Is the Nurses' Strike Over? RCN To Recommend New Pay Offer to Members

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has announced that they have received a new pay offer from NHS England, which it says it will recommend to members in a forthcoming vote. If accepted, this would bring an end to industrial action by nurses, 3 months after the strikes began.

The offer from the Government, which was made to all healthcare staff striking, including nurses, paramedics, 999 call handlers, midwives, security guards, and cleaners, includes a one-off payment for the 2022-23 financial year worth between £1655 and £3789, and a 5% consolidated pay increase for the 2023-24 financial year, according to the RCN.

New Pay Structure and Policy Framework on Safe Staffing

The deal also includes a new pay structure for nursing staff, which would come into force for 2024-2025. In addition, the Government had made a commitment – for the first time – to a national evidence-based policy framework on safe staffing, focusing on registered nurses, that "will draw on legislation in the rest of the UK and internationally", according to the RCN.

RCN General Secretary and Chief Executive Pat Cullen sees the deal as a win for nurses.

"The Government was forced into these negotiations and to reopen the pay award as a result of the historic pressure from nursing staff. Members took the hardest of decisions to go on strike and I believe they have been vindicated today," she said.

"It is not a panacea, but it is real tangible progress and the RCN's member leaders are asking fellow nursing staff to support what our negotiations have secured."

If Members Accept the Deal: 'No More Strikes'

The RCN's elected council met Thursday morning and decided that it will recommend that members vote to accept the offer in a forthcoming consultation. If members accept it, the dispute with Government and the NHS over pay will formally end. 

Negotiations with the RCN started 3 weeks ago, and all NHS unions took part in the last 10 days of talks. Aside from the RCN, UNISON, GMB, the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy, and the British Dietetic Association will also recommend the offer to their members in consultations that will be held over the coming weeks, according to the Department of Health and Social Care. Strike action will continue to be paused while they are consulted.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said of the deal: "It is right that we reward our hardworking NHS staff, who showed bravery and dedication throughout the pandemic and continue to make phenomenal progress to tackle waiting lists. Importantly this deal is also affordable for the taxpayer and continues to deliver on my promise to halve inflation.

"We have taken a reasonable approach throughout and this offer is good for NHS staff, it’s good for the taxpayer, and most importantly it is good news for patients whose care will no longer be disrupted by strike action."

Health and Social Care Secretary Steve Barclay said: "This offer will give nurses, paramedics, physiotherapists and other non-medical staff a fair pay rise while protecting our commitment to halve inflation."

Next Up: Junior Doctors

Responding to news that a pay deal has been reached in principle between the Government and unions, the Chief Executive of NHS Providers, Sir Julian Hartley said: "This is hugely positive development after months of strike action, which has seen NHS staff out on picket lines and widespread disruption to patient care, with tens of thousands of appointments postponed.
"We are very encouraged by the guarantee from the Government that there will be no impact on frontline services or the quality of care that patients receive as a result of this offer. We take this to mean that the deal is fully funded rather than relying on raids on NHS budgets, taking money away from key services. This is crucial to the success of the deal.

"It is also good to see that as a result of this deal all staff will be lifted above the real living wage, something we have long called for.

"We now need to see today's progress matched by urgent movement on talks between the Government and unions representing junior doctors. As trust leaders assess the full extent of the disruption caused by this week's 72-hour walkout, their message is loud and clear: Redouble your efforts to find a way through. No more strikes."

Can Particles in Dairy and Beef Cause Cancer and MS?

In our Western diet, dairy and beef are ubiquitous: Milk goes with coffee, melted cheese with pizza, and chili with rice. But what if dairy products and beef contained a new kind of pathogen that could infect you as a child and trigger cancer or multiple sclerosis (MS) 40-70 years later?

Researchers from the German Cancer Research Center(DKFZ) suspect that such zoonoses are possibly widespread and are therefore recommending that infants not be given dairy products until they are at least age 1 year. However, in two joint statements, the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) and the Max Rubner Institute (MRI) have rejected such theories.

