters

U.K. should have done better on COVID-19: IATA director general

A top airline industry official on Tuesday said the U.K. should have responded "a hell of a lot better" to COVID-19 and argued aviation should have been more forceful in challenging government-mandated border closures during the pandemic. Willie Walsh, director general of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), also defended airlines' handling of a rebound in traffic that is driving long lines at some airports, while blasting the COVID-19 response of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who survived a confidence vote on Monday
7th Jun 2022 - Reuters

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 7th Jun 2022

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Russian man accused of Alexander Litvinenko killing dies of Covid-19

One of the main suspects in the murder of the former Russian spy and Kremlin critic, Alexander Litvinenko, has died of Covid-19. Dmitry Kovtun was one of two men UK authorities say fatally poisoned Mr Litvinenko in London in 2006.
6th Jun 2022 - BBC News

Princess Charlene becomes latest royal to test positive for Covid-19

Princess Charlene has been back to royal duties for some weeks now, making appearances at the Monaco E-Prix, the Sainte Dévote Rugby Tournament and Monte-Carlo Fashion Week. These days, as we all well know, with a busy schedule comes the ever-pressing threat of contracting Covid-19. Now, after returning to a mixture of events which involve interacting with a variety of people, Princess Charlene has become the latest royal to catch the virus. According to the palace, the princess tested positive for Covid-19 this weekend. A statement released by royal officials divulged that Charlene was ‘presenting some symptoms’ and that the princess would 'observe a period of isolation of several days’.
6th Jun 2022 - Tatler

Uruguay president says COVID-19 positive, will not attend U.S.-hosted Americas Summit

Uruguay President Luis Lacalle Pou said Monday on Twitter that he will not attend the U.S.-hosted Summit of the Americas and was "cancelling all of his activities for the coming days" after testing positive for COVID-19. Lacalle Pou was scheduled to travel to the United States Tuesday.
6th Jun 2022 - Reuters

Alleged COVID-19 aid fraudsters targeted youths, Japanese police say

Police believe that individuals who were arrested over alleged fraud related to a government COVID-19 relief aid program, including a Tokyo Regional Taxation Bureau official, falsified tax return documents and abused their taxation expertise while taking advantage of young people who were not familiar with the tax system.
6th Jun 2022 - The Japan Times

Covid-19: Doctor who sold hydroxychloroquine as “magic bullet” treatment is jailed

A doctor in California who sold hydroxychloroquine online and told an FBI agent that it was a “magic bullet” for covid-19 has been sentenced to 30 days in prison and a year of home confinement. Jennings Ryan Staley of San Diego offered hydroxychloroquine online in “covid-19 treatment kits” that also contained azithromycin, intravenous drips, and anti-anxiety drugs. Staley’s Skinny Beach Med Spa normally offered what it described as “world class beauty innovations at affordable prices,” including Botox, fat transfer, hair removal, and tattoo removal. But in March 2020, as the pandemic began to claim lives in the US, he moved to capitalise on a surge in demand for hydroxychloroquine, just days after President Donald Trump called the drug a “game changer.” The treatment kits he advertised online came with a 30 day “concierge medical experience,” including a promise of access to medical hyperbaric oxygen for an additional fee. Within a week of starting his new service, Staley had an email from an undercover FBI agent posing as a customer. The agent rang Staley and bought six kits for his family, costing $4000.
6th Jun 2022 - The BMJ

Angry UK lawmakers trigger confidence vote in Boris Johnson

Prime Minister Boris Johnson faced a confidence vote on Monday after a growing number of lawmakers in his Conservative Party questioned the British leader's authority over what has been dubbed the "partygate" scandal. Johnson, who scored a sweeping election victory in 2019, has been under increasing pressure after he and staff held alcohol-fuelled parties in his Downing Street office and residence when Britain was under strict lockdowns due to COVID-19.
6th Jun 2022 - Reuters

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 6th Jun 2022

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Third of us believe Government is exaggerating number of Covid deaths

A third of UK adults believe the Government is exaggerating the number of deaths from coronavirus, according to a study into Covid-19 misperceptions. A “stubborn minority” still question the scientific consensus on vaccine safety and Government reporting of Covid deaths, researchers from King’s College London found. Some 33% said they believe the Government is inflating the number of deaths from coronavirus, with 54% saying this is false. And one in seven say they do not believe most scientists have reached a consensus that vaccines are safe. Almost three-quarters (74%) recognise this as true, almost as high as the proportion of the Irish population that recognised this (75%). Older people were more likely to believe in the scientific consensus on vaccines than the younger population, the research found.
3rd Jun 2022 - Wales Online on MSN.com

Special Olympics Lifts Covid-19 Vaccine Mandate After Facing Fine

Special Olympics Inc. reversed course and dropped its Covid-19 vaccine requirement for staff and athletes attending the coming games in Orlando, Fla., after state officials there threatened the nonprofit with a $27.5 million fine. Florida’s health department said SOI would be fined $5,000 for every individual asked to provide proof of vaccination as a condition of attending, a Special Olympics spokeswoman said. The group had previously required proof. Its USA Games kick off Sunday and run through June 12. Roughly 5,500 people are expected to attend. Florida passed legislation last year banning businesses and agencies from mandating vaccines. Last October, the health department fined Leon County $3.57 million for requiring county staff to be vaccinated against Covid-19.
3rd Jun 2022 - The Wall Street Journal

Shanghai Residents Revel in Outdoor Walks, Haircuts and More of the Mundane

Residents gathered at the gates of some housing compounds in Shanghai late Tuesday to stage a countdown to midnight, when the city’s government lifted anti-Covid-19 restrictions that had kept them holed up inside their apartments—in many cases for more than two months. Shortly after the deadline passed, a convoy of cars emerged from the gates of one complex, sounding their horns and with national flags draped over their hoods, videos circulating on social media showed. Passengers could be seen standing with their heads out of sunroofs. Firecrackers sparkled in the night sky as a festive mood entered the city after weeks of chaos, frustration and mounting despair. From midnight, the Shanghai authorities said most of the city’s 25 million residents were free to leave their apartments and residential compounds to go to work, with all businesses cleared to resume normal operations. Officials are eager to get China’s most economically important city running again.
2nd Jun 2022 - The Wall Street Journal

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 1st Jun 2022

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Legal challenges to Queensland's COVID vaccine mandate get underway

Former UK minister says PM Johnson should resign over lockdown parties

Conservative lawmaker Jeremy Wright, a former British minister and attorney general, said on Monday that Prime Minister Boris Johnson should resign, joining a growing number of MPs who have withdrawn their support over the "partygate" scandal. A damning official report published last week detailed a series of illegal parties at Johnson's Downing Street office during COVID-19 lockdowns, prompting a new wave of calls for Johnson to step aside.
31st May 2022 - Reuters UK

German police mount raids in COVID-19 aid fraud probe

Police raided homes and offices in northern and western Germany on Tuesday as part of an investigation into a case involving five men accused of fraudulently applying for 26 million ($28 million) worth of pandemic-linked aid. The German government drew up a series of aid packages to help businesses withstand the impact of lockdowns and other restrictions at the height of the coronavirus pandemic. The suspects in this investigation are suspected of making at least 363 aid applications under false pretenses “for their own purposes and for companies that commissioned them,” according to a police statement.
31st May 2022 - Associated Press

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 31st May 2022

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FTSE 100 CEOs Salaries Rebound to Pre-Covid Levels in 2021

Top UK bosses are earning as much as they were before the pandemic after pay packages rebounded from a Covid-driven lull. Overall pay for chief executive officers in the FTSE 100 rose to a median average of £3.6 million ($4.6 million) in 2021, according to research by Deloitte LLP. The revival in higher pay packages was spurred by an increase in annual bonuses and stronger incentives for staff.
30th May 2022 - Bloomberg

Tasmanian MP backs petition questioning COVID-19 masks and vaccinations

A Tasmanian government MP has come under fire for making a "concerning" decision to sponsor a petition to State Parliament containing vaccine-related misinformation. Liberal backbencher John Tucker has sponsored a petition to State Parliament that claims vaccine and mask mandates imposed by the government he is a member of "have not stopped the spread or mitigated the risks of contracting COVID-19 in Tasmania". It also argues that, "there is increasing public concern that vaccinations and masking are unsafe," and calls on the Tasmanian government to lift all vaccination mandates and end mask requirements in schools, medical clinics and transport.
30th May 2022 - ABC News

Queensland's frontline workers begin series of legal challenges to COVID-19 vaccine mandate

The first of several civil cases, brought on by dozens of Queensland frontline workers who are challenging their COVID-19 vaccine mandates, including police officers and paramedics, has begun in Brisbane. More than 70 Queensland Police Service (QPS) and Queensland Ambulance Service (QAS) staff who have refused to comply with their employer's directives, are testing the legality of the policies in the Supreme Court, arguing they are unjust or an improper exercise of power. Some of the applicants, made up of three groups, have also claimed that similar directions made by the state's Chief Health Officer last year breached human rights laws, but that matter will be heard at a later date alongside other similar legal challenges.
30th May 2022 - ABC News

Why some Hongkongers are still shunning Covid-19 vaccines

May 31 vaccine pass deadline means only those with three jabs or suitable exemption will be allowed entry to most venues citywide. Firm belief in personal freedoms, fear of side effects remain key hurdles for inoculation drive.
30th May 2022 - South China Morning Post

Covid inquiry into government's handling of pandemic could start in days

The long-awaited statutory inquiry into how Boris Johnson’s Government handled the Covid pandemic is expected to begin next month, i has learnt. While public hearings of the UK Covid-19 Inquiry are not due to start until next year, its chairman, Baroness Hallett, is ready to formally start work as soon as the Prime Minister approves her request to update the terms of reference. Downing Street sources said this response was likely to come in June – meaning the work could begin as early as this week.
30th May 2022 - iNews

Covid-19: Partygate makes a mockery of the sacrifices made and the losses endured

Almost all of us reading about the tawdry details of “partygate” will have specific memories from the past two years to put the revelry at No. 10 Downing Street into sombre context. Sue Gray’s long awaited report, released last week, detailed the drunken parties and people staggering out in the early hours, the vomit and hangovers, the splashed red wine and empties stacked up outside the door, the karaoke machine, the rudeness to the cleaners, the messages that make it abundantly clear (if proof was needed) that the partygoers knew they were breaking laws they themselves had drawn up. Families separated, funerals missed, partners unable to be present at the birth of their child, children unable to be present at the death of their parent, loneliness, social isolation, depression, anxiety—all the inevitable consequences of following rules laid down for the collective good. I have some of these memories myself, but as the co-founder of John’s Campaign—which was set up to campaign on behalf of the rights of people living with dementia—I have also heard the stories and witnessed the pain and trauma of a particular group of people who suffered greatly during the pandemic, whose health was harmed, whose hearts were broken, and in some cases, whose lives ended because of the rules drawn up under the pandemic.
30th May 2022 - The BMJ

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 30th May 2022

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UK ministerial code updated to set out possible sanctions for breaches

British ministers who breach the government's code of conduct will not be expected to resign, an official document published on Friday said with an updated version of the rule book setting out a range of alternative sanctions. Behaviour at the heart of government is under intense scrutiny after a series of scandals - including several illegal parties in Prime Minister Boris Johnson's offices during the COVID-19 lockdown. The policy paper, published alongside the latest version of the Ministerial Code, said it was "disproportionate to expect that any breach, however minor, should lead automatically to resignation or dismissal"
28th May 2022 - Reuters

Covid 19 Omicron outbreak: Ashley Bloomfield tests positive for virus

Director-general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield has tested positive for Covid-19. The Ministry of Health confirmed Bloomfield tested positive while attending the World Health Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland. He tested positive on Thursday and is now self-isolating in Geneva. "This will mean a delay in his return to New Zealand. He is experiencing mild symptoms." Bloomfield was attending the Assembly with Health Minister Andrew Little, who left Geneva earlier this week. Both were following all appropriate health precautions, the ministry said. The World Health Assembly is described as the World Health Organisation's decision-making body, where the WHO's work is reviewed and new tasks assigned.
27th May 2022 - New Zealand Herald

Beijing city offers elderly COVID shot-related health insurance to ease hesitancy

China's capital is offering elderly residents state-backed insurance for "medical accidents" linked to COVID-19 shots to ease vaccination hesitancy among those most vulnerable, as Beijing ramps up inoculations during its worst outbreak. Chinese officials have pointed to relatively lower vaccination rates among the elderly as a key weakness in its "dynamic zero-COVID" strategy. The city of 22 million people had fully inoculated 97.7% of its adult residents as of September last year, but only 80.6% of people aged 60 and over had received their first dose by mid-April this year, according to city officials.
27th May 2022 - Reuters

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 27th May 2022

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South Africa COVID vaccine hesitancy due to side-effect fears- survey

Fears over the possible side effects and effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines have been the main drivers of hesitancy among thousands of South Africans, a government-backed online survey showed on Thursday.
26th May 2022 - Moneyweb.co.za

Johnson takes responsibility for lockdown parties

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he took full responsibility for a series of boozy parties at his Downing Street official residence during lockdowns, when COVID rules placed severe curbs on socializing outside the home. Lucy Fielder has more.
26th May 2022 - Reuters

Unwanted, Teen Pregnancies Rose During Covid Pandemic

All day long, kids stream in and out of the Tiffany-blue front door at Project Elimu, the premier ballet school in Kibera, a vibrant, low-income community in Nairobi, Kenya. But not all of the school’s visitors are dancers. Some, like 18-year-old Esther, are in acute distress, facing abuse at home or struggling with early pregnancy and parenthood. Esther is one data point in a wave of girls who became pregnant during the pandemic. According to the UNFPA, the United Nation’s sexual and reproductive healthy agency, some 1.4 million women and girls became pregnant unintentionally as a result of contraception interruptions in the first year of the pandemic alone.
26th May 2022 - Bloomberg

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 26th May 2022

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Covid Lockdown Costs Shanghai Its China Currency Trading Crown

The fallout of China’s Covid Zero policy is starting to show in Shanghai’s financial markets, with the city losing its top currency trading hub title for the first time. Shanghai handled fewer currency deals than Beijing in April, to rank second among China’s 36 provinces and municipalities, according to the State Administration of Foreign Exchange. The decline points to another consequence of strict lockdowns and may serve as a case study for the possible implications of movement curbs in major Chinese cities, including Beijing, as Covid cases climb. Traders volunteering to stay in the office, sleeping on trading floors, did little keep up currency volumes. Settlement and sales by banks for their clients, dropped 30% from March to $61.8 billion. That’s 15% of the national tally, compared with a steady share of around 20% before the lockdown, as per data going back to 2019.
26th May 2022 - Bloomberg

Hemmed in by COVID curbs, Beijingers seek respite in urban outdoors

On a hot, sunny day, children and adults splashed in the cool run-off of the Yongding River in a park on the western outskirts of Beijing, a city under near-lockdown in China's head-on battle with COVID-19. While gatherings are discouraged and many parks in the sprawling city of 22 million are shut, Beijingers - like others across China with limited travel options - have taken up outdoor pursuits such as camping and picnicking after more than two years of strict and often claustrophobic pandemic curbs.
26th May 2022 - Reuters

UK report blames "senior leadership" over illegal Downing Street COVID parties

A failure of leadership at British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Downing Street office was to a blame for a culture that led to illegal parties being held during coronavirus lockdowns, a report by a senior civil servant said on Wednesday. The report by senior official Sue Gray was commissioned by Johnson after revelations of alcohol-fuelled parties at Downing Street when social mixing was all but banned under stringent laws his government had made to curb the spread of COVID-19. "Many of these events should not have been allowed to happen," the report said. "The senior leadership at the centre, both political and official, must bear responsibility for this culture."
25th May 2022 - Reuters

UK PM Johnson has been given report into lockdown parties - Cabinet Office

The civil servant leading investigation into coronavirus lockdown-breaking parties at the Boris Johnson's Downing Street office and residence has passed her official report to the UK prime minister, the Cabinet Office said on Wednesday. "We can confirm that Sue Gray has provided her final report to the Prime Minister," a Cabinet Office spokesperson said. Downing Street is due to publish the report later on Wednesday.
25th May 2022 - Reuters

Drunkenness, vomiting and a scuffle at UK government lockdown parties

A scuffle broke out, one attendee was sick and excessive amounts of alcohol were consumed when workers at Downing Street held a party in the middle of Britain's coronavirus crisis as the rest of the country was observing strict lockdown rules. The incidents happened at a leaving party on June 18, 2020, that began in the Cabinet Room and later moved to the nearby Cabinet Secretary's room with the last member of staff leaving at 3:13 a.m. the following morning. The government's former head of ethics, Helen MacNamara, attended for part of the evening and provided a karaoke machine, according to a report into lockdown breaches at government buildings during the pandemic.
25th May 2022 - Reuters

‘They were laughing at us’: Covid families’ fury at revelations in Sue Gray report

In Britain, families bereaved by Covid-19 have said they are “sickened” by the revelations in Sue Gray’s Partygate report, and have accused Boris Johnson and his staff of “laughing at us”. A group of 4,000 families who lost loved ones from Covid-19 have hit out at the prime minister after his government was guilty of “a serious failure” to abide by the “standards expected of the entire British population”
25th May 2022 - The Independent

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 25th May 2022

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Fresh photos of UK PM Johnson drinking reignite 'Partygate' row

New photographs of Prime Minister Boris Johnson drinking at a leaving party at his Downing Street residence have been published, reigniting opposition accusations that he breached his own COVID-19 lockdown rules. The photographs, obtained by ITV News, were taken at a gathering in honour of Downing Street's outgoing director of communications Lee Cain in November 2020, an event previously investigated by police for potential breaches of the law.
24th May 2022 - Reuters

China's Weibo bans Trip.com co-founder who questioned zero-COVID strategy

A leading entrepreneur in China who had questioned the wisdom of the country's zero-COVID strategy was banned from posting on Weibo, with the social media platform accusing Trip.com co-founder James Liang of violating laws. Weibo, a platform similar to Twitter, did not specify which laws Liang had broken, and it was unclear when the ban took effect or what had triggered it. But on Tuesday, online users noticed changes to Liang's account, which has 817,000 followers.
24th May 2022 - Reuters

Boris Johnson did not knowingly lie to parliament about lockdown party, transport minister says

A British minister defended Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Tuesday over photographs of him drinking at a coronavirus lockdown-breaking gathering at Downing Street, saying he did not knowingly lie to parliament about the event. New photographs of Johnson drinking at a leaving party in Downing Street in November 2020 were published by ITV News on Monday, reigniting opposition accusations that he breached his own COVID-19 lockdown rules and calls for his resignation.
24th May 2022 - Reuters

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 24th May 2022

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U.S. Justice Department to appeal judge's ruling on COVID border migrant rules

The U.S. Justice Department will appeal a federal judge's decision blocking the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions that empower agents at the U.S.-Mexico border to turn back migrants without giving them a chance to seek asylum. "The Department of Justice intends to appeal," spokesman Anthony Coley said in a statement.
23rd May 2022 - Reuters

Boris Johnson met civil servant to discuss timing of 'partygate' report publication, his spokesman says

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson met senior civil servant Sue Gray this month to discuss the timings for publication of a report she had overseen into COVID-19 lockdown-breaking parties at Downing Street, his spokesman said on Monday. The government is expected this week to publish a long-awaited report into the events held at Johnson's Downing Street office during coronavirus lockdowns. Police have handed out 126 fines in connection with the parties.
23rd May 2022 - Reuters

UK report into Downing Street lockdown parties "not very far off," Boris Johnson says

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said a report by a senior civil servant into COVID-19 lockdown rule breaches in his Downing Street offices was due to be published soon, and rejected criticism the inquiry was not independent. "I'm not going to comment or give any running commentary on her report until we get it, and I think that to be frank, the moment is not very far off," he told reporters on Monday, referring to the report by senior official Sue Gray.
23rd May 2022 - Reuters

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 23rd May 2022

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French Open Updates | Play Starts Without COVID Restrictions

Two-time Grand Slam champion Garbiñe Muguruza is out of the French Open in the first round for the second year in a row. Muguruza won the title at Roland Garros in 2016 and was seeded 10th this year but was defeated 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 by Kaia Kanepi of Estonia on Sunday. Kanepi turns 37 next month and is the oldest player in the women’s draw in Paris. She is ranked 46th and is participating in her 15th French Open. Her best showings were quarterfinal appearances in 2008 and 2012; she has appeared in seven Grand Slam quarterfinals but never won one. The match ended under a drizzle and Muguruza missed a service return on match point, then cracked her racket against the ground.
22nd May 2022 - Bloomberg

Biden, Yoon vow to deter North Korea and offer COVID aid

President Joe Biden and his new South Korean counterpart agreed on Saturday to hold bigger military drills and deploy more U.S. weapons if necessary to deter North Korea, while offering to send COVID-19 vaccines and potentially meet Kim Jong Un. Biden and Yoon Suk-yeol said their countries' decades-old alliance needed to develop not only to face North Korean threats but to keep the Indo-Pacific region "free and open" and protect global supply chains
22nd May 2022 - Reuters

Biden Says North Korea Hasn't Responded to Offer of Covid Help

President Joe Biden said North Korea hasn’t taken the US up on an offer to provide Covid-19 vaccines, despite an outbreak that a White House official described as worrying. “We’ve offered vaccines, not only to North Korea, but to China as well. We are prepared to do that immediately. We have gotten no response,” Biden told reporters following a meeting Saturday in Seoul with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol. The US is concerned about the Covid-19 situation in North Korea and is willing to provide Pyongyang with assistance, a White House official told reporters earlier Saturday.
21st May 2022 - Bloomberg

Coronavirus: Shanghai faces exodus of talent as lockdown dashes workers hopes for good jobs and a better life

Shanghai is facing an exodus of talent and labour as thousands of people leave the pandemic-hit city which has been in total lockdown since April 1, knocked by worries that local authorities will backtrack from plans to switch to normal virus control measures in June after achieving a societal zero-Covid goal. At the city's Hongqiao railway station, passengers have to queue up for two hours before they can even access the terminal. Those who plan on leaving need to show train tickets, approval letters from sub-district authorities and negative nucleic reports within 48 hours of their journey, before gaining permission to enter the terminal. A rapid antigen test is also required at the security checkpoints.
21st May 2022 - South China Morning Post on MSN.com

Dan Andrews hands out more than 50,000 fines to Victorians breaching his hated Covid-19 rules - but most still haven't been paid

More than 50,000 fines have been handed to Victorians for breaching COVID-19 restrictions. Some 5721 people were nabbed for not wearing a face covering, a budget estimates inquiry has been told, while 112 people were caught failing to isolate when required.
21st May 2022 - Daily Mail on MSN.com

Nicola Sturgeon tests positive for Covid-19

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has tested positive for Covid-19. Ms Sturgeon tweeted she had been experiencing mild symptoms on Friday evening. She will work from home over the next few days and told followers she would “hopefully” be back out and about later next week. The First Minister met Sinn Fein vice president and first minister designate of Northern Ireland, Michelle O’Neill, at Bute House earlier on Friday.
21st May 2022 - The Independent

Judge: COVID asylum restrictions must continue on border

Pandemic-related restrictions on migrants seeking asylum on the southern border must continue, a judge ruled Friday in an order blocking the Biden administration’s plan to lift them early next week. The ruling was just the latest instance of a court derailing the president’s proposed immigration policies along the U.S. border with Mexico. The Justice Department said the administration will appeal, but the ruling virtually ensures that restrictions will not end as planned on Monday. A delay would be a blow to advocates who say rights to seek asylum are being trampled, and a relief to some Democrats who fear that a widely anticipated increase in illegal crossings would put them on the defensive in an already difficult midterm election year.
21st May 2022 - The Associated Press

COVID restrictions for migrants at U.S. border can not end yet, judge rules

U.S. authorities were blocked by a federal judge on Friday from lifting COVID-19 restrictions that empower agents at the U.S.-Mexico border to turn back migrants without giving them a chance to seek asylum. The nationwide injunction issued by U.S. District Judge Robert Summerhays in Louisiana means the restrictions, which were set to end on May 23, will remain in place across the border as the litigation proceeds, unless a higher court overturns the ruling. The Department of Justice (DOJ) said it intends to appeal.
20th May 2022 - Reuters

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 20th May 2022

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Covid-19: Government failed to protect doctors during pandemic, BMA inquiry finds

The UK government failed in its duty of care to protect doctors and other healthcare staff from avoidable harm and suffering in its management of the covid-19 pandemic, a major review by the BMA has concluded. Two reports published on 19 May document the experiences of thousands of UK doctors throughout the pandemic, drawing on real time surveys carried out over the past two years, formal testimonies, data, and evidence sessions. The reports will form part of a wider review by the BMA into the government’s handling of the pandemic, with three further instalments to come. The evidence lays bare the devastating impact of the pandemic on doctors and the NHS, with repeated mistakes, errors of judgment, and failures of government policy amounting to a failure of a duty of care to the workforce, the BMA said.
19th May 2022 - The BMJ

UK's Johnson facing no further action over lockdown parties - BBC

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will not face any further action over rule-breaking parties held in Downing Street during the coronavirus pandemic, the BBC's political editor said on Twitter on Thursday. Johnson, who has previously apologised after receiving a fine, has dismissed calls to step down over gatherings held in his office and residence, an investigation into which has now been concluded by police
19th May 2022 - Reuters UK

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 19th May 2022

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‘One million empty chairs’: The US families torn apart by COVID

The United States has become the first country in the world to surpass one million deaths from COVID-19. The nation hit the tragic mark on Tuesday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University, renewing a deep sense of grief felt by countless families that have lost loved ones during the pandemic.
19th May 2022 - Al Jazeera English

Inside the US communities where many are still unvaccinated

Holmes County in northeastern Ohio is a typical Midwestern community in the United States. Large red barns dot the rolling landscape. Trucks carrying freshly cut lumber boom through village streets. Woods and lakes dominate the landscape between villages named Berlin, Strasburg and Dresden. But in many ways, this is a place far from typical: At a time when approximately 77 percent of the wider United States population has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, only about 19 percent of Holmes County residents have – one of the lowest county-level rates in the country. Approximately half of Holmes County’s 50,000 residents are members of the Amish community, a traditional Christian group that largely eschews modern technology and farms land in rural areas mainly in Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York.
19th May 2022 - Al Jazeera English

North Korean leader Kim slams officials' 'immaturity' in response to COVID outbreak

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un slammed his country's response to its first confirmed COVID-19 outbreak as immature, accusing government officials of inadequacies and inertia as fever cases swept the country, state media reported on Wednesday. North Korea reported 232,880 more people with fever symptoms, and six more deaths after country revealed the COVID outbreak last week. It did not say how many people had tested positive for COVID-19.
18th May 2022 - Reuters

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 18th May 2022

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Factbox: COVID-hit Chinese cities seek exit from painful lockdown

Plans by COVID-hit Chinese cities to exit or avoid lockdown are more fraught and uncertain than ever as the pursuit of zero cases grows more prolonged, taxing and complex, with the highly infectious Omicron variant demanding quicker and tougher steps. The lockdowns have led the World Health Organization chief to describe China's zero-COVID goal as unsustainable, but China says its approach will protect the lives of its people and economy in the longer run.
17th May 2022 - Reuters

N.Korean leader Kim slams officials' 'immature' response amid COVID outbreak

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un slammed his country's response to its first officially confirmed COVID-19 outbreak as "immature," accusing government officials of inadequacies and inertia as fever cases swept the country, state media reported on Wednesday. North Korea reported 232,880 more people with fever symptoms, and six more deaths after the country's first admission of the COVID outbreak last week. It did not say how many people had tested positive for COVID-19.
17th May 2022 - Reuters

China's Covid Exit Hinges on Seniors Who Don't Want Vaccines

As its Covid Zero lockdowns have become harsher and more economically disruptive, China has repeatedly invoked the specter of millions of vulnerable elderly people dying as justification for its strict virus approach. What remains unaddressed is why, with an abundant supply of homegrown vaccines and vast enforcement power, so many of China’s over-60s remain unvaccinated more than a year after shots became available. China is now paying a price for this vulnerability, with its economy struggling under the weight of chaotic lockdowns and increasingly unpredictable measures aimed at snuffing out all cases and shielding the community.
17th May 2022 - Bloomberg

Students protest, discontent grows over China’s COVID policy

Administrators at an elite Beijing university have backed down from plans to further tighten pandemic restrictions on students as part of China’s “zero-COVID” strategy after a weekend protest at the school, according to students Tuesday. Graduate students at Peking University staged the rare, but peaceful protest Sunday over the school’s decision to erect a sheet-metal wall to keep them further sequestered on campus, while allowing faculty to come and go freely. Discontent had already been simmering over regulations prohibiting them from ordering in food or having visitors, and daily COVID-19 testing.
17th May 2022 - Associated Press

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 17th May 2022

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Tokyo COVID curbs declared illegal in "Kill Bill" restaurant case

Japan's "Kill Bill" restaurant operator prevailed in a court case on Monday that declared Tokyo's now defunct COVID-19 infection curbs were illegal. The orders, enacted in the capital during various states of emergency, included shortened operating hours and a ban on alcohol sales, though there was a compensating government subsidy. Businesses that didn't comply were subject to fines. Global-Dining Inc, which runs more than 40 restaurants, defied the restrictions, taking the city government to court over the matter.
16th May 2022 - Reuters

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 16th May 2022

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New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern tests positive for COVID

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern tested positive for COVID-19 with moderate symptoms, her office said in a statement on Saturday. She will not be in parliament for the government's emissions reduction plan on Monday and the budget on Thursday, but "travel arrangements for her trade mission to the United States are unaffected at this stage," the statement said. Ardern had been symptomatic since Friday evening, returning a weak positive at night and a clear positive on Saturday morning on a rapid antigen test, it said.
14th May 2022 - Reuters

Meatpackers convinced Trump to keep plants running during COVID crisis - report

Article reports that top U.S. meatpacking companies drafted the executive order issued by President Donald Trump in 2020 to keep meat plants running and convinced his administration to encourage workers to stay on the job at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a report released on Thursday by a U.S. House panel. The report by the House of Representatives Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis details the meat industry’s influence on Trump's White House as it tried to keep production rolling even as employees fell ill.
13th May 2022 - Reuters

Massachusetts to pay $56 mln over deadly COVID outbreak at veterans' home

The state of Massachusetts on Thursday agreed to pay $56 million to resolve a lawsuit by families of veterans who contracted COVID-19 during an outbreak at a veterans' care center that killed 84 people early in the pandemic. The proposed settlement would resolve a pending federal class action lawsuit by families of veterans who died as a result of the 2020 outbreak at Holyoke Soldiers' Home, one of the deadliest to have occurred at a U.S. nursing facility.
13th May 2022 - Reuters

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 13th May 2022

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Opinion | Forget the WHO. India owes its people the truth about covid-19.

In April 2021, the oxygen supply to the intensive care unit of the hospital where Manju Begum was admitted ran out. Manju, just 30, was among 20 patients who died; this was just one case among scores in hospitals across the country. Amid oxygen shortages, hospitals posted desperate SOS messages, families carried bottle-size oxygen cylinders to their relatives, and Sikh gurudwaras that usually feed the poor for free organized oxygen drives instead. Despite this catastrophe, India’s Parliament was informed this year that there was not a single death from oxygen shortage reported by any state during the pandemic. The unforgivable erasure of these covid-19 deaths has been underscored again by the recent dispute between the World Health Organization and the Indian government over exactly how many people died during the pandemic.
12th May 2022 - The Washington Post

Trump officials and meat industry blocked life-saving Covid controls, investigation finds

Trump officials “collaborated” with the meatpacking industry to downplay the threat of Covid to plant workers and block public health measures which could have saved lives, a damning new investigation has found. Internal documents reviewed by the congressional select subcommittee on the coronavirus crisis reveal how industry representatives lobbied government officials to stifle “pesky” health departments from imposing evidence-based safety measures to curtail the virus spreading – and tried to obscure worker deaths from these authorities. At least 59,000 workers at five of the largest meatpacking companies – Tyson Foods, JBS USA Holdings, Smithfield Foods, Cargill and National Beef Packing Company which are the subject of the congressional inquiry – contracted Covid in the first year of the pandemic, of whom at least 269 died.
12th May 2022 - The Guardian

UK police recommend more than 100 fines for Downing Street lockdown breaches

British police said on Thursday they had now made more than 100 referrals for fines as part of their investigation into lockdown rule-breaking at gatherings held in Downing Street during the COVID-19 pandemic. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson apologised for receiving a fine in April for breaking lockdown rules by attending a gathering in his office to celebrate his birthday, but has refused to resign over it.
12th May 2022 - Reuters UK

Report criticizes meat industry, USDA response to pandemic

During the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, the meat processing industry worked closely with political appointees in the Trump administration to stave off health restrictions and keep slaughterhouses open even as the virus spread rapidly among workers, according to a congressional report released Thursday. The report by the House’s Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis said meat companies pushed to keep their plants open even though they knew workers were at high risk of catching the coronavirus. The lobbying led to health and labor officials watering down their recommendations for the industry and culminated in an executive order President Donald Trump issued in spring 2020 designating meat plants as critical infrastructure that needed to remain open.
12th May 2022 - Associated Press

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 12th May 2022

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China criticises ‘irresponsible' WHO remarks on zero-Covid approach

China has defended sticking to its strict zero-Covid approach, calling critical remarks from the head of the World Health Organisation “irresponsible”. The response from the Foreign Ministry came after WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he had been discussing with Chinese experts the need for a different approach in light of new knowledge about the virus. “When we talk about the ‘zero-Covid’, we don’t think that it’s sustainable, considering the behaviour of the virus now and what we anticipate in the future,” Mr Tedros said. Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said at a daily briefing on Wednesday: “We hope that relevant people can view China’s policy of epidemic prevention and control objectively and rationally, get more knowledge about the facts and refrain from making irresponsible remarks.”
11th May 2022 - The Irish News

China calls WHO chief 'irresponsible' for saying zero-COVID strategy 'not sustainable'

China hit back on Wednesday against what it called "irresponsible" comments by the head of the World Health Organization, who described the country's uncompromising and increasingly painful "zero COVID" policy as "not sustainable." The policy has placed hundreds of millions of people across dozens of cities under various degrees of movement restrictions, most dramatically in Shanghai, causing significant economic damage in China and beyond and fuelling wide-spread frustration.
11th May 2022 - Reuters

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 11th May 2022

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South Africa Cuts Back Covid Vaccine Drive Amid Citizen Apathy

South Africa is scaling back its Covid-19 vaccination drive and may have to destroy doses because of a lack of demand from citizens even as the country heads into a fifth wave of infections. Take up has slowed to the point where keeping some sites running is unaffordable, said Nicholas Crisp, deputy director-general at the department of health and the person in charge of the program. Covid-19 vaccinations will need to be incorporated into South Africa’s standard medical programs, which means these specific shots will be less accessible, he said.
10th May 2022 - Bloomberg

Cancun, Tulum Struggle as Covid Sparks Mexico Travel Boom

It’s 2 p.m. in the Mexican resort town of Tulum, and the beach club at the Ikal Hotel is heating up for its “ecstatic dance” session. Inside a thatch-roofed pavilion, a sweaty crowd bops to a “folktronica” track spun by a DJ whose next stop is Berlin. Down a set of wide stone steps, fit thirtysomethings smack volleyballs on a beach that smells of seaweed and sunscreen. A “treehouse” room will set you back $800 a night, and a bottle of Crémant de Bourgogne sparkling wine runs $110.
10th May 2022 - Bloomberg

Bill Gates Says He's Tested Positive for Covid-19

Bill Gates tweeted Tuesday afternoon that he has tested positive for Covid-19 and is experiencing mild symptoms. The Microsoft co-founder said he would adhere to the advice of medical experts by self-isolating until he is healthy again.
10th May 2022 - Bloomberg

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 10th May 2022

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Liverpool expert warns about 'darknet' covid vaccines

A Liverpool scientist warned against fake covid vaccines advertised on the darknet. Dr Sulaf Assi, a senior lecturer in pharmacy at Liverpool John Moores University, developed a new portable device to detect counterfeit Covid-19 vaccines in "less than a minute". Last year, the NHS urged the public to be wary of 'vaccine fraud', and news outlets reported on fake versions of major Covid-19 vaccines being sold on the darknet, a section of the internet accessible only through specialised software.
9th May 2022 - Liverpool Echo

UK Labour's Starmer to offer to resign if fined for COVID rule breach - Sky News

British Labour Party leader Keir Starmer said on Monday he would resign if police decide he broke COVID-19 rules, putting pressure on Prime Minister Boris Johnson who has refused to step down after he was fined over a lockdown-busting party. After months of Johnson being criticised for attending parties at his Downing Street residence when Britain was in a strict coronavirus lockdown, attention has turned to a gathering Starmer attended last year in the northeast of England. Footage from April 2021 shows him drinking a bottle of beer with colleagues indoors, when such gatherings were banned if not essential for work.
9th May 2022 - Reuters UK

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 9th May 2022

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'Stop asking why': Shanghai tightens COVID lockdown, Beijing keeps testing

Shanghai authorities were tightening the city-wide COVID lockdown they imposed more than a month ago, prolonging into late May an ordeal that China's capital Beijing was desperate to avoid by turning mass testing into an almost daily routine. The commercial hub of 25 million was making a fresh push to bring case numbers outside the areas that were facing the strictest curbs to zero by the second half of May, people familiar with the matter told Reuters.
8th May 2022 - Reuters

Shaw says B.C. employees can’t have paid leave for COVID-19 shots

A Shaw Communications employee and his union are speaking out against the telecommunications giant, after it refused to give some of its B.C. workers paid leave to get their COVID-19 vaccinations, citing federal regulations. “I was surprised and dismayed,” said the employee, who has been with the company for more than 10 years, and whose identity CBC News has agreed to keep confidential for fear of retaliation.
8th May 2022 - Rain City

India reports 3,805 fresh COVID-19 cases, 22 fatalities in last 24 hours

India reported 3,805 new coronavirus infections in a day, pushing the number of active cases of the disease in the country to 20,303 and the overall tally to 4,30,98,743, according to Union Health Ministry data updated on Saturday. The data released at 8 am also showed that 22 fatalities — 20 of them from Kerala alone — were reported in a 24-hour period, taking the cumulative death toll to 5,24,024. The active cases now constitute 0.05 per cent of the total infections, the health ministry said, adding that the country's COVID-19 recovery rate is at 98.74 per cent. The daily positivity rate was recorded at 0.78 per cent and the weekly positivity rate at 0.79 per cent, the ministry said.
7th May 2022 - Moneycontrol

Moderna Seeks to Dismiss Covid-19 Vaccine Patent Lawsuit

Moderna Inc. is trying to fend off rival companies’ claims that its Covid-19 vaccine infringes their patents, arguing that the companies may only pursue their claims seeking royalties from the federal government. Moderna on Friday filed a motion to dismiss some of the patent-infringement claims in the lawsuit, which was filed in February by two small biotechnology companies, Arbutus Biopharma Corp. and Genevant Sciences GmbH, in federal court in Delaware. It is the latest move in the high-stakes legal battles that are breaking out among companies and the government over patents surrounding Covid-19 vaccines. Arbutus and Genevant claimed in their lawsuit that Moderna’s vaccine has components covered by their patents, and they are seeking royalties from the multibillion-dollar sales of Moderna’s vaccine.
7th May 2022 - The Wall Street Journal

White House Warns of Fall, Winter Surge Without Additional Covid-19 Funding

The Biden administration estimates 100 million Americans may become infected with Covid-19 in the fall and winter without additional funding to help combat the pandemic and buy new vaccines for a fall booster campaign. The infections would result from a virus that is rapidly adapting and waning natural and vaccine immunity, as well as from lack of money for updating vaccines and for stockpiling tests and treatments, a senior administration official said Friday. The cases would amount to a million a day over the course of three to four months, according to a senior administration official, who shared the estimate as part of a White House push to secure $22.5 billion in new funding to combat the pandemic.
6th May 2022 - The Wall Street Journal

Xi Jinping attacks ‘doubters’ as he doubles down on China’s zero-Covid policy

Xi Jinping has confirmed there is no intention to turn away from China’s zero-Covid commitment, in a major speech to the country’s senior officials that also warned against any criticism or doubting of the policy. Addressing the seven-member politburo standing committee, China’s highest decision-making body, specifically about the Shanghai outbreak, the president said China’s response was “scientific and effective”. He told officials to “unswervingly adhere to the general policy of dynamic zero-Covid”. “We have won the battle to defend Wuhan, and we will certainly be able to win the battle to defend Shanghai,” he said, according to a translation by Sinocism’s Bill Bishop.
6th May 2022 - The Guardian

Piers Corbyn fined over ‘murder’ claim at Covid vaccine clinic

Piers Corbyn has been fined £250 after accusing NHS staff at a London Covid-19 vaccination clinic of murdering people. The brother of the former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn had arrived with a group of anti-vaxxers at Guy’s hospital in central London on 18 January with a “cease and desist” letter that they claimed was to prevent NHS staff from administering the Covid-19 vaccine. Corbyn told Chelsea Butcher, a nursing sister: “We are not leaving, you are murdering people here,” and another member of the group said, “This is a crime scene,” Westminster magistrates court heard. Iestyn Morgan, prosecuting, said Corbyn, 75, and David Burridge, 44, from Hounslow, west London, refused to leave the hospital’s atrium despite requests from NHS staff and police.
6th May 2022 - The Guardian

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 6th May 2022

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Bill Gates opens up on vaccine conspiracy theories: ‘People yell at me that I’m tracking them.’

Bill Gates says people yell at him in the street over conspiracy theories surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic. In a wide-ranging interview with the BBC on Thursday, the billionaire Microsoft co-founder said: “You almost have to laugh because it’s so crazy.” One particular conspiracy theory that has gained traction over the past two years makes false claims that Gates wants to use mass vaccination to implant microchips into people so that he can track them digitally. Gates has always denied such accusations, which have circulated widely on social media. But Gates’ denial hasn’t been enough to extinguish the theory. In May 2020, a Yahoo/YouGov poll of 1,640 U.S. adults found that almost one in three people believed the debunked microchipping conspiracy theory to be true.
5th May 2022 - Fortune

Recent COVID-19 court cases show New Zealand's Bill of Rights Act is not as strong as some might wish

At the end of April, the High Court found the border quarantine (MIQ) system did work well to protect public health and many of the resulting restrictions on rights were justifiable. However, the court also found the allocation of space in MIQ through a virtual lobby system amounted to an unjustifiable limit on the right of New Zealand citizens to return because it did not prioritise citizens over non-citizens, and it did not prioritise on individual need or delays experienced. What we see in these cases is the New Zealand constitution in action, operating as a system of checks and balances to protect individuals from arbitrary interference by the state. As an aspect of that, the cases show the operation of the rule of law, which means any power exercised by the government has to be based on legal authority and that everyone is subject to the law, whether they are members of the public or politicians.
5th May 2022 - The Conversation

China to fight comments, actions denying its COVID response policy -state media

China will fight any comments and actions that distort, doubt or deny the country's COVID-19 response policy, state television reported on Thursday, after a meeting of the country's highest decision-making body. Relaxing COVID controls will lead to large-scale infections, state television reported, following the meeting of the Standing Committee of the Communist Party's politburo, adding that China will step up research into and its defence against virus mutations, and will avoid one-size-fit-all policies.
5th May 2022 - Reuters

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 5th May 2022

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China censors more economists after critical takes on zero-Covid

More outspoken economists and prominent investors are being silenced on social media in China as Beijing tightens its grip on online speech amid mounting economic pressure and growing controversies surrounding its zero-Covid policy. The public accounts of Hong Hao, who was head of research at Bank of Communications (Bocom) International Holdings were removed from both WeChat and the Twitter-like Weibo service on Saturday. Hong had more than 3 million followers on Weibo. It was unclear which red line the economist had crossed.
4th May 2022 - South China Morning Post

Shanghai residents turn to NFTs to record COVID-19 lockdown, combat censorship

Shanghai residents are turning to the blockchain to preserve memories of the city's month-long COVID-19 lockdown, minting videos, photos and artworks capturing their ordeal as non-fungible tokens to ensure they can be shared and avoid deletion. Unable to leave their homes for weeks at a time, many of the city's 25 million residents have been unleashing their frustrations online, venting about draconian lockdown curbs and difficulties procuring food, and sharing stories of hardship, such as patients unable to get medical treatment.
4th May 2022 - CNA

Blinken Tests Positive for Covid-19, Delays China Policy Speech

Secretary of State Antony Blinken tested positive for Covid-19 and will work from home in the coming days, prompting him to postpone a key China policy speech that had been scheduled for Thursday. Blinken, who attended the White House Correspondents Association dinner on Saturday, is fully vaccinated and boosted and is experiencing only mild symptoms, according to a statement Wednesday from State Department spokesman Ned Price. The top U.S. diplomat “has not seen President Biden in person for several days, and the President is not considered a close contact according to guidelines by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC),” Price said. “He tested negative on Tuesday and again as recently as this morning.
4th May 2022 - Bloomberg

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 4th May 2022

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Christiane Northrup, once a New Age health guru, now spreads covid disinformation

For much of the pandemic, there has been a tidy pattern to Christiane Northrup’s days. A retired celebrity doctor with a New Age fandom, she would take her position at a sunny desk in coastal Maine, snap on a camera, and hold forth on spiritual topics such as chakra alignment and energy fields. With a flowery dress and glittering jewelry, she sometimes serenaded her online audience of half a million or so by plucking an enormous harp. Then Northrup would land on a gloomier theme: covid-19. Northrup would claim that the virus was part of a plot involving Deep State brainwashing and treacherous depopulation schemes. She encouraged fans to check out QAnon, called the Centers for Disease Control a “covid death cult,” and described the vaccines as crimes against humanity.
3rd May 2022 - The Washington Post

Japan to review official COVID-19 response, with report expected from June

In Japan, a panel of experts set up by the central government will begin discussions shortly to review its response to the COVID-19 pandemic, with a report expected as early as June. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has said he plans to use the outcome of the review by the the eight-member panel to make improvements on the government’s strategy in the fight against the deadly virus. High on the panel’s agenda will be how authorities and hospitals should cooperate. Health care systems have been strained across the country at times during the pandemic, though Japan is among countries with large numbers of hospitals and hospital beds.
3rd May 2022 - The Japan Times

How to Change Your Mind About COVID-19

Dylan Smith watched in dismay. Was everyone else ignoring reality? That March, New York City hesitated to close its schools during the city’s first COVID wave. Smith was horrified. A major pandemic was arriving, and softening its blow would require closing schools, which he believed was the best way to protect kids. “There were a lot of suggestions that kids would be these super–carrier vectors,” he says, “where they would come home and they would infect Mom and Dad and Grandma and Grandpa, and they would infect teachers at school.” Now, two years later, Smith has changed his mind. He thinks schools should’ve reopened much sooner—by early 2021 at the latest. In other words, Smith admits to rethinking one of his positions on COVID-19, an act that sometimes feels as risky as telling 17th-century Florentines that Earth revolves around the sun. Not everyone will agree with Smith’s reassessment. But maybe we can learn something from his willingness to do it.
3rd May 2022 - The Atlantic

Woman says Amazon.com fired her because she got 'long COVID' - lawsuit

A former Amazon.com Inc employee sued the online retailer on Monday, saying it wrongly fired her and demanded she repay wages after she contracted "long COVID." Brittany Hope, 29, a former brand manager for Amazon's fashion line The Drop in Manhattan, is seeking damages for alleged violations of federal, state and New York City disability laws. The Brooklyn resident said she was hospitalized after being diagnosed with the flu on Feb. 3, 2020, four months after being hired, and a few weeks before the coronavirus started taking hold in the United States
3rd May 2022 - Reuters

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 3rd May 2022

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COVID threatens new U.S. Senate delays for Biden's Fed, FTC nominees

An effort by U.S. Senate Democrats to move forward on President Joe Biden's nominees for the Federal Reserve and Federal Trade Commission appeared headed for a second week of delay on Monday, after another Democratic lawmaker tested positive for COVID-19. Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado said on Twitter that he tested positive for the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 on Sunday, adding that he would quarantine at home in Denver for the week. "I'm experiencing minor, cold-like symptoms and plan to work virtually," Bennet said.
2nd May 2022 - Reuters

Sharon Osbourne: Ozzy on the Mend After Covid Diagnosis

Sharon Osbourne has thanked fans for their support after her husband Ozzy was diagnosed with Covid, revealing the rocker is "on the mend". The talk show presenter took to Twitter with the news on Saturday, posting a GIF that carried the text: "Thank You for all the well wishes and support! "Ozzy is much better and on the mend!" Osbourne revealed her husband's diagnosis on Thursday and said she was "very worried" about the Black Sabbath star, 73, who has Parkinson's disease.
1st May 2022 - Bloomberg

Expats flee as Shanghai's COVID lockdown drags

Shanghai's heavy-handed COVID-19 lockdown is driving scores of foreign residents to flee the commercial centre, denting the appeal of mainland China's most cosmopolitan city and prompting others to rethink their futures in the metropolis. While no official statistics are available for departures in recent weeks, pet movers, property agents and law firms say they are seeing a sharp uptick in departure queries, while online chat groups swapping advice on how to leave the city amid lockdown curbs have swelled.
30th Apr 2022 - Reuters

China, North Korea halt border rail crossing over COVID fears

China has suspended cross-border freight train services with North Korea following consultations after COVID-19 infections in its border city of Dandong, the foreign ministry said on Friday. The suspension came within four months after North Korea eased border lockdowns enforced early in 2020 against the coronavirus, measures global aid groups have blamed for its worsening economic woes and risks to food supplies for millions.
30th Apr 2022 - Reuters

Cut off from home, Chinese diaspora frustrated at zero-COVID policy

Beijing's zero-COVID strategy has had dire consequences for the millions Chinese living abroad, most of whom have been unable to see family and friends at home for two years even as the rest of the world eases travel restrictions. Some cannot afford the sky-high cost of flights and others fear getting stuck in harsh lockdown on arrival. All of them are anxious about the well-being of loved ones back in China.
30th Apr 2022 - Reuters

Swiss commandos lose court fight over COVID-19 jabs

Four members of Switzerland's special forces who were fired for refusing to get vaccinated against COVID-19 have lost their bid for reinstatement, a court said on Friday. "By refusing to be vaccinated for no valid medical reason, the four servicemen deliberately put themselves in a position where they could no longer perform their professional duties," the Federal Administrative Court said in a summary of its ruling, which can be appealed at the supreme court.
30th Apr 2022 - Reuters

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 29th Apr 2022

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Republicans Don't Want Ukraine Aid Tied With Covid Bill

President Joe Biden has broad support in Congress for a massive $33 billion Ukraine aid package, but the proposal risks getting tangled in a long-simmering partisan dispute over immigration and Covid-19 funding. The Senate could vote on the emergency spending package next week, but the House will be on recess. Congress could finish by the week of May 9 and send it to Biden for his signature. But if Democrats insist on attaching long-stalled funding for coronavirus vaccinations and treatment to the package, action could be delayed indefinitely. “That’s not going to happen. That’s an awful way to do business,” Senator Jim Risch of Idaho, the top Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee, said about combining the two spending requests.
29th Apr 2022 - Bloomberg

New Zealanders who couldn't go home in COVID lockdown win case against government

New Zealanders overseas have won a high court victory over border restrictions that left many of them unable to return home during the coronavirus pandemic. New Zealand's COVID-19 policies allowed the country to escape the worst of the virus, keeping cases and deaths relatively low compared to many other countries. But the New Zealand High Court ruled that the system used to allocate places in border quarantine facilities infringed on the rights of some citizens to return home. For most of the period between 10 April 2020 until 28 February 2022, returning citizens had to get a place in hotel isolation (MIQ - managed isolation and quarantine) before they could board a plane home.
28th Apr 2022 - Sky News

COVID-19: What it was really like in care homes as govt found guilty of breaking law during early stages of pandemic

It was the Easter weekend in April 2020 and a clear blue sky and a warm breeze disguised the fact that the nation was in lockdown. A new disease called COVID-19 was spreading fast. Cameraman Andy and I were about to step into a residential nursing home that was in the grip of this virus. I didn't know it at the time but what I was about to witness what would set the tone for a year-long investigation into how COVID killed thousands of elderly care home residents. That weekend, we witnessed staff struggling to find the right personal protective equipment (PPE) like masks, gloves and aprons.
28th Apr 2022 - Sky News

Outpouring of Resentment on Chinese Social Media Is Overwhelming Censors

In the early hours of April 14, the Chinese Communist Party’s social media strategy went off the rails. It began when state media accounts on Weibo, China’s Twitter equivalent, promoted the hashtag “The U.S. is the country with the largest human-rights deficit.” Tens of thousands of Chinese internet users turned the accusation around onto Beijing. They criticized not only China’s Covid response of strict stay-at-home orders and minimal financial support for households but also wider social problems: long working hours, high property prices, violence against women, and censorship itself. “Our doors are locked down. Our pets are killed. Our medical resources are wasted so that people with acute illness can’t be treated,” wrote one poster. “The American government is so horrible, I’m so lucky to be born in China,” read a typically ironic post.
27th Apr 2022 - Bloomberg

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 28th Apr 2022

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Covid Zero Criticism Is New Test for China Censorship

It began when state media accounts on Weibo, China’s Twitter equivalent, promoted the hashtag “The U.S. is the country with the largest human-rights deficit.” Tens of thousands of Chinese internet users turned the accusation around onto Beijing. They criticized not only China’s Covid response of strict stay-at-home orders and minimal financial support for households but also wider social problems: long working hours, high property prices, violence against women, and censorship itself. “Our doors are locked down. Our pets are killed. Our medical resources are wasted so that people with acute illness can’t be treated,” wrote one poster. “The American government is so horrible, I’m so lucky to be born in China,” read a typically ironic post.
28th Apr 2022 - Bloomberg

Court says UK's nursing home COVID-19 policy was illegal

A British court ruled Wednesday that the government’s decision to discharge hospital patients into nursing homes without testing them for COVID-19, which led to thousands of deaths early in the pandemic, was illegal. Two High Court judges said the policy from March and April 2020 was unlawful because it failed to take into account the infection risk that non-symptomatic carriers of the virus posed to older or vulnerable people. The judges said officials did not consider other options, including keeping such patients separate from other nursing home residents for a time as much as practically possible. “This was not a binary question – a choice between on the one hand doing nothing at all, and on the other hand requiring all newly admitted residents to be quarantined,” the judges said. The ruling came in response to a lawsuit by two women whose fathers died when the virus swept through the homes where they lived. Their lawyers said the decisions that allowed COVID-19 to spread among the elderly and vulnerable was “one of the most egregious and devastating policy failures in the modern era.”
27th Apr 2022 - The Independent

COVID-19: Court finds New Zealand's quarantine allocation system infringed on rights

A high court judge rules that the system used to control New Zealand's borders during part of the coronavirus pandemic operated as an unjustified limit on the right of New Zealanders to enter their country.
27th Apr 2022 - Sky News

COVID-19: Government broke the law by failing care home residents who died of coronavirus, High Court rules

The government broke the law by discharging untested hospital patients into care homes during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, the High Court has ruled. The case was brought by Dr Cathy Gardner and Fay Harris whose fathers, Michael Gibson and Donald Harris, died after testing positive for coronavirus. In a ruling on Wednesday, Lord Justice Bean and Mr Justice Garnham concluded that policies contained in documents released in March and early April 2020 were unlawful because they failed to take into account the risk to elderly and vulnerable residents from non-symptomatic transmission of the virus.
27th Apr 2022 - Sky News

New Zealand High Court finds quarantine allocation system infringed on rights

New Zealand's once lauded COVID-19 response took a hit on Wednesday, when a High Court judge ruled a system used to allocate places in border quarantine facilities infringed on some citizens' right to return home. Citizens looking to return had to either make emergency requests to the government or secure a spot in state quarantine facilities, called MIQ. Due to demand outstripping hotel rooms, a type of lottery system was introduced. It left tens of thousands of expatriate New Zealanders cut off from families back home. Critics called the system unfair, something that the judgement released Wednesday by High Court Justice Jillian Mallon agreed with. Mallon said restrictions preventing a person from being able to enter their country for three months couldn't be justified and evidence indicates at least some New Zealanders experienced unreasonable delays.
27th Apr 2022 - Reuters

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US Vice President Kamala Harris Tests Positive for Covid, Isn't Biden Contact

Vice President Kamala Harris tested positive for Covid-19, making her the highest-ranking Biden administration official to report being infected. Harris received positive results Tuesday on both rapid and PCR tests and “has exhibited no symptoms, will isolate and continue to work from the vice president’s residence,” according to spokeswoman Kirsten Allen. Harris, 57, isn’t considered a close contact of President Joe Biden, her office said. The vice president was traveling in California last week and returned to Washington on Monday, while Biden traveled to Oregon and Washington state before spending the weekend at his Wilmington, Delaware home.
26th Apr 2022 - Bloomberg

A Former Wall Street Banker Led the Fight to Bring Down the U.S. Mask Mandate

Most Americans have never heard of Leslie Manookian, but the former banker is the reason why they no longer have to wear a mask on a plane. Manookian, 58, who worked for Goldman Sachs Group Inc. in the 1990s and later Alliance Capital Management, was behind the lawsuit that last week led a federal judge in Tampa, Florida, to strike down the mask mandate for public transportation. The judge said the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lacked the authority to impose it. “It is so inspiring to see millions of Americans celebrating, cheering, dancing and singing on airplanes, posting messages about how happy they are to be unmasked, to be liberated,” Manookian said in an interview from her home in the ski resort town of Sandpoint, Idaho. “I think the lawsuit has given people a sense of hope in a very dark time.”
26th Apr 2022 - Bloomberg

Anger Erupts at Xi's 'Big White' Army of Lockdown Enforcers

“Being a big supporter of authority and power seems to be deeply rooted in some residents’ mindsets,” said Liu, who has been locked down in his compound since April 1. “There are not many people who question authority, or the very validity of the Covid-Zero policy.” Big White describes the brigades of police, medical workers and volunteers in white hazmat suits who have become ubiquitous throughout the pandemic. China’s state media has used the term since the virus emerged in 2020 in Wuhan to soften their image: The moniker is the same as the local name for Baymax, the gentle inflatable robot in the movie “Big Hero 6.”
26th Apr 2022 - Bloomberg

Confusion, fear behind reluctance to take Covid booster, says experts

With only 4.64 lakh people taking their third Covid jab since April 10, Indians could be grappling with vaccine fatigue, a reluctance to take a booster shot that experts attribute to a combination of fear, confusion and misinformation.As India's Covid graph inches upwards, not enough people are getting their booster shots. Among the reasons for the apparent lethargy are the fear of adverse effects, the view that Covid is now a mild infection and doubts over whether a precaution dose is indeed useful, said scientists, public health experts and industry insiders. According to virologist Dr T Jacob John, vaccine fatigue has set in, also because the "cacophony of new experts" has been confusing.
26th Apr 2022 - Business Standard

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 26th Apr 2022

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Nolan 'did not communicate Covid-19 models as well as necessary' to ministers

A public health expert has said he did not communicate the Covid-19 models “as well as was necessary” to Government ministers, weeks before Ireland had the world’s highest incidence of cases. Professor Philip Nolan, who was a key member of the advisory group assisting the Government in the battle against Covid, made the comments at the University of Limerick on Monday. The former head of National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) modelling said that as health experts, “we need to be better at communicating the range of possibilities and uncertainties”.
25th Apr 2022 - Belfast Telegraph

China Covid-19 tsar pushed treatments without revealing business ties

One of China’s top government health officials has repeatedly promoted Covid-19 remedies included in Beijing’s official treatment protocol for the disease without disclosing his links with the manufacturers. Epidemiologist Zhong Nanshan was appointed to head an expert group at the National Health Commission, the body responsible for formulating China’s health policy, at the start of the pandemic and is considered a hero in the country after managing the Sars epidemic in 2003. The NHC publishes an official protocol that advises on Covid treatments and medicines that is regarded as the treatment “bible” by doctors and local governments across China, according to Jin Dong-Yan, a virologist at the University of Hong Kong. But Zhong has close ties to the companies behind some of the treatments, which he has promoted in scientific journals and in public talks without mentioning these relationships.
25th Apr 2022 - Financial Times

Lockdown gatherings report is 'excoriating' for UK's Johnson-The Times

An independent report into lockdown gatherings held at Boris Johnson's Downing Street office and residence is "excoriating" for the British prime minister and will make things "incredibly difficult" for him, the Times said. Sue Gray, a senior civil servant, has been tasked with investigating the events and whether they broke lockdown rules set by Johnson. The publication of her report has been put on hold until the police complete their own inquiry.
25th Apr 2022 - Reuters

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 25th Apr 2022

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Shanghai Reports Record Daily Covid Deaths in Current Outbreak

Shanghai reported its highest number of daily Covid-19 deaths in the current outbreak, as China continues to stick to its Covid Zero policy with strict lockdown measures imposed in the city. The city recorded 39 fatalities for Saturday, bringing its total number of virus-related deaths to 87 since late February, according to a report on Sunday by the Shanghai Health Commission. The average age of the people who died was 78.7 and all had underlying diseases, according to the report. Shanghai logged 21,058 new local Covid infections, the vast majority of which were mild or asymptomatic cases, the commission said.
24th Apr 2022 - Bloomberg

China should act to ease COVID impact, boost growth over 5%, central bank official says

China should take steps to soften the economic impact of COVID-19 and boost annual economic growth back above 5%, a top central bank official said on Sunday. Wang Yiming, a member of the Monetary Policy Committee of the People's Bank of China, told an economic forum the effective management of macroeconomic policies was critical in laying the foundation for the country to achieve the national growth target of around 5.5%. Gross domestic product rose 4.8% in the first quarter from the same period last year.
24th Apr 2022 - Reuters

Rio's Carnival parade returns after long pandemic hiatus

Colorful floats and flamboyant dancers are delighting tens of thousands jammed into Rio de Janeiro’s iconic Sambadrome, putting on a delayed Carnival celebration after the pandemic halted the dazzling displays. Rio de Janeiro’s top samba schools began strutting their stuff late Friday, which was the first evening of the two-night spectacle. Ketula Melo, 38, a muse in the Imperatriz Leopoldinense school dressed as the Iemanja deity of Afro-Brazilian religions, was thrilled to be back at the Sambadrome. “These two years were horrible. Now we can be happy again,” Melo said as she was about to enter Friday night wearing a black and white costume made of shells that barely covered her body.
24th Apr 2022 - The Associated Press

Shanghai Lockdown Bolsters a Fringe Independence Movement

Stewing resentment over a government lockdown in Shanghai is bolstering a fringe idea: independence for China’s most cosmopolitan city. Over much of the past month, as the world has shed Covid-19 restrictions, 25 million Shanghainese have been confined to their homes to crush an outbreak. The paralysis of China’s richest city has astounded its urbane residents, who are normally spoiled for choice with 100,000 restaurants but are now scrounging for food. This painful episode is providing a ragtag group of pro-independence activists born in the city but living in such places as New York and London new urgency to promote their unconventional plan.
24th Apr 2022 - The Wall Street Journal

Is Covid-19 Emergency Over? For Both Political Parties, It Depends on Issue

Finding the right policies to battle a global pandemic was hard enough. For the White House, unwinding some of those policies is becoming even more complicated. From restrictions along the U.S.-Mexican border to federal mask mandates, the Biden administration is facing legal challenges and political minefields in determining the fate of an array of pandemic-era rules that either were put in place by former President Donald Trump or instituted during the start of Mr. Biden’s presidency. Rolling back some of the policies, such as the so-called Title 42 border rule that allows for migrants to be quickly expelled, or student-loan forgiveness, has touched off intraparty fights, dividing progressives and moderates within the Democratic Party. For Democrats, the administration’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic could present challenges ahead of the November midterm elections, with many incumbent members of Congress facing vulnerabilities and Mr. Biden’s narrow majorities at risk.
24th Apr 2022 - The Wall Street Journal

Mask Mandate Is Gone, but Turbulence Remains for Airlines, Fliers

For two years, masks were a fraught issue for airlines, comforting some passengers, angering others and making flight attendants into enforcers. Now, the masks are gone—but the friction is set to continue. Airlines are hopeful that easing mask rules will tamp down on in-flight conflicts, after a federal judge in Florida this week struck down the Biden administration’s Covid-19 mask mandate for public transportation. The Justice Department has said it would appeal that decision, but in the meantime, the mandate isn’t being enforced and U.S. carriers have said masks are optional for passengers and staff. It has also left airlines to decide what to do with thousands of passengers who broke mask rules during the pandemic, and earned bans. United Airlines Holdings Inc. President Brett Hart said the Chicago-based airline is getting back in touch with people who were banned from United flights over the course of the pandemic.
23rd Apr 2022 - The Wall Street Journal

NYC Suspends School Staff for Allegedly Using Fake Vaccine IDs

The New York City Department of Education suspended about 70 employees for allegedly using fake vaccination cards, the teachers’ union said. The department placed the employees on unpaid leave with benefits, effective April 25, and the Special Commissioner of Investigation for the New York City School District and law enforcement agencies are investigating the incident. “Fraudulent vaccination cards are not only illegal, they also undermine the best line of protection our schools have against Covid-19 – universal adult vaccination,” said Nathaniel Styer, a spokesperson for the DOE. It wasn’t immediately clear how the department discovered the alleged fake cards.
23rd Apr 2022 - Bloomberg

A Social-Media Scandal Cost Top Chinese Scientist $2 Billion

Wu Yiling is one of China’s highest ranked scientists. With a fortune that neared $6 billion, he was also part of the world’s 500 richest people. That was until last week, when the son of another Chinese billionaire sparked debate online with a post doubting the efficacy of Wu’s drug used to treat Covid-19. The herbal remedy, Lianhua Qingwen, is one of three traditional treatments the central government has recommended and was sent to households in Shanghai and Hong Kong during the latest omicron wave.
23rd Apr 2022 - Bloomberg

Judge who fired employee for not getting vaccinated did not abuse power - ruling

A bankruptcy judge who fired an employee who was denied a religious exemption from a mandatory COVID-19 vaccination requirement did not engage in discrimination or an abuse of power, a federal appeals court judge ruled. Chief U.S. Circuit Judge Michael Chagares in a newly released opinion dismissed a complaint the ex-employee filed with the Judicial Council of the 3rd Circuit in a rare judicial misconduct case over a federal court employee vaccine requirement. The decision is dated Feb. 22 but was only released this week. As is typical with cases filed under the Judicial Conduct and Disability Act, the ruling did not identify the complainant, judge or even court to which it pertains.
23rd Apr 2022 - Reuters

Portugal becomes first EU country to give fast-track entry to Britons since Brexit in move that could spark a 'domino effect'

Is seen as bid to lure Britons away from rival destinations such as Spain and Italy British passports must now be checked manually, increasing waiting times But passport e-gate lanes were set up for Britons at Portugal airports this week
21st Apr 2022 - Daily Mail

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 22nd Apr 2022

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UK lawmakers approve probe into PM Boris Johnson’s ‘Partygate’

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson suffered a blow to his authority when lawmakers ordered a parliamentary investigation into his past denials that he broke coronavirus restrictions by attending illegal gatherings during the pandemic. Johnson on Thursday faced stinging criticism from his own Conservative party and an influential former ally called on him to quit over what has become known as the “Partygate” scandal, which has caused widespread public anger. The investigation will look into whether Johnson knowingly misled the Parliament of the United Kingdom – ordinarily a resigning offence if proven. But a bullish Johnson – on a two-day trip to India – insisted he was not going anywhere. In India, Johnson vowed he would not quit and intended to fight the next general election – still likely at least two years away. “I understand people’s feelings,” he told Sky News. But he said of stepping aside: “I don’t think that is the right thing to do. What I am determined to do is make sure we continue with our agenda.”
22nd Apr 2022 - Al Jazeera English

UK PM Johnson says lawmakers' probe into COVID breaches should come later

British police should be allowed to complete their investigation into potential COVID lockdown breaches in government offices before parliament launches its own investigation, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Thursday. "I'm very keen for every possible form of scrutiny and the House of Commons can do, I think, whatever it wants to do, but all I would say is I don't think that that should happen until the investigation is completed," he told reporters during a visit to India.
21st Apr 2022 - Reuters

U.S. charges 21 people with COVID-related fraud

U.S. law enforcement officials have charged 21 people across the country with healthcare schemes amid the pandemic as part of the administration's larger effort to thwart people from leveraging COVID-19 for fraud, the Department of Justice said on Wednesday. The latest charges include cases involving filing false Medicare and other billing claims, kickbacks and money laundering, the department said, adding the alleged actions led to more than $149 million in COVID-19-related false billings to federal programs and theft from federally-funded pandemic assistance programs.
21st Apr 2022 - Reuters

UK's Johnson may face contempt probe over lockdown parties

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson suffered a blow to his authority on Thursday when lawmakers triggered an investigation into whether he had misled parliament and an influential former ally called on him to quit. Johnson has been fighting for political survival for months after he told parliament that his Downing Street office had followed all lockdown rules during the COVID pandemic, only for an internal report to find it had held alcohol-fuelled parties at that time. Police have since fined Johnson. He denies deliberately misleading parliament, which is a resigning matter, and says he did not realise he was breaking the rules. He has apologised for his conduct.
21st Apr 2022 - Reuters

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 21st Apr 2022

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US supreme court rules against air force officer who refused Covid vaccine

The supreme court has allowed the US Department of Defense to take disciplinary action against an air force lieutenant colonel who refuses to get a Covid-19 vaccine. In a brief, two-sentence ruling on Monday, a majority of the court sided with the Pentagon. Three justices in the conservative majority – Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch – dissented. The ruling was merely the court’s latest on challenges to Covid-19 vaccine mandates. In January, the court blocked a Biden administration requirement that employees of large businesses be vaccinated and wear masks on the job.
20th Apr 2022 - The Guardian

The impact of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and resistance on the population of England

The study findings highlight that hesitancy to COVID-19 vaccination can significantly increase the rate of COVID-19-related hospitalizations and deaths in England. Importantly, the study predicts that the observed severity of COVID-19 could be reduced significantly if the majority of unvaccinated people, who are resistant to COVID-19 vaccination, agree to receive full vaccination.
20th Apr 2022 - News-Medical.Net

Biden administration will appeal lifting of mask mandate, if CDC agrees

U.S. President Joe Biden's administration said on Tuesday it would appeal a judge's ruling ending a mask mandate on airplanes if public health officials deem it necessary to stem the spread of COVID-19. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to whom the administration was deferring, said that it would continue to study whether the mandates were still needed. The mandates apply to planes, trains and other public transportation and, prior to Monday's ruling, had been due to expire on May 3.
20th Apr 2022 - Reuters

U.S. Justice Department appeals transportation mask ruling

The U.S. Justice Department on Wednesday appealed a judge's ruling ending a mask mandate on public transportation and airplanes, a spokesman said, after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said the measure was still needed. A U.S. district judge ruled on Monday that the mandates, which apply to planes, trains and other public transportation, were unlawful. The Justice Department said it would appeal the ruling if the CDC determined the 14-month-old mandate was still needed.
20th Apr 2022 - Reuters

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 20th Apr 2022

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Heads accuse Government of 'ignoring Covid' by ending publication of school coronavirus data

Headteachers have criticised the Government for its “deeply troubling and ill-advised” decision to stop publishing data on the number of school absences in England linked to Covid-19. The National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) said the move appeared to be part of an “ignoring Covid plan” for schools. The Department for Education (DfE) published its fortnightly absence statistics for state schools in England today. Figures for 7 April showed that in schools that had not broken up for Easter, attendance stood at 89.1 per cent, compared to 88.6 per cent on 31 March.
19th Apr 2022 - iNews

UK's Johnson respects outcome of lockdown breach investigation - spokesman

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson respects the outcome of the police investigation that resulted in him being fined for breaking coronavirus lockdown rules, his spokesman said on Tuesday. "He's talked about understanding the strength of feeling about this issue, which is why he has apologised and fully respects the outcome of the police investigation," the spokesman said.
19th Apr 2022 - Reuters

Boris Johnson to apologise to UK parliament over lockdown fine

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson apologised to parliament on Tuesday after he was fined by police for breaking lockdown rules, saying he did not know a birthday gathering at the height of the pandemic was in breach of the rules he had set. Opposition lawmakers argue that the prime minister must go, saying he set stringent rules during COVID-19, broke those rules in Downing Street and then repeatedly lied to parliament when he said all guidelines had been met. Johnson told the House of Commons he had not deliberately mislead parliament but said it had never occurred to him that he was in breach of the rules. He acknowledged that the public had a right to expect better.
19th Apr 2022 - Reuters

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 19th Apr 2022

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U.S. Army chief tests positive for COVID-19- spokesperson

U.S. Army Chief General James McConville tested positive for the coronavirus and was experiencing very mild symptoms, a spokesperson said on Monday. McConville tested positive on Sunday, is fully vaccinated and is working remotely, the spokesperson added.
18th Apr 2022 - Reuters

Small Businesses Object to Rerouting of Covid-19 Aid

Small-business owners are bristling over a congressional proposal that would redirect unspent money from Covid-19 programs to provide $10 billion for the federal government’s pandemic health response, including vaccines and therapeutics. At issue is about $5 billion that Congress allocated for three small-business aid programs but which hasn’t yet been spent. Some lawmakers want to repurpose those existing funds for healthcare, rather than allocate new money, because they are increasingly focused on reining in the federal deficit and spending amid a surge in inflation, which is at a 40-year high. The debate underscores the struggle to fulfill requests made by the Biden administration to address pandemic needs, while also accommodating Republican demands to not spend new money.
18th Apr 2022 - The Wall Street Journal

Unvaccinated Air Force Reserve Colonel Rejected by Supreme Court

A divided U.S. Supreme Court refused to intervene on behalf of an Air Force Reserve officer who was relieved of his command after saying he wouldn’t get vaccinated against Covid-19 for religious reasons. Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Dunn was seeking to avoid being shifted to the Individual Ready Reserve, which would mean he wouldn’t take part in drills or be paid. Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch said they would have granted his request. Neither they nor the court gave any explanation.
18th Apr 2022 - Bloomberg

Italy PM Mario Draghi Tests Positive for Covid, To Miss Africa Trip

Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi will miss a trip to Africa this week after testing positive for Covid-19. He is asymptomatic, according to a government official on Monday. Draghi was scheduled to travel to central and southern Africa this week in pursuit of further natural gas deals to reduce Italy’s dependence on Russian supplies. Italy has already struck agreements for Algerian and Egyptian gas. Italy will be represented in the planned trips to Angola and the Republic of Congo, on April 20 and 21, by Ecological Transition Minister Roberto Cingolani and Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio, according to the official.
18th Apr 2022 - Bloomberg

China Urges Xi Support Despite Covid Lockdown Anger in Shanghai

The Chinese Communist Party’s flagship newspaper called on the nation to support President Xi Jinping’s Covid Zero strategy, showing any shift in policy is unlikely even as lockdowns in Shanghai and elsewhere threaten to hurt the economy. In a front-page commentary Monday, the People’s Daily said Xi’s strategy to snuff out the virus has proven “correct and effective” and China should be “uniting more closely around the party’s leadership with Xi Jinping as the core.” Citizens should follow the strategy “unswervingly and unrelentingly” with “earlier, faster, stricter and more practical” measures, it said.
18th Apr 2022 - Bloomberg

China Coronavirus Outbreak: Xi Jinping's Covid Zero Is Failing

Beijing oversold its surveillance-based system of disease control and underestimated the shape-shifting virus. The result is an economic mess — though probably not a political crisis.
18th Apr 2022 - Bloomberg

COVID-shaming pits neighbour against neighbour in locked-down Shanghai

The tensions of lockdown have exposed divisions among Shanghai residents, pitting young against old, locals against outsiders, and above all, COVID-negative against COVID-positive people. Shanghai's 25 million people, most of whom live in apartment blocks, have forged new communal bonds during the city's coronavirus outbreak, through barter and group buying and setting up food-sharing stations. But with no end in sight to a lockdown that for some has lasted four weeks, frustrations are also mounting behind the shuttered gates of the city's tower blocks, often playing out within WeChat message groups
18th Apr 2022 - Reuters

Taiwan’s COVID-hit tourism stews as island shuns global reopening

Before the pandemic, Taipei’s Yongkang Street was a top tourist destination, catering to visitors who would snack on spring onion pancakes, bubble tea and mango ice in between browsing gift shops and upscale boutiques. The area was so popular that the iconic Taiwanese restaurant chain Din Tai Fung opened a second location across the street from its flagship store to manage the demand for its dumplings. These days, “for rent” signs and empty shop fronts are a common sight in the neighbourhood. After more than two years of closed borders, times are tough for Taiwanese small businesses that once counted on tourists for much of their income. While Yongkang Street still draws locals on the weekends, they often have different tastes to the foreign tourists barred from the island since March 2020. Shaun Yu, who owns Lai Hao gift shop on a side street off Yongkang, said he had been forced to close two of his three locations – the last one opened at the end of 2019 when his shop was a popular destination for tourists looking for souvenirs.
15th Apr 2022 - Al Jazeera English

Guatemala: As COVID misinformation spreads, vaccine doses expire

On a recent afternoon, the COVID-19 vaccination centre in the heart of the Indigenous Mayan town of Santiago Atitlan was quiet. The health centre had a vaccine supply, but demand was low. The lack of coordination of a Guatemalan government-led campaign to overcome vaccine hesitancy has resulted in the expiration of millions of doses across the country this year, critics have said, as more than half of the population remains unvaccinated. According to Juan Manuel Ramirez, an evangelical preacher in Santiago Atitlan, some community members have taken the vaccine, knowing it helps to protect against severe disease. But others have subscribed to conspiracy theories about its potential dangers. “There are other people who also have other types of thoughts, such as that the vaccine comes with a chip,” he told Al Jazeera. “Because of that, there is uncertainty, and therefore they have not been vaccinated. Earlier this month, approximately 1.5 million doses of the Moderna vaccine donated by the United States expired. In March, the same fate befell nearly three million doses of the Russian-made Sputnik V vaccine, worth more than $33m. And by the end of June, more than two million doses of the AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccines will also expire.
14th Apr 2022 - AlJazeera English

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 14th Apr 2022

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Lockdown Financial Aid in China Leaves Households Behind

China’s government is channeling its Covid-related financial aid toward businesses rather than households, an approach that’s increasingly being challenged as consumers struggle to cope under stringent lockdowns. Officials say the support for firms aims to preserve jobs, but many households required to stay at home for weeks on end are battling to pay rent and other living costs, according to social media posts and charity workers. A total of 45 Chinese cities are now imposing partial or total lockdowns, according to Nomura Holdings Inc., restricting the movement of some 370 million people.
14th Apr 2022 - Bloomberg

UK's Johnson did not break COVID laws 'with malice', minister says

A senior British minister said on Wednesday that Prime Minister Boris Johnson did not set out to break COVID laws with malice and is mortified after he was fined by police for attending a gathering during lockdown, as calls mounted for Johnson to quit. Johnson, his wife Carrie and finance minister Rishi Sunak were fined on Tuesday for breaching laws the government imposed to curb the coronavirus, drawing a wave of condemnation, including from the families of those who died alone during the pandemic. Senior ministers have rallied round Johnson while a number of previous critics in his Conservative Party have said now was not the time for a change in leadership given the war in Ukraine
13th Apr 2022 - Reuters

Humbled British PM apologises after fine for lockdown birthday bash

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson apologised but defied calls to resign on Tuesday after being fined for breaking coronavirus lockdown rules by attending a gathering in his office to celebrate his birthday. Johnson said people had the right to expect better after he, his wife, and his finance minister Rishi Sunak were fined for breaching laws his government brought in to curb COVID-19. "It didn't occur to me that, as I say, that I was in breach of the rules. I now humbly accept that I was," Johnson said. "I think the best thing I can do now is, having settled the fine, is focus on the job and that's what I'm going to do."
13th Apr 2022 - Reuters

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US pulls non-emergency staff from Shanghai amid COVID surge

Many residents in the city of 26 million have been confined to their homes for up to three weeks as China maintains its “zero-COVID” strategy of handling outbreaks with strict isolation and mass testing. But people living under the restrictions have described an increasingly desperate situation, with families unable to leave their homes or obtain food and daily necessities, while people who test positive for the coronavirus have been forced into mass quarantine centers where conditions at times have been called crowded and unsanitary. Authorities on Tuesday said another 23,342 people in Shanghai tested positive for the virus over the previous day, just 994 of whom displayed symptoms. Total infections have topped more than 200,000 in the latest wave, although no additional deaths have been reported.
12th Apr 2022 - The Associated Press

Queen Elizabeth says COVID left "one very tired and exhausted"

Britain's Queen Elizabeth said COVID-19 had left "one very tired and exhausted" as she talked to health workers and a former patient about her own experience of "this horrible pandemic". Britain's 95-year-old monarch tested positive for COVID in February and was described as having had mild, cold-like symptoms. She later returned to light duties. The queen, who is patron of the Royal London Hospital, spoke on a video call to National Health Service workers at the hospital who had helped to build and run a 155-bed unit to cope with a surge in patients needing help with their breathing.
12th Apr 2022 - Reuters

Thai politician indicted for royal insult over vaccine speech

A prominent Thai politician faces up to 20 years in prison following his indictment on Monday for insulting the king and violating a cyber law, after he criticised the government for over-reliance on a royal-owned firm to supply COVID-19 vaccines. Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, the 43-year-old leader of the disbanded Future Forward Party, is accused of lese majeste and breaking cyber laws in a January, 2021 Facebook Live stream, during which he said the government had mishandled its vaccine campaign and unfairly favoured Siam Bioscience, a firm owned by King Maha Vajiralongkorn.
12th Apr 2022 - Reuters

MU researchers receive grant to increase confidence about COVID-19 vaccine among nurses

As an assistant teaching professor in the MU Sinclair School of Nursing, Stefanie Birk knows there are nursing students unsure of how to talk with people hesitant about getting a COVID-19 vaccine. Being a public health nurse herself, Birk has been in similar situations and is passionate about equipping the next generation of nurses with the knowledge and confidence they need to have conversations that ultimately promote public health. To help increase knowledge and confidence about the COVID-19 vaccine among nurses and the communities they serve, Birk and an interdisciplinary team of educators and researchers at the University of Missouri have earned a grant from the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) with funding through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). "We want to prepare our nursing students as they get ready to graduate and go on to become nurses serving our communities," said Birk, who teaches public health classes to hundreds of undergraduate and graduate students in the MU Sinclair School of Nursing. "By incorporating these lessons into their current curriculum, they will be better prepared going forward to have effective conversations with people who may be feeling hesitant about the COVID-19 vaccine."
12th Apr 2022 - News-Medical.Net

British PM and finance minister to be fined over lockdown parties

Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his finance minister Rishi Sunak will be fined for breaking Britain's strict coronavirus lockdown rules, his office said on Tuesday, provoking anger and calls for them both to resign. Police have been investigating 12 gatherings at Johnson's Downing Street office and the Cabinet Office after a damning internal inquiry found his staff had enjoyed alcohol-fuelled parties that were not permitted. Johnson said he had attended some of the events, held when social mixing was all but banned by laws his government brought in to curb the spread of COVID-19, but he has always denied knowingly committing any wrongdoing.
12th Apr 2022 - Reuters

Senate votes to extend 4 of Lamont’s remaining COVID orders

Connecticut lawmakers have decided to extend four of Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont’s remaining pandemic-related executive orders, despite concerns raised by Republicans that it’s time to end the practice and get back to normal governing. The Senate voted 19-13 on Tuesday to prolong orders until June 30 that deal with physical distancing in certain congregate settings; making the patient vaccination database available to medical providers; using temporary nurses aides to help alleviate staffing shortages; and providing more time to send out rental assistance payments to people facing eviction who’ve already applied to the state’s UniteCT program. The emergency bill now awaits approval by the House of Representatives.
12th Apr 2022 - The Associated Press

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 12th Apr 2022

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U.S. seeks to resume enforcing federal employee vaccine mandate

The U.S. Justice Department on Monday asked a federal appeals court to allow the Biden administration to resume enforcing a federal employee vaccine mandate that had been blocked by a lower-court judge in January. A 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel on Thursday reinstated President Joe Biden's executive order mandating that federal civilian employees be vaccinated against COVID-19.
11th Apr 2022 - Reuters

Covid threat being ignored in England for ideological reasons, say NHS leaders

Ministers should reconsider England’s “living with Covid” plans, health leaders have said, while accusing the government of ignoring the ongoing threat for ideological reasons. The NHS Confederation, which represents organisations across the healthcare sector, has accused No 10 of having “abandoned any interest” in the pandemic, despite a new Omicron surge putting pressure on an already overstretched NHS. “The brutal reality for staff and patients is that this Easter in the NHS is as bad as any winter,” said Matthew Taylor, the chief executive of the NHS Confederation.
11th Apr 2022 - The Guardian

GP suspended for administering fake Covid-19 jabs allegedly charged between $1000 and $1500 a dose

General practitioner Jipson Quah, who has been suspended for administering fake Covid-19 jabs to some 15 patients, allegedly charged at least three people between $1,000 and $1,500 per dose. He also allowed at least 430 patients to take Covid-19 tests remotely, despite this being against the rules at the time. These offences are very serious and warrant Quah, 33, receiving the maximum suspension of 18 months, said the Singapore Medical Council (SMC) in its grounds of decision on the case, which was published online on Monday (April 11). It added that his actions put the general public at risk, and could have undermined confidence in the medical profession as well as Singapore's Covid-19 testing capabilities.
11th Apr 2022 - The Straits Times

China labels U.S. concerns over COVID regulations 'groundless accusations'

China's foreign ministry expressed "strong dissatisfaction" with the United States late on Saturday after it raised concerns over China's coronavirus control measures. The U.S. State Department said on Friday that non-emergency staff at its Shanghai consulate and families of U.S. employees could leave due to a surge in COVID cases and coronavirus restrictions in the city. "We express strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition to the groundless accusations against China's pandemic prevention policy from the U.S. in its statement, and have lodged solemn representations," foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said in a statement.
11th Apr 2022 - Reuters

Thousands rally in LA to oppose COVID-19 vaccine mandates

Thousands of people including truckers and firefighters from across the country gathered Sunday outside Los Angeles City Hall to protest vaccination mandates designed to slow the spread of COVID-19. The crowd gathered at Grand Park to hear speakers and performers, while big-rig trucks from the “People’s Convoy” were parked on nearby streets. Members of the convoy jammed traffic during a Washington, D.C., protest earlier this year. The peaceful crowd gathered to hear speakers and singers and was similar to a rally held at the same spot last year and to others staged around the country. California battled a deadly winter coronavirus surge linked to the omicron variant but began easing masking and vaccination requirements this year as caseloads and hospitalization rates fell, which public health officials largely attributed to widespread vaccination and other safety measures.
10th Apr 2022 - The Associated Press

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School Reopening Mess Drives Frustrated Parents Toward GOP

Democrat Jennifer Loughran spent the pandemic’s early days sewing face masks for neighbors. Last month, as a newly elected school-board member, she voted to lift the district’s mask mandate. That came four months after she voted for the state’s Republican candidate for governor. After a monthslong political identity crisis, Ms. Loughran decided her opposition to her party’s mask mandates, economic restrictions and school-closure policies outweighed her support for positions on climate change, abortion and gay rights, at least for the moment. Watching her daughter fall behind in virtual kindergarten, Ms. Loughran had grown so frustrated not knowing when her children would return to the classroom that she joined a group that attracted right-leaning parents in its school-reopening push. She was unhappy that Gov. Phil Murphy didn’t fight to reopen schools sooner, and she associated his fellow Democrats with mask mandates and restrictions.
10th Apr 2022 - The Wall Street Journal

USDA's Vilsack Tests Covid-Positive in Latest Washington Case

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said he tested positive for Covid-19, adding to the list of Biden administration officials infected with the virus. Vilsack, 71, experienced mild symptoms on Friday, his office said in a statement. The government of Mexico, where Vilsack met officials on Monday and Tuesday, has been informed out of “an abundance of caution,” though he tested negative upon his departure and return, according to his office. Other positive cases this week include Attorney General Merrick Garland and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tested positive on Thursday, a day after joining President Joe Biden and other lawmakers for a bill signing at the White House.
10th Apr 2022 - Bloomberg

Fauci Says It's Up to Each Person to Assess Their Covid Risk Now

Americans need to make their own medical risk assessments as Covid-19 cases accelerate in the U.S., President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser said, reflecting a less virulent virus and public exhaustion with restrictions. “This is not going to be eradicated and it’s not going to be eliminated,” Anthony Fauci said on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday. “And what’s going to happen is that we’re going to see that each individual is going to have to make their calculation of the amount of risk that they want to take.” Fauci’s comments contrast with more dire warnings he issued during earlier phases of the pandemic since 2020.
10th Apr 2022 - Bloomberg

NYC mayor Adams tests positive for COVID, only symptom is 'raspy voice'

New York City Mayor Eric Adams tested positive for COVID-19 on Sunday after waking up in the morning with a "raspy voice," his only symptom, a spokesperson said, becoming one of the latest high-profile Gridiron dinner attendees to come down with the virus. Adams, 61, will cancel all his public events for the remainder of the week and will immediately begin taking anti-viral medications, the spokesperson, Fabien Levy, said in a statement. "While he is isolating, he will continue to serve New Yorkers by working remotely," the statement said.
10th Apr 2022 - Reuters

Spain to probe socialite's multi-million euro COVID supply contracts

A Spanish court will investigate whether huge commissions charged by an aristrocratic entrepreneur and his partner on the sale of vital health supplies to Madrid city hall at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic constituted illegal profiteering. Well-known socialite Luis Medina and his partner Alberto Luceno sold $12 million worth of surgical gloves, face masks and rapid testing kits to Madrid, pocketing commissions of between 60% and 70% that they spent on luxury cars, lavish hotel stays and a yacht, the anti-corruption prosecutor's office said on Wednesday. The prosecutor said the pair obtained "an exaggerated and unjustified economic benefit" and accused Medina and Luceno of aggravated fraud, forgery and money laundering.
9th Apr 2022 - Reuters

European Central Bank head says she's positive for COVID-19

European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde tweeted Thursday that she tested positive for COVID-19 and has mild symptoms but will continue working from home. “I am vaccinated and boosted, and my symptoms are thankfully reasonably mild,” Lagarde, 66, wrote on Twitter. “I will work from home in Frankfurt until I am fully recovered. There is no impact on the ECB’s operations.” The news conference she typically holds following the meeting of the Frankfurt-based bank’s rate-setting council is slated to go ahead next Thursday, with the format to be decided in the coming days. Lagarde's tweet comes as numerous European countries have dropped nearly all their COVID-19 restrictions and are battling a surge of the virus fueled by the highly infectious omicron subvariant BA.2. Another tweet from Lagarde shows her speaking unmasked with European finance ministers at a meeting Monday.
9th Apr 2022 - The Independent

Airlines that dropped mask requirements are now suffering staff shortages due to COVID-19

Overseas airlines are having to cancel hundreds of flights as they grapple with coronavirus-related staffing shortages weeks after they ditched rules requiring passengers and staff to mask up in the air. The disruptions also come as the CEOs of leading U.S. airlines urge the Biden administration to roll back a federal rule requiring that masks be worn in the sky. Masks have not been required on flights operated by budget-friendly, Swiss airline EasyJet since March 27, the airline said in a statement. The move came after the UK removed all travel restrictions earlier in March.
9th Apr 2022 - CBS News

Shanghai jumps into group buying to stay fed during COVID lockdown

When Shanghai first went into full COVID-19 lockdown last week, Ping Mai wasn't expecting she'd become her housing compound's unofficial broker for its meat supply. With her and her neighbours stuck at home and struggling to buy food amid lockdown curbs that have shuttered stores and dramatically reduced the number of couriers, she is among millions that are trying to figure out how to buy fresh supplies on a daily basis. One popular solution has been community group-buying, which sees residents at the same address band together to bulk buy groceries or meals from suppliers or restaurants, placing single orders that could add up to thousands of dollars.
9th Apr 2022 - Reuters

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U.S. House Speaker Pelosi is latest U.S. official to test positive for COVID

U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi has COVID-19 and is currently asymptomatic, her spokesman said on Thursday, after more than half a dozen other federal officials tested positive in recent days. The Democratic leader tested positive after a negative test result earlier in the week, spokesman Drew Hammill said in a statement. "The speaker is fully vaccinated and boosted, and is thankful for the robust protection the vaccine has provided," Hammill said, adding that she will quarantine according to federal health guidelines. President Joe Biden, 79, tested negative on Wednesday night, the White House said.
7th Apr 2022 - Reuters

Japan arrests four of 'QAnon'-style group for Covid-19 vaccine protest: Media

Four members of a group said to be a Japanese version of QAnon, which has frequently protested against Covid-19 vaccinations, were arrested on Thursday (April 7) for intruding on a clinic where vaccinations were taking place, media reports said. Japan is conducting booster shots against the virus that causes Covid-19, with about 44 per cent of the population having received a third dose. About 80 per cent of the general public have had the first two shots. Four members of "YamatoQ," a version of the US QAnon group, were arrested on charges they intruded into a Tokyo clinic, police were quoted by media as saying. The group's website says vaccines are untested and "a number" of people have died after receiving them. It also lists anti-vaccine protests around Japan.
7th Apr 2022 - The Straits Times

Trump's endorsement of Covid-19 vaccines increased uptake in counties with low vaccination rates

Watching an ad in which former President Donald Trump promoted Covid-19 vaccines was linked to increased vaccinations in US counties with low immunization rates, according to a new study. The study was released Monday as a working paper in the National Bureau of Economic Research that has not yet been peer-reviewed. Researchers created a 27-second ad designed to serve as a public service announcement from Trump encouraging people to get vaccinated. Through a randomized control trial, the ad was featured on different YouTube channels across more than 1,000 counties with populations of less than 1 million and in which more than half of the population was still unvaccinated. When compared to counties that did not receive the ads, those that did receive the ads had more than 100 additional vaccinations on average. In total, treatment counties received an estimated 104,036 more vaccines than control counties. The analysis also found that for every 1,000 more ads presented, there were nearly nine additional vaccinations, on average, per county.
7th Apr 2022 - CNN

They got illicit Covid-19 vaccine doses -- and say they'd do it again in a heartbeat

Last July, Andrea Ogg stood outside a pharmacy in Castle Rock, Colorado, fully prepared to lie to get herself a Covid-19 vaccine. Her stomach knotted in anxiety, Ogg was ready to say she was getting her first shot when actually she was getting her third. At the time, government rules didn't allow for third shots, even for immune-compromised people like her who failed to develop antibodies after two doses. "I was very nervous, because I am typically an honest person, but I wasn't going to tell them the truth if they asked me. There was just no way," said Ogg, 55, who was born with a cardiac defect and takes medicine to suppress her immune system so she won't reject the heart transplant she received four years ago.
7th Apr 2022 - CNN

Naturopathic doctor admits selling fake COVID vaccine cards

A naturopathic doctor in Northern California on Wednesday pleaded guilty to selling fake COVID-19 immunization treatments and hundreds of fraudulent vaccination cards that made it seem like customers received Moderna vaccines, federal prosecutors said. Juli A. Mazi, 41, of Napa, plead guilty in federal court in San Francisco to one count of wire fraud and one count of false statements related to health care matters, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a statement. The case was the first federal criminal fraud prosecution related to fraudulent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention vaccination cards for COVID-19, the department said. Mazi provided fake CDC vaccination cards for COVID-19 to at least 200 people with instructions on how to complete the cards to make them look like they had received a Moderna vaccine, federal prosecutors said.
6th Apr 2022 - The Asssociated Press

Could text messages nudge people toward COVID vaccines? Not here, but it might be bad timing

Text messages to people who are reluctant to get their flu shots—or simply forget—have helped boost uptake in the past, but these “nudges” didn't move the needle when it came to COVID vaccines. That’s the conclusion in a new report from Brown University’s Policy Lab, published in Nature on Wednesday. Researchers found that text message reminders sent out to unvaccinated Rhode Islanders in late spring 2021 didn’t increase COVID-19 vaccine uptake. The problem was not the texts themselves, however, the report’s authors argue. It was bad timing: By the time unvaccinated people in the Ocean State received the nudges in May 2021, most state residents had been able to get a shot for months.
6th Apr 2022 - FiercePharma

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Viral Recordings Tap Into Anger at Shanghai’s Covid Response

Until Saturday, Dr. Zhu Weiping was a little-known epidemiologist working for Shanghai’s Pudong district. That was when two recordings in which she shared blunt criticism against the city’s Covid-19 policies went viral and she became a beacon for many fed-up residents. Each recorded phone call, between the government scientist and a member of the public, has been shared hundreds of thousands of times on WeChat, spreading the contention that Beijing’s strategy of mass testing, mandatory quarantine and sweeping lockdowns isn’t working against the highly transmissible Omicron variant in the city of 25 million people. Dr. Zhu told one of the callers that Shanghai’s medical resources had been exhausted because of what she said was an overreaction to Omicron.
6th Apr 2022 - The Wall Street Journal

China's widening COVID curbs exact mounting economic toll

China's top European business group warned on Wednesday that its "zero-COVID" strategy was harming the attractiveness of Shanghai as a financial hub, echoing analysts voicing caution over the mounting economic toll of the country's coronavirus curbs. China has for the past month been tackling multiple outbreaks with an elimination strategy that seeks to test, trace and centrally quarantine all positive COVID-19 cases. Nomura estimated on Tuesday that a total of 23 Chinese cities have implemented either full or partial lockdowns, which collectively are home to an estimated 193 million people and contribute to 22% of China's GDP. The European Union Chamber of Commerce in China said that the strategy was causing growing difficulties transporting goods across provinces and through ports, harming factory output.
6th Apr 2022 - Reuters on MSN.com

U.S. Fed bars six former bankers over COVID grant fraud

The U.S. Federal Reserve on Tuesday said it had barred six former bank executives from Regions Bank and Bank of America Merrill Lynch from the industry for fraudulently obtaining COVID-19 pandemic relief grants. Under the CARES Act, some small businesses were eligible to receive funds to mitigate the effects of the pandemic. The six individuals obtained funds based on fraudulent representations and used the money for unauthorized personal expenses, the Fed said.
6th Apr 2022 - Reuters.com

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Judge grants class-action status to COVID-sickened prisoners

A federal judge has certified a class-action lawsuit in Oregon over state leaders’ response to the COVID-19 pandemic inside its prisons. A group of adults in custody who contracted COVID-19 first sued the state in April 2020, alleging culpability by Gov. Kate Brown, Corrections Department Director Colette Peters and Health Authority Director Patrick Allen, among other state officials. The lawsuit acknowledges Corrections has taken some measures but argues they have not been enough. “This really is quite a groundbreaking order, and decision, and it could potentially be a model for advocates in other parts of the country where they’re having similar problems,” Corene Kendrick, deputy director of the American Civil Liberty Union’s National Prison Project, told Oregon Public Broadcasting this week.
6th Apr 2022 - The Associated Press

Biden orders push on long COVID, pandemic’s shadowy mystery

Confronting the pandemic’s lasting shadow, President Joe Biden on Tuesday ordered a new national research push on long COVID, while also directing federal agencies to support patients dealing with the mysterious and debilitating condition. Biden assigned the Department of Health and Human Services to coordinate an urgent new initiative across federal agencies, building on research already under way at the National Institutes of Health. He also directed federal agencies to support patients and doctors by providing science-based best practices for treating long COVID, maintaining access to insurance coverage, and protecting the rights of workers coping with the uncertainties of the malaise. Of particular concern are effects on mental health.
6th Apr 2022 - The Associated Press

Covid Spending Bill Hits Senate Snag on Amendment Dispute

A hard-fought $10 billion emergency Covid-19 compromise bill hit a last-minute snag in the Senate Tuesday as Republicans demanded a deal to propose amendments. Republicans want to force a vote on the Biden administration’s repeal of Title 42, a pandemic-related restriction on border crossings, a move likely to create headaches in the Democratic caucus. Other Republicans, including Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa, said they have amendments they want considered as well. Utah Senator Mitt Romney, the lead Republican negotiator on the pandemic funding, urged his caucus to vote against a procedural motion on the bill, essentially stalling it until the two parties can agree on the parameters for floor debate.
5th Apr 2022 - Bloomberg

Scotiabank CEO criticizes government bank tax, misses AGM due to COVID

Bank of Nova Scotia Chief Executive Officer Brian Porter criticised the Canadian government's proposed bank tax in prepared remarks to shareholders on Tuesday, calling them a "knee-jerk reaction that sends the wrong message to the global investment community." Porter said the proposed tax on banks' profits would ultimately affect shareholders, including pensioners and retail investors. Canada's third-largest lender emailed Porter's speech to media after a positive COVID-19 test kept him from attending the meeting. Chief Financial Officer Raj Viswanathan read an abridged version during the bank's first in-person shareholders' meeting since the pandemic.
5th Apr 2022 - Reuters on MSN.com

Using the False Claims Act to combat COVID-19 fraud

The COVID-19 pandemic and the attendant economic crisis precipitated the largest increase in government spending in American history. Major stimulus legislation such as the CARES Act of 2020, the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021, and the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 created and funded programs that added trillions of dollars to the U.S. economy at lightning speed. While these efforts helped millions of Americans, the unprecedented flood of money also provided ample opportunity for unscrupulous actors. The Small Business Administration's Office of Inspector General estimates that the agency handed out more than $80 billion in potentially fraudulent loans during the pandemic.
5th Apr 2022 - Reuters

U.S. Fed bars six former bankers over COVID grant fraud

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EasyJet cancels 100 flights due to Covid absences

British travellers are facing Easter holiday disruption after airlines cancelled more than 120 flights and Eurotunnel warned of three hour delays. Easyjet and British Airways blamed staff absences from Covid for cancellations, while Eurotunnel said a broken down train caused delays. Some schools have broken up for Easter - the first holiday since the end of the pandemic travel restrictions. That's led to rising demand and frustration for holidaymakers. Flight cancellations were down to a combination of factors which had come together in "a perfect storm", Simon Calder, travel correspondent at The Independent, told the BBC. "We have got very high levels of Covid in the nation and that is affecting the transport industry. But there are also more underlying problems which go back to the start of Covid," he said.
4th Apr 2022 - BBC News

Senate Reaches Deal on Covid Funding That Leaves Out Global Aid

Senate Democrats and Republicans have struck a deal to provide $10 billion for coronavirus vaccines and therapeutics after Democrats dropped a last-minute attempt to include global vaccination funds in the bill. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Republican Senator Mitt Romney of Utah, who had been leading negotiations on the package, announced the agreement Monday. It meets GOP demands that any new Covid-19 funds be paid for with unspent funds from earlier pandemic relief packages. The bill would provide far less money than the $22.5 billion that President Joe Biden sought early last month, though lawmakers widely expect another infusion will be needed, especially if a new variant of the disease spreads.
4th Apr 2022 - Bloomberg

Covid Vaccines for Kids Are Dividing Divorced Parents

In late 2021, Adele Grote, a divorced mother of two in Minneapolis, took her children to a vaccination clinic at the Mall of America. But when her 13-year-old daughter called her father to let him know they were getting the shot, Ms. Grote knew they would have to leave without it. Just over a quarter of children between ages 5 and 11 in the United States are fully vaccinated, according to a New York Times database; among older kids, ages 12 to 17, the rate is 59 percent. For parents who have yet to vaccinate their children, the reasons for hesitation vary.
4th Apr 2022 - The New York Times

Vaccine hesitancy: What causes it, what can change it? - study

In the time since the coronavirus vaccine has been made available to the public, there have been many instances of hesitancy, reluctance, and even refusal to be vaccinated. A new study published by the Israel Journal of Health Policy Research has examined this phenomenon and discovered that there are several distinct phases of vaccine hesitancy, all presenting in different ways. The peer-reviewed study entitled “Understanding the phases of vaccine hesitancy during the COVID-19 pandemic” examines the distinct categories under which vaccine-hesitant people fall and the way in which socio-economic background, circumstances, and the changing phases of the pandemic itself have affected the reluctance some show when it comes to the vaccine.
4th Apr 2022 - The Jerusalem Post

More than 8 million people reject offer of Covid-19 booster despite record infections

More than eight million people have turned down the offer of a booster vaccine against Covid-19 despite the UK’s infection rate hitting its highest ever level last week. The Government is under pressure to ramp up its efforts to persuade more people to come forward for a third jab, at the same time as encouraging over-75s to accept a second booster. On Monday NHS England will start vaccinating children aged five to 11 with some centres fitted out with games and pets to make young children feel comfortable.
4th Apr 2022 - iNews

UK PM Johnson has not received a fine for COVID breaches - spokesman

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has not received a police fine relating to breaches of COVID regulations, his spokesman said on Monday. Police have begun issuing fines after receiving evidence from an internal government investigation into lockdown parties in Johnson's Downing Street offices. Some events remain under investigation and further fines may be issued.
4th Apr 2022 - Reuters UK

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Man in Germany Gets 90 Covid Shots to Sell Forged Passes

A 60-year-old man allegedly had himself vaccinated against COVID-19 dozens of times in Germany in order to sell forged vaccination cards with real vaccine batch numbers to people not wanting to get vaccinated themselves. The man from the eastern Germany city of Magdeburg, whose name was not released in line with German privacy rules, is said to have received up to 90 shots against COVID-19 at vaccination centers in the eastern state of Saxony for months until criminal police caught him this month, the German news agency dpa reported Sunday. The suspect was not detained but is under investigation for unauthorized issuance of vaccination cards and document forgery, dpa reported.
3rd Apr 2022 - Bloomberg

Shanghai separates COVID-positive children from parents in virus fight

Esther Zhao thought she was doing the right thing when she brought her 2-1/2-year-old daughter to a Shanghai hospital with a fever on March 26. Three days later, Zhao was begging health authorities not to separate them after she and the little girl both tested positive for COVID-19, saying her daughter was too young to be taken away to a quarantine centre for children. Doctors then threatened Zhao that her daughter would be left at the hospital, while she was sent to the centre, if she did not agree to transfer the girl to the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center in the city's Jinshan district.
3rd Apr 2022 - Reuters

China’s state media tries to rally support for zero-Covid as discontent grows

Chinese state media has sought to defend Beijing’s zero-Covid strategy – which has become a part of Xi Jinping’s political legacy – using the president’s “persistence is victory” phrase to encourage people to stay the course. Authorities are under pressure over the tough policy as China battles its worst wave of infections since Wuhan in 2020, driven by the highly transmissible Omicron variant, with millions of people in lockdown while much of the rest of the world is reopening. Health officials on Friday said more than 100,000 locally transmitted cases were reported in mainland China in March.
2nd Apr 2022 - South China Morning Post

New York Judge Tosses Mask Requirement for Young Children

New York City’s requirement that young children wear masks in daycare and prekindergarten settings will continue after an appellate judge stayed a lower-court ruling that threw out the so-called toddler mask mandate. Judge Paul Wooten granted the stay after a Friday evening hearing. New York Mayor Eric Adams and city health officials said earlier Friday that they hoped to keep the requirement as the daily number of coronavirus infections in the city increased.
2nd Apr 2022 - The Wall Street Journal

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Adelaide Hills woman faces court accused of paying vulnerable woman to have COVID-19 vaccine for her

Article reports that Chapel Hill woman Susan Louise Clarke, 52, is accused of paying a vulnerable woman a sum of money to receive a COVID-19 vaccine in her name in the Adelaide Hills in early January. Police said Ms Clarke accompanied Tania Marshall to the Mount Barker vaccination clinic and deceived SA Health workers into giving the 57-year-old the vaccine in her name by pretending to be her carer. Police said Ms Clarke needed evidence of the vaccination for her employment.
30th Mar 2022 - ABC News

COVID-19: Billions of pounds of taxpayers' money still at risk as a result of government's handling of PPE contracts, spending watchdog warns

Billions of pounds worth of taxpayers' money is still at risk as the government continues to deal with issues with personal protective equipment (PPE) stocks and contracts, according to the spending watchdog. The National Audit Office (NAO) found the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) was being charged millions of pounds to store PPE equipment it has purchased for longer than expected.It also found there were "inconsistencies" between the volume of PPE ordered and what was actually received, and that billions of items were not suitable for frontline use.
30th Mar 2022 - Sky News

Boris should ‘hang his head in shame and quit’ relatives of Covid dead say

Bereaved relatives tearfully called on Boris Johnson to ‘hold his head in shame’ and resign over lockdown-breaking parties in Whitehall. They called for the Prime Minister to stand down as they led a silent procession to Downing Street for coronavirus victims. Hundreds of grief-stricken families gathered at the National Covid Memorial Wall in London on Tuesday to mark its first anniversary and pay tribute to those they lost during the pandemic. Those attending, joined by politicians including Labour MP Afzal Khan and shadow health minister Rosena Allin-Khan, then walked to No 10 to hand in a petition to make the mural permanent.
30th Mar 2022 - Metro on MSN.com

China truckers use fake records, 'clean' drivers to dodge COVID rules

Article reports that Chinese truck drivers hoping to outwit COVID-19 inspectors are faking travel histories to get through checkpoints or avoid quarantine, state media reported, as weary citizens struggle with restrictions more than two years after the pandemic began. While some truckers try to use hi-tech sleight of hand to dodge the restrictions, some desperate travellers are simply trying to hide in their cars to get where they want to go. Authorities across China have tightened COVID curbs this month as the highly transmissible Omicron variant spreads, triggering lockdowns in Shanghai and the whole province of Jilin.
30th Mar 2022 - Reuters

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Academic on trial for spreading misinformation on Covid vaccines

A professor of clinical pharmacology and a vocal critic of coronavirus containment measures went on trial in the northern port city of Thessaloniki on Tuesday for disseminating misinformation regarding the Covid-19 vaccine. Aristotle University’s Dimitris Kouvelas was put under investigation and indicted last year after making claims online indicating that a prominent government official’s health problems were a result of his being vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2. In these claims, Kouvelas said that former deputy civil protection minister – and one of the top government officials in the fight against the pandemic – Nikos Hardalias should take the National Organization for Medicines (EOF) to task for approving the coronavirus vaccine, which, he indicated, contributed to the heart attack he suffered in August 2021. The academic, who has gained widespread popularity among anti-vaxxers for his outspoken and often vulgar criticism of Covid restrictions and vaccine mandates, was indicted under new legislation aimed at stemming the dissemination of “fake news.”
29th Mar 2022 - Kathimerini English Edition

Virtual reality helps reduce COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy

Vaccine hesitancy can be affected by several factors such as lack of confidence in health authorities and experts who have developed the vaccine, constraints, complacency, the degree to which the personal costs and benefits of the vaccine are weighted, lack of compliance, lack of collective responsibility, and fake news regarding vaccines. However, informing people about community immunity has occasionally been shown to increase intentions for vaccination. Thus, using novel technologies that can help people understand the benefit of vaccination, as well as the impact of vaccination on other vulnerable individuals, can assist in reducing vaccine hesitancy. A new Scientific Reports study investigates whether intention for vaccination is increased by a gamified immersive virtual reality (VR) experience that shows how community immunity works.
29th Mar 2022 - News-Medical.Net

UK PM has not been notified of any COVID-19 lockdown breach fine, spokesman says

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has not been issued with a fine for COVID regulation breaches at this time, his spokesman told reporters, after police said they had recommended an initial 20 fines be issued over gatherings held in Downing Street. Asked whether Johnson had received a fine, or been told he would be fined, the spokesman told reporters: "No. We've said we will update if that were to occur but our position has not changed."
29th Mar 2022 - Reuters

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U.S. Covid Response Showing Cracks as Congress Delays Funds

Personic Health Care has been providing free Covid testing for uninsured families in Philadelphia and northern Virginia throughout the pandemic, thanks in part to federal support. But earlier this month when the White House said that the U.S. doesn’t have the funds to cover those costs, it put Personic, a mid-sized patient-monitoring and telehealth company, in a precarious spot. The company wants to continue offering the free tests, but that’s not sustainable through another surge of infections, said Azmat Husain, its founder and chief medical officer.
28th Mar 2022 - Bloomberg on MSN.com

Musk says he has 'supposedly' tested positive for COVID again

Tesla Inc Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk said on Monday that he had "supposedly" tested positive for COVID-19, with no major symptoms. "I supposedly have it again (sigh), but almost no symptoms," Musk said in a tweet. He questioned the accuracy of COVID-19 tests in November 2020 after claiming that results showed he tested positive twice and then negative twice all on the same day. Musk then said he "most likely" had a moderate case of COVID-19, as he continued to question the accuracy of the tests. He did not mention whether the results were from polymerase chain reaction tests, which are more accurate than rapid tests.
28th Mar 2022 - Reuters

End of free Covid testing could put vulnerable at risk, say UK experts

Come the end of March, the lights will dim on the UK’s Covid epidemic. Despite infection levels rising, cases will plummet, as free lateral flow and PCR tests are stopped for the majority of people in England, with other countries in the UK also set to reduce free testing in the coming weeks and months. But while the government has argued it is time to manage Covid as we do other infectious diseases such as flu, scientists have warned ending community testing could put vulnerable people at risk and undermine efforts to understand the virus.
28th Mar 2022 - The Guardian

For red and blue America, a glaring divide in COVID-19 death rates persists 2 years later

Political polarization in the U.S. was evident and intensifying long before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, two years ago. Polling shows that the emergence of the novel coronavirus in 2020 exacerbated the rift, pushing Americans further apart on key pandemic response efforts. Surveys from Pew Research Center, last year, found that in the early months of the pandemic, about 6 in 10 Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents believed the virus was a major threat to the health of the U.S. population, compared to only a third of Republicans and GOP-leaning independents. That 26-point gap would ultimately grow to approximately 40 points by the fall, researchers found.
28th Mar 2022 - ABC News

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Uninsured Americans now to be charged up to $195 per COVID test by some providers: report | TheHill

Several testing providers will no longer provide COVID-19 tests for free to uninsured Americans, even if they are symptomatic, saying they will begin to charge between $100 and $195 dollars for PCR tests, ABC News reported. Quest Diagnostics, which is one of the country's largest COVID-19 testing providers, told ABC News that patients will now be billed $125 per PCR test if they are not on Medicare, Medicaid or private insurance. Quest has started telling partners and clients that it will no longer be able to reimburse for uninsured claims due to a lack of congressional funding, ABC noted.
27th Mar 2022 - The Hill

Adelaide social worker banned from spreading misinformation about and vaccines

An Adelaide social worker has been permanently banned from providing health education or information about COVID-19 and COVID-19 vaccinations. South Australia's Health and Community Services Complaints Commissioner has issued a prohibition order against Matilda Bawden, of Parafield Gardens, following two emails she sent in her capacity as a social worker last year. In one of them, the unregistered National Disability Insurance Scheme provider said she was suspending services to "service providers, clients, friends and family" who received an inoculation because of the risk of them shedding the virus.
27th Mar 2022 - Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Two years ago I said I was taking Covid ‘with a pinch of salt’ – perhaps I was wrong

Scientists must long to travel back two years and revisit their Covid predictions. So too must commentators who relied on them. That March of 2020 was a nightmare month for the great game of prediction. Boris Johnson’s press conference on 3 March was a cautious occasion. He had just received wild reports from Whitehall’s scaremongers declaring that 80% of the nation “could be” about to suffer from a killer disease from which half a million “could die”. His response was to take comfort from his in-house scientists, guided down the path to “herd immunity” by his senior advisers, including Patrick Vallance. Daily briefings and hysteria mounted until 23 March, when Johnson performed the agony of volte-face. His capitulation to extreme lockdown was so abject as to make it hard for anyone who had followed his argument so far to agree with him. Most commentators cynically switched sides and said he should have capitulated sooner.
27th Mar 2022 - The Guardian

Persistent cough 'may be TB rather than Covid' - and cases are on the rise

UK health leaders fear cases of tuberculosis (TB) are slipping under the radar. The potentially dangerous bacterial infection begins as a persistent cough, similar to many people’s experience of Covid-19. Incidents of TB have been falling since 2019 but appear to be on the rise once again, fuelling fears people may be dismissing the symptom as the coronavirus. Now anyone with a cough is being warned not to assume their illness is definitely caused by Covid-19.
27th Mar 2022 - Metro.co.uk

Pandemic strikes new, authoritarian Hong Kong

After evading major COVID-19 spikes for nearly two years, Hong Kong – one of the world’s most densely populated cities – is experiencing a frightening wave, with one of the world’s worst COVID death rates. It is apparent that the city’s pandemic response went terribly wrong, and yet nobody is there anymore to ask the government tough questions. At the beginning of the pandemic, the unelected Hong Kong government was slow to respond. It was Hong Kong people who swung into collective action – a muscle memory of widespread solidarity forged through the 2019 protests as well as the previous experience with SARS. They mounted a dynamic citizen-led pandemic response including widespread masking, even though the authorities discouraged it.
27th Mar 2022 - Al Jazeera English

Hong Kong eateries despair over checking recovered Covid patients’ jabs status

Hong Kong restaurants are tired of the confusion over checking the vaccination status of customers trying to enter their premises, especially those who have recovered from Covid-19. With numerous types of electronic and paper documents available to show individuals’ vaccination status or proof of recovery, misunderstandings between restaurant workers and customers have become a regular occurrence. “It is very messy now. Frontline workers are confused over the different kinds of information and documents they can accept, and sometimes the checking process can get complicated or descend into arguments,” said Simon Wong Ka-wo, president of the Hong Kong Federation of Restaurants and Related Trades.
25th Mar 2022 - South China Morning Post

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Government 'fast and loose' over Covid contracts

The Government failed to fully document processes on the way to awarding Covid testing contracts worth hundreds of millions of pounds, a report has found. However, the National Audit Office (NAO) said it found no evidence Department of Health contracts had been awarded improperly. And it accepted ministers were acting quickly in exceptional circumstances. But the probe criticised "gaps in the audit trail", with Labour accusing the Government of acting "fast and loose". Former health secretary Matt Hancock said the report "confirms a total clean bill of health on ministers' work". When Covid hit, ministers had to scale up testing capacity, working with the private sector to secure both services and supplies, the NAO said.
25th Mar 2022 - BBC News

A fourth COVID-19 vaccine dose is on the horizon, but Victoria's booster rate remains stubbornly low

Experts have raised concerns about the "disappointing" rate at which Victorians are getting their booster COVID-19 vaccine doses, as the possibility of a fourth dose is considered. More than 93.7 per cent of eligible Victorians have had two doses of the vaccine, but the latest figures from the health department show 64 per cent of people aged 18 and up have now received three vaccine doses. That figure has risen by less than seven percentage points in a month — it stood at 57.1 per cent on February 23.
24th Mar 2022 - ABC News

Vaccine hesitancy is complicating physicians' obligation to respect patient autonomy during the COVID-19 pandemic

Exposure in health care settings has accounted for a large number of infections. Early on in the pandemic, health care workers and their household members accounted for 1 in 6 patients ages 18 to 65 admitted to the hospital with COVID-19. Vaccines reduced that risk considerably, and by August 2021, the risk of infection to health care workers had been cut by two-thirds. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, less than 70% of the vaccine-eligible U.S. population is fully vaccinated, not accounting for the booster, although these numbers are changing. When a patient refuses to get the vaccine, a health care worker usually gets involved to counsel that patient. This may take a considerable amount of time, and unfortunately, the results may not always be favorable. Many in the medical community believe that the onus is on the patient to get vaccinated, and if they do not do so, they should be seen as culpable for contracting COVID-19. One such example is the case being made to give lower priority for organ transplants to those willfully unvaccinated.
24th Mar 2022 - The Conversation

Covid-19: Government left “inadequate” paper trail when awarding testing contracts, says watchdog

The UK government failed to keep proper records when awarding almost £780m (€937m; $1.03bn) worth of covid-19 testing contracts to the diagnostics company Randox, the UK’s public spending watchdog has found. Last year the Conservative MP and former minister Owen Paterson resigned from his parliamentary seat after being heavily criticised for lobbying the government on behalf of Randox while acting as a paid consultant to the company. In a report published on 24 March1 the National Audit Office (NAO) acknowledged that the government had had to act quickly to build testing capacity at the start of the pandemic, but it said that the Department of Health and Social Care “did not document key decisions adequately, disclose ministerial meetings with Randox fully or keep full records of ministerial discussions involving Randox.”
24th Mar 2022 - The BMJ

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Judge among 156 New York officials who could lose their jobs within days for refusing to take vaccine

A judge is one of more than 150 New York court employees who face potential firing or other punishments over their refusal to take the coronavirus vaccine. The New York Daily News reports that Justice Jenny Rivera of the state's Court of Appeals is among four judges who are still refusing to take the coronavirus vaccine. Ms Rivera was appointed to the state's highest court by former Governor Andrew Cuomo in 2013. The state’s Office of Court Administration can't fire the judges, but they can be referred to the Commission on Judicial Conduct for their refusal to comply with the state's vaccine mandate.
23rd Mar 2022 - The Independent

New York City mayor set to lift vaccine mandate on athletes, performers - report

New York Mayor Eric Adams is set to lift the city's COVID-19 vaccine mandate for performers and professional athletes as early as this week, Politico reported on Wednesday, a rule that has come under growing criticism by local sports teams. The mandate, imposed by former Mayor Bill de Blasio, is part of a larger order that all private-sector workers in New York City must show proof of vaccination, pro athletes included. Politico reported that Adams was expected to lift those restrictions, among the harshest in the United States, during a news conference on Thursday.
23rd Mar 2022 - Reuters

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Research dispels myth that COVID-19 vaccines cause infertility, but misinformation persists

Some sources of misinformation claim that the COVID-19 vaccines cause male sterility. For this to be true, the vaccines would have to damage sperm quality, drastically reduce sperm count or interfere with the mechanisms inherent in male ejaculation. Quality clinical evidence has demonstrated that none of these parameters are affected by the vaccine, so men are not being made sterile. A study in Florida recruited around 45 men and compared their sperm measures before and after receiving a COVID-19 vaccine. Interestingly, the study found that men who received the vaccine had more sperm, greater semen volume, and sperm more able to move around and fertilize an egg. Pregnancy can be an exciting time but can also provoke worry about the the safety of anything that enters the body, including vaccines. Fortunately, the COVID-19 vaccines are safe during pregnancy.
22nd Mar 2022 - Medical Xpress

'Refuse quarantine!': frustrations mount as China replays COVID controls

Article reports that in footage shared on social media last week, a crowd of people in the northeastern Chinese city of Shenyang bang against the windows of a clothing market as they shout in frustration at the announcement of yet another round of COVID-19 tests. Though the local government quickly urged people not to "spread rumours" about the incident, the response from netizens was immediate. "Refuse quarantine!" said one. "Many people have awoken to the truth," said another. "It's actually over," said a netizen posting on WeChat under the username "Jasmine Tea". "The common cold is more serious than this… The testing agencies want this to go on. The vaccine companies want to inoculate forever."
22nd Mar 2022 - Reuters

UK Covid case numbers ‘no particular cause for concern’, says Javid

There is “no particular cause for concern” about the UK’s rapidly rising number of Covid cases, Sajid Javid, the health secretary, has said, saying that England was demonstrating to the world a successful model for living with the virus. Despite survey data showing almost 5% of the population in England had Covid earlier this month, and record infection levels among the over-70s, Javid said the “wall of defence” from vaccines was keeping the situation stable. From Monday, 5 million people across England at higher risk from Covid – the over-75s, care home residents and those who are immunocompromised – will be able to book a second booster jab in the coming weeks. Javid confirmed that a wider booster programme, most likely aimed at the over-50s, was expected in the autumn.
21st Mar 2022 - The Guardian

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British police begin interviews over lockdown Downing Street party investigation

Police have begun to interview witnesses as part of their investigation into alleged breaches of lockdown rules at gatherings in British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's office and residence, the Metropolitan Police said on Monday. Police are investigating 12 gatherings held at Downing Street after an internal inquiry found Johnson's staff had enjoyed alcohol-fuelled parties, with the British leader attending a few of the events himself.
21st Mar 2022 - Reuters

Baseless coronavirus rumors damaging families, relationships in Japan

Two years have already passed since the first coronavirus case was confirmed in Japan, and measures such as multiple state of emergency declarations have been taken intermittently. But misinformation and false rumors about the virus and vaccines have been spreading as if to take advantage of people under stress and anxiety, and have damaged relationships and family ties. One example is a woman in her 30s residing in the Kanto region in east Japan, who married her husband about 10 years ago and now lives with their two children. When infections began to spread in Japan for the first time in the spring of 2020, her partner often washed his hands and always wore a face mask when going out.
21st Mar 2022 - The Mainichi

UK Covid case numbers ‘no particular cause for concern’, says Javid

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Marjorie Taylor Greene condemns Covid boosters with false polio claim

US Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene inadvertently proved herself wrong on the House floor while complaining about Covid-19 vaccine boosters. Ms Greene took to the floor to attack the coronavirus vaccines, in particular the idea that boosters may be necessary for Americans to stay safe from the virus and its variants. "Now I don't know about you guys, but many of us were vaccinated as kids against polio, we had our MMR, and I have never seen the CDC coming out and saying 'oh you've got to get your second polio shot, you've got to get your third, you've got to get your fourth," she said.
20th Mar 2022 - The Independent

JPM, Credit Suisse expect China COVID spike to have minimal impact on GDP

The recent surge in COVID-19 cases across China is likely to have a minimal impact on the country's GDP this year, two brokerages said in their reports, while adding it could hurt demand for some commodities. China reported 2,388 new local cases with confirmed symptoms on March 17, almost double the count a day earlier, as it battles its worst coronavirus outbreak since the virus first emerged in Wuhan in 2020. Credit Suisse said in a report late Thursday it expected a loss of 0.03 to 0.05 percentage point to GDP growth per week of the lockdown, on the current size of the lockdown.
20th Mar 2022 - Reuters

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White House Names Next Covid-19 Response Chief as Jeff Zients Steps Down

Jeff Zients, who has led the White House’s Covid-19 response for more than a year, will be leaving the job in April and be replaced by Dr. Ashish Jha as the Biden administration navigates a new strategy for the next phase of the pandemic. The change in leadership underscores that the administration sees its Covid-19 response as less a reaction to the virus and more of a continuing public-health situation. Dr. Jha, the dean of the Brown University School of Public Health and a well-known public-health leader, has championed many of the measures the administration has used to combat Covid-19. Mr. Zients, an investor and former Obama administration economic adviser, was brought in to lead the White House’s pandemic response in part because of his reputation for fixing or taking on challenging situation
18th Mar 2022 - The Wall Street Journal

On Kashmir’s dangerous border, frontline healthworkers fight Covid vaccination battles

If medical teams carrying Covid-19 vaccines were ever to make it to her village high in the Himalayas in Indian-administered Kashmir, Safeera Begum had a plan. She would hide. The 35-year-old was expecting her seventh child when India’s vaccination campaign began early last year. Misinformation and conspiracy theories echoing around the jab had made her fearful. “I never wanted to get vaccinated,” says Begum, who – with no mobile connectivity or internet in her village of Dudran - was cut off from reliable sources of information during the pandemic. “All I had heard was that the vaccine is unsafe for young women and unmarried men,” she says, although there is no evidence linking infertility to the Covid-19 vaccine.
17th Mar 2022 - Evening Standard

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Before meeting Biden, Irish PM Martin tests positive for virus

Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday night in Washington, complicating plans to appear alongside U.S. President Joe Biden at St. Patrick's Day events at the White House. Martin had been at an Irish gala event on Wednesday night, held at the National Building Museum in Washington. Biden spoke at the event, but a White House official said the president did not have close contact with Martin while there. Others at Martin's table included U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi and singer Carole King.
16th Mar 2022 - Reuters

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Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff Tests Positive for Covid-19

Second gentleman Doug Emhoff, the husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, has tested positive for Covid-19, Ms. Harris’s spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said in a statement. Ms. Harris tested negative for Covid-19 on Tuesday and will continue to test, Ms. Singh said. The vice president was scheduled to attend an event with President Biden on Tuesday evening, but decided not to participate out of an abundance of caution.
16th Mar 2022 - The Wall Street Journal

COVID-19: Cases up nearly 50% week-on-week - as expert accuses ministers of 'wanting to get rid of data and move on'

A COVID expert has accused ministers of "wanting to get rid of data and move on" - as cases across the UK have spiked by nearly 50% over the last week. In the last seven days, 444,201 coronavirus cases were reported - a 48.1% increase on the previous week. The COVID Infection Survey, carried out by the Office for National Statistics, has also shown an increase in cases across the UK, which Health Secretary Sajid Javid said was "expected" following the easing of restrictions in England in late January.
15th Mar 2022 - Sky News

Trucker mandate protest hits DC, snarling local traffic

Hundreds of truckers and other motorists who have been doing rolling protests on highways encircling Washington made their way into the nation’s capital Monday, snarling already-congested traffic in a demonstration against COVID-19 mandates and other grievances. The DC Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency issued a traffic advisory shortly before 2 p.m. that suggested motorists delay travel or use alternative transportation “due to ongoing demonstration activity on I-395, I-695, and I-295.” The Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Police Department closed a number of streets and exits off the highways to prevent the protesters from coming into the city. “These rolling road closures are occurring in real-time as they are needed,” the announcement said. The protesters, separated intermittently by the usual congested traffic, waved flags and blew their horns as they drove. When asked why they had come to protest, one unidentified couple with Montana license plates answered “freedom.”
15th Mar 2022 - The Associated Press

U.S. Senate votes to overturn transit mask mandate; Biden vows veto

The U.S. Senate voted 57 to 40 on Tuesday to overturn a 13-month-old public health order requiring masks on airplanes and other forms of public transportation, drawing a quick veto threat from President Joe Biden. Last week, the White House said it would extend the current COVID-19 mask requirements at airports, train stations, ride share vehicles and other transit modes through April 18 but pledged a new review. The order was set to expire on Friday. The mandate has drawn significant opposition from Republicans who note that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said last week that 98% of Americans live in places where it is safe to ditch indoor masks.
15th Mar 2022 - Reuters

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New Zealand divided over how to handle 20,000 daily Covid cases after years of barely any

For much of the past two years, New Zealand has weathered the pandemic by stopping Covid-19 at its borders, which closed to almost everyone but New Zealand citizens and permanent residents on 19 March 2020. Until recently anyone entering the country went into managed hotel isolation. With a million New Zealanders living overseas, and not enough capacity within the hotel quarantine system to accommodate everyone who wanted or needed a space, our border controls have caused misery for many people. The absence of tourists, backpackers and foreign students has been difficult for many industries. With family in the UK and Australia, I’ve found it tough. But controlling the entry of the virus into the country has been key to our success. It enabled us to embrace a “go hard and early” elimination strategy, stamping out any cases that leaked through the border.
14th Mar 2022 - iNews

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Covid in Kent: Cases rising again across county

Over the space of seven days they have increased 42.9%, with 7,752 new cases recorded. About one in 10 cases are among people who have been reinfected, according to government stats, as health chiefs say there is an "increasing presence" of a sub-variant of Omicron. The biggest rise in infections has occurred in Swale, up 70.7%. There has also been a 60% spike in Dartford and a rise of 55% in Ashford. But weekly case numbers are still much lower than when the Omicron variant peaked in Kent in late December, when 18,330 infections were recorded.
12th Mar 2022 - Kent Online

Prince Harry and Meghan slam UK over 'immoral' approach to vaccines

Prince Harry and Meghan have lambasted the UK and other wealthy countries for not lifting intellectual property rules so more Covid vaccines can be distributed. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex signed an open letter labelling the world’s approach to the pandemic as ‘immoral, entirely self-defeating and also an ethical, economic and epidemiological failure’. The letter, coordinated by the People’s Vaccine, had over 130 influential signatures, including former UN secretary general Ban Ki-Moon, actor Charlize Theron and former Ukrainian president Viktor Yushchenko. The coalition works to make coronavirus vaccines, tests and treatments ‘freely available to everyone, everywhere’.
12th Mar 2022 - Metro.co.uk

Australia nears living with COVID like flu - PM Morrison

Australia's Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the nation's political leaders want to move to a new phase of living with COVID-19 as though it were the flu, but would consult health experts. A day after meeting with the national cabinet of state and federal leaders, Morrison told reporters on Saturday morning they had discussed moving to "Phase D" of the national pandemic response plan. "Our airports are open again, international arrivals can come, there are waivers now on quarantine for people returning, so we are pretty much in Phase D," he said.
12th Mar 2022 - Reuters

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People Are Getting COVID Shots Despite Hesitation

It is easy to assume that most people who get the COVID-19 vaccine do so without a shred of trepidation, while those who are hesitant about it choose never to get vaccinated. But a recent set of findings blows up this binary and provides insights that could make vaccination campaigns more successful.The studies cut through toxic public discourse about the vaccine and focus on a significant group that is often overlooked by researchers, policy makers and the media: so-called hesitant adopters. Such people get vaccinated and report afterward that they felt some degree of hesitation about doing so. To look into this group, scientists at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Northwest (UAMS Northwest) and their colleagues surveyed 1,475 adults at more than 30 COVID-19 vaccination sites in the state as they sat out their 15-minute wait time after receiving the shot.
10th Mar 2022 - Scientific American

Unvaccinated Djokovic says he is out of Indian Wells, Miami

Novak Djokovic said that he will not be able to compete at the hard-court tennis tournaments in Indian Wells, California, or Miami because he is unvaccinated and can’t travel to the United States. The 20-time Grand Slam champion tweeted Wednesday that the Centers for Disease Control “confirmed the regulations won’t be changing so I won’t be able to play in the U.S.” Djokovic, who recently dropped to No. 2 in the ATP rankings, has played in only one tournament so far in 2022 because he has not received any shots to protect against COVID-19. He was deported from Australia in January and was not allowed to try to defend his title at Melbourne Park. Rafael Nadal wound up winning the Australian Open for his 21st major trophy, breaking a tie with Djokovic and Roger Federer for the most claimed by a man in the history of tennis.
10th Mar 2022 - The Associated Press

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Florida vaccine plan for children denounced as ‘irresponsible and reckless’

In a pronouncement which stunned experts on Monday, Florida’s controversial surgeon general Dr Joseph Ladapo said the state would be the first to “recommend against” Covid-19 vaccination for “healthy children”. The move followed two recent Covid-19 surges in which pediatric hospitalization was believed to be higher because of low vaccination rates among children. “It’s very generous to call it a recommendation, because recommendations come with supporting evidence and transparency,” said Saad B Omer, director of the Yale Institute of Global Health and professor of medicine in infectious diseases.
9th Mar 2022 - The Guardian

In Somaliland, COVID brings 'cutters' door to door for girls

Safia Ibrahim’s business was in trouble. COVID-19 had taken hold in Somaliland, in the Horn of Africa. The 50-year-old widow with 10 children to support set out door to door on the capital’s outskirts, a razor at hand, taking advantage of the lockdown to seek work with a question: Have your daughters been cut? Her business is female circumcision, learned at the age of 15, performed hundreds of times and now being passed along to her daughters. She congratulates young girls upon completing the procedure: “Pray for me, I’ve made you a woman now.” She believes her work keeps girls pure for marriage. “This is our Somali culture. Our great-grandmothers, grandfathers — all of them used to practice,” she said, even though she now knows there’s no medical or even religious reason for the removal of external genitalia, which can cause excessive bleeding, problems with urination and childbirth, infections and even death. But it remains legal in Somaliland, so Ibrahim will continue until authorities tell her to stop.
9th Mar 2022 - The Associated Press

Novak Djokovic: Unvaccinated tennis star withdraws from two US competitions as COVID rules prevent him from entering America

Novak Djokovic has withdrawn from two prestigious tennis competitions in the US as coronavirus rules prevent him from entering America. The unvaccinated Serbian has pulled out of the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells and the Miami Open after the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) confirmed he needed to be jabbed to enter the country. The 20-time grand slam winner revealed last month he had not received any coronavirus vaccinations, insisting he would forego big tournaments "because the principles of decision-making on my body are more important than any title or anything else".
9th Mar 2022 - Sky News

United Airlines to let unvaccinated workers return

United Airlines Holdings Inc will allow workers who have not been vaccinated against COVID-19 for religious or medical reasons to return at the end of this month, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter. The move permits staffers with exemptions from the carrier's vaccination requirement for its U.S. employees to return from unpaid leave or from the non-customer-facing roles they were allowed to apply for as an alternative to their regular jobs, the report said. United Airlines declined to comment on the matter when contacted by Reuters.
9th Mar 2022 - Reuters

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Trucker convoy laps Washington, DC, beltway to protest Covid-19 measures

A convoy of vehicles lapped the Washington, DC, beltway Sunday morning to demand an end to Covid-19 mandates and restrictions. The protests come at a time when many pandemic-related mandates and restrictions -- imposed by state and local governments rather than lawmakers in Washington -- have already begun being lifted in much of the country. The group planned to drive at least two loops around the beltway before returning to Hagerstown, Maryland, Maureen Steele, an organizer with the "People's Convoy" told CNN. Sunday's protest may mark the beginning of several days of disruptions, according to District of Columbia emergency management officials.
8th Mar 2022 - CNN

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Convoy protesting COVID-19 mandates begins beltway circuit

A large group of truck drivers and their supporters who object to COVID-19 mandates began their mobile protest in the Washington, D.C., area Sunday, embarking on a drive designed to snarl traffic and make their objections known to lawmakers. The “People’s Convoy” follows similar demonstrations by truckers in Canada upset at vaccine requirements to cross the Canadian border. The Washington Post reported that convoy organizer Brian Brase intends for protesters to travel on the beltway every day during the upcoming week until its demands are met.
7th Mar 2022 - The Independent

COVID-19 expert claims he was told to 'correct his views' after criticising 'implausible graph' shown during official briefing

In England, a senior epidemiologist who advised the government during the coronavirus pandemic claims he was told to "correct" his views after he criticised what he thought was an "implausible" graph shown at an official briefing. Professor Mark Woolhouse has also apologised to his daughter, whose generation "has been so badly served by mine", and believes that closing schools was "morally wrong". The Edinburgh University academic is deeply critical of the use of lockdown measures and says "plain common sense" was a "casualty of the crisis".
7th Mar 2022 - Sky News

Russia revives COVID support programme to help firms hit by Ukraine sanctions

Russia is resuming a support programme for critically important firms, hoping to protect companies from the effects of international sanctions by reviving measures first introduced in 2020 to shield them from the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic.
7th Mar 2022 - Reuters

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Trucks, RVs and cars flock to Washington area to protest COVID restrictions

More than a thousand large trucks, recreational vehicles and cars are gathering on the outskirts of Washington as part of a protest against COVID-19 restrictions that threatens to roll on the U.S. capital in the coming days. The so-called "People's Convoy," which originated in California and has drawn participants from around the country, is calling for an end to all pandemic-related restrictions. It was inspired by demonstrations last month that paralyzed Ottawa, Canada's capital city
6th Mar 2022 - Reuters

South Africa may destroy 100,000 COVID-19 jabs by end-March due to slow uptake

About 100,000 doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine are at risk of being destroyed by the end of this month due to slow uptake by citizens, South African health authorities said on Friday. South Africa has recorded the most coronavirus infections and deaths on the African continent, however inoculations have slowed and the country has ample vaccine stocks of about 25 million doses. “There is a risk that just over 100,000 or so doses which will expire by end of March ... may have to be discarded. It will be a sad day if significant volumes of doses can end up being discarded. We hope it will not reach that stage,” Health Minister Joe Phaahla told an online news conference.
5th Mar 2022 - AlArabiya

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The surgeon general calls on Big Tech to turn over Covid-19 misinformation data.

President Biden’s surgeon general on Thursday formally requested that the major tech platforms submit information about the scale of Covid-19 misinformation on social networks, search engines, crowdsourced platforms, e-commerce platforms and instant messaging systems. A request for information from the surgeon general’s office demanded that tech platforms send data and analysis on the prevalence of Covid-19 misinformation on their sites, starting with common examples of vaccine misinformation documented by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The notice asks the companies to submit “exactly how many users saw or may have been exposed to instances of Covid-19 misinformation,” as well as aggregate data on demographics that may have been disproportionately exposed to or affected by the misinformation.
3rd Mar 2022 - The New York Times

U.S. healthcare agencies request data on COVID misinformation

The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services and the Office of the Surgeon General will request input on COVID-19 misinformation online as they seek to understand the role it played during the pandemic and its impact on health decisions made by individuals. The agencies will put out a Request For Information (RFI) on Thursday to collect public comments and data within 60 days from stakeholders such as academic institutions, advocacy groups, government entities and community-based organizations.
3rd Mar 2022 - Reuters

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Partisan media exposure could inform COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy

Vaccine hesitancy may be more attributed to partisan media exposure and an individual's pre-existing attitudes, rather than a lack of information about vaccine effectiveness, according to a Washington State University study. The study, published in Current Psychology, experimentally tested the intertwined relationships among message frames, partisan media use and attitudes on vaccine intention. In general, the findings show that those who consumed lower amounts of conservative media and held positive vaccine attitudes were higher on vaccine intention. Among people who consumed a higher amount of conservative media and held negative vaccine attitudes, the messages that talked about individual benefits of getting the vaccine resonated more.
2nd Mar 2022 - Medical Xpress

COVID-19: New Zealand police move to end three-week vaccine mandate protest

Protesters have fought police with fire extinguishers and pitchforks as officers moved to end an anti-vaccine mandate protest in New Zealand's capital three weeks after it began. The protesters had been outside Wellington's parliament buildings for 23 days when police in riot gear moved in early on Wednesday morning. Protesters used projectiles, shields, fire extinguishers, and pitchforks to fight police, as officers began dismantling protesters' tents and towing away up to 50 vehicles.
2nd Mar 2022 - Sky News

U.S. appeals court blocks Biden's Navy vaccine policy for COVID

A federal appeals court has delivered a new setback to the Biden administration in a COVID-19 dispute, keeping in place a lower court order that blocked the U.S. Navy from considering the vaccination status of 35 special forces personnel in making deployment decisions. The ruling from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday night spurned arguments from the U.S. Justice Department that the Navy's deployment decision-making was outside the scope of cases that the courts are allowed to consider and rule on. The appeals panel said the judiciary had the power to weigh the plaintiffs' religious freedom objections, including a "divine instruction not to receive the vaccine."
2nd Mar 2022 - Reuters

New Zealand protesters set fires as police break up camp

Thick black smoke billowed across the grounds of New Zealand’s Parliament and sirens blared on Wednesday as retreating protesters against coronavirus vaccine mandates set fire to tents, mattresses and chairs. It appeared to be a final act of defiance as police broke up the camp that protesters first set up more than three weeks ago. Police retook control of the Parliament grounds although dozens of protesters remained in nearby streets, some hurling objects at officers. Parliament’s once carefully manicured grounds were left scarred, a children’s slide in ruins. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said that in planning the operation, police had expected hostility, resistance and violence — but it was another thing entirely to witness it.
2nd Mar 2022 - The Associated Press

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Tackling vaccine hesitancy by targeting 'fence-sitters'

A new study, published in the Journal of Community Health, emphasizes the importance of outreach to people who have mixed feelings about getting vaccinated. The study looked at the attitudes of participants aged 55 years and older about vaccines at different stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. The researchers accessed data from the COVID-19 Coping Study to identify people in the United States who were either receptive, ambivalent, or against getting vaccinated against the disease.
1st Mar 2022 - Medical News Today

Covid-19: Incomplete lists of vulnerable patients left many unprotected, desperate, and afraid

Up-to-date registers of clinically vulnerable patients must be created to ensure that those who are most at risk during covid-19 and any future pandemics are protected and can access the support they need, a report from the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Vulnerable Groups to Pandemics has recommended. The report considered vulnerable people’s experiences during the pandemic and makes 16 recommendations on what the government and the health service can do better to plan and prioritise extremely vulnerable patients during further covid-19 outbreaks and future pandemics. These tackle the format and content of information and guidance; access to medical services such as mental health support to help people deal with anxiety, fear, and isolation; provision of practical support such as food and finance when isolating; and the need for more research into how medical conditions make people more vulnerable to a threat and vaccines less protective.
1st Mar 2022 - The BMJ

More than £600,000 in Covid-19 fines served to London’s businesses

More than £600,000 in Covid-19 fines have been dished to London’s businesses by local authorities wielding the emergency powers, an Evening Standard investigation has revealed. Police forces have faced the brunt of the scrutiny over coronavirus powers being used to break up illicit parties and enforce the lockdown rules, while Scotland Yard is currently deciding whether to hand out fines for the Partygate scandal at Downing Street. However little attention has been paid to how local authorities – also permitted to issue fines and bring prosecutions under the Covid laws – have used their powers. Freedom of Information requests reveal councils around the capital have handed out at least £600,000 in fines since the pandemic began, while a further £24,000 in fines have been imposed after full criminal prosecutions brought by six councils – Greenwich, Waltham Forest, Ealing, Haringey, Bexley, and Tower Hamlets.
1st Mar 2022 - Evening Standard

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How Covid vaccine misinformation is still impacting inoculation rates in Lancashire

The Oxford-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine has been subject to months of debate based on numerous health concerns primarily surrounding blood clots. And due to these concerns, some members of Lancashire’s Asian community have been reluctant to have the jab, over worries that it is safe. Certain medical studies and reports note that one of the most common reasons for hesitancy within the British-Asian community are concerns regarding side effects and long-term effects on health.
28th Feb 2022 - Lancs Live

Robert Kennedy Jr.'s Crusade Against Covid Vaccine Anguishes Family

Nearly 60 years after Bobby took his sister along for the excursions into the woods, the son and namesake of Robert F. Kennedy, the New York senator, attorney general and Democratic presidential candidate assassinated on June 5, 1968, has become an unimaginably polarizing figure in this tight-knit political family. Once a top environmental lawyer who led the charge to clean up the Hudson River in New York, the third eldest child of Robert and Ethel Kennedy has emerged as a leading voice in the campaign to discredit coronavirus vaccines and other measures being advanced by the Biden White House to battle a pandemic that was, near the end of February, killing close to 1,900 people a day.
26th Feb 2022 - The New York Times

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Over 3300 fines meted out in S'pore for Covid-19 breaches by people last year

More than 3,300 fines were issued last year to people for breaching Covid-19 rules - an improvement from 2020 when more than 8,600 fines were handed out. The fines, which came up to more than $990,000, were for non-adherence to safe distancing and safe management measures, and non-wearing of masks. Of these, about 1,000 fines were for mask-wearing offences, while most of the remaining penalties were for gathering in groups larger than the permitted size, the Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment (MSE) said on Thursday (Feb 24). In 2020, more than 8,600 fines - totalling more than $2.5 million - were issued from April to December, with more than 1,700 fines imposed on those who did not wear masks.
27th Feb 2022 - The Straits Times

Queen Elizabeth II's brush with COVID-19 presents a royal conundrum: is it time to retire 'The Firm'?

