Jump to content

Search the hub

Showing results for tags 'Pandemic'.

More search options

  • Search By Tags

    Start to type the tag you want to use, then select from the list.

  • Search By Author

Content Type


Forums

  • All
    • Commissioning, service provision and innovation in health and care
    • Coronavirus (COVID-19)
    • Culture
    • Improving patient safety
    • Investigations, risk management and legal issues
    • Leadership for patient safety
    • Organisations linked to patient safety (UK and beyond)
    • Patient engagement
    • Patient safety in health and care
    • Patient Safety Learning
    • Professionalising patient safety
    • Research, data and insight
    • Miscellaneous

Categories

  • Commissioning, service provision and innovation in health and care
    • Commissioning and funding patient safety
    • Digital health and care service provision
    • Health records and plans
    • Innovation programmes in health and care
    • Climate change/sustainability
  • Coronavirus (COVID-19)
    • Blogs
    • Data, research and statistics
    • Frontline insights during the pandemic
    • Good practice and useful resources
    • Guidance
    • Mental health
    • Exit strategies
    • Patient recovery
    • Questions around Government governance
  • Culture
    • Bullying and fear
    • Good practice
    • Occupational health and safety
    • Safety culture programmes
    • Second victim
    • Speak Up Guardians
    • Staff safety
    • Whistle blowing
  • Improving patient safety
    • Clinical governance and audits
    • Design for safety
    • Disasters averted/near misses
    • Equipment and facilities
    • Error traps
    • Health inequalities
    • Human factors (improving human performance in care delivery)
    • Improving systems of care
    • Implementation of improvements
    • International development and humanitarian
    • Safety stories
    • Stories from the front line
    • Workforce and resources
  • Investigations, risk management and legal issues
    • Investigations and complaints
    • Risk management and legal issues
  • Leadership for patient safety
    • Business case for patient safety
    • Boards
    • Clinical leadership
    • Exec teams
    • Inquiries
    • International reports
    • National/Governmental
    • Patient Safety Commissioner
    • Quality and safety reports
    • Techniques
    • Other
  • Organisations linked to patient safety (UK and beyond)
    • Government and ALB direction and guidance
    • International patient safety
    • Regulators and their regulations
  • Patient engagement
    • Consent and privacy
    • Harmed care patient pathways/post-incident pathways
    • How to engage for patient safety
    • Keeping patients safe
    • Patient-centred care
    • Patient Safety Partners
    • Patient stories
  • Patient safety in health and care
    • Care settings
    • Conditions
    • Diagnosis
    • High risk areas
    • Learning disabilities
    • Medication
    • Mental health
    • Men's health
    • Patient management
    • Social care
    • Transitions of care
    • Women's health
  • Patient Safety Learning
    • Patient Safety Learning campaigns
    • Patient Safety Learning documents
    • Patient Safety Standards
    • 2-minute Tuesdays
    • Patient Safety Learning Annual Conference 2019
    • Patient Safety Learning Annual Conference 2018
    • Patient Safety Learning Awards 2019
    • Patient Safety Learning Interviews
    • Patient Safety Learning webinars
  • Professionalising patient safety
    • Accreditation for patient safety
    • Competency framework
    • Medical students
    • Patient safety standards
    • Training & education
  • Research, data and insight
    • Data and insight
    • Research
  • Miscellaneous

News

  • News

Find results in...

Find results that contain...


Date Created

  • Start
    End

Last updated

  • Start
    End

Filter by number of...

