Wednesday, July 21, 2021

 

Bezos blasted for traveling to space while Amazon workers toil on planet Earth

Space-obsessed billionaires come under fire with the Amazon founder declaring the critics ‘largely right’

Amazon and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos sits in the New Shepard rocket booster and Crew Capsule mockup in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Photograph: Isaiah Downing/Reuters

As Jeff Bezos blasts into space on Tuesday, his voyage has some people asking whether the billionaire’s time, or at least money, might be better spent here.

Bezos, the Amazon founder who has an estimated net worth of $206bn, is taking off from Texas on Tuesday morning on the rocket New Shepard, owned by his company Blue Origin.

It will be a moment of celebration for Bezos, a noted space enthusiast who said he has “dreamed of traveling to space” since he was five-years-old. But many others are unimpressed with Bezos spending his fortune on space travel, given the long-running complaints about working conditions at Amazon, and broader concerns about income inequality and the amount of taxes the wealthiest Americans pay – or don’t pay – to the government.

In June, a ProPublica investigation revealed how the wealthiest Americans have consistently avoided paying income tax, stirring anger from struggling Americans taxed at normal rates.

Bezos isn’t the only billionaire with a lust for space travel. His fellow billionaires Richard Branson and Elon Musk have been engaged in a space race for some time, with Branson arguably winning when he flew in a Virgin Galactic flight last week.

The competition has left Warren Gunnels, a staffer for Bernie Sanders, distinctly unimpressed.

Bezos addressed some of the criticism on Monday, when he was asked about the claim that he was taking a rich person’s “joyride” instead of focusing on problems on Earth.

The critics are “largely right”, Bezos said.

“We have to do both. We have lots of problems here and now on Earth and we need to work on those and we also need to look to the future, we’ve always done that as a species and as a civilization. We have to do both.”

Bezos, who has stepped down as Amazon CEO, saw his net worth increase by $70bn during the pandemic, as hundreds of millions of people looked to his company for food deliveries and entertainment. Amazon has been criticized for years over the conditions for its workers, with reports of staff urinating in bottles for fear of missing delivery rates and regularly working 14-hour days.

Andy Levin, a US representative from Michigan, pointed out the discrepancy between owner and worker in a tweet.

While others noted that as Bezos did a round of interviews to discuss his spaceflight, the media largely avoided asking him about his company’s procedures.

Bezos’ flight comes after the British billionaire Richard Branson flew to space in his own Virgin Galactic aircraft. Branson reached an altitude of 53 miles (85 km) in his vessel, lower than the 62 mile (100 km) Kármán line which Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, the Switzerland-based world body, defines as space, though other organizations – such as Nasa – have it lower.

Blue Origin engaged in some social media bickering of its own after Branson’s return from the air. The company’s Twitter feed posted a side by side comparison of its own space trips with those of Virgin Galactic, pointing out that its own trips definitely will go into space, and describing Branson’s ‘space craft’ as a “high altitude airplane”.


UK
U-turn sees NHS workers handed a 3% pay rise

Unions will now make arrangements to consult their members on the offer.

Matt Bodell
21 July 2021


The government previously said 1% was all it could afford.

NHS workers in England are to be handed a 3% single-year pay rise, health secretary Sajid Javid has announced.

The news comes only hours after Conservative MP and Health Minister Helen Whately told Parliament that the Government was still “considering” the undisclosed recommendations of the NHS Pay Review Body (NHSPRB).

Mr Javid said that the government had accepted in full the recommendations of the NHS independent pay review bodies.

He confirmed the rise would cover the vast majority of NHS staff including clinical support workers, nurses, paramedics, consultants, dentists and salaried GPs and recognised their contribution to battling the coronavirus pandemic.

The rise will also be backdated to April 2021.
Extraordinary efforts.

Health Secretary Sajid Javid said: “NHS staff are rightly receiving a pay rise this year despite the wider public sector pay pause, in recognition of their extraordinary efforts.

“We asked the independent pay review bodies for their recommendations and I’m pleased to accept them in full, with a 3% pay rise for all staff in scope, from doctors and nurses to paramedics and porters.

“We will back the NHS as we focus our efforts on getting through this pandemic and tackling the backlog of other health problems that has built up.

