Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19): The Disease & Its Spread (Per Se)

[blessmycottonsocks]

Nurse gets Pfizer jab, then gets Covid!
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-55579028

If, as is being reported, the vaccines are 90 to 96% effective and we're planning to vaccinate tens of millions of the population, that's an awful lot of people who are still going to contract Covid.

Mind you, both the Pfizer and Oxford vaccines are still more effective than the 'flu jab, which is estimated at only 40-60% effectiveness.

 

[Lb8535]

If, as is being reported, the vaccines are 90 to 96% effective and we're planning to vaccinate tens of millions of the population, that's an awful lot of people who are still going to contract Covid.

Mind you, both the Pfizer and Oxford vaccines are still more effective than the 'flu jab, which is estimated at only 40-60% effectiveness.

The flu vaccine increases and decreases in effectiveness each year depending on the variant (mutation) of the flu that is prevalent - they take a guess at the beginning of the season because it takes a while to produce the vaccine. That being said, I had a bad bout of flu 35 years ago and after that I had a shot every year . I have not (knock on wood) had the flu since, most of my time spent living and working in cities. I understand that this is advanced virology but I do wonder if the years of the activation of slightly different antibodies has helped. This is not my conclusion, since I have no training at all in what I'm talking about, just an observation. Or I could have been just plain lucky.

 

[EnolaGaia]

Initial - but still limited - research results indicate the Pfizer vaccine is or should be effective against the latest mutated variants attributed to the UK and South Africe.

Pfizer vaccine works against coronavirus mutation in UK and S. Africa variants

FULL STORY: https://www.livescience.com/pfizer-vaccine-effective-new-mutation-coronavirus.html

 

[brownmane]

The flu vaccine increases and decreases in effectiveness each year depending on the variant (mutation) of the flu that is prevalent - they take a guess at the beginning of the season because it takes a while to produce the vaccine. That being said, I had a bad bout of flu 35 years ago and after that I had a shot every year . I have not (knock on wood) had the flu since, most of my time spent living and working in cities. I understand that this is advanced virology but I do wonder if the years of the activation of slightly different antibodies has helped. This is not my conclusion, since I have no training at all in what I'm talking about, just an observation. Or I could have been just plain lucky.

I don't recall having the flu, but have had the flu shot for numerous years (initially because my husband was a vulnerable person) and have wondered the same thing,(as you say, Lb8535 ) if the years of the activation of slightly different antibodies has helped? I also have wondered if this is possible for the common cold or anything virus related. It seems that the at start of a new school year, colds go throughout the population - kids getting it and passing it on to their parent; parents passing it on to coworkers etc. I work closely with people daily, and rarely get more than the slight autumn cold. I have observed that I do tend to get sick whenever a new coworker starts at my workplace. My very limited theory (thought really lol) is that I become immune to whatever bugs my constant coworkers may carry and when a new person comes into the environment, I have to build up antibodies to whatever bugs s/he may carry.

Edit to add: this year with the distancing, mask wearing, hand washing etc, I have had no cold. So yeah. I must be doing something correct.

 

[charliebrown]

In Los Angeles county, California, it is from bad to worse.

Hospitals running out of oxygen so patient tubing being fixed to share oxygen among patients.

Most hospital in Los Angeles now have refrigerator trucks in the back to store all the bodies.

 

[Naughty_Felid]

I don't recall having the flu, but have had the flu shot for numerous years (initially because my husband was a vulnerable person) and have wondered the same thing,(as you say, Lb8535 ) if the years of the activation of slightly different antibodies has helped? I also have wondered if this is possible for the common cold or anything virus related. It seems that the at start of a new school year, colds go throughout the population - kids getting it and passing it on to their parent; parents passing it on to coworkers etc. I work closely with people daily, and rarely get more than the slight autumn cold. I have observed that I do tend to get sick whenever a new coworker starts at my workplace. My very limited theory (thought really lol) is that I become immune to whatever bugs my constant coworkers may carry and when a new person comes into the environment, I have to build up antibodies to whatever bugs s/he may carry.

Edit to add: this year with the distancing, mask wearing, hand washing etc, I have had no cold. So yeah. I must be doing something correct.

