Increased allergic reactions may be tied to the corticotropin-releasing stress hormone (CRH), suggests a study published this month in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences. These findings may help clarify the mechanism by which CRH induces proliferation of mast cells (MC) — agents involved in the development of allergies in the human nasal cavity.
“In my daily practice, I meet many patients with allergies who say their symptoms worsened due to psychological stress,” states lead researcher Mika Yamanaka-Takaichi, a graduate student of the Department of Dermatology, Osaka City University, “This is what led me to do this research.”
Together with Professor Daisuke Tsuruta of the same department, they hypothesized that due to its role in inducing MC degranulation in human skin, “CRH may also be involved in stress-aggravated nasal allergies,” says Professor Tsuruta.
When the team added CRH to a nasal polyp organ culture, they saw a significant increase in the number of mast cells, a stimulation both of MC degranulation and proliferation, and an increase of stem cell factor (SCF) expression, a growth factor of mast cells, in human nasal mucosa- the skin of the nasal cavity. In exploring possible therapeutic angles, “we saw the effect of CRH on mast cells blocked by CRHR1 gene knockdown, CRHR1 inhibitors, or an addition of SCF neutralizing antibodies,” states Dr. Yamanaka-Takaichi.
In vivo, the team found an increase in the number of mast cells and degranulation in the nasal mucosa of mouse models of restraint stress, which was inhibited by the administration of CRHR1 inhibitor, antalarmin.
“In addition to understanding the effects stress has on our allergies, we have also found promising therapeutic potential in candidates like antalarmin,” adds Dr. Yamanaka-Takaichi, “And this is wonderful news for my patients.”
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Materials provided by Osaka City University. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Food scientists from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) have made an antibacterial gel bandage using the discarded husks of the popular tropical fruit, durian.
Known as the “King of Fruits” in Southeast Asia, the durian has a thick husk with spiky thorns which is discarded, while the sweet flesh surrounding the seeds on the inside is considered a delicacy.
By extracting high-quality cellulose from the durian husks and combining it with glycerol — a waste by-product from the biodiesel and soap industry — NTU scientists created a soft gel, similar to silicon sheets, which can be cut into bandages of various shapes and sizes.
They then added the organic molecules produced from baker’s yeast known as natural yeast phenolics, making the bandage deadly to bacteria.
Developed by Professor William Chen, the Director of NTU’s Food Science and Technology Programme, the innovation was published recently in ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Chemistry Society.
Conventional hydrogel patches are commonly available at pharmacies, usually used to cover wounds from surgery to minimise the formation of excessive scar tissue, resulting in a softer and flatter scar. The patch keeps the skin hydrated instead of drying up when conventional band-aid or gauze bandages are used.

An international team of scientists has found evidence that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, infects cells in the mouth. While it’s well known that the upper airways and lungs are primary sites of SARS-CoV-2 infection, there are clues the virus can infect cells in other parts of the body, such as the digestive system, blood vessels, kidneys and, as this new study shows, the mouth. The potential of the virus to infect multiple areas of the body might help explain the wide-ranging symptoms experienced by COVID-19 patients, including oral symptoms such as taste loss, dry mouth and blistering. Moreover, the findings point to the possibility that the mouth plays a role in transmitting SARS-CoV-2 to the lungs or digestive system via saliva laden with virus from infected oral cells. A better understanding of the mouth’s involvement could inform strategies to reduce viral transmission within and outside the body. The team was led by researchers at the National Institutes of Health and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
“Due to NIH’s all-hands-on-deck response to the pandemic, researchers at the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research were able to quickly pivot and apply their expertise in oral biology and medicine to answering key questions about COVID-19,” said NIDCR Director Rena D’Souza, D.D.S., M.S., Ph.D. “The power of this approach is exemplified by the efforts of this scientific team, who identified a likely role for the mouth in SARS-CoV-2 infection and transmission, a finding that adds to knowledge critical for combatting this disease.”
