COVID-19

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shpalman
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Re: COVID-19

Post by shpalman » Thu Jul 22, 2021 6:33 pm

Seems like the UK is peaking this week - is that the effect of schools closing for the summer? Deaths still going up so expect a peak of about 120 per day if this is the peak in cases. Hospitalizations are still going up but maybe with a longer doubling time.

Of course we'll see if it goes up again because of "freedom day".

Italy has decided to base its Yellow, Orange, and Red restriction levels not on case rates but on hospital occupancy: 10%, 20%, and 30% occupancy of intensive care respectively (or 20%, 30%, and 40% of all beds I think).

Some regions have already gone over 50/100,000/week which was the previous case threshold for Yellow but Lombardy only has 28 patients in intensive care (peaked over 1300 during the first wave, more than 900 in November and another peak a bit less than 900 in March this year). The total in hospital is 163.

Fair enough with covid being less serious because of vaccination but if ~10 times* fewer of the cases end up in hospital then set your case thresholds ten times higher; basing it on hospitalizations just adds another ~two weeks' lag.

* - may not even be such a strong factor, I mean, the recent UK numbers suggests it's more like a factor of 2-3 than of 10 and it only looks lower when cases are going up faster than people deteriorate.
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Re: COVID-19

Post by lpm » Thu Jul 22, 2021 8:00 pm

shpalman wrote:
Thu Jul 22, 2021 6:33 pm
Seems like the UK is peaking this week - is that the effect of schools closing for the summer? Deaths still going up so expect a peak of about 120 per day if this is the peak in cases. Hospitalizations are still going up but maybe with a longer doubling time.
It's a bit weird. 10 days after Wembley football and, as everyone expected, cases have... er... stalled.

State schools closed today/yesterday.
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Re: COVID-19

Post by shpalman » Thu Jul 22, 2021 8:10 pm

lpm wrote:
Thu Jul 22, 2021 8:00 pm
shpalman wrote:
Thu Jul 22, 2021 6:33 pm
Seems like the UK is peaking this week - is that the effect of schools closing for the summer? Deaths still going up so expect a peak of about 120 per day if this is the peak in cases. Hospitalizations are still going up but maybe with a longer doubling time.
It's a bit weird. 10 days after Wembley football and, as everyone expected, cases have... er... stalled.

State schools closed today/yesterday.
The football seems to have caused cases to shoot up in Lazio and... Veneto? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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Re: COVID-19

Post by OffTheRock » Thu Jul 22, 2021 8:53 pm

lpm wrote:
Thu Jul 22, 2021 8:00 pm
shpalman wrote:
Thu Jul 22, 2021 6:33 pm
Seems like the UK is peaking this week - is that the effect of schools closing for the summer? Deaths still going up so expect a peak of about 120 per day if this is the peak in cases. Hospitalizations are still going up but maybe with a longer doubling time.
It's a bit weird. 10 days after Wembley football and, as everyone expected, cases have... er... stalled.

State schools closed today/yesterday.
Attendance last Thursday was 67.3% in secondary and 82.8% in primary. 14% of secondary absences were non-covid related. Most of that is probably parents taking kids out of school so they didn't end up isolating over booked holidays. Some state schools broke up last week and some of the Midlands ones even earlier. Although they'll be going back 23rd August. That might account for the drop. I'd imagine it might lead to fewer LFTs and confirmatory PCRs when they come back positive as well.

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Re: COVID-19

Post by lpm » Thu Jul 22, 2021 9:54 pm

That implies the schools effect is even stronger than we maybe thought. If there's a specific Midlands area with early summer hols then we could easily look at local case data.

Scotland has R well below 1, although their school hols combine with higher lockdownicity elsewhere such as no nightclubs.
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Re: COVID-19

Post by OffTheRock » Thu Jul 22, 2021 10:05 pm

Mostly East Midlands I think.

Leicestershire broke up on 14th July.
Leicester City on 9th July.

I thought Nottinghamshire/Derbyshire did too, but looks like they are still in until next week. Or end of this week assuming they've chucked a couple of INSETS in for Mon/Tues next week. Last day is 27th down here, but I think most schools have Mon/Tues as INSET.

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Re: COVID-19

Post by lpm » Thu Jul 22, 2021 10:19 pm

A quick last night check shows Leicester cases racing upwards.
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Re: COVID-19

Post by OffTheRock » Fri Jul 23, 2021 10:37 am

School LFT instead of isolation study is out. Not peer reviewed yet. It’s not going to matter much since they are abandoning isolation and LFTs from the start of the Autumn Term.

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Re: COVID-19

Post by lpm » Fri Jul 23, 2021 5:06 pm

WTF is wrong with the stats? Down from 52,000 a week ago to 36,000. Not plausible.

1) Collapse in testing rates, due to shortage of tests? Or people can't be bothered to test.

2) Something weird in the specimen date vs reporting date?

3) Spreadsheet error.

