FREEDOM for double jabbers, youth hubs post pandemic and long Covid were the topics raised by columnists and contributors in the newspapers.

The Daily Mail

Stephen Glover asked why those who have had both vaccines should not be allowed some freedom now.

“I can think of one respectable reason for treating the vaccinated and the unvaccinated in the same way,” he said. “It is that, at least until recently, the young haven’t been offered a jab, and it is mean-spirited to discriminate against them when they aren’t at fault.”

He said it was far better to lump everyone together, and avoid invidious distinctions.

“ By September, all adults should have been offered two jabs,” he added. “So I believe all objections will soon fall away, and it will be entirely reasonable to favour those who have been double-vaccinated over those who have been offered a jab and declined to accept it.”

He said Covid will be around for a long time and we are going to have to learn to live with it.

“It is hard to see how life can ever return to anything approaching normality without our accepting some form of Covid passport.”

The Daily Express

Mims Davies, minister for employment, said young people had been dealt a rough hand by the pandemic, not only due to educational disruption and unemployment but a lack of interaction with their peers.

“That’s why I’m announcing the launch of over 110 Youth Hubs in communities across the country in a further boost to levelling up,” she said. “From Dundee to Swansea, DWP Youth Work Coaches based in these new Hubs are helping young jobseekers access local training and job opportunities.”

She said young people were at the heart of their Plan for Jobs and crucial to our recovery as we push to build back better.

“It’s still a challenging time and uncertainties remain. But day by day, jab by jab and job by job we are fighting back and our young people and their opportunities are front and centre of this.”

The Guardian

Paul Garner, professor of infectious diseases research at Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, suffered from long Covid.

“My experience of long Covid has not, thankfully, included damaged organs – although I feared this early on. Instead, I had a post-viral syndrome with profound exhaustion.,” he said.

“It is a new term, and is a mixture of conditions that doctors are still trying to fully understand.

“Long Covid is horrible. It is real. I would not wish it on anyone. It is also different for everyone, and one person’s story of recovery will not apply to all. But stories of people getting better are out there.”