Never mind vaccine passports, if the government really wants the police to enforce its latest round of Covid rules it will have to issue us with bits of paper providing information on our living arrangements: where we live and with whom we live – preferably with photographs of all fellow members of our household.How else is a police officer, delving into the morass of people out enjoying themselves after months of being banned from any kind of socialising, supposed to pull people over for breaking the ‘rule of six’? He could spot a group of seven around a barbecue and go over to ask a few...…Never mind vaccine passports, if the government really wants the police to enforce its latest round of Covid rules it will have to issue us with bits of paper providing information on our living arrangements: where we live and with whom we live – preferably with photographs of all fellow members of our household.How else is a police officer, delving into the morass of people out enjoying themselves after months of being banned from any kind of socialising, supposed to pull people over for breaking the ‘rule of six’? He could spot a group of seven around a barbecue and go over to ask a few...WW…

If there is anyone still labouring under the delusion that lockdown mark two was going to be a short, sharp "circuit-breaker", and that we could then go back to something a little more like normality, they are going to be rudely awoken on Monday when the Prime Minister announces whatThe answer, it seems, will be a rebadged lockdown. While it will be described as a return to tiers, those tiers will be made tougher and more of us will find ourselves shunted into the top tiers. The result is that most people will be forbidden from mixing with family and friends until Easter – save for a brief...…If there is anyone still labouring under the delusion that lockdown mark two was going to be a short, sharp "circuit-breaker", and that we could then go back to something a little more like normality, they are going to be rudely awoken on Monday when the Prime Minister announces whatThe answer, it seems, will be a rebadged lockdown. While it will be described as a return to tiers, those tiers will be made tougher and more of us will find ourselves shunted into the top tiers. The result is that most people will be forbidden from mixing with family and friends until Easter – save for a brief...WW…

Remember ‘immunity passports’? Back in April they were floated as a possible means by which we could all get back to a normal life. We could be tested for antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 — the virus which causes COVID-19 — and, if we tested positive, we could be allowed to go about our business. The presumption was that we would be immune from further infection, at least for a while. The idea quickly bit the dust. There was one good argument against it: it might encourage young people, who are very unlikely to come to harm from COVID-19, deliberately to set out to catch it in order to gain a...…Remember ‘immunity passports’? Back in April they were floated as a possible means by which we could all get back to a normal life. We could be tested for antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 — the virus which causes COVID-19 — and, if we tested positive, we could be allowed to go about our business. The presumption was that we would be immune from further infection, at least for a while. The idea quickly bit the dust. There was one good argument against it: it might encourage young people, who are very unlikely to come to harm from COVID-19, deliberately to set out to catch it in order to gain a...WW…

Why do so many people think the suppression of the economy is no big deal?  On October 29, two days before the Prime Minister announced our second national lockdown, one opinion poll found two thirds of people in favour of the idea and only a quarter against.    There are, I think, two answers to the above the question. Firstly, large numbers of people, who do not have a thorough scientific education, are susceptible to any doom-laden modelling  that is put before them, however dodgy it may be. They are frightened, and allow Covid 19 to over-rule all other concerns.    Secondly, we haven’t...…Why do so many people think the suppression of the economy is no big deal?  On October 29, two days before the Prime Minister announced our second national lockdown, one opinion poll found two thirds of people in favour of the idea and only a quarter against.    There are, I think, two answers to the above the question. Firstly, large numbers of people, who do not have a thorough scientific education, are susceptible to any doom-laden modelling  that is put before them, however dodgy it may be. They are frightened, and allow Covid 19 to over-rule all other concerns.    Secondly, we haven’t...WW…

Maybe it was because the pubs and restaurants were closed, but in April and May the number of hospital admissions for gastrointestinal disorders fell by 90 per cent compared with the five year average, from 45,901 to 4642.     On second thoughts, the drop is unlikely to be entirely down to us eating less at dodgy food joints – because admissions for all kinds of ailments were also down sharply. , admissions for septicaemia fell by 65 per cent, prostate cancer by 64 per cent, lung cancer by 43 per cent, non-specific chest pains by 41 per cent and bowel cancer admissions by 39 per...…Maybe it was because the pubs and restaurants were closed, but in April and May the number of hospital admissions for gastrointestinal disorders fell by 90 per cent compared with the five year average, from 45,901 to 4642.     On second thoughts, the drop is unlikely to be entirely down to us eating less at dodgy food joints – because admissions for all kinds of ailments were also down sharply. , admissions for septicaemia fell by 65 per cent, prostate cancer by 64 per cent, lung cancer by 43 per cent, non-specific chest pains by 41 per cent and bowel cancer admissions by 39 per...WW…

If you wanted to find an example of Donald Trump saying something inaccurate or misleading, you would not have to look far through the archives of his speeches, interviews and tweets. If you wanted to pick out a great big porky uttered by anyone on Facebook or Twitter, you wouldn’t have to try too hard, either.But how odd of Facebook and Twitter to make such a meal in an interview with Fox News earlier this week: “If you look at children, children are almost – and I would almost say definitely – but almost immune from this disease.” Facebook has removed the interview from its site while...…If you wanted to find an example of Donald Trump saying something inaccurate or misleading, you would not have to look far through the archives of his speeches, interviews and tweets. If you wanted to pick out a great big porky uttered by anyone on Facebook or Twitter, you wouldn’t have to try too hard, either.But how odd of Facebook and Twitter to make such a meal in an interview with Fox News earlier this week: “If you look at children, children are almost – and I would almost say definitely – but almost immune from this disease.” Facebook has removed the interview from its site while...WW…

One of the great unknowns of the COVID-19 crisis is just how deadly the disease is. Much of the panic dates from the moment, in early March, when the World Health Organization (WHO) published a mortality rate of 3.2 percent — which turned out to be a crude ‘case fatality rate’ dividing the number of deaths by the number of recorded cases, ignoring the large number of cases which are asymptomatic or otherwise go unrecorded.The Imperial College modeling, which has been so influential on the UK government, assumed an infection fatality rate (IFR) of 0.9 percent. This was used to compute the...…One of the great unknowns of the COVID-19 crisis is just how deadly the disease is. Much of the panic dates from the moment, in early March, when the World Health Organization (WHO) published a mortality rate of 3.2 percent — which turned out to be a crude ‘case fatality rate’ dividing the number of deaths by the number of recorded cases, ignoring the large number of cases which are asymptomatic or otherwise go unrecorded.The Imperial College modeling, which has been so influential on the UK government, assumed an infection fatality rate (IFR) of 0.9 percent. This was used to compute the...WW…