Category Archives: coronavirus

Plant-Based And Pescatarian Diets Are Linked To Milder Covid

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Eating a plant-based or fish-based diet may help reduce your chances of developing moderate to severe Covid-19, according to a new study.

Following a plant-based diet was associated with 73% lower odds of severe disease, while a pescatarian diet was linked to 59% reduced odds.

“Our results suggest that a healthy diet rich in nutrient dense foods may be considered for protection against severe Covid-19,” researchers said.

However other experts have urged caution interpreting the findings. So don’t go ditching the masks and scrapping social distancing because you eat a lot of vegetables.

What did the study involve?

For the study in the BMJ Nutrition, Prevention and Health Journal, researchers drew on the survey responses of 2,884 frontline doctors and nurses with extensive exposure to the virus, working in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK and the US.

The survey, which ran between July and September 2020, asked for detailed information about dietary patterns, the severity of any Covid-19 infections they’d had, personal background, medical history, medication use and lifestyle.

The various diets were categorised into:

  • plant-based diets, which are higher in vegetables, legumes and nuts

  • pescatarian, which are the same as plant-based diets, but with added fish/seafood

  • and low carb, high protein diets which included meat

What were the results?

Some 568 respondents said they’d experienced symptoms consistent with Covid-19 infection or they’d had no symptoms but had a positive swab test for the infection. Of these, 138 said they’d had moderate to severe Covid-19 and the remaining 430 said they’d had mild infection.

After factoring in several potentially influential variables like age, ethnicity, and lifestyle, respondents who said they ate plant-based diets’ or plant-based/pescatarian diets had, respectively, 73% and 59% lower odds of moderate to severe Covid-19 infection than those who didn’t have these dietary patterns.

Those who said they ate a low carb, high protein diet had nearly four times the odds of moderate to severe Covid-19 infection compared to those who ate a plant-based diet.

The study is observational, and so can’t establish cause, but researchers pointed out that plant-based diets are rich in nutrients, especially phytochemicals (polyphenols, carotenoids), vitamins and minerals, all of which are important for a healthy immune system.

Meanwhile, fish is an important source of vitamin D and omega-3 fatty acids, both of which have anti-inflammatory properties.

Deputy chair of the NNEdPro Nutrition and Covid-19 Taskforce, Shane McAuliffe, said caution is needed in interpreting the findings, however he added that a high quality diet is “important for mounting an adequate immune response, which in turn can influence susceptibility to infection and its severity”.

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Boris Johnson Urged To Meet Covid Bereaved Families About Public Inquiry

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Stefan Rousseau – PA Images via Getty Images

Jo Goodman, who lost her father Stuart, 72, to COVID 19 stands with other families bereaved by the virus outside Parliament. (Photo by Stefan Rousseau/PA Images via Getty Images)

Boris Johnson faces growing calls to meet the families of Covid victims before the public inquiry into how his government handled the pandemic. 

The prime minister has said an independent statutory inquiry that puts “state’s actions under the microscope” will begin in spring 2022.  

But Covid-19 Families For Justice, which represents some 4,000 grieving families, has made an urgent call for ministers to consult with them about the aims, remit and chair of the inquiry. 

The group’s key demand is the hearing allows for a rapid review phase. 

Families fear lives may be lost in future if ministers fail to address gaps in the UK’s preparedness, such as on PPE, and government does not quickly learn from disastrous mistakes on lockdowns and sending infected back people to care homes. 

However, ministers, including health secretary Matt Hancock, have refused to commit to meeting with families on the inquiry’s terms of reference. 

Jo Goodman, co-founder of the families group lost her father Stuart, 72, to the virus during the first wave. 

DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS via Getty Images

Messages are pictured on hearts painted on the National Covid Memorial Wall, at the embankment on the south side of the River Thames in London

She told HuffPost UK Johnson delayed a meeting because families threatened legal action over the inquiry’s delay.

“We stand ready and willing to meet government ministers but they’ve yet to set a date,” she said. 

“Boris Johnson has previously promised to do so, but then went back on it because of the judicial review we had planned to seek.

“We have now dropped the judicial review, so there is no reason for the government not to meet with us. We are ready when you are prime minister.” 

MPs have also been pressuring the government,  confidence in the inquiry, which is likely to be traumatic for those hardest hit.  

Jack Dromey, MP for Birmingham Erdington and shadow Cabinet Office minister, has written to chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster, Michael Gove, after questions in the House of Commons were ignored. 

The letter, passed to HuffPost UK, underlines that “the country has experienced tragedy and human suffering on a scale not seen since the Second World War”.

Dromey stresses ministers were causing “deep hurt” to families who “simply want to know that the government is listening to them”. 

Leon Neal via Getty Images

Prime Minister, Boris Johnson and Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Matt Hancock walk from Downing Street

The letter says that Johnson and Hancock have seven times refused to meet families and adds: “MPs across the House will have met with constituents who have suffered great loss due to coronavirus. Meetings with bereaved families and listening to their stories are some of the most difficult and emotional meetings I have been involved in since being elected a member of parliament.

“Such meetings cannot fail but to bring home the sincere desire by the bereaved families that there be a meaningful public inquiry into the government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic with outcomes the bereaved families can trust to be fair and reasonable.” 

