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Found 2,339 results
  1. Content Article
    Early in the pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) stated that SARS-CoV-2 was not transmitted through the air. That mistake and the prolonged process of correcting it sowed confusion and raises questions about what will happen in the next pandemic. This Nature feature looks at the changing views of how Covid is spread.
  2. News Article
    NHS chiefs have issued an extraordinary plea for families to help them discharge loved ones even if they are Covid-19 positive as the health service faces a “perfect storm” fuelled by heavy demand, severe staff shortages and soaring Covid cases. Hospitals and ambulance services across England are under “enormous strain”, health leaders have warned, after NHS trusts covering millions of patients declared critical incidents or issued stark warnings to residents. Dr Layla McCay, director of policy at the NHS Confederation, which represents the whole healthcare system, said the situation had become so serious that “all parts” of the health service were now becoming “weighed down”. This will have a “direct knock-on effect” on the ability of staff to tackle the care backlog, she added, as well as the current provision of urgent and emergency care. On Wednesday evening, the crisis became so acute in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight that its chief medical officer urged relatives of patients well enough to be discharged to collect them immediately – even if they were still testing positive for coronavirus. Dr Derek Sandeman, of the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Integrated Care System, revealed that almost every hospital in the two counties was full, and said the number of people with Covid-19 being cared for in hospitals across the area was 650 – more than 2.5 times higher than in early January. He added that 2,800 staff working for local NHS organisations were off sick, half of which absences were due to Covid-19. “With staff sickness rates well above average, rising cases of Covid-19 and very high numbers of people needing treatment, we face a perfect storm – but there are some very specific ways in which people can help the frontline NHS and care teams,” said Sandeman. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 6 April 2022
  3. News Article
    The devastating impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on poor and low-income communities across America is laid bare in a new report that concludes that while the virus did not discriminate between rich and poor, society and government did. As the US draws close to the terrible landmark of 1 million deaths from coronavirus, the glaringly disproportionate human toll that has been exacted is exposed by the Poor People’s Pandemic Report. Based on a data analysis of more than 3,000 counties across the US, it finds that people in poorer counties have died overall at almost twice the rate of those in richer counties. Looking at the most deadly surges of the virus, the disparity in death rates grows even more pronounced. During the third pandemic wave in the US, over the winter of 2020 and 2021, death rates were four and a half times higher in the poorest counties than those with the highest median incomes. During the recent Omicron wave, that divergence in death rates stood at almost three times. Such a staggering gulf in outcomes cannot be explained by differences in vaccination rates, the authors find, with more than half of the population of the poorest counties having received two vaccine shots. A more relevant factor is likely to be that the poorest communities had twice the proportion of people who lack health insurance compared with the richer counties. “The findings of this report reveal neglect and sometimes intentional decisions to not focus on the poor,” said Bishop William Barber, co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign which jointly prepared the research. “The neglect of poor and low-wealth people in this country during a pandemic is immoral, shocking and unjust.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 4 April 2022
  4. News Article
    Ministers will be left in the dark on Covid spikes just as case numbers reach unprecedented levels if a “world-beating” surveillance programme is scrapped, scientists have warned. The React-1 study, which played a crucial role in detecting and tracking the spread of the Alpha variant in December 2020 ahead of the second lockdown, has been stopped as part of the government's plan to cut its Covid costs. But in its last report, the study found 6.37% of the population was infected between 8 and 31 March – the highest figure since it began in May 2020. More worryingly, the scientists behind the research said the prevalence rate has also reached new highs for people aged 55 and over, at 8.31 per cent. The Royal Statistical Society (RSS) said dismantling the project while cases were at record levels damaged preparedness and put public health at risk. The spread of Covid within hospitals is also fuelling staff shortages, bed closures and delayed discharges in multiple regions of the country. This is coinciding with delays in ambulance handovers and response times, NHS sources say. Information seen by The Independent revealed hundreds of beds are currently out of use at Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals trust due to Covid outbreaks. A senior clinician said the “hospital is coming apart at the seams” and that, across the northeast, even “high” performing emergency departments were “crashing” and “stacking ambulances outside of hospital”. Read full story Source: The Independent, 6 April 2022
  5. Content Article
    The iterative processes that engineers and technicians use to address problems could have been applied by decision-makers throughout the COVID-19 pandemic writes Rick Schrenker.
