The ‘saviour’ loan apps that trapped pandemic-struck Indians

‘The apps proliferated as the pandemic and the lockdown left millions in India jobless. While many working class jobs have returned, salaried professionals - from engineers and software developers to salesmen - and small businesses have struggled to survive. So the apps helped them out when they needed money quickly.

‘For loans as small as $150 and for periods as short as 15 days, these apps charge a one-time processing fee, a convenience fee and steep interest rates - some as high as 30%. Compare this to to Indian banks, which lend at 10-20% with a tenure of at least 12 months.

‘Like many other apps, at the time of download, these apps too ask for permission to access contacts and photo galleries. When an unsuspecting borrower agrees to this, they become more vulnerable.

"When I investigated one such case, I found that these apps are actually not only able to read and access your contact list, they're also capturing your images, videos and location. They also know many things about you - like, where you have actually used this money, to whom you have transferred this money," says cyber security expert Amit Dubey.’

Read here (BBC, Feb 13, 2021)

Travelling during Covid: ‘I was nervous using a fake Covid-19 test certificate’

‘Coronavirus has changed the way we travel and many countries now demand proof of a negative Covid test before letting you in - with tests often costing hundreds of pounds. BBC reporter Joice Etutu has been speaking to two women who admit using and selling fake certificates...

‘Jessica* is also 24. She admits to selling fake Covid-19 certificates to people who wanted to travel abroad by advertising her services on social media. She says it was "easy money". "They just didn't want to pay £150 for a private test," she says. "We charged them £50. "Because it was so cheap people were asking so many questions, like 'how does it work?', 'when I get to the place are they gonna double check?', 'how did you do it?', 'am I gonna get in trouble?'"

‘Buying or even attempting to buy a forged certificate is a crime in the UK and using a forged certificate to travel is fraud by false representation. If you're caught selling fake certificates in the UK, you might face a prison sentence. Currently, it's the responsibility of airlines to check that passengers have a negative test result.’

Read here (BBC, Feb 9, 2021)

How to heal the 'mass trauma' of Covid-19

‘When the pandemic is over, how should we process the memories of what happened? Ed Prideaux discovers counter-intuitive answers from the science of trauma... 

• What happens when trauma goes viral
• How trauma affects groups and individuals
• The problem of forgetting

‘Covid-19 is a mass trauma the likes of which we've never seen before. Our most complex social extensions, and the building-blocks of our personal realities, have been coloured indelibly. The ways we live and work together, and view each other as common citizens: everything means something different in the viral era, and with potentially traumatic effect. 

‘All pandemics end, however. And this one will. But to forget the trauma, move on, and pay it no mind, won't help. It'd be a disservice to history and our own minds. Maybe to the future, too. ’

Read here (BBC, Feb 4, 2021) 

Can you still transmit Covid-19 after vaccination?

‘In fact, most vaccines don't fully protect against infection, even if they can block symptoms from appearing. As a result, vaccinated people can unknowingly carry and spread pathogens. Occasionally, they can even start epidemics. 

"Effective" or "sterilising" immunity: There are two main types of immunity you can achieve with vaccines. One is so-called "effective" immunity, which can prevent a pathogen from causing serious disease, but can't stop it from entering the body or making more copies of itself. The other is "sterilising immunity", which can thwart infections entirely, and even prevent asymptomatic cases. The latter is the aspiration of all vaccine research, but surprisingly rarely achieved.

What type of immunity do the Covid-19 vaccines provide? "In a nutshell we don't know, because they’re too new," says Neal. So far, the available Covid-19 vaccines have not been judged primarily on their ability to prevent transmission – though this is now being evaluated as a secondary endpoint for many of them. Instead, their efficacy was assessed by whether they could prevent symptoms from developing. "This means that we set our targets kind of pragmatically," says Danny Altmann, professor of immunology at Imperial College London.’