“I will continue to do everything I can to support all those in our health service who are working so tirelessly to care for patients.”

Health unions and grassroots campaigning groups have been calling for a 12.5% to 15% pay rise since July 2020 following over a decade of real-terms pay cuts.

Figures suggest that the most experienced front-line nurses are around £6144 per year worse off now than ten years ago due to wages failing to keep up with the rate of inflation (RPI).

Unions will now make arrangements to consult their members on the offer.
A shambolic announcement.

Responding to the NHS pay announcement, RCN Interim General Secretary and Chief Executive, Pat Cullen, said: “After a shambolic day, comes a shambolic announcement. When the Treasury expects inflation to be 3.7%, ministers are knowingly cutting pay for an experienced nurse by over £200 in real-terms.

“Hospitals and other parts of the NHS are struggling to recruit nurses and healthcare support workers. The government has been warned that many more are on the verge of leaving. With today’s decision, ministers have made it even harder to provide safe care to patients.

“This announcement is light on detail. It must be fully-funded with additional monies for the NHS and ringfenced for the workforce bill.

“Nursing staff will remain dignified in responding to what will be a bitter blow to many. But the profession will not take this lying down. We will be consulting our members on what action they would like to take next.”
JUST DO IT!
Olympics may still be cancelled, head Tokyo organizer says

2021/7/20 
©New York Daily News


The Olympic Rings are displayed by the Odaiba Marine Park Olympic venue on June 03, 2021 in Tokyo, Japan. - Yuichi Yamazaki/Getty Images AsiaPac/TNS

The head organizer of the Tokyo Olympics said the Games may still be canceled due to COVID-19 concerns.

Toshiro Muto, the head of the Tokyo 2020 organizing committee, left the door open on canceling the games the during a press conference Tuesday.

“We can’t predict what will happen with the number of coronavirus cases,” Muto said. “So we will continue discussions if there is a spike in cases. We have agreed that based on the coronavirus situation, we will convene five-party talks again. At this point, the coronavirus cases may rise or fall, so we will think about what we should do when the situation arises.”

Polling in Japan has shown a majority of the public does not want the Olympics to happen during the pandemic and does not think the organizers will be able to handle increases in cases.

Muto’s comments come as a number of American athletes have withdrawn from the Olympics over COVID-19 concerns or outright infections. At least 71 support staffers at the Olympics have already tested positive and cases in Tokyo and Japan are rising independent of the Olympics.

Spectators have already been barred from attending events.






The Tokyo Olympics Are Now Apparently Dealing With A Bear Problem
SENIOR SPORTS WRITER
JULY 21, 2021

The 2020 Tokyo Olympics (in 2021) have not gotten off to the smoothest of starts, as the latest variants of COVID-19 has caused a spike in cases worldwide that has led the Olympics to be a spectator-less affair that much of the country of Japan is against hosting.

A handful of athletes have tested positive while in Tokyo, while numerous others have had to delay travel or be pulled from Olympic teams at the last minute for positive tests or close contacts in the weeks leading up to the Games. In case the pandemic wasn’t enough of a hazard, the Olympics now also have to contend with a more physically tangible threat: bears.

Yes, the softball venue at Azuma Sports Park has apparently had a bear sighting recently, part of an uptick that Japan has seen post-pandemic many attribute to lockdowns leading to bears venturing further into areas where people had vacated, via the Washington Post.


A security guard at the Azuma Sports Park first spotted the brown bear at the venue early Tuesday, and it came back again on Wednesday just hours before the first scheduled softball game between Japan and Australia took place, a Fukushima police spokesman told Agence France-Presse.

“We couldn’t find or capture the bear, and while there won’t be any spectators at the stadium, we are on alert and searching for the bear around the site,” the official said.

Olympic organizers could not immediately be reached for comment.

I’ll be honest, one of the least encouraging phrases one could possibly hear in this situation is “we couldn’t find or capture the bear,” but the lack of spectators does help mitigate the disaster potential here. Still, for the softball teams playing in the stadium, it is surely a bit alarming and you can bet they’ll have their heads on a swivel when arriving at the ballpark. Hopefully the bear stays in the woods for the remainder of the tournament and everyone (including the bear) remains safe and unharmed.
Speeding ships killing endangered North Atlantic right whales: study
Agence France-Presse
July 21, 2021

Right Whale (Shutterstock)


Most vessels are exceeding speed limits in areas designated to protect critically endangered North Atlantic right whales, of which only around 360 remain, a report said Wednesday.

