UK "Freedom Day" versus the B.1.617.2 "Delta" variant
Channel: Miss V Martin
Date: 2021-06-08

It's Tuesday 8th June. Many people are calling for 'Freedom Day' (proposed for 21st June) and the release of restrictions in the UK ... but, faced with the now-dominant Delta variant (B.1.627.2, formerly known as the Indian variant), is this sensible?

Animation devised and created by Vicki Martin www.vickimartin.co.uk with guidance from Deepti Gurdasani (epidemiologist at Queen Mary University London).

A few comments post-publication:
1) I am not part of Independent SAGE (as tweeted by Eric Feigl-Ding and a couple of others) nor was this created in association with them, I merely refer to their statement at the end. I'm merely someone with veterinary and physiology degrees who has a passion for medical/scientific communication, and a bit of time on my hands. This was done voluntarily as my own initiative.
2) It has been brought to my attention that I have been careless with wording. Scotland, Wales and NI are working to their own Covid guidance/restrictions, so I should have been more specific in my mention of UK vs England. My mistake, apologies.
3) Yes, the background music has an Indian feel to it, and we are supposed to be moving on to the new WHO Greek alphabet nomenclature. Some people have disliked my choice. I did consider this, but a) there was little else in the VideoScribe music collection that had this kind of energy and I wanted to get this out quickly as it's an urgent matter, plus b) at the date of publication (8th June 2021) we are still in the early stages of transition to the new terminology. I thought the somewhat subliminal connection might help with that. Indeed some responses on Twitter have asked 'what the heck is delta?" ...

Thanks for the comments!