Read here (BBC, Feb 4, 2021)

Covid-19: Novavax vaccine shows 89% efficacy in UK trials

‘A new coronavirus vaccine has been shown to be 89.3% effective in large-scale UK trials. The Novavax jab is the first to show in trials that it is effective against the new virus variant found in the UK, the BBC's medical editor Fergus Walsh said. The PM welcomed the "good news" and said the UK's medicines regulator would now assess the vaccine.’

Read here (BBC, Jan 29, 2021) 

Covid-19: Five days that shaped the outbreak

‘A year ago, the Chinese government locked down the city of Wuhan. For weeks beforehand officials had maintained that the outbreak was under control - just a few dozen cases linked to a live animal market. But in fact the virus had been spreading throughout the city and around China. This is the story of five critical days early in the outbreak.’

Read here (BBC, Jan 26, 2021)

Wealth increase of 10 men during pandemic could buy vaccines for all: Oxfam

‘The combined wealth of the world's 10 richest men rose by $540bn (£400bn) during the pandemic, according to Oxfam. The charity claims this amount would be enough to prevent the world from falling into poverty because of the virus, and pay for vaccines for all. The organisation is urging governments to consider taxes on the super-rich. Oxfam's report comes as global leaders gather virtually for the World Economic Forum's "Davos Dialogue" meeting.’

Read here (BBC, Jan 26, 2021)

Covid vaccine: WHO warns of ‘catastrophic moral failure’

‘The world faces a "catastrophic moral failure" because of unequal Covid vaccine policies, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said it was not fair for younger, healthy people in richer nations to get injections before vulnerable people in poorer states. He said over 39 million vaccine doses had been given in 49 richer states - but one poor nation had only 25 doses. Meanwhile, both the WHO and China were criticised for their Covid response.’

Read here (BBC, Jan 19, 2021)

Past Covid-19 infection may provide 'months of immunity'

‘Most people who have had Covid-19 are protected from catching it again for at least five months, a study led by Public Health England shows. Past infection was linked to around a 83% lower risk of getting the virus, compared with those who had never had Covid-19, scientists found.

‘But experts warn some people do catch Covid-19 again - and can infect others. And officials stress people should follow the stay-at-home rules - whether or not they have had the virus.’

Read here (BBC, Jan 14, 2021) 

Covid: WHO team probing origin of virus arrives in China

‘A World Health Organization (WHO) team has arrived in the Chinese city of Wuhan to start its investigation into the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic. The long-awaited probe comes after months of negotiations between the WHO and Beijing. A group of 10 scientists is set to interview people from research institutes, hospitals and the seafood market linked to the initial outbreak.’

Read here (BBC, Jan 14, 2021) 

Spain to keep register of those who refuse Covid vaccine

‘Spain is to set up a register of people who refuse to be vaccinated against coronavirus and share it with other European Union nations, the health minister has said. Salvador Illa said the list would not be made accessible to the public or to employers. He said the way to defeat the virus was "to vaccinate all of us - the more the better".

Read here (BBC, Dec 29, 2020)

Seismic change: How Covid-19 altered world events in 2020

‘The year 2020 has been like no other. The coronavirus infected more than 67 million people, impacted 80% of jobs, and placed billions in lockdown... Here are just four political issues, from four continents, which were altered by the pandemic:

1. The US election
2. Hong Kong's protests
3. Ethiopia's Tigray crisis
4. Israel's political crisis’

Read here (BBC, Dec 27, 2020)

Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine: Bogus reports, accidental finds - the story of the jab

‘In the early hours of Saturday 11 January, Prof Teresa Lambe was woken up by the ping of her email. The information she had been waiting for had just arrived in her inbox: the genetic code for a new coronavirus, shared worldwide by scientists in China. She got to work straight away, still in her pyjamas, and was glued to her laptop for the next 48 hours. "My family didn't see me very much that weekend, but I think that set the tone for the rest of the year," she says...