Joined

  • Start

    End

Group

First name

Last name

Country

Join a private group (if appropriate)

About me

Organisation

Role

Found 2,341 results
  1. News Article
    When Susan Sullivan died from Covid-19, her parents’ world fell quiet. But as John and Ida Sullivan battled the pain of losing their eldest, they were comforted by doctors’ assurance that they had done all they could. It was not until more than a year later, when they received her medical records, that the family made a crushing discovery. These suggested that, despite Susan being in good health and responding well to initial treatments, doctors at Barnet hospital had concluded she wouldn’t pull through. When Susan was first admitted on 27 March 2020, a doctor had written in her treatment plan: “ITU (Intensive therapy unit) review if not improving”, indicating he believed she might benefit from a higher level of care. But as her oxygen levels fell and her condition deteriorated, the 56-year-old was not admitted to the intensive unit. Instead she died in her bed on the ward without access to potentially life-saving treatment others received. In the hospital records, seen by the Observer, the reason Susan was excluded is spelled out: “ITU declined in view of Down’s syndrome and cardiac comorbidities.” A treatment plan stating she was not to be resuscitated also cites her disability. For John, 79, a retired builder, that realisation was “like Susan dying all over again”. “The reality is that doctors gave her a bed to die in because she had Down’s syndrome,” he said. “To me it couldn’t be clearer: they didn’t even try.” Susan is one of thousands of disabled people in Britain killed by Covid-19. Last year, a report by the Learning Disabilities Mortality Review Programme found that almost half those who died from Covid-19 did not receive good enough treatment, including problems accessing care. Of those who died from Covid-19, 81% had a do-not-resuscitate decision, compared with 72% of those who died from other causes. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 10 July 2022
  2. News Article
    It would be “sensible” for hospitals to reintroduce mandatory mask-wearing, the chair of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation has said, as several trusts in England and Wales announced the move. When NHS rules on wearing masks in England were dropped on 10 June, local health bodies were given the power to draft their own policies. Their guidance, however, is no longer legally enforceable. Figures from NHS England show there were about 10,658 patients hospitalised with coronavirus on Monday. Infections have doubled in a fortnight across England – with about 1,000 patients being admitted with the virus each day. Prof Andrew Pollard, who is also the director of the Oxford Vaccine Group, which developed the AstraZeneca jab, said there were an “extraordinary” number of cases at the moment. “I certainly know more people now who have had Covid than at any time in the past,” he told the BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. “Because there’s so much in the community, anything we can do in our hospitals to reduce the potential outbreaks make sense and so the mandatory mask wearing in hospitals is very sensible policy,” he added. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 5 July 2022
  3. News Article
    Hospitals are bringing back requirements for masks on wards just weeks after rules were relaxed as Covid rates spike, The Independent can reveal. Experts have warned of a surge in cases, believed to be the fifth wave, with one in 40 people in the UK testing positive for the virus. Meanwhile, latest NHS data shows more than 8,000 Covid-positive patients on wards following a warning of a “deleterious” impact on hospital waiting times. In response, three major hospital trusts have told staff they must wear masks, with warnings more must follow if the NHS is to handle another wave of Covid. Dr Tim Cooksley, president of the Society for Acute Medicine told The Independent: “Over the past 2 years Covid has highlighted and exacerbated what was an already growing crisis. “High staff absence levels, burn-out and low morale have dominated staff landscapes during this time and continue to do so. Future waves and potentially large numbers of upcoming flu cases will only serve to deepen these problems making the hopes of patients, clinicians and politicians alike of elective recovery seem somewhat fanciful." Read full story Source: The Independent, 29 June 2022
  4. News Article
