An ex-WHO scientist has claimed Omicron BA.2 has an R0 of 12, making it as infectious as measles, the most infectious disease known. But what do the data show?
Sajid Javid told MPs there are 200,000 new Omicron infections a day and implied there are 7,000,000 new coronavirus infections a week. But that's 16 times higher than the latest ONS estimate, which is not plausible.
PHE's latest technical briefing on the variants of concern has some key data on the performance of the vaccines.
Can the Government back up its fear-inducing claims, and explain why it is stating that the SAR of Covid is more than three times the figure published in its own data?
During a Covid surge, what proportion of the population is exposed? Is it almost everyone, with most being immune, or is it only a small proportion, with everyone else left susceptible? This is the crucial question.
New PHE data shows the Indian variant now only infects 10.7% of close contacts. This figure has never gone much above 15%. So why isn't COVID-19 a more infectious disease?
When the infectiousness (secondary attack rate) of the Delta variant over time is plotted against that of other variants it becomes clear that claims it is hyper-transmissible make no sense.
PHE released their latest technical briefing yesterday which claims the Delta variant is 64% more infectious than the Alpha variant. But look closer and this headline finding is not all it seems.
