opened up this page (updated this morning after a week), expecting that over time general wellbeing will improve, but guess what… after WHO told us the pandemic had been relegated we’re still seeing a high number of deaths in England and Wales:

Before COVID-19 it’s about 9.1k a week for the latest week.

Now it’s 10.3k

‘VE just checked the numbers ONS released only a few minutes ago. Again, as before, the total number of deaths in England and Wales this year is about 1,000 higher for the latest week on record than in the same week before COVID-19 broke out. That’s an increase of more than 10% in 4 years.

2019:

2023:

AM glad to say that, according to WHO, it’s all over. Months ago it declared the “end” of the pandemic. But according to this morning’s data from ONS, which is complete data (not just a sub-sample), a lot of Brits are dying.

Here are 2015-2019 deaths:

Compare to this year’s latest on record (analogous weeks):

So from 9.4k a week we went up to 10.7k. All this in just 4 years. 14% increase. Perfectly normal…

‘ve just gotten the latest numbers from ONS. About 10 minutes ago ONS released Week 22 numbers for 2023 (15 minutes ago an updated file wasn’t there yet).

Notice how this year compares to last year or prior years. 29.5% higher.

Back to work, folks Pandemic is over, according to WHO.

Today in Gemini:

So, some quick advice: Don’t get COVID.

I went back to Seattle in the beginning of March, wore a mask the whole time (my partner did not. I think this is important). We got to drop in on Emerald City Comic Con, which was well missed, and I was so happy to be there, and also just walk around the city again. I miss walking around cities.

My partner was sick by the time we were done at ECCC (they did wear a mask there, as we do for conventions). By the time we got home, I had cold-like symptoms. That Tuesday I was fully sick with it.

[...]

Anyway, three months out, I still have a little bit of a cough, and my brain fog has mostly cleared up. I truly believe it could have been so much worse, if I had not gotten vaccines.

New data released by ONS this morning.

Let’s compare pre-pandemic years:

To this year:

14% higher than before the pandemic.

Week 20 2022-2023 deaths:

Week 20 2019 (and past 5 years) deaths:

‘VE just taken a snapshot of the figures posted about an hour ago, showing that from 10059 deaths in week 17 of 2019 (before COVID-19 broke out) we rose to 12152, or an increase of 2093 deaths for the week. That’s an increase of 21%. Health emergency, right? Just don’t ask our government for comment… they’d rather not discuss this or investigate the cause/s.