Quote:
Originally Posted by jfman
I’m not really sure what you mean OB. Your original stance was to let it rip. When vaccines were in development your attitude was to let it rip. Now vaccines are being deployed with waning efficacy your attitude is to give people 2/3 doses then let it rip.
A sociopathic disregard for human life and scientific achievement.
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I too disagree with letting it rip until it's not going to cause a large number of unmanageable hospitalisations and deaths, but it does have to be the end game.
Whenever you flatten the curve you still have to have the end result the same. So you're delaying the outcome... and delaying it... and delaying it.
Now, you can go totally all out on it like Aus and NZ do, but we saw in Aus that eventually became unworkable.
Or you can go out on it for a while, like most countries have done, and either shield or vaccinate the most at risk before opening up again in a controlled manner, yes this inevitably leads to a higher baseline of infection but gives those people immunity which is long term beneficial.
It's really Canute-style logic to suggest a virus can be stopped in its tracks by NPIs. At some point you'll get a resurgence unless everyone lives like hermits until the end of time - and that isn't really living. No solution is ideal so you just have to protect the vulnerable as much as you can and allow everyone else to get on with life.
We're over a week after the kids went back now and still day on day (compared with the same day the previous week) infections are continuing to fall, this is with everything open, and realistically we are now at the point where we would be beginning to see the effect of the little sprogs being back now, considering secondary kids were by far and away the group most affected before then, so we may well be reaching the immunity levels to stop this spreading there, which will be good.
All this with no real formal covid restrictions in England for many months, an open society, an open economy with the capability to enjoy things almost to pre-pandemic levels. Actually I think in general the countries who have been a bit less prescriptive with restrictions are now faring better. I notice Austria and Germany are struggling again, and most of Europe is now following an opposite trend to the UK. Mainly because suppression always has an exit wave and Johnson/Javid with no doubt the blessing of Whitty and Vallance decided to get this out of the way in the summer. In the long term we won't know whether this paid off but at the moment it's looking rather good.