After many months making no covid reports for some reason the DOH recently reported some covid numbers:

1,774 cases up to mid April this year...20 deaths.

65 cases in the last week in April.

Further reports are promised "should the situation evolve".

https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/206114...ends-in-region


In the wider region there are some concerns:

https://asianews.network/new-covid-s...cluding-india/

For England recently:



Cases recently falling slightly and less than 200 per week.



Deaths involving covid generally under 100 per week



Hospital admissions slight rise at 100 to 200 per day.

England and Wales Excess Deaths:

Since my last report in early March excess deaths have ranged down to -3.8% and up to +8.4%.
Disregarding some extreme numbers around recent holiday periods.

Latest data: w/e 16 May at -2.4% with 0.5% of those involving covid.

For the US:



All improvements on March data.

UK covid enquiry 6th part:

Focus on testing, tracing and quarantine;

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5y82pll0epo

One You tube video:

Many anti vaxxers are alarmed at recent fertility trends and want to blame the covid vaccines.
No surprise that one of them is Dr John Campbell!



Dr Oliver takes him to task after he latched on to a deficient piece of research from Czechia:




A good helping of "Bollocks" here from Dr Oliver. First the data Campbell analysed in the non peer reviewed paper was, unbeknown to Campbell, later corrected.
Second there are good reasons why fertility rates for populations of vaccinated women are likely to be lower than in populations of unvaccinated women.
Further, she looks at a UK study which shows almost no harmful effects to pregnant vaccinated women and even some small benefits.

Is there any other British expat sites where there are more than just two people per month making comments.

Why not try Google!!!!!
It really is not that difficult!

No need B. He could have told us. He should start a thread on the subject as it's nothing to with covid. He will then get 2 replies per month on why it is often only two replies a month.

​​​​

Plenty on FB that are quite active.

We three have managed to exceed Du Cnut's observations.
Well done chaps!

COVID update

Nothing from the DOH here. However covid19 is still making people ill and killing or helping to kill them elsewhere in the world.

There was something on the impact of covid on Philippines economic ranking ambitions. Of course no mention of the late vaccination here and the long lockdown!

https://manilastandard.net/business/...ncome-goal.htm

Elsewhere in SE Asia:

Malaysia is keeping track of the data and some information on a new covid strain is given.

https://sg.news.yahoo.com/malaysia-r...14157407.html?

More on the Nimbus variant:

https://www.msn.com/en-in/health/hea...nd-prevention-
measures

About another new variant in the UK:

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/health/dis...k/ar-AA1J97Ca?

England data



Cases lately over 100 daily falling since June.



Deaths at around 50 a week also falling a little



Hospital admissions falling too and around 100 a week in late June.


England and Wales Excess Deaths

Much less variation since my last report....for all but one week negative to a maximum of 6.0% for the last reported week of w/e 4 July.
Covid deaths mostly below 0.5% of total deaths.

UK Covid enquiry news on care homes and recommendations on Module 1:

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/...demic-findings

https://assets.publishing.service.go...rief-Report.pd


US data



Early indicators up on June but not yet showing in severity.

https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/...ht-upward-tren

Some articles of interest:

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/health/oth...d=BingNewsVerp

https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/oth...id=BingNewsVer

The seroprevalence of a disease is the percentage of people in a population that can be found to have antibodies to that disease. Prevalence only includes other indicators of disease..
Only a few small studies have been done in the Philippines on this, despite its high pandemic death toll.

Some of you may be familiar with San Lazaro Hospital in Manila, or at least know of it. The authors of this study studied attendees at an Animal Bite clinic there. Patients
from all over Manila. Deliberately chosen as non respiratory and non fever. Those getting bitten by animals likely to be very representative of people living in such a densely populated city as Manila.

