Category Archives: Society

NHS warns of rise in children with new illness that may be linked to coronavirus

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Doctors alerted to possibly fatal syndrome, which gives the small number of sufferers stomach pain and inflamed heart

Children are falling ill with a new and potentially fatal combination of symptoms apparently linked to Covid-19, including a sore stomach and heart problems.

The children affected appear to have been struck by a form of toxic shock syndrome. Some have been left so seriously unwell that they have had to be treated in intensive care. At least one has undergone extra corporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) treatment, which is used when someone’s life is at risk because they can no longer breathe for themselves.

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Pandemic jeopardises support for world’s poor as charities lose millions

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British government urged to plug shortfall as Oxfam and Christian Aid reveal huge financial impact of Covid-19 outbreak

Charities are calling on the UK government for greater support as they report the loss of millions of pounds as a result of Covid-19.

Oxfam said it is losing £5m a month from the closure of its shops alone, while Christian Aid last week said it expected a £6m drop in its funds this financial year. Others said they were still calculating the impact.

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Hungary prepares to end legal recognition of trans people

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Trans people fear more discrimination as Orbán pushes through law defining gender based on ‘sex at birth’

Hungary’s rightwing government looks likely to push through legislation that will end the legal recognition of trans people by defining gender as “biological sex based on primary sex characteristics and chromosomes” and thus making it impossible for people to legally change their gender.

Trans people and rights activists say the law, which has been introduced into parliament as attention is focused on the coronavirus pandemic, will increase discrimination and intolerance towards trans people. Many will try to leave the country, while those who do not have that chance will face daily humiliations.

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Top Tories join calls to bar Cummings from scientific advisory group

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Cross-party demand for transparency after chief adviser is revealed as attending meetings of Sage

Boris Johnson is facing cross-party calls to stop his chief adviser from attending meetings of the secret scientific group advising him on the coronavirus pandemic, as demands grow for the committee’s deliberations to be made public.

The former Brexit secretary, David Davis, is among those calling for Dominic Cummings and Ben Warner, an adviser who ran the Tories’ private election computer model, to be prevented from attending future meetings of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage).

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Matt Hancock can count on powerful support if not 100,000 tests a day

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NHS chiefs and No 10 endorse the health secretary as flaws emerge in the structure he leads

Matt Hancock sounded tetchy and exhausted on Friday morning as he took to the airwaves once again to explain the latest swerve in the government’s strategy for tackling coronavirus: recruiting an army of contact-tracers in an attempt to track its spread.

Asked whether his self-imposed target of testing 100,000 people a day by the end of next week would be met, he let out a self-deprecating laugh. The health secretary knows there’s a lot in the balance: the health of millions, his standing among the public and colleagues, perhaps even his career.

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Welsh first minister to set out plans for lifting country’s lockdown

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Mark Drakeford will announce proposals to ease restrictions as number of new cases stabilises

The Welsh first minister, Mark Drakeford, is due to set out plans on how the nation will aim to lift its coronavirus lockdown.

The Labour politician will announce on Friday a new framework for easing restrictions and seven questions that need to be addressed to help lead Wales out of the pandemic.

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Pandemic potentially a ‘death sentence’ for many prison inmates, experts warn

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Lack of space and funding combined with often limited access to medical support increases vulnerability of prisoners, says study

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    • Chronic overcrowding and underfunding have left prisons around the world vulnerable to being ravaged by coronavirus, criminal justice experts have warned.

    The challenges of a record global prison population of 11 million have been brought to light in a report published by Penal Reform International (PRI) which found that 102 countries have prison occupancy levels of more than 110%.

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    NHS urged to avoid PPE gloves made in ‘slave-like’ conditions

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    In securing PPE for NHS staff working on coronavirus frontline, government must not ignore abuse of factory workers, warn activists

    The government must not ignore the “slave-like” conditions of migrant workers making rubber medical gloves in Malaysia in its rush to source protective equipment to keep frontline NHS staff safe from coronavirus, human rights groups say.

    Malaysia is the world’s largest producer of rubber gloves, but the industry has been accused of grossly exploiting its workforce, mostly impoverished migrants from Bangladesh and Nepal.

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    EU turns up pressure on Matt Hancock over Covid-19 PPE scheme

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    Brussels says UK was briefed on bulk-buying plan and given ‘ample opportunity’ to join

    The health secretary, Matt Hancock, is facing fresh pressure over the protection offered to NHS staff after the European commission said the UK had been given “ample opportunity” to join an EU scheme bulk-buying masks, gowns, gloves and goggles.

    After a day of confusion in Westminster over the UK’s lack of involvement in the EU’s joint procurement of equipment, a spokesman for the commission appeared to bolster the claim that ministers had taken a “political decision” to opt out.

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    Coronavirus pandemic ‘will cause famine of biblical proportions’

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    Governments must act now to stop 265 million starving, warns World Food Programme boss

    The world is facing widespread famine “of biblical proportions” because of the coronavirus pandemic, the chief of the UN’s food relief agency has warned, with a short time to act before hundreds of millions starve.

    More than 30 countries in the developing world could experience widespread famine, and in 10 of those countries there are already more than 1 million people on the brink of starvation, said David Beasley, executive director of the World Food Programme.

