What do the numbers mean !
New variants versus new(ish) vaccines: which are winning?
Around the world’s media yesterday (January 4th) were reports of a new fast-spreading variant of the Covid-19 virus: ‘XBB’. Within a few short weeks from its first identification in the USA, it had become the most common variant in that country. A small handful of cases in the UK (and I am sure other European countries) are…
Is smoked salmon dangerous to eat?
Earlier this week the UK issued a safety alert about the presence in smoked salmon of the bacteria, Listeria. This alert was precipitated by reports of 14 cases of Listeria gut infection in the past 2 years, with 8 since the start of 2022; 3 of those infected had died. These cases had in common that they…
The new booster vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer: what are the facts?
The UK, US, Canada and other countries have announced a programme of a 4th vaccine dose, with the possibility of using the new vaccines developed by Moderna and Pfizer, designed to increase protection against the Omicron variant. Studies published last week have evaluated whether these new vaccines offer any additional benefit The existing vaccines Why haven’t…
Omicron BA.5 is causing a lot of trouble: here’s why it is set to continue!
Covid-19 infections are on the increase, many people are now getting their second or third Covid infection but now with Omicron BA.5* as the main culprit. Why is this happening, and why is there so little apparent protection through immunity either from previous infections and or from the vaccines? *In this blog I mainly focus on…
Monkeypox: why the sudden concern?
The media have been full of headlines about a tiny number of cases of the viral disease monkeypox. What do we know about it, why has there been a recent surge and, given the experience with Covid-19, should we be getting concerned? What is monkeypox infection like? Monkeypox is a viral infection that causes flu-like symptomsIt…
New Omicron variants coming our way soon: how protected are we?
As the original Omicron variant continues to mutate, its greater ability to transmit has been offset in terms of the public health risk by (i) the milder illness it causes and (ii) the protection against severe disease from both natural infection and the current vaccine regimes. However, should we now be worried about the new variants…
Could Covid be on the up again?
Despite the worldwide relaxation in Covid-19 mitigation and the awful situation in Ukraine displacing other news, that does not mean that Covid-19 has gone away. What do the latest data show? We cannot rely on the numbers of self-reported cases Regular readers of this blog will know that the number of self-reported or health care professional-reported…
Lifting all legal restrictions: does it make sense?
The UK government announced yesterday that it was planning to lift all remining legal restrictions to prevent Covid-19 transmission. Other Western countries are acting likewise despite the current wave of Omicron infections. Does reducing legally enforceable mitigation actions make sense? What are the current data? As mentioned previously in this blog, the UK’s weekly PCR sampling of…
How worried should we be about the new variant of Omicron surging in Denmark?
I was looking at the data on the rate of new cases in different countries. This showed the Faeroe Islands – a group of islands to the north of Great Britain – currently have the highest rates of infection in the world. On 25th January they reported 913 new cases, equivalent to almost 2% of the…
Covid-19 infection rates are still high: is there a justification for relaxing mitigation measures?
In the UK, with the pressure on hospital beds from Omicron being containable, the government announced last week a relaxation in the rules brought in to minimise transmission of infection. In this post I consider why the data might not support this decision What is happening to infection rates in UK, Europe and North America? There…
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Making sense of CoVid-19 with Silman 