CityCyclingEdinburgh was launched on the 27th of October 2009 as "an experiment".
IT’S TRUE!
CCE is 15years old!
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@Yodhrin, last year was very far from "normal" but they were sending out messages to folk in priority groups about the flu vaccine in September/early October.
That said, those early messages were all about "drive-thru" vaccine clinics and it was around another month before "walk up" vaccine clinics were announced...
That also said, last year there was no Covid vaccine programme to speak of.
Given the circumstances I don't get why people are expecting things to run as smoothly as they do in a typical year
Because
a) they have had a lot of practice of late
b) the medical officers are ramping up both expectation and fear in expressing fears about a bad flu season.
I note the risk based priority lists are different for Covid and flu. I don't know if they are prioritising within the list like they did for Covid.
I'm not an epidemiologist, but (a bad way to start a sentence) would any flu season be late to start this year due to low background levels (low levels in South hemisphere)? But an epidemic might accelerate quicker than usual due to the year off. Against that might be social distancing measures that are still in place.
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Covid response ‘one of UK’s worst ever public health failures’
Early handling and belief in ‘herd immunity’ led to more deaths, Commons inquiry finds
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Mass tasting to end
"Free COVID tests for everyone could end due to costs - reports
The government is considering scaling back mass free COVID-19 testing because of the huge costs, according to reports.
At the moment, everyone is able to have a free lateral flow test and some people can have PCR tests without paying.
But according to The Daily Telegraph, senior ministers think it must end due to costs, amid fears taxes would have to rise for free mass testing to continue.
A new system could reportedly see free tests only provided to people with symptoms and in high-risk setting such as hospitals, schools and care homes. Details are not yet agreed.
A Whitehall source told the newspaper: "It's agreed that universal access isn't sustainable or necessary given high vaccination levels.
"We now need to decide what the parameters should be that reasonably qualify access to free testing."
The Treasury is reportedly convinced of the case for scaling it back, although Downing Street is said to be playing down the chances of it ending this winter.
Other European countries, such as Germany and France, are moving to end universal free testing this month."
I note that Balerno is the only local area in Edinburgh within the top 15 for highest number of cases in Scotland this week. Also note most areas in the top 15 are rural locales. Some more urban, but not many. Impact of vaccine? Age related (under 12s)? Or urban dwellers not bothering to get tested?
Big difference between the UK, and Germany and France are the current levels of cases.
Russia’s population undergoes largest ever peacetime decline, analysis shows
Analysis finds natural population fell by 997,000 between October 2020 and September 2021 – with Covid cited as principal cause
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Lateral flow tests more accurate than first thought, study finds
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What’s the value of a confirmatory PCR test?
David Spiegelhalter and Anthony Masters
A positive lateral flow test, followed by a negative PCR, still means a reasonable chance of Covid-19
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How many of 'us' have downloaded the Covid Status app? (AKA Vaccine Passport)
I managed about 3 days after launch on a Samsung.
Mrs LB has a Huawei and that can't have it - you only realise this after spending ages taking pictures of your passport and doing biometric shot. Then you search on the web and find it's unsupported. She has biometric pass on our RBS app for LB bikes so maybe was spoilt as RBS one was easy to do.
So if you are a Huawei user you need to use pdf files.
Which countries are using these 'passports?'... not got us on it yet.
https://www.movehub.com/blog/countries-using-covid-passports/
The private laboratory that is under investigation for potentially issuing more than 40,000 false negative Covid tests was not fully accredited to perform the work, contrary to assurances made by health officials.The UK’s independent accreditation service, Ukas, told the Guardian on Monday that neither Immensa Health Clinics Ltd nor its sister company, Dante Labs, had ever been accredited by the service, and that it had informed the Department of Health that statements suggesting otherwise were incorrect.
@LaidBack: How many of 'us' have downloaded the Covid Status app?
I installed it on my Xperia XZ2 over the weekend. Not that I expect to be attending any of the kinds of event you are most likely to need it for, but I thought I'd give it a go anyway. The "biometric ID check" from my driving licence went a lot easier than I expected, especially I'm not wearing specs in my driving licence photo.
I understand that Google now deprecates face unlocking on Android as it's too easy to fool. Makes me wonder quite how trustworthy this app actually is...
"(AKA Vaccine Passport)"
I've not seen the need, I have been in a pub twice since the boy was born, so haven't missed going out since covid happened. Not likely to frequent a football match or a gig of any description either, so not tried.
The recent pattern in Scotland is quite different from the UK as a whole. We had a peak in September that far exceeded the autumn/winter levels (ONS survey, cases, wastewater).
I find the Public Health Scotland dashboards useful for this kind of data. I found what I thought was an interesting comparison to the UK as a whole here: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/oct/15/why-britons-are-tolerating-sky-high-covid-rates-and-why-this-may-not-last
From the first linked article above:
...while vaccination has changed the outcome of high Covid rates, having so much virus in circulation is not without consequence.“The current death rate is equivalent to over 40,000 people a year dying of Covid. This is not normal,”...
I believe that figure is roughly four times the expected annual mortality rate of seasonal flu.
