Chris Whitty... Everything will be ok!

[Mumlove5]

@heidipi

I think the concern re schools is driven by personal risk not societal. Of course the risk to society is important, sage would be better placed to assess that risk than individual parents and teachers. Especially if the posts here are in any way indicative of most people's understanding.

I like him but like, if it's such a low risk to everyone, then what the fuck are we doing?!

Flattening the curve.

I’m assuming this video was from the early days when we were all told just to was our hands and it would all be fine.

@MamaKarmaLlama @Horehound the video is from 30th April, there's much more to what he says than the soundbite in the OP. What he says supports the lockdown, I don't really see how it supports encouraging people back to work right now or any feelings of it's all fine.

It's clearly not fine for society but it is fine for most people's life expectancy. Lots of people unnecessarily worried about an early death at the moment.

I do think some people wilfully misunderstand the point sometimes.

Right ok, genuinely surprised if most people are just staying home to protect themselves though.

I'm staying home cause I am furloughed. If I wasn't I would be at work. Not like I can go anywhere.

He is articulate and pretty easy to understand. Boris is the complete opposite - an unclear bumbler who looks more like he is making it all up as he goes along.

@Horehound
what are we doing
If around 60% of our 66 million population caught Covid in the same 3 month period (ie no lock-down lets all get out and spread it around all at once) and of those 60% 1% died that would be 330,000 dead in 3 months.... Full hospitals/morgues etc.... And the vast majority of those would be over 65.... No government or society is ever going to be ok with that.
If you're under 45 the mortality rate is thought to be about from 0.2 to 0.45 (less if you're younger a bit more if you're older. So under 1% in fact. Even if you're 50-59 its thought to between 1-1.5%... But up to 14% if you're over 70.....
So assuming you're under 50 with no underlying health conditions your personal risk is low.
It was about not overloading the nhs not about it being horribly risky and dangerous statistically speaking for the healthy under 50's

Instead of repeating those daily breifings day in day out with the same questions again and again they should put this lecture in place of one.

@hettie oh he's but is it likely it would all happen in 3 months? I'm not so sure. Plus now with all the new nightingale hospitals, how many patients would there be before the NHS was actually "overwhelmed"? It's not the same as when we started out.
Plus thousands have already had it now.

I don't understand why so many people think he is so great. He didn't follow his own advice and got infected with covid 19.

Horehound, if we had done nothing then even if we didn’t all get it in 3 months, a large percentage of people (including key workers) would still have been ill all at the same time, so we had to do something to slow it down. Estimates from modelling/previous pandemics I think suggest up to 50% of people could be ill or caring for the sick at any one time 😮. Result- overwhelmed health service, breakdown of society etc.

330 000 (or even 250 000 if some people have already had it). Is still a massive number in a compressed time period, plus that's the deaths not numbers needing hospital beds....

This is great. Some perspective and context. I LOVE him

I'm always disappointed when he isn't on the daily briefing! I think he's a brilliant man and if Chris says it's ok then that's fine by me. Someone on here said he looked like a friendly earthworm and I've grown even more fond of him since then. I watched his lecture and thought it was fab, so calm and informative.

@Jjcrackers what is it about this that is different from the official message since lockdown started? I'm genuinely interested to know.

It's not just about deaths.
People who have a 'low' risk might be less likely to die but:

a) They're more likely to die with a situation where we have unchecked Covid spreading across the UK. They'd be no capacity to treat them.

b) It's also about the economy. Which would be buggered if large numbers of people, including those who run essential services, are all off sick, sometimes for extended periods at the same time. See the threads on here with many young healthy people still struggling several months into Covid.

I think there have been several times when he has allowed obvious lies to pass unchallenged. For example, he stayed quiet when Vallance told us all that we were four weeks behind Italy, when this was very clearly untrue at the time. He told us that large outdoor meetings would have negligible effect. He said it was fine to book holidays, because if everywhere had the virus equally, it would make no difference.

Yes, he is very reassuring. That's why they have him up there. Sadly, I think he has allowed his ambition to outstrip his integrity.