Move over Lord Fauci, there’s a new infectious disease “expert” in town. Actually,
this genius lives in the UK. Then again, if you want to “hug your granny without killing her,” the University of Leeds “specialist in airborne infections” has you covered.
this ridiculous “glimmer of hope” [sarc], compliments of the British government:
“Government advice not to hug people might be lifted this month, but how safe is it?”
There it is. Who’d a thunk it? A government telling the citizenry when it’s okay to hug loved ones and when it’s not. En masse. One size fits all. Nothing authoritarian about that at all.
Covid-19: Global Cases Fall but the Virus Is Surging in Countries That Lack Vaccines
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May 12, 2021, 8:27 a.m. ETMay 12, 2021, 8:27 a.m. ET
The W.H.O. says a coronavirus variant first found in India is a “variant of concern.” The F.D.A. authorizes the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for 12- to 15-year-olds.
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Buddhist monks were tested at a temple in Bangkok after a monk there died of Covid-19.Credit.Rungroj Yongrit/EPA, via Shutterstock
After a devastating year with wave after wave of coronavirus infections around the world, new cases and deaths are falling in many of the Western nations that were once among the hardest hit. But while the virus recedes in wealthy nations with robust vaccination campaigns, it is pummeling India and threatening to swamp Southeast Asian countries that until now had largely kept the virus at bay.
The BBC has issued some “expert” advice on how to hug your granny without killing her.
According to Catherine Noakes, “a specialist in airborne infections at the University of Leeds”, the secret is to “hug in moderation”, “turn your face away slightly”, and always bear in mind the risk you are taking because “you are very close to their breath at that moment.”
Professor Noakes has served as a member of the Boris Johnson administration’s SAGE advisory committee. As you might expect, she exhibits zero awareness of how absurd it is that an engineering professor from a second-tier university should be lecturing 66 million people on how and how not to hug their loved ones. Nor, of course, does the BBC.