The Spectator

Wednesday

The Spectator

Covid-19 update: UK moves to ‘wean people off’ furlough scheme

The Spectator brings you the latest insight, news and research from the front line. Sign up here to receive this briefing daily by email, and stay abreast of developments both at home and abroad: News and analysis  Boris Johnson and Keir Starmer faced off for the first time at PMQs today. James Forsyth has the details on Coffee House.Chancellor Rishi Sunak is preparing to roll back the furlough scheme in July, with Matt Hancock admitting yesterday: ‘We’ve got to wean off it.’ Kate Andrews provides analysis below.Imperial College London’s Neil Ferguson has stepped down from Sage after it emerged that he had broken lockdown rules to meet with his married lover.

Tuesday

The Spectator

Covid-19 update: America prepares for 3,000 daily deaths

The Spectator brings you the latest insight, news and research from the front line. Sign up here to receive this briefing daily by email, and stay abreast of developments both at home and abroad: News and analysis  New ONS figures take the UK’s Covid death toll to 32,375 – currently the highest number in Europe. There were 7,713 Covid-19 deaths outside of hospitals in England and Wales to 24 April.The first key workers on the Isle of Wight will trial the new contact tracing app today. However, the app has failed all its safety and cybersecurity tests.Matt Hancock has defended the app, arguing that personal data needs to be shared centrally so that the government can know where flare-ups of infection are occurring in the country.

Monday

The Spectator

Covid-19 update: Sweden tames its ‘R number’ without lockdown

The Spectator brings you the latest insight, news and research from the front line. Sign up here to receive this briefing daily by email, and stay abreast of developments both at home and abroad: News and analysis  Face scans are being considered by ministers to create ‘immunity passports’, where those proven to have acquired Covid-19 can be released from lockdown. Kate Andrews argues against the idea onCoffee House.The Chinese government destroyed evidence that coronavirus escaped a lab in Wuhan, according to a leaked dossier by the Western intelligence-sharing group Five Eyes.The NHS will trial a tracing app on the Isle of Wight this week. Freddy Gray wishes them luck, given the quality of the island’s internet coverage.

Friday

The Spectator

Covid-19 update: Can patients catch the virus twice?

The Spectator brings you the latest insight, news and research from the front line. Sign up here to receive this briefing daily by email, and stay abreast of developments both at home and abroad: News and analysis  The 277 South Korean Covid-19 ‘reinfection cases’ that originally prompted fears over multiple infections were in fact false positives, according to researchers at Seoul University. Ross Clark has the details below.We are past the peak according to Boris Johnson in his first coronavirus briefing since falling ill. The PM says he will release a road map next week for easing lockdown.The NHS will get ‘first dibs’ on any Covid-19 drug produced by Oxford university and AstraZeneca.

Thursday

The Spectator

Covid-19 update: The UK’s new hope – a Covid tracker

The Spectator brings you the latest insight, news and research from the front line. Sign up here to receive this briefing daily by email, and stay abreast of developments both at home and abroad: News and analysis The UK is to adopt a South Korean model for exiting the lockdown, and ONS data will be vital to the strategy. James Forsyth has the details below.UK anxiety levels over Covid-19 are falling, says the ONS.Boris Johnson will lead his first coronavirus briefing today since contracting the disease.NHS England has set out its plan to restart non-Covid-19 services.Child abuse calls to the NSPCC have risen almost 20% since the start of lockdown.No child has yet transmitted Covid-19 to an adult, a review in partnership with the Royal College of Paediatricians has found.

The Spectator

Portrait of the week: Boris’s son is born, Commons sits apart and Belgians told to eat more potatoes

Home Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, returned to work at Downing Street after recovering from his Covid-19 sickness. Speaking outside No. 10, he said that there were ‘real signs now that we are passing through the peak’. By the beginning of Sunday 26 April, there had been 20,319 deaths, mostly in hospital, of people who had the disease; a week earlier the cumulative total had been 15,464. There were additionally 2,000 coronavirus deaths in care homes in the week ending 17 April, according to the Office for National Statistics, twice the number of the week before. In the week ending 10 April, of the 7,996 excess deaths above the average, 1,783 were not attributed to coronavirus.

