Should we treat covid like flu now and just get on with life?

[947EliseChalotte]

Is it time to accept covid as another flu and just get on with life and back to normality. The whole point of lockdown was to flatten the curve.

The mentioning of the Nazis in your post is very inappropriate @magicfarawaytrees. There's no comparison whatsoever - this is trying to save people's lives, not to commit genocide, and it trivialises the holocaust.

In any average week in the UK 10,000 people die.
COVID has caused a spike in excess deaths
but as Sweden shows
with guidance and government
lockdowns do more harm than good

If they were serious about saving lives the borders would have been shut down mid February.

We are on an island- this should never have been a problem.

Rather than picking on one part of my post explain to me then how eroding human rights one by one is a way of 'saving lives'. The fact that Muslims are been effectively blamed across social media for local lockdowns at 9pm last night (enforced by the Government on Twitter with no clarity until hours later when speculation had become ridiculous) when celebrating Eid today is extremely concerning to me. But no we mustn't mention events in history even if they raise massive red flags because of similarities out of fear of offending people.

@duffeldaisy

The mentioning of the Nazis in your post is very inappropriate *@magicfarawaytrees*. There's no comparison whatsoever - this is trying to save people's lives, not to commit genocide, and it trivialises the holocaust.

Absolutely this.

It's also worth noting that alongside the Jews, the Nazis also murdered disabled people. Aka The Vulnerable. They were seen as expendable. Many of those moaning about any kind of mitigating measure that protects from coronavirus also seem to see the vulnerable as expendable.

Oh ffs deleting is in force yet again. And this is why no one can have a conversation about this. I've never in my life felt the need to silence people who disagree with me.

What on earth has caused offense now? The fact that I've stated the erosion of our basic human rights is similar to the beginnings of Nazi Germany? Believe it or not they didn't go around commuting genocide at the start.

I'll say it again- where do you expect this country to be in a years time of this continues indefinitely? You might not have a virus but you'll have a lost generation and extreme poverty.

They can"t afford another lockdown

Neither do I think does a national lockdown work. It is unlikely that the entirety of England will be at the same point at the same time.

We locked down too late in London and too soon in other places.

Localised targeted lockdowns should be the way. Based on testing and track and tracing

*If they were serious about saving lives the borders would have been shut down mid February.

We are on an island- this should never have been a problem.*

Oh really? What about all the people in the UK who reckon they had it back in Jan? Are they mistaken? it was in France and Italy by then, so highly likely it was here. Remember this a virus that is asymptomatic in up to 80pct of those who catch it. You can't stop a virus like that.

Or maybe we should just never let any dirty foreigners in EVER with their foreign germs. All those dirty foreign drs and nurses. And stop buying stuff off them. Like food and medicine. We'll be fine with turnips.

FFS

@Orangeblossom777

They can"t afford another lockdown

Indeed not.

The problem is with repeated spikes we'll have 'not lockdowns' where people won't be spending because they are told they must take care so they'll retreat to their homes.

We are economically in a mess because the economy depends on confidence and it is draining away more each day.

Evidence from the 1920 pandemic showed that us states that locked down hardest recovered economically more quickly than the others

Sweden has done no better economically than its neighbours , but it has lost more lives

There is no trade off between lockdown/lives and the economy.

Do the best you can to keep your distance is the quickest way to mend the economy . The government can make rules and suggestions but really they can't do it for us

Dirty foreigners? Are you having a laugh? I've never said that- only you- and it's incredibly racist. It's not racist to temporarily lockdown borders to stop this virus coming in. It didn't start here and had no reason to arrive here.

As for 'dirty'- I take it you think anyone who lives here who has had the virus is also dirty just using your logic there.

I hate to agree with a poster who likes to compare lockdown to the Nazis, but they're absolutely right about the borders.

In fact it's actually more racist to keep the borders open during the pandemic. Afterall it's affecting BAME groups worse than white Brits.

Shutting the borders should have been done in January.
In July its irrelevant.
And Lockdowns are doing more harm than good now.

