Do we know why Iceland’s cases haven’t peaked yet when they got hit by Omicron around the same time at the UK and US?
Do we know why Iceland’s cases haven’t peaked yet when they got hit by Omicron around the same time at the UK and US?
3 comments
There were a lot more cases in US and UK the last two/ish years. There is more room for the virus.
OR.
We are testing people who have no symptoms. Which is no ususal.
There are places in the US which are testing very little on top of that. (If news can be believed)
Reason is probably that we implemented very tough restrictions for the Omicron wave, which the US and UK didn’t do. For example, only 10 people can meet in the same room in Iceland.
This means we “flatten the curve” (famous phrase from 2020) and both reduce the peak and delay it.
This is flattening the curve in action.
A couple of things:
1) We tightened our restrictions in response to the wave. This has the effect of slowing the rate of infection while prolonging the length of the wave. Flattening the curve and all that.
2) We probably had less immunity because we have had relatively few infections until now.
3) As pointed out below we are doing way more testing than the US and UK.
4) A small, relatively isolated island of 350k is not a large country of 70 million and is certainly not a continent-spanning megacountry of 330 million. Pandemics are bound to behave differently here. In what ways? I have no idea.