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"Britain is in the grip of a new silent health crisis. For 14 of the past 15 weeks, England and Wales have averaged around 1,000 extra deaths each week, none of which are due to Covid. If the current trajectory continues, the number of non-Covid excess deaths will soon outstrip deaths from the virus this year — and be even more deadly than the omicron wave. So what is going on? Experts believe decisions taken by the Government in the earliest stages of the pandemic may now be coming back to bite. Policies that kept people indoors, scared them away from hospitals and deprived them of treatment and primary care are finally taking their toll."What to make of this?

First possible case of human-to-dog monkeypox transmission 'not surprising,' WHO says
The first possible case of human-to-dog transmission of monkeypox -- recently reported in two men and their pet in Paris -- had been a theoretical risk up till now, said Dr. Rosamund Lewis, technical lead on the monkeypox response for the World Health Organization.
The men, who live together and are in a non-exclusive relationship, were diagnosed with monkeypox at a hospital in Paris in early June. Twelve days after their symptoms started, their 4-year-old Italian greyhound also started showing symptoms, according to a report published last week in the journal The Lancet.
The dog developed lesions and tested positive for the same type of monkeypox as one of the owners.
The lack of public awareness about being infected means that people can't take steps to prevent themselves transmitting the virus further, which is a major stumbling block for addressing new waves of the pandemic.
"More than one in every two people who were infected with Omicron didn't know they had it," said Dr. Susan Cheng, a corresponding author of the study which is published in JAMA Network Open.
Previous studies have estimated that at least 25% and potentially as many as 80% of people infected with the coronavirus may not experience symptoms, the researchers say.
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