Cat Can't Jump
This cat believes he can jump from the top of a TV to the top of a dresser, but when he actually attempts to execute the height climb, he flails and falls down.
The highly-infectious new Brazilian variant of coronavirus is likely to already be in the UK, a Government scientist has warned. While the UK is set to face short-term delays in delivery of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine as the pharmaceutical company upgrades its production capacity, it has been announced. It comes as the UK's aviation sector says it will need "urgent" government support if it is to survive another long period of travel curb, after the UK announced all travel corridors will be suspended from 4am on Monday.
All the latest from the White House and beyond on 16 January 2021
Britain will be able to vaccinate the entire nation against dangerous new Covid strains within four months after a £158m super-factory opens later this year, The Telegraph can disclose. Dr Matthew Duchars, chief executive of the Vaccines Manufacturing Innovation Centre (VMIC), revealed the Oxfordshire facility will be capable of producing 70m doses of an emergency vaccine manufactured entirely on British soil. The news comes amid fears that a new Covid strain from Brazil may prove resistant to current vaccines. All travel corridors into the UK were scrapped this week to prevent new variants entering the country. “We’ll be able to make 70 million doses within a four to five month period, enough for everyone in the country, when we open late this year,” Dr Duchars told The Telegraph. “New Covid variants are absolutely part of the thinking. We probably will need to make seasonal vaccine variants because there may well be mutations in the virus, as well as vaccines for other diseases. You never know what’s coming next.” Currently under construction at the Harwell Science & Innovation Campus in Oxfordshire, the VMIC was first conceived in 2018 and originally planned to open in 2022. When the Covid pandemic struck, the UK government pumped a further £131 million into the not-for-profit company to bring the project forward by a year. The centre is already helping to manufacture the Oxford vaccine by lending expertise and giant bioreactors to the AstraZeneca team and its partners. This week Sir Mene Pangalos, executive vice president of biopharmaceuticals research and development at AstraZeneca, told MPs that the UK’s lack of manufacturing capacity had been a major stumbling block in the development of the Oxford vaccine, and urged ministers to “urgently address” the issue. Much of the Pfizer and Oxford vaccine doses currently being rolled out in the UK are made in factories in Belgium and the Netherlands. Dr Duchars said the VMIC would be equipped to produce different types of vaccines including MRNA varieties like the Pfizer jab and adenovirus-based technology like the Oxford AstraZeneca jab. “Covid came a year early for us, unfortunately,” he said. “But when we open we’ll have a sovereign capability to manufacture different types of vaccines and still be able to make a large number of doses. “It is a challenge. But that's what we're shooting for. If you don't set yourself a tough target, then there's no chance you can reach it.” He added how the company and its new super-factory could also be used to help developers of numerous other vaccines - not just those targeting Covid-19 - from private and public organisations, whether academic institutions or foundations or private laboratories. Explaining how he believes it is “absolutely remarkable” the vaccine has been developed so quickly, he said: “We may not have a facility that's built and ready to go. But we do have people who understand how to develop and manufacture vaccines. “So, we've essentially lent them out to organisations to help them with the scale up and manufacturer of COVID-19 vaccine.” “And we've been working with lots of those different organisations to help really accelerate and speed up and provide surety and expertise around how to get this vaccine made quickly.” He said the new centre is “technology agnostic”, meaning it can be adapted to different methods for different types of vaccine and viruses. “What we didn't want to do was make a facility that would be great for making the AstraZeneca vaccine, for example, but then next year a different MERS [Middle East Respiratory Syndrome] or SARS [Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome] comes along.” he added. “That's a different type of platform and a different vaccine. So we've got to have a flexible facility that is able to make in an emergency a large amount of doses from different types of processes.”
GPs have reportedly been warned by local health authorities that they cannot use extra doses on staff or any patients who have already received their first jab.
Forty-seven players have been forced into two weeks of hotel quarantine in Melbourne after three coronavirus infections were reported on two chartered flights carrying them to the year's first grand slam, the tournament organisers said on Saturday. Two dozen players who arrived from Los Angeles entered strict hotel quarantine after an aircrew member and Australian Open participant who is not a player tested positive for the new coronavirus. Later, another non-player passenger on a flight from Abu Dhabi tested positive, prompting the organisers to usher 23 players into hotel quarantine.
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Britain could experience more Covid-19 variants than other countries because a greater proportion of the population has built up immunity, a Sage scientist has suggested. Prof John Edmunds, a member of the government's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said the virus tends to mutate in areas where many people have had it. The South African and Brazilian variants emerged among populations who had already developed some resistance to the virus, he said, and it may be evolving in order to "evade the immune response". "In parts of South Africa where the South African variant arose, there was probably quite a high level of immunity in the population at the time," said Prof Edmunds. "That's also true of the Brazilian variant that we're really concerned about. There's good data to suggest that in Manaus there was high levels of immunity at the time it arose." The South African variant was first spotted in Britain in December. There are two Brazilian variants. One – known as P.1 – was detected circulating in Manaus, northern Brazil, by scientists in December. This is the one the government is most concerned about. A second one - known as P.2. - has been spotted 11 times in Britain and carries a mutation which can bypass antibodies.
Every adult in Britain will be vaccinated by the end of June, senior Government figures hope, as they grow increasingly optimistic they will be able to accelerate the rollout. The Telegraph can reveal Whitehall sources believe this target could now realistically be achieved as they plan to vaccinate four to five million people a week within months. A further two vaccines in the pipeline, from Moderna and Johnson & Johnson, could help Britain speed up the process to vaccinate all 54 million adults. A source said: "All over-18s by June – yes." They added: "It is delivery, delivery, delivery.” While senior Government figures are now privately working to this target, the Department of Health – which said it hoped to have vaccinated "tens of millions" of Britons by April – are reluctant to publicly acknowledge a deadline. Separately, the chief executive of Britain's new £158 million Government vaccine factory in Oxfordshire told The Telegraph it will be able to vaccinate the entire nation against dangerous new Covid strains within four months when it opens in full by the end of the year.
The mother of teenage actor Archie Lyndhurst has revealed he died from a brain haemorrhage while he slept at his family home in west London. The teenager, who had been acting since the age of 11 and was son of Only Fools and Horses star Nicholas Lyndhurst, starred in the hit CBBC show So Awkward as Ollie Coulton and was dating co-star Nethra Tilakumara. Archie had no signs of illness before his death his family said.
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Val Stimson had been handing out masks at the hospital front door during the pandemic.