Over all collection periods seroprevalence was consistently high at between 97.8 and 99.5%. Following immunization programs. Though potential waning signs occurred after a few months. But a comparison of seroprevalence with infection rates confirmed by PCR tests and self reported infection indicate the true number of infections were close to ten times case counts. Asymptotic infections are estimated to have been around 40% of total covid infections generally. The authors therefore conclude that there need to be good seroprevalence studies as vaccinations are rolled out.

https://tropmedhealth.biomedcentral....182-025-00767-

You tube videos:

The question of how covid originated has been largely settled in the minds of experts. Zoonotic in origin. However not in the minds of the US public.A YouGov poll found two thirds of the American public believe it originated in a Lab in Wuhan, China. Even the CIA came out, though with low confidence, in favour of the Lab Leak Theory.
Some politics here as Donald Trump and the Republicans in Congress used the issue politically to bash China. Maybe Trump had another motive to do that to divert from his deadly mismanagement of the Pandemic at home. With 3,588 deaths per M, even worse than the UK.

Personally, while I thought the zoonotic explanation was very credible I was willing to keep an open mind on the Lab Leak Theory.

Transmission from bats to farm and wild animals then to humans via the large Wuhan Animal market was discussed by Dr Susan Oliver over two years ago:



Discussed briefly here March 26, 2023. Post 2005

There she made a strong case for Zoonotic origin.

She had also made a previous video in 2022 disparaging the Lab Leak theory..


But after watching Dr Wilson, Debunk the Funk's, fast moving recent video below I have moved to seeing the Zoonotic origin theory as even more convincing. And the Lab Leak theory as bordering on a Conspiracy Theory.


The White House website pushes the lab Leak theory of covid origin. President Trump and Republicans got behind it early on and has only not mentioned it lately probably due to the overwhelming number of issues which have come up since January 20. This is despite the majority expert opinion over recent years supporting the Zoonotic origin theory and finding major faults with the Lab Leak theory as an explanation.

For those of you not wanting to watch it I will briefly mention some of its main points here:

On the Wuhan Lab...no evidence workers were sick with covid and the covid virus found at the market did not match anything in the lab. Studies later showed the viruses in the lab were not engineered.

Despite the widely held beliefs of a Lab cover up it was actually quite transparent. As opposed to China government actions over the wet market. It was quickly closed and cleaned up.

As mentioned above the market was quickly closed so the only evidence there was was from the cages and walkways. Lineages A and B were found. The lab was 7.5 miles away from the market so for Lab Leak to be true unlikely movements needed to be assumed back and forth and two lineages needed to be developed. Therefore the idea that covid was only amplified in the market defies credibility.

SARS 1 was shown to develop from bats to animals then to humans. He notes that animals is a very large industry in China and many people work on animal farms.

In the early days 3 people linked with the market got covid, A delivery man got it too.

As early as December 18, 2019 there were 7 more cases. By the end of the year there were more cases and more than half of them were linked to the market.

Greetings!

Anyone else here also struggling with what appears to be COVID vaccine injury?

Maybe we can swop notes on the effects and possible remedies.

Thanks!
.

Covid Update November 2025

After a search of E and SE Asian news I only found covid news about Japan, and only from August:

https://asianews.network/covid-19-ca...week-in-japan/

Obviously covid cases continued after August but likely the infection news there tuned to influenza. As Japan has had what has been described as an epidemic. And one earlier than usual.

Here the DOH downplayed the increasing number of influenza cases last month deeming them not to have been enough to say it is an outbreak. However the actions of the Dep Ed didn't give that impression, with school closures in Manila. Also I know there were also school and college closures in Cavite.

The general conclusion then is that covid is still about but the focus of health authorities is on influenza. Seems fair enough as the latest covid strains are mild. But still, gives the wrong impression to the vulnerable that covid has gone away.

UK data and news



England case data with a peak of over 500 cases a day last month.




Deaths involving covid at 154 in the w/e 17 October.



Admissions rose to over 300 a week in late September.

The ONS now produces a weekly provisional deaths dashboard:

Deaths were 6% lower than expected w/e 24 October.



The trend of negative excess deaths continues, starting from early 2024 when the basis of calculation changed. One wonders whether they see this as an issue with their new methodology?



A useful comparison of influenza and covid deaths.

The UK covid enquiry continued with the topic of school closures:

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/...c-of-childhood

USA covid data









US covid deaths continue to fall this year.

