People with learning disabilities have been given do not resuscitate orders during the second wave of the pandemic, in spite of widespread condemnation of the practice last year and an urgent investigation by the care watchdog.

Mencap said it had received reports in January from people with learning disabilities that they had been told they would not be resuscitated if they were taken ill with Covid-19.



The Care Quality Commission said in December that inappropriate Do Not Attempt Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (DNACPR) notices had caused potentially avoidable deaths last year.

DNACPRs are usually made for people who are too frail to benefit from CPR, but Mencap said some seem to have been issued for people simply because they had a learning disability. The CQC is due to publish a report on the practice within weeks.

The disclosure comes as campaigners put growing pressure on ministers to reconsider a decision not to give people with learning disabilities priority for vaccinations. There is growing evidence that even those with a mild disability are more likely to die if they contract the coronavirus.

Although some people with learning disabilities such as Down’s syndrome were in one of four groups set by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) which the government promised would be offered the vaccine by tomorrow, many were classified lower categories of need and are still waiting.

Vaccinations see huge drop in cases, Israel study shows
In one of the biggest real-world studies so far of vaccine effectiveness, Israel’s largest healthcare provider is reporting a 94% drop in symptomatic coronavirus cases among 600,000 people who have been fully vaccinated.

The analysis compares Israelis who have received two doses of the Pfizer-Biontech vaccine with an unvaccinated group of the same size, matched for age and medical history. It reports a result similar to Pfizer’s clinical trials, though the research is preliminary and has yet to be peer reviewed.

The study also seeks to assess how well the vaccine can work against serious illness. Here, the researchers say they believe effectiveness, a week after a second dose, ranges from 91% to 99%. They say a more accurate figure will be available as more time passes after participants’ second jab.

Israel has immunised more than a quarter of its population with two doses. While overall infection rates in the country remain stubbornly high, the number of critically ill over-60s has fallen by a third in recent weeks - the age group were among the first to get jabs from mid to late December.

In the IHME’s most recent briefing, published Friday, the authors write that cases have “declined sharply,” dropping nearly 50 percent since early January.“ Two [factors] are driving down transmission,” the briefing says. “1) the continued scale-up of vaccination helped by the fraction of adults willing to accept the vaccine reaching 71 percent, and 2) declining seasonality, which will contribute to declining transmission potential from now until August.”

Two factors, however, can slow or even reverse the declines that have begun: 1) the spread of variant B.1.1.7, and 2) increased behaviors that favor COVID-19 transmission. Transmission of B.1.1.7 has been confirmed in at least 10 states and will inevitably spread more widely. This has been incorporated in our reference scenario. Transmission has been contained over the winter through mask wearing, decreased mobility, and avoidance of high-risk settings such as indoor dining. As daily case counts decline and vaccination increases, behaviors are likely to change towards increased risk of transmission.

The biotechnology company Novavax told CNN on Monday that its scientists are testing a new version of its Covid-19 vaccine in the lab that specifically targets the coronavirus variant first identified in South Africa.

As part of this research, the scientists are hoping to determine whether the new vaccine would serve as a booster shot to the original vaccine that has already been developed, or as a bivalent vaccine administered on its own, meaning it would target two strains of the coronavirus, both the original and the variant first identified in South Africa.

Once lab testing is complete, the new vaccine could move to clinical trials – but a timeline is still in the works and the research is still very early.

In a previous announcement in January, the company said, "Novavax initiated development of new constructs against the emerging strains in early January and expects to select ideal candidates for a booster and/or combination bivalent vaccine for the new strains in the coming days. The company plans to initiate clinical testing of these new vaccines in the second quarter of this year."