On this day in 2020...12th November

THURSDAY 12TH NOVEMBER 2020

Facts and figures.

27,301 new cases.

376 deaths.

Several countries have been taken off the UK’s quarantine list: UAE, Qatar, Turks and Caicos, Iceland, Laos, Cambodia, Chile and Bahrain.

Mainland Greece has been put on to the quarantine list and from 4am on Saturday anyone arriving in the UK from there will have to self-isolate for two weeks.

The travel ban on Denmark is extended for two weeks because of the Mink Covid mutation concerns.

It has been released today that the number of patients waiting more than a year for general treatments is the highest since 2008. In England, 139,545 patients waited more than fifty-two weeks to start their hospital treatment. In September 2019 there were only 1,305 such patients.

420,445 patients in England waited more than six weeks for key diagnostic tests in the month of September 2020. In September 2019 it was 38,740.

The number of patients admitted for routine treatment in England is down 27%.

50,000 deaths.

As we have reached the awful milestone of 50,000 deaths here in the UK, the technology correspondent for Sky News, Rowland Manthorpe gave us a terrific timeline as to how we landed here. I have paraphrased some of the information here:

·??????24th March 2020 – first full day of lockdown. The UK has a total of 1,176 coronavirus deaths.

?·??????By day 16 of lockdown as the first wave reached its peak the UK had 10,000 further deaths.

?·??????By the end of June 2020 when the shops re-opened, the daily deaths had fallen from 1,000 to 100. However, we had passed 40,000 deaths in the preceding three months.

?·??????During the lull of the summer, deaths fell to around 20 or less on most days. In the three summer months, there were less than 2,000 extra deaths.

?·??????The following 6 weeks saw the beginning of the second wave with deaths rising by a staggering 8,000 deaths.

*Source Govuk.

Some further data of note:

30% of deaths recorded in the UK were in care homes.

55% of those who died were men.

Black African male deaths were 3.8 times higher than white males.

Black African female deaths were 2.9 times higher than white females.

All ethnic groups other than Chinese females were at a higher risk of dying from Covid-19 than people of a white background.

The highest difference was in the ethnic categories of Bangladeshi and Black African.

Research previously referred to in this diary has shown that this may be down to cultural differences, multiple generational house sharing, not adhering to restrictions, lower socio-economic standing and education, and the type of work often undertaken by BAME groups such as nursing and care professions.

Chinese, Indian and mixed-race people were showed to have lower death rates than other BAME categories.

Humanitarian disaster.

In the USA amidst all the wrangling over the Presidential elections, CNN’s Doctor Sanjay Gupta puts a different slant on their COVID crisis by calling it a ‘humanitarian disaster.’ He qualifies it by comparing other world events which were categorised as humanitarian disasters:

2004 – Indian Ocean tsunami – 227,898 deaths.

2010 – Haiti earthquake – 220,000 deaths.

2011 -2012 – Somali Famine – 260,000 deaths.

2020 USA Covid-19 Pandemic – 242,527 deaths.

Shrink.

The ONS say that the UK economy grew by a record 15.5% in the third quarter but remains 8.2% smaller than before the pandemic. During the lockdown, it is inevitable that the economy will shrink again but also certain is the eventual re-emergence once the lockdowns and virus have gone and the space for re-opening new business and hospitality returns.

The UK is likely to be hit harder than many manufacturing countries as we are very much a tourist and services-led economy. Without free movement of people, there will be no hope of growth in this area, quite the reverse.

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Daily news.

Profitable pandemic.

While on the subject of economic matters, the excitement of the new vaccine continues, and we see a fascinating insight in The Daily Mail as to how profitable pandemics can be for some. The vaccine breakthrough was announced by the CEO of Pfizer Anthony Bourla.

The shine has dimmed slightly when we learn that he had pre-planned to sell 132,508 of his personal holding of shares at a peak just after the announcement was made. He achieved $41.94 per share, and it made him $5.6 million.

Nothing untoward.

The sale was perfectly legal because it was announced he would sell on this specified date back on August 19th 2020, naming the intention to sell if a certain price was reached, so there is nothing untoward in that sense. Of course, the CEO is able to decide when the vaccine announcement was made, which I suppose is his right.

Trumped.

There is some controversy because President Trump was hoping for the vaccine announcement to be made before the Presidential election, but it happened two days after Biden claimed the win. Which we now know was the pre-arranged date of Mr Bourlas’ share sale.

Pfizer’s executive vice president and chief corporate affairs officer, Sally Susman, also sold more than 43,000 shares worth $1.8 million on that date.

$25 million in one day.

In May 2020, two executives at drug firm Moderna; Chief Financial Officer Lorence Kim and Chief Medical Officer Tal Zaks quietly sold nearly $30 million of stock when they unveiled a coronavirus vaccine and value surged, but after the sale of their shares the price fell sharply once the medical community quickly doubted the efficacy of the vaccine. The executives made at least $25 million in one day despite the vaccine flopping, merely by announcing they had a viable vaccine, it seems.

Snapshot.

Kodak CEO Jim Continenza added $79 million to his net worth in July 2020, when his options went from pretty much worthless to massive, following a US government loan of $765 million for the company to produce pharmaceutical ingredients to help fight coronavirus. Continenza’s stock options were worthless on the Monday and $59 million on the Wednesday. In September an independent review cleared Continenza of insider trading.

Anyway, I think I will move on before we depress ourselves too much.

Seeing the light.

Hindu’s are adapting to the COVID restrictions for their festival of light – Diwali (and Bandi Chhor Divas) – the beginning of the Hindu new year. It is a big celebration and is often visible in our communities. For Hindu’s the festival marks the return of Lord Rama and his wife Sita back to their kingdom after defeating Ravana. Diwali represents light overcoming darkness.

Followers of this faith are trying to do their own thing, limiting numbers, celebrating at home and singing in their own space while cooking for fewer numbers and letting off the odd firework.

It won’t be the same as the mass gatherings we are used to seeing but we are all having to adapt to protect our loved ones. This is true both here in the UK and across the world.

Muslims too had problems when lockdown clashed with Eid and because of the duration of this pandemic many other religions will be limited in the festivities, not least us, with regard to Christmas.

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Family life.

We had the fortnightly conference call with all the older children. Everyone seems fine. We touched on Christmas arrangements, but it is too early to decide how best to play it. We will have to see what happens if we come out of lockdown at the beginning of December 2020.

Tuesday test.

Harry told us that he and his peers are COVID tested every week which was quite surprising but reassuring too, although he said it was really quite an unpleasant experience.

He and his bubble of friends go every Tuesday lunchtime. When he first arrived at the university you may recall he was given an antigen test where you give a dot of blood after a thumb prick. These weekly tests, however are less forgiving and are the type of swabs they ‘ram’ up your nostrils for 30 seconds and it is uncomfortable, he said. To quote him, ‘it is only thirty seconds out of a week’. That’s the spirit, son.

Andy has finished the first draft of a book he has been working on, using characters he first developed in 2011 and it is set in the 1930s.

Chris is organising his school’s Christmas play, using some of Roald Dahl’s collection of works. There are logistical problems because of the virus and bubbles, but he is considering putting it on YouTube as there cannot be a live performance.

Quote of the day.

‘So, you think that money is the root of all evil. Have you ever asked what is the root of all money?’ – Ayn Rand.

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