Our next scheduled release is in the New Year ๐. Until then, the IDM team has earned some festive downtime. ๐งต8/8
22.12.2023 09:12 โ ๐ 0 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 0 ๐ 0@robpaton.bsky.social
Epidemiologist at the UKHSA. R coder. Data viz connoisseur. Stan obsessed. SARS-CoV-2, vector borne disease, influenza. Forecasts, epidemiology, spatial models.
Our next scheduled release is in the New Year ๐. Until then, the IDM team has earned some festive downtime. ๐งต8/8
22.12.2023 09:12 โ ๐ 0 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 0 ๐ 0This has been a Herculean effort by the Infectious Disease Modelling Team. Myself, Jon Mellor, Martyn Fyles,Tom Ward and Chris Overton worked on it around the clock to get this done. ๐งต7/8
22.12.2023 09:11 โ ๐ 0 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 1 ๐ 0Our survey sample isnโt perfectly representative of the English and Scottish population. We used population estimates from nations, regions, age groups and sexes (supplied by the @ONS) to re-weight the estimated prevalence to be more representative. ๐งต6/8
22.12.2023 09:10 โ ๐ 0 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 1 ๐ 0LFD tests are less sensitive, particularly towards the end of infections. This means we have to account for lower sensitivity to convert positivity to prevalence. We developed a model that uses data from the repeat tests to work out how sensitive the LFD tests are ๐งต5/8
22.12.2023 09:09 โ ๐ 0 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 1 ๐ 0The ONS previously used PCR tests. These tests rarely return a false negative result (high sensitivity). This meant the reported positivity (the proportion of positive PCR tests) was close to prevalence (the proportion of the population who were infected) ๐งต4/8
22.12.2023 09:09 โ ๐ 0 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 1 ๐ 0Around 150,000 participants have been recruited. Participants are sent lateral flow device (LFD) tests and self report results through an online questionnaire. After someone tests positive, they keep doing tests every other day until they get two negative results in a row ๐งต3/8
22.12.2023 09:09 โ ๐ 0 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 1 ๐ 0This is a graph with prevalence as a percentage on the y axis from zero to five percent. On the x-axis it shows data from the 14th November to 13th December. The trend is going upward.
The headline is that prevalence in ๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ฅ๓ ฎ๓ ง๓ ฟ and ๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ณ๓ ฃ๓ ด๓ ฟ was 4.2% on the 13th of December. This represents an increase over the past two weeks and is equivalent to around 1 in 24 people being infected. Prevalence is higher in those aged 18-44 compared to those aged 65 or over๐งต2/8
22.12.2023 09:08 โ ๐ 0 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 1 ๐ 0Whatโs going on with SARS-CoV-2 in England and Scotland?
Introducing the new Winter Covid Infection Survey, a collaboration between the @UKHSA and the @ONS!
Our report came out this morning, and you can find it here: www.gov.uk/government/s...