COVID-19 Coronavirus and other virus UK and World News Update 2nd May 2025
Prescription charges in England are being frozen at £9.90 per item. This will come as some relief to the many millions of people who don't qualify for free prescriptions, but are feeling the cost of living just as badly. 3 month and annual prescriptions are also frozen (and worth it if you have more than 1 prescription a month or 11 a year), as well as wig and fabric support prescriptions.
Free prescriptions stay the same. People registered with a GP and using a pharmacy in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland get free prescriptions anyway.
Despite practically the entire world using 'CDC' as an acronym for Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, the UK Department of Health and Social Care have decided to use it for Community Diagnostic Centres. Well, that isn't confusing... tsk. However...
"Community Diagnostic Centres and crack teams of NHS doctors are making a difference across the country.
- More tests, checks and scans
- More care closer to home
- Waiting lists slashed in areas with high economic inactivity"
Good stuff.
Southampton NHS Trust have today announced they'll be cutting 780 mostly non-clinical jobs. They have to save £110m while still meeting Government aims to reduce waiting lists and improve care.
The Government have promised to inject millions of £££s into IT to reduce admin burden on staff, so this isn't entirely unexpected, but still very hard on everyone who loses their job. They won't be the only ones...
The Health Foundation report on the UK NHS over Winter has found Urgent Care had the worst performance ever. In January 60,000 people who needed to be admitted to hospital from A&E waited more than 12 hours. We already know the problem, there is nowhere to admit patients, because we don't have enough beds and we have too many people waiting to be discharged.
It's long past time we raised budgets and wages for social care, trained more carers and let fit people go home with the support they need.
Somewhat bizarrely the US COVID dot Gov website now redirects you to a Whitehouse page dedicated to promoting the unproven theory that COVID leaked from a lab in Wuhan.
It's designed to look like a Hollywood blockbuster poster, with "Lab Leak" emblazoned across the top, "the true origins of COVID" in smaller writing, and an image of Donald Trump in the middle. There are then 5 statements:
1. "The virus possesses a biological characteristic that is not found in nature."
What's that then? It can only really mean the 'furin cleavage site' which although rare, is found in a few other viruses. It's also a new virus, we don't expect it to be identical to anything else.
2. "Data shows that all COVID-19 cases stem from a single introduction into humans. This runs contrary to previous pandemics where there were multiple spillover events."
Well, no. Just because something is often true, doesn't mean it always is. Ebola 2014 was most likely a single human introduction, and we don't even have this information from most pandemics through history. No-one was genetic testing the black death back in the 1300's. While it's plausible COVID had a single point of entry, nothing proves it. It seems definite people were ill in Wuhan without being taken into hospital and tested, and we don't have all of the genetic family tree, or we'd have found the patient zero.
3. "Wuhan is home to China’s foremost SARS research lab, which has a history of conducting gain-of-function research (gene altering and organism supercharging) at inadequate biosafety levels."
Yes, yes and hmmm. Biosafety there is at universally accepted levels, although I personally agree it should be more robust worldwide.
4. "Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) researchers were sick with COVID-like symptoms in the fall of 2019, months before COVID-19 was discovered at the wet market."
That goes against point 2! And there's no evidence to say people were unusually ill. We all know by now many things have similar symptoms to COVID, and looking back and saying "ooh, and Jeff had that cough too" is not great on accuracy.
5. "By nearly all measures of science, if there was evidence of a natural origin it would have already surfaced. But it hasn’t."
Bats. Literally.
The website says world-leading scientists lied (did they?), masks aren't proven to reduce transmission (they are), lots of people hid information (possibly, or they just cut out the boring bits from thousands of pages) and hilariously the NIH (National Institutes of Health) were underfunded. It stops short of saying Fauci smells of wee, but it’s close.
I'm all for facts and proof, and all I see is bitterness, someone's theory and personal attacks. This is grim and dystopian. They've replaced a factual Government information site with scandal and conjecture - they're burning books.
