Podcasts about uk health security agency

Last night the winners of this year's Women's Prize were announced. The winner for fiction is Yael van der Wouden for her novel The Safekeep and the non-fiction prize by Rachel Clarke for her book The Story of a Heart, which tracks the lifesaving gift of a transplant. Anita Rani discusses the winning books with the Chair of Judges for the Fiction Prize, author Kit de Waal, and Chair of Judges for the Non-Fiction Prize, journalist and author Kavita Puri.Race Across The World reached its finale on BBC One this week, after a nearly 9,000-mile dash across Asia, from the Great Wall in north eastern China to the southernmost tip of India, via the Himalayan peaks of Nepal. This year's winner were mother and son team Caroline Bridge and her 21-year-old son Tom. Caroline talks to Anita about the experience.An entrepreneur and mother was refused entry to a tech event in London because she had brought her eight-month-old baby with her. Anita speaks to the woman in question, Davina Schonle, and the director and producer Jude Kelly about the issue of banning babies from events of this nature.It's festival season, with Glastonbury starting at the end of June. However it's not just the music and the atmosphere that festival goers need to be thinking about. The UK Health Security Agency has warned that measles is circulating across the country, with high numbers in the South West and London. Anita is joined by the UK Health Security Agency Deputy Director of Vaccination Programmes, Dr Julie Yates - who is the former public health lead in South West on Glastonbury.Grammy-nominated Ute Lemper has had a career spanning stage, film and music. She is renowned for her interpretations of Kurt Weill, Brecht and chanson legends like Marlene Dietrich. Ute won the American Theatre World Award and the Laurence Olivier Award for her performance as Chicago's Velma Kelly both on Broadway and in London's West End, and the Molière Award for her performance as Sally Bowles in Cabaret in Paris. Utel Lemper now has a new album, Pirate Jenny, celebrating the music of legendary composer Kurt Weill. She joins Anita to talk about her passion for his work.Presenter: Anita Rani Producer: Rebecca Myatt

Today, after three years of on-off negotiations the UK and India have agreed a “landmark” trade deal.Will it make goods cheaper for people in the UK? What does it mean for the number of Indian students coming to the UK? And, does this change the UK's approach to President Trump's tariffs? Adam and Chris are joined by Faisal to discuss. Also, Adam is joined by Professor Dame Jenny Harries as she steps down as head of the UK Health Security Agency. Adam asks her about; how prepared we are for future pandemics, Covid press conferences and why fewer people might be getting vaccines. You can now listen to Newscast on a smart speaker. If you want to listen, just say "Ask BBC Sounds to play Newscast”. It works on most smart speakers. You can join our Newscast online community here: https://discord.gg/m3YPUGv9New episodes released every day. If you're in the UK, for more News and Current Affairs podcasts from the BBC, listen on BBC Sounds: https://bit.ly/3ENLcS1 Newscast brings you daily analysis of the latest political news stories from the BBC. It was presented by Adam Fleming. It was made by Jack Maclaren with Shiler Mahmoudi and Julia Webster. The technical producer was Ben Andrews. The assistant editor is Chris Gray. The editor is Sam Bonham.

In this episode Martin talks to Dr Andy Borman, (Acting Head and Consultant Clinical Scientist, UKHSA National UK Mycology Reference Lab. also Hon Professor of Medical Mycology, MRC CMM, University of Exeter), Dr Colin Brown (Deputy Director of Emerging and Epidemic Infections at UK Health Security Agency; Honorary Consultant in Infectious Diseases & Medical Microbiology at Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust) and Dr Mariyam Mirfenderesky (Consultant in Medical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases North Middlesex and RF (AMS Lead) and UKHSA on HCAI). The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) is the national organisation in the United Kingdom responsible for protecting public health by preventing, detecting, and responding to infectious diseases and other health threats. We chat about how Candidozyma auris (formerly known as Candida auris) is identified in the lab, why it matters clinically, and what it means for infection prevention and control teams. From early lab detection to real-world frontline challenges, we discuss the key issues around this emerging pathogen — and what we need to do next. UK C. auris guidance can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/candida-auris-laboratory-investigation-management-and-infection-prevention-and-control

In this episode Martin talks to Dr Andy Borman, (Acting Head and Consultant Clinical Scientist, UKHSA National UK Mycology Reference Lab. also Hon Professor of Medical Mycology, MRC CMM, University of Exeter), Dr Colin Brown (Deputy Director of Emerging and Epidemic Infections at UK Health Security Agency; Honorary Consultant in Infectious Diseases & Medical Microbiology at Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust) and Dr Mariyam Mirfenderesky (Consultant in Medical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases North Middlesex and RF (AMS Lead) and UKHSA on HCAI). The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) is the national organisation in the United Kingdom responsible for protecting public health by preventing, detecting, and responding to infectious diseases and other health threats. We chat about how Candidozyma auris (formerly known as Candida auris) is identified in the lab, why it matters clinically, and what it means for infection prevention and control teams. From early lab detection to real-world frontline challenges, we discuss the key issues around this emerging pathogen — and what we need to do next. UK C. auris guidance can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/candida-auris-laboratory-investigation-management-and-infection-prevention-and-control

In this week's episode we play another new quiz, all about infectious diseases on the UK Health Security Agency's watchlist. See if you can name them.We talk about the UK government's household emergency plan and why it's pretty pointless because the kids ain't got no money to survive with anyway thanks to their penchant for vapes, Amazon and ApplePay.Support the show at https://humans-exhaust-me.captivate.fm/supportA LikeMind Media production

Kulsoom Ali and Suzy McCormick jobshare the role of Head of Talent and Inclusion in the UK Health Security Agency.   Their partnership came together in one of the most intensive periods of recent history - the start of the Covid pandemic, as they were asked to work on the NHS Test and Trace programme. Their story shows the true benefit of jobsharing in senior, demanding, pressurised roles where you are facing unprecedented decision making and the need for really high levels of resilience.   #TheJobshareRevolution #JobshareStories #FlexibleWorkingWorks #FutureOfWork #Resilience #PowerPartnership

An all-Wales Avian Influenza Prevention Zone is introduced in Wales, requiring all keepers of poultry and other captive birds to practice good biosecurity and vigilance to protect their flocks. As the disease spreads among birds, a human case of the H5N1 virus has occured but the UK Health Security Agency says the risk to the public remains very low. We talk to the Head of the Science Department at the World Organisation for Animal Health about disease outbreaks and what we can do to control them. The National Trust "ramps up" its efforts to protect and enhance Nature. In a new 10 year strategy the Trust plans to create 25,000 hectares of of nature-rich landscapes. They're also asking people to pitch in by adopting a plot of land at “nature super sites” - including one in Eryri (Snowdonia).Greyhounds - our reporter Mariclare get exclusive access to the only greyhound race track in Wales that started running licensed races at the end of last year, as campaigners lobby the Welsh Government to ban it. and what? no Romans?! We hear about an archaeological mystery at Pendinas hillfort at Penparcau, near Aberystwyth, in Ceredigion.

After the the UK Health Security Agency confirmed a case of avian flu in a person, what does it mean for farmworkers on poultry units?As avian flu outbreaks in farmed poultry continue, we visit a free range egg farm that's under housing orders, with the chickens shut indoors. New rules mean eggs from previously free range birds that now have to be kept inside can still be sold as "free range" for the duration of the housing order. Before, after 16 weeks inside, eggs would have been labelled as "barn eggs".And how is the role of out The Environmental Land Management Scheme going? That's the new system of farm payments that is replacing the old EU payments in England since Brexit. Presented by Anna Hill Produced by Heather Simons

The UK Health Security Agency has issued an amber ‘cold-health alert' warning for London amid plunging temperatures and a forecast for snow at the weekend.London plunged below zero overnight, with a ”feels-like” temperature of -4C on Friday morning - and more low single-digit chills forecast next week.Nationally, the cold weather blast has seen temperatures drop to -5C overnight with warning of -8C next week.It comes just weeks after devastating floods caused by Storm Darragh. The Standard podcast is joined by Met Office meteorologist Alex Deakin and Mhairi Sharp, chief executive of the National Emergencies Trust.In part two, could a new type of DNA analysis technique on crushed-up ancient bone fragments rewrite of some of Britain's key moments in ancient history?We're joined by King's College London professor of medieval history Peter Heather to discuss the joint research with the Francis Crick Institute. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Three rail companies serving London commuters will be renationalised by Labour next year - with a fourth also in the government's sights - under a “major shake-up” of British railways. It's claimed renationalisation will save £150 million in management fees alone. So, how will Labour's Great British Railways project impact journeys, delays, ticket prices and the prospect of train strikes? We're joined by The London Standard's transport secretary Ross Lydall.In part two, our health reporter Daniel Keane on a surge in norovirus cases reported by the UK Health Security Agency, but slightly more heartening news for the recovery of young people suffering from long Covid, revealed in a UCL study. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What every parent should know about vaccines for their child. With Lisa Broome As a parent, one of your primary wishes is to keep your child well and healthy, its inbuilt in us as parents to try and achieve this and protect our little ones. That's perhaps why 57% of parents surveyed by One Poll for the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said having a sick child is the most stressful aspect of family life, significantly higher than stressors like welcoming a new baby into the family (15%).   The poll also found that nearly half of parents surveyed (49%) reported having to miss work due to their child being ill. For many, this disruption is also a frequent occurrence. Over 1 in 5 parents (23%) surveyed state their child is unwell once every few months whilst 12% experience their child being ill multiple times in a month. Most common coughs or colds can be mild and difficult to avoid. But more serious infections that can cause serious illness, hospitalisation and lifelong disabilities are rising too, and it's a good time to be thinking about how we protect babies and young children from these diseases with vaccination.   Health officials from the UK Health Security Agency are urging parents to check their children's vaccinations are up to date, amid fears of a ‘back to school surge' of diseases like measles and whooping cough due to falling vaccine uptake rates.   To give your child the best protection from these illnesses, it's important that their vaccines are up to date. Vaccines prevent over 5,000 deaths and over 100,000 hospital admissions each year in England, if your child isn't vaccinated, they're not protected. But there is a lot of misinformation and a lack of knowledge for parents around vaccinations.    This week I am joined by a vaccination guru and registered nurse, Lisa Broome. Lisa has joined us to answer some of the most common questions and concerns parents have around vaccinations and the advice/tips she gives to help them navigate child immunisations and sometimes the fear of the unknown for some parents. Extra Stuff: Midwife Pips Guide to a Positive Birth: https://www.midwifepip.com/midwife-pip-books Check out Midwife Pip's Exclusive Membership - http://www.midwifepip.com/ Get in Touch: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/midwife_pip Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/midwifepip Email: https://www.midwifepip.com/contact-us Enjoy Listening... and don't forget to subscribe!  Midwife Pip x  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's guest is Somya Agrawal, Leader, Collaborator and Motivator. I had the joy of meeting Somya in June 2024, when she joined us for a Walking Partnerships day in Surrey, in the UK.Somya offers valuable insights into: Being the conductor and not the trumpet player - The difficult transition between manager and leader, how the role changes and the importance of building a high-functioning team.The ripple effect - leading by example - The importance of watching and learning from leaders around you and how we are always being watched, even when we think nobody is watching! Dare to enter the arena - How we foster a culture of openness, transparency, honesty and collaboration. Ask questions and challenge with kindness and curiosity. It is not what you say, but how you say that it matters.We discuss the People, Places, and Experiences that have shaped Somya and made her the person and leader she is today: People - "My parents, sisters and my tribe" Places - "Around the world. My family's travelling style and how it reinforced the importance of teamwork"Experiences - "The loss of my father and climbing Mount Kilimanjaro"Somya's key encouragements to Leaders: ENGAGE - establish a rapport with your team and build trust which will allow you to be your authentic self. With passion for your purpose, you will be able to identify the best people for the job.ENABLE - use your energy to have an impact on those around you to bring people to the table who also understand your vision, as nothing is done without collaboration.EMPOWER - by engaging with energy and by enabling with empathy, you will lead a team that feels empowered. It's not about the destination, it's about the journey. So remember to enjoy it and take your team with you.Connect with Somya:LinkedIn - Somya AgrawalAbout Somya Agrawal:Somya's most recent leadership post as a Senior Civil Servant was as a Deputy Director for Product and Delivery at UK Health Security Agency. She became a DD after a very busy and demanding period as Product Introduction Lead during the COVID-19 pandemic where she was responsible for the design, development and launch of the COVID-19 lateral flow devices. Over 2.5bn LFDs were deployed during that time, so as you can imagine, it was a very high-profile and complex mission with a lot of ambiguity, unknowns and political sensitivities in play. However, Somya loved every second of it, because of the self-development it gave her but also the HUGE national impact that this job had.Prior to being a Senior Civil Servant, she worked at the Royal Marsden Hospital, a specialist Cancer Hospital in London, where she believes her passion for positive outcomes in healthcare really came from, as during her stint there in Research and Clinical trials, she saw many oncology drugs become licensed after seeing patients not only surviving but thriving when given the right care and treatment.Somya is one of 3 girls in her family (the middle one) who have been very fortunate to have been raised by parents who provided their daughters as much as they could within their means which did not come without sacrifices and we are all incredibly grateful for our childhoods and it making us who we are today. Though not yet married, she has a 6 year old niece who she absolutely dotes on and calls one of her best friends.Somya is incredibly passionate about positive outcomes in healthcare and states that her stakeholder engagement skills and energetic personality have now become her USP that have contributed to the successes she has had in her leadership journey so far.

In our second live session at a major conference, this episode of Infection Control Matters was recorded live at a plenary session to close day 1 of the Infection Prevention Society conference (Birmingham, UK). Our guest panelists include Dr Berit Muller-Pebody an Epidemiologist from the UK Health Security Agency, Prof Jennie Wilson from the University of West London and Dr Jacqui Prieto from The University of Southampton. The panel also fielded many questions from delegates from the floor. Topics covered include the role of mandatory surveillance, de-implementation, community based IPC, point prevalence studies, the UK PPS,  fundamentals of care, urinary tract infection, pneumonia and the direction of IPC.      

In our second live session at a major conference, this episode of Infection Control Matters was recorded live at a plenary session to close day 1 of the Infection Prevention Society conference (Birmingham, UK). Our guest panelists include Dr Berit Muller-Pebody an Epidemiologist from the UK Health Security Agency, Prof Jennie Wilson from the University of West London and Dr Jacqui Prieto from The University of Southampton. The panel also fielded many questions from delegates from the floor. Topics covered include the role of mandatory surveillance, de-implementation, community based IPC, point prevalence studies, the UK PPS,  fundamentals of care, urinary tract infection, pneumonia and the direction of IPC.      

The UK Health Security Agency has issued an update on early contingency planning for mpox after the World Health Organisation discovered a surge in cases of the contagious viral disease in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where at least 450 people died in the initial outbreak. Evening Standard health reporter Daniel Keane has details on the UK latest. Brain-computer AI voice system helps MND patient speak again.Also in this episode:Stranded ISS astronauts still awaiting Nasa rescue decisionDrone deliveries: Amazon approved for UK test flightsDo Aussies live longer than Brits?Stonehenge rock ‘is Scottish, not Welsh' Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As part of the June issue, the European Respiratory Journal presents the latest in its series of podcasts. Chief Editor James Chalmers interviews Rachel Bowsher (Toxicology Department, UK Health Security Agency, Chilton, and Pharmacology Section, St George's University of London, London, UK) about a study that uses novel methodology to demonstrate that smoking and vaping alter genes related to mechanisms of SARS-CoV-2 susceptibility and severity.

The UK Health Security Agency has confirmed at least 37 people were admitted to hospital as a result of an E.coli outbreak, and testing indicates most of the 113 cases reported across the UK are from a single source. We speak to Cath Rees, professor of microbiology at the University of Nottingham about everything we know so far. Starship: Elon Musk's SpaceX successfully launches and lands the most powerful rocket ever made.The Standard's Saqib Shah joins us to explain why gamers are racking up views for new video game ‘Bodycam'.Also in this episode:Why nature groups are launching a legal bid over England's wildlife lossLook who's woofing: why scientists are using AI to interpret the meaning of barksFollow us on X or on Threads. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Send us a Text Message.Prof. Isabel Oliver is the Director General of Science and Research & Chief Scientific Officer, at the UK Health Security Agency ( UKHSA - https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/uk-health-security-agency ). The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) is a government agency in the United Kingdom, responsible since April 2021 for England-wide public health protection and infectious disease capability and replacing Public Health England. It is an executive agency of the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC). Prior to this role, Prof. Oliver was Director of National Infection Service at Public Health England (PHE) having held other roles previously in the organization. She is also professor and co-director of the National Institute for Health Research, Health Protection Research Unit on Behavioral Science and Evaluation, at the University of Bristol and an honorary professor at University College, London. Prof. Oliver has broad research interests ranging from infectious diseases epidemiology and the evaluation of public health interventions and services, to the surveillance, prevention and control of infectious diseases and environmental hazards, antibiotic resistance, emergency preparedness and response, sexual health and the mental health impact of major incidents. She leads the National Study of Flooding and Health, a longitudinal study aimed at understanding the impact of flooding on mental health and wellbeing. Prof. Oliver received an MSc, Public Health, from London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, U. of London and a Medical Degree from Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Support the Show.

In this enlightening episode of our video podcast, we dive deep into the pressing issue of heat waves and their alarming impact on the United Kingdom. With an eye-opening discussion inspired by recent warnings from MPs and the Environmental Audit Committee, we explore the potentially dire consequences of inaction in the face of increasing extreme heat events. We dissect a report indicating that up to 10,000 people a year could face fatal outcomes due to heatwaves if comprehensive measures are not taken. The economic repercussions are also staggering, with a potential cost of £60bn a year to the economy.Philip Dunne MP, the Conservative chair of the committee, delivers a compelling call to action, emphasizing the urgent need for government and societal response to mitigate these risks. We also delve into the historical context provided by the UK Health Security Agency's issuance of its first-ever 'level 4' heat alert in July 2022, a testament to the unprecedented temperatures the UK is experiencing.Moreover, the episode discusses the global perspective, noting that 2023 was confirmed as the hottest year on record by a significant margin, underscoring the fact that this is not just a local, but a global crisis requiring immediate and decisive action.Our expert guests provide insights into the challenges and potential strategies for addressing this "present danger," emphasizing the importance of developing a robust plan to combat the escalating threat of heat waves. Through engaging discussions, we aim to raise awareness and spur action among our viewers, highlighting the critical need for preparedness and adaptation in the face of climate change.

The shelf life of skills is getting ever shorter, which has significant implications for talent acquisition. It is essential that TA leaders take an active role in developing the overall skills strategy for their business. If employers want to be effective skills-based organizations, it is clear that talent acquisition, talent management, L&D and strategic workforce planning must be closely aligned. My guest this week is Malcolm Taylor, Head of Capability at the UK Health Security Agency. In the last few years, Malcolm has led a highly effective initiative to use data to drive upskilling, talent development and talent acquisition. In our conversation, he shares valuable insights on skills strategy and some interesting perspectives on the likely role AI will play in L&D in the future. In the interview, we discuss: Why upskilling is so essential in 2024 The shortening life cycle of skills Engagement and retention Teaching people how to learn Mapping skills within the organization Can AI create a common skills language across professions? Data-driven decision making Community-based learning The role of TA in skills-based organizations The importance of removing silos in the people function. What does the future look like? Follow this podcast on Apple Podcasts

The shelf life of skills is getting ever shorter, which has significant implications for talent acquisition. It is essential that TA leaders take an active role in developing the overall skills strategy for their business. If employers want to be effective skills-based organizations, it is clear that talent acquisition, talent management, L&D and strategic workforce planning must be closely aligned. My guest this week is Malcolm Taylor, Head of Capability at the UK Health Security Agency. In the last few years, Malcolm has led a highly effective initiative to use data to drive upskilling, talent development and talent acquisition. In our conversation, he shares valuable insights on skills strategy and some interesting perspectives on the likely role AI will play in L&D in the future. In the interview, we discuss: Why upskilling is so essential in 2024 The shortening life cycle of skills Engagement and retention Teaching people how to learn Mapping skills within the organization Can AI create a common skills language across professions? Data-driven decision making Community-based learning The role of TA in skills-based organizations The importance of removing silos in the people function. What does the future look like? Follow this podcast on Apple Podcasts

The shelf life of skills is getting ever shorter, which has significant implications for talent acquisition. It is essential that TA leaders take an active role in developing the overall skills strategy for their business. If employers want to be effective skills-based organizations, it is clear that talent acquisition, talent management, L&D and strategic workforce planning must be closely aligned. My guest this week is Malcolm Taylor, Head of Capability at the UK Health Security Agency. In the last few years, Malcolm has led a highly effective initiative to use data to drive upskilling, talent development and talent acquisition. In our conversation, he shares valuable insights on skills strategy and some interesting perspectives on the likely role AI will play in L&D in the future. In the interview, we discuss: Why upskilling is so essential in 2024 The shortening life cycle of skills Engagement and retention Teaching people how to learn Mapping skills within the organization Can AI create a common skills language across professions? Data-driven decision making Community-based learning The role of TA in skills-based organizations The importance of removing silos in the people function. What does the future look like? Follow this podcast on Apple Podcasts

There have been tributes for a young jockey who died in a tragic accident at a Kent racecourse.The 25-year-old has been taking part in in the final event at Charing yesterday when he was thrown from his horse. Also in today's podcast, public health officials in Kent are warning parents to make sure their children's vaccinations are up to date amid a worrying rise in measles cases. The UK Health Security Agency has declared a ‘national incident' with hundreds of cases recorded across the country. Controversial plans to transform a million-pound property in Gravesend into houses has been approved after a five-year battle. Residents say the decision is "disappointing" and "frustrating". A father from Sheerness has told the KentOnline Podcast about how he has to wear a face mask in his own home due to black mould. The 50-year-old says the living conditions are so bad he's developed asthma and is scared for the health of his kids. And in football, hear from the Gillingham boss after their disappointing result in League 2 over the weekend. The Gills were held to a one-all draw against Walsall at Priestfield. 

