Category Archives: Medical research

Breakthrough close on coronavirus antibody therapy: reports

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Scientists say injection of cloned antibodies could help treat people already infected, while vaccine development continues

Scientists working on coronavirus treatments may be close to a breakthrough on an antibody treatment that could save the lives of people who become infected, it has been reported.

An injection of cloned antibodies that counteract Covid-19 could prove significant for those in the early stages of infection, according to the British-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca.

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‘It’s psychologically easier’: how anti-vaxxers capitalised on coronavirus fears to spread misinformation

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While many believe a Covid-19 vaccine will be a ‘ticket out’, experts are concerned getting people to take it is the real challenge

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.” 

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WHO advises public to wear face masks when unable to distance

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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.

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Coronavirus live news: Sweden sees third consecutive day of over 1,000 new cases; virus ‘under control’ in France

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Brazil death toll passes Italy; New York urges protesters to get tested; Turkey announces weekend lockdown in 15 cities

The commander of US forces in Japan has accused China of using the coronavirus crisis as a cover for a surge in naval activity to push territorial claims in the South China Sea.

In a telephone interview with the Reuters news agency, Lieutenant General Kevin Schneider said there had been a surged of activity by China, with navy ships, coast guard vessels and a naval militia of fishing boats in harassing vessels in waters claimed by Beijing.

Peru is beginning the second phase of its economic reopening on Friday, even as its ongoing coronavirus outbreak showed little signs of slowing, with 4,284 new confirmed cases reported on Thursday.

The president, Martin Vizcarra, announced the second phase of lockdown easing on Thursday, after his council of ministers approved a presidential decree calling for the restart of economic activity.

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Vitamin K could help fight coronavirus, study suggests

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Scientists in Netherlands explore possible link between deficiency and Covid-19 deaths

Patients who have died or been admitted to intensive care with Covid-19 have been found to be deficient in a vitamin found in spinach, eggs and hard and blue cheeses, raising hopes that dietary change might be one part of the answer to combating the disease.

Researchers studying patients who were admitted to the Canisius Wilhelmina hospital in the Dutch city of Nijmegen have extolled the benefits of vitamin K after discovering a link between deficiency and the worst coronavirus outcomes.

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Covid-19: Lancet retracts paper that halted hydroxychloroquine trials

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Retraction made after Guardian investigation found inconsistencies in data

The Lancet paper that halted global trials of hydroxychloroquine for Covid-19 because of fears of increased deaths has been retracted after a Guardian investigation found inconsistencies in the data.

The lead author, Prof Mandeep Mehra, from the Brigham and Women’s hospital in Boston, Massachusetts decided to ask the Lancet for the retraction because he could no longer vouch for the data’s accuracy.

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Unreliable data: how doubt snowballed over Covid-19 drug research that swept the world

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A vast database from a little-known company called Surgisphere has influenced rapid policy shifts as the world seeks treatments for Covid-19. But as researchers began to examine it more closely, they became increasingly concerned

Dr Carlos Chaccour had just woken up in Barcelona when he opened his laptop to read the latest Covid-19 research.

Usually, he would start the day by meditating, but that was proving difficult in the middle of a global pandemic.

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WHO to resume hydroxychloroquine trial after earlier halt over safety concerns

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Questions raised over study claiming drug linked to higher rate of mortality and heart problems in Covid-19 patients

The World Health Organization will resume clinical trials of an anti-malaria drug researchers hope may treat Covid-19, after a study of the drug published in May by a major medical journal prompted them to halt trials due to safety concerns.

The paper, published in the Lancet, said hydroxychloroquine was associated with higher mortality rates and higher rates of heart problems in Covid-19 patients in hospitals around the world. The finding prompted the World Health Organization’s director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, to announce the hydroxychloroquine arm of its Solidarity global clinical trial would pause while the study and other findings were reviewed.

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How were medical journals and WHO caught out over hydroxychloroquine?

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Studies under microscope after Guardian investigation reveals flaws with data from US company Surgisphere

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.

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‘We were packed like sardines’: evidence grows of mass-event dangers early in pandemic

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Research appears to back up stories of people who believe they got coronavirus at events UK government allowed to go ahead

The last major football match played in England before all sport was suspended because of the coronavirus crisis was the European Champions League showpiece between Liverpool and Atletico Madrid. It was a thrilling contest that transfixed 54,000 people under the floodlights of Anfield.

But now that match, along with many other mass events that the government allowed to go ahead as the pandemic spread in March, is coming under renewed scrutiny as evidence grows of the lethal danger to which people were exposed. They include rugby matches, horse races, musical concerts and dog shows attended, in total, by hundreds of thousands of Britons.

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Governments and WHO changed Covid-19 policy based on suspect data from tiny US company

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Surgisphere, whose employees appear to include a sci-fi writer and adult content model, provided database behind Lancet and New England Journal of Medicine hydroxychloroquine studies

The World Health Organization and a number of national governments have changed their Covid-19 policies and treatments on the basis of flawed data from a little-known US healthcare analytics company, also calling into question the integrity of key studies published in some of the world’s most prestigious medical journals.

A Guardian investigation can reveal the US-based company Surgisphere, whose handful of employees appear to include a science fiction writer and an adult-content model, has provided data for multiple studies on Covid-19 co-authored by its chief executive, but has so far failed to adequately explain its data or methodology.

