COVID-19 Coronavirus, Other Virus and Health UK and World News Update 3rd October 2025
In the UK COVID cases are still on the rise, we haven’t hit the peak yet. RCGP Sentinel Surveillance of around 2,000 GP surgeries in England suggests cases are up around 20% in the latest week (week ending 28th September) and UK HSA data confirms, showing a rise of 22.2% in the week ending 24th September. Looking at the charts, allowing for lags in data, it's probably on a par with where we were this time last year. Stratus (the XFG and XFG.3 variants) and Nimbus (NB.1.8.1) are being given the blame, Stratus accounted for around 2/3 of cases last month.
Online reports say Stratos includes a hoarse voice. Presumably can confirm. I've had hardly any sore throat, but I've spent over 2 weeks out of the last 3 1/2 croaking, and I still don't have my voice back properly, despite feeling a lot better and a negative test finally (hurrah!).
The US COVID wave has ended and finally numbers are clearly going down. The latest variants thankfully did not have as big an effect in the US as they did in Asia. Fingers crossed the UK finds the same.
Right, this is important... A study of 407,300 US children and adolescents with a first COVID infection and 58,417 with a second infection, from 1st Jan 2022 to 13th Oct 2023, has found the rate of Long COVID (post-acute sequelae of COVID, or PASC) DOUBLES after the second infection.
Results for those under age 20 are the same regardless of sex, vaccination status, weight, race and ethnicity. Long COVID doubles with the second infection. We kind of knew this, we could see it, but we didn't have the figures for evidence until now.
This is taken from the study results:
'The incident rate of PASC diagnosis per million people per 6 months was 903·7 in the first infection group and 1883·7 in the second infection group. Reinfection was associated with a significantly increased risk of an overall PASC diagnosis (times 2·08) and a range of symptoms and conditions potentially related to PASC, including myocarditis, changes in taste and smell, thrombophlebitis and thromboembolism, heart disease, acute kidney injury, fluid and electrolyte disturbance, generalised pain, arrhythmias, abnormal liver enzymes, chest pain, fatigue and malaise, headache, musculoskeletal pain, abdominal pain, mental ill health, POTS or dysautonomia, cognitive impairment, skin conditions, fever and chills, respiratory signs and symptoms, and cardiovascular signs and symptoms.'
We have known this now for years, and I've said these sentences so many times. We have not been fair to our children. Repeatedly catching COVID is NOT good for you.
The UK COVID inquiry continues, and coincidentally this week they've been discussing children and Long COVID. Back in 2021 Government were shown an impact film from scientific advisors which ended with the line "we shouldn't sacrifice children".
The UK Government appreciated that sending unvaccinated children and young people into school and other situations without adequate protection or ventilation, where they were likely to be exposed, would dramatically increase cases of Long COVID. Michael Gove's 2021 paper to government also accepted our unvaccinated children and young people would suffer the worst Long COVID burden. This was apparently considered "strategic risk".
Shout out to Long COVID Kids, who must be exhausted from spending almost 5 years trying to get the world to listen, and until this study was released barely got a mention for their part in the evidence presented to the COVID Inquiry this week, and on many other weeks. Doing it for the kids.
There will now be a Trump section. I do apologise, but it wasn't exactly ignorable...
Trump of the Week (ahhh, remember this?):
Today I'm going with the following social media misinformation:
"Pregnant Women, DON'T USE TYLENOL UNLESS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY, DON'T GIVE TYLENOL TO YOUR YOUNG CHILD FOR VIRTUALLY ANY REASON, BREAK UP THE MMR SHOT INTO THREE TOTALLY SEPARATE SHOTS (NOT MIXED!), TAKE CHICKEN P SHOT SEPARATELY, TAKE HEPATITAS B SHOT AT 12 YEARS OLD, OR OLDER, AND, IMPORTANTLY, TAKE VACCINE IN 5 SEPARATE MEDICAL VISITS! President DJT"
Give me strength...
RFK Jr said he'd tell us 'what causes autism' by the end of September, and pulled a couple of 'culprits' out of the bag. Trump ran with it, and here we are...
Acetaminophen is called Tylenol in the US, Paracetamol in the rest of the world. It's a ridiculously useful, cheap and common drug worldwide. There isn't any evidence it causes autism, but a HUGE Swedish study of 2.48M children found NO LINK between Acetaminophen in pregnancy and autism diagnoses whatsoever. There IS also clear and irrefutable evidence that it saves lives, including sometimes those of pregnant people and their babies.