It adds: “That is why it is so important to the bereaved families that the government consults with them to ensure this is the case, by agreeing an appropriate chair and the right terms of reference.” 

The government has said the inquiry’s remit and chair will be chosen “in due course” and that spring 2022 was the appropriate time to begin the hearing. 

Asked about the inquiry in parliament, Gove has suggested families will have a role.

He told MPs: “A statutory inquiry is obviously the right way to ensure that all the right questions are asked and that full answers are arrived at.

“To ensure that the inquiry works, the experience, voices and views of those who have suffered so much must be a critical part in ensuring that it is set up appropriately.”

A government spokesperson, when asked if the PM would meet with the group, added: “Every death from this virus is a tragedy and our sympathies are with everyone who has lost loved ones.

“Throughout the pandemic senior ministers, including the prime minister, have met and will continue to meet with bereaved families.

“As the prime minister said, we have committed to holding a full public inquiry as soon as is reasonably possible.”

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Getting Covid Reduces The Risk Of Reinfection For 10 Months

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The risk of being infected with coronavirus is substantially reduced for up to 10 months after a first infection, a study suggests.

Researchers found that care home residents with a previous infection were 85% less likely to be infected between October 2020 and February 2021 than residents who had never been infected.

Meanwhile, staff with past infection were 60% less likely than staff who had not had the infection before, the study suggested.

According to the researchers, this showed strong protection in both groups, but they cautioned that the percentages may not be directly comparable, as staff might have accessed testing outside the care home, leading to positive tests not being included in the study.

Additionally, residents who tested positive for antibodies were likely to represent a particularly robust group, having survived the first wave of the pandemic.

Lead author Dr Maria Krutikov, of UCL Institute of Health Informatics, said: “It’s really good news that natural infection protects against reinfection in this time period. The risk of being infected twice appears to be very low.

“The fact that prior Covid-19 infection gives a high level of protection to care home residents is also reassuring, given past concerns that these individuals might have less robust immune responses associated with increasing age.

“These findings are particularly important as this vulnerable group has not been the focus of much research.”

“The fact that prior Covid-19 infection gives a high level of protection to care home residents is reassuring.”

– Lead author Dr Maria Krutikov, of UCL Institute of Health Informatics

Researchers looked at rates of coronavirus infections between October and February among more than 2,000 care home residents and staff. They compared those who had evidence of a previous infection up to 10 months earlier with those who had not been previously infected.

For the study, 682 residents (with a median age of 86) and 1,429 staff in 100 care homes in England took antibody blood tests in June and July last year after the first wave of the pandemic. About a third tested positive for antibodies, suggesting they had previously been infected.

Researchers then analysed the results of participants’ PCR tests, starting around 90 days after the blood samples were taken to ensure the tests did not pick up the initial infection. PCR tests were taken once a week for staff, and once a month for residents, with further testing in the event of an outbreak.

Positive tests were only included if they were more than 90 days apart to make sure the same infection was not included more than once. Based on the antibody test results, out of the 634 people who had been previously infected, reinfections occurred in only four residents and 10 members of staff.

Among the 1,477 participants who had never been infected, positive PCR tests occurred in 93 residents and 111 staff. The study excluded the impact of vaccination by removing participants from the analysis 12 days following their first vaccination dose.

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Delta Variant Is Now Most Dominant Covid Strain In The UK

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Cases of Covid-19 caused by the Delta variant, which first originated in India, have risen by 5,472 since last week to 12,431.

Public Health England (PHE) suggests the variant has now overtaken the Alpha variant, which first originated in Kent, as the most dominant variant in the UK.

Last week, health secretary Matt Hancock said that up to three-quarters of new coronavirus cases in the UK were the Delta variant, when 6,959 cases were confirmed.

People walk through Covent Garden in central London on June 3, 2021.

People walk through Covent Garden in central London on June 3, 2021.

What is the Delta variant?

There are a few variants that originated in India circulating, but one is causing more worry than others.

The strain – B1617.2 (or the Delta variant) – is one of three related variants that have been detected in the UK. The others are B1617.1 and B1617.3.

There were originally four variants of concern (VOCs) in England – the so-called Kent, South Africa, Brazil and Bristol variants.

All three variants from India were originally designated as variants under investigation, however Public Health England (PHE) confirmed B1617.2 had become the fifth variant of concern as of May 7 due to rising cases.

Since then, cases have soared on a weekly basis, with scientists suggesting this new variant is more transmissible than the Alpha variant.

Early evidence also suggests there may be an increased risk of hospitalisation, although more data is needed to confirm this.

PHE said 278 people with the Delta variant attended A&E this week, resulting in 94 people being admitted to hospital overnight. Last week, 201 people attended A&E, with 43 admissions. The majority of these had not been vaccinated.

Which areas are worst affected?

Bolton remains one of the most affected areas, where cases have risen by 795 to 2,149. Blackburn with Darwen has also seen 368 new cases, bringing it to 724 in total.

There are encouraging signs that the transmission rate in Bolton has begun to fall, PHE said, and that the actions taken by residents and local authority teams have been successful in reducing spread.

Other areas in England with more than 100 confirmed cases of the variant, as of last week, included: Leicester, Sefton, Nottingham, Wigan, Central Bedfordshire, Manchester and Hillingdon.

The health body also published a breakdown of outbreaks and clusters of variants in schools and other settings.

