R>1

[AtW]

"CDC document warns Delta variant appears to spread as easily as chickenpox and cause more severe infection

Washington (CNN)The Delta coronavirus variant surging across the United States appears to cause more severe illness and spread as easily as chickenpox, according to an internal document from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The document -- a slide presentation -- outlines unpublished data that shows fully vaccinated people might spread the Delta variant at the same rate as unvaccinated people.

CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky confirmed the authenticity of the document, which was first reported by The Washington Post.
"I think people need to understand that we're not crying wolf here. This is serious," she told CNN.
"It's one of the most transmissible viruses we know about. Measles, chickenpox, this -- they're all up there.""

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/07/29/p...ons/index.html

[AtW]

""1 in 65 people in England and Northern Ireland had Covid last week, says ONS

One in 65 people in England and Northern Ireland had Covid-19 in the week ending 24 July, according to new data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), as infection rates in both areas continued to rise.

The rate for England is the highest level since the week to 30 January.
One in 160 people in Wales had the virus and one in 110 in Scotland.

Coronavirus infection rates continued to rise in England, Wales and Northern Ireland last week, according to ONS data, while it decreased in Scotland."

https://www.theguardian.com/politics...0892081f6c7133


So ONS survey (which I'd be more inclined to trust) shows that infections were going up a week ago, and supposedly dropped sharply few days later?

[dsc]

Aren't daily infections based only on test results from lateral / PCR tests? If so then the app, pings etc have feck all to do with the amount of cases, the only thing which can explain the drop in cases would be either a drop in the amount of infections and / or a drop in the amount of tests done / offered (the latter affected by the amount of tests actually available which I don't think is tracked anywhere).

[AtW]

"While the recent drop in cases has been much discussed, according to Dr Claire Bayntun, vice-president of the RSM and clinical consultant in global public health, there has also been a recent drop in testing.

Speaking at an online seminar hosted by the society, she said: “I’ve just come from a meeting with colleagues at PHE [Public Health England], and in fact they were just confirming there’s been a 20% reduction in testing over this very recent period,” she said – although it was unclear whether this related to the UK or England alone."

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...d-drop-testing

[AtW]

"A record 1.3 million people in England and Wales were told to self-isolate in the past week"

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-h...id-vaccine-uk/

So easily double self-isolating whilst infection supposedly halved...

[ladymuck]

The head of ICO says that the NHS Covid-19 app should be decommissioned as soon as possible, when all this is over due to the huge privacy implications.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/202...soon-pandemic/


The NHS Covid-19 app must be "decommissioned" once the pandemic eases, the UK’s privacy tsar has said, as she warned ministers against mission "creep".

Elizabeth Denham, the Information Commissioner, said her office would take action against the Government if it "overreached" and the app strayed from its limited emergency contact-tracing function.

Her comments come as ministers look to alter the app in the wake of the "pingdemic," which is causing widespread disruption across the country as hundreds of thousands of people receive self-isolate notifications.

In an interview with the The Telegraph, the commissioner, who is due to step down at the end of October when her term ends, also warned ministers that the UK public is “very suspicious” of any scheme that resembles ID cards and that any use of domestic vaccine passports has to be only for a limited period.

Ministers are coming under increasing pressure over the NHS Covid-19 app, which pinged a record 600,000 people this week, leading to transport disruption and fears of food shortages as workers isolated en masse.

Keeping a close eye on the Government
Ms Denham said the app had been a “necessary” tool for the Government at the height of the pandemic, but that her office is now watching its development closely.

When it was initially developed last year, ministers had wanted to build a version of the app that would collect anonymised data on users on a single large NHS database.

However, they had to backtrack after a series of technical glitches, and the switch over to a version built by Apple and Google, which kept more of users’ data on their phones, allayed many of the initial concerns over privacy.

Ms Denham said she is now keen to guard against “function creep” and the possibility of Whitehall evolving the app into a more permanent feature of British life.

[SueEllen]

Won't hit mid 6s now. Number of people in hospital only went up by 70 today to 6020 and the patients admitted per day is 120 fewer than the numbers from a few days ago. Should be dropping by the weekend.

The claim next week will be that the app was great success and the pingdemic was just it working correctly and everyone was an idiot to doubt it.

Was reading an interesting story - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-57989767



More than 600,000 people using the NHS Covid-19 app in England and Wales were sent self-isolation alerts in the week between 8 and 15 July.

And about one in five hospitality workers are isolating.

It's caused staff shortages in lots of industries, including the hospitality sector which employs over three million people.

With whole teams being "pinged" at once, pubs, restaurants and hotels have been forced to temporarily shut, pushing some hospitality staff to delete the app.

Rachael tells Radio 1 Newsbeat isolating has cost her between £300 and £400 in missed shifts.

The 22-year-old who lives in Brighton and, until two weeks ago, worked in a bar explains: "I've been pinged twice while on my way to shifts.

"Both times I've tested negative on lateral flows and PCRs. I don't agree with not self-isolating, but the app gives you no context on who you've been near."

Although isolating after being pinged isn't a legal requirement, the government urges people to do so.

In a recent interview, Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng told the BBC: "If you are pinged, you should self-isolate. I know it poses challenges but the rules are clear and I think they should be followed."

Rachael says a big factor in deleting the app was a lack of sick pay. "If I'm off, I get no income or support. If I did I would self-isolate."

Frustrated by a lack of earnings, she spoke to her manager about ending one of her isolations early.

"I asked my boss, 'If I got a test today, and it's negative, can I work?'

"He said no because the head office was being strict, but in our staff WhatsApp chat he later messaged to say people should delete the app because they're losing so many staff."

Rachael agrees with her boss and wanted to delete the app.

[minestrone]

Hospitalisations will level off in about 7-10 days. Maybe high 8s. Won't hit 10.

Certainly not "well above"

Won't hit mid 6s now. Number of people in hospital only went up by 70 today to 6020 and the patients admitted per day is 120 fewer than the numbers from a few days ago. Should be dropping by the weekend.

The claim next week will be that the app was great success and the pingdemic was just it working correctly and everyone was an idiot to doubt it.

[Paralytic]

The data is publicly available. Do you know how to use Excel?

I know that and, yes.

[AtW]

A graph showing % positive rates (rather than absolute numbers) would help indicate if any of this is what has happened.

And if it won't that means there is a Govt conspiracy...