In this week's podcast the team discusses GP funding after analysis by the Liberal Democrats showed a real-terms fall in practice funding during the past four years. Meanwhile, government figures have also shown that the share of NHS funding going to primary care has fallen to an eight-year low.They also talk about problems at the primary care interface - the interface between practices and other parts of the NHS, including hospitals, community services and mental health services – and how it is wasting millions of GP appointments every year.And they look at the latest on measles and MMR vaccine uptake after the UK Health Security Agency last week declared a national incident because of rising cases of measles.Our good news story this week is about the Friends and Family Test.This episode was presented by GPonline editor Emma Bower, deputy editor Nick Bostock and senior news reporter Kimberley Hackett. It was produced by Czarina Deen.Useful links● Which ICB areas have seen the largest drops in real-terms GP funding?● RCGP warning as primary care share of NHS funding hits eight-year low● Solving NHS 'interface' chaos could save 6m GP appointments a year● NHS England launches catch-up MMR campaign amid rising measles cases● GPs told to wear PPE when seeing suspected measles cases Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Richie is joined by Dr. Jayne Donegan and James Roguski. A measles outbreak in the midlands has prompted the UK Health Security Agency to declare a national incident. It is being partly blamed on the fact that millions of kids missed their measles jabs during the pandemic. To discuss this and more, Richie is joined by regular guest Dr. Jayne Donegan. https://www.jayne-donegan.co.uk/Californian James Roguski is an author and researcher. James has made it his mission to expose the World Health Organisation's pandemic treaty. James tells Richie that while people are right to be concerned about the implications of the treaty, the reality is far worse than they realise. https://jamesroguski.substack.com/

    In this episode Miles is joined by the National Statistician, Sir Ian Diamond, to reflect on what has been a busy and transformative year at the Office for National Statistics.    Transcript    MILES FLETCHER  This is “Statistically Speaking”, the official podcast of the UK Office for National Statistics, I'm Miles Fletcher. This is our 20th episode, in fact, a milestone of sorts, though not a statistically significant one. What is significant is that we're joined, once again, to look back at the highlights from another 12 months here at the ONS by none other than the National Statistician himself, Professor Sir Ian Diamond. Ian, thanks for joining us again. The year started for you with being reappointed as the national statistician. As 2023 developed, how glad did you feel to be back?   SIR IAN DIAMOND  Of course, you know, I was hugely privileged to be invited to continue. It's one of the most exciting things you could ever do and I will continue to do everything in my power to bring great statistics to the service of our nation.   MF  To business then, and this time last year, we sat in this very room talking about the results of Census 2021, which were coming in quite fresh then. And we've seen the fastest growth of the population, you told us, since the baby boom of the early 1960s. Over the course of the year much more data has become available from that census and this time, we've been able to make it available for people in much richer ways, including interactive maps, create your own data set tools. What does that say about the population data generally and the way that people can access and use it now? How significant is that there's that sort of development?   SID  Well I think we need to recognise that the sorts of things that we can do now, with the use of brilliant technology, brilliant data science and brilliant computing is enabling us to understand our population more, to be able to make our data more accessible. 50, 60, 70 years ago, 150 years ago, we would have just produced in about six or seven years after the census, a report with many, many tables and people would have just been able to look at those tables. Now, we're able to produce data which enables people to build their own tables, to ask questions of data. It's too easy to say, tell me something interesting, you know, the population of Dorset is this. Okay, that's fine, but actually he wants to know much more about whether that's high or low. You want to know much more about the structure of the population, what its needs for services are, I could go on and on. And each individual will have different questions to ask of the data, and enabling each individual to ask those questions which are important to them, and therefore for the census to be more used, is I think, an incredibly beautiful thing.   MF  And you can go onto the website there and create a picture...   SID  Anyone can go onto the website, anyone can start to ask whatever questions they want of the data. And to get very clearly, properly statistically disclosed answers which enable them to use those data in whatever way they wish to.   MF  And it's a demonstration of obviously the richness of data that's available now from all kinds of sources, and behind that has been a discussion of, that's gone on here in the ONS and beyond this year, about what the future holds for population statistics and how we can develop those and bring those on. There's been a big consultation going on at the moment. What's the engagement with that consultation been like?   SID  Well the engagement's been great, we've had around 700 responses, and it addresses some fundamental questions. So the census is a really beautiful thing. But at the same time, the census, the last one done the 21st of March 2021, was out of date by the 22nd of March 2021, and more and more out of date as you go on and many of our users say to us, that they want more timely data. Also by its very nature a census is a pretty constrained data set. We in our country have never been prepared to ask for example, income on the census yet this is one of the most demanded questions. We don't ask it because it is believed that it is too sensitive. And so there are many, many, many questions that we simply can't ask because of space. There are many more questions that we simply cannot ask in the granularity that we want to. We've been doing some work recently to reconcile the differences between estimates in the number of Welsh speakers from surveys with estimates on the number of people in the census who report they speak Welsh. Frankly, it would be better if we were able to ask them to get information in a more granular way. And so while the census is an incredibly beautiful thing, we also need to recognise that as time goes on, the technology and the availability of data allowing us to link data becomes much more of a great opportunity that we have been undertaking a lot of research, a lot of research which was asked for by the government in 2013, following the report by Chris Skinner, the late Chris Skinner, Joe Hollis, and Mike Murphy, which is a brilliant report. We said at the moment we need to do another census in 2021. That's what we have done and I believe it to be one of the best coverages there has ever been. And yet we need to assess whether administrative data could be used in future to provide more timely, more flexible and more accessible data and that's what the consultation is about. I will be making a recommendation to the UKSA (UK Statistics Authority) board in the future. In the near future we have to say, and I think it is worth saying that what the consultation says to us is that people are very, very, very much in favour of the direction of travel but at the same time as yet accepting our prototype, unconvinced about the data flows and the sustainability of those data flows to enable us to do it and so, we are looking at how to respond to other very important analyses and we will do so in the near future.   MF  When can the people who contributed to that consultation, roughly when should they expect to hear from us? SID  I think the expectation is we'll publish something by the end of quarter one in 2024.   MF  Surveys have continued to be a very important part of what the ONS does, these very large national surveys, and yet one of the biggest challenges of the has been maintaining coverage and particularly response rates and obviously, particularly with the Labour Force Survey recently that has been a particular issue for the ONS hasn't it. Where do things stand now as we move into modernising the traditional Labour Force Survey and moving to a new model because it's an issue statistics bodies around the world have been dealing with, it's harder to get people to complete surveys like they used to.     SID  I think it's a fair point that response rates globally are a challenge and response rates globally, not only in national statistics issues, but in the private sector organisations that also collect data, are a challenge. So we need to recognise that. A part of that is that historically, one could find people at home, knock on doors, have that conversation with people, and perhaps post pandemic people are less willing to have a conversation at the house. Also, people are very busy. They work in multiple occupations. They are not always in, they live in housing accommodation which is more and more difficult to access. This there is no kind of single magic bullet here that we could press all we would have. The first thing to say Miles is that we recognise that and that's why we worked with our colleagues at His Majesty's Treasury to provide a project to go to what we call a transformed Labour Force Survey. And I think that that's a hugely exciting project for a number of reasons. One, the labour force survey which has been around for a long time, the questionnaire had become a little bit unwieldy. And also we wanted to enable people to have much more flexibility at the time of which they answered the question. We are in the field with the pilots for that service. We've been pretty good. There are good response rates. There are also some challenges around getting the questions right. These aren't challenges that stress me, that's why you do a pilot, but at the end of the day we're hoping to be able to transform into that new Labour Force Survey early in 2024, in the first half of 2024. We're working very closely in doing that with our major stakeholders and the Bank of England, His Majesty's Treasury and the Office for Budgetry Responsibility (OBR), is you take a joint decision on when people feel comfortable that we have had enough dual running to enable us to move forward. The other question that I'd have to raise around surveys more generally, is on inflation, which we have all been subjected to in many, many areas in the last couple of years, inflation in survey collection has increased massively and so in the last year we've had to make real judgments about how we maintain quality. And in the next few years, we will really be needing to think through exactly how we conduct our surveys and the cost of doing so.   MF  Yes. Of all the people who should be aware of inflation are the people who report it, and certainly the impacts of those relatively high rates of inflation have impacted us as much as anybody else. The challenges not withstanding of running surveys, the interest of government bodies in getting that information directly from people does continue to underline the unique value of surveys. Some people say Oh, well, they surely they can get this information from other sources I've even seen it suggested that social media could provide the answers, but there is a unique value isn't there and actually getting a statistically representative sample of people and speaking to them directly.   SID  It depends Miles, I think it absolutely depends on what the question is you're trying to answer. If you're trying to get some answers to a question where the answer can be obtained through administrative data sources, then you don't need a survey. Surveys are difficult to conduct and difficult to pilot and plan and extremely expensive to undertake. So you should only do a survey if you can't get the information from somewhere else. Therefore, you know, I do think that we need to be very, very careful in thinking through when we need to do surveys. Does that mean to say we don't need to do surveys? Absolutely not. There are reasons why you need to do surveys. It may be that you need to really spend some time identifying whether someone really is eligible for hte questions you're going to ask or you may want attitudes. I don't know how to get someone's attitude without asking them. And so there are reasons why you would want to do a survey, but I would argue that you should only do a survey when you cannot get the data from elsewhere. And you also mentioned social media. Social media is an incredibly interesting and important source of data. Now, I wouldn't necessarily say it was statistically representative, but we absolutely have to be flexible in what we call data. We have to be sure of the quality of those data and we have to be sure that we are really aware of what the population is that are represented by those data. So we are using many, many, many types of data now that we would not have used 50 years ago, we simply couldn't have used things like telephony data, things like card data, things like data from satellites to address questions which those data are the best way of providing answers.    MF  And there are some fantastic examples of that around the ONS. If you look at how we've changed prices over the last couple of years, again, the measurement of inflation, bringing in new data sources most recently from the US car industry, from the rail industry as well and it all means that the estimates of inflation are now based on many hundreds of thousands of price points, where it used to be just a few things.   SID  It doesn't matter what the numbers are, frankly, it matters that you've got a good coverage it matters that you have the most appropriate method and that your data are as accurate as possible. And I do think it is incredibly important. We use a wider range of data sources. I think it's incredibly exciting what those data sources are, but we should only do so being unbelievably careful about what the metadata are that go with them, what the coverage is, why we are using them and whether or not they represent an improvement over what we could do before.   MF  Okay, so we've seen in the area of prices, the measurement of inflation, there's new innovative data sources coming from outside, coming from industry. What sort of an improvement does that represent in how we measure inflation, when it's such an important time for cost of living?    SID  Well, I think it helps because we have more accurate data. We have more timely data, we have data that are real. So on rail prices, we know what people pay as opposed to what the price as advertised necessarily is and I think that is important. And so being able to properly understand what the consumer is doing, therefore, what inflation is, is to me, incredibly important. I would say that all this effort that we're putting in would not necessarily just be about prices. Here it is about do we understand more about what is going on in the economy, and there are many more questions that we can ask from those data when you've got them, and simply from some of the fixed price point data that we have previously.   MF  Now one massive change we've seen lately, and this is another area we've managed to improve coverage, is of course the private rental sector. It's become much more important as we've seen house prices coming under pressure and mortgages under pressure by high interest rates and so forth. It's revealed a very interesting picture of long-term change, and also in more contemporary terms, what's actually going on with the economy right now.    SID  Oh 100%   MF  Talking about areas where we've been able to form a new view of what's really been going on. An area that attracts a particular commentary during the course of the year is expenditure on research and development. Regarded as a very important area of activity if you're talking about productivity, future economic growth...we substantially upgraded our estimates of R&D. What was the story behind that? Why was that necessary?    SID  Well it was incredibly important because we looked very carefully at our data, we look very carefully at our samples, we looked at our coverage and we decided that we needed properly to to bring in a much wider range of business. And we were reflecting very much those businesses from a very wide range of areas who were able and available to claim R&D tax credits, and therefore to be able to get a decent sample, and the critical thing here is not only were we making good estimates, but we were able to understand much more about what, particularly for smaller tech and creative industry companies, was R&D. And I think that is something that we need to recognise particularly in those smaller companies where there's a much greater flexibility about what people would call R&D.   MF  It's a reflection perhaps that startups are the sort of firms that do R&D these days, and less so the sort of industrial behemoths with huge R&D departments. But there was an interesting change nonetheless, and obviously considerable improvement in measuring that very important area. This all I guess comes under the umbrella of future proofing practices and systems and this all came under a refreshed data strategy that we launched during the course of the year. One of the fundamental principles underlying that, where is it taking us?   SID  I think, I mean, just where I've been coming from, are to do a much more holistic view of what data are and how we really use data which are most appropriate to answer the questions that we have, and we recognise that the economy and indeed society are changing very quickly, and therefore we need appropriate data to be able to answer those questions. For example, if you look at employment, there are many, many people in our society who have three, four, even five jobs, we need data which enable us to find out what the distribution of the number of jobs people have is, what they're spending their time doing, and how that impacts on our understanding of the labour force.   MF  Worth perhaps recognising some of the particular areas where new data has also been able to shed new light and particularly think of the payments industry which obviously digital payments happen very quickly. They provide almost a daily update on the state of consumer spending. With it obviously the state of the of the of the wider economy. We've managed to strike up partnerships with a huge cross section of the payments sector. What is the particular value of that? And what do we say to perhaps other data providers who might wish to enter into similar arrangements?   SID  Well I think we'd say we do everything ethically, and with complete privacy, but at the same time in the public good. And that is, to me, incredibly important. And so understanding what the consumer is spending money on understanding what the consumer is not spending money on, and the transitions, is incredibly important to enable policy which impacts very positively on all of our fellow citizens. So we are very proud of those partnerships. We value them greatly. We don't take them for granted. And those data, entirely ethically provided, with great security but at the same time enabling us to understand what is going on at an early stage in the economy is incredibly important.   MF  And of course it's worth restating, as mentioned already, that of course all of these data are anonymized and aggregated, and no individual would ever be able to identify themselves or be identified from that fast payments data which of course is helping to inform economics policy.   MF  Providing data to the people who do make policy and around government and to make sure that policies are really informed by evidence of course that is the major purpose behind the new Integrated Data Service, which was accredited this year under the Digital Economy Act. And that's enabling data to be shared around government in a way that simply wasn't possible before.   SID  80 datasets available now and indeed, that number going up more or less by the day. And one of the most important things here is that there are very few challenges which government face which simply can be addressed by data from one department. Therefore, what we need to be able to do is to link data from different sources to enable us in a very granular way to be able to answer questions about topics for which the answer requires data from many sources. And the Integrated Data Service allows us to do that. It allows us to do at a pace and allows us to do it in a way which brings a wide variety of analysts to the party. And I think that, you know, this year major milestone in getting Digital Economy Act accreditation. And we will be looking to streamline the process of using it over the next year, as well as seeing more and more and more projects on it having successful results.   MF  And sharing between departments at the national level is important, but also it's been a long-term aim of the ONS to improve its coverage at local levels. And again, there's another important initiative kicked off this year, and that's the launch of ONS Local.   SID  Yes and I'd say that the two are linked. It doesn't matter whether you are at a national level or whether you are at a regional level, linked data are important, but we are very pleased working with funding from our colleagues at the Department of Housing, Levelling Up and Communities to have been able to place ONS staff in regions. So we're not talking about teams of people in Manchester or teams of people in Exeter, but we are talking about interlocuters in the southwest, northwest for example, who can really work with the leaders there to ensure that we've got local data for local leaders to make local decisions and that's incredibly important because the questions that people wish to ask are different in different parts of the country and therefore we need to recognise that so it is a good initiative, which I hope will bear fruit in 2024.   MF  And the importance of data in government has been underlined by a big initiative, which takes in everybody, not just statisticians and analysts, but everybody in the civil service, has been engaged in what's called the One Big Thing campaign to spend time learning about data that's important to the use of data. How has that initiative been going? The ONS has been a central part of that. How's it been going? How important is it?   SID  It is critical. We do not need every public servant to be able to be a brilliant statistician, but we need every public servant to be data literate. We need every public servant to be able to understand data and the best policy comes about when analysts and policymakers and potential beneficiaries work together. And that requires that you can have that data literate conversation. And so I think One Big Thing is a great thing.   MF  In fact that the need for people to better understand data became evident early this year, of course, when our GDP revisions were quite dramatically revised in the early part of the autumn as the estimates for the big peak pandemic years, 2021 and 22. There was quite a reaction from some parts of the media and beyond, who reported that our original figures were, because they had revised so dramatically, were simply wrong. I mean, that's not the case. revisions of course have always been integral part of the process. Indeed the OSR, the statistics regulator, found as part of its review our approach to be, and their words were appropriate and well managed, however, it also found the ONS could communicate better the uncertainty in those early estimates of GDP and that's a learning point for the future.   MF  We saw particular attention recently for the natural capital outputs, measures of the natural environment, and they attracted a degree of media interest we haven't seen so far, helped by the fact we're able to bring it to life with an analysis of time spent in nature and so forth, and you spoke to BBC Countryfile about that particular work. What's your overriding thoughts on that release?  Are we moving to the point where these kinds of measures are getting more exposure? Are they being recognised for their value?   SID  I thought the national Natural Capital stuff was brilliant. I've always thought, as I said last year, that we should put alongside GDP measures of the environment and measures of well-being, but you need a concise picture and that's where we're moving in the future.    MF  As we speak, we're heading into the bleak midwinter of 2023. The nation is doing all it can to avoid a seasonal bout of flu and the other viruses that traditionally do the rounds at this time of year. And that's seen a revival of our surveillance effort. The Winter Coronavirus Infection Study (WCIS). Tell us about that. What's the purpose of it and what's happening?   SID  Yeah, working very much for our colleagues at the UK Health Security Agency who asked us whether we would be prepared to stand back up some of the work we do on surveillance of winter flus, COVID and other issues. and we're of course pleased and proud to be asked. We're using a different strategy to the one we were using in the past, this is very much simply a mail out of tests enabling people to take a test and then to make estimates, and at the moment the good news is that the estimates of positivity are relatively low, but the bottom line is we need to recognise that without some good hard data on those levels it's pretty impossible for government to plan, and so I think it's a really exciting initiative. It's a smaller survey than one in the past. It's a survey which will make national estimates rather than many regional estimates, but it's one that we think is extremely exciting, and builds on some of the work we've done in the past.   MF  And now of course everyone knows how to self-administer a COVID test and that ability makes it much easier to run these big.   SID  Oh 100%. I do think we need to recognise the way in which the world moves on. And certainly, when we first set up the COVID infection survey in 2020. We were not aware of the extent to which people could self-administer, we learned pretty quickly that's why we were able to transition to self-testing, but I think we are in a world where we can do this at pace and provide estimates very, very quickly.   MF  Well, thank you very much for joining us. Great to have you with us again at the end of the year. You could choose just three words to sum up your 2023   SID  Exciting, full of change and high-quality statistics.   MF  And looking ahead to 2024, which pieces of work are you looking forward to most?    SID  The economy is changing quickly, society is changing quickly. We will continue to change and to be ever more effective. We've talked about some of the things we're bringing on board and looking forward to a brand-new website to improve our communication. And I think it's going to be a very exciting time.   MF  Professor Sir Ian Diamond, thanks very much for joining us.   That's it for another episode of Statistically Speaking, you can subscribe to future episodes of this podcast on Spotify, Apple podcasts and all the other major podcast platforms and also follow us on X, previously known as Twitter, via the @ONSFocus feed. I'm Miles Fletcher, and from myself, our producer Steve Milne, and everyone here at the ONS, we wish you seasonally adjusted greetings, goodbye.   ENDS 

Rory Cellan-Jones talks to Angelique Acquatella, Shan Morgan and Jennifer Dixon about the current status of digital technology adoption in healthcare services, why digital adoption is so slow,  and the opportunities for medtech, individuals and the wider economy.In this episode, experts unpack the barriers and facilitators of digital healthcare. Rory, Angelique, Shan and Jennifer explore the impact of med tech on inequalities, and offer solutions to mitigate risks of digital exclusion in healthcare. Provided healthcare systems focus on long-term priorities and agenda, the speakers highlight that technologies could enhance the quality and effectiveness of care. This episode is hosted by Rory Cellan-Jones (former technology correspondent for the BBC), and features guest experts  Angelique Acquatella (TSE), Shan Morgan (Bennett Institute), Jennifer Dixon (Health Foundation). Listen to this episode on your preferred podcast platformSeason 3 Episode 2 transcriptFor more information about the podcast and the work of the institutes, visit our websites at https://www.bennettinstitute.cam.ac.uk/ and https://www.iast.fr/.Tweet us with your thoughts at @BennettInst and @IASToulouse.With thanks to:Audio production by Steve HankeyAssociate production by Stella ErkerVisuals by Tiffany NaylorMore information about our host and guests:Rory Cellan-Jones was a technology correspondent for the BBC. His 40 years in journalism have seen him take a particular interest in the impact of the internet and digital technology on society and business. He has also written multiple books, including “Always On” (2021) and his latest “Ruskin Park: Sylvia, Me and the BBC” which was published in 2023. @ruskin147Professor Angelique Acquatella is an Assistant Professor at the Toulouse School of Economics. Her research studies the optimal design of health care policy, with two main substantive areas: public health insurance systems and pharmaceutical payment policy.  Angelique's work falls at the intersection of health economics and public finance, combining methods from optimal tax theory with traditional cost-effectiveness analysis in health economics. . @angieacquatellaDr Jennifer Dixon CBE joined the Health Foundation as Chief Executive in October 2013. Jennifer was Chief Executive of the Nuffield Trust from 2008 to 2013. Prior to this, she was Director of Policy at The King's Fund and policy advisor to the Chief Executive of the NHS between 1998 and 2000. Jennifer was appointed as a non-executive board member of the UK Health Security Agency in April 2022.  @JenniferTHFDame Shan Morgan Dame is Chair of the Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, which employs around 16,000 staff and provides healthcare services for about 615,000 people. Shan previously worked as the Welsh Government's Permanent Secretary, leading the Civil Service of the Welsh Government in delivering the priorities of Ministers, and had a wide range of roles in the Civil and Diplomatic Service.

Swine flu has been diagnosed in pigs on 33 farms in the UK so far this year. But now, it's been diagnosed in a human. The person, in North Yorkshire, is now fully recovered after what's described as a 'mild illness', but the UK Health Security Agency is investigating. We ask what this means for pig farmers, and the rest of us.The CPRE, the Countryside Charity, describes the shortage of affordable housing in the English countryside as "acute and overlooked" in a report out today. It says rural homelessness has risen by 40% in the last five years, driven by record house prices, long waiting lists for social housing and a proliferation of second and holiday homes. And we visit the Brecklands in East Anglia. It's an unusual landscape covering 400 square miles across Norfolk and Suffolk which, despite having poor soil, is an growing veg, pigs, sheep and free range poultry - along side being home to 12,000 wild plants and rare birds like the nightjar and the stone curlew. Now, a group of more than 50 Breckland farmers have joined together to take part in a Government funded Landscape Recovery Scheme, to try and improve the habitats there.Presented by Anna Hill Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Heather Simons