Trump declared Tylenol and vaccinations the enemy, and told parents to avoid childhood vaccinations for Hepatitis B until children are 'sexually active' at 12 years (what? Certainly not in my world). I really wanted to do a politely irate post telling you how bonkers and dangerous it all was. Sadly I was too ill with COVID (you know, COVID, that virus that's all finished now).
Thankfully the world's entire medical and scientific communities leapt to it and the media actually reported what they were saying. Here are some of my favourite lines:
UK Health Minister Wes Streeting: "Listen to British doctors, British science, and the NHS."
WHO: "The World Health Organisation (WHO) emphasizes that there is currently no conclusive scientific evidence confirming a possible link between autism and use of acetaminophen (also known as paracetamol) during pregnancy.... Also, a robust, extensive evidence base exists showing childhood vaccines do not cause autism. Large, high-quality studies from many countries have all reached the same conclusion.... WHO also stands with people who are living with autism and their families, a dignified community entitled to evidence-based considerations free of stigma."
National Autistic Society: "Let's be clear – painkillers do not cause autism and vaccines do not cause autism. Large-scale studies have shown that there is no robust, scientific evidence to support this claim. It’s nothing more than fearmongering... This is dangerous, it's anti-science and it's irresponsible. President Donald Trump is peddling the worst myths of recent decades. Such dangerous pseudo-science is putting pregnant women and children at risk and devaluing autistic people."
A common sense quote in STAT News from Robert Hendren, a retired autism researcher at the University of California, San Francisco: "We definitely have good science that says, “we shouldn’t use … aspirin or ibuprofen [during pregnancy].” But there hasn’t been that literature on acetaminophen. There is no way that the mother, as Trump said, should “tough it out” and go through that high fever. I’d worry that the cause-and-effect part was the fever, not the acetaminophen."
Back in 2020 Mr Hendren did a small 12 child Autism study on the use of Leucovorin, or folinic acid (not to be confused with folic acid, used as a supplement in early pregnancy). Medical scientist Mr Hendron says it may have a place for children with speech and language difficulties AND a cerebral folate deficiency, but "their response to leucovorin or folinic acid is going to be modest. It’s not gonna be great. It’s not gonna cure autism". Hotelier and politician Donald Trump has nonetheless ordered Leucovorin should have it's label changed and be given approval so that use can be more widespread.
(Most telling for me is that none of the parents in his study chose to continue using Leucovorin after the trial.)
RFK Jr (US Head of Health and Human Services) also has no medical training. He believes Autism rates have increased dramatically because of something in the modern world. The lovely Science Communicator Nini Munoz PhD of NiniAndTheBrain has spent the last few weeks studying rates of autism diagnosis and presenting data and charts to suggest a possible cause. She found a clear matching pattern between rising rates of Autism diagnosis and... (drum roll) sales of Lululemon, vitamin supplements, Netflix subscriptions. Numbers of Starbucks franchises, craft breweries and transistors in personal computers. Also mobile phone use, cheese consumption and the number of billionaires in the world. They and tons of other things track perfectly with the rise in autism diagnoses, much better in fact than use of paracetamol. They also prove nothing whatsoever about autism. This is the difference between correlation (a matching pattern) and causation (a matching pattern with a relationship) - something some political figures might want to learn about.
The truth is that autism rates have risen because we are better at recognising and diagnosing it, and we no longer use a range of different terminology to describe individual autistic people. The US CDC themselves say that 'profound autism rates' remain stable. Autists have been with us for aeons, just like blonde hair and left handed people. And like those other human features, Autism is not a disease. It is not an "epidemic", nor does it need "eradicating".
Vaccinations and their ingredients do not cause autism. A bajillion studies show this, including a massive Danish study of over 1 million children born between 1997 and 2018, and published in July 2025. That looked at 50 different health conditions, including autism, asthma, and autoimmune diseases, and found no links to vaccinations.
The scientific world is in little doubt. The strongest predictor of autism is genetics.
Thanks to biomedical scientist Andrea Love PhD at ImmunoLogic for her beautifully worded, succinct science:
"If one identical twin has ASD, the other has a 90–99% chance.
Compare that to 31–67% chance for fraternal twins.
Non-twin siblings have ~20% likelihood of ASD, 7-fold higher than general population.
The likelihood increases in families with multiple members with ASD.
100 genes have been implicated: many involved in gene regulation, early brain development, & neural communication.
What can increase likelihood of ASD and autism in addition to genetics?
Factors that impact fetal development, like maternal fever and infections during pregnancy.
Ironically, these are some of the very reasons pregnant people take Tylenol in the first place."
