Seceding from the United Kingdom

"[We will] look at the issues raised by the community and in the referendum, [but the] vast majority [of British people backed a government plan to stop housing asylum seekers in hotels and it was] fair [to locate holding centres around the country]."

Prime Minister Andy Burnham

 

"For people who have fled war and violence and come to the UK to be safe, being accommodated in such remote and unsettling environments only exacerbates their sense of insecurity."

"And as we’ve seen from other sites, they’ve undermined social cohesion."

Jon Featonby, chief policy analyst, Refugee Council  

Residents of Piddington, which has a population of about 350, voted overwhelmingly for secession in a non-binding referendum. Source: AAP, Press Association / Joe Giddens

 

"[Going forward, the village will identify as the] Principality of Piddington." 

"For us, it's about proportionality. How does a small village of 350-odd people assimilate with 1,250 males?"

"[The government is] trying to rush this whole plan through."

"What we're doing is a very British thing - we're voting."

"Because this is a really important topic... not just in this region, [but] across the whole of the United Kingdom. We're just ground zero."

Piddington Parish council chair Tim McNally

 

"I think what this result shows is that Piddington campaigners have done an incredible job to highlight their concerns about the proposed asylum centre."

"[The government has proposed the plan] without engaging with local people."

"[The planned centre] will be a lightning-rod to the far right, who come here to protest [and] potentially attack [asylum seekers]." 

Leader of Oxfordshire county council, Tim Bearder   

Piddington is home to about 350 people and has few amenities or facilities to speak of

 

The vast majority of the citizens of the English village of Piddington reached a consensus and announced that the vote they cast in an 'independence referendum' that was staged to protest the British government's plans to house over 1,200 migrants in a nearby facility, was rejected by the community. The referendum validated concerns of the residents that their small rustic enclave would be overwhelmed by the presence of so many individuals -- a migrant population consisting of men from North Africa and the Middle East whose numbers were such that adequate vetting did not take place -- would present an intolerable burden to the village.

 

The culture, heritage and religion of these men from Eritrea, Sudan, Afghanistan, Iran and Somalia, war-torn countries with unstable governments and rife with terrorist groups, so radically at odds with the bucolic British landscape and the people living there, they represent a threat of great cultural-heritage dimensions, alongside the problem of values at great variance to those of the British themselves. Located in central England, Piddington is a hop-and-a-skip from the university city of Oxford.

 

Other towns and villages in the British countryside will also be targeted by the government to receive their share of the migrant influx. For the present, it is Piddington and its rejection of the government's migrant-housing plan which will totally disrupt village life, that has garnered the attention of the British public. Declaring itself prepared to secede from Britain rather than agree to the plans to house asylum seekers in a disused military site, their symbolic vote has no legal basis, but its message is loud and clear. 

 

Local residents pose with a "Principality of Piddington" sign in the village of Piddington, Oxfordshire, England -- PA Wire

 

Of the 312 ballots counted, 285 had voted for secession. Each of the village's residents were given a ballot paper with the statement: "I support Piddington seeking to secede from the United Kingdom and pursuing self-determination". Defiance of Whitehall to this degree sends a message impossible to avoid.

British Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy, speaking to the press, stated that a former military base "is a better option for housing asylum seekers" than hotels or rented accommodation.

 

"We do have to house people somewhere while we get a grip on the asylum chaos ... and that base will go ahead", she stated unequivocally. Elsewhere around Britain frequent protests have been staged against the housing of asylum seekers in hotels and other facilities in various towns and villages. According to 76-year-old Herbert Owen of Piddington, it felt to him as though the government did not 'care' about his village, which persuaded him to take a stance: "I voted to leave the United Kingdom". 

 

 

Trump, Excoriating U.S. 'Allies'

"You'll have to start learning how to fight for yourself, the U.S.A. won't n e there to help you anymore, just like you weren't there for us."

"Iran has been, essentially, decimated. The hard part is done."

"Go get  your own oil!"

"[Paris has been] VERY UNHELPFUL]. The U.S.A. will REMEMBER!!!"

"We’ve been there automatically, including Ukraine. Ukraine wasn’t our problem. It was a test, and we were there for them, and we would always have been there for them. They weren’t there for us."

"All of those countries that can’t get jet fuel because of the Strait of Hormuz, like the United Kingdom, which refused to get involved in the decapitation of Iran, I have a suggestion for you: Number 1, buy from the U.S., we have plenty, and Number 2, build up some delayed courage, go to the Strait, and just TAKE IT”."

"I’ve long said that, you know, I wonder whether or not NATO would ever be there for us. So … this was a great test, because we don’t need them, but they should have been there."

U.S. President Donald J. Trump

Donald Trump has also called NATO countries that do not help with the war in Iran "cowards." Evelyn Hockstein/REUTERS

 

"I hope that amid the emotions surrounding the President of the United States today, a moment of calm will come."

"And why? Because there is no NATO without the United States, and it is in our interest that this calm comes."

"But there is also no American power without NATO."

Polish Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz 

Cargo ships in the Gulf, near the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from northern Ras al-Khaimah, near the border with Oman?s Musandam governance, amid the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran, in United Arab Emirates, March 11, 2026. REUTERS/Stringer

 

Frustration with allies  unwilling to commit themselves through the NATO military alliance in support of the U.S. conflict in Iran, has hit boiling point with President Trump who is now telling his erstwhile allies to "go get  your own oil" in respect to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz by Iran, has sent energy prices soaring. 

