Category Archives: Health

Coronavirus live: passports ‘needed to keep England venues open’; Vietnam says city residents must get vaccine

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England vaccines minister says passes needed for nightclubs and mass events; Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi residents must receive one dose by 15 September

The BBC reports that Scottish Labour will not support the Scottish government’s plans to introduce vaccine passports.

Anas Sarwar told BBC Scotland’s The Sunday Show:

This is not opposition for opposition’s sake. Neither is this an ideological opposition to the principle of vaccine passports. This is about what works, and what’s going to make a meaningful difference. We all agree the vaccine is working in helping reduce hospitalisations and reduce deaths but there is a fear that using vaccine passports might actually entrench vaccine hesitancy rather than encourage uptake.

US officials have expressed optimism that Covid-19 booster shot delivery can start for all adults on 20 September, the goal set by President Joe Biden, as cases continue to rage across the country fueled by the highly transmissible Delta variant.

The officials insist, however, that boosters will not be rolled out without US health agencies’ authorisation, leaving open the possibility of delays.

Related: US officials optimistic Covid booster rollout can start on 20 September

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US officials optimistic Covid booster rollout will start on 20 September

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But they insist shots won’t be rolled out without health agencies’ authorization, leaving open possibility of delays

US officials have expressed optimism that Covid-19 booster shot delivery can start for all adults on 20 September, the goal set by President Joe Biden, as cases continue to rage across the country fueled by the highly transmissible Delta variant.

The officials insist, however, that boosters will not be rolled out without US health agencies’ authorization, leaving open the possibility of delays.

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Australia Covid live updates: Victoria records 183 new cases as NSW rushes to vaccinate essential workers

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Essential workers over the age of 16 who live in local government areas of concern won’t be allowed to leave their LGA from Monday unless they have had at least one dose of a Covid vaccine. Follow latest updates

Independent federal senator, Rex Patrick, appears to have tweeted an ultimatum to the government: be transparent about the profitable corporations that wrongly pocketed jobkeeper, or he will withdraw support for the government’s changes to the EPBC Act.

The government needs Patrick’s vote in the Senate to pass the legislation.

I’m done with ‘em. @ScottMorrisonMP gifting hard earned taxpayer money to his business mates & donors makes him the most shameless & unethical PM ever. @JoshFrydenberg’s JK prudential failure makes him the most incompetent Treasurer ever. EPBC discussions over @sussanley! #auspol pic.twitter.com/rMctoje7Xy

Finally, Speers asked Robert why the government won’t, at least, publish a list for taxpayers of “where the money went and let the firms decide whether to pay it back”?

But Robert argued that that would interfere with the privacy of these companies.

The transparency if you like, or what pertained in the Senate which was a demand for all the records of so many Australian companies, and vast majority of them being small to medium enterprises under tax law, that would substantially invade the privacy and would substantially make a huge step in the wrong direction as to how we manage the privacy of all of those individuals and all of those companies, David. It would be a massive retrograde step in how we do things.

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‘Complex and quite ambiguous loss’: what Covid has done to our mental health

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Melbourne psychologist Chris Cheers says the pandemic’s effect has been akin to grief, and acceptance of it is hard to reach

After 18 months, psychologist Chris Cheers has begun to understand emotional responses to the global Covid pandemic as a kind of grief.

It’s a collective grief, experienced by the whole world at once, but also deeply personal: our losses are not the same just as our experiences have not been the same.

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Coronavirus live news: UK continues debate over jabs for children; Australia records highest daily cases

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Sage expert responds to UK watchdog’s decision not to recommend vaccine for 12- to 15-year-olds; 1,756 infections in Australia on Saturday

Vaccine passport restrictions in France could be eased if rates of Covid-19 infections in the country begin to slow, the labour minister, Élisabeth Borne, said on Saturday.

“The health situation is improving. If this is confirmed, we will be able to ease the rules,” Reuters quoted Borne telling France Inter radio, adding that this could be decided “in the coming days”.

In another sporting cancellation, the boxer Oscar De La Hoya has said his comeback fight due for next weekend has been cancelled after he caught Covid.

Wanted you to hear directly from me that despite being fully vaccinated, I have contracted Covid and am not going to be able to fight next weekend. Preparing for this comeback has been everything to me over the last months, & I want to thank everyone for their tremendous support. pic.twitter.com/0wKEnr5Jzv

I am currently in the hospital getting treatment and am confident I will be back in the ring before the year is up. God bless everyone and stay safe.

