Catalogue of errors by government and health officials includes the deliberate winding down of PPE stockpiles
The first official report by the UK Covid inquiry is set to expose a catalogue of failures by the last Conservative government and health officials in the run-up to the pandemic.
Lady Heather Hallett, the inquiry’s chair, will issue the report on Thursday and make recommendations to ensure that the UK is better prepared for any future outbreak.
Continue reading...Alarm over high mortality and miscarriage rates as mutated virus spreads in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo
A dangerous strain of mpox that is killing children and causing miscarriages in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is the most transmissible yet and could spread internationally, scientists have warned.
The virus appears to be spreading from person to person via both sexual and non-sexual contact, in places ranging from brothels to schools.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...Agency principal deputy director wants more testing of farm workers who work in proximity to affected animals
There is not enough testing for bird flu among people and animals in the US, says Dr Nirav Shah, principal deputy director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) – but he is wary of pushing the issue and damaging fragile trust among farm workers and owners.
“We would like to be doing more tests,” Shah said. “We’d like to be testing particularly not just symptomatic workers, but anyone on a farm who is exposed.”
Continue reading...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”.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...Models suggest deaths in poorer countries could be cut by 18% – or about 750,000 a year – with preventive measures
Every year 750,000 deaths linked to drug-resistant superbugs could be prevented through better access to clean water and sanitation, infection control and childhood vaccinations, research suggests.
Antimicrobial resistance, or AMR, is a huge global challenge, with the evolution of drug-resistant superbugs, driven by factors including inappropriate and excessive antibiotic use, raising the prospect of a future where modern medicine fails.
Continue reading...Christopher Marsh says he is determined to see the contaminated blood inquiry ‘to the end’
“I lost both my brothers through it and I want to still be here, I want to see justice, I want to see it to the end,” says Christopher Marsh of the contaminated blood scandal.
Marsh, 49, and his two brothers, Gary and Kelvin, were all infected in 1981 through imported blood products used to treat people with haemophilia. Last year he was told his hepatitis C had become chronic and, with his brothers having long since died as a result of being infected, he is determined to see the end of the infected blood inquiry, which will publish its final report on 20 May, and the official response.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...Health authorities also warn RSV, flu and whooping cough cases on the rise around Australia
A measles alert was issued for Sydney on Sunday and other airborne illnesses are on the rise, while Australia’s Covid load is relatively low after the summer’s surge of the JN.1 variant.
New South Wales Health issued an alert on Sunday morning after a woman caught measles from a child who had been diagnosed days earlier.
Continue reading...US public health agency alert warns of 422 cases reported in the country last year, the highest number since 2014
An invasive meningococcal disease – which can be deadly to infected people – is on the rise, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warned.
In an alert issued on Thursday, the CDC warned that there were 422 cases of the disease reported in the US last year, the highest annual number of cases reported since 2014.
Continue reading...After no reported cases of wild polio for 19 weeks, vaccination efforts boosted at last endemic spots in Pakistan and Afghanistan
The world is “tantalisingly close” to eradicating polio – with no confirmed cases of wild polio anywhere so far this year. But experts warn that vaccination efforts – and funding – must not falter if the world is to rid itself of a human infectious disease for the second time in history, after smallpox.
There have been no reported cases of wild polio infection in people for the last 19 weeks. Figures from the World Health Organization reveal that the last confirmed cases were on the borders of Pakistan and Afghanistan in October and September 2023 respectively; these are the last nations on Earth where polio is endemic.
Continue reading...Tens of thousands of dengue cases recorded this year as high temperatures and rainy weather create ‘perfect formula’ for bugs
In his 20 years cleaning the Buenos Aires subway, Mauricio Ríos, 52, had never seen anything like it: a vast and noisy swarm of mosquitoes churning in dark clouds the length of the platform at Piedras station.
Ríos pulled out his phone and filmed the growing swarm for half a minute, before rushing to the break room, contacting his superior and shutting down the station.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...The Tijuana River flows through Mexico and empties off California, carrying pathogens and chemicals and threatening public health
Raw sewage and runoff in the Tijuana River is exposing communities at the US-Mexico border to an unusual and noxious brew of pathogens and toxic chemicals, according to a report released this week.
Billions of gallons of sewage flow through the river, which winds north from Mexico through California and empties into the Pacific Ocean, containing a mix of carcinogenic chemicals including arsenic, as well as viruses, bacteria and parasites, according to public health researchers at San Diego State University, who published the report.
Continue reading...Emergency measures taken as 364,855 cases of mosquito-borne infection reported this year, a fourfold increase on year before
Dengue fever has surged in Brazil’s hot rainy season, forcing health authorities to take emergency measures and start mass vaccination against the mosquito-borne illness.
In the first five weeks of this year, 364,855 cases of infection have been reported, the health ministry said, four times more than dengue cases in the same period of 2023.
Continue reading...UN agency calls for ‘urgent vaccination efforts’ in region to prevent further spread of disease
The World Health Organization has issued an urgent warning over measles after an “alarming” 30-fold rise in cases across Europe.
The UN agency reported an enormous increase in numbers affected by the disease, which it said had “accelerated in recent months”. More than 30,000 cases were reported between January and October last year, compared with 941 cases in the whole of 2022 – a more than 30-fold rise.
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