COVID in UK at record levels with almost 5 million infected

“Such unchecked prevalence endangers the protection afforded by our vaccines,” he said. “Our vaccines are excellent, but they are not silver bullets and ought not to be left to bear the brunt of COVID in isolation.”

yeh if they are so excellent why do 5 million people have Covid!!?? ….meh the bunk!

Boris needs to be kicked out.

yeh if they are so excellent why do 5 million people have Covid!!?? ….meh the bunk!

Because no vaccine is intended to prevent infection (which by the way is different from having COVID), it is a good plus if doable but not a realistic goal. The vaccines are used to protect the people from complications and death, and to help (with other measures) to slow down infection. But as the experts have always said vaccines are not meant to be a single all solving measure that do that by themselves.

And now they have record infections, rising hospitalisations and rising deaths.

See the number of hospitalizations and deaths, now compare it with the total number of people not yet boosted, that will let you understand why with ease.

BA.2 is most prevalent in highly vaccinated and boosted countries.

Wrong, BA.2 becomes prevalent in any territory it enters, as the variant that has higher transmissibility until today. The population being vaccinated means they are protected from complications and death, but this does not magically makes the variant less transmissible than others.

Meanwhile, in unvaccinated Africa, the WHO has declared the pandemic over

Not it is not, why would you need the need to use this evidently false information? is it because the reality completely contradicts what you want other people to believe?

Africa is transitioning out of the pandemic, the same as many other countries around the world, and lack of vaccination had its price in lives, African countries have never stopped asking for vaccines to be available for them.

The obese and the elderly-the rest do not have much to fear.

Let me see, the experts completely contradict you in every chance they have to warn people, I would think they are much more likely to be right than nameless people on the internet.

It is passing through the UK like flu and doesn't make the headlines anymore. The overwhelming majority are either getting flu symptoms or no symptoms. When people stop testing, many who get it won't even know they have had it. That does make you wonder whether, during flu epidemics, there were lots of people who had flu asymptomatically when they thought they had dodged it. That might need some research.

The ending of restrictions has been popular. Tests may be required for flights, but aside from that, life goes on. People are going on holiday, cafes and clubs are open and only a small percentage - mainly those with medical issues - are wearing masks. There is no antagonism about that. It's up to individuals. Everyone knows that some folk need to protect themselves.

Cases are magnifying staff shortages from migrant labour blocks, but asymptomatic cases - only known from positive tests following a family member testing positive - will no longer be identified or lead to self-isolation, so this will reduce.

Although the case numbers seem high, the hospitals are seeing nothing more than flu peaks. They are struggling in some cases due to staff shortages and to patient isolation requirements.

Second boosters are being offered to older people and those with pre-existing conditions. Young children are being offered small doses to 'train' their immune systems. Vaccine levels are high.

You can't hide from viruses without delaying and spinning out their progress. Locking down slows the passage of the virus.

-“This is literally living with the virus by being infected with it,"

...which is what we have always done with winter flu every year. The alternative is permanent, universal self-isolation.

I don't know what the fuss is about, the numbers of cases is now inversely proportional to deaths, which are far fewer than before

Cases inversely proportional to deaths?

It's expected you don't know much about anything

@Matthew Hopkins

Johnson did not do everything he was told by ‘a group of scientists’ (?) during this pandemic.

The chancellor did not pay everyone’s wages for nearly 2 years.

Johnson was present at at least one of the parties in his garden. He took flak for being there.

Brits would know this.

I don’t think the stance on climate change is regarded by many Brits as the reason Johnson should go. Do you think it’s a widespread belief? I honestly haven’t come across this before. I think you used the North American expression ‘from left field’ in the past to describe an unconventional position.

This one certainly is.

the internet statistics

?

Hospitalizations and death rates are again rising, although the number of people dying with COVID-19 is still relatively low compared with earlier this year.

The key is, dying ‘with’ not ‘of’.

The vaccines are working perfectly.

That the most vaccinated country on earth who along with Israel did it the earliest has record covid cases and most deaths in over a year is proof that its working.

Or so I'm told.

Lots of doctors tweeting out that their hospital is in chaos. I see lots of political arguments in British papers around Covid looking solely at "deaths", but the impact of any disease goes way beyond that. 5m people catching Covid will have a cost, one which is incomparably higher than 5m people having hayfever or a runny nose. The other thing is that people are catching Covid multiple times, i.e., catching it once is not a cost that brings immunity. There is no future benefit to this.

My mother had a fall and got broke her upper arm in February, and her care has been vastly inferior to what she would get in Japan. A 10 day hospital stay where she got showered once, a ward with no staff to be seen, X rays and physio being repeatedly cancelled. She's been X rayed twice and not been shown either X ray, something unthinkable in Japan. She got her second X ray about three weeks late, after an entire afternoon of haranguing people on the phone to get the appointment. If she were mentally weak or a bit senile, she'd still be waiting. When the X ray was taken, she was promptly told her sling should have been removed two weeks earlier. I'd like to think this is an NHS in disarray from Covid, not one functioning according to what people are supposed to be accept as reasonable care.

