people

WHO warns against idea of 'immunity passports' for people who have survived coronavirus

There is no evidence that people who have beaten coronavirus are protected from the strain, the World Health Organisation has said as it warned against issuing "immunity passports".




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Military to be deployed to test vulnerable people and essential workers for coronavirus at mobile units in the UK

The army is being deployed across the UK to begin testing essential workers and vulnerable people for coronavirus.




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Boris Johnson says 'this is the moment of maximum risk' and lifting lockdown 'will throw away sacrifice of British people'

PM urged UK to "contain your impatience" Said it is too soon to "go easy" and relax the lockdown Described virus as "invisble mugger" as he drew on own treatment




people

Scotland advises people to wear face masks in shops and on transport in policy U-turn

The Scottish Government has recommended wearing face masks in enclosed public spaces like shops and public transport to stop the spread of coronavirus.




people

Food For London Now: Demand has rocketed, now we need to get food to right people

You can donate here virginmoneygiving.com/fund/FoodforLondonNOW




people

Third of global coronavirus cases confirmed in US as one million people test positive for Covid-19

More than one million people have now tested positive for coronavirus in the US as lockdown measures continue to be eased in some states.




people

Nearly 18,000 more people could die of cancer due to impact of Covid-19, researchers warn

Nearly 18,000 more people could die from cancer over the next year in England due to the impact of coronavirus, experts have warned.




people

More than 1m people have recovered from coronavirus worldwide, according to John Hopkins data

More than one million people have recovered from coronavirus worldwide, according to the latest figures from the John Hopkins University.




people

82 per cent of police fines for people flouting lockdown go to men




people

Hundreds of people descend on California beach to protest against lockdown rules despite rising death toll

Hundreds of protestors have swarmed the streets in Huntington Beach in California to demand an end to coronavirus lockdown rules.




people

People knocked out of bed as 5.5 magnitude earthquake hits Puerto Rico

A 5.5-magnitude earthquake has hit near southern Puerto Rico, jolting many people from their beds and causing damage across the island.




people

Government 'actively looking' at quarantining people who arrive in UK from abroad to help control coronavirus

The Government is "actively looking" at holding people who arrive from abroad in quarantine to help control the spread of coronavirus, Grant Shapps has said.




people

Social gatherings could be limited to fewer than 10 people until 2021 to stop coronavirus spreading, scientists say

Social gatherings could be limited to 10 people until 2021 to prevent a second wave of coronavirus infections in the UK, scientists have warned.




people

Cumbria police apologise for 'ill-judged' tweet telling people not to buy plants or compost during lockdown

Cumbria Police have apologised for an "ill-judged" tweet that suggested people should not buy plants or compost during the coronavirus lockdown.




people

Testing positive twice for Covid-19 does not mean people have been reinfected, World Health Organisation says

If someone tests positive for coronavirus more than once, it does not necessarily mean they have been reinfected, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).




people

Vulnerable people still struggling to access food supplies amid coronavirus crisis, Which? warns

Urgent action is still needed to make it easier for vulnerable people to access supermarket delivery slots and other sources of supplies, Which? has warned.




people

People think behaviour of drivers and cyclists has deteriorated during lockdown, survey shows

A new survey suggests people think the behaviour of drivers and cyclists has deteriorated since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.




people

Now hear this: Celebs' messages asking people to stick to lockdown broadcast from car cruising streets

Coronavirus warning messages from celebrities including Jamie Redknapp are being broadcast from cars driving around the streets of east London to get people to respect the lockdown.




people

Fewer than 300 people quarantined as 18.1 million travellers entered UK before lockdown

Out of millions of visitors coming into the UK from coronavirus hotspots, less than 300 were put into quarantine in the three months before lockdown.




people

London crams in 10 times as many people as next most packed city

Londoners are living in a city that is ten times more crowded than the next most densely populated region of the county, official figures revealed today.




people

Chinese people 'scared to venture out alone' amid rising coronavirus-related abuse, case study shows

Rising levels of racist abuse towards people of Chinese heritage is likely to escalate when the coronavirus lockdown lifts, an academic has warned.




people

Food For London Now faces: 'So much stress is alleviated when people have access to food'

Tam Carrigan from the Haringey Play Association shares his story You can donate at virginmoneygiving.com/fund/FoodforLondonNOW




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Family of 100-year-old burglary victim 'overwhelmed' by people's donations

Donations have poured in for a 100-year-old woman who was robbed after thieves tricked their way into her home in Darlington.




