[jfman]

Originally Posted by OLD BOY

The fact remains that the likes of Prof Whittey, by his own admission, were advising the government against an early lockdown. The government accepted that advice - why would they not?

Unless you let the virus run free in the population, we will continue to get second, third, fourth (etc) waves. It will carry on like that until it is done with us.

There is surely enough evidence of this in other parts of the world, and most recently in Spain. Admittedly, the virus would have been slowed down quicker had there been an earlier lockdown in the UK, but that would simply have left more people to be infected at a later date.

You're making the assumption that there's lasting immunity. This remains unproven. There's no option to let the virus 'run free' - nobody, anywhere in the world, considers that a realistic proposition.

Even the Uber-capitalists in the United States are finding that restrictions are required.

Yeah, if it worked! Boris fell for the civil service hype. They cannot keep to deadlines or what is expected of them for the life of them! I'm glad to see that a purge is on the cards.

Any further lockdown should be targeted and focussed on 'at risk' groups. A total lockdown is taking a sledgehammer to crack a nut.

A further lockdown, or indeed lockdowns, will be of the size and scale necessary to suppress the virus at that time. That depends on the numbers in the community - not some flawed ideological belief that people will continue to spend money while they lose jobs and risk their health carrying out normal day to day business.