The latest data suggests there have been 97 confirmed Covid-19 outbreaks in primary and secondary schools that have had at least one variant case linked to them over the most recent four-week period.

This represents around one in 250 schools.

What does it mean for lockdown easing?

As it stands, the lifting of restrictions on June 21 hangs in the balance.

PHE experts urged the public to “remain cautious” as the country approaches the next stage of the roadmap.

Variant cases are on the increase in several areas and it is absolutely crucial that everyone plays their part in preventing their spread, PHE said.

Dr Jenny Harries, chief executive of the UK Health Security Agency, said: “With this variant now dominant across the UK, it remains vital that we continue to exercise caution particularly while we learn more about transmission and health impacts.

“The way to tackle variants is to use the same measures to reduce the risk of transmission of Covid-19 we have used before. Work from home where you can, and practise hands, face, space, fresh air at all times.”

She urged those who are eligible to get vaccinated as soon as possible.

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Schools Catch-Up Tsar Quits Saying Gavin Williamson ‘Failing’ Children

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Kevan Collins

Kevan Collins

Education catch-up tsar Kevan Collins has dramatically quit his post and warned Gavin Williamson his £1.4bn catch-up fund is “failing” children who lost learning during lockdown. 

Collins, appointed to advise government just four months ago, said the deal announced by the education secretary on Wednesday “does not come close to meeting the scale of the challenge”.

The former headteacher had called for some £15bn of funding and 100 extra hours of teaching per pupil. 

But Williamson – whose new fund represents just a tenth of Collins’ demand – is said to have lost a battle for more cash in talks with Rishi Sunak’s Treasury. 

Collins said in a statement the sum on offer “betrays an undervaluation of the importance of education”, adding: “After the hardest of years, a comprehensive recovery plan – adequately funded and sustained over multiple years – would rebuild a stronger and fairer system.

“A half-hearted approach risks failing hundreds of thousands of pupils. The support announced by government so far does not come close to meeting the scale of the challenge and is why I have no option but to resign from my post.”

He added that the package of support “falls far short of what is needed” as he warned that it is “too narrow, too small and will be delivered too slowly.”

“The average primary school will directly receive just £6,000 per year, equivalent to £22 per child. Not enough is being done to help vulnerable pupils, children in the early years or 16- to 19-year-olds,” Collins said.

Ministers say the total fund for lost learning is £3bn and the new money will support 100 million hours of extra tutoring for youngsters who lost out during the pandemic.

The settlement has been roundly rejected branded “paltry” and  “disappointing” by unions and school leaders. 

Williamson sidestepped questions on Wednesday about a clash with the Treasury, but did admit that “there will be more that is required”.

Prime minister Boris Johnson promised that there would be “more coming through” to support children in England who had missed lessons during the pandemic following criticism from education leaders.

WPA Pool via Getty Images

Education Secretary Gavin Williamson 

A No 10 spokesperson said: “The prime minister is hugely grateful to Sir Kevan for his work in helping pupils catch up and recover from the effects of the pandemic.

“The government will continue to focus on education recovery and making sure no child is left behind with their learning, with over £3bn committed for catch up so far.”

The education recovery tsar had recommended that schools and colleges should be funded for a flexible extension to school time – the equivalent to 30 minutes extra every day.  

But the DfE’s announcement did not include plans to lengthen the school day.

Collins said: “One conservative estimate puts the long-term economic cost of lost learning in England due to the pandemic at £100bn, with the average pupil having missed 115 days in school.

“In parts of the country where schools were closed for longer, such as the north, the impact of low skills on productivity is likely to be particularly severe.

“The pandemic has affected all pupils but hit disadvantaged children hardest. A decade’s progress to narrow the attainment gap between disadvantaged children and their peers is estimated to have been reversed.

“As part of the plan I proposed to government, I recommended a landmark investment in our teachers, whose dedication throughout the pandemic has been inspiring. It is also right to extend access to tutoring, in particular to support disadvantaged children.

“Tutoring can provide valuable support that complements classroom teaching. But it is not a panacea and must be high-quality to make a difference.

“This is one reason why I recommended schools and colleges be funded to extend school time for a fixed, three-year period and providing significant funding for a flexible extension to school time, equivalent to 30 minutes extra every day.

“From the perspective of teachers, extra time would have been optional and paid, with schools also able to use the time to offer enrichment activities that children have missed out on.”

The DfE’s programme includes £1bn to support up to six million, 15-hour tutoring courses for disadvantaged pupils, as well as an expansion of the 16-19 tuition fund which will target subjects such as maths and English.

A further £400 million will go towards providing high-quality training for early years practitioners and school teachers to ensure children progress.

But the announcement, made during half-term, does not include plans to lengthen the school day or shorten the summer break.

Collins, the former chief executive of the Education Endowment Fund (EEF), has more than 30 years of experience working in the education sector. 

He was appointed in February to advise government on how to help children recover months of lost learning during lockdown. 

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Will Dominic Cummings’ Real Impact Be A Delay To The PM’s Roadmap?

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Whenever journalists hear a politician sidestep a direct question from MPs, our antennae twitch. When that politician repeatedly body swerves the same question from reporters, we smell a rat. Yet time and again, ministers seem unaware of the old newsroom motto: you can’t bullshit a bullshitter.

