France in Focus

Future Covid variant that could kill 1 in 3 is ‘realistic possibility’, SAGE warns

A new Covid variant which could kill up to one in three people is a “realistic possibility”, the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) has found.

Documents published by SAGE said a future Covid strain as deadly as MERS, which has a case fatality rate of 35 per cent, could emerge.

source: https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/covi ... 48565.html

Let's hope "could" is the operative word.

Note the date of this article. August 2021.

“Without stricter border control measures we risk importing vaccine-resistant variants while uncontrolled spread here could lead to yet another UK variant.”

UK is not that good at controlling its borders, is it?

Right - I hadn't spotted that - but the warnings have been repeated this week in response to the "Living with Covid" strategy being proposed now.

In its papers published today but discussed at SAGE's meeting on February 10, the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling (SPI-M-O) sub-committee said modelling by the University of Warwick showed that lifting the remaining restrictions could boost virus transmission by up to 80 per cent.

source: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... rules.html

I've come to the conclusion that it's here to stay for ever so there's no point in worrying about it what will be will be.

We saw a lady with a baby in a pram the other day and thought how difficult and worrying it must be for people with little children at the moment. There was also a pregnant lady in the lab last week, sitting alongside people waiting for pcr tests, must be incredibly worrying for pregnant ladies out and about as well.
There but for the grace of god and all that jazz.

Interesting survey ......

"People have false sense of security about Covid risks among friends – study".
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/ ... 1649367752

I'd say you're most likely to catch the virus from close friends and family - the clue there is being "close"!

Char wrote: ↑Sat Feb 19, 2022 2:20 pm
There was also a pregnant lady in the lab last week, sitting alongside people waiting for pcr tests, must be incredibly worrying for pregnant ladies out and about as well.

In our lab pcr tests are done at certain times only and they have a separate waiting area and testing room in use at those times. I found that reassuring.

Our lab does the tests for those without symptoms (eg if you need a negative test prior to surgery) using the normal waiting room, but if you have symptoms you wait/queue outside at a special door nowhere near the people waiting for usual blood tests etc. And the test is done at the door, you don't even go inside.

At the local vax/PCR centre everyone comes through the same door, stands in the same queue though they are asked to keep their distance from each other. Everyone is masked, and we take those with or without symptoms, prior to hospital, travel, cas contact, pregnant, babies, children, the lot. After being checked in they go to a waiting area prior to being tested. They go out via a different route to the one they came in by. The lab collects the flacons twice a day.
In 2 years, no-one working there has contracted the virus from the centre, and non-medical staff have only been wearing FFP2 masks relatively recently.

It's understandable that labs are more stringent about keeping Covid tests separate.

Couldn't resist!

Our daughter is a teacher and yesterday, the last day of term, her daily test showed that she was positive for Covid. What a bummer just before two weeks off, plus she missed out on the end of term "knees up".