Why not a short VERY strict lockdown now to nip in bid so to speak??

[shesellsseashells99]

Would it not make sense to act now with a very strict national lockdown for maybe 2 weeks? Instead of waiting until everything is out of control again....

About 'hospitals being close to capacity' - I'm in a local lockdown area and they're nowhere near close to capacity here. Stop scaremongering.

Because it’s not going away, if we literally lock everyone inside then we would only be clear until people starting travelling again. Also two weeks is possible incubation period, so lock down would need to be 3/4 weeks

I really don't fancy a national lick down it sounds very unhygienic

Many studies said if we had locked down 2 weeks earlier our dreadful death figures wouldn't have been so bad.

If we need shorter lock downs, that's surely better than going back to the draconian months long one?
Mini lock downs to keep business open.

We need hospitals to open up.

@CarlaH

We might well have Nightingale hospitals. What we don't have is staff to work in them.

Presumably we never did. So what was the plan when they were built?

People won't listen and I don't blame them.
Now we have localised data that shows where the spikes are located. People who live in areas where there is low/zero transmission will not lockdown a second time.

My ward has had 10 cases (in a population of 10,000) since lockdown eased and only a handful more overall. We have lots of pubs and restaurants that are busy but transmission isn't happening there.
What would another lockdown achieve apart from harming businesses?

@SockYarn

Which hospitals are these please

These will the ones where someone's best friend's cousin's sister works, or where the neighbour's brother's taxi driver's friend works.

All the way through this there have been posters with friends/relatives spouting nonsense.

Exactly @SockYarn

As it happens my cousin DOES work on a COVID ward.

It's empty.

[quote Derbygerbil]@Grobagsforever

No it wouldn't. COVID deaths are not rising, the virus has already ripped through the vulnerable.

This is plain wrong. Despite the death toll in care homes about 70% didn’t have outbreaks. And the 2.2 million people shielding are largely still with us, precisely because the vast majority (95% according to a survey) been shielding since March!

However, I do agree that the lockdown that the OP is proposing would cause more harm than good, and that the virus would simply emerge again at current levels month or so after the lockdown ended.[/quote]
@Derbygerbil not everyone in a care home is vulnerable though. Plenty of elderly folk will have been asymptotic.

Absolutely a short sharp full lockdown would reduce impact of second wave and could have saved many lives.
Close our borders for three weeks. Test any people returning for essential reasons and enforce isolation. No travel outside of region. Proper testing in adequate numbers.

The virus deaths are not contrary to popular opinion continuing fall - they are being recorded in a different way.
Many very vulnerable people are still at huge risk. It hasn’t been ripped through and killed them all yet despite the governments best effort’s.

A short effective lockdown with proper border management afterwards would be less damaging and more palatable.

ITU bed occupancy figures are rising. Nightingales are on 48 hour notice.

@Blackforesthotchoc

Fucking hell, yes, let's have a Melbourne style lockdown, for a few weeks. Then let's have it again in a few months time when it inevitably resurfaces. Then lets do it again when the fifth, sixth, seventh and eigth waves come. And when every functioning part of the economy, every individuals mental health, every thing that makes life worth living is permanently fucked, lets congratulate ourselves for suppressing a virus so terrifying it leaves 99.9% of people alive and kills less in a year than cancer carries off in a few months. Where do I sign up.

@Blackforesthotchoc

Couldn't have put it better myself

@Grobagsforever Heartlands in Birmingham .

The thing is by bringing cases down for a short while it gives us more time to work on vaccines/more effective treatment. We have already learnt a lot since the virus was first in circulation so delay tactics would help this.

Its also a case of protecting the NHS not just for covid cases but for everything else that needs treating. If we over run the hospitals then it'll be hard to pull it back.

No, because for it to work it would need to be a full lockdown. No ambulances on the road, no workers in hospitals, shops ALL shut.... More would probably die as a result than would be potentially saved

@Rosehip10

MN ideas on a "very strict lockdown" seems to be middle class people working from home while ocado deliveries/amazon etc continue to come as required.

@Rosehip10

Yup. No concept of what lockdown did to thousands of vulnerable people

@CherryPavlova

ITU bed occupancy figures are rising. Nightingales are on 48 hour notice.

@CherryPavlova

Link to a reputable source please?

[quote Sugar00]@Grobagsforever Heartlands in Birmingham .[/quote]
@Sugar00 - do you have a link to a reputable source please?

I'm not sure people would trust the government that it would be just two weeks. Last time they locked down they said they'd review it in 3 weeks. I don't think we expected it to go on as long as it did. This time people have less appetite for it and the argument that it's to give the NHS time to get prepared doesn't hold any more.

calling for national lick down

It's worth a try surely, all the healthy people get infected at the same time licking confirmed cases spit, then 2 weeks isolation, herd immunity, job done.

@sirfredfredgeorge

calling for national lick down

It's worth a try surely, all the healthy people get infected at the same time licking confirmed cases spit, then 2 weeks isolation, herd immunity, job done.

Personally I'm all for a lick down, depending on who's doing the licking. Could be just the morale booster we all need just now.

@sirfredfredgeorge . I was proposing under 25 summer Covid camps to get them all infected, but noone took me up on the idea!

Grobagsforever. Unfortunately I can’t share as I get information through work and it has a restricted access requirement on it.

@CherryPavlova

Grobagsforever. Unfortunately I can’t share as I get information through work and it has a restricted access requirement on it.

@CherryPavlova And yet you can post it on the Internet.

Come off it.

@sirfredfredgeorge grin. I was proposing under 25 summer Covid camps to get them all infected, but noone took me up on the idea!

Were you offering @pennydreadful's lick down though as part of it? It really might've been the incentive they needed.

Although I realise I need to add "other pandemics exist in the world today, please ensure you take appropriate precautions during the national lick down."