Category Archives: Coronavirus

Boris Johnson in battle for political future amid fresh evidence he misled MPs

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Privileges committee document intended to help ex-PM prepare for questioning contains wealth of new information

Boris Johnson faces a battle for his future in parliament after a cross-party committee found there was significant evidence he misled MPs over lockdown parties, and that he and aides almost certainly knew at the time they were breaking rules.

The damning report includes one witness saying the then prime minister told a packed No 10 gathering in November 2020, when strict Covid restrictions were in force, that “this is probably the most unsocially distanced gathering in the UK right now”.

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Covid was top line-of-duty death for US police for third year running in 2022

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Report shows pace has slowed, however, with 70 law enforcement deaths recorded in the line of duty

Covid was the top cause of death in the line of duty for American law enforcement for the third year in a row in 2022, according to a recent report, though the pace has slowed.

When the pandemic first hit, many law enforcement officers did what they could to lower the risks of catching Covid-19 – taking some reports over the phone rather than in person, trying to limit contact within departments and with the public.

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Misplaced tube may have contributed to London boy’s Covid death, inquest hears

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Doctor who treated Ismail Mohamed Abdulwahab in March 2020 says breathing tube was in wrong position

An incorrectly placed breathing tube could have contributed to the death of a 13-year-old boy who became the UK’s first known child victim of Covid-19, a doctor has told the inquest into his death.

Ismail Mohamed Abdulwahab, of Brixton, south London, died of acute respiratory distress syndrome caused by coronavirus pneumonia in the early hours of 30 March 2020, three days after testing positive for the virus.

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Kemi Badenoch dismisses idea of trialling menopause leave because it was proposed ‘from a leftwing perspective’ – as it happened

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Minister for women and equalities dismisses suggestion government should pilot menopause leave for women

PMQs is about to start.

Sammy Wilson, the DUP’s chief whip, has said that he thinks the Stormont brake – the mechanism at the heart of Rishi Sunak’s deal to revise the Northern Ireland protocol – will turn out to be “fairly ineffective”.

Let’s not underestimate the fact that when the EU introduces new laws in the future, it will have an impact on Northern Ireland. And the point of the brake was meant to be to give a means for unionists to oppose that. I think it will have to be used on lots of occasions, though I suspect to be fairly ineffective.

As long as it takes us to get, first of all, the analysis, and secondly, the answers from the government, before we make that decision, that’s the time we’ll take.

But the one thing I’ll say to you is that we will not have a knee-jerk reaction to this deal. It means too much to us. And we have got to give it real consideration.

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‘Time is not on our side’: Congress panel says tackling China defines next century

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‘We do not want a war within the PRC, a clash of civilizations,’ says ranking Democrat as new committee holds first hearing

Congress must act urgently to counter economic and national security threats posed by China, lawmakers on a newly created special House committee warned in its first primetime hearing.

China and the US are locked in an “existential struggle over what life will look like in the 21st century”, the Republican chairman, Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin, said.

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FBI director endorses theory Covid-19 virus may have leaked from Chinese lab

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Comments fuel divide within US intelligence community on origins, as Chinese state media warns Elon Musk on pushing Wuhan lab theory

Christopher Wray, the FBI director, has weighed in on the debate over the origins of the Covid-19 virus, using an appearance on Fox News to endorse the theory that the virus potentially originated from a leak in a Chinese laboratory.

“The FBI has for quite some time now assessed that the origins of the pandemic are most likely a potential lab incident in Wuhan,” Wray told Fox News’ Brett Baier, adding that the assessment was based on research the agency’s analysts, including scientists, had conducted and that “our work related to this continues”.

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Covid-19 likely emerged from laboratory leak, US energy department says

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Updated finding a departure from previous studies on how the virus emerged and comes with ‘low confidence’

The virus which drove the Covid-19 pandemic most likely emerged from a laboratory leak but not as part of a weapons program, according to an updated and classified 2021 US energy department study provided to the White House and senior American lawmakers, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday.

The department’s finding – a departure from previous studies on how the virus emerged – came in an update to a document from the office of National Intelligence director Avril Haines. It follows an FBI finding, issued with “moderate confidence”, that the virus spread after leaking out of a Chinese laboratory.

