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England’s health secretary, Matt Hancock, has told parliament that a new variant of covid-19 has been identified and may be driving infections in the south east, leading to headlines about “mutant covid.” Jacqui Wise answers some common questions

The estimated proportion of the total population infected varies between the countries from less than 1% in Norway, Germany, and Austria to 8% in Belgium (box 1).Box 1 Covid-19 infection rate in 11 European countries Percentage of total population infected (95% credible interval) up to 4 May Austria—0.76% (0.59% to 0.98%) Belgium—8% (6.1% to 11%) Denmark—1.0% (0.81 to 1.4%) France—3.4% (2.7% to 4.3%) Germany—0.85% (0.66% to 1.1%) Italy—4.6% (3.6% to 5.8%) Norway—0.46% (0.34% to 0.61%) Spain—5.5% (4.4% to 7%) Sweden—3.7% (2.8% to 5.1%) Switzerland—1.9% (1.5% to 2.4%) UK—5.1% (4% to 6.5%) Seth Flaxman, a study author from the Department of Mathematics at Imperial College London, told a press briefing: “We are very far from herd immunity. The study points out that most interventions were implemented in rapid succession in many countries and so it is difficult to disentangle the individual effect sizes of each intervention. A second study, also published in Nature, estimated that lockdown policies implemented in China, South Korea, Italy, Iran, France, and the US prevented or delayed around 530 million covid-19 infections.2 The US researchers estimated that without anti-contagion policies in place, early rates of SARS-CoV-2 infection grew by 68% a day in Iran and an average of 38% a day across the other five countries.

Doctors are seeing high rates of blood clots in patients who are seriously ill with covid-19, but questions remain over best practice, reports Jacqui Wise

Speaking at an “emergency summit” and press conference, Deepti Gurdasani, clinical epidemiologist at Queen Mary University of London and a signatory of the letter, described the government’s strategy as “callous and inhumane” and said ministers had “completely abdicated responsibility” for controlling the pandemic. Trish Greenhalgh, professor of primary care health sciences at Oxford University, who also signed the letter, said that “the government policy seems designed to increase cases” and predicted there will be hundreds of superspreading events in the coming weeks. The letter said the government’s strategy will have a significant effect on health services and exhausted healthcare staff.

Rates of suicidal thoughts have increased during lockdown, especially among young adults, a longitudinal study has found.1 Research published in the British Journal of Psychiatry found that women, young adults, socially disadvantaged people, and people with pre-existing mental health problems reported the worst mental health outcomes in the initial six week period of national lockdown. The study—funded by the Samaritans, the Scottish Association for Mental Health, and the Mindstep Foundation—claims to be the most detailed examination to date of the mental health of UK adults in the weeks after they were instructed to stay at home, on 23 March 2020. Adult prescriptions for sleeping tablets fell during the same period. 1 O’Connor R Wetherall K Cleare S. Mental health and wellbeing during the covid-19 pandemic: longitudinal analyses of adults in the UK covid-19 Mental Health & Wellbeing study.

As chief experience officer for a trust, Annie Laverty is unique in the NHS in holding board level responsibility for improving staff and patient experience. She tells Jacqui Wise about using real time patient feedback to improve the quality and safety of care.

The Department of Health and Social Care and the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) continue to back the use of mesh for hernia repair. The Royal College of Surgeons pointed to a 2018 study, which found that both mesh and non-mesh hernia repairs were effective for patients and were not associated with different rates of chronic pain.2 A spokesperson for the college said that “complications range dramatically from minor and correctable irritations to the more serious complications highlighted [on the] programme. 29991515 2 Öberg S Andresen K Klausen TW Rosenberg J. Chronic pain after mesh versus nonmesh repair of inguinal hernias: A systematic review and a network meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.

The World Health Organization has declared that covid-19 is no longer a “global health emergency” while emphasising that it remains a global health threat.1 On 30 January 2020 WHO declared a public health emergency of international concern over the global outbreak of covid-192 and since then 7 million deaths have been reported to the organisation. WHO’s emergency committee made the decision after analysing the decreasing trend in covid-19 deaths, the decline in related hospital admissions and intensive care admissions, and the high levels of population immunity to SARS-CoV-2. According to GAVI, which co-leads the Covax initiative for equitable access to covid-19 vaccines, global coverage with a primary series (two doses) of vaccine stands at 64% on average, and at 55% on average in the 92 lowest income countries.

In January The BMJ published a letter from more than 1000 doctors and other healthcare workers urging the government to publish a new tobacco control plan to tackle inequalities in health. 2 3 The new tobacco control plan points out that 7.3 million adults in England still smoke and that more than 200 people a day die from preventable smoking related illnesses. Parveen Kumar, chair of the BMA's Board of Science, said, \"If we're to...