Pu bs, cafes a nd restau ra nts were ordered to close this afternoon after a spike in coronavirus cases. 5a cases have been recorded in the cluster. Residents have been told they cant visit each others homes or travel more than 5 miles from where they live, unless for work or education. 0ur scotland correspondent lorna gordon reports. Aberdeen, back into a local lockdown, the streets this evening close to deserted. More than 200,000 People Living here, facing restrictions on what they can do and where they can go. This, a last pint forward in a granite city pub before, like other venues, at 5pm, it had to close. Instead of closing down aberdeen, maybe close down two or three bars, whatever, thats fair enough. Some people, this is their only enjoyment they get. It is fair enough but i think its absolutely terrible that they are having to go to all this again. What can you do . The first confirmed cases were traced back to this city centre bar. 5a people have now tested positive. More than 30 venues linked to the emerging cluster. Scotlands first minister warns there may now be some Community Transmission of the virus in the area. Im also mindful of the need to act quickly and decisively if we are to succeed in our aim of keeping transmission as close to elimination levels as possible, and also to protect our priority, and it is our priority, you have heard me say that before, of getting young people back to school. Shots of queues outside an aberdeen pub at the weekend shocked many, and more Police Officers are being sent to the city to enforce the new regulations if required. The majority of the public, who will continue to comply with instructions and guidance, because they know how important it is, but it is the dealing with a small minority who decide they dont want to do so and put Others Health at risk. We will clearly and undeniably enforce the law when it comes to that very small minority of people. Nicola sturgeon says the measures are scotlands biggest wake up call since the early days of the pandemic. There were few people out in Aberdeen City centre tonight and it will stay like this for at least a week, until the new measures are reviewed. Lorna gordon, bbc news. Now on bbc news, Philippa Thomas hears from people around the world about their extraordinary experiences during the pandemic and how covid 19 has changed their lives. Welcome to coronavirus your stories, a programme about how covid 19 is affecting the lives of people around the world. I am Philippa Thomas and it this week we are hearing inside stories from scientists, some of them directly involved in the fight against the virus and others using ingenious methods to carry out the research while working from home. Later, we will hear what it is like to be leading one of the global teams trying to develop a vaccine, we will find out how Students Learning online with the u. K. s open universities can remotely conduct experiments, use robots a look at the stars from a spanish island. We start with two Young Research scientists who answered the call for expert volunteers as a uk faced its pandemic emergency. Abigail and jessica both work at the Francis Creek institute in london. My normaljob is looking after malaria parasites and working how they live and grow in humans. Early march, there were lots of e mails around asking for people who had experience working with Infectious Diseases and who had the necessary training to handle samples. Myself and my collea g u es handle samples. Myself and my colleagues who had that experience have been helping with the first step in Virus Testing which is just to make the samples we receive from patients and other people who are tested, patients and other people who a re tested, safe patients and other people who are tested, safe to go upstairs to the fifth floor of the building to actually have a coronavirus test. That sounds pretty crucial. You also a nswered pretty crucial. You also answered the call for volunteering. What have you been doing to help with covid i9 and where your skills came from. Usually, iwoke in covid i9 and where your skills came from. Usually, i woke in a team where we produce genetically edited animals to study human disease and human development. And the functionality of genes. When the call came out in march, i pulled my hand up because prior to this i was beginning my career to this i was beginning my career in new zealand at eight urology lab. They needed people with the appropriate accreditation to release the patient results and that is where i am. Urology. Patient results and that is where i am. Urology. What do yourfamily back where i am. Urology. What do your family back in where i am. Urology. What do yourfamily back in new where i am. Urology. What do your family back in new zealand think about stepping up to the front as you are . I think they we re very front as you are . I think they were very proud of me. 0ften, they are staying up in the evening waiting for the last result to go out to the patients. It has been a time, a lot of late nights. But at the same time it been rewarding work to do. Both of you i suppose, this is work this is work that will have to continue. 0nly work that will have to continue. Only this week we have been hearing about the fa ct have been hearing about the fact that the uk test and trace system still needs to come up to scratch and a lot more work to scratch and a lot more work to be done. Yes, and since march we have not stopped. We are constantly improving the service that we give and kind of keeping the longevity of it going in case there is that resurgence which seems to be happening and something that we are planning to do for as long as it is needed. How has it made you feel, the fact that we are all now talking about science and perhaps a newfound respect for scientists as well . I would love to see that continue. I think we have gone through a strange few years where there has been quite a lack of trust in science and evidence and i hope and if this time, showing that scientists can come together, pull the skills together and do something valuable for the local communities as well more globally, and maybe restore trust in