Moving on...
Measles outbreaks have slowed, but not yet ended...
England's latest report (to 25th September) shows 772 cases in 2025, with 18 confirmed since 25th August. 1 fatality.
The US CDC latest report (which has some delays) shows 1,544 cases up to 30th september, with 12% (191) needing hospital admission. Only 4% are known to have had both doses of their MMR jab. 3 fatalities.
Canada's latest report (to 20th September) shows a whopping 5,006 cases in 2025, with 34 in the latest week. 7% (365) have needed hospital admission. Again, only 4% are known to be fully vaccinated. Sadly Canada has announced a second baby has died. The infant was infected during pregnancy and born prematurely.
Mexico has suffered terribly. By the end of week 38 (up to 21st September) they had reported as many as 10,742 confirmed and suspected cases, and 14 fatalities. Most cases are in indigenous people.
10 countries in the Americas have had measles outbreaks in 2025. Mass vaccination programs are underway.
H5N1 is picking back up as migratory birds begin to move. There are no new reports of human or US cattle infections that I've seen, but several infected poultry flocks in the US, Europe and world, including Cumbria in the UK.
Yet another brand of raw cat food in the US has been recalled after a cat in San Francisco died a couple of weeks ago, and now 2 in Los Angeles. All 3 died from H5N1 avian flu, and had been fed raw food which tested positive.
Cats do NOT need raw cat food to thrive.
Mexico has confirmed a cow has New World Screwworm (NWS) in Nuevo Leon, less than 70 miles from the US border. The cow had recently been moved from further South, which I think must be annoying as heck to everyone trying to prevent NWS spreading - including into Texas.
USDA quote U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins:
“This is a national security priority. We have given Mexico every opportunity and every resource necessary to counter NWS since announcing the NWS Bold Plan in June 2025. Nevertheless, American ranchers and families should know that we will not rely on Mexico to defend our industry, our food supply, or our way of life. We are firmly executing our five-pronged plan and will take decisive action to protect our borders, even in the absence of cooperation. Furthermore, we will pursue aggressive measures against anyone who harms American livestock.”
So that's them told off. The intention is that sterile male NWS will be released into the area as soon as they're available.
The Ebola outbreak in DRC is still not under full control, and getting worldwide attention.
The World Health Organisation latest update is to 21st September, when there were 57 confirmed cases and 35 fatalities. 26 people had been admitted to the Ebola Treatment Centre itself - just 2 had recovered and gone home.
1,180 contacts had been identified, they're all monitored for 21 days before getting the all-clear. Despite not having power for large scale refrigeration of vaccines, in 9 days a still impressive, but very low, 1,740 of the closest contacts and healthcare workers had been vaccinated.
As well as no electricity, overworked medical facilities in the remote areas affected are running out of everything, including PPE, space, and clean water.
Some people with Long COVID may instead have, or also have, Lyme Disease. The symptoms can be very similar, especially initially, and are also common in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome - severe fatigue, pain, brain fog and other cognitive problems.
There's a great interview in The Guardian with a parent of a teenager who has suffered with 'Long COVID' for the past 4 years. When tested recently for Lyme it was negative initially (ELISA test, known give up to 50% false negatives ), then a more in-depth privately funded T-Cell test was positive - with really high results.
Theorising has begun.
It is generally recognised that Lyme disease follows a steady pattern. You are bitten by an infected tick, whether you know it or not. Up to 3 months later you get a bullseye shaped rash, often accompanied by flu symptoms. If you don't get treatment then more severe symptoms follow, such as memory problems and joint pain, heart problems and more.
Can people be infected by Lyme and not know for years? Can COVID's disruption to your immune system allow Lyme already in your body to break out? Are they even actually related? Do we simply have a far bigger Lyme problem than we realise?
A 2022 study found a huge number of people had been exposed to 'Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato' - the infection which causes Lyme Disease. The highest seroprevalence areas were Central Europe (20.7%), Eastern Asia (15.9%) and Western Europe (13.5%). By contrast the UK reports only around 2-3,000 cases a year, and a study in 2018 suspected this was around 1/3 of actual cases. The NHS reported 'more than 1,500 cases' last year. For another comparison, despite having a similar population size, the Pasteur institute in France says they get around 50,000 cases a year. So, do infected ticks only bite French people, or is the UK particularly bad at diagnosing Lyme Disease? So many questions with this one...
