Here’s a story about a #COVID19 datapoint that looks very scary, but turns out to be quite reassuring.
The statistic is buried in a recent @PHE_uk release.
I’ve ringed it here.
It’s the no of double-jabbed people who’ve died with Delta variant assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/upl…
More vaccinated people are dying w/ the Delta variant of #COVID19 than unvaccinated.
Indeed, look at those aged over-50 and the proportion is even higher:
279 vaccinated people dying vs 131 unvaccinated.
More than double.
Scary, right? Well not necessarily…
Let’s run through it
There are two things to bear in mind here.
First, the vaccines are not 100% effective. They reduce your likelihood of dying of the disease. But even after vaccination some age groups are still relatively vulnerable. @d_spiegel explained this well here theguardian.com/theobserver/co…
Here’s a useful @Johnnmurdoch chart illustrating this (I’ve done a similar one for @skynews tonight).
Post-vax, a 90 year old faces similar risk as an unvaxxed 60yo. Same thing for an 80yo: after being jabbed, similar risk profile to an unjabbed 50yo.
Risk reduced. Not eliminated
The second thing to bear in mind is that the vast majority of over 50s in the UK - the age group most likely to face these higher mortality levels - are vaccinated. About 91% at present. And, over the period that PHE data covers, around 89% had at least one jab…
Now, back to the figs from that PHE dataset - the one that shows the majority of hospitalisations and deaths among over-50s were vaccinated. First thing to do is to compare the case numbers with the hospitalisations.
Like this. Notice anything?
That’s right: the dark blue bit of the bottom bar - the hospitalisations - is smaller than in the top bar - all the cases.
To put it another way, consider the proportion of Delta cases among over-50s that turn into hospitalisations:
3.5% among vaccinated
8.4% among unvaccinated
In other words, the hospitalisation-per-case ratio for those over-50s who are unvaccinated is 2.4 times higher than for those who have had one or more jab.
So they ARE effective.
Yet, and this is the crucial bit, the NUMBER of vaxxed people hospitalised is nonetheless higher
Similar thing for the death figures.
Remember those numbers above👆: 279 vaccinated people dying, vs 131 unvaccinated.
How do they look when we put them into the same kind of context…?
Compare the blue/red proportions in the bars
Of those vaccinated over-50s who caught Delta, 2% died.
But of those unvaccinated over-50s who caught Delta, 5.6% died.
That’s a significant difference, yet is only really apparent when you compare cases with deaths.
Looking at deaths alone is misleading.
Indeed, with 2.8 times more deaths per case among the unvaccinated portion of cases, you’re talking about high levels of vaccine effectiveness. How high? Perhaps 70-80%, but I’d be wary of putting too much weight on this dataset as I’m not sure it’s representative of the pop’n
It’s a reminder of something we’ve often encountered throughout #COVID19. CONTEXT IS EVERYTHING.
As populations become mostly vaccinated, simple numbers of hospitalisations/deaths will be dominated by the vaccinated.
It doesn’t mean the vaccines aren’t working as expected
Why are so many of those being hospitalised and dying of #COVID19 in the UK vaccinated? Here's a short video breaking down the numbers
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If you're even half interested in energy, I bet you've seen this chart. I call it The Most Hopeful Chart in the World.
The point? We're embracing renewable power MUCH faster than expected.
Hurrah!
Only problem is, this chart has an evil twin. A chart we really need to discuss
🧵
The Most Hopeful Chart in the World shows how each year the @IEA predicted that the amount of solar output around the world would plateau or rise v slowly in the following years. But instead solar output defied all expectations, rising exponentially.
That's great news.
But making solar panels is an energy-intensive exercise.
You need a lot of coal to smelt down the silicon and a lot of power to turn metallurgical silicon into polysilicon, let alone the monocrystalline boules you really need for a decent solar module (read my book for more 📖)
🚜FARMAGEDDON🌾
The story of what's REALLY going on in farming. A story far more complex than the conventional wisdom.
This isn't just (or even mainly) about inheritance tax. It's about a cascade of challenges & crises that may ultimately threaten food security.
📽️5 min primer👇
Let's begin with that big, overarching issue: food security.
For most of the past century, farmers have been encouraged to grow as much food as possible. The story here goes back to WWII and its aftermath, when the conventional wisdom was the UK needed to be more self sufficient
Encouraged by the govt, the UK's domestic food production, which before WWII had dropped to just 35% of what we ate, rose rapidly to over 60%.
Some economists say self sufficiency is overrated. But it's one of those post-war principles that stuck.
By accident as much as design.
🚗What's happening to Europe's car industry is one of the biggest stories in the world right now, & prob the biggest story of next year too.
A slow motion implosion driven by multiple factors (esp Chinese competition).
Watch my primer on what's going on👇
What makes this moment so dangerous, so destructive for legacy carmakers, is that this is a perfect storm. Three main issues: 1. The shift from conventional engines to batteries is a DISRUPTIVE innovation. The kind of thing Clay Christensen wrote about.
This is a MASSIVE deal...
Think about a combustion engine.
An assembly of HUNDREDS of pieces of metal, all perfectly honed to turn fuel into motion.
Making these things is REALLY hard. Which is why:
a) that's where most of the value/jobs are
b) other countries have struggled to compete making them
Today we learnt the no of people flowing into the UK hit an all-time high last yr: an influx we've NEVER seen before either as a total or as a share of the population.
So... why is the @ONS (and some news organisations) reporting this as a FALL in migration?!
Let's dig deeper
🧵
The ONS publishes immigration figures every six months. There's a lot of data, with plenty of provisos all over it.
But as is often the case the story gets simplified in the telling.
Consider the story the last time the data came out. This is how the chart looked 👇
And here's how most people reported the numbers: immigration was going down. Yes, from unprecedented highs - but even so. Down by 10%. A success story, as far as the then govt was concerned.
🧵SALT🧵
It's been snowing in the UK and the road gritters are out in force, begging the question:
Have you ever wondered where that grit actually COMES from?
The answer is more magical, beautiful and fascinating than you probably realised.
1/14
Because that dirty-looking salt being spread by trucks on our roads is actually the remains of an ancient ocean (actually two ancient oceans), buried deep beneath our feet.
Most of the stuff being spread in London comes from a single mine in Cheshire - at Winsford.
2/14
Here, about 20 to 40m beneath the meadows of Cheshire, is an enormous slab of halite, rock salt, the remains of an ancient inland sea a couple of hundred million years ago.
This is where most of our salt comes from.
3/14
🧵How worried should we (and @RachelReevesMP) be about the slightly nervy reaction from financial markets towards her first Budget?
Short answer: certainly a bit worried.
But perhaps not for the reasons you might expect...
Worth saying at the outset: these markets are volatile.
Trying to interpret movements in govt bonds is v tricky.
They're moved by all sorts of factors - fiscal, monetary, economic and structural - from all over the world.
So yesterday's Budget is only one of many factors here...
Even so, there has been a marked rise in UK bond yields following the Budget which is greater than what we're seeing in other markets.
This morning the UK 10 year bond yield hit the highest level in nearly a year. It's up 1.7% since yday - far more than US or German equivalents