thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-04-23--Coronavirus: The List Of Essential Workers Who Can Book A Free Test Online

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NHS staff carry out coronavirus tests at a testing facility in Bracebridge Heath, Lincoln PA
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The government has published a list of essential workers in England who will be able to book a free coronavirus test online from Friday.
On Thursday, health secretary Matt Hancock said workers in essential roles showing symptoms of the virus would be able to book a Covid-19 test on the gov.uk website as part of the government’s strategy to get “Britain back on her feet”.
People who live with essential workers will also be use the service.
Under the government’s current social distancing rules, anyone with coronavirus symptoms must remain at home for a week.
Meanwhile, anyone living with a symptomatic person must quarantine at home for a fortnight, unless they develop symptoms themselves.
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It is hoped the new scheme will allow essential workers who test negative – or whose symptomatic family members test negative – for the virus to be able to return to work immediately.
How will the new system work?
After inputting their details into the new portal, essential workers and their families will get a text or email on the same day inviting them to book a test at a drive-through testing site, or will receive a home-testing kit.
Test results from the drive-through sites will be sent out by text within 48 hours, the Department of Health said, and within 72 hours of collection of the home delivery tests.
The aim is that most people should not have to drive for more than 45 minutes to get to a regional testing site.
On Thursday, the government also launched a scheme to allow employers of essential workers to refer them for a coronavirus test.
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Which essential workers will be able to use the service?
Each country in the UK defines ‘essential workers’ slightly differently. The list of workers eligible for the new testing system published by the department of health on Thursday applies to England.
The list includes:


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-04-23--Essential Workers Can Book Free Coronavirus Test Online

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All essential workers can book a free coronavirus test online from Friday, Matt Hancock has said.
And employers can go online and ask for a test for critical staff from today, the health secretary also announced, as he pledged to get “Britain back on her feet”.
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The news means that millions of workers can now apply for a test online at gov.uk/coronavirus.
Speaking at the Downing Street press conference, he said: “From today, employers of essential workers will be able to go on gov.uk to get a test for any of their staff.
“From tomorrow, any essential workers who need a test will be able to book an appointment on gov.uk themselves, directly.
“This all applies for people in essential workers’ households too who need a test.
“It’s all part of getting Britain back on her feet.”
Critical workers or anyone from their household can go to gov.uk/coronavirus to book an appointment. The testing “routes” include: NHS hospitals
Regional test centres
Satellite centres
Home test kits
Mobile testing units
Health chiefs announced on Thursday that the number of people who have died in UK hospitals after contracting coronavirus had risen by 616, bringing the total to 18,738.
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But ministers said that the UK was this week reaching the peak of the outbreak.
Chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance, who appeared alongside Hancock, said he expected the plateauing of the death figures to “continue for another couple of weeks, and we will then see a faster decline thereafter”.
Hancock also said capacity for carrying out tests had significantly increased, with the government now able to carry out more than 50,000 tests a day.
The health secretary has promised to ensure 100,000 tests will be carried out every day by the end of April.
The government puts the huge number of unused tests down to the fact some of the testing sites are inaccessible to people, something it says it is working on by setting up facilities like drive-through testing centres.
Professor John Newton, who is the government’s Covid-19 testing co-ordinator, said the government was “on track” to reach the target.
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thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-04-24--Shapps Shows Why The UK Is A Long Way From Trumpism On Coronavirus

Grant Shapps at Friday's Covid-19 press conference at Downing Street. Picture by Pippa Fowles / No 10 Downing Street Pippa Fowles / 10 Downing Street
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That Sun King feeling...
“Sunlight is the best disinfectant”. That’s the phrase that David Cameron popularised in the UK when he was leader of the Opposition in early 2010, with the general election looming and MPs’ expenses still rocking the public consciousness.
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A decade later, Donald Trump seemed to be confused about the whole concept after his scientists pointed to new studies suggesting varying impacts of UV rays, warmer temperatures and bleach on killing the Covid-19 virus on surfaces.
Trump’s now infamous line - “I see the disinfectant where it knocks it out in one minute..is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside, or almost a cleaning?” - sparked ridicule and anger among those who already believe he’s risked lives with other unproven ‘cure’ remedies.
The US President claimed today that he was only joking, telling journalists he “was asking a question sarcastically to reporters like you just to see what would happen”. Yerright. It felt more like another example of Trump’s belief that he’s some kind of omniscient ruler, like France’s Louis XIV, the ‘Sun King’ (once described as running his country with “a mix of commerce, revenge, and pique”, which sounds kinda familiar).
As it happens, it was US Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, the first Jewish occupant of his office and a passionate fighter for social justice, who in 1914 came up with the phrase “sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants”. How he must be spinning in his grave at the obfuscatory crimes of the man in the Oval Office today.
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At least UK deputy chief medical officer Jenny Harries was unafraid of ridiculing Trump’s disinfectant quackery. “Nobody should be injecting anything, and we should be using evidence based on properly trialled treatments that we know will be safe.,” she said at the daily No.10 press conference. Transport secretary Grant Shapps then added, pointedly: “Perfectly clear”.
In fact Shapps had his own dig at Trump too. When asked about the idea of screening foreign air passengers arriving in the UK, Harries pointed out temperature tests were notoriously unreliable but Shapps went further.
“Countries that lock down their flights, I’m thinking for example in the United States that prevented Brits flying there,” he said, “have not necessarily weathered the storm of the coronavirus any better. Many of them have seen much higher levels of death.” On the day the US death toll passed 50,000, the highest of any nation, that was quite a burn.
Shapps has in fact been one of the most hawkish Cabinet ministers in the UK on the virus. He has got into trouble for saying this week that he wouldn’t personally yet be booking any summer holidays. He faced similar criticism when he suggested people should do one shop a week. But on both counts he was probably just being an ultra cautious risk-minimiser. And to be frank there have been too few of those in the Boris Johnson era.
What does seem highly risky however is the Cabinet’s insistence that there should be no extension to the Brexit transition period despite the Covid-19 crisis and the huge complexity and short deadlines needed to sort a comprehensive UK-EU trade deal. Shapps was firmer than anyone today on this, saying “a lot of people voted” for the Tory manifesto that ruled out the extension. Of course, that vote took place last year, when coronavirus sounded like Mexican beer pong.
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And on the issue of sunlight as in transparency being the best disinfectant, Shapps was no different today from every other government minister in refusing to discuss what kind of measures could take place when the UK passes its tests for easing the lockdown. It may well take the return of Johnson for that to become a reality, and even then it could take time.
Shapps did today unveil various measures on his own brief to tackle the outbreak, with cash for big city councils to keep their tram systems going, new agreements on freight and even a drone pilot scheme for delivery of medical supplies (though his Labour shadow Jim McMahon was not impressed). But what struck me was the lack of questions today about another huge transport issue: air pollution and its link to coronavirus.
Several early studies (in the US last week and Europe this week) have suggested a correlation between individuals’ respiratory illnesses caused by air pollutants and their susceptibility to Covid-19. Could this be why London and New York, for example, have been hit so hard so far? The evidence is in its infancy but given the government is hosting next year’s COP26 climate change talks, there’s an opportunity to take lasting lessons from this awful disease and to reset how the world cooperates on global warming.
Shapps was right that “it’s going to be another sunny weekend” and the answer to when the lockdown would end lay “in many ways” in our own hands, if we all stayed at home. But thanks to greenhouse gases, sunlight is proving deadly not just for viruses but for humans. The WHO itself estimates that the death toll from climate change is projected to cause 250,000 deaths every year. That’s a Covid-19-style murder rate every year, for decades ahead.
Quote Of The Day
“We don’t know yet when that day will come.”
Grant Shapps on when the government’s five tests for lockdown changes will be met
Friday Cheat Sheet
The government’s new coronavirus testing website for essential workers had to be shut down after its 5,000 home kits ran out within just two minutes. Some 46,000 people tried to access the website, 16,000 tests in total were booked and the site was back up later in the day. Capacity rose to 51,121 per day.
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The number of people in UK hospitals with Covid-19 is now 17,049, down from 17,615 on the day before and 10% down in a week. Some 19,506 people in hospital have died, an increase of 684.
99-year-old Captain Tom Moore and singer Michael Ball reached No.1 in the UK’s singles chart with their rendition of You’ll Never Walk Alone.
Chief medical officer Chris Whitty told the Commons Science and Technology Committee that the “only circumstances” in which he would use the phrase “herd immunity” would be to refer to a population being vaccinated - a strong hint he disagrees with others in government who have misused the phrase.
Metropolitan police officers are arresting around 100 people a day for domestic violence offences during the lockdown. Charges and cautions from 9 March are 24% higher than last year.
Equalities campaigner Doreen Lawrence has been appointed by Keir Starmer to head up a Labour review of the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) communities.
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thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-04-24--Donald Trump Claims He Was Being 'Sarcastic' When He Suggested Disinfectant As A Coronavirus Treatme

Donald Trump Claims He Was Being 'Sarcastic' When He Suggested Disinfectant As A Coronavirus Treatment

