Recent Posts
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Links to Enquiries & academic papers / Re: superb House of Lords Science & Technology Select Committee evidence session
« Last post by stog on October 14, 2024, 10:29:22 AM »full uncorrected transcript can be read here
very valuable if actioned
https://committees.parliament.uk/oralevidence/14935/html/
very valuable if actioned
https://committees.parliament.uk/oralevidence/14935/html/
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Links to Enquiries & academic papers / Re: superb House of Lords Science & Technology Select Committee evidence session
« Last post by stog on October 14, 2024, 10:17:51 AM »Professor Catherine Green, Professor of Clinical Biomanufacturing and Director of NDM’s Clinical Biomanufacturing Facility; Professor Sandy Douglas, Associate Professor at the Jenner Institute within NDM; and Dr Adam Ritchie, Senior Vaccinologist at the Jenner Institute were invited give evidence on lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic at the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee
@CathGreenLab from the CBF and @DouglasVaccines and @adamjohnritchie from the @JennerInstitute were invited to give evidence on lessons learned from the #COVID19Pandemic at the House of Lords @LordsSTCom yesterday.
short 2 minute excerpt here https://x.com/i/status/1843995152253096212
Watch the full video https://t.co/rCvqWRqufX https://www.ndm.ox.ac.uk/news/ndm-researchers-give-evidence-at-house-of-lords-science-and-technology-committee
@CathGreenLab from the CBF and @DouglasVaccines and @adamjohnritchie from the @JennerInstitute were invited to give evidence on lessons learned from the #COVID19Pandemic at the House of Lords @LordsSTCom yesterday.
short 2 minute excerpt here https://x.com/i/status/1843995152253096212
Watch the full video https://t.co/rCvqWRqufX https://www.ndm.ox.ac.uk/news/ndm-researchers-give-evidence-at-house-of-lords-science-and-technology-committee
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Links to Enquiries & academic papers / superb House of Lords Science & Technology Select Committee evidence session
« Last post by stog on October 14, 2024, 10:13:00 AM »superb House of Lords Science & Technology Select Committee evidence session from earlier this week on the lessons learned from the scale-up and roll-out of the Oxford vaccine for COVID-19
Professor Green said, ‘We need to be supporting creative, innovative, academic manufacturing and idea generation. We need to be supporting the scientists, not only in our universities but small biotech. At the front end, we’ve got to know what vaccines are going to be. We need the ability to demonstrate that they work in people, meaning effective Phase 1 clinical trials all happening in peacetime because that’s your foundation. And we need manufacturing capability for sufficient doses for the UK population kept warm.’
Professor Douglas said, ‘From the pandemic, we’ve learned that it is very important for the government to invest in innovative and rapid response vaccine manufacturing capability. Having something like a peacetime vaccines task force that invests, put in place the contract for emergency response and decides over time we’re going to invest in a range of platforms and pulls that capability that’s used to make other sorts of medicines in to serve the UK public for emergency vaccine response. We know other countries have learned that lesson.’
Dr Ritchie said, ‘We need a diversity of approaches and the UK having once been at the front, is falling behind because other countries are building capacity or building a way to pivot existing capacity to deal with an emergency in a way that’s supported and funded and actionable, we are not seeing that from the UK at the moment and it is a concern.’
full video of evidence here
https://t.co/dh0IQF8PGH
Professor Green said, ‘We need to be supporting creative, innovative, academic manufacturing and idea generation. We need to be supporting the scientists, not only in our universities but small biotech. At the front end, we’ve got to know what vaccines are going to be. We need the ability to demonstrate that they work in people, meaning effective Phase 1 clinical trials all happening in peacetime because that’s your foundation. And we need manufacturing capability for sufficient doses for the UK population kept warm.’
Professor Douglas said, ‘From the pandemic, we’ve learned that it is very important for the government to invest in innovative and rapid response vaccine manufacturing capability. Having something like a peacetime vaccines task force that invests, put in place the contract for emergency response and decides over time we’re going to invest in a range of platforms and pulls that capability that’s used to make other sorts of medicines in to serve the UK public for emergency vaccine response. We know other countries have learned that lesson.’
Dr Ritchie said, ‘We need a diversity of approaches and the UK having once been at the front, is falling behind because other countries are building capacity or building a way to pivot existing capacity to deal with an emergency in a way that’s supported and funded and actionable, we are not seeing that from the UK at the moment and it is a concern.’
full video of evidence here
https://t.co/dh0IQF8PGH
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Links to Enquiries & academic papers / Behind the Masks Corruption red flags in COVID 19 public procurement
« Last post by stog on September 10, 2024, 09:43:04 PM »Behind the Masks: Corruption red flags in COVID-19 public procurement
The COVID-19 pandemic required an unprecedented public health response, compelling UK authorities to act with unparalleled speed. In the hurry, many standard procurement safeguards, such as competition and due diligence, were skipped to expedite the process
Behind the Masks is the most comprehensive analysis to date of public procurement and contracts issued during the COVID-19 pandemic. By analysing publicly available data on over 5,000 UK contracts, alongside official reports, litigation in the courts, and public interest journalism, we identified 135 high-risk contracts worth £15.3 billion. These contracts, which represent nearly one in every three pounds spent, raise serious concerns and warrant further investigation by relevant authorities.
Our research attributes these failings to the widespread and often unjustifiable suspension of procurement checks and safeguards, costing billions to the public purse, and eroding trust in political institutions. As the UK prepares itself for future crises, which are increasingly likely to occur within our lifetimes, this report provides valuable insights to help further investigations into what went wrong, as well as into mistakes that were made during the COVID-19 response.
