REMOTE working, anti-vaxxers and boosters were the topics debated by columnists and contributors in the newspapers.

The Daily Mail

Richard Littlejohn said there was no substitute for physically working alongside others, particularly at the start of a career.

“When I arrived in [Fleet Street] in 1979, after eight years in the provinces, I thought I’d cracked it,” he said. “It took me about five minutes to realise that, like Manuel in Fawlty Towers, I knew nothing. What I learned from those seasoned old hands was invaluable, not just at work but in the pub, too. You couldn’t buy that kind of education.”

He said his heart sank when he read that a majority of 18 to 34-year-olds think they don’t have to be in an office full-time to learn what they need to get on in life.

“What they lack is human contact, a friendly hand on the shoulder, a quiet word in their shell-like when they screw up from someone who has been there, done that, got the T-shirt,” he added.

“If they can pile in to pubs, clubs, restaurants and theatres at the weekend, they can at least have the decency to get back to their desks.”

The Daily Express

Stephen Pollard said he had no hesitation in describing anti-vaxxers as dangerous idiots.

“It is important to take a step back and consider why some countries have had to start imposing new forms of lockdown,” he said. “It’s because Covid rates are surging dangerously again. And why is that? Because in each of those countries, suspicion of the vaccine has led to inadequate take-up.”

He said the anti-vaxxers are protesting against measures being taken by their governments as a result of anti-vaxx campaigns leading to too few people being vaccinated.

“The notion that those who choose not to be vaccinated are refuseniks taking a stand against a totalitarian state is exactly the message anti-vaxxers want to spread. It is vital we stand up to their dangerous idiocy – and the best way to do that is get the jabs and defeat Covid.”

The Guardian

Professors Andrew Pollard and Brian Angus said the ongoing horror, which is taking place in ICUs across Britain, is now largely restricted to unvaccinated people.

“In the short term, boosters and social restrictions will help prevent Covid-19 from spreading among people who are unvaccinated this winter,” they said. “But in the long run, the pressure of Covid-19 on ICUs won’t be solved through these measures.

“We need better and cleaner clinical data to understand fully which patients are being admitted to hospital, to improve our assessment of how effective vaccines are at preventing hospital and ICU admission, and to assess who would be most likely to benefit from boosters.”