You tube videos



I dont monitor John Campbell's videos these days but this one came up in my feed.
He seems to have caught covid again, a mild version. A raspy voice as an early symptom has been flagged up in other videos.and is discussed in this BBC article on recent variants:

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3rv3y9jnryo

Watch and you will hear a lot about Vitamin D and why it might be a good idea to take it if you go down with covid. But he admits to taking about 4,000 IUs a day!! Well above recommended dosage.I suppose he will argue that it is all about not being seriously ill. But this is anecdotal evidence so of no worth.

Likewise in a later video:



and reckons it helped him get over his covid. Again anecdotal.

Last, another interesting recent BBC article about Long Covid and the difficulties sufferers face when presenting:

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cly195zggwxo

THE PHILIPPINE POPULATION

Local blogger Super Sally. who has now mostly moved on from covid19, is now bemoaning population trends in The Philippines and its neighbouring countries.
Somewhat off topic for this thread, as now we are a few years away from the Pandemic. Except that herself and fellow anti vaxxer You tuber Dr John Campbell both frequently link lower birth rates with covid vaccination.

In an October 1 newsletter SS reported the latest PSA vital statistics, provisional 2024 figures, but the last before a final report early next year.
Deaths are up by a slight 0.4% on 2024. Nothing there for anti vaxxers. But births were down by 7.1%. There should be nothing there also, as the lower birth trend in The Philippines has been there since 2012. But it didn't make the headlines as the covid virus did.





The fall in population growth accelerated in the covid years to continue at the lower previous rate after.

Philippine fertility now down to about 1.5 children per mother. Generally fertility at around 2.1 is seen as necessary for population replacement.

Obviously The Philippines will be observed as being an over crowded country for many years more. But assuming lower births are at least maintained over the next few years there will be obvious issues for government services.The private sector will respond quickly, making product adjustments no doubt, but governments are likely to take much longer to adjust services. Will OFWs be as keen to go abroad when family sizes are greatly lowered? In the past they could always rely on other siblings to look after things at home and there will be fewer in the family to educate. Governments will need to deal with these factors plus the effect of AI. Not much evidence they are doing anything now on this issue with their focus on the cost of living, flooding and corruption.

The downward births trend is also seen in a number of the Philippines's neighbours:




MALAYSIA:




SINGAPORE:



TAIWAN


Last, while it seems obvious that long term declines in birth rates are due to changes to economic and social factors, and not to covid vaccination, anti vaxxers seem desperate to continue to blame the covid vaccine for something, now we are at least 3 years after wide scale covid vaccination finished.

So in case there is any doubt about a link this meta study gives overwhelming evidence that there is no link:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/scienc...66776224001923

If you want to receive the latest data from SS yourself:

https://substack.com/@supersally/note/c-167506570

Vitamin D update

Best to take this with some caution as Dr John Campbell has been known to come out with something before only to retract it in a few days.
However he's not alone this time with this information. It's been around in published form since 2014! Another researcher published on this in 2017. There is also a recent short article relating it to Finland. Though none of these articles were peer reviewed..




You may recall Dr Campbell has done videos with a number of doctors who have been enthusiastic about taking vitamin D supplementary dosages of several thousands of international units (IUs) a day, even as high as 10,000, rather than the usually recommended dosages of well under those levels. Bone health, strengthen immunity against infection, even a potential link to dementia benefits. Campbell nodded along with them and only recently admitted to 4,000 IUs a day (see the post before last here).
The strange thing is that the US Institute of Medicine never commented on the paper. Strange because it says they made a big statistical error. No other academics did a rebuttal. Also strange that none of the doctors keen on vitamin D who have appeared with him over the past few years mentioned it. Campbell didn't either, before now. He doesn't say what alerted him to this 12 year old paper. Though I suppose we can make allowance as he isn't a medical doctor.
How can it be that the US Institute of Medicine allowed this to fester for so long? Vitamin D tablets are not very expensive. There was no RFKjnr type on the scene to say you could get that dosage only from diet.
It is true that too high a dose risks vitamin D toxicity. Was the Institute (now Academy) worried about that?

The analysis gives a Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) but the result of 8 to 9,000 IUs is an average and so it doesn't mean we should all immediately take that daily..But vitamin D from diet doesn't usually provide much, so if you don't get good sun exposure daily, which even in the Philippines, is likely to be true for many of us, it might be a good idea to change to do that as well as up supplementation somewhat, whether the level you want to aim for is nearer to 10,000 or a few thousand IUs a day.

