Category Archives: Vaccines and immunisation

Lifting England Covid rules while 3bn people unvaccinated reckless – experts

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Scientists warn Boris Johnson that failure means new Covid variants will put thousands of lives at risk across UK

Boris Johnson has been accused of taking a reckless approach to public health by lifting all plan B Covid restrictions in England while failing to take enough action to get jabs to 3 billion unvaccinated people in poorer countries.

The prime minister has robustly defended his record on the pandemic this week while awaiting the findings of the Sue Gray report on the “partygate” scandal, insisting he “got the big calls right” on the biggest global health crisis in a century.

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Covid news live: England drops all ‘plan B’ restrictions; Moderna begins trial of Omicron-specific booster shot

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Compulsory use of face masks, vaccine certificates and work from home guidance all ended in England; Moderna follows Pfizer in launching trial to target Omicron

A couple of snippets from Politico’s London Playbook email this morning suggest we might all be here again on Monday waiting for Sue Gray to publish her report into a lockdown party culture at Downing Street and in Whitehall. They write:

The latest information is that Boris Johnson has still not received the document from Gray. It is possible it will arrive this morning and then be published this afternoon — however it is now just as likely that the whole publication process slips to next week, after a remarkable internal row broke out over what exactly can be made public following the police decision to launch a formal probe.

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Anti-vaxxers making ‘at least $2.5m’ a year from publishing on Substack

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Center for Countering Digital Hate research calculates that anti-vaccine figures could be making $12.5m from the online platform

A group of vaccine-sceptic writers are generating revenues of at least $2.5m (£1.85m) a year from publishing newsletters for tens of thousands of followers on the online publishing platform Substack, according to new research.

Prominent figures in the anti-vaccine movement including Dr Joseph Mercola and Alex Berenson have large followings on Substack, which has more than 1 million paying subscribers who sign up for individual newsletters from an array of authors who include novelist Salman Rushdie, the writer musician Patti Smith and former Downing Street adviser Dominic Cummings.

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NSW Covid-19 update: Hazzard says it’s ‘ridiculous’ not enough people getting their booster – video

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NSW health minister Brad Hazzard said the number of people turning up to get their Covid-19 boosters ‘are not where we need them to be’. Addressing the media outside Sydney’s Royal North Shore hospital, he said, ‘there are seven people in ICU and not one of them has had the booster'. Hazzard said it was 'ridiculous' that health staff were being diverted to work in vaccine hubs when only a handful of people were turning up. NSW Health deputy secretary Susan Pearce said appointments were ‘going begging’ but that doses were not being wasted 

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Child Covid infections are rising in England – is low vaccine rate a factor?

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Analysis: school absences are soaring, but experts disagree about the importance of vaccinating young children

Covid cases in the UK have fallen sharply in the past few weeks, and hospital admissions appeared to have turned a corner. But now, it seems, the situation has stalled, with cases bobbing around 90,000 a day.

The reason for the change is that while case rates are falling among adults, they are rising among children – where vaccination rates remain sluggish.

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‘Peace, freedom, no dictatorship!’: Germans protest against Covid restrictions

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The university city of Cottbus held one of 2,000 rallies across Germany on Monday, stoked by the far right

On Monday evening on the dot of 7pm people emerged from dimly lit side streets and gathered on the Oberkirchplatz square in Cottbus for what has become a weekly ritual in towns and cities across Germany: a protest against coronavirus protection measures.

The demonstrations have grown in strength as cases of the Omicron variant have surged, and in recent weeks a looming decision on bringing in a vaccine mandate has become the focus of protesters’ ire. More than 2,000 rallies were held nationwide on Monday, drawing tens of thousands of participants.

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Trudeau says Conservatives stoking fear over Canada’s trucker vaccine mandate

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Prime minister says claims that Covid-19 measure will disrupt supply chain and boost inflation are ‘fearmongering’

Justin Trudeau has accused Canada’s conservative politicians of stoking fear that Covid-19 vaccine mandates for cross-border truck drivers are exacerbating supply chain disruptions and fueling inflation.

