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News

Care home founders took Covid funding and sent £2m overseas – The Times

The UK’s largest private provider of children’s care homes sent more than £2 million to its founders’ offshore company in the Caribbean while accepting huge sums in government Covid support.

Caretech Holdings PLC has posted soaring profits in the past two years despite having care homes for the most vulnerable in society that are among the worst-rated in the country.

http://archive.today/2022.02.20-203700/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/care-home-founders-took-covid-funding-and-sent-2m-overseas-5d37frtc5

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Publications

Estimated impact of the 2020 economic downturn on under-5 mortality for 129 countries – PLOS ONE

In low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), economic downturns can lead to increased child mortality by affecting dietary, environmental, and care-seeking factors. This study estimates the potential loss of life in children under five years old attributable to economic downturns in 2020. We used a multi-level, mixed effects model to estimate the relationship between gross domestic product (GDP) per capita and under-5 mortality rates (U5MRs) specific to each of 129 LMICs. Public data were retrieved from the World Bank World Development Indicators database and the United Nations World Populations Prospects estimates for the years 1990-2020. Country-specific regression coefficients on the relationship between child mortality and GDP were used to estimate the impact on U5MR of reductions in GDP per capita of 5%, 10%, and 15%. A 5% reduction in GDP per capita in 2020 was estimated to cause an additional 282,996 deaths in children under 5 in 2020. At 10% and 15%, recessions led to higher losses of under-5 lives, increasing to 585,802 and 911,026 additional deaths, respectively. Nearly half of all the potential under-5 lives lost in LMICs were estimated to occur in Sub-Saharan Africa. Because most of these deaths will likely be due to nutrition and environmental factors amenable to intervention, countries should ensure continued investments in food supplementation, growth monitoring, and comprehensive primary health care to mitigate potential burdens.

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0263245

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Publications

Controlled studies ease worries of widespread long Covid in kids – STAT

These studies indicate that long Covid in children is rare and, when it does occur, is short-lived. In one study, 97% of children ages 5 to 11 with Covid-19 recovered completely within four weeks. In the small group that had bothersome symptoms after four weeks (usually loss of smell or fatigue), most had fully recovered by eight weeks.

http://archive.today/2022.02.15-210719/https://www.statnews.com/2022/02/14/controlled-studies-ease-worries-widespread-long-covid-kids/

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News

Children’s mental health: Record number referred for specialist care – BBC

More children than ever have been referred to the NHS for the most serious mental health problems, the latest figures show.

Some 409,347 under-18s were referred for specialist care for issues such as self-harm and eating disorders between April and October 2021.

That was 77% higher than the same period in 2019.

http://archive.today/2022.02.04-092323/https://www.bbc.com/news/education-60197150

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News

Warring scientists fight on as Omicron retreats – The Sunday Times

“There are some scientists who have absolutely loved being media stars for the first time and they don’t want to stop. We don’t hear as much from the paediatricians, disease physicians, academic virologists and the immunologists who really know about these things.” (says Professor Allyson Pollock.)

Paul Hunter, professor of medicine at the University of East Anglia, said many prominent Covid voices have never written papers on infectious diseases. “It’s like me deciding, ‘I did a course on health and economics a year ago: maybe I should set up a group advising the chancellor on how to manage the tax system.’”

http://archive.today/2022.01.23-170611/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/warring-scientists-fight-on-as-omicron-retreats-hq2dz6kjd

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News

Doctors and scientists urge caution in giving Covid jabs to ‘low risk’ children – The Express

More than thirty doctors, scientists and MP’s have signed a joint letter to the government’s vaccine watchdog urging it to “reassess” the Covid vaccine rollout for healthy 12-15 year olds following new data showing potentially serious harms of the jab are likely to outweigh any potential benefits.

It argues the risk benefit calculations made by the JCVI and the Chief Medical Officer were based on “less than complete data on both the harms and the benefits of vaccinating children compared to the evidence now available.”

It cites new evidence showing the risk of myocarditis in young men and boys is up to 14 times higher after vaccination than after infection.

And it states that given the high level of naturally acquired immunity from infection as well as the replacement of the Delta variant by milder Omicron, “it’s crucial that, if we are to proceed with the mass double vaccination of healthy children, we are absolutely certain this policy will do more good than harm.”

It states that the justification for vaccinating children was to provide “marginal benefits” of reducing time spent out of school due to covid infection but it cites new data showing that vaccines are no longer effective at preventing infection with Omicron.

It states: “Furthermore, the negligible risks of Covid infection to children have become even more nugatory if, as it appears, Omicron is associated with less severe disease, whereas the benefits of natural infection (rather than vaccination) in terms of longer lasting immunity are becoming more clear.”

http://archive.today/2022.01.09-113610/https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1547050/covid-vaccine-JCVI-omicron-delta-myocarditis

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Opinion

Britain got it wrong on Covid: long lockdown did more harm than good, says scientist – Professor Mark Woolhouse, The Guardian

here was a distinctive moment, at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, that neatly encapsulated the mistakes and confusion of Britain’s early efforts to tackle the disease, says Mark Woolhouse. At a No 10 briefing in March 2020, cabinet minister Michael Gove warned the virus did not discriminate. “Everyone is at risk,” he announced.

