Navigating Common Health Issues for Trans Women in Later Years
For some groups in society good quality health advice can be harder to find, so I'm delighted today to be collaborating on an incredibly informative post about the health issues which can be faced by trans women.
As trans women grow older, they encounter specific health challenges that require specialised attention to support long-term well-being. Prolonged hormone therapy, cardiovascular concerns, and bone density maintenance become increasingly crucial.
Moreover, those who have undergone gender-affirming procedures must focus on pelvic health. Mental health care and routine cancer screenings are equally crucial for a healthy aging process.
Understanding these challenges and taking preventive steps can significantly improve the quality of life. In this article, we’ll explore key health concerns for aging trans women, emphasising proactive healthcare planning and informed choices for overall well-being.
COVID-19 Coronavirus and other virus UK and World News Update 26th January 2024
World COVID Statistics: 702,382,516 reported cases and 6,973,669 losses of life.
"In the week ending 12 Jan 2024 (Week 2) of deaths registered:
▪️ 17.7% involved influenza or pneumonia (2,425 deaths)
▪️ 2.8% involved COVID19 (388 deaths)"
UK ONS (Office for National Statistics).
These figures are higher than a normal week in part due to delays from Christmas and New Year, and a lot of people are unhappy that many folk hospitalised with pneumonia are not even being tested for COVID, nor is it considered relevant to these stats if they tested positive a couple of weeks or more previously.
The good news is that alongside preliminary figures since then, we don't seem to have quite as many people sick with COVID as this time last year.
The bad news is that we already have a lot of people in hospital with flu, and significant pressure on the NHS, causing 'critical incidents' in several trusts (including Leicester). Unusually we have had 2 flu waves and may not be at the peak of this one for hospitalisations, so fingers crossed that tapers off.
If you are ill, whatever it may be, please stay home if you can.
Simple Steps To Get More Proactive With Your Healthcare In 2024
In the pursuit of well-being, a proactive approach is paramount to ensuring a healthier and more fulfilling life. This comprehensive guide provides essential steps and insights to empower you on your journey towards proactive health in 2024. You can lay the foundation for a thriving and balanced lifestyle by addressing various aspects of physical and mental well-being.
Embrace A Holistic Approach To Fitness
To kickstart your journey towards proactive health, consider adopting a holistic approach to fitness. Instead of fixating solely on traditional gym workouts, explore diverse activities that engage both your body and mind. Activities like yoga, Pilates, or even outdoor exercises can contribute to your overall well-being. This approach not only keeps you physically active but also promotes mental clarity and emotional balance.
Prioritise Mental Well-Being
A proactive stance towards health extends beyond physical fitness, encompassing mental well-being. Engage in mindfulness practices such as meditation or deep breathing exercises to alleviate stress and enhance your mental resilience. Consulting with a mental health professional can also provide valuable insights and coping mechanisms tailored to your specific needs.
Cultivate Nutritious Eating Habits
Nutrition plays a pivotal role in proactive health. Rather than adhering to restrictive diets, focus on cultivating sustainable and nutritious eating habits. Incorporate a variety of fruits, vegetables, lean proteins, and whole grains into your diet. Consult a registered dietitian for personalised advice, ensuring you meet your nutritional requirements while enjoying a diverse and satisfying range of foods.
Address Skin Issues That Have Been Bothering You
Your skin is a reflection of your overall health, and addressing skin issues is a proactive step towards well-being. If you've been dealing with persistent skin problems, consult with a dermatologist. Whether it's acne, eczema, or other dermatological concerns, seeking professional advice ensures effective treatment tailored to your skin type and condition. You can find a lot of medications for skin issues, as well as problems like migraines and hay fever, at an online pharmacy. TheIndependent Pharmacy treats 88 medical conditions online, and they offer speedy delivery. Visit their website to find out more.
Stay Hydrated
Hydration is often underestimated but is crucial for maintaining optimal bodily functions. Make a conscious effort to stay hydrated throughout the day by drinking an adequate amount of water. Carry a reusable water bottle to encourage consistent hydration, supporting your overall health and well-being.
Being proactive with your health involves regular health screenings and check-ups. Schedule routine appointments with healthcare professionals to monitor key indicators of well-being. Address any concerns promptly and work collaboratively with your healthcare team to implement preventive measures.
Final Thoughts
Embarking on a journey towards proactive health requires a commitment to holistic well-being. By incorporating these essential steps into your lifestyle, you can cultivate a foundation for lasting health and vitality. Remember that proactive health is an ongoing process, and small, consistent efforts lead to significant and sustainable results. Prioritise your well-being and embrace the positive transformations that come with a proactive approach to health in 2024.
COVID-19 Coronavirus and other virus UK and World News Update 15th September 2023
World COVID Statistics: 695,289,957 reported cases and 6,915,596 losses of life.
Massively mutated COVID variant (current estimate is 33 mutations) BA.2.86 Pirola is agitating a lot of people and causing an upset to our calmly steady COVID stats. It is visibly worrying health officials in the UK, US, Canada, Europe and beyond - although we still see no signs it is more dangerous or deadly, just more easily caught and very quick.
COVID-19 Coronavirus and other virus UK and World News Update 18th August 2023
World COVID Statistics: 693,666,294 reported cases and 6,908,586 losses of life.
The UK JCVI has given their advice on who should be offered a COVID-19 booster vaccine this autumn:
- residents in care homes for older adults
- all adults aged 65 years and over
- anyone 6 months to 64 years in a clinical risk group
- frontline health and social care workers
- persons aged 12 to 64 years who are household contacts of people with immunosuppression
- persons aged 16 to 64 years who are carers and staff working in care homes for older adults
The UK Government have announced £250m funding and plans for 5,000 extra hospital beds. Sadly these appear to be mainly aspirational or rented from private sources, rather than an increase to NHS supplies.
If you are a Tory minister, great news, this makes a tidy profit for someone, and puts more public money into private hands.
If you're a patient or NHS worker, it looks like there'll be 900 actual extra beds - just physical beds and A&E cubicles - by next January.
If you are a Tory minister, great news, the NHS will spend Winter looking like its not fit for purpose despite your 'heavy investment', and private healthcare will look more attractive to the UK public.
