PM says all guidance was followed but Keir Starmer says Johnson ‘taking British public for fools’
Boris Johnson has not denied that parties were held in Downing Street last winter despite the lockdown at the time, saying only that no Covid rules were broken.
Johnson was challenged during prime minister’s questions about the allegations, first reported by the Mirror. Keir Starmer told MPs that Johnson was “taking the British public for fools for following the rules”.
Continue reading...It is hard to protect yourself from HIV when having sterile syringes or condoms can lead to arrest: discrimination is restricting progress in eliminating HIV
Forty years after the first cases of Aids were discovered, goals for its global elimination have yet to be achieved. In 2020, nearly 700,000 people died of Aids-related illnesses and 1.5 million people were newly infected with HIV.
This is despite scientific and medical advances in the testing, treatment and care of people living with HIV.
Continue reading...The UK health minister, Edward Argar, has said he expects cases of the new Omicron Covid variant to rise after a number of infections were confirmed in Britain. New restrictions are being imposed this week in an attempt to limit the spread of the variant, first identified in South Africa, which scientists fear could be highly transmissible and evade some vaccine protections.
Argar reiterated comments that ministers were hopeful that 'swift, precautionary steps' would mean no extra measures would be needed to combat the new variant.
The first cases of the new B.1.1.529 Covid variant have been identified in the UK. Two people found to be infected with the Omicron variant are self-isolating, according to the health secretary, Sajid Javid
Continue reading...Experts stress importance of delaying import of new Covid variant to UK to avoid Christmas mixing
As an alarming new Covid variant spread to Europe on Friday, scientists warned that it would inevitably reach Britain, while ministers faced calls to urgently speed up the vaccination programme.
Thousands of travellers were left stranded or with their plans in disarray after flight bans were introduced targeting countries across southern Africa, where the variant was discovered. Hotel quarantine and enhanced testing would be brought in across the UK, the health secretary, Sajid Javid, said.
Continue reading...Analysis: extended red list, winter plan B and local lockdowns may all be needed to reduce spread
Despite the UK’s much-vaunted vaccination programme, and scientists’ ever-growing understanding of Covid-19, Britain and the rest of the world face the challenge of a new, potentially more transmissible variant just a month before Christmas.
While Sajid Javid, the health secretary, announced the red-listing of six southern African countries and said “we must act with caution”, he ruled out immediate new Covid measures including triggering winter plan B – which would involve working from home, mask-wearing and Covid passports.
Continue reading...Ex-PM says world was ‘forewarned’ of dangers of failing to vaccinate poorer countries amid rise of new variant
The failure of the world to get vaccines to the developing world is “coming back to haunt us”, Gordon Brown has warned, as experts said the emergence of variants such as B.1.1.529 could have been avoided if jabs had been more fairly distributed.
Writing in the Guardian, the Labour former prime minister said the world had been “forewarned” that a lack of vaccines in poorer countries could have serious consequences for the pandemic.
Continue reading...Analysis: scientists say high transmission rates mean caution is critical if people are to stay safe
As Christmas approached in 2020, it was not a Dickensian spirit but the spectre of Covid that haunted households up and down the UK.
With cases soaring, government-approved plans to allow three households to mix for five days in England were scrapped within weeks of being made, while scientists urged families to connect over Zoom or host drinks on the pavement rather than meeting for a hug.
Continue reading...Analysis: likes of Slovakia and Austria have worse figures but UK’s have topped EU average for months
As Covid infection rates surged again across Europe, Boris Johnson spoke this week of “storm clouds gathering” over parts of the continent and said it was unclear when or how badly the latest wave would “wash up on our shores”.
The situation in some EU member states, particularly those with low vaccination rates, is indeed dramatic. In central and eastern Europe in particular, but also Austria, Belgium and the Netherlands, case numbers are rocketing.
Continue reading...Experts alarmed as NHS data shows one in four children in England aged 10 and 11 are obese
Thousands of children are facing “serious” and even “devastating” consequences as a result of weight gain during the pandemic, experts warn, as “alarming” figures reveal one in four 10- and 11-year-olds in England are obese.
Health leaders are calling for a “relentless drive” to boost child health as official NHS data lays bare for the first time how child obesity levels have soared during lockdowns.
Continue reading...Sajid Javid set to confirm to MPs decision to press ahead despite oppositions of unions and some doctors’ organisations
All 1.4 million NHS staff in England will have to be vaccinated against Covid by next spring if they want to keep their jobs, Sajid Javid will confirm to MPs on Tuesday.
