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Coronavirus - the new strain XXIV

A Whitehall report into lockdown-breaking parties in Downing Street is so damning that senior officials believe it could leave Boris Johnson with no choice but to resign as prime minister, The Times has been told.

The report by Sue Gray, a senior civil servant, is understood to be highly critical of Johnson both for attending some of the events and the culture in No 10 under his leadership.

The report has been put on hold until Scotland Yard has completed its own investigations, but a senior official familiar with its contents said the findings are “damning” for Johnson.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/...ing-boris-johnson-will-have-to-quit-9r372zdmm
 
Is it me or are the deaths just mounting up and up? I can' recall when I last saw a daily figure less than 250, but I may be wrong. If not then that's over 90K dead a year... and yet everyone is acting like this thing no longer exists. It's kind of insane and bewildering.
 
tiggers said:
Is it me or are the deaths just mounting up and up? I can' recall when I last saw a daily figure less than 250, but I may be wrong. If not then that's over 90K dead a year... and yet everyone is acting like this thing no longer exists. It's kind of insane and bewildering.
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It is all very depressing, made worse by the daily figures needing a bit more digging to see what is happening.

If you look at deaths reported by date then the shape of the curve is consistent with the hospital admissions data, just offset by up to a week. So currently the number of daily deaths is reducing and for the last complete set of figures, for the 21st April, is 160 deaths.

https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/deaths?areaType=overview&areaName=United Kingdom

During the last 2 weeks we have had the first cold in our house for a few years. My wife did 7 LFT tests in 8 days, all negative. I caught it 3 days later and LFT was negative, as was the PCR test. We were being very careful but this cold was very infectious, or at least with my immune system as it is, despite really trying to avoid it (heat recovery ventilations system, 2 portable HEPA filters (now increased to 4) and wearing of masks in communal areas), the cold still got to me. My mother in law, who does not wear a mask, but sits next to a portable HEPA filter all day, and everyone else wears a mask in her presence, has avoided the cold throughout
 
tiggers said:
Is it me or are the deaths just mounting up and up? I can' recall when I last saw a daily figure less than 250, but I may be wrong. If not then that's over 90K dead a year... and yet everyone is acting like this thing no longer exists. It's kind of insane and bewildering.
Click to expand...
In Malaysia the wave seems to be fading away, I don't trust the cases stats in this link for the same reasons of lazy reporting, but the deaths, ICU and ventilation are more trustworthy.
Far lower than in the UK, with 50% of the population
https://covidnow.moh.gov.my/
 
gavreid said:
A Whitehall report into lockdown-breaking parties in Downing Street is so damning that senior officials believe it could leave Boris Johnson with no choice but to resign as prime minister, The Times has been told.

The report by Sue Gray, a senior civil servant, is understood to be highly critical of Johnson both for attending some of the events and the culture in No 10 under his leadership.

The report has been put on hold until Scotland Yard has completed its own investigations, but a senior official familiar with its contents said the findings are “damning” for Johnson.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/...ing-boris-johnson-will-have-to-quit-9r372zdmm
Click to expand...
Johnson is shameless- it’s difficult to imagine anything that would prompt his resignation ( remember “let the bodies pile high”?). and at this rate they’ll be able to kick it down the road till after the next general election.
 
UK health agency to cut 800 jobs and halt routine Covid testing
Exclusive: ‘Alarming’ cuts by UK Health Security Agency could cost lives, public health experts warn

The flagship public health body set up by Boris Johnson to combat the pandemic is in turmoil, with plans looming to cut jobs by up to 40% and suspend routine Covid testing in hospitals and care homes to save money.

[You’d think they'd learn and be prepared for the next wave.]

https://www.theguardian.com/society...-40-of-jobs-and-suspend-routine-covid-testing
 
IanW said:
... the daily figures needing a bit more digging to see what is happening.

If you look at deaths reported by date then the shape of the curve is consistent with the hospital admissions data, just offset by up to a week. So currently the number of daily deaths is reducing and for the last complete set of figures, for the 21st April, is 160 deaths. ...
Click to expand...
Yes. The deaths "by date reported" seem rather unreliable right now. I assume as a result of some deaths not being recorded in the daily figures earlier, as was revealed a little while ago.

Below you can see that recent drop-off causing the "by date reported" figures (blue) to drop below the "by date of death" figures (red). It looks like the data recording problem happened over two weeks in February (and it looks like there was some smaller problem around Christmas / New Year). For the last couple of weeks the "by date reported" figures look screwy. Are they catching up by dribs and drabs or is there some other reason? I don't know.

It's always good to be sceptical about data and check it. The bottom line is that the "by date reported" deaths seem to be unreliable right now. That does not automatically make the "by date of death" figures good but they indeed are consistent with other data so probably can be trusted more. And thankfully they are declining at circa 3% per day right now. No guarantee this decline will continue but we can hope they follow the still-declining admissions figures.
 
Breaking: Government policies on discharging patients from hospital to care homes at the start the Covid pandemic have been ruled unlawful by the High Court.


https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-61227709

[The Government claimed that the risk from asymptomatic transmissions was unknown but the judges said the risk of asymptomatic transmission had been highlighted by people including Sir Patrick Vallance, the government’s chief scientific adviser, in a radio interview as early as 13 March 2020.]
 
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gavreid said:
UK health agency to cut 800 jobs and halt routine Covid testing
Exclusive: ‘Alarming’ cuts by UK Health Security Agency could cost lives, public health experts warn

The flagship public health body set up by Boris Johnson to combat the pandemic is in turmoil, with plans looming to cut jobs by up to 40% and suspend routine Covid testing in hospitals and care homes to save money.

[You’d think they'd learn and be prepared for the next wave.]

https://www.theguardian.com/society...-40-of-jobs-and-suspend-routine-covid-testing
Click to expand...

It’s probably deliberate - Bozo will probably let the bodies pile up until just before the next GE. Then they will suddenly discover a new pandemic, ‘a bit like that Covid thing we’d all forgotten about,’ so that he can be seen to get tough on the virus…..
 
I don't really understand how the fourth jab is being rolled out. My in-laws were waiting for their GP to get in touch and offer it to them. Instead my wife booked them in on the NHS website and they've both had it now.

I suggested that to my folks and they brushed it off saying they were happy to wait and hear from the GP. I suspect they'll be waiting a long time...

Both sets of parents are 80+, the demographic that makes up most covid fatalities.
 
gustavm said:
But I'm not sure though on the statistics - is there data to suggest the boost given to the immune system from having recovered from Covid (on top of full vaccination record) gives at least some degree of better protection for a while at least?
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I read a news article about that (in Finnish) - not sure I can find the link now, but it suggested that you should be pretty safe from getting re-infected for about 3 months and then the risk starts increasing. That was not taking not account new variations, but concentrating on Omicron.
 
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