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Food For London Now faces: 'The Felix Project directly helps counter malnutrition and poor health for people of all ages'

Felix Project volunteer Carrie Hogan shares her story You can donate here virginmoneygiving.com/fund/FoodforLondonNOW




people

400,000 people in the UK could have coronavirus with 20,000 falling ill every day, say experts

Around 400,000 people in the UK could currently have coronavirus, according to a new official study, while experts say 20,000 more could be infected with the virus every day.




people

Four people fined for driving 200 miles to look at boat

Four people have been fined after attempting to drive from Dorset to Milford Haven to look at a boat.




people

Coastguard records highest number of call-outs since lockdown began as people 'ignore' stay-at-home advice




people

Fifty Shades of Sligo: Normal People poses a challenge for Irish tourism

The travel industry has sifted through the BBC show’s many sex scenes to showcase shots of Ireland’s landscape

Promoting Ireland as a tourism destination used to be straightforward – just showcase the bucolic landscape and put a slogan on the end – but that was before Normal People turned a chunk of the Atlantic coast into Fifty Shades of Sligo.

The television adaptation of Sally Rooney’s novel features beautiful shots of Sligo’s beaches and mountains, plus Trinity College Dublin, but there is also sex. Lots of sex.

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'People Would Be So Receptive Right Now, and We Can't Knock on Doors.'

