Just days after COVID-19 found its way into the fabric of British society, medical experts presented a sobering conclusion: This virus would not be going away on its own any time soon.
The government scrambled to slow the spread by locking everything down, and whilst this proved something of a success, scientists continued to warn that the reprieve was only temporary.
Our only route back to normality, we were routinely reminded, was a vaccine.
An arduous nine months followed; littered with mass closures and tier systems enforced by hastily-written legislation.
People were forced to make lifestyle changes and sacrifices like never before, with little else to do but cross our fingers and wait for the cure.
The chimes for 2021 had barely finished ringing out before vaccine sites right around Britain were administering jabs left, right and centre.
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Britain, suddenly, had multiple pathways back to the blissful pre-COVID days.
But some people decided they didn’t want to take either.
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Recent surveys have revealed that as many as 14% of people would consider refusing the offer of a proven coronavirus jab – believing that fighting off the infection naturally is a better way to combat the illness.
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An alarming amount of misinformation has spread across social media as a result – and one doctor has now stepped forward to dispel the myths.
Dr Michael Barnish, Head of Genetics & Nutrition at REVIV Global Ltd – a worldwide health and wellness organisation with a HQ right here in Manchester – explained that he “wanted to share some information on what vaccines are and why people should not be frightened of, or against them.”
In Barnish’s words, vaccines are designed to “generate an immune response” that will protect us from future exposure to a particular disease.
The key concept behind vaccination is herd immunity – whereby if the majority of people have immunity, then the virus or bug cannot infect others easily and will die off easier.
“Vaccination offers the opportunity to eradicate particular diseases across the entire population, protecting the individual and the community,” explains the doctor.
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“Vaccination can also help reduce the occurrence of other diseases as well. Children that are routinely vaccinated against meningitis have the added benefit of a reduced risk of acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, the most common childhood cancer.
“Similarly, the measles vaccine actually helps protect from other dangerous infectious diseases, such as rubella and mumps and therefore the vaccinated immunity would be more advantageous than naturally made immunity following this dangerous infection.”
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For some, taking vaccines appears to be a no-brainer. But naysayers have argued that jabs can cause side-effects due to the presence of toxins and damaging ingredients in particular solutions.
“Like any medical intervention [vaccines] do have risks,” explains Dr Barnish.
“However, they are usually minor and short lived.”
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For Dr Barnish, the greater concern is the misinformation being spread about inoculations.
“Unfortunately, the possibility of side effects, alongside media-fuelled fraudulent research has created a growing population of anti-vaccination people,” he says.
“If current anti-vaccination trends continue, the number of measles cases, this year, will be the highest in decades.
“Vaccines are vigorously tested and most those routinely given have large amounts of safety data over many years.”
There have been occasions in history when vaccines have proven less robust than experts had initially hoped – such as the 2018 flu vaccine turning out to be just 23% effective.
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And with the COVID jab being developed at record speeds, some have rushed to the conclusion that the necessary checks might have been skipped; or the vaccine itself could miss the mark.
But Dr Barnish doesn’t think so.
“These are absolutely warranted concerns and I think everyone should question and educate themselves fully when it comes to their health or immunity,” he says.
“However, the laboratories and science institutions of the world collaborating and working together on a vaccination, sharing important findings about the virus with each other on a mass scale, really for the first time, I have every faith that this collaboration and teamwork [has created an] effective and safe vaccination for COVID-19.
“We live in a safety obsessed world and creating vaccines is no exception. A vaccine is only ready when it is deemed safe and effective.”
With the most serious risks – such as severe allergic reactions – apparently being extremely rare, Dr Barnish concludes that the benefits of vaccination far outweigh the risks; claiming they are essential to the wellbeing of the wider world.
The doctor summarises: “Vaccination plays such an important role in the fight against infectious disease with little risk to us as children or adults, whether in early-life, travelling abroad or protecting your body from seasonal flu attacks.
“No vaccination will be given to the population if it causes any harm.
“They are created to help us, not harm us.”
Learn more about the work that Dr Barnish and REVIV do for Manchester by visiting the REVIV website.
Feature
In celebration of Momo Shop: a Chorlton favourite that has flourished since its rebrand
Danny Jones
It’s not often we go out of our way to hammer home just how staggering we found a restaurant, but after now losing track of the number of times that a member of our team has eaten at Momo Shop in Chorlton and come back near speechless, it deserves more than a review.
We regularly hold ourselves back and resist the urge to talk in superlatives wherever possible, especially because we worry we might be falling into the recency bias trap, but in this instance, we’re going to go out on a limb and fall on our hospitality sword. Well, this particular writer is…
It’s official: Momo Shop Nepali Street Food – for our money, anyway – is up there with one of THE best restaurants in Manchester right now.
And there are plenty of reasons why, not least of all because of the years of practice they have feeding increasingly discerning Manc diners under a different moniker.
Simple but charming – all the focus is on the foodAnd the food speaks for itselfSome of the most flavourful fillings you’ll find in ManchesterBusy any given night of the weekNo review (Credit: The Manc Eats/Momo Shop via Instagram)
If you don’t live in/frequent Chorlton, you’ll be forgiven for thinking that this gaff was a somewhat new addition to Chorlton, but in actual fact it’s been gradually growing a loyal and passionate following for more than seven years.
