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Another key pro-Ivermectin meta-analysis is retracted
Less than a month after the withdrawal of a widely touted preprint claiming that Ivermectin could successfully treat COVID-19, the authors of a meta-analysis...
China seals off city as worst virus outbreak in a year grows
Chinaʼs worst coronavirus outbreak since the start of the pandemic a year and a half ago has escalated, with dozens more cases around the...
200,000 protest in France against health pass law
For the third week in a row, hundreds of thousands have taken to the streets around France to protest the governmentʼs COVID-19 health pass...
WHO's pandemic efforts in poorer nations face a $11.5bn funding crunch
The World Health Organization is seeking $11.5 billion in urgent funding to fight the more infectious Delta variant of the coronavirus, a WHO draft...
SA medical students stranded in Cuba sell their clothing to survive
A group of medical students, who have completed their fifth year of studies in Cuba and expected to return to South Africa last year,...
More than 50% of British COVID hospitalisations tested positive only after admission
More than half of COVID-19 hospitalisations in Britain are patients who tested positive only after admission, leaked NHS data reveal. The Telegraph reports that...
GMC survey: COVID stress hammers Britain's trainee doctors
One-third of trainee doctors in the UK are feeling burnt out to a high or very high degree amid the COVID pandemic, up from...
J&J vaccine recipients may need boosters against Delta variant
The Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine is substantially less effective against the Delta and Lambda variants than against the original virus and booster shots...
COVID-19 might have killed four million people in India – Harvard study
Research published this week by the Center for Global Development in the United States found that COVID-19 has likely killed several million people in...
CDC: Get the vaccination even if you have had COVID-19
With the Delta variant surging in the United States, doctors are urging everyone who is eligible to get vaccinated – including the more than...
Delta variant’s dominance in much of the world forces governments to change tack
The Delta variant of the coronavirus is now the dominant lineage in much of the world and has forced a rethink in public health...
COVID shots for all may become mandatory, warns French president
Compulsory vaccination may be only way to normal life, says French president Emmanuel Macronas as the Delta wave grows, writes Medical Brief.
Macron raised the possibility...
Delta variant may be transmitted in ‘scarily fleeting’ contacts
Australian CCTV footage suggests that “scarily fleeting” contact of “five to 10 seconds” with the COVID-19 Delta variant can infect, reports The Guardian.
Based on...
Chinese vaccines: Less effective antibodies in Delta variant
Antibodies triggered by two COVID-19 vaccines developed in China are less effective against the Delta variant compared with other strains, but the shots still...
Efficacy of Chinese vaccines questioned after outbreaks
With more than 90 countries using COVID-19 vaccines from China, experts say recent infections in those places are “a cautionary tale” in the global...
Ivermectin added to world’s largest clinical trial of possible COVID-19 treatments
From today, Ivermectin is being investigated in the UK as part of the Platform Randomised Trial of Treatments in the Community for Epidemic and...
Previous COVID infection may not offer long-term protection – UK study
Previous infection with coronavirus does not necessarily protect against COVID-19 in the longer term, especially when caused by new variants of concern, an Oxford...
Legal first in UK as NHS trust fined for baby's death
An NHS trust has been fined a record US$1 million (£761,000) following a landmark prosecution by the Care Quality Commission for failing to protect...
Seven countries report more vaccine-derived polio cases
Seven countries – Afghanistan and six African nations – have reported more polio cases in the past week, all involving circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type...
Landmark UK change to LGBT blood donation rules but Africa restriction remains
NHS Blood and Transplant has introduced new eligibility rules that will allow more men who have sex with men to donate blood, platelets and...
Biden shuts down US State efforts to find a Wuhan lab leak
President Joe Biden's team has shut down a US State Department effort launched late in the Trump administration to prove the coronavirus originated in...
India pauses major COVID-19 vaccine exports until October
India is unlikely to resume major exports of COVID-19 vaccines until at least October as it diverts shots for domestic use, government sources told...
US claims over 130 incidents of Havana Syndrome brain injury
There have been more than 130 incidents of unexplained brain injury known as Havana Syndrome among US diplomats, spies and defence officials, some of...
Independent COVID-19 response review: WHO and governments failed
Describing the COVID-19 pandemic as the 21st Century's "Chernobyl moment", an independent panel has found that there were serious failures by both the World...
FDA authorises Pfizer vaccine for adolescents
US Food and Drug Administration has expanded the emergency use authorisation (EUA) for the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine to include adolescents 12 through 15 years...
WHO reclassifies India variant as being of global concern
The World Health Organization (WHO) has announced that the triple-mutant B.1.617, known as the India variant, is now classified as a variant of global...
India accounts for 25% of all global pandemic deaths in past week
India accounted for 46% of global cases and 25% of global deaths reported in the past week, as the country’s coronavirus deaths rose by...
As 36% of British doctors eye retirement, patients complain about telemedicine
Patients in the UK are finding it increasingly hard to see their GPs, with warnings that pandemic restrictions have too often “closed the door”...
Thousands at risk from reused nose swabs at airport
Several employees of a pharmaceutical company have been arrested in Indonesia for allegedly washing and reselling used COVID nasal swab test kits, reports BBC...
CDC outlines who should — and shouldn't — take J&J's vaccine
In a call with clinicians, the US Centers for Disease Control has outlined who should should avoid the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine, reports...
Politicians, gangsters and the rich jump India's COVID queues
The shortage of oxygen and beds across India is being worsened by well-connected Indians being admitted to hospital unnecessarily, according to the World Health...
Pfizer warns of counterfeit versions of its COVID-19 vaccine
Pfizer says it is aware of counterfeit versions of its COVID-19 vaccine, which the drugmaker developed with BioNTech, as criminals seek to cash in...
EU medicines regulator clears J&J vaccine for continued use
The European Medicines Agency found a possible link between Johnson & Johnson’s coronavirus vaccine and rare cases of unusual blood clotting disorders “very similar”...
Chile has pandemic surge despite extensive vaccinations
Chile’s vaccination campaign against the coronavirus has been one of the world’s quickest and most extensive, but, reports CNBC, a recent surge in infections...
J&J vaccine paused over rare blood-clots in US, Europe and SA
Johnson & Johnson's coronavirus vaccine's rollout has been paused in South Africa, the United States and Europe, over blood-clotting concerns by the US Centres for...
Top official admits low efficacy of China's vaccines — then retracts
China's top disease control official has said the efficacy of the country's COVID vaccines is low, in a rare admission of weakness. BBC News...
AstraZeneca shoots itself in the foot, again
After highly encouraging results from its US clinical trials this week, AstraZeneca seemed set to recover from a series of research mishaps, public relations...
China says early data shows Sinovac vaccine is safe in children
China’s Sinovac Biotech has announced that its COVID-19 vaccine is safe in children ages 3-17, based on preliminary data, and it has submitted the...
UK's controversial 'apprentice' plans for medical doctors
UK doctors could qualify without a traditional medical degree under controversial plans to allow medics to “earn as they learn” as apprentices, reports The...
US Catholic bishops reject J&J vaccine over aborted foetus cells
The US Conference of Catholic Bishops has advised Catholics against the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine because it was developed using cells from an...