Brenda Francis settled into the Kingdom Hall in Calhoun, Georgia, in mid-March, surrounded by dozens of familiar faces. Signs cautioning against shaking hands and hugging were posted around the room. It felt weird to her but was certainly understandable with the threat of an outbreak looming. She herself already had stocked up on some masks and gloves.When it came time for members to comment on the Bible readings, Francis noticed the microphones typically passed around the room were now attached to the end of long poles.That was the moment Francis, a 69-year-old widow living in a small, semirural community in the South, realized just how dramatically the coronavirus pandemic was about to reshape her spiritual life, more than anything ever had in the 47 years since she was baptized as a Jehovah's Witness.A few days after the boom mics came out in the Kingdom Hall, word came down from the group's headquarters that, in the interest of safety, Jehovah's Witnesses should stop witnessing, its practice of in-person attempts at converting people to the group."People would be so receptive right now," she said of her ministry, "and we can't knock on doors."Across the country, most religious groups have stopped coming together in large numbers to pray and hold services, in keeping with stay-at-home orders. They have improvised with online preaching and even drive-in services as the faithful sit in cars. Mormons have stopped going door to door in the United States and called home many missionaries working abroad.Jehovah's Witnesses -- with 1.3 million U.S. members who hand out brochures on sidewalks and subway platforms and ring doorbells -- are one of the most visible religious groups in the nation. Members are called on to share Scriptures in person with nonmembers, warning of an imminent Armageddon and hoping to baptize them with the prospect of living forever.The decision to stop their ministries was the first of its kind in the nearly 150 years of the group's existence. It followed anguished discussions at Watchtower headquarters, with leaders deciding March 20 that knocking on doors would leave the impression that members were disregarding the safety of those they hoped to convert."This was not an easy decision for anybody," said Robert Hendriks, the group's U.S. spokesman. "As you know, our ministry is our life."It was for Francis, who became a Jehovah's Witness when she was in her 20s with a newborn and a member knocked on her door in Tennessee and persuaded her to attend a Kingdom Hall meeting. She converted. Her family was angry that she no longer came to holiday gatherings; the group doesn't believe in celebrating holidays or birthdays. Jehovah's Witnesses became her new family.The more she studied the Bible, the more she came to believe it led to eternal life. She needed to spread the word.Showing up cold on someone's doorstep didn't come naturally. She was so shy that once, she recalled, her high school principal -- "this huge Goliath guy" -- stood on her foot in a crowded hallway; she didn't say a word but waited in pain for him to move. She had considered a career going door to door as a Mason Shoes saleswoman, but after receiving a catalog, she never mustered the courage to even try to make a sale.To her, witnessing was different. Her faith had helped her stop smoking. It gave her meaning. She had seen people clean up their lives after attending meetings at Kingdom Hall."By the time I did go to doors, I was so convinced this was the right thing to do that I had no nervousness," Francis said.Through the years, she learned to build her pitch around a theme -- a Bible verse or a current event -- and tried not to sound rehearsed."You don't want to sound like a robot," she said. "You work from the heart. You want enthusiasm."Early this year, Francis had been seeing reports on Facebook about the virus sweeping through Wuhan, China. The host of a show she watched on YouTube, Peak Prosperity, had been warning that the outbreak could spread internationally.She bought masks and face shields, just in case. She started using plastic grocery bags to cover the gas pump handle when she filled up her tank.By early March, the virus still hadn't hit Gordon County, where Francis lives. But the possibility was weighing on her mind. The message on her favorite YouTube show was getting more dire as the host, Chris Martenson, a financial guru-turned-pandemic early warner, ratcheted up his pleadings for viewers to prepare themselves.Francis' 27-year-old granddaughter has a compromised immune system. As a senior citizen, she herself was vulnerable. She did what she always has done and channeled her own feelings into her door-knocking ministry. Do you think, she would ask people as she carpooled with other members to canvass the county, that the virus is a sign of the end of the world?"No one was paying much attention," she said.Elsewhere, in places like New York where infections were starting to climb, Jehovah's Witnesses members were feeling the pinch on their ministries.One of them, Joe Babsky, had been easing into conversations with members of his Planet Fitness gym in the Bronx for weeks. He knew them by first name only: Jerry, who had lost more than 100 pounds; Jason, who seemed to spend an hour on each body part; Bernie, a 78-year-old who was more fit than men half his age. Babsky had shown a few of them Bible verses and had made progress recently with Bernie discussing the logic behind the existence of an intelligent creator.Then the gym closed."All those conversations and others were cut short," Babsky said.Life continued as normal in Francis' town of Calhoun. She was convinced things were about to change, but she was too embarrassed to wear a mask -- until an encounter in Costco when a passing shopper coughed without covering her mouth.In mid-March, her Kingdom Hall meetings went virtual. Members logged into Zoom to share Bible Scriptures. Francis settled on one that she thought would resonate as she knocked on doors in her neighborhood across the county, which had by then registered a handful of COVID-19 cases.At the doorstep, Francis would start her pitch by asking people if they could make one thing in the world go away, what would it be? If the answer had to do with the pandemic, she would recite a couple of verses from the book of Luke:"There will be great earthquakes, and in one place after another food shortages and pestilences; and there will be fearful sights and from heaven great signs."All the signs were clear, she would announce. Armageddon was near. Her message finally seemed to be resonating with people.And then she got word to stop knocking on doors."This has been so much a part of our lives, so it was like, wow," she said. "I have often envisioned in paradise where going door to door would not be a thing because everyone knows God."This was not paradise.But Francis was convinced that the end of the world was not far away. There were just too many signs, she said. And so she and many other Jehovah's Witnesses members were more compelled than ever to witness any way they could. Many began writing letters or making phone calls to anyone whose numbers they had managed to collect before the pandemic hit.Masked and gloved, Francis hands out pamphlets and cards with her phone number on them to fellow shoppers at the grocery store.Last week, she sent a text to a woman in Hawkinsville, Georgia, a few miles away, whom she had been contacting from time to time. The woman said her restaurant had to close because of the pandemic and her brother-in-law was sick with the virus. A couple of days later he died.Francis texted Scriptures to the woman and told her that soon all the sickness on Earth would be over; all sins would be forgiven; paradise was near.The next day she received a written response: "Thank you so much for the information. It was such a comfort."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company





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Black people four times more likely to die from Covid-19, ONS finds

Official figures show that wide disparity not just due to health and economic differences

Black people are more than four times more likely to die from Covid-19 than white people, according to stark official figures exposing a dramatic divergence in the impact of the coronavirus pandemic in England and Wales.

The Office of National Statistics found that the difference in the virus’s impact was caused not only by pre-existing differences in communities’ wealth, health, education and living arrangements.

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WHO conditionally backs Covid-19 vaccine trials that infect people

‘Challenge’ studies would deliberately give coronavirus to healthy volunteers

Controversial trials in which volunteers are intentionally infected with Covid-19 could accelerate vaccine development, according to the World Health Organization, which has released new guidance on how the approach could be ethically justified despite the potential dangers for participants.

So-called challenge trials are a mainstream approach in vaccine development and have been used in malaria, typhoid and flu, but there are treatments available for these diseases if a volunteer becomes severely ill. For Covid-19, a safe dose of the virus has not been established and there are no failsafe treatments if things go wrong.