  6. Content Article
    Dr Tejal Gandhi, has been a leader in patient and workforce safety for more than 20 years. Dr. Gandhi talked with Patient Safety Beat following publication of her essay, “Don’t Go to the Hospital Alone: Ensuring Safe, Highly Reliable Patient Visitation,” in the Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safey.
  7. News Article
    Clinically vulnerable people infected with Covid are being denied access to potentially life-saving antiviral medicine, patients, health officials and charities say. Around 1.3 million people with underlying health conditions in England have been identified by the NHS as at-risk and sent letters explaining they will be assessed for antiviral treatment if infected with Covid. The NHS said “tens of thousands of the most vulnerable patients” have received the medication to date, but told The Independent it was “aware of some local issues” in which clinically vulnerable people have struggled to access the antivirals. It comes at a time of record-breaking infection levels. Patients seeking the treatment, which suppresses an infection to prevent disease escalation and hospitalisation, have reported being turned away by GPs and hospital doctors, while others say they’ve been “pushed from pillar to post” in an attempt to access the medication. An NHS manager told The Independent that only 15% of eligible patients cared for by Kent and Medway Clinical Commissioning Group received antiviral medication in February. Anthony Nolan, the blood cancer charity, and Kidney Care UK both said they had received reports that Covid Medicine Delivery Units (CMDUs), which are responsible for ensuring antiviral medication reaches patients, were overwhelmed and struggling to provide treatment. “Weekends are a particular problem and it causes a lot of stress,” said Fiona Loud, a policy director a Kidney Care UK. “We have had reports from people in different parts of the country.” Paxlovid, molnupiravir and remdesivir are available via the NHS as antiviral medicine. All three have been shown to be effective in reducing the risk of hospitalisation among infected vulnerable patients. Antibody treatment, administered intravenously, is also available. Read full story Source: The Independent, 4 April 2022
  8. Content Article
    More and more people have been asking for a return to normal, and with omicron waning, governments are starting to act. The UK is removing its remaining public health measures, including mandatory self-isolation of COVID cases and free testing. However, the inescapable truth is that – unless the virus mutates to a milder form – the “normal” life we are returning to will be shorter and sicker on average than before. This article in The Conversation looks at how we need to live post-Covid.
  9. Content Article
    This book interrogates the assumption that evidence means the same thing to different constituencies and in different contexts by outlining a more nuanced and socially responsive approach to medical expertise that incorporates scientific and lay processes of making sense of the world and deciding how to act in it. In so doing, it provides a point of orientation for clinicians working at the coalface, whose experience is sometimes at odds with the type of rationality that underpins evidence-based medicine and that guides researchers conducting randomised controlled trials. The argument elaborated also has implications for policy makers in the healthcare system, who have to navigate similar pressures and contradictions between scientific and lay rationality to produce meaningful guidelines in the midst of a runaway pandemic. Debates within and beyond the medical establishment on the efficacy of measures such as mandatory face masks and lockdowns are examined in detail, as are various degrees of hesitancy towards vaccines and other pharmaceutical interventions. The authors demonstrate that it is ultimately through narratives that knowledge about medical and other phenomena is communicated to others, enters the public space, and provokes discussion and disagreements. Importantly, effective narratives can enhance the reception of that knowledge and reduce some of the sources of resistance and misunderstanding that continue to plague public communication about important medical issues such as pandemics. Access the introduction and excerpts from each chapter from the link below.
