WHY?

MichaelC wrote:Also remember that a very high percentage of UK positives are symptom free.

But the symptom free are still able to give the virus to those vulnerable people unable to have the vaccine.

That issue is the same everywhere. Yes it is a concern, but is something we need to learn to live with.
In reality there is not much more governments can do.
All the major countries have got the vaccine situation to a very good level and bar keeping locked down indefinatly and destroying thd lives and businesses of their citizens, in addition to their economies they are accepting the time has come to start learning to live with covid.

Data seems to suggest that there are a few factors at play here.

Firstly, the UK was one of the first countries to implement the vaccine programme and studies are showing that immunity wanes from six months on hence the reason for booster jabs. Hence we can expect to see immunity wane quicker in the UK population compared to countries who were slower to their immunity programme.
(https://www.bmj.com/content/374/bmj.n2113)

Secondly, the AZ vaccine was more prevalent in the UK than in Spain. The AZ vaccine has an initial lower immunity rate than the mRNA vaccines so it follows that as immunity wanes then the effectiveness of the AZ vaccine would wane hence overall immunity would be less than those countries who ran a predominately mRNA programme.
(https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02532-4)

The efficacy of the vaccines was measure against the initial strains and not the more contagious Delta variant so this also probably goes some way to explaining higher UK levels.
(https://newseu.cgtn.com/news/2021-09-16 ... index.html)

The UK was also slower to vaccinate children and kids are very effective spreaders of disease as those of us who have school going children can testify to.

Finally, of course, the UK dropped restrictions in July, unlike Spain which still has restrictions, which may have been a bit premature. There's no disputing we have to learn to live with this disease but surely commerce should not trump public health.

Its a balance and there is now a lower resistance to keep restrictions from just about all major economies.
As quoted, most major economies are opening up with less and less restrictions.
This would suggest that the data looked at by major governments and experts around the world is that the time has come to live with covid.
The UK still has more restrictions on travel than most of Europe by the way.
Once fully vaccinated, yes you may still get infected and may pass it on, but with vaccine rates around 80%, the risk is lowered and as data shows those infected and hospitalised or dying is now stable and has been for some time. The majority of positives are symptom free or just mild symptoms with no need to to to hospital.
The time has come to get on with life.
Unfortunately there will always be some, a minority, who are more vulnerable but that applies to all diseases and viruses. Hopefully things will be put in place to help this group and reduce risk, but that cannot and never will be at the long term detriment of the majority/ masses or national economies. unfortunately that's life.

Benjy wrote:

PGA wrote:Yet another thread started on exactly the same subject as previously. Gets tiresome reading of so much UK negativity on this forum at times.

quesada-general-discussion-f9/am-i-missing-something-t57163.html?hilit=benjy

. No one is making you read it.

Equally, no-one is making you type it.

What do you actually expect the reaction to be?

So there are 45000 cases, and 180 deaths. A whole 0.4%.

No idea whether it's still the case, but it used to be that the figure wasn't even the number of people who'd died from Covid...rather it was the number of people who'd died within 28 days of having a positive test. The fact that they may have died in a car crash was statistically irrelevant.

I'm more concerned about the "one in two" chance of getting cancer in my lifetime, to be honest.

BNT162b2 wrote:

Benjy wrote:

PGA wrote:Yet another thread started on exactly the same subject as previously. Gets tiresome reading of so much UK negativity on this forum at times.

quesada-general-discussion-f9/am-i-missing-something-t57163.html?hilit=benjy

. No one is making you read it.

Equally, no-one is making you type it.

What do you actually expect the reaction to be?

So there are 45000 cases, and 180 deaths. A whole 0.4%.

No idea whether it's still the case, but it used to be that the figure wasn't even the number of people who'd died from Covid...rather it was the number of people who'd died within 28 days of having a positive test. The fact that they may have died in a car crash was statistically irrelevant.

I'm more concerned about the "one in two" chance of getting cancer in my lifetime, to be honest.

.

I should think that people that have caught this disease and relatives of those that have succumbed to this disease are really impressed by your blasé attitude. I merely noted the facts that U.K. rates are rising uncontrolled (nearly 50,000) today and you seem to infer that it is unimportant. I hope it has never or will never affect you.

I have been affected. My sister died on a ventilator in July last year, and whilst it still hurts, I still stand by the fact that the chances of dying from the disease is, in fact, very, very small.

What exactly do YOU think you're achieving be stating the obvious - that the UK has a high case count?

People know already. You're just using it as an anti-UK soap box.

The UK is very lax with masks and handwashing, I know, I was there a couple of weeks ago.

Spain is keen on mask wearing and hand washing... Spain has lower cases than the UK..

If all it takes to get the numbers down is wearing a mask inside shops etc and washing hands, and a bit of common sense what is wrong with that?

Doing the above does not stop business, does not cause unemployment, does not infringe on human rights, is easy to do,

.. So simply why not just wear a mask and wash hands? Is it that difficult?

.

BNT162b2 wrote:I have been affected. My sister died on a ventilator in July last year, and whilst it still hurts, I still stand by the fact that the chances of dying from the disease is, in fact, very, very small.

What exactly do YOU think you're achieving be stating the obvious - that the UK has a high case count?

People know already. You're just using it as an anti-UK soap box.

. I’m very sorry that you lost your sister to this dreadful disease. I am very much ‘pro’ U.K. in everything, I just think the government should be doing more to slow the progression of the disease. As you know, we in Spain continue to wear masks in enclosed ares and it is obviously helping. I only posted the figures because I think the U.K. government in this instance are not taking it seriously enough and are allowing it to spread. I think I’ve made my point therefore I will not be replying to any more posts on this subject. Again, my condolences.

Benjy wrote:

BNT162b2 wrote:I have been affected. My sister died on a ventilator in July last year, and whilst it still hurts, I still stand by the fact that the chances of dying from the disease is, in fact, very, very small.

What exactly do YOU think you're achieving be stating the obvious - that the UK has a high case count?

People know already. You're just using it as an anti-UK soap box.

. I’m very sorry that you lost your sister to this dreadful disease. I am very much ‘pro’ U.K. in everything, I just think the government should be doing more to slow the progression of the disease. As you know, we in Spain continue to wear masks in enclosed ares and it is obviously helping. I only posted the figures because I think the U.K. government in this instance are not taking it seriously enough and are allowing it to spread. I think I’ve made my point therefore I will not be replying to any more posts on this subject. Again, my condolences.

Benjy...I understand what you're saying. But - what can the government do?

The police are almost powerless to act, as there are too many human rights issues now.

In the UK where I live (Wales), it's law that you wear a mask on public transport. A few weeks ago, I travelled by train. I counted the people in the carriage (27), and then counted the number wearing masks (3).

I asked the ticket inspector why the people weren't being asked to wear masks. The response was that the staff are afraid to continue facing the abuse - both verbal and physical - when they try to uphold the law.

Who can blame them? They're not there to face abuse from an antisocial public.

And if the police WERE given more power, they'd be accused of being heavy-handed, and any Government would be blamed for giving them more power.

They're damned if they do, and damned if they don't.

I guess...if they're testing 980000 a day, then 95.4% of them are testing negative. 19 out of 20 people DON'T have it.

That's not TOO bad, is it?