Babak Belurs

Senin, 29 Maret 2021

COVID-19: Up to 60m vaccine doses to be manufactured at Barnard Castle, Boris Johnson says - Sky News

Up to 60 million doses of COVID vaccine will be manufactured at Barnard Castle in the North East, Boris Johnson has announced.

The prime minister revealed that the Novavax jab - which has yet to be approved - will undergo its "fill and finish" stage at a GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) facility.

Part of the vaccine is already being produced in the North East, at a Fujifilm site in Billingham, Stockton-on-Tees, as it awaits approval from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).

Live COVID updates from across the UK and around the world

The GSK facility - which will undertake the final step of the Novavax vaccine's manufacture from as early as May - is in the same County Durham town that was notably visited by the prime minister's former chief aide Dominic Cummings last year.

The visit to Barnard Castle saw Mr Cummings, who has since departed Number 10, accused of breaching lockdown rules - but he claimed he had made the journey as a means of testing his eyesight.

Speaking at a Downing Street news conference on Monday, Mr Johnson said: "I've already told you that Novavax - a potentially significant new weapon in our armoury against COVID - is going to be made at Fujifilm in the North East.

"And I can today announce that the vaccine taskforce has reached an agreement with GlaxoSmithKline to finish and bottle this precious fluid also in the North East.

"Giving us between 50 and 60 million doses of UK made vaccine subject to the right approvals from the MHRA."

The prime minister did not specifically mention the GSK facility being used for the Novavax jab was their Barnard Castle site.

But Roger Connor, president of GSK vaccines, said in a statement: "GSK is delighted to support Novavax and the UK vaccines taskforce with this manufacturing arrangement for the UK and our Barnard Castle facility is now undertaking the rapid preparation work required to manufacture up to 60 million doses of this vaccine.

"We have ensured that we can deliver these volumes without impacting supply of our other vital medicines and vaccines, and without disruption to the other COVID-19 collaborations GSK is engaged in globally."

The protein antigen component of the Novavax jab is being produced at the Fujifilm site, while GSK will prepare vials of the final vaccine at Barnard Castle and package them for distribution and use.

GSK said the Novavax jab has shown "strong potential efficacy" against coronavirus in Phase 3 clinical trials, including against the COVID variant that was first discovered in Kent.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said: "We've all seen just how important onshore vaccine manufacturing capabilities are, and this fantastic deal will ensure more of these vital products can be produced here in the UK."

The NHS recently warned of a month-long "significant reduction" in vaccine supplies, with vaccination efforts in April to now concentrate on delivering people's second doses.

However, ministers have said they remain on course to meet their target of offering a first dose of a COVID jab to the top nine priority groups by 15 April, as well as all UK adults by the end of July.

The supply problems follow delays to shipments from India, while they also come amid a vaccine row with the EU.

Mr Cummings described last year how, on 15 April, he and his family "drove for roughly half an hour and ended up on the outskirts of Barnard Castle town" as part of a "short drive to see if I could drive safely".

The trip came 15 days after he first suffered COVID symptoms and when he wanted to return to London to work, Mr Cummings said.

Earlier in April 2020, Mr Cummings along with his wife and child had driven to the North East from London during the UK's first lockdown when they suspected they had COVID.

The row caused by Mr Cummings's actions prompted demands for Mr Johnson to sack his chief aide, but the prime minister resisted those calls.

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2021-03-29 17:06:44Z
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Boris rubs EU's nose in it: Novavax jabs to be made in Britain after Brussels snubbed - Daily Express

The Prime Minister confirmed an agreement with British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) would see doses of the coronavirus vaccine manufactured in the north east of England. GSK will provide "fill and finish" manufacturing capacity beginning as early as May.

The time of the announcement - just days after delays to the EU's contract with Novavax became public - is likely to rub salt in the wounds of Brussels, which is struggling to ramp up its own immunisation efforts.

While more than 57 percent of adults in the UK have had a first dose of a Covid jab, the number is much closer to 10 percent across the EU.

Britain secured a deal for 60 million doses of the life-saving Novavax injection last year but it is yet to be approved by the regulator for use.

"Fill and finish" is the completion stage of vaccine manufacturing, preparing vials of the final vaccine and packaging them for distribution and use.

The protein antigen component of NVX-CoV2373, which helps defeat the virus, is also produced in the North East of England by Novavax's manufacturing partner, FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies, at their site in Billingham, Stockton-on-Tees.

The announcement on the jabs comes amid weeks of threats from the EU to ban the export of vaccines from the continent until bloc's slow inoculation programme had caught up with the pace of the UK's immunisation drive.

However, it also comes just days after Novavax delayed talks on signing an agreement to supply doses to Brussels.

At a televised coronavirus briefing this evening, the Prime Minister said: "At the same time as we push forwards with our programme to offer a vaccination to all adults by the end of July we’re building up our own long-term UK manufacturing capabilities.