science. We live in very Uncertain Times in the best way to combat these Uncertain Times is with evidence and we can learn a lot from studying the world around us from studying the world around us andi from studying the world around us and i hope that during this pandemic that becomes more quite a nice wake up call from scientists are perhaps we are more adaptable than people give us more adaptable than people give us credit for. We usually focus ona us credit for. We usually focus on a specific area of science and actually most of the people who worked on this testing pipeline have little background in virology but we managed to put this together in a very effective way we can learn from that. Scientists who usually work on completely Different Things applying the skills to coronavirus and we can learn that we can expand our horizons and use our skills and training to apply ourselves to lots of different problems. Ifi can jump different problems. Ifi can jump in, i think it has been a time when science has been put ina time when science has been put in a positive light and scientists have had the chance to communicate in a way that is digestible to the general public and it is kind of i think specifically, my friends have started talking about pcr is an everyday terminology and it is that awareness that has been able to be given to the general public at a time like this has been quite positive. Just talking about dealing with the unexpected, i want to put to both of you the idea, you think, as experts, it was possible to see a pandemic coming . Do you think they should have been more done to listen to voices from science . A sort of reacted a bit when you described us as extras because most of us do not feel like an expert most of the time. These are massive global problems with lots of different types of signs needed to solve them. While we may be more expert insight than the average person, actually these are really complex problems that we need to Work Together to solve them. Perhaps we need to be more comfortable with uncertainty which involves a certain humility . I think that is what being a scientist has taught me more than anything. There is so much we do not know and we need to become more co mforta ble and we need to become more comfortable questioning what we think we know and using that uncertainty in a positive way. Jessica, on that matter of uncertainty, he really is a member of the media and the media often deals in headlines, but as a scientist, you are especially aware of the complexity of things and the uncertainty of things. I wonder, what do you think about that tension between headlines and complicated realities . Yes, imean, it and complicated realities . Yes, i mean, it is definitely there andl i mean, it is definitely there and i think that is one thing that we can probably can collaborate better on. Going more for the fax and working together as media and scientist together as media and scientist to get Accurate Information out to get Accurate Information out to the public so that they become aware of the situation without being scared of the situation. Scientific research is, jessica and abigail of the princess weak institute in london. As we talk about remote ways of working or learning, the open university properly got that first. It has celebrated its 50th year now has about 168,000 students across europe and beyond. A pa rt across europe and beyond. A part of what the ou does is called the open stem initiative, it allows Remote Access to all sorts of things, whether chemistry experiments, robotic engineering, even the ability to operate a telescope to look at the stars from a spanish island. I have been talking to the director of the open stem lab, heather lockett. In the early days, we delivered Distance Learning from distant students. They would be sent keeps and do experiments but technology has moved on and our courses have got much larger. We have developed over the last ten years, the open stem lab. |j remember those kids because thatis remember those kids because that is how my father took his degree. He used to have chemistry equipment and geology samples arriving through the letterbox on a regular basis but now you seem to have the kind of learning and techniques that are just right for lockdown. As soon as covid19 came along, we had a huge number of inquiries from other universities who were not able to do face to face lab classes. That is not been possible under lockdown whereas our remote laboratories, children sit at home, use their laptops and connecting to real equipment from home so that my be telescopes, microscopes, electronics equipment. Really any kind of scientific engineering experiment. You are saying telescope, what do you mean . The open university has an observatory on the island of tenerife, one of the canary islands, and we have autonomous robotic telescope and a student can set from home and is part of their astronomy because they can connect to those and take imagery is. It is really amazing. I understand students are able to do experiments using microscopes, very specific and delicate equipment. Thats right. We have real remote microscopes. The microscopes sit on our campus and students can connect to those from home. They may be studying the eye of fruit fly sitting elsewhere and looking ata sitting elsewhere and looking at a real fly sitting elsewhere and looking at a realfly in sitting elsewhere and looking at a real fly in tiny, sitting elsewhere and looking at a realfly in tiny, tiny scale. A lot of areas of innovation which draw a lot of interest now, thinking about robotics. Are you able to programme robots from home . We have done a little bit of that. We have some robots and we are building that up. A tutor will be sitting in a Central Laboratory and demonstrating a robot and student are interacting and learning about robotics that way. You said something about the interest you have been getting, where have the calls been coming from, what kind of countries . All over the uk, lots of university saying our lives are close and could you tell us what we could do to be practical work from home. We have an inquiries from as far as