Number of norovirus patients in English hospitals hits record high
The number of norovirus patients in hospital in England has reached an all-time high, figures have revealed, with experts saying a return to pre-pandemic behaviours could be fuelling the situation.Norovirus, also known as the winter vomiting bug, is highly contagious.While most people get better at home in a couple of days, it can be more serious in older adults, younger children and people who are immuno-compromised.According to data from NHS England, on average 1,160 patients a day were in hospital with norovirus last week, a 22% rise compared with the week before.In the same period last year the rate was 509 patients a day.
The Guardian understands the most recent high was two weeks ago, when there was an average of 961 cases a day,The number of patients with Covid is also rising, albeit slightly, while the number of children in hospital with respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) has continued to climb, and flu cases in hospital remain high, despite falling,Health bosses said hospitals were running at near capacity, with more than 95% of adult beds occupied,The situation was a result of demand as well as delays in discharging patients, with almost one in seven beds occupied by patients who are well enough to leave,“It is concerning to see the number of patients with norovirus hit an all-time high and there is no let-up for hospital staff who are working tirelessly to treat more than a thousand patients each day with the horrible bug, on top of other winter viruses,” said Prof Sir Stephen Powis, the national medical director of NHS England.
“To help stop the spread of norovirus, it is important to remember to wash your hands frequently with soap and water and avoid mixing with other people until you have not had symptoms for two days,”Dr Simon Williams, a behavioural scientist and public health researcher at Swansea University, suggested the high levels of norovirus reflected a return to pre-pandemic behaviours,“Research found that although hand washing and hand sanitising increased during 2020 and 2021 during Covid, it’s since decreased, as people have become less worried about infections and viruses generally,” he said,“For example surveys have found that around one in five [people] don’t always wash hands after the loo, and about four in ten don’t wash [hands] before handling or cooking food,” he said,Another problem, said Williams, was presenteeism - people being required or expected to go into work or school even when they had symptoms.
“Most hospital acquired norovirus is spread by people with symptoms – and so the lesson is that if you are sick, try to reduce mixing close contact indoors and especially avoid sharing things like food or drinks, and especially for those more at risk clinically or the elderly,” he said.“Norovirus can be serious for some, but who wants to be sick for a few days if they can avoid it? It’s unpleasant at best.”
UK parents suing TikTok over children’s deaths ‘suspicious’ about data claims
Four British parents who are suing TikTok for the alleged wrongful deaths of their children say they are “suspicious” about the social media platform’s claim to have deleted their children’s data.The parents have filed a lawsuit in the US that claims that their four children died in 2022 as a result of attempting the “blackout challenge”, a viral trend that circulated on social media in 2021.The week after the lawsuit was filed, a TikTok executive said that there were some things “we simply don’t have” because of “legal requirements around when we remove data”. Under UK GDPR rules, platforms are obliged to not keep personal data for longer than necessary.However, the parents were surprised that their children’s data would be deleted so quickly
Samsung Galaxy S25 review: the smallest top-tier Android left
The smallest and cheapest of Samsung’s new Galaxy S25 line might be the one to buy, offering top performance and the very latest AI features for less and proving that smaller-sized Androids can still be great.Unlike previous generations of Samsung’s smaller models sold in the UK and Europe, the regular S25 has the same top-flight chip as the enormous and pricey Ultra model, offering a lot of performance while costing £799 (€919/$800/A$1,399).The rest of the S25 hasn’t changed materially since last year. It still has a great 6.2in screen, three cameras on the back, flat aluminium sides and glass front and back
Mark Zuckerberg’s charity guts DEI after assuring staff it would continue
The for-profit charity organization founded by Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, has done an about-face on its commitment to corporate diversity.Executives at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) informed employees on Tuesday evening that the organization would in effect do away with both internal and external diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts, according to an internal email and other correspondence viewed by the Guardian. On 10 January, leaders at CZI reassured staff that its longstanding support for DEI was not changing. Zuckerberg’s company Meta had announced earlier that day it would terminate its DEI programs, in the days before Donald Trump’s second inauguration.Marc Malandro, CZI’s chief operating officer, wrote in the email to all employees he had been reviewing the organization’s programs “to ensure that they align with our focus as a science philanthropy as well as the current legal and policy landscape”
Apple launches iPhone 16e and ditches home button
Apple has put the final nail in the coffin of the home button after 18 years with the release of the new iPhone 16e.The lowest-cost new iPhone replaces the 2022 iPhone SE, which was the last Apple product standing with the touch ID button, finishing off its drawn-out demise, which started with the iPhone X back in 2017.The iPhone 16e costs £599 (€709/$599/A$999) and offers a modern iPhone experience similar to the regular iPhone 15 and latest iPhone 16 but with a few bells and whistles removed to reach a slightly lower price. It replaces the previously cheapest available £599 iPhone 14 and £429 iPhone SE in Apple’s lineup, and thus marks a considerable price increase for the cheapest new iPhone when it ships on 28 February.The new iPhone has an aluminium frame, glass front and back and an 15
Microsoft unveils chip it says could bring quantum computing within years
Quantum computers could be built within years rather than decades, according to Microsoft, which has unveiled a breakthrough that it said could pave the way for faster development.The tech firm has developed a chip which, it says, echoes the invention of the semiconductors that made today’s smartphones, computers and electronics possible by miniaturisation and increased processing power.The chip is powered by the world’s first topoconductor, which can create a new state of matter that is not a solid, liquid, or gas – making it possible to design quantum systems that fit in a single chip smaller than the palm of a hand, and to create more reliable hardware, a peer-reviewed paper published in Nature reports.Paul Stevenson, a professor of physics at the University of Surrey, said Microsoft could be “very serious competitors” in the race to build the first reliable quantum computers if the company successfully built on this research.“The new papers are a significant step, but as with much promising work in quantum computing, the next steps are difficult and until the next steps have been achieved, it is too soon to be anything more than cautiously optimistic,” he said
EU accused of leaving ‘devastating’ copyright loophole in AI Act
An architect of EU copyright law has said legislation is needed to protect writers, musicians and creatives left exposed by an “irresponsible” legal gap in the bloc’s Artificial Intelligence Act.The intervention came as 15 cultural organisations wrote to the European Commission this week warning that draft rules to implement the AI Act were “taking several steps backwards” on copyright, while one writer spoke of a “devastating” loophole.Axel Voss, a German centre-right member of the European parliament, who played a key role in writing the EU’s 2019 copyright directive, said that law was not conceived to deal with generative AI models: systems that can generate text, images or music with a simple text prompt.Voss said “a legal gap” had opened up after the conclusion of the EU’s AI Act, which meant copyright was not enforceable in this area. “What I do not understand is that we are supporting big tech instead of protecting European creative ideas and content
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