What You Need To Know

More than one million people are estimated to be suffering the many symptoms of Long Covid, with tens of thousands battling it for a year. Channel 5 reporter Ruth Liptrot is among them and joins ITV News Presenter Faye Barker and Health Editor Emily Morgan for this special episode of the podcast. So what symptoms are associated with Long Covid, why does it affect women more than men and what's bei...

The end of lockdown will be widely cheered in public, but for many it'll worsen privately held anxieties about the steps to re-enter social life. Does the prospect of heading to crowded supermarkets, travelling on packed commuter trains or huddling together with strangers at an all-standing gig fill you with worry? You're certainly not alone, and help is here. Kylie Pentelow speaks to Alex and Dav...

It's safe and effective, so why all the fuss over the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine? And how will the impending supply delays affect you receiving a dose? Science Editor Tom Clarke delivers all the answers and more to ITV News Presenter Lucrezia Millarini in this edition after the EU regulator gave its backing to the vaccine. Tom also explains how his own blood clot risk ranks compared to being struc...

Over 20 million people in the UK have been given the first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, but why are some people still hesitant to take up the offer? Kylie Pentelow chats to paediatrician, TV doctor and now volunteer vaccinator Dr Ranj Singh about how to speak to friends and relatives who are reluctant to have the vaccine. In this episode, Dr Ranj discusses training with St. John's Ambulance, whethe...

You asked the key vaccine questions. We got the answers…

 Could they be made compulsory for work? Should asthmatics take greater priority?
 Will we need vaccine passports to eat at a restaurant or drink at the pub?
 Are there long-term side effects to the vaccine? And what do you do if you've booked a holiday but haven't had the jab yet? ITV News presenter Lucrezia Millarini puts all those burnin...

No one on earth travels quite like Johnny Ward. The adventurer is the only person to have visited every nation on the planet, both poles and most of the main peaks but - like everybody else - he has seen his movements severely limited by the pandemic. So how has Johnny adapted his wanderlust and active ambitions in these strange times? What advice does he have for those keen to keep a spirit of ad...

As a working mother of three, ITV News Presenter Faye Barker is among millions of parents and guardians preparing to send their children back to the classroom from March 8 after months of home schooling. In this episode, 

Erin Price, the head of school at Ramsgate Holy Trinity in Kent, joins Deirdre Kehoe of the Young Minds charity to give Faye everything she - and you - need to know. 

So what c...

Vaccine passports - allowing those jabbed to travel - could give holidaymakers a fast tracked route back to the continent. So how far away are they and even once travel does return, will traditional tourist cities or cruise ships recover? Few at the ITV News are as well travelled as our Europe Editor James Mates. Stationed for large parts in Italy, he has remained active across the continent and a...

If you follow ITV News on Twitter you'll have seen us put a message out to our audience recently, asking: “Do you have questions or concerns about the current UK vaccines rollout?” It turns out many of you did. So in this episode of Coronavirus: What You Need To Know, Lucrezia Millarini gets all the answers from Professor Anthony Harnden, who advises the government on the vaccine rollout as the de...

It may feel like it at the time but if you've been finding your sleep disrupted in lockdown you're very much not alone. Professor Jane Falkingham from the University of Southampton has studied the negative impact of lockdown on sleep and found it an increasing problem across the nation. In this episode, she shares her key findings with Lucrezia Millarini before James Wilson - aka The Sleep Geek -...

In this special episode of the podcast, ITV News presenter Nina Hossain puts a wide range of audience questions to England’s Deputy Chief Medical Officer Jonathan Van-Tam. Professor Van-Tam, who has won his own loyal audience for his straight-talking guidance throughout the pandemic, addresses concerns over the AstraZeneca vaccine, the extended gap between the two jabs, the impact of mixing vaccin...

Email scammers feed on a crisis so it's no surprise that criminals have looked to exploit the global pandemic to try to steal money and data from unsuspecting victims. In this episode Lucrezia Millarini speaks to Adenike Cosgrove from the cybersecurity researcher firm Proofpoint, who are working to expose the fraudsters. These are the examples of fake emails disguised as vaccine alerts or health o...