For more than 70 years, the Queen has been a steady hand steering the monarchy through wars, political upheaval and civil unrest. Her reign is often summed up in one word: stability. Her strength and constancy are inextricably tied to the monarchy. But with Queen Elizabeth II performing only "light duties" after testing positive to COVID-19, that symbol of fortitude has been put to the test. Since a brief hospital stint in October, the Queen's health has been under greater scrutiny than ever before.
27th Feb 2022 - ABC News

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Most women still shunning Covid-19 vaccines in pregnancy, research shows

Most women are still shunning Covid-19 vaccines in pregnancy despite an increased chance of stillbirth, premature birth and risks to their own health, analysis shows. Data from the Nuffield Department of Population Health at the University of Oxford shows 73% of Asian women, 86% of black women and 65% of white women were unvaccinated at the time of giving birth in October 2021. The charity Wellbeing of Women, which funded the study with the National Institute for Health Research, called for “urgent action” to address “stark racial and social inequalities” among pregnant women. The study found that severe Covid-19 infection in pregnant women, particularly in the third trimester, significantly increased the risk of giving birth early, having an induction or a Caesarean, having a stillborn baby or a baby that needed intensive care.
24th Feb 2022 - Belfast Telegraph

Anti-Covid vaccine mandate protesters chase New Zealand’s Jacinda Ardern outside school

A group of shouting protesters have chased the New Zealand prime minister’s van down a driveway as she visited a Christchurch primary school, amid tensions over increasingly volatile anti-vaccine mandate protests. Jacinda Ardern, who was visiting a primary school in Christchurch, was met by a crowd of people shouting “shame on you” and “traitor”. Some held signs saying that the prime minister would be “put on trial” and “held responsible”, and one man brandished a fabricated arrest warrant – references to conspiracy theories that a cohort of world leaders and powerful people are secretly using vaccines to commit a genocide, and would soon be put on trial and hanged for treason. Police officers formed a barrier to allow the prime minister to pass through.
24th Feb 2022 - The Guardian

COVID surges in New Zealand, protesters against mandates chase away Ardern

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern was rushed out of a school event in Christchurch on Thursday after protesters opposed to COVID restrictive measures thronged the venue and chased her car, while daily infection numbers hit record levels. New Zealand reported over 6,000 new cases of COVID-19, with 250 hospitalisations, and the government expects the outbreak to peak in mid-March. Having been lauded earlier for her success in keeping the country COVID-free, Ardern has been fiercely criticised recently for the slow unlocking of restrictive measures.
24th Feb 2022 - Reuters

US truckers planning pandemic protest to begin heading to DC

Modelled after recent trucker protests in Canada, truck drivers in the United States are planning on setting off on a massive cross-country drive towards Washington, DC to protest against coronavirus restrictions. Organisers of the “People’s Convoy” say they want to “jumpstart the economy” and reopen the country. Their 11-day trek that is estimated to be 4,000km (2,500 miles) long will approach the Beltway – which encircles the US capital – on March 5 “but will not be going into DC proper”, according to a statement. Separate truck convoys have been planned through online forums with names like the People’s Convoy and the American Truckers Freedom Fund – all with different starting points, departure dates and routes. Some are scheduled to arrive in time for President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address on March 1, though others may arrive afterwards.
23rd Feb 2022 - AlJazeera

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Montenegro Protesters Demand Snap Ballot, Plan to Block Roads

Thousands of protesters took to the streets in the Montenegrin capital of Podgorica, demanding early elections as they rallied against President Milo Djukanovic and denounced a plan for a minority government that would bolster his party’s influence. Infighting among fractured political groups brought down Premier Zdravko Krivokapic’s cabinet on Feb. 4, a year after a historic power shift that ended decades-long dominance over the Balkan state by Djukanovic’s Democratic Party of Socialists. The president’s party is now supporting efforts to form a minority cabinet. “People have to give their say” in a vote before any new government is formed, said Aleksa Becic, who was ousted as parliament speaker, told the crowd on Wednesday, state broadcaster RTCG reported.
23rd Feb 2022 - Bloomberg

National Guard to Bolster Cops as Washington Trucker-Convoy Buzz Builds

The Pentagon is making as many as 700 National Guard troops available to Washington law enforcement to keep traffic flowing if a threatened protest convoy of trucks clogs the already congested Beltway in coming days. Social media users opposed to vaccine mandates have posted frequently about the so-called People’s Convoy, inspired by recent protests in Canada. But there is no official organization sponsoring it, and the viability of an 11 day cross-country convoy is unclear and proposals for it have varied. The most prevalent suggests it would arrive near the nation’s capital March 5.
23rd Feb 2022 - Bloomberg

A Pandemic Baby Bump Shines a Spotlight on the Nordic Welfare Model

Finland’s government has been working arduously to stem the country’s rapid population decline. Since the 2019 elections, a cabinet run by a millennial woman has produced eight offspring, with two more on the way. Regular Finns have joined in the baby making: The number of live births jumped 6.7% last year, the most in nearly five decades. Other nations on Europe’s northern rim have experienced their own pandemic baby bumps, making the region of 28 million people an outlier among advanced economies, several of which have seen fertility rates drop to historic lows.
23rd Feb 2022 - Bloomberg

Inspired by Canadian truck protests, 'People's Convoy' heads to Washington

A group of American truckers began a cross-country drive from California to Washington on Wednesday to protest coronavirus restrictions, taking a cue from demonstrations that paralyzed Canada's capital city, Ottawa, for weeks. More than two dozen 18-wheeler trucks, along with some 50 pickups and recreational vehicles, left Adelanto, California, about 80 miles (130 km) northeast of Los Angeles. The self-styled 'People's Convoy' is beginning an 11-day trek to the Beltway, a major highway encircling the U.S. capital, to demand an end to COVID-19 vaccine and mask requirements.
23rd Feb 2022 - Reuters

U.S. truckers plan pandemic protest, inspired by Canadian counterparts

Taking a cue from demonstrations that paralyzed Canada's capital city, Ottawa, for weeks, U.S. truckers on Wednesday plan to embark on a 2,500-mile (4,000-km) cross-country drive toward Washington to protest coronavirus restrictions. Organizers of the "People's Convoy" say they want to "jumpstart the economy" and reopen the country. Their 11-day trek will approach the Beltway around the U.S. capital on March 5, "but will not be going into D.C. proper," according to a statement. The Pentagon said on Tuesday it had approved 400 National Guard troops from the District of Columbia, who would not carry weapons, to help at traffic posts from Saturday through March 7.
23rd Feb 2022 - Reuters

Weary of promises, Bulgarians protest against COVID curbs, inflation

About 1,000 Bulgarian demonstrators gathered in downtown Sofia on Wednesday to protest against curbs imposed to combat COVID-19 and rampant inflation at a rally organised by the opposition ultra-nationalist Revival party. Holding banners reading "I want a normal life," and "COVID is a tyranny, not a pandemic" the demonstrators booed as Prime Minister Kiril Petkov addressed them. Bulgaria, where scepticism about vaccines and entrenched distrust of government institutions has meant fewer than one in three adults are inoculated against the coronavirus, has seen infections drop in recent weeks after they peaked at the end of January, prompting the government to start easing restrictions.
23rd Feb 2022 - Reuters

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New Zealand Targets Protesters Camped Outside Parliament With Lawn Sprinklers, Blaring Barry Manilow

For two weeks, antigovernment protesters camped outside this South Pacific country’s Parliament have held group hugs, planted vegetable gardens and renamed a footpath “No Booster Lane” as authorities tried everything to disperse them without violence. A top official turned on lawn sprinklers, soaking the around 1,000 people protesting issues including vaccine mandates. Music, including Barry Manilow songs, was blasted, and regular loudspeaker announcements urged protesters to end the occupation. When none of that worked, authorities adopted another approach: installing concrete barriers to limit a blockade of vehicles and making some arrests. The confrontation illustrates the dilemma for countries that are facing anger and frustration among some groups at government public-health orders as they adjust to treating Covid-19 as endemic. In Canada, the government decided to invoke emergency powers to end a three-week protest in Ottawa and secure border crossings, where traffic was thwarted at times. Protesters have also staged large rallies recently in Australia’s capital, Canberra, where police have made some arrests.
22nd Feb 2022 - The Wall Street Journal

Convoy Leader Denied Bail as Canadian Officials Warn of Unrest

Canadian banks froze about C$7.8 million ($6.1 million) in just over 200 accounts under emergency powers meant to end protests in Ottawa and at key border crossings, a government official said Tuesday. The new tally was revealed in testimony to lawmakers examining Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s decision to invoke the country’s Emergencies Act to end a three-week occupation of the nation’s capital. Trudeau and his ministers have said the measures announced last week are meant to cut off funding to protest leaders and to pressure trucking companies to prevent their semis from being used again in blockades. Ottawa’s downtown core was cleared out over the weekend, but dozens of trucks remain gathered at encampments outside the city.
22nd Feb 2022 - Bloomberg

U.S. Supreme Court rejects challenge to Maine COVID-19 vaccine mandate

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday turned away a challenge to Maine's COVID-19 vaccine mandate for healthcare workers, rebuffing for the second time a group of plaintiffs who sought a religious exemption. The justices rejected a request made on behalf of unnamed plaintiffs identifying themselves as Maine healthcare workers who objected to the vaccinations on religious grounds. The court in November rejected an emergency request by the same plaintiffs seeking to prevent Maine from enforcing the mandate against them. They are represented by a Christian legal advocacy group.
22nd Feb 2022 - Reuters

Protester drives at New Zealand police as cordon tightens

One protester drove a car toward a New Zealand police line, narrowly avoiding officers, while other protesters sprayed officers with a stinging substance, police said Tuesday, as they tightened a cordon around a convoy that has been camped outside Parliament for two weeks. The clashes in the capital of Wellington came a day after police reported that some of the protesters had thrown human feces at them.
22nd Feb 2022 - ABC News

Canada's parliament approves Trudeau's emergency powers

Canada's parliament on Monday backed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's decision to invoke rarely-used emergency powers to end pandemic-related protests that have blocked streets in the capital Ottawa for more than three weeks. The Emergencies Act was approved in parliament by 185 to 151, with the minority Liberal government getting support from left-leaning New Democrats. The special measures, announced by Trudeau a week ago, have been deemed unnecessary and an abuse of power by some opposition politicians.
22nd Feb 2022 - Reuters

Ugandans would face fines, jail for refusing COVID jab under new law

Uganda plans to impose fines on people who refuse to be vaccinated against COVID-19 and those who fail to pay could be sent to prison under a new public health law which lawmakers are scrutinising, parliament said on Tuesday. Although the East African country started administering COVID-19 jabs nearly a year ago, only about 16 million jabs have been administered in a population of 45 million, with officials blaming widespread reluctance for the low coverage. Parliament's house health committee has begun scrutinising Public Health (Amendment) Bill 2021 which seeks to make coronavirus vaccinations mandatory.
22nd Feb 2022 - Reuters

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Canada emergency powers still needed, PM says, citing signs of new blockade

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday said his government still needed temporary emergency powers in the wake of a truckers' blockade, citing "real concerns" about threats in the days ahead. Trudeau told a televised news conference there were signs some truckers were regrouping outside the capital Ottawa and might come back to try to restart a three-week occupation that brought downtown Ottawa to a halt. The protesters initially wanted an end to cross-border COVID-19 vaccine mandates for truck drivers, but the occupation turned into a demonstration against Trudeau and the minority Liberal government.
21st Feb 2022 - Reuters

UK's Johnson scraps COVID restrictions in England

British Prime Minister Boris on Monday said he would end all coronavirus restrictions in England including mandatory self-isolation for people with COVID-19 and free testing, drawing scepticism from some scientists and political opponents. Johnson's "living with COVID" plan has sparked alarm that it is premature and will leave the country vulnerable to new viral variants, but the government says it has provided more testing than most other countries, and must now curb the cost. The plan to ditch the remaining legal restrictions is a priority for many of Johnson's Conservative Party lawmakers, whose discontent over his scandal-ridden leadership has threatened his grip on power. Some critics think the plan is also a bid to divert attention from those scandals.
21st Feb 2022 - Reuters UK

Canada looks to end Covid-19 protests with tougher financial measures after another weekend of arrests

Another weekend of protests against Canada's Covid-19 mandates saw around 200 arrests in the nation's capital as authorities moved to end the weekslong demonstration, towing vehicles and going after protesters' pocketbooks with financial penalties. Police said they employed pepper spray and escalated tactics over the weekend to disperse crowds and make arrests with protesters gathered in front of the Parliament building. Some of those arrests included protesters who allegedly had smoke grenades and fireworks, and were wearing body armor, police said. Ontario's Special Investigation Unit is also reviewing an incident where a woman was reportedly seriously injured after an interaction with a police officer on a horse, and a second where an officer discharged a less-than-lethal firearm at protesters.
21st Feb 2022 - CNN

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UK must cut spending on COVID testing, Johnson says

Britain wants to retain the capability to spot new coronavirus variants but it must stop spending so heavily on free testing as cases and fatalities fall, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Sunday. Johnson will set out plans this week for the country to "live with COVID" amid suggestions that free coronavirus testing could be stopped, and some health studies halted. Asked by the BBC how the country would spot the arrival of new variants, Johnson said: "I want to make sure that we have capability to spot stuff and to snap back up as fast as we need to," he said.
20th Feb 2022 - Reuters

Freedom Convoy Leaves Town and Quiet Returns to Ottawa

For the first time in over three weeks, downtown Ottawa on Sunday was largely deserted, with the heavy-duty trucks and thousands of protesters demanding an end to Covid-19 vaccine mandates replaced by police vehicles, officers, and crews trying to clean up after a 23-day demonstration. Officials in the capital and across Canada remained on high alert. While police in Ottawa cleared out Freedom Convoy protesters there, authorities in some of Canada’s biggest cities, such as Toronto and Vancouver, dealt Saturday with either the threat of a trucker-led demonstration or protesters that disrupted traffic. “It’s still clear that while police have made significant progress, the job is not yet done,” Bill Blair, a former Toronto police chief and Canada’s emergency-preparedness minister, told CTV News on Sunday. “The threat, the risks, the reasons we had to invoke emergency powers, they still exist.”
20th Feb 2022 - The Wall Street Journal

Canadian Covid-19 protesters and police face off in Ottawa amid freezing conditions

Police say they have made 47 arrests in Ottawa Saturday as they cleared downtown, a day after a weeks-long protest turned violent. City, provincial and federal law enforcement officers began an unprecedented operation Friday morning to remove demonstrators, their trucks and cars, that have been blockading the streets. On Friday, more than 100 people were arrested and 21 vehicles were towed. Another 38 vehicles have been towed since Friday, police say. Wellington Street in front of Parliament has been cleared. Police say they will continue restoring the streets to normal order over the coming days. Tensions between Canadian authorities and protesters have been simmering for weeks as crowds and idling trucks filled the capital, demanding the elimination of Covid-19 preventative measures including mask and vaccination requirements.
19th Feb 2022 - CNN

Police close in on protesters blockading Canada's capital

Police, some on horseback, pushed into crowds of demonstrators to clear them from the streets of downtown Ottawa on Friday, arresting more than 100 and hauling away vehicles that had been blocking the capital's core for over three weeks in a protest against pandemic restrictions. Fearing escalation or violence, Ottawa police had sought to disperse protesters with fines and threats of arrest, but on Friday hundreds of officers moved in despite frigid temperatures and freshly fallen snow, slowly clearing one part of the city
19th Feb 2022 - Reuters Canada

Canadian Police Begin Freedom Convoy Arrests

Police began arrests of people protesting against Covid-19 mandates on Thursday evening, including two organizers, after promising imminent action to remove a weekslong encampment from the streets of Canada’s capital city. The arrests came after multiple warnings from police to those involved in the blockade—known as the Freedom Convoy and now in its third week—that they would face severe penalties if they didn’t leave the area voluntarily. Two of the protest group’s organizers, Chris Barber and Tamara Lich, were among those arrested on Thursday evening. A lawyer for the group, Keith Wilson, said Mr. Barber was arrested on allegations that included counseling to commit mischief and obstruction of justice. Ms. Lich was charged with counseling mischief, he added. Mr. Barber and Ms. Lich were two of the high-profile public faces of the protest group. They often posted video messages on social media, urging protesters in Ottawa to keep their resolve.
18th Feb 2022 - The Wall Street Journal

Analysis: Pandemic fatigue a challenge for Canada's Trudeau amid protests

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's support of vaccine mandates in fighting COVID-19 helped him win re-election five months ago, but now he looks increasingly isolated as restrictions are being lifted around the world. Denmark, the Netherlands, Ireland, Sweden, Norway, Israel, Britain and Spain and most of the United States are easing or lifting COVID restrictions, and most of Canada's provincial governments are rolling them back, too. But Trudeau has doubled down on federal vaccine mandates and this week invoked emergency powers to seek an end to weeks of protests against his government's pandemic restrictions
17th Feb 2022 - Reuters

Covid-19 Pill Access at Risk as Pharmacies Push for Bigger Payments

The rollout of new Covid-19 pills has exposed a potentially costly hole in how the government and healthcare companies are managing the pandemic drug response. Pharmacies that dispense the pills are pushing back and some are threatening to halt supplies if they don’t get more funds to cover the gap. The government paid billions of dollars for the pills, Paxlovid from Pfizer Inc. and molnupiravir from Merck & Co. and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics LP. Yet it left the details of how much pharmacists should be paid for filling prescriptions to health insurers and prescription-processing middlemen known as pharmacy-benefit managers. The commercial firms are paying pharmacies as low as a penny to about $10 for filling each prescription, according to pharmacists and pharmacy-transaction records reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
20th Feb 2022 - The Wall Street Journal

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Hundreds of Aussie mining workers set to lose jobs over vaccine mandate

Hundreds of BHP workers across Australia are being forced to quit or lose their jobs after the mining giant won a legal challenge to enforce its COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The company expects up to 700 employees, or 3 per cent of its staff, will choose not to be vaccinated, effectively leaving the business, The Australian reports. The rule came into place from January 31 after unions lost a legal challenge fighting the mandate. Under BHP workplace rules, anyone who does not show proof of vaccination will not be permitted on sites and their positions are currently under review. Unvaccinated contractors will also be unable to work with BHP. The mining giant has joined other major Australian companies, such as Bunnings, Qantas and Telstra to implement the measures.
17th Feb 2022 - 9News

The last of Canada's Covid-19 demonstrations may end soon as Ottawa police warn of consequences of staying

A nearly three-week protest in Ottawa over mandated Covid-19 precautions in Canada may be approaching its end as police tell demonstrators to either leave immediately or face legal consequences. "You must leave the area now," the Ottawa Police Service said in a statement to protesters Wednesday. "Anyone blocking streets or assisting others in the blocking (of) streets, are committing a criminal offence and you may be arrested." Many demonstrators have vowed to hold out for as long as necessary, and the federal government has moved to enact emergency powers to freeze financial support of the protests despite opposition in Parliament. Beginning with a group of truckers arriving in Ottawa in late January objecting to a vaccine mandate, the protest has morphed into a general airing of grievances against all Covid-19 safety protocols.
17th Feb 2022 - CNN

Fake COVID-19 vaccination certificates used by Australians to beat mandates and enter venues

Unvaccinated Australians are using fake certificates to gain entry to venues the government banned them from at the beginning of this month. The services were first identified late last year, but they are gaining prominence in online forums among people opposed to vaccine mandates in Australia. The ABC has seen one such website, hosted in Russia, that generates highly convincing fakes. It includes an animation that mimics the green tick and a moving Australian coat of arms, and a clock supposedly counting down the time from login.
17th Feb 2022 - ABC News

Canada police threaten protesters with arrest; government links blockade to extremists

Police in the Canadian capital Ottawa on Wednesday warned truck drivers blockading the downtown core to depart or face arrest in crackdown seeking to end a three-week-old protest over COVID restrictions. Interim Police Chief Steve Bell vowed "to take back the entirety of the downtown core and every occupied space" in "coming days." Federal Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino accused extremist groups of helping organize protests in Ottawa and at U.S. border crossings and repeated suggestions that some actors wanted to overthrow the Liberal government.
17th Feb 2022 - Reuters Canada

Truckers brace for a police crackdown in besieged Ottawa

Hundreds of truckers clogging the streets of Canada’s capital stood their ground and defiantly blasted their horns Thursday as police poured in, threatening to break up the nearly three-week protest against the country’s COVID-19 restrictions. Busloads of police officers arrived near Ottawa’s Parliament Hill, and workers put up extra fences around government buildings. “The action is imminent,” said interim Ottawa Police Chief Steve Bell. “We absolutely are committed to end this unlawful demonstration.” Police continued negotiating with the protesters and trying to to persuade them to go home, Bell said. “We want this demonstration to end peacefully,” he said, but added: “If they do not peacefully leave, we have plans.”
17th Feb 2022 - Bipartisan Report

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Air Force officer can avoid coronavirus vaccination for now, federal judge rules

A federal judge on Tuesday ordered the Air Force to let an officer stay unvaccinated against the coronavirus temporarily, without penalties, making her the first in the branch to receive a court injunction that excuses her from a military-wide vaccine mandate. Although the military has granted hundreds of medical exemptions to service members, it has been much stricter about religious exemptions, which the officer had unsuccessfully requested. Last month, a federal court sided with 35 Navy sailors who had sued the Biden administration to grant them religious exemptions, and the Marines granted the military’s first such exemptions.
16th Feb 2022 - The Washington Post

Canadian government wants to quickly clear COVID protest blockades in Ottawa

Police in the Canadian capital Ottawa on Wednesday started warning truck drivers blockading the downtown core that they should depart or face arrest, part of a promised crackdown to end a three-week-old protest over COVID restrictions. "You must leave the area now. Anyone blocking streets ... (is) committing a criminal offense and you may be arrested," read leaflets handed out by police to truckers. "You must immediately cease further unlawful activity." Police also started ticketing some of the hundreds of vehicles blocking the downtown core.
16th Feb 2022 - Reuters

New Zealand COVID vaccine protesters defy police ultimatum to leave parliament

An anti-vaccine mandate protest outside New Zealand's parliament swelled in numbers on Wednesday, with hundreds of people ignoring a warning from police that their vehicles would be towed away if they did not leave voluntarily. Inspired by truckers' demonstrations in Canada, protesters have blocked several roads around Wellington's 'Beehive' parliament for nine days with trucks, vans and motorcycles, and camped out on the lawns in front of the distinctive building. "There has been an influx of protesters at Parliament today, including children. However, the crowd had been orderly," Assistant Police Commissioner Richard Chambers told reporters, estimating there were about 450 vehicles blocking the site.
16th Feb 2022 - Reuters

Djokovic 'wrong' to refuse vaccine, top sport doctor says

A top orthopaedic surgeon who helped re-open sporting and cultural events as lockdown restrictions lifted said he disagreed with Novak Djokovic’s decision not to get vaccinated. Professor James Calder, who worked with Public Health England and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport to enable sports to return after lockdown, said it must have been “a really tough decision” for the athlete but said it was “wrong”. The medic made the remarks after collecting an OBE at Windsor Castle on Tuesday.
16th Feb 2022 - MSN UK

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Djokovic prepared to miss Grand Slams if COVID jab made mandatory

Novak Djokovic is prepared to miss the French Open and Wimbledon rather than have a COVID-19 vaccination but denies being an anti-vaxxer, the world number one said in his first interview since his failed attempt to play at the Australian Open. After an 11-day rollercoaster involving two visa cancellations, two court challenges and five nights in two stints at an immigration detention hotel, the unvaccinated Djokovic was deported.
15th Feb 2022 - Reuters

Israelis mount their own COVID 'Freedom Convoy'

Hundreds of vehicles drove along the main highway from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem on Monday and converged on parliament to protest against COVID-19 curbs in a convoy inspired by demonstrations in Canada. Other protesters stood on overpasses and at junctions as the so-called "Freedom Convoy" passed by, withbanners and Israeli and Canadian flags flying from the vehicles. "Freedom doesn't look like this," read one sign, showing a picture of a girl in a mask. Outside parliament, protesters sounded horns and beat drums, and called for pandemic restrictions to be lifted.
15th Feb 2022 - Reuters

More data on Canadian 'Freedom Convoy' donors leaked -website

The leak website Distributed Denial of Secrets on Tuesday said it has posted more donor files from the fundraising platform GiveSendGo relating to the Canadian movement of people opposed to pandemic health measures, including COVID-19 vaccine mandates. On Sunday, the DDoS website, which is devoted to disseminating leaked data, said it was releasing donor information relating to the "Freedom Convoy 2022" campaign, which raised more than $2 million in donations. It includes funds raised from several Canadian business owners. Tuesday's leak contains donor information about a similar “Adopt-a-Trucker” campaign, which says it is operating “in partnership with the Freedom Convoy." The Adopt-a-Trucker effort appeared to raise less money and involved fewer donors.
15th Feb 2022 - Reuters

Unvaccinated medical workers turn to religious exemptions

In the US, religious exemptions are increasingly becoming a workaround for unvaccinated hospital and nursing home workers who want to keep their jobs in the face of federal mandates that are going into effect nationwide this week. In some institutions, religious exemptions are being invoked by staff and approved by managers in large numbers. It’s a tricky issue for hospital administrators, who are struggling to maintain adequate staff levels and are often reticent to question the legitimacy of the requests.
14th Feb 2022 - Associated Press

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New York City Fires 1430 Unvaccinated Workers Following Deadline

More than 1,400 public-sector workers in New York City were fired over their refusal to get vaccinated before the city’s mandated Feb. 11 deadline, most of whom were Department of Education employees. The terminations make up less than 1% of the city’s 370,000-member workforce. About half of the 3,000 employees originally at risk for being fired decided to get vaccinated before the deadline, according to a City Hall spokesperson. New York City mayor Eric Adams characterized the employees’ termination as quitting, saying that they’re choosing to leave their jobs by not following the rules.
15th Feb 2022 - Bloomberg

New Zealand's PM signals harsher stance on vaccine protest

New Zealand’s prime minister on Monday said protesters who oppose coronavirus mandates were using “intimidation and harassment,” as authorities appeared to take a harsher stance toward the convoy of demonstrators that has disrupted the capital of Wellington for nearly a week. Police initially let the protesters set up tents and camp on the grounds of New Zealand’s Parliament before arresting 122 people on Thursday and then backing off again. The size of the protest dropped to a few hundred last week but increased again to around 3,000 over the weekend. Speaking with reporters, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern signaled the thinning patience of authorities. “I very clearly have a view on the protesters and the way that they’ve conducted their protest because it has moved beyond sharing a view to intimidation and harassment of the people around central Wellington,” she said. “That cannot be tolerated.” Parliament Speaker Trevor Mallard tried to make the protesters uncomfortable last week by turning on lawn sprinklers and blasting out decades-old Barry Manilow songs and the 1990s hit “Macarena” on a repeat loop.
14th Feb 2022 - The Associated Press

French anti-vaxxers buying fake Covid passes online

Anti-vaxxers in France are buying fake vaccine passes online to get around the country’s Covid restrictions, which are often promoted on mainstream social media platforms, research has revealed. Many buying the forgeries, which can be used across the European Union (EU), are being redirected from websites such as Instagram and Facebook to the Telegram encrypted messenger where they can be bought discreetly, according to a study by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD). The report also raised concerns that social media algorithms are automatically directing people disillusioned with the French government’s handling of the pandemic towards far-right online spaces.
14th Feb 2022 - The Guardian

‘The only logical choice’: anti-vaxxers who changed their minds on Covid vaccines

Danielsen grew up in an anti-vaccine household, views she held well into adulthood. When her son was born, she declined all vaccines for him. Then she hit a personal crisis, and started rethinking all her beliefs – including on vaccinations. It was like pulling on a thread and watching an entire sweater unravel, she said. “The Covid vaccine was the only logical choice after really re-evaluating what I believe in, what I actually believe is true,” Danielsen said.
14th Feb 2022 - The Guardian

U.S.-Canada bridge reopens after police clear protesters

North America's busiest trade link reopened for traffic late Sunday evening, ending a six-day blockade, Canada Border Services Agency said, after Canadian police cleared the protesters fighting to end COVID-19 restrictions. Canadian police made several arrests on Sunday and cleared protesters and vehicles that occupied the Ambassador Bridge in Windsor, Ontario, after a court order on Friday. The blockade had choked the supply chain for Detroit's carmakers, forcing Ford Motor Co (F.N), the second-largest U.S. automaker, General Motors Co (GM.N) and Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T) to cut production.
14th Feb 2022 - Reuters

New Zealand's Ardern labels anti-vaccine mandate protests 'imported' as crowds defy calls to leave

New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Monday she felt demonstrations against a COVID-19 vaccine mandate now entering their second week were an "imported" phenomenon, and nothing like anything she had seen before in the country. Hundreds of protesters continue to occupy lawns in front of the distinctive 'Beehive' parliament for a seventh day, ignoring repeated calls by the police to leave and undaunted by drenching rain over the weekend. Claiming inspiration from truckers' anti-vaccine mandate demonstrations in Canada, the protesters have also blocked several streets around parliament with their trucks, vans and motorcycles.
14th Feb 2022 - Reuters

Ontario drops vaccine proof, protests persist

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government weighed whether to invoke emergency powers Monday to quell the protests by demonstrators who have paralyzed Ottawa and blocked border crossings in anger over the country’s COVID-19 restrictions. The prime minister met virtually with the leaders of Canada’s provinces during the day and planned to address the nation Monday night. “This is the biggest, greatest, most severe test Trudeau has faced,” said Wesley Wark, a University of Ottawa professor and national security expert. For more than two weeks, hundreds and sometimes thousands of protesters in trucks and other vehicles have clogged the streets of Ottawa, the capital, railing against vaccine mandates for truckers and other COVID-19 precautions and condemning Trudeau’s Liberal government.
14th Feb 2022 - The Associated Press

Police filter Brussels traffic to dilute trucker protests

Plans for a major trucker virus protest near the European Union headquarters in Brussels fizzled Monday, with police filtering traffic during the morning rush hour to leave only a few scattered demonstrators on foot instead. Police narrowed some highways and imposed go-slow traffic early Monday in and around the Belgian capital to keep control of what it feared could turn into a choking protest like those by horn-honking truckers in Canada. Early indications didn’t show a groundswell of support for the protest but police took extensive precautions. “We don’t actually think that Brussels has been paralyzed. Anyone who wanted to enter Brussels with good intentions was able to do so — with some delay, of course,” said federal police spokeswoman An Berger.
14th Feb 2022 - The Associated Press

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Australian police urge protesters to leave capital

Australian police have given thousands of protesters until the end of Sunday to leave occupied areas of the country’s capital, as days-long rallies continue against COVID-19 vaccine mandates. Several thousand protesters remained in place at Canberra's major showgrounds, while fewer than 100 demonstrators were gathered near the federal parliament building, an Australian Capital Territory (ACT) police spokesperson told Reuters. No protesters in Canberra had been arrested so far on Sunday after three were detained on Saturday.
13th Feb 2022 - Reuters

New Zealand, Australia vaccination mandates protests gain in numbers

Days-long rallies against COVID-19 vaccination mandates picked up in numbers in New Zealand and Australia on Saturday, with protesters blocking roads and disrupting life in the countries' capitals. About 10,000 protesters gathered at Canberra's major showgrounds, forcing the cancellation of a popular charity book fair, bringing traffic to a standstill and blocking roads in the Australian capital. Police said three people were arrested, but overall the crowd was "well behaved". In New Zealand's Wellington, hundreds of demonstrators gathered near the distinctive "Beehive" parliament for a fifth day despite drenching rain.
12th Feb 2022 - Reuters

Canada Border Blockades Leave Automakers Scrambling

Blockades of the U.S.-Canada border stymied flows of critical supplies for the fourth day on Friday, leaving companies scrambling for materials and shutting down major auto factories from Ontario to Alabama. The partial closure of the Ambassador Bridge, the busiest land crossing between the countries and a vital conduit for the auto industry, sent ripples through North American supply chains. Business groups called on officials to forcefully remove protesters who were causing the blockades. Some companies tried to redistribute key parts among their factories and looked for other ways to move products. But others appeared resigned to shutdowns, saying that bypassing the Ambassador Bridge, which connects Detroit and Windsor, Ontario, was just too expensive or difficult.
12th Feb 2022 - The New York Times

US conservative figures cheer on Canadian trucker protest

Several conservative media figures in the U.S. have taken up the cause of Canadian truckers who have occupied parts of Ottawa and blocked border crossings to protest COVID-19 restrictions and vaccine mandates. Fox News Channel’s Sean Hannity cheered the truckers on while showing four live reports from Ottawa this week. Tucker Carlson’s online store is selling “I (heart) Tucker” T-shirts edited to say “I (heart) Truckers.” “Send our solidarity, love and support to all of the brave people who are there,” Hannity told Fox reporter Sara Carter, who was with the protesters in Ottawa, on his show Thursday. “Don’t give up.”
12th Feb 2022 - The Associated Press

Macron urges calm as French "Freedom Convoys" approach Paris

France mobilised thousands of police, armoured personnel carriers and water cannon trucks in Paris on Friday to keep out convoys of motorists converging on the capital for a protest against COVID-19 restrictions. Checkpoints were set up at toll points on major entry roads while riot-control barriers were erected across the city centre ahead of rallies that the protesters aim to hold over the weekend. Inspired by horn-blaring "Freedom Convoy" demonstrations in Canada, the motorists - from numerous cities across France - were expected to gather outside Paris during Friday and seek to defy a police order not to enter the city.
11th Feb 2022 - Reuters

‘It’s time to go home’: Justin Trudeau tells truck protesters

Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau issued a stern warning to protesters who have set up truck blockades to express their opposition to government mandates regarding COVID-19, saying, “We’ve heard you. It’s time go home now.” “You don’t want to end up losing your license, end up with a criminal record, which will impact your job, your livelihood, even your ability to travel internationally, including to the US,” Trudeau said Friday. “We’ve heard your frustration with COVID, with the measures that are there to keep people safe. We’ve heard you. It’s time to go home now.” Trudeau’s remarks came as Ontario’s premier declared a state of emergency in reaction to the border blockade, and a judge in the province issued an injunction ordering truckers to clear an international bridge by 7 pm local time (midnight GMT) on Friday. Trudeau and Ontario Premier Doug Ford threatened heavy penalties against those who interfere with the free flow of goods and people.
11th Feb 2022 - Al Jazeera English

Thousands of unvaccinated New York municipal workers could lose jobs Friday

Thousands of unvaccinated New York City municipal workers are up against a deadline on Friday to get a COVID-19 shot or get fired, with Mayor Eric Adams apparently determined to carry out the terminations despite an outcry from union leaders. Fewer than 4,000 of the city's 370,000 workers were facing termination at the end of January as a result of the mandate, according to the mayor's office, which said it expected to have an updated number of affected city employees on Monday.
11th Feb 2022 - Reuters

UK Covid Self Isolation Rules to Be Scrapped This Month, Boris Johnson Says

U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson plans to scrap self-isolation rules for people in England who test positive for Covid-19, ending the last of the pandemic restrictions that have dominated daily life for the past two years. The dramatic step is due to take effect later this month and would move England beyond other major Western countries in relaxing virus curbs. While regulations forcing people to self-isolate at home for five days are only set to expire on March 24, Johnson said Wednesday he expects to lift them “a full month early.” With more people vaccinated and the highly-transmissible omicron variant proving almost unstoppable, a number of countries have been easing rules and trying to return life to normal as quickly as possible.
11th Feb 2022 - Bloomberg

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Paris police authority bans ‘freedom convoy’ Covid protests

“Freedom convoys” of motorists that have set off from half a dozen French cities in protest against the country’s coronavirus restrictions will not be allowed to enter Paris, the capital’s police authority has said. “The stated objective of these demonstrations is to ‘block the capital’ by preventing road traffic from circulating in order to further their demands … from Friday, before moving on to Brussels on Monday,” the authority said. “Because of the risk to public order, these protests will be banned from 11 to 14 February,” it said, adding the penalties for blocking public roads included two years in prison, a fine of €4,500 and a three-year driving ban.
10th Feb 2022 - The Guardian

An unvaccinated truck driver died from Covid-19. His mom has a message for protesting Canadian truckers

Marg Makins' family has been in the trucking business for generations. As she watches the crowds of truckers protest vaccine mandates across Canada, she wants to tell them about her son who died from Covid-19. David Mitchell, 70, was a veteran trucker before he died on October 15, Makins said. She says her son was not vaccinated. "It's a horrible thing to watch somebody die of this disease," Makins, who lives in a small Ontario town, told CNN on Tuesday. "I'm hoping (these truckers) can hear what I have to say and how bad Covid can be and maybe save somebody in their family or even themselves."
10th Feb 2022 - CNN

New Zealand police move in to break up anti-COVID vaccine mandate protests

New Zealand police on Thursday arrested 120 people as they attempted to forcefully remove hundreds of protesters camped outside parliament to protest COVID-19 vaccine mandates and tough coronavirus restrictions. Inspired by truckers' demonstrations in Canada, several thousand protesters this week blocked streets near the parliament in capital Wellington with trucks, cars and motorcycles.
10th Feb 2022 - Reuters

Brussels bans 'freedom convoy' protesting COVID curbs from entry

Brussels authorities have banned a pan-European "freedom convoy" of motorists protesting COVID-19 restrictions from entering the Belgian capital, the regional government said in a statement on Thursday. The convoy was expected to arrive at the home of European Union institutions and NATO on Monday. Authorities in Paris had earlier banned the convoy. Protesters set out from southern France on Wednesday in what they called a "freedom convoy" that will converge on Paris and Brussels to demand an end to COVID-19 restrictions, inspired by demonstrators who have gridlocked the Canadian capital Ottawa.
10th Feb 2022 - Reuters

UK police to contact 50 over Downing Street lockdown parties

More than 50 people believed to have attended lockdown parties at British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Downing Street will be contacted by police to explain their involvement, officers said on Wednesday, as they considered widening their investigation. A statement from the Metropolitan Police said officers would start contacting people from the end of this week, asking them to complete a document with formal legal status on the events that have left Johnson facing the gravest crisis of his premiership. Police are investigating 12 gatherings held at Johnson's office and residence after an internal inquiry found his staff had enjoyed alcohol-fuelled parties in Downing Street.
10th Feb 2022 - Reuters

‘Move on’: New Zealand police break up Wellington trucker protest

Scuffles broke out and some 120 people were arrested in New Zealand on Thursday as police began forcefully removing a protest against COVID-19 vaccine mandates and other pandemic measures outside the parliament building in Wellington. Inspired by the trucker demonstrations in Canada, protesters began blocking streets in the capital with trucks, cars and motorbikes on Tuesday, pitching their tents outside parliament.
10th Feb 2022 - Al Jazeera English

New York City set to fire 3000 unvaccinated workers -report

New York City plans to fire roughly 3,000 municipal workers by the end of this week for failing to get the COVID-19 vaccine, the New York Times reported on Thursday. The move comes even as the state of New York prepares to join other U.S. states and cities in lifting many COVID-19 restrictions amid a sharp decline in infections linked to the Omicron variant. Bill de Blasio, Adams' predecessor as mayor, in December ordered all public and private sector workers in the city to get inoculated with the vaccines. Firing those workers who do not comply is one of the harshest pandemic policies in the nation.
10th Feb 2022 - Reuters

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Figure skating-Russian gold on hold amid reports of positive drug test

Russian media reported on Wednesday that 15-year-old figure skater Kamila Valieva had tested positive for a banned drug, after the ceremony to present her and her team mates with their Olympic gold medals was postponed for unexplained legal reasons. Newspapers RBC and Kommersant named the drug as Trimetazidine, which is typically used to treat chest pain. The news broke late at night in Beijing, where Valieva was part of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) ensemble that won the figure skating team event on Monday ahead of the United States and Japan.
9th Feb 2022 - Reuters

UK minister apologises for continuing meeting after positive COVID test

British health department minister Gillian Keegan has apologised for continuing a meeting after she was informed she had tested positive for COVID-19. In a thread on Twitter published late on Tuesday, Keegan said was informed that a precautionary lateral flow test had returned a positive result whilst speaking to a group in her role as minister for care and mental health. "I told them the result and took further precautions but with their consent, I stayed for a short period to hear their stories," she said. The meeting was with three men who had lost their daughters to suicide.
9th Feb 2022 - Reuters

UK PM Johnson says to end COVID self-isolation requirement this month

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Wednesday he intended to end the legal obligation for people in England to self-isolate if they test positive for COVID-19 later this month when he sets out the government's strategy for living with the disease.
9th Feb 2022 - Reuters on MSN.com

Canada scrambles to end vaccine protests as bridge blockades drag on

Truckers blocking U.S-Canada border crossings risk hurting the auto industry and agriculture, the White House said on Wednesday as Ottawa urged an end to the 13-day demonstration against coronavirus mandates. After nearly two years of pandemic measures in many countries, opposition has sprung up in different ways with copycat protests in Australia, New Zealand and France as the highly infectious Omicron variant begins to ease in many countries.
9th Feb 2022 - Reuters

New York Gov. Hochul lifts her mask mandate for most indoor public places

New York Governor Kathy Hochul said on Wednesday her state will end its mandate requiring people to wear a mask or prove they have received a COVID-19 vaccine when they are inside most indoor public places, starting on Thursday.
9th Feb 2022 - Reuters

COVID-19: Hundreds of thousands probably died due to 'bad behaviour' from politicians over AstraZeneca vaccine, says Oxford scientist

A scientist who worked on the AstraZeneca vaccine has said "hundreds of thousands of people" probably died because some politicians and scientists unfairly damaged its reputation. "They have damaged the reputation of the vaccine in a way that echoes around the rest of the world," said Professor Sir John Bell from Oxford University. "I think bad behaviour from scientists and from politicians has probably killed hundreds of thousands of people - and that they cannot be proud of."
9th Feb 2022 - Sky News

Anti-vaxxers are trying to stop Covid vaccinations with bizarre new conspiracy plot

Anti-vaxxers are continuing their efforts to shut down Covid immunisation programmes in the UK by falsely claiming crimes are being committed. Activists with large followings on the Telegram encrypted messaging app have been encouraging people to report the “crimes” at local police stations and obtain a record of the report. Crime reference numbers, which are automatically generated for any allegation, are then used online and at protests to wrongly claim investigations are underway and that vaccinations must be stopped. A number obtained from the Metropolitan Police in December has become a focus, being displayed on leaflets and banners at protests in London.
9th Feb 2022 - The Independent

Canada's Covid-19 trucker protests go global

A trucker protest that has clogged the streets of the Canadian capital for weeks has spread to cities across the world, and impeded access to the busiest land crossing between the United States and Canada as drivers and their supporters demonstrate against vaccine mandates and pandemic control measures. The so-called "Freedom Convoy" began at the end of January in Ottawa as an objection to a vaccine mandate requiring truckers entering Canada to either be fully vaccinated or face testing and quarantine requirements, Paula Newton and Travis Caldwell report. Other protesters then joined to rail against mask mandates, lockdowns, restrictions on gatherings and other Covid-19 preventative measures. The protests, which have seen demonstrators leave trucks idling on roads, have infuriated politicians and business owners, with some in downtown Ottawa complaining about financial losses. "Individuals are trying to blockade our economy, our democracy, and our fellow citizens' daily lives. It has to stop," Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in parliament on Monday, the same day the Ambassador Bridge, which runs across the border between Windsor, Ontario and Detroit, was obstructed by demonstrators.
9th Feb 2022 - CNN

UK minister apologises for continuing meeting after positive COVID test

Canadian authorities scramble to end protests against COVID measures

Spain's King Felipe tests positive for COVID-19

Spain's King Felipe tested positive for COVID-19 earlier on Wednesday after displaying mild symptoms overnight and will remain in isolation for seven days, the Royal Palace said in a statement. "His Majesty's general state of health is good and he will keep up his institutional activities from his residence," it said, adding that Queen Letizia and their daughter Princess Sofia showed no symptoms.
9th Feb 2022 - Reuters

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They knocked on strangers' doors and persuaded naysayers to get the COVID-19 vaccine. Here are their tips

When Armani Nightengale waited in the car last March to get vaccinated against COVID-19 at Chicago's United Center, her husband was more nervous than she was. Over the next couple of weeks, he carefully checked her arm to make sure nothing looked wrong. Then, the conversation shifted to when he would get the shot. That's when things got more "combative," Nightengale said, as she began asking why he was reluctant, especially given that they had three young children. Her husband, on the other hand, felt unsure about how signing up for the vaccine would affect his immigration status.
8th Feb 2022 - Medical Xpress

5G and QAnon: how conspiracy theorists steered Canada’s anti-vaccine trucker protest

The brazen occupation of Ottawa came as a result of unprecedented coordination between various anti-vaccine and anti-government organizations and activists, and has been seized on by similar groups around the world. It may herald the revenge of the anti-vaxxers. The so-called “freedom convoy” – which departed for Ottawa on 23 January – was the brainchild of James Bauder, an admitted conspiracy theorist who has endorsed the QAnon movement and called Covid-19 “the biggest political scam in history”. Bauder’s group, Canada Unity, contends that vaccine mandates and passports are illegal under Canada’s constitution, the Nuremberg Code and a host of other international conventions.
8th Feb 2022 - The Guardian

Social Media Is Wired to Spread Misinformation on Covid-19 and Everything Else

The right and left may not agree on what constitutes misinformation, but both would like to see less of it on social media. And as the world faces the third year of the Covid-19 pandemic, the threat medical misinformation poses to public health remains real. Companies like Twitter and Facebook have a stake in cleaning up their platforms — without relying on censoring or fact-checking. Censoring can engender distrust when social media companies expunge posts or delete accounts without explanation. It can even raise the profile of those who’ve been “canceled.” And fact-checking isn’t a good solution for complex scientific concepts. That’s because science is not a set of immutable facts, but a system of inquiry that constructs provisional theories based on imperfect data.
8th Feb 2022 - Bloomberg

U.S.-to-Canada crossing blocked by truckers fighting Trudeau's COVID mandate

The busiest land crossing from the United States to Canada remained shut on Tuesday, Canada's border agency said, after Canadian truckers blocked lanes on Monday to protest their government's pandemic control measures. Drivers demanding an end to federal COVID-19 vaccine mandates for cross-border traffic began blocking the streets of Canada's capital, Ottawa, on Jan. 28. Since Sunday night, police have started slowly taking back control, seizing thousands of liters of fuel and removing an oil tanker truck. Trucks started blocking traffic at the Ambassador Bridge, located between Lake Erie and Lake Huron, late on Monday. Canada's Border Services Agency said on Tuesday that the bridge was closed, but police later tweeted that U.S.-bound lanes were now open.
8th Feb 2022 - Reuters

Canada pushes back against GOP support for COVID protests

Canada’s public safety minister said Monday that U.S. officials should stay out of his country’s domestic affairs, joining other Canadian leaders in pushing back against prominent Republicans who offered support for the protests of COVID-19 restrictions that have besieged downtown Ottawa for more than a week. A day after the city declared a state of emergency, the mayor pleaded for almost 2,000 extra police officers to help quell the raucous nightly demonstrations staged by the so-called Freedom Truck Convoy, which has used hundreds of parked trucks to paralyze the Canadian capital’s business district. The protests have also infuriated people who live around downtown, including neighborhoods near Parliament Hill, the seat of the federal government.
8th Feb 2022 - The Associated Press

New Zealand convoy protesters clog streets near Parliament

Hundreds of people protesting vaccine and mask mandates drove in convoy to New Zealand’s capital on Tuesday and converged outside Parliament as lawmakers reconvened after a summer break. The mostly unmasked protesters had driven from around the country, and their vehicles clogged the central Wellington streets for hours as they got out to meet and speak on Parliament’s forecourt. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern elected not to meet with them as she delivered a speech to lawmakers outlining her priorities for the year. Among the protesters’ grievances is the requirement in New Zealand that certain workers get vaccinated against the coronavirus, including teachers, doctors, nurses, police and military personnel.
8th Feb 2022 - The Associated Press

Angry Canada truckers block busiest bridge with U.S.; Trudeau faces grilling

The busiest land crossing from the United States to Canada remained shut on Tuesday, Canada's border agency said, after Canadian truckers blocked lanes on Monday in protest against their government's pandemic control measures. Drivers demanding an end to federal COVID-19 vaccine mandates for cross-border traffic began blocking the streets of Canada's capital, Ottawa, on Jan. 28. Since Sunday night, police have started slowly taking back control, seizing thousands of liters of fuel and removing an oil tanker truck. Trucks started blocking traffic at the Ambassador Bridge, located between Lake Erie and Lake Huron, late on Monday. Canada's Border Services Agency said on Tuesday that the bridge was closed, but police later tweeted that U.S.-bound lanes were now open.
8th Feb 2022 - Reuters

New Zealand protesters block streets outside parliament

Hundreds of people protesting vaccine mandates and pandemic restrictions blocked streets outside New Zealand's parliament on Tuesday with trucks and campervans, inspired by similar demonstrations in Canada. The "convoy for freedom" protesters arrived from all corners of New Zealand and gathered outside the parliament building in the capital Wellington, called the Beehive, ahead of the first speech for the year by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.
8th Feb 2022 - Reuters

India's Modi defends handling of COVID pandemic amid opposition protests

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi defended his government's efforts to fight the COVID-19 pandemic over the last two years, saying on Tuesday they led to high economic growth and middling inflation, unlike the situation in some advanced economies. Economic growth is estimated at 9.2% in India's fiscal year ending in March and at 8% to 8.5% the next, after a contraction of 6.6% in fiscal 2019/20, while retail inflation hovers around 5.5%, well within the central bank's target of 2% to 6%. The government has distributed free foodgrain to 800 million people during the pandemic, while taking steps to tame inflation, Modi told the upper house of parliament in remarks that triggered an opposition boycott of his speech.
8th Feb 2022 - Reuters

Canada’s NDP leader says trucker convoy aims to ‘overthrow’ gov’t

Canada needs to investigate foreign interference and support for an anti-government protest in the country’s capital, said New Democratic Party (NDP) leader Jagmeet Singh, as the convoy of truckers and their supporters continues to wreak havoc in Ottawa. Speaking to reporters on Monday morning, Singh said the convoy’s stated intent is to “overthrow the government”. “It is clear that this is not a protest; this is an act to try to overthrow the government, and it is getting funded by foreign interference and we need to investigate and stop that – stop the flow of that foreign interference, particularly coming from the [United] States,” said Singh, whose party has the fourth-most seats in the House of Commons. “We are calling for an emergency debate in parliament to respond to the convoy and to the escalating tensions that we’re seeing,” he added. The convoy of Canadian truckers and their supporters began arriving in Ottawa on January 28 to denounce an order requiring truckers to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 in order to cross Canada’s land border with the United States.
7th Feb 2022 - AlJazeera

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Governor ending New Jersey's school mask mandate

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy will end a statewide mask mandate to protect against COVID-19 in schools and child care centers, his office said Monday. The requirement goes into effect March 7 and comes as New Jersey’s caseload drops after an spike around the holidays fueled by the omicron variant. The governor is expected to announce the development at a news conference Monday when he is set to also answer questions. It’s not clear, for example, if individual school districts could continue to require a mandate. New Jersey was one of just a dozen states with mask mandates in schools, according to the nonpartisan National Academy for State Health Policy.
7th Feb 2022 - The Associated Press

Ottawa declares state of emergency over COVID-19 protests

The mayor of Canada’s capital declared a state of emergency Sunday and a former U.S. ambassador to Canada said groups in the U.S. must stop interfering in the domestic affairs of America’s neighbor as protesters opposed to COVID-19 restrictions continued to paralyze Ottawa’s downtown. Mayor Jim Watson said the declaration highlights the need for support from other jurisdictions and levels of government. It gives the city some additional powers around procurement and how it delivers services, which could help purchase equipment required by frontline workers and first responders. Thousands of protesters descended in Ottawa again on the weekend, joining a hundred who remained since last weekend. Residents of Ottawa are furious at the nonstop blaring of horns, traffic disruption and harassment and fear no end is in sight after the police chief called it a “siege” that he could not manage.
7th Feb 2022 - The Associated Press

Canada trucker protest: Ottawa declares emergency

The mayor of Canada's capital, Ottawa, has declared a state of emergency in response to more than a week of truckers' protests against Covid restrictions. Jim Watson said the city was "losing this battle" and "completely out of control". He added the protests posed a threat to residents' safety. There have also been reports of racial attacks. Ottawa's centre has been paralysed, with vehicles and tents blocking roads. The "Freedom Convoy" was sparked by the introduction last month of a new rule that all truckers must be vaccinated to cross the US-Canada border, but the protests have morphed into broader challenges to Covid health restrictions.
7th Feb 2022 - BBC News

Australian parliament’s Covid rules could block anti-vaccine protesters’ entry

In Australia, anti-vaccine protesters’ hopes of presenting a list of “grievances” to federal politicians may be scuppered by federal parliament’s Covid safety rules, with the prime minister not planning to meet a delegation supported by former Liberal MP Craig Kelly. Kelly, the United Australia party leader, confirmed his party was providing free food to the protesters and considering bankrolling a $10,000 sound system for future rallies. Coalition MPs Gerard Rennick and George Christensen said they planned to join the anti-mandate protesters this week, while One Nation’s Malcolm Roberts gave a speech on parliament’s front lawn on Monday.
7th Feb 2022 - The Guardian

Canada police seen getting tough as trucker protests continue

As the protest against the Canadian government's health measures and vaccine mandates entered an eleventh day on Monday, police have threatened to clamp down after facing criticism for lack of action that has crippled the national capital. The "Freedom Convoy" consisting largely of truckers began as a movement against a Canadian vaccine requirement for cross-border drivers. But it has since evolved into a rallying point against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's strict measures to fight the pandemic.
7th Feb 2022 - Reuters

Turkey's ritual corpse washers say faith overcame COVID fears

Elal, 36, said a sense of spiritual duty helped her continue carrying out the common end-of-life ritual despite exhaustion and fear, especially when she herself fell ill with COVID-19 last year. According to the ritual, ghassals pray while washing the body, before placing it in a white shroud ahead of burial. Corpses arrive from hospitals or homes to a washing cabin, called a "ghassilhane", where men wash male bodies and women wash female bodies.
7th Feb 2022 - Reuters

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Booster campaign stalls as ‘partygate’ undermines trust in official advice

The Covid booster campaign has stalled, and declining trust in the prime minister is part of the problem, say scientists. Only 26,875 people in England had a third dose or booster on 1 February, the latest complete figures available, and 6 million people are at least six weeks overdue for their shot. Behavioural scientists, including government advisers, and public health leaders say the huge drop in take-up in just one month is fuelled by the widespread belief that Boris Johnson flouted his own Covid rules. Although Omicron is less deadly than previous variants, it remains a significant health risk to the estimated 5.1 million unvaccinated people aged over 12 in the UK, and the rolling seven-day average of deaths in Britain is above 240.
6th Feb 2022 - The Guardian

Misinformation and distrust: behind Bolivia’s low Covid vaccination rates

South America, once the region most afflicted by the pandemic, is now the most vaccinated in the world. But this turnaround doesn’t extend to Bolivia, where roughly half the population is yet to receive a single dose – even though the state has had all the vaccines it needs since October. As it stands, 45% of the population has received two doses, and a further 12% have had a single dose. Less than 7% have received a booster dose. Data leaked from the Ministry of Health before Christmas gave a more detailed snapshot, revealing huge variations between municipalities. In general, departmental capitals had high levels of vaccination. Smaller cities were doing less well. But in many rural municipalities, particularly in the altiplano, less than 30% of the adult population had received a dose.
6th Feb 2022 - The Guardian

Ottawa Declares Emergency as Protests Spin 'Out of Control'

Canada’s capital declared a state of emergency Sunday as police struggled to rein in ongoing protests against vaccine mandates. Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson, who declared the emergency, said in a statement that the increasingly rowdy demonstrations posed a “serious danger and threat to the safety and security of residents.” Hundreds of trucks continued to occupy the downtown area near Canada’s parliament with no sign that the protesters planned to leave. The protests started in reaction to Canadian and U.S. laws that went into effect in January, requiring truckers crossing the border to be fully vaccinated. They have since morphed into a rally against Covid restrictions more broadly.
6th Feb 2022 - Bloomberg

Beijing Winter Olympics’ Covid Cases Accelerate as Games Open

Beijing reported a pickup in new Covid-19 cases among those in China for the Winter Olympics on the day the games kicked off, highlighting challenges to contain the virus as more participants arrive.
5th Feb 2022 - Bloomberg

Canadian cities brace for more anti vaccine mandate protests

Thousands of people demonstrated in Canadian cities, including the financial hub Toronto, on Saturday as mostly peaceful but noisy protests against vaccine mandates spread from Ottawa, the capital. The "Freedom Convoy" began as a movement against a Canadian vaccine requirement for cross-border truckers, but has turned into a rallying point against public health measures and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government. “We're all sick and tired of the mandates, of the intimidation, of living in one big prison,” said Robert, a Toronto protester who did not give his last name. "We just want to go back to normal without having to take into our veins the poison which they call vaccines.”
5th Feb 2022 - Reuters

Thousands protest vaccine mandates in Canada, further fraying nerves

WHO chief says discussed collaboration on COVID origins with Chinese premier

The head of the World Health Organization said on Saturday he had discussed with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang the need for stronger collaboration on the origins of COVID-19, a subject of controversy that has strained Beijing's relations with the West. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has previously pressed China to be more forthcoming with data and information related to the origin of the virus. "Pleased to meet with Premier Li Keqiang," Tedros tweeted. "We discussed COVID-19 and the need for an aggressive effort on VaccinEquity this year to vaccinate 70% of all populations," he said, referrring to the WHO campaign for fair access to vaccines around the world.
5th Feb 2022 - Reuters

Thousands of Covid mandate protestors rally across Canada

Thousands of Covid restriction protestors took to the streets on Saturday for demonstrations across Canada’s cities, continuing the “Freedom Convoy” rally which shut down Ottawa for days. The protests first started in late January as a demonstration against a Covid vaccine mandate for Canada’s truckers, but the movement has since shifted into a large-scale rally against Covid restrictions as a whole. “We're all sick and tired of the mandates, of the intimidation, of living in one big prison,” a demonstrator at a rally in Toronto, identified only as Robert, told Reuters.
5th Feb 2022 - i24NEWS

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Canada will not use troops to deal with truckers' protest, Trudeau says

The Canadian government has no plans to send in troops to deal with a vaccine mandate protest in Ottawa that is causing widespread disruption and refusing to disperse
3rd Feb 2022 - Reuters

Airlines urge White House to end COVID international travel testing rules

Major airlines, business and travel groups urged the White House on Wednesday to end COVID-19 pre-departure testing requirements for vaccinated international passengers traveling to the United States. Airlines for America, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, International Air Transport Association, Aerospace Industries Association, the U.S. Travel Association and other groups called for change in a letter to White House coronavirus response coordinator Jeff Zients. "Surveys of air passengers indicate that pre-departure testing is a leading factor in the decision not to travel internationally. People simply are unwilling to take the chance that they will be unable to return to the U.S.," they wrote.
3rd Feb 2022 - Reuters on MSN.com

Indian health workers allege widespread vaccine certificate fraud

Health workers on the frontline of India’s Covid vaccination programme say people are being officially registered as double vaccinated without receiving both doses because of pressure to meet government targets. Workers described how easy it was to falsely register second vaccine doses for people who did not attend appointments, by using personal records from their first dose and opting to bypass a code sent to their mobile phone.
3rd Feb 2022 - The Guardian

Anti-vaccine mandate protesters say they will block Ottawa for as long as necessary

Truck drivers who have been blockading downtown Ottawa for six days on Wednesday said they had no intention of leaving the Canadian capital until the government scrapped COVID-19 vaccine mandates. Despite increasing complaints from residents about noise, pollution and aggressive behavior from some truckers, Ottawa police have declined to end the protest, citing the risk of aggravating tensions. The demonstration began as a move to force the Liberal government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to drop a vaccine mandate for cross-border truckers
3rd Feb 2022 - Reuters

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Spotify's plan to add advisory to COVID podcasts is a positive step -White House

Spotify's plan to add a content advisory to any discussion of COVID-19 on its platform is a positive step, but tech platforms should do more to prevent the spread of misinformation on the coronavirus, the White House said on Tuesday. "Our hope is all major tech platforms and all major news sources for that matter be responsible and be vigilant to ensure that the American people have access to accurate information on something as significant as COVID-19", White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters in a briefing. "This disclaimer - it's a positive step, but we want every platform to continue doing more to call out misinformation."
2nd Feb 2022 - Reuters

The cognitive bias that tripped us up during the pandemic

The issues with COVID communication are not limited to the statistics describing the spread and prevalence of the pandemic or the safe distance we should keep from others. Initially, we were told that “herd immunity” appears once 60%-70% of the population has gained immunity either through infection or vaccination. Later, with more studies and analysis this number was more accurately predicted to be around 90%-95%, which is meaningfully larger than the initial number. However, as shown in our study, the role of that initial number can be profound and a simple update wasn’t enough to remove it from people’s minds.
2nd Feb 2022 - The Conversation UK

Fraudulent Covid-19 Test Sites Proliferate, Triggering Consumer Warnings

Officials nationwide are trying to stay ahead of a proliferation of Covid-19 test sites that they say are offering fraudulent services to the public. Attorneys general in states including New Mexico, Oregon, Florida, Minnesota, New York and Illinois have shut down pop-up test locations, or issued warnings, citing late or false test results and theft of people’s personal information. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has warned that “scammers are preying on people looking for Covid tests.” Authorities have alleged that the operators of these sites are making money by sending bills to people whose insurance is supposed to cover Covid-19 tests or falsely claiming consumers are uninsured as a way to seek reimbursement from the federal government.
2nd Feb 2022 - The Wall Street Journal

Covid Pandemic Hits Particularly Hard for Those With Long-Term Disabilities

Around one in five disabled people believe life will never return to normal following the coronavirus pandemic, a survey suggests. Some 18% of those questioned by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said they do not think life will ever get back to normal. This compared with 11% of non-disabled respondents. Disabled people said the pandemic has affected their lives more than non-disabled people in two key areas. These were access to healthcare and treatment for non-coronavirus related issues (58% for the disabled compared with 31% for non-disabled people), and wellbeing (55% versus 35%). Disabled people were more likely to report worse mental health, anxiety, depression and loneliness, the study found.
2nd Feb 2022 - Bloomberg

Virginia governor sued again over order to make masks optional in schools

A civil liberties group said on Tuesday it sued Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin and his administration over his order making masks optional in public schools, saying it violates the rights of students vulnerable to complications from COVID-19. The American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia (ACLU) said its suit in a federal court in Charlottesville seeks a temporary restraining order and permanent lifting of Youngkin's order barring school districts from implementing universal mask requirements. The ACLU said the order violates federal disabilities law.
2nd Feb 2022 - Reuters

Putin: ‘Life goes on’ despite ‘difficult’ COVID-19 situation

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that “life goes on” despite a “difficult” COVID-19 situation in the country that has seen infection records for two weeks straight. The Kremlin continues to hold off from imposing nationwide restrictions even as the state coronavirus task force reported 141,883 news infections on Wednesday - a massive spike from the daily 15,000 cases recorded in early January. Putin appealed for “solidarity” and “mutual assistance” to help the country pull through the renewed surge. A subset of the omicron variant, BA.2, has been also discovered in Russia. The BA.2 subset is widely considered stealthier than the original version and some scientists worry it could also be more contagious. With only one six-week-long lockdown in 2020, Russia has avoided imposing nationwide COVID-19 restrictions on its citizens, leaving these decisions up to the local governments in its regions. Restrictions vary from region to region in Russia, ranging from working remotely to limiting access to certain public spaces.
2nd Feb 2022 - The Associated Press

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Truckers and protesters against Covid-19 mandates block a border crossing. Others tried to take meals away from the homeless in Ottawa, shelter says

What started as a convoy of truckers protesting Covid-19 mandates has snowballed into a blockade in the Canadian capital and the obstruction of a US-Canadian border crossing. Some protesters pressured staff at a homeless shelter to give them food, the facility said. And criminal investigations are underway after the alleged "desecration" of monuments during weekend protests that spilled into Monday. The protests stemmed from the "Freedom Convoy" of truckers that traveled across Canada for several days before arriving in the capital city of Ottawa on Saturday. The drivers oppose a recent vaccine mandate requiring truckers entering Canada to be fully vaccinated or face testing and quarantine requirements. Downtown Ottawa remained packed with rigs and cars Monday morning as protesters rallied against Covid-19 mandates and some legislators were set to return to Parliament Hill.
1st Feb 2022 - CNN

Politicizing COVID-19 vaccination efforts has fuelled vaccine hesitancy

The current political landscape has become increasingly intertwined with vaccine policy. Platforms from political parties have included vaccine mandates, third-dose policies and mandatory vaccination proposals aimed at children. Québec has even proposed taxing people who remain unvaccinated. This is concerning, particularly given that vaccination efforts are driven by the combined efforts of health-care providers, public health agencies and community leaders.
1st Feb 2022 - The Conversation

COVID-19: Nearly £9bn spent on PPE during coronavirus pandemic written off, Govt accounts show

Nearly £9bn spent by the government on personal protective equipment (PPE) during the coronavirus pandemic has been written off, annual accounts have shown. Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) figures show huge amounts were wasted on useless equipment, while millions of pounds has been spent getting out of contracts or storing PPE at ports. Some £673m worth of equipment was found to be totally unusable, according the 2020/21 accounts, while £750m was spent on items that expired before being used.
1st Feb 2022 - Sky News

Canada's Trudeau 'not intimidated' by truckers' COVID protest

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday said Canadians were disgusted by the behavior of some people protesting against COVID-19 vaccine mandates in Ottawa and said he would not be intimidated. Dozens of trucks and other vehicles have jammed up the city center since Friday. Thousands descended upon Parliament Hill to complain about Trudeau, COVID-19 vaccine mandates and masking requirements but by mid-Monday afternoon, many had left. Police said most demonstrators have been peaceful but local residents complained about blaring truck horns and some demonstrators using the streets as a toilet. Some also harassed a homeless shelter and demanded staff give them food - the shelter said on Twitter - while others flew Nazi flags.
1st Feb 2022 - Reuters

Italy chief chaplain condemns call for COVID disobedience by police

Italy's national Catholic military chaplain has hit back at a renegade, vaccine-denying archbishop, accusing him of inciting insubordination among the armed forces and police over their role in enforcing COVID-19 laws. The national chaplain, Archbishop Santo Marciano, issued a statement to all military and law enforcement personnel on Monday night, hours after Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano made a statement urging them to disobey orders and not be "automatons". Vigano, a former Vatican ambassador in Washington, has been in hiding for more than three years since issuing a broadside against Pope Francis, demanding his resignation.
1st Feb 2022 - Reuters

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Spotify to link COVID content to facts after ‘misinformation’ row

Music streaming company Spotify says it will start guiding listeners of podcasts discussing COVID-19 to facts about the pandemic, after artists, including Neil Young, pulled their songs from the platform in anger at alleged misinformation. In a post on Sunday, Spotify Chief Executive Daniel Ek laid out more transparent platform rules given the backlash stirred up by Young after the tech giant declined to get rid of episodes of The Joe Rogan Experience, which has been criticised for spreading virus misinformation.
31st Jan 2022 - Al Jazeera English

Top Hong Kong official resigns over birthday party fiasco

A top Hong Kong official resigned Monday for attending a birthday party with about 200 guests in early January as the city was battling a coronavirus surge. At least one guests later tested positive, and Secretary of Home Affairs Caspar Tsui was among several officials and lawmakers ordered to quarantine after the party, which was held for Witman Hung, a delegate to China’s legislature. Tsui said in a statement issued Monday afternoon that he had not “set the best example during the recent outbreak.” At the time, Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam and health officials had urged the public to avoid large gatherings to prevent the spread of the virus.
31st Jan 2022 - The Associated Press

Spotify promises to tackle Covid-19 misinformation following pressure from Duke and Duchess of Sussex

A spokesperson for Prince Harry and Meghan’s Archewell organisation confirmed that the couple had expressed ‘concerns to our partners’ at Spotify last April, raising the issue of ‘the all too real consequences of Covid-19 misinformation on its platform’. He said Archewell continued to voice ‘concerns to Spotify to ensure changes to its platform are made to help address this public health crisis’, adding: ‘We look to Spotify to meet this moment and are committed to continuing our work together.’
31st Jan 2022 - Tatler

Laurence Fox ignores doctor advising him against Ivermectin for Covid-19 treatment

Laurence Fox has attempted to shut down a doctor who offered him professional medical advice after he contracted Covid-19. The controversial actor and failed London mayoral candidate tested positive for coronavirus on Sunday (30 January), just days after sharing a photo wearing a t-shirt that read: “No vaccine needed. I have an immune system.” Palliative care doctor and author Rachel Clarke shared a news story about Fox getting Covid and wished him a “speedy recovery”, while warning that his chosen medication of Ivermectin was not recommended by medical experts. “It’s important to stress there is no clear evidence that Ivermectin (a horse de-wormer) reduces the risks of catching Covid, or its severity,” Clarke wrote, adding, before adding: “We do have excellent evidence-based Covid treatments, though.”
31st Jan 2022 - The Independent

Report criticises lockdown parties at UK PM Johnson's office

UK PM Johnson receives report into Downing Street lockdown parties By ReutersInvesting.com UKFactbox-Key Findings From UK Lockdown Party ReportU.S. News & World ReportUK PM Johnson receives report into potential Downing Street lockdown breachesNasdaqView Full coverage on Google News
31st Jan 2022 - Reuters

Joe Rogan Says Sorry as Spotify Tries to End Covid Vaccine Controversy

Joe Rogan pledged more balance and better research for his podcast in an apology aimed at quelling growing controversy about misleading coronavirus information that plunged Spotify Technology SA into controversy last week. “If I’ve p----ed you off, I’m sorry,” Rogan said in an Instagram video, while also thanking listeners who have enjoyed his podcast. He said he would “try harder to get people with differing opinions on right afterward” and “do my best to make sure I have researched these topics, the controversial ones in particular, and have all the pertinent facts at hand before I discuss them.”
31st Jan 2022 - Bloomberg

Hong Kong home affairs chief resigns after COVID-hit birthday bash scandal

Hong Kong's Secretary for Home Affairs resigned on Monday weeks after attending the birthday party of a delegate to China's legislature, where two of some 200 guests tested positive for COVID-19. Caspar Tsui was among 15 officials who went to the 53rd birthday of Witman Hung, a city delegate to the national legislature, before new COVID-19 restrictions came into force, but after Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam appealed to people to avoid big gatherings. Tsui "brought the Hong Kong government into disrepute" and "did not meet the expectations of the general public", Lam told a news conference.
31st Jan 2022 - Reuters

Cyprus Orthodox archbishop suspends 12 unvaccinated priests

The head of Cyprus’ Orthodox Christian Church said Sunday that he will suspend a dozen priests from his diocese because they refused to heed his call to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Archbishop Chrystostomos II told state broadcaster CyBC that most of the priests are also theologians who have swayed some of the faithful not to get vaccinated. The archbishop called the insubordination “unheard of” and warned that the suspensions could be extended to six months or lead to the priests being defrocked. He suggested that some of the unvaccinated priests may be emboldened to defy him because of his frail health. Archbishop Chrysostomos has been vocal in his support for vaccinations for all the faithful and the Church’s highest decision making body, the Holy Synod, has issued a clear appeal in favor of vaccination.
30th Jan 2022 - The Associated Press

Ottawa police investigating some anti vaccine protesters

Police in Canada’s capital said Sunday they are investigating possible criminal charges after anti-vaccine protesters urinated on the National War Memorial, danced on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and used the statue of Canadian hero Terry Fox to display an anti-vaccine statement. Thousands of protesters gathered in Ottawa Saturday to protest vaccine mandates, masks and lockdowns. Some travelled in truck convoys and parked on the streets around Parliament Hill, blocking traffic. Many remained on Sunday. Ottawa Police said officers are also investigating threatening behavior to police and others. “Several criminal investigations are underway in relation the desecration of the National War Memorial/Terry Fox statue,” Ottawa police said.
30th Jan 2022 - The Associated Press

Rogan responds to Spotify protest, COVID advisories

Spotify is pledging to combat the spread of COVID-19 misinformation as part of a damage-control campaign sparked by musician Neil Young, who called out the streaming service’s top podcaster for amplifying vaccine skepticism. Spotify said Sunday it will soon add a warning before all podcasts that discuss COVID-19, directing listeners to factual, up-to-date information from scientists and public health experts. The company also sought to increase transparency about its publishing decisions by laying out the rules it uses to protect users’ safety. Young had his music removed from Spotify last week after the company declined to get rid of episodes of “The Joe Rogan Experience,” which he criticized for spreading virus misinformation.
30th Jan 2022 - The Associated Press

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Protests at Canadian Capital Over Trucker Vaccine Rule Continue on Sunday

Raucous protests in Canada’s capital continued Sunday over trucker vaccine mandates and other Covid-19 health restrictions, but the crowd thinned from its height a day earlier after drawing military and political rebukes for poor behavior. The main avenue outside the parliament buildings in Ottawa remained blockaded by a line of big rigs, and protesters speaking on a makeshift stage said they don’t intend to leave anytime soon. Canada’s legislature has been on a winter break since mid-December, but is scheduled to resume sitting on Monday. The trucker convoy has drawn an unusual amount of global attention, most recently from Donald Trump. “We want those great Canadian truckers to know that we are with them all the way,” the former U.S. president told a Texas rally Saturday night.
30th Jan 2022 - Bloomberg

Argentine truckers stranded at Chilean border by slow COVID testing

Thousands of truck drivers from Argentina were stuck at the Chilean border on Saturday due to slow COVID-19 testing, as Chile faced its second transport delay crisis. Since Jan. 21, more than 3,000 trucks have been stranded at the customs checkpoint of Cristo Redentor in Mendoza, according to the Argentinean Federation of Business Entities for Cargo Transport (FADEEAC). The long wait has put both drivers and some of the trucks to the test, as trucks with refrigerator units must stay running at all times to keep the cargos at cold temperatures.
30th Jan 2022 - Reuters

Thousands of Czechs protest against COVID curbs

Thousands of Czechs massed in Prague's Wenceslas Square on Sunday, waving flags and chanting slogans against COVID-19 restrictions, even as infections surge. Protesters mainly objected to harsher restrictions for the unvaccinated, including a ban on eating in restaurants. "The state should listen to the people's demands. The arrangements and restrictions lead us on the road to hell," Zuzana Vozabova who banged a drum through the protest, said. The country of 10.7 million reported its highest daily tally of cases on Wednesday - 54,689, and the numbers on other recent days have ranked among the highest since the start of the epidemic.
30th Jan 2022 - Reuters

Canada rally against vaccine mandates blocks Ottawa as Trump praises protest

Dozens of trucks and other vehicles blocked the downtown area of Ottawa for a second day after thousands descended on Canada's capital city on Saturday to protest against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and COVID-19 vaccine mandates. Trucks remained parked on the streets near parliament on Sunday, a day before lawmakers are due to resume work after the holiday break. Hundreds of protesters were out on Sunday, too. Some truckers said they will not leave until the mandate is overturned.
30th Jan 2022 - Reuters

N.Z. Premier Ardern Enters Self-Isolation After Close Contact

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has entered self-isolation after being deemed as a close contact of a positive Covid-19 case, according to a statement from her office. The exposure occurred on Jan. 22 during a flight from Kerikeri to Auckland. “The Prime Minister is asymptomatic and is feeling well,” according to the statement. She will be tested immediately on Sunday and will isolate until Tuesday. The Governor-General and members of her staff were also on board and are following the same isolation instructions.
29th Jan 2022 - Bloomberg

Rejected by New Zealand, reporter turns to Taliban for help

A pregnant New Zealand journalist says she turned to the Taliban for help and is now stranded in Afghanistan after her home country has prevented her from returning due to a bottleneck of people in its coronavirus quarantine system. In a column published in The New Zealand Herald on Saturday, Charlotte Bellis said it was “brutally ironic” that she’d once questioned the Taliban about their treatment of women and she was now asking the same questions of her own government. “When the Taliban offers you — a pregnant, unmarried woman — safe haven, you know your situation is messed up,” Bellis wrote in her column. New Zealand’s COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins told the Herald his office had asked officials to check whether they followed the proper procedures in Bellis’s case, “which appeared at first sight to warrant further explanation.” New Zealand has managed to keep the spread of the virus to a minimum during the pandemic
29th Jan 2022 - The Associated Press

In France, anti-vax fury, politics make public service risky

In Sainte-Anastasie-sur-Issole, a village that curls catlike in verdant Provence hillocks, voters are making an early start on France’s presidential election. From their ballot box this weekend and next will come the name of the candidate — picked from among dozens — that they want their mayor to endorse. Normally, the choice would be Mayor Olivier Hoffmann’s alone, under a right that, at election time, turns small-potato public office-holders into hot properties — wooed by would-be candidates who need 500 endorsements from elected officials to get onto the April ballot. But in an inflamed climate of election-time politics, and with fury among opponents of COVID-19 vaccinations increasingly bubbling over into violence directed at elected representatives, Sainte-Anastasie’s staunchly apolitical mayor doesn’t want to be seen taking sides.
29th Jan 2022 - Associated Press

‘Very scary’: Austria says anti-vax COVID activists cross borders

Some activists who reject COVID-19 vaccines and anti-coronavirus measures are crossing borders to join protests where extremist ideology is being spread, Austria’s new domestic intelligence chief told the AFP news agency, calling the trend “very scary”. Omar Haijawi-Pirchner said foreign activists are travelling to Austria – where COVID vaccines will become mandatory next month – to demonstrate and hold “network meetings with their partners, right-wing extremists”.
29th Jan 2022 - Al Jazeera English

Joe Rogan’s Podcast Puts Scientists on Edge With Climate Misinformation

The biggest podcast in the world became a venue this week for what climate scientists see as classic disinformation about the widely used forecasts that ground the response to global warming. It started Monday with Joe Rogan’s interview of prominent Canadian psychologist and author Jordan Peterson for the Spotify podcast, “The Joe Rogan Experience,” thats among the biggest with audiences. “There’s no such thing as climate, right?” Peterson said, before addressing a familiar criticism at climate scientists: “Your models are based on a set number of variables.
29th Jan 2022 - Bloomberg

WHO examining allegations official abused staff, leaked vaccine data to Japan

The World Health Organisation (WHO) said it is looking into allegations a regional director in Asia bullied staff, used racist language and leaked sensitive vaccine data to Japan, accusations the official denies. WHO said in a statement to Reuters on Thursday it "is aware of the allegations and is taking all appropriate steps to follow up on the matter," following a report on the complaints by the Associated Press. In a statement provided by the WHO, Takeshi Kasai, the Manila-based director of the Western Pacific region, acknowledged being "hard on staff" but rejected charges of racism or that he shared confidential information with Japan.
29th Jan 2022 - Reuters

Argentine singer Verdaguer dies of COVID-19 complications

Argentine singer-songwriter Diego Verdaguer, whose romantic hits such as “Corazón de papel,” “Yo te amo” and “Volveré” sold almost 50 million copies, has died of complications from COVID-19, his family said Friday. He was 70. The naturalized Mexican-Argentine musician, who was married to singer Amanda Miguel, died Thursday afternoon in Los Angeles, his daughter Ana Victoria said in a statement released by Diam Music, Verdaguer’s record company. “With absolute sadness, I regret to inform his fans and friends that today my father left his beautiful body to continue his path and creativity in another form of eternal life,” said his daughter. “My mother, I and the whole family are immersed in this pain, so we appreciate your understanding in these difficult times.”
28th Jan 2022 - The Associated Press

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Canada's Trudeau in isolation after COVID exposure; says test negative

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Thursday he had gone into isolation for five days after being exposed to someone with COVID-19, adding a rapid test result had come back negative.
27th Jan 2022 - Reuters on MSN.com

Holocaust survivor decries 'abuse' of yellow star at COVID protests

Centenarian Holocaust survivor Margot Friedlaender urged the young generation on Thursday to always remember the Nazi genocide and denounced the use by some anti-COVID vaccination protesters of the yellow star Jews were forced to wear. "Today, I see the memory of what happened being abused for political reasons, sometimes even derided and trampled all over," she told EU lawmakers in Brussels at a ceremony marking the 77th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland. "Incredulous, I had to watch at the age of 100 years how symbols of our exclusion by the Nazis, such as the so-called 'Judenstern', are shamelessly used on the open street by the new enemies of democracy, to present themselves - whilst living in the middle of a democracy - as victims," Friedlaender added.
27th Jan 2022 - Reuters

COVID-19: Antisemitism 'on the rise' as anti-vaxxers blamed for helping to fuel hatred

Holocaust survivors and politicians have warned antisemitism is on the rise as the world reflects on the atrocities committed by the Nazis on the 77th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.. People across the globe are paying their respects to the millions of Jews persecuted at the hands of Hitler's regime on Thursday, the annual Holocaust Memorial Day. Followers of all faiths will this evening light a candle to remember all the victims of the genocide, as part of many events taking place, with some held online due to the pandemic.
27th Jan 2022 - Sky News

Israel says some protesters against COVID measures are fuelling anti-Semitism

Protesters against COVID-19 measures who liken themselves to Jews under Nazi persecution are stoking global anti-Semitism, the Israeli government said in a report marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Such Holocaust tropes have become "widespread" and, along with violent demonstrations linked to Israel's May war in Gaza, were main factors behind physical or online attacks on Jews in Europe and North America last year, said the 152-page report by the Diaspora Affairs Ministry. Several U.S. and British politicians have in recent months apologised after suggesting vaccine or lockdown policies recalled Hitler's regime.
27th Jan 2022 - Reuters

As Omicron ebbs, England revives Plan A: living with COVID

After an uncomfortable but relatively brief return to coronavirus restrictions triggered by the Omicron variant, England is going back to "Plan A" - learning to live with a disease that is probably here to stay. The bet is that booster jabs, antiviral pills and Omicron's lower severity will enable the government to manage outbreaks of a virus that cannot be shut out. Other countries equally keen to unshackle business and personal freedom will be watching. Work-from-home guidance ended last week, and measures such as mask mandates and COVID passes, also introduced in England last month, lapsed on Thursday, returning the rules to where they were last July.
27th Jan 2022 - Reuters

WHO staff complaint, email allege racism and abuse in Asia

Current and former staffers have accused the top director of the World Health Organization in the Western Pacific of racist, unethical and abusive behavior that has undermined the U.N. health agency’s efforts to curb the coronavirus pandemic. The allegations were laid out in an internal complaint filed in October and again in an email last week, sent by unidentified “concerned WHO staff” to senior leadership and the executive board and obtained by the Associated Press. Two of the authors said more than 30 staffers were involved in writing it, and that it reflected the experiences of more than 50 people. The internal complaint and the email describe a “toxic atmosphere” with “a culture of systemic bullying and public ridiculing” at WHO’s Western Pacific headquarters in Manila, led by Dr. Takeshi Kasai, director of a vast region that includes China and his home country of Japan.
27th Jan 2022 - The Associated Press

Hospital patient without COVID shot denied heart transplant

A Boston hospital is defending itself after a man’s family claimed he was denied a new heart for refusing to be vaccinated against COVID-19, saying most transplant programs around the country set similar requirements to improve patients’ chances of survival. The family of D.J. Ferguson said in a crowdfunding appeal this week that officials at Brigham and Women’s Hospital told the 31-year-old father of two that he was ineligible for the procedure because he hasn’t been vaccinated against the coronavirus. “We are literally in a corner right now. This is extremely time sensitive,” the family said in its fundraising appeal, which has raised tens of thousands of dollars. “This is not just a political issue. People need to have a choice!” D.J.’s mother, Tracey Ferguson, insists that her son isn’t against vaccinations, noting he’s had other immunizations in the past. But the trained nurse said Wednesday that he’s been diagnosed with atrial fibrillation — an irregular and often rapid heart rhythm — and that he has concerns about the side effects of the COVID-19 vaccine.
27th Jan 2022 - The Associated Press

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Overworked Pharmacy Employees Are the Covid Pandemic's Invisible Victims

Jennifer Morrow says she first considered quitting her job as a pharmacist at a CVS drugstore near Binghamton, N.Y., last October after she was assigned to fill in at a store she’d rarely worked in. When she arrived, she discovered she’d be the only pharmacist on the job all day—with no technician or cashier to help, either. The pandemic was raging. The phones were ringing, and prescriptions quickly backed up as she turned her attention to giving Covid-19 vaccinations and flu shots. By 4 p.m., she was hours behind schedule. Overwhelmed, exhausted, and worried she’d make a mistake filling a prescription, she closed the pharmacy early, forcing customers to find other stores.
26th Jan 2022 - Bloomberg

Paid Leave Is Falling Apart Just as Omicron Keeps Sick Americans From Working

The latest Covid surge highlighted with renewed urgency that when Americans get sick, most don't get paid time off from work. At the start of this month, 8.8 million people reported that they weren’t working because they had Covid or were caring for someone who did, according to the Household Pulse Survey from the U.S. Census Bureau — nearly triple the figure from early December. For many, particularly low-wage hourly earners, that could mean forgoing a paycheck or going into work while still recovering or contagious. The U.S., unlike most other high-income countries, guarantees workers nothing in the event of sickness or new parenthood, costing Americans an estimated $22.5 billion annually in wages, according to think tank Center for American Progress.
26th Jan 2022 - Bloomberg

UK PM Johnson refuses to resign over lockdown parties

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Wednesday rejected opposition calls to resign for attending lockdown parties but accepted that a rule that ministers should lose their jobs if they had knowlingly misled parliament applied to him. Johnson, who in 2019 won the biggest Conservative majority in more than 30 years, is braced for the publication of an official investigation into claims that there were multiple boozy Downing Street parties during lockdowns. He told parliament no rules were broken
26th Jan 2022 - Reuters

In Germany, activists rise up to counter vaccine skeptics

Stefanie Hoener was at home one night in Berlin when she heard police sirens wailing through her Prenzlauer Berg neighborhood and anti-vaccine protesters shouting angry slurs as they marched down to the Gethsemane Church — a symbol of the peaceful 1989 revolution in East Germany that ended the communist dictatorship. “That night these people really crossed a line,” Hoener said Monday as she stood with 200 others— many of them neighbors — in front of the red brick church to protect it from anti-vaccine protesters glaring from the other side of the street.
26th Jan 2022 - The Associated Press

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 26th Jan 2022

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Florida Gov Ron DeSantis Touts Covid Monoclonal Antibody Treatments FDA Stopped

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said he would consider suing the federal government to allow use of two monoclonal antibody therapies for Covid-19, after the Food and Drug Administration halted their use and said they don’t work against the omicron variant. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said DeSantis’s position was “crazy” when the government was still supplying the potentially life-saving treatment -- just not the specific brands found to be ineffective. The FDA said Monday that it was rescinding authorization for the Eli Lilly & Co. and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. monoclonal antibody treatments in the U.S. because they aren’t effective against omicron, which has become overwhelmingly dominant in all regions of the country, including Florida.
25th Jan 2022 - Bloomberg

Eric Clapton called out after comparing Covid vaccines to ‘mass hypnosis’ scheme

Eric Clapton has sparked outrage online after claiming people who have had the Covid vaccine are victims of “mass formation hypnosis”, during a recent interview. The 76-year-old rocker previously claimed he suffered “disastrous” side effects allegedly due to the AstraZeneca vaccine, saying his hands and feet were “either frozen, numb or burning, and pretty much useless” and he feared he “would never play [the guitar] again.” He also released an anti-lockdown single, “Stand and Deliver”, with Van Morrison in 2020. Speaking to The Real Music Observer in an interview uploaded to their YouTube channel on 21 January, Clapton said he was feeling pretty good nine months after getting “sick with the thing [vaccine].”
25th Jan 2022 - The Independent

Londoners fined £10,000 for birthday parties in Covid lockdown

Londoners who threw birthday parties during the pandemic in spite of Covid-19 lockdown restrictions have faced fines of more than £10,000. Prime Minister Boris Johnson faced fresh Partygate scrutiny on Tuesday after it emerged a surprise celebration had been held in Downing Street in June 2020 to mark his 56th birthday. At the time, groups of more than two people were banned from socialising indoors under government restrictions, while the PM himself had publicly called for birthday celebrations to be postponed until the pandemic was under control. Enfield resident Torino Reid was fined £14,000 when police broke up a gathering in the shed in his back garden, which had been organised to mark his niece’s birthday.
25th Jan 2022 - Evening Standard

Spain breaks up COVID passport forgery ring

Spanish police said on Tuesday they had detained seven suspected members of an international criminal gang that created and sold forged COVID-19 passports and negative tests. The Spanish arm of the ring, which advertised its services on "anti-vax" instant message groups, fraudulently added at least 1,600 people to the national vaccination register with the help of health workers, the investigation found.
25th Jan 2022 - Reuters

Another blow to UK PM, British police probe lockdown parties

An internal inquiry into allegations of lockdown parties at Boris Johnson's Downing Street office could be published as soon as Wednesday, delivering findings that might determine the prime minister's future after police also launched an investigation. Johnson is fighting for his political life after allegations that he and staff partied at the heart of the British government in breach of rules they had themselves imposed to fight the coronavirus pandemic. Revelations of revelry including boozy parties in Downing Street, suitcases of supermarket alcohol, a broken children's swing, a wine fridge and jokes by staff about how to present such parties to reporters, have hammered Johnson's ratings.
25th Jan 2022 - Reuters

New York Mask Mandate Ruled Unconstitutional by State Judge

New York is appealing a ruling by a Long Island judge that its mask mandate for schools and other public places is an illegal end run around the state constitution. The mask-wearing rule was issued Dec. 10 by the state’s health commissioner at the urging of Governor Kathy Hochul, around the start of the omicron surge of the coronavirus pandemic. A group of parents sued to block the mandate, saying their school-age children shouldn’t be forced to wear masks. On Monday, Judge Thomas Rademaker ruled that Hochul and Health Commissioner Mary Bassett overstepped their authority, saying the governor should instead seek the passage of a law.
25th Jan 2022 - Bloomberg

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 25th Jan 2022

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Protesters hurl stones at police in Guadeloupe COVID unrest

Protesters attacked police with stones in the early hours of Monday as police moved in to clear out some blockades on Guadeloupe, the authority on the French Caribbean island said, amid ongoing protests against COVID-19 protocols. The Guadeloupe authority said police had been attacked at the Riviere-des-Peres part of the island as they tried to clear out roads that had been blockaded.
24th Jan 2022 - Reuters

Truckers fighting government vaccine mandate march to Canadian capital

A convoy of truckers started their march from Vancouver on Sunday to the Canadian capital city of Ottawa protesting the government's COVID-19 vaccine mandate for truckers, which the industry says would create driver shortages and fuel inflation. Canada imposed the vaccine mandate for the trucking industry from Jan. 15, under which unvaccinated Canadian truckers re-entering Canada from the United States must get tested for COVID-19 and quarantine themselves.
24th Jan 2022 - MSN.com

Water cannon, tear gas at COVID-19 protests in Brussels

Police fired water cannons and thick clouds of tear gas Sunday in Brussels to disperse people protesting COVID-19 vaccinations and government restrictions that aim to curb the fast-spreading omicron variant. Police said the protest in the Belgian capital drew an estimated 50,000 people, some traveling from France, Germany and other countries to take part. Protesters yelled “Liberty!” as they marched and some had violent confrontations with police. Video showed black-clad protesters attacking a building used by the European Union’s diplomatic service, hurling projectiles at its entrance and smashing windows.
24th Jan 2022 - Associated Press

Protesters March in Washington Against Covid-19 Vaccine Mandates

Protesters rallied in Washington DC Sunday against government mandates for Covid-19 vaccinations, a sign of the challenges for public-health officials looking for ways to persuade more Americans to get the shots. Protesters marched along the National Mall and gathered in front of the Lincoln Memorial, despite cold temperatures. The organizers said they would be protesting mandates, not vaccines themselves.
24th Jan 2022 - The Wall Street Journal

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 24th Jan 2022

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Rioters fight Brussels police, smash headquarters of EU foreign service

Protests in Brussels against coronavirus restrictions spiralled into violence on Sunday as protesters clashed with police officers and vandalized the offices of the European External Action Service, the EU’s diplomatic arm. In one of the largest demonstrations against COVID-19 measures in the city, an estimated 50,000 people poured onto the streets, including groups traveling from outside Belgium, according to a police spokesperson. The demonstration was organized by the EU-wide network Europeans United for Freedom and other groups that oppose health restrictions. Police used teargas and water cannons to clear the Cinquantenaire park near the EU institutions after groups of protesters threw objects at officers and charged at them. Live footage showed protesters at street level hurling metal fences and a burning dustbin at policemen below them in the entrance to a metro station. An escalator was later shown burning.
23rd Jan 2022 - POLITICO Europe

Companies Face Patchwork of Covid-19 Rules After Supreme Court Ruling

Companies will have to fend for themselves—and grapple with varied state and local requirements—following the high court’s decision to overturn the Biden administration’s mandate for large employers
23rd Jan 2022 - The Wall Street Journal

Clashes erupt again over COVID curbs on French island of Guadeloupe

One police officer was injured and police faced gunfire during a night of civil unrest over COVID-19 restrictions in Guadeloupe, a French overseas territory in the Caribbean, the island's local authority said on Friday. Shops were vandalised and there were attempted robberies during the unrest, focused on Guadeloupe's largest urban centre, Pointe-a-Pitre, the authority said. Police moved in at dawn to clear blockades set up by protesters.
21st Jan 2022 - Reuters

U.S. judge blocks Biden federal employee COVID-19 vaccine mandate

A judge in Texas ruled on Friday that President Joe Biden could not require federal employees to be vaccinated against the coronavirus and blocked the U.S. government from disciplining employees who failed to comply. It was the latest setback to White House efforts to require various groups of American workers to get vaccinated. Biden had issued an order requiring about 3.5 million government workers to get vaccinated by Nov. 22 barring a religious or medical accommodation -- or else face discipline or firing.
21st Jan 2022 - Reuters

Anti-vaccine movement's DC rally comes amid covid successes

As anti-vaccine activists from across the country prepare to gather on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on Sunday, they are hoping their rally will mark a once-fringe movement’s arrival as a lasting force in American society. That hope, some public health experts fear, is justified. Almost two years into the coronavirus pandemic, the movement to challenge vaccines’ safety — and reject vaccine mandates — has never been stronger. An ideology whose most notable adherents were once religious fundamentalists and minor celebrities is now firmly entrenched among tens of millions of Americans.
21st Jan 2022 - The Washington Post

Back in court - UK hospitality groups take on insurers over lockdown losses

Some of the world's biggest insurers are bracing as a second wave of multi-million pound lawsuits, brought by struggling British pubs, restaurants and bakery chains over lockdown losses, starts hitting London's courts next week. Zurich, MS Amlin, Liberty Mutual, Allianz and AXA are among those due in court one year after Britain's Supreme Court ruled that many insurers had been wrong to deny thousands of companies, battered by the COVID-19 pandemic, business interruption payouts. Insurers have since paid out 1.3 billion pounds ($1.8 billion), according to the Financial Conduct Authority. But the ruling did not cover all policy wordings and, where it deemed claims valid, some companies are now disputing payout levels.
21st Jan 2022 - Reuters

Former Polish president, Solidarity leader Walesa has COVID

Lech Walesa, the former Polish president and Solidarity trade union leader who played a leading role in the fall of Communism, has the coronavirus, he said on Friday. Originally a shipyard electrician in the northern port city of Gdansk, Walesa became a symbol of the historic changes that ended the Cold War, leading the Solidarity trade union movement which brought about the switch to a free-market economy in 1989. "I can't believe it ... I am infected," the 78-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate wrote on Facebook.
21st Jan 2022 - Reuters

US conservatives spreading anti-vax misinformation to unvaccinated Uganda

US Christian legal organisation Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) and Texas-based libertarian think tank the Brownstone Institute are among the organisations backing Uganda’s ‘End Lockdown Now’ campaign. The Brownstone Institute’s founder told Ugandans at an online event: “There’s no real case for getting a vaccine if you’ve had natural immunity. It doesn’t make any sense.” End Lockdown Now has platformed anti-vax, anti-mask, anti-lockdown and pandemic-denying arguments, with journalists and scientists from Europe and Australia among those spreading misinformation to Ugandans at the group’s online events. One such event was hosted by ADF. Separately, ADF has also involved itself in three legal challenges opposing lockdown measures in Uganda.
21st Jan 2022 - Open Democracy

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 21st Jan 2022

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Czech anti-coronavirus vaccine folk singer dies after deliberately getting infected with Covid-19, son says

A Czech folk singer who was opposed to having a coronavirus vaccine has died after deliberately contracting the virus, according to her son. Hana Horká, of the folk band Asonance, died Sunday at the age of 57 after intentionally exposing herself to the virus at home while her son and husband were sick, according to CNN Prima News. Horká wanted to infect herself so she could be "done with Covid," her son, Jan Rek, said.
20th Jan 2022 - CNN

ITV says: UK investigation finds email warning lockdown party should not go ahead

An investigation into Downing Street parties has found an email from a senior official to Prime Minister Boris Johnson's private secretary warning that a May 20, 2020 party should not go ahead, ITV's political editor said. "I understand Sue Gray has found the email from a senior official to PM’s principle private secretary Martin Reynolds warning him the 20 May party should not go ahead," Robert Peston said on Twitter. Johnson denied on Tuesday an accusation by his former adviser that he had lied to parliament about a lockdown party, saying nobody had warned him the "bring your own booze" gathering might contravene COVID-19 rules.
20th Jan 2022 - Reuters UK

Novak Djokovic’s Australian Visa Challenge Failed Due to Antivaccine Stance

Novak Djokovic’s last-ditch effort to defend his Australian Open title by having his visa reinstated failed because a court accepted that people, especially youngsters, could emulate the tennis icon’s opposition to being vaccinated. On Thursday, a panel of three judges at Australia’s federal court said they upheld a decision by immigration minister Alex Hawke to cancel the visa of the men’s tournament’s top seed partly because Djokovic’s presence in Australia had already created unrest, including a Jan. 11 protest involving the player’s supporters. Djokovic was deported from Australia on Sunday after the court decided earlier in the day that Hawke acted lawfully when he canceled Djokovic’s visa two days earlier, citing public interest.
20th Jan 2022 - Wall Street Journal

Florida suspends health official who urged staff to get vaccinated

A top Florida public health official has been put on administrative leave as officials investigate whether he violated a state ban by emailing employees about their low vaccination rate against COVID-19 and urging them to get shots. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a Republican widely believed to be planning a run for the U.S. presidency, in November signed a law banning schools, businesses and government entities from requiring vaccination against COVID-19, drawing condemnation from health experts and Democratic leaders.
20th Jan 2022 - Reuters

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 20th Jan 2022

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German prosecutors probe Greens' leaders over COVID bonus

German prosecutors have opened an investigation into the two leaders of the co-governing Greens, Robert Habeck and Annalena Baerbock, over alleged special coronavirus payments, the party said on Wednesday. Spiegel Online reported the start of the investigation for a possible breach of trust to the detriment of the party over illegal payments of 1,500 euros to Greens board members in 2020. The allegations concern the approval of a "coronavirus bonus" given by board members to themselves in 2020, a spokesperson for Berlin prosecutors was quoted by Spiegel Online as saying.
19th Jan 2022 - Reuters

Surgeries fear an exodus of GPs as deadline for staff Covid jabs nears

GPs say an exodus of staff due to mandatory coronavirus vaccination is “a significant concern”, with the deadline for health workers to have a first jab just over a fortnight away. From April 1 everyone working in health or social care who has direct contact with patients must have had two doses of a coronavirus vaccine. In order to meet the deadline they must have received a first dose by February 3. Vaccination figures for NHS staff working in community settings such as GP surgeries have not been published, but figures based on trusts show that more than 10 per cent of staff in some areas are yet to receive a first dose. Across England 5.7 per cent of staff are unvaccinated.
19th Jan 2022 - The Times

Report: German police see surge in fake vaccine certificates

Police in Germany are investigating thousands of cases of suspected forgery of coronavirus vaccine certificates, the dpa news agency reported Wednesday. It cited figures obtained from the country's 16 states showing more than 12,000 police investigations have been opened nationwide. Those who supply or use fake certificates could face severe penalties, from fines and suspended prison sentences to losing their jobs. Prosecutors have opened a manslaughter investigation in one case after a woman used a fake vaccine certificate to continue working at a nursing home, despite having family members ill with COVID-19 at home.
19th Jan 2022 - The Independent

Canadian truckers block highway at US border to protest Covid vaccine mandates

Dozens of Canadian truck drivers have blocked the highway near the US-Manitoba international border to protest against Covid-19 vaccine mandates. Videos shared on social media showed truck drivers carrying Canadian flags and holding a demonstration on the Manitoba Highway 75, which connects the Emerson community in Manitoba with the US city of Pembina in North Dakota. The demonstration slowed down traffic on both sides and caused delays for vehicles both entering and leaving Canada.
19th Jan 2022 - The Independent

Dutch museums, concert halls open briefly in protest at COVID-19 lockdown

Museums and concert halls in the Netherlands opened briefly on Wednesday to protest at their continued closure under a COVID-19 lockdown, offering yoga sessions in front of paintings by Dutch masters and haircuts to the swell of a live symphony orchestra. The Netherlands eased a month-long lockdown last weekend, allowing gyms, hair dressers and shops to reopen. But cultural venues were ordered to remained closed to the public until at least Jan. 25.
19th Jan 2022 - Reuters

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 19th Jan 2022

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Hong Kong police arrest two ex-flight attendants over COVID-19 rule breach

Hong Kong police said they have arrested and charged two former flight attendants over allegations they broke the city's coronavirus rules. The statement, which was published late on Monday, did not name the airline but the announcement comes after Cathay Pacific said in January it had fired two aircrew who were suspected of breaching COVID-19 protocols. Police said the two had returned to Hong Kong from the United States on Dec. 24 and 25 where they had "conducted unnecessary activities" during their home isolation period.
18th Jan 2022 - Reuters

British PM Johnson denies lying about lockdown party

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson denied on Tuesday an accusation by his former adviser that he had lied to parliament about a lockdown party, saying nobody had warned him the "bring your own booze" gathering might contravene COVID-19 rules. Johnson faces the gravest crisis of his tenure after revelations about gatherings during lockdowns, some when British people could not even bid farewell in person to dying relatives and the Queen was mourning her husband.
18th Jan 2022 - Reuters UK

Djokovic has to comply with rules to go to Spain, PM says

World men's tennis No. 1 Novak Djokovic will have to comply with Spanish health rules to be able to travel to Spain, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Monday. Answering a question on whether Djokovic would be allowed to enter Spain to compete after Australia deported him for being unvaccinated against COVID-19, Sanchez said: "Any sportsperson who wishes to compete in our country must comply with the health rules of Spain".
18th Jan 2022 - Reuters

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 18th Jan 2022

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Don’t demonise those who refuse the Covid vaccine

I read David Green’s letter on anti-vaxxers (12 January) and empathised with the letter written in response (13 January). The week before Christmas my dad died of Covid. The intensive care consultant couldn’t have been clearer that, in her opinion, if he had been vaccinated he would not have developed Covid pneumonia to the severity that he did. He died very frightened and asking his family to come and be with him, and we couldn’t. The experience traumatised my sister so badly that she was hospitalised with psychosis three days after his passing. The reason he wasn’t vaccinated is because his mind was poisoned with conspiracy theories and misinformation exacerbated by two years of lockdown and reduced social contact. While I am angry that he would not get vaccinated, I don’t think any good would ever come from criminalising his choice. Is it not anti-vaxxers who should be demonised and prosecuted. It is the people, organisations and companies who perpetuate lies and make money from the fear felt by vulnerable people.
17th Jan 2022 - The Guardian

COVID-19: Credit Suisse chairman Antonio Horta-Osorio resigns nine months into role after bank probe finds he breached quarantine rules

The departure of Mr Horta-Osorio, a former CEO of Lloyds Banking Group, was announced by Switzerland-based Credit Suisse on Monday in an abrupt move that comes less than a year after the Portuguese banker was brought in to clean up the company's corporate culture.
17th Jan 2022 - Sky News

Anti-vaccine far-right rally attracts hundreds in Hungary

Over a thousand people marched in Budapest protesting against COVID-19 inoculation at a rally organised by the far-right Our Homeland Movement, which has been campaigning on a fierce anti-vaccine and anti-immigration message ahead of April 3 elections. "Vaccines should not be mandatory! We don't tolerate blackmail," said the slogan of the rally where people held up banners saying: "I am unvaccinated, not a criminal" and "Enough of COVID dictatorship."
17th Jan 2022 - Reuters

British PM Johnson wishes he had not attended boozy lockdown gathering

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson wishes he had not attended a "bring your own booze" gathering in Downing Street during Britain's first coronavirus lockdown and understands the public's anger, Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi said. "The prime minister understands the level of hurt in the country," Zahawi told Sky News on Monday. Zahawi said Johnson attended the event to support and encourage his staff but "he now wishes he hadn't done that, he wishes he'd said: 'Look get back to your desk because this is wrong.'"
17th Jan 2022 - Reuters

Vaccines Aren’t Done Shaping Djokovic’s Tennis Legacy

When Novak Djokovic boarded a flight from Melbourne, Australia to Dubai on Sunday night, he put an end to the strangest trip of his nearly two decades as a professional tennis player. But the past 10 days have made it clear that the cost of remaining unvaccinated is still rising for Djokovic’s career and legacy—and could undercut his effort to wind up with more major titles to his name than any man in history. Djokovic had flown halfway across the world and not played a single match, all because he believed he had secured an exemption to Australian rules requiring travelers to be vaccinated. Instead, he spent an entire night explaining himself to border officials who canceled his visa, moved into government detention for almost a week, and twice had lawyers plead his case to remain in Australia.
17th Jan 2022 - The Wall Street Journal

Credit Suisse chief, architect of new strategy, quits over COVID-19 breaches

Credit Suisse will stick to its strategic overhaul despite the abrupt departure of its mastermind Antonio Horta-Osorio following an internal probe into his personal conduct, including breaches of COVID-19 rules, the bank's new chairman said on Monday. Horta-Osorio leavesless than nine months after he joined the bank to help it deal with the implosion of investment firm Archegos and the insolvency of British supply chain finance company Greensill Capital, while it was still reeling from the 2020 exit of CEO Tidjane Thiam over a spying scandal.
17th Jan 2022 - Reuters

Australia has decided to 'let Covid rip.' Is that a good idea?

As 2021 drew to a close, many Australians were cautiously optimistic that the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic was behind them. The country had surpassed ambitious vaccine targets, meaning its rolling lockdowns could cease, both internal and international borders would reopen, and as Prime Minister Scott Morrison declared, it was now possible to “live with this virus.” But as Australia moved to change course on its pandemic strategy, the highly transmissible omicron variant hit. In just over a month, cases have risen from around 1,000 a day to more than 100,000 a day. Hallmarks of the pandemic that Australia mostly avoided began to emerge. The health system is buckling. Many supermarket shelves are bare as sick workers stay home.
16th Jan 2022 - NBC

Protest in Netherlands against coronavirus measures

Thousands of protesters packed Amsterdam's streets on Sunday in opposition to the government-imposed COVID-19 measures and vaccination campaign as virus infections hit a new record. Authorities were granted stop and search powers at several locations across the city and scores of riot police vans patrolled neighbourhoods where the demonstrators marched with banners and yellow umbrellas. Regular anti-coronavirus protests are held across the country and Sunday's large gathering was joined by farmers who drove to the capital and parked tractors along the central Museum Square.
16th Jan 2022 - Reuters

Malta sees biggest protest yet against COVID measures

Malta saw its biggest protest yet against COVID rules on Sunday, with hundreds of people marching in the capital Valletta against new measures requiring production of a COVID certificate for entry to most venues including restaurants, gyms and bars. Malta has seen one of the biggest take-ups of COVID vaccination jabs in the European Union, and almost three-quarters of adults would have taken the additional booster jab by Sunday, according to Health Ministry data.
16th Jan 2022 - Reuters

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 17th Jan 2022

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Polish COVID advisers quit over lack of science influence on policy

Thirteen of the 17 members of Poland's Medical Council advising the prime minister on COVID-19 resigned on Friday, condemning what they said was a lack of scientific influence on policy. Even with one of the world's highest per capita death rates, Poland has introduced much more limited measures than many European countries to curb the spread of the coronavirus during the latest wave of infections. "The discrepancy between scientific and medical rationale and practice has become especially glaring in the context of the very limited efforts in the face of the autumn wave and then the threat of the Omicron variant, despite the enormous number of deaths expected," the 13 council members said in a statement to Reuters, confirming a report by the PAP state news agency.
15th Jan 2022 - Reuters

Thousands protest in Vienna against mandatory vaccination

Thousands of people took to the streets of Austria's capital on Saturday to protest against government plans to introduce mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations for all next month. "The government must go!" crowds chanted at one rally in central Vienna in what has become a routine Saturday event. Parliament is scheduled to vote next week on the issue, which has polarised the country as coronavirus cases surge.
15th Jan 2022 - Reuters

Australia Feared Letting Novak Djokovic Stay Would Fuel Antivaccine Sentiment

Australia’s decision to cancel tennis star Novak Djokovic’s visa for a second time was driven by fear that letting him stay could foster antivaccine sentiment during a surge in Covid-19 cases, court documents show.
15th Jan 2022 - The Wall Street Journal

Singapore Workers Who Refuse Vaccination Risk Losing Their Jobs

Workers in Singapore who refuse to be inoculated against Covid-19 may risk losing their jobs as new restrictions on office access take effect. From Saturday, a prior concession that allowed unvaccinated employees who test negative to go to workplaces will be removed, according to a government advisory. Employers can redeploy those with no jabs to suitable jobs that can be done from home, place them on no-pay leave, or as a last resort, fire them if they can’t perform their contracted work outside the office.
15th Jan 2022 - Bloomberg

Spotify Pressured by 270 Scientists, Medical Professionals Over Joe Rogan Episode

A coalition of 270 scientists and medical professionals this week issued an open letter to Spotify Technology SA, urging the streaming platform to establish a misinformation policy after an episode of the Joe Rogan Experience, among its most listened-to podcasts, promoted what they said were “baseless conspiracy theories” about the pandemic. The Dec. 31 program featured Robert Malone, a doctor who has called himself the “inventor” of mRNA vaccines, the type that serves as the basis for the Covid-19 vaccine. Malone was banned from Twitter for circulating anti-vaccine misinformation. YouTube deleted a recording of the Rogan podcast shortly after it was uploaded to the website by a third-party.
15th Jan 2022 - Bloomberg

Australia Says Djokovic’s Vaccination Stance Poses a Public Risk

Immigration Minister Alex Hawke barred the world men’s No. 1 tennis player despite saying Djokovic had entered Australia with a valid medical exemption from being vaccinated and presents a negligible health risk himself, according to court documents released Saturday. His ongoing presence, however, “may lead to an increase in anti-vaccination sentiment generated in the Australian community, potentially leading to an increase in civil unrest of the kind previously experienced in Australia with rallies and protests which may themselves be a source of community transmission,” Hawke said in the filing.
14th Jan 2022 - Bloomberg

Lockdown party allegations facing UK PM Johnson

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has apologised for attending a "bring your own booze" gathering at his official residence during Britain's first coronavirus lockdown, and an internal inquiry is being carried out to establish the facts. British media have reported that at least 11 gatherings took place at Johnson's 10 Downing Street residence or in other government departments between May 2020 and April 2021, when COVID-19 rules limited how many people could meet socially. Sue Gray, a senior civil servant, is leading an inquiry. She has not said when her findings will be published.
14th Jan 2022 - Reuters

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 14th Jan 2022

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French teachers strike over chaotic COVID-19 strategy for schools

Tens of thousands of French teachers angry with the government's COVID-19 rules walked off the job on Thursday and took to the streets to demand better protection for pupils and staff against infection. "Stop your contempt," and "We're fed up with tests" teachers proclaimed on banners in rallies across France, calling for the government to provide them with FFP2 face-masks and to stop changing the rules so often. Teachers, parents and school directors have struggled to cope with the many twists and turns in COVID rules on schools. New testing requirements announced a day before schools restarted after the Christmas holidays and changed twice since increased the anger.
13th Jan 2022 - Reuters

Britain's Next cuts sick pay for unvaccinated staff forced to self-isolate

British fashion retailer Next has cut sick pay for unvaccinated staff who must self-isolate due to exposure to COVID-19, it said on Thursday. "It's highly emotive but we have to balance the needs of the business with those of workers and shareholders," said a spokesperson for the group. He said unvaccinated workers who test positive will still receive Next's full rate of sick pay. Next's move follows a similar one by furniture retailer Ikea.
13th Jan 2022 - Reuters

U.S. Supreme Court blocks Biden vaccine-or-test policy for large businesses

The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday blocked President Joe Biden's COVID-19 vaccination-or-testing mandate for large businesses - a policy the conservative justices deemed an improper imposition on the lives and health of many Americans - while endorsing a separate federal vaccine requirement for healthcare facilities. Biden voiced disappointment with the conservative-majority court's decision to halt his administration's rule requiring vaccines or weekly COVID-19 tests for employees at businesses with at least 100 employees. Biden said it now is up to states and employers to decide whether to require workers "to take the simple and effective step of getting vaccinated."
13th Jan 2022 - Reuters

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 13th Jan 2022

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Tunisian Ennahda official says party will defy COVID rules for protest

A senior official in Tunisia's main opposition Ennahda party told Reuters it planned to go ahead with a protest against President Kais Saied on Friday in defiance of a new COVID-19 ban on gatherings. The government said earlier it was re-imposing a night curfew, banning all gatherings for two weeks and discouraging people from travelling abroad to stop the rapid spread of COVID-19 cases. Ennahda and other parties accuse the government of using the rules to stop protests against Saied, who in July sacked the prime minister, suspended parliament and assumed broad powers in moves they call a coup.
12th Jan 2022 - Reuters

Spain doctors win suit for lack of protection from COVID-19

Spain’s medical community has scored a victory after a court ordered that a regional government must compensate doctors with up to 49,000 euros ($56,000) for having to work without personal protection suits during the devastating early months of the pandemic. The lawsuit brought by a doctor’s union is the first of its kind to be won in Spain, whose health care system was pushed to the brink when COVID-19 first struck. “This ruling is groundbreaking in Spain,” doctor Víctor Pedrera, secretary general of the Doctors’ Union of Valencia CESM-CV that filed the suit, told The Associated Press by phone on Wednesday. Pedrera, a family doctor, said that he got ill with the coronavirus shortly after it hit Spain in March 2020 and spent two months at home “quite badly off and with no idea of what was being done for treatment.”
12th Jan 2022 - The Independent

Will Boris Johnson Resign? UK PM Urged to Stand Down Over Lockdown Party Claim

Boris Johnson is facing opposition calls for his resignation, as his office confirmed officials are talking to U.K. police over an alleged drinks party at his Downing Street office while pandemic curbs were in place in 2020. The British premier’s hopes of a reset after a turbulent end to 2021 were ruined after it emerged members of his team were invited to a drinks party in his office garden on May 20, 2020, according to an email seen by ITV News. Social gatherings were banned during the first wave of Covid-19 infections.
12th Jan 2022 - Bloomberg

Students at New York City’s Largest High School Stage Walkout Over Covid Protocols

Students at Brooklyn Technical High School in New York City staged a walkout today in protest of the school’s in-person teaching mandates during the omicron-fuellde Covid surge. The walkout, which went viral on Twitter, happened at the largest in-person high school in the state. Brooklyn Tech had 6,043 students enrolled during the 2020-2021 school year.
12th Jan 2022 - Bloomberg

Djokovic: Not isolating after COVID infection was ‘error’

Novak Djokovic has acknowledged that his Australian travel declaration form contained incorrect information, as the government nears a decision on whether to deport the Serbian tennis star who is not vaccinated against COVID-19 on public interest grounds. The men’s tennis No. 1 had his visa canceled on arrival in Melbourne last week when his vaccination exemption was questioned, but he won a legal battle on procedural grounds that allowed him to stay in the country. He still faces the prospect of deportation — a decision that is entirely at the discretion of Australia’s Immigration Minister Alex Hawke if deemed to be in the public interest for health and safety reasons.
12th Jan 2022 - The Associated Press

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Vaccine hesitancy changes over time: Attitudes toward vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic

Worldwide, vaccine hesitancy is proving to be a stumbling block to securing much needed protection against the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Now, researchers from Japan have uncovered specific factors that influence attitudes about vaccines, which is valuable knowledge for combating vaccine hesitancy. In a study published last month in Vaccines, researchers from the University of Tsukuba reported dramatic changes in vaccine acceptance over a five-month period during the COVID-19 pandemic. Detailed information about what causes these changes could help address low vaccine uptake in specific populations.
11th Jan 2022 - Medical Xpress

Anti-vax leader urges people to drink their urine instead of get vaccine in latest wild conspiracy

Some Anti-vaxxers will do anything to avoid taking the coronavirus vaccine, including, reportedly, drinking their own urine. The Daily Beast reports that a prominent figure in the anti-Covid-19 community, Christopher Key – who calls himself the "Vaccine Police" – is now telling his followers to drink their own urine in order to cure themselves of Covid-19.
11th Jan 2022 - The Independent

In vaccine-shy Poland, COVID deaths top 100000

The number of deaths per one million inhabitants was last week among the highest in the world, according to the Our World in Data project at the University of Oxford, at more than 57 compared to around 35 in the United States and 37 in Russia. "Today we can say it is another sad day, but especially so because we have passed the level of 100,000 COVID deaths," Health Minister Adam Niedzielski told private broadcaster TVN 24.
11th Jan 2022 - Reuters

UK’s Johnson faces lockdown-breach claims over garden party

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson faced a wave of public and political outrage on Tuesday over allegations that he and his staff flouted coronavirus lockdown rules by holding a garden party in 2020 while Britons were barred by law from meeting up with more than one person outside their households. Opposition politicians called for a police investigation after broadcaster ITV published a leaked email invitation to “socially distanced drinks” in the garden of the prime minister’s Downing Street office and residence. The email from the prime minister’s private secretary, Martin Reynolds, was sent to dozens of people and urged attendees to “bring your own booze.”
11th Jan 2022 - The Associated Press

Biden wants U.S. agencies to mandate COVID-19 testing for unvaccinated employees by Feb 15

The Biden administration said on Tuesday that federal agencies should require weekly COVID-19 testing by Feb. 15 for unvaccinated government employees who are working on-site or interacting with the public. A vaccine mandate imposed by President Joe Biden in September covers about 3.5 million federal workers and required them to be fully vaccinated by Nov. 22 or face potential discipline or even termination.
11th Jan 2022 - Reuters

Mexican president's family, some government officials isolating after his COVID-19 diagnosis

Some members of Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's family and cabinet were isolating and taking COVID-19 tests on Tuesday after he announced he was diagnosed with COVID-19 for the second time a day earlier. Lopez Obrador, who announced he had tested positive on Monday evening, may have met with at least four members of his cabinet, including Interior Minister Adan Augusto Lopez, earlier that day, according to a report by Mexican newspaper El Universal. A spokesman for the president did not confirm how many people he may have had contact with before testing positive, but said there were "members of the cabinet and his family." "So far none have symptoms and those who have been tested have been negative," the spokesman told Reuters.
11th Jan 2022 - Reuters

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Ikea Cuts Sick Pay for Unvaccinated Staff Ordered to Isolate

Ikea imposed a financial penalty on unvaccinated U.K. employees who miss work if they are ordered to self-isolate after coming into contact with someone with Covid-19. If these workers become ill with the virus themselves, however, they will still receive sick pay as normal, Ikea said in a statement to Bloomberg. The changes, which came into effect in September, mean that unvaccinated staff only receive statutory sick pay of 96.35 pounds ($131) a week during the 10-day isolation period -- which is much lower than average weekly wages before taxes.
10th Jan 2022 - Bloomberg

London hospital boss says he may lose 1000 staff over Covid vaccine mandate

A London hospital leader has said he may lose 1,000 staff to the Covid vaccination mandate, but hopes admissions from the Omicron wave have peaked in in the capital. The chief executive of King’s College hospital NHS trust, Prof Clive Kay, told the BBC’s Sunday Morning programme that his organisation was working urgently to encourage staff to come forward for vaccination to avoid redeploying or losing them.
10th Jan 2022 - The Guardian

French politician attacked by anti-COVID vaccine pass demonstrators

French politician Stephane Claireaux, who is a member of President Emmanuel Macron's ruling La Republique En Marche party, said on Monday that he had been attacked over the weekend by protesters demonstrating against France's COVID health pass. The attack on Claireaux, which occurred on Sunday, comes amid public anger in France after Macron said he wanted to "piss off" unvaccinated people by making their lives so complicated they would end up getting the COVID vaccine.
10th Jan 2022 - Reuters

Djokovic back in practice after winning appeal to stay in Australia

Novak Djokovic was back in training hours after winning a court challenge to remain in Australia on Monday, thanking the judge who released him from immigration detention and saying he remained focused on trying to win a record 21st tennis major. The fight over the world number one's medical exemption from COVID-19 vaccination in order to enter Australia and play may not be over, however, as the government said it was still considering another way to deport him. "I am pleased and grateful that the judge overturned my visa cancellation," Djokovic wrote on Twitter, where he posted a photograph of himself on court at Melbourne Park after a chaotic few days.
10th Jan 2022 - Reuters

Brazil health regulator asks Bolsonaro to retract criticism over vaccines

The head of Brazil's health regulator Anvisa has asked the country's vaccine-skeptic President Jair Bolsonaro to retract statements he made criticizing the agency for authorizing the vaccination of children against COVID-19. In a letter to Bolsonaro made public late Saturday, retired rear admiral Antonio Barra Torres asked the president to back up his statement that there were undisclosed "interests" behind the vaccine decision or else retract his words.
10th Jan 2022 - Reuters

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Australia treasurer tests positive for COVID-19 as cases hit a record

Australian Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said he tested positive to COVID-19, joining other top government officials in contracting the disease as the daily infection rate surpassed 100,000 for the first time amid an outbreak of the Omicron variant. "Like thousands of Australians, I tested positive today to COVID-19," Frydenberg wrote in a short message which he posted to Twitter and Facebook late on Friday. "I have the common symptoms and am isolating with my family," he added without elaborating or disclosing which variant he had
8th Jan 2022 - Reuters

No need for a fourth Covid jab yet, say UK advisers

A fourth Covid jab is not yet needed, say UK experts, because booster doses continue to provide high protection against severe disease from the Omicron variant among older adults. UK Health Security Agency data shows three months after boosting, protection against hospitalisation remains at about 90% for people aged 65 and over. Protection against mild symptomatic infection is more short-lived. That drops to about 30% by about three months. Figures also show why it is important to get a booster dose if you have only had two doses so far.
8th Jan 2022 - BBC News

COVID-19: Sajid Javid directly challenged on mandatory coronavirus jabs by unvaccinated NHS doctor

Health Secretary Sajid Javid has been directly challenged by an unvaccinated hospital consultant over the government's policy of compulsory COVID jabs for NHS staff. During a visit to King's College Hospital in south London, Mr Javid asked staff members on the intensive care unit about their thoughts on new rules requiring vaccination for NHS workers. And Steve James, a consultant anaesthetist who has been treating coronavirus patients since the start of the pandemic, told the health secretary about his displeasure. "I'm not happy about that," he said. "I had COVID at some point, I've got antibodies, and I've been working on COVID ICU since the beginning.
8th Jan 2022 - Sky News

Supreme Court Justices Cast Doubt on Biden Workplace Vaccine Rule

The U.S. Supreme Court cast doubt on the linchpin of President Joe Biden’s push to get more people vaccinated amid a Covid-19 surge, questioning whether the Occupational Safety and Health Administration had authority to require that 80 million workers get shots or regular tests. In a special argument session Friday, the court’s conservative justices voiced skepticism about the rule, which business groups and Republican-led states say exceeds the workplace-safety agency’s authority. The pandemic “sounds like the sort of thing that states will be responding to or should be, and that Congress should be responding to or should be, rather than agency by agency the federal government and the executive branch acting alone,” Chief Justice John Roberts said.
7th Jan 2022 - Bloomberg

Biden Says Covid Won't Be 'New Normal' But Virus Here to Stay

President Joe Biden said surging Covid-19 cases won’t be the “new normal,” though the virus is likely to endure and can be managed with newly developed tools. “Covid -- as we’re dealing with it now -- is not here to stay,” Biden said to reporters at the White House on Friday. “Having Covid in the environment here and in the world is probably here to stay.” The president’s remarks came after six of his former health advisers published articles saying the U.S. strategy to fight the pandemic needs to be overhauled and adjusted to the idea that living with the virus would become the “new normal.”
7th Jan 2022 - Bloomberg

Macron Doubles Down on Plan to ‘Piss Off’ the Unvaccinated

President Emmanuel Macron on Friday stood by the uncompromising stance and combative language he directed earlier this week at France’s unvaccinated citizens amid record numbers of new Covid-19 cases. Macron in a Tuesday interview with Le Parisien used salty language -- saying he wants to “p--- off” people refusing inoculation -- to express zero-tolerance for failing to get fully vaccinated. The government, he said, will keep up the pressure on the holdouts as a way to contain skyrocketing case counts. “You can get upset about ways of talking which may sound colloquial, for which I take full responsibility. But what upsets me is the situation in which we are in,” Macron said at a Friday news conference in Paris. “It was my responsibility to ring the alarm. That’s what I did this week so that things will move faster.”
7th Jan 2022 - Bloomberg

Brazil's Bolsonaro knocks vaccines for kids, criticizes health regulator

Article reports that President Jair Bolsonaro criticized Brazil's health regulator Anvisa on Thursday for authorizing the vaccination of children aged 5 to 11 years against COVID-19, one day after his health minister unveiled plans to inoculate that age group. Bolsonaro, who has bragged about not being vaccinated himselfand has consistently cast doubt on the efficacy and safety of coronavirus vaccines , said in a radio interview that he had not heard of children dying of COVID-19 and repeated that his daughter Laura, 11, would not be vaccinated.
7th Jan 2022 - Reuters

Smash and shout: Dutch find new ways to vent COVID-19 frustrations

One swinging a sledgehammer and the other a crowbar, twin brothers Steven and Brian Krijger grin as they take turns pulverising a Peugeot 106 spray-painted with the words "F*** COVID". They are participants in "CarSmash", a Dutch project aimed at providing locked-down locals with ways of releasing anger and frustration built up during a pandemic now entering its third year. Dutch bars, restaurants and most stores have been closed since mid-December, when curbs took effect that the government - battling to contain record numbers of coronavirus cases - is not due to review until Jan. 14.
7th Jan 2022 - Reuters

Citigroup to enforce 'no-jab, no-job' policy starting Jan. 14 - source

Citigroup Inc staff in the United States who have not been vaccinated against COVID-19 by Jan. 14 will be placed on unpaid leave and fired at the end of the month unless they are granted an exemption, according to a company memo seen by Reuters on Friday. The U.S. bank announced its plan to impose new vaccination rules in October and now becomes the first major Wall Street institution to follow through with a strict vaccine mandate.
7th Jan 2022 - Reuters

The American Chess Star Caught in a Polish Covid Nightmare

U.S. grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura went to Warsaw hoping to capture a world championship. He caught Covid instead—and hasn’t been able to figure out when he’s allowed home.
7th Jan 2022 - The Wall Street Journal

Boris Johnson Calls Out U.K. Anti-Vaxxers 'Spouting Nonsense' Online

Boris Johnson slammed anti-vaxxers spreading “nonsense” about Covid-19 on the internet, a change in tone he said was driven by the “tragedy” that so many people admitted to U.K. hospitals are not vaccinated. “I want to say to the anti-vax campaigners, who are putting this mumbo jumbo on social media, they are completely wrong,” Johnson told reporters at a vaccination center in the East Midlands on Thursday. “And you haven’t heard me say that before, because I want a voluntary approach.” While the U.K. has one of the highest levels of vaccinations in Europe -- 60% have had a third booster dose -- a small and vocal minority has consistently campaigned against vaccination. Johnson said 30-40% of patients coming into hospital with Covid-19 haven’t had any vaccine doses.
7th Jan 2022 - Bloomberg

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Covid ‘vaccination doubt line’ receiving up to 1,000 calls a day in Netherlands

A “vaccination doubt line” set up by doctors in the Netherlands is receiving up to 1,000 calls a day from people who are still unsure whether or not they should get jabbed against the coronavirus. The helpline, originally launched as a local service in November by Robin Peeters, an endocrinologist at the Erasmus medical centre in Rotterdam, and Shakib Sana, a GP, was given a national number last month and has been inundated with inquiries. Staffed mainly by volunteer medical students from rooms made available in the university hospitals of Utrecht, Amsterdam, Nijmegen, Maastricht and Rotterdam, the service has met “an extraordinary response”, Peeters said.
6th Jan 2022 - The Guardian

Covid: Anti-vaccine campaigns are mumbo jumbo, says PM

Boris Johnson has accused anti-vaccine campaigners of speaking "mumbo jumbo" when it comes to coronavirus jabs. The prime minister said those spreading false information on social media were "totally wrong" and it was time for him "to call them out". Some European countries are making vaccination mandatory, but Mr Johnson stressed it was important for the UK to maintain its voluntary approach. In the UK, 90% of over-12s have now had at least one dose of a Covid vaccine. And nearly 83% have had a second dose, while 60% have had their booster or third primary dose. Thursday's coronavirus figures showed 179,756 new cases had been reported in the UK and 231 deaths within 28 days of a positive test.
6th Jan 2022 - BBC News

Covid-19: Hundreds of maskless London Underground passengers fined

Hundreds of passengers have been issued fines for not wearing face coverings on London's transport network since it was made mandatory. Compulsory face coverings were reinstated amid rising concerns about the Omicron variant of Covid-19. Penalty notices up to £200 were issued to 536 people between 30 November and 21 December, the Mayor of London said. Figures showed a further 287 passengers have penalties being processed by Transport for London (TfL).
6th Jan 2022 - BBC News

Djokovic in limbo as his lawyers fight to overturn Australia entry ban

Novak Djokovic faced at least 72 hours holed up in a Melbourne hotel for immigration detainees after he was denied entry into Australia on Thursday amid a political firestorm over hismedical exemption from COVID-19 vaccination requirements. The tennis star, who is chasing a record-breaking 21st Grand Slam at the Australian Open, remained in the country after his lawyers launched an appeal seeking to overturn the federal government decision. A court agreed not to deport him before a full hearing scheduled for Monday.
6th Jan 2022 - Reuters

Novak Djokovic Denied Entry to Australia Over Vaccine Fight

The family of Novak Djokovic accused Australia of trying to deny the top world tennis star a record 10th Grand Slam victory there, and his country’s president denounced what he called a “political campaign” over Covid-19 protocols. Djokovic’s lawyers mounted a legal challenge against Australia’s decision to hold him at a hotel used for detaining refugees and expel him after federal officials overruled a state vaccine exemption for the tennis star that sparked a national uproar. Due to compete in the Australian Open this month, the Serbian player offered insufficient proof to enter the country under current pandemic rules, the Australian Border Force said Thursday. While he was earlier granted a medical exemption to enter the state of Victoria, the federal government revoked that after officials questioned the athlete for hours at Melbourne Airport.
6th Jan 2022 - Bloomberg

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Pandemic-wary U.S. Supreme Court to weigh Biden vaccine mandates

The U.S. Supreme Court, which has restricted its own operations during the COVID-19 pandemic, is preparing to decide whether to block President Joe Biden's vaccine mandates for large businesses and healthcare workers in a test of presidential powers to address an unyielding public health crisis. The court will hear in-person arguments on Friday on emergency requests in two separate cases by challengers including business groups, religious entities and various Republican-led U.S. states for orders blocking the vaccine requirements, with rulings expected in short order. The challengers maintain that Biden and his administration have overstepped their authority. The court's 6-3 conservative majority in the past has shown skepticism toward sweeping actions by federal agencies.
5th Jan 2022 - Reuters

French parliament suspends COVID debate amid anger over Macron remark

The government on Wednesday defended President Emmanuel Macron's use of coarse language in a stepped-up campaign against France's unvaccinated, after his words drew condemnation from the opposition and mixed reactions from voters. Macron said he wanted to "piss off" unvaccinated people by making their lives so complicated they would end up getting jabbed. He was speaking in an interview with Le Parisien newspaper in which he also called unvaccinated people irresponsible and unworthy of being considered citizens.
5th Jan 2022 - Reuters

Tempers fray in Australia as COVID-19 cases hit new highs

Australia's daily COVID-19 cases hit a record high for a third day on Wednesday, further straining hospital resources and testing facilities as public anger grew over the handling of the fast-moving outbreak of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus. Many Australians, already unhappy about long queues at public testing centres and a shortage of at-home tests, were further incensed when news broke that tennis world number one Novak Djokovic had been given a medical exemption to enter the country. Prime Minister Scott Morrison, under pressure at the start of an election year, announced a further relaxing of testing requirements to shorten long lines, and provided access to free rapid antigen tests for pensioners, the poor and veterans.
5th Jan 2022 - Reuters

Djokovic’s Vaccine Exemption for Australian Open Stokes Anger

Tennis star Novak Djokovic was challenged by Prime Minister Scott Morrison to prove why he can’t be vaccinated after a decision to exempt some Australian Open players from virus rules sparked criticism in host city Melbourne, which endured one of world’s longest lockdowns. Djokovic, who has previously criticized vaccine mandates, is among a handful of competitors granted medical exemptions for the tournament, the first of the four annual Grand Slam events, which begins Jan. 17, according to organizers. Morrison told reporters that Djokovic must “provide acceptable proof” when he arrives in Australia that he cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons.
5th Jan 2022 - Bloomberg

Macron slammed for saying he wants to ‘p*** off’ unvaccinated

President Emmanuel Macron has faced anger from opponents and chaos in parliament after issuing a provocative warning to people in France not yet vaccinated against COVID-19 that he would pressure them as much as possible by limiting access to key aspects of life. Macron, who has not yet formally declared his candidacy for re-election in April, came under fire from challengers already in the race, accusing him of overstepping the line with his remarks.
5th Jan 2022 - AlJazeera

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U.S. judge blocks Pentagon from punishing Navy SEALs who refused COVID-19 vaccine

A federal judge on Monday barred the U.S. Department of Defense from punishing a group of Navy SEALs and other special forces members who refused COVID-19 vaccines on religious grounds. U.S. District Judge Reed O'Connor, acting in response to a lawsuit filed on behalf of 35 special forces service members, issued a preliminary injunction blocking the Navy and Defense Department from enforcing the mandate. Reed, who was appointed to the federal bench in Texas by President George W. Bush, said the Navy had not granted a single religious exemption to the vaccine rule.
4th Jan 2022 - Reuters

Texas Sues U.S. to Block Vaccine Requirement for National Guard

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott sued the Biden administration Tuesday, seeking to halt a requirement that National Guard members be vaccinated against Covid-19. Earlier in the day, Mr. Abbott sent a letter to the Texas Military Department, ordering it not to force Texas Guardsmen to receive vaccines. “Unless President Biden federalizes the Texas National Guard…he is not your commander-in-chief,” the letter said. “I will not tolerate efforts to compel receipt of a Covid-19 vaccine.” U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III ordered in August that all service members be vaccinated for Covid-19, saying that healthy forces are necessary for a national defense.
4th Jan 2022 - The Wall Street Journal

Spanish students to go back to school after Christmas break, despite Omicron

Students at Spanish schools and universities will return to class in-person when the new term begins on Jan. 10, the Health Minister said on Tuesday, ending speculation that record COVID-19 infections might trigger a return to distance learning. Cases have hit new highs since the highly contagious Omicron variant of the coronavirus was detected. Omicron accounted for around 43% of cases in the week before Christmas, Spanish health authorities said on Monday. The nationwide infection rate as measured over the past 14 days rose to a new record of 2,433 cases per 100,000 people on Tuesday, a more than 10-fold increase since the beginning of December
4th Jan 2022 - Reuters

Johnson Says U.K. Can Ride Out Covid Wave Without Tighter Rules

Boris Johnson said the U.K. can weather a record wave of Covid-19 sweeping the country without tighter restrictions, even as he warned the National Health Service is under growing strain. A record 218,724 new cases of the virus were reported on Tuesday, driven by the fast-spreading omicron variant, and the prime minister warned that the weeks ahead will be “challenging” for the U.K. But he also said that the country’s booster vaccination program and the rules in place since before Christmas appear sufficient for now. “We have a good chance of getting through the omicron wave without the need for further restrictions, and certainly without the need for another lockdown,” he said.
4th Jan 2022 - Bloomberg

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Brazil health agency warns against boarding cruise ships amid COVID-19 outbreaks

Brazilian health agency Anvisa on Sunday warned passengers against boarding cruise ships operating along the Brazilian coast after outbreaks of COVID-19 affecting crew and customers, according to a statement on its website. The move follows a call for the "immediate temporary interruption of the cruise ship season in Brazil" as they pose a risk to public health. "In view of recent events, Anvisa does not recommend the embarkation of passengers who have trips scheduled on cruise ships for the next few days," the statement said.
3rd Jan 2022 - Reuters

Dutch police disperse thousands protesting against lockdown measures

Riot police with batons and shields broke up a crowd of several thousand who had gathered in Amsterdam on Sunday to protest against COVID-19 lockdown measures and vaccinations. Public gatherings of more than two people are prohibited under restrictions imposed by the Netherlands in an effort to prevent the Omicron variant of the coronavirus overwhelming an already strained healthcare system. At least 30 people were detained after scuffles, during which four officers were injured, police said in a statement. Amsterdam mayor Femke Halsema had issued an emergency ordinance, empowering police to clear the central Museum Square, after the protesters defied a ban on public gatherings.
2nd Jan 2022 - Reuters

Kuwait encourages citizens to leave UK on Omicron fears

The Kuwaiti embassy in the United Kingdom has encouraged its citizens to leave the country due to a "significant and unprecedented" increase in Omicron cases there, the Gulf country's state news agency reported on Sunday. The daily number of new COVID-19 infections across Britain rose to a record 189,846 on Friday, far higher than during previous peaks.
2nd Jan 2022 - Reuters

Anti-vax community blasts Trump after pro-shot comments

Former Republican President Donald Trump's recent comments touting COVID-19 vaccines as safe and a major achievement of his presidency have roiled extreme anti-vaxers, which include many of his ardent supporters. After months of a relatively low profile on vaccines and no photos of him getting inoculated, Trump on Dec. 19 told former Fox News host Bill O'Reilly during an event in Dallas that he'd received the booster - eliciting some boos from the audience. In an interview with right-wing pundit Candace Owens released two days later, Trump pushed back when Owens suggested the shots were not safe
30th Dec 2021 - Reuters

COVID-19: Police appeal for information after dozens of anti-vaxxers protest at testing site

Police have appealed for information after an anti-vaccine demonstration took place at a COVID testing centre in Milton Keynes. Footage from the protest showed a woman appearing to pick up medical equipment and papers from the site and then dumping them in a nearby bin. Another demonstrator allegedly knocked down a sign, and another man apparently threw a couple of traffic cones. Dozens of people were seen in the video, including some who were holding anti-vaccine placards and shouting anti-vaccine slogans. Police said that "where criminal offences have been disclosed, we will take swift action and bring offenders to justice".
30th Dec 2021 - Sky News

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Hard-hit by COVID, Israel's ultra-Orthodox slow to get shots

Yossi Levy has repeatedly booked and canceled his coronavirus vaccine appointment. The 45-year-old ultra-Orthodox Jew recovered from the virus earlier this year, as have his eight children and wife. But a combination of lethargy and procrastination has prevented him from following through and getting inoculated. “It isn't something pressing. I'm not opposed to it. It's just laziness," he said. Levy is among the hundreds of thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews who have yet to receive their COVID-19 shots. The group has some of the lowest vaccination rates in the country despite being hit hard by the pandemic. Facing the new coronavirus variant omicron, officials are now scrambling to ramp up vaccination rates in a population that has so far been slow to roll up their sleeves.
29th Dec 2021 - The Independent

Brazil's Bolsonaro says daughter, 11, will not get COVID-19 jab

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro will not vaccinate his 11-year-old daughter against COVID-19, he said on Monday, maintaining the firm anti-vaccine stance that has drawn criticism from public health experts and hit his poll numbers. The right-wing leader added that the nation's health minister, Marcelo Queiroga, will divulge on Jan. 5 the manner in which Brazil will carry out its coronavirus vaccination campaign for 5 to 11-year-olds, which was approved earlier this month. "Children have not been dying in a way that justifies a vaccine for children," he told reporters in the southern state of Santa Catarina.
29th Dec 2021 - Reuters

UK's Johnson warns of hospital risk for unvaccinated

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned on Wednesday that the overwhelming majority of patients ending up in intensive care with COVID-19 had not received their booster vaccine, as he urged people to get their jabs. Johnson, on a visit to a vaccine centre, said he had been told by some doctors that up to 90% of patients with COVID-19 in intensive care had not received their booster vaccines. "I'm sorry to say this, but the overwhelming majority of people who are currently ending up in intensive care in our hospitals are people who are not boosted," he said. "I've talked to doctors who say the numbers are running up to 90% of people in intensive care."
29th Dec 2021 - Reuters

What to do about the UK’s unvaccinated? No 10’s Covid dilemma

A growing sense of frustration with people who have not been vaccinated against Covid has been creeping into the speeches of senior government figures from Sajid Javid to Boris Johnson in recent weeks. The health secretary has accused those who have chosen not to take up the offer of free vaccination of taking up hospital beds, damaging society and potentially harming their families as well as themselves. The prime minister also began rolling the pitch for a possibly tougher approach towards the unvaccinated when he spoke of the need for a “national conversation” about how the NHS would cope with the Omicron wave and further new variants. “I don’t believe we can keep going indefinitely with non-pharmaceutical interventions, restrictions on people’s way of life, just because a substantial proportion of the population still, sadly, has not got vaccinated,” he said.
28th Dec 2021 - The Guardian

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Hong Kong Finds Suspected Local Omicron Case in Airport Cleaner

Hong Kong has detected a suspected omicron case in an airport cleaner, marking the first time the more infectious variant has jumped through the city’s fortress-like border controls and infected a person living in the community who hasn’t recently traveled. The 64-year-old man who cleaned toilets designated for use by new arrivals thought to be infected with Covid-19 has himself tested preliminarily positive, according to the government statement. Initial tests suggest he is carrying the omicron variant, though whole genome sequencing is needed to confirm the findings. He appears to be the first person in Hong Kong who hasn’t recently traveled and yet contracted the highly infectious omicron variant.
24th Dec 2021 - Bloomberg

White House says it is 'grateful' Trump got, promoted COVID-19 booster shot

The White House is grateful that former U.S. President Donald Trump received and promoted getting the COVID-19 vaccine booster shot, press secretary Jen Psaki said on Thursday. The Republican former president recently said in an interview that he received a booster shot, and called the COVID-19 vaccines "one of the greatest achievements of mankind." "The ones that get very sick and go to the hospital are the ones that don't take the vaccine," Trump said in an interview with conservative commentator Candace Owens. "If you take the vaccine, you're protected."
24th Dec 2021 - Reuters

Italy bans New Year events as COVID infections surge

Italy has tightened restrictions to curb surging COVID-19 infections, including banning all public New Year's Eve celebrations, as daily infections hit a record high, the government said on Thursday. Health Minister Roberto Speranza said mask wearing would be compulsory outdoors again and ordered people to use the more protective Ffp2 face masks on public transport and in public places, such as theatres, cinemas and at sports events. In addition, concerts and open-air events will be banned until Jan. 31, and discos and dance clubs will have to shut their doors until that date, in an effort to prevent mass socialising during the holiday period.
24th Dec 2021 - Reuters

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S.Korean businesses protest against return of strict COVID rules

Some 300 South Korean small business owners protested in Seoul on Wednesday over the return of strict social distancing rules, urging the government to compensate them for financial losses and scrap its "vaccine pass" policy. South Korea restored tough distancing curbs this week after easing them in November, as new infections and serious cases continue to make new records and stretch medical services, despite a vaccination rate of over 92%. The measures, effective until Jan. 2, include a 9 p.m. dining curfew and a ban on gatherings of more than four people, who have to be fully vaccinated. Unvaccinated people can only eat out alone, or should use takeout or delivery options.
22nd Dec 2021 - Reuters

Australian PM says no Xmas lockdown as hospitals coping with rising Omicron

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Wednesday ruled out a Christmas lockdown, saying hospitals were coping well with a record surge in COVID-19 cases fuelled by the Omicron variant. Australia is grappling with the more transmissible Omicron variant of the coronavirus as restrictions ease ahead of the Christmas holidays after higher vaccination levels were reached. "Despite these rising cases, hospitals and health systems remain in a strong position but of course they will be tested," Morrison told reporters in Canberra after an emergency Cabinet meeting.
22nd Dec 2021 - Reuters

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America’s Mixed Response to the Omicron Variant Comes Down to Geography

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country’s top infectious-disease expert, said Sunday on ABC News that he doesn’t anticipate the U.S. moving toward broad shutdowns, even as some European countries have imposed new restrictions. He also said vaccinated Americans who have received booster shots can feel comfortable traveling this month to see family. The U.S. is now averaging more than 125,000 new Covid-19 cases a day, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The seven-day average for Covid-19 hospital admissions fell 4.8% in the week ended Dec. 18 to 7,501 a day, but hospitalizations are up 49% from a recent low in early November, CDC data show. Deaths increased to a seven-day average of 1,182 a day as of Dec. 17, up 3.6% versus the previous week.
21st Dec 2021 - The Wall Street Journal

Indian man fined for wanting Modi’s face cut from vaccine drive

An Indian man who went to court to complain about Prime Minister Narendra Modi promoting himself as the face of the nation’s COVID-19 vaccination drive has walked away with a fine for “wasting” the judge’s time. India’s Hindu nationalist prime minister has been the focus of an enormous advertising blitz touting his government’s triumphs in fighting the pandemic despite nearly 500,000 Indians dying of COVID-19, according to official data. Health experts fear the actual toll could be much higher.
21st Dec 2021 - Al Jazeera English

UK offers 1 billion pounds to businesses hurt by omicron

Britain announced 1 billion pounds ($1.3 billion) in grants and other aid to help the hospitality industry survive the onslaught of the omicron variant of COVID-19, bowing to days of pressure from pubs, restaurants and other businesses that complain public health warnings have torpedoed the vital Christmas season. Businesses in the hospitality and leisure sectors in England will be eligible for one-time grants of up to 6,000 pounds ($7,954) each. An additional 100 million pounds ($133 million) will be given to local governments to support businesses in their areas hit by the sudden spike in COVID-19 infections driven by the highly transmissible new variant. While industry groups welcomed the funding, many said it was too narrowly focused and more assistance would be needed if the surge in infections continues or the government imposes more restrictions.
21st Dec 2021 - The Associated Press

'We Haven't Invested in Public Health': Trump CDC Leader Speaks

Robert Redfield spoke to Bloomberg News for more than an hour last month, discussing his time running the CDC and how he thinks it should change. He was often criticized as too deferential to then-president Donald Trump as the U.S. struggled with consistent messaging during the first year of the pandemic. Now retired from government, he says running the agency was a privilege but that it needs substantial changes to prepare for the future — including deploying more people around the U.S. and the globe, modernizing its data operations and abandoning a slow-moving culture.
21st Dec 2021 - Bloomberg

Romanian crowd tries to storm parliament in protest at COVID-19 pass

Romanian protesters tried to force their way into parliament on Tuesday, blocking traffic and vandalising some cars in the capital Bucharest in an attempt to prevent lawmakers from making a COVID-19 health pass mandatory for workers. Riot police were caught off guard when hundreds of protesters poured in through a yard gate, spray painting cars and forcing security staff to block the building's entryways. The protesters later left. Police did not use force. While the ruling coalition of centrists and leftists is currently negotiating the terms of a health pass mandate, no such bill is on parliament's legislative agenda at the moment.
21st Dec 2021 - Reuters

The Guardian view on Boris Johnson’s Covid plan: decided by Tory rebels

Mr Johnson’s behaviour, and the suggestion that he is beholden to no one, has provoked a crisis of government. Caught between the spread of a highly infectious Omicron variant and a Tory revolt, the prime minister dithered and delayed. His own scientific advisers say that there are likely to be between 1,000 and 2,000 Covid hospital admissions a day in England by the end of the year. The case for more Covid restrictions, they say, is overwhelming. Yet cabinet ministers dismiss the modelling – signalling to backbench rebels that they are with them. Others are perhaps afraid of being blamed for cancelling Christmas when people begin travelling around the country. Mr Johnson calculated that he was too weak in office to risk a Commons showdown with his party over new restrictions. Policy is being decided by Tory MPs, many of whom have no plan beyond “let Omicron rip”.
21st Dec 2021 - The Guardian

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UK PM's wine and cheese gathering was not a party, deputy PM says

Boris Johnson issued the latest of a string of denials on Monday that he and his staff had broken lockdown rules after a photograph appeared of the prime minister and more than a dozen others drinking wine in the garden of his Downing Street office. The photograph of the gathering, reportedly taken in May last year, follows reports of other apparent social events during times when his government had told Britons they should not mix with others.
20th Dec 2021 - Reuters

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Head of UK COVID-19 lockdown parties probe drops out over own event

Britain's top civil servant Simon Case has stepped down from leading an investigation into alleged parties last year in government offices in breach of COVID-19 lockdowns after an event was held in his own office. "To ensure the ongoing investigation retains public confidence the Cabinet Secretary has recused himself for the remainder of the process," a spokesperson for Prime Minister Boris Johnson's office said. "The work will be concluded by Sue Gray, second permanent secretary at the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. "She will ascertain the facts and present her findings to the Prime Minister."
17th Dec 2021 - Reuters

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Thousands protest COVID-19 rules as New Zealand marks 90% vaccine rates

Thousands marched in New Zealand's capital Wellington on Thursday to protest against COVID-19 vaccine mandates and lockdowns, as the country reached the 90% fully vaccinated milestone. New Zealand's tough lockdown and vaccination drives have helped keep coronavirus infections and related deaths low, but it has also drawn criticism from some calling for more freedoms and an end to mandatory vaccine requirements. The government has mandated vaccinations for teachers, workers in the health and disability sectors, police and other public service sectors.
16th Dec 2021 - Reuters

Vaccine skeptics in Eastern Europe having change of heart

Some former vaccine skeptics in Eastern Europe have shifted over to the other side as coronavirus infections surge, countries are making it more difficult for the unvaccinated to travel abroad and authorities battle against government distrust and vaccine disinformation. When she rolled up her sleeve in the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo to take her first COVID-19 vaccine dose, Fata Keco was afraid of possible adverse side effects. But she said the worst she had to contend with over the next few days was “moderately discomforting pain” in her left arm around the site of the injection. More significantly, the 52-year-old self-employed cleaning woman has joined the global community of vaccine-believers after months of “being very susceptible” to what she now describes as “the most ridiculous theories.”
16th Dec 2021 - The Associated Press

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Kremlin’s hand seen in eastern Europe’s hostility to Covid vaccine

Adrian Onciu had a tough time finding somewhere to publish his coronavirus vaccine stories. The Romanian journalist’s reports alleged nefarious ties between European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen and the Covid vaccine maker Pfizer, as well as schemes by American firms and officials to manipulate media on behalf of the pharmaceutical industry. His pieces were rejected by just about every news outlet in Romania, including one website that recently featured an article about chewing gums that ward off Covid. But Mr Onciu, who conceded in an interview he had no documentary evidence to substantiate his claims, eventually found a platform that would not only publish his work but prominently promote it as a multi-part series on its website: Russia’s state-owned Sputnik news service, which is seen as a propaganda tool of the Kremlin.
15th Dec 2021 - The Independent

SQREEM’s New AI-powered Study Examines Motivations Surrounding COVID-19 Vaccine Resistance in the US

Leveraging proprietary Artificial Intelligence (AI) built to understand online human behavior in a completely anonymous way, SQREEM Technologies ′ recent U.S. COVID-19 Vaccine Study provides a striking insight into the attitudes and motivations of anti-vaxxers and the vaccine-hesitant. The study utilizes anonymized digital engagement scores as the main metric to understand audience relevance to topics/aspects surrounding COVID-19 vaccination. In the study, ‘anti-vaxxers’ are audiences that do not agree with the COVID-19 vaccine and its use, while ‘vaccine-hesitant’ are audiences that are reluctant to use the COVID-19 vaccine despite its availability. For both groups, digital engagement scores with values greater than 5 signify awareness, while values greater than 10 signify a strong engagement with the topic.
15th Dec 2021 - The Associated Press

How a Kennedy built an anti-vaccine juggernaut amid COVID-19

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. strode onto the stage at a Southern California church, radiating Kennedy confidence and surveying the standing ovation crowd with his piercing blue Bobby Kennedy eyes. Then, he launched into an anti-vaccine rant. Democrats “drank the Kool-Aid,” he told people assembled for a far right conference, branded as standing for “health and freedom.” “It is criminal medical malpractice to give a child one of these vaccines,” Kennedy contended, according to a video of the event, one of his many assertions that ignored or went against legal, scientific and public health consensus. Then, Kennedy hawked his book. If just 300 attendees preordered it on Amazon that night, he told the crowd, it would land on the bestseller list and they could “stick it to Amazon and Jeff Bezos.”
15th Dec 2021 - The Independent

"Shameful": Auschwitz-style banner at Polish COVID vaccine protest condemned

The Auschwitz Museum and Poland's prime minister on Wednesday condemned anti-COVID vaccination protesters as "shameful" and "mindless" for displaying a banner that mimicked the infamous sign at the gates of the Nazi concentration camp. The banner featured the words "Vaccination makes you free" on an arch shaped to echo the one that reads "Work makes you free" outside Auschwitz. It appeared at a demonstration in Warsaw on Tuesday organised by deputies of the far-right Confederation party against what it says is Poland's programme of forced vaccinations.
15th Dec 2021 - Reuters

After stinging revolt, UK PM Johnson defends COVID record

Britain's prime minister defended his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic on Wednesday, saying new restrictions were needed to fight a new variant as the number of daily infections in the United Kingdom soared to a record high. Boris Johnson's government sought to play down what was the largest parliamentary vote against his administration by lawmakers from his own party a day earlier, with one minister saying it was not surprising that there were different views over the restrictions, dubbed draconian by many Conservatives.
15th Dec 2021 - Reuters UK

We'll all be dead before FDA releases full COVID vaccine record, plaintiffs say

In advance of a court hearing before a federal judge in Fort Worth, Texas, Tuesday, the Food and Drug Administration has offered by the end of January to make public 12,000 pages of data that it relied on to license Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine. At first glance, that sounds like a lot of material. Except a group of scientists and doctors who’ve sued the agency under the Freedom of Information Act is seeking an estimated 400,000-plus additional pages of information about the vaccine’s approval. Under the FDA’s proposed schedule – the agency pledges to release “a minimum” of 500 pages a month after the initial dump – the full trove might not be made public until the year 2097.
15th Dec 2021 - Reuters

German police foil 'anti-vaxxer murder plot' against state premier

German police have foiled a plot by anti-vaccination activists to murder the state premier of Saxony in eastern Germany, they said on Wednesday, as concerns grow over an increasingly violent pushback against COVID-19 vaccination plans. The plot to kill Michael Kretschmer is the latest in a series of incidents that underscore the anger of some Germans over restrictions on the unvaccinated and plans to make vaccinations compulsory for the general population. Saxony has one of Germany's highest levels of COVID-19 infection but also its lowest vaccination rate. It is a stronghold of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which harbours many vaccine sceptics and anti-lockdown protesters.
15th Dec 2021 - Reuters

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COVID-19: Tory backbenchers prepare to turn on Johnson over COVID restrictions as PM calls for a vaccine volunteer army

Boris Johnson is facing the biggest Tory rebellion since the 2019 general election in a bitter Commons showdown with many of his own MPs over his Plan B COVID rules. Nearly 80 Conservative backbenchers have signalled they are prepared to vote against new regulations on face masks, isolating, vaccine passports and compulsory vaccinations for NHS staff. Sir Keir Starmer has pledged Labour support for the measures, so there is no danger of a government defeat. But a huge backbench rebellion will be a humiliating blow to the prime minister's authority.
14th Dec 2021 - Sky News

U.S. Air Force removes 27 service members for refusing COVID-19 vaccine

The U.S. Air Force on Monday said 27 service members had been discharged for refusing to receive a COVID-19 vaccine, the first active-duty troops believed to have been removed for declining the vaccine. The Pentagon made the vaccine mandatory for all service members in August and the vast majority of active-duty troops have received at least one dose. Ann Stefanek, a spokeswoman for the Air Force, said the troops were given a chance to explain why they had refused to get vaccinated, but none of them were given exemptions.
14th Dec 2021 - Reuters

British PM Johnson faces rebellion in parliament over COVID measures

Almost 100 Conservative lawmakers voted on Tuesday against new coronavirus restrictions, dealing a major blow to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's authority and raising questions about his leadership. After a day of frenzied failed lobbying, Johnson was handed the biggest rebellion against his government so far by his party over measures he said were necessary to curb the spread of the new Omicron variant. The new rules, which included ordering people to wear masks in public places and use COVID-19 passes for some venues, passed thanks largely to the main opposition Labour Party.
14th Dec 2021 - Reuters

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U.S. Supreme Court rejects religious challenge to New York vaccine mandate

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected challenges brought by a group of Christian doctors and nurses and an organization that promotes vaccine skepticism to New York's refusal to allow religious exemptions to the state's mandate that healthcare workers be vaccinated against COVID-19. Acting in two cases, the justices denied emergency requests for an injunction requiring the state to permit religious exemptions while litigation over the mandate's legality continues in lower courts. Conservative Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch said they would have granted the injunction.
14th Dec 2021 - Reuters

California to re-institute statewide mask mandate amid rise in COVID cases

California will impose a statewide mask mandate in all indoor public spaces as COVID-19 case rates soar, the state's senior government health official said on Monday as precautions ramp up against the Omicron variant. The mandate, which will take effect on Wednesday and last a month, is one of several measures the most-populous U.S. state is taking to slow a wave of infections that is already straining hospitals in areas where vaccination rates are low.
14th Dec 2021 - Reuters

Israel's education minister fires top official after spat on COVID vaccines in schools

Israel's Education Minister Yifat Shasha-Biton dismissed the ministry's director general on Sunday. According to sources in the ministry, the two had an ongoing friction over Yigal Slovik's support for administering the coronavirus vaccine in schools, something that the education minister had reservations about. Shasha-Biton wrote on Facebook that "the coronavirus and the dismissal are unrelated", and her associates said she fired Slovik due to her more general dissatisfaction over his professional performance and not specifically over coronavirus policy.
13th Dec 2021 - Haaretz

COVID-19: PM facing major revolt over coronavirus curbs, amid 'authoritarianism' warning

The Conservative Party is drifting into authoritarianism, a senior Tory MP has warned, as he confirmed he would oppose new coronavirus restrictions. Former Brexit minister Steve Baker told Sky News he believed at least 60 of his party colleagues at Westminster would join him in voting against the imposition of further COVID-19 measures by Boris Johnson this week.
13th Dec 2021 - Sky News

Norway bans serving of alcohol in bid to halt Omicron outbreak

Norway will ban the serving of alcohol in bars and restaurants, impose stricter rules in schools and speed up vaccination as part of new efforts to curb the outbreak of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, the government said on Monday. "For many this will feel like a lockdown, if not of society then of their lives and of their livelihoods," Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere told a news conference.
13th Dec 2021 - Reuters

France: 400 investigations into fake COVID-19 health passes

France has opened 400 investigations into networks providing fake COVID-19 health passes, the interior minister said Sunday, as virus-related hospitalizations rise sharply across the country. The case of a woman with the virus who died in a Paris regional hospital after showing a false vaccine certificate has drawn attention in French media in recent days. The hospital’s intensive care chief said they would have given the woman immediate antibody treatment had they known that she wasn’t vaccinated. Authorities have identified several thousand fake COVID-19 health passes in use around France, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said Sunday on RTL radio. He said some 400 investigations have been opened into peddling fake passes, including some “connected to health professionals.”
13th Dec 2021 - The Associated Press

Thousands protest in Prague against COVID vaccine mandate

Several thousand people marched through the Czech capital on Sunday, protesting a COVID-19 vaccination mandate for certain groups including people age 60 and over. The participants didn’t wear face coverings or follow social distancing rules despite a request by police to do so. One person was detained. The protesters, chanting “Freedom!” alleged their constitutional rights are being violated. They said they weren’t against voluntary vaccination but opposed a vaccine mandate. The outgoing government released an order this week, making vaccination mandatory for the 60 and over age group, as well as medical personnel, police officers, firefighters and medical students.
13th Dec 2021 - The Associated Press

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Billionaire's Bet on Pfizer Vaccine for China Fails to Pay Off

As Covid-19 started spreading in Wuhan early last year, Chinese billionaire Guo Guangchang’s drugmaker appeared to have scored a big win: A partnership with Germany’s BioNTech SE, which went on to produce with Pfizer Inc. one of the world’s most successful vaccines against the coronavirus. Yet almost a year later, the shot is yet to be approved in mainland China, and in recent weeks Beijing has thrown its heft behind a homegrown mRNA vaccine, allowing China’s Walvax Biotechnology Co. to test its own experimental shot as a booster. The developments are raising new questions about whether the U.S.-German vaccine, licensed for the potentially lucrative Greater China region by Guo’s Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Group Co., will ever be used on the mainland, where President Xi Jinping’s administration has backed a nationalist agenda on all fronts, including in the fight against the virus.
12th Dec 2021 - Bloomberg

Austria’s Restrictions on the Unvaccinated Appear to Be Working

Austria, one of the worst-hit countries in Europe’s latest Covid-19 surge, has seen infections plummet and vaccination rates soar after imposing a lockdown and saying it would make the shots mandatory next year. The measures, and the steep fall in new cases since they were announced, could offer some options to countries in a region where infections are still rising rapidly or plateauing at a high level. The Alpine republic introduced a lockdown and said it would mandate vaccines beginning next February on Nov. 22, when the weekly rolling average of daily new cases exceeded 1,500 and hospitals in areas with low vaccination rates were struggling to cope with the influx of patients.
11th Dec 2021 - The Wall Street Journal

Bulgaria's vaccine battle: the mistrust driving COVID's surge

Fortunately, everything began with a bit of luck. I landed in Sofia, Bulgaria's capital, on a late November Sunday afternoon. The weather was mild and sunny. After checking into my hotel, I went for a walk in the city centre with my filming kit. "I'm not a killer of grandpa and grandma." Scarcely five hundred meters from the hotel, I stumbled on around two hundred people noisily chanting and shouting. Among them were children and elderly people; whole families banging on drums and waving big Bulgarian flags. I approached and asked them what they were protesting about.
11th Dec 2021 - Euronews

Party furore deepens for Britain's Johnson, spokesman was at lockdown gathering

UPDATE 3-Yahoo FinanceUK PM Johnson loses poll lead after lockdown party revelationsNasdaqUK PM Johnson's party loses poll lead after lockdown party ...Thomson Reuters FoundationUK PM Johnson loses poll lead after lockdown party revelations By Reuters | Editorials 24Editorials 24View Full coverage on Google News
11th Dec 2021 - Reuters

With Vaccine Mandate Looming, Business Owners Face Wary Workers

Small-business owners are confronting challenges preparing for the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate, with some saying efforts to comply are exacerbating hiring problems and stoking tensions with and among workers. Under new federal rules, employers with 100 or more workers must ensure employees get fully vaccinated or else test negative for Covid-19 at least weekly and wear a mask at work. A federal appeals court temporarily blocked implementation of the rules in response to legal challenges, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration agreed not to begin enforcement pending a court decision. Many business owners are nonetheless preparing for the mandate, slated to take full effect Jan. 4.
10th Dec 2021 - The Wall Street Journal

As COVID surges, Greece pursues unvaccinated with fines and vans

When a mobile COVID vaccination unit arrived at his Greek village, Yiorgos Toumanidis showed up for his booster shot. “I know what it’s like,” said the 71-year-old, who has had the virus. “I spent a month at home with antibiotics … That’s when we understood what’s going on, how dangerous the situation is. I didn’t hesitate. With the first opportunity, I did the vaccine.”
10th Dec 2021 - AlJazeera

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Coronavirus: Vaccine refused by more than 230 Hertfordshire hospital workers

More than 230 hospital workers in parts of Hertfordshire have refused to have a Covid-19 vaccination, NHS bosses said. Last month the government announced proposals that health workers undertaking any CQC-regulated activity should be fully vaccinated by April. A meeting of the West Herts Hospitals Trust board identified 239 staff who had so far refused the vaccination and the status of 132 staff was "unknown". The trust said 91% of its staff had been vaccinated. The report presented to the board said senior leaders and clinicians would play a role in proactively encouraging staff to take the vaccine, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.
9th Dec 2021 - BBC News

U.S. Senate passes Republican bill to overturn Biden vaccine mandate

The Democratic-controlled U.S. Senate on Wednesday approved a Republican measure that would overturn President Joe Biden's COVID-19 vaccine-or-test mandate for private businesses, with two Democrats joining Republicans to back the initiative. The 52-48 vote sends the legislation to the Democratic-led House of Representatives, where it faces strong headwinds, while Biden has threatened to veto it.
9th Dec 2021 - Reuters

Ukraine spa town stands out amid nation’s vaccine hesitancy

A small spa town in western Ukraine is standing out in a European country where only 29% of the people have received COVID-19 vaccine shots, and locals credit their community spirit for fending off the worst of the pandemic. In Morshyn, a scenic town nestled at the Carpathian foothills in the Lviv region, 74% of its 3,439 residents had been fully vaccinated as of late November. While Ukrainian authorities have imposed new restrictions amid a surge of infections and deaths blamed on a slow pace of vaccination and designated the region around Morshyn as a “red zone” where most public places have been shut down, the wellness centers in Morshyn have remained fully open.
9th Dec 2021 - The Associated Press

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Johnson imposes COVID-19 'Plan B' in England to contain Omicron

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson imposed tougher COVID-19 restrictions in England on Wednesday, ordering people to work from home, wear masks in public places and use vaccine passes to slow the spread of the Omicron coronavirus variant. Undermined by accusations that his staff partied at Downing Street during a Christmas lockdown last year, Johnson said Omicron was spreading rapidly and he had no choice but to move to "Plan B" while a vaccine booster programme rolls out.
8th Dec 2021 - Reuters

Under fire, UK PM apologises for staff joking about Christmas lockdown party

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson apologised on Wednesday after a video surfaced showing his staff laughing and joking about a party in Downing Street during a Christmas COVID-19 lockdown last year when such festivities were banned. Hours later the main aide featured in the video, Johnson's press secretary at the time, Allegra Stratton, resigned as an adviser to the prime minister. In a tearful statement, she said she would regret the remarks she made in the video for the rest of her days. For more than a week, Johnson and his team have repeated that no rules were broken in late 2020 after the Mirror newspaper reported there had been several parties including a wine-fuelled gathering of 40 to 50 people to mark Christmas.
8th Dec 2021 - Reuters

UK’s Johnson orders probe of staff party during lockdown

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Wednesday ordered an inquiry and said he was “furious” after a leaked video showed senior members of his staff joking about holding a lockdown-breaching Christmas party. The video has poured fuel on allegations that government officials flouted coronavirus rules they imposed on everyone else. “I understand and share the anger up and down the country” at staff members seeming to make light of lockdown rules, Johnson said. “I was also furious to see that clip,” he told lawmakers in the House of Commons. “I apologize unreservedly for the offense that it has caused up and down the country, and I apologize for the impression it gives.”
8th Dec 2021 - The Associated Press

With vaccine resistance high, Poland faces surge of deaths

As 83-year-old Hanna Zientara endured subfreezing temperatures to get a COVID-19 vaccine booster shot in Warsaw, her 30-year-old grandson was starting a Canary Islands vacation while unvaccinated and stubbornly refusing his grandmother’s repeated pleas to protect himself. “I am worried about him, but I have no influence over him. None,” Zientara said. “He has many doctor friends who aren’t getting vaccinated, and he says if they aren’t getting vaccinated, then he doesn’t have to.” Poland and several other countries in Central and Eastern Europe are battling their latest surges of coronavirus cases and deaths while continuing to record much lower vaccinations rates than in Western Europe.
8th Dec 2021 - The Associated Press

Unvaccinated parents highly unlikely to OK COVID vaccine for their kids

A research letter yesterday in JAMA Pediatrics shows that 25.6% of a sample of US parents responding to an online survey said they were hesitant to vaccinate themselves against COVID-19, and these parents were highly unlikely to approve of COVID vaccination for their children—by a wide margin. In the ongoing CHASING COVID nationwide cohort study, City University of New York researchers analyzed responses from the June 2021 survey of 1,162 parents of 1,651 children 2 to 17 years old. Willingness to have their children vaccinated varied from 8.3% to 13.9% in vaccine-hesitant parents, depending on the age of the child, compared with 64.9% to 86.4% among parents who had already gotten the COVID vaccine or were willing to receive it.
7th Dec 2021 - CIDRAP

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 8th Dec 2021

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Slovak Ruling Parties Agree on $337 Bonus for Vaccinated Seniors

Slovakia’s ruling parties agreed on a lower-than-planned payment worth 300 euros ($337) to people aged 60 and over for getting fully inoculated against Covid-19 to increase one of the European Union’s lowest vaccination rates. The government is expected to give final approval on Wednesday, but that should be a formality given the cabinet’s makeup, daily newspaper Sme reported. The coalition also agreed to relax some coronavirus measures for the vaccinated, such as access to all shops, from Friday. Children attending sixth grade and higher will switch to online learning from Monday. “We have a good agreement,” Prime Minister Eduard Heger said after the coalition meeting on Tuesday.
7th Dec 2021 - Bloomberg

As many as 6 million eligible Britons may not have had a Covid jab. Who are they?

The Omicron variant has refocused attention on vaccination rates as data shows disparities in uptake across age, region and ethnicity. Hundreds of cases of the new Omicron Covid-19 variant have now been confirmed in the UK and experts have called for a renewed focus on vaccination rates.
7th Dec 2021 - The Guardian

COVID rules were not broken at Downing Street party, UK's Johnson says

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's staff appeared to joke about holding a Christmas party last year while much of the country faced tough COVID-19 restrictions, in a leaked video released by broadcaster ITV on Tuesday. Johnson has faced questions and criticism since the Mirror newspaper reported last week there were many social gatherings at Johnson's 10 Downing Street office over the Christmas period. In the video from Dec. 22, 2020, Johnson's staff hold a mock press conference and appear to joke about holding a Christmas party.
7th Dec 2021 - Reuters UK

Bolsonaro dismisses vaccination requirement for entry into Brazil

Brazil will require that unvaccinated travelers entering the country go on a five-day quarantine followed by a COVID-19 test, its health minister said on Tuesday, after its president said he opposed the use of a vaccine passport. President Jair Bolsonaro criticized Brazil's health regulator Anvisa for proposing the vaccination passport be required for arriving travelers to help prevent the spread of new coronavirus variants. "Anvisa wants to close the country's airspace now. Not again, damn it," Bolsonaro, a vaccine skeptic, said at a business event in Brasilia.
7th Dec 2021 - Reuters

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France can avoid return to lockdown and still save Christmas -PM

France will close nightclubs ahead of Christmas and tighten social distancing measures in response to the emergent Omicron variant of the coronavirus but there is no need for new lockdowns or curfews, Prime Minister Jean Castex said on Monday. Castex said a fifth wave of the pandemic was now surging through the country. But he said that with 52 million people now vaccinated - nearly 90% of those eligible - the situation is better than in previous outbreaks and there is no need for drastic measures to save Christmas.
7th Dec 2021 - Reuters

COVID-19: Boris Johnson denies government acted too late in bringing back pre-departure tests amid spread of Omicron variant

The prime minister has rejected suggestions the government acted too late in reintroducing travel restrictions after the discovery of the Omicron variant of COVID-19. "We're still waiting to see exactly how dangerous it is, what sort of effect it has in terms of deaths and hospitalisations," Boris Johnson said about the variant. From tomorrow, pre-departure tests for all travellers are being brought back amid the spread of the Omicron variant of COVID-19. It follows on from the reintroduction of day two PCR tests for anyone who enters the UK from abroad. Nigeria has also become the latest African country to be added to the travel red list.
6th Dec 2021 - Sky News

Italy begins lockdown of the unvaccinated: Only the double jabbed will be able to fully participate in public life using a 'super green pass' from TODAY

Italy has brought in tougher restrictions for unvaccinated people as the holidays draw near, excluding them from indoor restaurants, theatres and museums to reduce the spread of coronavirus and encourage vaccine skeptics to get their jabs. Only those who have the 'Super Green Pass', which requires Italians to be double-jabbed rather than providing a negative Covid test result, will be able to fully participate in public life from Monday. Italian police will be checking whether those visiting indoor restaurants, bars, concerts, sports events, theatres and public events, have the 'super' green health pass until January 15. The restrictions follow a steady rise of Covid cases in Italy for the past six weeks, with 15,021 infections recorded on Sunday, and a concern about the new Omicron variant which is believed to be more transmissible than the Delta strain.
6th Dec 2021 - Daily Mail

Anti-lockdown protesters hit with water cannons and tear gas in Belgium

Belgium became the latest European country to see disorder linked to reimposed Covid-19 restrictions on Sunday. Police deployed water cannon and tear gas to disperse protesters in Brussels rallying against new measures designed to slow the winter wave. The government announced new rules for the third Friday in a row last week in a bad to dampen infections and take pressure of the struggling health system. Thousands chanted ‘freedom, freedom’ while others carried anti-vax placards as the crowd headed towards the headquarters of the European Union.
6th Dec 2021 - Metro

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How a Vaccine Side-Effect Database Sowed Doubt in Vaccinations

Midway into the pandemic, University of Alabama epidemiologist Bertha Hidalgo realized her Covid communication strategy needed a makeover. She was skipping basic biology lessons in favor of simply telling people the best ways to moderate their behavior in response to the virus. Instead of helping people better understand the virus, her approach sometimes backfired, introducing more doubt instead of less. “My method was, ‘These are the facts and this is what you need to do,’” she said. What she quickly learned was that people didn't have enough base knowledge to accept what she was presenting as fact.
5th Dec 2021 - Bloomberg

Hundreds march against COVID-19 restrictions in Belgium

Belgian police used water cannon and tear gas Sunday to disperse some rowdy protesters in Brussels after most demonstrators marched peacefully to protest tightened COVID-19 restrictions that aim to counter a surge of coronavirus infections. Thousands came to reject the new measures announced Friday, the third week in a row that the government has tightened its rules as an avalanche of new cases strains the country’s health services, depriving people with other life-threatening diseases of treatment.
5th Dec 2021 - The Associated Press on MSN.com

Australia's Covid Update: Parliament to Close After Staffer Infected

Australia’s Parliament House will be closed to the public for the foreseeable future after a political staffer for Greens leader Adam Bandt tested positive for the coronavirus. The staffer is fully vaccinated and tested positive upon return to Melbourne after attending parliament last week, a spokesperson for Bandt said in a statement. Bandt, who is vaccinated, and other employees who were in Canberra last week tested negative for the virus, according to the statement. Given the positive result, officials “have decided that Parliament House should close to the public until further notice,” the Department of Parliamentary Services said in a separate statement. Authorities said they are investigating possible close contacts, exposure locations in parliament as well as in the broader community.
5th Dec 2021 - Bloomberg

More than 40000 march in Vienna against coronavirus lockdown

More than 40,000 people marched through Vienna on Saturday to protest against a lockdown and plans to make vaccinations compulsory to curb the coronavirus pandemic. Faced with a surge in infections, the government last month made Austria the first country in Western Europe to reimpose a lockdown and said it would make vaccinations mandatory from February. People carried signs saying: "I will decide for myself", "Make Austria Great Again", and "New Elections" - a nod to the political turmoil that has seen three chancellors within two months - as crowds gathered.
5th Dec 2021 - Reuters

Germany's Scholz Sets 30 Million-Shot Goal to Start His Term

Sitting alone in a blacked-out studio, a somber soundtrack lending gravitas to his five-minute monologue, Olaf Scholz implored the people of Germany to get real and get vaccinated. A full year after the first Covid-19 shots were administered and the world hoped to turn the corner on the pandemic, Germany finds itself overwhelmed by a fourth wave of infections more destructive than previous outbreaks. Politicians and scientists point to the relatively low level of full protection, which stands at 69% in Germany. That means almost 17 million people age 12 and older aren’t properly vaccinated, including more than 4 million age 60 and up, the most vulnerable group.
4th Dec 2021 - Bloomberg

Brazilian Supreme Court orders probe into Bolsonaro for linking COVID-19 vaccines to AIDS

A Brazilian Supreme Court justice ordered on Friday that a probe be opened into President Jair Bolsonaro for having said during a live broadcast on multiple social media platforms in October that COVID-19 vaccines may raise the chance of contracting AIDS. Bolsonaro, who has declined to take the vaccine, was temporarily suspended from both Facebook and YouTube after his comments. The decision by Justice Alexandre de Moraes came in response to a request from a Senate investigative committee, known in Portuguese as a CPI, which found in October that Bolsonaro committed nine crimes related to his widely criticized handling of the coronavirus pandemic, including crimes against humanity.
4th Dec 2021 - Reuters

Gilead Recalls 55,000 Vials of Covid Drug Due to Glass Shards

Gilead Sciences Inc. said it was recalling two lots of its Covid-19 drug remdesivir in the U.S. after receiving a complaint about glass particles in the vials that was confirmed by a company investigation.
4th Dec 2021 - Bloomberg

Biden and Local Officials Avoid Lockdowns, New Mask Mandates in Omicron Fight

President Biden and many state and local leaders are urging Americans to wear masks and take other precautions in response to the Omicron variant but are largely avoiding endorsing broad mask mandates and lockdowns that marked earlier stages of the pandemic. The steps reflect a view that the pandemic is in a different phase, with vaccines and boosters available, as well as a recognition that many Americans won’t accept a return to the toughest restrictions. “The fatigue is high, as well as the mental-health impact,” said John Anzalone, a Democratic pollster who advised Mr. Biden’s presidential campaign. “People are in a mentality of how to live with Covid.” Some workers, business owners and congressional Republicans have pushed back against Mr. Biden’s efforts to require more people to get vaccinated, and the continuing impact of Covid-19 on supply chains and inflation has presented lingering challenges for the president.
4th Dec 2021 - The Wall Street Journal

Faith in Singapore Leaders Hit by Record Covid Wave, Poll Shows

Singaporeans’ trust in their government’s ability to manage Covid-19 fell as community cases soared when the worst wave hit early last month, according to the Institute of Policy Studies. The survey showed the proportion of people who believed the authorities had shown good political leadership fell to a low of 53% during Oct. 28 to Nov. 1, compared to around 70% in the July to early September period, results released Thursday showed. It has since improved to almost 60%. Older respondents were more likely to be disgruntled, amid constant reminders to vaccinate and avoid social gatherings, according to the survey. “As Singapore carefully plans its next moves and learns to live with the virus, it must also balance the diverse needs of different groups with the overall needs of society,” the survey said. The IPS polled about 500 people during specific periods of the country’s pandemic journey, such as when stricter measures were introduced to counter the virus spread.
4th Dec 2021 - Bloomberg

Opinion | Vaccine Hesitancy Is About Trust and Class

First, people are unlikely to trust institutions that do little for them. And second, public health is no longer viewed as a collective endeavor, based on the principle of social solidarity and mutual obligation. People are conditioned to believe they’re on their own and responsible only for themselves. That means an important source of vaccine hesitancy is the erosion of the idea of a common good.
3rd Dec 2021 - The New York Times

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Facebook, Instagram remove Chinese network over fake 'Swiss biologist' COVID claims

Facebook owner Meta Platforms Inc said on Wednesday it had removed accounts used by an influence operation originating in China that promoted claims of a fake "Swiss biologist" saying the United States was interfering in the search for COVID-19's origins. Meta said in a report the social media campaign was "largely unsuccessful" and targeted English-speaking audiences in the United States and Britain and Chinese-speaking audiences in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Tibet.
2nd Dec 2021 - Reuters

Bristol Myers is sued for refusing COVID-19 vaccine religious exemptions

Bristol Myers Squibb Co was sued on Wednesday by four employees who said the drugmaker refused to grant them religious exemptions from its COVID-19 vaccination requirement, and threatened to fire them on Dec. 6 for remaining unvaccinated. The plaintiffs in the proposed class action filed in Manhattan federal court accused Bristol Myers of violating a federal civil rights law known as Title VII by "systematically manufacturing" reasons to refuse religious accommodations.
2nd Dec 2021 - Reuters

The Fifth Circuit Court got the science wrong on OSHA’s vaccination mandate

Before the Sixth Circuit was randomly chosen for this task, the New Orleans-based Fifth Circuit preemptively put a hold on the mandate, issuing an opinion that bitingly characterized OSHA’s emergency temporary standard as “staggeringly overbroad.” But the Fifth Circuit’s opinion got the underlying science completely wrong. For that reason alone, the Sixth Circuit needs to reverse the Fifth’s order and start over with a clean slate that accurately encompasses the scientific evidence on the transmission of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, the health consequences of the virus, and the prevention of Covid-19.
2nd Dec 2021 - STAT News

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Greece imposes monthly fines of 100 euros on the over-60s who refuse a Covid vaccine

Failure to get a first dose of a coronavirus shot by Jan. 16 for anyone aged 60 and above will result in a monthly fine of 100 euros ($114). As of Tuesday, about 62% of the Greek population was fully vaccinated against the virus. This is below the EU’s average of 66%, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. Greece’s announcement comes at a time when other European nations are also considering compulsory vaccination.
1st Dec 2021 - CNBC

Anti-vaccine Christian broadcaster Marcus Lamb dies from Covid-19

Texas-based Daystar Television Network announced Lamb's death on Tuesday. Conservative christian network has been a vocal opponent of Covid vaccines. The broadcaster becomes the latest anti-vaccine radio host to succumb to virus
1st Dec 2021 - Daily Mail

COVID-19: Downing Street denies Boris Johnson broke COVID lockdown rules with No 10 parties at Christmas

Downing Street has denied claims that Boris Johnson broke coronavirus rules with parties at No 10 last Christmas. The Mirror claims the PM made a speech at a leaving do on 27 November - when the country was in the second lockdown - and allowed a festive party to proceed on 18 December when London was in the grips of Tier 3 restrictions. A No 10 spokesperson told Sky News: "COVID rules have been followed at all times."
1st Dec 2021 - Sky News

Courts block two Biden administration COVID vaccine mandates

The Biden administration was blocked on Tuesday from enforcing two mandates requiring millions of American workers to get vaccinated against COVID-19, a key part of its strategy for controlling the spread of the coronavirus. U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty in Monroe, Louisiana, temporarily blocked the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) from enforcing its vaccine mandate for healthcare workers until the court can resolve legal challenges. Doughty's ruling applied nationwide, except in 10 states where the CMS was already prevented from enforcing the rule due to a prior order from a federal judge in St. Louis.
1st Dec 2021 - Reuters

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The life and tragic death of John Eyers – a fitness fanatic who refused the vaccine

Argument aside, it was a great get-together. “John was on really good, funny form,” says Jenny. They went for dinner at a Turkish restaurant and played darts in the garden. John scored a bullseye with his eyes closed and bragged about it all weekend. There was only one other difficult moment, when the family went to a local health club. John refused to wear a mask. The twins had a fight in reception. “I said: ‘John, put your face mask on,’” Jenny remembers. “‘He said: ‘You aren’t my mother – don’t tell me what to do.’” John eventually acquiesced, then made another easy joke. They went swimming and played tennis and forgot about it. A perfect weekend, then. Twins enjoying each other’s company after the enforced separation of the pandemic. Neither had any idea it would be their last time together.
30th Nov 2021 - The Guardian

COVID-19: Public inquiry should examine 'mishandling' by NHS 111 service during first wave of pandemic

Families who have lost loved ones to coronavirus believed the public inquiry into pandemic should examine the alleged "mishandling" of the crisis by the NHS 111 service. The COVID-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group said the role of the telephone advice service in the early days of the crisis was to "alleviate the burden on the NHS", with "horrific consequences". Despite an extra 700 call handlers being added, the service was "swamped" as the first wave hit and operators were making life and death decisions with just 10 weeks of training, it argued.
30th Nov 2021 - Sky News

Vegan dies of Covid-19 after refusing vaccine over animal testing

A vegan man who rejected the Covid-19 vaccine citing concerns about animal cruelty, died regretting his decision, his wife said. Glynn Steel “begged for the vaccine,” his wife Emma Steel said, before he was shifted to life support. But by then it was too late for the vaccine to be effective on him, she said. “The last thing Glynn (Steel) said to me was ‘I have never felt so ill, I wish that I had the vaccine’,” Ms Steel, who is double-vaccinated, told The Sun.
30th Nov 2021 - The Independent

Russian coronavirus-denying monk given prison sentence

A rebel Russian monk who castigated the Kremlin and denied that the coronavirus existed was convicted Tuesday on accusations of encouraging suicides and given a 3½-year prison sentence. The monk, Father Sergiy, was arrested in December 2020 on charges of inciting suicidal actions through sermons in which he urged believers to “die for Russia,” breaching the freedom of conscience and making arbitrary moves. He rejected the accusations and his lawyers said they would appeal Tuesday’s ruling by Moscow’s Ismailovo District Court.
30th Nov 2021 - The Associated Press

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Fauci fires back at Cruz over COVID claims about Chinese lab

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious diseases expert, blasted Sen. Ted Cruz for suggesting that Fauci be investigated for statements he made about COVID-19 and said the criticism by the Texas Republican was an attack on science. “I should be prosecuted? What happened on Jan. 6, senator?” Fauci, who is President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser, said in an interview that aired Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” It was a reference to the violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol by supporters of then-President Donald Trump that was stoked as Cruz helped lead GOP objections to Congress’ certifying the 2020 election results. “I’m just going to do my job and I’m going to be saving lives, and they’re going to be lying,” Fauci said.
29th Nov 2021 - The Associated Press

Judge blocks U.S. COVID-19 vaccine rule for health workers in 10 states

A federal judge on Monday blocked in 10 states a Biden administration vaccine requirement, finding the agency that issued the rule mandating healthcare workers get vaccinated against the coronavirus likely exceeded its authority. The ruling by U.S. District Judge Matthew Schelp in St. Louis prevents the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) from enforcing its vaccine mandate for healthcare workers until the court can hear legal challenges brought by the 10 states. CMS in a statement said it was reviewing the ruling, adding that unvaccinated healthcare staff pose a threat to patient safety.
29th Nov 2021 - Reuters

Russian Vaccine Skeptics Oppose Covid Passes

Russia’s rollout of a nationwide QR code system that would restrict access to public places and transport to encourage vaccination is running into widespread opposition from anti-lockdown activists, even as Russia’s pandemic death toll continues to soar. With vaccine skepticism rife and only around 35% of Russians having received their jabs, moves to make jabs all but obligatory have been met with dismay, as polls show almost half of the population opposing the use of QR codes under any circumstances. “Forcing people to get vaccinated through QR codes violates at least six articles of the Russian Constitution,” said Yevgeny Stupin, a Communist member of the Moscow City Duma who has campaigned against Covid restrictions.
29th Nov 2021 - The Moscow Times

Omicron COVID-19 variant not a worry for Mexico, president says

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Monday that there was no reason to worry in Mexico about the new COVID-19 variant omicron. Speaking in his regular morning news conference, he added that there was no information that existing vaccines are not effective against new variant.
29th Nov 2021 - Reuters

Thousands protest against Czech COVID measures as hospitals fill

Several thousand people protested in Prague against anti-coronavirus restrictions on Sunday as many Czech hospitals halted non-urgent procedures in the face of one of the world's fastest rates of new infections. Gathered in a park overlooking the Czech capital's centre, protesters waved national flags and carried signs with slogans such as: "Get vaccinated? Over your dead bodies".
29th Nov 2021 - Reuters

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Covid: South Africa 'punished' for detecting new Omicron variant

South Africa has complained it is being punished - instead of applauded - for discovering Omicron, a concerning new variant of Covid-19. The foreign ministry made the statement as countries around the world restricted travel from southern Africa as details of the spread emerged. Early evidence suggests Omicron has a higher re-infection risk. The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday that the new variant was "of concern". Several cases have now been identified in Europe - two in the UK, two in Germany, one in Belgium and another one in Italy, while a suspected case was found in the Czech Republic. The new variant has also been detected in Botswana, Hong Kong and Israel. Hundreds of passengers arriving in the Netherlands from South Africa are being tested for the new variant.
27th Nov 2021 - BBC News

U.S. President Biden says not considering new vaccine mandates

U.S. President Joe Biden said on Friday his administration was not considering new vaccine mandates following the discovery of a new COVID-19 variant in South Africa, which led to travel bans from that country and seven other nations. "We don't know a lot about the variant except that is of great concern," Biden told reporters. "I decided that we are going to be cautious."
26th Nov 2021 - Reuters

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Chief Minister criticises 'misinformation spreading online' about NT COVID-19 outbreak

Northern Territory's Chief Minister Michael Gunner has used a COVID-19 update press conference to denounce misinformation spread by anti-vaxxers and overseas conspiracy theorists who, he says, could harm Indigenous Territorians. At the press conference, Mr Gunner announced one new case in the outbreak and the lifting of the hard lockdown for one of the communities that, earlier in the week, had been considered most at risk. Mr Gunner also called it a "positive day" in the current outbreak, which has predominantly impacted Aboriginal Territorians.
25th Nov 2021 - ABC News

Australia to deploy police, military to Solomon Islands as protests spread

Australia will deploy more than 100 police and military personnel to aid the Solomon Islands, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Thursday, as protesters in the Pacific Island nation defied a curfew to protest for a second consecutive day. Morrison said Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare had requested Australian assistance, which Canberra's national security committee quickly approved. Australia will send 23 police officers immediately to assist with riot control, Morrison said, with a further 50 personnel to enforce security at critical infrastructure.
25th Nov 2021 - Reuters

Louisiana spends $27M and counting on vaccine outreach work

Trying to boost one of the nation’s lowest coronavirus vaccination rates, Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards’ administration has spent $27 million and counting on incentive programs, community door-knocking and advertising in hopes of persuading people to get the shot. The Louisiana Department of Health’s vaccine outreach costs continue to grow weekly and are entirely federally financed. The work began in November 2020, according to the agency, and has reached a spending pace of about $2 million a month on its paid media campaign alone. The state has sought to chip away at immunization hesitancy with TV, radio and digital advertising, direct mail to homes, telephone town hall meetings, billboards and a hotline to answer vaccine-related questions. Local organizations have been hired to make phone calls, show up at local events and walk neighborhoods promoting the vaccine benefits.
25th Nov 2021 - The Associated Press

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Solomon Islands enters 36-hour lockdown after protests turn violent

The Solomon Islands imposed a 36-hour lockdown in the capital Honiara after protesters calling for the prime minister to resign looted stores and set fire to buildings, including in the Pacific nation's parliament. Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare called for the lockdown in an address that was broadcast late on Wednesday, after police had earlier deployed tear gas to break up protests. People from the country's most populous island, Malaita, had travelled to the capital in a spillover of anger about a host of domestic issues including unrealised infrastructure promises, media reported.
25th Nov 2021 - Reuters

Seven doctors contract Covid after attending Florida anti-vaccine summit

Seven anti-vaccine doctors fell sick after gathering earlier this month for a Florida “summit” at which alternative treatments for Covid-19 were discussed. “I have been on ivermectin for 16 months, my wife and I,” Dr Bruce Boros told the audience at the event held at the World Equestrian Center in Ocala, adding: “I have never felt healthier in my life.” The 71-year-old cardiologist and staunch anti-vaccine advocate contracted Covid-19 two days later, according to the head event organizer, Dr John Littell. Littell, an Ocala family physician, also told the Daily Beast six other doctors among 800 to 900 participants at the event also tested positive or developed Covid-19 symptoms “within days of the conference”.
24th Nov 2021 - The Guardian

Former Trump adviser claims to ‘expose unvarnished truth’ of Covid in new book

In a new book, former Trump adviser Scott Atlas blames Deborah Birx and Anthony Fauci for “headline-dominating debacles” about quack cures for Covid-19 – but omits to mention the chief proponent of snake-oil treatments, including hydroxychloroquine and disinfectant, was the US president he loyally served.
24th Nov 2021 - The Guardian

Can people in Guadeloupe be persuaded to get the COVID vaccine?