US President Donald Trump in the Oval Office on Friday OLIVIER DOULIERY via Getty Images
Donald Trump has said he was being ‘sarcastic’ when he suggested disinfectant as a treatment for coronavirus.
Insisting he was testing the media with his comments, the president told reporters on Friday: “I was asking a question sarcastically to reporters like you just to see what would happen”.
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It comes after Trump caused huge controversy during a press conference on Thursday by suggesting that scientists should explore whether inserting light or disinfectant into the bodies of Covid-19 patients would help to fight off the virus.
Referring to research that has found isopropyl alcohol is more effective than bleach at killing the virus, he told the press conference: “And then I see the disinfectant where it knocks it out in a minute.
“One minute! And is there a way we can do something, by an injection inside or almost a cleaning? Is there a way we can do something like that by injection, inside, or almost a cleaning?
“Because you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs, so it’d be interesting to check that. So, that you’re going to have to use medical doctors with, but it sounds interesting to me.”
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Trump’s comments saw the company that manufactures Dettol release an extraordinary statement urging people not to inject or inject disinfectants in a bid to cure coronavirus.
The warning from parent company RB read: “As a global leader in health and hygiene products, we must be clear that under no circumstance should our disinfectant products be administered into the human body through injection, ingestion or any other route.”
Meanwhile, England’s deputy chief medical officer Jenny Harries also slapped down the president’s thoughts on the potential ‘treatment’.
“I wouldn’t have a specific message to Donald Trump,” she said at Number 10′s daily coronavirus press conference on Friday. “I’d have a specific message to anybody who suggested they should be injecting anything into their bodies.
“Clearly we would not support from a medical professional perspective – it is really important that people use appropriate treatments that are evidence-based and tested.”
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She added: “Certainly nobody should be injecting anything and we should be using evidence-based and properly trialled treatments that we know will be safe.”
When he was repeatedly pressed about his disinfectants on Friday, Trump said he was not encouraging people to ingest disinfectant.
Health professionals have been encouraging people for some time to wash their hands thoroughly with soap or to use hand sanitiser to help stop the spread of the virus.
“I do think that disinfectant on the hands could have a very good effect,” he said.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-04-24--Trump Claims He Was Kidding When He Suggested Disinfectant As A Coronavirus Cure


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-04-24--Donald Trump Ridiculed By Deputy Chief Medical Officer Over Bleach Injection Comments

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England’s deputy chief medical officer has ridiculed Donald Trump’s suggestion that injecting people with disinfectant could help fight coronavirus.
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Jenny Harries made clear that “nobody should be injecting anything” into their bodies.
After the US president’s remarkable comments senior officials were forced to immediately clarify that there were no plans to inject disinfectant into Americans and experts lambasted the idea as irresponsible and dangerous.
Harries was asked about Trump’s idea at the Downing Street daily coronavirus briefing.
Do you have a message for President Trump about the use of disinfectants against coronavirus?
“Nobody should be injecting anything, we should be using evidence-based and properly trialled treatments,” says deputy chief medical officer, Dr Jenny Harrieshttps://t.co/HuuAJbnutX pic.twitter.com/y48TTNzlEw — BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) April 24, 2020
She replied: “I wouldn’t have a specific message to Donald Trump – I’d have a specific message to anybody who suggested they should be injecting anything into their bodies.
“Clearly we would not support from a medical professional perspective – it is really important that people use appropriate treatments that are evidence-based and tested.
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“We have very good programmes that have been taken up very rapidly, coordinated in this country, testing various different alternative treatments.
“Those trials will report reasonably early.
“But certainly nobody should be injecting anything and we should be using evidence-based and properly trialled treatments that we know will be safe.”
Transport secretary Grant Shapps added: “That was very clear.”
Shapps meanwhile suggested Trump’s decision to impose bans on people travelling to the US had not worked.
He said the government would keep “under review” whether to introduce airport scanning for coronavirus, suggesting it may be more useful when the government’s strategy switches back to trying to contain the epidemic using testing, tracking and contact tracing.
“As we come out of any of this and into the next phase at a future point, we will continue to keep the excellent medical and scientific advice we receive under review to say whether those procedures at airports should change.”
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But the transport secretary said countries which locked down flights early on “have not necessarily weathered the storm of the coronavirus any better”.
“Although it must be part of the plan going forward, I think it is probably more useful during the phase of ‘test, track and trace’ that the health secretary was talking about yesterday.”
Harries said that quarantining people returning from abroad becomes “less effective” once the prevalence of the disease balances across the world.
“What may well become an opportunity is when our rates are very tightly controlled and individuals are coming into the country.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-04-24--Captain Tom Moore Now Has A Chart Record To Go With His Number One Single

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Captain Tom Moore’s achievements just keep on coming.
The war veteran, who has already raised more than £28 million for the NHS by walking laps of his garden, set a new chart record after his cover of You’ll Never Walk Alone with Michael Ball hit number one on Friday.
The 99-year-old has become the oldest artist to reach number one on the official UK singles chart in its 70-year history.
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The track, which was recorded in lockdown and features The NHS Voices Of Care Choir, will also be top of the charts when he hits his milestone 100th birthday next Thursday.
Captain Tom Moore celebrating after reaching number one in this week's Official Singles Chart PA
Speaking from his home in Bedfordshire, Captain Tom said: “What wonderful news to receive today, a number one single and record-breaker too – my grandchildren can’t believe I am a chart topper!
“I have to thank Michael Ball, the NHS Voices Of Care Choir and everyone behind the scenes, who shared their talents and expertise in order to raise money for the NHS, to whom we owe so much.
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“And, of course, the public for buying the single and donating – we’re in this together, and I am forever grateful for your support.
“And this just proves you’ll never walk alone.”
You’ll Never Walk Alone is also now the fastest selling single of 2020, according to the Official Charts Company.
It reached the top spot after Captain Tom’s closest competitor, The Weeknd, asked his fans to support the track over his own single, Blinding Lights.
Michael Ball debuted with Captain Tom Moore and The NHS Voices Of Care Choir on You'll Never Walk Alone PA
Tom and Michael’s duet had combined chart sales of 82,000 units, with The Weeknd’s Blinding Lights trailing in second place with a tally of 69,000.
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Michael told OfficialCharts.com: “This is the most extraordinary thing, one of the most proudest moments of my career, but it’s not about me, it’s about Captain Tom.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-04-24--More BAME People Are Dying From Coronavirus. Why?

More BAME People Are Dying From Coronavirus. Why?
Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) communities are more likely to be badly affected by coronavirus. Around 19% of people who have died of Covid-19 in the UK were BAME, a Guardian study has found, despite representing only 14% of the British population. Here we speak to Wasim Hanif, professor of diabetes & endocrinology at University Hospital Birmingham and Lord Simon Woolley, chair of the Race Disparity Unit’s advisory group, to find out why this is happening and what is being done to tackle the problem.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-04-24--Watch Live: Transport Secretary Grant Shapps Gives Coronavirus Update

Watch Live: Transport Secretary Grant Shapps Gives Coronavirus Update
As thousands of transport workers are to be furloughed amid TLF's “massive financial challenges”, transport secretary Grant Shapps leads the daily press briefing. He is expected to be joined by deputy chief medical officer Jenny Harries.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-04-24--Lynn Faulds Wood, Former Watchdog Presenter And Journalist, Dies Aged 72

Former Watchdog presenter Lynn Faulds Wood has died at the age of 72.
Lynn’s family confirmed the news of her death in a statement on Friday, revealing she had died that afternoon with her family at her side.
“Having suffered a massive stroke last night and a subsequent bleed on the brain, presenter and journalist Lynn Faulds Wood passed away peacefully at 12 noon today with her husband John Stapleton and son Nick at her bedside,” they said.
Born in Glasgow, Lynn began her career in journalism writing about consumer issues for the Daily Mail and The Sun.
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Lynn Faulds Wood pictured at an event last year David M. Benett via Getty Images
From there, she made the move into breakfast television, joining TV-AM when it launched in the 1980s, where she served as their Consumer Champion, and later joining the team at Breakfast Time.
Lynn will be best remembered for her work on the consumer investigations show Watchdog, presenting the show for eight years alongside her husband and fellow broadcaster, John Stapleton.
She later made the jump to ITV, presenting on World In Action, before teaming up with Esther Rantzen in 2006 for the series Old Dogs, New Tricks.
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Lynn returned to Watchdog in 2014 for the spin-off series Watchdog Test House, looking into the safety of household products and the effects of past investigations carried about by the show.
In more recent years, Lynn became known for her work in health campaigning, having beaten cancer twice.
She was a co-founder of the European Cancer Patient Coalition, on which she was chairperson until 2010, and helped make sure that cancer was recognised on the official European Agenda.
Lynn was offered an MBE for her campaigning, but turned it down, claiming in 2016 she’d have felt like a “hypocrite” had she accepted it.
“I would love to have an honour if it didn’t have the word ‘empire’ on the end of it. We don’t have an empire, in my opinion,” she told PA.
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“I’ve changed laws and I’ve helped saved a lot of people’s lives, so maybe I’m deserving of an honour, but I just wouldn’t accept it while we still have party donors donating huge amounts of money and getting an honour.”
She is survived by her husband John and their son, Nicholas.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-04-24--Are Coronavirus Immunity Passports Really An All-Access Pass To Normal Life?

