COVID-19 Coronavirus and Monkeypox UK and World News Update 5th August 2022
The UK is currently reporting an average of around 9,000 new COVID cases per day, and 120 losses of life.
World COVID Total: 587,110,053 reported cases and 6,431,557 losses of life.
"ONS deaths data has been released for week ending 22 July, the week of the heatwave.
1,885 more deaths were recorded in-week compared to the 2015-19 average. That’s 21% more.
Year-to-date there have been 320,980 deaths recorded which is 4% more than the 2015-19 average."
Stuart McDonald, COVID Actuaries.
No surprise that death registrations for the week of the UK heatwave show a marked increase. Not all deaths which occurred will show in these figures, so there'll also be a higher than average total next week too. COVID losses are also showing a marked increase in the previous week, up to 745.
I am sorry to everyone who lost somebody they cared for.
We have some excellent news from the COVID Actuaries, COVID is truly DOWN:
"Hospital admissions with COVID are now falling rapidly across England. 7-day average is down 21% week-on-week. Implied R estimate is around 0.9.
Regionally, falls of between 13% (Midlands) and 25% (South West).
Bed occupancy with COVID is also falling, down 17% week-on-week."
Good stuff.
The latest data from the UK ONS (randomly sampled) COVID19 Infection Survey shows that in the week ending 25th July infections continued to decrease in England, Wales and Scotland, while the trend in Northern Ireland remained uncertain.
- England, estimate 2,106,000, equating to 3.86% of the population, or around 1 in 25 people.
- Wales, estimate 108,800), equating to 3.58% of the population, or around 1 in 30 people.
- Northern Ireland, estimate 109,800, equating to 5.98% of the population, or around 1 in 17 people.
- Scotland, estimate 260,800, equating to 4.95% of the population, or around 1 in 20 people.
Message for people attending The Commonwealth Games (and other events over the coming weeks):
"The Met Office is forecasting a sizzling few weeks during the Games, so we all need to slap on the sun cream, a wide-brimmed hat and sunglasses, seek shade at the hottest times of the day (11am to 3pm) and stay hydrated."
Drink clear water.
Researchers from King's College London have realised people with Long COVID fall into 3 distinct groups. The study hasn't yet been peer-reviewed, but analysed data from 336,652 subjects who used the COVID Symptom Study (CSS) smartphone app (is that Zoe? I think that might be Zoe).
9,323 people developed Long-COVID - as defined as symptoms lasting longer than 28 days.
1,459 people had post-COVID syndrome - defined as symptoms lasting longer than 12 weeks.
Across all variants the results were very similar, with 3 clear groups of symptoms:
1. A 'cardiopulmonary' cluster - people struggling with heart or lungs. Those people short of breath, exhausted or finding they're now using prescribed inhalers.
2. A cluster related to 'neurological or neuropsychiatric symptoms' - these are the people with brain fog or dizziness, poor memory and other mental health issues including mood disorders, headache, fibromyalgia and others.
3. Cases with the most severe and debilitating multi-organ symptoms, which they label as "persistent general autoimmune activation and proinflammatory state". It affects more than 1 organ and includes symptoms such as anything gastrointestinal (belly), dermatological (skin), and/or fever.
Fun all round eh... remember people, never play herd immunity with the new kid. Not until you know you have a chance of winning.
More than 16,000 UK companies which took out COVID business loans from the UK Government have already gone bust without repaying the loan.
Are we surprised? Sad yes, surprised no. Aside from the sheer number who would have chanced their arm at building something with a huge injection of cash and never really expected it to work, even the big guys were struggling. High Street and supermarket favourites were disappearing left, right and centre. Any company which has weathered the storm and feels secure right now deserves a high five and our respect.
"As it stands, the monkeypox vaccines are not produced to be routinely used in any country, so global supplies have been limited. Due to the limit on supply, the four UK Chief Medical Officers have agreed, in the short term, to the UK-wide outbreak management approach proposed by UKHSA. This means vaccine deployment will be prioritised where there are localised outbreaks."
UK Chief Medical Officers' Joint Statement (and they are of course referring to the smallpox vaccine which also works with monkeypox, not the specific monkeypox vaccine, which never even reached trial stage until recently, probably because no-one was racing to fund a vaccine that would only save a couple of thousand poor people each year).
"Up to 1 August 2022 there were 2,672 confirmed and 87 highly probable monkeypox cases in the UK: 2,759 in total. Of these, 65 were in Scotland, 24 were in Northern Ireland, 32 were in Wales and 2,638 were in England."
Eligible people are:
1. Healthcare workers in direct contact with monkeypox patients
2. Contacts of infected people
3. Men who sleep with men, specifically those who have had new or multiple partners in the last 3 months, and have been active in higher risk areas.
If you are known to be eligible for the monkeypox vaccination then you will be contacted to come forward and get it. Many people who are eligible won't be on any of those lists. If you think that's you, you can present yourself at a monkeypox clinic in high risk areas (notably London Guys and St Thomas') or speak to your GP/call 111 for advice.
Worldwide the US CDC tracker says 26,519 cases have been reported in countries where monkeypox is not usually found. They are spread throughout 81 different countries.
