So, coronavirus...

[sefton]

One of our local schools went back yesterday, 180 positive tests from a population of about 800, not all will have been tested.

[sockwithaticket]

My phone is now sufficiently old that it won't support most apps, including the NHS one, so I was looking into how to get a covid pass for upcoming gigs where I may need one. The alternative is trying to get a PDF via the NHS websitre which means making some sort of account and Jesus fucking Christ the hoops you have to jump through...

I got as far as uploading a photo of my passport where nothing's obsucred by any shine or a digit trying to keep the damned thing from closing, but then the next step was taking a video of yourself saying some words. Tipped me over the edge. I'll try again at the weekend, but fuck me. I'm already in the system in some capacity as I'm registered with a local GP plus I've booked my jabs and received the confirmations for them, why do I even need to re-register and go through this bizarre process of proving who I am to access a document that will say I have my jabs?!

[Calculon]

Graph showing how mild the omicron wave was in Gauteng.

[Hal Jordan]

Unfortunately the UK elected a lazy cunt as PM; who thinks his role, begins, & ends with doing cosplay photo ops; & who surrounded himself with a circus of cretins, who are primarily focused on enriching themselves, & their mates; & because they're basically bulletproof; there's no incentive not to fail miserably.

Have all the likes in the Universe.

[laurent]

The schools will be almost all closed next week so what is the point ?

We are at 300000 positive a day what will it be friday 500000 ?

By not closing they made sure the country would shut down it seems.

But you're not at 300000 a day. You've had two days of backlog after low counts. You are similar to the UK. Your dashboard doesn't seem to indicate when the days announced cases were tested unlike the UK one and to be fair the Welsh one.

They're not at 300k, because just like the uk, & everywhere else; they don't have enough pcr tests processed to give them a true figure.

330 today party on Wayne (edit for fix)

[Happyhooker]

My phone is now sufficiently old that it won't support most apps, including the NHS one, so I was looking into how to get a covid pass for upcoming gigs where I may need one. The alternative is trying to get a PDF via the NHS websitre which means making some sort of account and Jesus fucking Christ the hoops you have to jump through...

I got as far as uploading a photo of my passport where nothing's obsucred by any shine or a digit trying to keep the damned thing from closing, but then the next step was taking a video of yourself saying some words. Tipped me over the edge. I'll try again at the weekend, but fuck me. I'm already in the system in some capacity as I'm registered with a local GP plus I've booked my jabs and received the confirmations for them, why do I even need to re-register and go through this bizarre process of proving who I am to access a document that will say I have my jabs?!

I got into Twickenham on the 27th showing just the little cards that gave my vaccination/booster dates alongside some valid id

[dpedin]

Interesting article re long covid. Whilst we focus on cases, hospitalisations and deaths the other key issue often ignored is long covid. There is little real understanding about it and why it affects some folk and not others, however a real risk of this current wave and huge case numbers might be the ongoing health impacts of long covid. Fauci has said there is no evidence that omicron has higher or lower rates of long covid.

The article focuses on the already known vascular risks of covid. It is of interest to me as I had a blood clot in my lungs in the early days of covid in 2020. I had no medical conditions or indications that would have put me at risk of a PE. Medics at the time were sure, even though I had no covid symptoms, that it was due to previously having had covid. Subsequent blood tests some time later confirmed I had antibodies in my system but difficult to tell exactly if I had covid prior to PE. Medic said at the time that they were seeing 2-3 times the number of PE, cardiac and stroke problems. Good news, if the article is sound, is it looks like the blood thinners I am now on may have helped me avoid long covid?

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... microclots

[sockwithaticket]

My phone is now sufficiently old that it won't support most apps, including the NHS one, so I was looking into how to get a covid pass for upcoming gigs where I may need one. The alternative is trying to get a PDF via the NHS websitre which means making some sort of account and Jesus fucking Christ the hoops you have to jump through...

I got as far as uploading a photo of my passport where nothing's obsucred by any shine or a digit trying to keep the damned thing from closing, but then the next step was taking a video of yourself saying some words. Tipped me over the edge. I'll try again at the weekend, but fuck me. I'm already in the system in some capacity as I'm registered with a local GP plus I've booked my jabs and received the confirmations for them, why do I even need to re-register and go through this bizarre process of proving who I am to access a document that will say I have my jabs?!

I got into Twickenham on the 27th showing just the little cards that gave my vaccination/booster dates alongside some valid id

I want to at least try and go with the stuff specified on venue websites as a first resort, but, yeah, if I'm really having no luck with it I'll contact them ahead of the show and ask if that's acceptable. You'd hope so, or what's the point in them? Need to grab a little plastic wallet for them like you used to get (may still?) for a train season ticket to try and safeguard against wear.

