“China eats weird animals disease”

The Delta variant may have dashed hopes of herd immunity, but we can still live with the virus.

When will Covid be over?

During the winter and spring the swiftly developed vaccines began to show startling success. Deaths from Covid fell, and severe side effects were rare. The UK rollout was among the most efficient in the world. Matt Hancock’s initial plan, laid out back in January, was to ‘cry freedom’ once the over-50s, the vulnerable and healthcare workers had been vaccinated. But then the goalposts were moved. It was decided that all adults should be offered the vaccine before we properly unlocked. Freedom was delayed and diluted in the meantime.

Protesters took to the streets of France for the fifth consecutive Saturday to oppose the country’s pass sanitaire – health pass – now required for everyday activities.

More than 250,000 people were expected at about 200 demonstrations, an increase in the number that officials said had turned out last week. Protesters have accused the government of underestimating the numbers and playing down support.

The protesters are opposed to the government’s decision to make the pass sanitaire obligatory for restaurants, bars, cinemas, theatres and most public buildings apart from shops. They accuse the government of infringing their civil and personal liberties. A number are also opposed to the vaccination of children; France has been vaccinating the 12-17 age group since May.

NOT ON BBC "NEWS", GO #PARIS!!!!!!
🇫🇷 HUMONGOUS PROTEST#PassSanitaire #Covid_19#dictatureSanitaire #freedom pic.twitter.com/XIsROwxqVh

— Anti Lockdown Alliance(GLOBAL) (@Demo2020cracy) August 14, 2021

A Western Sydney official has compared the latest anti-Covid measures imposed on his area by the New South Wales (NSW) state government to the times of Nazi Germany. His comment, since removed, caused a rumpus on social media.

Steve Cox is a candidate for Congress in California’s 39th Congressional District, and is running as an independent despite sounding like just another far-Left aspiring member of the Squad: He decries the power of lobbyists over politicians from both parties and has made breaking their power the focus of his campaign, while agreeing that there are other issues that “must be fixed, like healthcare, climate change, immigration reform, ending these endless wars, etc.” The “ending the endless wars” bit is not bad, actually, but it’s clear that Cox is another far-Left candidate in a state that is full of them, and as he is a white male with no obvious minority background, his campaign isn’t exactly catching fire: He has as of this writing raised just $2,056 toward his $10,000 goal on a CrowdPac page. But on Monday, Cox gave his campaign a shot in the arm, so to speak, with a novel idea of how to treat opponents of the covid vaccine: shoot them.

The island of Martha’s Vineyard experienced a spike in coronavirus cases this week after President Barack Obama’s 60th birthday party last Saturday.

The Daily Mail reports that 74 people on Martha’s Vineyard have tested positive for the virus — the highest number of cases in a week on the island since April.

Ontario will mandate vaccines for hospital and long-term-care workers and begin targeted COVID-19 booster shots while keeping current pandemic restrictions indefinitely, the Star has learned.

Against the backdrop of the pandemic’s fourth wave, Dr. Kieran Moore, the chief medical officer of health, will announce the sweeping measures next Tuesday, including a pause on any further reopening of the economy.

“The watchword is caution,” said a senior Progressive Conservative government official, speaking confidentially in order to discuss internal deliberations

WASHINGTON, Aug 13 (Reuters) – The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, in a new terrorism warning bulletin, said violent extremists could view the reimposition of COVID-19-related restrictions following the spread of coronavirus variants as a rationale to conduct attacks.

The new DHS bulletin also warned of the risk of “targeted violence” around the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington and around religious holidays.

In the last few weeks the media vomited up a barrage of “Vaccinated America is Angry at Unvaccinated America” stories.

This wholly artificial construct of identity politics (there is no vaccinated or unvaccinated America, there are a variety of different people making medical decisions for a variety of reasons) falls apart when the media deals with unvaccinated demographics that can’t be spun as conservative Trump supporters.

Canada to make COVID vaccines mandatory for all federal employees, airline, rail and cruise ship passengers

Vaccinations will now be mandatory for all federal public service workers and the government expects to see this extend to employees of other crown corporations as well, Minister for Intergovernmental Affairs Dominic LeBlanc announced at a press conference Friday afternoon.

Passengers wishing to travel on commercial planes, interprovincial trains and cruise ships will also be required to vaccinate in order to board, Minister of Transport Omar Alghabra said. The announcements come amid rising cases of COVID-19 across Canada, fuelled by the virus’s highly transmissible Delta variant.