‘Third of Americans’ misused disinfectants to try to prevent infection; IMF agrees $5.2bn package for Egypt

Retractions by two of the world’s leading journals could do lasting harm in an environment where many already distrust scientistsPublic trust in science may have been shaken by the publication of academic papers based on false data in leading medical journals, according to world-renowned infectious disease doctors and former advisers to the World Health Organization.The director of Australia’s Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, Professor Sharon Lewin, said she and her colleagues were “gobsmacked” by the saga and said it should be “a wake-up call” in a global rush to publish studies about Covid-19. Continue reading...

Over-60s should use medical-grade masks and all others three-layer fabric ones, health body says

Your questions answered on what type of mask to wear to cut the risk of getting Covid-19

Major study of thousands of patients led by University of Oxford shows drug is ineffective

Public health experts like me know the only conclusive trial of masks will come from them being rolled out in the real world

Scientists in Netherlands explore possible link between deficiency and Covid-19 deaths

Stargazing under threat as pristine skies over New Zealand and Australia fill with scores of Starlink satellitesAstronomers in the southern hemisphere have warned that the wonders of the night sky are at risk from hundreds of satellites that have been shot into space by Elon Musk’s company SpaceX.The night skies of Australia and New Zealand are globally renowned for their clarity, drawing tourists from across the world to dark-sky sanctuaries such as Tekapo on New Zealand’s South Island and the Warrumbungle national park in New South Wales. Continue reading...

Covid-19 is is still a threat to most in Britain. If we allow it to spread now, a deadly second wave in winter could be the result

The pandemic’s future will be decided by human action and several unanswered questions about the nature of the virus

The now retracted paper halted hydroxychloroquine trials. Studies like this determine how people live or die tomorrow

Sunetra Gupta believes we may be underestimating how many people have fought off Covid-19

Our universities fail stupendously when they don’t teach ethical and moral responsibility

Taskforce says doctors treating adults with moderate, severe or critical Covid-19 should consider using drug to aid recovery timesThe antiviral drug remdesivir has been recommended for the treatment of Covid-19 patients in Australia, by the national taskforce bringing together the country’s peak health groups.The National Covid-19 Clinical Evidence Taskforce said Australian doctors treating adults with moderate, severe or critical Covid-19 should consider using the drug to aid recovery times. Continue reading...

Retraction made after Guardian investigation found inconsistencies in data

News updates: Shapps says face coverings to be compulsory on public transport; Sharma met Johnson and Sunak day before showing symptoms; Sturgeon says R number in Scotland between 0.7 and 0.9

As UK announces compulsory face coverings on public transport, what is scientific evidence behind measure?

As countries that implemented travel bans early on in the coronavirus pandemic begin to open up, the UK is only just getting started

Yes, more people of black, Latin and south Asian origin are dying, but there is no genetic ‘susceptibility’ behind itFrom the start of the coronavirus pandemic, there has been an attempt to use science to explain the disproportionate impact of Covid-19 on different groups through the prism of race. Data from the UK and the US suggests that people categorised as black, Hispanic (Latino) and south Asian are more likely to die from the disease.The way this issue is often discussed, but also the response of some scientists, would suggest that there might be some biological reason for the higher death rates based on genetic differences between these groups and their white counterparts. But the reality is there is no evidence that the genes used to divide people into races are linked to how our immune system responds to viral infections. Continue reading...

This week’s Global Vaccine Summit comes at a crucial point in history. Governments must not miss their chance to save lives

Questions raised over study claiming drug linked to higher rate of mortality and heart problems in Covid-19 patients

Creatures’ attempts are in vain, and as they are unable to burrow through the fish’s ribcage, the eels become trapped in the gut of their captorIt’s no secret that nature can be brutal and violent, but a new Queensland Museum report on the death of some snake eels reads more like the plot of a horror movie than a scientific paper.Snake eels are a family of eel species that live most of their lives burrowed in the soft sand on the floor of the ocean. Continue reading...

Rather than pitting old people against the young, now is the time to unite against a system that only benefits those who are wealthy

Langstone, Hampshire: This industrious little insect collects mud to partition off cells in the garden box I put up for herA few weeks ago, my neighbours had cavity wall insulation installed and the resulting drill holes in their gable-end wall were soon being prospected by red mason bees (Osmia bicornis).People often assume that the common name of these gingery, spring-flying solitary bees refers to a tendency to nest in crumbling mortar, but it’s more likely to derive from their habit of using mud as a mortar-like material to line and partition their brood cells. While females do make use of crevices between old brickwork, they also nest in hollow plant stems and beetle boreholes in dead wood, and will readily occupy manmade bee hotels. Continue reading...

Narwhals may be shy and elusive, but they are certainly not quiet. Nicola Davis speaks to geophysicist Dr Evgeny Podolskiy about capturing the vocalisations of narwhals in an arctic fjord, and what this sonic world could tell us about the lives of these mysterious creatures Continue reading...

Sweden death rate now higher than France; Pakistan records largest single day rise in new infections; global deaths pass 380,000. This blog is now closed

Surgisphere, whose employees appear to include a sci-fi writer and adult content model, provided database behind Lancet and New England Journal of Medicine hydroxychloroquine studiesThe World Health Organization and a number of national governments have changed their Covid-19 policies and treatments on the basis of flawed data from a little-known US healthcare analytics company, also calling into question the integrity of key studies published in some of the world’s most prestigious medical journals.A Guardian investigation can reveal the US-based company Surgisphere, whose handful of employees appear to include a science fiction writer and an adult-content model, has provided data for multiple studies on Covid-19 co-authored by its chief executive, but has so far failed to adequately explain its data or methodology. Continue reading...