Infections and distrust are causing people on the French Caribbean archipelago of Guadeloupe to resist getting inoculated. Protests against COVID-19 containment measures have descended into violence on the streets of the French Caribbean archipelago of Guadeloupe. French President Emmanuel Macron has called the situation “explosive”. People have been angered by the government after it declared all healthcare workers must be vaccinated against the coronavirus, while everyone has to carry proof they have had the injections. However, people in Guadeloupe are resisting. They say they do not trust the vaccines, the authorities on the island or the French government.
24th Nov 2021 - Aljazeera.com

Martinique: Shots fired at police as anger rises over COVID curbs

Gunshots have been fired at police in the French Caribbean island of Martinique in a sign that unrest triggered by COVID-19 restrictions that rocked the nearby island of Guadeloupe could be spreading. No police were injured and things have calmed since the unrest overnight, a Martinique police official said on Tuesday, but traffic was still slowed by barricades erected by demonstrators.
24th Nov 2021 - Al Jazeera English on MSN.com

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COVID-19 rules fueled ‘explosive’ unrest in Guadeloupe: Macron

Anger about a vaccine mandate in the French overseas territory of Guadeloupe has created an “explosive” situation, President Emmanuel Macron has said. A general strike called by trade unions has entered its second week following nights of looting and violent protests against coronavirus measures imposed by Paris, including health pass rules and mandatory vaccinations for health workers. Macron’s prime minister and lawmakers from the Caribbean archipelago will hold crisis talks in Paris on Monday. Home to roughly 400,000 residents, police in Guadeloupe arrested 38 people overnight on Sunday after curfew violators looted and torched shops and pharmacies. “We just don’t know how far this will still go,” the mayor of Point-a-Pitre, Guadeloupe’s main city, told France Info radio.
23rd Nov 2021 - Aljazeera.com

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Kansas plan on COVID mandates faces bipartisan skepticism

Conservative Kansas legislators are trying to tamp down fears about the cost and other potential problems with their proposal to provide unemployment benefits to workers who lose their jobs for refusing COVID-19 vaccines.
23rd Nov 2021 - The Associated Press

Angry COVID-19 protesters hurl abuse at WA Premier

Flanked by police, Western Australia Premier Mark McGowan had to be led to safety after he was subjected to a barrage of personal insults while leaving a town hall meeting yesterday. COVID-19 protesters demonstrating against the vaccine surrounded the premier at an engagement in Eaton, south of Perth, hurling abuse and chants of "dog" at Mr McGowan. The premier said the protesters, who claimed they were not anti-vaxxers but pro-choice, will only strengthen his resolve. Dozens of protesters waving the Australian red ensign - a red version of the Australian flag adopted by anti-government groups - could be seen on video rushing towards a convoy of government cars. Yesterday's demonstrations are the latest in a spate of protests and threats targeting the premier, whose office has confirmed no one was harmed in yesterday's encounter. Protesters have reportedly issued death and rape threats to Mr McGowan's staff members.
22nd Nov 2021 - 9News

NT Chief Minister Michael Gunner labels vaccinated people opposed to COVID-19 mandates as 'anti-vaxxers'

A fiery Northern Territory Chief Minister has accused opponents of vaccine mandates of being "anti-vaxxers", even if they have willingly received the COVID-19 jab themselves. Michael Gunner's comments at a press conference today are in sharp contrast to the Prime Minister, who has called on state and territory governments to allow Australians to "move forward with the freedoms that should be theirs". The NT — which is dealing with a growing coronavirus outbreak — has one of the country's strictest vaccination mandates, which has helped lift the jurisdiction's double-dose rate to 81 per cent. Under the mandate, most workers were required to have had at least one jab by November 12, and a second dose before Christmas.
22nd Nov 2021 - ABC News

Romania is battling its worst Covid-19 wave yet. Wide suspicion over vaccines isn't helping

"It's relentless -- relentless," sighed nurse Claudiu Ionita, standing in front of a line of gurneys in Bucharest University Hospital's morgue. On each gurney lay a body inside a black plastic bag. The morgue has a capacity for 15 bodies, but on the day CNN visited, it had received 41. The excess bodies filled the corridor outside, while wails echoed from within the morgue. A woman had been allowed inside for a final glimpse of her father. Bucharest University Hospital is the Romanian capital's largest medical facility treating Covid-19 patients and is struggling through the country's fourth wave, its worst yet. "I never thought, when I started this job, that I would live through something like this," said Ionita. "I never thought such a catastrophe could happen, that we'd end up sending whole families to their graves."
22nd Nov 2021 - CNN

Clashes break out in Brussels in protests over coronavirus restrictions

Police and protesters clashed in the streets of Brussels on Sunday in demonstrations over government-imposed COVID-19 restrictions, with police firing water cannon and tear gas at demonstrators throwing rocks and smoke bombs, witnesses said. About 35,000 people took part in demonstrations, police said, which began peacefully before violence broke out. Protesters wearing black hoods threw stones at police as they advanced with water cannon at the main junction in front of the European Union Commission headquarters, Reuters journalists said.
22nd Nov 2021 - Reuters

COVID-19 unrest has created 'explosive' situation in Guadeloupe, says Macron

French President Emmanuel Macron said violence in Guadeloupe over COVID-19 restrictions had created a "very explosive" situation, as a general strike entered a second week on Monday and many stores remained shuttered after nighttime looting. Hours before Macron's prime minister and lawmakers from the Caribbean archipelago were to hold crisis talks in Paris, there were signs of protests spreading to Martinique, another French overseas territory 190 km (120 miles) south of Guadeloupe.
22nd Nov 2021 - Reuters

French presidential hopeful Zemmour says COVID fears are overblown

Eric Zemmour, the hard-right French political commentator and likely presidential candidate, said on Monday that fears about the new coronavirus had been overblown. Zemmour's stance contrasts with the position of governments across Europe, which are reintroducing restrictions on movement to curb a fifth wave of the pandemic, with Austria on Monday going into a full lockdown. "We need to put this epidemic back in the right proportion. We have played a lot on people's fears. We have gone too far, and we've been going too far since the beginning," Zemmour told France Info radio.
22nd Nov 2021 - Reuters

Third night of rioting erupts over Dutch COVID-19 rules

Riots broke out in cities across the Netherlands on Sunday, the third night in a row that police clashed with mobs of angry youths who set fires and threw rocks to protest COVID-19 restrictions. Unrest was reported in locations including Leeuwarden and Groningen in the north, the eastern town of Enschede and Tilburg in the south. In Enschede, where an emergency ordinance was issued, police used batons to try to disperse a crowd, according to video on social media. In Leeuwarden, police vans were pelted with rocks and black-clad groups chanted and set off flares.
22nd Nov 2021 - Reuters

Dutch COVID riots ‘pure violence’ by ‘idiots’: PM Rutte

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte has criticised three nights of riots over anti-COVID measures, calling the unrest “pure violence” by “idiots” and vowed to prosecute those responsible. The riots in several cities around the country since Friday were “violence under the guise of protest”, the prime minister said. He added he would always defend the right to protest, but “I will never accept is that idiots use pure violence against people … who keep this country safe,” he told Dutch media.
22nd Nov 2021 - AlJazeera

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Two in hospital after police fire on Dutch COVID-19 protesters

Two people were being treated in hospital in the Dutch city of Rotterdam on Saturday after they were seriously injured when police fired shots during a violent protest against COVID-19 measures, authorities said. Crowds of several hundred rioters torched cars, set off fireworks and threw rocks at police during the protests on Friday evening. Police responded with warning shots and water canons. Rotterdam police said on Twitter Saturday that 51 people had been arrested, half of whom were under 18.
20th Nov 2021 - Reuters

Tens of thousands march in Vienna against COVID measures before lockdown

Tens of thousands of people, many of them far-right supporters, protested in Vienna on Saturday against coronavirus restrictions a day after Austria's government announced a new lockdown and said vaccines would be made compulsory next year. Whistling, blowing horns and banging drums, crowds streamed into Heroes' Square in front of the Hofburg, the former imperial palace in central Vienna, in the early afternoon, one of several protest locations.
20th Nov 2021 - Reuters

Two wounded as Dutch police fire shots at protest over new COVID-19 restrictions

Crowds of rioters in the port city of Rotterdam torched cars and threw rocks at police who responded with shots and water canon, as protests against COVID-19 measures turned violent on Friday night. "We fired warning shots and there were also direct shots fired because the situation was life-threatening," police spokesperson Patricia Wessels told Reuters. "We know that at least two people were wounded, probably as a result of the warning shots, but we need to investigate the exact causes further," she said.
20th Nov 2021 - Reuters

Austria infuriates many with full lockdown as Germany warns it may follow suit

Austria will become the first country in western Europe to reimpose a full COVID-19 lockdown, it said on Friday as neighbouring Germany warned it may follow suit, sending shivers through financial markets worried about the economic fallout. Europe has again become the epicentre of the pandemic, accounting for half of global cases and deaths. A fourth wave of infections has plunged Germany, Europe's largest economy, into a national emergency, Health Minister Jens Spahn said, warning that vaccinations alone will not cut case numbers.
20th Nov 2021 - Reuters

Dutch police fire warning shots as COVID protests rock Rotterdam

Dutch police opened fire on protesters and seven people were injured in rioting that erupted in downtown Rotterdam at a demonstration against recently introduced COVID-19 restrictions and government plans to restrict access for unvaccinated people to some venues. The Dutch city’s Mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb told reporters in the early hours of Saturday morning that “on a number of occasions the police felt it necessary to draw their weapons to defend themselves” as rioters ran rampage through the port city’s central shopping district, setting fires and throwing rocks and fireworks at officers in what Aboutaleb called “an orgy of violence”. “[The police] shot at protesters, people were injured,” Aboutaleb said. He did not have details on the injuries. Police also fired warning shots. A number of police officers also were injured in the violence and officers arrested dozens of people and expect to arrest more after studying video footage from security cameras, Aboutaleb said.
20th Nov 2021 - Aljazeera.com

Netherlands Police Fire Shots as Rioters Protest Covid Curbs

Violent demonstrations broke out in Rotterdam over the Netherlands’ virus restrictions, with the police firing warning shots and deploying a water canon to push back the crowd. The police said in a statement that two people were injured “related to the fired shots” but said details of the injuries were unclear. Tweets showed at least one car on fire with a bicycle tossed on top, amid the anger of hundreds of protesters, some reported to be soccer hooligans.
20th Nov 2021 - Bloomberg

Austria Braces for Protests After Announcing Full Lockdown and Vaccine Mandate

Pockets of unrest are spreading across Europe as governments return to strict measures like lockdowns to reverse the latest coronavirus wave. New infections are at record levels and some countries, including Germany, the Czech Republic and Greece, are clamping down on the unvaccinated as health services are pushed to the limit. Austria has gone further, with a nationwide lockdown to start Monday. Violent demonstrations broke out in Rotterdam Friday night over the Netherlands’ virus restrictions. Police fired warning shots and broke up the crowd with a water cannon. At least seven injuries were reported. The Dutch government has proposed excluding negative tests from the national health pass, allowing only vaccination or recovery from infection.
20th Nov 2021 - Bloomberg

Biden vaccine rule faces roster of top conservative lawyers at 6th Circuit

Veteran appellate lawyers who have pursued high-profile conservative cases are lining up at the 6th U.S. Circuit of Appeals to challenge the Biden administration's COVID-19 vaccination requirement. Among them is San Francisco-based lawyer Harmeet Dhillon, who is representing conservative media outlet The Daily Wire at the 6th Circuit and who represents the founder of Project Veritas in other matters. Dhillon has led a number of challenges to pandemic-related restrictions that California imposed to reduce the spread of the virus. She filed one of the first vaccine petitions at the appeals court contesting the vaccine rule requiring employers with 100 workers or more to mandate vaccination or implement a mask policy and weekly testing.
20th Nov 2021 - Reuters

Pro and anti-vaccination protesters take to Australia streets

Several thousand people took to Australia's streets on Saturday protesting COVID-19 vaccination mandates, while smaller crowds gathered to support the measures that have elevated the country to be one of the most inoculated in the world. Nearly 85% of Australians aged 16 and above have been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus as of Nov. 19. While nationwide vaccinations are voluntary, states and territories have mandated vaccinations for many occupations and barred the unvaccinated from activities such as dining out and concerts.
20th Nov 2021 - Reuters

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 19th Nov 2021

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The Australian Open’s Vaccine Mandate Could Keep Novak Djokovic at Home

When Novak Djokovic won the Paris Masters this month, he rounded out a tennis season for the ages. Not only did he win three major titles to join Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal at 20 apiece—he also surpassed Nadal’s mark for Masters titles, and finished as world No. 1 for a record seventh straight season. But if his 2021 ended with an exclamation mark, 2022 will open with a question: Will Djokovic play at the Australian Open? The doubts aren’t due to any injury or dip in form—in fact, Djokovic is playing some of the best tennis of his life. Instead, he is on a collision course with Australian vaccine mandates. Local officials have said that they want this to be the first Grand Slam tournament to require that all participants be vaccinated against Covid-19, without a quarantine option for unvaccinated players.
18th Nov 2021 - The Wall Street Journal

Scott Morrison demands states like Queensland drop Covid-19 vaccine mandates

Queensland will introduce jab passports to enter hospitality venues next month. Scott Morrison has said jab mandates should not be in place to enter venues. Mandatory jabs should only apply to healthcare workers, he said on Thursday. It comes as Prime Minister faces pressure from pro-choice MPs in his party
18th Nov 2021 - Daily Mail

Novak Djokovic insists ‘freedom of choice essential’ on Covid vaccine

World number one Novak Djokovic has reiterated his stand about freedom of choice over taking the Covid vaccine as suspense grows over his participation at the Australian Open in January. Serbian Djokovic has repeatedly declined to disclose his vaccination status and said last month that he was unsure if he would defend his title at Melbourne Park, “things being as they are”. Government officials of the state of Victoria, where the major takes place in Melbourne, have said unvaccinated players will be barred from the tournament.
18th Nov 2021 - The Independent

Florida GOP limits vaccine mandates, flouting White House

Florida Republicans approved a sweeping bill Wednesday to hobble coronavirus vaccine mandates in businesses, rejecting claims that they were sacrificing public health to hand Gov. Ron DeSantis a win in his fight against White House virus rules. Lawmakers in the GOP-controlled statehouse expedited the measure, along with a package of virus bills, after hours of debate in which Republicans maintained they were protecting workers from onerous mandates by the federal government. “If you want to get a vaccine, you can get a vaccine. If you don’t want to get a vaccine, you can choose not to get a vaccine,” said Sen. Danny Burgess, a Republican. “That’s the entire purpose of this bill, trusting Floridians and allowing us to make that choice for ourselves.”
18th Nov 2021 - The Associated Press

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 18th Nov 2021

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The Ottawa Senators Have a 100% Vaccination Rate—and 40% of the Team Has Tested Positive for Covid

A substantial Covid-19 outbreak that this week has sidelined the National Hockey League’s Ottawa Senators—despite the entire team being vaccinated—carries a warning for the coming months of professional sports: even with blanket immunization, pandemic disruptions are far from over. The NHL announced the suspension of the Senators’ season through at least Nov. 20 after 10 players and one coach tested positive in recent days. The team says it is fully vaccinated, but hasn’t specified which shots players have received.
18th Nov 2021 - The Wall Street Journal

Nearly 100 Maryland students get wrong COVID vaccine dose

Nearly 100 Maryland elementary school students received an incorrect dose of the coronavirus vaccine at a clinic last week, health officials announced Monday. Officials were notifying the parents of 98 students at South Lake Elementary School by telephone that doses of vaccine administered at a clinic at the Montgomery Village school Nov. 10 were diluted more than recommended, the Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services said in a news release. Students can get additional doses at a clinic Wednesday. A staffer realized their mistake and notified officials, the department said. State officials and Pfizer recommended an additional dose for students as soon as possible. Acting county Health Officer Dr. James Bridgers said staff already received more training on children’s doses.
18th Nov 2021 - The Associated Press

Lawsuits challenging Biden workplace vaccine rule sent to 6th Circuit

GOP opposition to vaccine mandates extends far beyond Covid-19

Right-wing politicians’ resistance to vaccine mandates is extending far beyond Covid-19 immunizations, a startling new development that carries vast implications for the future of public health. In Idaho, a lawmaker introduced a bill that would define vaccine mandates — of any kind — as a form of assault. In Florida, a prominent state senator has called for a review of all vaccine requirements, including those for immunizations that have enjoyed wide public acceptance for decades, like polio and the measles, mumps, and rubella shot. And in Montana, the Republican governor recently signed into law a new bill that forbids businesses, including hospitals, from enforcing any vaccination requirements as a condition of employment.
17th Nov 2021 - STAT News

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 17th Nov 2021

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Amazon to Pay $500,000 in California Over Covid Notifications

Amazon has agreed to pay $500,000 to help enforce California’s consumer protection laws after the company was accused of concealing Covid-19 case numbers from its workers, officials said on Monday. The judgment, which is subject to court approval, is the first of its kind nationwide and is in line with a California “right to know” law that was designed to keep workers safe during the pandemic, according to a news release from the attorney general’s office. Under the arrangement, Amazon must also tell its warehouse workers within a day about the exact number of new Covid-19 cases in their workplaces, ensure that notifications adequately inform workers of the company’s disinfection and safety plans, tell health officials about new cases and submit to monitoring by the attorney general’s office regarding its Covid-19 notifications.
16th Nov 2021 - The New York Times

'They See Us as the Enemy': Schools Nurses Face Pandemic Rage

When a junior high school student in western Oregon tested positive for the coronavirus last month, Sherry McIntyre, a school nurse, quarantined two dozen of the student’s football teammates. The players had spent time together in the locker room unmasked, and, according to local guidelines, they could not return to school for at least 10 days. Some parents took the news poorly. They told Ms. McIntyre that she should lose her nursing license or accused her of violating their children’s educational rights. Another nurse in the district faced similar ire when she quarantined the volleyball team. This fall, after facing repeated hostility from parents, they started locking their office doors.
16th Nov 2021 - The New York Times

Court lottery gives Biden administration a chance to revive COVID vaccine mandate

A judicial panel on Tuesday consolidated 34 lawsuits challenging the Biden administration's workplace COVID-19 vaccine rule in the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, a venue favored by opponents of the rule. President Joe Biden announced plans for the vaccine requirement in September, seeking to stem a surge in COVID-19 cases and get more people back to work. The Cincinnati appeals court was chosen randomly and will take up the challenges to the rule, which compels employers with at least 100 workers to mandate COVID-19 vaccination or weekly testing combined with face masks at work
16th Nov 2021 - Reuters on MSN.com

Covid scammers cash in as they exploit pandemic with fake vaccine passport emails and texts

Millions of Britons have been targeted by Covid passport scams. Some received emails which looked like they were from their GP inviting them to claim Covid passport. Others had texts telling them to click a link to buy a Covid passport
16th Nov 2021 - Daily Mail

Greek health sector workers protest as hospitals struggle with COVID spike

Greek public health sector workers protested in Athens over pay and conditions on Monday as hospitals struggled with a new surge in COVID-19 cases and authorities considered further restrictions.The protesters said they were underpaid, overworked and understaffed. They called for more hirings, for the government to include them on a list of hazardous professions which receive hazard pay benefits, and for private doctors to be ordered to help. A decision by the government to suspend unvaccinated health sector workers has increased staff shortages, they said. Greece made vaccinations mandatory for nursing home staff in July and for healthcare workers in September.
16th Nov 2021 - Reuters

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 16th Nov 2021

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Maori Ask Anti-Vaccine Protesters to Stop Using Ceremonial Dance

Ngati Toa, an indigenous tribe in New Zealand, denounced a group of anti-vaccine protesters for performing a ceremonial Maori dance known as the Ka Mate haka during a demonstration in Wellington on November 9th. “As the descendants of Te Rauparaha, we insist that protesters stop using our taonga immediately,” said senior member of Ngati Toa Taku Parai, in a statement on Radio Waatea this week. “We do not support their position.” Last week, thousands gathered across New Zealand to protest Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s vaccine mandate, which requires all healthcare and education workers be fully vaccinated. An estimated 3,000 marched to the Wellington parliament building last Tuesday demanding an end to vaccine mandates and Covid 19 lockdowns. During those demonstrations, some performed the Ka Mate haka, a dance used before some rugby games.
15th Nov 2021 - Bloomberg

OSHA, South Dakota pork plant settle coronavirus complaint

Federal workplace safety regulators announced Monday that they have reached an agreement with Smithfield Foods to settle a contested citation of the company’s coronavirus safety measures during a massive outbreak last year at a South Dakota pork processing plant. Under the agreement, Virginia-based Smithfield Foods will develop a plan to prevent infectious diseases at meatpacking plants nationwide and pay a $13,500 fine. Smithfield’s Sioux Falls plant was one the nation’s worst COVID-19 hotspots during the early days of the pandemic. By June 16, 2020, four workers were dead and nearly 1,300 had tested positive for the virus, according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. After an investigation, the federal agency said Smithfield did not do enough to space workers out or provide other safety measures such as face coverings or physical barriers.
15th Nov 2021 - The Associated Press

Alaska doctors seek COVID-19 misinformation investigation

Alaska doctors plan to ask the State Medical Board to investigate concerns about the spread of misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines and treatments by other physicians. Merijeanne Moore, a private practice psychiatrist, said she drafted the letter out of concern over an event about COVID-19 treatments that featured prominent vaccine skeptics in Anchorage last month, the Anchorage Daily News reported. Moore said Saturday that nearly 100 doctors had signed the letter and more could before she plans to submit the letter on Tuesday. “We are writing out of concern that medical misinformation about the COVID-19 vaccine and treatment is being spread in Alaska, including by physicians,” the letter stated.
15th Nov 2021 - Associated Press on MSN.com

Families fight over covid vaccines as Thanksgiving approaches

With Thanksgiving approaching, infections high or on the rise in many parts of the country and the vaccines now widely available to children, family breaches over immunization status are reaching new levels of rancor and intensity. Summer is over, and fall is ending — seasons when many gatherings could be held outdoors. Now American families must simultaneously confront the time of year when all respiratory viruses spread most easily and the challenge posed by loved ones who have rejected the best way to protect themselves — and others — from a respiratory virus that has claimed more than 750,000 lives in the United States.
15th Nov 2021 - The Washington Post

Māori tribe tells anti-Covid vaccine protesters to stop using its haka

Anti-vaccine protesters in New Zealand have been told to stop using the “ka mate” haka by the tribe who have ownership of it. The haka, a Māori war dance made internationally famous by its performance by the All Blacks at rugby matches, is considered a cultural treasure, or taonga, in New Zealand. It was performed last week by anti-vaccination and “freedom” protesters, who marched in their thousands to parliament. Ngāti Toa, the tribe that has legal guardianship of the ka mate haka, said on Monday that it “condemns the use of the Ka Mate haka to push and promote anti-Covid-19-vaccination messages” and “request that anti-vaccination and anti-mandate protesters cease the use of Ka Mate at their protests immediately”.
15th Nov 2021 - The Guardian

‘Detox’ routines won’t undo Covid vaccine, experts tell anti-vaxxers

Medical experts are speaking out against Covid-19 vaccine “detoxes” that some inaccurately claim can remove the effects of vaccinations received under mandates and other public health rulings. In one TikTok video that has received hundreds of thousands of views, Carrie Madej, an osteopath based in Georgia, falsely claims a bath containing baking soda, epsom salts and the cleaning agent borax will “detox the vaxx” from anyone who has received a jab. Experts say such a bath could irritate the skin and eyes – but will not remove the effects of a Covid vaccine. In Kansas, Dana Hawkinson, medical director of infection prevention and control for the state university health system, told the Kansas City Star borax was “potentially caustic and harmful”.
15th Nov 2021 - The Guardian

New Zealand's Māori ask anti-vaccine protesters to stop using haka

A Māori tribe that claims New Zealand's most famous haka as its heritage on Monday told anti-vaccine protesters to stop using the traditional performance to promote their message. Vaccine protesters have performed the "Ka Mate", a Māori haka composed in about 1820 by Te Rauparaha, war leader of the Ngāti Toa tribe, at their rallies over the past few weeks against vaccine mandates and pandemic restrictions. "We do not support their position and we do not want our tupuna or our iwi associated with their messages," the Ngati Toa tribe, or "iwi" in Māori, said in a statement, referring to the tribe's ancestry or "tupuna". "Our message to protesters who wish to use Ka Mate is to use a different haka. We do not endorse the use of Ka Mate for this purpose."
15th Nov 2021 - Reuters

Florida lawmakers to meet in special session over vaccine mandates

Florida lawmakers will meet in a special legislative session Monday, called by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis with the goal of thwarting coronavirus vaccine mandates. In a week-long session, the lawmakers, largely dominated by the Republican party, are slated to consider four bills that would impose new penalties on businesses and local governments that require workers to get vaccinated against COVID-19, according to the agenda released last week by the governor's office.
15th Nov 2021 - Reuters

Australia vaccine-mandate protesters compare state govt to Nazis - media

Several thousand people rallied in Melbourne against new vaccination mandates on Saturday, with a few comparing the state government to Nazis and calling for violence against politicians, local media said. In Australia, where 83% of people aged 16 and above have been fully inoculated against the coronavirus, nationwide vaccinations are voluntary. But states and territories have mandated vaccinations for many occupations and barred the unvaccinated from activities such as dining out and concerts.
15th Nov 2021 - Reuters

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 15th Nov 2021

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Biden's Shot-or-Test Mandate Dealt Another Blow by Fifth Circuit

A U.S. appeals court has extended its Nov. 6 order pausing President Joe Biden’s shot-or-test mandate for businesses with 100 or more employees. The ruling, issued today by the New Orleans-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, solidifies its earlier order blocking implementation of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s emergency regulation. Its ruling comes ahead of a Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation lottery to determine which federal appeals court will be assigned to adjudicate the many legal challenges to the measure now pending across the country. The lottery is slated for Nov. 16. In a 22-page opinion, the court had harsh words for the vaccine mandate. The mandate “threatens to substantially burden the liberty interests of reluctant individual recipients put to a choice between their job(s) and their jab(s),” the court said.
13th Nov 2021 - Bloomberg

'Caregivers are getting burned out by the pandemic': Labor shortages are taking a huge toll on nursing homes

The U.S. is experiencing one of its worst labor shortages in decades. It’s likely the reason why your pizza took longer than usual to get delivered or why your flight may have been canceled. And it’s also the reason why you’re probably going to have a tough time getting a friend or loved one into an assisted living facility or nursing home, and why you may be more concerned about a vulnerable family member currently residing in one. Since the beginning of the pandemic, some 221,000 people have left the industry. That amounts to a 14% drop in employment, according to a report published by the American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living, trade organizations that collectively represent some 14,000 nursing homes and assisted living communities across the country. Among all health-care sectors, nursing homes have lost the most jobs since before the pandemic, according to the report, which is based on Bureau of Labor Statistics data.
12th Nov 2021 - MarketWatch

Covid-19 Vaccines Are Now Reaching Poor Countries, but Not People’s Arms

After months of severe shortages, Covid-19 vaccine supplies for the world’s poorest nations are finally ramping up. But many countries say they will struggle to get them into people’s arms, as they grapple with the potential delivery of more vaccines in the coming weeks than they have received so far this year. Authorities lack funds to conduct public awareness campaigns and set up more vaccination sites, including the necessary fridges and freezers to store the shots. Misinformation and low case numbers have also left many in poor countries skeptical of the shots. Just 4.2% of people in low-income countries have received a first dose. Across Africa, only 6.3% of people are fully vaccinated, according to Our World in Data, a project based at Oxford University.
12th Nov 2021 - The Wall Street Journal

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 12th Nov 2021

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LAPD Union's Covid-19 Vaccine Mandate Challenge Rejected by Judge

The union representing Los Angeles Police Department officers failed to win a court order blocking a mandate that all city workers be vaccinated against Covid-19. California Superior Court Judge Mitchell L. Beckloff on Wednesday denied the union’s request for a temporary restraining order on the mandate, which sets a Dec. 18 deadline for vaccination. The judge didn’t give a reason for denying the union’s request for a temporary restraining order. The union will get another shot at blocking the mandate at a Dec. 12 hearing before Beckloff on its request for preliminary injunction. A group of LAPD officers was also previously denied a restraining order in federal court.
11th Nov 2021 - Bloomberg

Judge rules Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's ban on school mask mandates violates federal law

A federal judge in Texas ruled Wednesday that Gov. Greg Abbott’s executive order banning mask mandates in schools violates the Americans with Disabilities Act, setting the stage for school districts in the state to decide whether they want to impose mask rules. U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel wrote in a 29-page ruling that the ADA, a federal law enacted in 1990, supersedes Abbott's July order banning facial coverings in schools.
11th Nov 2021 - NBC News

Judge overrules Texas governor's ban on mask mandates in schools

A federal judge overruled Texas Governor Greg Abbott's ban on mask mandates in schools, clearing the path for districts to issue their own rules. Judge Lee Yeakel of U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas ruled the governor's order violated the Americans with Disabilities Act, a landmark 1990 federal law that includes protections for students with special needs. In his ruling, Yeakel said the executive order put children with disabilities at risk. "The spread of COVID-19 poses an even greater risk for children with special health needs," the judge said in the order. "Children with certain underlying conditions who contract COVID-19 are more likely to experience severe acute biological effects and to require admission to a hospital and the hospital's intensive-care unit."
11th Nov 2021 - Reuters

Thousands of care home staff to lose their jobs as mandatory COVID-19 vaccine deadline passes

As of Friday, all care home workers in England must have been double jabbed, unless they are medically exempt, and the latest NHS figures show more than 60,000 staff have not been recorded as fully vaccinated as of 31 October.
11th Nov 2021 - Sky News

Ten states sue Biden administration over COVID-19 vaccine mandate for U.S. health workers

Ten Republican state attorneys general sued on Wednesday to stop the Biden administration's requirement that millions of U.S. health workers get vaccinated against the coronavirus, saying it would worsen staff shortages. President Joe Biden, a Democrat, said last Thursday he will enforce the mandate starting Jan. 4. The attorneys general of Missouri, Nebraska, Arkansas, Kansas, Iowa, Wyoming, Alaska, South Dakota, North Dakota, and New Hampshire jointly filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri in St. Louis.
11th Nov 2021 - Reuters

Moderna COVID-19 vaccine patent dispute headed to court, U.S. NIH head says

U.S. National Institutes of Health scientists played "a major role" in developing Moderna Inc's (MRNA.O) COVID-19 vaccine and the agency intends to defend its claim as co-owner of patents on the shot, NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins told Reuters on Wednesday. In a story first reported by the New York Times on Tuesday, Moderna excluded three NIH scientists as co-inventors of a central patent for the company's multibillion-dollar COVID-19 vaccine in its application filed in July.
11th Nov 2021 - Reuters

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 11th Nov 2021

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Pfizer CEO says people who spread vaccine disinformation are 'criminals'

Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said Tuesday that people who spread disinformation about coronavirus vaccines are “criminals.” Bourla, in an interview with the Atlantic Council think tank, said a “very small” group has been responsible for spreading vaccine disinformation to the millions who remain hesitant about getting vaccinated.
10th Nov 2021 - The Washington Post

Fewer Than 1% of NYC Workers on Leave Due to Vaccine Mandate

Emmanuelle Pinault, Director of City Diplomacy, C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group; Marvin Rees, Mayor of Bristol and C40-MMC Task Force Member; and Raphaela Schweiger, Program Director Migration, Global Issues, Robert Bosch Stiftung explore how city governments can deliver inclusive climate action with Bloomberg’s Mallika Kapur.
10th Nov 2021 - Bloomberg

Singapore will stop covering the medical bills of unvaccinated COVID-19 patients

Singapore's government has been covering the medical bills of COVID-19 patients throughout the pandemic. But it says unvaccinated people will soon be on their own. Those who are "unvaccinated by choice" will have to start paying for their own COVID-19 treatment starting Dec. 8, the Ministry of Health announced on Monday, citing the strain they are putting on the nation's health care system. "Currently, unvaccinated persons make up a sizeable majority of those who require intensive inpatient care, and disproportionately contribute to the strain on our healthcare resources," it said in a statement.
10th Nov 2021 - NPR

COVID-19: One of UK's longest-suffering coronavirus patients confronted by conspiracy theorist in hospital

Cancer survivor Andy Watts, 40, fell seriously ill with COVID in December and spent 10 months in hospital. He tells Sky News that some visitors in his ward believed the virus was a hoax despite his ordeal.
10th Nov 2021 - Sky News

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 10th Nov 2021

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APEC affirms stand against vaccine nationalism, driven to manage climate change

Members of Asia-Pacific trade group APEC have reiterated a "strong stance" against vaccine nationalism to support the region's recovery from the pandemic and are committed to tackle climate change, host New Zealand said on Wednesday. New Zealand's Minister of Foreign Affairs Nanaia Mahuta and Minister of Trade Damien O'Connor said all 21 Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) member countries had contributed to the region's pandemic response and work towards progress on trade.
10th Nov 2021 - Reuters

Don't wait on vaccine rules, White House tells companies amid legal fight

The White House on Monday urged employers to go ahead and push worker vaccinations, as legal challenges to President Joe Biden's vaccine rule work their way through the courts. A U.S. federal appeals court issued a stay Saturday freezing the Biden administration's efforts to require COVID-19 vaccines for workers at U.S. companies with at least 100 employees or weekly tests, citing "grave statutory and constitutional" issues with the rule. The ruling from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals comes after numerous Republican-led states filed legal challenges against the new rule, which is set to take effect on Jan 4.
9th Nov 2021 - Reuters

Covid-19 vaccine debate takes a strange turn

The Covid-19 vaccine debate is getting weird. On Twitter, Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz accused Big Bird of pushing "Government propaganda...for your 5 year old!" after the Muppet tweeted about getting the shot in his wing. CNN aired a special on Saturday with "Sesame Street" to explain the vaccine to children ages 5-11, who are now eligible to get the shot. Watch Rosita, a green Muppet, overcome her fear and bravely get her first Covid-19 vaccine dose.
9th Nov 2021 - CNN

Singapore to start charging Covid patients who are ‘unvaccinated by choice’

Singapore will no longer pay the Covid-19 medical bills for people “unvaccinated by choice”, the government said, as the country grapples with a surge in cases. The government currently covers the full Covid medical costs for all Singaporeans, as well as permanent residents and long-term visa holders, unless they test positive soon after returning home from overseas. However from 8 December, the government said it will “begin charging Covid-19 patients who are unvaccinated by choice”.
9th Nov 2021 - The Guardian

EXCLUSIVE Boeing U.S. worker vaccine exemption requests top 11000 -sources

The number of Boeing Co employees seeking a vaccine exemption on religious or medical grounds has reached more than 11,000 - or nearly 9% of its U.S. workforce - a level many times higher than executives initially estimated, people familiar with the matter told Reuters. The widespread reluctance has left executives scrambling for a strategy that keeps employees safe and complies with President Joe Biden's vaccine mandate for federal contractors, but avoids an exodus of engineering and factory labor, the people said.
9th Nov 2021 - Reuters

Israel to rule on child COVID vaccines out of public eye amid anti-vax threats

Israeli health officials will decide behind closed doors on whether to allow child COVID-19 vaccinations, citing concerns that decision makers would otherwise not speak freely due to aggressive anti-vax rhetoric by members of the public. Israel has been a world leader in vaccinations and more than 40% of the population has received a third shot. Following the green light given by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for using the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine on children aged 5 to 11, Israel's Health Ministry is set on Wednesday to hold a decisive discussion among experts on whether to follow suit.
9th Nov 2021 - Reuters

U.S. tells court that blocking COVID-19 vaccine rule to cost lives

The Biden administration told a court on Monday it has clear authority to impose a COVID-19 vaccine rule on employers with at least 100 staff and that a court's order on Saturday blocking the rule could cost dozens or even hundreds of lives daily. People are increasingly returning to work and they risk accelerating the spread of COVID-19 without the rule, said the filing in the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals by government lawyers. "With the reopening of workplaces and the emergence of the highly transmissible Delta variant, the threat to workers is ongoing and overwhelming," said the filing.
9th Nov 2021 - Reuters

Thousands protest in New Zealand against COVID-19 rules

New Zealand beefed up security measures at its parliament on Tuesday as thousands of people gathered to protest against COVID-19 vaccine mandates and government lockdowns aimed at controlling the pandemic. All but two entrances to the parliament building, known as the Beehive, were closed off in unprecedented security measures, as mostly unmasked protesters marched through central Wellington and congregated outside parliament. While the demonstration was peaceful, many people were seen holding signs and placards with messages like "Freedom" and "Kiwis are not lab rats" and shouting slogans as they demanded the government roll back compulsory vaccination and lift restrictions.
9th Nov 2021 - Reuters

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 9th Nov 2021

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He nearly died of covid, then apologized to hospital staff for not being vaccinated: ‘It all could’ve been avoided’

Richard Soliz developed multiple blood clots on his lungs after catching the coronavirus this summer, and the staff at the Seattle hospital where he was being treated told him they were concerned one might move to his heart or brain.
8th Nov 2021 - Washington Post on MSN.com

N. Ireland official suing Van Morrison over COVID criticism

Northern Ireland’s health minister is suing Van Morrison after the singer called him “very dangerous” for his handling of coronavirus restrictions. The Belfast-born singer opposes restrictions to curb the spread of the virus, and has released several songs criticizing lockdowns. He denounced Northern Ireland Health Minister Robin Swann during a gathering at Belfast’s Europa Hotel in June after a Morrison concert was canceled at the last minute because of virus restrictions. The defamation suit relates to three incidents in which Morrison criticized Swann, calling him “a fraud” and “very dangerous.”
8th Nov 2021 - The Associated Press

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 8th Nov 2021

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U.S. federal appeals court freezes Biden's vaccine rule for companies

A U.S. federal appeals court issued a stay Saturday freezing the Biden administration's efforts to require workers at U.S. companies with at least 100 employees be vaccinated against COVID-19 or be tested weekly, citing "grave statutory and constitutional" issues with the rule. The ruling from the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit comes after numerous Republican-led states filed legal challenges against the new rule, which is set to take effect on Jan 4.
6th Nov 2021 - Reuters

Unvaccinated in Greece face new restrictions as COVID cases soar

Queues formed outside shops in Athens on Saturday on the first day of new restrictions to curb soaring coronavirus infections which require the unvaccinated to have negative COVID-19 tests. COVID-19 infections in Greece hit a new daily high almost every day in November, prompting authorities to announce new measures on Tuesday, which also restrict access to cafes and restaurants, state services and banks to those who are either vaccinated or have a negative test.
6th Nov 2021 - Reuters

Republican governors lead attack on Biden vaccine mandate

Republican governors began filing lawsuits on Friday to stop the Biden administration's requirement that nearly 2 million U.S. employers get workers tested or vaccinated for COVID-19, saying it trampled civil liberties. After President Joe Biden, a Democrat, said on Thursday he will enforce the mandate starting Jan. 4, the states of Florida, Georgia and Alabama jointly sued in the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta. "The federal government can't just unilaterally impose medical policy under the guise of workplace regulation," Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said at a press conference on Thursday.
6th Nov 2021 - Reuters

How a vaccine-hesitant sheriff became a vocal proponent

Every morning before the dew has dried on Andre Brunson’s 80 acres of land along Alabama’s Uphapee Creek, he swings his pickup truck out on to the gravel road leading from his house in Alabama. When heading for his eight-hour shift, he packs his bulletproof vest, gun, flashlight and now – since coronavirus sent him to the hospital in January – an asthma inhaler and a nebulizer. Brunson lives in Tuskegee, where he’s the county sheriff. “I’m a big strong guy and I just thought it was never going to affect me. Once I got Covid I realized I’m just like everybody else,” he said.
5th Nov 2021 - The Guardian

Man dies two weeks after sharing video boasting about Covid-19 symptoms but saying virus wasn’t real

A Canadian man has died two weeks after he boasted about having Covid-19 symptoms while insisting the virus isn’t real in a livestreamed video. Mak Parhar was found dead by paramedics at his home in New Westminster, British Columbia, on Thursday morning. His cause of death is still under investigation, Global News reported. Mr Parhar, who was an outspoken opponent of Canada’s mask and vaccine mandates throughout the pandemic, dismissed the existence of Covid-19 — which he referred to as “convid” — in an October 21 Twitch livestream.
5th Nov 2021 - The Independent

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 5th Nov 2021

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Pregnant Women Who Doubt Covid-19 Vaccine Safety Worry Doctors

Jaime Francis is avoiding all medication during her pregnancy, including Covid-19 vaccines. Her obstetrician advised her not to take some common painkillers including ibuprofen, she said, and she didn’t fill a prescription she was given for nausea. With the Covid-19 vaccine, the 22-year-old delivery driver from Sparta Township, N.J., said she fears potential long-term developmental effects of the vaccine that might not be known yet. Doctors and researchers say the shots are safe, effective and crucial for pregnant women, who face higher risks of severe Covid-19 than the rest of the population.
4th Nov 2021 - The Wall Street Journal

Senate Republicans to Force Vote to Block Biden Business Vaccine Mandate

Senate Republicans plan to force a vote to block President Joe Biden’s new vaccine mandates for workers, an effort that is all but certain to fail in the Democratic-controlled Congress. The mandate fight, however, could soon head to the courts and potentially be an issue in the 2022 midterm elections. Under the Congressional Review Act, a Senate minority can force votes to block regulations like the new vaccine mandates scheduled to take effect Jan. 4, but it would take Democratic defections to send such a bill to Biden’s desk and a two-thirds majority to override a veto. Action isn’t likely to take place until December.
4th Nov 2021 - Bloomberg

White House Sets Jan. 4 Shots-or-Tests Deadline for Workers

OSHA has issued a federal rule mandating Covid-19 vaccinations or at least weekly testing for workers at U.S. companies with 100 or more employees. The OSHA rules are a key pillar of President Joe Biden’s push to use employer mandates to drive up vaccination totals nationally. Biden already has expanded the rules for federal workers and contractors, which will take effect over the next five weeks, requiring vaccination and offering no alternative for regular testing. The OSHA rules, while less strenuous, essentially extend that push widely into the private sector. Biden—elected in part on a pledge to quell the pandemic—views vaccination as the fastest path to reopening society and the economy, including employer mandates, booster shots and vaccines for kids aged 5 to 11 that began this week. About 80% of U.S. adults have received at least one dose.
4th Nov 2021 - Bloomberg

‘He was adamant he didn’t want it’: the pro-vax parents with vaccine-hesitant kids

Even if children have avoided anti-vaccine misinformation on social media, they may have come across it at the school gate. There have been demonstrations outside schools across the UK; some protesters have loudhailers, and give alarming leaflets to children, or point them in the direction of websites with misinformation. At least one school was targeted by protesters showing images of what appeared to be dead children, falsely claiming they had been killed by the vaccine, which unsurprisingly distressed children. The Association of School and College Leaders union found nearly 80% of British schools had been targeted in some way – mainly emails threatening legal action – and 13% had reported seeing anti-vax demonstrators directly outside the school gates; 18 schools said protesters had actually got inside.
4th Nov 2021 - The Guardian

Vaccine certificates-for-sale scam undermines Lesotho’s Covid effort

The Lesotho government’s plans to implement a Covid passport system this week are being undermined by widespread fraud involving certificates being sold to unvaccinated people. Covid-19 vaccination certificates are being sold for less than £20 by unscrupulous health workers to the largely vaccine-averse population in Lesotho, where there has been little positive campaigning around the jabs. The prime minister, Moeketsi Majoro, announced in October that from this week, restaurants, bars, nightclubs, gyms and sporting facilities would only admit people who had a Covid-19 vaccination certificate.
4th Nov 2021 - The Guardian

Australian customer service workers subjected to violence and abuse for Covid-19 compliance checks

Customer Service staff face increase of abuse amid Covid compliance checks National Retail Association (NRA) received 89k reports of abuse in last 6 months Aggressive & violent behaviour mainly occurred where Covid rules are in place NRA says shoppers need to remember staff are not responsible for Covid laws
4th Nov 2021 - Daily Mail

Aaron Rodgers’ Covid-19 case is a failure of leadership that won’t be forgotten

Aaron Rodgers may be a lot of things but stupid he is not. A noted bookworm and fill-in Jeopardy host, Rodgers of all people is keenly aware that words matter. In hindsight this explains why back in August when he was asked about his vaccination status by a reporter, he replied with a cryptic: “I’ve been immunized.” If you’re like me, you thought Rodgers’ response was him being him – eccentric with maybe a touch of arrogance – but you assumed immunized equaled vaccinated. Sigh. Well, now it’s looking likely that Rodgers misled us all along. On Wednesday, the news broke that Rodgers tested positive for Covid-19 and will miss Sunday’s game against the Kansas City Chiefs because he is, indeed, not immunized with an actual Covid vaccine.
4th Nov 2021 - The Guardian

Johnson's COVID-19 gambit steers Britain into uncharted winter waters

Inside the British hospital that saved Prime Minister Boris Johnson from COVID-19, intensive care nurse Dave Carr just wants out. "We are dead on our feet physically. We are dead on our feet mentally," he said. "I don't know how to get out of this mess. I can't walk away because of the guilt of leaving my colleagues." Britain, its hospitals and its COVID-19 strategy are under the microscope as the country enters the dangerous winter period while accounting for almost a tenth of the world's recorded new infections.
4th Nov 2021 - Reuters UK

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 4th Nov 2021

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Ukrainians protest vaccine mandate as COVID-19 cases soar

More than a thousand people blocked several streets in the center of the Ukrainian capital Wednesday, protesting against COVID-19 vaccine certificates and state-imposed restrictions aimed at halting the spread of the coronavirus. The protesters, mostly women and young people, didn’t wear masks and held up signs reading “Say No to COVID Passports”, “Say No to COVID Genocide” in front of the Ukrainian parliament building in Kyiv. The rally comes in response to restrictions that require teachers, government employees and other workers to get fully vaccinated by Nov. 8 or have their salaries suspended.
3rd Nov 2021 - Seattle Times

Top Sage expert Jeremy Farrar quits amid ‘concerning’ Covid-19 rates

Sir Jeremy Farrar has revealed he quit the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) last month, warning of “concerning high levels of transmission” in Britain and vowing to focus on his role as a clinical scientist. The director of the Wellcome Trust was a leading member of the government’s Covid-19 advisory body during the pandemic. He was reportedly pushing for ministers to enforce a so-called “vaccine plus” strategy that includes measures such as mask wearing, ventilation and continued testing, according to Sky News. However, the government has so far declined to enforce stricter measures – which it refers to as plan B – and is sticking with its current, more relaxed guidance.
3rd Nov 2021 - The Independent

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Nurse films herself being escorted from work for refusing to get the Covid-19 vaccine

A nurse has filmed herself supposedly being escorted from her job at a hospital because of her refusal to take the Covid-19 vaccine. The video, posted on Twitter on Saturday, shows the woman telling the camera she is being removed from the Kaiser Permanente hospital “because I don’t want to get the jab”. The nurse says she is not willing to get the vaccine because of her “sincerely held religious beliefs” as she urges people to “count the costs” and says she is willing to lose “everything, for my freedom”.
2nd Nov 2021 - The Independent

NYC puts 9,000 workers on unpaid leave as vaccine mandate kicks in

New York City placed 9,000 city workers on leave without pay Monday as its coronavirus vaccine mandate for the public workforce kicked in. The requirement ordered by Mayor Bill de Blasio — one of the most aggressive in the nation — has pushed the vaccination rate among all city workers to 91 percent. But at least 21,000 city workers covered by the mandate remain unvaccinated: 9,000 who have now been barred from working, and another 12,000 who have applied for religious or medical exemptions. The latter group is being allowed to work until decisions on those exemptions are made in the coming days. The total city workforce is roughly 378,000. “This mandate was the right thing to do,” de Blasio said Monday. “We now see it worked.”
2nd Nov 2021 - POLITICO

Covid anti-vaxxers are refusing to pay tax bills mistakenly thinking they are immune from prosecution

A number of Covid conspiracists have started abstaining from paying utility bills and their council tax in protest against the “tyranny” they claim to live under in the UK, according to messages posted to Telegram. Groups on the social media platform – where thousands of Covid anti-vaxxers congregate and organise protests – have started branching out from discussing conspiracy theories about coronavirus and the vaccine and have begun justifying the reasons for no longer paying their bills. Many have a misguided belief they will not face prosecution for cancelling their payments, thanks in part to disinformation spread by an influencer on the platform with a significant following who claims stopping the payment of council tax will put pressure on the Government to scrap the Coronavirus Act.
2nd Nov 2021 - iNews

Australians fired for refusing Covid vaccine search social media for ‘welcoming’ employers

Unvaccinated Australians who have lost their jobs for refusing to comply with Covid vaccine mandates are using social media to find and share employment opportunities at workplaces where the new rules are not being enforced. Telegram and Facebook have had an influx of people searching for paid jobs after states and territories implemented mandates covering a range of industries from health and aged care workers, teachers and police to construction and hospitality workers. On some job boards, businesses that are happy to accept unvaccinated people advertise that they are “welcoming of everyone”.
2nd Nov 2021 - The Guardian

From Boeing to Mercedes, a U.S. worker rebellion swells over vaccine mandates

In Wichita, Kansas, nearly half of the roughly 10,000 employees at aircraft companies Textron Inc (TXT.N) and Spirit AeroSystems (SPR.N) remain unvaccinated against COVID-19, risking their jobs in defiance of a federal mandate, according to a union official. "We're going to lose a lot of employees over this," said Cornell Beard, head of the local Machinists union district. Many workers did not object to the vaccines as such, he said, but were staunchly opposed to what they see as government meddling in personal health decisions.
2nd Nov 2021 - Reuters

‘There was no plan’: Throwing spaghetti at the wall to overcome Covid-19 vaccine hesitancy

One or two donuts, a car, $1 million, $25, Super Bowl tickets, french fries. There’s a remarkable range of incentives and other methods devised to overcome Covid-19 vaccine hesitancy. While some of these ideas have stuck like spaghetti thrown against a wall, it’s not clear which are most effective. Even when researchers have demonstrated the success of certain strategies, they haven’t been widely adopted. The White House announced Monday that 70% of adults across the country are now fully vaccinated, and 80% have gotten at least one shot. But progress is slow, as daily vaccination rates remain low compared with the peak in April.
2nd Nov 2021 - STAT News

U.S. to publish rules on private-sector COVID-19 vaccinations, testing in days

The Biden administration said on Monday that a planned rule requiring private-sector employers with 100 or more employees to mandate COVID-19 vaccines or regular testing will be published in the coming days. The Labor Department said the White House Office of Management and Budget had completed its regulatory review of the rule known as an emergency temporary standard (ETS). The White House said in September the rule would cover more than 80 million private-sector employees.
2nd Nov 2021 - Reuters

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Mayor: 9 in 10 NYC workers vaccinated as deadline nears

Nine in 10 New York City municipal workers received COVID-19 vaccinations as a Monday deadline loomed under a city mandate, according to Mayor Bill de Blasio. De Blasio tweeted Saturday night that 91% of city workers had received the vaccine, which represented a jump from about 83% as of Friday night. Under a city mandate, those who haven’t received at least one dose of the vaccine will be put on unpaid leave starting Monday, raising the possibility of shortages of police, fire and EMS workers. New York has more than 300,000 employees.
1st Nov 2021 - The Associated Press

NYC Vaccine Mandate Kicks In With Little Disruption, Mayor Says

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said the vast majority of municipal employees are complying with the Covid-19 vaccine mandate, resulting in little disruption to services as the requirement kicked in for police, firefighters and sanitation workers. De Blasio said Monday that about 9,000 employees have been placed on unpaid leave for not receiving the shot while another 12,000 will keep working as requests for exemptions are reviewed. That amounts to a small share of the city’s workforce of nearly 400,000.
1st Nov 2021 - Bloomberg

Critics of Biden vaccine mandate 'lobby' for change in rare meetings

The meetings are normally used by well-connected groups trying to win an advantage for companies or unions. But few things are normal about the vaccine mandate, which could be published as soon as next week. Thirty-six of 129 half-hour teleconference meetings on the vaccine rule were scheduled with individuals, according to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, or OIRA, which schedules the meetings. The others were with businesses such as United Parcel Service Inc (UPS.N) and Walt Disney Co (DIS.N) or with trade groups, which have urged delaying the rule or want employees pay for testing, according to information on the OIRA site.
1st Nov 2021 - Reuters

Travel agent under investigation over allegations it was selling fake Covid-19 certificates

A travel agent is under investigation over allegations that it sold fake Covid-19 travel certificates to customers. Bolton council says 'a substantial number of fraudulent documents' were found when its trading standards officers raided the business. It is alleged that the Bolton -based travel agent, which has not been named, was selling certificates of negative PCR test results claiming to be from a legitimate test clinic.
1st Nov 2021 - Manchester Evening News

Moroccans protest vaccine pass required for work, travel

Protests erupted across cities in Morocco on Sunday against a coronavirus vaccine passport that is required to access indoor activities and travel. Proof of vaccination has been mandatory since Oct. 21 for all Moroccans to enter their place of work and restaurants and for domestic and international air travel. The North African kingdom’s vaccination rate is the highest in the continent, with more than 58% of its 36 million people fully inoculated. But a vocal minority is opposed to the abrupt decision to require the vaccine pass, and hundreds of demonstrators marched in the capital of Rabat for the the second time in a week to voice opposition to the rule.
1st Nov 2021 - The Associated Press

Eleven states sue U.S. government over vaccine mandate for federal contractors

Eleven U.S. states with Republican governors sued the Biden administration on Friday seeking to block a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for federal contractors, arguing it is unconstitutional and violates federal procurement law. Saying they were necessary to fight COVID-19, President Joe Biden issued a pair of executive orders on Sept. 9 requiring all executive branch federal employees and federal contractors be vaccinated
1st Nov 2021 - Reuters

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Supreme Court declines to block Maine vaccine mandate

The Supreme Court has rejected an emergency appeal from health care workers in Maine to block a vaccine mandate that went into effect Friday. Three conservative justices noted their dissents.
30th Oct 2021 - Associated Press on MSN.com

As vaccination mandate looms, New York prepares for shortage of firefighters, police

New York City officials on Friday were preparing for shortages of firefighters, police officers and other first responders as a showdown looms between the city and its unvaccinated uniformed workforce, who face a 5 p.m. deadline to be immunized. De Blasio, who announced the mandate nine days ago, said officials would manage any staffing gaps with overtime and schedule changes and by enlisting private ambulance companies to cover for the city's paramedics.
30th Oct 2021 - Reuters

U.S. spy agencies say origins of COVID-19 may never be known

U.S. intelligence agencies said on Friday they may never be able to identify the origins of COVID-19, as they released a new, more detailed version of their review of whether the coronavirus came from animal-to-human transmission or leaked from a lab. The Office of the U.S. Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) said in a declassified report that a natural origin and a lab leak are both plausible hypotheses for how SARS-COV-2 first infected humans. But it said analysts disagree on which is more likely or whether any definitive assessment can be made at all.
30th Oct 2021 - Reuters

Brazil senators back criminal charges against Bolsonaro

Brazilian Senate commission approved a damning report on Tuesday that recommends criminal charges be brought against President Jair Bolsonaro, including crimes against humanity, for his Covid policies. Seven of the panel's 11 senators voted to endorse the text – presented last week after a six-month investigation into Brazil's pandemic response – which also calls for the indictment of 77 other people, including several ministers and three of Bolsonaro's children. The nearly 1,200-page report also urges Brazil's Supreme Court to suspend the far-right leader's access to his accounts on social media platforms YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram for falsely alleging that Covid-19 vaccines were linked to AIDS.
30th Oct 2021 - Buenos Aires Times

U.S. Spies Say Covid-19's Origins Will Remain Unclear Without China's Help

Covid-19 was probably not a biological weapon and most U.S. analysts believe it wasn’t genetically engineered at all, but a final conclusion on the virus’s origins is impossible without cooperation from China, a declassified U.S. report says. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence released its long-awaited public findings on the virus’s origins on Friday, a declassified version of the secret report submitted to President Joe Biden this summer. The intelligence community remains divided on where the outbreak began, but believes two causes are plausible -- that it spread through animals to humans, or that it sprang from an incident at a lab in the city of Wuhan.
29th Oct 2021 - Bloomberg

Canada says decision on allowing Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine for children still weeks away

A Canadian decision on whether to approve Pfizer Inc’s COVID-19 vaccine for those aged 5 to 11 will not come before mid- to end-November, a senior official said on Friday. “I think we’re still at least a few weeks away from a final decision ... we’ve received some additional information just this past week that we’rem looking through,” Supriya Sharma, the federal health ministry’s chief medical adviser, told a briefing.
29th Oct 2021 - Reuters

China’s Real Covid Crisis Is Yet to Come

Chinese leaders can claim enviable success in tamping down the pandemic using massive lockdowns but they’re going to struggle to return the country to normalcy.
29th Oct 2021 - Bloomberg

U.S. Supreme Court rejects religious challenge to Maine vaccine mandate

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday turned away healthcare workers seeking a religious exemption to Maine's COVID-19 vaccine mandate in the latest battle over vaccination to reach the justices. The court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, rejected a request made by nine unnamed plaintiffs who identified themselves as healthcare workers who object to receiving the shots on religious grounds. The court previously rejected challenges to vaccine mandates in New York and Indiana, though those cases did not involve religious objections. The justices were divided, with three conservative members saying they would have granted the request.
29th Oct 2021 - Reuters

Sweden acted too slowly as pandemic swept country, commission finds

Sweden's response to the spread of coronavirus was too slow and preparations to handle a pandemic were insufficient, a commission investigating the country's response to COVID-19 said on Friday. Sweden's strategy, shunning lockdowns and measures such as widespread use of face masks and only gradually tightening curbs, made the country an outlier in the first year of the pandemic when many countries across Europe chose to implement far tougher restrictions. The country kept most schools, businesses, bars and restaurants open in startling contrast with a locked-down Europe, relying on voluntary recommendations even as its death toll rapidly eclipsed those if its Nordic neighbours
29th Oct 2021 - Reuters

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NYPD Has 10000 Unvaccinated Officers as Mandate Deadline Approaches

Nearly a third of New York Police Department cops are unvaccinated against Covid-19 ahead of the city’s Friday deadline. The Police Benevolent Association, which represents 24,000 cops in the most populous U.S. city, said 10,000 of the roughly 35,000 uniformed NYPD officers have not gotten the shot. Last week, Mayor Bill de Blasio eliminated the test-out option and said all city employees must receive their first vaccine dose by Oct. 29 or face unpaid leave. The union is fighting the mandate in court, but a judge has refused to block it in the meantime. It’s not clear what effect the drop in staff will have on the operations of the nation’s largest police force, but de Blasio on Thursday sought to assure New Yorkers they will be safe.
28th Oct 2021 - Bloomberg

NYC firefighters are planning a protest at the mayor's home over vaccine rules

New York City firefighters plan to take their protests over the city's COVID-19 vaccine mandates to the residence of Mayor Bill de Blasio on Thursday. The mayor approved a vaccine mandate that forces all public employees in the city to get a coronavirus vaccine by Nov. 1, or risk losing their jobs. He added: "Death from coronavirus appears much closer than I imagined." Ukraine is suffering through a surge in coronavirus infections, along with other parts of Eastern Europe and Russia While vaccines are plentiful, there is a widespread reluctance to get them in many countries — though notable exceptions include the Baltic nations, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovenia and Hungary.
28th Oct 2021 - NPR

Vaccine reluctance in Eastern Europe brings high COVID cost

Truck driver Andriy Melnik never took the coronavirus seriously. With a friend, he bought a fake vaccination certificate so his travel documents would appear in order when he hauled cargo to other parts of Europe. His view changed after the friend caught COVID-19 and ended up in an intensive care unit on a ventilator. “It's not a tall tale. I see that this disease kills, and strong immunity wouldn't be enough -- only a vaccine can offer protection,” said Melnik, 42, as he waited in Kyiv to get his shot. “I'm really scared and I'm pleading with doctors to help me correct my mistake."
28th Oct 2021 - The Independent

Covid-19 Victoria: Daniel Andrews is labelled a 'dictator' over pandemic laws in Parliament

Victoria's state of emergency laws expire on December 15 after 21 months. Premier Daniel Andrews wants to pass sweeping new laws to replace them. The Health Minister will have the power to enforce lockdowns and quarantine. There will be fines of up to $90,870 for individuals and $454,350 for businesses
28th Oct 2021 - Daily Mail

Brazil probe of Bolsonaro offers COVID-19 families solace

The morning after a Brazilian Senate committee recommended criminal indictments for President Jair Bolsonaro over his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, Bruna Chaves, who lost her mother to the disease, was venting her pain in an emotional grief support group session. “It wasn’t my mom’s time to go,” she told the others Wednesday inside an ecumenical chapel in Rio de Janeiro. “Somebody needs to be blamed.” A government body laying blame at the president’s feet in the form of a nearly 1,300-page report is already helping bring solace and validation to the mournful nation with the world’s second highest death toll from the virus and eighth highest per capita.
28th Oct 2021 - The Independent

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Head of New York City firefighters union says members 'insulted' by vaccine mandate

The head of the New York City firefighters union said on Wednesday he had instructed unvaccinated members to keep working, even though they feel "insulted" by Mayor Bill de Blasio's order to show proof of a COVID-19 vaccination by Friday or be placed on unpaid leave. "I have told my members that if they choose to remain unvaccinated, they must still report for duty," Andrew Ansbro, president of the Uniformed Firefighters Association, told a news conference.
28th Oct 2021 - Reuters

Miami private school scraps policy to send home vaccinated students after funding threatened

A Miami private school known for its aggressive stance against coronavirus vaccines is abandoning an attendance policy that would have forced students to stay home for 30 days after each dose. Centner Academy reversed course less than two weeks after announcing the controversial policy, spurred by a letter from the Florida Department of Education warning that the pre-K-8 private school could lose state funding if it pursued the post-vaccination attendance plan.
27th Oct 2021 - The Washington Post

Facebook is having a tougher time managing vaccine misinformation than it is letting on, leaks suggest

Facebook has touted the resources it has dedicated to tackling Covid-19 and vaccine misinformation, even scolding US President Joe Biden for his harsh criticism of the company's handling of the issue. In doing so, it claimed that "more than 2 billion people have viewed authoritative information about COVID-19 and vaccines on Facebook, which is more than any other place on the internet." But internal Facebook (FB) documents suggest a disconnect between what the company has said publicly about its overall response to Covid-19 misinformation and some of its employees' findings concerning the issue.
27th Oct 2021 - CNN

Colorado lawsuit tests religious exemptions to COVID vaccine mandates

The doctor, one of the protagonists of this story, is a pediatric intensive care specialist in Colorado Springs working with some of the sickest children in the state. She’s unvaccinated against COVID-19, despite both state and employer mandates requiring vaccination. In one telling of this tale, the doctor is the hero, a devoutly religious person who has made a moral choice consistent with those beliefs and is being unconstitutionally punished for them. In another telling, the doctor is the villain, using her religion as cover for a personal belief that is recklessly endangering her patients and colleagues. Both versions of the story are contained within the pleadings of an ongoing lawsuit in federal court in Denver that challenges the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus’s vaccination requirement for physicians and medical students.
27th Oct 2021 - The Colorado Sun

My daughter was bullied at school for having the Covid jab. No wonder UK take-up is low

I’m worried that part of the reason for a slow uptake of the vaccine among 12 to 15-year-olds is that their issues around it are not being addressed adequately: there’s a sense that they are just being tacked on at the end of the successful adult rollout. They need to be addressed directly and clearly, and their concerns listened to. I’ve seen a lot of “what I need to know about my child and the vaccine” articles for parents in recent weeks, but there don’t seem to be many equivalents for 12 to 15-year-olds to read themselves. Reels and videos on social media help, particularly those made by people in the same age group, but surely there needs to be more official – and factchecked – dedicated communications for teens who may have concerns about the vaccine.
27th Oct 2021 - The Guardian

Test and trace failed to curb Covid-19 infection rates despite ‘eye-watering’ spending, watchdog says

The test and trace programme failed to break the chain of Covid-19 transmission despite being awarded “eye-watering” sums – billions of which have not been spent – MPs have said. NHS Test and Trace (NHST&T) did not prevent national lockdowns or reduce the number of Covid-19 cases, a report by the Public Accounts Committee argued. The system was allocated a budget of £37bn over two years – 20 per cent of annual health spending – but underspent by nearly £9bn in the first year, with much of the testing and contact tracing capacity left unused.
27th Oct 2021 - iNews

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Raytheon warns of worker losses as companies impose vaccine mandate

Raytheon Technologies' top boss warned on Tuesday the U.S. aerospace and defense firm will lose 'several thousand' employees who refused to take COVID-19 vaccines, as it prepares to meet the Biden administration's Dec. 8 deadline for immunization. "We will lose several thousand people," Raytheon Chief Executive Greg Hayes said in a CNBC interview on Tuesday, adding that staff hiring was underway. The company has a total of 125,000 U.S. employees
26th Oct 2021 - Reuters

Why people believe Covid conspiracy theories: could folklore hold the answer?

Using Danish witchcraft folklore as a model, the researchers from UCLA and Berkeley analysed thousands of social media posts with an artificial intelligence tool and extracted the key people, things and relationships. The tool enabled them to piece together the underlying stories in coronavirus conspiracy theories from fragments in online posts. One discovery from the research identifies Bill Gates as the reason why conspiracy theorists connect 5G with the virus. With Gates’ background in computer technology and vaccination programmes, he served as a shortcut for these storytellers to link the two. Gates is a persistent figure in the anti-vaccine stories. “He’s a great villain,” says the folklorist Prof Timothy Tangherlini one of the authors of the research. It’s Gates’ world-spanning influence in tech and then health that lodges him at the heart of a lot of conspiracies. “Bill Gates is in Africa, he’s in everybody’s house because everybody’s got computers, and then he’s pushing these vaccines.”
26th Oct 2021 - The Guardian

Facebook froze as anti-vaccine comment swarmed users

In March, as claims about the dangers and ineffectiveness of coronavirus vaccines spun across social media and undermined attempts to stop the spread of the virus, some Facebook employees thought they had found a way to help. By altering how posts about vaccines are ranked in people’s newsfeeds, researchers at the company realized they could curtail the misleading information individuals saw about COVID-19 vaccines and offer users posts from legitimate sources like the World Health Organization. “Given these results, I’m assuming we’re hoping to launch ASAP,” one Facebook employee wrote, responding to the internal memo about the study. Instead, Facebook shelved some suggestions from the study. Other changes weren’t made until April.
26th Oct 2021 - The Associated Press

Facebook, YouTube remove Bolsonaro video over vaccine claims

Facebook and YouTube have removed from their platforms a video by Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro in which the far-right leader made a false claim that COVID-19 vaccines were linked with developing AIDS. Both Facebook and Alphabet Inc’s YouTube said the video, which was recorded on Thursday, violated their policies. “Our policies don’t allow claims that COVID-19 vaccines kill or seriously harm people,” a Facebook spokesperson said in a statement on Monday. YouTube confirmed that it had taken the same step later in the day. “We removed a video from Jair Bolsonaro’s channel for violating our medical disinformation policy regarding COVID-19 for alleging that vaccines don’t reduce the risk of contracting the disease and that they cause other infectious diseases,” YouTube said in a statement. According to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS), COVID-19 vaccines approved by health regulators are safe for most people, including those living with HIV, the virus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, known as AIDS.
26th Oct 2021 - AlJazeera

Congress has bipartisan support to try to deal with the next pandemic. But those talks are already falling behind

Already, the federal government’s failures to prepare for a pandemic cost more than 700,000 American lives over the last 18 months. Public health experts have decried outdated data systems and supply chain vulnerabilities, and warned that without legislative action, all those problems will persist until the next crisis. They see a rare but fleeting opportunity to break the cycle of ignoring public health funding until times of crisis.
26th Oct 2021 - STAT News

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Facebook takes down Bolsonaro video over false vaccine claim

Facebook late on Sunday removed a video by Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro from its platforms, in which the far-right leader made a false claim that COVID-19 vaccines were linked with developing AIDS. "Our policies don't allow claims that COVID-19 vaccines kill or seriously harm people," a Facebook spokesperson said on Monday.
25th Oct 2021 - Reuters

NBA and Covid-19 vaccinations: Anti-vaccine demonstrators support Kyrie Irving in New York

Anti-vaccine demonstrators gathered outside the Barclays Center on Sunday to show their support for Brooklyn Nets guard Kyrie Irving before his team's NBA home opener. Irving has refused to get vaccinated against Covid-19 and is not allowed to play or practise with his team until he does so because of local vaccine rules. Some protesters broke through barriers outside the arena before being confronted by security. No arrests or injuries were reported.
25th Oct 2021 - BBC News

COVID-19: Exclusion zones around schools could be used to stop 'idiot' anti-vaxxers, health secretary says

Exclusion zones around schools could be used to prevent "idiot" anti-vaxxers from targeting children with their "vicious lies", the health secretary has said. Sajid Javid said the protesters are doing "so much damage" and it was "heartbreaking" that three children were injured during a recent protest after COVID-19 vaccines were opened up to 12-15-year-olds. He told Sky News' Kay Burley: "You've got, frankly, these idiots outside their school spreading vicious lies. "It is becoming a growing problem as time goes by."
25th Oct 2021 - Sky News

Florida’s top doctor refuses mask, is told to leave meeting

Florida’s top health official was asked to leave a meeting after refusing to wear a mask at the office of a state senator who told him she had a serious medical condition, officials have confirmed. Florida Senate leader Wilton Simpson, a Republican, sent a memo to senators Saturday regarding the incident at the office of Democratic state Sen. Tina Polsky, asking visitors at the building to be respectful with social interactions. Polsky, who represents parts of Broward and Palm Beach counties, had not yet made public her breast cancer diagnosis. Polsky told The Associated Press about the tense exchange with state Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo that was first reported by the news site Florida Politics. She said Ladapo and two aides were offered masks and asked to wear them when they arrived for the Wednesday meeting. She did not tell him she had breast cancer, but said she had a serious condition.
25th Oct 2021 - The Associated Press

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Singapore to Limit Workplace Access for Unvaccinated People

Singapore is set to restrict access to the workplace for those who are unvaccinated from January unless they test negative daily as part of plans to resume normal activities in the pandemic.
25th Oct 2021 - Bloomberg

Covid adviser fears 'another lockdown Christmas' as he blasts inaction as 'unacceptable'

One of the government's scientific advisers has said he fears 'another lockdown Christmas' following an 'unacceptable' lack of action amid rising coronavirus case numbers. Professor Peter Openshaw, a member of the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (Nervtag), said he was "very fearful" that strict measures would need to be introduced. He fears it would be the second festive season in a row under lockdown conditions if the government does not act urgently to bring down Covid-19 infection rates. Ministers have so far refused to implement so-called 'Plan B' measures, which may include a return to mandatory face coverings in some settings and home working, and the introduction of Covid vaccine passports for venues such as nightclubs.
23rd Oct 2021 - Manchester Evening News

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Right-wing radio host says Covid vaccines coup d’etat by ‘evil cabal’

A right-wing talk show host and anti-vaxxer has come up with a conspiracy theory which suggests the government is inserting eggs in people using the Covid-19 vaccines that hatch into synthetic parasites and grow inside the human body. In a video on TruNews, a far-right Christian video streaming platform, Rick Wiles called vaccines a “global coup d’etat by the most evil cabal of people” to control the world. Mr Wiles added: “They’re putting eggs in people’s bodies. If you didn’t see yesterday’s TruNews, you need to watch it. It’s an egg that hatches into a synthetic parasite and grows inside your body. This is like sci-fi nightmare, and it’s happening in front of us.”
21st Oct 2021 - The Independent

Instagram displays ad offering fake Covid vaccine certificates in Australia

Instagram has displayed an ad promoting fake vaccination certificates in Australia at a time when New South Wales and Victoria are emerging from Covid lockdowns and requiring people to present proof of vaccination. Vaccination status can be proven at venues in the two states over the next few months using a printed certificate from the Australian Immunisation Register, a digital certificate on a person’s phone, or a record added to QR code check-in apps.
21st Oct 2021 - The Guardian

Covid: Nicola Sturgeon urged to challenge UK Gov's vaccine 'selfishness'

Nicola Sturgeon has a “duty” to challenge the UK Government over its “staggeringly selfish” stance on providing coronavirus vaccines to poorer nations, campaigners have said. Scottish members of the People’s Vaccine Alliance made the plea to the First Minister as global leaders, including UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, prepare to take part in the G20 summit in Rome. A new report for the organisation claims that of 1.8 billion Covid vaccine doses that have been promised by richer nations, only 261 million jabs – 14% – have actually been delivered. The Dose of Reality report also said the UK Government had taken 500,000 doses from the Covax programme, a worldwide initiative aimed at ensuring fair access to vaccination.
21st Oct 2021 - HeraldScotland

Brazil’s Bolsonaro accused of crimes against humanity over COVID

A Brazilian Senate report has recommended pursuing crimes against humanity and other charges against President Jair Bolsonaro over his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. The 66-year-old leader quickly rejected the accusations on Wednesday, insisting that he was “guilty of nothing”. More than 600,000 people in Brazil have died from COVID-19, the second-highest death toll in the world after the United States. The decision to proceed with the charges will depend on Brazil’s prosecutor-general, a Bolsonaro appointee and ally. Bolsonaro has consistently downplayed the threat of COVID-19 and touted misinformation and unproven treatments while ignoring international health guidelines on mask use and public activity.
21st Oct 2021 - AlJazeera

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 21st Oct 2021

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U.S. workers face layoffs as U.S COVID-19 vaccine mandates kick in

Thousands of unvaccinated workers across the United States are facing potential job losses as a growing number of states, cities and private companies start to enforce mandates for inoculation against COVID-19. In the latest high-profile example, Washington State University (WSU) fired its head football coach and four of his assistants on Monday for failing to comply with the state's vaccine requirement. The coach, Nick Rolovich, had applied for a religious exemption from the mandate earlier this month.
20th Oct 2021 - Reuters

Hundreds protest against Bulgaria's COVID health pass

Hundreds of anti-vaccine protesters joined some political leaders in Sofia on Wednesday to demonstrate against Bulgaria's decision to make a COVID-19 "Green Certificate" mandatory for access to restaurants, theatres and shopping malls. The interim health ministry announced the move on Tuesday to try to slow a surge in infections and deaths in the European Union's least vaccinated country.
20th Oct 2021 - Reuters

Poland facing COVID-19 'explosion' says health minister

Poland has seen an explosion of the COVID-19 pandemic over the past two days and if the current trend continues drastic steps will be needed, the health minister said on Wednesday, after the country reported over 5,000 daily cases for the first time since May. "Over the last two days we have seen an explosion of the pandemic," Adam Niedzielski told a news conference, adding that next week daily cases could be "well above" 5,000.
20th Oct 2021 - Reuters

They take an oath to do no harm, but these doctors are spreading misinformation about the Covid vaccine

She was a frequent guest on The Oprah Winfrey Show -- an Ivy League-educated OB-GYN who often spoke about women's health and holistic medicine. She was a media darling, and in 2013 made Reader's Digest's annual list of 100 most trusted people in America. If you go to Dr. Christiane Northrup's Facebook page, her posts dispensing advice on health and aging to her 558,000 followers seem consistent with that persona of several years ago. But Northrup also uses her Facebook page to direct followers to Telegram, where another side of her is apparent. Here, on this platform with lax moderation, lies a miasma of misinformation and conspiracy theories. "Best Explanation I've Seen About Why the Covid Jabs Are Killer Shots," reads one post that she shared.
20th Oct 2021 - CNN

Senate report recommends Bolsonaro face murder charge over handling of Covid-19

A draft report by lawmakers in Brazil has recommended that president Jair Bolsonaro be indicted on criminal charges for his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic that led to thousand of deaths. More than 600,000 people have died due to the coronavirus or related complications in Brazil since the beginning of the pandemic. The country has had the second-highest death toll in the world, second only to the US. The 1,200-page Senate draft report said that Mr Bolsonaro was “principally responsible for the government’s errors committed during the Covid-19 pandemic” and accused him of acting against the advice of the health ministry.
20th Oct 2021 - The Independent

COVID-19: Minister rules out another lockdown as PM is urged to enforce 'Plan B' to avert winter crisis

Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng has insisted there will not be another national lockdown after an NHS leader warned the PM that 'Plan B' coronavirus restrictions must be enforced immediately to prevent the UK "stumbling into a winter crisis". NHS Confederation chief executive Matthew Taylor has urged the government to bring back certain measures, including mandatory face coverings in public places, telling Sky News: "The overwhelming evidence is that we do need to act."
20th Oct 2021 - Sky News

A UK COVID lockdown would be wrong right now, business minister says

Another COVID lockdown would be completely wrong right now as Britain is learning to live with the novel coronavirus, Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said on Wednesday. "I absolutely think that it would be completely wrong for us to go back into a lockdown," he told Times Radio. He said the critical indicators were hospitalisations and death rates - and that those were much lower. "And we are learning, I think, to live with the virus," Kwarteng said.
20th Oct 2021 - Reuters

Bolsonaro should face charges over pandemic: Senate inquiry

Brazil’s Senate formally presented a report calling for President Jair Bolsonaro to be indicted on criminal charges for allegedly mishandling the country’s response to the coronavirus pandemic – pushing Brazil into second place in the number of global COVID-19 deaths. The nearly 1,200-page report presented on Wednesday by opposition Senator Renan Calheiros is based on six months of work. It calls for Bolsonaro to be indicted on 10 charges, including crimes against humanity.
20th Oct 2021 - AlJazeera

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 20th Oct 2021

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New York's $2 Billion Fund for Undocumented Workers Runs Dry

Earlier this year, New York created a $2.1 billion fund to help undocumented immigrants and others who weathered the pandemic without access to government relief. The Excluded Workers Fund, by far the biggest of its kind in the country, was intended to provide eligible workers with one-time payments to help cover costs associated with joblessness, such as back rent and medical bills. But just a few months after the state began accepting applications, the fund is about to run out of money, following a blitz in claims and a speedy distribution of aid. State authorities announced they would stop accepting new applications as of Oct. 8, adding that even those who had applied in the two weeks before that deadline might not be approved.
19th Oct 2021 - The New York Times

Washington State head football coach ousted after refusing Covid-19 vaccine

Washington State University's head football coach, Nick Rolovich, and four assistant coaches are losing their jobs because of not complying with the state's Covid-19 vaccine mandate, the university's athletics department said Monday.
19th Oct 2021 - CNN

Religious exemptions threaten to undermine US Covid vaccine mandates

Epidemiologists are concerned that the loophole will embolden the vaccine-hesitant to evade requirements and undermine the state’s progress against the pandemic. And lawyers and legal experts are bracing for a deluge of complaints over the blurry lines that define “sincerely held” objections to the vaccine. Many parents and even some teachers have raised opposition to the mandates, with walkouts and protests already taking place across the state. In rural northern California and conservative patches of the south, parents picketed against the public health measures on Monday, insisting that they wouldn’t “co-parent with the government”. Last week, teachers at a school district in Los Angeles who were denied religious exemptions demonstrated outside the headquarters.
19th Oct 2021 - The Guardian

Australian state could fire more than 40 police staff for refusing a Covid-19 vaccine

A total of 43 police staff in the Australian state of Victoria have been stood down from duty and could face being fired after they failed to comply with a Covid-19 vaccine mandate, Victoria Police said. Under Victorian state law, all emergency service workers including police officers were set an October 15 deadline to book a vaccination, and must receive their first dose by Friday. In a statement sent to CNN on Tuesday, Victoria Police said 34 police officers and nine public safety officers who had "not complied with the vaccination direction" had been stood down from active service while they are investigated by the state's Professional Standards Command.
19th Oct 2021 - CNN

Politics derails debate on immunity you get after recovering from Covid-19

“It’s hard to know where the data will finally land, and it’s hard to know where the shouting will land,” said Wendy Parmet, a Northeastern University law professor who has written extensively about the legality of government-imposed quarantines and vaccine mandates. “People on the right scream, so people on the left say no. We’re in this horrible, awful feedback loop of vitriol right now.” There’s still no scientific consensus about the exact strength or durability of the natural immunity a person gains when they recover from Covid-19, or how much it varies from person to another.
19th Oct 2021 - STAT News

Workers denied COVID-19 vaccine exemptions sue hospital

Several employees at the largest hospital system in Massachusetts say in a lawsuit that they were subjected to discrimination and retaliation in violation of federal law when their requests for medical or religious exemptions from the organization’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate were denied. The federal suit was filed Sunday by eight workers at Mass General Brigham. Attorneys for the workers said in a memo attached to the lawsuit that they are not challenging the legality of the vaccine mandate, but are attempting to “prevent discrimination and retaliation based on religion or disability.” “Defendant’s offering of medical and religious exemptions was illusory and not based in accordance with federal law,” the suit says.
19th Oct 2021 - The Associated Press

Italy's president criticizes violent COVID-19 pass protests

Italy’s president on Monday strongly criticized the violence that has erupted amid protests over the country's new coronavirus workplace health pass requirement, saying it appeared aimed at jeopardizing Italy’s economic recovery. President Sergio Mattarella spoke out as riot police again clashed with protesters at the port in the northern city of Trieste at times using water canons to push them back. The protesters, who have included right-wing agitators in previous episodes, oppose Italy s Green Pass requirement. Italy on Friday became the first major European economy to require all workers — from hairdressers to factory workers — to present proof of vaccination, a negative test within the past 48 hours or proof of having been cured recently of COVID-19 to enter workplaces. The pass had already been required to enter indoor venues like restaurants, museums and theaters, or for long-distance domestic travel.
18th Oct 2021 - The Independent

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 19th Oct 2021

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UK lab investigated for false negative Covid tests is not fully accredited

The private laboratory that is under investigation for potentially issuing more than 40,000 false negative Covid tests was not fully accredited to perform the work, contrary to assurances made by health officials. The UK’s independent accreditation service, Ukas, told the Guardian on Monday that neither Immensa Health Clinics Ltd nor its sister company, Dante Labs, had ever been accredited by the service, and that it had informed the Department of Health that statements suggesting otherwise were incorrect. The UK Health Security Agency announced on Friday that it was suspending operations at Immensa’s laboratory in Wolverhampton pending an investigation into concerns that at least 43,000 people with coronavirus had been wrongly told their swabs tested negative for the virus.
18th Oct 2021 - The Guardian

Reluctant men: reaching South Africa’s most hesitant groups with the Covid-19 vaccine

Many men must choose between hustling to find something that will put bread on the table, or going to queue at a health facility.” Laura Lopez Gonzalez explores South Africa’s efforts to persuade men to get the jab.
18th Oct 2021 - Yahoo News UK

COVID-19: Italian police use water cannon to disperse workers protesting against mandatory COVID pass

Italian police used water cannon and tear gas to break up a demonstration in the port of Trieste, where workers protested against the government's mandatory COVID pass. Under the new rule, workers will be suspended without pay and could face a fine of up to 1,500 euros if they try to work without the COVID pass.
18th Oct 2021 - Sky News

The political fight over COVID-19 vaccine mandates is deepening

The science is clear: Vaccines are a safe and effective way to prevent serious illness, hospitalization and death from the coronavirus, and vaccine mandates are an effective tool in promoting widespread vaccinations. Still, the battle to inoculate the nation against the coronavirus has reached a fever pitch in recent months. President Biden has focused on getting as many Americans as possible vaccinated against the coronavirus, most notably rolling out wide-reaching vaccine mandates for government employees and for businesses with more than 100 workers.
18th Oct 2021 - NPR

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 18th Oct 2021

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Brazil pandemic probe to recommend Bolsonaro face 11 criminal charges, senator says

A Brazilian Senate probe into the government's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic will recommend in its final report due next week that President Jair Bolsonaro face 11 criminal charges, the senator leading the inquiry said on Friday, though it remains highly unlikely that he will face a trial on any such charges.
17th Oct 2021 - Reuters

Covid-19 Precautions Prompt Backlash on College Campuses

Life on college campuses is as close to pre-pandemic normalcy as it has been in 18 months, but as the semester progresses with few interruptions, some students are pushing back, calling the mitigation measures schools have imposed an overreach. Student complaints include objections to restrictions on their travel on and off campus, increased surveillance and what they consider erosion of civil liberties. Student-led petitions have prompted some schools to drop the use of location-tracking apps and requirements to wear sensors that monitor vital signs. At the core of their concerns is a fear that universities are constructing a bureaucracy designed to control a generation just coming of age.
16th Oct 2021 - The Wall Street Journal

Boeing workers stage protest near Seattle over U.S. vaccine mandate

Waving signs like "coercion is not consent," and "stop the mandate," some 200 Boeing Co employees and others staged a protest on Friday over the planemaker's COVID-19 vaccine requirement for U.S. workers. Boeing said on Tuesday it will require its 125,000 U.S. employees to be vaccinated by Dec. 8 under an executive order issued by President Joe Biden for federal contractors.
16th Oct 2021 - Reuters

Fourteen U.S. state attorneys general press Facebook on vaccine disinformation

The attorneys general of 14 U.S. states sent a letter to Facebook Inc (FB.O) Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg asking if the top disseminators of vaccine disinformation on the platform received special treatment from the company. The line of inquiry was generated after Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen used internal documents to disclose that the social media platform has built a system that exempts high-profile users from some or all of its rules. In the letter, which was sent on Wednesday, the 14 Democratic attorneys general said they are "extremely concerned" with recent reports that Facebook maintained lists of members who have received special treatment, and want to know if the "Disinformation Dozen" were part of those lists.
16th Oct 2021 - Reuters

Cities, police unions clash as vaccine mandates take effect

Police departments around the U.S. that are requiring officers to get vaccinated against COVID-19 are running up against pockets of resistance that some fear could leave law enforcement shorthanded and undermine public safety. Police unions and officers are pushing back by filing lawsuits to block the mandates. In Chicago, the head of the police union called on members to defy the city’s Friday deadline for reporting their COVID-19 vaccination status. Seattle’s police department sent detectives and non-patrol officers to emergency calls this week because of a shortage of patrol officers that union leaders fear will become worse because of vaccine mandates. The standoffs are playing out at a time when many police departments already are dealing with surging homicide rates and staff shortages unrelated to the vaccine.
15th Oct 2021 - The Associated Press

They Resisted Getting Vaccinated. Here’s Why They Changed Their Minds.

Mandates have prompted a surge in vaccinations among those who had held out. Some report feeling relief; others, anguish and resentment. The uptick in vaccinations has contributed, experts say, to a flattening of the virus curve in New York City, where the numbers of new infections and hospitalizations have been falling — a trend across the United States as well. Yet with winter approaching, public health experts are watching closely for yet another rise in infections. New York’s vaccination rate is higher than that of the country as a whole, with two out of every three residents fully inoculated. Still, about one million adult New Yorkers have not gotten at least one vaccine dose.
15th Oct 2021 - The New York Times

Biden’s Moderna Vaccine Double-Cross

Moderna has already pledged 500 million doses to Covax, the World Health Organization-backed group distributing donated vaccines to low- and middle-income countries. But progressives want the White House to use the Defense Production Act (or other means) to make Moderna share its intellectual property with the world. In a letter to Dr. Kessler on Tuesday, 12 Democrats in Congress, led by Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, asserted that the government may have the right to confiscate Moderna’s IP because it has received “huge sums of public funding from American taxpayers.” The feds have held Moderna “‘by the hand on a daily basis,’” they said.
14th Oct 2021 - The Wall Street Journal

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 15th Oct 2021

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Anti-vaxxers paying $500 for fake Australian Covid vaccine passports that work to enter venues

More than a dozen accounts selling fake vaccine passports set up on Telegram One website is offering counterfeit Australian government documents for $500 Sources have told Daily Mail Australia they are aware of them working in Sydney A woman said her colleague was using one to successfully enter businesses The reports comes as Victoria and ACT prepare to reopen as they hit jab targets
14th Oct 2021 - Daily Mail

U.S. pastors, advocacy groups mobilize against COVID-19 vaccine mandates

From the outside, First Harvest Ministries in Waveland, Mississippi, could almost be mistaken for a storage shed were it not for the steeple. From the modest building however, Shane Vaughn, the Pentecostal church's pastor, has helped spearhead an online movement promoting personal faith as a way around workplace COVID-19 vaccine mandates. He posts form letters for U.S. workers seeking religious exemptions that have been downloaded from his website around 40,000 times, according to a screen shot of web traffic he shared with Reuters.
14th Oct 2021 - Reuters

Gambian women's voices on COVID-19 vaccines: "We are afraid"

Oyster harvesting in Gambia is considered women’s work. It's a grueling task — they paddle rickety boats, then get into water up to their necks to lay nets. Many of the women are the sole family breadwinners, and that burden has only intensified with the pandemic's economic hardships. Oysters bring income just two months a year — the rest of year, the nets catch crabs and small fish. The TRY Oyster Women’s Association represents more than 500 women, many of whom are reluctant to get vaccinated against COVID-19. These women fish under darkness of night without fear but are anxious about the vaccine. They say they can’t miss a day of work if it means being sidelined — even briefly— because of side effects from the jab.
14th Oct 2021 - The Independent

Covid-19 in Brazil: 'My mum was used as a guinea pig'

A Brazilian healthcare provider is accused of giving unproven drugs to Covid-19 patients and conducting experiments on elderly people without their relatives' consent. The allegations have been linked to deaths that, families say, could have been prevented. Katia Castilho's grief keeps her awake at night. In March, Norberto, her father, was admitted to a public hospital in São Paulo with Covid-19. Brazil, which has been hit hard by the pandemic, was then at the height of its second wave, with daily deaths numbering 4,000.
14th Oct 2021 - BBC News

Women left behind: gender gap emerges in Africa's vaccines

The health outreach workers who drove past Lama Mballow’s village with a megaphone handed out T-shirts emblazoned with the words: “I GOT MY COVID-19 VACCINE!” By then, the women in Sare Gibel already had heard the rumors on social media: The vaccines could make your blood stop or cause you to miscarry. Women who took it wouldn’t get pregnant again. Lama Mballow and her sister-in-law, Fatoumata Mballow, never made the 3.4-mile trip (5.5 kilometers) to town for their vaccines, but the family kept the free shirt. Its lettering is now well-worn from washing, but the women’s resolve has not softened. They share much — meal preparation duties, child care, trips to the well with plastic jugs, and their outlook on the vaccine.
14th Oct 2021 - The Associated Press

How to Deal With an Anti-Vaxxer at a Holiday Dinner

So at a holiday gathering, plan a collaborative activity, like a puzzle, or Legos, or prepping dinner. Then get people telling stories—about how they made big life decisions, about lessons from loved ones they never forgot. Personal stories, personal truths—that’s how you coax out their values. You allow people to build bridges to their better selves. You’ll return to those values to find common ground and make your case. You persuade them by reminding them of the trust you’ve built and the values you share.
14th Oct 2021 - Bloomberg

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Florida fines key county $3.5 million for mandating vaccines

Florida has issued its first fine to a county it says violated a new state law banning coronavirus vaccine mandates and for firing 14 workers who failed to get the shots. The Florida Department of Health on Tuesday issued the $3.5 million fine for Leon County, home to the state capital, saying the municipality violated Florida’s “vaccine passport” law, which prohibits businesses and governments from requiring people to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination. “These are people that, presumably, have been serving throughout this whole time and now all of a sudden they’re basically getting kicked to the curb,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said at a news conference in St. Pete Beach.
13th Oct 2021 - The Associated Press

Son whose father died of Covid-19 said he went to work wearing a scarf and gloves because he didn’t have PPE

A man whose late father was forced to wear a scarf and gloves due to a lack of to PPE at work has hit out at the Government over its treatment of Black and minority ethnic communities during the pandemic. Lobby Akinnola, 30, lost his 60-year-old father Olufemi “Femi’ Akinnola, a Mencap support worker, to Covid-19 in April last year. Lobby said his father died at his home in Leamington Spa despite making multiple calls to 111 and his GP about his worsening condition. He described his father Femi as a “nurturing, caring and wickedly smart man,” who “gave everything” and visited his clients outside of his shift pattern to ensure they were safe. But he did so wearing makeshift PPE fashioned from his scarf and gloves because he didn’t have proper equipment.
13th Oct 2021 - iNews

COVID-19: Minister apologises for 'hurt and distress' suffered by bereaved families in wake of damning report on pandemic handling

A minister has apologised for the "hurt and distress" suffered by families who have lost loved ones to coronavirus, the day after a colleague refused 11 times to say sorry for the government's handling of the pandemic. "The prime minister apologised earlier this year for all the hurt and distress all those families have suffered and I share that and of course I offer that as well," Conservative Party chair Oliver Dowden told Kay Burley.
13th Oct 2021 - Sky News

Neo-fascists exploit ‘no-vax’ rage, posing dilemma for Italy

An extreme-right party’s violent exploitation of anger over Italy’s coronavirus restrictions is forcing authorities to wrestle with the country’s fascist legacy and fueling fears there could be a replay of last week’s mobs trying to force their way to Parliament. Starting Friday, anyone entering workplaces in Italy must have received at least one vaccine dose, or recovered from COVID-19 recently or tested negative within two days, using the country’s Green Pass to prove their status. Italians already use the pass to enter restaurants, theaters, gyms and other indoor entertainment, or to take long-distance buses, trains or domestic flights. But 10,000 opponents of that government decree turned out in Rome’s vast Piazza del Popolo last Saturday in a protest that degenerated into alarming violence.
13th Oct 2021 - The Associated Press

W.H.O. Will Announce New Team to Study Coronavirus Origins

The position is unpaid. The world’s scientists and internet sleuths will scrutinize every move. Completing the first assignment with the available tools, and to everyone’s satisfaction, will be nearly impossible. Despite those considerable obstacles, more than 700 people have applied for spots on a new committee charged with breathing life into the World Health Organization’s stalled inquiry into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic. The committee, expected to be announced this week, represents an attempt by the embattled global health body to reset its approach to determining how the pandemic began.
12th Oct 2021 - The New York Times

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 13th Oct 2021

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Texas Governor Bans Covid-19 Vaccine Mandates for Employees

Texas businesses and other private entities are now banned from requiring Covid-19 vaccinations for employees, Gov. Greg Abbott said in an executive order issued Monday. Mr. Abbott, a Republican, said he was adding the issue to the agenda for the current special session of the Texas Legislature and would rescind his order if lawmakers passed a similar ban into law. “The Covid-19 vaccine is safe, effective, and our best defense against the virus, but should remain voluntary and never forced,” Mr. Abbott said in a news release Monday. Until now, elected officials in Texas have banned governmental entities from requiring vaccines and have banned places of public accommodation from requiring vaccines of their customers, but have allowed private businesses to determine whether to require vaccinations of their staff.
12th Oct 2021 - The Wall Street Journal

Covid Has Killed Hundreds of Police Officers. Many Still Resist Vaccines.

Over the last year and a half, a majority of the roughly 40 police officers who patrol Baker, La., a suburb of Baton Rouge, tested positive for the coronavirus. All of them recovered and went back to work — until Lt. DeMarcus Dunn got sick. Lieutenant Dunn, a 36-year-old shift supervisor who coached youth sports and once chased down someone who fled the police station after being arrested, died from Covid-19 on Aug. 13. His wedding had been scheduled for the next day.
12th Oct 2021 - The New York Times

Brazil's Bolsonaro says he is 'bored' by questions on COVID-19 deaths

Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro said on Monday that he did not want to be "bored" with questions about the milestone of 600,000 COVID-19 deaths that Latin America's biggest country passed a few days ago. Bolsonaro's poll numbers have fallen due to his handling of the pandemic, rising inflation and a weak economy. Brazil has the world's second highest COVID-19 death toll after the United States, and Bolsonaro has long sought to minimize the impact of the virus, touting unproven cures and railing against lockdowns.
12th Oct 2021 - Reuters

Schools are new battleground in war of disinformation over Covid-19 vaccines

The rollout of Covid-19 vaccinations to schoolchildren in the United Kingdom has opened up a new front in the disinformation war: anti-vax campaigners are now taking their protests to the school gates. Groups opposed to vaccination have sought to stoke the fears of parents and children by falsely claiming that the vaccines are untested and dangerous. Last week, a small group of protesters demonstrated outside St. Thomas More Catholic School in the town of Blaydon, near Newcastle in northeastern England, as children entered the school gates.
12th Oct 2021 - CNN

COVID-19: Reaction to highly critical COVID report, as Cummings brands prime minister and Labour leader 'jokes'

The prime minister's former adviser, Dominic Cummings, has branded both Boris Johnson and the Labour leader as "jokes" in the wake of the highly critical report into the government's handling of the coronavirus pandemic. His remarks were made following the publication of the MPs' report which said thousands of lives were lost due to delays and mistakes by both ministers and their scientific advisers as coronavirus began to spread. The report published by the health and social care committee and the science and technology committee, titled Coronavirus: Lessons learned to date, covers a variety of successes and failings across 150 pages.
12th Oct 2021 - Sky News

Demand for Holyrood inquiry on Covid-19 handling after damning MP report

The call comes after the publication of a report by Westminster MPs labelled the UK Government’s early response to the pandemic “one of the most important public health failures the United Kingdom has ever experienced”. The report, from the cross-party joint committee of the health and social care and science and technology committees, concluded that there was an element of “groupthink” around the UK Government’s approach to herd immunity.
12th Oct 2021 - The Scotsman

Covid-19: Ethnic minority deaths were ‘unacceptably high’ during pandemic, MPs say

A damning report from MPs has slammed the “unacceptably high” death rates among people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities that occurred during the Covid-19 pandemic. The study, from the cross-party Science and Technology Committee and the Health and Social Care Committee, said serious errors and delays, including on testing, care homes and the timing of the first lockdown, have cost lives during the virus outbreak. The pandemic exacerbated existing social, economic and health inequalities among ethnic minority communities, the MPs said.
12th Oct 2021 - The Independent

COVID-19: Minister refuses to apologise for government's pandemic handling as report says errors 'cost thousands of lives'

A minister has refused to apologise 11 times for the government's handling of the coronavirus pandemic, after a highly-critical report by MPs said thousands of lives were lost due to delays and mistakes by both ministers and their scientific advisers. "We followed, throughout, the scientific advice. We got the vaccine deployed extremely quickly, we protected our NHS from the surge of cases," Cabinet Office minister Stephen Barclay told Sky News' Kay Burley when she asked if the government would apologise.
12th Oct 2021 - Sky News

Naive and arrogant: the UK’s response to Covid-19 cost countless lives

The joint report issued today is a stark and largely damning appraisal of the UK’s Covid response. The report asks why, despite being ranked alongside the US as best prepared for a future pandemic, the UK was among those countries worst affected by Covid during 2020. While it avoids directly apportioning blame, this document will doubtless inform the long-awaited public inquiry. Dr Michael Ryan from the World Health Organisation wisely said at the very start of the pandemic: “Be fast, have no regrets […] the greatest error is not to move.” This evokes the “precautionary principle” – ie assume the worst case scenario and hope to be proven wrong. Indeed, where the UK has succeeded, this principle is in evidence. Funding for vaccine research in 2016 led directly to the rapid development of the Oxford/Astrazeneca vaccine, while the Vaccines Task Force successfully secured the national supply, which was ably distributed by the army and public volunteers.
12th Oct 2021 - The Independent

British government waited too long to implement COVID-19 lockdown, parliamentary report concludes

The British government waited too long to impose a lockdown in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, missing a chance to contain the disease and leading to thousands of unnecessary deaths, a parliamentary report has concluded. The deadly delay resulted from ministers' failure to question the recommendations of scientific advisers, resulting in a dangerous level of "groupthink" that caused them to dismiss the more aggressive strategies adopted in East and South-East Asia, the joint report from the House of Commons science and health committees concluded on Tuesday.
12th Oct 2021 - Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Report says UK’s slow virus lockdown cost 1000s of lives

Britain’s failure to impose a lockdown in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic cost thousands of unnecessary deaths and ranks among the country’s worst public health blunders, lawmakers concluded Tuesday in the nation’s first comprehensive report on the pandemic. The deadly delay derived from the failure of British government ministers to question the recommendations of scientific advisers, resulting in a dangerous level of “groupthink” that caused them to dismiss the more aggressive strategies adopted in East and Southeast Asia to limit infections, the report said.
12th Oct 2021 - The Associated Press

UK's 'policy approach of fatalism' early in pandemic was major error, lawmakers say

The delay to England's first coronavirus lockdown was a serious error based on groupthink that went unchallenged, lawmakers said in a report published on Tuesday, adding that failures in testing positive cases and tracing their contacts exacerbated the crisis. Parliament's health and science committees have jointly published a 150-page report on lessons learnt from the COVID-19 pandemic after hours of testimony from more than 50 witnesses, include government policy, health and science advisers.
12th Oct 2021 - Reuters UK

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WHO advises a third COVID shot for users of Chinese vaccines

The World Health Organisation recommended that people over 60 receive an additional dose of the shots made by Chinese vaccine makers Sinopharm and Sinovac, citing evidence in studies in Latin America that they perform less well over time. Observational data on Sinopharm and Sinovac shots “clearly showed that in older age groups ... the vaccine performs less well after two doses”, said Joachim Hombach on Monday (Tuesday AEDT) secretary of the independent panel of experts who held a five-day closed-door meeting last week.
12th Oct 2021 - Sydney Morning Herald

Crew from Stolt Sakura COVID ship docked off Fremantle discharged from hospital as two remain in ICU

Two more crew members from a COVID-riddled oil and chemical tanker docked off Fremantle have been transferred from hospital to hotel quarantine. The MV Stolt Sakura has 12 positive crew, five of whom remain aboard the ship. Two are in intensive care at Fiona Stanley Hospital, with one in a serious and unstable condition. The other is also serious, however, his condition is stable. Another two seafarers are being treated in the hospital’s respiratory ward and are stable.
11th Oct 2021 - PerthNow

Covid vaccine: Why these US workers won't get jabbed

Joe Biden has been urging US employers to issue ultimatums to their staff: get vaccinated, or lose your job. The president says he will soon bring in a mandate that requires all healthcare workers to have had the jab, and has urged states to do the same with teachers. In Concord, New Hampshire, it is striking to see some of those attending a large protest against vaccine mandates wearing hospital scrubs. Leah Cushman is prepared to lose her nursing job rather than get vaccinated. "My beliefs are religious. I believe that my creator endowed me with an immune system that protects me, and if I get sick, that's an act of God.
11th Oct 2021 - BBC News

Jeremy Vine ‘unnerved’ after home targeted by anti-vaccine protesters

The television and radio presenter Jeremy Vine has said he was unnerved after anti-vaccine protesters targeted his home. Vine tweeted that the group tried to serve what it called an “anti-vaxx writ” while he was out, instead giving it to his wife. The BBC and Channel 5 broadcaster said the group was angry at the BBC’s reporting on the issue of coronavirus vaccines, adding: “They were polite, for which I’m grateful, but coming to my home on a Sunday? And I’m a little unnerved by the heavy breathing too.”
11th Oct 2021 - The Guardian

Romania remains vaccine sceptical despite surge in COVID-19 cases

In leafy Romanian villages surrounding the capital Bucharest, few people realise one person has died from COVID-19 every six minutes in the country during the first 10 days of October, and vaccine scepticism remains high. These villages have some of the highest COVID-19 infection numbers and lowest vaccination rates in the country, which is being ravaged by the fourth wave of the pandemic, with ambulances queuing outside hospitals filled to the brim. Daily transmission numbers are rising across Central and Eastern European states, and Romania is experiencing record case and death rates as it grapples with the European Union's second-lowest vaccination rate.
11th Oct 2021 - Reuters

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Coronavirus Northern Ireland: Robin Swann issues fresh plea against 'vaccine lies' as four further deaths recorded

A further four deaths linked to Covid and a further 1,274 positive cases in Northern Ireland, the Department of Health has recorded. The department’s figures, published on Saturday, now means the death toll stands at 2,585. To date, 2,548,548 vaccines have been administered here. The statistics come as Health Minister Robin Swann warned that those spreading "misinformation and lies" about Covid vaccines are putting lives at risk. Speaking at the Ulster Unionist Party conference in Belfast, its first gathering since 2018, Mr Swann praised the health service response to the Covid pandemic but also criticised those sceptical about vaccines.
9th Oct 2021 - Belfast Telegraph

NBA stars speak out against coronavirus vaccine mandate

Brooklyn Nets say Kyrie Irving is ineligible to play in a home preseason game, and people speculate it may be over his COVID vaccination status; Outkick founder Clay Travis provides insight on ‘Fox & Friends Weekend.’
9th Oct 2021 - Yahoo News

Indonesian volunteers help to bury COVID victims

The COVID-19 situation in Indonesia has improved, but the pandemic is still claiming victims. And where there are victims, there are funerals. Here's where tireless volunteers have stepped up to provide much-needed help.
9th Oct 2021 - Deutsche Welle

The callous cretins who kill during a pandemic

Jason Hargrove should be alive. For years, the 50-year-old married father of six children drove a city bus in Detroit, Michigan to make an “honest living.” Every weekday, he went to work to provide for his family. The local union president called Hargrove a “professional” who was dedicated to his job. Driving a bus can be risky. But, I suspect, Hargrove did not think that contracting a lethal virus was among the hazards. That was until late March 2020, when COVID-19 began to infect the United States and much of the world with the swiftness of a jet stream. It prompted Hargrove to record a brief video and post it on his Facebook account. For several minutes, Hargrove vented his anger, frustration and dread about the invisible threat boarding his bus. One news story described his short, urgent soliloquy as “profanity-laced”. So, what? He had every right and reason to use blunt words to call out the dunces who put him in danger – on and off a bus.
9th Oct 2021 - Al Jazeera English

Anti-vaccine chiropractors rising force of misinformation

The flashy postcard, covered with images of syringes, beckoned people to attend Vax-Con ’21 to learn “the uncensored truth” about COVID-19 vaccines. Participants traveled from around the country to a Wisconsin Dells resort for a sold-out convention that was, in fact, a sea of misinformation and conspiracy theories about vaccines and the pandemic. The featured speaker was the anti-vaccine activist who appeared in the 2020 movie “Plandemic,” which pushed false COVID-19 stories into the mainstream. One session after another discussed bogus claims about the health dangers of mask wearing and vaccines. The convention was organized by members of a profession that has become a major purveyor of vaccine misinformation during the pandemic: chiropractors.
9th Oct 2021 - The Associated Press

More organ transplant centers require patients to get Covid-19 vaccine or bumped down waitlist

A Colorado kidney transplant candidate who was bumped to inactive status for failing to get a covid-19 vaccine has become the most public example of an argument roiling the nation's more than 250 organ transplant centers. Across the country, growing numbers of transplant programs have chosen to either bar patients who refuse to take the widely available covid vaccines from receiving transplants, or give them lower priority on crowded organ waitlists. Other programs, however, say they plan no such restrictions — for now.
9th Oct 2021 - CNN

U.S. Pushes Back Against Military Vaccine Mandate Lawsuit

A Justice Department lawyer pushed back on military personnel claims that kicking them out of the service for refusing to get vaccinated will result in harm that can never be compensated by a court. The service members sued this week to vacate a Pentagon vaccine mandate for all those in the military, arguing they face imminent harm if a court order isn’t issued temporarily blocking the requirement. They say they face dishonorable discharge or even two years in jail. “There is case law out there that says separation from the military is not irreparable harm,” Justice Department lawyer Andrew Carmichael said during a phone hearing Friday. He also said the U.S. should be given time to verify the claims by the anonymous service members.
9th Oct 2021 - Bloomberg

Snow Leopard Dies at U.S. Zoo After Exhibiting Signs of Covid-19

A snow leopard died after displaying symptoms similar to Covid-19 at a U.S. zoo housing a confirmed case of the virus, officials announced Friday. Baya, age 2 1/2, exhibited signs of a cough followed by “inappetence and lethargy” and died Thursday, according to the Great Plains Zoo in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. A necropsy is planned. One of the zoo’s Amur tigers tested positive for the virus that causes Covid-19 this week, the zoo said. Other big cats have exhibited symptoms.
9th Oct 2021 - Bloomberg on MSN.com

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Amazon sued by warehouse workers over COVID-19 screening pay

Amazon.com Inc has been accused of violating Colorado state law by failing to pay warehouse workers for time spent undergoing COVID-19 screenings before clocking in at work. Jennifer Vincenzetti, who worked at two Amazon warehouses in Colorado Springs, filed a proposed class action in Colorado federal court on Tuesday claiming the company made workers wait in long lines to answer questions and have their temperatures checked. Seattle-based Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
7th Oct 2021 - Reuters

Divorced parents are going to court over vaccinating their kids against the coronavirus

Veronica was in her garden in New England when she got the email ping from her ex-husband in early May. “I started to have a panic attack,” says Veronica, who is not using her last name for privacy reasons. Her ex wanted a court to decide whether their 12-year-old daughter could be vaccinated against the coronavirus. The timing was terrible. “It was the day before I had her appointment scheduled,” she says. Divorced parents who disagree about coronavirus vaccination are taking their fights to court. The tensions have been fueled by inconsistent mask rules, misinformation and reports of more children hospitalized for covid-19, the disease caused by the virus.
7th Oct 2021 - The Washington Post

WLOX news anchor Meggan Gray loses job after refusing coronavirus vaccine

Meggan Gray signed off her Thursday morning news show with a cryptic announcement. From the desk of WLOX News in Biloxi, Miss., where she had co-anchored “Good Morning Mississippi” for 14 years, she said she “wanted to just take a little moment and let you know that I honestly do not know what the future holds for me as far as my career here.” The next day, she was off the show, and she took to Facebook to explain why: She lost her job after refusing to be vaccinated for the coronavirus as required by her station’s parent company, Gray Television. “In my opinion, a forced decision to decide between a vaccination and the livelihood of an individual is a dangerous precedent,” wrote Gray, 40, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
7th Oct 2021 - The Washington Post

Man sentenced to 15 months in prison for spreading COVID-19 hoax on Facebook

Christopher Charles Perez, 40, made a Facebook post in April 2020 falsely claiming that he paid a COVID patient to lick items at a San Antonio grocer. He also made a post threatening to spread the virus at another area store. Investigators and Perez's confession revealed his posts to be false. He was found guilty of criminal false information and hoaxes related to biological weapons. Perez was sentenced to 15 months in prison, three years of supervised release that requires him to seek mental health treatment, and fined $1,000
7th Oct 2021 - Daily Mail

Covid-19: NI schools warned about hoax vaccine letters

The Public Health Agency (PHA) has warned post primary schools in Northern Ireland about hoax Covid vaccine consent letters. Some schools have received emails claiming to come from the NHS, which contain a "consent checklist" for vaccination. The email asks them to share the checklist with parents and pupils. But the PHA said "the false email and 'consent form' content contains a number of important inaccuracies". It should "not be forwarded to parents," the PHA said. BBC News NI has been contacted by some principals in Northern Ireland whose schools have received the hoax consent forms. They are presented as a form with information to be sent to parents ahead of pupils being given Covid vaccinations.
7th Oct 2021 - BBC News

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Canada to put federal workers who refuse COVID-19 vaccination on unpaid leave

Canada will place unvaccinated federal employees on unpaid leave and require COVID-19 shots for air, train and ship passengers, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Wednesday, as he unveiled one of the world's strictest vaccine mandate policies. Federal employees will be required to declare their full vaccination status through an online portal by Oct. 29. Workers and passengers age 12 and older on trains, planes and marine transport operating domestically - which are federally regulated - must show they have been inoculated by Oct. 30.
6th Oct 2021 - Reuters

New Hampshire lawmaker made the absurd claim that COVID-19 vaccines contain a 'living organism with tentacles'

A New Hampshire lawmaker circulated the groundless and absurd claim that coronavirus vaccines contain a "living organism with tentacles." Rep. Ken Weyler, a Republican appears to support the claim made in a 52-page report he emailed to other lawmakers, prompting calls for his removal as the head of a government committee. State Rep. Mary Jane Wallner, a Democrat, on Monday released a statement describing the document she said was sent to her and other lawmakers.
6th Oct 2021 - Yahoo News UK

Covid-19: 'You can't be forced into doing anything' - Dallas, McGinn & Baraclough on vaccine debate

Northern Ireland manager Ian Baraclough and players Stuart Dallas and Niall McGinn give their opinions on whether footballers should be vaccinated against Covid-19.
6th Oct 2021 - BBC News

Anti-vaxxers tear down Covid testing site in New York

Two anti-vaxx demonstrators attacked a Covid-19 testing site on Monday, during a protest against New York state’s vaccine mandate. A video caught the men in Union Square flipping over a table next to a mobile coronavirus testing van, tearing down the tent erected next to it and tossing a chair, before police intervened to stop them permanently destroying any property. Protesters at the rally shouted “boo” and “shame on you” at the staff member working at the Covid-19 testing site as they went past, followed by chants of “no vaccine mandate”.
6th Oct 2021 - The Independent

Hearings resume on Ohio House anti-vaccine mandate bill

The right of individuals to decline the coronavirus vaccine and the right of businesses to require it as a condition of employment are at the center of debate over proposed House Republican legislation limiting employers’ ability to mandate COVID-19 vaccination. Lawmakers on Wednesday began additional hearings on the bill after a failed effort last week to fast-track a full House vote on the legislation. All major business and health care organizations oppose the legislation that would allow public and private sector employees to seek exemptions from employer-mandated coronavirus vaccines. The hearing is meant to explore “the line between personal freedom and company rights to mandate your vaccination in terms of employment,” said House Commerce and Labor Chairman Dick Stein, a Norwalk Republican.
6th Oct 2021 - The Associated Press

Texas man sentenced to 15 months in prison for posting Covid-19 hoax on social media

A Texas man was sentenced to more than a year in federal prison for spreading a hoax related to Covid-19 on social media, prosecutors said. Evidence showed Christopher Charles Perez, 40, posted two threatening messages on Facebook in April 2020, falsely claiming he paid someone infected with Covid-19 to "lick items at grocery stores in the San Antonio area to scare people away" from the businesses, the US Attorney's Office in the Western District of Texas said in a news release Monday.
6th Oct 2021 - CNN

Covid-19: Nurseries demanding ‘invasive’ PCR tests on toddlers ‘should be challenged in court’

Children as young as two who develop coughing or a high temperature are having to endure “invasive” PCR tests by nurseries who are going further than Government guidelines state, according to a leading public health expert. Allyson Pollock, clinical professor of public health at Newcastle University, said it is “madness” that children who develop common cold symptoms are not allowed to return to the setting until they have a negative swab test – and that the issue should be challenged in court. Department for Education guidelines state that any child who develops symptoms, however mild, should be sent home where they should follow public health advice. Children aged under 5 years old who are identified as close contacts of someone with Covid will only be advised to take a PCR test if the positive case is in their own household.
6th Oct 2021 - iNews

Misinformation On Covid, Vaccines "Resulting In People Dying", WHO Warns

The World Health Organization's Covid-19 chief warned Tuesday "We're not out of the woods" in the fight against the pandemic, even if many people thought it was nearly over. Maria Van Kerkhove, the technical lead for WHO's Covid-19, said last week 3.1 million known new cases were reported to the UN health agency, and 54,000 more deaths -- though the true numbers would be much higher. "The situation is still incredibly dynamic. And it's dynamic because we don't have control over this virus," she said during a live presentation on the WHO's social media channels. "We're not out of the woods. We're very much in the middle of this pandemic. But where in the middle... we're not quite sure yet, because frankly we're not using the tools we have right now to get us closer to the end." She added: "What I really struggle with is in some cities we see ICUs (intensive care units) and hospitals full and people dying -- yet on the streets people are acting like it's completely over.
6th Oct 2021 - NDTV

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Walz calls for vaccine and testing requirements for teachers

Gov. Tim Walz called on lawmakers Tuesday to approve a series of new moves to respond to the fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, including vaccine and testing requirements for teachers, school staff, and long-term care workers, and measures to relieve strained hospital capacity. The Democratic governor detailed his proposal in a letter to lawmakers that he released after meeting privately with legislative leaders. He urged lawmakers to approve the measures during a special session that was originally envisioned for last month to approve a $250 million bonus package for frontline workers who risked their lives in the pandemic. Negotiations on that plan have yet to produce an agreement and missed a Labor Day target for completion. Since then, the governor has proposed that the special session also include drought relief for farmers. But Walz has also insisted that Senate Republicans agree not to use the special session to fire Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm, as some senators have threatened.
5th Oct 2021 - The Associated Press

Anti-vaccine villagers in Guatemala hold coronavirus team

Anti-vaccine residents of a village in Guatemala seized and held a team of nurses who were trying to administer coronavirus shots Monday, authorities said. The team was held for about seven hours in the village of Nahuila, in the province of Alta Verapaz, north of Guatemala City. The villagers said they didn’t want the shots, and later blocked a road and let the air out of the nurses' tires. A cooler and about 50 doses of vaccine were destroyed. Police and local officials later negotiated their release. Officials said they had previously encountered villages that rejected vaccination teams, but Gabriel Sandoval, the director of the provincial health department, said it was the first time they faced such physical opposition.
5th Oct 2021 - ABC News

Schools could be big battleground in coronavirus vaccine mandate fight

The resistance to coronavirus vaccine mandates isn’t quite what it’s been cracked up to be. As businesses, hospital systems and governments have moved forward with such mandates, many of the earliest test cases have gained compliance numbers well north of 90 percent. As The Post’s Philip Bump wrote last week, the numbers suggest many supposed never-vaxxers were actually in the “I’ll get it if required” camp. But that doesn’t mean vaccine mandates won’t hit roadblocks in the months ahead. And one increasing prospect seems most likely to truly test people’s true opposition to the mandates: schools requiring them. California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) on Friday became the first governor to say that his state would mandate fully approved vaccines for schoolchildren when they are available. (The Pfizer vaccine is fully approved only for children 16 and older and authorized for emergency use for children 12 to 15.)
5th Oct 2021 - The Washington Post

Sen. Lindsey Graham booed by South Carolina Republicans after promoting covid vaccine

South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey O. Graham was only midway through his sentence when the crowd began shouting over him. “If you haven’t had the vaccine, you ought to think about getting it because if you’re my age — ” “No!” attendees at a Republican event held Saturday responded as others booed. Graham was speaking at a country club in Summerville, S.C., about 25 miles outside Charleston. Bowing his head and holding up a hand, the 66-year-old — who got his coronavirus vaccine in December — responded to the crowd, telling them: “I didn’t tell you to get it. You ought to think about it.”
5th Oct 2021 - The Washington Post

Three Vatican Swiss Guards ‘resign’ after refusing to get Covid vaccine

Three Vatican Swiss Guards have reportedly resigned after refusing to get the coronavirus vaccine. The guards left on a “voluntary” basis, according to a spokesperson for the corps, following the Holy See’s enforcement of new Covid-19 measures. Another three unvaccinated members who decided to get the jab have been temporarily suspended until they are fully inoculated, Swiss newspaper Tribune de Geneva reported. A spokesperson for the Swiss Guards, the elite colourfully dressed corps that protects the pope, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
5th Oct 2021 - The Independent

New York protesters chant 'save Australia' following Covid-19 vaccine mandates for teachers

Protesters in New York were seen chanting 'Save Australia' during bizarre rallies. Many were protesting against vaccine mandates for teachers in the US city. They referenced similar mandates in Victoria and never-ending lockdowns. White House Press Secretary was questioned on 'disturbing images' in Australia
5th Oct 2021 - Daily Mail

By ending Covid elimination, Jacinda Ardern once again fails to turn compassion into policy

And so with that, a confusing 20-minute monologue in the Beehive theatrette, New Zealand’s virus-beating elimination strategy is over. As the Delta variant’s “tentacles”, to borrow the prime minister’s description, creep past the Auckland border, potentially wrapping themselves around parts of the Waikato, the government will no longer aim to cut the monster off at its head with tough alert level four restrictions. Instead public health officials will move to a suppression strategy aiming “to contain and control the virus” while we vaccinate our way out of the pandemic. At its simplest, Jacinda Ardern’s message from the threatrette was vaccinate, vaccinate, vaccinate. For 18 months New Zealanders were living life as if there were no pandemic. We were gathering outdoors and indoors in the thousands, mask mandates were literally a foreign concept, and business and public services were operating more or less as normal.
5th Oct 2021 - The Guardian

Doctors grow frustrated over COVID-19 denial, misinformation

The COVID-19 patient’s health was deteriorating quickly at a Michigan hospital, but he was having none of the doctor’s diagnosis. Despite dangerously low oxygen levels, the unvaccinated man didn’t think he was that sick and got so irate over a hospital policy forbidding his wife from being at his bedside that he threatened to walk out of the building. Dr. Matthew Trunsky didn’t hold back in his response: “You are welcome to leave, but you will be dead before you get to your car,’” he said. Such exchanges have become all-too-common for medical workers who are growing weary of COVID-19 denial and misinformation that have made it exasperating to treat unvaccinated patients during the delta-driven surge.
5th Oct 2021 - The Associated Press

Australia’s far right gets COVID anti-lockdown protest booster

Recent anti-lockdown protests in Melbourne have exposed the rise of the far-right movement over fears stemming from the coronavirus pandemic, unemployment, and continuing lockdown measures. The most recent — and arguably most violent — protests were sparked by the state government’s decision to suspend work on building sites for two weeks and make vaccination mandatory for construction workers. Construction workers protesting at the trade union offices in Melbourne, Australia’s second-biggest city, were joined by several other groups, many from far-right backgrounds. The protest soon turned violent, with police responding with rubber bullets, tear gas and pepper spray. “Very quickly we saw ‘freedom marchers’ join the protests [with] other right-wing antagonists,” far-right analyst Josh Roose, a senior research fellow at the Alfred Deakin Institute in Melbourne, told Al Jazeera.
5th Oct 2021 - AlJazeera

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Thousands of Unvaccinated New York City School Employees Placed on Unpaid Leave

Thousands of New York City school staff were barred from returning to work Monday for failing to comply with a vaccination mandate that took effect Friday afternoon. About 95% of the 150,000 employees at the city’s Department of Education have been vaccinated, including 96% of teachers and 99% of principals, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Monday. Roughly 4,000 employees represented by the United Federation of Teachers were missing from schools as of Monday afternoon, including about 2,000 teachers, the union said. Classes resumed in person on Monday as scheduled after school officials spent the weekend identifying potential shortages and deploying substitute teachers, the union said. The vaccination rate among staffers in some critical roles remained lower compared with that of teachers. About 84% of the school safety agents who provide security on campuses were vaccinated, leaving about 1,800 of the officers on unpaid leave from schools on Monday, according to union officials.
4th Oct 2021 - The Wall Street Journal

HS: Majority of Finns don't accept refusing coronavirus vaccine on principle

A clear majority of Finns do not approve of people who refuse to get vaccinated against the coronavirus on principle, finds a poll by Helsingin Sanomat. Almost two-thirds (63%) of the poll respondents viewed that refusing to get vaccinated on principle was unacceptable and over one-quarter (27%) that doing so was acceptable. Understanding for the decision was limited especially among older respondents, with over 80 per cent of over 70-year-olds saying refusing on principle is unacceptable. Roughly a half of under 30-year-olds estimated that it is acceptable and 41 per cent that it is unacceptable to turn down the vaccine on principle.
4th Oct 2021 - Helsinki Times

Norway insists it hasn't 'reclassified' Covid-19 as flu

The Norwegian health authorities have clarified reports they are ‘reclassifying’ the coronavirus as just another form of flu. The Scandinavian country has relaxed its Covid rules as vaccinations ramp up and the virus recedes. But it wants to make it clear it is not treating a Covid infection the same as the common cold. ‘It is not correct that the Norwegian Institute of Public Health [NIPH] has claimed that ‘Covid-19 is no more dangerous than ordinary flu.’ This statement is probably a misinterpretation of this interview in a large Norwegian newspaper,’ a spokesperson from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH) told IFLScience.
4th Oct 2021 - Metro.co.uk

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COVID-19: 'Get the jab or get another job' Sajid Javid warns care workers

Staff in care homes who don't receive both vaccine jabs ahead of a looming deadline should "get out and get another job", Health Secretary Sajid Javid has warned. His warning comes ahead of the 11 November legal deadline for care home workers to have had both COVID-19 jabs, but some unions and care homes are warning that it could lead to a shortage of staff. Mr Javid told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "If you work in a care home you are working with some of the most vulnerable people in our country, and if you cannot be bothered to go and get vaccinated then get out and go and get another job."
3rd Oct 2021 - Sky News

Indonesia’s pandemic-fuelled problem: Mounds of medical waste

The overpowering stench is the first thing that I notice, filling my nose and making my eyes water. Then I see the mountains of rotting waste. This is Burangkeng, one of Indonesia’s largest landfills, in the city of Bekasi some 30km from the capital, Jakarta. On the surface it looks like any other large dumpsite, but among the regular rubbish lies a growing amount of toxic medical waste. From blood-filled drip lines to masks, medical gloves and COVID-19 tests. All hidden in plain sight.
2nd Oct 2021 - Al Jazeera

Why are Nigerians paying for fake COVID test results?

In August, the University of Lagos temporarily closed its doors after positive cases of COVID-19 were reported in hostels on the main campus in Akoka. Twenty-three-year-old Bolu and 24-year-old Veronica were among the thousands of students whose studies were interrupted. The students, who asked Al Jazeera to refer to them by pseudonyms, are both in their final year of medical school. Neither was allowed to return to the classroom until the end of August – and only then if they could furnish the school with a negative COVID-19 test result. COVID-19 tests are free in government-owned hospitals in Nigeria, but students and medical professionals Al Jazeera talked to say that demand for them far outstrips supply, and that results can be delayed for days, inhibiting public health measures to combat the spread of the disease.
2nd Oct 2021 - Al Jazeera English on MSN.com

India imposes retaliatory COVID restrictions on British nationals

Fully vaccinated British nationals arriving in India will be subjected to a 10-day mandatory quarantine, in response to similar measures imposed on Indian nationals. The move comes after India’s Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla called Britain’s decision not to recognise the Indian version of the AstraZeneca vaccine, known as Covishield, “discriminatory”. He had warned of reciprocal measures should London fail to reconsider.
2nd Oct 2021 - Al Jazeera English

Crunch Time Is Here for Players Who Oppose Covid-19 Vaccinations

Media day for the Brooklyn Nets was billed as a potentially explosive spectacle in which leading scorer Kyrie Irving might set out his reasons for not being vaccinated against Covid-19 and signal whether he was willing to miss every Nets practice, home game and potential playoffs this season in order to maintain that position. In the end, Irving spoke from an undisclosed location on Zoom because the 29-year-old guard wasn’t allowed to enter the Barclays Center. Then he declined to address how or whether he would comply with New York City’s requirement to prove vaccination in order to be in an indoor sports arena. “I just would love to just keep that private, and handle it the right way with my team, and go forward together with a plan,” he said. “Obviously, I’m not able to be present there today. But that doesn’t mean that I’m putting any limits on the future of me being able to join the team.”
2nd Oct 2021 - Wall Street Journal

Australia's NSW state premier resigns over corruption probe amid COVID-19 battle

The premier of Australia's biggest state economy New South Wales (NSW), Gladys Berejiklian, resigned on Friday after a corruption watchdog said it was investigating whether she was involved in conduct that "constituted or involved a breach of public trust". Berejiklian's shock resignation comes as the state, which has an economy larger than Singapore, Thailand or Malaysia, battles the biggest COVID-19 outbreak in the country and is poised to begin ending months-long lockdowns as Australia sets to reopen international borders in November
1st Oct 2021 - Reuters

Studies provide insights into COVID vaccine hesitancy

Two JAMA Network Open studies yesterday that looked at COVID-19 vaccine acceptance in minority groups and opinions around less-preferred vaccines provide clues for how officials might better encourage immunization. The first study, involving 13 focus groups, reaffirmed a lack of communication and trust among racially and ethnically diverse communities in the United States. The second study examined the effect of emphasizing different data around the Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca/Oxford COVID-19 vaccines: People were more interested in uptake when they were presented with the vaccines' effectiveness against death versus their effectiveness against symptomatic infection.
1st Oct 2021 - CIDRAP

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Health workers once saluted as heroes now get threats

More than a year after U.S. health care workers on the front lines against COVID-19 were saluted as heroes with nightly clapping from windows and balconies, some are being issued panic buttons in case of assault and ditching their scrubs before going out in public for fear of harassment. Across the country, doctors and nurses are dealing with hostility, threats and violence from patients angry over safety rules designed to keep the scourge from spreading. “A year ago, we’re health care heroes and everybody’s clapping for us,” said Dr. Stu Coffman, a Dallas-based emergency room physician. “And now we’re being in some areas harassed and disbelieved and ridiculed for what we’re trying to do, which is just depressing and frustrating.”
30th Sep 2021 - The Associated Press

U.S. Frackers Fear Vaccine Mandate Will Worsen Worker Crunch

American frackers, already struggling to hire enough workers, are concerned that the coming U.S. vaccine mandate will worsen the situation at a time of rising oil and gas prices. Many of the truckers, rig hands and roustabouts who used to work in Texas and other oil patch regions found other jobs after crude prices crashed last year during the onset of the pandemic. Oil-field service companies, which employ most of the ground-level workers who drill and finish wells, say many remaining employees are skeptical about Covid-19 vaccination, and some have warned they would quit before getting shots. The proposed mandate doesn’t require companies to terminate employees who don’t comply, but those workers would be subject to frequent testing. Some companies are concerned that such testing would frustrate unvaccinated employees and motivate them to leave their jobs.
30th Sep 2021 - The Wall Street Journal

As deaths rise, vaccine opponents find a foothold in Bosnia

Hospitals across Bosnia are again filling with COVID-19 patients gasping for air, and the country’s pandemic death toll is rising. Yet vaccination sites are mostly empty and unused coronavirus vaccines are fast approaching their expiration dates. When the European Union launched its mass vaccination campaign, non-member Bosnia struggled along with most other Balkan nations to get supplies. By late spring, however, hundreds of thousands of doses started pouring into the country. But after an initial rush of people clamoring to get jabbed, demand for shots quickly slowed. It is now down to a trickle even though Bosnia has Europe’s highest coronavirus mortality rate at 4.5%, according to Johns Hopkins University data.
30th Sep 2021 - The Associated Press

Brazil hospital chain secretly gave Covid-19 patients unproven drugs, whistleblowers' lawyer claims

A Brazilian hospital chain gave unproven Covid-19 treatments to patients without their knowledge, a lawyer for a group of whistleblowing doctors alleged to the country's parliamentary inquiry on the pandemic on Tuesday. At least nine patients at hospitals operated by Prevent Senior died of Covid-19 while they were unwittingly receiving the experimental treatments, said Bruna Morato, representing 12 anonymous doctors who worked for the health care provider. The company, which also offers private health insurance, has denied all allegations. Morato alleged that Prevent Senior hospitals were used as "laboratories" for studies with so-called "Covid kit," containing drugs that have been proven ineffective for the treatment of Covid-19, such as ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine. These studies were allegedly conducted between March and April of 2020.
30th Sep 2021 - CNN

College student who promised his mom he would get vaccinated at school dies from Covid-19

A 20-year-old North Carolina student, who was hesitant about getting the coronavirus shot, died of complications after catching Covid-19 three days after returning to college. Tyler Gilreath, a student at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington, died on Tuesday after testing positive for the coronavirus, which he contracted just days after returning to college. The student, according to his mother Tamra Demello, thought his age would protect him from the virus. "I cajoled, encouraged, threatened, and nagged for him to get vaccinated. He was too busy and/or concerned about the possible long term heart issues," Ms Demello shared on social media.
30th Sep 2021 - The Independent

NBA players who refuse Covid-19 vaccine could lose millions in salary

NBA players who choose not to be vaccinated against Covid-19 could lose millions of dollars, the league confirmed on Wednesday. “Any player who elects not to comply with local vaccination mandates will not be paid for games that he misses,” Mike Bass, the NBA’s executive vice president of communications, said in a statement on Wednesday morning. The NBA does not require its players to be vaccinated, although they are under stricter protocols than those who have had the Covid-19 shot. However, local laws in cities such as New York and San Francisco prohibit the unvaccinated from certain public places, including indoor sports areas. That means unvaccinated players for teams such as the Brooklyn Nets and Golden State Warriors would not be able to participate in home games.
30th Sep 2021 - The Guardian

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YouTube Will Remove Videos With Misinformation About Any Vaccine

YouTube will begin removing content questioning any approved medical vaccine, not just those for Covid-19, a departure from the video site’s historically hands-off approach. The division of Alphabet Inc.’s Google announced Wednesday that it will extend its policy against misinformation to cover all vaccines that health authorities consider effective. The ban will include any media that claims vaccines are dangerous or lead to chronic health outcomes such as autism, said Matt Halprin, YouTube’s vice president for trust and safety. A year ago, YouTube banned certain videos critical of Covid-19 vaccines. The company said it has since pulled more than 130,000 videos for violating that rule. But many videos got around the rule by making dubious claims about vaccines without mentioning Covid-19. YouTube determined its policy was too limited.
29th Sep 2021 - Bloomberg

YouTube to remove misinformation videos about all vaccines

YouTube is to remove videos that spread misinformation about all vaccines, as it steps up a crackdown on harmful content posted during the coronavirus pandemic. From Wednesday, the video streaming site, which has already banned Covid jab falsehoods, will take down content that contains misinformation such as claiming any approved vaccine is dangerous, causes chronic health defects or does not reduce spread of disease. Under previous guidelines, the platform demoted – effectively hiding from view – videos that spread misinformation about non-Covid vaccines or promoted vaccine hesitancy. Last year, YouTube implemented a ban on Covid vaccine misinformation videos, which has led to 130,000 pieces of content being taken down since then. YouTube, which is owned by Google, has removed a total of 1m videos for spreading general Covid falsehoods since the pandemic broke out.
29th Sep 2021 - The Guardian

North Carolina hospitals group has sacked employees who refused vaccines

A North Carolina hospital system has terminated about 175 employees in the latest in a slew of healthcare terminations due to Covid vaccine mandates, reports the Washington Post. Novant Health, whose headquarters are about an hour and a half away from North Carolina’s capital city of Raleigh, announced on Monday that it had fired the employees for failing to comply with the organization’s mandatory vaccine policy. “We stand by our decision to make the vaccine mandatory as we have a responsibility to protect our patients, visitors and team members, regardless of where they are in our health system,” said Novant Health in a statement.
29th Sep 2021 - The Guardian

Brazil hospital chain hid Covid-19 deaths, whistleblowers' lawyer tells Senate

United says nearly 600 staff face termination for vaccine refusal

United Airlines has said that nearly 600 US-based employees faced termination after failing to comply with the carrier’s vaccination policy. In early August, the company became the first US carrier to require COVID-19 vaccinations for all domestic employees, requiring proof of vaccination by Monday. The carrier said it would start on Tuesday the process of firing 593 employees who decided not to get vaccinated. “This was an incredibly difficult decision but keeping our team safe has always been our first priority,” Chief Executive Scott Kirby and President Brett Hart told employees in a memo. The workers can save their jobs if they get vaccinated before their formal termination meetings, the company officials said.
29th Sep 2021 - AlJazeera

Wyoming city reflects vaccine hesitancy in conservative US

As her beloved grandmother’s health declined, Lauren Pfenning’s family insisted that she get a COVID-19 vaccine before paying her a final visit. She spent over a week researching vaccines on the internet and anguished over the decision during and after 12-hour shifts at her job hauling coal in an open-pit mine near Gillette, Wyoming. Her grandmother died earlier this month before she made a decision, but Pfenning stands by her choice to not get vaccinated. Pfenning embodies the fiercely independent, deeply conservative Wyoming way of life that has defined the state’s response to the pandemic and made it the second-least vaccinated state as of Tuesday, behind only West Virginia. Only 23% of residents in her county have been vaccinated, putting it among the bottom handful of places in America that have not cracked 25% with their COVID-19 immunization rates.
28th Sep 2021 - The Associated Press

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How Covid Misinformation Created a Run on Ivermectin

For months, the veterinary center in West Point, Miss., had watched its supplies of the drug dwindle. Dr. Karen Emerson, the veterinarian who owns the hospital, started the year with one 500-milliliter bottle of ivermectin, which she uses to kill parasites in dogs, chickens and other patients. But as the bottle emptied and her staff tried to find more, they were able to obtain only a 50-milliliter vial. Everyone else told them: None available. So Dr. Emerson began rationing the medicine to give to snakes and other exotic animals for which she had no other deworming treatment. She told dog owners to pay for a more available replacement drug that can cost seven times as much.
28th Sep 2021 - The New York Times

Ford says U.S. salaried employees required to disclose COVID-19 vaccination status

Ford Motor Co became the second Detroit automaker to ask U.S. salaried employees to reveal their vaccination status against COVID-19 in a bid to comply with wider federal guidelines. Ford said salaried employees were required to submit their vaccination status against COVID-19 by Oct. 8 but the process was voluntary for its hourly employees represented by the United Auto Workers (UAW) union. The automaker's move comes as the Biden administration pursues sweeping measures to increase vaccination coverage in the United States, while pushing large employers to have their workers inoculated or tested weekly
28th Sep 2021 - Reuters

Connecticut doctor's license suspended for providing blank, signed Covid-19 exemption forms, health department says

A Connecticut doctor's state physician and surgeon license has been suspended for providing blank, signed exemption forms related to the Covid-19 vaccine, Covid testing, general vaccines and medical opposition to wearing facial masks, the state Department of Public Health said. Connecticut's Medical Examining Board suspended the license through a unanimous decision last week, the department said in a news release. Retired physician Sue Mcintosh of Durham, who is certified by the American Board of Pediatrics, was giving signed forms to people without physically meeting them or examining them, the department said. She would provide the exemption forms to anyone who provided a self-addressed stamped envelope requesting one, they said.
28th Sep 2021 - CNN

COVID-19: Younger children 'more hesitant than older teenagers to get jabbed' as researchers call for better vaccine messaging

The findings by researchers at the University of Oxford, University College London (UCL) and the University of Cambridge follow the government's confirmation earlier this month it would widen the vaccination programme to all 12 to 15-year-olds. More than 27,000 students in England, aged between nine and 18, took part in the survey which showed that 50% were willing to have a coronavirus vaccination, 37% were undecided while 13% wanted to opt out. Just over a third (36%) of nine-year-olds were willing to have a jab, compared with 51% of 13-year-olds and 78% of 17-year-olds.
28th Sep 2021 - Sky News

New Austrian anti-lockdown party seeking more seats after election coup

A new Austrian political party that opposes lockdowns, compulsory mask-wearing and other coronavirus restrictions hopes to spread across the country after surprisingly securing seats in one of Austria's nine provincial parliaments on Sunday. People Freedom Fundamental Rights (MFG), a newly created party that campaigned online and with a tour of bars and restaurants, stunned many observers by securing 6.2% of the vote in Upper Austria's election on Sunday, above the 4% threshold required to enter the provincial parliament. The province of Upper Austria, home to Linz, the country's third-biggest city, and bordering Germany and the Czech Republic, is home to much of Austria's heavy industry.
28th Sep 2021 - Reuters

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Party of Covid vaccine sceptics wins seats in Austria’s regional parliament

A newly created party of Covid-19 vaccine sceptics has been elected to one of Austria’s largest regional parliaments after a shock election result in which it swept up protest votes from across the political spectrum. Pollsters had expected Menschen-Freiheit-Grundrechte [People, Freedom, Rights] to fall short of the 4 per cent threshold needed to enter the Upper Austrian state parliament. But on Sunday the party overtook the liberals, scooping up 6.4 per cent of the vote to win three seats in the Landtag.
28th Sep 2021 - Financial Times

Jordan's crown prince contracts coronavirus

Jordan's Crown Prince Hussein has contracted coronavirus and his parents King Abdullah and Queen Rania, who tested negative, will protectively self-isolate for five days, the palace said on Monday. "His Highness Prince Hussein, who had received the vaccine against the coronavirus, showed mild symptoms and is in very good health," the Royal Court said in a statement. The 27-year-old prince has in the last year increased his public appearances and is seen regularly at most of the important meetings King Abdullah that attends with local and foreign dignitaries.
27th Sep 2021 - Reuters

Violent street clashes break out as Norway lifts Covid restrictions after 561 days

A day after Norway lifted coronavirus lockdown restrictions, the police reported several violent clashes and mass brawls as people crowded streets, bars, nightclubs and restaurants in many cities in celebration. The restrictions had been in place for 561 days. Norwegian prime minister Erna Solberg had announced on Friday that all Covid-19 restrictions will end the next day at 4pm local time. “It is 561 days since we introduced the toughest measures in Norway in peacetime. Now the time has come to return to a normal daily life,” she said. The announcement caught many Norwegians by surprise. But hours after the restrictions were lifted, the police reported several rowdy celebrations across some of the big cities in the Nordic nation. Celebrations by Norwegians, which started on Saturday afternoon and lasted until the early hours of Sunday, led to unrest in several places, including in the southern city of Bergen and the central city of Trondheim.
27th Sep 2021 - The Independent

COVID-19 vaccine rollout for people living with disability 'seriously deficient', royal commission report finds

ustralian states and territories should not ease COVID restrictions until all people with disability have been given the opportunity to be fully vaccinated, according to the disability royal commission. In its draft report, released on Monday, the inquiry described the vaccine rollout as "seriously deficient" and recommended the federal government use its best endeavours to "ensure people with disability and support workers are fully vaccinated before any easing of restrictions".
27th Sep 2021 - ABC News

Covid-19: Experts accuse Government of ‘abandoning’ ethnic minorities during pandemic

A number of experts and equality groups have accused the government of failing to protect high-risk ethnic minority groups during the Covid-19 pandemic while rates of vaccine hesitancy continue to grow among parts of these communities. The latest figure for hesitancy among Black or Black British adults is 21 per cent, according to the Office for National Statistics — an increase on previous figures — while among white adults it remains at four per cent. Hesitancy is also higher for adults identifying as Muslim (14 per cent) or “other” (14 per cent) for their religion, compared with adults who identify as Christian (4 per cent).
27th Sep 2021 - The Independent

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A Canadian COVID-19 study that turned out to be wrong has spread like wildfire among anti-vaxxers

An inaccurate Canadian study suggesting an extremely high rate of heart inflammation after COVID-19 vaccines has been retracted due to a major mathematical error — but not before it spread like wildfire on anti-vaccination websites and social media. The preprint study, which was released by researchers at the Ottawa Heart Institute last week but has not been peer-reviewed, looked at the rate of myocarditis and pericarditis cases after Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccinations in Ottawa from June 1 to July 31. The study identified 32 patients with the rare side effects out of a total of 32,379 doses of mRNA vaccines given in Ottawa in the two-month period, finding an inordinately high rate of close to 1 in 1,000 — significantly higher than other international data has shown. But the researchers made a critical error that experts say caused the study to be "weaponized" by the anti-vaccination movement at a time when concern over COVID-19 vaccine side effects are top of mind for parents whose kids may soon get the shot.
25th Sep 2021 - CBC.ca

This country claims it hasn't had a single Covid-19 case. Activists say that's a lie

Turkmenistan, a former Soviet republic home to nearly 6 million people, is one of at least five countries that have not reported any coronavirus cases, according to a review of data collected by Johns Hopkins University and the World Health Organization. Three of those are isolated islands in the Pacific and the fourth is North Korea, a tightly-controlled hermit state. Turkmenistan's repressive President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, who has ruled since 2006, has dismissed reports of Covid-19 in the country as "fake" and told the United Nations in an address Tuesday that the response to the pandemic shouldn't be "politicized." But independent organizations and journalists and activists outside Turkmenistan say there's evidence the country is battling a third wave which is overwhelming hospitals and killing dozens of people -- and warn the President is playing down the threat of the deadly virus in a bid to maintain his public image.
25th Sep 2021 - CNN

The architect of Sweden's no-lockdown COVID-19 response said the approach was basically correct

Sweden's chief epidemiologist stood by the country's approach to the pandemic, even after facing fierce criticism from experts and the King of Sweden. Anders Tegnell said Sweden had made some mistakes in its approach to the pandemic, but "did not fare very badly at all" overall. He made the comments in an interview with Unherd, a UK website that focuses on contrarian reporting. The country's chief epidemiologist hit the headlines as Sweden captured the attention of the world for resisting the imposition of strict lockdowns to control the spread of the virus, instead putting the onus on the residents to chose what to do.
25th Sep 2021 - Yahoo News UK

Covid-19 Panel of Scientists Investigating Origins of Virus Is Disbanded

Columbia University professor Jeffrey Sachs said he has disbanded a task force of scientists probing the origins of Covid-19 in favor of wider biosafety research. Dr. Sachs, chairman of a Covid-19 commission affiliated with the Lancet scientific journals, said he closed the task force because he was concerned about its links to EcoHealth Alliance. The New York-based nonprofit has been under scrutiny from some scientists, members of Congress and other officials since 2020 for using U.S. funds for studies on bat coronaviruses with the Wuhan Institute of Virology, a research facility in the Chinese city where the first Covid-19 outbreak occurred. EcoHealth Alliance’s president, Peter Daszak, led the task force until recusing himself from that role in June. Some other members of the task force have collaborated with Dr. Daszak or EcoHealth Alliance on projects.
25th Sep 2021 - The Wall Street Journal

Dutch protest against COVID-19 vaccine pass to enter bars, restaurants

Hundreds of protesters marched against the introduction of a "corona pass" in the Netherlands on Saturday, as proof of COVID-19 vaccination became compulsory to get into bars, restaurants, theatres and other venues. Hours after the requirement to show the pass or a recent negative coronavirus test took effect, the government of caretaker Prime Minister Mark Rutte sacked a cabinet minister who had publicly questioned the measure.
25th Sep 2021 - Reuters

Opinion | Biden’s Covid Booster Program Is Questionable

This year, it’s President Biden who has gotten ahead of the F.D.A., announcing a plan to make Covid booster shots available to all vaccinated Americans long before the agency finished its evaluations of the nation’s three authorized vaccines. Rather than push back against this maneuver, acting F.D.A. Commissioner Dr. Janet Woodcock endorsed it. Two of the agency’s top vaccine regulators resigned in protest, taking with them a wealth of knowledge and experience that will be both urgently needed and difficult to replace in the months ahead. The kerfuffle has once again undermined an agency that is supposed to be the regulatory gold standard not just in the United States but around the world.
25th Sep 2021 - The New York Times

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COVID-19: Police in Canada hunt man who punched nurse in the face after she gave his wife vaccine

Police in Canada are searching for a man they suspect punched a nurse in the face for giving his wife a COVID jab without his consent. The man confronted the female nurse on Monday morning in the office of a pharmacy in Sherbrooke, southeast of Montreal, Quebec, where she had been administering vaccines. "Our suspect went directly into the office and began to yell at the nurse," police spokesman Martin Carrier told Reuters news agency.
23rd Sep 2021 - Sky News

Aged care staff sacked in regional Australia for refusing to get Covid-19 vaccination

Aged care facilities struggling after exodus of anti-vaxxers are forced out. All staff must be fully vaccinated in order to work with the vulnerable group. Outstretched regional homes are particularly under pressure from the new rules
23rd Sep 2021 - Daily Mail

PM Morrison says Melbourne anti-lockdown protesters should be 'ashamed' for actions at war memorial

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has called the actions of protestors on Wednesday at Melbourne’s Shrine of Remembrance “disgusting.” More than 200 people were arrested after an intense stand-off between protestors and police at the war memorial. Two police officers were also struck in the head with bottles while one was admitted to hospital with chest pains.
23rd Sep 2021 - The Independent

Melbourne anti-lockdown protests fizzle out as daily cases hit pandemic high

Melbourne's streets were largely quiet on Thursday after three days of anti-lockdown protests, with hundreds of police officers on patrol in the city to prevent another rally as COVID-19 cases in Victoria hit a daily pandemic record. Police in central Melbourne were checking people's reasons for being outside, footage on social media showed, after a violent protest on Wednesday in Australia's second-largest city resulted in more than 200 arrests
23rd Sep 2021 - Reuters

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NYC's Vaccine Mandate for Teachers Is Cleared by State Judge

New York City’s requirement for teachers to be vaccinated was cleared by a state judge following a legal challenge from labor unions. New York State Supreme Court Justice Laurence L. Love removed a temporary restraining order he had imposed to stop the vaccine mandate from being enforced while the case is being litigated. Love dismissed the unions’ argument that the mandate violates the due process rights of teachers and staff, saying state and federal courts have “consistently held” that a mandatory vaccine requirement doesn’t impede such rights and is within the government’s power.
22nd Sep 2021 - Bloomberg

A North Carolina-based health care system has suspended hundreds of employees for not getting a Covid-19 vaccine

A North Carolina-based health care provider announced Tuesday it has suspended hundreds of employees for not meeting the company's Covid-19 vaccine requirements.
22nd Sep 2021 - CNN

Brazil’s President turns down Boris Johnson’s request to get Covid vaccine in awkward exchange

Boris Johnson told Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro to “get the vaccine” when the pair met for a bilateral meeting in New York on Monday. The two leaders, who were joined by Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, sat side-by-side as the UK Prime Minister described the AstraZeneca jab as a “great vaccine”. Mr Johnson then appeared to encourage the far-right South American leader, who is a known vaccine sceptic, to get jabbed.
22nd Sep 2021 - iNews

California woman who said she was ‘unmasked, unmuzzled, unvaccinated, unafraid’ has died of Covid-19, aged 40

A vocally anti-mask, anti-vaccine woman in California has died of Covid-19. Kristen Lowery, 40, was the mother of four school-age children in Escalon, California. In her Facebook posts, she proclaimed herself a “free thinker” who was “unmasked, unmuzzled, unvaccinated, unafraid”. In one photo, she held up a protest sign reading “Give a voice to the vaccine injured”. In September, her sister wrote that Ms Lowery had been hospitalised with the coronavirus.
22nd Sep 2021 - The Independent

Melbourne police arrest 200 at COVID-19 lockdown protests

Police in Australia's second largest city of Melbourne arrested more than 200 people after projectiles thrown by protesters injured two officers on Wednesday, the third consecutive day of demonstrations against COVID-19 curbs. Golf balls, batteries and bottles were among the items thrown at police during the protests held in defiance of stay-at home orders after a two-week closure of building sites to rein in infections, which rose again in the state of Victoria.
22nd Sep 2021 - Reuters

German cashier shooting linked to Covid-19 conspiracies

A man suspected of shooting dead a cashier at a German petrol station has been linked to Covid-19 conspiracy theorists and the far right. The 20-year-old student employee was shot after a row over face masks, in what is thought to be the first killing linked to German Covid rules. Researchers believe the suspect, named only as Mario N, was a far-right supporter and Covid-denier. Chancellor Angela Merkel has condemned the "heinous" killing. Prosecutors said the killer had initially tried to buy beer at the petrol station in the western town of Idar-Oberstein on Saturday, but left after the cashier refused to serve him as he was without a mask.
22nd Sep 2021 - BBC News

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Colleges struggling with Covid-19 in Republican states where up to 40% students unvaxxed

School leaders in Arizona, Florida, Tennessee and Texas are battling lawmakers Governors are banning colleges from implementing vaccine mandates Meanwhile schools in states like Maryland and NY have high vaccine rates Colleges fear not just for student health but also for their balance sheets
21st Sep 2021 - Daily Mail

New Zealand increases fines for COVID-19 rule breakers

New Zealand on Friday announced higher fines of up to NZ$12,000 ($8,400) for individuals breaching coronavirus restrictions amid concerns that the current outbreak may spread beyond Auckland to other regions due to people breaking rules. "Our success has been really based on the fact that people by and large have been compliant," Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told a news conference.
21st Sep 2021 - Reuters

Germans shocked by killing of cashier after COVID mask row

German politicians expressed shock on Tuesday over the killing of a 20-year old petrol station worker after an argument about a face mask and said that coronavirus deniers who are willing to use violence will not be tolerated. The killing on Saturday evening in the western town of Idar-Oberstein has hit the national headlines as it is one of the only such cases linked to COVID-19 restrictions.
21st Sep 2021 - Reuters

Melbourne police fire pepper balls, pellets to break up COVID-19 protest

Police in Melbourne fired pepper balls and rubber pellets on Tuesday to disperse about 2,000 protesters who defied stay-at- home orders to damage property, block a busy freeway and injure three officers, leading to more than 60 arrests. It was the second day of demonstrations in the locked-down Australian city after authorities shut construction sites for two weeks, saying workers' frequent movement was spreading the coronavirus.
21st Sep 2021 - Reuters

Anti-vaccine violence prompts Melbourne building site shutdown

Australian authorities have shut down construction sites in Melbourne for two weeks after an anti-vaccine protest in the city turned violent and COVID-19 cases in the states of Victoria and New South Wales (NSW) surged. The closure takes effect from Tuesday and follows clashes in which bottles and a crate were thrown at union officials, and police deployed special units.
21st Sep 2021 - AlJazeera

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Melbourne construction sites shut down after anti-vaccine mandate protest

Australian authorities shut down construction sites in Melbourne for two weeks from Tuesday after an anti-vaccine mandate protest in the city turned violent and COVID-19 infections in the state of Victoria surged. Hundreds of people clashed with union officials with bottles and a crate thrown at them, footage on social media showed, after the Victorian government required all construction workers to have at least one vaccine dose by Friday.
21st Sep 2021 - Reuters

Covid-19 Vaccine Rollout Falters in Bulgaria Amid ‘Perfect Storm’ of Mistrust, Fake News

As a European Union member state, Bulgaria has access to Western-approved Covid-19 vaccines and enough doses for its population. But a mix of misinformation, low trust in authorities and conflicting messaging means less than a fifth of Bulgarians are fully vaccinated. With few takers at home and some shots soon expiring, the government recently donated 172,500 doses to the Kingdom of Bhutan, nearly 4,000 miles away. Some expired shots are being thrown away. Bulgaria, a country of some seven million people, has fully vaccinated far less of its population than the EU average of 61% and the U.S. rate of 54%, according to Our World in Data, a project based at Oxford University. It has emerged as an extreme case study of the challenge to convince vaccine holdouts to get the shot.
20th Sep 2021 - The Wall Street Journal

Perspective | Doubters' push for religious exemptions from coronavirus vaccination may not work

Compulsory coronavirus vaccination has been a specter hovering over vaccine skeptics throughout the pandemic, but the issue is coming to a head, after President Biden announced federal mandates affecting up to 100 million Americans and such enormous institutions as the Los Angeles Unified School District mandated vaccinations, too. Opponents of vaccination mandates are ready to fight and are aiming to use religious, philosophical and personal-belief exemptions to abstain from required vaccinations. The history behind the process for gaining such an exemption suggests that those seeking religious exemptions to the coronavirus vaccination mandates will not be widely successful. In recent years, many states, including California, Connecticut, New York, Maine and Vermont, rolled back personal-belief exemptions from mandatory vaccination, making it nearly impossible to claim that individual convictions prevent you from being vaccinated.
20th Sep 2021 - The Washington Post

Unvaccinated Jair Bolsonaro to test UN General Assembly coronavirus 'honor system'

The United Nations is demanding world leaders arriving in New York for its General Assembly adhere to an “honor system” to attest they are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus. But that mandate will be tested in the general debate’s very first moments. Jair Bolsonaro, who contracted the virus last year and as recently as last week said publicly that he does not need to be vaccinated because he has naturally acquired antibodies, is scheduled to kick off the 76th U.N. General Assembly’s general debate on Tuesday.
20th Sep 2021 - The Washington Post

Covid-19 Australia: Melbourne construction workers protest over mandatory jabs

Melbourne construction workers protested outside CFMEU office on Monday Workers wearing hi-vis hurled verbal abuse at union officials in front of building One demonstrator hurled a plastic bread crate as tensions continued to escalate
20th Sep 2021 - Daily Mail

Covid-19: 'Vaccine misinformation a dilemma for young people'

"Misinformation" is creating a "real dilemma" for young people considering whether they should take the Covid-19 vaccine, Northern Ireland's mental health champion has said. Prof Siobhán O'Neill said it had left young people questioning "whether the vaccine is safe". There should not be that level of "uncertainty", she added. She said trust needed to be put in the "experts and the scientists who are making the decisions". "We have to look to the scientific consensus and the public health leaders and the doctors and the main organisations, " she said.
20th Sep 2021 - BBC News

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They Shunned Covid Vaccines but Embraced Antibody Treatment

Lanson Jones did not think that the coronavirus would come for him. An avid tennis player in Houston who had not caught so much as a cold during the pandemic, he had refused a vaccine because he worried that it would spoil his streak of good health. But contracting Covid shattered his faith in his body’s defenses — so much so that Mr. Jones, nose clogged and appetite vanished, began hunting for anything to spare himself a nightmarish illness. The answer turned out to be monoclonal antibodies, a year-old, laboratory-created drug no less experimental than the vaccine. In a glass-walled enclosure at Houston Methodist Hospital this month, Mr. Jones, 65, became one of more than a million patients, including Donald J. Trump and Joe Rogan, to receive an antibody infusion as the virus has battered the United States.
19th Sep 2021 - New York Times

A doctor called coronavirus vaccines 'fake.' Now he sits on an Idaho regional health board.

