Vaccine waning, hot dogs and Afghanistan

Should we be worried that the protection against Covid-19 provided by the vaccines is going down? This worrying idea has been in the news recently, partly because of reports out of Israel. Last winter, Israel was one of the first to embark on a large scale vaccination programme of its citizens. But several months on, it’s now seen a sharp rise in the numbers of cases and hospitalisations. Which does raise a worrying thought: is the vaccine’s effect fading?

Could it really be the case that eating a hot dog takes 36 minutes from your life? That’s a claim that’s made headlines across the world.

The Bank of England holds 35% of Government debt. Who owns the other 65%? We failed to tell listeners last week. We put that right.

Has the UK spent more on Test and Trace than on its operations in Afghanistan? We look into this claim and answer other questions from our listeners about the numbers in the news about Afghanistan.