Babak Belurs

Senin, 19 April 2021

COVID-19: Young people who have had coronavirus will get £5,000 for being deliberately re-exposed to the virus - Sky News

Young people who have previously had COVID-19 are going to be deliberately exposed to the virus for a second time - in a new study that aims to see how their immune systems react.

The University of Oxford's "human challenge" trial also hopes to discover what dose of coronavirus is needed to cause a reinfection, and what this may mean for developing protective immunity against the disease.

COVID news - live updates from UK and around world

People aged 18 to 30 who have previously been naturally infected with COVID will be recruited and re-exposed to the virus in a safe, controlled environment.

Participants will be quarantined for 17 days and cared for by researchers at a hospital until they are no longer at risk of infecting others, and they will receive just under £5,000 as payment.

Recent research has suggested that prior infection may not fully protect young people in the future, with an observational study performed in the US indicating that 10% of participants ended up getting reinfected.

Human challenge studies have played a key role in furthering the development of treatments for diseases including malaria, tuberculosis, typhoid, cholera and flu.

Professor Helen McShane, the chief investigator, said: "Challenge studies tell us things that other studies cannot because, unlike natural infection, they are tightly controlled.

"When we reinfect these participants, we will know exactly how their immune system has reacted to the first COVID infection, exactly when the second infection occurs, and exactly how much virus they got.

"As well as enhancing our basic understanding, this may help us to design tests that can accurately predict whether people are protected."

Regular check-ups in the year after reinfection will help establish the immune response generated by the virus - and this could contribute to the creation of better vaccines, and a greater understanding of how long immunity lasts.

The original strain of COVID-19 from Wuhan is going to be used because this is the one that scientists have the most information about, but another variant could also be included.

The study will take phase in two phases.

The first phase, involving 64 healthy volunteers, will aim to establish the lowest dose of virus which can take hold and start replicating.

Once the dosing amount is established, it will be used to infect participants in the second phase of the study, which is expected to start in the summer.

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2021-04-19 02:31:42Z
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Northern Ireland: Did anyone warn about Brexit border checks? - BBC News

A "No To Brexit" sign is pictured on the outskirts of Newry in Northern Ireland on June 7, 2016

The recent street protests among loyalist communities in Northern Ireland have been sparked by a series of complex factors, and Brexit is part of the mix.

"I recognise there are concerns about the implications around the Northern Ireland protocol," Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis told MPs on 13 April.

The protocol, part of the December 2019 deal that took the UK out of the EU, keeps Northern Ireland following many of the rules of the EU single market. That fact is what creates the checks on goods moving from Great Britain into Northern Ireland, and other border bureaucracy, which many loyalists bitterly oppose.

But what was said about Northern Ireland in the run-up to the 2016 EU referendum, and how many of these issues were predicted at the time?

Referendum campaign

The main campaign literature published by the Leave and Remain campaigns on a UK-wide basis in 2016 didn't mention Northern Ireland at all.

Leading figures on both sides made campaign visits to Northern Ireland, but its future status wasn't a big part of the national conversation.

It was only after the vote took place that more attention was paid to the fact that the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland was about to become the border between the UK and the EU.

Even in campaign leaflets aimed specifically at Northern Ireland, which did at least mention the border issue, Leave focused first on immigration and ending free movement, while Remain emphasised protecting jobs.

Sinn Fein did use the slogan "Brexit means borders", and on a visit to Northern Ireland in June 2016, the then Chancellor George Osborne said there would have to be a hardening of the border, if the UK was outside the EU.

It raised the prospect of checks and even checkpoints returning to the border with the Republic, which the Northern Ireland peace process had removed.

George Osborne with Vote Remain supporters

That didn't happen because divorce negotiations between the UK and the EU agreed early on that avoiding a hard land border should be an absolute priority.

"For all the talk of 'taking back control' of borders," says Prof Katy Hayward of Queen's University, Belfast, "the overwhelming sentiment across the spectrum in Northern Ireland during the 2016 referendum was that there should not be any change to its borders."

What about a border in the Irish Sea?

