Current Affairs

[Ray B]

There was a small earthquake in Luton. Caused millions of pounds worth of improvements.

You are terrible Merv

[oldbluefox]

If you are easily offended this forum is not for you. Very funny

[barney]

So, Torridge has gone from the lowest covid rate in the country to the highest and fifteen days later, back to the lowest ?
This virus is really weird.
The future studies on this will be absolutely fascinating.
We know of many situations were the children got it but not the parents or the wife but not the husband.
It really seems to make no sense at all.
It’s quite illogical.

Btw, neighbour’s grand daughter who has refused the vaccine despite being an A&E nurse in North Devon hospital has tested positive. Not ill but off work.
Mental isn’t it ?

[david63]

Torridge has gone from the lowest covid rate in the country to the highest and fifteen days later, back to the lowest

What is that based on?

I suspect that it is a "calculated" figure based on the number of positive tests as a ratio of the population. One of the problems with such types of calculations is that where you have a small population even a modest increase in positive cases has a significant impact on the resulting data. For example if you have 500 cases in a population of 68,000 (which is what I believe Torridge has) and that is then related to how many in 100,000 then you get 735 per 100,000 but if you have 500 cases in somewhere like Birmingham with a population of 1.1 million then it is only 45 per 100,000. The wonders of statistics.

As with all Covid statistics you have to look at the raw data to get an idea of what is actually happening.

[barney]

I did say to another poster on another thread who pointed out the high level at the time that it was the local school that was responsible for the spike.
What’s weird is that it wasn’t passed on so badly.

[Gill W]

So, Torridge has gone from the lowest covid rate in the country to the highest and fifteen days later, back to the lowest ?
This virus is really weird.
The future studies on this will be absolutely fascinating.
We know of many situations were the children got it but not the parents or the wife but not the husband.
It really seems to make no sense at all.
It’s quite illogical.

Btw, neighbour’s grand daughter who has refused the vaccine despite being an A&E nurse in North Devon hospital has tested positive. Not ill but off work.
Mental isn’t it ?

Is it because you had a wave that has now subsided a little, whereas other parts of the country are seeing growth due to Omicron, and Omicron has not yet gained a foothold in the South West?

[david63]

Omicron has not yet gained a foothold in the South West

I thought that all of the south was rife with Omicron as opposed to the north where it has not really got a foothold yet.

[barney]

So, Torridge has gone from the lowest covid rate in the country to the highest and fifteen days later, back to the lowest ?
This virus is really weird.
The future studies on this will be absolutely fascinating.
We know of many situations were the children got it but not the parents or the wife but not the husband.
It really seems to make no sense at all.
It’s quite illogical.

Btw, neighbour’s grand daughter who has refused the vaccine despite being an A&E nurse in North Devon hospital has tested positive. Not ill but off work.
Mental isn’t it ?

Is it because you had a wave that has now subsided a little, whereas other parts of the country are seeing growth due to Omicron, and Omicron has not yet gained a foothold in the South West?

Oh! Right
That would explain why Delta didn’t transmit so much.
It was because of Omicron.

[towny44]

So, Torridge has gone from the lowest covid rate in the country to the highest and fifteen days later, back to the lowest ?
This virus is really weird.
The future studies on this will be absolutely fascinating.
We know of many situations were the children got it but not the parents or the wife but not the husband.
It really seems to make no sense at all.
It’s quite illogical.

Btw, neighbour’s grand daughter who has refused the vaccine despite being an A&E nurse in North Devon hospital has tested positive. Not ill but off work.
Mental isn’t it ?

Is it because you had a wave that has now subsided a little, whereas other parts of the country are seeing growth due to Omicron, and Omicron has not yet gained a foothold in the South West?

Rather than worrying about little Torridge Gill, maybe you should be asking why Germany is under declaring its infection numbers. With death rates as high as they are declaring, there is no way their infection rates are languishing in the mid 20,000s.

