‘A matter for police’: Hancock ‘speechless’ over Professor Neil Ferguson’s lockdown breach May 6, 2020 Health secretary Matt Hancock has said it is a “matter for the police” over whether they take action over Professor Neil Ferguson’s breach of coronavirus lockdown rules. Hancock said Ferguson made the right decision in resigning last night, after it was revealed that the Imperial College epidemiologist and government advisor had broken lockdown restrictions. The [...]
White House to shelve coronavirus task force as Trump targets reopening May 6, 2020 The White House will begin to shut down its coronavirus task force, president Donald Trump confirmed last night, as the country begins to reopen from stringent lockdown measures. Speaking during a visit to a mask factory in Arizona, the president said that responsibility for co-ordinating the US’ response would shift to federal agencies. He praised [...]
Norman Lamont: Britons not prepared for the economic hardship ‘around the corner’ May 6, 2020 Former chancellor Lord Norman Lamont has warned the government’s furlough scheme has made people complacent and unaware of the coming economic hardship. Lamont, chancellor under Conservative Prime Minister John Major, said the scheme had lulled “people into a false sense of security” and that many do not realise “their jobs have disappeared or are about [...]
Workers should work ‘four days on, 10 days off’ to ease coronavirus lockdown May 5, 2020 The government should tell businesses to enact a “four days on, 10 days off” policy for workers once the coronavirus lockdown is eased, according to one of the UK’s leading chemical biologists. Chair of chemical biology at Imperial College London Professor Keith Willison, writing for the neoliberal think tank Adam Smith Institute, said this cyclical [...]
Government scientist resigns after breaking lockdown to meet his lover May 5, 2020 Government scientist, Professor Neil Ferguson, has resigned from his advisory position after the Telegraph revealed he had broken social distancing rules to meet his married lover. Professor Ferguson, who leads a team at Imperial College London, reportedly allowed a woman to visit him in lockdown while advising the public to social distance. The epidemiologist had [...]
UK warns of state-backed cyber criminals ‘exploiting’ coronavirus crisis May 5, 2020 Cyber criminal groups are using the coronavirus outbreak as an opportunity to target national and international groups responding to the crisis, according to Dominic Raab. The foreign secretary said today that there was evidence that cyber criminals were “stealing bulk personal data, intellectual property and wider information” and that the groups were “often linked with other [...]
Rival states launch cyber attacks on UK and US coronavirus labs May 5, 2020 British and American spooks have issued an urgent warning after uncovering a string of cyber attacks launched by rival states against healthcare organisations fighting coronavirus. Healthcare bodies, pharmaceutical companies and local government organisations in the UK and US have all been targeted in the attacks, which are aimed at gathering information about the Covid-19 outbreak. [...]
Quicker testing would have been ‘beneficial’ says chief scientific adviser May 5, 2020 The UK’s chief scientific adviser has told MPs it would have been “beneficial” to have ramped up testing for coronavirus quicker. Sir Patrick Vallance told the Commons Health Select Committee that testing alone would not control the virus. The UK government moved away from contact tracing and testing in the community before lockdown started. Instead, [...]
Rishi Sunak considers cutting furlough pay to 60 per cent of wages May 5, 2020 As part of a review of the job retention scheme, the government is reportedly considering cutting the 80 per cent wage subsidy to 60 per cent for furloughed staff. The job retention scheme sees the government pay 80 per cent of wages, up to £2,500 a month, to 6.3m furloughed workers. However, chancellor Rishi Sunak [...]
Coronavirus: What is the NHS contact-tracing app and how does it work? May 5, 2020 The eagerly-awaited NHS contact-tracing app has been rolled out for the first time today, with key workers on the Isle of Wight the first to trial the new technology. The smartphone app, which is available to healthcare and council workers from today and the rest of the island from Thursday, is expected to be rolled [...]