Category Archives: Health

Calls to ban neofascist groups after violence at Rome Covid pass protests

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Founder of far-right party among 12 arrested after mob storms A&E department and trade union HQ

Calls are growing in Italy to abolish neofascist movements after violent protests against Covid-19 vaccine passes in Rome, during which demonstrators tried to force their way into the official residence of the Italian prime minister.

Twelve people, including Roberto Fiore, the founder of the far-right Forza Nuova party, were arrested in connection to Saturday’s unrest, in which a group of about 30 raided a hospital accident and emergency unit – injuring four medical workers – and the offices of a trade union were stormed.

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NHS staff face rising tide of abuse from patients provoked by long waits

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Chronic underfunding, Covid and staff shortages blamed for increase in physical and verbal assaults

NHS staff across the UK are facing a “growing tide of abuse” including assaults from patients, which they say is being caused by frustration at long waits for care.

In a strongly worded joint statement, which has been shared with the Guardian, six key medical bodies and staff groups blame patients’ increasingly long delays in receiving treatment on years of successive governments underinvesting in the NHS and not fixing severe workforce shortages.

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Australia Covid live update: Victoria records 1,890 cases, five deaths; NSW 477 cases, six deaths; 10,000 vaccinated people to attend Melbourne Cup

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Victoria records 1,890 new cases and five deaths; NSW records 477 cases and six deaths; 30 new cases in ACT; 10,000 vaccinated people to attend Melbourne Cup; Perrottet says NSW wants ‘to open international borders as quickly as possible’, as lockdown for those fully vaccinated set to lift at midnight. Follow updates live

Speers pivoted from asking communications minister Paul Fletcher about holding social media companies to account to holding the federal government to account.

There was a lot of back and forth and at one point Fletcher referenced the resignation of Gladys Berejiklian as NSW premier as evidence of the failings of an anti-corruption authority.

The government’s proposed federal integrity commission wouldn’t be allowed to hold any public hearings. Why not? What’s there to hide?

David, the proposed federal integrity commission would have the powers of a royal commission to deal with criminal corrupt conduct at a commonwealth level. And of course ...

No public hearings, which is my question. Why not?

It will go through an investigation process.And then, if appropriate, it will refer material to the director of public prosecutions, and then you go through an open-court process.

This commission wouldn’t have public hearings. I mean, don’t you think voters, taxpayers, deserve to see what’s going on? I mean, we wouldn’t know about Daryl Maguire’s business dealings from his parliamentary office and kickbacks he was receiving. Don’t we need to see this stuff?

I think the outcomes last week where a very popular and highly competent premier stood down highlights some of the flaws in the model. So we don’t support a model where you are presumed guilty unless you can prove your innocence.

Your government, of course, tried to scrap Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act. You were worried about protecting free speech. Now it sounds like you want to go in the other direction and make it harder to say things that can be considered racist.

The test, David, will be the impact on the individual. If a reasonable person would consider that it was intended to harm and if it’s menacing, harassing or offensive – those words, by the way, taken from an existing provision in the criminal code dealing with online content. So what we’re doing is leaning in on this issue and all of the issues that arise in relation to online safety. Our government’s taken a leadership position on this since we came to government. The Australian eSafety Commissioner, set up in 2015, is world-leading ...

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Nursing crisis sweeps wards as NHS battles to find recruits

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Lack of EU staff adding to shortages: ‘There aren’t enough to deliver care we need’

Ministers are being warned of a mounting workforce crisis in England’s hospitals as they struggle to recruit staff for tens of thousands of nursing vacancies, with one in five nursing posts on some wards now unfilled.

Hospital leaders say the nursing shortfall has been worsened by a collapse in the numbers of recruits from Europe, including Spain and Italy.

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Menopause brain: the inability to think clearly is not ‘all in your mind’

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Some women worry they have the early signs of dementia. For many it’s a relief to discover the fog is hormone-related

If you are a woman in your 40s or 50s, you may at times have found yourself standing in a room wondering why on earth you are there, or forgotten the names of people you know well, or started a sentence and forgotten what it was that you needed to say.

A lot of women worry that these are early signs of dementia. But if these experiences coincide with changes in your hormone levels and maybe a few (or many) hot flushes, they are far more likely to be signs of menopause than the onset of dementia.