Quick time to line up for the 5th booster!?……meh! The bunk!

That’s all just the beginning, although most people and institutions spread the theory that it’s soon becoming better and we could easily live with the viruses. You’ll be astonished soon, how wrong that is and the pandemic as well as individual LongCovid effects will further mow down the society, businesses , average life expectancy and your individual health of course. But tell that anyone, they declare you crazy and you’ll only shout against a massive wall of stupidity and ignorance. Someday you’ll understand or realize that only ZeroCovid is good Covid and nothing else had been an option worth to follow.

This is just based off my UK co-workers and friends but they still don't seem to take COVID very seriously... all of them have had covid (luckily with mild symptoms) but they have had people around them die from covid.... yet they still refuse to wear masks, refuse to avoid crowded place, still demand to go out to bars and clubs... I just don't get it...

I feel like there is a huge difference in how Western society and Asian society view covid and take precautions around it.

Boris should go but not because of his actions over covid but because he is still mindlessly following the rotten science of global warming

Being just blindly against the scientific consensus no matter what the topic would be a much more powerful reason to make an opinion unqualified. If for your theory to be wrong all the scientist of the world have to be wrong, and continously wrong for decades it is simply much more likely your bias is making your opinion irrelevant. Climate change is real, measures against COVID work, people die from the pandemic unnecessarily when scientific advice is ignored, this has been proved repeatedly and is going to happen again according to the article, just saying the opposite is not an argument that can disprove this.

You can't hide from viruses without delaying and spinning out their progress. Locking down slows the passage of the virus.

That is good, because that is the whole purpose of lockdowns, slow down transmission to make the situation maneagable. It is also a false dichotomy. It is not like you only can choose between pretending the virus disappearing and shutting down the whole economy. Many countries are doing much better by keeping effective measures that still require some sacrifice but are helpull at mantaining the risk controllable. In the UK the situation is not (yet) the worst that could happen, so the actual price of letting the infection run wild is just about to be known.

I don't know what the fuss is about, the numbers of cases is now inversely proportional to deaths, which are far fewer than before

You would know if you had read the article, with the experts opinion about how the deaths (as well as other very negative outcomes for the health) projected to increase importantly. This may surprise some, but people do not die instantly after infection, many patients have to endure weeks of hospitalization before their health deteriorate to the point of dying, so saying that deaths are low right now does nothing to predict this situation will continue.

Kyo - The UK is one of the most vaccinated countries. That is why dying from/with is important.

No, it is not, that is just a misleading argument that makes no real sense. Most of deaths of malnourished kids in African countries for example will be deaths "with" malnutrition, not "because" of it (the main reason will be a usually easy to defeat infection) according to your argument Malnutrition would not have any importance, after all people only die "with" it.

Also, trying to get any kind of information from a badly detailed N

Sorry for the broken comment.

Trying to get information about the vaccines from a badly detailed and low example "study" of family members makes no sense when properly validated and epidemiologically detailed data of millions of patients is available that brings much more reliable information.

Boris needs to be kicked out.

the alternatives are, same party same as.

so changing to Labour, no change regarding COVID. Changing to another Tori, no change.

just privileged party and drug companies profit.

@Matthew Hopkins

Jimzo

Jimizo, if you don’t mind.

Sweeping statements are so unhelpful. They indicate a reliance on narratives and emotion rather than facts. The walls should close in on that. I’m all in favour of a variety of ideas, even ‘from left field’ as you put it, but let’s keep it as accurate as we can, eh?

Good faith and all that.

In the spirit of good faith, the polls I’ve seen from the UK indicate that a large majority see climate change as a matter of concern. The Tories, Labour, LibDems and the SNP seem to be making noises to appeal to that large majority on this issue.

From what I can gather from family and friends in the UK, there is a sense that we have to live with this. That said, my sister is taking care of my vulnerable mother at the moment and both insist on masks for anyone visiting the house. I’ve got one delirious cousin who’s a big fan of Nigel Farage’s garbage but he’s not really capable of a rational conversation anyway. No great loss as a visitor.

“The government's ‘living with COVID’ strategy of removing any mitigations, isolation, free testing and a considerable slice of our surveillance amounts to nothing more than ignoring this virus going forwards,” said Stephen Griffin, associate professor at the University of Leeds' medical school.

This expert would surely agree that China's zero covid policy is much more effective at preventing Covid infections and related deaths. Any argument to the contrary without providing links to expert statements or scientific journals is baseless and without the minimum amount of logic.

Matthew HopkinsToday  12:53 pm JST

Please find a more polite way of expressing this. I think everyone who contributes to a thread no matter if I agree with them or not has a right to express it without implied insult.

Well put. Some posters live in a world of fake reality, believing they are an expert in and area in which they do not even have basic eduction in such discipline. Readers must take care.

Something that history has proved time and time again to fail in light of new facts (which is real science rather than the pseudo stuff we have at the moment).

So infections are not produced by pathogens? does blood not circulate? Is the planet flat? If according to you being the scientific consensus is enough to prove something is wrong that is part of what you believe.