As government leaders consider how to reopen society, officials in many countries have latched onto the idea of issuing “immunity passports” to people who have recovered from Covid-19.
It is a tantalising and controversial concept. If tests can prove that people are no longer susceptible to the coronavirus, those individuals could be free to return to work and go about their daily lives – helping to revive the economy and assist others who are still quarantined at home.
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“We are looking at an immunity certificate – how people who have had the disease, have got the antibodies and therefore have the immunity, can show that and so get back, as much as possible, to normal life,” Matt Hancock, the United Kingdom’s health secretary, said earlier this month.
This week, Chile announced it would begin issuing physical or digital immunity cards to thousands of people who have recovered from the virus – the first country in the world to do so. Scientists and government officials in Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and other countries are considering the idea as well.
The mayor of Paris included immunity passports on a list of proposals for lifting lockdown restrictions in the city. Officials in the northern Italian region of Lombardy — the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak in Europe — have begun conducting antibody testing, with the hope of eventually issuing immunity certificates. Catalan authorities in Spain are also evaluating the concept.
In the United States, immunity passports could “have some merit under certain circumstances,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CNN this month. “It’s one of those things that we talk about when we want to make sure that we know who the vulnerable people are and not.”
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In London, members of the public take part in a national "clap for carers" to show thanks for the work of Britain's National Health Service workers, April 23, 2020. NIKLAS HALLE'N via Getty Images
Many countries are working to ramp up their coronavirus testing capacity. Diagnostic swab tests can detect whether an individual is currently infected with coronavirus, while blood tests can determine whether a person has developed antibodies from exposure to the virus.
Together, the tests can help public health officials identify outbreaks and calculate how much of the population has been infected, how deadly the disease truly is, and whether people may have developed some form of immunity.
Scientists have cautioned that some early antibody tests have proven unreliable, however. And because Covid-19 is a new disease, it’s too early to know how long any immunity might last – or even whether people infected by the virus develop immunity at all.
“We know that the current tests are not 100% effective,” Isabella Eckerle, a virologist at the Center for Emerging Viral Diseases in Geneva, told HuffPost France.
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Two recent antibody studies in California have been heavily criticised by scientists, who have raised concerns about their methodologies and the fact that the tests are prone to false positives. The UK government recently paid £16 million for antibody tests from two Chinese companies, only to discover that the tests didn’t work.
Even if accurate and reliable tests are developed, the mere presence of antibodies doesn’t necessarily mean that a person is immune. The number of antibodies needs to be sufficient to stop the virus from multiplying.
“We have a vague idea that the more antibodies you have, the better protected you are, in the same way we know that a more powerful car engine allows you to go faster, but that doesn’t give us the exact speed,” Marc Eloit, the head of the infectious disease lab at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, told HuffPost France.
Eventually, scientists may learn this information. By regularly measuring the status of high-risk individuals, like health care workers, for example, researchers could potentially identify the antibody level at which people can be considered to be immune. But this kind of monitoring would take “two to three months,” Eloit said.
A couple wearing face masks walk through a shopping district in Seoul on April 23, 2020. JUNG YEON-JE via Getty Images
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The concept of immunity passports raises other concerns as well. They could divide society into two groups: those who have immunity and can therefore resume normal life, and those who are required to remain under lockdown.
Employers could potentially require workers to obtain immunity passports as a condition of employment, and anyone without immunity could be discriminated against.
In the United States, laws protect people with disabilities and genetic conditions against workplace discrimination, but the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission recently issued guidance suggesting that discrimination on the basis of Covid-19 immunity may be acceptable.
Immunity passports could also become a condition for traveling on an airplane or attending concerts or sporting events.
“We will make whatever changes to the business model that will be necessary,” Delta Airlines CEO Ed Bastian said this week. “If it turns out immunity passports will be a new form ... You think about everything that came out of 9/11 with TSA and Homeland Security and new public agencies. Could there be a new public health agency coming out that requires a new passport to travel? We’ll be on the forefront of all those advances.”
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In Spain, hotels and tourist boards are considering requiring travellers to certify that they are “Covid-19 free” before visiting.
Oriol Mitjà, an infectious disease expert in Spain who is helping to advise authorities in Catalonia, suggested that immunity passports could be required to attend large events — at least as an intermediary step until a vaccine is developed.
Do we want to “have concerts quickly, in six to 10 months, or do we prefer the alternative of not having concerts for two years?” Mitjà said recently.
A Delta Airlines flight on April 20, 2020. Delta Airlines CEO Ed Bastian said this week that airlines could potentially require passengers to show immunity passports. Rob Carr via Getty Images
However, if obtaining an immunity passport becomes a prerequisite for participating in normal life, it could encourage people to take risks with their health, scientists warn.
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David Heymann, professor of infectious disease epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, told HuffPost UK there is “always a concern” that people could try to infect themselves deliberately, so that they could obtain a certificate allowing them to return to work and move about freely.
“There was chickenpox before,” Heymann said. “Many times people try and expose their children to measles to get them sick early on so they would be immune later on.”
He added: “It’s not a good idea. This disease is infectious, and it affects all people and can cause illness in all people.”
The professor, who is currently advising the World Health Organization on coronavirus, said public officials must emphasize how dangerous such actions can be.
“I think if there is a passport rolled out where there are people with antibodies who are then able to go back to work, there has to be clear instructions to them as to what that means and the risk of trying to become infected themselves,” Heymann said.
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thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-04-24--Cher Lloyd Finally Gives Her Take On That 'Disgustang!' Viral Video

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The moment a furious Scottish mother bursts in on her two young children having an internet karaoke session to berate them for not flushing the toilet “after having a shit” has become one of the most loved viral videos of all time.
In the years since it was first shared across the web, we’ve always wondered what former X Factor contestant Cher Lloyd made of being an unlikely part of the “DISGUSTANG!” clip, after one of the girls announces she’s “going to sing Cher Lloyd by Cher Lloyd”.
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Well, we finally have our answer – and it seems she loves it just as much as the rest of us.
"Why does somebody not know how to flush a toilet after having a shet?... Well, it was fookin one of yus. Disgustang!" YouTube
Revealing her hopes to meet the two wee lassies in the clip, Cher told Radio 1′s Dev Griffin on Friday: “It is literally gold. I absolutely love it every time it comes on.
“I wish I could do the accent, and her little face! Aww, I can’t cope.”
Cher Lloyd John Salangsang/Invision/AP
She continued: “Do you know what cracks up me the most? It’s that she says: ‘I’m gonna sing Cher Lloyd by Cher Lloyd.’
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“Anytime someone asks what the next album’s called, I’m like: ‘It’s got to be Cher Lloyd by Cher Lloyd.’
“I wish I could meet those two girls, I really do,” she added.
Now that would be the musical collaboration we really need to get us through these tough times.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-04-24--EU Warns Brexit Talks Could Collapse Unless UK Budges On Key Issues

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The EU has said there are “serious difficulties” in the Brexit negotiations and warned that a trade deal may not be possible this year.
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Brussels’ chief negotiator Michel Barnier accused the UK of “slowing down” the talks by failing to engage “seriously” on a number of key points.
He criticised Boris Johnson for “imposing” an “exceptional” timetable on the negotiations by refusing to extend the standstill transition period beyond December 31, and said the coronavirus crisis imposes additional responsibilities on the UK and EU to reach a deal.
But the UK hit back, accusing the EU of making unreasonable demands it does not make of other countries with which it has struck free trade deals.
Barnier warned that the gulf between the two sides risked the collapse of the talks.
“Never in the history of such important negotiations for any third country have we been under such time pressure,” he told a Brussels press conference.
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“The UK therefore cannot impose this short brief timeline and at the same time not budge, make some progress, on some topics that are of importance to the EU.
“Otherwise one has to be seriously concerned in June as to whether or not the negotiations can have a successful issue.”
Officials from both sides have been negotiating this week in more than 40 video conference call calls.
But Barnier said only “very” partial progress has been made in the talks because the government has not engaged in four key areas outlined in the political declaration both sides ratified as part of the withdrawal agreement that took the UK out of the EU and triggered the transition.
The UK also acknowledged there had been “limited progress” in “bridging the gaps between us and the EU”.
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The main areas of disagreement were:
A “level playing field” with the UK and EU agreeing minimum standards on areas like workers’ rights and the environment. The EU believes it is essential to strike a deal but the UK thinks its approach is without precedent. Johnson has ruled out signing up to one and argued that UK standards are high enough that a level playing field is not required. How the future relationship will be governed. The EU is demanding a role for the European Court of Justice (ECJ) and is calling for the European Convention on Human Rights to be put in UK law. The UK is strongly against accepting EU law or giving the ECJ a role. Personal data. Barnier accused the UK of refusing to “to provide firm guarantees rather than vague principles on fundamental rights and individual freedoms”. But the UK disagrees with the idea that the ECJ should have a role in dispute settlement. Fisheries. Barnier said there had been no progress in this thorny area and said there would be no overall deal unless the UK was prepared to negotiate a “balanced, sustainable and long-term solution”, with the EU demanding a continuation of the status quo on quotas and access to waters. But the UK insists it will take full control of its waters at the end of the year and is open only to annual negotiations on quotas.
Barnier said his mandate was to get “tangible progress”, adding: “I’m afraid this has only been very partially met this week.
Michel Barnier and UK chief negotiator David Frost held talks on Friday morning after a week of negotiations Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
“The UK did not wish to commit seriously on a number of fundamental points. These are not points we just came up with – they are written quite precisely in the political declaration.”
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The declaration was “discussed line by line with Boris Johnson and his team, point by point,” and approved by the Commons and European Parliament, Barnier said.
Barnier added it needs to be implemented in a “serious, objective, legal way”.
“This is not the case now yet in a number of areas. I regret that and it worries me.
“We cannot accept making selective progress on a limited set of issues only.
“We need to make progress on all issues in parallel – we need to find solutions on the most difficult topics.
“The UK cannot refuse to extend the transition and at the same time slow down discussions on important areas.”
A UK government spokesperson said: “Our assessment is that there was some promising convergence in the core areas of a free trade agreement (FTA), for example on goods and services trade, and related issues such as energy, transport, and civil nuclear cooperation.
“We regret, however, that the detail of the EU’s offer on goods trade falls well short of recent precedent in FTAs it has agreed with other sovereign countries.
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“This considerably reduces the practical value of the zero-tariff, zero-quota aspiration we both share.
“There are also significant differences of principle in other areas. For example we will not make progress on the so called ‘level playing field’ and the governance provisions until the EU drops its insistence on imposing conditions on the UK which are not found in the EU’s other trade agreements and which do not take account of the fact that we have left the EU as an independent state.
“On fisheries, the EU’s mandate appears to require us to accept a continuance of the current quotas agreed under the Common Fisheries Policy. We will only be able to make progress here on the basis of the reality that the UK will have the right to control access to its waters at the end of this year.”
Further rounds of negotiations have been scheduled for May 11 and June 1 for next rounds of talks.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-04-24--UK Records 684 More Coronavirus Deaths In 24 Hours, Bringing Total To 19,506

