Category Archives: Medical research

Oxford coronavirus vaccine triggers immune response, trial shows

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Early results also indicate vaccine is safe, raising hopes it could help end pandemic

Hopes for a vaccine to address the global spread of coronavirus have been raised after Oxford University’s experimental version was revealed to be safe and to generate a strong immune response in the people who volunteered to help trial it.

After intensive research, Prof Sarah Gilbert, from Oxford’s Jenner Institute, said they were more than happy with the first results, which showed good immunity after a single dose of vaccine.

“We’re really pleased that it seems to be behaving just as we thought it would do. We have quite a lot of experience of using this technology to make other vaccines, so we knew what we expected to see, and that’s what we have seen,” she told the Guardian.

The prime minister, Boris Johnson, called the results “very positive news”, adding: “There are no guarantees, we’re not there yet and further trials will be necessary – but this is an important step in the right direction.”

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Global wrap: Hong Kong ‘critical’ as Covid cases rise worldwide

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Lam says situation out of control, while Melbourne makes face masks compulsory

The coronavirus situation in Hong Kong is “really critical”, with a record 100 new infections recorded on Sunday, the territory’s leader, Carrie Lam, said, as Melbourne became the first city in Australia to make wearing masks compulsory in response to a resurgent and aggressive outbreak there.

Hong Kong was held up months ago as a model for its success in keeping down Covid-19 cases in the crowded city-state of 7.5 million people, but its caseload – although still low by European and American standards – had grown by a third in the past fortnight to nearly 1,800. Lam has shuttered bars, gyms and nightclubs in the past week and on Sunday announced new guidelines including mandatory mask-wearing indoors.

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What happens when flu meets Covid-19?

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How seasonal viruses interact with the coronavirus is unknown – it may lessen or sharpen the pandemic – so flu vaccinations are vital

Optimists had hoped Covid-19 might not withstand the blistering heat of a British summer. However those hopes have faded: the virus staged a recent resurgence in Iran amid actual blistering temperatures, and has had no trouble persisting in sultry Singapore.

But what happens to Covid-19, and us, when the rain and chill – and flu and sniffles – of autumn set in? Especially, how will the annual winter flu epidemic play out amid a Covid-19 pandemic?

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Israel returns to partial lockdown with immediate weekend shutdown

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Government unveils measures after marathon emergency cabinet session as infections rise

Israel has reimposed some lockdown measures following a vigorous second surge in the number of coronavirus infections, putting in place stringent weekend shutdowns in which shops, hairdressers and attractions will be closed.

The government announced the measures in the early hours of Friday morning, following a marathon emergency cabinet session called after daily infection rates climbed to close to 2,000.

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Coronavirus symptoms fall into six different groupings, study finds

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Exclusive: Findings could give medics advance warning for hospital care and respiratory support

Symptoms of Covid-19 appear to fall into six different groupings, researchers have revealed, in work they say could help to predict whether a patient will end up needing a ventilator or other breathing support.

The team say the findings could give healthcare providers several days advanced warning of demand for hospital care and respiratory support.

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‘Work from home’: UK chief scientific adviser warns of coronavirus risks – video

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The UK government's chief scientific adviser has said working from home is still the best option where possible to maintain physical distancing, as he acknowledged that the outcome of Britain's response to the Covid-19 outbreak 'has not been good'. Sir Patrick Vallance's advice during a two-hour appearance before the science and technology select committee contrasts with Boris Johnson's recovery 'roadmap' under which the prime minister is encouraging more people to return to their workplaces in an effort to help city centre economies recover

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Coronavirus live news: Covid-19 was direct cause of 89% of Italy pandemic deaths; Israel faces new lockdown

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Israel reports new daily record of cases; 125 million in India under new lockdown; Beijing Winter Olympics under threat

The news that there may be a delay in re-opening pubs in Ireland has been described as a “hammer blow” by the Licensed Vintners Association, which represents pub owners, who said the future of 7,000 pubs and 50,000 jobs hung in the balance.

