Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr K
Yes because he judged it so right with the initial lockdown. Weeks later than it needed to be which caused tougher measures and thousands of unecessary deaths, the most in Europe. You've got to question the credibility of someone who proudly brags about ignoring his own advice, shaking the hands of covid patients, then contracting covid and nearly dying himself. An expert in epidemiology he isn't or anything else, except a bit of pointless Latin.
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Why are you trying to justify your view of the government's arrangements by reference to what happened at the beginning of this pandemic when comparitively little was known about it? The comparison is even more perverse when you consider that the parameters now set are completely in line with the scientists' own predictions. So is your view that the scientists advising the government have got it wrong? You don't rate Prof Whittey then, who is on the same page?
I think your remarks are simply party political in nature and unrelated to the actual problem the government is grappling with. Anything the PM does will be wrong in your eyes. The PM makes a statement - so you have to disagree with it.
Good fun if you like that sort of game, I suppose.
[EDIT]
Maybe you should read this, Mr K.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/202...ed-challenged/
[EXTRACT]
The first myth is that the UK has had the highest Covid death rate in Europe and that this is mainly due to locking down too late in both waves. While it is true that we were highest after the first wave, the situation has changed significantly. Ranked against EU countries, the UK is 11th on Covid deaths and 15th on excess deaths.
Many claim that thousands of lives would have been saved if we had locked down earlier in the first wave, but almost every country with a higher death rate than the UK did lock down early. This gave them very small first waves in spring 2020 but these were followed by very large second waves in the autumn/winter 2021.
Similarly, the claim that the UK made the same mistake in the second wave and that thousands died due to the failure to have a “circuit-breaker” lockdown last October isn’t supported by the evidence. Wales – which did have one – ended up with similar Covid and excess death rates to England.
The current myth is that the UK has the highest Covid rates in Europe now and this is due to our lack of vaccine passports and mask mandates. But these comparisons are flawed. First, because they are based on case rates and ignore the fact that the UK does a lot more testing (test positivity rates also need to be compared – the UK is about average). Secondly, because other countries are at different stages of their third waves and their immunity will wane later than in the UK because their vaccine programmes started later.
The other problem with this interpretation is that Scotland and Wales (which are more valid comparisons) kept their mask mandates and recently brought in vaccine passports, but their rates have been higher than England’s. (This is specifically about mandates – I voluntarily wear a mask in confined spaces and if I’m with anyone at high risk, and encourage everyone to do so.)
The next myth is that only restrictions or lockdowns bring down cases, hospital admissions and deaths. This is clearly not true given what happened in July and September when there were no restrictions and cases fell, most likely due to people voluntarily changing their behaviour in response to risk.
The last myth is that “going early and going hard” with restrictions is always better than waiting. Again, given what happened in July and September when a huge surge was predicted by many, that would have been the wrong advice. Cases actually fell significantly.