Health

The COVID-19 pandemic and the policy response that led to fewer patients receiving routine treatment have had a significant impact on NHS waiting lists, with significant backlogs across each of the countries within the UK. However, patients in Wales are suffering more when it comes to long waits for treatment than those in England. Two-year …

Two-year NHS waiting times 100x higher in Wales than in England Read More »

Just over three years on from the first registered Covid-19 death in the UK, society has seen an enormous change from the fallout of the pandemic and the Government’s response to managing it. We saw large numbers of deaths in the Spring of 2020 and Autumn/Winter of 2021 as the early variants of Covid ended …

Why is the Government hesitant to investigate excess deaths? Read More »

As we moved into the New Year with the usual winter NHS pressures, there were media reports the UK Government was considering last-resort plans to advise Britons to wear masks on public transport, work from home and bring back social distancing. At face value, the headlines looked like scaremongering as I could see nothing official, …

UK winter Covid wave falls back naturally without new interventions Read More »

The past few years have put an immense strain on health services and families, with many lives ending prematurely. But as we move through 2022 and over two years since Covid-19 hit the UK, we are still seeing the fallout with more deaths than expected across some parts of society, Throughout 2022 to date, we …

Deaths up in 30-59 year-olds, with heart issues a factor Read More »

An article in the Daily Mail questions the official Covid death toll, citing examples of terminally ill patients having Covid recorded as the cause of death. Early in the pandemic, there was a lack of testing, and doctors certified some deaths through video calls. This has led to critics claiming that assumptions were made and …

Are UK Covid deaths overstated? Read More »

Over the pandemic, the impact of Covid-19 on children has been a contentious subject, with medics called out for misleading the public on the impact of the virus. Many commentators have exaggerated the impact of long Covid and new data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows the percentage of primary and secondary school …

Long Covid rare in children Read More »

I recently wrote looking at the outcome of deaths in January compared with the SAGE modelling before Christmas. I said it would be clearer when more data was available from the ONS, so have updated the blog with this. The official data shows that the reality was the peak in Covid-19 deaths was 93% lower …

Covid-19 deaths 93% lower than SAGE model Read More »

This week the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) reaffirmed that Covid-19 is very low risk to children aged 5 to 11. It would take four million doses of a vaccine to prevent one admission to intensive care. So with Covid at such low risk, is there any benefit to vaccination? Vaccination would only …

4 million doses in children needed to prevent 1 icu admission Read More »