Ireland has paused its phased easing of lockdown and extended rules on face coverings amid a surge in Covid-19 cases. Leo Varadkar, the tánaiste (deputy prime minister), told parliament today that pubs, nightclubs and other venues will open no sooner than 10 August, and possibly later.

Covid-19 was found to be the direct cause of death among 89% of the pandemic’s victims in Italy, according to a report on Thursday by the country’s higher health institute and national statistics agency.

The study was based on the death certificates of 4,942 people who had tested positive for Covid-19 and carried out until 25 May, by which time 31,573 people were officially reported to have died of the disease.

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Does coronavirus spread in the air and how do we stay safe?

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Some scientists believe there is growing evidence of airborne transmission of Covid-19

Some scientists are warning there is growing evidence of airborne transmission of coronavirus. But how does it affect the actions we should take to stay safe?

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Global ‘catastrophe’ looms as Covid-19 fuels inequality

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Job losses, homelessness, school closures and acute hunger set to rise dramatically without urgent support, Christian Aid warns

The pandemic has exposed and reinforced deep inequalities across the world, with the true extent yet to be seen, according to a major new report.

The crisis in the poorest countries threatens to escalate into a catastrophe as job losses and food insecurity mount. “The economic, social and political impacts are only starting to unfold,” says Building Back with Justice: Dismantling Inequalities after Covid-19, to be published by Christian Aid later this month.

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Bodies donated to science ‘left to be eaten by rats at Paris centre’

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Inquiry to examine claims remains were found strewn around and dismembered

Authorities in France will investigate claims that human corpses donated for science were left to rot and be eaten by rats at a university research facility, the Paris prosecutor’s office has said.

An investigation into “violations of the integrity of a corpse” was handed over to magistrates by prosecutors who handled the initial phase of the investigation after l’Express magazine reported the scandal last November.

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How to stop your glasses steaming up – and 19 other essential facts about face masks

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How often should you wash a cloth mask? And how effective are the disposable ones? The expert guide to choosing, wearing and caring for your face covering

The British have been slow to embrace face masks, despite calls from public health experts. Uptake has been just 25% in the UK, compared with 83.4% in Italy and 65.8% in the US. The president of the Royal Society, Venki Ramakrishnan, said this week that wearing one “is the right thing to do” and that a refusal to do so should be seen as socially unacceptable as drink-driving or not wearing a seatbelt.

Perhaps one of the problems has been the changing advice as new evidence emerges. The World Health Organization (WHO) now recommends people wear cloth masks. Ramakrishnan said that in the UK, “the message has not been clear enough, so perhaps people do not really understand the benefits or are not convinced”. It also doesn’t help that the guidance across the UK is different.

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Two charged over attack on French bus driver who refused entry to unmasked men

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Philippe Monguillot left brain dead after assault by men not wearing Covid-19 face masks

French prosecutors have charged two men with attempted murder after a bus driver was assaulted and left brain dead for refusing to let a group of people who were not wearing face masks board the bus.

Four men set upon 59-year-old Philippe Monguillot in the south-western town of Bayonne on Sunday after he asked three of them to wear masks and tried to check another man’s ticket.

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Scientists join forces to investigate airborne risk of coronavirus

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WHO adviser says results from well-designed studies are needed before it changes its advice

A major research effort is under way to understand whether Covid-19 can spread through tiny airborne particles that are released by infected people and remain suspended in the air for hours.

Scientists are working alongside sanitary engineers at the World Health Organization to investigate how tiny aerosols bearing the virus may be released into the environment; whether they are spread around rooms by air-conditioning units; and how infectious the particles may be.

