COVID-19 Coronavirus UK and World News Update 13th to 16th November 2021
UK
Daily Statistics:
Cases: 9,637,190 (+39,705)
In Hospital / Using A
Ventilator aren't regularly updated over the weekend
Losses of Life:
143,159 (+47)
Tests: 916,832
Vaccinations 1st Dose: 50,614,550 (88%
UK aged 12+)
Vaccinations 2nd Dose: 46,045,964 (80.1%)
Boosters:
13,147,333 (22.9%)
Rep. Of Ireland: 507,413 (+4,395) cases and
5,566 losses of life
World: 254,873,337 reported cases and
5,126,745 losses of life
Soooooo, Boris must have known I was taking a long weekend off and yesterday we had a JCVI COVID Data Briefing, and then a UK Press Briefing. I'm proud to say I was in the pub having a birthday meal, so I missed them. The UK Press Briefing with Boris was mainly to pass on the latest figures from the Data Briefing, the advice offered by the JCVI, and decisions made based on that.
The JCVI Data Briefing was led by Jon Damme Van Tam, and actually Health and
Social Care Secretary Sajid Javid's response covers nicely what was said:
"...today
I have accepted the advice from the independent experts at the Joint Committee
on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) to extend the additional offer of a
booster jab to people aged 40 and over and offer a second dose of a vaccine to
all young people aged 16 to 17 as part of the primary vaccination schedule.
All 4 parts of the UK intend to follow the JCVI’s advice."
He went on to
say he's asked the NHS roll this out as soon as possible, and mentions the
latest booster study results:
"We know immunity to COVID-19 begins to
wane after 6 months and new data published today shows a third dose boosts
protection against symptomatic infection to more than 90% – this highlights
just how important it is that everyone eligible gets their top-up jabs as soon
as possible.
The JCVI will keep under review whether the booster
programme should be extended to all people under the age of 40 and I look
forward to receiving their advice in due course.
This is a national
mission – the vaccines are the best way to protect yourself and your loved
ones, and I urge everybody to get your jabs as soon as you can."
2nd jabs
for young people aged 16-17 can be booked online from next Monday, and must be
at least 12 weeks after the 1st dose.
The Booster Jab efficacy data to which Sajid is referring is from the UK
Health Security Agency (HSA) and it isn't yet peer-reviewed for errors, but
has found that in the real world, using Pfizer as a booster:
"2 weeks
after receiving a booster dose, protection against symptomatic infection in
adults aged 50 years and over was 93.1% in those with AstraZeneca as their
primary course and 94.0% for Pfizer-BioNTech."
Excellent stuff - although
it is a guide because it doesn't give us actual data for younger age
groups.
The UK Briefing with Boris was to pass on the information that we'll add
second vaccine doses for 16/17 year olds, and boosters for age 40+. He talked
about what's happening in Europe as we all head into Winter:
"A new wave
of COVID has steadily swept through central Europe and is now affecting our
nearest neighbours in Western Europe.
Our friends on the continent have
been forced to respond with various degrees of new restrictions, from full
lockdowns, to lockdowns for the unvaccinated, to restrictions on business
opening hours and restrictions on social gatherings. We don’t yet know the
extent to which this new wave will wash up on our shores, but history shows we
cannot afford to be complacent. Indeed in recent days cases have been rising
here in the UK, so we must remain vigilant."
He reminds us you can have
the booster from 6 months after your 2nd jab, and you can book it up to a
month in advance.
75% of all people over 70 and 80% of eligible older
people in care homes have had their boosters, and Boris ends his opener well.
(I reckon he has a new speech writer.):
"But many more people who are
eligible have not yet come forward.
And so if you are one of those
people, please go and get that third jab.
Because it would be an utter
tragedy if, after everything we have been through, people who had done the
right thing by getting double vaccinated ended up becoming seriously ill or
even losing their lives because they allowed their immunity to wane by not
getting their booster.
And if you haven’t even had one dose, it’s not too
late.
In fact there’s never been a better time to get that vital
protection as we head into winter.
So please, please go and get
vaccinated, to protect yourself and others, and in doing so we can help to
ensure that we can continue in the way that we are, sticking to our plan of
using vaccination to control this virus."
(The transcript ends with
"Thank you very much", which I can't read in any voice other than fake
Elvis.)
