Rising cases even prompted Prime Minister Boris Johnson to delay the end of restrictions. But the huge case spike didn’t lead to similar hospitalization or death spikes, so Britain’s back on track to lift regulations July 19.
The seven-day average of new UK cases is above 25,000, the highest since late January, when the weekly average had just dropped from a peak of 50,000. But only 2,000 COVID cases are hospitalized, vs. nearly 40,000 in January. Daily deaths average under 20, vs. more than 1,000 in January.
More.
OK, well, daily new cases coincidentally rolled over after July 18th, so there's that, but hospitalizations are up over 542% in two months, and 179% in the three weeks since the editorial. And daily new deaths aren't in the 20s anymore. They were 131 yesterday.
The confident pronunciamentoes of a month ago don't look so firm today. They were premature, as is typical during this pandemic, which has made fools of us all.
Debates about severity aside, the main point is still that the vaccines prevented none of this in merry old England in July, where 66% were fully (49%) and partially vaccinated as of the end of June.
We are witnessing vaccine failure in place after place, even as the progress of the pandemic changes as the virus mutates and host populations experience transformation. The low hanging fruit easily picked off and killed by the virus in the past will likely not be matched in magnitude going forward by the deaths of what are by definition sturdier hosts. It would be a mistake to miss that and credit the so-called vaccines instead, which are not preventing disease.
