Category Archives: Infectious Diseases

The world was woefully unprepared for a pandemic. Let’s be ready for the next one | Elhadj As Sy

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The Global Preparedness Monitoring Board is calling for a coherent action plan to counter future health emergencies

Two years ago, three months before coronavirus erupted, the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board (GPMB) issued a warning to the international community that a pandemic was only a matter of time, and that the world was not prepared. Tragically, we were proved right.

After 20 months of Covid-19, with nearly five million directly attributed deaths and economic devastation, we say again that the world is not prepared. It has neither the capacity to end the current pandemic in the near future, nor to prevent the next one.

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Coronavirus live: European Medical Agency approves Moderna booster; UK records 36,567 new cases

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The EU’s medical body has approved booster doses of Moderna’s Covid vaccine for all adults; UK also reports 38 further Covid-related deaths

Just back on those school anti-vaccine protests for a moment, my colleague Sarah Marsh has this report: Keir Starmer calls for schools to be protected from anti-vaccine protests

The Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) revealed this month that most of the schools surveyed by the union (79%) had been targeted by anti-vaxxers. This had mainly been through emails threatening legal action, but the ASCL said in some cases staff had been threatened with physical harm and some protesters have gained access to school sites.

Starmer said: “It is sickening that anti-vax protesters are spreading dangerous misinformation to children in protests outside of schools. The uptake of vaccines among children is far too low and the government’s rollout is painfully slow. Everything must be done to get those eligible jabbed as quickly as possible in this public health emergency.

“Labour believes the law around public spaces protection orders (PSPOs) urgently needs to be updated so that local authorities can rapidly create exclusion zones for anti-vax protests outside of schools.”

PSPOs can be used to disperse people from a public area and have previously been used to move on protesters outside abortion clinics or to allow police to confiscate alcohol in certain spaces.

But gaining permission to impose one takes significant consultation, and Labour is calling for an expedited process in cases of preventing harassment and intimidation of children outside schools if agreed to by the school, the leader of the local council, and the local police chief constable.

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Fauci predicts Covid shots for kids five to 11 will be available by early November

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Government’s chief medical adviser makes prediction after FDA review panel finds that benefits for group outweighs risks

Vaccines to protect children ages five to 11 from Covid-19 will be available in the US in early to mid-November, Dr Anthony Fauci, the government’s chief medical adviser, predicted on Sunday.

A review panel of the US food and drug administration (FDA) found last week that the benefits of Pfizer-BioNTech shots for the younger age group outweighed the risks, setting up an advisory meeting on Tuesday of outside FDA experts who are expected to recommend emergency use authorization.

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Covid live: more than 325,000 in England get boosters in one day as UK chancellor rejects calls for immediate ‘plan B’

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Latest updates: NHS chief says Saturday was ‘biggest day yet for Covid booster jabs’ as Rishi Sunak says Covid numbers don’t suggest action needed today

China has given complete doses of Covid-19 vaccines to about 75.6% of its population as of 23 October, National Health Commission spokesperson Mi Feng said on Sunday.

Some 1.068 billion people have been inoculated with the required dosages, out of a population of 1.412 billion, Mi told a news briefing.

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UK government paves way to bring in tough ‘plan B’ Covid rules

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Councils consulted over support for measures such as vaccine passports amid warnings by senior doctors that NHS faces winter illness ‘triple whammy’

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New evidence has emerged that the government is paving the way to implement “plan B” measures in England to combat the spread of Covid-19, amid warnings from health chiefs that a “vortex of pressures” is encircling the NHS.

In the clearest sign to date that Whitehall is actively considering additional measures, the Observer has learnt that the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) contacted local authorities on Friday to canvass their level of support for the “immediate rollout of the winter plan – plan B”.

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Covid live news: Amnesty calls for inquiry into Italian care home deaths; India likely to miss vaccine target

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Action urged over reports of retaliation against Italian nursing staff; longer than usual gap between AstraZeneca doses slowing India’s roll-out

One thing regular readers will have noted is that I occasionally pop in this map that seems to indicate the extent to which the UK’s caseload is an outlier in the western end of Europe, while also showing the surge that is building up towards the east of the continent.

It can sometimes be quite the cognitive dissonance for a journalist to be reporting that Russia – with a much larger population and a much lower caseload than the UK – is going into a week of work-free lockdown to try and break transmission, while members of the UK government are failing to follow their own public health advice over face mask wearing, even as daily Covid cases top 50,000.

“The UK is an outlier, because it does have quite high coverage of vaccination — and is still having 45,000 cases per day,” said Quique Bassat, a pediatrician at the Barcelona Institute for Global health.

