Lewis Hughes, 24, apologises for ‘any upset caused’ after video of incident in London went viral
A man who was called a “thug” by Boris Johnson after being filmed accosting Prof Chris Whitty has apologised for “any upset I caused”.
Lewis Hughes, 24, said if he made England’s chief medical officer feel “uncomfortable”, then “I am sorry to him for that”. He said he had lost his job as a result of the video.
Continue reading...UK’s narrow clinical definition only includes high fever, continuous cough, or loss of smell and taste
Senior scientists have called for the UK to expand its official list of Covid symptoms to reduce the number of missed cases and ensure more people know they should self-isolate.
The researchers, who include Prof Calum Semple, a member of the government’s Sage committee of experts, argue the UK’s narrow clinical definition of Covid leads to delays in identifying people with the disease and may miss them altogether, hampering efforts to disrupt the spread of the virus.
Continue reading...Turkey, Ecuador and South Africa will be among hardest hit as pandemic-related losses reach $2.4tn, says UN report
The cost to the global economy of the tourism freeze caused by Covid-19 could reach $4tn (£2.9tn) by the end of this year, a UN body has said, with the varying pace of vaccine rollouts expected to cost developing nations and tourist centres particularly dear.
Nations including Turkey and Ecuador will be among the hardest hit by the severe disruption to international tourism, with holiday favourites such as Spain, Greece and Portugal also badly affected. Pandemic-related losses have reached up to $2.4tn this year, according to a report by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad). The potential lost tourism-related income in 2021 is equivalent to the effect of switching off 85% of the UK economy, while projected losses over 2020 and 2021 could equate to removing Germany from the global economy for two years.
Continue reading...President endorses domestic vaccine campaign but distances himself from tough measure
Vladimir Putin has for the first time said that he was inoculated with Russia’s own Sputnik V vaccine as he gave a careful endorsement of the country’s floundering campaign while distancing himself from tough new measures designed to pressure more Russians into taking the jabs.
Putin has cut a mercurial figure during the pandemic, intrepidly donning a medical suit to visit a coronavirus hospital last March and then shunning public events for months, prompting ridicule that he was sheltering in a “bunker”.
Continue reading...Generation Equality Forum in Paris announces plans to radically speed up progress on women’s rights
Billions of pounds will be pledged to support efforts to tackle gender inequality this week at the largest international conference on women’s rights in more than 25 years.
The Generation Equality Forum, hosted in Paris by UN Women and the governments of France and Mexico, will launch plans to radically speed up progress over the next five years.
Continue reading...Brazil suspended contract on Tuesday for Covid vaccine deal from Bharat Biotech after allegations of undue pressure within ministry
Brazil’s president, Jair Bolsonaro, has fired a health ministry official who reportedly asked for a bribe in a vaccine deal, the latest graft accusation to rock the government amid investigations of its pandemic response.
With over half a million Covid-19 deaths and more new cases daily than any other country, anger is mounting in Brazil over missed opportunities to buy coronavirus vaccines. Accusations of corruption undercutting efforts have poured fuel on the fire, triggering new calls for Bolsonaro’s impeachment.
Continue reading...North Korean leader says there is ‘huge crisis’ in antivirus fight; French government’s leading scientific adviser blames Delta variant
The Associated Press has this dispatch from a prison in Florida, reporting that there are few suggestions that US correctional institutions have made significant reforms and changes to better deal with future waves of Covid infection after an estimated half a million people in prisons contracted the virus and 3,000 died.
Derrick Johnson had a makeshift mask. He had the spray bottle of bleach and extra soap that corrections officers provided. But he still spent every day crammed in a unit with 63 other men in a Florida prison, crowding into hallways on their way to meals and sleeping feet from one another at night.
As the coronavirus ravaged the Everglades Correctional Institution, Johnson was surrounded by the sounds of coughing and requests for Tylenol. And while he thought a lot of the prison’s policies were ineffective at protecting prisoners, he also wondered if that was the best the facility could do.
Vladimir Putin – who received the Russian Sputnik vaccine earlier this year (see entry at 10.39) – has said he is opposed to mandatory vaccinations in Russia despite a surge in coronavirus infections in the country.
“I do not support mandatory vaccinations,” Putin said on a phone-in broadcast on television, according to the AFP news agency.
Continue reading...Prof Stephen Reicher says restrictions may have to be reimposed if reopening leads to surge in infections
A scientific adviser to the government’s Covid-19 response has expressed fears England could be in danger of repeating “the mistakes of last summer”.
Prof Stephen Reicher, from the University of St Andrews and a member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) subcommittee on behavioural science, said the government may have to reimpose restrictions if the reopening leads to a surge in infections.
Continue reading...Leader speaks of a grave incident and sacks officials for neglecting duties in fighting ‘global health crisis’
The North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, has sacked several senior party officials over a “grave” coronavirus incident that had threatened public safety, fuelling speculation that the coronavirus has breached the country’s defences.
“In neglecting important decisions by the party that called for organisational, material and science and technological measures to support prolonged anti-epidemic work in face of a global health crisis, the officials in charge have caused a grave incident that created a huge crisis for the safety of the country and its people,” the state-run KCNA news agency quoted Kim as telling a meeting of the ruling party’s politburo.
