Straight-off: A leading public health health expert has told the BBC that Scotland is in a very delicate moment in its fight against coronavirus. The warnings come as latest figures show there were 23 new cases of Covid-19 in Scotland. The expert is Professor Bauld. She says: Oh this is an incredibly sensitive time. I think we all need to realise that. Unfortunately we know that from international examples. But we need to look at the positivity rate. That’s the relationship between the number of cases and the number tested and it’s still less than one percent. So although these … Continue reading Reporting Scotland desperate for a Scottish covid crisis misses the Professor’s main point

Since the Scottish Government launched its ‘Test and Protect‘ system on the 25th May, we have seen it smoothly deal with the outbreak in the Dumfries area. Here is how it works: As soon as someone gets a positive test for Covid-19, the contact tracing system will be triggered. The patient will be put in touch with the local contact tracing team to talk through and identify close contacts. At present, most of this will be conducted by telephone calls. Phone apps are in development but Nicola Sturgeon has said that “old-fashioned contact tracing” will be at the heart of … Continue reading Hancock to copy Scottish test and trace system TWO MONTHS late

BBC Scotland yesterday headlined the above and opened with: Scotland has seen the biggest daily rise in new confirmed cases of Covid-19 in almost a month. The Scottish government said 21 cases had been detected in the last 24 hours – eight of them within NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde. It is the biggest daily increase since 21 June. As often before, true but lacking context to help you understand what it means. For example, what was the rate for England in the same period? Strange, no sign of it there. Maybe the UK page? No, but they do have … Continue reading Scotland’s ‘biggest virus case rise’ is still only one quarter of that in England

I’ve done a bit of amateur cropping and stretching with the second graph to try and align them. Am I correct in seeing increased testing on 8th-10th July leading to increased cases identified on the 10th-12th and increased testing on the 15th to 18th leading to increased cases on the 16th to 18th and perhaps the 19th ? Do the still falling hospital admissions, single-figure ICU numbers and almost zero-level deaths, suggest that the increases are mostly low-level and asymptomatic cases? Continue reading Is the apparent increase in cases mainly due to more testing?

From Sky News today: The inquiry into the UK’s response to coronavirus will be brutal and it will be dirty. Scrapping for survival, the cast of characters thrust into the spotlight during the pandemic will be desperate to avoid being cast as the villain – and that may mean looking for an alternative candidate. First in the firing line is Public Health England – and this week PHE has provided the ammunition itself.Advertisement Health Secretary Matt Hancock has asked for an “urgent review” over fears PHE’s data on coronavirus deaths is inaccurate. Researchers claim a “statistical anomaly” means if someone was previously … Continue reading It will have to be some ‘statistical anomaly’ to narrow this fatal gap and save the Tories

*England does of course have ten times the population so, per head of population, the rate is ‘only‘ 80.6 times higher. Of course, when BBC UK seeks comfort in comparisons with the death or infection rates in larger countries such as the USA or Brazil, the crude levels are much more newsworthy. Per head of population the death rate in the ‘UK’ is 30% higher than in the US. https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/1572472/?utm_source=showcase&utm_campaign=visualisation/1572472 The more useful, infection rate, in the last 7 days, for Scotland is 9.7. Professor Bauld has drawn our attention to more accurate ONS estimates for England than those being … Continue reading Covid death rate in England 806 (80.6) times higher* than Scotland

Yesterday in the Herald, Labour councillor Bill Brown made another of his regular appearances posing as a member of the public, to attack the SNP: Brown is at a loss apparently yet the facts are all-too-obvious. Repeated opinion polls show the FM to be trusted. For example, for Opinium on 28th-29th May, 64% overall and 67% of Labour voters, trusted the information on coronavirus provided by Nicola Sturgeon. As for being tardy and having the power to stop and test airport arrivals, this power was only devolved on the 25th March by which time the virus had spread across the UK. The … Continue reading Another Labour councillor’s undercover rant against SNP

In the Scotsman yesterday, former Jack McConnell adviser and Labour councillor, Susan Dalgety, is allowed to hide as a journo to distort the facts, in an attempt to undermine the First Minister and the SNP, currently soaring in the polls. Only yesterday, Murdo Fraser tweeted his concerns about the unfairness of such behaviour. Two weeks ago Dalgety wrote a disgraceful personal and misogynistic attack on the FM: https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/2020/07/04/former-jack-mcconnell-adviser-and-labour-councillor-allowed-to-hide-a-journo-to-insult-first-minister-and-women-in-politics/ Now she is back, given space to lie about Scotland’s coronavirus death rate and about just what the FM has actually said. In a deeply confused or perhaps cynical piece referencing Kevin Hague, … Continue reading Former Labour adviser in Scotsman again to covertly lie about coronavirus deaths in Scotland

In the Guardian today: She had been thinking about it for months, says Ms A of the launch of an anonymous Instagram account that has exposed a horrifying catalogue of rape and sexual assault at St Andrews. On a Thursday afternoon at the beginning of July, inspired by stories from friends in the US about similar college callout accounts, and by the sweeping momentum of the Black Lives Matter movement, the 20-year-old set up St Andrews Survivors to give students an opportunity to share their experiences anonymously. Her page offered a simple reassurance: “We hear you. You are not alone. … Continue reading St Andrews rape allegations: The racist and toxic group Scotland’s media ignores

From our Glasgow Correspondent, Brian McGowan, described by him as ‘a brilliant and progressive idea.’ He’s spot-on: Welfare Hubs get the thumbs up from NHSGGC staff “It’s a place to take a break from being a nurse and feel like a person again.” This is just one of the positive comments received by NHSGGC about the R&R hubs which were established to support staff wellbeing during Covid-19. The Hubs were created at the beginning of the pandemic to give all members of staff the space to relax and recuperate away from their work environments. They were based on international learning … Continue reading Glasgow hospitals unique strategy to support staff hidden from BBC Scotland viewers