2) Evidence shows vaccines are sufficiently effective in reducing hospitalisations and deaths in those vaccinated
The number of people being taken to hospital with Covid has collapsed, while deaths have also plummeted since the vaccine rollout began. As of May 4, there were 10 Covid patients in Norfolk’s hospitals. That compares to 758 patients during the peak in January.
At the start of the rollout it was unclear whether the lockdown or the vaccine was behind the fall in Covid patients. However, numerous studies since then have shown that all vaccines are highly effective at reducing hospital admissions.
The last Covid death, meanwhile, was reported at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King’s Lynn on Thursday May 6. The James Paget University Hospital has not reported a death since April 7 and the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital’s most recent Covid death was April 21.
Understanding how the brain controls certain actions – such picking up a knife in the correct way – is important for many reasons. One of these is working towards the development of brain-computer interfaces that may help people with artificial limbs control them, using their minds.
Yet how the human brain controls our hands to correctly grasp 3D objects, such as tools, is not well understood. In a recent study, my colleagues and I wanted to find out whether we could use signals from specific parts of the brain to distinguish whether people were handling tools correctly – for example grasping a knife by the handle rather than the blade.
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IMAGE: The team used an MRI scanner to collect brain imaging data while participants interacted with 3D objects. They used this data to study which parts of the brain are used. view more
Credit: University of East Anglia
Researchers at the University of East Anglia have made an astonishing discovery about how our brains control our hands.
They used MRI data to study which parts of the brain are used when we handle tools, such as a knives.
They read out the signal from certain brain regions and tried to distinguish when participants handled tools appropriately for use.
Humans have used tools for millions of years, but this research is the first to show that actions such grasping a knife by its handle for cutting are represented by brain areas that also represent images of human hands, our primary tool for interacting with the world.
The sisters are big fans of country music and, prior to the surgery and the pandemic, could be found in the dance halls and social clubs of Norwich, Great Yarmouth and beyond, sometimes multiple times a week.
“She can’t go out and have a good time now and she can’t dance. She was so agile, it was unbelievable,” Grace said.
Mrs Parfitt said the operation was painful but the long stay in hospital and subsequent complications were worse.
“It was awful,” she said, “I missed my great grandchild being born.
“It was horrendous, especially in Cambridge when I couldn’t see anyone all the week, it was just weekends that people could get over to visit.
New Green county councillor Jamie Osborn.
- Credit: Jamie Osborn
Stopping the controversial Norwich Western Link will be their priority at County Hall, say newly-elected Green county councillors.
Jamie Osborn took Mancroft, Ben Price won in Thorpe Hamlet and Paul Neale triumphed in Nelson.
And Mr Osborn said their number one priority was to put pressure on the council to scrap the mooted £153m Western Link road.
Artist s impression of a viaduct which could carry the Western Link over the River Wensum. Photo: Norfolk County Council
- Credit: Norfolk County Council
in 2016, that road was made one of the Conservative-controlled council s priorities and the council s cabinet agreed a preferred route from the A1067 travelling between Weston Longville and Ringland.