COVID-19 Coronavirus and other virus UK and World News Update 25th September 2026
Up until the 11th September 2026, in the UK, the provisional total number of people who have died from COVID was 252,934. This is likely to be an undercount.
COVID is still on the rise in the UK, Europe, US and elsewhere. Many areas did not have a Spring-Summer wave, so the expected Autumn-Winter wave is likely to be harder than last year as immunity has had more of a chance to wane. In the week to 16th September the UK reported 1,056 confirmed cases (up from 652 a week earlier), 19 deaths (up from 5 a week earlier), and 261 people hospitalised.
The UK's shortage of nurses is far worse than previously thought, according to a report released this week by the Royal College of Nursing.
We are short 55,000 registered nurses, double the number of vacancies being advertised.
Professor Nicola Ranger, RCN General Secretary and Chief Executive:
“When you have too few registered nurses, you get longer hospital stays, worse outcomes and more pressure on an already burned out and exhausted workforce."
Don't we know it. The cause appears to be lack of funding, and a lot of folk online are saying that recently qualified nurses are struggling to find positions, despite the urgent need for more staff.
It looks like from 2023-2025 around 63 MILLION doses of COVID vaccines bought by the UK Government expired unused in warehouses, equating to around £1.6 BILLION in wasted money. Access to antiviral Paxlovid was also heavily restricted, and the 2024-2025 accounts suggest expired product that was destroyed had cost around £1.8 BILLION.
I know it costs extra to distribute drugs and inject people, but that seems insanely wasteful...
Thanks to CatInTheHat for researching that for us.
While we're on wasting money... The Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme (VDPS) cost UK taxpayers £83m for staff, admin and medical reviews between April 2022 and March 2026, but compensation paid out was less than half that. Started in 1979, it had been performing well, but since COVID jabs came along has had to deal with many more unsuccessful and unscrupulous claims, which all cost money and time to investigate, meaning genuine claimants are in some cases waiting years for a £120,000 payout. Since November 2021 there have been 24,260 claims regarding COVID vaccinations, with only 264 proving successful.
"The Ebola disease outbreak is not shrinking. It's moving. Our teams are seeing cases emerge in new, underprepared areas while response measures remain insufficient in hotspots. More support from UN agencies is critically needed."
MSF (Medecins Sans Frontieres - Doctors Without Borders)
As of yesterday DRC reported a total of 7,890 confirmed cases, including 3,799 related deaths. 893 patients are hospitalised in isolation.
Despite the shortfall of international help and the fact this is still an active warzone (last Wednesday the Wazalendo took control of 3 areas in the teritory of North Kivu, which is central to the Ebola outbreak), DRC really are doing their best, and thinking outside the box.
- Schoolchildren are being taught how to spot Ebola symptoms and adopt stricter hygiene measures, including washing hands regularly, and to avoid contact with potentially infected people and the bodies of the deceased.
- People arriving at Ebola Treatment Centres are given fresh clothing and once recovered are sent home with more new clothing. It's an incentive, and means anything they were wearing when they arrived can be incinerated so that they don't take Ebola home with them.
- In Ituri province, DRC, an Ebola survivors' follow-up program has launched with the opening of a specialist clinic in Bunia.
"This clinic will enable survivors to benefit from tailored support for the health needs that may persist after the illness, while also addressing the challenges related to returning to their families and communities."
There are signs that the public in DRC are beginning to become more convinced that Ebola is real, and more trusting of medical agencies. MSF report that in the last 3 weeks sick patients are beginning to arrive in more remote Ebola centres, rather than them being informed there is illness after someone dies. They have expanded operations and opened a new 22 bed Ebola Treatment Centre in Kisangani, and a 50 bed Ebola centre in Nya Nya - the previous centre there was burnt down in June by angry relatives who felt the 'white men had brought disease with them' and wanted the bodies of dead relatives returned.
West Nile Virus may not be something that's ever been on your radar, but this year there is "an intense level of circulation in both humans and animals in several European countries" (ECDC, European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control).
West Nile Virus is spread by several types of mosquitoes that have fed on infected birds. It cannot be passed human to human, or human to mosquito. Most infected humans have no symptoms, and around 1 in 5 have mild disease with flu-like symptoms and sometimes a rash. Around 1 in 150 people develop severe disease in the brain and nervous system. There is no vaccine or specific treatment for West Nile Virus, you can only treat the symptoms.
The official ECDC figures on 23rd September: Total for Europe 1,569 cases. Italy had most human cases at 696, Greece had it's highest ever count for September at 355, North Macedonia had it's highest ever at 69, and The Netherlands had reported 28 cases. As of 3rd September the ECDC report 61 deaths in total across Europe.
