Shield the vulnerable, it's a mild illness for everyone else? So how come so many deaths happened while we WERE Shielding the vulnerable from Mar 23 - Aug 1?

[IronLawOfGeometricProgression]

“Shield the vulnerable and let the rest of us get on with it” huh?

We did shield the vulnerable.

From March 23rd to August 1st.

Since the vulnerable were protected

and

“it’s a very mild illness for the rest of us”

how do you account for all the dying?

I can only assume the Barrington declaration types think:

Survival of the fittest - let the hunger games begin...

Outbreaks in hospitals and care homes didn’t help. Those that were able to shield in their homes weren’t as exposed.

That’s only one of many reasons.

Because it wasn't the extremely vulnerable who died, it was the vulnerable. They didn't shield. Over a quarter of deaths were diabetics

• many vulnerable not being adequately shielded e.g. in care home
• deaths "with" covid being recorded as "from" covid
• people not being allowed to attend hospital until they were very unwell, by which time it is harder to treat

Also nobody is claiming that NO young and healthy people die from this, it is just a small minority. A small number of unlucky people die from unlikely causes every day.

I was shielding and ended up having to go out. And I imagine some people were the same
Why?
I pay for my prescriptions so they wouldn't deliver them, and I needed urgent ones for a UTI which again I couldn't get delivered
I couldn't get a food delivery for a month despite doing everything to try to and I didn't get the food box until about 8 weeks in

-people dying who had caught it before shielding began

The vulnerable definition was based on existing medical conditions. No one was told to shield based purely on age (which is the biggest factor in covid deaths).

There were many many more cases than reported before the lockdown and shielding was put into place. There was little PPE for front facing occupations such as bus drivers, security staff and medical and care workers. Staff were unwittingly infecting patients and hospital acquired cases high. The carehomes scandal.

The lockdowns and SD together with shielding and better PPE meant that far higher deaths was avoided.

Just shielding the vulnerable while everyone else gets on with it is not possible at this point without hospitals becoming overwhelmed.

Many people with covid were discharged from hospital to care homes and spread it round.

Plus people sadly caught if before shielding began.
Many elderly people were not in shielding list.
People still mixed with others.
People caught it in hospital.

Many reasons,

care homes & catching it before shielding started; or catching it from other elderly (relatives they lived with) who caught it before shielding started.

If you're 80 yrs old & catch covid, you probably caught it from another 80 yr old. People mostly mix with people near their own age.

Shielding was advisory... my neighbour was 'shielding' but still walked the dog daily (good for them both getting out).

How on earth can the vulnerable shield if they are the ones that need more hospital contacts than healthy people? Also, carers coming in. Also, if they don't drive they need transport (so more chances of contact) to get to said hospital appointments. The vulnerable are exactly the ones that you can't hide away from others because they need those others for their health care.

Because they didn't shield most of the vulnerable. The shielding list got it wrong. I think they must've based it on respiratory illnesses. They ignored the evidence from China (and later, Italy) that it was in fact diabetics (1 in 4 of the deaths), cardiovascular conditions, and hypertensives who were, together with kidney patients, those at the very highest risk of death. Covid is more likely an inflammatory and vascular disease.

Discharging Covid positive patients into care homes won't have helped either.

So "Shielding the vulnerable" didn't work?

The first time wasn’t great no. If we he vulnerable were to shield again it should be those I’m with an actual greater risk now we know who they are. It disproportionately affects older people so it should be done on age then the worst underlying conditions.