Rich nations to acknowledge climate change threat, take urgent steps -draft communique

By Jan Strupczewski, Colin Packham and Philip Pullella

Posted on October 29, 2021

Coal-fired power plants in Germany

ROME (Reuters) – Leaders of the 20 richest countries will acknowledge the existential threat of climate change and will take urgent steps to limit global warning, a draft communique seen ahead of the COP26 summit https://www.reuters.com/business/cop shows

As people around the world prepared to demonstrate their frustration with politicians, Pope Francis https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/pope-francis-cop26-must-offer-concrete-hope-future-generations-2021-10-29 lent his voice to a chorus demanding action, not mere words, from the meeting starting on Sunday in Glasgow, Scotland.

The Group of 20, whose leaders gather on Saturday and Sunday in Rome https://www.reuters.com/world/climate-set-dominate-g20-summit-ahead-un-conference-2021-10-28 beforehand, will pledge to take urgent steps to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit).

While the 2015 Paris Agreement committed signatories to keeping global warming to “well below” 2 degrees above pre-industrial levels, and preferably to 1.5 degrees, carbon levels in the atmosphere have since grown.

“We commit to tackle the existential challenge of climate change,” the G20 draft, seen by Reuters, promised.

“We recognise that the impacts of climate change at 1.5 degrees are much lower than at 2 degrees and that immediate action must be taken to keep 1.5 degrees within reach.”

U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres said on Friday that the world was rushing headlong towards climate disaster and G20 leaders must do more to help poorer countries.

“Unfortunately, the message to developing countries is essentially this: the cheque is in the mail. On all our climate goals, we have miles to go. And we must pick up the pace,” Guterres said.

Climate activist Greta Thunberg https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/protests-proposals-activists-face-climate-talks-test-2021-09-28, who has berated politicians for 30 years of “blah, blah, blah” is among those who took to the streets of the City of London, the British capital’s financial heart, to demand the world’s biggest financial companies withdraw support for fossil fuel.

U.S. BACK IN THE FRAY

Demonstrators in the United States also protested outside several Federal Reserve Bank buildings and other banks.

U.S. President Joe Biden will join leaders at the G20 meeting after a setback on Thursday https://www.reuters.com/world/us/biden-give-update-democrats-spending-plans-before-europe-trip-source-2021-10-28 when the House of Representatives abandoned plans for a vote on a $1 trillion infrastructure bill, which would have represented the biggest investment in climate action in U.S. history.

Biden had hoped to reach an agreement before COP26, where he wants to present a message that the United States has resumed the fight against global warming.

The 84-year-old pope will not attend COP26 following surgery earlier this year, but on Friday he led the calls for action at the talks that run from Oct. 31 to Nov. 12.

The world’s political leaders, he said, must give future generations “concrete hope” that they are taking the radical steps needed.

“These crises present us with the need to take decisions, radical decisions that are not always easy,” he said. “Moments of difficulty like these also present opportunities https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/pope-francis-cop26-must-offer-concrete-hope-future-generations-2021-10-29, opportunities that we must not waste.”

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who is hosting COP26, said this week the outcome hangs in the balance.

On Friday, Britain sought to align business more closely with net-zero commitments by becoming the first G20 country to make a set of global voluntary disclosure standards on climate-related risks mandatory https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/britain-says-company-climate-disclosures-will-be-mandatory-2022-2021-10-29 for large firms.

But leaders of Europe’s biggest oil and gas companies, among big firms conspicuous by their absence at COP26, said only governments can effectively curb fossil fuel demand.

SURVIVAL

The statement from the G20 countries, which are responsible for an estimated 80% of global greenhouse gas emissions, said members acknowledged “the key relevance of achieving global net zero greenhouse gas emissions or carbon neutrality by 2050”.

But countries on the climate frontline struggling with rising sea levels want steps taken now.

“We need concrete action now. We cannot wait until 2050, it is a matter of our survival,” said Anote Tong, a former president of Kiribati.

Tong has predicted his country of 33 low-lying atolls and islands was likely to become uninhabitable in 30 to 60 years’ time.

UN climate experts say a 2050 deadline is crucial to meet the 1.5 degree limit, but some of the world’s biggest polluters say they cannot reach it, with China, by far the largest carbon emitter, aiming for 2060 https://www.reuters.com/business/cop/china-submits-updated-climate-pledges-united-nations-2021-10-28.

Britain’s Johnson said he had urged Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday to do more to reduce his country’s reliance on coal https://www.reuters.com/article/climate-un-coal-demand/insight-cop26-aims-to-banish-coal-asia-is-building-hundreds-of-power-plants-to-burn-it-idINL4N2RI1DL and to bring forward its prediction for peak emissions.

“I pushed a bit on (peak emissions), that 2025 would be better than 2030, and I wouldn’t say he committed on that,” Johnson said.

