To ask why there is so much talk of coming out of lockdown..

[Dylaninthemovies1]

... when the number of cases per day is greater than when we first went into lockdown?

Because the PM is due to do an announcement this evening with a roadmap.
Because the number of cases is due to increased testing, not because there is a real increase of cases.
Because people need 'hope' and to be optimistic.
Because we are passed the peak, so we can start to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Because people have already started to break the rules. The government let the media control the messaging and only issue vague guidance and have done from the start. Because this is an easy way to let people decide and achieve herd immunity through the back door

Because the economy is bleeding dry and in the coming months and years deaths due to treatment for things like cancer and hip replacements being delayed or stopped by the NHS while they concentrate on Covid are going to be horrific. We have to balance Covid in the immediate term against our longer term survival.

I've never been tested but I've near as dammit had it - exactly classic symptoms and trajectory of illness and recovery, with no fluke cold symptoms. I'm also in a bit of a hot-spot.

I would have been included in the figures of a month ago.

Because we are passed the peak, so we can start to see the light at the end of the tunnel. We are only past the peak because we are in lockdown. As soon as we start mingling again, infection rate will rise.

I think some people imagine that we are going to come out of full lockdown whereas in reality restrictions are going to be relaxed gradually.

Government keeps leaking stuff to the media about ending lockdown - haven’t you seen the papers last week?

Because the papers have been totally irresponsible

Because both the Government and the media have allowed people to think we are about to ease lockdown.
Its herd immunity through the back door without the Government having to own that ridiculous policy.

Because at some point we have to take the plunge and get on with life!

Because we can't stay in lockdown forever so need to think about coming out of it at some point.

Also people need to realise that there are many levels between now and being out of lockdown.

It is so depressing reading the some of the responses to this. I’m an intensive care doctor and we are gearing up for a second wave of critically ill patients which I fear will be much bigger than the first. Life cannot go back to how it was until there is an effective vaccine and most of the population have been vaccinated.

This is not a benign virus. I have never seen anything like it in my years as a doctor. The long term consequences of it for our patients are devastating, and those are the ones who have survived this. Staff are exhausted and broken and yet having to get ready for the next onslaught.

Stay alert...it is meaningless.

People are already being arseholes breaking the rules and there simply aren’t enough police to enforce the rules. Lockdown will be extended today by a further three weeks but he’ll have to allow more exercise so dickheads can carry on breaking the rules.

@countbackfromten

I'm asking this question honestly, not trying to goad (and I agree that the right measures should be taken, whatever those are, to manage the whole situation well).

However, do you have a biased view of the virus from an ICU perspective? I don't doubt that you see patients in difficulties, but that's the point of ICU, surely? Plus people have been delayed going to hospital, so arrive in a worse condition, potentially.

I know of half a dozen people who have had it who shook the main part of the virus in about a week, with only mild symptoms, and with simple home alleviation of symptoms. That includes an asthmatic and someone with an autoimmune condition.

It's not straight forward at all to me to balance the needs of those who won't have a severe case (but may have other impacts of lockdown), those who will have it severely or die, and those responsible for treatment of cases.