Category Archives: Vaccines and immunisation

US vaccine mandates induce bad case of rightwing hysteria – that could worsen

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Joe Biden has been called ‘fascist’ and ‘tyrannical’ for his Covid prevention measures but the public appears to be on his side

When Joe Biden announced sweeping federal coronavirus vaccine requirements for 100 million Americans, the White House was braced for objections from Republican opponents.

But this being 2021, the rightwing backlash has gone way beyond mere political debate into the realm of incendiary language that, analysts fear, could translate into direct and violent action.

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Nicki Minaj claim that Covid vaccine can cause impotence dismissed by Trinidad and Tobago

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Minister says health officials found no evidence that any patient reported such side effects: ‘We wasted so much time running down this false claim’

Trinidad and Tobago’s health minister has dismissed claims by the rapper Nicki Minaj that a cousin’s friend had become impotent after receiving the Covid-19 vaccine, saying that health officials in the Caribbean country had found no evidence that any patient had reported such side-effects.

“As we stand now, there is absolutely no reported side effect or adverse event of testicular swelling in Trinidad … and none that we know of anywhere in the world,” the minister, Terrence Deyalsingh, said in a press conference on Wednesday.

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Canada: Alberta healthcare system on verge of collapse as Covid cases and anti-vax sentiments rise

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A province that has long boasted of its loose coronavirus restrictions has also been the site of North America’s highest caseloads

A surge in coronavirus cases has pushed the healthcare system in the Canadian province of Alberta to the verge of collapse, as healthcare workers struggle against mounting exhaustion and a growing anti-vaccine movement in the region.

The province warned this week that its ICU capacity was strained, with more people requiring intensive care than any other point during the pandemic – nearly all of them unvaccinated.

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Boris Johnson says winter Covid measures may include ‘plan B’ of home working and face masks – video

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Outlining the government's winter Covid-19 plan, Boris Johnson said the government will 'will keep further measures in reserve. A plan B.' These measures include face masks, advice to work from home and vaccine passports, the prime minister said.

Speaking at a No 10 press conference, Johnson added that 'it might still make the difference between keeping businesses open at full capacity or not'


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Covid booster jab to be offered to those at most risk and over-50s in UK

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JCVI recommends Pfizer/BioNTech shot be used regardless of vaccine received first time around

Covid boosters will be offered to all over-50s and those at greatest risk of the disease as part of the “toolbox” of measures for controlling coronavirus over the autumn and winter following guidance from the government’s vaccine advisers.

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) said a third dose of vaccine would top up the immunity in those whose protection had likely waned since they completed their first round of shots earlier in the year.

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Fox News host Tucker Carlson tells interviewer: ‘I lie’

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The cable news personality also defended people who buy fake proof of vaccination against Covid-19

In an interview, Tucker Carlson admitted: “I lie.”

The Fox News host was speaking to Dave Rubin. The YouTube host and conservative author asked how Carlson felt about CNN hosts Brian Stelter, Chris Cuomo and Don Lemon, who Rubin called “clown people”.

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‘The virus is painfully real’: vaccine hesitant people are dying – and their loved ones want the world to listen

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In the UK, the majority of those now in hospital with Covid-19 are unvaccinated. Many face their last days with enormous regret, and their relatives are telling their stories to try to convince others like them

Matt Wynter, a 42-year-old music agent from Leek, Staffordshire, was working out in his local gym in mid-August when he saw, to his great surprise, that his best friend, Marcus Birks, was on the television. He jumped off the elliptical trainer and listened carefully.

The first thing he noticed was that Birks, who was also from Leek and a performer with the dance group Cappella, looked terrible. He was gasping for breath and his face was pale. “Marcus would never usually have gone on TV without having done his hair and had a shave,” Wynter says.

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LA officers sue over vaccine mandate as police across California threaten to resign

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Police department employees claim ‘hostile work environment’ for the unvaccinated and say mandate violates civil rights

Los Angeles police department (LAPD) employees have sued over requirements they get vaccinated for Covid-19, alleging that the department has created a “hostile work environment” for the unvaccinated and that the mandate violates employees’ privacy and civil rights.

The suit is one of several aggressive challenges to vaccine mandates by police unions and officers across California, some of whom have threatened mass resignations in response to new rules. It comes as staff at law enforcement agencies remain unvaccinated at disproportionately high rates.

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Fully vaccinated people account for 1.2% of England’s Covid-19 deaths

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ONS figures show 51,281 Covid deaths between January and July, with 458 dying at least 21 days after second dose

People who were fully vaccinated accounted for just 1.2% of all deaths involving Covid-19 in England in the first seven months of this year.

The figures, published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), have been seized on as proof of the success of the vaccine programme.

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New York hospital to stop delivering babies as staff quit over vaccine rules

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• Lewis county hospital to suspend service next week

• Covid-19 vaccines compulsory for all New York health workers

A hospital in upstate New York will at least temporarily stop delivering babies later this month, after too many employees resigned over a Covid-19 vaccination mandate.