[Gill W]

Rather than worrying about little Torridge Gill, maybe you should be asking why Germany is under declaring its infection numbers. With death rates as high as they are declaring, there is no way their infection rates are languishing in the mid 20,000s.
[/quote]

It was Barney who mentioned little Torridge - I was responding to him.

No idea what Germany has got to do with it, and why would I randomly ask about them or any other country, when I'm more interested in this country

[Gill W]

Omicron has not yet gained a foothold in the South West

I thought that all of the south was rife with Omicron as opposed to the north where it has not really got a foothold yet.

As per the map on the government web site, the south west hasn't yet seen the explosive growth related to omicron. Some of the northern cities are now showing high weekly growth

[oldbluefox]

Not sure why we are worrying. Things are what they are and Covid will take its toll amongst those in the main who ignore the guidelines.
There is good reason why some areas are rife with it and others less affected. The Corporal Jones syndrome is alive and kicking in some quarters.
I wonder how Omicron matches up against heavy colds transmission and hospitalisation rates.

[Stephen]

Not sure why we are worrying. Things are what they are and Covid will take its toll amongst those in the main who ignore the guidelines.
There is good reason why some areas are rife with it and others less affected. The Corporal Jones syndrome is alive and kicking in some quarters.
I wonder how Omicron matches up against heavy colds transmission and hospitalisation rates.

Agree Foxy.

We do seem to be coming obsessed with it and all the data. It is what it is, we can only do as we are advised and go with the flow.

[Mervyn and Trish]

Rather than worrying about little Torridge Gill, maybe you should be asking why Germany is under declaring its infection numbers. With death rates as high as they are declaring, there is no way their infection rates are languishing in the mid 20,000s.

Since Gill is apparently.not going to respond I'll have a go.

In the early days of the pandemic we were rubbish at testing and Germany were superb. I know this because the detractors pointed it out. Germany had well established testing infrastructure, we didn't.

So our government threw itself into building it. The detractors still didn't like it, arguing about whether the steadily growing numbers were tests sent out or tests returned and whether people had been counted twice.

Since then our testing system has indeed become a world leader. The detractors have gone quiet because they hate the UK succeeding.

We have tested everyone in our population an average of almost 6 times. We're number 10 in the World league table. Germany has tested everyone in its population a fraction over once on average. They're in 80th place.

In response to the detractors bleating that we have more cases than many countries I've often said test more, find more, which is of course true.

So is the opposite. Test fewer, find fewer. And just there is the answer to why Germany appears to have impossibly low cases.

[screwy]

It’s coming….. Ah, But.

[Ray B]

Our country allows people to protest as in the case of the anti vaccine protesters. But step over the mark and they become terrorists, exactly what has happened in a vaccine center in Milton Keynes, where a mob marched in and ransacked the place throwing boxes of vaccines in a skip. I just hope that with all the filmed footage the police hunt and track down these scum bags and apply the full letter of the law.
I always think that mine and your taxes have been spent on these centers, so it will now cost us more unnecessary expenses.

[Stephen]

Full story here

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-b ... s-59826625

A peaceful protest is one thing, but entering a building, taking and destroying equipment is another.

May they die a slow and painful death.


My wife has been seconded out of her normal role to help and lead vaccinations at a centre near us. Let's hope this mindless action never happens there or anywhere else.

[david63]

May they die a slow and painful death.

And, as they are the unvaccinated, be allowed to pay (in advance) for the privilege

[Gill W]

Rather than worrying about little Torridge Gill, maybe you should be asking why Germany is under declaring its infection numbers. With death rates as high as they are declaring, there is no way their infection rates are languishing in the mid 20,000s.

Since Gill is apparently.not going to respond I'll have a go.

I replied to Towny.

As I said, I'm not interested in what Germany are doing or where we are in global league tables. I'm just interested in this country.

To be honest, I'm never sure what people want from the testing programme, but I suspect it's that we test less, so less infections are found, the figures look lower, and then they can pretend it's all gone away.