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How biodiversity loss is jeopardising the drugs of the future

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From willow bark to mosquitoes, nature has been a source of vital medications for centuries. But species die-off caused by human activity is putting this at risk

What will biodiversity loss mean for drug discovery?
Traditionally used as a painkiller for headaches, snowdrops are now known to slow the onset of dementia. In the 1950s, a natural alkaloid called galantamine was extracted from the bulbs. Today, a synthesised version of this is used to treat Alzheimer’s disease and scientists are investigating further to see if snowdrops might also be effective in the treatment of HIV.

However, over-harvesting has resulted in many snowdrop species becoming threatened. The snowdrop isn’t alone – plants are an abundant source of potential new medicines, often providing us with chemical templates for the design of novel drugs. Yet scientists across the globe say unsustainable use of wild medicinal plants is contributing to biodiversity loss and could limit opportunities to source medicines from nature in the future.

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Coronavirus live news: two million across England have had booster jab; Russia records record daily death toll

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Brazil’s death toll passes 600,000; study finds cases of anxiety and depression increased dramatically in 2020

Russia reported 968 coronavirus-related deaths on Saturday, its highest single-day death toll since the start of the pandemic.

There were 29,362 new cases recorded in the last 24 hours, the government coronavirus task force said.

Singapore’s transport minister has said the country will allow quarantine-free entry to vaccinated travellers from Denmark, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, the UK, Canada and the US.

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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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Ready, steady … oh. Can a life coach shake me out of my pandemic-induced ennui?

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It started in bed one morning when I realised I hadn’t had an original thought for months. I needed someone to make me wake up

For some reason it takes me two and a half hours to email my life coach. I write “email life coach guy” on my to-do list. I have a really long shower. I riffle through a stack of unopened New Yorkers, and pretend I am either going to read them, or leave them in my building’s lobby for my neighbours to claim, and in the end I do neither. I watch a 20-minute YouTube video about Amir Khan’s boxing career (“The legendary speed of Amir Khan!”), then check Wikipedia to see how he fared in the fight the video was trailing (an embarrassing knockout). I send three tweets and scroll Instagram. I stand at the fridge and eat some hummus with a plain cracker for no reason at all. Finally, I sit and write the email. It is 36 words long. Tomas, the life coach, writes back almost immediately. That was the absolute last thing I wanted.

The pandemic was broadly fine for me. I worked at home anyway, so I didn’t have any shock adjustment to make. I didn’t (and still don’t) have any children to look after, so there wasn’t any particular agony with my many lives layering on top of each other in a confined space. My girlfriend, Hannah, and I did the usual things to stay sane when confronted with seemingly endless periods of time and no real social life: jigsaws, taking too long to cook dinner, a Sopranos rewatch.

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Texas’ restrictive abortion law temporarily reinstated one day after being blocked

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A New Orleans-based appeals court quickly granted the state’s request to set aside a suspension until the case is reviewed

A federal appeals court on Friday night allowed Texas to temporarily resume banning most abortions, just one day after clinics across the state began rushing to serve patients again for the first time since early September.

Abortion providers in Texas had been bracing for the 5th US court of appeals to act quickly, even as they booked new appointments and reopened their doors during a brief reprieve from the law known as Senate Bill 8, which bans abortions once cardiac activity is detected, usually around six weeks.

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Study finds Covid-19 pandemic worsened mental health around the world

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Estimated 76m extra cases of anxiety and 53m extra cases of depression during pandemic, say researchers

Cases of anxiety and depression around the world increased dramatically in 2020, researchers have found, with an estimated 76m extra cases of anxiety and 53m extra cases of major depressive disorder than would have been expected had Covid not struck.

The study is the latest to suggest the pandemic has taken a serious toll on mental health, and that women and young people are more likely to be affected than men or older people.

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England’s last ‘red list’ restrictions confound South Americans

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Lingering quarantine rules anger would-be travellers from seven targeted countries

England’s decision to maintain strict Covid travel rules for seven South American and Caribbean countries has prompted further fury and confusion in the nations which remain on the “red list”.

Ministers announced on Thursday that restrictions would be lifted for 47 countries – including Brazil, South Africa and Thailand – allowing travellers to enter England without being subject to draconian and expensive quarantine restrictions.

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Coronavirus report warned of impact on UK four years before pandemic

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Exclusive: Report from planning exercise in 2016 alerted government of need to stockpile PPE and set up contact tracing system

Senior health officials who war-gamed the impact of a coronavirus hitting the UK, warned four years before the onset of Covid-19 of the need for stockpiles of PPE, a computerised contact tracing system and screening for foreign travellers, the Guardian can reveal.

The calls to step up preparations in areas already identified as shortcomings in the government’s response to Covid, emerged from a previously unpublished report of a health planning exercise in February 2016 that imagined a coronavirus outbreak.