During Trump's first 100 days NIH (National Institutes for Health) grants have dropped by $2.3 BILLION. This will make one heck of a difference to all kinds of research, as well as the facilities and universities who were expecting to do the work. STAT News suggest hardest hit areas will be infectious diseases (including COVID and HIV), heart and lung studies, and work on 'fundamental biological systems' (such as endocrine, digestive, nervous, reproductive etc).
Well, this'll save some money...The US NIH has banned all future grants to universities which have DEI or DEIA (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility) programmes, or boycotts of companies doing business in Israel. They say they want to stop DEI programmes and antisemitism.
No-one with a shred of humanity has support for antisemitism, and it is a very different thing to boycotting Israel because of what's currently happening in Gaza and the West Bank. People who benefitted from DEI/DEIA programmes are minorities who have it hard enough already, removing support is cruel. History will judge this time very harshly.
Dystopia you say? Sit down because this is scary. The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) is going to gather health information from all kinds of places - Medicare, Medicaid, pharmacies, the Department of Veterans Affairs and Indian Health Service, private insurers, smartwatches, fitness trackers etc. to create a database. On the surface it sounds a sensible way to track the nation’s health, and it will be used to study chronic disease. However.... it will also be used to create "a new disease registry to track autism".
Autistic people and groups are rightly concerned. At times autism is being spoken about very cruelly, even suggesting autistic people aren't capable of adding to society or bringing joy to a family. Comments about treating, fixing or avoiding autism are putting out unpleasant vibes of eugenics.
The database doesn’t sound like it's going to be entirely anonymous, although new NIH Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya assures us the 10 to 20 groups chosen to study autism will be able to access the data, but not download it - whatever that means.
Personally I wish they devoted the time to studying why some people are just hateful or intolerant towards others. "Treat" that and leave our diversity and our autists alone.
Under the new headship and team for approving vaccines, the US FDA (Food and Drug Administration) has demanded that Novovax do a whole new trial before their updated COVID vaccine is approved. This is a traditional old-style vaccination which has been regularly updated to better suit currently circulating COVID strains (currently JN.1).
There is some doubt that any updated COVID jabs will be approved in the USA this year (including mRNA from Pfizer and Moderna), which will be disappointing news for the literally millions of people who are still (and always will be) extremely vulnerable to COVID.
FDA Commissioner Dr Marty Makary explains we are in a different world now to 5 years ago, and most people have gained some resistance to COVID through vaccinations or infection, so we need to see how valuable vaccinations still are... but there are people out there constantly checking these things. It isn't as if research just stopped and the updated jabs have no data. It also raises ethical concerns, as it seems likely they'll demand placebo-testing - where an equal number of people get the jab or a placebo. In the case of something like COVID, where some people are advised to get regularly vaccinated, how can you give them a placebo? Testing only healthy younger people who weren't intending to be vaccinated anyway will only give you part of the whole picture.
If this stands, then by the same argument the annual flu jab would need a whole new clinical trial. Each trial costs millions and many months to do, so it isn't feasible for regularly updated vaccines.
A lot of people are quite shouty and incredulous...
There are also rumours that the US childhood immunisation schedule is going to be overhauled, and possibly COVID jabs will be removed. Just rumours, wait and see.
Remember I said the USA need their own independent health body, like the UKs indieSAGE (experts who discussed everything the Government did during COVID, and made their own suggestions based on Science and years of experience). Well, guess what, philanthropic foundation Alumbra has funded the Vaccine Integrity Project. It’s been set up by the Centre for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP) at the University of Minnesota (the same people publish really informative health updates almost daily) and includes Margaret Hamburg (former Commissioner of the FDA) and Harvey Fineberg (former president of the Institute of Medicine).
"The Vaccine Integrity Project has established a Steering Committee comprised of 8 leading public health and policy experts to make recommendations for how vaccine use can remain grounded in the best available science, free from external influence and focused on optimizing protection of individuals, families, and communities against vaccine-preventable diseases."
Nice. Standing ovation for all involved.
The US FDA (Food and Drug Administration) has suspended quality control for the people who test milk safety, because they simply don't have the resources. This doesn't necessarily mean milk safety in the US will drop, but it opens the door to that possibility, through accident or intention.
