CRONYISM, seasonality and a ‘pingdemic’ were the Covid issues raised by columnists and contributors in the newspapers.

The Daily Mail

Jan Moir said we were all supposed to be in it together, except those in the ‘crony-demic gang.’

“Dish it out, but don’t take it, whatever happens! Your country needs you — to do exactly as you are told,” she said. “While the elites continue to do exactly as they please. Michael Gove flew to Portugal for a football match but dodged quarantine upon his return by taking part in a secret swabbing trial.

“How marvellous that Downing Street was chosen as one of the workplaces to trial this new scheme that no one has ever heard of.”

She asked how much more the public could take.

“Matt Hancock puts Mrs Flirty on the public payroll and then breaks his own Covid rules to have an affair with her. Does the Prime Minister truly think the British public are idiots who will absorb all the elitist nonsense he seems to tolerate, and still vote for him? Our patience is wearing thin, Boris.”

The Guardian

Francois Balloux, director of the University College London Genetics Institute, said there was a paradox with Covid that needed exploring - if it transmits best in winter, why we are we experiencing a summer surge?

“To best understand this, we must consider seasonality as just one of four major factors driving transmission,” he said. “The other three factors are host behaviour, viral evolution and rates of immunisation in the population, The ability to infect more hosts is key for the evolutionary success of viruses.”

He said Covid is expected to soon reach its epidemic equilibrium as the majority of the population becomes vaccinated.

“For most of Europe and the US, the transition towards endemicity is already well under way, and epidemic waves linked to massive morbidity and mortality, such as the ones we experienced before, are unlikely to occur in the future.”

The Independent

Victoria Richards said we were now in a ‘ping-demic’.

“Latest figures from the NHS show that more than 500,000 alerts were sent to users of the Covid-19 app in the week to 7 July – a rise of almost 50 per cent on the previous week and the highest figure so far,” she said. “And when you ping, it only means one thing: 10 long days of self-isolation. “Freedom Day” on Tuesday won’t feel very “free” if you can’t leave the house.”

She said unions have warned that UK factories are on the verge of shutting due to staff shortages caused by pings, and Nissan and Rolls Royce have said production could be affected.

“ We’re being urged to live in a state of cognitive dissonance – told to listen to the pings, but also (at the same time) forget all about the rising cases and warnings from experts who say dropping Covid restrictions in England could lead to a “significant third wave of hospitalisations and deaths”.

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