"WHO has designated COVID19 variant BA.2.86 as a ‘variant under monitoring’ today due to the large number of mutations it carries."
WHO, yesterday.
Exactly as it says, something very shifty looking has just entered the room, so everyone is watching to see if if it hangs around, and what it's capable of. At this moment only 5 cases of BA.2.86 (also known as BA.X) have been detected (although hardly anyone is tested these days) in Israel, Denmark (2) and Michigan, USA and London. We have no reason to think BA.2.86 is more dangerous, but we can see it has a whopping 30 mutations to the parts that latch on (like carrying a big bunch of keys) and has potential to sneak round our immunity and infect a lot more of us - if it learns that trick.
Meanwhile in the UK, new variant Eris is spreading well. This is EG.5 and has also recently been tagged by WHO, as a variant of interest. It now accounts of around 1 in 10 UK cases, and although it hasn't yet 'exploded' (helpfully it's the school holidays), there are a handful of scientists warning it could make Autumn and Winter less pleasant.
Jonathan Van Tam, softly spoken voice of the UK COVID response, has taken up a position working with Moderna.
Last year the UK Government announced a £1b deal with Moderna to build a new mRNA manufacturing plant.
Did Jon Bon Tam have any part in that decision? Was his input unbiased? Did Jon Claude Van Tam already know 18 months ago that he'd be taking this position now?
Frankly he always seemed one of the cleverest and most human of the lot, so I'm willing to believe he just fancied a new job, and the timeline is really long for any subterfuge.
"Misinformation kills.
52 American physicians actively spread Covid-19 misinformation to millions of people on social media about vaccines, masks, and conspiracies.
One third of the more than 1,100,000 Covid-19-related deaths as of January 18 2023 were preventable if public health recommendations were followed."
Dr Jonathan N Stea of University of Calgary, summarising the results of a University of Massachusetts study.
Remember kids, COVID isn't less dangerous than it ever was - we have just been vaccinated and exposed to it, and our immune system has learnt how to fend it off. If you run the gauntlet without any antibodies today, you carry the same (or slightly increased) risk of severe illness as you did back in January 2020 (and that includes the 1.5m people in the UK who cannot develop a robust immune response, however many vaccinations you gave them).
Cyprus has an outbreak of a really nasty cat Coronavirus. It has already killed many thousand cats, and now vets are treating their patients with a human COVID treatment - Molnupiravir- in an effort to save the most sick animals.
Does it matter which arm you get your jabs in? Apparently yes!
Newly published research from the USA measured the T cell immune response in 300 people, 2 weeks after the second dose of their initial COVID jabs (none of them had ever knowingly caught COVID at the time).
T cells were found in 67% of people who had both jabs in the same arm, and only 43% of those who got one dose in each arm.
The moral of this story is "crikey, I never saw that coming" really does happen, and that sometimes your Nan's logic is easily as smart as science.
Disappointing Human Of The Week:
Captain Sir Tom Moore's daughter is in the news again.
Not only did she pay herself a fabulous annual salary to run the Captain Tom Foundation charity, she seems to have built herself a home spa pool using charity funding, and now she's being investigated for charging for public charity appearances and taking the cash as her own fee for turning up.
No-one wanted to see you for being you love. They only invited you because you were representing your late father's charity. (Too harsh? I think not in this case. I'll be astounded if she wasn't also claiming all expenses, food and travel.)
As a reminder, we are promised that ALL of the original funds raised by Tom walking in his garden were handed over to the NHS Together charities.
Captain Sir Tom died from COVID and pneumonia in February 2021 aged 100. He developed pneumonia shortly after returning from a promotional trip to Barbados with British Airways. Taking a 100 year old man across the world on a plane during a pandemic, before he's even been vaccinated, is an advertising scheme so poorly thought out, you wonder which idiot agreed to it. His daughter and her family went on the holiday with him.
Hoax Of The Week:
Fox News made statements which implied the US FDA (Food and Drug Administration) had authorised Ivermectin for treatment of COVID. Nope. Nopeitty nope nope.
The confusion came because during the lead up to a court case, someone mentioned that 'the FDA had never banned Ivermectin for COVID patients'. The FDA issue guidance and offer support, of course they didn't ban it. What if you had horrific headlice or intestinal worms AS WELL AS COVID. You'd want Ivermectin then.
There have now been about a million trials for this, and ALL clinical and real life evidence still shows no decrease in hospitalisations or death from COVID when patients are given Ivermectin - it simply doesn't help. Also, the Earth is a ball.
It is the weekend! For me it is a busy one, but with family, so it'll be exciting and memorable. I hope you have something nice happening too - and you remember to treat yourself. You earnt it.
I'll be back in a couple of weeks.
Play Outdoors, Wear Suncreen, Save The NHS.
Some people. They look very much like numbers here, but they are all people like you.
Countries / Cases / Losses of life (plus figures added over the last 24 hours):
World 693,666,294 (+1,077) 6,908,586
Macao 14,120 (+412) 123
Hong Kong 2,916,892 (+399) 13,819
Afghanistan 224,812 (+52) 7,941
Lithuania 1,322,361 (+50) 9,695
Poland 6,518,496 (+44) 119,636
Czechia 4,643,541 (+42 ) 42,813
Denmark 3,182,857 (+39) 8,780
Vietnam 11,622,383 (+17 ) 43,206
Slovenia 1,344,385 (+11) 7,100
Niue (Small island near Tonga) 840 (+7)
(Most countries do not give a daily update, or even a weekly update - these are the countries and communities who reported most new cases yesterday, but it doesn't give an accurate representation of the actual world picture.)
COVID-19 Coronavirus and other virus UK and World News Update 31st March 2023
World COVID Statistics: 683,871,943 reported cases and 6,830,866 losses of life.
"Isn't a baseline of 1 million current cases & several hundred deaths a week dramatic enough for you? Like Coronation Street, it drags on forever, but can't be said to lack drama."
Excellent quote from someone named Mal Smith on the COVID stats last week. COVID very definitely isn't over, we are 'learning to live with it'. Never forget those who won't ever be able to take it lightly. Around 1.5 million people in the UK will always be more vulnerable to serious disease and death. Never belittle someone who wants to wear a mask or flinches if you cough, whether for their own safety or yours.