    Senior doctors have drawn up a major dossier refuting Sajid Javid’s claim that the pressures on the NHS were created by the Covid pandemic, amid continued warnings over patient safety, scarce beds and staff morale. The health secretary has repeatedly suggested that the problems around record waiting lists and ambulance waiting times have been prompted by the pandemic. Last week in parliament, he accused shadow health secretary Wes Streeting of having his “head under a rock for two years” for not seeing that the pressures stemmed from Covid. However, in a major review of evidence shared with the Observer, doctors pointed to issues around funding, bed capacity, staffing and recruitment that pre-dated the arrival of Covid. The dossier, drawn up by the British Medical Association as it gathers for its annual conference this week, finds that the UK’s health services were ill-prepared for the pandemic as a result of “historical underfunding and under-resourcing in the decade preceding the virus”. Denise Langhor, an emergency medicine consultant in the north-west of England, said that the pandemic had “laid bare” the health service’s problems, but did not create them. “Those problems and those holes already existed,” she said. “It is entirely disingenuous of this government to claim the waiting lists and the difficulties people are experiencing with NHS care at the moment are due to Covid. They have been building for a decade. “Every day, I have patients that I wish I could have treated sooner. It’s an awful thing as a doctor to be trying to look after patients on a corridor, and knowing they are not getting the standard of care that you want to give them. “Frequently it feels like we’re operating by choosing the least worst option rather than the best option.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 26 June 2022
  5. News Article
    Covid vaccines cut the global death toll by 20 million in the first year after they were available, according to the first major analysis. The study, which modelled the spread of the disease in 185 countries and territories between December 2020 and December 2021, found that without Covid vaccines 31.4 million people would have died, and that 19.8 million of these deaths were avoided. The study is the first attempt to quantify the number of deaths prevented directly and indirectly as a result of Covid-19 vaccinations. “We knew it was going to be a large number, but I did not think it would be as high as 20 million deaths during just the first year,” said Oliver Watson, of Imperial College London, who is a co-first author on the study carried out by scientists at the university. Many more deaths could have been prevented if access to vaccines had been more equal worldwide. Nearly 600,000 additional deaths – one in five of the Covid deaths in low-income countries – could have been prevented if the World Health Organization’s global goal of vaccinating 40% of each country’s population by the end of 2021 had been met, the research found. “Our findings show that millions of lives have likely been saved by making vaccines available to people everywhere, regardless of their wealth,” said Watson. “However, more could have been done.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 24 June 2022
  6. News Article
    The number of patients in English hospitals who have tested positive for Covid has increased 28% in a week, the steepest rise since mid-March The third Covid wave of 2022 has now seen Covid occupation levels rise from 3,835 on 4 June to 6,401 yesterday. The sharpest rise in the number of Covid positive patients came in the North West region, where the total rose by 43% in a week. There are now over 1,000 Covid positive hospital patients in the North West, North East and Yorkshire, Midlands and London regions for the first time since 11 May. Some 38% of Covid hospital patients are being treated primarily for the condition. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 24 June 2022
  7. News Article
    The NHS is warning about widespread scam text messages telling recipients they have been in close contact with a Covid case. "We've seen reports of fake NHS text messages about ordering Omicron Covid-19 test kits," it tweeted. Close contacts of people who have tested positive are no longer advised to test. The aim of the messages appears to be harvesting financial and personal information. In its alert, the NHS says it will "never ask for bank details, so please be aware of suspicious messages". Most people are no longer advised to test for Covid and are ineligible for free tests - but some some pharmacies and shops sell them. Read full story Source: BBC News, 22 June 2022
  8. News Article
    A trust was supplied with ventilators that were not ‘fit for NHS purposes’ by two suppliers at the height of the first Covid wave, HSJ has revealed. Guy’s and St Thomas’ Foundation Trust has now received a refund for both contracts, which were signed in March 2020 just as the pandemic began to hit the NHS. The service rushed to secure the equipment in response to fears that existing ventilator capacity would be inadequate to deal with the rising number of seriously ill Covid patients. At the time, the use of ventilators was the only effective therapy for the sickest Covid patients. Minutes published by the trust at its most recent board meeting revealed the issue. GSTT then told HSJ in a statement: “Two contracts for ventilators were in dispute. In one case, the trust has already received a refund. In the other, which involved equipment we do not assess as fit for NHS purposes, the trust was reimbursed by central funding.” The trust would not confirm the number of ventilators involved, the cost or the issue that meant they were not “fit for NHS purposes”. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 23 June 2022
  9. News Article