The study, published online March, 25, 2021 in Nature Medicine, was led by Blake M. Warner, D.D.S., Ph.D., M.P.H., assistant clinical investigator and chief of NIDCR’s Salivary Disorders Unit, and Kevin M. Byrd, D.D.S., Ph.D., at the time an assistant professor in the Adams School of Dentistry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Byrd is now an Anthony R. Volpe Research Scholar at the American Dental Association Science and Research Institute. Ni Huang, Ph.D., of the Wellcome Sanger Institute in Cambridge, U.K., and Paola Perez, Ph.D., of NIDCR, were co-first authors.
Researchers already know that the saliva of people with COVID-19 can contain high levels of SARS-CoV-2, and studies suggest that saliva testing is nearly as reliable as deep nasal swabbing for diagnosing COVID-19. What scientists don’t entirely know, however, is where SARS-CoV-2 in the saliva comes from. In people with COVID-19 who have respiratory symptoms, virus in saliva possibly comes in part from nasal drainage or sputum coughed up from the lungs. But according to Warner, that may not explain how the virus gets into the saliva of people who lack those respiratory symptoms.
“Based on data from our laboratories, we suspected at least some of the virus in saliva could be coming from infected tissues in the mouth itself,” Warner said.
To explore this possibility, the researchers surveyed oral tissues from healthy people to identify mouth regions susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infection. Vulnerable cells contain RNA instructions for making “entry proteins” that the virus needs to get into cells. RNA for two key entry proteins — known as the ACE2 receptor and the TMPRSS2 enzyme — was found in certain cells of the salivary glands and tissues lining the oral cavity. In a small portion of salivary gland and gingival (gum) cells, RNA for both ACE2 and TMPRSS2 was expressed in the same cells. This indicated increased vulnerability because the virus is thought to need both entry proteins to gain access to cells.

Dining out is a popular activity worldwide, but there has been little research into its association with health outcomes. Investigators looked at the association between eating out and risk of death and concluded that eating out very frequently is significantly associated with an increased risk of all-cause death, which warrants further investigation. Their results appear in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, published by Elsevier.
Eating out is a popular activity. The US Department of Agriculture recently estimated that Americans’ daily energy intake from food away from home increased from 17 percent in 1977-1978 to 34 percent in 2011-2012. At the same time, the number of restaurants has grown steadily, and restaurant-industry sales are forecasted to increase significantly.
Although some restaurants provide high-quality foods, the dietary quality for meals away from home, especially from fast-food chains, is usually lower compared with meals cooked at home. Evidence has shown that meals away from home tend to be higher in energy density, fat, and sodium, but lower in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and protective nutrients such as dietary fiber and antioxidants.
“Emerging, although still limited, evidence suggests that eating out frequently is associated with increased risk of chronic diseases, such as obesity and diabetes and biomarkers of other chronic diseases,” explained lead investigator Wei Bao, MD, PhD, assistant professor, Department of Epidemiology, College of Public Health, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA. “However, little is known about the association between eating meals away from home and risk of mortality.
Investigators analyzed data from responses to questionnaires administered during face-to-face household interviews from 35,084 adults aged 20 years or older who participated in the National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey 1999-2014. Respondents reported their dietary habits including frequency of eating meals prepared away from home. “We linked these records to death records through December 31, 2015, looking especially at all-cause mortality, cardiovascular mortality, and cancer mortality,” noted first author Yang Du, MD, PhD candidate, Department of Epidemiology, College of Public Health, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA.
During 291,475 person-years of follow-up, 2,781 deaths occurred, including 511 deaths from cardiovascular disease and 638 deaths from cancer. After adjustment for age, sex, race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, dietary and lifestyle factors, and body mass index, the hazard ratio of mortality among participants who ate meals prepared away from home very frequently (two meals or more per day) compared with those who seldom ate meals prepared away from home (fewer than one meal per week) was 1.49 (95% CI 1.05 to 2.13) for all-cause mortality, 1.18 (95% CI 0.55 to 2.55) for cardiovascular mortality, and 1.67 (95% CI 0.87 to 3.21) for cancer mortality.
“Our findings from this large nationally representative sample of US adults show that frequent consumption of meals prepared away from home is significantly associated with increased risk of all-cause mortality,” commented Dr. Du.