“We are unable to safely staff the service after 24 September,” Gerald Cayer, chief executive of the Lewis County Health System, told reporters.

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Senator and congressman condemn Amazon for promoting anti-vaxxer books

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Elizabeth Warren and Adam Schiff have written to complain about search algorithms that appear to spread misinformation

American senator Elizabeth Warren has accused Amazon of “peddling misinformation about Covid-19 vaccines and treatments” through its search and bestseller algorithms, after the online retail giant pushed a book by an author the New York Times called “the most influential spreader of coronavirus misinformation online”.

Searching for Covid-19 on the site gives the top result as Joseph Mercola and Ronnie Cummins’s The Truth About Covid-19, a title that claims to reveal how the “effectiveness of the vaccines has been wildly exaggerated”, how the virus was lab-engineered in Wuhan, and how “safe, simple, and inexpensive treatment and prevention for Covid-19 have been censored and suppressed to create a clear path for vaccine acceptance”.

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Republican backlash against Biden’s Covid vaccine mandate grows

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Asa Hutchinson calls directive ‘unprecedented assumption of federal mandate authority’ as other governors threaten to sue

The political sparring match over Joe Biden’s new vaccine mandate continued on Sunday with one Republican governor blasting the measure as “counterproductive” and the White House insisting it was necessary to end the coronavirus pandemic.

Related: Northern Idaho’s anti-government streak hinders fight against Covid

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Victoria to receive ‘surge’ of Pfizer, Moderna vaccine doses as 392 cases recorded – as it happened

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Man in his 20s dies in NSW as state records 1,262 new cases; ACT records 15 new Covid cases. This blog is now closed

That’s where I will leave you for today. Here’s a wrap of what we learned:

NSW Labor leader Chris Minns has taken to twitter to slam the Berejiklian government for calling an end to the 11am daily press conferences.

“When I feel like I need to be accountable.”

❌ That’s not good enough.

Government accountability isn’t optional.

Reinstate the daily press conferences and bring back the parliament now.#nswpol #auspol

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UK vaccine volunteers to help prepare for next virus at new Pandemic Institute

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The Liverpool site will work with other international centres to research the threat of emerging disruptive diseases

A new scientific institute which aims to prevent future pandemics may have been able to save thousands of lives by accelerating vaccine development had it existed before December 2019, its researchers believe.

Liverpool’s new Pandemic Institute will include a new human challenge facility, where volunteers will test new vaccines and treatments under controlled conditions.

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In hindsight there was no foresight: how Australia bungled its Pfizer Covid deal

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Missed opportunities, gaps in correspondence and a failure to plan ahead. If this was a vaccine race, did Australia fall at the first hurdle?

On 30 June 2020, Victoria’s Covid cases were doubling. Within a week the state would be in its second lockdown.

That same day Pfizer wrote to the federal health minister, Greg Hunt, with a clear sense of urgency, wanting to discuss a vaccination deal.

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Coronavirus live news: UK records a further 156 deaths; thousands protest in Turkey against Covid measures

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Overall death toll for UK now stands at 134,144; more than 2,000 demonstrate in Istanbul against coronavirus mandates including vaccinations and masks

Police in Greece’s second city Thessaloniki fired tear gas at anti-vaccination protesters ahead of a keynote economic speech by prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

The police used tear gas and a water cannon to keep around 1,000 protesters away from the venue of the speech.

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Boys more at risk from Pfizer jab side-effect than Covid, suggests study

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US researchers say teenagers are more likely to get vaccine-related myocarditis than end up in hospital with Covid

Healthy boys may be more likely to be admitted to hospital with a rare side-effect of the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid vaccine that causes inflammation of the heart than with Covid itself, US researchers claim.

Their analysis of medical data suggests that boys aged 12 to 15, with no underlying medical conditions, are four to six times more likely to be diagnosed with vaccine-related myocarditis than ending up in hospital with Covid over a four-month period.

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Scientists’ egos are key barrier to progress, says Covid vaccine pioneer

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Prof Katalin Karikó of BioNTech says she endured decades of scepticism over her work on mRNA vaccines

Scientists would make swifter progress in solving the world’s problems if they learned to put their egos aside and collaborate better, according to the leading researcher behind the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid vaccine.

Prof Katalin Karikó, the senior vice-president for RNA protein replacement therapies at BioNTech in Germany, endured decades of scepticism over her work and was demoted and finally kicked out of her lab while developing the technology that made the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines possible.

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Pfizer accused of holding Brazil ‘to ransom’ over vaccine contract demands

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Leaked supply document reveals clauses to protect US pharma company from legal action in the event of serious side-effects

Pfizer has been accused of holding Brazil “to ransom” over demands to shield itself from possible vaccine side-effect lawsuits in its contract to supply the country with 100m Covid jabs.

In its $1bn (£700m) deal with Pfizer Export BV, signed in March, despite its prior complaints, the Brazilian government agreed that “a liability waiver be signed for any possible side-effects of the vaccine, exempting Pfizer from any civil liability for serious side-effects arising from the use of the vaccine, indefinitely”.

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