UK gov't under spotlight as COVID cases rise again

Covid will spread easy, with the rise of other respiratory illness such as sinuses and other cold related illness, if your nose is running, somebody else nose is running expelling Covid

Covid will spread easy, with the rise of other respiratory illness such as sinuses and other cold related illness, if your nose is running, somebody else nose is running expelling Covid

Cases are not a problem if they are not severe. Covid needs to run through vaccinated populations as fast as possible or it will never go, so we may need the cases to rise, with vulnerable people keeping themselves safer with masks and behavioural choices. Mask use in the UK is too low, but some of us still wear them all the time we are out in public. More should, but there is a lot of laziness and arrogance.

The UK is unusual it that the economy is being damaged by Brexit as well as Covid and is more vulnerable than that of the EU.

In general, people in the UK are being given more opportunity to make their own choices, which is a good thing. If you want to be safer, nobody will complain if you wear a mask. The booster roll-out is progressing.

Covid continues to thrive on the UK's devil-may-care culture of maskless gatherings.

The problem is not at any level of the UK, cough cough, government but with the British people themselves.

The government removed the law requiring people to wear masks in indoor public places. Shops, businesses, transport etc cannot enforce mask wearing without legislation. This is government ineptitude.

Caption: "Not everyone in Britain is following this man's example."

Of not covering his nose?

Wobot

Oh look, the vaccines don't work well enough. Remember them being "90% effective"?

At 64% vaccination rate, yeah, not surprising. The vaccines don't work if you aren't vaccinated.

As a people they have for years been known to have poor personal hygiene habits and are generally slovenly about hand-washing, eating properly and not consuming too much junk food or alcohol, especially when compared to their smarter, cleaner, slimmer European neighbors, so this is not surprising.

Funny how life works. Not 24 hours ago I pointed to the increasing new covid cases in highly vaccinated countries like Israel and the UK as proof positive of the now officially measurable 20 week window before efficacy falls to zero.

It was struck down by a very pouty mod for being "Vulgar/Offensive".

Today its front page news.

As a people they have for years been known to have poor personal hygiene habits and are generally slovenly about hand-washing, eating properly and not consuming too much junk food or alcohol, especially when compared to their smarter, cleaner, slimmer European neighbors, so this is not surprising.

The only people Brits hate more than Americans are....Brits.

The vaccines don't work if you aren't vaccinated.

unfortunately, these new religious zealots don't believe they work unless every man, woman, child and beast is vaccinated as well.

Oh look, the vaccines don't work well enough. Remember them being "90% effective"?

The effect of variants was know from the very beginning, antivaxxers trying to deceive people into refusing vaccines so variants have higher chances to appear, thus making the vaccines (and natural immunity) less effective are just trying to self fulfill their own prophecies.

Funny how life works. Not 24 hours ago I pointed to the increasing new covid cases in highly vaccinated countries like Israel and the UK as proof positive of the now officially measurable 20 week window before efficacy falls to zero.

This completely ignores the effect variants have, which is the much more likely reason for cases to increase, not only because the infectivity is higher, but because it makes all kinds of previous immunity less effective, this include infected people, not only vaccinated ones. Also, efficacy has never been reduced to zero, much less if you include hospitalizations and deaths.

unfortunately, these new religious zealots don't believe they work unless every man, woman, child and beast is vaccinated as well.

Vaccines are a community based medical intervention, so of course they work better the more people are vaccinated, but at a personal level each vaccinated person gets protection even if he is the only one vaccinated in his community. The real religious zealots are those that think either one thing is absolutely effective or it is completely worthless.

Meh. This news is getting stale now. We will have to just accept that Covid is here to stay and take measures to protect ourselves. Vaccines are one of them. Or to develop better medicines like antibody treatments and so on. Enough with this ongoing mania about infection rates and similar

Kaerimashita

Meh. This news is getting stale now. We will have to just accept that Covid is here to stay and take measures to protect ourselves. Vaccines are one of them. Or to develop better medicines like antibody treatments and so on. Enough with this ongoing mania about infection rates and similar

My guess is that you don't work in a hospital. Because if you did, you would realize that infection rates drive your world. Infection rates are extremely important and we need to reduce them. And the way to do that is to get everybody vaccinated.

So more vaccine mandates are probably in order.

this is no surprise.

jolly old England

It might help if you actually wear the mask correctly ol chap and use a mask that's appropriate for respiratory protection .

If it steams up your glasses then try contact lenses.

Tally ho.

Blaming the unvaccinated for the appearance of variants is like blaming those who don't use antibiotics for the appearance of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Blaming the unvaccinated for the appearance of variants is like blaming those who don't use antibiotics for the appearance of antibiotic-resistant bacteria

I don't think you could get that more mixed up if you tried.

The more people remain unvaccinated the more the more the virus spreads, the greater the probability of variants appearing.

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria are the result, not of people not using antibiotics, but of people not taking the full course of antibiotics prescribed to them.

@cleo

I'm not at all mixed up. The appearance of variants through immune escape is exactly what would be expected when vaccinating during a pandemic.

I already explained this many times. When you get the vaccine, it takes time to produce antibodies, it's a very gradual process. If someone gets infected before adequate antibodies are made, it would be very similar to treating a bacterial infection with a tiny amount of antibiotic and very gradually increasing the dose, perfect for getting resistant mutants.

Blaming the unvaccinated for the appearance of variants is like blaming those who don't use antibiotics for the appearance of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Not at all, because the appearance of variants is determined by the length of the infection and the ease it can spread to other people, both things reduced by vaccination. The comparison with antibiotics is too obviously based on not having an idea of the immune processes that make variants appear. In respect to viral selection everybody is using antibiotics (the immune system) but vaccinated people are using a stronger, faster version that kills the pathogen before it can develop resistance.

I'm not at all mixed up. The appearance of variants through immune escape is exactly what would be expected when vaccinating during a pandemic.

Completely false, that is what is expected from wild spreading in unvaccinated populations, it is as easy as seeing when and where the variants have appeared. Places with low vaccination rates and many cases, while places where vaccination rates are much higher make people recover faster and without complications, reducing very importantly the opportunity for variants to appear and be selected in infected people.

Where are the variants from Malta, Denmark, Israel? if your mistaken idea about the effect of vaccines were actually true these countries and their vaccinated population should be where variants appear, but instead they come from populations not yet vaccinated.

Not at all, because the appearance of variants is determined by the length of the infection and the ease it can spread to other people, both things reduced by vaccination.

You completely "forgot" to include selection pressure...

You say that I have "an idea of the immune processes that make variants appear" and you immediately follow it with something that shows that I am not the one without any idea.

In respect to viral selection everybody is using antibiotics (the immune system) but vaccinated people are using a stronger, faster version that kills the pathogen before it can develop resistance.

Yeah, that could apply starting around 2 weeks after the second dose, but I wrote "if someone gets infected before adequate antibodies are made".

At that point, the antibodies are gradually "evolving" while providing a very gentle selection pressure on the virus as it mutates; i.e., just like a very low dose of antibiotics that gradually increases applies a gentle pressure on bacteria. It's just asking for trouble.

this isnt the only country that oddly sets a new record for cases while at the same time having the highest % of vaccinated people they have ever had.

But we are just supposed to ignore that, its off narrative.