Children are paying the price of the UK’s “freedom”


The Times ran a very interesting story last week about the UK’s Covid situation. You probably remember that – like most countries – the UK has at times appeared to be doing well in the fight against the coronavirus, and at other times not. Last December, they approved vaccines for adults quicker than the rest of Europe (or I should just say “quicker than Europe”, since I don’t think they consider themselves part of their Continental neighbors anymore). After a big runup in infections in January and February (which coincided with the devastating fourth wave in the US), Covid cases dropped precipitously, as more and more of the adults were vaccinated.

However, as often happens, it seems they learned their lesson too well. Three months ago, Boris Johnson declared “Freedom Day”, when pretty much all Covid restrictions were lifted. And with 80% of adults vaccinated and new cases at a low level, this seemed – at the time – to be not a terribly risky move (except to health professionals. But what do they know?). The British public strongly supported the move.

However, two things happened. First, new cases surged, to the point that hospital admissions are now at their highest point since March and rising – with winter coming in.  But what’s even worse is that the new cases are mostly among children and adolescents; one third of recent cases are among people under 15 years. This is partly because the UK lagged in approving vaccines for adolescents, compared to the EU. Now, “School-age children were about 15 times as likely to be infected as 80-year-olds on Oct. 19.” Not a good thing.

So here’s the problem: As long as some significant group hasn’t been vaccinated (and having been infected previously isn’t as good as vaccination. Previously infected people need to be vaccinated, just as people who already are vaccinated need to get boosters, because the immunity from vaccination starts to wane six months afterwards), if restrictions are completely lifted, Covid will seek out those people. In the US, there have been plenty of unvaccinated adults for Covid to have a field day with – so our new cases are still much higher than they should be. In the UK, it was children and adolescents who got sick. Tough luck, kids! 

The numbers

These numbers were updated based on those reported on the Worldometers.info site for Sunday, October 31.

Month

Deaths reported during month

Avg. deaths per day during period

Deaths as percentage of previous month’s

Month of March 2020

4,058

131

 

Month of April

59,812

1,994

1,474%

Month of May

42,327

1,365

71%

Month of June

23,925

798

57%

Month of July

26,649

860

111%

Month of August

30,970

999

116%

Month of Sept.

22,809

760

75%

Month of Oct.

24,332

785

107%

Month of Nov.

38,293

1,276

157%

Month of Dec.

79,850

2,576

209%

Total 2020

354,215

1,154

 

Month of Jan. 2021

98,604

3,181

119%

Month of Feb.

68,918

2,461

70%

Month of March

37,945

1,224

55%

Month of April

24,323

811

64%

Month of May

19,843

661

82%

Month of June

10,544

351

53%

Month of July

8,833

287

84%

Month of August

31,160

1,005

351%

Month of Sept.

56,687

1,890

182%

Month of Oct.

49,992

1,613

88%

Total Pandemic so far

767,155

1,258

 

 

I. Total deaths (as of Sunday)

Total US reported Covid deaths as of Sunday: 767,155

Average daily deaths last seven days: 1,331

Average daily deaths previous seven days: 1,662

Percent increase in total deaths in the last seven days: 1.2%

II. Total reported cases (as of Sunday)

Total US reported cases as of Sunday: 46,887,801

Increase in reported cases last 7 days: 511,164 (=73,023/day)

Increase in reported cases previous 7 days: 510,861 (=72,980/day)

Percent increase in reported cases in the last seven days: 1.1%  

I would love to hear any comments or questions you have on this post. Drop me an email at tom@tomalrich.com.

 

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