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Common colds could prime the immune system to fight off Covid – The Telegraph

Common colds may prime the immune system against Covid, scientists believe, after finding that some people never develop an infection despite repeated exposure to the virus.

Researchers at University College London (UCL) have discovered that some people have natural protection against Covid and seem to fight off an infection using pre-existing memory T-cells.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/07/02/common-colds-could-prime-immune-system-fight-covid/

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Exclusive: Children being given vaccine as councils ‘go rogue’ – The Telegraph

Children are being vaccinated against Covid before an official decision on whether youngsters should be given the jab, The Telegraph can disclose.

Councils and GPs in virus hotspots are defying current government rules by giving the vaccine to 16- and 17-year-olds without underlying health conditions.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/07/02/children-vaccinated-councils-go-rogue/

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PhilHealth releases guidelines for COVID-19 vaccine injury and death compensation – BusinessMirror

The Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) recently announced its compensation package for those who will develop serious adverse effects (SAEs) following inoculation for COVID-19 that will lead to hospitalization, permanent disability or death. The said package and its guidelines are contained in its PhilHealth Circular No. 2021-0007 published on June 18, 2021.

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Modelling that delayed lockdown lifting was flawed, admits scientist – The Telegraph

Modelling that helped persuade the Government to delay the June 21 reopening was overly pessimistic and the lockdown lifting should “possibly” have gone ahead on time, a government adviser has admitted.

Dr Mike Tildesley, an epidemiologist from Warwick University, said Britain had been in a “much better situation than we thought” when his group released models suggesting third wave deaths could hit 72,000.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/07/01/lockdown-lifting-could-have-gone-ahead-flawed-modelling-admits/

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Not enough evidence to back Covid jabs for children, says UK expert – The Guardian

One of the UK’s leading childhood health experts has said there is not enough evidence to support vaccinating children against Covid, and the body that will make the decision on whether to jab under-18s has indicated it will take a cautious approach.

Prof Calum Semple, a member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), said there was “rock-solid data” to show that the risk of severe harm to children from Covid was “incredibly low”.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/jul/01/not-enough-evidence-to-back-covid-jabs-for-children-says-uk-expert

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The lockdown fanatics are moving on to climate change – Spiked

In truth, it’s very difficult to ‘hold governments, companies and international bodies’ to account on climate change. The public have been given no vote on climate-change policies, and no political party has offered criticism of climate-change alarmism. Certainly don’t expect any real criticism to come from CCAG.

But then perhaps that is the point of Indie SAGE or CCAG – not to hold power to account, but to prevent the technocratic apparatus from being properly held to account. For there is nothing fear-mongering technocrats like King fear more than democracy – because it threatens to take away the power granted to them by endless emergencies, be they Covid or climate change.

https://www.spiked-online.com/2021/06/29/the-lockdown-fanatics-are-moving-on-to-climate-change/

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‘Remorseless’ build-up of Covid hospital patients simply hasn’t happened – The Telegraph

Admissions have failed to sky-rocket – and it’s time ministers took their own advice about learning to live with the virus

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/06/28/remorseless-build-up-covid-hospital-patients-simply-hasnt-happened/

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Family heartbroken as mum-of-three dies after receiving AstraZeneca Covid vaccine – The Express

Lucy Taberer, 47, tragically died after suffering a rare reaction to the AstraZeneca Covid vaccine. After her vaccination, the mum-of-three from Leicester developed blood clots on the brain which is believed to have sparked a massive stroke. Her family said they did not want to put people off vaccinations but wanted to raise awareness so people can spot danger signs.

https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1455438/covid-vaccine-mum-dies-astrazeneca-leicester

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CDC links Pfizer Covid vaccine to heart inflammation – latest update and symptoms to spot – The Express

THE CENTERS for Disease Control and Prevention’s safety committee has provided an update on the association between Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines and heart inflammation.

On 23 June the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s safety committee said there was a “likely association” between the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines and myocarditis (the medical term for heart inflammation) and pericarditis (inflammation of the tissue that surrounds the heart) in some young adults. The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices said there was a higher than expected number of reports of heart inflammation in people aged 16-24 who had received the mRNA vaccines but that the benefits of vaccination still clearly outweighed the risks.

https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/health/1454457/pfizer-vaccine-side-effects-moderna-heart-inflammation-shortness-of-breath

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Drug firms giving MPs ‘hidden’ funding, research shows – The Guardian

Drug companies are giving groups of MPs and peers that campaign on health issues hundreds of thousands of pounds a year in “hidden” funding that could hand them “undue influence”, research has found.

The pharmaceutical industry has built up a “hidden web of policy influence” over dozens of all-party parliamentary groups (APPGs) at Westminster by making hundreds of “non-transparent” payments to them, as part of the industry’s wider effort to lobby those in power, researchers claim.

…[R]esearch found:
16 health-related APPGs received 168 payments from 35 drug firms worth £1.2m in 2012-18 – one-sixth of their total funding

Two APPGs, on health and cancer, accepted more than £600,000 in that time

50 health-focused APPGs received almost another £1m in 304 payments from patient organisations or health charities, which themselves take sums of money from big pharma

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/jun/25/drug-firms-giving-mps-hidden-funding-research-shows

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Dignity unveils turnaround plan as profits hit by falling death rate – Independent

Funeral firm Dignity said profits have fallen amid a marked drop in UK deaths since April as the group’s new boss outlined his turnaround plans.

