Science editor Ian Sample explains how vaccines work, runs through some of the main obstacles to creating one for coronavirus and preparing it for public use, and tells us which scenario he thinks is most realistic in the next 18 months
Continue reading...Category Archives: Society
Prince Andrew charity broke law by paying trustee £350,000
Watchdog publishes highly critical report after charitable trust is required to return cash
A charitable trust supporting the work of Prince Andrew has been required to return more than £350,000 in payments made to a trustee after a public watchdog intervened.
The Charity Commission has revealed the Prince Andrew Charitable Trust broke the law by handing over large sums to the prince’s household to compensate for time spent on other activities by one of his employees.
Continue reading...Excess deaths in UK under coronavirus lockdown pass 63,000
ONS figures show fewest weekly coronavirus deaths in England and Wales for eight weeks
Hundreds more deaths from Covid-19 in the north-west of England and in care homes have driven up the number of excess fatalities since the UK went into lockdown to more than 63,000, a toll believed to be greater than those anywhere else except the US.
The number of deaths from the virus in England and Wales fell to 1,822 in the last week of May, the fewest for eight weeks, according to the latest data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS). But the numbers remain relatively high in the north-west, where there have been fears of a resurgence of the virus.
Continue reading...Independent DfID ‘imperative’ for effective UK overseas aid, say MPs
Report says merger with Foreign and Commonwealth Office could erode accountability and shift funds from poverty reduction
The Department for International Development (DfID) must be kept separate from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office if Britain is to help end extreme poverty and retain its reputation and influence overseas, MPs have warned.
The cross-party international development committee warned that reorganising the aid effort could impair the effectiveness of Britain’s £15.2bn aid budget, which includes tackling the coronavirus pandemic.
Continue reading...Gareth Thomas on coming out as HIV positive: ‘It was my right to tell my family – not somebody else’s’
The Welsh rugby star talks about why he revealed his status, his mission to help others deal with prejudice – and how Mickey Rourke nearly played him in a biopic of his life
The moment Gareth Thomas found out he was HIV positive, all he could imagine was the Aids epidemic. Sensational images of his future took over: frailty, shame, isolation, social exclusion. He remembered Norman Fowler’s tombstone advert and the people with leprosy he learned about at school who were banished to colonies. He thought it was a death sentence.
“It was an overriding feeling that my life was over,” says the former Welsh rugby captain. “It’s like somebody holding a gun to your head and pulling the trigger – how do you explain how that feels?”
Continue reading...Omission of air pollution from report on Covid-19 and race ‘astonishing’
Failure to consider dirty air as a factor in higher death toll among ethnic minorities wholly irresponsible, say critics
The failure to consider air pollution as a factor in the higher rates of coronavirus deaths among minority ethnic groups is “astonishing” and “wholly irresponsible”, according to critics of a Public Health England review.
The PHE report released on Tuesday confirmed the disproportionate impact of Covid-19 on people from ethnic minorities but did not mention air pollution. Minorities in the UK, US and elsewhere are known to generally experience higher levels of air pollution, and there is growing evidence around the world linking exposure to dirty air exposure to increased coronavirus infections and deaths.
Continue reading...Sexist forum posts hundreds of private images of Australian female journalists and celebrities
Women whose social media pictures were uploaded to the site say they feel ‘violated’ by intrusion on their privacy
Female journalists say they feel “violated” by a sexist forum that has been posting personal images and lewd comments about women in the Australian media industry for more than a decade.
Hundreds of high-profile journalists and emerging reporters have had their images uploaded onto the forum, which also posts suggestive images of Australian actresses, female sports stars and models.
Continue reading...‘It’s psychologically easier’: how anti-vaxxers capitalised on coronavirus fears to spread misinformation
While many believe a Covid-19 vaccine will be a ‘ticket out’, experts are concerned getting people to take it is the real challenge
- Sign up for Guardian Australia’s daily coronavirus email
- Download the free Guardian app to get the most important news notifications
When Susan had a baby daughter, she was not planning on having her vaccinated. It didn’t seem abnormal to her – most of her mothers’ group didn’t vaccinate either.
“I had friends who believed in natural healing, healthy food, being vegan, eating raw food. I just didn’t think that vaccines were necessary.”
Continue reading...Prime minister told to dump rhetoric and plan for new Covid wave
Medical chiefs call for a public health campaign as faith in government strategy slumps
Senior figures from across the NHS have issued an urgent plea for a comprehensive plan to tackle a second wave of coronavirus infections, as Boris Johnson continues to lose public confidence in his handling of the pandemic.
Amid persistent fears among scientists that the virus remains too prevalent to ease the lockdown further, the prime minister has been urged to ditch “cheap political rhetoric” that risks eroding the public’s adherence to lockdown measures in the months ahead.
Continue reading...Prince William volunteering for mental health crisis service
Duke of Cambridge reveals he is trained volunteer for UK’s Shout text platform
The Duke of Cambridge has been secretly working as a volunteer supporting people contacting a crisis helpline for mental health support, he has revealed.
Unbeknown to those who have accessed the Shout 85258 text-messaging service, Prince William is one of its 2,000 trained volunteers.
Continue reading...Care home residents foot £100 a week for coronavirus costs
Older people and families asked to pay bill on top of usual fees as homes reel from cost of PPE and staff absences
Some older people who fund their own care home fees are being forced to pay a steep and unexpected coronavirus bill by their care provider, it has been revealed.