"I’ve already told you that Novavax – a potentially significant new weapon in our armoury against Covid - is going to be made at Fujifilm in the North East.

"And I can today announce that the Vaccine Task Force has reached an agreement with GlaxoSmithKline to finish and bottle this precious fluid also in the North East giving us between 50 and 60 million doses of UK made vaccine subject to the right approvals from the MHRA."

Earlier this month, the company behind the Novavax jab announced it is 86 percent effective against the Kent variant and 96 percent effective in preventing cases caused by the original strain of the coronavirus.

According to results of phase three trial in the UK, the jab offers 100 percent protection against severe disease, including all hospital admission and death.

Following the announcement, Roger Connor, president of GSK vaccines, said: "GSK is delighted to support Novavax and the UK vaccines taskforce with this manufacturing arrangement for the UK and our Barnard Castle facility is now undertaking the rapid preparation work required to manufacture up to 60 million doses of this vaccine.

"We have ensured that we can deliver these volumes without impacting supply of our other vital medicines and vaccines, and without disruption to the other Covid-19 collaborations GSK is engaged in globally."

The UK has already given vaccines to more than 30 million Brits, with all over-50s and clinically vulnerable adults set to have been given a first dose by April 15.

The Government has set itself the target of the end of July for giving a dose of a Covid antidote to all adults.

April is likely to largely see second doses administered due to a drop off in supply of vaccines.

The production of the Novavax jabs in May - if approved for use by the regulator - would help speed up the rollout of the immunisation programme.

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2021-03-29 16:10:00Z
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Schools could have covered up sex offences to protect reputation, top police officer warns - Sky News

A top police officer has warned that some schools may have covered up sexual offences in order to protect their reputation.

Chief Constable Simon Bailey told The Times he was concerned that a "culture of misogyny and sexual harassment" had not been challenged at some of them.

He described the number of allegations as the education sector's "MeToo" moment.

It comes as a report led by Conservative MP and former home secretary Sajid Javid warned of an "epidemic" of child sexual assault.

Mr Javid told Sky News that an "unintended consequence" of the coronavirus lockdowns has been to make the situation worse.

Mr Bailey said: "If somebody has been privy to rape or serious sexual assault then we want to hear from them.

"What I fear is that there will be a number of sexual predators that will have moved from secondary school to university where they will continue to offend."

Mr Bailey told The Times that he did not have evidence that some schools had covered up reports to protect their reputation.

But he added: "Am I naive enough to think that hasn't happened? Of course I'm not.

"Do I think there will be circumstances where abuse will have been covered up to protect reputations? Yes I do."

Mr Bailey, the chief constable of Norfolk Police, is also the lead officer on Operation Hydrant and for child protection for the National Police Chiefs' Council.

Operation Hydrant was set up in 2014 to handle the national policing response, oversight, and coordination of investigations into non-recent child sexual abuse allegations concerning persons of public prominence or in within institutional settings.

A senior Tory MP has said there should be inquiry into what he claimed was the "rape culture" at a number of independent schools.

Robert Halfon, who is chair of the Education Select Committee, said that what has allegedly taken place at some independent schools was "appalling" and had spread to state schools as well.

Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, Mr Halfon said numerous stories had emerged of female pupils being "objectified, harassed and sexually assaulted", with websites set up by students highlighting "a rape culture".

Mr Halfon welcomed the fact that the Metropolitan Police is investigating, but said an independent inquiry should be held after the police had finished.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has also called for an inquiry into allegations of sexual offences in schools that have emerged.

He said there should be a cultural change in attitudes towards women and girls, with boys taught about "respect" for them.

"I'm really worried about what we are seeing over recent days, and I know many parents will be, many school teachers and staff and, of course, young people," Sir Keir said.

"There's got to be an inquiry and it has got to get going very fast; this is serious."

'Improve or be closed'

A source at the Department for Education said it would act if schools did not meet the strict safeguarding standards in place, including closing them down.

They added: "If it becomes clear that there are current failings in any school's safeguarding practice, we will immediately ask Ofsted or the Independent Schools Inspectorate to conduct an inspection.

"If a school is found to not be meeting the required safeguarding standard, we will make sure it either improves or closes."

Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: "Schools and colleges work very hard to ensure that children and young people are able to learn in a safe environment and to prevent sexual violence and sexual harassment.

"In both the state and independent sectors, they follow guidance from the Department for Education, which was drawn up with input from school and college leaders, on how to manage and prevent incidents."

The Metropolitan Police said it had received a number of reports of offences after looking at a website featuring anonymous stories of "misogyny, harassment, abuse and assault".

The force said it had reviewed submissions on the Everyone's Invited website, where people can anonymously share their experiences of abuse.

It said officers had been looking into whether any potential victims in the capital could be encouraged to report crimes, with several individuals doing so.

The website now includes a link to report crimes directly to Scotland Yard.

