As of 19th October, Public Health Scotland reported delivery of 344 045 booster vaccines: https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/phs.covid.19/viz/COVID-19DailyDashboard_15960160643010/Overview On the same date, NHS England claimed to have delivered 3 846 287 booster doses. However, as they point out these data include a number of third primary doses for those who are severely immunosuppressed and will be reclassified when the appropriate data is (sic) available. Leaving aside the fact that the reporter does not seem to know that data is a plural noun, this kind of qualified accounting to make results look better is well known, from for example, their A&E data. https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/covid-19-vaccinations/ Anyhow … Continue reading Vulnerable English wait even longer, maybe forever

Who will they get to inform us if it’s the right call? Scotland in Union members, former Tory candidates and assorted bams keen to attack the SNP. Will they mention the WHO guidelines and the recommendations of umpteen experts? Will they report this (already posted here)? Infection rates are climbing steadily in England and surging in Wales. They’re pretty much flat in Scotland and Northern Ireland: The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine has been monitoring behaviour changes in terms of facemask wearing and social mixing. Notably, for the week-ending 29 September 2021, with rates falling slightly or flat … Continue reading BBC Radio Scotland: Your science-free pandemic zone

With the help of the Lib Dem (4 MSPs) leader and of course no comparative data, BBC Scotland platform the fake news that Scotland is lagging on booster delivery even if we are ahead on every other jag: Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton accused the Scottish government of “sneaking out” the changes. “We know that caseloads are still far too high so there can be no excuses for these delays,” he said. “The health secretary needs to tell the public what steps he will take to speed up this rollout. The MSP added: “Last winter we were facing an … Continue reading Scotland ahead on booster jags?

I’m not, under any circumstances, suggesting that our wildlife is not at risk or that more, much more, needs to be done. Even 1% is too many. My concern, as always, is on the politicising on such trends to attack and to distort the performance of Scotland and its government so as to make it seem no better than the UK in the approach to COP26. Scotland is home to over 90 000 species. I appreciate that the Herald headline confuses and conflates wildlife (species) and habitats to come up with its 1 100 in ‘poor state’ but the point … Continue reading Scotland’s wildlife: only 1% of species at risk

From BBC Wales today, opening a very long report: Some trainee doctors and consultants at one Welsh health board are “scared to come to work”, a report has found. A report by the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) described “frightening experiences” staff faced at Aneurin Bevan University Health Board. Chronic understaffing and excessive workloads at the Grange hospital in Cwmbran were causing “very serious patient safety concerns”, it added. The Health Board said it had taken the findings of the report very seriously. The report, obtained by BBC Wales, said that some trainee doctors and consultants were worried about working … Continue reading Trainee doctors scared to come to work not responsibility of Health Secretary

Infection rates are climbing steadily in England and surging in Wales. They’re pretty much flat in Scotland and Northern Ireland: The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine has been monitoring behaviour changes in terms of facemask wearing and social mixing. Notably, for the week-ending 29 September 2021, with rates falling slightly or flat across the UK, they noted in their data: Self-reported facemask wearing for those who have at least one non-home contact appears to have reduced below 70% in England, though this overall figure masks differences by age. Reported face-covering wearing has stabilised in the over 60s but … Continue reading Masking the UK’s diverging infection rates

I’m not sure ‘surge’ is a big enough word to capture the scale of the crisis in infection levels in Labour-led Wales. Leaving aside an apparent problem with their testing system leading to these dramatic peaks and troughs from one day to the next, the level has apparently gone from 65.9 to 93.3 per 100K, the highest in the UK by some way, in only 3 days from the 16th to the 19th of October. That’s a 41.5% surge, for want of a better word, in only 3 days. BBC Wales is not reporting this. Indeed, they haven’t been reporting … Continue reading BBC Wales is ignoring this?

Only Iceland, population less than Edinburgh, has vaccinated a higher percentage of its population. Reporting Reykjavik is all over the story. Continue reading Scotland 2nd top in vaccination league

There were 2 459 new cases in the last 24 hours in Scotland. There were 36 712 in England, per head of population 50% higher. There were 3 200 in Wales, per head of population, nearly 100% higher. BBC Scotland, UK, England and Wales have no comment on this. Why might this be happening? People in Scotland are still wearing facemasks in enclosed spaces? The Scottish Government has done better on rolling out vaccines? BBC Health, above, suggest less mask wearing, more mixing, waning immunity and a stalled vaccine rollout. Source: https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/cases Continue reading Why are cases in England 50% higher than in Scotland?

I’ve had to sort out the original headline. Here’s the story: Scotland has missed out on UK government backing to develop the first carbon capture and storage facility. It had been hoped the Acorn Project at St Fergus in Aberdeenshire could be ready by the middle of the decade. The project has been designed to take and store carbon dioxide in the Goldeneye field in the North Sea. It is now likely to be developed as part of the second phase in the 2030s. The first development will instead be on the Humber and around Liverpool. The Scottish project was … Continue reading Tories reject Scotland’s ‘shovel ready’ first carbon capture and storage facility. Douglas Ross not asked by BBC