The Corona Virus

[sinkov]

The storm before the calm

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-55462701

England's "very high" Covid infection level is a "growing concern" as the NHS struggles to cope with rising patient numbers, a health official has said.
On Monday, a record 41,385 Covid cases and 357 deaths were reported in the UK.
NHS England said the number of people being treated for the virus in hospital is now 20,426, which is higher than the previous peak of about 19,000 in April.
Health officials in Wales and Scotland have also said they are at risk of becoming overwhelmed.
Monday's figure for new cases is the highest daily number reported by the UK government, and the first time the daily total has surpassed 40,000.

Scotland is not releasing data around deaths between 24 and 28 December, while Northern Ireland is not providing either case or death data.
Hospitals in Wales, Scotland and the south of England have reported rising pressure on their services as the number of Covid patients increases.

Looks like Project Fear is being ramped up to prepare us for another lockdown. The number of cases is up, what they don't tell you is the number of tests being carried out. The last figure published was a record high of 507,384 on December 23rd, 54,000 up on the day before and 143,000 more tests than a week before. Seek and ye shall find, and they're clearly determined to find a reason for yet another Lockdown.

And in the meantime, the latest figures for Critical Care Bed occupancy rates published on 20th December, shows every NHS region running with a lower occupancy rate then the average for the last three years.

[oldcolner]

NHS Beds for Covid patients 20000 now higher than April 19000

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...nues-grow.html

[Norder]

.



it's tough going...ruinous even...for many, this - will be the bleakest of winters .




but for some....buisness is positively Booming !


Meet The 50 Doctors, Scientists And Healthcare Entrepreneurs Who Became Pandemic Billionaires In 2020


Forbes found 50 new billionaires in the healthcare sector in 2020. The most notable newcomers of the year are the scientists behind the two most successful vaccines for the coronavirus — one developed by Pfizer and German biotech firm BioNTech, the other by Massachusetts-based Moderna — who have seen their net worths skyrocket since January: Uğur Şahin and Stéphane Bancel.

Virtually unknown at the outset of 2020, both men are now billionaires several times over. BioNTech CEO Şahin, who cofounded the firm with Özlem Türeci, his wife and the firm’s chief medical officer — she owns no shares in the company — is now worth $4.2 billion; his French counterpart at Moderna, Stéphane Bancel, has a $4.1 billion fortune. Moderna’s meteoric rise also produced two more billionaires among its earliest investors, Harvard professor Timothy Springer and MIT scientist Robert Langer. Those vaccines will require billions of glass vials to safely transport them — enter Italy’s Sergio Stevanato, a new billionaire and the majority shareholder in the privately-owned Stevanato Group, which is making glass vials for several dozen vaccine efforts around the world.




https://www.forbes.com/sites/giacomo...lrForbesMainFB

[oldcolner]

Aren’t market forces wonderful Norder.
Delivering effective vaccines within 9 months of identifying a new disease is unprecedented. As is producing billions of doses within 3 months.
These people took risks to back their hunches, now they get the benefit.

[The Bedlington Terrier]

I watched the BBC lunchtime news with the father-in-law at lunchtime and from the gist of it we are all likely to be dead by February.

Old Bob (the father-in-law) asked if he could be buried rather than cremated.

[oldcolner]

I watched the BBC lunchtime news with the father-in-law at lunchtime and from the gist of it we are all likely to be dead by February.

Old Bob (the father-in-law) asked if he could be buried rather than cremated.

Hope not BT. If you have the vaccine you won’t give him it nor feel guilty if he gets it.

Just seen this - confession time for the Reds!

Russian officials admitted Monday their nation’s COVID-19 death toll is more than three times worse than previously reported, saying more than 186,000 people have died of the disease.
The new figure puts Russia’s death toll at the third highest in the world, after the United States and Brazil.

https://www.democracynow.org/2020/12..._than_reported

[oldcolner]

The United States recorded over 168,000 new coronavirus cases Monday and 1,900 deaths. Hospitalizations hit a new record high of more than 121,000, with 40% of all ICU beds nationwide now occupied by COVID patients.

In California, some Kaiser Permanente hospitals are now postponing non-urgent surgeries. The Martin Luther King Jr. Community Hospital in Los Angeles has converted its chapel and gift shop into makeshift COVID wards, and Huntington Hospital in Pasadena is rationing care for non-COVID patients who need ICU beds.

