Independent SAGE: Lockdown easing must be delayed

[FriedHam]

I see Independent sage have said that the lockdown easing planned for Monday must be cancelled. This would mean that pubs and restaurants would remain closed indoors and home visiting would not be permitted.

www.theguardian.com/world/2021/may/12/indian-covid-variant-calls-in-question-17-may-reopening-in-uk-say-experts

Christina Pagel of independent sage has said this is necessary because of the Indian variant spreading across the country. However, there is no evidence that the vaccines are any less effective against the Indian variant.

Personally I'm just not sure that we can justify keeping businesses closed for longer and the inevitable job losses that will follow on the off chance that a particular variant may cause problems for the vaccine.

So is this a real danger that necessitates cancelling the easing or a desperate attempt by independent sage to remain relevant?

But scientists from real Sage and others independent of either are also concerned and urging caution.

This government made such a song and dance about taking control of our borders and when they actually need to use this authority appropriately(which they had all along) they fail miserably. Too busy trying to deport people who live her legally and pose no threat and send EU nationals to detention centres while those from high risk Covid countries continued to enter.

We cannot all give up years of our lives. It is just not acceptable. We just have to get on with living.

@Mehoooole

We cannot all give up years of our lives. It is just not acceptable. We just have to get on with living.

Absolutely!

Agree @Mehoooole the economy is trashed, people have lost their livelihoods, possibly their homes, a lot of addiction and abuse is thriving. We cannot go on like this any longer

@MercyBooth

Unsavoury SAGE "INDEPENDENT SAGE a group of scientists setting themselves up to provide more accessible and authoritative advice than SAGE itself recently celebrated the anniversary of their first public meeting. They have doubtless improved transparency by pressuring the government to reveal who sits on the SAGE committee and all the minutes of their meetings to get a better understanding of "the science" the government claimed to be following. They also released a rude video (now deleted) attacking Englands chief medical officer Chris Whitty and the UKs chief scientific advisor Patrick Vallance. This reveals more about the egos , politics and academic ambitions of Independent SAGE than it does about the CMO and the CSA. At its best science provides a safe context to form a hypothesis , prove it wrong, go back to square one and keep repeating it until, say you come up with a Covid vaccine. At its worst vainglorious academics rip each other to shreds on Twitter with a certainty that belies the fact that science is built on error and uncertainty.

Private Eye.

1. Nothing much wrong with saying "hey we've been doing this for a year" in one of their videos!

1. They seem largely in concordance with the CMO and CSA (just not quite as constrained by the politics of their position.

@EducatingArti

But scientists from real Sage and others independent of either are also concerned and urging caution.

this

Have SAGE put out information post meeting?

@Mehoooole

We cannot all give up years of our lives. It is just not acceptable. We just have to get on with living.

Yes this. No other country has had as harsh restrictions as us for so long.we cannot keep going like this, we need our lives back and people need their businesses to survive. As long as deaths and hospitalisations stay down surely that’s all we need?

Seeing the childish spate and huffs they all get into on Twitter makes me think they don’t know what the hell they’re doing. Perhaps that’s unfair, but the general impression I’m left with is that Indy Sage can go fuck themselves.

Most important question WHO

How many who get Indian variant need hospitalisation, not sure yet

May be mostly younger people so could be ok for step 4 or not

Prof Paul Hunter

In Bolton now the Indian variation hot-spot the last recording of a death eeith covid appears to be 28th April avoiding to Manchester Evening News Reports

@PrincessNutNuts what would your suggestions be , because nothing is good enough for you , you seem to only have covid as an issue , no worries about nh , people's jobs and livelihoods and the impact that will have .
Do you work from home and have your shopping delivered.
There are lots of people currently mixing at work so that we can eat , have electric , water , bins collected etc etc
No one seems to be concerned about them.

@MarshaBradyo

Have SAGE put out information post meeting?

www.gov.uk/government/publications/sage-88-minutes-coronavirus-covid-19-response-5-may-2021/sage-88-minutes-coronavirus-covid-19-response-5-may-2021

That's from 5th May, not yesterday

@Mehoooole

We cannot all give up years of our lives. It is just not acceptable. We just have to get on with living.

Yep! My 16 month old has spent nearly his whole life with some form of restrictions. Not doing it anymore. The government will just let the economy tank and ruin businesses but anyone with any sense will continue to see friends and family. Just get the bloody vaccine.

We also shouldny be giving bloody vaccines to the young in the UK and other countries when elderly in other countries have not had them. What happened to all in this together? It's disgusting how self interest has taken over in all this.

We cannot all give up years of our lives. It is just not acceptable. We just have to get on with living

Agree with this. Variants will be with us for as long as the virus is, and the virus, barring worldwide herd immunity, will potentially be with us forever. So we either accept this joyless half-life and continual dance in and out of lockdown as our ‘New Normal’, or crack on.

The retail, hospitality, arts and travel industries are all in crisis. Younger generations - least affected by the virus - will be paying down the debt incurred by lockdown for their entire lifetimes. My friends’ teens are shadows of their former selves - withdrawn and apathetic, missing their targets in school, not contributing in lessons as they hate wearing masks and can’t make themselves heard. Two other friends’ preschoolers have speech and language delay which is believed to have stemmed in part from mask-wearing and poor socialisation. Lockdowns are compounding existing inequalities in every area of life. We can’t keep on doing this.

We tried living with the virus for two months last year.

How did August and September work out for us?

They led to 7 months of restrictions that we are still living under, the NHS unable to do much else but covid, economic carnage, and 80,000 deaths.

@PrincessNutNuts

We tried living with the virus for two months last year.

How did August and September work out for us?

They led to 7 months of restrictions that we are still living under, the NHS unable to do much else but covid, economic carnage, and 80,000 deaths.

What could be the difference do you think

I cannot wait for us to move to personal choice part of this

People on the far end of spectrum can stay home

@MarshaBradyo

I cannot wait for us to move to personal choice part of this

People on the far end of spectrum can stay home

Oh I wish too. We have heard though that at my dd uni some staff are going to be working at home in sept which surely will have an impact on face to face teaching. It’s not going to be a smooth path forward from this.

Yep

I think some posters won’t go out to eat, holiday, theatre, meet people inside for years, it’s up to them though.

which surely will have an impact on face to face teaching.

It’s very unfair to keep denying students this. There’ll be a lot of pushback if this continues into next academic year.

I think some posters won’t go out to eat, holiday, theatre, meet people inside for years, it’s up to them though.

Absolutely their choice, no problem. So long as they dont drag me with them