The group said that following a 27% surge in first quarter deaths to 204,000 during a Covid-hit start to the year, the number of deaths fell below the five-year average in April and May and were 7% lower.

This has left underlying operating profits “slightly” lower year-on-year at £30.7 million for the 21 weeks to May 21, according to Dignity.

https://www.independent.co.uk/business/dignity-unveils-turnaround-plan-as-profits-hit-by-falling-death-rate-b1871236.html

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Covid: Ivermectin to be studied as possible treatment in UK – BBC News

University of Oxford scientists are trialling giving Ivermectin to over-50s with Covid symptoms to see if it can keep them out of hospital.

http://archive.today/2021.06.23-080235/https://www.bbc.com/news/health-57570377

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Flu and pneumonia deaths now 10 times higher than Covid – The Telegraph

The number of people dying with flu and pneumonia on their death certificate in England and Wales is now 10 times higher than those with Covid, figures show.

The latest weekly data on deaths from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that there were 84 deaths mentioning Covid in the week ending June 11. There were 1,163 involving flu and pneumonia.

Registered Covid deaths fell by 14 per cent since the last update, in the week ending June 4, when 98 deaths were recorded.

Covid deaths now make up just 0.8 per cent of all deaths – down from 1.3 per cent in the previous week, despite the fact that week included the late May bank holiday, meaning there were fewer death registrations.

…The figures are much lower than would usually be expected for respiratory disease at this time of year. The five-year average for deaths involving flu and pneumonia in the same week is 1,704.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/06/22/flu-pneumonia-deaths-now-ten-times-higher-covid/

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Covid outbreak at Kenwyn Care Home where every resident is fully vaccinated – Cornwall Live

A coronavirus outbreak has hit a Cornish nursing home where almost everyone has been given both doses of a Covid vaccine.

Kenwyn Care Home in Truro is closed to visitors after an unspecified number of positive tests for the virus among staff and residents.

At the care home, 100 per cent of residents and 94 per cent of staff have been given both doses of a coronavirus vaccine, according to the home.

https://www.cornwalllive.com/news/cornwall-news/covid-outbreak-kenwyn-care-home-5556416

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Flu could be ‘bigger problem’ than Covid this winter, warns JCVI deputy chairman – The Telegraph

Flu could be a “bigger problem” than Covid-19 this winter, the deputy chairman of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) has warned.

Professor Anthony Harnden told BBC 4’s Today programme: “I will emphasise that actually flu could be potentially a bigger problem this winter than Covid.

“We’ve had a very, very low prevalence of flu for the last few years, particularly virtually nil during lockdown, and we do know that when flu has been circulating in very low numbers immunity drops in the population, and it comes back to bite us. So, flu can be really, really important this winter.”

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/06/21/flu-could-bigger-problem-covid-winter-says-jcvi-deputy-chairman/

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Kids, Covid and Delta – The New York Times

This evidence suggests that serious versions of Covid will continue to be extremely rare in children.

As you can see here, some common activities — and several other diseases — have caused significantly more childhood deaths than Covid has:

http://archive.today/2021.06.18-131244/https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/18/briefing/kids-covid-and-delta.html

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Food shortages now ‘inevitable’ due to labour crisis, industry warns – The Grocer

Worsening supermarket food shortages are now “inevitable” in the coming weeks as labour shortages across the food supply chain approach crunch point, the sector has warned.

Chronic driver shortages have been compounded by shortfalls across other low-paid sectors including harvesting, manufacturing and packaging, and the supply chain is creaking under the pressure.

https://www.thegrocer.co.uk/supermarkets/food-shortages-now-inevitable-due-to-labour-crisis-industry-warns/657227.article

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Exclusive: Hundreds Of Police Officers Accused Of Abusing Powers For Sexual Gain – PoliticsHome

Hundreds of police officers are referred to the official police watchdog every year for abusing their powers for sexual gain, according to exclusive figures obtained by PoliticsHome.

Data from the Independent Office for Police Conduct shows that the highest level of corruption referrals this year were concerning police officers engaging in inappropriate sexual contact with often vulnerable members of the public. 

https://www.politicshome.com/news/article/hundreds-of-police-officers-accused-of-abusing-powers-for-sexual-gain

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Five years before a vaccine can ‘hold the line’ against Covid variants, England’s medical chief says – CNBC

He said that Covid-19 “has not thrown its last surprise at us and there will be several more [variants] over the next period,” according to Sky News. He added that it would likely take five years before there are vaccines that could “hold the line” to a very large degree against a range of coronavirus variants.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/18/whitty-5-years-before-vaccine-can-hold-line-against-covid-variants.html

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Hospital admissions per year in England 2006-2021 – The Blogmire

Hospital admissions [in England] were down by 6.7 million (39%) on the year before, when we didn’t have a deadly pandemic.

Source: The Blogmore, 15 June 2021