Despite Matt Hancock breezing confidently through Commons questions on Thursday morning, largely due to strong support from Tory backbenchers, there was one answer that just didn’t feel right. Asked about the claim that he told Dominic Cummings and others that people would be tested before being transferred into care homes, Hancock didn’t deny it. “So many of the allegations yesterday were unsubstantiated,” was all he could muster.

At his latest Downing Street press conference, the health secretary looked much more uncomfortable as he was asked multiple times about the issue. ”My recollection of events,” he said, “is that I committed to delivering that testing for people going from hospital into care homes when we could do it.” The word “recollection” is often a red flag, but the phrase “committed” felt rather elastic too.

Now, it’s worth recalling Cummings’ exact charge here. “Hancock told us in the cabinet room that people were going to be tested before they went back to care homes. What the hell happened?” he said. It was only in April that No.10 realised that “many, many people who should have been tested were not tested, and then went to care homes and then infected people, and then it’s spread like wildfire inside the care homes”.

Firstly, it’s perfectly possible that Hancock made a promise but, crucially, without a timeframe. With the lack of testing capacity at the time, it would be frankly ludicrous to make a commitment that he could test all hospital discharges within days or weeks. However, one can imagine him saying, ‘I’m going to make it my mission to get this testing sorted so people are tested before going into homes’. That’s not the same as saying he would stop all discharges which lacked testing, which was Cummings’ implication.

Second, UK Health Security Agency boss Jenny Harries suggested claims of seeding the virus from hospitals into care homes was overstated. These made up a “very, very tiny proportion” of cases, she said. Fortuitously for Hancock, a new Public Health England report out today confirmed that just 1.6% of outbreaks were seeded from hospital, causing 286 deaths. That’s not the “many, many people” of Cummings’ hyperbole. Care homes did suffer cruelly, but it seems the seeding came from care staff not hospitals.

Still, Hancock would do well to simply disown one other highly dubious claim he made last year: “Right from the start we’ve tried to throw a protective ring around our care homes.” PHE’s official advice as late as February 28 stated: “there is no need to do anything differently in any care setting at present”. It wasn’t until April 15 that was changed to requiring all hospital discharges to be tested.

What was most curious about Cummings’ onslaught on Hancock, however, was his admission that he actively tried to stop Hancock from hitting his target of 100,000 tests a day by the end of April. The chief adviser said he was “in No.10 calling round, frantically saying, ‘Do not do what Hancock says’.” Cummings’ desire to “build things properly for the medium term” (aka doing things his way, not Hancock’s) seemed to fuel the lack of urgency he himself had criticised over care homes testing.

What was also notable on Thursday was the way Hancock at least opened himself up to hours of scrutiny, in parliament and live on TV. Contrast that to Boris Johnson’s five-minute “clip”, a “hi, bye!” media strategy he uses when on a photocall (usually in a key seat) to avoid a proper interview. Schools, hospitals, laboratories, all providing visual wallpaper for the evening news, and often nothing more.

When Johnson was asked about key Cummings allegations, he sounded shiftier than Hancock. Asked about the damning claim that tens of thousands of people died who need not have died because of his action or inaction, the PM replied: “No, I don’t think so.” He doesn’t think so? Asked if he’d said he was prepared to let “the bodies pile high”, he just said: “I’ve already made my position very clear on that point.”

With new figures confirming the Indian variant makes upto 75% of new Covid cases and is becoming the dominant strain across the country, Johnson’s judgment is once again facing a huge test. Even though a rise in cases was expected after the May 17 relaxation or rules, and in Bolton the variant cases are flattening, the “spillover” into other areas is worrying.

Given the race between the vaccine and the virus, why not just extend the unlockdown finishing line by a couple more weeks to give the jabs more of a chance? After all, June 21 was an arbitrary date plucked out of the air, why blow it all for the sake of waiting a fortnight to allow more data collection and more jabs in arms? Especially when over-18s could perhaps all get a first dose by the end of June.

Well, today for the first time there was a hint from the PM he could delay, saying “we may need to wait”. In case we missed the new mood, he added: ”Our job now to deliver the roadmap – if we possibly can”. The ‘probable’ June 21 final unlock of a few days ago is now just a ‘possible’. If Dominic Cummings has done nothing else, maybe he’s forced a pause on the PM that could benefit us all.

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Five Lessons Learned From Dominic Cummings’ Covid Testimony

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1 No.10 was a Covid chaos zone

The whole point of Dominic Cummings’ evidence was to provide the first draft of the history of the government’s handling of the pandemic. While his personal opinions on what went wrong can be dismissed, his eye-witness testimony cannot be easily shrugged off. And on that score, he didn’t disappoint, giving vivid accounts of the chaos in Downing Street as Covid hit landfall in March 2020.

His description of the events of over two key days allowed the public a glimpse of just how Boris Johnson runs, or doesn’t run, his government. On the “insane day” of March 12, while the PM clearly had no choice but to deal with Trump’s plea to join a bombing raid on Iraq, Cummings implied that his boss allowed partner Carrie Symonds’ to waste valuable press office time with complaints about a story about their dog Dilyn.

But it was the following day that was more telling and more worrying. First, a senior department of health official confided there was no plan for a pandemic. Then deputy cabinet secretary Helen McNamara allegedly said “I think we are absolutely fucked, I think this country is heading for a disaster. I think we are going to kill thousands of people.” Those words are sure to be pored over in any public inquiry.