4) A freak convergence of every possible favourable factor: good weather so everyone outside, some schools closing, loads of pupils off school, everyone being voluntarily careful because we disagree with "let it rip", pingdemic nonsense communicating effectively how high cases are?

5) Just randomness.
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Re: COVID-19

Post by OffTheRock » Fri Jul 23, 2021 7:07 pm

6) Everybody’s been at home since the middle of last week because they’ve been caught by the pingdemic. So nobody’s been going out to be able to catch anything.

As implausible as that is, it might be fun trying to watch the people arguing that cases are going down also argue that too many people are isolating.

I suspect it’s more likely that the testing system has started to creak again. There’s a drop in tests, but there seem to be a number of respiratory viruses doing the rounds at the moment, which you would think would increase the testing rate while lowering the positivity rate.

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Re: COVID-19

Post by Bird on a Fire » Fri Jul 23, 2021 7:30 pm

If schools have stopped testing (because they're shut) and workplaces have stopped testing (because Freedom Day) and people have stopped lateral flowing themselves generally (ditto) you might see way fewer people taking tests.
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Re: COVID-19

Post by shpalman » Fri Jul 23, 2021 9:39 pm

having that swing is a necessary but not sufficient condition for it meaning a thing
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Re: COVID-19

Post by Woodchopper » Sat Jul 24, 2021 7:57 am

Estimates of 3.4 - 4.9 million excess deaths in India.
https://cgdev.org/sites/default/files/t ... ndemic.pdf

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Re: COVID-19

Post by Herainestold » Sat Jul 24, 2021 6:59 pm

Bird on a Fire wrote:
Fri Jul 23, 2021 7:30 pm
If schools have stopped testing (because they're shut) and workplaces have stopped testing (because Freedom Day) and people have stopped lateral flowing themselves generally (ditto) you might see way fewer people taking tests.
It seems unlikely that it is a real drop, considering circumstances around Freedom Day, rather more likely to be some kind of testing artifact.
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Re: COVID-19

Post by Woodchopper » Sun Jul 25, 2021 2:48 am

lpm wrote:
Fri Jul 23, 2021 5:06 pm
WTF is wrong with the stats? Down from 52,000 a week ago to 36,000. Not plausible.

1) Collapse in testing rates, due to shortage of tests? Or people can't be bothered to test.

2) Something weird in the specimen date vs reporting date?

3) Spreadsheet error.

4) A freak convergence of every possible favourable factor: good weather so everyone outside, some schools closing, loads of pupils off school, everyone being voluntarily careful because we disagree with "let it rip", pingdemic nonsense communicating effectively how high cases are?

5) Just randomness.
1. Too early to talk about a trend. Previous waves had minor bumps on the way up and down.

2. Wait for hospitalisation data to see whether the numbers are due to fewer cases or lower reporting.

3. If it does turn out to be a trend:

- perhaps there was a football effect (with messy data).
- people have noticed the case numbers and are reacting by being more careful.
- there are now very few adults left without antibodies. A combination of antibodies plus some social distancing and mask wearing is enough to keep r down.
- wait for the influence of freedom day.

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Re: COVID-19

Post by snoozeofreason » Sun Jul 25, 2021 10:17 am

Woodchopper wrote:
Sun Jul 25, 2021 2:48 am
lpm wrote:
Fri Jul 23, 2021 5:06 pm
WTF is wrong with the stats? Down from 52,000 a week ago to 36,000. Not plausible.

1) Collapse in testing rates, due to shortage of tests? Or people can't be bothered to test.

2) Something weird in the specimen date vs reporting date?

3) Spreadsheet error.

4) A freak convergence of every possible favourable factor: good weather so everyone outside, some schools closing, loads of pupils off school, everyone being voluntarily careful because we disagree with "let it rip", pingdemic nonsense communicating effectively how high cases are?

5) Just randomness.
1. Too early to talk about a trend. Previous waves had minor bumps on the way up and down.

2. Wait for hospitalisation data to see whether the numbers are due to fewer cases or lower reporting.

3. If it does turn out to be a trend:

- perhaps there was a football effect (with messy data).
- people have noticed the case numbers and are reacting by being more careful.
- there are now very few adults left without antibodies. A combination of antibodies plus some social distancing and mask wearing is enough to keep r down.
- wait for the influence of freedom day.
It's been in free-fall for a week now, and I don't think we've seen bumps as bumpy as this before, so I think I'd rule out randomness. I'd guess possible remaining options include:

(a) Our plucky government has timed this with the calm self-possession of a rifleman waiting to see the whites of his enemy's eyes before opening fire, and scheduled freedom day so that it would occur exactly two days after an unprecedented hairpin turn in rates of infection.

(b) People aren't getting tested because their physical presence is now required at work, or invited at night clubs and other forms of entertainment, and a positive test would interfere with that.

