In terms of ever-changing news in health, this year was a good one for 2020. What were your eyes focusing on?
From the fastest vaccine drive in British history to fake meat at McDonald’s, test your memory with the ultimate Health Quiz of the Year. You can scroll down to see the answers.
1 As the vaccination programme kicked off in early January, GP hubs and pharmacies welcomed 15million of the UK’s most vulnerable for their first doses. But which of the UK’s biggest supermarkets helped out by offering jabs too?
As the vaccination programme kicked off in early January, GP hubs and pharmacies welcomed 15million of the UK’s most vulnerable for their first doses. But which of the UK’s biggest supermarkets helped out by offering jabs too?
2 In February, the NHS announced the launch of an at-home swab test for a type of cancer – and The Mail on Sunday’s Deputy Health Editor was one of the first to try it out. It screen for what?
Three EU countries stopped temporarily the rollout of AstraZeneca Covid vaccination in March amid concerns that it could cause blood clots among young people. The majority of countries reinstated their use after EU regulators found it safe. What country did the AstraZeneca jab stop in the first place?
4. How many phases of lockdown easement were there? On which dates were indoors allowed again?
British scientists have revealed 5 concrete proof that Covid-19 is transmitted from human to dog. Which animal was able to catch Covid-19 from a person?
The Mail celebrated a huge victory in May with long-awaited NHS England directives. It came after months of hard work by the Health section.
7 A Delta variant was introduced to Britain in March. It proved 40 percent more reliable than the Kent version. Where was Delta first detected in the wild?
Henry Dimbleby (8), co-founder of Leon High Street Food Chain, published in July his extremist ideas on how to defeat obesity in Britain. The 239-page dossier featured a number of ambitious plans, including targeting one much loved breakfast cereal, which Dimbleby later referred to as ‘pure sugar’. He tried which cereal?
Henry Dimbleby (co-founder of Leon High Street Food Chain) published his extremist ideas on beating obesity in Britain during July
9 Dame Sarah Gilbert, co-creator of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, was given a surprise standing ovation – with roaring applause – at which major summer sporting event?
10US toy company Mattel created a Barbie doll to honour Dame Sarah – complete with red hair and glasses. What did the vaccinologist think of it when she heard about the doll for the first time?
What did vaccinologist Dame Sarah Gilbert say, rather bluntly, when she first learned of the Barbie doll?
11 What number of Covid-19-related infections were there, to within a thousand, in connection with the Euro 2020 finals between England and Italy on July 11, 2018?
12In August, Carrie Johnson and the Prime Minister announced that they would be having their second baby. Posting the news on Instagram, Carrie wrote that their ‘rainbow baby’ was due to arrive at Christmas. What exactly is a rainbow child?
13 A new ‘game-changing’ heart health jab – approved for NHS use this September – could soon replace which commonly used drugs?
14 In October the Government made it illegal to inject under-18s with cosmetic Botox and fillers – used to add volume to lips and smooth out wrinkles. What reality television show is widely blamed by teenagers for their increased demand for these procedures?
In October the Government made it illegal to inject under-18s with cosmetic Botox and fillers – used to add volume to lips and smooth out wrinkles
15 McDonald’s launched the McPlant, its first fully vegan fake-meat burger, in September. What is the ‘meat’ patty made from?
16 Gwyneth Paltrow, the Hollywood actress turned wellness guru, raised eyebrows with her bizarre documentary series on streaming platform Netflix in the autumn. The topic of this show was?
17 British tennis champion Emma Raducanu had health problems which forced her from two of this year’s major tournaments. – which were they?
British tennis champion Emma Raducanu suffered health problems that caused her to pull out of two major tournaments this year
Sarah Harding, a former Girls Aloud singer, died in September from advanced breast cancer. The 39-yearold had ‘put off’ seeking help despite suffering two symptoms – a lump and a pain in her chest – that she had put down to which activity?
19 The new president of an all-female college at the University of Cambridge sparked fierce debate when she announced plans to offer lessons in which women’s health issue?
20 Who among the members of Royal Family have been incorrectly pictured wearing a mask on their faces more than once?
21 The editor of The Lancet, a prestigious medical journal was made to apologize after the publication’s cover caused an outcry from female readers. Why?
22 This groundbreaking, controversial fertility procedure was named Frankenscience. It came after 26 women applied in the UK for it.
23 November saw the approval by NHS chiefs of HIV treatment. This was the largest medical breakthrough in HIV prevention in over a decade. It was what?
24 In which two regions of the UK was the Omicron variant first identified?
25 Which former Strictly Come Dancing star shared an ‘anti-vax’ post on Instagram earlier this month, supporting a protest against Covid measures and jabs?
QUIZ ANSWERS
1 Morrisons. Nearly 50 branches converted their carparks in North England and West England into pop up vaccine centers.
2Cervical cancer. More specifically, cervical cancer caused by the sexually transmitted virus human papillomavirus. A screening kit was used by 31,000 women as part of an important trial. It included a swab to collect cervical cells. This innovation was intended to reduce low screening attendance pre-Covid and the need for routine screenings to be halted during pandemic.
3 Austria. Austrian doctors reported that two patients had developed serious blood clots after two weeks following the AstraZeneca jab. Since then, research has shown that the danger of fatal blood clots caused by Covid infection is eight-fold greater than that from the jab.
4 Technically, five. Six Britons, or two households, were permitted to enter the building on May 17. The date also saw the opening of indoor hotels and hospitality.
