World
Why the NHS contact tracing app could be dead on arrival
Today the Isle of Wight becomes the nation’s Petri dish – the first place to try the NHS’s Covid-19 contact-tracing…
A German court has plunged the eurozone into fresh crisis
An epidemic has been raging across the continent. The economy is in lockdown, and GDP is in freefall. But, hey,…
Covid statistics are just politics by other means
Statistics is the continuation of politics by other means, to misquote Clausewitz. One hundred and fifty years after the crushing…
Israel’s antibody breakthrough
The Israeli government is reporting this morning that the country’s Institute for Biological Research has made a breakthrough in the…
Our toothless response to China is embarrassing
If you have been troubled by the government’s failure to get tough on the country responsible for our present malaise,…
Herd immunity may only need 10-20 per cent of people to be infected
Since mid-March there has been an assumption that herd immunity against Covid-19 would not be achieved until around 60 per…
The ridiculousness of the bookshelf police
‘People want to know why Michael Gove owns “racist” and “anti-Semitic” books’, reports the Independent’s website. By ‘people’ it actually…
Sweden tames its ‘R number’ without lockdown
Sweden has been the world’s Covid-19 outlier, pursuing social distancing but rejecting mandatory lockdown. Schools, bars and restaurants are open…
Have we been fighting a very different disease to China?
One of the great mysteries of coronavirus is how the epidemic has become much more severe in Europe and North…
The problem with immunity passports
Could we see ‘immunity passports’ in Britain? Ministers are reportedly discussing them as a route out of lockdown. According to today’s…
Spain's fiendishly complex rules for easing the lockdown
Once upon a time, when travel was still allowed, I checked into a small hotel in back-of-beyond Extremadura, in South-West…
Is the PM an example of why those with Covid-19 should be hospitalised earlier?
There is so much to ponder in the prime minister’s interview about how Covid-19 almost killed him. But, in respect…
Coronavirus is revealing uncomfortable truths about Japan
I’ll never forget an unusually frank conversation I once had with a Japanese acquaintance (let’s call him ‘Yoshi’). He was…
Lancet editor’s Chinese propaganda
Ever since the coronavirus first began to spread in the UK, one of the government’s staunchest critics has been the…
The underground doctors’ movement questioning the use of ventilators
In the 1780s, medical authorities largely agreed: insufflation of the rectum with tobacco smoke was the best treatment for near-drowning.…
We can’t stop here, this is Biden Country
One of the most eye-popping coronavirus containment measures instituted anywhere in the country can currently be found in the small,…
The shameful smearing of Michael Flynn
Among other things, the case of Gen. Michael Flynn reminds us of the old adage that things are always worse…
Biden’s denial doesn’t close the door on the Tara Reade accusation
Joe Biden finally went on the record Friday denying he sexually assaulted Tara Reade. It took 39 days and multiple…
We need to talk about Democrats on TikTok
With his usual haunts closed thanks to the COVID-19 lockdown, Cockburn has been clamoring for a new source of entertainment.…
Dear politicians, life must go on
The worst day of my childhood was in 1995 when my father lost his job. He worked close by as…
Coronavirus reinfection fears appear to be unfounded
A week ago, the World Health Organisation (WHO) issued a warning which, if it were true, would constitute the most…
The old explorer is returning to the land of the lucid
‘There is a giant python slithering across the foot of my hospital bed. It’s at least eight feetlong and it’s…
Emmanuel Macron is experiencing the calm before the storm
Today marks the third month of my confinement in my fifth floor apartment in Paris. As I wrote all those…
How the lockdown could be modified
We’ll get a fairly detailed plan from the PM next week encouraging businesses to start operating again, public transport to…
Lockdown sceptics might be wrong, but let's still listen to them
Does Laura Perrins want me dead? The conservative commentator is coruscating about the government’s Covid-19 response. She abhors the lockdown…
