Category Archives: Health policy

What the UK’s coronavirus death toll is not telling us – video explainer

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Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities appear to be disproportionately affected by Covid-19 in the UK. However, we don’t currently have enough public data to be able to understand how many of those who have died as a result of the virus come from minority ethnic backgrounds.

The Guardian's data editor, Caelainn Barr, takes a look at this this issue, as well as the other key information that is missing from the government's daily death toll 

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UK missed three chances to join EU scheme to bulk-buy PPE

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Exclusive: Britain did not take part in €1.5bn order for kit to protect against Covid-19 despite shortages in NHS

Britain missed three opportunities to be part of an EU scheme to bulk-buy masks, gowns and gloves and has been absent from key talks about future purchases, the Guardian can reveal, as pressure grows on ministers to protect NHS medics and care workers on the coronavirus frontline.

European doctors and nurses are preparing to receive the first of €1.5bn (£1.3bn) worth of personal protective equipment (PPE) within days or a maximum of two weeks through a joint procurement scheme involving 25 countries and eight companies, according to internal EU documents.

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Documents contradict UK government stance on Covid-19 ‘herd immunity’

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List of possible interventions included simulating impact of allowing majority to be infected

The inclusion of “targeted herd immunity” as a possible UK government response to the Covid-19 pandemic – in a list of possible interventions considered for analysis by a contractor – appears to contradict strong denials by the health secretary 10 days earlier that it was any part of government policy.

Matt Hancock gave that response on 14 March after two senior government officials had said publicly that achieving “herd immunity” was a key aim, prompting widespread alarm among medical experts that the British government was planning to allow the majority of the population to become infected.

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Blindsided: how coronavirus felled the global economy in 100 days

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A singular event has economists asking the same questions as everyone else: how far is there to fall – and can we ever get back?

It is New Year’s Eve 2019 and around the world stock markets are closing for business on a high note. Shares in the US are up by almost 30% on the year, those in Japan by 18%. Even in Britain, where the mood has been dampened by months of Brexit uncertainty, the FTSE 100 has risen by 12%.

Overall, it had been the best year for stocks since 2009 and traders saw no real reason why the party should not continue into 2020. The US and China looked close to an armistice in their trade war, the US central bank was stimulating the world’s biggest economy, and Boris Johnson’s decisive victory in the general election had removed any lingering doubts about whether Britain would leave the European Union.

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Scottish chief medical officer apologises for ignoring own advice – video

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Scotland’s chief medical officer, Catherine Calderwood, has apologised after she visited her second home in Fife in breach of her own advice to avoid travel. Calderwood was pictured on Saturday with her family taking a walk with their dog in the East Neuk, a picturesque area on the Firth of Forth about 45 miles from her main home in Edinburgh

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We can scrutinise our leaders, but we must all improve our responses to coronavirus covid-19

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In a rapidly evolving situation, we must think ahead and react fast, says a special envoy of the WHO director general

Covid-19 is a new virus. Its high transmission rate and rapid exponential growth make its effects particularly serious. We are seeing how, in country after country, this is now far more than a public health issue. Politicians everywhere are having to balance their responses to the health consequences of Covid-19 with the needs of their economies and societies. The interactions are complex and can be highly contextual as differences in the strength of the economy, the age of the population and local health systems and society all interact. People and businesses are hurting and fearful for the future.

There are many lessons from countries where the disease appeared early in the pandemic, but global leaders also need to be aware of the global context. It is right that we scrutinise our leaders’ actions, but it is right because we all need to learn quickly, and to improve our responses. In such a rapidly evolving situation it is far too early to judge what has worked and what has not. What is critical is that we develop our actions fast in response to new information.

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Police to get power to use force to impose coronavirus lockdown

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Proposals for England would allow use of ‘reasonable force’ if people refuse to go home

Police will be authorised to use force to send people back home if they refuse to obey the coronavirus lockdown, under government plans.

Ministers will issue fuller details by Thursday of how police will enforce the lockdown ordered by the prime minister on Monday, aimed at stopping the spread of the virus by keeping people apart.

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The US military would be superb at fighting coronavirus. Let’s use it | Ann Lee and Sean Penn

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After the 2010 Haitian earthquake, we saw the US military in action as a humanitarian force. They can do this

In 2010, a devastating earthquake hit Haiti. In three minutes it killed more than 200,000 people and displaced two million more.

Our humanitarian aid organization, the Community Organized Relief Effort (CORE), was on the ground in Haiti. In Haiti – as well as on the front lines of other disasters, like Hurricane Florence in North Carolina and Hurricane Dorian in the Bahamas just a few months ago – we saw how dangerous inaction and political paralysis can be, and how rapid mobilization saves lives. In a crisis, every minute – every second – counts.

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Coronavirus: Johnson asks Britons to stop ‘non-essential contact’ – video

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Boris Johnson has announced new measures to slow the spread of the coronavirus outbreak in Britain. The measures include whole household isolation and avoiding mass gatherings 


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British public demands more information on coronavirus cases

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Announcing a plan to offer less data on the UK spread of the virus was probably not smart

In South Korea, those worried about new coronavirus cases can trace the commute and daily movements of infected people before their diagnosis by logging on to an app. In China too, you can track new cases as they are confirmed in real time and find out whether you have been on a flight or in a train with somebody who was later diagnosed.