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Coronavirus app could help stop spread of covid-19 – but many people will need to use it, Oxford experts say

Widespread and quick use would be key to battling spread of virus, study says




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As people disappear under lockdown, goats, rats and coyotes prowl the streets

Humans can easily forget that the cities and towns they call home and frequently visit are also home to wild animals, writes Sandra E Garcia. In Wales, goats roam the streets, while in San Francisco the Coyotes have come out




people

Coronavirus: Surge in people trying to buy unproven 'cures' promoted by Trump and Elon Musk, study finds

Even deaths did not stop interest in buying potentially dangerous drugs, researchers find




people

Twitter launches coronavirus fact-checks for people who search for 5G conspiracy theories

Users will receive a prompt from the UK government with a link to accurate information






people

More than 650,000 people watched Andy Serkis’s marathon reading of The Hobbit

The actor said he was 'truly humbled' by the response.




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Dentists warn 'desperate' people will try 'DIY dentistry' if the government doesn't give access to emergency treatment

'It's inevitable many desperate patients will resort to 'DIY dentistry'




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Coronavirus: Apple and Google update plans to let phones track whether people have been exposed

Without integrating into phones' operating systems, performance of contact-tracing apps is likely to be limited




people

Disabled people struggle to get food and essential items during lockdown

'I'm worried about running out of food,' says Charles Bloch




people

Why Normal People has the makings of a fashion classic

If Sally Rooney is the first great millennial novelist, then Marianne Sheridan is the first great millennial TV style icon

Would it make a person really shallow if their favourite thing about the TV adaptation of Normal People was Marianne’s wardrobe? Asking for a friend.

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Why People Feel Misinformed, Confused, and Terrified About the Pandemic - Facts So Romantic


 

The officials deciding what to open, and when, seldom offer thoughtful rationales. Clearly, risk communication about COVID-19 is failing with potentially dire consequences.Photograph by michael_swan / Flickr

When I worked as a TV reporter covering health and science, I would often be recognized in public places. For the most part, the interactions were brief hellos or compliments. Two periods of time stand out when significant numbers of those who approached me were seeking detailed information: the earliest days of the pandemic that became HIV/AIDS and during the anthrax attacks shortly following 9/11. Clearly people feared for their own safety and felt their usual sources of information were not offering them satisfaction. Citizens’ motivation to seek advice when they feel they aren’t getting it from official sources is a strong indication that risk communication is doing a substandard job. It’s significant that one occurred in the pre-Internet era and one after. We can’t blame a public feeling misinformed solely on the noise of the digital age.

America is now opening up from COVID-19 lockdown with different rules in different places. In many parts of the country, people have been demonstrating, even rioting, for restrictions to be lifted sooner. Others are terrified of loosening the restrictions because they see COVID-19 cases and deaths still rising daily. The officials deciding what to open, and when, seldom offer thoughtful rationales. Clearly, risk communication about COVID-19 is failing with potentially dire consequences.

A big part of maintaining credibility is to admit to uncertainty—something politicians are loath to do.

Peter Sandman is a foremost expert on risk communication. A former professor at Rutgers University, he was a top consultant with the Centers for Disease Control in designing crisis and emergency risk-communication, a field of study that combines public health with psychology. Sandman is known for the formula Risk = Hazard + Outrage. His goal is to create better communication about risk, allowing people to assess hazards and not get caught up in outrage at politicians, public health officials, or the media. Today, Sandman is a risk consultant, teamed with his wife, Jody Lanard, a pediatrician and psychiatrist. Lanard wrote the first draft of the World Health Organization’s Outbreak Communications Guidelines. “Jody and Peter are seen as the umpires to judge the gold standard of risk communications,” said Michael Osterholm of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. Sandman and Lanard have posted a guide for effective COVID-19 communication on the center’s website.

I reached out to Sandman to expand on their advice. We communicated through email.

Sandman began by saying he understood the protests around the country about the lockdown. “It’s very hard to warn people to abide by social-distancing measures when they’re so outraged that they want to kill somebody and trust absolutely nothing people say,” he told me. “COVID-19 outrage taps into preexisting grievances and ideologies. It’s not just about COVID-19 policies. It’s about freedom, equality, too much or too little government. It’s about the arrogance of egghead experts, left versus right, globalism versus nationalism versus federalism. And it’s endlessly, pointlessly about Donald Trump.”

