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Comment by staticassertion | Hacker News Reader

The UK seems to have a 62% full vaccination rate with 71% having at least one dose[0]. That sounds really low to me. "Close to full vaccination" to me would imply close to 100% or, reading "full" as "reaching herd immunity" I'd think 70-80% fully vaccinated - still a very long way to go.

I hear you that we will eventually reach a point where we've hit the new normal. It's just going to be whether that point is reached because we've given up (due to people refusing to vaccinate) or because we've managed to vaccinate enough. I think many people aren't ready to give up. Personally, the restrictions are quite meaningless to me in the US, but I can imagine that that's just because I get to work from home and all that.

[0] https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/world/united-kingdo...

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The UK has only just started vaccinating under-18s, who make up a significant chunk of the population, and they are not vaccinating anyone under 16 yet. This is going to skew the numbers a bit. Among older age groups the numbers get up into the 80s and 90s.

We are also lagging among BAME groups and in certain economically deprived areas. If you are a white 75 year-old in Wimbledon the odds that you are vaccinated are around 95%, while if you are a 30 year-old Pakistani immigrant in Bradford then I would put the odds closer to 50%. Still a long way to go, but constantly improving.

>a 30 year-old Pakistani immigrant in Bradford

Are there reasons for hesitancy expressed among the population?

Due to the vaccine not being approved for children yet, the numbers will be low. Here in Canada it appears to lag by about 10% of the eligible population, so until that happens, 80% is probably the maximum limit I would expect.

However, with the high R0 of Delta taking its toll, it looks like places are starting to take the approach of making people's lives more limited if they aren't fully vaccinated without quite going to the level of mandating vaccination.

> That sounds really low to me.

Low compared to what? Do you know the vaccinations rates for all other diseases for which we have vaccines for?

Low compared to my third fucking sentence jesus christ.

92% of Brits have COVID antibodies, either through exposure or immunity:

https://news.sky.com/story/covid-19-around-nine-in-10-adults...

92% of the Brits eligible for vaccination.

That feels a little selective.

> Latest estimates from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show 89.8% of adults in England are likely to have the antibodies, with the highest percentage of adults testing positive for them estimated to be the age groups 60 to 64, 70 to 74 and 75 to 79 (all 96.8%).

> The lowest percentage was for 16 to 24-year-olds at around 59.7%.

The 92% (91.8% cited) is presumably from this sentence?

> In Wales, 91.8% of adults are estimated to have antibodies in their system

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