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Coronavirus live news: India evacuates Covid-19 patients ahead of cyclone as Brazil deaths pass 30,000

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Yemen aid funding falls short by US$1bn; Zoom profits double; global cases pass 6.3m. Follow the latest updates

China reported one new coronavirus case and four new asymptomatic Covid-19 cases in the mainland on 2 June, the country’s health commission said.

The National Health Commission said the one confirmed case was imported involving a traveller from overseas. Mainland China had five confirmed cases, all of which were imported, and 10 asymptomatic cases for 1 June.

China does not count asymptomatic patients, those who are infected with the coronavirus but not exhibiting symptoms, as confirmed cases.

Total number of infections to date in the mainland stands at 83,021. The death toll remained unchanged at 4,634.

Dan Collyns brings you this action-packed update from Bolivia:

“Thanos is beating us” warned a Bolivian government minister in a live televised press conference on Monday as he called for his compatriots to comply with sanitary measures and lockdown restrictions amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Mientras tanto, en bolivia pic.twitter.com/5VPR4sDoX3

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Brazil poised to overtake Italy as country with third-highest death toll – as it happened

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Sweden death rate now higher than France; Pakistan records largest single day rise in new infections; global deaths pass 380,000. This blog is now closed

We’ve launched a new blog at the link below:

Related: Coronavirus live news: Germany reveals major stimulus plan as global cases grow by 100,000 a day

At least three people were reported dead as coronavirus-hit Mumbai appeared to escape the worst of Cyclone Nisarga Wednesday, the first severe storm to threaten India’s financial capital in more than 70 years, AFP reports.

The city and its surrounds are usually sheltered from cyclones - the last deadly storm to hit the city was in 1948. Authorities had evacuated at least 100,000 people, including coronavirus patients, from flood-prone areas in the states of Maharashtra and Gujarat ahead of Nisarga’s arrival.

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Coronavirus live news: cases in Africa pass 150,000; Germany lifts travel warning for Europe

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Wuhan doctor who worked with whistlebower dies; Abu Dhabi closes borders; Dr Fauci says he hasn’t spoken to Trump in two weeks

In England, an official study has found that black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) people are up to 50% more likely to die after being infected with Covid-19.

The report, published today by Public Health England (PHE), reveals that people of Bangladeshi ethnicity had around twice the risk of death than people of white British ethnicity.

It’s Simon Murphy here covering the global live blog while my colleague, Damien Gayle, takes a break.

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All UK chief medical officers rejected lower virus threat level, source says

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Guardian told all four CMOs discussed and refused No 10 proposal, not just Chris Whitty

All four of the UK’s chief medical officers rejected suggestions from No 10 that the coronavirus threat level could be reduced because it contradicted evidence that showed the virus was still widespread, the Guardian has been told.

A senior source in one devolved government said the chief medical officers of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland discussed and refused Boris Johnson’s proposal.

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China withheld data on coronavirus from WHO, recordings reveal

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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.

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K number: what is the coronavirus metric that could be crucial as lockdown eases?

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The K value sheds light on how the transmission rate varies and can help identify clusters

When deciding how and when lockdown restrictions will be lifted across the UK, the government has said the R value, denoting how many people on average one infected person will themselves infect, is crucial. But experts say another metric is becoming increasingly important: K.

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UK hospitals to trial five new drugs in search for coronavirus treatment

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Exclusive: thirty hospitals looking to sign up hundreds of patients to take part in studies

Five new drugs are to be trialled in 30 hospitals across the country in the race to find a treatment for Covid-19, it has emerged.

Just days after global trials of hydroxychloroquine, the drug promoted by Donald Trump as a cure, were halted, British scientists are looking to sign up hundreds of patients for trials of medicines they hope will prevent people becoming ill enough to need intensive care or ventilators.

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Coronavirus live news: Spain’s prime minister seeks final two-week extension of state of emergency

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Brazil becomes fourth worst country for deaths; pressure builds on South African president over his handling of outbreak

Bosnia’s state court has ordered the release of a regional prime minister and two other men suspected of corruption in connection with the import of defective ventilators for coronavirus patients.

The court of Bosnia-Herzegovina said their detention was unnecessary, and turned down the prosecution’s requests to detain the three men for 30 days.

Senior public health officials have made a last-minute plea for ministers to scrap Monday’s easing of the coronavirus lockdown in England, warning the country is unprepared to deal with any surge in infection and that public resolve to take steps to limit transmission has been eroded.

The Association of Directors of Public Health said new rules, including allowing groups of up to six people to meet outdoors and in private gardens, were “not supported by the science” and that pictures of crowded beaches and beauty spots over the weekend showed “the public is not keeping to social distancing as it was”.

Related: Health officials make last-minute plea to stop lockdown easing in England

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Could nearly half of those with Covid-19 have no idea they are infected?

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As studies confirm many infected people show no symptoms, contact tracing and face masks assume even greater importance

When Noopur Raje’s husband fell critically ill with Covid-19 in mid-March, she did not suspect that she too was infected with the virus.

Raje, an oncologist at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, had been caring for her sick husband for a week before driving him to an emergency centre with a persistently high fever. But after she herself had a diagnostic PCR test – which looks for traces of the Sars-CoV-2 virus DNA in saliva – she was astounded to find that the result was positive.

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