If the government found out tomorrow of a cheap & readily available cure for Covid...

[Mummabeary]

...do you think they would tell us?

I'm just pondering this question. Like supposing it was suddenly found that a glass of cranberry juice a day completely prevented Covid. No issues and we could all get back to normality (supplies of Ocean spray allowing!) Given where we are with the pandemic at this point, do you think they would immediately call a briefing and tell us this solution and open everything up from Monday, or would they hide this information from us given the investment to date in policies to prevent Covid, the investment/profit in a vaccine etc?

Interested what people think. I like to think governments have our best interests at heart but I'm starting to worry that we've got in so deep now that even if there was a simple solution, they wouldn't take it.

I imagine it would take more than a day to gather sufficient evidence to prove something has a definitive effect in preventing or curing covid

I'm sure it would get leaked to the press during clinical trials if there was a genuine breakthrough even if the government tried to keep it hush til they had enough proof

The government needs a full functioning economy, why on earth would they keep us in lockdown with entire sectors of the economy closed down, if a cure was found that rendered lockdown unnecessary? While I don't necessarily believe they always have our best interests at heart, they do need money from personal and business taxes, and if the cure meant the NHS was no longer about to collapse, of course they would tell us and open the economy back up.

Why on earth would the government want to flush the economy down the toilet for no reason?!?

Even if they did there is no way they would have the competence to do that let alone keep it quiet.

If it was proved that a glass of cranberry juice (hypothetically) cured covid, then I don't believe it would he kept secret, the government would do whatever they could to end the pandemic! They would probably have to control the distribution of cranberry juice somehow though, as otherwise there would be a crazy rush for it... some unscrupulous types would buy every carton in the shop and flog it for £100 a glass. You'd probably get sugary water and food colouring sold as fake cranberry juice.

You'd also get a load of conspiracy theories about "Big Juice"; how cranberries are actually poisonous; microchips in the cartons; and how the pandemic was deliberately started by a shadowy organisation know as "Ocean Spray". (They are called that because the "Ocean" refers to their ambitions to take over the world and the world is mainly ocean and also flat, and they want to "Spray" us with Chemtrails, blah blah blah wake up sheeple etc etc etc.)

Well they know vit d would make a lot of difference but dont fortify food with it. All they have done is give some to the ecv. So who knows.

Of course they would tell us. Covid is BJ's biggest headache. I'm sure he wants it gone.

No
And if they did our civil liberties wouldn't be restored and they'd still say restrictions needed

No, I think they’d keep it to themselves because a tanking economy is obviously what they want and a desperate population with nothing left to lose is far easier to control than one in which people are prosperous and happy.

Of course they'd tell us. They don't want this situation any more than we do.

However they'd probably fuck it up eg commission a private firm to buy all the cranberry juice, spend billions on it and end up with lorries full of mushrooms or something. That couldn't get out of Kent.

Can you even get cranberry juice? I think that Ocean Spray stuff is technically a juice drink, mostly water with a bit of concentrate added plus sugar. It might be the only thing that would get us to use up the 99% full cranberry sauce jar left in the fridge since The Quietest Christmas Ever, just as soon as we find out the recipe.

And yes, of course there would be research followed by a national project to grow, juice and distribute cranberries. Someone would be angry that their mum couldn't get any at the shops, which just shows the government are trying to kill them or that everyone else has been enormously selfish in buying the 18 cranberries that usually sit about in Sainsbury's to meet demand.

Crazy question.

There are clinical trials ongoing in the UK (RECOVERY being one of them) testing efficacy of various compounds in prevention/lowered mortality in COVID. Results are being reported transparently and of course if something was found to be 100% effective it would be front page news, touted to every other country etc etc

@LakeGeneva

Of course they'd tell us. They don't want this situation any more than we do.

However they'd probably fuck it up eg commission a private firm to buy all the cranberry juice, spend billions on it and end up with lorries full of mushrooms or something. That couldn't get out of Kent.

Actually made me lol, yes definitely

Are you on drugs?

Principle trial is reported to be expanding low-cost treatments (including Ivermectin) in trials that are to be delivered in the community, not just hospitals like RECOVERY.

www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-01-23/trial-for-wonder-drug-that-may-reduce-covid-deaths-times-says

www.principletrial.org/

Why would the Tories, who's main interests are economic profit, the free market and civil liberties, suddenly be into imposing a bunch of measures which run contrary to those interests? Just for the hell of it?

Whose*

@HSHorror

Well they know vit d would make a lot of difference but dont fortify food with it. All they have done is give some to the ecv. So who knows.

And suggested it can't hurt to take vitD supplements which are readily available

Yes if a cheap "cure" for Covid was found they would tell us. Of course.

Conspiracy theories are so much fun.

ocean spray, don't scientologists have an organisation named something like that. they seem quite keen on taking things over, and keeping secrets.

Thanks for your responses. It seems pretty conclusive that they would tell us which is reassuring. I'm really not a conspiracy theorist, just a couple of threads on here last night got me pondering the question. Specifically the one on obesity & the one on the constant adverts in the media to stay awake from others. It got me thinking, why wouldn't you intersperse some of these adverts with some advice to eat more healthily, exercise more, take vit D etc. I know the answer is that politically it would be harder so they haven't but then it got me thinking about how there are always more factors at play in politics & governments than just caring for public health (see the fact that smoking has never been banned).

The other part I was thinking was just how huge this vaccination operation has been and how much has been invested in it- I couldn't imagine all these sites just being stopped tomorrow, even if they were no longer needed.

The vaccine would still be needed even if a cure was discovered - we want to suppress the virus as much as possible, not give it more opportunities to mutate by allowing it to spread through complacency that we could treat it - what if it mutated to evade the treatment? Prevention and cure need to go hand in hand, every tool at our disposal used to defeat this thing.

Good point although it might be much more of a challenge to convince people they need the vaccine if their chance of being ill from Covid was massively reduced due to a cheap and readily available cure. Which I guess could be a reason for not promoting the cure until the vaccination programme is complete?

Yes they'd tell us.
Messaging around obesity and physical activity much more complex.

why wouldn't you intersperse some of these adverts with some advice to eat more healthily, exercise more, take vit D

They do. Maybe not vitamin D but there are currently a couple of public health campaign advert type of things about keeping active, eating healthily, eating more veg, drinking less, stopping smoking etc.