Health Check

A really intriguing finding on flu vaccines - that they might offer some protection not just against flu, but against the most serious effects of Covid-19 – even though it is of course a completely different virus. Claudia Hammond talks to Dr Devinder Singh who led the research using anonymous medical records from countries including Singapore, Germany, Italy and Israel, which medical researchers can use. Summer viruses And why are some countries in the middle of the summertime, seeing a surge of infections with viruses usually found in winter? In the northern hemisphere there are fears that we’ll see a surge of cases of flu next winter – a twindemic. Why is that? And is this something that will follow the seasons around the world? We hear from Lorna and her daughter Willow on Willow’s persistent cough and from Dr Michelle Jacobs who’s a consultant in paediatric and adult emergency medicine at Watford General Hospital in the UK. Downs Syndrome and Covid-19 There’s new research just published in the Brit