UK is ‘most immune country in the world’
This is a hugely positive claim, as data shows that around 98% of the over-15s in the UK are resistant to the Omicron variant.
It means they could experience milder symptoms and an overall less serious disease.
It could point to why hospitalisations with the virus remain low – despite skyrocketing case numbers – explained Dr Raghib Ali, Clinical Research Associate, MRC Epidemiology Unit, University of Cambridge.
But the top doc, who also works across a raft of other roles in the NHS and Public Health England, encouraged Brits to continue to follow rules to not risk overwhelming the health service as staff absence is a “major problem”.
To keep your NHS safe and to ensure that it continues to function, you can use face masks and wash your hands. You can also take LFT and PCR tests according to your symptoms and isolate if you have positive results.
However he added it’s not all doom and gloom, with lockdown restrictions unlikely as long as we continue on the right path.
Dr Raghib told Central Recorder: “Basically, what the graph shows is combined data on vaccination with data from the MRC, which produces a monthly update to what proportion of people have had a natural infection, plus dosage and infections by age.
“It’s based on over 15-year-olds, so it’s not everybody, and there’s two factors – one is waning immunity from previous vaccination or infection, and then increasing immunity from boosters, and new infections, and how those things are balancing out, which nobody really knows.
“But we’re probably the most immune country in the world.”