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.

If there are only a few cases and people are isolating if they are ill, then of course those who are unaffected won't spread it in street parties. It's partly pure chance as to who's about. Not everyone is living in an area with such a low incidence rate, sadly.
Um no
You misunderstand the data
my ward is bang on average for COVID (because it scores sky high on the IMD metrics)

10,000 people die in the UK every week, COVID or no COVID

Many of the people round here have effectively not locked down

• manual workers still socialising with extended families

but the rate is still so low that masks are decoration

Zero Covid.

If other countries can do it, why can't we?

Not this weak, defeatist, negative namby-pamby "we've just got to accept it and let it kill as many British people as it wants" nonsense.

Even the bloody Swedish have belatedly worked out that you buy the possibility herd immunity with the corpses of your citizens.

Chavvy
Which countries have achieved zero covid ?
How many of them import 52% of their fresh food on a daily basis ?

Well that would be great if it turns out to be true. But in the meantime we're dealing with an illness that has killed more people worldwide this year than any other communicable disease and more than several other big hitters like malaria and HIV put together. Also which appears to lead to long term life limiting complications requiring extensive rehabilitation for a substantial number of survivors. It is really really serious and we need to try to limit the spread.

Given that it spreads via human contact and activity, this means limiting human contact and activity. By everyone, because we're all humans and we are the transmitters who are responsible and also who have agency ie we can make choices around this. Putting measures in place to enable or if necessary enforce this is the opposite of nazi policies, because it's about preserving human life, through the actions of other humans - the actions required are actually all to do with collective responsibility. This is incidentally why I think that countries generally big on collective responsibility are doing so much better than the bloody minded English citizens, raging about pubs being closed and wearing face masks in shops.

@ListeningQuietly

Chavvy Which countries have achieved zero covid ? How many of them import 52% of their fresh food on a daily basis ?

Oh, is this the reason for the suggestion that goods would have to be deposited at the border and then driven onwards by uk-registered drivers? I wondered what that was about.

I assume we could aim for zero covid, it would be about the cost. But logistically most things are possible.

@ListeningQuietly

Chavvy Which countries have achieved zero covid ? How many of them import 52% of their fresh food on a daily basis ?

Straight back in with the negative and defeatist, eh?

I don’t think any country has managed it from these kinds of numbers have they

NZ had how many deaths when full lockdown occurred?

Which countries have got zero Covid? Apart from incredibly remote ones like Nauru. Ridiculous to compare.

@MarshaBradyo

I don’t think any country has managed it from these kinds of numbers have they

NZ had how many deaths when full lockdown occurred?

Negative. Defeatist.

Chavvy I laughed at your silly post.

How would you do it? Go

@Waxonwaxoff0

Which countries have got zero Covid? Apart from incredibly remote ones like Nauru. Ridiculous to compare.

Negative. Defeatist.

@MarshaBradyo

Chavvy I laughed at your silly post.

How would you do it? Go

Negative. Defeatist.

Come on then outline your approach

I'm interested in anyone who doesn't fancy zero covid as an alternative to 'low levels circulating endlessly with repeat localised outbreaks'

I might fancy it I’m just wondering how we get to it from here! Given that we’d be the first to do it from such high numbers

Until Chavvy is elected into government I don't think she has to outline a clear and comprehensive national policy. Just to say that she requires the people who we have elected to do so. Perhaps others have different requirements from their political leaders. I don't really understand why a person wouldn't want this, but nowt so queer as folk eh.

Yes but you’ve got to at least consider whether it’s possible.

So Lineman just a couple of steps would do

I could say I want no one else to die from COVID. Ok don’t ask questions negative defeatist, not elected say no more.

Not helpful though is it

I don't have to consider a goddamn thing. I have elected a government, we employ them, other politicians and public health strategists. I consider the numbers we have here to be indicative that they have failed in their duty re this crisis and I want them to do better. I'm not going to do their jobs for them because I recognise that I can't. But likewise I am not going to shrug my shoulders in the face of 46000 dead
and say ah well, it's probably too difficult, best not make a fuss.

@MarshaBradyo

I might fancy it I’m just wondering how we get to it from here! Given that we’d be the first to do it from such high numbers

It would definitely be hard, and I'm not saying I'm sure it could be done, but we do have some things in our favour such as being an island nation(s) and relatively rich compared to most of the world.

We of all countries should definitely be running numbers and models and making plans to see if becoming covid-free could be done, and to see whether the net cost in terms of ruined business and industries might actually be less that way than by carrying on as we are now.

Yes but how from here? It’s too rampant. At the beginning yes. At the numbers that NZ had yes.

Ok stamp your feet and consider nothing fine.

I’m asking is it possible and how? Since no one is willing to say, weird. Tg all threads are not like this how strange.

And in the mean time we have nothing to lose by all behaving as if we're trying to get numbers down to zero, because then at least we might have a chance of getting them even lower and keeping them low.

Many people aren't going to come out and spend money while infection rates are as high as they are now, so that needs to be considered too.

Ok Eeyore finally a proper poster. Lineman was odd with his / her goddamn thing statement

@eeyoresmiles exactly, some kind of long term strategy, with targets, short term goals, long term goals, with measurable outcomes, contingencies when they're not met etc - basic fucking management in other words. A good first step would be not fucking tweeting that a sixth of the country is back in lockdown at half past nine on a fucking Thursday.

@MarshaBradyo

Yes but how from here? It’s too rampant. At the beginning yes. At the numbers that NZ had yes.

Ok stamp your feet and consider nothing fine.

I’m asking is it possible and how? Since no one is willing to say, weird. Tg all threads are not like this how strange.

Well the initial steps are the same as those we should be doing anyway - behaving in ways that keep infection numbers dropping. The extra bit is the border stuff and I don't think anyone here is qualified to judge whether the costs of reducing travel and demanding quarantine for all human passengers will be outweighed by the benefits of things having a chance to return properly to normal internally. In terms of what we'd actually need to do we can look to NZ and Australia for quarantine experience.