Proper flu is pretty bad, (or maybe it was a bird-flu SARS-type virus?) I had it about 15 years ago with a temp that if I'd had the energy I should have hospitalized myself, (temp was around 41c for hours- with paracetamol and ice sending it down to about 39c) I remember crawling across the floor in agony just to take a piss, (wife was away at the time).

I was extremely fit at the time.

God knows what this covid-virus must be like.

 

[Trevp666]

For the week ending Friday January 8th 2021, here is a review of the daily reported NHS England figures on SARS-Cov-2 (Covid 19) 'new' deaths.
All statistics taken from NHS England official reporting available online here, (along with a number of other statistical reports on various NHS activities);
Also now including an update on recent 'new cases' figures from the governments own 'coronavirus dashboard'.

https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/covid-19-daily-deaths/
https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/?_ga=2.58498792.313126479.1601306538-867402.1589210068

(Numbers of 'new' deaths in the regions other than England are recorded separately so are NOT represented here, nor are deaths in 'other settings' such as Care Homes.
Figures released by the ONS at a later date will include these additional statistics - it has been accountable for roughly an additional 30% - 40% on top of the NHS England numbers)

(Figures supplied by NHS England date back to the beginning of March 2020 when the UK recorded it's first day with more than 50 deaths.
The figures released daily include deaths from the day on which they happened, so can be from any previous day NOT from just within the previous 24 hours)

DATA COLLECTION BY NHS ENGLAND ON DEATHS - CLARIFICATIONS.
Clarification #1
"The total announced file is updated daily and contains information on the deaths of patients
who have died in hospitals in England and either tested positive for COVID-19,
or where no positive test result was received for COVID-19, but COVID-19 was mentioned on their death certificate"
So the data includes deaths as.... 'with C19'.... even if no positive test has been done!
Clarification #2
It was officially confirmed months ago that NHS England figures had been over-reported due to the fact that a significant number of people were being recorded as dying from SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19),
when in fact they had died of some other unrelated ailment, but their death happened some time after they had tested positive but recovered.
This explains why we had seen deaths from weeks and weeks beforehand appearing in the figures released daily.
It was reported that an adjustment was made to the figures to account for the mis-recorded deaths,
(adjusted down by 5340 using a 28 day cut-off period, which brought the existing total down to around 37,000 deaths at the time - the government were advised to use a 21 day cut-off but decided on 28 days)
We are, however, still seeing deaths included in the daily reports which come from longer than 28 days ago.
Clarification #3
It has been reported that a significant number of cases of infection, and deaths attributed to Covid-19, particularly in the earlier (peak) stages of the pandemic in the UK, were 'double-reported'.
This occurred in cases in which someone had received a positive test whilst 'in the community', and then went to hospital where they again received a positive test.
Not only was their test double-counted, if they also died then their death was double counted.
It was apparently thought to be correct procedure at the time.
I have not seen yet whether there is a plan to make an adjustment for these double-counts.

So even the NHS reporting is not as accurate as it could/should be.
(the historical numbers I show on this update have not been adjusted - assume that reported deaths on dates up to the August 15th are approximately 10% less)

CASES/TESTING INFORMATION;
A documentary on TV in November exposed the failings in the current testing labs whereby cross contamination of samples was common.
(Now further backed up by the fact that many staff at the Lighthouse Lab in Milton Keynes are having to self-isolate (during December) due to infection, including 20 of the 70 testing staff)
These cross contaminations lead to more false positive results than would otherwise be the case for those test methods, so this is inflating the count.
It has been confirmed that a significant proportion of the testing being carried out is 'repeat testing' of individuals, either that have previously tested positive (done to see how long it lasts), or those working in
care situations (to establish infection free status), so this is inflating the count.
Testing continues to increase week-on-week, and unfortunately MORE TESTS = MORE CASES, with the following results;
Yesterdays 'new cases' number, 68,053
(Last weeks update gave the previous day figure as 53,285)
The 68,053 came by way of 619,941 tests being carried out.
Which equates to 10.9% of tests giving a positive result, so no increase in real terms over previous weeks, in fact a big drop compared to the 3 weeks immediately before Christmas when the percentage was nearing 15%!


