Virus quotations

Stone Walls do not a Prison make,

Nor Iron bars a Cage;

Minds innocent and quiet take

That for an Hermitage.

If I have freedom in my Love,

And in my soul am free,

Angels alone that soar above,

Enjoy such Liberty.

Colonel Lovelace, one of 'the wits of either Charles's days, The mob of gentlemen who wrote with ease' (Pope) and a favourite poet of mine when I was a romantic boy of 14.

Will this pandemic prove the decisive factor in America's retreat from global hegemony?

With the U.S. budget deficit for 2020 originally set at $1 trillion, now triple that, there is going to be a hard reckoning for the allocation of our diminished resources after the nation reopens.

And policing the planet is likely to be seen as yesterday's priority, and a primary candidate for discard.

Pat Buchanan

When confronted with an epidemic of a highly infectious disease, for which there was no known cure and no vaccine, the very last place patients should be taken is a busy district general hospital, full of ill people and staff, where they will be exposed to this infection. As long as the hospitals themselves are reservoirs of infection, they will keep the infection going, re-seeding the community (together with the care homes). With the disease spreading to care homes – not least because infected patients have been discharged from NHS hospitals – these institutions are becoming death camps for the elderly, while care staff are dying in their dozens. The lockdown is necessary to protect us from the NHS, and until they sort out the hospitals and care homes, it will be unsafe to lift it.

Pete North

The progress of the theory that the probable origin of the virus lay not in a wet market but in shoddy lab work has been fascinating to observe. It is a kind of modern parable about folk wisdom and media arrogance. In January, as the idea wormed its way across the internet, it went into the ear and out of the mouth of Sen. Tom Cotton, presumably at the prompting of someone in the intelligence services. For several weeks the pro-Democratic media took preventative measures. Like Marcel Proust’s father planning a cordon sanitaire around the people of Paris, they kept the topic beyond the bounds of polite conversation. Only Tucker Carlson, as is often the case, had the nerve to speak his mind. Anyway, as the public and the cannier kind of politician now bypass the media, discreet censorship could only delay the moment on Wednesday when Mike Pompeo acknowledged what most people already assumed.

Damien Green, son of the great Benny Green, in the Spectator. I was the last person not to believe this theory if, as according to Damien Green, everyone now believes it. He, by the way, has no time for Donald Trump.

When this terrible virus appeared I knew I had to seriously address my diabetes. Since lockdown no carbs and I have now lost 2 stone and my sugars totally down and stable.

— Giles Fraser (@giles_fraser) April 18, 2020

No change. ½ bottle an evening on average, probably.

— Giles Fraser (@giles_fraser) April 18, 2020