Just as concerning was the picture painted by Cummings of the lack of data available, with him having to scribble on a whiteboard and an iPad a rough model of how many hospitalisations were happening, based on snippets of early info from NHS chief Simon Stevens. So too was the revelation that the Cabinet secretary Mark Sedwill so misunderstood Covid that he suggested the PM go on TV to tell people to have ‘chickenpox parties’.

2 Hancock was to blame for virtually everything

In what felt like a Whitehall version of the Assassin’s Creed video game, Cummings spent a lot of his time trying to eviscerate Matt Hancock’s reputation. The allegations were hugely serious, from lying about PPE stocks and testing in care homes to his decision to announce a 100,000 daily test target while the PM was “on his deathbed”. Yet the relentless nature of the onslaught (who cares how many times Cummings called for him to be sacked?) tipped from public interest to private vendetta.

What also furthered the impression that this was about personalities was his huge praise for Rishi Sunak and Dominic Raab (who both happened to be Brexiteers, while Hancock was a Remainer). Cummings’ curious memory loss about discussions of the EatOutToHelpOut scheme, plus his failure to criticise any decisions by old boss Michael Gove, suggested chairman Greg Clark was right when he asked if this was about ‘settling scores’.

Cummings also failed to fully credit Hancock for his strong push for a second lockdown in the autumn, while at the same time playing down the chancellor’s concerns about the idea. The lens was so skewed that he even said Sunak’s real worry was that the department of health could impose a circuit breaker but had no plan for what happened next. Most curiously, for a man who blogged at length about systems and processes, his real focus was on the central role of “brilliant” individuals, be they officials or ministers.

3 Boris Johnson was off his trolley

The vituperative attacks on Hancock felt like a sideshow compared to Cummings’ cold, matter of fact descriptions of Boris Johnson as being “unfit” to be prime minister. This was the PM’s former chief adviser saying he was never really upto the job, but he was at least better than Jeremy Corbyn. Johnson changed his mind so much, on everything from Covid to free school meals, that he looked “just like a shopping trolley smashing from one side of the aisle to the other.” Sunak was at his wits end about the trolley too, we learned.

Funnily enough the trolley analogy was first used by former Cameron spinner Craig Oliver to describe how Johnson wrote two different Telegraph columns for and against Brexit. But Cummings’s more damning charge was that the PM was fundamentally unserious about Covid policy. Perhaps his most telling line was this: “There is a great misunderstanding people have, that because it [Covid] nearly killed him, therefore he must have taken it seriously.” Narrator: he didn’t.

We heard of Johnson’s talk of injecting himself with Covid on live TV, his regret that he didn’t behave like the Mayor in Jaws and keep the beaches/shops/pubs open, his glib lines about letting ‘the bodies pile high’ and that the virus was “only killing 80-year-olds” (a charge pointedly not denied in PMQs). All felt like jokes that curdled quickly into a cold contempt for the very public he was meant to serve.

Add the claim Johnson “changes his mind 10 times a day” and disappears on holiday at key moments, and that’s a withering verdict on any politician, let alone a PM in a pandemic. No Wonder Johnson looked distinctly rattled when Keir Starmer quoted Cummings central admission: “When the public needed us most, the government failed”.

4 Cummings sounded as unserious as Johnson

Having learned from his Rose Garden press conference disaster, Cummings at least tried to open with an apology for his failures, including not hitting the “panic button” for lockdown earlier. Yet it felt like a strange humblebrag, that somehow he was a genius who spotted the problem but failed to convey that genius. It reminded me of the job interviewees who say their only flaw is that they are a perfectionist.

In a similar vein, his line that it was ”completely crazy that I should have been in such a senior position…I’m not smart” was a laughable attempt at self-effacement. In the next breath he expressed frustration that he wasn’t running the country instead of the elected PM, saying he tried to “create a structure around him..to push things through against his wishes”. Yet this was a man who stuck to his ludicrous specsavers defence for his trip to Barnard Castle.

Cummings’ line that Covid needed a “kind of dictator”, a scientist with “kingly authority”, just also proved how unserious he really is. So too were his references to Spider-Man memes and the film Independence Day (which the bereaved families group felt belittled the gravity of their loss). When he kept saying he felt like he was in a movie, he came across someone as woefully out of his depth as the boss he ridiculed. Asked if he too was unfit for No.10, he just sidestepped the question like a politician. And his charge that it was “crackers” that Johnson was in power suffered from the slight problem of his enthusiastic work to keep him there.

5 Governing properly is really hard, isn’t it?

The lessons learned about Cummings’ own character were possibly just as telling as lessons learned about the pandemic. His own credibility as a witness may already be fatally undermined by his Durham drive. But his testimony had some clear contradictions too. Criticising Carrie Symonds’ “unethical” interference in No.10 appointments may have provoked a hollow laugh from Sonia Khan, whom he had frogmarched by a policeman out of Downing Street without due process.

Most of all, when the crunch came, this would-be iconoclast, the arch-disrupter also revealed a telling lack of nerve in the real world: he revealed he didn’t push for lockdown earlier because he was “frightened” he would get it wrong. That in itself was a rare admission that running a government really is very different from running a referendum campaign. The stakes are all too real.