In Idaho, the covid-19 patients filling hospital wards and prompting statewide rationing of care are almost all unvaccinated. Yet Idaho’s lieutenant governor recently suggested, falsely, that vaccinated people are more likely to die, and some officials in the heavily conservative state — where many preach “freedom” from government — consider even recommending the shots to be an overreach. As the delta variant fuels a new wave of coronavirus hospitalizations and deaths nationwide, some see Idaho as just the latest example of a pandemic response hobbled by politics and a year of intense backlash against public health restrictions.
18th Sep 2021 - The Washington Post

Robin Swann facing legal action over bid to give Covid-19 vaccine to Northern Ireland children

Northern Ireland’s Health Minister is facing a High Court battle over plans to vaccinate children between the ages of 12 and 15. A pre-action letter has been sent to the Department of Health asking Robin Swann to reconsider his decision to extend Northern Ireland’s Covid vaccination programme to the age cohort. The legal action raises concerns about the decision coming after the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) refused to approve the universal vaccination of healthy children. The letter argues that, if the programme is rolled out to children in Northern Ireland, they should only receive the vaccination with parental consent.
18th Sep 2021 - Belfast Telegraph

Australian police clash with anti-lockdown protesters, arrest nearly 270

Australia's police arrested 235 people in Melbourne and 32 in Sydney on Saturday at unsanctioned anti-lockdown rallies and several police officers were injured in clashes with protesters. Victoria police said six officers required hospitalisation. Several officers were knocked to the ground and trampled, the police said and television footage showed. About 700 people managed to gather in parts of Melbourne, as 2,000 officers made the city centre virtually a no-go zone, setting up checkpoints and barricades. Public transport and ride shares into the city were suspended.
18th Sep 2021 - Reuters

Nicki Minaj's Covid-19 vaccine 'swollen testicles' claim is false, says Trinidad health minister

Trinidad and Tobago Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh criticized as "false" the claim by American rapper Nicki Minaj that a person on the Caribbean island suffered swollen testicles after receiving a Covid-19 vaccine. Minaj sparked an international furor when she alleged on Twitter that her cousin in Trinidad refuses to get a vaccine because his friend became impotent after being vaccinated. "His testicles became swollen. His friend was weeks away from getting married, now the girl called off the wedding," Minaj, who has 22.6 million Twitter followers, said. The comments triggered an international backlash, with senior US and British coronavirus officials condemning the claims.
17th Sep 2021 - CNN

UK scientist warns over relaxation of Covid travel rules

One of the scientists behind the UK’s testing network for quickly identifying Covid variants of concern has urged the government to continue surveillance of coronavirus cases brought in to the UK from abroad. Alan McNally, a professor in microbial evolutionary genomics who worked on setting up the lighthouse laboratories, made the comments amid reports ministers are preparing to overhaul Covid travel restrictions, including a relaxing of test rules. It has been reported that double-jabbed travellers will no longer need to take a more costly PCR test after returning from green countries, but take a cheaper lateral flow test instead, while pre-departure tests, taken 72 hours before a passenger flies home are also likely to be scrapped.
17th Sep 2021 - The Guardian

Facebook targets German anti-lockdown movement

Facebook has cracked down on the anti-Covid restriction movement in Germany, removing dozens of accounts that contribute to “co-ordinated social harm”. Almost 150 accounts and pages on Facebook and Instagram — linked to anti-lockdown demonstrators in the European nation — have been taken off the platform, under a new policy focused on groups that spread misinformation or incite violent. The Querdenken movement includes vaccine and mask opponents, conspiracy theorists and some far-right extremists, and has long protested German virus measures. One post from such an account included a debunked claim that the Covid-19 jab was responsible for creating virus variants, while another wished death upon police officers who broke up violent anti-lockdown protests in Berlin.
17th Sep 2021 - News.com.au

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Brazil Stops Vaccinating Some Teens to Probe a Reported Death

Brazil ordered states halt immunizations of teenagers who aren’t part of at-risk groups for Covid-19 as it probes the details around the death of a young adult who received a Pfizer Inc. shot. The death was reported in Sao Paulo and is under investigation, Health Ministry officials said at a press conference on Thursday. They gave no details on how long after the shot the death was reported, nor on the cause of death.
16th Sep 2021 - Bloomberg

Facebook Removes Accounts Tied to German Anti-Lockdown Group

Facebook Inc. has removed a network of user accounts from its core site and Instagram tied to Querdenken, a movement in Germany that opposes Covid-19 measures like wearing masks and imposed lockdowns. “This network consistently violated our Community Standards against harmful health misinformation, incitement of violence, bullying, harassment and hate speech,” Facebook wrote in a blog post. The group helped organize a rally last year in Berlin to oppose pandemic-related laws, which it says infringe on German constitutional freedoms. Facebook, which said the movement is linked to violence and other social harms, removed fewer than 150 groups, pages or accounts linked to Querdenken, and isn’t banning all of the group’s content.
16th Sep 2021 - Bloomberg

Facebook shuts down network linked to German anti-COVID group, launches rules on 'social harms'

Facebook has removed a network of accounts linked to an anti-COVID restrictions movement in Germany as it announced a new crackdown on coordinated campaigns of real users that cause harm on and off its platforms. Reuters exclusively reported on Thursday that Facebook's security teams were expanding the tactics used to take down influence operations using fake accounts to do more wholesale shutdowns of coordinated groups of real-user accounts causing harm, through mass reporting or brigading.
16th Sep 2021 - Reuters

‘If I get fired, so be it’: the Louisiana nurses refusing to get the Covid vaccine

Louisiana’s largest hospital systems are requiring their employees to be fully vaccinated, but a minority of nursing staff say they are still considering leaving their jobs instead of getting the jab, citing concerns over personal liberty, lack of long-term studies and discredited conspiracy theories. The fourth Covid-19 wave has hit Louisiana hard, with the Delta variant causing a surge in new cases that outpaced any of the waves that came before it. “The speed with which Delta just took over the landscape, I don’t think we quite anticipated that,” said Dr Jennifer Avegno, director of the New Orleans health department and an ER doctor.
16th Sep 2021 - The Guardian

French hospital worker on hunger strike over vaccine mandate

A French hospital worker has said he is on a hunger strike to protest against a government rule that healthcare workers will be suspended if they are not vaccinated against COVID-19. Thierry Paysant, a fire safety officer with the public hospital system in Nice, southern France, has pitched a tent in front of the city’s Abbey of Saint Pons, and erected a placard reading “Hunger Strike” in large red letters.
16th Sep 2021 - Al Jazeera

Nicki Minaj Re-Tweets Tucker Carlson’s Video About Covid-19 Vaccine Claims

What do you do after tweeting a claim about testicles and getting some blowback? How about sharing a video of FOX News host Tucker Carlson? As I covered for Forbes, on September 13, singer and songwriter Nicki Minaj tweeted that her “cousin in Trinidad won’t get the vaccine cuz his friend got it & became impotent. His testicles became swollen.” Here’s the tweet along with a hold-on-a-sec response from Vinny Arora, MD, MAPP, the Dean for Medical Education at the University of Chicago
16th Sep 2021 - Forbes

As COVID-19 vaccine mandates rise, religious exemptions grow

An estimated 2,600 Los Angeles Police Department employees are citing religious objections to try to get out of the required COVID-19 vaccination. In Washington state, thousands of state workers are seeking similar exemptions. And in Arkansas, a hospital has been swamped with so many such requests from employees that it is apparently calling their bluff. Religious objections, once used sparingly around the country to get exempted from various required vaccines, are becoming a much more widely used loophole against the COVID-19 shot.
16th Sep 2021 - The Associated Press

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 16th Sep 2021

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Raytheon requires U.S. workers get COVID-19 vaccination

Raytheon, the maker of Tomahawk missiles, will require all U.S. employees to have a COVID-19 vaccination, the company said in a Wednesday statement. The employees need to get shots by mid-December in order to meet a Jan. 1 deadline for immunization, a source familiar with policy said.
15th Sep 2021 - Reuters

Fed regional banks mandate COVID-19 shots for employees

The U.S. Federal Reserve in Washington and the regional Fed banks will now require all of their nearly 23,000 employees be vaccinated against COVID-19. The Philadelphia Fed informed its staff of the new mandate in a memo on Wednesday, making it the last of the 12 regional Fed banks to make vaccination a requirement of employment. The Fed Board in Washington will also require its employees to be fully vaccinated by Nov. 30, a spokesperson for the U.S. central bank told Reuters on Wednesday.
15th Sep 2021 - Reuters

Fauci dismisses Nicki Minaj’s bizarre claim about Covid-19 vaccine: ‘A resounding no’

None of the Covid-19 vaccines in use in the United States cause reproductive issues, Dr Anthony Fauci has said in response to Nicki Minaj’s recent tweet. The rapper caused controversy after she tweeted the baseless claim that her cousin in Trinidad was not getting vaccinated because his friend took the shot and then allegedly became impotent. When CNN presenter Jake Tapper asked Dr Fauci whether there is any evidence that Pfizer, Moderna or Johnson & Johnson vaccines pose the health risk Minaj outlined in her controversial tweet, the US’s top epidemiologist said the answer is “a resounding no”.
15th Sep 2021 - MSN.com

Conservative radio host who swore off Covid-19 vaccine dies after contracting virus, co-host says

Conservative radio host Pastor Robert "Bob" Enyart, who swore off Covid-19 vaccines, has died from complications due to the virus, his co-host announced on social media. "It comes with an extremely heavy heart that my close friend and co-host of Real Science Radio has lost his battle with Covid," said co-host Fred Williams on Facebook. In October, Enyart won a lawsuit against the state of Colorado over its Covid-19 restrictions, CNN has reported. In a phone call with CNN following the ruling, Enyart said, "We have a right, even an obligation to worship him (God), and that's without government interference."
15th Sep 2021 - CNN

COVID-19: Professor Chris Whitty says Nicki Minaj 'should be ashamed' over vaccine tweet - as rapper hits back after 'diss'

Professor Chris Whitty says rapper Nicki Minaj "should be ashamed" after she tweeted an unsubstantiated story about a man who had a COVID vaccine and then allegedly became impotent. Speaking at a Downing Street news conference, England's chief medical officer said: "There are a number of myths that fly around, some of which are just clearly ridiculous and some of which are clearly designed just to scare. "That happens to be one of them."
15th Sep 2021 - Sky News

Will coronavirus vaccine mandates make workers leave their jobs?

A controversial new mandate in the US will require millions of workers to get vaccinated against COVID-19. The move by the world's largest economy raises questions about how much a tight labor market can sustain — and about who else might follow suit. Many countries already require certain workers, like federal or health care employees, to be vaccinated. Starting today, millions of French frontline workers face termination should they remain unvaccinated. Germany's government, on the other hand, has been adamant that it won't require vaccinations, a shocking idea for many in a country where even the right for employers to know if their employees are vaccinated has received major pushback.
15th Sep 2021 - DW (English)

Chinese defector Wei Jingsheng claims US was warned about Covid-19 months before pandemic declared

A Chinese defector claims he tried to warn top US officials about a deadly new virus in Wuhan five months before the World Health Organisation declared Covid-19 a pandemic. Wei Jingsheng revealed in a shocking new documentary that he took his concerns about the unfolding situation to senior figures within the Trump administration but was subsequently ignored. The long-time democracy campaigner, who has served time in prison for 'counter-revolutionary activities', said he made the approach in November 2019, as whispers of a 'new SARS virus' began circulating on WeChat and other Chinese social media platforms.
15th Sep 2021 - Daily Mail

NBA players' union 'rejects COVID-19 vaccine mandate' for 2021-22 season

While NBA coaches, officials, and many league staffers are facing a COVID-19 vaccine mandate, players will not be required to get the injection in order to compete next season unless a compromise can be reached in the coming weeks. With the NBA and the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) continuing to negotiate COVID-19 protocols, ESPN reported that there will be no vaccine mandate for players — a position the union considers a non-starter. A source familiar with the discussions told DailyMail.com that the NBPA has been very reluctant to agree to any mandate, but stopped short of conceding that the issue settled.
15th Sep 2021 - Daily Mail

COVID-19: 'They're not strangers' - Javid defends maskless cabinet meeting after government advised their use

In the UK, the health secretary has defended members of the cabinet not wearing face coverings during a meeting - saying they are "not strangers". A photo of yesterday's crowded cabinet meeting, with nearly 40 ministers and staff, showed none of them were wearing masks just hours before Boris Johnson laying out his winter plan, which included guidance that people should wear coverings in crowded spaces. But Health Secretary Sajid Javid claimed ministers' actions were "perfectly consistent" with that messaging. An open window could be seen in the room
15th Sep 2021 - Sky News

Big Truckers Say Vaccine Mandate Could Push Drivers Away

Big trucking companies say a federal vaccination and testing mandate aimed at curbing the spread of the Covid-19 virus could push more workers away from their operations and deepen upheaval in U.S. supply chains. Executives say the proposed testing requirements for workers who choose not to get vaccinated could also pose challenges for trucking companies whose fleets haul goods long distances, often along irregular routes that send drivers from one corner of the country to another over several days or weeks.
14th Sep 2021 - The Wall Street Journal

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Eight New Orleans Saints personnel test positive for COVID-19: report

Eight members of the New Orleans Saints including six coaching staff, a team nutritionist and a player have tested positive for COVID-19, two sources told
14th Sep 2021 - The Hill on MSN.com

How Science in India Became a 'Political Weapon' Under Modi

The forecast was mathematically based, government-approved and deeply, tragically wrong. In September 2020, eight months before a deadly Covid-19 second wave struck India, government-appointed scientists downplayed the possibility of a new outbreak. Previous infections and early lockdown efforts had tamed the spread, the scientists wrote in a study that was widely covered by the Indian news media after it was released last year. The results dovetailed neatly with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s two main goals: restart India’s stricken economy and kick off campaigning for his party in state elections that coming spring.
14th Sep 2021 - The New York Times

Zimbabwe Bars Unvaccinated Civil Servants From Reporting to Work

Zimbabwe’s cabinet has barred unvaccinated civil servants from reporting to work with immediate effect. Only workers who have taken the coronavirus vaccine will be allowed to report for duty, Minister of Information Monica Mutsvangwa told reporters at a post-cabinet briefing in the capital, Harare on Tuesday. The country is slowly opening up economic and social activity after a third wave of the coronavirus pandemic. Only vaccinated people are allowed to attend church gatherings and sit-in at restaurants.
14th Sep 2021 - Bloomberg

‘The virus is painfully real’: vaccine hesitant people are dying – and their loved ones want the world to listen

Matt Wynter, a 42-year-old music agent from Leek, Staffordshire, was working out in his local gym in mid-August when he saw, to his great surprise, that his best friend, Marcus Birks, was on the television. He jumped off the elliptical trainer and listened carefully. The first thing he noticed was that Birks, who was also from Leek and a performer with the dance group Cappella, looked terrible. He was gasping for breath and his face was pale. “Marcus would never usually have gone on TV without having done his hair and had a shave,” Wynter says.
14th Sep 2021 - The Guardian

Conservative Colorado radio host and pastor dies from COVID-19 after railing against vaccines

The anti-vax radio host died on Monday after contracting COVID on September 1 He had called for his listeners to boycott the vaccines made by 'child killers' and was notorious for his ruthless stance against LGBT relations and abortions. In October 2020, Enyart filed a lawsuit against the state that reduced the number of people allowed at religious gatherings. Enyart said people have a 'God-given right to worship him, our creator, without the government interfering.' It comes days after Howard Stern mocked a slew of anti-vax radio hosts who died from Covid and described their deaths as 'really funny'
14th Sep 2021 - Daily Mail

Nicki Minaj Met Gala vaccine tweets highlight struggle against covid-19 misinformation

Nicki Minaj sparked a social media storm on Monday night after she tweeted about her cousin’s hesitancy to get vaccinated against the coronavirus, setting off a slew of critiques that she was spreading coronavirus misinformation. Minaj tweeted that her cousin in Trinidad, where the singer and rapper is from, “won’t get the vaccine cuz his friend got it & became impotent. His testicles became swollen.” Medical experts have said that claims about infertility linked to vaccinations are unsubstantiated.
14th Sep 2021 - The Washington Post

Boris Johnson risks backlash over face masks after packed Cabinet meeting

Boris Johnson hosted a meeting of his Cabinet in 10 Downing Street this morning. The packed Cabinet meeting saw the PM's ministers ditch their face masks. The PM later told nation to 'consider wearing a face covering in crowded places'
14th Sep 2021 - Daily Mail

Canada’s Trudeau pledges to crack down on hospital protests

Justin Trudeau has promised that if re-elected his party would crack down on protests outside healthcare facilities, as demonstrations denouncing coronavirus-related public health measures have taken place outside hospitals in recent weeks. Trudeau, whose Liberal Party is currently in a tight federal election race with the Conservatives, said on Monday that the Liberals would make it an offence to obstruct access to any building providing health services, such as hospitals, testing centres, pharmacies and abortion clinics.
13th Sep 2021 - AlJazeera

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Family: Man turned away by dozens of COVID-filled hospitals

As hundreds of mostly unvaccinated COVID-19 patients filled Alabama intensive care units, hospital staff in north Alabama contacted 43 hospitals in three states to find a specialty cardiac ICU bed for Ray Martin DeMonia, his family wrote in his obituary. The Cullman man was finally transferred to Meridian, Mississippi, about 170 miles (274 kilometers) away. That is where the 73-year-old antiques dealer died Sept. 1 because of the cardiac event he suffered. Now, his family is making a plea. “In honor of Ray, please get vaccinated if you have not, in an effort to free up resources for non-COVID related emergencies,” his obituary read.
14th Sep 2021 - The Associated Press

DeSantis threatens cities with fines for vaccine mandates

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday threatened local governments with $5,000 fines per violation for requiring their employees to get vaccinated against the coronavirus that has overrun hospitals and killed tens of thousands across the state. Local municipalities, such as Orange County and the city of Gainesville, potentially face millions of dollars in cumulative fines for implementing a requirement that their employees get a COVID-19 vaccine, the Republican governor said. “We are not going to let people be fired because of a vaccine mandate,” DeSantis said at a news conference outside Gainesville. “You don’t just cast aside people who have been serving faithfully over this issue, over what is basically a personal choice on their individual health.”
14th Sep 2021 - The Associated Press

UK PM Johnson to set out COVID-19 booster strategy under winter plan

Britain will roll out COVID-19 booster shots for the most vulnerable and elderly as part of his coronavirus strategy for the winter months. Johnson's government has already indicated it will scrap plans for vaccine passports to be required to get into nightclubs, end some of its emergency COVID powers and use lockdowns only as a last resort.
14th Sep 2021 - Reuters UK

Walgreens COVID-19 test registration system left patient data unprotected - Recode

Drugstore chain Walgreens Boots Alliance's COVID-19 test registration system exposed data of potentially millions of people, including their phone numbers and email addresses, Recode reported on Monday.
13th Sep 2021 - Reuters

Yoga, organic food and misinformation: Wellness influencers are taking the anti-vaccine movement mainstream

For many, the term “misinformation” conjures up images of conspiracy-theory chat forums and Russian bots. But an alarming amount of it is reaching audiences in the health and wellness realms. Many social media influencers who focus on natural remedies, holistic health and new age spirituality have been sharing posts and videos questioning the wisdom of vaccinating against the coronavirus. Public health experts say widespread vaccine hesitancy increases the threat of the virus mutating and helps keep the pandemic raging.
13th Sep 2021 - The Washington Post

Republican backlash against Biden’s Covid vaccine mandate grows

The political sparring match over Joe Biden’s new vaccine mandate continued on Sunday with one Republican governor blasting the measure as “counterproductive” and the White House insisting it was necessary to end the coronavirus pandemic.
13th Sep 2021 - The Guardian

NY hospital to pause baby deliveries after resignations over Covid-19 vaccine mandate

A hospital in upstate New York is "pausing" deliveries of babies because of the number of maternity unit employee resignations over the state's Covid-19 vaccination requirements, health officials say. Lewis County General Hospital in Lowville, about 60 miles northeast of Syracuse, will stop deliveries after September 24, said Gerald Cayer, chief executive of the Lewis County Health System. "We are unable to safely staff the service after September 24. The number of resignations received leaves us no choice but to pause delivering babies at Lewis County General Hospital. It is my hope that the Department of Health will work with us in support of pausing the service rather than closing the maternity department," Cayer said at a news conference Friday.
13th Sep 2021 - CNN

Four-year-old girl dies of Covid after anti-vaxxer mom contracts virus

A four-year-old girl has become the youngest Covid-19 victim in Texas’s Galveston County since the onset of the pandemic, after several members of her family were infected. Kali Cook died in her sleep at home on 7 September, within hours of showing symptoms of the coronavirus. She was unvaccinated, with children below the age of 12 not yet eligible for inoculation.
13th Sep 2021 - The Independent

Ivermectin frenzy: the advocates, anti-vaxxers and telehealth companies driving demand

Health authorities have warned there’s no proof for Ivermectin’s value in treating Covid-19. Still groups are touting the drug as the way out of the pandemic
13th Sep 2021 - The Guardian

COVID-19: Freedom Day was 'gamble' and has contributed to 40,000 hospital admissions, BMA says

More than 130,000 people in the UK have died with COVID-19 since the pandemic began last year. The British Medical Association says the loosening of restrictions, notably England's so-called Freedom Day, was a "gamble" - contributing to more than 40,000 hospital admissions.
13th Sep 2021 - Sky News

Nicaragua gov’t squeezes doctors, talk of ‘health terrorism’

Other countries have lured doctors out of retirement, pushed medical students to the front lines and buoyed medical personnel exhausted by COVID-19 cases, but in Nicaragua doctors have been harassed, threatened and sometimes forced into exile for questioning official handling of the pandemic. Vice President Rosario Murillo, who is also the first lady, has accused doctors of “health terrorism” and of spreading “false outlooks and news” by reporting that COVID-19 has been far more widespread than officials acknowledge.
13th Sep 2021 - The Associated Press

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Opinion | Biden's Vaccine Mandate, Enforced By OSHA, is a Big Mistake

There’s one person that President Biden desperately needs to consult about his new federal vaccine mandate: President-elect Biden. In December 2020, as the prospect of imminent mass vaccination against Covid-19 was finally becoming a reality, Mr. Biden leveled with the American people: He said he would not force anyone to get the jab. “No, I don’t think it should be mandatory,” he told reporters. “I wouldn’t demand it be mandatory.” Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, recently reiterated Mr. Biden’s position. “That’s not the role of the federal government,” she declared on July 23, referring to the idea of a government mandate. Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the same thing a week later: “There will be no nationwide mandate.”
11th Sep 2021 - The New York Times

COVID-19: Anti-vaccine posters found with razor blades attached to cut people who take them down, union says

Transport for London (TFL) workers have been warned about taking down unofficial COVID posters, after a union confirmed anti-vax signs have been found with razor blades attached to the back of them. The Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union said the posters had been put up on rail and tube stations in London. The union has called for action to be taken against those responsible for the posters, which bear the message "Masks Don't Work" and have a razor blade attached on the rear - potentially injuring anyone who tries to take it down.
11th Sep 2021 - Sky News

Protesters form human chain against COVID-19 vaccines on Westminster Bridge, London

The footage, which was filmed today (September 11), shows protesters forming a human chain on Westminster Bridge, London. Demonstrators hold yellow banners reading messages against COVID-19 vaccines,
11th Sep 2021 - Yahoo News UK

White House says Biden, Xi discussed origins of COVID probe

U.S. President Joe Biden discussed the investigation into the origins of COVID-19 during a call on Thursday with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, according to the White House. "They did discuss a range of trans-national issues including COVID-19, and understanding its origins is of course a primary concern for this administration," White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Friday. "Yes, it was a topic raised, but I'm not going to go into further detail."
11th Sep 2021 - Reuters

'Loved ones died confused and alone' - calls for urgent public inquiry into pandemic handling in Wales

Our loved ones are being let down, families across Wales say, as a campaign has been launched for an inquiry into the Covid-19 handling. A UK-wide campaign has been launched as 'families deserve answers' following hundreds of thousands of Coovid-related deaths across the country. As a result, a Wales-specific group was launched - Covid-19 Bereaved Families Cymru group to provide support for Welsh families and not to be a 'footnote' in UK findings. The groups is calling for an independent public inquiry which will 'not save lives' but lessons can be learnt.
11th Sep 2021 - North Wales Chronicle

Refugees fear COVID risk in Australian immigration detention

Campaigners in Australia are urging the government to release asylum seekers held in immigration detention after at least one COVID-19 case was officially confirmed at a facility in Melbourne. Melbourne, Australia’s second-largest city, is currently in its sixth lockdown amid a coronavirus outbreak driven by the highly infectious Delta variant.
11th Sep 2021 - Al Jazeera English

Biden’s Vaccine Mandate Is a Big Mistake

Ex-French health minister charged over COVID handling

France’s former health minister Agnes Buzyn has been charged over her handling of the COVID-19 crisis after investigators at a special court in Paris concluded there were grounds to prosecute her. Buzyn has been charged with “endangering the lives of others”, the prosecutor of the Republic’s Court of Justice said on Friday, but not for a second possible offence of “failure to stop a disaster”.
10th Sep 2021 - Al Jazeera English

Italian police warn of armed attacks by anti-vaxxers

Italian police warned on Thursday that anti-vaccine campaigners had called for armed attacks during planned anti-government protests this weekend, and that eight people were being investigated for incitement to crime. A police statement said searches had been conducted in six Italian provinces, including Milan, Rome and Venice, and that the eight placed under investigation were part of a group calling itself "the warriors" on the Telegram messaging app.
9th Sep 2021 - Reuters

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 10th Sep 2021

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Covid-19 Policies Ignite Battle at UT Austin

Scientists at the University of Texas at Austin drew up a series of projections for how Covid-19 could move through the 50,000-member student body this semester. Two scenarios, which assumed aggressive protections such as twice-weekly surveillance testing, would limit spread to a few hundred students. Plugging in a set of less restrictive variables suggested the virus would infect about a quarter of the student body by the end of the term. Following a prohibition by Republican state policy makers, UT Austin doesn’t require surveillance testing, masking or vaccines. Now faculty worry the university is headed toward scenario No. 3.
9th Sep 2021 - The Wall Street Journal

Schiff presses Facebook, Amazon on efforts to curb COVID-19 vaccine misinformation

U.S. Representative Adam Schiff on Thursday called on Facebook and Amazon to provide a more thorough explanation of their efforts to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 vaccine misinformation. "Despite some concrete and positive steps previously taken, these companies owe both the public and the Congress additional answers about the exponential and dangerous proliferation of misinformation, and what the platforms are doing to address the viral spread of conspiratorial falsehoods and myths, over good science," Schiff, chairman of the House intelligence committee, said in a statement after sending letters to the companies.
9th Sep 2021 - Reuters on MSN.com

PM slams 'heroes of hindsight' over Pfizer vaccine revelations

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has stood by Australia's vaccine strategy, following revelations Health Minister Greg Hunt did not take up an invitation to meet with Pfizer executives last year. Freedom of Information documents obtained by Labor MP Ged Kearney appeared to show emails from Pfizer representatives requesting a meeting with the government about vaccine supply in June 2020. "I think there are a lot of heroes of hindsight at the moment out there," Mr Morrison said today.
9th Sep 2021 - 9News

Detroit hospital employees file federal lawsuit to stop COVID-19 vaccine mandate

More than 50 employees at a Detroit hospital system have sued in federal court, hoping to stop a Sept. 10 mandate that requires all workers, volunteers and contractors to get coronavirus vaccines or lose their jobs. The lawsuit, filed earlier this week in U.S. District Court in Detroit, alleges that Henry Ford Health System's COVID-19 vaccine mandate is unconstitutional and infringes on workers' bodily autonomy and right to reject medical treatment.
9th Sep 2021 - USA TODAY

COVID-19: Anti-vaccine posters found with razor blades attached to back of them to cut people as they are taken down, union says

Jim Goodwin blasts Covid-19 vaccine passport calls and urges clubs to fight against them

St Mirren boss Jim Goodwin has urged Scottish football clubs to stand up and fight back against vaccine passports being introduced. The government are set to debate and vote on the introduction of vaccine passports in the coming hours but Goodwin feels it would be unacceptable.
9th Sep 2021 - Daily Record

Three Vermont state troopers accused of creating fake Covid-19 vaccination cards

Three Vermont state troopers have resigned after being accused of creating fake Covid-19 vaccination cards, state police announced on Tuesday. In a statement released on Tuesday, Vermont police said the three former troopers are suspected of having “varying roles” in creating false Covid-19 vaccine cards. “Based on an initial internal review, we do not believe there is anything more the state police could have done to prevent this occurring. As soon as other troopers became aware of this situation, they raised the allegations internally,” said the Vermont public safety commissioner, Michael Schirling.
8th Sep 2021 - The Guardian

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 9th Sep 2021

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British man with Covid-19 faces eight years in a Polish jail over 'faked test certificate'

The 39-year-old man was detained by border guards trying to fly to Nottingham Officials discovered he had faked the test result at passport control in Poland He had altered his positive test result in a desperate attempt to return home He was fined £100 and faces between six months and eight years in a Polish jail
8th Sep 2021 - Daily Mail

Here's how the Covid-19 conversation is changing in the media

It's happening from Fox to CNN, from The New York Times to the Los Angeles Times. And it's happening on two tracks simultaneously. Vaccinated America is learning how to live with mostly mild flare-ups of the Covid-19 virus. Unvaccinated America is grappling with the death and suffering that comes from rejecting the protection of the vaccines. And in places where the two Americas intersect -- schools, shopping malls, cookouts, county fairs -- it feels like two languages are being spoken without a trusted translator.
8th Sep 2021 - CNN

Covid-19: Not getting vaccine jab was mum's biggest regret

A woman who became critically ill with Covid-19 said not getting the vaccine after listening to anti-vaxxers is her "biggest regret". Emily Burrows, 47, was admitted to hospital with dangerously low oxygen levels and tested positive on 23 July. She pleaded with staff to give her the jab but was it was too late and instead she was put on a ventilator. The mum-of-six, from the Forest of Dean, spent two weeks in an induced coma. She is still in hospital.
8th Sep 2021 - BBC News

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 8th Sep 2021

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Scepticism and fraud hamper Covid vaccine take-up rates in Romania and Bulgaria

Vaccine scepticism is helping to keep Romania and Bulgaria’s Covid-19 vaccination rates the lowest in the EU, exposing the union’s poorest nations to higher risks amid a fourth wave of the pandemic fuelled by the contagious Delta coronavirus variant. Fraud is adding to official frustration in Romania over take-up rates, with instances of doctors allowing people to go without jabs while still issuing them with certificates that help to make it easier to work and travel.
7th Sep 2021 - Financial Times

Covid US: Anti-vaxx Georgia councilman urges conservatives to get jabbed after hospitalisation

Jim Sells, 71, urged people not to take the COVID-19 vaccine before he was hit with a bout of the virus that left hospitalized for more than two weeks. Sells is now pushing for others in his community to get vaccinated to ease pressure on the state's hospital system. More than 96% of Georgia ICU beds are currently occupied as the state sees a surge of virus cases. Only 35% of residents of Sells' county are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, and 60% are totally unvaccinated
7th Sep 2021 - Daily Mail

New Zealand Covid-19: Anti-masker clashes with New World supermarket worker

New Zealand supermarket workers been praised for dealing with anti-masker. Woman films and posts herself ranting about mandatory masks in shops. States that wearing a mask is a 'breach of her human rights.' Workers calmly offer the woman to wear a mask or leave the store. In level 4 lockdown, masks are mandatory for NZ residents accessing essential services unless they have a medical exemption
7th Sep 2021 - Daily Mail

‘Cheap shot’: Scott Morrison defends Father’s Day trip to Sydney during lockdown

Scott Morrison has defended a trip to see his family on Father’s Day, arguing he went home to Sydney then returned to Canberra under an essential work exemption. In an interview with Sky News on Tuesday, the prime minister said he understood people’s “frustration” given many Australians are unable to travel but claimed he had been the victim of “misinformation” about the issue.
7th Sep 2021 - The Guardian

Covid-19 Australia: Cops swarm Melbourne synagogue after 100 worshippers celebrate Jewish New Year

Significant Covid breaches occurred at a gathering in Ripponlea, Melbourne Gathering dispersed by Victorian police after fiery confrontations. People in two buildings understood to have gathered for Jewish New Year. Police blocked roads surrounding buildings on Glen Eira Avenue, Ripponlea. Victoria recorded 246 Covid-19 cases on Tuesday and remains in lockdown
7th Sep 2021 - Daily Mail

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 7th Sep 2021

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Hundreds of health centres at risk of closure in Afghanistan - WHO

Hundreds of medical facilities in Afghanistan are at risk of imminent closure because the Western donors who finance them are barred from dealing with the new Taliban government, a World Health Organization official said on Monday. Around 90% of 2,300 health facilities across the country might have to close as soon as this week, the UN health agency's regional emergency director, Rick Brennan, told Reuters in an interview.
6th Sep 2021 - Reuters

Fake COVID-19 vaccine passports for sale online

Fake COVID-19 vaccination certificates are being sold online for hundreds of dollars. One user on the encrypted message app, Telegram, told 9News he was selling counterfeit COVID-19 vaccination certificates for $500 in Bitcoin. He even produced a dummy version of the document, which was close to the real thing
6th Sep 2021 - 9News

First responders nationwide resist COVID vaccine mandates

The resurgence of COVID-19 this summer and the national debate over vaccine requirements have created a fraught situation for the nation’s first responders, who are dying in larger numbers but pushing back against mandates. It’s a heartbreaking situation for Tokley’s widow, Octavia, as the 21st anniversary of their first date approaches on Sept. 10. She said she has moved beyond her anger at other police officers who are refusing the vaccine, and is now disappointed. Her husband’s life couldn’t be saved, but theirs still can. “I don’t want to have to be there to support your family for this,” she said. “Nobody deserves this, especially when it can be prevented.”
6th Sep 2021 - Associated Press

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Brazil-Argentina World Cup qualifier halted after health officials intervene

A World Cup qualifier between Brazil and Argentina was halted just minutes after kickoff on Sunday after Brazilian health officials objected to the participation of three Argentine players they say broke quarantine rules. Argentina walked off the pitch at the Corinthians Arena after the officials entered the pitch to stop the game. The players went to the dressing room, although the two coaches, along with Argentina captain Lionel Messi and Brazilian players, gathered at the side of the pitch a few moments later to discuss the stoppage. The game was suspended shortly after. The incident occurred just hours after Brazil's health regulator, Anvisa, said four Argentine players must isolate and could not play in the match
5th Sep 2021 - ESPN

COVID-19: Five police officers injured after violence breaks out at anti-vaccine protest in London

Five police officers have been injured after anti-vaccine protests in London turned violent, the Metropolitan Police said. Ten people were arrested amid demonstrations at the headquarters of the UK vaccine regulator in Canary Wharf, east London, and the Science Museum in South Kensington, according to the Met. "Crowds quickly became hostile when they reached a building in Canary Wharf," the force wrote on Twitter.
4th Sep 2021 - Sky News

Anti-vaccine protesters try to storm London offices of medical regulator

Police have prevented anti-vaccine protesters from storming the headquarters of Britain’s medical regulator during violent clashes in east London. At least four officers were injured and arrests were made during a confrontation as hundreds of people gathered outside the offices of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) in Canary Wharf. Police drew batons and called for reinforcements as protesters attempted to force open the door of the regulator’s offices, with security guards looking on from inside.
4th Sep 2021 - The Guardian

Brazil's Bolsonaro signs law that could break COVID-19 vaccine patents

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on Thursday signed off on a law allowing for vaccine and medication patents to be broken in a public emergency, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. But the right-wing leader vetoed the provisions that patent holders would need to transfer the knowledge and supply the raw materials needed to duplicate the vaccines and medications.
4th Sep 2021 - Reuters

Gavin Williamson is being “reckless” with pupils’ health over covid-19 safety, world scientists warn

Scientists from across the world join forces with teachers, parents and unions to claim the Education Secretary is “endangering the health of hundreds of thousands of children” by not implementing Covid safety measure in schools
3rd Sep 2021 - iNews

COVID-19: Ministers face difficult decision on whether to overrule JCVI's finding on vaccinating children

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) has resisted intense pressure from ministers by refusing to recommend coronavirus vaccines for 12 to 15-year-olds. Yesterday, Education Secretary Gavin Williamson said parents would find it "deeply reassuring" if children were given jabs, and leaks from Whitehall insiders suggested the JCVI was ready to sign off on vaccines for teenagers as schools return in England.
3rd Sep 2021 - Sky News

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 26th Feb 2021

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Oxford University says research not affected after media reports of COVID lab hack

Oxford University said on Thursday it was investigating a digital intrusion after a researcher said he had seen evidence that a laboratory researching COVID-19 had been hacked. The breach took place in mid-February and occurred at the Division of Structural Biology, known as Strubi, which has been carrying out research into COVID-19, according to Alex Holden, founder of Wisconsin-based Hold Security. Forbes first reported the breach. Strubi is distinct from the Jenner Institute, which develops the Oxford COVID-19 vaccine in partnership with AstraZeneca.
26th Feb 2021 - Reuters

COVID-19: Anti-fraud probe as EU nations are offered 900 million 'ghost' jabs worth €12.7bn

Fraudsters are trying to cash in on mistakes made by the EU's coronavirus vaccination campaign by offering millions of scam jabs to member states. The bloc's anti-fraud agency OLAF said around 900 million vaccines have been pitched to several countries for €12.7bn (£11bn). These offers were said to be made by "alleged intermediaries," prompting OLAF to investigate. Pharmaceutical companies involved in making vaccines against COVID-19 say they sell to governments direct only.
25th Feb 2021 - Sky News

COVID-19: Almost 70,000 COVID lockdown fines handed out, with steep rise since Christmas

Police have handed out nearly 70,000 fines to people for breaching COVID-19 lockdown rules since they came into force, with more than 6,000 issued in a single week, new data shows. Figures published by the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) on Thursday show that a total of 68,952 Fixed Penalty Notices (FPNs) were issues by forces. Of this figure, 63,201 fines were handed out in England and 5,751 in Wales between 27 March last year and 14 February.
25th Feb 2021 - Sky News

The Good, the Bad, and the Embarrassing in America’s COVID-19 Response

The pandemic has been both a bad and an embarrassing time to be an American. Bad in an actuarial sense, because per-capita death rates here have been among the highest in the world. Embarrassing at the level of national identity. In Washington, last year, the President promised that the virus would be gone by Easter, and when it wasn’t he mused that Americans might self-treat with bleach. In Michigan, armed men guarded a barbershop that had defied public-health orders to close. On South Padre Island, in Texas, spring break proceeded as usual—packed and unmasked—even as cases were climbing. The state’s lieutenant governor, Dan Patrick, insisted that there were “more important things than living”; later, he urged Texans to keep the economy open even if it meant more deaths.
25th Feb 2021 - The New Yorker

Far right 'exploiting' anger at lockdowns to radicalise wellness community, police say

Rightwing extremist groups have “exploited” anger at Covid-19 lockdowns to radicalise Australians in wellness and alternative medical circles into adopting white supremacist ideologies, Victoria police have warned a parliamentary inquiry into extremism. The inquiry into extremist movements and radicalism has separately been warned by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation that Australians as young as 13 are involved in onshore terrorism, both in Islamist and rightwing extremist circles, and that encrypted online communication channels are preventing authorities from intervening before “lone actors” become radicalised and carry out attacks.
25th Feb 2021 - The Guardian

Mark Woolhouse denies Sturgeon's claim Covid-19 was 'reseeded' into Scotland from other parts of UK

An adviser to Nicola Sturgeon has challenged the first minister’s claim that coronavirus was “reseeded” into Scotland from other parts of the UK and claimed her “elimination” strategy was unattainable. The first minister has claimed that coronavirus was “almost eliminated” in Scotland last summer but was brought back into the country from travellers coming in from outside.
25th Feb 2021 - The Times

EU says UK, U.S. have vaccine export bans, EU allows exports of Pfizer, Moderna shots

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Thursday that the EU was allowing exports of COVID-19 vaccines, mostly from BionTech/Pfizer and Moderna, while the United States and Britain had mechanism to block them. Von der Leyen told a news conference that approximately 95% of EU-made vaccines that had been exported since Jan. 30 were manufactured by Pfizer and BioNTech, and the remainder by Moderna. She said that both were honouring their supply contracts with the EU and therefore there was no limitation on their export, while on AstraZeneca’s exports the EU was keeping “a very close eye” because of the company’s shortfalls in deliveries to the 27-nation bloc.
25th Feb 2021 - Reuters

Vaccinate prisoners en masse, not police or teachers, JCVI tells ministers

Teachers, police and other key workers should not get priority for Covid jabs but prisoners can be vaccinated en masse, the government’s advisory body has concluded. The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) handed final recommendations to ministers on Sunday advising that under-50s be vaccinated by age rather than occupation, and that people from ethnic minorities should not get priority, The Times understands. At least 150,000 more people with learning disabilities have been added to the present vaccine priority list, after concerns that too many with severe problems were being missed. Ministers are due to sign off the next phase of the vaccine programme imminently and are expected to follow the committee’s advice. On Monday Nadhim Zahawi, the vaccines deployment minister, said: “We will absolutely follow what they recommend.”
25th Feb 2021 - The Times

Israel passes law to name and shame those who decline Covid vaccine

Israel has passed a law allowing the identities of people who have not been vaccinated to be shared with other authorities. The decision on Wednesday raises concerns over privacy for those who may opt against getting the jab. It passed by 30 votes to 13 and gives local governments, the director general of the education ministry and some in the welfare ministry the right to receive the names, addresses and phone numbers of everyone who has not had the vaccine. The objective of the measure – which remains valid for three months or until the Covid-19 pandemic is declared over – is ‘to enable these bodies to encourage people to vaccinate by personally addressing them’, according to a statement issued by parliament. Read more: https://metro.co.uk/2021/02/25/israel-passes-law-to-name-and-shame-people-who-havent-had-covid-jab-14143058/?ito=cbshare Twitter: https://twitter.com/MetroUK | Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MetroUK/
25th Feb 2021 - Metro.co.uk

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 25th Feb 2021

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Doctors and nurses face endless covid misinformation battle

Nakhasi is one of countless health-care workers who have found themselves combating the coronavirus on two fronts during a global pandemic that is now stretching into its 12th month. Beyond spending their working hours in hospitals and clinics, many doctors and nurses have also voluntarily entrenched themselves in “the information war,” as Nakhasi calls it. It’s a fight Nakhasi and other medical professionals say feels overwhelming. Baseless claims often spread faster than facts, and purveyors of misinformation are quick to retaliate with vitriol and threats. And yet, health-care workers, many of whom are already experiencing burnout and the emotional toll of witnessing covid ravage their patients, haven’t backed down. “It’s never-ending,” Nakhasi said. “There’s not a moment where I don’t feel some level of duty or responsibility” to take action.
24th Feb 2021 - The Washington Post

EU President would take the AstraZeneca vaccine Germans are rejecting

The European Union’s chief said she would happily receive AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine as officials rushed to find ways of ensuring doses refused by skittish Germans did not go to waste. President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen volunteered for the jab amid growing concerns that unfavourable comments by top European officials including French President Emmanuel Macron had slowed take-up of one of only three vaccines currently approved EU-wide. Earlier this month, Macron said Britain had taken a risk in authorising AstraZeneca so rapidly. A German official study also found evidence that, though effective, the vaccine has more severe side effects than its two main rivals.
24th Feb 2021 - Sydney Morning Herald

India warns states of worsening COVID situation if rules ignored

India has warned that a breach of guidelines on testing and other measures to contain the coronavirus could worsen a recent spurt in infections in many states, particularly after it detected several variants. “Any laxity in implementing stringent measures to curb the spread, especially in view of new strain of virus…could compound the situation,” the health ministry on Wednesday said in a statement that singled out nine states and a federal territory.
24th Feb 2021 - Al Jazeera English

Condemnation as coughing Tanzanian minister gives news conference

Days after President John Mafuguli finally admitted Tanzania has a coronavirus problem, after months of apparent denial and increasing warnings of a resurgence in infections, the sight of the country’s finance minister coughing and gasping during a news conference to defend the state of his health has left many in shock. Finance Minister Philip Mpango, who did not reveal what he was suffering from, spoke to about 10 reporters on Tuesday at a hospital in the capital, Dodoma, after rumours that he had died of COVID-19. A recent spate of deaths attributed to “pneumonia” and “respiratory challenges” has struck both government officials and members of the public.
24th Feb 2021 - Al Jazeera English

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 24th Feb 2021

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U.S. House plans vote on COVID-19 aid bill on Friday

The U.S. House of Representatives will vote on Friday on legislation to provide $1.9 trillion in new coronavirus relief, Representative Steny Hoyer, the chamber’s No. 2 Democrat, said. “The American people strongly support this bill, and we are moving swiftly to see it enacted into law,” Hoyer said on Twitter on Tuesday.
24th Feb 2021 - Reuters

World Bank threatens to halt funding for Lebanon’s COVID jabs

The World Bank has threatened to suspend financing for coronavirus vaccines in Lebanon over what it said were violations by legislators who were vaccinated inside Parliament. The comments by the international lender on Tuesday came as frustration grew among some residents and doctors that the national plan that requires people to get vaccinated at predetermined centres could be riddled with violations and favouritism.
24th Feb 2021 - Al Jazeera English

Covid-19: Frustration over London's maskless passengers

Mask wearing on public transport looks likely to be with us for some time. But the most recent figures from Transport for London (TfL) show there is still a significant minority that do not wear them. Commuters have also complained to me about maskless rail staff who also ignore social distance regulations. TfL said about 90% of its passengers wear masks. Around 137,000 maskless people have so far been stopped from using London's public transport and told to wear a face covering since it was made mandatory on 15 June, latest figures show.
23rd Feb 2021 - BBC News

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 23rd Feb 2021

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Israel’s coronavirus vaccines wielding political power

Forget about oil and arms. Coronavirus vaccines are emerging as the newest currency of choice in the Middle East. Israel’s reopening of its economy, combined with a murky prisoner swap with Syria and the arrival of a batch of vaccines in the Gaza Strip, have all underscored how those with access to the vaccines have political power in the turbulent region. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been at the forefront of this trend, pinning his re-election hopes on the success of his campaign to vaccinate Israel’s adult population. At the same time, he has offered rewards to those who vaccinate and punishments to those who do not. Israel has rolled out the world’s fastest vaccination campaign, administering at least one dose to more than half its 9.3 million people and the required two doses to about one-third in less than two months.
23rd Feb 2021 - Al Jazeera English

UK PM sets out road map to ease England’s COVID lockdown

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has set out a four-step plan to ease coronavirus restrictions in England, expressing a hope that life could get back to normal by the end of June. Johnson outlined a “gradual and cautious” approach to lifting curbs in England, starting with the return of pupils to schools from March 8. Non-essential retail and hairdressers will reopen April 12. So will pubs and restaurants, though only outdoors. Indoor venues such as theatres and cinemas, and indoor seating in bars and restaurants, are scheduled to open May 17, when limited crowds will be able to return to sports stadiums. It is also the earliest date Britons may be allowed foreign holidays. The government is aiming for the lifting of all limits on social contact from June 21. The government says the dates could all be postponed if infections rise.
23rd Feb 2021 - Al Jazeera English

Bells toll for lives lost as U.S. reaches 500,000 COVID deaths

The United States on Monday crossed the staggering milestone of 500,000 COVID-19 deaths just over a year since the coronavirus pandemic claimed its first known victim in Santa Clara County, California. In a proclamation honoring the dead, President Joe Biden ordered the U.S. flag to be flown at half-staff on public buildings and grounds until sunset on Friday. “On this solemn occasion, we reflect on their loss and on their loved ones left behind,” Biden said in the proclamation. “We, as a Nation, must remember them so we can begin to heal, to unite, and find purpose as one Nation to defeat this pandemic.”
23rd Feb 2021 - Reuters

False claims tying coronavirus vaccines to infertility drive doubts among women of childbearing age

As the rollout of the coronavirus vaccine ramps up across the United States, women of childbearing age have emerged as a surprising roadblock to efforts to halt the pandemic by achieving herd immunity. Officials have encountered hesitancy among other groups, including some Black and Hispanic adults and those who believe the pandemic is a hoax. But the reluctance of women in their 20s and 30s — largely around disinformation spread on Facebook, Twitter and other social media — has been more unexpected. With such women making up a large share of the health-care workforce, vaccine uptake at nursing homes and hospitals has been as low as 20 to 50 percent in some places — a far cry from the 70 to 85 percent population target that health officials say may be needed to stop the virus.
22nd Feb 2021 - The Washington Post

COVID-19: Australian Open fans criticised for 'disgusting' booing of vaccine rollout

The behaviour of Australian Open fans who booed the mention of a COVID-19 vaccine rollout after Sunday's men's final has been branded "disgusting". Tennis Australia president Jayne Hrdlicka was loudly heckled when she mentioned vaccines in her presentation speech after Novak Djokovic's victory. Michael McCormack, Australia's deputy prime minister said: "Well, that's un-Australian (the booing incident), I'm sorry that is just un-Australian." "This vaccine is going to get our country back to some sort of pre-COVID normality."
22nd Feb 2021 - Sky News

Australian woman refusing a Covid swab in MIQ had already protested against lockdowns

An Australian woman who is refusing to take a Covid-19 swab says she will finally leave MIQ in Wellington today - after 28 days. Lucinda Baulch flew into New Zealand almost a month ago to drop off children she had been fostering to their new home in Aotearoa. "I put my hand up saying I'll take the children on the plane, I'll stay with them during managed isolation." She claims that while she was in Australia, she was told by officials there she wouldn't need to take a Covid-19 swab because she flew in from Australia, but once she arrived she was informed that this was not the case. This isn't the first time Baulch has challenged Covid-19 rules, and back in Australia, she participated in an anti-lockdown protest.
22nd Feb 2021 - New Zealand Herald

Argentina’s president decries ‘unforgivable’ vaccine scandal

The president of Argentina has decried an “unforgivable” COVID-19 vaccine scandal that prompted the resignation of the country’s health minister. Gines Gonzalez Garcia stepped down on Friday after reports surfaced that he had aided people in the South American nation jump the queue to receive COVID-19 vaccines.
22nd Feb 2021 - Al Jazeera English

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 22nd Feb 2021

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Anti-coronavirus vaccine protests held in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth

In Australia, a number of small rallies have been held in capital cities across the country in protest of the coronavirus vaccine. Gatherings were held in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide, and Perth on Saturday with a few hundred people at each. In Victoria, where the state has just emerged from a snap five-day lockdown, pepper spray was deployed and a number of arrests were reportedly made.
21st Feb 2021 - 9News.com.au

Amsterdam police clear square of anti-lockdown demonstrators

Police in Amsterdam forcibly cleared anti-lockdown demonstrators from the city's Museum Square on Sunday after they ignored instructions to leave amid a ban on public gatherings due to the coronavirus epidemic. The Museum Square has become a regular meeting place for people opposed to social distancing and other lockdown rules. At Sunday's demonstration, some were carrying signs saying "freedom" or held yellow umbrellas, but others appeared simply to have joined the throng of several hundred mostly young people. Police conducted raids on horseback and a handful of protesters were detained.
21st Feb 2021 - MSN.com

Reporters - Covid-19: The Swedish exception?

With the arrival of winter, the threat from Covid-19 increased, requiring a change in strategy: the Swedish government limited public gatherings but allowed shops to remain open. Our reporters have been to Sweden, but also to Finland and Denmark, to meet the Swedes who have left their country out of fear of catching coronavirus. Although Sweden's Covid-19 figures are no worse than the European average, the country has reported 10 times more deaths than its Scandinavian neighbours.
20th Feb 2021 - FRANCE 24

Victorian gym owner charged for running gym during lockdown

A Victorian gym owner who defied the state's five-day "circuit-breaker" lockdown by keeping his premises operating has been charged by police. The 50-year-old St Albans man was arrested on February 16 by police for operating his gym in Campbellfield in lockdown. Officers today confirmed he was charged with failing to comply with Chief Health Officer directions and was granted bail.
19th Feb 2021 - 9News.com.au

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 19th Feb 2021

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Macron urges US, EU to rapidly divert COVID vaccines to Africa

French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday urged fellow European nations and the United States to give up to five percent of their current COVID-19 vaccine supplies to developing countries in Africa, warning poorer nations are paying “astronomical prices” for jabs being made in the West. Macron said the current uneven distribution of doses marked an “unprecedented acceleration of global inequality” and cautioned some countries were being charged two or three times the price paid by the European Union for vaccines such as the one produced by Oxford-AstraZeneca.
19th Feb 2021 - Al Jazeera English

Angela Merkel's heir says Germany's lockdown treats public like children

The strongest contender to succeed Angela Merkel appeared to suggest that the German chancellor was “inventing” reasons to keep the country in lockdown after her government tightened conditions for lifting the restrictions. Armin Laschet, the chief minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany’s most populous state, recently won the leadership of Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union, traditionally a springboard for the chancellorship. His barely disguised criticism of Merkel is regarded by some observers as an attempt to build an independent political profile but it also reflects widespread unease at the length of a lockdown now well into its fourth month. Last week Merkel, 66, brokered an agreement to extend the measures until at least March 7. The target seven-day infection rate has also been cut from 50 new cases per 100,000 to 35 per 100,000, as the government tries to stop mutant strains of the virus spreading.
18th Feb 2021 - The Times

Liberal MP Bernie Finn tells anti-lockdown protest Victorian restrictions were 'not about a virus'

Three Victorian Liberal MPs have addressed a group of vaccine conspiracy theorists and anti-lockdown protesters at an online rally, hours before the state's stage 4 restrictions were lifted.
18th Feb 2021 - ABC News

Dutch government races for plan B to uphold nighttime coronavirus curfew

The Dutch government raced on Wednesday to prepare legislation to keep a nighttime curfew in place after a court ordered it to scrap the controversial COVID-19 measure which has become the focus of campaigning a month before a general election. The stakes are high politically as Prime Minister Mark Rutte and the country’s top health officials argue the measure is essential to soften a third wave of infections they say is about to arrive due to variants of the coronavirus. Tuesday’s court ruling found the government’s current justifications lacked sufficient legal basis, sending authorities scrambling to draft a bill and enact it swiftly into law.
18th Feb 2021 - Reuters

COVID rumours hamper Brazil’s efforts to vaccinate Indigenous

Indigenous nurse Almeida Tananta battled heavy downpours of tropical rains as he rode his motorbike for hours across the red-soiled dirt tracks of Tabatinga, a municipality in Western Amazonas, which borders the Amazon rainforest and Colombia, and has the largest concentration of Indigenous Brazilians in the Amazon. Tananta was en route to apply the first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to the remote Umariacu villagers, in Alto Rio Solimoes. But when he arrived at the village of wooden-thatched houses skirting the banks of the Amazon river, the nurse’s hopes of vaccinating the 1,037 villagers quickly vanished.
18th Feb 2021 - AlJazeera

'Horrifying' death toll prompts calls to prioritise jabs for disabled people

People with disabilities in England should be given priority for vaccination against Covid-19, according to leading charities, after official data showed that they accounted for 60 per cent of all deaths from the disease last year. Describing the data as “both illuminating and horrifying”, James Taylor, executive director of strategy for Scope, which campaigns for disability equality, said: “What they show is that there is an urgent need for the government to prioritise disabled people now.” This week, health officials announced that they were moving an extra 820,000 people up the vaccination priority list, including some with severe or profound learning disabilities who will be elevated into the sixth of the government’s top nine groups for receiving the jab.
18th Feb 2021 - Financial Times

Erdogan: Turkey to start lifting COVID curbs in March

Turkey will begin a gradual return to normal life on a province-by-province basis from March, according to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who added that nationwide weekend COVID-19 lockdowns would be lifted in some provinces based on infection rates. Turkey imposed curfews, weekend lockdowns and other curbs in December as cases rose sharply. It plans to reopen schools nationwide on March 1 and its vaccination programme has so far administered shots to nearly 5.7 million people using shots developed by China’s Sinovac Biotech Ltd.
18th Feb 2021 - Al Jazeera English on MSN.com

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 18th Feb 2021

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Unprotected African health workers die as rich countries buy up COVID-19 vaccines

On 6 January, gastroenterologist Leolin Katsidzira received a troubling message from his colleague James Gita Hakim, a heart specialist and noted HIV/AIDS researcher. Hakim, chair of the department of medicine at the University of Zimbabwe, had fallen sick and had tested positive for COVID-19. He was admitted to a hospital in Harare 10 days later and moved to an intensive care unit (ICU) after his condition deteriorated. He died on 26 January. It is a crushing loss to Zimbabwean medicine, Katsidzira says. “Don’t forget: We have had a huge brain drain. So people like James are people who keep the system going,” he adds. Scientists around the world mourned Hakim as well. He was “a unique research leader, a brilliant clinical scientist and mentor, humble, welcoming and empowering,” wrote Melanie Abas, a collaborator at King’s College London.
17th Feb 2021 - Science Magazine

Glasgow priest Canon Tom White takes legal action against ministers to stop UK divide on lockdown right to worship

A Glasgow priest has launched a legal action to stop a north-south divide on the right to worship during lockdown. Canon Tom White whose St Alphonsus parish is in the heart of the city’s famous Barras has issued a pre-action letter to the Scottish Government demanding it ends the blanket ban on places of worship. A response must be made before Tuesday February 23. Lockdown measures designed to stop the spread of coronavirus have forced places of worship to shut.
17th Feb 2021 - heraldscotland.com

‘Public hanging’ outside church in protest of ‘unnecessary’ lockdown of hospitality trade in Spain’s Costa Blanca

A chef mannequin was hung from a lamp-post in Torrevieja as hospitality workers protested against what they see as an unnecessary lockdown of trade. Almost 200 people turned up at the central plaza yesterday, February 16, to voice their anger as the Valencian goverment continued the enforced closure of bars, cafes and restaurants
17th Feb 2021 - Olive Press

US state gives vaccines to aides for elderly, drawing criticism

Halee Barlow cannot wait for the COVID-19 vaccine. But it is not for her. She is desperate to get her father vaccinated – and soon. Brian Barlow, of Sutton, Massachusetts, about 77 kilometres (48 miles) west of Boston, is terminally ill with liver cancer and immuno-compromised enough to put him at higher risk for serious illness or death from the disease caused by the coronavirus. The stress of the pandemic and the wait for a vaccine are fraying nerves in Barlow’s family. “It makes it feel like we’re working against the clock,” she told Al Jazeera. “The more time we wait, the less time we have to really spend with him.” At 72, Barlow’s father is three years younger than residents now permitted to get the vaccine under the second phase of the state plan. The next leg of the phase – for people 65 years and older, people with two or more medical conditions listed by the state and residents and staff of low-income and affordable senior housing – is scheduled to start on February 18 but it is unclear when he will get an appointment for a jab.
17th Feb 2021 - Al Jazeera English

World first: UK to deliberately infect volunteers with COVID

The United Kingdom is set to become the first country in the world to deliberately expose volunteers to the novel coronavirus in a so-called human challenge study hoped to eventually aid the development of vaccines and treatments. Up to 90 healthy volunteers aged between 18 and 30 will be exposed to the virus in a “safe and controlled environment” during the trial, which will begin within a month, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) said in a statement on Wednesday.
17th Feb 2021 - Al Jazeera English

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 17th Feb 2021

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COVID-19: 'Progress' made on vaccine hesitancy amid 'pandemic of disinformation', NHS chief says

"Meaningful progress" is being made in the campaign to overcome COVID vaccine hesitancy, but it is happening amid a "pandemic of disinformation", the head of the NHS in England has said. The country is fighting a "dual epidemic" and must take on both coronavirus and disinformation with "equal vigour", Sir Simon Stevens said at Monday's Downing Street news conference. He added that progress is being made on uptake among black and south Asian communities, and believes the involvement of local religious leaders will help build momentum.
16th Feb 2021 - Sky News

Spoons boss slams 'absurd' outdoor drinking plan after lockdown

In England, JD Wetherspoon boss Tim Martin has rubbished the idea of only reopening outdoor areas in pubs as a ‘random’ idea that will leave jobs hanging in the balance. The chain’s founder dismissed the notion that the Covid risk could be reduced by allowing customers to sit in beer gardens while keeping indoor spaces closed to the public. He also branded the suggestion of vaccine passports allowing entry to supermarkets and hospitality venues as ‘extreme’ as he addressed tentative plans to reopen pubs in April. The idea has been shot down by Boris Johnson, who said it is more likely to apply to people travelling abroad.
16th Feb 2021 - Metro.co.uk

German business groups berate government over lockdown extension

The German government is coming under mounting attack from business groups angry at its refusal to ease the country’s coronavirus restrictions, as pressure grows for an exit strategy out of one of Europe’s longest shutdowns. “Businesses are growing increasingly desperate, and angry,” said Guido Zöllick, head of DEHOGA, the German association of hotels and restaurants. “More and more fear for their existence.” He was speaking after a crisis meeting with German economy minister Peter Altmaier where 40 groups representing the hospitality industry, tourism, retail trade and other sectors lambasted the government’s pandemic policies.
16th Feb 2021 - The Financial Times

Madrid: an island in a sea of coronavirus restrictions

Compared to other major European capitals, Madrid is swimming against the tide with regard to its Covid-19 strategy. Although most of Europe’s main cities are imposing heavy restrictions on both mobility and social activities in a bid to curb the spread of the coronavirus, the Spanish capital is opting for relaxing restrictions despite a 14-day incidence rate of 625 cases per 100,000 inhabitants. In fact, while Lisbon, London, Paris, Rome, Berlin, Athens and Brussels remain in partial lockdown, Madrid plans to put the curfew and closing times in the hospitality sector back an hour. The Swedish capital, Stockholm, which took a controversial early approach to fighting the virus by trusting to individual responsibility, is one of the few big European cities to take a similar line. But experts warn of the risks of relaxing restrictions when transmission remains high.
16th Feb 2021 - El País

Police storm gym operating in Melbourne during lockdown

Dozens of police have stormed a gym in Melbourne's north operating under Victoria's lockdown, with three men arrested. Late this afternoon officers swarmed on the Campbellfield gym, open against the Chief Health Officer's directives during lockdown. "We can't afford to close the gym so we've been trading as per normal during the lockdown," Al Pope, part-owner of the gym told 9News. Mr Pope said about 175 people came through for a casual session today, plus normal members, and no masks were worn.
16th Feb 2021 - 9News.com.au

Dutch coronavirus curfew upheld temporarily after legal setback

Appellate judges ruled on Tuesday that a night-time curfew would remain in place in the Netherlands pending a government appeal of a lower-court ruling that found the measure lacked legal justification. Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s coronavirus policy was dealt a major blow earlier in the day when a district court in The Hague said his government had failed to make clear why it was necessary to use emergency powers at this stage of the pandemic. The government requested and was granted an injunction, or emergency order, in which the three-judge appellate panel in The Hague agreed to suspend that ruling and uphold the curfew pending the outcome of the appeal to be heard on Friday.
16th Feb 2021 - Reuters

COVID-19: Test and Trace 'now working really, really well', says Serco boss

The boss of an outsourcing giant involved in the much-criticised coronavirus Test and Trace programme has admitted it took "some time to settle down" but argued it was "now working really, really well". Speaking to Sky News, Serco chief executive Rupert Soames also rejected comparisons with the widely hailed COVID-19 vaccination rollout, arguing his firm had been "plunged straight into it" last year while there had been time to plan for the administration of jabs. The UK now had "the largest and most successful test and tracing system in Europe", Mr Soames told the Ian King Live programme.
16th Feb 2021 - Sky News

Covid: Dutch crisis as court orders end to Covid curfew

A court in The Hague has told the Dutch government that an overnight curfew to reduce the spread of coronavirus should be lifted, ruling that it breaches the right to free movement. The court said the 21:00 to 04:30 curfew was imposed by an emergency law when there was no "acute emergency". Later, a higher court ruled that the curfew could stay in place pending an appeal on Friday. The curfew, imposed in January, led to rioting in several Dutch cities. Police were patrolling streets near the Dutch parliament on Tuesday evening but no unrest has been reported so far.
16th Feb 2021 - BBC News

Israel blocks shipment of Russian Sputnik V vaccine to Gaza

Israel has stopped 1,000 doses of Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine that are intended for front-line medical workers from entering the besieged Gaza Strip. The Palestinian group Hamas which governs the Gaza Strip on Tuesday blasted Israel’s refusal to allow vaccine doses destined for Gaza health workers through its blockade of the territory as a “violation” of international law.
16th Feb 2021 - Al Jazeera English

Lebanon begins vaccinations with sceptics a major hurdle

Lebanon’s COVID-19 vaccination roll-out has begun, but there remain concerns the most vulnerable people in the country may be left out of the campaign or excluded altogether. Regardless of nationality or legal status, anyone living in Lebanon is supposed to be covered under its vaccination campaign, including refugees and migrant labourers, who count for about 1.5 million of the estimated six million people living here. “For refugees, one of the problems that we’ve noticed are very low registration — it could be a lack of awareness, or a lack of trust in the process,” said Aya Majzoub, Human Rights Watch’s Lebanon and Bahrain researcher. Of the almost 540,000 people who have registered in Lebanon for the vaccine so far, slightly more than 11,000 are Syrian or Palestinian, the two largest non-Lebanese populations in the country. Migrant labourers, the majority of whom hail from Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Sri Lanka and the Philippines, appear to be completely ineligible, as per a statement by the country’s Ministry of Labour last week.
16th Feb 2021 - Al Jazeera English

Biden extends foreclosure moratorium for struggling US homeowners

United States President Joe Biden extended a federal moratorium on foreclosures and mortgage forbearance policies on Tuesday, giving the more than 10 million homeowners who are behind on payments additional months of assistance as the coronavirus pandemic continues to ravage the US economy. Biden’s announcement extends the moratorium on foreclosures through the end of June after it was due to expire at the end of next month. The policy also extends the mortgage forbearance window until June 30 and provides up to six months of additional mortgage payment relief for the 2.7 million Americans who are already receiving it, the White House said in a statement.
16th Feb 2021 - Al Jazeera English

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 16th Feb 2021

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Coronavirus in the UK: New BBC Panorama research reveals rise in anti-vaccine propaganda accounts on social media

An investigation for the BBC’s Panorama has revealed an alarming increase in the followers of anti-vaccine accounts on social media – and the impact of the content being shared. Research for the programme, which airs on BBC One on February 15th, analysed anti-vaccine content available on the major social media platforms. It found that anti-vaccine accounts on Instagram increased nearly five-fold in 2020, reaching over four million followers. “Naturally we didn’t have the time maybe to do the sort of preliminary work that we do when we’re introducing vaccines,” said Mary Ramsay, Head of Immunisation at Public Health England. “I think it's fair to say that we didn’t have time to do all those things as well as we would normally do but we’re very much playing catch up now.” It comes at a time when more people are seeking health information online.
15th Feb 2021 - MSN.com

The superspreaders behind top COVID-19 conspiracy theories

As the coronavirus spread across the globe, so too did speculation about its origins. Perhaps the virus escaped from a lab. Maybe it was engineered as a bioweapon. Legitimate questions about the virus created perfect conditions for conspiracy theories. In the absence of knowledge, guesswork and propaganda flourished. College professors with no evidence or training in virology were touted as experts. Anonymous social media users posed as high-level intelligence officials. And from China to Iran to Russia to the United States, governments amplified claims for their own motives. The Associated Press collaborated with the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab on a nine-month investigation to identify the people and organizations behind some of the most viral misinformation about the origins of the coronavirus. Their claims were explosive. Their evidence was weak. These are the superspreaders.
15th Feb 2021 - ABC News

Three arrested at anti-lockdown rally in Melbourne

A group of anti-lockdown protesters have rallied in Melbourne today, with three men arrested. Dozens of people came together at Eaton Mall in Oakleigh to defy the state's stage four lockdown in place until midnight on Wednesday. The largely maskless group clashed with police and became vocal towards them, swearing and shouting.
15th Feb 2021 - 9News.com.au

Victorian builders baffled by decision to stop construction in lockdown

Victorian builders say the state's latest five-day lockdown rules are excessive, especially for regional Victoria where work has ground to a halt just when it was getting back to normal. Victoria's Premier Daniel Andrews says the statewide blanket lockdown is a "circuit breaker" to a growing cluster in Melbourne's north. But for Tanya McNamara, whose construction firm has been rebuilding homes in East Gippsland, all the lockdown has done is disrupt the flow of rebuilding after last summer's bushfires.
15th Feb 2021 - ABC.Net.au

Australian Proud Boys sought combat-trained supporters to 'arrest' police at Covid lockdown protests

The far-right Proud Boys in Australia sought people trained in combat to help confront police during anti-lockdown protests in Melbourne last year. Amid repeated warnings from security agencies in Australia and overseas about the way far-right groups have used the Covid-19 pandemic to recruit, Guardian Australia can reveal that senior members of the neo-fascist Proud Boys group were involved in protests during Melbourne’s second-wave lockdown last year. A series of messages posted to anti-lockdown social media groups in the past year reveal the increasingly blurred line between the loose coalition of conspiracy groups that orchestrated those protests and far right groups such as the Proud Boys.
15th Feb 2021 - The Guardian

Wetherspoon's Tim Martin urges govt to reopen pubs, warns of economic mayhem

Wetherspoon founder and Chairman Tim Martin on Monday called on the government to open pubs at the same time as non-essential shops reopen, saying the pub industry was on its knees under the latest lockdown and warned of economic mayhem. Britain’s hospitality sector has been hit hard by the third coronavirus-led lockdown which forced Wetherspoon into a second cash call last month. The British Beer & Pub Association also urged the government last week to give a clear timeline and date for when pubs could reopen. Pubs reopened on July 4 last year after the first lockdown was lifted, followed by a second lockdown later that year.
15th Feb 2021 - Reuters

Germany defends border controls as business demands lockdown exit plan

Germany said on Monday its decision to impose border controls with the Czech Republic and Austria is a temporary measure of last resort and it defended a lockdown extension against business demands for a roadmap to reopening. The new restrictions along the normally open borders were prompted by alarm over outbreaks in the Czech Republic and Austria’s Tyrol region of strains of the coronavirus that spread faster and cause more illness. Germany installed frontier checks on Sunday, drawing protest from Austria and concerns about supply-chain disruptions that could damage the country’s export-oriented manufacturing sector.
15th Feb 2021 - Reuters

"The biggest mistake was failing to control the growth of infection in the autumn." - Professor Neil Ferguson

Imperial College Epidemiologist Neil Ferguson said the biggest mistake made by the government during the pandemic was failing to control the rise in infections in the autumn which led to a devastating second wave in the winter. Mr Ferguson, whose research led to the first UK lockdown, said the UK responded too late back in March but thought the government had 'learned that lesson' by the autumn. He said the failure to act with strict measures in the autumn was understandable but it set the country up for very high case numbers through the winter. He said: "It's unfortunate politicians need to see people in hospitals before they react."
15th Feb 2021 - ITV News

After hitting vaccine milestone, UK eyes way out of lockdown

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said the path out of lockdown must be sensible to avoid being forced into a reversal of the relaxation of measures. Johnson’s comments on Monday came after the government reached its target to vaccinate 15 million people by the middle of this month, a milestone which has fuelled calls for the stringent restrictions to be loosened. Speaking to people waiting for a COVID-19 vaccine shot, Johnson said the key question was working out to what extent a drop in infections was being caused by the vaccination programme. “That’s the data we’re having to look at and really work out what is going on,” Johnson said. Asked about lifting lockdown, Johnson said: “The crucial thing is to make sure we just do sensible steps that are in proportion to where we are.” “What people don’t want to see is you know just being forced into reverse – we don’t want to do you know a reverse ferret – let’s take it at the right pace,” he said.
15th Feb 2021 - Al Jazeera English

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 15th Feb 2021

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COVID-19: All restrictions must be lifted by end of April, lockdown-sceptic MPs tell Johnson

A group of lockdown-sceptic MPs has told Boris Johnson that coronavirus restrictions must be fully lifted by the end of April. In a letter to the prime minister, the COVID Recovery Group said there will be "no justification" for restrictions to remain once all over-50s have been offered a jab. The CRG described reopening England's schools on 8 March as a "national priority" that must be achieved, and said pubs and restaurants should be allowed to open in a COVID-secure way by Easter. More than 60 Conservative backbenchers are said to have backed the letter, which demands that Mr Johnson commits to a timetable for exiting lockdown.
14th Feb 2021 - Sky News

Clashes erupt at rally against corruption, COVID-19 curbs in Cyprus

Clashes broke out between police and activists in Cyprus on Saturday during a protest against corruption and lockdown measures imposed over the COVID-19 pandemic, witnesses said. Police used water cannon and tear gas in an attempt to break up the gathering of several hundred people just beyond the medieval walls in Nicosia, the capital of the east Mediterranean island, Reuters witnesses said.
14th Feb 2021 - Reuters

Challenges to Covid-19 Lockdowns Have Been Mostly Losing in Court

When the owners of four Albuquerque trampoline parks sued New Mexico’s governor for pandemic-related shutdowns that almost bankrupted them, they argued it wasn’t fair that they had to close when tanning salons, guided balloon tours and ice-skating rinks stayed open. The argument got nowhere with U.S. District Judge James Browning. “The Court will not recognize a new fundamental right to operate a trampoline facility,” he wrote in a Feb. 8 ruling, upholding the closures. The decision was the latest in a long line of defeats for businesses and individuals challenging lockdown rules and state emergency measures intended to combat the Covid-19 pandemic. Together, the roughly 300 civil liberties lawsuits related to Covid-19 represent the most significant test in more than a century of the emergency powers of state governors and the scope of liberty in dire times.
13th Feb 2021 - Wall Street Journal

Nigel Farage's anti-lockdown party: Future force or busted flush?

Love him or loathe him, Nigel Farage has proved himself a political force to be reckoned with. At the helm of first UKIP and then the Brexit Party, he was the arch Eurosceptic. But although the UK has now left the EU both legally and practically, Mr Farage isn't leaving the political fray. Instead, the Brexit Party has been reborn as Reform UK. It is the same legal entity, with similar branding and many of the same key players. But with the new name comes a new focus - criticism of the government's handling of Covid and, in particular, opposition to prolonged lockdown.
13th Feb 2021 - BBC News

It Turns Out Germany’s Anti-Lockdown Rallies Were Superspreader Events

Two anti-lockdown rallies attended by conspiracy theorists, anti-vaxxers, and right-wing extremists from across Germany were "superspreader events" that resulted in up to 21,000 additional COVID infections in the lead-up to Christmas. That's the conclusion of a paper by researchers from Humboldt University of Berlin and the ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research in Mannheim, which examined the impact of COVID-19 deniers on coronavirus transmission rates.
13th Feb 2021 - VICE

French Mayor Opens Museums, Defying Coronavirus Orders

If you wanted to visit a museum in France this week, you were out of luck. On Monday, all — from the Louvre in Paris, to hundreds of local museums — were shut, as they had been since Oct. 30, when the government ordered them closed in the face of rising coronavirus cases. They remained shut despite a rising clamor from museum directors, who have begged the government to let them open their doors. “For an hour, for a day, for a week or a month, let us reopen,” wrote the leaders of some of the country’s most prominent art institutions in an open letter published in the newspaper Le Monde earlier this month. “Art can contribute to cure the soul, as medicine does,” the letter added.
13th Feb 2021 - The New York Times

Tories Pile Pressure On Boris Johnson Ahead Of Lockdown Review

The pressure on Boris Johnson over next week’s coronavirus lockdown review is mounting, and mainly from his own MPs. That much was clear when an exasperated Charles Walker, vice-chair of the influential 1922 Committee, this week reacted to the suggestion that domestic summer holidays may not be possible by telling the prime minister to “get a grip of his cabinet ministers”.
13th Feb 2021 - Huffington Post UK

Anti-lockdown protest outside Australian Open in Melbourne Park

Anti-lockdown protesters gathered outside the Australian Open in Melbourne Park on Friday night, hours before the state’s “circuit breaker restrictions” kick in. Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews announced a five-day lockdown from 11.59pm on Friday until 11.59pm on Wednesday due to a “hyper-infectious” outbreak of COVID-19 cases at the Holiday Inn Melbourne Airport. Victoria Police were at the scene including a line of officers and some mounted officers as hundreds marched through the CBD.
13th Feb 2021 - NEWS.com.au

Scientist Warns Of New Covid Wave If UK Lockdown Is Lifted Too Quickly

Britain could face a coronavirus wave as big as the current one if lockdown restrictions are lifted too quickly, a scientist advising the UK government has said. Steven Riley, a member of the SPI-M modelling group, said that while the rollout of the vaccination programme had been "incredibly successful" it did not mean controls could simply be dropped. "No vaccine is perfect. We are certainly going to be in the situation where we can allow more infection in the community but there is a limit," he told the BBC Radio Today programme. "I think scientists are genuinely worried. We don't want to show that it is an excellent but not perfect vaccine by having another large wave in the UK. "Nearly 20% of the UK population is 65 years old or older. If you do some simple back of the envelope [calculations] for a vaccine that is very good but not perfect, there is the potential for another really substantial wave. That is not where we want to go in the short term.
13th Feb 2021 - London South East

This COVID-vaccine designer is tackling vaccine hesitancy — in churches and on Twitter

Kizzmekia Corbett, an immunologist at the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), is one of the scientists who in early 2020 helped to develop an mRNA-based vaccine for COVID-19. Developed in collaboration with biotech firm Moderna of Cambridge, Massachusetts, the vaccine is now being distributed across the United States and elsewhere. And Corbett is taking on another challenge: tempering vaccine hesitancy by talking about COVID-19 science in communities of colour. Corbett is one of many Black scientists and doctors who are doing this outreach, often virtually, in their free time. Researchers say it’s necessary to make scientific knowledge accessible in public forums, to ease health disparities.
13th Feb 2021 - Nature

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 12th Feb 2021

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Biden says US faces ‘national emergency’ amid vaccine shortage

President Joe Biden said that the United States is facing a “national emergency” in the coronavirus pandemic and his administration is working to supply enough COVID-19 vaccine to inoculate 300 million Americans. “We’re in a national emergency,” said Biden, wearing a mask during remarks to scientists at the National Institutes of Health just outside Washington, DC on Thursday. “This will be one of the most difficult operational challenges we have ever undertaken as a nation. It’s going to take time,” Biden said. The US is on pace to exceed Biden’s goal of administering 100 million vaccine doses in his first 100 days in office, with more than 26 million shots delivered in his first three weeks. The 300 million doses would be delivered by the end of the US summer, Biden said. “We’re now on track to have enough supply for 300 million Americans by the end of July,” he announced. Biden said the US coronavirus death toll is likely to reach 500,000 next month. He urged Americans to wear masks as a “patriotic duty” to prevent the spread.
12th Feb 2021 - Al Jazeera English

COVID-19: UK prepared for the wrong pandemic, former health secretary admits

Former health secretary Jeremy Hunt has admitted the UK had been concentrating all of its pandemic planning only on flu. Speaking on a Sky News' special programme, Covid Crisis: Learning the Lessons, Mr Hunt - Britain's longest ever serving health secretary - was candid. Asked if he felt he should take some responsibility for the off-target NHS planning, he replied: "Yes, I do.
11th Feb 2021 - Sky News

Venezuelan government and opposition begin talks on vaccine financing

Venezuelan government officials and opposition leaders have met to discuss buying coronavirus vaccines through the COVAX program using cash frozen in the United States by economic sanctions, two sources familiar with the matter said on Thursday. Opposition leader Juan Guaido last week said that Venezuelan funds controlled by the U.S. Treasury Department could be used to pay for vaccines. The cash-strapped government of President Nicolas Maduro has signed up for COVAX, co-led by the World Health Organization (WHO) to provide vaccines globally, but has not made the associated payments. The meeting marks a step forward in what will likely be a long process requiring that U.S. authorities approve the use of the funds, as well as the completion of a vaccination roll-out plan for crisis-stricken Venezuela.
12th Feb 2021 - Reuters

Nigel Farage’s natural supporters won’t buy his lockdown sceptic party

Nigel Farage’s renamed party has a problem, in that it was formed to fight the lockdown, which is likely to be lifting, if not lifted, by the time of its first electoral test, the elections on 6 May. I wrote that on Tuesday, and now a new study suggests the problem for Reform UK is even more serious. Research by my colleagues at King’s College London suggests that Leave voters tend to support the lockdown as much as Remainers do. This seems surprising, because most leading lockdown sceptics are Brexiteers. Among public figures, the Venn diagram of Euroscepticism and lockdown scepticism seems to consist mostly of overlap.
11th Feb 2021 - The Independent

'Safety is very lax': staff tell of being forced into the office during UK's third lockdown

One in five employees are going into the workplace for part or all of their working week despite being able to do their job from home, according to a poll from the Trades Union Congress (TUC). We spoke to people who say their employers have been breaking Covid guidance by asking them to return to offices unnecessarily. None would agree to be named publicly for fear of losing their job. Thomas worked from home throughout the first lockdown but in September he was called back to his office. He was one of several staff who voiced concerns about spreading the virus. “Around September they asked HR to brief us on what would happen when we went back to the office. A lot of people on these calls said they were anxious and that they didn’t want to run the risk of catching anything.”
11th Feb 2021 - The Guardian

NHS workforce ‘on its knees’ – without ‘recuperation’ burnt-out staff will leave, warn leaders

The Government is being urged to have an “honest” conversation with the public. The sustained and constant pressure of the pandemic has left the NHS workforce “on its knees” and burnt-out staff will look to leave unless action is taken, warn senior NHS leaders. In a letter sent to the Prime Minister on Monday by the NHS Confederation, senior leaders from all parts of the NHS have issued several stark warnings alongside calling for a period of “recuperation” before returning to normal operations. With around 4.46 million patients awaiting routine surgery and up to 20% of the UK population needing mental health support, the Government is being urged to be “honest” about what the NHS can realistically deliver in the coming months to years.
11th Feb 2021 - Nursing Notes

Merkel Defends Extension of Germany COVID-19 Lockdown

German Chancellor Angela Merkel Thursday defended her decision to extend the nation’s COVID-19 lockdown, saying the variant strains of the virus pose a threat and she does not want to make the mistakes that led to a second surge last year. Following a meeting Wednesday with Germany’s 16 state governors, Merkel announced they agreed to extend the current COVID-19 lockdown - due to expire Sunday - to March 7. Speaking to the Bundestag - the lower house of the German parliament – Merkel said they did not act fast enough in 2020 to prevent a second surge in infections late in the year, and as health officials now warn about the spread of more virulent variant COVID-19 strains in the country, she said they need to learn from their mistakes.
11th Feb 2021 - Voice of America

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 11th Feb 2021

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Leeds vaccine refusers speak on why they've decided to not have vital jab

Leeds residents have spoken out on their refusal to take the coronavirus vaccine once offered to them. A recent Leeds health watch survey found that only 77 per cent of people in the city would take the coronavirus vaccine, Leeds City Council has confirmed. In a press briefing held by Leeds City Council on last week to update the public on the city's continuing fight against Covid-19, the council confirmed it has now vaccinated over 100,000 people in Leeds. The Covid-19 vaccine has gone through rigorous testing to ensure it is safe, with extensive studies taking place before they are rolled out for public use. Approval for the vaccines we have are only given if the regulatory body is happy. It's an extremely regulated and safe process.
10th Feb 2021 - Leeds Live

Nearly 1 In 4 Republicans ‘Definitely’ Won’t Get Covid-19 Vaccine, Survey Finds

Some 23% of Republicans said they would “definitely” not get vaccinated, while another 21% said they “probably” won’t get the Covid-19 vaccine when it is made available to them. Four in ten non-college graduates also say they definitely or probably won’t get immunized. Only 7% of Democrats said they would refuse to be vaccinated, with 82% having already been vaccinated or planning to do so.
10th Feb 2021 - Forbes

Covid-19: Care homes 'given only 10% of required PPE', and pubs plead for opening date

Care home staff were not given personal protective equipment (PPE) early in the pandemic because the government prioritised the NHS, MPs have said. The Commons Public Accounts Committee said care homes received only a fraction of the PPE needed. Between March and July 2020, the Department of Health and Social Care provided NHS trusts with 1.9 billion items of PPE, the equivalent to 80% of estimated need. The adult social care sector was given 331 million items - just 10% of its need. At the same time, about 25,000 patients were discharged to care homes from hospitals without being tested for Covid-19. Last month, our political editor Laura Kuenssberg interviewed a care home owner who said Covid "hit the home like a missile" last year.
10th Feb 2021 - BBC News

Facebook and YouTube ban ‘Planet Lockdown’ film filled with coronavirus falsehoods, after it was shared by millions

While thousands of families grieved the loss of loved ones and the United States’ coronavirus death toll surpassed 350,000 in early January and continued to rise, a film parroting false claims about the pandemic began to spread to millions of social media users. The video, called “Planet Lockdown,” racked up more than 20 million views and engagements, according to the social media monitoring tool CrowdTangle, in late December and January. It went largely unnoticed by the social media platforms playing host to the misinformation until the liberal media watchdog group Media Matters for America published a detailed accounting of the film’s spread on Monday.
10th Feb 2021 - Washington Post

'Exercise in deliberate cruelty' Senior Tory aghast at lockdown restrictions

A senior Conservative MP has accused the Government of “ripping out” the goalposts on the timetable for lifting coronavirus restrictions in England. Sir Charles Walker, the vice chairman of the Tory backbench 1922 Committee, criticised Transport Secretary Grant Shapps for his comments advising against booking holidays. Asked if he thought the goalposts had been moved, he told BBC Radio 4’s The World At One programme: “They have not so much moved as been ripped out and carried off to another playing field. It is just not acceptable behaviour. “This is becoming an extended exercise in almost studied and deliberate cruelty for a nation now that is increasingly anxious and under pressure. “People need to see their children, they need to see their parents, they need to see the people that they love, they need to have something to look forward to.”
10th Feb 2021 - Wales Online

UK autumn Covid lockdown 'too late', Professor Neil Ferguson says

Professor Ferguson, a former Sage adviser, urged ministers to learn lessons He added face masks and social distancing would likely be in place all year Ex-top adviser was sacked after breaking social distancing to see married lover
10th Feb 2021 - Daily Mail

German anti-lockdown protests led to more coronavirus cases, study finds

Protests against the German government's coronavirus restrictions led to an increase in infections toward the end of the year, a study published on Tuesday has found. Since the summer, Germany has seen several major demonstrations against coronavirus measures, with participants often not respecting social-distancing and mask-wearing rules. The study, by the Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) and the Humboldt University of Berlin, looked at two rallies organized by the so-called Querdenken group in November 2020 — in Berlin, which attracted more than 10,000 people, and in Leipzig, which was attended by some 20,000 people.
10th Feb 2021 - POLITICO.eu

Doctors on strike in Bolivia to force coronavirus lockdown

Health care workers in Bolivia's region worst hit by the coronavirus pandemic began a 48-hour strike on Tuesday to demand a lockdown to battle the rise in infections. Emergency services and hospitals attending Covid-19 patients are not striking but all other specialist medical care has been suspended, said Luis Aguilera, the region's medical college president. "Our leaders have not listened to the request to reduce the Covid-19 epidemiological curve," said Aguilera, who is demanding a region-wide lockdown.
10th Feb 2021 - FRANCE 24

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 10th Feb 2021

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COVID app triggers overdue debate on privacy in Singapore

For a country that prides itself on being on the cutting edge of high-tech governance, there has been little national discussion in Singapore on the balance between data collection and individual privacy. Now, COVID-19 has forced the conversation, after it was revealed that data from the government’s contact-tracing app, contrary to initial promises, could also be used for criminal investigations. The public backlash prompted the government to not only acknowledge that it had made a mistake but also to introduce new legislation to restrict the use of the data. Under the new amendments to the COVID-19 (Temporary Measures) Act, passed in the Singapore Parliament this month, personal data collected by digital pandemic contact-tracing programmes can only be used to contact trace, unless it is required by law enforcement for investigations into “serious offences”. Pritam Singh, the leader of the opposition, has called for an “immediate conversation” on the balance between individual privacy and the use of technology and data collection in Singapore.
10th Feb 2021 - Al Jazeera English

Anger grows at Israel’s ultra-Orthodox virus scofflaws, threatening rupture with secular Jews

As Israel endures its third national lockdown, social media has been inflamed by images of black-clad men brazenly crowding schools, weddings and other events, including 20,000 at a recent Jerusalem funeral of a leading rabbi. Secular critics have cast the ultra-Orthodox, fairly or not, as superspreaders supreme, a drag chute on the country’s race to vaccinate its way out of the coronavirus’s grip. The contentious relationship between public health officials and the Haredim goes back to the beginning of the pandemic. Most rabbinical leaders did obey early orders to close schools and synagogues, but only reluctantly, citing the central role of daily religious gatherings in Haredi life. As pandemic fatigue set in, defiance grew.
9th Feb 2021 - The Washington Post

Furious Tories savage Matt Hancock over 'forever lockdown'

Furious Tories savaged Matt Hancock over a 'forever lockdown' today after the Health Secretary warned border restrictions may need to stay until autumn — despite figures showing the UK's epidemic is firmly in retreat. Lockdown-sceptic backbenchers took aim at Mr Hancock when he unveiled the latest squeeze aimed at preventing mutant coronavirus strains getting into the country. Meanwhile, the Department of Health announced 12,364 more coronavirus cases and 1,052 deaths in the past 24 hours as the winter wave continues to be brought under control during lockdown.
9th Feb 2021 - MSN.com

NHS 'nothing special' during pandemic and does not deserve 'adulation' claims free-market think tank

In the UK, the NHS's performance during the coronavirus pandemic has been 'nothing special' and many countries without similar public healthcare have performed better, a think tank claimed today. The Institute for Economic Affairs said 'there is no rational basis for the adulation the NHS is currently receiving' as it attacked 'confirmation bias' on both sides of the political spectrum. In a new report it accused politicians across the board of trying to fit the pandemic into their pre-existing world-view.
9th Feb 2021 - Daily Mail

Wealthy German high-tech hub doubles as anti-vaxxer base

Christoph Hueck illustrates the challenge Germany faces in rolling out a mass vaccination campaign to tackle the coronavirus pandemic. A scientist living in a wealthy, high-tech region, he does not plan to have any of the shots on offer. “I will not get vaccinated,” Hueck, a molecular geneticist who authored a string of immunology papers before changing careers, told Reuters with a smile. Now 59, he trains teachers for the Waldorf schools inspired by esoteric thinker Rudolf Steiner, which began in Stuttgart. He has also addressed several anti-lockdown and anti-vaccination protests, although he does not reject vaccines altogether.
9th Feb 2021 - Reuters

Mexico president refuses face mask after Covid-19 recovery

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Monday said he would not wear a face mask after his recovery from Covid-19, in spite of widespread support from top officials and the public for the measure. In his first news conference since testing positive for Covid-19 on January 24, Lopez Obrador brushed aside repeated questions from reporters about whether he would wear a mask to help contain the spread of the coronavirus. “No, no,” the president said. “Additionally, according to what the doctors say, now I’m not contagious.”
9th Feb 2021 - South China Morning Post

Revealed: UK Covid contact tracers working from abroad

Some contact tracers working on the UK’s test and trace system are thought to have been working from abroad, the Guardian has learned, with one company resorting to tracking its employees’ locations. Intelling, hired through outsourcing firm Serco and employing about 500 staff members, makes its workers turn on “geo-tracking” owing to concerns that some have been doing their job remotely from overseas. The Guardian was shown a presentation sent to workers at the company about working from home, which includes information for tracers about how to use geo-tracking, which ensures staff are working from a UK IP address. According to NHS professionals, the health service’s job portal, clinical contact tracers “must be based in the UK to work”.
9th Feb 2021 - The Guardian

Ghana Parliament shuts down over COVID outbreak among MPs, staff

Ghana’s Parliament has shut down for at least three weeks over a surge in coronavirus cases among lawmakers and staff. At least 17 members of parliament and 151 support staff have been infected with the coronavirus, which had already forced lawmakers to limit their assembly meetings. The speaker of the house, Alban Bagbin, announced on Tuesday that the legislature would be in recess until March 2 to make way for “disinfection and sanitisation of the premises”. “I have, in consultation with leadership, decided that sitting of the House be adjourned for three weeks,” said Bagbin, adding that Parliament’s appointments committee would continue to meet to consider the ministerial nominees of President Nana Akufo-Addo, who was re-elected in December. The West African country has reported 73,003 coronavirus cases, including 482 deaths, since the pandemic began.
9th Feb 2021 - Al Jazeera English

Russia, China expanding Middle East sway with COVID-19 vaccines

Russian and Chinese COVID-19 vaccines are being embraced by many countries in the Middle East – not just by those hostile to the United States, but also by its allies. Qatar, Oman, and Kuwait purchased US vaccines, claiming their efficacy rate is higher, and Iraq has ordered vaccines from the United Kingdom’s AstraZeneca and the US’s Pfizer. But the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, Egypt, and Turkey have signed up for vaccines from Moscow and Beijing as well buying US vaccines, while Iran and the Palestinian Authority are relying on Russian and Chinese jabs only. Iran’s economy has struggled since the US reimposed sanctions on it under former President Donald Trump and the country’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei issued a diktat against the use of US and UK vaccines. Sputnik V was approved under special emergency-use authorization and Iran began rolling it out on Tuesday.
9th Feb 2021 - Al Jazeera English

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 9th Feb 2021

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Facebook cracks down on anti-vaccine accounts amid COVID surge

Facebook Inc. said it will take stronger steps to eliminate false information about Covid-19 and vaccines on its social network, a move that could remove major groups, accounts and Instagram pages for repeatedly spreading misinformation. The company is acting on advice from the World Health Organization and other groups to expand its list of false claims that are harmful, according to a blog post on Monday. Facebook will ask administrators of user groups to moderate such misinformation. Facebook-owned Instagram will also make it harder to find accounts that discourage vaccination, and remove them if they continuously violate the rules. The company this week will also include in its Covid-19 information center details from local health departments about when and where people can get vaccinated. If Facebook’s systems come across content that says the coronavirus is man-made or manufactured, that it is safer to get the disease than to get the vaccine, or that the shots are toxic, dangerous or cause autism, that content will be removed.
9th Feb 2021 - Al Jazeera English

How Australia beat COVID-19 while the United States and Britain broke

Australia is a fortress of hope in a world conquered by COVID-19. But, even as vaccines raise the prospect of relief, the siege is growing stronger. And the cracks in our defences are growing. Incompetence. Hesitance. Partisan politics. All are being blamed across the world for overwhelmed health systems, stalled economies and soaring death rates. Australia has dodged these bullets. So far.
8th Feb 2021 - News.com.au

Britain is under lockdown. But one year into the Covid crisis, many are unable to keep to the rules

Breaches of self-isolation rules are rampant across the UK. Up to 20,000 people a day are failing to stay home when instructed to, according to Dido Harding, who is in charge of the country's coronavirus Test and Trace scheme. "These numbers are moving a lot," Harding told a parliamentary committee this week, adding that "circa 20,000 people a day" were currently not isolating. Harding said she was also concerned about people who were experiencing symptoms but had avoided being tested. For the British government, the lack of compliance is a significant worry.
8th Feb 2021 - CNN

Greek PM accused of flaunting lockdown rules

Greece's left-wing opposition leader has accused the country's prime minister of showing contempt for lockdown rules after attending a large outdoor lunch gathering. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on a weekend visit to the Greek island of Ikaria attended an outdoor lunch hosted by a local lawmaker. A video of the event posted on social media showed at least 25 people in attendance, while traditional island music, with drums and bagpipes, could be heard in the background. The government toughened lockdown measures at the weekend, expanding curfew hours to start at 6 pm in greater Athens and Greece''s second-largest city, Thessaloniki, in response to a surge in COVID-19 infections that started in late January.
8th Feb 2021 - Outlook India

COVID-19: NHS staff fall victim to anti-Chinese hate crimes - amid fears violence will rise when lockdown ends

Police chiefs have warned they will "respond robustly" to anti-Chinese hate crimes amid concerns there could be a surge in offences once lockdown ends. The COVID-19 Anti-Racism Group (CARG) has told Sky News it is witnessing worrying levels of hate speech online linked to the pandemic - and it fears this will turn into violence when coronavirus restrictions are eased. One Chinese health worker told the survey: "Patients and people in general say that COVID-19 originated from China and that being of Chinese descent is culpable for the pandemic."
8th Feb 2021 - Sky News

Man charged with incitement over lockdown protest wants case heard in higher court

A 76-year-old man charged with inciting an anti-lockdown protest in Melbourne during Victoria’s second wave of COVID-19 has argued his case should be heard in the High Court of Australia. Solihin Millin was arrested on August 28 last year and charged with incitement over a “freedom rally” protest against Victoria’s lockdown restrictions held at the Shrine of Remembrance and Albert Park on September 5. Police raided his home and seized multiple items including two laptops, a computer and two mobile phones.
8th Feb 2021 - The Age

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Swiss march in lakeside tax haven to protest COVID-19 lockdown

Some 500 protesters marched through the Swiss tax haven of Zug on Saturday, wearing white protective suits and chanting dystopian slogans to voice displeasure with rules aimed at limiting the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. The demonstration was reminiscent of a rally a week ago in Vienna, where thousands opposed to that country’s even-stricter lockdown faced off against police. Though Switzerland’s restrictions have been less severe than those in Germany, Austria or Italy -- restaurants and non-essential shops are closed but ski areas are open -- there is still a steady buzz of opposition. In Zug, police watched but did not intervene as a group of protesters filed from the train station to the centre of the lakeside city known for shell companies with letter-box addresses and attractive tax rates.
7th Feb 2021 - Reuters

Too soon to end German lockdown, says Bavarian leader Soeder

It is too soon for Germany to lift its lockdown without risking a third wave of COVID-19 infections, Bavarian premier Markus Soeder said on Sunday, ahead of a crunch meeting to review the restrictions aimed at stemming the pandemic. Chancellor Angela Merkel and the leaders of Germany’s 16 federal states are due to meet virtually on Wednesday to discuss whether to ease the restrictions from Feb. 15, or extend a lockdown that began in mid-December. “I think, basically, the lockdown will have to be extended for the time being,” Soeder told broadcaster ARD.
7th Feb 2021 - Reuters

COVID-19: 'I'll wait for the English vaccine' - How 'nationalism' is affecting the fight against coronavirus

As 2020 drew to close after a tumultuous year, Boris Johnson was in celebratory mood as the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine was approved for use in the UK. "It is truly fantastic news - and a triumph for British science," the prime minister tweeted on 30 December. Health Secretary Matt Hancock was also keen to emphasise the UK's role in the newly-approved coronavirus vaccine, hailing it as "a huge British success story".
6th Feb 2021 - Sky News

Fretful Boris Johnson plays it safe on lifting Covid-19 lockdown

Any day now a folder will land on Boris Johnson’s desk. Inside will be longed-for data that will determine the nature of the next six months and very possibly his entire political legacy. Public Health England’s best assessment of the effectiveness of the vaccination programme so far will in effect set the parameters for the nation’s exit from lockdown. The assessment shows the jabs are working as expected in protecting people from infection. It may also show encouraging signs on transmission as well as early real-world data on reduced mortality and hospital admissions. If so the prime minister can plot a spring unlocking and promise a glorious summer.
6th Feb 2021 - The Times

Science Not Politics: How Dr. Rochelle Walensky is Saving the CDC

There’s no doubt that Walensky, 51, has the scientific and intellectual chops for her new job. Besides her now-former position at Mass General, the teaching hospital of Harvard, she is a prolific author of papers on the epidemiology of HIV and, at 43, was among the youngest women ever promoted to full professor at Harvard Medical School. As Julie Gerberding, M.D.—who led the CDC from 2002 to 2009—says, “Her credentials and reputation are impeccable. It’s clear that the Biden administration played an ace in this decision.”
5th Feb 2021 - Vogue

Nadhim Zahawi: Coronavirus vaccine refuseniks face visit from the persuaders

People who have not accepted vaccination offers could get knocks on the door from council staff in an attempt to convince sceptics “home by home”, the vaccines minister has suggested. Nadhim Zahawi said the NHS was already trying to “identify to individual level the people that we need to reach” to ensure that all over-70s had a chance to get a jab by February 15.
5th Feb 2021 - The Times

‘Like going to war’: Life and death on a Covid intensive care ward

On the intensive care ward of Northwick Park Hospital in north London, physiotherapist Mirko Vracar stands among dozens of coronavirus patients, surrounded by a cacophony of beeping alarms and hissing machinery. The patients lie comatose, ventilators breathing for them, while doctors and nurses speak in urgent, hushed tones, their voices muffled behind masks. For Mirko, redeployed to help the overstretched staff, the work is difficult and the stakes could not be higher. Since Christmas he has spent five days a week on these wards, working in a team that “prones” these patients – moving them on to their fronts so their Covid-ravaged lungs can breathe a little easier. They do this as many as 25 times a shift.
5th Feb 2021 - The Independent

AP analysis: Federal executions likely a COVID superspreader

As the Trump administration was nearing the end of an unprecedented string of executions, 70% of death row inmates were sick with COVID-19. Guards were ill. Traveling prisons staff on the execution team had the virus. So did media witnesses, who may have unknowingly infected others when they returned home because they were never told about the spreading cases. Records obtained by The Associated Press show employees at the Indiana prison complex where the 13 executions were carried out over six months had contact with inmates and other people infected with the coronavirus, but were able to refuse testing and declined to participate in contact tracing efforts and were still permitted to return to their work assignments.
5th Feb 2021 - Associated Press

Turkey Uighurs fear sellout to China in exchange for vaccine

Abdullah Metseydi, a Uighur in Turkey, was readying for bed last month when he heard commotion, then pounding on the door. “Police! Open the door!” A dozen or more officers poured in, many bearing guns and wearing the camouflage of Turkey’s anti-terror force. They asked if Metseydi had participated in any movements against China and threatened to deport him and his wife. They took him to a deportation facility, where he now sits at the center of a brewing political controversy. Opposition legislators in Turkey are accusing Ankara’s leaders of secretly selling out Uighurs to China in exchange for coronavirus vaccines. Tens of millions of vials of promised Chinese vaccines have not yet been delivered. Meanwhile, in recent months, Turkish police have raided and detained around 50 Uighurs in deportation centers, lawyers say — a sharp uptick from last year.
5th Feb 2021 - Associated Press

Burundi says it doesn't need COVID-19 vaccines, at least yet

Burundi has become at least the second African country to say it doesn’t need COVID-19 vaccines, even as doses finally begin to arrive on the continent that’s seeing a deadly resurgence in cases. The health minister of the East African nation, Thaddee Ndikumana, told reporters on Thursday evening that prevention is more important, and “since more than 95% of patients are recovering, we estimate that the vaccines are not yet necessary.” The minister spoke while announcing new measures against the pandemic. The country closed its land and water borders last month. It now has well over 1,600 confirmed coronavirus cases.
5th Feb 2021 - Associated Press

Coronavirus in Tanzania: The country that's rejecting the vaccine

For months Tanzania's government has insisted the country was free from Covid-19 - so there are no plans for vaccination. The BBC's Dickens Olewe has spoken to one family mourning the death of a husband and father suspected of having had the disease. The fear is that amid the denial, there are many more unacknowledged victims of this highly contagious virus. A week after Peter - not his real name - arrived home from work with a dry cough and loss of taste, he was taken to hospital, where he died within hours. He had not been tested for Covid. But then, according to Tanzania's government, which has not published data on the coronavirus for months, the country is "Covid-19-free". There is little testing and no plans for a vaccination programme in the East African country.
5th Feb 2021 - BBC News

London COVID-19 jabs skewed to younger patients amid vaccine hesitancy fears

London has delivered a first dose of COVID-19 vaccine to nearly twice the proportion of patients aged 70-74 as the rest of England, but remains well behind other regions on vaccinating over-80s.
5th Feb 2021 - GP Online

One in four Americans say they will NEVER get a COVID-19 vaccine

Monmouth University polled 809 Americans about their attitudes toward the pandemic and the US response. More than half of respondents said they will get a COVID-19 vaccine as soon as possible. But nearly a quarter said they would likely never get a shot if they didn't have to. Republicans were 10-times more likely than Democrats to refuse vaccination. Mistrust is among the issues holding up the US vaccine rollout which has seen just 8.2% of the population get one or more doses Both vaccines by Moderna and Pfizer are safe and at least 94% effective
5th Feb 2021 - Daily Mail

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Wisconsin governor clashes with lawmakers over statewide mask mandate to curb coronavirus

Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers renewed his statewide mask-wearing mandate on Thursday, defying votes by the Republican-controlled legislature to repeal his earlier order requiring face coverings in public spaces to curb the spread of the coronavirus. The governor issued his latest decree of a public health emergency hours after the state Assembly voted 52-42 to end his previous mask mandate, adopting a resolution the Senate approved a week ago. Seven Republicans in the Assembly joined the body’s entire Democratic caucus on Thursday in opposing the repeal. The showdown followed months of rancor and legal battles between Evers, a Democrat elected in 2018, and the Republican-dominated legislature over a series of restrictions he has imposed on social and business life during the COVID-19 pandemic.
5th Feb 2021 - Reuters

Cuomo hit with lawsuit over Covid-19 vaccinations for inmates

Public defenders filed a lawsuit against Gov. Andrew Cuomo Thursday, seeking to force him to allow prisoners to get the Covid-19 vaccine. Two men currently locked up at Rikers Island who want to get vaccinated are named as plaintiffs in the class action lawsuit, brought on behalf of everyone incarcerated at Rikers and other city jails. Legal advocates have demanded that Cuomo allow access to the shot behind bars, where the coronavirus is raging, but the state so far has not budged on expanding eligibility.
4th Feb 2021 - Politico

Tory lockdown-sceptic chair pushes for all Covid-19 restrictions to be lifted by end of May

The Chair of a Tory lockdown-sceptic group has urged ministers to lift all Covid-19 restrictions by the end of May. Mark Harper, who chairs the Covid Recovery Group (CRG), which is made up of lockdown-sceptic Tory MPs, aid he thought the Government could "get rid of restrictions completely" by the end of May. But it comes amid fears the virus could still go through some communities "like wildfire" - as take-up of vaccinations in some hotspots was as little as 50%. And while Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty said last night that the UK was probably past the peak of infections, he said they remain "incredibly high" - and could rise quickly - plunging the NHS "back into trouble extraordinarily fast".
4th Feb 2021 - Daily Mirror

U.S. Senate Democrats push ahead on road to new COVID-19 relief

The U.S. Senate, in the throes of a marathon debate over the shape of President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus aid plan, voted overwhelmingly on Thursday to exclude upper-income Americans from a new round of direct payments to help stimulate the economy. By a vote of 99-1, the Senate approved an amendment recommending that high-income earners not qualify for a new round of government checks that could amount to $1,400 for individuals. Republican Senator Rand Paul was the lone dissenter. Details of the income cap would still have to be worked out in subsequent legislation. “The decent compassionate thing is for us to target the relief to our neighbors who are struggling every day to get by” during the coronavirus pandemic, said Democratic Senator Joe Manchin, author of the proposal.
4th Feb 2021 - Reuters

Philippines Vaccine Scandal

How the consequences of a 2016 dengue vaccination drive caused controversy and led to lasting fears among Filipinos. When the Philippines rolled out a vaccine to protect against the mosquito-borne virus, dengue, in 2016, it marked a world first. But within months, parents claimed their children had died due to the vaccine, and the programme was cancelled.
4th Feb 2021 - Aljazeera.com

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Guaido: Maduro refuses to access US-held funds to buy vaccines

Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido said on Wednesday that Venezuelan funds controlled by the United States Treasury Department could be used to pay for coronavirus vaccines but that President Nicolas Maduro’s government is refusing to cooperate. The government has not accepted an implementation plan laid out by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) that would enable Venezuela to join the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access Facility (COVAX) programme, and has not fulfilled a prior deal regarding distribution of COVID-19 tests.
4th Feb 2021 - Al Jazeera English

New U.S. transportation chief optimistic about future of travel despite COVID-19

U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said Wednesday he was “deeply optimistic” about the future of travel despite the devastating impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on airlines, airports, transit systems and road use. The pandemic has sent tens of millions of workers home for months, slashed tourism and business travel demand and placed significant burdens on transportation services to deliver packages, vaccines and other critical goods. Much of the nation’s travel sector is again asking Congress for a new round of emergency funding. “We will break new ground in ensuring that our economy recovers and rebuilds, in rising to the climate challenge, and in making sure transportation is an engine for equity in this country,” said Buttigieg, who was sworn in Wednesday, in an email to staff.
4th Feb 2021 - Reuters

UK compromising Covid-19 vaccine safety, says Ursula von der Leyen

Britain failed its “gigantic responsibility” to ensure the proper safety of vaccines and the European Union should be proud of its strategy, Ursula von der Leyen said today.Amid growing criticism of
3rd Feb 2021 - The Times

Covid: 'Not practical' to close UK borders, says Boris Johnson

It is "not practical" to completely close the UK's borders given the amount of medicines and food imported into the country, the prime minister has said. Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer called for tougher restrictions to prevent new coronavirus variants entering the UK. Boris Johnson said the government had already tightened travel restrictions to reduce the spread of the virus. He said it would be going ahead with its plan for quarantine hotels for people arriving from Covid hotspots. It is not yet clear when the scheme - announced a week ago - will start or when there will be further details. Speaking during Prime Minister's Questions, Sir Keir said government scientists had recommended "a complete pre-emptive closure of borders".
3rd Feb 2021 - BBC News

COVID-19: Chinese police break up group selling fake vaccines to other countries

More than 80 suspected members of a criminal group that was manufacturing and selling fake COVID-19 vaccines - including to other countries - have been arrested in China. Police in the capital Beijing, as well as in Jiangsu and Shandong provinces, broke up the group which was producing a simple saline solution that was being sold as fake vaccines. According to state media, the group - led by a suspect with the surname Kong - had been active since last September and the false jabs were being sold in China and abroad.
3rd Feb 2021 - Sky News

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Farmers sue state over COVID-19 rules for migrant workers

Two farm groups are suing the state of Washington for failing to revise emergency regulations that seek to protect migrant farmworkers from the COVID-19 virus. The groups filed the lawsuit Tuesday in Yakima County Superior Court. It seeks to invalidate the recently renewed rules as arbitrary, capricious and not feasible. “We’re disappointed we had to take this step, but our farms are on the line and we had no other choice,” said John Stuhlmiller, chief executive officer of the Washington Farm Bureau. The state Department of Health renewed the emergency rules, first adopted last spring, for the third time on Jan. 8. In addition, Gov. Jay Inslee last month rejected the two groups’ request to repeal and revise the rules.
2nd Feb 2021 - Associated Press

Illegal religious schools exploiting ‘loopholes’ to teach full classes during lockdown

Humanists UK said unregistered Charedi Jewish schools were exploiting legal loopholes to teach packed classes during the lockdown. Unregistered illegal religious schools are continuing to operate during lockdown, sparking concerns about the health of pupils and the wider community, I can reveal. Humanists UK said it had received a number of reports from community insiders and local residents that unregistered Orthodox Charedi Jewish schools are continuing to teach full classes at various locations in the Stamford Hill area of Hackney, London
2nd Feb 2021 - iNews

Emergency UK funding failing to reach Covid-hit companies

Small businesses are missing out on millions of pounds of emergency grants promised by the UK government as long ago as November, sparking warnings that many will not survive unless access to this cash is unlocked. Councils have been struggling to distribute the money, including a share of £12bn worth of support first offered last year according to the Local Government Association, due to the volume of paperwork and changes to lockdown regulations. There have been 10 different tranches of funding to sustain small businesses without the cash reserves or covenants of larger companies through local tier restrictions established in October and the one month lockdown for England that ran from November 5. The schemes also cover support for different regional restrictions in December and the current lockdown in England, which is expected to run until at least February 22.
2nd Feb 2021 - Financial Times

Poland: Rebellion against coronavirus lockdowns

“It’s nice to eat out again,” said one diner. “We were very lucky to get a table,” said another. This is how guests described on Facebook their visit to the Goraleczka restaurant in the southern Polish town of Zakopane over the weekend. Restaurant owner Marek Lopata was one of the first restaurant owners in Poland to join the #WeOpenUp (#OtwieraMY) campaign and open his popular ski resort eatery — despite coronavirus restrictions. “Our income has been at zero since the end of October,” he told DW. He said the situation had reached the point where he was forced to think about laying off staff, a move that “would break me mentally.”
2nd Feb 2021 - The Indian Express

Covid lockdown: I am not a 'murderer' for questioning the restrictions and highlighting the damage done to mental health – Michelle Ballantyne MSP

One recent morning, when I switched on my phone, the first message I saw was from a colleague advising that one of their apprentices had taken his own life, he was 21. That is the second time I have woken up to the news of the suicide of a young person since the lockdowns began. By 11am another two suicides of family friends had been communicated. I feel numb with despair for what is happening. Fear without hope is overwhelming and for young people we are seeing a rise in mental health problems that is unprecedented.
2nd Feb 2021 - The Scotsman

Mapping coronavirus anti-lockdown protests around the world

Since the start of 2021, a growing number of countries have seen street demonstrations, some of which have turned violent, against government measures implemented to fight COVID-19. Over the same period, nearly 100 countries have imposed nationwide lockdowns or stay-at-home orders, nearly one year since the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic.
2nd Feb 2021 - Al Jazeera English

Europol warns travellers over fake Covid-19 vaccine certificates

The EU's police agency on Monday warned travellers to watch for organised crime gangs selling fake Covid-negative certificates at airports, sometimes for as much as 300 euros each. The warning from Europol comes after police busted several suspects selling forged certificates declaring people Covid-19 negative at airports in Britain and France, online and through mobile messaging chat groups in Spain and the Netherlands. Many EU countries and others now require proof that passengers are not infected by the disease, which has killed more than 2.2 million people around the world. Many EU countries and others now require proof that passengers are not infected by the disease, which has killed more than 2.2 million people around the world. "As long as travel restrictions remain in place due to the pandemic, it is very likely that criminals will seize the opportunity of producing and selling fake Covid-19 test certificates," Europol said
2nd Feb 2021 - France24

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 2nd Feb 2021

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Brazil’s COVID-19 catastrophe: nothing less than criminal

On January 17, weeks after other countries in Latin America and around the world began their mass inoculation campaigns, Brazil finally administered its first COVID-19 jab in the state of Sao Paulo using the CoronaVac vaccine developed by the Chinese biopharmaceutical company Sinovac. That first jab was one of the 6 million doses imported by the state-funded Butantan Institute in Sao Paulo, which helped develop the vaccine. A few days later on January 23, the federally funded Fiocruz Institute announced that it received two million ready-to-use doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines from India and started distributing them across the country. Since then, over one million Brazilians have been vaccinated against the deadly virus.
2nd Feb 2021 - Al Jazeera English

For France's lockdown rebels, defiance is a dish best served to many

Mask tucked under his chin, France’s lockdown rebel seems a touch overwhelmed by all the attention. Since defying the law and serving lunch to more than 50 diners at his Nice restaurant last week, Christophe Wilson has been inundated with messages on social media from supporters hailing him as a hero. On the downside, however, he had to spend a night in the cells after police found irregularities with the papers of Moussa, the chef from the Ivory Coast who cooked the lockdown-busting déjeuner. As I enter the scene of the crime — the terrace of Poppies restaurant brasserie, now deserted — I find Wilson, 50, behind the bar, serving only takeaways.
1st Feb 2021 - The Times

'We've had enough': In France, Spain and Denmark, anti-lockdown protests continue

Marches to denounce COVID-19 restrictions put in place by various government have been taking place in cities across Europe. An authorized protest in support of culture workers quickly turned into a rave in the centre of Perpignan on Saturday, with about 200 maskless party-goers at the height of the demonstration. The open-air disco, which even had a sound system installed on a podium, was over by the early evening. The group "Men in Black" chanted "Freedom for Denmark. We`ve had enough," as they protested in Aarhus.
1st Feb 2021 - Euronews

Dutch police disperse crowd, arrest 30 in bid to prevent repeat of anti-lockdown riots

Around 30 people were arrested in Amsterdam when police disbursed a protest against coronavirus lockdown measures on Sunday, as authorities sought to prevent a repeat of riots that raged across Dutch cities for three days last week. Police said they had sent home around 600 people who had flouted social distancing rules and ignored a nationwide ban on public gatherings by assembling in Amsterdam’s central Museumplein on Sunday afternoon. There were no reports of violent incidents by late afternoon on Sunday. The addition of a nighttime curfew to an already broad lockdown triggered last week’s violent demonstrations. Shops were looted in several cities and 500 people were arrested.
1st Feb 2021 - Reuters

Oxford-AstraZeneca volunteers kept in dark about dosing error

About 1,500 of the initial volunteers in a late-stage clinical trial of the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine were given the wrong dose, but were not informed that a mistake had been made after the blunder was discovered, documents obtained by Reuters news agency show. Instead, the dosing mishap was presented to the trial participants in a letter dated June 8 as an opportunity for University of Oxford researchers to learn how well the vaccine works at different doses. The letter was signed by the trial’s chief investigator, Oxford professor Andrew Pollard, and sent to the trial subjects. As Reuters reported on December 24, participants were given about a half-dose due to a measuring mistake by Oxford researchers. The Pollard letter did not acknowledge any error. Nor did it disclose that researchers had reported the issue to British medical regulators, who then told Oxford to add another test group to receive the full dose, in line with the trial’s original plan. There is no suggestion there was any risk to the health of trial participants. Much is riding on the British-developed vaccine, which is being rolled out across the UK and has been touted as a low-cost weapon against the pandemic. The jab has come under scrutiny because of the dosing error in the Oxford trial and a paucity of data about its efficacy in older people who are most vulnerable to the virus.
1st Feb 2021 - Al Jazeera English

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More Brazil protests against Bolsonaro’s COVID-19 response

Protesters in Brazil rallied for the second straight weekend in multiple cities to demand the resignation of President Jair Bolsonaro for his government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Two hundred people protested on Sunday in Brasilia, the capital, holding signs and banners reading, “Bolsonaro Out” and “Impeachment Now”, while a procession of cars honked their horns in support. Other demonstrations were also held in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.
1st Feb 2021 - Al Jazeera English

Anti-vaccine protesters temporarily shut down major coronavirus vaccine site

One of the largest vaccination sites in America briefly shut down Saturday afternoon because maskless, anti-vaccine protesters blocked the entrance, officials said. For nearly an hour, thousands of motorists in line to get a coronavirus vaccine shot at Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles, were stalled as about 50 people demonstrating against immunization efforts caused officials to temporarily close the site's gates, Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman David Ortiz told The Washington Post. The protest had no impact on the number of shots given Saturday at the site, which can vaccinate 8,000 people a day, Ortiz said. No arrests were made, according to police. The protesters, members of anti-vaccine and far-right groups, organized online, according to The Los Angeles Times
31st Jan 2021 - The Independent

Hundreds arrested at anti-lockdown demonstration in Brussels

Police arrested more than 300 people demonstrating in central Brussels on Sunday against measures to curb rising infections of the coronavirus, according to local media. Both Bruzz and Le Soir reported the arrests occurred as police broke up demonstrations around Brussels’ central train station and the Mont des Arts area. No charges have been so far reported. Sunday’s crowds were made up of both Dutch- and French-speaking demonstrators, which included Yellow Vest protesters and football supporters, a police spokesman told Bruzz.
31st Jan 2021 - POLITICO.eu

Thousands protest in Vienna as far-right march on COVID measures banned

Thousands of protesters faced off with police in riot gear in Vienna on Sunday at the site of a banned far-right demonstration against coronavirus restrictions. Vienna police banned numerous protests planned for this weekend, including one by the far-right Freedom Party on Sunday, on the grounds that protesters have generally failed to observe rules on social distancing and often not worn face masks. Since Dec. 26, Austria has been in its third national lockdown, with non-essential shops and many other businesses closed and their staff unable to work. The opposition Freedom Party has denounced various restrictions as “corona madness” and its leaders have sent mixed messages on issues such as vaccinations.
31st Jan 2021 - Reuters

Hungarians protest against lockdown measures despite gathering ban

Restaurant workers were among hundreds of people protesting against coronavirus lockdown measures on Sunday in Budapest, and at least 100 restaurants planned to re-open even as the government threatened them with heavy fines. Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s government has said it could only start easing the measures if the number of coronavirus cases falls sharply, or if large numbers of Hungarians are inoculated. Hungary became first in the EU this week to sign a deal for Russia’s Sputnik V COVID vaccine and Chinese Sinopharm’s vaccine. nL1N2K40FS. Current lockdown measures include a night curfew and closing secondary schools, and all restaurants and cafes, except for takeaway meals.
31st Jan 2021 - Reuters

Trump officials actively lobbied to deny states money for vaccine rollout last fall

Top Trump officials actively lobbied Congress to deny state governments any extra funding for the Covid-19 vaccine rollout last fall — despite frantic warnings from state officials that they didn’t have the money they needed to ramp up a massive vaccination operation. The push, described to STAT by congressional aides in both parties and openly acknowledged by one of the Trump officials, came from multiple high-ranking Trump health officials in repeated meetings with legislators. Without the extra money, states spent last October and November rationing the small pot of federal dollars they had been given. And when vaccines began shipping in December, states seemed woefully underprepared.
31st Jan 2021 - STAT News

COVID-19: Tory MP who said NHS figures were being 'manipulated' refuses to apologise

A Tory MP who told anti-vaccination campaigners to "persist" in protesting lockdown and that NHS capacity figures were being "manipulated" to exaggerate the scale of the pandemic has refused to apologise for his remarks. Sir Desmond Swayne said the comments, made in November to Save Our Rights UK and obtained by Sky News, were "perfectly legitimate at the time" and he accepts that the COVID-19 situation "has changed entirely with the new variant".
30th Jan 2021 - Sky News

Lift lockdown once most vulnerable are vaccinated, urges senior Tory

The leader of the influential group of Tory MPs pressuring prime minister Boris Johnson over the UK’s Covid lockdown said on Friday that all restrictions should be eased once the most vulnerable groups had been vaccinated. Mark Harper, who chairs the Covid Recovery Group of Conservative MPs, told the Financial Times’ Payne’s Politics podcast that politicians rather than scientists should determine the risk to society from the virus after everyone aged 50 and over has received the vaccine. “I think once you vaccinated certainly the top nine groups, and you’ve reduced 99 per cent of those that have died from Covid, and to reduce the level of hospitalisation by 80 per cent, it seems to me at that point, you’d struggle to make an argument for having any restrictions in place at all,” he said.
30th Jan 2021 - The Financial Times

Scores of foreigners breach lockdown rules at Austrian ski resort

Austrian police have found 96 foreigners from across Europe at a ski resort in breach of pandemic-related rules on entering the country and the national lockdown. The mayor of St Anton, one of Austria’s top resorts, said this week that dozens of young tourists from across Europe had recently come to his town and circumvented lockdown rules under which ski lifts are open but hotels are closed to tourists. “Among others Britons, Danes, Swedes, Romanians, Germans, Australians, Irish people and Poles were checked and fined,” the police force of the western province of Tyrol said in a statement on Friday night. The operation was carried out on Friday evening by 15 officers. Those found in breach face fines of up to €2,180(£1,931), the statement said.
30th Jan 2021 - The Guardian

Austria finds 96 foreigners in breach of lockdown rules at top ski resort

Austrian police have found 96 foreigners from across Europe at the ski resort of St Anton am Arlberg in breach of pandemic-related rules on entering the country and the national lockdown.
30th Jan 2021 - Reuters

Contract between European Commission and AstraZeneca

Following the renewed request from the European Commission on 27 January 2021, pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca has agreed to publish the redacted contract signed between the two parties on 27 August 2020. The Commission welcomes the company's commitment towards more transparency in its participation in the rollout of the EU Vaccines Strategy. Transparency and accountability are important to help build the trust of European citizens and to make sure that they can rely on the effectiveness and safety of the vaccines purchased at the EU level. The Commission hopes to be able to publish all contracts under the Advance Purchase Agreements in the near future.
30th Jan 2021 - EU News

EU vaccine export row: Bloc backtracks on controls for NI

The EU has reversed its decision to temporarily override part of the Brexit deal amid an ongoing row over Covid vaccine supplies in the bloc. The move would have seen checks at the border of Ireland and Northern Ireland to prevent shipments entering the UK. But the European Commission later said it would ensure the Northern Ireland Protocol is "unaffected". Boris Johnson had expressed "grave concerns" about the plan in a phone call with the commission's president. President Ursula von der Leyen later tweeted to say she had held "constructive talks" with the prime minister. She said they had "agreed on the principle that there should not be restrictions on the export of vaccines by companies where they are fulfilling contractual responsibilities".
30th Jan 2021 - BBC News

Explainer: what is article 16 of the Northern Ireland protocol?

Under Brexit’s Northern Ireland protocol, all products are normally permitted to be exported from the EU to Northern Ireland without checks, as NI remains in the single market for goods and continues to operate under EU custom rules. The protocol was a resolution to the sticky Irish border question and was designed to avoid a return of checkpoints along the politically sensitive frontier and minimise potential disruption of cross-border trade. However, amid a row over vaccine delivery shortfalls, the EU has invoked article 16 of the NI protocol which allows the EU or UK to unilaterally suspend aspects of its operations if either side considers that aspect to be causing “economic, societal or environmental difficulties”.
29th Jan 2021 - The Guardian

EU stands its ground in vaccine row, says AstraZeneca contract 'crystal clear'

The European Union stood its ground in a row with AstraZeneca over COVID-19 vaccine supplies on Friday, pressing the Anglo-Swedish drugmaker to deliver the doses as promised in its contract. The EU, whose member states are far behind Israel, Britain and the United States in rolling out vaccines, is scrambling to get supplies just as the West’s biggest drugmakers slow deliveries to the bloc due to production problems. AstraZeneca said last week it would cut deliveries in the first quarter due to production issues at a Belgian factory. An EU official said that meant the EU would receive 31 million doses in the period, or 60% less than initially agreed. In a bid to break the deadlock, AstraZeneca offered 8 million more doses of its shot to the EU, but the bloc said that was too far short of what was originally promised, an EU official told Reuters.
29th Jan 2021 - Reuters

Canadian airlines to cancel Mexico, Caribbean flights amid vaccine shortfall

Canada’s major airlines have agreed to suspend all flights to Mexico and the Caribbean for three months starting on Sunday as the country’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout suffered another setback, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Friday. All airline passengers arriving from abroad will also be required to take a mandatory COVID-19 test at the airport and wait in a hotel for up to three days at their own expense until the results arrive, Trudeau said. “Now is just not the time to be flying,” the prime minister told reporters. Trudeau also said Moderna Inc’s next delivery would be almost a quarter smaller than expected.
29th Jan 2021 - Reuters

Covid-19 vaccine chaos as EU is forced into U-turn after blocking supplies to the North

The EU has backtracked on a decision to block vaccines being transported into Northern Ireland. The move followed hours of diplomatic chaos after it emerged the EU triggered an article of the Northern Protocol which introduce check on good entering Northern Ireland. This would have allowed EU authorities stop the importation of vaccines manufactured on the continent entering Northern Ireland.
29th Jan 2021 - Independent.ie

UK restricts COVID medicine exports amid AstraZeneca vaccine fight

The U.K. placed a series of export restrictions last year on around 100 medicines that could be used to treat COVID-19 patients despite criticizing others for considering similar limits on vaccines. In response to a question from POLITICO, Prime Minister Boris Johnson chastised the EU at a press conference in Downing Street Tuesday for considering putting restrictions on the export of coronavirus vaccines — calling such curbs "nonsensical." His comments follow increasingly heated rhetoric from the European Commission directed at AstraZeneca over its inability to fulfil orders made by the bloc for its vaccine. The Commission is now considering a plan to mandate that companies inform Brussels ahead of making any shipments of vaccine out of the EU.
27th Jan 2021 - POLITICO.eu

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 29th Jan 2021

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Man arrested after suspicious package sent to Covid-19 vaccine plant

Police have detained a man after a suspicious package was sent to a coronavirus vaccine production site. All staff had to be evacuated from the Wockhardt site in Wrexham, North Wales, on Wednesday while the package was investigated. The global pharmaceutical and biotechnology company provides fill-and-finish services for the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine – the final stage of putting the vaccine into vials. Production ground to a halt for hours while police and the Army investigated the suspicious package, though it is understood the production schedule was not affected. On Thursday afternoon, Kent Police announced that they had arrested a man on suspicion of sending the package. The 53-year-old, from Chatham, remains in custody.
28th Jan 2021 - Belfast Telegraph

Probe into Italy virus response looks into preparedness plan

Prosecutors from northern Italy traveled to Rome on Thursday to question the health minister and others as part of their broadening investigation into whether to lay any criminal blame for Italy’s horrific coronavirus toll, and whether a lack of preparedness contributed to it. Back in June, Bergamo prosecutors questioned Premier Giuseppe Conte, Health Minister Roberto Speranza and other top officials about the delayed lockdown in two Bergamo towns where infections were reported in the early days of the outbreak. Bergamo went onto become Italy’s COVID-19 epicenter, the first in the West, registering a 571% increase in excess deaths in March compared to the previous five-year average.
28th Jan 2021 - Washington Post

After Government Falls, Italy Must Navigate Pandemic on ‘Cruise Control’

The Italian prime minister resigned on Tuesday and triggered the collapse of the government. This sort of thing happens all the time in Italy. But the return to a familiar state of political instability has never happened in the midst of a pandemic that has seared the country so deeply. After offering a terrible preview to the West of the misery wrought by the coronavirus, Italy is again an unfortunate vanguard. It is testing whether a country, even one well accustomed to governments that perennially dissolve and reform, can manage vaccine rollouts, national curfews, business restrictions and enormous economic bailouts during a full-blown political crisis.
28th Jan 2021 - The New York Times

Lebanese man dies of wounds after lockdown protests

A man died of his wounds Thursday in Lebanon after clashes between security forces and protesters angered by the combined impact of a severe economic crisis and a coronavirus lockdown. Omar Tayba sustained a bullet wound late Wednesday when protests in the northern city of Tripoli turned violent for the third night running, his brother Ahmad told AFP. "My brother was in Tripoli watching the protests when he was hit," he said. "He was transferred to hospital and died this morning.
28th Jan 2021 - FRANCE 24

Protesters in Lebanon clash with police over virus lockdown

Lebanese security forces opened fire in violent clashes Wednesday with dozens of protesters who took to the street in the country’s north for a third consecutive day to denounce deteriorating living conditions amid a strict lockdown to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
28th Jan 2021 - FRANCE 24

Coronavirus: Man killed at protest against Lebanon's total lockdown

A man has died after protesters angry with a total coronavirus lockdown and dire economic conditions clashed with riot police in the Lebanese city of Tripoli for a third consecutive night. Omar Tayba, 29, was among 220 people injured during the unrest. His brother said he had been shot. Witnesses and local media reported that police fired live rounds at protesters. The round-the-clock curfew imposed this month to halt a surge in Covid-19 cases has worsened Lebanon's economic crisis. People are forbidden from leaving their homes unless they are essential workers, and they must rely on deliveries from supermarkets for food.
28th Jan 2021 - BBC News

Decrying vaccines, Tanzania leader says 'God will protect' from COVID-19

President John Magufuli said on Wednesday that Tanzania did not need a coronavirus lockdown because God would protect his people and homespun precautions such as steam inhalation were better than dangerous foreign vaccines. Contradicting global scientific consensus and advice from the World Health Organization (WHO), Magufuli’s government has largely eschewed mask-wearing and social distancing in Tanzania. It stopped reporting coronavirus data in mid-2020. “Vaccines are not good. If they were, then the white man would have brought vaccines for HIV/AIDS,” Magufuli said during the opening of a new farm in his western home region.
28th Jan 2021 - Reuters

Security forces clash with protesters in locked-down Lebanon

Lebanese security forces clashed for the third night with protesters in Tripoli angry about a coronavirus lockdown, with witnesses and local media reporting that riot police fired live bullets as protesters tried to storm the city’s government building. Security forces fired tear gas and rubber bullets at protesters who threw stones, hurled Molotov cocktails and lit a car on fire, a witness and police said. Dozens were wounded. The police did not immediately comment on whether live rounds had been fired. Reuters footage showed sparks hitting the ground, apparently from ricocheting bullets, and the sound of gunfire. It marked the third night of violence in a row in one of Lebanon’s poorest cities, where protesters railed against a strict lockdown that they say has left them with no means to survive the country’s economic collapse.
28th Jan 2021 - Reuters

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Bomb scare sparks evacuation of plant making AZ COVID-19 vaccine

A plant in Wales manufacturing the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine was evacuated on the advice of the authorities today after it was sent a suspicious package. Bomb disposal experts were called in to investigate the parcel at the fill and finish facility in Wrexham, operated by Wockhardt UK, which has the capacity to produce around 300 million doses of the vaccine per year. Production has since resumed, according to Wockhardt, which said the “temporary suspension of manufacturing has in no way affected our production schedule.”
27th Jan 2021 - pharmaphorum.com

Bomb squad called to incident near AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine factory

Police and a bomb disposal unit have been called to an incident near coronavirus vaccine factory. The emergency response is in place on Wrexham Industrial Estate and is currently closed off near the Wockhardt factory. The plant is being used to help produce the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, North Wales Live reports. A spokesman for North Wales Police said: "We are currently dealing with an ongoing incident on the Wrexham Industrial Estate. "The roads are currently closed and we would ask the public to avoid the area until further notice."
27th Jan 2021 - Manchester Evening News

89 foreigners arrested at Thai bar flouting COVID-19 rules

Police in Thailand say they have arrested 89 foreigners for violating coronavirus regulations at a party organized by a bar on a popular resort island
27th Jan 2021 - The Independent

YouTube has removed more than half a million videos spreading Covid-19 misinformation

YouTube has removed more than half a million videos spreading misinformation about Covid-19, it has said. Technology platforms from YouTube to Facebook have struggled with keeping public health misinformation in check as the pandemic has spread across the world. False information posted on the site includes information suggesting the virus is not real to discouraging vaccines that can prevent disease. YouTube boss Susan Wojcicki that such videos have been posted in vast numbers the site, even as it looks to stop their spread.
27th Jan 2021 - The Independent on MSN.com

Why Are Illegal Raves Still Taking Place During Lockdown?

Despite stringent lockdown measures being put in place by the government to combat the spread of COVID-19, illegal raves and parties have continued to take place across the U.K. Police issued over £15,000 ($20,500) in fines after breaking up an illegal rave in London after around 300 people were found at an illegal party in Hackney in the northeast of the capital. In the summer, 6,000 revelers attended two illegal raves in Manchester, where a woman was raped and a man died of a suspected drug overdose.
27th Jan 2021 - Newsweek on MSN.com

Germany has 50,000 Covid dead. Tragically, that's a relative success story

Germany, it seems, barely noticed when it hit 50,000 deaths from Covid-19. To be fair, there has been a lot of news lately – had we arrived at this grim milestone earlier, when it didn’t have to compete with Donald Trump’s ignominious exit from the White House, the beginning of Joe Biden’s presidency, and the election of Armin Laschet to the leadership of the Christian Democratic Union, there surely would have been an avalanche of opinion pieces and memorials. Instead, it was buried. And while leaders in the UK have been scrambling and bickering, lest Britain become “a failed state”, as Gordon Brown has warned, German politicians seem more tired than anything else. The election of Laschet seems to indicate that the CDU leadership intends to try to carry Merkel’s legacy – and, with a 72% approval rating for the chancellor, the relative competence with which Germany has handled the pandemic seems to be recognised by the public.
27th Jan 2021 - The Guardian

Italy's Prime Minister Quits As COVID-19 Response Splits Coalition Government

Italy's Prime Minister Conte to Resign Amid Struggle Against Covid-19 and RecessionThe Wall Street JournalAfter Government Falls, Italy Must Navigate Pandemic on ‘Cruise Control’The New York TimesItalian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte resigns, in calculated move amid coronavirus crisisCNNItalian prime minister Giuseppe Conte resigns in tactical bid to form new coalitionThe IndependentView Full coverage on Google News
27th Jan 2021 - NPR

Dozens injured in Covid-19 lockdown protests in Lebanon's Tripoli

Overnight clashes in northern Lebanon between security forces and demonstrators angered by a coronavirus lockdown injured at least 45 people, the Lebanese Red Cross said on Wednesday. At least nine of the injured were treated in hospital following rolling scuffles in the main northern city of Tripoli, the Red Cross said.
27th Jan 2021 - FRANCE 24

Covid-19 death toll: where did the UK make mistakes?

You can, of course, quibble with the numbers. And yes, of course, comparing figures with other countries that use different measures is fraught with difficulties. But it doesn’t matter. When the toll by several measures passes 100,000, the conclusion is unavoidable. Something has gone badly wrong. Our first Covid-19 death was on March 5, a septuagenarian woman in Reading. Over the year that followed her fellow Britons had more than twice the likelihood of joining her compared with a German. Or, if you prefer a comparison to a state without the vast healthcare resources of Europe’s economic powerhouse, we had 4,000 times the chance of dying compared with someone from Vietnam. When we went into the first lockdown, 20,000 deaths was considered a good outcome.
27th Jan 2021 - The Times

Here are five ways the government could have avoided 100,000 Covid deaths

Yesterday Britain passed a grim milestone. A further 1,631 deaths from Covid-19 were recorded, taking the official tally above 100,000, though data from the Office for National Statistics suggests the total number will now be nearer 120,000. In a briefing, Boris Johnson has said his government did everything it could to minimise the loss of life, but these deaths were far from inevitable. While the number of UK deaths has entered the hundreds of thousands, New Zealand has recorded only 25 deaths from Covid-19 so far. Taiwan has recorded seven, Australia 909, Finland 655, Norway 550 and Singapore 29. These countries have largely returned to normal daily life.
27th Jan 2021 - The Guardian

Covid-19: Dutch justice minister vows prosecution of lockdown rioters

People arrested during three nights of rioting sparked by the Netherlands' new coronavirus curfew will face swift prosecution, the Dutch justice minister says, as the nation faces its worst civil unrest in years. Minister Ferd Grapperhaus said rioters would be quickly brought before the courts by public prosecutors and will face possible prison terms if convicted.
27th Jan 2021 - Stuff.co.nz

Hospital incursions by Covid deniers putting lives at risk, say health leaders

Lives are being put at risk and the care of patients disrupted by a spate of hospital incursions from Covid-19 deniers whose online activity is channelling hatred against NHS staff, say healthcare and police chiefs. In the latest example of a growing trend, a group of people were ejected by security from a Covid-19 ward last week as one of them filmed staff, claimed that the virus was a hoax and demanded that a seriously ill patient be sent home “He will die if he is taken from from here,” a consultant tells the man on footage, which was later shared on social media. Following contact by the Guardian, Facebook took down footage and other shocking posts in which conspiracy theorists described NHS staff as “ventilator killers”.
27th Jan 2021 - The Guardian

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Covid-19: PM 'deeply sorry' as UK deaths exceed 100,000

The UK death toll from coronavirus has passed 100,000, according to government figures. Boris Johnson says he is "deeply sorry for every life that has been lost" The PM says he takes "full responsibility for everything that the government has done." The health secretary Matt Hancock said the figure was "heartbreaking" while Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said it was a "national tragedy"
26th Jan 2021 - BBC News

Covid-19: Was US vaccine rollout a 'dismal failure' under Trump?

President Joe Biden has pledged to boost the rollout of Covid vaccines in the US, and has criticised the speed of the operation under the previous administration. It's been "a dismal failure thus far," the president said after taking office. He's committed to overseeing 100 million vaccine doses administered in his first 100 days, and has since said: "I think we may be able to get that to 1.5 million a day, rather than one million a day." So how slow was the rollout under the Trump administration?
26th Jan 2021 - BBC News

‘This was absolutely avoidable’: How the UK lost 100,000 lives to Covid-19

A catalogue of costly errors, the refusal to heed scientific advice at crucial pinch-points and the absence of any real strategy set the UK on a collision course with tragedy, writes Samuel Lovett
26th Jan 2021 - The Independent

100,000 UK Covid deaths: The moments which led to the 'grim milestone'

Since the first confirmed death of a Covid-19 patient in the UK in March, the country has passed many other "grim milestones". Now that figure has reached 100,000 deaths among patients who died within 28 days of the first positive coronavirus test. Here's how we got here. March 5 - 'Business as usual' as first reported Covid death confirmed. On March 5, the UK reported its first confirmed Covid death after a woman in her 70s died at the Royal Berkshire NHS Trust after testing positive for the virus. No restrictions to limit the spread of the pandemic were in place yet. The prime minister stressed it was "business as usual" for the country and encouraged people to keep washing their hands.
26th Jan 2021 - ITV News

Angela Merkel admits Covid highlighted shortcomings in Germany: ‘The speed of our action leaves a lot to be desired’

German Chancellor Angela Merkel conceded that the coronavirus pandemic has highlighted significant shortcomings in her country as she told the World Economic Forum on Tuesday that it has underlined the need for international cooperation on issues such as vaccines. Germany had a relatively successful first phase of the pandemic, but saw infections shoot up during the winter months and recently passed the threshold of 50,000 deaths, Europe’s fifth-highest toll. A lengthy second lockdown has slowly brought down the number of new cases in recent weeks.
26th Jan 2021 - The Independent

Police turn water cannon on Dutch lockdown protesters during third night of rioting

Police arrested at least 70 people after rioting broke out for a third night around the Netherlands following protests over a new night-time curfew. The scenes over the weekend, which saw rioters attack police and start fires, came after the government implemented new lockdown curbs, including the first curfew in the country since World War Two. The measure - which runs each day from 9pm to 4.30am - was imposed after the National Institute for Health (RIVM) warned of a new wave of infections due to the so-called British variant of Covid-19, despite the numbers of new infections in the Netherlands declining for weeks.
26th Jan 2021 - London Evening Standard

100,000 Covid deaths: Why the UK's death toll is so bad

More than 100,000 people in the UK have died from a virus, that, this time last year, felt like a far-off foreign threat. How did we come to be one of the countries with the worst death tolls? There is no quick answer to that question, and there is sure to be a long and detailed public inquiry once the pandemic is over. But there are plenty of clues that, when pieced together, help build a picture of why the UK has reached this devastating number. Some will point a finger at the government - its decision to lock-down later than much of western Europe, the stuttering start to its test-and-trace network, the lack of protection afforded to care home residents. Others will spotlight deeper rooted problems with British society - its poor state of public health, with high levels of obesity, for example.
26th Jan 2021 - BBC News

Italy’s Prime Minister Conte to Resign Amid Struggle Against Covid-19 and Recession

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte is set to resign on Tuesday, his office said, as Europe’s underlying problems of economic stagnation and political fragmentation start to reassert themselves amid the gruelling pandemic. The fall of Italy’s government, in office for just 17 months, is a symptom of the continuing fissures in Italian and European politics. Established and insurgent parties are struggling over Europe’s future, stable majorities are often elusive and leaders are searching for ways to overcome long-term economic underperformance—nowhere more so than in Italy. Rome’s latest political breakdown is likely to cause concern in the capitals of Europe’s stronger economies, such as Germany, which last year agreed to underwrite a massive European Union investment plan for economic recovery from the coronavirus.
26th Jan 2021 - The Wall Street Journal

Police break up seven parties in Spain’s Marbella as Covid lockdown flouters continue to break rules

Policia Nacional have busted seven illegal parties in Marbella, including one held in a hotel and two others in nightclubs. Hundreds of lockdown flouters were slapped with fines and warnings over the weekend in Marbella as police cracked down on breaches of coronavirus restrictions.
26th Jan 2021 - Olive Press

Teachers, students march in France for more virus support

Schoolteachers and university students marched together in protests or went on strike Tuesday around France to demand more government support amid the pandemic. “No virus protocol, no school!” read posters carried by schoolteachers, demanding better virus protections at their schools, which have remained open since September because of the government's concern over learning gaps. “Sick of Zoom!” chanted university students frustrated that they've been barred from campuses since October. The common concern at Tuesday's protests in Paris Marseille and other cities around France was economic.
26th Jan 2021 - The Independent

Clashes in Lebanon's Tripoli as anger grows over virus lockdown

Lebanese demonstrators clashed with security forces in the northern city of Tripoli on Monday night, as anger grows over a total lockdown aimed at stemming an unprecedented spike in coronavirus cases. The National News Agency (NNA) said security personnel had clashed with demonstrators angered at "the lockdown, fines against those who flout it and the suffocating economic crisis." An AFP photographer saw demonstrators burn tyres and throw rocks, to which security forces responded with teargas and rubber bullets.
26th Jan 2021 - FRANCE 24

Lebanese in impoverished north protest coronavirus lockdown

Dozens of Lebanese protesters, enraged at a nearly month-long lockdown to combat the spread of coronavirus, took to the streets of the country’s second largest city on Monday and pelted security forces with stones. The security forces responded with tear gas to break up the protesters, who gathered in central Tripoli despite a strict lockdown in place since mid-January aimed at containing a major surge in infection in the small Mediterranean country. Protesters in Tripoli were complaining that their region, the most impoverished in Lebanon, is unable to cope with the nearly month-long lockdown with little to no government assistance.
26th Jan 2021 - The Indian Express

Wuhan doctor: China authorities stopped me sounding alarm on Covid

A doctor from the Wuhan hospital hit hardest by the Covid-19 epidemic has said he and colleagues suspected the virus was highly transmissible in early January last year, weeks before Chinese authorities admitted it, but were prevented from warning anyone. The doctor’s testimony – in a new BBC documentary on the 54 days between the first known case of coronavirus and the Wuhan lockdown – adds to mounting evidence of Beijing’s early attempts to cover up the virus outbreak, and intimidate healthworkers into staying quiet. Wuhan central hospital is just a few kilometres from the Huanan wet market, the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak, and was quickly overwhelmed by patients after the first cases emerged in December 2019. More than 200 hospital employees reportedly contracted the virus, and several, including whistleblower doctor Li Wenliang, died.
26th Jan 2021 - The Guardian

Europe's Covid chaos: EU vaccine shortage prompts fury as AstraZeneca says it can't meet £300m vaccine deal demands after weekend of riots over lockdown restrictions

EU health chiefs have demanded pharmaceutical firms give 'early warning' when exporting vaccines to Britain. It means Pfizer - which has a jab-making plant in Belgium - will be forced to tell EU officials about jab exports. Britain has ordered 40million doses of Pfizer jab, which is described as 'workhorse' of the UK vaccine rollout. Vaccine battle took another twist last night when German papers reported EU officials could reject UK jab. The reports say EMA could reject the Oxford vaccine for usage in over-65s due to '8 per cent efficacy rates.' But vaccine manufacturer AstraZeneca last night furiously denied claims, reported in Bild and Handelsblatt. It comes after AstraZeneca announced it could only supply 31million of 80million doses to EU by end of March. EU Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides says drop is 'not acceptable' and announced new scrutiny rules
26th Jan 2021 - Daily Mail

Boris Johnson’s lockdown slip-up contradicts the official line

The news that the prime minister is looking at easing some restrictions by mid-February came as a surprise to many reporters – and to No 10. The slip by Boris Johnson went against what insiders have been briefing for many weeks: that the easing of restrictions is a long way off and that this time there will be extreme caution. “The one to four [most vulnerable] groups are going to be vaccinated by 15 February. Before then we will be looking at the potential of relaxing some measures,” he said. Aides have underlined to reporters that Johnson’s comments were misinterpreted – “looking at” only means the government will be starting to make decisions, and that nothing will change before the 15 February review point. Less generously, it was a bit of a tongue twist from Johnson.
26th Jan 2021 - The Guardian

Dutch police detain more than 150 in third night of anti-lockdown violence

Dutch police detained more than 150 people in a third night of unrest in cities across the Netherlands, where roaming groups of rioters set fires, threw rocks and looted stores in violence triggered by a night curfew aimed at curbing the coronavirus. The nation’s first curfew since World War Two followed a warning by the National Institute for Health (RIVM) over a new wave of infections due to the “British variant” of the virus, and was imposed despite weeks of declines in new infections. Ten police were injured in the port city of Rotterdam, where 60 rioters were detained overnight, Dutch news agency ANP said on Tuesday.
26th Jan 2021 - Irish Examiner

Anger and grief as United Kingdom's COVID-19 death toll nears 100,000

As the United Kingdom’s COVID-19 death toll approaches 100,000, grief-stricken relatives of the dead expressed anger at Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s handling of the worst public health crisis in a century. When the novel coronavirus, which first emerged in China in 2019, slid silently across the United Kingdom in March, Johnson initially said he was confident it could be sent packing in weeks. But 97,939 deaths later, the United Kingdom has the world’s fifth worst official death toll - more than its civilian toll in World War Two and twice the number killed in the 1940-41 Blitz bombing campaign, although the total population was lower then. Behind the numbers there is grief and anger.
26th Jan 2021 - Reuters

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 26th Jan 2021

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Lockdown Skeptic AMLO on Duty in Mexico Despite Catching Virus

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is continuing to work after contracting Covid-19, holding a call with Russian President Vladimir Putin and attending meetings remotely. The 67-year-old leader said Monday that Putin had agreed to send 24 million doses of the Sputnik V vaccine to Mexico. He tweeted a photo of himself sitting at his desk, without a mask. Lopez Obrador, known as AMLO, announced his diagnosis in a tweet late Sunday, following a trip that took him to two states amid a surge in infections and deaths in recent days. The nation now has the fourth-highest number of fatalities globally, after the U.S., Brazil and India
25th Jan 2021 - Bloomberg

Covid England: Boris Johnson urged to loosen lockdown as cases fall

Boris Johnson has caused confusion by suggesting some lockdown measures could be lifted in mid-February. In same interview the Prime Minister repeatedly refused to guarantee that schools will reopen before Easter. Comments left No10 scrambling to clarify mid-February is earliest possible point and nothing likely to change. Many headteachers now believe schools will remain closed until April or May with announcement expected. Tories are up in arms with education committee chair Robert Halfon among those voicing serious concerns
25th Jan 2021 - Daily Mail

Covid: 'Why I'm breaking lockdown rules'

For most of us, last Friday night was spent on the sofa glued to a screen. Because aside from a Zoom quiz, there's not much else to do during lockdown. Right? Not if you're Max. Last Friday he hosted a dinner party for seven others, inviting five people from two other houses. That's despite current lockdown rules that ban almost all mixing of households inside. Meeting up with friends is something he's done throughout the pandemic. At some points, he went to parties with more than 20 other people. "The size of the gatherings I was going to over the span of the last eight months have varied depending on the policies in place," he tells Radio 1 Newsbeat.
25th Jan 2021 - BBC News

Rioters torch Covid testing facility as Dutch police clash with lockdown protesters in Amsterdam

Dutch police used water cannons to disperse hundreds of protesters in Amsterdam demonstrating against a new lockdown curfew that was introduced to curb the spread of coronavirus. It comes after rioting youths set a coronavirus testing facility on fire in Urk, a small fishing village in the Netherlands on Saturday. Police clashed with protesters taking part in the outlawed anti-lockdown demonstration in Amsterdam’s Museum Square on Sunday. Officials said many of the protesters failed to social distance and were not wearing protective face masks.
25th Jan 2021 - Evening Standard

Hong Kong needs to address efficacy of Jordan lockdown

Over the weekend, thousands of people in a virus-hit Kowloon neighbourhood had the taste of a full lockdown as compulsory mass Covid-19 testing was carried out. Notwithstanding its relatively short timescale, the move was unprecedented and highly controversial. Officials are adamant that it was a necessary step in light of the latest outbreak, while affected residents and businesses described it is a nuisance and waste of resources. It is important that the government critically reviews its logistics and effectiveness before determining whether the exercise should be extended elsewhere.
25th Jan 2021 - South China Morning Post

A Wuhan dissident’s lockdown has lasted nearly 400 days and counting

Zhu Tao’s anti-state sentiment has alienated his in-laws and neighbours, he has been detained, subjected to surveillance and censored. As he self-quarantines, bracing for another wave of infections, he wonders how it’s possible that people are carrying on with life as usual.
25th Jan 2021 - South China Morning Post

Year after COVID-19 lockdown, Wuhan dissident remains isolated

A year after its coronavirus lockdown, Wuhan has long since sprung back to life — but Zhu Tao remains bunkered in his 14th-floor apartment, spending his days doomscrolling through news, playing virtual soccer on his PlayStation and feeling that China is teetering on the brink of collapse. He has blown thousands of dollars, his life savings, stockpiling beef jerky and chocolate bars, bottles of water, sacks of rice, masks, alcohol and disinfecting wipes, and a $900 solar panel. Haunting Zhu is the fear that the coronavirus might return — that once again, the government will conceal the truth, and, once again, Wuhan will fall under lockdown.
25th Jan 2021 - Los Angeles Times

Pandemic: Lockdown: Covid deniers should be held to account | HeraldScotland

Neil O’ Brien, Tory MP for Harborough and vice-chairman of the Conservative Party, has suggested, “Covid sceptics have a hell of a lot to answer for”. Mr O’Brien is a rare right-wing voice calling out the Covid and lockdown deniers who have undermined the national pandemic response. Some, Piers Corbyn for example, are so cartoonish and deluded that they are difficult to take seriously. Mr Corbyn confirms Richard Dawkins’ opinion that, “a delusion is something people believe in, despite a total lack of evidence”. Mr Corbyn’s lack of a public platform, furth of Speakers’ Corner, renders him relatively harmless. Others however, with access to more public soapboxes, have greater culpability.
25th Jan 2021 - HeraldScotland

Covid-19: Hundreds of ultra-Orthodox Israelis protest over lockdown rules

Hundreds of members of Israel's ultra-Orthodox community have taken to the streets of the country to protest the imposition of lockdown rules to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic. Protesters scuffled with police in the city of Bnei Brak, while a 41-year-old bus driver was hurt after he was attacked with pepper spray by demonstrators, who proceeded to set his bus on fire, according to Reuters and eyewitnesses who posted video footage on Twitter. One police officer reportedly fired in the air to repel crowds throwing stones after feeling his life was in danger. Police said that smaller confrontations with ultra-Orthodox protesters also broke out in several other towns, including the port city of Ashdod.
25th Jan 2021 - Middle East Eye

'Lockdown fatigue' cited as UK shopper numbers rose 9% last week

The number of shoppers heading out to retail destinations across Britain rose by 9% last week from the previous week, indicating “lockdown fatigue” for people cooped up at home, market researcher Springboard said on Monday. Footfall across all retail destinations was 65% lower than in the same week last year, Springboard said. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson ordered England into a new national lockdown on Jan. 4 to contain a surge in COVID-19 cases that threatens to overwhelm parts of the health system.
25th Jan 2021 - Reuters

Dutch police detain 240 nationwide as anti-lockdown protests turn violent

Images on Dutch television showed bands of youths looting shops, throwing bicycles and setting fires in the southern city of Eindhoven. At least 55 people were arrested in Eindhoven, the city said in a statement. The demonstration in the city’s Museum Square, which violated a ban on public gatherings, came the day after the government introduced a nightly curfew for the first time since World War Two. Police cleared the square after people ignored instructions to leave and detained those who attacked them with stones and fireworks in nearby streets, the mayor’s office said. Parliament voted narrowly last week to approve the curfew, swayed by assertions that a variant of COVID-19 first identified in Britain was about to cause a new surge in cases. New infections in the country have generally been declining for a month, and fell again on Sunday, to 4,924 new cases.
25th Jan 2021 - Reuters

Dutch PM condemns lockdown riots as 'criminal violence'

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte on Monday condemned riots across the country this weekend in which demonstrators attacked police and set fires to protest against a night-time curfew to slow the spread of the coronavirus, calling them “criminal violence”. The police said hundreds of people had been detained after incidents that began on Saturday evening and lasted until the early hours of Monday, including some in which rioters threw rocks and in one case knives at police and burned down a COVID-19 testing station. “This has nothing to do with protest, this is criminal violence and we will treat it as such,” Rutte told reporters outside his office in The Hague. Schools and non-essential shops in the Netherlands have been shut since mid-December, following the closure of bars and restaurants two months earlier.
25th Jan 2021 - Reuters

Boris Johnson will sign off new border controls within hours

Ministers are expected to make a decision later today on the shape of tougher Covid rules for the UK's borders. Signs that the Government is preparing to announce that all arrivals must quarantine for 10 days in hotels. Growing Cabinet support for blanket rather than targeted curbs to stop coronavirus variants being imported. Travel industry warned unless an end date is set UK could end up isolated for a year as happened in Australia. Boris Johnson said yesterday he is 'definitely looking at' quarantine hotels with senior ministers on board. Government sources believe Britons largely obeying edict not to travel for holidays or 'non-essential' reasons
25th Jan 2021 - Daily Mail

Polish president backs lockdown despite business frustration

Poland’s president on Monday expressed understanding for the “despair” of people who are opening their businesses in defiance of the anti-COVID-19 lockdown, but said they still must be punished for breaking government-ordered restrictions. In comments published Monday, Andrzej Duda was reacting to the swelling nationwide #OtwieraMY (We Are Opening) movement of thousands of business owners opening their restaurants, hotels, ski lifts, fitness centers and similar businesses to avoid going under as a result of the prolonged social distancing and lockdown, recently extended through January. “I can understand the impatience and often even the despair of people, who see the work of their entire lives falling apart," Duda said in an interview for the conservative weekly “Sieci.”
25th Jan 2021 - The Independent

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 25th Jan 2021

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UK to quarantine visitors from nations with high COVID-19 risk, Daily Mail says

Prime Minister Boris Johnson's government is preparing to force travelers from countries where there is a high risk of COVID-19 to go into quarantine for 10 days after arriving in Britain, the Daily Mail reported on Saturday. Travelers from Brazil and South Africa, and neighbouring countries, will be met on arrival and escorted to hotels to quarantine, under plans being discussed by UK ministers, the Daily Mail said
24th Jan 2021 - Reuters on MSN.com

Police detain 100 in Amsterdam after protest over lockdown, curfew

Rioters looted stores, set fires and clashed with police in several Dutch cities on Sunday, resulting in more than 240 arrests, police and Dutch media reported. The unrest came on the second day of new, tougher coronavirus restrictions, including a night curfew, which had prompted demonstrations. Police used water cannon, dogs and mounted officers to disperse a protest in central Amsterdam on Sunday afternoon, witnesses said. Nearly 200 people, some of them throwing stones and fireworks, were detained in the city, police said.
24th Jan 2021 - Reuters

Coronavirus: Vaccine rationed to north amid national supply issues, reports say

Vaccine supplies sent to the North East and Yorkshire are to be rationed because the region is ahead of others in getting the coronavirus jab out, it has been reported. Deliveries to GP practices in the area – one of seven English NHS regions – will be halved from 200,000 doses to 100,000 next week, according to the Health Service Journal. It comes amid growing controversy that many over 80s in the south have still not been called for their innoculation, while GPs in the North East and Yorkshire are already starting to move onto lower age brackets. It is not clear if supplies will also be slashed to the patch’s hospitals and mass vaccination hubs – such as the Centre for Life in Newcastle – but, given it is GP practices that administer the majority of jabs, the known reduction will come as a major blow.
23rd Jan 2021 - The Independent

Nurses call for higher-grade face masks to protect against new coronavirus strains

Nurse leaders calling for all NHS staff to be given the higher grade of PPE Royal College of Nursing wrote a letter to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) College said was aware that some NHS trusts are using higher grade face masks
23rd Jan 2021 - Daily Mail

Some frontline health and social care staff are refusing the vaccine and leaders across the UK are worried

Some frontline health and care staff are refusing to have the coronavirus vaccine and UK leaders are so worried that they are meeting to discuss the problem. First Minister Mark Drakeford said he did not have specific figures for how many in Wales have declined vaccination offered but said he was meeting Whitehall ministers and other First Ministers next week to look at the issue. He urged all staff working in health and social care to have the vaccine saying it would protect them and "more importantly" those they care for. Asked how much of a problem health and care staff turning down the vaccine was at Friday's Welsh Government briefing the First Minister said: "I did discuss this with other First Ministers and the UK Government.
23rd Jan 2021 - Wales Online

Hancock rebuked for suggesting coronavirus vaccine won't combat new strain

Fears coronavirus vaccine may be less likely to work against South African variantDaily RecordNew Covid variant could reduce vaccine efficacy by 50 per cent, Matt Hancock warnsBirmingham LiveCovid vaccine less likely to work on mutant South African coronavirus strainMirror OnlineMatt Hancock warns South African variant 'could cut vaccine efficacy'Evening StandardView Full coverage on Google News
23rd Jan 2021 - The Times

Anti-mask protesters are stopped from entering a Sydney Westfield by a wall of police officers - as packed beaches over Australia Day weekend spark fears of another Covid-19 ...