Yet after Britain marked “freedom day” in July, it was to be expected that there would be a “persistence of transmission as opposed to other countries which have maintained much more stringent preventive measures,” said Bassat.

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Coronavirus live: WHO warns indoor socialising driving infections; Russia sees ‘isolated cases’ of Delta subvariant

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Indoor socialising in winter behind rise in cases, WHO warns; AY.4.2 subvariant may be around 10% more infectious than the original Delta

In the UK Labour’s shadow culture secretary Jo Stevens – she is MP for Cardiff Central – has been on Sky News, and has been highly critical of the government’s approach to rising Covid numbers in the UK, accusing the health secretary Sajid Javid of an “element of complacency” in his press conference yesterday. She said:

It’s a serious situation we’re in. Rising infection rates, rising hospitalisation rates, and suddenly rising death rates. And what we want to see and have pressed the government to do is to demonstrate their plan for dealing with this ahead of the winter situation.

The NHS is under pressure.

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Coronavirus news live: minister rules out England lockdown as NHS chief says ‘overwhelming evidence’ action needed

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Kwasi Kwarteng says talk of restrictions ‘unhelpful’ as NHS boss says health service faces ‘perfect storm’

Chief executive of the NHS confederation Matthew Taylor has been on Sky News in the UK, and he had a strong message in support of the government taking steps towards “plan B” and take some action to avert a healthcare crisis over the winter. He said

The question is do we need to act? And I would say the overwhelming evidence is we do need to act, and then the question is, is it better to act early and take measures which don’t stop the economy working – but I recognise they are inconvenient – or do we wait, wait for things to get worse, and possibly risk having to take more severe measures.

So, the elements of plan B enable us to carry on with our lives, carry on with the economy, but to do so in a way which produces the risk. And after all, most of the measures in plan B are measures that other countries in Europe are continuing to enact, and they have lower infection rates than we do.

The government said that the criteria for determining whether or not we enacted elements of plan B was the position of the health service, and the health service is facing a perfect storm.

Winter is always tough for the health service for various reasons. We have got thousands of Covid patients in hospital, and it looks like those numbers are rising in line with the rising infection rate. And we’ve also got the huge pent-up demand that’s built up over the last 18 months.

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Without Covid-19 jab, ‘reinfection may occur every 16 months’

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Reports grow of repeat infection as experts warn prevalence among school pupils puts older people at risk

As Covid-19 infections surge in England, people are increasingly reporting catching Sars-CoV-2 for a second or even third time.

New analysis has suggested that unvaccinated individuals should expect to be reinfected with Covid-19 every 16 months, on average.

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Offshoot of Covid Delta variant on the rise in England

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UK Health Security Agency monitoring AY.4.2 as daily cases at highest level since late July

A newly detected coronavirus variant is on the rise in England, with the virus believed to be an offshoot of Delta.

According to a briefing from the UK Health Security Agency, released on Friday, “a Delta sublineage newly designated as AY.4.2 is noted to be expanding in England”, with the body adding that the variant is being monitored and assessed.

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What’s the value of a confirmatory PCR test? | David Spiegelhalter and Anthony Masters

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A positive lateral flow test, followed by a negative PCR, still means a reasonable chance of Covid-19

After a wave of cases in which a positive lateral flow device (LFD) test was followed by a negative PCR test, a private laboratory handling swab tests has been suspended.

But conflicting results are not a new problem. Back in June, when secondary school students with a positive LFD were retested with a PCR check, over one in eight came back negative. And even without laboratory problems, it is unclear why a negative PCR should trump a positive LFD.

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Covid live: Russia reports record 1,000 deaths; UK investigates testing errors

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Country’s death toll passes 1,000 mark for first time since the start of the pandemic; record number of Covid jabs administered by healthcare workers

US health officials are setting the stage for a national Covid-19 vaccination campaign for younger children, inviting state officials to order doses before the shots are authorised.

Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine is currently being given to people as young as 12 in the US. Over the next three weeks, federal officials plan to discuss making smaller-dose versions available to the nation’s 28 million children between the ages of five and 11.

At least two dozen lawsuits have been filed around the US, many in recent weeks, by people seeking to force hospitals to give their COVID-stricken loved ones ivermectin, a drug for parasites that has been promoted by conservative commentators as a treatment despite a lack of conclusive evidence that it helps people with the virus.

Interest in the drug started rising toward the end of last year and the beginning of this one, when studies — some later withdrawn, in other countries — seemed to suggest ivermectin had some potential and it became a hot topic of conversation among conservatives on social media.