Xi is not expected https://www.reuters.com/world/china/britain-not-expecting-chinas-xi-glasgow-un-envoy-2021-10-28 to attend the conference in person.

In the G20 draft communique, the 2050 date for net zero emissions appears in brackets, indicating it is still subject to negotiation.

Current commitments to cut greenhouse gas emissions put the planet on track for an average 2.7C temperature rise this century, a United Nations report (Reuters),ahead of crunch climate talks said on Tuesday.

https://www.reuters.com/business/cop/un-warns-world-set-27c-rise-todays-emissions-pledges-2021-10-26/#:~:text=LONDON%2C%20Oct%2026%20 

Pacific Island leaders said they would demand immediate action in Glasgow.

“We do not have the luxury of time and must join forces urgently and deliver the required ambition at COP26 to safeguard the future of all humankind, and our planet,” said Henry Puna, former Cook Islands prime minister and now secretary of the Pacific Islands Forum.

(Reporting by Jan Strupczewski, Costas Pitas, Colin Packham, Jeff Mason, Philip Pullella, Timothy Gardner, Trevor Hunnicutt, Elizabeth Piper and Richard Cowan; Writing by Alexander Smith; Editing by Barbara Lewis, Angus MacSwan and Toby Chopra)

REAGAN DEMOCRAT

Manchin's comments reveal he still has a foot planted in the ashes of Ronald Reagan's worldview

John Stoehr
October 29, 2021

Joe Manchin on Facebook.

I know you want to know if I know what US Senator Joe Manchin wants. I do not. I do know, however, that our national discourse over taxing and spending is so warped he opposes a so-called billionaire's tax while favoring a tax on billionaires not called a billionaire's tax. Such word games conceal the truth.

Taxes pay for a full and equal democracy.

This is not how the GOP would prefer we talk about taxes. They would prefer a national debate centering on individuals living an atomized existence, separate from and unequal to others, while encouraging individuals to think of themselves as "taxpayers" who are "liberated" from the moral obligations of fellowship, community and citizenship.

There was a time when this perspective was thought radical — either it was a cover-up for greed or for something more sinister. That's why Ronald Reagan, before he was president, cited a widely admired transcendentalist writer to make that view seem respectable. In 1964, while stumping for conservative Barry Goldwater, Reagan said: "Henry David Thoreau was right: that government is best which governs least."

Thoreau was right, but Reagan was wrong. That line comes from "On the Duty of Civil Disobedience" (1849), in which Thoreau famously developed the principle of moral conscience superseding the citizen's uncritical adherence to law. The occasion was Thoreau's refusal to pay taxes he believed the government was using to fund imperial expansion, on the one hand, and advancing slavery, on the other.

So the government that Thoreau said would be better if it governed least was, to his way of thinking, an anti-democratic government — a government that, before Abraham Lincoln became president, was not of, by and for the people but instead of, by and for the interests of proto-fascist slavers in the American south. That's why Thoreau accepted prison time for failing to pay his taxes. He refused to be morally complicit in his government's crimes against humanity.

By the time Reagan stumped for Goldwater, the government had become of, by and for the people more completely than any time in the country's history. By then, President Lyndon Johnson had signed into law the 1964 Civil Rights Act, followed by the 1965 Voting Rights Act, together representing American democracy in its fullest flower yet. This is the proper context for knowing what you need to know about anti-tax rhetoric, which struggled in the 1960s but has dominated our national discourse from the time of Reagan's election through today. What you need to know is this: anti-tax is anti-democracy.

With the passing of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, it began illegal for the United States government to do what it had been doing since the American founding — treating non-white people, but especially Black people, as if they were not equal citizens fully and morally entitled to the same rights and privileges as their white counterparts. Of course, an equal democratic union did not sit well with some white people.

Before 1964, anti-tax rhetoric was, to them, rich people bitching about paying their fair share. After 1964, it sounded different. It sounded, to them, like the very obscenely rich defending their "freedoms" and their "rights." With enough time and effort, the anti-tax rhetoric of the very obscenely rich was no longer thought to cover up for greed or something sinister. It was thought downright principled. By standing against the government, and standing up for "taxpayers," the GOP seemed to have a noble lineage going back to Henry David Thoreau.

Beneath the rhetoric was a belief long-standing and deeply rooted in the blood and soil of America — that nonwhite people, but especially Black people, don't count in this experiment in self-rule. "The people" doesn't include them. "The people" is us. A government treating them as equals to us, therefore, is not a government that "sovereign citizens" can support with their tax dollars in good conscience. The whole of the "conservative movement" in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, was a movement to defund a government that would not, because it could not, treat Black people like second-class citizens. A democratic government governing the least became the best of all governments.

