The Know Daily - Tuesday 9 May 2023

_{Tuesday 9 April ∙ Read in 5m 15s ∙ Listening to Ed Sheeran}

Newquay Zoo in Cornwall recently welcomed the birth of two critically-endangered Visayan “warty” piglets - one of the rarest pig species in the world. New piglets May and Randy were born less than a year after their older siblings, Kevin Bacon and Amy Swinehouse. Despite the arguably less-than-aesthetic name of the species, we think they’re seriously cute.

💊 Prescription shake-up

A new NHS England plan could see patients obtain some common prescriptions from high street pharmacies, essentially ending “the 8am rush” for GP appointments.

Tell me more.

The plan would see pharmacists able to write prescriptions for seven common conditions - including sinusitis, earache, shingles, infected insect bites and uncomplicated UTIs in women - without needing GP approval. Some pharmacists would also be able to provide patients with oral contraception without them going through a GP.

More people should also be able to access blood pressure checks in pharmacies, with officials hoping that the number more than doubles, to 2.5 million a year.

Why is this happening?

The plan aims to ease pressure on overstretched GPs by shifting some of the work to other parts of the health sector. NHS England has claimed the new measures will free up 15 million GP appointments over the next two years - around 2% of the total.

The latest proposals are backed by £645 million in funding over the next two years.

How has the news been received?

Doctors’ leaders have said that the crux of the problem is that there aren’t enough GPs. While the Royal College of Practitioners welcomed “some encouraging initiatives”, it said that thousands more GPs had to be trained and retained.

And, according to the BBC, there is concern about how pharmacies will cope with the extra demand. Data shows that the number of pharmacies in England has fallen by 160 over the last two years.

The measures could be in place as soon as this winter, pending a consultation with the industry.

🌧️ Make it rain

Faced with its second-worst drought in a decade, Mexico has begun “cloud seeding” in an attempt to induce rainfall. But does the controversial weather modification tool really work?

First things first, what’s cloud seeding?
In the simplest terms, it’s a decades-old technique which involves adding chemicals to clouds so that they rain earlier.

Rockets or drones are used to spray chemical materials - including silver iodine, which has a similar structure to ice - in clouds, modifying their structure and therefore “increasing the chance of precipitation”, explained The Guardian.

How common is it?
Mexico isn’t the only country to experiment with the technique. China and the UAE both regularly conduct cloud-seeding operations in an attempt to mitigate drought, as do several US states. North Dakota’s state government has used the technique for decades in an attempt to break up storms and mitigate the impact of destructive hail.

But does it work?
It depends on who you ask. While Mexico’s government told Reuters that the strategy had been “very successful”, scientists have warned that there’s little evidence of cloud seeding’s effectiveness.

Cloud seeding science is “simple yet murky”, said The Conversation. The site pointed out that while numerous studies have indicated that the technique does increase precipitation, the sheer number of variables involved makes it difficult to draw definitive conclusions. “It’s hard enough to predict weather without messing with it artificially.”

So what’s next?
The rapid development of new techniques means that cloud seeding is likely to become far more effective in the not-so-distant future. The Independent has even described it as looking “set to become a major part of the climate-fighting agenda”.

Nevertheless, said The Guardian, cloud seeding doesn’t solve the “systematic causes” of climate change which fuel extreme weather conditions such as drought.

🚓 Met regret: The Met has expressed “regret” over the arrest of an anti-monarchy group leader and five others ahead of the coronation. The police said that an investigation had been unable to prove intent to disrupt the event.

​​🛒 Allegations against Tesco chair: A prominent British business leader is facing claims of inappropriate and unprofessional behaviour from four women, an exclusive by The Guardian has revealed. John Allan, head of Tesco, has denied all but one of the allegations.

💰 Missed payments: Two million households missed or defaulted on their mortgage, rent or other key bills last month, according to new research by the consumer group Which?. The 7.3% missed payment rate seen last month was higher than in April 2021.

✍️ Stranger than fiction: The ghostwriter of Prince Harry’s memoir, Spare, said he was stalked and harassed by the media when the book came out earlier this year. “My fee was wrong, my bio was wrong, even my name,” wrote JR Moehringer for The New Yorker. 

🍬 Survival story: A woman stranded in the Australian bush for five days managed to survive by eating sweets and drinking a bottle of wine she had brought with her as a present for her mother.

Trivia answer: A) Shave off beards and moustaches - Police Scotland said the policy is necessary so officers can wear protective FFP3 masks, but added that there will be exceptions for religious, cultural or medical reasons.

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