Are we ahead of Europe or are they ahead of us?

[1990butfeel21]

Can't work it but I am filled with dread

Can't work it out *

Why?

Depends what you mean by ahead or behind!
Covid cases? UK is ahead due to much less restrictions. Equality & quality of life? Many euro countries arguably ahead. Depends on what your standards are! Xo

I think they were ahead at the start but we are all on our own trajectory's now I think.

Try not to worry.

It's just different. Not really comparable.

We opened up without restrictions in the summer, so cases rose and have been bobbling around at a much higher level than Europe ever since. Some highs and lows in there for us, but bobbling about. Europe's rates have been really low over the summer, and have now gone nuts.

In the meantime vaccinations are doing their thing as the biggest 'fight back' option we've got. Places like Austria in the scary headlines, but they have a lower vax rate.

Follow some maths guys on Twitter, James Ward, BristOliver etc, they explain it all in a calming way.

Germany and Austria have very low vaccination rates.

We're ahead of them but with better vax coverage.

@PicsInRed

Germany and Austria have very low vaccination rates.

We're ahead of them but with better vax coverage.

Germany is at 67%, the UK at 68%. Austria slightly lower at 64% although they do have large regions where there has been less uptake than desired.

Each country is on a different pathway now, but vaccination rates are very similar.

It's goes round in circles, no one is behind or ahead.

@sjxoxo

Depends what you mean by ahead or behind! Covid cases? UK is ahead due to much less restrictions. Equality & quality of life? Many euro countries arguably ahead. Depends on what your standards are! Xo

I don’t think she means ahead in any sort of qualitative way. I think she means is the increase in covid cases they’re having now a predictor of what we will have, or is it that they are having the increase we’ve already had. So ahead or behind on a timeline.

I mean in this current wave, will we be in lockdown in a few weeks?

@1990butfeel21

I mean in this current wave, will we be in lockdown in a few weeks?

Given there are no restrictions at the moment, I doubt the UK would go fully into lockdown within weeks.

Austria and Germany already have pretty strict measures. Lockdown was simply the next step.

In the UK people don’t even wear a mask or have to show anything to get in the pub, that’s a long way from a lockdown.

We are all on different trajectories now. Very hard to compare as we are testing, recording and other things differently. What look like similar vaccination rates can mask dramatic difference

I think the results are skewed because we test a whole lot more.

Each country is on a different pathway now, but vaccination rates are very similar.

Think we are quite ahead on boosters though as of course we were first off the block with the vaccination programme

@Whyamistilltired

Each country is on a different pathway now, but vaccination rates are very similar.

Think we are quite ahead on boosters though as of course we were first off the block with the vaccination programme

I don’t have the exact figures for boosters - actually, are they available anywhere? - but I’m early 20s and already had my invitation to book a booster for next month through the university I study at, in Germany.

My 20-something year old friends in the UK only had their second dose in September.

The 8/12 week wait between the original 2 doses in fhe UK, vs a 3/4 week on the continent, has made the timelines somewhat different as we can see.

I think the UK must be ahead of Europe, despite what Johnson said about European storms.
Logically, surely, it has to be. Out of restrictions first, into whatever number wave this one is first, now coming out of it while some European countries with very similar vaccination numbers seem to be on a sharp upward trajectory.

We had a longer gap between jabs and we have started boosters for over 50's. Plus we encouraged the spread when we opened up and people has more immunity. Therefore we have also gained some natural immunity. However, this is constantly a moving target. Everyone needs to get their boosters when offered otherwise we will be affected eventually just as the other countries in europe who are seeing the effects of low vac rates and waning immunity. It's a cycle....which is obviously worse in winter. The UK really needs to get on with the boosters in the coming weeks. Or jan will be an issue.

No one is ahead of anyone, we can't compare as we've done things completely differently. Vaccination rates are very different, it isn't as black and white as percentages when we haven't really vaccinated many people within our younger population and EU countries have. We have mostly all vaccinated the older and more vulnerable, they haven't. This makes a huge difference.
Plus, these countries don't do any where near the amount of testing we do, so imagine how many asymptomatic cases they currently have on top of the ones reported.

it is not a competition.

This is an interesting look at the Austrian situation: twitter.com/lisa_iannattone/status/1461935711951671298?s=21

As a lot of other people have said you can't really compare the two at the minute. The vaccination rates are comparable but the percentages of older people vaccinated are not. This means that countries like Germany and Austria have an older population which is far more susceptible.

We've now boosted something like 80% of our eligible over 70's. The booster dose isn't just a booster, it actually increases the efficacy to a higher point than just two doses - it should really be being sold as a third dose. Our hospitalisations are dropping despite cases rising since half term and this is still true when you correct for the time delay between infection and hospitalisation. This is very, very good news.

I heard of a tale of people buying health passes and QRs in Austria and Germany. Not sure if this is true and if it is how it would affect the whole thing? This would only get worse come February.

In any case the environment there is hardly toxic. Divided between vaxxers and anti-vaxxers.

Germany is at 67%, the UK at 68%. Austria slightly lower at 64% although they do have large regions where there has been less uptake than desired.

Not every vaccination is equal. We have a much higher percentage of the people who are more likely to be hospitalised / die from Covid vaccinated.

I don’t think we’re comparable- the trends don’t necessarily follow- we have a better vax program, also we have let it spread a bit more whilst we were still covered but he first injections. The wave in Europe should help encourage boosters.

We are all living through a worldwide pandemic. Until nowhere has a problem, we all have a problem.