The biggest risk is extended families in overcrowded homes
cross contaminating at places of worship
hence why the Eid lockdown

the way to reduce that is to make sure

• open spaces are open
• ways of keeping fit are open
• education places are open so kids can help their families change behaviour
• making sure the message is provided in the languages people actually speak

something Local Government is fab at and Whitehall has UTTERLY failed

Personally I'd be happy to go back to normal. I'm not scared of coronavirus. But I appreciate I'm saying that as a young white woman with no health conditions.

@ListeningQuietly

Shutting the borders should have been done in January. In July its irrelevant. And Lockdowns are doing more harm than good now.

The biggest risk is extended families in overcrowded homes
cross contaminating at places of worship
hence why the Eid lockdown

the way to reduce that is to make sure

• open spaces are open
• ways of keeping fit are open
• education places are open so kids can help their families change behaviour
• making sure the message is provided in the languages people actually speak

something Local Government is fab at and Whitehall has UTTERLY failed

Of course it's irrelevant now. But back then it could have been done. Now we are supposed to trust these 'experts' who had the power at the time to do this

@ListeningQuietly

Shutting the borders should have been done in January. In July its irrelevant. And Lockdowns are doing more harm than good now.

The biggest risk is extended families in overcrowded homes
cross contaminating at places of worship
hence why the Eid lockdown

the way to reduce that is to make sure

• open spaces are open
• ways of keeping fit are open
• education places are open so kids can help their families change behaviour
• making sure the message is provided in the languages people actually speak

something Local Government is fab at and Whitehall has UTTERLY failed

As overcrowded homes are one of the biggest risks, we should perhaps look at sorting out the affordable housing issue.

*The biggest risk is extended families in overcrowded homes
cross contaminating at places of worship
hence why the Eid lockdown

the way to reduce that is to make sure

• open spaces are open
• ways of keeping fit are open
• education places are open so kids can help their families change behaviour
• making sure the message is provided in the languages people actually speak

something Local Government is fab at and Whitehall has UTTERLY failed*

Listening I agree with all this but can you say what the closed borders would look like long term?

Do you mean quarantine as NZ is, from January to vaccine?

Now we are supposed to trust these 'experts' who had the power at the time to do this
Experts advise
Politicians make decisions

The UK Prime minister CBA to attend COBRA meetings week after week

the UK Prime minister chose to block Local health experts from providing testing and tracing and information to residents

the UK Prime minister chose to dispose of the UK's pandemic stockpile of PPE last year

do not blame the scientists
blame the man who was voted into Downing Street last December

Marsha
Borders should have been closed in February so that the virus could not spread right across the world.

The thousands of people flying home from February skiing should have been quarantined in hotels
at government expense
for two weeks
which would have stopped the disease getting into every county in the UK

the cost of that quarantine would have been a fraction of the cost of lockdown

Repatriation flights should have flown straight into air bases with quarantine for two weeks
NOT "make your own way across London on the tube

If every country had become a bubble in January
we would not be in the mess we are in

PS
I have zero faith in either a lasting vaccine or immunity.
No other coronavirus has either
why would this one be different ?

Speaking of vaccines, has anyone heard about Russia? Apparently they're just two weeks off approving s vaccine. How effective it is or whether we'll have access to it on the UK, I don't know.

@SheepandCow
Do you genuinely believe a single word that comes out of Russia
have you not read what they are getting up to ?

Listening I was musing on another thread whether for the next pandemic we’d see everyone close their borders to country of origin from day 1 rather than wait around for the WHO’s announcements of evidence non-human or human transmission.

If we don’t get a vaccine though then NZ and any other countries who have eliminated it will have to decide whether to let it in.

Marsha
I concur with your musing.
I can see public health bodies the world over realising that closing borders early and not letting it in
HAS to be a better option than this mess

and the next pandemic might have a MUCH higher death rate
so that early action will be key

the WHO needs a shake up
but we have too many strong men leaders to allow it to shake in the right way