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Hello and welcome to Spectator Out Loud. Each week we ask a few of our favourite writers from

the magazine to read their piece aloud. On this episode, Lara Prendergast asks if

it's so wrong to talk about whether the COVID vaccine affects periods after 30,000 British women

reported changes to their cycle. Cindy Yu says China's zero COVID strategy can't last. There's

been a fresh outbreak there, the vaccine rollout is slow, and its quarantine policy

is as strict as ever.

And finally, with a sachet of Vaseline, half a ton of Epsom salts and an open mind, Gus Carter

heads into a sensory deprivation tank.

First up, Lara Prendergast.

It's fashionable to talk about periods.

Books on the subject with glossy red and pink

covers are bestsellers. They have sassy titles like period power, a manifesto for the menstrual

movement, and period, 12 voices tell the bloody truth. The periodical is a podcast for everyone who

bleeds and their friends.

And this being our ultra-capitalist world, you can obviously buy a t-shirt, notebook or phone cover with a period-related slogan slapped across it.

Anything you can do, I can do bleeding, is one mantra.

I admit to having not engaged much with this world.

My period has always seemed to me a private matter, of no interest to anybody else, and only vague interest to myself. I feel a little uncomfortable bringing the subject to the pages of the spectator.

I do so because I was interested to read that British women have made 30,304 reports of changes to their periods

after having received a COVID vaccine. I realised I am one of them. I will spare the details,

but suffice to say that after I had my first jab of Pfizer in late May, my cycle was flung, of course.

...