COVID-19 Coronavirus UK and World News Update 20th / 21st November 2021
UK Daily Statistics:
Cases: 9,845,492 (+40,004)
Losses of Life: 143,927 (+61)
Tests: 993,405
Vaccinations 1st Dose: 50,759,550 (88.3% of UK aged 12+)
Vaccinations 2nd Dose: 46,152,913 (80.3%)
Boosters/3rd Dose: 15,064,693 (26.2%)
Rep. Of Ireland: 524,783 cases and 5,609 losses of life.
World: 257,708,604 reported cases and 5,167,044 losses of life.
"We could have potentially saved over 160,000 of the 180,000 lives lost in the US to COVID since June if every eligible person had been fully vaccinated."
Professor Vincent Rajkumar from the Mayo Clinic, USA
The UK Government are convinced their online vaccination booking system has been updated:
"From tomorrow, people aged 40-49 will be able to book an appointment online for the COVID19 booster.
If it's been five months since your second dose, you'll be able to book your booster for when you reach six months."
Best of luck, because usually when they make these announcements, it only works about a week or so later...
Despite the fact England has set up 90 Long COVID Clinics, only around 5,000 people a month are being referred for assessment and help. ONS monitoring has determined the number of people self-reporting Long COVID in the UK currently stands at over 1.2 million (defined by the ONS as symptoms lasting 12 weeks or more).
It's going in slow motion - I have deja vu...
The Sun is occasionally used as a UK Governmental sieve to drip information and assess public opinion, and they are reporting vaccinations for children aged 5-11 may receive approval in Spring.
I'd say that's incredibly likely, and in keeping with the rest of the world, many of whom have already begun vaccinating children aged 5 or over - well, those with access to vaccines anyway... It means that by New Year 2022 there will already be absolutely masses of safety and efficacy data.
Not everyone is happy about Austria's announcements for a nationwide lockdown and mandatory COVID vaccinations by Spring next year.
Tens of thousands of people have protested in the capital, Vienna, and it has become really ugly at times.
Protestors are also clashing with Police in The Netherlands, in protest about their announcement of a partial lockdown. People also broke into stadiums where football league matches were being played without spectators.
Obviously it didn't get them anything but arrested, because the matches were paused or abandoned.
Who knew that commonly used medical devices and equipment could be racist or otherwise discriminatory? They can. One example is that a lot of things are "probably safe but we've never put all the data together to check" for pregnant or breastfeeding people, so they can't be used. Another example is that it turns out Pulse Oximeters, those Oxygen measuring clamps they pop on your finger, are less sensitive in people with darker skin. What the heck!? How come no-one realised this before? Darker skinned people have died from COVID at a much higher rate than white skinned people here in the UK, and in the US. Is something so simple as incorrect measuring of blood Oxygen levels part of that?
UK Health Secretary Sajid Javid is on the case, and working with his US counterpart, Xavier Becerra. Neither of these health ministers are white - Becerra is of Latino descent and Sajid Asian descent.
This shows exactly why any Government NEEDS TO contain a representative cross-section of the people they actually work for - and not just comprise of hyper-wealthy older white men who have lived a charmed life, and went to school and played golf together.
Professor Vincent Rajkumar from the Mayo Clinic, USA, is getting a lot of scientific retweets today. He has literally just taken screenshot after screenshot of charts for different age groups, and US/Canadian states - showing rate of severe disease and deaths for vaccinated and unvaccinated people. It shows what we know and couldn't be any clearer. Vaccination across any and all age ranges reduces severe disease, hospitalisation and death from COVID by at least 90% - in the real world. Not with a lab, or estimates, or imaginary people. In real life, with real human beings.
I love today's Hoax Of The Day:
Well, I love the response more.
The hoax was that Sainbury's supermarkets are installing QR Code readers, so that only vaccinated people can shop there.
Sainsbury's say nope.
More specifically they told Reuters it simply wasn't true, but we "are trialling an upgraded version of our SmartShop experience with colleagues at one of our Holborn stores."
Easy mistake to make eh...
On Tuesday the Health & Social Care Bill will be voted on in Parliament. It Is incredibly contentious and it does have several clauses which help pave the way for a US style insurance paid health service.
- It makes it easier to simply employ private services to cover NHS shortfalls, rather than build NHS capability.