In 2008, Harald zur Hausen, MD, DSc, received the Nobel Prize in Medicine for his discovery that human papillomaviruses cause cervical cancer. His starting point was the observation that sexually abstinent women, such as nuns, rarely develop this cancer. So it was possible to draw the conclusion that pathogens are transmitted during sexual intercourse, explain zur Hausen and his wife Ethel-Michele de Villiers, PhD, both of DKFZ Heidelberg.

Papillomaviruses, as well as human herpes and Epstein-Barr viruses (EBV), polyomaviruses, and retroviruses, cause cancer in a direct way: by inserting their genes into the DNA of human cells. With a latency of a few years to a few decades, the proteins formed through expression stimulate malignant growth by altering the regulating host gene.

Acid Radicals 

However, viruses — just like bacteria and parasites — can also indirectly trigger cancer. One mechanism for this triggering is the disruption of immune defenses, as shown by the sometimes drastically increased tumor incidence with AIDS or with immunosuppressants after transplants. Chronic inflammation is a second mechanism that generates acid radicals and thereby causes random mutations in replicating cells. Examples include stomach cancer caused by Helicobacter pyloriand liver cancer caused by Schistosoma, liver fluke, and hepatitis B and C viruses.

According to de Villiers and zur Hausen, there are good reasons to believe that other pathogens could cause chronic inflammation and thereby lead to cancer. Epidemiologic data suggest that dairy and meat products from European cows (Bos taurus) are a potential source. This is because colon cancer and breast cancer commonly occur in places where these foods are heavily consumed (ie, in North America, Argentina, Europe, and Australia). In contrast, the rate is low in India, where cows are revered as holy animals. Also noteworthy is that women with a lactose intolerance rarely develop breast cancer.

Viral Progeny 

In fact, the researchers found single-stranded DNA rings that originated in viruses, which they named bovine meat and milk factors (BMMF), in the intestines of patients with colon cancer. They reported, "This new class of pathogen deserves, in our opinion at least, to become the focus of cancer development and further chronic diseases." They also detected elevated levels of acid radicals in these areas (ie, oxidative stress), which is typical for chronic inflammation.

The researchers assume that infants, whose immune system is not yet fully matured, ingest the BMMF as soon as they have dairy. Therefore, there is no need for adults to avoid dairy or beef because everyone is infected anyway, said zur Hausen in a speech.

'Breast Milk Is Healthy'

De Villiers and zur Hausen outlined more evidence of cancer-triggering pathogens. Mothers who have breastfed are less likely, especially after multiple pregnancies, to develop tumors in various organs or to have from MS and type 2 diabetes. The authors attribute the protective effect to oligosaccharides in breast milk, which begin to be formed midway through the pregnancy. They bind to lectin receptors and, in so doing, mask the terminal molecule onto which the viruses need to dock. As a result, their port of entry into the cells is blocked.

The oligosaccharides also protect the baby against life-threatening infections by blocking access by rotaviruses and noroviruses. In this way, especially if breastfeeding lasts a long time — around 1 year — the period of incomplete immunocompetence is bridged.

Colon Cancer 

To date, it has been assumed that around 20% of all cancerous diseases globally are caused by infections, said the researchers. But if the suspected BMMF cases are included, this figure rises to 50%, even to around 80%, for colon cancer. If the suspicion is confirmed, the consequences for prevention and therapy would be significant.

The voice of a Nobel prize winner undoubtedly carries weight, but at the time, zur Hausen still had to convince a host of skeptics with his discovery that a viral infection is a major cause of cervical cancer. Nonetheless, some indicators suggest that he and his wife have found a dead end this time.

Institutional Skepticism 

When his working group made the results public in February 2019, the DKFZ felt the need to give an all-clear signal in response to alarmed press reports. There is no reason to see dairy and meat consumption as something negative. Similarly, in their first joint statement, the BfR and the MRI judged the data to be insufficient and called for further studies. Multiple research teams began to focus on BMMF as a result. In what foods can they be found? Are they more common in patients with cancer than in healthy people? Are they infectious? Do they cause inflammation and cancer?

