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Covid

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The elephant in the room which is why these measures won’t work.....

206 replies

TransplantedScouser · 05/01/2021 11:24

It’s not shops spreading covid or garden centres or people going on walks........

It’s also largely not down to offices or workplaces or even pubs and restaurants.

Two things :

Schools because children are known infection vectors

And people visiting friends and family

If the government said we’ll keep open the economy but you can’t see your friends and family in private settings then it would probably have a bigger effect

Sadly the latter is impossible to police and you get people saying “why can I go to the pub but not see my mother in her house”

And it’s because friends and family do not socially distance when there is not someone making them. At least in public there are monitors to come extent in the form of external people and staff.

It’s people like my 76 year old mum giving her friend a lift to the supermarket once a week so they are in the same car for over half an hour

Or having my aunt and uncle over to visit - well we sit on separate chairs - yes, in a small living room with the windows closed because you are old and feel cold

Or my friends kids running up to give us a hug when we pass them on the street.

Closing the economy down is a smoke screen because what actually needs to be done is impossible to police

OP posts:
GreenlandTheMovie · 07/01/2021 12:27

nuitdesetoiles Interesting segment on C4 news the other day from a medical scientific type person who belies this "people breaking rules" theory. The media loves to report on rule breaks, and the general public loves to spot it and gloatily and sanctimoniously take the higher ground re "flouting" Inc numerous FB friends who love ranting about a covid "flout" but had grandparents round at Xmas. The guy on the news was saying the "rule break" theory isn't supported and the majority have been mostly compliant, to what end as it's not working and we're still locked up and blaming each other.

Its refreshing to hear about people actually thinking about the efficacy of lockdowns, because they mainly seem to be introduced as a panic measure by politicians worried about their reputations and future electability, surrounding themselves with unelected experts who tell them what they want to hear.

In reality, we don't know if lockdowns suppress viruses or simply prolong their courses - theres no research to provide evidence over a long enough period.

I have over 2000 FB friends all over the world and out of those I have the only person I know who has been hospitalised for Covid. He s 77 and should be getting released today and has been very bright and on social media throughout his short stay. But this is just anecdotal, although its very hard to find accurate information about how serious the threat is, amidst the deliberate fearmongering amongst news outlets.

SchadenfreudePersonified · 09/01/2021 10:40

In reality, we don't know if lockdowns suppress viruses or simply prolong their courses - theres no research to provide evidence over a long enough period.

The impression I'd always had was that it was prolongation - that almost everyone would eventually contract COVID, but that by spreading and slowing the rate of infection, it would allow the NHS the chance to deal with it to best effect.

It's much more manageable for a hospital to have 1,000 admissions spread over a year, than 1,000 admission in the same week.

Yohoheaveho · 09/01/2021 11:41

Do lock downs suppress the virus or prolong the course of the virus🤔
if you think that lock downs prolong the course of the virus presumably you have an underlying assumption that if we let everyone get it everyone will be immune and the virus will have nowhere to go?
Which further rests on the assumption that there is lasting immunity to the virus.
Without immunity it will just keep coming back, damaging our organs further with each infection

SchadenfreudePersonified · 09/01/2021 15:30

I don\t have that underlying assumption about immunity at all, Yoho - I have no idea whether there will be immunity or not - all I know is that slowing/prolonging allows the health services to cope better.

GreenlandTheMovie · 09/01/2021 18:18

@Yohoheaveho

Do lock downs suppress the virus or prolong the course of the virus🤔 if you think that lock downs prolong the course of the virus presumably you have an underlying assumption that if we let everyone get it everyone will be immune and the virus will have nowhere to go? Which further rests on the assumption that there is lasting immunity to the virus. Without immunity it will just keep coming back, damaging our organs further with each infection
I don't know. I'm no medic/virologist. Although they aren't supplying any answers either. I do think they're reasonable questions to ask.

I find it intriguing that there are many cases of a husband and wife where one gets infected and suffers quite badly, and the other consistently tests negative. I wonder why that is and its maybe worthy of more research.

Puzzledandpissedoff · 09/01/2021 18:57

I find it intriguing that there are many cases of a husband and wife where one gets infected and suffers quite badly, and the other consistently tests negative. I wonder why that is and its maybe worthy of more research

I've often thought the same, Greenland, especially regarding larger groups where only one person seems to get it

We're unlikely to hear anything about whether lockdowns suppress or prolong the virus though - at least not yet. They're just about getting most to comply by insisting it's the only possible answer, so they're hardly going to change that narrative in the short term

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