Search Results

Age, sex and the existence of comorbidities have all been documented as reasons why COVID-19 is mild or asymptotic is some and for others can cause hospitalisation and even death. There are exceptions of course but there are also very clear trends. As noted from our previous analysis of comorbidity data from Italy and China, hypertension is the most frequent comorbidity noted in COVID-19 positive deaths. US data on hypertension discloses a much higher age-adjusted incidence of hypertension in African Americans and Asians than in Whites. This is a good example of how ethnicity is a factor that can increase the risk of hospitalisation & death due to COVID-19. However, there are also other factors that increase the risk of exposure to the SARS-CoV-2 virus. In the UK doctors treating COVID-19 are much more likely to be from an ethnic group. In the USA, 17% of physicians are Asian but Asians represent less than 1% of the overall population. The trend for nursing is similar, especially with African-Americans nurses in the USA. Beyond front line medical staff, there are is also an ethnicity issue with those still working to support us, for example, delivery drivers, public transport workers and supermarket assistants. In the USA, Louisiana reports 70% of coronavirus deaths are black. In the UK, there are reports that ethnic minorities “are a third of (COVID-19) patients”. Age, sex and ethnicity factors are not going to make upcoming difficult decisions for governments any easier to make and to get our support behind.

Italian healthcare data released by the ISS on COVID-19 includes some quite extraordinary data on comorbidities in COVID-19 positive deceased patients in Italy up to 26 March 2020. 98% of COVID-19 positive deaths were recorded with at least 1 comorbidity. Over half had 3 or more comorbidities. Hypertension was recorded in 74% of cases. Diabetes, Ischemic heart disease, Atrial Fibrillation, Chronic Renal Failure and Active Cancer in the last 5 years were the next 5 largest comorbidities. This data supports that reported out of Wuhan which ranked Hypertension, Diabetes and Chronic heart disease as its top 3 comorbidities. The presence of a comorbidity does not mean the deceased was going to die at that point in time anyway. When all cause mortality data is released in Italy, we would expect there to be a statistically significant increase in death rates. As the prospects of an easy exit strategy from lockdown/stay-at-home fade ever further away and the economic and mental health damage spirals up, getting more data on this area is going to be essential.

Recently released US e-commerce data show how consumer behaviours are adapting to life under stay-at-home orders, home working and spending a lot more time with household cohabitees. Perhaps not too many surprises on what categories are winners and what are losers but the quantum of change and ranking still makes interesting reading. Its relevancy goes beyond the FMCG industry. It is also provides advanced warning to other sectors of what is coming next. As a recent Kantar report looking at recent Chinese retail data questions, are we facing “a new era, an acceleration of latent trends or just a short-lived blip?”

Recently released US e-commerce data show how consumer behaviours are adapting to life under stay-at-home orders, home working and spending a lot more time with household cohabitees. Perhaps not too many surprises on what categories are winners and what are losers but the quantum of change and ranking still makes interesting reading. Its relevancy goes beyond the FMCG industry. It is also provides advanced warning to other sectors of what is coming next. As a recent Kantar report looking at recent Chinese retail data questions, are we facing “a new era, an acceleration of latent trends or just a short-lived blip?”

At the time of writing, John Hopkins University has recorded 109,312 deaths with patients testing positive for the COVID-19 disease. There are, sadly, many more deaths that have not been reported to date (e.g. at home & care home deaths). Of the 1.8m confirmed cases, only 0.4m have been classified as totally recovered. Yesterday 0.1m new infections were reported – a trend yet to peak. Many more deaths are bound to follow. Even when this has abated, it is widely expected that official figures will be a significant underestimate. Death toll predictions range anywhere up to 2 million people. A horribly large number of people. How does COVID-19 rank as a global killer? Attached is the latest data I could find from the World Health Organisation ranking the top 10 causes of death across the world in 2016. At the moment, COVID-19 would not make the top 10 and it might not make the top 10 (based on more optimistic projections). Annual Flu WHO estimates that 290,000-650,000 respiratory deaths occur each year associated with seasonable flu. So why is the world in lockdown? COVID-19 is more likely to hospitalise and more likely to kill than seasonal flu. So, quite simply, the issue is about flow control. Every country’s health systems would break under the surge in demand but for the containment policies now in place.

