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ITV News Science Editor Tom Clarke reports on why the US views the Glasgow conference as so important to climate action
If you ve been watching the news recently, featuring on an almost daily basis, extreme weather events from flooding in Germany to wildfires in Siberia, it s hard to overestimate the significance of today s speech by U.S. Special Presidential Climate Envoy for Climate John Kerry. I m very sorry to say the suffering of Covid will be magnified many times over in a world that does not grapple with and ultimately halt the climate crisis, he told an audience sweltering in the heat of the hottest day of the year so far in the UK.
On Tuesday morning ITV News went down to the River Chess in Buckinghamshire where Thames Water was letting untreated effluent (liquid waste) flow into the chalk stream.
Water companies have licenses to put sewage into rivers when treatment works reach capacity the only other option is to let sewage back up into homes. But the licenses only allow them to do this in emergencies, for example when treatment works are overwhelmed by floods.
It did rain heavily on Monday night, hence the discharge, Thames Water told us. But so far this year, the company has run sewage into the river on 96 separate occasions according to local campaigners.
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ITV News Science Editor Tom Clarke explains how the AstraZeneca announcement is more about the decrease in Covid overall rather than the risk of the vaccine
All under-40s are to be offered an alternative to the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid vaccine in a precautionary move after evidence of an extremely small risk of people suffering from blood clots after having the jab.
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) advised that another vaccine should be offered to under-40s without underlying health conditions where an alternative is available, as long as it does not cause any substantial delays to the vaccination programme.
Friday May 7, 2021, 8:02 PM
It has been found that there is an extremely small risk of people suffering from blood clots after having the jab, forcing the change of policy.
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) advised that another vaccine should be offered to under-40s without underlying health conditions where an alternative is available, as long as it does not cause any substantial delays to the vaccination programme.
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Not only do jabs prevent severe Covid, it stops people contracting the virus in the first place, ITV News Science Editor Tom Clarke reports
What s better than a vaccine that stops you getting seriously ill and dying from Covid-19?
Well, one that stops you getting infected in the first place, therefore preventing coronavirus from spreading. And the great news is, that’s precisely what our Covid vaccines seem to be doing.
Based on clinical trials it was impossible to know how effective new Covid vaccines would be at preventing transmission of the virus. But now lots of people have been vaccinated, researchers at the University of Oxford have shown that just one dose of the Pfizer or AstraZeneca vaccine can reduce spread of the virus by 65%. Even higher with two doses of vaccine.