Older people and their families are being asked to pay more than £100 a week on top of their usual care home fees, with homes saying the cost of PPE and staff absences could push their finances into the red, threatening their sustainability.
Continue reading...WHO advises public to wear face masks when unable to distance
Over-60s should use medical-grade masks and all others three-layer fabric ones, health body says
People over 60 or with health issues should wear a medical-grade mask when they are out and cannot socially distance, according to new guidance from the World Health Organization, while all others should wear a three-layer fabric mask.
The announcement on Friday marks a significant change of stance by the WHO, which until now has been reluctant to advocate the wearing of masks by the public because of limited evidence that they offer protection.
Continue reading...Malawi factories ordered to close after ignoring plastics ban
Activists welcome move but say government is still dragging its feet over crackdown on waste in lakes and waterways
The Malawian government this week ordered the closure of factories belonging to two major plastic producers for flouting the country’s plastics ban.
The companies – OG plastics and City Plastics – were found to still be manufacturing thin plastics, often used to make plastic bags, despite a ruling last year that banned its production, import and use.
Continue reading...Egyptian father to stand trial on charges of forced FGM of three daughters
Girls were allegedly told they were to have Covid-19 vaccinations but were cut by doctor after being sedated
Egypt’s public prosecutor has ordered the immediate trial of a father on charges of forcing his three young daughters to undergo female genital mutilation (FGM), after he told them they were going to be vaccinated against coronavirus. The doctor involved will also go on trial.
The procedure was banned in 2008 and criminalised in 2016.
Continue reading...Pamplona ‘wolf pack’ members convicted of separate sexual assault
Four found guilty of sexually abusing woman in southern city of Córdoba in May 2016
Four of the five men who gang-raped a young woman at Pamplona’s bull-running festival in July 2016 have been given additional prison sentences after being convicted of sexually abusing another woman in southern Spain two months earlier.
The Pamplona rape shocked the country and nationwide protests erupted after the five men were initially convicted of the lesser offence of sexual abuse.
Continue reading...Oxfam funding crisis puts 200 UK jobs at risk
Threatened job losses follow announcement of 1,500 redundancies internationally and closure of offices in 18 countries
More than 200 UK jobs could be lost at Oxfam, after the charity’s funding plummeted during the coronavirus pandemic.
The threatened UK job cuts are in addition to the loss of almost 1,500 staff roles internationally and the closure of offices in 18 countries, announced by the aid organisation in May.
Continue reading...How a small Spanish town became one of Europe’s worst Covid-19 hotspots
In the northern region of La Rioja, one medieval town has suffered a particularly deadly outbreak. And in such a tight-knit community, suspicion and recrimination can spread as fast as the virus. By Giles Tremlett
When we first spoke, in mid-April, María José Dueñas began weeping within seconds. Her parents’ home town, Santo Domingo de La Calzada, had the worst death rate from coronavirus in Spain, she told me on the phone. “I’m so scared,” she said. Dueñas told stories of police clambering through windows to rescue the dying, who were too weak to open their doors. Regional politicians, meanwhile, refused to give town-by-town figures for the dead, stoking anxiety and encouraging conspiracy theories. Santo Domingo’s locked-down residents, she claimed, were being deliberately kept in the dark as the virus silently stalked the town.
Dueñas does not live in Santo Domingo, a town of 6,300 people set among patchwork fields of cereal crops in the northern Spanish region of La Rioja. She was born there, but now lives 28 miles away in Logroño, the capital of this wealthy region, best known for the rich red wines that bear its name. Her angry, sometimes wildly conspiratorial outbursts on local Facebook groups – some of which have been deleted against her will – mean not all her old neighbours will welcome her back.
Continue reading...How were medical journals and WHO caught out over hydroxychloroquine?
Studies under microscope after Guardian investigation reveals flaws with data from US company Surgisphere
- Governments and WHO changed Covid-19 policy based on suspect data from tiny US company
- Coronavirus – latest updates
- See all our coronavirus coverage
Some scientific papers stop the world in its tracks. In the middle of a raging pandemic, a study in the world’s leading global health journal that seemed to prove President Trump wrong to laud the drug hydroxychloroquine for Covid-19 was always going to have a massive impact. It did. When the paper flagged a higher risk of death on the drug, trials were stopped all over the world, including one by the World Health Organization.
Now it’s in danger of unravelling.
Continue reading...China withheld data on coronavirus from WHO, recordings reveal
Complaints by officials at odds with body’s public praise of Beijing’s response to outbreak
The World Health Organization struggled to get needed information from China during critical early days of the coronavirus pandemic, according to recordings of internal meetings that contradict the organisation’s public praise of Beijing’s response to the outbreak.
The recordings, obtained by the Associated Press (AP), show officials complaining in meetings during the week of 6 January that Beijing was not sharing data needed to evaluate the risk of the virus to the rest of the world. It was not until 20 January that China confirmed coronavirus was contagious and 30 January that the WHO declared a global emergency.
Continue reading...Pakistan polio fears as Covid-19 causes millions of children to miss vaccinations
Officials voice concern as coronavirus halts annual programme in country already struggling against resurgence in cases
In April, almost 40 million children missed their polio drops in Pakistan after the cancellation of the nationwide vaccination campaign.
Alongside Afghanistan, Pakistan is one of only two countries in the world where polio is still endemic. It was very close to becoming polio free, with only 12 cases in 2018, but last year the number of cases rose to 147. In the same year, Pakistan was accused of covering up the resurgence of the P2 strain of the virus, which was thought to have been eradicated in 2014.
Continue reading...