Why do so many people think that lockdown is about getting rid of the virus?

[TheDailyCarbuncle]

At what point did people stop understanding that the purpose of lockdown is to restrict infections, not stop them entirely?

Why are some people saying they're willing to lockdown 'until the virus is gone'? How have they got the idea that that's possible?

Because they only think about themselves and not the country population has a whole. "But if I died, then XYZ"

Because they dont understand statistics. I have seen quotes saying "the virus doesn't discriminate" or "I, a healthy 30 something, have a 3 in 100 chance of dying from it"

Because they have bought into the scaremongering of the government, media and social media, especially mumsnet. People literally think that going within 2m of any other person means you're dicing with death and very likely to die.

Just spoke to a neighbour who was horrified that the number of cases has gone up in Spain since they’ve eased lockdown. I’m just horrified that people think it’s going to have gone away altogether. It’s just obvious that we’re going to get more cases. It’s keeping it at a manageable level. It was like watching a light bulb switch on the moment she suddenly got it! I think they need to broadcast something on tv to explain it to people because they’re clearly delusional.

There is evidence that covid was in the UK in December. Which means it was spreading for three months with pretty much no restrictions and certainly nothing close to lockdown. Children went to school the whole time with no PPE or control of numbers.

People seem to have a lost total grasp of the fact that this is a virus, like many many other viruses. Yes it goes around fast because we have no immunity but it's not a deadly killer.

There is evidence that covid was in the UK in December.

I thought that was France?

www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-52589449

The article is written in a ridiculous fashion but basically it says that a choir was infected in January by a man who came back from China with covid in December.

If you did it stringently enough, it would be possible to sort of clamp down enough on the virus that you'd know exactly where it was and be stamping it out there. You'd then also know where it wasn't, so that would be relatively safe. This is the most successful approach unless you're happy with hundreds of thousands dying (as the alternative is herd immunity). Lockdown, test and trace is very rational. There's no obligation for people to take the viewpoint that they have to live with it in the country without adequate testing and tracing going on. You may be happy to, but that's a personal decision. Our government didn't, in my opinion, get it right and they're not getting it right now.

OP I'm also very happy to hear from scientists and medical researchers that it's not a deadly killer when we have the true figuresbut they're not in yet. Anecdotal evidence that it your best friend's neighbor had it last year just doesn't do it for me, especially when set against the death toll. It's clearly more deadly than flu. Again, how you react to that is up to you. But the government is not particularly interested in keeping you alive. They're interested in not being overwhelmed, not going broke and not being seen to fail. That leaves individuals with private reckonings to do.

There is no evidence whatsoever that covid is more deadly than flu.

And in fact there is a lot of evidence to say that covid is significantly less deadly than flu for children.

I don't think it's borne out of thinking the virus will go.
They just don't want to be part of the next wave when more people are about.
If they leave it long enough they'll be at less risk due to herd immunity.
It's not exactly going to be nice for those kids going back, it's only childcare for workers.

@DahliaDay

Other countries could do as New Zealand have if they wanted to.

Sorry that should be @TheDailyCarbuncle

It is more deadly than flu for the over 45s but much less deadly than flu for children - even if the children are vulnerable and have underlying conditions

Was this just about children? I didn't realise. What children do has far reaching implications for grown ups, you know.

With this virus I will want evidence that it isn't harmful, not that it is. We don't know enough and the possibility of being blind sided is real-the acute inflammatory response being over example and the possibility that children to have had a mild dose still show scarring on the lungs being another. But I'm concerned you think we can isolate the risks into age groups when this isn't how we live. If they all lived in an unsupervised children's village somewhere, you might have a point.

There is no evidence that it is more deadly than flu for over 45s.

There is no evidence whatsoever that covid is more deadly than flu.

As flu can mean anything from the 1918 epidemic to a mild seasonal virus that doesn't mean much.

If uncontrolled Covid 19 is infectious enough and serious enough to incapacitate the health service.

@0v9c99f9g9d939d9f9g9h8h do you have any concerns about the harm caused by lockdown?

If uncontrolled Covid 19 is infectious enough and serious enough to incapacitate the health service.

Covid was spreading for 3 months completely uncontrolled and didn't incapacitate the health service. Sweden has much lighter controls in place than the UK and their health service hasn't been incapacitated. The models predicted a worse case scenario that so far hasn't happened.

I think a lot of people either never had the ability to assess risk or have gladly got shot of it out of utterly reactionary terror.

I'm one of those that believe we may have had it at the end of December, we were really unwell.

I have heard this A LOT and it seems prevelant on mn.
In fatc my dd and I both had a rotten awful cough in December, that is veyr similar to Covid.

But it is simply not true.
How can I say that for certain? Because while there may have been one or two cases, like the man in France or the choir in that article etc, if as many of us have had it as had that rotten cough this winter, then the NHS would have had 100s in A&E and dying from it.

If many of us had it in December then we would have seen a vast increase in deaths in December and January.

There was a programme on last night which had an undertaker in London. He has had to rent massive refrigerated trucks to store all the dead bodies. If Covid had been around in Dec/Jan in any numbers, those deaths would have been around then.

So it is simple, as those deaths weren't there, that rotten cough we had was NOT Covid-19.

The death rate from normal flu is less than 1%. The death rate from Covid is much higher, and as noone has imunity, or has had a flu jab, then thousands will die from it.

There is no way to get back to 'normal life'
really, none. Normal life is on hold until either we decide to risk that many people dying (and I'm not willing to risk my mum and dad, or my neice with a heart transplant or my best friend with severe asthma) or we have a vaccine, or we do actually get every single last case ad eradicate it, and then catch every single new one into the country.

None of those are great options. I have no idea what the way forward could be.

Op - you keep saying there is no evidence that it is more deadly than flu. Why do we have so many literally dead bodies piling up in areas which have been hit hardest?

Where do all these dead people come frmo if it is no worse than flu?

20,000 people dies eveyr winter from flu. So far the death toll from Covid is 40,000?? So twice as many?

Seems pretty clear that it is a lot more serious than flu

I know 'herd immunity' was touted as what the national approach would be. But it's not the official line at least now though is it?

Plus nobody seems too sure whether it actually works.

I would be quite happy if we eliminated the virus kiwi-style... and then let the scientists look at how to find a vaccine...

Although it may be late for that in this country at least?

I thought we went into lockdown to flatten the curve so that the NHS would not be overwhelmed, and that we Could get more ICU beds that’s why all the nightingale hospitals were built.

And also get the test and control up and going

There won’t be an vaccine until early next year if we are lucky. I really think that we are not at the end of this, I think a lot more deaths, but thankfully children with no underline health problems don’t really seem to get bad symptoms with the virus.

Anyone over seventh and those with underline health problems will have to shield for a very long time.

I think the government wants the rest of us to just keep washing our hand wear masks and just get on with it.

They want us to just take our chances.

3 people in my not large non-patient facing nhs workplace have died and at least two have been in hospital for over a week. It’s easy to make big statements about other people’s hysteria when you’re not affected...yet

Does New York bury flu victims in mass graves every year? Or set up field hospitals in Central Park? Are flu victims’ bodies regularly stored in refrigerated trucks because there is no room elsewhere?
Do the Italian and Spanish health systems become overwhelmed by flu every year? Is the Palacio de Hielo in Madrid usually turned into a mortuary?
Does flu kill 150 NHS and care workers and counting every winter?
COVID isn’t flu.