COVID-19 Triples Across Europe and Hospitalizations Double, WHO Says

Globally, cases have increased for the past five weeks, even as countries have scaled back on testing.
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Why You’ll Need to Get COVID-19 Boosters Again and Again

Several highly effective vaccines were developed at an unprecedented speed to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. During the phase 3 clinical trials, mRNA vaccines had vaccine efficacy of 94–95% in preventing symptomatic infections. After the rollout, real-world evidence showed that the mRNA vaccines provided ~90% effectiveness against infection. Then came the variants. The wave after wave…
http://dlvr.it/SV7vYr

Charging my electric car is a pain as I can’t use BP Pulse credit

At the public charging point my balance is always shown as zero and when it should be £175

I have a Polestar 2 electric car. Shortly after its launch, because of a number of software glitches, the company gave owners a £450 credit for use on BP Pulse public chargers.

BP operates a membership scheme where you pay a monthly fee and obtain a lower charging cost. Alternatively, non-members can use chargers on a pay-as-you-go (PAYG) basis, at a higher cost. The Polestar offer also gave 12 months’ free membership. Continue reading…
http://dlvr.it/SV7QFl

How COVID-19 Vaccines May Affect Periods

When COVID-19 vaccinations first began, many people reported heavier periods
http://dlvr.it/SV6SbH

Dr. Anthony Fauci Expected to Retire By the End of Biden’s Current Term

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease expert, said he plans to retire by the end of Biden’s term in January 2025.
http://dlvr.it/SV67Lj

Why It’s So Hard to Get a Monkeypox Vaccine Right Now

When New York City’s department of health announced on July 12 that monkeypox vaccine appointments were available in several sites around the city, demand was so high that the scheduling website crashed. Every appointment was booked within hours, leaving many people unable to get shots. Vaccine rollout wasn’t supposed to go like this. When monkeypox…
http://dlvr.it/SV67Gt

EDF ‘technical issue’ will cost our church £1,800 in energy costs

We are a church and charity and suffered during lockdown, using up all our reserves

I am changing our church’s energy suppliers but am having a nightmare with EDF as it keeps blocking the transfer of one of the meters, resulting in our cheap electricity deal being cancelled.

Although we’re a church and a charity, we have business accounts for utilities. Our billing is complicated by five meters (two electric and a gas one in the church, plus another gas and electric set in the church hall). Continue reading…
http://dlvr.it/SV4Gmw

‘I’m lovingly angry’: Marianne Levy on why mothers are expected to suffer in silence

A new memoir brings humour to the everyday pain of pregnancy and motherhood

I meet Marianne Levy in a laidback café near her north London home, doorways wide enough to accommodate the bulkiest of buggies, highchairs stacked in a corner, our conversation punctuated by the odd high-pitched shriek or crying jag (not ours). It’s the kind of place, Levy says, mothers on maternity leave tend to meet, “Where normal people don’t want to sit, because it’s got a screaming baby.” This place is a regular haunt for her and her children: an eight-year-old daughter and a son, nearly four. “It’s big and wide and the staff don’t actively hate children, they’re kind to them.”

There’s something a bit pointed about meeting in such a mother-and-child-friendly space to talk about Levy’s memoir, Don’t Forget To Scream, when the book is a heartfelt attempt to break the discourse about motherhood out of this silo, and bring it to a wider and more diverse audience. It’s an unvarnished look at the grimy, lonely, frightening, alienating side of pregnancy and motherhood, spanning birth phobia and physical trauma, the erosion of Levy’s sense of self and self-worth in the early months and years, and the structural, social, economic bind in which so many mothers find themselves. Twenty years since my eldest child was born, it stirred up emotions I had buried, conjuring stultifying, lonely afternoons of quiet pram-pushing despair. Continue reading…
http://dlvr.it/SV2crl

My ex-wife had an affair. How can I cope with my anger?

Anger gets a bad press, says Philippa Perry, but it’s OK to give vent

The question My six-year marriage came to an end after my ex-wife started an affair. At couples counselling I learned that when our eldest started school, my wife began getting attention from a few of the school dads. This excited her, but also made her aware that she couldn’t reciprocate because she was in a monogamous relationship. She began to resent me and our marriage – it wasn’t so much that she wanted another relationship, more that she wanted to experience the heady rush of a new relationship. She became infatuated with one particular dad and they began an affair. We had both couples and individual counselling. My ex soon felt “judged” and stopped attending. When I became upset about our marriage falling apart, she said she sympathised, but then told me I was just using “emotional blackmail”.

We’ve kept things civil for the sake of the kids. I don’t want to be a bitter ex. But I have a lot of unresolved anger – her behaviour and actions caused so much trauma, not just to me, but to her now-partner’s ex, her parents, our kids and friends. But I suppress it and even feel guilty about feeling it. My counsellor has challenged me on this, and has even said: “All we hear is how you’re understanding, but why aren’t you angry?” My ex says she must live her truth and be true to her feelings, that she tried her hardest and she’s only human. Continue reading…
http://dlvr.it/SV1mGC

There’s a New Number to Call for Mental-Health Crises: 988

The 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline will dramatically expand the capacity of call centers to answer calls.
http://dlvr.it/SV0WnK