Surely opening up now is the least worst option?

[Warhertisuff]

What's the point of continuing to suppress Covid at the moment. All it does it kick the can on the road..

Either we never, ever open up, or we have to accept that, when we do, cases will rise until we've acquired enough immunity through a combination of infection and vaccination.

At the moment, vaccines work pretty well against the current variants.... The more we suppress Covid now, the less immune as a society we'll be when a vaccine evasive variant (and it probably will whatever we do here), and if we can't relax restrictions now, we surely won't be able to over the autumn and winter.

Where we are is admittedly pretty shit, but continuing to suppress Covid now would just be counterproductive. "Letting it rip" sounds callous, but the alternatives seem worse or unworkable.

Yet many people seem determined to persist with the reflex to suppress Covid and continue with restrictions and measures to curtail spread. What's the point?

The thing is we are pretty much open now.
We aren't in lockdown.
I worry about my children's education.
With isolating and schools closing it's all a mess.

I'm not supposed to go to my office.

There are special, relatively new, prone-to-change, rules to follow in all the indoor spaces I might be allowed to be in.

Travel is a big hassle.

I could be legally required to isolate indoors for many days on basis of suspected exposure.

Doesn't feel "open" to me.
Nothing is "normal" or will be for a long time.

ps: I was out volunteering today & suddenly had unexplained coughing (for about 2 minutes). I worried that people would fret at me. Coughing stopped when I blew my nose. That anxiety isn't normal.

Yes we need to go forwards rather than backwards.

If it’s delayed by a month, the same arguments will be made about not opening yet, etc. At some point we have to just do it. I appreciate there’s a debate about whether now is that time, but I can’t really see there being a perfect time.

It would make sense to open up now, if levels were low. They aren't. They're already going up exponentially. Hospital numbers are already increasing. Open up all the way, and the likelihood is we'll have to have a proper lockdown again. Keep what restrictions there are, and we might just scrape through without.

It feels like the situation has changed in a few months. Originally the plan seemed to be to get as much of the population as possible vaccinated quickly, and that would have resulted in a reduction in transmission (as two vaccinated people are much less likely to give or catch covid from each other than two unvaccinated people) as well as serious illness. It has really helped reduce serious illness, hospitalisation and deaths, but with the delta variant, things look quite different now though and suppressing the numbers feels almost impossible now. So maybe it is a case of "if not now, when?". I do think some measures should still have been kept in place, for example masks and social distancing where possible.

In my head I feel like the vaccines have put us back to March 2020. So there’s still a very real issue with a novel virus but we’e not facing the same level of danger from it. We know more about it and there are better vaccines and treatment in development.

But there is still a pandemic and we’re doing very little to mitigate that which I can’t get my head around.

I think the government are hedging their bets here; delta might infiltrate other countries on the same scale, vaccines might have a larger effect on transmission rates and cases might level off at a manageable level but if any of that fails we’re going to be back to extreme measures to suppress covid or we will be isolated globally. We can’t function on a global scale if other countries manage to keep it suppressed and we don’t.

I think opening up now is the right thing to do. What I don't get is opening up, but still insisting on people isolating if they have contact with a positive case. How are businesses and public services meant to function if half their staff are at home isolating? It is already causing massive issues where I work, and it is only going to get worse as cases increase.

Can can understand to a point why we’re opening next week, but to make the wearing of face coverings a decision made by us, well, beggars belief.

Why do you think it’s one and done? This virus mutates and reinfects, there’s no point allowing everyone to get ill just to do so again 6-8 months later. Look at Brazil. It’s basically been open the last 18 months and it’s still wracking up 1500 deaths a day.

We need to accept that in the medium term we must take a middle path, wear masks indoors, emphasise ventilation in enclosed spaces etc. Otherwise we’ll back in lockdown yet again.

Yet many people seem determined to persist with the reflex to suppress Covid and continue with restrictions and measures to curtail spread. What's the point?

Because they don't understand that the least worst option is just that - the least worst. People seem to think we can 'control' the virus when we really can't. It's here to say. Many people are going to get sick, some seriously. A month from now, schools will be going back. A month later, it's coming into winter. And then flu season. And so on and so forth. There's no 'best' time to open up. It's all a risk. But doing so in high summer is indeed the least worst option.

The government should have made the wearing of masks mandatory in all settings, except for those exempt.

I just can’t fathom out why. Herd immunity, but not when so many are still not vaccinated!