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NSW hits 80% vaccination target; Victoria’s seven deaths include 15-year-old girl – as it happened

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Southern Tasmania in lockdown with next 48 hours ‘critical’ and ACT expands travel into regional NSW. This blog is now closed

The NSW numbers are in.

The state has reported 319 local Covid-19 cases overnight, and two additional deaths.

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Why Britons are tolerating sky-high Covid rates – and why this may not last

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Analysis: as Covid cases reach 40,000 a day, scientists think normalisation is partly to blame for the lack of public reaction

It is one of the conundrums of the current phase of the Covid pandemic: the UK has among the highest number of infections across the world and a death toll that continues to steadily climb, yet the national mood seems sanguine. So is this down to British stoicism, a Keep Calm and Carry on mentality?

Not according to experts. They talk of many factors being at play – and warn it may not last.

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‘Last chance’: WHO reveals new team to investigate Covid origins

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A group of 26 experts will also be tasked with examining new pathogens and how to prevent future pandemics

The World Health Organization has unveiled a team of scientists it wants to revive the stalled inquiry into Covid-19’s origins, with one senior official saying it may be the last chance.

The group of 26 experts will be charged with producing a new global framework for studies into the origins of emerging pathogens of epidemic and pandemic potential – and their remit includes Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19.

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Scientists abused and threatened for discussing Covid, global survey finds

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Poll of 321 scientists found 15% received death threats after speaking publicly on the pandemic

Scientists around the world have received threats of death and sexual assault after speaking to the media about Covid-19, a survey has revealed.

Of 321 scientists asked by Nature magazine, 15% said they had received death threats and 22% had been threatened with physical or sexual violence as a result of talking publicly about the pandemic.

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How my ivermectin research led to Twitter death threats | Dr Andrew Hill

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I was sent images of coffins and hanged Nazi war criminals after finding medical fraud in clinical trials

The story of online threats and abuse is very dark. In early 2021, my research team was analysing a new drug called ivermectin. In the first clinical trials, this drug seemed to prevent new infections and improve survival. When I first wrote about this, I started getting regular threats on Twitter, demanding that ivermectin should be approved worldwide and questioning the safety of vaccines.

In March 2021, I received my first vaccine dose and posted a photo on Twitter from the clinic. Within minutes I was receiving strange messages: “Why would you do that?”, “not safe”, “why not use ivermectin instead”, “you are paid by the Gates Foundation”. One person even sent a link to a suction device to remove the vaccine fluid from my arm. Any message I sent promoting the benefits of vaccines led to threats and abuse.

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Local Covid vaccines fill gap as UN Covax scheme misses target

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India, Egypt and Cuba among first states to develop and make their own vaccines as Covax falls behind

Developing countries are increasingly turning to homegrown Covid vaccinations as the UN-backed Covax programme falls behind.

While western countries roll out booster jabs to their own populations, Covax, which was set up by UN agencies, governments and donors to ensure fair access to Covid-19 vaccines for low- and middle-income countries, has said it will miss its target to distribute 2bn doses globally by the end of this year.

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Covid by numbers: 10 key lessons separating fact from fiction

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To make sense of coronavirus data, the Observer asked David Spiegelhalter and Anthony Masters of the Royal Statistical Society Covid taskforce to write a column. That column has now inspired a book. Here are some of its insights

Genomic sequencing has identified more than 1,000 different seeds of Sars-CoV-2 introduced in early 2020. Instead of one central outbreak, reverberating outwards like an explosion, we now know there were many erupting simultaneously across the country. There were far more imports of Sars-CoV-2 from France, Italy and Spain than from China – viruses can take indirect flights. The peak was early March, after the school half-term, but a popular holiday time for adults. At the Champions League football match at Anfield between Liverpool and Atlético Madrid on 10 March, 49,000 local supporters mixed with 3,000 fans of the opposing team, while schools in Madrid were shut and supporters could not attend matches. To add insult to injury, Liverpool lost 3–2, and 4–2 on aggregate.

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Anti-vaccine chiropractors capitalizing on Covid and sowing misinformation

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A vocal minority tout their supplements as alternatives, donate large sums of money to anti-vaccine organizations and sell anti-vaccine ads on Facebook and Instagram, the AP discovered

The flashy postcard, covered with images of syringes, beckoned people to attend Vax-Con ’21 to learn “the uncensored truth” about Covid-19 vaccines.

Participants traveled from around the country to a Wisconsin Dells resort for a sold-out convention that was, in fact, a sea of misinformation and conspiracy theories about vaccines and the pandemic.

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