'Tiered' restrictions came into force on Monday Sept 14th, followed by a new 'Lockdown 2' from November 5th, and then returning to stricter 'tiered' areas (see further below for more details).
These restrictions all came about due to advice from SAGE group, however, the advice has been proven to be based on out-of-date data, has been 'worst case scenario', and has not been reacted to with any reference to the economic and other health effects being created.
As has been addressed elsewhere, the current 'PCR' testing is also producing many 'false positives'.
"The Lancet" shows research establishing a False Positive Rate (FPR) of around 4%, so if 4% of 500,000 are false positives then that is 20,000.
A significant proportion of the reported 'new cases' then.
Bear this in mind when looking at the figure of reported 'new cases' (as above).

Whitty and Vallance went on TV on Monday 21/9 (no questions allowed afterwards).
They suggested cases would be doubling weekly, leading to 50,000 cases daily by the middle of October (leading to 4,000 deaths per day!)
(on that day the reported number of 'new cases' was 3899 (but since then recalculated to show just over 4000), so using their estimation we should be seeing nearly 256 million daily cases in the UK by now!!!!!!!
Which was clearly just preposterous.
That would basically mean the whole of the UK would be infected 4 times by now.

My concern is that the numbers of new deaths are now including seasonal flu as C19 (see below)

As a result of continued pressure from SAGE and other advisers, Boris Johnson announced on Saturday 31/10 that we would be subjected to a 2nd 'lockdown' period, lasting 4 weeks, from November 5th to December 2nd, even though, as we can see from the official figures, numbers of deaths and cases peaked, levelled off, and began to drop, before the 31/10 in some areas.
During the accompanying televised briefing, charts and data were presented which WITHIN HOURS were shown to be data which was 3 weeks old, and incorrect, and misleading, forcing clarifications and corrections to be made the following day, and Whitty and Vallance being called to present information to the 'select committee' on Tuesday Nov 3rd.
However this did not prevent the government vote which was held on Wednesday Nov 4th from going against the lockdown, which went ahead the following day.

A further vote happened in the House of Commons, on December 2nd, in relation to the introduction of a new set of 'tiered' restrictions to be brought in the following day.
It was reported that up to 100 (ish) MPs would vote against, including tory backbenchers which have formed the Covid Recovery Group (CRG) after demanding a cost/benefit analysis to be produced beforehand.
Ultimately only 50+ voted against (not enough to stop the new restrictions from coming into force), but there were debates held in the House of Commons beforehand with many strong arguments against.
Sir Kier Starmer instructed Labour MPs to abstain.
This was reviewed on December 16th with more areas moved into stricter restrictions.
A 'Tier 4' was created and introduced during the Christmas Week for many areas, with no apparent end in sight.
It has now also come to light that, yet again, the previously disgraced Professor Neil Ferguson has been advising the government again with 'models' which are exaggerated.

The UK has now been put into another 'Lockdown' period (as of Jan 6th) which has been 'pencilled in' to last until March 31st (although the government advise that some restrictions are likely to be lifted earlier than that).
However, this Lockdown was brought in before parliament was given the opportunity to scrutinise, debate, or vote on it. Ultimately only a handful of MPs voted against it.

Additionally, the ambition to vaccinate 22 million people by Easter was stated (which was amended later to say 13.5m by 'mid-february', but we'll stick with 22m by Easter).
That being the case, and with the number already vaccinated as of Thursday 7th Jan being stated as 1.5 million, the following would need to happen;
22m - 1.5m = 20.5m left to vaccinate.
Days left until Easter Sunday = 87.
20.5m divided by 87 = 235,632 (and a bit).
So over 230,000 people will need to be vaccinated every day to achieve that number.
And each day that quantity is NOT achieved, the number needed during each following day increases.
In my opinion that is totally unachieveable.


THIS WEEKS FIGURES, NOTABLE STATISTICS AND RELATED INFORMATION/REMARKS;
3777 reported 'new' deaths this past week.
Last weeks update total was 2518, so this week is an increase of 1259 on the previous weekly total, which somehow is EXACTLY a 50% increase.
Also, bear in mind, that due to 'reporting lag' from over the Christmas and New Year period, a significant quantity of these reports come from longer ago than what you would usually see in the daily reporting figures.

There were no days during this past week in which the report released for that day recorded ZERO deaths during the previous 24 hour period.
(During the time before this winter increase there had been 22 separate days in which, during the preceding 24 or 48 hours, there had been zero deaths reported)

The most reported 'new' deaths in one day, from one site, during this past week was 32.
This was achieved by DARTFORD AND GRAVESHAM NHS TRUST in the data released on January 8th.