These figures are very VERY far behind reality, and don't show the true picture. As of yesterday The Netherlands has reported 44 confirmed cases and 5 people have died. If only 1 in 150 develop severe illness, and 5 people have died, they are incredibly unlucky, or there are a lot more people infected in The Netherlands than we know about.
Warmer temperatures create better conditions for mosquitoes, with longer breeding and active seasons, and the ability to spread further.
Robert F Kennedy Jr to a conference full of anti-vaccine activists:
"Let me be clear: You have a strong and steadfast friend in the White House. We've accomplished in 19 months things that would have seemed unthinkable two years ago."
Unthinkable accomplishments, absolutely. You nailed that. Absolutely unthinkable...
As of 24th September the Us has reported a total of 3,659 measles cases in 2026. 95% unvaccinated, 2% only 1 dose of MMR. 9% (357 have been hospitalised).
The outbreaks in both the UK and Canada have slowed considerably.
As well as the 2 infants too young to be vaccinated, 2 more unvaccinated people have died from measles in Pennsylvania. an 18 year old and a 40 year old woman. The US CDC website has listed just one of the 4, and has an asterisk explaining this figure may change (although if you catch measles, get really poorly and die, seems the measles might have had something to do with it... )
In the absence of national common sense, states are having to look out for themselves. Pennsylvania Department of Health have issued guidance offering infants 6 to 11 months an early “zero dose” of the MMR vaccine, and infants 12 months to 6 years can get an early second MMR vaccine dose for full protection. They are not messing around, and thankfully neither are the Pennsylvanian parents. Typically Penn. DOH would administer around 25,000 doses of MMR each month, this August they delivered over 46,000 doses.
It isn’t just Pennsylvania, at least 30 states are now ignoring the CDC and taking vaccine advice from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Family Physicians, and 2 supportive information-sharing coalitions have been created - California, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington have formed the West Coast Health Alliance, and 15 other states have formed the Northeast Public Health Collaborative.
Bill Gates has admitted defeat in the attempt to eradicate measles. While the Gates Foundation amd other charities spend billions vaccinating children in poorer countries, vaccine hesitancy in richer countries means measles is surging and thriving. We were really very close to wiping it out, the same way we wiped out polio, but we've gone backwards, and now we are further away than we were 20 years ago.
In one of his latest genius moves, Trump has announced a plan to break up some childhood vaccines into 5 smaller doses, given 6 months apart. He claims this will 'massively' reduce autism. Well, obviously, if you bring back deaths from childhood diseases, you will get less people, and therefore less autism.
The main glaring issue with this is that scientists don't get a bucket of vaccine and pour it into children, they already very carefully work out the minimum effective dose to give protection. Breaking it into 5 smaller chunks will render it useless. It won't create the immune response you need, but it will make it more expensive and much harder for parents to fully vaccinate their children, especially full time working, lower income, and disabled or ill parents.
If you dismiss the abhorrent suggestion this is a plan to actually kill off some children, then it has to be for money, because there is no scientific or other reason - not even one that doesn't make sense.
Fiji has a population of only 927,000 people, and has just declared a national emergency due to HIV. Last year there were over 2,000 new cases and 1 in every 60 adults is now living with HIV - compared to 1 in every 165 just 5 years ago. It isn't just adults, the increase is greatest among young adults, so more babies are being born HIV+.
A lot of people don't know their HIV status, there is a real stigma attached to HIV in Fiji, so they often don't go for testing and even if they do, they may not go for treatment. Only 22% of those infected are on antiretroviral drugs. Couple this with an increase in drug use and sharing of needles, and you have an exploding situation. Government agencies are now rolling out education and provision of a free syringe and needle programme in an attempt to stem the spread.
H5N1 is creeping back into the Northern hemisphere already, and we're barely into Autumn. The UK is still Avian Flu-free (fingers crossed), but there are cases popping up in Europe as the first of the migrating birds begin to move. In the US there have thankfully been no new cattle herds infected since the last report, but there have been several detections in domestic birds - 13 commercial and 8 backyard flocks have been confirmed infected in the last 30 days.
In the Southern hemisphere and the tragedy that is H5N1 finally reaching Australia, deceased rare Australian Sea Lions and a dolphin on Kangaroo Island have tested positive, and a dead Humpback Whale washed ashore has also been tested. It is not yet known how severely Avian Flu will affect many of the species which are not found elsewhere in the world, including Marsupials.
There is an Anthrax outbreak in northern Zambia, which has killed at least 60 wild animals (46 hippos, 8 elephants, 5 buffaloes and 1 crocodile) and infected 12 people.
The public are being warned not to kill sick animals, butcher or eat any meat from animals found deceased, and report anything they find to authorities.
