Fuck. Off. You would have died because you were in another country that had a COVID surge. Take some god damned responsibility. Australia doesn’t need to bear the brunt of more introduced COVID cases because you decided to visit another country!
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I do wonder if visitors to the National Trust Sefton Coast are bringing more than packed lunches with them 
The roads round there were choc a bloc the other day.
BBC News - Covid: Sefton surge testing as India variant cases identified
One of those where you, politely, draw your own conclusions…
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Science has no respect (nor should it have) for feelings.
Hell of a day to be going to South Bolton for work.
Interesting article, I’ve always suspected it escaped from the lab in Wuhan. It’s too much of a coincidence that Wuhan was the source of the outbreak and the lab just happens to be in the same city. But we’ll never know the truth, because the Chinese government don’t want us to.
Apparently, there is surge testing in Formby, after cases of the Indian variant were detected. All adults who live or work in Formby are being asked to take a test. This, along with what’s happening in Bolton and Blackburn is very concerning.
We are back basically to almost like a mini lock down agdin and if any country thinks that having a 30% vaccination like we have is reason to open up too quick too fast, think again. We had been reasonably careful but still the spike is here again.
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Malaysia and Singapore have quite a large Indian community don’t they ( just going by what a Singaporean housemate told me in my uni days)?
Yes both of us have large Indian communities. Indians who are born here in Singapore as citizens are a small part of our population, but we do have a huge number of Indian expats, both in the professional segments and the physical labour segments like construction and sanitary sectors. So while we are controlling the flow of travellers from India, we could not stop 100%, that is until a few weeks ago where we had to stop fully all travellers from India due to the worsening situation. But it would have been easy to blame it all on them. In reality, some of us here in Singapore got complacent too. Allowing travellers in definitely have its risks but in terms of process, we are pretty tight in the sense that all travellers from India and high risk countries have to be tested and quarantined for 14 days before they are allowed into the community. Of course nothing is water tight, that is why we are told to continue with our distancing and mask and hygiene regimes even as we are pretty much living life as per normal. However, you start seeing people getting relaxed and all these factors result in the government announcing the strictest measures, second only to our full lock down last April. Like Liverpool, we go again and we will beat this bastard once again.
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Germany’s vaccination program has really picked up in the last few weeks, impressively so. However, I would still be cautious about easing things too much in Germany right now.
The last time the UK had more than 100 deaths in a day was on 23 March 2021. Since then these are the numbers of deaths for the UK, Italy, Germany, France, Spain and the USA (51 days to 13 May 2021) and average numbers over that period together with the number of deaths recorded yesterday.
Country: Number of deaths: Average/day: Yesterday
UK/1,367/26.8/11
Italy/17,866/350.3/201
Germany/10,568/207.2/267
France/13,928/273.1/131
Spain/5,537/108.6/73
USA/39,378/772.1/762
You can see that the number of daily deaths in Germany and the USA remain at a similar level to the average number of daily deaths over the last 7 weeks.
I really think Germany ought to be giving it at least another three weeks to see if those daily deaths start to come down. It’s worth remembering that notwithstanding the huge progress Germany has made in vaccinations in the last few weeks the % of its population to have received a first dose is still only 35% (that’s where the UK was two months ago - it’s now at 53%) and the % of its population to be fully vaccinated is 10% (compared with the UK at 28%).
Yep, the beach is a massive tourist pull (along with the squirrels) hence the spike presumably.
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Yes, I’ve heard there is some rather dubious activity in those sand dunes.
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Longer gap between Pfizer jabs boosts antibody response in elderly
Researchers say results vindicate UK decision to extend interval between jabs from 3 to 12 weeks
Extending the interval between doses of the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine from three to 12 weeks strengthens the antibody response in elderly people, according to a UK study.
The researchers at Birmingham university, working in collaboration with Public Health England, said their findings vindicated the UK government’s controversial decision in December to wait 12 weeks between first and second doses rather than the 21 days recommended by Pfizer’s clinical trials.