 

Following U.S. strikes hitting Isfahan, the central Iranian city, leading to Tehran attacking a fully loaded Kuwaiti oil tanker in the Persian Gulf, Mr. Trump's precarious patience appears to have hit its limit. A month after the start of the aerial bombardment by the U.S. and Israel, the intensity of strikes on either side has not levelled off and major disruptions have erupted to the global supply of oil and natural gas, reflected by panicked global markets.

 

Earlier, Mr. Trump  shared footage of the massive attack on Isfahan, home to one of three nuclear enrichment sites that was attacked last June by U.S. strikes, where it is suspected that much of Iran's highly enriched uranium was stored. It seems evident that no agency foretold the extent of Iran's stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz, with its catastrophic results to world shipping, much less the Iranian leadership's decision to attack its neighbours' energy infrastructure.

 

The roiling of world markets and the strait-closing effect on many basic goods such as fertilizer normally shipped across the world, has had its effect on the American president who directed responsibility at the United Kingdom and France for refusing to enter a war for which no clear endgame could be deduced, a war they were never consulted on, nor an alert given that it would be forthcoming. 

 

The U.S. attack on an Iranian ammunition depot in Isfahan raises tensions and the risk of further military escalation in the region. Los Angeles Today

 

France  permitted the U.S. Air Force use of the Isteres base in southern France once it received guarantees that planes landing there would not be carrying out strikes in Iran. Europe's loudest critic of the war, Spain stated it chose to close its airspace along with its joint U.S.-Spain airbases for any planes involved in the conflict. As for Italy, an official confirmed that U.S. military assets were refused use of the Sigonella airbase in Sicily for any operation with links to the offensive in Iran. 

 

American bombers were intending to land at the Italian base prior to continuing on toward the Middle East. However, affirmed Italy's Defence Minister Guido Crosetto, Italy would still allow the US. use of its bases; no cooling of relations between the two countries has resulted over the Iran conflict.

 

The world is now on notice that should a ceasefire not be "shortly" reached and the strait reopened, the U.S. was prepared to broaden its offensive, and that would include attacking the Iranian oil export hub on Kharg Island. 

 

Luojiashan tanker sits anchored in Muscat, amid the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran, in Muscat, Oman, March 7, 2026. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier

"We don't want to have to do more militarily than we have to."

"But I didn't mean it flippantly when I said, in the meantime, we'll negotiate with bombs."

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth 

Risking Children's Health Consuming Energy Drinks

“We’re seeing more teenage patients come in with symptoms like anxiety, palpitations, and elevated heart rates” TorranceMemorial.org

"[Energy drinks can lead to extra heartbeats and while that's not necessarily a major health risk], it does show that even small doses affect the heart rate and rhythm of young people and children." 

"Why do these drinks have these effects? Probably because of the enormous amounts of caffeine they contain."

Dr. Felix Oberhoffer, clinician scientist and pediatric resident, Munich

 

"We have warnings on cigarette products and we still have four million people who smoke. [Supplemental labels are vague].

"When we use the word 'supplement', most often people think, 'Oh, that's a nutritional supplement. That's good for me. That's what we do for old folks and little kids, and infants."

"What it's meant to do is flag things that are in such high concentrations they could be harmful, but most folks aren't picking up on that."

David Hammond, professor, university research chair, School of Public Health Sciences, University of Waterloo

 

"Member companies adhere to several voluntary marketing commitments, including a commitment] to not engage in any direct commercial activity [with respect to K-12 schools and not to advertise energy drinks] in programming/advertising whose primary target audience is children."

"[Sales restriction on energy drinks is] arbitrary, discriminatory, ineffective and not justified." 

Krista Scaldwall, president, Canadian Beverage Association 

 

"Seeing my daughter on the floor not being able to move or speak properly was the scariest thing I've been through. I've never condoned buying energy drinks for her, ever."

"We've told her plenty of times that they can be dangerous. It wasn't just that she was able to buy them. It was the amount -- it was  how she was able to purchase such an excessive amount."

"At the hospital, we got her blood tested,  urine tested -- everything possible to make sure that's why she had the seizure."

"Eventually she got her mobility back, within about an hour. But she was moving around like a sloth because her muscles were so seized up."

"They double-checked her kidneys, to make sure there was no kidney failure They did an ECG when she was on the ground, in the ambulance and at the hospital."

"All the kids are drinking energy drinks. They all want to be like their older siblings. They all want to be like everybody they see on TikTok."

Kayla Duguay, of Miramichi, N.B. 

England is moving to ban energy drink sales to kids under 16, citing health risks and rising youth consumption. Canada’s public health agency says its current rules, like warning labels and marketing limits, are enough. CBC

 

The issue of health risks posed by caffeinated energy drinks to children is one of growing concern. In England energy drinks with over 150 mg of caffeine per litre, exceeded by many popular brands, are likely to be banned in Britain for under-16s. A special committee of the European Parliament is studying a potential EU-wide ban on energy drink sales to minors, with ten member states currently limiting their sale by age. A special committee of the European Parliament listened to medical researchers speak of "high acute consumers" referring to young people consuming at least a litre in a sitting, the equivalent of five espressos plus 150 grams (a cup) of sugar. 

