COVID-19 Coronavirus UK and World News Update 8th / 9th November 2021
UK Daily Statistics:
Cases: 9,366,676 (+33,117)
In Hospital Yesterday 8th Nov: 8,900 (DOWN from 9,538 a week earlier, still higher than 8,693 two weeks earlier)
Using A Ventilator Yesterday 8th Nov: 1,025 (Slightly DOWN from 1,030 a week earlier, and up on 913 two weeks earlier)
Losses of Life: 142,124 (+262)
Tests: 920,068
Vaccinations 1st Dose: 50,296,294 (87.5% of UK adults aged 16+)
Vaccinations 2nd Doses: 45,873,038 (79.8%)
Booster /3rd Dose Vaccinations: 10,580,122 (18.4%)
Rep. Of Ireland: 472,547 cases and 5,492 losses of life (not yet reported today).
The total number of people who have tested positive for COVID worldwide has passed 250 million.
World: 251,333,353 reported cases and 5,075,739 losses of life.
"I have concluded that all those working in the NHS and social care will have to be vaccinated."
Sajid Javid, UK Health Secretary, confirming to Parliament that all patient-facing NHS England workers will have to be vaccinated by 1st April next year.
"The majority of NHS workers are already vaccinated, as over 92.8% have had their first dose and 89.9% have had both doses of a COVID-19 vaccine. In social care, 83.7% of domiciliary care workers have had their first dose and 74.6% have had both doses.
Latest published data shows, however, that over 103,000 NHS Trust workers and 105,000 domiciliary care workers have not been reported as fully vaccinated and the government is urging them to take up the offer now, to keep themselves and those they care for safe."
Boris Johnson visited Hexham Hospital yesterday and posted a video showing himself wandering around inside the hospital without a mask.
All together..... *sigh*.
Is anyone actually surprised? Dominic Raab attempted to defend him on live TV this morning, at least that's what his words were saying. His face was saying "Why? Why me? Why did Matt Hancock leave?"...
"From 4am Monday 22 November, COVID-19 vaccines on the WHO EUL will be recognised and all under-18s coming to England will be treated as fully vaccinated at the border."
In addition to our own list of approved vaccines (AstraZeneca, Moderna, Pfizer and Johnson&Johnson/Janssen), WHO Emergency Use Listing includes Sinovac, Sinopharm Beijing and Covaxin.
Thousands of people had a reason to smile yesterday, as America reopened their border to UK visitors after a whopping 598 days.
Travellers to the US aged 18 or over must be fully vaccinated AND either prove they have recovered from COVID in the last 3 months OR show a negative lateral flow test.
Healthy UK teenagers aged 12-17 are only eligible for a single jab for now - bear this in mind if you book travel abroad, because in a few countries they will not count as "fully vaccinated".
Amanda Pritchard, Head of the UK NHS, has come unstuck. She said we had 14 times as many people in hospital as this time last year. Fact-checkers were all over that one, because it clearly isn't true.
It didn't get any better when she later clarified that she meant "latest figures" and referred to August 2020 and August 2021.
Clearly we have far more up to date figures than those Amanda, and I'd really hope you do too.
This is what happens when you officially drip feed information that's weeks out of date, and forget people can look up more recent information any time, and that we really don't need to wait for someone official to tell us the difference between one month and another.
For reference, on 8th November 2020, we officially reported 13,617 people in hospital, with 1,268 people using a ventilator on 9th November 2020.
Two days later, on 10th November 2020, that figure was 14,030 people in hospital - it was not a good time. We were reporting around 33,000 new daily cases - similar to today.
(It's great being able to refer back to my own posts on occasions such as this.)
The UK Government had an emergency debate on "Standards" last night. It was an emergency debate on truthfulness, transparency, changing the law so you no longer face a charge, and integrity. I'm not sure when integrity was lost, but we live in a world where people in power lie and cheat, and get caught, and feel no shame nor punishment. It's embarrassing.
