Quote (Black XistenZ @ 11 Aug 2021 22:53)
That's also what I am talking about.
What makes you so sure of that? The UK ended all restrictions and is doing plenty fine. Countries like Denmark, Switzerland, Austria and many more are taking back restrictions and can easily cope so far.
Neither the Delta-induced wave in India nor the one in the UK was ended by warmer weather or the introduction of a new vaccine. Yet they ended rather abruptly. Just like the Alpha-induced wave here in Germany was already broken while we still had shit weather and long before additional restrictions had a chance to take effect.
the UK currently has 58.5% of its population vaccinated, we have 55.6%. on july 19th, when the UK lifted all restrictions, they had 53.8%.
don't get fooled by the higher numbers which are floated around (70 or 80% or so), they refer to the adult population.
by now, pretty much all of Europe is at about the same vaccination rate that the UK had when they celebrated their freedom day, or even higher.
the US have a lower vaccination rate and much less restrictions, and the respective restrictions/rules in place are flouted more often than here. additionally, it's not something that is affecting all red states, just a select few of them. arizona and georgia are holding up surprisingly well. louisiana is in a tough situation, its neighboring states seem to be doing much better.
additionally, our healthcare systems here in Europe are not as shitty, our population not as obese and unhealthy and social stratification less pronounced.
and last but not least, there is no substantial argument against triaging the unvaccinated who come to an overwhelmed hospital. allowing the antivaxxers to hold everyone else hostage in terms of lockdowns/restrictions is a political choice, not an inevitability. these folks made a conscious decision to prefer to try their chances with the virus than getting jabbed - why should the rest of society stand in solidarity and suffer from restrictions because these people made the wrong choice?
ah i see, schrödinger's restrictions: both completely unnecessary to avoid the collapse of our healthcare system, and also the reason our systems do better than many republican US states...
i know you love to ignore this whenever you bring up the UK, but their daily death average is about 6 times higher than ours - despite their smaller population, despite their natural advantage as an island nation, and despite their superior vaccination campaign. again, not the shining example you repeatedly try to portray them as. i know, a couple of thousand people is something political hacks like you will gladly sacrifice to push their agenda, but that doesn't change the facts. i genuinely hope their case numbers not exploding and healthcare system not collapsing will hold throughout the winter, and definitely see it as a positive sign towards further relaxing restrictions, but you need to be more honest and nuanced about your claims, because every single one of them is oozing with partisan bias.
speaking of which, ALL of the other countries you mentioned still have covid restrictions (masks, tests, documentation...) in place (although denmark indeed plans to lift them in october), and if your "point" was merely about easing restrictions (just to inb4 that pivot), you could have included germany as well.
This post was edited by fender on Aug 11 2021 03:39pm