Britain only country in the world actively trying to encourage spread of coronovirus

[AmIAPenguin]

So the U.K. isn’t reporting actual numbers as they are refusing to test people for the last month and have today admitted they want the whole population to get it as a herd immunity. But this means they kid and a will die in the meantime and why they are not closing schools or sporting events.

They don’t want people to even log when they get it / are ill. So to the rest of the world they’ll seem like lower numbers.

Has anyone got any scientific data on if you do get immunity? The last I saw was that the immunity level was low and not long lasting and you could get it again?

Apologies for the daily mail link, if anyone has any non daily mail links I will add them.

But for weeks I’ve been wondering why the UK governance and PHE have refused to test people who have clearly had it, and actually been encouraging their partners to go out in the community. They’ve been wanting it to be spread. Have they not seen Italy? If they don’t flatten the curve so many elderly and disabled are going to die because we are the only country doing this.

Maybe in the future it’ll work and we’ll be the last country standing but it seems bonkers at the moment.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8108271/Chief-scientific-adviser-wants-60-percent-entire-population-catch-coronavirus.html

we're not actively encouraging the spread, just being realistic that it's already waaaay out there and now needs to be managed to flatten the peak. Anyone with possible symptoms is to self isolate and further measures will continuously be reviewed. Time for this drama and whipping each other into a frenzy to stop

Fgs there was even someone asking, in all seriousness if it's the end of the world. The wartime generation must be disgusted with us

Austerity wasn't killing people fast enough. This virus is doing what they wanted far quicker so why would they want to stop it? Less pension payouts, less benefit claimants, less impact on the economy. Tories are rubbing their hands together.

Yes we are.
Flights from infected areas. No isolation straight to work.
Not closing schools even when a case

Also what idiots as the whole world will block flights from us for months

I want to see BJ shaking hands in the wards with the infected now

Ah good old daily mail hysteria
Catching covid19 at some point is almost inevitable, and the scientific advisor is correct - the aim is to slow transmission over a longer period of time so that the NHS can cope, not to prevent it entirely. It's basic epidemiology. Over time COVID19 will circulate in the population and become just another strain of 'flu. Yes people will die, but more people will die if health services are overwhelmed by lots of cases at once. The majority of cases are mild/asymptomatic so the aim would be to manage steady rates of exposure throughout the population. 'Stopping' exposure only delays the inevitable

From what I've read immunity is pretty good post-infection but no one knows how long immunity lasts as it's too new

I don't think you've understood.

I find it quite reassuring.

The best option would have been to contain this virus because it's nasty for certain populations. That hasn't happened.

So now they work on a vaccine, but in the meantime the only way to safeguard the vulnerable is for there to be less spread. We could all hole up for 3 weeks and we'd get less spread now, but still no one has immunity so it only takes a couple of visitors coming in to the country with it and the whole cycle starts up again.

We know, thank God, that children get mild symptoms. We know we need people to develop antibodies to stop pandemic spread. We don't need to stop children getting a mild illness. We need to stop them passing it on to the over 60s or those with health conditions that make them vulnerable. If we close schools Bunches of working parents send their kids to their grandparents; this increases the risk on vulnerable populations while decreasing the risk on the young and healthy.

In the long run it's better to get this young rather than old. We are almost all going to get it, just like almost everyone gets flu at some point. Once we reach a certain level of herd immunity it will just be a bug that hits certain people hard.

The South Korea figures are useful. They have run huge testing programmes and picked up lots of asymptomatic cases. Their rate of serious illness in currently active cases is below 1 percent. Our UK figured will look worse as they will only swab people who don't recover within the 7 days.

If the death rate from COVID19 were 1% (a conservative estimate) and 60% of the population contracted the disease, there would be around 400,000 deaths in the UK. The number of UK deaths for the whole of the Second World War was 449,700, but that included casualties from the entire British Empire and Commonwealth.

Personally I was bloody impressed with the 2 boffins yesterday and totally agree with their approach

We are not immune to mother nature I am a really fed up with all the hysteria around corona.