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The number of people who have died in hospitals across England, Scotland and Wales after contracting coronavirus has risen by 684 in 24 hours.
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It brings the total to 19.506 deaths since the Covid-19 outbreak began.
Earlier today, the UK’s devolved authorities reported increases of 587 in England, 64 in Scotland and 110 in Wales. Data from Northern Ireland are yet to be published
Adding those figures together gives a total increase of 761, significantly higher than the official Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) tally. This may be due to a raft of late data from Wales, where a single health board today reported 84 deaths dating back as far as March 20 in one go. Here’s a quick primer on what all the different numbers mean and how to understand them.
Meanwhile, 28,532 tests were carried out between 9am on Thursday and 9am on Friday – the highest number since the UK began its testing programme, and a hike of some 6,000 compared with yesterday’s data. It is still some way off the target of 100,000 a day by the end of April, but the launch today of the government’s public testing programme is intended to bridge the gap. (It was an inauspicious beginning for the scheme, which ran out of postal tests within two minutes.)
The UK has now confirmed 143,464 positive cases of coronavirus.
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story, published before the DHSC released its data, used the total of 761 further deaths obtained by adding together England, Scotland and Wales’s figures. This has now been replaced by the official UK-wide total from the government.
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thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-04-24--Here's How Families Can Stay Connected With Someone Who's Seriously Ill

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Not being able to be with someone you love who’s seriously ill – or dying – is a distressing reality for many families in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.
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New guidance has been issued by the National Bereavement Alliance and the Childhood Bereavement Network, to offer support to those dealing with grief during the pandemic – particularly young children, who might not understand what’s happening.
It acknowledges that being separated, physically, from a relative or friend at a time when they might be close to death is an extraordinarily difficult and painful experience.
One of the ways it advises comforting children at such a uniquely difficult times is by reading them a children’s book called The Invisible String – which explores the strong connections we can have with other people, even when we’re apart.
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“In normal times, families and palliative care services have lots of creative ways to support children and young people to spend time with someone who is dying, create memories to treasure in the future, and say goodbye,” Alison Penny, director of the Childhood Bereavement Network, tells HuffPost UK.
“At this very difficult time of the pandemic, many of these things have to happen in a different way,” she adds. “Our guidance has collected ideas to help children, young people and families stay feeling connected to someone who is dying, even at a distance.”
Here are some of those ways to help your child when they’re missing someone they love who’s ill – for the full list of suggestions, and ways to make them as effective as possible, you can see the full guidelines here.
You could also think up of your own, personalised ideas – or ask your children to come up with something themselves.
Keep in touch
Keep in touch with a loved one during a hospital stay using a phone or tablet. If they’re able to, you can try connecting via a Zoom or FaceTime session – but it’s important to prepare your child that their relative might not look as well as they did the last time they saw them. Remind your child to wish them “goodbye” at the end of the call as they would under any other circumstances.
Record a message
If the person you want to connect with is too tired or too poorly to speak, ask your child if they want to record a message for them to play on their own time.
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Say it with sound
The sounds of home can be a comfort – even if they’re not out of the ordinary. Try recording noises such as the family dog barking, the ping of the microwave, the sound of birds outside or your children laughing and playing.
Listen to music
If you have a special song that you and your loved one like to listen to or sing together, record or send it to them. You could even coordinate listening to it at a certain time, so you know you’re doing it together.
If your child likes to sing or play, they could record their own song to send.
Write a message
Send a card, letter or postcard to the person who can’t be with you. Ask your child to draw them a picture if they’re too young to write. If you find it difficult to put things into words, here are some helpful prompts. You could even send family photos, or make a collage.
Hearts and bracelets
The guidelines suggest a sweet and simple way for your loved one to feel close to you and the children – by cutting out a heart from a piece of fabric at home, and giving it to them to pin to their pyjamas or hospital gown, if permitted.
You could make another heart for your child to wear, too; to help them feel connected or do something similar with friendship bracelets.
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Something to hold
Give your loved one something from home to cuddle – such as a toy or piece of clothing. If it smells like home, it may bring them comfort in tough times. You could even spray it with a favourite perfume.
Pair up
If you have two of the same thing – even socks – then giving one to the person who can’t be with you, and one to your child, will help them feel connected.
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thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-04-24--Joe Exotic Juror Speaks Out About What Tiger King Didn’t Show Viewers

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One of the jurors from the trial of Joe Exotic isn’t happy about how the series portrayed the Tiger King star.
“Don’t believe everything you see because there was so much more to it than what they’re showing you,” the juror, identified only as Kristin, told Nancy Grace of Fox News.
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Kristin said the series made Joe Exotic seem lovable and “made him out to be almost a victim” and didn’t show enough of the evidence from the trial.
“It did a huge injustice to the jury because now people think that we convicted him based on absolutely nothing,” she said.
Joe Exotic was convicted of murder-for-hire in a failed plot to kill Carole Baskin, the founder of Big Cat Rescue in Tampa. ASSOCIATED PRESS
Exotic was convicted last year of murder-for-hire in a failed plot to kill Carole Baskin, the founder of Big Cat Rescue in Tampa, as well as multiple counts of violating federal wildlife law.
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Much of the evidence revealed on the hit Netflix show about the murder-for-hire plot centres around Exotic’s attempt to hire a worker at his zoo for $3,000. However, the worker took off with the money and didn’t attempt to carry out the plot.
Kristen said there was another attempt to hire a hitman after that.
“There was a long recording of [the apparent hitman] meeting Joe,” she said. “We could have convicted on both murder-for-hire counts based on one sentence that Joe said, which was: ‘The first guy that I hired to kill her ran away with my $3,000. Now we’re going to try this again.’”
That supposed hitman turned out to be an undercover agent.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-04-25--From Bleach To Warm Weather: Trump's Dangerous Coronavirus 'Cures'

