Tag Archives: Brits

Anti-anxiety drug prescribed to 8million Brits ‘linked to 3,400 deaths in 5 years’ – The Mirror

  1. Anti-anxiety drug prescribed to 8million Brits ‘linked to 3,400 deaths in 5 years’ The Mirror
  2. I’m stuck on the ‘anxiety’ drug pregabalin The Telegraph
  3. Anxiety drug pregabalin killed my son — and hundreds more are dying from it The Times
  4. Inside the UK’s battle with pregabalin: How addiction fears over opioids and benzos left country sleepwalking towards unfolding fiasco with ‘Valium on steroids’ – as map reveals areas where up to one in 25 residents are given powerful anti-anx Daily Mail
  5. Pregabalin ‘robbed me of a life and stopped me having kids’, woman who lived her whole life with chronic pain reveals LBC

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UK inflation moves back up to 40-year high as Brits battle cost-of-living crisis

The Office for National Statistics announced inflation figures Wednesday as the U.K. undergoes a historic cost-of-living crisis and political turmoil.

Westend61 / Getty Images

LONDON — The consumer price index rose 10.1% in September, according to estimates published Wednesday by the Office for National Statistics, just exceeding a consensus forecast among economists polled by Reuters.

Reuters estimated an increase of 10% for September. The figure for September matches the 40-year high British inflation reached in July.

The rate rose in the year to September 2022 as the country’s cost-of-living crisis continues to hammer households and businesses ahead of a tough winter. Inflation unexpectedly dipped to 9.9% in August, down from 10.1% in July, on the back of a fuel price decline.

Increasing food, transport and energy prices were the biggest contributing factors to inflation, the ONS said. Food was up 14.6% year-on-year, transport was up 10.9% compared to last year, while the price of furniture and household goods rose 10.8%.

Sterling fell against the dollar following the news, trading at $1.1289, down from $1.1330.

The inflation data will also impact the Bank of England’s approach for the near term, just as the Bank plans to sell off some of its government bonds, known as gilts, from Nov. 1.

Britain’s Finance Minister Jeremy Hunt said in a statement that “help for the most vulnerable” will be a priority as the U.K. weathers high inflation rates, along with “delivering wider economic stability and driving long-term growth that will help everyone.”

September’s inflation rate highlights the severity of the U.K.’s inflation crisis, and comes as the country weathers a period of economic volatility.

On Monday the new British Finance Minister Jeremy Hunt reversed the majority of the tax cuts introduced by his predecessor, Kwasi Kwarteng, on Sept. 23, and Prime Minister Liz Truss apologized for “mistakes” that had caused severe market turbulence.

Questions are now being raised over how long Truss will remain in office.

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Brits are being hit by a wave of bad news

Pensioners protest over rising fuel prices at a demonstration outside Downing street called by The National Pensioners Convention and Fuel Poverty Action on February 7, 2022 in London, England.

Guy Smallman | Getty Images

LONDON — “The brains of humans and other animals contain a mechanism designed to give priority to bad news,” former Nobel Prize-winning economist Daniel Kahneman once said.

For Brits, this mechanism has been taking a beating in recent months.

The Bank of England this week has added to its emergency rescue package for British pension funds, while the government brought forward its medium-term fiscal policy plan, having plunged the markets into chaos with its widely-criticized announcements last month.

A number of pension funds were hours from collapse when the central bank intervened on Sep. 28, and policymakers continue to battle against market volatility with further expansions of the bond-buying scheme on Monday and Tuesday. 

The spike in interest rate expectations following new Finance Minister Kwasi Kwarteng’s so-called “mini-budget” also caused mayhem in the mortgage market, leading banks to withdraw products and rates to surge for prospective homeowners.

Meanwhile the British pound fell to an all-time low against the dollar in the aftermath of Kwarteng’s policy announcements, only regaining some ground when the government U-turned on some of its most radical policies, such as the abolition of the top rate of tax for the country’s highest earners.

Kwarteng on Monday announced that his scheduled expansion on last month’s controversial fiscal plans — and an independent assessment of their impact from the Office for Budget Responsibility — would be brought forward by three weeks to Oct. 31, as the Treasury and the Bank of England look to temper market concerns and restore credibility.