The weekly COVID19 surveillance report from the UK HSA shows that hospital admission rates have decreased in almost all age groups. The highest admission rates continue to be seen in the over 75s.
This is for the week ending 26th March, so it's much more up-to-date than we used to have to work with.
COVID-19 Coronavirus and other virus UK and World News Update 3rd February 2023
World COVID Statistics: 675,852,150 reported cases and 6,768,076 losses of life.
"Three years ago today, I declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) over the global spread of COVID-19 - the highest level of alarm under the International Health Regulations.
On Friday the Emergency Committee met to consider whether that remains the case. The committee has advised me that in its view, COVID-19 remains a global health emergency.
In the past 8 weeks, more than 170,000 people have lost their lives to COVID-19, and that's just the reported deaths; we know the actual number is much higher."
Dr Tedros, Head of the World Health Organisation, speaking on Monday.
Lets start with some good news. Ambulance handover times have improved dramatically. I don't know which genius sorted this out, but someone somewhere fixed this, and they should probably be in charge (as long as it isn't a cover up and all those people are piling up in a caretaker's closet.)
Down from highs of almost 4 hours of wasted time per handover (on average) in mid December and early January, to less than 15 minutes for most of the UK for the 3rd week of January. Even the South West is down to around 40 minutes.
Serious credit to all involved, and to numbers bloke Paul Mainwood for keeping his eye on it.
COVID-19 Coronavirus and other virus UK and World News Update 27th January 2023
World COVID Statistics: 674,417,904 reported cases and 6,755,786 losses of life.
"Sajid Javid has called for patients to pay for GP and A&E visits.
This is what the Conservatives have in store for us all.
We strongly oppose anything that might prevent or dissuade someone from seeking the care they need.
NHS Million."
There are some changes to the UK vaccination programme, on advice from the JCVI (Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation). In England it's all change after 12th February. This will be a deadline for Autumn boosters, and boosters for all 16-49 year olds, and basically then they'll move on, so please book yours before then if you haven't had it already.
Up until 15th January 2023, the Autumn booster uptake was 64.5% of those aged 50 and over, and 82.4% of those aged 75 and over. Vaccinations have now dropped to very low levels, so we can assume most of those who want it have already come forward.
The JCVI have recommended that all older and less robust people should get a COVID booster in Autumn this year, and people who are especially vulnerable to COVID should get an extra Spring booster as well.
(Dropping boosters for anyone under 50 and not in an at-risk group is understandable financially, as it currently makes only a tiny percentage difference to the numbers hospitalised or dying, but each one is a person, and relying on immunity via catching COVID has a cost to our long term physical health. I honestly don't think they are taking it as seriously as they will in future.)
COVID-19 Coronavirus and other virus UK and World News Weekly Update 20th January 2023
World COVID Statistics: 672,686,930 reported cases and 6,740,521losses of life.
"I just think we're really, really, really silly if we think that our health systems are just going to come back online and just start functioning at 100% again.... because our systems have lost elasticity, they've lost resilience, not gained it. And our health workers have been through one of the worst, probably, health experiences of the last 100 years or more.
We owe them a huge debt of gratitude for what they've done for us over the last 3 years. And I don't think we're repaying that debt with the working conditions, with the protection, with the training or with the pay that they need to be able to take care of themselves and their families."
Dr Mike Ryan of WHO. Seconded. Always.
"China's COVID prevention and control is still in a time of stress, but the light is ahead, persistence is victory. I am most worried about the rural areas and farmers. Medical facilities are relatively weak in rural areas, thus prevention is difficult and the task is arduous."
Chinese leader Xi Jinping with a warning and clear indication he's worried, in a Lunar New Year speech.
COVID-19 Coronavirus and other virus UK and World News Update 13th January 2023
World COVID Statistics: 670,571,061 reported cases and 6,725,056 losses of life.
"3 years ago, the first SARS-CoV-2 sequence was shared. Today, sequencing remains vital. We urge all countries to keep testing & sharing sequences. We understand efforts won’t be as intense as before but we can’t beat this virus with our eyes closed."
DrTedros, Head of WHO.
3 years on and I thought I'd have finished doing this about 2 and a half years ago. Despite this, there is a huge amount of news today because a lot of 'end of year' stats have been released, so off we go...
COVID-19 Coronavirus and other virus UK and World News Update 6th January 2023
World COVID Statistics: 667,528,972 reported cases and 6,707,791 losses of life.
"Please don’t let the government gaslight you into thinking it’s ‘normal’ for patients to be dying in their droves at home, in ambulances, in corridors, in cupboards. Excess deaths are 26% higher than usual. This isn’t normal, it’s grotesque.
A humanitarian crisis, yet Sunak does nothing."
Dr Rachel Clarke, responding to yesterday's lack of acknowledgement from the Government as to the state of the NHS.
COVID-19 Coronavirus and other virus UK and World News Update 16th December 2022
World COVID Statistics: 656,579,733 reported cases and 6,668,126 losses of life.
Today's ONS random sampling (week ending 5th Dec for England, Wales and Scotland, week ending 3rd Dec for Northern Ireland) is as anticipated, showing an increase in positive test results:
"The percentage of people testing positive for coronavirus (COVID-19) continued to increase in England, increased in Wales and Scotland, and the trend was uncertain in Northern Ireland."
- England, estimate 1,095,100, equating to 2.01% of the population (an increase from 1.73% in the previous week), or around 1 in 50.
- Wales, estimate 55,900, equating to 1.84% of the population (an increase from 1.43% in the previous week), or around 1 in 55.
- Northern Ireland, estimate 38,700, equating to 2.11% of the population or around 1 in 45.
- Scotland, estimate 100,700, equating to 1.91% of the population (an increase from 1.68% in the previous week), or around 1 in 50.
Tens of thousands of Nurses in England, Wales and Northern Ireland were on strike yesterday for the first time in history. England’s Chief Nurse, Dame Ruth May, was herself on the picket line in London.
Over 30,000 operations were cancelled last month due to shortages of staff. No medical professional can be expected to work without the correct support. The stress must be almost unbearable, and it costs lives.
