Health workers and teachers have priority in first mass immunisation programme
Moscow’s coronavirus taskforce said on Saturday that it was distributing the Sputnik V vaccine to 70 clinics, marking Russia’s first mass Covid-19 immunisation.
The taskforce said the Russian-made vaccine would be made available first to doctors and other medical workers, teachers and social workers because they ran the highest risk of exposure to the disease.
Continue reading...From non-polluting transport to sustainable industries, urban areas are perfect for testing radical solutions to global problems
• Ada Colau is the mayor of Barcelona
The pandemic will leave behind a very different world from that of a year ago. Thousands of people have died; entire industries have been brought to the brink; welfare states have been shaken. In the coming years, the major challenge facing all public leaders will be charting a path of recovery through the devastating human, social and economic marks that Covid-19 has left on our societies.
But rather than redoubling on the fragile world of the pre-pandemic age, we should be taking advantage of this moment to build one that is more just, balanced and sustainable.
Continue reading...WHO says virus spreading fast despite vaccine progress; French infections rise to 2.29m; Brazil reports 627 new deaths. Follow latest updates
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Saturday reported 14,255,535 cases of the new coronavirus, an increase of 214,099 cases from its previous count, and said that the number of deaths had risen by 2,439 to 277,825.
The CDC reported its tally of cases of the respiratory illness known as Covid-19, caused by coronavirus, as of 4 pm ET on 4 December versus its previous report a day earlier.
2000 football fans in London have started watching the first Premier League game to allow fans into a ground since March.
At 5:30pm local time, the game between West Ham and Manchester United kicked off at the London Stadium, after the ban on fans entering stadiums was lifted on 2 December.
Continue reading...As Covid infections rose, hospital felt like an increasingly dangerous place to have a baby. But is labouring without midwives or doctors the answer?
On the morning of 3 May, Victoria Johnson prepared to give birth at her home in the Highlands. One by one, her three children came downstairs to where she was labouring in a birthing pool surrounded by fairy lights, the curtains tightly shut against the outside world.
Suddenly, she felt an urge to get out of the pool. “I stood up and it felt as if the weight of the universe crashed from my head to my toes.” Her waters broke – “all over the carpet, which wasn’t ideal” – and the baby started to crown. “Everyone was there, including both grandmothers on video call,” she says. “Once the baby was out, my eight-year-old son came over and said, ‘I’m so proud of you.’ And that was everything.”
Continue reading...Award-winning actor admits cutting his own hair with device long before salons closed this year due to Covid
With salons largely closed until this week, male grooming has been in freefall since the start of the spring lockdown. DIY haircuts have not been successful for all. Yet one Hollywood star has proved that even in a global pandemic, bad hair is not the great equaliser we hoped it would be.
George Clooney, the 59-year-old award-winning actor and human rights activist, has admitted to successfully cutting his own hair at home using a device called a Flowbee. “My hair’s really like straw, so it’s easy,” he told CBS Sunday Morning.
Continue reading...World Health Organization leaders have warned vaccines do not mean the end of the coronavirus pandemic, and renewed their advice to follow guidelines during the Christmas and new year period
Continue reading...The regulatory fast-tracking of the Covid vaccine in Britain by MHRA has led some to question its methods
The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Authority (MHRA) in the UK has not had a round of applause from anyone other than the UK’s politicians and the vaccine companies. It gave temporary authorisation to the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine on Wednesday and within hours, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) put out a stiff statement implying more work was needed than the UK regulator had done. Its own decision could come as late as 29 December. It may well have been needled by the crowing of the health secretary, Matt Hancock, who claimed the fast approval as a Brexit triumph. He had to backtrack. The MHRA’s chief executive, June Raine, pointed out that the agency had simply taken advantage of a provision that any country in Europe could use, to fast-track approval in a pandemic.
Continue reading...A look into the battle against Covid-19 in hospitals across the United States
Continue reading...Biden will ask Americans to wear masks for his first 100 days in office; Cyprus announces new measure to ease travel; Iran’s cases top 1m
In the UK saliva tests for Covid-19, which are being introduced for NHS workers as part of the government’s mass testing programme, pick up only 13% of people with low levels of the virus and not 91%, as the official assessment has claimed, according to experts.
Two members of the Royal Statistical Society’s working group looking at the accuracy of Covid tests have questioned the results and the way they have been evaluated.
Related: Experts question claimed accuracy of Covid-19 saliva tests
Revelations of distorted corona virus tallies have caused growing controversy in Greece reports our correspondent Helena Smith in Athens.
Figures released by the government nightly have been slammed for not reflecting the truth after reports of mismanagement by the national public health organisation, EODY.
Continue reading...
The need for federal guidance and money for states to deploy vaccines is real and urgent. Here’s a bit more from NBC News, which reports the bulk of planning for how to distribute the vaccine is still not finished nine months into the pandemic.
Yet beyond the guidelines advising states about how to deploy their vaccines — and a large Defense Department operation to deliver them — the Trump administration hasn’t prepared for a major federal role, a lack of planning that is causing significant anxiety among state and local health officials.
The significant checklist of unmet federal responsibilities underscores the challenges ahead for President-elect Joe Biden, who inherits most of the burden for executing a successful nationwide campaign to vaccinate all Americans, potentially without the billions of dollars in additional funding that will be needed.
