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Original poster

Why are things ' kicking off ' in Europe ?

580 replies

genuinequestion21 · 18/11/2021 20:02

Please excuse my ignorance. But why is Germany for example stressing so much about covid right now ?

I think we have more cases per 100 k than them and have been having high cases for months and we are still open and not ' that much ' talk about lockdown etc. It seems we are kind of just about ' OK '. Well at least we aren't going to plan B yet.

However in Germany there have been few cases and cases are now exploding and there's talk of lock downs etc.

Hospitals also seem to be full again. Whereas in the UK, they don't seem to be on the brink.

Why these differences ? Germany and UK have a very similar proportion of the population vaccinated. Is it because cases are seeming to go up very rapidly, whereas ours have been high but flat for ages ?

Why are their hospitals full again and ours are not ?

Please correct any factual information which is incorrect.

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0verth1inker · 18/11/2021 20:14

I’m just placemarking as interested too if anyone knows!

Quartz2208 · 18/11/2021 20:19

I assume it is the fast rate of growth that concerns them and the speed at which it is growing coupled with the fact that it is likely (due to testing) be much higher. Cases are over 60k now. This is the biggest wave as well they have ever had

ourworldindata.org/coronavirus/country/germany shows the rates of growth

mumboss1984 · 18/11/2021 20:24

They are concerned as only 67% of their population have been vaccinated and they don’t believe this is enough. I heard it being discussed on the radio last week.

morticiamarkle · 18/11/2021 20:26

But isn't that a similar level to here?

I can only think they've just twigged they jabbed everyone late spring, and the jabs are just wearing off in time for the winter respiratory virus season and they're panicking.

Original poster
genuinequestion21 · 18/11/2021 20:28

@morticiamarkle

But isn't that a similar level to here?

I can only think they've just twigged they jabbed everyone late spring, and the jabs are just wearing off in time for the winter respiratory virus season and they're panicking.

I saw a chart recently and the vaccination level is really similar to the UK one.

Maybe they've got more hospital admissions because they didn't have the long gap between vaccines and I don't know if they've done many boosters.

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Warhertisuff · 18/11/2021 20:32

Perhaps because they didn't open up like we did in July, and we have far higher levels of natural immunity built up over the summer and early autumn. Maybe our strategy is paying off!

stayathomer · 18/11/2021 20:36

Am in Ireland (also kicking off but absolute head in the sand by most and government afraid to rock the boat so no longer even reminding people to sd etc) and personally I can't believe the uk are so relaxed about covid!!

Original poster
genuinequestion21 · 18/11/2021 20:37

@Warhertisuff

Perhaps because they didn't open up like we did in July, and we have far higher levels of natural immunity built up over the summer and early autumn. Maybe our strategy is paying off!
I hope you're right and yes, it would make sense. Surely it must be running out of people to infect ??

Although this week so many people at work seem to have it. Which has literally never happened before...

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Aposterhasnoname · 18/11/2021 20:37

They were far more cautious over summer, and as a result, pushed their exit wave into winter.

Howshouldibehave · 18/11/2021 20:39

I think our hospitals are pretty full as well…

IndigoC · 18/11/2021 20:42

Maybe they just care more about the 200ish people dying a die than the U.K. seems to.

MenoMom · 18/11/2021 20:43

UK govt downplaying it - perhaps they don't care very much about people outside of their bubble?

KrispyKale · 18/11/2021 20:44

Their vaccination may not be as targeted as UK's: one thing that has gone well here is that older people and vulnerable have had good % uptake. Also when you look at stats we have more on single vaccination which I presume takes is bumped by the cohort of young people in UK only allowed single jab recently.

Delatron · 18/11/2021 20:45

Maybe it’s because they kept some mitigations like masks. And everyone thought that was the reason why our cases were so high and theirs weren’t....and they have finally realised minor mitigations have zero impact and the waves just hit at different times...

IndigoC · 18/11/2021 20:45

@Aposterhasnoname

They were far more cautious over summer, and as a result, pushed their exit wave into winter.
I don’t think there’s such thing as an exit wave. Immunity doesn’t last, not vaccine induced, and not from natural infection. It’s true that they may have timed their latest peak worse than here, though.
scaevola · 18/11/2021 20:47

Because the disease hasn't gone away, and they are interned about their health services abilities to cope.

We like to bash the Torres about state of NHS and blame funding levels. Even when the evidence from other European countries is that they share the same concerns.

Even with a greatly weakened link between case numbers and hospital admissions, if cases sky rocket, then hospitals will fill.

Other countries are taking a different approach to protecting their health services. We simply cannot tell,which is the better approach, both for the economy had rather more importantly, lives (not just direct covid deaths but all those that occurred because other treatments cannot be safely delivered in hospitals full of covid patients)

NotJustACigar · 18/11/2021 20:49

I think so many unvaccinated people here have had it and developed natural immunity that it isn't having as big an effect on us. Either that or what's happening in Europe will soon happen to us - we've been behind them before in previous waves I think.

KrispyKale · 18/11/2021 20:50

I thought they were behind us?

LoveComesQuickly · 18/11/2021 20:51

My German colleague says that it's because, while their vaccine rates may be similar to ours overall, there are big regional differences. And apparently cases are currently very high in a particular area that has low vaccine rates. Not sure which area.

CannotDrop · 18/11/2021 20:51

My view is it is because of previous low levels of infection. We’ve seen it in our school. Year 7 is Germany, low levels of Covid so far. Year 8 is England, there’s been cases every week which peaked last month - more than 50% have now had it.

This week there was an outbreak in both years. Suddenly half of year 7 are off with Covid, whereas only a couple in year 8.

Wish real life was actually this simple!

Tuba437 · 18/11/2021 20:52

@Howshouldibehave

I think our hospitals are pretty full as well…
Our hospitalisations are dropping. Just over 8k in hospital with it now and just over 900 on ventilator beds. Much much better than we have had previously.

It's dropping while cases are rising which I think would show alot of people are probably getting it a second time round which would mean immunity would be higher and a lower chance of serious illness.

Original poster
genuinequestion21 · 18/11/2021 20:54

@KrispyKale

I thought they were behind us?
This is what I thought.. but Boris said that we need to be concerned that the European wave will wash up on our shooed. I was under the impression we were ' reasonably ' stable.. and would remain so, as we've got so many people who've had it.
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KrispyKale · 18/11/2021 20:55

Oh Boris doesn't know where he is.

KrispyKale · 18/11/2021 20:55

Or more likely doesn't care.

Original poster
genuinequestion21 · 18/11/2021 20:55

@KrispyKale

Oh Boris doesn't know where he is.
This is also true Wink
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