Increasing number of cases

[AutumnAlmanack]

Could anyone please explain to me why it is that the UK is recording such a high number of daily cases, and rising, whereas the rest of Europe and elsewhere seem to be showing a steady decline in numbers? It really baffles me!

Yes considering we are all vaccinated ds1 and ds2 passed it on to me, Dh and older dd, none of us escaped so I'm not really sure how the jab is stopping people from catching it, perhaps lessening the symptoms yes but as for catching it 🤷‍♀️

Im in Scotland, NE town and i would say mask wearing is pretty high still.
In fact the only people I've seen not wearing masks are those kinda middle age footy supporter type men.

@PatrickTheFox

I wonder what people think about these facts (a genuine question, not meant to be provocative):

1. The Conservative Party has been in government since 2010 - usually after this amount of time in charge the opposition is miles ahead in the polls with a realistic chance of being the next government. But the YouGov polls (I realise these aren't 100% accurate so lots of caveats etc) consistently put the Conservative Party in the lead when researching voter intentions (Labour have hardly been in the lead at all since December 2019 and when they have their lead has been marginal and not lasted). The latest poll about voter intention (conducted 11 days ago) put the Conservatives with 39% and Labour with 31%. These YouGove poll results are mirrored in other polls conducted by the papers and by other companies.

1. At this stage of an election cycle, the leading party usually gets a kicking in local elections. In the May 2021 local elections in England, the Conservatives gained 11 Councils while Labour lost 10. Interestingly, the SNP in the Scottish Parliamentary elections in May gained only one seat and in the Welsh Senedd Labour gained only one more MS than in 2016 (the Conservatives made fairly big gains and overtook Plydd Cymru as second biggest party).

1. Polls about the Prime Minister himself (again, caveat that these are just polls etc) consistently put him ahead of Sir Keir Starmer.

Doesn't that suggest the the majority of people (in England, Scotland and Wales at least) are satisfied with the government's handling or think that no other party would have handled it so differently as to get to a different place? Apologies that I don't have information about Northern Ireland - I'm not as familiar with their political system (I need to fix that!).

Alternatively, the Tories are crap but the opposition is equally crap and we don't seem capable of fielding a competent bunch of politicians for government?

@Wagsandclaws

Yes considering we are all vaccinated ds1 and ds2 passed it on to me, Dh and older dd, none of us escaped so I'm not really sure how the jab is stopping people from catching it, perhaps lessening the symptoms yes but as for catching it 🤷‍♀️

It was never meant to stop people catching it.what you've documented is exactly what was meant to happen.

@QueenofKattegat

Young people laughing in Tesco? Those bastards.

Ha at this too

At around 5 months there is a waning of protection from the vaccine. A large proportion of UK pop is at this point.

Most studies show AZ vaccine wanes slightly quicker than Pfizer.

Uk is way behind Europe in vaccinating teens.

Low mask usage in UK compared to Western Europe.

UK has far worse sick pay than other countries in Western Europe so harder for people who are ill to stay at home.

@herecomesthsun 😬 This is certainly one explanation!

@PatrickTheFox

I wonder what people think about these facts (a genuine question, not meant to be provocative):

1. The Conservative Party has been in government since 2010 - usually after this amount of time in charge the opposition is miles ahead in the polls with a realistic chance of being the next government. But the YouGov polls (I realise these aren't 100% accurate so lots of caveats etc) consistently put the Conservative Party in the lead when researching voter intentions (Labour have hardly been in the lead at all since December 2019 and when they have their lead has been marginal and not lasted). The latest poll about voter intention (conducted 11 days ago) put the Conservatives with 39% and Labour with 31%. These YouGove poll results are mirrored in other polls conducted by the papers and by other companies.

1. At this stage of an election cycle, the leading party usually gets a kicking in local elections. In the May 2021 local elections in England, the Conservatives gained 11 Councils while Labour lost 10. Interestingly, the SNP in the Scottish Parliamentary elections in May gained only one seat and in the Welsh Senedd Labour gained only one more MS than in 2016 (the Conservatives made fairly big gains and overtook Plydd Cymru as second biggest party).

1. Polls about the Prime Minister himself (again, caveat that these are just polls etc) consistently put him ahead of Sir Keir Starmer.

Doesn't that suggest the the majority of people (in England, Scotland and Wales at least) are satisfied with the government's handling or think that no other party would have handled it so differently as to get to a different place? Apologies that I don't have information about Northern Ireland - I'm not as familiar with their political system (I need to fix that!).