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Donald Trump is not a doctor, but he has lots of ideas about how to cure the coronavirus ― and they’re horrifying.
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The White House holds daily press briefings about the work it’s doing to combat the coronavirus, which so far has killed more than 50,000 people in the United States.
On Thursday, Trump used this opportunity to speculate whether ultraviolet light and disinfectant ― in other words, sunlight and household cleaning products ― might be a cure.
White House coronavirus coordinator Dr Deborah Birx was sitting off to the side when Trump made this scientifically absurd suggestion, and her “oh, dear” reaction was caught on camera as she thought about what she could possibly say in response.
Trump has tried as hard as he can to pretend the coronavirus is not a crisis. He’s tried to ignore it, downplay it, suggested that perhaps the government should just let the illness wash over the country and kill people, and used it as an opportunity to push his political agenda. He’s also repeatedly suggested quick, ready-made solutions as cures, no matter how untested or lethal they might be.
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Here are some of the things Trump has suggested will cure the coronavirus:
Sunlight
“Supposing we hit the body with a tremendous — whether it’s ultraviolet or just very powerful light. And I think you said that hasn’t been checked, but we’re going to test it? And then I said, supposing you brought the light inside the body, either through the skin or some other way.” [24/4/20]
Sunlight does not cure coronavirus. Neither does a tanning bed. Medical experts have long warned against too much unprotected exposure to UV rays, which can cause skin cancer. No experts have linked UV light to curing coronavirus.
At Thursday’s press briefing, Trump asked Birx whether she agreed with him about sunlight as a cure.
“Not as a treatment,” she said trying not to completely put down the president, adding that “fever is a good thing” and “helps your body respond.”
But, she went on, “not as — I have not seen heat or ―”
“I think that’s a great thing to look at,” Trump jumped in, cutting her off.
Cleaning Products
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“And then I see the disinfectant where it knocks it out in a minute — one minute — and is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside, or almost a cleaning? Because you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs, so it would be interesting to check that.” [24/4/20]
Please do not put cleaning products into your body as a coronavirus cure.
RB, the makers of Lysol and Dettol, even put out a statement Friday morning imploring people not to ingest its cleaning products: “As a global leader in health and hygiene products, we must be clear that under no circumstance should our disinfectant products be administered into the human body (through injection, ingestion or any other route).”
“This notion of injecting or ingesting any type of cleansing product into the body is irresponsible, and it’s dangerous,” Dr Vin Gupta, a pulmonologist and global health policy expert, told NBC.
On Friday, Trump claimed he was being sarcastic with his comments, although there was absolutely no indication that he was joking during the press briefing.
Hydroxychloroquine and Azithromycin
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“HYDROXYCHLOROQUINE & AZITHROMYCIN, taken together, have a real chance to be one of the biggest game changers in the history of medicine.” [21/3/20]
“The hydroxychloroquine and the Z-pack, I think, as a combination, probably, it’s looking very, very good.” [23/3/20]
“What do you have to lose? And a lot of people are saying that when — and are taking it — if you’re a doctor, a nurse, a first responder, a medical person going into hospitals, they say taking it before the fact is good. But what do you have to lose? They say, ‘Take it.’ I’m not looking at it one way or the other, but we want to get out of this. If it does work, it would be a shame if we didn’t do it early. But we have some very good signs. So that’s hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin.” [5/4/20]
Trump has repeatedly promoted hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malaria drug, and azithromycin, an antibiotic, as potential miracle drugs for coronavirus. It’s very convenient ― pre-existing medications that just need to be used for a different group of patients. No need to wait months for a different vaccine!
But hydroxychloroquine has not been fully tested, and medical experts are uncomfortable with Trump promoting it as a cure.
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Rick Bright, who led the federal agency in charge of coming up with a vaccine, recently said he was demoted from his job after pressing for more vetting of hydroxychloroquine, saying the administration had put “politics and cronyism ahead of science.”
A panel of experts put together by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has also warned against using the combination of drugs to treat coronavirus, because it appears to increase the risk of sudden cardiac arrest.
For hydroxychloroquine alone, the panel said there was “insufficient clinical data to recommend either for or against.”
Trump’s unscientific advice is getting noticed, and for one couple, it had deadly consequences. After hearing about the potential “cure” on TV last month, a couple in Arizona noticed that their fish tank cleaner also contained chloroquine. They took it, believing it would prevent them from getting Covid-19.
It immediately made them sick. The husband died, and the wife was placed in critical care.
Miracles
No, the coronavirus will not go away on its own "like a miracle." NikkiZalewski/Getty Images
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“It’s going to disappear. One day — it’s like a miracle — it will disappear.” [28/2/20]
If the coronavirus disappears, it won’t just disappear on its own, like a miracle. It will disappear because of vaccines or because people observed scientifically relevant measures like social distancing.
Warm Weather
The coronavirus will not disappear because it is a bit warmer. Peter Cade/Getty Images
“Now, the virus that we’re talking about having to do ― you know, a lot of people think that goes away in April with the heat ― as the heat comes in. Typically, that will go away in April. We’re in great shape though. We have 12 cases ― 11 cases, and many of them are in good shape now.” [10/2/20]
“Looks like by April, you know, in theory, when it gets a little warmer, it miraculously goes away.” [10/2/20]
“I really believe they are going to have it under control fairly soon. You know in April, supposedly, it dies with the hotter weather. And that’s a beautiful date to look forward to.” [10/2/20]
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April is here, and the coronavirus pandemic is still raging. While some viruses are more widespread in colder months, no experts believe that the coronavirus will simply go away because the weather gets hotter.
Antibiotics
Donald Trump says that the coronavirus has outsmarted antibiotics — which aren't used to treat viruses. Oivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images
“This is a very brilliant enemy. You know, it’s a brilliant enemy. They develop drugs like the antibiotics. You see it. Antibiotics used to solve every problem. Now one of the biggest problems the world has is the germ has gotten so brilliant that the antibiotic can’t keep up with it.” [10/4/20]
The implication in Trump’s statement that the coronavirus has outsmarted antibiotics is that with a better antibiotic, everything would be fine.
Antibiotics are used to treat bacterial infections, not viruses. The coronavirus is a virus.
Many coronavirus patients are being treated with antibiotics to treat secondary infections that result from the illness or hospitalisation. But that does not mean they are a cure for Covid-19.
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Flu Vaccine
vladans via Getty Images
“You take a solid flu vaccine, you don’t think that would have an impact, or much of an impact, on corona?” [2/3/20]
“We’ve had horrible flus. I mean, think of it. We average 36,000 people. Death, death. I’m not talking about cases. I’m talking about death. 36,000 deaths a year. People die, 36 — from the flu. But we’ve never closed down the country for the flu.” [24/3/20]


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-04-25--Five Things You Need To Know About Coronavirus Today

Cummings was among 23 attendees at a key meeting of the secretive Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) on March 23 – the day the PM announced the nationwide lockdown, according to the Guardian.
The paper reported that the advisor is part of the group itself, calling into question the true independence of the government’s advice. No. 10 have denied that Cummings is a member of the group – branding the reports “factually wrong and damaging to sensible public debate” – but admitted he had attended meetings.
Ben Warner, a data scientist who worked with Cummings on the Vote Leave campaign during the Brexit referendum, was also said to have been present.
A former government chief scientific adviser, Sir David King, said he was “shocked” to find that there were political advisers involved in Sage meetings.
“If you are giving science advice, your advice should be free of any political bias. That is just so critically important,” he told the Guardian.
“Sage provides independent scientific advice to the Government. Political advisers have no role in this,” a spokesperson for No. 10 added.
“The scientists on Sage are among the most eminent in their fields. It is factually wrong and damaging to sensible public debate to imply their advice is affected by government advisers listening to discussions.”
The spokesman said Cummings and Warner had been seeking to better understand the scientific debate around coronavirus, as well as the limits as to how science and data could assist Government decision-making.
“Occasionally they ask questions or offer help when scientists mention problems in Whitehall,” the spokesman said
The government has never released a list of Sage members or attendees – although individual members can disclose they are part of the group.
Drones to be used to transfer medical supplies to the Isle of Wight


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-04-25--Kanye West Is Officially A Billionaire, But The Rapper Thinks He’s Been Undervalued

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Kanye West is officially a billionaire, according to Forbes magazine.
The publication provided a glimpse into the rapper and fashion designer’s personal finances and valued his net worth at $1.3 billion (£1.05 billion).
That includes valuing his stake in the Yeezy trainers line, which Forbes describes as “one of the great retail stories of the century,” at $1.26 billion (£1.02 billion).
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Kanye West PA
Added to that, Forbes said the statement of assets supplied to them by West’s team lists $17 million in cash (£13.7 million) and $35 million in stocks (£28 million).
Other notable assets, according to his team, are $81 million (£66 million) in property and $21 million (£17 million) in land.
The music star and his wife, Kim Kardashian, are known to own several properties in Los Angeles and Wyoming.
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There is also the matter of the 42-year-old’s music.
In total, his GOOD Music and the rights to his back catalogue is worth at least $90 million (£73 million), Forbes said.
However, the outlet, which stressed there was a lack of independent verification for the figures, also listed Kanye as having debt of about $100 million (£81 million).
That adds up to the $1.3 billion total, the magazine said, placing him above sister-in-law Kylie Jenner, who has a comparatively modest $1 billion net worth, largely from her cosmetics business.
Kim Kardashian and Kanye West Pierre Suu via Getty Images
Despite now being officially classed as a billionaire, Kanye was unhappy with Forbes and claimed they had undervalued him.
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“It’s not a billion,” West reportedly texted them. “It’s 3.3 billion since no one at Forbes knows how to count.”
He had been left displeased with an article from the magazine last year, in which Forbes refused to class him as a billionaire.
Kanye is said to have texted a reporter it was a “disrespectful article,” that was “purposely snubbing me”.
His ire was further provoked earlier this month when Forbes released its annual billionaires list, with West’s name absent.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-04-25--Tom Hanks Gives Typewriter To Boy Bullied Because His Name Is Corona

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An eight-year-old boy named Corona has got a friend in Tom Hanks ― as well as a gift stemming from the actor’s offbeat hobby of collecting typewriters.
It all started when Corona De Vries of Queensland, Australia, sent a get-well letter after the actor, who he knew from the Toy Story movies, and wife Rita Wilson contracted COVID-19 while in the boy’s country for a movie project.
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Tom Hanks Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP
“I heard on the news you and your wife had caught the coronavirus. Are you OK?” wrote Corona, who was named for the outermost layer of the sun, according to Australian news outlet 7News.com.au.
The boy also mentioned the challenges he now faces because of his name. “I love my name but at school people call me the coronavirus,” he wrote. “I get very sad and angry when people call me this.”
The letter was sent April 6 and the actor’s response showed up at Corona’s house earlier this week, according to the BBC:
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“Dear Friend Corona,” the letter began. “Your letter made my wife and I feel so wonderful! Thank you for being such a good friend ― friends make friends feel good when they are down.”
Tom added that the eight-year-old was “the only person I’ve ever known to have the name Corona - like the ring around the sun, a crown.”
Along with the letter, the Forrest Gump star sent a gift: A vintage Corona typewriter much like the one in this Instagram post.
The actor told Corona, “I thought this typewriter would suit you... Ask a grown-up how it works. And use it to write me back.” Tom even included a few self-addressed stamped envelopes to make that easier, according to CNN.
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He also emphasised that he sincerely appreciated the boy’s note by writing, “You got a friend in me!” ― the title of the Toy Story theme song ― at the bottom of his letter.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-04-25--The Big Night In Raises £67m For Children In Need And Comic Relief

