PHE have published their data for Variants of Concern to 26 May2021
- B.1.617.2 is becoming dominant with 3,535 new cases
- But also increases in these variants of concern
P1 (+21)
B.1.351 (+32)
- New variant under investigation C.36.3 (+109)
cumulative chart excl B.1.1.7
Cumulative chart excluding B.1.1.7 and B.1.617.2
Over 900 cumulative cases of B.1.351 (South Africa)
Cumulative chart on an exponential chart
Variants heatmap (B.1.1.7 not coloured)
Variants heatmap (B.1.1.7 and B.1.617.2 not coloured)
Proportion of *variants* detected each week (B.1.617.2 is in orange, B.1.1.7 is in blue)
For the B.1.617.2 (variant first detected in India), the estimate of the Secondary Attack Rate (a measure of transmissibility) increases as new data is gathered.
This is a real concern, as transmissibility is the key factor (along with vaccine effectiveness) of projections.
We are here (Warwick/SPI-M modelling) - there is uncertainty around these projections and a key factor is transmissibility.
This has been a battle between the virus, vaccines, and variants.
The 'local lockdown' guidance (which was later amended) was presumably issued as there was a need to do so.
There is still uncertainty. However, data from vaccine effectiveness and in particular transmissibility of B.1.617.2 is becoming less uncertain.
The question is: if B.1.617.2 is very transmissible and hospitalizations increase significantly - what is the plan for getting the situation back under control? At the moment, this is not clear.
The takeaway from today's PHE data is the B.1.617.2 (VOC-21APR-02 / 'India') variant is *much* more transmissibile than the B.1.1.7 (VOC-20DEC-01 / 'Kent') variant
The Secondary Attack Rate is *66%* higher in the India variant compared to Kent variant (there remains uncertainty)
Here's my interview this morning with @NickFerrariLBC on @LBC@LBCNews discussing the new data on transmissibility of the B.1.617.2 / India / VOC-21APR-02 variant which is becoming dominant in the UK.
28 May 2021 data
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The UK Covid Public Inquiry has published its first Report, on Resilience and Preparedness. It is the most urgent report, as we are still ill-prepared for the next pandemic.
🧵
This is the first of many reports, each reviewing a specific area, including healthcare systems; test, trace, and isolate; and the economic response to the pandemic.
The Module 1 Report sets out nine significant flaws from the Covid-19 pandemic:
"Inflation is currently 10%. If inflation halves, how much will a £1 pint of milk cost".
Sounds easy. It's not. It's ambiguous. It's not a good question. Unless it's designed to be a bad question. In which case it's a good question.
1. It talks about 'inflation'. But *what* inflation? At the moment, we have overall inflation at roughly 10% but inflation of food at roughly 20%. So is the overall inflation rate the same as the inflation rate for milk? It's not clear. Bad question.
First, the @ONS Covid Infection Survey is being paused, and @CovidGenomicsUK is being retired. This will have implications for data reliability and availability going forward.
OK, I'm going to write a response to this maths problem, published in @DailyMailUK, that has caused a lot of comment, some thinking the answer is 1 and some thinking the answer is 9.
Many of us would go straight to the answer 1. That's because we know (or our children know, and have taught us), that there is a 'rule' for how you deal with the order of doing the calculation - do you do + first or ÷, for example?
Enter BIDMAS (or BODMAS).
"It stands for Brackets, Indices [or Order], Division, Multiplication, Addition and Subtraction."
That's the conventional order. Forget about indices [or order] for now - that's not important for this one. bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topic…