'We're losing this war'

The report led by Mr Javid, who was home secretary under Theresa May, makes a raft of recommendations to tackle child sexual assault.

The Centre for Social Justice think tank report recommends that all school staff should be trained to spot signs of abuse and calls for school nursing staff levels to be restored to pre-2010 numbers to enhance identification.

"When I first became home secretary three years ago, like many home secretaries I thought the darkest things I would learn about would be things like terrorism, but I was wrong," Mr Javid told Sky News.

"When I met the National Crime Agency and they told me about the scale and severity of child sexual abuse, that really disturbed me."

He added: "We are winning individual battles because of excellent work that's been done by government, by police, by charities, and that's to be commended.

"But I do feel that we're losing this war. It's not just here in the UK, because the online world is completely global, it's happening across the world."

'Immediate action'

Labour's shadow justice secretary David Lammy told Sky News: "We still have to do considerably better to get those people who are grooming young people and to make sure that the law around adults doing that is as strong and as tough as it needs to be.

"The second issue is it's very, very concerning to see reports of what is happening in our schools and to hear particularly from young women coming forward and saying that sexual assault and a rape culture is manifest across many of our private schools and some of our state schools.

"That needs immediate action."

A government spokesperson said: "The vast majority of schools, colleges and universities take their safeguarding responsibilities very seriously, so it is particularly shocking when allegations of abuse are made in connection with a place of education where everyone should feel secure and be protected.

"Working together, the Department for Education, the Home Office and the National Police Chiefs Council are in contact with Everyone's Invited to provide support, protection and advice to those who are reporting abuse, including on contacting professionals or the police if they wish."

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2021-03-29 11:58:37Z
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Nicola Sturgeon launches SNP election campaign with shot at Alex Salmond's 'self-interest' - The Times

Nicola Sturgeon accused Alex Salmond of putting self-interest ahead of the country’s best interests as she placed independence at the heart of her Holyrood election campaign.

In an online speech to the SNP’s campaign conference, the Scottish first minister refused to say her predecessor’s name but made a thinly veiled reference to his new breakaway party, Alba.

Drawing on her experience of leading the Scottish government during the Covid-19 pandemic, she said that her priorities and attitudes towards political debate had changed.

“In politics, things that once seemed desperately important feel so much less so now. I don’t have much time these days for the ‘who’s up/who’s down’ approach to politics,” Sturgeon said. “And I definitely have much less patience for those who treat

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2021-03-29 11:00:00Z
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Covid: Groups of six can meet in England as lockdown eases - BBC News

Thousands of German tourists are flocking to Majorca ahead of the Easter weekend, despite the German government advising against travel.

At the weekend 130 flights from Germany landed on Majorca, and German travel agents estimated they brought at least 16,000 tourists.

Even so, the numbers so far are less than 40% of the pre-pandemic level.

A German government official, Helge Braun, was quoted as saying “an Easter holiday under current circumstances is simply not justifiable”.

But Germany, unlike the UK, has not banned foreign holidays. And Germany considers Majorca currently to be low risk.

Germany is struggling with high infection rates and a partial lockdown is in force, so returning tourists will have to show evidence of a negative test, taken in Majorca. The rapid antigen test - also called lateral flow - is acceptable.

Majorca hotels are making the test available. A local German-language paper, Mallorca Zeitung, says anyone testing positive can serve their quarantine free of charge in a hotel set aside for Covid patients, provided they have the EU health insurance card (Ehic).

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2021-03-29 10:25:01Z
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Schools 'cover-up' sexual abuse by pupils | News - The Times

One of the country’s most senior police officers has said he believes that schools have covered up sexual offences to protect their reputations as a task force took charge of the surge in abuse complaints.

Chief Constable Simon Bailey told The Times that the outpouring of allegations was the education sector’s “MeToo” moment and that he feared a “culture of misogyny and sexual harassment” had not been challenged in some schools.

Bailey is the lead officer for Operation Hydrant, the national task force for child sexual abuse investigations in institutions. It will assess allegations of abuse in schools before they are given to individual forces to investigate, with a national hotline for abuse reports to be set up within 72 hours.

His comments come after

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2021-03-29 08:45:00Z
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Does Keir Starmer have the killer instinct? | Comment - The Times

Part of the art of opposition is invention. Waiting lists have been a feature of the National Health Service since its invention but as a political concept, the idea of “NHS waiting times” dates back to the late 1980s. They became not only a favoured stick with which to beat the Conservative governments of Margaret Thatcher and John Major but, later, a key way that Tony Blair’s government assessed its own performance. Even today, the amount of time someone waits in accident and emergency or for an appointment is a central part of the political debate about how well or badly the governments of England, Scotland and Wales are running their health services.

One of Labour’s biggest opportunities over the next few years will be

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2021-03-29 08:00:00Z
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Senin, 29 Maret 2021

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