Category Archives: Society

Oxford Malaria vaccine proves highly effective in Burkina Faso trial

Posted on by

Vaccine developed by scientists at Jenner Institute, Oxford, shows up to 77% efficacy in trial over 12 months

A vaccine against malaria has been shown to be highly effective in trials in Africa, holding out the real possibility of slashing the death toll of a disease that kills 400,000 mostly small children every year.

The vaccine, developed by scientists at the Jenner Institute of Oxford University, showed up to 77% efficacy in a trial of 450 children in Burkina Faso over 12 months.

Continue reading...

What’s causing Australia’s mental health crisis? – with Lenore Taylor

Posted on by

In the wake of the pandemic, mental ill health is on the rise, putting more pressure on what some say is an already broken system. Editor-in-chief Lenore Taylor and associate editor Lucy Clark speak to Gabrielle Jackson about what’s causing Australia’s mental health crisis, and how to fix it

Check out the full Australia’s mental health crisis series here.

In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is on 13 11 14 and Beyond Blue can be reached on 1300 22 4636. Other international helplines can be found at www.befrienders.org

Continue reading...

‘No country immune’ from UK’s aid cuts, says Raab

Posted on by

Foreign secretary denies that aid organisations are scared to speak out or people are going hungry

The UK foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, has told MPs that “no country is immune” from the impending aid cuts, but failed to clarify when specific plans would be made public.

Speaking after the release of the first details of the £4bn cuts to international aid, which have been widely criticised as “draconian” and opaque, the minister confirmed “no stand-alone” impact assessment had been carried out in individual countries but that “we identify risks we see across the board”.

Continue reading...

Protests across Malawi as mobile phone charges soar

Posted on by

Mobiles are now a luxury in world’s fifth most costly place for data as cooking oil tax adds to rising prices

Hundreds of people have taken to Malawi’s streets to protest against rising mobile call and data charges.

There were demonstrations in Lilongwe, the capital, in the city of Blantyre, and in the southern district of Mulanje on Wednesday.

Continue reading...

Revealed: big shortfall in Covax Covid vaccine-sharing scheme

Posted on by

Only a fifth of Oxford/AstraZeneca doses expected by May delivered as export bans, hoarding and supply shortages bite

The global vaccine-sharing initiative Covax has so far delivered about one in five of the Oxford/AstraZeneca doses it estimated would arrive in countries by May, according to a Guardian analysis, starkly illustrating the cost of export bans, hoarding and supply shortages for a scheme that represents a key lifeline for many in the developing world.

The organisations that run Covax had predicted countries would receive fewer vaccines than expected after the Indian government restricted exports from its largest manufacturer in response to a catastrophic second wave there, but the figures reveal the shortfall to be severe, leaving many governments scrambling to secure doses elsewhere.

Continue reading...

The Gambia becomes second African state to end trachoma

Posted on by

Health workers spent years targeting agonising and blinding eye disease, which was rife in rural areas

The Gambia has become the second country in Africa to eliminate trachoma, one of the leading causes of blindness.

The achievement, announced by the World Health Organization on Tuesday, came after decades of work on the disease, which has damaged the sight of about 1.9 million people worldwide. Ghana was the first country in Africa to eliminate the disease in 2018.

Continue reading...

Lesotho firm first in Africa to be granted EU licence for medical cannabis

Posted on by

Breakthrough could create thousands of jobs for villagers and help exports to other markets

A company in Lesotho has become the first in Africa to receive a licence to sell medical cannabis to the EU.

The country’s top medical cannabis producer, MG Health, announced it had met the EU’s good manufacturing practice (GMP) standards, allowing it to export cannabis flower, oil and extracts as an active pharmaceutical ingredient.

Continue reading...

Pills in the post: how Covid reopened the abortion wars

Posted on by

Lockdown revolutionised women’s access to home treatment – and strengthened the anti-abortion backlash

Kay, 34, realised her period was late a month into Britain’s lockdown. The coronavirus death count was spiralling across the country. Covid-19 was putting the NHS under unprecedented strain and Boris Johnson had given the British people what he described as “a very simple instruction” in an address to the nation from Downing Street: “You must stay at home.”

A worrying, unsettling time, and Kay, a mother of a six-year-old girl, needed to get hold of a pregnancy test kit. She went online and, two days later, took delivery of the test, learning of a positive result via two pink lines. It was the news she had dreaded.

Continue reading...

Killing of female polio vaccinators puts Afghan eradication campaign at risk

Posted on by

Rise in cases feared as murders halt campaigns and leave many women too afraid to work

Gul Meena Hotak was on her regular rounds, going door-to-door giving polio vaccinations in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad, when she heard gunshots.

The 22-year-old’s immediate concern was for the safety of her friend Negina and other colleagues nearby. “Negina and my supervisor were in a neighbourhood close by when a gunman approached and shot at them. My supervisor escaped with gunshot injuries, but Negina was killed on the spot,” Hotak said.

Continue reading...

Nearly 17 child migrants a day vanished in Europe since 2018

Posted on by

Investigation finds one in six were solo and under 15, as experts say cross-border cooperation ‘nonexistent’

At least 18,000 unaccompanied child migrants have disappeared after arriving in European countries including Greece, Italy and Germany.