Anti-mask protesters tried to enter a Sydney Westfield on Saturday but had their efforts blocked by a wall of police officers. The defiant protest came as authorities fear the hot Australia Day long weekend weather may spark another Covid-19 outbreak. Police blocked about two dozen anti-maskers from entering the Parramatta Westfield shopping centre. Officers turned them away as they marched through Centenary Square on Saturday, waving home-made placards and shouting that the coronavirus was a 'scam'. It was the second week in a row that the group, which co-ordinates its protests on social media, has tried to storm the mall.
23rd Jan 2021 - Daily Mail on MSN.com

No cases? No chance. The truth about North Korea and Covid-19

Kim Jong-un acted quickly. On January 22, 2020, North Korea closed its borders with China and Russia to stop a new, mysterious virus from spreading into the country. At the time, what we now know as Covid-19, had killed just nine people and infected 400 others. More than a year later, the hermit kingdom’s border remains sealed tight shut. North Korea’s response to the pandemic has been one of the most extreme and paranoid in the world, experts say. The lockdowns and quarantines it has imposed have been strict, while border restrictions have put a halt to fishing and the smuggling of goods into the country. At the same time the nation’s state media and propaganda apparatus has pumped out messages warning its citizens of the dangers of Covid-19 and praising the country’s “flawless” approach to the pandemic.
23rd Jan 2021 - Wired.co.uk

How does fake news of 5G and COVID-19 spread worldwide?

A recent study finds misinformation on the new coronavirus spreads differently across various countries. However, there was a consistent misunderstanding of 5G technology. Among the search topics examined, the myth around 5G having links to COVID-19 was the one that spread fastest. Dispelling myths and encouraging people to fact-check sources could help build trust with the public.
23rd Jan 2021 - Medical News Today

They claimed the Covid-19 vaccine made them ill. Then they went viral

The Facebook videos were short but unsettling. One, posted on the profile of Indiana resident Shawn Skelton, shows her shuddering on what looks like a hospital bed, an exhausted look on her face. In another, Skelton spends over a minute sticking her tongue out as it writhes oddly. Three other videos – all just a few seconds long – were posted by Louisiana-based Brant Griner, and feature his mother Angelia Gipson Desselle violently trembling and struggling to walk in a dimly-lit hospital room.
23rd Jan 2021 - Wired.co.uk

Covid-19: No plans for universal £500 self-isolation payment, No 10 says

There are no plans to pay everyone in England who tests positive for Covid £500 to self-isolate, No 10 has said. The PM's official spokesman said there was already a £500 payment available for those on low incomes who could not work from home and had to isolate. A universal £500 payment was among suggestions in a leaked Department of Health document. There are fears the current financial support is not working because low paid workers cannot afford to self-isolate. But a senior government source said the idea of extending the £500 payments to everyone who tests positive had been drawn up by officials and had not been considered by the prime minister.
23rd Jan 2021 - BBC News

Stop complaining about slow vaccine roll-out, Merkel urges Germans

Chancellor Angela Merkel urged Germans on Thursday to stop complaining about the slow roll-out of a vaccine against COVID-19 and defended a decision to extend a lockdown as necessary to stem a more aggressive variant of the coronavirus. Speaking at a news conference, Merkel said it would be a mistake to ease curbs now given the mutation first identified in England had been found in Germany, Europe’s most populous country and largest economy. “Our efforts face a threat and this threat is clearer now than at the start of the year and this is the mutation of the virus,” said Merkel, adding that the new variant was not yet dominant in Germany.
23rd Jan 2021 - Reuters

UK police break up COVID rule-breaching wedding with 400 guests

British police said on Friday they had broken up a wedding with about 150 guests in violation of COVID-19 lockdown rules, which only allow six people to attend. Weddings are currently supposed to take place only under “exceptional circumstances”. However, officers found a large gathering in Stamford Hill, in north London, with the windows covered to stop people seeing inside. The organiser of the wedding could be fined up to 10,000 pounds ($13,700), and five others were issued 200-pound penalties. The police had initially reported that some 400 people had attended the wedding. An investigation has been launched to identify further offences.
23rd Jan 2021 - Reuters

Boris Johnson: New fast-spreading Covid-19 variant may be more deadly | ITV News

The new fast-spreading variant of Covid-19 may also be more deadly than the original strain of the virus, Boris Johnson has warned. The prime minister told a Downing Street press conference: "In addition to spreading more quickly it also now appears that there is some evidence that the new variant, the variant that was first identified in London and the South East, may be associated with a higher degree of mortality." He said the NHS is under "intense pressure" due largely to the impact of the new variant, but reassured that both vaccines being used in the UK - Pfizer and AstraZeneca - "remain effective" against both the older strain and the new one.
23rd Jan 2021 - ITV News

Brits 'jumping Covid vaccine queue as NHS appointment links shared on WhatsApp'

Britons are jumping Covid-19 vaccine queues by signing up through NHS appointment links shared on WhatsApp and social media, it is reported. It means ineligible people are being given jabs which should go to the UK's most vulnerable residents and health workers thanks to an IT loophole. The links are part of Swiftqueue's online booking system which is being used by some NHS trusts, an investigation by the Evening Standard found. It said there is evidence that people who are not on a priority list have used the portal to get Covid-19 jabs in east London and parts of the north.
22nd Jan 2021 - Mirror Online

Huge fire breaks out at Indian Covid vaccine maker contracted to produce Oxford jab

A huge fire has broken out at a plant being built in the world’s biggest vaccine maker, but it will not affect production of coronavirus vaccines, a source close to the firm said. The Serum Institute of India (SII), has been contracted to manufacture one billion vaccine doses developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca for India and many other low- and middle-income countries.
22nd Jan 2021 - Evening Standard

Vaccines Turn Into Geopolitics in Europe’s Most Volatile Region

The coronavirus exposed lingering divisions in the Balkans, and now Europe’s most volatile region is once again cleaving along geopolitical and ethnic lines over efforts to get people vaccinated. The European Union has pledged to give six prospective members 70 million euros ($85 million) to buy Covid shots, but deliveries are facing delays. That’s empowered Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic to leverage his links with China and traditional ally Russia into pledging vaccine donations to North Macedonia and to the ethnic Serbs in Kosovo and Bosnia-Herzegovina. The 18 million people who live in the western Balkans have been severely hit by coronavirus, with parts of former Yugoslavia recording among the world’s highest per-capita death rates. The fallout is threatening efforts to resolve lingering border disputes and risks pushing the region further away from the EU’s orbit as Russia and China extend their reach. Western Europe was already failing a place that’s synonymous with hardship and war, according to Zijad Becirovic, director of the International Institute for Middle East and Balkan Studies in Ljubljana. The U.S., meanwhile, has gradually loosened political ties with the region since intervening in Bosnia and Kosovo conflicts in the 1990s
22nd Jan 2021 - MSN - Bloomberg

Brazil’s most vulnerable communities face COVID food crisis

Coronavirus is spreading and the death toll is mounting — but what most worries the leaders of Brazil’s isolated and vulnerable communities is how on earth to feed people now that the government has pulled their main emergency aid. Ivone Rocha is cofounder of Semeando Amor (Sowing Love), a non-profit that distributes basic staples to some of the very poorest people in Rio das Pedras, one of Rio de Janeiro’s many favelas. For most of last year, they had received a decent government stipend to survive the pandemic, but that all ended with 2020, unleashing a frenzy of favela requests for food. “People here have no jobs,” Rocha told Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone. “Now the aid has ended. My God, what will happen?” It was April when Congress first passed a bill that established the monthly $600 real ($112) stipend — a little over half the country’s minimum wage — pledging to tide people over for three months during the pandemic.
22nd Jan 2021 - Al Jazeera English

UK imams, influencers counter COVID vaccine misinformation

Imams across the United Kingdom are helping a drive to dispel coronavirus misinformation, using Friday sermons and their influential standing within Muslim communities to argue that COVID-19 vaccines are safe. Qari Asim, chairman of the Mosques and Imams National Advisory Board (MINAB) which is leading a campaign to reassure its faithful, is among those publicly advocating that the inoculations are compatible with Islamic practices. “We are confident that the two vaccines that have been used in the UK, Oxford Astra-Zeneca and Pfizer, are permissible from an Islamic perspective,” he told the AFP news agency. “The hesitancy, the anxiety (and) concern is driven by misinformation, conspiracy theories, fake news and rumours.”
21st Jan 2021 - Al Jazeera English on MSN.com

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 22nd Jan 2021

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Covid-19 vaccine batch testing speeds up, giving more proof ministers can’t blame all hold-ups on supply chain

Britain’s medical regulators have managed to speed up the process of approving individual batches of the Covid-19 vaccine with not a single batch failing the test, i can reveal. Ministers have repeatedly said that supply of jabs is the current “rate-limiting factor” in the vaccine roll-out – meaning that supply is the one issue which dictates the maximum pace at which the NHS can administer doses, rather than staffing or logistics. They specifically pointed to batch approvals as one of the major hold-ups. The National Institute for Biological Standards and Control (NIBSC), part of the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), is responsible for testing the Pfizer and Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccines which are provided in batches of up to half a million doses each. This process initially took as long as three weeks per batch but has been streamlined to four days.
21st Jan 2021 - i on MSN.com

Spanish Government Refuses To Authorise Earlier Curfew Or Full Lockdown

The Spanish government once again stood firm on Wednesday in refusing to bow to the pressure being exerted by regional administrations to allow the start of the night-time curfew to be brought forward to 20.00 in an effort to bring coronavirus infection rates down, despite 15 of the 17 Autonomous Communities requesting that this modification be made to the conditions of the current national state of emergency.
21st Jan 2021 - Murcia Today

Wealthy UK flyers opt for private jets to evade Covid and lockdowns

Wealthy flyers in the UK are opting for private jets and charter flights to evade Covid-19 and beat sudden lockdowns, data shows. While the number of commercial flights from the UK has dropped by three-quarters since the start of the pandemic, private flights are down only 42% compared with 2019, according to the aviation consultancy WingX. In August, demand for private jets was back to 93% of normal levels, while scheduled flights were down 65%. Another rebound was seen around Christmas, with private flights operating at around 70% of pre-pandemic levels in December.
21st Jan 2021 - The Guardian

UK's Johnson resists pandemic inquiry as hospitals likened to war zone

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson resisted calls for an inquiry into his government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic on Wednesday as the country’s death toll neared 100,000 and his chief scientist said hospitals were looking like war zones. Johnson has been accused of reacting too slowly to the crisis, failing to supply sufficient protective equipment and bungling the testing system, although the United Kingdom has been swift to roll out a vaccine. The official death toll is 93,290 - Europe’s worst figure and the world’s fifth worst, after the United States, Brazil, India and Mexico. Deaths rose by another record daily number on Wednesday. There have been calls for a public inquiry from some doctors and bereaved families into the management of the crisis.
21st Jan 2021 - Reuters

Good news for shot-makers: COVID-19 vaccine confidence leaps to 69%, Harris Poll finds

Americans are back on the COVID-19 vaccine bandwagon. Sixty-nine percent now plan to get a COVID-19 vaccine, close to the previous high of 73% in April, according to the latest data from The Harris Poll. At the lowest point in October, vaccine skepticism had far more Americans hesitating: Just 58% said they would get a vaccine. That’s good news for vaccine makers—and at least a little better news for public health officials, who say a minimum 75% of the population will need to be vaccinated to stop COVID-19. That percentage has been moving upwards of late; Anthony Fauci, M.D., director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), recently admitted the goal may need to move as high as 90% to truly halt the U.S. outbreak.
21st Jan 2021 - FiercePharma

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 21st Jan 2021

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COVID-19: Boris Johnson accused of 'overruling' Priti Patel's call to shut UK's borders at start of pandemic

Boris Johnson has been accused of "overruling" Home Secretary Priti Patel - after she claimed she argued for the shutting of the UK's borders at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. In video footage of her comments to Tory supporters, Ms Patel suggested she privately pushed for tougher border measures during the UK's first national lockdown last year.
20th Jan 2021 - Sky News

Boris Johnson blames 'supply constraints' from AstraZeneca and Pfizer for vaccine slowdown but says target of 14m jabs by mid-February IS still 'on track' - amid fears lockdown will last until Easter even if the goal is met

Mounting concerns about slowdown in vaccine rollout after three consecutive days saw falling numbers. Boris Johnson said 'on track' to hit mid-February target despite 37% dip on Monday compared to Friday. The PM admitted that 'constraints in supply' from Pfizer and AstraZeneca were making the situation harder With possible exception of schools, unlikely to be any relaxation at first formal 'review point' in mid-February. Reports yesterday claimed that Boris Johnson was targeting Good Friday on April 2 as the earliest date. But several sources told the Mail that even this date could look optimistic, warning of restrictions into June Britain recorded most deaths since the pandemic started yesterday, 30 per cent rise on same day last week. It comes amid alarm at the rising death toll in care homes, with fatalities doubling last week to 1,260
20th Jan 2021 - Daily Mail

Struggling French students protest university closures

French university students protested Wednesday on Paris' Left Bank to demand to be allowed back to class, and to call attention to suicides and financial troubles among students cut off from friends, professors and job opportunities amid the pandemic. Carrying a banner reading "We Will Not Be the Sacrificed Generation," hundreds of students gathered to march on the Education Ministry, seeking government help for those struggling. Other student protests were planned Wednesday elsewhere in France. The government ordered all universities closed in October to stem resurgent virus infections, after a similar closure in the spring set many students back academically and socially.
20th Jan 2021 - Minneapolis Star Tribune

Biden starts term with COVID actions on masks, support for WHO

The 46th US president, Joe Biden, will make several executive orders today pertaining to the COVID-19 pandemic, including issuing a mask mandate on federal grounds, reports CNN. Biden will also ask Americans to wear a mask when in public for the next 100 days, and to adhere to physical distancing. He has already set forth a goal of distributing 100 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines in the next 100 days. "As you've heard the president-elect say, the pandemic will continue to get worse before it gets better," Jeff Zients, the incoming White House COVID-19 response coordinator, told reporters according to the Washington Post. "This is clearly a national emergency and we will treat it as such."
20th Jan 2021 - CIDRAP

Biden, in inaugural address, pledges the U.S. ‘can overcome’ Covid-19

President Biden on Wednesday pledged that the United States “can overcome” the Covid-19 pandemic, even as he warned that it is entering “what may be the toughest and deadliest period” of the crisis. The remarks, made during key moments in his inauguration address on the west front of the Capitol, represented a forceful pledge that the country can bring the pandemic to an end. They also marked a stark departure from the approach taken by former President Trump, who spent weeks avoiding the subject of Covid-19 in his public comments, and then referred to the pandemic in past tense Wednesday before he departed Washington, D.C.
20th Jan 2021 - Stat News

EU and BioNTech/Pfizer clash over reduced vaccine deliveries

A decision by Pfizer and BioNTech to reduce the number of vaccine vials they send to European countries has forced health officials to slow vaccination plans, with at least one EU member state threatening legal action as tensions over limited supplies mount. The move by the manufacturers followed a ruling this month from the European Medicines Agency that six doses can be extracted from each BioNTech/Pfizer vial rather than five, after health professionals found there was often extra vaccine left over.
20th Jan 2021 - Financial Times

Boris Johnson says UK ready to deploy tweaked vaccines

Boris Johnson on Wednesday declared Britain was ready to quickly deploy tweaked vaccines to combat new variants of coronavirus, as the number of daily Covid-19 deaths in the UK hit a record of 1,820. The prime minister said he was concerned about the risk posed by dangerous variants of the virus — as well as Britain, Brazil and South Africa have reported new strains — as he justified new border restrictions in the UK. Neil O’Brien, a Conservative MP, asked Mr Johnson at prime minister’s questions in the House of Commons about “concerning data from South Africa” that the virus could mutate and thus “dodge the vaccines and reduce their efficacy”.
20th Jan 2021 - Financial Times

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 20th Jan 2021

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Jab complacency ‘could see cases spike’ as PM faces lockdown pressures

Britons should not rely on coronavirus vaccines “coming to our rescue”, health leaders have warned, as it remains “absolutely critical” that lockdown rules continue to be observed. Prof David Halpern, the chair of the Behavioural Insights Team, stressed that vaccinated people are not “good to go” and socialise with others, as he warned that any jab recipients who do mix with families and friends risk sparking another surge in cases. His comments to MPs earlier today come after Matt Hancock revealed he was self-isolating at home after being “pinged” by the NHS Covid-19 app. The Health Secretary urged Britons to follow his lead and stick to the rules.
19th Jan 2021 - Evening Standard

Experts unconvinced by Lord Sumption's lockdown ethics

Eleven years before Lord Sumption found himself at the centre of a media storm over his apparent suggestion that the life of a woman with stage 4 cancer was “less valuable”, the former supreme court justice wrote a judgment that seemed to take a very different view. In 2014, addressing the Tony Nicklinson case in a decision which upheld a ban on doctors helping patients to end their lives, he called the sanctity of life a “fundamental moral value”. “A reverence for human life for its own sake is probably the most fundamental of all human social values,” he went on, before quoting another judgment approvingly: “In a case like this we should not try to analyse the rationality of such feelings. What matters is that, in one form or another, they form part of almost everyone’s intuitive values.”
19th Jan 2021 - The Guardian

Bells and candlelight to honor 400,000 COVID-19 dead on eve of Trump's White House departure

President-elect Joe Biden on Tuesday led a national memorial observance on the eve of his inauguration to honor the 400,000 Americans who have perished from COVID-19 during the 11 months since the novel coronavirus claimed its first U.S. life. The sundown commemoration came hours before President Donald Trump was due to depart the White House for the last time and hand over a country wracked by the greatest public health crisis in a century, economic devastation and violent political upheaval. Ceremonies spearheaded by Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris from the base of the Lincoln Memorial marked the federal government’s first official nod to the staggering death toll from the pandemic.
19th Jan 2021 - Reuters

U.S. exceeds 400,000 coronavirus deaths

The U.S. coronavirus death toll topped 400,000 on Tuesday, according to a Reuters tally, as the country hardest hit by the pandemic struggled to meet the demand for vaccines to stem the spread of infection. States including Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, South Carolina and Vermont have shown signs of vaccine supply strain and are asking for more doses of both approved vaccines, one from Pfizer-BioNTech and the other from Moderna. The number of deaths has spiked since Christmas. During the past three weeks, U.S. coronavirus fatalities have totaled 63,793 compared with 52,715 deaths in the three weeks prior to Christmas, an increase of 21%, according to a Reuters analysis.
19th Jan 2021 - Reuters

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 19th Jan 2021

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Coronavirus in Scotland: CMO Dr Gregor Smith ‘really concerned’ by Covid-19 vaccine misinformation on social media

Scotland’s most senior health chief has revealed that he is “really concerned” by coronavirus vaccine misinformation, as he warned Scots to avoid spurious claims on social media. Chief Medical Officer, Dr Gregor Smith, called bogus claims about vaccines “one of the biggest dangers that we face”, and called on the public to seek out trusted sources of information. Speaking at the First Minister’s daily press briefing, Dr Smith said misinformation “makes me really concerned because it preys on people's anxiety and fear. “My plea to everyone is to read trusted sources of information in relation to the vaccination.”
18th Jan 2021 - The Scotsman on MSN.com

Eight fined after Birmingham anti-lockdown protest

Police have fined eight people after an anti-lockdown march in Birmingham city centre on Saturday. About 150 people gathered for the protest in Victoria Square, despite an appeal from West Midlands Police to stay away. The force said it made nine arrests in total, serving all but one with a £200 fixed penalty notice. Officers had asked the demonstrators to move on, said a spokesperson, but "some did not listen". That led to the arrests and subsequent fining of three women aged 21, 41 and 58, and five men aged between 19 and 58.
18th Jan 2021 - BBC News

Spain’s central, regional officials clash over coronavirus curfew times

Spain’s central government will appeal a decision by regional authorities in Castilla y León to impose an 8pm curfew in their territory in a bid to contain the spread of the coronavirus. The regional government announced the new starting time on Friday, but central authorities say that the curfew may begin at 10pm at the earliest, based on the terms of the state of alarm approved by parliament in late October and due to expire in May. This legal framework underpins the restrictions used to contain the coronavirus, including limits on freedom of movement.
18th Jan 2021 - EL PAÍS in English

Fireworks thrown at police in Amsterdam lockdown protest

Thousands held an unauthorised protest in Amsterdam against a national lockdown to slow the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, before being dispersed by riot police. The protesters gathered on a square in front of the Rijksmuseum and Van Gogh Museum art galleries, carrying signs reading “Freedom: stop this siege” and chanting “What do we want? Freedom!”. None wore masks, which are not mandatory, and few respected social distancing rules, news agency Reuters reported. Shocking footage in social media shows police charging with batons raised as protesters throw flairs at them.
18th Jan 2021 - London Evening Standard

WHO: just 25 Covid vaccine doses administered in low-income countries

The world is on the edge of a “catastrophic moral failure” in the distribution of Covid-19 vaccines, with just 25 doses administered across all poor countries compared with 39m in wealthier ones, the head of the World Health Organization has said. It was the sharpest warning so far from Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus about the dangers of vaccine hoarding since inoculations started being administered in 49 mostly high-income countries. Guinea is the sole low-income country to have delivered any shots so far, last week providing doses of the Russian Sputnik vaccine to a mere 25 people, including its president. Tedros told an annual meeting of the WHO’s executive board on Monday that it was wrong to see people at low risk in wealthy countries being vaccinated while most of the world still did not have access to the jabs.
18th Jan 2021 - The Guardian

Thousands protest in Amsterdam against Dutch coronavirus lockdown

Several thousand people held an unauthorised protest in Amsterdam on Sunday against a national lockdown to slow the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, before being dispersed by riot police. The protesters gathered on a square in front of the Rijksmuseum and Van Gogh Museum art galleries, carrying signs reading “Freedom: stop this siege” and chanting “What do we want? Freedom!”. None wore masks, which are not mandatory, and few respected social distancing rules. Authorities had declined an application for the protest to be held on Museum Square. The demonstrators refused to leave when police told them to do so, and some threw fireworks.
17th Jan 2021 - Reuters

I’d love to ignore ‘Covid sceptics’ and their tall tales. But they make a splash and have no shame

If you had opened certain newspapers over the past year, you would have read the following. In spring, you’d have been told the virus was fizzling out. You might have been treated to the views of epidemiologist Sunetra Gupta, who claimed: “The epidemic has largely come and is on its way out in this country.” This wasn’t due to the lockdown, she argued, but “the build-up of immunity”, which government advisers were apparently underestimating. By the summer, you would have read that it was all over. In June, Toby Young, editor of the Lockdown Sceptics website predicted: “There will be no ‘second spike’ – not now, and not in the autumn either. The virus has melted into thin air. It’s time to get back to normal.” Telegraph columnist Allison Pearson wrote: “The terrible Coronabeast will be gone from these isles by September.”
17th Jan 2021 - The Guardian

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 18th Jan 2021

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In Tokyo's lockdown, some drink on even after authorities call time

Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga declared a state of emergency for Tokyo and surrounding prefectures this month. He expanded it to 11 prefectures accounting for 55% of the population on Wednesday. Unlike in many other countries with mandatory lockdowns, Japanese authorities legally can only urge people to stay at home and businesses to close. While compliance has been high - most of Shimbashi’s karaoke bars and izakaya taverns were closed on Friday night - more people appear to be ignoring the state of emergency this time than one last year. Authorities have worried about the potential spread of infection at bars and restaurants. In Shimbashi, many drinking spots are cramped and with poor ventilation.
17th Jan 2021 - Reuters

Migrants forced to travel 85 miles for Home Office appointments as coronavirus cases soar

People are being forced to travel as far as 85 miles to attend Home Office appointments during the lockdown, prompting critics to claim the government is prioritising “distrust” of migrants over public health. Ministers are being urged to act after it emerged vulnerable asylum seekers and visa applicants have had to take long journeys on public transport in recent weeks in order to comply with Home Office rules. In March, substantive asylum interviews – during which the Home Office gathers information to determine whether someone should be granted asylum in the UK – were paused in response to the pandemic. Biometric appointments, where UK visa applicants submit their fingerprints as part of the application process, were also suspended during the first lockdown as visa application centres closed.
17th Jan 2021 - The Independent

Thousands Take To Streets To Protest Over Vienna's New Lockdown Laws As Cases Spike Again

On Saturday, January 16, thousands of people marched through Vienna to protest against the restrictions kept in place to battle the novel coronavirus. According to the reports by CNA, the demonstrators chanted "Kurz Must Go" and "Make Influenza Great Again" during marches through the city centre. Also, the demonstrators were not seen wearing any mask. The protests began when Chancellor Sebastian Kurz and his government discussed extending the existing lockdown in Austria. The lockdown includes movement restrictions and the closure of all non-essential businesses. However, no official announcement has come as of now. People took to their social media handles and shared image and videos from the protest march. Let’s have a look.
17th Jan 2021 - RepublicWorld

More than 800 chain restaurants, bars and cafes close for good as Covid-19 lockdowns bite sector

More than 800 chain restaurants, bars and coffee shops have closed since the start of the Covid pandemic, research compiled for the Evening Standard has found. Covid has wrought havoc on cashflows of leisure sector operators as they have been repeatedly forced to close or only open under tough restrictions to ensure social distancing. Data compiled for the Evening Standard showed that when administrations and Company Voluntary Arrangements are included, chains with 6231 outlets have been affected. That compares with 593 closed during the two previous years, which included the one-off corporate shakeups at Patisserie Valerie and The Restaurant Group accounting for nearly 150 closures.
17th Jan 2021 - Evening Standard

Call on lockdown was not easy, assessed impact: PM

Recalling India’s fight against Covid-19, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that the decision to go in for a nationwide lockdown in March 2020 was not easy as the government had assessed its impact on the economy and people’s livelihood and worked to devise welfare nets.
17th Jan 2021 - Times of India

People from ethnic minorities far more hesitant to take coronavirus vaccine

Scientific advisers are concerned about the coronavirus vaccine uptake among black, Asian and minority ethnic communities, following the release of data from a new study. Research from the UK Household Longitudinal Study – which conducts annual interviews to gain a long-term perspective on British people’s lives – showed 72 per cent of black people said they were unlikely to have the jab. A report from Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) highlighted the persisting problems of structural, and institutional racism, and historic under representation in healthcare research, as driving the reduced levels of trust in the vaccination programme.
17th Jan 2021 - iNews on MSN.com

Aviation industry risks collapse without 'urgent' support following travel curbs

The aviation industry risks collapse without “urgent” government support, industry groups have warned following the latest travel curbs. From Monday all travel corridors to the UK will be scrapped to prevent any further spread of the new strains of coronavirus.
16th Jan 2021 - City A.M.

Biden must find words for a wounded nation in inauguration like no other

Planners have been forced to be inventive after the deadly pandemic and now last week’s Capitol insurrection dictated a pared-down event amid real fears of assassination
16th Jan 2021 - The Guardian

Nigeria warns against fake COVID vaccines

Nigerian authorities have warned against fake coronavirus vaccines in the country where 10 million real doses of the shots are expected to arrive in March. “There are reports of fake vaccines in Nigeria,” Director General of Nigeria’s National Agency for Food Drug and Administration Control (NAFDAC) Mojisola Adeyeye said on Friday. “NAFDAC is pleading with the public to beware. No COVID vaccines have been approved by NAFDAC. Fake vaccines can cause COVID-like illnesses or other serious diseases that could kill.” Nigeria’s anticipated vaccines add to 100,000 expected doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine although it was not specified which type of jab would be used for the 10 million doses. It was also unclear whether the batch would be financed by the African Union (AU) or as part of COVAX, which links the World Health Organization (WHO) with private partners to work for pooled procurement and equitable distribution.
15th Jan 2021 - Al Jazeera English

COVID vaccine weekly: can the UK vaccinate 15 million people by mid-February?

The pandemic is the UK’s worst ever health crisis and, tragically, its’s been getting worse and worse. A more infectious variant of the coronavirus together with insufficient restrictions in December 2020 have sent COVID-19 cases soaring. The National Health Service is teetering on the brink, with hospitals close to capacity, and daily deaths are now in the thousands, surpassing April 2020’s peak. The UK continues to have one of the worst COVID-19 death rates in the world. However, Britain has a solution in hand, having authorised three COVID-19 vaccines for use. It’s started rolling out two (those developed by Pfizer/BioNTech and Oxford/AstraZeneca) and has delivered the first dose to more than 2.4 million people – well ahead of most other countries
14th Jan 2021 - The Conversation UK

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 15th Jan 2021

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Italy political crisis erupts over EU Covid spending

The coalition government of centrist Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte is in chaos after ex-PM Matteo Renzi withdrew his tiny party from it. Mr Renzi objects to Mr Conte's plans for spending €209bn (£186bn; $254bn) of EU recovery funds - part of a huge EU aid package for the Covid crisis. The political instability adds to Italy's current woes, with the nation mired in its worst recession since World War Two because of the pandemic. More than 80,000 people have died from Covid-19 in Italy - the worst toll in Europe after the UK.
14th Jan 2021 - BBC

Italy’s government falls into chaos, further complicating the covid response

Italy now has a political crisis on top of a resurgent pandemic. A rickety truce in the country’s ruling coalition broke apart Wednesday when former prime minister Matteo Renzi withdrew his small party’s support for the government, plunging the country into political chaos. Italy has long been used to fragile governments. Faced with a coronavirus emergency, the parties in this center-left coalition were willing to overlook their differences. But it is now clear the pandemic has outlasted the political goodwill. Italy is preparing to spend an unprecedented flow of European Union recovery money, and the argument over how to use it helped deepen personal enmity between Renzi and Conte, centrists who are competing for the same voters.
14th Jan 2021 - The Washington Post

About 150 anti-lockdown protestors, some bearing Trump flags, gather at Parliament

About 150 protestors have descended onto Parliament this afternoon, calling for an end to Covid-19 lockdowns in New Zealand. Members of the group held Donald Trump flags, anti-CCP trade agreement banners and also held signs that were against face masks. One of the protest organisers, Billy Te Kahika, addressed the crowd, accusing the Government of tyrannical behaviour. In response to the protest, Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said he respected people's right to protest, but added there had been "deliberate misinformation" spread and there were no plans to lock the country down unless there was a "very good health reason to do so, and at the moment there isn't".
14th Jan 2021 - TVNZ

Skiers stopped at Eurostar for trying to escape lockdown with Swiss holiday

A group attempting to travel to Switzerland for a ski holiday were stopped from boarding a Eurostar train at London St Pancras in breach of coronavirus restrictions. Train manager Justin, who did not give his surname, posted on Twitter that French border police deployed at the station had turned the travellers away on Wednesday morning. A photograph shows the group was carrying at least one large bag of winter sports equipment.
14th Jan 2021 - Metro

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 14th Jan 2021

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Palestinians desperately await COVID-19 vaccine

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu received a coronavirus vaccine jab on December 19, kicking off a national roll-out that has made Israel the world’s COVID-19 vaccination drive leader. But while Israel’s vaccination campaign even includes Jewish settlers living deep inside the illegally occupied West Bank, it will exclude the nearly five million Palestinians living under occupation there or in the blockaded Gaza Strip. They will have to wait for the cash-strapped Palestinian Authority (PA), which administers parts of the West Bank under interim peace agreements signed in the 1990s, to provide the jabs. The Palestinian health ministry expects the first batches of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine to arrive in the occupied West Bank and Gaza at the beginning of March, more than two months after Israel began its roll-out.
14th Jan 2021 - Al Jazeera English

Covid-19: Breaking down Asian vaccine myths in Lancashire

A teacher is making online videos with children to tackle myths in South Asian communities about the safety of the Covid-19 vaccine. A study recently found some ethnic minorities were targeted with inaccurate anti-vaccination messages. Neetal Parekh, from Preston, believes the language barrier is one reason why some older people have been scared to have the vaccine. She said many were being misled "simply because they do not know enough". The 36-year-old has created a collection of short videos of young children urging their grandparents to have the vaccine in a variety of South Asian languages such as Gujarati, Hindi, Punjabi and Urdu.
13th Jan 2021 - BBC News

As pandemic worsens, most US states resist restrictions

As the U.S. goes through the most lethal phase of the coronavirus outbreak yet, governors and local officials in hard-hit parts of the country are showing little willingness to impose any new restrictions on businesses to stop the spread. And unlike in 2020, when the debate over lockdowns often split along party lines, both Democratic and Republican leaders are signaling their opposition to forced closings and other measures. Some have expressed fear of compounding the heavy economic damage inflicted by the outbreak. Some see little patience among their constituents for more restrictions 10 months into the crisis. And some seem to be focused more on the rollout of the vaccines that could eventually vanquish the threat.
13th Jan 2021 - The Associated Press

Covid UK: Jonathan Van-Tam dismisses 3m social distancing rule

Deputy chief medical officer said extending gap would make little difference Kent strain cannot travel further through the air than regular variant, he said Masks only needed in 'high risk' indoor areas where Covid more likely to spread
13th Jan 2021 - Daily Mail

'Harsh measures': Human Rights Watch raises concern about Victorian lockdown

A leading international human rights group has lashed the Victorian government for subjecting more than 3000 people in public housing towers to a mandatory lockdown and a heavy-handed police response to the state’s second wave of coronavirus cases. Human Rights Watch has said in its annual report that while Australia was a vibrant democracy with robust institutions, police efforts to enforce lockdowns during the pandemic raised concerns over freedom of expression and the misuse of police powers.
13th Jan 2021 - Brisbane Times

Meagre lockdown food parcels for English school children provoke outcry

Shared images of meagre food packages supplied to children by schools during England’s COVID-19 lockdown prompted an outcry on Tuesday and led the government to warn private suppliers to raise their standards. With England in lockdown to try to control a surge in coronavirus cases, the government has asked schools to provide free lunches for eligible children stuck at home. However, images shared online of some of the food parcels were criticized by politicians, celebrities and the public, who questioned whether they contained enough food and nutrition for the number of meals they were supposed to cover. The outcry began when one Twitter user posted a parcel she said was expected to last 10 days of lunches containing: a loaf of bread, two potatoes, two carrots, three apples, a tomato, some dried pasta, bananas, cheese, beans and other small snack
13th Jan 2021 - Reuters

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 13th Jan 2021

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Google Launches $3 Million Fund To Tackle Covid-19 Vaccine Misinformation

Amid an ongoing effort by Google to counter the deluge of misinformation and conspiracy theories about the coronavirus pandemic, the tech giant said Tuesday it will devote up to $3 million to back fact-checking initiatives to counter vaccine misinformation, which it says has emerged as a particularly troubling phenomenon as global immunization efforts get underway.
12th Jan 2021 - Forbes

COVID-19: 'Stubborn number' of people still refusing to follow coronavirus rules

A "stubborn number" of people are still refusing to follow the rules despite England entering a third coronavirus lockdown, the chairman of the National Police Chiefs' Council has said. Speaking at a Downing Street news conference, Martin Hewitt said forces across the UK have issued almost 45,000 fines for breaches of COVID-19 rules. Appearing alongside him was Home Secretary Priti Patel, who insisted the current restrictions were "very simple and clear" as well as being "tough enough".
12th Jan 2021 - Sky News

Analysis: Boris's Sunday spin away from No 10 undermines UK Govt's tough lockdown message

Chris Whitty, the UK Government’s chief medical brain, spent hours on the morning media shift urging people to “double down” on complying with the Covid-19 restrictions, Boris Johnson told people to "do the right thing" and stick to the rules.
12th Jan 2021 - heraldscotland.com

French far-right MEP investigated over lockdown party ruckus

The Paris prosecutor’s office opened a preliminary investigation for “nighttime disturbance, public insults and death threats” after a December dinner party at French MEP Jérôme Rivière’s Parisian apartment while the country was under strict lockdown. Rivière, an MEP for Marine Le Pen’s National Rally (RN), invited a handful of guests to his apartment on December 13, according to French online outlet Mediapart, which first reported on the story Monday. Neighbors complained to him about the loud music coming out of his apartment. Videos published by Mediapart show the situation took a worse turn after a police patrol checked out the building. One of Rivière’s guests was caught on camera filming a teenager who was filming him from outside, telling him: “This is for the headhunters. They’re going to cut your hair. They’re going to shave your head.”
12th Jan 2021 - POLITICO.eu

Coronavirus: Wetherspoon pub chain to remove lockdown-sceptic posters

The Wetherspoon pub chain says it will remove lockdown-sceptical posters from its venues as coronavirus continues to spread in parts of England. Last month bosses made pages from their company magazine, Wetherspoon News, available to download and put in pub windows. It was part of a campaign by chairman Tim Martin against government restrictions, which he said were “messing up the economy and also the health of the nation”. One of the flyers was pictured still visible in some pub windows this month. It reproduces a news story from 20 November last year, which cast doubt on the dire warnings of government scientists about the threat posed by the second Covid-19 wave.
12th Jan 2021 - The Independent

Boris Johnson blames China's traditional medicine for Covid pandemic

In a speech to world leaders at the One Planet Summit yesterday he attacked people who 'grind up the scales of a pangolin' in a bid to become more 'potent'.
12th Jan 2021 - Daily Mail

Mexico City restaurants open doors in defiance of COVID-19 ...

Several prominent restaurant chains and smaller eateries on Monday defied Mexico City's extension of a ban on dine-in service, in an act of civil disobedience against rules aimed at controlling a surge in COVID-19 cases. Fish restaurant Fisher's, steak house Sonora Grill and Potzollcalli, which sells a Mexican pork and corn soup, were among the outlets that flouted the ban. Between them, the three chains have dozens of outlets in the city area. Officials initially said a partial lockdown implemented on Dec. 19 would last until Jan. 11, but extended it after surging cases last week pushed hospitals to their limit. Hospitals in the capital are 89% full, the highest peak of the pandemic, according to city data. Nationwide, Mexico has surpassed 1.5 million cases and 130,000 deaths.
11th Jan 2021 - Thomson Reuters Foundation

The tourists who believe travel restrictions don't apply to them

As pandemic quarantines go, this might be the best: sprawling on a hotel balcony overlooking azure Caribbean waters as you bake gently in the sun. But it isn't enough for some. The past month has seen a slew of high-profile cases of tourists getting in trouble for breaking the rules while on a sun-and-sand vacation. In December, Skylar Mack, an American student, was jailed for two months when she flew to the Cayman Islands and, instead of quarantining for two weeks at her hotel as the law obliged her to do, popped out two days later to attend a jet ski competition in which her boyfriend was competing. In January, former British beauty queen and model Zara Holland and her boyfriend Elliott Love quarantined at her four-star hotel in Barbados for the required five days, before taking a second PCR test, as is required for travelers from high risk countries. So far, so good -- except that when Love's second test came back positive, rather than face further quarantine, the couple made a dash to the airport to try and catch a flight home.
11th Jan 2021 - CNN

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 12th Jan 2021

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Police warn protesters to stay away from illegal anti-lockdown demo in Edinburgh

They said the protest, planned for Holyrood later today, was unlawful under current level 4 restrictions. And they warned that where their officers encounter ‘wilful breaches’ they will act ‘decisively’ to enforce the law. Superintendent David Robertson said: “The Scottish Government’s message is clear- ‘stay at home’. “We understand people want to make their voices heard but they must do so lawfully and safely. “Under the current level 4 restrictions, such gatherings are not permitted.
11th Jan 2021 - Daily Record on MSN.com

Canadians seethe over lockdown-defying politicians

In his Christmas Eve video message, Rod Phillips, finance minister of Canada’s largest province, sat next to a crackling fireplace and commiserated with the people of Ontario that they could not “be in person with as many family and friends as we’d like to”. In reality Mr Phillips was on vacation at a luxury resort on the Caribbean island of St Barts. Despite rushing back after his trip was exposed, he resigned on New Year’s Eve. The daily tally of politicians and government officials who have flouted stay-at-home recommendations to travel abroad over the holidays has sparked outrage in a country that places a premium on following rules and has a low tolerance for hypocrisy in public life.
11th Jan 2021 - Financial Times

Germany: Anti-lockdown leader faces questions about cash flow

The leader of Germany's largest anti-lockdown movement, "Querdenken-711," has asked supporters to stop protesting until the spring. Michael Ballweg's announcement comes after the German media reported he shared the profits from Querdenken merchandise and directed donations to the movement into his personal bank account. Ballweg never registered the group as an association, a company, or a foundation and is exempt from issuing invoices for donations. Querdenken 711 gained international media attention after organizing some of Europe's largest anti-lockdown protests, which some experts believe were infiltrated by far-right extremists. Ballweg's slogan for the group is: "Where we go one, we go all," lifted directly from the QAnon conspiracy theory.
11th Jan 2021 - Business Insider

Police use force to disperse churchgoers violating lockdown regulations

Police used rubber bullets and stun grenades to disperse a group of about 250 people who had gathered for a church service in Sebokeng Zone 7 in the Vaal area on Sunday. Two church leaders aged 47 and 69 were arrested for contravening level 3 lockdown regulations which do not allow for church services to be held. A 62-year-old woman was arrested for a similar contravention and for an additional charge of public violence.
11th Jan 2021 - TimesLIVE

Covid-19 Hit Hardest Where Financial Crisis Led to Health-Care Cuts

Claudio Zanon has seen firsthand how less spending on health care in recent years left Italy exposed when the coronavirus began sweeping through his country early last year. Dr. Zanon, who until the end of December was the medical director at a hospital in Como in Italy’s hard-hit Lombardy region, says when the pandemic arrived he didn’t have enough doctors and nurses. Intensive-care unit beds were scarce and there wasn’t a large network of local clinics to help take the strain. With money tight, technology used in the hospital had also fallen behind. “Italy was unprepared when the first coronavirus wave hit because the health-care system hasn’t received adequate funding in recent years,” said Dr. Zanon, who practiced as a surgeon for three decades. “If investments don’t keep up, you will inevitably see the negative results at a certain point.”
11th Jan 2021 - The Wall Street Journal

Lockdown protests erupt in Europe cities

The coronavirus is wreaking havoc across Europe but in some cities some people are fighting the stay-at-home message. Thousands turned out in central Prague on Sunday to protest against recently extended restrictions designed to contain the coronavirus. Footage of the demonstration in Prague showed many protesters not wearing masks and standing close to one other. A day earlier in Denmark, protesters became violent and lit fireworks as police arrested nine people in the capital Copenhagen and northern city Aarhus. The demonstrators, who call themselves 'Men in Black', gathered at the town hall square in Copenhagen and clashed with police in the wintry conditions. Denmark and Czech Republic are among the nations to extend lockdown measures in the fight against soaring COVID-19 infections and a new, more infectious variant.
11th Jan 2021 - The West Australian

Czechs challenge coronavirus lockdown measures with beer glass protest

Protesters in the Czech Republic have taken an unconventional approach to challenge the nation’s COVID-19 lockdown measures which have seen the closing of hotels, bars and restaurants around the country. Hundreds of demonstrators recently descended on the nation’s capital of Prague, waving empty beer glasses to protest the nation’s strict measures. Protesters then placed lit candles in the empty glasses and positioned them in a kilometre-long chain from the government building to the city’s historic Old Town Square. The glasses were placed roughly two-metres apart.
11th Jan 2021 - Sky News Australia

French resorts ask: will COVID write off whole ski season?

Business owners at France's Chamonix ski resort, their earnings slashed because of the COVID-19 lockdown, are worried they might not be able to welcome back skiers at all before the snows melt and the season ends. French ski resorts were prevented from opening their cable cars and ski lifts at the start of the season, driving away the large portion of their visitors who come for downhill skiing. The French government had discussed the possibility of re-opening the ski lifts of Jan. 7, but last week it said that with virus cases still high, that would be premature. A decision is now due on Jan. 20, leaving little time before the season ends. "If we have to close to the end of season, that's going to cost us several billion euros," said Mathieu Dechavanne, Chairman and CEO of Compagnie du Mont-Blanc, which operates cable cars in the region. "The economic impact will be catastrophic."
11th Jan 2021 - The Guardian

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 11th Jan 2021

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Johnson under fire as UK again faces onslaught of COVID-19

The crisis facing Britain this winter is depressingly familiar: Stay-at-home orders and empty streets. Hospitals overflowing. A daily toll of many hundreds of coronavirus deaths. The U.K. is the epicenter of Europe’s COVID-19 outbreak once more, and Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative government is facing questions, and anger, as people demand to know how the country has ended up here — again. Many countries are enduring new waves of the virus, but Britain’s is among the worst, and it comes after a horrendous 2020. More than 3 million people in the U.K. have tested positive for the coronavirus and 81,000 have died — 30,000 in just the last 30 days. The economy has shrunk by 8%, more than 800,000 jobs have been lost and hundreds of thousands more furloughed workers are in limbo.
11th Jan 2021 - The Associated Press

Covid-19: US cases surge but vaccine distribution is slow

Cases of covid-19 have continued to surge in the US as only five million people were vaccinated by the end of 2020, against the 20 million promised by President Donald Trump. President Elect Joe Biden has promised to deliver 100 million doses of the vaccine in his first 100 days in office, which will begin on 20 January. There is no national plan for distributing vaccines. Each state is allotted doses based on their populations and leaders must then decide how to get the vaccines to its people. Francis Collins, head of the National Institutes of Health, said in a live streamed interview with the Washington Post on 6 January that it had been “a rocky beginning” but that he hoped to see a million people being vaccinated every day.1 Collins is the boss of Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and a frequently quoted expert on covid-19. Collins was asked about suggestions that only the first dose of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine be given or that half doses of the Moderna vaccine be used. He said that the two dose regimen of both vaccines was 94% to 95% effective, which he called a “breath taking” success, and that was what should be used.
9th Jan 2021 - The BMJ

Saudi king receives first dose of a coronavirus vaccine -SPA

Saudi King Salman received a first dose of a coronavirus vaccine on Friday in the NEOM economic zone, the state news agency SPA said. The agency posted two pictures and a short video that showed a medical staff injecting the king with the vaccine.
9th Jan 2021 - Reuters

Frontline community nurses claim they've been beaten to the Covid vaccine by home-working bosses

Frontline community nurses have claimed home-working bosses are being vaccinated for coronavirus while they continue to wait for their jabs. One East Dunbartonshire nurse said she was furious that superiors in non patient facing roles had “jumped the queue” while she works in fear visiting several patients a day. The whistleblower, who did not want to be named, said staff had raised concern with management over the length of time they were waiting to be vaccinated, only to find out bosses at the Kirkintilloch Health and Care Centre had already been seen.
9th Jan 2021 - Daily Record

Covid: The challenge in speeding up France's vaccination drive

France has said that everyone over 75 will be able to have the coronavirus vaccine from 18 January, as part of a plan to speed up vaccinations. The French Prime Minister, Jean Castex, said the government had been right to prioritise the most vulnerable, but admitted that France had lagged behind other countries in rolling out its vaccination programme. The first vaccines were restricted to elderly care home residents, and required a signed consent form and a doctor's consultation before they could be administered. But the government has faced a storm of criticism after it emerged that only 500 people had been vaccinated in the first week of the roll-out, compared to 200,000 in Germany.
9th Jan 2021 - BBC News

Scientists 'not sure' if Covid vaccine will beat South African strain, top Tory says

Despite positive news on the Pfizer jab, Grant Shapps warned the 501Y.V2 variant was the reason for him finally introducing pre-flight tests - and it'll be a 'tragedy' if it gets to the UK.
8th Jan 2021 - Mirror Online

Hospital group presses Trump administration for ongoing federal help with vaccine distribution

Richard Pollack, CEO of the American Hospital Association, said in a letter to HHS Secretary Alex Azar that the slow initial rollout of the vaccine has cast doubt on the nation’s vaccination goals. Unforeseen issues have emerged in the first weeks of the rollout, he added, calling on Azar to provide more help. “As this rollout rapidly evolves, it is absolutely critical that effective situational, real-time leadership is provided nationally,” he wrote in the letter.
7th Jan 2021 - CNBC

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 8th Jan 2021

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British health minister defends decision to space COVID-19 vaccine doses

Britain’s move to delay the second doses of COVID-19 vaccines will help save lives as more people will be able to get some initial protection, health minister Matt Hancock said on Thursday, defending a policy shift questioned by some scientists. The abrupt change of tack on Dec. 30 meant people who had been due to receive their second vaccine doses had their appointments cancelled in favour of scheduling more initial shots for others. Some scientists expressed doubts about the decision to alter proven dosing regimes. Hancock said partial protection for more people would do more good than full protection for a select few. “The justification is really clear and straightforward, which is that it saves more lives, and ultimately, that is the public health justification,” Hancock told lawmakers.
8th Jan 2021 - Reuters

Council leader's plea to Hancock as Pfizer jab due to 'run out' soon

Local leaders in Birmingham have said the city has not been supplied with stock of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine with supplies of its Pfizer/BioNTech counterpart also due to “run out” on Friday. In an open letter to the Health Secretary Matt Hancock, Birmingham City Council leader Ian Ward called for exact data on constituency vaccination numbers to be shared with local officials. The letter, sent on behalf of Birmingham’s ten MPs, including Sutton Coldfield’s Conservative MP Andrew Mitchell, sought “urgent clarity and reassurance” regarding the vaccination rollout across the city over the coming weeks and months.
8th Jan 2021 - ITV News

Trust in COVID-19 vaccine grows after months of decline, polls show

Confidence in the COVID-19 vaccine is growing, a USA TODAY analysis of dozens of polls and scientific papers shows. Surveys in recent weeks show close to 60% of respondents saying they’d get the COVID-19 vaccine, up from a low of 1 in 2 Americans polled in September. A Pew Research Center survey of 12,648 Americans in late November showed 60% said they’d get the vaccine if it were available today, up from 51% polled in September. The Kaiser Family Foundation noted a similar increase, with 71% of the 1,676 surveyed indicating they’d accept a COVID-19 vaccine, up from 63% in September. USA TODAY's analysis drew on methods used by Duke University and Florida State University researchers and by the federal Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices to summarize vaccine polling.
7th Jan 2021 - The Arizona Republic

21 arrested at anti-lockdown protest in London, Met says

Some 21 people have been arrested amid anti-lockdown protests held near parliament Square in central London. Wednesday's demonstrations took place just days after England was placed in a national lockdown due to rising Covid-19 cases. Video and images posted to social media show a large police presence and a number of demonstrators being removed from the scene. Earlier today, the Met’s deputy assistant commissioner, Laurence Taylor, warned those planning to protest to “stay at home”.
7th Jan 2021 - The Independent

People may need coronavirus vaccine 'every six months', Matt Hancock says

People may need coronavirus vaccine 'every six months', Matt Hancock has suggested. The Health Secretary was answering questions from MPs on the Health and Social Care Committee. His comments come on the day GP surgeries in England began administering the Oxford/AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine. Mr Hancock also said he believed this would be the last lockdown that was required because of the vaccine roll-out. "There is absolutely no doubt that vaccines and testing will still be a feature next year," he told MPs.
7th Jan 2021 - Manchester Evening News

Some Israeli Arabs, Jerusalem Palestinians wary of coronavirus vaccine

As Israel leads the world in the rate of coronavirus vaccination, some of its Arab citizens and Palestinians in annexed East Jerusalem are regarding the shot with suspicion. In what officials see as a result of misinformation about possible side effects or supposed malicious properties, turnout for vaccines has been low among Arabs, who make up 21% of Israel’s population, and Jerusalem Palestinians. “I will not be vaccinated because I don’t know what is in there. No one explained it to me,” said Marouf Alyino of East Jerusalem. “Everyone is looking at Facebook and social media, where we hear about someone dying (after getting vaccinated).”
7th Jan 2021 - Reuters UK

Patients refusing Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine to 'wait for English jab', doctor claims

People are reportedly delaying getting the potentially life-saving jab as the UK hit the highest number of coronavirus deaths today since the first wave in April
7th Jan 2021 - The Mirror

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 7th Jan 2021

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Leak of November lockdown plan linked to 'surge in new infections'

The leak of plans for a November lockdown in England to the media approximately a week before restrictions came into force has been linked by researchers to a jump in Covid-19 cases caused by people rushing to socialise before the deadline. “There was a surge in new infections starting a couple of days before the lockdown – and running for about a week or so after the lockdown was implemented,” said the study’s lead author, Paul Hunter, a professor in medicine at the University of East Anglia.
6th Jan 2021 - The Guardian

Retreat of the UK coronavirus lockdown skeptics

What a difference a month (and a new strain of coronavirus) makes. The last time MPs held a major vote on coronavirus measures, on December 1, it prompted the biggest rebellion of Boris Johnson’s premiership with 55 of his backbenchers voting against new restrictions. When the House of Commons is asked to vote on the new national lockdown on Wednesday, any such backlash among the lockdown-skeptic wing of Johnson’s party is likely to be much smaller, several MPs predicted, with a number of former rebels saying they would now back the government.
6th Jan 2021 - POLITICO.eu

Covid lockdown England: Met Police arrest rule-breakers in London

From today across England it is illegal to leave home without a 'reasonable excuse' such as essential shopping - Scotland Yard arrests suspects in Parliament Square and seven outside Assange case including Eric Levy, 92 - Boris Johnson will give statement to the Commons today ahead of a vote on his lockdown measures tonight - Police have warned they will be taking a tougher line on enforcing the rules with fines issued more quickly - But some officers say it will be impossible to fine every lockdown-flouter as people lie about why they're out
6th Jan 2021 - Daily Mail

'No law can order us': Greek Christians defy COVID ban on Epiphany services

Greek Christian churches held Epiphany services on Wednesday, openly defying government coronavirus restrictions that banned public gatherings including religious ceremonies on one of the most important days of the Orthodox calendar. Despite a plea by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis for Church authorities to set an example during a crisis that has killed more than 5,000 in Greece, worshippers attended morning services, although limits were placed on the number allowed into churches at one time. “State orders are one thing and faith is another,” said a 38-year-old worshipper who gave her name as Stavroula, after attending morning service at a church in the outskirts of Athens. “No law can order us what to do.”
6th Jan 2021 - Reuters UK

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 6th Jan 2021

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US pharmacist 'tried to ruin Covid vaccine' because of safety fears, court told

Steven Brandenburg was detained following an investigation into spoiled vials of the Moderna jab, which would have inoculated 500 people. A US pharmacist convinced the world was “crashing down” told police he tried to ruin hundreds of doses of coronavirus vaccine because he believed the shots would mutate people’s DNA. Court documents from Wisconsin showed pharmacist Steven Brandenburg was detained following an investigation into the 57 spoiled vials of the Moderna vaccine, which officials say contained enough doses to inoculate more than 500 people.
5th Jan 2021 - Wales Online

Covid-19: England lockdown looms as hospital ejects 'Covid deniers'

A group of Covid-19 "deniers" were removed from a hospital by security guards after going there to take pictures of empty corridors to post on social media to back up their claims that there is no crisis, according to its chief executive. Describing the incident at Colchester Hospital, where the intensive care unit is running at maximum capacity because of the virus, Nick Hulme said it "beggars belief" some people were calling the pandemic a hoax. "Of course there are empty corridors at the weekend in outpatients, because that's the right thing to do," he added.
5th Jan 2021 - BBC News

I won’t make the same mistakes again: Milan mayor on his green Covid recovery plan

Milan’s mayor, Beppe Sala, admits he made mistakes. In late February 2020, a week after the first locally transmitted coronavirus case was confirmed in Italy, he shared a promotional video on his Facebook page with the slogan “Milan does not stop”. The clip contained images of people hugging, eating in restaurants, walking in parks and waiting at train stations. It was not Sala’s finest hour.
5th Jan 2021 - The Guardian

Italy’s 5Star Movement learns to love coronavirus vaccines

Italy, the first European country to see its hospitals overflow with coronavirus cases, is rolling out vaccines that many hope will mark the beginning of the end of the crushing pandemic. But the country faces an uphill battle to immunize its population — one of the most vaccine-skeptical in Europe — especially given that one of its ruling parties has long expressed such doubts itself. The populist 5Star Movement, which governs with the center-left Democratic Party, voiced vaccine skepticism as far back as 1998, when Beppe Grillo, the movement's founder and its former leader, questioned the use of vaccines in a televised skit in front of a live audience.
5th Jan 2021 - POLITICO.eu

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Greece's Orthodox Church defies Epiphany lockdown order

Greece’s Orthodox Church said on Monday it would defy a government lockdown order imposed to limit the spread of the coronavirus and open churches to the faithful during the Epiphany celebration on Jan. 6. Greece tightened coronavirus curbs for a week from Sunday and reversed an earlier decision to allow Epiphany services after hospitals struggled to deal with a flood of new cases. The Greek Orthodox Church said it had written to the government urging it to respect the agreement allowing Epiphany services to go ahead.
4th Jan 2021 - Reuters

Greek Orthodox church to defy lockdown by opening for Epiphany

The Greek Orthodox church has announced it will defy government lockdown orders aimed at curbing the spread of coronavirus and open places of worship to mark Epiphany this Wednesday. After an emergency session of the holy synod, its governing body, senior clerics said they would press ahead as planned and celebrate the baptism of Christ on 6 January. “The synod does not agree with the new government measures regarding the operation of places of worship and insists on what was originally agreed with the state,” the ecclesiastical body said in a statement. “It asks that the aforementioned decision be absolutely respected by the state without further ado taking into consideration … that all the foreseen hygiene measures were upheld by clerics in thousands of churches across Greece.”
4th Jan 2021 - The Guardian

Skiers ignore Covid lockdown rules in Scotland to flock to Cairngorm Mountain

Skiers from Tier 3 and 4 areas of England ignored Covid-19 lockdown rules by travelling to Cairngorm Mountain, blocking access to roads - despite the snow resort being closed under a lockdown on the Scottish mainland. The Highlands snow resort closed following an announcement that mainland Scotland was entering Tier 4 from Boxing Day. Operators at the resort say they had seen visitors arrive from across the UK, including parts of England in Tier 3 and Tier 4, despite a Government ban on all but essential travel. Blocked roads and snowy conditions at the foot of the mountain came ahead of Nicola Sturgeon's announcement today that Scotland will be plunged back into a national coronavirus lockdown.
4th Jan 2021 - Daily Mail

Education unions call for ‘pause’ in school reopenings as councils defy government

Half a dozen unions representing teachers and support staff have called on the government to "pause" its "chaotic" reopening of schools, as councils across the country move to defy ministers. Local authorities in some areas of England say they will unilaterally keep their primary schools shut, ignoring orders from Whitehall on public health grounds. Conservative-controlled Essex is among local authorities to recommend the continued closure of its primary schools, despite government designs that some would reopen as planned on Monday.
4th Jan 2021 - The Independent

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Tony Blair says UK should target five million vaccinations a week to get the country out of lockdown

The UK should be aiming to administer five million Covid-19 vaccinations a week, Tony Blair has said. Mr Blair urged ministers to change “completely” the UK’s strategy in tackling the virus and said the vaccination programme needed to be beefed up “very, very fast” if we are to avoid remaining in a “severe lockdown”. Since the rollout of the Pfizer/BioNTech jab nearly a month ago more than one million people in the UK have received their first dose of the vaccine. The rollout of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine begins on Monday.
4th Jan 2021 - iNews

Schools are safe, say PM Johnson as COVID-19 cases surge

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Sunday tougher lockdown restrictions were probably on the way as COVID-19 cases keep rising, but that schools were safe and children should continue to attend where permitted. COVID-19 cases in Britain are at record levels and the increase in numbers is fuelled by a new and more transmissible variant of the virus. The government has cancelled the planned reopening of schools in and around London but teaching unions want wider closures.
4th Jan 2021 - Reuters UK

Pope criticises people going on holiday to flee COVID lockdowns

Pope Francis condemned on Sunday people who had gone abroad on holiday to escape coronavirus lockdowns, saying they needed to show greater awareness of the suffering of others. Speaking after his weekly noon blessing, Francis said he had read newspaper reports of people catching flights to flee government curbs and seek fun elsewhere. “They didn’t think about those who were staying at home, of the economic problems of many people who have been hit hard by the lockdown, of the sick people. (They thought) only about going on holiday and having fun,” the pope said. “This really saddened me,” he said in a video address
4th Jan 2021 - Reuters UK

World Faces Covid-19 “Vaccine Apartheid”

Argentina, South Africa, Brazil, and Turkey will have to be satisfied with Pfizer’s gratitude, because (like most countries in the world) they won’t be receiving enough of the vaccine to inoculate their populations, at least not anytime soon. Meanwhile, the U.S. and Germany — along with Canada and the rest of the European Union — have contracted for enough doses of various Covid-19 vaccines to inoculate their populations several times over.
2nd Jan 2021 - The Intercept

Dr. Fauci advises against the British approach of delaying a second dose of vaccine

Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, told CNN on Friday that the United States would not follow Britain’s lead in front-loading first vaccine injections, potentially delaying the administration of second doses. Britain announced a plan this week to delay second shots of its two authorized vaccines, developed by Pfizer and AstraZeneca, in an attempt to dole out to more people the partial protection conferred by a single dose. “I would not be in favor of that,” Dr. Fauci told CNN’s Elizabeth Cohen, regarding altering dosing schedules for the vaccines authorized for use in the United States, made by Pfizer and Moderna. “We’re going to keep doing what we’re doing.”
1st Jan 2021 - The New York Times

Romney: Lack of comprehensive vaccine distribution plan is 'inexcusable' | TheHill

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) slammed federal distribution of the coronavirus vaccine on Friday, calling the lack of a comprehensive strategy “inexcusable.” Romney called the unprecedented rapid vaccine development “a tribute to the [National Institutes of Health], the [Food and Drug Administration] and to the professionals in the pharmaceutical industry.” However, he said, “unlike the development of the vaccines, the vaccination process itself is falling behind. It was unrealistic to assume that the health care workers already overburdened with COVID care could take on a massive vaccination program. So too is the claim that CVS and Walgreens will save the day: they don’t have excess personnel available to inoculate millions of Americans.”
1st Jan 2021 - The Hill

Covid-19 in Scotland: All Scots over 50 will receive vaccine by the spring

All Scots over the age of 50 will receive the coronavirus vaccine by the spring, the health secretary has promised. The first doses of the Oxford University-Astrazeneca shot will be administered from Monday. Jeane Freeman said that initially the injections would be given in a supervised setting near hospitals but would then move to GP surgeries and community hubs
31st Dec 2020 - The Times

Some Doctors in Britain Plan to Defy Instructions to Delay Vaccine Booster Shots

Some family doctors in Britain said on Thursday that they would defy the government’s instructions to postpone patients’ appointments for a second dose of coronavirus vaccine, a signal of unease in the medical community over Britain’s new plan to delay second shots as a way of giving more people the partial protection of a single dose. British doctors, who have been instructed to begin rescheduling second-dose appointments that had been set for next week, said they were loath to ask older, vulnerable patients to wait an extra two months for their booster shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. They said those patients had been counting on having the full protection of two doses, had already arranged for caregivers to help them get to their doctors’ offices, and could ill afford to rely on a new and untested vaccination strategy.
31st Dec 2020 - The New York Times

Sluggish Covid-19 vaccine campaign raises spectre of US dysfunction; states rewriting priorities

US health officials acknowledged that a Covid-19 immunisation campaign is crawling out of the starting gate, raising the prospect that the nation's all-in bet on vaccines could be afflicted by the same dysfunction that hobbled other measures to contain the pandemic. Only about 2.7 million Americans had been vaccinated as of Wednesday evening (Dec 30) in New York, according to Bloomberg's vaccine tracker. With one day remaining in the year, that represented roughly 13.5 per cent of the US's stated goal of immunising 20 million Americans by the end of 2020 - a number already repeatedly reduced.
30th Dec 2020 - The Straits Times

Some think Moderna VIPS may cut the line to get scarce Covid-19 vaccine

When biotech company Moderna announced Tuesday that it planned to offer its workforce a chance to get vaccinated with its recently authorized Covid-19 vaccine, their decision raised some eyebrows. In addition to employees, the company said it would offer shots to its board members and the “adult household members of our team.” Moderna’s decision calls into question whether there are loopholes that will allow some people to cut the proverbial line to get their shot. “What it appears to be is, privilege and power gaining priority access to the vaccine,” said Dr. William Moss, executive director of the International Vaccine Access Center at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Nancy Berlinger, a research scholar at The Hastings Center, a nonprofit think tank, agreed. “It’s a rather problematic example that [the vaccine] is going to go to the VIPs first rather than to rank and file. You can imagine people are watching this pretty closely,” she said.
30th Dec 2020 - KYMA

Questions over Britain's decision to drop two-dose vaccine regimen

Pfizer warned today there is 'no data' to show a single dose of its coronavirus vaccine provides long-term protection, after the UK scrapped its original jab rollout plan. The UK medical regulator is now recommending Covid jabs are given in two doses three months apart, rather than over the intended four-week period, to allow millions more people to be immunised over a shorter time period. But Pfizer said there was 'no data' in its studies to show its vaccine protects against Covid when taken 12 weeks apart. In a thinly-veiled swipe at the UK, the US firm warned that any 'alternative' dosing regimens should be closely monitored by health authorities. 'Data from the phase three study demonstrated that, although partial protection from the vaccine appears to begin as early as 12 days after the first dose, two doses of the vaccine are required to provide the maximum protection against the disease, a vaccine efficacy of 95 per cent,' Pfizer said in a statement. 'There are no data to demonstrate that protection after the first dose is sustained after 21 days.'
30th Dec 2020 - Daily Mail

Israel leads the world in vaccination drive with 7% getting a dose

Israel has already given a dose of the vaccine to 644,000 of its 8.7million people Bahrain is second in the per-capita table, followed by the UK, US and Canada UK today became the first in the world to approve the Oxford/AstraZeneca shot
30th Dec 2020 - Daily Mail

Operation Warp Speed chief says Covid vaccine distribution 'should be better' as U.S. misses goal

The United States will not inoculate as many people against the coronavirus as it had originally hoped for by the end of this year, Moncef Slaoui, chief advisor of Operation Warp Speed, said. There are now more than 14 million doses of vaccine distributed across the U.S., the operations logistics chief said. That’s far short of the original goal of injecting at least 20 million Americans with their first shots before the end of the year.
30th Dec 2020 - CNBC

Covid vaccine scam: Fake NHS appointment texts are being used by scammers to con people out of money

Elderly people and other vulnerable Brits have been warned to be on the lookout for a cruel coronavirus phone scam that steals their cash. Fraudsters are taking advantage of the NHS Covid-19 vaccine rollout by sending convincing text messages to scam financial information.
29th Dec 2020 - The Sun

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Spain to Create a Register of People Who Refuse Covid-19 Vaccine

European governments are planning to track the number of people getting Covid-19 vaccines to help chart a path out of the crisis. France will have a registry of people who get vaccinated, and Spain will track people who refuse to get inoculated against the disease, which has caused more than 400,000 deaths in Europe. In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government is considering legislation to ensure unvaccinated people are treated fairly as the economy begins to open up. More than 21,000 people in the country have already received the shot developed by Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE.
29th Dec 2020 - Bloomberg

China Covid-19: How state media and censorship took on coronavirus

At the start of the year the Chinese government faced two major challenges; an unknown disease which threatened to tear through its population and a wave of voices online telling the world what was happening. By the end of 2020, a glance at Chinese state-controlled media shows that both appear to be under control. The BBC's Kerry Allen and Zhaoyin Feng take a look back at the country's online government censors who worked harder than ever to supress negative information, the citizens that managed to break through the Great Firewall, and how the propaganda machine re-wrote the narrative.
29th Dec 2020 - BBC News

China sentences citizen journalist to four years in prison for Wuhan lockdown reports

A citizen journalist who documented the desperation of residents in Wuhan at the height of China's coronavirus outbreak was sentenced to four years in prison Monday in a case that underlined Beijing's extreme sensitivity to criticism of its pandemic response. In a closed-door trial that lasted less than three hours, authorities in Shanghai handed down the sentence to Zhang Zhan, 37, for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” a charge often used against dissidents.
29th Dec 2020 - Washington Post

How conspiracy theories led a 'fringe scientist' to escape quarantine

Trapped under quarantine and ravaged by allergies in a Perth hotel room, Jenny D'Ubios slid into an internet vortex of conspiracy theories in the week before her Boxing Day escape. The self-described "fringe scientist" shared with her Facebook followers articles about the dangers of 5G, a post by an anti-fluoride group that suggested coronavirus was a hoax, a video about the COVID-19 test (which was blocked by Facebook) and support for Reignite Democracy Australia, an activist group that sprang up in protest against the Melbourne lockdown.
29th Dec 2020 - Sydney Morning Herald

Russian riot police arrest renegade priest in raid on convent

Riot police in Russia arrested a renegade priest in the early hours of Tuesday in a raid on a convent he had seized control of and accused him of driving children to suicide, according to his lawyer. Father Sergiy, whose real name is Nikolai Romanov, gained prominence earlier this year after denying the existence of the COVID-19 pandemic, railing against church closures due to the lockdown, and criticising the Russian Orthodox Church. He seized control of the Sredneuralsky women’s monastery near Yekaterinburg in the Urals in June and refused to leave.
29th Dec 2020 - Reuters UK

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The perverse political effects of Covid-19

The PRC’s success in largely suppressing the disease stands in marked contrast with the terrible toll that Covid-19 has taken on the west. But politics moves in unexpected ways. Paradoxically, there is a strong case to be made that both the US and the EU may also end up being politically strengthened by Covid-19.
28th Dec 2020 - The Financial Times

EU's Borrell accuses Russia of spreading COVID-19 disinformation to sell its vaccine

The European Union’s top diplomat said on Monday that Russian public media had spread false information on European and American COVID-19 vaccines in countries where it wants to sell its own shot against the coronavirus. “Western vaccine developers are openly mocked on multi-lingual Russian state-controlled media, which has in some cases led to absurd claims that vaccines will turn people into monkeys,” Josep Borrell said in a blog post. “Such narratives are apparently directed at countries where Russia wants to sell its own vaccine, Sputnik V,” Borrell added, noting that these moves threatened public health amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
28th Dec 2020 - Reuters

In Hungary, politicization of vaccine hangs over immunization efforts

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has spent months boasting that Hungary was working harder than other EU countries to secure vaccines against the coronavirus, even jumping the gun to start vaccinating a day earlier than other member states. That move — disregarding the European Commission's plan for a coordinated bloc-wide rollout of the jab on December 27 — will likely be seen as an attempt to undermine the EU's vaccination strategy. It comes after Orbán complained that European regulators were taking too long to approve the vaccine and claimed that Hungary would be the first country in Europe to use Russian and Chinese shots. But months later, Hungary has no Russian or Chinese vaccine and Orbán's critics say he might have undermined confidence in getting vaccinated at all.
27th Dec 2020 - POLITICO.eu

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Surgeon general on why Donald Trump hasn't had COVID-19 vaccine

Jerome Adams was vaccinated on television on Friday along with Mike Pence. On Sunday Adams explained why the president has not yet been vaccinated. Trump had COVID in the last 90 days and had been treated with antibodies. Adams said that his recent treatment may make it wise medically to wait. Fauci agreed, saying last week that he hopes Trump will 'ultimately' get the jab
21st Dec 2020 - Daily Mail

Trump encouraged to get Covid vaccine to ‘generate more confidence’ in jab

Admiral Brett Giroir, a top US health official overseeing the coronavirus testing, said he would encourage Donald Trump to get vaccinated against Covid-19 to boost confidence amongst people after a recent poll suggested that half of Republicans are not in favour of getting vaccinated. “I think any leader who is influential over groups of individuals should have the vaccine,” Mr Giroir told ABC’s This Week. “I would encourage the president to get a vaccine for his own health and safety, and also to generate more confidence among the people who follow him so closely," he said. According to a Gallop survey released this month, only 50 per cent of Republicans are willing to get inoculated as against 73 per cent of Democrats.
21st Dec 2020 - The Independent

‘Start with a virus’: Trump suggests Covid-19 was invented to cost him the 2020 election

Continuing his bid to raise doubts over the election results, President Trump on Sunday retweeted a video containing several conspiracy theories around the 2020 race with a bizarre take on the origin of the coronavirus claiming it was engineered to tarnish his image. The video posted by an anonymous account called @a17time which tweets in support of President Trump showcases a string of claims starting from the origin of Covid-19 and leading to the 2020 polling and the election results. The video opens with the title in bold “How to steal an election” and voiceover says: "Start with a virus, import it into America, talk about it nonstop, call some governors, put patients into nursing homes, kill thousands, blame the president, keep blaming, blame some more," the narrator says, while shots of crowded hospitals and cemeteries play in the background.
21st Dec 2020 - The Independent

Boris Johnson facing growing anger from Tory MPs over new Covid rules

Boris Johnson is facing increasing pressure from MPs in his own party who are angry at how the government dramatically cancelled the Christmas plans for millions of people. One senior Conservative MP even accused ministers of avoiding parliamentary scrutiny by delaying the announcement until the Commons had closed for the festive period. Others called for parliament to be recalled to debate the new measures, which could see many living under new tougher tier 4 restrictions for months. Ministers insist they acted swiftly after they were informed of how contagious a new strain of the disease was on Friday.
21st Dec 2020 - The Independent

Anti-lockdown protesters arrested as hundreds gather in central London just hours before tier 4 announcement

Despite Police urging people to not gather in large groups less than a week before Christmas hundreds ofanti-lockdown protestors took stance at Parliament Square
21st Dec 2020 - The Independent

Sky News Australia is increasingly pushing conspiracy theories to a global audience online

As Australians look back on 2020, they will remember the defeat of Donald Trump, who was never popular in their country. But they may also reflect on how parts of Australia’s media, including some ostensibly subject to government regulation, have become effective second fronts in the Trumpist culture wars. A key example is Sky News Australia. For years the channel was little more than an oddity: an artefact of broadcasting regulation, only watched by momentarily distracted channel-hoppers, travellers beset by airport delays, and those involved in the dismal craft of professional politics. Around 2013, while daily programming went on as usual, at night the channel was given over to a pretty sad bunch of hard-right ideologues. One program in particular, Outsiders, became a kind of revolving door for white male reactionaries in the twilight of their relevance, whom Sky would finally put out to pasture after an unforced gaffe.
21st Dec 2020 - The Guardian

Anti-vaxxers Think This Is Their Moment

For almost as long as humanity has had vaccines, it has also had propagandists who try to scare people out of using them. Among the many medical questions contemplated in the journal The Lancet in the late 1890s and early 1900s—“Grey Hair and Emotional States,” “In Praise of Rum and Milk,” “On the Value of Cheese as a Dietetic Resource in Diabetes Mellitus”—are letters debating the efficacy of the smallpox vaccine, the age at which children should get it, the risk of the vaccine relative to the disease, and the extent to which local authorities should enforce compulsory vaccination in case of outbreaks.
21st Dec 2020 - The Atlantic

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 21st Dec 2020

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Bolosonaro says Covid vaccine may turn people into crocodiles in bizarre rant

Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro has again lashed out at coronavirus vaccines, saying that Pfizer’s shot could turn people into crocodiles, among other bizarre claims. During the outlandish rant on Thursday, Mr Bolsonaro suggested that the vaccine could also lead to women growing facial hair and men speaking with effeminate voices.
20th Dec 2020 - The Independent

New national lockdown in Britain not inevitable, says minister

A new national lockdown is not inevitable in Britain to stop the spread of a new variant of coronavirus, health minister Matt Hancock said on Sunday, adding that tighter restrictions in London and southeast England should help curb the disease. Asked on the BBC’s Andrew Marr show whether a national lockdown was inevitable, Hancock said: “Not necessarily, one of the reasons we brought in the strict travel movements in tier 4 ... is to try to stop this new variant from spreading.”
20th Dec 2020 - Reuters

Sir Paul McCartney says he’ll get coronavirus vaccine as soon as he’s allowed as it ‘will get us out of this’

Sir Paul McCartney has told how he will have the coronavirus vaccine as soon as he is able to. The former Beatle, 78, said that "the vaccine will get us out of this,” saying that it is “great news” the process is now under way. However, Sir Paul said there are still challenges lying ahead. "I mean it's going to be very difficult for a while yet, because you can't just lock down a whole country unless you're China," he told The Sun.
19th Dec 2020 - Evening Standard

Covid: The countries worried they won't get the vaccine

Pictures of the first people being vaccinated against Covid-19 haven't filled everyone around the world with joy. In some places - in countries such as Zimbabwe, Mexico and Pakistan - the battle to get hold of the vaccine is likely to be long and tortuous. Watching the vaccine roll out in the UK, Lois Chingandu wasn't excited - she was worried. Like most of us, she's looking forward to getting vaccinated and getting life back to normal. But unlike many people right now, she doesn't see light at the end of the tunnel. It's not clear when her country, Zimbabwe, will get a vaccine. "It's now just an issue of sitting and hoping if we will get it in my lifetime," she says. "I live in fear that I will contract Covid and die because of where I am sitting." It may sound like an exaggeration, but she has seen something very similar happen before.
19th Dec 2020 - BBC News

'You let them put the fear on you': Van Morrison teams with Eric Clapton for anti-lockdown song

Van Morrison has crafted yet another anti-lockdown tune, this time teaming with Eric Clapton. "Stand and Deliver," which dropped Friday, was written by Morrison and performed by Clapton. Proceeds from the blues track will go to Morrison’s Save Live Music campaign benefitting those working in the music industry in the UK and Ireland. “Eric’s recording is fantastic and will clearly resonate with the many who share our frustrations,” Morrison told Variety. “It is heart-breaking to see so many talented musicians lack any meaningful support from the government, but we want to reassure them that we are working hard every day to lobby for the return of live music, and to save our industry.”
18th Dec 2020 - USA TODAY

Rupert Murdoch Gets Covid-19 Vaccine While Profiting Off Virus Misinformation

ert Murdoch, the News Corp mogul behind The SUn and The Times, as well as Fox News, received the Covid-19 vaccine on Friday, even as hosts on his US network stoke fears about it and spread vaccine misinformation. Murdoch, 89, received the coronavirus vaccine on Friday in the UK, where people over 80 years of age are being prioritised for the vaccine. “I would like to thank the keyworkers and the [National Health Service] staff who have worked so hard throughout the pandemic, and the amazing scientists who have made this vaccine possible,” he said in a statement from a representative for News Corp, of which he is chairman. “I strongly encourage people around the world to get the vaccine as it becomes available.” Murdoch may be talking up the vaccine now, but it’s a different story on Fox News in the US, which Murdoch founded and currently oversees as the Fox Corporation chairman. “I would like to thank the keyworkers and the [National Health Service] staff who have worked so hard throughout the pandemic, and the amazing scientists who have made this vaccine possible,” he said in a statement from a representative for News Corp, of which he is chairman. “I strongly encourage people around the world to get the vaccine as it becomes available.”
18th Dec 2020 - HuffPost UK

French Ski Industry Protests Holiday Lockdown And Fears A Lost Season In 2021

The ongoing pandemic has mountain regions, whose economies remain heavily dependent on the flux of tourists, fearing for their financial futures. Although the government has pledged financial support, many worry that stations that have already suffered several difficult years won’t make it through this crisis. So far, the pleas for a relaxation of the lockdown are falling on deaf ears. The French government is walking a dangerous line between reopening the country for holiday travel even as COVID cases are trending back up.
18th Dec 2020 - Forbes

Belgian minister tweets EU's Covid vaccine price list to anger of manufacturers

A Belgian minister has blown the lid off a sensitive and commercial secret – the price that the EU has agreed to pay for the leading Covid vaccines. Belgium’s budget state secretary, Eva De Bleeker, posted the price list on Twitter, with the amounts of each vaccine that her country intends to buy from the EU. The tweet was quickly deleted, but not soon enough to prevent interested parties taking screenshots, which have now made it public knowledge.
18th Dec 2020 - The Guardian

Rupert Murdoch receives dose of Covid vaccine in UK

Rupert Murdoch has become the latest public figure to have the coronavirus vaccine, visiting his local GP’s surgery late on Wednesday to receive his first dose. A convoy of Range Rovers delivered the 89-year-old billionaire to a dedicated vaccine centre in Henley, Oxfordshire, where normal hours are understood to have been extended at the last minute. An email was sent out saying: “Just a reminder – we have been advised ‘no media coverage’ due to security issues. Please note that photography and video are strictly forbidden.” A statement issued on behalf of Murdoch, the executive chairman of News Corp, said he “had the vaccine at his local GP’s surgery after he received a call saying he was eligible”.
18th Dec 2020 - The Guardian

How coincidental deaths of elderly people could fuel disinformation about Covid-19 vaccine

Experts have voiced concerns that bad actors could seize upon an anticipated spate of coincidental deaths among those who get the jab to spread fear and misinformation. Stuart McDonald of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries told the BBC programme How to Vaccinate the World: “The largest priority group is the group aged 80 plus, and the average person within that group is around age 85. Life expectancy is not particularly long at that age.”
18th Dec 2020 - iNews

Oxford professor warns Covid could mutate and render vaccine useless

An Oxford professor has warned Covid mutations could render a vaccine useless. Richard Moxon - founder of the Oxford Vaccine Group - claimed that a mutation may 'suddenly change the behaviour of the virus', making it either more severe or render a jab useless. But he stressed that fears about the impact of mutations on a vaccine are currently 'unfounded'. Professor Moxon said SARS-CoV-2, the strain of coronavirus behind Covid, has gone through many changes since it was first reported. None of which have been proven to affect the efficacy of any jab. The Covid vaccine protects against the disease by teaching the immune system how to fight off the pathogen. It creates antibodies - disease-fighting proteins made and stored to fight off invaders in the future by latching onto their spike proteins. But if they are unable to recognise proteins because they have mutated, it means the body may struggle to attack a virus the second time and lead to a second infection.
18th Dec 2020 - Daily Mail

Covid vaccine volunteer struck by lightning after Moderna injection

A volunteer who signed up for Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine trial was struck by lightning 28 days after receiving the injection. That 72 year-old volunteer, whose name and gender have been withheld, met with the freak accident after getting an actual shot of Moderna’s vaccine, rather than the placedo, during the second phase of the vaccine’s trials. The bizarre incident was revealed in the US Food and Drug Administration’s written media briefing into the safety of Moderna’s new vaccine. Doctors diagnosed the lightning strike victim with arrhythmia – an irregular heart beat – believed to have been caused by the strike. No further updates have been provided on the volunteer’s condition.
18th Dec 2020 - Metro.co.uk

Covid vaccine rollout 'unfair' as 'forgotten' disabled people forced to wait

A man claims he and other disabled people are being forgotten as the coronavirus vaccine continues to be rolled out. People with learning disabilities are believed to be up to 30 times more likely to die if they contract Covid-19 but Richard Wilson, 34, has been told he must wait until the end of the worlds-largest vaccination programme to be immunised. Earlier this year, Mr Wilson, 34, who has Cerebral Palsy, made nearly 40 face masks for residents and staff at his Apple Tree House care home in Beverley using a 3D printer.
18th Dec 2020 - Hull Live

Pelosi and McConnell receive Covid vaccine as shots are reserved for senior U.S. officials

Congress, the Supreme Court, and executive branch agencies will receive a small number of doses for essential personnel under federal plans to ensure continuity of government. Dr. Brian Monahan, the attending physician in Congress, urged lawmakers to sign up for the vaccine. The vaccine likely won’t be available to the general public for months as Pfizer ramps up production.
18th Dec 2020 - CNBC

Russia's Putin says he hasn't had Covid vaccine yet because he's too old

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has called on the public to get the coronavirus vaccine. He said he has yet to receive it himself. Trials are ongoing into the vaccine’s safety and efficacy in the over-60s age group.
18th Dec 2020 - CNBC

Chilean president handed $3,500 fine for mask-less selfie with stranger on beach

Chilean President Sebastian Pinera was slapped with a $3,500 fine on Friday after posing for a selfie on the beach with a bystander without wearing a mask as required during the coronavirus pandemic, health authorities said. Chile has strict rules on mask wearing in all public places and violations are punishable with sanctions that include fines and even jail terms. Pinera apologized then turned himself in shortly after the selfie surfaced on social media in early December.
18th Dec 2020 - Reuters

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 18th Dec 2020

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Debunked COVID-19 myths survive online, despite facts

From speculation that the coronavirus was created in a lab to hoax cures, an overwhelming amount of false information clung to COVID-19 as it circled the globe in 2020. Public health officials, fact checkers and doctors tried to quash hundreds of rumors in myriad ways. But misinformation around the pandemic has endured as vexingly as the virus itself. And with the U.S., U.K. and Canada rolling out vaccinations this month, many falsehoods are seeing a resurgence online. A look at five stubborn myths around COVID-19 that were shared this year and continue to travel:
17th Dec 2020 - The Independent

How France is confronting its big anti-vaxx problem

As it emerges from its second Covid lockdown, France is preparing to roll out one of the biggest vaccination campaigns in its history. The country has been badly battered by the pandemic, tallying 59,000 Covid deaths and 2.39 million cases so far, and the vaccine would finally offer a way out of the ordeal. Yet, Paris will now have to grapple with another alarming reality: France has become one of the most vaccine-sceptical countries in the world.
17th Dec 2020 - Wired.co.uk

‘Nightmare’ Australia Housing Lockdown Called Breach of Human Rights

An ombudsman’s report condemned a rushed lockdown of nine public housing towers in Melbourne that left thousands of residents without adequate food and medication and access to fresh air.
17th Dec 2020 - New York Times

Melbourne tower lockdown 'breached human rights'

The Victorian Ombudsman said while the decision was warranted, the residents affected were entitled to an apology. State political reporter Bridget Rollason and producer Erwin Rinaldi have the story.
17th Dec 2020 - ABC News

Australian state violated human rights in COVID lockdown-report

An Australian state’s decision to lockdown more than 3,000 people in public housing towers to contain a second COVID-19 outbreak was not based on direct health advice and violated human rights, Victoria’s state Ombudsman said in a report. Australia’s second-most populous state, Victoria, locked down nine public housing towers for several days in July due to a surge in coronavirus cases. Victoria’s acting chief health officer had only 15 minutes to consider and approve the lockdown, including the potential human rights impacts, Ombudsman Deborah Glass said in her report released on Thursday.
17th Dec 2020 - Reuters Australia

Palestinians left waiting as Israel is set to deploy vaccine

Israel will begin rolling out a major coronavirus vaccination campaign next week after the prime minister reached out personally to the head of a major drug company. Millions of Palestinians living under Israeli control will have to wait much longer. Worldwide, rich nations are snatching up scarce supplies of new vaccines as poor countries largely rely on a World Health Organization program that has yet to get off the ground. There are few places where the competition is playing out in closer proximity than in Israel and the territories it has occupied for more than half a century.
17th Dec 2020 - Washington Post

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 17th Dec 2020

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Biden to get COVID-19 vaccine next week, Pence to receive it Friday

President-elect Joe Biden will get the coronavirus vaccine as soon as next week, transition officials said on Wednesday, as U.S. authorities try to build public confidence in a measure that promises to stanch the deadly pandemic. Vice President Mike Pence will get the vaccine on Friday, the White House said. Both men will receive the shot publicly in an effort to boost confidence in the safety of the vaccine, which will become widely available to the public next year. “I don’t want to get ahead of the line but I want to make sure that we demonstrate to the American people that it is safe to take,” Biden said at an event earlier on Wednesday. Biden, 78, is in a high-risk category for the coronavirus because of his age.
17th Dec 2020 - Reuters UK

TikTok update targets Covid vaccine misinformation

TikTok is cracking down on Covid-19 vaccine misinformation through a suite of new changes aimed at protecting vulnerable users from harmful conspiracy theories. The video-sharing app will introduce a new tool to detect content relating to the Covid-19 vaccine as part of a series of updates being released later this month. From that date, any relevant videos will come with a banner message attached, stating: “Learn more about Covid-19 vaccines.” Coronavirus vaccinations developed by Pfizer and BioNTech began to be administered in the UK last week and have since begun in the US and other countries.
16th Dec 2020 - The Independent

‘Maskless’ Santa Claus exposes 50 children to Covid-19 in Georgia

A Georgia couple who appeared last week as Mr and Mrs Santa Claus for an event attended by at least 50 children and posed with them for pictures, tested positive for coronavirus two days after the event, exposing them to risk of infection. Most of the children came in close contact with the couple and some of them even sat on their laps. The pictures from the event also showed the man dressed up as Santa Claus posing without a mask on.
16th Dec 2020 - The Independent

French culture takes centre stage in Covid protest

Hundreds of actors, theatre directors, musicians, film technicians and critics, and many others from the world of French culture gathered in the heart of Paris and other cities on Tuesday to protest against the government's shutdown of culture venues because of Covid-19. Cinemas, theatres, museums and concert halls had been set to reopen, but days in advance Prime Minister Jean Castex announced a change of heart in response to France's stubbornly high infection rate. No reopening will take place now until at least 7 January - a decision Mr Castex said was "particularly painful for us".
16th Dec 2020 - BBC

Ukraine says dozens of police hurt in clashes with lockdown protesters

One police officer was knocked unconscious and 40 others received chemical eye burns from gas on Tuesday in clashes between police and thousands of people protesting a government lockdown to fight the coronavirus, the interior ministry said. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s government has announced a tight national lockdown starting in January to fight the spread of COVID-19, in the wake of a recent spike in cases. At a rally of entrepreneurs and representatives of small businesses on Kyiv’s Independence Square, clashes between helmeted riot police and demonstrators erupted after the protesters tried to set up tents.
16th Dec 2020 - Reuters UK

Amazon asks U.S. to include warehouse, grocery staff in vaccine rollout

Amazon.com Inc on Wednesday asked the U.S. government to prioritize essential workers including its warehouse, grocery store and data center staff for receipt of the COVID-19 vaccine, according to a letter seen by Reuters. The request shows how the country’s second-biggest private employer, with 800,000 workers in the United States, considers the vaccine important to keeping its staff safe and its facilities open. The U.S. National Retail Federation made a similar request on the industry’s behalf Wednesday as well.
16th Dec 2020 - Reuters

After experts criticized its approach, Facebook overhauls its Covid-19 misinformation policy

Facebook has overhauled its approach to harmful Covid-19 health misinformation, announcing major changes that would send a much stronger message to users who have interacted with harmful falsehoods about the virus. The decision on Tuesday comes after STAT reported in May on expert criticism of the social network’s handling of falsehoods about Covid-19 from the researchers whom Facebook said it had consulted to design the policy. Those experts told STAT that Facebook appeared to have misinterpreted the research and that the social media platform’s approach was unlikely to be effective.
16th Dec 2020 - STAT News

Kansas mayor resigns after threats over backing mask mandate

Dodge City Mayor Joyce Warshaw stepped down over concerns for her safety. She received threats after she advocated mask mandates in a USA Today story. Warshaw said 'people are not acting normally' during the pandemic. Despite resigning, she said she doesn't regret backing the mask mandate
16th Dec 2020 - Daily Mail

WhatsApp rumours fear over BAME Covid vaccine take up

People from ethnic minorities in the UK are significantly less likely to take the coronavirus vaccine - with warnings of targeted online scaremongering. A study from the Royal Society for Public Health found 57% of black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) people said they would take the vaccine. This compared with 79% of white people who would take a Covid vaccine. Vaccine minister Nadhim Zahawi warned of the impact of conspiracy theories being shared online.
16th Dec 2020 - BBC

Analysis: After the cheers come jeers for Germany's Merkel over COVID-19

Chancellor Angela Merkel banged the podium in frustration as she implored Germans this month to reduce social contacts to curb the spread of COVID-19. At one point in her unusually passionate address to parliament, during which she was heckled, she brought her hands together as if in prayer. At others, she shook her fist. “I want to say this: if we have too much contact over Christmas, and afterwards it turns out that that was the last Christmas with the grandparents, then we will have really messed up and we should not mess up!” she said. Merkel’s rare show of emotion on Dec. 9 was widely seen as a sign of impatience with the difficulties - and now criticism - she faces as she tries to steer Europe’s biggest economy through a second wave of COVID-19.
16th Dec 2020 - Reuters

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 16th Dec 2020

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COVID-19 vaccine costs could reach £12bn, as drug companies demand immunity from potential legal cases

Up to 267 million doses of COVID vaccines were purchased by the government at a cost of £2.9 billion, according to the public spending watchdog. And the National Audit Office (NAO) estimates the total cost of buying and deploying vaccines - and investing in global access schemes - could reach £11.7bn.
16th Dec 2020 - Sky News

France’s culture sector protests as theatres, museums remain in lockdown

French cultural actors and organisations have protested after the government's decision to leave venues such as theatres, cinemas and museums closed for another three weeks, at least until 7 January, despite lifting the second Covid-19 lockdown on Tuesday. In France, 15 December marks the lifting of the six-week-long second lockdown. But cultural venues have been left out. The decision provoked anger across the sector, with the CGT-spectacle union calling a demonstration at Paris's Place de la Bastille on Tuesday. Demonstrators chanted "open up theatres", "open cinemas" and "lift the lockdown on culture".
15th Dec 2020 - Yahoo News UK

Many African, Asian families marry off daughters amid virus

The man first caught a glimpse of Marie Kamara as she ran with her friends past his house near the village primary school. Soon after, he proposed to the fifth-grader. “I’m going to school now. I don’t want to get married and stay in the house,” she told him. But the pressures of a global pandemic on this remote corner of Sierra Leone were greater than the wishes of a schoolgirl. Nearby mining operations had slowed with the global economy. Business fell off at her stepfather’s tailoring shop, where outfits he had sewn now gathered dust. The family needed money. Her suitor was a small-scale miner in his mid-20s, but his parents could provide rice for Marie’s four younger sisters and access to their watering hole. They could pay cash. Before long, Marie was seated on a floor mat in a new dress as his family presented hers with 500,000 leones ($50) inside a calabash bowl along with the traditional kola nut
15th Dec 2020 - The Associated Press

California orders 5,000 body bags amid "most intense" coronavirus surge

California has ordered 5,000 body bags as the state undergoes its "most intense" COVID-19 surge to date, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Tuesday. Why it matters: California saw 32,326 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday and has reached a 14-day average positivity rate of 10.7%, its highest since the pandemic began. With daily COVID deaths four times higher than they were just a month ago, the state has placed 60 53-foot refrigerated storage units on standby and activated its coroner mutual aid and mass fatality program.
15th Dec 2020 - Axios

2.7 billion people did not get state aid during pandemic: Oxfam

The COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown measures to contain it have hit millions of people hard, with poverty set to increase sharply in almost every country for the first time in decades unless action is taken now, according to a new report by Oxfam. Hundreds of millions of people have lost their jobs and income, and 2.7 billion people have not received any public financial support to deal with the economic devastation caused by the coronavirus pandemic, Oxfam said in the report published on Tuesday.
15th Dec 2020 - AlJazeera

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 15th Dec 2020

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Covid-19: Trump rejects plan for early vaccines at White House

US President Donald Trump says he has reversed a plan for White House officials to receive a coronavirus vaccine in the coming days. Officials said senior members of the Trump administration would be among the first to get the Pfizer/BioNTech jab. But Mr Trump later tweeted that people working at the White House "should receive the vaccine somewhat later... unless specifically necessary". The US will begin its roll out of the vaccine on Monday. The vaccine offers up to 95% protection against Covid-19. The first three million doses are being distributed to dozens of locations in all 50 states across the US. The first shipment of those doses left a facility in Michigan on Sunday, with health workers and the elderly in line to receive the first shots.
14th Dec 2020 - BBC

Donald Trump reverses plan to give White House officials Covid vaccine

The US recorded another 1,389 deaths from Covid-19 on Sunday, pushing the toll closer to 300,000 as hospitalisations continued to hit new heights. There was a ray of hope on Monday morning, however, as the first vaccinations were carried out using the Food and Drug Administration-approved Pfizer vaccine. “I feel hopeful today. Relieved,” said critical case nurse Sandra Lindsay after getting a shot at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in New York. Watching via video, New York governor Andrew Cuomo said: “This is the light at the end of the tunnel. But it’s a long tunnel.” From Washington, Donald Trump tweeted: “First Vaccine Administered. Congratulations USA! Congratulations WORLD!”
14th Dec 2020 - The Guardian

‘There will be consequences’: Christmas coronavirus easing a ‘mistake’ as fears of new year death toll grow

Relaxing coronavirus restrictions over Christmas a “mistake” which pull put lives at risk, a leading public health expert has said, as NHS leaders warned Boris Johnson they feared a third wave of infections. Linda Bauld, professor of public health at the University of Edinburgh, added her voice to growing calls among scientists for the UK governments to rethink an easing of Covid-19 rules over the festive period. "From a public health perspective, I have to be perfectly honest, I think this is a mistake,” she said. "I think it's going to have consequences." She spoke out on Saturday as the UK recorded another 519 deaths within 28 days of a positive test.
14th Dec 2020 - The Independent

48 hours in September when ministers and scientists split over Covid lockdown

In its latest investigation into the government’s handling of the pandemic, Insight asks whether the PM’s decision to prioritise the economy over ‘following the science’ led him to repeat the errors of the spring
14th Dec 2020 - The Times

US officials plan to split $908bn COVID-19 package in two: Report

A $908bn bipartisan COVID-19 relief plan set to be introduced in the United States Congress as early as Monday will be split into two packages in a bid to win approval, a person briefed on the matter told the Reuters news agency. The plan’s highlights were made public on December 1, but the authors now plan to divide them into two proposals that could be voted on separately, the source said.
14th Dec 2020 - AlJazeera

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 14th Dec 2020

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Fears of new Covid restrictions as councils struggle to fund self-isolation

More than 17 million people are living in areas under tier 2 restrictions that have seen infection rates rise over the last three weeks, new research has revealed amid growing concerns that councils are struggling to help people with the costs of self-isolation. With the government due to review the Covid-19 measures across England this week, an assessment of official data found that more than half of councils in which tier 2 restrictions are in place – or “high alert” areas - have seen infection rates rise since the last week of November. The areas cover some 17.5 million people. The research, carried out by Labour, found that 100 local authorities have seen an increase in cases since 24 November, compared with 87 that have seen a decrease. It has raised concerns that more areas could face the most restrictive tier 3 measures from this week. London is in danger of entering tier 3, with some boroughs suffering from the highest rates of the disease in England.
13th Dec 2020 - The Guardian

Up to 40 million Americans could lose their homes if Congress doesn't act: "It's life or death for me"

Ten months into the pandemic, renters owe an estimated $70 billion in back rent — and if the hold is not extended, 30 to 40 million Americans could lose their homes, CBS News' Nancy Cordes reports. The CDC had put a temporary hold on all evictions, to protect public health and prevent the spread of COVID-19. However, more coronavirus relief spending is again bogged down in Congress, and many Americans are already getting warnings that they will be tossed out if lawmakers don't act. In Houston, Texas, more than 17,000 evictions have been initiated since the pandemic began, and 300,000 or more could be coming if the federal moratorium is allowed to expire.
13th Dec 2020 - CBS News

Bolsonaro branded 'homicidally negligent' over Brazil's vaccine planning

Jair Bolsonaro is facing a furious backlash over what critics are calling his “homicidally negligent” failure to prepare a coherent coronavirus vaccination programme as Brazil’s death toll again soars. More than 181,000 Brazilians have died from the disease the president calls “a little flu”, with Latin America’s biggest economy now careering into a painful second wave. But Bolsonaro’s far-right administration has been sluggish to explain plans to vaccinate Brazil’s 212 million citizens, betting nearly all of its chips on the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine.
13th Dec 2020 - The Guardian

FDA chief seeks to reassure Americans about COVID-19 vaccine: "I will absolutely" take it

Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Stephen Hahn sought to reassure the public on Saturday about the thoroughness of the agency's review of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine, and that the benefits of theCOVID-19 vaccine outweigh any risks, after the agency authorized it for emergency use on Friday evening. "Efficiency does not mean any cutting of corners," Hahn said at a press conference. "I will absolutely take this COVID-19 vaccine, pending availability and distribution, because I have complete trust and confidence in the FDA's career staff's evaluation," he said.
12th Dec 2020 - CBS News

India's drug regulator has failed the pandemic stress test

The Covid-19 pandemic has served as a stress test for drug regulators across the world. India’s has failed. Amid the desperate scrambles for therapeutics and vaccines to stem the havoc caused by the pandemic, drug regulators have had to resist tremendous political pressure to approve unproven therapies. Rick Bright, the former head of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), the federal agency that helps secure the U.S. from chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and emerging infectious disease threats, left his position, alleging in his whistleblower complaint that he faced political pressure to allow the distribution of hydroxychloroquine, an unproven drug for treating Covid-19 that had been championed by President Trump.
12th Dec 2020 - STAT

More Brazilians sceptical of COVID-19 vaccine: Poll

Scepticism towards a COVID-19 vaccine has increased in Brazil during the past months, a new poll showed on Saturday, as the country continues to grapple with high infection and death rates linked to the virus. The Datafolha polling institute’s survey found that 22 percent of Brazilians said they would be unwilling to take any COVID-19 vaccine, up from 9 percent in August.
12th Dec 2020 - AlJazeera

Anthony Fauci Reveals His Biggest COVID Vaccine Fear

As the Food and Drug Administration authorized Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use on Friday, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, was out for a walk in the dark. “Sorry if I’m out of breath,” he said. “I’m walking. I promise I’m not having a heart attack.” He’s walking these days, he says, because his schedule has been so tightly packed in recent weeks that by the time he gets home it’s too ill-lit to run. And this day in particular has been extra draining, he says, primarily because of the anticipation that the vaccine would soon be on its way to states across the country.
12th Dec 2020 - Daily Beast

UK: Why do some ethnic minorities fear the coronavirus vaccine?

When 29-year-old Shabrez Ali from Bradford was a child, his mother was cautious about vaccines.“For the longest time, my mum didn’t want me to take jabs during primary and secondary school,” Ali, who has South Asian origins, told Al Jazeera by phone.He was not sure why, but guessed, “it may have been due to some potential conspiracies she might have heard in the past”. Since the UK went into its first coronavirus lockdown in March, Ali, who suffers from an autoimmune condition, has barely left the house. He had received a letter from the government urging him to “shield” because the immunosuppressant drugs he takes made him vulnerable.
8th Dec 2020 - AlJazeera

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 11th Dec 2020

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Stealing to survive: More Americans are shoplifting food as aid runs out during the pandemic

Early in the pandemic, Joo Park noticed a worrisome shift at the market he manages near downtown Washington: At least once a day, he’d spot someone slipping a package of meat, a bag of rice or other food into a shirt or under a jacket. Diapers, shampoo and laundry detergent began disappearing in bigger numbers, too. Since then, he said, thefts have more than doubled at Capitol Supermarket — even though he now stations more employees at the entrance, asks shoppers to leave backpacks up front and displays high-theft items like hand sanitizer and baking yeast in more conspicuous areas. Park doesn’t usually call the police, choosing instead to bar offenders from coming back.
10th Dec 2020 - The Washington Post

No, the COVID-19 Vaccine is not made from aborted babies…

You may have seen a story doing the rounds on social media about the new Covid-19 vaccine being made from the cells of aborted babies. Like most rumours on social media, it is just not true. A simple way to check if a story is true is to look it up on Snopes – the fact-checking site
10th Dec 2020 - Slugger O'Toole

Covid: 'How a picture of my foot became anti-vaccine propaganda'

Patricia is suffering from an unexplained skin condition - but a misunderstanding about what might have caused it set off a chain of events that turned her foot into fodder for anti-vaccine activists. The picture showed purple and red sores, swollen and oozing with pus. "Supposedly this is a [vaccine] trial participant," read the message alongside it. "Ready to roll up your sleeve?" Within a day, those same feet had been mentioned thousands of times on Instagram and Facebook. The picture went viral on Twitter as well.
10th Dec 2020 - BBC

Fauci is 'concerned' about possible allergies to Pfizer's covid shot

Dr Anthony Fauci admitted that the allergic reactions to PFizer's shot reported in the UK were 'obviously of some concern' during a Harvard forum Wednesday He wasn't entirely surprised though, and said these types of responses are likely rare. Both people who suffered anaphylactic reactions in the UK had a history of general allergic reactions and carried rescue shots. Dr Fauci says it will likely only be other people with these types of allergies that are at possible risk. But he added the US may want to reconsider holding off on giving the shots to people in VAs, orhaving rescue shots on hand for vaccinations
10th Dec 2020 - Daily Mail

DUP councillor says he won't take coronavirus vaccine claiming it 'contains tissue from aborted babies'

A DUP councillor has said he will not take the coronavirus vaccine, claiming it "contains stem cells and tissue from aborted babies". John Carson's comments have been strongly condemned as "dangerous misinformation" and rejected by Stormont's Department of Health. The Mid and East Antrim councillor was asked on Facebook whether he would take the coronavirus vaccine, to which he replied: "Definitely no!!!" When a Facebook user then asked him why some people do not want the jab, he responded: "It contains stem cells and tissue from aborted babies."
10th Dec 2020 - Belfast Live

Scammers targeting elderly with promise of coronavirus vaccine

Scammers are trying to use the Covid-19 vaccine rollout to take elderly people’s money in one part of Wirral. Older residents in the New Ferry area are being targeted by con artists who ring them with an automated voice telling them they have been selected to receive the coronavirus vaccine and to press a number to arrange a booking. On its Facebook page, Wirral Council said elderly people with 0151 645 numbers were being targeted and scammers were calling them from the number 075374 00307. The authority’s post added: “This is a scam. Pressing the number will allow them to charge your phone company and take a sum of money from your account. Please warn elderly vulnerable residents to be on their guard to avoid being scammed.”
10th Dec 2020 - Liverpool Echo

Germany notes 'violent potential' among anti-lockdown protesters

Germany's domestic intelligence agency, the BfV, said large turnouts of the "Querdenker" (lateral thinker) movement — seen at recent anti-Corona-lockdown protests — harbored "intensified escalation potential." The Cologne-based office tasked with upholding Germany's post-war constitution told newspapers of the Funke Media Group on Thursday that this had been the case at large protests where far-right groups had urged attendance. Small rallies had also taken place and were largely peaceful, the BfV said, albeit adding that there had been "attacks" on police units and media representatives at large gatherings.
10th Dec 2020 - DW (English)

Reasons why Victoria’s lockdown challenge failed in the High Court

A Victorian hotelier’s bid to overturn the state’s strict lockdown laws failed because there’s no freestanding guarantee to freedom of movement, according to the country’s highest court. Mornington Peninsula hotel owner Julian Gerner wanted the High Court to declare Victoria’s strict lockdown – which lifted in October – invalid. His lawyer Bret Walker SC argued in November the strict lockdown violated Australians’ constitutional right to a “free and confident society”.
10th Dec 2020 - The Australian

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US megachurches rebrand as 'strip clubs' to dodge lockdown

Two California megachurches have continued to defy the state's coronavirus ban on indoor worship services, rebranding themselves as "strip clubs". News outlet DSIRN reported that Awaken Church in San Diego and Godspeak Calvary Chapel had both declared themselves strip clubs after their pastors took off a tie before their congregation. Strip clubs are currently allowed indoor patrons under California law.
9th Dec 2020 - 9News

German intelligence places coronavirus protesters under observation - media

German intelligence agents have placed under observation a group of protesters against coronavirus restrictions, citing the influence of radicals including far-right Nazi admirers. The domestic intelligence service in the southwestern Baden-Wuerttemberg region put the “Querdenken 711” group on a watch-list due to its increasing radicalisation, the state’s interior ministry said on Wednesday. “Querdenken 711” was founded early in the pandemic by IT entrepreneur Michael Ballweg in the affluent city of Stuttgart and helped begin a nationwide movement.
9th Dec 2020 - Reuters

North Korea berates South Korea's top diplomat for doubt over 'zero COVID-19 cases'

North Korea lashed out at South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha for casting doubt over its claim that there were no coronavirus outbreaks there, warning of consequences for her "impudent" comment,
9th Dec 2020 - Reuters on MSN.com

North Korea says South will ‘pay dearly’ for questioning its Covid success story

North Korea lashed out at the “reckless” comments of a South Korean minister on Wednesday, after Seoul openly questioned Pyongyang’s claims to have not had a single Covid-19 case. Kim Yo-jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, said South Korea’s Kang Kyung-wha risked further damaging the already strained relations between the neighbours for saying it is “hard to believe" the North Korean coronavirus success story.
9th Dec 2020 - The Independent on MSN.com

South Korea questions Pyongyang's claims to be virus-free

The sister of the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has lambasted South Korea’s foreign minister for casting doubt over Pyongyang’s claim that the country has no coronavirus cases. North Korea closed its borders in January to avoid a spread of the virus and has insisted that it has had no cases. Experts have suggested that this is unlikely since the virus first emerged in China and North Korea relies on its neighbour for trade. Kang Kyung-wha, South Korea’s foreign minister, said that it was “hard to believe” that the North had had no cases.
9th Dec 2020 - The Times

He Broke Out of Quarantine for 8 Seconds, and Got a $3,550 Fine

One man left the house after an argument with his wife and walked 280 miles to cool off, breaching Italy’s national curfew. Another man wandered outside his quarantine room in Taiwan for eight seconds and caught the attention of the authorities. Still another drove 19 miles for a butter chicken curry during a strict lockdown and was apprehended by the Australian police. All those actions ended up costing them thousands of dollars in penalties.
9th Dec 2020 - The New York Times

Covid data which forced Boris into second lockdown quietly downgraded

Concerns have been raised about Covid-19 figures used by the Government to trigger a second national lockdown after they were dramatically lowered restrospectively. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has dropped its estimate of the infection rate of coronavirus in England at the end of October by almost half. In its report, which was used to provide key data to back the national restrictions, the ONS estimated that 9.52 people per 10,000 were catching the virus by October 17 – a considerable spike from 4.3 people on October 3.
9th Dec 2020 - Metro

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 9th Dec 2020

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Covid: Biden vows 100m vaccinations for US in first 100 days

US President-elect Joe Biden has set a goal of 100 million Covid vaccinations in his first 100 days in office. He said his first months in office would not end the outbreak and gave few details on rollout strategy but he said he would change the course of Covid-19. Introducing his health team for when he takes office on 20 January, he urged Americans to "mask up for 100 days". On Tuesday, a report paved the way for a Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine to be approved and rolled out for Americans. President Donald Trump meanwhile attended a summit at the White House of his Covid vaccination programme called Operation Warp Speed and hailed the expected approval of vaccines.
9th Dec 2020 - BBC

Critics of hydroxychloriquine to treat Covid-19 are guilty of ‘medical McCarthyism,’ controversial doctor says

“Earlier this year, we faced a new, dangerously infectious virus, and such a health crisis – like any other crisis with an unknown and unproven enemy – cannot rely exclusively on the tried and true,” Ramin Oskoui, vice president of the medica staff at Washington’s Sibley Memorial Hospital, told a Senate subcommittee on Tuesday. “But it was worse than that. Affirmative steps to keep physicians and patients ignorant were taken.” “Medical McCarthyism became the norm,” he added, comparing criticism of medical experts and politicians who pushed malaria drugs like hydroxychloriquine to treat Covid-19 to the push by then-Senator Joseph McCarthy of accusing alleged communist sympathisers of treason. The use of anti-malarials and other drugs to treat Covid-19 has been roundly rejected by the US and Western medical community. Despite the president repeatedly pushing hydroxychloriquine, describing it as something of a Covid wonder drug, his own Food and Drug Administration in July said it was not suited to treat the respiratory disease.
8th Dec 2020 - The Independent on MSN.com

Police raid home of Florida Covid-19 tracker creator

Florida police have raided the home of data scientist Rebekah Jones, who built the state's official Covid-19 database. Ms Jones has accused the US Department of Health of manipulating virus data in order to relax pandemic restrictions. She posted a series of videos of the raid on Twitter, in which armed officers seized her phone and laptop. Florida's law enforcement department said it was responding to a hack of the state's emergency health alert system. Ms Jones denies any involvement. Ms Jones was fired from her job at the Department of Health in May after making her accusations, and has since maintained her own database, independently tracking the spread of the virus.
8th Dec 2020 - BBC

Covid: Did Boris Johnson order lockdown based on false data? | ITV News

When shaping policy to protect us from Covid-19, the government relies on data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) to provide the scientific basis for its actions. The weekly ONS coronavirus survey is supposed to be the information gold standard - and in particular it underpinned Boris Johnson's controversial announcement at the end of October to put England back into national lockdown. No other course of action seemed sensible, given that the ONS survey on October 30 showed the incidence of coronavirus in the community in England had surged from 4.3 per 10,000 people on October 3 to 9.52 on October 17, the latest date for data then available. This was a terrifyingly fast doubling rate.
8th Dec 2020 - ITV News

Amid resistance, California imposes strict stay-at-home orders

Most Californians faced heavy new restrictions on Monday aimed at slowing the spread of COVID-19, while New York’s governor threatened to ban indoor restaurant dining in New York City as the United States feared infections would continue skyrocketing. Restaurants in Southern California, the San Francisco Bay Area and the state’s agricultural San Joaquin Valley shut for all but takeout and delivery. Playgrounds closed, stores reduced capacity and hair salons and barbershops shuttered. The moves affected about three-quarters of the nearly 40 million people in America’s most-populous state. California Governor Gavin Newsom’s order allowed some schools to continue to hold classes. But the Los Angeles Unified School District, the state’s largest, closed campuses that had been partially open to offer in-person services and tutoring, affecting many special-needs students.
8th Dec 2020 - Reuters

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 8th Dec 2020

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COVID-19: V-Day is a 'key moment in our fight back against this terrible disease'

People in the UK will start being vaccinated today against COVID-19, on what's being dubbed V-Day. Fifty hospitals will administer the jab from early this morning. The vaccine, developed by Pfizer/BioNTech, has been distributed across the whole of the UK.
8th Dec 2020 - Sky News

India: Unidentified disease kills one, hundreds hospitalised

One person has died and more than 400 have been taken to hospital in southern India due to an unidentified infection that caused many to fall unconscious following seizures and nausea, according to a senior health department official. The illness was detected on Saturday evening in Eluru, an ancient city in Andhra Pradesh. Since then, patients have experienced symptoms ranging from nausea and anxiety to loss of consciousness, doctors said. Government and medical authorities in Andhra Pradesh said more than 200 people were discharged at the weekend and that tests had ruled out COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. Further serological tests are under way. state famous for its hand-woven products.
7th Dec 2020 - AlJazeera

Pfizer, Moderna decline invitations to White House 'Vaccine Summit'

Both Pfizer and Moderna, the two major drug manufacturers likely to receive emergency authorizations for a Covid-19 vaccine in the coming weeks, have rejected invitations from President Trump to appear at a White House “Vaccine Summit” on Tuesday, according to two sources familiar with the event’s planning. The Trump administration has openly feuded with Pfizer in recent weeks over its involvement in Operation Warp Speed and the timing of a data release showing its vaccine to be highly effective, but had nonetheless invited CEO Albert Bourla to appear on a panel about the vaccine development process. Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel was also invited, but neither he nor another company executive will attend.
7th Dec 2020 - STAT

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COVID-19: Anti-lockdown and vaccine protests held across Australia

Anti-lockdown and vaccine protests have been held across Australia, with hundreds gathering in Sydney to hear from COVID-19 sceptics at a self-described “freedom” rally. The Sydney protest was observed by police but appeared to remain peaceful, with a NSW Police spokesperson confirming to NCA NewsWire there were no arrests. The rallies took place despite more significant easing of restrictions in NSW and Victoria following weeks of extremely low or zero case numbers. Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt told Sky News on Sunday morning he had complete confidence in the Therapeutic Goods Administration and medical experts, who had kept Australia safer than most countries in the world. He urged against complacency about COVID-19 and said it remained a contagious and deadly virus.
6th Dec 2020 - The Australian

German court upholds ban on coronavirus demonstration

Germany’s highest court upheld on Saturday a ban on a demonstration in the northern city of Bremen planned by opponents of lockdown measures aimed at containing the spread of the coronavirus. Lower courts had already denied permission for the protest, planned for Saturday afternoon, at which 20,000 demonstrators were due to convene in the city centre of Bremen. Last month, German police unleashed water cannon and pepper spray in an effort to scatter thousands of protesters in Berlin angry about coronavirus restrictions.
6th Dec 2020 - Reuters

German police break up banned coronavirus demonstration

German police intervened on Saturday to break up a demonstration by opponents of coronavirus lockdown measures in the northern city of Bremen after the protest was banned by the country’s highest court. Germany’s constitutional court upheld earlier rulings by lower courts that had already denied permission for 20,000 demonstrators to convene in the city centre of Bremen. However, hundreds of people still gathered, some of them opponents of the government’s coronavirus measures and others part of a counter-demonstration.
6th Dec 2020 - Reuters India

Coronavirus: Care homes to receive Pfizer vaccine within two weeks, says regulator

Care homes are set to receive deliveries of coronavirus vaccine within the next fortnight, after the UK’s medicines regulator gave approval for packs received by the NHS to be broken down into smaller batches for distribution. Residents and staff at care homes have been placed top of the priority list for the Pfizer/BioNTech jab, but prime minister Boris Johnson said that logistical difficulties were likely to delay the delivery of the life-saving vaccine. But now the chief executive of the Medicine and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), June Raine, has said that doses will “definitely” arrive at homes within the next two weeks. The problem arose because the vaccine shots arrive from manufacturers in Belgium in pizza box-style cases each containing 975 vials, which must be kept below -70 degrees celsius before use
5th Dec 2020 - The Independent

Joe Biden: Covid vaccination in US will not be mandatory

President-elect Joe Biden says Americans won't be forced to take a coronavirus vaccine when one becomes available in the US. It comes as the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) for the first time urged "universal mask use" indoors, unless when Americans are at their own home. The CDC said the US had "entered a phase of high-level transmission" of the virus. On Friday the US recorded over 2,500 deaths and nearly 225,000 new cases. It has confirmed 14.3 million cases and more than 278,000 deaths.
4th Dec 2020 - BBC

Some Leeds vegans may shun Covid-19 vaccine due to animal testing

The testing of the Covid-19 vaccine on animals has caused controversy among some Leeds vegans. Leeds Teaching Hospital Trust is one of 50 trusts ready to roll out the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine from next week, with the most vulnerable first in the queue alongside frontline medical and care staff. The mass-vaccination of the public in Leeds is then expected to follow, starting early in the new year.
4th Dec 2020 - Leeds Live

The claim that Brexit helped secure a Covid-19 vaccine is dangerous to public health

That’s the question being asked after Matt Hancock and Jacob Rees-Mogg falsely claimed Britain was only able to expedite the use of the vaccine thanks to Brexit (we are still, in the operation of our laws, institutions and businesses, EU members until the transition period ends on 31 January, and we have temporarily approved the vaccine under measures available to all EU states). It’s a claim that neither Boris Johnson last night, nor Gavin Williamson this morning, were willing to support, with each finding different ways to avoid the question. Nonetheless, it has fuelled concerns about the speed of the process, including among Morning Callers, who sent more emails about this subject than I have ever received on a single topic, so I wanted to use today’s email to explain in more detail why the British government has done this and what the consequences are, while hopefully reassuring readers.
4th Dec 2020 - New Statesman

With vaccines on the way, Mexico sees 'beginning of the end' of pandemic

Mexico is seeing “the beginning of the end” of the coronavirus pandemic with the first doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine, which should start arriving in the next few weeks and could continue coming for a year, the foreign ministry said.
4th Dec 2020 - Reuters UK

Letitia Wright is slammed for posting video that questioned the efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccine

The British actress was slammed by her Marvel co-star Don Cheadle on Thursday She had posted YouTube clip that questioned the efficacy of the coronavirus jab She posted link to UK Youtuber and self-declared 'prophet' Tomi Arayomi's post Cheadle and hundreds of others called her out online for the 'hot garbage' claim Wright doubled down today, saying she wanted to raise her fears about vaccines
4th Dec 2020 - Daily Mail

UK hopes for millions of Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine doses this year - minister

Britain hopes that millions of doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine will be delivered by the end of the year but the total will depend on how quickly it can be manufactured, Britain’s business minister Alok Sharma said on Friday. Britain approved Pfizer Inc’s COVID-19 vaccine on Wednesday, jumping ahead of the rest of the world in the race to begin the most crucial mass inoculation programme in history. Last month Britain said it expected 10 million doses of the shot in 2020, but the government has said the pace of roll-out will be dependence on delivery. It has ordered 40 million doses in all, enough to vaccinate 20 million people.
4th Dec 2020 - Reuters UK

CHART: How Much COVID-19 Vaccine Has Each Country Claimed? : Goats and Soda

Health care workers first, along with residents and staff of nursing homes. Those people should receive the COVID-19 vaccine before anyone else, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday. That recommendation applies to the U.S. But what about health care workers in other countries? Or the elderly with health conditions? Should a nurse in Peru, who's at high risk of catching the virus, be immunized before a person with low risk in the U.S. receives the vaccine? Niko Lusiani, a senior advisor with the global aid organization Oxfam, thinks that strategy makes sense both scientifically and morally.
3rd Dec 2020 - NPR

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 4th Dec 2020

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Facebook to remove COVID-19 vaccine-related misinformation

Facebook said Thursday it will start removing false claims about COVID-19 vaccines, in its latest move to counter a tide of coronavirus-related online misinformation. In the coming weeks, the social network will begin taking down any Facebook or Instagram posts with false information about the vaccines that have been debunked by public health experts. The U.S. tech giant is taking action as the first COVID-19 vaccines are set to be rolled out. Britain this week became the first country to give emergency authorization for a vaccine developed by American drugmaker Pfizer and Germany’s BioNTech, and innoculations could start within days. Regulators in the U.S., the European Union and Canada are also vetting vaccines.
3rd Dec 2020 - The Independent

Facebook vows to remove false claims about Covid-19 vaccines

Facebook on Thursday said it would start removing false claims about Covid-19 vaccines, in a tightening of its policies on health-related misinformation. The new restrictions come a day after UK prime minister Boris Johnson vowed to fight the spread of misleading content from “anti-vaxxers”, as the UK prepares to roll out Covid-19 vaccinations from next week. Facebook said in a blog post that it would remove falsities debunked by public health experts, citing as an example claims that Covid-19 jabs contain microchips, a theory often spuriously linked to Bill Gates. Earlier this year, Facebook began removing Covid-19-related misinformation, but only if it could “contribute to imminent physical harm”, while material considered false by fact-checkers was covered with a warning label.
3rd Dec 2020 - The Financial Times

Covid-19 contracts: government refuses to say who benefited from political connections

The government has been accused of “completely unnecessary secrecy” after refusing to say which companies have been awarded multimillion-pound Covid-19 contracts after being processed in a high-priority channel for firms with political connections. A report by the National Audit Office last month stated that a government unit, set up to procure PPE, established the high-priority lane to deal with leads that came “from government officials, ministers’ offices, MPs and members of the House of Lords, senior NHS staff and other health professionals”. The 493 companies given high priority due to these connections secured contracts to supply PPE with 10 times the success rate of nearly 15,000 companies that were not given enhanced attention.
3rd Dec 2020 - The Guardian

Staten Island bar shut down after declaring itself an 'autonomous zone' and defying Covid-19 rules, sheriff's office says

A Staten Island bar was shut down after calling itself an "autonomous zone" and defying Covid-19 restrictions, the New York City Sheriff's Office said. The bar, Mac's Public House, was also not following face covering rules and social distancing guidelines while continuing to allow indoor dining despite being in a designated "orange zone," the sheriff's office said in a statement. An executive order by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo allows only outdoor dining of up to four people per table at businesses in areas designated as orange zones. The bar has refused to shut down because the restrictions have impacted business, said Louis Gelormino, a lawyer representing the bar. "They opened two months before Covid and spent $150,000 to open the place," Gelormino said. "About a week ago, they refused to close down the place and abide by those state restrictions."
3rd Dec 2020 - CNN on MSN.com

More than 2,000 people protest outside Staten Island bar after owner was dragged away in handcuffs when he declared it an 'autonomous zone' from lockdown rules and invited ...

Sheriff's deputies shut down a Staten Island bar and arrested the owner on Tuesday night. Danny Presti was led out in handcuffs after repeated warnings to stop serving customers indoors. The bar has been fined thousands of dollars as it continued to serve patrons inside and to operate past the 10pm curfew for restaurant service that Cuomo imposed citywide. Demonstrators gathered on both Tuesday and Wednesday evening to protest. The bar is located in a coronavirus hot spot, and with hospitalizations surging, Governor Andrew Cuomo ordered that indoor dining be suspended
3rd Dec 2020 - Daily Mail

Covid-19: Boris Johnson vows to combat vaccine 'disinformation'

Boris Johnson has promised action to tackle online "disinformation" about vaccines that could prevent take-up. Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer called for emergency legislation to fine social media firms who failed to clamp down on incorrect information. Mr Johnson agreed online "anti-vaxxers" were a problem and promised a plan to deal with them "very shortly". It came as the UK approved the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine, paving the way for mass vaccinations.
3rd Dec 2020 - BBC

Covid-19: Facebook to take down false vaccine claims

Facebook says it will start removing false claims about Covid-19 vaccines to prevent "imminent physical harm". The company says it is accelerating its plans to ban misleading and false information on its Facebook and Instagram platforms following the announcement of the first vaccine being approved for use in the United Kingdom. Among already-debunked claims that won't be allowed are falsehoods about vaccine ingredients, safety, effectiveness and side-effects. Also banned will be the long-running false conspiracy theory that coronavirus vaccines will contain a microchip to control or monitor patients.
3rd Dec 2020 - BBC

Chefs vs scientists: France's pandemic fight to keep eating out

Chez Francoise is a discreetly located venue near the French parliament whose visitors’ book boasts signatures from former leaders including Nicolas Sarkozy and Francois Hollande. Options include a Menu Parlementaire — three courses including wild boar pate with chestnuts, veal and crepes suzette. In late September, as a second wave of COVID-19 infection loomed, government scientific advisers wanted new restrictions on bars, restaurants and cafes. Fearing his business would suffer, Pascal Mousset, who owns Chez Francoise and four other restaurants in the French capital, decided to seek help from an old contact. “For pity’s sake, don’t close Paris,” Mousset texted to Alain Griset, a junior minister at the finance and economy ministry.
3rd Dec 2020 - The Japan Times

Reluctant partners: French companies resisted home-working as virus surged

On the October evening President Emmanuel Macron ordered France back into lockdown, the chief executive of Thales told staff in a memo that anti-COVID measures already in place at the company conformed with the new requirements. At the time, staff were required to wear a face mask at work, stagger arrival and departure times and were permitted to work up to two days per week at home. But in his address, Macron urged everyone to work from home full-time if they could - although the order was not legally binding and the final decision was left to employers. Sensing a reticence at Thales, several unions complained to the labour inspectorate, according to the hard-left CGT union.
3rd Dec 2020 - Reuters UK

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 3rd Dec 2020

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EU criticises 'hasty' UK approval of COVID-19 vaccine

The European Union criticised Britain’s rapid approval of Pfizer and BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine on Wednesday, saying its own procedure was more thorough, after Britain became the first western country to endorse a COVID-19 shot. The move to grant emergency authorisation to the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine has been seen by many as a political coup for UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who has led his country out of the EU and faced criticism for his handling of the pandemic. The decision was made under an ultra-fast, emergency approval process, which allowed the British drugs regulator to temporarily authorise the vaccine only 10 days after it began examining data from large-scale trials.
2nd Dec 2020 - Reuters

Putin orders start of Russia’s mass COVID vaccination programme

Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered the country’s authorities to begin mass voluntary vaccinations against COVID-19 from next week onwards. The move, announced on Wednesday, came after Russia said last month that its domestically produced Sputnik V vaccine was 92 percent effective at protecting people from COVID-19, according to interim results. The country will have produced two million doses of the vaccine within the next few days, Putin said, noting that teachers and medics will be the first to receive shots. “Let’s agree on this – you will not report to me next week, but you will start mass vaccination … let’s get to work already,” he told Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova. The Kremlin earlier gave assurances that Russians were first in line to be vaccinated, with Moscow also discussing supply deals with other countries.
2nd Dec 2020 - AlJazeera

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 2nd Dec 2020

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Bolivia's new government is encouraging people to take toxic bleach as a cure for COVID-19, a victory for a months-long disinformation campaign

Bolivia's new health minister, Edgar Pozo, at a press conference Sunday said consuming toxic bleach chlorine dioxide as a COVID-19 treatment is now permitted. It has no medical value and is potentially deadly if consumed, according to medical authorities including the FDA and WHO. Despite this, a determined campaign by advocates of the substance, also called Miracle Mineral Solution, persuaded many to take it. Business Insider previously reported how lawmakers in Bolivia embraced the substance despite warnings from the nation's own health ministry. But last month the old government lost power, allowing the newly-installed Pozo to effectively overturn that advice.
1st Dec 2020 - Business Insider

Top US politician refuses to bring in lockdown or other Covid rules saying he wants to leave people alone

One of America’s most powerful politicians has refused to enact fresh lockdown measures after saying he wants to leave people alone to make responsible choices. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis – who has the final say on the Sunshine State’s coronavirus rules – said Monday that he will not be enacting any lockdown measures, edicts which require people to wear masks in public, or school closures. DeSantis, one of President Trump’s staunchest allies, told a press conference: ‘No lockdowns, no fines, no school closures.’ He previously lifted all rules, including a 50% capacity limit in bars and restaurants, in September.
1st Dec 2020 - Metro.co.uk

UK leader touts local virus rules but pubs are in distress

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson urged lawmakers to vote Tuesday for a new set of coronavirus restrictions in England, saying the country must “hold our nerve” until vaccines are approved and distributed. England’s current four-week national lockdown ends at midnight, and the government plans to replace it starting Wednesday with a three-tier regional system based on the severity of the outbreak in different parts of the country.
1st Dec 2020 - The Independent

Coronavirus England: 'Tenuous evidence' behind lockdown, says IEA

Report by the Institute of Economic Affairs claimed outdated studies were used Did not factor in 'Covid-secure' infection control measures hospitality adopted 'Cobbled together a handful of studies to give the veneer of science', report said
1st Dec 2020 - Daily Mail

Aviation tycoon worth £200m loses legal fight against coronavirus lockdown rules

Simon Dolan, 51, was pursuing case against Matt Hancock and Gavin Williamson He took case to Court of Appeal after High Court refused full hearing permission Lord Burnett dismissed Mr Dolan's argument that the restrictions were unlawful Mr Dolan stated he plans to seek permission to take case to the Supreme Court
1st Dec 2020 - Daily Mail

COVID-19: Protests and death threats in east German hotspot

Hildburghausen in eastern Germany is a "coronavirus hotspot," where the rate of infection is particularly high — much higher than anywhere else in the state of Thuringia. And no one knows why that is. The town has a population of 63,000 and last week the statistical rate of new infections per 100,000 inhabitants reached 588.6. The district administrator imposed tough anti-corona measures, including shutting down the local schools. And the people of the town are obliged to wear masks wherever they go.
1st Dec 2020 - DW (English)

What Germany's anti-lockdown protests reveal about the country

In a recent Sunday, anti-lockdown protesters passed under my window, which looks out onto one of the main Berlin thoroughfares. They call themselves Querdenker, “lateral thinkers”. To my untrained eye, not many of the demonstrators resembled fascists, although perhaps at least some of the shaved heads were concealed by beanies. There were teenagers, old women doddering along with walkers, and middle-aged men wearing face coverings declaring “fuck masks,” accompanied by bored riot police. They were met by locals and black-clad anti-fascists banging pans and shouting “Nazis out!”. The weekly protests attract a range of ideological tendencies, from sandal-clad hippies to “Reich citizens,” an eccentric right-wing group which denies the legitimacy of the postwar Federal Republic. Others have no truck with such fringe groups but are worried about whether their livelihoods can survive the economic crisis, even though support for businesses and individuals is by European standards relatively generous in Germany. The peculiarity of the Querdenker – which remains a minority movement, with polls showing up to 85 per cent of Germans opposed – is that they present themselves not as infringers of the liberal constitutional order but as its defenders.
1st Dec 2020 - New Statesman

Masked Indian comic superhero fights Covid-19 fear

India's first female comic superhero Priya, a gang-rape survivor who earlier campaigned against rape, acid attack and sex trafficking, is back to fight disinformation around the Covid-19 pandemic. In Priya's Mask, due to be launched on 2 December, the comic crusader joins hands with Jiya, the "Burka Avenger", a popular character from a Pakistani cartoon show, as the two go about trying to tackle the pandemic - and also the "infodemic", a major proliferation in fake news surrounding the coronavirus. With more than 9.4 million infections and 137,000 deaths, India has the second highest caseload globally. A strict nationwide lockdown that was imposed on 21 March delayed the spread for a while, but infections grew rapidly - and continue to do so - since restrictions were relaxed.
1st Dec 2020 - BBC

COVID-19: Boris Johnson says case for tier system is 'compelling' and promises £1,000 payment for 'wet pubs'

Boris Johnson has said there is a "compelling case" for further coronavirus restrictions - as he promised pubs which do not serve food a one-off payment of £1,000 in December. Pubs which only sell drinks, or "wet pubs", will be unable to open if they are in Tier 2 or Tier 3 areas under the new system of restrictions from tomorrow. The prime minister made the announcement after saying the hospitality sector has been hit disproportionately hard in the pandemic.
1st Dec 2020 - Sky News

Laurence Fox’s disregard for lockdown is a slap in the face for NHS workers

When actor Laurence Fox tweeted about inviting a ‘large group over to lunch’ and hugging them all during a pandemic, I was frustrated and disappointed. Not because I don’t like hugs over lunch, but because it’s irresponsible, ignorant, privileged and could dangerously incite others to behave the same way. As a doctor working in intensive care during the pandemic, Fox’s words stung twice. First, for brazenly admitting to breaking lockdown rules but also criticising the NHS as being ‘not fit for purpose’.
1st Dec 2020 - Metro

'We need support' - Portuguese restaurant owners stage lockdown hunger strike

Nine restaurant, bar and nightclub owners began a fifth day of hunger strike on Tuesday outside Portugal’s parliament in protest against coronavirus restrictions. “We need support ... to keep our heads above water,” said Alberto Cabral, who runs a nightclub. The protesters - camping outside parliament and living off water, tea and coffee donated by their supporters - say they will not eat until they are met by the prime minister and economy minister. One more business owner joined their strike on Sunday.
1st Dec 2020 - Reuters UK

Hungarian politician says he was present at Brussels party that breached lockdown rules

A senior politician from Hungary’s ruling party said he had been present at a house party in Belgium that was broken up by Brussels police last Friday for breaching lockdown rules but denied taking drugs. Jozsef Szajer, a leading light in Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s ruling conservative Fidesz party and an ally for more than 30 years, quit as a European deputy on Sunday, citing unspecified moral reasons. In a statement on Tuesday, he apologised for any wrongdoing. “I regret that I broke the lockdown rules, that was irresponsible of me, and I will accept the sanctions that result,” the statement said.
1st Dec 2020 - Reuters UK

UK not planning vaccine passports for pubs, theatre, sports events

Senior British minister Michael Gove said that the government was not planning a system of vaccine passports which would prevent those who hadn’t had a COVID-19 jab from going to the pub or attending events. “I certainly am not planning to introduce any vaccine passports and I don’t know anyone else in government (who is),” Gove told Sky News on Tuesday. The minister in charge of vaccines, Nadhim Zadhawi, said on Monday that he expected people who refused the COVID-19 vaccine could find that they were refused entry to restaurants, bars, cinemas and sports venues. When asked about that, Gove said he did not think people would need a vaccine passport to go to the pub, the theatre or to sports events.
1st Dec 2020 - Reuters UK

UK economy won't reach pre-COVID-19 level for at least two years - Reuters poll

Britain’s economy will contract this quarter and it will take at least two years for GDP to reach pre-COVID-19 levels, according to a Reuters poll which also found London would agree a free-trade deal with the European Union.
1st Dec 2020 - Reuters UK

England faces regional COVID-19 restrictions despite lawmaker rebellion

Parliament approved a system of regional COVID-19 restrictions for England on Tuesday despite a rebellion within Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s own party which underlined growing unhappiness at his handling of the pandemic. More than 40% of people in England will be subject to the toughest tier of restrictions on their daily life from Wednesday, when the government shifts to its new approach after a month of national lockdown, with just 1% in the lowest band. “With the spread of the epidemic varying across the country, there remains a compelling case ... for regional tiers in England,” Johnson told parliament, batting away criticism from unhappy lawmakers. The tiered system has ignited a rebellion in Johnson’s party, with dozens of the 364 elected Conservatives criticizing the plan as draconian, badly implemented or based on insufficient evidence.
1st Dec 2020 - Reuters UK

Trump to meet COVID-19 vaccine makers, gov’t officials next week

The administration of United States President Donald Trump has invited vaccine manufacturers, drug distributors and government officials to a COVID-19 Vaccine Summit next week at the White House, Stat News reported on Tuesday, citing an invitation obtained by the news organisation. It is scheduled for December 8 and will be attended by Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and private-sector executives, the report said.
1st Dec 2020 - AlJazeera

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 1st Dec 2020

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Covid: PM calls for 'unity' as he agrees to publish data behind new tiers

Boris Johnson has agreed to publish the health, economic and social data behind England's new tier system later, as he seeks to avert a Commons rebellion. MPs will vote on the measures on Tuesday, and numerous Conservative MPs have demanded to see the evidence government is basing its new system on. Writing to a group of around 70 MPs - who are sceptical of the new rules - Mr Johnson called for "unity and resolve". Labour is expected to support the PM, but is yet to confirm its stance. If Labour does decide to get behind the new tier system, the government should easily win the vote - even if there is a sizeable revolt among Conservative MPs.
30th Nov 2020 - BBC

Gov. Phil Murphy ignores protesters and warns New Jersey state-wide lockdown is 'still on the table'

New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy told Fox News Sunday that a state-wide lockdown is still 'on the table.' 'It's on the table in terms of a shutdown,' Murphy told Bret Baier on 'Fox News Sunday'. 'I don't anticipate it and I sure as heck don't want to go that route.' The comments came as anti-lockdown protesters swarmed the street where Murphy lives to voice their opposition to pandemic-related restrictions The Democratic governor was also verbally confronted and filmed while having dinner out with his wife and four kids at a New Jersey restaurant. They called him a 'real d***' and told one of his sons to 'go f*** yourself.' The confrontation where Murphy said nothing came after he urged New Jersey residents to limit their Thanksgiving celebrations to 10 people
30th Nov 2020 - Daily Mail

Anti-Lockdown Protesters Chant 'Open L.A.' Outside Health Chief's Home Before New Covid Restrictions Begin

Crowds gathered outside the home of the Los Angeles County's public health director on Sunday to protest against the latest round of Covid-19 restrictions taking effect this week. Dr. Barbara Ferrer's Echo Park home was surrounded by dozens of demonstrators, carrying placards, waving flags and chanting: "Open L.A." and "No science. No data. No shutdown". Footage from the scene shows few people in the crowd were wearing face masks as they paced up and down the street. LAPD officers could be seen over looking the scene with a police vehicle parked in what appears to be Ferrer's driveway.
30th Nov 2020 - Newsweek on MSN.com

How anti-vaxxers are threatening the UK's Covid programme

In the imagination of extreme opponents of vaccination — or anti-vaxxers — every human inoculated against coronavirus will be turned into a chimera, injected with nanoparticles that beam out their biometric data and commoditised with bar codes linked to cryptocurrency. In their view, far from liberating us from the recurring nightmare of lockdowns, vaccines in development in Europe and the US are secretly intended to “enslave us to the system”. However far-fetched it may appear, this kind of vision has been proliferating online alongside more prosaic forms of misinformation just as the mass roll out of Covid-19 vaccines comes within sight.
30th Nov 2020 - Financial Times

Coronavirus: German anti-lockdown protests shift to Polish border

Objectors of coronavirus curbs have converged on Frankfurt-an-der-Oder on Germany's border with Poland. Meanwhile, at viral hot spot Hildburghausen in Thuringia state, the local county chief is under police protection.
28th Nov 2020 - DW (English)

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 30th Nov 2020

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Covid: PM agrees to publish data behind England's new tier system

UK police arrest 155 in anti-lockdown protests in London

Police in London said on Saturday that they had made 155 arrests as they tried to break up anti-lockdown and anti-vaccine protests. The police said the arrests had been made for different offences including assaulting a police officer, possession of drugs and breaching coronavirus restrictions. England’s current lockdown ends on Dec. 2. Earlier police lined up in a number of streets in central London’s West End shopping district and confronted crowds of protesters in St James’s Park, near Westminster. The anti-lockdown protesters were joined by groups who oppose a COVID-19 vaccine. One police officer estimated the protesters, who held up signs saying “Defend Freedom, Defend Humanity”, “No more lies, no more masks, no more lockdowns”, numbered between 300 and 400.
29th Nov 2020 - Reuters

Coronavirus UK: Riot police clash with violent anti-lockdown protesters in central London

Central London descended into anarchy today as riot police arrested 155 angry anti-lockdown demonstrators as thousands took to the streets and booed officers while chanting 'shame on you'. Dozens of violent anti-lockdown activists clashed with police while thousands more gathered in the capital amid growing discontent with the government's new tier system to be introduced on December 2. Up to 100 Tory backbenchers are threatening to rebel against Boris Johnson's draconian new tier regime next week.
28th Nov 2020 - Daily Mail

Police arrest dozens of anti-lockdown protesters in London

More than 150 people have been arrested as anti-lockdown protesters clashed with police in central London after officers sought to break up the demonstration. The Metropolitan police said 155 arrests were made for offences including breaching coronavirus regulations, assaulting a police officer and possession of drugs. In often chaotic scenes, hundreds of demonstrators, including a man dressed as Santa Claus, descended on the city centre on Saturday afternoon, chanting “freedom” and causing traffic disruption.
28th Nov 2020 - The Guardian

How anti lockdown protests are being organised using encrypted secret messaging service

As Liverpool was placed in Tier three and then the second UK-wide lockdown came into force on November 5, demonstrators opposed to restrictions marched through the city in defiance of the lockdown. Pre-prepared banners and live streaming on social media platforms like YouTube revealed well coordinated operations planned in advance that targeted specific gathering points in the city. But the protests were not just confined to Liverpool as similar organised demonstrations in London, Manchester, Bournemouth and Bristol have taken place. The UK-wide protests are being organised in advance and coordinated through a secure messaging service called Telegram.
28th Nov 2020 - MSN.com

Coronavirus: Piers Corbyn to stand trial over London anti-lockdown protests

Piers Corbyn is to stand trial on charges that he violated the rules of the first coronavirus lockdown by attending two anti-shutdown protests in London in May. The former Labour Party leader’s brother will appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Friday. Mr Corbyn has denied the charges, and says his defence is his right to freedom of expression and protest. He also faces fresh criminal charges that are listed for a case management hearing on Friday afternoon, alongside his impending trial. These charges relate to an anti-lockdown protest held in Leicester Square on 5 November, the first day of England’s second national shutdown, and the date of the annual Million Mask March.
28th Nov 2020 - The Independent

How an anti-lockdown 'truthpaper' bypasses online factcheckers

When the factcheckers tried to find the source of a viral photo that was spreading across Facebook, they were confused. The picture – which had been uploaded by users in the UK, US, Australia and elsewhere in the world - showed a headline that made the false claim that a US government agency had declared Covid-19 did not exist. It appeared to be from a real print newspaper, but no credible outlet would publish such a claim. It turned out the headline was from a new self-published conspiracy theorist “truthpaper” called the Light, edited by a man from Manchester who runs a business selling anti-vaccine T-shirts and 9/11 conspiracy merchandise. The outlet, which has published three issues since it first appeared in September, draws heavily on the gloop of long-running online conspiracies about a new world order, which have attached themselves to the current pandemic. Among other things it encourages people to stop wearing masks and disobey lockdown on the basis that the coronavirus is a hoax.
28th Nov 2020 - The Guardian

Here’s why pubs reopened in July – and why it’s different now

The UK’s hospitality industry is not happy with the new Covid-19 plan to be adopted from December 2 in England. On the opposite end of the debate, academics and doctors have expressed reservations about pubs being allowed to reopen at all. Neil Ferguson, an Imperial College epidemiologist and former government adviser, suggested that the decision might lead to a rise in infection levels. The decision to reopen pubs on July 4 was taken after a data-crunching tool built by British artificial intelligence firm Faculty flagged up that “large numbers of pubs” risked going out of business due to the lockdown restrictions, according to Faculty’s chief operating officer Richard Sargeant.
27th Nov 2020 - Wired UK

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 27th Nov 2020

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Here's how to tackle the Covid-19 anti-vaxxers

If we are talking to someone who’s uncertain about the vaccine we should try to be empathetic, actively listen, and focus on the benefits of taking it. And rather than contradicting them, we should suggest places where they can find out additional information. If people feel respected and trusted they are more likely to listen; and if they can find out on their own, then they will have time to process and engage with it without feeling defensive. And there are broader behavioural science tactics that the government can use to improve the uptake of vaccines, including making it seem like the default and showing it to be a social norm. This means using language that inherently assumes everyone will take the vaccines, making people feel they are actively opting out, rather than opting in.
26th Nov 2020 - The Guardian

Lockdown tiers will mean hospitality ‘never recovers’

The hospitality industry has responded with fierce criticism of the new tier system, warning that it will wipe out billions of pounds of trading and lead to huge numbers of job losses.The new tier
26th Nov 2020 - The Times

Midwestern Governors Seek More Federal Covid-19 Aid for Businesses

A growing number of governors are calling for another round of coronavirus-relief legislation from Washington, saying they are unable to provide additional funds to small businesses amid budget shortfalls. The issue is gaining urgency as money from federal relief passed earlier this year runs out ahead of a year-end deadline to spend it. States have funneled hundreds of millions of dollars in federal aid into everything from personal-protective equipment and hazard pay for front-line health-care workers to schools and food banks.
26th Nov 2020 - The Wall Street Journal

Italy’s doctors face new threat: Conspiracy theories

From “heroes” to “terrorists.” In Italy, the doctors and nurses lauded for their exhausting, dangerous work in the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic are facing a new challenge: conspiracy theories accusing them of faking the emergency. In one social media video, two women tell the camera they are in the emergency room at Sacco Hospital in Milan, one of the hardest-hit cities in Italy. They want to prove that the ER is empty, contrary to what is being reported by journalists, who have sounded the alarm about a drastic uptick in cases. The women go inside the building, showing viewers a calm, empty interior. Next, they walk back outside to demonstrate there are no ambulances lined up. Doctors, journalists, and politicians have been lying, they say. “They are terrorists.”
26th Nov 2020 - POLITICO.eu

Never mind what antivaxxers say — just watch what they do

Antivax talk is worrying. However, it is only talk. Social media has made this the wordiest era in history. Sharing conspiracy theories online is excitingly subversive, making people feel they have taken the “red pill” and seen the truth. More telling, though, is their behaviour. In real life, when things get serious, almost everyone chooses vaccination. “If Covid-19 vaccines are found to be efficacious and safe and widely available, my guess is that a very large proportion of people will ultimately take them,” says Vish Viswanath of Harvard’s School of Public Health. Even French behaviour is reassuring. Vaccination rates here have been rising: 98.6 per cent of babies born in early 2018 received the “hexavalent” vaccine that protects against six illnesses, including hepatitis B and tetanus. True, it’s compulsory, but parents still have to bring in their kids. Even in the US, where parents can more easily refuse vaccinations, only about 7 per cent or fewer adamantly oppose them, depending on the vaccine, says Viswanath. He adds: “This small group gets a disproportionate share of attention.”
26th Nov 2020 - Financial Times

Top US court blocks NY coronavirus limits on houses of worship

As coronavirus cases surge again nationwide, the United States Supreme Court has barred New York from enforcing certain limits on attendance at churches and synagogues in areas designated as hard hit by the virus. The justices split 5-4 for Wednesday’s vote, with new Justice Amy Coney Barrett in the majority. It was the conservative’s first publicly discernible vote as a justice. The court’s three liberal justices and Chief Justice John Roberts dissented.
26th Nov 2020 - AlJazeera

Wetherspoon boss accuses UK government of 'stealth' lockdown

The boss of JD Wetherspoon has accused the government of introducing a “stealth” lockdown in England through its tough new tier system. Tim Martin, the founder and chair of the pub chain, said almost half of his pubs would be forced to remain shut under new rules that come into force when lockdown ends on 2 December. “The company has campaigned for pubs to revert to the rules agreed between the pub industry, civil servants, local authorities and health officials, which were introduced when pubs reopened in July,” Martin said in a statement emailed to media.
26th Nov 2020 - Yahoo Finance UK

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 26th Nov 2020

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London Tories split over tiered approach after Covid lockdown

Leading London Tories are split over whether varying lockdown rules should be imposed on different areas of the capital depending on local infection rates. The mayor, Sadiq Khan, claimed there is consensus for tier 2 restrictions being introduced across London next week when the current lockdown is eased. “London’s leaders have worked very closely together on a cross-party basis and are united on this: our city going into tier 2 next week would seem the right and sensible decision,” he tweeted. But this apparent agreement threatens to unravel after lobbying by Tory MPs to allow areas with lower infection rates to have less stringent restrictions. The latest public figures show infection rates per 100,000 in the capital’s 32 boroughs vary from 113 in Camden to 387 in Havering.
25th Nov 2020 - The Guardian

Germany Merkel: Car rams into chancellery gate ahead of Covid decision

A car has been driven into the gates of Angela Merkel's Federal Chancellery building in Berlin, German police say. A 54-year-old man was detained but the background to the incident was unclear. The Volkswagen car had messages daubed in white on both sides. One called for an end to "globalisation politics" while another referred to "you damned killers of children and old people". The incident came hours before Mrs Merkel held talks with regional leaders on extending Covid safety measures.
25th Nov 2020 - BBC

Pope Francis takes aim at anti-mask protesters: ‘They are incapable of moving outside of their own little world’

In his new book, “Let Us Dream: The Path to a Better Future,” to be released Dec. 1, the head of the 1.3 billion–member Roman Catholic Church lambastes those who protest the health measures aimed at reducing the spread of COVID-19: “Some groups protested, refusing to keep their distance, marching against travel restrictions — as if measures that governments must impose for the good of their people constitute some kind of political assault on autonomy or personal freedom,” he writes.
25th Nov 2020 - MarketWatch

Limestone Coast community defends MP Nick McBride over his COVID-19 lockdown comments

Cross-border community members and a regional MP have jumped to defend the Member for MacKillop's comments, after he broke ranks from the Liberal Party on Monday. Nick McBride lashed out at the State Government over its handling of the latest coronavirus outbreak, saying the hard lockdown was an overreaction which "hung businesses out to dry". He said health authorities should not have "taken the word of one person" to impose a lockdown on the entire state.
25th Nov 2020 - ABC News

German restaurant bears out pandemic with furry customers

The owner of a Frankfurt restaurant is staging a protest against the coronavirus lockdown in Germany by filling his tables with a hundred stuffed toy pandas, in a play on the word “pandemic”. German officials are expected on Wednesday to agree to extend until Dec. 20 a “lockdown light” they imposed on Nov. 2 that means bars, restaurants and entertainment venues must stay closed, while shops and schools can remain open. “We wanted to put some life back into our restaurant,” said Guiseppe Fichera, manager of restaurant Pino. “They are Panda-Mic pandas.”
25th Nov 2020 - Reuters UK

‘The fight continues’: Colombia protests persist despite pandemic

Hundreds of people gathered at a street corner in downtown Bogota on Monday to commemorate the anniversary of Dilan Cruz’s death. His mother and sister arranged a circle of flowers on the street where the 18-year-old was shot by police a year earlier during an anti-government protest, with his clothes and a framed portrait placed in the centre. Throughout the vigil, the mostly young crowd chanted: “Dilan didn’t die, Dilan was killed!”
25th Nov 2020 - AlJazeera

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 25th Nov 2020

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Putin Can’t Take Russia’s ‘Safe’ Covid-19 Vaccine, Kremlin Says

President Vladimir Putin told fellow world leaders last week that both of Russia’s Covid-19 vaccines, including one he championed as the world’s first inoculation against the disease, are safe and effective. That doesn’t mean he’s taken a jab. “We have not yet begun widespread vaccination and the head of state can’t take part in vaccination as a volunteer. It’s impossible,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Tuesday, in response to a question on whether Putin had been inoculated. “The president can’t use an uncertified vaccine.” Russia has the world’s fifth-highest number of cases globally, passing 2 million last week.
25th Nov 2020 - bnnbloomberg

Germany warns of Coronavirus vaccine race between rich and poor

Angela Merkel fears a global race between richer and poorer nations to access COVID-19 vaccines. She urged government leaders at an online meeting of the G20 to ensure a fair distribution of coronavirus vaccines among impoverished countries. "To halt the pandemic, every country needs to have access to and be able to afford the vaccine. The funds pledged so far are not yet enough to achieve this. I, therefore, appeal to you all of you to support this important initiative," she said. The chancellor made clear she would raise the issue with the global vaccine alliance GAVI. "This short-term assistance is in the interest of us all. And it is also in our interest to improve global pandemic preparedness in the long term. To this end, we need to sustainably strengthen the World Health Organization."
25th Nov 2020 - Vatican News

Coronavirus vaccines face trust gap in Black and Latino communities, study finds

In the US, if offered a coronavirus vaccine free of charge, fewer than half of Black people and 66 percent of Latino people said they would definitely or probably take it, according to a survey-based study that underscores the challenge of getting vaccines to communities hit hard by the pandemic. The survey released Monday is one of the largest and most rigorous to date. Other recent studies have also pointed to vaccine hesitancy in communities of color, but Monday’s survey delved deeper into the reasons, polling respondents on a spectrum of questions to get at the roots of their distrust.
25th Nov 2020 - The Washington Post

Germany Warns of Anti-Semitism Among Lockdown Protests

A German government official warned Tuesday that anti-Semitism is emerging as a common position among people protesting pandemic lockdown measures who otherwise come from widely differing political backgrounds. Felix Klein, who was appointed in 2018 to head the government's efforts to combat anti-Semitism, said that hatred against Jews in Germany has increased during the coronavirus pandemic.
24th Nov 2020 - U.S. News & World Report

Number 10 used apocalyptic Covid-19 graphs to 'frighten' public into lockdown, top statistician

Sir David Spiegelhalter suggested the Government tried to 'manipulate' Britons. Cherry-picked 'worst-case scenarios' to 'instill a certain emotional reaction.' No10 lambasted for its apocalyptic graphs and spurious data shown to public
24th Nov 2020 - Daily Mail

French shop owners pressure Macron to lighten virus lockdown

People in France may be able to go back to their favorite shops and attend religious services again next week, after a month of partial virus lockdown — but they’ll probably have to wait until next year to savor wine and cheese in a local cafe President Emmanuel Macron is expected to lay out new rules Tuesday in France’s virus strategy, after he imposed nationwide restrictions last month as virus infections, hospitalizations and deaths surged around Europe.
24th Nov 2020 - The Independent

Pizza bar worker 'deeply sorry' over South Australia coronavirus lockdown

A pizza bar worker whose alleged deception sent South Australia into coronavirus lockdown has expressed "extreme remorse" — but the man's lawyer says some of the information provided by authorities has been inaccurate and unfair. Last week, SA health authorities said the Spanish national told contact tracers he had only ordered a pizza from the Woodville Pizza Bar when in fact he had worked there.
24th Nov 2020 - Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Misinformation and fear could be coronavirus vaccine’s biggest problem

These are just some of the things Londoners said to me when I asked them if they’d take a Covid vaccine. Perhaps they’ve joined the small but vocal minority claiming that the vaccine is a plot to insert surveillance microchips into the population, or maybe, like many thousands more, they simply worry the development of the jab has been rushed. We will probably never know, but while it’s easy to dismiss as ridiculous some of the more extreme anti-vaccine sentiment out there — like anyone repeating the rumour spread by Russian bots that the vaccine will turn us into chimpanzees — the number of “vaccine hesitant” people is growing. Most of them are not cranks, just cautious — and, in a climate of fear and confusion, their trust in what they read in the papers or hear in government briefings is diminishing.
24th Nov 2020 - Evening Standard

In race for coronavirus vaccine, Russia turns to disinformation

When two COVID-19 vaccines were announced within a week of each other, everyone cheered that the end to the global pandemic was now in sight. Everyone, that is, except Russia. Since the summer, Moscow has conducted a global disinformation campaign aimed at both undermining vaccines produced in the West and promoting its own rival product, particularly to countries across the developing world, according to interviews with four national and European Union disinformation experts and a review of Kremlin-backed media outlets by POLITICO.
24th Nov 2020 - POLITICO.eu

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 24th Nov 2020

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Anti-lockdown protestors burn masks in NYC following demonstrations in California

Anti-lockdown protestors on Sunday burned face masks as they marched through Manhattan following similar demonstrations in California, upstate New York and Minnesota. Skyrocketing COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations have prompted state and city officials around the United States to issue new lockdown guidance. As a result demonstrators gathered in Washington Square Park, New York City, on Sunday afternoon for the 'No Lockdown in NYC' event. They carried signs reading 'Stop Covid Tyranny', 'No More Lockdowns' and 'Medical Freedom Now'.
23rd Nov 2020 - Daily Mail

Covid: Thirteen arrests at Liverpool anti-lockdown demo

Thirteen people have been arrested after an anti-lockdown protest in Liverpool on Saturday. Police originally held 15 people but said some had been "de-arrested and issued with fixed penalty notices". Hundreds of people have gathered for weekend rallies since the second national lockdown began on 5 November. At Saturday's protest, a 36-year-old man, from Kirkby, was held on suspicion of assaulting an emergency worker after an officer was pushed in the chest.
23rd Nov 2020 - BBC

German minister condemns lockdown protesters' Nazi victim comparisons

German foreign minister, Heiko Maas, on Sunday lashed out at anti-mask protesters comparing themselves to Nazi victims, accusing them of trivialising the Holocaust and “making a mockery” of the courage shown by resistance fighters. The harsh words came after a young woman took to the stage at a protest against coronavirus restrictions in Hanover on Saturday saying she felt “just like Sophie Scholl”, the German student executed by the Nazis in 1943 for her role in the resistance.
23rd Nov 2020 - The Guardian

Liberal MP breaks ranks with SA Government to label coronavirus lockdown an 'overreaction'

A country Liberal MP has lashed out at the South Australian Government over its handling of the latest coronavirus outbreak, saying the hard lockdown was an overreaction which "hung businesses out to dry". Backbencher Nick McBride, whose electoral district MacKillop includes parts of SA's south-east, said health authorities should not have "taken the word of one person" to impose a lockdown on the entire state.
23rd Nov 2020 - ABC News

New Zealand leader Ardern offers virus know-how to Joe Biden

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Monday became the latest world leader to congratulate President-elect Joe Biden on his election victory, saying she offered to share her nation's expertise on dealing with the coronavirus. Ardern said the tone of the 20-minute phone call was warm and that Biden spoke very favorably about how New Zealand was handling the pandemic. “What has been really at the center of our response has been some fundamentals around testing, contact tracing, isolation,” Ardern said. “That’s over and above what we’ve done at our borders.”
23rd Nov 2020 - The Independent

New Zealand offers Biden tips on COVID-19 after successful response

New Zealand's prime minister said she has offered to help President-elect Joe Biden manage his response to the coronavirus pandemic once he is inaugurated. “I offered to him and his team access to New Zealand health officials in order to share their experience on things we’ve learnt on our COVID-19 journey,” Jacinda Ardern said on Monday, according to Reuters. New Zealand has garnered international praise for its response to the pandemic, with fewer than 100 current cases reported in the country as of this week. Ardern implemented strict nationwide lockdown measures twice this year, a decision public health experts credit with being instrumental to slowing the spread of the virus.
23rd Nov 2020 - The Hill

Majority of Croatians sceptical of coronavirus vaccine

A majority of Croatians do not plan on taking a vaccine to immunise against the coronavirus once it becomes available, a recent survey has found. According to the poll, which was conducted by the Valicon market research company and published by Croatian news agency RTL last week, 43 percent of respondents said they would definitely or would probably vaccinate, mostly citing responsibility towards others and that a higher rate of vaccination will limit infections as reasons. But 57 percent said they definitely would not or probably would not vaccinate, citing mistrust of the vaccine until it was proven to be safe, while a large number of respondents also said they feared there could be side effects. Others said they would not vaccinate because they believed they were not at risk, while a quarter of respondents said the virus constantly mutates and that vaccinating would not protect them. The survey gathering opinions from 523 people in Croatia comes as a global scientific race is under way to produce an effective vaccine for the coronavirus.
23rd Nov 2020 - AlJazeera

UK aims to inoculate those most at risk from COVID by Easter - Johnson

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Monday that he hoped almost all Britons at high risk from COVID would be vaccinated against the disease by Easter. “We should be able to inoculate, I believe on the evidence I’m seeing, the vast majority of the people who need the most protection by Easter,” Johnson told a news conference.
23rd Nov 2020 - Reuters

Johnson says there will be no compulsory COVID vaccination

Britain’s government will not force people to have vaccinations against COVID-19, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Monday. “There will be no compulsory vaccination. That’s not the way we do things in this country,” Johnson told a news conference. “We think it (vaccination) is a good idea, and you know I totally reject the propaganda of the anti-vaxxers, they are wrong,” he said. “Everybody should get a vaccine as soon as it is available.
23rd Nov 2020 - Reuters

England to allow 4,000 fans at elite events in lowest-risk areas

Up to 4,000 spectators will be allowed to attend outdoor elite sports events in the lowest-risk tier one areas of England when a month-long national lockdown to contain the spread of COVID-19 is lifted on Dec. 2, the British government said on Monday.
23rd Nov 2020 - Reuters UK

US nurses’ union warns of hospital stresses amid COVID-19 surge

Nurses from the profession’s largest union in the United States have warned of dire stresses on the healthcare system as the country sees a new surge in COVID-19 cases and hospitalisations. In a news conference on Monday, members of the National Nurses United, which represents 170,000 registered nurses across the US, detailed harrowing accounts of hospital understaffing, a lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) and an inadequate response from local and federal authorities.
23rd Nov 2020 - AlJazeera

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'People need mountains': Swiss ski resorts buck Alpine lockdowns

Blue skies over the Matterhorn drew skiers and snowboarders to Zermatt on Saturday, as well as police to break up crowds, as Switzerland’s modest coronavirus restrictions allowed near-normal operations while other Alpine resorts keep their lifts shut. France, Italy, Austria and Germany have all ordered even the high-altitude lifts that could be running this early in the winter to remain closed for now in the hope that all resorts can benefit at peak-season, if and when the infection rate slows. Switzerland, despite being a second-wave coronavirus hotspot with 5,000 infections a day and mounting deaths, is hoping that a middle way of social distancing, limits on gatherings and mask-wearing on lifts can prop up pillars of the economy such as tourism without fuelling the pandemic.
21st Nov 2020 - Reuters UK

South Australia to end lockdown early after pizza parlour blunder

South Australia’s six-day “circuit-breaker” lockdown will be cut short, officials said on Friday, blaming a pizza parlour worker who misled contact tracers about how he contracted the virus. Premier Steven Marshall indicated a tough lockdown for the state’s almost two million people would end late on Saturday, at least two days earlier than planned. Marshall said a man who claimed he was a customer at a pizza parlour hotspot – leading authorities to believe the strain was virulent enough to be transmitted via a takeaway box – in fact worked there. “One of the close contacts linked to the Woodville pizza bar deliberately misled our contact-tracing team,” said Marshall. “Their story didn’t add up. We pursued them. We now know that they lied.”
20th Nov 2020 - Times of Malta

Coronavirus vaccines: Will any countries get left out?

