From children behind on milestones to less active older people, broader effects are being felt four years after the initial outbreak

In March 2020, the pandemic closed in like a fog, ushering in a strange new vocabulary, alarming statistics and the fear of illness and death. In the days before the first national lockdown was ordered, the government’s chief scientific adviser suggested that a “good outcome” would be keeping UK deaths below 20,000, a number that sounded improbably awful at the time, but which has been dwarfed by the 233,791 deaths recorded as of December 2023.

The direct effects of the Covid-19 virus have been profound and continue to be felt, including by those with long Covid. But four years on, the UK is also reeling from the broader health impacts of the pandemic. Babies and children appear to have suffered developmental setbacks due to lengthy periods of isolation. Access to healthcare continues to be affected. Older people, who needed protecting most from Covid, were also uniquely vulnerable to the effects of physical inactivity. For some individuals, the pandemic prompted a rethink of priorities and provided new opportunities that paved the way for a healthier life.

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People with excessive flexibility 30% more likely to say they had not fully recovered from Covid, research finds

People with excessively flexible joints may be at heightened risk of long Covid and persistent fatigue , research suggests.

Hypermobility is where some or all of a person’s joints have an unusually large range of movement due to differences in the structure of their connective tissues that support, protect and give structure to organs, joints and other tissues.

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Senior detective warns children are accessing extreme material as a result of lockdowns, after a 20-year-old was jailed on Monday

A senior counter-terrorism officer has warned that children and young people are increasingly being radicalised online after spending long periods on the internet during the pandemic.

Det Supt Andy Meeks said a growing number of vulnerable people were accessing extreme material after spending hours unsupervised online.

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Figures show many still ‘out of the habit’ of visiting museums, galleries, cathedrals, castles and country houses

Visitor numbers to the UK’s museums, galleries, cathedrals, zoos, castles and country houses are increasing but remain stubbornly below pre-pandemic levels, with a significant number of people still “out of the habit” of having a day out.

Figures released by the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions (ALVA) on Monday show a mixed picture. On the bright side, there was a 19% increase in visitor numbers in 2023 compared with 2022. The British Museum saw a 42% rise, making it the most visited attraction in the UK.

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Human development report finds the pandemic, conflict, globalisation and populism have combined to disproportionately affect lower-income countries

The gulf between rich and poor countries continues to grow, according to the UN, furthering the reversal of a 20-year trend where the gap steadily shrank until 2020.

The latest human development report found that although each of the 38 OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries has recovered from the Covid pandemic, only half of the least-developed countries have done so.

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Families say Vaughan Gething’s ‘arrogance is astonishing’ after he reveals loss of WhatsApp messages

• UK politics – latest updates

Bereaved families who lost loved ones to Covid have accused the former Welsh health minister of incompetence and arrogance after he revealed that all his WhatsApp messages from the time had been lost.

Vaughan Gething, who is standing to be the next Welsh first minister , said the messages had been a way of “blowing off steam” rather than being used to make government decisions but said he was embarrassed they had vanished.

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Finborough theatre, London
An NHS worker’s marriage to her anti-vaxxer husband comes under pressure in James McDermott’s two-hander

James McDermott’s new play takes us back to the Covid-19 lockdowns in both form and content. Set in 2020-21, this taut domestic two-hander recalls the monologues and duologues that were streamed or given socially distanced performances when theatre was brought to its knees. Four years on, the industry is still counting the cost of Covid yet precious few plays are directly dealing with the global emergency that changed all our lives.

The title refers to the vaccine that divides NHS worker Anne (Kacey Ainsworth) and her anti-vaxxer husband Don (Liam Tobin) yet also alludes to their verbal and physical altercations. Arriving by throwing shapes to the Eurythmics, the couple party about before slumping in front of the television and into a clearly well-worn routine: boozing and winding each other up.

At the Finborough theatre, London , until 16 March

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During the Covid pandemic, NHS staff were treated as expendable. The emotional response to our series suggests they still feel this way

Three days before the first national lockdown, in March 2020, the then deputy chief medical officer for England, Dr Jenny Harries, looked us all in the eye and denied that there were any national problems with supplying personal protective equipment (PPE). While admitting to “some differential deliveries in some areas”, the second most senior doctor in the country confidently asserted to the press gathered at the daily pandemic briefing that such problems had been “ completely resolved ” and that “the country has a perfectly adequate supply of personal protective equipment at the moment”. For frontline staff, including me, it was a jaw-drop awful moment.

Perhaps Harries – since made a dame and the CEO of the new UK Health Security Agency – sincerely believed she was performing a public service in reassuring an anxious nation, as opposed to helping the government spin its way out of a growing scandal. But we – the staff whose necks were on the line – knew precisely how wrong her claims were. Up and down the country, staff were scrambling pitifully for PPE . Some of them resorted to wearing bin liners, or visors made by local Scout groups , or masks dropped off by building firms and veterinary practices.

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Results confirm how uncommon known complications are as researchers confirm benefits from vaccines still ‘vastly outweigh the risks’

Two new but exceptionally rare Covid-19 vaccine side effects – a neurological disorder and inflammation of the spinal cord – have been detected by researchers in the largest vaccine safety study to date.

The study of more than 99 million people from Australia, Argentina, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, New Zealand and Scotland also confirmed how rare known vaccine complications are, with researchers confirming that the benefits of Covid-19 vaccines still “vastly outweigh the risks”.

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