Scottish nurses in the unions Unite and Unison have voted to accept their pay offer of UP TO around 7.5%. Lowest awards are only around 2%...
COVID-19 Coronavirus and other virus UK and World News Update 2nd December 2022
World COVID Statistics: 648,755,570 reported cases and 6,643,011 losses of life.
"What's clear is that this is an unusually early flu season, a fact that's well illustrated by this graph. The flu hospitalizations are unusually high for this time of year, but they aren't heading for the stratosphere, like the very bad 2017-18 flu season. At least, not yet."
Helen Branswell, lead writer for Infectious Diseases at STAT News, talking about Flu in the USA. The early arrival of flu is a pattern which is repeating around the Northern Hemisphere, including in the UK. Is it just early, or is it a portent of doom? Get your flu jab if you're eligible. Flu + COVID together = double your chance of being hospitalised or dying.
"One third of our members in the ambulance service believe that they have been involved in a delay that has led to a patient dying, so this isn't a situation where this is a service that runs perfectly well. This is a service that's dying on its feet, and our members are actually standing up and the public of Britain should support them. This is a matter of a life or death situation. They don't want to strike, they do their job because they want to save lives."
Andy Prendergast, GMB (general workers union) National Secretary on Sky News.
COVID-19 Coronavirus and other virus UK and World News Update 25th November 2022
World COVID Statistics: 645,069,583 reported cases and 6,633,233 losses of life.
"My offer of formal negotiations was declined and instead ministers have chosen strike action.
Nursing staff have had enough of being taken for granted, enough of low pay and unsafe staffing levels, enough of not being able to give our patients the care they deserve."
Royal College of Nursing general secretary Pat Cullen, as quoted by Sky News.
Today's UK random COVID sampling from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) is refreshing. It's week ending 15th November, so 10 days behind, but positive tests are declining or static. That's excellent news as Winter is beginning to make itself known, and far better than we are doing with RSV (chest infection virus) and Flu.
- England, estimate 809,200, equating to 1.48% of the population (a decrease from 1.73% in the previous week), or around 1 in 65 people.
- Wales, estimate 45,400, equating to 1.49% of the population (a decrease from 1.84% in the previous week), or around 1 in 65 people.
- Northern Ireland, estimate 34,100, equating to 1.86% of the population (there was no change in the percentage which was 1.86% in the previous week), or around 1 in 55 people.
- Scotland, estimate 83,700, equating to 1.59% of the population (a decrease from 1.85% in the previous week), or around 1 in 65 people.
COVID-19 Coronavirus and other virus UK and World News Update 11th November
2022
World COVID Statistics: 639,532,801 reported cases and 6,612,327 losses of
life.
"Does it need to be stated that infection with a pathogenic virus does not
confer a net benefit to the host? Because sometimes it feels like there is a
need to say this."
Aris Katzourakis, Professor of Evolution and Genomics at Oxford Uni, reminding
us that things which do not kill us do not always make us stronger.
"This view of relative mortality risk by age (share of all death certificates
mentioning COVID) continues to trace a pattern of decreasing ripples.
This is despite COVID prevalence being considerably higher than it was in
January 2021."
Numbers guy Paul Mainwood summing up the ONS graph nicely. It's great to be a
long way away from thousands of deaths a week, but remember low constant
ripples still mean we are losing hundreds of people every week. It isn't over,
especially for people who are at greater risk.
Latest ONS stats (to 6th November) are positive - officially reported cases
(people who test positive), hospitalisations and deaths are all DOWN on the
previous week.
Latest ONS Infection Survey random sampling is also positive. We know cases
are likely to go up with Winter, so the lower we can start off, the better.
This is a more accurate true measure, as they invite thousands of randomly
selected people for a test each week.
"The percentage of people testing positive for COVID19 decreased across all UK
countries."
- England, estimate 1,323,200, equating to 2.43% of the population, or around
1 in 40 people.
- Wales, estimate 72,400, equating to 2.38% of the population, or around 1 in
40 people.
- Northern Ireland, estimate 39,900, equating to 2.17% of the population, or
around 1 in 45 people.
- Scotland, estimate 107,300, equating to 2.04% of the population, or around 1
in 50 people.
"I believe we found room for hope in Glasgow. With one last chance to create a
plan that would limit global temperature rises to 1.5 degrees, we made the
promises to keep that goal within reach... And the question today is this, can
we summon the collective will to deliver them? I believe we can."
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak addressing the other delegates at the COP27
Climate Conference - which he did go to, despite saying he wouldn't. Rumour
has it he hadn't realised how important the future existence of humans was
until he saw the guest list.
NHS figures out on Thursday were eye-wateringly bad - so bad they've issued
revisions today, so sorry if I missed any alterations to averages.
1/ We have record breaking queues in A&E emergency departments:
- In October 43,792 people waited over 12 hours for a bed after a decision was
made to admit them to hospital, up an extra third from 32,776 in September.
- In October 150,922 people waited at least 4 hours, up from 131,861 in
September.
2/ We have record breaking numbers of people who have waited a long time for
treatment:
- In October a staggering 401,537, or 1 in every 18 of us, had been waiting
for over a year for treatment. Awesome.
- In good news, the number of people waiting 18 months or over has fallen
substantially - down 60% on last year.
3/ Ambulance waiting times are, as we well know, grim. For some reason this
month's English NHS stats don't include London (but they would likely be
grimmer than grim):
- In October 2022, the mean average response time for Category 1 (England
excluding London), was 9 minutes 56 seconds, with 90% within 17m 42s. Clearly
longer than the 7 minute and 15 minute targets.
Zoe Bell of Upday News points out that we haven't actually met A&E targets
since 2015 - 5 years before COVID.
UK politics continues to bow under the weight of it's own ineptitude. It's
like watching a teenager in heels trying to sneak upstairs in the dark after
15 shandies. Now our COVID-times Education Secretary and newly ordained Sir,
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Childcatcher Gavin Williamson, has "resigned" after
accusations of bullying. It was all fun and games until someone said they
weren't happy with being told to slit their throat or jump out of a window.
(Defenestration is a rare event in the UK. More common with Russian COVID
Doctors).
Gavin said the allegations were "becoming a distraction"... err, yeah.
Okay.