The United States imposed a mandate, meant to aid the fight against the fast-spreading Omicron variant of the coronavirus, on 22 January, while Canada’s started on 15 January. The trucking industry has warned that the measure will take thousands of drivers off the roads during what is already a dire labor shortage in the industry.

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Police use water cannon at Brussels protest against Covid rules – video

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Violent clashes broke out between police and people protesting against Covid-19 restrictions in Brussels on Sunday. Police used teargas and fired water cannon in an effort to disperse protesters. Authorities said about 50,000 people took part in the demonstration in the Belgium capital, which coincided with similar protests in other European cities.

Protesters hurled projectiles outside the European Union's diplomatic service and metal barriers were thrown at officers in a metro station

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Mandatory Covid jabs policy divides NHS leaders in England as deadline nears

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Trust chiefs hold conflicting views over compulsory vaccinations, which look set to put staffing of health service under even more pressure

NHS trust leaders are divided about whether the government should press ahead with mandatory jabs for healthcare workers in England after the prime minister told MPs he was considering relaxing the policy.

About 80,000 frontline NHS workers have still not had a Covid vaccination and have less than two weeks to have their first dose in time to be able to complete the course before the 1 April deadline.

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Australia live news update: nearly identical return-to-school plans for NSW and Victoria; no rapid tests for Qld students; 58 Covid deaths recorded

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Students and teachers in NSW will be required to take rapid Covid tests twice a week when school resumes; Victoria mandates third vaccine dose for teachers and staff, masks for year three and above; NSW records 34 Covid deaths, Victoria 14 and Queensland 10; ACT reports 694 cases and no deaths, SA 2,062 cases. Follow live

A search and rescue operation will resume for a fisherman missing since the early hours of Saturday after he was thrown from a boat along with another man and a dog on Sydney’s North Harbour, AAP reports.

The men, aged 25 and 49, launched their 3.5-metre runabout from Northbridge about 9pm on Friday before running into rough seas and capsizing about 3am on Saturday.

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Red alert: PM cancels wedding as New Zealand prepares for thousands of Omicron cases a day

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Prime minister Jacinda Ardern says Omicron is now circulating in the community but ‘we’ll do everything that we can to slow the spread’

Omicron has breached New Zealand’s borders and started spreading in the community, Jacinda Ardern has said, meaning the entire country will be placed on the highest level of restrictions.

The outbreak has also forced the prime minister to cancel her wedding to Clarke Gayford, which was due to take place in the coming weeks at Gisborne on the North Island’s eastern coast.

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Daily Covid infections in UK less than half recorded two weeks ago

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UK detects 76,807 new cases in the past 24 hours, suggesting Omicron wave has spiked

The UK detected 76,807 new Covid infections in the past 24 hours, a 54% drop on the 176,191 cases detected two weeks ago as the record-breaking Omicron wave appears to have spiked.

The UK reported a further 297 people died within 28 days of a positive Covid test on Saturday, 3% up on the 287 deaths reported last Saturday. Over 177,000 people in the UK have Covid on their death certificate, according to the Office for National Statistics, the seventh highest tally in the world.

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‘More people will die’: fears for clinically vulnerable as England axes plan B

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Coronavirus pandemic’s finishing line has not yet come clearly into focus for millions of people

“We must learn to live with Covid in the same way we have to live with flu,” Sajid Javid told the nation this week. For most people, the parallel with flu is now valid: vaccinations and acquired immunity have defanged Covid to the point that there is no longer much risk of becoming severely unwell.

However, the pandemic’s finishing line has not yet come clearly into focus for a sizeable minority in society. In England, 3.7 million people fall in the clinically extremely vulnerable (CEV) category, including those with blood cancers, an organ transplant, kidney disease and other conditions linked to immunosuppression.

