Coronavirus in the UK - news, lockdown and discussion

[cupid_stunt]

So, booster jabs to be rolled out to everyone over 18, with a minimum of 3 months between 2nd & 3rd jab.

2nd jabs to be rolled out to all kids over 12.

 

[elbows]

Oh Van-Tam has wheeled out the football analogies. Alpha and Delta were like getting injuries and subs off the bench, Omicron could be like getting some yellow cards, not going to wait for the red card to happen.

 

[elbows]

So, booster jabs to be rolled out to everyone over 18, with a minimum of 3 months between 2nd & 3rd jab.

2nd jabs to be rolled out to all kids over 12.

Plus the immunocompromised who already had three primary doses should now get a 4th dose as a booster.

 

[Calamity1971]

Oh Van-Tam has wheeled out the football analogies. Alpha and Delta were like getting injuries and subs off the bench, Omicron could be like getting some yellow cards, not going to wait for the red card to happen.

I stop listening when he starts with his inane fucking analogies.

 

[platinumsage]

Will he mention Michael Fish?

 

[elbows]

Will he mention Michael Fish?

Only if Fish moved to the South African weather forecasting service.

 

[sojourner]

I've just had (another) conversation with a fella in work who hovers on the anti-vax tightrope (he listens to a LOT of talk radio), and had to explain to him that the infection numbers are DAILY, not weekly. A look of sheer confusion passed over his face as he worked out the weekly numbers...'but, but that's 300,000 odd'. Yes Paul. Yes it is. Wear your fucking mask, dickhead.

 

[teuchter]

A slight downward tick is visile in the case numbers again. I know this doesn't necessarily mean much ... however, the deaths and hospital admissions numbers seem to be continuing on a consistent decline. I have been watching them waiting to see the uptick that we expect to lag behind the cases numbers ... but it hasn't happened yet. Previously the lag has tended to be about 2 or 3 weeks, right? But I think we are now beyond that.

 

[elbows]

Well the first thing I will say is look at the date on that graphic for when that patients admitted data was last updated. This is due to delayed figures from the likes of Scotland. So I recommend looking at Englands figures for that sort of thing.

The second thing I will say is that the age groups that accounted for a lot of the recent rise in positive cases included a lot of people who are young enough that I wouldnt expect them to make as large a difference to hospitalisations as we've tended to see in the past. Combine this with the effects of booster jabs and I suppose I'm not surprised that the daily hospitalisation picture hasnt exactly mirrored the case numbers trend recently.

But I wouldnt like to push that concept too far, and will post some of my usual daily hospitalisation for England and its regions graphs in a little bit.

 

[StoneRoad]

"New Cases" seems to be on the rise for approx six weeks, then drop for three then back to rising again.
The last dip, was, I think, related to school half term(s) ...

But looking at the figures for the county where I live, figures for hospitals & deaths still seem to be on a generally downward trend. As does the case rate in over 60s, especially compared to under 60s ...
Hopefully, that decrease will be the result of vaccinations & boosters.

 

[elbows]

Actually something has come up and Im probably not going to get a chance to update my graphs for several more days.

 

[teuchter]

Here are cases & hospital admissions for England only. Cases on a general rise since early Nov, hospital admissions on a gradual decline.

Of course that's what you might expect with infections being more predominantly in lower age groups ... the worry is to what extent they are then spreading back to older agre groups and the lag in that happening might be on a longer timescale.


.

 

[elbows]

OK I did find time to do daily hospital admissions/diagnoses for England as a whole by broad age group. Falls in older age groups show up very clearly.

I'm seeing some very different regional patterns though so I will try to post the same graphs for at least one region of interest to illustrate the point shortly.

 

[elbows]

A few regions to illustrate some of the differences being seen:

North East:



London:



South East:

 

[Calamity1971]

I've just had (another) conversation with a fella in work who hovers on the anti-vax tightrope (he listens to a LOT of talk radio), and had to explain to him that the infection numbers are DAILY, not weekly. A look of sheer confusion passed over his face as he worked out the weekly numbers...'but, but that's 300,000 odd'. Yes Paul. Yes it is. Wear your fucking mask, dickhead.

This is for Paul..

 

[teuchter]

A few regions to illustrate some of the differences being seen:

North East:

View attachment 298723

London:

View attachment 298726

South East:

View attachment 298725

Out of these the only group showing a clear upward trend in November is 18-64 in the southeast. I note that the southeast of england also shows up as a bit of an outlier in this graph:



from UK Coronavirus Tracker - Local

 

[elbows]

Yes, I also posted those graphs to draw attention to the variations in the extent of the downward trend in older groups.

 

[cupid_stunt]

Another Downing Street press conference this afternoon at 4pm.

Boris Johnson will hold No10 press conference at 4pm today on Omicron variant

The Prime Minister is expected to update the UK on new Covid rules which came into force at 4am today and give more details the booster vaccine rollout in a briefing in No10

www.mirror.co.uk

 

[brogdale]

Another Downing Street press conference this afternoon at 4pm.

Boris Johnson will hold No10 press conference at 4pm today on Omicron variant

The Prime Minister is expected to update the UK on new Covid rules which came into force at 4am today and give more details the booster vaccine rollout in a briefing in No10

www.mirror.co.uk

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas*....




*2020

 

[_Russ_]

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas*....




*2020

I was about to say I would prefer someone else presented these updates, someone like the health secretary.........then I remembered

 

[Sasaferrato]

A slight downward tick is visile in the case numbers again. I know this doesn't necessarily mean much ... however, the deaths and hospital admissions numbers seem to be continuing on a consistent decline. I have been watching them waiting to see the uptick that we expect to lag behind the cases numbers ... but it hasn't happened yet. Previously the lag has tended to be about 2 or 3 weeks, right? But I think we are now beyond that.

