Health News at Your Fingertips

School leaders in the UK have voted to call on ministers to cancel Sats exams next year amid ongoing disruption to education amid the pandemic.

Holding “ridiculous” and “pointless” statutory tests in 2022 would be “unfair” due to Covid-19 absences, headteachers told the annual conference of the NAHT school leaders’ union.

Delegates heard from a number of school leaders before passing a motion calling on the national executive to lobby the Government to abandon all statutory tests in primary schools in 2022.

Michelle Sheehy, head of Millfield Primary School in Walsall, said: “Our current year six children all had hugely different experiences during the previous school year and the differences continue today.”

She added: “If data from the Sats is being used to compare schools it is desperately unfair. The Sats quite simply are not fit to be used for accountability purposes.
“If, as the minister for schools said ‘this is their only purpose’, then why would we be wasting time administering costly and pointless tests?” Speaking at the union’s conference in London on Saturday, Sheehy said: “How many of our schools have been unaffected by Covid-19 this term? Very few I would think.”

It comes after Sats exams for Year 6 pupils, which are used to compare schools’ performance, were cancelled for a second year in a row this summer. The government intends to run statutory exams in summer 2022.

Lies and conspiracy theories about Covid-19, which have amassed millions of views and are accessible to young children, have been available on the social media platform TikTok for months.

TikTok accounts with hundreds of thousands of followers that discourage vaccination and peddle myths about Covid survival rates were uncovered by NewsGuard, an organisation that monitors online misinformation.

NewsGuard said it published its findings in June and sent them to the UK government and World Health Organization (WHO), but the content remained on the platform.

The revelation comes amid renewed concern about the impact that social media is having on young people, after it was reported that Instagram, which is owned by Facebook, had internal research showing its app was harming teenagers.

As part of its investigation, NewsGuard said children as young as nine had been able to access the content, despite TikTok only permitting full access to the app for those aged 13 and over. Three participants in the organisation’s research who were under 13 were able to create accounts on the app by entering fake dates of birth.

In the UK, the pent-up public demand to seek out entertainment as Covid restrictions lifted has fuelled a boom in leisure pursuits, with cinemas and bowling alleys hitting pre-pandemic highs, while Brighton Pier has recorded the best week in its history.

The James Bond juggernaut continues to lead the post-pandemic cinema recovery with Odeon, the UK’s biggest chain with more than 112 sites, selling more than 1m tickets in the first week since No Time to Die’s premiere.

The chain said the film, which became the most successful movie at the British box office since the pandemic began after just three days, has now notched up the highest attendance since Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker in 2019.

Education unions have urged the government to consider reintroducing extra safety measures in schools as an expert warned about the level of coronavirus circulating among secondary pupils.

The latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that around one in 15 children in school years 7 to 11 in England are estimated to have had Covid-19 in the week to 2 October – the highest positivity rate for any age group.

Five education unions wrote to education secretary, Nadhim Zahawi, urging him to look at bringing back stronger safety measures for schools.

The GMB union, Unite, Unison, National Education Union (NEU) and NASUWT teaching union said they are also writing to local authorities and directors of public health asking them to consider measures in their local areas.

Kevin Courtney, joint general secretary of the NEU, said: “We are concerned that the government is standing by while Covid cases surge across schools.”

The NASUWT said schools need more support with onsite testing “rather than relying on home testing, which is less effective” and called on the Government to consider reinstating the requirement for pupils who are contacts of a positive case to self-isolate.

Avril Chambers, GMB national officer, said the latest figures show “it is clear further mitigation measures are needed immediately” in order to avoid further disruption to schooling.

Russia reported 968 coronavirus-related deaths on Saturday, its highest single-day death toll since the start of the pandemic.

There were 29,362 new cases recorded in the last 24 hours, the government coronavirus task force said.

Singapore’s transport minister has said the country will allow quarantine-free entry to vaccinated travellers from Denmark, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, the UK, Canada and the US.

It comes as the health ministry reported 3,590 new cases of Covid-19 cases on Friday, the highest since the beginning of the pandemic, while it recorded six new deaths

A recent spike in infections after the relaxation of some restrictions has prompted Singapore to pause further reopening. It comes as more than 80% of Singapore’s population has been vaccinated against the virus.

