Health news

• One in five in England have had Covid, modelling suggests

  10-01-2021 19:56 via theguardian.com
  
  Analysis shows 12.4 million people infected since start of pandemic, against 2.4 million detected by test and trace Coronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageOne-in-five people across England may have had coronavirus, new modelling suggests, equivalent to 12.4 million people, rising to almost one in two in some areas.
  It means that across England the true number of people infected to date may be five times as high as the total number of known cases according to the govern
  
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• One in five have had coronavirus in England, new modelling says

  10-01-2021 19:56 via theguardian.com
  
  Analysis shows 12.4m may have been infected in England since the start of the pandemic, against 2.4m detected by test and trace Coronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageOne-in-five people across England may have had coronavirus, new modelling suggests, equivalent to 12.4 million people, rising to almost one in two in some areas.
  It means that across England the true number of people infected to date may be five times as high as the total number of known cases according t
  
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• The Guardian view on the NHS: careless cuts cost lives | Editorial

  10-01-2021 19:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Hospitals expect to be overwhelmed within weeks, and a decade of underfunding is part of the reasonThe strain on the NHS is unprecedented. Within a few weeks, hospitals across the country expect to be overwhelmed, meaning that they will be unable to deliver the standard of care to which people are entitled. The number of Covid patients in UK hospitals, 32,294, is the highest ever and climbing. Staff absences are at crisis levels, due to illness and the need to self-isolate. Morale is at breaking
  
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• Better leisure centres being bailed out across UK, says GLL chief

  10-01-2021 18:34 via theguardian.com
  
  CEO says Covid lockdown has come at worst possible time for business amid fears over futureCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageThe operator of the Olympic aquatic centre and hundreds of other leisure centres across the UK is being bailed out by cash-strapped local authorities in every area it operates as it struggles with the latest lockdown, the Guardian can reveal.GLL, which trades under the name Better, runs 230 pools, gyms and sports halls in councils areas incl
  
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• Make face masks compulsory outdoors | Letters

  10-01-2021 18:29 via theguardian.com
  
  Face coverings should be mandatory the moment you step outside, writes Christine Whatford, while Michael Weedy wants joggers to wear masks“It is inescapable that the facts are changing and we must change our response,” Boris Johnson told the Commons last week (Boris Johnson ‘extremely cautious’ on when England’s schools will reopen, 6 January), so I am surprised this changed response doesn’t include making masks compulsory outside. Masks were considered last s
  
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• NHS Covid-19 jab letters 'confusing over 80s'

  10-01-2021 18:23 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Patients, many shielding, have been offered appointments miles away from their homes.
  
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• Covid-19: Hancock warns flexing of rules 'could be fatal'

  10-01-2021 18:23 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Health Secretary Matt Hancock says the NHS is under "very serious pressure" and warns people to stay home.
  
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• Katharine Whitehorn’s bedsit dinners and words of comfort | Brief letters

  10-01-2021 18:17 via theguardian.com
  
  Katharine Whitehorn | Vaccinations | New Order favourites | Stalwart older people | Golf and churchesI read with great sadness of the death of Katharine Whitehorn, an inspiring and compassionate writer (Report, 8 January). When I was a student in a bedsit in the 1960s, she saved my life with Cooking in a Bedsitter. I still have my copy. I was widowed in 2003, and later read her article on widowhood in the Guardian (‘You have to learn to live in another country, where you are an unwilling r
  
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• Salim Abdool Karim: 'None of us are safe from Covid if one of us is not. We have mutual interdependence'

  10-01-2021 18:00 via theguardian.com
  
  The face of South Africa’s Covid science on why Africa has been hit less hard than Europe, the new variant in the region, and the danger of vaccine nationalism Coronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageThe epidemiologist Salim Abdool Karim could be considered South Africa’s Anthony Fauci. As co-chair of the South African Ministerial Advisory Committee on Covid-19, he is the government’s top adviser on the pandemic and has become the country’s face
  
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• What are the pros and cons of mass Covid testing in England?

  10-01-2021 17:52 via theguardian.com
  
  All 317 local authorities in England are eventually expected to offer mass testing Coronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverage Mass coronavirus testing for people without symptoms will be rolled out across England from this week. Public health officials hope that rapid and regular tests will help to identify people who have caught the virus but not fallen ill, so they can self-isolate before they spread the disease. Continue reading...
  
