UK Covid death toll

[Derek Hardballs]

Here’s some information on young people and Covid that probably deserves its own thread.

A fifth of hospital admissions

I saw that and wish they would use comparable figures instead of using % and numbers in an article like that. At the moment we have roughly 5k people in hospital so 1 in 5 is 1k obviously, but then they use the figure of 5.5% during the winter surge. This is a strange figure itself because why wouldn't you just use 5% especially when you are not using a specific date. The maximum number in hospital during the winter was just over 34k, 5.5% of 34k is 1,870 and seeing as 'winter surge' could be any date it leaves a lot of scope for that 1.8k to get nearer to the current 1k. 5.5% of 18k is 1k and the dates over 18k were from 25th Dec to mid Feb.

So what am I saying - basically the number of young people in hospital is roughly the same as it always was, there are 1k in hospital now compared to maximum 2k when it was at it's worst. The story should be about how all things being equal with roughly half of that age group being vaccinated I'm guessing, we are in a comparable position for that age group to the worst position in the winter, but the success of the vaccine means we only have 5k in hospital and not 35k - That is a good news story.

Having said that it is another obvious reason for more people to get vaccinated, it really works and means we will be able to get back to normal sooner. I am still concerned for the winter period when we all start going back indoors, meeting at crowded venues, etc - the virus, which is obviously not finding ways to transmit at the moment, will be renewed in opportunity to spread.

I believe we are falling behind many of our peers (Western countries) now in terms of both first and second jabs. I suspect the nonsense messaging of ‘Fweedum Day’ etc has hobbled the take up by young people, giving them the impression it’s all over. It won’t be the only thing but we aren’t works beating anymore.