There is not point in using "new facts" to defend your personal opinion about the consensus when those facts do not exist. Do you know who comes with those facts? the scientific community, which is the one that corrects and improves the consensus when that happens. In this case this is obviously false. So your argument is still completely irrelevant.

Please find a more polite way of expressing this. 

Sure, as long as you find much better basis for your opinions, there is nothing wrong with saying an argument have no relevance because it can be proved to be lacking substance. If your intention is just to repeat what you want to believe it should not have any importance that anybody else say this is not something with weight to change other people opinions. And if your intention is to convince other people about how this is actually relevant and important then you would be more interested in putting some real value on it.

This expert would surely agree that China's zero covid policy is much more effective at preventing Covid infections and related deaths.

No, that is a false idea born from the mistaken concept that only two opposite approaches are possible, absolute control and destruction of the economy causing uncountable deaths by other diseases on one side or complete disregard of the pandemic on the other.

People that actually are rational and have common sense immediately understand many other countries have done much better by not causing unnecessary damage with absolute measures but also not letting the disease spread without control. New Zealand has been extremely successful in abandoning the zero covid policy while China has been completely defeated by the pandemic in Hong Kong (and other places like Shanghai that are now at risk of becoming other examples of failure).

Well put. Some posters live in a world of fake reality, believing they are an expert in and area in which they do not even have basic eduction in such discipline. Readers must take care.

One very clear example is when they misrepresent the actual opinion of the experts quoted in an article to supposedly defend their personal opinion, but when asked for an actual expert that say their widely criticized policy is recommendable for any country (even China) they become silent.

Record new cases in every first world country with the very highest vaccination rates,

They then point to this and say your eyes are lying to you. The vaccines are working.

The sky is green.

Matthew HopkinsToday  09:19 am JST

Newgirl - Why? Boris did everything he was told to by a group of scientists who did not take into account economic damage and the fact that poor people have shorter lives.

He shut down the economy, he invested early in vaccines and negotiated a deal so at least one of the vaccines was sold at cost. The chancellor paid everyones wages for nearly two years. They raised UC by 20 pound a week (not much but where else in the world did they do that). Boris even took all the flack from the civil servants who ignored the rules and partied in his garden.

And Bozo himself got CoVid in 2020 and when Prince Philip died, the Queen was in a cathedral solo and Bozo and his friends in Parliament partied like it was 1999. And him being a CoVid survivor should've known better, not to mention it was a diss to the dead. He deserved all that flack, he should've resigned immediately. And his policies nowprove it even more. 5 million sick in the UK, a new record.

You screwed up, Bozo. Bigtime. Get your butt offa that chair, and step outta Parliament. Resign now.

virusrex - What is scientific consesus?

That should not be such a big mystery, google around about what is what any recognized institution of science and medicine have to say about something you want to know about. If everything you can find is the same (vaccines work, pathogens cause infections, masks reduce the spreading of COVID, etc.) you found the scientific consensus.

We know that many opinions were deleted from the debate at the begining of covid that have now been allowed

No, we don't "know" that, because it is not true. Many thing that were demonstrably false or mistaken were deleted because those things help nothing for discussion. This is something positive and desirable. Scientific discussion keep completely undisturbed by removing the lies and thanks to that progress continued and we are much better than at the beginning of the pandemic.

With respect to covid at the very begining John Hopkins provided some early world data about its spread and they should be commended for that but soon that overview did not really represent reality and mainly because every country had a different set-up on data collections.

Congratulations you corrected yourself about a very important mistake that you made but that in no way disqualify what John Hopkins found, and this is because you improperly tried to generalize something that was not meant to be generalized. The data is still valid and correct, it is still useful and helped characterize the disease by presenting one aspect on it on an specific environment.

As for where I got the medical information regarding covid I did not trawl the internet because the internet tells you what you want to know rather than what is true

No, that is what it does to people that only want to confirm their bias. For anybody even remotely interested in finding out what is actually known instead of just reinforcing their preconceptions even a routine search on pubmed can give you a lot of information. Even without that, just searching about recognized institutions and what they have to say lets you know a lot, as long as you can accept it even when it is different from what you want to believe.

Pretending there is no consensus when no institution of the world disagrees about something is not logical, it is just people letting their bias and preconception hide reality from their eyes.

Record new cases in every first world country with the very highest vaccination rates,

They then point to this and say your eyes are lying to you. The vaccines are working.

The sky is green.

Repeating your mistaken comment do not make it less false, countries with the worst COVID problem (and the resources to get the vaccines) obviously become later the most vaccinated, so trying to misrepresent this with the opposite cause-effect relationship is just a very transparent attempt to disinform people.

Do you also present the countries with more cars and roads as worse in car safety even if they have much better safety mechanisms or lower rate of deaths by accidents?

Covid as a political attack tool and method to restrict the freedom of movement rights of citizens is done. We don’t get that 2 years back.

Jimizo - I will try but as you can tell nearly everytime I write things are not well spelt or gramtically correct

Okay.

Here’s an idea from left field - just copy and paste my username if you want to reply to me. I can see you are familiar with copy and paste. The walls should close in on that particular mistake.

Have a nice day.