According to MailOnline, daily Covid cases in the U.K. fell for the ninth consecutive day in a row today.
Britain’s daily covid cases fell again today for the ninth day in a row, amid mounting confusion over true state of the third wave.
Department of Health bosses posted 29,622 cases – down 18.6% on last week.
In another glimmer of hope, hospitalisations (927) and deaths (68) appear to be slowing down – with both measures up just 6% on last Friday.
However, it cannot be true that daily cases have fallen for the ninth day in a row since they stood at below 25,000 on July 26th and now stand at 29,622. It appears that MailOnline means that this is the ninth day in a row in which the daily toll is less than it was exactly one week before.
Meanwhile, yesterday’s Guardian reported that daily cases had gone up for the second day in a row:
The daily number of Covid cases reported in the U.K. has risen for the second day in a row, although experts have cautioned against drawing premature conclusions from the fluctuations.
On Thursday, 31,117 cases were reported in the UK, up from 27,734 the day before, which marked the first rise in cases since July 20th.
To further complicate matters, the ONS published its weekly infection survey today and reported that the percentage of the population testing positive has increased slightly in England, Wales and Northern Ireland compared to the previous week, although it’s fallen in Scotland:
- In England, the percentage of people testing positive for coronavirus (COVID-19) continued to increase in the week ending 24 July 2021, though there are possible signs that the rate of increase may have slowed; we estimate that 856,200 people within the community population in England had COVID-19 (95% credible interval: 798,600 to 915,000), equating to around 1 in 65 people.
- In Wales, the percentage of people testing positive continued to increase in the week ending 24 July 2021; we estimate that 18,800 people in Wales had COVID-19 (95% credible interval: 12,700 to 26,000), equating to around 1 in 160 people.
- In Northern Ireland, the percentage of people testing positive continued to increase in the week ending 24 July 2021; we estimate that 27,200 people in Northern Ireland had COVID-19 (95% credible interval: 18,200 to 38,200), equating to around 1 in 65 people.
- In Scotland, the percentage of people testing positive has decreased in the most recent week ending 24 July 2021; we estimate that 49,500 people in Scotland had COVID-19 (95% credible interval: 38,300 to 62,300) equating to around 1 in 110 people.
The ONS’s results are less likely to be confounded by a decline in the number of people taking tests since it tests random samples of the population in the U.K.’s four nations. However, it’s worth bearing in mind that this survey is for the week ending July 24th, which is six days ago. It also suffers from bias towards people willing to take part in these kinds of surveys. Furthermore, the age breakdown suggests that there was a decline in prevalence among the population above the age of 16 (and under 70), in line with the PHE daily reports – it was only in children under 16 that prevalence continued to increase significantly. Perhaps the end of term meant that PHE testing is no longer picking up these children, who are no longer being tested by parents, especially with summer holidays approaching.
If you look at the daily toll as measured by date reported – which is the figure the MailOnline and the Guardian is referring to – it looks as if it peaked at 54,674 on July 17th, declined on the 18th and continued to decline on the 19th, then went back up again on the 20th, then declined for seven days consecutively, reaching a low of 23,511 on the 27th, then began to creep up again on the next two days consecutively, reaching a high of 31,117 yesterday and then declining to 29,622 today.
Let’s see what the weekend and next week’s ONS infection survey bring, but the falling daily case figures do offer a reason to be cautiously optimistic. So far, we haven’t seen the spike in daily cases caused by ‘Freedom Day’ that most public health experts predicted and we’re still a long way from Neil Ferguson’s estimate of 100,000 a day, which he said was “almost inevitable” after the easing of restrictions on July 19th.
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What? Like Attenborough’s reputation? That’s what is falling. It’s a shame, because years ago I used to enjoy many of his programmes.
Same here. Unfortunately, these days it’s one stunt after another. The suicidal Walruses was a classic. Even in the early days he had some controversy by when it was revealed that the incredible nature scenes were filmed in a studio.
Exactly. Sadly, I have lost respect for this mild mannered man. He should have stayed in the realm of wonder and discovery but I imagine that there are forces at work who are bending him to their purposes as well.
He’s 96 and is travelled around the world in comfort, for well padded fees.
If someone would do that for me, I’d say anything they want me to.
If the bloke is 96yrs old and has achieved the impressive reputation that he has over many decades then I can come to only one conclusion; people are using him like a talking sock puppet. The climate change zealots are putting any old pro-narrative tosh in front of him and he’s agreeing to read it, in a similar fashion to Biden, except Biden I really cannot cut any slack because he’s a tosser. I’m starting to wonder if, like sleepy Joe, he is firing on all cylinders.
And why the heck hasn’t he been put out to grass a long time ago? I’m telling you, they’re using his TV icon and British institution status to be the figurehead of their mass propaganda/misinformation campaign, ( especially with his affiliation to the BBC ) I just don’t think he probably has the astuteness any longer to realise how they’re manipulating him.