The non-profit organization Oceana analyzed ship and boat speeds from 2017 to 2020 in speed zones established by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) along the US Atlantic coast.

Non-compliance was as high as almost 90 percent in mandatory speed zones, while non-cooperation was as high as almost 85 percent in the voluntary areas, the study found.

Collisions with vessels are one of two leading causes of injury and death for North Atlantic right whales, with research showing that slowing vessel speeds to 10 knots (11.5 mph, 18.5 kph) reduces the risk of death by 80 to 90 percent.

"Vessels are speeding, North Atlantic right whales are dying, and there's not enough accountability," said Whitney Webber, campaign director at Oceana.

NOAA has created two types of zones to protect the endangered species: permanent Seasonal Management Area (SMA) speed zones in places where whales are expected to be, and temporary voluntary Dynamic Management Area (DMA) speed zones when a whale is spotted.

SMAs mandate a 10 knot limit while DMAs suggest the same.

The analysis was based on speed and location data collected by Global Fishing Watch, an international nonprofit organization founded by Oceana in partnership with Google and SkyTruth.

It found that the highest compliance level involved just two-thirds of vessels in a mandatory zone near Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

The zone with the highest levels of non-compliance of 90 percent was located in a corridor between North Carolina and Georgia.

The ports of New York and New Jersey had 70 percent non-compliance rates.

The study focused on vessels 65 feet (19.8 meters) and larger, because they are required to continuously broadcast their signals -- however, smaller vessels can be lethal, too.

In February, NOAA reported a calf died from propeller wounds, broken ribs, and a fractured skull from a collision with a 54-foot (16.4 meter) recreational fishing vessel.

"Killing even one is a problem, as scientists estimate that even a single human-caused North Atlantic right whale death a year threatens the species' chances of recovery," said Webber.

North Atlantic right whales were named for being the "right" kind of whale to hunt -- because they were found close to shore, swim slowly and float when dead.

They once numbered up to 21,000 but were hunted close to extinction in the early 20th century, with only around 100 remaining by the 1920s.

Whaling North Atlantic right whales was banned in 1935, leading their numbers to bounce back to as many as 483, but the progress has since been reversed.

Entanglement in fishing gear used to catch crab and fish is the other leading cause of North Atlantic right whale death.
USA
Our history of racism has not been magically erased

CT VIEWPOINTS -- opinions from around Connecticut
by PERRY MONTROSE
JULY 19, 2021




In his June 30 opinion piece, “Connecting the dots: Critical race theory and Gramsci Marxism,” Don Pesci appears to ignore the effect of 400 years of slavery and institutionalized racism that has included Jim Crow, redlining, G.I. bill exclusion, healthcare and education disparities, police abuse, and many other intentional and unintentional ways of harming people of color.

Critical Race Theory simply says we need to look at the effect that the human construct of race has played in our societal ills and institutional structures. We cannot properly address our societal issues without acknowledging the pervasive effects of racism.

It is something that white people like Pesci and I have the privilege of ignoring without consequences to our daily lives. However, we are only conveniently kidding ourselves if we think it does not exist and is not a primary factor in every facet of our society.

It is also foolish to think that we do not also become victims of a society that fails to live up to its ideals and perpetuates oppression. Rather than critiquing any effort to bring awareness and real change to the horrific legacy of racism in the United States, Pesci would be better serving our democracy by further educating himself, facing the difficult realities, and working for reform that enables our democratic ideals to apply to all people.

I hope we will all take a critical look at how our history of racism has not been magically erased and takes intentional work to dismantle.

Perry Montrose lives in Waterford.
WHITE TEENAGE MALE ANGST = FEMICIDE, MISOGYNY
Women-hating manifesto tips off police to ‘incel’ mass-shooting plot


By Mark Gillispie
July 22, 2021 — 

Cleveland— A man who identifies with a group that despises women appeared in federal court in Cincinnati on charges related to his plans to kill sorority members at an unidentified university in Ohio.

Tres Genco, 21, of Hillsboro, Ohio, is charged with an attempted hated crime and possession of a machine gun.

