johnnychips
Established Member
Let me say I have genuine sympathy for any victims of COVID and their families to start with, as what follows might seem a bit abstract.
I have been really fascinated by how the virus is distributed through the UK, and I have an idea that at the moment that the places with the highest rates seem to have no universities themselves, but are close to areas that have. I would suggest that the Medway towns, Haringey, Basildon etc. have higher rates because the virus has spread out of central London, whose rate increased when the students went back in late September. In a similar vein from where I come from, Sheffield saw a huge increase in October, but has now fallen dramatically; yet Doncaster and Rotherham have now much higher rates.
That’s my idea, and I realise it’s full of holes and exceptions: I wonder why Southampton, a university city with its fair share of high-occupancy housing seems to have avoided high rates; Hull has a university, yet cases have only recently shot up; Bristol has seen a similar but not as prominently delayed reaction.
Other factors come into play, such as the level of testing and so on, but I wondered if anybody else had some other explanations for the past and current distribution of COVID in the UK?
I have been really fascinated by how the virus is distributed through the UK, and I have an idea that at the moment that the places with the highest rates seem to have no universities themselves, but are close to areas that have. I would suggest that the Medway towns, Haringey, Basildon etc. have higher rates because the virus has spread out of central London, whose rate increased when the students went back in late September. In a similar vein from where I come from, Sheffield saw a huge increase in October, but has now fallen dramatically; yet Doncaster and Rotherham have now much higher rates.
That’s my idea, and I realise it’s full of holes and exceptions: I wonder why Southampton, a university city with its fair share of high-occupancy housing seems to have avoided high rates; Hull has a university, yet cases have only recently shot up; Bristol has seen a similar but not as prominently delayed reaction.
Other factors come into play, such as the level of testing and so on, but I wondered if anybody else had some other explanations for the past and current distribution of COVID in the UK?