Reuters Wuhan in China was where Covid first emerged The World Health Organization has urged China to share data on the origins of the Covid pandemic, five years on from its start in the city of Wuhan. “This is a moral and scientific imperative,” the WHO said in a statement to mark what it called … Read more
The new Covid corruption commissioner has started an investigation into personal protective equipment (PPE) fraud. Tom Hayhoe’s first task will be reviewing the £8.7bn of PPE bought during the pandemic that then had to be written off the government’s books. Mr Hayhoe is also likely to review the previous government’s abandoning of attempts to reclaim … Read more
US President-elect Donald Trump has picked a leading Covid lockdown sceptic Jay Bhattacharya to be the next director of a key US public health agency. Trump said he had selected the Stanford University-trained physician and economist to lead the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the world’s biggest government-funded biomedical research entity. Bhattacharya became the face … Read more
The NHS in England came within “six or seven hours” of running out of gowns and other protective equipment during the Covid pandemic, Matt Hancock has said. The former health secretary was giving evidence for the third time at the Covid inquiry, about the impact on healthcare systems. He stated there was never a “national … Read more
Covid inquiry Boris Johnson’s government blocked a request to fund another 10,000 hospital beds at the height of the Covid pandemic, the chief executive of NHS England has said. Amanda Pritchard told the UK Covid-19 Inquiry the decision, made by the Treasury in July 2020, had been “very disappointing”. Extra beds and staff would have … Read more
People in clinically at-risk groups are being urged to get their free Covid-19 and flu vaccinations this winter. NHS Cambridgeshire and Peterborough said only 27% of those eligible for the Covid vaccine, and 35% of those eligible for a flu vaccine in the two areas – plus Royston, in Hertfordshire – had come forward. More … Read more
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah with his supporters at a Congress election rally in Sanudur Assembly constituency on Saturday. | Photo Credit: A day after The Hindureported on the John Michael D’Cunha commission report, which recommended criminal prosecution of former Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa and former Health Minister B. Sriramulu over alleged irregularities in the procurement of 3 lakh … Read more
Covid inquiry Prof Sir Stephen Powis, national medical director at NHS England, was giving evidence to the Covid inquiry in west London. The most senior doctor in NHS England has said he was “personally terrified” that hospitals could have been overwhelmed in the early stages of the pandemic. Prof Sir Stephen Powis told the Covid … Read more
BBC Five times Prof Kevin Fong broke down in tears in a nondescript hearing room in West London, while giving evidence to the Covid inquiry. The 53-year-old has the kind of CV that makes you pay attention: a consultant anaesthetist in London who also works for the air ambulance service and specialises in space medicine. … Read more
BBC There is nothing in life that is free of risk. That includes vaccines. But the evidence is compelling that the benefits of getting immunised with those vaccines recommended in the UK far outweigh the possibility of serious side effects. The level of benefit from Covid vaccines is well documented. And the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine is … Read more