“This is one of the first studies to quantify the association between eating out and mortality,” concluded Dr. Bao. “Our findings, in line with previous studies, support that eating out frequently is associated with adverse health consequences and may inform future dietary guidelines to recommend reducing consumption of meals prepared away from home.”
“The take-home message is that frequent consumption of meals prepared away from home may not be a healthy habit. Instead, people should be encouraged to consider preparing more meals at home,” concluded the investigators.
Future studies are still needed to look more closely at the association of eating out with death from cardiovascular disease, cancer, dementia, and other chronic diseases.
“It is important to note that the study design for this research examines associations between frequency of eating meals prepared away from home and mortality. While encouraging clients to consider preparing healthy meals at home, registered dietitian nutritionists might also focus on how selections from restaurant menus can be healthy. Tailoring strategies to each client by reviewing menus from restaurants they frequent can help them make healthy food choices,” added co-investigator Linda G. Snetselaar, PhD, RDN, LD, FAND, professor and chair, Preventive Nutrition Education, Department of Epidemiology, College of Public Health, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA, and Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

Anabolic androgenic steroids (AAS), a synthetic version of the male sex hormone testosterone, are sometimes used as a medical treatment for hormone imbalance. But the vast majority of AAS is used to enhance athletic performance or build muscle because when paired with strength training. AAS use increases muscle mass and strength, and its use is known to have many side effects, ranging from acne to heart problems to increased aggression. A new study now suggests that AAS can also have deleterious effects on the brain, causing it to age prematurely.
The report appears in Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging.
“Anabolic steroid use has been associated with a range of medical and psychological side effects,” said lead author, Astrid Bjørnebekk, PhD, Division of Mental Health and Addiction, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway. “However, since anabolic steroids have only been in the public domain for about 35 years, we are still in the early phase of appreciating the full scope of effects after prolonged use. The least studied effects are those that relate to the brain.”
Steroid hormones readily enter the brain, and receptors for sex hormones are found throughout the brain. Because AAS are administered at much higher doses than those naturally found in the body, they could have a harmful impact on the brain, particularly over a long period of use. Previous studies have shown that AAS users performed worse on cognitive tests than non-users.
Dr. Bjørnebekk and colleagues performed magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brains of 130 male weightlifters with a history of prolonged AAS use and of 99 weightlifters who had never used AAS. Using a set of data compiled from nearly 2,000 healthy males from age 18 to 92 years of age. The researchers used machine learning to determine the predicted brain age of each of their participants and then determined the brain age gap: the difference between each participant’s chronological age and their predicted brain age. Advanced brain age is associated with impaired cognitive performance and increased risk for neurodegenerative diseases.
Not surprisingly, AAS users had a bigger brain age gap compared to non-users. Those with dependence on AAS, or with a longer history of use, showed accelerated brain aging. The researchers accounted for use of other substances and for depression in the men, which did not explain the difference between the groups.
“This important study shows in a large sample that use is associated with deviant brain aging, with a potential impact on quality of life in older age. The findings could be directly useful for health care professionals, and may potentially have preventive implications, where brain effects are also included into the risk assessment for young men wondering whether to use anabolic steroids,” added Dr. Bjørnebekk.
Cameron Carter, MD, editor of Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging, said of the study: “The results of this brain imaging study should be of concern for athletes using anabolic steroids for performance enhancement and suggest that the adverse effects on behavior and cognition previously shown to be associated with long-term use are the result of effects on the brain in the form of accelerated brain aging.”