The same day, the central bank is expected to begin selling gilts (U.K. sovereign bonds), part of its delayed quantitative tightening efforts as it unwinds pandemic-era monetary stimulus in the hope of tackling runaway inflation.

Economists expect further volatility in the bond market, and peril for pension funds, in the coming weeks ahead of the full budget statement, while the Bank of England continues to walk a tightrope between ensuring fiscal stability and reining in inflation.

‘The recession has begun’

The U.K. is the only G-7 economy not to have re-attained its pre-pandemic GDP level by the second quarter of 2022, Citibank Chief U.K. Economist Benjamin Nabarro pointed out in an Institute for Fiscal Studies event on Tuesday.

The U.K. economy shrank by 0.3% in August, the Office for National Statistics estimated Wednesday, potentially beginning what economists expect will be a lengthy recession through the winter.

The ONS said GDP was only just returning to its pre-pandemic level, highlighting the challenge facing Prime Minister Liz Truss’ “growth, growth, growth” agenda. The prime minister has committed to a radical overhaul of the country’s economic policy, vowing to address anemic growth over the past decade or more, despite her party having been in power since 2010.

The government’s growth plan must also overcome the impact of Brexit, which most economists project will reduce real per capita GDP. The government’s independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) calculated that Brexit would reduce the U.K.’s potential productivity by 4% over the long term, while the OECD projects that the U.K. will have the lowest growth in the G-20 in 2023, apart from heavily sanctioned Russia.

“Real GDP is likely to retreat again in September in line with double-digit inflation eroding household purchasing power and the resulting output loss from additional bank holiday to coincide with Queen Elizabeth’s funeral on Monday 19 September,” said Raj Badiani, economics director at S&P Global Market Intelligence.

Queen Elizabeth II, the world’s longest-reigning monarch, died on Sep. 8 after 70 years on the throne, ushering in 10 days of national morning and a public holiday on the day of her funeral.

“We now believe the recession in the U.K. has begun in the third quarter of 2022 and will likely last for three quarters. Our near-term GDP outlook anticipates a recession spilling into 2023 because of a tight and prolonged squeeze on household budget fueling a consumer-led recession,” Badiani added.

S&P also expects the economy to contract over the full year of 2023, despite substantial fiscal stimulus such as the government’s energy price guarantee and income tax cuts, due to rising household borrowing costs, softer demand in critical export markets and persistent volatility in financial markets.

The latest labor market statistics showed U.K. unemployment falling to 3.5%, its lowest rate since 1974, fueled by a rise in the inactivity rate, which now stands at 21.7%.

From June to August, annual growth in average total pay (including bonuses) for employees was 6% while growth in regular pay (excluding bonuses) was 5.4%, representing a real terms decline of 2.4% and 2.9%, respectively.

U.K. inflation slipped slightly to 9.9% in August, with soaring food and energy prices having driven annual consumer price inflation to a 40-year high of 10.1% the previous month, but economists expect it to rise through the remainder of the year.

A worst-case scenario laid out by national electricity system operator the National Grid warned that households and businesses may face three-hour power outages over winter to prevent a collapse of the grid. However, senior cabinet minister Nadhim Zahawi told the BBC this week that this scenario is “extremely unlikely.” 

Prime Minister Liz Truss is also coming under pressure from lawmakers in her own party to guarantee an increase to welfare benefits in line with inflation, with reports suggesting she could opt for raising them in line with earnings instead, heaping further pain on the country’s lowest-income households.

New research by British investment house Charles Stanley found that 22% of U.K. adults said they were having sleepless nights over market volatility, soaring inflation and the rising cost of living, while one in 10 said they had experienced panic attacks.

“Even under ‘precedented’ circumstances, financial pressures can get the better of us, but we’re living in unprecedented times, and the term ‘financial stress’ has taken on a whole new meaning,” said Lisa Caplan, director of OneStep Financial Planning at Charles Stanley. 

“The cost of living crisis is having a detrimental effect on individuals, not only financially, but physically and mentally too.”

Widespread strikes

Postal workers, rail workers, journalists and public barristers have all carried out strikes in recent months in protest over pay and conditions, as wages fail to keep up with inflation running at around 10%.

Rail strikes carried out by members of the RMT union, in protest over pay and conditions have brought the country to a standstill on multiple days throughout the summer and into fall.