 

An increasing number of children are being seen by pediatricians, with heart palpitations and chest pains; teachers reporting an increase in restless, irritable or zoned-out students suffering from insufficient sleep. The potential of "undesirable cardiac consequences" has been noted emerging, inclusive of arterial stiffness, and stiffening of the heart's blood vessels in young people and children, according to Dr.  Felix Oberhoffer of Munich. 

 

 Dr. Oberhoffer and colleagues conducted a small study involving 27 healthy children and teens between the ages of ten and 18, finding that one energy drink in the morning was associated with higher blood pressure throughout the day and into the night. He explained that, while caffeine is the major troubling component in energy drinks they also contain other stimulants like taurine and guarana seed extract. With their lower body weight, children and teens are more sensitive to stimulants, making them more vulnerable to the effects of excess consumption.

 

In Canada, Health Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency require that energy drinks must contain no greater amount than 180 mg of caffeine per serving; their labels containing "a cautionary statement" aimed at pregnant or breastfeeding women and people sensitive to caffeine, while the products are not recommended for children under 14 years of age. Children, according to the Canadian Paediatric Society, should have no caffeine whatever, though chocolate and chocolate milk do contain caffeine.

 

An expert panel convened by Health Canada in 2011 recommended energy drinks be sold under direct supervision of a pharmacist, limiting to people 18 and older and labelled "stimulant drug-containing beverage".  The recommendations were never implemented. Two years later, a Health Canada risk assessment concluded that for adolescents 12 to 18, a typical energy drink's caffeine content would be unlikely to pose a health hazard, taken in the recommended maximum daily levels.  

"At moderate levels there are minimal risks. But there are lots of people, including kids, who don't consume at moderate levels."

"[Risks are greater when used in conjunction with sports or alcohol] which, again, are some of the most common patterns of use."

"I'm not a medical doctor, but they're stimulants. They increase blood pressure and heart rate."

"When you're doing sports or vigorous activities, you're already stressing your cardiovascular system. Your heart rate and blood pressure is [sic] already up and you're adding additional stress on top of that."

David Hammond, School of Public Health Sciences, University of Waterloo  

About 90% of adults consume caffeine every day, making it the most common stimulant in the world. Widely available sources of caffeine include coffee, green and black tea, soft drinks, "energy shots," over-the-counter supplements, energy or protein bars, sports and energy drinks, chocolate, chewing gum and even ice cream.  Mayo Clinic

 

Rewarding Terrorism

"According to a May poll by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, half of Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza support Hamas's decision to launch the October 7 massacre."

"Asked who they'd support in a hypothetical election, a plurality [32 percent]said they would cast a ballot for Hamas."

"This shouldn't come as a surprise. It's well known that Palestinian schools and institutions indoctrinate their youth to hate Jews [something UNRWA, which Canada continues to fund, has played a large part in]. Any attempt at recognizing a Palestinian state should acknowledge this and include a plan for deradicalization, which Carney has not put forward."

"On October 7, Palestinian terrorists murdered 1,200 people, including at least seven Canadians. Instead of treating it as our fight -- as we did after 24 Canadians were killed on 9/11 and after ISIS began terrorizing the Middle East -- our leaders seemed intent to blame the victims and continually pressure Israel to end what clearly started as a war of self-defence."

"Now, Carney is rewarding the terrorists, by recognizing a state that has no basis in reality. Geopolitically, it is rather meaningless. But it will certainly embolden those who erroneously paint Israel as an evil occupying power, and vilify Canadian Jews in the process."

National Post editorial, August 2, 2025 

Palestinian terrorists move towards the border fence with Israel from Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on October 7.   Said Khatib/AFP/Getty Images

 

For a period of several months, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a decision to suspend the humanitarian aid process into the Gaza Strip. To that point, Israel had permitted aid to enter Gaza in volumes substantially in excess of what might have been deemed necessary. This was a period when Israel was well aware that some 85 percent of the aid was being intercepted and looted. These are data from the United Nations itself, an acknowledgement that Hamas, along with other terror groups like Palestinian Islamic Jihad were intercepting and looting the aid convoys.

 

The warehouses belonging to Hamas and the others served as depots to hoard, then resell the aid to Palestinian civilians through open-air marketplaces at extortionate prices. Perhaps Israeli authorities were banking on Palestinian civilian outrage that they were being denied aid when the temporary suspension was in place, turning against Hamas in the knowledge that vast resources of food, medicine, hygiene products, and cooking fuels were in their possession, it was decided to take that route to force Hamas to surrender the purloined aid. 

 

While it's difficult to conceive of any authority deliberately withholding food from their own constituents, this is what Hamas and the other terrorists did and continue to do. Hamas is on record as denying it is their responsibility to feed and house and care for Palestinian civilians, attributing that responsibility solely to the United Nations and the international community through their humanitarian gifts to the perpetual 'victims' of Israeli 'occupation'. Undeniably, Palestinians are undergoing a crisis of monumental proportions, gifted to them by their terrorist overseers. The purpose ... to put pressure on the international community to act.

 

Getty Images

 

And the international community has acted -- by condemning Israel for the situation. Just as Hamas has divorced itself of responsibility to the community they represent, the international community concurs by seeing Israel as the source of Palestinian misery. The international media is complacently fortifying Hamas claims, giving complete credence to all the terrorist group's accusations against Israel as the aggressor, committing Palestinians to starvation, with a view to genocidal intent. There is complicity throughout legacy media in the use of Palestinian and Hamas reporting of unverifiable claims against Israel motivated by deeply ingrained antisemitism.