  10. News Article
    It has long been clear that Black Americans have experienced high rates of coronavirus infection, hospitalisation and death throughout the pandemic. But those factors are now leading experts to sound the alarm about what will may come next: a prevalence of Long Covid in the Black community and a lack of access to treatment. Long Covid — with chronic symptoms like fatigue, cognitive problems and others that linger for months after an acute coronavirus infection has cleared up — has perplexed researchers, and many are working hard to find a treatment for people experiencing it. But health experts warn that crucial data is missing: Black Americans have not been sufficiently included in Long-Covid trials, treatment programmes and registries, according to the authors of a new report released on Tuesday. “We expect there are going to be greater barriers to access the resources and services available for Long Covid,” said one of the authors, Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith, who is the director of Yale University’s health equity office and a former chair of President Biden’s health equity task force. “The pandemic isn’t over, it isn’t over for anyone,” Dr. Nunez-Smith said. “But the reality is, it’s certainly not over in Black America.” In the first three months of the pandemic, the average weekly case rate per 100,000 Black Americans was 36.2, compared with 12.5 for white Americans, the authors write. The Black hospitalisation rate was 12.6 per 100,000 people, compared with 4 per 100,000 for white people, and the death rate was also higher: 3.6 per 100,000 compared with 1.8 per 100,000. “The severity of Covid-19 among Black Americans was the predictable result of structural and societal realities, not differences in genetic predisposition.” "Many Black Americans who contracted the coronavirus experienced serious illness because of pre-existing conditions like obesity, hypertension and chronic kidney disease, which themselves were often the result of “differential access to high-quality care and health promoting resources,” the report says. Read full story (paywalled) Source: New York Times, 29 March 2022
  11. Content Article
    Sweden was well equipped to prevent the pandemic of COVID-19 from becoming serious. Over 280 years of collaboration between political bodies, authorities, and the scientific community had yielded many successes in preventive medicine. Sweden’s population is literate and has a high level of trust in authorities and those in power. During 2020, however, Sweden had ten times higher COVID-19 death rates compared with neighbouring Norway. In this report, Nele Brusselaers et al. try to understand why, using a narrative approach to evaluate the Swedish COVID-19 policy and the role of scientific evidence and integrity. We argue that that scientific methodology was not followed by the major figures in the acting authorities—or the responsible politicians—with alternative narratives being considered as valid, resulting in arbitrary policy decisions.
  12. News Article
    The UK's top public health doctor says anyone with a persistent cough and fever should not dismiss it as Covid - and should consider other infectious illnesses like tuberculosis (TB). Dr Jenny Harries' warning comes as provisional data shows there were 4,430 cases recorded in England in 2021, despite sharp declines in recent years. Charities are calling for more funding to tackle the disease around the world. They say the pandemic and conflicts have set back progress worldwide. In 2020, global deaths because of tuberculosis ranked second to Covid for any infectious disease. The charity Stop TB Partnership warns the war in Ukraine could have "devastating impacts on health services", including the country's strong national TB treatment programme. The charity is urging all countries to put facilities in place urgently so refugees can be given the care they need. In the UK a requirement for Ukrainians to take a TB test before arrival has been waived for those who are coming to the country on the family scheme visa. Refugees arriving on the scheme will get medical care and testing via GPs. Meanwhile Dr Jenny Harries, chief executive of the UK Health Security Agency, said delayed diagnosis and treatment, particularly during the pandemic, will have increased the number of undetected cases in England. Read full story Source: BBC News, 24 March 2022
  13. News Article
    The government’s upcoming Covid-19 public inquiry must include the effect of the pandemic on children and young people, a group of leading doctors and scientists have said. The draft terms of reference for the inquiry were published on 15 March but made no specific mention of children or young people other than a single reference to “restrictions on attendance at places of education." “There is no doubt that school closures and broader lockdowns harmed children,” said the letter to the Times signed by 50 people including Russell Viner, former president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, and Andrew James, president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists. “Educational losses have been most marked in children from deprived families and in vulnerable children.” They pointed out that mental health problems increased from being experienced by one in nine children and young people before the pandemic to one in six during 2020 and 2021. Childhood obesity rates last year were at least 20% above previous years. One of the signatories to the letter, education committee chair Robert Halfon, has also written directly to the inquiry chair Heather Hallet.3 “The closure of schools and the restrictions placed on education settings has been nothing short of a national disaster for children and young people, not only in terms of their educational attainment but also with regards to their mental health and wellbeing, their life chances, and their safety,” he wrote. Read full story Source: BMJ, 24 March 2022