The UK government should urgently act on the lessons learnt to prevent further harm.https://www.transparency.org.uk/publications/behind-masks-corruption-red-flags-covid-19-public-procurement
The COVID-19 pandemic required an unprecedented public health response, compelling UK authorities to act with unparalleled speed. In the hurry, many standard procurement safeguards, such as competition and due diligence, were skipped to expedite the process
Behind the Masks is the most comprehensive analysis to date of public procurement and contracts issued during the COVID-19 pandemic. By analysing publicly available data on over 5,000 UK contracts, alongside official reports, litigation in the courts, and public interest journalism, we identified 135 high-risk contracts worth £15.3 billion. These contracts, which represent nearly one in every three pounds spent, raise serious concerns and warrant further investigation by relevant authorities.
Our research attributes these failings to the widespread and often unjustifiable suspension of procurement checks and safeguards, costing billions to the public purse, and eroding trust in political institutions. As the UK prepares itself for future crises, which are increasingly likely to occur within our lifetimes, this report provides valuable insights to help further investigations into what went wrong, as well as into mistakes that were made during the COVID-19 response.
The UK government should urgently act on the lessons learnt to prevent further harm.https://www.transparency.org.uk/publications/behind-masks-corruption-red-flags-covid-19-public-procurement
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Links to Enquiries & academic papers / Re: UK Inquiry Module Reports
« Last post by stog on July 25, 2024, 11:17:50 AM »Module 1 reaction
Prof. Christina Pagel wrote about Baroness Hallett's Inquiry Module 1 report that found that there was *never* a plan to keep a pandemic death toll down - and discusses this and what it means going forward in a BMJ article.
https://t.co/WCM0gGqDlD
see also her X thread https://x.com/chrischirp/status/1815747414579363931
Prof. Christina Pagel wrote about Baroness Hallett's Inquiry Module 1 report that found that there was *never* a plan to keep a pandemic death toll down - and discusses this and what it means going forward in a BMJ article.
https://t.co/WCM0gGqDlD
see also her X thread https://x.com/chrischirp/status/1815747414579363931
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Links to Enquiries & academic papers / UK Inquiry Module Reports
« Last post by stog on July 21, 2024, 10:45:25 AM »Inquiry Module Reports
Module 1 – Resilience and preparedness
The Inquiry published its first report and recommendations following its investigation into the UK’s ‘Resilience and preparedness (Module 1)’ on Thursday 18 July 2024.
It examines the state of the UK’s central structures and procedures for pandemic emergency preparedness, resilience and response.
https://covid19.public-inquiry.uk/reports/
Module 1 – Resilience and preparedness
The Inquiry published its first report and recommendations following its investigation into the UK’s ‘Resilience and preparedness (Module 1)’ on Thursday 18 July 2024.
It examines the state of the UK’s central structures and procedures for pandemic emergency preparedness, resilience and response.
https://covid19.public-inquiry.uk/reports/
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C19 Notes Database / The UKHSA data dashboard shows public health data across England.2024--->
« Last post by stog on July 15, 2024, 06:13:58 PM »The UKHSA data dashboard shows public health data across England. It builds on the success and is an iteration of the COVID-19 in the UK dashboard.
The dashboard currently presents a range of data on respiratory viruses
https://ukhsa-dashboard.data.gov.uk/
The dashboard currently presents a range of data on respiratory viruses
https://ukhsa-dashboard.data.gov.uk/
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Links to Enquiries & academic papers / DIGITAL CONTACT tracing FOR SARS-cov-2
« Last post by stog on July 15, 2024, 06:05:05 PM »DIGITAL CONTACT tracing FOR SARS-cov-2
In March 2020 we published a proposal to slow the spread of SARS-CoV-2 (the virus causing COVID-19) by doing contact tracing digitally: using proximity-detecting mobile phone apps. Since then we—a group of scientists at Oxford University’s Nuffield Department of Medicine, mainly led by Professor Christophe Fraser—have published a variety of studies investigating this novel public health investigation further. This website provides links and summaries for our work.
Tabs at the top navigate between pages about specific topics.
https://045.medsci.ox.ac.uk/
In March 2020 we published a proposal to slow the spread of SARS-CoV-2 (the virus causing COVID-19) by doing contact tracing digitally: using proximity-detecting mobile phone apps. Since then we—a group of scientists at Oxford University’s Nuffield Department of Medicine, mainly led by Professor Christophe Fraser—have published a variety of studies investigating this novel public health investigation further. This website provides links and summaries for our work.
Tabs at the top navigate between pages about specific topics.
https://045.medsci.ox.ac.uk/
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Links to Enquiries & academic papers / Re: Drivers of epidemic dyamics using NHS Covid App for data
« Last post by stog on July 15, 2024, 06:01:59 PM »sharp spikes in transmission in England during last Euros, 2021
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Links to Enquiries & academic papers / Re: Drivers of epidemic dyamics using NHS Covid App for data
« Last post by stog on July 15, 2024, 04:52:03 PM »
"figure shows daily analysis of the relative contributions of different "settings" for epidemic spread, April 2021 - March 2022.
Upper = types of contact for the average person with COVID-19,
lower = COVID-19 transmissions detected by the app"
this from X's @mishkendall
==
Household contacts (more than 8 hours per day) accounted for only 6% of contacts but 39% of transmission events,
whereas fleeting interactions (less than half an hour) accounted for 48% of contacts but only 12% of transmission events.
The repeating wave patterns show how types of contact vary by day of the week. No prizes for spotting Christmas day!"
see her Blog https://michellekendall.github.io/blog/