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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🧵Some thoughts re inflation.
Not the data today, but two deep issues we should prob spend more time thinking about. 1. While economists and policymakers may have convinced themselves that the cost of living squeeze is over, for millions of households, it doesn't feel that way.
The key thing to remember here is that when economists talk about inflation what they're really talking about is the ANNUAL RATE at which a basket of goods and services changes price. And certainly, that rate is much lower than the 2022 peaks...
But, as I say, what that number is is simply looking at the difference in the LEVEL of prices over the past year. This chart is that level. (The actual consumer price index!).
And yes, look over the year to May and it's up 3.4%.
🧵Why, barely 24 hours after the Spending Review, is everyone already going on about tax rises?
Are they REALLY coming?
Or is this an "incoherent argument", as one leading minister calls it?
Well here's a thread explaining what's really going on here.
Bear with me...
First things first.
Key thing to remember is that the main job of HMT is to generate enough money, mostly via taxes (left hand bar here), to finance all its spending (right hand bar).
If that left hand bar isn't high enough, we have to borrow to fill the gap.
That's the deficit!
This week's Spending Review was about the right hand column, obvs. But not ALL of the column.
Actually more than half of govt spending is on stuff that WASN'T covered by the spending review - on benefits, debt interest, pensions etc. It's called "annually managed expenditure"
🧵
You may recall a spate of stories a few years ago about appalling working conditions & abysmally low pay in Leicester's clothes factories.
The hope was those stories would shame businesses into improving working conditions.
But here's what ACTUALLY happened next...
👇
Instead of staying in Leicester, most brands abandoned it & shifted production to N Africa & S Asia.
Today Britain's biggest centre of textile & apparel manufacture is battling the threat of extinction.
It's a mostly untold economic story we've spent recent months documenting
Once upon a time Leicester was the beating heart of UK clothes manufacturing.
The city was dotted with factories making clothes for big name brands.
Now, according to one estimate, the number of clothes factories has dropped from 1500 in 2017 to under 100 this year. A 95% fall.
How big a deal is the new trade agreement unveiled between the US and the UK? Here are some initial thoughts.
Start with this: this is total UK exports to the US over the past 5yrs: £273bn. Right now most of this will face a 10% tariff. Some things (eg cars) face 25% extra
Let's break down that total. The biggest chunk is cars. Just under £30bn. That's covered under the agreement. So too are steel/aluminium exports. Much smaller at £2.7bn...
These sectors will benefit from special deals (though much of the detail still remains vague).
Rolls Royce will apparently get tariff free access for its jet engines. That mostly helps Boeing, but also Rolls Royce. Jet engines comprise a surprisingly large chunk of UK exports to the US, about £17.3bn. So let's shade that red too...
🚨
The Chinese owners of British Steel say they are now considering shutting their blast furnaces and end steelmaking at Scunthorpe in early June - only a few months away.
It would mean an end of virgin steelmaking in the country that invented it during the industrial revolution
British Steel say the main question now is timing: whether the operations will close in June, in September or later.
It says tariffs are one of the reasons the blast furnaces are "no longer financially sustainable".
Press release 👇
The news means @jreynoldsMP faces two interlocking crises in the coming months: 1. The imposition of US tariffs on an ever growing segment of British exports 2. The end of virgin steelmaking (the UK would be the first G7 country to face this watershed moment).
This is big stuff
Donald Trump just announced 25% tariffs on anyone importing oil from Venezuela.
This is odd.
Because the country importing the most crude from Venezuela is... the US.
Capital Economics chart of Ven oil exports by Capital Economics via @rbrtrmstrng
But it raises a bigger point
🧵
Why does the US import so much oil from Venezuela?
Mainly for the same reason it imports so much oil from Canada.
And no it's not just because they're close.
It's because most US refineries are set up to refine the kind of oil they have in Venezuela and Canada.
To understand this it helps to recall that crude oil is actually a broad term. There are LOTS of different varieties of crude - a function of the geology of where the oil formed and the organic ingredients that went into it millions of years ago.
It's called "crude" for a reason