australia, india, countries across the world. It has been ha rd to across the world. It has been hard to cope with the demand. Funding and finance is a big issue now for the future. For stu d e nts issue now for the future. For students and for lecturers, the universities themselves. Do you feel that Remote Learning is going to have to play a much bigger part from now on . |j think it is interesting. Initially we thought universities would only be interested in the short term in switching to a remote site model. What weve seen as potentially it could be useful in the future because students, you could have smaller laboratories, you could use your equipment more efficiently. That blended model might work into the future, it might work into the future, it might givea might work into the future, it might give a better experience for some students and they would get from the traditional model. And just a final thought. Have you felt that professionally youve been at the right place at the right time . It certainly has been an interesting time. I think we feel incredibly lucky that our Distance Learning model that the university has really protected us from the covid 19 case is much more than other universities which do face a lot of problems. When the campus was completely closed, staff could login remotely, fix problems from home. We managed to keep the vast majority of our remote experimentation running through this period was that helen lockett, 80 adopter of Research Methods now likely to be followed by many more scientists internationally. You are watching coronavirus your stories, a programme about how coronavirus is changing lives around the world. Im Philippa Thomas. Next, we look at the search for a vaccine. The World Health Organization is wanting there may never be a Silver Bullet to beat this coronavirus, but hopes for some level of vaccine protection are strong. With teams around the world working at unprecedented speed, with great intensity, to try to establish accessible formulas. 0ne try to establish accessible formulas. One of those teams is that the wistar Biomedical Institute in pennsylvania, working with us Company Interview and groups from korea and china, to australia, to canada, to the british nhs. The wistar vaccine is a dna based vaccine, a new type that isnt based on the live material that copies of it. , essentially willing the body pulling the body into thinking covid 19 is present and needs to be repelled. It hoped it will stimulate our immune systems to create their own defences against the virus that can do so against the virus that can do so much harm. Leading this particular effort is doctor david weiner, is the executive director of wistars vaccine and immunotherapies centre was that his work on sars to mers to zika. He talks to us about how this one is different. We are essentially building the aeroplanes are controlled this while trying to take off and control it. And that is an enormous challenge. Building the aeroplanes to control this while trying to take off and control it. How to protect against it, we are learning alive, we made enormous progress. I want to talk about yourfamily. I progress. I want to talk about your family. I think progress. I want to talk about yourfamily. I think you progress. I want to talk about your family. I think you also have personal reasons to hope this works, that mitigation and a vaccine is brought to the fore very quickly. Your daughters a doctor, yes . My daughters a doctor, yes . My daughter is a physicians clinic at the mayor clinic in emergency medicine. Im very proud of her. She has been seeing patients with significant amount of disease mayo clinic. Though that is a very important thing and a very big thing we think about a lot, of course. And they also have a Family Member who is immunosuppressed, so we have a lot of personal concerns that way, but i think every family does. Were all seeing people we who are getting sick, etc, with this disease. It is important to say although i am speaking to you in pennsylvania, this is a global effort. You have testing in south korea and you are working with scientists across borders. That is correct. This is really a much larger effort than just us a much larger effort than just us in the programme. The programme was initially funded by cepi, which is really a global programme, and with funding from the department of defence and supported by other us agencies and also by the bill Melinda Gates foundation. And of course there isa foundation. And of course there is a company lead, pennsylvania California Company inovio. As well as collaborations with Public Health england. Could you explain inlay mans terms what kind of vaccine you are working on . Are you essentially injecting live material or not . 0ur vaccine approach is an approach we have worked on for several decades now, which is the idea of delivering nucleic acids, dna, you have also heard of rna vaccines, they are nucleic acid type approaches. These are non live pieces of coded information, and this is a new concept in vaccine development. These are non live, they cannot grow, they cannot spread, they are delivered locally in the case of the dna in sars delivered locally in the case of the dna in sars covid delivered locally in the case of the dna in sars covid two, and they tell the cells of our body to produce a single virus proteins that has been designed ina lab proteins that has been designed in a lab on computer, then the viral protein is a copy of the antigen is what the virus try to attach to our cells to get into it and because the infection. So if we can create a replica of that inside a persons body, that would be a foreign protein now in a person with their immune system seeing it as foreign. They would respond in two ways one, it would generate antibodies and can directly activate them to prevent those cells, and two, one of the real important features of this approach which is really good at generating t cell responses in humans. T cell responses in humans. T cell responses in humans. T cell responses are the kind of navy seals of the immune system, they patrolled the body and clear sites that are infected. So they find virus hiding within cells, replicating within cells, and destroy those cells which are now corrupted. And by doing that they can then help clear infection. Doctor, your work is a lwa ys infection. Doctor, your work is always important. But with this virus and the response to it, do you feel more of a sense of urgency of intensity than ever before . I think all of us involved, all of us at home feel the urgency. I think our families feel the urgency. 