‘That weekend was the first step on a journey to create a vaccine at lightning speed, for a disease that would, in a matter of months, claim more than 1.5 million lives. I have been following the efforts of the Oxford scientists since the start. There have been dramas along the way, including:

• A rush to charter a jet when a flight-ban prevented vaccine from getting into the country
• Dismay at totally false reports on social media that the first volunteer to be immunised had died
• Concern that falling infection rates over the summer would jeopardise the hope of quick results
• How an initial half-dose of the vaccine unexpectedly provided the best protection
• An admission from the chief of Oxford's partner, drug company AstraZeneca, that it would have run the trials "a bit differently".

Read here (BBC, Dec 14, 2020)

Covid: Trials to test combination of Oxford and Sputnik vaccines

‘UK and Russian scientists are teaming up to trial a combination of the Oxford-AstraZeneca and Sputnik V vaccines to see if protection against Covid-19 can be improved. Mixing two similar vaccines could lead to a better immune response in people. The trials, to be held in Russia, will involve over-18s, although it's not clear how many people will be involved.’

Read here (BBC, Dec 11, 2020)

When will you be eligible for the Covid vaccine? Britain

Broadly, vaccines are being given to the most vulnerable first, as set out in a list of nine high-priority groups, covering about a quarter of the UK population. They are thought to represent 90-99% of those at risk of dying from Covid-19.

1. Residents in care homes for older adults and their carers
2. 80-year-olds and over and frontline health and social care workers
3. 75-year-olds and over
4. 70-year-olds and over and clinically extremely vulnerable individuals
5. 65-year-olds and over
6. 16 to 64-year-olds with serious underlying health conditions
7. 60-year-olds and over
8. 55-year-olds and over
9. 50-year-olds and over

People aged over 80 in hospital, frontline health staff and care home workers have been the first to get the jab at 70 designated hospitals hubs across the UK.

Read here (BBC, Dec 8, 2020)

Coronavirus: How can we imagine the scale of Covid's death toll?

‘The suffering from the coronavirus pandemic has come to define 2020. But how do you grasp the immense scale of loss? Flowers - symbols of grief, peace, and love - serve as a tribute to those who have died.

‘Imagine the pandemic as a  flower. In the animation below, the stem grows as Covid-19 cases increase over time and the petals unfurl as more people die with the disease.’

View here (BBC, Dec 7, 2020)

Gender equality achievements being wiped out by pandemic

‘The coronavirus pandemic could wipe out 25 years of increasing gender equality, new global data from UN Women suggests. Women are doing significantly more domestic chores and family care, because of the impact of the pandemic. "Everything we worked for, that has taken 25 years, could be lost in a year," says UN Women Deputy Executive Director Anita Bhatia. Employment and education opportunities could be lost, and women may suffer from poorer mental and physical health.

Read here (BBC, Nov 27, 2020)

China pushes for QR code based global travel system

‘Chinese President Xi Jinping has called for a "global mechanism" that would use QR codes to open up international travel. "We need to further harmonise policies and standards and establish 'fast tracks' to facilitate the orderly flow of people," he said. The codes will be used to help establish a traveller's health status. But Human Rights advocates warn that the codes could be used for "broader political monitoring and exclusion".’

Read here (BBC, Nov 23, 2020)

Oxford vaccine: How did they make it so quickly?

‘Ten years' vaccine work achieved in about 10 months. Yet no corners cut in designing, testing and manufacturing... They are two statements that sound like a contradiction, and have led some to ask how we can be sure the Oxford vaccine - which has published its first results showing it is highly effective at stopping Covid-19 - is safe when it has been made so fast. So, this is the real story of how the Oxford vaccine happened so quickly.’

Read here (BBC, Nov 23, 2020)

Inside Britain's test-and-trace: How the ‘world beater’ went wrong

‘The name NHS Test and Trace sounds like it is one whole service that is part of the NHS. Nothing could be further from the truth. It is a complex web of different programmes, led by the civil service, that have been bolted together rapidly. Private firms play a key role in terms of both testing and tracing, which has meant some of the local expertise available in the NHS, universities and councils has been bypassed.’

Read here (BBC, Nov 20, 2020)