Category Archives: Science

The vaccine miracle: how scientists waged the battle against Covid-19

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We trace the extraordinary research effort, from the discovery of the virus’s structure to the start of inoculations this week

In the early afternoon of 3 January this year, a small metal box was delivered to the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Centre addressed to virus expert Prof Zhang Yongzhen. Inside, packed in dry ice, were swabs from a patient who was suffering from a novel, occasionally fatal respiratory illness that was sweeping the city of Wuhan. Exactly what was causing terrifying rises in case numbers, medical authorities wanted to know? And how was the disease being spread?

Related: ‘I worked so hard in the lab. I cried when the news came’

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Coronavirus live news: Italy’s death toll passes 60,000; UK records another 231 Covid deaths

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Italy has sixth highest death toll across the world; Russia reports 29,039 new cases, taking cumulative total to 2,460,770

Sick people in northern France occasionally leave garments in healing trees or “arbres à loques” in the hope of a cure, following a tradition that persists since pre-Roman times.

But recently, this tradition has been updated for the coronavirus age.

Donald Trump says his lawyer Rudy Giuliani has tested positive for coronavirus.

.@RudyGiuliani, by far the greatest mayor in the history of NYC, and who has been working tirelessly exposing the most corrupt election (by far!) in the history of the USA, has tested positive for the China Virus. Get better soon Rudy, we will carry on!!!

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Jeff Bezos: Blue Origin space company will take first woman to the moon

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  • Amazon owner seeks Nasa lunar lander contract
  • Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Dynetics also in competition

Jeff Bezos’ space company Blue Origin will take the first woman to the moon, the billionaire said as Nasa nears a decision over who will supply its first privately built lunar landers, meant to be capable of sending astronauts to the moon by 2024.

Related: Japan’s Hayabusa2 capsule returns to Earth carrying asteroid samples

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Anosmia: how Covid brought loss of smell centre stage

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A condition once overlooked by researchers is now in the spotlight as a key symptom of Covid-19

Seven years ago, rhinology surgeon Peter Andrews found himself performing an operation that would go on to change the course of his career.

Andrews was operating on a patient who had broken his nose many decades earlier after being struck by a cricket ball. The procedure was delicate: straightening the septum – the thin wall of cartilage that separates the nostrils – and in the process improving his breathing, which had become more laboured in later life.

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Team behind Oxford Covid jab start final stage of malaria vaccine trials

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Vaccine could be in use by 2024 if next year’s human trials are successful

The Oxford team that has produced a successful coronavirus vaccine is about to enter the final stage of human trials in its quest for an inoculation against malaria.

The Jenner Institute director, Prof Adrian Hill, said the malaria vaccine would be tested on 4,800 children in Africa next year after early trials yielded promising results.

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Japan’s Hayabusa2 sends capsule carrying asteroid samples towards Earth

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Capsule will burn through atmosphere before landing in South Australia in the early hours of Sunday morning

Japan’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft has successfully separated a capsule and sent it toward Earth to deliver samples from a distant asteroid that could provide clues to the origin of the solar system and life on our planet.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency said the capsule successfully detached Saturday afternoon from 220,000km (136,700 miles) away in a challenging operation that required precision control. The capsule is now descending to land in a remote, sparsely populated area of Woomera, Australia, on Sunday.

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Coronavirus live news: UK records 397 new deaths and a further 15,539 cases; Keir Starmer forced to self-isolate

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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.

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How vaccine approval compares between the UK, Europe and the US

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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.

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Coronavirus live news: Biden vows to get vaccinated in public; Cyprus to waive tests for vaccinated visitors

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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.

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Beating the anti-vaxxers: how star power can help squash vaccine myths

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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.

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I tried the world’s first no-kill, lab-grown chicken burger

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Exclusive: At a ‘test restaurant’ in Israel, the meat is grown in vats behind a glass screen. Could it be a taste of the future?

A PhD in genetics might seem like an unusual requirement for the role of head chef. It makes more sense when the man running the kitchen is not just in charge of frying your chicken burger – he created the meat himself.

“This burger takes something between two to three days to grow,” says Tomer Halevy as he chops red onions, iceberg lettuce and avocado. He proceeds to batter what appears to be a strip of raw chicken before dipping it in breadcrumbs.

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Gavin Williamson: UK is ‘a much better country than every single one of them’

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Education secretary lauds vaccine rollout saying scientists in UK better than in France, Belgium or US

The education secretary, Gavin Williamson, has claimed the UK was the first country in the world to clinically approve a coronavirus vaccine because the country has “much better” scientists than France, Belgium or the US.

Williamson said he was not surprised the UK was the first to roll out the immunisation because “we’re a much better country than every single one of them”.

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Coronavirus live news: US records highest daily deaths since April; Obama, Bush and Clinton offer to get vaccines on TV

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French ex-president Valéry Giscard d’Estaing has died of Covid-related complications; US suffers highest daily deaths since April; Former US presidents hope to inspire public confidence in vaccine

Hi there - this is Archie Bland picking up the global coronavirus liveblog, and beginning in Russia, where 28,145 new cases, a record high, and 554 deaths have been recorded in the last 24 hours.

Those figures compare with 25,345 new cases and 589 deaths, the latter figure also a record, the previous day.

