Covid-19 is spiking . . . .

[Betty Boop]

Looks like the seagulls have torpedoed poor Sir Humphry Davy's back in the photo! Time someone nipped up and gave him a clean.


As usual, team Golowan have done an amazing clean up job of the town and promenade. As of this morning you wouldn't have known that the whole town had partied from Friday through to Sunday night. The streets are clean, the stalls are down and the fair has pulled out of town once more.

And for now... its the most wonderful time of the year.... Wimbledon!! So I am more than happy to be stuck home keeping clear of rising cases, watching the tennis

[spot]

China has finally abandoned control over Covid-19 after a spectacularly effective three year hardline policy. The infectivity of the Omicron variants, the repetitive damage to the economy and the refusal of protesters to put up with the hardship any longer has combined to bring the lockdowns to an end.

I doubt any reliable figures will emerge as far as deaths from this relaxation go, but the three years have had a significant effect on holding back the mutation rate of the virus. It's possible the death rate from now in China on will be a lot lower than it would have been if the outbreak had been allowed to take hold in 2020 - Covid Omicron is said to be far less lethal than the first versions. Hospitals have a far better grasp of treatment than they had in 2020, which also helps. Even so, they'll have a big wave of catch-up deaths this year.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/ ... in-beijing

[LarsMac]

I hear that China has an 87% vax rate. That should count for something.
Though that is still 180 some Million people at risk.

And, are they keeping up with the variants?

[spot]

UK news reports suggest that the unvaccinated in China tend to be from the older community who appear more reluctant. That doesn't bode well.

We also consider two doses and a booster to be significant in terms of protection, and that this is true of the homegrown Chinese vaccines as well as those in the West. The BBC said not long back that both are considered equally effective once that level of immune system training has been completed. The BBC report sounded well informed.

[spot]

From today's Washington Post...

Coronavirus booster shots reduced by at least 50 percent the likelihood of ending up in an emergency room or being hospitalized, according to data released Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Despite these promising numbers, vaccine uptake has been slim. Only 14 percent of eligible Americans ages 5 and older have received the omicron-specific booster, according to Washington Post reporter Lena H. Sun.

[LarsMac]

We've had a bit of a spike, as well.
Not to mention that several other "bugs" are going around.
We had a Strep infection, followed on by this apparent new version of RSV that can attack adults as well as children.
And, of course, the Influenza strain of the year is in full attack.

Makes one unwilling to brave the Cold and ICE to get out and mingle with the locals.

[Bryn Mawr]

We've had a bit of a spike, as well.
Not to mention that several other "bugs" are going around.
We had a Strep infection, followed on by this apparent new version of RSV that can attack adults as well as children.
And, of course, the Influenza strain of the year is in full attack.

Makes one unwilling to brave the Cold and ICE to get out and mingle with the locals.

We’ve had the Strep A infection but the one that seems to be doing the rounds at the moment is a nasty chest infection.

[spot]

I hope you're sufficiently cured that Christmas is enjoyable.

This is the horrible consequence of suddenly removing all constraints after such a successful three-year repression of Covid:

Officially, China has reported fewer than 10 Covid related deaths in the last fortnight but a surge in demand for crematoriums has been interpreted as evidence that the true death-toll is much higher.

British-based health data firm Airfinity last week estimated China was experiencing more than a million infections and 5,000 deaths a day.

On Friday a local health official in Qingdao reported the city was seeing “between 490,000 and 530,000” new Covid cases a day. The report was shared by several other news outlets but appeared to have been edited by Saturday morning to remove the case figures.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/ ... n-in-cases

[Betty Boop]

I consider us lucky, we've managed a 100% attendance term at school with no major illness, just a few sniffles
We've got away with it all very lightly.

Hoping everyone else is well enough to enjoy the season.

I know our own Theia is currently poorly with a virus and has stayed home for Christmas Day, which also happens to be her Birthday! Happy Birthday Theia if you're looking in, and hope you feel better soon xx

[spot]

Around a year ago, hospital treatment for Covid worldwide seems to have become noticeably more effective. Most of the world's isolation practices, China excluded, were relaxed, the rate of cases increased for several months but deaths didn't, deaths just increased steadily.

China is a couple of months into its U-turn on isolation, the number of cases is in its exponential zoom stage to infect most of the population, the big question is whether they're applying current best practice in treatment throughout the country. The lack of any statistics from the country makes it an impossible question to answer.

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/ with "linear" clicked for cases and for deaths shows the road-bump from the relaxation. China's never going to produce any equivalent data.

As for the US and UK, Covid last year has officially killed around 275,000 and 50,000 respectively. Depending on your choice of measurement, the UK Covid deaths overall since the start of the pandemic vary from 200,000 to 250,000. All one can reasonably say of the US statistics is that the Covid death count is now over a million.

[Soberano]

Unfortunately we have had covid around for what seems an eternity, my wife and I have so far successfully avoided covid. Her father on the other hand died from covid and it was very swift. He let a relative of a friend into his flat to set up up his new tv box, the young man had covid. My wife was on the phone to him and asked “is there someone in your flat Dad”? She ordered him out of the flat but it was too late, a week later he was gone, an otherwise healthy strong as an ox old boy.
Our 2 daughters and son have had it, how we have avoided it is a miracle. My wife and I have had our 4 jabs so far.

[Bryn Mawr]

Unfortunately we have had covid around for what seems an eternity, my wife and I have so far successfully avoided covid. Her father on the other hand died from covid and it was very swift. He let a relative of a friend into his flat to set up up his new tv box, the young man had covid. My wife was on the phone to him and asked “is there someone in your flat Dad”? She ordered him out of the flat but it was too late, a week later he was gone, an otherwise healthy strong as an ox old boy.
Our 2 daughters and son have had it, how we have avoided it is a miracle. My wife and I have had our 4 jabs so far.

A truly distressing story of your father in law but, alas, all to common - my commiserations.

[spot]

Our 2 daughters and son have had it, how we have avoided it is a miracle. My wife and I have had our 4 jabs so far.

It's been a very long three years. Losing your father in law after all those precautions is horrible. There was a long period of young people being too carefree. The schools were an uncleared sump once the children all went back, that's how I caught it.

The government is no longer playing with Covid as a daily circus distraction, we no longer have Downing Street partying after dark and masks appear to be a thing of the past out on the streets. I'm not even sure lateral flow tests work any longer. There's still a steady 50,000 deaths a year in the UK though. The fact that we're not out of the woods yet has been lost in a "what woods?" attitude.