According to Sky News, "a total of 80 ministers or whips have resigned or been
sacked from the government since the start of 2022". Yowch. That's some
world-beating staff turnaround...
Remember back in 2020 when 'kids didn't catch COVID'. How times have
changed... and also knowledge. Obviously kids always caught COVID. they were
just less likely to show it. Sadly although our understanding has changed,
everything else is slow to catch up, and in the UK we don't vaccinate young
children. Omicron is more severe than previous COVID strains, and you can spot
this in the unvaccinated populations, including our children.
In 2022, up to October 31st, the UK had already hospitalised more children who
are testing positive for COVID than in all of 2020 AND 2021 ADDED TOGETHER.
The UK has a lot of people with COVID at any given moment, and many of these
kids will only find out they have it when they turn up at A&E with a
broken leg or asthma attack, but it is not an impressive figure. Even if they
aren't really poorly, each bout of COVID can have a long lasting effect on
things like concentration and tiredness.
RSV is a MASSIVE problem in the Northern hemisphere as we head into our
Winter. Figures are high and rapidly rising, especially in our youngest
infants and children. This is Respiratory Syncytial Virus and it causes chest
infections and bronchiolitis, and it has hospitalised a lot of children in New
Zealand and Australia over their Winter. Keep your kids home if they are ill,
and listen regularly to their breathing in case they develop a persistent
wheeze or crackle, or begin to struggle.
A UK study has found that confidence in vaccinations has dropped across the
board - whatever your religious, educational or cultural background. All this
talk of side effects, efficacy rates, rule breaking and number fudging has
made people think more and trust less.
(Read more, all of you. Not just headlines, think about the answers you
actually want to know. If you are in doubt, get the numbers for yourself.
Google is your friend.)
Waits for Cancer care in the UK are too long. Yet another victim of the NHS
being on its knees and desperately short staffed.
The BBC has a clear article explaining that although screening is being rushed
through to try and clear the backup, lack of specialist staff to actually
oversee treatment means unnecessary delays for very anxious people, and a risk
that treatment will arrive too late.
UK Nurses WILL be going on strike, as will Civil Servants. The UK isn't alone
in this discontent. A lot of people worked solidly through COVID, risked their
health before vaccinations, saw colleagues leave through illness or
bereavement, and in return got clapped at and offered a crap pay rise.
Royal College of Nursing members at 176 NHS Organisations have voted to
strike. Dates to be arranged. Closed door meetings between brand new Junior
Government Health Ministers and nursing representatives are underway
already.
A US team have published a study looking at the difference masks make in
schools. This isn't yet peer-reviewed, but it's getting a lot of high profile
shares, which we can assume means no-one has spotted any huge errors at this
point.
They looked at schools in Boston, Massachusetts, where masks were worn by all
pupils and staff until February 2022. Two districts kept the mask mandates
until June 2022, which allows for a comparison.
They found that the districts which kept masks were poorer, with older schools
and more pupils per class. They also had "higher percentages of low-income
students, students with disabilities, and students who were English-language
learners, as well as higher percentages of Black and Latinx students and
staff".
Despite having extra risk factors, those schools which kept masks continued
with a steady amount of COVID cases, while the schools which got rid of masks
had a big increase.
'During the 15 weeks after the statewide masking policy was rescinded, the
lifting of masking requirements was associated with an additional 44.9 cases
per 1000 students and staff, which corresponded to an estimated 11,901 cases
and to 29.4% of the cases in all districts during that time.'
So there you have it (again). Masks DO make a big difference.
As reported by Channel News Asia, “China will "unswervingly" stick to its
zero-COVID policy and persevere with its "dynamic-clearing" approach to
COVID-19 cases as soon as they emerge, health officials said on Saturday (Nov
5).”
They're not having it. China still have a mandatory quarantine for arrivals
from abroad, and really do think the West is storing up problems for the
future... and it's worth noting their vaccination rate is really very low,
especially in older people.
The latest area to be locked down is part of Guangzhou, after reporting over
1,000 cases a day for the last 5 days. Around 5.6 million residents were just
told to stay home, in an attempt to prevent a whole area lockdown affecting
over 19 million people.
Despite remaining "unswerving", Chinese Health Authorities do at least review
their rules and update them. As a result they have made several changes to
their COVID policies, including reducing close contact quarantine from 7 days
at a centralised location to 5 days (plus three days at home). Rules regarding
inbound travellers and traveller quarantines have also eased.
We have heard before that our genes can make us more susceptible to severe
COVID. This week Oxford University Professor Dr James Davies has revealed
another unfortunate gene, which dates back to neanderthal times. LZTFL1 is
found in around 15% of Europeans, and 60% of Southern Asian people, and it
appears to double the risk you'll die from COVID.
In the UK your risk of succumbing to COVID is clearly greater if you are not
white - but it's been very hard to pinpoint physical reasons, as non-white
people are also more likely to live in larger or multi-generational housing,
more likely to work in high risk professions, less likely to be able to take
time off sick, more likely to be poor etc etc... all risk factors.
The US CDC have a new campaign to encourage pregnant people to get their COVID
vaccinations. The main point of the campaign is:
"Infants aged <6 months, who are ineligible for vaccination, have high
COVID-19–associated hospitalization rates compared with other pediatric age
groups."
Yes. Infants under 6 months do have high hospitalisation rates for COVID, and
in the US that has gone up by a whopping x11 since Omicron COVID took
over.
Hold on before you panic, it's a bit misleading. Younger babies catching
Omicron can show more cold or flu-like symptoms, so are more likely to be
admitted out of caution. Most importantly a "return to normality" means far,
FAR more people have COVID in the community, and as a result far, FAR more
babies are being born WITH COVID.
Despite that eleven-fold increase in hospitalisations, the CDC see no increase
in levels of severe illness. Being admitted to hospital doesn't mean they'll
become very poorly - it means they're in the right place if they do.
Getting vaccinated before or during pregnancy hasn't shown any detrimental
effect, and offers a level of protection for both the parent and newborn baby.
(And as we well know - pregnancy and COVID don't mix well at all.) Talk it
through with your healthcare professionals.