  The ONS led the way informing the UK response to the Coronavirus pandemic. But what lessons can be learned and how can we best prepare not only ourselves, but the rest of the world, for the next pandemic?     Transcript  MILES FLETCHER  This is Statistically Speaking, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) Podcast. I'm Miles Fletcher, and as we approach the darkest months of winter, we're revisiting COVID-19.   Now the ONS doesn't do predictions, and we're certainly not forecasting a resurgence of the virus, either here in the UK or anywhere else. But pandemic preparedness has been the driving force behind two important pieces of work that we're going to be talking about this time. Looking beyond our shores, how well equipped now is the world in general to spot and monitor emerging infections? We'll hear from Josie Golding of the Wellcome Trust on that, including how even weather events like El Nino could affect the spread of viruses. We'll also talk to my ONS colleague, Joy Preece about the pandemic preparedness toolkit, a five-year project backed by Wellcome to create and develop resources that will help countries with health surveillance in the event of future pandemics.   But first, and closer to home, a new UK winter surveillance study to gather vital data on COVID-19 is now well underway. Jo Evans is its head of operations. Jo, this is a brand new COVID-19 survey the ONS is running in partnership with the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA). What is the new survey and what's it going to be monitoring over the winter?  JO EVANS  So this is now the winter COVID infection study. And we're going to be going out to, I think we've got 145,000 people signed up, and we're going to ask them to take a lateral flow test to see if they are testing positive for COVID-19. Then we'll ask them to tell us a little bit about how they're feeling, what symptoms they have and some other household information - what work do they do? Do they have caring responsibilities? And so on.   MF  So we're gonna be getting people to take a test and everyone's familiar of course now with administering their own lateral flow test, that wasn't the case back in the early days of the pandemic, when it was a new thing for the vast majority of us. So they'll take a test that'll tell us whether they are positive or negative for COVID-19. And on top of that, we're going to be gathering data in the form of a questionnaire.   JE  That's right. And then this is a collaboration this time, so we'll be working with the UKHSA. I mean, we've worked with them on the COVID infection study before, but this time what we'll be doing is looking at those responses of how many people are telling us that they have COVID-19 And we'll be trying to understand that by where people live or their age group and so on, but we'll be sharing that information with UKHSA and they will then be looking at what the impact is on hospitals. So what they call the infection hospitalisation rate, how many people are going into hospital because they have COVID, so it'll really help us understand what pressures there are on the NHS over this winter period.  MF  And that will give us some inkling, once again, about how many people are infected but not actually displaying any symptoms?  JE  Absolutely. And we do ask people about their symptoms and if they tell us they test positive, we'll then be sending them a second questionnaire, a follow up, asking them to keep testing until they get two consecutive negative tests so that we can see how long they are testing positive, but we'll also ask them how long did their symptoms last and did they need to go and see a doctor, did they take any medication, so really trying to understand how they're experiencing that period of illness.  MF  So during those critical winter months, that'll give us some insight into what's really going on on-the- ground and in communities.   JE  That's right and we're running this study from November right through to March so that we can understand that, because COVID, unlike flu, it's not a seasonal virus, but we know that the NHS really suffers through the winter with those increased pressures, with more people needing their services. And this is about understanding what's happening out there. In the community, and what impact that is having on our healthcare services.  MF  Another very important aspect of that is we're going to be monitoring for people who say they're suffering the symptoms of what is popularly known as long-COVID, ongoing impacts of the virus, and that will fill a very important evidence gap won't it.  JE  Absolutely. We will in a follow up questionnaire be asking people how long they've had COVID for and whether they have long-COVID. And interestingly, in some research we did when we were designing the questionnaire, long-COVID sufferers told us that they know precisely what date their symptoms started and how long they've had it because of the impact it's been having on their lives. So we are hopeful that this study will provide some really useful information.  MF  So 145,000 people taking part. Has it been difficult to get as many people as that involved?  JE  Do you know what, we got halfway there within the first 48 hours, people were so keen to take part in this study. We've really been surprised about that.  MF  It's probably a reflection of the success of the profile that the original study had.  JE  I think so, people are really keen to do their bit here and get involved in this study. And we've had a lot of participants, particularly in the older age groups, who have signed up so we will have to do something that we call ‘weighting of the data' across the different age groups, but we do this all the time and we are also going out to those under 16s, right up to the over 70s.  MF  And as well as taking part in a very important public study, people get a COVID test for free and can see for themselves whether they've been affected.  JE Yeah, think that's one of the things people are keen to do, particularly over the winter periods when we're going to be mingling and visiting family, that reassurance really that you're going to test every month and find out whether or not you have COVID, I think we all want to make sure that we are virus free before we go and see our loved ones over Christmas, for example.  MF  Well, we're meeting to discuss this in mid-November. The first results are still a few weeks away but how are things going, we've got enough people? Are the tests out in the field yet?  JE  The tests are out in the field. I think we're looking to get two publications in before Christmas, so testing windows start next week. We're expecting around 25,000 people a week to take their tests and answer their questionnaire.  MF  And over the course of a month then, all 145 we hope will have been covered?   JE  Yes, I mean 145 is a fantastic number, and if we get all of them taking their test kits each month, then yes, that number will be higher. But even if we were looking at a 50 or 60% response rate, that is excellent for a social survey.  MF  Yes, and all the time, what we've heard in other contexts, is that it is difficult to get people to take part in surveys, but certainly in this case people can see the need for it and have come forward in their thousands. It's possibly worth pointing out though that you do have to be selected to take part, that's very important isn't it, that we've never looked for volunteers. We've selected households randomly and that approach, that's very important to make this a really, really reliable survey isn't it?  JE  Yes, and as soon as there was information about the study in the newspapers earlier this year, we had people ringing up and asking to take part and we've had to explain to them that we want a nice random sample so that we can have a fully representative study.  MF  So ONS will be producing the figures then it's over to our colleagues in the UK Health Security Agency to interpret what that means from a public health point of view, and what response might be necessary. Absolutely.  JE  Absolutely. And they'll be producing some statistics as well. Looking particularly, as I said, at that infection hospitalisation rate.  MF  So are we expecting the virus to take off again, or is it just a just a precaution to be monitoring things in this way?  JE  When we started this, it was more about understanding if there would be that impact on the NHS over the winter. But then we did see back in September, a new variant, particularly in the US, and as you know, from looking at COVID over the past few years, when you see a new variant coming, sort of appearing in one country, you know that it will come here eventually. So, it's about keeping track of that really, although because we are doing lateral flow tests, we won't actually have information about what kind of variant people have, but it will just be to look to see whether we're seeing an increase in positivity in the community.  MF  Okay, so all eyes on the first result, and we wish you, and the team getting the survey together once again, every success on what is a highly valuable and important exercise.  So we've heard how the new winter surveillance study is helping us track ongoing COVID infection here at home. But we're also using the experience the ONS gained during the last pandemic to prepare not only ourselves, but other countries around the world for another one, Josie, with that global perspective in mind, my first question to you just to get us started is what have been the biggest learnings, the biggest take homes if you like, for Wellcome from the pandemic. And what's your priority now as an organisation considering how best to respond to others?  JOSIE GOLDING  Thank you for having me today, I think this is good to be reflecting on COVID in the future. So the biggest take home message is, probably I can look at the positives and the negatives, so I'll go on the negatives first.   So I think we had a lot of the tools for responding to outbreaks and bigger events but I think we weren't prepared to deal with such a massive pandemic that we saw at SARS-CoV-2, we had expected to prepare for something like influenza and of course we probably didn't use our imagination of how the impact would be so great, affecting people in so many different ways. I think we need to really use that imagination going forward, it's about thinking through the variety of different impacts we could see across different populations. I think we've learned a lot on how we communicate with the public, with the key people who are involved, and take those lessons because I think we did struggle. I think globally, not just Wellcome as one of the actors on communicating the importance, and the push to be better prepared to respond to these pandemics.   One of the successes, and I'll put this up from a Wellcome point of view, really was the true integration of research into the response. And you know, this has been building up for many years from the Ebola West Africa outbreak in 2014. And tested again, and tested and tested and refined, on how we do this across the small research community who are engaged in those relatively smaller outbreaks to now a complete game change on how people expect research to be integrated into outbreak responses through pandemics.   So I think that's now set the new status quo, and before I had to convince people of the importance, I think the importance now speaks for itself.   MF  Yes, it was notable in the early stages of the pandemic, those countries, notably in East Asia that have had experience of major respiratory viruses, and dealing with those on a public health point of view, didn't seem to be much better prepared than us in the West, who perhaps have underestimated the risks?  JG  It is absolutely true. You know, it is testing the system over and over and over again. So you know who your stakeholders were, you knew how to get things done quickly and at speed. And I think that's the one piece we have to keep remembering that we can keep preparing, but you still need to keep testing the system to ensure that it works in practice. But through it all I would say, you know, one of the things that Wellcome is taken away from SARS-CoV-2 is really the belief that we can't predict exactly what's going to come next when it comes to emerging infectious diseases. We have to keep that in mind, but actually the way to test the system time and time again, is dealing with the health priorities right now. So things like antimicrobial resistance. We know this has been a growing threat for many years. It's had some setbacks through SARS-CoV-2 and the pandemic, you know, we need to really re-energise the community to really take this seriously and to finance and to conduct the research that's required. But there are other threats that are, you know, common health issues, common infectious diseases that countries are dealing with, and we should be integrating the readiness, haemorrhagic fevers, viral fevers, other viruses, whatever it may be, into how we deal with those everyday infectious diseases.  MF  And what's the legacy been from an analytical point of view of the first few years for the period that is now known as peak COVID? Have we got that to draw on now because we're seeing the virus continuing to emerge? We're seeing potential threats from new variants and possibly other viruses.  JG  I don't think it's evenly applied across the globe on taking advantage of the systems. The approaches that were built up during SARS-CoV-2, some countries are able to maintain some of the resources that have been built or pivot into other health priorities. But that is a bit of a gap that we are seeing. I'll give an example of what I think is a great statistic, you know, for pathogen genomic sequencing and how that was used to track variants and making that as close to real time as you could find through the accelerator and diagnostics working group that mapped out the capacity in countries to be able to conduct pathogen genetic sequencing. And I think at the time, this is going back to 2022, that 77% of the world's countries were able to conduct sequencing when that's a massive game change for a tool that really wasn't a, partly an add on, into how you would do some of the epidemiological research at the beginning of outbreaks. So I think being able to pivot that tool and make sure that these types of facilities and the training and the expertise that people have built up over time can be sustained, working with those communities to be able to identify what are the real use cases for pathogens. And so I think, yes, some of it has probably not been evenly distributed, but we could always be doing more to be able to ensure we can better understand the variants as they come about, but also, what does it mean for a variant you know, how, what changes will that make, what impact will that have on our health?  MF  Hearing the UK with our partners, the UK health security agency, we are preparing, as you well know I'm sure, to run a further study going into the winter. What is the role of studies all like that? Are they uniform now across the world or this is not as similar surveillance programmes going on? Or do we remain a bit of a one off in doing this in the UK?  JG  I don't believe that this is evenly spread around the world. We ourselves at Wellcome had made a decision to continue funding our SARS-CoV-2 work on the genomics as well as the characterization of these variants as they come out. And what difference does it make in people who've been vaccinated or with other health conditions? We know when we've engaged with the research community across a variety of countries around the world, it ends up being very novel that this research has continued to happen. So I do think there is a gap, and it is becoming more challenging for public health institutes, WHO and others, to gather this information to understand are the vaccines still effective when we have these new variants, are they more transmissible, and other impacts that we would assess for those new variants. So I do think it's becoming more limited, and so of course, we need to make sure that the data we do generate is of high quality.  MF  The focus has been very much on COVID, but of course as we've seen historically and in other countries, other viruses have emerged and have serious public health consequences in those countries globally. What other emerging diseases do we need to have our eye on at the moment?  JG  Since SARS-CoV-2 really picked up we've had a global impacts event that affected you know, very select communities around the world, and is still ongoing, but not to the same level. We have the ongoing threat of avian influenza, we have El Nino upon us, which is likely to further impact the rates of cholera that we're going to see as well as impacting temperatures, so mosquito borne viruses and other types of arboviruses, potentially broader than that, so it is happening right now. I don't think we even need to sit back and think what it could be. And there are many events that we need to be preparing for. And particularly with something like El Nino as a particular weather event but thinking about the climate crisis. This is only going to grow we need to really collect the evidence now to understand what difference will it make what risks will it pose by experience, and geographical distribution further afield.  MF  Yes, can you unpack that a bit for us, because most people will be aware of El Nino as a meteorological phenomenon. How does that translate into public health impacts?  JG  The whole background and where we've been watching and waiting for more certainty and whether this was actually going to happen this year, but it's a very high, I think it's now greater than 90% certainty it's going to happen from this part of the year onwards, and and it will vary depending on where in the region it will impact you for droughts or flooding. And of course we need to better understand well, what impact would that have on cholera? Cholera is a prime example. While it's not directly linked to El Nino as it stands right now, we have seen such a change in the cholera distribution in Malawi being a great example where it's seeing rises in cases outside of the expected weather event. So you'd expect it in flooding season but you're seeing it more in dry seasons. So El Nino will make this worse potentially. It's being able to track it and understand the issue we have with events like El Nino is that we don't have enough information on it. We need to be better from a researcher's perspective, we need to just understand the researchers in those countries that are likely to be affected, their opportunity to gather as much evidence about the impact of El Nino so that when it comes around again, we'll be better able to apply what we've learned now.  MF  Without wishing to sensationalise, what do you think the risks are of another big global pandemic of the sought we saw with COVID-19?  JG I'm a virologist by training so I'm always thinking that viruses hold the opportunity for some of the greatest opportunity for change. I'm always hopeful that you know these risks like the SARS-CoV-2 are actually quite rare events, to see something take off and to be able to transmit that successfully to humans. We see there are many events where we have what people refer to as spillover events between animals to humans, but it takes quite a change and we don't fully understand what the change might be or why it adapts for people to be more susceptible. So I think it is a risk, it's a known risk even for SARS-CoV-2 which could change drastically. It's a very early stage in understanding this virus and how it operates. So I think we just have to be prepared, to be continually preparing, for the event that it could happen. I think influenza is the greatest one that it would be surprising if we didn't have a global event for influenza of some kind in the next few years. We've been preparing for this for quite some time.  MF  Is that the one that was anticipated then? Because if you look back historically, and this was the big comparison of course that was made with the COVID pandemic, it was so called Spanish flu wasn't it after the First World War, which was a huge global pandemic.  JG  Yes, it has been the one that we've always focused on. And if we look at the way that we've managed to monitor the change in the evolution of the virus, and to build the infrastructure globally, to be able to do the research and track that within laboratories and share information on that to help inform the vaccine production, which is very seasonal, influenza has changed every year. This is decades in the making. It's been ongoing for decades, and still, you know, we still have problems with making sure we have enough vaccine at the right time in the right supply to be accessible to all. So even for something that we know is likely to come we still struggle to get to that level of preparedness and it takes a lot of effort and time and it will continue, hopefully SARS-CoV-2 will help evolve those structures and I know a lot of the interest has been to combine, where we can, with coronaviruses respiratory like illnesses in the future to make it more efficient, but it's a big undertaking to really map out what you can do for a single pathogen. So, we have to work to see where we can build in those efficiencies across multi pathogen approaches.  MF  So one response and this is a project that you're working on with ONS and we're going to talk about now, and bring Joy in to explain to us, and that's the pandemic preparedness toolkit. The ONS is developing alongside Wellcome as I say, Joy, you're part of the team at ONS creating the toolkit just to take you from the very beginning, how did the ONS get involved in this and why is ONS well placed to facilitate this work?  JOY PREECE  Well, this was a proposal that we put together for Wellcome in the aftermath of, I think some of the early years of the pandemic response, and the of course well-known Coronavirus Infection Study (CIS) which I was part of, and I think what we really learned during COVID, the during big years, 2020 and 2021 in the UK, was how important really active data monitoring was when a disease is multiplying exponentially. That's really frightening stuff. You can't afford to just sit back and wait and see. So the key to any successful response has to be figuring things out like the reproduction number really, really quickly. You know, you needed to know how many people were affected, how fast infections were increasing, how the numbers of infections related to numbers of deaths, and we saw during COVID that it wasn't enough to just wait until people were already so ill that they were turning up in a healthcare setting in a hospital or you know, even worse kept to have systems that could be producing those kinds of statistical insights early from a community setting. And so that's the unique approach that ONS really took here. Linking up our statistical offices with the public health agencies and the decision makers. They're using our experience with surveys, with administrative data, with data modelling and data science, drawing on connections that we had with academics, with expert epidemiologists to try and get answers to those important questions as quickly as we could. And I think the unique thing that the ONS and other statistical offices around the world can bring to this is the very fact that we aren't part of the public health systems. So we bring here in ONS that expertise in a social research settings or community settings here, and you know, even apart from numbers of infections, there's topics like employment patterns, travel and tourism opinions and lifestyle habits, which tells you really important things about how people are interacting and behaving which gives you the ability to do some really, really clever modelling or things like disease communicability as that's kind of the background ONS brought to this from our experience during COVID. But, of course, we have experience as well supporting capacity building with overseas national statistical institutes.  MF  Now regular listeners to these podcasts will know we recently spoke to our colleagues in Ghana, about everything they're doing in partnership with our own, so there's countries like Ghana, who are very much part of this pandemic preparedness project as well.   JP  That's right. So what we are looking to do from the back of everything we learned in the UK is to go out and work with, initially we've identified that we want to be working with three different partner countries to co-create a toolkit that can be generalizable, and that can be accessed globally. And what's really important here is that it isn't about, oh, well here's a model that the UK used and therefore it's applicable to everybody because yes, we just heard from Josie that's not the case. Different countries have different contexts, different experiences of different diseases and have built different infrastructures and skills as a result. So what we really want to do is generate that pool of knowledge internationally and co-create a toolkit that allows countries, based on their unique context, to draw from it and we're talking here of practical guidance. Statistical Methods, knowledge products, case studies, training materials, really this is about capacity building to support that kind of infectious disease surveillance, but in a way that may look very different depending on the country's context. So it's about an international community of practice here.  MF  Well, that's why it's a toolkit. Not a template for how to deal with a pandemic.  JP  That's absolutely right. So we're thinking about this under I think, three headings. So data collection on one hand, statistics and modelling on another but crucially, also the relationship building between statistical producers and public health professionals, and that's really essential, because you want to help toolkit users build those relationships of trust between analysts and the public health decision makers that needs to be already there. It needs to be there as a fundamental before a crisis hits because otherwise the opportunities for that kind of productive collaboration that ONS was able to do during the COVID pandemic, just become so so limited.  MF  And it's about sharing of learnings as well, sharing of intelligence...  JP  No, absolutely, absolutely right. This is why I talk about it as a co-created toolkit. This is something that will be kind of jointly delivered in collaboration between ourselves and the three countries that we end up working with. We're going through a process right now to kind of identify volunteers and select countries that we'll work with, but also our first stage of that we are launching with a couple of kind of lessons learned workshops are where we're inviting statistical Institute's from around the world and a number of large international NGOs and experts in the field to come and talk about their experience of you know, disease surveillance of COVID and pandemic response and of other disease response. I start drawing out you know, what is there that we can find in common, what are there that are common challenges that have been common enablers to make your situation better, what is there that collectively we identify as the key criteria for a toolkit that will have the most value to the most countries.  MF  And Josie, from Wellcomes point of view, what are what are Wellcome's ambitions for this piece of work?  JG  We're very keen to understand how that toolkit can be of value to others, but also think through what is that epidemic preparedness model? So how would you apply it in the future to whatever that disease may be? So we never know maybe during the lifespan of this project, there will be opportunities for the countries to be able to test it out to see what works for them in in real time. I mean, I hope there's not another pandemic, but we have to just work on that assumption that as we go along, during this particular project, there could be something that might have to test it. But we'll see.  MF  There was of course much soul searching about the effectiveness of particularly early response to COVID in certainly this country, in the UK and in other Western countries. But, of course, looking back, and now we have the data, it was the global south that was disproportionately affected.  JG  It's fair to say, and I think there's still an unanswered question why some countries were affected more and some were less, and I think Joy has be very clear about the different contexts that countries operate in, but that includes also the populations as well and the other diseases they might have seen, what other health issues. I know, there's been less cases observed on the African continent and of course, that is down to the ability to test, but to a degree it is a different population structure that we're seeing. So yes, we want to make sure that these types of tools are equitably shared, and applied to whatever the health requirements are for their systems. And I think this is the exciting part of this project. And I guess my main kind of message that I repeat to everybody is the only way to prepare for a future pandemic or a future epidemic is simply to deal with the health issues that we have right now. So make sure that we're thinking about things like MMR, and thinking about the impact of climate and understanding better how it's changing the dynamics of infectious diseases such as mosquito borne, or other viruses or malaria, you know, the common issues that many countries are facing and just act now rather than just planning for something. I want to see some real tangible research and systems being built. I think that's why the ONS approach for this is important because it's about just getting on with it. And not just, you know, coming up with a theoretical model, it is actually working with the countries to see how you're going to apply it now. So we have to just keep focusing on that it could be tomorrow. So just get going.  JP  Well, and I would just say aye because I completely agree Josie because it's very easy to get caught up in talking about a pandemic response. But of course, a pandemic response, you can only draw on the resources that are already there. There is no time in a crisis situation to be developing things that are substantially new. So what we're really talking about when we talk about a pandemic preparation is about supporting improved health statistics for all sorts of purposes. You know, data and modelling and communicating and understanding the statistical insight and actually having that really good disease, that has a multiplier benefit for a whole range of health outcomes. Whether or not we see a pandemic tomorrow, we should be planning, even if it doesn't happen tomorrow. And I think that's the critical thing in this, this isn't a once in 100 years. This is an event that is happening on a daily basis, when people are catching diseases and communicating diseases on a daily basis, and providing improved tools to support that has a benefit even in the absence of a large-scale event.  MF  And that's it for this episode of Statistically Speaking, next time, as the end of the year approaches, we'll be joined once again by the UK's National Statistician. If you've got a question for us then please ask us via @ONSfocus on the ‘X' social media platform, or Twitter for us traditionalists.  Thanks to all of our guests today and our producer Julia Short. You can of course subscribe to new episodes of Statistically Speaking on Spotify, Apple podcasts and all other major platforms.  ENDS

