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US bombed Nord Stream gas pipelines, claims investigative journalist Seymour Hersh – The Times

https://archive.today/2023.02.09-092239/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/us-bombed-nord-stream-gas-pipelines-claims-investigative-journalist-seymour-hersh-s730dnnfz

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Where can I travel without a vaccine? – The Times

If you are not fully vaccinated, you still have plenty of options when it comes to holiday destinations. However, you may need to take a Covid test before travel and/or on arrival. A period of quarantine — either in an accommodation of your choice or at a government facility — may also be mandatory. In some cases you may be able to get around these extra requirements by showing proof of recent recovery from Covid, or a medical exemption from getting vaccinated. 

https://web.archive.org/web/20220308133542/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/travel/advice/where-can-i-travel-without-a-vaccine

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Covid vaccine claims hit £110m but families struggle to prove their cases – The Times

920 applications were filed over death or injury, although strict official thresholds mean no payouts have been made

https://web.archive.org/web/20220227005923/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/covid-vaccine-claims-hit-110m-but-families-struggle-to-prove-their-cases-bkwdsmzq9

https://web.archive.org/web/20220227023321/https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10556213/Covid-vaccine-claims-hit-110m-920-compensation-applications-filed.html

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News

Did the Covid modellers get it wrong? – The Times

It is more than a rebuke to Medley and the modellers though. This pandemic began, for many, with an announcement from Imperial College, whose study predicted 500,000 deaths if we did nothing. We locked down and never tested the prediction.

This time, in the face of what the public saw as dire predictions, we didn’t lock down and the apocalypse never came. The unspoken — and sometimes spoken — implication is clear: are we all fools?

http://archive.today/2022.02.12-105548/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/b7b928e6-8b4c-11ec-8600-c48a9935f856

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Sajid Javid tells medical regulators to insist staff get jabs – The Times

Medical regulators must crack down on unvaccinated staff, the health secretary has said as he tries to deal with the fallout from abandoning compulsory jabs.

Sajid Javid has rebuked regulators and demanded that they send a “clear message” to healthcare workers that they must get a coronavirus vaccine.

http://archive.today/2022.02.08-001721/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/sajid-javid-tells-medical-regulators-to-insist-staff-get-jabs-q5z6wzv2f

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Britons facing biggest drop in living standards – The Times

Households will experience the biggest fall in their living standards since records began as they face soaring inflation, tax increases and rising energy bills.

In a bleak assessment of the year ahead, the Bank of England warned people that take-home pay would fall by five times the amount it did during the financial crisis of 2008. It will be the worst hit to real incomes since comparable records began in 1990.

http://archive.today/2022.02.04-010615/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/britons-facing-biggest-drop-in-living-standards-ttw2rnnf5

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News

Doctors join waiters in turning down Covid jabs – The Times

Doctors are among the health workers least likely to be vaccinated against Covid-19, while fitness instructors, artists and waiters have some of the highest unjabbed rates overall.

New figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show vaccination rates by profession at the end of last year. The data provides an early indication of which parts of the NHS and social care workforce could be hardest hit by the compulsory vaccination rule that comes into force in April.

http://archive.today/2022.01.21-103524/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/doctors-join-waiters-in-turning-down-covid-jabs-rf79t7ktf

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Opinion

Do masks really halve the risk of Covid? A note on the evidence – The Spectator

The analysis identified 72 studies that might potentially have provided evidence on the effectiveness of masks, social distancing and hand washing. Of those, just six (not eight, 30 or 72) were sufficiently relevant — and of sufficient quality — that they could provide any useful information on mask efficacy. And how reliable were the six? Four were assessed to have a moderate risk of bias, and two to have a serious or critical risk.

http://archive.today/2021.11.29-133400/https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/do-masks-really-halve-the-risk-of-covid-a-note-on-the-evidence

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Wave of excess deaths not explained by Covid – The Times

The UK is suffering a wave of excess deaths not fully explained by the coronavirus, according to official statistics.

There were 12,050 deaths registered in England and Wales in the seven days to November 12, data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows. That was 1,719 more than the five-year average for 2015-19, or a 16.6 per cent increase.

https://web.archive.org/web/20211125004215/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/wave-of-excess-deaths-not-explained-by-covid-qp9sqld8n

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Government races to save businesses as energy prices soar – The Times

Ministers are racing to avert acute food shortages after high gas prices forced most of Britain’s commercial production of carbon dioxide to shut down.

http://archive.today/2021.09.19-081243/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/b48247d6-17fa-11ec-8aba-5ab737a99668

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Opinion

Why I will not be giving my children the Covid vaccine – The Times

Manufacturers have been granted exemption from liability for any resulting harm. Ruud Dobber, a member of AstraZeneca’s senior executive team, said: “This is a unique situation where we as a company simply cannot take the risk if in … four years the vaccine is showing side effects.” (The government has taken on the liability and has an insurance scheme in place.)

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/why-not-giving-children-covid-vaccine-lw5kpn5m5

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News

Teenage girls suffer ‘explosion of tics’ in lockdown – The Times

There has been a surge of teenage girls developing tic disorders and Tourette’s syndrome as a result of stress during the pandemic.

Specialists at Great Ormond Street and Evelina children’s hospitals in London have seen referrals for tics nearly double since Covid arrived, mostly in adolescent girls.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/teenage-girls-suffer-explosion-of-tics-in-lockdown-0s3rnl2nm

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News

Belgium’s shops were shut ‘as a coronavirus shock tactic’ – The Times

Shutting shops at the end of October was a “psychological shock” tactic to bring home the need for restrictions to arrest the spread of the virus, the country’s health minister has admitted.