That Joe Manchin is trying to have it both ways is, in a sense, not surprising. He has one foot in two worlds. A world that Reagan built, in which billionaires are "job creators" who should not be "punished" for being successful. And a world being built right now, I think, on the ashes of Reagan's in which billionaires are increasingly seen, for all the right reasons, as abominations offensive to all lovers of democracy.

'Ted Lasso' gets corrupted by Mitt Romney and Kyrsten Sinema's Halloween charade

Kylie Cheung, Salon
October 28, 2021


With Halloween a few days away, Capitol Hill is getting spooky.

On Thursday, Utah Sen. Mitt Romney tweeted photos of him and Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema dressed as fan-favorite characters Ted Lasso and Rebecca Welton from the Apple TV+ hit "Ted Lasso." Ted is played by Jason Sudeikis with an iconic mustache, and Rebecca is played by Hannah Waddingham, who often dons stylish, fitted dresses and high heels.

The photos Romney shared recreate a classic Ted and Rebecca tradition, of Ted bringing freshly baked shortbread cookies to Rebecca each morning.

In the Emmy-winning comedy, Kansas native Ted is a famous American college football coach who moves to London to coach the AFC Richmond football club, which Rebecca owns. Since American football and the sport the rest of the world calls football is vastly different, it's clear that his selection is unexpected to say the least.

It turns out that Rebecca chose Ted to deliberately try and sabotage the team, which once belonged to her philandering ex-husband. Therefore, she has no interest in seeing Ted succeed, let alone building a friendship with him – but somewhere between morning biscuit dropoffs and emotionally vulnerable conversations, the two build a deep, almost familial friendship. And for all Ted and Rebecca's problems, like Ted's compulsive need to be liked, as the Season 2 team therapist Dr. Sharon Fieldstone (Sarah Niles) points out, or Rebecca's mean-spirited reasons for hiring Ted, both have become widely beloved characters on a show that's famous for its prevailing niceness and positivity.

It's all just very nice, which is why Romney and Sinema's cosplaying raised a few eyebrows.

One of the posts is a GIF of Romney as Ted proferring Sinema, in the role of Rebecca, a box of the signature biscuits. In another post, he shares a still photo of him handing her the box. "Biscuits with the boss," he writes, and captions the follow-up tweet, "She's one tough cookie."

In another tweeted GIF, the mustachioed Romney tapping the yellow hand-lettered "BELIEVE" sign, mimicking the inspirational message that of Coach Lasso hangs above his doorway.


"If you believe in yourself, and have clear eyes and full hearts — you can't lose," he captions the post, paraphrasing another sports-centric series, "Friday Night Lights."

And in yet another tweet, Romney tags Sudeikis directly, posing in Ted's signature coaching attire with a soccer ball in one hand. "After 10 years, I'm finally returning the favor. How was my @TedLasso, @JasonSudeikis?" he writes.

The irony of Romney and Sinema posing as Ted and Rebecca hasn't been lost on their critics on social media. The exchange is tantamount to two of the most controversial members of Congress cosplaying as, well, nice people. (They aren't nice people.)


Romney, after all, is most famous for bucking his party to vote to impeach former President Trump during Trump's first impeachment trial, only to go on to support nearly all of Trump's agenda, including confirming his nightmarish Supreme Court and judicial nominees.

Sinema, on the other hand, has been in the news more lately, most notably for derailing nearly all of President Biden and the Democratic party's agenda. Sinema has opposed minimum wage increases, climate change action, and ending the filibuster, which is key to almost any progressive policy change. The Arizona senator is increasingly cozying up to Republicans like Romney as a result.

The irony of their supposed, feel-good, "across the aisle" friendship is that Romney's own policy stances could have Sinema, who is openly bisexual, removed from her job. "A reminder that Mitt Romney's public position is that it should be legal for Kyrsten Sinema to be fired from a job for being bisexual," one user tweeted.

"It's nice to see two people from two different parties come together over their mutual disdain for the poor and love for lining their own pockets," another wrote.

Arguably in some ways, Romney and Sinema reflect the worst traits of the characters they're dressed as. There's Romney's almost compulsive need to be liked by everyone, from anti-Trump Republicans and some liberals, as demonstrated by his pro-impeachment vote, to the most intolerant wings of the Republican party, as demonstrated by nearly all his policy stances.

And as for Sinema, you'll recall how Rebecca spent the entire first season of "Ted Lasso" sabotaging her own team. Well, Sinema, in real life, has spent the past year sabotaging her own political party

DC insider: Don’t believe corporate America’s 'labor shortage' BS

Robert Reich
October 29, 2021

Factory worker (Shutterstock)

For the first time in years, American workers have enough bargaining leverage to demand better working conditions and higher wages – and are refusing to work until they get them.

Here's where that leverage comes from. After a year and a half of the pandemic, consumers have pent-up demand for all sorts of goods and services. But employers are finding it hard to fill positions to meet that demand.

