Britain -- Out of the Woods?

"More and more of us are benefiting from protection the vaccine gives us against this awful disease. [The presence of antibodies in the general population represents a] measure of the protection that we have collectively built up right across the country."

"Our vaccination program is bringing back our freedom, but the biggest risk to that progress is the risk posted by a new variant."

"We're working on our plans for booster shots, which are the best way to keep us safe and free while we get this disease under control."

"These further 60 million doses will be used, alongside others, as part of our booster program from later this year, so we can protect the progress that we've all made."

Matt Hancock, British Secretary of Health

"We are doing everything we can to make sure the most vulnerable are protected from COVID-19 now and in the future."

"Our brilliant vaccines taskforce has secured an extra 60 million doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines to support our booster program, which will be developed in line with the advice of our experts."

"In the meantime, we are making great progress with our vaccination rollout and I urge everybody to get their vaccines as soon as they are eligible."

Nadhim Zahawi, Vaccines Minister, Britain

A volunteer paint hearts on the National Covid Memorial Wall on the Embankment in central London. Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA

Israel is the first nation on the globe to have opened up, returning to as close to normalcy as possible in the wake of a hugely successful mass vaccination scheme, to achieve vaunted herd immunity. Isolated cases of COVID-19 still emerge, hospitals still accept a trickle of patients, but those in ICUs have been dramatically reduced. No one will overlook the sacrifices in terms of untimely deaths, or of badly impacted health and lingering health effects, but for all intents and purposes the emergency has concluded, and life has returned ... to normal.

 

Britain now, after undertaking a massive inoculation program, feels itself just about ready to follow suit. Of course the world cannot be a virus-safe environment as long as there are serious hot-spots such as Brazil and India where massive daily case tallies and an incredibly unbelievable death rate from COVID carries on. Life comes with no guarantees, however; nature is at the helm and the control wheel and humanity reacts. The toll has been dreadful, but science and the brilliance of researchers has given humanity a way out of this pathogenic pestilence. And Britain feels itself on the cusp of rescue.

 

Seven in ten British adults have now been identified as having developed antibodies against COVID-19. Some 68 percent of adults, according to latest figures from the Office for National Statistics, have some level of protection now against the SARS-CoV-2 virus, achieved through either vaccination or by prior infection with COVID. It took a mere month for the level of immunity to rise even as infections wane; attributing the increase in antibodies universally in the country to its rapid vaccination rate.

 

The high antibody count has outdistanced the modelling by the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies which earlier in the month suggested that fewer than 45 percent of the population by June 21, when lockdown restrictions are set to be eased, would be protected. Over 20,000 people were tracked by the ONS to measure blood antibodies with rates seen to be highest among oldest age groups, targeted for priority vaccination, and likeliest to have had two doses. 

Reuters

 

In England, roughly 87 percent of all over-70s have developed antibodies. Antibodies, however, are not the sole part of the immune system to respond to the vaccine. "There are other parts of the immune system that will also respond to vaccination that aren't picked up in antibody tests", advised Sarah Crofts, senior statistician for the COVID-19 infection survey. Deputy Chief Medical Officer for England, Professor Jonathan Van Tam, revealed it was as yet unknown how far antibodies protected against new variants.

 

Trials are now in the process of examining the potential for "mix and match" combinations of different vaccines even as it was announced that 60 million additional doses of the Pfizer vaccine have been secured to be used for booster shots with the intention of protecting against new variants, in the fall. Reassuringly, new data from Public Health England reveals that one dose of a vaccine reduces household transmission of the virus by up to half.

 

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"The scale of ... resistance is a marker of the extent to which COVID anxiety has permeated the scientific and policy communities, as well as the general public."

"There is a constant search for bad news and worst-case scenarios -- third waves, variants, long COVID, events in Brazil or India -- rather than a focus on the documented achievements of the vaccination program."

"It would be foolish to rip up the present guidance tomorrow, or even on May 17. By June 21, however, all the most vulnerable people in Britain will have been offered two doses of the vaccines, with enough time for immunity to develop. They will be as protected as they will ever be."

"It is time to acknowledge the low level of vulnerability in a vaccinated population."

Robert Dingwall, Professor of Sociology, Nottingham Trent University