0ur familys whole life has changed. And there are multiple vaccine types being moved forward. It is likely to take several different important su ccesses , several different important successes, not one vaccine, but likely several, to meet the different populations that will need it. Its likely to take several to have more rapid global distribution, i think by working together like this we will get through this. So, what you think when you see headlines about the race for a vaccine . I think we are very used to thinking about things asa used to thinking about things as a race that way. Our race this way, that way, but if one of the problems with one winner in this case is that that one platform would sort of be the only platform available for a while for production. So that would mean, well, you have x, you wouldnt have y. Vaccines have Different Properties. There are some vaccines we manufacture for older populations, there are some vaccines we manufacture for children, so those can have Different Properties of cover. I hear what you are saying. The more winners of the better, in this particular circumstance. I do have to ask you, though, as an academic, is there something ofa an academic, is there something of a sense of competition, something of a streak of determination to get your particular vaccine out there as well as one of the front runners . I think we will follow the signs on everyone of these, and we are very dedicated advancing our platform as fast and as safe as possible. We have, i think, and as safe as possible. We have, ithink, everyone and as safe as possible. We have, i think, everyone is dedicated to getting out platforms that can help, that can be tested on different populations, and can be put together as a global effort to get us out of our houses. Doing what you do, doctor, isnt it ha rd to what you do, doctor, isnt it hard to switch off at the end of the day . This is such intense work. You are now under something of a spotlight as denmark this is a very intense project and all of us are really working 21w, we probably go to sleep thinking about it, wake up thinking about it, wake up thinking about it, wake up thinking about it, so it is an engrossing project that is very different to the way things we re different to the way things were before. Doctor david weiner, ending this week of personal stories from scientists pursuing their research in the face of this deadly pandemic. Im Philippa Thomas. Thank you forjoining us on coronavirus thomas. Thank you forjoining us on coronavirus your stories. Hello. While some parts of the uk have had some pleasant sunshine occasionally this week and stayed dry so far, albeit rather windy, others have been very wet particularly into parts of scotland but notjust scotland. 0ther spots had some heavy downpours during wednesday. But it is looking, for thursday, drier and warmer. High pressure building a little further. Coming around to a southerly and that is going to lift temperatures again particularly into england and wales on friday. There will be another surge of heat with temperatures in the 30s for some as we will see in a moment. Temperatures as we start thursday will have held up overnight across a large part of england and wales. So, a rather muggy start. Could be a few mist and fog patches around. A zone of thicker cloud into parts of southern england, could be a bit drizzly with that pushing into parts of wales and the midlands during the day. Could stay misty along some spots along the English Channel coast. Whereas elsewhere across the uk, its a mix of cloud, some occasional sunny skies. It will be dry. Best of the sunny skies in scotland towards the north. It is warmer, and temperatures peak in the upper 20s in the warmest parts of the east and south east of england, just a gentle southerly breeze. 0n through thursday night, into friday morning, keep a bit of cloud, clear, keep some clear spells too in fact clearing up across more of england and wales going into friday morning. And what will be another rather warm and muggy night. A warmer night in scotland and Northern Ireland. Though by friday morning theres a weather front close to Northern Ireland and for here and then eastwards across scotland, there will be some showery rain moving in. A few late showers and thunderstorms cant be ruled out in england and wales but the main story here will be the sunshine and the heat again. Upper 20s, low 30s, and hottest parts of the east and south east of england, mid 30s, 35, maybe 36 celsius around the london area. Temperatures nowhere near that high in scotland and Northern Ireland itll be heavily cloudy with the chance of rain during the day. High pressure Building Back in for the weekend and that does mean a lot of dry weather particularly on saturday. By sunday there is an increasing chance of some thunderstorms around, particularly into parts of england and wales. And where friday is going to be so very hot, it will slowly cool a touch into the weekend but more noticeably elsewhere. This a very warm welcome to bbc news. My names mike embly. Our top stories theres mounting anger in lebanon at the failure of politicians to prevent tuesdays devastating blast in which at least a 135 people were killed and 5,000 injured. More than a quarter of a Million People have been made homeless. In large parts of the city, every street, every building has been damaged. People will not be able to return to their houses and these are probably tens of thousands of people who have become homeless in a matter of seconds. Demonstrators take to the streets urging turkeys government to continue with an International Pact designed to protect women. Bell tolls
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