New party

Express
REMAINER Gina Miller is to launch her new “centre-ground” political party this week.
The True and Fair Party, which was first registered with the electoral commission in September last year, will be unveiled on Thursday. Ms Miller is hoping to succeed where so many others have failed and breakthrough the UK’s two-party political system.
She claims: “The True and Fair Party will advocate for vital changes to the practice and machinery of government and I look forward to laying out the first part of that vision.”
In comments previously made, the political activist added that Parliament is currently dominated by “incompetence and self-interest”.
She said: “This Government needs to be held to account.
“Voters deserve better than the current politics of incompetence and self-interest.”

EU

Guardian
France will press the EU to negotiate an asylum and migration treaty with the UK in an attempt to deter people from making the dangerous Channel crossing.
The French government, which last week took up the six-month rotating presidency of the EU council of ministers, wants the whole bloc to act, despite warnings that other member states have no appetite for a migration treaty with Britain.
A senior French government official said the purpose of an EU-UK treaty would be to open up “a legal means of immigration with Great Britain, so people can legally go to Great Britain to seek asylum”.
The source added that “obviously that means reciprocity”, suggesting British authorities could send people denied asylum back to the European country in which they had arrived. “We would be prepared to consider this. The idea is to have a zero balance at the end of the day.
Yet it remains unclear if the UK would agree to such proposals.

Express
FRANCE is to pursue a “zero balance” migrant deal between the whole of the bloc and the UK, according to a senior official.
The French government is to take advantage of its six-month presidency of the EU council of ministers to negotiate an asylum and migration agreement between the bloc and the UK in a bid to create a legal and reciprocal means of immigration between the two sides.
The idea, as confirmed by a senior French government official, is so people “can legally go to Great Britain to seek asylum”.
Adding “obviously that means reciprocity”, they suggested British authorities could send people denied asylum back to the EU country in which they had initially arrived.
The source told The Guardian: “We would be prepared to consider this.”
Such an arrangement existed before the UK left the EU. However, during Brexit talks, the Government was refused an asylum pact that would have allowed the UK to return people denied asylum to the EU.
Now, though, with France seemingly determined to get migration under control, the EU could cede the UK what it originally asked for.

Express
A ROW over the EU’s storage of data has come to a head as the European police agency, Europol, has been ordered to delete much of its store of personal data.
The agency was found to have amassed much of the data unlawfully by the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS), the EU’s data protection watchdog. The agency has been ordered to delete the personal data of individuals who have no established link with criminal activity, concluding an inquiry started in April 2019.
The EU was found to have breached data protection law by including personal data from people with no proven relation to criminal activity and storing it for longer than is strictly necessary.
Wojciech Wiewiórowski of the EDPS said: “There has been no significant progress to address the core concern that Europol continually stores personal data about individuals when it has not established that the processing complies with the limits laid down in the Europol Regulation.”

Covid

Mail
Daily Covid deaths are currently running at less than half the rate expected in a bad flu year, MailOnline analysis suggests as experts claim the UK is finally on the brink of beating the pandemic.
There are growing calls for No10 to learn to live with Covid rather than focus on halting the spread of the virus now there is such a big disconnect between infections and deaths.
Right now just 130 people are dying from the coronavirus every day in England at what is believed to be the peak of the Omicron outbreak, compared to 1,300 last January before vaccines were widely available.
Daily deaths have barely moved since the start of autumn, despite infection rates more than quadrupling over the same time following the emergence of the ultra-transmissible variant.
For comparison, Government estimates show there were more than 400 influenza deaths per day at the peak of the last bad flu season in 2017/18, and almost 300 daily fatalities the previous year. Just like this winter, hospitals were forced to cancel routine operations and patients were told to steer clear of A&E units during both of those outbreaks.

Express
COVID-19, en route of becoming endemic, is now killing significantly fewer people a day than the flu is expected to kill in a bad year.
Influenza death figures from 2017/18 indicate the burden of the coronavirus is now comparable to flu, according to Professor Paul Hunter, an infectious disease expert from the University of East Anglia.
He said: “Once we’re past this Omicron peak — excluding another unexpected variant that reverses all of our progress — then we’ll be close to the point of endemic.”
He added that Covid will “almost certainly” get weaker every year as people develop natural immunity. Eventually, he suggested, the virus will develop into a common cold.
The data Prof Hunter referred to shows there were more than 400 influenza deaths per day at the peak of the last bad flu season and almost 300 daily fatalities the year before.