 

When the humanitarian aid convoys reach the Gaza entrance points, Israeli security inspects them to ensure no weapons or prohibited items of any kind are hidden among the food, medicine, blanket supplies. Once into the Gaza side, UN and international aid trucks are tasked with retrieving and distributing the supplies. This is where Hamas armed thugs wait to ambush the trucks to steal what they want of the aid, if they don't entirely hijack the entire load. Gaza is an actively dangerous war zone, one where Palestinian terrorists have forcefully embedded themselves within the civilian population.

 

And this past week Canada's prime minister followed the lead of France's Emmanuel Macron and Britain's Keir Starmer to announce their intention to formally recognize a 'Palestinian State' in September at the United Nations. In the interests of following through, Canada's PM Mark Carney spoke by telephone with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas where Carney outlined Canada's requirements for that recognition. To which, ostensibly, Abbas agreed to the terms, including free and fair elections, reformation of the West Bank and Gaza, and that Hamas not be permitted in any leadership position, as well as surrendering its arms.

 

Hamas is already on record for adamantly refusing to disarm. Mahmoud Abbas has scheduled elections that he has simply cancelled, after his own four-year election term that has extended to 20 years. The Palestinian population has been thoroughly indoctrinated from childhood to adulthood, in music, poetry, television shows, and school curricula, to hate Jews and accuse Israel of planning to kill all Palestinians; add that to the Palestinian Authority's sacred duty to reward the martyrdom achieved by killing Jews by naming public thoroughfares after the 'heroes' and funding awards to the families of Palestinians imprisoned for violent acts and murders against Jews, and you have  an entire culture in dire need of a prolonged refreshment course in civilizational mores.

 

Hamas terrorists carrying clubs and firearms secure humanitarian aid trucks in the northern Gaza area of Jabaliya on June 25, 2025.   (photo credit: TPS-IL)

 

Advances in Blood Transfusion of Rare Blood Types

"We hope our lab grown red blood cells will last longer than those that come from blood donors."

"If our trial, the first such in the world, is successful, it will mean that patients who currently require regular long-term blood transfusions will need fewer transfusions in future, helping transform their care."

Professor Cedric Ghevaert, chief investigator, University of Cambridge

"We want to make as much blood as possible in the future, so the vision in my head is a room full of machines producing it continually from a normal blood donation."

"[Some groups were] really, really rare [and there] might only be ten people in the country [able to donate]."

Professor Ashley Toye, , University of Bristol

"The need for normal blood donations to provide the vast majority of blood will remain. But the potential for this work to benefit hard to transfuse patients is very significant."

"This world-leading research lays the groundwork for the manufacture of red blood cells that can safely be used to transfuse people with disorders like sickle cell."

"The potential for this work to benefit hard-to-transfuse patients is very significant."

Dr. Farrukh Shah, medical director, Transfusion for NHS Blood and Transplant

Blood grown in a laboratory has been transfused into humans for the first time in a landmark clinical trial.    Future Publishing | Getty Images

 

In a world-first clinical trial that researchers feel confident may revolutionize treatments for people with rare blood types, blood grown in a laboratory was transfused into humans. Two British patients received small amounts of the lab-manufactured blood, equivalent to a few spoonfuls, an experiment meant to study how the blood performs in the human body.

The purpose of the trial, to compare the lifespan of laboratory-produced cells to infusions of standard red blood cells from the same donor. Research teams in Bristol, Cambridge, London and at NHS (National Health Service) Blood and Transplant set their focus on the red blood cells carrying oxygen from the lungs to the rest of the body.

A donation of a pint of blood from an adult initiated the trial with magnetic heads used to extract flexible stem cells capable of becoming red blood cells, where the stem cells are placed in a nutrient solution for about 18 to 21 days. The cells are stimulated to multiply, developing into mature cells, then guided to result in red blood cells.

Some 50 billion red blood cells result from a pool of approximately 500,000 stem cells; those 50 billion red blood cells after filtration see the pool reduced to 15 billion cells reaching the correct stage of transplant development. Tagged with a radioactive substance, the lab-grown blood is typically used in medical procedures enabling the monitoring of its longevity in the body. The trial is in its initial phases.

Lab-grown blood cells manufactured in the laboratory is anticipated to become beneficial mostly for those patients suffering from blood conditions such as sickle cell anemia. The human body typically rejects any treatment if the blood is not a precise match, creating difficulties for patients with a rare blood type. Tissue-matching transcends the well-known A, B, AB and 0 blood groups.

Kindertransport -- Echoes of the Past

"The echoes of the past haunt many of my fellow Kinder and I whose fate similarly rested with members of the British Parliament."

"I feel it is incumbent on us to once again demonstrate our compassion and human kindness to provide sanctuary to those in need."

Sir Erich Reich, 1935 -- 2022

Jewish refugee children, part of a transport from Germany, soon after arriving in Harwich, U .K. on December 2, 1938   Holocaust Encyclopedia

 During the fateful years leading up to, within and after the Holocaust, Jewish agencies were desperately attempting to persuade the world that a dread occurrence of unimaginable dimensions was threatening the lives of Europe's Jews. Before the official initiation of the 'Final Solution', Nazi Germany was preparing its German population and eventually the countries it occupied for acceptance of the approaching extermination of children, old people, men and women who were Jewish by portraying the 'race' as sub-human with the status of pestilential insects, a pathogen on the world body ripe for removal.