The findings presented in a second statement by the BfR and MRI at the end of November 2022 contradicted the claims made by the DKFZ scientists across the board. In no way do BMMF represent new pathogens. They are variants of already known DNA sequences. In addition, they are present in numerous animal-based and plant-based foods, including pork, fish, fruit, vegetables, and nuts.

BMMF do not possess the ability to infect human cells, the institutes said. The proof that they are damaging to one's health was also absent. It is true that the incidence of intestinal tumors correlates positively with the consumption of red and processed meat — which in no way signifies causality — but dairy products are linked to a reduced risk. On the other hand, breast cancer cannot be associated with the consumption of beef or dairy.

Therefore, both institutes recommend continuing to use these products as supplementary diet for infants due to their micronutrients. They further stated that the products are safe for people of all ages.

Association With MS? 

Unperturbed, de Villiers and zur Hausen went one step further in their current article. They posited that MS is also associated with the consumption of dairy products and beef. Here too geographic distribution prompted the idea to look for BMMF in the brain lesions of patients with MS. The researchers isolated ring-shaped DNA molecules that proved to be closely related to BMMF from dairy and cattle blood. "The result was electrifying for us."However, there are several other factors to consider, such as vitamin D3 deficiency. This is because the incidence of MS decreases the further you travel from the poles toward the equator (ie, as solar radiation increases). Also, the EBV clearly plays a role because patients with MS display increased titers of EBV antibodies. One study also showed that people in Antarctica excreted reactivated EBV in their saliva during winter and that vitamin D3 stopped the viral secretion.

Under these conditions, the researchers hypothesized that MS is caused by a double infection of brain cells by EBV and BMMF. EBV is reactivated by a lack of vitamin D3, and the BMMF multiply and are eventually converted into proteins. A focal immunoreaction causes the Schwann cells and oligodendrocytes to malfunction, which leads to the destruction of the myelin sheaths around the nerve fibers.

ABOUT A THOUSAND AMERICANS ARE DYING EVERY DAY — A TOLL SO GRIM THAT IT'S HARD TO COMPREHEND.

Leaked documents dated to earlier this week, obtained from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention by Yahoo News, warn that new coronavirus cases are spiking again as Americans relax their social distancing practices.

Even Dr. Anthony Fauci, the White House’s top infectious disease expert and a national figurehead against the virus, lamented this week that the outbreak has become his “worse nightmare.”

“In a period of four months, it has devastated the whole world,” he said. “And it isn’t over yet.”

Does that amount to the widely-feared “second wave” of COVID, which could lead to more mass deaths and knock down an economy that’s only starting to recover? It remains unclear — especially because the fight against the virus is going very differently in different areas of the country.

Atlantic writer James Hamblin, whose early warnings about the severity of the pandemic proved prescient, pushed back against the idea that the U.S. is experiencing a second wave. It would be more accurate, he said yesterday, to characterize COVID cases in the U.S. as “one long wave” that’s leveled out around 20,000 new cases — and, chillingly, around 1,000 deaths — per day.

CHINESE COVID-19 VACCINE EFFECTIVE IN MONKEYS

Researchers at Beijing pharmaceutical company Sinovac Biotech have developed an experimental COVID-19 vaccine that it says protected macaques from infection, ScienceMagazine reports.

The vaccine was based on a tried-and-true formulation that included an inactivated version of the virus SARS-CoV-2, as detailed in a preprint uploaded to the server bioRxiv on April 19.

“These data support the rapid clinical development of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines for humans,” reads the paper.

The team at Sinovac injected eight macaque monkeys with two different doses. Three weeks after injection, they introduced the coronavirus straight into the money’s lungs. There were reportedly no side effects.

None of the monkeys developed an infection beyond a small “viral blip.” A less fortunate control group of monkeys developed severe pneumonia after being infected by the virus.