Show notes and Transcript At long last it has happened. Andrew Bridgen MP (Reclaim Party) secured a debate on excess deaths in the UK Parliament.  Nearly twenty requests were turned down but Andrew simply would not give up.  His courage and determination to find out the truth won in the end.  Andrew gave a 25 minute presentation of all the data and facts which show a shocking rise in excess deaths since the covid jab rollout.  The fact that many people have died after receiving an injection appears to be the very reason every government wants total silence on this issue.  As you watch Andrew speak, be inspired to speak truth in the circles you find yourself in.  Use the information in the speech to arm yourself with the facts.  We now await a much longer 3 hour debate on excess deaths which Andrew is requesting. *This episode contains a background of the debate, the full speech by Andrew Bridgen MP, his message afterwards to the supporters gathered outside in Parliament Square and Peter catches a few words with the man himself. Andrew Bridgen  Member of Parliament for North West Leicestershire since 2010https://www.reclaimparty.co.uk/andrew-bridgen  Some Key Points Made During the Speech... - Ambulance calls for life-threatening emergencies ranged from a steady 2,000 calls per day until the vaccine rollout, from then it rose to 2,500 daily and calls have stayed at this level since.   - The surveillance systems designed to spot a safety problem have all flashed red, but no one's looking. - Payments for Personal Independent Payments (PIP) for people who have developed a disability and cannot work, have rocketed with the vaccine rollout and have continued to rise ever since. - The trial data showed that one in eight hundred injected people had a serious adverse event, meaning the risk of this was twice as high than the chance of preventing a Covid hospitalisation. - There were just over 14,000 excess deaths in the under 65-year-olds, before vaccination, from April 2020 to the end of March 2021. However, since that time there have been over 21,000 excess deaths in this age group alone. - There were nearly two extra deaths a day in the second half of 2021 among 15 – 19-year-old males,  but potentially even more if those referred to the coroner were fully included. Recorded 20.10.23 *Special thanks to Bosch Fawstin for recording our intro/outro on this podcast. Check out his art https://theboschfawstinstore.blogspot.com/ and follow him on GETTR https://gettr.com/user/BoschFawstin and Twitter https://twitter.com/TheBoschFawstin?s=20  To sign up for our weekly email, find our social media, podcasts, video, livestreaming platforms and more... https://heartsofoak.org/connect/ Support Hearts of Oak by purchasing one of our fancy T-Shirts.... https://heartsofoak.org/shop/ Please subscribe, like and share!   Subscribe now Transcript (Hearts of Oak) Hello, Hearts of Oak. Today we are here with Andrew Bridgen at a debate in Parliament, the first debate in this Parliament, on excess deaths. There's been very little debates, very little discussions on vaccine harms here. Of course, this is the issue that Andrew Bridgen MP was thrown out of the Conservative Party, the Tories, for beginning to raise the issue of vaccine harms and now raising the issue of excess deaths was simply is not discussed in this place. I've seen discussion in other parts of the world, especially Germany, with the AFD. But Andrew Bridgen has made this the hill that he will fight and die on. And he has been thrown out of the Conservative Party. He's lost that position he had for many years. Andrew Bridgen, of course, is one of the original Brexiteers, well known to any of us involved in the Brexit movement, in the UKIP movement. And Andrew has been fearless. He's one of those strange beasts in Westminster. He is led by conviction. He is led by courage and led by a desire to do what is right. And he had no desire to climb up the greasy pole. He's traditionally been a backbencher. So has stood his ground, kept his position as a lowly MP and not wanted to rise to the ministerial level, because that gives him the freedom to discuss what he wants. He's not held, he's not restricted by government restrictions, but he can say what he thinks and do what is right for his constituents, for those who vote for him, and realise that he is the servant of the people and he is not the servant of the government. So today there will be a debate led by Andrew Bridgen, I assume he will be one of maybe very few, one of one, who will actually speak on this. I'm really curious to see. I've seen a couple of Conservative, MPs who have touched on this, who have spoken a little bit about this, sometimes on GB News, but they have not gone as far as Andrew Bridgen. And Andrew Bridgen has gone this far. He has lost his job over it, and he doesn't care, because this is the right thing to do when a jab when an experimental vaccine, so-called vaccine, was rolled out and everyone was coerced and more or less forced to take it. Andrew was in that, he also took it, now regrets that and wants to keep raising the alarm on the ongoing effects of this and of course to challenge this government overreach that wants to force this upon everyone. This of course is a conservative government supposedly that stands up for freedom of speech, personal responsibility, rights, and yet all those traditional understandings of a conservative party have been completely upended and is no longer a party of freedom and liberty but is now a party of coercion and control. A number of MPs I assume will come in and speak after Andrew will present his position on excess deaths and ask the question, why is this? It seems to correlate to the rollout of the jab. You and I know that. We've seen the data. Andrew will be careful in how he puts it forward. He will use parliamentary language. He's skilled enough in this chamber to know what to say, what not to say, what connects with those in the chamber, and to win them over. Because ultimately, politics is about the art of persuasion. It is about winning the public over. And today, it is not necessarily the public is winning over, although you will watch the debate in a few moments, but actually is winning over MPs. And that also is crucial. Whatever you think, we still have 650 individuals and many of us mistrust absolutely, many of us detest. Many of us have had a traditional understanding of politics where there was a level of trust with our institutions and that included those in the building behind me. That is gone. I think for all of us, that is completely gone. And to have an individual who is a champion on the issue of curtailing that government overreach, asking questions, following the money, saying, was this just a push by big pharma for profits? Was this something darker? There are a whole load of areas we can go into, but Andrew has, wisely stayed within the areas he can understand. He has read papers, he has, understood them and he has presented those and I think he has been extremely wise on how far he has gone on this because it is a case of winning people over. That's what we have faced, all of us, over the last three years of winning friends, family, colleagues, connections over to persuade them that this is a dangerous experiment on not only the UK population but on the world population. We have a police car. I hope they don't want to arrest Andrew before his debate. I don't think even our government would do that, would they? Anyway, I will let you watch the debate, watch Andrew speaking, and then after I will try and catch up with a number of the people who have been here to support Andrew. I saw, Mike Yeadon earlier heading into the debate and I saw Matt Le Tissier earlier, I saw Fiona Hines earlier, I saw a big group of people who are here to support Andrew as he speaks truth and to let him know that he is not alone because it must feel very alone in that chamber. No one to back you, no one to support you and you feel as though you are a lonely voice crying out in the wilderness and yet. Many people have come to show Andrew that there are many people behind him who are indebted to him for actually speaking truth in this place and are standing with him shoulder-to-shoulder. So we'll hopefully talk to a few of those people after the debate. (Andrew Bridgen MP) Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. We've experienced more excess deaths since July 2021, than the whole of 2020. Unlike the pandemic, however, these deaths are not disproportionately of the old. In other words, the excessive deaths are striking down people in the prime of life. But no one seems to care. I fear history will not judge this House kindly. Worse still, in a country supposedly committed to free and frank exchange of views, it appears that no one cares that no one cares. Well, I care, Mr Deputy Speaker, and I credit those members here in attendance today who also care. And I'd also like to thank the Honourable Member for Lincoln for his support, and I'm, sorry that he couldn't attend today's debate. It's taken a lot of effort and more than 20 rejections to be allowed to raise this topic, But at last we're here to discuss the number of people dying. Nothing could be more serious. Numerous countries are currently gripped in a period of unexpected mortality, and no one wants to talk about it. It's quite normal for death numbers to fluctuate up and down by chance alone, but what we're seeing here is a pattern, repeated across countries, and the rise has not let up. I'll give way to my Honourable Gentleman.  (Phillip Davies MP) I'm very grateful and can I commend him for the tenacious way he's battled on this particular, issue. I certainly admire him for that. I just wonder where he found the media was in all of this, because of course during the Covid pandemic, every day, the media, particularly the BBC, couldn't wait to tell us how many people had died in that particular day without any context of those figures whatsoever. But they seem to have gone strangely quiet over these excess deaths now. (Andrew Bridgen MP) I thank the gentleman for his intervention. He's absolutely right. The media have let the British public down badly. There will be a full press pack going out to all media outlets following my speech with all the evidence to back up all the claims I'll make in that speech. But I don't doubt there'll be no mention of it in the mainstream media. You might think that a debate about excess deaths is going to be full of numbers. This speech does not have that many numbers because most of the important numbers have been kept hidden. Other data has been oddly presented in a distorted way, and concerned people seeking to highlight important findings and ask questions have found themselves inexplicably under attack. Before debating excess deaths, it's important to understand how excess death is determined. To understand if there is an excess, by definition you need to estimate how many deaths it would have been expected. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development used 2015-2019 as a baseline, and the Government's Office of Health Disparities and Improvement used its 2015-2019 baseline modelled to allow for ageing, and I've used that data here. Unforgivably, the Office of National Statistics have included deaths in 2021 as part of their baseline calculation for expected deaths, as if there was anything normal about the deaths in 2021. Exaggerating the number of deaths expected, the number of excess can be minimized. Why would the ONS want to do that? There's just too much that we don't know and it's not good enough Mr. Deputy Speaker. The ONS published promptly each week the number of deaths that were registered and while this is commendable it's not the data point that really matters. There's a total failure to collect, never mind publish, data on deaths that are referred for investigation to the coroner. Why does this matter? A referral means that it can be many months and, given the backlog, many years before a death is formally registered. Needing to investigate the cause of a death is fair enough. Failing to record when the death happened is not. Because of this problem, we actually have no idea how many people actually died in 2021. Even now, the problem is greatest for the younger age groups, where there's, a higher proportion of deaths are investigated. This date of failure is unacceptable. It must change. There's nothing in a coroner's report that can bring anyone back from the dead and those deaths should be reported. The youngest age groups are important not only because they should have their whole lives ahead of them. If there is a new cause of excess mortality across the board, it would not be noticed so much in the older cohorts because the extra deaths would be drowned out amongst the expected deaths. However, in the youngest cohorts, that is not the case. There were nearly two extra deaths a day in the second half of 2021 among 15 to 19 year old males, but potentially even more if those referred to the coroner were fully included. In a judicial review of the decision to vaccinate yet younger children, the ONS refused in court to give anonymised details about these deaths. They, admitted that the data they were withholding was statistically significant and I quote they said, the ONS recognises that more work could be undertaken to examine the mortality rates of young people in 2021 and intends to do so once more reliable data are available. How many more extra deaths in 15 to 19 year olds would it take to trigger such work? Surely the ONS should be desperately keen to investigate deaths in young men. Why else have an independent body charged with examining mortality data? Surely the ONS has a responsibility to collect data from the coroners to produce timely information? Let's move on to old people, because most deaths in the old are registered promptly and we do have a better feel for how many older people are dying. Deaths from dementia and Alzheimer's show what we ought to expect. There was a period of high mortality coinciding with COVID and lockdowns, but ever since there have been fewer deaths than expected. After a period of high mortality, we expect, and historically have seen, a period of low mortality because those who have sadly died cannot die again. Those whose deaths were slightly premature because of COVID and lockdowns, died earlier than they otherwise would have. This principle should hold true for every cause of death and every age group, but that's not what we're seeing. Even for the over 85-year-olds, according to the Office of Health Improvement and Disparities, there were 8,000 excess deaths, 4% above the expected levels, for the 12 months starting in July 2020. That includes all of the autumn 2020 wave of COVID, when we had tiering, the second lockdown, and it includes all of the first COVID winter. However, for the year starting July 2022, there have been over 18,000 excess deaths in this age group, 9% above expected levels, more than twice as many in a period when there should have been a deficit. And when deaths from diseases previously associated with old age were actually fewer than expected. Mr Deputy Speaker, I have raised my concerns around NG163 and the use of midazolam and morphine, which may have caused and may still be causing premature deaths in the vulnerable, but that is sadly a debate for another day. There were just over 14,000 excess deaths in the under 65-year-olds before vaccination from April 2020 to the end of March 2021. However, since that time there have been over 21,000 excess deaths, ignoring the registration delay problem, the majority, 58% of these deaths, were not attributed to Covid. We turned society upside down before vaccination for fear of excess deaths from Covid. Today we have substantially more excess deaths, and in younger people, and there's complete and eerie silence, Mr Deputy, Speaker. The evidence is unequivocal. There was a clear stepwise increase in mortality following the vaccine rollout. There was a reprieve in the winter of 2021-22 because there were fewer than expected respiratory deaths, but otherwise the excess has been incessantly at this high level. Ambulance data for England provides another clue. Ambulance calls for life-threatening emergencies were running at a steady 2,000 calls per day until the vaccine rollout. From then it rose to 2,500 daily and calls have stayed at this level since. The surveillance systems designed to spot a safety problem have all flashed red but no one's looking. Claims for personal independence payments for people who've developed a disability and cannot work rocketed with the vaccine rollout and it's, continued to rise ever since. The same was seen in the USA, also started with the vaccine rollout, not with Covid. A study to determine the vaccination status of a sample of such claimants, would be relatively quick and inexpensive to perform, yet nobody seems interested in ascertaining this vital information. Officials have chosen to turn a blind eye to this disturbing, irrefutable and frightening data, much like Nelson did, but for far less honourable reasons. He would be ashamed of us, Mr Deputy Speaker. Furthermore, data that has been used to sing the praises of the vaccines is deeply flawed. Only one COVID-related death was prevented in each of the initial major trials that led to authorisation of the vaccines and that is taking their data entirely at face value, whereas a growing number of inconsistencies and anomalies suggest we ought not to do this. Extrapolating from that means that between 15,000 and 20,000 people had to be injected to prevent a single death from COVID. To prevent a single COVID hospitalisation, over 1,500 people needed to be injected. The trial data showed that 1 in 800 injected people had a serious adverse event, meaning they were hospitalised or had a life-changing or life-threatening condition. The risk of this was twice as high as the chance of preventing a COVID hospitalisation. We're harming 1 in 800 people to supposedly save 1 in 20,000. This is madness. The strongest claims have too often been based on modelling carried out on the basis of flawed assumptions. Where observational studies have been carried out, researchers will correct, for age and comorbidities to make the vaccines look better. However, they never correct for socio-economic or ethnic differences that would make the vaccines look worse. This matters. For example, claims of high mortality in less vaccinated regions in the United States, took no account of the fact that this was the case before the vaccines were rolled out. That is why studies that claim to show the vaccines prevented Covid deaths also showed a marked effect of them preventing non-Covid deaths. The prevention of non-Covid deaths is always a statistical illusion and claims of preventing Covid deaths should not be assumed when that illusion has not been corrected for. And when it is corrected for, the claims of efficacy for the vaccines vanish with it. COVID disproportionately killed people from ethnic minorities and lower socioeconomic groups. During the 2020, during the pandemic, the deaths among the most deprived were up by 23%, compared to 17% for the least deprived. However, since 2022, the pattern has reversed, with 5% excess mortality amongst the most deprived, compared to 7% among the least deprived. These deaths are being caused by something different. In 2020, the excess was highest in the oldest cohorts and there were fewer than expected deaths amongst the younger age groups. But since 2022, the 50 to 64 year old cohort has had the highest excess mortality. Even the youngest age groups are now seeing substantial excess, with a 9% excess in the under 50s since 2022 compared to 5% now in the over 75 group. Despite London being a younger region, the excess in London is only 3%, whereas it is higher in every more heavily vaccinated region of the UK. It should be noted that London is famously the least vaccinated region in the UK by some margin. Studies comparing regions on a larger scale show the same thing. There are studies from the Netherlands, Germany and the whole world each showing that the highest mortality after vaccination was seen in the most heavily vaccinated regions. So we need to ask, what are people dying of? Since 2022, there has been 11% excess in ischemic heart disease deaths and a 16% excess in heart failure deaths. In meantime, cancer deaths, only 1% above expected levels, which is further evidence that it is not simply, some other factor that affects deaths across the board, such as a failing to account for an aging population or a failing NHS. In fact, the excess itself has a seasonality with a peak in the winter months. The fact it returns to baseline levels in summer is a further indication that this is not due to some statistical error or an ageing population alone. Dr Clare Craig from the Heart Group first highlighted a stepwise increase in cardiac arrest calls after the vaccine rollout in May 2021 and Heart have repeatedly raised concerns about the increase in cardiac deaths and they have every reason to be concerned. Four participants in the vaccine group of the Pfizer trial died from cardiac arrest compared to only one in the placebo group. Overall there were 21 deaths in the vaccine group up to March 2021 compared to 17 in the placebo group. And there are serious anomalies about the reporting of the deaths within this trial, with the deaths in the vaccine group taking much longer to report than those in the placebo group. And that's highly suggestive, Mr Deputy Speaker, of a significant bias in what was supposed to be a blinded trial. An Israeli study clearly showed an increase in cardiac hospital attendances, among 18 to 39 year olds that correlated with vaccination, not with COVID. There have now been several postmortem studies demonstrating a causal link between vaccination and coronary artery disease leading to death up to four months after the last dose. And we need to remember that the safety trial was cut short to only two months. So there's no evidence of any vaccine safety beyond that point. The decision to unblind the trials after two months and vaccinate the placebo group is nothing less than a public health scandal. Everyone involved failed in their duty to the truth. But no one cares, Mr Deputy Speaker. The one place that can help us understand exactly what caused this is Australia. Australia had almost no Covid when vaccines were first introduced, making them the perfect control group. The state of South Australia had only a thousand cases of Covid across its whole population by December 2021, before Omicron arrived. What was the impact of vaccination there? For 15 to 44 year olds there was historically 1,300 emergency cardiac presentations a month. With vaccine rollout in the under 50s this rocketed to 2,172 cases in November 2021 in this age group alone, a 67% more than usual. Overall there were 17,900 South Australians who had a cardiac emergency in 2021, compared to only 13,250 in 2018, a 35% increase. It is clearly the vaccine that must be the number one suspect in this and it cannot be dismissed as just a coincidence. Australian mortality overall has increased from early 2021 and the increase is due to cardiac deaths. These excess deaths are not due to an ageing population because there are fewer deaths in the diseases of old age. These deaths are not an effect of COVID because they've happened in places where COVID have not reached and they're not due to low statin prescriptions or under-treated hypertension, as Chris Whitty would suggest, because prescriptions did not change and in any effect would have taken many years and been very small. The prime suspect must be something that was introduced to the population as a whole, something novel. The prime hypothesis must be the experimental COVID-19 vaccines. The ONS published a data set of deaths by vaccinated and unvaccinated. At first glance, it appears to show that the vaccines are safe and effective. However, there were several huge problems with how they presented that data. One was that for the first three-week period after injection, the ONS claimed, there were only a tiny number of deaths. The number the ONS would normally predict to occur in a single week. Where were the deaths from the usual causes? When this was raised, the ONS claimed that the sickest people did not get vaccinated, and therefore people who were taking the vaccination were self-selecting for those least likely to die. Not only is this not the case in the real world, with even hospices heavily vaccinating their residents, but the ONS's own data showed that the proportion of sickest people was equal in the vaccinated and unvaccinated groups. This inevitably raises serious questions about the ONS's data presentation. There were so many problems with the methodology used by the ONS that the Statistics Regulator agreed that the ONS data could not be used to assess vaccine efficacy or safety. That tells you something about the ONS. Consequently, Hart asked the UK Health Security Agency to provide the data they had on people who had died and therefore needed to be removed from their vaccination dataset. This request has been repeatedly refused, with excuses given, including the false claim that anonymising this data will be equivalent to creating it even though there is case law that, anonymization is not considered creation of new data. Mr Deputy Speaker I believe if this data was released it would be damning. That so many lives have been saved by mass vaccination that any amount of harm, suffering and death caused by the vaccines is a price worth paying. They're delusional, Mr Deputy Speaker. The claim of 20 million lives saved is based on now discredited models which assume that Covid waves do not peak without intervention. There have been numerous waves globally that now demonstrate that is not the case, and it was also based on there having been more than half a million lives saved in the UK. That's more than the worst-case scenario predicted at the beginning of the pandemic. For the claim to have been true, the rate at which Covid killed people would have to have taken off dramatically at the beginning of 2021 in the absence of vaccination. This is ludicrous and it bears no relationship to the truth. In the real world, Australia, New Zealand and South Korea had a mortality rate of 400 deaths per million up to the summer of 2022, after they were first hit with Omicron. So how does that compare with the Wuhan strain? France and Europe as a whole had a mortality rate of under 400 deaths per million up to the summer of 2020. Australia, New Zealand and South Korea were all heavily vaccinated before infection. So tell me, where was the benefit? The UK had just over 800 deaths per million up to the summer of 2020. So twice as much. But we know that Omicron is half as deadly as the Wuhan variant. The death rates per million are the same before and after vaccination. So where was the benefits of vaccination? The regulators have failed in their duty to protect the public. They've allowed these novel products to skip crucial safety testing by letting them be described as vaccines. They've failed to insist on safety testing being done in the years since the first temporary emergency authorisation. Even now, no one can tell you how much spike protein is produced on vaccination and for how long. Yet another example of where there is no data for me to share with the House. And when it comes to properly recording deaths due to vaccination, the system's broken. Not a single doctor registered a death from a rare brain clot before doctors in Scandinavia forced the issue and the MHRA acknowledged the problem. Only then did these deaths start to be certified by doctors in the UK. It turns out that doctors were waiting for permission from the regulator and the regulators were waiting to be alerted by the doctors. This is a lethal circularity. Furthermore, coroners have written Regulation 28 reports highlighting deaths from vaccination to prevent further deaths, yet the MHRA said in a response to an FOI that they had not received any of them. The system we have in place is clearly not functioning to protect the public. The regulators also missed the fact that the Pfizer trial, in the Pfizer trial, the vaccine was made for the trial participants in a highly controlled environment, in stark contrast to the manufacturing process used for the public rollout, which was based on a completely different technology. And just over 200 participants were given the same product that was given to the public. But not only was the data from these people never compared to those in the trial for efficacy and safety, But the MHRA have admitted that they dropped the requirement to provide the data. That means there was never a trial on the Pfizer product that was actually rolled out to the public. And that product has never been compared to the product that was actually trialled. The vaccine mass production processes use vats of Escherichia coli and present a risk of contamination with DNA from the bacteria as well as bacterial cell walls which can, cause dangerous reactions. This is not theoretical, Mr Deputy Speaker, this is now sound evidence that has been replicated by several labs across the world, and the mRNA vaccines were contaminated by DNA which far exceeded the usual permissible levels. Given that this DNA is enclosed in the lipid nanoparticle delivery system, it is arguable that even the permissible levels have been far too high. These lipid nanoparticles are known to enter every organ of the body, as well as this potentially causing some of the acute adverse reactions seen, there is a serious risk that this foreign bacterial DNA is inserting itself into human DNA. Will anybody investigate? No, they won't. I'll give way on that point.  (Danny Kruger MP) I am conscious that time is tight. I recognise that the hon. Gentleman is making a very powerful case. Does he agree that the Government should be looking at this properly and should commission of review into the excess deaths, partly so that we can reassure our constituents that the case he's making is not in fact valid and that the vaccines have no cause behind these excess deaths. (Andrew Bridgen MP) I thank the Honourable Gentleman for his support on this topic and of course that is what exactly any responsible government should do. I wrote to the Prime Minister on the 7th August 2023 with all the evidence of this but sadly Mr Deputy Speaker I still await a response. What will it take to stop these products? Their complete failure to stop infection was not enough and we all know plenty of vaccinated people who have caught and spread Covid. The, mutation of the virus to a weaker variant, Omicron, that wasn't enough. The increasing evidence of the serious harms to those of us that were vaccinated. That's not enough. And now the cardiac deaths and the deaths of young people is apparently not enough either. It's high time these experimental vaccines were suspended and a full investigation into the harms they've caused initiated. History will be a harsh judge if we don't start using evidence-based medicine. We need to return to basic science, basic ethics immediately, which means listening to all voices and investigating all concerns. In conclusion, Mr Deputy Speaker, the experimental Covid-19 vaccines are not safe and they're not effective. Despite there only being limited interest in the chamber from colleagues, and I'm very grateful for those who have attended, we can see from the public gallery there is considerable public interest. I would implore all members of the House, present and those not. Support calls for a three-hour debate on this important issue. And Mr Deputy Speaker, this might be the first debate on excess deaths in our Parliament. Indeed, it might be the first debate on excess deaths in the world, but very sadly I promise you won't be the last. (Parliament Square Speech Andrew Bridgen MP) But without further ado let's welcome to the stage Mr Andrew Bridgen. Thank you ladies and gentlemen, thank you for coming down here to support the debate today, and thank you for supporting me and the cause. More? I just spoke for 25 minutes. Blood. It's been quite a week. Start of the week, get attacked from behind by a blunt instrument. But what an ending to this week. We have made history today. Nine months, more than 20 refused attempts to get a debate on excess deaths, the first debate on excess deaths in the UK, Parliament, the first proper debate on excess deaths in the world and I promise you, I absolutely promise you, it won't be the last. We will get a three hour debate in the next few weeks now on excess deaths. We've got two democracies under challenge all over the world. We're hanging over and using what we've got to make sure we get our message out there. On Tuesday next week I'm, I'm bringing in a bill, a ten minute rule motion, a bill called the Sovereignty and Referendums Bill. I'm going to put it to the House. That would stop, if we could bring that in, that would stop the WHO power grab of the people of the UK. I've been invited to speak as well next week on Zoom to some African political leaders, to try and persuade them to resist the WHO power grab, because it doesn't matter where we break this, we can break it in the UK, we can break it anywhere else in the world. This is a worldwide problem, an absolute assault on humanity, and we've all got to stick together. I've been an MP for nearly 14 years. I've given a lot of speeches in that chamber. That I was a bit nervous today because I knew there was never going to be a more important, speech I've ever given. I've never been in a more important speech than the one I was giving today. Can't you hear at the back? Turn up the PA. So, here we go. There was never going to be a more important speech than the one I was giving today, and, even after 14 years as an MP I was a little bit nervous standing up. But what really got me was, OK, there wasn't as many MPs in the chamber as I'd liked, but, the public gallery was full and the support from there was absolutely incredible. And they always say the politicians, that place over there, is in the Westminster bubble. We are going to burst the bubble in Westminster. Absolutely. Ultimately, my message to send you away with is that your determination, your cheerfulness, your resilience will deliver us victory. Thank you very much for coming today. (Hearts of Oak) Andrew, we've just been in on the debate on vaccine harms. Tell us about the process, because it's been a long, hard battle, which you talk about in the chamber. (Andrew Bridgen MP) Yeah, I've been putting in since January every week for a backbench business debate. That was refused. I've put in for a Westminster Hall debate on a weekly basis and I've put in for an adjournment debate. Eventually, after nine months and more than 20 rejections, we had the first debate on excess deaths in the UK Parliament. I think it's the first one in the world, but I promise you it won't be the last. I think the dozen or so MPs who attended today's debate, I'm hoping I'll be able to get a get them to sign up that we can have a three-hour debate well before Christmas and then it's going to grow from there because ultimately the data that I imparted in the chamber today, it's all backed up with the science. Every MP is going to be getting a copy of my Hansard speech and the full data pack of all the evidence that backs up everything I've said. There's no excuses now. So this goes to law because it's a no-brainer really to have these conversations because we've all seen excess deaths across Europe. Ask yourself in a democracy why don't they want to have a conversation about anything? I mean, I'm aware that in the Australian Senate four or five senators asked for a debate on excess deaths they ended up having a debate on whether you should have a debate on excess deaths and the consensus of the Australian Senate was they didn't want to have a debate on excess deaths. Well, I mean that's a red flag straight away, isn't it? (Hearts of Oak) Last question, I assume you believe that there are some MPs that can be won over, that public figures have kept quiet a further reputation, which you don't care about and you've walked away from the party. Tell us about those who you think you can possibly win over and then support you publicly on this. (Andrew Bridgen MP) Well certainly some of the ones that were there today, I know of some who weren't there today who will support calling for a much bigger debate on excess deaths. And ultimately it's the pressure of the electorate, the people, and you could see that although the House wasn't very full of members, the public gallery was full and that shows you that public opinion is they want this issue debated, they want to know what's gone on, and it's their right to have it happen. And that will become an irresistible force for politicians. That's how democracy works. (Hearts of Oak) Well, we've just had the debate in Parliament, a debate that I actually, to be honest, didn't think would happen. I thought that it would be stopped and held off. Only one member of 650 MPs in that place was willing to stand up and have this conversation, on vaccine arms as on excess deaths. He spoke for 24 minutes, presented everything in a measured calm manner, no emotion. One of the many things Andrew is great at, that he just lays it out gently, softly, step by step, that he doesn't raise the hyperball that maybe some others will rise to. And he laid it out in 24 minutes. And of course, the government's response is, Well, excess deaths are other factors, lifestyle factors, like smoking, like cholesterol, even fatty foods. So the government are blaming all the excess deaths over a period of a sudden spike in, smoking and a spike in eating fish and chips. That's what the government. Wow. Like ostriches with their heads in the sand. So Andrew presented his figures. The great thing is that we expect now there to be a much longer debate in Parliament. That was a short motion, a short debate, a 30 minute session. Andrew is hopeful that this can now go to a three hour fuller debate and that will be really interesting to see whether that gets tabled and whether it actually does go ahead and I would like to see other MPs backing Andrew and I think the more he speaks the more courage they will get. Andrew is someone with courage, with conviction, with a backbone, with a determination to speak truth and often, that is a rarity across there, it really is, really people want to, keep their heads down, they want to climb up the greasy pole and attain those higher levels of political achievement. So we obviously will watch this, follow Andrew. He is a hero. There's no one else in that Parliament across the way that's a hero like Andrew. And what else? I mean, it's the hill that he's chosen to die on. It's the hill that he has chosen to fight on. It's the hill that he has lost his career in the Conservative Party. And why? Because people are dying and no one is talking about it. What more important issue is there apart from life and death? And if something has been introduced and it's killing people, you need to look at it, you need to address, you need to understand it, to analyse it and then see what you do with that. So we have won here amongst 650. We will follow this and watch this closely as we see this move towards a fuller debate in Parliament and certainly my hope and prayer is that many other MPs stand up and speak, and that this happens across the world. We've seen a debate happening, I know, in the German Parliament with the AfD. I know we've seen debates happening in the Australian Parliament and the One Nation Party with Pauline and Malcolm are doing a fantastic job there. And here is one individual. Obviously, the Reclaim Party is behind Andrew Bridgen. He's a member of that of Lawrence Fox's party. And Andrew will continue to speak. And as he speaks, I believe that we will see ripple effects across the world because the world watches what happens here. This is called the mother of parliament and I believe that as Andrew continues to speak and continues to speak within this chamber that we will see other parliaments around the world address this issue. But this doesn't affect future debt, I mean, the damage is done, the deaths are happening. But at least you have to hold people to account. And for me, this is about justice. It's about honesty. It's about clarity. It is about truth, which is something that's been in short supply over the last couple of years during the COVID tyranny. So keep an eye on this space for Andrew to continue to push this. And when that longer three hour debate does happen, we will be here reporting on us and reporting on those who have come out to support Andrew today. Matt Le Tissier was here, Le God was in the chamber watching Andrew, Mike Yeadon was here speaking, Fiona Hine has done a great job in pulling people together. There is massive support and I think the parliamentarians in the government want individuals like Andrew Bridgton to feel they are alone, but they are not alone. They are backed by masses of the population and today was a small subset, of that, but Andrew knows he is not alone. Make sure and post this video, let others see what has happened here in the UK Parliament and have hope, because I think often that's also in short supply and I think what has happened today is a day of hope, is a day of reckoning and is a day of moving forward to actually presenting the truth and holding people to account.