Hundreds of thousands of masked students in South Korea, including 35 confirmed Covid-19 patients, took the highly competitive university entrance exam today despite the viral resurgence that has forced authorities to toughen social distancing rules.

About 493,430 students were taking the one-day exam at about 1,380 sites across the nation, including hospitals and other medical facilities where the 35 virus patients and hundreds of other test-takers in self-quarantine sat separately from others, according to the education ministry.

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Coronavirus live news: Global death toll passes 1.5m

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World passes grim tally with a death reported every nine seconds on average; Italy registers 993 new deaths and 23,255 new cases; Iran goes past 1m cases

More than 1.5 million people have lost their lives due to Covid-19 with one death reported every nine seconds on a weekly average, as vaccinations are set to begin in December in a handful of developed nations.

Reuters reports that half a million deaths occurred in just the last two months, indicating that the severity of the pandemic is far from over. Nearly 65 million people globally have been infected by the disease and the worst affected country, United States, is currently battling a third wave of coronavirus infections.

I actually believe they’re going to be the most difficult time in the public health history of this nation.

A partial lockdown will begin this weekend in the Gaza Strip after Covid-19 infections surged in the densely populated territory, Gaza’s interior ministry declared on Thursday.

Mosques, schools, universities and kindergartens - excluding high schools and nurseries - will be closed during the day, although many businesses will be allowed to remain open until a night-time curfew from 6pm to 8am forces Gazans to stay at home. There will be a full closure at weekends.

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‘The scientists have done it’: Boris Johnson hails Covid vaccine

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PM says news brings ‘sure and certain knowledge’ that people can reclaim their lives

Boris Johnson has declared that the nation is no longer resting on the hope of a return to normality by spring but instead has the “certain knowledge” that people can reclaim their lives, as he hailed the arrival of the newly approved Covid-19 vaccine.

The prime minister told a Downing Street press conference on Wednesday that “the scientists have done it”, although he stressed that people should not get carried away with “over-optimism”, insisting that they continue to abide by the rules.

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UK coronavirus live: Boris Johnson leads Downing Street briefing after vaccine approved for use

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Latest updates: PM holds press conference after earlier warning people not to ‘get hopes up too soon’ about early vaccination

Stevens is talking about the vaccination guidelines. (See 11.23am.)

The roll-out will be phased, he says.

Johnson urges people in tier 3 areas to take part in community testing.

And people should follow the restrictions, he says.

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France will carry out border checks to stop skiers from spreading Covid

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Coronavirus clusters in Alpine resorts played key role in early spread of virus in Europe

France will carry out random border checks over the holiday season targeting French skiers on their way to and from foreign resorts – particularly Switzerland and Spain – where slopes stay open, the prime minister, Jean Castex, has said.

“The goal is to avoid French citizens getting contaminated. That will be done by performing random checks at the borders,” Castex told French television, adding that returning holidaymakers would be ordered to quarantine for seven days.

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UK approves Pfizer/BioNTech Covid vaccine for rollout next week

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‘Historic moment’ allows mass immunisation, with 800,000 doses expected to be available next week

The UK has become the first western country to license a vaccine against Covid, opening the way for mass immunisation with the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine to begin next week for those most at risk.

The vaccine has been authorised for emergency use by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Authority (MHRA), before decisions by the US and Europe. The MHRA was given power to approve the vaccine by the government under special regulations before 1 January, when it will become fully responsible for medicines authorisation in the UK after Brexit.

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Coronavirus live news: CDC suggests first vaccines to US healthcare workers; England enters tier system

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US hospitalisations surge; New tier system replaces lockdown; BioNTech/Pfizer and Moderna file for EU approval of Covid-19 vaccine

The national accounts, released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics just now, shows that rise in seasonally adjusted chain volume measures, after a 7% fall in the June quarter.

In the US, a government panel on Tuesday formally recommended early doses of Covid-19 vaccines be given first to healthcare workers and long-term care facility residents in the US, generally seen as people who live in nursing homes and assisted living facilities.

Together, that group would represent roughly 23 million Americans, disproportionately including women, people of color and low-wage workers who makeup the healthcare labor force.

Related: CDC panel recommends giving Covid-19 vaccines to healthcare workers first

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Coronavirus live news: WHO says vaccines won’t prevent short-term surge; Putin orders start of mass inoculation

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Health body says there won’t be enough doses to prevent new wave in cases in next six months; Russian president says programme should start next week

Morocco hopes to launch an ambitious vaccination campaign against the coronavirus by year-end, but its efforts have sparked suspicion and rumours in the country, hard-hit by the pandemic.

The North African kingdom is hoping to immunise 20 million adults against Covid-19 within three months, using vaccinations from China’s Sinopharm and a UK-sourced shot developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University.

Boris Johnson might be persuaded to take a Covid-19 vaccination on television to show it is safe but he would not have one before those in greater need, his press secretary has said.

Johnson, 56, who spent time in intensive care earlier this year after contracting Covid-19, has hailed the UK approval of Pfizer’s vaccine as a global win and ray of hope.

I don’t think it would be something he would rule out.

But I think we also know that he wouldn’t want to take a jab that should be for someone who is extremely vulnerable, clinically vulnerable, and who should be getting it before him.

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