Early results indicate that at least two vaccines are highly effective, several others have reached late-stage trials, and many more are at some stage of development. None of these vaccines have been approved yet, but that hasn't stopped countries purchasing doses in advance. A key research centre in the US - Duke University in North Carolina - is trying to keep tabs on all the deals being done. It estimates that 6.4 billion doses of potential vaccines have already been bought, and another 3.2 billion are either under negotiation or reserved as "optional expansions of existing deals". The process of advance purchasing is well established in the pharmaceutical industry, as it can help to incentivise the development of products and fund trials, according to Clare Wenham, assistant professor of global health policy at the London School of Economics.
20th Nov 2020 - BBC

Unions call for frontline UK workers to be prioritised for Covid vaccine

Unions have called for key frontline workers to be granted priority access to an approved Covid vaccine after they were omitted from the list of those who should receive it first. The unions, representing more than 1.8 million employees, say that by prioritising only the elderly and health and social care workers, the distribution plan fails to protect other key workers with increased risk of exposure. Gail Cartmail, assistant general secretary of Unite, said: “It is absolutely correct that social care staff and health workers receive the vaccine at an early stage so they are protected and are not at risk of inadvertently transmitting the virus.
20th Nov 2020 - The Guardian

Doing the Touchy Math on Who Should Get a COVID Vaccine First

If the book of nature is written in the language of mathematics, as Galileo once declared, the Covid-19 pandemic has brought that truth home for the world's mathematicians, who have been galvanized by the rapid spread of the coronavirus. So far this year, they have been involved in everything from revealing how contagious the novel coronavirus is, how far we should stand from each other, how long an infected person might shed the virus, how a single strain spread from Europe to New York and then burst across America, and how to ‘'flatten the curve’' to save hundreds of thousands of lives. Modeling also helped persuade the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that the virus can be airborne and transmitted by aerosols that stay aloft for hours.
20th Nov 2020 - Scientific American

Coronavirus vaccine may be coming, but many in Texas will have to wait

Officials are preparing for the massive undertaking of distributing a vaccine that may require multiple doses and subzero storage temperatures across a state that covers 270,000 square miles and some 170 rural counties.
20th Nov 2020 - The Texas Tribune

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 20th Nov 2020

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COVID-19 Conspiracy Theories Still Rampant In Some US Hot Spots

Signs posted at the entrance to the grocery store in northwest Montana told customers to wear a mask. Public health officials in Flathead County urged the same. Coronavirus infection rates here are among the highest in the state. Infection rates in the state are among the highest in the United States. And still, Craig Mann walked out of the grocery store, past the signs and toward his truck, maskless and resolute. The pandemic that everyone's talking about?
19th Nov 2020 - NPR

Northern authorities will 'not hesitate' to block anti-vax Covid-19 conspiracy theorists who could 'cost lives'

Councils across the north-east and Highlands have promised to police their public-facing online channels to avoid myths being spread and “threatening public safety”. The Grampian and Highland health boards have also urged responsible social media use during the pandemic, warning their comments sections will be monitored. Glasgow City Council hit out at the so-called ‘anti-vaxxers’ on Tuesday, promising to block those making “false and dangerous claims” which could “cost lives”. The P&J has sought assurances from northern authorities that similarly robust action would be taken to ensure key public health information can be distilled from the sea of coronavirus fearmongering online.
19th Nov 2020 - Press and Journal

COVID-19: Anti-lockdown militias on streets of Michigan as virus surges across US

On the first day of a new lockdown in Michigan hundreds of people ventured out to one of the only places still open for business - a COVID-19 testing site. People waited for up to four hours to be swabbed. Not all had symptoms, but all shared a weariness at spiralling infections and new lockdown measures in their state. There's a sense that America has been distracted. People, politicians and media alike all focused on a gripping national election. But while the world looked away the virus has surged.
19th Nov 2020 - Sky News

Was the scientific advice for lockdown flawed?

As coronavirus began spreading around the world at the start of 2020, in the UK there were weaknesses in the expert analysis of its likely impact, according to a BBC documentary. "There is going to be a lot of criticism of the scientists - because it's easy to have hindsight. "It's easy to say if only we'd done this a week earlier we'd have saved 5,000, 10,000, 15,000, 20,000 lives. But if you look at where we were in February, would you really have made these decisions any differently? I don't think you would have." Those are the words of Prof Calum Semple of the University of Liverpool, one of the key scientists advising the government on Covid-19.
19th Nov 2020 - BBC

Brussels warns Hungary on Russian Covid jab

Brussels has warned that Hungary would risk undermining public confidence in coronavirus vaccinations should it bypass the EU medicines regulator and roll out the Russian jab Budapest plans to trial. The European Commission said on Thursday mass Covid-19 inoculation would become “much harder” if citizens began to question a vaccine because it had not been approved as safe and effective. The comments highlight tensions over Budapest’s decision to run clinical trials next month of the Russian Sputnik V drug, which has not yet been assessed by the European Medicines Agency. While the Brussels statement did not mention Hungary or Sputnik V by name, no other EU member state has announced plans for such a radical move outside the bloc-wide vaccination programme overseen by the commission.
19th Nov 2020 - Financial Times

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 19th Nov 2020

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COVID-19: 'High priority' procurement for firms recommended by MPs and advisers

Companies recommended by MPs, peers and advisers were given priority to win government contracts as it scrambled to respond to the coronavirus outbreak, the public spending watchdog has found. A National Audit Office (NAO) investigation into pandemic procurement concludes that normal standards of transparency were waived as departments awarded 8,600 contracts worth £18bn to tackle COVID-19. Deals worth £10.5bn were granted without competitive tender.
18th Nov 2020 - Sky News

Police fire water cannon at anti-lockdown protesters in Germany

German police have deployed water cannon to disperse a mass anti-lockdown protest outside Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate. Scores of protestors gathered to oppose the government’s coronavirus restrictions as German MPs debated a bill to provide the legal underpinning for the government to issue social distancing rules, require masks in public and close stores and other venues. In scenes replicated across the continent and the world, those opposed to the measures took to the streets despite popular support for measures to quell the spread of the virus. Officers said the crowd refused to listen to their requests to wear masks and keep their distance from one another in line with regulations.
18th Nov 2020 - The Independent

German police fire water cannons at protesters as thousands gather in Berlin anti-lockdown rally

Thousands gathered at Brandenburg Gate to protest covid restrictions in Germany as case numbers rose. Police used water cannons to break up the huge crowds with some protesters throwing flares. Demonstration came as government debated a bill that would make mask wearing, social distancing and shop closures enforceable by law
18th Nov 2020 - Daily Mail

Conspiracy Video Goes Viral in Threat to France’s Vaccine Push

A documentary questioning the purpose of coronavirus vaccines has gone viral in France after endorsements from politicians and celebrities, some of whom later withdrew their support. “Hold Up” got more than 4 million views on Google’s YouTube and other platforms over a couple of days last week, helped along on social media by public figures including lawmakers, former First Lady Carla Bruni--Sarkozy and actor Sophie Marceau. Suspicions over the safety and effectiveness of vaccines are widespread in France. In a study released this week by the liberal think tank Fondation Jean-Jaures, 43% of respondents said they would refuse to get a shot -- 7 percentage points more than in the U.S., and twice as many as in the U.K.
18th Nov 2020 - Bloomberg Quint

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Germany eyes ban on anti-lockdown protest at parliament

German officials have cited security concerns in their decision to ban a series of protests planned Wednesday outside the federal parliament by people opposed to coronavirus lockdown measures. The unusual move comes amid fears that extremist groups could try to use a rally initially planned for Wednesday to attack the Bundestag, echoing an unsuccessful attempt to storm the parliament building during a similar demonstration in August. The Interior Ministry said Tuesday it had rejected 12 requests to hold rallies within a specially designated zone around parliament. Unlike elsewhere in Germany, protesters have to seek permission to stage demonstrations within the security perimeter surrounding certain federal buildings.
17th Nov 2020 - ABC

German officials ban anti-lockdown protest near parliament

Spanish cops raid Instagram influencers' anti-lockdown party at Marbella villa and evict 40 people

Cops called amid reports youngsters were flouting national covid restrictions Video shows mask-free influencers jumping into pool from roof of Marbella villa Spain's state of emergency limits public and private gatherings to six people
17th Nov 2020 - Daily Mail

The government must admit its errors and reset the strategy – it is time to go for ‘Zero Covid’

‘Zero Covid’, which seeks to lock down cases rather than whole countries, has been used across East Asian and Pacific nations and has – to a large degree – succeeded in eliminating the virus
17th Nov 2020 - The Independent

Questions arise over dramatic increase in PPE costs paid by government during pandemic

This programme has seen exclusive evidence of the dramatic increase in the price of PPE being paid by the government when the pandemic crisis first hit in April and May.
17th Nov 2020 - Channel4.com

NIH head: Masks are 'lifesaving medical instrument' not 'invasion of your personal freedom'

The head of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is urging the public to abide by safety guidelines and socially distance, saying that while recent results for COVID-19 vaccine candidates are "encouraging," people must take extra precautions for at least "a few more months." The comments from NIH director Francis Collins come as pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and Moderna recently announced that their vaccine candidates were shown to be more than 90 percent effective at preventing the coronavirus. Collins told Judy Woodruff on PBS NewsHour on Monday that he felt “extremely encouraged” by the results and said “we're pretty optimistic that we're on a good path.”
17th Nov 2020 - The Hill

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 17th Nov 2020

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Covid-19 contracts smell of cronyism – so I'm taking the government to court

There is an England of my mind. And in it those who have made their fortunes offer their time and talents in service of the public good, modelling self-sacrifice and respect for good governance to ensure the nation thrives. But that England is no longer this England. Take the story of Kate Bingham. She is wife to a Treasury minister and cousin by marriage to Boris Johnson’s sister. Despite having – by her own admission – no vaccines experience, she was appointed by the prime minister, as far as we know without competition, to head up the “vaccines taskforce”. With this role came responsibility for investing billions of pounds of public money, a task she performed while remaining managing director of a private equity firm specialising in health investments. While in post she gave, again apparently without competition, a £670,000 contract to a tiny PR firm, whose last accounts show net assets of less than a third of that sum. Its directors include Collingwood Cameron, a longstanding business associate of Humphry Wakefield (better known as Dominic Cummings’ father-in-law).
16th Nov 2020 - The Guardian

Trump's coronavirus advisor urges Michigan to 'rise up' against new COVID lockdown but insists he was NOT talking about violence

Dr Scott Atlas criticized the new coronavirus measures in Michigan yesterday The White House advisor told people 'you get what you accept' on social media Governor Gretchen Whitmer said she would not be bullied by the White House
16th Nov 2020 - Daily Mail

Germany postpones decision on further lockdown measures until next week

German federal and state leaders agreed to postpone until November 25 a decision on further lockdown measures to slow a second wave of coronavirus infections, Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Monday. Merkel said a majority of state leaders did not want to see a tightening of restrictions before next week, but, she added: “I could have imagined imposing further contact restrictions today, but there was no majority for that.”
16th Nov 2020 - Reuters

Merkel forced to postpone plans to tighten lockdown rules

Angela Merkel has said she does not have backing among state leaders for new restrictions to give Germany’s “soft” lockdown a harder bite, postponing any decision until a further meeting between the chancellor and 16 state premiers next week. The chancellor had been in favour of people limiting social interactions in private to only one set second household, and forgo any kind of party until Christmas Eve, according to a draft proposal cited by several news outlets including Der Spiegel. The plans were also reported to include advising citizens to quarantine at home for up to seven days, even if they display only the symptoms of an ordinary cold, and tightening hygiene requirements at schools, with teachers and students of all year groups asked to wear face masks throughout lessons.
16th Nov 2020 - The Guardian

Anti-lockdown demonstrators clash with police in Italy and French Catholics demand right to worship

Protest organised by ultra-right Forza Nuova and the No Mask movement took place in Piazza Venezia, Rome. Demonstration saw protesters face off with riot police as they shouted and tried to barge through barricade. In France, several Catholic protests organised across country demanding the return of religious services
16th Nov 2020 - Daily Mail

French Catholics protest for end to lockdown on Mass

With banners reading “Let us Pray” and “We Want Mass,” Catholic protesters held scattered demonstrations around France on Sunday to demand that authorities relax virus lockdown measures to allow religious services. In the western city of Nantes, hundreds gathered in front of a statue of the Virgin Mary, some kneeling on the rain-soaked pavement, according to local broadcaster France Bleu. Similar gatherings were reported or planned in the eastern city of Strasbourg, Bordeaux in the southwest, and outside the Saint-Louis Cathedral in Versailles.
16th Nov 2020 - ABC News

Biden says he ‘wouldn’t hesitate’ to get Pfizer or Moderna coronavirus vaccines

President-elect Joe Biden said he “wouldn’t hesitate to get the vaccine” during a press conference on Monday while demanding cooperation from President Donald Trump’s White House in coordinating Covid-19 recovery efforts. “I wouldn't hesitate to get the vaccine,” Mr Biden told reporters, saying: “If Fauci, Moderna and Pfizer conclude it's safe and able to be done.” He added: "The only reason people question the vaccine now is because of Donald Trump." The president-elect also said “it’s going to take a while … for the vaccine to get to people” while condemning the “irresponsible” behavior of the Trump administration not to comply with transitional recovery efforts.
16th Nov 2020 - The Independent

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 16th Nov 2020

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Before Joe Biden's inauguration, 70,000 more people could die from COVID-19

Biden's coronavirus advisor, Dr Michael Osterholm, warned on Sunday that the health care system in US could collapse in next few weeks due to COVID surge Osterholm said that he fears people could even start dying in the waiting rooms 'I think it is the healthcare systems breaking that will unfortunately bring us to a sense of reality of what we must do in the short term,' Osterholm said. His remarks come as a new model suggests up to 150K more people could die of COVID-19s before president-elect Biden is inaugurated on January 20, 2021. Model shows skyrocketing infections could add more than 8 million cases
15th Nov 2020 - Daily Mail

To shut down or not shut down? Officials implement new coronavirus restrictions as cases skyrocket, but face angry backlash.

With the coronavirus raging out of control and hospitals nearing capacity, state and local leaders are facing once more the gut-wrenching decision of whether to order shutdowns. But many are finding the call much harder to make this time — eight months after cities and states last implemented weeks-long shutdowns — amid angry backlashes, deeply polarized constituents and dire economic consequences.
14th Nov 2020 - The Washington Post

Communal worship ‘criminalised’ under lockdown, church leaders in England say

More than 100 Christian leaders have launched a legal challenge against the ban on communal worship in England under lockdown restrictions. They claim worship has been “criminalised” and the ban has “inflicted a terrible human cost” on congregations for whom collective worship is a core element of their religious life. The restrictions on public worship, they argue, breach article 9 of the European convention on human rights which protects the right to freedom of religion. The claim for judicial review by 122 church leaders from different traditions is being supported by the Christian Legal Centre, an arm of the conservative evangelical organisation Christian Concern.
14th Nov 2020 - The Guardian

Water cannon fired at Frankfurt anti-lockdown rally

German police fired water cannon during an anti-lockdown rally in Frankfurt on Saturday and eventually broke up the gathering as rules like wearing masks and socially distancing were not observed. About 600 people from the loosely organized Querdenker movement that opposes the government’s measures to halt the rise in coronavirus infections took to the streets in Frankfurt. Police used water cannon to free up the route of the rally, which was blocked several times by about 300 people protesting against the Querdenkers. A police spokesman said the rally was broken up after protesters repeatedly disregarded rules on wearing masks and keeping a distance from each other.
14th Nov 2020 - Reuters UK

'Freedom Movement': Why people are still protesting despite the easing of lockdown rules

With a young woman twirling a hula hoop as her floral-clad friend beats on a drum, people could have been mistaken for thinking they were entering a climate change rally in the city on Melbourne Cup day. But if they walked a little further into the crowd, they would have seen men throwing Nazi salutes and people holding signs denying the existence of COVID-19. In the thick of the scrum, a middle-aged woman, wearing a fascinator and dress, bellowed her protest.
13th Nov 2020 - The Age

Germany’s protests against coronavirus restrictions are becoming increasingly radical

Around 9:30 on a quiet Sunday morning late last month, a crudely made explosive device went off with a small bang and a flash in central Berlin near the building of an association of German scientific institutes. A note found nearby demanded the end to coronavirus restrictions. Just a few hours earlier, molotov cocktails had been tossed at the front of the Robert Koch Institute, the German federal agency responsible for controlling the virus. The incidents come against the backdrop of a growing violent undercurrent at large-scale street demonstrations against coronavirus restrictions, including one attended by 20,000 people Saturday in Leipzig. The developments point to an increasingly radicalized movement of virus skeptics in Germany, embraced by the country’s far-right extremist groups and energized by global conspiracy theories, notably those put forth by the U.S.-born QAnon movement.
12th Nov 2020 - The Washington Post

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 13th Nov 2020

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Coronavirus UK: Now 70 rebel Tory MPs oppose lockdown extension

Covid Recovery Group has formed to oppose a third national lockdown after current one ends in December. The group initially formed with 50 Tory MPs, but is said to have grown to 70, with 25 more considering joining. It comes amid fears Britons could face more confusion when current lockdown comes to an end in December. Government is now looking again at Tier system and treating regions together rather than cities individually. New tougher Tier 4 for some regions that struggle to manage infection rates has been mooted for weeks
12th Nov 2020 - Daily Mail

Germany’s protests against coronavirus restrictions are becoming increasingly radical

New survey shows more than half the French flout Covid-19 lockdown rules

The Ifop survey confirmed that the French are taking the second nationwide shutdown far less seriously than the first in March-April. It showed that 60 percent had flouted the rules at least once, either by giving a false reason for going out on their self-signed permission slip or by meeting up with family and friends. The figure was far higher than during the first lockdown when the proportion of rule-breakers stood at under 40 percent during the first six weeks.
12th Nov 2020 - YAHOO!

Bolsonaro's clash with Sao Paulo governor over the Chinese vaccine tainted with politics

Brazil’s national health regulator allowed clinical trials of a Chinese-developed Covid-19 vaccine to resume on Wednesday, two days after suspending them in what critics called a decision tainted by politics. The regulatory agency, Anvisa, said it had now received more details on the nature of the adverse “incident” that led it to halt final stage trials of the CoronaVac vaccine, and had “sufficient information to allow vaccination to resume.” Public health officials had said the incident that led to the suspension – a volunteer recipient’s death, which police are investigating as a suicide – had no connection with the vaccine.
12th Nov 2020 - MercoPress

Anthony Fauci says working with Trump Administration on the coronavirus pandemic has been 'very stressful'

Dr Fauci, who has headed the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984, told 7.30's Leigh Sales working with the Trump administration on the coronavirus pandemic had "obviously been very stressful". "I mean, it's just, to deny that would be to deny reality," he said. "When you have public figures like [former Trump advisor Steve] Bannon calling for your beheading. That's really kind of unusual. "That's not the kind of thing you think about when you're going through medical school to become a physician."
12th Nov 2020 - ABC News

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 12th Nov 2020

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Covid: Tory MPs form group to oppose future lockdowns

Conservative MPs have set up a group to fight any future lockdown in England, arguing it would be "devastating" for the economy and "cost lives". The Covid Recovery Group, which has around 50 MP members, wants the country to "live with" coronavirus after nationwide restrictions end next month. The "cure" prescribed by the government ran "the risk of being worse than the disease", MP Mark Harper said. But the PM has stressed the NHS faces a "medical disaster" without action. A further 20,412 coronavirus cases were reported in the UK on Tuesday, with another 532 deaths within 28 days of a positive test recorded.
11th Nov 2020 - BBC

Spain’s coronavirus deniers: ‘We are normal people, not freaks’

Clutching the tome, he claims that all the knowledge he has gathered over the years has helped him come to the following conclusion on the coronavirus pandemic: “It is a fake pandemic invented by the multinational chemical-pharmaceutical companies. This is because they are not only pharmaceutical companies, but large chemical corporations that also manufacture poisons. [...] These multinationals are dedicated to inventing diseases, to making them chronic and turning public health into a lucrative business.”
11th Nov 2020 - EL PAÍS in English

Anti-lockdown MPs add to pressure on Boris Johnson

The Treasury’s top civil servant has agreed to consider releasing part of the advice by officials on the economics of England’s second lockdown, as the government’s preferred measure of deaths across the UK during the coronavirus pandemic rose above 50,000. While Tom Scholar, the Treasury’s permanent secretary, and Clare Lombardelli, its chief economist, denied there was “a separate forecast” of the impact of the second lockdown, as suggested in the minutes of the government’s scientific advice, they agreed on Wednesday to consult on whether the Treasury could release a selection of “ongoing” policy advice to ministers. The commitment came amid testy exchanges at the Treasury committee in the House of Commons in which MPs sought with difficulty to get Treasury officials to outline the thinking on the costs and benefits of the second lockdown.
11th Nov 2020 - The Financial Times

Senior Tories Join Rebel Group To Oppose Further National Lockdown

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson will face sustained pressure from within his own party not to extend the national lockdown next month after senior Tory backbenchers formed a group to resist any such move. Some 32 Conservatives rebelled against the government when the Commons approved the second lockdown for England which lasts until December 2. The prime minister said he expects the nation to return to a tiered local system by then and promised MPs a vote for the replacement to the four-week lockdown. Former chief whip Mark Harper and ex-Brexit minister Steve Baker will lead the "Covid recovery group" to resist any extension of the measure in the Commons vote.
11th Nov 2020 - London South East

Putting pressure on Johnson, UK Conservatives set up COVID group

Conservative lawmakers have set up a new group to fight what they call a cycle of lockdowns to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus, yet another sign of discontent in British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s governing party. While most Conservatives backed the government last week in supporting a second lockdown in England to try to bring down rising cases of COVID-19, more than 30 of the party’s lawmakers broke ranks, seeing the measures as draconian. The new internal group, called the Covid Recovery Group, is the latest to be formed by Conservative lawmakers, part of wider efforts to apply pressure on a government which many feel is not listening to the party’s concerns.
11th Nov 2020 - Reuters UK

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 11th Nov 2020

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Dance teacher goes shopping dressed as a 'non-essential' ballerina to protest France's lockdown

Amandine Aguilar, ballet teacher from South West France danced in a store Filmed herself dancing to protest France's lockdown measures affecting the arts Her black tutu read 'I am "non-essential" to call out lack of help to culture sector Wrote on Facebook was 'depressed' after suffering several closures due to covid
10th Nov 2020 - Daily Mail

Covid-19: Fines issued over Manchester anti-lockdown demo

The organiser of an anti-lockdown demonstration attended by 600 people in Manchester has been fined £10,000. The protest in Piccadilly Gardens was condemned by Greater Manchester Police (GMP) as "irresponsible" after new Covid rules came into force. Police officers suffered minor injuries at Sunday's event, which included protesters who had travelled from Cumbria, said GMP. The force said the organiser ignored its pleas to call off the event.
10th Nov 2020 - BBC

Coronavirus: Hundreds protest against 'fake pandemic' in Madrid

Hundreds of anti-vaccine demonstrators took to Madrid's Prado promenade on Saturday hitting out against the "fake pandemic" and the restrictions imposed by the Spanish authorities in an attempt to stem the spread of COVID-19. It came after police in Spain last week made dozens of arrests during clashes with protestors for a second consecutive night as demonstrators took to the streets to denounce the new coronavirus restrictions.
10th Nov 2020 - Euronews

Lockdown is breeding resentment. Nigel Farage can see that – does the left?

Covid-19’s relentless immiseration of the British working poor was laid bare last week in a report released by the Office of National Statistics. Surveying the impact of the first lockdown, the ONS found that the biggest falls in pay and hours were at the bottom of the earnings scale. Young people and part-time workers were clobbered particularly badly. Two million employees earned less than the statutory minimum wage as a result of being furloughed. The revision, reduction and planned abandonment of furlough payments by Rishi Sunak – until last week’s U-turn – has contributed to an ever-rising toll of redundancies.
10th Nov 2020 - The Guardian

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 10th Nov 2020

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UK vaccines taskforce chair to step down - FT

UK vaccines taskforce chair Kate Bingham is to step down from her post at the end of the year amid criticism that she spent 670,000 pounds ($881,000) on public relations consultants, the Financial Times reported on Monday. Bingham’s use of a private sector company to oversee communications for her task force has caused concern in the government, and on Monday, government officials said she was not expected to continue in the job into 2021, the newspaper reported. The FT said, citing a Sunday Times report, that Bingham had used eight full-time consultants from London PR agency Admiral Associates to oversee her media strategy, and has contracted them until the end of the year. Under Bingham’s vaccine taskforce, Britain has secured supply deals for more than 350 million doses of six different COVID-19 vaccine candidates.
10th Nov 2020 - Reuters UK

PM Johnson says still too early to rely on COVID-19 vaccine

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Britain was ready to roll out a mass COVID-19 vaccination programme but it was too early to rely on a vaccine as a solution to the coronavirus pandemic. “I must stress that these are very, very early days, and we’ve talked for a long time, right about the distant bugle of the scientific cavalry coming over the brow of the hill,” Johnson told a media conference after Pfizer said its experimental COVID-19 vaccine was more than 90% effective. “I can tell you that tonight that today that toot, that bugle is louder, but it’s still some way off. We absolutely cannot rely on this news, as a solution.”
10th Nov 2020 - Reuters UK

UK expects to get 10 million doses of Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine this year

Britain expects to have 10 million doses of Pfizer/BioNTech’s candidate COVID-19 vaccine available by the end of the year, but Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday said there were several hurdles to go after its positive clinical trial results.
10th Nov 2020 - Reuters UK

Vaccine hesitancy may undermine fight against COVID-19, UK report says

An 80% uptake of a COVID-19 vaccine may be needed to protect communities from the novel coronavirus, but volatile levels of misinformation and vaccine mistrust could undermine efforts to tackle the pandemic, British scientists said on Tuesday. A report by scientific institutions the British Academy and the Royal Society found that, in part due to circulating misinformation and behavioural factors, around 36% of people in Britain say they are either uncertain or very unlikely to agree to be vaccinated against COVID-19. It said an “open dialogue” is critical to building public support for COVID-19 vaccination, and called for a “frank conversation” to manage public expectations that life will not immediately get back to normal when vaccines arrive.
10th Nov 2020 - Reuters UK

Covid-19: Four arrested over Manchester anti-lockdown demo

Coronavirus UK: Boris Johnson feels 'bounced into second lockdown'

Boris Johnson felt pushed into a second lockdown by misleading data, a Government source has suggested. It comes as some of the figures backing up strict new measures this month have started falling apart in the last week – particularly the 4,000 potential deaths a day warning. The early leak of the lockdown plans may also have escalated the situation, the source claimed. One Cabinet minister told the Daily Mail: ‘I think he is concerned that he may have been bounced into it.
9th Nov 2020 - Metro.co.uk

Trump tried to justify rising Covid cases by pointing to Europe. Experts say he's wrong.

For President Donald Trump, 2020 will be defined by his coronavirus response. And in recent weeks, he has sought to deflect the mountains of criticism he has received by pointing to the escalating Covid-19 outbreaks across Europe. "Our numbers are much better than Europe," the president said in September. He said during the final presidential debate last month that "it's all over the world — you see the spikes in Europe and many other places right now."
9th Nov 2020 - NBC News

Protests in Germany over national lockdown

Protests in Germany over national lockdown as thousands call for Merkel to quit Protests have erupted in Germany as thousands took to the streets all around the country on Saturday, November 7 after the country entered into a four-week partial lockdown on Monday. Bars, restaurants, gyms and theatres have all been closed, but schools remain open.
9th Nov 2020 - Euro Weekly News

Victoria's lockdown 'went too far, businesses have been crushed'

Melbourne restaurateur Chris Lucas says the Victorian government needs to be sensitive that the decision to lockdown the state went too far, crushed businesses, caused hundreds to lose their jobs and took away the futures of so many people. His comments come regarding the recent develops to Victoria’s reopening, with the 'ring of steel' surrounding the city coming down. Pubs, cafés and restaurants can now serve up to 40 people inside and 70 outside, with increases to 100 patrons indoors, and 200 outside expected from the 23rd of November. “The government needs to be a little bit sensitive about what is going on with regards to these re-opening plans,” Mr Lucas told Sky News host Peta Credlin.
9th Nov 2020 - Sky News Australia

Italy's national unity splinters in face of COVID-19 second wave

Italy won plaudits for its discipline and unity in fighting the Western world’s first coronavirus outbreak in the spring, but that sense of common purpose is unravelling in the face of the second wave. Despite a surge in infections and deaths, Italians who stoically accepted a blanket national lockdown in March are now less willing to respect far less rigid restrictions, egged on by local politicians at odds with the government in Rome.
9th Nov 2020 - Reuters UK

COVID-19: Biden pleads ‘wear a mask’ ahead of ‘very dark winter’

US President-elect Joe Biden addressed the nation after meeting with his transition coronavirus advisory board on Monday, calling for unity and simple steps to contain the coronavirus pandemic. Biden said, “Please, I implore you, wear a mask” during the speech in Wilmington, Delaware. He noted masks could save the lives of older people, children and teachers and added: “It could even save your own life.” Biden became the projected winner of the US presidential election on Saturday, after Pennsylvania was called for the former vice president. Biden is currently projected to have 290 Electoral College votes, more than the 270 required for victory, according to The Associated Press news agency. Trump currently sits at 214, with Alaska and North Carolina still not called but favouring the president. Georgia too close to call and the small margin will trigger an automatic recount.
9th Nov 2020 - AlJazeera

Anti-lockdown protesters chant ‘take off your masks’ at 600-strong march

Hundreds of anti-lockdown protesters gathered in Manchester city centre this afternoon amid chants of ‘take of your masks’. Around 600 people congregated in Piccadilly Gardens, not complying to social distancing and few wearing masks. Among them were a group of people who had travelled on a coach from Cumbria. Many of them carried placards, one of which read: ‘Fear is the currency of control.’ One speaker using a loud-hailer told the crowd: ‘Those 300-plus politicians that voted for the lockdown are treasonous.
8th Nov 2020 - Metro

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 9th Nov 2020

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Violence breaks out at anti-mask march on first night of second lockdown

Almost 200 anti-lockdown protesters have been arrested as they marched through London on the first evening of tougher measures. Very few people wore face coverings as they joined the ‘Million Mask March’ – an annual event on November 5 which is anti-establishment and against Government corruption – in Trafalgar Square, London. People began to walk up the Strand just after 6pm, chanting ‘freedom’ and ‘no more lockdown’ and police urged them to go home. Many of them carried signs, one of which read: ‘No more lockdown, no more cover ups, no more masks, no more lies!’
8th Nov 2020 - Metro

British police arrest 104 Londoners for breach of lockdown restrictions

British police said they arrested 104 Londoners on Thursday for breach of coronavirus regulations, adding that they expected more arrests as policing operations continued into the night. People gathered in central London despite new restrictions that have been imposed to limit the spread of the coronavirus. “Tonight, a crowd of people chose to ignore the new regulations, to behave irresponsibly and meet in a dangerous manner. More than 100 of these people have now been arrested and will have to face the consequences of their actions”, the Metropolitan Police said.
8th Nov 2020 - Reuters UK

UK's coronavirus vaccine taskforce chief faces questions over biotech fund

The head of the government’s vaccine taskforce faces fresh questions after it emerged she hailed the launch of a biotechnology investment fund in her capacity as managing director of a venture capital firm despite having “stepped away” from the role. Kate Bingham, a venture capitalist married to the Conservative minister Jesse Norman, came under scrutiny this week when Labour asked the cabinet secretary to “undertake an urgent and swift investigation” after it was claimed she showed US financiers government documents at a $200-a-head conference. She has garnered further attention after the Times reported that, although Bingham voluntarily declared that SV Health Investors “does not invest in companies related to work on the Covid-19 vaccine”, it has shareholdings in companies named Alchemab and Adimab, which have been involved in the race to develop antibody cocktails.
8th Nov 2020 - The Guardian

Vaccine diplomacy and the US-China rivalry in Africa

Earlier this year, the China-United States global rivalry escalated, as both countries deployed their diplomatic arsenals to try to sway the competition for 5G contracts. The US managed to get the United Kingdom to rescind a deal with China’s Huawei to set up the country’s 5G network, which was seen as a major win for Washington. This rivalry extended into Africa, with both superpowers trying to recruit client African states to their side. The US has tried to put pressure on Kenya and South Africa, among other African countries, to reconsider Huawei’s involvement in the set-up of 5G systems. China, for its part, has put its weight behind the tech giant.
8th Nov 2020 - AlJazeera

Teachers are NOT more likely to get coronavirus than other key workers, official study finds

Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures reveal there is 'no difference' in risk Other key workers were those working outside the home for at least a day Trade unions have blasted the Government for keeping schools open
7th Nov 2020 - Daily Mail

Covid: London anti-lockdown protest leads to 190 arrests

Police arrested 190 protesters during anti-lockdown demonstrations in central London. Officers dispersed a large protest in Trafalgar Square at about 19:00 GMT on Thursday, with small pockets of protests continuing through the night. One person could face a £10,000 fine over their role in the demonstrations, the Met said. Scotland Yard said protesters had "put the health of London and our officers at risk". The Met said one of the people arrested could be handed a £10,000 fine, which can be given to organisers of large gatherings. The other 189 people are being investigated for breaching new Covid-19 regulations and could be issued with fixed penalty notices, the force added.
7th Nov 2020 - BBC

No10 admits mistake in coronavirus forecasts used to justify England's lockdown

Downing Street has admitted there were mistakes in coronavirus forecasts used by Boris Johnson to justify England's new lockdown. Alarming slides shown at the No10 press conference on Saturday by Chief Scientific Adviser Sir Patrick Vallance predicting Covid deaths could hit 1,400 a day by early December have now been revised downwards. The graph, based on forecasts by the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling, projected a top-end range of more than 1,400 deaths a day by December 8 - well above the first-wave peak of almost 1,000. But on Tuesday, the slide was quietly reissued with the top-end range revised down to just over 1,000 deaths a day. Another slide forecasting hospital admissions would reach nearly 9,000 at the top end has also been changed to just over 6,000 a day.
7th Nov 2020 - Mirror Online

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 6th Nov 2020

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Covid: Regulator criticises data used to justify lockdown

The government has been criticised by the official statistics watchdog for the way it presented data to justify England's second lockdown. The UK Statistics Authority highlighted the use of modelling at Saturday's TV briefing showing the possible death toll from Covid this winter. It said there needed to be more transparency about data and how predictions were being made. The projections were out of date and over-estimated deaths, it has emerged. A forecast made by Public Health England and Cambridge University said the country could soon be seeing more than 4,000 deaths a day.
5th Nov 2020 - BBC

Here's why lockdown is Nigel Farage’s new target

All of this will strike many as pure opportunism. But while Farage is clearly preying on a perceived weak spot for Boris Johnson – who is increasingly having to face down restive backbenchers over the restrictions – it looks like he has been planning a “Reform” party for a long, long time. And to find out why we need to look to Canada. Back in late-1980s Canada, a radical-right outfit called the Reform party waged war on the traditional centre-right party, the Progressive Conservatives. The goal was to derail the socially liberal direction of the Conservatives, and push sweeping tax cuts, tougher law-and-order policies and more direct democracy through referendums, as well as opposing multiculturalism. Sound familiar? The party’s argument was framed around the need for reform of institutions such as Canada’s senate, much like Farage and Tice’s calls for the House of Lords.
5th Nov 2020 - The Guardian

Minister blames public for second English lockdown

The second national lockdown in England has been caused in part by a lack of public compliance, the justice secretary has said, adding that it will be a “huge challenge” to get the public to follow the strict rules this time. Robert Buckland suggested the public had failed to adhere to the previous system, leading to the need for the four-week lockdown starting on Thursday in England. “That’s one of the reasons we are having to take the measures we are today,” the cabinet minister told the BBC. “Sadly, it’s been difficult frankly regarding the compliance of some people with regard to the quarantine restrictions. “I think it would be very ambitious of me to suggest that somehow we will be able to use the enforcement authorities to intervene in every case I think sadly that’s not possible.”
5th Nov 2020 - The Guardian

Anger as Italy's new 'red zones' prepare for lockdown

taly's newly-designated coronavirus "red zones" braced Thursday for a fresh lockdown as anger rose against the government, accused of penalising some regions while being too lax towards others. At the Scala in Milan, gloom reigned after the prestigious opera house was forced to cancel its opening night next month, and non-essential shops served their last customers before a lockdown Friday set to affect over 16 million people.
5th Nov 2020 - The Peninsula

Muddled messaging fuels backlash against lockdown in France

When he announced a new coronavirus lockdown in France, President Emmanuel Macron said the government had learned lessons from the first wave. But a series of unforced errors from his government is making it a tough sell. Some 73 percent of French people say they find communications over the second lockdown incoherent, according to a YouGov poll published Wednesday. Only 29 percent said they trusted the government to handle the second wave. Government spokesperson Gabriel Attal announced on Tuesday a curfew in Paris that was contradicted within an hour by the prime minister’s office, among other communication blunders.
5th Nov 2020 - POLITICO.eu

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 5th Nov 2020

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Tory-linked firm involved in testing failure given new £347m Covid contract

The UK government has awarded a new £347m Covid-19 testing contract to Randox, the Tory-linked private healthcare company whose testing kits had to be recalled over the summer because of concerns about contamination. The deal is a six-month extension of an existing contract and was agreed without other companies being invited to bid. It means the health secretary, Matt Hancock, has now approved transfers of nearly half a billion pounds in taxpayer funds to the Northern Ireland-based company since the pandemic began. Disclosed in a filing on a European contracts website, the award has prompted concerns about “cronyism” and calls for an independent inquiry into the £12bn spent so far on attempting to control the pandemic through the test-and-trace system.
4th Nov 2020 - The Guardian

England underestimates the costs of lockdown at its peril

Suppose there is nothing that governments can do to stop the spread of Covid-19. What then? It is not a hypothetical question, as England is discovering. “We’ve got to be humble in the face of nature,” the prime minister observed in Saturday’s Downing Street press conference. But humility learns from experience, and there was no sign of that in the measures he then went on to announce. In my opinion, the problem with lockdowns is that they are indiscriminate, ineffective in the long term, and carry social and economic costs that outweigh their likely benefits.
4th Nov 2020 - The Guardian

Simply breathtaking: There was NO full report on the economic impact of new lockdown

Tory MPs led by Sir Graham Brady demanded release of Treasury's assessment But Robert Jenrick, Housing Secretary, admitted that no such document exists Prime Minister has since been accused of not taking a 'balanced' judgment
4th Nov 2020 - Daily Mail

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 4th Nov 2020

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Coronavirus: Michigan plotters attend multiple anti-lockdown protests

On April 30, outside the Michigan Capitol, protesters gathered to demand that Gov. Gretchen Whitmer end the business closures and other measures she had imposed to slow the transmission of the coronavirus. Speaker after speaker denounced the Democratic governor. One Republican congressional candidate told protesters that they were "the tip of the spear" in the fight against tyranny. An aspiring official said that by supporting conservative candidates they could "slap Gretchen Whitmer right across the face." In the crowd that day, according to photos and videos, were Adam Fox and at least five others who are now charged in the plot to kidnap Ms Whitmer or, in related cases, providing material support for a planned terrorist act.
3rd Nov 2020 - The Independent

Birx warns US entering ‘deadly phase’ of Covid, contradicting Trump’s message

White House scientific adviser Dr Deborah Birx warned the United States is entering a new “deadly phase” of the coronavirus pandemic, and urged an “aggressive” approach to containing its spread. Birx gave the warning in a written memo delivered to top administration officials Monday. It is a direct contradiction of one of Donald Trump’s central, and false, closing campaign messages – that the US is “rounding the corner” on the pandemic. “We are entering the most concerning and most deadly phase of this pandemic,” Birx wrote in the memo, first reported by the Washington Post. She continued: “Cases are rapidly rising in nearly 30% of all USA counties, the highest number of county hotspots we have seen with this pandemic. Half of the United States is in the red or orange zone for cases despite flat or declining testing.”
3rd Nov 2020 - The Guardian

Top researchers say Britain's R rate has dropped to 1

King's College London said cases were now 'plateauing' and there was a 'slight fall' in infections across UK. Oxford's Carl Heneghan said told how coronavirus hospital admissions, cases and 'in effect' deaths in retreat. It comes as Sir Patrick Vallance and Prof Chris Whitty face questions from MPs over the 4,000 deaths figure. Meanwhile Britain yesterday recorded its lowest number of daily coronavirus infections in fortnight - 18,950
3rd Nov 2020 - Daily Mail

Chris Whitty and Sir Patrick Vallance defend their '4,000 deaths a day' dossier

Chief scientific and medical officers were hauled before MPs to defend SAGE's doomsday forecast today. Sir Patrick said he 'regrets' frightening people with the 4,000 deaths a day figure used to justify lockdown. Experts also admitted localised, three-tiered lockdown approach starting to take effect but not quick enough
3rd Nov 2020 - Daily Mail

Spanish experts and authorities remain divided on home lockdown

The Asturias region believes the measure will ease the pressure on hospitals, but epidemiologists and the Health Ministry argue it is better to wait and assess the impact of the current coronavirus restrictions
3rd Nov 2020 - EL PAÍS in English

More than 400 people arrested at anti-lockdown protest in Melbourne

A policewoman was taken to hospital after she was injured when officers shut down a large anti-lockdown rally and arrested more than 400 protesters in Melbourne’s CBD. Hundreds of protesters gathered outside the Victorian parliament on Tuesday to oppose the state government’s strict Covid-19 lockdowns in Melbourne that were eased last week, holding up signs that read “Tell the Truth”, “Not Happy Dan”, “Masks Don’t Work” and “Corona Hoax 1984”. A Victoria police spokeswoman told Guardian Australia the force “was disappointed to arrest a large number of protestors who again showed disregard for the safety of the broader community and the directions of the chief health officer”.
3rd Nov 2020 - The Guardian

UK's Johnson defends lockdown to avoid 'medical and moral disaster'

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday defended a second COVID lockdown in England from critics who said it was unnecessary and others who said it was too late, arguing now was the time to prevent a “medical and moral disaster”. After rejecting calls last month for a new national lockdown, Johnson U-turned on Saturday, announcing new restrictions across England would begin at 0001 GMT on Thursday and last until Dec. 2. Britain, which has the highest official COVID-19 death toll in Europe, is grappling with more than 20,000 new cases a day. Scientists have warned a worst-case scenario of 80,000 dead could be exceeded this winter.
3rd Nov 2020 - Reuters

France ponders new Paris curfew as lockdown rebels frustrate government

France could reimpose a night curfew on Paris and possibly the surrounding region amid government frustration that too many people are ignoring lockdown rules as COVID-19 infections soar. France dramatically slowed the spread of the coronavirus in the spring with one of Europe’s strictest lockdowns. But 10 months into the epidemic and with winter drawing in, many are reluctant to endure another period of confinement. “It’s unbearable for those who respect the rules to see other French people flouting them,” government spokesman Gabriel Attal told BFM TV. “We need to take all the steps needed to fight the epidemic.” A final decision on a curfew had not been taken, the office of Prime Minister Jean Castex said. It will be discussed at a meeting between President Emmanuel Macron and senior cabinet ministers on Wednesday, a government source said.
3rd Nov 2020 - Reuters UK

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 3rd Nov 2020

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Europe's COVID-19 curbs prompt pushback amid bleak countdown to Christmas

A wave of COVID-19 lockdowns and curbs has stirred resistance across Europe, with the right-wing British politician who helped force an EU referendum harnessing popular anger at a new lockdown by recasting his Brexit Party under a new banner.
2nd Nov 2020 - Reuters

Trump resorts to unfounded claim of Covid lockdown under Biden

In the final hours before election day, one of Donald Trump’s closing messages to Americans is an exaggerated threat: that a Joe Biden presidency will result in a national Covid-19 lockdown. Speaking in Iowa on Sunday, the president said the election was a “choice between a deadly Biden lockdown … or a safe vaccine that ends the pandemic”.
2nd Nov 2020 - The Guardian

Trump Suggests He May Fire Fauci ‘After the Election’

President Donald Trump suggested to a Florida crowd he may fire Dr. Anthony Fauci after the election, escalating his feud with the nation's leading expert on infectious diseases and providing a window into a potential post-November 3 administration purge. Speaking after midnight following a full day of campaigning, the President was complaining about news media coverage of Covid-19 when the crowd broke out into a "Fire Fauci" chant.
2nd Nov 2020 - CNN

Trump criticizes lockdowns in Europe as Covid-19 cases surge on the continent and in US

President Donald Trump on Sunday harshly criticized strict lockdowns coming to some European countries to combat the coronavirus pandemic, claiming the restrictions are ineffective as cases surge both there and in the US. "Europe imposed draconian lockdowns and cases were surging and deaths were surging but think of it, draconian. Now they have to do it all over again. What the hell are they doing? I think I'll go over and explain it to them," Trump said at a rally in Michigan. "But they're locking down parts of Europe again." The President went on to claim that places with strict lockdowns are where "the people that do the worst" with fighting the pandemic are.
2nd Nov 2020 - CNN

Handful of businesses threaten to defy lockdown in England

Businesses including a beauty salon near Liverpool are vowing to remain open and defy England’s lockdown when it comes into force on Thursday. Companies face a £10,000 fine if they refuse to comply with restrictions ordering the closure of pubs, restaurants, hairdressers, gyms and all non-essential retailers. Regulations setting out the new laws in England are due to be published on Tuesday before being put to a vote by MPs on Wednesday. If passed, as expected, the measures would come into effect at 12.01am on Thursday. While the vast majority of businesses are expected to comply with the rules, a small number have publicly vowed to flout them.
2nd Nov 2020 - The Guardian

As Europe's governments lose control of Covid, revolt is in the air

As the second wave of Covid-19 filled hospital wards across Europe last week, and countries inched reluctantly towards varying degrees of partial lockdown, television schedules were cleared to allow leaders to address weary nations. Announcing a 6pm curfew for the country’s restaurants and bars the Italian prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, called for national unity. “If we all respect these new rules during the month of November,” he said, “we will succeed in keeping the epidemiological curve under control. That way we will be able to ease the restrictions and move into the Christmas festivities with greater serenity.”
2nd Nov 2020 - The Guardian

Violence continues as Spain rejects lockdown restrictions

Spanish police have clashed with protesters across the country for a second consecutive night as demonstrators took to the streets to protest the reimposition of restrictions on movement and activity as a result of soaring Covid infection rates. The biggest disturbances were in the capital Madrid where demonstrators chanted “freedom”, torched rubbish bins and set up makeshift barricades on the city’s main thoroughfare, the Gran Via. Police were attacked with stones and flares as they moved in to clear the gathering. The emergency services reported twelve people including three police officers were lightly injured in the clashes. Police said they made 32 arrests.
2nd Nov 2020 - The Times

Anti-lockdown protesters turn on the police in Spain and Italy

Anger about coronavirus restrictions has turned to violence in Spain and Italy, where demonstrators battled police and looted shops in several cities. In Spain the police clashed with protesters as violence flared in pockets after the reimposition of restrictions on movement and activity as a result of soaring infection rates.
2nd Nov 2020 - The Times

UK PM Johnson rejects criticism of moving too slowly with COVID lockdown

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday rejected criticism he had moved too slowly in introducing more stringent measures against COVID-19 across England, saying the lockdown was being put in place earlier than one in France. “I reject any suggestion that we are somehow slower in taking measures than our European friends and partners,” he said. “In fact we are moving to national measures when the rate both of deaths and infections for instance is lower than they were in France,” he told parliament, where he made the case for a new lockdown by saying the government had to avoid a “medical and moral disaster”.
2nd Nov 2020 - Reuters

British business warns of ‘devastating’ lockdown hit

UK companies have warned of hundreds of millions of pounds in lost business over the coming weeks as they scramble to assess the cost of the new lockdown in England. Associated British Foods said its Primark high-street fashion chain would lose £375m in sales after the government ordered all non-essential shops in England to close for at least four weeks from November 5, alongside similar measures elsewhere in Europe. Retailers warned over the weekend that the forced closure would be a “nightmare before Christmas”. Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the British Retail Consortium, said the lockdown “will cause untold damage to the high street in the run-up to Christmas, cost countless jobs and permanently set back the recovery of the wider economy”.
2nd Nov 2020 - The Financial Times

Fresh lockdowns fuel angry protests as Covid-19 cases climb across Europe

Anger and exasperation over new coronavirus curbs grew Sunday as European nations wound back the clocks to the spring with fresh lockdowns and restrictions aimed at halting galloping infections and deaths. Protesters in several Spanish cities clashed with security forces for a second night running Saturday, police said, while England prepared for fresh stay-at-home orders, following in the steps of Austria, France and Ireland. European governments are desperate to stem the worrying spike in infections on the continent which has registered more than 279,000 deaths since the new coronavirus first emerged in China at the end of 2019.
2nd Nov 2020 - FRANCE 24 English

Lockdown vote: Tory rebellion brewing as Sir Graham Brady says he’ll oppose new Covid restrictions

Boris Johnson will attempt to stave off a Conservative rebellion over his national lockdown measures as senior MPs described the measures as a “form of evil”. MPs are set to debate and vote on the latest restrictions on Wednesday and the Government is expecting to face a rebellion from some Conservative MPs opposing the month-long lockdown. Several MPs have already confirmed they plan to vote against the Government and have demanded reassurance from Number 10 that the measures, if passed, will have a fixed end date.
2nd Nov 2020 - iNews

Australian court dismisses challenge to Melbourne lockdown curfew

An Australian court on Monday dismissed a challenge to a curfew that was imposed on the city of Melbourne to help curb the spread of COVID-19, ruling it was neither illegal nor irrational and did not violate the state’s human rights charter. The nightly curfew was initially imposed on Aug 5, running from 8 pm to 5 am, as part of one of the world’s longest and strictest lockdowns when the state’s daily infections peaked above 700 cases. The lockdown was relaxed last week, allowing shops and restaurants to reopen and lifting restrictions on leaving home.
2nd Nov 2020 - Reuters UK

Scientists urged government to close secondary schools – but were blocked by ministers

Scientists advising the government urged ministers to close secondary schools for the month-long lockdown in England, i understands. Shutting schools for older children was one of the measures scientists said would help bring R below 1 due to high infection rates among teens, along with closing pubs, restaurants and non-essential shops. But the proposal was blocked because keeping education open throughout the second lockdown is a red line for the Prime Minister.
1st Nov 2020 - iNews

In Italy, Like Everywhere the Virus Goes, It’s the Discontent That’s Contagious

When the coronavirus first hit Italy, overwhelming the country’s hospitals and prompting the West’s first lockdown, Italians inspired the world with their resilience and civic responsibility, staying home and singing on their balconies. Their reward for months of quarantine was a flattened curve, a gulp of normalcy and the satisfaction of usually patronizing allies pointing to Italy as a model. Italy is now a long way away from those balcony days and its summer fling with freedom. Instead, as a second wave of the virus engulfs Europe and triggers new nationwide lockdowns, Italy has become emblematic of a despair, exhaustion and fear that is spreading throughout the Continent.
1st Nov 2020 - The New York Times

UK's Nigel Farage set to relaunch Brexit Party as anti-lockdown party

Nigel Farage, the British politician who helped force a Brexit referendum and successfully campaigned to leave the European Union, will fight Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s COVID-19 lockdown by recasting his small Brexit Party as Reform UK. Cast by his supporters as the godfather of Brexit, Farage said Johnson had terrified the United Kingdom into submission over COVID-19 and squandered vast amounts of taxpayers’ money while holding out hopes of a “miraculous” vaccine. “What we’ve seen in this pandemic I think is a total failure of leadership at almost every level,” Brexit Party leader Farage told Talk Radio from Pennsylvania. “What about the millions of people out there running their own businesses? This second lockdown is the death knell economically for many of those people,” Farage said.
1st Nov 2020 - Reuters

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 2nd Nov 2020

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Brazil's Bolsonaro says fresh COVID lockdown measures are 'crazy'

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, a longtime critic of stay-at-home measures to combat the coronavirus pandemic, said on Thursday that it was “crazy” for countries to start locking down again to control second waves of the virus. Most Western countries and parts of Latin America have reported their highest single-day surges in the past few weeks. Many governments, with the notable exception of the United States, have started taking stronger measures to bring the spread of the virus under control.
1st Nov 2020 - Reuters UK

France faces lockdown resistance as small shops pay the price

The French government promised on Sunday to protect the nation’s beloved independent shops that fear losing their business to international giants, such as Amazon, as it sought to quell opposition to a new coronavirus lockdown. In common with other European nations suffering from an upsurge in the novel coronavirus, France has entered a second strict lockdown, which includes closing non-essential stores for at least 15 days.
1st Nov 2020 - Reuters

Florida parents sue school board over mandate that requires students to wear masks

A group of parents in Florida is suing the Sarasota County school board for requiring students to wear face masks, which are recommended by federal health officials to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. The suit was filed last week in a Sarasota County court by parents Amy Cook, Gustavo Collazo, Nicholas Eastman, and Catherine Gonzales after the school board approved an emergency 90-day mask mandate that extends its policy through to the end of the year. The policy requires students attending in-person class to wear masks, with a few exceptions, for most of the school day, according to the Sarasota Herald-Tribune.
31st Oct 2020 - NBC News

Dominic Cummings should face prosecution for breaking lockdown, says former top prosecutor

Nazir Afzal submitted evidence to suggest Dominic Cummings may have lied. The evidence relates to the chief aide's controversial trip in April to Durham. Mr Afzal's dossier is based on new eyewitness claims said to be 'wholly inconsistent' with account that Mr Cummings gave when he admitted travelling
31st Oct 2020 - Daily Mail

Victoria's coronavirus lockdown might be finally be over, but we are still deeply divided

It shouldn't be surprising that in the midst of a pandemic we still find ourselves mired in politics. I suppose the stakes are too high for us not to be: The hardship, the loss of life, the preventable deaths, the economic destruction, the psychological toll. But let's be blunt for a moment — Daniel Andrews plays a mean game of chicken. The Victorian Premier, with his health officials, has pursued a virus-reduction strategy that has put him in the political crosshairs for months.
31st Oct 2020 - ABC News

Three in four more worried about impact of lockdown than catching coronavirus, poll finds

Almost three in four people are more concerned about the impact of lockdown. The results come from a poll of 2,000 adults by the Recovery group. Recovery put forward its 'five reasonable demands' as they call for ministers to balance the need to tackle Covid with the impact its policies are having
31st Oct 2020 - Daily Mail

Fact check: Will private insurance be required to cover a Covid vaccine if Obamacare is overturned?

On Wednesday, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced rules for insurers to cover the cost of administering a Covid-19 vaccine when one is approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Yet on the campaign trail, former Vice President Joe Biden has been warning that if the Affordable Care Act is overturned, as the Trump administration is attempting to do, vaccines would not necessarily be covered by insurance, and that many people will have to pay for them out of pocket. "[O]verturning the ACA could mean that people have to pay to get Covid-19 vaccine once it's available," Biden said Wednesday. "That's right. The law that says insurers are required to cover vaccines for free is the Affordable Care Act."
31st Oct 2020 - CNN

Hungary to get coronavirus vaccine in winter, says Orbán

Hungary will get a first shipment of coronavirus vaccines in December or January, and will be able to "declare victory over the pandemic" by next spring, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said today. Orbán said Hungary was talking to China and Russia and could have access to two or three different vaccines by early next year, Reuters reported. As yet, there is no clinically proven vaccine against the coronavirus. Orbán said in a radio interview that there were enough hospital beds and ventilators to treat coronavirus patients and he believes "the key is to obey the existing rules ... and that masks must be worn.
30th Oct 2020 - POLITICO.eu

Trump’s Surgeon General Battles Rising Covid Vaccine Skepticism

A coronavirus vaccine may be available as soon as the end of the year, but that will “mean nothing if people don’t trust it,” says Jerome Adams, U.S. Surgeon General, a job known as the nation’s doctor. Many people don’t, and time is running short to convince them otherwise. Adams, a key member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, said he spends his days, nights and weekends racing to boost vaccine confidence. It is a daunting challenge, given that overcoming the pandemic hinges on vaccine use and the administration he works for has at times undermined confidence that a shot will be safe and effective.
30th Oct 2020 - Bloomberg

The long shadow of racism in medicine leaves Black Americans wary of a COVID-19 vaccine

As the coronavirus pandemic has progressed, and the need for a vaccine has become more urgent and apparent, the number of Americans who say they would take such a vaccine keeps falling. In particular, Black Americans — who have been among those hit hardest by the pandemic — are resistant to the idea. A new Yahoo News/YouGov poll found that only 27 percent of Black Americans and 46 percent of white Americans plan to get a coronavirus vaccine if and when one becomes available. The perceived politicization of the vaccine process and unprecedented pace of Operation Warp Speed has led to doubts nationwide. Until very recently, President Trump was predicting that a vaccine could arrive ahead of Election Day, Nov. 3, contradicting members of his own coronavirus task force, who have repeatedly given less optimistic time frames that have turned out to be more realistic.
30th Oct 2020 - Yahoo News UK

Simon Dolan: Coronavirus lockdown restrictions were unlawful, entrepreneur tells judges

A verdict on the legality of past lockdown rules is crucial as the government is pushed to impose further measures to stop the spread of coronavirus, senior judges have been told. Lawyers for Simon Dolan, an entrepreneur and former racing driver, told the Court of Appeal yesterday that another national lockdown “would seem to be the inevitable consequence if the most recent measures to try to reduce the infection rate fail to do so”. Mr Dolan is arguing in a judicial review that the UK’s lockdown rules were among “the most onerous restrictions to personal liberty” in almost four centuries.
30th Oct 2020 - The Times

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 30th Oct 2020

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US Election 2020: Trump slams lockdowns, Biden accuses him of insulting victims

President Donald Trump has urged states to shun lockdowns as his Democratic rival Joe Biden said the pandemic could not be stopped by "flipping a switch". Continuing a whirlwind schedule of rallies in battleground states, Mr Trump also mocked mask mandates. Mr Biden said Mr Trump's handling of America's worsening coronavirus crisis was an "insult" to its victims. The Democrat has a solid national lead over the Republican president six days before the 3 November election. But Mr Biden's advantage is narrower in the handful of US states that could vote either way and ultimately decide who wins the White House.
29th Oct 2020 - BBC

Pret founder says UK should not lock down to save few thousand people

The founder of Pret a Manger and Itsu has said society will “not recover” if the UK enters a second lockdown “for the sake of a few thousand lives of old and very vulnerable people”. Julian Metcalfe, whose fortune is estimated at £215m, said a lockdown would be “impossible”. He told the Daily Mail: “The young people of this country will be paying for this for the next 20 to 30 years. It's terrible what's happening. “Just because France does this with its socialist government, doesn't mean we have to.”
29th Oct 2020 - The Independent

Merkel heckled by German MPs as she defends second 'soft' Covid lockdown

Angela Merkel said Germans had the chance to show Covid-19 “you have chosen the wrong host” as she defended her government’s second “soft” lockdown, to shouts and heckles in parliament. Citing an interview with the German science writer Mai Thi Nguyen-Kim, which she said reflected her own attitude towards the pandemic, the chancellor said: “If the virus could think, it would think … ‘I’ve got the perfect host here. These people live all over the planet. They are globally networked and are social creatures, they can’t live without social contacts. They have a hedonistic inclination, they like to party, it couldn’t be any better.’”
29th Oct 2020 - The Guardian

As COVID-19 surges, European leaders impose new lockdowns and curfews. Trump does not

European leaders are ratcheting up pandemic restrictions as a second wave of COVID-19 cases batters Italy, Spain and other countries. French President Emmanuel Macron announced a full, nationwide lockdown starting Thursday and lasting until Dec. 1, though he said schools would remain open. In Germany, officials imposed a partial four-week lockdown Wednesday. “We must act, and now, to avoid an acute national health emergency,” said German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
29th Oct 2020 - USA TODAY

'Terrifying new response': US host's bizarre take on NZ's Covid strategy

A right-wing television host in the US has spread misinformation about New Zealand's response to the Covid-19 pandemic, sharing an old clip of Jacinda Ardern and claiming the Government is "throwing people into quarantine camps". Laura Ingraham, host of Fox News' The Ingraham Angle, made the claims on her show yesterday, joining a growing number of right-wing pundits overseas who are casting New Zealand's response as a threat to freedom.
29th Oct 2020 - Otago Daily Times

Mexican president slams European coronavirus lockdown measures

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Wednesday blasted European countries for adopting strict lockdowns to stem the spread of coronavirus, suggesting they smacked of authoritarianism. Germany and France were on Wednesday preparing to announce restrictions approaching the level of spring’s blanket lockdowns as COVID deaths across Europe surged. National or local authorities have already imposed nighttime curfews in several European countries, including France, Spain, Italy and the Czech Republic. Speaking at a regular news conference, Lopez Obrador voiced regret at the measures being taken in Europe and urged governments to show more faith in their populations.
28th Oct 2020 - Reuters

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 29th Oct 2020

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White House lists ending Covid-19 pandemic as an accomplishment despite cases spiking to record levels

The White House included ending the coronavirus pandemic on a list of the Trump administration's science and technology accomplishments, despite nearly half a million Americans tested positive for Covid-19 in just the last week. A White House Office of Science and Technology Policy news release made the claim in announcing a document highlighting the administration's science and technology achievements over the past four years. "Highlights include: ENDING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC," the news release sent to reporters read. "From the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Administration has taken decisive actions to engage scientists and health professionals in academia, industry, and government to understand, treat, and defeat the disease."
28th Oct 2020 - CNN

Covid: Protests take place across Italy over anti-virus measures

Protests took place across Italy on Monday over new restrictions to curb the country's second wave of Covid. Clashes were reported in the northern cities such as Turin, where petrol bombs were thrown at officers. In Milan tear gas was used to disperse protesters, and thousands of people gathered in the centre of Naples. The demonstrations began soon after the national government's order to close restaurants, bars, gyms and cinemas came into effect at 18:00 local time. Many regions have also imposed night-time curfews - including Lombardy, where Milan is, and Piedmont, where Turin is. The violence was blamed on extremist agitators and police said 28 people had been arrested in Milan alone.
28th Oct 2020 - BBC

Milan fights against new local coronavirus lockdown

As Italian businesses grapple with the sweeping new Covid-19 restrictions introduced by the central government, the country’s financial capital is fighting to avoid a local lockdown that some people fear will cripple its economy. Milan, the capital of the Lombardy region with a population of 1.3m and a host of high-profile companies, is one of Europe’s coronavirus hotspots. Since the pandemic, commuter and tourist numbers have plummeted — dropping more than 70 per cent this year — leaving retailers, restaurants, bars and hotels with losses nudging €10bn.
28th Oct 2020 - Financial Times

Instead of learning from South Korea’s coronavirus example, Trump is lying about it

Trump has been jealously maligning South Korea for months. He has claimed South Korean President Moon Jae-in called to praise his handling of the pandemic, gloated when its infection numbers went up and lied about how much more testing the United States has conducted. He seems bitter that people often point out that while both countries discovered their first covid-19 cases on the same day, today South Korea (population 52 million) has 25,836 total confirmed cases and 457 total deaths, compared with at least 8.7 million cases and at least 225,000 deaths in the United States. That translates to a proportional mortality rate that is 78 times smaller in South Korea than here. It’s obvious South Korea has done a lot right while we’ve done a lot wrong. But according to Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, there’s nothing to learn from Seoul — at least according to his totally inaccurate and stereotype-laden misrepresentation of South Korea’s response.
28th Oct 2020 - The Washington Post

Hoping for a lucky break in the pandemic could cost the US economy dearly

The latest coronavirus surge is upon us and it's looking more like a tsunami. With public health at risk and the economy hobbling along, we're going to be facing some painful decisions — again. Should governments shut down bars and restaurants? Should schools send kids home to learn remotely? Will some parts of the country have to, as Dr. Anthony Fauci has suggested, hold off on Thanksgiving? Our track record with these decisions is not great so far. The states hardest hit by the first wave made these decisions too slowly. The ones hit hardest by the second wave repeated the mistake, acting only after they had run out of other options, as local hospitals became overwhelmed and daily deaths set records.
28th Oct 2020 - CNN

In the UK, young, non-white people likelier to lose jobs: Survey

Twice as many young and non-white British workers have lost their jobs after going on furlough compared with the average, largely because they are more likely to work in sectors hit hardest by the coronavirus pandemic, a study showed. The Resolution Foundation think-tank said 19 percent of workers aged 18-24 and 22 percent of ethnic minority staff had lost their jobs after being furloughed, compared with 9 percent of employees overall.
28th Oct 2020 - AlJazeera

Trump’s COVID-19 response angers former supporters

For months, Tony Green believed the conspiracy theories. The coronavirus was a hoax masterminded by the “mainstream media” and the Democratic Party to bring down United States President Donald Trump ahead of the presidential election, he thought. But then the 43-year-old from Dallas, Texas, got sick, as did 14 members of his extended family after he hosted a get-together in June. Two of his relatives, aged 52 and 69, later died from COVID-19.
28th Oct 2020 - AlJazeera

Coronavirus: Flares, grenades and tear gas thrown as Rome's anti-lockdown protests continue

Violence broke out in Rome as anti-lockdown protesters threw flares and flash grenades at police, who fought back with tear gas and water cannons. Supporters of the far-right party Forza Nuova (New Force) were largely among the crowd of a few hundred in Piazza del Popolo, one of Rome's famous landmarks. They were protesting against new COVID-19 restrictions, including a 6pm curfew for bars and restaurants and the closure of public gyms, cinemas and swimming pools.
27th Oct 2020 - Sky News

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 28th Oct 2020

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Russian ambassador informs Greek health ministry about Russian coronavirus vaccine

Russian Ambassador to Greece Andrey Maslov has informed the Greek Health Ministry’s expert committee about the Russian vaccine against the novel coronavirus, a senior Greek health official told reporters late on Tuesday. "Today we had a meeting with the Russian ambassador here, at the Health Ministry. He told us about the hope for a Russian vaccine, developed by a major vaccine research institution. There is hope," said Professor of Medicine and Infectious Diseases Sotiris Tsiodras, who is in charge of Greece's response to the coronavirus pandemic.
28th Oct 2020 - TASS

Protests Erupt in Italy Over New Virus Lockdown Restrictions

Hundreds of demonstrators in several Italian cities protested new government coronavirus restrictions on Monday.
27th Oct 2020 - New York Times

Coronavirus: Lockdown protesters in Italy throw bottles and smoke bombs as stricter rules come in

Italy's government is facing a backlash against the latest measures put in place to tackle COVID-19. In the last 24 hours, thousands of protestors turned out in Italian cities and towns to object ...
27th Oct 2020 - Sky News

See the aftermath of violent anti-lockdown protests in Italy

Protesters have clashed with police in northern Italy, as demonstrations erupted across the country over government restrictions aimed at quelling a second wave of Covid-19. CNN's Ben Wedeman
27th Oct 2020 - CNN

Mafia stokes violent anti-lockdown protests in Italy

The Italian mafia are doing all they can to prevent coronavirus from harming their business — including orchestrating violence at anti-lockdown protests. According to Italian authorities, the mob planned and directed demonstrations in Naples that descended into violence and attacks on police on Friday. Similar protests have taken place across the country for the past four days, with bar and restaurant owners expressing concerns that tighter measures, brought in by the government to counter a surge in coronavirus cases in the country, will destroy their businesses. While the economic turmoil caused by the crisis has presented opportunities for the mafia to snap up stricken firms, curfews and lockdown restrictions are bad news, because increased police checks curtail the mob’s freedom to operate. Police estimate that with the closure of nightlife in Italy, the Camorra mafia’s drugs revenue will be hit by as much as 60 percent.
27th Oct 2020 - POLITICO.eu

Italy to unveil lockdown relief package as protests continue

The Italian government is preparing to unveil a funding package for businesses penalised by the latest coronavirus restrictions as it scrambles to quell growing unrest. The prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, is under pressure to act quickly after hundreds of people protested in towns and cities across the country on Monday night against measures that include the 6pm closure of bars and restaurants and the complete closure of gyms, swimming pools, cinemas and theatres.
27th Oct 2020 - The Guardian

Protests against new coronavirus measures in Italy turn violent

Protests against new restrictions designed to stem the coronavirus have broken out across Italy, with violence reported in Turin and Milan, in the country’s north. On Monday night, some protesters in Turin broke away from a peaceful demonstration, smashing shop windows, ransacking luxury shops, and clashing with police, who fired tear gas in return.
27th Oct 2020 - AlJazeera

Three Western states join California in screening any FDA-approved coronavirus vaccine

Washington, Oregon and Nevada will join California to independently review any coronavirus vaccine before distributing it to the public. Gov. Gavin Newsom said Tuesday that the three states would identify their own public health experts to participate in the scientific review committee he announced last week, which was charged with ensuring that any vaccine approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is safe and effective. California has also formed a second committee to develop guidelines for the ethical distribution of vaccines, Newsom said, addressing questions about who should receive the first doses and how to allocate potentially limited supplies.
27th Oct 2020 - San Francisco Chronicle

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 27th Oct 2020

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Vice President Mike Pence's top aides test positive for COVID-19, but he continues to work

Mike Pence plans to preside over the Senate floor during a vote on Amy Coney Barrett's confirmation despite several of his top aides contracting COVID-19.
26th Oct 2020 - USA Today

Covid: Trump's chief of staff admits US cannot control pandemic

A senior aide to President Donald Trump has conceded that the US is "not going to control the pandemic". Instead White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows said Covid-19 could only be defeated by "mitigation areas" like vaccines and therapeutics. His remarks come as coronavirus cases surge in the US, nine days before the presidential election. Democratic presidential challenger Joe Biden said the White House was waving "the white flag of defeat". He added that Mr Meadows' comments showed that the Trump administration had "given up on their basic duty to protect the American people". In an interview with CNN, Mr Meadows said control of the virus was not a realistic goal because "it is a contagious virus just like the flu".
26th Oct 2020 - BBC

Being Herded into Disaster in a Post-Science World

COVID-19 has caused more than 41 million confirmed cases and more than a million deaths worldwide, with more than 220,000 deaths in the US alone and more than 58,000 registered COVID-19 deaths in the UK so far. A second wave of transmission is sweeping across much of Europe and many parts of the world. In the UK, case numbers have been rising since early August, with more than 20,000 daily confirmed cases currently. These numbers are likely to be under-estimates, give our limited testing capacity and, according to the Office for National Statistics, we may be closer to 35,000 daily cases in England alone. Deaths have been rising since September with around a total of 2,600 deaths so far in the second wave, and 200 daily deaths currently. While case numbers may not seem to be rising as sharply in the south of England compared to the north, they are actually just lagging by three to four weeks.
26th Oct 2020 - Byline Times

Hancock added to anti-Muslim hate with distancing claims, says government adviser

The government has been criticised by its own Islamophobia adviser for refusing to publish the evidence behind Matt Hancock’s claim that people were “not abiding to social distancing” as he imposed a lockdown on 4.6 million people in northern England at the start of the Muslim celebration of Eid al-Adha. Qari Asim, the deputy chair of a government taskforce on anti-Muslim hatred, said the health secretary’s claim on Twitter added to “hateful narratives” and “gave the impression that Muslim communities were not social distancing and were ignoring the government guidelines”. Hancock made the remark in a late-night Twitter thread on 30 July, when Eid al-Adha started, announcing with three hours’ notice that strict restrictions would be imposed on Greater Manchester, parts of East Lancashire, West Yorkshire and Leicester from midnight.
26th Oct 2020 - The Guardian

Arsonists throw petrol bombs at Germany's Robert Koch Institute

A window was destroyed and walls discoloured during Sunday's arson attack Berlin police are now investigating whether the attack was politically motivated The German capital has seen some angry protests against the lockdown rules
26th Oct 2020 - Daily Mail

Anger over Italy virus rules as curfews enforced around Europe

Anger was growing in Italy Monday over harsh new coronavirus restrictions brought in to "save Christmas", while other hard-hit countries enforced curfews in a bid to avoid fresh national lockdowns. Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte's decision to close restaurants and bars from 6:00 pm and shut all theatres, cinemas and gyms for a month was widely criticised, even as scientists questioned whether it would be enough to stop the virus. "These restrictions will be the end of us," said Giuseppe Tonon, 70, the owner of a restaurant in Oderzo, a small village in northeastern Italy.
26th Oct 2020 - YAHOO!

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 26th Oct 2020

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Police make arrests at anti-lockdown protest in central London

Police have made a series of arrests at an anti-lockdown protest as large crowds gathered in central London. Demonstrators made their way through the city with banners and placards, calling for “freedom” and an end to Covid-19 restrictions. Police were deployed outside Buckingham Palace as crowds of protesters gathered on the steps of the Queen Victoria memorial opposite the gates, before making their way to Trafalgar Square. Demonstrators called for an end to the “tyranny” of new rules amid the pandemic and voiced their opposition to vaccines. At least two people were led away in handcuffs by officers at Trafalgar Square.
25th Oct 2020 - YAHOO!

Malaysia’s king rejects PM’s push for COVID emergency rule

Malaysia’s King Sultan Abdullah has rejected a request by Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin for him to declare a state of emergency in response to the coronavirus crisis, saying he did not see the need. The king’s move on Sunday is a significant setback for Muhyiddin, who is facing a leadership challenge from opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim and infighting within his governing coalition.
25th Oct 2020 - AlJazeera

To say there's no trade-off between health and the economy during lockdown is a convenient delusion

Something has happened in America’s coronavirus outbreak that is confounding the experts. Social distancing rules are weak, lockdowns have not been imposed, test and trace is no more effective than in the UK, but the epidemic is under control. Covid-19 is an unstable virus. On Thursday, Sir Patrick Vallance, the government’s chief scientific adviser, said that its natural reproduction number, or R, was “around three”. That is, every person who has the virus will infect three others. Left to its own devices, cases should double every five days. In the UK, R is now “somewhere between 1.2 and 1.5 — about half the natural R, [which] reflects the huge efforts people have made”, he said.
24th Oct 2020 - The Times

Anti-lockdown protests: Three officers injured as 18 are arrested after clashes with police

Eighteen people have been arrested after protesters clashed with police at an anti-lockdown demonstration in London. Hundreds of campaigners marched to Parliament after bringing Oxford Street to a standstill. The Metropolitan Police said 18 arrests were made after officers took action to disperse crowds when "disruption" was caused on Westminster Bridge. Three officers sustained minor injuries after they clashed with campaigners at the Stop the New Normal protest, said the force.
25th Oct 2020 - Evening Standard

Covid-19: Arrests at London anti-lockdown protest

Eighteen people have been arrested at a protest in central London over coronavirus lockdown restrictions. Large crowds gathered outside Buckingham Palace, where police were stationed, before moving on to Trafalgar Square. Some protesters carried placards calling for "freedom" and an end to the "tyranny" of Covid-19 restrictions. The Metropolitan Police said the crowds had been dispersed but urged people to continue social distancing.
25th Oct 2020 - BBC

Why lockdowns alone won't save us from the pandemic

The prospect of locking society down again the way we did in the first wave of COVID-19 — and the collateral damage that comes with it — is daunting. The financial devastation on businesses forced to close and lay off employees, the increase in mental health issues, the halting of elective medical procedures and the continuing risks to essential workers on the front lines all factor in. Keeping society functioning and supporting devastated sectors of the economy while limiting the spread of the coronavirus is key to navigating the pandemic until a safe and effective vaccine is here. But experts acknowledge there is growing resistance to some of the restrictions that highlights a need to manage the public mood as the pandemic rages on.
24th Oct 2020 - CBC.ca

Violent anti-lockdown protests lead to 16 arrests

Hundreds of anti-lockdown protesters have violently clashed with police in Melbourne resulting in the arrest of 16 people and 96 penalty notices. Under current restrictions, protests are not considered illegal, but gatherings of more than ten are. Protesters – many without masks – holding flagpoles and signs attacked mounted police officers and horses as tensions boiled over at the Shrine of Remembrance. After officers formed a ring of steel around the group, protestors reconvened in South Melbourne where they threw flares and struck a police van. Premier Daniel Andrews said the unsafe and unlawful protest was “shameful” because it was conducted at the Shrine of Remembrance.
24th Oct 2020 - Sky News Australia

Anti-lockdown protesters clash with police in Melbourne - officers use pepper spray

Anti-lockdown protests have broken out in Melbourne on Friday afternoon with hundreds attending. Police clashed with protesters and punches reportedly thrown at officers who deployed pepper spray. Melbourne has endured months of strict lockdown as COVID-19 case numbers brought under control
24th Oct 2020 - Daily Mail

Italy COVID cases hit new record, street protest in Naples over lockdown threat

Italy’s Campania region, based on the southern city of Naples, said on Friday it would impose a lockdown to tame the coronavirus and urged the whole country to follow suit as new infections hit a record high.
24th Oct 2020 - Reuters UK

Trump says pandemic will end soon after Biden blasts his handling of crisis

President Donald Trump promised supporters in Florida on Friday that the coronavirus pandemic would end soon and accused Democratic rival Joe Biden of overstating the health crisis to scare Americans into voting for him. The pandemic, which has killed more than 224,000 people in the United States and cost millions more their jobs, has become the dominant issue of the campaign, with Trump on the defensive over his administration’s handling of the crisis. Biden earlier in the day said Trump had given up on containing the virus and promised if he wins the Nov. 3 election he will ask Congress to pass a comprehensive COVID-19 bill that he would sign within the first 10 days of taking office.
23rd Oct 2020 - Reuters

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 23rd Oct 2020

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Covid-19 anti-vaxxers use century-old arguments

As we get closer to an effective vaccine for Covid-19, we should expect to see a renewed push of disinformation and vocal resistance from the anti-vaccination movement. Over the past year, seemingly endless conspiracy theories and misinformation campaigns have gained traction online amid rising Covid-19 infection rates worldwide. Looking at the history of these movements can help us understand why they can be so effective at capturing a popular following. As a historian of medicine, it has become clear from researching the history of vaccines that those who promote anti-vaccination consistently use a standard set of strategies. Although it can be hard to see patterns of argument in the modern context, looking back at a historical instance of epidemic and misinformation provides a useful case study for revealing today's recurring anti-vaccination strategies.
22nd Oct 2020 - CNN

Coronavirus: National lockdown 'not right course' for UK, says Prime Minister

Prime minister Boris Johnson has ruled out another national lockdown in the UK. Speaking at a Dowing Street press conference on Thursday (October 22), Mr Johnson said he did not believe it was the "right course now" for the country. He said: "Not when the psychological cost of lockdown is well known to us and the economic cost. "Not when it is being suggested that we might have to perform the same brutal lockdowns again and again in the months ahead. "And not when there is such an obvious variation unlike last time, between different parts of the country. That's why we are going for a middle course."
22nd Oct 2020 - Business Live

Outcry in India as Modi's ruling party offers 'free vaccines' in election manifesto

India’s ruling party has sparked an outcry by including a pledge to offer “free vaccines” in its election manifesto for a crucial upcoming state election. Senior figures from Narendra Modi’s BJP are campaigning hard in the populous eastern state of Bihar, where voting will begin in less than a week, and where a loss for the party would be seen as a damning indictment on its handling of the Covid-19 crisis. National finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman released the party’s manifesto for the state polls on Thursday in Patna, Bihar’s largest city, but was accused of politicising the central government’s response to the pandemic by making the vaccine pledge.
22nd Oct 2020 - The Independent on MSN.com

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 22nd Oct 2020

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Brazil's Bolsonaro rejects Chinese vaccine against COVID-19

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro overruled his own health minister on Wednesday, rejecting the announced purchase of 46 million doses of CoronaVac, a potential vaccine against COVID-19 being tested in Sao Paulo state. Health minister Eduardo Pazuello announced the purchase on Tuesday alongside Sao Paulo’s Gov. João Doria, a foe of Bolsonaro’s whose state government is participating in the vaccine’s development. The cost of the acquisition was estimated at 2 billion Brazilian reals ($360 million). “The Brazilian people will not be anyone’s guinea pig,” Bolsonaro said on his social media channels, adding that the shot made by Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinovac is yet to finish its testing phase — which is true of all potential vaccines. “My decision is to not purchase such a vaccine.”
21st Oct 2020 - The Independent

A lockdown with insufficient financial support is the worst of both worlds

Greater Manchester will enter tier three, but without agreement on the extent of the region’s financial support package, while Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham and Sheffield will enter tier three on Saturday (24 October). Although the gap between the British government and Greater Manchester is small in cash terms at £5m – an essentially meaningless sum in the context of government spending – the difference is large because of what the two sides want to spend it on. Andy Burnham wants to be able to top up the furlough scheme to its current level of 80 per cent. The Conservative government, particularly the Chancellor Rishi Sunak, meanwhile, want to avoid having to resume the furlough scheme at a nationwide level.
21st Oct 2020 - New Statesman

Coronavirus: Sweden a land of biological brawling and Covid contrariness

Anders Tegnell, Sweden's chief epidemiologist, defended his country's coronavirus strategy in an interview with the New Statesman, telling the newspaper that Sweden did not pursue "herd immunity" and "definitely had a virtual lockdown" — despite looser restrictions than most countries. Why it matters: Sweden's more relaxed approach to the pandemic compared to other industrialized countries has been a source of controversy, with many libertarians and conservatives, including Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), arguing that the U.S. should have pursued a similar strategy.
19th Oct 2020 - Axios

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 21st Oct 2020

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NIH chief: Trump has not met with White House COVID-19 task force in 'quite some time'

NIH Director Francis Collins told NPR's "Morning Edition" that Trump instead gets his information from Vice President Pence and task force member Scott Atlas, neither of whom are infectious disease experts. "I think the president primarily is getting his information from the vice president, from Dr. Atlas," Collins said. Obviously, it's a bit of a chaotic time with the election. ... There's not a direct connection between the task force members and the president as there was a few months ago, but this seems to be a different time with different priorities."
20th Oct 2020 - The Hill

Billionaire horse racing identity funding Victorian lockdown legal challenge

Billionaire businessman and horse racing identity Jonathan Munz is financing the High Court challenge against the Victorian government's COVID-19 lockdown. A source close to the case has confirmed Mr Munz is a financier of the legal action and is expected to pour more than $1 million into the case. The High Court, which convened via videolink in Brisbane on Tuesday, will hear the case within weeks. It has set aside November 6 for the case, and November 9 if needed. Mr Munz, who did not respond to requests for comment, has an estimated fortune of $1.58 billion, according to the most recent Australian Financial Review rich list.
20th Oct 2020 - The Sydney Morning Herald

The Government Tightening Its Belt with the North will Keep Us All in this COVID Chaos

Spurred by well-funded lockdown sceptics, there has been a bizarre rhetorical separation – in the UK at least – between saving lives and protecting the economy. Boris Johnson has rejected a second, nationwide lockdown, contrary to the advice of SAGE, as he says it would be “disastrous” for the economy. But there is no prospect of an economic revival until the virus has been suppressed and no evidence that this can be achieved without locking down, reducing cases to a manageable level, and implementing an effective test, trace and isolate regime. The alternative is a zombie economy; stubbornly avoiding death, yet with no prospect of ever being fully alive and healthy. Stopping the virus will save the economy; and saving the economy will stop the virus. Perhaps the Cabinet should turn this into a morning chant, to restore some financial generosity to some of its tight-fisted members.
19th Oct 2020 - Byline Times

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 20th Oct 2020

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Fauci says he is 'absolutely not' surprised Trump got Covid-19

Dr. Anthony Fauci said he is "absolutely not" surprised President Donald Trump contracted Covid-19 after seeing him surrounded by people not wearing face masks and flouting best public health practices. Fauci, the nation's leading infectious disease expert, said during an interview on CBS' "60 Minutes" that aired Sunday, "I was worried that he was going to get sick when I saw him in a completely precarious situation of crowded -- no separation between people, and almost nobody wearing a mask." "When I saw that on TV, I said, 'Oh my goodness. Nothing good can come out of that, that's got to be a problem,'" he continued. "And then sure enough, it turned out to be a superspreader event."
19th Oct 2020 - CNN

Anti-lockdown advocate appears on radio show that has featured Holocaust deniers

Dr Martin Kulldorff of Harvard medical school appeared on the Richie Allen Show on 6 October to discuss the letter, described as the Great Barrington declaration, after the Massachusetts town where it was drawn up. Kulldorff said he agreed to go on the programme because it was important to reach all segments of the population with public health messages. The show was described as an “online platform for antisemitic conspiracy theorists and Holocaust deniers” by Hope not Hate, an organisation that monitors extremist groups. The controversial proposal was published by a right-leaning American thinktank, the American Institute for Economic Research. It was drawn up by three researchers – Dr Sunetra Gupta of Oxford University, Dr Jay Bhattacharya of Stanford University, and Kulldorff – and has garnered thousands of signatures from health professionals. However, on 9 October, Sky News revealed that many of the “medical” signatories of the open letter were homeopaths, therapists or used obviously fake names, such as Dr Johnny Bananas and Dr Person Fakename, leading to accusations that the total number exaggerated the scale of scientific support.
19th Oct 2020 - The Guardian

Leeds anti-lockdown protest sees hundreds demonstrate against Covid restrictions

More than 200 people gathered in Millennium Square to protest against what they perceive to be unfair coronavirus regulations. Leeds now sits in Tier 2 of the government's lockdown strategy as cases continue to rise and the UK death toll from Covid-19 approaches 45,000 since March. Despite repeated warnings from government scientists about the necessity to maintain social distancing and wear masks, spectators in Leeds packed tightly together in crowds from midday on Sunday, October 18. Activists urged those assembled to "say no to the new normal", while spectators hung cardboard signs around their necks saying "no masks, no vaccine, no lockdown" during the demonstration.
19th Oct 2020 - Leeds Live

Bar owners in Holland become the latest to go to court to fight covid laws

Dutch caterers say the closures will cause 'incalculable' damage to their industry At least 30 businesses have launched a lawsuit to get two-week closure blocked Berlin bar curfews were blocked while Madrid region has battled Spanish leaders
19th Oct 2020 - Daily Mail

Vince Cable: Circuit-breaker idea is crude, lazy and defies common sense

Until last week, I had thought Sir Keir Starmer was doing a great job pulling Labour out of the swamp into which Jeremy Corbyn had sunk it. But I fear that he may live to regret his recent call for a new national lockdown. To be sure, the Opposition has much to criticise in the Government’s shambolic handling of the pandemic and in ministers’ contradictory messaging. Siding with the scientists calling for a full national lockdown, when the Government was ignoring their advice, must have seemed like an open goal for the Labour leader. But a ‘circuit-breaker’, which would see almost the whole country once again confined to our homes, a measure the Prime Minister has yet to rule out, would defy common sense.
19th Oct 2020 - Daily Mail

Andrews 'terrorised people' with draconian lockdown and 'deserves to go'

Sky News host Peter Gleeson says Daniel Andrews is a terrible leader who “failed miserably” and deserves to go, while Gladys Berejiklian simply made a bad choice of partner but has handled COVID superbly and deserves to stay. “What as a nation have we become when the politician in this country under the most pressure is a woman who made a bad decision on who she jumped into bed with?” Mr Gleeson said. “Show me the criminality in what Berejiklian did? Show me the corruption in what Gladys Berejiklian is? Show me the smoking gun that gives her no choice but to resign?
19th Oct 2020 - Sky News Australia

Victoria's lockdown is 'holding back the national economy'

The Australian’s Political Editor Dennis Shanahan says the continual shutdown of small businesses in Victoria is “holding back the national economy”. “Business (in Victoria) is saying we need to get out, we’re losing too many jobs,” Mr Shanahan said. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg on Monday accused Daniel Andrews of a callous disregard for jobs and people keeping their jobs. “It’s really entering a hard political area,” Mr Shanahan told Sky News host Peta Credlin.
19th Oct 2020 - Sky News Australia

New Zealand journalist feted for brutal takedown of minor party politician

A New Zealand journalist is being praised around the world for her determined effort to shut down the spread of Covid-19 conspiracy theories during an interview with a minor party politician. Newshub’s political editor, Tova O’Brien, interviewed the leader of the Advance New Zealand party, Jami-Lee Ross. The party failed to secure enough votes in Saturday’s general election to enter parliament, after peddling rumours and misinformation on social media about the coronavirus. At one stage during the interview O’Brien held up her hand as Ross was talking about the mortality rate of Covid-19 compared to the flu, telling him she would not allow him to spread lies on her programme.
19th Oct 2020 - The Guardian

Brit anti-maskers celebrate as they board plane without face coverings

A group of anti-lockdown protestors refused to wear masks while flying back from a meeting with fellow sceptics in Germany. The group celebrated their ‘victory’ over airport staff by sharing pictures of themselves grinning with their faces uncovered on the plane. One member of the group said they all had ‘medical exemptions’ but didn’t provide any more information. Other passengers said they were ‘fake coughing’ and ‘acting like spoilt brats’ during the altercation.
18th Oct 2020 - Metro.co.uk

Anti-lockdown protester who refused to wear a mask on flight 'surprised' by social media backlash

An anti-lockdown protester who refused to wear a mask on a flight today said she was “surprised” by the barrage of online criticism she has suffered after her “cheeky” maskless selfie went viral. Charisse Burchett was among a group of ten Britons who claimed to be medically exempt from mask wearing while flying back to Heathrow following a meeting of Covid-19 deniers in Berlin, Germany. Sharing the photograph of three women beaming into the camera on Twitter, Ms Burchett wrote: “We had a 10 Brit maskless stand-off at Berlin airport.....police and authorities could not make us wear masks.
18th Oct 2020 - Evening Standard

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 19th Oct 2020

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Handling of Covid-19 increases ‘red wall’ voters’ complaints of government

Furious talk of the “north/south divide” surfaced again and again when I interviewed voters for my new book, Beyond the Red Wall. Resentment is long-standing and reflected in recent polling by BritainThinks: 64% of people in the north-east, 68% in Yorkshire and 70% in the north-west believe that “other areas get more resource than mine” while only 32% of people in London and the south-east do. One “red waller” told me: “The north-west generates money and it all goes down to London. We create it, we need it, but they get it.” Another explained: “You could draw a line right across the middle of Britain – the bottom half is the haves and the top half is the have-nots.”
18th Oct 2020 - The Guardian

Imposing Coronavirus Lockdown Unconstitutional, Says Donald Trump

Defending holding public events during the coronavirus pandemic, US President Donald Trump, who tested positive for COVID-19 early this month, has said that as a president he cannot remain locked in a basement and he has to meet people despite the risks. Trump, responding to a question at a townhall organised by the NBC News, also defended not wearing a mask as much as his own administration's public health experts recommend and said that lockdowns imposed by various states across the country to curb the coronavirus cases were "unconstitutional". He said he is not averse to wearing a mask, but people with masks are catching it all the time. As a president, I have to be out there. I can't be in a basement. I can't be locked in a very beautiful room someplace in the White House. And I want to see the gold star families, and I want to see everybody. And I also say to people all the time, it's risky doing it. It is risky doing it, Trump said.
18th Oct 2020 - YAHOO!

Business owners slam Dan Andrews over crippling coronavirus lockdown

Victoria reported two new coronavirus cases and zero deaths overnight Premier Daniel Andrews announced number of changes to Melbourne lockdown But small business owners feel like they were 'forgotten' in the new changes Hospitality and retail businesses likely won't open until November 1, he said The five kilometre travel restriction has been extended to 25 kilometres
18th Oct 2020 - Daily Mail

High Court challenge to lockdown could be heard as soon as November

A constitutional challenge to the validity of Victoria's COVID-19 lockdown rules could be heard in the High Court as soon as November. Prominent hospitality figure Julian Gerner filed a case this week which argues a section of the Public Health and Wellbeing Act – conferring emergency powers to allow the restriction of movement – is invalid due to the implied freedom of movement in the Constitution.
18th Oct 2020 - The Age

Anti-lockdowners protest as London COVID alert level is raised

Anti-lockdown demonstrators gathered in central London on Saturday, hours after the British capital moved to the second highest COVID-19 alert level. As a second wave of infections gathers pace, Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government has stepped up local restrictions in parts of England where cases are surging - hoping to shield the economy by allowing the least-affected regions to remain open. As of midnight, London was moved up to the “tier 2” or “high-risk” level. This bans people from meeting anybody outside their household or “support bubble” - including friends or relatives who help to care for children - in any indoor setting.
18th Oct 2020 - Reuters

Fauci admits administration has restricted his media appearances, says he's not surprised Trump got COVID

In a wide-ranging 60 Minutes interview, Dr. Anthony Fauci expresses his frustration with a Trump campaign ad; explains why, early in the pandemic, masks were largely recommended for health care workers; and says whether he plans to vote in person.
18th Oct 2020 - CBS News

Riot Police in Barcelona Bought in to Control Hoteliers Protesting over Lockdown Measures

Tensions rose in the protest held by the Catalan hoteliers this morning in Barcelona. They threw a ‘large quantity’ of eggs at the headquarters of the Generalitat and riot police were called in to contain them. They believe that the closures that begin today due to coronavirus outbreaks are disproportionate and that they are ‘not the problem.’ The demonstration, in the Plaça Sant Jaume in Barcelona, was held by restaurateurs and merchants to protest against the closures recently decreed by the Catalan government and the restrictions due to coronavirus. Others protestors, with whistles and horns, decided to march along Via Laietana, one of the main arteries of the capital, causing a certain amount of traffic chaos.
16th Oct 2020 - Euro Weekly News

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 16th Oct 2020

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How the White House's Herd Immunity Strategy Would Destroy the US Economy

This week, the White House embraced the Great Barrington declaration calling for a herd immunity strategy that would allow COVID-19 to spread among healthy young people while shielding the elderly and vulnerable. But the scientific evidence shows that the approach could not only lead to nearly 3 million American deaths but would create significant deaths among healthy young people while generating unprecedented economic shocks.
15th Oct 2020 - Byline Times

Donald Trump insists US will not lockdown again as death toll approaches 217,000

Donald Trump insists America will not lockdown again - despite cases soaring across the country. The president does not have the power to stop individual states going into lockdown if they wish to do so to control cases. The US on Wednesday reported more than 59,000 new infections as its death toll approached 217,000. The spike has been driven by a resurgence of infections in the Midwest and other areas of the country. “We’re not doing any more,” he said on Fox, when asked about the prospect of says of regional shutdowns. Trump continues to trail his challenger Joe Biden by as much as 17 points in the national polls.
15th Oct 2020 - Daily Mirror

Stronger political alliances are forming in northern England as local lockdown anger grows

As COVID-19 cases have risen sharply in large parts of the north of England, local leaders have united to challenge government policy. Representatives from across the north have come together questioning the government’s decision to impose local lockdowns in their region. They have particularly criticised central government for failing to provide enough funding to cope with the economic impacts of lockdown and the lack of financial support for people unable to work.
15th Oct 2020 - The Conversation UK

French police search politicians' homes in coronavirus inquiry

French police have searched the homes and offices of French officials including the former prime minister as part of an investigation into the government’s handling of the coronavirus crisis. Current and former ministers have been targeted by at least 90 formal legal complaints from civic groups and members of the public over their response to the health emergency. Investigators targeted the home of former PM Édouard Philippe on Thursday as well as the current health minister, Olivier Véran, the former health minister Agnès Buzyn, the former government spokeswoman Sibeth Ndiaye and the head of France’s health authority, Jérôme Salomon. Salomon became known as Monsieur Covid for his daily health briefings at the height of the epidemic in March and April.
15th Oct 2020 - The Guardian

Coronavirus: French police raid ministers' homes in pandemic inquiry

French police have raided the homes of senior government and health officials as part of an investigation into their handling of the coronavirus pandemic. Health Minister Olivier Véran and the director of the national health agency, Jérôme Salomon, are among those whose properties were searched on Thursday. The raids came after a court launched an inquiry earlier this year into the government's handling of the pandemic. It has faced criticism over shortages of equipment and slow response times. Prime Minister Jean Castex is also under investigation, French media report, as is his predecessor Edouard Philippe and Mr Véran's predecessor Agnès Buzyn.
15th Oct 2020 - bbc.co.uk

Victoria records six coronavirus cases no deaths as a former staffer who quit lifts lid on lockdown

Victoria recorded just six new coronavirus cases and no deaths on Thursday Pressure mounting to end strict lockdown as residents are desperate to get out Health authorities said 14-day average must be at five for restrictions to ease Sanjeev Sabhlok resigned from Victorian Treasury department in September He has rallied online against Melbourne's draconian COVID-19 lockdowns He said Premier Daniel Andrews was 'whimsy' and warned him to resign
15th Oct 2020 - Daily Mail

Trump Overstates W.H.O. Position on Lockdowns

This week, President Trump exaggerated a position taken by the World Health Organization, saying that the agency had vindicated his derision of lockdowns during the coronavirus pandemic. “The World Health Organization just admitted that I was right,” the president tweeted. “Lockdowns are killing countries all over the world. The cure cannot be worse than the problem itself.” Mr. Trump’s message was rapidly shared by thousands online, including the commentator Lou Dobbs and Representative Andy Biggs, Republican of Arizona, who echoed the president’s rallying cry to “open up” and described the closings as “pseudoscientific” and “tyrannical.” Since the early days of the pandemic, the president has dismissed lockdowns as unnecessary and harmful, even while the virus continued to blaze across the nation.
15th Oct 2020 - The New York Times

Coronavirus: We're arguing over lockdown versus herd immunity when it's the UK's test, trace and isolate regime that's failing

If you are depressed by the prospect of a winter of lockdown limbo, you might be even more depressed to consider that it could have been avoided altogether. Not by having a “circuit break” now or a four-tier traffic light system. Not through harsher penalties for those flouting self-isolation rules. Not even by just “letting the virus rip” through the population while we “shield the vulnerable” indoors, as was last week advocated by the scientifically dubious “Great Barrington Declaration”.
15th Oct 2020 - heraldscotland.com

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 15th Oct 2020

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White House embraces a declaration from scientists that opposes lockdowns and relies on ‘herd immunity.’

On a call convened Monday by the White House, two senior administration officials, both speaking anonymously because they were not authorized to give their names, cited an October 4 petition titled The Great Barrington Declaration, which argues against lockdowns and calls for a reopening of businesses and schools. “Current lockdown policies are producing devastating effects on short and long-term public health,” the declaration states, adding, “The most compassionate approach that balances the risks and benefits of reaching herd immunity, is to allow those who are at minimal risk of death to live their lives normally to build up immunity to the virus through natural infection, while better protecting those who are at highest risk. We call this Focused Protection.”
15th Oct 2020 - The New York Times

Anti-lockdown campaigner part of fresh legal challenge to COVID-19 restrictions

In Australia, an anti-lockdown campaigner who was arrested last month over a reposting on social media of a planned mass gathering is part of another challenge to the legal basis of Victoria's coronavirus pandemic restrictions. A Supreme Court writ filed on Wednesday afternoon lists as plaintiffs Kerry Cotterill and Tony Pecora and, as defendants, the state's most senior health department bureaucrats, Chief Health Officer Professor Brett Sutton and Deputy Public Health Commander Finn Romanes. The challenge is at least the 11th case brought before the courts over the COVID-19 pandemic in Victoria, and argues that the Chief Health Officer's stay-at-home orders burdens individuals' freedom of political communication implied in Australia's Constitution.
14th Oct 2020 - The Age

It is clear lockdowns are 'catastrophic disasters'

The Herald Sun Business Columnist Terry McCrann says it is clear travel bans made sense at the beginning of coronavirus until people got a sense of what was happening, but now it is clear lockdowns are “catastrophic disasters”. “This characterization that it’s lives versus money … that people who argue against lockdowns are promoting money over lives is now showing to be conclusively wrong,” Mr McCrann told Sky News host Peta Credlin.
14th Oct 2020 - Sky News Australia

Andrews government could be 'liable for lockdown' under 'manslaughter laws'

In Australia, the Andrews government’s taxpayer funded inquiry into the bungled hotel quarantine program has blown out to nearly $6 million. In some cases, it is estimated per day $30,000 is spent on each minister, department and official. Rule of Law Institute of Australia vice-president Chris Merritt said on top of the expense, there was a big issue regarding “whether the lockdowns were declared for an improper purpose”. “If they were, they’re unlawful". Mr Merritt said if the government locked down the state because it knew it was unable to implement an effective contact tracing system, then there could be major legal issues.
14th Oct 2020 - Sky News Australia

'We've Got Someone Who Obviously Got An Education In America': New Zealand Deputy PM Roasts Covid Denier

New Zealand Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters swiftly shut down a man asking him whether Covid-19 was a real threat during a campaign event. The questioner began making a lengthy speech related to Covid-19 during a New Zealand First rally organized by Peters, who is the head of the political party and acts as deputy prime minister via a coalition government with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s Labour Party. “Where’s your evidence that there is a virus that causes the disease?” the man asked. “We’ve got someone who obviously got an education in America,” Peters said. “220,000 people have died in the United States. There are 8 million cases today. We’ve got 79,000 cases probably today in India, and here is somebody who gets up and says, ‘The Earth is flat.’ Sorry, sunshine, wrong place.”
14th Oct 2020 - Huffington Post UK

New Zealand politician ridicules Covid-19 denier

A New Zealand politician ridiculed a man for suggesting that the coronavirus does not exist - comparing it to saying 'the Earth is flat'. Deputy prime minister Winston Peters poured scorn on the audience member at a campaign event ahead of Saturday's general election, joking that he had 'obviously got an education in America' because of his accent. The man, who was holding a sheet of notes, drew sceptical looks from the audience as he asked: 'Where's your evidence that there is a virus that causes the disease?'.
14th Oct 2020 - Daily Mail

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 14th Oct 2020

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Trump crows at Florida rally that he was 'right' about lifting lockdown orders

The World Health Organization has urged leaders to stop using lockdowns as a 'primary control method' amid the coronavirus pandemic, prompting President Trump to tell a Florida rally that he was right all along. Trump stepped out Monday for his first campaign event since testing positive for coronavirus and defended his stance on keeping the economy open after the WHO noted the devastating impact the COVID-19 outbreak has had on the poor. 'We recognize that at certain points, some countries have had no choice but to issue stay-at-home orders and other measures, to buy time,' WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Monday.
13th Oct 2020 - Daily Mail

Matt Hancock turns on Tory lockdown sceptics ahead of Covid votes

In England, Conservative rebels fired a warning shot at the government as 42 MPs voted against stricter Covid-19 curbs, amid angry scenes in the Commons, where Matt Hancock criticised lockdown sceptics. Tory rebels organised a symbolic vote against one of six restrictions approved by MPs on Tuesday night. Chris Green MP, a junior frontbencher, resigned from the government on Tuesday night ahead of the vote in protest at the restrictions in his Bolton constituency. “I believe that the cure is worse than the disease,” he wrote in his resignation letter. “I believe there are better alternatives to the government’s approach.”
13th Oct 2020 - The Guardian

Across the world central governments face local covid-19 revolts

Speaking in Parliament, on October 12th, Boris Johnson, Britain’s prime minister, grappled with a problem facing countries across the world: how to contain a resurgence of the coronavirus, without imposing a national lockdown. From northern England to the Mediterranean, local politicians are in revolt. In Manchester, the mayor has complained that the lack of discussion and consultation makes the government “impossible to deal with”; in Marseilles, the deputy mayor has grumbled that decisions from Paris “come like a stone dropped from a bridge”; a battle between the Spanish government and the local authorities in Madrid ended up in court. All three cities were aghast at new local lockdowns imposed by the central government.
13th Oct 2020 - The Economist

Renewed calls to end lockdown rejected by RACGP and other experts

Dozens of healthcare professionals have signed an open letter calling for the immediate end to Victoria’s ongoing lockdown measures. The new letter states the response to the virus ‘will cause more deaths and result in far more negative health effects than the virus itself’. Signatory and anaesthetist Dr Eamonn Mathieson said the ‘ongoing physical, psychological, social and economic harm is creating a new health crisis that far outweighs any possible benefits from continuing the lockdown’. Overseas, more than 11,000 have now signed the US-based Great Barrington Declaration, which calls for the effective ring-fencing of vulnerable people, such as those in aged care, until herd immunity is achieved, while World Health Organization officials this week called lockdowns a last resort. But top Australian epidemiologists Professor James McCaw and Professor Catherine Bennett have cautioned that key measures must be in place before lockdowns can be eased.
13th Oct 2020 - RACGP

Sorrento hotelier files High Court challenge to Melbourne's lockdown

The high-powered constitutional challenge to the validity of the Victorian lockdown has been lodged in the High Court as legal actions continue to pile up against the Andrews government's response to the coronavirus pandemic. The writ of summons was filed late on Monday afternoon amid mounting business anxiety over the expected continuation of strict lockdown restrictions past October 19. The plaintiff, prominent hospitality figure Julian Gerner, is asking the High Court to review the legality of the lockdown. The High Court writ says that the lockdown orders made under the Public Health and Wellbeing Act are unconstitutional, inappropriate and inconsistent with a system of representative and responsible government
13th Oct 2020 - The Age

Facebook to ban ads that discourage vaccines

Facebook will start banning advertisements that discourage people from getting vaccinated, the social media company said, as it also announced a new flu vaccine information campaign. The United States-based company said in a blog post on Tuesday that ads advocating for or against legislation or government policies around vaccines, including a COVID-19 vaccine, would still be allowed.
13th Oct 2020 - AlJazeera

'They refused to act': inside a chilling documentary on Trump's bungled Covid-19 response

A new documentary, 'Totally Under Control', recounts the early days of the pandemic in the US, revealing in clinical detail a disastrous federal response to a preventable crisis. It’s a damning list of mistakes, foreseeable crises and political squabbling splayed across a coherent timeline intended to be released just ahead of the presidential election, “so that people could render a judgment about how the federal response had been”, film-maker Alex Gibney says. The two-hour film focuses primarily on the early days of the pandemic: the missed opportunities from January through April which led to America’s spiraling coronavirus present, an unending “first wave”.
12th Oct 2020 - The Guardian

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 13th Oct 2020

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Trump claims Covid-19 will ‘run its course’ as US nears 215,000 deaths

Donald Trump has told the United States that Covid-19 “will run its course”, as the country’s death toll approaches 215,000. With the US accounting for well over a fifth of all deaths worldwide, the president’s comments on Monday morning jarred. “Big spike in the China Plague in Europe and other places that the Fake News used to hold up as examples of places that are doing well, in order to make the U.S look bad,” he tweeted. “Be strong and vigilant, it will run its course. Vaccines and cures are coming fast!”
12th Oct 2020 - The Independent

Leader of Brooklyn protest against Covid lockdowns arrested on riot charge

A leader of protests against new coronavirus restrictions in Brooklyn has been arrested on charges of incitement to riot and unlawful imprisonment of a journalist who was chased and trapped by a crowd, police said. Heshy Tischler, a city council candidate and activist in the Orthodox Jewish neighborhood of Borough Park, was taken into custody on Sunday evening in connection with his actions during a 7 October street protest. Video shows a crowd of men surrounding, jostling and taunting Jewish Insider reporter Jacob Kornbluh, who has been covering resistance to social distancing in the neighborhood.
12th Oct 2020 - The Guardian

Legal case to challenge validity of Melbourne's lockdown in High Court

A legal case challenging the validity of Melbourne's coronavirus lockdown is set to be filed in the High Court of Australia today as the state remains under some of strictest restrictions in the world. Business owner Julian Gerner, who owns a restaurant and bar in Sorrento on the Mornington Peninsula, is the plaintiff behind the legal action, arguing the state's "unnecessary" lockdown breached the constitutional right of the freedom of movement. Senior counsels Bret Walker, SC, and Michael Wyles, QC, will represent Mr Gerner as a writ of summons is filed against the state of Victoria in Melbourne's High Court registry.
12th Oct 2020 - 9News

English pub, night club group plans legal action over any new shutdowns

A group of English pub and night club owners have paused plans for a legal challenge against new COVID-19 shutdowns after the government limited closures to the Merseyside region. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson set out new measures on Monday, but so far Liverpool and the surrounding area is the only one that will have to close pubs, clubs, gyms, leisure centres, betting shops, adult gaming centres and casinos. Britain’s pub, restaurant, night club and event industry has been hammered by the coronavirus crisis and after months of lockdown in the spring, a second wave and new measures limiting socialising now threaten hundreds of thousands more jobs.
12th Oct 2020 - Reuters UK

Waving Spanish flags, Vox supporters protest against Madrid lockdown

Waving flags from cars and honking horns, supporters of Spain’s far-right Vox party protested on Monday against a partial lockdown imposed on Madrid to contain one of Europe’s worst coronavirus outbreaks. “Viva España! Government resign!”, cried hundreds of supporters as they filled Madrid’s main thoroughfare and the party staged smaller demonstrations in Barcelona and Seville. Sunday’s protest escalated a standoff between Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and the conservative-led Madrid regional government, on which Vox holds 12 of 132 seats, and which argues that the government’s curbs are illegal and excessive and will spell disaster for the local economy.
12th Oct 2020 - Reuters UK

Resistance to lockdown rules is not just ‘fatigue’

The use of the term “pandemic fatigue” in the World Health Organization report is misleading (While Sturgeon takes decisive action on Covid, Johnson just blusters, 8 October). The report is concerned with the increase in non-compliance with regulations designed to counter Covid-19. It lists many putative reasons for non-compliance, including reduced trust in authorities, decreases in perceptions of risk, increased complacency and changes in values (eg, an increased emphasis on libertarianism). This matters because different reasons for non-compliance must be countered with different policies: increased libertarianism requires government information to emphasise our interdependence, increased complacency requires incentives to abide by regulations, errors in risk perception require better risk communication. Referring to every one of these very different phenomena as fatigue implies that the same policy is appropriate for dealing with them all.
11th Oct 2020 - The Guardian

Spain's PM defends Covid emergency lockdown in Madrid

The Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has said he hopes to bring the coronavirus outbreak in the capital under control within the next two weeks, as he defended the government’s decision to declare a state of emergency to keep the Madrid region in partial lockdown. Sánchez’s Socialist-led coalition invoked emergency powers on Friday after the Madrid regional government failed to respond to an ultimatum and a court struck down the central government’s original lockdown order. “We have always put public health and saving lives above any other consideration and we’ve asked regional governments to do the same,” he told reporters during a visit to Portugal on Saturday.
11th Oct 2020 - The Guardian

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 12th Oct 2020

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NZ’s PM Ardern touts success in tackling pandemic in poll push

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Sunday burnished her leadership credentials on the back of her successful response to the coronavirus pandemic at a campaign rally six days before the country’s election on October 17. Polls show Ardern’s Labour Party is expected to win the election with a wide lead over the conservative National Party, and could form government in a coalition with the Greens and New Zealand First.
11th Oct 2020 - AlJazeera

When Trump gets coronavirus, Chinese Americans pay a price

News of President Trump’s coronavirus diagnosis is fueling renewed attacks against Asian Americans and hostility toward China across social media, according to researchers with civil rights group the Anti-Defamation League. In an analysis of 2.7 million tweets in the three days after Trump announced his and first lady Melania Trump’s diagnosis on Twitter, the ADL found elevated language associated with hostility against Asians, compared with the previous day. In the 12 hours after Trump’s announcement, ADL saw an 85 percent spike in such language. The announcement sparked thousands of online conversations blaming China for trying to purposefully infect the president, the researchers found.
10th Oct 2020 - The Washington Post

Fauci calls White House event a coronavirus ‘superspreader’

The United States’ top infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci has said an event held in the White House on September 26 was a “superspreader event” that is suspected to have infected numerous people, including President Donald Trump, with the novel coronavirus. “I think the data speak for themselves. We had a superspreader event in the White House,” Fauci said during an interview with CBS News Radio. “And it was in a situation where people were crowded together and were not wearing masks, so the data speak for themselves.”
10th Oct 2020 - AlJazeera

As Virus Surges in Europe, Resistance to New Restrictions Also Grows

France has placed cities on “maximum alert” and ordered many to close all bars, gyms and sports centers on Saturday. Italy and Poland have made masks compulsory in public. The Czech Republic has declared a state of emergency, and German officials fear new outbreaks could soon grow beyond the control of their vaunted testing and tracing. Across Europe and beyond, Covid-19 has come roaring back, and, as happened last spring, officials are invoking restrictions to try and suppress it. But this time is different. Still reeling from the economic, emotional and physical toll of nationwide lockdowns that brought the Continent to a virtual standstill, government officials are finding that the public might not be so compliant the second time around.
9th Oct 2020 - The New York Times

'The data speak for themselves': Dr. Anthony Fauci says White House held a 'superspreader event' for coronavirus

Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Friday that the White House held a "superspreader event," apparently referring to the Rose Garden ceremony where President Donald Trump announced the nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court and where multiple attendees later tested positive for the coronavirus. Fauci made the remark after being asked in a CBS News Radio interview what the recent coronavirus outbreak at the White House said about the importance of wearing masks to prevent the spread of COVID-19. "I think the data speak for themselves," Fauci said. "We had a superspreader event in the White House, and it was in a situation where people were crowded together, were not wearing masks."
9th Oct 2020 - USA TODAY

Coronavirus Indonesia: People caught without facemasks forced to dig graves and get into coffins

People caught breaking COVID-19 rules in Indonesia are being made to dig graves and get into coffins. The punishments being handed out in East Java and Jakarta follow a surge in infections. The country is the fourth most populous in the world and has the highest COVID-19 death rate in Southeast Asia.
9th Oct 2020 - Sky News

China Joins WHO-Led Global Coronavirus Vaccine Effort As U.S. Sits It Out

China has joined a global effort aimed at fair and equitable distribution of a COVID-19 vaccine once one becomes available — an effort the Trump administration has shunned. The COVID-19 Vaccine Global Access Facility, known as COVAX, is jointly led by the World Health Organization and Gavi, an alliance promoting access to vaccines. "This is an important step China has taken to uphold the concept of a shared community of health for all and to honor its commitment to turn COVID-19 vaccines into a global public good," Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a news conference Friday.
9th Oct 2020 - NPR

Here’s more evidence of China’s strong recovery from coronavirus

The recovery in China’s service sector activity extended into a fifth straight month in September, an industry survey showed on Friday, with hiring increasing for the second month in a row. The Caixin/Markit services Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) rose to 54.8 from August’s 54.0, the highest reading since June and staying well above the 50-mark that separates monthly growth from contraction.
9th Oct 2020 - AlJazeera

Bolsonaro’s Addiction to Covid Cash Could Make Brazil Go Bust

Latin America responded ambitiously, if not always efficiently, to the coronavirus pandemic, with many countries spreading cash, credit and tax deferrals to vulnerable companies and households. The emergency stimulus has injected bountiful resources into listing economies — 12% of gross domestic product for Peru, 18% in Brazil, 5% in Argentina — and helped those who were already struggling as well
8th Oct 2020 - Bloomberg Quint

In the U.S., states — not science — decide what counts as a coronavirus outbreak

In Michigan, two coronavirus infections in the same workplace constitutes an outbreak. In New York City, public school buildings must close when two people in two different classrooms catch the virus. But Iowa will not announce coronavirus outbreaks at many businesses unless 10 percent of employees are actively infected, and even 10 percent of students becoming ill may not be enough to close a school. The nation’s patchwork pandemic response has led to wide disparities in data reporting and even in definitions for basic medical concepts. In the absence of federal standards, states have adopted divergent and sometimes scientifically questionable approaches to disease control, which experts say have allowed the virus to spread.
7th Oct 2020 - The Washington Post

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 9th Oct 2020

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Orthodox New Yorkers condemn Cuomo over new Covid shutdowns

New rules putting parts of New York City back into lockdown amid a rise in fresh coronavirus cases have been met with protests as Andrew Cuomo was accused of using “dangerous and divisive” language against Orthodox Jews. On Wednesday night groups of Orthodox people in Brooklyn and some of their community leaders gathered in the streets, some not wearing masks and some bearing pro-Donald Trump signs. An Orthodox journalist covering the events later said he was attacked by an angry mob.
8th Oct 2020 - The Guardian

‘Freedom’ over science: Madrid court kicks out coronavirus lockdown rules to protect people’s ‘rights’

Madrid's top regional court has overturned a partial lockdown order to confine millions of “madrilenos” as a political row raged over imposing restrictions to try to slow the soaring infection rate in Europe's Covid-19 hotspot. The regional supreme court rejected restrictions imposed at the weekend on the capital and nine nearby towns after the number of coronavirus cases in the Spanish capital reached 741 cases per 100,000 people in the past 14 days compared with 257 per 100,000 in the rest of Spain – in itself the highest rate in the European Union.
8th Oct 2020 - The Independent

Madrid High Court strikes down Heath Ministry’s coronavirus restrictions

The Madrid High Court ruled on Thursday that it would not ratify the coronavirus restrictions that were forced on the region by the central government, despite the opposition of the regional administration to implement them. The court reached its decision on the basis that the measures infringe on citizens’ fundamental rights. By midday on Thursday, the Madrid regional government had yet to comment on the ruling or announce what it would do next.
8th Oct 2020 - El Pais

Great Barrington Declaration calls for end to lockdowns, shift to herd immunity

A plea for an immediate return to open restaurants, mass gatherings and working from the office has received the support of nearly 125,000 petition signatories and opposition from critics who denounce it as dangerous and likely deadly. The Great Barrington Declaration was written and signed by three epidemiologists in Great Barrington, Mass. on Sunday. Three dozen other scientists, doctors and academics are listed as co-signatories, with the most prominent being Michael Levitt, who won the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 2013. The declaration lays out the case for global adoption of a "herd immunity"-style approach to the COVID-19 pandemic. It argues that the lockdown-heavy approach is "producing devastating effects" on public health, including "lower childhood vaccination rates, worsening cardiovascular disease outcomes, fewer cancer screenings and deteriorating mental health."
8th Oct 2020 - CTV News

Anti-mask ‘Karen’ spits at cops when asked to wear face covering

An anti-mask wearing “Karen”’ out walking her dog in Melbourne has spat at police after they asked her to wear a face covering. Police said the woman was walking her dog along the side of a road in the Bayside area on Wednesday when officers spotted her without a mask on. A police spokeswoman said as police approached her she became abusive and spat at the officers’ feet. “Police directed her to go home and get her mask but she refused to comply and was issued with a fine,” the spokeswoman said.
8th Oct 2020 - NEWS.com.au

COVID-19: British government rejects global calls by scientists to end lockdown measures

The British government has rejected the calls of thousands of scientists and health experts urging authorities to put an end to lockdown measures. The controversial Great Barrington Declaration, which has been signed by roughly 7000 scientists and medics worldwide, is calling for a new strategy in response to the ongoing pandemic. The movement, which began in the United States, argues that young, healthy and low-risk people should be permitted to go about their lives as normal, while "focused protection" is offered to the elderly and those with underlying medical conditions - the groups most at risk from COVID-19.
8th Oct 2020 - Newshub

HHS Secretary Azar says U.S. could have enough coronavirus vaccine doses for every American by March

The Trump administration’s coronavirus vaccine program Operation Warp Speed expects to have up to 100 million doses by the end of the year, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said. Azar said the U.S. is currently manufacturing doses for all six potential vaccines backed by the U.S. government across more than 23 manufacturing facilities. U.S. health officials have been accelerating the development of vaccine candidates even though doing so could be for naught if the vaccine ends up not being effective or safe.
8th Oct 2020 - CNBC

Australia shuts itself off to visitors until the end of 2021 - or there's a coronavirus vaccine

Holidays and visits to Australia could be unlikely until the end of 2021. Since March 17, only citizens and permanent residents have been allowed to enter Australia with a few exceptions, with arrivals expected to pay for a two week hotel quarantine. Travel between and within some states and territories within Australia is also currently restricted. There is more information here. Australian Federal Budget has announced this week, that international travel will 'remain low' until the end of the year, or whenever a vaccine is widely available. Social distancing measures will also be kept in place until all Australian residents can be vaccinated. Prime Minister Scott Morrison previously said his government will secure almost 85 million doses of a coronavirus vaccine if two current trials they have invested in, prove successful.
8th Oct 2020 - Wales Online

As Trump hails Regeneron treatment, his administration tries to block the science it used

President Donald Trump has been celebrating the dose of experimental monoclonal antibodies he was given last Friday, saying he thinks it helped him vanquish his coronavirus infection in record time. "It was incredible the impact it had," he said in a video he tweeted Thursday. What he didn't say is that the treatment was developed using technology his administration has worked for four years to ban.
8th Oct 2020 - CNN

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 8th Oct 2020

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Top US immunologist quits health role over Trump Covid response

The ousted director of the office involved in developing a coronavirus vaccine has quit his post at the National Institutes of Health, charging that the Trump administration “ignores scientific expertise, overrules public health guidance and disrespects career scientists”. Dr Rick Bright, a whistleblower who crossed swords with the Trump administration over claims his warnings over both coronavirus and the utility of hydroxychloroquine were ignored, left his role complaining that his plan to develop a national testing infrastructure had also been sidelined.
7th Oct 2020 - The Guardian

Trump says not to fear Covid-19. Do Americans agree?

After three nights in hospital for Covid treatment, US President Donald Trump is back in the White House - and back on Twitter. In a video posted on Monday shortly after his return, the president implored Americans not to let the virus "dominate" their lives. "Don't be afraid of it. You're going to beat it," he said. "Don't let it take over your lives. Don't let that happen." But with nearly 7.5 million Covid-19 cases and more than 210,000 deaths nationwide, is this a message of strength or an insult to those still suffering? We ask voters.
7th Oct 2020 - BBC

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem says lockdowns are 'useless' as state's COVID-19 cases soar

South Dakota's governor is doubling down on her controversial stance against state-wide lockdown measures even as the local positivity rate continues to soar. Gov. Kristi Noem defended her hands-off approach to managing the deadly COVID-19 pandemic while addressing lawmakers earlier this week and called mandatory stay-at home orders "useless" in helping lower the spread. Amid criticism over her tactics for fighting the novel coronavirus, Noem used her speaking time to read a portion of a letter she said she received from a reporter who praised her for sticking to her beliefs.
7th Oct 2020 - ABC News

Coronavirus: Health experts join global anti-lockdown movement

Thousands of scientists and health experts have joined a global movement warning of "grave concerns" about Covid-19 lockdown policies. Nearly 6,000 experts, including dozens from the UK, say the approach is having a devastating impact on physical and mental health as well as society. They are calling for protection to be focused on the vulnerable, while healthy people get on with their lives. The declaration has prompted warnings by others in the scientific community.
7th Oct 2020 - BBC

Like America, India Is Witnessing Protests Against Forced Mask, Testing And Vaccination

Along the lines of countries like the US, UK, Australia, Italy and Canada, now India is also encountering protests against precautionary measures adopted to curb COVID-19 being imposed upon the public as strict rules. The importance of precautionary measures like face masks, gloves, social distancing, hand washing, etc. has not only pervaded India but the whole world ever since we came to terms with coronavirus. In India, almost the entire population decently cooperated with the lockdown decisions of government and abided by all the set norms. But recently, a spate of protests was seen arising across India where people were spotted echoing their contradicting thoughts on the compulsion to wear a face mask in public places.
7th Oct 2020 - YAHOO!

Morrison takes aim at Victoria's lockdown, warning of 'very severe' impact on national economy

Scott Morrison has warned that the national economy will take another hit from the extended Victorian lockdown as he took aim at the state’s roadmap for easing restrictions, saying leaders “cannot create a burden that is too great to bear”. The prime minister refused to specify on Monday whether the federal government would rethink its plan to reduce the rate of the jobkeeper and jobseeker programs this month, calling on the Victorian government to spell out its own economic support package before Canberra considered taking action. But Morrison raised questions about Victoria’s contact-tracing capabilities and said he hoped the plan unveiled by the premier, Daniel Andrews, was the “worst-case scenario” and only a “starting point” for managing the virus in the weeks ahead.
7th Oct 2020 - The Guardian

Liz Truss: more Covid lockdown measures in England would ‘set us back’

A senior cabinet minister has said further lockdown measures would “set us back hugely” amid signs that additional coronavirus restrictions may be imminent for parts of north-west England. Liz Truss, the international trade secretary, indicated that the government remained strongly opposed to measures such as closing pubs, bars and restaurants despite rising hospital admissions and a sharp increase in infections. Truss said ministers were attempting to strike a “delicate balance” of protecting the economy while stopping the spread of the virus, telling Sky News: “If we end up locking down further or having a national lockdown, that would set us back hugely so we’re constantly balancing those two priorities.”
7th Oct 2020 - The Guardian

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 7th Oct 2020

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Trump Covid: President downplays virus on leaving hospital

US President Donald Trump has made a theatrical return to the White House to continue his treatment for coronavirus after a three-night hospital stay. Mr Trump, who is still contagious, removed his mask on the balcony of the White House, while posing for pictures. Mr Trump also recorded a video message, urging Americans to get back to work. "You're going to beat it [coronavirus]," he told them, adding: "We're going to be out front. As your leader, I had to do that. I knew there's danger to it, but I had to do it. I stood out front, and led."
6th Oct 2020 - BBC

Trump could face a relapse, Dr. Fauci warns, as president opts to downplay nation's coronavirus threat despite massive death toll

President Donald Trump rolled out of Walter Reed hospital confidently urging the nation not to fear the coronavirus despite experts warning the U.S. death toll, at more than 210,000, could almost double by year's end. Experts also warn that the commander-in-chief himself may not have seen the worst of the virus just yet. "I am very worried that people will take this to mean that 'If he can beat COVID I can beat COVID,'" said Narasimhan, senior vice president for critical care services at Northwell Health. "I don’t think that we can take any real lessons (from Trump's illness) except that he did get sick. Pretending this is not real disease will not help."
6th Oct 2020 - USA Today

Trump's anti-lockdown coronavirus adviser, Dr. Scott Atlas, says the president's COVID-19 diagnosis will not change how the White House tackles the pandemic

President Donald Trump's newest coronavirus adviser, Dr. Scott Atlas, says the president's COVID-19 diagnosis will not change the White House's current strategy on pandemic control. "He is not afraid, he's not going to hide in the basement, endorse another lockdown ... frozen in fear behind a map," Atlas said. Throughout the pandemic Trump and the White House have downplayed the coronavirus, pressured states to reopen their businesses, and eschewed health experts' calls for transparency. The US currently has the highest number of COVID-19 cases and deaths in the world.
6th Oct 2020 - MSN

A Second National Lockdown Seems Inevitable. Here's What Stands In The Way

In England, what is stopping the PM from a full lockdown – and could a two-week “circuit-breaker” compromise be on the cards? Covid-19 has already ravaged the UK economy and the Bank of England warned last month that the resurgence of the virus will hit the country hard. Chancellor Rishi Sunak is thought to oppose a second lockdown “for any long period of time” amid fears job losses could soar and unemployment in 2021 could spiral out of control. One thorn in Johnson’s side should he move for a second shutdown is a grouping of backbench Tory MPs known informally as “the Brady bunch”. Notionally led by the chair of the powerful 1922 committee, Graham Brady, they oppose new restrictions by the state, both due to the limits on individual freedoms and the strain on business.
6th Oct 2020 - HuffPost UK

Trump now needs to balance science with his libertarian instincts – he should look to Japan for inspiration

Vince Cable writes about the Japanese approach to the coronavirus pandemic, as compared to Trump's: "The Japanese experience might also prove helpful to Trump. Assuming that he recovers quickly and gets back to the campaign trail, he has to find a way of acknowledging that his cavalier disregard for scientific advice wasn't smart; but, at the same time, he has to keep faith with his libertarian supporters who will not accept formal restrictions. A version of the Japanese approach might play well, especially since Tokyo has gone to extraordinary lengths to keep onside with Trump."
6th Oct 2020 - The Independent

COVID-19 disobedience goes deeper than we think

While respect for mask-wearing and personal hygiene is broadly high, according to YouGov surveys of European countries, support for quarantine and self-isolation is wavering. In France, only 48 percent of people currently support quarantining those who’ve had contact with infected patients, down from 78 percent in March. It has also fallen in the U.K. and Spain, though to a lesser degree. There’s mounting evidence that people who are asked to stay at home aren’t doing so. On top of carrots and sticks, transparency and education can help compliance. New rules such as closing restaurants and bars at 10 p.m. rather than 11 p.m. haven’t been justified with any scientifically backed explanations, the kind of thing that can chip away at public trust.
6th Oct 2020 - The Japan Times

Trump Covid post deleted by Facebook and hidden by Twitter

Facebook has deleted a post in which President Trump had claimed Covid-19 was "less lethal" than the flu. Mr Trump is at the White House after three days of hospital treatment having tested positive for the virus. He wrote the US had "learned to live with" flu season, "just like we are learning to live with Covid, in most populations far less lethal!!!" Twitter hid the same message behind a warning about "spreading misleading and potentially harmful information". Users have to click past the alert to read the tweet. "We remove incorrect information about the severity of Covid-19, and have now removed this post," said Andy Stone, policy communications manager at Facebook.
6th Oct 2020 - BBC

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 6th Oct 2020

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'Don’t be afraid' of virus, Trump says as he prepares to leave hospital

President Donald Trump said he will leave a military hospital where he is being treated for COVID-19 later on Monday, and urged people not to be afraid of the disease, which has killed more than a million people worldwide and wreaked economic havoc. Even if discharged, he will need to continue treatment as he is still undergoing a five-day course of an intravenous antiviral drug, remdesivir. The normal quarantine period for anyone testing positive for the novel coronavirus is 14 days. Trump has frequently downplayed the threat of the pandemic which has infected 7.4 million Americans. In recent days, he released a series of videos to reassure the public he is recovering from the disease caused by the virus.
5th Oct 2020 - Reuters

Why a second lockdown could turn the lights out on the UK economy

James Reed is chairman and chief executive of recruitment firm REED. He writes about a second wave of Covid-19: "While I agree that extra measures might be needed to combat the spread of this disease, a blanket second full lockdown will certainly drive a coach and horses through the early signs of economic recovery" "A lockdown is a short-term fix based upon the hope that a vaccine for Covid-19 is just around the corner, which it may or may not be. It’s something that should only be considered as an absolute last resort, after all other options have been exhausted."
5th Oct 2020 - City A.M.

Neo-Nazis and anti-vaxxers join protest against coronavirus restrictions in Germany

Far-right activists, Neo-Nazis and anti-vaccine conspiracy theorists were among the thousands who joined a protest against coronavirus restrictions in Germany over the weekend. The demonstration at Lake Constance in the south of the country, close to the Austrian border, also attracted thousands of counter-protesters, although police said the there had not been any violence. Organisers of the rally, who opposed social distancing measures imposed to try and restrict the spread of Covid-19, had hoped to gather as many as 200,000 demonstrators to form a human chain around the lake. But the police said they had counted only about 11,000 people among the two protests.
5th Oct 2020 - The Independent

Ireland faces resistance to 'nuclear' COVID-19 lockdown recommendation

Ireland’s government faced political and business resistance on Monday to a surprise recommendation by health chiefs for Europe’s first major second wave national lockdown to prevent hospitals from being overwhelmed as coronavirus cases rise. The National Public Health Emergency Team called for a leap to the highest level of COVID-19 restrictions, Level 5, late on Sunday, just three days after telling government the current Level 2 status for most of the country was appropriate.
5th Oct 2020 - Reuters UK

UK's Sunak warns of economic and social impact of lockdowns

British finance minister Rishi Sunak warned that a further lockdown would cripple both the economy and society, stating that lockdowns have a very strong economic and social impact. Sunak spoke about his dissatisfaction with the 10 pm curfew on pubs and restaurants saying that, “Of course it’s frustrating. I know it’s difficult and wish we didn’t have to do these things.” He added that ministers were divided on the issue but encouraged Brits to abide by the rules. He said that he would not remain silent in his fight against future lockdowns and implored his fellow ministers to strive for normality in the face of COVID-19
5th Oct 2020 - Reuters UK

White House Blocks New Coronavirus Vaccine Guidelines

Top White House officials are blocking strict new federal guidelines for the emergency release of a coronavirus vaccine, objecting to a provision that would almost certainly guarantee that no vaccine could be authorized before the election on Nov. 3, according to people familiar with the approval process. Facing a White House blockade, the Food and Drug Administration is seeking other avenues to ensure that vaccines meet the guidelines. That includes sharing the standards with an outside advisory committee of experts — perhaps as soon as this week — that is supposed to meet publicly before any vaccine is authorized for emergency use. The hope is that the committee will enforce the guidelines, regardless of the White House’s reaction.
5th Oct 2020 - The New York Times

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 5th Oct 2020

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Covid: PM has 'lost control of virus', says Labour leader

Boris Johnson's government has "lost control" of coronavirus, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has said. Speaking to the Observer, Sir Keir accused the prime minister of "serial incompetence" over the virus. He has called for ministers to set out a new "road map" for dealing with Covid-19 until a vaccine is rolled out. A Downing Street spokesman said the prime minister had already set out "a package of measures" that could be in place for the next six months.
4th Oct 2020 - BBC

Trump's White House event in focus over Covid spread

With Donald Trump now in hospital, there are growing questions about how he and his wife were exposed to coronavirus. A crowded Rose Garden event is coming under intense focus - last week's ceremony where Mr Trump formally announced his nomination of the conservative Amy Coney Barrett for the Supreme Court. City council member Brooke Pinto told the Washington Post it was "disappointing that the White House has flaunted not wearing masks and gathering large crowds".
4th Oct 2020 - BBC

Johnson sees bumpy COVID winter, but radical changes by spring

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Sunday he expected the next few months of the COVID-19 pandemic to be bumpy, but that things would look radically different in the spring. Johnson said he knew many people were furious with him over perceived inconsistencies and confusion surrounding the local measures, but he was seeking to strike a balance between public health and the wider needs of society and the economy. He denied a suggestion that the local restrictions were not working given infection rates were still rising in the affected areas and there was no end in sight to the measures.
4th Oct 2020 - Reuters UK

The Coronavirus and the Threat Within the White House

The contrast between Trump’s airy dismissals of the pandemic’s severity and the profound pain and anxiety endured by so many Americans has helped define the era in which we live. Hours before he announced the diagnosis, Trump claimed, in a speech recorded for the annual Al Smith Dinner for Catholic charities, that “the end of the pandemic is in sight, and next year will be one of the greatest years in the history of our country.” The Centers for Disease Control and other public-health institutions have long said that wearing masks is essential to minimizing the spread of the coronavirus. Trump has been of another opinion, a delusional one.
3rd Oct 2020 - The New Yorker

Spain’s poisonous politics have worsened the pandemic and the economy

The Infanta Leonor hospital, wedged between a motorway and a suburban railway, serves the dense working-class districts of south-eastern Madrid. Last month 402 of its 480 doctors signed a letter to the regional government warning that the hospital was in a state of “pre-collapse”, with 54% of its 361 beds and all 27 intensive-care spaces occupied by covid-19 patients. With 784 cases per 100,000 people in the past fortnight, Madrid is currently the worst-hit region in Europe. This is part of a broader national failure. On July 5th Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, proclaimed that “we have defeated the virus and controlled the pandemic.” Yet the country is once again Europe’s coronavirus black spot
2nd Oct 2020 - The Economist

UK seeks to avoid national lockdown to stop unemployment in millions, minister says

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government is seeking to avoid a full national lockdown to prevent unemployment soaring into the millions, Environment Secretary George Eustice said. “I’ve not seen any projections of 4 million but certainly we know that there are some 700,000 extra people that are already unemployed as a result of this, and yes you know the projections are, that there are going to be economic impacts,” Eustice told Sky. “It’s for precisely that reason that we are trying to avoid full lockdown,” he said.
2nd Oct 2020 - EU Reporter

Top Paris chefs in protest as restaurants face coronavirus lockdown

Paris's top restaurateurs vented their anger today as the French capital’s celebrated hospitality industry faced having to shut down to contain a surge in coronavirus infections. Health minister Olivier Veran has already ordered bars and restaurants in Marseille to shut for two weeks and last night warned that Paris could be placed on “maximum alert” from Monday, meaning similar measures there.
2nd Oct 2020 - Evening Standard

Doctors group says Turkey 'hid the truth' by reporting only those with COVID-19 symptoms

Turkey’s top medical association and the main opposition party on Thursday criticised a decision by President Tayyip Erdogan’s government to only publicly disclose new coronavirus cases if the patient is showing symptoms. Members of the Turkish Medical Association (TTB) and of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) said the policy, acknowledged late on Wednesday by the health minister, hides the true scale of the pandemic and was meant to keep the economy moving. In a press conference, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca appeared to acknowledge the government did not publish the full number of daily positive COVID-19 cases when he said it only tallies those who are symptomatic.
2nd Oct 2020 - Reuters

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 2nd Oct 2020

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'You cannot lock down everybody' Madrid tells Spanish government in COVID spat

Madrid will become the first European capital to go back into lockdown in coming days after the region’s leader reluctantly agreed on Thursday to obey a central government order to ban non-essential travel to and from the Spanish capital. In order to fight a steep surge in COVID-19 cases, Madrid and nine nearby municipalities will see borders closed to outsiders for non-essential visits, with only travel for work, school, doctors’ visits or shopping allowed. A curfew for bars and restaurants moved to 11 p.m. from 1 a.m. However, regional chief Isabel Diaz Aysuo said she will appeal against the lockdown in the courts, meaning the uncertainty and fierce political squabbling that has exasperated the residents of Madrid is far from over. “We are victims of improvisation,” architect Jean-Pierre Moncardo complained, saying politicians had wasted time fighting each other instead of giving medics the funding they needed to fight the pandemic.
1st Oct 2020 - Reuters UK

Why People Have Had Enough of Lockdowns

France, the U.K. and Spain face a triple threat: A jump in cases, a population exhausted by lockdown-induced recession, and rising resistance to tougher measures. Curfews and closures of restaurants and bars have seen business owners literally throw their keys to the ground in present-day Marseille. In Madrid, protesters have bristled at a targeted local lockdown they view as discriminatory. It’s not just conspiracy theorists on the streets in London and Berlin who are angry. Those protesting shouldn’t be dismissed as the selfish exceptions to the rule. Beyond the vocal minority, there are signs that the silent majority is also losing faith in increasingly bureaucratic strictures. Policymakers need to restore it.
1st Oct 2020 - Bloomberg

Row erupts after Spain puts Madrid under lockdown

A row has erupted after the Spanish government announced that the entire city of Madrid is to be put under a partial lockdown as it steps up measures to fight the coronavirus. Madrid's regional government reacted furiously to the new restrictions that affect mobility and gatherings, setting the scene for a political battle which could be dragged into the courts. "The situation in Madrid is complex and worrying," Spanish Health Minister Salvador Illa told reporters, saying that of 11,016 new cases diagnosed in Spain over the past 24 hours, nearly 44% were in the Madrid region.
1st Oct 2020 - RTE Online

Victoria COVID lockdown: Resistance groups unmasked by Channel 7's Denham Hitchcock

7NEWS Spotlight correspondent Denham Hitchcock reports from hotel quarantine in Queensland. One of the most upsetting things about this pandemic has been the divisions it has caused. Australia has always been a united country but it doesn’t feel that way right now.
1st Oct 2020 - 7NEWS.com.au

Tony Abbott says Victoria's coronavirus lockdown is the most severe tried in the world outside Wuhan. Is he correct?

Mr Abbott's claim is wrong. Many governments adopted individual policies similar to Victoria's such as curfews and stay-home orders. Some rules were even stricter. For example, Spain and Argentina banned outdoor exercise entirely while Israel limited walks to within 100 metres of home. Meanwhile, Chile allowed only twice-weekly shop visits, and both South Africa and India banned the sale of alcohol. And whereas New Zealand prohibited takeaway food and drinks, Victorians could at least still visit their local cafe to pick up a coffee.
1st Oct 2020 - ABC News

The U.S. Exported QAnon to Australia and New Zealand. Now It’s Creeping Into COVID-19 Lockdown Protests

Like most people, Jess spent a lot of time online during weeks of lockdown earlier this year. But the 36-year-old Australian wasn’t focused so much on playing Animal Crossing or watching Netflix. Instead, she found herself diving ever deeper into the Internet for information about QAnon. Jess, who asked for her last name not to be used because her employer doesn’t allow her to share views on social media, says she became interested in the complex conspiracy theory in part because it claims to offer answers amid the turbulence of 2020.
1st Oct 2020 - TIME

Fewer UK workers on furlough as government scales back support

Fewer British workers remained on furlough from their employers last month as the government scaled back its support for businesses hit by COVID-19 before ending the scheme on Oct. 31, two surveys showed on Thursday. The Bank of England said its monthly survey of businesses showed that 7.0% of their staff were on furlough and not working any hours in September, down from 11.8% in August and a peak of 36.2% in April when coronavirus lockdown measures were tightest. A survey by the Office for National Statistics estimated that 11% of staff were partly or fully on furlough between Sept. 7 and Sept. 20. Britain’s furlough scheme supported 8.9 million jobs at its peak, and is forecast to cost around 52 billion pounds ($67 billion) over its eight-month lifespan.
1st Oct 2020 - Reuters UK

UK seeks to avoid national lockdown to stop unemployment in millions, minister says

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government is seeking to avoid a full national lockdown to prevent unemployment soaring into the millions, Environment Secretary George Eustice said on Thursday. “I’ve not seen any projections of 4 million but certainly we know that there are some 700,000 extra people that are already unemployed as a result of this, and yes you know the projections are, that there are going to be economic impacts,” Eustice told Sky. “It’s for precisely that reason that we are trying to avoid full lockdown,” he said.
1st Oct 2020 - Reuters UK

In crowded Gaza, public embraces mask-wearing to fight COVID-19

The coronavirus may have been slow to reach the sealed-off Gaza Strip, but Palestinians in the densely populated enclave have been quick to embrace mask-wearing to try to contain its spread. Five weeks into an outbreak of COVID-19 among the general population in the territory, restaurants, many shops, schools, mosques and other public facilities remain closed, and a night-time curfew is in effect. It is rare to see anyone without a mask outdoors, with the coronavirus death toll at 20 and nearly 3,000 cases reported since infections spread beyond border quarantine facilities on Aug. 24. Citing security concerns, Israel and Egypt maintain tight restrictions along the frontier with Gaza, where two million people live under the rule of the Islamist Hamas group.
1st Oct 2020 - Reuters UK

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 1st Oct 2020

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UK PM Johnson scolded for 'contempt' of parliament over COVID-19 rules

Prime Minister Boris Johnson urged the British people on Wednesday to obey rules imposed to tackle a rapidly accelerating second wave of the coronavirus outbreak, cautioning that otherwise a tougher lockdown could follow. New cases of COVID-19 are rising by more than 7,000 per day in the United Kingdom though Johnson is facing growing opposition to lockdown measures which have wrought some of the worst economic damage in at least a century. After a reprimand from the speaker of the House of Commons, Johnson defused a rebellion in parliament over the way such onerous rules were imposed by promising angry lawmakers more say over any new national measures.
30th Sep 2020 - Reuters

Elon Musk doubles down on Covid-19 skepticism and says he won't take future vaccine

Elon Musk is once again publicly downplaying the risks of Covid-19. In a wide-ranging interview with the journalist Kara Swisher, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO said he would not take a Covid-19 vaccine when one becomes available, and declined to say whether he feels a duty to pay employees who want to stay home to avoid contracting the virus. "I'm not at risk for Covid, nor are my kids," said Musk during Monday's episode of the New York Times podcast "Sway." Musk has long cultivated a public persona of an eccentric entrepreneur who knows better than the experts and isn't afraid to offer controversial opinions. On the podcast, Musk argued that instead of sweeping stay-at-home orders to mitigate the spread of coronavirus, "anyone who is at risk should be quarantined until the storm passes." When Swisher confronted Musk with the possibility that people would still die in the process, he replied bluntly: "Everybody dies."
30th Sep 2020 - CNN

Why People Have Had Enough of Lockdowns

The history of epidemics is rife with examples of society rebelling against tough public-health edicts, such as the breach of plague quarantine in 18th-century Marseille or protests against face masks during the 1918 influenza pandemic. The grim consequence is a fresh wave of deadly infections. Covid-19’s million deaths may pale in comparison to the estimated 50 million lives lost in 1918, but the cycle risks unfolding again. France, the U.K. and Spain face a triple threat: A jump in cases, a population exhausted by lockdown-induced recession, and rising resistance to tougher measures.
30th Sep 2020 - The Washington Post

Covid anxiety and intolerance rise together in Australia but the only way out is together

“It must be the Indians,” I hear and every fibre of me bristles with indignation. “It’s not,” I retort to no one in particular. I am watching a live feed from a Covid hotspot. “Most of us are doing the right thing,” the reporter’s subject says, standing outside a modest house in a modest suburb. Behind his mask, his eyes beseech, “Please believe me.” But the choice of subject is problematic, a young Aghan Australian boy thrust into the limelight to offer both plea and reassurance to a spooked public. I see kids like him in my clinic: when your parents don’t speak English, you skip school to help them. He may be young but he’s well-versed in the dangers of victimisation. He has no choice but to defend his whole community. Just then, an acquaintance calls me. “If it wasn’t for those Africans, we’d be fine,” she grumbles. This time, I gently challenge her assertion and she concedes that what she’s really annoyed about is her husband’s drinking.
30th Sep 2020 - The Guardian

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 30th Sep 2020

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Discontent simmers as Spanish authorities spar over Madrid lockdown

A clash between Madrid’s regional authorities and the Spanish government over how to contain the city’s surging coronavirus caseload is provoking growing discontent among residents in poorer areas who say they have been unfairly targeted. The region extended a partial lockdown on Friday to 45 districts with high infection rates, the majority of which are in low-income neighbourhoods, prompting accusations of class discrimination from residents and concern from the national government, which wants even wider restrictions. “The politicians can’t agree among themselves and the poor are always the worst affected,” said Daisy Mencia, a resident of the working-class Vallecas neighbourhood, which is entering its second week of confinement measures.
29th Sep 2020 - Reuters

WTO should play role in COVID-19 medicine access: candidate

A key contender to head the World Trade Organization told Reuters on Tuesday she thinks the body should play a role in helping poorer countries access COVID-19 drugs and vaccines, and this topic should be part of negotiations if she wins. Nigeria’s Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, seen by delegates as a top candidate to lead the WTO, currently chairs the GAVI vaccine alliance board and stressed her credentials among five remaining candidates “at the intersection between public health and trade”. “Trade can contribute to public health - seeing that connection, invoking those (WTO) rules, actively discussing COVID-19 issues and how WTO can help,” the former finance minister and World Bank managing-director said. “For me, that would be a priority.”
29th Sep 2020 - Reuters UK

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 29th Sep 2020

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Italy's government showed the world how to take responsibility in a pandemic

If there ever was an unlikely country to be designated a model of collective civility, that’s Italy. My native land is usually depicted as a beautiful place whose abundance of natural and cultural treasures is entrusted, alas, to its disorganised, corrupt, unruly inhabitants. And yet everybody these days seems to be lavishing praise on us: the New York Times, the Financial Times, the Wall Street Journal are all describing as exemplary the way in which we Italians have clawed ourselves out of the tragic pit we were in this spring, as coronavirus raged and convoys of military trucks had to be deployed to carry the coffins – they were so many.
28th Sep 2020 - The Guardian

Spanish lockdown protests flare again

Thousands in Madrid have marched in protest against local lockdowns targeting mainly low-income areas in an effort to stem one of Europe's biggest surges in coronavirus cases in recent weeks. For a second straight week, demonstrators took to city streets on Sunday, criticising the conservative regional government's measures as discriminatory segregation and demanding more money for the health sector and an improvement in how infections are tracked. Left-wing parties, trade unions, citizens' initiatives and student associations had called for protests in various districts and municipalities in the greater area of the Spanish capital and demanded the resignation of regional president, Isabel Diaz Ayuso.
28th Sep 2020 - Yahoo News Australia

Morrison Pleads for Lockdown End in Australia’s Virus Hot-Spot

The leader of Australia’s second-largest state has announced the end of a nightly curfew in Melbourne sooner than originally expected as the pace of new coronavirus infections in the city slows. That’s not enough for Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who is urgently seeking to reboot the stalled national economy and is pleading for Victoria state Premier Daniel Andrews to quickly remove more lockdown curbs implemented almost two months ago. “As it stands this lockdown is already longer than that faced by residents in many cities around the world,” Morrison said in a statement late Sunday. “We remain deeply concerned about the mental health impacts of a prolonged lock down on Melbourne residents.”
27th Sep 2020 - Bloomberg

Lockdowners v libertarians: Britain’s coronavirus divide

Britain has reached a Covid crossroads – and its leaders are being pressed to pick one of two stark options. Are they going to return to the lockdown days that brought life to a standstill six months ago, but succeeded in halting the rapid spread of the disease? Or are they going to turn their backs on “an authoritarian nightmare” that is preventing the nation from getting on with “the business of living”? This is the basic division that has emerged over the summer in an increasingly heated debate between two unlikely groupings of scientists, columnists, campaigners and politicians
27th Sep 2020 - The Guardian

Many anti-lockdown protesters believe the government is illegitimate. Their legal arguments don't stand up

Lockdown has been particularly hard in Victoria and some dissent against restrictions is to be expected. While it might be easy to dismiss the anti-lockdown protesters by calling them selfish or deluded, we should not lose sight of just how far beyond our normal expectations of civic responsibility the last six months have taken us. By and large, most Victorians have been exceptionally responsible and stoic. And while police enforcement has been problematic at times, regulatory requirements often unclear and emergency powers unlike anything we’ve seen in a century, the vast majority of Victorians, indeed all Australians, continue to trust the actions of governments are reasonable and constitutionally valid.
27th Sep 2020 - The Conversation AU

PM scrapped second UK lockdown 'over fears Rishi Sunak would quit'

Prime Minister Boris Johnson abandoned plans for a second national lockdown over fears Rishi Sunak might quit, a senior MP has said. Mr Sunak reportedly warned that a second national lockdown would be a disaster for the economy and make his job near impossible. Despite medical and scientific experts calling for tougher restrictions to prevent the spread of the virus, he argued that Britain must be kept open to protect millions of jobs and businesses, The Sun reported. A senior MP told the publication: ‘Rishi simply wouldn’t wear it. His stance was so firm. There were even fears he would find it difficult to carry on if he was ignored.’
27th Sep 2020 - Metro.co.uk

Britain will seek coronavirus ‘herd immunity’ covertly or by default - thanks to the failure of lockdown

The dynamics of epidemics, their lethal ebbs and flows, are unpredictable and complicated involving more than a fixed proportion of people getting the illness. Yet six months from “herd immunity” being pilloried worldwide as the equivalent of poisoning the wells, Britain may covertly or by default may be adopting just such a policy. The reason for this creeping volte-face is that while “herd immunity” may or may not be achievable, the alternative policy of lockdown looks more and more like a bad bargain, bringing economic devastation in return for a temporary retreat of the epidemic. It only really works in countries where the state and society are so organised, China or Germany being prime examples, so that they can largely return to normality while at the same time suppressing new outbreaks. It helps if they are islands like New Zealand and Taiwan, but this advantage wanes as soon as full travel links are re-established.
26th Sep 2020 - The Independent

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 28th Sep 2020

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Wuhan bounces back to lead fight against claims coronavirus is China's fault

China gives Wuhan a ‘hero city’ makeover: pool parties to the fore — and wet markets out of sight - restaurants and bars are thronged, people swim in the Yangtze river and jog along its banks. Life seems strikingly normal in Wuhan, ground zero of the coronavirus pandemic. Four months after the central Chinese city recorded its last infection, children have returned to school and the shopping centres are buzzing. “Wuhan, we can” proclaimed stickers pressed onto the arms of passers-by during a tightly orchestrated tour for foreign businessmen and media this month. The city once synonymous with China’s pandemic failings is the focus of a Communist Party propaganda blitz hailing “victory” over the virus. The turnaround is dramatic.
26th Sep 2020 - The Times

One in five will refuse Covid vaccine when it becomes available

A fifth of people in the UK say they are unlikely to get a coronavirus vaccine if one is approved, a study highlighting “concerning” levels of misinformation has found. Three-quarters (78%) of 17,500 adults surveyed by University College London (UCL) researchers said they would be “likely” to get vaccinated, with 49% saying they were “very likely” to do so. But 22% said this was unlikely, and one in 10 said this was “very unlikely”, with factors including worries about unforeseen effects, preferences for natural immunity, concerns about commercial profiteering, and mistrust of vaccine benefits.
26th Sep 2020 - Wales Online

Covid-19: Fewer than 0.1% fined for no masks on trains

Fewer than 0.1% of people stopped by police for not wearing masks on trains received a fine, figures have revealed. British Transport Police (BTP) said it stopped 14,726 people from 15 July to 15 August for failing to comply, resulting in 14 fixed penalty notices. The rules, introduced in June, state anyone travelling on public transport must wear a face covering. BTP said enforcement in the form of fixed penalty notices was only used as a "last resort". It said, from 30 July to 8 September, officers recorded 50,729 "interventions" with passengers not wearing face coverings, with 3,545 - 7% - of those told to leave the train.
26th Sep 2020 - BBC

Coronavirus: Even scientists can't agree on how society should fight COVID-19

Remember those early days in the COVID journey, where everyone talked about "following the science"? Looking back, it seems almost childishly naïve. Back then we were only just learning about concepts like "the R rate" or "T cell immunity," and Zoom quizzes were a novel way to spend an evening rather than something to shudder about. Now, six months after the first lockdown and facing rising infection levels again, we are cynical COVID-19 veterans. We now know that our scientists - like our politicians - are fallible. They disagree. We can't just blithely "follow the science" because there is no such thing as "the science" - just different interpretations of incomplete evidence.
26th Sep 2020 - Sky News

Tory split on coronavirus has seen off any joined-up strategy

It would help if the cabinet could agree. Yet for the past seven months it has remained deeply divided, squabbling over the scientific advice and what Covid-19 might mean for the nation’s health and jobs. Britons have become familiar with a bewildering, almost weekly stream of tactical policies, twisting this way and that, many of them in direct opposition to each other. There was no better example than Rishi’s dinners, the eat out to help out (EOTHO) subsidy that sent millions of people into pubs, restaurants and cafes during August. With only a few rules in place dictating how businesses should conduct themselves, it became a feeding frenzy. While many establishments invested in thermometer guns to test customers on entry, and rejected people calling themselves Minnie Mouse for the purpose of track and trace, many did not.
26th Sep 2020 - The Guardian

Coronavirus: police break up anti-lockdown protest in London

Police have broken up a protest in central London after thousands of people defied their advice and demonstrated against lockdowns, mass vaccinations, mandatory wearing of face masks and other coronavirus restrictions. The protest, organised by campaign groups including Save Our Rights UK, was called to mark six months since the passage of the Coronavirus Act, which gave the government wide-ranging powers to enact restrictions intended to curb the spread of the virus. Protesters began gathering from about midday, with the first speaker saying the demonstration was meant to be peaceful, and that it had been negotiated beforehand with the Metropolitan police, with a full health and safety impact assessment filed in advance.
26th Sep 2020 - The Guardian

Coronavirus: Italy president fires back at Boris Johnson over COVID remark

Italy's president has hit back at Boris Johnson after he suggested the UK had higher coronavirus infection rates because it was a more "freedom-loving country". In parliament this week, the prime minister was quizzed about why Germany and Italy appeared to have lower COVID-19 rates than Britain.
26th Sep 2020 - Sky News

Spain’s Covid response is plunged into chaos

Spain’s response to the worst resurgence of coronavirus in Europe was plunged into chaos on Friday as Madrid regional authorities defied a national government call to put the whole capital city under new restrictions. The dispute highlights the governance crisis that has accompanied the pandemic in Spain and the lack of political consensus over how to handle it. It signals a more difficult phase of managing coronavirus around the world as winter looms and infections accelerate, with efforts to build up locally differentiated responses and people more reluctant to comply with harsh restrictions on public life and business activity.
26th Sep 2020 - Financial Times

Boris Johnson's 10pm pubs curfew was based on 'back of a fag packet calculations'

Insiders said new restrictions departed from advice given by PM's top scientists Sage 'increasingly frustrated' they are being both overruled and scapegoated Measures announced Tuesday force pubs and restrautants to close at 10pm
26th Sep 2020 - Daily Mail

Trump Administration Took $300 Million From CDC For Covid-19 Coronavirus Ad Campaign, Report Says

Gee what should you do with $300 million during the ongoing Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic that has already killed over 200,000 Americans? Support medical and public health research into better understanding the virus, its spread, and its control? Improve testing and surveillance? Deliver more masks and personal protective equipment to health care personnel and others? How about start an advertisement campaign to "defeat despair" that features video interviews with Trump administration officials and celebrities? After all, why deal with a problem when instead you can make people believe that it is not a problem?
26th Sep 2020 - Forbes

Coronavirus: Whitty and Vallance faced 'herd immunity' backlash, emails show

As the UK introduces fresh restrictions on social contact to curb the spread of coronavirus, controversy continues to rage about whether the government had initially considered trying a very different approach. At the start of the pandemic, the government's chief scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance, spoke about "herd immunity" - the idea that once enough of a population had been exposed to the virus, they would build up natural immunity to it. Sir Patrick and the government have both insisted this was never official policy. The government also denies there was any delay in locking down the country, as some critics have suggested. Emails obtained by the BBC reveal the alarm among the government's top scientific advisers at the reaction to Sir Patrick's words. In one email from March, Sir Patrick asks for help to "calm down" academics who have expressed anger at his repeated references to herd immunity and the delays in announcing a lockdown.
25th Sep 2020 - BBC

Rising Virus Cases in Europe Spark Political Clash in Spain

The pressure mounting on European leaders to contain the resurgent coronavirus pandemic boiled over in Spain as the region reemerges as a global hot spot. Tensions erupted into a public spat, with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s government urging local Madrid officials to lock down the entire city. The proposal was promptly rebuffed by the capital region’s administration, which is controlled by the biggest opposition party to Sanchez’s coalition. Europe’s biggest economies are experiencing a disquieting spike in infections, adding to risks weighing on a slowing recovery. Officials in Italy and France are facing new questions about intensive-care capacity, and U.K. daily cases remained at the highest level yet. Italy reported more than 1,900 new infections, the most since May 1.
24th Sep 2020 - Bloomberg

The bogus Steve Bannon-backed study claiming China created the coronavirus, explained

A controversial new study getting attention in US conservative media claims the coronavirus was created in a Chinese lab — but the group behind the report is intimately linked to a prominent Trump ally and known China hawk: Steve Bannon. And all I spoke to said the study is deeply flawed. The article popped up on September 14 on Zenodo, a website for scientists and academics to upload their work before it has gone through any formal peer-review process. Right-wing media outlets like the New York Post quickly seized on the paper’s conclusion that the virus that causes Covid-19 was potentially man-made at a Chinese facility. The study’s lead author, the 36-year-old Yan Li-Meng, has already appeared on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show to say the Chinese government “intentionally” released the virus into the world. That’s an explosive allegation that if true would crack the unsolved mystery of the coronavirus’s origins. But despite the boldness of the paper’s claims, there’s considerable evidence that Chinese researchers didn’t bioengineer SARS-CoV-2 and that the government didn’t deploy it as a bioweapon.
18th Sep 2020 - Vox.com

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 25th Sep 2020

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Boris Johnson took advice from Sweden's no-lockdown scientist before rejecting tougher coronavirus restriction

Prime Minister Boris Johnson was advised by the architect of Sweden's no-lockdown policy, Andres Tegnell, before announcing his new coronavirus restrictions this weel. The new restrictions, which include a curfew on bars and restaurants, fell short of much tougher measures reportedly being pushed by his own scientific advisers. Current data suggests the Nordic country is not experiencing a second wave, unlike the UK
24th Sep 2020 - Business Insider India

Opposition leaders fume at ‘insane’ virus lockdown

The heads of several opposition parties lashed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government for what they described as the policy failures that led to the harsh new lockdown restrictions set to go into effect on Friday. The full cabinet voted early Thursday to dramatically tighten the lockdown amid fears that the infection rate was spiraling out of control. The new restrictions come a week after the current lockdown began and as new daily confirmed infections neared 7,000 on Wednesday for the second day in a row.
24th Sep 2020 - The Times of Israel

Coronavirus: Students protest against China university lockdowns citing lack of virus cases, lack of cons

For example, at Shanxi University in central China, students have been put on strict lockdown and security guards were sent to attend the school gates at all times to ensure no students left the campus without approval from school administrators, according to student Zhang Li.
24th Sep 2020 - The Times of India

Public not to blame for second wave of Covid-19, says Keir Starmer

The public are not to blame for a resurgence of coronavirus and have been let down by the government, Keir Starmer has said in a televised address following the prime minister’s broadcast on Tuesday night. The Labour leader’s remarks pointing the finger at government incompetence come in stark contrast to Boris Johnson’s address, where he appeared to suggest that “freedom-loving” Britons would be to blame if more draconian restrictions were applied. “The British people have done everything asked of them. But I’m afraid the government has not,” Starmer said.
23rd Sep 2020 - The Guardian

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 24th Sep 2020

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‘Bald face lie’: Pence aide turned Covid-whistleblower fires back after White House attack

A former Mike Pence staffer who played a key role in advising the government on its handling of the Covid-19 pandemic has accused Keith Kellogg of "bald faced" lies, after the retired Gen. claimed he gave the ex-aide her marching orders from the White House.
23rd Sep 2020 - The Independent

Keir Starmer accuses Boris Johnson of losing control of Covid crisis

Keir Starmer has accused Boris Johnson of “pretending there isn’t a problem” with the test-and-trace system, as he claimed the prime minister had lost control of the coronavirus crisis. In a clash focused entirely on the government’s response to Covid, the Labour leader posed a series of sometimes detailed queries on the testing system. Johnson generally ignored these, instead accusing Starmer of trying to “create political opportunity” out of the pandemic. One of the more confusing exchanges during prime minister’s questions came when Starmer quizzed Johnson on his insistence in the Commons on Tuesday that the performance of test and trace had no bearing on the coronavirus rate, contrasting this with Johnson’s previous insistence that the system would be “a real game-changer”.
23rd Sep 2020 - The Guardian

Trump says U.S. will remain open as UK imposes coronavirus restrictions: 'We're not going to be doing that'

President Donald Trump on Tuesday said that the United States would not impose a lockdown to curb the spread of the coronavirus following additional new measures imposed on businesses in the U.K. “The U.K. just shut down again. They just announced that they’re going to do a shutdown, and we’re not going to be doing that,” Trump told Fox 2 Detroit during an interview at the White House. The federal government has largely left the decision to impose restrictions on businesses and gatherings to states, though the president has called on states to lift restrictions on residents and reopen the nation’s economy.
23rd Sep 2020 - CNBC

France's defense chief misled nation on troops' virus safety

France’s defense minister has admitted to misleading the nation about virus protections for air force personnel who evacuated French citizens from the hard-hit Chinese city of Wuhan in January
23rd Sep 2020 - ABC News

Australia could go herd immunity with 'Churchillian' bio-burn strategy

Australia should conduct controlled "bio-burn" and let coronavirus spread across Australia, state-by-state, with the goal of achieving herd immunity, an international security expert has suggested. Allan Orr, an Australian counter-terrorism specialist, said Australia's response to the coronavirus pandemic was not just wrong, but it had shown Canberra was woefully underprepared for a bio-terror attack. A cataclysmic bio-terror attack, using an agent like anthrax or botulism, is the doomsday scenario most feared by counter-terror agencies, Dr Orr told nine.com.au.
23rd Sep 2020 - 9News

Victoria's supreme court to hear cafe owner's legal challenge to Covid lockdown measures

A legal challenge brought by a Victorian cafe owner who is arguing the state’s tough lockdown measures put her small business at risk and breached her human rights will be heard in a judge-only trial before the supreme court over two days from Monday. The suit was filed by Michelle Loielo, who owns a cafe on the Mornington Peninsula in Melbourne’s south-east. Her affidavit said that the state’s restrictions, including a curfew, had seen her lose the majority of business, with revenue dropping from up to $20,000 per week to $400 under stage four lockdown measures. Loielo, who is seeking preselection for the Liberal party, is specifically challenging the curfew, which was introduced in August and limited people in metropolitan Melbourne – which includes the Mornington Peninsula – from leaving their home between 8pm and 5am. On 14 September this changed from 9pm to 5am, and will remain in place until 28 October.
23rd Sep 2020 - The Guardian

Pandemic exacerbates barriers to voting for homeless Americans

Now, instead of churchgoers and immigrants, the building acts as a haven for dozens of homeless men. Where pews once sat are long folding tables where the centre’s clients play crossword puzzles, read or simply relax. Other men sit in chairs spaced several feet apart and watch the news. Some wait in line to add their names to a list for a hot shower. Volunteers take down information about where each man stayed the night before. Offices and meeting spaces line the big room. And off to one side are four signs that serve as a gentle reminder of November’s general election and provide information on how to register to vote.
23rd Sep 2020 - AlJazeera

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 23rd Sep 2020

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Fewer than 40% of Americans plan to get a coronavirus vaccine as soon as one is available

In a new poll, 39% of US adults said they are not likely to get the coronavirus vaccine when it becomes available, down from 53% surveyed last month. About 43% of Democrats and 41% of Republicans said they were likely to get the jab during the rollout, a drop from 56% and 49%, respectively. Just 9% of surveyors said they were 'very likely' to be immunized with the first available vaccine, a decrease from 17% in August. Thirty percent of respondents said they would wait a few months before being given the shot while nearly one-quarter said they will not get the shot at all
23rd Sep 2020 - Daily Mail

Trump says COVID-19 'affects virtually no one' apart from 'elderly people with heart problems' after his rally crowd booed mask mandates as the US death toll nears 200,000

President Trump incorrectly claimed that COVID-19 'affects virtually nobody' who is a young American. He made the remarks during a 'Make America Great Again' campaign stop in Toledo, Ohio, on Monday night. He added that COVID-19 affects elderly people and those with preexisting conditions, but not a risk for young Americans. Hundreds of children across the country have tested positive and been infected with COVID-19 since the pandemic began. Washington D.C. reported 766 infected children between the ages of zero and 14. The U.S. death toll is approaching 200,000 and there are more than 6.8million known cases
22nd Sep 2020 - Daily Mail

Economic catastrophe will be down to failure of political leadership

Britain cannot afford another lockdown. Boris Johnson has said it would be “disastrous” for the country. Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow health secretary, warned that it “would cause unimaginable damage to our economy and people’s wellbeing”. They are right. But neither can Britain afford a spike in deaths like the last. Policymakers are walking a “fine line”, Chris Whitty, England’s chief medical officer, said at yesterday’s government briefing. He, too, is right. This is exactly the conundrum the country faced in March. But it would be a mistake to assume the options are the same, of lockdown or herd immunity. Yet, once again, the epidemiologists are pitted against the economists. Save lives or save jobs. There is only one winner if the argument is framed like this
22nd Sep 2020 - The Times

Property leaders' plea: Open the borders, end the lockdown

Leaders in the property, retail and hospitality sectors have called for border closures to be abandoned across the country and for Victoria's strict lockdown to be eased more quickly, warning the economic harm of a prolonged recession far outweighs any medical benefit from the controls. With Victoria recording just 11 new coronavirus cases on Monday, property executives are urging the southern state to accelerate plans to reopen the economy. As well, Queensland's border closure is ringing alarm bells over the future of that state's tourism sector as summer approaches.
22nd Sep 2020 - Australian Financial Review

Jacinda Ardern 'was in draconian lockdown mode' amid record GDP fall

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern was in the “draconian lockdown mode” and now the country’s economy has contracted by a record 12.2 per cent in three months says Sky News host Alan Jones. “Jacinda Ardern thought she could totally eliminate the virus,” Mr Jones said. “The lockdowns were amongst the toughest in the world”. "It is not only opposition accusations in New Zealand which are saying that these things have pushed the economy 'off the cliff'," he said.
21st Sep 2020 - Sky News Australia

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 22nd Sep 2020

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France’s vaccine hesitancy hangs over coronavirus response

As governments are putting their hopes on a vaccine to stop the coronavirus — and restart the economy — one country might face more difficulties than others. France has one of the lowest vaccine confidence rates in the world, according to a Lancet study published earlier this month. French people who are hesitant about vaccines shouldn’t be dismissed as kooky conspiracy theorists who rant about Bill Gates and 5G all day, experts say — at least not all of them. But vaccine skeptics represent a sizable chunk of the French public, big enough to hinder a vaccination campaign when a vaccine against the coronavirus will be on the market.
22nd Sep 2020 - POLITICO

Coronavirus: Demonstrations in Madrid ahead of Monday's tough new lockdown measures

Protesters have taken to the streets of Madrid to demonstrate against strict new lockdown measures which have come into force. Thousands of men, women and children rallied in the southern districts of the Spanish capital.
21st Sep 2020 - Sky News

Government 'could face backbench resistance' if trying to push through second lockdown

The government could face resistance from its own backbenchers if it tries to force through a second lockdown, a senior Tory has warned. Conservative MP Sir Graham Brady indicated ministers could have a revolt on their hands if they try to introduce new lockdown measures without proper scrutiny in Parliament. Boris Johnson spent the weekend considering whether to introduce a second coronavirus lockdown in England. He is reportedly considering a two-week mini lockdown, according to the BBC.
21st Sep 2020 - YAHOO!