Cummings’ most serious charge was left for the latter part of his nearly seven hours testimony: “Tens of thousands of people died, who didn’t need to die.” The irony is that Johnson seems to have finally learned the lesson of hard lockdowns and slow releases only since January – after his chief adviser left office. Cummings today got his blame game retaliation in first ahead of the public inquiry. As the PM copes with the new Indian variant, his best answer to the criticism would be to get the current unlockdown right.

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8 News Stories You May Have Missed Because Of Dominic Cummings

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JUSTIN TALLIS via Getty Images

Former number 10 special advisor Dominic Cummings leaves Parliament after giving evidence to a Parliamentary committee hearing in London on May 26, 2021. –

Boris Johnson has been left licking his wounds after Dominic Cummings dropped bombshell upon bombshell on the prime minister over his handling of Covid. 

The former aide sent shockwaves through Westminster at his long-awaited Commons committee hearing, in which he called for health secretary Matt Hancock to be sacked over alleged lies and said the PM was “unfit” for office. 

In a frankly bizarre turn, the PM’s ex-adviser also claimed that in the early days of the pandemic, Johnson considered having Covid injected into him live on television by chief medical officer Chris Whitty. 

Amidst all this, you may have missed some other important news.

Let’s get you caught up with some of today’s other headlines. 

1, The Hillsborough trial collapsed 

AFP Contributor via Getty Images

Retired police officer Donald Denton leaves court

Two retired police officers and an ex-solicitor accused of altering police statements after the Hillsborough disaster have been acquitted. 

The trial against Donald Denton, 83, retired detective chief inspector Alan Foster, 74, and solicitor Peter Metcalf, 71, collapsed on Wednesday after a judge ruled there was no case to answer. 

The three men denied charges of perverting the course of justice after it was alleged they tried to minimise the blame on South Yorkshire Police.

Mr Justice William Davis said the amended statements were intended for a public inquiry into safety at sports grounds, however, and that as such it was not a course of public justice.

Ninety-six Liverpool fans died as a result of the crush at the FA Cup semi-final match at Sheffield Wednesday’s ground on 15 April 1989.

Margaret Aspinall, whose son James was among them, said the ruling was “an absolute mockery” and a “shambles”.

“We’re always the losers no matter what the outcome today,” she said.

2, Raab met Israeli and Palestinian leaders for peace talks

Dominic Raab met with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas as he reiterated the UK supports a two-state solution in the Israel-Gaza conflict. 

The foreign secretary called for a “lasting peace” on Wednesday and visited both Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories following last week’s ceasefire.

The ceasefire was declared on Friday after 11 days of fighting killed more than 250 people, the vast majority in Gaza, in what was the worst violence in the conflict since 2014. 

Raab tweeted: “Vital we make progress towards a more positive future for Israelis and Palestinians.”

3, Five arrested after Black Lives Matter activist shot

Guy Smallman via Getty Images

 Black Lives Matter activist Sasha Johnson

Five men have been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder over the shooting of black equal rights activist Sasha Johnson.

The 27-year-old Oxford graduate is fighting for her life in hospital after being injured at a party in Peckham, south-east London in the early hours of Sunday.

The Metropolitan Police said that officers detained three teenagers and two older men on suspicion of other offences, before they were all also arrested on suspicion of attempted murder.

The first suspect, a 17-year-old boy, was held on suspicion of possession of an offensive weapon and drug dealing on Tuesday afternoon.

Police then raided an address in Peckham where they arrested three men – aged 18, 19 and 28 – on suspicion of affray and possession with intent to supply class B drugs.

A fifth man, aged 25, was arrested later that evening following a car chase, also in Peckham, on suspicion of affray and failing to stop for police.

All five have also since been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder.

4, Disgraced MP Rob Roberts avoids by-election 

MP Rob Roberts

MP Rob Roberts

Disgraced MP Rob Roberts may escape a by-election despite breaching sexual misconduct rules. 

The MP for Delyn faces being suspended from the Commons for six weeks after repeated unwanted advances to a member of staff during which asked him to be “less alluring”. 

Roberts has been stripped of the Tory whip but the way recall laws are drawn up means he cannot face the prospect of losing his seat.

The sanction was proposed by the panel set up in 2020 to deal with cases raised under the Independent Complaints and Grievance Scheme.

But the Recall of Parliament Act was passed in 2015 and only allows the prospect of a by-election for sanctions imposed on the recommendation of the Commons Committee on Standards.

House of Commons leader Jacob Rees-Mogg will invite the “relevant bodies” to consider whether the laws need to be changed to enable the recall process to be triggered.

MPs need to approve the six-week suspension.

5, SNP in talks with Scottish Greens over ‘formal’ government 

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Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon 

Nicola Sturgeon has revealed her SNP government is in talks with the Scottish Greens over a formal co-operation agreement. 

The first minister has said that by working together the two parties “can help build a better future for Scotland” as she set out her priorities following the SNP victory in the Holyrood election earlier this month.

She stressed discussions between the two parties – which are being supported by the civil service – will continue over the coming weeks, and said it is “not inconceivable” that they could see Green MSPs joining the SNP in the Scottish Government.

Both parties support the case for Scottish independence. 

6, ‘Super mutant’ virus fears

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Semi Transparent Viruses

Coronavirus is going to do “weird” things going forward, and “super mutant viruses” may emerge, an expert has warned.

