March 12, 2024 - 5:15pm

→ Lockdown sceptic forced out of Harvard

Former Harvard epidemiologist Dr Martin Kulldorff was fired from the CDC for being too pro-vaccine, then fired from Harvard soon after for not being pro-vaccine enough, he has claimed.

In a new article for City Journal, Kulldorf attacks his former employer for everything that it got wrong during the pandemic: requiring its young student body to vaccinate regardless of infection status, failing to recognise acquired immunity and firing staff (including himself) for refusing the vaccine.

“Most Harvard faculty diligently pursue truth in a wide variety of fields, but Veritas has not been the guiding principle of Harvard leaders. Nor have academic freedom, intellectual curiosity, independence from external forces, or concern for ordinary people guided their decisions,” he wrote.

It’s the latest blow against the Ivy League school, which took another public image hit in January when then-President Claudine Gay resigned. Harvard’s motto “Veritas” is starting to feel painfully ironic.

→ Less than abundant Bundeswehr

A damning report published today claims the German military is “not fully operational” and needs a “mammoth investment” as it has 20,000 unfilled roles. As befits a 21st-century fighting force, the army continues to use technology such as fax machines and radios made in the 1980s, whilst medical records are sometimes kept on paper, raising concerns around their capacity to be delivered urgently in a frontline scenario. Eva Högl, the German army commissioner and author of the report, said the military had “too little of everything” but that progress was still being made toward securing new equipment.

Days after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Chancellor Olaf Scholz committed €100 billion to modernise the Bundeswehr, calling it a “turning point”. Högl did suggest that progress had been made in recent months and money was finally starting to filter through, but that it was not yet enough and further investment was still needed. The report also stated that some barracks had no access to wifi. They’re missing out on a hell of a news bulletin…

→ When Fox News meets CNN

It’s the crossover nobody expected (or arguably wanted), but this week former CNN anchor Chris Cuomo joined Tucker Carlson to chat about life, muscle size, and much else.

It felt like just yesterday that both men were sitting atop their respective organisations, with Cuomo’s hard-hitting, nose-picking interviews with brother Andrew (then New York governor) regularly pulling in millions of viewers during the Covid era.

At the time, Carlson gleefully attacked Chris for these bits, but subsequently admitted in this week’s conversation that he had been a “dick”. Cuomo, for his part, sparred with Carlson over “cherry-picking” Jan 6 footage and for failing to press Vladimir Putin on Alexei Navalny’s death. It’s a long conversation — almost two hours in length — but well worth a watch. In the spirit of free and open discussion, maybe Jon Stewart could have a sit down with Joe Rogan?