[quote Y0uCann0tBeSer10us]@ResilienceWanker I've been watching Scotland's cases wrt the rest of the UK and have also wondered why we have been pretty consistently higher for a couple of months now despite the longer, harder lockdowns. I suspect it's linked to our population antibody titre being significantly lower (by about 10 % or so) than England's at the last count. Our vaccination programme was quite a lot slower to get going and seems to be suffering now from structural problems, which might account for some of it, but I also wonder if ironically (and somewhat perversely) our stricter lockdowns are part of the issue. Perhaps while low risk people have been mixing and building up population immunity down south, we just haven't done that 'work' yet.[/quote]
Yes, you may well be onto something there, re the building of immunity. Didn't realise our antibodies were so much lower.
I did wonder if it was because we (surprisingly) were allowed inside for food etc before England, so were seeing more of a rise from that. But as you say, we've had higher cases for a while even before that, and England doesn't seem to be seeing the same rise, even though they have had the same allowances for a good few weeks now.
The vaccination thing is weird, though. There seems to have been so many more issues with rollout in Scotland, but looking at the figures of the vaccinated, there doesn't seem to be much in it in terms of the %. (England and Wales are slightly ahead in terms of the % of adults jagged, but not in terms of the whole population, as Scotland has fewer children - though they wouldn't be jagged at the moment anyway). I assume the more rapid rollout down south is actually missing quite a few people from each age group (not motivated, forget, can't get appointments at nearby hub etc), so they'll have to "mop up" quite a few at the end, whereas our tedious letters are personally contacting everybody, eventually, so people are more likely to actually get to an appointment, even though it's later than the same age in england/ wales. But it's just conjecture on my part really. Something's going on, as yes, our cases are proportionately about double the rest of the UK!