PPE worth £1.4bn from single Covid deal destroyed or written off

UK government deal struck at height of pandemic described as ‘colossal misuse of public funds’

An estimated £1.4bn-worth of personal protective equipment (PPE) bought by the government in single a deal has been destroyed or written off, according to new figures described as the worst example of waste in the Covid pandemic.

The figures obtained by the BBC under freedom of information laws showed that 1.57bn items from the NHS supplier Full Support Healthcare will never been used.

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Boss of US firm given £4bn in UK Covid contracts accused of squandering millions on jets and properties

Rishi Sunak’s team helped fast-track deal with firm founded by Charles Huang, who says contracts generated $2bn profit

In California, state of sunshine and palm trees, a small group of men are locked in a big legal fight over the money made by a US company selling Covid tests to the British government. The founder of Innova Medical Group says his business collected $2bn (£1.6bn) in profits, one of the largest fortunes banked by any medical supplier during the scramble for lifesaving equipment in the early months of the pandemic.

In a storm of claims and counter-claims, Innova’s boss, Charles Huang, is accused by former associates of “squandering” or moving $1bn of those profits, spending lavishly on luxury aircraft, an $18m house in Los Angeles and “homes for his mistresses”.

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Anthony Fauci says he turned down $7m jobs because ‘I cared’ about US

Former infectious disease head says big pharma tried to poach him while he was nation’s Covid chief

Before Anthony Fauci retired from his lengthy run as the US government’s top infectious disease doctor, major pharmaceutical companies tried to lure him away from his post by offering him seven-figure jobs – but he turned them down because he “cared about … the health of the country” too much, he says in a new interview.

Fauci’s comments on his loyalty to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (Niad) – which he directed for 38 years before retiring in December 2022 – come only a couple of weeks after he testified to Congress about receiving “credible death threats” from far-right extremists over his efforts to slow the spread of Covid-19 at the beginning of the pandemic.

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Calls for new dog licences to better control unruly pets in England

Scottish-style right to roam deal should train owners and protect livestock and wildlife, say campaigners

Dogs and their owners must be brought to heel with the return of dog licences, registration for breeders and a ban on toxic flea treatments, campaigners have said.

The activists from the Right to Roam campaign want a deal for dogs to protect farmers’ livestock and vulnerable wildlife from being menaced by Britain’s rising dog population and out-of-control dog behaviour.

Do not allow your dog to approach animals or people uninvited

Don’t linger if wildlife is disturbed by your presence

Where possible avoid animals – release your dog if threatened by cattle

Always keep your dog in sight and under control – if in doubt use a lead.

Don’t take your dog into fields of vegetables and fruit unless there is a clear path.

Finish the jobbie – bag it and bin it. Take it home when bins aren’t available.

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Immunisation rates fall among Australia’s vulnerable as experts blame pandemic misinformation and practical barriers

Below-target levels come after record highs in 2020, with some areas in NSW, Queensland and WA now showing consistently lower vaccination rates

Immunisation rates are lagging in Australia’s most vulnerable populations – the very young and old – with experts blaming practical barriers as well as the misinformation and vaccine hesitancy that took off during the Covid-19 pandemic.

In 2020 Australia achieved a record high rate of 95.09% five-year-olds fully immunised against infectious diseases, even surpassing the government’s target of 95%, which provides “herd immunity”.

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‘Crank’ Tory candidates accused of sharing online conspiracy theories

Labour has expressed concerns about the calibre of would-be Tory MPs after a some shared outlandish views online

The Conservative party has been accused of becoming a home for “cranks” after some of its candidates at the general election were revealed to have shared conspiracy theories on social media.

The posts seen by the Observer include the suggestion that positive tests for Covid-19 were “mass psychosis at work” and that the Black Lives Matter movement might be an attempt to “bring down British society”.

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Fauci describes ‘credible death threats’ for overseeing US Covid-19 response

Doctor, who was head of infectious diseases unit during height of the pandemic, tells Congress he and his family still get harassed

Anthony Fauci, the former head of the US infectious diseases unit, has received “credible death threats” stemming from his time overseeing the nation’s fight against Covid-19, he has told Congress.

Fauci, who was director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases during the height of attempts to halt the spread of the virus, told a hearing on Capitol Hill that the threats had continued until the present day, even though he retired in 2022.

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Concerns grow for Chinese citizen journalist after supposed jail release

Zhang Zhan, jailed for reporting on Covid in Wuhan, has made no contact with outside world

Concerns are growing about the wellbeing of one of China’s most prominent citizen journalists who has failed to make contact with the outside world after she was supposed to have been released from prison.

Zhang Zhan, 40, a lawyer turned citizen journalist, was detained in May 2020 after she travelled to Wuhan to report on the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic. Her videos and social media posts drew attention to the government’s stifling of information about the spread of the disease and the harsh lockdowns that were being imposed.

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Chinese woman jailed for reporting on Covid in Wuhan to be freed after four years

Citizen journalist Zhang Zhan’s search for the truth during the early days of the pandemic was seen as a threat by the authorities

A Chinese citizen journalist who has been in prison for four years after reporting on the early days of the Covid-19 epidemic in Wuhan is due to be released on Monday.

Zhang Zhan, a former lawyer, travelled to Wuhan in February 2020 to document the Chinese government’s response to what became the start of a global pandemic. She shared her reports on X (then known as Twitter), YouTube and WeChat. She was one of the few independent Chinese reporters on the ground as Wuhan and the rest of China went into lockdown.