    A group of 95 people who developed health problems or lost relatives as a result of rare side-effects of the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine say they have been let down by the "out-of-date" government payment scheme. One woman whose fiancé died after the jab was awarded £120,000 this week. BBC News has since learned two more people have been told they will receive payments. But many more are still waiting for their cases to be assessed, despite some having final death certificates meaning senior doctors and lawyers have concluded the vaccine caused their loved one's death. As of May, more than 1,300 claims had been made to the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme (VDPS) but only 20 referred for medical assessment. Meanwhile, some fear their genuine but rare cases are being drowned out by a flurry of people making unproven claims about vaccine damage online. Claire Hibbs was unable to work for a year after developing vaccine-induced immune thrombotic thrombocytopenia (VITT) and struggles with chronic fatigue, migraines and brain fog and fears her job could be at risk - but believes she will not be considered 60% disabled. Like others in the group, she has been upset by suggestions she might be opposed to vaccines - "it's a pro-vaccination campaign," Ms Moore says. But Ms Hibbs acknowledges false claims about damage from Covid vaccines have been widely circulated online - and research suggests such claims can increase vaccine hesitancy and put people's lives at risk. Members of the group, Vaccine, Injured, Bereaved UK (VIB UK) have all received official confirmation of a link to the vaccine. But underneath many of its factual posts, other accounts share reams of false and misleading claims about the vaccine Read full story Source: BBC News, 23 June 2022
  10. News Article
    The COVID-19 crisis has both divided and galvanised Canadians on healthcare. While the last three years have presented new challenges to healthcare systems across the country, the pandemic has also exacerbated existing challenges, most notably the high levels of errors and mistreatment documented in Canadian health care. According to a 2019 report from the Canadian Patient Safety Institute, Canada was already facing a public health crisis prior to the pandemic: a crisis of patient safety. As the report details, patient safety incidents are the third leading cause of death in Canada, following cancer and heart disease. Few studies calculate national data on this topic, but a 2013 report found that patient safety events resulted in just under 28,000 deaths. Many Canadians who have experienced these errors have shared their experiences with media in an effort to raise awareness and demand change. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has created a moment of dual crises. First, the pre-existing crisis of patient safety, and second, healthcare overall is now at a breaking point after three years of COVID-19, according to healthcare workers. Edmonton physician Dr. Darren Markland, for example, recently closed his kidney specialist practice after making a few "profound mistakes." In an interview with Global News, he explains he could no longer work at the current pace. He is not alone in this decision. Across the country, there have been waves of resignations in health care, leaving some areas struggling with a system that is "degrading, increasingly unsafe, and often without dignity." Read full story Source: MedicalXpress, 17 June 2022
  11. News Article
    Severe restrictions imposed on care home residents in Scotland during the Covid pandemic caused "harm and distress" and may have contributed to some deaths, academics have said. A 143-page report has been produced by Edinburgh Napier University. It had been commissioned by the independent inquiry into the country's handling of the pandemic. The report says that the legal basis for confining residents to their rooms and banning visitors was "unclear". And it said care home residents were arguably discriminated against compared to other citizens. The report is 1 of 14 that have been published by the Scottish Covid-19 Inquiry, which is chaired by Lady Poole. It found that in the early months of the pandemic there was "little evidence" that the human rights of residents and their families had been considered. It said: "There is substantial evidence of the harm and distress caused to residents and their families by the restrictions imposed in care homes. "This includes concerns that, particularly for people with dementia, being unable to maintain contact with their family exacerbated cognitive and emotional decline, potentially hastening their death." Read full story Source: BBC News, 16 June 2022
  12. News Article