Antisemitism was so pervasive demonstrating itself in what we now call the 'free world' of Western democracies, that there was little interest in those countries to burden themselves with the presence of unwanted people. Nazi Germany's antisemitic campaign of stripping the Jews of every vestige of their humanity was not needed in the countries that formed the Allied forces against the Axis nations during World War II; it was fully ensconced and resistance to rescuing Jews in general was widespread. Just as ordinary Germans claimed post-war that they knew nothing of the fate of Europe's Jews, so too did the world at large have no idea ...

Before the onset of the Second World War, fascist Germany opened its borders to Jews wishing to leave to escape the viral persecution, humiliation, belittlement, denial of dignity when Jewish professionals in law, medicine, science, the arts, teaching, news media, were pronounced unfit to hold jobs and Jewish children were forbidden from attending schools while Germans were told not to frequent Jewish businesses. Those that could managed to obtain visas to emigrate wherever they could find acceptance. 

 

Jews themselves found it impossible to believe that they, as good citizens priding themselves on love of country, became the 'enemy' to be hunted, incarcerated, worked to death or simply murdered. By the time they fully understood their plight, it was too late, the borders had closed in on them and concentration and slave labour and death camps were being established all over occupied Europe. Ships full of Jewish refugees desperate to find haven abroad, from Palestine to Cuba were turned back whence they came.

Erich Arieh Reich, born in Austria on April 30, 1935, was the youngest of three boys born to Schapse Reich and his wife Mina. Erich, at age three along with his family were part of a mass deportation of 5,000 Jewish families of Polish origin living in Austria, who were transported to Poland by train. When they arrived at the Polish border they were refused entry, the entire trainload of 5,000 left adrift with nowhere to turn for months.

 

Jewish refugee children, part of a transport from Vienna, Austria, arrive in Harwich, Great Britain on November 12, 1938   Holocaust Encyclopedia

 

After Kristallnacht on November 9-10, 1938, under pressure of public opinion, and the lobbying of Jewish charitable groups, the British government agreed to temporary visas for an unspecified number of Jewish children from Germany, Austria, Poland and Czechoslovakia. Private individuals in the UK and Jewish groups had to guarantee a financial commitment in sponsoring the children, and to usher them out of the UK at a future date to be settled elsewhere. No adults, including the children's parents were permitted to accompany them. Among them were infants left in the care of the older children.

 

Among them was the three-year-old Erich Reich, whose two older brothers couldn't be accommodated at the same time he was given passage, but eventually arrived months later. Little Erich never did leave Britain; he was cared for and educated at the expense of the Jewish community; the British public did not help through government financial support of the children who in fact became orphans since their parents died in the Holocaust along with other family members. Erich found a career in the travel industry, eventually establishing his own company Classic Tours.

 

Reich next to Frank Meisler's Kindertransport sculpture (the smallest figure modelled on the young Erich), during a ceremony to mark the 80th anniversary of the first Kindertransport in Hope Square, ‘dedicated to the Children of the Kindertransport who found hope and safety in Britain through the gateway of Liverpool Street Station’ (in the words of the plaque placed there by the Association of Jewish Refugees) Credit: A Images / Alamy

He was knighted in recognition of the millions he had raised for charity. As chairman of the Kindertransport group -- part of the Association for Jewish Refugees -- he organized the 70th anniversary celebration of the British Parliament's decision to permit Jewish children entry to Britain. In recent years he was a prominent figure campaigning to persuade politicians to give aid to other refugees abroad who were facing persecution and desperately hoping to find haven.  

The three brothers of the Reich family, Erich, Jacques and Ossie had no option but to leave their parents to find their way to the Baltic port of Gdynia. Erich was speedily given passage at age three, a waif whom fate had destined to never see his parents again and travel with other children to a distant destination where their future awaited. Months later Erich's brothers arrived, until the full complement of ten thousand children were brought to Britain. 

 

Ten thousand saved, an estimated one-and-a-half million Jewish children perished in the Holocaust.

Several days after Erich's brothers arrived at the Port of London on August 29, 1939, Britain declared war on Germany. Erich lived to age 87. He died on November 2, 2022.

The Kindertransport statue by Frank Meisler at Liverpool Street Station, featuring Sir Erich Reich (Credit: Frank Meisler)

 

The Conundrum That Is Omicron

"We believe that it might not necessarily just be that Omicron is less virulent, but we believe that this coverage of vaccination, also in addition to natural immunity of people who have already had contact with the virus, is also adding to the protection."

"That's why we are seeing mild illness."

South African Health Minister Joe Phaahla

 

"This study provides further evidence of the very substantial extent to which Omicron can evade prior immunity given by both infection or vaccination."

"This level of immune evasion means that Omicron poses a major, imminent threat to public health."

Professor Neil Ferguson, study lead, Imperial College London's statement

"There is a huge amount of uncertainty in these modelled estimates [Imperial College London findings]. And we can only be confident about the impact of boosters against Omicron when we have another month of real-world data on hospitalization ICU numbers and deaths."

"The conclusions made are based on making assumptions about Omicron where we still don't have sufficient data."