  14. News Article
    Covid hospitalisations will continue to rise for at least two weeks, England’s government’s chief medical officer warned on Wednesday as Britain’s daily cases breached 100,000 for the second time this month. Professor Sir Chris Whitty said the country’s Covid crisis “is not over” and that new variants of the disease could arise at any time. He pointed to the latest data showing that the number of people with Covid in hospitals has been rising, and said this would likely continue for at least two weeks. The current rise in cases is “currently being driven by Omicron rather than new variants”, he told an audience at a Local Government Association conference, but added: “We need to keep a very close eye on this, because at any point new variants could emerge anywhere in the world, including the UK, obviously, as what happened with the Alpha variant.” Another 194 Covid deaths were reported on Wednesday, up 27% on last week. Prof Whitty said that death rates were fortunately still low but that hospitalisations meant there was still pressure on the NHS. Asked about the end of free testing for the public on 1 April, Sir Chris said it was a “trade-off between disparities, because the effects of free testing are probably going to be differential across society, and [there are] very substantial sums that are going into it, which otherwise would be going into other public health issues." However, he said that testing for staff within health and social care was “slightly different” as the risks are greater, and those who are in hospital or care homes are more vulnerable. His comments come on the second anniversary of the day the UK announced a national lockdown. Read full story Source: The Independent, 23 March 2022
  15. Content Article
    All big experiences in our lives have two realities. There is what really happened. And there is the narrative, the story we tell ourselves and each other about what happened. Of the two, psychologists say it’s the narrative that matters most. Creating coherent stories about events allows us to make sense of them. It is the narrative that determines our reactions, and what we do next. Two years after the World Health Organization (WHO) finally used the word “pandemic” in its own story about the deadly new virus from Wuhan, narratives have multiplied and changed around the big questions. How bad is it? What should we do about it? When will it be over? The stories we embraced have sometimes been correct, but others have sown division, even caused needless deaths. Those stories aren’t finished – and neither is the pandemic. As we navigate what could be – if we are lucky – Covid’s transition to a present but manageable disease, it is these narratives we most need to understand and reconcile. What has really happened since 2020? And how does it still affect us now?
  16. News Article
    There is no evidence that Covid vaccines have led to an increase in deaths in young people, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has said. Six months after the mass rollout of Covid vaccines, medical regulators started to report slightly higher rates of two heart conditions after receiving the Pfizer and Moderna jabs. Myocarditis is an inflammation of the heart muscle itself, while pericarditis is inflammation of the fluid-filled sac the heart sits in. Both side effects are very rare but appear to be more common after a second dose of either Covid jab, particularly in younger men. The ONS looked at outcomes shortly after vaccination, when the risk of any side effect is highest. The chance of a young person dying in that time was no different to later periods the researchers looked at. Julie Stanborough, deputy director at the ONS said: "We have found no evidence of an increased risk of cardiac death in young people following Covid-19 vaccination." Read full story Source: BBC News, 22 March 2022
  17. News Article
    NHS staff face unacceptable health risks as a result of “retrograde” changes to the government’s guidance on preventing spread of Covid-19, doctors’ leaders have warned. The BMA said on 16 March it was concerned over updated guidance issued by the UK Health Security Agency covering use of personal protective equipment. It said the guidance failed to properly acknowledge that SARS-CoV-2 infection can spread in the air during the routine care of patients as they cough or sneeze and not just when specific processes known as aerosol generating procedures (AGPs) are being undertaken. “This is a retrograde step as it once again means that healthcare workers will not be routinely provided the right level of protective masks and equipment they need to be safe at work when looking after covid patients,” said Chaand Nagpaul, the BMA’s chair of council. The BMA said it was crucial that any staff looking after patients with confirmed or suspected Covid-19, or in other situations where a local risk assessment required it, had access to respiratory protective equipment such as filtering face piece (FFP3) masks. Nagpaul said, “All healthcare workers who are caring for Covid-19 patients are putting themselves at risk, each and every day, and the very least the government should do is to provide surety that staff will be given the best protection possible.” Respirators such as FFP3 masks are designed to protect the wearer from ingress of contaminated air and are fitted to ensure no gaps. They offer higher protection than surgical masks, which block the outward escape of droplets from the wearer. The BMA’s concern follows a supposed clarification of the main messages regarding airborne transmission in the latest infection and prevention and control guidance issued on 15 March 2022. The guidance said that respiratory protective equipment (FFP3 masks) are recommended when caring for patients with a suspected or confirmed infection spread “predominantly” by the airborne route (during the infectious period). The word “predominantly” has been added to the previous guidance update, which was issued on 17 January 2022, and is the crux of doctors’ concern, one leading scientist said. Read full story Source: BMJ, 18 March 2022