In the UK, however, as confirmed cases jumped by 36 – the biggest surge so far – the Department of Health and Social Care announced on Twitter that it would no longer be tweeting their general locations, let alone their travelling habits, “due to the number of new cases”. Instead, it planned to put out a regional breakdown once a week, it said.

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Matt Hancock says Covid-19 outbreak could force UK to shut down cities – video

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The health secretary tells BBC One’s Andrew Marr Show that the government is considering all options, from closing schools to banning large gatherings of people at sporting events or concerts, if the coronavirus continues to spread in the UK. Asked if it might follow the Chinese strategy of isolating cities with large outbreaks, he said: ‘We don’t take anything off the table at this stage’

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Coronavirus: returning Britons could be kept in quarantine for 14 days

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About 200 UK nationals will be barred from boarding plane from China if they do not agree

Hundreds of British nationals brought home from China because of the coronavirus outbreak are expected to be quarantined at a secure NHS facility for a fortnight, it has emerged.

As the last British Airways flights from Beijing and Shanghai returned to the UK after the airline suspended operations in China, about 200 Britons in the vicinity of Wuhan were preparing to leave on an emergency chartered plane.

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Jeremy Corbyn reveals dossier ‘proving NHS up for sale’

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Labour leader says documents leave Boris Johnson’s denials on post-Brexit US trade deal ‘in tatters’

Labour has obtained official documents showing that the US is demanding that the NHS will be “on the table” in talks on a post-Brexit trade deal, Jeremy Corbyn has said.

The Labour leader said the uncensored papers gave the lie to Boris Johnson’s claims that the NHS would not be part of any trade talks, and revealed that the US wanted “total market access” after the UK leaves the EU.

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The female problem: how male bias in medical trials ruined women’s health

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Centuries of female exclusion has meant women’s diseases are often missed, misdiagnosed or remain a total mystery

From the earliest days of medicine, women have been considered inferior versions of men. In On the Generation of Animals, the Greek philosopher Aristotle characterised a female as a mutilated male, and this belief has persisted in western medical culture.

“For much of documented history, women have been excluded from medical and science knowledge production, so essentially we’ve ended up with a healthcare system, among other things in society, that has been made by men for men,” Dr Kate Young, a public health researcher at Monash University in Australia, tells me.

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NHS doctor may leave UK over refusal of permission to remain for mother

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Top child psychiatrist appeals to Johnson over Home Office’s ‘almost callous’ decision

A leading children’s psychiatrist plans to quit the NHS and move to Australia because of the Home Office’s “almost callous” refusal to let his mother stay in Britain.

Dr Nishchint Warikoo, the lead psychiatrist for child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) in Hampshire, said he and his family were being “forced to leave” the UK in order to stay together.

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‘It’s like a death sentence’: retired Britons in EU face loss of healthcare

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Reciprocal scheme in which NHS reimburses cost of treatment will cease under a no-deal Brexit

Britons with serious, sometimes terminal, illnesses who live in the EU say they have no certainty about how or even whether their healthcare costs will be covered after a no-deal Brexit and are suffering a “living nightmare” of anxiety and despair.

“It’s like a death sentence,” said Denise Abel, who moved to Italy in 2012. “It’s all you think about. I feel abandoned, betrayed and furious. There are no words for the rage I feel. We’re the collateral damage in the government’s war with the EU.”

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Dr Fred Sai obituary

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Campaigner for reproductive rights and health in the developing world

The harrowing experiences that Fred Sai faced as a young medical officer in Ghana in the 1960s fuelled his concern about the link between frequent childbearing and preventable death and sickness in mothers and children, and turned him into a passionate campaigner for reproductive rights and health in the developing world.

In his early clinical work, Sai, who has died aged 95, came across many children with protein-energy malnutrition, or kwashiorkor, which in the language of the Ga ethnic group to which he belonged means “the disease of the displaced child”. “I realised that fully a third of my child patients had mothers who were pregnant or had a young sibling born very soon after them,” he told the Lancet in 2012. “The abrupt stopping of breastfeeding was making them sick. I thought that one way to help these women was to teach them family planning and the importance of spacing children properly.”

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Soft drinks, including sugar-free, linked to increased risk of early death

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Drink more water, say experts as they argue study proves need for curbs on consumption

People who regularly consume soft drinks have a higher risk of an early death, researchers have found, with the trend seen for both sugared and artificially sweetened drinks.

While experts say the study cannot prove soft drinks are a driver of an increased risk of death, they say the work – which is the largest study of its kind – supports recent public health efforts to reduce consumption of soft drinks, such as the UK’s sugar tax.

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Older adults can boost longevity ‘with just a little exercise’

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Norwegian review of 36,000 cases links more activity overall, light or intensive, with lower risk of death

Even a small increase in light activity, such as washing dishes, a little gentle gardening, or shuffling around the house, might help stave off an early death among older adults, researchers say.

Being sedentary, for instance, by sitting for long periods of time, has been linked to an increased risk of developing many conditions, including heart disease, as well as an early death.

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