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‘Roe v Wade is a husk’: anguish and anger in Texas after abortion ruling

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Climate of fear descends on state for clinic workers, patients and others after the supreme court’s conservative majority decision on Wednesday

Anti-abortion bounty hunters began calling Amy Hagstrom Miller’s chain of four independent abortion clinics in Texas just hours after the supreme court issued a two-paragraph order that effectively ended access to 85% of abortion services in the state.

Related: After the Texas abortion ban, clinics in nearby states brace for demand

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PM’s former aide blames Whitehall for Covid ‘mixed messages’

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Lee Cain says pandemic exposed a communications system ill equipped for the 21st century

Boris Johnson’s former director of communications has blamed a lack of expertise in Whitehall for the government’s struggle to get its message across in the early days of the Covid crisis.

Lee Cain was a key adviser to Johnson, who boasted about shaking hands on a hospital visit, claimed the government could “turn the tide” within 12 weeks, and said it would be “inhuman” to cancel Christmas, days before ordering millions of people to spend the festive season at home.

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Covid jabs for UK children: a very tight decision that could be overruled

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Analysis: The JCVI would not back vaccination of all 12 to 15-year-olds, but the impact on schools will now have to be considered

It was, the scientists said, a very finely balanced decision. On the one hand, Covid vaccines undoubtedly help to reduce infection and illness. On the other, Covid vaccines – like every other vaccine in medical history – are not without their risks. In children aged 12 to 15, the threat of serious Covid is tiny, but so is the risk of serious side-effects from the vaccine.

After much deliberation, the government’s independent vaccine advisers concluded that, on the strength of evidence so far, there was a marginal benefit to vaccinating healthy children aged 12 to 15 years old. But that benefit was deemed so very marginal the advisers would not give the green light to mass vaccination of healthy children in the age group.

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Italy could soon make Covid-19 vaccines mandatory, says PM

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Mario Draghi’s announcement sparks row in country where protests and violence from anti-vaxxers are on the rise

Italy’s prime minister has announced his government could make Covid-19 vaccines mandatory, sparking a row in the country that has seen a recent rise in protests and violence from anti-vaxxers.

During a press conference on Thursday, Mario Draghi said all Italians of eligible age could soon be obliged to get a shot, as soon as the European Medicines Agency (EMA) gives its conditional approval for four vaccines.

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Stress test: how ‘burnout breaks’ are helping staff recover from pandemic

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Businesses are becoming increasingly aware that exhaustion is a ticking timebomb

This week, staff at Nike’s headquarters in Oregon breathed a prolonged sigh of relief, after learning that they were getting a week off to de-stress and recover from the pressures of the Covid-19 pandemic.

In an open message to staff posted on LinkedIn, Nike’s senior manager of global marketing science, Matt Marrazzo, told staff: “In a year (or two) unlike any other, taking time for rest and recovery is key to performing well and staying sane.”

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Scott Morrison unveils ‘dose swap’ deal with UK to provide extra 4m Pfizer vaccines

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Prime minister says deal will boost supplies in September as 12-to-15-year-olds join vaccination rollout

Australia’s vaccine program has received a boost, with a doubling of the number of Pfizer vaccines flowing into the country, after a “dose swap” deal was secured with the UK.

The prime minister, Scott Morrison, says the deal will “break the back” of the September supply issues, with his UK counterpart, Boris Johnson, agreeing to send 4m Pfizer doses to Australia, which will be distributed to the states and territories on a per capita basis.

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Delivering babies in a Nigerian camp: ‘I’ve had to use plastic bags as gloves’

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After seeing a woman die in childbirth, Liyatu Ayuba stepped in and has now delivered 118 babies in a community cut off from public health services

Having watched a woman and her baby die needlessly after being refused admission to a hospital over a lack of money, Liyatu Ayuba wanted to never let it happen again.

The 62-year-old is one of Nigeria’s nearly 3 million internally displaced people (IDPs) – driven out of their homes by the violence of the Boko Haram Islamist militants. Ayuba fled Gwoza in the north-eastern state of Borno in 2011 with her family. After her husband was killed by Boko Haram and her teenage son badly wounded, she went to the makeshift Durumi 1 IDP camp, in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, where about 500 families live.

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‘Concerned’ intensive care doctors warn Australia faces surge demand in coming months

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Survey of specialists forms part of Brendan Murphy’s brief to national cabinet on the ability of the health system to cope with rising Covid cases

Intensive care doctors have warned that Australia’s health system could face months of surge demand that will strain the workforce as a result of the Delta outbreak, as they stress the need for an increase in Covid vaccination rates to ease the burden on hospitals.