Media are reporting that Boris sounded ill, with a cough and
congestion. Frankly he's never seemed 100% right since he had COVID.
This very definitely IS a race against the virus. Hospitalisations have to stay down at a level where everyone is able to have the care they need, and (in the voice of Jon Snow) Winter is coming. Plus that new variant of Delta which is slightly more catchy, and can run a tiny bit faster than regular Delta. We have to keep pace if we really are determined not to have any restrictions.
Booster jabs seem likely to be added to the UK COVID passes very soon. To be honest this isn't just about the UK, other countries are discussing it too, and what would be the use of an international pass which didn't have the correct ticks for international travel? We know immunity wanes, and no-one ever suggested a single full vaccination was going to be a 'forever' thing. Still, a lot of people are unhappy at the idea of a 3rd jab.
Austria has locked down all unvaccinated people over age 12. This affects
about 2m people. They are not allowed to leave their homes except for
essential purpose - which includes getting a COVID jab.
Austria is facing
a huge surge in cases, which threatens to overwhelm hospitals. They were
reporting 1,500 to 2,500 cases a day through September and early October, when
suddenly it surged. 3,500 by 3rd week of October, 6,000 by the end of October,
8,000 beginning of November, and averaging around 12,000 a day now. The
population of Austria is only around 9 million people. Best of luck to you
all.
Tesco won't need to worry so much about unvaccinated shoppers in future, as
for the next five minutes, or until they need something and it's easiest to
pop in, the anti-vaccine mandate / anti-COVID pass people are threatening to
boycott because of the latest Christmas advert... sigh.
In the advert,
shockingly, Santa has a COVID pass. Hey newsflash, so does most of the world.
We don't always like things, but sometimes you really do have to just suck it
up, and every world Government is not going to decide against COVID passes for
a few thousand people who object. They really aren't. There isn't going to be
a way around this one if you want to travel internationally.
This advert
is funny. It takes a look at what we are going through, some of the minor
problems COVID has caused us over the past 2 years, and says 'STUFF YOU COVID,
WE WILL STILL HAVE FUN'. It's a fabulous message. Christmas sparkle is, after
all, mainly created within the grins of grown adults.
Any children
watching the ad will probably be delighted to find out Santa is fully
vaccinated, especially at his age, and he won't be delayed by international
quarantines while travelling.
I find it sad some people are so angry
inside that they find no joy in this advert, just something to be shouty
about. You really are missing out...
The US CDC has released a load of minutes and notes from earlier in the
pandemic, and it reads no better than anything from the UK, and potentially
actually worse. It was a dark period in CDC history. We knew the CDC were
quietened. Several CDC employees left, and when the Biden administration took
over, practically all of the COVID pages were edited to be more honest and
realistic. Politico sums it up:
"The emails and transcripts detail how in the early days of 2020 Trump and his
allies in the White House blocked media briefings and interviews with CDC
officials, attempted to alter public safety guidance normally cleared by the
agency and instructed agency officials to destroy evidence that might be
construed as political interference."
Hoax Of The Day:
This one's astounding. Apparently there are human beings alive who believe
they can get vaccinated for COVID, then clean themselves with Borax to remove
it. Err, nope. No. Just no.
Borax burns the skin and airways. A couple of teaspoons can be fatal. Washing
yourself in a solution of borax is insanity, and how did anyone think it was
going to work? For saying they won't believe in a vaccine, why on Earth would
they believe this?
COP26
I think Alok Sharma had a bit of a revelation at COP26. His previous voting
record isn't all climate-friendly, but he cried while he was closing the
ceremony and apologising to the delegates that the Coal agreement was amended
from 'phase out' to 'phase down' unabated coal power (unabated means the smoke
just escapes into the air, rather than being trapped and filtered). Both India
and China backed away from 'phase out', with India saying it wouldn't be
possible at the same time as trying to pull people out of poverty.
Boris also had a closing speech. He didn't cry.
Online hate speech has increased by around 20% during the pandemic, and no
surprises, against Asian people it has increased 1662%. Yeah, because every
Asian person on Earth personally decided to (on purpose) introduce a virus
that would cause havoc in your world? No. No, they didn't.
It's the equivalent of shooting at the sky because it's raining.