Everyone assumed the only border up for discussion was the land border with the Republic. There was virtually no mention of what has emerged instead - border checks and bureaucracy between Great Britain and Northern Ireland - the so-called Irish Sea border.

The prospect of this happening was briefly discussed during a visit to Londonderry on 9 June by two former prime ministers - Sir John Major and Tony Blair. Both were strong supporters of Remain.

Mr Blair argued a vote to leave would mean the only alternative to controls on the land border "would have to be checks between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK, which would be plainly unacceptable as well".

Sir John warned it would be "an historic mistake" to do anything that risked destabilising the Good Friday Agreement, which brought the troubles in Northern Ireland to an end.

In response, the Northern Ireland First Minister Arlene Foster spoke of "deeply offensive" scare stories from the Remain campaign, and the then Northern Ireland Secretary, Theresa Villiers, also a prominent leave supporter, said any suggestion that Brexit could have a negative impact on the peace process was "deeply irresponsible".

At the time, it was not clear what form of Brexit might emerge after a leave vote. Many people on both sides thought the UK could choose to remain in the EU single market (like Norway) while leaving the EU's political structures.

But the government pursued a different path. And with Britain outside the single market and the customs union, some border bureaucracy had to be introduced between GB and NI instead.

Referendum claims

Voters were never really told that this could happen, nor were they given a particularly accurate picture in referendum leaflets about how trade and borders operate.

The Remain campaign said "a vote to leave would result in tariffs being imposed". It could have done, but it didn't. Under the new EU-UK free trade deal there are currently no tariffs (taxes on imports).

The Leave campaign said customs wouldn't be a problem, because "the EU already allows its members customs-free access to non-EU countries." That is only true for countries that are in the EU customs union. For Britain, it is incorrect.

Common Travel Area

Leading Remain supporters also warned of a threat to the Common Travel Area (CTA) between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

"The leave people say it will just stay," Mr Blair said. "But when you go into the detail you realise how difficult if not impossible that is."

This too was incorrect. The CTA, which was founded before both the UK and the Republic of Ireland joined the EU, survived Brexit unscathed.

Its importance had been emphasised earlier in 2016 by Boris Johnson, shortly after he declared allegiance to the Leave campaign.

"There's been a free travel area between the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland for, I think, getting on for 100 years," he said.

"There's no reason at all why that should cease to be the case."

The CTA was protected because of the joint determination to avoid a hard land border.

But as prime minister, it was Boris Johnson who signed up instead to the deal creating new border bureaucracy between GB and NI.

And many loyalists now feel that pushes them further apart from the rest of the UK.

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Nicola Sturgeon: Record level of Scottish drug deaths 'not acceptable', says first minister - Sky News

Record high drug deaths in Scotland are "not acceptable", Nicola Sturgeon has acknowledged as she told Sky News "we didn't get it right" in tackling the problem.

The SNP leader made the admission as she was challenged over the figures that showed Scotland suffered more fatalities per head than any other European country, with more than 1,200 lives lost last year due to substance misuse.

However, speaking ahead of next month's Holyrood election, the Scottish first minister told the Sophy Ridge On Sunday programme that her government had set out a package of measures to try and address the crisis.

Ms Sturgeon said: "We have tried to tackle the drug deaths but we can't look at the figures for the numbers of people dying and conclude that what we have done has been enough or has been effective enough so over the past few months we've done a number of things to make a concerted attempt to turn this around."

She added: "So, there's a whole package of policies and interventions now that we are taking forward to turn that around because, to be frank, it's not acceptable."

Pressed by Ridge over the 160% rise in drug deaths during the SNP's 14 years in power, Ms Sturgeon said: "Look, we didn't get it right.

"It's not because we didn't care, it's not because we didn't try to do things but we have concluded - because I don't think we can do anything else - that we haven't got it right.

"We haven't yet implemented the policies that have turned this around so we are going to redouble our efforts, we are going to try different things."

During her interview with Ridge, Ms Sturgeon also turned her fire on her predecessor and former friend Alex Salmond, arguing his approach towards Scottish independence was "almost contemptuous" of voters and risked putting people off.