By my reading of the above, Scotland is currently doing a lot better than the UK as a whole, with 7 day case rates per 100,000 having dropped to what looks like a fairly stable level at less than half the September peak, and below the July peak, while the UK as a whole is on an upward trend, exceeding the July peak (which was worse than the UK-wide one in September) and is now pretty much where Scotland was in September. Scotland also seems to be doing noticeably better with vaccination coverage as well (and Edinburgh seems to have managed to drag itself off the bottom of the table, now being fourth from bottom, above Dundee, Aberdeen and Glasgow for both 1st & 2nd jags in the 16+ age group).
A major difference in Englandshire is that mask wearing is no longer obligatory anywhere. (A person of suspicious mind might hypothesise that Scotland's September peak might have had something to do a summer influx of hordes of non-mask-wearing staycationers from south of the border. I couldn't possibly comment.)
Many people now acting as if this is all over. I heard there was a cluster of around 30 cases in Aberdeen, all linked back to a single line-dancing class.
You could probably summarise that article to, the government has ran out of money (and patience it seems), and the vaccine has *failed.
The weird thing about this virus is 95% of the population currently have Covid antibodies (either through infection or vaccination) in their system, though it is still rampant, it should be stone cold dead by now.
*The vaccine hasn't failed, at least in the sense there are a lot less dead or seriously ill people because of it. However it hasn't killed the virus as everyone had hoped it would. It's at best flu vaccine like with (we now know) quite low levels of efficacy (especialy AZ which UK relied heavily on early on) after time.
We're never getting out of this it seems, so I guess the question is how do we live with it?
Continue to hide in perpetuity, or live life and add covid to the list of risks we face every day?
Re England levels, currently still a way off the rate of Scotland's recent peak when Schools went back - remember the Europe charts with most of Scotland at the top.
Will be interesting to see whether, like Scotland levels start to reduce after time. More people to fuel it in England so maybe not, time will tell.
@Baldcycl;ist, I seem to recall Covid infections were rising in early August, i.e. before kids went back to school.
So, while kids in schools doubtless became vectors for the virus, given the number of days between infection and symptoms showing, the spike in infections started before schools returned, and was likely due to indoor socialising amongst a wider range of people. That certainly tallies with anecdotal evidence such as observing pubs, cafes, restaurants being rammed with maskless customers in July and August, hearing raucous house parties going on in nearby flats and houses, etc.
My 16 year old waited for an hour in a queue at the local clinic today, before being told that they could not receive a second dose of the vaccine. Supposedly they are only vaccinating 12-17 year olds if they are unpaid carers or people who live with immunocompromised persons. Yet on the NHS Lothian web site it says only "16- 49 years of age - Can Attend a drop in clinic without an appointment". More than eight weeks have passed, so what is going on?
That’s how it’s supposed to be, crowriver. The risks of a second dose for that age group are judged to outweigh any further benefits conferred, apart from the groups you mention.
Okay, that wasn't at all clear from the information I saw. But that link you posted seems clear enough. I knew 12-15 year olds were only being offered one dose.
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On Tuesday the UK reported 223 Covid deaths recorded within 28 days of a positive test - the highest for seven months – while the seven-day average for Covid-19 cases stands at 44,145 a day. The UK now has one of the highest weekly rates of new reported cases in the world.
Downing Street said it was keeping a “very close eye” on the situation. But Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation which represents the healthcare system in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, said immediate action was required to prevent the NHS “stumbling into a crisis” where the elective care recovery would be jeopardised.
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"44,145 a day"
UK figure includes Scotland, remember Scotland at almost 6700 a day a few weeks ago with just 8% of the UK population.
Not saying figures are good, just not as bad as Scotland was not very long ago. England currently about where Scotland was middle of August.
NHS Scotland was also in crisis, remember army ambulance drivers, and cancelled operations in Aug/Sept.
Not saying it wont get worse for rUK, but it's not as bad as it was here weeks ago yet.
Interestingly talk *here* a month ago was about vaccinations and busses, nothing of the Scottish crisis?
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UK politics live: minister rules out further lockdown as rising Covid cases prompt calls for action
Latest updates: Kwasi Kwarteng says government ‘has plotted a path’ between two extremes of lockdown and opening up
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Interesting differnce in language of England / Scotland politicians at their Covid peaks.
England - there will be no more lockdowns. Cue inevitable lockdown and another red face.
Scotland - No need to lockdown just yet, but worried and not taking anything off the table. Soothing, massive case loads, but public still happy with the message.
Very interesting shorts from arround the world in that link:
US: to vaccinate everyone above 5...
New York to mandate vaccines for public servants, no vaccine no job essentially... Land of the free....
I'm no vaccine skeptic, fully doesd up, but mandating it at fear of poverty...
And also vaccinating 5+ where there is no real health benefit for them (presuming their parents are vaxed), risk from vaccine is roughly the same as risk from Covid at that age.
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1m ago 17:16
Javid: Cases could hit 100,000 per day
Sajid Javid is opening his presser by saying we always knew the coming of winter would bring a greater problem to deal with.
He says cases could hit as many as 100,000 per day. And that we are approaching 1,000 hospitalisations per day.
This pandemic is not over.
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