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Materials provided by Elsevier. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

SharecloseShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingimage copyrightGetty ImagesGerman Chancellor Angela Merkel has defended the EU’s decision to procure coronavirus vaccines jointly as the bloc struggles with delays in rollout.EU leaders are to hold virtual talks shortly to discuss ways of boosting vaccine supplies and improving distribution across the 27 nations.Pressure is mounting upon them to deliver after other countries, like the UK, achieved much faster vaccination.The European Commission is seeking added controls on vaccine exports.Such controls could affect supply to the UK, where Prime Minister Boris Johnson has warned against imposing “blockades”.The virtual summit comes as a third wave of coronavirus infections sweeps across much of mainland Europe.EU states have seen some of the deadliest outbreaks of the pandemic, with Italy recording more than 106,000 deaths, France 93,000, Germany 75,000 and Spain 73,000.Yet recent figures show just 12.9 doses of vaccine have been administered per 100 people in the EU compared with 44.7 in the UK and 37.2 in the US.Why is the EU having vaccine problems?Where is the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine made?EU tussle with UK over AstraZeneca jabs escalatesThe European Commission has blamed pharmaceutical companies – primarily AstraZeneca – for not delivering the promised doses to the EU. A site in Belgium produces the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, and another in the Netherlands is expected to increase supplies of the jab in the EU.Brussels has said that of the more than 40 million doses exported from the EU over the past two months, a quarter were sent to the UK.The UK and the EU said on Wednesday they wanted to “create a win-win situation and expand vaccine supply for all”.What did Merkel say?Speaking to German MPs, the German chancellor said that if some members had had vaccine supplies and other had not, it would have shaken the EU’s internal market to its core.But some EU states, led by Austria, are calling for a revision in the distribution method after failing to obtain enough doses earlier this year.”We are in a situation where some member states will have vaccinated their population by the beginning or middle of May while for others, it will take six, eight or ten weeks longer,” Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said last week. “We believe that’s a problem.”Mrs Merkel warned that the impact of the pandemic could go beyond the current year.”We have to assume that the virus, with its mutations, may be occupying us for a long time to come so the question goes far beyond this year,” she said.The EU, she said, relied on what vaccines it could make locally because “British production sites are manufacturing for Britain and the United States is not exporting”.At the same time, more had to be done to ensure the rest of the world was supplied with vaccines, since otherwise new mutations would keep emerging, Mrs Merkel said.EU leaders had planned to meet face to face in Brussels but a third wave of the pandemic is sweeping across much of mainland Europe. So, a summit by video-conference was deemed safer. EU politicians are under increasing public pressure. Many voters blame their governments and Brussels for a vaccine rollout that lags far behind the UK. The European Commission blames pharmaceutical companies – primarily AstraZeneca – for not delivering jabs promised to the EU. But leaders are divided over proposals for new restrictions on vaccine exports out of the bloc to boost domestic supply. Some fear that would disrupt global supply chains needed to manufacture vaccines and damage already strained relations with the UK after Brexit. While there have been suggestions that the proposals being put before EU leaders on Thursday will be focused on the UK and US in particular, EU Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides said that this was not the case. “We’re dealing with a pandemic and this is not seeking to punish any countries,” he said.What is the EU planning?The tougher export controls are most likely to affect vaccine-exporting countries that have higher vaccination rates than the EU, such as the UK and US. The key criteria for the proposed regulations are “reciprocity” and “proportionality”:The EU says there is no reciprocity if a country importing vaccines from the EU restricts exports itself – so it may review exports to this country Member states and the Commission will also consider the state of the pandemic in that country, its vaccination rate and vaccine supplies There will be no outright export bans, which are opposed by countries such as the Netherlands and Belgium. Vaccine manufacturers would be assessed to see if they were fulfilling their contract with the EU, although no specific algorithm is planned.In an interview with the BBC, the EU’s Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton insisted the bloc’s issues were with AstraZeneca and not the UK government. “I know that there’s some tension… but as long as we have transparency, I think [relations] will be able to be normalised,” he said.But he said that if AstraZeneca had provided the agreed 120 million doses to the EU, member states would have been at the same rate of vaccination as the UK: “We have been heavily penalised and we just want to understand why.”AstraZeneca denies that it is failing to honour its contract with the EU.