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• Air grievances: silence swirls around the toll of bushfire smoke during pregnancy

  10-01-2021 17:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Exposure to fine particle air pollution increases risk of miscarriage and preterm birth. So why was the health advice for pregnant women so hazy during Australia’s Black Summer?Janet Frank describes her first miscarriage in August 2019 as “hectic”.“There was a lot of bleeding and a lot of hospital visits,” Frank, not her real name, explains. She bled for two months and eventually had to have a surgical procedure to end the pregnancy. Related: Air pollution 'as bad a
  
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• Covid-19: Rapid tests for asymptomatic people to be rolled out

  10-01-2021 17:19 via bbc.co.uk
  
  People who cannot work from home should be prioritised for rapid tests in England, the government says.
  
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• UK supermarket staff say they have become the 'forgotten key workers'

  10-01-2021 16:37 via theguardian.com
  
  Employees face exhaustion, stress and abuse by members of the public in second coronavirus lockdownWhen the UK first went into lockdown last March, many supermarket workers said they had never felt so appreciated. Customers would thank them for their service, leave chocolates for the staff room and applaud delivery vans as if they were carrying royalty rather than groceries.Not any more, according to numerous store employees who contacted the Guardian to express their fears and frustrations abou
  
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• London hospital trust cancels urgent cancer surgery due to Covid

  10-01-2021 16:37 via theguardian.com
  
  Barts Health blames pressure of treating largest number of coronavirus patients in NHSCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coveragePeople with advanced cancer have had their urgent surgery cancelled at a leading London hospital trust that is treating the largest number of Covid patients in the NHS.Patients who were due to undergo an operation to treat their disease at Barts Health NHS trust have been told the pressures the resurgent Covid-19 is putting hospitals under was to
  
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• UK Covid variant extremely unlikely to evade vaccines, scientists say

  10-01-2021 15:51 via theguardian.com
  
  Antibodies collected from former patients very rarely target parts of virus mutated in new variant, research finds Coronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverage The new coronavirus variant that is sweeping the UK is extremely unlikely to evade immune responses generated by vaccines or a previous Covid infection, scientists say.Researchers in the US found that antibodies collected from former patients very rarely targeted parts of the virus that were mutated in the new varian
  
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• GPs in England see big drop in common cold and flu cases

  10-01-2021 15:12 via theguardian.com
  
  Exclusive: coronavirus restrictions and increased uptake of flu vaccine is likely explanation, say expertsCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageGPs in England have reported a big drop in cases of influenza, colds and other common infections – with cold rates now about a quarter of the five-year average, and flu at about a 20th of the usual level for this time of year.Social restrictions brought in to curb transmission of coronavirus combined with an increased up
  
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• All UK adults will be offered Covid vaccine by autumn, says Matt Hancock – video

  10-01-2021 13:24 via theguardian.com
  
  The health secretary promised vaccines would be offered to every adult in the UK ‘by the autumn’. Speaking on the BBC’s The Andrew Marr Show, Hancock said it was ‘very, very important’ that as many people as possible get a vaccine. More than 200,000 people are now being vaccinated each day, he addedMatt Hancock does not rule out further toughening of lockdown rules Continue reading...
  
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• Why is the new UK Covid-19 strain more infectious?

  10-01-2021 12:59 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Andrew Marr speaks to Professor Peter Horby from the government's expert Nervtag group to find out.
  
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• UK ministers face legal action over lack of abortion services in Northern Ireland

  10-01-2021 12:17 via theguardian.com
  
  Exclusive: government accused of failing to ensure access more than a year after terminations legalisedNorthern Ireland’s human rights commission (NIHRC) has launched a landmark legal action against the UK government for its failure to commission safe and accessible abortion services more than a year after abortion was made legal in the country, the Guardian can reveal.The Northern Ireland secretary, Brandon Lewis, is accused of unlawfully denying the rights of women in the country, who ex
  
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• Does vitamin D combat Covid?

  10-01-2021 12:00 via theguardian.com
  
  It’s cheap, widely available and might help us fend off the virus. So should we all be dosing up on the sunshine nutrient?In March, as coronavirus deaths in the UK began to mount, two hospitals in northeast England began taking vitamin D readings from patients and prescribing them with extremely high doses of the nutrient. Studies had suggested that having sufficient levels of vitamin D, which is created in the skin’s lower layers through the absorption of sunlight, plays a central r
  
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• Asymptomatic testing can help 'break the chains of transmission' – Hancock

  10-01-2021 11:32 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Matt Hancock tells the BBC asymptomatic testing in Liverpool helped its Covid case rate fall rapidly.
  