It is hard for the public to trust a government that prioritises political messaging ahead of deliveryThere is no such thing as a total truce in Westminster, and a partial one rarely lasts long. The period when Labour felt obliged by a sense of duty in a national emergency to provide “constructive” opposition to the government is over. In parliament on Wednesday, Sir Keir Starmer accused Boris Johnson of failing to get to grips with the situation and the prime minister responded with affected resentment at the lack of “cooperation” from his counterpart across the dispatch box.But it was Mr Johnson’s decision to support Dominic Cummings over alleged lockdown breaches that incinerated any prospect of political consensus on coronavirus policy. By failing to chastise his maverick aide, the Tory leader committed two grave mistakes. First, he effectively diluted the mandatory element of the regulations, creating an unwritten “Cummings clause” for anyone minded to interpret the rules leniently for themselves. Second, he politicised the whole lockdown issue by making it clear that science and evidence are subordinate to the whim of a single Downing Street adviser. Continue reading...

Research appears to back up stories of people who believe they got coronavirus at events UK government allowed to go ahead

Proposals suggest seeking volunteers to look after coronavirus patients without protective gear

Primatologist calls for overhaul of food habits to prevent a future pandemic

Crook, County Durham: Today’s sweet briar could be the mongrel offspring of a dog rose – they hybridise so easilySpring, so eagerly anticipated, so riotous, has sashayed into summer. All that remains of crab apple, hawthorn and rowan blossom lies as petal confetti on the pavement. The blackcap in the copse I walk past daily is subdued, its melodious courtship tempered now by the caution of a parent with a brood to protect. Dandelion clocks alongside footpaths have blown away, replaced by frothy cow parsley.For meteorologists, summer begins on 1 June. Astronomically, summer solstice, 20 June, is the magical date. But the natural transition between seasons defies precise measurement. It is the accumulation of countless small events and today, on my morning walk, one such was the blooming of the first wild rose of summer. But which wild rose? There are many. In the few places locally where it can be found, the first is always burnet rose, Rosa pimpinellifolia, easily identified by its ferocious, dense prickles, creamy blooms and intense fragrance. No matter what Shakespeare’s Juliet might have asserted, no native rose by any other name smells as sweet. Continue reading...

Cases in Africa pass 150,000; Germany eases travel ban; Wuhan doctor who worked with whistleblower dies. This blog is now closed

Guardian told all four CMOs discussed and refused No 10 proposal, not just Chris Whitty

News updates: 324 new deaths in the UK; death rate in England higher among BAME people; testing data ‘widely criticised and often mistrusted’

Study may shed light on material and debated origins of some of the 25,000 fragments

Outbreaks after family parties in Göttingen illustrate the problems of containing virus

Gian Piero Gasperini admits he had symptoms prior to Champions League match in Spain

Prof Neil Ferguson tells Lords committee cases will remain steady until September

People of Bangladeshi origin face greatest danger of dying in pandemic, according to PHE

The UK has refused to support a WHO initiative to make Covid-19 treatments patent-free

The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical conceptsThe successful launch of the SpaceX rocket Dragon, timed so that the Nasa astronauts onboard could rendezvous with the International Space Station, got me thinking: do all satellites orbit the earth in the same direction? If so, is it clockwise or anticlockwise? Presumably they go in the same direction, or they would crash into each other.Andrew A, London Continue reading...

Keir Starmer says government must ‘stop the excuses’ amid claims delay is due to fears it could stoke tensions

MPs raise concerns about potentially limited impact of measures compared with damage they could do to industry

Notes made in the shadow of a devastating outbreak show the great scientist sketching out some distinctly queasy remedies

Ian Sample talks to Prof Carl Heneghan about the uncertainties in predicting future outbreaks of Covid-19 and what we can do to prevent them Continue reading...

Comprehensive study supports government’s current physical distancing guidance

Prof Ravi Mahajan and Alan Walker respond to Richard Horton’s article in which he questions how scientists can stand by this government. Plus Philip Barber wonders why we are being led by science, while simultaneously disregarding itRichard Horton is correct to highlight the vital need for medical leadership during the Covid-19 pandemic (How can any scientists stand by this government now?, 27 May)(. Unsurprisingly, medical leadership is not only about critiquing the government’s actions during this extraordinary situation. It’s also about questioning and working collaboratively to proactively deliver effective and timely solutions to challenges.The Royal College of Anaesthetists (RCoA), which represents the largest single hospital-based medical specialty, continuously engages and communicates with senior political and healthcare leaders on behalf of its anaesthetist members on issues such as personal protective equipment stocks, testing, the wellbeing of healthcare workers and drug supplies. As with other medical royal colleges, the RCoA has communicated the first-hand experiences of medical staff on the Covid-19 frontline so that decision-makers can learn from their insights. Continue reading...

Reopening places of worship | Anagram origins | Stars | Margaret Meek Spencer | Uses for tightsI do not to go to church much (save for inter-faith events), but I totally support calls from the clergy for places of worship to open in a way compatible with social distancing and other safety measures. If supermarkets can operate to feed our bodies, and bookshops to nourish our minds, then religious buildings can surely do the same to sustain hearts and souls.