It’s not clear what the proper reaction to the English strain is, other than what we should have been doing all along.
There is a spectrum of responses. We can start lockdowns a week earlier, enact stricter policies, put more effort on efficient vaccination.
For example, Israel gets a lot of good press for its fast vaccination program. While I’m sure good organization is the main contributor to their success, I believe there is also a strong external contributing factor: The second half of December is not a holiday season in Israel.
Could Europe and the US have moved to war footing in mid-December and not allowed the holidays to slow down their vaccination work? Yes.
Israeli vaccinations run 24⁄7, even on Shabbat, which would normally prohibit most of the tasks involved with an organized vaccination effort (e.g.: driving, writing). The decision to vaccinate on shabbat is in fact endorsed by most of the more religious aspects of the society since saving lives is a sort of prime directive in Judaism that overrides other concerns in most situations.
All this is simply to say that I think that even if December was a holiday season in Israel, they would likely have made similar progress by now, simply because the culture and government is okay with suspending normal behavior for emergencies (a product of having an emergency every week or so for the last 70-odd years + the religious quirk). Compare to the US where vaccinations took Christmas off while doses sat on the shelf...
Could Europe and the US have moved to war footing in mid-December and not allowed the holidays to slow down their vaccination work? Yes.
Agree with all of those actions. None are responses to the English strain, they are all things we’ve horrifically failed to do already.
Christian’s comment about modifying and testing vaccines is a good one. I very much hope that, since this doesn’t require much public agreement, it’s happening in competent labs across the world.
There is a spectrum of responses. We can start lockdowns a week earlier, enact stricter policies, put more effort on efficient vaccination.
For example, Israel gets a lot of good press for its fast vaccination program. While I’m sure good organization is the main contributor to their success, I believe there is also a strong external contributing factor: The second half of December is not a holiday season in Israel.
Could Europe and the US have moved to war footing in mid-December and not allowed the holidays to slow down their vaccination work? Yes.
Israeli vaccinations run 24⁄7, even on Shabbat, which would normally prohibit most of the tasks involved with an organized vaccination effort (e.g.: driving, writing). The decision to vaccinate on shabbat is in fact endorsed by most of the more religious aspects of the society since saving lives is a sort of prime directive in Judaism that overrides other concerns in most situations.
All this is simply to say that I think that even if December was a holiday season in Israel, they would likely have made similar progress by now, simply because the culture and government is okay with suspending normal behavior for emergencies (a product of having an emergency every week or so for the last 70-odd years + the religious quirk). Compare to the US where vaccinations took Christmas off while doses sat on the shelf...
Yes, yes indeed!
The better question would be whether they could have started their vaccination work at the end of November.
Agree with all of those actions. None are responses to the English strain, they are all things we’ve horrifically failed to do already.
Christian’s comment about modifying and testing vaccines is a good one. I very much hope that, since this doesn’t require much public agreement, it’s happening in competent labs across the world.