Suggestion that lifting the lockdown and contact tracing to be trialled on Isle of Wight

[fessmess]

I live on the IOW and today have conducted a straw poll on this matter. I asked about 8 people( neighbours on dog walk and shopping at Tesco), and they ALL said exactly the same sentence.

"Well, I'm not bloody going out if they do." Sorry Mr Gove we aren't your guinea pigs.

I miss the Isle of Wight. We always have a holiday there each year. Not this year though.

An island is hardly representative of a typical area, is it? Sounds daft to me.

I've read that it might be the highlands as we dont have huge numbers yet compared to how big the land is.

I think its a good idea to try it out first and fix and issues before rolling it out for everyone. It doesnt mean you have to suddenly start going out or changing your behaviour. I think using the term guinea pigs is misleading, how about thinking of it as UAT testers instead?

I would be happy to do this if on an island. They would be paying proper attention and it would hopefully mean good systems in place.

And yet everyone I’ve spoken to is interested in the idea and open to finding out more about it

We have a fairly low amount of cases and it’s pretty easy to control who comes on and off the Island.

No one will be coming round to force you out of your house.

But, and this is what makes me uncomfortable, the Island is being chosen because if the R rate we're to climb then we could effectively shut up shop and control the spread to other locations. 30-35% of our population are over 65. Would you want to risk a few more deaths from your community? I don't.

He said

But there is a specific scientific justification for saying that island communities can be areas where you could pilot some measures, contact tracing in particular, in order to combine that with relaxing measures at a progressively greater rate

Contact tracing in particular

They’re not expecting us to abandon social distancing and head out down to Fever for a knees up straight off the bat

As I said, I, and all the other people I know are interested in the idea rather than dismissing it without finding out more