[petej]

ONS infection survey

1.Main points
During this period of high infections, we have decided to publish our headline results two days early. This means that the latest estimates on infection levels are available at their earliest opportunity and further breakdowns for the same period and a longer time series will be published on Fridays. These early estimates are provisional and are subject to change as we receive more data, but they have undergone sufficient quality assurance to ensure that they are based upon an acceptable number of test results received up to the end of the reference week. This week, we are publishing estimates for the week ending 31 December, based on a reference date of 28 December to account for anticipated additional test results for the last few days.

Today, we have published new data that show in the week ending 31 December 2021:

In England, the percentage of people testing positive for coronavirus (COVID-19) continued to increase; we estimate that 3,270,800 people in England had COVID-19 (95% credible interval: 3,163,500 to 3,377,500), equating to around 1 in 15 people.

In Wales, the percentage of people testing positive for COVID-19 continued to increase; we estimate that 157,900 people in Wales had COVID-19 (95% credible interval: 138,900 to 179,600), equating to around 1 in 20 people.

In Northern Ireland, the percentage of people testing positive for COVID-19 continued to increase; we estimate that 72,900 people in Northern Ireland had COVID-19 (95% credible interval: 56,800 to 90,100), equating to around 1 in 25 people.

In Scotland, the percentage of people testing positive for COVID-19 continued to increase; we estimate that 238,000 people in Scotland had COVID-19 (95% credible interval: 209,300 to 268,000), equating to around 1 in 20 people

[Enzedder]

Is that why China have so few cases - they are publishing results from 2 years ago in Beijing

[dpedin]

Looks like Omicron isn't so good for kids! Apparently because it attacks the upper respiratory system more than the lungs this causes greater problems for kiddies who are more prone to upper respiratory viral attacks as they have less well developed/narrower airways that can get clogged up. Hopefully increase in hospitalisations doesn't lead to further problems but will put pressure on already stressed out paediatric services.

[petej]

Feigl-ding is an absolute clown who was going on about having HEPA filters in your pants due to viral particles being emitted when you fart. If a scientist reads like a tabloid (pandemic 2.0, PROTECT THEM ) it is best to ignore them.

With small children it has been well covered how they did not get or transmit the previous variants of covid very much. So hospitalisations were a very small number of a small number. With omicron they do so what you have is a very, very small number of a very big number. This should surprise no one least of all actual scientist's. Generally parents are very cautious with small children and looking back I've probably taken my toddler in when it wasn't needed (been very impressed with the out of hours gp). Is it a for or with COVID (gurdasani states with) graph as it proportionally is about right considering prevalence at a population level? Do the sums. If you admit 2500 children a day and prevalence is 2% (peak delta) then you have 50 COVID admissions if prevalence is say 6% (current) then you would have 150 admissions.

[Biffer]

Feigl-ding is an absolute clown who was going on about having HEPA filters in your pants due to viral particles being emitted when you fart. If a scientist reads like a tabloid (pandemic 2.0, PROTECT THEM ) it is best to ignore them.

With small children it has been well covered how they did not get or transmit the previous variants of covid very much. So hospitalisations were a very small number of a small number. With omicron they do so what you have is a very, very small number of a very big number. This should surprise no one least of all actual scientist's. Generally parents are very cautious with small children and looking back I've probably taken my toddler in when it wasn't needed (been very impressed with the out of hours gp). Is it a for or with COVID (gurdasani states with) graph as it proportionally is about right considering prevalence at a population level? Do the sums. If you admit 2500 children a day and prevalence is 2% (peak delta) then you have 50 COVID admissions if prevalence is say 6% (current) then you would have 150 admissions.

Yeah, he's very much on the Chicken Little wing of twitter.

[robmatic]

Feigl-ding is an absolute clown who was going on about having HEPA filters in your pants due to viral particles being emitted when you fart. If a scientist reads like a tabloid (pandemic 2.0, PROTECT THEM ) it is best to ignore them.

With small children it has been well covered how they did not get or transmit the previous variants of covid very much. So hospitalisations were a very small number of a small number. With omicron they do so what you have is a very, very small number of a very big number. This should surprise no one least of all actual scientist's. Generally parents are very cautious with small children and looking back I've probably taken my toddler in when it wasn't needed (been very impressed with the out of hours gp). Is it a for or with COVID (gurdasani states with) graph as it proportionally is about right considering prevalence at a population level? Do the sums. If you admit 2500 children a day and prevalence is 2% (peak delta) then you have 50 COVID admissions if prevalence is say 6% (current) then you would have 150 admissions.

Yeah, he's very much on the Chicken Little wing of twitter.

It gets him a lot of attention. 650,000 followers!

[Mahoney]

Looks like Omicron isn't so good for kids! Apparently because it attacks the upper respiratory system more than the lungs this causes greater problems for kiddies who are more prone to upper respiratory viral attacks as they have less well developed/narrower airways that can get clogged up. Hopefully increase in hospitalisations doesn't lead to further problems but will put pressure on already stressed out paediatric services.