A data scientist and economics student joined forces in search of the real pandemic death toll – and the results are startling

The government is considering scrapping free Covid-19 tests in the UK to save money, it has been reported.

At the moment, people can get an unlimited number of free lateral flow tests, with the public urged to self-test twice a week. If someone has symptoms of the virus they can request a free PCR test.

However, the Telegraph has reported that under a new system, lateral flow tests will only be available for high-risk settings such as care homes, hospitals and schools.

It comes as other countries in Europe, such as Germany, end universal free testing this month.

A Whitehall source told the newspaper: “It’s agreed that universal access isn’t sustainable or necessary given high vaccination levels.

“We now need to decide what the parameters should be that reasonably qualify access to free testing.”

Bali, a popular country for tourists coming from far and wide, has been heavily affected by the pandemic and what it means for international travel. The Guardian has published a fascinating photo-essay, showing the fall-out on various parts of the Indonesian province.

A scientist advising the UK government has warned about the level of coronavirus circulating among secondary school pupils as he suggested greater access to vaccine centres may be needed.

Prof Calum Semple, a member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), said there was an unwelcome risk children in that age group could reach herd immunity through infection rather than vaccination.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “There is a risk of that and it’s not a good way to get to herd immunity.

“Commentators would usually say it’s ridiculous to aim for herd immunity using natural wild-type infection because that brings with it disease and damage to children both from acute disease and potentially long Covid.”

Asked whether parents in England should have a greater ability to take children to vaccination centres, he said: “I do think some flexibility would be great, I’m sure there are people thinking about it but also thinking about the practicalities of having large numbers of children inside the vaccinations centres.”

As international health authorities have not yet given their blessing to the Russian-made Sputnik V shot, people in the country are travelling to Serbia for alternative vaccinations to travel freely.

Serbia, which is not a member of the European Union, is a convenient choice for vaccine-seeking Russians because they can enter the allied Balkan nation without visas and because it offers a wide choice of Western-made shots.

Organized tours for there have soared, and they can be spotted in the capital, Belgrade, at hotels, restaurants, bars and vaccination clinics.

“We took the Pfizer vaccine because we want to travel around the world,” Nadezhda Pavlova, 54, told AFP after receiving the vaccine last weekend at a sprawling Belgrade vaccination center.

Vaccination tour packages for Russians seeking shots endorsed by the World Health Organization appeared on the market in mid-September, according to Russia’s Association of Tour Operators. Sputnik V emerged in August 2020 and has been approved in some 70 countries, including Serbia. But the WHO has said global approval is still under review after citing issues at a production plant a few months ago.

Russian health minister Mikhail Murashko recently said administrative issues were among the main holdups in the WHO’s review process.

Judy Twigg, a political science professor specialising in global health at Virginia Commonwealth University, expects Sputnik V to be approved eventually but not this year.

In Brazil, deaths have topped 600,000, according to government data released on Friday. Despite this, bars in the country’s financial center, Sao Paulo, are full again, as social distancing is no more.

So far the country has not faced the predicted destruction of another wave from the delta varient. The country’s average daily death toll has hovered around 500 for a month, down sharply from more than 3,000 in April, AFP reports.

Almost 45% of the population is fully vaccinated, and a booster shot is being administered to the elderly. A greater percentage of Brazilians are at least partially vaccinated compared to Americans or Germans, according to Our World in Data, an online research site.

Marcelo Queiroga, Brazil’s fourth health minister since the pandemic hit, suggested in a press conference on Friday that masks should not be mandatory. “Why would I pass a law to force people to use condoms? Don’t even think of it,” he said.

Rio’s mayor has announced plans to bring back the city’s massive New Year’s Eve party on Copacabana beach.

Some analysts remain worried about delta’s potential to spread. Among them is Miguel Lago, executive director of Brazil’s Institute for Health Policy Studies, which advises public health officials. He believes authorities are taking a risk by reopening too much and announcing celebrations, and that Brazil may soon see more hospital admissions.

“The pandemic has waned, but 500 deaths per day is far from good. And we don’t even have half the population fully vaccinated,” Lago said. “We just don’t know enough and we have this horrific milestone to contemplate now.”