111022 Excess deaths England by week age 0-24
Ugandan schoolchildren will break up 2 weeks early on 25th November, because
of Ebola. Official case counts only include confirmed cases, and sadly when
you add on 'suspected', the numbers are not good. 8 school children have
already died from Ebola, which can have a fatality rate as high as 80% - this
outbreak is currently running at around 40-50%. According to leading expert
Helen Branswell, (Senior Infectious Diseases Writer at STAT News), the updated
total on Monday was believed to be 157 cases and 74 losses of life.
Remember the woman from Alberta, Canada, who had been refused an organ
transplant because she wouldn't get vaccinated against COVID? The Court of
Appeal have upheld that decision. They say expecting her to get up to date
relevant vaccinations is not a violation of her rights. The survival rate for
people with COVID after a recent organ transplant is greatly reduced.
Scientists have announced they've found the oldest ever known sentence written
by humans. It was written on an elephant ivory comb around 1700BCE and says:
"May this tusk root out the lice of the hair and the beard."
We really haven't changed...
Ukraine's official Christmas stamp, “Separated by war”, was created by Valeria
Mykhailova, a year 11 schoolgirl who, until becoming a refugee, lived in
Mykolaiv. It's split in two, with a young woman sitting inside a Christmassy
room alone, and an armed person in a helmet and military clothing, sitting
alone on the battlefield with gunfire around.
SchoolsWeek is reporting that the UK Government Treasury is going to be taking
back over £100 million of the money earmarked for pupil catch-up schemes, as
it hasn't been allocated this year. Schools have really struggled to access
the money, because they have to pay 40% themselves this year, and they simply
don't have it. Next year they'll be expected to pay 75% of the costs, so
frankly it's hardly worth the paperwork.
It would be nice if the underspend went towards FREE catch-up programs for our
most disadvantaged pupils. (It won't.)
In case you missed it, the UK has a new King, and it has been confirmed we
will get a one-off extra bank holiday when he has his Coronation. The
crowning, swearing oaths and all that jazz will take place on Saturday 6th
May, and the bank holiday will be on the Monday 8th May. I make that 2 proper
weekends off in a row. Nice one.
A man arrested on a COVID ward in Scotland has been ruled by an Edinburgh
Court to be an American wanted for serious sex crimes in the USA.
Nicholas Rossi claimed to be an Irish man named Arthur, and if Hollywood is
anything to go by, his accent was probably appalling. He also claimed his
tattoos (which matched the suspect) were drawn onto him while he was in a
coma.
Christmas really is on the way now. John Lewis have an absolutely excellent
campaign, supporting young people leaving care, and highlighting fostering.
Made me bawl. I've added it below.
No numbers today because it's too long already, but next week I'll be without
internet, or travelling, so it'll definitely be shorter!
It is the weekend! Huzzah. I'm definitely having treats, because it's my
birthday weekend, so I'm hoping to be very spoilt. I hope you are too. You've
earned it, and we all need things to look forward to...
COVID-19 Coronavirus and other virus UK and World News Weekly Update 4th November 2022
World COVID Statistics: 637,112,203 reported cases and 6,602,562 losses of life.
Latest ONS random sampling for the week ending 24 October is a mixed bag:
"The percentage of people testing positive for coronavirus (COVID-19) decreased in England, continued to decrease in Wales, continued to increase in Northern Ireland and the trend in the percentage of people testing positive was uncertain in Scotland."
- England, estimate 1,593,900, equating to 2.92% of the population, or around 1 in 35 people.
- Wales, estimate 77,500, equating to 2.55% of the population, or around 1 in 40 people.
- Northern Ireland, estimate 61,200, equating to 3.34% of the population, or around 1 in 30 people.
- Scotland, estimate 141,400, equating to 2.69% of the population, or around 1 in 35 people.
COVID-19 Coronavirus and other virus UK and World News Update 28th October 2022
World: 634,784,361 reported cases and 6,589,972 losses of life.
This week's ONS random sampling for the week ending 17 October 2022 showed a decrease in people testing positive in Wales, an increase in Northern Ireland and Scotland, and "the trend was uncertain in England".
- England, estimate 1,748,400, equating to 3.21% of the population, or around 1 in 30 people.
- Wales, estimate 86,100, equating to 2.83% of the population, or around 1 in 35 people.
- Northern Ireland, estimate 53,700, equating to 2.92% of the population, or around 1 in 35 people.
- Scotland, estimate 159,200, equating to 3.02% of the population, or around 1 in 35 people.
Great news regarding hospital figures in the UK - we are definitely going down the other side of this wave. COVID hospital admissions are down across the board - England's 7 day average is down 16%, and hospital-acquired admissions for COVID are down 19%. A little welcome breathing space for the NHS.
Adele Groyer of the COVID Actuaries points out 32% of COVID hospitalisations in England are now people who caught COVID in hospital, compared to the peak of 40% 3 weeks ago: "This probably reflects reintroduction of more testing and masks at that time."
COVID-19 Coronavirus and other virus UK and World News Update 21st October 2022
World: 631 million reported cases and 6.5 million losses of life.
"COVAX did not fail because it was badly designed. We failed because of the greed of the north. We failed because of the greed of the pharmaceutical industry. We failed because of self-interest in certain member states, who were not prepared to share"
Dr Mike Ryan of the World Health Organisation at the World Health Summit 2022.
An actual scuffle broke out in UK Parliament on Wednesday, when MPs were voting on Fracking. All the Tories were ordered to vote for fracking, which upset a lot of them, especially MPs who had literally campaigned to have it banned. Photos emerged of people being physically manhandled in to cast their vote, although apparently that was fine because they didn't actually have guns. Over 30 Tories survived without voting by hiding in a cupboard. Priti Patel and the actual Prime Minister Liz Truss were among them. Boris was abroad on holiday in the Caribbean.
Thursday lunchtime Liz was up before the 1922 Committee to plead her job, just as Boris did merely weeks earlier.
Within 2 hours she made her 89 second long resignation speech outside Downing Street and the UK is yet again being led by an invisible force.
Liz has the shortest ever time in office at just 45 days. Truly record-breaking.
3 Prime Ministers during one term in office is a weeny bit unusual, and hints towards some failures within the present incumbents. Calls for a General Election are going to be long and loud.