Since the crisis began, Sandman has isolated three categories of grievance. He spelled them out for me, assuming the voices of the outraged:

• “In parts of the country, the response to COVID-19 was delayed and weak; officials unwisely prioritized ‘allaying panic’ instead of allaying the spread of the virus; lockdown then became necessary, not because it was inevitable but because our leaders had screwed up; and now we’re very worried about coming out of lockdown prematurely or chaotically, mishandling the next phase of the pandemic as badly as we handled the first phase.”

• “In parts of the country, the response to COVID-19 was excessive—as if the big cities on the two coasts were the whole country and flyover America didn’t need or didn’t deserve a separate set of policies. There are countless rural counties with zero confirmed cases. Much of the U.S. public-health profession assumes and even asserts without building an evidence-based case that these places, too, needed to be locked down and now need to reopen carefully, cautiously, slowly, and not until they have lots of testing and contact-tracing capacity. How dare they destroy our economy (too) just because of their mishandled outbreak!”

• “Once again the powers-that-be have done more to protect other people’s health than to protect my health. And once again the powers-that-be have done more to protect other people’s economic welfare than to protect my economic welfare!” (These claims can be made with considerable truth by healthcare workers; essential workers in low-income, high-touch occupations; residents of nursing homes; African-Americans; renters who risk eviction; the retired whose savings are threatened; and others.)

In their article for the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, Sandman and Lanard point out that coping with a pandemic requires a thorough plan of communication. This is particularly important as the crisis is likely to enter a second wave of infection, when it could be more devastating. The plan starts with six core principles: 1) Don’t over-reassure, 2) Proclaim uncertainty, 3) Validate emotions—your audience’s and your own, 4) Give people things to do, 5) Admit and apologize for errors, and 6) Share dilemmas. To achieve the first three core principles, officials must immediately share what they know, even if the information may be incomplete. If officials share good news, they must be careful not to make it too hopeful. Over-reassurance is one of the biggest dangers in crisis communication. Sandman and Lanard suggest officials say things like, “Even though the number of new confirmed cases went down yesterday, I don’t want to put too much faith in one day’s good news.” 

Sandman and Lanard say a big part of maintaining credibility is to admit to uncertainty—something politicians are loath to do. They caution against invoking “science” as a sole reason for action, as science in the midst of a crisis is “incremental, fallible, and still in its infancy.” Expressing empathy, provided it’s genuine, is important, Sandman and Lanard say. It makes the bearer more human and believable. A major tool of empathy is to acknowledge the public’s fear as well as your own. There is good reason to be terrified about this virus and its consequences on society. It’s not something to hide.

Sandman and Lanard say current grievances with politicians, health officials, and the media, about how the crisis has been portrayed, have indeed been contradictory. But that makes them no less valid. Denying the contradictions only amplifies divisions in the public and accelerates the outrage, possibly beyond control. They strongly emphasize one piece of advice. “Before we can share the dilemma of how best to manage any loosening of the lockdown, we must decisively—and apologetically—disabuse the public of the myth that, barring a miracle, the COVID-19 pandemic can possibly be nearing its end in the next few months.”

Robert Bazell is an adjunct professor of molecular, cellular, and developmental biology at Yale. For 38 years, he was chief science correspondent for NBC News.


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How Did Ancient People Keep Their Food From Rotting?

Archaeologists have discovered methods that kept food fresh long before refrigeration.




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People Are Fantasizing About the Day They Can Walk Down the Aisle With This Bittersweet Meme

A new meme imagines a walking down all sorts of aisles after coronavirus-related lockdowns end




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People Can’t Stop Obsessing Over Connell’s Chain in Normal People

A silver chain has taken center stage in Hulu's adaptation of Sally Rooney's "Normal People"




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Amid coronavirus fears, people download epidemic-simulating video game Plague Inc.

Plague Inc. is an app and online game in which users play the role of a disease set on infecting the world with a pathogen.

      




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More people dying at home during Covid-19 pandemic – UK analysis

Exclusive: Data suggests that sick may be avoiding hospital because of coronavirus fears

About 8,000 more people have died in their own homes since the start of the coronavirus pandemic than in normal times, a Guardian analysis has found, as concerns grow over the number avoiding going to hospital.

Of that total, 80% died of conditions unrelated to Covid-19, according to their death certificates. Doctors’ leaders have warned that fears and deprioritisation of non-coronavirus patients are taking a deadly toll.

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Who Wants to Be a Millionaire: How many people won the top prize and what was the £1m question?

Test your knowledge