Author: Mike Nova

Average of 1,717 patients in beds last week after ‘unusually early’ start to flu season, which has not yet peaked

The number of people with flu in hospitals across England is more than 50% higher compared with the same time last year, according to official statistics.

The figures, published by NHS England as part of its first weekly snapshot of the performance of hospitals in England this winter, found that an average of 1,717 flu patients were in beds in England each day last week, including 69 whose condition was critical.

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Experts say any change to the hepatitis B schedule could have significant and far-reaching consequences

Robert F Kennedy Jr’s vaccine advisory committee convenes on Thursday to consider a reversal of a decades-long program of childhood immunizations, including a recommendation to delay hepatitis B shots for newborn babies.

For decades, federal health recommendations have suggested that all newborns be vaccinated against the virus that can lead to serious liver disease. Kennedy, the US health secretary and a prominent anti-vaccine activist, has long pushed for delaying the shot.

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Vinay Prasad memo said at least 10 children had died from Covid vaccination – but offered scant evidence for claim

America’s top vaccines official promised, in a long and argumentative memo to staff on Friday, to revamp vaccine regulation after claiming that at least 10 children died from Covid vaccination – but he offered no evidence for that allegation and scant details on the new approach.

The top-down changes, without input from outside advisers or publication of data, worries experts who fear vaccines such as the flu shot may quickly disappear and that public trust will take a major hit.

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