I just graphed the data here over time:
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulation ... ons-by-age

5-14s (school age kids) are the bottom orange line.

Screenshot 2022-01-06 at 11.53.56.png (296.72 KiB) Viewed 1444 times

[JM2K6]

+1 for ignoring Feigl-Dingbat

[dpedin]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/children ... -1.6305207

Looks like Canada seeing same issue with omicron and young kids.

[Calculon]

Children, most of them unvaccinated, are still at a far lower risk from Omicron than adults

[dpedin]

Children, most of them unvaccinated, are still at a far lower risk from Omicron than adults

I think we all know that however the point is that omicron may be leading to higher levels of hospitalisation of young kids because it is attacking the upper respiratory system and this is a problem for young kids who have less well developed airways that get clogged up more easily. Hopefully they will recover after a short time on oxygen and steroids but it is increasing pressure on the NHS particularly paeds services for whom this is always a busy time of the year anyway with RSV, etc. Just saying that omicron is lower risk for children doesn't make this go away!

[dpedin]

Just finished watching the Royal institution Christmas Lectures delivered by JVT ... don't ask!

However, despite being aimed at kids, the level it was pitched at is probably exactly the level that the great UK populace need in order to understand covid, vaccinations, PH measures, mask wearing, etc. JVT was actually very good and he introduced all the top scientists who explained in pretty simple terms their own specific specialist topics. With some small changes it would have been useful to show on prime time tv and might have avoided all the covid bullshit I hear repeated time and time again. In fact it was probably at exactly the right level for many of the Tory party MPs! For example it explained in very clear terms how masks work in combating droplet and aerosol transmission of viruses and in particular how NP95 standard masks work as they do - to be honest I hadn't fully understood the electrostatic filtering built into the NP95 masks until it was explained in the lecture! Desmond Swaine, Mark Francois, JRM, et al should be sat down and tied to their chair until they have watched all the lectures - it might improve their understanding a little.

[fishfoodie]

Just finished watching the Royal institution Christmas Lectures delivered by JVT ... don't ask!

However, despite being aimed at kids, the level it was pitched at is probably exactly the level that the great UK populace need in order to understand covid, vaccinations, PH measures, mask wearing, etc. JVT was actually very good and he introduced all the top scientists who explained in pretty simple terms their own specific specialist topics. With some small changes it would have been useful to show on prime time tv and might have avoided all the covid bullshit I hear repeated time and time again. In fact it was probably at exactly the right level for many of the Tory party MPs! For example it explained in very clear terms how masks work in combating droplet and aerosol transmission of viruses and in particular how NP95 standard masks work as they do - to be honest I hadn't fully understood the electrostatic filtering built into the NP95 masks until it was explained in the lecture! Desmond Swaine, Mark Francois, JRM, et al should be sat down and tied to their chair until they have watched all the lectures - it might improve their understanding a little.

I make a point of recording them every year; as they are consistently excellent; & I think you're doing kids a disservice by suggesting that anyone needs to dumb down their lectures to have kids able to take them onboard; all they're really doing is slowing the deliver rate, & cutting out the fat, that makes up the boring 90% of anything technical; & just delivering the important bits.

[GrahamWa]

Just finished watching the Royal institution Christmas Lectures delivered by JVT ... don't ask!

However, despite being aimed at kids, the level it was pitched at is probably exactly the level that the great UK populace need in order to understand covid, vaccinations, PH measures, mask wearing, etc. JVT was actually very good and he introduced all the top scientists who explained in pretty simple terms their own specific specialist topics. With some small changes it would have been useful to show on prime time tv and might have avoided all the covid bullshit I hear repeated time and time again. In fact it was probably at exactly the right level for many of the Tory party MPs! For example it explained in very clear terms how masks work in combating droplet and aerosol transmission of viruses and in particular how NP95 standard masks work as they do - to be honest I hadn't fully understood the electrostatic filtering built into the NP95 masks until it was explained in the lecture! Desmond Swaine, Mark Francois, JRM, et al should be sat down and tied to their chair until they have watched all the lectures - it might improve their understanding a little.

I thought it was very good too. Lost me a couple of times when they were talking about gene sequencing but that probably says more about me.

[petej]

Just finished watching the Royal institution Christmas Lectures delivered by JVT ... don't ask!