The US FDA is reinstating people left, right and centre - when they can. The people who deal with freedom of information requests, food safety teams, generic drug experts, the folk who protect inspectors when they are abroad, medical device inspectors etc. They all turned out to be essential, however when you fire a top experts, there's often someone else waiting to employ them. Unfortunately for the FDA, if a medical inspector applies for a job in the private sector, it creates a conflict of interest - you can't be responsible for giving safety certificates to a company where you want to work. So, yeah, that's causing a bit of a problem already...
Some pretty hopeful news regarding the future possibility of an H5N1 outbreak among humans. Scientists funded by the UK Government and EU have published a paper (not-yet peer-reviewed) where they suggest how an outbreak is likely to play out. They studied regular human flu viruses and a 2003 H7N7 outbreak of avian flu in the Netherlands where human to human transmission was detected (89 confirmed cases, 900-2,000 suspected, 1 fatality). They examined the genetic properties of the viruses to make a highly educated guess.
The findings suggest if human to human transmission occurs, the reproductive rate (number of other people each infected person infects) could be much lower than current human flu types, as low as 0.2. That 0.2 would mean for every 5 infected people on average just 1 more would catch it, so it would be virtually impossible for H5N1 bird flu to keep going through humans, and it would die out. It’s even possible transmission that low would be barely detectable, as you'd just get occasional cases with no known exposure to infected birds or animals (which actually we already have).
For comparison in unvaccinated people with no previous immunity, the reproductive rate of human flu is 1-2, COVID is 1.4-2.5, and measles at 12-18 is the most contagious known virus on the planet.
On the negative side, the study suggests human infections with H5N1 would be more severe than human flu, with a higher need for hospitals, and it has a longer incubation period when people could possibly be infectious without symptoms. Overall though, it's an estimate I like quite a lot.
A UK study asked 223 people at risk from bird flu (poultry workers, vets etc.) whether they were vaccinated for human flu. The UK Government advised flu vaccines for high risk groups in order to hopefully prevent someone catching human and bird flu at the same time, because that risks creating a recombinant hybrid which (unlike plain H5N1) could spread easily through humans.
Only half knew they had even been advised to get a flu jab.
Only 77 had been vaccinated, with 98 saying they didn't intend to get a flu jab at all. In the over 60's, 29 of 48 had been vaccinated.
Better information needed there then...
Because of fears farmworkers aren't coming forward for flu testing, or bothering to get regular flu jabs, California is offering $25 gift cards for influenza vaccination or flu testing for people at high risk of bird flu.
H5N1 Avian Flu is still running through US dairy cattle, but we have had no new confirmed human infections now in the US since January (same for the UK). There have been a couple of human infections elsewhere, and sadly fatalities, but they are individual cases and no human to human spread has occurred.
The number of US dairy herds confirmed infected with H5N1 avian flu is now 1,047 across 17 states.
In the last 30 days there were 47 new herds confirmed infected across 3 states (Montana, California and Arizona).
Researchers from Chung Shan Medical University in Taiwan, while studying adults with Long COVID, have discovered that mild to moderate COVID patients treated with Paxlovid had a significantly lower risk of stroke and all-cause death for at least 3 months afterwards, as compared to patients who did not receive Paxlovid. For older people and those with metabolic conditions such as obesity, the effect was particularly pronounced, and not reliant on vaccination status.
Researchers at WEHI (The Walter And Elizabeth Hall Institute of Medical Research) in Australia have discovered that if you give mice their new antiviral compound, not only does it treat acute COVID infection more effectively than Paxlovid, it protects the mice from developing long-term brain and lung dysfunction - 2 of the main features of Long COVID.
This is the first time these results have been seen, so study lead Dr Marcel Doerflinger is understandably very keen to move forward with a human version of the antiviral, and clinical trials.
Whereas Paxlovid and other current antivirals target a protein in the coronavirus called Mpro, this treatment targets a protein called PLpro. This gives another possible advantage, because if Paxlovid stopped working, we'd have an alternative.
