COVID-19 Coronavirus UK and World News Update 1st July 2022
UK: 22,741,065 reported cases and 180,417 losses of life.
World: 552,972,953 reported cases and 6,358,508 losses of life.
You are going to have to bear with me a bit, because I'm still writing on my phone and not at home at the moment. Give me a couple of weeks and hopefully we'll be back to normal.
Latest English hospital admissions are still rising fast - on Wednesday we were up 37% week-on-week, approaching 1,200.
Bed occupancy with COVID is up by 35% to 8,120. Yowch.
The experts are beginning to twitch a little at the thought of next Winter - I forsee more jabs this Autumn...
Some English hospital trusts are bringing back a requirement to wear masks. I reported back on 9th June that hospital-acquired illness was rising even faster than community transmission, and I suspect that is still the case. You are far more likely to pass on COVID to elderly sick Gladys in the bed next to the patient you are visiting, than to someone you pass in the supermarket, and Gladys is more likely to die as a result. Hospitals are full of sick and vulnerable people, and people who are interacting with sick and vulnerable people. It's common sense to try to protect them.
UK GPs are threatening strike action over a new contract that forces them to work Saturdays and evenings.
Just hours after the above story, the BBC was reporting that within a decade around 1/4 of GP positions in England are likely to become vacant.
Well, at the moment you have more chance of being accepted onto UK medical courses if you were born into wealth than any other quality. We actually don't need doctors who can ride a pony. We need doctors who are keen and able - however much wealth their parents earned or inherited. Remove the glass ceiling, support tuition financially and properly invest in our future medics. Or keep dragging them in from countries which are desperately in need of doctors...
The Zoe app. may have lost it's UK Government funding, but they are still keeping an eye on UK infection rates, and spoiler, its bad news. The ONS random sampling backs that up with more scientific data. 1,829,100 people are estimated to have had COVID in the week ending 23th June.
It's become apparent that while married Boris Johnson (BJ) was working at the foreign office, he was caught while at work, receiving an oral massage (BJ) from a young lady who went on to get a £100,000 job and later become his new wife. The word is that The Times removed the article due to pressure from within Downing Street. I'll bet. Carrie won't have wanted that one leaked.
I guess Boris would say to move on, it was a work event and he was only there for 10 minutes.
The US FDA panel has recommended changing Covid shots to specifically fight omicron this Autumn, and has asked vaccine manufacturers to update vaccines accordingly and begin trials.
Possibly partly in response to the FDA Panel recommendations, the US Government has signed a fresh contract with Pfizer worth $3.2 billion.
Omicron BA.5 is now taking over in several areas, including the UK and USA. Sheer volume of infections means although vaccines are still keeping most people out of hospitals, numbers are going up and the death rate is also rising. Past infection is little protection against reinfection from BA.5 and in heavily vaccinated Portugal, hospitals are struggling.
Monkeypox continues to spread, with over 1000 cases in the UK now. If you have a strange rash, don't go to a sex spa, instead check with your doctor. It is still mainly spreading among people having intimate contact. Sexual partners and households of people infected.
The World Health Organisation have not yet declared Monkeypox a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, but they are likely to - becauaw once it spreads to local wildlife its incredibly hard to eradicate. Some experts are now asking if we are moving too slowly with this one and failing to use lessons learned from COVID.
USA Chief Medical Advisor Dr Anthony Fauci has said he's now taking a second course of antiviral Paxlovid, after suffering what's being called "Paxlovid rebound". If you recall, this is where the antiviral doesn't actually help enough for the body to fully beat COVID, so after the course of treatment ends, symptoms return. People generally don't become seriously ill when this occurs, and a second course of antiviral should be enough to do the trick. Mr Fauci is 81.
Canadian researchers think they’ve found a key clue as to what causes Long COVID. A team of researchers in Ontario focusing on breathing problems have discovered a microscopic abnormality in the way oxygen moves from the lungs to the blood vessels. They have been following 1w hospitalised and 22 non-hospitalised patients for 9 months to see why they arw exhausted and breaghless. That esearch is continuing.
You more vulnerable people, I may have lost my mum, but I'm never going to forget the rest of you. Those of you who cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons, or anyone who will always be especially vulnerable to COVID - you still matter. You still deserve our protection, and our care. Don't be scared to ask for space, or wear a mask, or whatever makes you feel safer.
No world numbers because I simply don't have time today. Sorry. Hopefully they will be back next week, but in the meantime you can find them all at Worldometer or John's Hopkins. They are all people...
Back next Friday, remember to treat yourself and be kind. You deserve it. Give yourself a pat on the back for all that you have achieved over the past week, and don't ever think there was nothing - you have always done something that was difficult for you. Credit yourself.
Sources:
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/
https://ourworldindata.org/covid-vaccinations
https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus
https://t.co/0lavAOaeYK
https://twitter.com/COVID19actuary/status/1542165358609588235?t=ZiI6KDJwMtXOqbs8OqhHUw&s=19
https://news.upday.com/uk/call-for-autumn-boosters-as-another-covid-wave-hits-britain-see-the-hotspots/
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/coronavirus-covid-19-latest-omicron-vaccine-news-b2110061.html
https://twitter.com/Rebeccasmt/status/1542075562293870593?t=poncLatBpXeFOsSUaZXnhg&s=19
https://twitter.com/AdeleGroyer/status/1534817326637502464?t=sf_3iWGgNH6wZbZwqrT3lg&s=19
Doctors
https://twitter.com/i/events/1542095684794474496?t=MnQV2W8DFK-JjCoPvOTnHQ&s=09
https://twitter.com/BBCHughPym/status/1542393232713203715?t=Yg_L2eCEkXj7m4pnerYpRw&s=19
https://inews.co.uk/news/science/covid-case-surging-300000-day-warning-autumn-wave-worse-1713005
https://news.yahoo.com/pfizer-signs-3-2-billion-210047641.html
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/28/fda-panel-recommends-changing-covid-shots-to-fight-omicron-this-fall-.html
https://twitter.com/DrEricDing/status/1541418780210995200?t=OG8d4mhZqmXJt9GCMIidgg&s=09
And more BA.5
https://twitter.com/DrEricDing/status/1542115126215598080?t=Uf12XbvKfO9vaDNZLYAyUw&s=19
https://news.sky.com/story/monkeypox-cases-in-the-uk-rise-to-more-than-1000-latest-figures-show-12641999
https://twitter.com/zeynep/status/1542150260918816772?t=fj7zYrnXhV-8Q7E8i29ntA&s=19
https://twitter.com/T_Inglesby/status/1542220342072049666?t=fM4ViM46_DLQid4ZedV1WQ&s=19
https://twitter.com/i/events/1541846548845367302?t=f0RzC3LcVLBVRXXr1XTjeA&s=09
https://www.dnaindia.com/health/report-massive-breakthrough-as-cancer-disappears-in-every-patient-in-drug-trial-dostarlimab-2958614
