Category Archives: actuaries

Is the UK institutionally ageist?

This week we hear that numbers in England and Wales dying in care homes is exceeding those in hospital. In March Government told these homes the risk of death in homes was “most unlikely”. How did it come to this? … Continue reading

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“If we should live that long…”

I write a column for the CIPP magazine and there’s generally a six week cycle between submission and publication. I submitted this article in March and it got published last week. When I wrote it, I wondered how I’d be … Continue reading

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Club Vita’s latest picture of the Covid-19 data.

Club Vita is an actuarial resource that helps pension schemes understand what’s going on death and health wise. It uses big data sets to create pictures which non-actuaries like me can understand. If , like me, you want to understand … Continue reading

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Why we’ve failed to build a national care service

Sage seem to consider the major problem in care homes the impact it is having on the R number. At least that is how it is being reported. Sage member Professor John  Edmunds told the FT Covid-19 infections in hospitals … Continue reading

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COVID-19 ; Vaccines and Antivirals

  What is a vaccine? Vaccination is the administration of a vaccine to help the immune system develop protection from a disease which is achieved by essentially imitating an infection. Vaccines have historically been constructed to  contain either inactivated viruses … Continue reading

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All plans off for DB funding proposals

I’m sorry to have missed the FT’s DB funding debate, it sounds like a lively affair! Mercer, the professional services firm, last week estimated the aggregate accounting deficit for DB schemes for the UK’s 350 largest listed companies was £52bn … Continue reading

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COVID-19 Actuaries’ May Day round up

Every week, more is written on COVID-19 than any individual could possibly read. Collectively, the COVID19 Actuaries Response Group read more about the outbreak than most, so we’ve decided each Friday to provide you with a curated list of the … Continue reading

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Risk factors for COVID-19

  Introduction A primary objective of epidemiology in respect of any disease is to establish the ‘risk factors’ that affect morbidity (succumbing to the disease) and mortality (dying from the disease). For most established diseases, for instance major cancers or … Continue reading

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Should the Government be levelling with us (or not)?

Boris Johnson’s most memorable phrase, before his illness was “I want to level with you”. At that stage, telling us that people would die in British hospitals was still newsworthy. Six weeks on and telling us how many are dying … Continue reading

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COVID-19 ; International Comparisons

How does the UK stack up against other countries?   Chris Daykin has been finding out.   Introduction Comparisons between countries of the progress of COVID-19 are complicated by the different effective starting points in different countries and because the number … Continue reading

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