Personally I note that the lifestyle of our ancestors long ago exposed them to much more sunlight than we mostly get now. There was no need for tablets then. But since those times most of us don't get exposed nearly as much. Lifestyle and correct caution over skin cancer means less exposure. So most people may well be deficient, especially in Northern latitudes and maybe even here in the sunny Philippines.

Dr Berg has been advising higher supplementation and sun exposure fore some time. As in this video a year ago:

Covid update

With a lull in the war I thought I should report again on covid. A worldwide health crisis tailing well off only to be superceded by a possible worldwide economic downturn, increased geopolitical tensions and again health effects.in some countries, especially developing ones.

As has been the case for over a year now the DOH in the Philippines is not issuing covid case data.
But there has been fake news about covid put out:

https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2...-covid-variant

There has also been other fake news here about gas supplies and the President's health leading to an announcement from the government that they were setting up a unit to counter such fake news,

Elsewhere in the region no covid case data can be easily found in news reports.
But the days of vaccination requirement are not completely over as health authorities in several countries reacted a few weeks ago to reports of cases of the XBB 1,5 variant rising in China.:

https://www.visahq.com/news/2026-02-...ls-from-china/

UK data



Latest cases averaging about 40 per day.



Deaths averaging lately about 28 per week.



Hospital admissions in late February at about 70 per day.
All data showing a downward trend.

For the US good the CDC there is still collecting and presenting covid data.











So covid is still around in the US. Contributing around 0.5% of all deaths. Its severity is falling.

A short follow up on vitamin D

In my last post I covered the major difference in the RDA for vitamin D, stemming from a mistaken analysis of the data by the US Institute of Medicine. And to be fair by others too. Dr Berg put out another video on this error and in it he talks about the US Institute of Medicine. Seemingly another US institution behaving badly!




On taking high daily dosages of supplemental D3 it's not prohibitive in terms of cost Eg one can buy online 120 5,000 IUs D3 tablets for about P300. So the cost of taking two a day to have a high daily dose is minimal. The questions are... do you need to? Are you getting enough sunlight on your skin? There is also the risk of too much vitamin D3. Hypervitaminosis D causing hypercalcemia and showing symptoms such as nausea,weakness and confusion.

Although deficiency seems to be the greatest risk, especially in Northern latitudes.

An interesting BBC article on Vitamin D3 deficiency:

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/czx3g1d57xpo

The UK Covid Enquiry

One of the few genuine enquiries in the world into the pandemic has come up with some findings:

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c87wg0lvnxjo

There won't be any more public hearings but reports on the care sector and test and to be published later this year. Reports on government procurement and PPE come out next year. Together with reports on the effect of the pandemic on children and society.
A report on resilience and preparedness came out in July 2024.

Child Covid vaccinations

Back in 2022 this sort of warning was current:




Now a large study has concluded that the risks of rare childhood vascular and inflammatory diseases following vaccination is much lower after vaccination than after infection.

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/l...247-0/fulltext

The UK Covid Enquiry has just published another report...this one on covid vaccines, their rollout and the damage compensation scheme.
It's a long report but the BBC have done a summary:

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cp8dpjx1yvmo

It is always enlightening reading reports written in hindsight, the bread and butter of the Civil Service and QANGO's (read NGO)

Yes, often reports and public enquiries don't help much, recommendations not put into practice etc. Boris Johnson was quite happy to start a process which would report long after he and others left office.
But I think this one is looking a lot better, despite the 4 years and cost overrun.
For example one of its early recommendations was about preparing for the next Pandemic. They prepared for a mild one and a Pandemic where mitigation of the effects would be enough, rather than attacking the virus itself. Looked back to an earlier Swine Flu pandemic which was easily dealt with, and planned for a mid flu one. Didn't learn from the SARS and MERS outbreaks in E Asia and how those countries dealt with them. Reduce the 60 bodies which had Pandemic planning responsibilities, said the chair Baroness Hallet. Scientists were criticised for having a "Group Think". Even if none of her recommendations get done by government there are many useful ideas for people planning for the next Pandemic