4. which makes these numbers unusual.
Here are the CAA’s numbers from the last five years of all medically grounded commercial and private pilots:
~ 2018: 1,550 – normal year
~ 2019: 1,663 – first covid cases reported in December 2019
~ 2020: 851 – air travel restricted because of lockdowns, covid infections at their worst, no vaccine until December
~ 2021: 1,594 – vaccine widely available from January and mandated for US and Australian pilots in November but not for British