Federal prosecutors in a statement released on Wednesday (Thursday AEST) said Genco identifies himself as an “incel” — involuntary celibate — and has spent time participating in an online community of men hostile to women because they believe they are unjustly denied sexual or romantic attention.

Genco was active in the online incel sub-culture. 

The statement points to a 2014 shooting committed by a self-identified incel named Elliot Rodger, who killed six people and injured 14 others outside a sorority house at the University of California, Santa Barbara, before killing himself.

According to prosecutors, Genco frequently posted on an incel website in 2019 and 2020. In one post, he wrote that he had used a squirt gun to spray “foids” in the face with orange juice, something Rodger had done before the Santa Barbara killings.

“Foids” is the shortened incel term for the hostile term “feminoid”.

RELATED ARTICLE


Opinion
Violence
Men who hate women and their online refuge of scoundrels
Julia Baird
Journalist, broadcaster, historian and author

Court documents say Genco wrote a manifesto called “A Hideous Symphony,” which stated in part: “I will slaughter out of hatred, jealousy, and revenge…I will take away the power of life that they withhold from me”. He also allegedly signed a document “Your hopeful friend and murderer.”

Court documents allege the 21-year-old conducted surveillance at an Ohio university on January 15, 

According to local acting US Attorney Vipal Patel, on the same day Genco allegedly searched online for topics including “planning a shooting crime” and “when does preparing for a crime become an attempt?”

Local police searched Genco’s home in March 2020 and found a firearm with an attached bump stock — which allows it to be rapidly fired — a pistol, loaded ammunition magazines, boxes of ammunition and body armor.

Messages seeking comment were left on Wednesday with Genco’s newly appointed public defender.

AP, staff

Ohio 'incel' charged with hate crime for plotting sorority mass shooting, officials say Tres Genco, 21, planned to shoot women at an Ohio university "out of hatred, jealousy and revenge," the Justice Department alleged.

July 21, 2021, 
By Antonio Planas


An Ohio man whom authorities describe as an "incel" was arrested Wednesday and charged in federal court with attempting a hate crime by plotting to kill women in a mass shooting.

The Justice Department alleged in a statement that the man, Tres Genco, 21, of Hillsboro, Ohio, planned to shoot students at sororities at a university in Ohio. A grand jury indicted Genco on charges of attempting to commit a hate crime and unlawful possession of a machine gun, officials said.


During an investigation, law enforcement discovered a note indicating that Genco hoped to "aim big" and attain a kill count of 3,000 victims, officials alleged. Genco also wrote a manifesto, authorities said, in which he said he would "slaughter" women "out of hatred, jealousy and revenge."

An examination of Genco's electronics showed that on the day he is accused of having written the manifesto, he also searched online for sororities and a university in Ohio, authorities said. The university was not named.

Officials said Genco was part of the online "incel" community, a group of mostly men who harbor hostility toward women. Genco identified as an incel, or "involuntary celibate," officials said.

"Incels seek to commit violence in support of their belief that women unjustly deny them sexual or romantic attention to which they believe they are entitled," the statement read. "According to the indictment, Genco maintained profiles on a popular incel website from at least July 2019 through mid-March 2020. Genco was a frequent poster on the site."

Genco attended Army Basic Training at Fort Benning, Georgia, from August through December 2019, authorities said.

In 2019, he bought items that included tactical gloves, a bulletproof vest, a hoodie with the word "revenge" on it, a bowie knife, two Glock 17 magazines and a 9 mm Glock 17 clip, officials said.

The charging document, authorities said, alleges that Genco conducted surveillance at an Ohio university on Jan. 15, 2020. He is accused of having searched online for topics the same day. Officials said some topics were "how to plan a shooting crime" and "When does preparing for a crime become attempt?"

Neither Genco nor his relatives could immediately be reached for comment late Wednesday afternoon. It was unclear whether he had retained an attorney.

During a visit to an incel website, authorities said, Genco referred to Elliot Rodger, a known incel who killed six people and injured 14 others in May 2014. Some of Rodger's victims were shot outside a sorority house at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

The attempted hate crime charge carries a sentence of up to life in prison, officials said.