Possibly although Labour aren’t strong at all atm

On polling I found this quite interesting

Around second lockdown was not a popular time for Cons, up in summer with lower restrictions

Big drop April / May last year

@Rosiesmydog

A group of 5 young adults - I’m guessing students - in Tesco today. None were wearing masks (I’m in Wales btw). Shouting and laughing as young adults do, I guess. WTAF?? These are the group who are spreading it around mostly and they are happily acting like fucking prat’s who don’t give a rats arse about the older, more vulnerable shoppers who are potentially being exposed to the possibility they are spreading Covid… I was livid, shot them some evils but really wish I’d said something 😫

You've got to be joking right? Leave people alone fgs 🙄

@MarshaBradyo That is an interesting graph, thanks. It's difficult to know how to interpret a lot of this information because a lot of people always vote for the same party regardless of what is going on at the time (so a lot will depend on swing voters and their actions are quite unpredictable) and many people, when it comes down to it, vote for "selfish" reasons (I don't mean this in a derogatory way but Joe Bloggs will understandably vote for a party that has policies which Joe Bloggs thinks will be good for the Bloggs family).

@GoldenOmber - although that's not a true comparison as Wales and Scotland may be devolved but what happens in England has a knock on effect in them that they can't mitigate against. And they don't have control over their borders.

Ha ha - those hideous young people daring to laugh in Tesco ! Put ‘em in the stocks ! And the poster wishes she’d “said something” … like what? “Young people! How dare you be in Tesco! Don’t you know that Tesco is only for older, more vulnerable shoppers? Get out of here! No meal deals for you, you fucking prat’s (sic) !”

Btw, was in Scotland last week and mask compliance was 100% from what I saw. Lots of shops had “two customers at a time” signs too.

[quote luckylavender]@GoldenOmber - although that's not a true comparison as Wales and Scotland may be devolved but what happens in England has a knock on effect in them that they can't mitigate against. And they don't have control over their borders. [/quote]
You think that the reason both Wales and Scotland have had higher case rates than England over the past few months is because of what’s happening in England? How would that work?

I don’t think people elsewhere in the UK appreciate just quite how high rates have got in the land of masks-and-WFH-and-distancing outside England. Scotlands cases at one point were about two and a half times higher than England’s. If the whole UK had had the same rates as Scotland’s, we’d have been on about 90,000 cases a day. Unless the border has some magical covid-amplifying affect I am not seeing how that can be England’s fault.

Considering how relaxed we have become in England I am very surprised that the numbers are not higher. We are almost at half term and after a small peak in early Sept they have been very steady. I don’t follow the positive cases, it’s hospitalisation and death rate that indicate where the disease is going.
I think it is now up to the individual to do their own risk assessment.
I had Covid in Feb 2020 then had vacc in January 2021 I then had a second natural infection in Sept 2021 which sort of ties in with waning immunity. I am going to have a booster fairly soon and hopefully will be Covid free for the next 6mnths. As a high risk frontline worker my initial immunity lasted a good 12 months the vacc took me through another 8months. Neither of the natural infections were serious enough to put me in hospital (DH was the same ) and the second infection was a bad cold with no chest infection/cough.
I’m not suggesting it will be the same for everyone but if you’ve survived it once your very likely to survive it again.

Rosies embarrassing comment.
Plenty of older, vulnerable non mask wearing older people spreading it around too. And they're likely to have had two, if not three vaccines. Very many teenagers, through no fault of their own haven't even had their first.

I mean.

@DottyHarmer

Ha ha - those hideous young people daring to laugh in Tesco ! Put ‘em in the stocks ! And the poster wishes she’d “said something” … like what? “Young people! How dare you be in Tesco! Don’t you know that Tesco is only for older, more vulnerable shoppers? Get out of here! No meal deals for you, you fucking prat’s (sic) !”

Btw, was in Scotland last week and mask compliance was 100% from what I saw. Lots of shops had “two customers at a time” signs too.

I'm going to get flamed for saying this but in Wales it's still a legal requirement to wear masks in shops so unless they were all exempt (unlikely) these people should have been wearing them.

Cos freedom.

Stupidly deciding that the pingdemic (I hate that word) was the issue not fucking covid.

Sending siblings in when their brother/sister has covid and being surprised that they develop it after being in school for 5 days then complaining when the teacher is off.

@ilikegrapes21 - i don’t deny that the young people should have been wearing masks, but the angry poster seemed to harbour a particular antipathy towards this group simply because they dared to be young. And laughing.

Place marking

Re the cross over from Wales to England, there are people who live in Wales and work in Enngland or live in England have a second home in Wales etc.

So easy to see how infection could in theory, spread over the border, though I don't know whether these is any data looking at whether this is what has been happening?

Not all countries do asymptomatic testing, some charge for lfts. If you don't look for cases you don't find as many

I went to an indoor shopping centre today. Have seen a marked drop in mask wearing since I visited two months ago. At least 70% were not wearing masks.

Same non masked people were very complacent and leaned in close to others to peruse shelves or barge past. Several people were visibly coughing, with no masks and not even bothering to cover up their mouth when coughing. Same people then picked something up off a shelf, looked at it, then put it down again.. picked up another thing.. coughed.. etc.

No bloody wonder cases are high. It's just downright lack of common sense.

Stupidly deciding that the pingdemic (I hate that word) was the issue not fucking covid

I agree; definition of throwing the baby out with the bath water that was imho.

I hope I live to a ripe old age just to see how the history books report this period.