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This week’s The Big Night In charity event has raised a total of £67,110,010, it has been revealed.
A total of £47 million of this figure will be split between BBC Children In Need and Comic Relief.
The BBC One fundraising show secured £27,398,675 during the 3 hour show on Thursday, but donations continued overnight, taking the total to £33,555,005.
The Big Night In BBC
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The Government pledged to match the amount raised on the night, with the first £20 million going to National Emergencies Trust and the rest split between BBC Children In Need and Comic Relief.
So far it has given £13,555,005 to BBC Children In Need and Comic Relief.
Alex Jones and Patrick Kielty announced the news on The One Show on Friday.
BBC Children In Need’s 2019 appeal, hosted by Mel Giedroyc and Graham Norton, raised a total of £47.8 million for the charity, while Comic Relief’s Red Nose Day 2019 appeal show raised more than £63 million on the night of broadcast alone.
Thursday’s telethon featured the first new Little Britain sketch in more than 10 years, a lockdown version of The Trip by Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon, and even included a surprise performance from the Duke of Cambridge.
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According to the BBC, it was watched by an average of 6.7 million viewers and gave the channel a 35% share of viewers, with a peak audience of 8.5 million.
William appeared in a Blackadder sketch alongside Stephen Fry just before the clap for carers took place.
He told the actor and comedian: “On my way, let me just see if I can find my socks, and my shoes, and my trousers.”
The programme also featured a host of musical performances from artists including Gary Barlow, Sam Smith and Celeste.
Smith performed an isolation version of their song Lay Me Down, while Celeste sang a cover of Bill Withers’ Lean On Me.
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Foo Fighters also led a star-studded group of musicians including Dua Lipa and Chris Martin in a charity cover of their song Times Like These.
There were also comedy performances from David Tennant and Catherine Tate, Miranda Hart and Dawn French.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-04-25--'Don't Dismiss Them, Their Lives Mattered': Remembering The Care Home Residents Who Have Died From C

'Don't Dismiss Them, Their Lives Mattered': Remembering The Care Home Residents Who Have Died From Coronavirus