“The advice to prioritise first doses, so as to provide a greater public health impact and save more lives, was considered quite bold at the time but the data shows that it has paid off,” said Gayatri Amirthalingam, a PHE epidemiologist and co-author of the study, which has not yet been peer-reviewed.
The Birmingham study involved 172 people aged 80-99, who each received two shots of the Pfizer vaccine. Of the group, 73 had a 12-week interval between doses and 99 a three-week interval. Peak levels of neutralising antibodies, reached 2-3 weeks after the second jab, were 3.5 times higher on average in the group with the extended gap.
Although the researchers do not know yet how long this increased antibody response will last or whether it will translate into enhanced protection against infection and disease, Paul Moss, professor of haematology at Birmingham, was optimistic.
“Our research findings may be important in the development of global vaccination strategy, as an extension of the interval of the second vaccine dose in older people may potentially reduce the need for subsequent booster vaccines,” he said.
The study also looked at the response of the cellular immune system to the different dosing regimen but the results were less clear.
The 3-week interval generated T-cells targeting the Sars-Cov-2 virus more quickly than the 12-week interval and reached a higher peak, but levels then declined. T-cell levels were similar 15 weeks after the first dose for both interval gaps.
“The significance of these cellular responses is not yet clear,” said Helen Parry of Birmingham, the first author of the paper. “We will follow up the study of these patients and see how the antibody and cellular data change over the next six months.”
Eleanor Riley, professor of immunology and infectious disease at Edinburgh university, who was not involved in the study, commented: “Overall, these data add considerable support to the policy of delaying the second dose of Covid-19 vaccine when vaccine availability is limited and the at-risk population is large.”
She added: “Longer-term follow-up of this cohort will help us to understand which vaccine interval will be optimal in the future, once the immediate crisis is over.”
In separate statement, PHE said on Friday that Covid-19 vaccinations in the UK had directly prevented an estimated 11,700 deaths of people aged 60 and older by the end of April, and kept 33,000 people aged 65 and older out of hospital.
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The author (Nicolas Wade) is widely marginalised by the scientific community. He argued that genetics was the basis of success/failure of different races. Its a modern day spin on the bastardisation of Darwinism applied to race. eg he has a whole chapter on Jews have a evolved to be good with money, and more intellectual.
Lots of scientists came out describing how he had misrepresented their work in making his controversial book.
For me this article he wrote mirrors his past controversies. He mixes good science, with conjecture and at times totally misrepresents reality to make a case. Some of his base rationale from a scientific basis (basic genetics) I would describe as deeply flawed in an unusual way. Like a fan asserting the realities of United-Liverpool rivalry and its history. But at the same time can’t point to where Liverpool is on a map. It’s a bit strange.
There are aspects that are correct (no one can prove it didn’t come from a lab). But there is little evidence it did come from the lab.
With variants emerging seemingly weekly it’s not unreasonable to assume that Covid could evolve at a reasonable rate in bats it’s natural host (in ongoing arms race). We know many animals share the same the same ACE receptors (primates, cats, ferrets etc). Cousins of the virus 97% similar have been found in Cambodia and in Japanese bats. In the past those of the Coronavirus have been past from bats to humans.
It’s a bit conspiracy theory in reality that got mixed up in politics of Trump. Given more air time than it should. There are few respected scientists who do not believe it’s origins are natural.
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I think most say that lab escape cannot be ruled out.
Eg,
https://mobile.twitter.com/zeynep/status/1393176434013790214
https://mobile.twitter.com/zeynep/status/1393178519828672517
https://mobile.twitter.com/zeynep/status/1393180164541067268
https://mobile.twitter.com/zeynep/status/1393181876748234752
As a non scientist I find the accidental lab release theory plausible. I read the long article above, thanks BigJon, and it made sense.
The geography of it all is quite compelling to me. Breaks out in Wuhan. Lab in Wuhan. Hmmm…
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Yes, I agree. If it came from bats (or other animals) wouldn’t there be a lot of studies showing its prevalence in bats and how it jumps to humans by now?