And nothing could be further from the truth, argues Professor Woolhouse, an expert on infectious diseases at Edinburgh University. “I am afraid Gove’s statement was simply not true,” he says. “In fact, this is a very discriminatory virus. Some people are much more at risk from it than others. People over 75 are an astonishing 10,000 times more at risk than those who are under 15.”

And it was this failure to understand the wide variations in individual responses to Covid-19 that led to Britain’s flawed responses to the disease’s appearance, he argues – errors that included the imposition of a long-lasting, national lockdown. This is a strategy that Woolhouse – one of the country’s leading epidemiologists – describes as morally wrong and highly damaging in his forthcoming book, The Year the World Went Mad: A Scientific Memoir.

http://archive.today/2022.01.02-195710/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/02/britain-got-it-wrong-on-covid-long-lockdown-did-more-harm-than-good-says-scientist

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News

Children with learning disabilities offered ‘do not resuscitate’ orders during Covid pandemic – The Telegraph

Children with learning disabilities were offered “do not resuscitate” orders during the pandemic, The Telegraph can disclose.

GP surgeries asked if teenagers with autism and Down’s syndrome wanted not to be resuscitated, amid concerns about the pressure on the NHS.

The Telegraph has spoken to two families who were asked about the controversial orders – known as DNACPRs – during routine appointments.

http://archive.today/2021.12.27-112213/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/12/26/children-learning-disabilities-offered-do-not-resuscitate-orders/

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News

COVID-19: Impact of lockdown on children’s development will ‘last for years and years’ – Sky News

The impact of lockdowns on young children “will last for years”, according to experts, who are warning that delays in communication and social skills will affect learning in the future.

Social and emotional development, interaction with their peers, behaviour, self-regulation, and anxiety have all been highlighted as areas of concern by Sara Bonetti, head of early years development at the Education Policy Institute.

http://archive.today/2021.12.23-211241/https://news.sky.com/story/covid-19-impact-of-lockdown-on-childrens-development-will-last-for-years-and-years-12500806

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Videos

I am determined to leave my children a free and democratic society – Christine Andersen MEP

Your decision today will predetermine whether your children will live in a free society…I am determined to leave my children a free and democratic society.

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News

COVID rules are blamed for 23% dive in young children’s development: Disturbing study shows scores in three key cognitive tests slumped between 2018 and 2021, with face mask rules among possible culprits – Daily Mail

Face masks and other social distancing measures may in fact impede on children’s development, a new study executed by Brown University has found

The probe analyzed the cognitive development of the youngsters through infancy, childhood and adolescence

In the study, researchers first analyzed 1,070 assessments administered on 605 kids prior to March 2020, when COVID lockdowns and masking began

A further 154 assessments from 118 kids administered between March 2020 and June 2021, during the height of the pandemic, were then carried out 

Thirty-nine children born in 2018 and 2019 were analyzed over the course of the pandemic, into 2021.

The report found that there was a 23 per cent drop in scores measuring kids’ intelligence quotients since the start of the pandemic

The study also found similar dips in the same span in regards to developing children’s ability to communicate, both verbally and though subtle facial cues 

http://archive.today/2021.11.27-171105/https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10247315/Face-masks-harm-childrens-development-Study-blames-significantly-reduced-development.html

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News

Investigation launched into abnormal spike in newborn baby deaths in Scotland – The Herald

An investigation has been launched into a spike in deaths among newborn babies in Scotland.

Official figures reveal that 21 infants died during September within 28 days of birth, causing the neonatal mortality rate to breach an upper warning threshold known as the ‘control limit’ for the first time in at least four years.

Control and warning limits are designed to flag up to public health teams when neonatal, stillbirth or other infant deaths are occurring at unexpectedly high or low levels which may not be due to chance.

Concerns have previously been raised about the potential impact of Covid on maternity services and maternal wellbeing, but it is the first time since the pandemic began that neonatal deaths have been so abnormally above average.

Although the rate fluctuates month to month, the figure for September – at 4.9 per 1000 live births – is on a par with levels that were last typically seen in the late 1980s.

https://web.archive.org/web/20211119150900/https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/19726487.investigation-launched-abnormal-spike-newborn-baby-deaths-scotland/

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News

Just six healthy children died of Covid in a year, NHS analysis shows The Telegraph

Only six healthy children with no underlying health conditions died as a direct result of catching Covid during a 12-month window, NHS analysis has revealed.

Four died from Covid, while two developed a Kawasaki-like inflammatory condition called Pims-TS, caused by the virus.

