Having listened to Five Live and BBC News re Covid over the last week you’d be forgiven for thinking that Covid still provides cause for profoundly serious concern in the UK.
And having just returned from a holiday in Majorca I’ve been amazed by the number of educated and intelligent people who are still gripped by fear of this disease despite them being fit, healthy, long ago double-vaccinated and having no underlying health condition.
This, I believe, is the result of the way media coverage of Covid has continued in the same vein since the darkest days of this epidemic with little recognition and understanding of the changed landscape caused by the vaccination programme.
Everything I’ve read points to overwhelming evidence that those who have been fully vaccinated along with the young have little to fear from the virus.
I recognise that vaccination is not 100% protective and sadly that some vulnerable people with underlying health conditions and / or obesity will still sadly die.
My views are reinforced despite news reports which have focused on 50,000 new daily cases, which spreads fear, as does the ill-thought through Test and Trace Pinging System.
What is not being given the same prominence is the following:
- Of those cases only 4,457 were in hospital last week.
- Only 611 were in intensive care.
- The time Covid patients spend in hospital has HALVED to five days from previous lockdowns.
- The number dying from Covid is down from 1% of cases in previous lockdowns to less than 1 in 1000.
What the media do need to keep an eye on, I believe, is whether the vaccination programme is failing. Therefore what, I think we need is an analysis of those in hospital with Covid.
- What are the numbers of patients in hospital DUE to Covid and what are the numbers who are in hospital for another condition but have coincidentally tested positive for Covid?
- What proportion of patients in hospital DUE to Covid are unvaccinated?
- What proportion of patients in hospital DUE to Covid are single vaccinated?
- What proportion of patients in hospital DUE to Covid are double vaccinated and of those what proportion have a serious underlying health condition and / or are obese?
If the vaccination programme is not delivering the improvement that I believe is self-evident then policy will need to change but in the interim I see no reason whatsoever why we cannot have an immediate end to self-isolation for anyone who comes into contact with a positive case provided they have been double-vaccinated or are under 18.
Mark Roberts 