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Labor MP calls on government to widen Covid anti-viral eligibility in Australia

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Exclusive: Dr Michelle Ananda-Rajah says strategy is letting Australians down but medical groups back regulatory approach

A Labor MP and doctor says the nation’s strategy on responding to Covid infections is “letting Australians down” and is calling for an overhaul oof eligibility for powerful anti-viral drugs to allow far greater access for more people.

Dr Michelle Ananda-Rajah said she had paid more than $1,100 from her own pocket this week on a private script for Covid anti-virals for a sick family member who was not eligible for subsidised access to the drugs. She called on her government to open the treatments to all people aged over 12, labelling the rules “daft”.

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Detained activist fears for missing zero-Covid protesters in China

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Ding Jiaxi tells his lawyer he is also worried about his own health after being held for more than three years

The detained human rights activist Ding Jiaxi has expressed concern for the young protesters who have disappeared since participating in the “blank paper” protests against zero-Covid that stunned China last year.

At least 16 of them are still in police detention, according to names gathered by activists, while Ding himself has been detained for more than three years.

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China claims ‘decisive victory’ over Covid amid doubt over figures

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More than 200m people treated for virus and death rate now ‘lowest in the world’, says government

The Chinese government has declared a “decisive victory” in the battle against Covid-19, claiming it had created “a miracle in the history of human civilisation” in successfully steering China through the global pandemic.

The comments were made at a meeting presided over by President Xi Jinping on Thursday. The government said more than 200 million people had been treated for Covid and that China’s death rate from coronavirus was “the lowest level in the world”.

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Long Covid causing job losses and homelessness in Australia, inquiry hears

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Chief medical officer Paul Kelly says a long Covid strategy is ‘well under way’ but will not be finalised until advice is received from the inquiry

The federal government is developing a national long Covid strategy, with a parliamentary inquiry hearing the condition has resulted in job losses and homelessness among some sufferers.

The chief medical officer, Professor Paul Kelly, said the federal health department had been tasked with developing a national long Covid strategy that would cover prevention, immunisation, treatment and research into the condition.

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PR firm behind Tory pandemic response linked to Covid inquiry

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Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group call this a ‘conflict of interest’ in preliminary hearing

The team behind the Covid inquiry has insisted there is no conflict of interest in having a PR firm which worked on Whitehall’s response to the pandemic running a listening exercise with bereaved families.

The Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group reacted with dismay after their concerns were dismissed, saying they were “unbelievably let down”.

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China’s provinces spent almost £43bn on Covid measures in 2022

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Third of provinces yet to publish data as country looks to revive economy after zero-Covid policy ends

Chinese provinces spent more than £42.8bn on tackling Covid-19 in 2022, according to data released by local governments, with the figure expected to rise as the huge cost of the pandemic hits the world’s second-largest economy.

Although national statistics are not yet available, at least 20 of China’s 31 provinces have published figures on how much money they spent on measures to control the pandemic.

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Heathrow has busiest start to year since before Covid lockdowns

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More than 5.4m passengers travelled through airport in January, double the 2.6m from 2022

Heathrow airport had its busiest start to the year since before the coronavirus pandemic lockdowns in 2020 as travel restrictions continued to ease, according to data published on Monday.

More than 5.4 million passengers travelled through the UK’s and Europe’s busiest airport in January, double the 2.6 million from 2022, Heathrow said in a statement to the London Stock Exchange.

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Australian missing in Turkey found alive but two still unaccounted for – as it happened

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Ley denies opposition is a ‘no-alition’

Karvelas:

The prime minister use the word ‘no-alition’ to describe your political strategy this week – the reconstruction fund and your opposition to that, which was revealed this week. Is this opposition going to take the Tony Abbott approach, and just oppose everything?

Not at all. We just want the government to deliver on their promises. And we’re not giving them blank checks on the national reconstruction fund, either, because it’s $15bn. They haven’t explained how it will benefit our manufacturing sector with the imperatives right now that the industry sector needs.

The IMF has warned against these off-budget vehicles as $45bn of them in the government’s plan. And it’s not a plan for the economy as it is now. It’s not a plan for rising costs of living, for rising inflation. It’s not a plan that even makes the government’s own promises. So we’re just saying just deliver on your promises, prime minister.