The UK is still reporting higher numbers of deaths than usual, 10% higher in the latest report for the week ending 7th October.
"Calculated excess deaths (1,031) were significantly higher than the number of deaths mentioning COVID on the death certificate (400). This is consistent with the general pattern of recent months."
COVID Actuaries.
Why? The after-effect of the pandemic is multi-pronged, and although we can say these people probably died because we had a pandemic (and we know some of them died because scans or treatments were delayed), we can't yet seem to openly admit these figures are partly because some people catch COVID and never fully recover.
Paul Mainwood
An elderly patient with a chest infection has died in an ambulance outside Fairfield Hospital in Bury, Greater Manchester. There were no beds inside to transfer them to, and despite antibiotics and other treatment in the ambulance, they suffered a fatal heart attack.
This was inevitable with patients regularly being held in ambulances in car parks for 8 hours or more, and is horrific for the patient, their relatives and the ambulance staff.
The British Medical Journal (BMJ) have published a study titled "Nurse staffing and inpatient mortality in the English National Health Service: a retrospective longitudinal study".
It takes information from "19,287 ward-day observations with information on 4,498 nurses and 66,923 hospital admissions in 53 inpatient hospital wards for acutely ill adult patients for calendar year 2017".
They were looking to see if you were more likely to survive on wards staffed with experienced nurses. No surprises, they found that you were.
"On average, an extra 12-hour shift by an RN (Registered Nurse) was associated with a reduction in the odds of a patient death of 9.6%. An additional senior RN (in NHS pay band 7 or 8) had 2.2 times the impact of an additional band 5 RN."
So yeah, the reason we pay experienced people more, is because there is no substitute for experience. Sadly our experienced NHS nurses are leaving in droves. They're over-worked, exhausted, disrespected and no end in sight, who can blame them?
In the UK Autumn COVID Boosters can now be booked by people who fall into the following groups:
- aged 50 and over
- pregnant
- at higher risk due to a health condition
- immunosuppressed
- a frontline health and social care worker
- a carer
This month's UK Chancellor Jeremy Hunt is attempting to restore worldwide faith in the UK Government and fiscal policy by destroying everything Kwasi Kwarteng did as quickly as possible. Real life Ctrl + Z (the "please God let me undo that" buttons). Sadly this includes the energy price cap. Bizarrely Putin has been rambling on about this too, he thinks placing a cap means you drive demand and meet the cap very quickly, and push prices over the top. Leaving it to fluctuate naturally ends in lower prices all round. In his opinion.
So, yeah. No universal energy price cap after April in the UK. We have yet to see where that'll take us. Fingers crossed.
Jeremy Hunt's cuts is a very hard phrase to say correctly isn't it?
(Just ask Robert Peston.)
The UK ONS have released data on reinfections, and 'natural immunity', which looks at the level of infection that protects you in the future. Basically a very mild case of COVID won't give you the same protection as a more severe case. The implication of this is that, as with lots of other infectious diseases, some people will get infection after infection until one day they get it bad. As we know COVID can cause damage each time you get it, it isn't something we really want to catch repeatedly. (I'd be remiss if I didn't mention school children, care home residents, repeat visitors to hospitals and healthcare workers at this point.)
The UK NHS is preparing for "what could be the worst Winter on record". We're told they are setting up "war rooms" or control hubs as would probably be a more appropriate name. The aim is to have a live view of where we have any vacant beds, in order to find space for as many people as possible (and stop them dying in the hospital car park or being turned away).
As yet we honestly have no idea how bad a Winter we will have, but assuming no measures against COVID, more damp and mold because of increased energy costs, waning immunity after 2 Winters indoors, and a large dose of complacency from the crowd, it is anticipated we may have a very bad year for respiratory infections, pneumonia and flu. Models predict we could even have half the UK's NHS hospital beds filled with people struggling to breathe.
Be sensible, make best use of fresh air and cardigans.
The UKs Health And Social Care Committee (HSCC) have just published their latest report on General Practice, or Doctor's surgeries as we usually call them.
It found that there are massive flaws, including no continuity of care (seeing a doctor shouldn't be like booking a taxi with a stranger) and an exodus of experienced GPs. Only 23.2% of GPs work full time, and we are 6,000 GPs short.
Professor Martin Marshall, Chair of the RCGP (Royal College of General Practitioners) presented evidence:
"... one of the reasons some GPs feel unable to work more hours is due to the workload and pressures they are under".
The HSCC realise that ordering Doctors to take more patients isn't going to fix a lack of Doctors, and will likely just make the current problems worse.
Lurking under the cloud of impending Winter doom, scientists are getting very agitated about which variants will take over - it will make all the difference. Exciting variants include:
- XBB, which is a combination of 2 Omicron variants (BA.2.75 and BJ.1) that is causing a (relatively small) surge in Asia, notably in Singapore and Bangladesh, and Maharashtra in India. It is on paper the most immune-evasive variant yet, although we have yet to see if that will prove true in real life. Early signs are better than predicted at this point.
- BA.2.75.2.
- BQ.1. The USA is experiencing an 'uptick' partly due to BQ.1 (finally, they get their own variant). They also have an issue with BQ.11. Watch this space...
- BF.7. Belgium gets their own variant too.
- BA.2.3.20
In the UK BA.2.75.X, BF.7 and BQ.X are all variants which "show evidence of a positive growth rate compared to BA.5". Basically they are low in number at the moment, but all are spreading more rapidly than the rate of our usual Omicron BA.5. Smaller, but faster. The strains currently designated a Variant Of Concern are all of those which start with Omicron BA.1, BA.2, BA.4 and BA.5.
"From UK data, BQ.X, BA.2.75.2 and BF.7 are the most concerning variants in terms of both growth and neutralisation data at present; there is also supportive animal model data for BA.2.75."
You got all that? Good. This is why I don't spend ages on variants, it's a full time job just to track what's out there.
Laurie Garrett
Hoax Of The Week:
mRNA vaccines for Heart Regeneration are hitting the news in some quarters (anti-vaxxers). I don't get it? It's like seagulls round chips. Something is public knowledge for years, then someone spots it and drags it out like news, and they all flock. Yes. Pfizer and Moderna and AstraZeneca are all DRUGS MANUFACTURERS. They weren't sitting round waiting for a pandemic, they were busy inventing new and more expensive drugs.