And it's this time of the year again, when the RSE communities meet for their annual gathering. The UK RSE Society held its annual conference in the Welsh city of Swansea this year. And in this episode you'll hear from a range of different participants and presenters. Here they are in the following orderJamie Quinn (University College London and trustee of the Society until this year) https://www.ucl.ac.uk/advanced-research-computing/advanced-research-computing-centre Gael Varoquaux from Inria and Scikit-learn in France https://scikit-learn.org/stable/ Neil Chue Hong from the Software Sustainability Institute https://www.software.ac.uk Sarah Gibson from https://2i2c.org Hannah Williams from the UK Health Security Agency https://ukhsa.blog.gov.uk Rich Pitts from Oracle Research https://www.oracle.com/uk/research/ Milo Thurnston from https://fairsharing.org Becky Smith from the organising committee https://rsecon23.society-rse.org/conference-committee/ Presentations have been streamed and should be accessible soon.Support the Show.Thank you for listening and your ongoing support. It means the world to us! Support the show on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/codeforthought Get in touch: Email mailto:code4thought@proton.me UK RSE Slack (ukrse.slack.com): @code4thought or @piddie US RSE Slack (usrse.slack.com): @Peter Schmidt Mastadon: https://fosstodon.org/@code4thought or @code4thought@fosstodon.org LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pweschmidt/ (personal Profile)LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/codeforthought/ (Code for Thought Profile) This podcast is licensed under the Creative Commons Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

The UK Health Security Agency has announced plans to bring forward its autumn Covid-19 vaccination programme, and scale up testing and surveillance, after the emergence of the BA.2.86 variant. Madeleine Finlay and Ian Sample discuss where current infection rates stand, the characteristics of the new variant, and how prepared the UK is for a new wave. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/sciencepod

Professor Dame Jenny Harries, head of the UK Health Security Agency, helps unveil the new centre aimed at tackling pandemics by preventing ‘Disease X'.Plus, is artificial intelligence taking over Edinburgh Fringe? And even Zoom is sending staff back to the office. Also in this episode:Historic India Moon mission sends new photos of lunar surfaceA US study of the state of Michigan suggests areas with lower bird diversity ‘have more mental health hospital admissions' Study finds giant space ‘umbrella' tethered to asteroid could protect Earth from climate crisisUK man bitten by cat contracts previously unknown and ‘extensive' bacterial infectionMPs say devices such as baby monitors and smart speakers are enabling abuseZuckerberg 'not holding breath' over Musk cage fight Follow us on Twitter #TechScienceDaily Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Great to have Lewis Brackpool join us again to give us his honest appraisals on the talking points, news and from his social media this past week. Under the microscope this episode..... - ASOS has lost the plot. - Health officials admit to no evidence that face masks protected vulnerable from Covid. - mRNA vaccines delivered through food? - 'We're not antivaxxers... we have lost loved ones' - London Mayor Khan to face the High Court over ULEZ expansion as it is deemed 'unlawful'. - Biden Family European Vacation. - National Public Radio Denies Being National Or Public! - Elon Musk: 'Any parent or doctor who sterilizes a child before they are a consenting adult should go to prison for life'. - Albanian gangster granted anonymity after claiming asylum in the UK...... to protect his security! - Figures show just 215 of the 45,728 Channel migrants who arrived by small boat last year were deported from UK. Lewis Brackpool is an independent journalist, broadcaster, commentator and a reporter. His writing focus is politics, freedom of speech, news and current affairs. Here he discusses his journey into journalism. "I've been in the alternative media for a couple of years. I was previously with another company, a Canadian-based company called Rebel News. I started there after being made redundant from my previous job as a flight attendant - or a ‘trolley dolly' as they say! After that, I thought, ‘Right, I want to get back into politics'. I used to study it for a bit, but my views were completely different to what we were being taught back in the days of 6th Form, with all the programming that they were pushing on people, so I decided to make a YouTube channel. I did that for a year, built up some contacts, networked, really pushed out my viewpoint on various subjects, and then applied for a course to report on Rebel News." Lewis is a rare thing among journalists as he brings uncensored, unbiased and unique information all delivered in his own imitable style. Connect and support Lewis..... Substack: https://lewisbrackpool.substack.com/ GETTR: https://gettr.com/user/lewis_brackpool TWITTER: https://twitter.com/Lewis_Brackpool?s=20&t=ugH3aHz8n6Su4agPZJouqQ TELEGRAM: https://t.me/lewisbrackpool Originally broadcast live 15.4.23 *Special thanks to Bosch Fawstin for recording our intro/outro on this podcast. Check out his art https://theboschfawstinstore.blogspot.com/ and follow him on GETTR https://gettr.com/user/BoschFawstin and Twitter https://twitter.com/TheBoschFawstin?s=20  To sign up for our weekly email, find our social media, podcasts, video, livestreaming platforms and more https://heartsofoak.org/connect/ Links to topics discussed this episode.... https://rumble.com/v2ifa6e-the-week-according-to-.-.-.-lewis-brackpool.html Transcript [0:22] Tonight is absolutely wonderful to have Lewis Brackpool back with us again. Lewis, thank you so much.   Thank you, Peter. It's great to be back on. Good to have you. And of course, there is Lewis's handle on Twitter. Make sure and follow him. And I believe you've launched recently a sub stack. Tell us what people can find on that and why they should subscribe to your sub stack, Lewis. This is my little pitch. Basically, I love news. I love news, current affairs, very anti-globalist, NWO, all of that stuff. So I like to keep up to date with what's going on and if I see something, I'll probably write about it. So if you subscribe, I'm very new to it. I've only been doing it for two days so I've only got two articles but I try and keep it all up to date. And on Monday, I think we've got a couple of articles coming out or say we, just me and put in your email and you get it straight to your inbox and I'll try and be as out there with the news as possible. So yeah. [1:19] You know what it's like once you start in the treadmill, Lewis, you can't stop. You get that, don't you?   It's addictive. I love it. It's great. Make sure and subscribe to that. I catch Lewis's wisdom and hassle him if he doesn't give you one a day. We'll leave it at that, add to his stress levels. So much, most of them we've pulled from Lewis's Twitter account. Some of them we put up, but it's a good mixture. So let's start off with the first one, which is not as disturbing as Sam Smith, but still is, I think that's the level of disturbing we want. This is ASOS. [1:58] And I told you, do you want to, do you want to say on this, because it is quite a disturbing picture to start with, Lewis. [2:06] Well, this is ASOS. This is a clothing company that of course sells lots and lots of different products from Adidas to Fred Perry to other things. I used to shop at ASOS but they've gone in a quite different direction as you can see. Is this not your usual attire?   This is not my usual attire, no. Absolutely not. I'm not on the weekends either. So this is not a bit of me personally. So yeah, I don't know what this market is for now or what this site ASOS or who it's for now. So I don't know. It's very, very odd. I saw that I keep getting sent now ASOS clothings and saying, have you seen that? Have you seen that? After I posted that one and I'm like, right, well, I don't want this all filled up my timeline now, but I think I sort of dug my own grave there with that one. [3:03] But yeah, I don't know what sort of direction ASOS is going in, but they have clearly lost the plot, like I said. Obviously there are Sam Smith videos, obviously the Bud Light stuff. I mean, there seems to be no end. And you think when you go, I mean, I find it difficult now when some of the sites don't actually have male or female. I just want to click on the male section. You reduce it down by 90%. And it's simple. I want something for my top half, my bottom half to put on my feet. I just want it simple. now you have to navigate some weird, and this now just adds to it, because if that's not in the men's clothing section, I am gonna be really confused. [3:42] Yeah, absolutely. I think they're confused where they're pushing that product out. I mean, I don't know. I don't know. It's sort of all a bit topsy-turvy at the minute with that sort of stuff. Fashion has gone like a sort of a weird direction. It used to be punk, you know, used to be like this anti-establishment sort of thing to wear something really quirky. I mean, you look back at like the Sex Pistols, people like that, and they used to dress really outlandishly. But now it's come to a point where... That's not anti-establishment. Anti-establishment is dressing like a Christian or like a traditionalist. So yeah, it's strange how things have changed over the years. Maybe I'm thinking this could be your premium bit on your sub stack. You could actually, weekly, you could dress up in something different. Just a thought, Lewis, I don't know. I don't know, just helping you out. [4:36] Yeah, I had to get a good subscription model for that one.   Moving swiftly on, we will move on to COVID. Thankfully, we're not streaming on YouTube. This is fascinating from The Telegraph. No evidence face masks protected vulnerable from COVID, health officials say. This is a report, they did all these studies, and The Telegraph reported on children and the impact on them. And now they've just done wider and critics, critics, well, the Telegraph was not a critic sadly, it was applauding what the government did, but critics say authorities are failing to prepare for any future pandemic by not examining the effectiveness of masks. It's an interesting mix that are talking about future pandemics, talking about this. [5:35] But yeah, what are your thoughts? there seems to be drip drip the truth slowly coming out. Well this is exactly it. This is exactly what I was saying the other day. I was speaking to friends about this particular article and I actually reposted it and it's typical. We know that this wasn't going to come out very very early on because you know what would have happened if it did come out very very early on. People would just not comply and this is what the government, this is what the state or the establishment want to do if they implement something they want you to follow it, they want you to obey it, they want you to be obedient to it and if you continue to push out conflicting, messages to the establishment then of course people aren't gonna buy it and it's so funny how this is slowly starting to unravel. [6:29] I don't want to get into the whole, oh, we told you so, because that's not going to, that's not going to change. Go on, go on. I want to say it. I know I want to say that I told you so line. It's so easy to say. But it's now at a point where you have to question everything. You have to absolutely question what the mainstream media are putting out. Even the Telegraph. I mean, that, for example, is so conflicting. You've got the heading just basically saying it outright. No evidence that masks work and then under underneath it's like, oh, but they're failing for to, look at the evidence of masks for future pandemics doesn't make sense. So I don't know if there's a ghost writer there. I don't know if someone higher up to this writer is over the shoulder and saying, right, make sure you put that. So all the conspiracy theorists don't jump on quote unquote. It's typical. It's absolutely typical and weirdly not surprising at the same time. There, just want to touch, there was, let me, let me look, do I, yes I do have it on my screen. It says here, however, this is a review, UK Health Security Agency. They said, the report was unable to find a single piece of scientific research which had usable data. And I guess if us minions mentioned that on YouTube, we'd get a strike immediately. [7:55] The Rapid Review looked at 4,371 studies specifically about COVID, but there was none that examined the effectiveness of N95 or equivalent masks. [8:10] It beggars belief that after destroying people's lives, telling them this would work, that there actually is zero evidence. 4,000 surveys are, and there is no evidence that it worked. Then it kind of. Does make you angry doesn't it?   Of course, absolutely and it makes you, it makes people like us angrier I think because we were shouting from the rooftops about this and we were telling people don't do it. [8:40] And then people would give you almost evils on public transport if you use public transport a lot and you didn't wear a mask and you refused to comply and I still got a good friend of mine Nazarin Veronica has been standing up to when she goes to the NHS or use the NHS in hospitals and, doctors appointments, even not just for herself, but for moral support for friends. She's always been approached by people saying you must wear a mask, you must wear a mask. Yet the evidence is so contradictory and has been since the beginning. And all these altercations that you look back you just think what was what was the point what was the point of it all and it is frustrating it's very very frustrating I just, I don't expect to see that on the BBC put it that way and I don't expect that they will put stories out like that because they're so worried that the truth will start to unravel even more, that people [9:44] are just gonna turn around and say well, what else have you lied about and then the rabbit hole begins You know and that's what happened to a lot of us that certainly happened to me, You know when you look back Trump being one for many other things and lots of different media smears and things like that, That's another example Brexit, Lots and lots of different subjects. So I don't know. I don't know. It's it's I don't know It's a very, very odd one, but I understand the frustration. Just got to stay focused and keep shouting from the rooftop still. Yeah. Well, let's on the Covid, actually, let me just pull in. There is Gareth 1965, Ian Peter Lewis, Charlotte, Baroness of Burnley. Great to have you with us, Charlotte, from little Airbnb cottage in the middle of nowhere. How lovely. [10:35] So do there is Julie X. Do drop your comments in. I will try and pull them in, but not get pulled away. This, ProJam, can you play? Can you play that video, actually? Don't do it full screen. Just don't do it full screen. (plays video audio) Medicago's manufacturing facility looks like a nursery, but inside these plants, they're growing a new kind of vaccine. The technology is called a virus-like particle. At Medicago, we use a careful step-by-step process to develop vaccines, using our plants as mini bioreactors. We start with the gene sequence, or code, of a virus. We then use our technology to synthesize the virus code into a real biological product. The code contains genetic instructions that our plants can read, and we insert it into bacteria called agrobacterium tunfaciens. We submerge the plants in a bath with the bacteria that carries the information into the plant cells. And using a vacuum, we suck out the air between the plant cells and replace it with the liquid. The plants absorb it like a sponge. [11:48] At the end of their bacterial bath, we return our plants to a carefully controlled greenhouse to let them get on with their natural growing business for at least four days. Now the plants will start producing the most important ingredient of our vaccines, virus-like particles. [12:05] So that was Darren of Plymouth. And it's obviously we've been encouraged, coaxed, forced in some countries to to get an experimental jab. It's I guess it is. I remember seeing a story about mosquitoes being used to deliver genetic modified mosquitoes. And I guess another step is in the food. and there you see it because you've got GM food, I guess. So it does seem to be the next step. And then it's wonderful that we can all get fighters, drugs directly into our food supply. What could be better? Well, exactly. And I read as well that China have managed to get it in cow's milk, I believe. So that was extraordinary to read. I mean, is it any wonder that the Dutch farmers are going through such a struggle at the minute with their government? Because whoever controls the food supply can control the people really considering that they are the second largest [13:07] agricultural exporter of foods and goods, so, Is it any wonder that this sort of stuff is really being accelerated in in this time and do you know what since 2020 and possibly even before 2020, we're seeing now this acceleration of all of this, whether it be GMOs, whether it be mRNA, whether it be all of these types of, pushes from whether it be the World Economic Forum or all of these different UN based, partnerships that are really pushing out ways in which [13:44] our lives are going to change, our lifestyles are going to change in different ways from food to societal to economics it's all just completely changing so it's scary it's really actually scary, if someone was to ask me how do you push back against this I mean the most I can think of is read read the labels and what you're, what you're eating and consuming and drinking that's that's kind of the only sort of sensible thing, same with the bug narrative that we're seeing as well, where insects, I think the European Union secretly, or I say secretly, they said it very quietly. They put a bill through that they can put insect products within food, within certain European countries. I need to fact check myself on that one. But I believe the bill was passed through not so long ago and that's all fine now apparently and everyone's forgotten about it. So I think people need to really [14:48] just be aware of what you're eating and drinking now and yeah, just be mindful, I think is the only sensible answer to that is. I think we have moved away from a trust in our authorities to actually questioning and that does go into food, which is another step. But yeah, completely. This was a fascinating story. This is about the, obviously the anti-vaxxer line is one that is used against us all. And this is from the Daily Mail, we're not anti-vaxxers, we have lost loved ones. Widower of BBC presenter who died from COVID-19 vaccine complications launches legal action against AstraZeneca on 75 people whose relatives passed away or suffered jab related injuries. Now to me it's intriguing that someone who has died and that link to the BBC, that's what's kind of intriguing on this and I'm thinking that will get a little bit more traction. But of course these are similar stories we see regularly with people dying sudden adult death syndrome, whatever it's called. [16:09] But this seems to be directly linked to the jab AstraZeneca. But what are your, thoughts on this? I mean, the massive difficulty of anyone getting justice, I guess, in this area. Well, absolutely. And this is unfortunately going to be, well, to put it politely, very very politely. It's a rude awakening almost to the damage and the misery that this this MRNA shot has actually caused to millions and millions of people. [16:46] It's, we're seeing this all the time now and that's I here's the thing Peter like when when people were sceptical to start with, this wasn't out of points or trying to be right if this was out of no, there's genuine concern here. And, now it's to the point where you know when you're called a conspiracy theorist. I wish I was, I wish it was a conspiracy theory, I'm going to put that out there. I wish it was a conspiracy theory and that it's not actually happening and you can't attribute. But it is. It is. It's real. It's happening to ordinary people. And hearing stories of widowers, of people who have lost sons, daughters, family, friends, whether it be vaccine injured or even worse. [17:42] I mean, you just, you think how long until people start to recognize what is going on. And it makes me sick that like the athletes just suddenly collapsing and anything but is the quote, is anything but, but we need to start opening up investigations. We need to start having some accountability and having some justice for these people. It's not about point scoring politically. It's not about left or right or anything of the sort. It's about people's lives. So people need justice. People deserve justice. And we need answers as well. We need them now. We don't need them tomorrow. We need them now. [18:28] No, exactly. And this is, let me bring up the picture. So there's, Gareth Eve says he has no alternative but to pursue legal action against AstraZeneca after his wife, BBC Radio Newcastle presenter, Lisa Shaw, died from coronavirus vaccine complications. I guess if only the Daily Mail, the Telegraph and others were actually giving a word of caution at the beginning because it's strange, they publish this story, but the Daily Mail are complicit in the deaths of many people in the side effects and harms of many people because they told people get this or else you'll kill your granny. They were pushing the government narrative. Exactly, exactly. And you know, there's so many, there are so many people that, I'm gonna say it, there's so many people that have blood on their hands because of this. There really is. And like I just said, I'm gonna echo what I just said. There needs to be accountability. There needs to be justice. Because if you are complicit in covering up this horrific crime is what it is. It's a crime. [19:44] You have so much blood on your hands if you are complicit within this. Telling people the truth shouldn't be a difficulty when it comes to this because it's people's lives. So I hope he receives justice for his wife. I really, really do. And I'll be praying for that. Yeah. Well, move on. But just I saw someone actually had a business card and they gave it to me and said conspiracy without the theory. Just a flight back, conspiracy, just looked it up, a secret agreement made between two or more people or groups to do something bad or illegal that will harm someone else. And that seems to be what has happened with the drug companies in a rush for profit and power and control of that market, to gain a foothold that they were willing to push a product that was not tested in any shape or form. Remember, most vaccines go through a 10, 12 year testing period and doesn't matter what miracle you do, doesn't matter how much money you throw at it, you don't get a vaccine in six to nine months, which is what happened. It is impossible. But yeah, that's anyway, we'll [20:55] move on to your Substack article. Sadiq Khan, for those of us, sadly, who live in London and are forced to endure this madman as our mayor, I worked in City Hall for years, sadly, didn't really see him. I guess he's actually he's so short you probably would miss him. I missed the Boris days which at least would have been good fun. But this is Sadiq Khan to face a high court over ULEZ expansion deemed unlawful. The Mayor of London is facing a high court challenge after his expansion of the ultra low emission zones. So tell us about this and this obviously gives the viewers a flavour of what they'll get in your sub stack Lewis.   Absolutely, so finally some good news for a start, which is great someone being held accountable for something at least but I believe some, conservative councils and Peers have gotten together and said actually this is deemed unlawful and a judge has actually come out and said in a high court that this [22:03] expansion of you les is of course is deemed completely unlawful and they're actually going to be taking legal challenge against Sadiq Khan, which is great news. ULEZ being ultra low emission zones, we know a little bit about that, introduced by Boris Johnson and then expanded by Sadiq Khan. So we must remember that Boris Johnson is also held accountable for ULEZ or the concept of ULEZ in itself. That being that you have to register with the DVLA your vehicle under certain standards, weirdly European standards, even though we've left the EU, quote unquote, weird. [22:46] But this expansion zone is hurting low income Londoners, it's hurting people who want to drive and have been driving for years, it's hurting a vast majority of Londoners because of this charge. I believe it's £12.50 a day or can be up to £180 per day if you haven't met your DVLA standards or your low emission standards, I think is what they call it. So finally, some accountability. It's deemed unlawful. We've been seeing the protests recently. There was one today as well in London and stop the ULEZ expansion because it's it's set to be done in August I believe this year, please fact-check me on that. [23:35] So this is great so obviously more more to follow but at least there is a there's a start in some accountability   Yep, and of course this is a tax on, I mean we've, we just had to get a new car, I said new car, there's no way [23:56] many people can buy a new car. So we got a car a couple of years old and even it's difficult getting second hand, but it's that punishment on individuals because they can't afford a brand new car, they cannot afford an electric car, they can't afford the latest Tesla, and simply to get a new car is 15,000 plus, generally 20,000 plus, and cars have gone up, because simply just us looking at it, gone up by what 40% in the last three years. And it is, of course, Sadiq Khan looking down at those who actually are lower middle class and not in that upper class bracket and can't just splash the cash on 25,000 for a new car. Yeah, absolutely. and all these people that claim to be for the working class or for the lower income Londoners, it's all baloney. It's all smokescreen. Climate change, this climate change agenda is all going to hurt the people with low incomes the most. Net zero and of course Agenda 2030, that's all going to hurt people with lower incomes the most. I mean, remember as well, Boris Johnson, when he was in power, he turned around and introduced by 2030, diesel and petrol engine vehicles are to be banned. [25:17] And I believe that still stands, if I'm correct. And this is all part, I hate to say it, but it's all part of a bigger agenda here. It's the idea of you shouldn't be able to own a vehicle or a petrol and diesel vehicle, it's something that's electric that can be controlled in the long term. [25:41] It will be put up onto this type of grid almost that can be switched on and off. I mean, we're now getting cars that you don't even have to drive yourself. You can have it drive for you. So it would drive you straight to the police station if you've made a hate crime. So, you know, how convenient.   No, exactly. Paul Lee on Facebook says it's not the, says the tax on the poor, it is. But it's also, it's funny whenever you comment to the people with their new electric car and you say, oh, so you're racist, are you? You must hate African children working as slaves to mine products for your battery. They accept that. They love their children in Africa, in those mines, killing themselves so they can drive their latest electric car. And it's pathetic, but yet some like ULEZ or some like me, we would be the ones with the hate crime, not them for killing these children in Africa. [26:46] Well, it's sad really. I've looked into the cobalt mining in I believe, I want to say the Congo, I believe it's in the Congo. Yeah, and there are some images coming out there that's absolutely shocking of children as young as six and seven, because they've got small hands, they can easily go into the to the mining sort of hole of where they're digging and they can bring out all the minerals. I mean, it's sad. It's very, very sad. And this is this. Well, this is it. You've got people now who love to virtue signal, love to go out and say on [27:31] their high horse that I'm doing the bit for the climate. I'm getting my electric car. I'm not participating in petrol or diesel. I'm not watching Formula One. I'm boycotting Formula One. I'm in Formula Two because of course it's all electric and I'm doing my bit for the environment. But they haven't worked out the concept of human life that's actually sacrificed themselves to bring that mineral to them. And listen, I'm not going around saying that I'm self-righteous and that I'm virtue, virtue signalling with the idea of the climate agenda. You know, I have a phone here that's probably got minerals that have done all sorts, I've got clothes, maybe that's I don't know. There's so many brands out there that have have their ways of getting their clothes here. [28:30] I'm not going around saying that I'm doing this for a greater cause and I'm this self-righteous person, but the fact that they're turning around saying they are and it's your fault, Peter, and it's my fault, Lewis, and everyone else who's watching the stream, it's your fault for not adapting to this electric car Tesla stuff, then you're of course a bad person. You're an awful person for not doing that. It's sad. It's sad to watch. It's sad to watch the circle come back round. It really is. And just leave you the picture. I quickly did a Google check and this is from the Financial Times. So maybe they need to put a picture like that up at every dealership that does electric cars. So we all make our choices. And if we want that choice, then we make it. But at least people should make it with open eyes. Moving on to [29:32] Biden, the former Vice President Joe Biden, who masquerades as the President of the United States. And this is from the Daily Mail, shamelessly parading his disgraced son, taking selfies with accused terrorists and insulting America's allies. It's all in a day's work for our declining President on his corrupt Biden family European vacation. Of course, this is his trip to Northern Ireland and then the Republic of Ireland along with Hunter Biden, who the book is behind me there. We had Miranda Devine on with us on Monday I think it was, unpacking the laptop from hell. And it's, I mean it's interesting seeing because obviously the media did everything to attack Trump and Biden was supposedly the one that the media and the people wanted and now they're turning on because they realise he's sadly a decrepit individual who'd be much better in a nursing home. But what were your thoughts Lewis from watching Biden arrive in Northern Ireland, seeing I think he saw Sunak for like an hour over a coffee and then went on in the Republic? [30:46] Yeah I've heard that Biden's lineage to Ireland stems back as far back as the 1800s. So he's as much Irish as I am German, basically. So the idea that he's parading around saying he's Irish, I mean, we saw, you've seen that clip of him when he was interviewed by the BBC and he said, oh, BBC, well, I'm Irish. Yeah. The way, you saw that? He's as much Irish as I am German. Like, it's just not, it's so far beyond, like you can't say that he is pretty much. But his lineage stems back so far there. I saw, of course, the the selfie with Gerry Adams in Ireland. And I mean, it's terrible. It's absolutely terrible. I think you're, I would say, Peter, you're more equipped to talk about this sort of subject, I would say. [31:47] But for me, seeing it, I mean, we know that Biden's pretty anti-British. We've seen that over the years, we've seen the clips, the little jibes he does. The relationship between America and the UK still stays strong between people who respect the constitution, respect Britain equally. But in terms of, well, in terms of relation or foreign relations between governments, I mean, that's going to put a spanner in the works, a massive, massive spanner in the works. So I don't know what he was thinking by that   Sadly I don't think he was thinking much. Even his aides weren't thinking, you know, the people that have been basically taking care of him for the his entire presidency. I don't know what they were thinking. I don't know if they'd done a Wikipedia search on, Jerry Adams and only saw that his only controversy was a 2016 tweet, nothing else mentioned, but you know, we know what Wikipedia is all about and who's funding that. So yeah, it's absolutely shocking. But... What are your thoughts Peter actually, because I've yet to have a chat with you about this whole [33:08] Biden visit as well.   Well, I mean I'm still fixated more on Hunter Biden and everything on that side. And again, just because I've just read the book, but obviously going down every, being over the States so much in the last year and everyone tells you how Irish they are, or how English they are, and they know their history better than anyone in Ireland knows theirs. And I'll, you know, give it to you, there's always been a good relationship between Ireland and the US and traditionally between the UK and across there. So if Biden wants to come over, stand in front of an Irish flag, lick an ice cream from some Irish ice cream parlor, then fair enough. And I guess this is all about electioneering. I mean, you never stop campaigning. And he needs a hell of a miracle or Dominion voting machines to help him win in the next election. So I guess that's a tick because he has no intention of visiting the rest of the UK, the mainland, coming over to England, coming over to London. You'd think he would actually take a trip over and visit the UK. [34:16] The fifth most important country in the world economically, but he sticks with Ireland simply because of electioneering. And a picture with Gerry Adams, I guess, helps him in that Democrat [34:27] supporter base. Who cares how many people you blow up and shoot dead? And that's irrelevant. It's about getting votes to him. And he probably doesn't have any clue. He probably doesn't know where he is, dear love. That's the sad part of it, that it's those around him. It's his wife, Dr. Jill, who actually is tormenting her husband simply because she wants to be in that position a first lady. To me, that's the whole sad part of it. Yeah, absolutely. I completely agree with you. And it's more sad now, I think. I think because at first it was quite funny, you know, hearing all the gaffes and, you know, the silly takes, but it's actually sad. I watched Trump's interview with Carlson and they speak a little bit about that and the fact that he turns around says it's actually really sad and he's correct it is sad because you're watching, you're watching a man I believe he's in his 80s there are 90 year olds that are sharper than that very very sharp and you've got this guy who's going through I don't know if they're episodes I don't know what they are but it's it's some form of, dementia or deliriousness within Biden's cognitive ability to string sentences and think fast and think on his feet. [35:53] So I don't know, it's sad to go back to the point, it's really really sad to watch. And then look at Trump, someone who's actually the most active someone of his age you'll come across, has that fight in him but no completely. Let's move over to Twitter. This was a great piece in the Babylon Bee, which I'm getting to love more and more. [36:23] And their story was, "'National Public Radio' denies being nationalist or public. "'National Public Radio,' NPR, a government-supported news organization, is vehemently denying slanderous accusations that they are national and public. This false, libelous, scandalous, sickening, spurious claim that NPR is a shameful misrepresentation the facts spread by Nazi white supremacists like Elon Musk's at NPR. And obviously this is the issue of Twitter tagging a government or news organizations run by as a state media of tagging them as government media organizations and I think there was, let me, it was the BBC actually, they complained and actually that has now changed. Let me just show you this, just to show how Twitter have actually backed [37:20] down, which I hadn't realized until I delved into this. Let me just show you the BBC's Twitter account at the moment. And there you go. It is now a publicly funded media, no longer government funded media. So yeah, this I guess Elon Musk will argue he just wants to make it more transparent and I guess the BBC and government media don't necessarily want to be transparent because it won't sound like they're the media of the people. But what were your thoughts on this [37:54] Twitter spat.   Well, what's funny is changing it to publicly funded media. It's like, yeah, without a choice. You know what I mean? It's not a charity, you know. So really, it should go back to state media. So that's more accurate because of course, for Americans that watch us, I mean, explaining about the television license fee is baffling to an American or a Canadian or whoever that's watching that's not from the UK. The idea that we have to pay each month and that covers the BBC and our tax to actually watch television. It's insane. So yeah, the spat was extremely funny to watch. It was very amusing, especially with the interview between Musk and the reporter. It was great. It was a great bit of entertainment, better than anything the BBC have done in years. So you know, fair play to that. Of course, you know my view, I'm still a bit weary of Musk personally. I'm still, I don't really trust him, if I'm totally honest, because the idea of someone putting chips in people's brains, I mean, that's not a normal thing to want to sort of pursue. And we know about AI and how that's sort of encroaching into everyday life and he wants to accelerate that. So I'm not sure about that. But in this particular context. [39:19] This particular story, I mean, fair play. That was quality entertainment. And I think he was right to go and make sure that other platforms such as the BBC and stuff are made as state-affiliated media and things like that, because they've done it to the Russian, RT. [39:39] They've done that for a while. I mean, they even made George Galloway, a Russian sort of affiliated person just because of what he was doing with Sputnik at one point. It's unbelievable. So for him to do that and then for them to complain and have a meltdown over it was extremely entertaining. So good work is what I would say. It was. And on the sidebar, we've got Joe Allen on a Monday, who's War Room's humanist editor, technology editor, transhuman. [40:12] And so he joins us on Monday and we delve deeper into that, looking at some of the people behind it. And you're right, I appreciate what Musk has done, but I'm extremely wary. And this, actually let me break, this is another story on Musk. And it really, obviously he's a complex character. I get that. He's a businessman that's massively successful, But this was looking at what's happening in Florida with DeSantis obviously coming down or restricting the right for children to have bits chopped off them and to be injected with hormones and to start that crazy idea that actually you can be a different gender today. And Musk's comment was, any parent or doctor who sterilizes a child before they are a consenting adult should go to prison for life. I just thought it was a [41:06] fast, and I'm intrigued by his engagement in the culture wars, although 100% with you, I, the whole AI stuff frightens me to the nth degree, but it's interesting him jumping in on the whole trans debate. Yeah, absolutely. And when was it that a common sense sort of point became controversial? I mean, you can already see someone there, the top comment, why? What do you mean why? I know. I mean, what, you like the idea of sterilizing children? I mean, are you nuts? Yeah, it's unbelievable that a common sense sort of argument like calling for peace in between Ukraine and Russia is considered an awful view. That's considered controversial. What is going on? So it's fascinating to watch. I mean, yeah, I mean, that's pretty common sense to me. I mean, I don't see a problem with that at all. I mean, that's a normal view to have. Yeah, it really is. And I hope that he and the weird thing is that he's one of his children has [42:08] come out as or transitioned or whatever BS happens for you to decide over your cornflakes. You want to be a different gender that week. But so he's obviously had that with his family, and yet he's willing to to speak up. So I guess kudos to him for doing that. Just before he turns us all into machines, I guess. So why not? Yeah, at least it's some compromise or something. It is, yes. You can be transhuman but not transgender. I could be a... I think Musk was saying he was going on, obviously he was on the BBC, and he was saying, I'm going on all the channels, I'm going on Tucker Carlson in a week, he's on the right, and then he's going on a mixture. I would love to ask him, why does he have an issue with transgender but not transhumanism? Yeah, there you go. That would be quite a funny answer as well, I can imagine. It would be. Well, if he agrees to an interview with us, then that'll come. So who knows? Fingers crossed.   Who knows?   On to the, [43:09] probably look at, well actually this is the only one on immigration really, but more on our failures of our court. So, outrageous decision, The Sun, Albanian gangster granted anonymity after claiming asylum in the UK to protect his security. And this, I think this is an issue with our court system. So a judge banned The Sun specifically from identifying the man who's guilty of appalling crimes including murder. So I'm not sure why. [43:45] But it shows our government, well our government and our courts are more concerned about the rights of those who perpetrate crimes than the rights of, God forbid, a British citizen to have rights to not have someone like this living next door to them.   Absolutely, I mean I don't know when when this has happened, when the jurisdiction favours people who have come here illegally, whether he has come here illegally, I'm not 100% sure. I mean, he's claimed asylum. So I'm assuming here, I can't of course, you know, back this up. But yeah, because they say he arrived by boat in Britain. I assume that wasn't by a P&O ferry from France. It would be illegally then. Right. Okay. jurisdiction is is favouring people who have come here illegally to be granted things such as anonymity when they've committed extremely horrific crimes. I don't understand. I don't understand how, what's the logic in that? [44:50] We need, I believe we need to leave the ECHR in order to get some sort of, some sort of wane into deportation and to actually start pushing back a bit more, the cruel to be kind approach because more of this is happening and if you would like to claim asylum you do it through the proper channels just not the English one and I think that's a sensible reasonable attitude to have and that's the sensible, I think, you can correct me if I'm wrong, I believe that's the most sensible take to have. If you want to claim asylum you do it through the proper channels, you do it legally, you do it properly. France is not a war-torn country. So...   Well it is descending into one slowly.   Paris is a a war-torn city. Yes, correct. But yes, and Marseille is a war-torn city. Yes, definitely. [45:52] Monaco isn't or anything like that, but that doesn't count, does it? But yeah, so the proper way is the proper way. And I think seeing stories like that actually really does show the two-tier judicial system that we have in the UK. We hear about it a lot in the US, but the UK is just as guilty, ironically, or you know, pardon the pun. It really is. Well, let's finish off with the final one, looking at the government and the immigration side. This again is from the Mail. Just 215 of the 45,728 Channel migrants who arrived by small boat last year were deported from the UK. Now I'm not quick enough to do my maths but that's definitely well under 1%. I'll let anyone else give me a better stat than that. And it, [46:51] it just amazes me how a so-called conservative government don't want to do anything. We've had, Home Secretaries who supposedly have been tough on law and order and yet nothing happens. But I, guess this figure doesn't really surprise you Lewis.   No, absolutely not. I mean we've had 13 years, I believe it's 13 years now, I've almost lost count of a Tory government and they've done absolutely nothing in terms of trying to sort this mess out. Granted, I can understand the struggles of trying to leave the EU with Europhiles trying to actually leave the EU properly and of course you're in this mess where the ECHR is of course your biggest enemy and of course these lawyers that are of course part of the European Union are of course blocking all of this. But this is what happens, this is what happens when you let pro-EU officials try and take over and try to leave the European Union, something that they love. So of course they're going to have a foot in the door still. So of course it's going to make a lot of problems in terms of sorting this issue out. Does it [48:15] surprise me? Absolutely not. No it doesn't. The reason being is because we've just seen it time and time again. We've seen the same government say the same things over and over and over again and it's just political points. It's political point scoring and Labour aren't saying anything else or anything new. So, they're two cheeks of the same arse, is how the saying goes, and neither party is not going to get anything done. So really, the person who loses in all of this is us.   Yeah, no completely. Let me just show the viewers some of the pictures from that, the leads, and that's obviously one of the small boats coming over. That's the RNLI, which basically act as a taxi service, really. The RNLI, Royal National Lifeboat Institute, are supposedly there to stop someone if they end up drowning because their render blew up bed on the beach somewhere on one of the beaches in the UK, but now they act as a ferry service for bringing them in. And that shows you the figures of how it is increased. that 45,000 is from last year, the 28,000 is from 2021. [49:33] And it's around 8,000 2020. So it is a steep increase year on year. But I guess, again, Lewis, the issue is our government, because I guess if you don't get turned away, then this gets encouraged. And why shouldn't you come to the UK whenever we can give you money, give you somewhere to live, and you'll never be kicked out. It's a win-win. Exactly. Absolutely. And it's gotten to the point where it's asylum shopping, essentially. I think I've seen videos of them actually calling it that, essentially, where we give the best benefits. We give the best, we give free mobile phone, we give credit, we've give migrants, even business grants I've seen. And it's gotten to the point now where the public have just had enough. That's why you've seen lots of protests around. [50:33] And once again, it hurts the lower income, the working class and the lower classes. It always hurts with mass immigration. People are so pro the idea of minimum wage and increasing the minimum wage. Well you're not going to do that and you're not going to be able to survive if you keep, having an influx of mass immigration. It's just not going to work. So it's very counterintuitive having both of those. So [51:02] you now have to pick one now. And the NHS, you have to pick now. Do you want the NHS? [51:07] Or do you want mass immigration? Take your pick. Because you can't have both. You really cannot have both. So it's gotten to that point now where the public have had enough and the public want to see some action. Are we going to see it? I don't think so, personally. I mean, it's been empty promises since the beginning. And like I said, it's only going to hurt people with lower incomes, the working class and the lot. So....   Exactly. Let me, I saw someone was giving me, there's mega maga in a national political, a national political and something, sorry, I can't get your full tag because it doesn't come up. And they're telling me it's 0.004%, 4.7 hundreds of 1%. Percent. So 215 isn't much. I think that's basically what we're saying. Lewis, thank you so much for joining us. Really appreciate you coming on and sharing your thoughts on the stories. So thank you.   Thank you very much Peter for having me on. It's been a pleasure.   Not all and obviously our viewers can make sure and follow you on your Twitter link and sign up to your sub stack and follow Lewis's musings and thoughts and whatever he wants to bring you, you can get it direct to your inbox. And now that I think Twitter have made up with Substack, there was an issue, wasn't there, with that for a while? [52:33] Yeah. I don't know what was going on there. They're just not sort of pairing together. I think they've sorted it. I'm not sure. And I don't know if it de-boosts you apparently in engagement. I don't know. I need to learn to code. I need to learn how this all works so I can sort of help myself. We all do.   Yeah. So we'll figure it out at some point. [52:52] We'll figure it out. But in the meantime, the viewers and listeners can make sure and follow Lewis. So to everyone watching, thank you for tuning in. As I said, we are with you on Monday with Joe Allen looking at the rise of AI, AGI, Advanced General Intelligence, and where that is taking us. So for a darkish episode, tune in to Joe Allen on Monday. But everyone else, wish you wonderful rest of your weekend. Enjoy your rest of your Saturday, enjoy your Sunday, however you're watching, wherever you're watching, great to have you with us and we'll see you back on Monday. So thank you and good night to you all.