“This is old school but it might work,” Florian Krammer, a virologist at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, who co-authored a status report on COVID vaccine candidates, told Science Mag. “What I like most is that many vaccine producers, also in lower–middle-income countries, could make such a vaccine.”

Critics say, though, that the sample size in Sinovac’s trial was too small to produce generalizable results. Questions also remain about the viability of the vaccine candidate for use in humans — especially considering that monkeys don’t experience the same severe symptoms of COVID as humans.

In a separate Sinovac experiment, the researchers mixed a cocktail of antibodies from patients in China, Italy, Switzerland, Spain, and the United Kingdom with the virus.

According to the team, the antibodies “potently neutralized 10 representative SARS-CoV-2 strains, indicative of a possible broader neutralizing ability.”

And that’d be good news.

“This provides strong evidence that the virus is not mutating in a way that would make it resistant to a #COVID19 vaccine,” tweeted of Oregon Health & Science University immunologist Mark Slifka on Wednesday.

Sinovac Biotech is now planning trials on thousands of human subjects.

COVID 19 - a Different Perspective

I am seeing alot of negative things about the Covid - 19 virus but let's just take a second to look at some positive things.

“Since the lockdown..... 

Venice's canals have become crystal clear.

Italy coasts have dolphins coming nearer and nearer.

Japan now has deer roaming free in the streets, and  Thailand: the same with monkeys.

 China has record breaking pollution cuts.

The Earth has already began showing signs of amazing things that are happening from the absence of human pollution.

What if- and hear me out..- what if the entire human population used this as an opportunity to restart society on a greener, more environment conscious foot.

 What we're seeing in the span of a couple of days is amazing.  A pipe dream.

Maybe it’s time for us humans to look after our planet, maybe it’s time to listen to the universe . Things happen for a reason and maybe the planet just needs a bit of time to heal! 

❤ See the positives even in crisis ❤

Inspirational and Motivational Quotes 8 - by Life is Fun

Motivational and Inspirational Quotes 5 - by Life is Fun

Inspirational and motivational quotes 2 - Doodly by Life is Fun

SPACEX SAYS IT WILL LAUNCH SPACE TOURISTS AS SOON AS NEXT YEAR

SpaceX announced a partnership this week with space tourism Space Adventures to start launching passengers to orbit aboard a Crew Dragon spacecraft starting as early as 2021, TechCrunch reports.

SpaceX says it will send four privately-paying space tourists to orbit the Earth for five days in its Crew Dragon capsule between “late-2021 and mid-2022,” according to CNBC.

“This historic mission will forge a path to making spaceflight possible for all people who dream of it, and we are pleased to work with the Space Adventures’ team on the mission,” SpaceX president and COO Gwynne Shotwell said in a statement.

Space Adventures already sells seats on Russian Soyuz rockets.

SpaceX’s passenger-carrying Crew Dragon capsule, developed as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, has so far completed a successful test trip and docking maneur  to the International Space Station last year, but has yet to make the journey with any passengers on board.

Earlier this year, SpaceX tested its space taxi’s emergency abort system in dramatic fashion, intentionally blowing up a Falcon 9 rocket in the process.

READ MORE: SpaceX and new partner announce space tourism launches on Dragon starting as early as 2021 [TechCrunch]

SCIENTISTS CREATE ARTIFICIAL GENOME THAT CAN REPRODUCE

German scientists say that for the first time ever, they’ve created a lab-grown artificial genome that can reproduce itself like a natural one.

It’s not quite one of those replicants from “Blade Runner,” but it’s a step toward the holy grail of synthetic biology: fully artificial organisms that can survive and reproduce like the real thing.
In a paper published in the journal Nature Communications this week, researchers from the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry describe how they assembled genomes made up of blueprints for proteins — and demonstrated that it was capable of replicating 116 kilobytes worth of its own RNA and DNA.

Next up, according to a press release, the team plans to build an “enveloped system” that can reproduce like this last one — but also consume nutrition and dispose of waste, like a living cell.

READ MORE: Reproductive genome from the laboratory [Max Planck Society]