The testing system is currently in a real pickle. Lots of data lag over Christmas, people now can't get tests when they want them and positivity rates of tests carried out is increasing. At present, due to the Omicron surge we simply haven't got the capacity to do all the tests we need to do.

I'm sure someone will come along and say 'yeah but testing doesn't matter it's hospitalisations that count'. Well, they are going up. There's a major reporting lag on the the government website, as the devolved nations haven't reported on this since before Christmas. The figure on the government dashboard is from 21st December. But, looking under the bonnet reveals that the hosptalisations for England alone had gone up to 1751 on 27th December.

Then somebody else will come along and say 'yeah but hospitalisations don't matter it's deaths that count. Well, guess what, there's reporting lags on the death figures too.

None of this even takes into the as yet unknown long term effects of Omicron.

We aren't in a good place, and we have a frozen prime minister, who either doesn't know what to do next or can't act because of he's afraid of the right wing loons in his party.

There's nothing I can do about it, so will keep my head down and hope that the Omicron tsunami doesn't wash up on my door step.

[david63]

The figure on the government dashboard is from 21st December.

Unless we are looking in different places the latest date that I am seeing is 29th December @ 18:00 (https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/)

[towny44]

Rather than worrying about little Torridge Gill, maybe you should be asking why Germany is under declaring its infection numbers. With death rates as high as they are declaring, there is no way their infection rates are languishing in the mid 20,000s.

Since Gill is apparently.not going to respond I'll have a go.

I replied to Towny.

As I said, I'm not interested in what Germany are doing or where we are in global league tables. I'm just interested in this country.

To be honest, I'm never sure what people want from the testing programme, but I suspect it's that we test less, so less infections are found, the figures look lower, and then they can pretend it's all gone away.

The testing system is currently in a real pickle. Lots of data lag over Christmas, people now can't get tests when they want them and positivity rates of tests carried out is increasing. At present, due to the Omicron surge we simply haven't got the capacity to do all the tests we need to do.

I'm sure someone will come along and say 'yeah but testing doesn't matter it's hospitalisations that count'. Well, they are going up. There's a major reporting lag on the the government website, as the devolved nations haven't reported on this since before Christmas. The figure on the government dashboard is from 21st December. But, looking under the bonnet reveals that the hosptalisations for England alone had gone up to 1751 on 27th December.

Then somebody else will come along and say 'yeah but hospitalisations don't matter it's deaths that count. Well, guess what, there's reporting lags on the death figures too.

None of this even takes into the as yet unknown long term effects of Omicron.

We aren't in a good place, and we have a frozen prime minister, who either doesn't know what to do next or can't act because of he's afraid of the right wing loons in his party.

There's nothing I can do about it, so will keep my head down and hope that the Omicron tsunami doesn't wash up on my door step.

Your concerns about the quality of the data was exactly why I raised the issue about Germany where over the last few months their figures have varied massively from day to day. This to me, and Merv, indicates that their methodology is in a far worst state than ours, and despite your obsession with criticising everything the UK govt does, we now appear to be in the vanguard of the best reported statistics by country. Which is helping Boris to make the right choices to manage the pandemic in the most sensible way.

[Mervyn and Trish]

You'll be wrong David. We always are. And perhaps I should have been clearer Gill. You replied to Towny. You didn't answer him. And entirely to form despite our testing system now being among the best in the world it's still not good enough for you. #BashBoris

[oldbluefox]

Even taking Gill's figures, as a proportion of the population hospitalisations and deaths from Covid are very low and would be substantially lower if people did as they were asked and had their jabs. Successive reports say that the majority of those in hospital have not been vaccinated and on their heads be it.
But let's not pass over an opportunity to blame Boris and the right wing loons.

[Manoverboard]

The test figures are meaningless as they do not take into account all the tests that were performed, as one example, by umpteen families during the Christmas period ... we, for example, all tested negative but kept the information to ourselves as would zillions of others.

[Mervyn and Trish]

True. I test almost very week but don't always register the result.