The most recent jobs report showed the number of job openings at a record high. The share of people working or looking for work has dropped to a near-record low 61.6 percent. In August, 4.3 million Americans quit their jobs, the highest quit rate since 2000.

Republicans have been claiming for months that people aren't getting back to work because of federal unemployment benefits.

America is on Strike | Robert Reichwww.youtube.com

The number of people working or looking for work dropped in September – after the extra benefits ran out on Labor Day.

The reluctance of people to work doesn't have anything to do with unemployment benefits. It has everything to do with workers being fed up.

Some have retired early. Others have found ways to make ends meet other than a job they hate. Many just don't want to return to backbreaking or mind-numbing low-wage jobs.

In the wake of so much hardship, illness and death, peoples' priorities have shifted.

The media and most economists measure the economy's success by the number of jobs it creates, while ignoring the quality of those jobs. Just look at the media coverage of the September jobs report: The New York Times emphasized "weak" job growth. For CNN, it was "another disappointment."

But when I was Secretary of Labor, I met with working people all over the country who complained that their jobs paid too little and had few benefits, or were unsafe, or required unwieldy hours. Many said their employers treated them badly.

With the pandemic, it's even worse. That's why, in addition to all the people who aren't returning to work, we're also seeing dozens of organized strikes around the country – 10,000 John Deere workers, 1,400 Kellogg workers, over 1,000 Alabama coal miners, and thousands of others.

Not to mention the unauthorized strikes and walkouts since the pandemic began, like the mostly Black sanitation workers in Pittsburgh or the Amazon warehouse workers in Staten Island.

In order to lure workers back, employers are now raising wages and offering other incentives. Average earnings rose 19 cents an hour in September and are up more than $1 an hour over the last year. But clearly, that's not enough to get workers back.

Corporate America is trying to frame this as a "labor shortage."

But what's really happening is more accurately described as a living-wage shortage, a hazard pay shortage, a childcare shortage, a paid sick leave shortage, and a health care shortage.
Unless these shortages are rectified, this unofficial general strike will continue.I say it's about time.

G20 urged to redistribute surplus Covid vaccines

Updated / Friday, 29 Oct 2021

US President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden have arrived in Rome for the G20 summit

The leaders of the world's 20 biggest economies should use a meeting this weekend in Rome to agree how to transfer surplus Covid-19 vaccines to low-income countries, a group of former presidents and prime ministers has said.

In a letter to Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, 100 former leaders and government ministers from around the world urged him to use the G20 summit to address what they said was an unfair distribution of vaccines.

The group said the United States, European Union, Britain and Canada would be stockpiling 240 million unused vaccines by the end of the month, which these nations' military could immediately airlift to countries in greater need.

By the end of February a total of 1.1 billion surplus vaccines could be transferred, it said.

"It would be unethical for all these vaccines to be wasted when globally there are 10,000 deaths from Covid-19 every day, many of which could be averted," said the letter, whose signatories include former UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and former British prime minister Gordon Brown.

The group said the World Health Organization's aim for 40% of the world's population to be vaccinated by the end of the year could only be met if the G20 made a joint decision to order an emergency transfer of their excess vaccine supplies.

"Vaccine inequality also constitutes a threat to us all," it said.

"We are all not safe until everyone is safe. Without urgent and widespread vaccination, variants will continue to arise in unvaccinated regions, and may well spread from there to challenge the vaccine protection achieved hitherto in more vaccinated countries."

G20 host Italy had hoped the G20 summit would see all leaders meet face-to-face.

However, China's President Xi Jinping will participate via video link, while Russian President Vladimir Putin and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will also not attend in person.

US President Joe Biden has arrived in Rome to attend.

The G20, whose countries account for 80% of global carbon emissions, is considered an important stepping stone before the United Nations COP26 climate summit in Scotland, which begins on Sunday.

Mr Xi is also not expected to attend COP26 in person, which could indicate that the world's biggest CO2 producer has already decided that it has no more concessions to offer at the UN COP26 climate summit after three major pledges since last year, climate watchers said.

The G20 also aims to underline that rich countries should stump up $100 billion per year to help poorer nations adapt to climate change.

This goal was supposed to be achieved by 2020, according to an agreement reached in 2009, but has not been met.

The head the Health Service Executive's Vaccine Programme has said that Ireland recently completed a delivery of 340,000 vaccines, which were at risk of expiring, to Uganda.

Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, Damien McCallion Ireland has sufficient vaccine stock to support its booster programme and has ceased delivery of all its vaccines.

He said Ireland has committed around 1 million vaccines under the international COVAX programme by year's end.

Where there are vaccines in danger of expiring, he said, bilateral agreements with other countries that need them will be undertaken.