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First scientist to publish Covid sequence in China protests over lab ‘eviction’

Zhang Yongzhen stages sit-in protest, as government attempts to avoid scrutiny over handling of outbreak

The first Chinese scientist to publish a genomic sequence of the Covid-19 virus, in defiance of government orders, has been staging a sit-in protest after claiming he was locked out of his laboratory.

Zhang Yongzhen, a virologist, said in an online post on Monday that he and his team had been given a sudden eviction notice from their lab, and guards had barred him from entering it over the weekend. The post, published on Weibo, was later deleted, Associated Press (AP) reported.

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ACTU calls for sanctions on Israel over Gaza war – as it happened

This blog is now closed.

The Matildas’ route to potential Asian Cup success is a step closer to being finalised, AAP reports, after Football Australia revealed the host states for matches at the 2026 edition of the tournament.

FA confirmed on Monday that NSW, Queensland and Western Australia had been nominated as the preferred locations for the continental competition.

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Australia records lowest seven-day Covid death rate for more than two years

Expert says immunity from vaccines and Omicron infections have combined to reduce severe disease

Australia has recorded its lowest Covid death rate for more than two years, according to federal health department data that dates back to January 2022.

The latest data on the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System shows that between Thursday 29 February and Saturday 2 March, and on 5 and 6 March, the seven-day rolling average for Covid deaths was zero. One death was recorded on 3 March. The average is used to indicate short-term trends and is calculated by dividing the number of deaths in the previous seven days by seven and rounding to the nearest whole number. Up to three deaths in seven days results in a rolling average of zero.

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Covid boosters are a gamechanger – if they are free for everyone

Only private jabs are available to most, but annual shots could reduce healthcare costs and prevent deaths

Private Covid boosters are available for people who do not qualify to receive these vaccines on the NHS. But is it worth paying for a shot?

With most people now having been exposed to Sars-CoV-2 through previous vaccination and/or infection, our immune systems are generally well equipped to recognise and kill the virus if we become infected.

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AstraZeneca claims Australian rules stopped it defending its vaccine during pandemic

Company says TGA regulations prevented it from responding to incorrect claims about its vaccine in 2021

AstraZeneca has called for reforms to Australia’s rules around discussion of medicines, saying public confusion over its Covid vaccine was created because the company was restricted in explaining health warnings by the nation’s medicines regulator.

The call is contained in more than 2,000 submissions to the federal government’s inquiry into Australia’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

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Andrew Bridgen must pay Matt Hancock legal fees of £40,000 in libel claim

High court strikes out part but not all of Bridgen’s case and orders him to pay Tory MP’s costs

The MP Andrew Bridgen has been ordered to pay Matt Hancock more than £40,000 in legal fees after an early stage of their libel battle.

The MP for North West Leicestershire is bringing a libel claim against the former health secretary regarding a January 2023 message on X that followed Bridgen posting a comment about Covid-19 vaccines.

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More young people being radicalised online, says UK counter-terror officer

Senior detective warns children are accessing extreme material as a result of lockdowns, after a 20-year-old was jailed on Monday

A senior counter-terrorism officer has warned that children and young people are increasingly being radicalised online after spending long periods on the internet during the pandemic.

Det Supt Andy Meeks said a growing number of vulnerable people were accessing extreme material after spending hours unsupervised online.

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‘Hypervaccinated’ man reportedly received 217 Covid jabs without side effects

German man, who said he had vaccines for ‘private reasons’, suspected of selling certificates to people who didn’t want jab

A German man who voluntarily received 217 coronavirus jabs over 29 months showed “no signs” of having been infected with the virus that causes Covid-19 and had not suffered from any vaccine-related side effects, according to a study published in the medical journal Lancet Infectious Diseases.

The 62-year-old, from Magdeburg, Germany, whom doctors described as “hypervaccinated”, said he had had the large number of vaccines for “private reasons”, according to the researchers from University of Erlangen-Nuremberg who examined him.

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Call for Covid memorial wall in London to become permanent monument

People bereaved by Covid want government recognition and protection for South Bank place of remembrance

Volunteers at the Covid memorial wall are urging ministers to make the monument permanent as Britain marks its first national day of reflection after the pandemic.

The wall runs between Westminster Bridge and Lambeth Bridge on South Bank in London and is looked after by a group of volunteers, who rely on public donations to maintain it.

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Former NSW government accused of ‘pork barrelling at public’s expense’ after scathing audit

The $5bn post-pandemic spending program ‘not informed by robust research or analysis’ auditor general finds

Labor has accused the former New South Wales Coalition government of “pork barrelling at the public’s expense” after the auditor general found the design of a $5bn scheme to funnel money into areas worst hit by Covid lockdowns “lacked integrity”.

In a report released on Wednesday, Margaret Crawford found that more than $1bn was allocated to “low or moderate merit” infrastructure projects in western Sydney as part of the massive post-pandemic spending program WestInvest.

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Covid death toll in US likely 16% higher than official tally, study says

Researchers think undercounting goes beyond overloaded health systems to a lack of awareness of Covid and low levels of testing

The Covid death toll in the US is likely at least 16% higher than the official tally, according to a new study, and researchers believe the cause of the undercounting goes beyond overloaded health systems to a lack of awareness of Covid and low levels of testing.

The second year of the pandemic also had nearly as many uncounted excess deaths as the first, the study found.

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