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UK terrorism chief calls for ‘national debate’ on criminalizing doubts about Covid-19 vaccine

The UK’s top counter-terrorism cop has suggested society stop allowing people to question the wisdom of a rapid Covid-19 vaccine rollout, regarding such skepticism to be life-threatening “misinformation.”

Met Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu has pointedly questioned whether it is “the correct thing for society to allow” the sharing of “misinformation that could cost people’s lives” — demonizing all doubts about quickly developed Covid-19 vaccines whose potential long-term effects are not yet known and tying them to extremist radicalization efforts.

While he didn’t go so far as to call for a law to be passed banning such content, his suggestion of a “national debate” will presumably light a fire under ministers already mulling such legislation.

Basu also expressed worries about a “sharp increase in extremist material online in the last few years” during Wednesday’s press conference, warning of a “new and worrying trend in the UK” of young people being radicalized. Officials told UK media that Islamic extremists and far-right groups were using “false claims about coronavirus” to radicalize their followers. 

Social media users already wary of the rush to roll out the vaccine were disturbed by the attendant rush to criminalize criticism of it.

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Andrew Cuomo’s Emmy Award for His COVID-19 Briefings Is a Disgusting Prioritization of Style Over Substance

He’s presided over the second most deadly COVID-19 outbreak in the country. He’s implemented draconian lockdown restrictions that have devastated small businesses. He’s fought with and mocked reporters trying to get basic answers to simple questions. Now, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) will get an Emmy.

On Friday, the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences announced that Cuomo would be receiving the organization’s International Emmy Founders Award, which “celebrates the accomplishments of an individual or organization, whose work is recognized throughout the world” and which crosses “cultural boundaries to touch our common humanity.”

Past recipients include Oprah Winfrey, Al Gore, and Steven Spielberg. Cuomo will join this illustrious group because of the daily news briefings he’s given during COVID-19 in which the governor describes how terribly the pandemic is going in his state and what new restrictions on businesses and individuals his administration will impose.

“The Governor’s 111 daily briefings worked so well because he effectively created television shows, with characters, plot lines, and stories of success and failure,” said International Academy President & CEO Bruce L. Paisner in a press release announcing the award. “People around the world tuned in to find out what was going on, and New York tough became a symbol of the determination to fight back.”

As of Thursday, New York state has reported 34,206 confirmed deaths from COVID-19. That’s the most of any state in the union, and the second most per capita, behind only neighboring New Jersey.

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