Members of the CWU (Communication Workers Union) also continue to strike, including 115,000 postal employees of former state monopoly Royal Mail. CNBC reported Friday that CWU representatives had entered into talks with Royal Mail executives, but 19 days of further postal strikes are still set to go ahead in the runup to the festive period unless substantial progress is made in the coming days.

Meanwhile, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) is currently holding its first industrial action ballot in its 106-year history for 300,000 members, demanding a pay rise in line with inflation. The RCN cited new analysis from London Economics, which found that nurses’ real earnings have fallen at twice the rate of the private sector over the last decade.

The government imposed a minimum pay rise to most NHS staff of 4.5% in July, representing a real terms pay cut of more than £1,000 per year when adjusted for inflation.

Waiting times for access to the country’s National Health Service are at an all-time high, with public hospitals beset by staff shortages and a lack of beds. 

The GMB union is also holding ballots for ambulance staff in various regions of the country, with paramedics’ real pay down £1,500 per year. Junior doctors will ballot for industrial action in early January, after the government refused to meet the British Medical Association’s demand to restore pay increases to 2008/9 levels by the end of September. 

Junior doctors were excluded from the 4.5% NHS uplift, with the government instead imposing an increase of just 2%, which the BMA said is “derisory” in the face of the ongoing cost of living crisis and in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic.

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How Many Cups of Coffee You Should Drink Per Day, According to ‘Science’

Photo: sebra (Shutterstock)

A study that’s in the news right now claims that people who drink two to three cups of coffee per day live longer than people who avoid coffee. So should we all be drinking two to three cups? Not necessarily. Let’s take a look at where these numbers come from.

Two to three cups for longevity, maybe

This recent study draws from the UK Biobank, where the average age is 58, slightly more than half of participants are women, and roughly 95% are white. On average, the researchers were able to follow participants for 12 years after they answered a question about how much coffee they drink.

If we look at death from all causes, people who drank two to three cups of coffee per day had the lowest risk, and that applies whether they were drinking ground, instant, or decaf. For cardiovascular disease, those drinking one cup a day had the lowest risk, but for arrhythmia (irregular heartbeat), the sweet spot appeared to be four to five cups. In the arrhythmia results, decaf coffee was not associated with a reduction in risk.

The study has plenty of limitations, though, if you’re trying to use it to figure out how much coffee to drink. This group of middle-aged British folks may not represent the rest of the world particularly well; and it’s not like people randomly decide how much coffee to drink. Income, social class, and perceived health risks can contribute to that choice, just to name a few (Brits also tend to drink a lot of instant coffee and espresso, it turns out). The researchers also took people’s self-reported data at face value, and assumed that they drank the same amount of coffee over the years rather than continually reassessing.

Three to four cups for other health outcomes

A review published in the BMJ looked at dozens of previous coffee studies and concluded that people who drink coffee have lower risks of cardiovascular diseases, including strokes, some cancers, and some liver and gastrointestinal disorders. The amount of coffee associated with reduced risk was often in the range of three to four cups per day.

The author of that analysis said that people should not start drinking coffee because of these results, but that if you already drink coffee, it “can be part of a healthy diet.”

Part of the reason it’s so hard to pin down what’s going on with coffee is that there are hundreds of different bioactive compounds in coffee, and caffeine is only one of them. The chemical profile can also be different depending on what beans you start with and how you prepare the coffee.

But another reason is that these studies aren’t randomly assigning people to be coffee drinkers or not; they’re usually just surveying people about how much coffee they already drink. If your doctor has told you to limit your caffeine because of your blood pressure, let’s say, you’ll show up as a non-coffee-drinker in the study. So people who avoid coffee may have different health-related risk factors than people who drink a lot of it, and that’s not necessarily reflected in the study.

“Robust randomized controlled trials are needed to understand whether the observed associations are causal [i.e., caused by coffee],” the authors conclude.

Four cups or less, to be safe

The U.S. Dietary Guidelines only have this to say about coffee consumption for non-pregnant adults: “For healthy adults, the FDA has cited 400 milligrams per day of caffeine as an amount not generally associated with dangerous, negative effects.” (200 milligrams is the recommended limit in pregnancy.)

In other words, coffee isn’t so important to health that they recommend everybody drink it. But it’s also not so dangerous that there’s a hard limit. Instead, they name an amount that’s basically fine. (Truly enormous amounts of caffeine would probably be bad. This is a level that they feel pretty confident in saying is not an enormous amount.)