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• Ginger root and meteorite dust … the Steiner ‘Covid cures’ offered in Germany

  10-01-2021 11:15 via theguardian.com
  
  The movement best known for its schools is firmly entrenched within the German health sectorIn a pandemic where global leaders have peddled quack treatments and miracle cures, Germany has often stood out as a shining beacon for science.It is the country that developed the first diagnostic test to detect the coronavirus, and the first vaccine approved in the west to shield people against the disease. It is a country whose physicist chancellor told parliament she passionately believes “there
  
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• Tom Templeton: 'I suspect doctors have realised how theraputic it can be to write books'

  10-01-2021 10:00 via theguardian.com
  
  The former Observer writer and now GP talks about his new book, 34 Patients, and the challenges he has faced during the pandemicRead an extract from Tom Templeton’s 34 PatientsHow has life changed for you at the surgery during the pandemic?
  The biggest change has been having to talk to patients on the phone rather than seeing them in person. We only see around three per day now in person.Do you miss seeing people face to face?
  Totally. It’s quite right that we do it the way we do but
  
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• Tom Templeton: 'I suspect doctors have realised how therapeutic it can be to write books'

  10-01-2021 10:00 via theguardian.com
  
  The former Observer writer and now GP talks about his new book, 34 Patients, and the challenges he has faced during the pandemicRead an extract from Tom Templeton’s 34 PatientsHow has life changed for you at the surgery during the pandemic?
  The biggest change has been having to talk to patients on the phone rather than seeing them in person. We only see around three per day now in person.Do you miss seeing people face to face?
  Totally. It’s quite right that we do it the way we do but
  
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• 'Doctors are the priests of our society': an extract from Tom Templeton's 34 Patients

  10-01-2021 10:00 via theguardian.com
  
  From a surprise birth to a sudden death, two case studies illuminate the highs and lows of NHS lifeQ&A with Tom TempletonIn 1999, aged 18, I had a summer holiday job as a ward clerk at St Thomas’s hospital in London. I’d been placed there by a temp agency and had no interest in medicine at the time. The work itself felt routine, banal. In a high-ceilinged Victorian ward overlooking the River Thames, I logged patients on to the computer system, chased down medical notes and X-rays
  
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• The age of national self-interest must end if we are to vanquish the pandemic | Will Hutton

  10-01-2021 09:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Libertarianism has led to rich countries vying for vaccines. Collaboration, not competition, is the only the way forwardCoronavirus - latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageLast week, the “age of I” finally peaked. The 45-year rise of libertarianism reached its high tide. The doctrine that gave us Brexit, Trump and a wholly inadequate response to a global pandemic has been exposed for what it always was. A viable civilisation cannot be founded on the primacy of our own islands
  
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• How race to track mystery gene with links to three cancers saved millions

  10-01-2021 09:30 via theguardian.com
  
  25 years ago, a mutation was discovered that makes some people susceptible to the disease, and now it has transformed treatmentTen years ago, Tony Herbert developed a lump on the right side of his chest. The clump of tissue grew and became painful and he was tested for breast cancer. The result was positive.“I had surgery and chemotherapy and that worked,” he said last week. But how had Herbert managed to develop a condition that is so rare in men? Only about 400 cases of male breast
  
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• Victory for Argentina’s women as abortion charges are dropped

  10-01-2021 09:15 via theguardian.com
  
  Hundreds of criminal cases could be halted following landmark change in legislationArgentina has announced it will drop criminal charges against women accused of having abortions following the government’s historic decision to legalise the procedure. The announcement offers hope to the mostly poor and marginalised women facing criminal sanctions. But lingering problems such as obstetric violence and sexism in the justice system show the struggle for reproductive justice is not over, accord
  
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• Plan for the future now or Covid will last for years, UK scientists warn

  10-01-2021 09:15 via theguardian.com
  
  Experts condemn government’s ‘short-term’ response and urge it to rethink its approachCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageSenior British scientists have warned that a lack of long-term planning in the battle against Covid is leaving the nation vulnerable to major outbreaks of the disease for at least another year.The rollout of vaccines currently under way would cut hospital admissions and deaths among the old and vulnerable, they said, but it woul
  
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• We may have avoided no-deal, but this is still Brexit tier 3

  10-01-2021 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Johnson’s agreement has only managed to save Britain from what would have been a catastrophic economic lockdownDonald Trump’s starring role in the storming of the Capitol on Wednesday marked a fitting end to the courtship of the US president by Boris Johnson. Just think: before the president lost convincingly to Joe Biden, our prime minister – a master of procrastination and prevarication – was holding out for a Trump victory and a world-beating UK-US trade deal, which mi
  
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• Now we have the coronavirus vaccine, how soon can we get back to normal life?

  10-01-2021 07:30 via theguardian.com
  
  The government has ordered sufficient doses to inoculate the entire population of the UK against Covid-19 but we are in for a long haulCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageWhen will the Covid-19 vaccine begin to have an effect on the nation?The government has pledged to offer vaccines to 15 million people – the over-70s, healthcare workers and those required to shield by mid-February, and millions more by spring. This should slowly bring the virus under control
  
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