Categories
Publications

ROADMAP FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION OF ACTIONS BY THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION BASED ON THE COMMISSION COMMUNICATION AND THE COUNCIL RECOMMENDATION ON STRENGTHENING COOPERATION AGAINST VACCINE PREVENTABLE DISEASES – European Commission

ROADMAP ON VACCINATION
Last update: Q3 2019

Commission proposal for a common vaccination card/passport for EU citizens.

http://archive.today/2021.08.17-123441/https://ec.europa.eu/health/sites/default/files/vaccination/docs/2019-2022_roadmap_en.pdf

Categories
News

Ineffective flu vaccine added to 50,000 extra deaths last winter, ONS says – The Independent (2018)

It was the worst winter on record for more than 40 years, with the 1975-76 season being the last time deaths climbed so high above the expected levels.

The NHS was rocked by a record winter crisis in early 2018, with a massive rise in flu cases and sub-zero temperatures triggered by the Beast from the East storm, which added further to death rates.

“The number of excess winter deaths in England and Wales in 2017 to 2018 was the highest recorded since the winter of 1975 to 1976,” said Nick Stripe, from the ONS Health Analysis and Life Events team.”

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/flu-vaccine-deaths-nhs-ineffective-crisis-bad-weather-illness-2017-a8660496.html

Categories
News

For the sake of the young, this lockdown must end sooner rather than later – The Telegraph

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2020/04/18/sake-young-lockdown-must-end-sooner-rather-later/

Categories
News

Why lockdowns are the wrong policy – Swedish expert Prof. Johan Giesecke, UnHerd

  • UK policy on lockdown and other European countries are not evidence-based
  • The correct policy is to protect the old and the frail only
  • This will eventually lead to herd immunity as a “by-product”
  • The initial UK response, before the “180 degree U-turn”, was better
  • The Imperial College paper was “not very good” and he has never seen an unpublished paper have so much policy impact
  • The paper was very much too pessimistic
  • Any such models are a dubious basis for public policy anyway
  • The flattening of the curve is due to the most vulnerable dying first as much as the lockdown
  • The results will eventually be similar for all countries
  • Covid-19 is a “mild disease” and similar to the flu, and it was the novelty of the disease that scared people.
  • The actual fatality rate of Covid-19 is the region of 0.1%
  • At least 50% of the population of both the UK and Sweden will be shown to have already had the disease when mass antibody testing becomes available

Summary from 21st Century Wire.

21st Century Wire
Categories
Opinion

Two thirds of coronavirus victims may have died this year anyway, government adviser says – The Telegraph

Up to two thirds of people who die from coronavirus in the next nine months are likely to have died this year from other causes, a government advisor has said.

Professor Neil Ferguson, who is recovering at home from Covid-19, told the Science and Technology Committee that experts were now expecting around 20,000 deaths, although said it may turn out to be a lot less.

But he said that many of those deaths were likely to be old and seriously ill people who would have died from other conditions before the end of the year.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/03/25/two-thirds-patients-die-coronavirus-would-have-died-year-anyway/

Categories
Publications

Global Covid-19 Case Fatality Rates between 0.1% and 0.36% – CEBM

Categories
Publications Videos

COVID-19 lethality in 0.12% to 0.2% which is in the range of severe influenza – medRxiv

Stanford University study founds antibodies in 50 to 85 times more people than previously thought in Santa Clara County, California. Covid-19 lethality of 0.12% to 0.2% which is in the range of severe influenza. 

Categories
News

End Lockdown for Young to Give Economy a Chance, Research Says – Bloomberg

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-06/end-lockdown-for-young-to-give-economy-a-chance-research-says

Categories
Publications

Alcohol Gels: Causing More Harm Than We Thought – American Journal of Biomedical Science and Research (2019)

Several pieces of a significantly important research have now come together to present a very different picture of the outcomes we can expect from the current doctrine on hand hygiene in our healthcare facilities. The new evidence, (one piece of which was produced by the BBC TV series “Twinsitutue”), shows beyond any doubt that alcohol gels have the capacity to not only increase the number of bacteria on skin, but to significantly change the species of bacteria that colonise the skin. Further, the species that is shown to replace the natural skin commensals, is a bacillus, this therefore carries an increase risk due to it’s potential for significantly more harm

https://biomedgrid.com/fulltext/volume1/alcohol-gels-causing-more-harm-than-we-thought.000557.php