One of the major sticking points of the relief bill is liability protections, especially for hard-hit long-term care homes. Although long-term care homes represent less than 1% of the US population, residents and staff represent 40% of Covid-19 deaths.
“We cannot sign off on Mitch McConnell’s idea of, like, a blanket liability, which will open up the floodgates to a whole host of bad conduct, putting in danger the American people,” said Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., a Pelosi deputy. “So nothing is agreed upon until everything is agreed upon. But we’re working hard to arrive at a bipartisan agreement.”
New: Capitol Hill is buzzing with fresh optimism about a Covid-19 relief deal.
Party leaders are converging on a price tag and negotiating after months of deadlock.
But some policy disputes linger—primarily on state/local aid and liability protections.https://t.co/mEqQfKK6GL
The US set three grim coronavirus records on Thursday, as it recorded the highest daily number of coronavirus deaths, the highest number of new cases, and the number of people admitted to hospital with Covid exceeded 100,000 for the second day in a row.
Continue reading...Analysis: Vaccine hesitancy is growing, thanks in part to social media misinformation. Time for the Elvis approach?
The statement by the US president-elect, Joe Biden, that he would be happy to be publicly vaccinated against coronavirus to encourage people to follow suit – following similar pledges from Barack Obama, George W Bush and Bill Clinton – highlights a fundamental concern in global health circles.
Vaccine hesitancy – as well as anti-vaccination activism, sometimes promoted by celebrities – is growing. Countries that were once measles-free are seeing new cases due to suspicion over vaccination. Vaccine hesitancy was listed a year ago as one of the World Health Organization’s 10 global health threats to watch, alongside Ebola and the threat of a global influenza pandemic. Coronavirus came instead.
Continue reading...Some evidence suggests falling oestrogen levels could make older women more vulnerable
A possible link between the menopause and Covid-19 needs to be investigated, researchers have said, with some evidence suggesting that falling oestrogen levels could leave older women at increased risk from the disease.
Men are at greater risk of severe Covid, and dying of the disease, than women but recent research has suggested that in women, infections and long-lasting symptoms might be more common among those who have gone through the menopause.
Continue reading...Life chances are in danger of being blighted by the pandemic. That’s why young people are at the heart of our charity appeal this year
In a year of blight, uncertainty and lives interrupted, 21-year-old Aadam Patel’s experience of the pandemic will resonate among many young people and their families: “I have pressed pause on my life,” he told the Guardian in October, “and although I’m dying to resume it, I don’t even know if there’s a play button there any more.”
Getting life back on track during Covid has proved hard for many of us; but for millions of young people it will be a very major challenge. Society’s odds were already stacked against youngsters from economically deprived communities and from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds; the pandemic has brought those stark inequalities into even sharper focus, whether it is in the job market, around holiday hunger, or access to online schooling.
Continue reading...‘America’s game’ struggles with quarantined quarterbacks, repeat rescheduling and home games played far from home
It has gone down as one of the worst performances by a player in recent NFL history – through little fault of his own.
Last weekend, 23-year-old Kendall Hinton, a practice squad wide receiver who had never before played professional football, ran on to the field as quarterback for the Denver Broncos, with just four hours’ notice and only his college-playing experience to rely upon. The deployment was described as unprecedented in the modern game.
Continue reading...Brian Pallister, the premier of Manitoba, has urged people not to get together this Christmas, as lockdowns in the province continue amid a surge in coronavirus cases. Speaking to the press on Thursday, he said: ‘I’m the guy who’s stealing Christmas to keep you safe because you need to do this now.’ Pallister has repeatedly faced criticism during the pandemic, reportedly vacationing in Costa Rica during the early stages and being accused of rushing to reopen Manitoba’s economy
Continue reading...The US’s leading infectious diseases scientist has apologised for implying that he thought Britain’s drug regulator had rushed through its coronavirus vaccine approval. Anthony Fauci, who leads the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told the BBC: 'I have great faith in both the scientific community and the regulatory community in the UK.'
His comments came a day after Britain became the first country to approve the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine for general use.
Millions forced to do without or pay for services as funding fails to adequately shore up healthcare systems, report finds
Millions of people in low-income countries have been forced to go without healthcare or have had to pay for it during the coronavirus pandemic, despite billions of pounds in emergency World Bank funding, research has found.
The World Bank’s $6bn (£4.45bn) emergency health fund to 71 countries in response to Covid-19 failed to strengthen health systems or remove financial barriers to using them, according to an Oxfam report published on Friday.
Continue reading...In an interview with CNN's Jake Tapper, US president-elect Joe Biden says that he will ask Americans to commit to 100 days of wearing masks as one of his first acts as president. Biden and vice-president-elect, Kamala Harris, also committed to receiving coronavirus vaccinations as soon as possible, when approved by US regulators.
MP Andrew Hastie has criticised the release of details included in the war crimes report for allowing China to ‘malign our troops’; PM faces questions over Murdoch Christmas party flight; NSW awaits update on new Covid cluster. Follow all today’s news
Good morning, Matilda Boseley here. It’s nearly the end of the week and what better way to reach the finish line than to stick around on the Guardian live blog and get all your much-needed news updates, Covid-19 or otherwise.
First up, Liberal MP Andrew Hastie has criticised the Brereton Report which he says was filled with “unproven rumours” of Australian soldiers murdering Afghan children, saying the report has given China an opening to malign Australian troops.
Continue reading...