Professor Ravi Gupta, professor of clinical microbiology at the University of Cambridge, said that while this would not necessarily be a bad thing, the virus would try to become more efficient at transmission as more people are protected.

He added that coronavirus is unpredictable and we should not be overconfident at any stage.

Asked about how to prepare for future variants, Gupta told a press briefing: “I think that we have good vaccines, now we need to keep the pressure on vaccine designers, manufacturers to adapt vaccines.” 

He added: “Secondly, the virus is going to do some weird things. I mean, this is just the beginning.

“I think it’s going to recombine, you’re going to get super mutant viruses, I believe.

“But that’s not not necessarily a terrible thing, but the virus is going to do very unexpected things because the amount of pressure on it is going to be severe, so it will adapt.

7, Chris Grayling makes plea over ‘tragic’ decline of hedgehogs 

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A hedgehog 

Former Tory cabinet minister Christ Grayling has urged the government to do more to stop the decline of hedgehogs

The Epsom and Ewell MP said the “catastrophic loss” of the small, spiky mammals was due to a mixture of habitat loss, the reduction of wildlife and protections available.

Speaking in a Commons debate on the Environment Bill, he said: “It is tragic, back in the 1950s there was something like 30 million hedgehogs in this country, now it’s estimated to be about 1.5 million, that is a catastrophic loss.”

“When I was a child, hedgehogs were around in the garden all the time, I have never as an adult seen a hedgehog in my garden or anywhere near it, this is a tragic loss and one we have to work to reverse.”

Too many species he said had declined in numbers, adding “we should be protecting them all”.

Saying hedgehog numbers had declined by 95% in recent years, he asked the government to address “shortcomings” in current legislation, adding: “I hope we’ll all be hedgehog champions going forwards and I’d say to the minister we’re going to be holding her feet to the fire to make sure her department delivers.”

8, It’s Jeremy Corbyn’s birthday

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Jeremy Corbyn 

And finally … Jeremy Corbyn is celebrating his 72th birthday. 

The former Labour leader shows no sign of slowing down campaigning, however, as he plans on celebrating the milestone with an online event entitled ‘Happy Birthday Jeremy – Restore the Whip’. 

Corbyn sits as an independent MP after his successor Keir Starmer suspended him from the Parliamentary Labour Party following his claim that anti-Semitism in the party on his watch had been “overstated” by his opponents. 

He remains a member of the Labour Party, however. 

At the event will be comedian Alexei Sayle, as well as a number of left-wing MPs, including Richard Burgon and Zarah Saltana.  

There were no well wishes from Dominic Cummings, however, who told MPs as part of his marathon evidence session: “There’s a very profound question in the nature of our political system, any system that leaves people with the choice between Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn is obviously a system that’s gone extremely badly wrong.” 

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Boris Johnson Forced To Ditch Travel Advice For Covid Hotspots

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Prime Minister Boris Johnson departs 10 Downing Street

Boris Johnson has been forced into a climbdown over travel restrictions for England’s Covid hotspots after councils revolted over the move. 

On Monday evening it emerged the government had quietly updated advice for eight places hit by the India variant, telling people they should not travel in or out of the area or meet others indoors.  

Local authority leaders in Burnley, Bedford, Blackburn, Darwen, Bolton, Kirklees, Leicester, Hounslow and North Tyneside said ministers failed to notify them of the move, taken last week, and began rejecting local lockdowns “by stealth”. 

Confusion then reigned when a statement by local public health teams said town halls were assured no travel restrictions were in place, but Downing Street insisted the advice applied. 

Now, the Department of Health and Social Care has said guidance will be updated to make clear no new restrictions are in place and that people are advised to “minimise travel”. 

The prime minister was accused of presiding over an “utter shambles” by Labour, with local leaders such as Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham criticising the PM. 

Following outcry,  a government spokesperson said: “We will be updating the guidance for areas where the new Covid-19 variant is spreading to make it clearer we are not imposing local restrictions.

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Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham 

“Instead, we are providing advice on the additional precautions people can take to protect themselves and others in those areas where the new variant is prevalent.

“This includes, wherever possible, trying to meet outdoors rather than indoors, keeping two metres apart from anyone you don’t live with and minimising travel in and out the area.

“These are not new regulations but they are some of the ways everyone can help bring the variant under control in their local area.”

North Tyneside’s Labour mayor Norma Redfearn was among those angry at the government. 

She said: “After a day of confusion the government have clarified there are no restrictions on travel in or out of North Tyneside.”

She added: “We have seen throughout the pandemic that clear communications are vital and this confusion has caused stress and anxiety for many people in North Tyneside and the region.

“There was no consultation on this advice, which was wrong.” 

A joint statement issued by directors of public health in Burnley, Bedford, Blackburn with Darwen, Bolton, Kirklees, Leicester, Hounslow and North Tyneside said: “Following the national coverage of recently revised guidance we have met with national officials and confirmed there are no restrictions on travel in or out of each of our areas: There are no local lockdowns.

“In areas where the new Covid variant is spreading we are all working together to boost testing and vaccination and to support self-isolation.

“There are sensible public health precautions people can take as individuals
in line with the sorts of advice we have all been following throughout the
pandemic.

