Britain and Europe are going in opposite directions again. Although the number of Covid-19 cases in the United Kingdom has been declining, cases in France, Germany, Austria and several other countries have decreased. Sharp rise in recent weeksThe fourth pandemic wave is likely to sweep these countries, which increases the possibility of re-blocking there.
This raises a crucial question: Will the UK follow suit in a few weeks, or will Europe’s growth figures peak and start to decline, as they did in the UK?will Europe Follow us or follow Europe?
Professor Mark Woolhouse of the University of Edinburgh is very clear about this issue. “I think the UK is currently in the lead and Europe is following us,” he told the BBC ObserverHe added that a major factor in this process is the arrival of the Delta variant of the Covid virus. “It is much more serious than the previous variant, and its impact on many European countries is much later than in the United Kingdom. When vaccine protection (usually the most vulnerable people, those who vaccinated first) began to weaken significantly, it Attacks have occurred in these countries. This is not an ideal situation at all.”
This view was supported by Professor Neil Ferguson of Imperial College London, who told BBC Radio 4’s Nowadays He believes that the situation in the UK is “completely different” from other European countries, and other European countries are considering restricting freedom.
“We have experienced two to three weeks of decline in cases and hospitalization-this may gradually disappear, and it is too early to say. In the past four months since the beginning of July, our number of cases has also been very high- -Between 30,000 and 50,000 per day.
“This obviously has some shortcomings. Paradoxically, it also has the benefit of improving population immunity compared to countries such as Germany, the Netherlands and France. The number of cases in these countries is much smaller, and it is only now on the rise.”
President Michael of the University of Southampton also believes that European countries are now reaching the point where Britain discovered a few months ago.
“The UK launched its vaccination program earlier than most countries, so it experienced the effects of reduced immunity earlier. However, the booster vaccine in the UK clearly has an impact on hospital admissions and new cases for the elderly.”
Professor Paul Hunter of the University of East Anglia emphasized even more. “In this wave, we are not behind Europe: they are behind us. We have not yet seen a surge of the same magnitude as in Europe, mainly because of the high number of cases in recent months, and most of Europe No region has seen this. The key exception is Romania, which has just seen a big peak and is now falling.”
Hunter added that this behavior is a typical feature of epidemic infections because it has become an endemic epidemic. “As the disease approaches its local equilibrium, you will fluctuate around the final equilibrium. Therefore, we may expect shocks across Europe in a year or so. Sometimes the UK will be worse than Europe: sometimes Europe will Worse than us.”