Categories
News

Exclusive: Nightingale largely empty as ICUs handle surge – HSJ

London’s Nightingale hospital has remained largely empty, with just 19 patients being treated at the facility over the Easter weekend, HSJ understands.

https://www.hsj.co.uk/service-design/exclusive-nightingale-largely-empty-as-icus-handle-surge/7027398.article

Categories
News Opinion

There’s no direct evidence that the lockdowns are working – Dr John Lee, Spiked

The UK government has extended its lockdown for another three weeks. But could the shutdown of society be doing more harm than good? In fact, is there any evidence it is doing any good at all? Dr John A Lee, a recently retired professor of pathology and NHS consultant pathologist, has repeatedly called for a critical and dispassionate examination of the evidence in relation to Covid-19, raising questions about the government and its advisers’ interpretation of the data.

https://www.spiked-online.com/2020/04/17/theres-no-direct-evidence-that-the-lockdowns-are-working/

Categories
Publications

Why a Group of Behavioural Scientists Penned an Open Letter to the U.K. Government Questioning Its Coronavirus Response – Behavioural Scientist

The open letter raises questions about the behavioural science evidence that may have been used to justify this decision—though a lack of transparency from the government has made it hard to discern what the official policy is.

Categories
News

2,500 extra non-Covid deaths in a week! Collateral damage from the lockdown? – InProportion2

InProportion2 analyses the latest figures from Office for National Statistics, week ending 3 April 2020.

http://inproportion2.talkigy.com/collateral_judgement.html

Source: Sir David Spiegelhalter, Winton Professor of the Public Understanding of Risk, Cambridge University
Categories
Opinion Videos

Hysterical reaction to Covid19 & public support of lockdown is scary & dangerous – Peter Hitchens

Categories
News Opinion

Coronavirus Lockdown and What You Are Not Being Told – Off-Guardian

The knee jerk reaction, assuming any questioning of the lockdown demonstrates a cavalier, uncaring disregard is puerile. Grown adults shouldn’t simply believe everything they are told like mindless idiots. Critical thinking and asking questions is never “bad” under any circumstances whatsoever.

Categories
Publications

Corruption in global health: the open secret – The Lancet (2019)

Corruption is embedded in health systems. Throughout my life—as a researcher, public health worker, and a Minister of Health—I have been able to see entrenched dishonesty and fraud. But despite being one of the most important barriers to implementing universal health coverage around the world, corruption is rarely openly discussed. In this Lecture, I outline the magnitude of the problem of corruption, how it started, and what is happening now. I also outline people’s fears around the topic, what is needed to address corruption, and the responsibilities of the academic and research communities in all countries, irrespective of their level of economic development. Policy makers, researchers, and funders need to think about corruption as an important area of research in the same way we think about diseases. If we are really aiming to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and ensure healthy lives for all, corruption in global health must no longer be an open secret.

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(19)32527-9/fulltext

Categories
News

Winter deaths ‘highest since 1999’ – BBC (2015)

There were an estimated 43,900 excess deaths in England and Wales last winter, the highest number since 1999, figures show.

The report suggests most of the deaths involved people over 75.

The flu virus was a major cause of the rise, along with an influenza vaccine that was less effective than those of previous years, experts said.

The figures are published by the Office for National Statistics and show there were more deaths in women than men.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-34919149

Categories
News

Killer flu outbreak is to blame for 64,000 deaths – The Daily Mail (2018)

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-5440785/Killer-flu-outbreak-blame-42-spike-deaths.html

Categories
News

What Share of the World Population Is Already on COVID-19 Lockdown? – Statista

https://www.statista.com/chart/21240/enforced-covid-19-lockdowns-by-people-affected-per-country/

Infographic: What Share of the World Population Is Already on COVID-19 Lockdown? | Statista You will find more infographics at Statista
Categories
News Opinion

What are we to make of the latest figures on deaths, Covid-19 or otherwise? – Peter Hitchens, The Mail on Sunday

https://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2020/04/an-attempt-to-gather-some-facts-on-the-present-stateof-the-covid-19-crisis-warning-no-conclusion.html