Back in 2022 monkeypox was renamed mpox, because it has absolutely nothing to do with monkeys - it's usually spread by rodents and small mammals - and as every 5 year old knows, calling someone a monkey or implying they have a 'monkey disease' is plain rude. For unknown reasons the American Health and Human Services have in 2025 decided quietly and abruptly to return to the name monkeypox, and asked the CDC to change all mentions.
When asked about the change, a H&HS spokesperson said "Monkeypox is the name of the viral disease caused by the monkeypox virus."
This is not a reason.
Most of the people infected with mpox during the ongoing outbreak are African, and a lot of the global cases have spread through gay and bisexual men.
The only possible reasons for returning to a name which carries such stigma can be racism and homophobia.
So yeah, that's the world we are living in now, and it will without doubt result in less Americans stepping forward to be tested...
Baroness Michelle Mone's 'husband's company' PPE Medpro have lost their legal battle with the UK Government over £122 MILLION of unusable PPE supplied during the COVID pandemic. Millions of unsuitable items were supplied which had a CE mark, despite not being checked by the authorities which issue the CE mark.
Awww, gutted for you Mich, you poor things.
Michelle claims that it's unfair and the Government moved the goalposts in order to win, demanding they see such unreasonable things as "original “source documentation” around sterilisation".
You robbed us chick, you got caught, and for whatever reason the establishment didn’t rally to protect you - so quit Moneing (see what I did there), take your punishment and pay the NHS back thanks. Oh, wait, you can't? PPE Medpro has this very week gone into administration with assets of only £1m? Well, prison then...
The UK's new Moderna Innovation and Technology Centre opened this week, and the Government announced a further boost to the life sciences sector with an extra £50 million fund. Moderna are investing £1 billion, and the money will be used to develop mRNA vaccine technology, to tackle cancers and seasonal infections like flu. In the event of another pandemic, the facility can produce up to 250 million vaccine doses a year.
Not a virus, Huntingtons disease is an incredibly cruel inherited progressive condition for which there is no cure. It kills brain cells, affecting movement, thinking and mood. After diagnosis life expectancy is 10-30 years.
A team from University College London and Uniqure have spent 3 years trialling a new gene therapy on 29 patients, and they've slowed down progression of the disease by an incredible average of 75%. This is the first time any treatment has offered such hope to people with Huntingtons.
Huntingtons is caused by rogue mRNA. mRNA is a now a familiar term, which refers to messengers that tell cells which proteins to make. The therapy involves specially created microRNA being delivered directly into the brain, where it enters cells and blocks the rogue Huntingtons mRNA from entering.
It’s insanely complex, massively cutting edge and crikey, a virtual miracle if it proves as good as the small trial results suggest. It is an expensive treatment involving brain surgery, but it should be for life, and offers hope and a future for people with the condition, and also opens the door to possibilities for other similar diseases.
It is the weekend - and there is a lot of weather predicted for the UK. We are already in the midst of it here, the A75 is closed due to flooding, fallen trees, accidents and high winds, and the kids had an early finish from school. Be careful out there people, don't take pointless risks, you're worth more than that. Stay home, treat yourself, have something nice just for you - you earned it.
I shall be back in 2 weeks, until then...
Don't Go Out In A Weather Warning, Stay Home If You Are Unwell, Save The NHS...
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(And if you have Autism, don't you ever think that you are not as important as anyone else. ALL humans have a value of one person.)
Sources COVID
UK Health Data
US CDC respiratory dashboard
Reference pages H5N1
https://www.paho.org/en/topics/avian-influenza
https://www.cdc.gov/bird-flu/situation-summary/index.html
UK cases Measles
Canada Measles
Images
UK England COVID cases up 20% w/e 28th September and image
Breast cancer symptoms WHO image
Unbiasedscipod Autism and paracetamol image
Week 1 UK COVID RSV Flu Rhinovirus
Sources
UK latest COVID cases UPDATES THURSDAY 4pm
GP surveillance England Primary Care
Weekly.update Flu COVID RSV surveillance UK
What are the new ‘Stratus’ Covid symptoms as cases rise across UK | The Independent Monday 29th
UK HSA blog current variants
SARS-CoV-2 Primary Care Surveillance in England
UK England COVID cases up 20% w/e 28th September and image
US COVID cases
Children and Long COVID - The study in The Lancet
Children and long covid
Long COVID children
Long COVID kids UK COVID inquiry
Mexico 14 measles deaths
Alberta baby with measles born prematurely and dies
Raw Cat Food US Recall H5N1
San francisco cat
Los Angeles cats
New World Screwworm 70 miles from US border
DRC Ebola Bulape running out of supplies, no electricity in this area.
