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”.
Continue reading...Health secretary updates parliament on pandemic winter plans, including proposals for booster jabs for over-50s and the option for 12- to 15-year-olds to get the jab
Russian president is not sick but will no longer hold in-person meetings this week, says Kremlin
Vladimir Putin has gone into self-isolation because of an outbreak of coronavirus in his entourage, the Kremlin has announced.
Although the Russian president was not sick, a Kremlin spokesperson told journalists, he would cease holding in-person meetings and would not travel to Dushanbe this week for summits of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) and Collective Security Treaty Organization.
Continue reading...China reports 59 new cases compared to 22 the day before; Sajid Javid will set out the details in winter Covid plan for England in on Tuesday
The UK vaccines minister has said he is hopeful that the over-50s booster campaign will be the “last piece of the jigsaw” for ending the pandemic, but that he is concerned about the incoming flu season.
Nadhim Zahawi told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:
This is probably the last piece of the jigsaw to allow us to transition this virus from pandemic to endemic and i hope by next year we’ll be in the position to deal with this virus... as we do with flu.
I am concerned, there’s not much flu circulating anywhere in the world and a bad flu year puts enormous pressure on the NHS but also we could lose 20,000-25,000 people to a bad flu season.
Children aged 12-15 will be given their first coronavirus vaccines from next week, the UK’s vaccines minister has confirmed.
Nadhim Zahawi told BBC Breakfast:
The NHS has been making plans that will hopefully be able to see the first vaccinations take place after consent, because obviously you need the information and the letters to go out and to receive that consent, by the 22nd of this month.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...Médecins Sans Frontières says waiver would allow faster production; cases in Syria’s rebel-held Idlib province have soared since mid-August
Trials of localised lockdowns will begin in the Philippines’ capital Manila this week as the country tries to contain its worst coronavirus outbreak while also opening the economy.
A shift towards localised lockdowns in the Manila area was delayed last week because of the levels of infection.
After months of uncertainty, the UK’s four chief medical officers have said that Covid-19 vaccinations can be offered to all 12-to-15-year-olds. How was the decision made, how will the vaccines be rolled out, and what difference will they make?
Related: How will the Covid vaccine rollout to 12-to-15-year-olds in UK work?
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...• 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.
Continue reading...UK’s four chief medical officers decide to set aside view of vaccine watchdog that benefits of jabs were too minimal to justify them
Children aged 12 to 15 can be offered Covid vaccinations, the UK’s four chief medical officers have decided, saying the likely impact in reducing disruption to schools meant such a plan could be clinically justified.
All children in the age group will be offered a first Pfizer jab as soon as possible, with the programme led by in-school vaccination services. A second injection will be potentially given once more evidence is gathered, so not before the spring term at the earliest.
Continue reading...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”.
Continue reading...Gladys Berejiklian has revealed a roadmap out of lockdown for the state, and an easing of restrictions for some parts of regional NSW. Here’s the full list of what you can and can’t do in NSW and the ACT
The premier, Gladys Berejiklian, has revealed a roadmap out of lockdown for the state, and an easing of restrictions for some parts of regional NSW.
From Saturday 11 September, parts of regional NSW that had seen zero Covid cases for at least 14 days emerged from lockdown. One of those areas, Yass Valley Council, was plunged back into a two-week lockdown from Tuesday 14 September after a new Covid case was detected.
Continue reading...Expert’s clever analogies and frank messages to public have won him respect – and millions of followers
Early last year, as Covid-19 began to disrupt livelihoods in Shanghai, local media struggled to persuade the public to stay at home. Then they turned to an infectious diseases expert, Dr Zhang Wenhong, who also heads up Shanghai’s expert panel on Covid-19.
“You’re bored to death at home, so the virus will be bored to death, too,” Zhang said in rapid-fire mandarin mixed with a distinctive Shanghainese accent. “Stay at home for two weeks … then we’ll be an inch closer to success.”
Continue reading...Latest updates: follow all our coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic from the UK and around the world
Conservative MPs fear vaccine passports could still be made mandatory later this year amid a warning the NHS faces “the worst winter in living memory”, despite the health secretary’s announcement earlier today that they are to be scrapped.
The dramatic U-turn came just weeks after Boris Johnson announced the controversial documents would be necessary for fully vaccinated people to go to nightclubs and other crowded venues.
They shouldn’t be kept in reserve – they are pointless, damaging and discriminatory.
“The very concept of vaccine passports needs to be ruled out for good, as they are fundamentally unconservative, discriminatory and would lead to a two-tier society that I am confident no one actually wants to see.
“I don’t believe that, sadly it’s probably politics.
Related: Some Tories fear second U-turn over plan for Covid vaccine passports in England
South Africa’s president has announced an easing of Covid-19 restrictions and a shortening of the national curfew after a decline in infections.
Authorities will also extend the hours of alcohol sales, further relaxing restrictions introduced in June to combat a third wave of cases caused by the Delta variant, Reuters reports.
While the third wave is not yet over, we have seen a sustained decline in infections across the country over the last few weeks.
With the decline of infections across all provinces, the Ministerial Advisory Committee on Covid-19 has recommended an easing of restrictions.
Continue reading...Monday: A union is pushing for a compulsory vaccination deadline of aged care workers to be extended. Plus: why tinned food is no longer the embarrassing option
Good morning. A union is calling for the extension to the compulsory vaccination for aged care workers as the Friday deadline approaches. Analysis of green space in greater Sydney reveals another element of how Covid lockdowns are magnifying inequity. The Taliban will allow women to study in universities in gender-segregated classrooms. And it’s time to stop looking down on tinned fruit and veggies as a lesser choice.
The Health Services Union is calling for the federal government to extend compulsory Covid vaccination for aged care workers beyond Friday’s deadline, saying the sector cannot afford to lose even 5% of its workforce. The federal government has said that 90.8% of staff have now received a single dose of a Covid vaccine and 70.5% two doses. The HSU’s federal president, Gerard Hayes, said the government needed to extend the deadline by between two weeks and a month given existing workforce pressures.
Continue reading...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
Continue reading...The New Democratic party’s leader is riding high in the polls – and could be the kingmaker in next week’s election
He’s the most-liked national political leader in Canada, wears sharply tailored suits, has graced the pages of a men’s fashion magazine and is followed by starstruck fans on social media. And he’s not Justin Trudeau.
With Canada heading to the polls after a snap election controversially called by Trudeau, Jagmeet Singh, leader of the progressive New Democratic party (NDP), has quickly emerged as the most affable politician in Canada – and a powerful figure who is unlikely to become prime minister.
Continue reading...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
Questions to consider before you inflict the ‘moral injury’ of a risky, nonessential trip
A new season is here and, with it, seedlings of holiday escape plans to some sun-drenched beach or snowy mountain ski slope. In view of passenger data from the US and the UK, air travel is on its way toward recovering from the slump of a pre-vaccine Covid-19 pandemic – despite the rise of the Delta variant.
But does that mean it’s a good idea to buy that plane ticket, even if you’re vaccinated? And if you’re comfortable assuming some degree of personal risk, is it unethical to do so?
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...