The oldest reported 'new' death during this past week is from November 5th (over 8 weeks ago! - well beyond the '28 days' cut off period, and yet being reported as a 'new death'!)
This was reported by EAST SUFFOLK AND NORTH ESSEX NHS FOUNDATION TRUST in the data released on January 5th

The last day previously which recorded more than 50 total deaths was June 24th, for which the total stands at 54.
The highest daily total of 'new deaths' recently is now 493 on Tuesday January 5th
It is common though for mortality to increase around Christmastime.
However the '7 day average' remains stable.
The day with the lowest total of deaths since April is Saturday August 29th, for which the total is 2.

Thursday this past week reporting 89 'new' deaths for the whole of England, however, as the daily figure is communicated to NHS England at 5pm each day the total for the whole of yesterday is not complete.
Also, reporting over the Christmas & New Year period has been somewhat inconsistent/laggy.
Totals of deaths by age group for this past weeks released data;
0-19 = 0
20-39 = 24
40-59 = 242
60-78 = 1348
80+ = 2163
(92.96% of the total number of 'new' deaths are now 'over 60', a decrease on last weeks %, which was 94.24%)
(57.3% of the total were over 80, a slight decrease on last weeks which was 58%)
NOTE: Now that the vaccination programme has been underway since December 7th, and the groups being prioritised have been the 80+ and carers, we should see a noticeable, and significant, drop in the numbers of deaths in the 80+ age group - at time of writing this note (Jan 9th) the percentage of 80+ deaths stands at 57.3%. If we DO NOT see a drop in that percentage, then it can only mean that the vaccines are not effective.


It has come to my attention that the ONS included information in a report in early October that it would no longer be producing separate reports for C19 and Influenza.
There was no further information to indicate whether or not this meant that the C19 deaths and 'Flu deaths would be combined into one figure, or if the separate reports would be merged into one report but keeping the totals separate?
If the figures for C19 and 'Flu are going to be combined into one total then that renders all future comparisons void as we will no longer be 'comparing apples with apples'.
My concern now is that this might have already been introduced and is therefore artificially inflating the statistics as we are NOT seeing hardly any seasonal 'flu deaths now, when typically at this time of year they increase rapidly!


Below are the running totals for 'existing' + 'new' = new total - where no new figures have been reported for a day then no calculation has been entered.
(This weekly update shows the additions from all the reports published during this preceding week, in which the deaths fall within the period since
Thursday April 2nd, the date I started logging the numbers officially released)

Sorry that this is now quite a long list of dates and numbers - please scroll to the bottom for the most recent statistics.
(As the data prior to the lowest recorded figures during early August rarely changes now, I have removed that from this weekly report.
The 'highest' figure during the early weeks of the pandemic was on April 4th, with 1,111.)