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Austria creates Covid lottery with €500 prizes to woo vaccine hesitant

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Carrot-and-stick approach includes vaccine mandate and lottery tickets for fully inoculated

Austria has announced plans to give Covid-19 vaccine recipients an almost one-in-three chance to win a €500 (£415) gift voucher while MPs voted to fine those who decline it, as the Alpine republic implements its “carrot and stick” strategy for overcoming reluctance to take the jab.

The conservative-green coalition government of chancellor Karl Nehammer on Thursday morning unveiled what it called its “vaccination lottery” programme, which will run from 15 March until the end of the year and cost the government approximately €1.4bn.

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Djokovic-backed ‘biotech’ firm’s approach likened to homeopathy

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Exclusive: QuantBioRes says it designs treatments for viral diseases based on electromagnetic frequency

A Danish “biotech” company in which Novak Djokovic holds a majority stake is working on a “frequency” treatment for Covid-19 that an expert says bears similarities to the principles of homeopathy.

The world No 1 men’s tennis player was forced to leave Australia on Sunday after the country’s immigration minister cancelled his visa on the basis that his presence in Australia might risk “civil unrest” as he is a “talisman of anti-vaccination sentiment”.

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Western Australia suspends border reopening indefinitely amid Omicron spread

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State had been due to open up to double-jabbed international and interstate travellers on 5 February

The reopening of Australia’s most isolated state has been suspended indefinitely to allow West Australians to get booster shots, as the more transmissible Omicron variant rips through the nation.

Just one month after promising that from 5 February double-vaccinated interstate and international travellers would be allowed to enter Western Australia without quarantine, the WA premier, Mark McGowan, has said that all entrants will need to self-isolate for 14 days, be triple-dose vaccinated and take tests.

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Increased Covid risk a ‘trade-off’ in reopening schools, Australian chief medical officer says

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PM also announces commonwealth to split school Covid surveillance testing costs with states 50-50 following national cabinet meeting

Australia’s chief medical officer has conceded that children returning to school could create an increased risk of Covid transmission to their families, saying there would be “trade-offs” to getting students back in classrooms.

It comes as the commonwealth agreed to split costs for surveillance testing in schools 50-50 with state governments, despite the prime minister, Scott Morrison, saying there was no medical advice recommending such testing was necessary.

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US children’s Covid vaccinations lag despite record infections

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Nearly a million new Covid cases were confirmed in children in the week ending 13 January, a 69% increase from the week before

As the Omicron variant rips through the US, children are being infected with Covid-19 in record numbers – yet their rate of vaccination has lagged, creating a surge in hospitalizations and undermining in-person schooling.

Nearly a million new Covid cases – more than 981,000 – were confirmed in children in the week ending 13 January, a 69% increase from the week before and four times higher than last winter’s peak, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. That means one in 10 Covid cases among children in the entire pandemic have happened in the past week, the organization said.

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‘No vax, no play’: surfer Kelly Slater won’t be let into Australia if he’s not vaccinated against Covid

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World Surf League events are due in Victoria and WA but federal health minister says position on coronavirus vaccine is ‘pretty clear’ following Novak Djokovic visa saga

Surfing great Kelly Slater could be the next big name in sport to be refused the right to compete in Australia, with the federal health minister saying the 11-time champion will not be allowed into the country if he is not vaccinated against Covid.

Slater, who has not publicly disclosed his Covid vaccination status, has aired some controversial views on the Covid vaccine, including an Instagram comment in October that claimed he knew “more about being healthy than 99% of doctors”.

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Florida health official put on leave after encouraging staff to get Covid vaccine

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State health agency conducting inquiry into Raul Pino to ‘determine if any laws were broken’

A health official who helped lead Florida’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic has been put on administrative leave as state officials investigate whether he tried to compel employees to get vaccinated.

The state health agency is conducting an inquiry into Raul Pino, director of the Florida department of health in Orange county, to “determine if any laws were broken in this case”, the state department of health press secretary, Jeremy Redfern, said in an email.

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