Growing numbers of people catching coronavirus are experiencing an unpleasant distortion of smells. Scientists are still unsure what causes this often distressing condition, known as parosmia, where previously enjoyable aromas trigger feelings of disgust. Madeleine Finlay talks to science correspondent Linda Geddes about her own parosmia, and chemist Dr Jane Parker discusses research into why the smell of coffee seems to be a trigger for so many people
Continue reading...Category Archives: Coronavirus
Austrian police carry out routine checks as unvaccinated enter lockdown
Experts warn rules will be hard to enforce, as country records highest Covid infection rate in western Europe
Police in Austria have begun carrying out routine checks on commuters to ensure compliance with a nationwide “lockdown for the unvaccinated”, as the Alpine country tries to get on top of one of the most rapidly rising infection rates in Europe.
The restrictions, which came into effect on Monday morning, will affect almost 2 million Austrian citizens aged 12 and older who have so far not been fully vaccinated against Covid-19. Of those, the 356,000 people who have been vaccinated only once can be released from lockdown if they show a negative PCR test.
Continue reading...Covid booster jabs extended to people aged 40 to 49, says JCVI
Extension approved by government’s vaccine watchdog as well as second doses for 16- and 17-year-olds
Covid booster vaccines can be extended to those aged between 40 and 49 in the UK after being approved by the government’s vaccines watchdog, which also gave approval for teenagers aged 16 and 17 to receive second jabs.
While such decisions are devolved, all devolved nations tend to accept JCVI guidance. Ministers in England, Scotland and Wales have already said they would extend boosters.
Continue reading...Children back at school in Philippines after 20 months of home study
Pilot scheme launched in what is thought to be the last country to reopen schools since March 2020
Thousands of children have returned to their classrooms after more than 18 months of home study in the Philippines, thought to be the last country to reopen schools since the start of the pandemic.
On Monday morning, 120 schools began on-site lessons through a pilot project. Footage by the broadcaster ABS CBN showed children at a school in Alaminos line up outside to take their temperatures, complete a health form and wash their hands before entering class.
Continue reading...Australia news live blog: Barnaby Joyce dismisses Cop26 ‘talkfest’; snap lockdown for Katherine in NT; Qld eases Covid border rules
Barnaby Joyce says Coalition has done a ‘great job’ on climate policy; Changes to South Australia quarantine and border restrictions; fully vaccinated travellers can apply for Qld border passes from 5pm; Victoria records 860 new local Covid cases and five deaths; NSW records 165 cases and one death. Follow live updates
- Scott Morrison backs Senate ABC inquiry, saying national broadcaster ‘not above scrutiny’
- Prime Minister rules out more ambitious 2030 emissions target despite Cop26 pact
- Fresh evidence in disappearance of William Tyrrell sparks major police search in new areas
- Queensland’s Covid restrictions: why travellers are facing a long road home before Christmas
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Cop26 failed in a bid to phase out coal, news that had its president Alok Sharma close to tears. But not everyone’s disappointed – nationals senator Matt Canavan has declared it a great win for Australia’s mining industry.
He told the Nine Network:
Given the fact that the agreement did not say that coal needs to be phased down or taken out, it is a big green light for us to build more coalmines.
Continue reading...Covid live news: Belgium to accelerate plan for tighter measures; concern over rising Irish cases
Belgium to act amid rising cases and hospital admissions; Irish cabinet ‘extremely concerned’ by rise in cases after lockdown ended
- Austrian police carry out routine checks as unvaccinated enter lockdown
- Booster jabs should be offered to people over 40, UK advisers say
- UK Covid booster jabs policy: what has changed?
- Japan now one of most Covid-immunised countries in the world
- See all our coronavirus coverage
In the UK, Conservative party chairman Oliver Dowden has backed AstraZeneca’s controversial announcement that it is moving to seek a profit from its Covid vaccine sales. Britain’s biggest pharma firm late last week said it expects the vaccine to move to “modest profitability” as new orders are received. This morning on Sky News, asked about it, Dowden said:
Well, I think the drug companies like AstraZeneca, who invested huge amounts of money into the vaccine programme, are entitled to have a profit from their investment. Actually, if you look at the Oxford AstraZeneca model, and contrast it to others around the world, the number of very, very low cost doses that are made available particularly to developing countries is an exemplary model.
If we look at his year, compared with where we were last year, of course it’s not just the overall number of cases, hospital admissions and deaths we need to look at, but also the trends. If we look at that, we can see that although there has been quite a lot of variation over the past few weeks, and we’re still reporting very high numbers of cases, the total number of daily hospitalisations and the total number of deaths are quite long way below where we were in November last year, which should give us some level of confidence.