UK

Patients and staff ‘paying a heavy price’ despite Government ‘lip service’, warn nurses

Official statistics show there are nearly 40,000 registered nursing vacancies across the NHS in England alone.

by Matt Bodell
28 October 2021

Shutterstock

Last month there were also over 2 million visits to A&E departments in England.

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has warned that patients and NHS staff are “paying a heavy price” despite ongoing “lip service” from the Government.

They have accused the Chancellor of ducking the opportunity to address health inequalities and chronic staffing shortages across the health service.

Official statistics show there are nearly 40,000 registered nursing vacancies across the NHS in England alone.

Last week Health Secretary Sajid Javid said he did not “believe the pressures on the NHS are unsustainable” despite NHS performance data showing a new record-high for the number of patients on waiting lists for treatment.

Last month, there were also over 2 million visits to A&E departments in England, the highest number in any September since current records began and over 100,000 patients waited over four hours for admission to a hospital bed.

The Chancellor did however pledge £5.9 billion for new equipment and promised to give NHS workers a pay rise “next year”.

Paying a heavy price.

Responding to the Budget statement from the Chancellor, RCN General Secretary & Chief Executive, Pat Cullen, said: “Despite lip service to levelling up, the Chancellor has ducked the opportunity to address health inequalities and invest in the country’s nursing staff as a means of investing in patient safety.

“The pay freeze hit nurses working in social care and the community – but whether in the NHS or not, nursing staff need a proper pay rise that finally recognises their skill and professionalism.

“He failed to address their pay and again kicked the can down the road by failing to give any commitment to a funded strategy for England to address the tens of thousands of vacant nurse jobs in health and care.

“The public’s greatest fear for health and care services is the current lack of staff. With salaries falling in real terms each year, too many more are considering their future.

“Patient care is paying a heavy price, as is our workforce. Any new centre or clinic requires skilled staff, as does the backlog of people needing care and support.

“Announcements on new hospitals and clinics raise patient expectations but without investment in the nursing workforce waiting lists will continue to grow.

“Patient safety should be the primary concern of every politician. Today’s statement sets the direction for the next few years but completely misses the chance to address years of absent workforce planning.”

NHS Workers Say No – YouTube

 

Greensill scheme pushed by David Cameron provided ‘no benefits to NHS’, official probe finds

‘Promised savings vanishing into thin air,’ says public accounts committee chief

Adam Forrest


Former prime minister David Cameron has come under intense scrutiny over his lobbying efforts for Greensill Capital
(PA)

An NHS payment scheme pushed by David Cameron while he worked for Greensill Capital provided no “material benefits” to the health service, a government watchdog has found.

The former Conservative prime minister was at the centre of a scandal over his lobbying of Tory ministers on behalf of the finance firm which collapsed earlier this year.

In 2019 Mr Cameron lobbied then health secretary Matt Hancock about the benefits of payment scheme allowing NHS staff to get some of their earnings in advance, later rolled out to several trusts.

But an investigation National Audit Office (NAO) has found that the salary scheme – and a separate payment scheme for community pharmacies – did not receive the expected uptake and did nothing to help the NHS financially.

The Labour chair of the public accounts select committee said the failure of the schemes to deliver “promised savings” raised more questions about the government’s ability to “prevent conflicts of interest”.

The NAO investigation looked into the Pharmacy Earlier Payment Scheme brought in by the Department of Health and Social Care in 2013 following advice provided by Lex Greensill. His firm Greensill Capital later acted as the scheme’s financial guarantor.


The health department estimated that the scheme – aimed at getting banks to help reimburse pharmacists for prescriptions more swiftly – could save the NHS £100m. But investigators for the spending watchdog found “no evidence that these predicted savings were realised”.

The NAO also looked into a salary advance scheme called Earnd – pushed by Greensill Capital by 2019 and 2021 as a way of allowing employees of NHS trusts to receive a proportion of their earnings before payday.

The investigation found that seven NHS trusts adopted the scheme, but was not widely taken up and did not help the health service financially. The collapse of Greensill Capital in March 2021 forced some NHS trusts to switch to another advance scheme – incurring extra costs for doing so.

Earlier this year it emerged that Mr Cameron had organised a “private drink” with Mr Greensill and Mr Hancock in October 2019 to talk about the salary advance scheme.

The ex-health secretary later admitted his former Tory colleague had lobbied him, but details of the meeting were not published anywhere on records of official engagements.

Labour MP Meg Hillier, chair of the Committee of Public Accounts, said the NAO’s findings “raise yet more questions over the government’s ability to prevent conflicts of interest and the independence of advice it receives”.

The influential backbencher added: “The consequences once again fall squarely on the taxpayer – with increasing risks to value for money and promised savings vanishing into thin air.”

Mr Cameron came under intense scrutiny over his efforts to get Greensill Capital access to the government’s Covid support schemes in the early weeks of the pandemic as the firm faced insolvency.