Her song parody videos as a Tired and Tested mum on Instagram and Facebook have won Sophie McCartney a huge online audience during the pandemic. But what ITV News presenter Faye Barker wants to know is: are Sophie's comic mash-ups born from gritty experience or is the mother-of-two secretly having a lot of fun in lockdown? It doesn't take Sophie long to set the record straight and reveal her strug...

Lockdown - or any restricted living across the UK - presents a major challenge for everyone's mental health while the pandemic continues to rage. So how can you cope with the winter woes as we all continue to live largely indoors with even exercise largely restricted? Psychologist Elissa Makris of Thrive - a game-based mental health app endorsed by the NHS - talks Kylie Pentelow through several wa...

UK. South Africa. Brazil. The new variants of the Covid-19 vaccines - originating here and in Africa and South America - are now common parlance but how deadly are they and can the current vaccines protect against them? With some concerning news emerging from South Africa, Science Editor Tom Clarke explains everything you need to know on the various variants to Lucrezia Millarini. Why do they occu...

How long does immunity to Covid-19 last after you’ve been infected or received the vaccine? Since the pandemic began it's one of the main questions we’ve wanted to answer. Now the SIREN study - the world’s largest investigation into Covid infections - has found antibodies protect us for far longer than the original estimation of three months. In this episode, Science Editor Tom Clarke speaks to th...

The closure of schools across the UK amid national lockdowns in England and Scotland has intensified pressure on parents and guardians yet again as weeks of home schooling resume. So what can they do to help children - and themselves - cope with the stressful challenge of turning the home once again into a classroom? Kerry-Jane Packman of the charity Parentkind tells Lucrezia Millarini what you ne...

The start of 2021 feels like a critical moment in the fight against coronavirus. Record levels of daily cases fuelled by a new variant of the virus and the national lockdowns in England and Scotland and mass restrictions in Wales and Northern Ireland mean there are few reasons to be cheerful. Yet the mass rollout of two vaccines shows there is an end in sight. So how far from normality are we? And...

Christmas is often a time belt-strings are loosened but this year's social restrictions and the economic hardship caused by the pandemic have increased the financial pressures of the season. So how can you spend your money wisely amid the present giving and preparations for this year's limited festivities in our first - and hopefully last - Covid era Christmas? ITV News presenter Kylie Pentelow sp...

In this special edition, Science Editor Tom Clarke speaks to the chair of the UK vaccine task force Kate Bingham on the day history is made in the battle against Covid-19 with the first vaccines being administered in Britain. Kate delivers all you need to know about the rollout, how the vaccine will be delivered across the globe and also talks about its legacy as the NHS launches its biggest ever...

In this special edition of the podcast, Science Editor Tom Clarke talks to Ben Osborn, the UK boss of pharmaceuticals giant Pfizer, after the breakthrough news that the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine has been judged safe for use in the UK. Tom puts all the key questions to Ben, including how many doses can be delivered, whether the UK should have ordered more of its vaccine compared to the alternative va...

At first glance it appears that, at 70%, Oxford-AstraZeneca's vaccine offers less potential protection against Covid-19 than the 95% protection potentially provided by vaccines being developed by Pfizer and Moderna. However, in this podcast edition, Professor Jen Rogers tells Science Editor Tom Clarke why there is very legitimate cause for celebration at the Oxford University interim data results....

For ITV News's resident Covid-19 statistician, Professor Jen Rogers, keeping across the deluge of data on the pandemic is an occupational hazard. But what can the rest of us do to make sense of the standout statistics which have filled the news headlines for months? Jen shares her expert advice with Lucrezia Millarini, while also reacting to the latest update on the advances towards a long-awaited...


Everyone’s excited about the vaccine breakthrough by developers Pfizer and BioNTech. But what does the study tell us? When can you get it? And, crucially, how do we know that it's both effective and safe? 

ITV News's Covid-19 statistician - a clinical trial specialist - Prof Jen Rogers tells Science Editor Tom Clarke exactly what you need to know in this special podcast. Including, why we should...

“Addiction is an illness of isolation.” So says Michael Rawlinson of Action on Addiction in this conversation with ITV News presenter Lucrezia Millarini. He says he has seen a clear rise in the number of people battling addictions - be it alcohol, drugs, gambling, pornography or other vices - since the UK began a national lockdown back in March. Now the nation is locked down for a second time, how...