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A “real hero” who escaped the Nazis, only to find himself conscripted to the mines in England as he tried to forge a better life. A ‘fun-loving’ mother and grandmother who spent some of her final years helping dementia patients, despite being affected by it herself.
These are just some of the people in care homes who have unexpectedly died from coronavirus. They had lived their lives to the full, but none of them – nor their relatives – had expected them to be taken by a disease that was almost unheard of just a few months ago. And they had certainly not expected to die alone.
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While the statistics around the number of deaths from Covid-19 in care homes have been shocking, those headlines do not tell the individual stories of the victims - or the families whose lives have now been emptied of someone incredibly special.
The issue of coronavirus related deaths in care homes has been a contentious one as the figures are not included in the daily death tolls.
The National Care Forum estimates that more than 4,000 elderly and disabled people have died across all residential and nursing homes so far during the Covid-19 pandemic.
HuffPost UK spoke to some of the families affected.
Joan Cavanagh
Joan Cavanagh at her 100th birthday party Suzanne Roynon
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Even when test results confirmed their worst fears, the relatives of Joan Cavanagh still expected her to be “bloody minded enough to beat it just for the sake of it”.
Joan, who was known as Aunty Joan or “AJ” to her family, was 100 years old, and described as a “real character”. She had already ensured that everyone would know about her life – dictating her own eulogy to her great niece Suzanne Roynon at her birthday two years ago.
But despite this, they had fully expected AJ to be celebrating turning 101 this July.
Joan was the youngest of four children and described herself as a “twinkle in her father’s eye” when he returned wounded from World War I.
After leaving school, she trained to be a teacher but just as she qualified, World War II started. Joan taught throughout the war at a school in Sheffield, and clearly remembered the Sheffield Blitz.
After a number of moves to pursue her career, Joan met her husband Kenneth, who was also a teacher, at a school in Denton.
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Joan gave up work in the hope of having a family. But sadly, the couple were unable to have children.
However Kenneth rose through the ranks and became a headteacher, and the pair moved around as his career took him to various schools.
Tragedy struck when at 59, Kenneth developed kidney failure. He retired, but his condition deteriorated rapidly and heartbreakingly, he died while Joan was in hospital having eye surgery, leaving her utterly devastated.
Suzanne said: “Joan’s life had revolved around Kenneth and they did everything together. He had been her world and she was bereft.”
After retiring from teaching, Joan began volunteering for Age Concern. She spent 14 years delivering books to the elderly – although often her clients were younger than her. She was also a guide at a local museum.
In 2004, when Joan was 84, Suzanne’s cousins in Buxton suggested she moved closer to them so they could keep an eye on her.
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She spent time with her sisters while they were alive and after they died, the family – including 10 great nieces and nephews, and 26 great-great nieces and nephews and three great-great-great nieces and nephews – ensured Aunty Joan was never left out.
Suzanne said: “Aunty Joan only went into the nursing home in Buxton in October, and lived independently on her own until she was 100 and three months.
“She didn’t want to go into a nursing home but had a couple of falls and although the family living around her were wonderful, they realised she needed someone on hand at the call of a bell rather than the call of a telephone.”
“Aunty Joan had absolutely no filter or volume control and she was a real character and a useful source of gossip.” - Suzanne Roynon
“She was very blessed as she had family around her and saw someone virtually every day.”
Suzanne, an interiors therapist and author, told HuffPost UK the family were distraught when the lockdown started, as they were unable to visit Joan after looking after her and seeing her so regularly for more than 25 years.
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However, one of her great-great nieces – a community nurse in Buxton – was able to visit Joan a few times.
A few weeks ago, Joan suffered a fall at the nursing home and was taken to hospital. She also had a bit of pneumonia but had beaten that off several times before.
Suzanne said: “When AJ went back to the care home from hospital, a couple of days later, we received a phone call telling us a few residents had been diagnosed with Covid-19 so they were testing her for it.
“The general consensus in the family was that she was bloody minded enough to beat it just for the sake of it."” - Suzanne Roynon
“Sadly, the test results came back as positive. But even then, she was her somewhat cantankerous self and although we were worried, the general consensus in the family was that she was bloody minded enough to beat it just for the sake of it.
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“However, she started to deteriorate and despite our prayers, she died at the start of April.“
Suzanne said despite the shock, it had been a comfort for the family to know that her great-great niece the community nurse had been with her when she died.
“Aunty Joan was lucid and able to talk right until the day before her death,” Suzanne said. “She died surrounded by photographs of herself with Kenneth.”
Suzanne believes Joan was lucky as she had a family who cared deeply for her right to the end. But she says other care home residents might not be so lucky during this pandemic, and worries some will be forgotten amid the headlines..
“They are not just statistics. Every single one of them had a history and were loved.”
Joan Cavanagh with her family at her 100th birthday party Suzanne Roynon
Almost the entire family were together at a party for Joan’s 100th birthday last year. Suzanne remembered: “She showed us her birthday card from the Queen and was so proud of it.
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“Aunty Joan had absolutely no filter or volume control and she was a real character and a useful source of gossip.
“We found out a lot about our grandparents that they would probably have preferred to be airbrushed from history!”
Although Joan’s funeral could only be attended by a handful of people, her family are hoping to have a big memorial party for her in the summer.
Suzanne said: “We will have a huge memorial party after lockdown and I will read her eulogy and we will laugh about the silly memories and celebrate her life.”
Ziggy Bernstein
Ziggy Bernstein Judy Downey
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Ziggy Bernstein had escaped the Nazis as a child, survived life down the mines, and endured xenophobic taunts for being “foreign”.
But despite his tough early life, Ziggy “had a marvellous sense of humour,” Judy Downey, his sister, explained.
“He was very positive and never complained about anything despite everything he had been through.”
Ziggy died at the age of 93 at a care home in North London, on the same day he was released from hospital after being treated for coronavirus.
He was born in Berlin to Jewish parents who grew up in Poland, but had moved to Germany as they felt it was more liberal and open.
However, when Ziggy was eight, his father was arrested by the Gestapo who told him to come back with his paperwork proving his citizenship.
Judy, 82, told HuffPost UK: “My father did not go back to the Gestapo as he knew what would happen as he didn’t have German citizenship.
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“My father went to London where he had contacts and my brother went back to Poland with my mother.
“So my brother was a German little boy, then a Polish little boy and then an English little boy when my father sent for him and my mother.”
“My brother had quite a tough life. He probably saw some horrible things in Germany as a child but he never spoke about it."” - Judy Downey
Ziggy Bernstein as a baby in Berlin with his mother Judy Downey
Ziggy was speaking English fluently within a year. He wasn’t eligible for grammar school and when he was 17, he was recruited to the army. However, his mother didn’t want him to join as she knew it was dangerous.
Ziggy instead became a “Bevin Boy”, young men conscripted to work in the coal mines.
After surviving that, he did an apprenticeship and was studying for a degree in economics when his father died when he was 21. So he instead took over the family business working with a trimmings company.
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Judy said: “My brother had quite a tough life. He probably saw some horrible things in Germany as a child but he never spoke about it.
“He then worked in the mines and fought for this country in a way a lot of people don’t know about.
“When he came to the UK, he was teased for being German when he wasn’t as he had a foreign name.
“He was a real hero and a special person and he had a marvellous sense of humour.”
Ziggy Bernstein with his sister Judy when she was six Judy Downey
Ziggy lived in Edgware and had three children – a daughter and twin sons. He went into a care home about two-and-a-half years ago after becoming increasingly frail. His wife had died about 18 years previously.
Judy was contacted by her nephew about three weeks ago, telling her Ziggy had been taken into hospital from the care home.
When she called the hospital, she was told he had coronavirus. “He was in hospital for about 10 days. Then he went back to the care home and died that same day.
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“None of us were able to say goodbye and that is terribly sad.”
Ziggy Bernstein with his wife and first child in 1955 Judy Downey
Judy, who is chairperson of the Relatives & Residents Association, thinks it is “shameful” the way people in care homes have been treated during this pandemic.
“These people are being treated as collateral damage because they are old.” she told HuffPost UK. “It is as though they are ‘out of sight, out of mind’.
“It is terribly discriminatory. On the one hand, they are saying people over 70 are more vulnerable. But then they have not been testing in care homes or protecting the staff there.
“Everyone deserves better. It is not just the fact they are having a nasty death as a result of this virus, but the fact they are cut off from everyone who loves and cares about them.
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“My brother was quite old and frail, but he was entitled to a better death.”
Jacqueline Varley
Jacqueline Varley with her grandson Archie Karen and David Standard
Jacqueline Varley lived an extraordinary ordinary life, according to her family, and she was loved right until the end.
Jacqueline, who lived in Nottingham and died aged 80 on April 16, had been living in a specialist dementia care home in Bingham, Nottingham for the last five years and she was happy and looked after well.
Jacqueline was the youngest of four daughters who were much older than her and was born into abject poverty in a deprived and run down area of Nottingham.
She left school at the age of 15 and had to get special permission to leave school early to go to work as her family needed the money.
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Jacqueline became a secretary and when she was in her mid-20s, she went to work for a printing company and met her husband Ken when she began working as his secretary.
“My mum had a real enthusiasm for children and we always said that if she had had the chance, she would have made a fantastic teacher.” - Karen Standard
The couple had one daughter, Karen, who is married to David and has two sons.
Karen described her mother as “fun loving” and said she was like the “Pied Piper” as all the children would always end up at their house.
“My mum had a real enthusiasm for children and we always said that if she had had the chance, she would have made a fantastic teacher.
“She made an impact on lots of children’s lives and had lots of energy for them. Even before we had our boys, there would always be five or six kids from her street round her house playing with jigsaws and toys.”
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While at school, Jacqueline had excelled in the school choir and she kept up her love of singing throughout her life.
She sang in the Nottingham Harmonic Society and sang at Karen and David’s wedding in Italy.
For her career, Jacqueline carried on working as a secretary until she had Karen. She then went to work as a waitress at a hotel in York before going on to work at York University as a personal assistant to the head of the cancer research team.
She had various PA roles including becoming PA for the vice chancellor at Nottingham University and she finished her career as PA to one of the directors at Boots head office in Nottingham.
Karen says they first spotted changes which were signs of early onset dementia in 2006, but Jacqueline hid it as much as she could from them.
Karen explained: “My dad used to cover it up as well. My mum was perfectly well apart from the signs of dementia and was very fit and swam miles every week as well as going out on huge walks with the dog.
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“We only realised how bad the dementia was when we had her come to live with us when my dad was in hospital and he passed away in 2015.”
Jacqueline Varley with her daughter Karen and grandchildren Archie and Charlie Karen and David Standard
Jacqueline moved into Beauvale Care Home in Bingham, Nottingham in March 2015. Karen told HuffPost UK that as her mum was so fit and healthy, she could easily have passed for one of the carers – and they actually told her she was there to help.
“My mum was so mobile and active and did a lot to help look after the other patients and give a hand with the laundry. If the staff could have given her a uniform, I am sure they would have done!
“The care home is a specialist home for dementia patients and they were so lovely with her and made her feel so welcome and made the transition to living in the home as easy as possible.
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“Every time we saw her, she would say: ‘When I leave here, I will write to the director of this hotel to tell him how brilliant it is.’”
Due to the coronavirus outbreak, the care home decided to lockdown to visitors a week before the official government lockdown.
But despite their precautions, a few weeks ago, the home confirmed that a couple of residents had come down with what appeared to be Covid-19 symptoms.
Then on the Tuesday, Karen received a telephone call saying her mum was not looking good and they were concerned, but on Wednesday, she had rallied. However, on the Thursday, care home staff called to say she was extremely poorly and if Karen and her husband David wanted to come to see her, they would arrange that and provide them with PPE.
However, soon after, the care home called to say that unfortunately, Jacqueline had gone.
Jacqueline Varley Karen and David Standard
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Karen told HuffPost UK that if it hadn’t been for coronavirus, it wasn’t her mum’s time to go. “We knew she had dementia but she was happy and had quality of life.
“We had time to prepare for her death from dementia and it would have been less traumatic.
“During that last week, she would not have known what was happening and we wanted her to have the best end she could.
“Dying of this terrible disease Covid-19 is not the ending we would have wished for her.”
“To me, it feels like there is an attitude of ‘they were going to die anyway’ and that is so terribly sad."” - David Standard
David Standard, Jacqueline’s son-in-law, told HuffPost UK they are shocked the daily death figures for coronavirus do not include care homes when they are “decimating them.”
“Care home coronavirus deaths are like the forgotten numbers.” he said. “A huge swathe of people being wiped out by this.
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“To me, it feels like there is an attitude of ‘they were going to die anyway’ and that is so terribly sad.
“It is also awful for the carers in these homes. Who is supporting them? They must feel like they are losing a fighting battle and their PPE has not been prioritised.”
Pat Cooper
Pat Cooper Trish Davies
Pat Cooper who lived in a care home in Chelmsford, died at the age of 94 at the end of March during the coronavirus pandemic.
Although she suffered from kidney disease, her family believe coronavirus was a factor and it certainly led to her life ending in a way they wouldn’t have wanted.
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Pat grew up in Islington, North London in what is now a very affluent area. But then the large properties were divided into lodging rooms with several families living there with shared toilets and kitchens.
Pat was the eldest of three girls and her father John Dyson was a sailor and away at sea a lot while her mother Florrie, came from a poor family and was often sickly and not well nourished. As a result, as a child, Pat often had to look after her mother and sisters.
Pat Cooper aged 20 in 1945 Trish Davies
They lived through the war in London and were evacuated to Bexleyheath into a rented property.
Pat met her husband Selwyn Cooper, who was known as Dave, who lived in the same street, He was Welsh and one of 12 children who had moved from the mining valleys to find better employment.
They married while Dave was doing his National Service in the army just as the war was ending.
Daughter Trish Davies told HuffPost UK her parents both had their education cut short due to the war but were bright people. Dave became an electrical engineer and eventually worked for the Ministry of Technology.
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“My mother was a very warm person and a staunch believer in a better society and socialism."” - Trish Davies
The couple had three children and eight grandchildren who they doted on and they were active members of the Labour Party. They went on to have eight great grandchildren.
Pat had various jobs as a shop assistant and in catering and eventually worked as an office administrator for a TV rental company.
Trish said: “My mother was a very warm person and a staunch believer in a better society and socialism.
“She was a busy mum as she had to work as we needed the money, but she did a lot of home baking and made lovely mince pies.
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“After she retired, she became a governor of primary schools and eventually became the chair of one school board.
“She loved this as she was very interested in education and in children having the best start in life.”
Pat Cooper enjoying mocktails with her daughter Trish Davies Trish Davies
Once the children had all left home, Pat and Dave enjoyed travelling abroad and were also keen gardeners and Pat loved the opera.
In January 1999, Pat was devastated when her husband suddenly died having survived heart surgery several years earlier.
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Pat remained independent but when she was in her 80s, she decided to move to Chelmsford to be nearer her son David and his children and grandchildren.
She moved to a family run care home in May 2019 after becoming frail and having a few falls.
Pat was diagnosed with chronic kidney disease about 15 years ago. But she was too frail to have dialysis so an end of life plan was put in place.
Daughter Trish says this was completely disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic. Pat was taken to hospital on March 28 and a doctor said they were concerned about her potassium levels and that there were possible Covid symptoms.
Pat died shortly afterwards with no family present.
Trish, 72, said: “The care home staff were amazing with my mum and the transformation in her when she went to live there was wonderful. She started eating properly and was enjoying visits from her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren and loved the home’s little dog.
“As soon as the pandemic became apparent, the care home manager told people not to visit which was absolutely the right thing to do.
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“But we still talked on the telephone and my last contact with her was through FaceTime where she recognised me and we had a nice chat.”
“We feel because of this virus, we lost those last few hours together and it was not the ending we wanted for her.”” - Trish Davies
However, Trish feels cheated as she feels the pandemic deprived her mother of a more peaceful end with her family sitting with her.
“My mum had a chronic condition which we knew would end her life at some point.
“But we feel because of this virus, we lost those last few hours together and it was not the ending we wanted for her.”
Trish added: “My mum worked hard all her life and contributed to society. These people still matter, even if they are old.
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“They should not be written off and were entitled to be valued and respected until the end of their days.
“I feel it is shameful the way care homes and home care organisations have been treated as a ‘Cinderella’ service during this crisis.
“As a result, the lives of people in care homes have been put at grave risk and they have been denied the dignity, love and respect they were entitled to.
“The people working in care homes work extremely hard and are undervalued.”
Nadra Ahmed, chairperson of the National Care Association, told HuffPost UK that every death in a care home is a huge loss and it is wrong that they haven’t been counted in the daily coronavirus death figures.
“These are all individuals who had meaningful lives in society and we promised to look after them as a society.
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“The fact that the country did not act quickly enough has taken some of them prematurely away from us.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-04-25--4 Life Skills Parents Can Teach Kids Amid The Coronavirus Pandemic