If we look at the situation in Germany, for example, over the past couple of weeks cases have been rising in a really concerning way. And that’s the really key thing in terms of whether we need to react in response to what’s going on in Europe. When we already have a high number of cases, it doesn’t necessarily mean we need more restrictions to prevent what might come in from Europe, but really what it actually is, is a message that really shows us how important it is to get vaccinated so that we do prevent cases starting to rise again and of course that’s spilling over into hospital admissions.
I think there’s some really tough decisions that have to be made actually over the next few weeks. When it gets to younger people what they have to look at is the benefits and the risks to the individual. And the thing with very young children is generally they don’t get very sick. But by vaccinating them it protects the rest of the population indirectly, so that’s the decision that the government guided by Joint Committee for Vaccinations and Immunisations are going to have to make over the next few weeks
Continue reading...Outcry in China after Covid health workers kill dog while owner was in quarantine
Authorities say health worker has been dismissed from role, amid accusations they are overreacting as China pursues zero-Covid strategy
The killing of a pet dog whose owners were in quarantine has sparked outrage on Chinese social media and raised questions about extreme measures health authorities are taking to battle a continuing Delta outbreak.
On Friday a resident of Shangrao, in Jianxi province, posted allegations on Weibo that her pet dog was beaten to death by health workers inside her apartment while she was quarantining in a hotel that didn’t allow animals. In video purportedly from her apartment’s security camera posted online, one of two PPE-wearing individuals is shown hitting the dog with what looks like a crowbar.
Continue reading...Māori tribe tells anti-Covid vaccine protesters to stop using its haka
Tribal leaders say they have lost many ancestors to previous pandemics and see vaccine as best protection against virus
Anti-vaccine protesters in New Zealand have been told to stop using the “ka mate” haka by the tribe who have ownership of it.
The haka, a Māori war dance made internationally famous by its performance by the All Blacks at rugby matches, is considered a cultural treasure, or taonga, in New Zealand. It was performed last week by anti-vaccination and “freedom” protesters, who marched in their thousands to parliament.
Continue reading...‘I was anxious at first’: how Covid helped vaccine-sceptic Japan overcome its hesitancy
Japan ranks among the most Covid-immunised countries, but only months ago the story was very different
Early this year, as Japan’s coronavirus cases began another ominous rise, the country seemed determined to confirm its reputation as a vaccine backwater.
Held up by additional clinical trials, its Covid-19 vaccine rollout lagged behind that of the UK and other countries by several months. And when it finally started offering shots in February, doses were administered at an achingly slow pace, beginning with medical staff and older people. Tens of millions of others were convinced they would have to wait many months before coming within arm’s reach of a health worker’s needle.
Continue reading...UK firm to trial T-cell Covid vaccine that could give longer immunity
Exclusive: Oxfordshire-based Emergex gets go-ahead for trials in Switzerland for skin patch vaccine
An Oxfordshire-based company will soon start clinical trials of a second-generation vaccine against Covid-19, an easy-to-administer skin patch that uses T-cells to kill infected cells and could offer longer-lasting immunity than current vaccines.
Emergex was set up in Abingdon in 2016 to develop T-cell vaccines, the brainchild of Prof Thomas Rademacher, the firm’s chief executive and professor emeritus of molecular medicine at the University College London medical school.
Continue reading...Covid live: Austria puts unvaccinated under lockdown from Monday; 1 million 12-15s in England have had jab
Austria vaccination rate ‘shamefully low’, says chancellor Alexander Schallenberg; 800 more schools in England to get vaccine teams next week
- Why is Europe returning to the dark days of Covid?
- Millions in England to be offered boosters earlier to protect NHS in winter
- Care home tragedy: ‘We are still finding out things we weren’t aware of’
- ‘Detox’ routines won’t undo Covid vaccine, experts tell anti-vaxxers
The continent is now the centre of the global epidemic – again. As countries from the Baltic to the Med brace for harsher winter measures, The Observer reports on what is driving the fourth wave.
The Netherlands on Saturday became the first western European country since the summer to impose a partial lockdown, Berlin bars its restaurants to the unvaccinated, and France races to improve its booster campaign, Europe is once again the centre of the pandemic.
Continue reading...UK officials have compiled ‘Covid exit strategy’ from April – report
No 10 sources says ministers had not seen leaked plan to wind down testing and self-isolation
Officials have been working on a “Covid exit strategy” called Operation Rampdown, under which the government could wind down testing and people would no longer be forced to isolate if they are ill from April, leaked documents reveal.
The documents, prepared by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), give ministers the option of dismantling the official government-backed testing system and tracing operations.