China’s Attempt to Steer Covid Narrative in TV Drama Backfires

Backlash against a new Chinese television drama about its fight against Covid-19 underscores the challenges facing Beijing as it attempts to steer the narrative about its handling of the pandemic. Eight episodes of the propaganda series “Heroes in Harm’s Way” have aired since Thursday on state broadcaster China Central Television, and were criticized on Chinese social media. That included calls for the 14-episode series to be pulled from the air, with people saying it minimized women’s contributions to containing the virus and failed to reflect the hardship endured by medical workers.
21st Sep 2020 - Bloomberg

Coronavirus Australia: John Farnham slams anti-lockdown protesters

John Farnham’s long-time manager has lashed the “offensive” use of one of the music legend’s best-known anthems during an anti-lockdown flash mob demonstration on Sunday afternoon. Protests against Victoria’s ongoing coronavirus restrictions were held for the third consecutive weekend on Saturday and Sunday, with organisers vowing “the big one” would be held at a secret location on Sunday at 1pm. The location – which ended up being Chadstone shopping centre in Melbourne’s southeast – was only revealed half an hour beforehand in a bid to dodge police following a string of arrests at Saturday’s rally at Elsternwick Park.
21st Sep 2020 - NEWS.com.au

Protesters say localised lockdowns in Madrid discriminate against poor

Protesters in some poorer areas of Madrid that are facing lockdown to stem a soaring COVID-19 infection rate took to the streets on Sunday to call for better health provisions, complaining of discrimination by the authorities. Madrid’s regional government on Friday ordered a lockdown from Monday in some of the poorer areas of the city and its outskirts that are home to about 850,000 people after a surge in coronavirus cases there. The lockdown measures predominantly apply to areas of lower income and with higher immigrant populations. Peaceful protests were held in 12 of the 37 districts affected on Sunday. About 600 people demonstrated in the southern district of Vallecas, which has one of the highest infection rates in the Spanish capital - about six times higher than that of Chamberi, a wealthy area in the north of the city, according to regional government figures.
21st Sep 2020 - Reuters UK

Police clash with protesters at anti-lockdown demonstration in London

More than a thousand people gathered in central London on Saturday to protest against lockdown measures aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus, before the event was broken up by police. The protest, which led to 32 arrests, came as Prime Minister Boris Johnson is considering whether to reimpose some lockdown restrictions across England. Demonstrators carried banners saying “Covid is a hoax” and “My body, my choice: No to mandatory masks”, as well as chanting at police: “Choose your side”.
21st Sep 2020 - Reuters

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 21st Sep 2020

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Sixty-nine percent of Americans have no confidence in Trump on coronavirus vaccine, poll reveals

Despite president Donald Trump’s claims that a coronavirus vaccine will soon be available, new polling shows that a majority of Americans have no confidence in him to confirm that it is safe. An ABC News/Ipsos poll released on Sunday shows that 69 per cent of Americans do not have confidence in the president vouching for the effectiveness of a vaccine — 53 per cent saying they have no confidence at all in him doing so. Conversely, just nine per cent of Americans have a great deal of confidence in the president to confirm the effectiveness of a vaccine, and just 18 per cent have “a good amount” of confidence.
20th Sep 2020 - The Independent

Anti-vaccine protest leader is 'mum-of-four who says coronavirus doesn't exist'

The leader of an anti-vaccine protest in London is a suspended nurse who has previously compared lockdown restrictions to the Holocaust, according to reports. Mum-of-four Kate Shemirani calls the global Covid-19 pandemic a 'scamdemic' and says the disease which has killed thousands in the country 'doesn't exist,' it is claimed.
20th Sep 2020 - Mirror Online

Coronavirus: 'COVID-19 only takes white people': Researchers battle disease myths in South Africa

In South Africa, three of the most promising vaccines are being tested in cities throughout the country, with 2,000 participants trialling an inoculation developed by Oxford University's Jenner Institute. The study was recently paused after one person in the UK fell ill, but the trial has resumed with participants at Johannesburg's giant Baragwanath Hospital receiving the second part of this two-dose vaccine this week. "Do you think this vaccine could work?" I asked Bonginkosi Ntombela, who lives in the township of Soweto.
19th Sep 2020 - Sky News

Coronavirus vaccine: Emergency powers to allow rollout of unlicensed vaccine being considered by Government

The Government is considering using emergency powers to allow the rollout of a vaccine to the public, even if it is unlicensed. In an open consultation document, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has floated the possibility of authorising the supply of an unlicensed vaccine if there is "sufficient evidence to demonstrate the safety, quality and efficacy of the vaccine". The DHSC adds that "unlicensed" does not mean "untested", and that any unlicensed vaccine will have gone through several safety trials before being used by the general public. The document, first reported in the I newspaper, says that the "preferred route" of deployment of a Covid-19 vaccine is through the "usual marketing authorisation (product licensing) process".
19th Sep 2020 - Evening Standard

Engagement with anti-vaccine Facebook posts trebles in one month

Engagement with anti-vaccine posts on a sample of UK Facebook pages trebled between July and August, analysis by the Guardian has found, triggering calls for a major new push to tackle conspiracy theories. Interactions on posts expressing scepticism or hostility towards vaccines on six UK Facebook pages increased from 12,000 in July to 42,000 in August, according to the analysis, conducted using the social media analytics tool CrowdTangle.
19th Sep 2020 - The Guardian

Coronavirus: 32 arrests after ‘hostile and violent’ outbreaks at anti-vaccine protest

Protesters and police have clashed during an anti-vaccination and anti-lockdown demonstration in central London. Hundreds of people gathered at Trafalgar Square for a “Resist And Act For Freedom” rally on Saturday afternoon, before sections got into scuffles with Metropolitan officers. The force has said it made 32 arrests during the demonstration, which was cleared by 6pm. Dozens of officers, including some mounted on horseback, tried to break up ranks of protesters who had formed human blockades to prevent them making arrests, with loud cheering and chanting as they pushed back the police. Police said they had to take “enforcement action to disperse” the crowds after officers were met with “hostility” and “violence” from some.
19th Sep 2020 - ITV News

Coronavirus vaccine skepticism — by the numbers

Scientists around the world are racing to produce an effective vaccine and governments are throwing billions at drug companies to be first in line for access. But despite the severe disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic, a significant minority of people say they don't want a jab even when one becomes available. That's the message from the polling of nearly 20,000 adults in 27 countries. It found that 74 percent would take a vaccine if it becomes available, but 59 percent do not expect that to be an option before the end of the year.
19th Sep 2020 - POLITICO

Coronavirus: Prime minister at centre of a lockdown pincer movement

Boris Johnson's interview this afternoon really ought to have carried more significance than it did given the undoubted gravity of the moment. Behind the scenes, government sources confirm that the PM is weighing up whether he has to introduce national restrictions for a short period of time in the next few weeks. The idea, they say, a "circuit break" would see schools and work continuing, but curbs on social lives. In a carefully worded statement, Downing Street say merely they now want to avoid any "extended lockdowns".
19th Sep 2020 - Sky News

Coronavirus Scotland: How Sweden avoided lockdown thanks to Anders Tegnell

When the rest of the world blinked as coronavirus took hold, ice-cool Swede Anders Tegnell refused to lock down his nation. As Sweden’s death count spiralled last spring at one of the highest global rates, this once faceless scientist was accused of creating a “pariah state”. Yet when I met Tegnell, 64, in the capital Stockholm he was being lauded as if he was the fifth member of Abba. T-shirts proclaiming — in the style of the Carlsberg adverts — “Tegnell, probably the best state epidemiologist in the world” are best-sellers. For it appears his decision not to lock down may have paid off.
19th Sep 2020 - The Scottish Sun

Coronavirus: Van Morrison lockdown protest songs 'dangerous'

Northern Ireland's health minister has described three new songs by Sir Van Morrison that protest against coronavirus lockdowns as "dangerous". In the lyrics, Sir Van claims scientists are "making up crooked facts" to justify measures that "enslave" the population. "The new normal, is not normal," he sings. "We were born to be free". Health Minister Robin Swann said if Sir Van had scientific facts he should present them.
19th Sep 2020 - BBC

Boris Johnson unveils £10,000 fines for those breaking self-isolation rules in strict new restrictions as coronavirus infections soar and battle rages among Ministers over a ...

People suffering with coronavirus could be fined £10,000 if they fail to self-isolate when told to do so. The Prime Minister announced he was creating a new legal duty for people to self-isolate if they test positive. Plans will offer £500 to up to four million people on low incomes who cannot work from home if self-isolating The news comes as the number of daily cases reached 4,422, the highest level since early May. But large crowds were still seen around markets and bars on Saturday, signalling little care for the rules
19th Sep 2020 - Daily Mail

Matt Hancock Has Refused To Rule Out A Second National Lockdown As A “Last Line Of Defence” In The Battle Against Coronavirus

Matt Hancock has refused to rule out putting the whole of the UK back into lockdown amid a spike in coronavirus cases, saying it “isn't something that we ever take off the table”. The health secretary called the draconian measure the “last line of defence” in the battle against Covid-19, adding the government is prepared to “do what is necessary to keep people safe”. Earlier this week Boris Johnson said a second full-scale lockdown would have "disastrous" financial consequences for the UK.
19th Sep 2020 - PoliticsHome

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 18th Sep 2020

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Bill Barr likens lockdown to slavery

United States attorney general William Barr compared coronavirus lockdown measures to slavery, as he called on prosecutors to aggressively target demonstrators. Speaking at a Constitution Day celebration event in Michigan on Wednesday, Mr Barr sought to compare strict coronavirus lockdown measures with arrest and slavery, as he dubbed those restrictions an “intrusion” on Americans civil liberties. “Putting a national lockdown, stay at home orders, is like house arrest,” said Mr Barr about orders put in place across a swathe of states to slow the coronavirus spread since March. “Other than slavery, which was a different kind of restraint, this is the greatest intrusion on civil liberties in American history,” he added, amid debates over a nationwide lockdown.
17th Sep 2020 - The Independent

The risk of a second lockdown exposes the UK government's failures on Covid-19

Almost two million people across Newcastle, Northumberland, North Tyneside, South Tyneside, Gateshead, County Durham and Sunderland will face bans on mixing with other households and a 10pm curfew from midnight tonight, in an attempt to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. Is this a sign that the United Kingdom is heading for a second lockdown? Not according to health minister Ed Argar, who denied that a two-week nationwide lockdown is on the cards. Downing Street also remains keen to avoid a second shutdown.
17th Sep 2020 - New Statesman

Ex-Pence adviser says Trump bungled virus; she’s for Biden

A former adviser to Vice President Mike Pence who served on the White House coronavirus task force says President Donald Trump once suggested that COVID-19 might be a good thing because it would stop him from having to shake hands with “disgusting people.” Olivia Troye is the latest former member of the Trump administration to speak out against him and urge voters to deny him a second term. She joins a growing list that includes Miles Taylor, former chief of staff at the Department of Homeland Security, and former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci. Trump said Thursday that he did not know Troye, who was Pence’s homeland security adviser.
17th Sep 2020 - The Washington Post

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 17th Sep 2020

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Biden questions whether a vaccine approved by Trump would be safe

Joe Biden on Wednesday expressed reservations about whether a coronavirus vaccine approved by the Trump administration would be safe, raising doubts about the president’s ability to put the health of Americans before politics. Biden said Americans should trust a coronavirus vaccine developed under the Trump administration only if the president gives “honest answers” to questions about its safety, effectiveness and equitable distribution. “I trust vaccines. I trust scientists. But I don’t trust Donald Trump,” Biden said. “And at this point, the American people can’t, either.” Biden also raised the possibility of President Trump pressuring agency officials to sign off on a vaccine that scientists are not yet confident in, to gain an electoral advantage.
17th Sep 2020 - The Washington Post

Lockdown sceptics are distorting the science

We are living through the worst infectious disease pandemic since 1918. While the human and economic costs have been very high, the global response to this threat has been remarkable. Nearly a million deaths have been reported, but mortality would have been far higher had the world not adopted measures that would have seemed inconceivable just a year ago. Throughout, policy has been guided by the work of thousands of clinicians and scientists across the world. The data collected by researchers in China gave the rest of the world invaluable insight into the threat we faced. While the early response in China was imperfect, as hospitals in Wuhan were overwhelmed, China locked down. I was sceptical that lockdown would succeed. But China controlled their epidemic
16th Sep 2020 - The Times

Hundreds seek damages as Victoria faces multiple class-action lawsuits over Melbourne’s Covid lockdown

The Andrews government is facing three class-action lawsuits over the lockdowns imposed during Melbourne’s second wave of coronavirus, with potentially thousands of plaintiffs seeking damages. Victoria reported 42 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday and eight people died of Covid in the preceding 24 hours. This week a Melbourne legal firm, Carbone Lawyers, filed a claim on behalf of workers who had lost income or suffered psychological damage due to strict social distancing laws. The managing partner, Tony Carbone, told Guardian Australia more than 100 plaintiffs had signed on prior to Wednesday.
16th Sep 2020 - The Guardian

Covid-19 level 4 lockdown case heads to Court of Appeal

Lawyer Andrew Borrowdale had argued in the High Court that the Director-General of Health went beyond his powers when he put the country into lockdown in March. Last month, the High Court ruled that in the nine days from 26 March, the requirement for people to stay at home was justified but unlawful. Dr Borrowdale now says he is appealing to the Court of Appeal. He said the High Court judgement raises vital issues about human rights and constitutional law, which should be assessed by a senior court.
16th Sep 2020 - RNZ

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 16th Sep 2020

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Israelis angered by nationwide coronavirus lockdown: "They are punishing us"

Israelis reacted with anger and dismay Monday at an imminent nationwide lockdown aimed at curbing one of the world's highest novel coronavirus infection rates. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday announced a new countrywide lockdown will be imposed amid a stubborn surge in coronavirus cases, with schools and parts of the economy expected to shut down in a bid to bring down infection rates. "It's unfair!" lamented Eti Avishai, a 64-year-old seamstress, hours after Netanyahu announced a three-week lockdown will start on Friday. "They didn't stop the big gatherings in synagogues, the weddings and the other events, and now I can't be with my children and grandchildren during the holidays?" she added.
15th Sep 2020 - CBS News

Victoria police officer appears to stomp on man's head during arrest

An Australian policeman has been suspended over the arrest of a man who was allegedly hit by a police car and then kicked in the head by an officer. The man, 32, was put in an induced coma and admitted to intensive care after the arrest in Melbourne on Sunday. His family has called for an independent investigation, after footage of the incident went viral. Victoria Police said an internal unit was investigating. Melbourne has been under a strict coronavirus lockdown for the past two months. Police have been given unprecedented powers, under public health orders, to fine and detain people, but it does not appear that Sunday's arrest was related to a lockdown breach.
15th Sep 2020 - BBC

Trump celebrates federal judge's decision to strike down Pennsylavnia Democrat governor's coronavirus lockdown measures as 'unconstitutional'

Federal judge rules Governor Tom Wolf's lockdown measures 'unconstitutional' US District Judge William Stickman IV said COVID-19 restrictions were arbitrary Stickman, a conservative jurist, was appointed to the bench by President Trump Trump was in a celebrational mood on Twitter, retweeting twelve different news stories about the decision At start of pandemic, Wolf imposed one of the strictest lockdowns in the country In May, businesses were allowed to reopen and stay-at-home order was lifted But there are still limitations on capacity in restaurants and alcohol sales in bars
15th Sep 2020 - Daily Mail

UK's creaking COVID-19 test system puts health services at risk

Britain's testing system for COVID-19 was creaking on Tuesday as a bottleneck prevented people including medics from getting a test, with the government saying it may take weeks to resolve the problem. In an attempt to slow one of the highest coronavirus death tolls in the West, Prime Minister Boris Johnson promised in May to create a "world beating" system to test and trace people exposed to the virus.
15th Sep 2020 - MSN UK

Fear of more corona-like pandemics as land rights 'under siege'

Governments' failure to recognise the land rights of indigenous communities and their role in protecting biodiversity could lead to more coronavirus-like pandemics, researchers said on Tuesday. A study of more than 40 countries found many local people's land claims were being ignored, amid increasing deforestation and wildlife exploitation, which may be contributing to a rise in diseases, like COVID-19, that pass from animals to humans. "Despite compelling evidence that indigenous peoples, local communities, and Afro-descendants protect most of the world's remaining biodiversity, they are under siege from all sides," said Andy White of the Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI).
15th Sep 2020 - Thomson Reuters Foundation News

Teachers, medics rally in Spain over poor COVID planning, infections stable

Teachers in the Spanish city of Bilbao staged a one-day strike on Tuesday to protest against their regional government’s response to the COVID-19 crisis, while health workers in Madrid took to the streets to demand better working conditions. Protesters are demanding more staff and support from authorities as the recent surge in cases, at a time when pupils are returning to schools, prompted concerns about further infections.
15th Sep 2020 - Reuters UK

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 15th Sep 2020

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Dozens defy new 'rule of six' at anti-lockdown protest in Nottingham, UK

Dozens defied the government's new 'rule of six' guidelines and attended a "COVID truth tour" protest in Nottingham on September 14.
14th Sep 2020 - YAHOO!

Anti-lockdown protests have brought together a coalition of freedom advocates from across Melbourne

Up to 250 people went to the rally against lockdown held at Melbourne's Queen Victoria Market on Sunday. Mounted police and heavily armed riot police quickly converged on the area and made dozens of arrests. Police arrested 74 people and handed out 176 fines during the lockdown rally after arresting 14 a day earlier Ugly scenes erupted as police swiftly worked to arrest the protesters, which included mostly young people. Police had earlier goaded protesters during an inflammatory press conference held by top cop Luke Cornelius. Assistant commissioner took another swipe at protesters, declaring he was fed up with their 'selfish antics'
14th Sep 2020 - Daily Mail

'Only Wuhan' surpasses Melbourne for 'severe and disgraceful' lockdowns

Sky News host Rowan Dean says only Wuhan has had “more severe and disgraceful lockdowns” than Melbourne. “It is shocking what is going on in Victoria,” Mr Dean said. “There is no justification on earth for the curfew. He made the bloody thing up. “May people forget about him and wipe his name from history. What he’s doing to Victoria is a disgrace, a worldwide disgrace.”
14th Sep 2020 - Sky News Australia

Australia lockdown tearing nation apart; ignites talk of secession

A torrid row over Australia's state border closures has pushed the country's prime minister to tears, sparked bitter recriminations among rival regional leaders and even talk of secession. Travel between the nation's independent-minded states and territories has been mostly banned since Covid-19 hit Australia in March. But an unhappy federal government is ratcheting pressure on premiers to open up, sending the argument into overdrive. Campaigning media coverage has highlighted the plight of grieving families separated by the closures and targeted state officials they deem responsible.
14th Sep 2020 - New Straits Times

Police arrest 74 people at Melbourne coronavirus anti-lockdown protest

Police arrested 74 people on Sunday as anti-lockdown protesters massed in Melbourne for a second day, with some throwing fruit at police after raiding market stalls. About 250 protesters chanting “Freedom” and “Power to the people” were encircled by officers at Queen Victoria Market. Footage of violent scuffles was posted online with officers on horseback riding through groups of protesters inside the market, and heavily armoured riot squads lined up beside rows of fresh fruit and vegetables.
14th Sep 2020 - The Guardian

Suspended nurse at the centre of anti-lockdown protests called NHS 'the new Auschwitz'

A leading anti-Covid-19 lockdown campaigner, with a fascination for a dangerous conspiracy theory that places prominent Jews at the centre of a corrupt cabal, has branded the National Health Service “the new Auschwitz.” Kate Shemirani – one of the leading figures in a movement that has united QAnon obsessives with far-left and far-right activists – also repeatedly shared images of Adolf Hitler, the swastika symbol, and made references to the gas chambers in a flurry of online posts. The nurse, currently suspended from practising pending an investigation into her spreading of untruths about the virus, vaccines and the 5G telephone network, deemed that current measures by the government to tackle the pandemic were comparable to the Nazi Holocaust.
14th Sep 2020 - The Jewish Chronicle

Winston Peters says provinces should not be in lockdown

There was no reason for the whole of New Zealand to be in lockdown, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters said when visiting Dannevirke on Sunday. Peters was accompanied by New Zealand First member of Parliament Ron Mark. "I know we are living in different times, but I have made my position very clear. I see no reason for this country to be in lockdown. In this part of the world the last case of Covid-19 was in April. This country needs an injection of common sense." Peters said the virus could be contained in Auckland but what should have been done was to bring in the military at New Zealand's borders right at the start.
14th Sep 2020 - New Zealand Herald

Scores arrested at protests in Australia's coronavirus hotspot

Police in Australia’s Victoria state arrested 74 people and fined 176 for breaching public health orders as scattered protests against a weeks-long coronavirus lockdown continued for a second straight day across Melbourne. A riot squad marched through fruit and vegetable stalls at the city’s landmark, the Queen Victoria market, before the scuffling with protesters erupted, with some people throwing fruit at the police, television footage showed. Victoria Police said in a statement that there were between 200 and 250 people involved in the protests, but there were no immediately known injuries to the police.
14th Sep 2020 - Reuters Australia

Police right to not stop anti-lockdown protesters - science denial expert

Calls for more punitive action against anti-lockdown protesters, are being dismissed as unnecessary by organisers and some scientists alike. One of the organisers of the lockdown protest in Auckland yesterday, Advance New Zealand co-leader Jami-Lee Ross, said he had no concerns about thousands of people flouting the Covid-19 restrictions. Protesters failed to observe social distancing and very few were wearing masks, sparking fears they could have spread the virus further. Ross said protesters were reminded of the rules.
13th Sep 2020 - RNZ

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 14th Sep 2020

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Anti-Netanyahu protesters warn of 'anti-democratic' coronavirus lockdown ahead of vote

Thousands of protesters took to the streets in Jerusalem and across Israel on Saturday, for the 12th week in a row, calling on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to resign amid corruption charges and an impending coronavirus lockdown. Protesters, fewer than in previous weeks, gathered near the prime minister's residence in Jerusalem, slamming the government for mismanagement of the COVID-19 crisis and Netanyahu for preoccupation with his ongoing trial in three criminal cases. Police clashed with protesters, detaining at least four on suspicion of assaulting officers.
13th Sep 2020 - Haaretz

Coughed on, spat at: UK shop workers fear asking customers to wear masks

Despite the public show of support and gratitude for key workers in recent months, the abuse of retail and transport workers has remained persistent and acute. Over 75% of shop workers surveyed by the shopworkers union Usdaw last month reported being abused by customers when asking them to socially distance; almost half had experienced abuse triggered by reminding shoppers to wear face masks. The preliminary findings of the union’s annual Freedom from Fear report, shared exclusively with the Observer, reveal the toll taken on the wellbeing of those working in essential services.
13th Sep 2020 - The Guardian

Coronavirus: More than 200 arrested during first yellow vest protest since France lockdown lifted

Police in Paris have arrested more than 200 people during the first yellow vest protest since the start of France's coronavirus outbreak. The last Gilets Jaunes demonstration had taken place on 14 March - three days before France went into lockdown. Officers in riot gear have already fired tear gas at demonstrators along the Avenue de Wagram in Paris's 17th arrondissement, while another march takes place outside the capital's stock exchange.
12th Sep 2020 - Sky News

Crowds rally in New Zealand's Auckland against coronavirus lockdown

Large crowds of people rallied in Auckland on Saturday against the government's social distancing restrictions imposed on the country's largest city after an outbreak of the novel coronavirus last month. Local television footage showed tightly packed crowds, with many people not wearing masks, with estimates of the attendance varying in reports between a thousand and a few thousand people. "We are all here today because we believe we need to stand up for our rights," the public Television New Zealand cited Jami-Lee Ross, the leader of the Advance New Zealand party, one of the organisers of the protest, as saying. "We're all here today because we believe it's time to stand up and say, 'We need to get our rights and freedoms back'."
12th Sep 2020 - Yahoo News UK

'It’s world-leadingly bad, is what it is': the week Covid surged again in UK

The warning lights had been flashing in Downing Street, too, triggering an abrupt reversal of policy that coincided with a Brexit crisis of the government’s own making, leaving ministers fighting Conservative rebellions on two fronts. All talk of the country tentatively heading towards some kind of normality began to evaporate last weekend as the reality of a Covid resurgence began to bite. With the UK recording nearly 3,000 Covid cases on Sunday, the highest daily total since May, the health secretary, Matt Hancock, concluded that he had to act.
11th Sep 2020 - The Guardian

Coronavirus: Britons more divided over face masks and lockdown rules than Brexit, poll suggests

Coronavirus is causing deeper social divides than Brexit, with more than half of mask wearers in the UK having strong negative attitudes to those who refuse to wear one, new research suggests. The poll of over 10,000 people, conducted by think tank Demos, found that people have contrasting opinions of the COVID-19 pandemic based on their experiences, social class and occupations. The findings show that the social divide on the key questions associated with the pandemic - such as mask wearing or lockdown rules - is now deeper than the divide over Brexit.
11th Sep 2020 - Sky News

French police use tear gas as yellow vests return to Paris

French authorities deployed a heavy police presence in Paris and used tear gas on Saturday as the "yellow vest" movement returned to the capital after being dampened by the coronavirus crisis. Several hundred demonstrators gathered at two squares in Paris for authorized marches. One cortege set off without incident but the other march was delayed after police used tear gas to disperse protesters who left the designated route and some of whom set fire to waste bins and a car. The authorities had banned protests in a central zone including the Champs-Elysees, the scene of rioting at the height of the yellow vest movement nearly two years ago when anger over fuel taxes and President Emmanuel Macron's style of rule brought hundreds of thousands onto the streets across France.
11th Sep 2020 - CGTN

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 11th Sep 2020

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Coronavirus: 'Waste and corruption on a cosmic scale': Plans for 10 million COVID-19 tests attacked

Leaked documents reportedly show the government plans to carry out up to 10 million coronavirus tests a day by early next year, but critics say the proposals represent "waste/corruption on a cosmic scale". The mass testing programme would cost £100bn - almost as much as the government spends on the NHS each year (£130bn) - according to a briefing memo seen by medical journal The BMJ. A separate document revealed there were plans to grow the UK's testing capacity from the current 350,000 a day to up to 10 million a day by early 2021.
10th Sep 2020 - Sky News

Donald Trump 'admitted playing down threat of coronavirus’ to journalist Bob Woodward

Donald Trump understood the dangers of coronavirus before it hit the US but wanted to play down the threat, a new book claims. The US president reportedly told journalist Bob Woodward that he deliberately minimised the risks during an interview on March 19. "I wanted to always play it down. I still like playing it down because I don't want to create a panic," Mr Trump allegedly said.
10th Sep 2020 - Evening Standard

‘Completely wrong’ to say PM’s mass testing plan will save Christmas

England’s chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance poured cold water on Operation Moon Shot, warning it is “completely wrong” to say that ministers’ proposed mass coronavirus testing regime could allow for a return to semi-normality by Christmas - just minutes after Boris Johnson touted hopes that it could. Speaking at Downing Street, the prime minister tightened England’s coronavirus restrictions, making it illegal from Monday for people to gather in groups larger than six, with some exemptions. Meanwhile across the Atlantic Donald Trump came under fire after it was revealed he had downplayed the potential severity of the virus to ‘avoid panic’.
10th Sep 2020 - The Independent

'Deliberate, malicious': stop spreading Covid misinformation, says New Zealand minister

New Zealand’s health minister has pleaded with people to stop spreading misinformation about the coronavirus, as the government struggles to contain a mini-cluster centred on an evangelical church in Auckland. The mini-cluster started with four cases in the suburb of Mt Roskill last month, and has now grown to 45 cases. Health authorities say they have struggled to isolate and lock down the cluster as some people have refused to co-operate, saying they do not believe in the virus, and will not share their close contacts “Repeated, deliberate and malicious spread of misinformation” is also proliferating online, health minister Chris Hipkins said, prompting him to issue a stark warning that lives are at stake.
10th Sep 2020 - The Guardian

Former Stanford colleagues warn Dr. Scott Atlas fosters 'falsehoods and misrepresentations of science'

A group of 78 researchers and doctors from Stanford Medical School took aim this week at Dr. Scott Atlas, the expert President Donald Trump recently added to the White House pandemic response task force, for embracing and peddling what they described as "falsehoods and misrepresentations of science" in his public musings about the coronavirus. In a "Dear Colleagues" letter penned Wednesday, the Stanford experts wrote that they have a "moral and ethical responsibility" to push back on Atlas' controversial claims about mitigating the spread of the coronavirus, which they characterized as "opinions and statements [that] run counter to established science" and "undermine public health authorities and the credible science that guides effective public health policy."
10th Sep 2020 - ABC News

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 10th Sep 2020

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Covid-19: Government plans to spend £100bn on expanding testing to 10 million a day

The UK government has drawn up plans to carry out up to 10 million covid-19 tests a day by early next year as part of a huge £100bn (€110bn; $130bn) expansion of its national testing programme, documents seen by The BMJ show. The internal correspondence reveals that the government is prepared to almost match what it spends on the NHS in England each year (£130bn) to fund mass testing of the population “to support economic activity and a return to normal life” under its ambitious Operation Moonshot programme. A briefing memo sent to the first minister and cabinet secretaries in Scotland, seen by The BMJ, says that the UK-wide Moonshot programme is expected to “cost over £100bn to deliver.” If achieved, the programme would allow testing of the entire UK population each week. A separate PowerPoint presentation prepared for the government by the global management consulting firm Boston Consulting Group, also seen by The BMJ, says the plans had the potential to grow the UK’s testing capacity from the current 350 000 a day to up to 10 million tests a day by early 2021. Critics have already rounded on the plans as “devoid of any contribution from scientists, clinicians, and public health and testing and screening experts,” and “disregarding the enormous problems with the existing testing and tracing programmes.”
9th Sep 2020 - The BMJ

'Extraordinary revelations' over pandemic and Victoria's lockdowns surface

Mr Kenny said in what was an “amazing exchange” between Victoria’s Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton and Neil Mitchell on radio station 3AW, the Professor revealed the curfew in the state wasn’t based on his advice. “I was consulted on it, but it was a separate decision making pathway,” Professor Sutton said. "Remember the Premier, Daniel Andrews keeps saying he has no alternative, he is taking the only road that he possibly can, and that he's following the data and he's following the medical advice," Mr Kenny said. "Well he imposed a curfew on Melbourne, he locked Victorians in their homes every night for three months, and this move is not based on medical advice".
9th Sep 2020 - Sky News Australia

Trump knew coronavirus was 'deadly', downplayed it: Woodward book

US President Donald Trump knew the coronavirus was "deadly" and worse than the flu even as he intentionally misled the US public in February and March about the risks, according to a forthcoming book by American journalist Bob Woodward.
9th Sep 2020 - AlJazeera

Pope wears face mask, warns against political exploitation of coronavirus

The pope called people who turn their backs on the suffering coronavirus had caused "devotees of Pontius Pilate who simply wash their hands of it." Pope Francis, seen wearing a mask for the first time in public, said on Wednesday no one should seek political gain from the coronavirus and that vaccine developers should not see it as a chance to make a profit. At his second weekly general audience with public participation after six months of virtual audiences, the pope was seen wearing a white mask as he entered and left his car and using sanitizer occasionally squirted onto his hands by an aide.
9th Sep 2020 - The Jerusalem Post Blogs

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 9th Sep 2020

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There must be a 'No-Lockdown Party'

University of Queensland’s Professor James Allan says "I do think we need a No-Lockdown Party" as the Liberals "are just not a Liberal Party anymore". "They don't seem to have any concern with the individual, with freedom". Professor Allan, who is the Garrick Professor in Law at the university, said Prime Minister Scott Morrison is "running the only country in the world that doesn't let it's own citizens leave the country, not counting Cuba and North Korea".
8th Sep 2020 - Sky News Australia

Fauci says a coronavirus vaccine is 'unlikely' by U.S. election

The CDC has asked states to ready facilities to distribute a coronavirus vaccine by Nov. 1. Dr. Anthony Fauci said at a health conference that it’s more likely a vaccine will be ready by “the end of the year.” Drug companies Moderna and Pfizer are racing to complete patient enrollment for their late-stage vaccine trials by the end of September.
8th Sep 2020 - CNBC

Coronavirus: Matt Canavan, Greg Hunt rally against Victorian lockdown

Victoria’s road map out of coronavirus lockdowns has been dubbed “crazy” by former resources minister Matt Canavan. It comes as the Federal Government puts pressure on the Andrews Government to publicly release the modelling and assumptions that informed the plan. Senator Canavan told Sky News on Tuesday that Daniel Andrews needed to explain why he chose certain thresholds – including a daily case average of less than five over the previous 14 days before some restrictions are eased. “I’m always a bit sceptical about modelling, and it seems completely crazy to set these very low thresholds before people can get out and about in Victoria,” Senator Canavan said.
8th Sep 2020 - NEWS.com.au

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 8th Sep 2020

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Unplanned localised lockdowns did little to check spread of Covid, led to increased economic uncertainty

The use of haphazard localised lockdowns by states in July and August, which badly impacted economic activity, has had little effect on tempering the Covid case count in these locations. State-wise data for states which imposed localised lockdowns during July 10-August 3 shows that the rise in new cases on a 7-day moving average basis, before and after the lockdown, ranged between 37-578 per cent in the seven regions which imposed localised lockdown during that period. These localised lockdowns end up disrupting the supply chains and increase the level of uncertainty in the system, impacting the decisions by entrepreneurs to re-hire workers or scale up operations. West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana announced lockdowns, despite the Ministry of Home Affairs’ (MHA) directives to desist from imposition of these lockdowns and seek its clearance.
7th Sep 2020 - The Indian Express

Australian PM criticises Victorian premier over continued lockdown

Scott Morrison has issued his toughest criticism of the Victorian lockdown to date urging the state to re-open the economy faster by improving COVID-19 contact tracing just as NSW has done across the border. Warning he will adopt a “wait and see” approach to further cash assistance for the state, the Prime Minister has put the Victorian Premier on notice that he must step up to bear more of the financial burden for the decisions he is making to keep the economy in the deep freeze. “Lockdowns and borders are not signs of success in dealing with COVID-19. And so it’s important that we put ourselves in a position where they do not feature in how Australia is dealing with COVID-19 on a sustainable basis,” the Prime Minister said. “The most important thing is ensuring that we build an integrated tracing capability right across the country.
7th Sep 2020 - Newstalk ZB

Australia's conspiracy theorists are increasingly energised, but police crackdowns may be counterproductive

Saturday, 5 September was supposed to be the day Australian history was irreconcilably changed. It was to be “Freedom Day”, the day when “real” Aussies took back control of the streets, their airways and their collective destiny. Rather than changing it, the protests amounted to what might constitute a footnote in an awfully specific history of Australia. Disparate groups gathered in separate events around the country. Dozens of protesters were arrested, dozens more were fined with breaching Covid-19 restrictions, one protester jumped into Melbourne’s Albert Park Lake and all of it was livestreamed.
7th Sep 2020 - The Guardian

PM Morrison labels Vic lockdown extension as 'crushing'

A “road to nowhere” is how Victoria’s path out of lockdown is being described as it sparks fury from businesses. Prime Minister Scott Morrison labelled the restrictions as “crushing” and urged the state to strengthen its health response to the virus.
7th Sep 2020 - Sky News Australia

Covid 19 coronavirus Victoria: Daniel Andrews cops huge criticism over lockdown roadmap

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews is copping it from multiple directions this morning as the state comes to terms with his new roadmap out of lockdown. Andrews revealed the plan during a marathon media conference on Sunday. The current, strict lockdown in Melbourne – which was supposed to end in mid-September – will now be extended for another fortnight, albeit with some tweaks. The Premier was clearly expecting his announcement to generate criticism. He did his best to head it off.
7th Sep 2020 - New Zealand Herald

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 7th Sep 2020

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No, there will be no COVID-19 vaccine before Election Day — and it’ll take two years to vaccinate the US: doctor

According to Dr. Jonathan Reiner, George Washington University professor of Medicine, don’t hold your breath on Trump’s claims. “First of all, no vaccine will be distributed before Election Day,” he said frankly. “Even if we identify a vaccine, which looks both safe and effective, the distribution plan will be really complex. First of all, these vaccines require subzero storage. So, you need a supply chain that can do that. We’ll have to pick who gets the vaccine first. Health care workers, the elderly, nursing homes, people at risk. There is an elaborate plan that will go into this. So, it’s will take a while to get the vaccine into people, and vaccination will take probably two years to vaccinate the country.”
7th Sep 2020 - Raw Story

‘PM must explain why India failed’: Chidambaram targets govt on Covid-19, economy

“PM Modi who promised that we will defeat coronavirus in 21 days must explain why India failed when other countries seem to have succeeded,” Chidambaram said in a tweet.
5th Sep 2020 - Hindustan Times

Lockdown protesters defy police as Australia COVID-19 cases ease

Protesters against a COVID-19 lockdown defied police in Australia's hotspot on Saturday (Sep 5), prompting over a dozen arrests, even as the state of Victoria continued its gradual improvement in stemming new cases due to the nearly five weeks of restrictions. Ignoring official warnings and public health orders, several hundred people gathered at an illegal protest - promoted by several virus related conspiracy theory groups online - calling for an end to lockdown measures. "It is not safe, it is not smart, it is not lawful. In fact, it is absolutely selfish for people to be out there protesting," state Premier Daniel Andrews told a news conference.
5th Sep 2020 - Channel NewsAsia Singapore

Brazil leader rapped for stirring doubt on COVID-19 vaccine

U.S. will not 'cut corners' in developing coronavirus vaccine, Pence says

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence said on Friday that the Trump administration would not cut corners in making a vaccine for the coronavirus available, although it wants to move as fast as possible to deliver something that is safe and effective.
5th Sep 2020 - Reuters UK

French professor faces being struck off over his claims of coronavirus 'cure'

The controversial French professor who vigorously defended the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine to help beat coronavirus has been targeted by an ethics complaint that could see him face sanctions or barred from practising, a medical association said on Thursday. The Marseille-based Didier Raoult is accused in the complaint by medical peers of spreading false information about the benefits of hydroxychloroquine. US and Brazilian presidents Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro seized upon Raoult's promotion of hydroxychloroquine and have trumpeted its benefits since the pandemic erupted. But the method and conclusions of Raoult's studies were challenged from the start by critics and other scientists who said they had not been peer reviewed and were observational, not controlled.
5th Sep 2020 - The Local France

Brazil’s Bolsonaro under fire for not pushing mandatory coronavirus vaccine

Critics of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro are again speaking out against the leader’s stance on the coronavirus pandemic, this time rejecting his view that vaccination for the virus shouldn’t be mandatory. Bolsonaro’s first such comments came Monday, when he told a supporter, “No one can force anyone to get a vaccine.” He repeated it Thursday night during a live broadcast on Facebook, adding his opposition to administering vaccines that are yet to be proven on Brazilian soil.
4th Sep 2020 - Global News

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How Covid-19 myths are merging with the QAnon conspiracy theory

Online and in real-life demonstrations, two viral conspiracy theories are increasingly coming together. At first glance the only thing they appear to have in common is their vast distance from reality. On one hand, QAnon: a convoluted conspiracy theory that contends that President Trump is waging a secret war against Satan-worshipping elite paedophiles. On the other, a swirling mass of pseudoscience claiming that coronavirus does not exist, or is not fatal, or any number of other baseless claims. These two ideas are now increasingly coming together, in a grand conspiracy mash-up.
3rd Sep 2020 - BBC

Pregnant mum’s arrest like ‘Nazi Germany’: Liberal MP Craig Kelly lashes Victorian police

Liberal MP Craig Kelly has compared the Victorian Government with Nazi Germany after a pregnant woman was handcuffed and arrested over an anti-lockdown Facebook post in the family home. Zoe Lee Buhler, 28, was dramatically arrested and handcuffed in her pyjamas on Wednesday over the social media post that she has now described as “a bimbo moment” and deleted. The Ballarat woman live-streamed her own arrest in a viral video that has now been viewed by millions insisting she had no idea the Facebook posts were illegal. “I didn’t actually realise I was not allowed to do that though,” she said on Thursday. “I suppose I had a bit of a bimbo moment and didn’t realise it wasn’t okay.” Mr Kelly revealed he’s now helped to arrange free legal representation for the Ballarat mum, who was arrested in front of her child.
3rd Sep 2020 - NEWS.com.au

Three-quarters of Germans 'don't support coronavirus protests'

A large majority of Germans don’t support protests against coronavirus measures, according to a new survey carried out by opinion research institute Civey for Spiegel Online. But a new survey shows around two-thirds of Germans are completely against the Berlin protests, while an additional 11 percent say they simply don’t support them, according to the survey.
3rd Sep 2020 - The Local Germany

Germany is right to extend its furlough scheme. Why won't Britain do the same?

The Kurzarbeit programme, in which the government provides workers whose hours have been reduced with a minimum of 60% of their lost pay, has been credited by many with softening the economic blow of the pandemic. Shekhar Aiyar, the IMF’s mission chief for Germany, praised the programme lavishly in an interview, claiming that Germany, by expanding the scope of the scheme and making it more flexible, “is doing precisely what should be done in deep recessions”. Dominic Rushe attributes a substantial portion of the difference between the US unemployment crisis and Germany’s moderate bump in jobless numbers to Kurzarbeit, while the Economist claims that for many experts, “the model for a Covid-19 furlough scheme has been Germany’s”.
3rd Sep 2020 - The Guardian

In Spain, As Everywhere, The Question Is Whether Schools Can Reopen Safely. I Have Grave Doubts.

Over the next couple of weeks, as happens every year at this time, Spain will begin the return to academic activity. The problem is that this is a far-from normal year: let’s be honest, it’s been a deeply abnormal year; and nor is my country behaving like a normal nation. In short, it’s clear that Spain has managed the impact of Covid-19 badly. The term virus laggard, used recently by The Washington Post, is bang on target: Spain sits ninth in the world ranking of the number of infections, but only because those above it, with the exception of Peru, have much bigger populations. If we take a relative parameter, such as the number of deaths per million inhabitants, only Belgium and the aforementioned Peru surpass us, and it is very possible that the Belgian case is due to different accounting criteria.
3rd Sep 2020 - Forbes

Arrest of Australia anti-lockdown activist sparks outcry

Australian police on Thursday defended arresting a pregnant woman in her home for a Facebook post promoting a rally against virus lockdowns, as footage of the incident went viral and triggered a civil liberties debate. The livestreamed video shows officers handcuffing the woman in front of her two children and has racked up millions of views online. The woman Zoe Buhler, told local media Thursday that she had posted the protest plans without knowing it was illegal in the locked-down state of Victoria, which is battling a major outbreak of Covid-19.
3rd Sep 2020 - FRANCE 24

Pregnant mum arrested and charged for allegedly advocating against coronavirus lockdown in Australia

A pregnant woman was handcuffed by police in front of her children and led away in her pyjamas in Australia after allegedly inciting activists to demonstrate against the coronavirus lockdown. Zoe Buhler's partner helped her livestream the arrest on Wednesday at her home where she lives with two children, aged three and four, in the Victoria state city of Ballarat. The video has been viewed millions of times.
3rd Sep 2020 - Evening Standard

Covid: Australian anti-lockdown suspect's arrest draws controversy

The arrest of a woman in Australia for promoting an anti-lockdown protest online has drawn criticism, after video of the incident went viral. Footage shows officers handcuffing pregnant woman Zoe-Lee Buhler, 28, in her home in Victoria on Wednesday in front of her partner and children. She starts crying during the arrest, telling police: "I didn't realise I was doing anything wrong." Authorities have defended the officers, saying they acted appropriately. Victoria has been in lockdown since July to curb a coronavirus outbreak that has fuelled Australia's second wave
3rd Sep 2020 - BBC

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 3rd Sep 2020

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Piers Corbyn claims coronavirus lockdown is 'psychological operation to close down the economy'

The brother of former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has claimed the coronavirus lockdown is a "psychological operation to close down the economy". Piers Corbyn was arrested and slapped with a £10,000 fine for his part in anti-lockdown protests on Saturday which saw thousands descend on Trafalgar Square. The 73-year-old, a climate change denier who set up controversial weather forecasting business Weather Action, said on Twitter he had been handed the fixed penalty fine as "organiser".
2nd Sep 2020 - Evening Standard

Coronavirus: Lockdown protesters ‘spit on’ and shout homophobic slurs at German health minister

Germany’s health minister has been subjected to homophobic abuse and allegedly spat on while attempting to engage with a crowd of anti-lockdown protesters, as opponents of the country’s pandemic restrictions appear increasingly emboldened. Jens Spahn faced down the two dozen or so demonstrators gathered outside a community centre in which he was campaigning on Sunday ahead of local elections in Bergisch-Gladbach. Now viral footage showed the Christian Democrats (CDU) politician appealing for calm from the crowd as some in the crowd yelled “disgrace” and “gay pig”. North Rhine-Westphalia Police said in a statement on Monday that they had no evidence that the minister was spat on, but that a criminal complaint had been filed against a 39-year-old man who “insulted” Mr Spahn.
2nd Sep 2020 - The Independent

German minister spat at and verbally abused at Covid protest

Germany’s health minister was jeered, spat at and targeted by homophobic abuse as the countrywide protests of a vocal minority of people against coronavirus restrictions has taken on an increasingly aggressive tone. The Conservative politician Jens Spahn, a key figure in Germany’s handling of the pandemic, on Saturday tried to confront a crowd of protesters outside an event ahead of local elections in North-Rhine Westphalia. A video of the encounter in Bergisch Gladbach shows Spahn, who is gay, taking off his mask to speak to demonstrators only to be drowned out by audible shouts of “shame”, “go away”, and “gay pig”. A campaign event in Münster scheduled for Monday night was moved to an indoor venue at short notice.
2nd Sep 2020 - The Guardian

German SPD leader can call anti-lockdown protesters 'Covidiots', prosecutors say

Anti-lockdown protesters and face-mask refusers can be called “Covidiots”, German prosecutors said on Wednesday, dismissing legal complaints against Social Democrat co-leader Saskia Esken who used the term on Twitter. Prosecutors in Berlin, who had received hundreds of complaints accusing Esken of slander, said she was exercising her constitutional right to express her opinion. Esken’s SPD party is the junior partner in Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative-led ruling coalition. In an Aug. 1 tweet, Esken said protesters at a Berlin march threatened the health of others by violating social distancing rules and ignoring requirements to wear face masks. “The pointed term ‘Covidiot’ is, as an expression of opinion in the political discourse in the coronavirus pandemic, not liable for prosecution and is covered by the constitutionally protected freedom of speech,” prosecutors said.
2nd Sep 2020 - Reuters UK

COVID-19 Pandemic Conspiracy Theories Are Taking Over German Democracy

The Berlin government tried, but failed, to ban the protests on public safety grounds. But the demonstrations may have a positive, if unintended, effect: they are already jolting Germany and Europe awake to a new wave of political disinformation aimed right at the heart of European democracy. Berlin’s coronavirus pandemic management has been the source of global admiration and pride at home, and it has driven government approval to new heights. German Chancellor Angela Merkel enjoys a 71 percent approval rating. Her health minister, Jens Spahn, has 60 percent support. And her Social Democratic Finance Minister Olaf Scholz, the architect of Germany’s coronavirus rescue package, is at 57 percent approval.
2nd Sep 2020 - Foreign Policy

Coronavirus Australia: Tony Abbott calls for lockdown lift

Tony Abbott wants Australia to lift all travel bans immediately amid COVID-19. He argues the economic devastation isn't proportionate to health risks of virus. Mr Abbott criticised Dan Andrews' strict lockdown in Victoria in particular. He said lockdown was most restrictive globally aside from epicentre Wuhan. New modelling suggests cases in Victoria could fall below ten within a week. University of South Australia's Adrian Esterman said infections dwindling fast
2nd Sep 2020 - Daily Mail

Three men arrested ahead of planned anti-lockdown protest in Victoria

Tony Abbott accuses Daniel Andrews of running 'health dictatorship', slams Australia's virus response

Former prime minister Tony Abbott has defended travelling to the UK where he took a swipe at Australia's coronavirus response, slamming Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews for running a "health dictatorship". Speaking in London to the UK think-tank Policy Exchange, Mr Abbott said some of the lockdown measures taken in Australia had gone too far. "My plea is for us to be very careful about further lockdowns because the consequences of lockdowns are enormous," Mr Abbott said.
2nd Sep 2020 - 9News

Pregnant woman arrested in Ballarat for creating anti-lockdown protest event on Facebook

Police in Victoria have arrested a pregnant 28-year-old woman in front of her partner and two children for planning an anti-lockdown protest in regional Victoria this weekend. Police arrested the woman, Zoe Buhler, at her home in Miners Rest near Ballarat on Wednesday after she created a “freedom day” event on Facebook calling for people to protest against the Victorian government’s lockdown measures. “As some of you may have seen the government has gone to extreme measures and are using scare tactics through the media to prevent the Melbourne protest,” the now-deleted event description read. “Here in Ballarat we can be a voice for those in stage four lockdowns. We can be seen and heard and hopefully make a difference!”
2nd Sep 2020 - The Guardian

Hungary exempts some visitors from border lockdown, riles EU

Hungary has decided to exempt tourists visiting from three neighbouring states from a lockdown of its borders that took effect on Tuesday, provided they test negative for COVID-19 beforehand, prompting a rebuke from the European Commission. The EU executive said Hungary’s move to admit visitors from the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia but not from other EU member states amounted to discrimination and was illegal. Hungary said last week it would close its borders to foreigners from Tuesday to curb a rise in coronavirus cases. Returning Hungarian citizens can leave a 14-day quarantine only if they provide two negative COVID tests.
2nd Sep 2020 - Reuters

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 2nd Sep 2020

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Covid-19 coronavirus: US avoids joint vaccine plan that aims to prevent hoarding

The White House today pushed back on concerns expressed by the World Health Organisation after a United States health official said a coronavirus vaccine might be approved without completing full trials. Separately the Trump Administration said it will not join a global effort to develop, manufacture and distribute a coronavirus vaccine, in part because the WHO is involved. The Washington Post reports that the decision to spurn the Covax facility could shape the course of the pandemic and America's role in health diplomacy. Covax aims to speed vaccine development and avoid the hoarding of supplies. It would secure doses for all countries and distribute them to the most high-risk people. The plan is backed by New Zealand, Britain, Japan, Germany, Canada and the European Commission. Countries are still able to pursue bilateral deals with firms on vaccines.
2nd Sep 2020 - New Zealand Herald

The UK's Anti-Lockdown Movement Has Welcomed David Icke and QAnon Believers

At London's "Freedom Rally", David Icke was cheered on by crowds waving placards peddling everything from anti-mask statements to the bizarre QAnon conspiracy theory.
1st Sep 2020 - VICE

Anti-lockdown, anti-vaccine and anti-mask protesters crowd London's Trafalgar Square

Police urged demonstrators to disperse under social distancing laws on Saturday after several thousand anti-lockdown, anti-mask and anti-vaccine protestors gathered in London's Trafalgar Square. The Unite For Freedom rally saw a vast mask-free crowd carrying signs and placards including "World Hoax Organisation" and "Masks are muzzles." Many demanded an end to government health measures and the right to catch coronavirus — should it even exist — without state interference. Key speakers at the event included conspiracy theorists David Icke and Piers Corbyn.
1st Sep 2020 - The Independent

Coronavirus Russia: Teachers’ union warns staff could be forced to take unproven Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine

A Russian teachers’ union has warned its members could find themselves coerced into taking the country’s new coronavirus vaccine, which has been shipped to clinics and approved for use before phase three trials have been completed. Russia is the first country to licence a Covid-19 vaccine, calling it “Sputnik V” in homage to the famous Soviet satellite, but Western experts have warned against its use until all internationally approved testing and regulatory steps have been taken, a call dismissed by Moscow. The vaccine will be mandatory for members of Russia’s armed forces, according to Vladimir Putin’s defence minister Sergei Shoigu, but offered to teachers and doctors on an entirely voluntary basis. However, Uchitel, a small independent teachers’ union, has launched a petition to ensure no mandatory measure is imposed on its members ahead of the reopening of schools on 1 September.
1st Sep 2020 - The Independent

Melbourne anti-lockdown protest organiser calls coronavirus a ‘scam’

A Victorian man who was arrested after planning a Melbourne anti-lockdown rally has said he hopes “tens of thousands” will attend a new protest this Saturday. According to A Current Affair, Windsor resident Solihin Millin was charged with inciting others to breach the chief health officer’s directions last week. The 76-year-old has remained defiant despite his arrest, telling the program the September 5 demonstrations, set to take place across Australia’s capital cities and dubbed “Freedom Day” by supporters, will continue – although if he attends, it will be a breach of his bail conditions. Mr Millin, whose social media profiles are littered with coronavirus conspiracy theory material, labelled the coronavirus pandemic a “scam” and said the planned protest posed no threat to the public.
1st Sep 2020 - NEWS.com.au

Two men charged with planning Melbourne anti-lockdown protest

Police in Victoria have charged two men over the “coordination and encouragement” of an anti-lockdown protest to be held in Melbourne on Saturday. Victoria police said the men, a 28-year-old from Coburg and a 38-year-old from Epping, had been arrested and charged with incitement after officers searched their homes on Tuesday morning. In a statement, police said officers seized several items including mobile phones, laptops and postage items. The men have both been bailed to appear at the Melbourne magistrates court on 4 February. Dreamed up by a coalition of online groups broadly linked around a mishmash of conspiracy theories, the so-called Day of Freedom protest scheduled for 5 September has been planned in defiance of lockdown restrictions, mandates on mask-wearing in Victoria, 5G, vaccinations and “child trafficking and pedophilia”.
1st Sep 2020 - The Guardian

Meet Germany’s Bizarre Anti-Lockdown Protesters

A strange mix of conspiracy theorists, far-right extremists and ordinary citizens have taken to the streets. Why?...
31st Aug 2020 - The New York Times

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 1st Sep 2020

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Oxford University's COVID-19 vaccine might be dividing Christians, but many resist the 'anti-vaxxer' label

The Catholic Church obviously teaches against abortion, and I agree with the Church in that stance," he says. "If the child was killed yesterday or 50 years ago, it was still a horrible situation. Morality isn't defined by how long ago something happened, it's a constant." Hieu's concerns about the Oxford University vaccine are shared by many Christians and religious leaders.
31st Aug 2020 - Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Coronavirus: COVID-19 vaccine a 'fantasy' - controversial epidemiologist Simon Thornley

A Kiwi epidemiologist who thinks the country should give up trying to eliminate COVID-19 says we shouldn't be pinning our hopes on a vaccine. New Zealand's strategy of elimination - clamping down wherever the virus rears its head in an effort to prevent wider outbreaks - has been hailed by global health officials, and seen us record some of the lowest per capita infection and mortality rates in the world. For more than 100 days there were no detected cases of the virus in the community, a golden run that had New Zealanders enjoying more freedoms than most others. That all came to a screeching halt earlier this month, with the detection of four new cases in Auckland that couldn't be - and still haven't been - linked to a known source. University of Auckland specialist Simon Thornley, who has long advocated against locking down to stop the virus, says it's time to accept it's here to stay and ditch the lockdowns. He praised the few hundred people who at the weekend who gathered in downtown Auckland - mostly without masks - to protest against the level 3 restrictions.
31st Aug 2020 - Newshub

Coronavirus recession risks homelessness on a 'scale unseen' before

Homelessness in Australia had spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic and might reach unprecedented levels in a deep recession, according to community groups calling for a multibillion-dollar social housing building program that would also stimulate the economy. Peak body Homelessness Australia says the severity of the recession's impact on the vulnerable will hinge on the federal government's intervention. It said support services were already "inundated" as surging unemployment and family violence took a toll on people's living arrangements.
31st Aug 2020 - The Sydney Morning Herald

Australian diplomatic cables from China detail early confused weeks of coronavirus emergency

Previously unseen diplomatic correspondence has given new insights into how little Australian officials knew of the COVID-19 emergency as it unfolded in China's Hubei province at the beginning of the year. The partly redacted cables suggest Australia's missions in China did not begin sending detailed situational reports back to Canberra until late January, with the updates largely based on local official statements.
31st Aug 2020 - ABC News

Australian Religious Leaders Criticize ‘Immoral’ COVID-19 Vaccine Deal

A coronavirus deal signed by Australia with an international drug company is raising ethical concerns among prominent church leaders. Australia has signed a deal with the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca to produce and distribute a vaccine being developed by Britain's Oxford University... if the treatment works. But three of Australia's most senior archbishops have written to Prime Minister Scott Morrison urging him to reconsider the agreement, saying the use of "fetal tissue” in the research is “deeply immoral.” “To use that tissue then for science is reprehensible,” said Glenn Davies, Anglican Archbishop of Sydney. “Once I know something that is morally compromised, it is my job to speak out about it.” The Oxford University study uses embryonic kidney cells harvested from a female fetus in the Netherlands in 1973.
30th Aug 2020 - VOA Asia

Germany coronavirus: Anger after attempt to storm parliament

Demonstrators, many with far-right sympathies, broke through a cordon and ran up the steps of the parliament building before police dispersed them. The interior minister said there should be "zero tolerance" for such behaviour. Some 38,000 turned out for the wider, largely peaceful Berlin demonstration. Demonstrators bearing the flag of former imperial Germany - used by the Reichsbürger (Reich Citizens) far-right group - overcame a handful of police to run to the entrance of the Reichstag Building in Berlin. Police put the number involved at several hundred.
30th Aug 2020 - BBC

Elites are flouting coronavirus restrictions -- and that could hurt us all

When countries impose restrictions to combat coronavirus, there's an implicit pact between the government and people: we're all in this together. So when the powerful or influential break the rules, it provokes fierce public anger and puts society's inequalities on full view. EU Commissioner Phil Hogan, who resigned from his post Wednesday for breaking Ireland's coronavirus restrictions by attending a political golf society event with 80 other people, was just the latest member of the political elites to be caught flouting the rules. Ireland's Minister for Agriculture Dara Calleary had already resigned over the so-called Golfgate scandal. The dinner was held a day after the government in which he served, facing a surge in cases, imposed restrictions -- effective immediately -- that limited indoor gatherings to six people, down from the 50 previously allowed.
30th Aug 2020 - CNN

‘Nobody has anything for people like me’: Coronavirus has brought caste discrimination back to India

Millions of migrant workers made arduous journeys to their villages after India imposed the world’s largest lockdown in March. Back in the rural hinterland, many say caste discrimination is reversing even the small economic and social gains they eked out in the cities. In the village of Aston, in the central state of Madhya Pradesh, Raju Banskar, 33, says the double stigma of coming from a lower caste and having travelled from New Delhi where the coronavirus is spreading has made it impossible to find a job. In the city, construction work fuelled by India’s decades-long economic boom brought him 250 rupees to 300 rupees (£2.50-£3) a day, and few paid attention to his caste.
28th Aug 2020 - The Independent

Why are Australian church leaders opposing the Oxford coronavirus vaccine?

Australian church leaders have raised objections to a potential Covid-19 vaccine under development at the University of Oxford over concerns it contains cell lines “from an electively aborted human foetus.” The objections were sent in a letter to the prime minister, Scott Morrison, last week, cosigned by Catholic archbishop of Sydney Anthony Fisher, Anglican archbishop of Sydney Glenn Davies, and Greek Orthodox archbishop of Australia Makarios Griniezakis. However, scientists say the development process is a proven method and church priorities should be on ensuring public health against the coronavirus. The Vatican itself has in the past released statements permitting the use of vaccines drawn from foetal cell lines if no alternatives are available.
26th Aug 2020 - The Guardian

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 28th Aug 2020

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Libya's Tripoli government imposes COVID-19 curfew after protests escalate

Libya’s Tripoli-based government has announced a 24-hour curfew to halt the spread of the novel coronavirus as it struggles to contain protests over deteriorating living conditions and corruption. The curfew, which took effect on Wednesday night, was imposed by the internationally recognised Government of National Accord (GNA) three days after protests in the capital and the nearby town of Zawiya began to escalate. The decision exempts people who need to go out for essential food or medicine at nearby shops, but it angered protest supporters who posted messages online saying it was designed to prevent further demonstrations.
27th Aug 2020 - Reuters UK

Coronavirus: Weekly COVID-19 cases in England down - but test and trace misses 80% target for ninth consecutive week

The UK has reported its highest daily number of new coronavirus cases since 12 June. A total of 1,522 people received a laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 test on Thursday, despite infection rates remaining well below those in Spain, France and other parts of Europe suffering a resurgence of the disease. The latest daily new case total figure is up from 1,048 on Wednesday. It is the highest daily new case total since before non-essential shops reopened to the public in England on 15 June, and restaurants and pubs resumed operations on 4 July.
27th Aug 2020 - Sky News

China Calls It A 'Wartime Mode' COVID-19 Lockdown. And Residents Are Protesting

Except in Xinjiang. A sweeping, western region nearly four times the size of California, Xinjiang remains largely cut off from the rest of the country and its some 22 million residents under heavy lockdown, an effort officials say is needed to contain a cluster of more than 800 officially diagnosed cases. In mid-July, officials declared a "wartime mode" for the region. Community officials continue to go door to door, sealing doors with paper strips, tape and in some cases metal bars, to prevent residents from leaving their homes. The region has effectively been penned off from the rest of the country, meaning scant information about the lockdown has emerged. In July, Xinjiang's train stations were closed, intercity bus routes canceled, and centralized quarantine imposed on residents returning to the region.
27th Aug 2020 - NPR

Dandenong anti-lockdown protests against stage 4 coronavirus restrictions 'very concerning': local MP

The Victorian Government says it is working to deliver support and information into communities in Melbourne's outer south-east, where anti-lockdown protests have been held over the past few days in breach of physical-distancing restrictions. Police said officers issued nine fines and arrested four men who joined a "recurring protest" at the George Andrews Reserve on Wednesday. In a statement, police said anyone planning to attend future protests could expect to see a "highly visible police presence in the Dandenong area".
27th Aug 2020 - ABC News

New Zealand outraged after Twitter calls country ‘hellhole’ over lockdown rules

New Zealand has been the target of criticism by lockdown opponents overseas who have slammed its COVID-19 policies as too strict. When an overseas Twitter account described New Zealand as a “hellhole” this week because of the country’s current lockdown rules, New Zealanders on Twitter responded in the best possible way: by sharing photos of their day and describing what life is like in the New Zealand “hellhole” with a good dose of Kiwi sarcasm. “You can’t leave. And you can’t easily have people in. And you’re back in lockdown in major parts of the country. And the quarantine camps are public knowledge. Your country is a hellhole,” the account @LockdownNo replied to a New Zealander on Twitter.
27th Aug 2020 - NEWS.com.au

Data on Covid care home deaths kept secret 'to protect commercial interests'

Covid-19 death tolls at individual care homes are being kept secret by regulators in part to protect providers’ commercial interests before a possible second coronavirus surge, the Guardian can reveal. England’s Care Quality Commission (CQC) and the Care Inspectorate in Scotland are refusing to make public which homes or providers recorded the most fatalities amid fears it could undermine the UK’s care system, which relies on private operators. In response to freedom of information requests, the regulators said they were worried that the supply of beds and standards of care could be threatened if customers left badly affected operators. The CQC and Care Inspectorate share home-by-home data with their respective governments – but both refused to make it public.
27th Aug 2020 - The Guardian

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 27th Aug 2020

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Berlin bans protest against coronavirus curbs

The city of Berlin will put thousands of police on the streets at the weekend to enforce a ban on demonstrations opposing measures imposed to stem the coronavirus pandemic after marchers at a recent rally failed to wear masks or keep their distance. Andreas Geisel, the Berlin interior senator, said the authorities had decided to ban the protest after weighing up the importance of the right to freedom of assembly with the need to protect people against infection. “We are still in the middle of a pandemic with rising infection figures,” he said.
26th Aug 2020 - Reuters UK

'Freedom Day' protests against coronavirus lockdown slammed by Daniel Andrews

Tens of thousands of Australians are preparing to participate in “Freedom Day” protests against coronavirus restrictions. Predominantly in Victoria - but with others planned elsewhere across Australia - COVID sceptics are voicing their intention to rally. The date they have marked in their calendars is September 5.
26th Aug 2020 - 7NEWS.com.au

U.S. health agency says testing not needed for some exposed to COVID-19, drawing criticism

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said this week that people exposed to COVID-19 but not symptomatic may not need to be tested, shocking doctors and politicians and prompting accusations the guidance was politically motivated. The advice marks a reversal of the agency’s previous position recommending testing for all close contacts of people diagnosed with COVID-19. Admiral Brett Giroir, the assistant secretary for health at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), said the goal was “appropriate testing,” not more testing for its own sake, and that there was no political pressure from the administration behind the decision. CNN and The New York Times reported on Wednesday that U.S. public health officials were ordered by high-level members of the Trump administration to push forward with the changes.
26th Aug 2020 - Reuters UK

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 26th Aug 2020

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Face masks in schools: Boris Johnson performs U-turn on advice

Boris Johnson has abandoned advice that pupils should not wear face masks in English secondary schools. The prime minister performed his latest U-turn in the face of growing pressure from headteachers, teaching unions and medical experts. Face coverings will be mandatory for children in all schools that lie in areas subject to stricter coronavirus restrictions.
25th Aug 2020 - Sky News

Covid-19: Boris Johnson admits school face mask advice might change

Advice on wearing masks in schools in England will shift if the medical evidence is persuasive, Boris Johnson has said as pressure mounts from schools and unions. “On the issue of whether or not to wear masks in some contexts – you know, we’ll look at the the changing medical evidence as we go on,” the prime minister told reporters on Tuesday. “If we need to change the advice then of course we will.” No 10’s initial advice that masks could impede communication between teachers and staff and have little health benefit had been rapidly overtaken by events as dozens of schools took the unilateral decision to provide face coverings. The Scottish government has confirmed that secondary schools would be given “obligatory” guidance that pupils should wear face coverings in corridors, communal areas and school buses from next Monday.
25th Aug 2020 - The Guardian

Behind the ‘freedom day’ mass protest being planned across Australia

Coronavirus conspiracy theorists are trying to recruit half a million people for a mass protest calling for Victoria to end its lockdown and Australia to get its freedom back. The ‘500,000 to End the Vic Lockdown & celebrate freedom!’ event on Facebook already has more than 35,000 people listed as attending on September 5, with a further 23,000 saying they’re interested. “The Andrews government must be made accountable for overseeing the biggest public health disaster in Australian history,” the event description reads. “500,000 Australians shall declare the END of the state of emergency. “Dan Andrews – Get out of our lives. We can manage our own wellbeing.” The protesters plan to meet at a location that will be announced on the day.
25th Aug 2020 - NEWS.com.au

Coronavirus Australia: Victorians urged to claim cash compensation over lockdown

Victorians are being urged to try and claim cash compensation from the state government for the “unreasonable” lockdown in a shock move that could cost taxpayers millions of dollars. Liberal Senator Sarah Henderson has revealed she is urging families and businesses to consider pursuing compensation after the Victorian Premier announced he will extend the state of emergency for a year. It follows confirmation that Jim‘s Mowing founder Jim Penman is offering to lodge multiple compo claims for franchise owners who are now banned from mowing the lawn. “For Victorians who’ve suffered loss from unreasonable state emergency restrictions, there’s the option to pursue compensation,‘’ Senator Henderson said. “The Public Health and Wellbeing Act provides this important right. Proud to stand up for those who need support including in regional communities.
25th Aug 2020 - NEWS.com.au

China's Xinjiang residents yell from balconies as strict coronavirus lockdown drags on

An outbreak of COVID-19 cases in Xinjiang last month saw local authorities impose strict measures, which have seen residents of the autonomous region's largest city, Urumqi, banned from leaving their homes since July 18. More than 900 cases of the virus have been recorded in Xinjiang since the outbreak began, however no new cases of the virus have been recorded since August 16, and residents in the lockdown zones are now desperate to be let out. The footage was widely shared on the Chinese social media platforms WeChat and Weibo over the weekend, but censors have since deleted many posts featuring the clips.
25th Aug 2020 - ABC News

New Zealand First joins National in calling for parliamentary committee to scrutinise COVID-19 response

New Zealand First has joined National's call to reconvene Parliament's Health Select Committee so that MPs can scrutinise the Government's COVID-19 response in a public setting. National's health spokesperson Dr Shane Reti has written to Health Select Committee chair Louisa Wall twice now to request the committee convene and call on Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield and Health Minister Chris Hipkins to appear.
25th Aug 2020 - Newshub

New Thinking on Covid Lockdowns: They’re Overly Blunt and Costly

...Still, because of the close connection between the pandemic and economic activity, many epidemiologists and economists say the economy can’t recover while the virus is out of control. “The virus is going to determine when we can safely reopen,” Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said in April. The Federal Reserve said in late July that “the path of the economy will depend significantly on the course of the virus.”
25th Aug 2020 - The Wall Street Journal

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 25th Aug 2020

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Nicola Sturgeon responds to concerns that targets reducing delayed discharges led to Covid-19 finding its way into care homes

A letter published in the Sunday Post showed reportedly revealed the pressure placed on health boards to move patients out of hospital.
24th Aug 2020 - The Scotsman

Ross: NZ needs a new strategy to combat Covid-19

Auckland will remain at Alert Level 3 until 11.59 pm on Sunday, the Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced at 3pm today. The ultimate goal, she said, is managing this cluster from Level Two as soon as we feel confident we can do that. Restrictions were due to be lifted on Wednesday which would have marked two weeks at Alert Level 3. Reacting to the extension of Level Three restrictions in Auckland until 11.59pm this Sunday 30 August, Botany MP Jami-Lee Ross says, “The Prime Minister’s insistence that New Zealand does not need a new Covid-19 strategy is wrong. The decision today to extend the Level 3 lockdown in Auckland, and Level 2 elsewhere shows that the Government has no other strategy than continued rolling lockdowns. “The active case rate in New Zealand is not slowing, meaning this is unlikely to be the last of increased Covid-19 Level restrictions,” Ross, Advance NZ co-leader says.
24th Aug 2020 - Times Online - Auckland

Anti-lockdown mums opposing vaccine and face masks join forces with convicted racist

Anti-lockdown mums who oppose the use of masks and vaccines to tackle coronavirus have joined forces with a boxing coach convicted of a bizarre racist rant. The Saving Perth group – who also protest against social distancing – have held demonstrations in the town in recent weeks. But after counter-protestors turned up to rubbish their stance, they recruited several men to their ranks.
24th Aug 2020 - Daily Record

Chandigarh shopkeepers protest weekend lockdown

City traders today held a protest against the decision of the UT Administration to close all shops on weekends, except those selling essential items, on weekends. Anil Vohra, president, Chandigarh Beopar Mandal, said it was unfortunate that the UT Administration announced the weekend lockdown for shopkeepers only. This despite the fact that most cases were being reported from residential areas, villages and government offices in the city, he added. “The Administration has adopted a pick-and-choose policy. How will we survive and pay rent, employees’ salary, electricity and water bills and other taxes?” Vohra asked.
24th Aug 2020 - The Tribune India

Xinjiang residents protest online against virus lockdown

Residents in China's northwestern Xinjiang region have complained on social media about what they say are harsh coronavirus lockdown measures in the sensitive region after a local outbreak. China -- where the disease first emerged -- had largely brought domestic transmission under control through lockdowns, travel restrictions and testing, but sporadic regional outbreaks have emerged. A new cluster in Xinjiang's capital Urumqi in mid-July prompted fresh restrictions, with 902 cases officially reported. Officials said this month they had "effectively contained" the spread of the Urumqi cluster, and there have been no new cases reported in the past eight days. But hundreds of local residents have gone on to local social media forums in recent days to complain about harsh conditions.
24th Aug 2020 - YAHOO!

Xinjiang residents protest online after China imposed 'harsh coronavirus measures'

The Muslim-inhabited Chinese region was erupted by a COVID-19 crisis in July Officials ordered strict lockdowns and mass-testing to battle Xinjiang's outbreak Hundreds of residents protested online against the alleged harsh lockdown rules People claim that they are trapped in their homes and forced to take medicine
24th Aug 2020 - Daily Mail

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 24th Aug 2020

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Revealed: Emergency plans to protect UK if second coronavirus spike coincides with no-deal Brexit

Emergency plans drawn up by the government to protect the UK if a second coronavirus spike coincides with a no-deal Brexit have been revealed. A Cabinet Office "reasonable worst-case scenario" document, dated July 2020, has been leaked to The Sun newspaper. A government spokeswoman said it "reflects a responsible government ensuring we are ready for all eventualities".
23rd Aug 2020 - Sky News

HK raises concerns over China involvement in COVID-19 tests

Hong Kong has been at the forefront of the coronavirus pandemic and is now joining the global race for a vaccine. The city is also launching voluntary mass coronavirus testing next month to combat what is being seen as a third wave. The government has enlisted the help of medical experts from mainland China, but, as Al Jazeera's Divya Gopalan reports, not everyone supports the move.
23rd Aug 2020 - AlJazeera

‘A toxic scandal’: Ireland becomes a test case on how NOT to battle COVID-19

Ireland’s Minister for Agriculture and deputy chairperson of the Senate resigned Friday after attending an 80-person dinner, directly contravening the guidelines of their own government
23rd Aug 2020 - MarketWatch

Macron: 'Reasonable prospect' of having coronavirus vaccine ready in 'coming months'

French President Emmanuel Macron said a vaccine against coronavirus could soon be ready, as he spoke at a joint press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday. The French president is optimistic the cure will arrive "in the coming months" and hailed the EU cooperation on the matter during his speech in Fort Brégançon, in the south-east of France. "We have improved European cooperation on the vaccine together, by associating many other States and the Commission" in encouraging EU manufacturers to look for vaccines, he said. "And to ensure that we will have the capacity to produce them and deliver them to our populations when they are available," the president stressed.
22nd Aug 2020 - Euronews

South Korea, China hold highest-level talks since COVID-19 outbreak

South Korea said on Saturday it held talks with China’s top diplomat over trade, denuclearisation and the coronavirus response, in the first visit by a high-level Beijing official since the COVID-19 pandemic erupted late last year.
22nd Aug 2020 - Reuters UK

Peru: 13 killed as police raid club breaking coronavirus curbs

About 120 people in Lima tried to flee a party, banned under current coronavirus restrictions, when police arrived.
22nd Aug 2020 - AlJazeera

Australia signs deal for Oxford University coronavirus vaccine as Scott Morrison vows to make it 'as mandatory as you can'

Australia has ordered 25 million doses of a coronavirus vaccine being developed by Oxford University, in partnership with pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca, the country's prime minister has said. Scott Morrison promised to make the vaccine "as mandatory as you can" in an interview with Melbourne’s 3AW radio station,
22nd Aug 2020 - Evening Standard

Queensland introduces coronavirus restrictions as second NSW quarantine guard tests positive

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk reports nine new Covid-19 cases, including six linked to Brisbane youth detention centre, as NSW announces another nine infections
22nd Aug 2020 - The Guardian

Local virus outbreak in Myanmar sparks fears for Rohingya camps

Rohingya in Myanmar's conflict-wracked Rakhine state expressed fears Sunday of a coronavirus outbreak reaching their overcrowded camps, after a spate of infections sent the state capital into lockdown. Nearly 130,000 Rohingya Muslims live in what Amnesty International describes as "apartheid" conditions in camps around Sittwe. The city has recorded 48 cases in the past week, making up more than 10 percent of the about 400 cases so far registered in Myanmar
23rd Aug 2020 - FRANCE 24

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 21st Aug 2020

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Russia to send 2,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine to Mexico for testing

Mexico will receive 2,000 doses of the Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine from Russia for the third stage of clinical trials, according to Foreign Secretary of Mexico Marcelo Ebrard. According to Ebrard, Moscow offered at least 2,000 doses of the vaccine to Mexico to start testing it, El Universal newspaper wrote. The testing is expected to begin in September. On Wednesday, Ebrard met with Russian Ambassador to Mexico Viktor Koronelli and the parties discussed the Sputnik V vaccine.
21st Aug 2020 - TASS

Biden’s pandemic challenge: A unified plan for a divided country

Joe Biden is preparing to take office in January with a unified national plan to defeat Covid-19, but he won't have a unified nation ready to follow it. The former vice president and Democratic nominee is putting together a centralized federal strategy for testing, contact tracing, and shoring up the medical supply chain that would replace the patchwork of state plans that enabled the virus to spread widely under President Donald Trump.
21st Aug 2020 - Politico

As coronavirus surges, Spain's back-to-school plans sow confusion, anger

With coronavirus cases surging and less than two weeks of the school holidays left, parents, teachers and opposition politicians in Spain are angry at the government’s plans for reopening classrooms. Latest government data showed daily infections peaked at 7,609 on Friday - their highest since late March - before dropping to 3,349 on Thursday. However, the fall may not represent a trend as similar declines have been followed by new peaks in recent weeks. “Don’t be confused: things are not going well,” health emergency chief Fernando Simon told reporters. Pablo Casado, leader of the conservative opposition People’s Party, accused Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s leftist government of keeping the country guessing on the reopening of schools.
20th Aug 2020 - Reuters

New Zealand lockdown was unlawful for first nine days, High Court rules

The first nine days of New Zealand's coronavirus lockdown were unlawful, the High Court has ruled. Wellington lawyer Andrew Borrowdale had sought a judicial review in relation to three matters relating to the New Zealand government’s initial response to the pandemic. The judges ruled in his favour on one matter, finding that the requirement for New Zealanders to stay at home for the nine-day period between March 26 and April 3 was justified, but unlawful. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern ordered residents to stay at home from March 26 and the court found that legislation allowing authorities to enforce the lockdown measures was not written into law April 3.
20th Aug 2020 - Evening Standard

Coronavirus: Female leaders do better job of saving lives in pandemic

Countries led by women fared “systematically and significantly better” in the battle against coronavirus, locking down earlier and suffering half as many deaths as those led by men, according to a new study of country-by-country responses. The analysis of 194 countries confirms the early anecdotal observations that female leaders appeared to be doing a better job at containing the pandemic than their male counterparts, crediting the difference to “the proactive and co-ordinated policy responses” favoured by the women. Jacinda Ardern, the New Zealand prime minister, Sanna Marin, prime minister of Finland, Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, and Tsai Ing-wen, president of Taiwan, are among the women leaders praised for their early successes against the pandemic. The authors, developmental economists from the universities of Liverpool and Reading, set out to examine all the available country datasets to see if the trend was real.
20th Aug 2020 - The Times

Former Attorney General reacts to unlawful lockdown ruling

The Attorney-General could appeal against a ruling that the first nine days of the lockdown was unlawful. The High Court says it was justified but that people weren't legally required to stay home until April 3. Former Attorney General and barrister, Chris Finlayson, told Mike Hosking the Attorney-General would want to have a good look at the judgement. “David Parker has 20 working days to decide whether he'll lodge an appeal. But I consider it to be a very solid judgement.” Tim Stephens, from the New Zealand Law Society, says there probably won't be any practical implications. He says the most important thing about the ruling was vindication of the rule of law. Stephens says it's a declaration about the fact that government statements about what the law was -- were incorrect.
20th Aug 2020 - Newstalk ZB

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 20th Aug 2020

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Coronavirus: Boris Johnson told to 'get a grip' by Heathrow Airport boss as testing facility unveiled

Boris Johnson has been told to "get a grip" of his coronavirus quarantine policy as Heathrow Airport pushes for the 14-day isolation period to be shortened. The travel hub's chief executive told Sky News the prime minister needs to act swiftly to stop "holding back the recovery of the UK economy" due to the restrictions on many travellers arriving in the country. The airport has revealed plans for a new testing facility which it hopes will lead to the end of the two-week mandatory quarantine for those returning from countries removed from the UK's safe list.
19th Aug 2020 - Sky News

Virus Rages in South America With Governments Grasping for Clues

From mask rules that are a hodgepodge to inconsistent social distancing, South America’s response to the novel coronavirus has been all over the map. While the actual scope of the disease is unknown because of overall low testing, there are clear losers and a few early winners in a region that was already in bad shape heading into the crisis.
19th Aug 2020 - Bloomberg

Council leaders fail in last minute plea to end Aberdeen lockdown ahead of first minister’s press conference

The leaders of Aberdeen City Council have revealed they “do not support” an extension of the local lockdown measures – only minutes before First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced it would remain in place.
19th Aug 2020 - The Press and Journal

First days of New Zealand lockdown were unlawful, High Court finds

The New Zealand government exceeded its powers telling residents to stay at home in the first nine days of the coronavirus lockdown, the High Court has found. Public announcements Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and others made between March 26 and April 3 were justified, but went beyond the actual lockdown order made by Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield forbidding congregating, except with social distancing and shutting non-essential businesses.
19th Aug 2020 - The Sydney Morning Herald

New Zealand: First 9 days of coronavirus lockdown illegal but justified, says court

The lockdown in New Zealand for the first nine days imposed in March, restricting people to their homes to contain the spread of the coronavirus, was illegal but justified, a court said on Wednesday, according to Reuters. The court said that an order for restricting people at home was not passed till April 3, while calls for the same were made by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and other officials since March 26. So, the residents of New Zealand were unlawfully restricted to their homes for the first nine days, it added. “The government was trying to educate people about the health risks and transition them quickly to take actions that curtailed normal freedoms like staying at home to stop the spread of the virus,” Attorney General David Parker said after the verdict. “In the end, the measures taken by the government worked to eliminate Covid-19, save lives and minimise damage to our economy.”
19th Aug 2020 - Scroll

England axes health agency criticised for COVID-19 response

England will scrap the government agency responsible for responding to public health emergencies after the country has suffered the highest death rate in Europe from the coronavirus pandemic. Public Health England, a cornerstone of the state-run health system with responsibility for managing infectious disease outbreaks, will have many of its functions merged with the government’s contact tracing service into a new body to be known as the National Institute for Health Protection. “The National Institute for Health Protection will have a single and relentless mission, protecting people from external threats to this country’s health; external threats like biological weapons, pandemics, and of course, infectious diseases,” said Matt Hancock, Britain’s health minister. Dido Harding, the former chief executive of internet provider TalkTalk and the current head of the contact tracing service, will run the new institute.
19th Aug 2020 - Reuters UK

New Zealand court rules part of early coronavirus lockdown was illegal

A New Zealand court on Wednesday found the first nine days of a hard lockdown put in place by the government earlier this year requiring people to isolate at home was justified, but unlawful. The ruling comes after Wellington lawyer Andrew Borrowdale challenged the legality of steps taken in the early stages of the five-week lockdown, including calls by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and other officials between March 26 and April 3 telling New Zealanders to stay at home. An order imposing stay at home restrictions was not passed until April 3, so New Zealanders rights and freedoms were unlawfully limited for those first nine days, the court said. “While there is no question that the requirement was a necessary, reasonable and proportionate response to the COVID-19 crisis at that time, the requirement was not prescribed by law,” the court said.
19th Aug 2020 - Reuters UK

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White House coronavirus adviser Deborah Birx says she wishes US had locked down like Italy

Dr Deborah Birx, a key coronavirus adviser to the Trump administration, used a press conference in Arkansas yesterday to voice her regret about the US’s early response to the pandemic, saying she wished the country had followed the example set by Italy and locked down both harder and quicker. Her comments came with the US’s death rate stabilising at an average of roughly 1,000 per day, with the total death toll now above 170,000 – by far the world’s highest. Speaking to the press, Dr Birx appeared candid as she gave her thoughts on the US’s initial approach to the crisis. “I wish that when we went into lockdown, we looked like Italy,” she told the assembled reporters. “But when Italy locked down, people weren’t allowed out of their houses and they couldn’t come out but once every two weeks to buy groceries for one hour, and they had to have a certificate that said they were allowed. “Americans don’t react well to that kind of prohibition.”
18th Aug 2020 - The Independent

Dr. Birx says she wishes America's lockdown looked like Italy's nationwide, total quarantine

Dr. Deborah Birx said Monday she wished America had gone into a total lockdown the way Italy did in early March. She said Italians were only allowed out to buy groceries once every two weeks. Dr Birx noted that Americans wouldn't have done well with restrictions like that. She advocated for the wearing of face masks and social distancing in America, saying it could save lives
18th Aug 2020 - Daily Mail

Trump calls out New Zealand’s 'terrible' Covid surge, on day it records nine new cases

Donald Trump has called out New Zealand for its recent Covid-19 outbreak, saying the places the world hailed as a success story is now facing a “big surge” in cases. “The places they were using to hold up now they’re having a big surge … they were holding up names of countries and now they’re saying ‘whoops!. “Do you see what’s happening in New Zealand? They beat it, they beat it, it was like front-page news because they wanted to show me something,” the US president said at a campaign rally in Mankato, Minnesota.
18th Aug 2020 - The Guardian

Philippine capital's virus lockdown being eased

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has decided to ease a mild lockdown in the capital and four outlying provinces to further reopen the country's battered economy despite having the most reported coronavirus infections in Southeast Asia. Most businesses, including shopping malls and dine-in restaurants, and Roman Catholic church services will be allowed to partially resume on Wednesday with restrictions, including masks and social distancing.
18th Aug 2020 - The Mainichi

If New Zealand's Covid-19 outbreak is 'terrible' like Trump says, then how bad is the rest of the world?

Speaking in Minnesota on Monday, United States President Donald Trump was apparently feeling vindicated. Referring to some nations now seeing a new wave of coronavirus cases, Trump said "they were holding up names of countries and now they're saying 'whoops'." "Even New Zealand, did you see what's going on in New Zealand? 'They beat it, they beat it.' It was like front page, they beat it, because they wanted to show me something," he added. "The problem is, big surge in New Zealand ... it's terrible." New Zealand reported nine new cases on Monday. The US reported tens of thousands. Only one state, Vermont, has fewer total cases than New Zealand, and could yet overtake it given the comparative stage of the two countries' outbreaks.
18th Aug 2020 - CNN

New Zealand anti-lockdown protest is mercilessly mocked online

A group of eight gathered in the middle of Auckland on Saturday to protest. Social media users commented and said they were within the ten person limits. Others wondered if the group were protesters, or whether they had gotten lost. Footage of the lackluster event on YouTube showed lonely protesters.
18th Aug 2020 - Daily Mail

Philippines reports 4,836 new coronavirus cases, seven deaths

The Philippines’ health ministry on Tuesday confirmed 4,836 novel coronavirus infections, the seventh straight day of reporting more than 3,000 cases, and seven additional deaths. In a bulletin, the ministry said total confirmed cases had increased to 169,213, while deaths had reached 2,687. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday eased the strict coronavirus lockdown in the capital Manila and nearby provinces to reopen the economy and help struggling businesses, despite the country having the highest number of infections in Southeast Asia.
18th Aug 2020 - Reuters UK

New Zealand's Ardern hits back at Trump over coronavirus 'surge'

Ardern said there was no comparison between New Zealand’s handful of new cases a day and the “tens of thousands” reported in the United States. “I think anyone who’s following COVID and its transmission globally will quite easily see that New Zealand’s nine cases in a day does not compare to the United States’ tens of thousands, and in fact does not compare to most countries in the world,” she told reporters. “Obviously it’s patently wrong,” she said of Trump’s comments. “We are still one of the best-performing countries in the world when it comes to COVID ... our workers are focused on keeping it that way.”
18th Aug 2020 - Reuters UK

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Half of Brazilians think Bolsonaro has “no responsibility at all” for the 100000 pandemic's dead

Almost half of Brazilians think President Jair Bolsonaro bears “no responsibility at all” for the country’s more than 100,000 dead from the coronavirus pandemic, the world’s second-highest death toll, according to a new Datafolha poll. The poll was published on Saturday in Brazil’s Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper and says 47% of Brazilians do not assign him any blame for the body count, whereas 11% do. Brazil has the world’s worst outbreak outside of the United States and Bolsonaro’s response to the pandemic has been widely condemned by health experts. Right-wing Bolsonaro has pushed for the use of unproven anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine to fight the disease, replaced health ministers who opposed his agenda, encouraged Brazilians to oppose lockdown measures and shown indifference to the rising death toll.
17th Aug 2020 - MercoPress

Thousands march in Berlin anti-lockdown protest

Up to 17,000 people, including libertarians and anti-vaccination activists, have marched in Berlin to protest against Germany's coronavirus regulations. Many flouted guidance on wearing masks and physical distancing as they accused the government of 'stealing our freedom'. While Germany had initial success in containing the virus, infections are rising and its R number has risen above one.
17th Aug 2020 - Yahoo! News

Anti-mask protests held across Spain as COVID-19 cases rise

Hundreds of people rallied on Sunday in Madrid to protest against the mandatory use of facemasks and other restrictions imposed by the Spanish government to contain the coronavirus pandemic. They chanted "freedom".
17th Aug 2020 - WION

Tony Blair warns another national lockdown is 'impossible' and blasts 14 day quarantine rules as too long - as he claims ministers have been over relying on experts during ...

Tony Blair today warned it will not be possible to impose another UK-wide coronavirus lockdown as he claimed ministers had got the Government's travel quarantine policy 'wrong'. The former prime minister said it was 'not credible' for the Government to repeat the sweeping draconian measures put in place back in March because of the economic damage another shut down would cause. He said Britons must learn to 'live with' the deadly disease until there is a vaccine and that a mass testing programme is the only way to keep the country moving.
17th Aug 2020 - Daily Mail

Surreal scenes inside Russia’s battle against the pandemic

Now, of course, the government has announced this Russian COVID-19 vaccine—that they are making it official for use. For some months the government has been saying how well it was progressing with the vaccine, and there were rumors that some important people had already been vaccinated. On the state-owned channel it’s a big story; they’re saying how good the vaccine will be for Russia’s financial markets, that it’s safe, that President Vladimir Putin’s daughter received it and is doing well, that there’s nothing to worry about. On Russian Twitter I’m seeing a lot more cynicism and sarcasm. “Our vaccinations didn’t undergo all necessary tests. What do I not understand?” “Oxford vaccine—42,000 volunteers for the third phrase of trials. Russia—76 people, there is no third phase (!!).”
17th Aug 2020 - National Geographic UK

Beijing art exhibition glorifies China's Covid-19 response

The world may be in the midst of a global pandemic, but visitors to a new Beijing exhibition could be forgiven for thinking the battle has already been won. A triumphant art show celebrating the "great spirit of the Chinese people" in fighting Covid-19 opened this month at the country's National Museum, near Tiananmen Square in the center of Beijing. Through a collection of almost 180 artworks, including sculptures, watercolors and dramatic oil paintings of heroic doctors, the exhibition aims to document the initial coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan and its aftermath.
17th Aug 2020 - CNN

Europe Battles Second Wave Coronavirus Lockdowns As China Goes Mask Off, Party Time

The second wave of coronavirus is rolling into Europe. Whether or not this is a bad thing, or just something we will learn to live with, remains to be seen. Markets think we will learn to live with it. That’s the consensus view. But the risk, of course, is that European governments will react more in line with how the Australian and New Zealand government has reacted to mini-outbreaks and not like Sweden, or the southern states of the U.S.
17th Aug 2020 - Forbes

'I will never come to Australia again': new research reveals the suffering of temporary migrants during the COVID-19 crisis

In the early days of the COVID-19 lockdown in March, many temporary visa holders working in heavily casualised industries, such as hospitality and retail, lost their jobs and struggled to meet basic living expenses. These included international students, backpackers, graduates, sponsored workers and refugees, among others. Despite the devastating financial impact on these temporary migrants, the government excluded them from JobKeeper and JobSeeker. Instead, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said if they could not support themselves, it was time to go home.
17th Aug 2020 - The Conversation AU

Here's why lockdowns are the best economic solution, too

Auckland will be in level 3 restrictions for another 10 days, and the rest of the country in level 2. The purpose is to eliminate community transmission, but is the economic cost worth it? My read of the data so far is yes. It is still too early to conduct a complete analysis of the full costs and benefits of elimination as a strategy, and the use of lockdowns. But from my analysis of the data available so far, the evidence supports elimination as a strategy. Success depends on compliance with restrictions, fortitude by business and the public, and making sure we do not lift restrictions too early.
17th Aug 2020 - Stuff.co.nz

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Nearly half of Brazilians say Bolsonaro not to blame for coronavirus death toll, poll says

UK ministers were warned local lockdowns could fuel racial tensions

The government has been accused of being “tone deaf” for its sudden introduction of further lockdown restrictions in the north of England last month shortly after being warned that local interventions could fuel racial tensions. Documents released by the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) warned that in areas with vulnerable or marginalised communities local interventions could make people feel stigmatised, damage trust in government and lead to social unrest. The document from a group of behavioural science experts known as SPI-B, dated 27 July, was provided to Sage for their meeting on 30 July. In it they noted that “marginalised and/or ethnic minority communities (eg BAME) which are already more susceptible to coronavirus due to wider structural inequalities may also be particularly vulnerable to the effects of local restrictions”.
16th Aug 2020 - The Guardian

Fear of Covid is spreading faster than the virus

In that famous St Patrick’s Day address to the nation in March, Leo Varadkar said we needed to halt the spread of the coronavirus, but added that we also had to “halt the spread of fear”. I’m not sure we have succeeded in doing so. In fact, the government itself now seems to be seized by an excessive terror of Covid-19. A poll released a couple of weeks ago, by consultancy firm Kekst CNC, surveyed 6,000 people in Germany, the UK, France, America, Japan and Sweden. They were asked to estimate how many people in their country had contracted coronavirus and how many had died. In all six countries, respondents overestimated the true picture by several orders of magnitude.
16th Aug 2020 - The Times

French quarantine: we need nuance, Boris, not ruthlessness

Regional restrictions or testing would both be preferable to this blunt instrument that has left so many travellers bruised.
16th Aug 2020 - The Times

New Zealand delays election after virus outbreak in Auckland

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Monday chose to delay New Zealand’s national elections by four weeks as the country deals with a new coronavirus outbreak in its largest city, Auckland. The election had been scheduled for Sept. 19 but will now be held on Oct. 17. Under New Zealand law, Ardern had the option of delaying the election for up to about two months. Opposition parties had been requesting a delay after a virus outbreak in Auckland last week prompted the government to put the city into a two-week lockdown and halted election campaigning.
16th Aug 2020 - Associated Press

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Anti Face Mask Protester Delighted Sacked KFC worker reinstated and says “Stop Following Spain”

An anti face mask protester says “don’t follow Spain” as he celebrates the news of a sacked KFC worker being reinstated after refusing to wear a face mask. KFC worker in Bridgend, South Wales, Paul Candlin was dismissed for refusing to wear a face mask whilst at work. Candlin was fired on the spot by KFC bosses as he point blank refused to wear a mask designed to protect customers from Covid-19.
13th Aug 2020 - Euro Weekly News

Expats on Spain’s Costa del Sol vent their frustrations saying “we need to move on” from Coronavirus

Expats on Spain’s Costa del Sol are starting to vent their frustration and anger calling for governments to move on and want regulations dropped that are affecting businesses. As the Coronavirus remains at the top of the news on a daily basis, many people now are questioning why countries like Spain and the UK can’t move on. Whilst all countries around the world are still experiencing infections, businesses are still suffering, whilst recessions are at the forefront of minds in many quarters and appear to be adding to citizens frustrations across Europe.
13th Aug 2020 - Euro Weekly News

Trump gives the floor to his new anti-lockdown medical adviser Dr. Scott Atlas - who says coronavirus is LESS risky than flu for kids

Trump acknowledged Atlas at a White House event on opening schools. Said Atlas would talk at coronavirus task force meeting later Wednesday. He has advocated for 'herd' immunity. Spoke of the 'harms' of keeping children away from school Argued in April against 'mass isolation' measures. Previously warned against 'hysteria' of school closings
13th Aug 2020 - Daily Mail

Chinese Citizens Decry Extreme Lockdown Measures in Latest Virus Epicenters

Amid third-wave CCP virus outbreaks in China’s northwestern region of Xinjiang and northeastern city of Dalian, authorities enacted strict quarantine rules, with some residents being harshly punished for breaking regulations. Some who spoke to The Epoch Times criticized authorities for their draconian measures.
13th Aug 2020 - The Epoch Times

Covid 19 coronavirus: Lockdown protest stops traffic in Whangārei

Traffic came to a halt in Whangārei this morning as protesters took to the streets to oppose the Government's Covid-19 social restrictions. About 60 people gathered at the Whangārei police station after people from two groups - FACTS NZ and Kotahitanga Movement Aotearoa - held separate marches walking from Forum North to the police station where both groups held a kōrero referencing how the Government's alert level system, among other things, violated their rights.
13th Aug 2020 - New Zealand Herald

Brazil state signs deal to make Russian vaccine

The Brazilian state of Parana signed a deal Wednesday to test and produce Russia's new coronavirus vaccine, though officials stressed they would have to be sure of its safety and effectiveness first. The vaccine would have to receive Brazilian regulatory approval and complete Phase 3 clinical trials, or large-scale testing in humans, before being produced in Brazil, said officials from the southern state. Production, if it goes ahead, would likely only start in the second half of 2021, said Jorge Callado, head of the state-run Parana Technology Institute, which signed the deal with the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF). "This is a very objective memorandum of understanding on technological exchange. It does not impose obligations, it simply enables us to work together," he told a virtual news conference.
13th Aug 2020 - Medical Xpress

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Covid 19 coronavirus: Destiny Church's Brian Tamaki says NZ should take to the streets if lockdown is extended

Destiny Church bishop Brian Tamaki has told his followers they should take to the streets if the New Zealand Government announces an extension to the current three-day lockdown in effect in Auckland. Speaking outside his church in South Auckland, across the road from a Covid-19 testing station, Tamaki said "there's another virus just as bad as Covid-19, it's called fear". At one point during the video, the bishop draws attention to a plane up in the sky, saying he thinks it's coming from China, "probably filled with non-English speaking people coming into our borders". He pointed the finger at the Government who he says is telling New Zealanders to close their front doors while keeping the borders open to "immigrants, refugees still, and people from countries where this Covid-19 pandemic has been very active".
12th Aug 2020 - New Zealand Herald

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Ireland's Strange Rule Punishing those Unemployed by COVID-19 Going Abroad

Irish workers who have become unemployed due to the Coronavirus pandemic are facing a kick in the teeth from their Government – which has said that they will also lose their welfare payments if they travel abroad against public guidance. While the Irish Government’s guidance is to avoid non-essential overseas travel, it has not banned movement in or out of the country during the COVID-19 pandemic. But, in mid-July, the Government quietly introduced a new rule whereby those receiving the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) – an enhanced social welfare payment for those unable to work because of the Coronavirus – would lose this income if they travelled abroad. This, in effect, has created a two-tier system – with the majority of the population able to travel freely, while those on PUP banned from doing so.
11th Aug 2020 - Byline Times

Coronavirus UK: Anti-lockdown activists storm Morrisons

A group of anti-mask activists has staged a protest inside a Morrisons, urging food shoppers to ‘resist the new world order agenda’. StandUp X members told the public to ‘ask questions’ and refuse to consent to coronavirus lockdowns, as they demonstrated inside the supermarket in Peckham, south London two weeks ago. The footage emerges after masks were made mandatory in more indoor settings – including museums, cinemas and places of worship – in England and Scotland on Friday. Demonstrators shouted ‘your masks are so bad for you’, while others claimed the British people were being ‘conditioned’, as customers looked on in Morrisons.
11th Aug 2020 - Metro.co.uk

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Philippines’ Duterte Accepts Russia’s Covid-19 Vaccine Offer

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has accepted Russia’s offer of its coronavirus vaccine, volunteering to take the first shot as a gesture of trust and gratitude. “When the vaccine arrives, I will have myself injected in public. Experiment on me first, that’s fine with me,” he said in a briefing Monday night. Duterte -- who has called President Vladimir Putin as his “idol” and who’s seeking to boost ties with Russia -- added that Manila can assist Moscow in clinical trials and local production
11th Aug 2020 - Bloomberg

In the next lockdown, schools should close last

For young people, coronavirus lockdowns have been a bewildering experience. Children have been plucked from classrooms and forced — at best — to make do with learning-by-Zoom. Some have been barred from taking exams they worked towards for years. From Tuesday, schools in Scotland will start to reopen; prime minister Boris Johnson is right to say there is a “moral duty” to ensure schools in England follow suit next month. Many other countries are doing the same, or locked in debates over how to do so. The return to school should be prioritised and safeguarded, even if virus cases start to rebound more broadly.
10th Aug 2020 - Financial Times

Coronavirus: Ministers seek to reassure over schools and lockdown eases in Wales

Ministers are pushing ahead with plans to have all school children in England back in classrooms next month, as Education Secretary Gavin Williamson seeks to reassure parents and teachers over the safety of such a move. Mr Williamson says research from a large global study suggests there is little evidence coronavirus is transmitted in schools. But one teaching union says pupils may have to be taught in class on a week-on, week-off basis in the event of local lockdowns.
10th Aug 2020 - BBC

Royal Commission: Australia's COVID-19 aged care death rate one of the highest in the world

The rate of coronavirus deaths in Australia's aged care homes is among the highest in the world, a royal commission has heard. From inside her Glen Waverley aged care facility, Merle Mitchell told the royal commission of life in lockdown. "From the time I wake up to the time I go to sleep I'm sitting in my own room in my one chair," she said. "I know I'm here until I die so every time I wake up I think damn, I'm still alive. "I'm sure if you really ask most people here, they would all say they would rather be dead rather than be living here." The months of isolation are meant to protect residents.
10th Aug 2020 - 9News

Melbourne lockdown 'the worst-ever violation of Australia's civil liberties'

Victoria's state of disaster, from 2 August, gives huge power to the government. The Police Minister can seize private property and officers can enter homes. Research group IPA says Melbourne's stage-four restrictions have gone too far Up to 400,000 are set to lose their jobs due to forced closure of businesses
10th Aug 2020 - Daily Mail

UK prime minister says schools must open in September

Writing in the Mail on Sunday, Johnson said restarting schools was a national priority. Schools would be the last places to close in future local lockdowns, he was quoted by another newspaper as telling a meeting on Thursday. Schools in England closed in March during a national lockdown, except for the children of key workers, and reopened in June for a small number of pupils. The government wants all pupils to return to school by early September. “Keeping our schools closed a moment longer than absolutely necessary is socially intolerable, economically unsustainable and morally indefensible,” Johnson wrote.
10th Aug 2020 - Reuters UK

England can’t ease lockdown any more, expert warns as Covid testing calls grow

One of the government’s most influential scientific advisers is warning that the loosening of lockdown may have already gone too far and that an urgent increase in coronavirus testing and faster contact tracing is essential to prepare for a resurgence in cases. Writing in the Observer , Sir Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust and a member of the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), warns against complacency in the wake of local outbreaks that have forced lockdown measures to be reintroduced in some areas, most recently in Preston. With growing concerns about the reluctance of Covid-19 sufferers to disclose their close contacts and warnings over continued gaps in testing, Farrar states there are signs that England is in danger of “heading in the wrong direction”.
9th Aug 2020 - The Guardian

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UK to plunge into deepest slump on record with worst GDP drop of G7

Britain’s economy will be officially declared in recession this week for the first time since the 2008 financial crisis, as the coronavirus outbreak plunges the country into the deepest slump on record. Figures from the Office for National Statistics on Wednesday are expected to show that gross domestic product (GDP), the broadest measure of economic prosperity, fell in the three months to June by 21%.
9th Aug 2020 - The Guardian

SLR: Covid-19 withers global sympathy for the ANC

If our acerbic columnist’s cogent argument that the ANC is fast running out of credible international friends to lean on is correct, it might ironically spur on the rampant feeding at the SA trough, now filled with Covid-19 funds. The pandemic has focused the minds of politicians at the helm of formerly friendly countries away from the ANC, whose decrepit behaviour has them at the end of their tether – even China. That leaves the ruling party to lean only on countries whose regimes, Simon Lincoln Reader suggests, are equally decrepit.
8th Aug 2020 - BizNews

NZ PM Ardern launches 'COVID election' campaign promising jobs

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Saturday launched her re-election campaign promising a “laser-like” focus on boosting jobs and economic growth hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. The charismatic 40-year-old leader is on track for a comfortable victory in the Sept. 19 election, according to opinion polls, having won global praise for her leadership during the coronavirus pandemic. It has been 99 days since New Zealand had any domestic transmission of COVID-19, a rare achievement as the pandemic rages globally, and it has re-opened the economy after undergoing a complete shutdown to eradicate the coronavirus. “When people ask, is this a COVID election, my answer is yes, it is,” Ardern told her supporters gathered in Auckland for the launch of her Labour Party’s re-election campaign. In her first campaign speech, Ardern pledged a NZ$311 million ($205.32 million) scheme aimed at getting 40,000 Kiwis back in work, if her party wins the Sept 19 polls.
8th Aug 2020 - Reuters UK

'Your time is up': Thousands protest against Netanyahu over COVID-19 and alleged corruption

Thousands of Israelis rallied outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s residence in Jerusalem on Saturday as anger mounted over corruption allegations and his handling of the coronavirus crisis. “Your time is up”, read the giant letters projected on to a building at the protest site, as demonstrators waved Israeli flags and called on Netanyahu to resign over what they say is his failure to protect jobs and businesses affected by the pandemic. The protest movement has intensified in recent weeks, with critics accusing Netanyahu of being distracted by a corruption case against him. He denies wrongdoing. Netanyahu, who was sworn in for a fifth term in May after a closely fought election, has accused the protesters of trampling democracy and the Israeli media of encouraging dissent.
8th Aug 2020 - Reuters UK

UK medics protest, seeking pay raise after pandemic struggle

Hundreds of health care workers have rallied in British cities, demanding the government acknowledge their hard work during the coronavirus pandemic with a hefty pay increase
8th Aug 2020 - ABC News

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Trump again claims Covid-19 will 'go away' as Fauci warns of long road ahead

Donald Trump on Wednesday repeated that he believes coronavirus will “go away”, despite his top public health expert warning that it could take most of 2021 or longer to get the pandemic under control and that it is “unlikely” the virus can ever be eradicated. At a White House briefing, the US president said of Covid-19: “It’s going away, it will go away, things go away, absolutely. No question in my mind, sooner rather than later.” Trump has made numerous versions of this assertion over the more than six months that the US has been battling the outbreak, despite vast evidence otherwise and frequent contradictions from public health leaders. On Wednesday the US had 4.8m recorded cases of coronavirus and has witnessed 157,690 deaths from the disease, according to Johns Hopkins University data. Public health experts in the last few days have praised a gradual decline in new cases in some states that were badly hit while warning that nationwide the pandemic was in a worrying “new phase”.
6th Aug 2020 - The Guardian

Facebook removes Trump post over false Covid-19 claim for first time

Facebook has removed a post from Donald Trump’s page for spreading false information about the coronavirus, a first for the social media company that has been harshly criticized for repeatedly allowing the president to break its content rules. The post included video of Trump falsely asserting that children were “almost immune from Covid-19” during an appearance on Fox News. There is evidence to suggest that children who contract Covid-19 generally experience milder symptoms than adults do. However, they are not immune, and some children have become severely ill or died from the disease. “This video includes false claims that a group of people is immune from Covid-19 which is a violation of our policies around harmful Covid misinformation,” a Facebook spokesperson said.
6th Aug 2020 - The Guardian

US government shelves survey that painted bleak picture of Covid-19 life

The US Census Bureau has suspended a weekly survey that painted a bleak picture of American life during the Covid-19 pandemic, with no sign of when, or if, it will resume publishing the report. The “household pulse survey” tracked various quality-of-life measures, such as food sufficiency, internet access and mental health, and was first conducted by the Census Bureau on 23 April to “quickly and efficiently deploy data collected on how people’s lives have been impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic”, according to the agency’s website. While data such as weekly unemployment claims released by the Department of Labor has shown how many people have lost their jobs, the survey provided a window into the effect the economic downturn is having on the lives of Americans.
6th Aug 2020 - The Guardian

Coronavirus: Germany's growing anti-lockdown movement

It was a curious sight to behold. On August 1, a motley crowd of protesters from across Germany — ranging from far-right extremists and conspiracy theorists to supporters of the anti-vaccination movement and followers of esotericism — flocked to Berlin to vent their anger at government-imposed restrictions to curb the spread of coronavirus. In front of the city's iconic Brandenburg Gate, people shouted "we're the second wave" and "resistance." According to the police, some 20,000 protesters converged on the capital that Saturday. The event had been organized by a controversial Stuttgart-based organization known to have staged the country's largest anti-coronavirus lockdown protests so far. That day's theme — "Tag der Freiheit," or "Day of Freedom" — was eerily reminiscent of the title of a 1935 Nazi propaganda film by Leni Riefenstahl.
6th Aug 2020 - DW (English)

South Africa's Ramaphosa sets up body to probe COVID-19 corruption

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has set up a ministerial committee to investigate alleged corruption in state tenders in the fight against COVID-19, his office said on Thursday, including with businesses supplying protective gear. Reports of suspect deals between government officials and businesses providing medical equipment, as well as food aid parcels to the poor, have sparked outrage in South Africa, where more than half a million cases of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 make it the fifth largest outbreak in the world. South Africa’s anti-corruption watchdog said on Monday it was investigating irregularities in these contracts, the latest in a series of high-profile graft scandals involving politically-connected individuals.
6th Aug 2020 - Reuters

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Airline blacklists more than 100 passengers for refusing to wear masks

Delta has banned more than “100 people” from flying for refusing to wear a mask, according to the airline’s CEO. Ed Bastian said that passengers who refused to comply with the carrier’s requirement that they wear face coverings at all times are being temporarily blacklisted. “If you insist on not wearing your mask, we will insist that you don’t fly Delta,“ he told The Today Show last month.
5th Aug 2020 - The Independent

Keeping England's schools open 'must take priority' in second wave of Covid-19

The UK's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) has asked for coronavirus survivors to receive the free winter flu vaccine. The proposal would mean that more than 250,000 Brits who have recovered from the disease can get the winter jab. It comes as the UK Covid-19 death toll went up by 65 today, while hospital fatalities increased by 15. The number of people who have died from coronavirus in hospital is down from the same time last week. Meanwhile, new lockdown restrictions have been put in place in Aberdeen following a rise in cases. Today's announcement is the first "local lockdown" in Scotland after a string of areas in England had restrictions reimposed.
5th Aug 2020 - The Guardian

The government must up its game to prepare for a second wave of Covid-19

We are at a crucial point in the battle against coronavirus. This summer, there are three key questions the government should be reflecting on. First, are we now doing everything we can to suppress the virus? Second, how can we protect lives and livelihoods? Third, how is it that frontline workers have been left feeling, to quote the National Care Association, kicked in the teeth? Labour has been a constructive opposition. We accept that no one could have handled coronavirus perfectly. But the truth is that the government has been too slow to act throughout this crisis – too slow into lockdown, too slow on testing and too slow getting PPE to frontline workers. Despite Labour’s warnings in recent months, the government has ignored the red lights flashing on the country’s economic dashboard and been too slow to change course in order to save jobs.
5th Aug 2020 - The Guardian

White House: Another Lockdown Would Harm More Than Help, as COVID Cases Spike

"The President is not considering a national lockdown," McEnany told reporters. "What he is encouraging is mitigation efforts like wearing a mask, which is patriotic, like social distancing and engaging in these really commonsense, safe measures to safely reopen and avoid the health consequences of a lockdown." Coronavirus cases have been on the rise in several states that started to loosen restrictions put into place as the pandemic began to spread earlier this year. According to the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation, at least 36 states are currently designated COVID-19 hotspots. California, Florida and Texas have seen the sharpest increases in cases in recent weeks. At least 156,000 people have died of COVID-19 in the United States since it began to spread across the states earlier this year
4th Aug 2020 - Newsweek

Donald Trump flounders in interview over US Covid-19 death toll

Donald Trump visibly floundered in an interview when pressed on a range of issues, including the number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the US, his claims that mail-in voting is fraudulent, and his inaction over the “Russian bounty” scandal. The US president also repeatedly cast doubt on the cause of death of Jeffrey Epstein, and said of Ghislaine Maxwell, the British socialite who has pleaded not guilty to participating in the sex-trafficking of girls by Epstein, that he wished her well. In the interview, broadcast on HBO on Monday and conducted by Axios’s national political correspondent, Jonathan Swan, Trump again asserted that his administration was doing an “incredible job” responding to the coronavirus.
5th Aug 2020 - The Guardian

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Singapore’s quick response to coronavirus saved thousands of lives. There’s no excuse for the UK’s failure

In February I travelled to Singapore to visit an old university friend. So it was chance that I found myself in the safest part of the world, where they knew what to do and acted with great speed to aggressively suppress the lethal virus
4th Aug 2020 - The Independent

Trump says nationwide lockdown would 'ultimately inflict more harm than it would prevent'

President Donald Trump insisted Monday that shutting down the United States in an attempt to curb the coronavirus would cause more harm than good. He said the U.S. only initially shut down to prevent the overflow of hospitals and to allow U.S. health officials and scientists to learn more about the new virus, including developing effective treatments to fight it. While Trump said he would not shut down the U.S., he urged Americans to stay “vigilant” against the coronavirus as U.S. officials begin to see new “flare-ups.”
4th Aug 2020 - CNBC

Mass test general population to avoid another lockdown, says former PM

Tony Blair said a mass testing regime is the only way to control the virus. A mass testing regime is essential to avoid the need for another lockdown, Tony Blair has said. Without a vaccine or an effective treatment, mass testing is the only way to control the spread of Covid-19, the former prime minister said. His comments come as researchers said the NHS Test and Trace programme needs to be scaled up in order to reopen schools safely. A new modelling study has implied that reopening schools in September must be combined with a high-coverage test-trace-isolate strategy to avoid a second wave of Covid-19 later this year.
4th Aug 2020 - expressandstar.com

Esmond Birnie: We must avoid a further lockdown

Sometimes we face agonising dilemmas between terrible alternatives. We should try to avoid getting into such situations. In the UK at present we should avoid an uncontrolled second wave of Covid-19 which kills tens of thousands and also a second general lockdown knocking billions off the economy. How might we evaluate the current lockdown? First of all, there is the undoubted success in terms of lives saved. A death toll of about 850 in Northern Ireland (NI) was grievous but contrasts to the projection made in March that 15,000 might be lost. What about the cost? Given all the ethical and philosophical difficulties relating to trying to put a cash value on a human life I avoid placing a monetary value on the "benefit" of the lockdown in number of lives saved. What can be done is to measure the implied economic cost per life saved and compare that to the standard NHS/National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guideline that the cost of treatment should not exceed £30,000 per year of life.
4th Aug 2020 - Belfast Telegraph

Trump criticizes Covid lockdowns and falsely claims US 'doing very well'

Donald Trump used his White House coronavirus press conference on Monday to repeat his opposition to lockdowns as a means of bringing the contagion under control, claiming falsely that under his leadership the US has done “as well as any nation”. On a day that the US had surpassed 4.7m confirmed cases of infection – more than a quarter of the global total – Trump tried to deflect criticism of his administration’s handling of the pandemic on to other countries. He cited Spain, Germany, France, Australia and Japan as countries experiencing “significant flare ups” as the virus surges again. In fact, while Australia and Japan are experiencing renewed surges, their total incidence of disease remains a fraction of the catastrophe now sweeping across the US.
4th Aug 2020 - The Guardian

Coronavirus: Donald Trump cites Australia to justify anti-lockdown stance

US President Donald Trump has cited the worsening coronavirus situation in Australia to justify his stance that a lockdown “would inflict more harm than it would prevent”. Speaking to reporters at today’s White House briefing, Mr Trump reeled off a list of countries he said were suffering “flare-ups” after thinking they had the virus under control. “It’s important for all Americans to recognise that a permanent lockdown is not a viable path toward producing the result that you want, or certainly not a viable path forward, and ultimately would inflict more harm than it would prevent,” the President said. “As we’re seeing in foreign countries around the world, where cases are once again surging. You have many places where we thought they were under control and doing a great job – and they are doing a great job. But this is a very tough, invisible enemy
4th Aug 2020 - NEWS.com.au

Fauci Supports Birx’s Coronavirus Assessment After Trump Criticizes Her

Speaking during a news conference with Gov. Ned Lamont of Connecticut, Dr. Fauci called the community spread “insidious” and noted that it was happening outside of confined spaces like nursing homes and prisons. In backing up Dr. Birx, the Trump administration’s coronavirus response coordinator, Dr. Fauci indirectly put himself at odds with the president. Earlier on Monday, Mr. Trump had called Dr. Birx “pathetic” on Twitter and suggested that her comments about a “new phase” were an effort to curry favor with Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
4th Aug 2020 - The New York Times

Trump says 'permanent lockdown' not viable path to combat coronavirus

President Donald Trump said on Monday that a “permanent lockdown” policy is not a “viable path forward” in combating the coronavirus pandemic. Trump, speaking with reporters, as he pushed to reopen the country, argued that lockdowns do not prevent future infections and other countries have seen resurgence in cases after lockdowns.
4th Aug 2020 - Reuters UK

COVID-19 Is Tearing Through Nursing Homes. Mitch McConnell Wants to Give Their Owners Legal Immunity.

For months, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has upheld an ultimatum about passing new COVID-19 relief legislation this summer: No economic stabilization package will pass the Senate unless it protects businesses from coronavirus-related lawsuits. “We need to provide protection, litigation protection, for those who have been on the front lines,” McConnell said during a Fox News interview in April. “We have a red line on liability.” Last Monday, a bill introduced by Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and coauthored by McConnell clarified exactly which front lines Senate Republicans are interested in defending. The proposal, titled the Safe to Work Act, would make it harder for workers and customers to sue companies for negligently exposing them to the coronavirus and raises the bar for patients to sue healthcare providers for coronavirus-related malpractice. It also extends “front line” protections to healthcare executives, including nursing home owners, until 2024.
4th Aug 2020 - Mother Jones

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 4th Aug 2020

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'Masks make us slaves': thousands march in Berlin anti-lockdown protest – video

The government is playing a very dangerous game over its lockdown strategy

The UK’s planning vacuum has been obvious for months. Blaming the public for not sticking to the rules simply won’t wash
3rd Aug 2020 - The Independent

Critics are accusing the Philippines government of using the coronavirus lockdown to crack down on dissent

Questioning the world's toughest coronavirus restrictions can be a risky business in the Philippines. In mid-March, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte ordered parts of the country to go into a quarantine that would eventually last up to 80 days, and become one of the world's longest and strictest lockdowns. Protests against job losses and food shortages during that period were met with a strong police response and mass arrests. In April, Duterte publicly said police should "shoot ... dead" anyone who violated virus restrictions. "I will not hesitate. My orders are to the police, the military and the barangays: If they become unruly and they fight you and your lives are endangered, shoot them dead," Duterte said during a speech.
3rd Aug 2020 - CNN

Coronavirus: WHO warns of 'no silver bullet' amid vaccine search

The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) has said that while there is hope for a vaccine against Covid-19, one might never be found. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a news briefing there was "no silver bullet at the moment - and there might never be". Mr Tedros implored people around the world to comply with measures such as social distancing, hand-washing and mask-wearing, saying: "Do it all." Globally, more than 18 million Covid-19 infections have been recorded. The death toll stands at 689,000, with both figures given by the US-based Johns Hopkins University.
3rd Aug 2020 - BBC

An incoherent approach to controlling Covid-19

The recent approach to controlling Covid-19 transmission in England seems particularly boneheaded: the recent local “spikes” were entirely preventable by a proper system of testing, tracking and tracing, identifying contacts of individual cases and locking them down; this system is just not in place, and no macro-statistic of total tests undertaken will substitute for it. This is what “local measures” should mean, not targeting huge swathes of the urban population. Second, the measures recently adopted are incoherent to the point of absurdity – I can go out with friends for dinner, but not visit my mother? The danger here is lack of credibility, exacerbated by a complete inability to enforce such parochial restrictions.
2nd Aug 2020 - The Guardian

Thousands of anti-lockdown rail against coronavirus lockdown measures in Berlin

Thousands of anti-lockdown protesters marched through central Berlin on Saturday in a show of growing opposition to distancing measures. The demonstration, titled “The End Of The Pandemic – Freedom Day”, saw huge crowds of people waving flags and chanting as they processed past the famous Brandenburg Gate. Protesters held placards with messages saying “Corona, false alarm”, “We are being forced to wear a muzzle” and “Natural defence instead of vaccination”.
1st Aug 2020 - iNews

Architect of UK’s coronavirus lockdown Neil Ferguson says he has never met Boris Johnson

The former government adviser whose modelling is credited with finally convincing Downing Street to impose a coronavirus lockdown has revealed he has never met Boris Johnson. Imperial College London epidemiologist and former Sage adviser Neil Ferguson became nicknamed “Professor Lockdown” after his team’s report in mid-March suggested 510,000 people could die from Covid-19 in the UK without any government intervention, and that the NHS would be overwhelmed regardless. The dramatic modelling is widely reported to have been the catalyst for the UK’s lockdown, after crucial weeks of governmental indecision over a herd immunity strategy versus the lockdown restrictions springing up across Europe
1st Aug 2020 - The Independent

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When It Comes to Covid Shots, Rich Nations Are First in Line

Although international groups and a number of nations are promising to make vaccines affordable and accessible to all, doses will likely struggle to keep up with demand in a world of roughly 7.8 billion people. The possibility wealthier countries will monopolize supply, a scenario that played out in the 2009 swine flu pandemic, has fueled concerns among poor nations and health advocates.
2nd Aug 2020 - Bloomberg

Anti-vaxxers on social media could ruin chance of an effective treatment

Social media influencers and celebrities with millions of followers are boosting anti-vaccination messages worldwide, as more people say that they will not take a coronavirus vaccine. Politicians and experts have given warning that the rapid spread of misinformation about a Covid-19 vaccine could mean that it cannot be rolled out effectively. Damian Collins, a former chairman of the Commons committee on digital, media, culture and sport, said that the findings required urgent legislation.
1st Aug 2020 - The Times

Trump planning for U.S. rollout of coronavirus vaccine falling short, officials warn

As scientists and pharmaceutical companies work at breakneck speed to develop a vaccine for the novel coronavirus, public health officials and senior U.S. lawmakers are sounding alarms about the Trump administration’s lack of planning for its nationwide distribution. The federal government traditionally plays a principal role in funding and overseeing manufacturing and distribution of new vaccines during pandemics, which often draw on scarce ingredients and need to be made, stored and transported carefully. There won't be enough vaccine for all 330 million Americans right away, so the government also has a role in deciding who gets it first, and in educating a vaccine-wary here public about its potential life saving merits. Right now, it is unclear who in Washington is in charge of oversight, much less any critical details, some state health officials and members of Congress told Reuters.
31st Jul 2020 - Reuters

Argentina lockdown: Reports of abuse by security forces

The Argentinean government deployed thousands of security personnel in March to enforce a nationwide lockdown to contain the coronavirus. But reports of abuse and violence have been on the rise. Al Jazeera's Teresa Bo reports from Buenos Aires, Argentina.
27th Jul 2020 - AlJazeera

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 31st Jul 2020

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Exclusive: Chinese-backed hackers targeted COVID-19 vaccine firm Moderna

Chinese government-linked hackers targeted biotech company Moderna Inc, a leading U.S.-based coronavirus vaccine research developer, earlier this year in a bid to steal valuable data, according to a U.S. security official tracking Chinese hacking activity. Last week, the U.S. Justice Department made public an indictment of two Chinese nationals accused of spying on the United States, including three unnamed U.S.-based targets involved in medical research to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. The indictment states the Chinese hackers “conducted reconnaissance” against the computer network of a Massachusetts biotech firm known to be working on a coronavirus vaccine in January. Moderna, which is based in Massachusetts and announced its COVID-19 vaccine candidate in January, confirmed to Reuters that the company had been in contact with the FBI and was made aware of the suspected “information reconnaissance activities” by the hacking group mentioned in last week’s indictment.
30th Jul 2020 - Reuters UK

The U.S. Can Control Covid Without a Second Lockdown

It’s also time to stop blaming each other — which is tearing us apart. As Sandman pointed out, “all public health failures are policy failures.” If people don’t follow a policy, it’s because it’s the wrong policy or was badly communicated. This is what policy makers are supposed to think through. A few brave souls in the public health community, trying to help people find a level of much-needed balance, have come forward to say that some activities are relatively low risk. Being around other people outdoors is safer than indoors, and short exposures are safer than long ones. If everyone wears a mask, getting a haircut is OK. Getting exercise outdoors is reasonable. Outdoor restaurant tables are safer than indoor ones.
30th Jul 2020 - Bloomberg Quint

Split over Japan's virus law between cities and government widens

The power of words is being tested in Japan, where efforts to fight the novel coronavirus — bound by a law tailored to a different disease — remain strictly voluntary. But that may soon change, after a nationwide surge in new infections triggered debate at all levels of government on not only how the law should be changed but when. “Revising the law is necessary for our intended results to become reality,” Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike said during an interview with The Japan Times. “Legal authority and financial resources — the central government needs to define and clarify these things.”
30th Jul 2020 - The Japan Times

Australian Covid-19 conspiracy theorist arrested for flouting Melbourne's lockdown rules

An Australian coronavirus conspiracy theorist was arrested after refusing to give police her details at a checkpoint for a second time. Eve Black last week boasted in a video posted to Facebook about passing through a roadblock in Melbourne without informing officers of where she was headed to. After the video went viral, the 28-year-old tried again to evade officers' questions when she was stopped on Wednesday in the inner-city suburb of Carlton.
30th Jul 2020 - London Evening Standard

Australians can't 'lockdown and hide' from coronavirus forever

The latest record number of coronavirus infections to come from Victoria are worrying, but the “alarmism and the hysteria is often over the top” by some politicians and many in the media says Sky News host Chris Kenny. Victoria has recorded 13 deaths and 732 new COVID-19 in the past 24 hours. Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said the fatalities included three men and three women in their 70s, three men and two women in their 80s and two men in their 90s. The Premier also said 913 active cases were from the state’s aged care sector. Mr Kenny said while the latest deaths are terrible, people “can’t stay in lockdown forever”. He said they will “resist (and) then change their behavior”.
30th Jul 2020 - Sky News Australia

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Trump 'owes us an apology.' Chinese scientist at the center of COVID-19 origin theories speaks out

The coronavirus pandemic has thrust virologist Shi Zhengli into a fierce spotlight. Shi, who’s been nicknamed “Bat Woman,” heads a group that studies bat coronaviruses at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), in the city in China where the pandemic began, and many have speculated that the virus that causes COVID-19 accidentally escaped from her lab—a theory promoted by U.S. President Donald Trump. Some have even suggested it could have been engineered there. China has forcefully rejected such claims, but Shi (pronounced SHIH) herself has said very little publicly. Now, Shi has broken her silence about the details of her work. On 15 July, she emailed Science answers to a series of written questions about the virus’ origin and the research at her institute. In them, Shi hit back at speculation that the virus leaked from WIV. She and her colleagues discovered the virus in late 2019, she says, in samples from patients who had a pneumonia of unknown origin. “Before that, we had never been in contact with or studied this virus, nor did we know of its existence,” Shi wrote.
24th Jul 2020 - Science Magazine

No, Australia should not follow Sweden's approach to coronavirus

The costs of preventing the spread of COVID-19 must always be compared to the health, social and economic costs of viable alternatives. Countries across the globe have dealt with this balancing act differently. One country in particular that has attracted attention for its lighter approach to lockdown is Sweden. Some people have regarded Sweden as an example for Australia to follow. But Sweden shouldn’t be seen as a model for Australia when it comes to COVID-19. The virus has spread rapidly, they’ve had more deaths, and the economy is suffering just as badly as their neighbours with heavier lockdowns.
29th Jul 2020 - The Conversation AU

People returning to UK from Spain decry 'unfair' coronavirus quarantine

People returning to the UK from Spain have spoken out about how they are facing a shortfall in income after the government introduced a 14-day quarantine period, as they cannot work and do not receive occupational sick pay. “The government’s decision is ridiculously unfair,” said Alejandro Castrillo, 29, who works at a hotel in London and had been visiting family in Asturias, northern Spain. “I don’t have the option to work from home and having to quarantine will mean unpaid leave or enforced holiday. Quarantine is not remunerated and I do not get sick pay. This is only generating higher levels of uncertainty.”
29th Jul 2020 - The Guardian

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Andrea Bocelli tells Italians to stop wearing masks and says country’s lockdown measures left him ‘humiliated’

The Italian opera singer Andrea Bocelli has revealed that he felt “humiliated and offended” by lockdown measures in Italy. The opera star was seen as a symbol of national unity during the country’s strict lockdown period. He performed in an empty cathedral on Easter Sunday as part of a live streamed concert titled Music for Hope. However, speaking at a conference in Italy’s senate, Bocelli, 61, revealed that he disobeyed lockdown rules and felt that Covid-19’s impact had been exaggerated.
28th Jul 2020 - The Independent

Tenor Andrea Bocelli gives Italy government earful over coronavirus

Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli on Monday issued a scathing criticism of the Italian government's handling of the coronavirus, saying he was humiliated by a recent lockdown, and urged people to disobey rules still in place.
28th Jul 2020 - Reuters on MSN.com

British tourists still flying to Spain say it is dealing with Covid-19 better than the UK

Tourists heading to Spain were today determined to continue with their travels despite the PM's warning. Those leaving from Manchester said Spain was dealing with Covid better and they could not get refunds. Boris Johnson today defended move and said there was 'second wave' in Europe.
28th Jul 2020 - Daily Mail

Coronavirus: Why do UK and Spain disagree over quarantine?

Spain has had 272,421 confirmed cases of COVID-19 since the pandemic began, according to Johns Hopkins University. That makes it the 12th highest country by number of infections in the world - four places below the UK. Lockdown measures initially brought rates down, but fears are growing of a resurgence in Spain as the two-week infection rate is now 39.4 per 100,000 people - a rise of 260%. The country's foreign ministry insists outbreaks are "localised, isolated and controlled".
28th Jul 2020 - Sky News

Spain slams UK, Germany for advising tourists to stay away

Spain reacted angrily on Tuesday to recommendations from Britain and Germany that their citizens avoid its islands and beaches because of an increase in coronavirus cases during what should be the height of the tourism season. With advisories piling up on top of a quarantine order from Britain for returning travellers, Spain, which depends on summer visits by sun-seeking northern Europeans, is facing a major blow to any hopes of reviving its economy. Tourism accounts for just over 12% of Spain’s GDP and nearly 13% of jobs. The country lost one million jobs between April and June, its biggest ever quarterly decline, and fears steeper losses as the summer season crashes. “It’s very unfair because it’s not based on any sanitary criteria,” Francina Armengol, the head of the key tourist Balearic region, told Cadena Ser radio of the travel advisories.
28th Jul 2020 - Reuters

End of UK-Spain air bridge as much about politics as hard data

It was also down to lessons learned the hard way about slow v speedy decision-making over the course of the pandemic – the decision-making was as much about politics and messaging as hard data. Advisers studying the figures at the end of last week say they were deeply concerned about the rate of the rise in Spain, and the potential for thousands of cases to be imported by tourists. Though low in number, the coronavirus cases detected in holidaymakers returning from Spain are believed to be the first from a country which had been previously deemed to be safe to visit.
28th Jul 2020 - The Guardian

Covid-19 outbreak in Xinjiang prompts fears of spread inside China's camps

Rising numbers of Covid-19 cases in the Xinjiang region has sparked fears the outbreak could reach the secretive internment camps where China is believed to have detained more than a million Muslim minority people. On Monday, Chinese health authorities reported 68 new cases of Covid-19, including 57 in the far western region of Xinjiang, bringing the area’s reported total to 235. After a reported five-month streak of no infections in Xinjiang, the outbreak that began almost two weeks ago has appeared to take hold in the capital city of Urumqi, and spread to Kashgar about 300km away.
28th Jul 2020 - The Guardian

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Coronavirus: 'We cannot wait' to learn lessons before potential second wave of COVID-19, government warned

"We cannot wait" to learn lessons from the coronavirus pandemic, an MP leading an inquiry into the government's handling of the outbreak so far has told Sky News. Speaking to Sophy Ridge on Sunday, Layla Moran said the "rapid inquiry" was needed before a potential second wave of COVID-19 later this year. The Lib Dem MP and party leadership candidate told the programme that more than 50 MPs - including some Conservatives - are involved with the inquiry.
27th Jul 2020 - Sky News

Coronavirus disbelievers meet in Melbourne and recite script to slip through lockdown in Victoria

Hoards of anti-mask coronavirus disbelievers are reciting scripts to police and attempting to escape fines. The scripts are read to cops at COVID checkpoints as drivers refuse to cooperate or provide personal details. Drivers are increasingly arguing with authorities over COVID-19 lockdowns among 'anti-masker' community The groups are also meeting weekly to discuss 'conduct of the police, government and media lies.' During the meetings, they break social distancing measures and gathering limits imposed during pandemic.
27th Jul 2020 - Daily Mail

Americans Back Tough Lockdown Restrictions as Trump Admin Pushes to Reopen

A majority of Americans favor strong lockdown restrictions as President Donald Trump is pushing for the economy and schools to be reopened amid a spike in coronavirus cases, new polling data shows. The latest AP-NORC survey found that more than half of U.S. adults wanted people to be required to stay in their homes if they weren't running essential errands, and a similar number backed the forced closure of restaurants and bars. A requirement to wear face masks when outside was also backed by a large number of U.S. adults polled as U.S. coronavirus cases topped the 4 million mark..
27th Jul 2020 - Newsweek

Covid 19 coronavirus: Judicial review into legality of lockdown - Government must obey law, lawyer says

A lawyer challenging the legality of New Zealand's coronavirus lockdown said no matter how urgent something was, the Government must still obey the law. A judicial review into whether the lockdown was legal began in Wellington today, with members of the public pouring in to the courtroom to hear the arguments. The Criminal Bar Association and Wellington lawyer Andrew Borrowdale are working to determine whether director general of health Ashley Bloomfield had the legal authority under the Public Health Act to effectively shut the country down and to order people to stay at home unless they had good reason for being out. The three-day hearing started in the High Court at Wellington this morning before a panel of three judges, including Chief High Court Judge Susan Thomas
27th Jul 2020 - New Zealand Herald

Philippines Duterte says coronavirus intervention prevented millions of cases

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte defended his tough approach to fighting the coronavirus on Monday amid a surge in cases, touting its effectiveness in an annual address that critics said revealed little about plans to resuscitate a battered economy.
27th Jul 2020 - Reuters UK

Spain is safe, minister insists as British quarantine move sows dismay

Spain is safe for tourists and Spaniards, the government insisted on Sunday after Britain abruptly imposed a two-week coronavirus quarantine on travellers returning from there, a decision that filled holidaymakers with dismay. Last year, Britons made up over a fifth of foreign visitors to Spain, which relies on heavily on tourism revenues, meaning the UK move could deal a hard blow to efforts to restart the Mediterranean country’s economy after months of lockdown. “Spain is safe, it is safe for Spaniards, it is safe for tourists,” Foreign Minister Arancha Gonzalez Laya told reporters. The Spanish government will focus its efforts on trying to persuade Britain to exclude the Balearic and Canary islands from the quarantine measure, she said, adding that the prevalence of the virus in those popular travel destinations was much lower than in the United Kingdom.
27th Jul 2020 - Reuters UK

Only 19 bereaved families approved for NHS staff coronavirus compensation scheme

At least 540 health and social workers have died in England and Wales during crisis. Only 19 families of NHS and social care workers who died after contracting coronavirus have so far been approved for the £60,000 compensation payment from the government. At least 540 health and social care workers have died in England and Wales during the crisis but, as of 8 July, just 51 claim forms for the taxpayer-funded bereavement scheme had been received. None have been rejected, with 32 still under consideration, according to the figures, provided by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC).
26th Jul 2020 - The Guardian

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Israelis Continue Protests Against PM's Handling of Pandemic

Thousands of Israelis held several demonstrations across the country against their prime minister Saturday, with the main protest taking place in Jerusalem outside the official residence of Benjamin Netanyahu. The protests have been going on for the past few weeks, sparked by what critics see as a government failure to handle the coronavirus crisis after initially keeping the threat of the virus at bay. Corruption charges against Netanyahu have further fueled the demonstrations.
26th Jul 2020 - U.S. News & World Report

Duterte's Political Future Hinges on Philippine Pandemic Rebound

At the start of the coronavirus outbreak, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said the disease would “die a natural death.” Five months later, the pandemic is raging, the economy is facing a deep contraction, and his political future could be at stake. While leaders around the world have struggled in their pandemic response, Duterte has a lot riding on an economic rebound. Down to his last two years in office and barred from seeking re-election, he has to maintain political capital to help his chosen candidate win in the 2022 polls. Presidents before him were sued, with some even detained after stepping down.
26th Jul 2020 - Bloomberg

Head of worst-hit Italy region is probed for COVID supplies

In the aftermath of an Italian investigative TV program report on the deal, Fontana contended last month that he didn’t know anything about the contract, which reportedly was valued at more than a half-million euros (more than $600,000). The governor insisted that the region never paid for the gowns, which were reportedly eventually donated to Lombardy. The region at the time was struggling, like all of Italy, to obtain vitally needed medical protective gear for doctors and nurses treating coronavirus patients. Fontana’s wife has a minor stake in the company, according to Italian media. The governor is a prominent figure in Matteo Salvini’s right-wing opposition League party, which often rails against corruption among public officials. In a tweet on Saturday, Salvini blasted the probe as “one-way wrong justice.” Lombardy is a League stronghold. Meanwhile, some politicians from the center-left government’s parties called Saturday for Fontana’s resignation.
25th Jul 2020 - The Associated Press

Sinclair says it will postpone and 'rework' segment featuring conspiracy theory about Fauci

The Sinclair Broadcast Group (SBGI) said Saturday it will postpone and rework a segment it planned to air this weekend that suggested Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, was responsible for the creation of the coronavirus. The baseless conspiracy theory was set to air on stations across the country in a segment during the program "America This Week" hosted by Eric Bolling. The show, which is posted online before it is broadcast over the weekend, is distributed to Sinclair's network of local television stations, one of the largest in the country. In a memo sent to its local television stations on Saturday, Sinclair instructed news directors to avoid airing for now the most recent episode of Bolling's show, which was supposed to include the conspiracy theory.
25th Jul 2020 - CNN

San Francisco bus driver assaulted with bat over mask order

A San Francisco bus driver was assaulted with a wooden bat after asking three passengers to wear a mask in keeping with city health orders to combat the coronavirus. The three men boarded the bus in the city’s South of Market neighborhood Wednesday afternoon, said San Francisco Police Department officer Robert Rueca in an email Friday. The driver asked the passengers multiple times to wear a mask but they refused, so the driver pulled over to let them off, Rueca said in a statement. “As the victim was escorting the males off the bus one of the males pulled out a wooden bat and struck the victim several times, which caused the victim to be injured,” he said.
25th Jul 2020 - Associated Press

Rich country vaccine rush threatens supply security

The resulting patchwork of agreements has raised big questions about global vaccine access and stoked wrangles over pricing, supply security and liability for possible side-effects. “On the positive side, bilateral deals between countries and companies can drive forward the science and clinical development — and expand the world’s manufacturing capacity,” said Seth Berkley, chief executive of Gavi, a UN-backed alliance that buys and distributes vaccines in more than 50 of the world’s poorest countries. “But . . . you [also] end up with unnecessary competition, shortages of supplies and a failure to optimise a pipeline that should make the best vaccines available at scale as quickly as possible.”
23rd Jul 2020 - Financial Times

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Florida reports record one-day increase in COVID-19 deaths

Florida reported a record one-day increase in deaths from COVID-19 on Thursday with 173 lives lost, according to the state health department. Florida also reported that cases rose by 10,249, bringing its total cases to nearly 390,000. Total deaths rose to 5,632. Florida has the third-largest outbreak in the nation, behind only California and New York.
23rd Jul 2020 - Reuters

The U.S. Is on the Verge of Lockdown 2.0

The key to restarting the recovery, therefore, is to suppress the virus. For cities and states where the epidemic has subsided, the best tools for preventing new outbreaks are universal mask usage, plentiful testing, prompt contact tracing and isolation of the infected. But President Donald Trump, apparently subscribing to the theory that ignoring the virus will make it go away, is attempting to block funding for testing and tracing. And for states such as Texas, Florida and Arizona that have been overwhelmed with new infections, this approach -- although still useful -- won’t be enough.
23rd Jul 2020 - Bloomberg

UK could learn from Scottish response to Covid-19, Sturgeon suggests

The UK could learn lessons from Scotland’s more cautious response to Covid-19, Nicola Sturgeon has said. The Scottish First Minster spoke as different approaches to the pandemic north and south of the border appeared to highlight a growing divide between Scotland and England. As Prime Minister Boris Johnson visited Scotland, Ms Sturgeon said: “Do I think there are things the UK Government could learn from Scotland? Yes I do.” She added: “An approach that is very much driven by elimination I think is one thing they could learn.
23rd Jul 2020 - Bournemouth Daily Echo

Israel: Anger over Netanyahu's virus response, corruption charges

Public anger has been compounded by corruption allegations against the long-serving prime minister, who went on trial in May for bribery, fraud and breach of trust - charges he denies. Demonstrations outside the prime minister's official residence have become a weekly occurrence, with police increasingly taking harsher measures against demonstrators. Last month, they arrested a retired Israeli air force general, setting off an uproar. The protests have since drawn a younger crowd and have grown more defiant. In the past week, thousands of Israelis have participated in some of the largest anti-government demonstrations in nearly 10 years.
22nd Jul 2020 - AlJazeera

Why Armed Groups in Latin America Are Enforcing COVID-19 Lockdowns

In spring, as Colombia settled into a nationwide COVID-19 lockdown, some Colombians received troubling new guidelines—and not from the government. In remote parts of 11 of the country’s 32 states, armed groups began enforcing their own quarantine measures, according to a report published July 15 by Human Rights Watch. Through pamphlets and WhatsApp messages, the groups laid out curfews, restrictions on movement, categories of essential work, and more. These restrictions were sometimes stricter than government rules, and punishments for breaking them far more serious. One pamphlet seen by HRW, released in early April by Marxist guerrillas the National Liberation Army (ELN) in the northern Bolívar department, warned that fighters would be “forced to kill people in order to preserve lives” because residents had not “respected the orders to prevent Covid-19.”
22nd Jul 2020 - TIME

Covid-19 unmasks weaknesses of English public health agency

Matt Hancock is ready to reform Public Health England as criticism of its response to the coronavirus crisis mounts. Interviews with 15 people familiar with the workings of PHE reveal an array of issues: impulse to centralise, a wariness if engaging with industry, impact of a decade of fiscal austerity, agency's budget cut 40% since its inception
22nd Jul 2020 - Financial Times

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 23rd Jul 2020

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Trump admits pandemic will 'get worse' at first Covid-19 briefing in months

Donald Trump has admitted that the coronavirus pandemic is likely to “get worse before it gets better” at his first press briefing devoted to the issue since April. Facing dire poll numbers, surging cases and sharp criticism for lack of leadership, the US president returned to the White House podium attempting to show more discipline in both style and substance. In several notable reversals, he urged people to wear face masks, promised his administration was working on a “strategy” and wrapped up in less than half an hour, avoiding his digressions in past briefings that culminated in a proposal to inject disinfectant in Covid-19 patients.
22nd Jul 2020 - The Guardian

Edelstein: Knesset is leading us to coronavirus lockdown

The country is heading toward a complete lockdown, Health Minister Yuli Edelstein said Tuesday. Hospital services could break down within the next three weeks, senior health experts predicted. Nevertheless, the Knesset voted to overturn the government’s restrictions on restaurants.
22nd Jul 2020 - The Jerusalem Post

Doubts over Nicola Sturgeon’s Spain quarantine U-turn

Nicola Sturgeon has been told to clear up "confusing" guidance on quarantine after lifting strict rules for Scottish holiday makers looking for some Spanish sun. The popular tourist country was kept off Scotland's first list "air bridge" destinations because of concerns with the rate of Covid-19 infections. But the Scottish Government went on to remove the requirement earlier this week, despite the infection rate tripling. Today, Sturgeon defended the decision but also urged Scots to holiday at home unless it's "essential".
22nd Jul 2020 - Daily Record

Catalonia rules out compulsory lockdown as Spain calls to keep borders open

The Catalan health secretary has said young people should drink at home instead of gathering in town squares at night and the government ruled out a compulsory lockdown - for now
22nd Jul 2020 - The Telegraph

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 22nd Jul 2020

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Chris Whitty blames poor planning for lockdown in bad-tempered health committee

The coronavirus pandemic was probably already in retreat before the full lockdown was imposed, the chief medical officer for England said as he insisted that there was no “huge delay” in government action. Chris Whitty said that “many of the problems we had came out of lack of testing capacity”. He blamed a failure to build up public health infrastructure in previous years for leaving Britain unprepared. In often bad-tempered exchanges at the health select committee, he said that the infrastructure could not have been “suddenly switched on” in the spring.
22nd Jul 2020 - The Times

Will Increasing Coronavirus Cases Lead To Even More U.S. Lockdowns?

