Covid: Can the UK avert a lockdown like Europe?

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In regions of Western Europe, Covid infection rates have begun to rise dramatically, necessitating the imposition of new restrictions and lockdowns.

 

It has sparked fears that the UK will follow suit. However, there are many grounds to hope that Britain will avoid the worst of what is happening on the continent. In fact, the United Kingdom may be in the best position of any country to weather Covid this winter.

 

To see why this might be the case, consider the reasons why cases have begun to spread across Western Europe.

 

Many countries of Europe, unlike the United Kingdom – and particularly England – kept severe prohibitions in place for far longer.

 

Whereas England fully freed in mid-July, sections of Europe waited until the autumn to do so, and several locations imposed even stricter restrictions during that time.

 

It had something to do with timing. The UK was hit first by the highly infectious Alpha form and subsequently by the Delta variation, allowing it to unlock ahead of the rest of the world.

 

The United Kingdom has a high level of immunity.

In effect, the UK has already experienced the wave that the rest of Europe is experiencing and has managed to escape being overwhelmed by it.

 

This is primarily due to the quantity of immunity that has been built up.

 

There is likely to be a considerably smaller pool of vulnerable people for the virus to infect due to a combination of successful vaccine rollout, particularly among the older, more vulnerable groups who are most at risk of serious illness, and natural protection against infection.

 

Researchers at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine have attempted to quantify this by examining what would happen if everyone was unexpectedly exposed to the virus at the same time.

 

Source: bbc.com

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