"For example, we have no data on the cellular immune response which is now probably driving effectiveness of vaccines. This is a crucial missing assumption in the modelling."

Dr.Clive Dix, former chair, U.K. Vaccine Taskforce

A health care worker administers the COVID-19 vaccine to a young mother in Johannesburg, South Africa, December 04, 2021. Photo by REUTERS/Sumaya Hisham

The science has yet to catch up and keep pace with the narrative assumptions and real-time realities. South Africa's health minister stated Friday that vaccines and past infections might represent the reason the current wave South Africa is experiencing of coronavirus infection led by the Omicron variant seems on the basis of their experience, to be a milder kind of variant, despite its runaway infectiousness.

 

At a virtual conference that took place that same day, Michelle Groome, an official at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases in South Africa explained the country has experienced a small increase in hospital admissions and deaths, and that "this level is very much lower even than the baseline period we were seeing between the second and third waves". 

She later added that the increase "is likely to be milder because of our underlying immunity, rather than intrinsic virulence of the virus". Those who remain uninfected and unvaccinated however, are still at risk of severe illness, she added, from the new variant. These cautious but hopeful observations are at variance with findings of a recently released study by Imperial College London.

Protection afforded by past infection against reinfection with Omicron, according to ICL, may be as low as 19 percent. The discrepancy between the two countries' experts' reportage; the study conclusions as opposed to the data out of South Africa, have been questioned by Dr. Dix, pointing out that vaccines remain reliable against severe disease and death.

 

Early data suggests Omicron leads to fewer hospital admissions than in previous waves   Getty Images

 

Case numbers in South Africa expanded swiftly from the time of its November 25 alert of its discovery of the presence of Omicron where daily cases have risen far more quickly than in any of the three previous waves the country went through. Yet COVID-19 infections are falling in the area including the capital Pretoria, according to analyses of wastewater samples which indicate the Omicron wave may have peaked there.

These are findings that corroborate comments by South Africa's health minister that the Omicron-driven wave may be peaking in Gauteng, where Pretoria and Johannesburg are situated, home to a quarter of the country's 60 million population. Even yet however, new cases were over 20,000 daily compared with 4,400 the week of the third wave; ample evidence of Omicron's rapid transmissibility.

South Africa has become a harbinger of what may occur with Omicron elsewhere; the variant has now been reported in over 80 countries, and growing. According to scientists however, caution is required in the sense that a vastly different experience may occur elsewhere since the population of South Africa is young (in comparison with those of developed nations) where between 70 and 80 percent of people may have had a prior COVID-19 infection, (according to antibody surveys), affording them some level of protection.

At present about 7,600 people are in hospitals in South Africa with COVID-19; roughly 40 percent of the peak in the second and third waves while excess deaths -- a measure of the number of deaths against a historical average -- are below 2,000 weekly, representing an eighth of their previous peak. 

 

Over 90 percent of hospital deaths were among unvaccinated or partially vaccinated people.
As well, hospitalization numbers in this wave are inflated by the very fact that milder patients are admitted since there is room to accommodate them.

 

 

Concurrently, the research team from Imperial College London reached the conclusion that a previous COVID-19 recovery provides little protection against infection with the Omicron variant, reflecting the results of a large study underlining the importance of booster shots. According to the study results, previous infection likely offers a mere 19 percent protection against Omicron, roughly in line with two doses of vaccine -- as much as 20 percent effective against Omicron.

The addition of a booster dose had dramatic results, blocking an estimated 55 to 80 percent of symptomatic cases, according to that same ICL study which analyzed all the PCR test-confirmed     COVID cases in England between November 29 and December 11, an expansive examination of Omicron's potential to evade the body's immune defences. Additionally, the study found no indication that cases of Omicron infection were less severe than Delta based on the number of people testing positive with symptoms or who had ended up in hospital. 

 

Europe awaits an Omicron-driven fifth wave of infections, while intensive-care units in many areas are filled with patients ill with the Delta variant. According to the U.K. team, the proportion of Omicron among all COVID cases was likely doubling every two days up to December 11. The estimate is that everyone infected with the variant passes it on to over three others.

Across the UK, 861,306 booster shots were administered on Friday, marking a record day for the rollout  Paul Ellis/AFP/Getty Images

Hugely Cutting the Risk of Acquiring Human Papillomavirus

A 12-year-old girl gets a series of vaccines, including one for HPV, at a back-to-school clinic in Westminster, Calif., on Aug. 19. A new study out of the U.K. says that giving the Cervarix HPV vaccine at age 12 or 13 dramatically reduces the risk of cervical cancer. (Lucy Nicholson/Reuters)

"Our findings should greatly reassure those still hesitant about the benefits of HPV vaccination."

"We have shown that HPV vaccination with high coverage in 12-13 year old girls has almost eliminated cervical cancer and cervical precancer up to age 25 [the extent of the observed data]."

Study researchers

 

"It's a very exciting study, because it's the first study that's actually shown the HPV vaccine can prevent cervix cancer."

"All previous studies have shown that the vaccine can prevent the precancers."

"Many of us assumed it prevented cancers, but there were non-believers who wanted to see the cancer data. So here it is. Now we have it."