Continue reading...Sir Michael Marmot’s report says Covid figures from Manchester reveal sharp decline in social conditions
Boris Johnson’s post-Covid “levelling up” agenda will fail unless it addresses declining life expectancy and deteriorating social conditions in England’s poorest areas, a leading authority on public health has warned, as he published figures showing the impact of the pandemic on Greater Manchester.
Sir Michael Marmot revealed the coronavirus death rate in Greater Manchester was 25% higher than the England average during the year to March, leading to “jaw-dropping” falls in life expectancy and widening social and health inequalities across the region over the past year.
Continue reading...State health minister voices anger at federal authorities on vaccine rollout amid further outbreaks and a lockdown in Alice Springs
The Australian state of Queensland has just eight days of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine left, authorities warned on Wednesday, as confusion over who should receive the AstraZeneca jab continued and outbreaks across the country grew.
The state’s health minister, Dr Yvette D’ath, said the federal government had denied Queensland’s request for more doses of the Pfizer vaccine, despite having given another state, Victoria, 100,000 doses three weeks ago.
Continue reading...People with ME/CFS face debilitating symptoms but often feel dismissed by doctors. The focus on long Covid could help change that
In the fall of 2016, Ashanti Daniel, a nurse in Beverly Hills, California, went to an infectious disease physician looking for answers about a weird illness she couldn’t shake. After falling sick with a virus four months earlier, she still felt too tired to stand up in the shower.
The appointment lasted five minutes, she said. The doctor didn’t do a physical exam or check her vitals. His assessment: her illness was psychogenic, resulting from something psychological.
Continue reading...Business leaders also warn of renewed threat to jobs and growth as Delta variant drives up infections
Britain’s economic recovery from Covid-19 is coming under pressure amid worker shortages and lengthier pandemic restrictions, as the Delta variant of coronavirus drives up infection rates.
As the government begins to wind down the furlough scheme on Thursday – despite delaying its roadmap out of lockdown by four weeks until 19 July – the Guardian’s monthly snapshot of economic developments suggests the pace of recovery has plateaued.
Continue reading...Malta to block entry to unvaccinated British travellers; Irish PM says Delta variant meant indoor drinking and eating was unsafe for unvaccinated people
A refrigerator failure in Estonia has destroyed more than 68,000 doses of AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccines last week after the temperature rose to 15 degrees celcius, the country’s health board has said.
The alarm system failed to report the failure, which lasted for more than 12 hours and was only detected after an employee entered the cold room. AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine must be kept at 2-8 degrees. At least 32,000 shots of other vaccines were also destroyed.
Germany is to relax a discriminatory ban requiring gay and bisexual men to abstain from sex for a year before donating blood, as the pandemic increases pressure on global supplies.
Men in monogamous same-sex relationships will face no restrictions when donating blood, according to a new risk assessment by the health ministry and the German Medical Association, seen by the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Blood isn’t gay or straight. Safe sex between two single men is not a bigger risk that an unprotected one-night stand between heterosexual people. The potential infection risk does not depend on someone’s sexual orientation, but on the individual behaviour.”
Continue reading...The Scottish first minister has said she thinks there is a link between Scotland fans travelling for Euro 2020 games and the rise in Covid cases in Scotland.
Asked if the Scottish government should have done more to stop fans travelling to matches, Sturgeon denied taking a soft approach. She added the government could not stop fans without tickets travelling to Wembley. Public Health Scotland will be doing more analysis of this, she said
Ministers facing criticism over new rules for visitors who bring ‘significant economic benefit’
Ministers have been accused of making a “mockery” of quarantine rules after it was announced some business executives travelling to England will be able to temporarily leave self-isolation.
Rules for those arriving from amber list countries have been changed to let visitors entering the country bringing “significant economic benefit” interrupt their up to 10-day stay at home for important business activities.
Continue reading...No date agreed for planned reopening as health officials warn of risks of a Delta-driven new wave
Ireland has delayed the reopening of indoor hospitality and plans to limit indoor dining to people who have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19.
The government announced the changes on Tuesday after health officials warned of a possible wave of infections and deaths driven by the Delta variant.
Continue reading...Epidemiologist behind study on scale of disaster says Jair Bolsonaro’s government is ‘entirely’ responsible
Brazil could have saved 400,000 lives if the country had implemented stricter social distancing measures and launched a vaccination programme earlier, according to an eminent epidemiologist who is leading the first study to quantify the scale of the country’s Covid disaster.
Such policies would have prevented 80% of the half a million Covid deaths registered in one of the hardest-hit countries in the world, said Pedro Hallal, a professor at the Federal University of Pelotas.
Continue reading...Lockdown hit LGBTQ+ communities hard but even as Pride events are called off there is hope and a promise that the parades will return
This month, for the second year in a row, there was no Pride parade in San Francisco, arguably the city most laden with history and symbolism for the LGBTQ+ community.
It is a decision Fred Lopez, who took over as executive director of San Francisco Pride at the beginning of last year describes as “heartbreaking”.
Continue reading...Four major cities in lockdown as experts question prime minister’s remarks on who can receive AstraZeneca jab
Frustration is mounting in Australia over low vaccination rates and changing advice on the AstraZeneca jab after outbreaks of the highly contagious Delta variant sent more parts of the country into lockdown.
The outbreaks have grown to about 150 cases, and have forced lockdowns in four major cities and renewed restrictions in several others.
Continue reading...