TV standby-list-celebrity poo-sniffer Gillian 'was never a Doctor' McKeith seems to have branched out. At 7pm last night she did appear to be offering to purchase the sperm of unvaccinated humans for a sum of your choice. I would imagine she's had plenty of offers by now, and is probably very much regretting that early sherry...
If you thought you'd heard it all regarding vaccination incentives (4 dozen
eggs, alcohol, weed, $1m lottery tickets etc) then Austria has a new one. A
Vienna brothel is offering a voucher for 30 minutes in the 'sauna club' with
the lady of your choice.
(Personally I'm so jealous about the 48 eggs. I didn't even get a sticker...)
I had a fabulous birthday, a huge thank you to all of you for the messages -
and all those cute little card gifs. I can confirm I didn't wake up a
different person, and 3 days in, so far my 50's are great. Sadly I'm still not
any taller, but I do now quality for a flu jab and a COVID booster...
I hope you had a good weekend too. If I missed something important, please
feel free to tell me! Back Friday...
Some numbers. They are all people:
Countries / Cases / Losses of life (since midnight GMT. In larger countries, such as the USA and India, some states /provinces have yet to report today):
USA 48,072,898 not yet reported today 784,779
India 34,456,401 not yet reported today 463,852
Brazil 21,960,766 not yet reported today 611,384
UK 9,637,190 (+37,243) 143,159 (+214)
Russia 9,145,912 (+36,818) 257,837 (+1,240)
France 7,290,886 not yet reported today 118,224
Germany 5,088,019 (+19,100) 98,506 (+145)
Spain 5,056,954 not yet reported today 87,716
Italy 4,873,075 (+7,698) 132,893 (+58)
Ukraine 3,244,749 (+16,308) 77,985 (+838)
Poland 3,230,634 (+16,590) 79,161 (+282)
Netherlands 2,334,472 (+20,168) 18,785 (+35)
Czechia 1,907,629 (+11,514) 31,636 (+45)
Romania 1,748,568 (+4,128) 53,661 (+343)
Belgium 1,512,474 (+9,229) 26,403 (+27)
Serbia 1,218,423 (+3,773) 10,951 (+55)
Sweden 1,185,093 not yet reported today 15,063
Portugal 1,110,155 (+1,693) 18,274 (+9)
Austria 981,904 (+10,363) 11,807 (+61)
.
.
.
Sources:
Tesco Christmas Ad - https://youtu.be/0P7QSCLtRwI
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/
https://ourworldindata.org/covid-vaccinations
https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus
https://metro.co.uk/2021/11/14/austria-unvaccinated-face-lockdown-as-covid-cases-surge-15599457/
https://twitter.com/10DowningStreet/status/1460177885671604230?t=4ylv9RxEYxTDXRx4B8JvPA&s=19
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/slides-and-datasets-to-accompany-coronavirus-press-conference-15-november-2021
https://twitter.com/i/events/1460183511214657537
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-accepts-jcvi-advice-on-covid-19-vaccination-programme
https://twitter.com/MarcVegt/status/1460484216664334343
https://twitter.com/i/events/1460562368400961539
https://twitter.com/GillianMcKeith/status/1460321504676265995
https://news.sky.com/story/covid-19-vienna-brothel-offers-customers-30-minutes-with-lady-of-their-choice-in-exchange-for-coronavirus-jab-12464616
"A person cannot remove a vaccine from their body once they have been injected, doctors and fact checkers report" https://twitter.com/i/events/1459312748081205248?t=DOfNz_bjcs6LurksMK-rrA&s=09
https://twitter.com/Tesco/status/1459623351861727234?t=5LfpuLCAyAUd5vbg4XRHOQ&s=19
Travel boosters
https://twitter.com/i/events/1460614785725353985
https://twitter.com/10DowningStreet/status/1459650425918050305?t=EPUBhQiVQABYUWDBgwu6YA&s=19
https://twitter.com/SkyNews/status/1459609948170723332?t=K2Eh_G1VQJ-BA_YFAdH58g&s=19
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/11/12/trump-cdc-covid-521128
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-59286790
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/boosters-give-over-90-protection-against-symptomatic-covid-19-in-adults-over-50
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.11.15.21266341v1
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/monitoring-reports-of-the-effectiveness-of-covid-19-vaccination
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