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We’re here to guide you through the coronavirus lockdown. Sign up to the Life newsletter for daily tips, advice, how-tos and escapism.
The Covid-19 pandemic is a global crisis. Hundreds of thousands of people have died, millions have lost their jobs and millions of children are out of school. Parents, teachers and therapists have deep concerns about the toll this could have on children of all ages now and down the road. It’s hard to see any bright spots.
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But here’s one: Mental health experts say our kids could come out of this crisis with some pretty powerful life skills and tools for getting through hard stuff. That’s not to sugarcoat how tragic this has been and will be for many families. But it is a reminder of the kind of learning that can come through pain and adversity.
“It’s a terrible time that we are in,” psychologist Ron Stolberg, a professor at Alliant International University and author of “Teaching Kids to Think,” told HuffPost. “But it’s also an opportunity for kids to learn they have tremendous capacity to overcome adversity.”
Here are four powerful life skills kids could take away from the coronavirus pandemic, and some pretty quick and simple strategies to help them get there.
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Lesson #1: How to live with uncertainty.
In a matter of months, kids’ worlds have been totally upended by Covid-19. They don’t go to school or daycare, they don’t see friends, and in many cases, they can’t even really go outside. None of the grown-ups in their lives can give them any answers about how or when this will all end, because everything is uncertain.
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But learning to live with discomfort and uncertainty is part of becoming a “developmentally healthy” adult, said Nicholas Westers, a paediatric psychologist with Children’s Health and an associate professor at UT Southwestern, told HuffPost.
How you can help: Rather than trying to give your kiddo a clear answer about what comes next, be honest about the fact that there is a lot we do not know. If you have a toddler or preschool-age kid at home, explain that doctors are working to find medicine that will help us all be healthy and could allow life to go back to normal, Stolberg said.
With older kids, you can be more candid. Ask them about what they think is happening in the world right now, then tell them what you know — and what you don’t. Promise you will continue talking about what comes next as things continue to change and progress.
Lesson #2: How to be resilient.
While there’s plenty of anecdotal evidence that some kids are struggling right now — and that absolutely should not be dismissed — experts say that children are remarkably resilient. This is a great time for parents to help kids tap into that, and to appreciate their own abilities to bounce back.
“I think it’s important to say that most children are going to be OK,” said Westers. “Children and teenagers are resilient.”
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How you can help: “Allow room for their discomfort,” Westers urged. One way of doing that is simply to acknowledge (in an age-appropriate way, of course) that you are also feeling stress or fear. Then “model coping,” he said. Do you walk? Practice deep breathing? Talk to friends? Invite them to join you. Bonus: You’ll force yourself to actually do a bit of self-care.
Reinforcing your kiddos’ problem-solving skills can also help foster resiliency.
“When there is a dilemma or a question, instead of answering it, it’s a great time to ask our kids to tell us what they’re thinking,” Stolberg said. “It may be the first time in a long time that we’ve had the time to sit down and really observe our children’s thinking processes and problem-solving skills.”
If your kid tells you they’re sad or lonely, perhaps ask what they think a good coping strategy is, rather than immediately jumping in with a suggestion. Give them a chance to think on their own, Stolberg said, and to use you as a sounding board.
ChristinaFelsing via Getty Images
Lesson #3: That they are so much more than school and extracurriculars.
“One of the really fun things I’m seeing with older kids is that many of them have had ideas of things they wanted to learn or do that they’ve never really had the time for,” Stolberg said. “Our teenagers are over-scheduled. They don’t have downtime or playtime anymore. Now they have plenty of it.” In the past few weeks, he has heard stories of tweens and teens who have taken up the guitar, or who have tried cooking for the first time.
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It’s not about self-improvement. It’s about making sure your kid recognizes they have time and space to reconnect with who they are outside of school and their usual routines.
How you can help: Talk with your kid about what they’d like to be doing more of, then be prepared to get into their chosen hobbies with them — even if that means playing Fortnite, Westers said. If they don’t necessarily have a ton of ideas about what they’d like to do, think about some simple things you can do together, like playing a board game or making a meal together.
Then tell them how happy you are to have that time together, and how much you value your connection with them.
Lesson #4: How important their role is in your family.
When everyone is busy rushing out the door to work or school, your kid may lose sight of their own role in the household. Now is a good time to make it clear that your family — whatever shape it might take — is a team, and they are an essential part of it.
“You’re teaching them that they’re partly responsible for the family getting through this,” Stolberg said.
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How you can help: If you’ve got little ones at home, ask them to help you sweeping, or cleaning up toys, or other simple chores. You might have to redo it, but you’re setting a precedent. They are a part of the team.
If you’ve got older kids, now is a good time to give them more responsibility around the house than you might otherwise. Let them set their own alarm clocks. Give them chances to make their own meals. Make sure they’re taking out the trash or cleaning up around the house. Give them important roles at home.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-04-25--16 Stars Whose Ridiculous Lockdown Antics Have Brought Us Joy This Week

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With lockdown going on, (and on, and on), celebrities have been getting more and more ridiculous with their posts online in a bid to keep themselves and their followers entertained.
Here’s just some of our favourites from the last seven days...
1. The Pussycat Dolls’ Ashley Roberts proved why she’d be a shoo-in for RuPaul’s Secret Celebrity Drag Race
How u doin hun?! Just over here living my best isolation life. Category is #SocialDistanacing @RuPaulsDragRace @dragraceukbbc pic.twitter.com/di6CO39aqO — ASHLEY ROBERTS (@ImAshleyRoberts) April 18, 2020
2. Vanessa Feltz recreated her most famous Celebrity Big Brother moment on her kitchen table
Somethings just don’t change 🤷🏾♂ 😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/NHUQVZ9hxb — Ben Ofoedu (@BigBenOfoedu) April 19, 2020
3. Loose Women’s Nadia Sawalha totally nailed Halle Berry’s Pillow Challenge
4. Amanda Holden learned why you shouldn’t let your 14-year-old loose with your make up bag
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5. Still it could have been worse – she could have been Joe Wicks
Oh dear Instagram/Joe Wicks
6. Nicole Scherzinger gave us a glimpse into the Nicole Scherzinger cloning laboratory
7. Janet Street Porter tried to give herself a trim on live TV and the results were as hilarious as they sound
8. Stanley Tucci was giving cocktail masterclasses on Instagram (yes, we’ve followed him immediately)
not to be horny on main but stanley tucci doing a cocktail masterclass on igtv is the most erotic thing in the world pic.twitter.com/LphyhHHKS8 — lucy ford⁷ (@lucyj_ford) April 20, 2020
9. Little Mix’s Jade Thirlwall reenacted Come Dine With Me’s most infamous moment (with a little help from Take A Puzzle magazine)
10. Ant and Dec were all sport fans who are facing summer without the beautiful game
Waiting for the football season to restart like..... #nufc ⚽ pic.twitter.com/dJ1uEQNWp7 — antanddec (@antanddec) April 21, 2020
11. We’re not quite sure how Joe Exotic and Freddie Mercury are supposed to be linked, but this is what Olly Murs has been up to
12. Joel Dommett and his wife Hannah have taken to dancing round their house with a paper bag on their heads
13. While Love Island queen Olivia Attwood and boyfriend Bradley Dack decided to mix things up a bit in their relationship
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14. Rylan Clark-Neal was busy making a fantasy series of Celebrity Big Brother, and it made us sad realising that is will never get commissioned
HERE THEY ARE. Rylan’s ALL NEW Celebrity Big Brother line up : Twitter ICONS edition. Housemate names in previous 2 tweets . #CBBtwittericons pic.twitter.com/U7B0Dm4dMv — Rylan Clark-Neal (@Rylan) April 24, 2020
15. We officially want Sinitta to be our French teacher