Australian health experts have flagged the idea of introducing ‘immunity passports’ to avoid a long-term coronavirus lockdown. The immunity passport, or certificate, would be given to COVID-19 patients who recovered from the deadly illness – and are therefore immune – allowing them to be exempt from tough social distancing restrictions that apply to others. German … Read more
Italy has begun screening doctors for signs of coronavirus immunity, but officials admit that the antibody tests may not work. The northern regions of Veneto and Emilia-Romagna are hoping to issue ‘licences’ to return to work for people who are shown to be immune. The blood tests are intended to detect antibodies, the tools which the body … Read more
Coronavirus has turned business as usual on its head. With the country in lockdown, millions of people on furlough and no clear end in sight, numerous companies are cancelling their dividends to conserve cash. Anpario, a small, AIM-listed business based in Worksop, Nottinghamshire, is bucking the trend. The company makes healthy additives for animal feed … Read more
Boris Johnson’s chief adviser on the coronavirus has warned that Britain might still have to adopt the contoversial herd immunity policy to defeat the pandemic. Professor Graham Medley, the government’s chief pandemic modeller, said lockdown measures have pushed the UK ‘into a corner’, with no way of lifting restrictions while keeping the virus under control. … Read more
Britons who have already have fought off the coronavirus could be given ‘immunity certificates’, ministers today confirmed. Health Secretary Matt Hancock admitted Number 10 was looking at the move at a Downing Street press conference tonight. German scientists have already announced they will roll out the certificates, to try and ease the country out of … Read more
Dr Anthony Fauci warns Americans that they do NOT have ‘herd immunity’ to coronavirus because too few people have been infected – even as US cases climb past 164,000 Dr Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, says herd immunity the coronavirus is unlikely He said there have not been … Read more
The UK gave up on containing the coronavirus outbreak ‘too soon’ because scientists assumed most people would become infected anyway, a leading expert has claimed. Devi Sridhar, professor of global public health at the Edinburgh University, said the assumption led officials to abandon measures that could help slow the pandemic. Those measures include mass testing and stringent contact … Read more
Germany to issue coronavirus ‘immunity certificates’ to people who have recovered in a bid to bring their lockdown to an end Researchers will use the data to decide where and when lockdowns will cease Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research in Braunschweig overseeing project Carrying out blood tests in order to detect antibodies associated with immunity … Read more
New York scientists have created the first blood test to detect whether someone has already been infected by and developed immunity to coronavirus. Researchers at Mt Sinai’s Icahn School of Medicine have made the first so-called serologic test for COVID-19 in the US, and they plan to roll it out in the next few days … Read more
China’s top coronavirus expert has warned that ‘herd immunity’ will not contain the global pandemic because the disease is highly infectious and lethal. The Chinese senior medical adviser rebuked UK’s approach to allow citizens to catch the virus to build up a national tolerance strong enough to stop the virus circulating. ‘Herd immunity won’t solve … Read more