Category Archives: Coronavirus

Mary-Louise McLaws, epidemiologist who guided Australia through Covid, dies aged 70 from brain cancer

Posted on by

Health minister says professor and WHO advisor was ‘an incredibly calm, articulate voice at a time that was very frightening’

Professor Mary-Louise McLaws, the epidemiologist who guided Australians through the Covid-19 pandemic, has died at the age of 70 from brain cancer.

McLaws died in her sleep on Saturday night, her husband Richard Flook said in a statement to the Sydney Morning Herald.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Cyprus to begin treating island’s sick cats with anti-Covid pills

Posted on by

Vets receive medication originally meant for people amid virulent feline coronavirus that has killed thousands of cats

Veterinary services in Cyprus have received a first batch of anti-Covid pills, from a stockpile originally meant for humans, as efforts intensify to stop the spread of a virulent strain of feline coronavirus that has killed thousands of cats.

The island’s health ministry began discharging the treatment on 8 August – long celebrated as International Cat Day – in what is hoped will be the beginning of the end of the disease that has struck the Mediterranean country’s feline population.

Continue reading...

Seals practise social distancing, aerial survey of North Sea shows

Posted on by

Research suggests behaviour may reflect evolutionary response to previous outbreaks of disease

Aerial surveys of the North Sea have revealed that seals practise social distancing – and the discovery may have profound implications for the spread of disease among the marine mammals.

In a paper published today by the Royal Society, researchers conducting censuses of grey and harbour seals detail new evidence that the two species not only maintain distances between their own kind (unlike walruses, for instance, who cluster close together) but also that this behaviour may “reflect an evolutionary response to viral susceptibility”.

Continue reading...

French research centre behind controversial Covid paper found to have used questionable ethics processes

Posted on by

Institution used concerning approval procedures for hundreds of studies, review says

A major French research centre that produced one of the most widely cited and controversial research papers of the Covid-19 pandemic has been found by an international research team to have used questionable and concerning ethics approval processes across hundreds of studies.

The Institut Hospitalo-Universitaire Méditerranée Infection, or IHU, is a large clinical research centre in the south of France. It was founded by Prof Didier Raoult, who was also director of the centre until August 2022, when he stood down ahead of the release of findings from a government audit that found the institute conducted trials “likely to constitute offences or serious breaches of health or research regulations”.

Continue reading...

New vaccine research centre to help scientists prepare for ‘disease X’

Posted on by

Facility in Porton Down, Wiltshire will allow vaccines to be developed for future pandemic pathogens

Ministers have opened a new vaccine research centre in the UK where scientists will work on preparing for “disease X”, the next potential pandemic pathogen.

The state-of-the-art Vaccine Development and Evaluation Centre is based at the UK Health and Security Agency’s (UKHSA) Porton Down campus in Wiltshire.

Continue reading...

Anti-vaxxer guilty of harassing Matt Hancock on London tube

Posted on by

Geza Tarjanyi barged into former health secretary on train while shouting conspiracy theories

An anti-vaccine protester who accused Matt Hancock of murdering people during the coronavirus pandemic has been found guilty of harassment.

The former health secretary feared being pushed down an escalator by Geza Tarjanyi, 62, of Leyland, Lancashire, who shoulder-barged him and “shouted ridiculous conspiracy theories” on two separate occasions on 19 and 24 January.

Continue reading...

Nose-picking healthcare workers more likely to catch Covid, data suggests

Posted on by

Rhinotillexis may be underestimated cause of transmission between staff, say researchers

Nose-picking should be given greater consideration as a potential health hazard, researchers have said, after finding healthcare workers who engaged in rhinotillexis were more likely to catch Covid than those who refrained.

Scientists in the Netherlands say research has previously found healthcare workers who had direct contact with Covid patients were more likely to catch Covid than those who did not.

Continue reading...

Public health experts excoriate Canada Covid response and call for inquiry

Posted on by

Country failed to collect and share data, masking issues and inequalities, according to editorial in British Medical Journal

Prominent public health experts have called on Canada to launch an inquiry into its Covid response, arguing that the country’s failure to collect and share data masked issues and inequalities that – if properly addressed early on – could have saved lives.

The call to action came alongside a scathing editorial in the British Medical Journal, titled “The world expected more of Canada”, which argues that Canada’s “overall impression of adequacy” conceals important inequalities.

Continue reading...

US-China cultural exchange at low point after tensions and Covid, data shows

Posted on by

Tourism, academia and literature all exhibit signs that trend of closer ties has gone into reverse

Cultural ties between the US and China are at a low point after several years of decline, according to Guardian analysis of official figures.

The Covid-19 pandemic and travel restrictions, coupled with the continuing trade war between the two countries, is diluting cultural exchanges, with visitor numbers, students and even the world of literature all affected.

Continue reading...

Minister orders briefing on $33m grant – as it happened

Posted on by

This blog is now closed.

New Zealand PM to address media shortly

New Zealand’s prime minister Chris Hipkins is set to address media at 10:15am New Zealand time about the shooting in Aukland this morning.

Continue reading...

Judge rejects Trump bid to move hush money case to federal court as legal challenges gather pace – as it happened

Posted on by

This blog is now closed. You can read the latest news on this story here.