The Lambda variant: is it more infectious, and can it escape vaccines? A virologist explains



The Lambda variant accounts for almost all new cases in Peru, which has the world’s highest COVID death toll per capita. Rodrigo Abd/AP/AAP


July 21, 2021 

The Lambda coronavirus variant was first reported in Peru in December 2020, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

It then spread to multiple countries in South America, where it currently accounts for over 20% of detected variants.

One case of Lambda was recorded in hotel quarantine in New South Wales in April.

Lambda has now been detected in more than 20 countries around the globe.

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control has designated Lambda a “variant under monitoring”, and Public Health England regards it as a “variant under investigation”.



In June this year, the WHO designated it a “variant of interest”. This is due to mutations thought to affect the virus’ characteristics, such as how easily it’s transmitted. Though it’s not yet concerning enough for the WHO to deem it a “variant of concern”, such as Alpha or Delta.

Epidemiological evidence is still mounting as to the exact threat Lamda poses. So, at this stage more research is required to say for certain how its mutations impact transmission, its ability to evade protection from vaccines, and the severity of disease.

Preliminary evidence suggests Lambda has an easier time infecting our cells and is a bit better at dodging our immune systems. But vaccines should still do a good job against it.
Is Lambda more infectious? And can it escape vaccines?

Mutations affecting the spike protein of the SARS-CoV-2 virus can increase infectivity, which is the ability of the virus to infect cells.

What’s more, as many of the coronavirus vaccines currently available or in development are based on the spike protein, changes to the spike protein in new variants can impact vaccine effectiveness

Lambda contains multiple mutations to the spike protein.

One mutation (F490S) has already been associated with reduced susceptibility to antibodies generated in patients who had recovered from COVID. This means antibodies generated from being infected with the original Wuhan strain of COVID aren’t quite as effective at neutralising Lambda.



Another Lambda mutation (L452Q) is at the same position in the spike protein as a previously studied mutation found in the Delta variant (L452R). This mutation in Delta not only increases the ability of the virus to infect cells, but also promotes immune escape meaning the antibodies vaccines generate are less likely to recognise it.

Both mutations F490S and L452Q are in the “receptor binding domain”, which is the part of the spike protein that attaches to our cells.

Read more: Why is Delta such a worry? It's more infectious, probably causes more severe disease, and challenges our vaccines

Preliminary data on the Lambda spike protein suggests it has increased infectivity, meaning it’s more easily able to infect cells than the original Wuhan virus and the Alpha and Gamma variants. These early studies also suggest antibodies generated in people receiving the CoronaVac vaccine (developed by Chinese biotech Sinovac) were less potent at neutralising the spike protein of Lambda than they were the Wuhan, Alpha or Gamma variants.

It’s worth noting infectivity is not the same as being more infectious between people. There’s not enough evidence yet that Lambda is definitely more infectious, but the mutations it has suggest it’s possible.

A separate small study, also yet to be reviewed by the scientific community, suggests the L452Q mutation in the Lambda spike protein is responsible for its increased ability to infect cells. Like the L452R mutation in the Delta variant, this study suggests the L452Q mutation means Lambda may bind more easily to the “ACE2 receptor”, which is the gateway for SARS-CoV-2 to enter our cells.

This preliminary study suggests Lambda’s spike protein mutations reduce the ability of antibodies generated by both Pfizer and Moderna’s vaccines to neutralise the virus. Also, one mutation was shown to resist neutralisation by antibodies from antibody therapy to some extent.

Read more: What monoclonal antibodies are – and why we need them as well as a vaccine

However, these reductions were moderate. Also, neutralising antibodies are only one part of a protective immune response elicited by vaccination. Therefore, these studies conclude currently approved vaccines and antibody therapies can still protect against disease caused by Lambda.

Is it more severe?

A risk assessment released by Public Health England in July concedes there’s not yet enough information on Lambda to know whether infection increases the risk of severe disease.


The risk assessment also recommends ongoing surveillance in countries where both Lambda and Delta are present be implemented as a priority. The aim would be to find out whether Lambda is capable of out-competing Delta.

With ongoing high levels of transmission of the coronavirus, there’s a continued risk of new variants emerging. The Lambda variant again highlights the risk of these mutations increasing the ability of SARS-CoV-2 to infect cells or disrupt existing vaccines and antibody drugs.

The WHO will continue to study Lambda to determine whether it has the potential to become an emerging risk to global public health and a variant of concern.


