Office of National Statistics: Prevalence of ongoing symptoms following coronavirus (COVID-19) infection in the UK: Updates

"COVID-19 and Respiratory Infections Survey (CRIS)

The COVID-19 and Respiratory Infections Survey (CRIS), when combined with data from the COVID-19 Infection Survey (CIS), provides vital information to help understand the impact of self-reported COVID-19 infections, long COVID and other respiratory infections on the lives of individuals, the community and health services. Find out about the survey and what to expect if you are asked to take part."

https://www.ons.gov.uk/surveys/info...eys/covid19andrespiratoryinfectionssurveycris

 

BBC News: Record numbers not working due to ill health

"The number of people not working in the UK due to long-term sickness has risen to a new record, official figures show.

The Office for National Statistics said more than two and a half million were not working because of health problems.

There had been a rise in mental health issues in younger people, the ONS said, as well as in back and neck pain, possibly due to home working.
...
"We've also seen an increase in the category that includes post-viral fatigue so perhaps long Covid having an impact.""

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-65596283

 

ONS figures have shown an increase of 22% in excess deaths in the UK (week 16 of this year, plus some other weeks too).

The man who posted it is not a medical doctor, he is a PhD (I think).

 

Latest ONS figures (11/05/23) Weekly all-cause mortality surveillance (week 16 report, up to week 12 2023 data reports No Excess in week 12, see Table 1. Weeks 1, 2 and 3 saw excess in 15 - 64 year olds, and weeks 4, 10 and 11 saw excess deaths in 65+ year olds. Weekly Excess is always subject to revision Excess deaths in England and Wales: March 2020 to December 2022 is better guide to what has actually happened March 2023 edition.

 

It's not rocket science is it.
Dangerous category 3 virus which causes immune and organ damage leaving hosts susceptible to other illnesses ?
It's how it's being spun that's interesting. More of the king is dead, .....

I had a cpd webinar this week on ventilation . One of the speakers was a member of SAGE, another was an academic at Strathclyde university who had been involved in modelling for ventilation scenarios.
A third was a member of Scottish Futures Trust who have responsibility for school estate. ( All school teaching areas should have CO2 monitors installed and there's interesting data collection - key metric not being room volume but occupancy which noone had twigged previously as being as important (!))

The SAGE member highlighted that COVID had not gone away and he couldn't believe that we had not developed a " new normal" .
Pin drop.

 

Stuart Ritchie comment: https://www.s4me.info/threads/stuar...aud-and-open-science.21166/page-3#post-475467 Provides a link to this data: Office for Health Improvement and Disparities data = Microsoft Power BI file

 

Self-reported long COVID symptoms, UK: 10 July 2023

Estimates of self-reported long COVID symptoms and associated activity limitation, using COVID-19 and Respiratory Infections Survey (CRIS) data. Experimental Statistics.

Main points

• 
  Of those respondents who self-reported long COVID, weakness or tiredness was the most common symptom reported as part of individuals' experience (60%), followed by shortness of breath (48%), muscle ache (42%), difficulty concentrating (37%) and joint pain (34%).
  
  
• Of those responding that their ability to undertake day-to-day activities had been "limited a lot" by long COVID (19% of all respondents with self-reported long COVID), the most frequently reported symptoms were weakness or tiredness (88%), followed by shortness of breath (73%), muscle ache (70%), difficulty concentrating (66%) and joint pain (61%).
  
  
• The median number of symptoms reported was 6 out of a possible total of 34 for those respondents who self-reported long COVID.
  
  
• The median number of symptoms reported was 12 for those who reported that their long COVID symptoms reduced their ability to carry out day-to-day activities "a lot", 6 for those whose activities were reduced "a little", and 2 for those whose symptoms did not reduce their activity levels at all.
  
  
• 55% of respondents who self-reported long COVID said their symptoms get worse after either mental or physical effort, or both, while 30% said their symptoms did not get worse and 15% answered as "don't know".
  

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopula...ns/selfreportedlongcovidsymptomsuk/10july2023

 

ONS:
Rising ill-health and economic inactivity because of long-term sickness, UK: 2019 to 2023

1. Main points

• More working-age people are self-reporting long-term health conditions, with 36% saying that they had at least one long-term health condition in Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2023, up from 31% in the same period in 2019 and 29% in 2016.
  