Julian Leeser asked a perfectly sensible question in question time yesterday, which was about which part of the Calma-Langton report would you adopt? … It was a basic question about detail. The prime minister just didn’t even answer one single part of it.

But you could be part of the process. The prime minister is saying be part of the process.

We are part of the process … but if the prime minister can’t answer a simple question that wasn’t the least bit political, it was asked in a very flat, factual manner in parliament. And if he answered that in a political way, what that tells me [is] he’s politicising the debate. But I agree, I don’t want to see this politicised.

We don’t really have any guardrails around a final outcome with detail that lands exactly where we want it to, which is in the health and welfare of Indigenous Australians. … the prime minister has tied that to the concept of the voice but he can’t explain it. So until he provides the details, I believe it’s actually the Labor party that is putting reconciliation at risk.

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‘Crazy interesting’ findings by Australian researchers may reveal key to Covid immunity

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University of Sydney scientists have found a receptor protein which ‘acts a bit like molecular velcro, in that it sticks to the spike of the virus’

Australian researchers have found a protein in the lungs that sticks to the Covid-19 virus like velcro and immobilises it, which may explain why some people never become sick with the virus while others suffer serious illness.

The research was led by Greg Neely, a professor of functional genomics with the University of Sydney’s Charles Perkins Centre in collaboration with Dr Lipin Loo, a postdoctoral researcher and Matthew Waller, a PhD student. Their findings were published in the journal PLOS Biology on Friday.

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Elderly Chinese people protest in Wuhan against medical benefits cuts

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Rally is latest showing of public discontent since demonstrations against Covid curbs

Thousands of older people have staged a rally in the rain in central China to protest against significant cuts to their medical benefits, in the latest outburst of public discontent since nationwide protests against Covid curbs gripped the country late last year.

Video clips on social media show a large crowd of elderly protesters in raincoats and holding umbrellas gathering outside the Wuhan city government by the Yangtze River on Wednesday, while police officers form a line to stop them from approaching the gates. The location of the rally has been verified.

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Fifth Covid vaccine for Australian adults to roll out later this month

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Omicron-specific dose will be available for over-18s who have not had a booster or a confirmed coronavirus case in past six months

A fifth Covid vaccine dose will be made available to Australian adults from later this month.

The health minister, Mark Butler, has announced all adults who have not had a booster or a confirmed case of Covid-19 in the past six months will be eligible for another dose from 20 February, after the government accepted the advice of the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (Atagi).

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Trump says in video ‘anyone in my position not taking the fifth would be an absolute fool’ – live

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FBI agents conducted a voluntary search of an office formerly used by Joe Biden in Washington DC after classified materials were discovered there, CBS News reports.

The search of the Penn Biden Center was carried out with Biden’s agreement in November of last year, after the secret documents dating from Biden’s time as vice president under Barack Obama were first discovered. The search was not publicly announced, and CBS News cited two sources familiar with the investigation in reporting it.

Santos hired Charles Lovett as his chief of staff. Lovett served as Santos’s campaign manager and worked for six months as a field organizer for the Ohio Republican Party, according to LegiStorm. He also served as political director for Ohio Republican Josh Mandel’s unsuccessful primary bid for Senate. He has not worked on the Hill previously. Viswanag Burra, Santos’s operations director, spent less than a year as special operations director for Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) and recently worked as executive secretary for the New York Young Republican Club.

His communications director, Naysa Woomer, appears to have the most Hill experience. She worked for three Republican members between 2014 and 2018 before moving to Massachusetts to be the communications director for the state Republican Party and then as a communications specialist for the state Department of Revenue.

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China claims Covid wave is ‘coming to an end’ as tourism and factory activity rebound

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Government figures, which cannot be verified, showed big rises in travel and hospitality activity during lunar new year compared to the same time last year

China’s wave of Covid is “coming to an end”, health officials have claimed, saying there had been no sign of a new surge from the lunar new year holiday period, despite a big increase in travel compared to last year.

Government figures released on Tuesday showed big rises in tourism and hospitality activity compared to the same time last year. Factory activity has also rebounded for the first time in four months, an early sign of economic return after the country reported its slowest growth in about half a century during strict Covid controls.

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