Not really it’s still around but has diluted into annual flu viruses .
Most people in the times of the Spanish flu died of secondary conditions ie pneumonia. This was in the time before antibiotics.
That would make sense. I posted about this quite a while back when the first variants came out because it was thought the first south African variant came from an immuno-suppressed patient treated at Addenbrookes.
The discussion thread at that point asserted immigrants arriving across the Channel were the source, but I was saying that was not possible as the development of variants requires a period of time inside a weakened body fighting the virus ultimately unsuccessfully rather than healthy people strong enough to trek across Europe.
The individual concerned was a man in his seventies who had previously been diagnosed with marginal B cell lymphoma and had recently received chemotherapy, meaning that that his immune system was seriously compromised. After admission, the patient was provided with a number of treatments, including the antiviral drug remdesivir and convalescent plasma – that is, plasma containing antibodies taken from the blood of a patient who had successfully cleared the virus from their system. Despite his condition initially stabilising, he later began to deteriorate. He was admitted to the intensive care unit and received further treatment, but later died.
During the patient’s stay, 23 viral samples were available for analysis, the majority from his nose and throat. These were sequenced as part of COG-UK. It was in these sequences that the researchers observed the virus’s genome mutating.
Between days 66 and 82, following the first two administrations of convalescent sera, the team observed a dramatic shift in the virus population, with a variant bearing ΔH69/ΔV70 deletions, alongside a mutation in the spike protein known as D796H, becoming dominant. Although this variant initially appeared to die away, it re-emerged again when the third course of remdesivir and convalescent plasma therapy were administered.
Professor Ravi Gupta from the Cambridge Institute of Therapeutic Immunology & Infectious Disease, who led the research, said: “What we were seeing was essentially a competition between different variants of the virus, and we think it was driven by the convalescent plasma therapy.
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Hi
The maths are very simple.
If Omicron is 10 times more infectious, but 10 times less dangerous, we end up in the same place as we did last year.
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After yesterday I don’t think there will be anymore lock downs.
Johnson is under enormous pressure, especially after the Fraser Nelson interview with SAGE which exposed them for only coming out with worst case scenarios which would never happen. The current doubling of cases should have been 200,000 yesterday and 400,000 today based on SAGE data and predictions but yesterday only 93,500 cases were reported - taking into account of an increase in testing from 1m to 1.6m (meaning cases are more detectable anyway). The actual figures don’t match the predictions - hospitalisations are going down, deaths are going down, serious illness is going down.
Steve Baker and his 100 strong opposition is piling on the pressure as well, firstly, voting against the government over vaccine passports and mandatory vaccination and then with Lord Frost resigning over the same reasons. Johnson simply can’t use SAGEs doom and gloom mongering anymore to justify anything other than “proceed with caution” approach. At the same time, the Number 10 parties have removed all credibility for government rules as the rule makers have been rule breakers all through the pandemic and the photos prove it. The people are (naturally) very angry about how the government has duped them and ignored their own restrictions… a rule for them and a rule for everyone else.
Johnson is going to need data and evidence of biblical proportions to get more restrictions put in place, never mind another lock-down. Starmer is in front of him in the polls and all the polls yesterday (Sky,BBC, GMB, YouGov) showed that the public are 80%+ against more lockdowns. Another one would see Johnson out of a job and he knows it.
Then today, Denmark has reported that the vaccines are not effective, the Omicron data sealing it, adding to Johnsons problems to justify any more lockdowns. He can’t trust SAGE and the actual figures don’t justify it - his own party will crucify him if he does and if by some miracle he manages to, he will be out because the public won’t support him.
It’s over… the only way for Johnson to save himself is to declare a victory over COVID and let everything go back to normal.
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The main problem is that NHS staff will be testing positive and have to isolate. So even if they do not suffer severe illness the fast spread is a disaster for staffing. I heard reports that they were trying to reduce the isolation to 3 days rather than 10, but not sure whether that has progressed. I just hope everyone here stays healthy for the festive period.