Dr. Amanda Selk, obstetrician-gynecologist, Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto

This undated image provided by Merck in October 2018 shows a vial and packaging for the Gardasil 9 vaccine. Gardisil and Gardisil 9 are more commonly used in Canada. (Merck/The Associated Press)

According to a long-running British study, young women vaccinated against human papillomavirus (HPV) in their teen years with a vaccine called Cervarix produced by GlaxoSmithKline gained up to 87 percent lower risk of developing cervical cancer linked to HPV. In their 20s, those who had been inoculated with that series of shots between age 12 and 13 saw cervical cancer rates 87 percent lower than unvaccinated women screened for the malignancy. 

When the shots were given between ages 14 and 15 the cancer rate was 62 percent lower, and further reduced by 34 percent for women whose vaccination took place between the ages of 15 and 18, statistics revealed by research reported in The Lancet medical journal. In addition, precancerous condition rates were reduced by 97 percent when shots were given at ages 12- and 13-year time frame.

Funded by Cancer Research UK, the study looked at registry data from January of 2006 to June 2019 carried out on women screened for cervical cancer between ages 20 and 64. Women who received the Cervarix vaccine after it became available in 2008 were included in the study. Within that 13-year time frame approximately 28,000 diagnoses of cervical cancer and 300,000 of the precancerous condition, cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN3) were recorded in Britain.

Some 450 fewer cases of cervical cancer and 17,200 fewer cases of CIN3 emerged in the young women who were vaccinated than might have been expected in unvaccinated women of the same age cohort. "We hope that these new results encourage  uptake as the success of the vaccination program relies not only on the efficacy of the vaccine but also the proportion of the population vaccinated", noted study co-author, Kate Soldan of the UK Health Security Agency. 

Two types of HPV are responsible for roughly 70 to 80 percent of all cervical cancers, protected by Cervarix, developed by GSK. Merck & Co's quadrivalent vaccine Gardasil protects against four HPV types linked to cervical, head and neck cancers and has been used instead of Cervarix, in Britain. The study authors point to the future need to follow up as women age, to more fully assess the impact of the vaccines.

The human papillomavirus, or HPV, vaccine is cutting cases of cervical cancer by nearly 90%, the first real-world data shows. Getty Images

"If Not Now, When?"

 Prime Minister Boris Johnson Daniel Leal-Olivas/Pool

"We've come to a stage in the pandemic when there is no easy answer and no obvious date for unlocking."

"What the scientists are saying is this is the right date, or as good as any other date, to do this. But it's got to be taken seriously and we've got to go as slowly as we can given the constraints we're under."

"We're trying to move toward personal responsibility, people thinking about others as well as about themselves."

"If we held off until September if we waited to go for the legal unlocking that we [are doing now], then we'd be doing it in a context of a great deal more risk from the weather. It is absolutely vital that we proceed now with caution."

"And I cannot say this powerfully or emphatically enough. This pandemic is not over. This disease continues to carry risks for you and your family."

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson

"[The planned relaxations] amount to a dangerous, irresponsible and experimental gamble that poses a very real threat of unnecessary harm to the British public."

"I am dumbfounded by the notion that public health can be left to individual choice when, in the case of infectious disease, it is, in fact, the epitome of collective responsibility."

Stephen Griffin, associate professor, school of medicine, University of Leeds

"Now is the time to tighten restrictions -- perhaps not to add new restrictions, but at the very least, to more rigorously enforce the existing ones."

"The harm that relaxing restrictions will cause can and have been confidently predicted. When they arise, the blame for these harms can be squarely laid at the feet of the ministers responsible."

Peter English, (retired) consultant in communicable disease control, immediate past chair, public health medicine committee, British Medical Association

People walk along a platform at King's Cross Station in London, July 12, 2021. HENRY NICHOLLS/Reuters

The date has been set, but not without controversy and uncertainty. July 19 come hell or high water (or a sudden, understandable change in government policy), Brits will be expected to 'do the right thing' minus any further instruction-by-law from government and its agencies. Other than, perhaps, gentle verbal nudges now and again. Doing the right thing means using information and experience on best avoidance practices of contagion both for oneself and for the greater community. Which presupposes that within the general population there are no little hold-out pockets of nonbelievers in vaccines or the need to self-isolate, much less take any precautionary measures to avoid re-inviting COVID-19 to take residence within the human body.

But July 19 it is. Evidently, 'in the sagacity and common-sense awareness of the British public, we trust!'. And why not? Everything else has been tried. With a measure of success. And just when people begin to celebrate rescue from the nightmare of lockdowns, variants arrive and with them, resurgences. If memory serves right, Sweden took the anti-lockdown step to begin with, the only country in Europe to do so, trusting that Swedes would take the necessary steps on their own initiative to maintain vigilance and avoid contracting the SARS-CoV-2 virus causing COVID-19. In the process, Sweden would save its economy.

Except ... it didn't quite work out that way. The unexpected death toll emerged, and since Sweden's economy is based on trade with its near neighbours which all did institute lockdowns, it was no further ahead and perhaps measurably behind with its experiment. And now Britain is headed in the same direction. With confidence in British decision-making as individuals wishing to preserve their own lives and the functionality of British hospitals. The decision was made with the full knowledge that 100,000 cases a day could become the norm this summer.

As usual there are those who applaud the decision and those who deplore and despair over it. However, as of next Monday pubs can cast aside their restrictions to table service, limits on public gatherings to be removed and nightclubs may reopen. Mandatory face coverings will be but a bad dream. Work from home if you wish, but not under the duress of having to. Britain is now scheduled to become a test case for governments looking in from the outside, the first to touch down on 'normalcy' post-COVID, but for the fact that COVID is around and kicking ass.