Author
Adam Taylor
Early Career Research Leader, Emerging Viruses, Inflammation and Therapeutics Group, Menzies Health Institute Queensland, Griffith University
Disclosure statement

Adam Taylor receives funding from the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council.
Partners

Griffith University provides funding as a member of The Conversation AU.

Richard Tice makes misleading claims about Covid-19 vaccines and fertility

21 JULY 2021
WHAT WAS CLAIMED

“Forcing” young women to have Covid-19 vaccines is “almost certain” to lead to increased stillbirths, miscarriages, disabled children and infertility.

OUR VERDICT

There is no evidence for this. Yellow Card and VAERS reporting is cited as the source of this claim, but the data from these systems does not prove a link.

Forcing young girls, who just want to dance, to have vaccines almost certain to mean increased still births, miscarriages, disabled children, infertility. Remember the vaccines still on emergency approval only. Revolting, disgusting.

In a widely shared and now-deleted tweet, Reform UK leader Richard Tice claimed that “forcing” young women to have the Covid-19 vaccine is “almost certain” to lead to “increased stillbirths, miscarriages, disabled children, infertility”. There is no evidence to support this claim.

Mr Tice appeared to be reacting to the announcement that people attending nightclubs and other venues where large numbers of people gather in England will need to be fully vaccinated from the end of September. 

When asked on Twitter to back up his claim, Mr Tice later cited the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency’s (MHRA) Yellow Card scheme, and a similar programme also used to monitor suspected side effects of vaccines in the US called the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS)

After being questioned on why he shared inaccurate information about the vaccines, Mr Tice  later deleted the tweet and apologised

As we have written before, the Yellow Card scheme relies on voluntary reporting from medics and members of the public, and is intended to provide an early warning of any previously unknown risks.

An adverse event that occurs after vaccination did not necessarily occur because of it. As the MHRA explains: “The nature of Yellow Card reporting means that reported events are not always proven side effects. Some events may have happened anyway, regardless of vaccination.” 

The VAERS site includes a similar caveat, stating: “Healthcare providers, vaccine manufacturers, and the public can submit reports to VAERS. While very important in monitoring vaccine safety, VAERS reports alone cannot be used to determine if a vaccine caused or contributed to an adverse event or illness. 

“The reports may contain information that is incomplete, inaccurate, coincidental, or unverifiable. Most reports to VAERS are voluntary, which means they are subject to biases.”

Claims that the vaccine can affect a woman’s fertility due to the generation of the spike protein have circulated since the start of the vaccine rollout. As we have written before, there is no evidence this is true. 

The latest government data shows that 46 million people in the UK have had at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine. 

The most recent adverse reaction data published by the MHRA shows that there have been six reports of stillbirths after a Covid-19 vaccine, four reports of foetal death, 339 reports of spontaneous abortion (miscarriage), and nine reports of infertility (two male, one female, five unspecified). 

As we have written before, it’s sadly estimated one in five pregnancies ends in miscarriage, with an estimated 250,000 miscarriages in the UK each year, so the number of miscarriages reported after vaccination doesn’t appear to exceed the expected level. 

Advice from the NHS says there is no evidence that the Covid-19 vaccines affect fertility, and the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines have been “widely used during pregnancy in other countries and no safety concerns have been identified.” Evidence reviewed by the MHRA “has raised no specific concerns for safety in pregnancy”.

The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists states on its website: “Covid-19 vaccines do not contain ingredients that are known to be harmful to pregnant women or to a developing baby. 

“Studies of the vaccines in animals to look at the effects on pregnancy have shown no evidence that the vaccine causes harm to the pregnancy or to fertility.”

Mr Tice also said the Covid-19 vaccines have “emergency approval only”. All three of the vaccines currently in use in the UK (Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Moderna) have been authorised for use. A fourth, Janssen has been authorised, but is not yet in use. 

Across the UK, the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine has a temporary authorisation (sometimes known as a regulation 174 authorisation) issued by the MHRA, which is an emergency authorisation. 

In Great Britain, the Oxford-AstraZenecaModerna and Janssen vaccines have another type of authorisation, called a “conditional marketing authorisation” which has been issued by the MHRA. 

We have written more about the difference between these types of authorisation before.