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    Domestic abuse: ‘Women in Herat may survive coronavirus but not lockdown’

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    Violence against women is endemic in Afghanistan; with services closed by the pandemic, those working with abused women are terrified for their clients

    Every morning Marzia Akbari, a 25-year-old psychologist from the western Afghan city of Herat, wakes up, picks up her phone and starts calling women. Most calls go unanswered. Since Herat was put in lockdown two weeks ago, Akbari’s work as one of Afghanistan’s only healthcare workers helping victims of domestic abuse has ground to a halt and many of the women she was trying to protect have disappeared.

    “I’m very scared for them,” she says. “Many women in Herat may survive coronavirus but won’t survive the lockdown.”

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    Covid-19: is seven days in isolation enough? – podcast

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    How long should you remain in isolation if you have symptoms of Covid-19? It depends on who you ask. The UK government guidelines recommend seven days from the onset of symptoms, whereas the World Health Organization advises 14. To get to the bottom of this apparent disparity, Nicola Davis discusses viral shedding with Dr Charlotte Houldcroft, and asks what the evidence currently tells us about how long we stay infectious for

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    WHO warns that few have developed antibodies to Covid-19

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    Herd immunity hopes dealt blow by report suggesting only 2%-3% of people have been infected

    Only a tiny proportion of the global population – maybe as few as 2% or 3% – appear to have antibodies in the blood showing they have been infected with Covid-19, according to the World Health Organization, a finding that bodes ill for hopes that herd immunity will ease the exit from lockdown.

    “Easing restrictions is not the end of the epidemic in any country,” said WHO director-general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at a media briefing in Geneva on Monday. “So-called lockdowns can help to take the heat out of a country’s epidemic.”

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    Hospital leaders hit out at government as PPE shortage row escalates

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    Health managers in England voice ‘intense frustration’ in unprecedented intervention

    Hospital leaders have directly attacked the government for the first time during the coronavirus crisis over the shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) after a desperately needed consignment of surgical gowns that had been announced by ministers failed to arrive.

    In an unprecedented intervention, which hospital leaders privately say is the result of “intense frustration and exasperation”, the organisations representing NHS trusts in England urged ministers to “just focus on what we can be certain of” after weeks of “bitter experience” with failed deliveries.

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    Ex-paratrooper walking UK coastline isolates on empty Shetland island

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    Chris Lewis is staying on usually uninhabited Hildasay until charity challenge can resume

    A former paratrooper is isolating on a usually uninhabited Shetland island after lockdown measures were introduced when he was on a fundraising challenge to walk the UK coastline.

    Chris Lewis, 39, has walked 12,000 miles since setting off from Llangennith beach on the Gower peninsula near his home city of Swansea, south Wales, in August 2017.

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    Failure to record ethnicity of Covid-19 victims a ‘scandal’, says BMA chief

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    Dr Chaand Nagpaul says data must be gathered now to save lives of UK BAME citizens

    The government’s failure to record and publish real-time data on the ethnicity of Covid-19 patients is a scandal that is endangering lives, according to the chair of the British Medical Association.

    Speaking to the Observer, Dr Chaand Nagpaul said: “This is not an issue that should require further campaigning. It would be a scandal if it requires further lobbying as data recording needs to start now, not tomorrow. When you have stark statistics like this, it is an instruction for government to act.”

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    Test and trace: lessons from Hong Kong on avoiding a coronavirus lockdown

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    Semi-autonomous city followed WHO advice and moved swiftly to stem contagion without rigid curbs on movement

    Governments in Europe and the US can learn from Hong Kong, which has kept infections and deaths from Covid-19 low without resorting to the socially and economically damaging lockdown that the UK and other countries have imposed, scientists say.

    Hong Kong, with a population of nearly 7.5 million, has had just 715 confirmed cases of Covid-19 infection, including 94 asymptomatic infections, and four deaths.

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    South Korean businessman convicted of rape gets suspended sentence

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    Ex-chair of DB Group Kim Jun-ki ‘forgot his responsibilities’, says Seoul court

    The former head of a South Korean conglomerate who was convicted of raping his maid and sexually assaulting a secretary has been given a suspended sentence.

    Kim Jun-ki, the 75-year-old former chair of DB Group, which has activities in finance and steel, repeatedly violated the two women, the Seoul central district court found.

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    Refugees among hundreds of overseas medics to respond to NHS call

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    Scheme allowing doctors to join as medical support workers is welcomed but calls to ‘permit doctors to work as doctors’ persist

  • Coronavirus – latest updates
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    • Hundreds of foreign-born doctors, including refugees, have signed up to become medical support workers as part of a new scheme aimed at helping the NHS tackle the coronavirus pandemic.

    NHS England launched the initiative for international medical graduates and doctors after calls to fast track the accreditation of overseas medics.

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    Countries urged to step up spending as national goals go unmet

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    Campaigners call for action as majority of big countries fall short of 0.7% aid target

    The world’s major powers have failed to make progress towards meeting their commitments on aid spending, according to new data, prompting calls for countries to step up in the face of the Covid-19 outbreak.

    The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) update on spending in 2019, published on Thursday, showed aid contributions by its forum of the largest donors were less than half the targeted 0.7% of their gross national income.

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