    Patients who enter general practices in England no longer have to wear a face mask unless they have respiratory symptoms, NHS England and NHS Improvement says. But the updated guidance also underlines the importance of local risk assessments and says that increased measures can be used when deemed necessary. A letter sent to clinical commissioning groups and trusts set out the changes to infection prevention and control measures following updates from the UK Health Security Agency.1 It said that health and care staff should continue to wear face masks as part of personal protective equipment when working with patients with suspected or confirmed covid-19, including untriaged patients in primary care and emergency departments. It said that universal masking should be applied when there is a known or suspected cluster of SARS-CoV-2, for example during an outbreak or if new variants of concern emerge. Health and care staff working in non-clinical areas such as offices and social settings do not need to wear masks unless it is their personal preference or if there are specific problems raised by a risk assessment. Patients with respiratory symptoms who are required to attend for emergency treatment should wear a face mask, if tolerated, or be offered one on arrival. All other patients are “not required” to wear a face mask but can if they prefer. In settings where patients are at high risk of infection owing to immunosuppression, such as oncology or haematology, patients might be encouraged to wear a face mask after a local risk assessment. Read full story Source: BMJ, 13 June 2022
  13. News Article
    A number of hospitals are insisting that patients keep wearing masks despite instructions from NHS chiefs to drop the rules. National coronavirus guidance which insisted on face coverings has now been scrapped, with health officials leaving it to local organisations to draft their own policies. However, several hospitals have called on patients and staff to continue to wear masks and face coverings on their sites. Sajid Javid, the Health Secretary, has repeatedly called on NHS trusts to drop restrictions in hospitals which are limiting operational capacity. Last month, he threatened to name and shame hospitals that do not lift social distancing measures and restrictions on visitors. A letter from health chiefs said that patients visiting accident and emergency (A&E) departments, hospital outpatient appointments and GP surgeries no longer needed to wear masks “unless this is a personal preference”. Hospitals have now begun issuing guidance for their local communities, with a number saying they intend to keep insisting on people wearing masks. The Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS trust issued a notice to patients and staff saying: “We are still asking patients, visitors, staff and anyone working at one of our hospital or community sites to continue to wear a mask, gel hands and social distance while in our buildings despite the lifting of national restrictions." “This is to keep vulnerable people as safe as possible.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: The Telegraph, 8 June 2022
  14. News Article
    Admissions of people to hospital with Covid in England have begun to grow again, new data from the NHS shows, as fears were raised over a new wave. Analysis by John Roberts of the Covid Actuaries group, set up in response to the pandemic, showed hospital admissions had stopped falling after a period of decline. Figures on Tuesday showed weekly admissions increased by 4% across England as of 5 June and were up by 33% in the North East and Yorkshire. When asked if the UK was heading into another wave, Mr Roberts told The Independent: “Yes we could be but...how big that wave and how serious it will be in terms of admissions and deaths is very, very difficult to judge at this stage.” His comments come after experts in Europe warned there will be a new wave driven by the growth of the BA.5 and BA.4 Covid variants. The figures, which cover hospitals in England only, show the weekly average of admissions for patients in hospital with Covid stood at 531 as of 5 June. Read full story Source: The Independent, 9 June 2022
  15. News Article
    The United States is now in its fourth-biggest Covid surge, according to official case counts – but experts believe the actual current rate is much higher. America is averaging about 94,000 new cases every day, and hospitalizations have been ticking upward since April, though they remain much lower than previous peaks. But Covid cases could be undercounted by a factor of 30, an early survey of the surge in New York City indicates. “It would appear official case counts are under-estimating the true burden of infection by about 30-fold, which is a huge surprise,” said Denis Nash, an author of the study and a distinguished professor of epidemiology at the City University of New York School of Public Health. While the study focused on New York, these findings may be true throughout the rest of the country, Nash said. In fact, New Yorkers likely have better access to testing than most of the country, which means undercounting could be even worse elsewhere. “It’s very worrisome. To me, it means that our ability to really understand and get ahead of the virus is undermined,” Nash said. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 2 June 2022
  16. News Article
    The crisis in the NHS is leading to continued higher-than-usual death levels in England and Wales, experts have said. Figures from the Office for National Statistics reveal that almost 170,000 more people than normal died in England and Wales between March 2020, when coronavirus was declared a pandemic, and the end of 2022 – 11% higher than the five-year average. However, the new data also shows that the number of excess deaths has continued, even as the virus’s fatality rate has declined thanks to vaccinations and weaker strains, with 90% of the excess deaths in 2022 occurring in the second half of the year, coinciding with recent NHS pressures and the impact of a cold winter. Prof David Spiegelhalter of Cambridge University said that “analyses have suggested that delays in ambulance arrivals and in A&E will have had a substantial impact, as well as the cold weather and the early flu season”. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 9 March 2023