Continue reading...Three snow leopards die of Covid-19 at children’s zoo in Nebraska
Lincoln Children’s Zoo says deaths of Ranney, Everest and Makalu are ‘truly heartbreaking’, as two tigers recover
Three snow leopards have died at the Lincoln Children’s Zoo in Nebraska of complications from Covid-19.
The zoo made the announcement in a Facebook post on Friday, describing the deaths of the three leopards – named Ranney, Everest, and Makalu – as “truly heartbreaking”.
Continue reading...‘Detox’ routines won’t undo Covid vaccine, experts tell anti-vaxxers
TikTok video calls for bath in borax – but once a person is vaccinated, there’s no way back, doctors say
Medical experts are speaking out against Covid-19 vaccine “detoxes” that some inaccurately claim can remove the effects of vaccinations received under mandates and other public health rulings.
In one TikTok video that has received hundreds of thousands of views, Carrie Madej, an osteopath based in Georgia, falsely claims a bath containing baking soda, epsom salts and the cleaning agent borax will “detox the vaxx” from anyone who has received a jab.
Continue reading...Covid live news: UK records 157 deaths; Germany mobilises 12,000 soldiers to fight coronavirus– report
UK also recorded 38,351 new coronavirus cases; German paper reports that 12,000 soldiers will be mobilised by Christmas
- Conservative judges block Biden’s vaccine requirement for businesses
- Why is Europe returning to the dark days of Covid?
- Expert urges offering Covid booster jabs to younger groups in UK
- Merkel urges Germans to get Covid vaccines amid high infection rate
- See all our coronavirus coverage
California has become the latest US state to make Covid vaccine booster doses available for all adults, despite a call from federal health officials to limit their distribution to people most at risk.
It follows similar moves by Colorado and New Mexico, which have among the highest rates of new infections in the US. California, the country’s most populous state, has now joined them in the “high” tier for transmission, according to recent figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Continue reading...St Basil’s Covid tragedy: ‘We are still finding out things that we weren’t aware of and it makes us angry’
Spiros Vasilakis’s mother, Maria, died in the Melbourne aged care home outbreak. He is among 64 witnesses to give evidence at a coronial inquest starting Monday
“One thing I will never forget is the line of ambulances coming in and coming out,” Spiros Vasilakis says as he recalls standing outside St Basil’s Home for the Aged in July last year, where his mother contracted Covid-19.
“My mum had died at that point,” he recalls. “And to stand outside a place that was not giving family any answers, seeing residents taken away one after another in ambulances, about to die or already dead … I just remember feeling overwhelmed by sadness.”
Continue reading...‘It sucks’: how parts of NSW’s northern rivers reluctantly got vaccinated
The drive to get the population vaccinated is gathering momentum despite the issue dividing families and straining friendships
It’s fair to say the people in the northern rivers of New South Wales generally do not like being told what to do by the government.
In a region with a free-thinking, anti-authoritarian reputation, and a long history of anti-vaccination sentiment, the requirement to get the Covid jab for work or leisure purposes was never going to find a warm welcome.
Continue reading...Conservative judges block Biden’s vaccine requirement for businesses
Panel of judges rules stay of requirement for businesses with 100 or more workers is ‘firmly in the public interest’
Judges appointed by Donald Trump and Ronald Reagan declined on Friday to lift a stay on the Biden administration’s Covid-19 vaccine requirement for businesses with 100 or more workers.
One law professor said the move showed the court was “radical and anti-science”.
Continue reading...LA has imposed one of the US’s strictest vaccine mandates. Will it prevent a Covid surge?
Stringent proof-of-vaccine measures are an attempt to prevent the ‘incalculable loss’ of lives that struck the area last winter
This week, Los Angeles embraced one of the strictest vaccine rules in the United States, requiring residents to show proof of full vaccination before entering restaurants, movie theaters, gyms and other public spaces.
The latest rules are expected to boost vaccination rates in the US’ second most populous city. But they also prompted backlash. On Monday, demonstrators including municipal workers, police officers, dock workers, parents, and teachers protested in front of city hall, carrying signs reading “Freedom Not Force!” and “My body, my choice.”
Continue reading...Why is Europe returning to the dark days of Covid?
The continent is now the centre of the global epidemic – again. As countries from the Baltic to the Med brace for harsher winter measures, we look at what’s driving the fourth wave
It was almost as if the pandemic had never happened. In Cologne, thousands of revellers in fancy-dress jostled side by side in a tightly packed throng as they counted down to the start of the annual carnival season at 11am on 11 November.
In Paris, the bars and clubs were open late and filled to bursting on Wednesday, with Armistice Day a national holiday. In Amsterdam, it was business as usual in the overflowing cafes and coffee shops around the Leidseplein.
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