The federal health secretary, Brendan Murphy, will update Friday’s meeting of national cabinet about the hospital system’s ability to cope, informed by a survey from the Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Society (Anzics), after the Australian Medical Association warned that the system was already struggling.

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Biden condemns US supreme court’s ‘unprecedented assault’ on abortion rights

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  • President denounces justices for failing to block Texas ban
  • Vows to ‘ensure woman have access to safe and legal abortions’

Joe Biden condemned the US supreme court on Thursday, saying it had delivered “an unprecedented assault on a woman’s constitutional right” in a rebuke of its decision not to consider a Texas law that effectively bans abortions after six weeks of pregnancy.

Related: Biden launches ‘whole-of-government’ effort to protect Texas abortion rights after ruling – live

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No urgency on Covid booster shots for healthy adults, says UK scientist

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Exclusive: head of key research into third dose says it may be better to prioritise vulnerable first

There is “almost certainly no urgency” to press ahead with booster shots for healthy adults and it may be better to see how the pandemic pans out before a decision is made, the scientist leading key research into third shots has said.

Prof Saul Faust, chief investigator of the Cov-Boost study whose data next week is expected to help inform a decision on the rollout of boosters across the UK, told the Guardian that for now it may be preferable to prioritise only the vulnerable, including those with compromised immune systems.

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Australia Covid live news update: NSW records 1,288 cases and seven deaths; Victoria halves AZ dose gap after 176 cases, ACT 12

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Victoria halves time between AZ vaccinations; state’s chief psychiatrist says ‘please reach out to your kids’; unlimited exercise for LGAs of concern in greater Sydney; NSW records seven deaths; ACT records 12 new cases, Queensland one new case – follow latest updates

I have just been reminded of when China’s president, Xi Jinping also “encouraged” education authorities in Macao on Thursday to make further efforts to promote patriotic education in the special administrative region.

From the China Daily report late last year:

Xi made the remark while inspecting the Premier School Affiliated to Hou Kong Middle School in Macao. He attended a class on Chinese history themed “’one country, two systems’ and Macao”, and delivered a speech to teachers and students at the school.

Xi told them that the class has great and special significance because it demonstrates the fundamental and substantial elements of history and education.

And that’s it – no more question time for six weeks.

Thank Dolly.

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Sydney Covid patient in Westmead hospital after overdosing on ivermectin and other online ‘cures’

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Patient, who suffered vomiting and diarrhoea, part of trend hospital is seeing of people taking unproven substances

A Covid-positive person in Sydney was admitted to Westmead hospital suffering from vomiting and diarrhoea after overdosing on ivermectin and other drugs ordered online, as Australia’s chief medical officer pleads with the public not to take unproven medicine.

Westmead hospital’s toxicologist, Naren Gunja, said the case was part of a growing trend the hospital was seeing of people taking unproven online cures for Covid. The patient didn’t get severe toxicity from taking the ivermectin cocktail, “but it didn’t help their Covid either”, he said.

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Scotland proposes Covid vaccine certificates for nightclub entry

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Nicola Sturgeon says certificates in limited scenarios could protect public health and boost vaccine take-up

The Scottish government is proposing vaccine certificates for entry to nightclubs and large-scale indoor and outdoor events in an attempt to curb escalating Covid infections before the autumn.

Announcing the plans, which MSPs will be asked to vote on next week, the first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, said that – although expected with schools returning last month – “the scale of the increase [in infections] in recent weeks has been very concerning”.

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Furious Mark McGowan accuses Morrison government of ‘mission to bring Covid into WA’

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Premier goes on offensive as federal treasurer warns same economic support won’t remain if states and territories continue lockdowns

The Western Australian premier, Mark McGowan, has accused the Morrison government of being on a “mission” to bring coronavirus into the state as the federal treasurer doubled down on warnings state leaders should not expect financial assistance if they failed to deliver the national reopening plan.

McGowan responded furiously on Wednesday to a suggestion from the federal attorney general, Michaelia Cash, that the legal scope for the premiers to keep their borders closed would decrease once local vaccination rates increased.

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WHO monitoring new coronavirus variant named Mu

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Health body says Mu, or B.1.621, first identified in Colombia, has been designated as a variant of interest

The World Health Organization has added another version of coronavirus to its list of “variants of interest” amid concerns that it may partially evade the immunity people have developed from past infection or vaccination.

The Mu variant, also known as B.1.621, was added to the WHO’s watchlist on 30 August after it was detected in 39 countries and found to possess a cluster of mutations that may make it less susceptible to the immune protection many have acquired.

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