This comes as the Transportation Security Administration says it screened nearly 1.3 million people at U.S. airports on Sunday — the highest daily total since the start of the pandemic — as travelers shrugged off urgent pleas of public health officials to avoid travel during the pandemic.

https://www.democracynow.org/2020/12..._than_reported

[oldcolner]

Sinkov you’ll be delighted to hear we’ve had over 53000 new cases reported today a new record and
London's intensive care units have asked several major Yorkshire hospitals to accept a transfer of critically ill patients as the capital's ICUs surpass maximum capacity. Leaked figures from the internal NHS critical care capacity dashboard have revealed that England's ICU capacity is now running at over 100 per cent at a number of hospitals across London, the south east, and east.
Data from the internal NHS critical care capacity dashboard - leaked to HSJ (Health Service Journal)- showed that London had far surpassed its maximum capacity with intensive care units 114 per cent full on Monday night. ( that’s two in a bed time)

The south east was not far behind with ICUs at 113 per cent capacity. In the east of England the leaked capacity data shows units running at 100 per cent.

NHS hospitals are running out of oxygen, medics claimed on Tuesday as they began planning to set up makeshift tents to try and cope with an influx of coronavirus patients.

Patients were having to be moved more than 65 miles to the nearest hospital with intensive care capacity, medics warned.

the situation is worst in the east of England, where there are 2,922 patients, up 74 percent from a first wave peak of 1,679 on April 12. The South-East has seen a similar rise to 3,796, compared to 2,881 in April.

Hospitals in London have also surpassed the peak seen during the first wave.

There were 5,371 Covid-19 patients in the capital on December 28 3.2 per cent above the 5,201 peak on April 9. The North-East and Yorkshire, where hospitals are still below but approaching their first wave peak, had 2,528 patients on the same date, 5.0 percent below the 2,661 peak on April 9.

[sinkov]

Sinkov you’ll be delighted to hear we’ve had over 53000 new cases reported today a new record and
London's intensive care units have asked several major Yorkshire hospitals to accept a transfer of critically ill patients as the capital's ICUs surpass maximum capacity. Leaked figures from the internal NHS critical care capacity dashboard have revealed that England's ICU capacity is now running at over 100 per cent at a number of hospitals across London, the south east, and east.
Data from the internal NHS critical care capacity dashboard - leaked to HSJ (Health Service Journal)- showed that London had far surpassed its maximum capacity with intensive care units 114 per cent full on Monday night. ( that’s two in a bed time)

The south east was not far behind with ICUs at 113 per cent capacity. In the east of England the leaked capacity data shows units running at 100 per cent.

NHS hospitals are running out of oxygen, medics claimed on Tuesday as they began planning to set up makeshift tents to try and cope with an influx of coronavirus patients.

Patients were having to be moved more than 65 miles to the nearest hospital with intensive care capacity, medics warned.

the situation is worst in the east of England, where there are 2,922 patients, up 74 percent from a first wave peak of 1,679 on April 12. The South-East has seen a similar rise to 3,796, compared to 2,881 in April.

Hospitals in London have also surpassed the peak seen during the first wave.

There were 5,371 Covid-19 patients in the capital on December 28 3.2 per cent above the 5,201 peak on April 9. The North-East and Yorkshire, where hospitals are still below but approaching their first wave peak, had 2,528 patients on the same date, 5.0 percent below the 2,661 peak on April 9.

Can't say I'm delighted OC, even though I've been proved right. How much more evidence do you need that Lockdowns, Circuit Breakers, Tier Systems, Face Masks, Testing and Track and Trace, we're up to 500,000 tests a day now, cannot and will not bring the virus under control ? Like I've been saying all along, correct me if I'm right.

[1959_60]

Can't say I'm delighted OC, even though I've been proved right. How much more evidence do you need that Lockdowns, Circuit Breakers, Tier Systems, Face Masks, Testing and Track and Trace, we're up to 500,000 tests a day now, cannot and will not bring the virus under control ? Like I've been saying all along, correct me if I'm right.

So I presume that you will be throwing a big bash on New Years Eve, open to anyone and masks will not be allowed?

If that is the case , then you would certainly be inviting moi.

Alas, I am otherwise engaged mon ami!