Of all the concerns the public has about vaccine safety, there is one that has us stumped for a straightforward answer: “If the vaccines are safe, why is the government protecting itself, health professionals and companies from vaccine compensation?” In fact, the UK government has passed regulations reducing legal protectionContinue Reading
Rido/Shutterstock The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine for COVID-19 has reached the end of clinical trials and is now being rolled out in multiple countries. Regulatory bodies in the UK, Canada and the US have granted temporary or emergency use authorisation for the vaccine to be given to the public. This is aContinue Reading
Syda Productions/Shutterstock Full interim analysis of the safety and efficacy of the Oxford COVID-19 vaccine – developed in partnership with AstraZeneca – has been published in the Lancet. This paper represents the most comprehensive set of results from any of the phase 3 trials of COVID-19 vaccines to date. TheseContinue Reading
Shutterstock/Lightspring There has been a proliferation of conspiracy theories about COVID-19 that either reject the existence of the virus altogether or question the official account of its origins, its mode of transmission, its effects and its remedies. Many of these theories are highly implausible and harmful and it has becomeContinue Reading
Oxford Street, London, empty in May 2020. CK Travels/Shutterstock The most COVID-19 lockdowns were accompanied by sobering news from the UK’s high streets. The Arcadia Group, which owns some of the UK’s most iconic high street clothing retail outlets – Topshop, Topman and Dorothy Perkins, among others – has goneContinue Reading
Luca Santilli/Shutterstock The first batch of COVID vaccine has arrived in the UK, and the NHS has embarked on the largest vaccination campaign in the country’s history. Many other countries are also gearing up for this mammoth task. At first, there will only be a limited number of doses, soContinue Reading
If we are ever to return to some semblance of normality, then the world’s population needs to be immune to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. But with so many different vaccines in production, questions are undoubtedly going to be raised, such as can I still have a vaccine ifContinue Reading
Have a safe Christmas! Brastock/Shutterstock Christmas is coming, and as the old rhyme goes, the goose is getting fat and we are urged to put a penny in the old man’s hat. There may well be fewer pennies in hats this year: restrictions on movement and activity will mean aContinue Reading
During the pandemic moments have folded into each other and time has moved in an odd way. The Alarm Clock by Diego Rivera. Wikimedia Many people feel that their experience of time has been a bit off this year. Even though the clocks are ticking as they should be, daysContinue Reading
During the first wave of coronavirus in April, we wrote about our experiences as frontline healthcare workers in Liverpool. While working on COVID-19 wards, we described the stark psychological and health vulnerabilities faced by health workers around the UK. In those early days of the pandemic, our health systems wereContinue Reading