Former Arizona Governor Doug Ducey, who Donald Trump pressured to overturn the 2020 election, has been cooperating with special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into the January 6 insurrection, NBC reported.

A spokesperson for Ducey yesterday confirmed that Smith’s team had contacted the former governor. “Yes, he’s been contacted. He’s been responsive, and just as he’s done since the election, he will do the right thing,” they told CNN.

Continue reading...

Salvadoran government accused of doctoring true extent of Covid deaths

Posted on by

A Salvadoran newspaper reported 15,956 people died from the disease, three times more than President Bukele’s official numbers

Nayib Bukele’s administration in El Salvador has come under fire from rights groups for apparently falsifying Covid-19 figures in an attempt to cover up the true cost of the pandemic.

Two-thirds of the country’s Covid-19 fatalities were left out of official figures in order to give the illusion that the authoritarian government had the pandemic under control, the Salvadoran newspaper La Prensa Gráfica reported on Monday.

Continue reading...

Rural bus services hit new low after losing out on post-Covid funding

Posted on by

More than a quarter of routes in English county and rural areas have been lost over 10 years

Endangered rural bus services have dwindled to a new low after losing out on funding after the pandemic, analysis for councils has shown.

More than a quarter of routes in county and rural areas of England have been lost in the past decade, with passenger numbers falling sharply.

Continue reading...

Michael Gove claims work for no-deal Brexit made UK ‘match fit’ for pandemic

Posted on by

Levelling up minister strongly denied work to leave EU hindered readiness for crisis at Covid inquiry

Michael Gove strongly denied planning for a no-deal Brexit weakened pandemic readiness and claimed it actually helped in evidence to the UK Covid-19 public inquiry.

Senior officials in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have previously told the investigation that as scores of civil servants were switched to planning for the UK to crash out of the EU, work to update and develop pandemic plans was sidelined.

Continue reading...

Australia’s drug regulator received two hoax reports of children dying from Covid vaccines

Posted on by

Exclusive: Therapeutic Goods Administration documents reveal separate reports made in 2022 about two boys, aged six and seven, were false

Australia’s drug regulator received two reports of child deaths after vaccination against Covid-19 that turned out to be hoaxes.

Therapeutic Goods Administration documents on fatal adverse events in children and adolescents after a Covid-19 vaccination published under freedom of information show that a report was made to the body in January 2022 that a seven-year-old boy had died from “an adverse event following immunisation” with an unspecified brand of Covid vaccine.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Older UK workers who retired early in pandemic were ‘forced into poverty’

Posted on by

Thinktank challenges view that those taking early retirement under Covid were relatively well off

Half of older adults who left the UK workforce amid mass redundancies in the first year of the Covid pandemic ended up falling into relative poverty, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS).

Britain’s foremost economics thinktank said job losses during the early stages of the crisis, coupled with the additional health risks faced by older workers, were likely to have forced many people into early retirement.

Continue reading...

Lockdown or loneliness? Covid brought on a ‘kind of stressful’ baby boom in Australia

Posted on by

New data shows the birthrate went up in 2021, after a record low in 2020 and years of decline

A pandemic might not seem like the ideal time to have a baby, but new data backs up the idea that Covid precipitated a baby boom.

According to an Australian Institute of Health and Welfare report – Australia’s mothers and babies – a record 315,705 babies were born in 2021, while the birthrate itself was up to 61 per 1,000 women of reproductive age from 56 per 1,000 the year before.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Calls for Victorian government to scrap Covid fines as data shows minority groups more likely to be penalised

Posted on by

Some community leaders say report is evidence of officers targeting people based on their ethnicity, which Victoria police rejects

African, Middle Eastern and Indigenous community leaders are calling for the Andrews government and Victoria police to review Covid fines after a report revealed ethnic minorities and First Nations people were more likely to receive infringements for breaching lockdown rules.

Released on Tuesday, the report revealed people of African and Middle Eastern appearance were four times more likely to receive fines for breaching the state’s lockdown rules in 2020, accounting for share of the population. Victoria police have rejected the allegation by the report’s lead researcher that officers targeted certain racial groups.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Victoria police accused of racial profiling, as data shows minority groups more likely to receive Covid fines

Posted on by

African, Middle Eastern and First Nations people up to four times more likely to be fined for Covid-19 breaches

Victoria police officers have been accused of racial profiling, with a report showing they disproportionately targeted people of non-Anglo appearance during the pandemic.

African, Middle Eastern and First Nations people were up to four times more likely to be fined for COVID-19 breaches, when considering their share of the state’s population.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Chris Whitty: UK should have focused more on stopping Covid-type pandemic

Posted on by

England’s chief medical officer tells Covid inquiry focus was more on dealing with consequences of pandemic

England’s chief medical officer, Sir Chris Whitty, said the UK “did not give sufficient thought” to stopping Covid in its tracks as he listed multiple problems with preparedness in his first cross-examination at the pandemic public inquiry.

Whitty said the “big weakness” was a lack of “radicalism” in thinking before the crisis took hold, and he said government scientific advisers would not have thought to have considered national lockdowns without it being requested by a senior politician.

Continue reading...