News story this week that SAGE believes many Covid infections picked up in supermarkets.
Fact check: This contains assertions that are not based on reality and reflects useless journalism/clickbait.
" Public Health England (PHE) released its analysis of the NHS’ Test and Trace app between 9 November and 15 November [during Lockdown 2].
The data showed that 128,808 people had tested positive for the virus over that period. Together, they provided 9,789 common settings that they had visited. The most frequent location they went to were supermarkets, followed by secondary schools, primary schools and hospitals.
"Explaining the data, Isabel Oliver, Director of the National Infection Service at PHE, said: “Suggestions that supermarkets are causing COVID-19 to spread are inaccurate. Common exposure data does not prove where people are contracting COVID-19.
“It simply shows where people who have tested positive have been in the days leading up to their test and it is used to help identify possible outbreaks,” she added."
It would be interesting to know what possible outbreaks have been identified from these data, since she says 'it helps'.
Should we be in the slightest surprised that a high percentage of normal people have visited a supermarket in the last week (during Lockdown 2)? Can any causative link be established between the infected person's visit to a supermarket and their source/location of infection? Not a chance. Now a Republican election rally maybe, or perhaps, meeting MPs in a non-socially distanced way.
Proportions of all common locations reported in the data:
Supermarket - 18.3%
Secondary school - 12.7%
Primary school - 10.1%
Hospital - 3.6%
Care home - 2.8%
College - 2.4%
Warehouse - 2.2%
Nursery preschool - 1.8%
Pub or bar - 1.6%
Hospitality - 1.5%
University - 1.4%