News Round-Up: Rishi Sunak on Men and Women, Woke Banking in Germany and Vaccine, Mask Mandates in the US Again
News Round-Up: Rishi Sunak on Men and Women, Woke Banking in Germany and Vaccine, Mask Mandates in the US Again
Every week, the editorial team of Freedom Research compiles a round-up of news that caught our eye, or what felt like under-reported aspects of news deserving more attention.
Over the past week, the following topics attracted our attention:
British PM Rishi Sunak on transgenderism.
Woke banking in Germany: AfD leader's bank account closed for political reasons.
Some institutions in the US reinstate vaccine and mask mandates.
A Swiss court jails a writer for a crime of words: he called a female journalist a "fat lesbian".
UK Health Security Agency: no good evidence that the lockdown worked.
British PM Rishi Sunak on transgenderism
British Prime Minister and Conservative leader Rishi Sunak addressed the issue of so-called transgender people, among others, in a speech at the party's annual conference on Wednesday. Sunak said that it should not be controversial for parents to know what their children are being taught in school about relationships. Likewise, he said, it should be clear when the hospitals talk about men and when about women. "We shouldn't get bullied," he added, to applause. When the cheering died down, he continued: "We shouldn’t get bullied into believing that people can be any sex they want to be. They can’t. A man is a man and a woman is a woman, that’s just common sense."
Sunak's comments in fact also reflect his government’s political decisions on the so-called transgender issues. For example, on Tuesday, his government's Health Minister Steve Barclay said patients should have the option and right to share hospital wards with people of their own biological sex. Above all, this means that 'trans women' – men who identify as women – will no longer be admitted to women's wards in hospitals in Britain. The sex-specific language will also be brought back into use, meaning terms such as breastfeeding will no longer be replaced by 'chestfeeding'.
Barclay said that a common sense approach to gender and equality issues is needed in the UK health system and confirmed that, for example, gender-related language on online health advice pages on cervical and ovarian cancer and menopause has now been fully restored. "It is vital that women's voices are heard in the NHS and the privacy, dignity and safety of all patients are protected," he added.
This is not the only political step the Sunak government has taken recently on this issue. In August, UK's women and equalities minister and business and trade secretary Kemi Badenoch proposed that developers of non-residential and public buildings must design separate toilets for men and women in new buildings. Badenoch argued that the move towards gender-neutral toilets would deprive women and girls of their fundamental right to privacy and dignity.
Woke banking in Germany: AfD leader's bank account closed for political reasons
Tino Chrupalla, one of the co-leaders of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, announced in a TV appearance last week that Deutsche Bank-owned Postbank had closed his bank account, reports The European Conservative.
Chrupalla took part in a TV programme on public broadcaster ARD, which discussed domestic German politics, in particular the divide between East and West Germany. The anti-immigration, Eurosceptic, and also critical to Green Deal and Net Zero movement parliamentary party AfD has recently been trending upwards in popularity polls among German political parties. They are now second only to the Christian Democrats with more than 20% of the voters backing them, with a large support base in eastern Germany. In a recent news round-up, we also wrote about a debate in Germany about whether the party which is labelled far-right, populist, or even Nazi should not be banned in the country – in the name of democracy. This was called for in an editorial of a well-known magazine Der Spiegel, for example, and was also discussed by the country's President, Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
Chrupalla told in the TV programme that Germans living in the east of the country today are in a situation that seems strangely similar to the German Democratic Republic, or socialist East Germany. He said in particular that if someone is taking a different stance from the mainstream narrative he or she has to face political and economic consequences. "On Friday (22.09 - HS) my account was cancelled by Postbank because I am an AfD member," he said, adding that this not only shows how the AfD is "excluded and marginalised" from society but also that people in Germany are no longer allowed to express their opinions freely.
A Postbank spokesman told Die Welt newspaper that they refrain from commenting on individual customer relationships because of bank secrecy. However, the possibility of accounts being closed because of political affiliation cannot be ruled out. "In general, both parties involved have the option to close an account without providing a rationale," the spokesperson explained.