She also again ruled out working with Mr Salmond's new Alba Party, if he does return to Holyrood after the 6 May election, repeating her concerns about his "personal conduct".

The former first minister was cleared of a number of sexual assault allegations at the High Court in Edinburgh in March 2020, although his lawyer said at the trial his client could have been a "better man".

Mr Salmond is hoping his Alba Party can help see a so-called "supermajority" for independence elected, believing this can lead to the start of negotiations with Westminster for Scotland to break away from the rest of the UK.

But Ms Sturgeon said: "We need a simple majority in the Scottish Parliament to give us the mandate for an independence referendum.

"Then of course we need a majority of the Scottish people to win independence.

"When I listen to people who talk about a 'supermajority' they sound as if they think we can just bulldoze our way to independence which is almost contemptuous towards those that we need to persuade."

She added: "I listen to the rhetoric around independence and it seems to skip over the need to do the hard work of persuading those who voted 'No' in 2014, many of whom are now open minded... but want to be persuaded and want to be treated with respect and want us to make a convincing persuasive case to them.

"I am not really interested in an arm-wrestling competition with other people about who supports independence the most.

"I am interested in persuading those who are open-minded but need still to be persuaded so that we build a majority for independence that then presses itself in a legitimate process, because that's how we win independence and that's what I want to do."

On the possibility of a future tie-up with Alba, Ms Sturgeon said: "No. I am not going to work with Alex Salmond. Firstly I have concerns about his personal conduct that he hasn't acknowledged or apologised for."

She added: "I don't agree with the approach to independence, because I think it is... risking putting people off rather than bringing people towards us.

"There is no shortcut to independence."

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2021-04-18 18:46:15Z
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Minggu, 18 April 2021

UK scientists assessing spread of new Covid variant ‘on daily basis’ - Financial Times

Health officials say they are still assessing whether a variant of Covid-19 first discovered in India is more transmissible and vaccine evasive than other forms of the virus after the discovery of 77 cases in the UK.

Susan Hopkins, a senior medical adviser at Public Health England, said on Sunday that scientists did not have enough data to clarify whether it should be classed as a “variant of concern” — the most serious classification.

At the moment the B.1.617 variant, which has been linked with a surge in cases in India in recent weeks, has been classified by Britain as a “variant under investigation”.

Speaking on the BBC’s Andrew Marr programme, Hopkins said: “To escalate it up the ranking we need to know that it’s increased transmissibility, increased severity, or vaccine-evading, and we just don’t have that yet, but we’re looking at the data on a daily basis.”

She added that scientists were also conducting investigations to determine whether it was spreading within the community.

“The vast majority of the cases we have confirmed are known [to] have come from India and or tested on day two or day eight of their isolation period,” she said.

Concern over the variant comes as cases have risen alarmingly within India: over the weekend the country recorded 261,500 new infections and 1,501 deaths.

Boris Johnson is facing growing pressure from Labour to cancel his trip to India later this month, while some scientists have called for the country to be placed on the UK’s red list which bans travel from certain countries.

The environment secretary George Eustice on Sunday dismissed the push for Johnson to cancel his trip, describing the visit as “appropriate”. He added: “I think it is important that the business of politics does continue and doesn't stop completely — we just need to make sure we take the right precautions”.

The government said on Sunday that the decision to add and remove countries to and from the red list was “informed by the latest scientific data and public health advice”.

Despite the worry over the spread of new variants — the UK stepped up testing for a strain first discovered in South Africa last week — Hopkins argued that the latest coronavirus figures were showing signs of “positive progress”, with infections at the lowest level since September 2020.

However, she noted that it was still too soon to assess the effect of lifting restrictions in England last Monday. “We need two to three weeks’ data at least after each unlocking to be able to assess the impact of that,” she said.

Eustice said it was “too early to say” for certain whether the government would be able to reopen indoor hospitality as planned on May 17 — the next step on the government’s lockdown easing road map.

