Thats not strictly true Dave.
My sister works in a care home and gets tested weekly. She has been covid positive twice and isolated both times. Once the isolation is over she has to go back because they actually do need people to work not just for wages but to actually look after the people who rely on them.
So it isn't all about folk going in sick for fear of losing money, a lot of people are abiding by the rules but this virus is rife and spreads like wildfire.
I think this gets ignored and it's a hard thing to say.
It seems overly simple, but how does any virus spread, and what time of year do they spread the most?
We're in the middle of winter - and it's been a pretty cold and miserable one in the last few weeks too.
People get ill.
If you catch a bug, any bug, you don't necessarily need to have been doing something socially to have caught it.
Obviously, if people aren't following the rules, it's going to contribute to the spread. But it won't be the only reason. It simply can't be.
Look at sport to see a very small reflection of it.
Those tennis players landing in Aus. They tested negative a day before getting on the plane. A day later, a raft of positives.
Then look across every country in Europe, even ones with the virus 'under control' (Spain seem to be doing relatively well atm for example). They've still had a winter spike in cases - however small that spike may be compared to the UK's.
Look at Australia. In the middle of August, they had a 'spike'. Yes, a tiny one compared to us. Tiny ammount of cases, but they had a spike - as it was the middle of their winter.
It's a virus, it spreads and it's not going anywhere. But it's why full focus has to be on the vaccine and when enough people have got both doses of whatever vaccine they're getting, then it should be the end of lockdowns or restrictions or frankly we might never as well bother trying.
