On course for another lockdown?

[TalkToTheHand123]

Covis cases on a rapid rise, heading towards 100,000 daily cases. Are we heading for another lockdown?

Government should at least have retained mask wearing.

Well they did that in Scotland and cases are actually higher so ...

@FoxyFoxyLoxy I'm glad you're not suffering too badly but suggesting that because that's your experience it must be the same for most people is ridiculous.

Have a look at the recently tested positive thread on here. Lots of healthy, fit people who have been really floored by it. Not a tiny minority at all.

@EvilPea

No. It’s the hospital numbers to watch not the case numbers.

Yes and it’s hospitals cases that are climbing….. (number if cases not relevant at all anymore as we all know)

Given lockdowns don’t work and only achieve a reduction in infections of 0.2%, all the while destroying the economy, jobs, education, mental health….yeah, good idea!

@hamstersarse

Yes I read a study by John's Hopkins that said lockdowns reduced covid mortality by 0.2% only and that full closure of shops etc only reduced infection by 10%.

@MalbecandToast

I get that you two are trying to argue the same point. I am reading it wrong or are these two very different claims?

We won't have a full lockdown again. We are locking down little bits of society by stealth though.

This week we had hundreds of thousands of visitors to our racecourse. The local care home was back to one hour timeslots for one named visitor.

St Patrick's day saw our pubs packed to the gunwhales, but hospitals are cutting visiting, and ambulances back to queueing outside for hours.

Local schools have just been hit with chickenpox, followed by another wave of covid. Lots more home learning days there.

Just feels like we are putting our heads in the sand and hoping like hell for no new variant.

Yes and it’s hospitals cases that are climbing

A large percentage of them are incidental covid cases

@TheKeatingFive

Government should at least have retained mask wearing.

Well they did that in Scotland and cases are actually higher so ...

I've been on the fence re masks all the way through but the Scottish covid numbers going through the roof with masks have made me really question how useful they really are.

No lockdown but covid disruptions will be the daily norm.

No chance! Fourth doses are going to made available to over-75s and the CEV from Monday and most people are experiencing nothing worse than a cold.

I still can’t visit my grandmother with her great granddaughters so some people are still in lockdown. I swear prisoners get more rights than elderly people in care homes.

Dawn our clinics in general practice are heaving, fully booked for weeks ahead. As they have been through most of the pandemic.
We currently have three staff off unwell with Covid though so all their clinics and appointments cancelled and not enough staff to step in. That's the bigger problem.
No lockdown though.

@zafferana

No chance! Fourth doses are going to made available to over-75s and the CEV from Monday and most people are experiencing nothing worse than a cold.

I've had my fourth dose and I'm currently on my fifth Covid infection and it's the worst one I've had yet!

Of course lockdowns work while they're in force. If you prevent people from mixing and make everybody who's not carrying out life or death work stay at home then a reduction in transmission of contagious disease is inevitable. Omicron BA.2 is highly contagious but it doesn't float out through your windows and into next door. More or Less took the "John Hopkins study" to pieces.

However when we get out of lockdown everyone would immediately start to get the virus, so it's only going to prevent deaths if you're using that time to improve vaccines and medical treatment or to "flatten the curve" if you have a health service which is completely overwhelmed and people are dying in hospital car parks.

Would it be worthwhile in the current circumstances? Absolutely not.

Boosters for the over 75s commence April 1st. Having looked at the stats I will be urging all my older relatives to get re-boosted ASAP and will get my own booster (I'm in my fifties) as soon as they're announced.

Lockdowns were necessary when we had nothing else (i.e. no vaccines). They won't be used again unless some new, deadlier variant appears that means the vaccines we have no longer work. Most people now have a good level of immunity from vaccines/previous infection.

A large percentage of them are incidental covid cases

But you still have to keep them away from the immunosuppressed and other really ill people who are in hospital to get better. This is what overruns hospitals, doesn't take many cases to bring the service to its knees.

