I don't know. Perhaps Brexit just sucked up all the oxygen. There's been a few civil servants and health advisors and such who've gone on record stating that the official line has been bunk for the last few years, and that the UK had developed serious deficiencies which were being overlooked. Hell, apparently the renewal of virus contingency plans and training were delayed for years in favour of no-deal planning.
Derek wrote:... but that doesn't help with people outright denying the existence of a threat.
There's definitely been some wishful thinking here at least. They eased restrictions too rapidly the first time round, then actively encouraged people to start mixing (and spending) again. It was all very premature, and
many people thought so at the time. The "we'll see off Johnny foreigner's virus by Christmas" mentality was a bit too strong.
As for general population, government polling currently indicating that 80% will very likely take a vaccine, so it looks like uptake will be high enough to cut transmission. The remaining 20 are presumably split between unsure and refuse, I haven't checked.