Anthrax is a naturally occurring bacteria and the spores can live in soil for decades. Changing climate and weather such as wind or flood moves the ground and exposes the spores, which are almost impossible to see, smell or taste. They can be destroyed by careful and extended use of heat or chemicals.
I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that there was an outbreak of imported 'airport Malaria' at Frankfurt Airport. It had travelled in by plane on infected mosquito(es) and infected 6 members of staff, 2 of whom had died. Sadly 2 more people living nearby have also caught Malaria and one has died. The latest patients did not work at the airport and had not travelled, so despite Frankfurt Airport putting out mosquito traps, they were unable to prevent the mosquitoes escaping into the wider area.
The Malaria wasn't diagnosed quickly enough to give the patients the best chance of survival, because no-one knew they were at risk from Malaria.
Climate change makes Europe a much more tolerable place for mosquitoes, even exotic varieties, so this is unlikely to be the last time we see this. Expect to be sprayed with insect killer more often on flights.
We've known for 5 or 6 years that catching COVID can leave you worse off afterwards. COVID infection can damage your immune system, and your risk of Long COVID increases with each infection. There's a wealth of growing evidence that it can lead to other health conditions too.
A new Canadian study published this month found adults who reported having COVID-19 at least twice were significantly more likely to be diagnosed as having a new medical condition than those who reported never having been infected (heaven knows where they found people who have never caught COVID).
Between April 2022-June 2023, 9,000 people were questioned about 21 varied health conditions. Over the 15 months 11% reported a new diagnosis of at least one of these conditions. People who had had COVID 2 or more times had 76% higher chance of receiving a new diagnosis - strikingly people with 2 or more COVID infections were 5 times as likely to be diagnosed with a respiratory problem and 4 times as likely to have a back problem.
The likelihood of being diagnosed with a new condition was greater if the subject had severe COVID, wasn't vaccinated before their first infection, or had prolonged symptoms/Long COVID.
Repeatedly catching COVID is not good for your health.
UKHSA and University of Oxford scientists have examined the Invasive Meningitis B strain that caused the large outbreak in Kent this Spring, and found genetic changes in the bacteria which may have made it "unusually effective at causing severe disease and potentially less well recognised by human immune responses". The bacteria had "picked up genetic material from other, less harmful bacteria found naturally in the throats of many healthy people. This process is called ‘horizontal gene transfer’ and allows bacteria to pick up and incorporate small pieces of DNA from other bacteria in their environment, effectively borrowing genetic traits without direct reproduction taking place".
This is something that can and will occasionally happen, and it may help explain why there were a massive 21 cases from a single weekend at a nightclub, with 9 people needing intensive care and 2 young people sadly losing their lives, but then the outbreak just stopped - it wasn't actually very good at 'keeping going' after that initial transmission.
I'd like to add the incredibly sensible and swift response from local health authorities and young people themselves cannot be underestimated. An utter tragedy, but well done to everyone involved for halting it so swiftly.
After weeks without any new cases, New Mexico has a second animal confirmed infected by New World Screwworm. The first was a dog, the new case is a horse. The timing is particularly bad, as trade with Mexican cattle is due to resume today.
At latest count there have been 50 infected animal detections in the US, only 2 are in the last 30 days (New Mexico and Texas). No Screwworm flies have yet been caught in traps.
Chile has become the first country in South America to receive the World Health Organisation (WHO) validation for eliminating dog-transmitted rabies as a public health problem.
The recognition highlights more than 50 years of hard work, including door-to-door and mass free dog and cat vaccinations, community awareness and education initiatives, community-based surveillance and rapid access to rabies vaccines for anyone exposed.
Trump Of The Day
Minneapolis health officials are trying to locate a woman who attempted to pick up a dead bat with her bare hands and put it into her bag. The bat was lying on the pavement of an urban street, and was collected by Animal Control... and tested positive for rabies.
So folks, if you ever do find a dead bat, don't handle it, and don't put it in your handbag.
Victim Of Misinformation Who Turned To Crime Of The Week:
Sunderland and Switzerland footballer Granit Xhaka has admitted to obtaining a fake Covid jab certificate back in 2022.
He's been caught because of an ongoing investigation into a doctor accused of giving out false certificates. Under Swiss law the penalty can be as high as 5 years in prison, however it is likely to be a heavy fine.
He has apologised and said at the time he was confused and should have gone to get more information about COVID jabs, rather than lie. Silly.
The UK's largest Autism charity on 15th September:
"Today, the National Autistic Society is stating definitively for the first time that autism is genetic."
