Headlines
• Google develops a pay calculator that factors in remote working
• Nasal spray vaccines begin human trials in Thailand
• China to test mixing DNA vaccine with inactive vaccines
• Kenya to discipline unvaccinated civil servants from 23 August
• German nurse suspected of replacing vaccine with saline solution
World news
• Facebook has removed hundreds of accounts from Russia that were linked to a marketing firm that tried to recruit social media influencers to push anti - vaccine disinformation about coronavirus.
• China’s drug regulator has approved the country’s first mixed - vaccine trial. The trial will test the efficacy of combining an inactivated vaccine made by Sinovac with a DNA -based one developed by US pharmaceutical company Inovio.
• Two vaccines being developed in Thailand that are administered by nasal spray are to begin human trials by the end of the year.
• From today, Australian citizens and permanent residents who live outside of the country will no longer be automatically exempt from outward travel restrictions and must apply for an exemption.
• Vaccine equity campaigners from Global Justice Now have criticised the Pfizer for profiteering during the pandemic as the company reportedly increases vaccine prices for the NHS by a fifth from £18 to £22 a dose. The NHS will pay £1bn for 35m doses of Pfizer’s vaccine for boosters next year.
• The Thai government are being forced by a court injunction to rescind an order banning news that “causes public fear”.
• School districts in Florida and Texas are bucking their governors’ bans on requiring masks for children and teachers.
• A survey in the US by the Kaiser Family Foundation, based on a representative sample of 1,259 parents, found that nearly two -thirds would like schools to insist on masks for students, teachers and staff members for the unvaccinated. It also found that one in five parents of children ages 12 to 17 said their child would “definitely not” get vaccinated, with 88% of parents whose children were not vaccinated saying they were “very” or “somewhat” concerned that not enough is known about the long -term effects of vaccines in children.
• WHO has said that a clinical trial in 52 countries would study three anti - inflammatory drugs as potential treatments for Covid -19 patients. These therapies – artesunate, imatinib and infliximab – have been selected by an independent expert panel for their potential in reducing the risk of death in hospitalised patients.
• Spain’s medicines agency has authorised the first round of clinical trials for a vaccine developed by Spanish company Hipra.
• Authorities in northern Germany have appealed to thousands of people to get another vaccine after a police investigation found a Red Cross nurse may have injected them with a saline solution.
• Data collected from 141 schools in England between the 14 June and 6 July 2021 showed that 108 schools returned no positive cases, but 23% of primary schools and 24% of secondary schools returned at least one positive case. This is much lower than the autumn 2020 period, when 54% of primary schools and 62% of secondary schools returning at least one positive case. The data was analysed by the ONS, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and PHE.
• Kenyan civil servants have until 23 August to get themselves vaccinated, or they will face disciplinary action.