  18. News Article
    During the peak of the omicron variant wave of the coronavirus this winter, Black adults in the United States were hospitalised at rates higher than at any moment in the pandemic, according to a report published last week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Black adults were four times as likely to be hospitalised compared with White adults during the height of the omicron variant surge, which started in mid-December and continued through January, the report said. In January, the CDC found, hospitalisation rates for Black patients reached the highest level for any racial or ethnic group since the dawn of the pandemic. As the highly transmissible omicron variant usurped the delta variant’s dominance, people who were unvaccinated were 12 times more likely to be hospitalised than those who were vaccinated and boosted against the coronavirus, according to the report. And fewer Black adults had been immunised compared with White adults, said the report, which analysed hospitalization rates in 99 counties in 14 states. Teresa Y. Smith saw evidence of the phenomenon outlined in the CDC’s report as she treated patients as an emergency physician at SUNY Downstate in Brooklyn. She has felt the crush of the pandemic’s unequal impact since the pre-vaccine waves but has contended with the consequences of health disparities for much longer. Her hospital sits in a heavily Black and Latino borough, where — as in so many communities of color across the country — social, political, economic and environmental factors erode health and shorten lives. In December, she watched as the number of cases and admissions resulting from the omicron variant “just exploded in a short, short amount of time,” saying then, “there is no subtlety to it.” And while the vaccinated patients she treated were less likely to be “lethally sick,” many still needed to be admitted to the hospital. Read full story Source: The Washington Post, 18 March 2022
  19. Content Article
    'Virtual wards' have existed for a number of years, but Covid-19 has led to further research and pilot schemes exploring their use. How have they been used during the pandemic and what does the future hold? This explainer by Holly Walton and Naomi Fulop provides some answers.
  20. News Article
    The number of people who have died from Covid in Britain during the pandemic is impossible to determine because of the inconsistent definitions of what is meant by a coronavirus death, researchers have concluded. Experts from Oxford University discovered that public health and statistics organisations across the UK are operating under 14 different definitions to classify a death from Covid. Freedom of Information (FOI) requests show that many people who died in the first wave never tested positive for the virus, particularly older people who died in care homes. Instead, their deaths were registered as Covid simply based on a statement of the care home provider, and because coronavirus was rife at the time. The authors also point out that it is unlikely that a Covid infection on its own could cause death in the absence of contributing factors, such as other illness, or the infection leading to a more deadly condition such as pneumonia. The report also found that in some trusts, up to 95% of Covid deaths were in people with Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) orders. The team said the confusion meant they were unable to separate deaths caused by Covid from those triggered by the pandemic response, and called for a proportion of deaths to be verified by post-mortem in future pandemics to determine the true reason. Read full story (paywalled) Source: The Telegraph, 19 March 2022
  21. News Article
    A vaccine has been used to free a man who was trapped at home by a Covid infection that lasted for more than seven months. It is the first time that a vaccine has been used to "treat" Covid rather than "prevent" it. Ian Lester, 37, has a weakened immune system due to Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome, and was unable to defeat the virus on its own. He says he became a prisoner in his home in Caerphilly, Wales, as he isolated for months on end. He shielded during the first wave of Covid, but coronavirus eventually found him in December 2020. He had one of the classic symptoms - a slight loss of sense of taste and smell - which cleared up within a month. For most of us that would be the end of it, but Ian's Covid journey was only just beginning. His doctors wanted him to keep on testing because his weakened immune system meant there was a risk he could be contagious for longer than normal. But month after month, test after test came back positive. Ian had to give up work. Scientists and doctors were monitoring the battle between the virus and Ian's immune system at Cardiff University and at the Immunodeficiency Centre for Wales in the University Hospital of Wales. The analysis showed Ian had a long-term infection, it was not just "dead virus" being detected, and his symptoms were not long-Covid. Prof Stephen Jolles, clinical lead at the Immunodeficiency Centre, said: "This infection was burbling along, but with his [weakened] immune system it was just not enough to kick off a response sufficient to clear it. "So the vaccine really made a huge difference, in antibodies and T-cells, and utilised and squeezed every last drop out of what his immune system could do." Read full story Source: BBC News, 21 March 2022