Hang those cloth masks out to dry and put ‘em away? Not so fast! We have mandatory masks already, and an ongoing debate about whether the ever expanding coronavirus won’t force governments to shut things down again. The coronavirus is causing some state and municipal governments to debate school openings. In the past two weeks, governments have closed down things like indoor dining and beaches. So far, the trend towards increasing lockdowns has stalled. Does that trend have any legs? UBS Global Wealth Management strategists think so. No more lockdowns, they say. The economy can’t handle it.
21st Jul 2020 - Forbes

Botched U.K. Lockdown Exit Risks Making Disabled ‘Shielders’ Second-Class Citizens

A leading pan-disability charity is warning that U.K. government plans to restart public life and the economy after lockdown could represent the genesis of a segregated society, in which disabled people are shut away and unable to participate. On Friday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson spoke of the potential for a “significant return to normality from November at the earliest - possibly in time for Christmas.” Though, as a result of lockdown, the U.K. Covid-19 daily death figure has decreased steadily over the past few weeks, globally, the number of new infections over a 24-hour period broke all previous records over the weekend, soaring to almost 260,000.
21st Jul 2020 - Forbes

Leicester could have avoided coronavirus lockdown, mayor says

A lockdown in Leicester could have been avoided if local powers had been available sooner, the mayor has said. A spike in coronavirus cases in the city saw restrictions tightened again on 29 June. On Friday, Boris Johnson unveiled powers for councils to use targeted lockdowns in response to local spikes. But Sir Peter Soulsby said these were needed "three or four weeks ago", and could have saved the city from the government's "sledgehammer" approach. Mr Johnson said local authorities would be able to close shops, cancel events and shut outdoor public spaces in certain postcodes, if there was a spike in cases.
21st Jul 2020 - BBC

Chris Whitty defends coronavirus lockdown lag in bad-tempered interview

England's chief medical officer gave uncharacteristic, bad-tempered interview Claimed there were 'operational difficulties' that prevented lockdown sooner Contradicted colleague Sir Jeremy Farrar who said it should've come earlier
21st Jul 2020 - Daily Mail

German Jewish leaders fear rise of antisemitic conspiracy theories linked to Covid-19

A leader of Germany’s Jewish community has expressed alarm at the spread of antisemitic conspiracy theories relating to coronavirus in the country, including attempts to downplay the Holocaust. Josef Schuster, the president of the Central Council of Jews, said Jews were increasingly being held collectively responsible for the spread of the virus and compared the situation to narratives around the plague in the Middle Ages. At high-profile demonstrations against coronavirus measures, figures such as the Hungarian-born financier George Soros have been blamed for starting the pandemic with the help of the German government in order to gain power and influence.
21st Jul 2020 - The Guardian

British ministers hold first face-to-face cabinet in months

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson held his first face-to-face cabinet meeting of top ministers in more than four months on Tuesday, seeking to lead by example as he encourages Britons to return to work and revive the coronavirus-hit economy. The weekly meeting inside Johnson’s Downing Street office was replaced with video conference calls when the COVID-19 crisis threatened to run out of control. But in recent weeks Johnson has called on people to return to their workplaces, concerned that the economy, poised for recession, could be crushed over the long term by a lockdown that has kept millions at home for several months. Supplied with hand sanitizer and individual bottles of water, ministers were asked to attend a socially-distanced meeting, spaced out around a vast rectangle of tables inside a grand chamber in the foreign office. “Welcome to the Locarno Suite, which is the foreign office’s idea of a modest seminar room,” Johnson joked at the start of the meeting.
21st Jul 2020 - Reuters UK

Middle East mythbusters fight dangerous 'infodemic' | MEO

Arabic pages on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are brimming with fake news stories on the novel coronavirus, from benign inaccuracies to full-throated conspiracy theories.
21st Jul 2020 - Middle East Online

Spain to give 1.7 billion euros in coronavirus aid to developing countries

Spain will send 1.7 billion euros (1.5 billion pounds) in aid to developing countries to help them deal with coronavirus pandemic, Foreign Minister Arancha Gonzalez Laya said on Tuesday after a cabinet meeting. Spain aims to help save lives and strengthen public health systems and also protect and restore rights and capacities, among other goals, Gonzalez Laya told a news conference.
21st Jul 2020 - The Star Online

Zimbabwe president announces curfew to curb coronavirus

Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa said on Tuesday that security forces would enforce a dusk to dawn curfew from Wednesday to combat the coronavirus outbreak. But critics and the opposition say authorities want to stop anti-government protests planned for next week by activists who say government corruption has worsened economic hardships.
21st Jul 2020 - Reuters Africa

Mike Pompeo attacks WHO in private meeting during UK visit

The US secretary of state Mike Pompeo launched an extraordinary attack on the World Health Organization during a private meeting in the UK, accusing it of being in the pocket of China and responsible for “dead Britons” who passed away during the pandemic. Pompeo told those present that he believed the WHO was “political not a science-based organisation” and accused its current director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus of being too close to Beijing. Those present at the meeting on Tuesday said that Pompeo told his audience of 20 MPs and peers that he was saying “on a firm intelligence foundation, a deal was made” with China to allow Tedros to win election in 2017.
21st Jul 2020 - The Guardian

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 21st Jul 2020

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Brazil's Bolsonaro says coronavirus restrictions kill economy

Bolsonaro insists that the virus lockdown measures “kill” and have “suffocated” the economyMercoPressBrazil's Bolsonaro Says Lockdown 'Kills' and 'Suffocated' the EconomyNewsweekBrazil`s Bolsonaro slams lockdown, says it `kills` country`s economyWIONWhat's Common to Three Covid Kings -- India, US & BrazilNewsClickView Full coverage on Google News
20th Jul 2020 - The Jakarta Post

Brazil's Bolsonaro Says Lockdown 'Kills' and 'Suffocated' the Economy

Brazil's president Jair Bolsonaro said that lockdowns implemented by some states and cities across the country during the pandemic have "suffocated" the country's economy. The president also said on Saturday that "Lockdown kills," Reuters reported. "Without salaries and jobs, people die." Brazil is suffering the second-worst coronavirus outbreak in the world after the United States with more than 2 million confirmed cases and over 78,000 deaths.
20th Jul 2020 - Newsweek

England's chief nurse dropped from Covid-19 briefing after refusing to back Cummings

England’s chief nurse has confirmed she was dropped from the Downing Street daily coronavirus briefing after refusing to back Dominic Cummings. Ruth May said that in a trial run for the 1 June briefing, she was asked about Boris Johnson’s chief adviser’s decision to drive his family from London to Durham during lockdown while his wife had suspected Covid-19. After she failed to back Cummings, she said, she was told she was no longer needed for the televised press conference taking place later that day, and she was never given an explanation why. Ministers and No 10 have denied reports that May was stood down over Cummings. Aides to the prime minister briefed journalists at the time that she may not have made it to the briefing because she could have been stuck in traffic.
20th Jul 2020 - The Guardian

Two thirds of readers think lockdown is being eased too soon, M.E.N. survey finds

Two thirds of people think the coronavirus lockdown in England is being eased too soon, according to the M.E.N's Lockdown survey. We asked our readers how they feel about the changes set to happen in the coming weeks and months after the Prime Minister's announcement on Friday. Speaking from Downing Street, Boris Johnson revealed a four-month plan for a “significant return to normality” from as early as November. On August 1, most remaining leisure venues, including casinos, bowling alleys and skating rinks, will be allowed to reopen, and close-contact beauty services permitted. Indoor performances with live audiences will also resume, with trials beginning for larger events at sports and football stadiums “with a view to a wider reopening in the autumn”. And it's good news for engaged couples as wedding receptions of up to 30 guests can also resume next month. But how do the people of Greater Manchester really feel about the easing of measures? More than 2,200 readers responded to our lockdown changes survey, this is what they think:
20th Jul 2020 - Manchester Evening News

Coronavirus: Boris Johnson insists he can avoid second England-wide lockdown

Boris Johnson has insisted he can avoid imposing another England-wide lockdown this winter, describing it as a “nuclear deterrent” that he hopes never to use. Despite chief scientific adviser Patrick Vallance saying “national measures” might be necessary if there are fresh waves of the virus in the coming months, the prime minister said he “certainly” did not want to have to order the public to “stay at home” again. “I can’t abandon that tool any more than I would abandon a nuclear deterrent. But it is like a nuclear deterrent – I certainly don’t want to use it.
19th Jul 2020 - The Guardian

Dominic Raab Accuses Russia Of 'Reprehensible' Attempt To Hack Coronavirus Research

The UK will ensure the world knows the nature of the “reprehensible behaviour” that Russia is engaged in, according Dominic Raab. It follows accusations that Russia’s intelligence services tried to steal details of research into coronavirus vaccines. Russia’s ambassador to the UK Andrei Kelin rejected the claims and said there was “no sense” in the allegations made by Britain, the United States and Canada. Speaking on Sky News’ Sophy Ridge On Sunday programme, Raab said it was “outrageous and reprehensible” that the Russian government is engaged in such activity. The foreign secretary said: “We’re absolutely confident that the Russian intelligence agencies were engaged in a cyber attack on research and development efforts and organisations in this country and internationally with a view either to sabotage or to profit from the R&D that was taking place.
20th Jul 2020 - Huffington Post UK

Russian Elite Given Experimental Covid-19 Vaccine Since April

Scores of Russia’s business and political elite have been given early access to an experimental vaccine against Covid-19, according to people familiar with the effort, as the country races to be among the first to develop an inoculation. Top executives at companies including aluminum giant United Co. Rusal, as well as billionaire tycoons and government officials began getting shots developed by the state-run Gamaleya Institute in Moscow as early as April, the people said. They declined to be identified as the information isn’t public.
20th Jul 2020 - Bloomberg

Boris Johnson claims UK won't need another national lockdown despite experts warning of second wave

Boris Johnson has said the UK will not need another nationwide lockdown despite expert warnings of up to 120,000 extra deaths during a second wave this winter. The prime minister described the coronavirus restrictions he imposed on 23 March as a “nuclear deterrent” that he did not think he would ever have to use again. However his attempt to rule out a further UK lockdown in an interview with the Sunday Telegraph is likely to bring him into conflict with the government’s scientific advisors.
19th Jul 2020 - The Independent

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 20th Jul 2020

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Coronavirus: Outbreak investigated at contact tracing centre

Health officials are investigating an outbreak of coronavirus at an NHS Test and Trace call centre in North Lanarkshire. Sitel, which carries out contact tracing for the NHS, said it was aware of a "local outbreak" at its Motherwell site. One employee said they believed at least seven colleagues had tested positive. NHS Lanarkshire said it was aware of a number of "potentially linked cases".
20th Jul 2020 - BBC

Brazil president greets supporters

-Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro greeted his supporters outside the Alvorada Palace in Brasilia on Sunday where he has been isolated since testing positive for COVID-19.
20th Jul 2020 - Republic World

Russian Elite Given Experimental Covid-19 Vaccine Since April

Scores of members of Russia’s business and political elite have been given early access to an experimental vaccine against Covid-19, according to people familiar with the effort, as the country races to be among the first to develop an inoculation. Top executives at companies including aluminum giant United Co. Rusal, as well as billionaire tycoons and government officials began getting shots developed by the state-run Gamaleya Institute in Moscow as early as April, the people said. They declined to be identified as the information isn’t public.
19th Jul 2020 - Bloomberg

Israelis protest against Netanyahu, gov't handling of COVID-19 crisis

Israeli police used water cannons to disperse demonstrators around Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's residence on Saturday as protests mounted against him over alleged corruption and his handling of the coronavirus crisis. Hit by high unemployment, a sharp rise in COVID-19 cases and reimposed coronavirus curbs, Israelis have taken to the streets in almost daily demonstrations against the government. Public anger has been compounded by corruption alleged against Netanyahu, who went on trial in May for bribery, fraud and breach of trust - charges he denies. In Jerusalem hundreds gathered outside the prime minister's residence and then marched through the streets, calling for Netanyahu's resignation as police used water cannons to disperse the crowds. At least two people were arrested, police said.
19th Jul 2020 - MSN UK

Trump reportedly seeks to block testing funds as Covid-19 surges across south and west

n Washington, Congress is gearing up to pass another economic stimulus package. Optimistic economists once thought such a package could be unnecessary, but Covid-19 is now expected to continue to hurt the economy. The White House is reportedly trying to hurt any resultant bill. According to the Washington Post, the Trump administration is pushing to block billions of dollars for state-run testing and tracing, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and attempts to combat the pandemic at the Pentagon and state department.
18th Jul 2020 - The Guardian

UK government to stop publishing daily coronavirus deaths while review carried out

The government will temporarily stop announcing the daily coronavirus death figures because of concerns about how accurate they are. Health Secretary Matt Hancock has launched an inquiry after Public Health experts said the number of deaths associated with the virus may have been over-exagerrated. But scientists have questioned the move and suggested that there is unlikely to be a 'massive distortion' of the figures. Academics have said the way that Public Health England(PHE) calculates the data means they might look worse there than in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, the Mirror reports. In a statement, the Department for Health and Social Care said: "The Secretary of State has today, 17 July, asked PHE to urgently review their estimation of daily death statistics.
18th Jul 2020 - Liverpool Echo

Scientists line up to blast Boris Johnson's aim of a return to pre-pandemic life by Christmas

Boris Johnson's aim for a 'significant return to normality' by Christmas has been blasted by scientists while Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has said that Britons need a 'sense of direction'. Professor John Edmunds, a member of the Government's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), has said he won't be hugging his elderly relatives this Christmas as a return to pre-lockdown normality is 'a long way off'. He told BBC Radio 4: 'Unfortunately I think it is quite a long way away. If what you mean by normality is what we used to do until February and the middle of March this year - go to work normally, travel on the buses and trains, go on holiday without restrictions, meet friends, shake hands, hug each other and so on - that's a long way off, unfortunately.
18th Jul 2020 - Daily Mail

Texas exempts religious private schools from reopening guidelines | TheHill

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) said Friday that private schools are exempt from having to follow local health restrictions regarding school openings. Paxton said in an open letter to religious private institutions that forcing such schools to comply with local reopening guidelines would be unconstitutional. “Under the Governor’s orders, local governments are prohibited from closing religious institutions or dictating mitigation strategies to those institutions,” Paxton wrote. “Local governments are similarly prohibited from issuing blanket orders closing religious private schools. Because a local order closing a religious private school or institution is inconsistent with the Governor’s order, any local order is invalid to the extent it purports to do so.
18th Jul 2020 - The Hill

Report: Trump Wants To Block Funding For Virus Testing, CDC In Next Stimulus Package

As Congress races to come together on a fifth coronavirus stimulus package with cases skyrocketing across the country, the Trump administration is actively working to block “billions of dollars” in federal funding for testing and the Centers for Disease Control, according to a new report from the Washington Post.
18th Jul 2020 - Forbes

Georgia Massaged Virus Data to Reopen, Then Voided Mask Orders

Georgia Governor Brian Kemp’s edict expressly voiding coronavirus mask orders by local governments capped a week of turmoil in a state once touted as proof that reopening in a pandemic could work. For six weeks, Georgia had been a model, especially for those eager to end shutdowns. Among the last U.S. states to lock down, Georgia in April was first to widely reopen, after just three weeks. Critics said the state misrepresented its data to justify the move, and they predicted disaster. It didn’t happen: Covid-19 case numbers bumped along, neither rising nor falling significantly. Pandemic skeptics crowed. the same week Kemp ordered the reopening, his administration began presenting data in a way that made the state appear healthier than it was, said Thomas Tsai, a professor at Harvard University’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Then the data starting being manipulated, the technique involved backdating new cases to the time of first symptoms or taking a test, instead of reporting them as they were reported to the state, like Georgia had previously done -- and like most states do. “It is deeply concerning,” Tsai said. “I cannot of course speak to the motivation.”
17th Jul 2020 - Bloomberg

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 17th Jul 2020

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Outbreak: Lockdown protests explode in several countries

Major protests are breaking out against governments in several countries after coronavirus sparked fury over grievances including economic problems and alleged corruption or incompetence. Demonstrators have taken to the streets to voice their anger at perceived failures by leaders to rise to the unprecedented challenges heightened by the pandemic. A report from the Institute for Economics and Peace entitled Covid-19 and Peace reads: “The pandemic will undo many years of socio-economic development for several countries, exacerbating humanitarian crises and potentially aggravating unrest and conflict.” The IEP said that most of the indicators of its Global Peace Index (GPI) and Positive Peace Index (PPI) — which measures the attitudes, institutions and structures that create and sustain peaceful societies — were “likely to be negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.”
16th Jul 2020 - Mercury News

Ukrainians 'tired' of lockdown, says president

Ukrainians are fed up with the coronavirus lockdown and the government should be cautious about extending it beyond August, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Thursday. “Everyone is tired of this quarantine,” the presidential press service quoted him as telling government officials. Ukraine imposed strict restrictions in March but partially eased them in May to allow economic recovery. It has been extending the lockdown monthly, with current rules in place until end-July requiring people to wear masks and adhere to strict norms in restaurants and public places. “We need a clear framework for how we will continue it (lockdown), so that people have the opportunity to live safely, so that business can function, so that the economy does not stand at a pause,” Zelenskiy added.
16th Jul 2020 - Reuters UK

Algeria plans law to protect medics as attacks, virus cases rise

Algeria is planning a law to protect health workers after an increase in "physical and verbal attacks" since the country's coronavirus outbreak began, as it registered another record number of daily cases. President Abdelmadjid Tebboune called for new legislation after an increase in recent weeks of "physical and verbal attacks on medics, paramedics and administrative staff," according to a statement published on the prime minister's website. The incidents have also in some cases involved "acts of damage and destruction of public assets and medical equipment," the statement added. Algeria on Thursday registered 585 new cases of the novel coronavirus, bringing the total number of infections to 21,355, including 1,052 deaths, said Djamel Fourar, spokesperson for the scientific committee monitoring the pandemic, during a daily press conference.
16th Jul 2020 - Yahoo News

How Russian hackers tried to breach UK coronavirus vaccine research

The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has warned that hackers linked to the Russian intelligence services are targeting UK researchers working on a coronavirus vaccine. The warning has been issued by the UK’s cyber security agency alongside its US and Canadian counterparts.
16th Jul 2020 - ITV News

Scott Morrison says Australia cannot shut down to contain second wave of Covid-19

Scott Morrison says the response to a second wave of Covid-19 infections cannot be shutting the country down to try to eliminate the virus, and he’s moved to reassure people his government will not be withdrawing income support “for those in need”. With renewed debate around whether Australia should respond to the latest outbreak and a spike in community transmission with more forceful lockdowns, Morrison said on Wednesday elimination was impractical, but Victoria’s chief health officer Brett Sutton told reporters it was an idea “worthy of consideration”.
15th Jul 2020 - The Guardian

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 16th Jul 2020

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Coronavirus: Matt Hancock rejects face masks and coverings for offices

There are no plans to make face coverings mandatory for office workers in England, Matt Hancock has said. The health secretary told the BBC people working in offices would not need to cover up, despite a newspaper report suggesting they would. "It is something we've looked at and rejected," he said, but added masks would be worn elsewhere by the public "for the foreseeable future". Face coverings in shops will become mandatory in England on 24 July. Those who fail to comply with the new rules on wearing face coverings in England's shops will face a fine of up to £100. Children under 11, those with certain disabilities, and people working in shops will be exempt
16th Jul 2020 - BBC

UK PM Johnson commits to coronavirus inquiry, but not yet

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson committed on Wednesday to holding an inquiry into the country’s handling of the coronavirus crisis but said now was not the time as the battle to combat the pandemic was ongoing. Opposition lawmakers have been pressing for an inquiry after ministers were criticised for being too slow to lock down, to introduce mass testing and to deliver protective equipment. Johnson has repeatedly said his government took the right decisions at the right time but also admits that lessons will have to be learned after the pandemic which has left Britain as one of the worst affected countries. “We will seek to learn the lessons of this pandemic in the future and certainly we will have an independent inquiry into what happened,” he told parliament. His spokesman declined to comment further on the inquiry, but said further details would be set out “in due course”.
16th Jul 2020 - Reuters

Extended Lockdown May Not Be Best Strategy Against Covid-19; We Need Scientific Approach

India has now become the third worst-hit nation by the Covid-19 pandemic. Only the US and Brazil are ahead of India in terms of total coronavirus infections. In just three weeks, India went from being the sixth worst-affected country to the third. It’s mid-July and the Covid cases are expected to rise further in the coming weeks. In my earlier column, I had recommended a phased re-opening of activities across the country from April 15 based on the risk profiling. Now, after analysing global Covid data tillJune 30, things are becoming increasingly apparent. We, perhaps, went too far without scientific evidence-based planning, and maybe, it is time to go back to the drawing board and rework our strategies.
15th Jul 2020 - Outlook India

Trump administration takes control of COVID-19 data in US

Concerns raised as hospital, testing info will be sent to a central database in Washington, DC, instead of to the CDC.
15th Jul 2020 - AlJazeera

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 15th Jul 2020

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Minister pleads case for COVIDSafe app after Opposition labels it 'expensive dud'

Technology Minister Karen Andrews has pleaded with people not to delete or stop using the COVIDSafe app, after the Opposition labelled it an "expensive dud" that has proven to be less effective than pen and paper.
14th Jul 2020 - ABC.Net.au

COVID-19 fear will keep the world in a slump

To date, the economic damage wrought by the pandemic has been mostly hidden by massive government subsidy. That’s about to change. And so the next few months will reveal the underlying economic impact of COVID-19 across the globe more clearly. My bet: As governments withdraw fiscal support, the economic picture is going to look worse than commonly appreciated. Getting a sense of what’s about to happen requires that we first be clear about how and why the pandemic has affected the economy: Is it because governments have required people to stay home, or is it because of the virus itself? New research shows that economic losses have come mainly from fear, not government mandate. So eliminating the mandates without ending the fear does very little.
14th Jul 2020 - The Japan Times

Global vaccine plan may allow rich countries to buy more

Politicians and public health leaders have publicly committed to equitably sharing any coronavirus vaccine that works, but the top global initiative to make that happen may allow rich countries to reinforce their own stockpiles while making fewer doses available for poor ones. Activists warn that without stronger attempts to hold political, pharmaceutical and health leaders accountable, vaccines will be hoarded by rich countries in an unseemly race to inoculate their populations first. After the recent uproar over the United States purchasing a large amount of a new COVID-19 drug, some predict an even more disturbing scenario if a successful vaccine is developed. Dozens of vaccines are being researched, and some countries — including Britain, France, Germany and the U.S. — already have ordered hundreds of millions of doses before the vaccines are even proven to work.
14th Jul 2020 - ModernHealthcare.com

In US, political divisions stymie return to lockdowns

US mayors of Houston and Atlanta are calling for a return to stay-at-home orders to staunch an alarming spike in coronavirus cases, but are being hindered by state governors who favor less restrictive measures.
13th Jul 2020 - FRANCE 24

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 14th Jul 2020

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Leicester lockdown: City-wide restrictions 'not justified'

Sir Peter Soulsby said about 10% of the city's neighbourhoods "have a higher transmission" of the virus. He said data should have been shared earlier so authorities could focus on "preventing the transmission there". The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said it "makes no apology" for trying to reverse infection rates. Speaking on BBC Breakfast, the Leicester mayor said it had taken "weeks" to "finally get some useful data" from the government. He said: "It's very clear when you look at the data it's a couple of areas of the city that have got a higher than average transmission of the virus. "Certainly the way the city's been locked down in its entirety, and even beyond its boundaries, is not justified."
13th Jul 2020 - BBC

‘Clueless’ government officials unsure of how to bring Leicester out of lockdown

Nearly two weeks after the city went back into lockdown, just as restrictions were easing up throughout the rest of England, Leicester’s mayor has said that a lack of data and government clarity remains a major impediment to reopening once again. Sir Peter Soulsby told The Independent that the government “haven’t got any clue of what might be the route out and the thresholds that need to be reached to achieve this”.
11th Jul 2020 - The Independent

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 13th Jul 2020

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Tory party split over need for face masks in shops as pressure mounts for clarity

Boris Johnson is under mounting pressure to force people to wear face coverings in shops. He has resisted calls so far despite admitting the evidence for such a move was growing. Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove said it should be voluntary, while trying to guilt-trip people into wearing them in shops. Sources think a switch in the rules could be announced this week. It comes as the UK’s Covid-19 death toll rose yesterday by 21 to 44,819.
12th Jul 2020 - Mirror Online

Netanyahu vows relief as Israelis fume over virus-battered economy

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday pledged immediate financial aid to Israelis whose livelihoods have been devastated by the coronavirus, as his government faces mounting anger over its pandemic response. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday pledged immediate financial aid to Israelis whose livelihoods have been devastated by the coronavirus, as his government faces mounting anger over its pandemic response.
12th Jul 2020 - Manila Bulletin

California to release 8,000 prisoners to slow pandemic

California will release up to 8,000 inmates early from state prisons to slow the spread of COVID-19 inside facilities, state authorities said on Friday. Several California prisons have suffered large coronavirus outbreaks and the state corrections department said inmates could be eligible for release by the end of August. The release marks the biggest move yet by California to “decompress” prison populations and reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission by creating more space for social distancing and quarantines. “These actions are taken to provide for the health and safety of the incarcerated population and staff,” California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Secretary Ralph Diaz said in a statement.
11th Jul 2020 - Reuters UK

Trump wears coronavirus mask publicly for first time during visit to Walter Reed military hospital

Before departing for Walter Reed, Trump told reporters on the White House South Lawn that he would “probably have a mask” while visiting the hospital. Walter Reed requires visitors to wear masks when maintaining a safe social distance isn’t possible. Trump has resisted wearing a mask in the past.
11th Jul 2020 - CNBC

Israeli police brace for rally against corona cash crisis

Organizers of the protests said they expected thousands of Israel’s self-employed to turn out. Student unions said they would also take part in the event at the city’s Rabin Square, to show their concern at the large numbers of young people made jobless by closures
11th Jul 2020 - Arab News

French bus driver dies following attack by passengers who refused to wear masks

A French bus driver declared brain dead after an attack by passengers who refused to wear face masks has died, according to his family. Philippe Monguillot, 59, died in hospital on Friday, his daughter Marie told Agence France-Presse. “We decided to let him go. The doctors were in favour and we were as well,” she said. Monguillot was attacked in the south-western town of Bayonne on Sunday after he asked three passengers to wear masks – in line with coronavirus rules across France – and tried to check another man’s ticket.
10th Jul 2020 - The Guardian

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 10th Jul 2020

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CDC feels pressure from Trump as rift grows over coronavirus response

The June 28 email to the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was ominous: A senior adviser to a top Health and Human Services Department official accused the CDC of “undermining the President” by putting out a report about the potential risks of the coronavirus to pregnant women. The adviser, Paul Alexander, criticized the agency’s methods and said its warning to pregnant women “reads in a way to frighten women . . . as if the President and his administration can’t fix this and it is getting worse.” As the country enters a frightening phase of the pandemic with new daily cases surpassing 57,000 on Thursday, the CDC, the nation’s top public health agency, is coming under intense pressure from President Trump and his allies, who are downplaying the dangers in a bid to revive the economy ahead of the Nov. 3 presidential election. In a White House guided by the president’s instincts, rather than by evidence-based policy, the CDC finds itself forced constantly to backtrack or sidelined from pivotal decisions.
10th Jul 2020 - The Washington Post

UK has opted out of EU coronavirus vaccine programme, sources say

The UK government has rejected the chance to join the European Union’s coronavirus vaccine programme due to concerns over “costly delays”, according to sources. The EU is planning to spend around €2bn (£1.8bn) on the advance purchase of vaccines that are undergoing testing on behalf of the 27 member states. Negotiations with Brussels have been ongoing but Alok Sharma, the business secretary, is believed to have opted out of the opportunity, according to The Daily Telegraph. The European commission is expected to be notified of on Friday. The decision not to participate is expected to provoke a backlash among opposition MPs, who believe that ministers are reluctant to collaborate with the EU on projects after Brexit. Government sources told the newspaper that officials fear signing up to the scheme could delay the rollout of a vaccine by up to six months while talks on distribution took place.
10th Jul 2020 - The Guardian

UK Government’s post-lockdown economic rescue package meets with mixed reaction in Borders

UK chancellor of the exchequer Rishi Sunak’s post-coronavirus lockdown rescue package for the British economy has met with a mixed reaction among politicians in the Borders.
9th Jul 2020 - The Southern Reporter

Serbia bans mass gatherings after virus lockdown protests

Serbian authorities on Thursday banned gatherings of more than 10 people in the capital, Belgrade, after two nights of violent clashes between police and thousands of demonstrators protesting coronavirus lockdown measures. Thousands of people defied the ban to stage a sit down protest Thursday night in front of Parliament, along with other peaceful gatherings in towns elsewhere in Serbia. Many protesters wore white T-shirts with the inscription, "Sit Down, Don't Be Set Up" — referring to widespread claims that the violence the previous nights was staged by hooligan groups close to the authorities to smear the opposition groups' image. "This is how the protest should really look like, without their mad dogs present," said one of the main opposition leaders, Dragan Djilas.
9th Jul 2020 - StarTribune

Serbia mulls anti-virus rules as clashes erupt over lockdown

Serbian authorities on Thursday banned gatherings of more than 10 people in the capital, Belgrade, after two nights of violent clashes between police and thousands of demonstrators protesting coronavirus lockdown measures. Thousands of people defied the ban to stage a sit down protest Thursday night in front of Parliament, along with other peaceful gatherings in towns elsewhere in Serbia. Many protesters wore white T-shirts with the inscription, “Sit Down, Don’t Be Set Up” - referring to widespread claims that the violence the previous nights was staged by hooligan groups close to the authorities to smear the opposition groups’ image.
9th Jul 2020 - Washington Times

Virus-ravaged states clamor for more funds from Modi

This week India surpassed Russia to become the third worst-hit country with more than 740,000 Covid-19 infections. The surging virus numbers have all but overwhelmed the public health system, which the states are responsible for. It’s also piling on pressure on local governments at a time when they’re scrambling to restart economic activity. The country’s sudden lockdown -- imposed without consulting state governments -- shattered the already troubled economy. All non-essential activity stalled and state tax collections fell sharply, pushing local governments to ask the federal government for funds in order to avoid racking up debt. The money crunch is putting everything -- from the salaries of government employees to their ability to fight the virus -- at risk.
9th Jul 2020 - The Economic Times

Thousands of protesters clash with police in Belgrade over threat of second lockdown

Thousands of protesters fought running battles with riot police outside the parliament building in Belgrade on Tuesday after the Serbian president announced plans to reinstate a coronavirus lockdown. Chaos erupted as demonstrators responded to tear gas being fired at them by hurling flares, stones, bottles and eggs. A number of them briefly forced their way inside the government building before being pushed back by the police. It followed President Aleksander Vucic’s announcement on Tuesday that the Balkan country may once again be placed under weekend curfew after health officials reported the highest single-day death toll of 13 amid 299 new Covid-19 cases. Opponents blame the surge on his earlier decision to lift the restrictions in the first place.
9th Jul 2020 - Metro

Behind New Covid-19 Outbreaks: America’s Patchwork of Policies

The rising tide of coronavirus cases in the U.S. South and West, coming four months into the outbreak, emerged amid a patchwork of often confusing or conflicting rules across government that have proved inconsistent and often difficult to enforce, making the pandemic harder to halt. With the federal government handing off many decisions over reopening, the states have been the primary drivers behind moves with the most impact on the coronavirus’s spread. States, in turn, have often given responsibility for many of those decisions to counties, cities and businesses. The result is a dizzying mix of rules and guidelines that can differ widely from one region to the next. It is a reflection of the American system of governance that limits federal power and distributes power across states and localities, but to health officials it is an ineffective way to manage a pandemic.
9th Jul 2020 - The Wall Street Journal

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 9th Jul 2020

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Serbian President Retracts COVID-19 Curfew After 60 Hurt in Violence

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has retracted his decision to reimpose a coronavirus curfew and has urged people to stop attending anti-government rallies after a violent clash between protesters and police. The president said Wednesday that new measures could still include shortened hours for nightclubs and penalties for those not wearing masks. On Tuesday, Vucic said at a news conference he would implement a curfew Friday, “probably” to run from 6 p.m. until 5 a.m. on July 13. The president added that gatherings would be restricted to five people starting Wednesday, citing a rising number of coronavirus cases in the country and hospitals running at full capacity.
8th Jul 2020 - Voice of America

Covid-19 news: UK could eliminate coronavirus entirely, say scientists

The UK government has “given up” on trying to eliminate the coronavirus, says a new report published today by Independent SAGE – an independent group of scientists. They propose a new strategy aimed at the complete elimination of covid-19. It would replace what the report calls the government’s “failing NHS Test and Trace system” with a locally controlled contract tracing and testing system that has more laboratory provision, as well as tighter lockdown measures and restriction of international and domestic travel. The report also points out that the UK’s death toll has been one of the highest in the world but says it’s not too late to change that trajectory. “We believe that a clear strategy based on proven public health principles is now required to see us through the next 9 to 12 months,” says the report. But the report has been criticised by researchers, including epidemiologist Mark Woolhouse at the University of Edinburgh, for being overly simplistic. “This is a worthy but extremely ambitious aim,” says Woolhouse.
8th Jul 2020 - New Scientist

Brazil's right-wing President Bolsonaro says he is taking Trump's favourite drug hydroxychloroquine to tackle his coronavirus and already 'feels a lot better'

Bolsonaro claimed in on Twitter that the anti-malaria drug had made him better Said 'I am very well with its use and, with the grace of God, will live a long time' Bolsonaro yesterday said he had tested positive but was feeling 'perfectly well' Last night he showed off footage of himself taking a dose of hydroxychloroquine Anti-malaria drug is touted by him and Donald Trump but is not proven to work
8th Jul 2020 - Daily Mail

As Coronavirus Cases Top 3 Million, Fauci Warns Against Misreading a Falling Death Rate

Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, cautioned on Tuesday that it was a “false narrative to take comfort in a lower rate of death,” which President Trump, top White House officials and several governors have stressed in recent days. Dr. Fauci’s comments came at an event Tuesday with Senator Doug Jones, Democrat of Alabama, as the United States surpassed three million cases on Tuesday, and some states that had hoped to be getting back to normal by now have instead been forced to reinstate restrictions and issue mandatory mask orders.
8th Jul 2020 - The New York Times

White House Adviser Says Another COVID Lockdown Would Be a Big Mistake

The economy would likely suffer some impacts as certain U.S. states reimpose coronavirus-related restrictions, but imposing another nationwide shutdown would be "a big mistake," White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said on Wednesday. He added that he has seen has seen no evidence of a so-called double-dip recession as some financial analysts have suggested as more states reported record numbers of new infections. On Tuesday, U.S. confirmed cases topped 3 million. "I don't see it yet," Kudlow told reporters at the White House, referring to any economic fallout as some of the country's most populous states such as Florida, Texas and California saw cases surge and reimposed various measures aimed at mitigating the outbreak.
8th Jul 2020 - The New York Times

Israel health chief quits in protest at lockdown easing – as it happened

Israel’s public health director resigned on Tuesday in protest against ministers’ decision to ease lockdown so quickly, as another warned that the country has “lost control” of the coronavirus. Siegal Sadetzki, an epidemiologist, said she had resigned because her warnings were ignored, with infection rates soaring to more than 1,000 daily new cases in recent weeks.
8th Jul 2020 - Jewish News

How New Zealand's media endangered public health

New Zealand's health minister, David Clark, has been forced to resign and the nation's hyperactive media have claimed their latest scalp. In the middle of a pandemic, no less. Unseemly as the media's months-long hit on Clark was - a classic example of trial by media - it was consistent with the borderline misconduct that has defined much of the reporting throughout the COVID-19 crisis. While the response to the pandemic threat from the national capital, Wellington, can be held aloft, for now, as a rare success story in a world of disarray, the machinations of much of the nation's media leaves much to be desired.
8th Jul 2020 - AlJazeera

Lockdown heroes: will they ever get a raise?

In the US, they are called “essential” staff, in the UK “key workers” and in France travailleurs clés. The Germans have the most elaborate name for the new group: systemrelevante Arbeitskräfte or “system-relevant workers”. But the essential are not always treated as essential. The pandemic has upended the hierarchy of work, demonstrating that many of the people critical to the functioning of a modern economy are also among the least well paid — from the nurses treating Covid-19 patients to the warehouse and delivery workers who provide vital supplies.
8th Jul 2020 - The Financial Times

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 8th Jul 2020

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Coronavirus: Riots in the Serbian capital after government reimposes lockdown

Thousands of protesters have clashed with riot police in the Serbian capital Belgrade after the country's president announced the reintroduction of a lockdown following a spike in coronavirus cases. Serbia went from one of the strictest lockdowns in Europe to a near complete reopening of the country at the beginning of May. Football and tennis matches were played in packed stadiums and parliamentary elections were held despite warnings that the mass gatherings without social distancing could lead to a new coronavirus wave.
8th Jul 2020 - Sky News

Coronavirus: Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro tests positive for COVID-19

Brazilian leader Jair Bolsonaro, who infamously described coronavirus as a “little flu”, says he has now tested positive for COVID-19. Jair Bolsonaro – one of the world’s biggest coronavirus denialists – has tested positive for COVID-19.
7th Jul 2020 - News.com.au

Trump administration begins formal withdrawal from World Health Organization

The Trump administration has notified Congress and the United Nations that the United States is formally withdrawing from the World Health Organization, multiple officials tell CNN, a move that comes amid a rising number of coronavirus cases throughout the Americas over the past week. The withdrawal, which goes into effect next July, has drawn criticism from bipartisan lawmakers, medical associations, advocacy organizations and allies abroad. Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden vowed Tuesday to reverse the decision "on (his) first day" if elected.
7th Jul 2020 - CNN

Trump Presses Schools to Reopen

In a daylong series of conference calls and public events at the White House, the president, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and other senior officials opened a concerted campaign to lean on governors, mayors and others to resume classes in person months after more than 50 million children were abruptly ejected from school buildings in March. Mr. Trump and his administration argued that the social, psychological and educational costs of keeping children at home any longer would be worse than the virus itself. But they offered no concrete proposals or new financial assistance to states and localities struggling to restructure academic settings, staffs and programs that were never intended to keep children six feet apart or cope with the requirements of combating a virus that has killed more than 130,000 Americans.
7th Jul 2020 - The New York Times

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 7th Jul 2020

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Wales further eases lockdown as first minister criticises Boris Johnson

Speaking at his daily press conference, the Welsh first minister, Mark Drakeford, said the lockdown restrictions in Wales were being lifted in a “careful, step-by-step way”. Drakeford said the cautious approach made it easier in Wales to track the effect of lifting particular restrictions. He revealed that at the peak of the Covid-19 outbreak, 45% of all tests processed by NHS laboratories in Wales were coming back positive. By the end of June this had fallen to 3.5%. The first minister emphasised that the 2-metre social distancing rule still applied in Wales. He asked people to continue to work from home wherever possible and, despite the lifting of the stay local rule, said unnecessary travel should still be avoided.
6th Jul 2020 - The Guardian

Lockdown easing in England threatens cautious approach of devolved nations

With new coronavirus infections falling fast, Scotland now seems to have a real chance to effectively eliminate Covid-19 transmission among the general public. But some experts warn that one big obstacle stands in its way: England. Despite much higher levels of infection and hospitalisation, the UK government has since May been easing England’s lockdown restrictions more rapidly than the devolved governments in Edinburgh, Cardiff and Stormont.
6th Jul 2020 - Financial Times

White House rejects national strategy on masks

The White House is again rejecting calls for a national mask-wearing mandate. White House chief of staff Mark Meadows says in an appearance on “Fox and Friends” Monday morning that the president sees the issue as a “state-to-state” matter. He says that, “certainly a national mandate is not in order” and that “we’re allowing our local governors and our local mayors to weigh in on that.”
6th Jul 2020 - ABC NEWS 4

Trump says U.S. schools must reopen in fall amid pandemic

President Donald Trump said on Monday that U.S. schools must open in the fall - a decision over which he has limited power - as governors struggle with a nationwide rise in coronavirus infections and states reverse and pause attempts to reopen. Schools are largely under the jurisdiction of state and local governments. Educators have struggled with decisions over opening schools considering the risk of infection to both students and faculty.
6th Jul 2020 - Reuters

Premier of Australia's Victoria defends hard COVID-19 lockdown

The premier of Australia’s second-most populous state, Victoria, defended on Sunday his decision to put nine public housing towers in a complete lockdown as coronavirus cases continue to rise in Melbourne’s suburbs. The state recorded 74 cases new cases on Sunday, after Saturday’s 108 cases prompted Premier Daniel Andrews to order about 3,000 people not to leave their homes for at least five days and to place police to guard the buildings. “This is not going to be a pleasant experience for those residents, but I have a message for those residents: this is not about punishment but protection,” Andrews said in a televised conference. Promising two weeks of free rent and hardship payments to the residents, Andrews said public health workers would test every resident of the buildings, except those who have previously tested positive.
5th Jul 2020 - Reuters UK

Boris Johnson news: No ‘perfect way’ to end lockdown, Whitty warns as Scottish and Welsh leaders attack ‘shambolic government’

The UK government was accused of a “shambolic” response to the coronavirus pandemic as it lifted its travel quarantine for 59 countries and further eased lockdown restrictions. Scottish and Welsh leaders both described the new policy for arrivals in England as a “mess” as police forces braced for the “perfect storm” of pubs reopening for “Super Saturday”. However chief medical officer Chris Whitty said there was no “perfect” way to reopen Britain’s economy after the lockdown. Meanwhile Boris Johnson indicated he would not take the knee in support for Black Lives Matter – saying he does not believe in such “gestures”.
3rd Jul 2020 - The Independent

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 6th Jul 2020

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Greece shuts border to Serbians after virus spike

Greece announced on Sunday the closure of its frontier for Serbian nationals until July 15 because of a coronavirus spike. Serbia declared a state of emergency on Friday in the capital Belgrade because of the highest rise of coronavirus cases since April. Greece had made its decision after analysing the epidemiological data, said government spokeswoman Aristotelia Peloni. Greece, which has suffered fewer than 200 virus deaths, has launched a promotional campaign to revive tourism, which accounts for a quarter of its gross domestic product
5th Jul 2020 - Medical Xpress

Brazil dilutes mask law as its coronavirus cases top 1.5 million

President Jair Bolsonaro waters down law requiring face masks in public places as country's cases surpass 1.5 million. Bolsonaro on Friday used his veto power to dilute a law aimed at preventing the spread of the virus. The law mandates masks in public spaces, but the president removed provisions that mandate face coverings in shops and churches.
4th Jul 2020 - AlJazeera

France to launch inquiry into ex-PM, ministers over coronavirus

A French court will open an inquiry into former prime minister Edouard Philippe and two cabinet ministers over their handling of the coronavirus crisis, a prosecutor said Friday. The inquiry will be led by the Law Court of the Republic (CJR), which deals with claims of ministerial misconduct, said senior prosecutor Francois Molins. Along with Philippe, who was replaced Friday in the first stage of a government reshuffle, the ministers under investigation are former health minister Agnes Buzyn -- who stepped down in February for an unsuccessful bid to become mayor of Paris -- and her successor Olivier Veran.
3rd Jul 2020 - FRANCE 24

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 3rd Jul 2020

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'Raise a glass': UK Treasury faces backlash after hailing pubs reopening

Many of those condemning the post, which was soon deleted, accused its celebratory tone of being in poor taste given that the virus has killed at least 43,000 people in the UK. The tweet came as Leicester was put back under lockdown conditions amid a localised outbreak and fears were expressed about numbers of cases being seen in Greater Manchester.
2nd Jul 2020 - The Guardian

High court hears legal challenge to England's lockdown restrictions

The government’s lockdown, which has closed schools, premises and companies while limiting free movement, is the “most sweeping and far-reaching” restriction on fundamental rights since the second world war, the high court has been told. In a challenge to the legality of emergency legislation, the businessman Simon Dolan, whose Jota Aviation company has been delivering personal protective equipment (PPE) to the NHS, is testing the full extent of the powers under which England has been confined for the past 101 days. The hearing is taking place via video link due to the coronavirus crisis, with lawyers participating remotely from their homes or chambers. Lawyers for Dolan argue that the emergency restrictions, announced by the prime minister on 23 March, are illegal, breach human rights laws and fail to take account of other significant factors.
2nd Jul 2020 - The Guardian

Coronavirus news: Boris Johnson ‘blind’ to risk of lifting lockdown as more cities being monitored for spikes ahead of ‘Super Saturday’

Labour has urged Boris Johnson to extend the government’s furlough scheme, telling the prime minister it could be the “last chance to save millions of jobs". It comes as more towns and cities are monitored for coronavirus spikes that could see them placed under local lockdowns. Ministers have faced criticism for the handling of the surge in cases in Leicester, which was put into the UK’s first local lockdown on Tuesday. Australian authorities, meanwhile, will lock down about 300,000 people in suburbs north of Melbourne for one month from today after two weeks of double-digit rises in new Covid-19 cases.
2nd Jul 2020 - The Independent

New US lockdowns are a gross overreaction

For those with a taste for irony, this July 4 weekend will be one to remember. As Britons are finally liberated from months of lockdown tyranny, declaring their independence from imposed confinement with a pint in a pub, here in the former colonies the national holiday will be commemorated with renewed restrictions, tightened controls on movement and stern demands from our rulers to stay home. States that had emerged from lockdown in the spring are now responding to a resurgence in Covid-19 cases with a return to incarceration. In Texas, gyms, bars and restaurants that had been open for the past month have just been closed again. In the desert heat of Arizona the governor announced this week that there will be no going back to water parks for at least a month. In the past week total cases in the US have surged to more than 40,000 a day, the highest number since the virus first hit the country in the late winter, and so a growing number of states are reimposing restrictive measures. The economic and political ramifications of a renewed lockdown are far-reaching. If the new lockdown is an extended one, the damage to businesses that have managed to limp through the past few months could be terminal. President Trump, besieged by a summer of disease, disorder and depression, and seemingly unable to take his foot out of his mouth on any topic, had been counting, increasingly desperately, on a return to some kind of normality in time for November’s election. That may be elusive.
2nd Jul 2020 - The Times

As Britain emerges from coronavirus lockdown, Boris Johnson has lost public trust

In the past few days, the beaches of Dorset in southern England were so crammed with sunbathers, as 500,000 merrymakers flouted social distancing rules, that local councils declared an emergency. In Liverpool, ecstatic soccer fans celebrated a Premier League title in an enormous downtown mosh pit for two days, refusing to disperse and battling anti-riot squads. The mayor called it “heartbreaking.” Meanwhile, in London, authorities have been scrambling to break up illegal “flash mob” street parties, complete with sound systems and DJs. Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick complained that some attendees were drunk and violent, and that all were selfish and reckless, “seeming not to care at all” about their own or their family’s health. All this, and the pubs haven’t even reopened. That happens Saturday.
2nd Jul 2020 - The Washington Post

Israel FinMin opposes return to lockdown despite spike in infections

Israeli Finance Minister Israel Katz said on Wednesday he opposed returning to a nationwide lockdown despite a surge in new coronavirus cases, citing the economic pressures of a prolonged closure. “We will not compromise on health considerations but we will not return to a situation where the economy will be closed,” Katz told a news conference. He argued that increased enforcement of existing rules, which include wearing masks and social distancing, was more reasonable for the time being than a shutdown.
2nd Jul 2020 - Reuters

American lockdown exceptionalism

As the number of COVID-19 cases starts to rise again in many U.S. states, the question is whether residents of those states will tolerate another lockdown. I used to think so, but it is increasingly clear that Americans have become comfortable with a remarkably high number of casualties. There is a mechanism of social conformity at work here. Most people will not tolerate a small risk to their lives to dine out, for instance — but they might if all their friends are doing the same. The appeal of a restaurant isn’t just the food, it’s the shared experience and the sense that others are doing it, too. The danger lies in the potential for ratchet effects. If hardly anyone is eating out or going to bars, you might be able to endure the deprivation. But once others have started doing something, you will probably feel compelled to join them, even at greater risk to your life.
1st Jul 2020 - The Japan Times

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 2nd Jul 2020

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'Unhelpful distraction': Health Minister David Clark resigns

Health Minister David Clark has resigned as Health Minister after he became an "unhelpful distraction" in the fight against Covid-19. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has accepted his resignation and said it was "essential our health leadership has the confidence of the New Zealand public." Clark said it had been an "extraordinary privilege" and he had given it his all.But continuing was distracting from the Government's Covid response, he said. He wasn't pushed, he said. "The decision was mine."
2nd Jul 2020 - New Zealand Herald

Campaigners warn big firms could sue over Scotland's lockdown measures

Corporations could sue for millions over Scotland’s longer route out of lockdown, trade unions say. Unison, Unite, the RMT and other unions have sounded the warning as part of the Trade Justice Scotland coalition, a 25-strong network that also includes the Common Weal think tank, Women for Independence and Global Justice Now. It has urged ministers to take action to prevent transnational corporations mounting court challenges for lost profits through the investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) system.
1st Jul 2020 - The National

Coronavirus: Local testing data to be shared with councils

Local authorities are to be given access to postcode-level data about the number of people testing positive for coronavirus in their areas after it was agreed with the Department of Health. It comes after Leicester became the first city to have a local lockdown imposed following a rise in cases. Labour leader Keir Starmer said there had been a "lost week" due to city officials not having full testing data. The prime minister said the figures had been shared with all local authorities. But, at Prime Minister's Questions in the Commons, Sir Keir said officials in Leicester had only received full figures on Thursday. Until now local authorities have not routinely had full access to the data on people who are tested for the virus in the community. But the agreement, signed individually with councils over the past week, now gives them access to a digital dashboard which shows test results down to a postcode level.
1st Jul 2020 - BBC

Local Covid-19 lockdowns too blunt, say German politicians

Locking down entire communities is too blunt an instrument to fight coronavirus flare-ups, politicians from the area affected by Germany’s first “local lockdown” have complained after a week of reimposed physical distancing measures. While restrictions continue to be relaxed across the rest of the country, the Gütersloh district in the western state of North-Rhine Westphalia will from today go into a second week of closed schools, nurseries, bars and museum following an outbreak of Covid-19 at a local abattoir. A lockdown in the neighbouring community of Warendorf, however, has been lifted after mass tests found no sign that the virus had significantly spread across the local population.
1st Jul 2020 - The Guardian

Around 1,000 grieving relatives of coronavirus victims want public inquiry into slow lockdown

Families who've lost loved ones to coronavirus are preparing legal action against the Government over claims they would not have died had ministers locked down the country sooner. Around 1,000 grieving relatives say the Government 'gambled' with people's lives when they failed to act quickly enough or heed the warnings from other countries as Covid-19 tore across Europe. They also want an investigation into the flawed testing regime, the levels of protective clothing that was available and other issues surrounding planning for the pandemic.
1st Jul 2020 - Daily Mail

When did UK lockdown start? Date coronavirus restrictions were enforced - and if government should have acted sooner

Staying indoors has become the norm in the UK, with the country adapting to life in lockdown due to the coronavirus outbreak. However, restrictions are now gradually starting to lift across the UK, with the devolved government’s outlining plans for the next phase of handling the virus. But how long has lockdown been in place? The UK government imposed the lockdown on the evening of 23 March. The restrictions were initially put in place for a period of three weeks, until 13 April, but were later extended for another 21-day period
1st Jul 2020 - The Scotsman

Welsh Government urges Ryanair to postpone 'lockdown breaking' flights to Spain and Portugal

The Welsh Government is urging Ryanair to postpone scheduled flights from Cardiff Airport to Spain and Portugal this weekend. The budget airline is planning to run flights to Faro and Malaga on Friday and Saturday. But passengers boarding the flight would be in breach of Welsh coronavirus lockdown rules which restricts non-essential travel to five miles. That restriction is not expected to be lifted until Monday. The Welsh Government, which owns the airport, is urging Ryanair to postpone the flights Wales Online reports.
1st Jul 2020 - Daily Post

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 1st Jul 2020

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American Lockdown Exceptionalism

As the number of Covid-19 cases starts to rise again in many states, the question is whether residents of those states will tolerate another lockdown. I used to think so, but it is increasingly clear that Americans have become comfortable with a remarkably high number of casualties. There is a mechanism of social conformity at work here. Most people will not tolerate a small risk to their lives to dine out, for instance — but they might if all their friends are doing the same. The appeal of a restaurant isn’t just the food, it’s the shared experience and the sense that others are doing it, too. The danger lies in the potential for ratchet effects. If hardly anyone is eating out or going to bars, you might be able to endure the deprivation. But once others have started doing something, you will probably feel compelled to join them, even at greater risk to your life. Consider that in the 1920s, the chance of catching a disease or infection from dining out was pretty high, but people still went out. Accepting that level of risk was simply considered to be part of life, because everyone saw that everyone else was doing it. In similar fashion, members of an infantry brigade are usually willing to charge an enemy position so long as they can be assured that all their comrades are, too.
30th Jun 2020 - Bloomberg

Facebook launches initiative to crackdown on covid 'misinformation', all the times UK health chiefs sowed confusion with U-turns over ibuprofen, the two-metre rule and face masks

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said 'clarity is in short supply' in the UK. Officials have flipped stances on essential travel and international quarantine. One Leicester MP said messaging on social distancing is 'at best confusing.'
30th Jun 2020 - Daily Mail

No 10 accused of sowing confusion over Leicester lockdown

Downing Street has been accused of sowing confusion and anxiety in Leicester after imposing the first local lockdown to combat a surge in Covid-19 cases in the city, amid growing concern about how the measures will work. As part of hardened restrictions, the health secretary, Matt Hancock, announced on Monday night that schools would shut to most children and reopened non-essential shops would be forced to close for at least two weeks in Leicester. Both Labour and the Liberal Democrats backed the lockdown, but criticised the government’s handling of it and called for clarity over the details.
30th Jun 2020 - The Guardian

Bavaria's free COVID-19 test for all splits Germany

The state of Bavaria approved plans on Tuesday for universal testing for COVID-19, prompting debate elsewhere in Germany about whether to follow suit or stick with the current targeted approach to prevent a possible second wave of infections. Germany has successfully managed to bring the COVID-19 pandemic under control with far fewer deaths than most other large European nations despite relatively softer lockdown measures that allowed some social and economic life to continue. But an outbreak this month at an abattoir in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia affecting more than 1,500 workers has forced a lockdown for 600,000 people and raised fears that Germany remains vulnerable despite its early success. Under current rules, free tests are available for people who have symptoms such as fever and Germany’s 16 states carry out frequent tests among high-risk groups in, for example, retirement homes, hospitals and daycare centres.
30th Jun 2020 - Reuters

'Don't relax': NSW's biggest threat is not Victoria, it's bravado, Premier says

Melbourne's coronavirus hotspots will be put back into lockdown from Wednesday in a desperate effort to contain an outbreak of the deadly disease as Premier Gladys Berejiklian warned NSW's biggest threat was not Victoria but increasing complacency within its own borders. The extraordinary steps taken in Victoria, which include a request to divert all international flights from Melbourne for the next fortnight, came on the same day Queensland announced it would reopen its borders to the rest of the country with the exception of Victoria, and the next phase of COVID-19 restrictions were eased in NSW.
30th Jun 2020 - The Sydney Morning Herald

Border reopening must be priority - Business NZ

The business community pinned its hopes on the border reopening as soon as possible and says the government's failed to hold up its end of the deal. Business leaders say billions of dollars of opportunities are on hold while the government and the army fix up mistakes most New Zealanders thought were being managed. The government is frantically trying to plug those gaps, while at the same time the Opposition ramps up pressure for the border to open. Almost four million international tourists typically cross New Zealand shores each year and BusinessNZ chief executive Kirk Hope said livelihoods depend on that window opening again. But for now, the government isn't even resuming compassionate exemptions let alone allowing international visitors in, because there isn't enough confidence in quarantine and managed isolation facilities.
30th Jun 2020 - RNZ

Fake contact tracing part of 'rapidly evolving' coronavirus fraud, U.S. DOJ warns

Scammers are posing as COVID-19 contact tracers as a way to steal personal information, three major U.S. government agencies said on Tuesday, describing “rapidly evolving” fraud related to the pandemic. The U.S. Department of Justice, Department of Health and Human Services and Federal Trade Commission warned that fake contact tracers were asking for money and trying to collect social security numbers, bank and credit card information from individuals.
30th Jun 2020 - Reuters

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Reuters Special Report - Into the fog: How Britain lost track of the coronavirus

To tackle the invisible virus, doctors and health specialists first needed to find it. But with few tests, little contact tracing and a government culture of secrecy, they lost sight of the enemy.
29th Jun 2020 - Reuters

Putin tells Russia that the coronavirus is in retreat. Critics face crackdowns for saying it’s far from over.

Sometimes information slips out, telling a more dire story for Russians grappling with mixed messages: the Kremlin’s upbeat assessments versus statistics showing that Russia’s confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus are still climbing. When infectious-disease doctor Victoria Adonyeva predicted in a newspaper interview that the nationwide vote would cause a spike in new cases, many readers applauded her honesty. Adonyeva, chief infectious-disease specialist of the Orlovskaya region, about 220 miles south of Moscow, also called into question the accuracy of Russia’s statistics on coronavirus deaths — now at 9,152 — in the interview with the Orlovsky Novosti newspaper. “The numbers are going up. There’s no plateau,” she said. “What kind of stabilization, what kind of lifting of restrictions can we talk about?” Her hospital and others in the city of Oryol had no free beds, she added.
29th Jun 2020 - The Washington Post

Coronavirus: Victoria can’t blame bad luck for coronavirus failures

Victoria’s chief medical officer said residents may be asked to wear face masks in light of the state’s surging coronavirus cases, contradicting earlier warnings that wearing personal protective equipment was unnecessary and potentially harmful. Brett Sutton told ABC’s Radio National on Monday that health authorities were preparing advice on whether Victorians should wear masks. “I take the perspective that when you are really trying to drive numbers down to maintain your test and trace capability, it needs to be considered,” Sutton said. “I have got a team working up some advice now and we will talk about masks in those types of settings for people to choose it and provide some guidance on the masks that work and how much protection you get.” The federal health minister, Greg Hunt, told ABC’s 7:30 on Monday night that states and territories can make decisions about whether wearing masks “could be encouraged or even mandatory” – confirming that “that’s one of the items that Victoria is looking at”.
29th Jun 2020 - The Guardian

Duncan Garner: It's time to completely shut New Zealand's border - returning Kiwis included

Duncan Garner: It's time to completely shut New Zealand's border - returning Kiwis included
29th Jun 2020 - Newshub

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 29th Jun 2020

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Coronavirus: US has 'serious problem', says Fauci

US infectious disease chief Dr Anthony Fauci says the nation has a "serious problem" as 16 states reel from a spike in Covid-19 cases. At the first White House task force briefing in two months, Dr Fauci said: "The only way we're going to end it is by ending it together." As health experts said more must be done to slow the spread, Vice-President Mike Pence praised US "progress". More than 40,000 new cases were recorded across the US on Friday. The total of 40,173, given by Johns Hopkins University, was the highest daily total so far, exceeding the record set only the previous day. There are over 2.4 million confirmed infections and more than 125,000 deaths nationwide - more than any other country. During Friday's briefing, the White House task force also urged millennials to get tested, even if they are asymptomatic.
27th Jun 2020 - BBC

Greg Abbott expresses regret over bar reopenings amid coronavirus

"If I could go back and redo anything, it probably would have been to slow down the opening of bars," Abbott said in a TV interview Friday evening.
26th Jun 2020 - The Texas Tribune

Trump Administration Files Supreme Court Brief To End Obamacare Amid COVID-19 Crisis

The Trump administration filed a brief Thursday night calling on the U.S. Supreme Court to invalidate the Affordable Care Act — which allows millions of Americans to get health insurance coverage — just as the nation smashed a record for new COVID-19 cases in a single day. Solicitor General Noel Francisco argued in a brief that because Congress in 2017 invalidated the law’s individual coverage mandate — by dropping a tax penalty for those without health insurance — the “entire ACA thus must fall.” The court is scheduled to hear arguments later this year, but a decision might not come until 2021. The move threatens health care coverage for more than 20 million Americans.
26th Jun 2020 - Huffington Post

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Tony Blair: UK was too slow to lock down in face of coronavirus

The UK has been “badly hit” by coronavirus and even Government insiders acknowledge it had been too slow to lock down, Tony Blair said. The former prime minister said he sympathised with the challenge facing Boris Johnson as he decided how to respond at a time when there was a lot of uncertainty about the virus. But he said he would be less sympathetic if mistakes were made in the way the lockdown was eased.
25th Jun 2020 - YAHOO!

Johnson Answers Questions About Lockdowns, Test & Track App

Considering Johnson’s announcement Tuesday that much of Britain would reopen, effective July 4, Starmer said local leaders across the country do not have the proper guidance or powers to implement lockdowns, should there be a spike in coronavirus cases. He asked Johnson to define what a local lockdown might look like and what guidance those leaders might expect to receive. Johnson dismissed Starmer’s criticism, saying the government had a “very effective cluster-busting operation” in place, and local governments understand how it works. Speaking about the National Health Service’s "track-and-trace" app, Starmer said 33,000 people are estimated to have COVID-19 in England, but only 10,000 people with the virus were reached by contact tracers. The opposition leader noted, "This is a big gap," and warned that if the app isn't running, "we can't open the economy." Johnson said the Labor leader was giving a "false impression" of what the NHS app is doing and said that it is a "formidable achievement." He said “no country currently has a functioning track-and-trace app.” Starmer noted Germany’s app, which reports say has been downloaded 10 million times. Italy, Singapore and South Korea also have tracing apps in use.
25th Jun 2020 - Voice of America

British PM Johnson dismisses criticism on local lockdowns, coronavirus app

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson dismissed criticism on Wednesday of his government’s plans to implement local lockdowns if there are flare-ups of the novel coronavirus and of an app to trace the spread of the virus. At prime minister’s questions in parliament, the opposition Labour leader Keir Starmer suggested both systems were not yet ready before England eases its coronavirus lockdown from July 4. In response, Johnson said: “We have a very effective cluster-busting operation which is designed to ensure that we keep those outbreaks under control. “I am not going to pretend ... that this thing is beaten or that the virus has gone away ... We have to remain vigilant and local councils will be supported in doing their vital work in implementing local lockdowns,” he added, challenging Starmer to find any other country that has a functioning tracing app. A spokesman for Starmer pointed to Germany, which has had a large number of people downloading its app, and a number of countries “which are far ahead of us in terms of developing their apps”, such as Singapore and South Korea.
25th Jun 2020 - Reuters UK

Israel Announces Partnership With U.A.E., Which Throws Cold Water On It

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu touted a rare public opening between the two countries. Apparently, the Emirates was not ready for it. Mr. Netanyahu’s ebullient description was contradicted a few hours later when the Emirates issued a much more muted statement, announcing what it described as an agreement between two private Emirati companies and two Israeli companies to develop technology to fight the virus. The Emirati statement took the wind out of what Mr. Netanyahu had touted as a diplomatic coup, suggesting that despite the deepening ties, the two countries were still at odds over Mr. Netanyahu’s vow to annex parts of the occupied West Bank.
25th Jun 2020 - The New York Times

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 25th Jun 2020

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The way Boris Johnson has eased lockdown sends all the wrong messages

At the last daily press conference on Covid-19, Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer for England, pleaded with the public: “If people don’t take mitigation seriously, if people hear a distorted version of what’s been said – that says ‘this is all fine now, it’s gone away’ – and start behaving in ways that they normally would have before this virus happened, yes we will get an uptick for sure. So it is absolutely critical that people stick to the guidance that has been given.”
24th Jun 2020 - The Guardian

Coronavirus: Second wave warning, lockdown easing and NUS action

Health leaders are calling for an urgent review to determine whether the UK is properly prepared for the "real risk" of a second wave of infections. The presidents of the Royal Colleges of Surgeons, Nursing, Physicians and GPs urged the government to examine "areas of weakness where action is needed urgently to prevent further loss of life". Is a second wave inevitable? Our health correspondent James Gallagher looks closely. The warning comes after the prime minister announced a wholesale easing of lockdown in England from 4 July - here's all you need to know on that.
24th Jun 2020 - BBC

Coronavirus news: Drinkers warned risk of catching Covid-19 in reopening pubs ‘quite high’, as Boris Johnson eases lockdown and reduces 2-metre rule

Medical experts have warned the UK must prepare now for the “real risk” of a second wave of coronavirus amid growing fears of a renewed outbreak this winter. The warning came in an open letter published in the British Medical Journal after prime minister Boris Johnson announced the two-metre social distancing rule would be reduced to “one-metre plus”, allowing pubs, restaurants, hotels and cinemas to reopen from 4 July. Fitness bosses have criticised the decision to leave gyms out of the next stage of England’s lockdown easing, with the chief executive of David Lloyd Clubs blasting the move as “completely illogical”. Australia has reported its first death in more than a month, sparking concerns about a second wave which saw thousands in Victoria queue for Covid-19 tests and supermarkets impose new restrictions.
24th Jun 2020 - The Independent

A tale of two pandemics: how Germany got it right, and Britain blundered

By 23 June, according to official figures, Britain had sustained 306,210 confirmed cases of Covid-19, compared with Germany’s 190,862. In Britain 42,927 people had died from the virus. In Germany the figure on the same day stood at 8,895 deaths. In Britain, according to Johns Hopkins University data, the current death rate per 100,000 people stands at 64.27. In Germany, the rate is 10.73. It is a stunning difference. Germans have been six times less likely to die from Covid-19 than British people. What explains it? One underlying reason is that the UK’s health spending level per head of $4,000 is only approximately two-thirds that of Germany. Another more immediate one is that Germany was much quicker to lock down: most German schools closed from 13 March, a week before all parts of the UK; shops and restaurants closed from 16 March, again a week before Britain. As a result, Germany was able to begin lifting parts of its lockdown at the end of April.
24th Jun 2020 - The Guardian

Coronavirus: 'Extraordinarily risky' to lift lockdown measures now, warns ex-chief scientific adviser

Lifting lockdown measures now in England risks a second wave of coronavirus during the winter, a former chief scientific adviser to the government has warned. “I think it’s extraordinarily risky,” Sir David King told Sky News. “If we take the long view we know that the winter is a likely period when the virus takes off again. We must therefore aim to completely get rid of the virus from this country before the winter.” His warning came a day after Boris Johnson announced the most significant relaxation of the Covid-19 lockdown so far, telling the public that pubs, cinemas, hairdressers and restaurants will reopen on 4 July, and that the two-metre rule will be eased.
24th Jun 2020 - The Independent

Judge orders Brazil's Jair Bolsonaro to wear a mask

President Bolsonaro has been ordered by a federal judge to wear a mask in public after he attended political rallies in Rio de Janeiro without any face covering. Renato Borelli said that Mr Bolsonaro could be fined 2,000 reais ($387) a day if he continued to disobey a federal district ordinance meant to slow the Covid-19 outbreak. Facemasks have been mandatory in public in the city since April. Last week Abraham Weintraub, the education minister, was fined for failing to wear a face mask at a rally in Brasilia, the capital. He shook hands and posed for pictures with demonstrators, many of whom also went without masks. Brazil is facing one of the worst outbreaks of coronavirus, with more than 1.1 million cases so far and more than 50,000 deaths. Mr Bolsonaro has resisted calls for lockdowns, saying that his country’s economy could not survive.
24th Jun 2020 - The Times

'End of hibernation': what the papers say about England's lockdown easing

A combination of sunny weather and the approaching relaxation of coronavirus lockdown rules in England has led to jubilation on some front pages today, as others mark the start of the end of “our long national hibernation”. “Summer’s back on!” says the Daily Mail, and quotes Boris Johnson urging people to get out and enjoy themselves. It notes, however, the move is a “calculated gamble to head off economic disaster”. The Express takes a similar tack. It uses a picture of the prime minister with beer held aloft alongside the headline: “Cheers Boris! Here’s to a brighter Britain”. It tempers the joy with a message across the top: “PM: we’re coming out of hibernation but virus still a risk”. Metro also uses the pub theme with “Get the beers in”.
24th Jun 2020 - The Guardian

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 24th Jun 2020

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Coronavirus: FM warns Scots against taking UK holidays for now

Nicola Sturgeon has warned Scots against taking holidays in other parts of the UK even as lockdown restrictions are being eased south of the border. The first minister said the Scottish government's five-mile advisory limit on travelling for leisure and recreation remained in place for now. She also said people should still not plan overnight stays away from home. But Ms Sturgeon said she hoped the tourism industry would be "back up and running" by next month. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has announced pubs, restaurants, hotels and hairdressers can open from 4 July in England, when social distancing rules will be eased.
23rd Jun 2020 - BBC

Johnson to overrule scientists and ease lockdown

Boris Johnson will on Tuesday reject misgivings from some leading scientists and press ahead with a plan to cut England’s contentious two-metre social-distancing rule, as he adds cinemas, galleries and museums to the list of premises able to reopen on July 4. Pubs, restaurants, hotels and hairdressers will also be given approval to reopen their doors with coronavirus precautions in place on July 4, to the relief of Conservative MPs who have been urging the prime minister to press ahead with further lockdown easing. In a sign of increasing efforts to boost the economy amid the Covid-19 crisis, Mr Johnson is hoping to announce in the next few days the lifting of the UK’s 14-day quarantine arrangements for travellers arriving from countries including Belgium, France, Germany, Greece and Spain.
23rd Jun 2020 - The Financial Times

Nicola Sturgeon slams Boris Johnson's 'reckless' bid to get back to normal by easing lockdown

Nicola Sturgeon tore into Boris Johnson today over his plans to ease the lockdown still further in England, branding him 'reckless. Scotland's First Minister said it was 'tempting' to try to rush to get the nation 'back to normal' but suggested that the move should not be rushed amid new spikes in cases in some countries. She made the waning as the UK's death toll fell to just 15 - the lowest level since mid-March.
23rd Jun 2020 - Daily Mail

Pubs, museums and cinemas to open amid concerns UK leaving lockdown ‘too quickly’

Boris Johnson is set to announce new lockdown easing plans today that will allow pubs, restaurants, museums and cinemas to begin re-opening in England from July 4. The Prime Minister is also expected to review the two-metre social distancing rule, amid widespread predictions it will be cut to one metre. He will brief the Cabinet on the proposals before outlining them in the House of Commons later today. Some Tory MPs have put pressure on the PM to ease the two-metre requirement in order to get the hospitality sector back up and running. Many pubs and restaurants have warned that it would be impossible for them to operate as long as the rule remains in place, with others saying their businesses may never reopen if they are not given the green light this week.
23rd Jun 2020 - Metro

Brazilian judge tells Bolsonaro to behave and wear a face mask

A Brazilian judge has ordered Jair Bolsonaro to rectify his “at best disrespectful” behaviour by wearing a face mask when circulating in the capital, Brasília. The president has sparked outrage by repeatedly flouting measures designed to slow the advance of a coronavirus pandemic that has killed more than 50,000 Brazilians. The rightwing populist has made a succession of public appearances – at protests, shops and even a floating barbecue – wearing a mask incorrectly, or not at all. On Monday, a federal judge ruled Bolsonaro was not above the laws of the federal district, which contains Brazil’s capital, and would face a daily fine of 2,000 reais (£310) if he continued to break the rules. The use of masks has been compulsory there since late April.
23rd Jun 2020 - The Guardian

E.U. May Bar American Travelers as It Reopens Borders, Citing Failures on Virus

European Union officials are racing to agree on who can visit the bloc as of July 1 based on how countries of origin are faring with new coronavirus cases. Americans, so far, are excluded, according to draft lists seen by The New York Times.
23rd Jun 2020 - The New York Times

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Coronavirus: Brazil becomes second country to pass 50,000 deaths

Brazil has become the second country, after the US, to register more than 50,000 deaths from Covid-19. It comes amid growing political tension and just days after the country confirmed more than one million coronavirus infections. Brazil recorded its highest number of daily deaths on 4 June; the seven-day average seems to have plateaued since. President Jair Bolsonaro's decision to oppose lockdowns and focus on the economy has been hugely divisive. Two health ministers - both doctors - have left their posts as deaths and infections have surged. The first was sacked by Mr Bolsonaro, the second resigned after disagreeing with the far-right president.
22nd Jun 2020 - BBC

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Trump urges slowdown in COVID-19 testing, calling it a 'double-edge sword'

U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday told thousands of cheering supporters he had asked U.S. officials to slow down testing for the novel coronavirus, calling it a “double-edged sword” that led to more cases being discovered. In his remarks, Trump used terms such as “Kung Flu” virus and “Chinese virus” to refer to COVID-19. “That name gets further and further away from China, as opposed to calling it the Chinese virus,” he said.
21st Jun 2020 - Reuters UK

Trump's Tulsa rally: Court rejects bid for face masks, social distancing

The Oklahoma Supreme Court on Friday rejected a request to require everyone attending President Donald Trump's rally in Tulsa this weekend to wear a face mask and maintain social distancing inside the arena to guard against the spread of the coronavirus. The court ruled that the two local residents who asked that the thousands expected at Saturday night’s rally be required to take the precautions couldn’t establish that they had a clear legal right to the relief they sought. Oklahoma has had a recent spike in coronavirus cases, but in a concurring opinion, two justices noted that the state’s plan to reopen its economy is “permissive, suggestive and discretionary.” “Therefore, for lack of any mandatory language in the (plan), we are compelled to deny the relief requested.”
19th Jun 2020 - Chicago Tribune

How Covid-19 spread QAnon in Germany

The sprawling movement which centers on an alleged “deep state” plot against President Donald Trump, has gained traction among anti-lockdown demonstrators and conspiracy theorists
19th Jun 2020 - Coda Story

Afghan health workers deliberately targeted during pandemic: UN

A UN report registered a dozen attacks on health workers at the height of Afghanistan's coronavirus outbreak. Targeting the health care system during the pandemic was ''particularly reprehensible,'' the world body said.
21st Jun 2020 - DW (English)

Airlines' legal challenge of UK quarantine policy to be heard early July, lawyers say

A legal challenge by British Airways (ICAG.L), easyJet (EZJ.L) and Ryanair (RYA.I) against the UK government’s decision to introduce a 14-day quarantine for travellers will be heard in early July, barristers involved in the case said on Friday. “The airlines claim that the regulations are irrational and disproportionate. A hearing has been listed for early July,” Blackstone Chambers said in a statement.
19th Jun 2020 - Reuters UK

Is the WHO denying there are dangers from assymptomatic patients carrying the coronavirus?

WHO epidemiologist Ms. Van Kerkhov noted that patients who did not show symptoms of coronavirus were less likely to spread the virus than people with an active response to COVID-19 BUT she did not say the dangers were any less and that assymptomatic people posed no risks Russian languages sites and blogs went ballistic in spreading these lies far and wide. "We have a lot of reports from countries that closely monitor the contacts of infected people. They monitor asymptomatic cases, they monitor contacts and do not detect the transmission of the virus, so this is very rare," Kerkhov said at a briefing.
18th Jun 2020 - SOS Pravda Ukraine

Zimbabwe health minister arrested over coronavirus supplies scandal

Zimbabwean Health and Child Care Minister Obadiah Moyo was arrested Friday for alleged corruption related to the supply of medical materials to combat the coronavirus pandemic, the anti-graft agency said. The Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) confirmed the arrest of the minister Friday evening. "I can confirm that Minister Moyo is currently detained at Rhodesville Police Station and will likely appear in court tomorrow," ZACC spokesperson Commissioner John Makamure said. According to Makamure, the minister was arrested over shady procurement deals worth millions of U.S. dollars. Moyo became the second minister to be arrested for alleged corruption in President Emmerson Mnangagwa's government, after the arrest last year of the then tourism minister Prisca Mupfumira.
18th Jun 2020 - CGTN

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 19th Jun 2020

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Florida and Texas governors blame spike in cases on increased testing

As coronavirus cases spike in Florida and Texas this week, the state's Republican governors attributed the alarming trends to increased testing, outbreaks in high-risk areas like jails and assisted living facilities, or in Florida's case, migrant worker communities. They've also brushed away pleas from local officials for stronger requirements to wear masks. The explanations echo the Trump administration's current positioning on the state of Covid-19 in America: denial and excuses.
19th Jun 2020 - CNN

Brazil on track to surpass the U.S. in coronavirus deaths this summer, following record increase

Coronavirus cases have surged dramatically in Brazil as the country struggles to put a lid on the pandemic. On Tuesday, Brazil experienced a record increase of nearly 35,000 daily coronavirus cases. Gimena Sánchez-Garzoli, the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA)'s director of the Andes, told CBS News on Wednesday that she wouldn't "trust" numbers released by the Brazilian government. She believes they're much higher than what has been reported, citing Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro's lack of transparency on the data. "There are questions about really how much testing is going on in most of the areas worst affected, which may also influence the numbers," she said. "The fact that it's spreading like wildfire is completely not a surprise."
18th Jun 2020 - CBS News

Trump says U.S. will not lock down again amid rising coronavirus cases

President Donald Trump said on Wednesday the United States would not close businesses again as several states reported rising numbers of new coronavirus infections. “We won’t be closing the country again. We won’t have to do that,” Trump said in an interview with Fox News Channel. Trump’s comments come after White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin both said the United States could not shut down the economy again. In a call with governors, Vice President Mike Pence encouraged them to repeat the administration’s claim that increased testing accounts for the spike in numbers, the New York Times has reported.
18th Jun 2020 - Reuters

Relaxing Lockdown: Overdue or a Ticking Time Bomb? – Byline Times

The uncomfortable truth is that, at this stage, we cannot predict the trajectory of the Coronavirus. Opinions to the contrary are a by-product of confirmation bias. No high-quality data on the immediate and downstream effects of specific social distancing and lockdown interventions exist. ‘Lockdown versus no lockdown’ remains a crude metric. The murky data remain compatible with a wide range of death-to-infection ratios, also known as infection fatality rates (IFR). If the true IFR and health burden of COVID-19 turns out to be much lower than the initial indications of around 1%, and suppression strategies prove unsustainable in the long-term, then blanket lockdown strategies may turn out to have been an overreaction.
18th Jun 2020 - Byline Times

Lord Sugar: Boris Johnson is being too cautious in lifting lockdown

The Apprentice star has been living in Florida, which has been out of lockdown for six weeks, and said: “Who’s dead? I’m not.” Lord Sugar claimed that the Prime Minister’s own time in hospital with Covid-19 has affected his decision-making. Appearing on Jeremy Vine on Channel 5
18th Jun 2020 - ITV News

‘Who’s dead? I’m not’: Lord Alan Sugar says lockdown should end because nobody he knows has died

Lord Alan Sugar has been accused of making “tone deaf” comments about coronavirus after suggesting that lockdown should end in the UK because none of his friends had died. Appearing on Jeremy Vine’s Channel 5 show via video link from his home in Florida, the Apprentice star shared his thoughts on Covid-19 lockdown measures being dialled back.“Look, I’m not a doctor and I don’t want to be giving medical advice and all that stuff,” the former Labour peer began.
18th Jun 2020 - The Independent

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 18th Jun 2020

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UK readers find the government's COVID-19 messages more misleading than actual fake news

Studies have suggested social media is rife with disinformation, with surveys showing a high proportion of people have been exposed to false or misleading claims about COVID-19, fueling dramatic headlines. But our six-week diary study of news audiences between April 16 and May 27 found that the vast majority of our panel of 200 participants could easily spot fake news. They found stories such as the conspiracy theory that 5G is responsible for the spread of COVID-19 or the quack remedy that gargling with saltwater cures coronavirus immediately suspect. So it wasn’t fake news being peddled on social media or conspiracy websites that was of most concern. When we asked them about what false or misleading information about COVID-19 they had encountered, many instead referenced examples of what they saw as government or media misinformation.
18th Jun 2020 - Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard

Coronavirus lockdown in Wales: Where do the parties stand?

Cabinet members will meet later to discuss what, if any, changes can be made to the lockdown rules in Wales. The first minister will announce their decision at a press conference on Friday. The Welsh Government's handling of the pandemic, lockdown and economic recovery is likely to feature heavily in the campaigning ahead of next May's election to the Senedd. So where do the parties stand on what should happen next?
17th Jun 2020 - BBC

Spain's COVID-19 Lockdown Prompts Political Backlash Over Freedom

Supporters of right-wing parties were rebelling over the way the Socialist government had imposed a state of emergency on a country unaccustomed to being told what to do. The conservative People's Party and far-right Vox party asserted that the government used the excuse COVID-19 to ride roughshod the rights enshrined in Spain’s 1978 constitution, the first since democracy returned after the death of longtime ruler General Francisco Franco three years before. One of the nations worst hit by COVID-19, Spain in March imposed one of the strictest lockdowns in Europe to contain the epidemic. Some 47 million Spaniards could only leave their homes to buy food, for medical help or for essential work. As Spain prepared to end the state of emergency on June 21, critics said questions remain over how the minority government ran the country in the face of extraordinary circumstances.
17th Jun 2020 - Voice of America

Coronavirus: Lawyers' groups want to join lockdown legality case

A court case about the legal basis for the Alert Level 3 and 4 coronavirus lockdowns could be expanded to allow three lawyers' groups to take part. A decision is pending on whether the Auckland District Law Society, the Criminal Bar Association, and the New Zealand Law Society, will be allowed to take part in the case lawyer Andrew Borrowdale has personally taken. At the High Court in Wellington on Wednesday, Chief High Court Judge, Justice Susan Thomas, reserved her decision on the lawyers' groups application to "intervene". It appeared that the Auckland District Law Society and the Criminal Bar Association would support Borrowdale's claim that early lockdown measures were made without legal authority.
17th Jun 2020 - Stuff.co.nz

England’s ‘World Beating’ System to Track the Virus Is Anything But

Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain unveiled last month a “world beating” operation to track down people who had been exposed to the coronavirus, giving the country a chance to climb out of lockdown without losing sight of where infections were spreading. As with much of the government’s response to the pandemic, however, the results have fallen short of the promises, jeopardizing the reopening of Britain’s hobbled economy and risking a second wave of death in one of the countries most debilitated by the virus. In almost three weeks since the start of the system in England, called N.H.S. Test and Trace, some contact tracers have failed to reach a single person, filling their days instead with internet exercise classes and bookshelf organizing. Some call handlers, scattered in offices and homes far from the people they speak with, have mistakenly tried to send patients in England to testing sites across the sea in Northern Ireland
17th Jun 2020 - New York Times

Pence Tells Governors to Repeat Misleading Claim on Outbreaks

Vice President Mike Pence encouraged governors on Monday to adopt the administration’s claim that increased testing helps account for the new coronavirus outbreak reports, even though evidence has shown that the explanation is misleading. On a call with the governors, audio of which was obtained by The New York Times, Mr. Pence urged them “to continue to explain to your citizens the magnitude of the increase in testing” in addressing the new outbreaks. And he asked them to “encourage people with the news that we’re safely reopening the country.”
16th Jun 2020 - The New York Times

Pressure piling on PM to ease lockdown amid more evidence of economic ‘disaster’

The Government is facing further pressure to cut lockdown restrictions as new figures laid bare the damage being caused to the labour market. The latest unemployment data was published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on Tuesday just hours before the Prime Minister meets with his Cabinet. New figures suggested the down turn had yet to feed through fully into unemployment thanks to the job retention scheme but there was a sharp drop in the number of paid employees, down by 2.1% or 612,000 in May compared with March, and a huge increase in benefit claims. The ONS said there was a decline in hours worked by people in jobs, while jobless claims under Universal Credit jumped 23.3% month-on-month in May to 2.8 million and soared 125.9% or 1.6 million since March when the UK was placed in lockdown.
16th Jun 2020 - YAHOO!

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 17th Jun 2020

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Sturgeon warns against ‘reckless relaxation’ of lockdown measures

There must not be a “reckless relaxation” of coronavirus lockdown measures to get Scotland’s economy moving again, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said. It comes as official figures show the number of Scots out of work increased by 30,000 to 127,000 over the period February to April. With unemployment rising, she said an extension to the UK Government’s furlough scheme, in which the taxpayer has paid the wages of hundreds of thousands of Scots, is almost certainly essential. The impact of the job retention scheme means the latest figures are “likely to be an underestimate of the full impact of Covid-19”, Ms Sturgeon said. She said the planned easing of some restrictions later this week could help the economy, adding there could be some “really significant steps taken for all of Scotland to start to get us back to normal”.
16th Jun 2020 - Belfast Telegraph

Coronavirus: Sturgeon warns against 'reckless' easing of lockdown

Nicola Sturgeon has warned against any "reckless" move to ease lockdown in Scotland despite a growing "economic crisis" and rising unemployment. The first minister spoke after the release of the latest jobless figures. The unemployment rate rose to 4.6% in Scotland between February and April, compared with a UK-wide rate of 3.9%. Ms Sturgeon said easing the lockdown "too quickly" would risk a resurgence of the virus which would cost lives and economic productivity. She said the progress made in suppressing Covid-19 so far could help build a "sustainable economy recovery". And she called on the UK government to extend the job retention "furlough" scheme, saying it was "almost certain" to be needed beyond October. Scotland is expected to move to the second phase of the government's "route map" towards lifting lockdown on Thursday, which could see a "safe re-opening" of more shops and workplaces.
16th Jun 2020 - BBC

Boris accused of ‘disdain’ for public by ignoring early calls for lockdown

The government has been accused of having ‘disdain’ for the public by ignoring calls for an earlier lockdown at the start of the coronavirus pandemic. Good Morning Britain presenter Piers Morgan called it a ‘devastating error’ that the UK didn’t lockdown at the ‘absolute epicentre’ of the first wave of the pandemic. Richard Horton, editor-in-chief of the Lancet, replied: ‘It is fair to talk about the disdain of the government for the British people, and the reason is that the British people were smarter than the government. ‘People in this country actually knew that there was a threat coming – they could tell that there was danger in the air, and they started to change their behaviour before March 23 when Boris Johnson announced the lockdown.
16th Jun 2020 - Metro

Pressure piling on PM to ease lockdown amid more evidence of economic ‘disaster’

Lockdown is 'economic catastrophe', says William Hague

In his article, Lord Hague said the lockdown had been so "destructive" that it could "only ever be allowed to happen once". He urged the government to scrap the quarantine on international arrivals - which requires all people arriving in the UK to self-isolate for 14 days - and the 2m social distancing rule. "We can now see that it is not necessary to have a two-metre separation between people to keep the virus in retreat where it is already at a low level," he writes. "We know this from the experience of countries such as Denmark, France and Germany where the recommended distance is shorter, and we should not have to spend weeks agonising over it." He said lockdown was "like Dunkirk - a heroic operation in itself but the result of a massive failure". And this was a failure "at multiple levels" he said, adding: "A failure by the whole world to prevent the trading of wild animals for consumption; by China to report the initial outbreak openly; by our and many other countries to prepare for this type of pandemic."
16th Jun 2020 - BBC

Pressure piles to ease lockdown with fresh unemployment figures being released

The Government is facing further pressure to cut lockdown restrictions in England as ministers brace for the latest figures on coronavirus-related job losses. The latest unemployment data will be published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on Tuesday, only hours before the Prime Minister meets with his Cabinet. With the ONS figures expected to make for grim reading given the economic fallout from Covid-19, Tory grandees have called on Boris Johnson to ease the extent of the restrictions currently in place.
16th Jun 2020 - Wales Online

Hospitals in several Alabama cities now seeing all-time highs in coronavirus patients

The number of COVID-19 patients in hospitals in Birmingham, Tuscaloosa, Montgomery and Decatur has hit all-time highs this month, filling beds and taxing staff as the state struggles with a wave of new cases. Nearly one-third of those patients will require ventilators during treatment, said Assistant State Health Officer Dr. Karen Landers. Cases are surging in Alabama. The department of public health reported record-high numbers of new coronavirus cases in recent days, with more than 1,000 cases added on Sunday.
16th Jun 2020 - AL.com

Montgomery City Council votes down mask ordinance, sends doctors out in disgust

Jackson Hospital pulmonologist William Saliski cleared his throat as he started describing the dire situation created by the coronavirus pandemic in Montgomery to its City Council before they voted on a mandatory mask ordinance. "It's been a long day, I apologize," he said. "The units are full with critically-ill COVID patients," Saliski said. About 90% of them are Black. He said hospitals are able to manage for now, but it's not sustainable. "This mask slows that down, 95% protection from something as easy as cloth. ... If this continues the way it's going, we will be overrun." More doctors followed him to the microphone, describing the dead being carried out within 30 minutes of each other, and doctors being disturbed when people on the street ask them if the media is lying about the pandemic as part of a political ploy.
16th Jun 2020 - Montgomery Advertiser

Florida businesses, restaurants not required to report coronavirus cases among employees, officials say

FOX 35 Orlando also spoke with the epidemiologist at the Seminole County Health Department to see if businesses are required to report their cases and shut down if their workers get coronavirus. He said that the cases should be reported, but it is not a requirement, and the business is not required to shut down. “We are not regulatory over businesses. For the most part, that is the Department of Business and Professional Regulation,” Baker said. “So, they don’t have to call us and say I’m shutting down my business.”
15th Jun 2020 - FOX 35 Orlando

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 16th Jun 2020

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US revokes emergency use of drugs touted by Trump vs. virus

U.S. regulators on Monday revoked emergency authorization for malaria drugs promoted by President Donald Trump for treating COVID-19 amid growing evidence they don’t work and could cause serious side effects. The Food and Drug Administration said the drugs hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine are unlikely to be effective in treating the coronavirus. Citing reports of heart complications, the FDA said the drugs’ unproven benefits “do not outweigh the known and potential risks.”
16th Jun 2020 - The Associated Press

The Great British COVID-19 Procurement Scandal – Byline Times

Bernie Spofforth reveals how small businesses with little experience and expertise were awarded major contracts for personal protective equipment
15th Jun 2020 - Byline Times

Broken by the coronavirus, Boris Johnson's team losing faith

Inside Boris Johnson’s government, senior officials are exhausted, demoralized and starting to despair. Their dreams of reshaping Britain for a bright post-Brexit world have been blown off course by coronavirus. With more than 41,000 COVID-19 deaths in the U.K., Johnson has presided over one of the worst records in the world after the U.S. and Brazil. Now Britain faces among the heaviest financial tolls from the pandemic of any major economy, and the deepest recession in 300 years. In the background is the specter of compounding the pain by failing to reach a trade deal with the European Union, with Johnson next week set to try to rescue talks that are going nowhere.
15th Jun 2020 - The Japan Times

Fear of coronavirus, not lockdown, is the biggest threat to the UK's economy

Tory MPs are missing the point: lifting restrictions won’t ease this recession, people need to feel the outbreak is under control
15th Jun 2020 - The Guardian

'We may be able to do more than we thought in easing out of lockdown' says Health Minister

The Health Minister Vaughan Gething said we may be able to move at a "slightly faster rate" when it comes to easing lockdown restrictions. Mr Gething said we are in this position because people in Wales have followed the rules. Following the rules has saved lives and means we may be able to move at a slightly faster rate than we thought possible even just a few weeks ago.
15th Jun 2020 - ITV News

Boris Johnson desperately needs his lockdown gamble to pay off

"I don't think it's too much to say that his survival as Prime Minister is in danger if we get a second spike," says Tim Bale, professor of politics at Queen Mary University. "I'm not sure he could restore public confidence in his government if anything like a return to the lockdown had to be executed. The government really has to get this right and pray it's not too early, as some people claim it may be." These claims that lockdown is being lifted too soon range from the editorial pages of the left-leaning Guardian newspaper, which believes Johnson is "seeing polls, not science" and "gambling with the health of the nation," to scientists advising the government who have called it a "political decision."
14th Jun 2020 - CNN

WHO's Kluge warns against further lifting of lockdown in England - Guardian

The coronavirus induced lockdown in England should not be further lifted until the government’s contact-tracing system proves to be “robust and effective”, the World Health Organization’s regional European director Hans Kluge said. In an interview with the Guardian newspaper, Kluge also cautioned that Britain remained in a "very active phase of the pandemic" and warned against rushing into reopening the economy. Britain said on Sunday it was reviewing its two-metre (6.5-foot) social distancing rule ahead of the next stage of lockdown easing planned for July 4.
14th Jun 2020 - Reuters UK

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 15th Jun 2020

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Coronavirus: Boris Johnson orders review of two-metre social distancing rule in UK

Boris Johnson has ordered a comprehensive review of the two-metre social-distancing rule amid calls it should be scrapped. Easing the restriction is seen as vital if businesses such a restaurants and pubs are to be able to re-open sustainably. The Mail on Sunday reported the review would effectively take control of social-distancing guidelines out of the hands of the British Government’s scientific advisers, who have been deeply reluctant to countenance relaxation. The move comes as thousands of non-essential shops in England are set to re-open on Monday for the first time since the coronavirus lockdown was imposed in March.
14th Jun 2020 - Irish Examiner

Public health workers fighting COVID-19 are threatened with violence, forced out of jobs

In the battle against COVID-19, public health workers make up an invisible army on the front lines.  But that army is under assault when it’s needed most.
12th Jun 2020 - NBC News

Few N95 masks, reused gowns: Dire PPE shortages reveal COVID-19's racial divide

Health care workers are still facing major shortages of N95 respirators, gowns and other safety gear, especially at hospitals in minority communities. Nearly 100 days after the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic, health care workers across the country are still facing major shortages of personal protective equipment, or PPE, including crucial equipment such as masks, gowns, gloves and N95 respirators. Amid an alarming rise in coronavirus cases across the United States, the situation is especially dire at hospitals serving communities of color or patients on Medicaid, NBC News has found. "The issue of PPE for health workers has not gone away," Dr. Mike Ryan, head of the WHO's Health Emergencies Program, said Wednesday at a news briefing. A new study out of Wuhan, China, is finding that health care workers who were appropriately protected with PPE did not get infected, despite being exposed to the virus.
12th Jun 2020 - NBC News

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 12th Jun 2020

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Swedes round on Sweden's coronavirus approach - POLITICO

The Swedish government’s decision to go its own way on coronavirus just got political. In the first party leaders’ debate in parliament since the pandemic began, opposition politicians went after Prime Minister Stefan Löfven on Wednesday, saying Sweden’s spiking death rate from COVID-19 and inability to protect residents of elderly care homes represented serious failures.
11th Jun 2020 - Politico

British health minister urges protesters not to attend rallies

British health minister Matt Hancock said on Thursday people should not attend large demonstrations for public health reasons after protests in support of the Black Lives Matter movement attracted tens of thousands over the last week. “I understand that people want to show their passion for a cause that they care deeply about but this is a virus that thrives on social contact, regardless of what your cause may be,” he said at a daily news conference.
11th Jun 2020 - Reuters

Bolsonaro supporter desecrates Brazil beach memorial for 40,000 coronavirus victims

A supporter of Brazil’s far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, has desecrated a beachside memorial to Covid-19 victims as the country’s coronavirus death toll rose above 40,000. Activists from civil society group Rio de Paz dug 100 symbolic shallow graves on Copacabana beach before dawn on Thursday to represent the Brazilian lives lost.
11th Jun 2020 - The Guardian

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 11th Jun 2020

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Egyptian state media accuses doctors of treason for speaking up on coronavirus crisis

Egyptian doctors have expressed anger in recent days, accusing the authorities of neglecting them and failing to protect and provide them with the protective equipment they need. In response, media outlets close to the government accused the doctors of treason, not sacrificing for the sake of the nation and even taking part in plans by hostile foreign countries or the Muslim Brotherhood. Within one week, 12 Egyptian doctors died of the novel coronavirus. On May 26, four doctors died, followed by eight others in the same week, leading to mass resignations by doctors at al-Munira Hospital in Cairo. Since the coronavirus crisis began and up until June 1, 33 doctors have died from COVID-19, while 372 have tested positive for the virus. Of that number, about 80 have recovered, Karim Mesbah, member of the Doctors Syndicate Council, said in a June 2 press statement. On May 25, the syndicate issued a strongly worded statement accusing the Ministry of Health of failing to protect medical staff.
10th Jun 2020 - Al-Monitor

Nigeria to cut healthcare spending by 40% despite coronavirus cases climbing

Plans by Nigeria’s government to cut healthcare spending risk undermining the country’s coronavirus response and severely impacting already strained services, health and transparency groups have warned. Funding for local, primary healthcare services will be cut by more than 40% this year in a revised budget expected to be passed into law in the coming weeks. The proposed cuts could affect immunisations, childcare, maternal healthcare and family planning services.
10th Jun 2020 - The Guardian

Brazil restores coronavirus data after controversy, court ruling

Brazil on Tuesday restored detailed COVID-19 data to its official national website following controversy over the removal of cumulative totals and a ruling by a Supreme Court justice that the full set of information be reinstated. The move followed days of mounting pressure from across the political spectrum and allegations the government was trying to mask the severity of the outbreak, now the world's second-largest.
10th Jun 2020 - AlJazeera

EU says China behind 'huge wave' of Covid-19 disinformation

China has been accused by Brussels of running disinformation campaigns inside the European Union, as the bloc set out a plan to tackle a “huge wave” of false facts about the coronavirus pandemic. The European commission said Russia and China were running “targeted influence operations and disinformation campaigns in the EU, its neighbourhood, and globally”. While the charge against Russia has been levelled on many occasions, this is the first time the EU executive has publicly named China as a source of disinformation. French politicians were furious when a Chinese embassy website claimed in mid-April, at the height of Europe’s pandemic, that care workers had abandoned their jobs leaving residents to die. The unnamed Chinese diplomat also claimed falsely that 80 French lawmakers had used a racist slur against the head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
10th Jun 2020 - The Guardian

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 10th Jun 2020

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Cornflakes for lunch! German parents say open school before mum goes nuts

Women are bearing the brunt of home schooling and extra housework, according to surveys. That hurts efforts to promote diversity and narrow Germany’s gender pay gap. Job satisfaction of mothers has fallen by 5 percentage points more than that of fathers during the crisis, and they are more likely to have cut their hours or stopped working, according to a survey by the Berlin Social Science Center (WZB). “Just as before the crisis, it is often the women who are putting back their careers to be there for the children,” said WZB’s social science Professor Lena Hipp, herself trying to fit in work around caring for three young children. At SAP, co-CEO Jennifer Morgan, a mother of two, stepped down in April after only six months as the first female head of a German blue-chip company, leaving Christian Klein in charge.
9th Jun 2020 - Reuters

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 9th Jun 2020

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Pakistan’s former PM Abbasi, Railways Minister Rashid test positive for COVID-19

Pakistan’s former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and incumbent Railways Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad were tested positive for COVID-19 on Monday, making them the latest amongst the country’s top politicians to contract the virus that has infected over one lakh people in the country.
8th Jun 2020 - The Tribune India

Government seeking to increase social gathering limit to 50

Due to the Coronavirus Crisis, the public in Denmark has had to limit their social gatherings to a maximum of ten people in recent months. But that could well change in the very near future after PM Mette Frederiksen sent a letter to members of Parliament proposing increasing the limit to 50 on June 8. The letter also revealed the government proposes additional increases to the gathering limit – up to 100 on July 8 and then to 200 on August 8.
8th Jun 2020 - Copenhagen Post

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 8th Jun 2020

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China would make a coronavirus vaccine a 'global public good'

China will strengthen international cooperation in future COVID-19 clinical vaccine trials, building on earlier collaboration in vaccine development, the science and technology minister said on Sunday. China is expending great efforts in the global scramble to develop a vaccine for the new coronaries epidemic that began in its central city of Wuhan, with Chinese researchers conducting five separate clinical trials on humans, or half of all such trials globally, according to the data compiled by the World Health Organization. President Xi Jinping vowed last month at the World Heath Assembly, the WHO’s governing body, that vaccines China’s develops will become a “global public good” once they are ready for use, and it will be China’s contribution to ensuring vaccine accessibility and affordability in developing countries.
7th Jun 2020 - Reuters UK

Coronavirus: Hard-hit Brazil removes data amid rising death toll

Brazil has removed months of data on Covid-19 from a government website amid criticism of President Jair Bolsonaro's handling of the outbreak. The health ministry said it would now only be reporting cases and deaths in the past 24 hours, no longer giving a total figure as most countries do. Mr Bolsonaro said the cumulative data did not reflect the current picture. Brazil has the world's second-highest number of cases, and has recently had more new deaths than any other nation. The Latin American country has more than 640,000 confirmed infections, but the number is believed to be much higher because of insufficient testing. More than 35,000 people have died, the third-highest toll in the world.
7th Jun 2020 - BBC

Prime minister told to dump rhetoric and plan for new Covid wave

Health chiefs say there should be no further easing before a comprehensive test and trace system has been proved to work, as NHS figures accuse the government of lacking a strategy and dodging an “honest and open” debate about Britain’s plight. They also warned of a “dramatic” drop in capacity at NHS hospitals. The Observer spoke to organisations including the Royal College of GPs, the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, the Royal College of Anaesthetists, the NHS Confederation and NHS Providers on how ministers should plan for a potential second wave. They called for: An “aggressive public health campaign” to boost flu immunisation to stop the NHS having to deal with flu as well as Covid-19 outbreaks this winter.
7th Jun 2020 - The Guardian

Xi calls for "China-France contributions" to winning global COVID-19 fight

France contributions" to winning the global battle against the COVID-19 pandemic. China and France need to continuously support the international community joining hands against the pandemic, Xi said in a phone conversation with French President Emmanuel Macron.
7th Jun 2020 - China Economic Net

Scientists at war with ministers over Covid: Experts call for public inquiry into 'failures'

Nearly 30 leading experts have demanded Boris Johnson launches a public inquiry to prepare Britain for a second wave of coronavirus, in another sign of a growing gulf between ministers and scientists. The group of 27 said a second epidemic was 'probable' this winter and warned it would be more deadly than the first if the Government doesn't address its failures from the previous outbreak. They have laid out a series of glaring shortcomings which they say have contributed to the UK suffering more than 40,000 Covid-19 deaths, the highest in Europe.
6th Jun 2020 - Daily Mail

Brazil threatens to quit WHO, Trump says US beating pandemic

President Jair Bolsonaro threatened Friday to pull Brazil from the WHO over "ideological bias," as his counterpart Donald Trump said the US economy was recovering from the coronavirus pandemic and Europe sought to reopen its borders. Adding fuel to the political fire raging around the pandemic, its origins and the best way to respond, Bolsonaro criticized the World Health Organization for suspending clinical trials of the drug hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19 -- a decision it reversed this week -- and threatened to follow in Trump's footsteps by quitting. "I'm telling you right now, the United States left the WHO, and we're studying that, in the future. Either the WHO works without ideological bias, or we leave, too," the far-right leader told journalists.
6th Jun 2020 - Yahoo News UK

Serco wins Covid-19 test-and-trace contract despite £1m fine

Serco, one of the companies that has secured a lucrative government contract for the Covid contact-tracing programme, was fined more than £1m for failures on another government contract just months ago, the Observer has learned. The revelation has led to campaigners against the privatisation of public services to call for the £45.8m test-and-trace contract to be cancelled. Serco has a range of government contracts both in the UK and overseas, much of it focused on criminal justice and immigration. It has already had to apologise after breaching data protection rules on its test-and-trace contract by inadvertently revealing the email addresses of new recruits. The junior health minister, Edward Argar, is a former Serco lobbyist.
6th Jun 2020 - The Guardian

Ten private doctors and a government official 'falsified 500 death certificates'

Mexico City prosecutors are looking into a group of private doctors and a government official after at least 500 death certificates were allegedly falsified Prosecutors were alerted by Mexico City's Health Protection Agency after it found that the doctors never visited the homes or clinics were the deceased died Cause of death were listed as respiratory failure, atypical pneumonia or viral pneumonia - but it is feared coronavirus could have been to blame. COVID-19 has been reported as the cause of death of 3,456 people in Mexico's capital. Mexico has registered 12,545 coronavirus deaths in Latin America, the second highest amount behind Brazil, which has reported 34,021
5th Jun 2020 - Daily Mail

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 5th Jun 2020

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Coronavirus: Would a new Irish government lift lockdown faster?

Hotels in the Republic of Ireland are currently due to reopen on 20 July, the same day as those in Northern Ireland, but hotel bars will remain closed. Reopening hotels, subject to social distancing rules, is part of phase four of the Irish government's five-stage plan to relax Covid-19 restrictions. The plan was announced on 1 May. It says hotels can reopen "initially on a limited occupancy basis (or number of people per square metre), and then increasing over time". Restaurants and cafes in the Republic of Ireland are currently due to reopen on 29 June as part of phase three of the recovery plan but "must comply with social distancing and strict cleaning protocols".
4th Jun 2020 - BBC

Containment zones would have checked COVID with less harm to economy

The government’s subsequent attempts to justify the imposition of the lockdown by contending that in the absence of such lockdown, the COVID-19 cases would have grown exponentially, is both misleading and poses a false binary.
4th Jun 2020 - The Indian Express

'Draconian lockdown' exposed us to the 'worst of both worlds': Rajiv Bajaj to Rahul Gandhi

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said that the lockdown in India is the only kind in the world 'where the disease is increasing after we are opening up.'
4th Jun 2020 - The Statesman on MSN.com

Rajiv Bajaj says India should have followed Japan and Korea⁠— calls the lockdown ‘draconian’

In a conversation with Rahul Gandhi, the Bajaj Auto MD, Rajiv Bajaj, said that India ended up having the worst of both the Covid-19 and the economy as the effect of a draconian lockdown. "The lockdown flattened the wrong curve, that being the GDP curve."
4th Jun 2020 - Business Insider India

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 4th Jun 2020

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Dominic Cummings' trip to Durham during lockdown DID prompt Brits following rules less closely

Thousands of people have said they are following lockdown rules less strictly and citing Dominic Cummings as part of the reason, according to a new poll. The YouGov survey found that one in five adults, or 21 per cent, stuck to lockdown restrictions less stringently last week than the week before. Out of this group, one in three — seven per cent of the total — mentioned Mr Cummings as part of the reason.
3rd Jun 2020 - Evening Standard

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 3rd Jun 2020

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Coronavirus lockdown: The conundrum of balancing health and economic interests as UK eases restrictions

Boris Johnson, as well as leaders in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, are walking a terrifying tightrope as they agonise over how fast to ease the coronavirus lockdown. As England’s deputy chief medical officer, Jonathan Van-Tam, warned three days ago, the country has arrived at a “very dangerous moment” as it faces a foe which is “a coiled spring ready to get out if we don’t stay on top of it”.
2nd Jun 2020 - iNews

Coronavirus: Concerns grow over lockdown alert level system

The BBC understands that all four chief medical officers of the UK nations, including England's Professor Chris Whitty, opposed the prime minister's hopes of lowering the Covid-19 alert level last week. Less than a month ago, Boris Johnson announced that any easing of the lockdown would be conditional on a lower alert level, alongside "five tests" on the spread of infection being met.
2nd Jun 2020 - BBC

To prevent a chaotic end to lockdown, the public should be told the true risks

Just tell the truth. If the government is to get the country out of the mess of lockdown, it must take people into its confidence. It scared us into it, and must now reassure us out of it. This week children are returning to school in England, on the basis that the risk to them and their families from Covid-19 is “minuscule”. What does that mean? One in a thousand, one in a million? The same as them being in a car crash? No parent will readily tolerate “risking my child”, so a language must be found to set minds at rest. That language should be one of evidence, of facts, not of adjectives and adverbs.
2nd Jun 2020 - The Guardian

Boris Johnson 'told Italy’s president' he wanted 'herd immunity' to defeat coronavirus, TV documentary reveals

Boris Johnson told Italy’s president he was aiming for “herd immunity” to defeat coronavirus, an explosive TV documentary has revealed – despite No 10 denying that was ever the policy. The Italian health minister has undermined the government’s repeated denials by recounting a conversation between the two leaders on 13 March, as the pandemic neared its peak. “I spoke with [Giuseppe] Conte to tell President Conte that I’d tested positive [for coronavirus].” Pierpaolo Sileri told Channel 4’s Dispatches.
2nd Jun 2020 - The Independent

Leader of Italy’s ‘orange vests’ inspires far right and coronavirus conspiracy theorists

Italian security officials are worried that right-wing extremists could exploit the Covid-19 crisis by infiltrating a new protest movement that drew thousands of people on to the streets in 30 cities over the weekend. The “orange vests” movement is led by Antonio Pappalardo, a retired carabiniere general who has mobilised a heterogeneous group of cranks and conspiracy theorists as well as ordinary Italians suffering the economic impact of a three-month lockdown.
2nd Jun 2020 - The Times

We must be trusted to make our own decisions as we enter lockdown-lite

Getting out of a lockdown, it turns out, is a lot harder than getting into one. The risks and rewards are hard to pin down now. We have divided into groups who are extremely vigilant about any degree of risk and those who will accept more of it because they place greater weight on the consequences of economic and educational lags. Old habits are also beginning to assert themselves. The lockdown-lite arrangements heighten a sense that we have done our bit being caged at home.
2nd Jun 2020 - Evening Standard

Far too soon to ease lockdown in north-east England, leaders warn

Political leaders in the north-east of England have urged residents to disregard the government’s “reckless” relaxation of the lockdown amid concerns it will lead to a second spike of coronavirus in a region with the UK’s highest infection rate. On the day that some primary schools reopened and people were allowed to meet more family and friends in England, council leaders and MPs warned that the easing of the measures had come “far too soon” in the north-east. Martin Gannon, the leader of Gateshead council, which has the second-highest rate of infections in the UK, said: “The current approach from government is reckless and they haven’t put systems in place to keep it safe.
1st Jun 2020 - The Guardian

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 2nd Jun 2020

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Public trust in UK government over coronavirus falls sharply

According to surveys conducted on behalf of the University of Oxford’s Reuters Institute by YouGov, less than half of Britons now trust the Westminster government to provide correct information on the pandemic – down from more than two-thirds of the public in mid-April. “I have never in 10 years of research in this area seen a drop in trust like what we have seen for the UK government in the course of six weeks,” said the institute’s director, Rasmus Kleis Nielsen. The research was conducted in the last week of May, including the period when Cummings’ apparent flouting of lockdown rules by driving from London to Durham – with a trip to Barnard Castle to check his eyesight – dominated the headlines.
1st Jun 2020 - The Guardian

UK eases lockdown restrictions yet experts say it's too soon

The U.K. eased more lockdown restrictions Monday despite warnings from some health officials of another spike in coronavirus infections, especially if Britons persisted in flouting the new guidelines. Most of the changes were in England, where a number of schools reopened to some — but not all — younger children for the first time since they closed in mid-March. The easing of the lockdown, particularly in England, has raised concerns that it is taking place too soon for economic rather than health reasons, given a still-high level of coronavirus infections and a lack of evidence showing that the recently rolled out track and trace system is working properly.
1st Jun 2020 - YAHOO!

UK is following scientific advice on cautious lockdown easing, minister says

The British government is following scientific advice in cautiously easing the coronavirus lockdown, Business Secretary Alok Sharma said on Monday, after criticism from some prominent epidemiologists. “Of course scientific advice does differ but I think the key point is what is the overall view from SAGE?” Sharma told BBC TV. “The overall view from SAGE - the scientific advisory group on emergencies which advises the government - their overall view is that we must do this cautiously and that is precisely what we are doing,” Sharma said, adding that if people obeyed the rules there was a good likelihood that R0 would not go above 1.
1st Jun 2020 - Reuters UK

India's coronavirus infections overtake France amid criticism of lockdown

Criticism has grown in recent days that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s sudden lockdown of 1.3 billion Indians in March has failed to halt the spread of the disease while destroying the livelihoods of millions of people who depend on daily wages. Community transmission is well underway among the population, a team of independent experts said, adding this would only get worse as public transport opens. On Monday, thousands of people were packing into 200 new trains that resumed services across the country, most of them migrant workers and their families leaving metropolises such as Delhi and Mumbai for their homes in the interior. “Had the migrant persons been allowed to go home at the beginning of the epidemic when the disease spread was very low, the current situation could have been avoided,” the Indian Public Health Association, Indian Association of Preventive and Social Medicine and the Indian Association of Epidemiologists said in a joint statement
1st Jun 2020 - Reuters UK

Jeremy Peat: UK and Scottish governments have taken different approaches to easing the lockdown. Who has got it right?

Policy related to the Covid19 pandemic has entered a very delicate phase, from both medical and economic perspectives. The UK and Scottish Governments have taken somewhat different approaches. The UK approach could be deemed more cavalier and the Scottish more prudent. How these approaches work out in terms of the future developments related to the pandemic will determine whether the more risk averse Scottish approach will prove beneficial or not in the medium and longer term, so far as the economy, unemployment and indeed the public finances are concerned.
1st Jun 2020 - HeraldScotland.com

Nigel Farage insists lockdown should be eased: "we should get on with our lives"

Lifting lockdown slowly in the UK from Monday is the right decision to make not only economically, but for the health of Brits. Nigel Farage was looking at the pros and cons of the UK reopening slowly from Monday when he started to list out why he felt it was the right thing to do. "I wish we had a proper test and trace system in place like Germany did three months ago" he began, but reminded listeners that the argument that the UK is following science is flawed.
31st May 2020 - LBC 973 FM

Coronavirus: Raab defends relaxation of lockdown rules

The foreign secretary has defended the government easing of lockdown measures in England from Monday, despite the country's Covid-19 alert system indicating high levels of transmission. Dominic Raab said England is "transitioning" from level four, when there should be enforced social distancing measures, to level three, when they can start to be relaxed. He said the approach is "cautious". Some scientists advising ministers have voiced concerns about easing the rules.
31st May 2020 - BBC

UK gov't advisers sound warning on easing virus lockdown

Senior advisers to Boris Johnson's government on Saturday warned it was too early to lift the lockdown, just two days before the UK further relaxes coronavirus restrictions. As people revelled in soaring temperatures by flocking to beaches and parks, several members of the government's own Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) told ministers they risked a second wave of infection. One -- epidemiologist Professor John Edmunds -- said the move was "a political decision". Another prominent scientist, Sir Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust and also a member of Sage, warned explicitly on Twitter that the government's was wrong on its timing.
31st May 2020 - Japan Today

South Africa leader faces thorny test over virus lockdown

Admired by some but berated by others for imposing a tight lockdown, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa faces a fresh leadership test over his handling of the coronavirus outbreak. Africa's most industrialised nation is preparing to reopen its economy on Monday as it moves into level three of a five-tier lockdown, in force since March 27, sowing bitter divisions. South Africa had already slipped into recession in the final quarter of 2019 before the virus arrived in March.
31st May 2020 - FRANCE 24

UK govt advisors sound warning on easing virus lockdown

As people revelled in soaring temperatures by flocking to beaches and parks, several members of the government's own Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) told ministers they risked a second wave of infection. One -- epidemiologist Professor John Edmunds -- said the move was "a political decision". Another prominent scientist, Sir Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust and also a member of Sage, warned explicitly on Twitter that the government's was wrong on its timing.
30th May 2020 - FRANCE 24

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 1st Jun 2020

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Coronavirus updates: EU asks U.S. to reconsider cutting ties with WHO as India extends lockdown in 'containment zones'

President Donald Trump announced Friday that he is “terminating” the country’s relationship with the World Health Organization after repeatedly criticizing the group for its response to the coronavirus crisis and accusing the agency of being “China-centric.” Trump’s strained relationship with the WHO could bring complications as scientists around the world race for a Covid-19 cure and treatment.
31st May 2020 - CNBC

The rushed easing of lockdown measures could devastate Italy

With more movement and contact, an increase in infections is expected. But will the current set up, with the regions in the driving seat, allow for a swift containment of potential hotspots, or is there a risk of another wave of uncontrolled infections? At this stage, nobody knows, but a more orderly and nationally coordinated reopening of the economy with mass testing, a contact tracing app, a significant increase in the number of contact tracers, and stricter measures for the isolation of confirmed cases, would certainly reduce the risks.
29th May 2020 - AlJazeera

Coronavirus: As we head out of lockdown, Government assurances the 'five tests' have been met are on shaky ground

To the relief of some and the concern of others, the Government has announced a significant drawing back of the strict social distancing rules the country has been following. From Monday, schools and some shops will open and people will no longer be consigned to meeting just one person from outside their household – groups of six can gather and guests can be invited to private gardens.
29th May 2020 - iNews

Germany's virus 'guru' in crosshairs of lockdown critics

The Bild row centres around preliminary results from a study by Drosten's Charite team that claimed children can spread COVID-19 as easily as adults. The issue is key as millions of parents hope to see schools completely reopen. A Bild reporter gave Drosten just an hour to respond to a list of critical comments on the study from other scientists, provoking him to post an angry response on Twitter. "I have better things to do," he said, publicly shaming the reporter by posting a screenshot of the email including the journalist's phone number. The scientists cited by Bild have distanced themselves from the article, saying their comments were simply made in the spirit of critical feedback aimed at improving research.
29th May 2020 - FRANCE 24

Critics say lockdowns will be more damaging than the virus. Experts say it's a false choice

These arguments are unconvincing, say economists. To fix the global economy, fix the global pandemic, they add. Survey data shows the US economy was winding down even before US states were mandating stay-at-home policies. Fear of the virus mean people were shopping less, small businesses were closing and cutting employment.
29th May 2020 - CNN

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 29th May 2020

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Lockdown protester fired after hanging effigy of governor

Terry Bush, the head of a right-wing militia group Kentucky 3 Percenters, has been fired from his job at a car dealership after being seen on video hanging Governor Andy Beshear in effigy.
28th May 2020 - Daily Mail

NYC Tanning Salon Owner to Reopen in Defiance of Lockdown, Says 'All Businesses Are Essential'

New York City tanning salon owner said he will reopen Thursday in defiance of city lockdown orders. "I'm opening business on Thursday at 11:30 a.m.," Bobby Catone, owner of Sunbelievable in Great Kills, Staten Island, said Tuesday in an interview with the Staten Island Advance, a local newspaper. "We had to flatten the curve, and on Staten Island we not only flattened it, we demolished it," Catone said.
28th May 2020 - Newsweek

Spanish regions request to move to new phases of deescalation plan

Several regional authorities in Spain have sent the central government their requests to move to a new phase of the coronavirus deescalation plan. Currently in Spain, 53% of the population is in Phase 1, which allows social gatherings of up to 10 people, and 47% is in Phase 2, where there are no restrictions on outdoor activities. Here is an overview of what each region has so far requested.
28th May 2020 - EL PAÍS in English

U.K.'s Boris Johnson faces schools rebellion over plans to send kids back

In the early days of the lockdown, it almost felt like a novelty for parents like Claire Collins as she and her friends swapped home schooling tips on WhatsApp. "There was an influx of people passing around, quite excitedly, things you could do with your kids at home: links on Pinterest, that sort of thing," said Collins, 37, who has children ages 2 and 5 and lives in the town of Abergavenny in Wales. "Now I think that enthusiasm has died. It's fizzled out," she said, struggling to speak over her children, Amber and Romy, who were vying for her attention in the background. "It sounds fun, but it's actually been quite taxing and draining."
28th May 2020 - NBC News

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 28th May 2020

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Husband of ‘Reopen North Carolina’ leader says he is ‘willing to kill’ in fight against lockdown

The husband of a leading protester campaigning to “reopen” North Carolina has said he and his fellow protesters are “willing to kill people” as they fight to overturn their state’s lockdown order. Adam Smith, whose wife Ashley was arrested at a recent protest in the state capital of Raleigh, said in his video that the only just response to the lockdown was to treat it as a fight against tyrannical government domination.
27th May 2020 - The Independent

Head of Italy's Lombardy Region Given Police Escort as COVID Anger Mounts

The governor of Lombardy, the northern region at the epicentre of Italy's coronavirus outbreak, said on Wednesday that he had been given a police escort after growing criticism of his administration's handling of the crisis. Lombardy, Italy's richest and most populous region and the motor of its economy, is one of the worst affected areas of the world by the coronavirus, accounting for around half of the country's more than 32,000 dead.
27th May 2020 - The New York Times

Putin Schedules Russian Victory Day Parade for June

Under pressure over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic and Russia’s faltering economy, President Vladimir Putin said the country would hold its showcase annual Victory Day military parade next month. The parade, a potent symbol of state power in Russia, has additional significance this year as it marks the 75th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II. It was pushed back from its May 9 date as part of a series of measures to contain the spread of the pandemic, which has seen Russia rise up the ranks of worst-affected nations behind the U.S. and Brazil. It has registered more than 360,000 confirmed cases and an official death toll of 3,807.
27th May 2020 - The Wall Street Journal

No masking it: Biden eyes stark contrast with Trump over coronavirus

A hunkered-down Joe Biden finally emerged from his Delaware home on Memorial Day wearing a mask, signalling he is putting the coronavirus front and center during the US presidential race in a nation increasingly divided over the pandemic.
27th May 2020 - Manilla Bulleting

US Barbers Protest against Lockdown

Barbers in the US state of Michigan say the lockdown there has gone on too long. So, they've defied government orders to stay home. They protested on the steps of the capitol, giving free haircuts to those who came out to support them. NHK World's Catherine Kobayashi reports.
27th May 2020 - NHK WORLD

No matter what our leadership suggests, we must ease out of lockdown together

One of the discoveries about our own country during the pandemic is the realisation that we don’t have a National Health Service; we have at least four separate services in the four nations. Meanwhile, areas like Cornwall have sent very strong signals that they don’t want to have to treat patients from elsewhere. Amongst the four, there has been serious divergence.
27th May 2020 - The Independent

Coronavirus anti-lockdown movement surges in the US after Donald Trump's 'Liberate' tweet

Protests targeted at political enemies has been a common trend not just from Trump's administration, but more generally in his public life. The birther conspiracy theory, Obamagate and even the debunked Joe Scarborough murder conspiracy theory all bear the hallmarks of this ability to identify grievances involving his political enemies, and to amplify them. In a limited sense, it's worked too. When broken down by which states endured the largest per cent increase in protests between March and April, there is a clear trend of states that are conservative or at least moderate who have Democratic governors (responsible for implementing lockdowns).
27th May 2020 - ABC News

New Zealand deputy PM breaks ranks to urge Ardern to lift Covid-19 lockdown

The deputy leader of New Zealand’s government has broken ranks with the prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, decrying her refusal to drastically loosen the country’s lockdown rules and immediately establish a trans-Tasman travel “bubble” with Australia. “We’ve been in compulsory lockdown for far too long,” said Winston Peters, who is the deputy prime minister and foreign minister, but is not a member of Ardern’s Labour party. “Everybody who has put their heart into the future, the country’s future, and their family’s future realise there is only one way out of this - to think smart and work harder,” he added, during a radio interview on Tuesday. He had been asked by the interviewer whether he supported Ardern’s suggestion of extra public holidays to bolster the country’s flailing tourism sector.
27th May 2020 - The Guardian

Trump urges end to lockdowns as US COVID-19 deaths near 100,000

Even as the United States approached the grim milestone of 100,000 COVID-19 deaths, President Donald Trump is continuing to pressurise state governors to reopen their economies and allow the "transition to greatness" he has adopted as a new campaign slogan to proceed full speed ahead.
26th May 2020 - AlJazeera

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 27th May 2020

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In Bolsonaro's Brazil, everyone else is to blame for virus

With Brazil emerging as one of the world’s most infected countries, President Jair Bolsonaro is deflecting all responsibility for the coronavirus crisis, casting blame on mayors, governors, an outgoing health minister and the media. By contrast, he portrays himself as a clear-eyed crusader willing to defend an unpopular idea — that shutting down the economy to control COVID-19 will ultimately cause more suffering than allowing the disease to run its course. The refusal of governors to fall into line with his decree allowing gyms to open, he said, verged on authoritarianism.
26th May 2020 - Associated Press

Kentucky lockdown protesters condemned for hanging effigy of governor from tree

Political leaders in Kentucky have condemned rightwing protesters against the state’s measures to fight the coronavirus, after the demonstrators hanged an effigy of Democratic state governor Andy Beshear from a tree. The incident happened on Sunday during a protest in favor of gun rights and other mostly conservative causes. Several men produced a rope and an effigy and strung it from a tree outside the state capitol building in Frankfort. The state representative Charles Booker, who is African American and the Democratic party challenger for the Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell’s seat in Kentucky in November, described the representation as “ vile and traumatic”.
26th May 2020 - The Guardian

Coronavirus lockdown: Scots' concerns over UK response

As Scotland prepares to ease its coronavirus lockdown from Friday, Scots have voiced concerns about the UK government's handling of the crisis and the risk of lifting restrictions "too quickly". A survey for BBC Scotland suggested that a majority of people thought Boris Johnson and UK ministers had handled the pandemic "fairly" or "very" badly. Meanwhile 82% of respondents said First Minister Nicola Sturgeon had handled the crisis well overall, with only 8% saying she had done badly.
26th May 2020 - BBC

Germany: Central and regional government tussle over lifting lockdown

The row erupted after Bodo Ramelow, premier of the eastern state of Thuringia, said on Saturday he would scrap rules on mask-wearing and distancing, relying instead on local measures. The states set most rules affecting day-to-day life in Germany. Though his proposal echoes federal government policy, which envisages gradually reopening the economy while responding fast to outbreaks with local lockdowns and contact-tracing, officials fear muddying the message could undermine public discipline.
26th May 2020 - WION on MSN.com

Pub bosses in plea to revise social distancing guidelines to help trade when lockdown is lifted

Some smaller venues will have to stay shut if the two-metre rule remains in force with others claiming it would not be economically viable to reopen
26th May 2020 - Wales Online

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 26th May 2020

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Protests continue across the world as countries ease lockdown restrictions

Many people across the world are protesting the lockdowns, calling them unnecessary and against personal freedom. While some of the protests have been more organised, others have seen people disregard social distancing rules, posing a threat to public safety. Amidst the protestors, there have also been conspiracy theorists, radical groups and anti-vaxx groups who have allegedly been using the pandemic and lockdown to exploit fears and gain support for their causes. From the United States to India, Europe and Latin America, let’s take a look at some of the protests:
25th May 2020 - YAHOO!

California church appeals to U.S. Supreme Court over lockdown

In the California-focused case that reached the high court Sunday night, a 9th Circuit panel split, 2-1, with the majority declining to disturb the state government’s action in light of the health dangers posed by the ongoing pandemic. “We’re dealing here with a highly contagious and often fatal disease for which there presently is no known cure,’” Judges Barry Silverman and Jacqueline Nguyen wrote. “In the words of Justice Robert Jackson, if a ‘court does not temper its doctrinaire logic with a little practical wisdom, it will convert the constitutional Bill of Rights into a suicide pact.’”
25th May 2020 - POLITICO

Germany: Central and regional government tussle over lifting lockdown

Germany's central and regional governments were at odds on Monday over when and how far to ease contact distancing rules, with allies of Chancellor Angela Merkel warning that scrapping them risks unleashing a new wave of coronavirus infections. The row erupted after Bodo Ramelow, premier of the eastern state of Thuringia, said on Saturday he would scrap rules on mask-wearing and distancing, relying instead on local measures. The states set most rules affecting day-to-day life in Germany. Though his proposal echoes federal government policy, which envisages gradually reopening the economy while responding fast to outbreaks with local lockdowns and contact-tracing, officials fear muddying the message could undermine public discipline
25th May 2020 - WION

Germany's far right 'captures' coronavirus lockdown protests | World

German far right groups are believed by security services to be exploiting a wave of protests against lockdown measures by Angela Merkel’s government to control the spread of Covid-19. More than 40 demonstrations were held in Berlin alone yesterday, with dozens of others taking place across Germany. One of the largest, however, in Munich’s Theresienwiese, site of the annual Oktoberfest, was called off because of a rainstorm. The protests, organised on social media, have drawn a mixture of libertarians, conspiracy theorists and anti-vaxxers, who are united in their opposition to what they consider to be illegitimate curbs on their freedom.
25th May 2020 - The Times

Protesters take to the streets of Berlin over government's lockdown response

Berlin saw new protests against the country's coronavirus lockdown over the weekend. As well as protests in the capital, crowds also gathered in Munich and Stuttgart to demonstrate the German government's response to the COVID-19 outbreak. They claim that restrictions on civil liberties during the lockdown, which has been notably less strict in Germany than elsewhere in Europe, are undemocratic. Germany's death tolls remain under 8,000, one of the lowest in western Europe, while schools, shops, places of worship, and museums have all reopened. In some cases, demonstrations have been started by left-wing groups or anti-vaccine campaigners, but what unites them is a lack of trust in the authorities, experts say.
25th May 2020 - Euronews

Race, wealth and public spaces: US beaches are a new flashpoint of the lockdown

During the pandemic, this dichotomy has become even more obvious. Public health officials promote exercise and fresh air during citywide lockdowns, and virologists have said it’s largely safe to be outside as long as people observe physical distancing. But, as the Guardian reported earlier this week, 100 million Americans, especially people of color and poor communities, don’t have access to a decent park or public space, which includes beaches.
24th May 2020 - The Guardian

Far-right protests in Spain over lockdowns: Coronavirus updates

Spain eased restrictions but Madrid and Barcelona have remained in lockdown for longer because of more severe outbreaks.
24th May 2020 - AlJazeera

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 25th May 2020

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Trump urges quicker US reopening from virus lockdown

Trump, with an eye on his re-election prospects in November, made it clear he hoped more state governors would move toward a loosening of anti-virus restrictions. "We did the right thing but we now want to get going... you'll break the country if you don't," he told African-American leaders in Michigan, a key election battleground state. The Republican incumbent specifically talked about reopening places of worship -- something he had initially hoped would be done by Easter Sunday -- as important to the nation's healing. "People want to be in their churches," Trump said. "They're so important in terms of the psyche of our country." Trump has adopted the theme of "Transitioning Back to Greatness" as states reopen at different speeds.
24th May 2020 - YAHOO!

‘Politicised nature’ of lockdown debate delays Imperial report

The publication of a long-awaited report from Imperial College London that models the impact of coming out of lockdown has been delayed for several weeks, following criticism of the team’s methods as the debate around the UK’s coronavirus restrictions has become increasingly politicised. Imperial’s MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis told the Financial Times at the end of April that a new report, which modelled the effects that easing various lockdown restrictions would have on future deaths from Covid-19, was due to be published some time the following week. However, the report has yet to be released, although its findings have been shared with government, according to two people associated with the Imperial team. The delay comes as the rightwing press and some Conservative politicians question the need for such stringent lockdown measures in the UK
23rd May 2020 - Financial Times

Covid-19's deadly new surge is in rural America as states re-open

As the death toll nears 100,000, the disease caused by the virus has made a fundamental shift in who it touches and where it reaches in America, according to a Washington Post analysis of case data and interviews with public health professionals in several states. The pandemic that first struck in major metropolises is now increasingly finding its front line in the country’s rural areas; counties with acres of farmland, cramped meatpacking plants, out-of-the-way prisons and few hospital beds.
24th May 2020 - The Washington Post

Debate over reopening US plays out online and in the streets

When his business was hit by a coronavirus lockdown, Josh Ellis saw a threat to his livelihood and a breach of the US Constitution. So he went on Facebook and called for protests. The appeal "went viral instantly," said the 40-year-old, who set up a Facebook page called American Revolution 2.0 in early April. The organization is now a driving force behind demonstrations against stay-at-home orders and compulsory closures of non-essential businesses -- and online planning is a central part of the campaign. Ellis -- who is coordinating with various "reopen" groups, as well as militias and gun and religious rights advocates -- is in the middle of an issue dividing the United States: how can the economy reopen, and when can people return to work?
24th May 2020 - FRANCE 24

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 22nd May 2020

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Anti-lockdown protesters in US state of Michigan hold 'Operation Haircut'

After mass rallies featuring armed protesters, those angry over the restrictive anti-virus lockdown in the US state of Michigan launched "Operation Haircut" Wednesday, with barbers using their scissors and clippers outside the state capitol.
21st May 2020 - FRANCE 24 English

UK’s economic recovery requires move to sensible risk-taking, ministers told

Sensible risk-tasking must replace the “draconian” Covid-19 lockdown restrictions, Conservative peers have told ministers. Tory Baroness Noakes warned the coronavirus is causing “massive damage” to the economy as she pressed for the existing “risk aversion” approach to be replaced to aid the recovery. Party colleague Lord Dobbs also argued “lockdown means poverty” and workplaces must begin to open up, acknowledging there are risks in such an approach but that these fell on both sides of the equation.
21st May 2020 - Belfast Telegraph

Coronavirus: Labour calls for urgent Government review amid concerns UK lockdown exit plan will widen inequality

The Government has been urged to immediately publish a review of how its coronavirus lockdown plan will impact women, BAME people and those living with disabilities amid warnings the policies could exacerbate inequalities. There are concerns the strategy of easing lockdown measures while reducing financial support from the Government could have a detrimental impact on the health or financial stability of some groups and communities.
21st May 2020 - iNews

Coronavirus: Easing the UK out of lockdown is a confidence game and the PM is losing

The 50-page strategy he published on the same day was meant to be our route map towards a new normal. But so far, the public don't seem to have much confidence in the manual or the message. A YouGov poll over the weekend showed support for the government's handling of the virus dropping sharply. Over half of those polled thought the changes went too far and nearly three out of four wanted clearer guidance from the government about what they can and cannot do as they come out of lockdown.
21st May 2020 - Sky News

Protesters demand 'freedom' as lockdown extended in Spain

Protesters bang pots and wave Spanish flags in the streets of Madrid to demand "freedom" and Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez's resignation. Sanchez won parliamentary backing to extend the coronavirus lockdown for another two weeks.
21st May 2020 - Yahoo News UK

Spain to extend lockdown to June 6 despite outcry from protesters and right-wing opposition

Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez won parliamentary backing to extend the lockdown for another two weeks Wednesday, despite opposition from his rightwing opponents and protests against his minority coalition government.
21st May 2020 - FRANCE 24 English

NHS leaders warn time is running out to establish track and trace strategy

PM said a 25,000-strong army of trackers had been recruited to identify the contacts of infected victims. Government's scientific advisers insist the system must be in place before any more restrictions are lifted. Rules limiting social contact could also be relaxed at that point, with a decision due at the end of next week. Ministers have admitted a tracking app being tested on the Isle of Wight will not be ready at the start. Security minister James Brokenshire said tracing system for 10,000 people can be launched before the app. Fears are mounting that the lockdown is eroding after thousands of sunseekers flocked to beaches and parks
21st May 2020 - Daily Mail

Another lockdown 'inevitable' unless test, track and trace is in place

The Shadow Chancellor has suggested a second lockdown is ‘inevitable’ unless the UK can ‘sort out’ its test, track and trace strategy. Anneliese Dodds claimed the Government is a ‘very, very long way away from having the right infrastructure’, branding the issue a ‘major problem’ amid an easing of coronavirus restrictions. Speaking exclusively to Metro.co.uk, Ms Dodds also warned that the UK is facing an unemployment problem bigger than anything seen in ‘many hundreds of years’. She said: ‘The absolutely critical issue to us returning to at least approaching normal levels of economic activity […] is to get test, track and trace right. Until we have that infrastructure we will inevitably see reimpositions of lockdowns and, or, a longer lockdown.’
21st May 2020 - Metro.co.uk

Poll: Public support for lockdowns in US wavers along party lines

Most Americans fear a second wave of coronavirus cases as US begins efforts to reopen and kick-start a stalled economy.
20th May 2020 - AlJazeera

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 21st May 2020

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New Jersey gym owner who broke rules by reopening claims lockdown against constitutional rights

Police have cited the owners of one New Jersey gym after it reopened in spite of state-wide restrictions against the operation of nonessential businesses. Ian Smith and Atilis Gym co-owner Frank Trumbetti claim the decision to reopen was made in defence of their constitutional rights, whilst issuing apparent criticism of Democratic governor Phil Murphy. “We said it from the get-go that this was about sort of a gross violation of our constitutional rights and that this is for all small businesses,” Mr Smith told Fox & Friends on Tuesday morning.
20th May 2020 - Independent

England and Wales' lockdown rules explained and the huge differences between them

However, before you pack up up your car and get ready for a drive we'd urge you to hit the breaks. The lockdown restrictions are very different once you cross the border and could well land you on the wrong side of the law. Here we run through the main differences between Covid-19 restrictions in England and Wales so you don't fall foul of the rules.
20th May 2020 - Birmingham Post

Coronavirus UK: Earlier lockdown could have saved 11k lives

Triggering lockdown just one week earlier on March 16 could have saved thousands of lives and limited Britain's coronavirus death toll to 11,200 in first wave, study claims
20th May 2020 - Daily Mail

Commons return will ‘euthanise’ MPs, Jacob Rees-Mogg is warned

Jacob Rees-Mogg has been told by a senior Conservative backbencher that an attempt to return to a “physical” parliament will in effect “euthanise” MPs who are sick, shielding and self-isolating. After the leader of the house confirmed the government planned to end the virtual parliamentary proceedings and force MPs to return to Westminster in early June, the former minister Robert Halfon said the proposals would discriminate and threaten the lives of some MPs. “Is it really morally just to say in effect to MPs, because you are not Tarzan-like and able to swing through the chamber, beating your chest shouting to your constituents: ‘Look, I am here!’ that you are effectively euthanised from the Commons?
20th May 2020 - The Guardian

Johnson 'reckless' in easing lockdown before Varadkar, expert says

On Monday, when Ireland started phase one of its gradual easing, new daily cases had tumbled to about 11% of the country’s late April peak. When England started its first phase five days earlier on 13 May, new daily cases had fallen but were still about 75% of its late-April to early-May peak. There was another stark difference. Ireland started lifting lockdown only after testing and contact-tracing systems were fully scaled up. England took the plunge before its systems were ready. “I’d say it was recklessly premature,” said Seán L’Estrange, a social scientist at University College Dublin, who has written about testing and studied tracing. “I honestly fear [the level of cases in the UK] will go up fast in the coming weeks.”
20th May 2020 - The Guardian

Chile protesters clash with police over lockdown

Local television showed police using tear gas and water cannon to quell unrest on the streets of El Bosque, where poverty is high. President Sebastián Piñera, in a televised address after the protests, pledged to get food to those in need. Chile has more than 46,000 cases of Covid-19 so far, with 478 deaths. A recent surge in cases prompted the national capital to go under a strict and total lockdown this weekend. In a separate development on Monday (Tuesday NZT), dozens of members of Chile's senate and two government ministers went into preventative isolation following recent contact with infected colleagues.
20th May 2020 - RNZ

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 20th May 2020

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Coronavirus: Right-wing anti-lockdown protest hailed by Trump featured disturbing ‘hang Fauci’ sign

“People can’t get enough of this. Great people!” Mr Trump tweeted on Saturday in support of the protesters, many of whom were the president’s supporters. Though the sign calling for the execution of Dr Anthony Fauci did not feature in the social media video, it appeared in a TV report by Mr Vesey for News 12 Long Island.
19th May 2020 - Independent

‘Great people!’ Trump backs anti-lockdown protesters filmed harassing reporter in Long Island

Donald Trump has backed a group of anti-lockdown protesters in Long Island, New York, who were filmed harassing and insulting a journalist who had turned up to cover their demonstration. The president retweeted a video by journalist Kevin Vesey talking about what he called “alarming” levels of anger from the people he spoke to but pledging to cover their story fairly. Mr Trump added the comment: “People can’t get enough of this. Great people!”
19th May 2020 - Independent

The UK was late going into lockdown and is now coming out too fast

Children spread Covid-19 less than adults, but it is unclear how much less. I have complete sympathy with those unions advising their members not to trust this government with decisions about their health. Eton and other private schools attended by the children of Conservative MPs seem certain to stay shut till September. If the return goes ahead, then schools need PPE & training in its use; hand washing stations throughout the school; staggered arrivals and departures; very reduced class sizes; constant cleaning of all surfaces; frequent testing of staff for infection; transport to the school that is safe (not a crowded bus); a locally run contact tracing & isolation plan in place for outbreaks and parents taking their children’s temperature testing before they get to school.
19th May 2020 - PoliticsHome.com

UK Minister sidesteps question on relaxed lockdown rules in England undermining virus control measures in North Wales

The Foreign Secretary sidestepped a question about whether relaxing the lock down in England was undermining efforts to control Covid-19 infection rates in North Wales. Dominic Raab, speaking at 10 Downing Street’s daily coronavirus meeting, said there had been “good collaboration” between his Government and the devolved powers. He also said the UK Government “recognised” nations may go at different speeds but claimed there had been a “UK-wide approach” to tackling the virus. On the specific question of whether he thought relaxed lock down rules in England undermined attempts in Wales to keep Covid-19 infection rates down he was less forthcoming.
19th May 2020 - Deeside.com

Britain Doesn't Want to Come Out of Lockdown

On the question of whether to prioritize the economy or the well-being of older people, Brits are much more bothered about the latter. After four years of Brexit divisions, the U.K. is conditioned to expecting intergenerational divides (older people tended to vote for Brexit while younger ones wanted to stay in the European Union). But that split hasn’t been apparent during the pandemic. Lockdown support has spanned all age groups, even though retirees are 34 times more likely to die from Covid-19 than working-age Britons.
19th May 2020 - Bloomberg

Spain's 1% Revolt Against Continued Coronavirus Lockdown

After enduring one of the longest and strictest lockdowns in the world, Spain is beginning to ease its coronavirus restrictions — but the efforts have not come without controversy. Since last week, millions of people have been allowed to visit friends and family, and sit outside at bars and cafes, in parts of the country where the epidemic is sufficiently under control. In response, after first banging pots and pans each night from their balconies, hundreds of protesters have taken to the streets in Madrid’s wealthy Salamanca neighborhood over the past week. Waving Spanish flags and crying “Viva España!” some protesters have denounced Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s leftist government as communists who are ruining the country.
19th May 2020 - HuffPost

Leaked Pentagon memo warns coronavirus pandemic could last until summer 2021: report | TheHill

A leaked Pentagon memo on Tuesday revealed that top Department of Defense (DOD) officials have been planning for the possibility that the military could be dealing with a “globally-persistent” coronavirus pandemic well into 2021. The memo, obtained by Task & Purpose, also warned of the “real possibility” that a vaccine for COVID-19 won’t be available until “at least the summer of 2021.” “We have a long path ahead, with the real possibility of a resurgence of COVID-19. Therefore, we must now re-focus our attention on resuming critical missions, increasing levels of activity, and making necessary preparations should a significant resurgence of COVID-19 occur later this year,” it read.
19th May 2020 - The Hill

Coronavirus: Donald Trump threatens to permanently cut off World Health Organisation funding

Donald Trump has threatened to permanently pull funding from the World Health Organisation (WHO) unless it commits to improvements within 30 days. The US president said he would also reconsider the country's WHO membership, previously saying the global health body did a "very sad job" in handling the coronavirus pandemic. Mr Trump suspended US contributions to the WHO last month, accusing it of promoting China's "disinformation" about the virus outbreak.
19th May 2020 - Sky News

US and UK 'lead push against global patent pool for Covid-19 drugs'

Efforts to dilute world health assembly resolution on open licensing decried as ‘appalling.’ “In general, it is a disappointment, appalling really. There was better text that was rejected,” said Jamie Love, the director of the NGO Knowledge Ecology International. “The US, UK, Swiss and some others pushed against the WHO taking the lead in pushing for open licensing of patents and know-how for drugs and vaccines. “In a global crisis like this, that has such a massive impact on everyone, you would expect the WHO governing body to have the backbone to say no monopolies in this pandemic. It’s one thing for a country to use its economic clout to buy preferential access to drugs or vaccines. It’s another to prevent others from manufacturing and expanding global supply.”
17th May 2020 - The Guardian

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 19th May 2020

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China's Xi announces $2B for coronavirus response as WHO faces calls for investigation

Tensions surrounding the global handling of the coronavirus pandemic came to a head at the World Health Organization's assembly Monday, with China pledging an extra $2 billion to deal with the crisis and the United States blaming the WHO for a failed response that "cost many lives." Speaking by video link, Chinese President Xi Jinping told the 73rd World Health Assembly that his country's funding package would aid "economic and social development" in developing countries hit badly by COVID-19.
18th May 2020 - NBC News

China supports review of global response to pandemic, as calls for inquiry grow

China's President Xi Jinping has said his country will support a review of the global response to the coronavirus pandemic after it is brought under control. Speaking via video-conference at the start of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) annual assembly, Mr Xi also said his country would provide £1.6 billion over two years to help with the response to the pandemic. His comments come amid calls for an independent inquiry into the origins of the pandemic - led by Australia - while in the US President Donald Trump has accused the WHO of helping China to "cover up" the extent of the initial Covid-19 outbreak.
18th May 2020 - ITV News

US lockdown protests may have spread virus widely, cellphone data suggests

Cellphone location data suggests that demonstrators at anti-lockdown protests – some of which have been connected with Covid-19 cases – are often traveling hundreds of miles to events, returning to all parts of their states, and even crossing into neighboring ones. The data, provided to the Guardian by the progressive campaign group the Committee to Protect Medicare, raises the prospect that the protests will play a role in spreading the coronavirus epidemic to areas which have, so far, experienced relatively few infections. The anonymized location data was captured from opt-in cellphone apps, and data scientists at the firm VoteMap used it to determine the movements of devices present at protests in late April and early May in five states: Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Colorado and Florida.
18th May 2020 - The Guardian

New clashes with police as anti-lockdown protests erupt across Europe

Thousands of people across Europe took to the streets to oppose their governments’ lockdown measures amid the pandemic. From London to Berlin and Warsaw, demonstrators clashed with police, who made several arrests, including that of Piers Corbyn, the brother of ex-Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. In Italy, hospitality workers protested in front of the Pantheon in Rome, claiming the safety measures required by the government will hinder their recovery efforts. .
18th May 2020 - YAHOO!

Jair Bolsonaro joins anti-lockdown protest as Brazil overtakes Spain and Italy in confirmed coronavirus cases

A day after the country passed Spain and Italy to have the world's fourth-largest COVID-19 outbreak, Mr Bolsonaro did push-ups with paratroopers and flouted social-distancing measures to pose for photos with children. The rally came two days after the country's second health minister resigned within a month after contradicting the President's response to the outbreak. Brazil's confirmed COVID-19 cases have exceeded 230,000, behind only the United States, Russia and the UK, according to Johns Hopkins University.
18th May 2020 - ABC News

Lockdown protests may have spread virus widely, cellphone data suggests

With cases still rising, why is Vladimir Putin pushing Russia out of its COVID lockdown?

Vladimir Putin has liberated his nation from its six-week coronavirus lockdown, but many Russians appear unsure what that means or if it's even prudent to exercise their newfound freedoms given that the country likely hasn't hit a peak in infections. "I don't know what to think," Christa Ivanovo told CBC on her way to the grocery store in Moscow, her one-year-old in tow. "If the rest of the world is under strict isolation … it makes sense we should [continue], too." Out of an abundance of caution, Ivanovo plans to maintain the self-isolation regime Muscovites have been living under for the past month and a half. I'm waiting to see what happens next week."
18th May 2020 - CBC.ca

Coronavirus update: Brazil's President flouts social-distancing advice, Deputy CMO weighs into war of words over borders

The mayor of Brazil's largest city has urged residents to stop flouting coronavirus lockdown rules with Sao Paulo's public hospital system reaching 90 per cent capacity, as the country's President ignored social-distancing advice to pluck kids out of a crowd of supporters in Brasilia.
18th May 2020 - ABC News

Coronavirus update: Boris Johnson admits public frustration with new 'complex' restrictions

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has admitted there is public frustration with his government's measures to ease the coronavirus lockdown following widespread criticism of the new rules, which have been lashed for being confusing and containing mixed messages. Meanwhile, Australia's milling companies have switched to 24-hour operations and add new staff to keep up with the demand that saw supermarket shelves around the country stripped of all flour.
18th May 2020 - ABC News

More anti-lockdown protests seen in Germany as coronavirus fatigue spreads in Europe

A number of protests against the government’s coronavirus policy and restrictive measures took place in various Germany cities, including Berlin, Munich and Stuttgart, on Saturday. Lockdown fatigue has grown in Europe despite the gradual easing of restrictions.
17th May 2020 - CNBC

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 18th May 2020

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Experts Doubt Mexican Government’s Claims on Falling Curve

A former health official and a group of Mexican researchers say the fresh numbers suggest the curve is still on an upward trajectory. With one of the lowest coronavirus testing rates in the region, hospitalizations in Mexico may well be the better bellwether for gauging the scope of the pandemic and when it’s safe to reopen. Those numbers are grim. In the nation’s capital, at least 76% of all hospital beds are occupied, and 63% of ventilators are in use, Lopez Gatell said Friday. That’s up from 58% on April 29. More than a quarter of all coronavirus cases are concentrated in Mexico City
16th May 2020 - Bloomberg

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 15th May 2020

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Michigan officials prepare for anti-lockdown protesters to descend on the capital today

Anti-lockdown protesters turned on each other Thursday when a fight erupted on the steps of the capitol. One protester was removed when he was seen waving an American flag with a doll hanging from a noose. Demonstrators descended on capitol building in Lansing demanding an end to the stay-at-home order. The rally has been dubbed 'Judgement Day' by organizers Michigan United for Liberty Law enforcement has warned demonstrators they may face arrest if they brandish firearms. Gov. Whitmer slammed the protesters this week saying their actions could lead to extension of the lockdown Whitmer has extended the stay-at-home order until at least May 28
14th May 2020 - Mail Online

Police Visit to Tesla Shows U.S. Confusion on Lockdown Loosening

Police visited Tesla Inc.’s sole U.S. car plant Wednesday to assess whether the electric-car maker was adhering to safety protocols agreed to with the county that Elon Musk publicly said he would defy earlier in the week. A lieutenant with the Fremont, California, police department went to the factory late in the afternoon to view employee screening and physical distancing measures, as well as to confirm universal use of face coverings. Findings from the visit -- which Tesla was notified of in advance -- will be presented to the public health officer for Alameda County, which will determine compliance, according to a police spokeswoman.
14th May 2020 - Bloomberg

When will UK lockdown end? Why we don't know yet - but the new Government coronavirus plan gave us some idea

The UK Government issued a 50-page document detailing how coronavirus lockdown restrictions could be eased - but the dates are not confirmed
14th May 2020 - iNews

Britain Starts Easing Lockdown as Pressure Builds on Boris Johnson

Britain took its first steps to ease its lockdown Wednesday as new figures showed the effects of the coronavirus pandemic on its economy, while Prime Minister Boris Johnson faced growing political pressure over his government’s handling of the crisis. The tentative moves are the latest in a cautious European push to bring the region’s economy out of hibernation. The U.K. economy shrank an annualized 7.7% in the first quarter, official data showed Wednesday, its worst quarterly performance for more than a decade.
14th May 2020 - The Wall Street Journal

Anti-lockdown protests in Germany infiltrated by far-right extremists

The protesters are typically a mixed bunch: anti-vaxxers, conspiracy theorists, left-wing extremists, neo-Nazis and hooligans, and others with no particular political affiliation. But what’s worrying officials in Berlin is that protesters have long ceased to merely appeal on the government to respect fundamental rights. “What unites people is the hatred of the political elite and public broadcasting,” said Matthias Quent, right-wing extremism researcher and director of the Institute for Democracy and Civil Society (IDZ) in Jena.
14th May 2020 - Euractiv.com

Coronavirus Lockdowns: Businesses Turn to Armed Defiance

Armed militia-style protesters have helped businesses across Texas defy coronavirus lockdowns and reopen. Protesters say they are enforcing the Constitution.
13th May 2020 - The New York Times

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 14th May 2020

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China-linked hackers are targeting US coronavirus vaccine research, FBI warns

Hackers linked to the Chinese government are trying to steal coronavirus-related research on vaccines, treatments and testing, the FBI and a U.S. cybersecurity agency warned. The FBI, in a joint statement with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, said it is investigating “the targeting and compromise of U.S. organizations conducting COVID-19-related research by [People’s Republic of China]-affiliated cyber actors and non-traditional collectors.” The hackers have been caught attempting to “identify and illicitly obtain valuable intellectual property” and public health data related to coronavirus research, according to the statement.
13th May 2020 - CNBC

PM: UK will ‘go forward together’ despite lockdown splits

Boris Johnson has insisted the UK will “go forward together” out of coronavirus lockdown after facing claims that devolved administrations had been “shut out” of the UK Government’s plans.
13th May 2020 - The Scotsman

German adviser sacked for report on 'lockdown peril'

A German ministerial adviser has been sacked for circulating a report that described coronavirus as a “false alarm” and accused the government of causing “a large number of avoidable deaths” through its lockdown. The 92-page document was drawn up by a civil servant in the interior ministry and leaked to a right-wing website, apparently after he felt that his misgivings were being ignored by his superiors. “The (entirely unforced) collateral damage of the corona crisis has by now become gigantic,” it says. “The protection measures ordered by the state … have meanwhile lost any purpose but remain largely in force.
13th May 2020 - The Times

Italy's South Tyrol invokes autonomy to pry open lockdown

Spurred by economic pressure, the provincial governor defied Rome this week and reasserted South Tyrol’s cherished autonomy, allowing restaurants, hair salons, tattoo parlors and museums to reopen Monday -- well ahead of the timetable set by Italy’s government. ‘’We have a relatively positive situation regarding the epidemic, with a rate of contagion the lowest in Italy,’’ said Gov. Arno Kompatscher, whose South Tyrolean People’s Party has controlled the province since 1948. The party’s legislators in the national parliament back Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte’s government. ‘’We appreciated the actions of the government in the phase of emergency, where it was necessary to move in a united way,” Kompatscher said. “But we are very proud and jealous of our autonomy.’’
13th May 2020 - ABC News

Tensions mount as Scotland goes its own way on virus lockdown

First independence. Then Brexit. Now Scotland's handling of the coronavirus outbreak has stirred up fresh tensions with the UK government, despite an initial unified approach. The leader of the Scottish government, Nicola Sturgeon, has put clear water between Edinburgh and London by refusing to implement the same easing of lockdown measures. At the weekend, she warned lives could be at risk if stay-at-home restrictions were lifted too soon, just before British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a plan for a gradual return to normality.
13th May 2020 - YAHOO!

Confusion as UK publishes lockdown exit plan

The publication of a 50-page document followed Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s televised address to the nation on Sunday evening, which was widely criticized for lacking precision. A broadcast round by Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab on Monday morning ahead of the document’s release added to the confusion when he appeared to contradict the prime minister’s assertion that anyone who is able to work safely should return to their jobs on Wednesday, not Monday as Johnson had stated the night before.
11th May 2020 - POLITICO

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 13th May 2020

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Coronavirus: SAGE report fails to consider strategy for easing lockdown

"This is what transparency looks like," said Sir David King as he launched a critical report of the government's handling of the coronavirus epidemic. He's a former government chief scientist and the report was the first from a panel of experts assembled to rival the official Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE). The 12-strong group live-streamed their two-hour meeting on YouTube last week and have just produced what they say is a constructive report which they've sent to the government and parliament. It's worth saying that the news briefing to launch the report wasn't open to the public. "We were told the membership (of SAGE) was secret. Why on Earth would you want to be secret?", said Sir David.
12th May 2020 - Sky News

SDLP's Eastwood urges Executive to 'reconsider' timeline for exiting Covid-19 lockdown

SDLP leader Colum Eastwood has urged the Northern Ireland Executive to "reconsider" its decision not to include a timescale as part of it's coronavirus lockdown exit plan. The Executive published its five step plan on Tuesday, but unlike plans from England and the Republic of Ireland it does not include potential dates for lifting restrictions.
12th May 2020 - Belfast Telegraph

PM Boris Johnson forced to clarify UK lockdown advice

In his first statement to Parliament on the coronavirus pandemic, months after the beginning of the outbreak in the United Kingdom, Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday issued a lengthy clarification to his government's advice over the lifting of lockdown measures. He had addressed citizens on Sunday evening in a recorded televised address, but his statement was criticised for prompting more questions than it had answered.
12th May 2020 - AlJazeera

UK lockdown: Matt Hancock refuses to accept public are confused over government coronavirus messaging

Health secretary Matt Hancock has denied that the government is confusing the public with its messaging over the coronavirus lockdown. England’s latest Covid-19 guidelines, announced by Boris Johnson on Sunday night, have been met with confusion and anger as people have questioned what they can and cannot do. Over the past 24 hours, the government has been forced to correct senior ministers over when people should return to work and whether they can meet relatives and friends in parks.
12th May 2020 - The Independent

Boris Johnson grilled on 'vague' UK coronavirus lockdown advice

Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon outlined her government's strategy concerning the lockdown on Monday -- and it contrasts sharply with Boris Johnson's plan for the UK. She told a daily briefing it was "too risky" to change restrictions, and the message to people remains: "stay home". People are not being encouraged to go to work, she said. Johnson's "stay alert" instruction in his TV address on Sunday night applied to England and Wales, the first minister explained.
12th May 2020 - Euronews

Unless the government changes tack, the UK's lockdown will have been for nothing

There are no silver bullets, clever models or easy answers for how to control the coronavirus. But neither is it rocket science. Governments have three choices in how they respond. The first and most difficult path is to contain the virus through a programme of mass testing, contact tracing and isolating. This requires a huge effort: building a large infrastructure to monitor cases of the virus and identify hotspots, ensuring this system runs efficiently, providing adequate PPE to everyone who needs it, and deploying border controls to vet who is entering the country.
12th May 2020 - The Guardian

Lockdown easing: have other leaders fared better than Boris Johnson?

Boris Johnson has been heavily criticised for failing to show Britain a clear route out of lockdown. Easing a nation out of two months of confinement is a complicated business, and some degree of confusion is almost inevitable. Here, Guardian correspondents look at how other European leaders have managed the process.
11th May 2020 - The Guardian

Boris Johnson's lockdown release condemned as divisive, confusing and vague

In a speech from Downing Street, Johnson said if the circumstances were right, schools in England and some shops might be able to open next month, and the government was “actively encouraging” people to return to work if they cannot do so from home. But he stressed that this was “not the time simply to end the lockdown” and that he intended to take a cautious approach guided by the science, otherwise a second deadly wave of the “devilish” virus would take hold. But his remarks drew criticism and concern from across the political spectrum – and his decision to drop the “stay at home” message in favour of advice to “stay alert” was met with a chorus of disapproval from the leaders of Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales.
10th May 2020 - The Guardian

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 12th May 2020

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Dominic Raab adds to confusion over changes to UK lockdown rules

The confusion over Boris Johnson’s request for people to return to work if they can has continued, as the foreign secretary said changes would be introduced on Wednesday, not Monday as initially stated. The prime minister made a televised address to the nation on Sunday evening setting out his roadmap out of the coronavirus lockdown. He said that those who could not work from home were being “actively encouraged” to return to work, prompting a backlash from unions who said there was insufficient guidance in place to keep people safe. “How can the prime minister – with 12 hours’ notice – tell people they should be going back to sites and factories? It’s a recipe for chaos,” said the TUC’s general secretary, Frances O’Grady.
11th May 2020 - The Guardian

Anti-lockdown protests threaten Germany's coronavirus battle: politicians

Chancellor Angela Merkel appealed to Germans on Monday to stick to social-distancing rules to slow down the coronavirus pandemic after data suggested the disease was spreading faster again.
11th May 2020 - Reuters

The UK’s new lockdown rules are another coronavirus comms mess

The government’s coronavirus communication strategy has been a mess of dodgy briefings, reversals and corrections galore. Yesterday’s performance was the worst yet
11th May 2020 - Wired UK

What Kent made of Prime Minister Boris Johnson's lockdown easing announcement including new rules on working and suggestion on schools reopening

It would be fair to say Boris Johnson's lockdown announcement on Sunday left a lot of people scratching their heads. Delivered 49 days since he implemented the measures for many it raised more questions than it answered - questions KentOnline has helped with here.
11th May 2020 - Kent Online

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 11th May 2020

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This end to COVID-19 lockdowns could only have been made in America

“We’re gonna learn a lot. These are all experiments,” sayid Ashish Jha, the director of Harvard’s Global Health Institute. Jha was among four infectious disease experts I spoke with who agreed that the varied — and possibly reckless — way reopenings are being managed state to state would provide information on the spread of the virus. They also seemed to agree the usefulness of the information would be somewhat limited.
8th May 2020 - Toronto Star

Dominic Raab confirms ‘no change’ in UK coronavirus lockdown as top scientist says crucial reproduction rate rising

There has been “no change” in the Government’s guidance on social distancing, Dominic Raab has confirmed, as one of its top scientific advisers said the coronavirus reproduction rate was rising. Speaking after the latest three-weekly review of lockdown measures, the Foreign Secretary said Boris Johnson would use his Sunday address to the nation to set out a “road map” for how the curbs on normal life might eventually be eased. But he pleaded with Brits not to change their behaviour over the bank holiday weekend following a string of press reports that Mr Johnson will ease some measures on outdoor activity when he makes his speech.
7th May 2020 - Politics Home

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 8th May 2020

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UK newspapers accused of giving 'mixed messages' on lockdown

Downing Street was keen to pour cold water on reports that the lockdown could be lifted from Monday, after newspaper headlines such as Lockdown Freedom Beckons and Happy Monday. Senior government figures privately expressed concern about what one referred to as “over-egged” reports about both the “tone and the pace” of a potential easing. The same source also played down one report that people could be able to sit two metres away from friends outside as soon as Monday. “It will be much more cautious than what is being reported,” they said.
7th May 2020 - The Guardian

Keir Starmer: UK needs to leave lockdown together

The leader of the Labour Party, Sir Keir Starmer, has said that easing of lockdown restrictions needs to take place across the UK as a whole, as he urged "caution" to avoid another spike in cases of coronavirus.
7th May 2020 - The Scotsman

Coronavirus: PM 'must show respect' to UK nations over lockdown

The SNP's Mr Ian Blackford said: "We are still facing an enormous death toll and everything we do should be based on the scientific and medical advice. "What we should be focusing on are the health considerations for the public and the absolute desire to drive down the impact of this virus. "If we allow an earlier removal of restrictions, all we are going to do is run the risk of that second spike and the impact on the health of individuals and the economy will actually be greater. "There has to be discipline and an appreciation from the population of what we are doing and why." Also appearing on the Good Morning Scotland programme, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said he was "worried" about Scotland potentially taking a different approach to restrictions to the rest of the UK. He said: "Across the United Kingdom, we went into lockdown together and I think it would be far better if any easing or relaxation was done together. "There are real problems if different regions and different nations do it at different times.
7th May 2020 - BBC

Strain emerges between UK government and Scotland over easing lockdown

Nicola Sturgeon’s spokesman confirmed the first minister plans to renew all Scotland’s lockdown regulations on Thursday without amending them. They were not aware of any scientific or expert advice which supported Johnson’s proposals, he said. “I think the first minister has said in recent days she’s been very clear that she’s not anticipating any imminent changes to the current measures that are recently in place.” The UK’s nations of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have collaborated closely on policies and strategies during the pandemic, with Johnson announcing the lockdown plans on 20 and 23 March on behalf of all four governments.
7th May 2020 - The Guardian

Scotland appeals for "four nation" approach to lockdown as UK plans early exit

Scotland's Health Secretary has appealed for a "four nation" approach to easing the Coronavirus lockdown in the UK amid reports that Boris Johnson will lift some restrictions south of the border this weekend.
7th May 2020 - The Scotsman

Coronavirus: Lockdown tensions between UK and Welsh ministers grow

The results of a review into Wales' coronavirus lockdown will be announced by the Welsh Government on Friday. First Minister Mark Drakeford is expected to outline how and when minor adjustments could be made. It comes after Downing Street conceded Wales and the other UK nations may move differently on easing the restrictions. The Welsh Government said more details will be announced in Friday's press conference. Mr Drakeford's approach is expected to be cautious, with a focus on ensuring the R rate of transmission is not allowed to rise.
7th May 2020 - BBC

Germany's Maas condemns anti-lockdown protesters' attack on journalists

For the second time in a week, journalists in Berlin were attacked by members of the public. Illegal anti-lockdown protesters turned on a camera team, in a move decried by German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas.
7th May 2020 - Deutsche Welle

Leaving Lockdown, Entering Recession: Strike in Spain Shows Workers’ Fears

Labor unions in Europe have recently voiced concerns about the safety of employees who have been returning to work. But the strike at Nissan highlights what may be the next major concern of organized labor: protecting jobs in a post-pandemic economy. The coronavirus has brought about a recession that is expected to be the worst ever in the European Union, one that will most likely push companies to close down struggling factories.Automakers in particular are believed to have excess capacity, as demand for new cars has slipped in recent years. About a fifth of carmaking capacity worldwide is not being used.
7th May 2020 - The New York Times

Spanish PM secures support for lockdown plans

The fragile left-wing coalition government is set to rescue its lockdown plans from “chaos” in a parliamentary vote today after securing the support of a centre-right party. The Socialist-led government of Pedro Sánchez, the prime minister, was in danger of losing a vote for a two-week extension of the state of emergency after one of its allies, a Catalan separatist party, decided to vote against it. The Catalan Republican Left party withdrew its support, saying powers should now be returned to the regions. However, the government won the backing of Ciudadanos, a centre-right party, and maintained the support of a Basque regional party to stave off what the Socialists called “chaos”.
7th May 2020 - The Times

Anger grows in French coastal areas over continued Covid-19 beach ban

Local Mayors and MPs have struggled to explain the decision and numerous campaigns including #RendezNousLaMer have sprung up on social media to get the decision overturned. Gwendal Richard, a keen surfer, told French newspaper Ouest-France that the beach ban was “completely unjust”. “All those who love the sea” are welcome to join him on nearby beach in Erquy to express their anger “peacefully” on 11 May, he says. He’s calling on them to line up on the beach while respecting social distancing regulations and wearing facemasks and he plans to stream the event live on Facebook.
7th May 2020 - RFI English

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 7th May 2020

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UK could start easing virus lockdown next week - Johnson

A Reuters investigation found policies designed to prevent hospitals from being overwhelmed pushed a greater burden onto care homes which struggled to get access to tests and protective equipment. Asked by a member of the public during a question session on Sky News whether the government had sacrificed the elderly in residential homes to ensure the health service was not overrun, Mr Hancock said: "No we didn't do this ... we have, from the start, worked very hard to protect people in care homes."
6th May 2020 - RTE Online

Boris Johnson Hints UK Could Begin Easing Lockdown As Soon As Monday

Boris Johnson has said the government could begin to ease the UK’s coronavirus lockdown from Monday. Speaking during prime minister’s questions in the Commons, the PM said he planned to give a statement on Sunday setting out plans for the next day. He did not specify which measures might be dropped or amended first as ministers were “continuously” receiving data from health and science experts. "We will want, if we possibly can, to get going with some of those measures on Monday,” he said, in a reply to Labour leader Keir Starmer. “I think it would be a good thing [...] if people had an idea of what’s coming the following day. That’s why I think Sunday, the weekend, is the best time to do it.”
6th May 2020 - Huffington Post UK

Coronavirus: Robin Swann says lockdown debate getting ahead of itself

The debate about easing Northern Ireland's pandemic lockdown restrictions is "getting ahead of itself", the health minister has said. A further 17 Covid-19 related deaths in NI were reported by Robin Swann's department, bringing its total to 404. The executive is holding talks about whether to relax any measures to curb the spread of the virus. "Call it my May Day alert," said Mr Swann, as he urged people to stay at home this bank holiday weekend. Northern Ireland's Executive must review whether to amend the coronavirus regulations by Saturday, but some ministers have already said any changes need to be gradual. Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill wants the Executive to publish its plans for emerging from restrictions on Thursday.
6th May 2020 - BBC

Birx warns against gatherings as US reopens from lockdowns

Dr Deborah Birx, response coordinator for the White House coronavirus taskforce, has warned against US citizens gathering in public spaces again as the number of COVID-19 infections topped 1.1 million in the country and the death toll rose to more than 67,000 on Sunday. Birx said massing on beaches was not safe unless people kept at least two metres (six feet) apart, and weighed in against allowing such businesses as beauty salons and spas to reopen in the first phase.
4th May 2020 - AlJazeera

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 6th May 2020

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Live updates: Vice President Pence says coronavirus task force could be disbanded within a month

Vice President Pence told reporters today that the coronavirus task force created to manage the federal government’s response to the pandemic could be disbanded within a month because “of the tremendous progress we’ve made as a country.” The number of people who have died in the U.S. from covid-19 passed 70,000 on Tuesday, with nearly 1.2 million confirmed cases, according to state health departments and tracking by The Washington Post.
6th May 2020 - The Washington Post

America's coronavirus reopening debate comes down to how much a human life is worth, New York governor says

Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday said debates on how soon states should ease social distancing restrictions come down to the value of human life -- and that policymakers are avoiding saying so explicitly. Cuomo, whose state by far has the most recorded coronavirus cases, reacted Tuesday to projections that the country's coronavirus death rate will soar because many states are easing restrictions now. "The fundamental question, which we're not articulating, is how much is a human life worth?" Cuomo said at a news conference.
5th May 2020 - CNN

U.S. daily coronavirus death rate will more than double by June 1, draft government report projects

Covid-19 deaths in the United States will rise to more than 3,000 a day by June 1, with new confirmed cases surging to about 200,000 daily, a draft government report projects. The predictions belie the projections made Sunday evening by President Trump, who said the U.S. could eventually suffer as many as 100,000 deaths. At 3,000 deaths per day and rising, the national total would quickly outstrip that number if the new report is correct.
5th May 2020 - The Washington Post

Coronavirus Reopening: Cuomo Outlines May 15 Regional Reopening Criteria

On the topic of reopening, he said it would be “more complicated then the close down,” which he called “a blunt operation.” Reopening is “more nuanced, you have to be more careful,” the governor said. The reopening will be phased and work hand-in-hand with measuring certain metrics. “It’s not going to happen state-wide,” Cuomo said. “And rather than wait for the whole state to be ready, reopen on a regional basis. If upstate has to wait for downstate to be ready, they’re going to be waiting a long time. So, analyze the situation on a regional basis.”
5th May 2020 - CBS New York

The price of reopening the economy: tens of thousands of American lives

In an interview published in Tuesday's edition of the New York Post, Trump said Americans were ready come out of isolation and get back to normal life. "I think they're starting to feel good now. The country's opening again. We saved millions of lives, I think," Trump said. "You have to be careful, but you have to get back to work," he said. "People want the country open... I guess we have 38 states that are either opening or are very close." A Washington Post and University of Maryland national poll released Tuesday finds Americans widely oppose reopening most businesses. While 56% said they are comfortable going to the grocery store now, 67% said they would be uncomfortable visiting a retail store and 78% said they'd be uncomfortable going to a sit-down restaurant, according to the poll.
5th May 2020 - CNN

Coronavirus model projects 134,000 deaths in US, nearly double its last estimate

Ali Mokdad, a professor of Health Metrics Sciences at IHME, told CNN's John King that there are "several reasons" for the increased projections. "One of them is increased mobility before the relaxation, premature relaxation, of social distancing," he said. "We're adding more presumptive deaths as well, and we're seeing a lot of outbreaks in the Midwest, for example." He said multiple variables impact infections -- like heat, testing capacity and population density -- but "the most important one is mobility." Right now, he said, "we're seeing an increase in mobility that's leading to an increase in mortality, unfortunately, in the United States."
5th May 2020 - CNN

The reopening gamble: Set your timer for three weeks

Set a timer for three weeks. By late May, we should know whether certain US states collected on a major gamble or committed a hideous error by reopening their economies. If a tide of sickness and death overwhelms the early openers, lockdowns may return, making Americans' trudge back toward normal economic life even slower and more painful. But if infections can be kept at manageable levels, these pioneers may begin to piece together a vision of the "new normal" that everyone keeps talking about. The good news is that some of the states beginning to open up — like South Carolina, Texas and Wisconsin were never as savagely hit as states like New York, California and Michigan. The bad news is that their turn may be next. Science warns the virus is still out there, waiting for an opening.
4th May 2020 - CNN

Warmer weather and debate over restrictions drive Americans outside while coronavirus cases rise

From California to New York, more Americans are headed outside -- some for recreation and others in protest. But as some states loosen or let go of their stay-at-home orders, researchers predict a higher death toll from coronavirus this summer than previously expected. As of Sunday, more than 1.1 million people in the US have been infected with coronavirus, and more than 67,000 have died, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. States such as California have stood firm on their stay-at-home orders -- and have been met with protests.
4th May 2020 - CNN

Northern Ireland church leaders urge politicians to consider easing coronavirus restrictions

The leaders of Northern Ireland's main Churches have urged politicians to consider easing restrictions on private prayer in church buildings "sooner rather than later". In a joint statement, the leaders of the Church of Ireland, Methodist Church in Ireland, Catholic Church, Presbyterian Church and the Irish Council of Churches, said they accept that now is not the time for "a full return" to collective worship in our Churches. However, they asked for the issue to be reviewed regularly.
4th May 2020 - Belfast Telegraph

Reopening of America: More than half of states will lift coronavirus restrictions by the end of the week

In Nevada, a chanting crowd of protesters marched up to the door of the governor’s residence on Saturday, drawing police who stood with automatic weapons. And a group demanding to “Fully Open California” organized to cause traffic gridlock in Laguna Beach. With confirmed US. deaths topping 65,000, efforts to reopen the country also are sparking outcries about public safety. But officials have battled crowds and some public resistance to mask-wearing and social distancing measures.
3rd May 2020 - The Washington Post

States are easing coronavirus restrictions and 'it's going to cost lives,' researcher says

"You're making a big mistake. It's going to cost lives," Dr. Irwin Redlener, a pediatrician and disaster preparedness specialist at Columbia University Medical Center, told CNN on Friday. Redlener and Joseph Fair, a senior fellow in pandemic policy at Texas A&M University, sent a report to all governors on Friday, warning them that no state or city should reduce restrictions until coronavirus infections have been steadily decreasing for 10 days to two weeks, and not until enough tests are available to assess just how many people really are infected. Redlener's warning comes as more than 30 states are easing social distancing restrictions this weekend. The changes ranged from opening state parks to allowing some businesses to restart.
2nd May 2020 - CNN

As Coronavirus Restrictions Ease, Many Still Wary

As states around the country begin lifting stay-at-home orders, individuals face their own choice over whether it feels safe to resume activities we all used to take for granted. We asked NPR listeners to tell us how they are making these decisions and nearly 250 people responded. In general, it's clear that even as local officials lift restrictions, many people plan to wait longer before resuming their old routines. "As long as there are new cases, I think it's not really safe," says Naomi Silas, a freelance graphic designer and graduate student in Grand Rapids, Mich.
2nd May 2020 - NPR

Coronavirus: Lockdown should ease to help economy, says Philip Hammond

Former chancellor Philip Hammond has urged the government to set out its plan to restart the economy. Ministers have been reluctant to discuss a lockdown exit strategy, arguing that it might undermine the message for people to stay at home. Mr Hammond said the country cannot afford to wait until a vaccine is developed and called on the government to start easing lockdown measures.
25th Apr 2020 - BBC

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 30th Apr 2020

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Florida will begin lifting coronavirus stay-at-home orders from MONDAY, governor announces

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced a plan Wednesday to lift stay-at-home orders from Monday. Dade, Palm Beach and Broward counties will remain under restrictions as they have reported the most coronavirus cases in the state. It comes after the state reported its biggest spike in daily deaths on Tuesday. It joins 16 other states - mostly in the South and Midwest - which have lifted or announced dates to lift coronavirus restrictions following weeks of mandatory lockdowns Alabama, Ohio, Missouri, Montana and Iowa will slowly start opening their economies this week. Minnesota, Mississippi, Michigan, Tennessee, Colorado, Alaska, Georgia, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Texas have already partially reopened. Public health authorities have warned that increasing human interactions and economic activity may spark a new surge of infections
30th Apr 2020 - Daily Mail

Coronavirus: This is what reopening in US looks like

Barber shops, tattoo parlours, beaches and restaurants reopen in Georgia as the governor lifts coronavirus restrictions. BBC Newsnight's David Grossman travelled across the state to see what life looks like as the state emerges from economic hibernation.
29th Apr 2020 - BBC

US states reopening: Maine is first Northeastern state to ease COVID-19 restrictions

Maine will allow some businesses - including drive-in theaters, barber shops and hair salons, dog groomers and car dealerships - to reopen from Friday. Current restrictions, including no gatherings of more than 10 people and 14 day quarantine for out of state visitors, still apply. Maine joins 15 other states - mostly in the South and Midwest - which have lifted or announced dates to lift coronavirus restrictions following weeks of mandatory lockdowns. Alabama, Ohio, Missouri, Montana and Iowa will slowly start opening their economies this week. Minnesota, Mississippi, Michigan, Tennessee, Colorado, Alaska, Georgia, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Texas have already partially reopened. Public health authorities have warned that increasing human interactions and economic activity may spark a new surge of infections.
29th Apr 2020 - Daily Mail

Why Georgia Is Reopening Amid the Coronavirus Pandemic

Georgia governor Kemp’s move to reopen was condemned by scientists, high-ranking Republicans from his own state, and Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms; it even drew a public rebuke from President Donald Trump, who had reportedly approved the measures before distancing himself from the governor amid the backlash.
29th Apr 2020 - The Atlantic

Alabama and Ohio are latest to lift coronavirus restrictions

14 states that are home to more than 95 million people have started reopening their economies or announced their reopening plans. Alabama will reopen from Thursday and will be followed by Ohio on Friday. All Missouri businesses and social events will be allowed to reopen from May 4 and Iowa will open restaurants, malls, fitness centers, libraries and retail stores at 50% capacity from May 1. Stay-at-home orders issued by governors across the US and subsequent decisions to slowly reopen state economies have turned into highly charged political issues Minnesota, Mississippi, Colorado, Montana, Tennessee, Georgia, Oklahoma, Alaska and South Carolina will, or have already, restarted their economies following weeks of mandatory lockdowns. Texas partially reopened last week but the governor announced on Monday that state's stay-at-home order would expire April 30.
28th Apr 2020 - Daily Mail

Global coronavirus restrictions loosening, allowing for some return to normalcy

Germany, which has lost more than 6,000 people to the contagion, took its first steps to ease restrictions last week — and by Tuesday locals were pictured visiting the Berlin Zoo and snapping selfies in front of elephants as the zoo partially reopened. Smaller businesses were also permitted to reopen in the country, but strict social distancing measures remain in place, and there are still bans on large gatherings of people.
28th Apr 2020 - New York Post

Several U.S. states prepare to ease coronavirus restrictions despite experts' worries

By and large the states forging ahead with re-openings this week are concentrated in the South, the Midwest and mountain West, where outbreaks have been far less severe than in the Northeast. Most are led by Republican governors. Tennessee said it will allow restaurants to reopen on Monday. Mississippi’s stay-at-home order expires the same day. Montana, which reported three new cases on Sunday, is allowing businesses to reopen Monday if they limit capacity and practice social distancing, while Minnesota is clearing the way for 80,000 to 100,000 workers in industrial and office jobs to return to work on Monday. In Colorado, Democratic Governor Jared Polis has given the green light for retail curbside pickup to begin on Monday. Hair salons, barbershop and tattoo parlors can open on Friday, with retail stores, restaurants and movie theaters to follow.
27th Apr 2020 - Global News

More states are easing coronavirus restrictions this week, unnerving experts and some local officials

Several states are reopening from coronavirus shutdowns this week despite the recommendations of health researchers. Colorado, Minnesota and Montana plan to ease social distancing and stay-at-home restrictions. Iowa will allow elective surgeries to resume and farmers markets to reopen starting Monday.
27th Apr 2020 - CNN

Gov. Dunleavy says Alaska will ease some coronavirus restrictions starting later this week

Gov. Mike Dunleavy accelerated his timeline to open up segments of the economy, announcing Tuesday night that under certain restrictions, barbershops, tattoo parlors, nail salons and tanning salons can open starting Friday, allowing one customer in at a time. “We’re going to give these businesses an opportunity to be open, and really it’s one provider, one client, no waiting room," Alaska Department of Health and Social Services Commissioner Adam Crum said. Restaurants can open up for dine-in service, but with reservations. They can have up to 25% capacity. Retail stores will be allowed to open for limited shopping, operating at 25% capacity with hand sanitizer at the entrance. Bars, bingo parlors and bowling alleys cannot open yet, state officials said. The changes are not yet posted on state websites or in public documents, though state officials said more information will be released this week.
21st Apr 2020 - Anchorage Daily News

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Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 28th Nov 2022

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Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 21st Nov 2022

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Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 14th Nov 2022

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Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 31st Oct 2022

Shanghai Disneyland reduces operations as China tightens COVID curbs

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Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 24th Oct 2022

‘Fractured’ pandemic response failed the most vulnerable, independent report finds

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Chinese capital steps up COVID measures as cases quadruple

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China Traders See Tech Focus, More Covid Gloom After Xi's Speech

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 17th Oct 2022

As China doubles down on ‘zero-COVID’, some have had enough

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China holiday tourist trips fall 18% on year on broad COVID curbs

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 10th Oct 2022

Singapore to ditch rules linked to Covid vaccination status from October 10

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Biden Vaccine Mandate for Health Workers Survives Supreme Court Appeal

Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 3rd Oct 2022

China's Tibet COVID-19 lockdown causing 'extreme hardships': campaigners

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Mandatory COVID-19 isolation periods scrapped by National Cabinet from October 14

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Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 26th Sep 2022

COVID-19 cases rise in England and Wales for first time in two months

PM agrees to lift pandemic border measures, source says

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Partisan Exits - COVID-19 Lockdown Exit Analysis - 18th Sep 2022

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