Documents showed a barrage of messages sent by Mr Cameron to ministers, including chancellor Rishi Sunak, and officials at the Treasury and Bank of England in March and April of 2020 as he fought to get Greensill access to a loans scheme.

Mr Cameron later told MPs on the Treasury committee that he ought to have made formal approaches by letter – but insisted that his use of private phone numbers of former Tory colleagues was “acceptable”.

Vaccinated easily spread Delta in households - study

Updated / Friday, 29 Oct 2021 



The Delta coronavirus variant can transmit easily from vaccinated people to their household contacts, a British study found, although contacts were less likely to get infected if they were vaccinated themselves.

The Imperial College London study illustrates how the highly transmissible Delta variant can spread even in a vaccinated population.

The researchers underlined that did not weaken the argument for vaccination as the best way of reducing serious illness from Covid-19 and said booster shots were required.

They found infections in the vaccinated cleared more quickly, but the peak viral load remained similar to the unvaccinated.

"By carrying out repeated and frequent sampling from contacts of Covid-19 cases, we found that vaccinated people can contract and pass on infection within households, including to vaccinated household members," Dr Anika Singanayagam, co-lead author of the study, said.

"Our findings provide important insights into... why the Delta variant is continuing to cause high Covid-19 case numbers around the world, even in countries with high vaccination rates."

The study, which enrolled 621 participants, found that of 205 household contacts of people with Delta Covid-19 infection, 38% of household contacts who were unvaccinated went on to test positive, compared to 25% of vaccinated contacts.

Vaccinated contacts who tested positive for Covid-19 on average had received their shots longer ago than those who tested negative, which the authors said was evidence of waning immunity and supported the need for booster shots.

Imperial epidemiologist Neil Ferguson said that the transmissibility of Delta meant that it was unlikely Britain would reach "herd immunity" for long.

"That may happen in the next few weeks: if the epidemic's current transmission peaks and then starts declining, we have by definition in some sense reached herd immunity, but it is not going to be a permanent thing," he told reporters.

"Immunity wanes over time, it is imperfect, so you still get transmission happening, and that is why the booster programme is so important."


COVID-19 can be transmitted by fully vaccinated people at home: Lancet study

By: PTI |
October 29, 2021

The researchers noted that most COVID-19 transmission is known to occur in households yet there is limited data on the risk of transmission of the Delta variant from vaccinated people with asymptomatic or mild infections in the community.



The authors point to vaccine waning as important evidence for all eligible people to receive booster shots.

Fully vaccinated people can contract and pass on Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, in household settings, but at lower rates than unvaccinated people, according to a study published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal.

Researchers led by Imperial College London, UK, found that vaccinated people clear the infection more quickly, but the peak viral load among them is similar to that seen in unvaccinated individuals, which may explain why they can still readily pass on the virus at home.

The researchers noted that most COVID-19 transmission is known to occur in households yet there is limited data on the risk of transmission of the Delta variant from vaccinated people with asymptomatic or mild infections in the community. “Vaccines are critical to controlling the pandemic, as we know they are very effective at preventing serious illness and death from COVID-19,” said Professor Ajit Lalvani of Imperial College London, who co-led the study.

“However, our findings show that vaccination alone is not enough to prevent people from being infected with the Delta variant and spreading it in household settings,” Lalvani added.

The researchers noted that the transmission between vaccinated people makes it essential for unvaccinated people to get immunised to protect themselves from acquiring infection and severe COVID-19, especially as more people will be spending time inside in close proximity during the winter months.

The study enrolled 621 participants, identified by the UK contact tracing system, between September 2020 and September 2021. All participants had mild COVID-19 illness or were asymptomatic. They had daily PCR tests to detect infection, regardless of whether or not they had symptoms.

The researchers performed PCR tests on swab samples provided daily by each participant for 14-20 days. Changes over time in viral load — the amount of virus in a person’s nose and throat — were estimated by modelling PCR data.

A total of 205 household contacts of Delta variant index cases were identified, of whom 53 tested positive for COVID-19.
Among vaccinated contacts infected with the Delta variant, the median length of time since vaccination was 101 days, compared with 64 days for uninfected contacts, the researchers said.

This suggests that the risk of infection increased within three months of receiving a second vaccine dose, likely due to waning protective immunity, they said. The authors point to vaccine waning as important evidence for all eligible people to receive booster shots.

A total of 133 participants had their daily viral load trajectories analysed, of whom 49 had pre-Alpha variant and were unvaccinated, 39 had Alpha and were unvaccinated, 29 had Delta and were fully vaccinated, and 16 had Delta and were unvaccinated.

The study found that the viral load declined more rapidly among vaccinated people infected with the Delta variant compared with unvaccinated people with Delta, Alpha, or pre-Alpha. However, the authors note that vaccinated people did not record a lower peak viral load than unvaccinated people, which may explain why the Delta variant can still spread despite vaccination as people are most infectious during the peak viral load phase.