Mail
When Health Secretary Sajid Javid claimed on December 13 that there were 200,000 new Omicron infections a day, it provoked widespread concern and fear among Britons already nervous about the emergence of the variant.
The figure originated with the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), which is responsible for public health protection.
At the weekend, in an extraordinary intervention, the independent Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) — the statistics watchdog — directed a stinging rebuke to the UKHSA over its assertion.
It now transpires there was no hard evidence to support this alarming figure — as many experts quickly pointed out.
Under pressure to back up Javid’s statement, the UKHSA stonewalled for three days, then published modelling supposed to justify the picture of a variant out of control.
It did nothing of the sort. In fact, it exposed outdated modelling — the number was little more than fantasy.
The true number of new infections was more likely to be closer to 45,000.

Sun
BORIS Johnson could reveal a plan on how the UK will live with Covid within weeks as the country inches back towards normality.
With the Omicron variant posing less of a threat and data showing around 98 per cent of over 15s in the UK have some resistance to the strain, it’s understood the PM is drawing up a Living with Covid strategy.
The future plan could see isolation periods slashed and free lateral flow tests scrapped for all but the most high-risk places as ministers predict six more years of Covid. But Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi yesterday denied claims free tests will be ditched.
It comes as a string of hugely positive studies show Omicron IS milder than other strains, with the first official UK report revealing the risk of hospitalisation is 50 to 70 per cent lower than with Delta.

Mail
Boris Johnson last night piled pressure on Government scientists to approve a further cut to Covid isolation after health chiefs admitted misleading ministers.
The Prime Minister asked the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) to look again at whether the self-isolation period could be relaxed from seven days to five to ease crippling staff shortages in the economy and public services.
In an extraordinary twist, the UKHSA yesterday admitted it had issued misleading claims about the way Britain’s rules compare to other countries.
The health quango had claimed comparisons with the United States, where self- isolation has already been cut to five days, were ‘not like for like’, because self-isolation started from the date of a positive test rather than from when symptoms first emerge, as it does in the UK.
But last night the agency admitted it had been wrong, removing one of its central arguments against cutting self-isolation times – which have led to more than a million people being forced to stay away from the workplace.

Times
Boris Johnson has piled pressure on his scientific advisers to cut the recommended Covid isolation period to five days as health chiefs admitted they had misread guidance from the United States when they opposed a change.
The UK Health Security Agency has acknowledged it was wrong to claim that the US five-day isolation period started “some days” later than the British seven-day rule.
Sajid Javid, the health secretary, is understood to be “frustrated” by the error. Several cabinet colleagues urged him to change the rules to ease absences in businesses and public services.
He is open to the move if scientists conclude that it is safe but has yet to decide if he is willing to accept a bigger risk of spreading the disease.

Telegraph
Health bosses were on Monday night accused of misleading ministers in an attempt to justify Covid rules which have crippled the country, with isolation now expected to be cut to five days.
The UK Health Security Agency, run by Dame Jenny Harries, on Monday admitted it was wrong to claim England’s isolation rules were effectively in line with other nations, including the United States.
Its rationale had been repeatedly cited by ministers as they rebuffed calls to cut isolation from seven to five days in order to tackle major staffing crises across most sectors.
Sajid Javid, the Health Secretary, was said to be “frustrated” by the situation, with Downing Street and ministers including Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor, only becoming aware of the discrepancy on Monday.
It now looks all but certain that the guidance will be changed and people asked to isolate for five days after Boris Johnson put pressure on scientists to look again at the matter.

iNews
The cut in the Covid isolation period from seven days to five that the government is considering does not appear to be ‘following the science’ as it risks fuelling infections by sending people who are still contagious into the community, scientists have warned.
It also sends a message to people that the worst is past so they can relax their behaviour and comes at a time when there are a series of other changes in prospect, such as removing confirmatory PCR tests, they say.
It’s still unclear exactly how long a person remains contagious for and it varies from one patient to the next. Bottom of Form
However, scientists say that there is a good chance that many people may still be infectious after five days and that the current isolation period of seven days is a much safer option.
“Speculation about reducing the self-isolation period for people who test positive for COVID-19 from seven days to five is not based on scientific evidence but on concerns about the impact of isolation on staff absences,” Professor Lawrence Young, a virologist at Warwick University, told i.

ITV News
Your body fighting off a common cold could help you ward off the virus that causes Covid-19, researchers have said.
A small study by Imperial College London found that people with high levels of T cells (generated after infection with other coronaviruses such as the common cold) were less likely to catch Covid-19.
But the authors stressed that a vaccination against Covid was still the best way a person could protect themselves against the virus.
The new study set out to investigate why some people don’t get Covid-19, despite being in contact with the virus.
Dr Rhia Kundu said: “Being exposed to the Sars-CoV-2 virus doesn’t always result in infection, and we’ve been keen to understand why.
“We found that high levels of pre-existing T cells, created by the body when infected with other human coronaviruses like the common cold, can protect against Covid-19 infection.