Not sure as the WHO is putting pressure on the UK too.
I think the WHO blew it long ago when they denied COVID could spread to humans, denied there was a problem in China and tried to cover it up to protect the CCP. They have been the covid propaganda arm of the CCP for too long.
I think the real problem for Johnson now (apart from his own party and the people) is the EU as they will not want the UK to win the war on COVID before Germany and France. They will obstruct everything in order to get him to submit to them, blocking borders, frustrating trade, Northern Ireland etc. Especially with Merkel leaving and Macron having elections soon.
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I doubt the EU as a whole are worried about our approach to Covid. They are doing their own thing we are doing ours. Macron is another case in point as he seems to have a personal vendetta. But that’s just his personality with everything it seems.
I remember the behaviour of the EU when we came out with the AZ vaccine before anyone else, which is why I think we still have a big problem with them. They introduced vaccine nationalism, broke the Good Friday agreement and triggered Article 16 without notice, then went on a smear campaign across the 27 member states.
If we declare victory over covid before them, its another kick in the teeth.
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We thought we were ahead because of the vaccine but that doesn’t seem to be the case any more.
We are ahead technically Annie, we have far less deaths than Germany, we seemed to have tamed covid and made it no less serious than a bad cold.
UK
Cases 11,453,121 Change: 91,734
Deaths 147,261 Change: 43
Critical 879
Cases per Million 167,421
France
Cases 8,640,924 Change: 15,075
Deaths 121,717 Change: 224
Critical 3,025
Cases per Million 131,952
Germany
Cases 6,834,446 Change: 21,710
Deaths 109,243 Change: 280
Critical 4,636
Cases per Million 81,19
Compare those mortality figures to any other country.
Hi
I must be simple, the data you gave shows a far worse death rate in the UK than in Germany.
Countries are reporting covid deaths differently. There is no standard reporting mechanism which is why figures vary so much. This was an abject failure of the WHO not deciding on how each country must report deaths “with” covid and deaths “of” COVID and what factors need to be included in order to classify a COVID death or hospitalization in the first place. For example, someone who tests positive for COVID within a 28 day period is classified as a COVID hospitalisation case even of they have made a full recovery before going to hospital.
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overall we have more deaths than Germany and more per 1m of population. Most countries are struggling with this situation. Hopefully omicron will be the end of it but we still need to get through the winter.
Not necessarily Swimmy.
Germanys death rates are increasing still and are way above the UK which has been flatlining since April / May this year. It all depends how covid deaths are reported, in the UK they are “with” COVID and not “OF” Covid so someone being killed in a car crash or a suicide would be a COVID mortality even though it was not the cause of death, only that the virus was present at the time of death.
What will be interesting to see would be how deaths other than COVID have been reported because in the UK our NHS is almost shut down because of COVID, where Germanys isn’t - to still functions for other cases. I bet cancer deaths in the UK have soared where in Germany they have stayed roughly as they were before the pandemic.
No comment Swimmy… 
I was referring to the overnight figures where Germany lost 280 souls, while the UK only lost 43…Are you up for doing my accounting…
Having just been a patient in the Sheffield Northern General, I can confirm that the reason why they are at capacity is due to cardiac patients and not covid ones. I had my procedure cancelled twice because of closure of the cardiac wards.
My local hospital (Doncaster Royal Infirmary) has been placed on ‘Divert’ because the A&E can no longer treat patients and they were treating them in the ambulances outside, they are now being diverted to Worksop. I can’t confirm the illness that is causing the divert though.
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That’s interesting.
A selective lockdown of such people would make more sense than the general lockdown our politicians seem to like so much. Certainly, people with compromised immune systems should have the necessary vaccinations, though I’m not sure how many have decided not to.
Yes. I have suggested that is what is likely to happen to Covid.
Then, perhaps in another hundred years, another virus will come along in the same way!
According to the Danish study, Omicron appears to be more apparent in vaccinated cases.