  22. News Article
    A hospital in Devon has declared a second critical incident following extreme pressures, as Covid-19 admissions in the region double, The Independent has learnt. North Devon Healthcare Trust declared a critical incident on Monday, after it declared another earlier this month it has confirmed. The news comes as the number of people with Covid-19 across two hospitals in Devon has doubled in just two weeks. As of Thursday, there were 292 Covid positive patients in across hospitals in Devon, with a further 37 awaiting test results. According to a statement from healthcare leaders in Devon, Plymouth and Torbay, as of Thursday there were almost 1,200 NHS staff off work due to Covid. Meanwhile 183 care services, such as care homes and other social care providers, in the area have reported Covid outbreaks, making it harder to discharge patients, the leaders said. NHS data published on Thursday showed there were 213 patients across three hospitals in Devon, waiting to be discharged. Covid-19 infections are also continuing to rise across most of the UK, with levels in Scotland hitting another record high, new figures show. Read full story Source: The Independent, 19 March 2022
  23. News Article
    Infection control rules in hospitals are ‘now disproportionate to the risks’ posed by covid and should be relaxed, some of the NHS’s most senior leaders have warned. The government rules – such as not allowing covid-positive staff to work, and separating out services for covid, non-covid and covid-contact patients – make a big dent in hospital capacity and slows down services. Glen Burley, who is chief executive of three Midlands trusts and involved in national-level discussions on elective matters, told HSJ: “Pretty much every pathway has a covid and non-covid route, which slows down flow and staff productivity. “There is a growing argument that these rules are now disproportionate to the risks. With covid cases in the community also rising now, we may have to question again the relative risks of continuing to isolate staff.” NHS Confederation director of policy Layla McCay told HSJ: “Healthcare leaders are concerned the current [IPC] measures are having a serious knock-on effect on capacity and that the measures in their current form are reducing efficiency and capacity within healthcare settings. “We need more clarity on if and how current measures can be safely adjusted so [the NHS] can further increase bed capacity and patient throughput, as well as the ability to transport patients more quickly and efficiently.” But NHS Providers, which has previously said relaxing the IPC guidance would not enable a “rapid” increase in the NHS’ capacity to tackle the elective care backlog and could pose significant “risks”, remains more cautious. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 21 March 2022
  24. Content Article
    People with COVID-19 often have symptoms in the long term (ie, long COVID), including fatigue, breathlessness, and neurocognitive difficulties. The disease mechanisms causing long COVID are unknown, and there are no evidence-based treatment options. Clinical guidelines focus on symptom management, and various treatment options are being evaluated. The scarcity of advice has often left people with long COVID feeling isolated and frustrated in their search for therapies. Research is needed to understand the self-management practices that are being used to manage long COVID symptoms; factors influencing their uptake; and the benefits, harms, and costs. There is also a need to assess the potential harmful effects of polypharmacy and drug–drug interactions in these individuals. The Therapies for Long COVID (TLC) Study (ISRCTN15674970) will begin to explore self-management practices through a survey of people with long COVID. This study aims to be a first step towards understanding this important and under-researched public health issue. 
  25. Content Article
    Last month, Boris Johnson argued that the downward trends in Covid cases and hospitalisations meant that it was time to scrap restrictions. Now both are rising. But the government is ending testing and most surveillance studies. Sajid Javid, the health secretary, said that the rise was “to be expected” – though this foresight did not extend to having a plan to deal with the increase in infections. Instead, he dismissed the concern about the new Deltacron variant. The health secretary seemed nonchalant about the threat the virus now posed. Sajid Javid may be right that the country has weathered the worst of the pandemic, but Covid is not yet in retreat. It makes no sense to withdraw funding from a series of studies that allow the spread of the virus to be mapped in detail. Without the data, experts won’t be able to effectively monitor the disease. The country will be less effective in responding and adjusting to future waves of infection. Individuals will be less able to make informed choices about the risks involved. The clinically vulnerable face being cut off from everyday life. “It is like turning off the headlights at the first sign of dawn,” Stephen Reicher, a psychologist at the University of St Andrews, told the Guardian. “You can’t see what’s coming and you don’t know when it makes sense to turn them on again.”
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