[quote ICouldBeTheOne]@MonkeyToesOfDoom
Again, you're still thinking CV deaths are the only deaths that matter.
Why do you think that? You keep saying do we want our loved ones to die of CV or not care about others who do die of it?
But let's take your approach - Do you not care about people dying now and who will die of treatable illnesses that can't access treatment? Or the people dying now and who will die due to the socioeconomic effects of the CV response?
If you're going to pluck numbers out of the air, what if we look back in 5 years and 100,000 died of CV and 300,000 died because of the response?
Would that have been justified to you?
Do you want someone you love to die of cancer in a year because they weren't diagnosed early enough? Do you want someone you love to kill themselves in 2 years because mental health services have been even more decimated than previously? Do you want someone you love to starve to death in a hostel because of further cuts to housing and unemployment benefits (happened under austerity measures and what we're facing now is going to be far worse). Someone you love dying of diabetes in 10 years when they started to become obese during lockdown? Someone you loved who was depressed by lockdown, lost their job and started drinking too much which becomes an addiction and a threat to health and a million other reasons...
No-one wants anyone to die. But people are dying every day as a result of the CV response and most, not from CV itself. And there will be deaths for many years far after CV has become another illness we live alongside.
How much 'tighter and longer' do you want lockdown to be?[/quote]
Can you not see how the number of Covid cases affects all other healthcare services?
GPs transformed to telemedicine to try and stop patients infected with Covid from going to surgerys. Many are still not operating as normal.
Outpatient departments running mainly telephone or video consultations, again to try and prevent transmission.
Operations cancelled to prevent transmission but also because of infection control measures meaning less patients can be seen.
During the height of the first wave areas of the hospitals were under intense pressure so A and E, ITU, respiratory and medical wards which caused staff and resources to be diverted which had further knock on effects.
Chemo was suspended for some patients because the risk of infection was too high.
Dentists closed because the risk of infection, cross infection and high viral load exposure was too great.
How do you think any of the above is helped by allowing rates of Covid infection to rise again? The argument makes no sense. If you want the NHS to start doing its usual work then infections have to be kept low. I wonder how that could be achieved?