Express
RESEARCHERS have made a breakthrough after finding exposure to a common cold may give stronger levels of immunity against COVID-19.
The team of researchers from Imperial College London found that people with higher levels of T-cells caused by common cold coronaviruses are less likely to become infected with SARS-CoV-2. T-cells in the body can play a number of different roles. They can act as “killer cells”, attacking cells that have been infected with a virus or another kind of pathogen. Or they can act as “helper cells” by supporting other cells to produce antibodies.
The Imperial researchers say the study, published in Nature Communications, provides the first evidence of a protective role for these T-cells in COVID-19.

Sun
A NEW coronavirus variant dubbed ‘Deltracron’ is not a ‘real thing’, an expert has claimed.
Scientists in Cyprus said the new strain was a combination of both Delta and the milder variant, Omicron – which is now dominant in the UK.
But experts have now warned that it’s not real and that it’s the discovery is likely down to an issue at the lab.
The new discovery was made by a research team led by Leondios Kostrikis, professor of biological sciences at the University of Cyprus.
The team have identified 25 such cases and data shows the relative frequency of the combined infection is higher among patients hospitalised due to Covid.
The variant was called Deltacron due to the identification of omicron-like genetic signatures within the delta genomes, Kostrikis explained.
“There are currently omicron and delta co-infections and we found this strain that is a combination of these two,” Kostrikis said in an interview with Sigma TV Friday.

Sky News
People without COVID symptoms but who test positive for the virus on a lateral flow device will no longer need to take a PCR test to confirm their result while they self-isolate.
The temporary measure will apply from today in England with health chiefs saying that, while infection rates remain high across the country, the vast majority of people with positive lateral flow results can be confident they have coronavirus.
The new approach was announced last week by the UK Health Security Agency and has now come into force.
It means asymptomatic people in England who test positive via a lateral flow device (LFD) should self-isolate immediately and will not need to get a confirmatory PCR result.
Lateral flow tests should be taken by people who do not have COVID symptoms.

Anti-vax

Express
A HARDLINE group of anti-vaxxers have set up military-style training to prepare for “a war” on the Government’s coronavirus pandemic restrictions.
The group, called Alpha Men Assemble, is threatening to target vaccine centres, schools and the police. The “volunteers” associated with the group have been drilled by former members of the Armed Forces. A Daily Mail reporter infiltrated the group’s preparations at a park in Staffordshire.
The reporter cited that those involved in the group were mostly middle-aged and white males.
Those assembled in the park in Staffordshire called for direct action against the Government over coronavirus restrictions.
One member of the group, who is reportedly a former Royal Fusilier, called on those who had assembled to “take it to the Old Bill”.
This was a warning to the Government and Mr Glass said the planned protests were “not for the faint-hearted”.

NHS

iNews
Doctors and nurses have urged the Government to act on the staff exodus from the healthcare sector, after i reported that a record number left the NHS in the most recent data.
Over 27,000 staff left from July to September last year, the most in any quarter since data collection began in 2011.
The rise in medics quitting comes amid a shortage of around 97,000 NHS staff across all positions, as wards battle to deal with Omicron-related staffing issues. Bottom of Form
The British Medical Association, which represents doctors, called on the Government to engage in better workforce planning and clear red-tape to ensure that doctors aren’t unnecessarily overworked.

Sun
HOSPITALS will NOT be plunged into another Covid crisis and the “front line will hold” against Omicron’s chaos, NHS chiefs have said.
Experts are increasingly optimistic Covid is nearing its peak in England and expect NHS services across the majority of the country to cope.
A deal has been struck that will allow hospitals in England to use private hospitals and staff to further ease pressures and keep moving through record-high waiting lists.
In London, where Omicron first surged, hospital admissions are now down 17 per cent from the start of the year and the rolling average has fallen for the last seven days, The Times  reports.
It comes as a string of hugely positive studies show Omicron IS milder than other strains, with the first official UK report revealing the risk of hospitalisation is 50 to 70 per cent lower than with Delta.

Education

iNews
Rigorous scientific trials are needed to find out whether face masks are effective in curbing Covid-19 transmission in schools, one of the country’s top child health experts has said.
A review published by the Department for Education this week found that current evidence on the effectiveness of masks in schools is “inconclusive”.
Data from an observational study of 123 schools which used face coverings found there was an average fall in the Covid-19 absence rate from 5.3 per cent on 1 October to 3 per cent in the third week of October – a drop of 2.3 percentage points.
Bottom of FormIn secondary schools that did not use masks, the average coronavirus absence rate fell from 5.3 per cent to 3.6 per cent – down 1.7 percentage points.
However the DfE review said there was “a level of statistical uncertainty around the result”, concluding the greater reduction in absences could be down to chance.

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