5 Cats. University of Glasgow researchers found two cats that tested positive to Covid-19 very soon after the owners became infected. Genome sequencing confirmed that it had been passed on by the owners. The owners passed it on to one kitten after the other developed breathing problems.
University of Glasgow researchers found two Covid-19-positive cats in their care.
6Meet more patients face-to-face The Mail on Sunday fought a campaign urging GPs to do so after close to 1,000 readers told of life-threatening illnesses going unnoticed because they’d been denied a face-to-face appointment. In updated guidance, NHS England scrapped the rule introduced at the start of the pandemic that instructed all GPs to adopt a ‘total-triage’ system: referring patients to specialists or digital therapies without seeing them in person. Approximately two-thirds (or more) of GP visits are in person.
7 India. It was discovered in the UK as the Delta variety, which it first became known to be there in October 2020. It was discovered in the UK in March and became the predominant strain worldwide by June.
8 Frosties. Mr Dimbleby’s plan to improve the quality of British diets included a ‘snack tax’ on sugary foods.
9 Wimbledon. Frontline NHS staff received invitations to the Royal Box, along with a number of ‘inspirational’ individuals including Hannah Ingram-Moore, the daughter of Captain Sir Tom Moore who raised more than £32million for the NHS before his death in February.
10 That she found the creation ‘very strange’. But Dame Sarah later said she hoped the doll would ‘show children careers they may not be aware of, like a vaccinologist’. One of six dolls was chosen to honor women in math, science, and technology.
11 3,000. Data from NHS Test and Trace shows that 3,404 individuals were infected at Wembley Stadium. The eight London tournament matches were responsible for 63776 infections.
12A rainbow baby is a child who was born from a stillbirth, miscarriage, or neonatal death. Carrie Johnson shared that she had a miscarriage in the first half of this year. The couple’s second child, born on December 9, was named Romy Iris Charlotte – Iris means rainbow in Greek.
13 Statins. NICE, the health watchdog for heart disease and high cholesterol approved inclisirin jabs twice a year. The jab reduces the levels of fatty cholesterol found in blood vessels, which can lead to disease. Study results showed that jabs given by GPs are as effective as statins.
14ITV2’s Love Island is a reality TV show in which young, scantily dressed people seek a partner. When the seventh series of the show began in July, enquiries for lip-fillers shot up 37 per cent in just two weeks, according to cosmetic treatment practitioners’ register Save Face.
15 The McPlant patty, made to look and taste like a Quarter Pounder, is made from a pea and rice-protein textured mince, combined with starches, colourings and flavourings.
16 Sex. The six-part series, Sex, Love & Goop, followed couples attempting to improve their sex lives with the help of an intimacy coach. The most surprising thing was perhaps the way one coach approached her clients. Darshana Avila’s work often involves her touching couples’ genitals – which is illegal in every US state apart from California.
17Covid and anxiety. After suffering severe anxiety and breathing problems, Emma Raducanu withdrew from Wimbledon in July. The teenager also confirmed that she had been tested positive for Covid earlier this month, which led her to withdraw from the Mubadala World Tennis Championships at Abu Dhabi as well as the BBC’s Sports Personality Award.
18The guitar. Writing in The Mail on Sunday, top breast surgeon Dr Liz O’Riordan explained that the lump – under the singer’s armpit – and the pain were signs her cancer had spread. Dr O’Riordan was critical of the prevailing narrative around Sarah’s death: that if she had gone to the doctor sooner, the tragedy would have been avoided. ‘The uncomfortable truth is that young women get breast cancer because they are bloody unlucky,’ she wrote.
19 Fertility. Dorothy Byrne said female students should understand their fertile years are limited to avoid ‘leaving it too late’ for children. After undergoing fertility treatment, Byrne became pregnant at the age of 44. She said: ‘I wish I’d known there’d be such a huge difference between trying to get pregnant at the age of 38, and then 40, and then after.’
20Prince Charles. As he attempted to place a mask on his eyes, Prince Charles was twice seen with the mask.
21 The October issue carried the term ‘bodies with vaginas’ – so-called inclusive language which caters to people of all genders. The line on its front page – ‘Historically, the anatomy and physiology of bodies with vaginas have been neglected’ – was extracted from a review of an exhibition on menstrual health at the Vagina Museum in London. Readers accused editor-in-chief Richard Horton of ‘dehumanisation’ and ‘erasing’ women. He apologized later.
22The procedure is known as mitochondrial donor, also called a triple-parent baby. It helps to prevent some hereditary disorders that are caused by genetic defects. This can lead to repeated miscarriages and life-limiting conditions. It involves transfering the fertilised nucleus of a woman’s egg – containing the DNA from both parents but only tiny fragments of their damaged genes – into a healthy fertilised egg from another woman.
23An HIV jab. Roughly 13,000 patients will be eligible for the injections that are given every two months, which studies show are just as effective as the current treatment of daily antiretroviral tablets.
24Chelmsford is in Essex, and Nottingham. These cases are related and believed to have been connected to travel to southern Africa.
25 Brendan Cole. The professional dancer shared a lengthy rant with his 88,000 followers promoting the ‘Freedom March’ in London’s Parliament Square – organised by a group of vaccine-hesitant campaigners. ‘It’s a slippery slope when Government can dictate and mandate what we do to our own body,’ read the dancer’s now-deleted post.