MPs have accused ministers of "flying blind" and "shrugging their shoulders" at the scale of fraud - which has quadrupled since the start of the COVID pandemic. The cross-party Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said while most of the £21bn of taxpayers' money lost to fraud during the pandemic is unlikely to be recovered, the government should be doing more to recover what it can. On top of around £16.4bn lost to tax and benefit fraud in the past year, the government could have lost up to £28.5bn to fraud and error, without knowing exactly where or how, according to a PAC report, which is based on estimates from the Public Sector Fraud Authority. MPs on the committee also accused the government of damaging public confidence in the integrity of government following … 阅读全文

Plans are under way to restart COVID surveillance ahead of winter. The announcement comes after the rollout of vaccines was brought forward due to a new variant emerging, one which officials have indicated is the most concerning since the arrival of Omicron. Jabs for COVID and winter flu also started today in Scotland. BA.2.86, which was detected in the UK, last month, has a "high number of mutations" and may already be causing "significant community transmission" among Britons. Read more:Should we be worried about new COVID variant? The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said surveillance would resume to deal with a time of year when the NHS always faces increased demand due to seasonal illnesses. Schools returning from holidays also drive respiratory diseases, though this could be neutered somewhat by … 阅读全文

An unusual case of long COVID has resulted in a man's legs turning blue after 10 minutes of standing. The 33-year-old patient has developed a condition called acrocyanosis, which is when leg veins don't allow blood to flow back up to the heart and instead collect in a pool. A minute after standing, his legs begin to redden and then become increasingly blue over time as his veins become more prominent. An itchy sensation then develops. They go back to normal after two minutes of sitting or lying down. The patient started to experience the condition after catching COVID. It also saw him diagnosed with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), which causes an abnormal increase in heart rate when standing. His case has been documented in new research published in … 阅读全文

A new fast-spreading COVID strain has been designated a "variant of interest" by the World Health Organisation. EG.5 is descended from the Omicron variant of coronavirus and is growing in prevalence globally, including in the UK, US and China. It has been detected in 51 countries in total, including South Korea, Japan, Canada, Australia, Singapore, France, Portugal and Spain. In the week beginning 19 June, one in 13 cases were down to the COVID variant. The latest data suggests it now accounts for 17.4% of cases - one in six - which the WHO described as a "notable rise". However, it said the public health risk posed by EG.5 has been judged as low. Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO's technical lead on COVID-19, said EG.5 has an increased transmissibility but … 阅读全文

While so many countries have spent the last year grappling with stubborn inflation, China is facing the opposite problem. Indeed, in July prices actually fell by 0.3% compared to a year before. While the term 'deflation' shouldn't be officially coined until prices have fallen for three months in a row, there are now real fears that is where things are headed, and it is nonetheless a big moment for the world's second largest economy. You might think that falling prices might not be such a bad thing, indeed in the immediacy it can sometimes feel like a brief relief for households. But deflation is actually a phenomenon that worries governments and central bankers even more than its opposite number, inflation. Left to spiral, falling prices erode the profits of businesses, … 阅读全文

A new COVID variant is spreading across the UK, according to the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) - and already makes up one in seven new cases. Scientifically known as EG.5.1, it is descended from the Omicron variant of COVID. The UKHSA has been monitoring its prevalence in the country due to increasing cases internationally, particularly in Asia, and it was classified as a variant here on 31 July. Read more: The part of England with the UK's highest COVID infection rate In the week beginning 10 July, one in nine cases were down to the variant. The latest data suggests it now accounts for 14.6% of cases - the second most prevalent in the UK. It appears to be spreading quickly and could be one reason why there has … 阅读全文

Hospital workers who pick their noses are more likely to catch COVID, a new study suggests. Researchers said hospitals should offer staff educational sessions about the habit and consider recommending against nose picking in infection prevention guidelines. Academics from the Netherlands examined data on COVID infection rates among 219 hospital workers in Amsterdam between March and October 2020. Be the first to get Breaking News Install the Sky News app for free They also conducted a retrospective survey about nose picking and other potential behaviours or physical features which could pose an infection risk. Some 16%, or 34 people, tested positive during the study period. Meanwhile, the majority (85%) admitted to nose picking at least "incidentally", with men and younger people more likely to admit to the habit. Doctors were … 阅读全文

A future pandemic, Russia's potential to disrupt global energy supplies and extreme weather are among 89 threats the government has identified to the UK's security. The Cabinet Office has updated the national risk register to help the public prepare for "worst-case scenarios" that could strike the country. Other threats include the malicious use of drones to disrupt transport and other key bits of infrastructure, and potential disruption to undersea transatlantic telecommunications cables that are used for internet and communications. The severity of each risk has been assessed by taking into account factors such as death toll and financial cost, while extensive data modelling and expert analysis has been used to determine the likelihood of each risk. The register measures likelihood of an event happening, with above 25% the highest score … 阅读全文

The government's approach to buying personal protective equipment (PPE) during the pandemic resembled "panic buying", according to a group of MPs. The Public Accounts Committee has released a report into the purchases, saying officials had to work at "very fast pace in extraordinary circumstances" to get hold of what was needed. But it claimed the "rushed" approach meant "many risky contracts" were signed with suppliers during COVID, and £9bn of public money had to be written off. Politics latest: Sunak facing reshuffle dilemma The committee said the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) had "insufficient time and resources to reflect properly on each offer", and the pressure led officials to "accept very high levels of risk" - including buying products where the bids or providers were "sub-optimal". "Colloquially, this … 阅读全文

US presidential hopeful Robert F Kennedy Jr has been condemned by family members and the White House for saying COVID was targeted to attack Caucasians and black people. Speaking at a recent dinner in New York, Mr Kennedy said "there is an argument" that COVID "is ethnically targeted" and that it "attacks certain races disproportionately". "COVID-19 is targeted to attack Caucasians and black people. The people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese," he added in a video first published by The New York Post. "We don't know whether it was deliberately targeted at that or not but there are papers out there that show the racial or ethnic differential of impact for that." The nephew of the assassinated former president John F Kennedy is a prominent anti-vaxxer and … 阅读全文