“Understanding the extent to which vaccinated people can pass on the Delta variant to others is a public health priority,” said Anika Singanayagam, co-lead author of the study. “By carrying out repeated and frequent sampling from contacts of COVID-19 cases, we found that vaccinated people can contract and pass on infection within households, including to vaccinated household members,” Singanayagam said.

The findings suggest that continued public health and social measures to curb transmission such as mask wearing, social distancing, and testing remain important, even in vaccinated individuals. The authors acknowledge some limitations to their study. Due to the nature of UK symptoms-based community testing, only contacts of symptomatic index cases were recruited, the researchers said.

As the study was undertaken when infection was circulating widely, it cannot be excluded that another household member may already have been infected and transmitted COVID-19 to the index case, they added.

UK

Public supports nationalising ‘gig economy’ apps such as Deliveroo and Uber to improve working conditions

Oxford University study finds strong support for action on gig economy

Jon Stone
Policy Correspondent

Deliveroo riders are classed as self-employed
(PA)

There is strong public support for taking “platform” apps such as Deliveroo and Uber into public ownership if they fail to improve pay and conditions for their workers, new polling has found.

A study of opinion commissioned by researchers at Oxford University found a ratio of nearly two-to-one (41 per cent to 22 per cent) believe so-called gig economy workers are not paid a fair wage.

The researchers from the university’s Fairwork project had pollsters ask voters about measures they would support to improve conditions in the sector.

They found nearly two-thirds of Britons (64 per cent) support changing employment law to stop platform employers from inaccurately describing workers as “self-employed” to get around requirements like holiday pay and sick leave.

And a significant majority (57 per cent) think the companies should be obliged to negotiate with trade unions – which very few of them currently recognise. Sixty per cent also say the companies should have to accept worker representatives sitting on their boards of directors.

But there was also strong support for going further: asked whether the companies behind the apps should be nationalised and taken into public ownership if they repeatedly failed to offer workers fair pay and conditions, 49 per cent agreed and 25 per cent disagreed.

A large majority of 60 per cent of Labour voters support the idea, but it is also popular among Conservative voters, who back it by 47 per cent in favour to 27 per cent opposed.

Apps such as Deliveroo, Uber and Amazon Flex pay workers per job completed rather than a set wage, and claim people who work for them are self-employed rather than employees.

As a result, workers can be paid below the minimum wage, especially during quiet periods, and do not get the same rights as other workers. Defenders of the approach say it offers more flexibility, but critics say it makes it hard for workers to rely on a regular income and makes their jobs extremely precarious.

Mark Graham, a professor the University of Oxford’s Internet Institute, and director of the Fairwork research project, said the polling results showed “an appetite for decisive action to improve fairness in the gig economy”.

“The development of technology has allowed for services like transport and delivery to be organised in new ways, but these developments risk being monopolised for the benefits of platforms and their investors, rather than being passed onto workers,” he said.

“Given the scale of the social challenges we face as we emerge from the pandemic, there is an urgent need for the platform economy to transition towards working for social benefit, not private profit.  

“Gig economy platforms need to start making serious improvements now if they want to keep their customers on side and prevent this demand for change from escalating further.” 

Labour has already pledged to change employment law to stop firms using bogus “self-employment” status to strip workers of the right to holiday and sick pay. The party also says it will bring in “fair pay agreements that would require certain sectors to negotiate with trade unions for minimum pay and conditions”.

Alex Marshall, president of the IWGB union, which organises workers on platform apps, said: "This report reiterates that the tide is turning in the gig economy. Not only are we seeing more and more exploitative employers lose in court and be ordered to give workers the rights they have been illegally denied, but now we are seeing public opinion hugely change too.

"These key workers have proved their value with the huge shift they put in to get us all through the pandemic and the public are getting behind them in demanding better treatment.

"A more ethical employment model would not only be beneficial for the workers, but would improve public perception and benefit the business too. Workers' voices are being heard and this comes as a result of unions like the IWGB getting organised, campaigning and winning in the gig economy and making sure that worker rights remain front and centre."

The polling in the study was conducted by Survation on 21 and 22 October 2021 from a representative sample of 2,020 adults aged 18 and over living in the UK.

UK
Liz Truss sets out plan to ban ‘abhorrent’ conversion therapy

Government wants to ban all ‘coercive’ practices – but experts have warned some victims can appear to have consented

Adam Forrest

Minister for women and equalities minister
(AFP via Getty Images)

Cabinet minister Liz Truss has vowed to protect LGBT+ people from “abhorrent” conversion therapy, as the government finally sets out its long-awaited plan to ban the practice.

