WE don’t know much yet about Omicron – the new variant of the Covid virus. But we do know a lot about the vaccines that have been protecting us during the past year — and we have no reason to believe that those vaccines won’t work against this latest strainContinue Reading
The World Health Organization (WHO) has announced that the B.1.1.529 lineage of Sars-CoV-2, thought to have emerged in southern Africa, is to be designated as a variant of concern (VoC) named omicron. This decision has already precipitated a broad shift in priorities in pandemic management on a global scale. TheContinue Reading
junpinzon / Shutterstock Public health measures to combat COVID, such as lockdowns, quarantines and social distancing, have made many people anxious. In many countries, including the UK, studies found that rates of anxiety and depression rose following the onset of the pandemic. Coping with anxiety can be a challenge evenContinue Reading
To go ahead this year, Christmas celebrations may need to be more low key than they would usually be. PorporLing/Shutterstock This autumn the UK has had between 30,000 and 50,000 new COVID cases each day, and globally cases are rising again after months of steady decline – so much soContinue Reading
Studio Romantic/Shutterstock Older people may be more vulnerable to COVID, but in the UK it’s the young that are now driving the pandemic. Last month, school-age children in Britain were 15 times more likely than people over 80 to have the coronavirus. Leaving young people unvaccinated partly explains why casesContinue Reading
SHOPPERS are reportedly to be urged by the Government to take a Covid test before going on Christmas shopping trips. It would be the first time the public has been advised to take a rapid lateral flow test before going to high-risk settings and is reportedly part of measures toContinue Reading
Emerald Robinson, the White House correspondent for the conservative news network Newsmax, recently tweeted that Moderna’s COVID vaccine contains luciferase “so that you can be tracked”. “Read the last book of the New Testament to see how this ends,” she added. This claim, which was later deleted, echoes claims previouslyContinue Reading
oasisamuel/Shutterstock The pandemic has been rumbling on for two years and is probably going to rumble on for years to come. And despite recent excitement about new drugs to treat COVID, it’s still vaccines that will underpin each country’s route out of the pandemic. Immunisation has proven a highly effectiveContinue Reading
Shutterstock Not brushing your teeth will get you in trouble with the dentist – but since the arrival of the pandemic, it could lead to bigger problems too. There’s growing evidence that poor oral health raises the risk posed by COVID. Research shows that people with poor oral health canContinue Reading
With 200,000 COVID deaths in a population of less than 33 million, the impact of the pandemic in Peru has been particularly devastating: the country has the highest COVID death rate per head of population worldwide. It’s also estimated to have one of the world’s worst rates of children beingContinue Reading