And no, they haven't given us all something that causes heart damage and then offered us a cure. If they were genius evil villains then they'd be offering us all a cure for all the things COVID can cause, not just one.
What's the difference in protection if you get your booster? Latest research about severe COVID and hospitalisation is in a new paper published in The Lancet (not yet peer reviewed). They found that using UK NHS figures, between 8th Dec 2020 and 28th Feb 2022:
"16,208,600 individuals completed their primary vaccine schedule and 13,836,390 individuals received a booster dose. Between 20th Dec 2021 and 28th Feb 2022, 59,510 (0·4%) of the primary vaccine group and 26,100 (0·2%) of those who received their booster had severe COVID-19 outcomes. The risk of severe COVID-19 outcomes reduced after receiving the booster (rate change: 8·8 events per 1000 person-years to 7·6 events per 1000 person-years)."
Older adults (≥80 years vs 18–49 years), those with comorbidities, males and people with certain underlying health conditions remained at high risk despite getting their first booster. People who had a COVID infection (at least 9 months before) were at reduced risk of reinfection.
Good news/bad news there. Remember though that we now have bivalent boosters especially designed for Omicron, and before vaccinations the rate of severe COVID was 10 times what it is now.
Footage is emerging of schoolchildren in China wearing white disposable suits and boarding busses to go to COVID quarantine.
"A recent preprint purported to show that SARS-CoV-2 is of synthetic origin, but it is so deeply flawed that it wouldn’t pass kindergarten molecular biology."
Kristian G Anderson of the Anderson Lab at Scripps Institute.
He goes to to explain they are getting over-excited about finding small virus mutations which will also occur naturally - and gives examples from the COVID GitHub database.
"The study is a clear example of motivated reasoning with a heavy dose of technobabble to make it sound legitimate - but it’s nothing more than poppycock dressed up as science."
He isn't all mean, he had a kind word for them:
"By all means, analyses such as these are valuable and worth doing - I myself did a bunch back in Jan/Feb, 2020. However, let’s make sure we have an actual scientific approach to them and don’t make up complete nonsense ‘studies’ to try and bolster a preferred narrative."
The US CDC has authorised the Novovax Vaccine as a mix and match booster for Americans aged 18+ who previously had the Pfizer or Moderna jab.
This is a classic vaccine, more similar to the Oxford AstraZeneca jab, and mixing vaccine types has proven more effective time and time again. Novovax is also particularly effective against Omicron B5, and it can be given to people who can't use mRNA vaccines.
If we do have power cuts (seems likely) then a battery-operated camping lantern is a very safe thing for kids to carry and tends to be less hilarious than a torch. If you use candles then tealights floating in a cereal bowl look very pretty, and when the cat/child/dressing gown sleeve knocks them over, you've a large chance they'll be put out before they hit the floor. Be careful.
We have more on the ongoing Ebola outbreak in Uganda, and it's taken a turn for the worse. Officials have imposed lockdowns in 2 areas and the US CDC have stepped up a response level in case of any imported cases.
This is the Ebola-Sudanese variant, for which there is no vaccine. It's possible around 25% of people who catch it may have no symptoms, but around 50% of people who have symptoms will not survive.
Trump Of The Day:
Podcast celebrity Tucker Carlson claimed that the US CDC were about to vote on adding COVID vaccination to the childhood Immunisation schedule, which would make it compulsory for school. The CDC themselves corrected him with the following:
"Thursday, CDC's independent advisory committee (ACIP) will vote on an updated childhood immunization schedule. States establish vaccine requirements for school children, not ACIP or CDC."
Naughty Tucker. Try and keep it real.
Professor Xi Chen of Yale School of Public Health has warned that China currently have such a low rate of vaccination, and so few people have caught COVID, they would face an "Imminent public health crisis" if they allowed COVID to spread at all. They have no choice, they can't give up on Zero COVID, they are far from prepared for it.
Scientists Get Naughty:
Researchers at Boston University in the USA have made a SARS-CoV-2 virus that has the spike of Omicron BA.1 and the remaining genome of the original SARS-CoV-2 virus.
(This kind of thing has merit because it can be used when testing potential treatments and vaccines.)
However, they are in big trouble because their research was funded by the US government via the National Institute for Health (NIH), but they did not ask the NIH for permission to create this potentially more dangerous variant. Unsurprisingly you need to have all of the authorisations signed and dotted, you aren't allowed to just create super mutant virus whenever you feel like it...
People Get Stupid:
The rise of anti-vaccine sentiment has a knock on effect to all a host of infectious diseases which we currently protect ourselves against by vaccinations. Tragically this is becoming evident in the USA already, outbreaks of Polio (New York) and Measles (Minnesota).
The reason you don't fear these diseases is because you don't have to.
It is the weekend - Hurrah! It's also a week off for a lot of children, and a week of juggling for parents. Don't try and do too much, slow down and take a breather. Enjoy the Autumn light and the last of the warmth. Winter's coming.
Get Outdoors, Breathe Fresh Air, Save The NHS.
Some people. They look like numbers here, but they are all people.
Officially reported COVID Cases / Losses of life YESTERDAY in the full 24 hours up until midnight GMT:
Germany 35,098,062 (+92,293) 152,278 (+178)
France 36,475,518 (+56,793) 156,256 (+69)
Italy 23,254,633 (+40,560) 178,359 (+84)
Taiwan 7,341,940 (+39,782) 12,128 (+92)
Japan 21,894,638 (+36,110) 46,085 (+71)
USA 99,037,439 (+25,626) 1,092,409 (+175)
S. Korea 25,219,546 (+25,369) 28,922 (+23)
Russia 21,345,154 (+10,067) 389,266 (+90)
Austria 5,380,340 (+9,968) 20,980 (+5)
Singapore 2,046,123 (+8,176) 1,659 (+5)
UK 23,855,522 (+8,105) 192,682 (+143) Chile 4,696,888 (+6,375) 61,495 (+36) Hong Kong 1,858,720 (+5,433) 10,306 (+9)
Brazil 34,818,774 (+5,096) 687,544 (+66)