S 5 (August 1st)
S 14
M 11
T 8
W 5
T 7
F 6
S 7 (August 8th)
S 6
M 8
T 11
W 4
T 4
F 5
S 11 (August 15th)
S 3
M 10
T 8
W 3
T 3
F 6
S 5 (August 22nd)
S 10
M 5
T 10
W 10
T 7
F 5
S 2 (August 29th)
S 4
M 7
T 3
W 9
T 4
F 6
S 8 (Sept 5th)
S 7
M 9
T 11
W 7
T 9
F 7
S 8 (Sept 12th)
S 14
M 11
T 12
W 16
T 20
F 19
S 11 (Sept 19th)
S 24
M 16
T 25
W 38
T 24
F 22
S 30 (Sept 26th)
S 34
M 39
T 35
W 41
T 43
F 48
S 38 (Oct 3rd)
S 38
M 40
T 50
W 58
T 57
F 50
S 61 (Oct 10th)
S 76
M 72
T 71
W 81
T 91
F 91
S 130 (Oct 17th)
S 91
M 116
T 131
W 198
T 145
F 144
S 133 (Oct 24th)
S 164
M 170
T 168
W 178
T 209
F 206
S 215 (Oct 31st)
S 222
M 222
T 208
W 235
T 216+1=217
F 232
S 272 (Nov 7th)
S 255
M 310+1=311
T 267
W 236+1=237
T 271+1=272
F 262
S 290+1=291 (Nov 14th)
S 295
M 270
T 293
W 324+1=325
T 294
F 300+1=301
S 266 (Nov 21st)
S 316+1+2=319
M 295
T 311
W 323
T 283
F 283+2=285
S 308 (Nov 28th)
S 311+1=312
M 264
T 268
W 263+1+1=265
T 298
F 287
S 252 (Dec 5th)
S 266+1=267
M 249
T 286
W 267
T 288+1=289
F 280+1+2=283
S 288+2+1=291 (Dec 12th)
S 270+1+2+5+1=279
M 288+1+2+4=295
T 296+1+1+1+3+1=303
W 259+3+1+1=264
T 314+3+1+4=322
F 302+6+2=310
S 283+1+2+1=287 (Dec 19th)
S 307+1+1+3+2+1=315
M 351+1=352
T 328+3+1+2+1+4+2=341
W 319+7+2+1+2+11+1+1=344
T 315+6+4+4+6+1+1=337
F 357+16+6+3+3+5+4+3=397
S 372+8+10+8+2+7+5+2=414 (Dec 26th - Boxing Day)
S 371+10+12+12+5+5+8+9+1=433
M 352+6+14+3+8+16+7+5=411
T 336+25+12+9+21+7+7+2=419
W 237+101+18+16+25+22+13+5=437
T 42+157+93+36+53+29+21+22=453
F 32+164+66+76+56+29+17=440
S 47+192+94+43+32+23=431 (Jan 2nd)
S 33+210+108+39+27=417
M 67+252+109+63=491
T 71+276+146=493
W 88+303=391
T 89

 

[Eyespy]

Wait till you get one in the eye.

I had one over 25 years ago to remove a cyst. Still have nightmares about it. They sent me back to work afterwards. Different times.

 

[charliebrown]

England having 11 days of more than 50,000 positive coronavirus tests is crushing the health system.

Just like Los Angeles county, California, ambulances have no where to go in England.

 

[Schrodinger's Zebra]

England having 11 days of more than 50,000 positive coronavirus tests is crushing the health system.

Just like Los Angeles county, California, ambulances have no where to go in England.

A positive test in no way infers that the person needs medical assistance or is even ill. It just means they've had a test and it is positive.

Some will be ill yes, but not all 50,000 of them. And of those who are ill, some will require medical help/hospital and some will manage their symptoms at home. A lot of them probably wouldn't have even known they had it if they hadn't had the test.

That's unfortunately what a lot of people are misunderstanding about these figures being bandied about by the media.

The other issue that isn't really mentioned is that because of many NHS staff being off sick or self-isolating due to a positive test, not to mention the reduction in bed capacity due to social distancing, also has an effect on the hospitals.

 

[Victory]

Vaccinating those who have previously tested positive definitely needs research:

Report from Israel's Channel 12, of a 23 year old man who suffered a multi organ failure a day after being vaccinated.
He is still alive thank G-D but in hospital.

"Professor Mevorach told Channel 12: "We found out that the young man had contracted the coronavirus asymptomatically before he was vaccinated. It may be accidental but I would not underestimate it. Care must be taken in vaccination of people who were sick with coronavirus in the past."

 

[EnolaGaia]

Health officials in Japan have reported identification of a novel COVID variant distinct from the recently discovered UK / South African version(s).

The Latest: Japanese Health Ministry finds new virus variant

The Japanese Health Ministry has found a coronavirus variant in people arriving from Brazil that’s different from the ones in Britain and South Africa.

The variant was found in airport tests on a man in his 40s, a woman in her 30s and two teens, the ministry said Sunday. Japan was working with other nations, the WHO and other medical experts to analyze the new version of the virus, and it was still unclear whether available vaccines would work.

The man who tested positive had no symptoms upon arrival but was hospitalized after his breathing became difficult. The woman suffered head aches, one teen, a male, had a fever, while the other female teen had no symptoms, according to the ministry. ...

SOURCE: https://apnews.com/article/travel-b...china-europe-380d2e96aaf415977f46c002058cebd7

 

[EnolaGaia]

Live Science has assembled a quick reference guide to the vaccines that have been approved for emergency use so far ...

