'Grave concern' over Covid in Europe as German cases soar

[BumRushDaShow]

9. They have been watching the UK as a "canary" (and test bed for mitigation or lack thereof)

NEWS EXPLAINER
02 November 2021

Why scientists worldwide are watching UK COVID infections
The country’s relaxation of measures such as masking — especially in England — is showing the limits of relying on vaccines alone.

Luke Taylor


The COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom has often foreshadowed what came later elsewhere. The highly contagious Alpha variant was first detected there, and the country then reported high caseloads of the more-contagious Delta strain before this variant dispersed around the rest of the world. The United Kingdom also saw a wave of infections that seems to have preceded a similar glut now sweeping Western Europe. Furthermore, England was among the first regions in Western Europe to lift almost all of its COVID-19 restrictions, following one of the world’s fastest vaccine roll-outs.

It ended the legal requirements for social distancing and mask use on 19 July, with Wales and Scotland — which set their own public-health policies — lifting most of their restrictions on 7 and 9 August, respectively. Northern Ireland followed on 31 October. As one of the first countries to trust high vaccine coverage and public responsibility alone to control the spread of SARS-CoV-2, the United Kingdom has become a control experiment that scientists across the world are studying. “We are watching the increase in cases closely, trying to dissect what is going on and how that might influence our situation right now,” says Rafael Radi, a biochemist and coordinator of Uruguay’s COVID-19 Scientific Advisory Group.

Can vaccines alone prevent infections from surging?

The United Kingdom was hit by three million infections between July and October this year — comparable to when the country was under a strict lockdown in late 2020. This is despite 79.5% of those aged 12 years and older having received two vaccine doses as of 31 October. UK infection rates are higher than those in countries in continental Europe, where COVID-19 restrictions were relaxed later or remain in place. In the 7 days between 17 October and 23 October, Spain recorded 286 infections per one million people, and Germany 1,203. The United Kingdom registered 4,868 over the same week.

The surge in infections shows that vaccines alone cannot contain the virus, say scientists calling for the introduction of ‘soft’ public-health measures to avoid another lockdown. “The vaccines are amazing and doing exactly what they’re supposed to do,” says Susan Butler-Wu, director of medical microbiology at the LAC+USC Medical Center in Los Angeles, California. “But why don’t we want to give them the best chance by combining them with other measures?”

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-03003-6

So far here in Philly, we have actually validated some of this by reintroducing mitigation such as mandating masking indoors and in schools (since August). And while we are 66+% ages 12+ fully vaxxed here, our positivity rates are lower (by half in fact) than the higher-vaxxed surrounding suburbs, none of which have mask mandates for indoors (only recommendations).

Link to tweet

TEXT

Philadelphia Public Health
@PHLPublicHealth
November 4, 2021 COVID-19 update:

233 new cases
169,242 Philadelphians diagnosed with COVID-19
3,997 Philadelphians have died from COVID-19
2.2% positivity rate

For more information: http://ow.ly/oD5Q50F9ZpR
Image
12:30 PM · Nov 4, 2021

That has caused hand-wringing by the local media here who make insulting the city a spectator sport (as they all live in the 'burbs). For example, CDC has us at 66% fully vaxxed (12+) (link - https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#county-view|Risk|community_transmission_level), but the Inky is still showing old data of only "56%" in their articles that they refuse to update out of spite or lazy journalism.

Philly is less vaccinated than the suburbs, but those counties’ COVID-19 cases are higher. Does masking make the difference?


by Jason Laughlin and Aseem Shukla
Published Oct 30, 2021

The latest pandemic paradox in the Philadelphia region is that the city, while less vaccinated than virtually all its neighboring counties, has a lower rate of COVID-19 cases than any of them. This has continued even as the suburban counties outstrip Philadelphia’s vaccination rates. The city has fully vaccinated about 56% of its total population. Only Gloucester County has a lower vaccination rate. Bucks, Delaware, and Burlington Counties all have vaccination rates of nearly 65% or better.

Yet COVID-19 is still infecting a larger percentage of their populations. The reasons for the seemingly counterintuitive trend are not clear, but the Philadelphia Department of Public Health has a theory. “The only difference I see is the mask mandate,” said Cheryl Bettigole, the city’s acting health commissioner. “It’s hard to see what the difference is otherwise.”

Philadelphia reinstated its indoor mask mandate in August as the delta variant drove a new surge in COVID-19 cases. The mandate remains in effect and the city said in early September that it had no intentions of ending it any time soon. There is no similar indoor mask mandate through the rest of the state. New Jersey recommends indoor masking but does not mandate it.

City-gathered data from early October found about 80% of people entering and exiting shops had masks on, and the majority were wearing them correctly, said James Garrow, a health department spokesperson.

https://www.inquirer.com/health/coronavirus/mask-philadelphia-pennsylvania-mandate-covid-montgomery-chester-20211030.html

To me it's common sense and as a trained scientist myself, there is absolutely nothing wrong with including "common sense" (like masking up in close quarters) when doing scientific data evaluations.