View attachment 298708

Yes. Vaccination is certainly ameliorating the severity of the illness.

i heard a medic on the wireless at the weekend, saying that the majority are mow needing a few days of O2 on an ordinary ward, ICU numbers are well down.

 

[elbows]

The governments stance is so shit that even mild comments from the usually ineffective Harries has caused a fracture:

We’ve seen is, in fact, that not everybody has gone back to work. I’d like to think of it more in a general way, which is if we all decrease our social contacts a little bit, actually that helps to keep the variant at bay. So I think being careful, not socialising when we don’t particularly need to and particularly going and getting those booster jabs.

5h ago 09:31

• Harries played down the prospect of the latest Covid restrictions being lifted before Christmas. She would not answer when she was asked if she could imagine this happening, but she stressed the possible threat posed by Omicron and said that it was important to be “very careful”. She said the new measures were designed to give the authorities time to study the threat posed by the new variant. She also said that escalating the booster programme would give Britain better protection.

5h ago 10:08

The Downing Street lobby briefing has just finished, and No 10 has delivered an unusually firm rebuke to Dr Jenny Harries, head of the UK Health Security Agency, on the subject of socialising at Christmas. (See 9.31am.) It seems that Boris Johnson is in favour of “socialising when we don’t particularly need to” (Harries’s phrase).

The Sun’s Harry Cole has the key quotes.

2h ago 12:23

 

[elbows]

Lots more on that on the Guardians live updates page, not least because of the parliamentary debate today which gives the usual shitheads a chance to talk complete shit.

Boris Johnson says people should not cancel Christmas parties over Omicron – as it happened

PM says government does not want people to cancel events such as Christmas parties and nativity plays

www.theguardian.com

In the Commons Christopher Chope (Con) said he thought the new Covid rules were part of a “scaremongering propaganda campaign” designed to suppress freedom.

In the Commons Steve Brine (Con) quotes what Jenny Harries said on the Today programme this morning. (See 9.31am.) Brine, a former health minister, says Harries is a careful and professional civil servant. She does not say things off the cuff, he says. He says if Harries was not presenting the government’s position in that interview, the minister, Maggie Throup, should have said so from the despatch box.

Brine also says he is concerned that the regulation saying close contacts of people testing postive with Omicron should have to isolate could mean that, if one pupil at school tests postive, the other 29 pupils in the class could be spent home.

Mark Jenkinson (Con) intervenes, saying this could lead to “lockdown by default” as a result of the work of “activist directors of public health”.

Brine welcomes the point. He says, before he votes for these measures, he wants to hear clarification of what “suspected case” means in the isolation regulations. He says there is “an element of the Salem witch trials about this”, because they could lead to people being told to isolate for no good reason.

He also says that the regulations could have negative impact on confidence. He says the government is not telling people to cancel Christmas parties, but that is happening anyway. He says he knows of events being cancelled in his constituency. That is due to “the chilling effect of these regulations”, he says.

Back in the Commons Sir Graham Brady, chair of the Conservative backbench 1922 Committee, says the government should have let MPs debate these regulations before they came into force.

He echoes the concern expressed earlier (see 1.16pm) about the lack of an expiry date in the isolation regulations. And he says there are “very serious concerns about the efficacy of what is being proposed”.

Dr Andrew Murrison (Con) says, although the government says it wants to avoid the risk of the NHS being overwhelmed, there is “no conceivable way” that could happen because 90% of the population have antibodies.

Brady agrees, pointing out that Murrison is medically qualified.

Sir Desmond Swayne (Con) intervenes to say the danger with the current plans is that they could trigger another “pingdemic”.

 

[scalyboy]

Lots more on that on the Guardians live updates page, not least because of the parliamentary debate today which gives the usual shitheads a chance to talk complete shit.

Boris Johnson says people should not cancel Christmas parties over Omicron – as it happened

PM says government does not want people to cancel events such as Christmas parties and nativity plays

www.theguardian.com

These people travel around in their own cars or are chauffered here and there, I doubt they know the reality of public transport at rush hour.

 

[elbows]

 

[elbows]

Main message from todays press conference seems to be that the new booster schedule is quite the challenge and they arent actually ready to do it yet, so dont contact the NHS etc if you werent already eligible for a booster at this time. And we'll hear all about it when they are allowing more groups to book earlier than was envisaged before Omicron arrived. They've set a target for the end of January to offer everyone a booster appointment.

Harries earlier comments, and the difference between them and what this shitty government say is necessary now, have unsurprisingly been seized upon by the press.

 

[Brainaddict]

So if I had a preference for novavax as my booster shot, do we think that would (a) be available in the near future and (b) be used for the booster program? With my long covid I'm drawn to the lower side-effects being touted for it.

 

[cupid_stunt]

Big increases in the rate paid to the private contractors, GPs & pharmacists, for booster jabs delivered by the end of Jan., about 20% up / £15 per jab, and about a 30% increase for delivering shots to the housebound - £30 per jab.

I guess that could get the minority of GPs that opted out from the booster campaign, back onboard.

Also mentioned was £20 per jab delivered on Sundays by pharmacists, but no mention of that for GPs, which could piss them off.

 

[_Russ_]

No decent pay rise for nurses, yet they can give GPs 15-30 quid to give a jab..taking the piss

 

[Steel Icarus]

I think it's brilliant that Christopher Chode thinks measures to keep people safe are suppression of freedom but him wanting conscription and being against same sex marriage is perfectly reasonable

The fucking chode