  
• The number of people economically inactive because of long-term sickness has risen to over 2.5 million people, an increase of over 400,000 since the start of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
  
  
• For those economically inactive because of long-term sickness, nearly two-fifths (38%) reported having five or more health conditions (up from 34% in 2019), suggesting that many have interlinked and complex health issues.
  
  
• Over 1.35 million (53%) of those inactive because of long-term sickness reported that they had depression, bad nerves or anxiety in Quarter 1 2023, with the majority (over 1 million) reporting it as a secondary health condition rather than their main one.
  
  
• For those inactive because of long-term sickness and who had a main health condition that is musculoskeletal in nature, over 70% reported that they had more than one type of musculoskeletal condition.
  

 

I don't quite understand these numbers. I thought previous ONS data had shown that the Long Covid prevalence in UK was around 2 million people. But here it seems to be 400 000?

 

The 400,000 is the increase in the number of people who are no longer working due to long term illness, any illness.
You are correct to say the Long Covid prevalence was around 2 million.
Presumably the majority of them are still in work or were not in work anyway before Covid.
It's probable the 400,000 increase will include some of the Long Covid 2 million.

 

WTH is "bad nerves"? And way to attribute the blame to mental illness by putting depression and anxiety prominently, as if chronically ill people whose lives have been turned upside down don't rate high on the questionnaires for multiple reasons, all of which are perfectly normal. Pretty much for the same reasons that victims of a major natural disaster would as well. Although at least they do note that it's secondary, but we all know how that's turned around.

I assume the difference is that a lot of those are still working despite being ill, so only the most disabled are economically inactive. The safety net is full of holes and fundamentally punitive, after all.

 

Thank you @John Mac and @rvallee
Yes, that makes sense!

 

Self-reported coronavirus (COVID-19) infections and associated symptoms, England and Scotland: November 2023 to March 2024

Main points

• An estimated 3.3% (2 million) of people living in private households in England and Scotland were experiencing self-reported long COVID (symptoms continuing for more than four weeks after a confirmed or suspected coronavirus (COVID-19) infection that were not explained by something else).
  
  
• Long COVID symptoms adversely affected the day-to-day activities of 1.5 million people (74.7% of those with self-reported long COVID), with 381,000 (19.2% of those with self-reported long COVID) reporting that their ability to undertake their day-to-day activities had been "limited a lot".
  
  
• Those in the youngest (aged 3 to 17 years) and oldest (65 years and over) age groups were the least likely to test positive for COVID-19 during the study period.
  
  
• Those who have had a vaccination since September 2023 were less likely to test positive in the early waves of the study period (1 and 2); in later waves of the study period (3 and 4) there was no statistical difference.
  
  
• Participants in the oldest and youngest age groups who did test positive in the study period were also less likely to report symptoms consistent with "influenza-like illness" compared with those in the middle age groups.
  

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopula...omsenglandandscotland/november2023tomarch2024

 

Updated estimates of Long Covid in England and Scotland show that it remains a serious issue

"The UK Office for National Statistics (ONS) has released its latest estimates of how many people in England and Scotland are living with Long Covid using the recent Winter Infection Survey. These are the first good estimates of levels of Long Covid for over a year - the previous update was in March 2023 with the final ONS Coronavirus Infection Survey report.

While the ONS headline numbers are for Long Covid of any duration (i.e. over 4 weeks), I will be concentrating on its data for self reported Long Covid lasting at least 12 weeks. This is more consistent with international definitions and doesn’t include those whose acute symptoms linger for several weeks (such as a cough that takes several weeks to go away completely)."

https://christinapagel.substack.com/p/updated-estimates-of-long-covid-in

 

Interesting thread , long mainly graphics
https://twitter.com/user/status/1785018532708712476


https://twitter.com/user/status/1785018577935806468


Regraphed

https://twitter.com/user/status/1785020324309877026

 

I am puzzled by the statistics being quoted for Covid/Long Covid and have been ever since the UK government stopped asking people to report that they'd tested positive for Covid. If I got a positive Covid test I wouldn't know where I was expected to report it or even IF I was expected to report it. It hardly gets mentioned in the media these days. So where are the Covid/Long Covid numbers coming from?

 

"8.Data sources and quality

Our Winter Coronavirus (COVID-19) Infection Survey Quality and Methodology Information article provides further information around the survey design, how we process data and how data are analysed."

More at https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopula...ember2023tomarch2024#data-sources-and-quality

 

Thanks, Andy - I hadn't taken that in at all.