The Conservatives promised in 2018 to bring forward legislation to end conversion therapies which seek to change someone’s sexual orientation or gender identity.

In March, three of the government’s LGBT+ advisers quit their posts and issued damning criticism over the failure of Boris Johnson’s government to fulfil the long-standing pledge.

Ms Truss, the minister for women and equalities, is now launching a six-week consultation process on the legislative plan to make “coercive” conversion therapies illegal in England and Wales.

The government wants create a new offence for so-called talking conversion therapies, as well as making sure violent conversion therapy acts are sentenced appropriately under existing laws.

“There should be no place for the abhorrent practice of coercive conversion therapy in our society,” said Ms Truss as she launched the consultation.

“Today we are publishing detailed proposals that will stop appalling conversion therapies and make sure LGBT people can live their lives free from the threat of harm or abuse.”

The minister added: “I want everyone to be able to love who they want and be themselves. Today’s announcement sets out how we will ban an archaic practice that has no place in modern life.”

The government said individuals would remain “free to seek out professional help and guidance” – saying legislative efforts would be focused on practices which people have not willingly agreed to undertake.

But campaigners have warned that there should be no defence that a victim appears to have consented to conversion therapy if the government hopes to introduce a truly comprehensive ban.

A recent report by the Forum group of human rights lawyers and experts warned: “Individuals who seek out conversion practices in the hope of being ‘cured’ are not made aware of the severe psychological harm to which they are exposed, and so cannot give informed consent.”

Officials in Northern Ireland have already start preliminary work on drafting a bill after politicians at Stormont passed a motion calling for a ban on conversion therapy in April.

In Scotland, the SNP administration has vowed to end conversion therapy – but said it would wait to see if Mr Johnson’s government follows through on its pledge to “eradicate” the practice and how extensive any proposed ban might be.

The government has made clear its legislative plan is aimed at changing the law in only England and Wales.

The Government Equalities Office (GEO) also said ministers were particularly keen safeguard under 18s – saying legislation would place a strong emphasis on preventing children undergoing any conversion therapies.

Ministers are also preparing to bring in Conversion Therapy Protection Orders to protect potential victims from undergoing the practice. This could include removing passports of those at risk of being taken overseas for conversion therapy.

The government is launching its six-week consultation at 9am on Friday. The GEO is seeking input from charities, and is urging those with experience of conversion therapy to come forward to give their views.

Human species who lived 500,000 years ago named as Homo bodoensis

Species was direct ancestor of early humans in Africa and discovery has led to reassessment of epoch

Homo bodoensis lived in the same epoch as early humans and Neanderthals. Illustration: Ettore Mazza

Nadeem Badshah
Thu 28 Oct 2021 

Researchers have announced the naming of a newly discovered species of human ancestor, Homo bodoensis.

The species lived in Africa about 500,000 years ago, during the Middle Pleistocene age, and was the direct ancestor of modern humans, according to scientists. The name bodoensis derives from a skull found in Bodo D’ar in the Awash River valley of Ethiopia.

Scientists said that the epoch is significant because it was when anatomically contemporary humans, Homo sapiens, appeared in Africa and the Neanderthals, known as Homo neanderthalensis, in Europe.

However, some paleoanthropologists have described this period as “the muddle in the middle” because human evolution during this age is poorly understood.

Dr Mirjana Roksandic, of the University of Winnipeg in Canada and the study’s lead author, said: “Talking about human evolution during this time period became impossible due to the lack of proper terminology that acknowledges human geographic variation.”

Under the new classification, Homo bodoensis will describe the majority of Middle Pleistocene humans from Africa and some from south-east Europe, while many from the latter continent will be reclassified as Neanderthals.

Christopher Bae, from the department of anthropology at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and one of the co-authors of the study, said the introduction of Homo bodoensis is aimed at “cutting the Gordian knot and allowing us to communicate clearly about this important period in human evolution”.



Roksandic concluded: “Naming a new species is a big deal, as the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature allows name changes only under very strictly defined rules.

“We are confident that this one will stick around for a long time, a new taxon name will live only if other researchers use it.”

The findings are published in Evolutionary Anthropology Issues News and Reviews.

In August, the Guardian reported that archaeologists unearthed ancient DNA in the remains of a woman who died 7,200 years ago in Indonesia, a discovery that challenged what was previously known about the migration of early humans.

The remains, belonging to a teenager nicknamed Bessé, were discovered in the Leang Panninge cave on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. Initial excavations were undertaken in 2015.

The discovery, published in the journal Nature, is believed to be the first time ancient human DNA has been discovered in Wallacea, the vast chain of islands and atolls in the ocean between mainland Asia and Australia.

The DNA was extracted from the petrous part of Bessé’s temporal bone, which houses the inner ear. Researchers said the intact DNA was a rare find.

This article was amended on 29 October 2021 to replace the main illustration.