The Zoe App. has today released details of a study which shows 81% of people develop antibodies after catching COVID, but around 19% don't. That's almost 1in5, and these are similar results to those we've seen before, so it's not entirely surprising. Having a more severe illness made people more likely to develop antibodies, while having comorbidities, being in generally poorer health or being a smoker made them less likely to develop antibodies.
The really good news for anyone who has been poorly with COVID, is that naturally acquired antibodies seem to last a little better than some previous studies suggested:
"Among the 81% of ZOE study participants who tested positive, there was no evidence of a drop in anti-N antibodies for up to 270 days after infection."
Catching COVID isn't a substitute for vaccination - you could become very ill, you don't know how well you'll be protected, or if you are the 1 in 5 with no protection, and we can already see boosting immunity is going to be necessary....
Germany is currently experiencing the highest number of new weekly cases than ever before, they're averaging around 25,000 new cases a day.
(They're missing Angela Merkel already, and she hasn't even packed up her office).
France has admitted more COVID patients to hospital in the last month than any other month during the pandemic - 6,865. President Emmanuel Macron is expected to address the population tonight.
The UK and France have very similar population sizes - 68m and 65m respectively. The UK has admitted over 700 people almost every day since mid June. That is 4,900 a week. We have been admitting around 1,000 new COVID patients each day since 18th October - we are discharging slightly less than 1,000 patients each day. Don't believe anyone who says the NHS is not under extreme pressure - it has been for a long time.
Nasty Hoax Of The Day:
Anti-vaxxers in the UK are spreading a fake list of names of school children who they claim have died because of the COVID vaccination. One of the names belongs to an 11 year old girl who died suddenly at school. She hadn't even been vaccinated, she was 11.
It is traumatising enough for any parent to suddenly lose a child, but to then find their name in a bogus list being shared on social media must be horrific.
The MHRA publish adverse events weekly. No child in the UK has been reported as dying as a direct result or even potential result of vaccination. Occasionally people just die. Occasionally even children just die. Leave their families alone in their grief, and get your information from official sources. If you are worried that NHS or MHRA figures lie - they tend to be a bit behind for sure, and they'll shout loudest about good news, but the people giving these figures are accountable, and if any child really had died as a result of vaccination, it would be actual worldwide news - not just something shared on social by your cousin Nelly.
(I do appreciate the irony of that statement as I post a copy of each report to Facebook - but thankfully I also post it here and add in all of the sources at the bottom if you ever want to fact-check or find out more about something I cover).
Big news from Singapore.
"From 8 December 2021, we will begin charging COVID-19 patients who are unvaccinated by choice.
COVID-19 medical bills for those who are ineligible for vaccination will still be fully paid for by the Government, i.e. children under 12 years old or medically ineligible persons."
This is something lots of people, including people in power, have suggested/threatened, but I think Singapore is the first to implement it. From December 31st, the same will apply to partially vaccinated people.
The Singapore Health Ministry say that unvaccinated people are a disproportionate burden, as they make up the majority of patients in intensive care, despite fantastic vaccination rates. Over 85% of eligible citizens are fully vaccinated (86% partly vaccinated), with 18% having had boosters already.
Belarus and Poland are arguing. In fact Belarus is arguing with the whole EU, and some other bits of the world, but Poland is the country in the spotlight.
Belarus appears to be sending refugees and asylum-seekers to the border with Poland, and refusing to let them go anywhere else. Poland has a closed border and armed forces guarding it (the same as the UK does). This is very swiftly becoming a humanitarian disaster, because these people have nothing - and there are hundreds of them.
Heavy sanctions were imposed on Belarus by the EU, UK, US, Canada and Switzerland back in June, after Belarus officials lied and diverted a Ryanair Lithuania to Greece passenger flight to land in Minsk, so that they could detain a journalist on board. It broke international law and aviation law, and was the final straw after a huge list of humanitarian and Governmental concerns. Hardly anyone worldwide recognises the result of the latest Belarusian election as free and fair.
Sanctions can vary, in this case it basically means 'we're doing you no favours, we won't lend you money or give you credit, we won't sell you weapons, fuel or fags, and you can't land planes here or fly in our airspace - and we won't be flying in yours'.