This kind of account closure by banks and other financial institutions is no longer uncommon. In the summer, there was also a scandal in the UK where private bank Coutts closed the account of Nigel Farage, the former leader of the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP). Farage, now a presenter on GB News, tried to open an account with several other banks but was refused by each. Although Coutts initially denied that Farage's account had been closed for political and ideological reasons, internal bank documents revealed that this was exactly the case – his views on immigration, vaccines, and other controversial issues were listed. Commenting on the case, British PM Rishi Sunak said that closing accounts because of a person's views should not be allowed. We have written more about this and other similar examples here.
Some institutions in the US reinstate vaccine and mask mandates
Baylor College of Medicine, a medical school and research university based in Houston, Texas, announced last week that it will make Covid vaccination mandatory for its staff, faculty, and students, The Epoch Times writes. It is the latest booster dose that university-affiliated individuals will have to inject themselves with. "An updated Covid vaccine has been approved by the FDA and is now available," the school said in a statement on September 28, explaining that the vaccine is suitable for everyone from the age of six. It also notes that protection from earlier vaccinations declines over time and the updated vaccine is more consistent with strains currently in circulation. "Baylor faculty, staff, and students must get the COVID vaccine, or request a medical, religious, or personal exemption by Nov. 30," it is added in the announcement. The college will not mandate face masks, but those at risk are encouraged to wear one. Baylor employs more than 11,000 people.
Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott has publicly declared that his state "should lead the fight against the Covid tyranny". However, such large publicly-funded institutions as Baylor are still allowed to impose vaccine mandates. In September, Abbott signed into law a bill approved by the state Senate that prohibits local governments from requiring Covid-related masks, vaccines, or business shutdowns. A separate bill also seeks to prevent hospitals, businesses, and other institutions in the state from implementing the vaccine mandate, but it has remained stalled.
Vaccine mandates are back in some other parts of the US as well. For example, Penny Borenstein, the medical director of San Luis Obispo County in California, has announced that as of November 1, all health workers will be required to be vaccinated or wear a mask at work. In addition to the coronavirus vaccine, workers will also be required to get the flu shot. The requirement, which the official described as routine, will apply to all hospitals, nursing homes, medical centres, and emergency care providers.
At the same time, in several other California counties, masks will be mandatory in healthcare facilities as of November 1. In the state of New Jersey as well, several hospitals have reintroduced the same. In several parts of the United States, hospitals and even schools resumed mask mandates because of Covid in August.
On the other hand, studies have clearly shown that masks do not limit the spread of respiratory viruses.
It is also clear that vaccines, which will again be made compulsory, will not significantly, if at all, prevent infection and transmission, i.e. there is no rational basis for the vaccine mandates. Add to this the fact that, outside the risk groups, Covid is not a very serious disease, and vaccines against it have the potential for very serious side effects, and the vaccine ethos seems downright irrational.
A Swiss court jails a writer for a crime of words: he called a female journalist a "fat lesbian"
French-Swiss publicist and commentator Alain Bonnet, who also goes by the name of Alain Soral, was sentenced to 60 days in prison in a Lausanne court for defamation, discrimination, and incitement to hatred, Fox News reports.
Soral was criticising Catherine Macherel, a journalist for Swiss publications Tribune de Geneve and 24 Heures, in a Facebook video two years ago. In a video, Soral criticised Macherel's work as a “queer activist", said the journalist was “unhinged” and called her a "fat lesbian". Besides the prison sentence, Soral was also fined and has to pay legal fees and fines, which will cost him thousands of francs. The decision comes on the back of a fairly recent change in the law – in 2020, Swiss voters approved a provision making it illegal to discriminate against people based on their sexual orientation. Soral intends to appeal the decision.
UK Health Security Agency: no good evidence that the lockdown worked
UK Health Security Agency has published a report, that says that the evidence base for non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) to control the spread of the coronavirus was weak, UnHerd reports. NPIs include such measures as lockdown, the ‘rule of 6’, test and isolation, face coverings, border restrictions, and more.
The review identified 151 studies conducted in the UK. Two-thirds of the evidence identified was based on modelling studies, and there were only two randomised control trials included. Studies focused on measures to identify or isolate infectious people or reduce the number of human contacts were most numerous. Only nine studies focused on measures to protect the most vulnerable.
The government report concluded that “there is a lack of strong evidence on the effectiveness of NPIs to reduce COVID-19 transmission”.