The Spectator

Letters: Country and town are in this together

End-of-life plans Sir: Charles Moore writes about his neighbour with poor lung function being telephoned about a ‘Do Not Resuscitate’ order (Notes, 18 April). Even today when I discuss end-of-life plans with patients in A&E, many immediately think that medical staff are giving up on them. Nothing could be further from the truth. What are actually called DNA-CPR decisions do not stop treatment for a health condition. What it does is say that if this patient were to die, then chest compressions (which often break ribs) and intubation will in all likelihood not work, and that allowing the natural end of life to occur peacefully is better.

The Spectator

How many 100th birthday cards does the Queen send?

Multiplying by hundreds The Queen penned a personal 100th birthday message to Captain Tom Moore, who has raised money for NHS charities by walking around his Bedfordshire garden. — The tradition of the monarch sending 100th birthday greetings began with George V in 1917, when he sent out a telegram with the words: ‘His Majesty’s hope that the blessings of good health and prosperity may attend you during the remainder of your days.’ That year he sent out 24 such cards. — By the time Elizabeth II became Queen in 1952 the number had grown to 273. — In 2014 the office which sends out cards on her behalf had to hire extra staff when the number reached 7,517.

The Spectator

The NHS has been protected – care homes have not

As the NHS was preparing for the Covid onslaught, thousands of hospital patients were discharged to care homes in an attempt to free up beds. This worked: about 40,000 NHS beds are now unoccupied, four times the normal amount for this time of year. Attendance at A&E has halved. Almost half of all intensive care beds with mechanical ventilators lie unused. This is before the seven pop-up Nightingale hospitals, most of which are also empty, are factored in. The NHS was effectively protected in this crisis. Care homes were not. While those in hospital were being given the care one would expect from one of the world’s best-resourced health services, most care home residents who fell sick with symptoms of Covid-19 were not even being tested for the disease.

Wednesday

The Spectator

Covid-19 update: Will Boris take paternity leave?

The Spectator brings you the latest insight, news and research from the front line. Sign up here to receive this briefing daily by email, and stay abreast of developments both at home and abroad: News and analysis  Boris Johnson and Carrie Symonds have announced the arrival of a baby boy, born this morning in a London hospital. James Forsyth has the details below.Cancer operations will take place at new ‘Covid-19-free’ hubs. The collapse in cancer care since the lockdown could lead to 18,000 more cancer deaths, according to new research. Analysis below.Millions more people can now apply for a coronavirus test. The government loosened rules to include over-65s, essential workers and care home residents.

Tuesday

The Spectator

Covid-19 update: How many coronavirus deaths will Britain end up with?

The Spectator brings you the latest insight, news and research from the front line. Sign up here to receive this briefing daily by email, and stay abreast of developments both at home and abroad: News and analysis Covid-19 related deaths as of 17 April in England and Wales were 35% higher than the government’s hospital death figure. Details below.The Scottish government has recommended that people cover their faces with cloth garments when in public spaces. Dr John Lee weighs up the benefits of masks on Coffee House.A minute’s silence for key workers who have died during the Covid-19 outbreak was held this morning at 11 a.m.The families of NHS staff who have died of coronavirus will be given £60,000.

Monday

The Spectator

Covid-19 update: Boris is back

The Spectator brings you the latest insight, news and research from the front line. Sign up here to receive this briefing daily by email, and stay abreast of developments both at home and abroad: News and analysis Boris Johnson has asked the public to ‘contain [their] impatience’ to exit the lockdown, in his first live public address since his battle with Covid-19. Katy Balls has the details below.Professor Neil Ferguson, the scientist behind the influential Imperial College London model, has said that lifting the lockdown could risk an additional 100,000 deaths by the end of the year.Schools in Northern Ireland will stay closed until after the summer holidays, with officials estimating 90% of parents would not send children even if classes reopened.

Friday

The Spectator

Covid-19 update: New York: 21%. Stockholm: 26%. London?

The Spectator brings you the latest insight, news and research from the front line. Sign up here to receive this briefing daily by email, and stay abreast of developments both at home and abroad: News and analysis  The much-anticipated shipment of personal protective equipment from Turkey contained 32,000 gowns vs the expected 400,000 units.Meanwhile, 42% of NHS beds lie empty, as do two-thirds of mechanical ventilation units.Boris Johnson could return to No. 10 as early as Monday, according to the Telegraph.Ten million key workers and their households can now book a Covid-19 test online. The 5,000 that were made available this morning ran out in just two minutes.Rishi Sunak is considering 100% government-backed Covid-19 loans of up to £25,000 to small businesses.