But he said the country was “on track” with the rollout of the vaccination programme, which has now vaccinated 32.8m people, including almost 10m second doses.

Eustice said that the government remained “cautious”, adding “although we’ve now got 60 per cent of the adult population vaccinated, we do just have to keep a close eye on these variants of concern and also see what the impacts are of the easements we’ve just made before moving to the next stage.”

After a weekend of brisk but restricted business, the hospitality industry called on the government to abide by its timetable for easing the lockdown and avoid being “derailed” by ideas such as vaccine passports.

Chief executives of J D Wetherspoon, Fuller’s and The Restaurant Group were among 38 leaders of hospitality companies who signed a letter in the Sunday Telegraph, which noted that two-thirds of venues were still unable to open outdoors “and none is breaking even”.

“We must be driven by data not dates — and the data say it is safe to confirm now the reopening of indoor hospitality on May 17 and the lifting of all social-distancing restrictions on hospitality on June 21,” the letter said.

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2021-04-18 16:46:50Z
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Is Scotland heading for a Catalonia-style constitutional meltdown? - The Independent

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Is Scotland heading for a Catalonia-style constitutional meltdown? The Independent
Covid in Scotland: 'Mistake' to discharge Covid patients says Sturgeon BBC News
Online tax 'will drive Scottish firms away' | Scotland | The Sunday Times The Times
Is time running out for the union as the case grows for a new independence vote? The Guardian
Euan McColm: Nicola Sturgeon has taken her eye off the ball too often The Scotsman
View Full coverage on Google News

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2021-04-18 14:23:46Z
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Nicola Sturgeon won't work with Alex Salmond as she admits not knowing what Alba stands for - Daily Record

Nicola Sturgeon has launched another scathing attack on Alex Salmond saying she won't work with him and doesn't agree with his approach to gaining another independence referendum.

The SNP leader also said that she doesn't know what his new party, Alba, stands for.

Asked about if she would work with the former First Minister, Sturgeon said she still has "concerns about his personal conduct".

The Alba Party is led by Salmond and was launched at the end of last month with the sole aim of gaining a 'super-majority' for independence in the Scottish Parliament.

The ex-SNP chief was cleared in March last year of 14 charges of attempted rape, one intent to rape, 11 sexual assaults and two indecent assaults, against 10 women.

Salmond admitted he had an extramarital “sexual liaison” with one of the complainers, and a “sleepy cuddle” with another for which he apologised to her.

During an interview with Sophy Ridge on Sky News the First Minister was asked if she would work with Salmond following the election on May 6 if he party gained seats at Holyrood.

She said: "I'm not going to work with Alex Salmond.

"Firstly, I have concerns about his personal conduct that he hasn't acknowledged or apologised for.

"I don't agree with the approach to independence. It is risking putting more people off, rather than bringing people towards us.

"There is no shortcut to independence, we've got to do it through winning a majority and allowing that majority to express itself in a legitimate process.

Scottish politics

"I also don't know what Alba stands for.

"For me independence is not an end to itself, it means a better Scotland, a fair equal Scotland where we value everybody who lives here for who they are.

"I don't know what Alba stands for but from what I've seen so far I'd probably have some concerns about that."

Sturgeon also hit out at the approach Alex Salmond and his Alba Party were taking during the election.

She said: "I listen to the rhetoric around independence and it seems to skip over the hard work of persuading those who voted no in 2014, many of whom are now open minded and want us to make a convince, persuasive case to them - that's the hard work I've been doing.

"I'm not interested in an arm wrestling contest with other people about who supports independence the most.

"I'm interested in persuading those who are open minded, but need still to be persuaded so that we build a majority for independence which expresses itself in a legitimate process."

The Alba Party has been contacted for comment.

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2021-04-18 11:15:21Z
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Prince William reportedly requested standing apart from Harry in Prince Philip funeral procession - The Independent

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2021-04-18 13:14:55Z
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Senin, 19 April 2021

More from UK

Referendum campaign

What about a border in the Irish Sea?

Referendum claims

Common Travel Area

More from Alex Salmond

Minggu, 18 April 2021

Scottish politics