- It specifically removes the basic right we all have to receive hospital services.
- It even makes it okay for hospital trusts to make a profit by denying treatment to people.
That's not how the NHS is meant to work.
Many organisations, including Every Doctor, the 99% Organisation, workers unions including UNITE and the CWU, disabled people's groups including the Coalition of Disabled People and Chronic Illness Inclusion, and etc etc etc etc are opposing this. They want to keep the NHS.
To add your voice and make your opinion heard - contact your MP, or go to YourNHSNeedsYou.com to see what else you can do.
There is also a petition which you can sign - https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/592557 - asking:
"Amend the Health and Care Bill to protect the NHS.
1. Make the NHS the default for NHS contracts and tender competitively if not;
2. Ensure governance by those whose fiduciary (financial sensibleness) duty is to patients rather than to shareholders.
3. Retain the duty on the Health Secretary to provide a high quality health and care service, free at the point of use.
If you value the NHS, help Save The NHS.
Some numbers. All people, and all with medics and nursing staff to thank:
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 48,559,955 (+1,726) 793,549 (+10)
India 34,510,413 not yet reported today 465,662
Brazil 22,012,150 not yet reported today 612,625
UK 9,845,492 (+40,004) 143,927 (+61)
Russia 9,331,158 (+36,970) 264,095 (+1,252)
Turkey 8,571,554 (+21,177) 75,042 (+195)
France 7,414,971 (+19,749) 118,461 (+15)
Iran 6,077,438 (+4,340) 128,956 (+104)
Germany 5,358,372 (+17,040) 99,577 (+24)
Argentina 5,314,702 not yet reported today 116,374
Spain 5,080,663 not yet reported today 87,810
Italy 4,925,688 (+9,709) 133,177 (+46)
Indonesia 4,253,412 (+314) 143,739 (+11)
Mexico 3,862,137 (+3,306) 292,372 (+227)
Poland 3,345,388 (+18,883) 80,822 (+41)
Ukraine 3,332,943 (+10,635) 81,272 (+377)
.
.
Sources:
Health and care bill - ask for amendments - https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/592557
https://www.yournhsneedsyou.com/
https://99-percent.org/amending-the-health-and-care-bill/
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/
https://ourworldindata.org/covid-vaccinations
https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus
Images 3
https://twitter.com/RayMacLean1/status/1462036161564749825?t=DnPpZVYtxrMQ1z26BX4aSw&s=19
https://99-percent.org/amending-the-health-and-care-bill/
https://twitter.com/cbailiss/status/1462077299013169161?t=14yvoaa_5g0xcfLVZGhUBg&s=19
https://twitter.com/JanieL24/status/1462438946173079553?t=2xgRwWRGIxtVTbixAcXBLw&s=19
https://www.yournhsneedsyou.com/?s=09
https://twitter.com/VincentRK/status/1462079514540974088?t=x0CMrMtZPGHqgvmJRwKigw&s=19
https://twitter.com/VincentRK/status/1462243928036499462?t=eXUnIggE5NHRvFEWknXDWg&s=19
"Supermarket chain Sainsbury's has not installed technology to check COVID-19 vaccination status, the company says"
https://twitter.com/i/events/1462164869960982538?t=rY51z0uI_zTTmrk_H8gC9g&s=09
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/sajid-javid-medical-devices-racial-gender-bias-b1961502.html
https://news.sky.com/story/covid-19-rioters-clash-with-police-in-the-netherlands-for-second-night-setting-fires-and-throwing-fireworks-12474290
"COVID-19 protests in Rotterdam, Netherlands turn violent as demonstrators clash with police" https://twitter.com/i/events/1461938359777959937?t=MvHU49iow5nl5MIiEYJy1w&s=09
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/nhs-england-the-sun-government-pfizer-coronavirus-b967339.html
https://inews.co.uk/news/nhs-figures-reveal-a-huge-shortfall-in-long-covid-treatment-1310377
https://twitter.com/DHSCgovuk/status/1462345039258931200?t=1wBQLonfPHx9YgST1MThEg&s=19
https://news.upday.com/uk/covid-briefing-saturday-november-20/
Sturgeon tells people to take a Covid test before every social situation
https://f7td5.app.goo.gl/LWSw6v
Boris is fine
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/boris-johnson-speech-cbi-peppa-b1962834.html
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