US secretary of state said the World Health Organization was responsible for Britons who had died from Covid-19The US secretary of state Mike Pompeo launched an extraordinary attack on the World Health Organization during a private meeting in the UK, accusing it of being in the pocket of China and responsible for “dead Britons” who passed away during the pandemic.Pompeo told those present that...

Senior scientists say it is ‘critical’ Britain improves capacity to spot and contain outbreaks before winterCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageBritain must ramp up its capacity to spot and contain coronavirus outbreaks if it is to avoid a potentially devastating second wave of infections this winter, senior scientists have warned.The next two months are...

Head of the government’s vaccines taskforce reveals strategy aimed at ‘exploring the landscape’ and hedging betsCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageThe UK government aims to secure stocks not of one vaccine or even two – but up to 12 that are being developed around the world, hedging its bets to ensure it has something that works as early as possible to try to end...

MPs hear ministers were told in April that systematic testing was essential to keep staff safeCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageAll health and care staff should be routinely tested for Covid-19 once or twice a week, according to one of the UK’s most eminent scientists, Sir Paul Nurse, whose team’s research has shown that 45% were infected with coronavirus at the...

Team based in China develop test that identifies cancers up to four years before signs appearA blood test can pick up cancers up to four years before symptoms appear, researchers say, in the latest study to raise hopes of early detection.A team led by researchers in China say the non-invasive blood test – called PanSeer – detects cancer in 95% of individuals who have no symptoms but later...

More than 140 teams of researchers are racing to develop a safe and effective coronavirus vaccineResearchers around the world are racing to develop a vaccine against Covid-19, with more than 140 candidate vaccines now tracked by the World Health Organization (WHO). Continue...

It’s too early to say if the promising therapy can deliver. But it’s a vindication of the UK’s brilliant clinical trial infrastructureCharlotte Summers is a lecturer in intensive care medicine at the University of CambridgeCoronavirus – latest updatesAccording to the current UK government data, there have been nearly 300,000 confirmed cases of Covid-19, and more than 45,000 people have...

US president to restart daily briefings; Melbourne records 374 cases; WHO warns South Africa’s crisis could be precursor for more outbreaks in AfricaCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageDonald Trump has announced his daily US coronavirus briefings will resume and that wearing face masks were “patriotic” as European leaders agreed a huge coronavirus rescue plan and...

It may be a respiratory virus, but studies have repeatedly found traces of Covid-19 in the faeces of infected patients. Using this to their advantage, scientists are sampling untreated sewage from wastewater plants in an effort to track the virus. Hannah Devlin speaks to Andrew Singer about how what we flush down the toilet can help detect emerging outbreaks – days before patients begin...

Reefs from Gulf of Aqaba in the Red Sea survived rise of seven degrees, say marine scientistsThe scientists cranked the heat above the lethal threshold, and waited for the corals to die.“We were heating the water one degree above the summer maximum temperature,” says Anders Meibom, a researcher with the Institute of Earth Sciences at the University of Lausanne. “On the Great Barrier Reef,...