On this page I've shared a post from a very brave guy named Wesley Wallace. He's brave because he's shared an account and images of his monkeypox so that we can better understand it, and he's received a lot of cruel comments in return. People can be horrible. Never be mean to anyone else for catching a virus, it's all random.
Scientific leaders, including those based at The White House, are asking for all research on monkeypox to be made available free to all to read. This happened with COVID. and free access to all the data as soon as it was available helped the world push forward, track outbreaks and variants, symptoms and treatments more quickly than was ever dreamed possible.
A new not-yet-peer-reviewed study from Spain has looked at how monkeypox transmission in this outbreak has been taking place between human people. Generally with monkeypox, initial transmission is via animal bites or mess, and any other rare transmissions occur when infected people get virus cells from the spots and from their breath on their hands, and spread it around accidentally that way, or in healthcare workers who catch the disease caring for their patient. With this outbreak many people are being infected by sexual partners, and a significant number are reporting spots began or only ever appeared in their underpant region. Which is weird.
Their conclusion was that over half of cases had happened in this way, so:
"The clinical findings in this outbreak differ from previous findings and highly suggest contact transmission and initiation at the entry site. The characterisation of the epidemiology of this outbreak has implications for control."
Basically, it seems to also be able to find an entry point through the skin, as well as the more traditional route where you wipe your nose or lick your finger and it enters that way.
The English Gov NHS pay offer doesn't apply to Junior Doctors, and they aren't happy. While other staff get 4% (half inflation, and around 1/3 of the increase in fuel by this Winter), Junior Doctors were already in an agreement which will give them just a 2% increase this year.
According to Glassdoor your average UK Junior Doctor currently earns £34,700 for a 48 hour week.
Famous People With COVID:
Joe Biden again. He tested positive, negative a week later, positive a week later, and he is still testing positive. He says he feels "very well".
Luxury Cruise News:
New Zealand has finally fully reopened the border after almost 2 1/2 years. Most visitors still have to be fully vaccinated, but won't have to quarantine. Cruise ships and recreational yachts are also now allowed to return. I'll take 3....
Hello you people who'll always have to be extra careful to avoid COVID. I hope you've been well respected this week.
It's the weekend! Yeeeay. Apparently we have some barbering occurring here, so I'll be avoiding that at all costs - and possibly by sunning myself for an hour and reading a book in peace outside. Don't forget to have a treat yourself - some time and attention spent on you. You are worth it, you earnt it.
Get Jabbed, Wear Sunscreen, Save The NHS.
Some numbers. They all have a favourite song.
Countries / Cases / Losses of life YESTERDAY in the full 24 hours until midnight GMT. (Bear in mind access to free testing, or any testing at all, affects the precision of official results):
Japan 13,344,898 (+231,597) 32,976 (+157)
S. Korea 20,160,154 (+107,849) 25,144 (+34)
USA 93,739,666 (+86,309) 1,057,811 (+311)
Germany 31,178,705 (+59,506) 144,717 (+165)
Italy 21,213,559 (+42,959) 172,729 (+161)
Australia 9,554,404 (+37,292) 12,119 (+93)
Brazil 33,964,494 (+37,166) 679,594 (+258)
France 33,993,930 (+33,799) 152,457 (+87)
Taiwan 4,675,100 (+22,931) 9,082 (+56)
India 44,107,588 (+20,551) 526,600 (+70)
Mexico 6,803,190 (+20,210) 328,006 (+123)
Russia 18,653,867 (+17,126) 382,604 (+44)
Georgia 1,698,020 (+11,802) 16,869 (+10)
Chile 4,274,613 (+11,697) 59,698 (+65)
Romania 3,098,268 (+8,617) 66,117 (+26)
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Sources:
Huge thank you to Wesley Wallace
https://www.facebook.com/563146356/posts/pfbid02L3YR4irP7RkdWK6LaL4GFzMErUmNbGxUFAcABt7QczBM4RXR9C9PYZ3ecmvnRiiYl/
https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/
https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus
https://twitter.com/COVID19actuary/status/1555232613765455877
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/conditionsanddiseases/bulletins/coronaviruscovid19infectionsurveypilot/5august2022
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.07.28.22278159v1
https://twitter.com/HelenBranswell/status/1555262370674614273?t=UsfUouOFbaN0cEPCvkVARw&s=09
https://t.co/IVTRSHr10b
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/monkeypox/
https://twitter.com/i/events/1554812944877162502
https://twitter.com/NHSuk/status/1555471785180762114?t=Cfoq9520OVuIyTmcl7GyGw&s=09
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/monkeypox-outbreak-technical-briefings/investigation-into-monkeypox-outbreak-in-england-technical-briefing-4
https://www.cdc.gov/poxvirus/monkeypox/response/2022/world-map.html
https://www.hivplusmag.com/stigma/2022/8/04/reality-mpv-monkeypox-patients-speak-loneliness-and-pain
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-62407554
https://twitter.com/BBCWorld/status/1554032211875217410?t=qlSnBLqvRHDLeHKvM_Ircw&s=19
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-62373913
Image household fuel payments Winter 2022
Image breastfeeding
https://twitter.com/DHSCgovuk/status/1554716192983719937?t=voI-47RuboB-w-WS0Ve91Q&s=19
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