I'd be more inclined to go with (b), but if that was the explanation then I would expect to see a similarly sharp fall in the number of tests carried out, and I can't see that in the data.
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Re: COVID-19

Post by shpalman » Sun Jul 25, 2021 10:34 am

Only a person's first positive test is counted so if someone who had it last year gets reinfected it doesn't show up.
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Re: COVID-19

Post by bob sterman » Sun Jul 25, 2021 10:47 am

shpalman wrote:
Sun Jul 25, 2021 10:34 am
Only a person's first positive test is counted so if someone who had it last year gets reinfected it doesn't show up.
I wonder if this applies to the hospitalisation and death data too?

Dashboard says on Deaths...

"Number of deaths of people who had had a positive test result for COVID-19 and died within 28 days of the first positive test."

So if you have COVID in 2020 you can't die of it this year!

(Although worth perhaps nothing that the magnitude of this effect is limited by the fact that prior to this wave of infections there had only been about 4.5 million officially recorded cases - so there are only 4.5 million people who cannot be recorded as a case if they get reinfected).

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Re: COVID-19

Post by shpalman » Sun Jul 25, 2021 2:54 pm

having that swing is a necessary but not sufficient condition for it meaning a thing
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Re: COVID-19

Post by Herainestold » Sun Jul 25, 2021 5:33 pm

Masking forever
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Re: COVID-19

Post by bob sterman » Sun Jul 25, 2021 8:57 pm

So for the past 3 days new reported cases have been down 30-40% on the same day 7 days previously.

Surely English schools closing must be the strongest candidate to explain such rapid fall? Soon to be counteracted by nightclubs opening??

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Re: COVID-19

Post by lpm » Sun Jul 25, 2021 10:00 pm

The lag between cause and case stats is 10 days? Thereabouts? A few days to catch, a couple more for testing, collation of data? Which means looking at two weeks ago to explain the fall that started a few days ago.

Football is a dud, it doesn't fit the timings.

Partial school closures could be a factor, but it'll be another week till the main end of term effect.

We are falling out the bottom of models. There's something about Delta we don't understand. For the early countries hit by Delta:

- It set India ablaze and then suddenly fizzled, with partial lockdown not being a very satisfactory explanation. This in a low vaccinated country.

- Scotland was in a terrible place, but cases dived (although that fits with school holidays). High vaccinated country.

- Now England is falling for no obvious reason.

One solution to the puzzle would be if Delta has a dual nature - very contagious for a portion of the population, with high R, but same as other strains for the rest of the population. So it rips through the susceptible portion then fizzles when trying to spread wider.
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Re: COVID-19

Post by Woodchopper » Mon Jul 26, 2021 2:24 am

Scottish hospital admissions now falling in line with earlier case decline: https://twitter.com/birdyword/status/14 ... 86880?s=21

So it’s reasonable to assume that there the case decline was real and not due to changes in testing.

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Re: COVID-19

Post by jimbob » Mon Jul 26, 2021 6:47 am

lpm wrote:
Sun Jul 25, 2021 10:00 pm
The lag between cause and case stats is 10 days? Thereabouts? A few days to catch, a couple more for testing, collation of data? Which means looking at two weeks ago to explain the fall that started a few days ago.

Football is a dud, it doesn't fit the timings.

Partial school closures could be a factor, but it'll be another week till the main end of term effect.

We are falling out the bottom of models. There's something about Delta we don't understand. For the early countries hit by Delta:

- It set India ablaze and then suddenly fizzled, with partial lockdown not being a very satisfactory explanation. This in a low vaccinated country.

- Scotland was in a terrible place, but cases dived (although that fits with school holidays). High vaccinated country.

- Now England is falling for no obvious reason.

One solution to the puzzle would be if Delta has a dual nature - very contagious for a portion of the population, with high R, but same as other strains for the rest of the population. So it rips through the susceptible portion then fizzles when trying to spread wider.
https://twitter.com/Peston/status/14192 ... 95689?s=20
In case you didn’t know - and I didn’t till a senior government official told me - the daily tally of infections seriously understates the actual number of infections, because if you are sick with Covid19 today but had it any time in the past (even last spring) your new bout…
10:50 AM · Jul 25, 2021·Twitter for iPhone
is not included in the daily dashboard figures. We know people are being reinfected. And if the pandemic were to be spreading - which it might be - from first infected school children to second infected adults, we would not see that change in real time. This is profoundly…
troubling. And although it probably remains true, as I said on Friday, that we are past the peak of the pre 19 July surge, the inadequacy of the daily measurement data undermines confidence. As I understand it, there is deep disquiet among officials that the dashboard stats…
are compiled in this way, but no one at the top of Public Health England or the Department of Health and Social Care will authorise the change. Hello
@sajidjavid
PS in other respect, autumn booster jabs and so on, government policy is conditioned by the serious risk of reinfection. So just so bonkers to exclude re-infections from the daily published infection figures
Have you considered stupidity as an explanation

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Re: COVID-19

Post by bob sterman » Mon Jul 26, 2021 7:16 am

Yes but the only reporting 1st positives issue only rules out 4.5 million people from being recorded as cases in this wave (official previous cases).

It leaves over 90% of the population free to be recorded as a case if they test positive now. So it wouldn't be a big enough effect to fully account for the drop.

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