Passing a milestone was, in the past, a useful reminder of how far you’d come and a kind of success. Now BBC Scotland is using the term more like a millstone, round our necks.
Either way, it tells you nothing useful that an adult might use to help them understand the situation they are currently in.
Here are some useful ‘road signs’:
The 7 day average of new cases has fallen every day now for 22 days, from 2 323 new cases on January 7th, to 1 141, less than half, in the last 24 hours. Not fast enough, but getting there.
The death rate seems to be levelling-off, at around 59 or 60 for the last 4 days. Hopefully, we will see reductions soon.
Hospital admissions seem to be falling, down from 2016 on the 27th to 1 958 in the last 24 hours. ICU numbers too have been falling since the 22nd, from 161 to 144 in the last 24 hours.
Just for a bit of context, which might help put ,things in perspective, infection and death rates remain among the lowest in the UK.
Stay strong.
Talking-up Scotland / Scottish media fact checking is like shooting fish in a barrel 
John
Once more UK.Gov saying tech.problems reporting deaths for yesterday
But me thinks the cook is back in the statistical kitchen once more
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I too am always suspicious about the delays that the English data seems to encounter regularly…
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The ‘UK’ page of the BBC News website has this headline today: ‘Covid infections remain high but stable’. The article then tells us:
“The ONS tests a random sample of people in private residences across the UK for Covid weekly, whether they have symptoms or not.This means the survey is among the best sources for understanding what’s really happening to the virus.
“According to ONS estimates, one in 55 people in England were estimated to have the virus, one in 70 in Wales, one in 110 in Scotland and one in 50 in Northern Ireland. In England and Wales, this proportion is unchanged compared with the week before. Scotland has seen a small fall, and Northern Ireland a small rise in their infection rates.”
So firstly, the reference to ‘high’ in the headline is a markedly relative term – obviously a point lost on the BBC journalist/s responsible!
I looked at the previous ONS report (week ending 16 January 2021). Then the figure for Scotland was 1 in 100. Therefore there has been an improvement from 1 in 100 to 1 in 110, whereas elsewhere in the UK there has been little or no change or a worsening rate. Newsworthy for BBC Scotland’s audience one might think?
I looked to see if the information on differential rates between the four UK health systems/nations might have been covered on the ‘Scotland’ page of the BBC News website.
And I looked to see if the information that only in Scotland has this rate improved had been reported on the ‘Scotland’ page of the BBC News website.
I didn’t spot anything. This is despite the ‘UK’ page telling us that these comparative data are from what is “among the best sources for understanding what’s really happening to the virus”. So just another example of ‘similar outcomes’ in Scotland as elsewhere in the UK – nothing to understand here for BBC Scotland’s audience?
Scotland’s vaccination programme is clearly now the point of attack on the SG chosen by the Tory Party as the reporting on the ‘Scotland’ page of the BBC News website reveals. And none too subtly: the reporting of Scottish Tory claims is accompanied in the BBC article by a recent picture of PM Johnson in Scotland in the company of a few soldiers. Just making sure the negative framing is not missed?
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In America they had Trump and Fox news.
In Scotland we have Boris and the BEEB.
And Glenn and Ruthie, and Hi Jack, and Marr, and DRossy, and Neil, and……………………the list is apparently endless, the long and winding road lies lies and news management.
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ICU admissions today twice what they were at christmas.
Today 7 day death average nearly 3 times higher than at hogmanay.
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Takes awhile to get I’ll enough to die
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Meant ill
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Apologies for ‘over-doing’ the contributions this evening. Candidly, the constant attempts by Unionist politicians and their media apologists to state openly or to imply that an independent Scotland could not cope without the ‘broad shoulders’ of the UK is something I find particularly objectionable.
So O/T but linked to an earlier post which referred to the BBC’s use of a picture of PM Johnson during his Covid-related visit to Scotland in the company of soldiers.