An investigation by the Guardian and the cross-border journalism collective Lost in Europe found that 18,292 unaccompanied child migrants went missing in Europe between January 2018 and December 2020 – equivalent to nearly 17 children a day.

Continue reading...

How vaccines are affecting Covid-19 outbreaks globally

Posted on by

Despite their life-saving capabilities, many countries have yet to administer enough doses to reap the full benefits

Nearly six months after the first Covid-19 vaccines were approved for emergency use, Guardian analysis shows that the vast majority of the world is yet to see a substantial benefit.

Supply shortages, safety concerns, public apathy and slow rollouts have resulted in most countries still being reliant on onerous lockdowns and other quarantine measures to reduce the severity of their outbreaks.

Continue reading...

Humanitarian system is failing people in crisis, says UN aid chief

Posted on by

Exclusive: coordinator of UN’s relief operation to say agencies not listening to needs of those in need

The world’s multibillion-dollar humanitarian system is struggling because unaccountable aid agencies are not listening to what people say they need and instead are deciding for them, the UN’s humanitarian agency head will say this week.

In a startling analysis of the programme he oversees, Mark Lowcock, the coordinator of the UN’s aid relief operation since 2017, will say he has reached the view that “one of the biggest failings” of the system is that agencies “do not pay enough attention” to the voices of people caught up in crises.

Continue reading...

Possible link between J&J Covid vaccine and rare blood clots, EU regulator finds

Posted on by

Watchdog says benefits outweigh risks but that warning should be added to product information

Europe’s medicines regulator has found a possible link between Johnson & Johnson’s coronavirus vaccine and rare cases of unusual blood clotting disorders it said were “very similar” to those that had occurred with the AstraZeneca shot.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) on Tuesday recommended a warning should be added to the vaccine’s product information, but stressed that the benefits of the shot – whose rollout was paused last week in Europe and the US – outweighed its risks.

Continue reading...

UK in drive to develop drugs to take at home to ‘stop Covid in its tracks’

Posted on by

Ministers announce taskforce to ‘supercharge’ search for antiviral treatments to roll out as soon as autumn

People with mild Covid-19 could take a pill or capsule at home to prevent the illness turning serious and requiring hospital treatment, under government plans to fast-track development of treatments for the disease.

The government is launching an antivirals taskforce to find at least two drugs by the autumn that people can take to stop coronavirus in its tracks and speed up recovery from it.

Continue reading...

Middle-aged people who sleep six hours or less at greater risk of dementia, study finds

Posted on by

UCL data of 10,000 volunteers shows cases 30% higher among those who slept poorly in their 50s, 60s and 70s

People who regularly sleep for six hours or less each night in middle age are more likely to develop dementia than those who routinely manage seven hours, according to a major study into the disease.

Researchers found a 30% greater risk of dementia in those who during their 50s, 60s and 70s consistently had a short night’s sleep, regardless of other risk factors such as heart and metabolic conditions and poor mental health.

Continue reading...

Richard Dawkins loses ‘humanist of the year’ title over trans comments

Posted on by

American Humanist Association criticises academic for comments about identity using ‘the guise of scientific discourse’, and withdraws its 1996 honour

The American Humanist Association has withdrawn its humanist of the year award from Richard Dawkins, 25 years after he received the honour, criticising the academic and author for “demean[ing] marginalised groups” using “the guise of scientific discourse”.

The AHA honoured Dawkins, whose books include The Selfish Gene and The God Delusion, in 1996 for his “significant contributions” in communicating scientific concepts to the public. On Monday, it announced that it was withdrawing the award, referring to a tweet sent by Dawkins earlier this month, in which he compared trans people to Rachel Dolezal, the civil rights activist who posed as a black woman for years.

Continue reading...

‘People are not starving, they’re being starved’: millions at risk of famine, NGOs warn

Posted on by

Open letter backing UN call to action says Covid has exacerbated problems of conflict, climate crisis and inequality

World leaders are being urged to act immediately to stop multiple famines breaking out, exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic and caused by conflict, climate crisis and inequality.

In an open letter published on Tuesday to support the UN Call for Action to Avert Famine in 2021, hundreds of aid organisations from around the world said: “People are not starving – they are being starved.”

Continue reading...

‘I was alone, I had nothing’: from child refugee to student nurse in Athens

Posted on by

Ahtisham Khan arrived in Greece, aged 16, after leaving Pakistan. A new initiative is helping children like him find a safe home where they can start to rebuild their lives

At some point in his journey to a freer place, Ahtisham Khan came to a fork in the road. Fifty days of travel from his native Pakistan to the plains of northern Greece had been unexpectedly frightening and exhausting.

“We had a lot of dreams,” he says, recalling why he and his brother, Zeeshan, left their village close to the city of Haripur in Pakistan. “We were teenagers … we didn’t know what we were embarking on. We did what we had to do to survive.”

Continue reading...

Tens of thousands in UK avoided universal credit during Covid over stigma

Posted on by

Fear of being seen as a “scrounger” meant those entitled didn’t sign on during early stage of pandemic

Tens of thousands of people did not claim universal credit during the early part of the pandemic because they felt too ashamed to sign on benefits, often despite struggling to pay rent and bills, a study has found.

The perceived stigma around benefits – with some people feeling, for example, that they were for “dole scroungers” and “freeloaders” – meant many refused state help, or put off making a claim until they ran into serious difficulty.

Continue reading...