This is because before the miniamlist rebrand that saw the walls stripped back, the exterior painted blue and cutesy little bits of artwork hung amidst that familiar and atmospheric festoon lighting, Momo Shop was once The Little Yeti.
Its former iteration boasted hundreds of glowing reviews in its own right, which already plated up plenty of stunning Nepalese food, but since switching primarily towards serving a menu primarily made up of momos (Tibetan-style fried dumplings hand-folded into various shapes) they’ve well and truly shone.
Now approaching a full 12 months under the new name, the Nepali street food spot isn’t just one of a relatviely small handful considering how much great South Asian food there is across Greater Manchester, we’d wager it could be the very best representing that Alpine-Himalayan belt in our region.
Our latest visit was genuinely just as good as our first, second, third and so on – take your pick.
From the simply incredible deep fried pork dumplings and the deeply moorish butter sauce that goes with literally any momo filling, to the super traditional buffalo ones that are not only authentic but, come on, where else can you find such a unique meat in these parts? It’s some of the best food we’ve eaten.
And we don’t just mean of late; Momo Shop might genuinely among of the nicest scran we’ve had in ages and it’s no exagerration to say that the first taste we enjoyed from many of these flavours have formed some of the strongest culinary memories we’ve created in quite a while.
It’s also worth nothing that it isn’t just one main snack-sized dish. The chow mein, keema noodles and cheesy chops are showstoppers themselves, and we’ve already booked in again for a 30th birthday celebration purely so we can try those lambs ribs and their take on a shashlick.
Nevertheless, we love the idea of the numerous configurations and concotions by pairing different dumplings and owner Niti Karki gave us some pro-tips of the best duos and even let us in on the trade secret of her go-to combo when she’s hungover. Legend.
Once again, at the risk of sounding too hyperbolic, odd moments have felt like core foodie memories on a par with our favourite all-time meals.
Personally, I’m glad to report that this isn’t just a review: consider this a declaration that Momo Shop has quickly become my favourite restaurant not just in Chorlton but in all of central Manchester, something I haven’t had since the heartbreaking closure of Cocktail Beer Ramen + Bun in 2023.
Plenty of varietyDamn straightNiti = absolute iconWe’ll keep your condiment secret forever, Niti…
There might be an element of the almost HakkaPo-esque style drawings, the colour palette and the carefully curated pop-punk, old school emo and post-hardcore playlist that’s over half a decade in the making that makes particualrly partial to this place
But before we wrap up this glorified love letter parading as a ‘review’, we also want to give a special nod to the charming staff and Niti’s mum, specficially, who was too modest to even let us share her picture, but whose wealth of wisdom, influence and experience has clearly inspired Momo Shop’s success.
Don’t be shy, Sue – the only thing more stylish than the food was you, girl. Pop off.
Put simply, we’ll be going back here as regularly as possible until we try every different momo + sauce variation there is, and there’s nothing you can do to stop us.
If you are in the mood for more dumpling excellence, by the way, you might want to check out the unassuming Northern Quarter gem that is Chef Diao.
Lady Gaga is a tour-de-force of talent at the Co-op Live Manchester
Clementine Hall
Lady Gaga proves she’s a truly world-class act after two sold-out nights at the Co-op Live Manchester, as if we needed any reminding.
The city of Manchester has been flooded with harness-wearing, mesh-sporting little monsters over the past two days.
And that’s because the absolute icon that is Lady Gaga brought her ‘Mayhem Ball’ to the Co-op Live for two nights.
I don’t think you’ll find anyone who doesn’t know who this fabulous woman is. Over the past decade, she’s won an Oscar, headlined the Super Bowl, performed in blockbusters alongside Al Pacino, no less, and her songs are literally ingrained into our minds.
It’s been a whole 11 years (yes, really) since she performed in Manchester, and it’s safe to say she was back with a bang.
The performance was split up into five distinct acts, and each one was as exhausting and exhilarating as the next.
She begins the show by bopping out of a comically huge red dress, but this staging was only the start of what madness was about to ensue.
Luckily, we’d been prepared by the other half of the Audio North team, who had the equal privilege of seeing her on night one and were left similarly speechless.
Throughout the 30-song epic, we had crutches, sand pits, cages, skeletons, enough wigs to produce an amateur production of Annie, and we didn’t question any of it. Why would we? It’s Lady Gaga.
Kicking things off with ‘Bloody Mary’, the two and a half hour marathon didn’t leave any stones unturned.
We had all the bangers, from ‘Just Dance’ and ‘Paparazzi’ to ‘Bad Romance’ and ‘Applause’, it had us wondering why any other superstar even bothers putting a song out these days.
Pop is in a good place at the moment with the likes of Sabrina Carpenter, Chappell Roan, Dua Lipa, Billie Eilish and so on, but you can make a strong case for Gaga having helped pave the way for every lady in the business ever since.
Gaga truly had us in the palm of her hands (or claws at one point), even more so when she left the stage to de-robe and show her more vulnerable side for the last two songs – beanie firmly on.
It wasn’t just a concert: this was a fully-fledged tour de force of talent that Manchester won’t forget any time soon.
Sometimes there’s no point in intellectualising why someone has that ‘X-factor’; sometimes you just have to take a step back and say WOW.
The Manc -
8th January 2021 