I came across an article in the Irish press on the role being played by the Republic’s defence forces in the battle with the pandemic (Kildare Nationalist, 29 December, 2020). I reproduce a substantial part below to make the point!
“An average of 187 Defence Forces personnel have deployed on Covid 19 related supports on a daily basis since March. … involved in a wide range of Covid 19 activities that have included :
– operation of the COVID-19 testing centre at the Aviva Stadium;
– support for contact tracing efforts;
– transportation by the Air Corps of COVID-19 tests to Germany;
– collection of PPE from more than 260 cargo flights and the ongoing storage and distribution of this PPE to various HSE sites;
– support for HSE testing efforts including through the deployment of Naval Service vessels to Dublin, Cork and Galway;
– PPE training to workers at Cork and Waterford harbours by Naval service personnel;
– provision of tentage and marshalling support at various HSE testing sites around the country;
– transportation of patients for testing;
– assistance with the fit-out of temporary facilities for the HSE (for example, the HSE facilities at City West and the University of Limerick);
– production and assembly of PPE using 3D printing facilities; and
– the use of lands at Ballymullen Barracks as a COVID-19 testing facility and contact tracing hub.
(HSE = Ireland’s health service)
In addition to supporting the HSE, the Defence Forces have also provided a broad range of supports to other Departments and Agencies. Provision of this support was also coordinated by the Joint Task Force. Examples include:
– Support has been provided to the National Ambulance Service through Defence Forces ambulance and crew supports along with tele-triage supports.
– Support to the Office of Government Procurement through assistance with storage and distribution of PPE.
– Support to the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government through the use of lands at Sarsfields Barracks for the location of one of the National Temporary Body Storage Facilities. The Defence Forces were also on standby to provide support if required at the Dublin based National Temporary Body Storage Facility at the Royal Hospital Kilmainham.”
How could an independent Scotland possibly hope to be able access equivalent support?
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And while providing context, this is from an Irish government statement from 29 May, 2020: ““Since the first Irish troops first were deployed on UN peacekeeping operations in 1958, not a single day has passed without Irish participation in UN peace support operations. Over the past sixty two years, tens of thousands of Irish women and men have worn the blue helmets on UN peacekeeping operations. We are as proud of the blue helmet as we are of the harp or the shamrock.
“If Ireland is successful in our campaign to gain a seat on the UN Security Council, we will bring our experience to bear in sustaining the peacekeeping and peacebuilding roles of the Council.”
And of course Ireland was successful in gaining a seat! How could an independent Scotland even begin to make such a international contribution?
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Keep overdoing it Stewart, we silent (usually anyway) do really appreciate the insights of John and yourself.
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I’m not trying to spam this site, I’m trying to point folks towards how to support effective epidemiology, by pointing towards the role played by “Incorporating intersectionality theory into population health research methodology: Challenges and the potential to advance health equity”. Which you can find an open-access version of at sciencedirect(dot)com.
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Cameron, I seem to recall you (and your very regular “Abstracts”) on a PCA Forum, latterly Tech Advisor, about Town Planning(?). Never got the significance there, either, but you used plenty of ‘big words’. That popular site eventually closed!
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You can’t plan for the future needs of an open society, if you don’t understand the legal foundations of democracy, or how to support the rule-of-law. So don’t fall into the trap of undermining my insight, just because you don’t understand the potential of post-modern critical social theory, or post-colonial legal theory. Please try to remember I specialized to work in international development, which is particularly concerned with de-colonisation. So I’m well versed, though rusty, in how to fight cognitive corruption in society and government.
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So is ttwapies@yahoo.co.uk a real person then ?
Thought it was an experimental bot originally due to the total disconnect to the subject at hand.
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Oops, could the site owner please delete that email address, though I think it has long been compromised beyond functional security.
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SPOKEO is good
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barpe
P.S. That’s the first I’ve ever heard of “Tech Advisor”, so it wasn’t me.
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Bob Lamont
Yes I’m real, and I was once well practiced in how to support open democracy. Imagine that. 😉
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