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One hopes that any such return to compulsion would be accompanied by details statisitcs about why it's a good thing, why it works, showing comparisons with (say) England which has had far less stringent rules with little apparant difference in the numbers. If they want to introduce mask wearing...

Here's news. For the rest of time, covid will be on the rise for about 6 months of the year and on the decline for another 6 months. If we wait for the time when the numbers are exactly the same day after day, then we will have to wait beyond eternity.

I'm surprised if the supervised phone test is much cheaper? Good luck either way. The reason for the 90-day exemption is that if you have had the virus in the last 90 days, there is a chance that you will still test positive even though all you have is the remains of dead virus cells. Tests...

Did you have an official NHS test with written (email) confirmation that you were positive? If so, you can use that instead of a day-before test. What you need is a signed document of proof of recovery from covid in the last 90 days. And to get that, you go to one of the websites that do this...

So she is. Thanks.

Professor Devi Sridhar, one of the more pessimistic doctors on there, is concerned that "we are losing a couple of hundred people every day". Which surprises me, because there haven't been 200 deaths on a single day since 3rd February, 2 months ago - we aren't losing 200 people on any day, let...

That article would be so much more useful if they attempted to explain why Scotland has higher rates of infection than England. They could perhaps refer to the results of the Scottish governments research that justifies the continued rule.

You still get statutory sick pay for covid, and I doubt there are any railway operators don't pay full sick pay. So two of your doomsday scenarios are clear. There's still a requirement to self isolate. It's no longer a criminal offence not to, just as it has never been a criminal offence...

Which areas of the UK have higher hospitalisations than any time since the pandemic began? Presumably based on total admissions being less than half the peak, they must be fairly specific statistical anomalies. And are you talking about admissions to hospital or number of people in hospital...

You're right about the lack of testing for flu, which is presumably why this study has used as the baseline the mortality rate from New Zealand. Presumably they have the most accurate figures, for whatever reason. They can only use best estimates. We do know how many people die of flu, more...

The figure of 0.04% fatality for flu seems low, for this country at least. It may be correct in New Zealand, where it was calculated, but is it correct here? All through this pandemic when flu has been quoted, it has been said to cause about 7,000 deaths in a good year, 20,000 - 40,000 deaths...

Fortunately you're wrong about the government on this occasion. They are still administering first jabs, second jabs, and boosters, and they are keeping an eye open so that if it will do any good they will offer more boosters.

That may be true. What should we do about it? What is the best policy if our target is to abolish death?

I see that he has quoted deaths on the date when the weekend deaths are added in. If he's going to be depressive that there were 212 deaths on Tuesday, then he ought in the interest of balance to mention that there were no deaths at all on Saturday or on Sunday. (Or perhaps he could just use...

And that's what I want to hear proper evidence for. Was it deliberate government policy to squash deals, or was the civil service working all it knew to get deals but Hancock was squashing them all along, or was it government policy to get anything from anywhere and the civil service was too...

Your link suggested you were objecting to the burning of the useless stuff. If you're objecting to the procurement process, then have you got a link for that so that we can have a proper discussion?

It doesn't make me sick. There are one batch of government critics saying they didn't act fast enough to get PPE and should have bought it quicker; there is another batch who say they moved too fast and they shouldn't have bypassed normal procurement rules. I'm not sure how far into the former...

If you know you have covid then you will surely isolate yourself, just as you would if you know you have flu. The difference being of course that you know you have flu only when you feel ill; with covid you can know you have it when you have no symptoms at all. No-one will have the mindset...

Are SAGE saying that the current degree of "lockdown" is enough to reduce cases by half, more or less, compared with normal behaviour? Because if so, why did they go over the top with avoiding seeing your family and cancelling football and so forth, if all they needed do was to get a few people...

Smart thinking! I do wonder about care homes. If they don't provide free testing, at one test every time a resident has a visitor, it's going to be a significant cost. I reckon it will still be free for those that need it. Hope so, anyway.