pandemic
Did Covid first emerge at the Wuhan Institute of Virology?
The net around the Wuhan Institute of Virology continues to tighten. A letter from Lawrence Tabak, principal deputy director of the…
Why did we decide that Covid was over?
Look, I don’t know much epidemiology. Can’t pretend to. So what follows is, necessarily, a personal finger to the wind.…
No. 10 moves to kickstart the booster campaign
In a move that as important as any in the recent Cabinet reshuffle, Emily Lawson is returning to run the…
Why Covid means the big state is back
History suggests that when the state expands in a crisis, it doesn’t go back to its pre-crisis level once the…
China and the WHO are given an easy ride in the Covid blame game
Are you ready to relive 2020? That’s what Adam Tooze is offering as he tells the story of Covid-19 through…
Javid avoids Tory Covid powers fightback – for now
Tory MPs were not happy when Sajid Javid unveiled the Covid winter plan in the Commons this afternoon. They’re dissatisfied…
Why isn't the vaccine UK approved for 12- to 15-year-olds?
This afternoon, the JCVI has essentially passed the buck on vaccinating 12- to 15-year-olds. It has declared that the health benefits…
A volte face over what caused the pandemic needs explaining
Sir Jeremy Farrar, the head of the Wellcome Trust, writes that ‘the last year has been an eye-opener for me.…
Can Boris and his ministers agree on the point of the Covid app?
What is the point of the Covid-19 app? Ministers seem to be as in the dark about the answer to…
What happens next? Gauging the fallout from the pandemic
What just happened? Some 15 months after the pandemic first struck, it’s still horribly unclear, which is perhaps why there…
The myth of American freedom
Gstaad Imagine a beautiful, sexy woman, an Ava Gardner or a Lily James, with a wart on the end of…
The joy of my new British passport
‘Anything you want?’ says Catriona on her way out of the house to go to the shop. I’m standing at…
The big debate: is lockdown wrong?
Is lockdown a gargantuan mistake? That’s the view of a growing number of thinkers and critics, including The Spectator’s very…
Could this pandemic be the death of veganism?
‘Do you want some of the private stuff from out the back?’ said the butcher to the builder boyfriend, leaning…
Our exile in NW1
Laikipia The sweetest sound to me now is the dawn chorus of birdsong at home on the farm. I lay…
Had the entire village population been wiped out since last week?
With my signed and dated laissez-passer in my pocket, I trotted down to the village to see if I could…
Nature fights back with tooth and claw as we persist in destroying it
Where to turn in anxious and febrile times? One answer is to nature, or the ‘non-human living world’, which, despite…
Africa’s invisible epidemics
Africa ‘Ah, Africa,’ the French scientist sighed contentedly. This was 1995 and all around us was an Ebola epidemic…
How close is humanity to destroying itself?
Humanity has come startlingly close to destroying itself in the 75 or so years in which it has had the…
Portrait of the week: Britain rules on coronavirus, HS2 is approved and Bernie Sanders powers ahead
Home The Department of Health classified the novel coronavirus (named by the World Health Organization Covid-19) as a ‘serious and imminent…
The government’s plans for a pandemic are both reassuring and alarming
How prepared is the UK for a pandemic?
The horror of Heathrow
There are no stairs or escalators to take you up to Terminal 4 from the underground Heathrow Express platform. Beyond…
One hundred years on, could we cope with a new flu pandemic?
Do you remember the swine flu panic a decade ago? Jeremy Brown, the author of this book, describes it here.…