2nd Hoax Of The Day:
Italy have NOT revised the number of people who died from COVID. They have published figures looking at the number of people who had nothing else medically of note interesting about them, and didn't develop anything else to list on the death certificate, and yet still died when they caught COVID.
These people represent 2.9% of the total losses of life in Italy. They are a minority, and they tend to more often make the papers. Young, fit, healthy, slim, and so dreadfully sad.
Additional risk factors or 'comorbidities' aren't limited to a rare few people, in fact most of us have them. Because COVID can attack so many different organs, you have to be blessed not to have any increase in risk, certainly once you reach your 40s or 50s.
In the case of COVID the list includes anyone older, anyone with a BMI 30+, diabetes, heart conditions, high blood pressure, Cancer, immune disorders etc etc...
Greece has quite a significant number of anti-vaxxers, and they’ve been paying around €400 a time for fake 'vaccine' injections of water and a stamp on their vaccine passport so they can play out. Its a massive scandal over there. Its mostly massive because it turns out many of the doctors were too scared to actually give a fake injection, so - shocker! - they've been injecting these people with actual COVID vaccinations. Lolz a-plenty.
If you deal with criminals, you get crime...
In Greece since July 15th, only vaccinated people are allowed inside bars, restaurants, cinemas and theaters, and the anti-vax movement is in part being assisted by some church leaders, who believe that God will save them. (Yes, you've been sent a vaccine.)
Misinformation is, as ever, rife. The official Church message is pro-vaccination, but even some clergy still believe the vaccine is made from babies. In case you are confused, it isn't.
The head of the Greek Orthodox Church, Archbishop Ieronymos, spent time in intensive care with coronavirus last November, and was vaccinated in May. The Pope has been vaccinated. In fact, 145 religious leaders including Cardinal Peter Turkson from the Catholic Church, former Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams and Dr Thabo Makgoba, the Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, are part of a vaccine equity (fairness across the world) campaign called the People’s Vaccine Alliance, which is also supported by the Dalai Lama (AstraZeneca last March). Waddayawant? A photo of God with a sleeve rolled up, a big cheesy grin and a thumbs up?
Well done to 25 year old smiley Australian Joanne Zhu! She's just won one million Australian dollars. That is £545,649 or US $740,376 - a life-changing amount wherever you live.
Everyone in Australia who got vaccinated could enter into the Million Dollar Vax Initiative draw, which was created by a group of philanthropists who also gave away 100 x $1,000AUS gift cards during October.
The positive incentive seems to have worked, Australia started vaccinating later than a lot of other Western nations, but already "81.1% of people aged 16 and over are double vaccinated".
Nice one.
Today's UK figures are backed up by all of our screening studies, and show real hope that maybe the epidemic among children has peaked and is falling. Case rates are creeping up among their parents, but not in any way like we've seen before, and overall the lines on the charts are tilting downwards. The UK Government keep saying it's a race. They want to 'outrun' COVID, and they're desperately sprinting here to try and keep hospitalisations low, while not imposing any restrictions. That gets much harder as Winter arrives, hence we can see cases starting to rise across Europe and the Northern hemisphere. Even so, we are all winning the race, and just now, the UK might also be winning the sprint. We WILL get there...