The UK Health Security Agency has confirmed Covid's new Arcturus sub-variant has arrived in Britain. While presently there are under 100 known UK cases, it's thought to be the most infectious strain yet. Interview with Ashley Johnson, CEO of Applied Atomics, the London start-up making space rocket fuel from water. Astronauts to live in Nasa's fake Mars for a year. Once-in-lifetime bloom of Ethiopia's edible tree at Kew Gardens, with research leader Dr James Borrell. Also in this episode:Universe's cosmic growth map backs Einstein's gravity theoryParkinson's diagnosis technique breakthroughClicking hell...mouse use link to stress levels Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dr. Ebere Okereke, MD is a highly respected public health physician, specializing in global health security and health system strengthening, who has dedicated her career and won awards for her work promoting women and under-represented groups in public health leadership. Dr. Okereke currently serves as a Senior Adviser in Health at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change ( https://www.institute.global/experts/ebere-okereke ), honorary senior public health adviser at Africa CDC, Associate Fellow at Chatham House, and is the incoming CEO of Africa Public Health Foundation ( https://aphf.africa/ ). Dr. Okereke is currently on a career break from Public Health England (now the UK Health Security Agency) where she led the UK-aid funded International Health Regulations strengthening project; a technical assistance project aimed at sustainably strengthening public health systems. Dr. Okereke is an experienced trainer, coach and mentor and was an honorary senior lecturer at the Leeds and Hull-York medical schools. Dr. Okereke is a graduate of the University of Nigeria College of Medicine and a Fellow of the UK Faculty of Public Health. Her journey in global health started at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM) where she was first introduced to the field of communicable diseases and where she completed post-graduate work in International Health Consultancy. After leaving LSTM for the first time, Dr. Okereke joined the Public Health Specialty Training Program, where she trained across Northern England and became a consultant in communicable disease control. Her interests then took her to emergency preparedness, emerging and re-emerging infections, and zoonoses, ultimately leading her to Kenya where she worked for the International Rescue Committee. Support the show

Better use of data is key to more effective government. Across government, teams are doing fascinating work with data. But those projects don't get the attention they deserve. Data Bites aims to change that. Our latest event, the 39th in our series, was a health special, where the speakers presented their work in an exciting, quickfire format. Each speaker had eight minutes, followed by eight minutes of questions from the audience. This month's speakers were: Elliot Bridges, Senior Data and Insights Analyst at Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, on trends in egg, sperm and embryo donation and their implications Sarah Deeny, Deputy Director, Analytics at the UK Health Security Agency, on how the use of data and forecasting during the pandemic can help us protect the NHS and the public during the winter Valentina Sassow, Deployment Strategist at Palantir Technologies, on Palantir's work on cancer pathways Becky Taylor, Director of Transformation and Quality Improvement at University Hospitals of Northamptonshire, on building the future of integrated care at Kettering General Hospital and Northampton General Hospital The event was chaired by Gavin Freeguard, Associate at the Institute for Government.

What are the symptoms to look out for? As the UK Health Security Agency says new Covid-19 variant Orthrus accounts for nearly a quarter of coronavirus cases in England. ChatGPT: Recruitment team used AI ChatGPT for job application - interview with the boss, Neil Taylor of Schwa. Plus, Spotify music analysed in a sleep study included Ed Sheeran and BTS, could they help more than baby lullabies?Also in this episode:-Over 250 dinosaur eggs found in India!-Microsoft to cull 10,000 jobs in US spending cuts-End of range anxiety? EV taxi company in Nottingham test wireless charging-Call of Duty: Warzone 2 and Modern Warfare 2 update leak latest-Netflix takes off with private cabin crew job offer. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In regard to the mRNA and Lockdown deaths, the Mockingbirds are doing what Rush (God rest him), called “drive-by journalism.” They stop for a second on an issue, announce what it means and drive-way. As a case in point, MSNBC has declared without reservation that it is a lie that Damar Hamlin had a heart attack due to the mRNA injection. Do they know that? Nope. They just announce it to their mind-victims and drive on. https://twitter.com/tomselliott/status/1611335652527726594Meanwhile, Tucker Carlson, the man we are told is a “dangerous-white-supremacist-insurrectionis-transphobe-Russian-asset-peddler-of-propagada”, says he doesn't know. But, says evil-itself, there is reason to believe the mRNA is causing heart attacks. Then, he quotes racist math. https://twitter.com/NowTheEndBegins/status/1610856796750581765In this Episode we discuss the preponderance of evidence that leads me--and many other people who look at it globally--to conclude we are living through a mass kill-off. What does God say?The Lord knows rebellious nations will reap wicked rulers.Proverbs 28:2-262 When a country is rebellious, it has many rulers, but a ruler with discernment and knowledge maintains order.3 A ruler who oppresses the poor is like a driving rain that leaves no crops.4 Those who forsake instruction praise the wicked, but those who heed it resist them.5 Evildoers do not understand what is right, but those who seek the Lord understand it fully.6 Better the poor whose walk is blameless than the rich whose ways are perverse.He promises they will face judgment: Matthew 25:41“Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels;” CBS News ADMITS IT!! [AUDIO] - Sudden cardiac arrest is leading cause of death in young athletes; Allen Henry spoke to the family of a teenage hockey player who died on the ice, about how parents can reduce the risk.[AUDIO] - Before the mRNA vaccine, 29 cardiac arrests per year in sports, after the vax 1,500 in ONE year. Two thirds of those cases resulted in death. Awake yet? - Tucker[AUDIO] - NBC'S @BrandyZadrozny claims it's misinformation athletes are increasingly suffering cardiac issues following Covid shots16-year-old flag football player dies following game at Desert Oasis . . . BREAKING: 16-year-old #diedsuddenly while playing flag football. She began having chest problems, went to the sidelines to take a break when she collapsed.How many more children have to die?[AUDIO] - Stew Peters: “These NFL players are starting to ask questions. I have one: Why did the @NFL issue a gag order to all players and coaches after the Hamlin collapse?[AUDIO] - Hamlin's doctors as described by Peter McCullough: “Evasive body language, stonewalling. No mention of 1) dose 1, 2, boosters, brand, 2) echocardiography results, 3) serial ECGs, 4) troponin, 5) BNP, 6) electrolytes, 7) rib fractures (possible with CPR), 8) pulmonary aspiration (possible with intubation).”Ethical Skeptic: “Well, this should put to rest any doubt regarding:1. The fact that we have an enormous sudden cardiac death problem right now.2. That it is not being caused by Covid, nor Long Covid.30-sigma as of wk 50 2022. The argument is over folks.”Wonder data just released Jan 2 shows 13-sigma run in cancer since Wk 14 of 2021. This compares to 7-sigma excess from MMWR Data (right chart). Excess Cancer diagnoses therefore are outpacing cancer deaths as we suspected. CDC is still hiding cancer deaths inside Covid UCoD.[AUDIO] - “My physician told me the vaccine couldn't do this to me, and that I was healthy, and symptoms were in my head”[AUDIO] - Pro-masker shoves and threatens an unmasked Costco employee with pepper spray "Get away. You're threatening my life. Stay away. You are unmasked. I'm defending myself." This is a cult — not science[AUDIO] - 'It's not protecting you, it's protecting people around you.' Dr David Strain joins Neil Oliver to discuss UK Health Security Agency advising the wearing of face coverings once again, as the NHS battles overcrowding.

“If you are purely doing procurement and commercial on paper, the paper doesn't stand the litmus test,”Victoria Cope's career roles are supremely varied and her credentials numerous, so she serves as a perfect example of how wide ranging experiences can aid procurement leaders in succeeding at the highest level.With an Aeronautical Engineering background, over 20 years in the Defence & Security sector, and several awards for her contributions to the industry, she's now the Commercial & Category Director for the UK Health Security Agency.Such an array of knowledge inevitably led to a fascinating discussion on Talent Talks this week, covering the delicate balance between public service and commerciality, necessary steps to boost diversity, why strong relationships beat procurement on paper, and so much more.This episode of Talent Talks covers:Victoria's route into procurement, being a chartered Aeronautical Engineer by backgroundProcurement's biggest relationship lessons learned from the pandemicThe successful evolution and further advancements needed within diversity and inclusionBalancing the health of the nation with maintaining her function's commercialityThe growth of social value and ESG

What is it like to be the only woman in a group of men? Is it isolating? Intimidating? Or, can there be a certain, maybe shameful, thrill of being included as ‘one of the lads'? To discuss, Nuala speaks to Immy Humes, a documentary filmmaker who has spent years gathering archive images of all-male groups including exactly one woman, which she published as a collection in her book ‘The Only Woman'. They are also joined by Emma John, a sports journalist and author of ‘Self Contained', her memoir of single life. She's spent her career covering cricket and rugby, often as ‘the only woman' surrounded by male friends and colleagues. This year in the UK children conceived by sperm, egg or embryo donation who turn 18 will be able to request information that identifies their donor. This includes the donor's name, birth name, date of birth and address, as long as the information is on the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority's register. It's a result of a change in the law in April 2005 meaning that the first of those children conceived after the law changed will have their 18th birthdays this year. Nuala discusses the implications for donors, children conceived by donor as well as their families, with Clare Ettinghausen, Director of Strategy & Corporate Affairs at the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, the UK's Fertility Regulator. And Nina Barnsley Director of the Donor Conception Network which is a UK based charity supporting donor conception families. Figures from the Office of National Statistics show that 1 in 45 people in England have covid – and the UK Health Security Agency are now advising people to wear face masks if they are ill and need to leave the house, and to keep ill children home from school. So what does this mean? Are we going to get back to wearing face masks everywhere? Nuala McGovern speaks to the Times Science Editor Tom Whipple to get the latest on the situation, and government covid advisor Professor Susan Michie to hear how we should be changing our behaviour. In our series Finding My Voice we're talking to women about the moment they realised they had something to say or stand up for. Nuala speaks to Shekeila Scarlet. She was excluded from school when she was just 12 years old. After an appeal process that eventually reversed the decision, she was reinstated at the school. But seeing her case debated by a board of governors made her realise the importance of having young people involved in school governance. At 26, she's now the Chair of Governors at Stoke Newington School in Hackney, making her one of the youngest chairs of a school governing board in the UK. Presented by Nuala McGovern Producer : Louise Corley Editor: Beverley Purcell

Stay at home if you feel unwell this Christmas - that's the advice from UK Health Security Agency.

Ambulance staff in England and Wales plan to strike over two days in December, continuing the Christmas chaos. Also, it might be time to dig out the thermals as the UK Health Security Agency have issued a Level 3 'severe' cold weather warning for England. Health Secretary Steve Barclay joins in on the discussion. All of this and more on this episode of the Nick Ferrari Whole Show podcast.

The UK Health Security Agency issued a rare alert on Friday, telling parents to look out for signs of strep A infection in their children. Since September, eight children in England and Wales have died after becoming unwell with Group A streptococci bacteria. Typically causing illnesses like skin infections, tonsillitis or scarlet fever, very occasionally strep A can become a life-threatening, invasive disease. But why are we seeing such a steep rise in cases in the UK this year? Madeleine Finlay speaks to Chrissie Jones, associate professor of paediatric infection at the University of Southampton, about the significance of this outbreak and the symptoms to be aware of, and asks Shiranee Sriskandan, professor of infectious diseases at Imperial College London, about how the bacteria can evade our immune systems and whether we may one day have a vaccine.. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/sciencepod

From the seventh World One Health Congress held earlier this month in Singapore, we bring you this conversation with Dr Osman Dar and Dr Catherine Machalaba, both members of the One Health High-Level Expert Panel.In this episode, we explore what One Health is, approaches in practice, including addressing Nipah virus in Malaysia, how the value of One Health interventions can be measured, finishing with some causes of concern when it comes to realising One Health—and where there is room for optimism. Guests:Dr Osman Dar, Consultant in Global Health at the UK Health Security Agency and Project Director for the Global Health Program at Chatham HouseDr Catherine Machalaba, Principal Scientist for Health and Policy at EcoHealth Alliance The World One Health Congress was sponsored by the Indo Pacific Centre for Health Security. Find out more at: https://worldonehealthcongress2022.miceapps.com/client/sites/view/WOH2022 We encourage you to join the conversation on Twitter at @CentreHealthSec and @WOHCongress.

The Grammy award-winning singer, songwriter and actress LeAnn Rimes released her first album, Blue, aged 13 and at 14 she won "Best New Artist”. Her unforgettable ballad "How Do I Live" holds the record as Billboard's Hot 100 all-time #1 hit by a female artist. She joins Anita Rani to talk about the inspiration her latest album – god's work – which features artists including Ziggy Marley and Aloe Blacc. We'll be getting an insight into what life behind bars is like for female activists in Nicaragua. Professor Julie Cupples, an Academic who has written about the country and spent time doing fieldwork for her thesis, will be speaking to Anita Rani along with Fiona Macintosh an author who was in Nicaragua at the time of political revolution in the 1980's. They'll both be sharing their experiences of women trying to push for revolution in the country. A new report ‘Girls Speak: Pushed Out, Left Out' from the charity Agenda Alliance highlights the problem of persistent adultification in schools which often leads to extra harsh discipline for Black and dual heritage girls. Anita speaks to Ebinehita Iyere who collaborated on the report joins Anita. With early indications that COVID-19 rates are beginning to rise ahead of winter and a predicted flu wave, the UK Health Security Agency and NHS say it's essential that pregnant women come forward and get protected. Anita is joined by Claire who contracted covid-19 when she was pregnant & Professor Asma Khalil, Professor of Obstetrics and Maternal-Fetal Medicine at St George's University Hospital, University of London. Presenter: Anita Rani Producer: Lisa Jenkinson Studio Manager: Michael Millham

Health secretary Thérèse Coffey has rejected advice from officials to procure additional doses of the mpox (monkeypox) vaccine.That's the topline from Donato Mancini's scoop for the FT this weekend. But what does it mean?Read Donato's story in the Financial TimesIt's raised great concern that it will leave the UK ill-prepared for a resurgence of the disease. This news comes as the outbreak could be curtailed, if progress continues, with new cases down to 100 a week. It also flies in the face of advice from the UK Health Security Agency and sexual health experts.Join us, in this rapid response special episode, to work out why the UK government has rejected this advice as we ask Donato and some of the show's recent contributors what the pox is going on?This week's guests are:Donato Mancini - Pharma Correspondent, Financial TimesSusan Cole - Community Engagement, NAM AIDSmapMatthew Hodson - Executive Director of NAM AIDSmapWill Nutland - Co-founder of Love Tank CIC, PrepsterListen to understand:Why this outbreak feels familiar to HIV in the 80sWhat we can learn from the response (and lack of) to HIV - for monkeypoxHow we can talk about monkeypox without stigmatising sexually active LGBTQIA+ peopleVisit wearequeeraf.com/whatthepox to support the show and listen ad-freeTake action! Write to your MP to help the monkeypox outbreak with this easy tool. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Over the last two decades, the public health community has been highlighting how non-medical factors and the environments where people live, learn, and work can play a significant role in a person's health and overall quality of life. In this episode, Mindy is joined by Vynamic's Cassandra Zuluaga and special guest, Dr. Charlotte Cuddihy, a UK Public Health doctor, to discuss the critical importance of social determinants of health (SDOH) and how healthcare systems can aim to address these factors. The discussion begins introducing Dr. Charlotte Cuddihy and her interest with SDOH spurring upon seeing the inequalities in healthcare and wider determinants her patients faced in the UK and US (2:00). The conversation then shifts to defining and understanding the overall impacts of SDOH (6:22). The discussion continues on how the COVID-19 pandemic (9:50), the cost-of-living crisis (13:30), and the rise of social justice efforts (17:30) have further magnified the impact SDOH have on people's well-being and overall health. At the end, Dr. Cuddihy provides examples and opportunities for how healthcare providers (20:35) and systems (24:33) can positively affect health outcomes while considering SDOH. Podcast Tags: healthcare, healthcare news, social determinants of health, health inequality, COVID-19, social inequalities, health outcomes Source Links: · Cost of Living Crisis is Damaging Briton's Health  · A fairer future: how can the NHS tackle health and social inequalities? · NHS - Our approach to reducing healthcare inequalities · Coronavirus and the social impacts of ‘long COVID' on people's lives in Great Britain - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk)· Rising cost of living is damaging people's health, says royal college | The BMJ· Community champions programme: guidance and resources - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)· A Financial Lifeline (glasgowchildrenshospitalcharity.org)· NHS Long Term Plan » The NHS as an ‘anchor institution'· Time for local NHS leaders to take a first step in tackling poverty: pay staff the real Living Wage | The King's Fund (kingsfund.org.uk) For additional discussion, please contact us at TrendingHealth.com or share a voicemail at 1-888-VYNAMIC. Mindy McGrath, Healthcare Industry Advisor mindy.mcgrath@vynamic.com Cassandra Zuluaga, Director Cassandra.Zuluaga@vynamic.comDr. Charlotte Cuddihy, Public Health Doctor with the UK Health Security Agency and the University of Cambridge c.cuddihy@nhs.net

Liz Truss has called off her primetime BBC interview. So instead, Adam interviews Nick Robinson, who was meant to be asking the questions, on why these programmes matter. And Dr Dame Jenny Harries, boss of the UK Health Security Agency, gives us an update on monkeypox and responds to comments made by Truss that she would never impose another lockdown. Today's Newscast was made by Daniel Wittenberg with Miranda Slade and Cordelia Hemming. The technical producer was Mike Regaard. The assistant editor was Sam Bonham.