So how much coffee is that? Most brewed coffee clocks in somewhere around 100 milligrams per 8 fluid ounces. This varies quite a bit depending on brand and brewing style. For example, a 14-ounce Dunkin brewed coffee has 210 milligrams; a 16-ounce McDonald’s coffee has 145. You can look up the caffeine in your favorite beverage at Caffeine Informer.

One thing before you order: The guidelines also point out that sweetened coffee beverages are one of the common sources of added sugars in the diet. We should keep added sugars to under 10% of our total calories, or about 50 grams. An iced coffee from Starbucks has 20 grams; a caramel Frappucino has 54. Black coffee, on the other hand, has basically none.

   

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Brits paying $8.60 a gallon for gasoline $125 to fill family car

The cost of filling an average family car in the U.K. has surpassed £100 for the first time ever.

Picture Alliance | Getty Images

Britons are now paying over £100 ($125) to fill up an average-sized family car after petrol prices soared past the psychological threshold for the first time ever Thursday.

The price is based on the cost of filling up a 55-litre family saloon — £100.27 — as average U.K gasoline prices surpassed £1.82 a litre. That roughly translates to $8.60 a gallon, with one litre equal to 0.264172 U.S. gallons.

The cost of filling an equivalent car with diesel is £103.43, with diesel now priced at £1.88 a litre.

British automotive company RAC, which provided the figures, said it was “a truly dark day today for drivers” as fuel prices continue to push higher.

“While fuel prices have been setting new records on a daily basis, households up and down the country may never have expected to see the cost of filling an average-sized family car reach three figures,” RAC fuel spokesperson Simon Williams said in a statement.

Thursday’s milestone is latest marker of the continued upward pressure on fuel prices amid Russian oil sanctions and soaring inflation.

The cost of unleaded petrol is now 37% more expensive in the U.K. than this week a year ago, while diesel is 38% more expensive.

The U.K. government announced a 5-pence-a-litre cut to fuel duty in March to help reduce costs for motorists. However, motoring groups have warned that retailers are not passing cuts on and said more support is needed.

“March’s 5 [pence] fuel duty cut now looks paltry as wholesale petrol costs have already increased by five-times that amount since the Spring Statement [25 pence],” Williams said.

“A further duty cut or a temporary reduction in VAT would go a long way towards helping drivers, especially those on lower incomes who have no choice other than to drive,” he added.

Industry analysts are now predicting that petrol prices could rise even higher.

“We are certainly peppering the £2 a litre mark at the moment,” Gordon Balmer, executive director at the Petrol Retailers Association, told Sky News Thursday.

Still, the U.K. is not the most expensive place for fuel in Europe.

Denmark is the costliest country in the region for petrol, according British motoring association the AA. The price at the pump was £2.05 a litre as of 30 May.

It was followed by Greece, Germany and then Britain.

Exchange rates, VAT levels and duty levels are among the reasons for the differing fuel prices across the continent, according to an AA spokesperson.

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Brits Go Wild When Queen Has Tea With Paddington Bear

British fans went bonkers Saturday when the queen and their favorite bear had tea together in Buckingham Palace for Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee celebration.

The get-together with monarch and kid lit hero Paddington Bear — thanks to some movie-making sleight of hand — also featured marmalade sandwiches.

When it was time for the celebrations to begin, Paddington said: “Happy Jubilee, ma’am. And thank you, for everything.”

Tea with Paddington was screened to a crowd of thousands outside of Buckingham Palace to open a concert in celebration of the queen’s 70 years on the throne.

And now we know what she carries around in that handbag.

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UK is ‘most immune country in the world’ as data shows 98% of Brits have ‘some form’ of resistance to Omicron variant

BRITAIN could be the world’s most immune country in the fight against Covid-19, according to an expert.

The hugely positive claim comes as data revealed around 98 per cent of over 15s in the UK have some resistance to the Omicron variant.

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Immunity is high thanks to vaccinations, boosters and natural immunityCredit: LNP

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It means they could experience milder symptoms and an overall less serious disease.

It could point to why hospitalisations with the virus remain low – despite skyrocketing case numbers – explained Dr Raghib Ali, Clinical Research Associate, MRC Epidemiology Unit, University of Cambridge.