But they haven’t been trying to slow down the spread. Friends and relatives who’ve had it have been told they didn’t, despite coming firm abroad, refused testing and told to carry on. Or those that self isolated were told to keep their partners going to work as police officers, teachers, people working with the general public. So it’s been spreading the last month with Britain going “look at our low numbers” and now it’s too late. Last week groups coming back from ski trips were refused testing and told to send their kids to school. If they have it their kids have it. Teachers and police staff were told to keep working.

This isn’t daily mail hysteria. This has been happening for months, and a few of us at work have been so Nd wring why we were treating this different to the rest of the world. Now we know why.

lamesword do you write on the bbc's hys comment pages ? they seem to come out with this sort of drivel too when they aren't blaming everything on brexit.

Callimanco good post

I'm baffled by people who think Boris wants peasants to die. This virus has no cure. It's as likely to kill the Queen as it is to kill an oap in receipt of a state pension. The Queen might die in plusher surroundings but the medical outcome would be the same.

A member of his government already has the virus. This isn't 'them and us'.

Unfortunately being in the 1% that will die and having my family still expected to go to school and work isn’t reassuring. Italy’s death rate is higher. For me I would survive a Chinese lock down. But not this method.

I’m surprised none of you know any one with kind disease or any one over the age of 60 who won’t die so you you very people and kids will be fine.

You know Britain relies on bears immunity for chicken pox to protect the elderly but every other country vaccinates now?

Britain had a chance to contain it and it didn’t. Why are no other countries doing what Britain is doing?

Most of the working parents who would leave the kids near grandparents already do so at least a couple of days a week after and before school. That’s the case at our school anyway. Anyone with grandparents nearby gets help at pick up.

Please can someone send me the links where the CDC etc have said that actually immunity is happening? We don’t know what happens when China lets people out of lock down if they’ll get it again like some people have.

Am wondering how many of the cabinet have been shorting the stock market?

Making a killing, literally?

FWIW I agree Penguin To me, it's mad. And it's completely out of step with other countries and the WHO's advice, and the WHO clearly don't agree or think its going to end well. They're also not talking about herd immunity and encouraging countries along those lines, and they're the ones with the most experience of managing and controlling disease outbreaks with the data pouring in from all countries.

Boris was quite up front when he said on tv about 'take it on the chin'. I think it's a line to put on a bus alongside some of his more interesting but not quite factually honest or thought through plans, like 'lets crash out of the EU, it'll be great'.

It's pretty impossible to contain. There's already non compliance with self isolation

Kids going to school etc is absolutely the best thing as a pp poster said. The main focus should be on protecting the elderly/infirm specifically not restricting general interactions

And yes many of us do have at-risk friends and family members We just don't think the hysteria is helpful

AmI
Actually I have 2 immediate family members with heart conditions and 2 with immune conditions.

I would love this to go away.

Lots of children have parents with underlying conditions who would be at risk if they caught it. It’s not just grandparents you need to worry about.

At the moment lots of grandparents will be looking after gc after school, the kids are more likely to catch it at school than if they stay at home and avoid crowds.

The WHO is not advising countries to let people catch it for herd immunity. They’ve been very clear that governments should take very strong measures to try to stop people getting infected. I assume the WHO has been talking to expert scientists, they’re not just making stuff up.

I dont think the uk is alone in lack of action and not the only country with this strategy.
I'm not in the uk. Reported cases here per million of population are much higher than the uk. But, few precautions are being taken here either and those being taken are being implemented very slowly. Many people here also feel that more extreme preventive measures should have been taken earlier to slow the spread.

just because you have a chronic illness [i have one] and if you develop doesn't mean you are going to push off this mortal curve, i'm in my 50's and if it's going to happen it will i'm not worried but i am concerned for older people with conditions.
i saw a group of teens living near me , they were wearing masks and messing about with them, they had decorated them with felt pens and it came across as a sort of fashion acessory

The Contain phase never happened. They did nothing to stop the virus coming into this country.

I too thought the experts were 'convincing' yesterday. BUT I could not let go of the fact that when they said we'd moved away from the contain phase which had had so much effect blah blah blah - that that was a load of bollocks.

How can any of us put our trust in these people?

Unfortunately being in the 1% that will die and having my family still expected to go to school and work isn’t reassuring. Italy’s death rate is higher. For me I would survive a Chinese lock down. But not this method.

So why don't you self-isolate then? If you believe you are high risk segregate yourself and it doesn't matter what anyone else does.