Vaccine hesitancy is one of the greatest threats to global health – and the pandemic has made it worse

stockpexel/Shutterstock The COVID pandemic has disrupted many areas of routine healthcare including, importantly, childhood vaccination. The pandemic saw levels of essential childhood immunisations decline in more than 100 countries around the world, leading to outbreaks of infectious diseases such as yellow fever, cholera, diphtheria and polio. There are many reasonsContinue Reading

Orkney councillors back plan to explore governance changes

C ouncillors in Orkney have voted to back a motion to explore the future governance of the islands. Orkney Islands Council leader Councillor James Stockan proposed a motion that instructs the local authority’s officers to publish a report on different options available to the islands, including exploring previous “Nordic connections”.Continue Reading

Sir Gavin Williamson to introduce Bill on Somaliland recognition

The Tory former cabinet minister will seek to table his Republic of Somaliland (Recognition) Bill on Tuesday, with the aim to challenge the diplomatic inertia that has kept the East African nation unrecognised on the international stage for decades. Somaliland, a self-declared independent state in the north-western part of Somalia,Continue Reading

How do we know health screening programmes work?

Egor Kulinich/Shutterstock The UK is set to roll out a national lung cancer screening programme for people aged 55 to 74 with a history of smoking. The idea is to catch lung cancer at an early stage when it is more treatable. Quoting NHS England data, the health secretary, SteveContinue Reading