"R is now estimated to be 40–80% higher for delta than for alpha (B.1.1.7), although a figure higher or lower than this cannot be ruled out. "
*40 to 80%*
Doubling time of around 10 days but may be as low as 7 days
Not clear whether reductions e.g. in Bolton are due to intense focus on those areas or otherwise.
Do not use Bolton to infer what will happen in other places.
(ps well done Bolton!)
Clearly setting out that cases/infections and hospitalizations are still linked
This relationship is a key uncertainty
Good news on fewer older patients in hospital. Vaccines work.
**A warning on care homes**
Some ethnic groups more likely to become infected (reasons not given, my conjecture: could be lower % vaccinated, could be higher exposure)
Uncertainty about scale of expected resurgence - *larger wave than equivalent scenarios modelled ahead of Roadmap step 3* (presumably as Delta transmssion now estimated to be higher than scenarios modelled before Step 3)
Key uncertainties: growth advantage of delta, the effectiveness of vaccines against severe disease caused by delta
Delaying Step 4 *reduces hospitalizations and deaths*. (Step 4 has now been delayed)
Most of the benefit comes from a 4 week delay
A 4 week delay is expected to reduce hospitalizations by 1/3 to 1/2
Risk of unsustainable pressures on the NHS much lower with a delay.
There remains uncertainty from new variants
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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…