The most important measure on the state of the pandemic is the R number. Also known as the reproduction rate, this is the average number of people an infected person will pass the virus on to. The R number guides government decisions, and there is no doubt it is aContinue Reading
Bogdan Sonjachnyj/Shutterstock Lockdown shrank many of our physical worlds to our homes and their immediate neighbourhoods. However, the roles we needed to perform there expanded. Homes became offices, classrooms and gyms. Technology filled gaps and allowed homes to become remote social spaces. Lockdown provided a unique opportunity to stress-test ourContinue Reading
Siam Stock / Shutterstock.com As the days get shorter and the second wave of coronavirus sets in, the UK is switching to a new winter economy plan. The package of measures marks a shift in government rhetoric from “jobs retention” to “jobs support” as the new plan focuses on so-calledContinue Reading
Cineworld also operates Picturehouse's independent cinemas. Meantime Media/Shutterstock To add an additional shade of darkness to the current cloud of gloom over the country, cinema operator Cineworld announced that it would be temporarily closing all of its cinemas in the UK. Close on the heels of this came a decisionContinue Reading
Don't be fooled. They don't really have super powers. nazarovsergey/Shutterstock Having young children in your home may lower your risk of being hospitalised with COVID-19, according to a new study of NHS workers in Scotland. Children often catch coughs and colds, and this includes seasonal coronaviruses that cause the commonContinue Reading
PixieMe/Shutterstock Public Health England has admitted that 16,000 confirmed coronavirus cases in the UK were missed from daily figures being reported between September 25 and October 2. The missing figures were subsequently added to the daily totals, but given the importance of these numbers for monitoring the outbreak and makingContinue Reading
In 1968, at the height of the last great influenza pandemic, at least a million people worldwide died, including 100,000 Americans. That year A.M.M. Payne, a professor of epidemiology at Yale University, wrote: In the conquest of Mount Everest anything less than 100% success is failure, but in most communicableContinue Reading
The temporary loss of data relating to 16,000 positive cases of COVID-19 has raised serious concerns about the operation of the UK’s test and trace system. The NHS body responsible, Public Health England, blamed a technical glitch and said cases were added to the system immediately after the problem wasContinue Reading
People have sought more security and safety in their reading. Andrii Kobryn/Shutterstock During times of crisis, people find themselves faced with lifestyle changes. One of the earliest and most noticeable changes seen during the COVID-19 lockdown was how we consume media — and especially how we read. People tend toContinue Reading
With the US president, Donald Trump, testing positive for coronavirus, speculation has begun regarding possible outcomes. The reality is, it’s impossible to say for certain what will happen to an individual once they’ve contracted COVID. Some people may have no symptoms at all, while others may have far worse outcomes.Continue Reading