But the top doc, who also works across a raft of other roles in the NHS and Public Health England, encouraged Brits to continue to follow rules to not risk overwhelming the health service as staff absence is a “major problem”.

Ways to keep safe, and ensure the NHS stays afloat, include wearing face masks, washing your hands, taking LFT and PCR tests accordingly and isolating if you have symptoms or a positive result.

However he added it’s not all doom and gloom, with lockdown restrictions unlikely as long as we continue on the right path.

Dr Raghib told The Sun: “Basically, what the graph shows is combined data on vaccination with data from the MRC, which produces a monthly update to what proportion of people have had a natural infection, plus dosage and infections by age.

“It’s based on over 15-year-olds, so it’s not everybody, and there’s two factors – one is waning immunity from previous vaccination or infection, and then increasing immunity from boosters, and new infections, and how those things are balancing out, which nobody really knows.

“But we’re probably the most immune country in the world.”

He added: “My general position for a long time has been things are not as bad as many people make out.”

The data, collected by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and the Cambridge MRC Epidemiology Unit, suggests that between 97 per cent and 98 per cent of Brits – even if infected again – will have a milder form of covid.

The immunity comes from a combination of vaccinations, boosters and natural immunity.

Dr Raghib’s comments come 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.

Covid booster jabs protect against Omicron and offer the best chance to get through the pandemic, health officials have repeatedly said.

The Sun’s Jabs Army campaign is helping get the vital extra vaccines in Brits’ arms to ward off the need for any new restrictions.

However, the doc warned: “We are very well protected compared to other countries, because of what the very high rates of immunity from a combination of high rates of vaccination, typically in older age groups, also natural infection, particularly in younger age groups,.

“That means that population immunity is very high.

“Omicron is still spreading rapidly. Most regions outside of London haven’t peaked yet, and hospital admissions are still not clearly peaked – particularly outside of London.

“Also, staff absence is still a major problem, so we’re always still encouraging everybody to follow the public health guidance.”

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Dr Raghib Ali is cautiously optimistic – bun insists we must keep following rulesCredit: Linkedin



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Biden refuses to call on US reporters while UK’s Boris Johnson holds court with Brits

President Joe Biden declined to call on U.S. reporters Tuesday after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson took questions from reporters from the United Kingdom during an Oval Office meeting.

After a brief conversation with Biden that touched on issues ranging from climate change and transport infrastructure to lifting the ban on British beef, Johnson opened the floor for reporters from his home country.

“Would it be okay if we have just a couple of questions, just a couple?” Johnson asked, looking over to Biden, who replied, “Good luck.”

BIDEN REPEATEDLY IMPLIES HE’S NOT IN CHARGE OF WHEN, WHERE HE CAN TAKE QUESTIONS FROM THE PRESS

After Johnson had taken several questions from British reporters, the press pool was then corraled out of the Oval Office while Johnson was mid-sentence, prompting a flurry of shouted questions from reporters. Biden appeared to respond to one of them about the border, but his answer was muffled by his mask and the commotion.

Biden appeared to briefly answer one shouted question as the pool exited, saying, “The violence is unacceptable.” It is not clear what the quesiton was.

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Biden has raised eyebrows for repeatedly implying that White House staff controls when and where he is allowed to take questions from the press. He has used phrases that suggest he is being “instructed” on which reporters to call on from a pre-selected list. On several occasions, he has said he is “going to get in trouble” if he answers questions from reporters.

The White House has also apparently cut the feed from several Biden events, most recently during a Sept. 13 briefing on wildfires with federal and state officials in Boise, Idaho.

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Millions of Brits set for self-isolation as Covid restrictions ease

Selective focus. Concept photo.

Oleksandr Siedov | iStock Editorial | Getty Images

LONDON — More than 500,000 people in Britain were told to self-isolate last week by the government-backed Covid-19 Test and Trace app, with similar numbers expected over the coming weeks.

In the week ending July 7, a record 520,194 people in England were alerted by the app that they had been in close contact with someone who had tested positive for coronavirus, and therefore needed to self-isolate.

A BBC analysis found last week that as many as 4.5 million people in the U.K. could be instructed to self-isolate by the Test and Trace system between mid-July and the policy change on August 16.

