Is The UK a Outlier in Its Response to Covid-19?

Professor Anthony Costello (University College of London) has written an interesting opinion piece, highlighting the very different responses to the Covid-19 pandemic seen in a range of countries (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/feb/10/support-self-isolation-uk-covid-vaccination-effort-virus-replicate-mutations-vaccines). Costello constrasts the fundamentally different approach used by countries, who followed WHO advice to try to eliminate the virus (e.g. China, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea and Taiwan) with others (like, but certainly far from limited to the UK) who decided that 'it just had to learn to live with the virus'. In the case of the UK, this was on the basis of scientific advice (from SAGE). The 'Eliminator countries' put in place effective test, track and trace systems. These involved mobilising their communities, developing teams of contact tracers with local knowledge, quickly finding infected people and then managing them in their homes or in local facilities. Generous financial support was generally provided to those isolating, so lack of wages were not a disincentive. In contrast, Costello notes the UK has now largely suspended its test, track and trace system (which was never set up effectively in the first place). The UK also offers very poor (or, in some cases no) financial support to individuals, who need to isolate. Many people in the UK feel they cannot afford to isolate. Costello contrasts (I have simplied his account somewhat) current deaths per million in the UK (more than 1,600 and rising), with China (3), Japan (51), New Zealand (5), South Korea (29) and Taiwan (0.4). The UK is very focused on its use of vaccines to counter Covid-19 (there seems an element of self-congratulation on the speed of its mass vaccination programme and its daily numbers of 1st jabs). Costello points out, however, that even a speedy mass vaccination programme, currently leaves many younger people in the UK with the viral infection. He suggests the numbers of younger subjects developing 'Long Covid' could be a future medical challenge. Costello also highlights the discovery of Paedatric Inflammatory Multi-system Syndrome (PIMS) which develops in some children, well after a Covid-19 infection. The young are not immune to the effects of Covid! Rather obviously, high rates of Covid infection in the young, provides lots of opportunities for the virus to mutate into more concerning variants (some of which may be resistant to current vaccines). The UK's (slow and rather feeble?) attempts to reduce the import of dangerous 'foreign' variants of the virus via air travel may be pretty futile, if we are 'growing our own'. Perhaps other countries should be worried about UK variants (along with those from Brazil, South Africa and the USA, countries that have either followed the UK pattern of response or done worse)? It appears likely that the UK decision (along with that of others) that 'we just have to learn to live with the virus' will become a self-fulfilling prophecy? The globe could only have eliminated this virus, if every country had followed the WHO recommendation. This was always unlikely. We all may have to learn to live with occasional lockdowns and annual injections of modified vaccines (a pattern like that of seasonal influenza)?