Around 5-10% of people who catch COVID develop long term symptoms lasting 3 months or more (for a significant number of people it is years). Long COVID (or PASC - post acute sequelae of COVID) affects millions of people of all ages and is a massive issue worldwide, but really is not receiving the attention it should be.
A poll in The Washington Post has found that Americans aren't sure what to believe about the measles vaccine. Misinformation and confused messages are rife, and less than 50% were certain of these 3 factual statements:
- Measles vaccine does NOT cause Autism
- Measles vaccine is less dangerous than catching Measles
- Vitamin A will NOT prevent Measles infection
It's little wonder people are confused. In a televised interview with US telly bloke Dr Phil, RFK Jr said a couple of things which don't match up with what we know to be provably true.
He sensibly said “if you want to avoid spreading measles, the best thing you can do is take that vaccine.” and then later said “...but does it also do something else, cause you seizures or cause neurological or autoimmune disease? We don’t know. Nobody can answer that question.”
Well Bob, they can. We have decades of research, and billions of vaccinated people. Febrile convulsions occur roughly 1 in every 3,000-4,000 jabs, compared to 1 in 43 from infection. Autoimmune disease "idiopathic thrombocytopenia (ITP)" occurs after roughly 1 in 23,000-40,000 jabs, compared to 1 in 3,030 from infection. No neurological diseases after measles vaccination have been detected, compared to a 1 in 1,000 chance of encephalitis from catching measles.
RFK Jr also said: “New drugs are approved by outside panels, not by the F.D.A. or the C.D.C.”
Oooh, so close, 1 out of 3.
New drugs in the USA are NOT approved by outside panels, they just advise. New drugs can ONLY be approved by the FDA (Food and Drug Administration). How did he not know this? The CDC are not involved in vaccine approval. That was correct. Well done Bob.
RFK Jr then said: “There’s no safety studies at the outset, there’s no surveillance system afterward. Vaccines are the only medicine or medical product that is exempt from pre-licensing safety testing.”
Bob, are you messing with us? We all know vaccines go through months of vigorous trials for safety and efficacy - in a petri dish, in animals, in a small number of humans and then in a large number of humans. Once in use they're under constant surveillance by manufacturers, health bodies, scientists, university students etc. Medics and patients themselves can even report suspected adverse effects using VAERS (the Yellow Card scheme in the UK).
Possibly the most concerning AND WRONG thing RFK Jr said this week (that I'm aware of) is that the MMR vaccine “contains a lot of aborted fetus debris and DNA particles”.
No. No it doesn't. Most vaccines are grown in animal or human cells, they are then removed from those cells (they often burst out) and everything is purified (like growing strawberries in a grow bag - you don't generally eat the compost, or even the stalks).
Some vaccines are grown in cells which originated in a human foetus in the 1960's, and have been grown on in a lab ever since. Some vaccines are grown in animal cells in the same way.
There is no recognisable human or animal DNA in vaccines, and it cannot transfer or alter your DNA. If it was that easy, we'd eradicate tons of life-limiting genetic conditions, and sadly we can't. It could also be a body altering experience each time you ate meat, or plants, or breathed dust.
Major religious groups, including Catholic, Jewish and Islamic leaders, as well as vegan and vegetarian groups, have been very clear. The quantity is so low and the benefit to humankind so great, people should be vaccinated and it does not go against faith or moral codes.
The measles outbreak in America has reached the point the World Health Organisation are doing situation reports. Smashing.
As of 18th April, 2,318 confirmed measles cases and three deaths had been reported in the 6 countries in the WHO Region of the Americas, 11 times as many as the same period in 2024. Argentina 21, Belize 2, Brazil 5, Canada 1069, Mexico 421 (1 fatality), and the United States of America 800 (2 fatalities).The regional risk is currently assessed as high, global risk remains moderate.
Latest figures:
Whole USA as per the CDC (which is a bit behind local information) - to 1st May: 935 confirmed cases. 12 outbreaks of 3 or more cases. 96% unvaccinated or unknown, 2% 2 doses, 2% a single dose of vaccination, 121 hospitalised (13%), 3 fatalities.
