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The Office for National Statistics (ONS), have released the latest data from their COVID-19 Infection Survey.
Prof James Naismith, Director of the Rosalind Franklin Institute, and Professor of Structural Biology, University of Oxford, said:
“Todays ONS data up to 26th Feb are extremely useful because the daily test positive data are now an unreliable guide to what the virus is doing.
“In England the prevalence has dropped to around 1 in 30. Scotland is now worse than any region in England, with a prevalence of around 1 in 19.
“Interestingly there is a continued meaningful prevalence in the over 50s (over 2 people in every 100 of the age), emphasising how omicron is capable of immune evasion. At the same time the continuing decrease in deaths and hospitalization – the vaccines and the milder nature of Omicron have saved tens of thousands of UK lives. The new strain omicron BA.2 is on its way to overtaking the BA.1 strain.
“The difference between Scotland and England would no doubt in a different news climate have kept political commentators in employment.
“At the end of last year prevalence Scotland was for a few weeks lower than England as a whole, but at time higher than at least one region in England.
“The actual lived experience of people in Scotland and England is obviously so similar that it has not resulted in a consistent pattern of one being better than another.
“The viral prevalence has its own rhythms and there are always differences between places.
“My concern is this narcissism of small differences has obscured the key lessons.
“The UK vaccination campaign, including the third dose effort, has been a success.
“The UK’s attempts to control the spread of the virus by test and trace, minor restrictions, local lockdowns and various other half hearted attempts mostly failed.
“The most valuable way to track a virus is the ONS population survey.
“Other countries had different mixtures of successes and failures.
“Unless a new strain emerges that couples evasion and severity, the large number of deaths from the pandemic are behind us. The removal of restrictions in this light has proven correct. It is right that elected politicians make these calls and listen to advice before doing so.
“I remain concerned to see to see what levels of long covid are, I really hope the vaccination and milder nature of omicron means it too will be much lower.
“Too many people died in the UK. We owe it to them to learn what worked, what did not and how we will do better next time. I am glad we are keeping the ONS survey, it is really useful resource to the UK.”
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