DRC Ebola update 25th Sept
Health authorities sound the alarm as 35 deaths linked to new Ebola outbreak | The Independent
LYME AND COVID
Lyme NHS
2022 Lyme study
ECDC Lyme
Lyme epidemiology
UK Lyme underreporting study 2018
UK NHS 1,500 Cases
Mpox name change USA
Renaming of mpox
https://x.com/ashishkjha/status/1973489441990910321?t=i_Bn0b0l8lvvpDffmZZ9YA&s=19
Mpox - bad to return to old name
Michelle mone moans
UK gov wins PPE medpro case
Medpro no cash
Moderna vaccine facility UK
Huntingtons Uniqure
Excellent Huntingtons therapy description BBC
Huntingtons NHS
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/huntingtons-disease/
ALL THE TRUMP TYLENOL /VACCINES STUFF (in capitals because it's important, so it needs to be shouty apparently)
Trump 'truth' social media
BBC fact check
Reuters quote and fact check
Reference:
Andersson NW, Bech Svalgaard I, Hoffmann SS, et al. Aluminum-adsorbed vaccines and chronic diseases in childhood. A nationwide cohort study by researchers from Statens Serum Institut (SSI) and published in Annals of Internal Medicine.. 15 July 2025.
Bankrupt 4 times
Video of Trump - STD age 12.
Hep B Transmission | How Do You Get Hep B | Hepatitis NSW
CCOHS: Hepatitis B
Facts about hepB vaccination and newborns
Simple Politics Wes Streeting image
Ninia and the brain - autism rates and correlations
Nini and the brain
National Autistic Society
Painkillers and Autism Nat. Autistic Soc.
Autism and vaccines and paracetamol
Your intuition is supported by evidence. The rise in autism diagnoses (e.g., 300% over 20 years per Johns Hopkins) is largely due to broader criteria, better awareness, and earlier screening, especially for milder cases. Profound autism rates remain stable (CDC: 4.6/1,000 in 2016, ~27% of cases). Some studies suggest a partial true increase, but most attribute it to diagnostics. Sources: CDC, PMC.
Trump batshit tylenol, vaccine post
Does Tylenol use during pregnancy cause autism? Here's what science says
UK Gov
president of the USA said the prescription was OK 'if medically indicated'. What other reason is there? A full explanation is here
More Autism evidence
https://www.immunologic.org/about
CNN Factcheck Donald Trump tylenol autism
Reuters fact check
NBC fact check Trump Tylenol
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/trump-unproven-medical-advice-tylenol-vaccines-rcna233911
Leucovorin Robert Hendren
"If one identical twin has ASD, the other has a 90–99% chance.
Compare that to 31–67% chance for fraternal twins.
Non-twin siblings have ~20% likelihood of ASD, 7-fold higher than general population.
The likelihood increases in families with multiple members with ASD.
100 genes have been implicated: many involved in gene regulation, early brain development, & neural communication.
What can increase likelihood of ASD and autism in addition to genetics?
Factors that impact fetal development, like maternal fever and infections during pregnancy.
Ironically, these are some of the very reasons pregnant people take Tylenol in the first place."
Andrea Love, ImmunoLogic
Do not choose homeopathy over paracetamol. Do not put things into your body.
Paracetamol safe in pregnancy -
Dr Jess Steier, Unbiased Science
Acetaminophen Use During Pregnancy and Children’s Risk of Autism, ADHD, and Intellectual Disability | Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorders | JAMA | JAMA Network
Nationwide cohort study with sibling control analysis included a population-based sample of 2 480 797 children born in 1995 to 2019 in Sweden, with follow-up through December 31, 2021
Safe image
Images from Tylenol cyanide scare compared to autism rates
Easy read article
Video - known risk vs tenuous risk PhD on neuroscience of autism
This is the study that says there IS a link between paracetamol and autism.
Evaluation of the evidence on acetaminophen use and neurodevelopmental disorders using the Navigation Guide methodology | Environmental Health | Full Text
Cord blood study
Association of Cord Plasma Biomarkers of In Utero Acetaminophen Exposure With Risk of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and Autism Spectrum Disorder in Childhood | Child Development | JAMA Psychiatry | JAMA Network
The cord blood ones disturb me because even a non-expert can immediately see gestational age at birth, the mother and child's own bodies, livers, kidneys, metabolisms etc can make a massive difference. As can any reasons behind the acetaminophen. That's the real question - why were they taking it? Were they ill? In slow labour? Low pain threshold?
When did they take it? Did they pop pills all pregnancy or take it once at the end for slow labour? No-one can tell.
NIH funded study saying increased risk
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