Research published in the British Medical Journal in late June studied the interactions of 5,802 people over 14 days, finding that the average participant had 59 interactions that could be defined as close contact. The study found that for every infected person, an average of 36 close contacts would be able to be identified and contacted, which could mean millions are currently being told to self-isolate.

Earlier this week, British media reported that Covid app users were being “pinged” and told to self-isolate when their neighbors contracted the virus, with the technology underpinning the app’s Test and Trace system detecting “close contact” with positive cases through the walls of their homes.  

Currently, anyone in the U.K. who is told a close contact has tested positive for Covid is required to self-isolate at home for 10 days. People may be contacted via phone, email or text by the NHS Test and Trace system, or via a notification on the app.

“Close contact” is defined in the U.K. as spending 15 or more minutes within two meters of an infected person.

British Health Minister Sajid Javid recently announced that from August 16, people who had been fully vaccinated against Covid would no longer be required to self-isolate if a close contact had tested positive for the coronavirus. The change in policy would also apply to children under the age of 18.

Employee absence concerns

England is set to lift almost all of its remaining Covid restrictions on Monday, which Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said will be an “irreversible” move.

However, the country is currently experiencing a rise in new cases of the virus, which has been linked to the highly transmissible delta variant.

There were 48,553 new cases of the virus in the U.K. on Thursday, bringing the country’s total number of confirmed cases since the beginning of the pandemic up to 5,281,098.

Rising case numbers have prompted concerns among industry leaders that the contact tracing system could create employee shortages.

Karan Bilimoria, president of the Confederation of British Industry — which represents 190,000 businesses — said in a statement on Thursday that the government should bring forward the rule changes for self-isolation.

“Infection rates may be increasing rapidly but it’s clear the test and trace system needs an overhaul, with over two-thirds of the adult population now fully jabbed,” he said.

“As more businesses prepare to open their doors on Monday staff shortages are being felt acutely across all sectors in all areas of business particularly across our struggling sectors in hospitality and leisure.”

Nick Allen, CEO of the British Meat Processors Association, told the BBC on Friday that some organizations may be forced to close production lines, with up to one in 10 meat production workers being asked to isolate by the app.

Meanwhile, it was reported on Monday that passengers flying from Terminal 5 of London’s Heathrow Airport faced disruption after a number of employees were told to isolate by NHS Test and Trace.

Up to 900 workers — more than one in 10 employees — at Nissan’s manufacturing plant in Sunderland, England, are currently absent from work after being “pinged” by the app, the BBC reported on Thursday.

Deleting the app

A poll conducted by Savanta ComRes for the Guardian newspaper, published Tuesday, found that more than one in three adults aged 18 to 34 had already deleted the NHS app. Around one in five adults of all ages said they intended to delete it within a week, according to the survey.

Government figures and health authorities have urged the British public not to delete the app.

A spokesperson for the U.K.’s Department of Health and Social Care told CNBC via email on Friday that the NHS Covid app had prevented an estimated 600,000 infections and 8,000 deaths between September and December.

“The app is doing exactly what it was designed to do — informing close contacts of someone who has tested positive for Covid-19 that they are at risk and advising them to isolate,” they said.

“As cases continue rising it is vital people are aware of their personal risk so they can make informed decisions on their behavior to protect those around them.” 

Giving evidence in Parliament last week, Jenny Harries, chief executive of the U.K. Health Security Agency, said work was underway to “tune” the app so that would take vaccination status into account.

“It is important at the moment to remind people how important it is to keep the app running,” she said.

The NHS app, which has been downloaded more than 26 million times, is not mandatory and there is no legal obligation for users to self-isolate if they are “pinged.”

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Many Brits won’t watch Oprah’s interview with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle

Maybe it’s a good thing there’s an entire continent between Prince Harry, Meghan Markle and the British people.

More than half of all Brits polled by The Sun say they’d change the channel rather than watch Oprah’s upcoming interview with the pair, the outlet reported.

The big television interview is set to hit the U.S. airwaves early next month between the once-royal couple and America’s royalty — Oprah.

But a significant number of Brits say the hotly anticipated sitdown is actually a huge turn off.

And Megxit only made matters worse, with a third of those asked saying their feelings on the pair have gone downhill since they left the United Kingdom, and 43 percent wanting the two to make their split with the royal family permanent.

Just 27 percent of those surveyed said they want to watch Oprah’s sitdown with Harry and Meghan.

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