Quick guide: COVID-19 vaccines in use and how they work

Dozens of coronavirus vaccines entered clinical trials during 2020, and now, a handful have been authorized for emergency use in various countries — meaning the shots can be administered to the public while their developers continue to collect data on their safety and efficacy. Should they meet all the necessary criteria, these vaccines could be fully approved in the future, and in some places, they already have been.

Here's a quick guide to the COVID-19 vaccines now in use around the world. ...

FULL STORY: https://www.livescience.com/coronavirus-vaccines-authorized-for-use.html

 

[EnolaGaia]

The WHO team tasked to investigate COVID-19 origins will be arriving in China this week.

Coronavirus origins will be investigated by WHO team arriving in China this week

A little over a year after the World Health Organization (WHO) was first alerted to a string of mysterious respiratory illnesses, experts from the agency are set to arrive in China on Thursday ... to investigate the origins of the novel coronavirus.

The origins of the virus, which has now infected more than 90.3 million people worldwide and killed 1.9 million, has sparked much speculation; conspiracy theories even claimed the virus could have originated in a Chinese lab, which scientists say is extremely unlikely ...

FULL STORY: https://www.livescience.com/who-investigates-coronavirus-origin-china.html

 

[EnolaGaia]

A newly published study indicates 3/4 of COVID-19 patients still exhibit one or more symptoms 6 months after their primary infection period.

6 Months After Infection, 76% of COVID-19 Patients Are Still Suffering Symptoms

More than three quarters of people hospitalised with COVID-19 still suffered from at least one symptom after six months, according to a study published Saturday that scientists said shows the need for further investigation into lingering coronavirus effects.

The research, which was published in the Lancet medical journal and involved hundreds of patients in the Chinese city of Wuhan, is among the few to trace the long-term symptoms of COVID-19 infection.

It found that fatigue or muscle weakness were the most common symptoms, while people also reported sleeping difficulties.

FULL STORY: https://www.sciencealert.com/most-covid-19-patients-still-have-at-least-one-symptom-after-6-months

 

[Ogdred Weary]

Health officials in Japan have reported identification of a novel COVID variant distinct from the recently discovered UK / South African version(s).


SOURCE: https://apnews.com/article/travel-b...china-europe-380d2e96aaf415977f46c002058cebd7

Gojiravirus.

 

[EnolaGaia]

Countries which have performed trials of China's Sinovac vaccine are reporting notably diverse estimates of its effectiveness. The latest nation reporting (Brazil) seems to indicate the variation correlates with the severity of a given patient's infection.

It's not clear how comparable these nations' studies may be to each other, so it's difficult to ascertain how consistent (and conclusive) they may be.

Sinovac: Brazil results show Chinese vaccine 50.4% effective

A coronavirus vaccine developed by China's Sinovac has been found to be 50.4% effective in Brazilian clinical trials, according to the latest results released by researchers.

It shows the vaccine is significantly less effective than previous data suggested - barely over the 50% needed for regulatory approval.

The Chinese vaccine is one of two that the Brazilian government has lined up. ...

Sinovac, a Beijing-based biopharmaceutical company, is behind CoronaVac, an inactivated vaccine. It works by using killed viral particles to expose the body's immune system to the virus without risking a serious disease response.

Several countries, including Indonesia, Turkey and Singapore, have placed orders for the vaccine. ...

Last week researchers at the Butantan Institute, which has been conducting the trials in Brazil, announced that the vaccine had a 78% efficacy against "mild-to-severe" Covid-19 cases.

But on Tuesday they revealed that calculations for this figure did not include data from a group of "very mild infections" among those who received the vaccine that did not require clinical assistance.

With the inclusion of this data, the efficacy rate is now 50.4%, said researchers.

But Butantan stressed that the vaccine is 78% effective in preventing mild cases that needed treatment and 100% effective in staving off moderate to serious cases.

The Sinovac trials have yielded different results across different countries.

Last month Turkish researchers said the Sinovac vaccine was 91.25% effective, while Indonesia, which rolled out its mass vaccination programme on Wednesday, said it was 65.3% effective. Both were interim results from late-stage trials. ...

FULL STORY: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-55642648

 

[GNC]

Looks like Christmas was a bad idea:
News story

UK death toll passes 100,000. Cases skyrocketing. Please don't go out unless you have to.

 

[Yithian]

Looks like Christmas was a bad idea:
News story

UK death toll passes 100,000. Cases skyrocketing. Please don't go out unless you have to.