Some numbers. All people on this Earth:
Countries / Cases / Losses of life (since midnight GMT. In larger countries, such as the USA and India, some states /provinces won't have reported yet today):
USA 47,457,971 (+4,021) 776,389 (+78)
India 34,376,298 (+1,843) 461,375 (+28)
Brazil 21,886,077 not yet reported today 609,602
UK 9,366,676 (+33,117) 142,124 (+262)
Russia 8,873,655 (+39,160) 249,215 (+1,211)
Iran 6,004,460 (+8,305) 127,551 (+112)
Italy 4,818,705 (+6,032) 132,491 (+57)
Germany 4,808,963 (+7,814) 97,221 (+54)
Indonesia 4,248,843 (+434) 143,578 (+21)
Mexico 3,827,596 (+810) 289,811 (+77)
Poland 3,125,179 (+13,644) 77,980 (+220)
Ukraine 3,107,489 (+18,988) 73,390 (+833)
Philippines 2,806,694 (+1,409) 44,567 (+46)
Netherlands 2,224,096 (+11,282) 18,612 (+29)
Thailand 1,982,495 (+6,904) 19,764 (+61)
Czechia 1,828,440 (+9,253) 31,173 (+22)
Belgium 1,438,830 (+8,418) 26,200 (+24)
Romania 1,718,726 (+7,589) 51,483 (+462)
Vietnam 984,805 (+8,133) 22,686 (+88)
Austria 899,777 (+7,712) 11,554 (+39)
Greece 801,208 (+8,613) 16,414 (+53)
Georgia 761,067 (+6,021) 10,584 (+75)
.
.
Sources:
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/
https://ourworldindata.org/covid-vaccinations
https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus
https://covid.joinzoe.com/blog
https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/usa
https://twitter.com/i/events/1457973397799899137
https://www.health.gov.au/initiatives-and-programs/covid-19-vaccines/numbers-statistics
"Italy did not revise the COVID-19 death toll, fact-checkers say" https://twitter.com/i/events/1457562968728621063?t=zyA1S0RyJucQzivDpq19Kg&s=09
Singapore
https://www.moh.gov.sg/covid-19/vaccination
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-11-09/singapore-to-bill-unvaccinated-covid-19-patients/100606366
https://inews.co.uk/news/health/anti-vaxxers-are-exploiting-the-deaths-of-teenagers-by-falsely-linking-them-to-covid-vaccines-1287583
https://twitter.com/PoliticsForAlI/status/1457678439557832705?t=pBBj9-3muSubRfA0C8TqXQ&s=19
https://twitter.com/i/events/1457726433606860801?t=Gz-v6yVu0mc5cGgSITWwSw&s=09
https://twitter.com/cjsnowdon/status/1457674342226071553?t=Uxn8oKgmwDfxOCVsQvHUfQ&s=19
https://twitter.com/theipaper/status/1457698645093064710?t=t-KNnQ4A1big2sWBXMS3Ag&s=19
https://news.upday.com/uk/resumption-of-us-travel-hailed-as-momentous-as-flights-take-off-from-heathrow/
https://twitter.com/SkyNews/status/1457687053857079296?t=FneXaH5zLQ9JXDdhnM0-Cg&s=19
https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/usa
https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/healthcare
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-56310274
https://reliefweb.int/report/world/world-religious-leaders-call-massive-increases-production-covid-vaccines-and-end
https://exbulletin.com/world/health/1264838/
https://tittlepress.com/health/1267585/
Reinfection:
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(21)00676-9/fulltext
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanres/article/PIIS2213-2600(21)00407-0/fulltext
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-59215282
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/belarus-sanctions-joint-statement-by-canada-the-eu-uk-and-us
https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/policies/eastern-partnership/belarus/#
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-59215282
https://covid19.trackvaccines.org/agency/who/
https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/international-travel-update-9-november-2021
https://twitter.com/i/events/1457703094687449097
https://www.thebrickcastle.com/2021/11/covid-19-coronavirus-uk-and-world-news.html
"Travellers head to US as flights from Manchester Airport restart" https://twitter.com/i/events/1458034973777223683?t=KLVnVQUdKb03MArSLTD2uw&s=09
"Health secretary introduces compulsory COVID-19 vaccines for frontline health workers in England" https://twitter.com/i/events/1458043187650445314?t=j144reE6X9wOhszdECVMng&s=09
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-59215282
https://twitter.com/BorisJohnson/status/1457806017031557121?t=k5prvPzv8dtEiMK0mE7w6w&s=19
https://twitter.com/BBCBreakfast/status/1457981360132562949
https://twitter.com/i/events/1443793434129539075
https://twitter.com/DHSCgovuk/status/1458100418609881094
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