“We will keep sharing that and working with national officials to make sure
people understand what they need to think about as they go about their daily
lives.”

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Vaccinate Children Over 12 And Boost Self-Isolation Pay, Jeremy Hunt Urges Ministers

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Vaccinating children over 12 for Covid and boosting self-isolation payments could both prevent fresh spikes in the pandemic, former health secretary Jeremy Hunt has said.

The chairman of the Commons health select committee told BBC Radio 4’s The Week in Westminster that he believed the UK would soon follow the United States in allowing under-18s to get the jab.

In a wide-ranging interview, he also said it was not right that the UK continued to recruit nurses from India and other countries where they were desperately needed, arguing the NHS should further increase numbers trained domestically.

He called for action to tackle the 40% of Covid deaths caused by picking up the virus in hospital and suggested an independent watchdog should set targets for NHS and care staffing.

Ahead of a hotly anticipated evidence session with former No.10 adviser Dominic Cummings, Hunt said he didn’t want the hearing to be dominated by political “dirty washing” or score-settling and that it should instead be focused on lessons learned from any failures to date.

The Pfizer vaccine is currently approved for use in over-16s in the UK, while AstraZeneca and Moderna vaccines are authorised for over-18s.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said the UK has secured enough Pfizer doses for children to be vaccinated, if licences are granted.

In the interview to be broadcast on Saturday, Hunt said: “Vaccinating children is something we definitely need to look into and I’m sure we will because they can transmit the virus across generations even if they are not badly affected themselves.

“I think it’s encouraging the US has approved the use of the Pfizer vaccine for the over-12. I would expect something similar here too.”

Earlier this week, Hancock said the government had “a couple of months” before it needed to make a decision on under-18s jabs.

But Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford recently said it was likely the Welsh government would want to roll out jabs for children if licences were granted.

Hunt hinted that with upto 50% of people failing to isolate for money reasons, the “lessons learned” inquiry may recommend both a big boost in state payments in future and a more localised test and trace system.

“I think it’s likely that a much simpler financial proposition would have helped. Something like we will make up any money that you lose out on if you’re asked to isolate, because if you’re taxi driver or whatever it is, no questions asked.

“I think the second thing is more localised contact tracing capability would have helped. I think people are more likely to isolate if they were asked to do so by their local council or someone working for their local council than from someone in a call centre 300 miles away.”

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Dominic Cummings

The Commons inquiry into the pandemic is being jointly held by the health and social care committee and the science and technology committee, with its conclusions due this summer. A wider public inquiry isn’t expected to report until after the next election.

With Cummings due to give evidence next week, Hunt said he was happy to give the former adviser enough time to answer questions but warned he could not be allowed to use if for any personal agenda.

“Select committees are cross party. So what this is not, is a moment for the dirty washing of political laundry. Because what we want to do is to get to the bottom of what we did well and what we did not do well, and what lessons we need to learn.

“But it is a very unusual thing in a select committee inquiry to take evidence from someone who is actually in the room when the big decisions were made, both at the start of the pandemic, and in the run up to second lockdown in November. So we’ll be asking, what were the pressures on decision makers, why certain decisions were taken. And I think that will be incredibly helpful.

“If he’s got a lot to say we’ll give him the space to say it, but we only want to hear things that are relevant to our inquiry which is lessons that can be learned for the future in terms of our country’s pandemic handling.”

With India currently going through its worst wave of the virus, Hunt said that the UK had to now rethink its recruitment of NHS staff from places where they were needed locally.

Asked if it was right that the NHS recruited nurses from countries like India, he replied: “I don’t think so. I think that we have undertrained the numbers of doctors and nurses we need over many decades, because we’ve been confident that we could import them from other countries, if we needed to.

“But for the NHS to have doctors or nurses from places like Sudan and Somalia and India, brilliant professionals though they are, I think poses some very difficult ethical questions.

“I think the NHS should be training the numbers of doctors and nurses that we need for ourselves, and then have all the international exchanges that mean that we are benefiting from contact with the brightest best from all over the world, but not fundamentally depending on other countries to do our training for us.”

The former health secretary said hospital acquired Covid was a big issue that failed to get the attention it deserved.

“One of the things I think is not being talked about enough has been the high proportion of people who caught Coronavirus in a hospital, and died because of an infection that they caught in a health care setting, we think between 20 and 40% of all deaths were from people who actually caught Coronavirus in a hospital setting. And we’ve got to do better.

“ I think there are lots of lessons but it looks like hospitals when they overcame their PPE issues early on, didn’t have any guidance about social distancing and things they should take care of outside the COVID wards, outside the ICU.

“So people were really careful inside intensive care units but in the dementia wards, the elderly care ward, other parts of hospitals where doctors and nurses have teas and coffees, we didn’t do enough early on and there needed to be some national guidance to help people do that.

“I think we also will look at ventilation systems in hospitals because we know with an airborne virus it’s not just surfaces, it’s what’s carried in the air.”

Hunt said that the NHS 1% pay rise offer was “badly handled”, but said the need to recruit many more nurses and doctors was just as important.

He called for an independent watchdog like the Office for Budget Responsibility to publish the levels of staffing needed by both health and social care over the next 10 years “as a way of creating a discipline on the government to make sure we are actually training enough people”.

The Week in Westminster will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Saturday May 22 at 11am

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