Behind the Byline • APOORVA MANDAVILLIMaking the Science of Covid ClearerBehind some of The Times’s vital journalism on the coronavirus is a reporter who speaks seven languages, holds a master’s degree in biochemistry and, OK, has a weakness for “Bridgerton.”March 25, 2021Times Insider explains who we are and what we do, and delivers behind-the-scenes insights into how our journalism comes together.As a science reporter for The New York Times, Apoorva Mandavilli knows the world of research, labs and technical papers. It’s helpful that she’s trained in science, with a master’s degree in biochemistry. She brings that knowledge to her current beat: Covid-19, including the immune response to the coronavirus and the variants that have emerged.Here, she talks about when she realized she didn’t want to be a research scientist, what it’s like to send her own kids back to school and her favorite lowbrow television.How did you start working as a science reporter?I went to graduate school for biochemistry at the University of Wisconsin, at Madison. I was there for four years, and I would have gotten a Ph.D. if I’d stayed one more year. But I realized that being a lab scientist was just a little too slow, a little too specific and a little too antisocial for me. I went to journalism school at N.Y.U.’s science journalism program, and I’ve been a reporter ever since. My mom is a writer. She’s a poet and a short-story writer, and I’ve been around literature my whole life. So my job has married two very different parts of my brain — science and writing.How do you think your science training influences your work?It’s very helpful in a lot of ways. I’m not writing about biochemistry, so the exact subject matter doesn’t help, but I understand the basics of biology. Much of my career, I’ve actually written for scientists, who can be exacting readers. They want things to be clear, but they never want things dumbed down. That has pushed me to always be accurate.I also think it is helpful to understand the business of science, like how universities operate and how the tenure system works and why scientists are so desperate to publish. All those things help anchor my understanding of where researchers are coming from and what sort of critical lens to have when looking at a paper.Where do your story ideas come from?Every day, I look at all of the research papers and preprints — studies that are released before undergoing the standard peer review process — that have to do with Covid. I scan the long list. Often, I see trends, something that’s emerging that more people are talking about, either on social media or because these papers are coming out.Sometimes, an idea can come from a sentence in somebody else’s article. Sometimes, it can come from reading anything that stirs a question in my mind. For example, my article about whether you still need to wear a mask after you’re vaccinated came about because I wondered that in early December, a few weeks before it became the national obsession.What is the biggest challenge in doing the job?I never have enough time. I have worked mostly as an editor, assigning stories to reporters, so I find it easy to spot stories that I want to write. I’m trying to write as many of them as I can.You previously worked on a website that focused on the autism spectrum. How did that inform your work?That was a site that was intended for scientists, but it was read by a lot of nonscientists as well. I think that’s one of the places where I learned to hone this fine balance of being technically accurate and being clear and simple at the same time. Also, I learned the skill of identifying stories and seeing trends. Autism is a pretty small niche, and we had to be able to spot small and interesting things and be able to develop them into full stories. So I’ve had a lot of practice doing that.You frequently write about the science around the decision to send kids back to school. How are you navigating that in your own life?I have two kids. My son is in middle school, and my daughter is 8. My kids are in school two days a week. Now they do this hybrid schedule, but I know how much they miss being in school full time. I know how much they miss the company of their friends, and I worry for their physical safety, and I worry for their mental health. I understand the parents all over the world who are desperate to have their kids in school.How do you disconnect when your beat is Covid?When I get away from the computer, my kids are right there, demanding my attention, wanting to be read to, fighting, yelling, being annoying and loving. They take up a lot of time. I also watch TV. I am extremely forgiving of my lowbrow tastes. I used to read a lot, and I have not been reading novels at all, which is kind of sad, but I just don’t have the attention span right now. I do a lot of crosswords, and I’m addicted to The Times’s Spelling Bee game.What is your favorite lowbrow television?Well, I really enjoyed “Bridgerton.” There was a period of time last spring when I even watched “The O.C.” for a couple of months.What would readers be surprised to learn about you?Maybe that I speak multiple languages — I’m fluent in four Indian languages, plus English, and can speak conversational French and Japanese. I grew up in India until I was 17, so English is not my first language.If you were to choose another job, not in journalism, what would it be?Somebody asked this question on Twitter, and I said I would still be a journalist. I can’t imagine not being one, because I have so many questions about how things work. I can’t imagine being able to ask those questions, and holding governments and institutions accountable, in any other role.What keeps you coming back to the job?I’ve never stopped learning. I’ve learned so much this year. Covering Covid, I’ve had to learn viral evolution and deep immunology and epidemiology. It’s just endlessly interesting.The Times has reported on the challenges faced by working moms during the pandemic. How have you managed child care when you’re reporting as much as you are?I have an extremely supportive husband. He is a squash pro, so he’s not working at the moment. He has taken over the caregiver roles quite a bit in our house. There are some things, of course, for which the kids still want me, but he does a lot. He takes care of all of the food, for example, which is a huge help.

SharecloseShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingimage copyrightEPAEU leaders are to hold virtual talks to discuss ways of boosting Covid vaccine supplies and improving the rollout of doses across the 27-nation bloc.The European Commission will on Thursday ask leaders to support plans for added controls on vaccine exports, which could affect supply to the UK.UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson earlier warned against imposing “blockades”.The virtual summit comes as a third wave of coronavirus infections sweeps across much of mainland Europe.US President Joe Biden will also dial in to the talks later on Thursday to discuss EU-US relations.Why is the EU having vaccine problems?Where is the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine made?EU tussle with UK over AstraZeneca jabs escalatesThe European Union’s vaccine rollout campaign has been slower than that of the UK. The European Commission has blamed pharmaceutical companies – primarily AstraZeneca – for not delivering the promised doses to the EU. However, leaders are divided over proposals for new restrictions on vaccine exports out of the bloc, which would aim to boost supplies within the EU. A site in Belgium produces the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, and another in the Netherlands is expected to increase supplies of the jab in the EU.Brussels has said that of the more than 40 million doses exported from the EU over the past two months, a quarter were sent to the UK.In a joint statement on Wednesday, the UK and the EU said they wanted to “create a win-win situation and expand vaccine supply for all”.”We are all facing the same pandemic and the third wave makes co-operation between the EU and UK even more important,” the statement added.The tone of Wednesday’s EU-UK statement was positive, but actual progress between the two sides was described to me by an EU diplomat as “slow, cumbersome and difficult”. On both sides. That doesn’t mean impossible, but at their summit on Thursday, some EU leaders – along with the European Commission – will still be pushing for tougher controls on vaccine exports. And they could hit the UK. EU insiders say they had hoped never to use the controls. They say they want them as a means of exerting pressure on vaccine companies and on countries with vaccine production sites that are not exporting to the EU. Meanwhile, leaders are coming under increasing pressure to show voters they are taking action to ramp up both the supply of jabs and their vaccine rollout, on both of which they are trailing behind the UK.While there have been suggestions that the proposals being put before EU leaders on Thursday would be focused on the UK and US in particular, EU Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides said that this was not the case. “We’re dealing with a pandemic and this is not seeking to punish any countries,” he said.Asked whether the UK might retaliate, Mr Johnson told MPs he did not believe “that blockades of either vaccines or of medicines, of ingredients for vaccines” would be “sensible”. Companies might draw conclusions about future investments “in countries where arbitrary blockades are imposed”, he added.What is the EU planning?The tougher export controls are most likely to affect vaccine-exporting countries that have higher vaccination rates than the EU, such as the UK and US. The key criteria for the proposed regulations are “reciprocity” and “proportionality”:The EU says there is no reciprocity if a country importing vaccines from the EU restricts exports itself – so it may review exports to this country Member states and the Commission will also consider the state of the pandemic in that country, its vaccination rate and vaccine supplies There will be no outright export bans, which are opposed by countries such as the Netherlands and Belgium. Vaccine manufacturers would be assessed to see if they were fulfilling their contract with the EU, although no specific algorithm is planned.Is the UK being targeted?In an interview with the BBC, the EU’s Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton insisted the bloc’s issues were with AstraZeneca and not the UK government. “I know that there’s some tension… but as long as we have transparency, I think [relations] will be able to be normalised,” he said.He said if AstraZeneca had provided the agreed 120 million doses to the EU, member states would have been at the same rate of vaccination as the UK: “We have been heavily penalised and we just want to understand why”. AstraZeneca denies that it is failing to honour its contract with the EU.A UK government spokesperson said: “We are all fighting the same pandemic. Vaccines are an international operation; they are produced by collaboration by great scientists around the world. And we will continue to work with our European partners to deliver the vaccine rollout.”Last week, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen complained that the EU had exported more than 10 million doses to the UK, but the UK had so far exported none in return.Her colleagues added that this had to be seen in the context of the EU being both a global Covid hotspot and also the biggest exporter of vaccines. Since the end of January, EU countries have exported 43 million doses of vaccine to 33 countries not subject to export authorisation, they say.UK sources insist vital components are being sent to the continent, for example for the Pfizer vaccine, and they have emphasised the UK’s role in investing early in vaccine development, BBC correspondent Nick Beake reports.