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Coronavirus live news: US gives WHO official notice of its withdrawal next year

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Joe Biden says he would return the US to the WHO if elected; WHO acknowledges ‘evidence emerging’ of airborne spread of Covid-19; Jair Bolsonaro tests positive. Follow the latest updates

The Guardian’s Eleanor Ainge Roy reports from Queenstown with Charlotte Graham-McLay in Auckland:

Here’s the full story on a man in compulsory isolation in New Zealand who has absconded from a quarantine hotel to make a late-night “spur-of-the-moment” dash to the supermarket – before testing positive for Covid-19 the following day:

Related: New Zealand: man with Covid-19 absconds from quarantine for supermarket 'dash'

The Netherlands will be at the centre of upcoming talks over European spending on the coronavirus crisis, driven by a mix of traditional Calvinist frugality and political reality, experts say.

As part of the “frugal four” along with Austria, Denmark and Sweden, the Dutch have enraged many in the EU by putting the brakes on a €750bn (US$850bn) rescue package for the worst-hit countries.

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Coronavirus live news: Tulsa health chief cites Trump rally over spike in cases

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Gathering ‘likely contributed’ to surge; Bolsonaro vetoes measures to help indigenous people; Melbourne goes into full lockdown after rises in cases

Nigeria has passed 30,000 confirmed coronavirus cases, according to the country’s Centre for Disease Control.

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Coronavirus: world treating symptoms, not cause of pandemics, says UN

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Ongoing destruction of nature will result in stream of animal diseases jumping to humans, says report

The world is treating the health and economic symptoms of the coronavirus pandemic but not the environmental cause, according to the authors of a UN report. As a result, a steady stream of diseases can be expected to jump from animals to humans in coming years, they say.

The number of such “zoonotic” epidemics is rising, from Ebola to Sars to West Nile virus and Rift Valley fever, with the root cause being the destruction of nature by humans and the growing demand for meat, the report says.

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Risks, R numbers and raw data: how to interpret coronavirus statistics

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Covid-related facts and definitions are confusing, and as lockdown is eased, clarity is more important than ever

We’re finally over the first peak of the epidemic, but the numbers relating to the virus keep on spreading. Sometimes, however, things get lost in translation from the spreadsheet to the article, broadcast or tweet.

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Coronavirus live news: Mexican state asks for US border closure as global cases near 11m

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Philippines reports largest single-day increase in cases; Florida confirms 10,000 new cases in one day; Brazil infections nearing 1.5m

Authorities in northern Nigeria’s biggest city Kano have lifted a three-month lockdown imposed to contain a coronavirus outbreak linked to hundreds of deaths.

State governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje announced the lifting of the curfew in a broadcast, insisting the key trading hub had seen a sharp drop in infections.

We can beat our chest and say we are winning the case and there is no longer any need for the lockdown.

There will be free movement for all.

Despite imposing an early lockdown, containment may be unravelling in Bolivia amid poverty, an underprepared health system and a bitter political standoff, report Laurence Blair and Cindy Jiménez Bercerra in La Paz.

When Pedro Flores and a group of fellow doctors arrived in the Beni, Bolivia’s tropical northern province, at the end of May, they knew the crisis caused by coronavirus would be severe. But what they found still left them shaken.

There were no medical supplies, there were no ventilators, no oxygen.

Here in Trinidad most people have a relative, a friend, a neighbour who has died. We’re in a health disaster.

Related: Bolivia in danger of squandering its head start over coronavirus

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‘I’m cautiously optimistic’: Imperial’s Robin Shattock on his coronavirus vaccine

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Team is using new approach that could be cheap and scalable and become the norm within five years

Prof Robin Shattock would have liked slightly longer to develop the revolutionary approach to vaccines that he is pretty sure will not only save lives in the Covid-19 pandemic but become the norm for vaccine development within five years.

His team at Imperial College were working on Ebola and Lassa fever vaccines using new technology but had not got as far as human trials when a novel coronavirus started to kill thousands of people in Wuhan, China.

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Coronavirus vaccine tracker: How close are we to a vaccine?

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More than 140 teams of researchers are racing to develop a safe and effective coronavirus vaccine

Researchers around the world are racing to develop a vaccine against Covid-19, with more than 140 candidate vaccines now tracked by the World Health Organization (WHO).

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