If only we had known.

 

[Tempest63]

Looks like Christmas was a bad idea:
News story

UK death toll passes 100,000. Cases skyrocketing. Please don't go out unless you have to.

We caught our infection from a visiting daughter on Boxing Day. She dropped some gifts round, didn’t stay long, then two days later we go down with the Rona. Second shit Christmas in a row. I was in bed all of last Christmas with similar symptoms but no one knew that COVID was already circulating at that time.

 

[Yithian]

We caught our infection from a visiting daughter on Boxing Day. She dropped some gifts round, didn’t stay long, then two days later we go down with the Rona. Second shit Christmas in a row. I was in bed all of last Christmas with similar symptoms but no one knew that COVID was already circulating at that time.

Did daughter ever develop symptoms?

 

[Tempest63]

Did daughter ever develop symptoms?

Yes she did, the following day and subsequently tested positive. She looks after my youngest daughters 2YO son and we believe it was his dad who first brought it into our circle.

 

[Yithian]

Yes she did, the following day and subsequently tested positive. She looks after my youngest daughters 2YO son and we believe it was his dad who first brought it into our circle.

Bad luck.

Hope all are soon fully rid of it.

 

[EnolaGaia]

Another new strain has been identified ...

New 'Columbus strain' of coronavirus evolved in the US

Two new COVID-19 variants have been found in Ohio, and they appear to have originated in the United States, researchers announced on Wednesday (Jan. 13).

One of these variants, dubbed the "Columbus strain," has three gene mutations that haven't previously been seen together in SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, according to a statement from The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. These mutations occur in the so-called spike protein of the virus, which it uses to latch onto cells.

This strain quickly became the dominant coronavirus variant in Columbus, Ohio, over a three-week period from late December 2020 to early January, according to the researchers, who hope to post their findings soon on the pre-print database bioRxiv. ...

"This new Columbus strain has the same genetic backbone as earlier cases we've studied, but these three mutations represent a significant evolution," study leader Dr. Dan Jones, vice chair of the division of molecular pathology at they Wexner Medical Center, said in the statement. "We know this shift didn't come from the U.K. or South African branches of the virus." ...

FULL STORY: https://www.livescience.com/us-covid-19-variant-ohio.html

 

[Spudrick68]

Our store now has 53 staff members off, either with Covid, isolating because they have been in contact with someone with Covid and 7 awaiting results of Covid test.

 

[blessmycottonsocks]

As it is now becoming clear that, having contracted Covid, you will be immune from catching it again for at least several months, wouldn't it make sense to prioritise those who have not ever tested positive, to receive the vaccine?
Vaccinating someone who already has immunity is surely a waste of a vaccine that could be given to a vulnerable person.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-55651518

 

[blessmycottonsocks]

Looks like Christmas was a bad idea:
News story

UK death toll passes 100,000. Cases skyrocketing. Please don't go out unless you have to.

Beware of The Guardian quoting figures!

Moderator's Edit:

Reverting to the original questionable method of calculation, which is not used by any neighbouring countries, makes any international comparisons worthless.

The only semi-reliable data on Covid mortality rates are official international deaths per capita, where the UK is currently around 7th place:

 

[Trevp666]

As it is now becoming clear that, having contracted Covid, you will be immune from catching it again for at least several months, wouldn't it make sense to prioritise those who have not ever tested positive, to receive the vaccine?
Vaccinating someone who already has immunity is surely a waste of a vaccine that could be given to a vulnerable person.

Careful - facts upset the trolls.

 

[Trevp666]

....deaths per capita, where the UK is currently around 7th etc

Of course, assuming that the deaths reported as 'with covid' are not from something else but they were found to also have a C19 infection, or indeed no C19 at all, but died from something else (eg 'flu) but it got classified erroneously as C19, and not just in the UK but in all the countries on the list.
I would much rather see the data for 'all deaths' per capita, in comparison to the same period for each of the preceding 30 years.

 

[EnolaGaia]

Beware of The Guardian quoting figures!
The only semi-reliable data on Covid mortality rates are official international deaths per capita, where the UK is currently around 7th place ...

One should also beware of ostensibly 'better' data posted without (a) specifying its source and (b) including or explaining the footnote(s) indicated for the nation (UK) of focal interest.

Add some clues / clarification, or else risk losing the post.