New Delhi: Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates predicts a sobering scenario for global health, estimating a 10-15per cent chance of another pandemic emerging within the next four years, according to a recent Wall Street Journal interview. “The chance of a natural pandemic in the next four years is somewhere between 10 and 15 percent,” Gates stated … Read more
Emergency service teams, local councils and government officials will take part in a full, multi-day pandemic preparedness exercise, to help the UK prepare for potential future threats. The test, which is likely to take place in the autumn, will involve thousands of people across different parts of the UK, minister Pat McFadden has announced. The … Read more
Getty Images Racoon dogs are implicated as one of the potential animals that could have been the source of Covid A team of scientists say it is “beyond reasonable doubt” the Covid pandemic started with infected animals sold at a market, rather than a laboratory leak. They were analysing hundreds of samples collected from Wuhan, … Read more
The NHS was “creaking at the seams” when the pandemic hit – and this undermined the care given to both coronavirus patients and those needing treatment for other conditions, the Covid public inquiry has been told. On the opening day of the third stage of the inquiry, which is looking at healthcare, lawyers said the … Read more
BBC Mandi Masters, a community midwife, was hospitalised with Covid in the pandemic. The public inquiry into the pandemic will start 10 weeks of hearings on Monday looking at the impact on patients, healthcare workers and the wider NHS. Covid patients have been admitted to hospital more than a million times in the UK since … Read more
Getty Images Even as Covid hit, the government and its health officials were bullish in their confidence about their ability to cope. Dr Jenny Harries, then the deputy chief medical officer for England, hailed the UK as an “international exemplar” in its preparedness at one of the early TV press conferences. She was not the … Read more
Significant flaws in the UK’s pandemic planning meant Covid caused more deaths and economic costs than it should have, the first report of the Covid Inquiry says. The 217-page report called for radical reform of the systems in place, saying the UK government and devolved nations “failed their citizens”. It said the UK planned for … Read more
The health minister said it was a “lonely and challenging position” as the sole Ulster Unionist minister in the executive during the pandemic. Mr Swann was appointed health minister in January 2020 when power sharing at Stormont returned. But he added that on recollection it was also a “strength” as he did not have to … Read more
I am a conservation biologist who studies emerging infectious diseases. When people ask me what I think the next pandemic will be I often say that we are in the midst of one – it’s just afflicting a great many species more than ours. I am referring to the highly pathogenic strain of avian influenza … Read more
Researchers say children who gained weight in the pandemic could develop diseases later in life. Source link