Covid drug will save lives

Combining two drugs – dexamethasone and tocilizumab – could reduce deaths of seriously ill Covid patients by between one third and a half, new research has shown.

Professor Peter Horby, joint chief investigator of the RECOVERY trial, said the findings were “beyond our wildest dreams”.

With so much talk of vaccines it’s easy to forget the crucial role that treatments are playing in the fight against Covid. Tocilizumab has been given to critically ill patients since January but, crucially, the study suggests that the drug should be used on less critically ill patients to stop the illness progressing.

Researchers believe that half the patients admitted to hospital with Covid could benefit from the treatment and that for every 25 patients given the two drugs, an additional life would be saved.

Dexamethasone is already widely used and a course of treatment costs just £5. Tocilizumab’s £500 price tag is still cheaper than the £2000 a day it costs to keep a patient in intensive care. Caitlin Allen has more below.

The news comes as Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, announces a major NHS shake-up.

The proposals contained in a controversial white paper, which he set out to MPs in the Commons today, focus on promoting integration, embracing technology and slashing red tape. The NHS would become “more joined up…more innovative and responsive”, he said. Public Health England will be scrapped and replaced with a new National Institute for Health Protection (NIHP).

The policy is a major reversal of the reforms introduced under David Cameron in 2012 which handed power from Whitehall to NHS England.

It looks like an attempt to take back control of the country’s health system from health quangos and regulators. There’s speculation that the shake-up has been prompted in part by quangos taking ages to carry out senior ministers’ instructions when the pandemic hit last year.

Whatever the motive, is now the right moment for massive reform?

The timing of the shake-up has been attacked by the British Medical Association, which said that NHS staff are already exhausted. The association’s vice chair, Dr David Wrigley, was scathing: “I think it’s unfortunate that this comes at the time we’re in the middle of a pandemic.

“NHS staff across the country have worked so hard for the past year, intensive treatment units are still full, we’re still seeing dreadful statistics and the government decides to bring out yet another NHS reorganisation… we need a period of stability and investment.”

Hancock, who has taken relentless flack for being behind the curve for the last year, might have jumped the gun.

Senate sees Capitol footage

Senators have been digesting previously unseen footage of the day an armed mob stormed Capitol Hill, shown late last night at Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial. The Senate relived the events of 6 January as the footage was presented as evidence linking the ex-President’s public statements to his supporters’ actions.

Jamie Raskin, the lead impeachment manager, warned Senators beforehand of the “shocking violence and bloodshed” shown against police officers. The footage included police on the radio saying protesters were “throwing metal poles” at them, a never-before-seen video of rioters using a wooden beam to break windows and climb into the building and Mike Pence being hastily evacuated from the Senate chamber along with his family. Democrats went on to highlight videos from rioters who chanted “Hang Mike Pence!” as they breached the Capitol.

Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker, was the focus of much of the footage. Prosecutors played audio of Pelosi’s staffers whispering for help, and showed pictures of the mob trying to break down the door into her office. One of the rabble was even caught saying: “We were looking for Nancy to shoot her in the friggin’ brain, but we didn’t find her.” Some of the most disturbing footage included rioters attacking cops, with one video showing a rioter appearing to claw at an officer’s face. The graphic footage of the moment Ashli Babbitt was killed was also shown.

Senators from both parties described the footage afterwards as “disturbing” and “overwhelmingly distressing.”

Beast from the East part II

Temperatures are plummeting all over the UK as the Beast from the East strikes back. Braemar, a village in the Scottish Highlands, saw the mercury sink to minus 23 Celsius, the lowest in the UK for a quarter of a century. Scotland has seen waist-deep banks of snow and transport links severely disrupted. Temperatures even sunk to minus five in London.

More snow and freezing temperatures are forecast. Weather warnings have been issued for the eastern half of Scotland and England, as well as Devon, and south-west Wales.

But spare a thought for the Pro-Navalny demonstrators in Yakutsk, Eastern Siberia, who turned out in temperatures of minus 50 last week. We can’t complain.

Mattie Brignal,
News Editor