Dr. Shamez Ladhani, a pediatric infectious disease consultant at the UK Health Security Agency in London, and Sarah Gregory discuss an increase of invasive pneumococcal disease in children after the COVID-19 pandemic in England.

The head of the UK Health Security Agency says there are early signs that the monkeypox outbreak in the UK has plateaued. Speaking to Today's Mishal Husain, Dame Jenny Harries said cases over the past four weeks had started to steadily decrease, but officials were staying vigilant. However, she added vaccines may run out in some areas for a short period. Officials previously estimated that some 40,000 people in at-risk groups would require the jab, but Harries told Today this may have been an "under-estimate". (IMAGE CREDIT:REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration)

The Institute for Government was delighted to welcome Dame Dr Jenny Harries OBE, Chief Executive of the UK Health Security Agency. After serving as the UK's deputy Chief Medical Officer during the pandemic, Dr Harries took on leadership of the new UK Health Security Agency in April 2021. In conversation with Dr Matthew Gill, Programme Director at the Institute for Government, she discussed her vision for the UKHSA: What role will it play in protecting the country from Covid and future pandemics? What does Dr Harries see as the main challenges and priorities for the agency? And how will Dr Harries' time as Deputy Chief Medical Officer shape her approach to leading the UKHSA? Jenny Harries is the inaugural Chief Executive of the UK Health Security Agency. She was previously the Deputy Chief Medical Officer for England. She has served on the Joint Committee for Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) and worked in a variety of public health roles in the UK and abroad. #IfGHarries

The Institute for Government was delighted to welcome Dame Dr Jenny Harries OBE, Chief Executive of the UK Health Security Agency. After serving as the UK's deputy Chief Medical Officer during the pandemic, Dr Harries took on leadership of the new UK Health Security Agency in April 2021. In conversation with Dr Matthew Gill, Programme Director at the Institute for Government, she discussed her vision for the UKHSA: What role will it play in protecting the country from Covid and future pandemics? What does Dr Harries see as the main challenges and priorities for the agency? And how will Dr Harries' time as Deputy Chief Medical Officer shape her approach to leading the UKHSA? Jenny Harries is the inaugural Chief Executive of the UK Health Security Agency. She was previously the Deputy Chief Medical Officer for England. She has served on the Joint Committee for Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) and worked in a variety of public health roles in the UK and abroad. #IfGHarries

Hotter than the Sahara. The Met Office has given the UK's first red extreme heat warning and the UK Health Security Agency has issued a level 4 heat-health alert - both running from Monday to Wednesday. It's officially ‘too hot' and our city isn't exactly made for this weather… but it might be about time we have to start looking at changing that. Ross Lydall, the Evening Standard's City Hall Editor & Health Editor, explains both the risks to our health as well as the pressures on our infrastructure. In part two, we're joined by Andrew Tucker from Thames Water who addresses concerns over potential water shortages. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Accel, one of the top global venture capital firms, best known in India for backing Flipkart and Freshworks, has raised a $4 billion fund to invest in what it calls later-stage ventures. Britain has declared a ‘national incident' after a rare discovery of a ‘vaccine-derived' polio virus in sewage samples in London. And the cost of raw materials needed for EVs has doubled during the pandemic, according to AlixPartners, a consultancy. Notes: Accel, one of the top global venture capital firms, has raised a $4 billion fund to invest in what it calls later-stage ventures. The firm expects to provide “expansion capital” to promising companies within its portfolio worldwide, as well as companies that are new to the firm, it said in a blogpost yesterday. “Our decades-long experience has also taught us the importance of patience and discipline — especially during periods of volatility and change like we are experiencing today,” the VC firm said in the blog post. Meta, Facebook's parent company, software giant Microsoft, Japan's Sony, and IKEA are among some 37 global companies that have come together to form the Metaverse Standards Forum to develop common standards for the online world of avatars and 3D experiences. Open to any organisation at no cost, the Forum will focus on pragmatic, action-based projects such as implementation prototyping, hackathons, plugfests, and open-source tooling to accelerate the testing and adoption of metaverse standards, while also developing consistent terminology and deployment guidelines, it said in the post. Notably, Google and Apple aren't participating yet. British health authorities are urgently investigating a rare polio virus discovery in sewage samples in London, potentially putting Britain's polio-free status at risk for the first time in almost two decades, CNBC reports. Several waste samples from the Beckton sewage treatment work in Newham, east London tested positive for vaccine-derived polio virus between February and May, the UK Health Security Agency said in a statement. The agency has declared a national incident and informed the World Health Organisation of the situation. Leap Finance, which gives student loans to those aspiring to higher education abroad, has raised $75 million in a round led by Owl Ventures, with participation from new investors Steadview Capital and Paramark Ventures, as well as existing investors Jungle Ventures and Sequoia Capital India, Economic Times. Raw material costs for electric vehicles more than doubled during the coronavirus pandemic, according to a new report by AlixPartners, a consultancy, CNBC reports. EV-specific costs have increased to $4,500 from roughly $2,000 in the past two years, according to the report. Theme music courtesy Free Music & Sounds: https://soundcloud.com/freemusicandsounds

Straight out of the Covid playbook, the UK Health Security Agency is rolling out Vaccines for all "high risk gay and bisexual" men who engage in sexual behaviour that can lead, allegedly, to the transmission of Monkey Pox.    Please help support our work and Buy Me A Coffee https://www.buymeacoffee.com/DavidVanceV  or support us via https://donorbox.org/let-free-speech-prevail Just Scan the QR Code     Be part of the Community with David https://thedavidvance.locals.com    Gettr: https://gettr.com/user/davidvance BrandNewTube:  https://brandnewtube.com/@TheDavidVanceChannel Rumble: https://rumble.com/c/DavidVancePodcast  Telegram: @davidvance1 A Tangled Web:  https://www.atangledweb.org   Also try my second channel with ilana Mercer Hard Truth Podcast: https://HardTruthWithDavidVanceAndIlanaMercer.Podbean.com

Figures set to be published later on Monday will show an increase in the number of confirmed viral cases in England.The UK Health Security Agency is advising people at high risk of catching the disease to self-isolate for three weeks, and call NHS 111 before seeing a doctor.This is the advice for anyone having sexual or household contact with a monkeypox-infected person.Symptoms include unusual rashes, lesions and swollen lymph nodes.Over the weekend, Belgium introduced 21-day quarantine, following this new outbreak of a viral disease first identified in the 1950s.So what is monkeypox, what about vaccines and how worried should we be?The Leader is joined by Keith Neal, emeritus professor at the University of Nottingham and a 30-year veteran of studying epidemiology and infectious diseases. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Several people in England have tested positive for monkeypox, according to the U.K. Health Security Agency. As of Friday, 20 cases of the disease were confirmed in Britain, though that number could change Monday when a new update is expected to be released. Dr. Susan Hopkins, chief medical adviser for the UK Health Security Agency, noted that new cases of monkeypox are being detected “on a daily basis.” The most common symptoms include fever, headache, fatigue and muscle aches. In more severe cases, patients can develop a rash and lesions that often begin on the face before spreading to the rest of the body. Most people recover within two to four weeks. The current outbreak has led to cases being detected in eleven countries in total, including two in the United States. Although there have been no cases of death reported in the U.S., monkeypox has led to death in as many as 1 in 10 people in Africa who contract the disease. While on his trip to Asia, President Biden said cases of monkeypox are “something that everybody should be concerned about.”

Several people in England have tested positive for monkeypox, according to the U.K. Health Security Agency. As of Friday, 20 cases of the disease were confirmed in Britain, though that number could change Monday when a new update is expected to be released. Dr. Susan Hopkins, chief medical adviser for the UK Health Security Agency, noted that new cases of monkeypox are being detected “on a daily basis.” The most common symptoms include fever, headache, fatigue and muscle aches. In more severe cases, patients can develop a rash and lesions that often begin on the face before spreading to the rest of the body. Most people recover within two to four weeks. The current outbreak has led to cases being detected in eleven countries in total, including two in the United States. Although there have been no cases of death reported in the U.S., monkeypox has led to death in as many as 1 in 10 people in Africa who contract the disease. While on his trip to Asia, President Biden said cases of monkeypox are “something that everybody should be concerned about.”

SWAT activity continues near First/Bullard where a suspect has barricaded himself inside the Savemart following a police chase and an officer involved shooting. Out of an abundance of caution, the nearby Kastner Intermediate cancelled classes. Open phones! Aubrey Bettencourt, President of the Almond Alliance of CA, joins the show to discuss news that CA State Senators are calling on AG Merrick Garland to investigate concerns that hedge funds are profiting off of and possibly abusing water rights. The UK Health Security Agency has reported 7 monkeypox cases.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Last weekend marked two years since the tragic death of blind rail user Cleveland Gervais, due to him falling off a train platform's edge in South East London. Since then, the UK's train network operators have been coming up with ways to make train stations a safer place for visually impaired travellers; including the pledge to install tactile paving to all train station platforms by 2029. Now, the Office of Rail and Road, who are the railways regulator, has submitted its responses to the Government's Rail Accident and Investigation Branch's report about Cleveland Gervais' death. Within the report, it mentions that train operators have an ambition to get a lot of their tactile paving installation work done by 2024 to 2025 - but with no guarantee. We speak to the regulator about their recommendations and also to Network Rail about their ambitions to speed up their installation work and we ask for any further updates on their progress. And last year, the Be My Eyes app made taking Covid-19 PCR tests more accessible to those with some remaining vision. Now, they have teamed up with the UK Health Security Agency and NHS Test and Trace to make Lateral Flow Tests more accessible too. We speak to someone who has tried out the service and who was involved in the pilot and to Will Butler, who is the chief experience officer at Be My Eyes. Presenter: Peter White Producer: Beth Hemmings Production Coordinator: Liz Poole Website image description: the picture shows a pair of hands, with a Covid-19 Lateral Flow Test swab in the right hand. The swab is being put into the Extraction tube. In the background to the left, is a blue medical mask and the Lateral Flow Test itself is resting on the table below.

As the Prime Minister apologises for a failure of leadership, accepting Sue Gray's report, and promises to overhaul Number 10 - his place of work and home - what of Carrie Johnson? And concerns about the blurring of lines... The pandemic has changed the way some women work and has blurred the boundaries between home and work for many. A new book by Professor Laura Gowing of King's College London called 'Ingenious Trade' unearths the stories of women at work in 17th Century London and shows how crucial to their identity paid employment was. For those who remember the late 90s and early noughties, thongs were a defining emblem of popular fashion, often poking out of denim and low-rise trousers. Today, clothes retailers are seeing a surge in their thong sales since 2019, and with the resurgence of ‘y2k' style among young people, it seems that thongs are back. Joe Biden announced last week that he'd fulfil his campaign promise of the first black female justice just as Justice Stephen Breyer said he would retire. Biden said that it was long overdue in his opinion and that he will reveal his choice of a younger, liberal judge by the end of February. While many Americans welcome diversity in the Supreme Court, Biden has also faced criticism for playing identity politics. Emma discusses this with Kimberly Peeler-Allen who is the co-founder of Higher Heights, an organisation that builds the collective political power of Black women and Lawrence Hurley, Reuters U.S. Supreme Court Correspondent. Latest data from the UK Health Security Agency shows that more than one in ten children starting school in England are at risk of measles because they haven't had their jabs. Vaccine rates for the MMR, which helps protect five-year-olds against measles, mumps and rubella, have fallen to their lowest level in a decade. Since the Covid-19 pandemic, there's been a concerning drop in the number of children receiving these vaccinations on time, with some parents perhaps not wanting to burden the NHS or unaware doctors were still offering appointments. Presenter: Emma Barnett Producer: Kirsty Starkey Interviewed Guest: Caroline Slocock Interviewed Guest: Caroline Wheeler Interviewed Guest: Professor Laura Gowing Interviewed Guest: Alizé Demange Interviewed Guest: Letty Cole Interviewed Guest: Kimberly Peeler-Allen Interviewed Guest: Lawrence Hurley Interviewed Guest: Professor Helen Bedford

The head of the World Health Organization says it's a mistake to think Omicron is the last variant that will emerge. And as sorta proof, a sub-lineage of Omicron, BA.2, is under formal investigation by the UK Health Security Agency. 426 cases in the UK so far, and it's been spotted in the United States. It's called “stealth Omicron” because it can't be distinguished from other variants using PCR tests. So far, they feel current vaccinations work well against it. If you're wondering how often you need to clean the house, and yourself, Japanese scientists have found Omicron can survive longer than earlier strains on plastic surfaces and human skin. They say Omicron has a high "environmental stability" and that's what has helped it replace Delta as the dominant variant. It lasts about eight days on plastic, and 21.1 hours on skin.The FDA is revoking emergency use status for COVID antibody drugs from Regeneron and Eli Lilly. The agency says the two don't work against Omicron. The drugs were bought by the federal government and have been administered to millions of Americans. Alternate therapies from Pfizer, Merck, and GlaxoSmithKline are still okay but are in short supply.We will continue using the term here in our report, but the CDC is trying to pivot the language from being “fully vaccinated” to being “up to date” with vaccination against COVID. Being up to date means you've gotten all the recommended shots at the intervals recommended. Which would make you fully vaccinated. But if it's time to have a booster and you haven't gotten it, you are not up to date, with no apparent repercussions for that yet. The damage done by COVID goes well beyond matters of health, both physical and mental. High school graduation rates dipped in at least 20 states after the first full school year that was disrupted by the pandemic. That would end nearly two decades of nationwide progress toward getting more students graduated. Some states loosened standards, but the rate dropped anyway.In the United States, cases were up 2%, deaths are up 39%, and hospitalizations are up 18% over 14 days. The 7-day average of new cases has been trending down since January 14. The five states that had the most daily deaths per 100,000 are Ohio, Alaska, New York, Connecticut, and Tennessee. There are now over 27 million active cases in the United States, at 27,238,138.The five areas with the greatest increase in hospitalizations per capita: Alaska and Montana 93%. Wyoming 83%. Alabama 81%. And the U.S. Virgin Islands 79%. The top 10 areas with the highest number of recent cases per capita according to The New York Times: Waukesha, WI. Dane, WI. Uvalde, TX. Nome Census Area, AK. Maverick, TX. Santa Cruz, AZ. Dimmit, TX. Randolph, IL. Kodiak Island Borough, AK. And Wyoming, WV. There have been at least 868,494 deaths in the U.S. recorded as Covid-related.The top 3 vaccinating states by percentage of population that's been fully vaccinated: Vermont at 79.1%, Rhode Island at 78.4%, and Maine at 77.2%. The bottom 3 vaccinating states are Alabama at 49.2%, Wyoming at 49.6%, and Mississippi at 49.8%. The percentage of the U.S. that's been fully vaccinated is 63.4%.Globally, cases were up 34% and deaths up 23% over 14 days, with the 7-day average trending up since January 17. There are now over 67 million active cases around the world, at 67,479,089.The five countries with the most new cases: The United States 465,154. India 255,874. France 108,481. Spain 101,810. And Germany 90,962. There have been 5,603,837 deaths reported as Covid-related worldwide. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This is Covid 411, the latest on Omicron and other COVID variants, and new hotspots for January 25th, 2022.The head of the World Health Organization says it's a mistake to think Omicron is the last variant that will emerge. And as sorta proof, a sub-lineage of Omicron, BA.2, is under formal investigation by the UK Health Security Agency. 426 cases in the UK so far, and it's been spotted in the United States. It's called “stealth Omicron” because it can't be distinguished from other variants using PCR tests. So far, they feel current vaccinations work well against it. If you're wondering how often you need to clean the house, and yourself, Japanese scientists have found Omicron can survive longer than earlier strains on plastic surfaces and human skin. They say Omicron has a high "environmental stability" and that's what has helped it replace Delta as the dominant variant. It lasts about eight days on plastic, and 21.1 hours on skin.The FDA is revoking emergency use status for COVID antibody drugs from Regeneron and Eli Lilly. The agency says the two don't work against Omicron. The drugs were bought by the federal government and have been administered to millions of Americans. Alternate therapies from Pfizer, Merck, and GlaxoSmithKline are still okay but are in short supply.We will continue using the term here in our report, but the CDC is trying to pivot the language from being “fully vaccinated” to being “up to date” with vaccination against COVID. Being up to date means you've gotten all the recommended shots at the intervals recommended. Which would make you fully vaccinated. But if it's time to have a booster and you haven't gotten it, you are not up to date, with no apparent repercussions for that yet. The damage done by COVID goes well beyond matters of health, both physical and mental. High school graduation rates dipped in at least 20 states after the first full school year that was disrupted by the pandemic. That would end nearly two decades of nationwide progress toward getting more students graduated. Some states loosened standards, but the rate dropped anyway.In the United States, cases were up 2%, deaths are up 39%, and hospitalizations are up 18% over 14 days. The 7-day average of new cases has been trending down since January 14. The five states that had the most daily deaths per 100,000 are Ohio, Alaska, New York, Connecticut, and Tennessee. There are now over 27 million active cases in the United States, at 27,238,138.The five areas with the greatest increase in hospitalizations per capita: Alaska and Montana 93%. Wyoming 83%. Alabama 81%. And the U.S. Virgin Islands 79%. The top 10 areas with the highest number of recent cases per capita according to The New York Times: Waukesha, WI. Dane, WI. Uvalde, TX. Nome Census Area, AK. Maverick, TX. Santa Cruz, AZ. Dimmit, TX. Randolph, IL. Kodiak Island Borough, AK. And Wyoming, WV. There have been at least 868,494 deaths in the U.S. recorded as Covid-related.The top 3 vaccinating states by percentage of population that's been fully vaccinated: Vermont at 79.1%, Rhode Island at 78.4%, and Maine at 77.2%. The bottom 3 vaccinating states are Alabama at 49.2%, Wyoming at 49.6%, and Mississippi at 49.8%. The percentage of the U.S. that's been fully vaccinated is 63.4%.Globally, cases were up 34% and deaths up 23% over 14 days, with the 7-day average trending up since January 17. There are now over 67 million active cases around the world, at 67,479,089.The five countries with the most new cases: The United States 465,154. India 255,874. France 108,481. Spain 101,810. And Germany 90,962. There have been 5,603,837 deaths reported as Covid-related worldwide. For the latest updates, subscribe for free to... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Hello and a very warm welcome to Elmar's Tooth Talk: The Missing Link to Total Health. Weekly powerful, clear and effective content designed to optimise your natural health, wellbeing and wellness delivered by world-renowned holistic dentist, health coach and multi-qualified naturopath Dr Elmar Jung opening your mind and consciousness to the connection between teeth and overall health plus the importance of oral hygiene, gut health, diet, lifestyle, supplementation and detoxification.    You'll find out about the hazardous toxins and life-threatening risks of dental materials and treatments and what you can do about them. You'll understand why your teeth are probably the most important part of your health and how applying what you learn in the Podcast can kick-start your well-being revolution and transform your oral and overall health. If you always suspected that there is more to your health than just drill-fill-bill dentistry, then this Podcast is for you. In this episode we talk about: What kind of information are we fed? WHAT did the leaked document from the UK government tell about vaccines and our natural immune system WHAT happens to vaccinated people's antibodies WHAT Anthony Fauci confirms regarding the PCR test WHY the new regulation affects our private dental practice WHY taking the jab voluntarily is so important? HOW numbers add up WHAT the Latest figures from UK Health Security Agency show? WHY pregnant women suffer? WHAT kind of information are we fed? For more information on any of the subjects covered in this podcast: Connect with Dr Elmar Online  - Follow his official Facebook Page  - Follow his official Twitter handle - Watch his latest YouTube Video