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Tom Daley on love, grief and health: ‘It was hammered into me that I needed to lose weight’

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Fresh from winning gold in Tokyo, the diver answers readers’ questions on everything from gay role models to his passion for knitting and the secrets of his success

Tom Daley, Britain’s most decorated diver, grew up in the spotlight. He was 14 when he made a splash at his first Olympics, in 2008, and at 15 he became a world champion. This year in Tokyo, at his fourth Games, he finally won a longed-for gold, with his synchronised diving partner, Matty Lee. In 2013, Daley came out – a rarity among professional sportspeople – and he has become a campaigner for LGBTQ+ rights. Now 27, he is married to the screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, with whom he has a three-year-old son.

In a new autobiography, he describes struggles with injury, debilitating anxiety and coping with the death of his father, his biggest champion. Here, one of Britain’s best-loved athletes gamely answers questions from our writer and Guardian readers on all of the above, as well as his other great passion: knitting.

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Regional health experts and local mayors fear NSW reopening could spread Covid

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Tweed shire mayor says ‘many regions are facing the very real likelihood of their first Covid-19 outbreak’ ahead of the state lifting travel restrictions

All 10 local government areas in New South Wales with double-dose Covid vaccination rates below 50% are regional, with six of the 10 currently affected by outbreaks.

This could leave those areas at greater risk of adverse effects on health infrastructure and businesses in these areas, as NSW plans to reopen.

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WHO endorses use of world’s first malaria vaccine in Africa

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World Health Organization’s director general hails ‘historic day’ in fight against parasitic disease

The World Health Organization has recommended the widespread rollout of the first malaria vaccine, in a move experts hope could save tens of thousands of children’s lives each year across Africa.

Hailing “an historic day”, the WHO’s director general, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said that after a successful pilot programme in three African countries the RTS,S vaccine should be made available more widely.

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‘Covid toe’ may be side-effect of immune response, says study

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Chilblain-like inflammation causes redness on hands and feet and can last for months

The skin condition known as Covid toe may be a side-effect of the immune system’s response to fighting off the virus, according to a study.

The symptom results in chilblain-like inflammation and redness on the hands and feet, with the condition sometimes lasting for months at a time. It typically develops within a week to four weeks of being infected and can result in toes and fingers becoming swollen or changing colour.

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Australia Covid live news update: Victoria records 1,420 cases, 11 deaths as year 12s return to school; NSW nears 70% double vaccination target

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Banking regulator tightens rules on home loans; ‘dozens’ of construction protesters have Covid, John Setka says; Brittany Higgins appointed to Global Institute for Women’s Leadership; NSW to reach reopening vaccine rate today or tomorrow – follow all today’s news

The numbers are out in Victoria and there has been a bit of a drop, with 1,420 new cases recorded.

Sadly, the state has recorded 11 deaths overnight.

There’s a number of areas within the roadmap can be looked at.

There’s a number of issues that I want to raise with our health officials this morning. Whatever we do, we want to make sure it’s done in a way that keeps people safe.

That’s an incredibly positive thing. There’s been a slowdown, but there’s naturally going to be a slowdown if the vaccination rate gets to a high point.

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England urged to step up vaccinations to avoid winter Covid surge

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Prof Neil Ferguson calls for booster rollout and teenagers’ second jabs to be accelerated to ease NHS pressure

The distribution of Covid boosters for the most vulnerable people and second shots of vaccine for teenagers should be accelerated to help prevent a winter surge of coronavirus overburdening the NHS, a senior scientist has said.

Prof Neil Ferguson, the head of the influential disease modelling group at Imperial College London, said England’s vaccine strategy had been “cautious” in recent months, with many teenagers having only one jab, and boosters for the most vulnerable people given no sooner than six months after their second dose.

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Intimate data: can a person who tracks their steps, sleep and food ever truly be free?

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Big tech now encourages us to monitor everything from our heart rate to our glucose levels via smartphones and watches. How much privacy have we lost to the promise of self improvement - and is it time to stop?


First we counted our steps, then our heartbeats, blood pressure and respiratory rates. We monitored our sleep, workouts, periods and fertility windows. But there is plenty left to measure as we are sold the promise of self-optimisation by the vast and sometimes controversial frontier of health tracking – an increasingly medicalised market that has flourished since pedometers went digital and watches got smart.

The latest health metric available to consumers comes from a medical device originally designed for people with diabetes; it allows users to track their blood sugar levels. But, as always, the big questions are: will it make us healthier, and is it wise to sacrifice ever more intimate data?

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