  17. News Article
    Covid-19 may not have taken as great a toll on the mental health of most people as earlier research has indicated, a new study suggests. The pandemic resulted in “minimal” changes in mental health symptoms among the general population, according to a review of 137 studies from around the world led by researchers at McGill University in Canada, and published in the British Medical Journal. Brett Thombs, a psychiatry professor at McGill University and senior author, said some of the public narrative around the mental health impacts of Covid-19 were based on “poor-quality studies and anecdotes”, which became “self-fulfilling prophecies”, adding that there was a need for more “rigorous science”. However, some experts disputed this, warning such readings could obscure the impact on individual groups such as children, women and people with low incomes or pre-existing mental health problems. They also said other robust studies had reached different conclusions. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 8 March 2023
  18. News Article
    Patients with rheumatic conditions who shielded during the pandemic feel "left behind", according to new research. The University of the West of England (UWE) in Bristol conducted a study with patients about their experiences of shielding during the pandemic and how it continued to affect them. Researchers interviewed 15 rheumatology patients from the Bristol area. Pamela Richards, who suffers with arthritis, said the pandemic has been "a massive blow" to the way she lives. "I have never experienced anything like shielding, it heightened a sense of anxiety in me," said Ms Richards. "How do I get food? I cannot leave the house. How can I see friends? I was not allowed to." Ms Richards, who shielded for nearly two years during the pandemic, said that life has not returned to normal, despite no longer being advised to shield. "It is a new normal, which is about being on high alert and managing risk every day," she said. Researcher Christine Silverthorne said: "Many are still dealing with lasting physical and mental effects both from the experience of shielding and as a consequence of delays to their healthcare and treatment". Read full story Source: BBC News, 6 March 2023
  19. News Article
    The Covid-19 Inquiry is a public inquiry to examine the UK’s response to the pandemic, as well as its wide-sweeping impact. In the UK, at least 216,726 people have had Covid-19 mentioned on their death certificate since the start of the pandemic. Multiple lockdowns, school closures and furloughs later, a public inquiry aims to gauge what lessons can be learned for the future. Two preliminary hearings have already taken place on 28 February and 1 March. The next one will be on 21 March and will cover Scotland, including strategic issues, political governance, lockdowns and restrictions. The inquiry is chaired by Baroness Heather Hallett, a former Court of Appeal judge. The inquiry has been split into three modules: resilience and preparedness, core UK-decision making; political governance, and the impact of Covid-19 on healthcare systems across the UK. In Spring 2022, the inquiry held a public consultation on its draft terms of reference which allowed people to give their opinions on the topics the inquiry would cover. The public inquiry has come under heavy criticism after it was announced that structural racism will not be explicitly considered. Read full story Source: The Independent, 2 March 2023
  20. News Article
    A misplaced medical tube contributed to the death of the first child in the UK to die after contracting Covid, a coroner has found. Ismail Mohamed Abdulwahab, 13, of Brixton, south London, died of acute respiratory distress syndrome, caused by Covid-19 pneumonia, on 30 March 2020, three days after testing positive for coronavirus. He had a cardiac arrest before he died. Ismail’s death prompted widespread alarm about the potentially lethal impact of Covid on children. Hours before Ismail died, an endotracheal tube (ET) used to help patients breathe was found to be in the wrong position. A consultant in paediatric intensive care decided to leave it and monitor him. Giving his judgment on Thursday, senior coroner Andrew Harris said: “I am satisfied that he [Ismail] would not have died when he did were it not for the tube misplacement.” On Wednesday, the inquest at London Inner South London coroner’s court heard evidence from Dr Tushar Vince, a consultant in paediatric intensive care at King’s College hospital who treated Ismail on 29 March after he had been intubated. Asked by Harris if it would be reasonable to put the positioning of the ET on the death certificate as one of the causes, Dr Vince said: “I think it would be reasonable to consider it, yes.” She said: “I was so focused on the lungs I just didn’t see how high this tube was and I’m so sorry that I didn’t see it.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 2 March 2023