I’ve met quite a few nice and gentle people who believe wholeheartedly in Malthusian ideologies which are at their core murderous. All it requires is to be blissfully unaware of other people’s potential for suffering.
When people tell me there’s too many people on the planet, I ask them if they’re going to leave, you know, just to be helpful. The looks I get.! Its like, ‘No, I don’t mean there’s too many of me, there’s too many of them.’
“And why the heck hasn’t he been put out to grass a long time ago?”
Exactly.
We still have the old crone Mary Berry doing cookery programmes and she’s turned 80. Like Attenborough paid shed loads of money.
Retirement must be compulsory on state funded TV.
Surely we can at least attempt to bring on younger people.
I am sick to the back teeth of the old buggers hogging the limelight. Some old dear of 96 died a week or two back and the country shut down for a fortnight.
FFS!
Should we brace ourselves for the UK closing down for at least two days on Attenborough’s passing ?
In precisely what era were avalanches predictable? The one thing that can be said, without any danger of contravention, is that all these unprecedented climate catastrophies are going to get a whole lot more unprecedented as journalists vocabularies shrink. We are looking at a completely unprecedented avalanche of unprecedented claims. I think I can say that it is unprecedented, or at the very least, nearly unprecedented. It is, in fact, unprecedentedly unprecedented.
I’ve posted about this before but today’s news in the NL reminded me of it. Why is ( pick a country, any country ) warming up faster ( usually “twice as fast” ) than everywhere else? This short 2min vid from WUWT demonstrates;
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2019/10/07/alarmism-exposed-the-entire-world-is-warming-faster-than-the-entire-planet/
“Netherlands is heating up twice as fast as global average” is today’s alarmist headline. Do people actually fall for this blatant codswallop? But do a search on any country and see for yourself. No country is immune it would seem..
https://nltimes.nl/2022/09/26/netherlands-heating-twice-fast-global-average-knmi-researcher
I’m sure Attenborough would “claim” anything if it helps the fight against meh ‘climate change’ – i.e: furthers the continued collapse of society requiring the BBC to keep us sane whilst it’s all falling apart around us. Its employees to be exempt from any carbon taxes (much like EU elitists’ yachts), more over.. including their pay and “expenses” which will need fundamental increases written in new-to-be-declared draconian climate-carbon law so as no matter how screwed society has become they’re always there, ready and waiting to profess their on-high beneficial solutions so the dumb and ill-informed public know what to think, sacrifice and ultimately worship – for their own good of course. Don’t know about you, but I feel all warm and fuzzy knowing ol’ Attenborough is out there fighting our corner.
How unpredictable were they before and how unpredictable are they now? Oh wait, that doesn’t mean anything…
The only issue that is crumbling is Attenborough’s cognitive faculties. When the Windsor’s are listening to Dave, you know they’ve got problems.
“Environmental storytelling” ….. in other words fiction.
The BBC needs a new category for its output, because Attenborough’s latest bout of “environmental storytelling” certainly isn’t a Documentary and it doesn’t qualify as science.
How about Craption?
The “…numbers show recent dramatic falls” bit of the title caused me cognitive dissonance. I read that as “many recent dramatic avalanches ( snow falls)” which is the exact opposite of what the article is saying. Unfortunate.
Perhaps “recent dramatic calm” would have been better.
If Attenborough says it these days, it’s almost law because he’s a ‘national treasure’ and everyone’s favourite grampa. It’s almost as if you can’t dispute what he says but I get the feeling that he is kowtowing to his fanbase – the Gretaniks – in this and adding to his Frozen Planet political posturing. Now we have a growing number of scientists saying there is no climate crisis. Demonising CO2 seems totally disingenuous to me. It’s a means by which they – those irrelevant people who are currently in charge – can get us out of our cars, get us paying exorbitant sums (and thereby force us into poverty) for energy, stop us travelling and so on. Once again, we find ourselves in WEF territory, impinging on our rights, slowing us down, ruining our lives. The WEF must be eradicated – and no, I don’t care if Brigade 77 is reading this and noting it down for using against me later! The WEF is a disease.
Attenborough is an indefatigable bore.
On 03-Feb-07, the BBC headlined its evening news with the soul-cry ‘The end of the world is nigh’. Attenborough was right there to tell us if we didn’t take ‘akkshun naaow’, it would all be over within 7 years. End of the world. Ex-planet.
Fifteen years later, we observe that, according to the UAH satellite data, total global warming since 2007 has been 0.2 C, and since 1980 about 0.4 C.
William James wrote of Wundt that his work of meticulously measuring reaction times with a stop-watch could not be done by someone capable of being bored.
A similar comment would be fair of those who work on climate alarmism for the Beeb.