Maybe not a lockdown yet but there’ll be a lot of nervous twitching in No10 as we see how no face masks and possible vaccine protection lowering in the vulnerable and elderly hold up in this next wave.

I know of quite a few who’ve got it this time, as well as a lot of people with symptoms but getting negative results.

The rate at which these variants spread is frightening, as soon as we get one only moderately worse we’ll start to see action from government. Covid is still very much here. Fourth booster anyone?

No. I don't think we need another lockdown. I do think we need some of the restrictions back but we won't get those when the government are sticking their fingers in their ears and going lalalala. So many people I know have got covid at the moment including several people who are CEV. We also urgently need vaccines for children and another booster for the adults.

Schools are not having to function with healthy teachers sitting at home isolating, they are having to function with very unwell teachers unable to get out of bed for several days. My school has had more staff off in the last few weeks with Covid than at any other time in the pandemic. All have been really ill with it and certainly not able to teach. There has been no extra funding for supply so kids are generally covered by whichever TA can be spared and are mainly doing filler activities rather than learning anything.

I've been teaching for 20 years and have never known any teacher to be off with flu. We've had staff who haven't taken a sick day in years being laid up for a week or more with Covid.

It's JUST A COLD NOW!!!!

It's no more deadly than flu, not a cold and thats if you have had the vaccine. Long covid is still causing way more problems than flu does.

That said, no, of course we are not going to have another lockdown.

I complied with every bonkers rule in 2020.

Now, not a fucking chance.

@TheKeatingFive

Government should at least have retained mask wearing.

Well they did that in Scotland and cases are actually higher so ...

That sort if comment is just RUBBISH.

It’s like saying that mask don’t protect from Ebola so there is no reason to have any protection at all.

The new variant is extremely contagious. And yes a mask, esp if not well fitted, worn under the nose, material rather than FFP2, will not stop the virus in its track.
It doesn’t mean that they don’t a thing -
Eg in France, cases in children have just exploded when they stopped using masks in schools (yes children have been wearing masks all day long for months and months there….)

But also there is a gulf between not doing anything at all and giving up (England attitude) and going into lockdown.
Lockdowns are not the answer. Nit with the vaccines that have reduced MORTALITY so much.
However, the last variant is nit mild either. It’s still 4x more deadly than the flu. And carries an increase an increase risk of long covid (5 to 10% of people who have caught Covid), auto immune disease, diabetes, strokes, cardio vascular diseases etc…
Basically by letting the virus go unchecked and people getting ill (several times) we are increasing the number if people who are chronically ill, unwell - with all the consequences in the country, form the cost of health to the inability to work or work full time etc….
Eg the number of visits to the GP is increased by 3x after covid for the following two years.

What can we do?
Improve air ventilation, have air filters in every public 0aces, wear mask.
Does it mean there will be no cases at all?
Well no. But we really need to try and reduce the number of cases with methods that have little inconvenience (eg lockdowns) to the population and will allow us all the stay healthy.

No, we need infection now, while people have immmunity from vaccination.

@Dawnofthefed

No way! People wouldn't even accept restrictions any more nevermind another lockdown. They need to concentrate on getting GPS and other medical practitioners to see patients if they are interested in the health of the country and stop denying people a health service.

They are seeing patients but they are experience a 40% increase in demand. There weren’t enough GPs before this extra demand, so their definitely isn’t enough now.

@x2boys

People were scared two years ago that's why the majority complied for most of the time With vaccines and seemingly milder varients we have no need to lockdown .

Exactly. We were told it was a deadly disease and the governments and media scared us all.

Not disputing that some people have been very I’ll with it and have passed away whilst positive (whether it be due to age or underlying conditions). But we know so much more about it now.

@TalkToTheHand123

Covis cases on a rapid rise, heading towards 100,000 daily cases. Are we heading for another lockdown?

Ooh yes please!!!

claps hands together excitedly