Much debate led to the decision, with both the prime minister and cabinet ministers convinced that Brits absolutely need to live with the virus because it doesn't seem inclined to leave the premises. With the good feeling left by the excellent vaccination rate with over 66 percent of adults in the population fully immunized and 90 percent receiving one vaccine shot, the government feels it's now or never. Despite the surge in the Delta variant troubling public health officials concerned any further easing of restrictions will spell trouble for hospitals.

Daily COVID cases have risen 30 percent every week across Britain of late, the total doubling every 11 days. There were 34,471 new infections reported this Monday representing the highest figure since February when the country was just emerging from its most serious phase of the pandemic. "The case numbers will get a lot worse before they get better" was the good news out of the mouth of Health Secretary Sajid Javid, of the rising hospitalization numbers not yet in panic territory.

"Even if it is lower than previous peaks, the number of admissions may become challenging for the National Health Service", warned the government's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, which has estimated that the daily total deaths from COVID could reach 100 by August's end. It was, said the prime minister -- despite the fears of a rising death toll -- better to move now rather than later in the summer or fall when cold weather would only exacerbate the situation.

Mutant Srain: "No Cause for Concern" : View With Caution

 

"Even during the [recent] lockdown in England, this virus had an R-number that was about 0.4 larger than non-variant strains."

"The non-variant strains had an R number of about 0.8, but this variant had an R of 1.2 or even higher."

"[Potentially bad news for efforts to curb the spread of COVID-19, already claiming over 67,000 lives in Britain; 1.7 million worldwide]."

"I think it is highly likely to become the dominant strain across the UK given the trends we have seen so far. There is a hint that it has a higher propensity to infect children."

"We have to be cautious in our conclusions, this is still early days and there's still a lot of uncertainty about many aspects of this new variant."

Neil Ferguson, director of the MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis

 

"There is an really unusual cluster of mutations associated with this variant -- 23 coding changes across the whole virus genome."

"The previous virus had a harder time binding to ACE2 and getting into [human] cells. [That made adults -- with more abundant ACE2 receptors in their nose and throats -- an easier target compared to children]."

"If the new strain is having an easier time of entering and binding to cells, that would put children on a more level playing field."

"It is possible that we may need to update vaccines, perhaps not every year. But we will need to monitor these viruses moving forward."

Wendy Barclay, head, department of infections disease, Imperial College London

Technicians conduct COVID-19 tests at a new facility Friday, Oct. 30, 2020, in Valencia, Calif. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, Pool)

"[The new strain will not decelerate vaccine efforts]."

"Right now, we have no indications that it is going to hurt our ability to continue vaccinating people or that it is any more dangerous or deadly than the strains that are currently out there and that we know about."

U.S.Surgeon General Jerome Adams

Fears of a highly infectious new coronavirus strain has prompted more countries to close their borders to Britain. A sense of global panic has set in with the news of a new strain discovered in the United Kingdom with 23 mutations in its genetic code representing a rather high number of changes, some of which appear to have affected the coronavirus' capacity to spread far more effectively. The fear that set into the global community has caused travel chaos, raising the possibility of food shortages in the U.K. even as the Brexit cliff edges nearer.

Hong Kong, Russia, Switzerland, Sweden, India, Jordan, Poland, Spain and Pakistan have suspended travel to British citizens planning trips abroad in the wake of Prime Minister Boris Johnson's warning of a mutated variant of the COVID virus which appears to be up to 70 percent more transmissible, appearing in the country. Other nations too have taken steps to block travel from Britain, including France, Germany, Italy, Canada the Netherlands, Austria, Ireland and Belgium.

This, even as experts have declared that the mutated strain most likely is in circulation in countries that have no idea of its presence, given their less advanced detection technologies. The most concerning thing about the circulation of the variant is its more transmissible capability than the original strain. What has been established is that the new variant reflects a critical mutation whose lineage has been recognized in explosively-swift transmissions in South Africa, now accounting for 80 to 90 percent of new infections in that country.

September was when the realization struck of the appearance of a new variant in Britain. In London by early December, 62 percent of COVID-19 cases were linked to the new variant, in comparison to 28 percent of cases attributable to the variant three weeks earlier. The appearance of the new variant has also been reported in small numbers by Iceland and Denmark. 

A concern has been raised that current vaccines may be compromised by this significantly mutated virus leading doctors at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in the U.S to research the effectiveness of current vaccines on the new strain. Early conclusions are that the vaccines will continue to be effective. Ugur Sahin, co-founder of BioNTech assured it was "highly likely" its vaccine would be effective against the mutated strain. The company could adapt the vaccine if necessary, given six weeks

.

The virus mutation was detected in September in Kent

"Viruses constantly change through mutation and the emergence of a new variant is an expected occurrence and not in itself a cause for concern."

"There is no indication at this point of increased infection severity associated with the new variant."

"[A conclusion] "challenged by the fact that the majority of cases were reported in people under 60 years old, who are less likely to develop severe symptoms."

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) threat assessment report

A man wearing a protective face mask walks past an illustration of a virus outside a regional science centre in Oldham, England, on Aug. 3. (Phil Noble/Reuters)