Research shows hemp compounds prevent coronavirus from entering human cells   Oregon State University, January 11, 2022 Hemp compounds identified by Oregon State University research via a chemical screening technique invented at OSU show the ability to prevent the virus that causes COVID-19 from entering human cells. Van Breemen and collaborators, including scientists at Oregon Health & Science University, found that a pair of cannabinoid acids bind to the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, blocking a critical step in the process the virus uses to infect people. The compounds are cannabigerolic acid, or CBGA, and cannabidiolic acid, CBDA, and the spike protein is the same drug target used in COVID-19 vaccines and antibody therapy. A drug target is any molecule critical to the process a disease follows, meaning its disruption can thwart infection or disease progression.   Tomato concentrate could help reduce chronic intestinal inflammation associated with HIV   University of California Los Angeles, January 11, 2021 New UCLA-led research in mice suggests that adding a certain type of tomato concentrate to the diet can reduce the intestinal inflammation that is associated with HIV. Left untreated, intestinal inflammation can accelerate arterial disease, which in turn can lead to heart attack and stroke. The findings provide clues to how the altered intestinal tract affects disease-causing inflammation in people with chronic HIV infection, suggesting that targeting the inflamed intestinal wall may be a novel way to prevent the systemic inflammation that persists even when antiviral therapy is effective in controlling a person's HIV.     Too much sitting could mean worse outcomes for cancer survivors   Cancer Care Alberta (Canada), January 11, 2022 A new study shows those who sit too much and are not physically active are much more likely to die early from cancer or any other cause than those who are more active. Data on cancer survivors who took part in the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey from 2007 to 2014 showed that inactive survivors who reported sitting more than eight hours a day were at the highest risk of dying. "Cancer survivors who did not meet the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans [150 minutes per week of moderate-to-vigorous intensity leisure-time physical activity] and sit longer than eight hours per day had more than a fivefold increase in the risk of death from all causes—cancer and non-cancer," said lead researcher Lin Yang. The link was particularly troubling because the researchers found that as many as one-third of cancer survivors didn't exercise and sat more than six hours a day. Only about one-third got the recommended 150 hours of exercise a week, Yang said.     Running could improve brain function in people with Gulf War illness   Texas A&M University, January 10, 2022 It has now been three decades since 700,000 American troops responded to the invasion of Kuwait in the first Gulf War, and more than a third of those troops still suffer from the same condition: Gulf War Illness (GWI). Previously labeled Gulf War syndrome, GWI is characterized by persistent reduced cognitive function, memory problems, mood and sleep disturbances, chronic pain and fatigue. The exact cause of GWI is not known, though it is suggested that some combination of the prophylactic drug pyridostigmine bromide (PB), the mosquito repellant N, N-diethyl-m-toluamide (DEET), insecticide permethrin (PER), multiple pesticides, low doses of Sarin, and chronic war-related stress are to blame. Positive findings notwithstanding, the impracticalities of a drug that is not yet approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) led Shetty to explore more accessible means. With perhaps the most simple of interventions that could be asked (certainly one familiar to our veterans), he found that running a few times each week could be powerful in the relief of GWI-related symptoms.     Why high-dose vitamin C kills cancer cells   Low levels of catalase enzyme make cancer cells vulnerable to high-dose vitamin C University of Iowa, January 9, 2022 Vitamin C has a patchy history as a cancer therapy, but researchers at the University of Iowa believe that is because it has often been used in a way that guarantees failure. Most vitamin C therapies involve taking the substance orally. However, the UI scientists have shown that giving vitamin C intravenously--and bypassing normal gut metabolism and excretion pathways--creates blood levels that are 100 - 500 times higher than levels seen with oral ingestion. It is this super-high concentration in the blood that is crucial to vitamin C's ability to attack cancer cells. Earlier work by UI redox biology expert Garry Buettner found that at these extremely high levels (in the millimolar range), vitamin C selectively kills cancer cells but not normal cells in the test tube and in mice. Physicians at UI Hospitals and Clinics are now testing the approach in clinical trials for pancreatic cancer and lung cancer that combine high-dose, intravenous vitamin C with standard chemotherapy or radiation. Earlier phase 1 trials indicated this treatment is safe and well-tolerated and hinted that the therapy improves patient outcomes. The current, larger trials aim to determine if the treatment improves survival. In a new study, published recently in the December issue of the journal Redox Biology, Buettner and his colleagues have homed in on the biological details of how high-dose vitamin C (also known as ascorbate) kills cancer cells.   People with early-onset Parkinson's disease may benefit from boosting niacin in diet   University of Leicester (UK), January 10, 2022 •    Team studied fruit flies with a mutation that mimics the human disease •    Niacin/Vitamin B3 is found in a variety of foods including meats and nuts •    Research suggests niacin boosts levels of NAD compound in body for energy generation and DNA repair, which is critical for keeping mitochondria in shape and Parkinson's at bay •    Drugs that block NAD-consuming DNA repair already exist to treat cancer - therefore these drugs could be repurposed to protect faulty mitochondria in Parkinson's disease "This study strengthens the therapeutic potential for Vitamin B3/niacin-based dietary interventions in the treatment of Parkinson's disease" - Dr Miguel Martins, MRC Toxicology Unit, University of Leicester People with certain forms of early-onset Parkinson's disease may benefit from boosting the amount of niacin in their diet, according to new research from the University of Leicester. Niacin, or Vitamin B3, is found in a variety of foods, including nuts and meat. The team from the MRC Toxicology Unit at the University of Leicester studied fruit flies with a mutation that mimics the human disease.     America's Crisis of Cultural Moral Panic   Richard Gale and Gary Null PhD Progressive Radio Network, January 12, 2022 It is one thing to show a man that he is in error and another to put him in touch with truth… No man's knowledge can go beyond his experience” – John Locke (Essays Concerning Human Understanding) Locke was not alone in questioning what we believe to be true knowledge, and pointing out the consequences of failing to discern falsehoods from reality. Locke was in excellent company.  Due to the scientific revolution, which inspired several generations of deep thinkers, naturalists and philosophers, including Rousseau, Kant, Spinoza, Darwin, Bacon and Voltaire, the Age of Enlightenment or the Age of Reason has dominated the intellectual world of ideas for nearly two centuries. Locke's statements remain pertinent because today there is a new generation that has been indoctrinated by the shortcomings of scientific materialism. It was intended to bring forth a new purity, an idyllic perfectionism of thought and beliefs founded alone upon objective inquiry. But now this higher ideal has degenerated into a juvenile revolution fuelling identity politics, the cancel culture of wokeness, and a passionate micro-aggression that derives hedonist pleasure in ridicule and insult. One of its more lofty goals is to end free speech as we know it – except for those who are woke. Other goals are to institute a faux collectivism and to abolish meritocracy or social rewards earned through effort and achievement. For many years, important voices of critical thought – Noam Chomsky, Henry Giroux, Jordan Peterson, to name a few, have been warning us that this day was rapidly approaching. However, since there are no dynamic leaders in the youth's woke moment of Maoist-style cleansing and purging of wrong-views, wrong attitudes and wrong beliefs, most of us in the older generations wrongly assume it would be a passing phase. But it wasn't. In fact, the consequences of this unleashed furor, evidenced by an absence of self-reflection and critical thought, has been channeled into a mob rule of dissent and abuse.  In the virtual world gatherings of protest across social media, it is nearly unstoppable. No one is challenging them, neither the mainstream media nor the majority of academia. Rather, corporate leaders and persuasive forces within the ranks of liberal democratic institutions are coming to their aid. Therefore, it proceeds under the cover of a silent political power to sustain its energy. On the other hand, today's youth have every reason to feel disenchanted and to suffer rampant existential angst, the emptiness of not feeling a deeper sense of purpose and meaning in the world at large.  American neoliberalism's and our educational system's single-minded attention on science and technology -- which in themselves are amoral disciplines -- and rote memorization and testing has resulted in two decades of our youth becoming increasingly illiterate in the humanities, critical evaluation and reflective inquiry.  It is also the most irreligious generation in American history. Without the skills of introspective thought to develop a sense of genuine well-being and true happiness, or what Plato called eudomonia as opposed to hedonia, (the pursuit of temporary or transient pleasures), our nation has tossed its youth to the rabid dogs of the social Darwinian rat race for survival. Therefore, it is not surprising that suicides among today's teens and twenty-somethings have risen 47 percentduring the past two decades.  Sadly the casualty rate is higher after we consider there are 36 percent more people living in their 20s today than there were at the turn of the century. Thirty-two percent of youth through their 20s have clinical anxiety disorders, 1 in 9 suffer from depression and almost 14 percent have ADHD.  Although the medical community would like us to believe these are either inherited or biological conditions attributable to brain chemical imbalances, there is absolutely no scientific consensus proving there is a direct, observable causal relationship between brain function and mental states.  Certainly there are correlated relationships; but correlation is not causation.  The latter is solely a belief, an assumption, without any conclusive and confirming data. The causes are elsewhere and perhaps to be found in our dysfunctional society and the complete breakdown of traditional ethical structures and universal values. In 1972, South African sociologist Stanley Cohen proposed the Moral Panic Theory, an irrational widespread fear that threatens one's sense of values, safety and cohesion to one's “tribal” identity.  This moral panic, Cohen observes, is bolstered by the injustices of the ruling elite and its mouthpieces in the media. It also centers aroundthose who society marginalizes and is based upon “ethnicity, class, sexuality, nationality and religion.” Ashley Grossman, writing for ThoughtCo, makes the point that those in power will ultimately most benefit from moral panics “since they lead to increased control of the population and the reinforcement of the authority of those in charge.” The panic aroused grassroots movements provides the government or state “to enact legislation and laws that would seem illegitimate without the perceived threat at the center of the moral panic.” The popular fear of the Covid-19 virus and the unvaccinated created by our federal health officials and their news media allies is another recent example of Moral Panic Theory. Unfortunately, most of the country has entered a Moral Panic phase: the vitriolic propaganda in both parties, the greed and opportunism of the oligarchic and corporate elite, QAnon and the Alt-Right, and the Woke-Left. Repeatedly woke students are demanding their schools and colleges make assurances that they are emotionally safe from ideas and philosophies that challenge their fragile comfort zones. Teachers and professors who challenge their students' illusions about knowledge and their fragile self-identity are being ostracized with calls for administrative dismissal. How many academicians are forced to remain silent to avoid the consequences of the new woke Inquisition? Such student actions are indicative of their weak sense of self-worth and existential angst; yet we must look at modern parental upbringing and our culture's leading elders, as noted by Jonathan Haidt, to diagnose the causal factors for this psychological catastrophe of two entire generations. Consequently, when collective panic reaches a threshold, Cohen's theory might explain the sudden eruption of irrational behavior entangled in the rise of a cancel culture built upon an intellectual anarchy that is frighteningly irrational. And it is equally endemic to the reactionary maleficence of white supremacists and militias. So when a new book emerges, White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo, and becomes the holy grail of woke truths, we are lectured that what will not be tolerated is any deviation or heresy its espoused twisted emerging social norm. The author's central theme is that if you have the misfortune of being born with the wrong genes into the wrong family a with the wrong skin color, you are a racist and will be such for the remainder of your days.  Hence every White person is condemned with a defective moniker blazed across the forehead. And since meritocracy likewise is damned, all achievements are reduced to an inherited privilege of having been born Caucasian.  Your attempt to defend yourself and profess your free speech is a testament of your heresy. No apology or act of humility can save you. It is a life sentence without parole for good behavior. White Fragility is already being taught in many schools, with the full cooperation of teacher unions and school administrators. Resistance will be a subversive act and an admission of your racism. It is critical to observe this may be heading towards a new paradigm of Orwellian social control. Yet there is barely a shred of credible scientific evidence to support DiAngelo's hypotheses.  It is a flawed opinion, and a dangerous one at that.  Worse, its long-reaching conclusions could advocate for a repressive regime of a future scientism dictatorship that Nobel laureate Bertrand Russell warned.  Russell noted that “collective passions” have a penchant to inflame “hatred and rivalry directed towards other groups.” He was acutely aware that “science is no substitute for virtue; the heart is as necessary for the good life as the head.” And DiAngelo's screed falls into the dark abysmal waters of genetic determinism that gave rise to racist fascism. Russell further cautioned that this distorted over-reliance on faux science could be “a curse to mankind.” Perhaps, during its Icarus moment, wokeness will self-destruct under its own rashness and the internal fire of its undiscerning ardor.  What carnage it leaves in its wake remains to be seen. Yet there is nothing new or original in the cultural rebellion we are witnessing. This game has been played out before in previous acts that strived for an adolescent and unreachable social perfection.  It will have its blowback.  In his Principia Mathematica, Isaac Newton observed that for every action there is an equally opposing reaction. However, we have yet to witness how it will boomerang. But we will.  In the meantime, a new class of wannabe priests is emerging within the woke movement, a priesthood David Hume warned about in his Essays, Moral, Political and Literary, which will in turn be an adversary to liberty. Consider the backlash after Harpers magazine published a Letter on Justice and Open Debate to warn about “a new set of moral attitudes and political commitments that tend to weaken our norms of open debate and toleration of differences in favor of ideological conformity.”  Signed by over 160 brilliant minds, academicians and authors – liberal and conservative -- including Noam Chomsky, Jonathan Haidt, Susannah Heschel, Steven Pinker, Gloria Steinem, etc, the letter gives a stark warning of the unwelcomed consequences of the new culture of censorship that the demonstration's leaders are ushering into the nation at large. The woke now demand retribution against its signers, in effect shutting down the nation's 200-plus years of free speech, the right to disagree and public discourse. Have those who are most rabidly eager to condemn and cancel the wide diversity of voices who disagree with their beliefs considered earlier precedents for their actions? It was the Spanish Inquisition.  In principle, how many today are in effect labeled heretics and “witches” because they have spoken publicly in favor of free speech and oppose censorship? May not the woke movement in turn become the harbinger of a new Inquisition, a new platform of economic and social persecution by the powerful and wealthy waiting in the corridors after the cult of woke loses its steam? The causal problems to our terrified culture is of course far deeper and has been identified and analyzed repeatedly in the writings of Chris Hedges and Henry Giroux.  Our nation thrives on victimizing others.  Now the once disenfranchised victims of the liberal woke generation, erupting from its simmering angst and meaninglessness, are determined to be the new victimizers. What is the end game when a populist uprising of disillusioned and psychologically traumatized youth at the mercy of capitalism's parasitical march to claim more victims gets the upper hand. The movement has now evolved beyond its original demands of racial justice for the Black and other minority communities who have been discriminated against by our institutions, particularly law enforcement and the private prison system. Now it is rapidly morphing into a massive autonomous cult of divisiveness and self-righteousness without a moral backbone that recognizes the essential values of forgiveness, reconciliation, and cooperative engagement for preserving a sane and productive culture that benefits all.     Insurance companies should ‘penalize' the unvaxxed, ethicist at New York University recommends   Professor Arthur Caplan said that people who have chosen not to get jabbed should pay higher insurance premiums and be barred from getting life insurance LifeSite News, Jan 6, 2022 An ethicist at New York University said that people who have not gotten jabbed should be punished by insurance companies. “By and large, if you're vaccinated and boosted, even if you get infected, you're going to be fine. You're going to be fine here. It's the unvaccinated who are going to be hurt, so why should anyone who is boosted bother at this point to do anything that makes the unvaccinated more safe?” CNN's John Berman asked Professor Arthur Caplan, the director of the medical ethics division at NYU Grossman School of Medicine. Professor Caplan agreed that the unvaccinated should be shamed and treated poorly by society, though he said he hopes he can change their minds. “I'll condemn them. I'll shame them. I'll blame them,” Professor Caplan said. “We can penalize them more, say you will have to pay more on your hospital bill. You can't get life insurance, disability insurance at affordable rates if you aren't vaccinated.”     NO DEATHS FROM VITAMINS - Safety Confirmed by America's Largest Database   Orthomolecular News Service, January 7th 2022 The 38th annual report from the American Association of Poison Control Centers shows zero deaths from vitamins. It is interesting that it is so quietly placed way back there where nary a news reporter is likely to see it. The AAPCC reports zero deaths from multiple vitamins. And, there were no deaths whatsoever from vitamin A, niacin, pyridoxine (B-6) any other B-vitamin. There were no deaths from vitamin C, vitamin D, vitamin E, or from any vitamin at all. On page 1477 there is an allegation of a single death attributed to an unspecified, unknown "Miscellaneous Vitamin." The obvious uncertainly of such a listing diminishes any claim of validity. There were no fatalities from amino acids, creatine, blue-green algae, glucosamine, or chondroitin. There were no deaths from any homeopathic remedy, Asian medicine, Hispanic medicine, or Ayurvedic medicine. None.   (NEXT)   40% of Israel could be infected with Covid-19 in current wave, says PM   France24, January 10, 2022 Israel could see up to nearly 40 percent of the population infected by coronavirus during the current wave, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said Sunday, as testing facilities nationwide buckled Data presented at the cabinet meeting indicates that here, in Israel, between two to four million citizens in total will be infected during this current wave. A country of just 9.4 million, Israel has seen infections nearly quadruple over the past week compared to the previous one. The health ministry reported 17,518 new infections on Saturday. Health ministry data showed that more than 4.3 million Israelis were fully vaccinated with three shots, while 204 people are hospitalised in serious condition as a result of Covid-19 illness on Sunday. More than 1.5 million Covid cases, including 8,269 deaths, have been officially recorded in Israel.   (NEXT)   4th COVID Booster Shot Could Cause ‘Immune System Fatigue,' Scientists Say   As Israel moves ahead with fourth COVID shot, scientists told the New York Times the additional booster may cause more harm than good. Childrens Health Defense, January 7, 2022 COVID-19 booster shots could do more harm than good, according to scientists interviewed late last month by The New York Times. The scientists warned “that too many shots might actually harm the body's ability to fight COVID” and “might cause a sort of immune system fatigue.” On Monday, Israeli authorities began offering anyone over age 60 a chance to get a fourth shot, or second booster of the COVID vaccine. But scientists told The Times, before Israel confirmed it would offer the fourth shot, the science is not yet settled on using an additional booster shot to combat the new Omicron variant. There is one official report of an Israeli dying from Omicron. However, according to The Times of Israel, it is unclear that Omicron caused the death of the individual — a man in his 60s hospitalized weeks earlier from a pre-existing condition. A new report from the UK Health Security Agency showed booster doses are less effective against Omicron than previous variants, and their effectiveness wears off in only 10 weeks. Professor Hagai Levine, an epidemiologist and chairman of Israel's Association of Public Health Physicians, told The New York Times there's no published scientific evidence a fourth shot is needed to prevent severe illness from Omicron. “Before giving a fourth shot, it is preferable to wait for the science,” Levine said.   (NEXT)   145-Country Study Shows Increase Of Transmission And Death After Introduction Of Covid Vaccines   Truth Press, January 11, 2022 Instead of bringing an end to this pandemic as promised, the widespread rollout of the experimental vaccines has actually caused a sharp increase in Covid-19 cases and deaths across the world, according to a recently published preprint study that looked at data from the 145 of the most vaccinated countries in the world. The 99-page study titled “Worldwide Bayesian Causal Impact Analysis of Vaccine Administration on Deaths and Cases Associated with COVID-19: A BigData Analysis of 145 Countries” found that in the US specifically, the jab has caused a whopping 38% more Covid cases per million – and an even more astonishing 31% increase in deaths per million. In total, researchers found that almost 90% (89.84%) of the 145 countries experienced this negative effect from the vaccines after they were made available. From the study: “Results indicate that the treatment (vaccine administration) has a strong and statistically significant propensity to causally increase the values in either y1 [variable chosen for deaths per million] or y2 [variable chosen for cases per million] over and above what would have been expected with no treatment. y1 showed an increase/decrease ratio of (+115/-13), which means 89.84% of statistically significant countries showed an increase in total deaths per million associated with COVID-19 due directly to the causal impact of treatment initiation [vaccines]. y2 showed an increase/decrease ratio of (+105/-16) which means 86.78% of statistically significant countries showed an increase in total cases per millionof COVID-19 due directly to the causal impact of treatment initiation.” Perhaps the most telling part of the study's results is that the countries which recorded the fewest Covid deaths in 2020 were the ones to experience the largest increases in cases and deaths once the vaccine was introduced, with some of them seeing increases as high as over a thousand percent. In the study's conclusion, researchers warned that the substantial increase in deaths and cases should be “highly worrisome” for the policymakers around the world who have been promoting the experimental vaccines as the “key to gain back our freedoms.”   (NEXT)   Covid Vaccine-Injuries: "An Avalanche", says Attorney Aaron Siri   In November 2021, attorney Aaron Siri explained to an expert panel at Congress that his firm was seeing "an avalanche of submissions" from people seeking help to sue after covid vaccine-injuries.         Here we are in early January 2022, and:        ~ The CDC's data released December 31, 2021 contains 1,017,001 covid vaccine-injury records.        ~ The WHO's global database (VigiAccess) has collected 2,933,902 covid vaccine-injury records.        Even young children are being vaccine-injured.       From CDC's own publication, MMWR Dec. 31, 2021:        ~ "5,277 VAERS reports received for children aged 5–11 years" [1,028 (19.5%) were excluded from this analysis]        ~ "Approximately 5.1% of parents reported that their child was unable to perform normal daily activities on the day after receipt of dose 1, and 7.4% after receipt of dose 2. Approximately 1% of parents reported seeking medical care in the week after vaccination"       ~ "Two reports of death during the analytic period [November 3 - December 19, 2021]

Protection against hospitalisations remains at around 90% for people aged 65 and over even three months after boosting, according to data from the UK Health Security Agency.  So, UK experts consider a fourth Covid jab unnecessary, yet. This happens with severe disease. With mild infection it is shorter, dropping around 30% by about 90 days.  The agency also said that with two vaccine doses, protection against serious illness decreases to 70% after three months, and to 50% after six. Hence the importance of the booster shot.  So far, over 35 million boosters have been administered in the UK.  

The Turkish minimum wage is increased by 50%, but will spiralling inflation simply cancel it out? Also on the programme; the UK Health Security Agency has said today that the R value for the Omicron variant is between three and five. Even a fraction above one is considered extremely bad. And the President of Tunisia suspends parliament for another year. (Picture: People wait to exchange money at a currency exchange in Istanbul Credit: Reuters / Senkaya)

Boris Johnson's goal of giving everyone a booster jab by the end of the year is unlikely to be met, NHS leaders warned as huge queues formed outside vaccine centres. Waits of up to five hours were reported at some clinics and the central booking website repeatedly crashed as it struggled to keep up with demand. The UK Health Security Agency estimated that 200,000 people were infected with Omicron today, far more than previously known to have caught Covid-19 in a single day and suggesting that the variant has already outpaced Delta. The prime minister launched an appeal for vaccine volunteers to help the NHS “hit warp speed” on boosters. Councils, fire brigades and police have been asked to offer up any staff trained in delivering jabs. Vaccination centres were told last night to be ready to run 24 hours a day and through Christmas as ministers insisted that boosters take precedence over routine care. Hospitals and GP surgeries were ordered to redeploy staff to support what Amanda Pritchard, head of NHS England, called “an immediate, all-out drive” on boosters.

The early Omicron lab numbers have been crunched and it's becoming clear it will eclipse Delta as the most transmissible variant of Covid-19. The UK Health Security Agency's findings, released over the weekend, show Omicron will also be better at evading the vaccines we've been using. Ascertaining Omicron's severity is still some way off for scientists but Canterbury University modeler Michael Plank said its high transmissibility alone is troubling. He spoke to Corin Dann.

The early Omicron lab numbers have been crunched and it's becoming clear it will eclipse Delta as the most transmissible variant of Covid-19. The UK Health Security Agency's findings, released over the weekend, show Omicron will also be better at evading the vaccines we've been using. Ascertaining Omicron's severity is still some way off for scientists but Canterbury University modeler Michael Plank said its high transmissibility alone is troubling. He spoke to Corin Dann.

This episode it is our honour to be joined by Dr Diane Ashiru-Oredope. Diane is the Lead Pharmacist for the Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) and Healthcare Associated Infections, UK Health Security Agency and the Global AMR lead for the Commonwealth Pharmacists Association. Diane developed and leads the international Antibiotic Guardian campaign and is currently leading an evidence review into pharmaceutical public health. We chat to Diane about the risks posed by Antimicrobial Resistance - COVID has given us a valuable, and frightening, insight into what happens when we are faced with a disease we can't treat. We also touch on her amazing work in supporting black and ethnic minority pre-registration pharmacists and the importance of developing good habits. We discuss Welsh maggots, find out why Gimmo is eating sauerkraut, standing on one leg and playing more computer games. Our micro discussion focuses on Antibiotic overuse: managing uncertainty and mitigating against overtreatment. A fantastic editorial that asks the question - What do you do when you don't know what to do? https://qualitysafety.bmj.com/content/early/2021/07/20/bmjqs-2021-013615 As with all our guests we ask Diane to pick her ‘Desert Island Drug', a career defining anthem and a book that has influenced her work. The choices do not disappoint!To get in touch follow us on Twitter @auralapothecary or email us at auralapothecarypod@gmail.com You can listen to the Aural Apothecary playlist here; https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3OsWj4w8sxsvuwR9zMXgn5?si=tiHXrQI7QsGtSQwPyz1KBg You can view the Aural Apothecary Library here; https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/31270100-paul-gimson?ref=nav_mybooks&shelf=the-aural-apothecary BioDr Diane Ashiru-Oredope MPharm DipClinPharm MPH PhD FRPharmS FFRPS FRSPH Dr Diane Ashiru-Oredope is the Lead Pharmacist for the Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) and Healthcare Associated Infections, UK Health Security Agency and the Global AMR lead for the Commonwealth Pharmacists Association. An antimicrobial pharmacist by background, she has significantly contributed to or led several multicounty and international projects and workshops on tackling antimicrobial resistance including assessing knowledge, attitudes and behaviours of healthcare workers as well as developed relevant training. She developed and leads the international Antibiotic Guardian campaign (#AntibioticGuardian), now in its seventh year and is underpinned by behavioural science. In 2015 Dr Diane Ashiru-Oredope was awarded Public Health Pharmacist of the year and in 2016 Outstanding Woman in the Public Sector at the 10th PRECIOUS awards. She was appointed a Fellow of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain (FRPharmS) in February 2017 and a Faculty Fellow (FFRPS) in 2016. She has been nominated and delivered TEDx talks at TEDxNHS and TEDxLondonBusinesSchool Diane is currently leading an evidence review on pharmaceutical public health on behalf of the four UK Chief Pharmaceutical Officers. She is passionate about supporting and mentoring future pharmacists and in 2018 founded a free mentoring/support group for trainee pharmacists.

Brot und Spiele für den Plepp, um von den eigentlichen Dingen abzulenken. Das sind die Zahlen derer, die Gottes Flüssigkeit bekamen und jetzt im Krankenhaus liegen, weil sie an der C-Proteinstruktur erkrankt sind. Und es findet sich immer ein sog. Wissenschaftler, der seinen Namen in den Ring wirft und durch die Relotius-Propaganda-Medien mitteilen lässt, wie sicher alles sei. Schaut man sich aber mal die offiziellen Zahlen an, die es durchaus gibt, genauer an, beispielsweise in Großbritannien, dann fällt man vom Stuhl. Hört selbst und Viel Spaß beim selbst denken! Link zur UK Health Security Agency und dem Impf-Überwachungs-Report KW 42: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1027511/Vaccine-surveillance-report-week-42.pdf, S. 13 Link zur Webseite mit den kostenfreien Designs zum Herunterladen, ausdrucken, verteilen: www.gegenwind20xx.wordpress.com Teil 2 der Corona-Trilogie: Sven Thiele, Die Corona-Krise. Wie Politik und Medien gemeinsam tricksen und manipulieren, der Link: https://amzn.to/3jJdeBZ Wenn Ihr unsere Arbeit unterstützen möchtet, dann könnt Ihr das mit einer Schenkung tun: Bitcoin: 3MSVxcgSkSGvBmjh7SPMCFjX6wMSQUykRf Wir sagen herzlichen Dank für Eure Unterstützung! Abrissbirne gibt es ebenfalls als Podcast auf: https://anchor.fm/zwayne-mc https://www.breaker.audio/abrissbirne https://www.google.com/podcasts?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy80ZTQ5NjczOC9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw== https://pca.st/hxrd7pge https://radiopublic.com/abrissbirne-6v7KgQ https://open.spotify.com/show/594ER0zO50dAo4MtGYKz8G und auf Telegram: https://t.me/abrissbirneofficial --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/zwayne-mc/message

Last week, testing at a private Covid lab in Wolverhampton was halted, after the UK Health Security Agency found tens of thousands of people may have been falsely given a negative PCR result. But since the start of September, scientists had been alerted to strange patterns in the testing data which suggested something was out of the ordinary. Anand Jagatia speaks to Dr Kit Yates, a mathematical biologist, about why it took so long for these errors to be traced back to the lab, and what the consequences could be. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/sciencepod

Meaghan Kall is an epidemiologist at what used to be known as Public Health England but is now the UK Health Security Agency. She and her colleagues have been working flat out for two years producing some of the world's best COVID data. We speak about annoying and funny COVID myths. She gives her view on COVID vaccine waning, Long COVID and risk in children; and how we are going to come to terms with COVID as an endemic disease (think about managing flu, although with different outcomes). We dive into what it means to be an epidemiologist and think about the social determinants of health. With the lens of looking at HIV epidemiology, we discuss how certain populations are more adversely impacted. We discuss what caring for disabled children as meant for us and how that insight is another facet of what it means to be human. We think about what “expected value” means and how science can not answer matters of policy which have to be decided also by thinking of our values and other trade-offs. Meaghan gives the advice she is currently giving family and friends and ends with some thinking on life career advice. Transcript and video available here. Ben's Twitter @benyeohben and Meaghan's Twitter @kallmemeg