Kudos to harry29ford! He has produced a fantastic piece of visualisation to produce a great illustration of how COVID-19 deaths have evolved over time (from the date of the first death) compared to epidemics of the 21st century to date. An epidemic occurs when there is a rapid spread of a disease to a larger number of people in a given population within a short period of time. A pandemic is an epidemic that has spread across a continent or globally. This video shows the difference very clearly!

COVID-19 – An event without precedent? SARS-CoV-2 is a novel (new) strain of Coronavirus so the disease it causes – COVID-19 – is something everyone is having to learn about as we go along. Deadly Coronaviruses are not new There are many types of Coronavirus and whilst most cause only mild illnesses, at least two other human coronaviruses are known to cause severe symptoms: (1) SARS-CoV (2002-3) which emerged out of China and caused the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) was more deadly but much less infectious than COVID-19. The virus rapidly spread across 29 countries but was eventually contained and there have been no outbreaks of SARS anywhere in the world since 2003. (2) MERS-CoV (2012) which emerged out of Saudi Arabia and had a death rate of 34% but which has been mainly limited to the Middle East. There are currently no vaccines or specific drug treatments for coronaviruses. Conditions that facilitate the creation of new strains Coronaviruses are zoonotic, meaning that they can be transmitted from people to animals. Both SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV and likely SARS-CoV-2 originally came from bats, though other animals that act as intermediaries spreading coronaviruses to humans. Many of the early cases of COVID-19 were traced back to the Baishazhou wet market in Wuhan (which has now re-opened despite pressure from the US in particular). Influenza Pandemics Flu Pandemics are not new – see attached chart. The deadliest was the “Spanish flu” which had both a high infection rate and death rate. Whilst this did not occur within the lifetime of most world leaders, there are still plenty of people alive today who would have been young children when that hit. World reaction The combination of high infection rate, a significant death rate and long incubation period have forced world governments into unprecedented action – lockdowns/stay-at-home orders have impacted most of the world’s population. As to what else is truly unprecedented, make your own mind up…

There is some very interesting data coming out of Wuhan, China about COVID-19, including more details of what happens to hospitalised patients with severe COVID-19. From anecdotal feedback we have got from EU doctors, this seems to be a close reflection of what is happening in Europe too. It does illustrate just how critical week 2 is to someone infected with the Coronavirus.

nuaxia, a healthcare information technology platform announces that it has significantly upgraded its proprietary technology platform. In December 2018, nuaxia announced the launch of its third generation platform which leverages 7 AI engines to deliver its unique, behavioural science based analytics. nuaxia has now completed a number of significant enhancements to improve the speed and scale by which its video data can be captured and analysed including: Visualisation tool for summarising and analysing video data Fast clip compilation tool Self-serve admin function for clients Enhanced blurring function A slick new user interface Re-engineered platform to a containerized system “Chatbot 1.0” capability for multi-part video questioning nuaxia is now offering this capability as a service that can be included within any market research survey.  This allows clients to access the benefits of the nuaxia platform whilst continuing to use their existing research and data collection providers. Peter Chopra, nuaxia’s CEO comments: “The market research industry has been struggling to properly leverage the value of video-based responses.  The key issue driving that is the huge amount of data that video provides. This problem is especially true for nuaxia’s clients as our approach goes beyond the words to measure emotional (system 1) responses too.  Leveraging our full service experience, we have created impactful and actionable client deliverables. Furthermore, we have significantly reduced the amount of analyst time required so that findings can be delivered at the speed of business. We will continue to focus on innovative and forward-thinking leaders and projects where delivering holistic and reliable research is paramount.” For further information, please visit nuaxia.com