The data calls into question the wisdom of closing schools and forcing children to spend months at home when the health risk to under-18s is so small.

Children ‘have 99.995 per cent chance’ of surviving virus

http://archive.today/2021.11.11-155742/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/11/11/six-healthy-children-died-covid-year/

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Videos

Dr. Robert Malone: “This is the Largest Experiment Performed on Human Beings in the History of the World.” – The New American

In an exclusive and explosive one-hour interview with Veronika Kyrylenko of The New American, pioneering mRNA scientist Dr. Robert Malone explains the intensely corrupt workings of the government regulatory bodies that have mismanaged the pandemic, discusses the problems with the vaccine program and delves into potentially explosive and game-changing revelations about the shady origins of the Covid-19 pandemic in Wuhan, China.

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News

Girl dies in ‘medical emergency’ after paramedics battled in vain to save her – The Sun

A YOUNG girl has died in a medical emergency after paramedics battled in vain to save her.

Multiple crews attended a Spring Road property just after 9am in Stoke-on-Trent’s Normacot where the girl was found in a critical condition.

http://archive.today/2021.11.03-133233/https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/16618183/girl-dies-medical-emergency-paramedics-battled-save-her/

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News

School in mourning after two pupils die suddenly in one week – The Express

YOUNGSTERS at a school are in mourning after two pupils died in one week, it has been confirmed today.

Harry Towers and Mohammed Habib passed away during October half-term and were both remembered in prayers during an online assembly on Tuesday. St John Fisher Catholic College in Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, has ensured support is available for its grieving students and staff.

http://archive.today/2021.11.03-121225/https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1515702/St-John-Fisher-Catholic-College-school-pupils-dead-Newcastle-Staffordshire

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News

Tributes to schoolgirl, 12, who died suddenly from brain haemorrhage – The Express

TRIBUTES have poured in for a 12-year-old girl who has died suddenly after suffering with a brain haemorrhage.

http://archive.today/2021.11.03-132137/https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1514930/gemma-caffrey-tributes-schoolgirl-died-brain-haemorrhage-headteacher

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News

What is the Number Needed to Vaccinate (NNTV) to prevent a single COVID-19 fatality in kids 5 to 11 based on the Pfizer EUA application? Toby Rogers, Ph.D.

An article by Toby Rogers, Ph.D.

I was reading the CDC’s “Guidance for Health Economics Studies Presented to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), 2019 Update” and I realized that the FDA’s woeful risk-benefit analysis in connection with Pfizer’s EUA application to jab children ages 5 to 11 violates many of the principles of the CDC’s Guidance document. The CDC “Guidance” document describes 21 things that every health economics study in connection with vaccines must do and the FDA risk-benefit analysis violated at least half of them.

Today I want to focus on a single factor: the Number Needed to Vaccinate (NNTV). In four separate places the CDC Guidance document mentions the importance of coming up with a Number Needed to Vaccinate (NNTV). I did not recall seeing an NNTV in the FDA risk-benefit document. So I checked the FDA’s risk-benefit analysis again and sure enough, there was no mention of an NNTV.

http://archive.today/2021.11.01-110110/https://tobyrogers.substack.com/p/what-is-the-number-needed-to-vaccinate

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News

School closures ‘did not significantly reduce Covid spread’ – The Telegraph

There is “no evidence” that school closures significantly reduced the spread of Covid, a study has found.

The research, published in the journal Nature Medicine, used data from Japan, where each municipality is responsible for the closure of schools in their areas.

…”Empirically, we find no evidence that school closures in Japan caused a significant reduction in the number of coronavirus cases,” they said.

“If opening schools leads to the spread of Covid-19, spikes of cases would occur in the control group; however, these were not observed. The implication is the same: school closures do not help reduce the spread of Covid-19 significantly.”

…Separate research, published earlier this year, found the UK had closed schools for longer than anywhere in Europe other than Italy over the past 18 months.

http://archive.today/2021.11.01-222952/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/11/01/school-closures-did-not-significantly-reduce-covid-spread/

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Opinion

Experts warn UK against ‘blindly’ following US in jabbing healthy five-year-olds against Covid because the reasons are ‘scientifically weak’ — as FDA panel approves Pfizer’s vaccine for primary school-aged children – Daily Mail

Arguments to vaccinate children as young as five against Covid are ‘scientifically weak’, British experts claimed today after the US moved closer to jabbing infants.

…Professor David Livermore, a medical microbiologist at the University of East Anglia told MailOnline: ‘Vaccinating children to protect adults via herd immunity is ethically dubious and is scientifically weak.’

…Professor Russell Viner, a pediatrician and member of the UK Government’s scientific advisory group SAGE, said it was crucial the UK does not ‘rush to a decision’ in the wake of the announcement in the US. 

http://archive.today/2021.10.27-181525/https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10135699/Experts-urge-UK-steer-clear-vaccinating-children-moves-closer-jabbing-FIVE-year-olds.html