Prof Sheena Cruickshank (she/her) But by far the biggest cost was in lives lost as this careless and stupid scheme fuelled a surge in Covid cases.

I think of this as the scheme that killed my mother.

More costs added to the ‘eat out to help out’ scheme as documents finally released about the £2 million spent on focus groups to try and get public to support an idea for which no scientists were consulted and almost certainly accelerated a second wave 😡 theguardian.com/business/2024/…

No increase in diagnoses, no increase in death in young people with cancer in England.

The antivaxx “turbo cancer” narrative is completely without merit.

Add PFAS to the list of pervasive environmental toxins
'High levels of exposure to some PFAS chemicals have been linked to higher cholesterol, liver and immune system damage, hypertension and pre-eclampsia during pregnancy, as well as kidney and testicular cancer.'…

Opportunity for post-PhD researchers already in the UK from Black, Bangladeshi or Pakistani background to develop career in research from Wellcome Trust below. Any immunologists interested in applying with Manchester feel free to get in touch!
wellcome.org/grant-funding/…

#BeckerProfile Rodrigo Díaz Research Associate in the G. Lopez-Castejon lab.

Read about his research journey from Chile to Manchester, current work on inflammasomes/signaling pathways in macrophages, and translational research ambitions 👇

sites.manchester.ac.uk/lydia-becker-i…

📷Brian Chan

Fantastic news! Congratulations to Matthew C. Sinton, PhD 🏳️‍🌈 from everyone at the Becker for being awarded a Wellcome Early Career Fellowship! 🎉🎉👏👏

Otherworldly images of Sicily during wild fires theguardian.com/artanddesign/g…

The Economic Burden of Long Covid In The UK

March 2024

The jaw-dropping mess of UK higher education is starkly revealed by a series of news stories all on the Times Higher Education website in the last week or so:

1.) There are job cuts right across the sector (44 universities and counting): timeshighereducation.com/news/portsmout…

Excellent piece from Anthony Costello and Independent SAGE reflecting on UK approach to the COVID19 pandemic and comparing with the approaches used in SKorea, Australia etc. we need to acknowledge mistakes and be prepared when and if this happens again open.substack.com/pub/independen…

Creative Industries make up 6% of our economy. That’s more than car and oil industries together. They employ 2.3million people. To cut funding for creative arts at university level is fudge-brained, cack-hearted thinking pitched very much at the highest level of economic…

One health

If you heard Anthony Costello testify at UK Covid-19 Inquiry, then you'll know to expect more of the same from this excellent article.
2020: UK too slow to act, too quick to unlock, crap private TTIS, no supported isolation🤬
Now, we end care home tests🤦‍♂️💔

open.substack.com/pub/independen…

really important article tackling the myth that ICU capacity was sufficient during the pandemic height by Dr Kevin Fong , Charlotte Summers and Tim Cook in The BMJ

Also highlights the awful mental and physical health impact on frontline staff.

bmj.com/content/385/bm…