"Autism is genetic. Most autistic people are autistic because of genes they got from their parents. This is why autism often runs in families. Much less commonly, other factors that change or influence genes can play a role, but usually in combination with genes from parents."
The National Autistic Society have a whole page explaining their findings, written in words you or your child can understand, and listing all 85 sources they reviewed.
I think that clears it up, and I also believe it's something the vast majority of people who are autistic or who have an autistic child already knew. (Except RFK Jr, who has an autistic child and a special interest in trying to prove vaccines cause autism.)
It's the weekend again! We've passed the Autumn Equinox, so Winter is coming, as Game Of Thrones told us over 15 years ago (yes, it's really that old). I have another reminder of how old I am, as we've got an 18th birthday to celebrate this weekend! *Gulp* There will be merriment, presents, cake and possibly someone will be buying me a drink at the bar! I hope you have something to look forward to as well. If you haven't anything planned, I suggest you make the most of the weather while it's warm enough to go outside without gloves and boots. The light is beautiful, and the leaves have almost every colour. It's free, and it's great for your mental health. I'll be back in 2 weeks, until then...
Play Outdoors, Air The Big Duvet, Save The NHS...
Sources Repeating
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/
UK Health Data
https://ukhsa-dashboard.data.gov.uk/
UK latest COVID cases UPDATES THURSDAY 4pm
GP surveillance England Primary Care
https://www.rcgp.org.uk/representing-you/research-at-rcgp/research-surveillance-centre/public-health-data
US CDC respiratory dashboard
Reference pages H5N1
https://bnonews.com/index.php/human-cases-of-h5n1-bird-flu/
https://www.cdc.gov/bird-flu/situation-summary/index.html
Measles Sit Rep US CDC
UK cases Measles
Canada Measles
Image Sources
Reduce your blood pressure image WHO
COVID images WHO
Kent Men B images UK HSA
Take your time - action for happiness image
Symptoms of sepsis images
Image post Autism All On The Board
Text Sources
Deaths from COVID UK
COVID UP
Nurse shortage far worse than first thought, RCN analysis shows | News | Royal College of Nursing
Wasted COVID jabs UK
WASTED PAXLOVID
https://x.com/_CatintheHat/status/2098422617774420370
UKHSA reports 2023-2024
UKHSA reports 2024-2025
Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme
NHS Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme payouts
Running costs of Covid vaccine damage scheme double the amount paid to victims - BBC News
Ebola outbreak spreading
Schoolchildren being taught to fight Ebola
North Kivu active warzone
DRC clothing destroyed
Ongoing care and support for Ebola survivors
MSF expands response to Ebola disease with new treatment centres
Trump says some routine immunizations will be split into five separate shots. Vaccine experts say it won’t work | CNN
Trump 5 part vaccines video
Inside medicine response to splitting vaccines into 5
ECDC West Nile 23rd September
Large west nile outbreak in The Netherlands. Sequence data valuable here
You're right. Big is of course relative. But those 28 people are all seriously ill and the tip of the iceberg. Most people with the infection don't notice it, so you can draw your own conclusions about that. But it's a new problem for this region, among other things due to warming.
West Nile last week Netherlands
West Nile Monthly update ECDC
west Nile Europe
5 people dead West Nile Netherlands
Gov UK West Nile
Robert F Kennedy Jr tells anti-vaccine activists they have a 'friend in the White House' | US News | Sky News
State officials stepping in where US policy over vaccines fails them
Pennsylvania measles
Pennsylvania reports apparent 3rd measles-related death amid outbreak
4 measles deaths - 2 babies, a 40 year old woman and an 18 year old
3 c9nfirmed measles deaths, 1 under review
Why the CDC is excluding measles deaths in Pennsylvania even as outbreak appears to be ‘accelerating’
Wiping out measles impossible due to vaccine hesitancy in rich countries, says Gates
Fiji emergency HIV
Sealions H5N1 Kangaroo Island
Australia Kangaroo Island
Anthrax outbreak kills more than 50 animals, infects 12 people in Zambia
A third death from imported airport Malaria in Frankfurt.
Dangerous tropical disease: Malaria at Frankfurt Airport: Authorities advise mosquito protection | DIE ZEIT
Repeat COVID infections tied to higher odds of new health conditions
Covid and health problems study
Repeated COVID Infections damage the immunw system
Kent Men B
Screwworm Reappears in New Mexico as Cattle Trade Resumes
Screwworm situation report
Chile becomes first country in South America validated for eliminating dog-transmitted rabies as a public health problem
Health Officials Seeking Woman Who Was Seen Touching Rabid Bat, Trying to Put It in Her Bag
Granit Xhaka admits to receiving fake Covid vaccination certificate in 2022 | Switzerland | The Guardian
Autism is genetic
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