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University College London’s Professor Andrew Hayward, a member of SAGE, said keeping secondary schools open could mean extending the national lockdown beyond a month Keeping secondary schools open during Britain’s second lockdown could keep the country cooped up at home for longer than 28 days, another government scientific adviser warned today. Studies so far suggest … Read more
French lockdown restrictions due to come into force Friday morning at 00:01am Emmanuel Macron’s target of slashing France’s coronavirus infections to 5,000 a day is impossible to achieve in the month-long lockdown he announced last night, his top scientific adviser said today. Professor Jean-Francois Delfraissy said France would ‘need more time’ to bring infections down … Read more
Conflict of interest row as it emerges Chief Scientific Officer Sir Patrick Vallance has £600,000 of shares in vaccine maker contracted to make UK’s coronavirus jabs Sir Patrick was president of multinationals drugs giant GSK from 2012 to 2018 Chief Scientific Adviser holds a deferred bonus of 43,111 shares worth £600,000 He has already cashed in … Read more
Driving into work at 7.30 on Monday morning along the M4, I was delighted to find myself stuck in a traffic jam. After the preternaturally quiet motorways and half-empty rail carriages of recent months, gridlock felt like welcome normality. Nobody loves commuting, but for a brief moment it seemed the rush hour and the bustling, … Read more
‘Stop panicking and scrap the rule of six’: Experts warn Boris Johnson’s ‘disturbing decision’ to limit gatherings ‘with no scientific evidence’ could have ‘major social consequences’ Rule of six shows ‘fundamental misunderstanding’ of Covid Britain, experts say Oxford’s Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine experts criticise new legislation Another 3,330 cases of coronavirus were recorded in the … Read more
Covid-19 survivors shouldn’t have to self-isolate if they develop symptoms of the disease because they aren’t likely to be infectious, government scientific advisers suggest Sage studied evidence which found it’s likely survivors can’t be infected again But admitted it is unclear how long this coronavirus ‘immunity’ would last for Experts dismissed idea of immunity passports, … Read more
Serious public disorder in the coming months could ‘overwhelm all attempts’ to control coronavirus and ‘catastrophically’ undermine recovery plans, scientific advisers have warned. The current ‘volatile and highly complex situation’ means the UK will face ‘grave challenges’ in maintaining public order, according to a paper considered by the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) in … Read more
Another scientific study has confirmed that 5G is ‘harmless and benign’ in response to crackpot conspiracy theorists who say the next-gen network causes disease. US researchers investigating the effects of radio-frequency radiation generated by the ultra-fast mobile internet reveal that it has negligible health impacts. The study comes after several 5G masts were vandalised during … Read more
Britons must continue to follow two-metre social distancing rules, experts tell Government scientific advisers amid fears dropping to one metre could carry up to 10 times the risk Boris Johnson is facing calls to halve the two-metre distancing rule in the UK But the EMG revealed this could lead to ten times as many COVID-19 infections … Read more
The official list of COVID symptoms has been branded ‘dodgy’ and ‘inadequate’ by a top scientific advisor. Dr Nick Summerton called for tiredness, breathlessness and loss of appetite to be included in key symptom list. Currently the NHS only notes a persistent cough and fever as the main signs, and says these are the only … Read more