@IndigoC

Why do you think it’s one and done? This virus mutates and reinfects, there’s no point allowing everyone to get ill just to do so again 6-8 months later. Look at Brazil. It’s basically been open the last 18 months and it’s still wracking up 1500 deaths a day.

We need to accept that in the medium term we must take a middle path, wear masks indoors, emphasise ventilation in enclosed spaces etc. Otherwise we’ll back in lockdown yet again.

This

What international scientists think of freedom day

www.pscp.tv/w/c8Ay6DF4ZUVXWXJ5ek9OS1B8MXJteFB6Z3FlcHlHTuUhKTBsssfl8bRVzCfMboAOdzvi0I1IokhaKsR8hYQV?s=08

We don't really know if it's the "least worst option". It's all a bit of a gamble.

There are alternatives which aren't unworkeable, for instance continuing with current restrictions, waiting till more people are vaccinated, vaccinating children,locking down hard for a short period, supporting and encouraging people to test, isolate, protect vulnerable people, looking at what works in other countries, etc. Not saying they are any less worse, but just some examples that sprang to mind immediately rather than just accepting there's no possible alternative.

We have a bit of an unknown situation at the moment with a highly vaccinated population and a highly transmissible new variant. We don't have a precedent for this. It may be the least worst option but we just don't know yet. And it comes with a high degree of risk.

This is the WORST of all options.
Open up when there are 50 000 cases.
Absolute madness. This and a population that hasn't been vaccinated enough. Add to this the more infectious delta variant. Absolute lunacy.

[quote SonnetForSpring]What international scientists think of freedom day

www.pscp.tv/w/c8Ay6DF4ZUVXWXJ5ek9OS1B8MXJteFB6Z3FlcHlHTuUhKTBsssfl8bRVzCfMboAOdzvi0I1IokhaKsR8hYQV?s=08[/quote]
Watch this.
Boris is not giving as shit about the population. He is gaslighting people to believe it will all be fine. We will have this wave and then another in Autumn winter with a new variant that escapes the vaccine. Noone will then be protected.

It would make sense to open up now, if levels were low. They aren't. They're already going up exponentially. Hospital numbers are already increasing.

This, and the fact that every other civilised nation is warning against it. It's not just our own efforts that are being jeopardised, it's those of other countries as well, what we do impacts on others.

I expect other countries will be adding us to their red lists in the near future (the US already have). The government are making us laughing stocks again.

@Tupla

We don't really know if it's the "least worst option". It's all a bit of a gamble.

There are alternatives which aren't unworkeable, for instance continuing with current restrictions, waiting till more people are vaccinated, vaccinating children,locking down hard for a short period, supporting and encouraging people to test, isolate, protect vulnerable people, looking at what works in other countries, etc. Not saying they are any less worse, but just some examples that sprang to mind immediately rather than just accepting there's no possible alternative.

We have a bit of an unknown situation at the moment with a highly vaccinated population and a highly transmissible new variant. We don't have a precedent for this. It may be the least worst option but we just don't know yet. And it comes with a high degree of risk.

But we are never going to be able to know for definite whether the choice we make is the right one because we won't be able to go back in time and try out something different to see how we get on. Eventually we have to just make a call.

There are risks associated with failing to move forward at the right time too, no option is without risk and at the end of the day it's a judgement call. The U.K. has made decisions in the past that were criticised at the time (delaying second doses for example) but that ultimately turned out to be the right choice. Hopefully we are making the right choice now too.

Dr Chris Witty and other supporters of this should be ashamed of themselves for backing a decision that supports the mass infection of the people of the UK and which can ultimately cause the death and illness of the people in the UK, many of whom are young and have a right to be protected. They are failing the public.

This is not the right time for sure. Wonder how many thousands have caught it today. We need to vaccinated and maintain mitigations.

Many, many people who are double vaxed are catching it. Some serious, some not so. We have no idea of knowing.

“Warhertisuff

What's the point of continuing to suppress Covid at the moment. All it does it kick the can on the road..”

Further. On up the road more people will have been vaccinated.

A lot is being cancellled now because so many people are getting it, or isolating due to someone in their bubble getting it, that there are staff shortages. So there might be a lock-down by default anyway.

@Orf1abc

It would make sense to open up now, if levels were low. They aren't. They're already going up exponentially. Hospital numbers are already increasing.

This, and the fact that every other civilised nation is warning against it. It's not just our own efforts that are being jeopardised, it's those of other countries as well, what we do impacts on others.

I expect other countries will be adding us to their red lists in the near future (the US already have). The government are making us laughing stocks again.

This