Non-essential retailers were forced to close at the end of October as infection rates reached the highest level in Europe and hospital admissions threatened to overwhelm intensive care units. Shops will reopen today after a decline in infections.

Frank Vandenbroucke told the broadcaster VRT that, with masks and social distancing, “shopping does not really involve any risk”.

https://web.archive.org/web/20201201112954/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/belgiums-shops-were-shut-as-a-coronavirus-shock-tactic-2x9wklf7v

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News

Coronavirus in Scotland: More died in 1989 flu epidemic than coronavirus peak – The Times

More people died in Scotland during a flu epidemic at the turn of the 1990s than the first wave of coronavirus, official figures show.

Public health experts fear the consequences if flu breaks out alongside coronavirus this winter.

In 1989 the seven days to Christmas Eve was Scotland’s deadliest single week since records began in 1974, with 2,400 deaths, which was 1,092 more than the five-year average.

This is far more than the 1,978 people who died in the worst week of the coronavirus pandemic — the second week of April — which was 878 above the five-year average.

By the end of the eight-week cycle of excess deaths in the second week of January 1990 the death toll had reached 14,594 people, 4,122

https://web.archive.org/web/20201016022701/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/coronavirus-in-scotland-more-died-in-1989-flu-epidemic-than-coronavirus-peak-wnk8p0fs6

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News Opinion

Top Belgian scientist calls for herd immunity coronavirus strategy – The Times

The resurgence of coronavirus is nothing to be feared and lockdown measures are doing more harm than the pandemic itself, a leading Belgian medical scientist has said.

Jean-Luc Gala, head of the prestigious Université Catholique de Louvain Saint-Luc clinic and a specialist in infectious diseases, has broken ranks with other scientists and tried to quell fears over the rise of the Belgian infection rate.

He said that it was not dangerous for the virus to circulate and the lack of a vaccine could help to bring about herd immunity in the population.

“Is the rise in infections worrying? No. It is completely normal. Is it dangerous for the virus to circulate? No, once again,” he told La Dernière Heure newspaper.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/top-belgian-scientist-calls-for-herd-immunity-coronavirus-strategy-gxwqj887m

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News

NHS data shows 15m on ‘hidden waiting list’ – The Times

The NHS has a “hidden waiting list” of 15.3 million patients who need follow-up appointments for health problems, according to the first analysis of its kind.

The official waiting list, which stands at 3.9 million, shows how many patients are yet to have their first hospital appointment after a GP referral.

However, the total number who are on hospital books in England and need appointments is not collated centrally. A new calculation, based on freedom of information requests to NHS trusts and seen by The Times, puts the figure at 15.3 million.

Although the official waiting list, after initial referral by a GP, has remained at a fairly stable level throughout the pandemic, this has been mainly driven by fewer patients joining it.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/coronavirus-nhs-data-shows-15m-on-hidden-waiting-list-w250vxvz6

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Care homes ‘ordered not to resuscitate’ as coronavirus pandemic took hold – The Times

Care homes were asked to introduce blanket “do not resuscitate” orders for all residents at the height of the coronavirus pandemic, it has been claimed.

The Queen’s Nursing Institute (QNI), a charity promoting community nursing, found that one in ten care homes were ordered to introduce the measure without discussion with staff, family members or the residents. It was intended to help keep hospital beds free.

Half of staff members who said that they had been asked to change DNRs worked in homes for people with learning or cognitive disabilities. The other half worked in homes for the elderly.

Alison Leary, professor of healthcare and workforce modelling at London South Bank University and the author of the report, described the findings as worrying…

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/care-homes-ordered-not-to-resuscitate-as-coronavirus-pandemic-took-hold-3gsslg6jt

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News

Covid wards empty as virus death toll plunges – The Times

Fatalities are down 99% and some hospitals have no coronavirus patients, sparking hope that ‘herd immunity’ may be near

The number of people in hospital with Covid-19 has fallen 96% since the peak of the pandemic, official data reveals.

Hospital staff are now treating just 700 coronavirus patients a day in England, compared to about 17,000 a day during the middle of April, according to NHS England.

Last week, some hospitals did not have a single coronavirus patient on their wards, with one top doctor suggesting that Britain is “almost reaching herd immunity”.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/covid-wards-empty-as-virus-death-toll-plunges-bvm0mxl2n

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Coronavirus pandemic already in retreat before lockdown – Chris Whitty, The Times

The coronavirus pandemic was probably already in retreat before the full lockdown was imposed, the chief medical officer for England said as he insisted that there was no “huge delay” in government action.

Chris Whitty said that “many of the problems we had came out of lack of testing capacity”. He blamed a failure to build up public health infrastructure in previous years for leaving Britain unprepared.

Chris Whitty blames poor planning for lockdown in bad-tempered health committee – The Times, 22 July 2020

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/chris-whitty-blames-poor-planning-for-lockdown-in-bad-tempered-health-committee-d5kb3fmw2

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No known case of teacher catching coronavirus from pupils, says scientist – The Times

There has been no recorded case of a teacher catching the coronavirus from a pupil anywhere in the world, according to one of the government’s leading scientific advisers.

Mark Woolhouse, a leading epidemiologist and member of the government’s Sage committee, told The Times that it may have been a mistake to close schools in March given the limited role children play in spreading the virus.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/no-known-case-of-teacher-catching-coronavirus-from-pupils-says-scientist-3zk5g2x6z