Texas - to 2nd May: 683 cases, 89 hospitalised, 2 fatalities
Kansas - to 30th April: 46 cases, 1 hospitalised (5 vaccinated)
New Mexico - to 29th April: 67 cases, 7 hospitalised, 1 fatality (8 vaccinated)
Oklahoma - to 1st May: 15 cases (1 vaccinated)
Indiana - to 1st May: 8 cases
Michigan - to 25th April: 9 cases
Ohio - website down
In Canada the total to 12th April was 1,069, with 119 cases reported in the week 6th to 12th April. Total for Ontario was 924.
Mexico also has a measles outbreak, mostly in Chihuahua, which borders Texas (the outbreaks are linked by the Mennonite communities). On 4th April they had reported 934 probable and confirmed cases, but have moved to only reporting confirmed cases. As of 30th April that total is 583, and 1 fatality.
Whooping Cough (Pertussis) isn't actually a virus, it's a bacterial infection, but it's another example of the importance of herd immunity and negative effect of lower vaccination rates.
The US looks like it's going to have the worst Whooping Cough outbreak in 70 years. Up to 19th April 2025 there had been 8,472 cases, almost double the same time last year.
US wastewater monitoring in March and early April has detected Clade 1 mpox in Pitt County, North Carolina. It could well be just one individual, but no known cases have been detected or reported in that area. Health officials are now on the lookout...
And this is why wastewater monitoring is such an incredible tool.
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is when antibiotics, antifungals, antivirals and parasite killers stop working. This happens because the microbe they were meant to kill adapts or mutates to be able to beat them, and it's a massive problem worldwide. One of the main causes is people not finishing a course of treatment because they feel better - but the bug hasn't been completely destroyed, so what's left has had chance to adapt to beat the treatment. It's like when they invented bows and arrows, any enemy left alive could go back, tell everyone to hide behind a tree, and explain they'd survived because they had a longer shield. These survivors then reproduce and your treatment isn't so effective, if at all.
New treatments are always under development, but it takes time, skill and money. Meanwhile the antimicrobial resistant pathogens are causing more severe illness and they're spreading - examples are the 'super gonorrhoea', Mycobacterium TB, and antibiotic resistant infections like MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus).
If a doctor gives you a specific course of treatment, ALWAYS finish it, and don't ever throw unused tablets down the drain or loo, because weak versions of antimicrobials are a handy training tool for pathogens.
Let's not get overly excited, but no new bird flu alerts have occurred in England since 14th April, and some protection zones are being downgraded to surveillance. UK-wide enhanced biosecurity is still in force, and mandatory housing remains in effect in some Northern and Midland areas, including along the Welsh border.
Good news indeed. 3 weeks ago it was looking like disaster in Yorkshire and Durham - well done to everyone for containing and curbing the outbreaks.
Good news from Uganda - the Ebola outbreak confirmed on 30th January is over. The last patient was discharged on 15th March, and the 42 day period of no new cases has now passed. Superb super fast contact tracing, which identified and isolated 534 people - keeping cases down to just 14, and fatalities at 4. Ebola is one of the most deadly diseases on the planet.
The World Health Organisation estimate that as many as half of the vaccines created each year are wasted, and the main cause is that they get too warm and have to be thrown away. The UK National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) facility at University Hospital Southampton have just begun the first ever human clinical trial for a fridge-free vaccine. The vaccine, snappily named SPVX02, is for tetanus and diphtheria, and if it proves successful will be a massive win worldwide, as it can be transported anywhere without strict time limits and a need for expensive equipment or electricity.
It is the weekend! Hurrah! And in the UK another long bank holiday weekend at that. Thank you to everyone who works through the bank holiday to keep us fed, warm and safe. I hope you all manage to get some time to see friends or family and take a break - and do something nice for yourself. Have a treat, or arrange one for when you will have time, you've earned it. The little things are the things that keep us going, and make life so much more smiley. We need them for our health.
I'll be back in 2 weeks, until then...
Wear A Hat, Always Finish Your Antibiotics, Save The NHS...
.
.
.
.