However, despite being aimed at kids, the level it was pitched at is probably exactly the level that the great UK populace need in order to understand covid, vaccinations, PH measures, mask wearing, etc. JVT was actually very good and he introduced all the top scientists who explained in pretty simple terms their own specific specialist topics. With some small changes it would have been useful to show on prime time tv and might have avoided all the covid bullshit I hear repeated time and time again. In fact it was probably at exactly the right level for many of the Tory party MPs! For example it explained in very clear terms how masks work in combating droplet and aerosol transmission of viruses and in particular how NP95 standard masks work as they do - to be honest I hadn't fully understood the electrostatic filtering built into the NP95 masks until it was explained in the lecture! Desmond Swaine, Mark Francois, JRM, et al should be sat down and tied to their chair until they have watched all the lectures - it might improve their understanding a little.

A lot of adults stopped learning a long time ago and their understanding will be far worse than many kids. Part reason why I would have no issue dropping the voting age to 12-14.

[Uncle fester]

Are these online out of curiosity?

[petej]

On BBC iplayer

[Niegs]

Racist Canadian lady blames Chinese Canadian who's been here 20 years for the coronavirus.

https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/asian-man-b ... -1.5728844


And also in Canada, I wondered why CTV was trending. Seems antivaxxers took joy in 'flipping' a poll on the bottom of their site to get the result they want:

[Flockwitt]

The Covid case explosion in the US...

[Ymx]

In France they were seeing 0.45% new cases in a single day. 300k of 67M

In US it represents about 0.23% of population.
750k of 330M

So it could well double that number.

[laurent]

In France they were seeing 0.45% new cases in a single day. 300k of 67M

In US it represents about 0.23% of population.
750k of 330M

So it could well double that number.

There is not enough test now so who knows what the real rate is.

[petej]

The real rate in the UK. Divide 4 million by 7. Assuming each person is infected for a week. About 600000 per day.

Is the UK the only country with national scale ongoing prevalence study?

[tc27]

I see more Tory MPs harrumphing about getting people back into offices..they really cant let this go can they?

[Paddington Bear]

Commerical landlords are a powerful lobby.

Fwiw I don't think permanent wfh is working effectively on the whole but the constant hectoring is just dull. People don't want covid, they'll make their own decisions for now.

[dpedin]

The real rate in the UK. Divide 4 million by 7. Assuming each person is infected for a week. About 600000 per day.

Is the UK the only country with national scale ongoing prevalence study?

Just had the ONS lady round 15 mins ago to do the questionnaire and collect throat/nasal swab and finger prick blood test. Been doing it monthly since they started doing the study. Also do the Zoe app study every day. Given the shortage of testing capacity these are probably the best and most reliable measures we have now?

[SaintK]

Commerical landlords are a powerful lobby.

Fwiw I don't think permanent wfh is working effectively on the whole but the constant hectoring is just dull. People don't want covid, they'll make their own decisions for now.

I did it for 35 years. The 2 companies I worked for during that period were way ahead of their time. Admittedly my roles were field based anyway but the difference it made to work/life balance was immense

[Lemoentjie]

That Eric guy is a fear-monger. To show the other side of the data, from England:



If you do not separate 'with' and 'from' Covid hospitalisations (what Eric forgot about), then anytime when cases rise will result in 'hospitalisations' rising by a similar %.

[fishfoodie]

Well done that Judge !

A district court judge has declined to grant free legal aid to individuals who were fined for breaching the pandemic regulations last year.

At a sitting of Midleton District today, Judge Joanne Carroll said that the State has been put to considerable cost to date dealing with Covid-19 .

She said she was not prepared to grant free legal aid in cases where solicitors were representing clients who were before her court for failing to pay fines arising out of breaches of the Covid-19 regulations during various State lockdowns.

A number of defendants appeared in court following non-payment of Covid-19 fines for breaches in January and February last year.

[petej]

Looks like Wales omicron wave might have peaked. Cases and Positivity % has decreased.

[Paddington Bear]

Commerical landlords are a powerful lobby.

Fwiw I don't think permanent wfh is working effectively on the whole but the constant hectoring is just dull. People don't want covid, they'll make their own decisions for now.

I did it for 35 years. The 2 companies I worked for during that period were way ahead of their time. Admittedly my roles were field based anyway but the difference it made to work/life balance was immense

On the whole was the key part of my point - I know it works very well for some and I enjoy doing a bit of it. Some people though are absolutely phoning it in and/or have home situations that make it very difficult for them to do a proper day's work. The issue will come is how you deal with that - no doubt this is another 9/10 people think they are above average drivers scenarios.

[petej]

The real rate in the UK. Divide 4 million by 7. Assuming each person is infected for a week. About 600000 per day.

Is the UK the only country with national scale ongoing prevalence study?

Just had the ONS lady round 15 mins ago to do the questionnaire and collect throat/nasal swab and finger prick blood test. Been doing it monthly since they started doing the study. Also do the Zoe app study every day. Given the shortage of testing capacity these are probably the best and most reliable measures we have now?

The ONS study has been the best and most reliable measure since they started it.

[dpedin]

Looks like Wales omicron wave might have peaked. Cases and Positivity % has decreased.

Hopefully ...