The Health Secretary got it wrong twice when updating the House of Commons on the long-term effects of coronavirus

30 Oct 2020 | Facts and news from Full Fact
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FACT CHECK
“Long Covid”: Matt Hancock gets his facts muddled

Addressing Parliament last week, Matt Hancock said that early research into so-called “long Covid” suggested two findings:
* Young people (under 50) are about twice as likely to suffer from “long Covid” after a coronavirus infection
* There was “no correlation” between the severity of the initial illness and the length of the symptoms afterwards

While there is much we still don’t know about long Covid, the evidence cited by the Health Secretary does not support his claims—and it actually suggests the opposite.

On 21 October, researchers published analysis of data from the Covid Symptom Study app. This is based on 4,182 confirmed cases of Covid-19 among people who consistently reported their symptoms in the weeks afterwards.

It found symptoms lasting more than four weeks were about twice as common among the over-70s as among the under-50s.

And people with long Covid were “more likely to have required hospital assessment in the acute period.”

Overall, 13.9% of the confirmed cases in the study had visited hospital. However, among those reporting symptoms for at least four weeks this rose to 31.5%, and among those reporting symptoms for at least eight weeks it was 43.9%.
What do we know about “long Covid”? ([link removed])
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FACT CHECK
How well has Serco performed contact tracing? ([link removed])

Labour has claimed that “Serco fails to trace 30% of contacts”, but “Local councils trace 97% of contacts”. Angela Rayner, the party’s deputy leader, then made a similar claim two days later.

But because both types of contact tracers are doing different things, direct comparisons need vital context.

“Complex” cases are managed by Public Health England and local health teams, and relate to a particular place where there might be an outbreak, such as a care home or a prison, and therefore require special local attention.

It may also be easier to trace contacts in complex cases. For example, the manager of an office might be asked to close it and inform all staff. When this happens, “all associated contacts will be counted as having been reached and asked to self-isolate," meaning that many contacts might be “reached” without each one being contacted individually by a contact tracer.

By contrast, Serco helps to manage contacts in “non-complex” cases—which are all other confirmed cases in the community. The contacts in these cases have to be reached one by one and may often be passersby with whom the infected person has no way to get in touch.

In data used by Labour, about 20% of the contacts passed to contact tracers did not come with any communication details.
What does Serco do? ([link removed])
FACT CHECK
The government hasn’t given MPs a £3,300 pay rise—nor do they get a £25 daily food allowance ([link removed])

A widely-shared Facebook post has wrongly claimed that “New Zealand’s MPs take a 20% pay cut during this pandemic in an effort to help the economy while our Tory government gives itself a £3,300 pay rise instead!!”

On 15 April, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced she and her ministers would be taking a 20% cut to their pay for the next six months, as would public sector bosses. Although the announcement initially only discussed ministers taking pay cuts, all MPs received at least a 10% cut.

But although we don’t yet know how much UK MPs’ pay will increase, the salary of UK MPs is not set by the government or parliament, but by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA), which links MPs’ pay to changes in average earnings in the public sector.

We also saw claims circulating on Twitter and Instagram that MPs get £25 per day food allowance.

MPs are allowed to claim up to £25 in food expenses per night, but only if they are staying overnight outside of London or their constituency as part of their parliamentary activities.
Why are MPs getting a pay rise? ([link removed])
MORE FACT CHECKS
Also this week...
* The WHO has not decided attending school implies consent for vaccines ([link removed])
* Soy sauce imports from Japan will not be cheaper next year ([link removed])
* This figure for flu deaths is wrong ([link removed])
* An asteroid which might enter Earth’s atmosphere on 2 November will not “hit” Earth ([link removed])
* Stanley Johnson did write a novel called ‘The Virus’ in the 1980s ([link removed])

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