EPIDEMIOLOGY OF COVID

All reports indicate that in the UK, and probably worldwide, Covid has become the disease of the poor. Reasons for this can vary but the major one is the high level of overcrowded living conditions and Covid. This is then compounded by the mistrust of the Government in the BAME community and the willingness of the poor to believe the anti-tax misinformation.

These two factors seem to be working independently, thus the North East has high levels of poverty and over crowding and has been hard hit in each wave ion the virus. Inner city boroughs in London like Tower Hamlets and Alum Rock in Birmingham have higher instances of the virus and lower vaccination rates, and more underlying health problems. The government has recognised this and has put money into solving it. Maybe door to door vaccination would help? Cornwall, presumably through tourism has had a recent spike with the Delta variant, whilst other rural areas with low population densities like Devon and Dorset have remained relatively low.

An interesting article on the BBC shows that the pattern of child mortality has hardly changed over the last 150 years. Covid follows the same pattern.

Going back to Dr.Snow in 1854, we have a lot to learn from the epidemiology of diseases. I wonder if the A level students who studied epidemiology with me have appreciated their knowledge recently? The international spread of the disease is more difficult to map, due to unreliable recording in some areas, but all the outbreaks I have seen reported originated in Wuhan, but were then rapidly spread by super spreader events like a ski resort in Switzerland (may have been Italy), Cheltenham Races and then more recently the decision by Bozo to not put travel restrictions on India when it was blatantly obvious to all that it was imperative (restrictions on Pakistan and Bangladesh – but he needed to try and get a trade deal with India to justify the Brexit debacle).

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