The measure, believed to be among the first in the world, would apply to couples who lose a pregnancy at any point.AUCKLAND, New Zealand — New Zealand’s Parliament on Wednesday unanimously approved legislation that would give couples who suffer a miscarriage or stillbirth three days’ paid leave, putting the country in the vanguard of those providing such benefits.Ginny Andersen, the Labour member of Parliament who drafted the bill, said she had not been able to find comparable legislation anywhere in the world. “We may well be the first country,” she said, adding, “But all the countries that New Zealand is usually compared to legislate for the 20-week mark.”Employers in New Zealand, as in some other countries, had already been required to provide paid leave in the event of a stillbirth, when a fetus is lost after a gestation of 20 weeks or more. The new legislation will expand that leave to anyone who loses a pregnancy at any point, removing any ambiguity. The measure is expected to become law in the coming weeks.“I felt that it would give women the confidence to be able to request that leave if it was required, as opposed to just being stoic and getting on with life, when they knew that they needed time, physically or psychologically, to get over the grief,” Ms. Andersen said.The new law does not apply to those who terminate pregnancies, Ms. Andersen added. New Zealand decriminalized abortion last year, ending the country’s status as one of the few wealthy nations to limit the grounds for ending a pregnancy in the first half.In Australia, people who miscarry are entitled to unpaid leave if they lose a fetus after 12 weeks, while in Britain, would-be parents who experience a stillbirth after 24 weeks are eligible for paid leave. The United States does not require employers to provide leave for anyone who suffers a miscarriage.Up to 20 percent of all known pregnancies in the United States end in miscarriage, according to the Mayo Clinic. In New Zealand, whose population is five million, the Ministry of Health estimates that one to two pregnancies in 10 will end in miscarriage. The charity Sands New Zealand, which supports parents who have lost a pregnancy, says 5,900 to 11,800 miscarriages or stillbirths occur each year. More than 95 percent of the miscarriages occur in the first 12 to 14 weeks of pregnancy, according to data from the New Zealand College of Midwives.A miscarriage or stillbirth remains a fraught and painful topic, one that is difficult to talk about publicly or seek support for, health advocates say.“If you ring the hospital saying, ‘I think I’m miscarrying my baby,’ so many women will say, ‘I felt like I was the first person in the world to be miscarrying,’” said Vicki Culling, an educator about baby loss who has pushed for better support for bereaved parents in New Zealand.“The foundations of your world just crumble, because you expect to have this beautiful baby, and when that baby dies, whether it’s in utero or soon after birth, everything is shattered.”Ms. Culling applauded the New Zealand legislation as a first step but said there was more to be done.“You get three days’ paid leave, maybe you bury your baby or you have a service, and then you go back to work, and you carry on — and then what? That’s my concern,” she said.“I’m celebrating it, but I want to see us keeping this compassion going, and looking further into the needs of these parents.”

Coronavirus vaccines help protect people from getting seriously ill if they come into contact with the disease. But how do they work? And will a vaccine make you feel unwell? The BBC’s CrowdScience presenter Marnie Chesterton explains why a Covid vaccine can’t give you the virus, and why it’s normal to experience some mild side effects, such as a headache or a raised temperature. Voice: Marnie ChestertonVideo journalist: Jennifer GreenGraphics: We Are Covert With thanks to virologist Prof Jonathan Ball, University of Nottingham