The health secretary has decided to press ahead with making jabs compulsory despite health unions and some doctors’ organisations voicing strong opposition.
Continue reading...UK-wide campaign will ask people to open their windows for 10 minutes every hour when they are socialising
People are being urged to open their windows for 10 minutes every hour when they are socialising at home in an attempt to stop the spread of Covid-19 as winter approaches.
Doctors and scientists are backing a government-funded campaign across all media platforms to encourage people to ventilate their home to help disperse virus particles.
Continue reading...Chief scientific adviser for Department of Health refers to tougher proposal beyond ‘plan B’ that has ‘not been extensively worked up’
A “plan C” for tougher coronavirus restrictions has been discussed in official circles, a senior civil servant has confirmed, despite ministers denying that tougher measures are an option this Christmas should the rate of new cases continue to rise.
The indication of planning for potentially harsher restrictions comes as senior scientists and Labour push for the rollout of “plan B”, an existing package of “light-touch” measures including advice to work from home and compulsory face masks in some settings.
Continue reading...Senior scientists say problems at Immensa site show private firms should not be carrying out PCR tests
Health officials should have known about major failings at a private Covid testing lab within days of the problem arising, rather than taking weeks to shut down operations at the site, senior scientists say.
About 43,000 people, mostly in south-west England, are believed to have wrongly been told they did not have the virus by Immensa Health Clinic’s laboratory in Wolverhampton in a debacle described as one of the worst scandals in the UK’s Covid crisis.
Continue reading...Analysis: inquiry into UK’s response to Covid crisis shows Sage guidance should be put in public domain as soon as possible
The parliamentary inquiry into the UK’s response to the Covid crisis raises the serious issue of transparency around scientific advice – and why this remains crucial even as the country moves beyond an emergency situation.
The 151-page Coronavirus: lessons learned to date report, led by two former Conservative ministers, has made it clear that advice from the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) should be rapidly placed in the public domain.
Continue reading...Stephen Barclay, the minister for the Cabinet Office, refused multiple times to apologise for the deaths and suffering caused by Covid, after a parliamentary report called the government's early response to the pandemic one of the UK's 'worst ever' public health failures. The report, led by two former Conservative ministers, concluded that 'groupthink' and a deliberately slow approach meant the UK fared 'significantly worse' than other countries.
Speaking on LBC, Barclay repeatedly declined to apologise to families who lost loved ones, saying: 'We followed the scientific advice and the knowledge we had at the time'
Continue reading...As mandatory checks began, not everyone in the queue for the Pryzm club was prepared
There was an extra thing for the hundreds of young people waiting in the queue outside Pryzm nightclub in Cardiff to worry about.
As usual, they needed to show ID, undergo a search and make sure they still had their phone, keys and friends with them – but for the first time they also had to produce a Covid pass, showing they were fully vaccinated or had tested negative.
Continue reading...Early handling and belief in ‘herd immunity’ led to more deaths, Commons inquiry finds
Britain’s early handling of the coronavirus pandemic was one of the worst public health failures in UK history, with ministers and scientists taking a “fatalistic” approach that exacerbated the death toll, a landmark inquiry has found.
“Groupthink”, evidence of British exceptionalism and a deliberately “slow and gradualist” approach meant the UK fared “significantly worse” than other countries, according to the 151-page “Coronavirus: lessons learned to date” report led by two former Conservative ministers.
Continue reading...Lingering quarantine rules anger would-be travellers from seven targeted countries
England’s decision to maintain strict Covid travel rules for seven South American and Caribbean countries has prompted further fury and confusion in the nations which remain on the “red list”.
Ministers announced on Thursday that restrictions would be lifted for 47 countries – including Brazil, South Africa and Thailand – allowing travellers to enter England without being subject to draconian and expensive quarantine restrictions.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Report from planning exercise in 2016 alerted government of need to stockpile PPE and set up contact tracing system
Senior health officials who war-gamed the impact of a coronavirus hitting the UK, warned four years before the onset of Covid-19 of the need for stockpiles of PPE, a computerised contact tracing system and screening for foreign travellers, the Guardian can reveal.
The calls to step up preparations in areas already identified as shortcomings in the government’s response to Covid, emerged from a previously unpublished report of a health planning exercise in February 2016 that imagined a coronavirus outbreak.
Continue reading...