BBC Sounds Music Radio Podcasts

Hello and welcome to a brand new series of more or less, the show that helps your world

add up. This week we pick the statistical bones out of the UK's Nulled Point at Eurovision.

Northern Ireland's hospital waiting lists are reported to be incredibly long. We ask if

that's true and if so, why? And just how many young adults are still living with their

parents? But first, since the pandemic started, we've often asked how different countries

have responded and with what results. We did a whole item last summer on why Germany

had done so well, relatively speaking, in the first wave, that had fewer than 10,000

deaths. We had over 40,000 deaths. Sadly, Germany is no longer such a positive example.

Since last September, they've suffered nearly 80,000 deaths, which is only slightly better

than the UK's own awful second wave, which took 95,000 lives. But we continue to look

for positive examples. And we think we found one in Western Europe, in a small country

about the size of Wales. In fact, in a country exactly the same size as Wales, because it

is Wales. Wales has given one vaccination dose to a larger proportion of its population

than any other country, except a couple of super tiny ones. Remember all the attention

we gave to Israel for their brilliant vaccine performance? Wales can now step into the spotlight,

because Wales is even beating Israel for first vaccinations. They've given one vaccine

dose to over 83% of their adult population. England, Scotland and Northern Ireland are

just over 70%. To understand how Wales has achieved this, you need to be a bit of a data

detective, someone like Paul Mainwood. He's an academic, turned strategy consultant who

became curious about when he and his family were likely to get their turn for a dose of

vaccine. So he became something of an amateur vaccine sleuth, obsessed with vaccine supply

...