Sources COVID
Reference pages H5N1
CDC Summary
UK
NFU tracker
Infectious disease tracker
https://promedmail.org/
Bird flu updates and news
https://www.paho.org/en/news/6-1-2025-paho-launches-interactive-dashboard-monitor-avian-influenza-ah5n1-americas
Measles Sit Rep
CDC - USA
Oklahoma
Indiana
Michigan
Ohio
Kansas
Texas
New Mexico
UK cases Measles
Canada Measles
Image sources
UK Community Diagnostic Centres Image
Mind and hot weather
Mens health
Sources
England prescription charges frozen
UK Community Diagnostic Centres
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/latest-health-data-reveals-thousands-of-patients-now-seen-quicker
Southampton NHS trust
Urgent care figures worse than before the pandemic.
https://x.com/BBCHughPym/status/1916736200565547391?t=9GXUqcI_-A5B5NvAwxleYQ&s=19
COVID dot gov website redirect
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/white-house-replaces-covid-resource-page-lab-leak-website-rcna201925
https://x.com/nexta_tv/status/1913235055356321935?t=sit2SyCzno91s_wRbtGw_A&s=09
Trump Declares Lab Leak as ‘True Origins’ of Covid on New Website - The New York Times
Trumps first 100 days NIH grants slaughtered
https://x.com/ABatemanHouse/status/1916160637832491294?t=--oXBw7EcmM13-AF3iPgog&s=09
NIH stops DEIA and Israel boycott grants
https://www.statnews.com/2025/04/21/trump-nih-grants-draft-rule-would-prohibit-university-dei-programs-israel-boycott/
Autistic people and experts voice alarm at RFK’s ‘terrible’ approach to condition
1 in 31 8 year olds in USA recieved an autism diagnosis in 2022
RFK Jr.'s Major Autism Study To Use Private Health Records
https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2025-04-22/rfk-jr-s-major-autism-study-to-use-private-health-records
FDA asks for new Novovax trial
https://x.com/DrMakaryFDA/status/1916253910039429309?t=sWsxGXcIl8r0GAxJwJM45Q&s=09
https://www.reddit.com/r/ContagionCuriosity/s/INeKj5KAzl
Placebo
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/crkx3egk3ygo
The Vaccine Integrity Project
https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/vaccine-integrity-project
The Vaccine Integrity Project
https://www.reddit.com/r/ContagionCuriosity/s/DhYOyX1sMs
US FDA milk testing quality control stops
Another link for milk testing stopping US
US FDA can't rehire job applicants
Estimates of H5N1 Ro and human severity
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Influenza_A_virus_subtype_H7N7
UK study avian influenza and flu jab
California $25 gift cards avian flu
Paxlovid cuts risk of stroke
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jmv.70351
PLpro antiviral
Americans unsure what to believe about the measles vaccine, poll shows
https://archive.is/wo6H6
RFK Jr and Dr Phil interview
https://archive.ph/gsnJs
Febrile convulsions
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12415036/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37642012/
https://itpsupport.org.uk/mmr-and-itp/
RFK Jr says vaccines contain DNA
https://www.chop.edu/vaccine-education-center/vaccine-safety/vaccine-ingredients/fetal-tissues
https://historyofvaccines.org/blog/aborted-fetus-dna-in-vaccines
https://vaccineknowledge.ox.ac.uk/gelatine#Gelatine-and-religion
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/63349f2c8fa8f50684f6ccad/UKHSA-12462-vaccines-porcine-gelatine-English.pdf
Video of RFK Jr quote
WHO Measles outbreak in the Americas update
Measles figures latest
CDC - USA
oklahoma
Texas
New Mexico
Kansas
Indiana
Michigan
Ohio
Mexico measles
https://www.wired.com/story/as-measles-cases-surge-mexico-issues-a-us-travel-alert/
Canada measles
England measles
Whooping Cough (Pertussis)
https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/177663/cdc_177663_DS1.pdf
Clade 1 mpox in Pitt County wastewater
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR)
Uganda ebola outbreak over
Uganda
Fridge free vaccine
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thank you for taking the time to leave a comment. I read every one and try my best to reply!