Thursday

The Spectator

Covid-19 update: coronavirus’s second wave

The Spectator brings you the latest insight, news and research from the front line. Sign up here to receive this briefing daily by email, and stay abreast of developments both at home and abroad: News and analysis  Manchester and Liverpool are now seeing the most Covid-19 cases, according to the Health Service Journal.Social restrictions are to remain in place for at least the rest of the year, says chief medical officer Chris Whitty. Details below.Human trials begin today for vaccines in Germany and the UK. Matt Ridley weighs up the likelihood of Covid-19 treatments in the 10,000th issue of The Spectator magazine. More analysis below.

The Spectator

Portrait of the week: The Queen turns 94, Captain Tom raises £27m and Harry and Meghan block newspapers

Home The number of people with the coronavirus disease Covid-19 who had died in hospitals by the beginning of the week, Sunday 19 April, was 15,464, compared with a total of 9,875 a week earlier. Two days later it was 16,509. But the number of people in London in hospital with Covid-19 fell for seven consecutive days and there were plenty of empty beds. Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, was reported by colleagues to be worried that relaxing lockdown measures too soon might lead to a second spike in the outbreak. Supplies of personal protective equipment were reported to be falling short; a delivery of 84 tons, including 400,000 gowns, from Turkey was delayed.

The Spectator

Who else has made history at Captain Tom Moore’s age?

Oldies and goodies Captain Tom Moore, 99, raised more than £26 million by walking 100 laps of the garden of his old people’s home. Who are the oldest people to have achieved various feats? — Yuichiro Miura climbed Everest aged 80 in 2013.— Dr Fred Distelhorst climbed Kilimanjaro at the age of 88 in 2017.— Mike Cross, 60, is the oldest person reported to have walked to the South Pole, in 2003. Buzz Aldrin visited it (and fell ill there) at the age of 86, but he was flown there as a tourist. Long gone to press This is The Spectator’s 10,000th issue since first publication in 1828, making it Britain’s longest continuously published magazine.

The Spectator

The case for trusting the public is stronger than ever

Our Plan is entirely new, comprising – 1. The whole News of the Week: selected, sifted, condensed and arranged as to be readable throughout. 2. A full and impartial exhibition of all the leading Politics of the Day. 3. A separate Discussion of Interesting Topics of a general nature, with a view to instruction and entertainment at the same time. 4. A Department devoted to Literatures… 5. Dramatic and Musical Criticism. 6. Scientific and Miscellaneous information. — R.S. Rintoul’s announcement of a new weekly, July 1828 In the history of publishing, no magazine has ever printed a 10,000th issue. Until now. The Spectator is unusual not only in that it is the world’s oldest weekly, but that it still follows the formula that R.S.

The Spectator

Letters: The joy of balconies

The closing of churches Sir: Stephen Hazell-Smith is quite right in writing that churches should re-open (Letters, 18 April), however the issue is now more fundamental. Recent weeks have demonstrated a crisis of leadership in almost every aspect of national life, excluding the Queen, who has exercised a spiritual leadership made necessary by the failure of bishops. The closing of churches may be seen as a defining moment in the life of the Church of England. As the Archbishop of Canterbury broadcast from his kitchen on Easter Day, impervious to the damage his ‘leadership’ has caused, many Anglican clergy and people I know looked to the image of the Pope in an almost empty St Peter’s, and saw the true image of Christian service.

The Spectator

Spectator writers in lockdown – by the people stuck with them

Andrew Watts (Tanya Gold) ‘I can’t eat this,’ said The Spectator’s restaurant critic, putting down her fork after one mouthful. Our son, who had not yet decided whether he liked mackerel, immediately declared that it was yucky-poo. The correction of taste is, after all, the function of criticism. When we’re not in lockdown, Tanya leaves the house to be a critic. I am left at home with the boy to eat fish, liver and haggis, all of which he loves when she isn’t here to tell him that they are, objectively, bad. I wouldn’t mind if she hadn’t gone straight from the kitchen table to sit in her study and eat Monster Munch while watching Spooks.