By "very little protective measures (pubs etc)" you mean the pubs were all closed? The UK has had some of the most restrictive lockdowns in the western world.

By "very little protective measures (pubs etc)" you mean the pubs were all closed? The UK has had some of the most restrictive lockdowns in the western world. I agree that the idea that vaccines are leading to new variants seems extremely dubious though. Like everything else in epidemiology, when you go looking for the underlying rational basis for it, there's just nothing robust there.