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** 28 September 2020
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** UK
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** UK to become WHO’s largest state donor with 30% funding increase (#1)
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** North West: Keep it Out campaign leads to a 45% rise in illegal cigarettes being seized in Bolton (#2)
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** International
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** COVID-19 has offered us an unexpected opportunity to help more people quit smoking (#4)
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** UK
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**
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** Boris Johnson will announce a 30% increase in the UK’s funding of the World Health Organization (WHO), making the UK the single largest national donor after the United States (US) leaves. In an announcement at the UN General Assembly, he will urge it to heal “the ugly rifts” that are damaging the international fight against coronavirus.
While Trump has denounced the WHO as corrupt and under China’s influence, Johnson will announce £340m in UK funding over the next four years, a 30% increase. He will also suggest the body be given more extraordinary powers to demand reports on how countries are handling a pandemic.
The proposals will form part of a British vision, drawn up in conjunction with the Gates Foundation, of how future health pandemics could be better controlled, including “zoonotic labs” capable of identifying potentially dangerous pathogens in animals before they transmit to humans.
Apart from funding increases designed to help multilateral bodies and ensure equitable distribution of a coronavirus vaccine, once it is discovered, Johnson will also call for new pandemic early-warning systems. He will also call for new global protocols for health crises and the removal of trade barriers.
Source: The Guardian, 25 September 2020
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** The keep it Out campaign has led to a 45% increase in the number of illegal cigarettes being seized in Bolton in the space of a year. Also, in the last four weeks after a marketing push on the Greater Manchester-wide Keep it Out campaign, 22 reports of illegal tobacco being sold in the borough was made. A total of 90% of the reports referred to sales from small shops with the remainder from people’s homes.
Councillor Hilary Fairclough, executive cabinet member for environment regulatory services at the council, said: “It’s deeply concerning to hear that illegal tobacco continues to be sold in our communities in Bolton, and we are grateful to the Keep it Out campaign for the work they are doing to highlight this problem. Illegal tobacco… is unregulated, its packaging comes with no health warnings, and it can much more easily find its way into the hands of children. Whether it is traders selling these products in shops, or people selling them privately from their homes or on the streets, this is breaking the law. The council, through our Trading Standards teams, will not hesitate to prosecute those responsible. Please stop and think before you buy these illegal products – you are putting yourself at risk, and the only people who will profit are criminals, including gangs with links to human trafficking, loan sharks and drugs. It’s just not worth it, and only those who trade in human misery will
gain from it.”
Source: Bolton News, 28 September 2020
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** International
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**
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** Writing in the Conversation, Simone Pettigrew, Professorial fellow of George Institute for Global Health discusses how COVID-19 has become an excellent time to encourage and help more smokers to quit.
Simone points out that in a new survey carried out in the UK and Australia, smokers were more likely to quit during COVID-19. Health implications, the threat from the COVID-19 were some of the reasons many people want to stop smoking, which makes it an ideal time to ensure people who want to stop in the face of COVID-19 are supported.
She highlights that findings from the survey also reveal that smokers are interested in forms of quitting assistance that can be delivered remotely. Simone points out why smokers need to receive both behavioural support and pharmacotherapy during the COVID-19 pandemic as it would increase smoking cessation uptake and reduce smoking rates.
Simone states that the use of mass media during COVID-19 is a crucial tool for health agencies and government to provide information, resources in helping people to quit smoking and improve their health. She points out the importance of the messages to be accompanied by specific offers of help to quit in the form of nicotine replacement therapy and counselling.
She concluded by saying, “COVID-19 represents a unique opportunity for governments and health agencies to help smokers quit and stay off smoking for good.”
Source: The Conversation, 24 September 2020
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** See also: Today is the day ([link removed])
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