  21. News Article
    A new study has found that the pandemic has severely affected people’s mental health and relationships all over the world, particularly for young adults. The third annual mental state of the world report (MSW) commissioned by Sapien Labs, a non-profit research organisation, conducted a global survey to better understand the state of mental health. The research compiled responses from over 400,000 participants across 64 countries, asking respondents about their family relationships, friendships and overall mental wellbeing. The survey found that there has been little recovery in declining mental health during the pandemic, which the group measures by a score called “mental health quotient”. It had found that average score had declined by 33 points – on a 300-point scale – over the past two years and still showed no signs of recovery, remaining at the same level as 2021. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 1 March 2023
  22. News Article
    Race should be made a central part of the UK's independent public inquiry into the pandemic, campaigners say. A letter seen by BBC News, sent to the chairwoman of the Covid-19 inquiry, calls for it to look at "racism as a key issue" at every stage. Ethnic minorities were significantly more likely to die with Covid-19, according to official figures. An inquiry spokesperson said the unequal impacts of the pandemic would be at the forefront of its work. People from ethnic minority backgrounds who lost loved-ones during the pandemic also told BBC News they felt "sidelined" by the process so far. The letter to Baroness Hallett, who is chairing the inquiry, has been co-ordinated by the group Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice and race equality think tank Runnymede. It calls for ethnic minority communities to be "placed firmly at the centre" of the inquiry. Read full story Source: BBC News, 28 February 2023
  23. News Article
    People from ethnic minority backgrounds are no longer significantly more likely to die of Covid-19, new Office for National Statistics (ONS) data shows. Early in the pandemic, deaths involving coronavirus were higher among black and Asian people than white people, with the highest risk among Bangladeshi, Black Caribbean and Pakistani groups. Covid mortality rates for all ethnic minorities decreased last year. The latest data shows there is no significant statistical difference between the number of Covid deaths among ethnic minorities and the white population. The ONS also said that "all cause" mortality rates - measuring how likely people are to die of any cause, including Covid-19 - have returned to pre-pandemic patterns. The reasons for this change are complex, and experts say there are "various factors" to consider. Read full story Source: BBC News, 22 February 2023
  24. News Article
    The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has decided not to recommend Evusheld for adults who are unlikely to have an adequate immune response or cannot have the vaccine against Covid-19, citing a lack of evidence that it is effective against circulating variants. However, it is still reviewing whether the antibody drug could be used to prevent covid-19 infection in adults at the highest risk of severe illness, including people with immunodeficiency, people who have had a solid organ transplant, and people with cancer. NICE’s director of medicines evaluation, Helen Knight, acknowledged that the decision would be “disappointing for the many thousands” of vulnerable people who “continue to significantly modify their behaviour to avoid infection. Commenting on NICE’s decision, Lennard Lee, senior clinical research fellow at the University of Birmingham, said, “While it’s right for NICE to ensure that treatment options are based on the best possible evidence for their safety, efficacy, and cost effectiveness, it must be recognised that those who remain extremely vulnerable to covid need to be prioritised in trials akin to those early days of the pandemic to find treatments fit for them. “Otherwise, we run the risk of consigning half a million people to continue to live in 2020, stuck in their homes, not able to see their families and friends for fear of infection with no protection.” Read full story Source: The BMJ, 16 February 2023
  25. News Article
    President Joe Biden has announced to the US Congress that he will end the country’s Covid-19 public health emergency on 11 May, although about 500 Americans are currently dying every day from Covid-19. He also plans to end the related national Covid-19 emergency. In contrast, the World Health Organization said on 27 January that the Covid-19 pandemic was still a public health emergency. The US administration’s statement said that extending the emergencies until May would provide time for an orderly transition. Ending the emergencies will mean that many Americans will lose the health insurance provided through the Medicaid programme, which helps people on low incomes and was extended during the pandemic. Many others will find that they no longer get free tests, treatments, or vaccines. Read full story Source: BMJ, 1 February 2023
×
×
  • Create New...