Do you honestly think that? Covid has killed (allegedly) around 45k in England. You reckon that lockdown itself will kill hundreds of thousands? Not for me Clive.
Depends over what time frame, a government report from April had the predicted number very high mainly from delayed health care. It suggested 25,000 could die from delays to treatment in the first six months since March 23 and another 185,000 in the medium to long-term. It also warns of 500 more suicides in the first wave and up 12,000 per year due to a recession, over six months, 75 per cent of elective care has been cancelled, without significant re-prioritisation and elective hospital appointments dropped to a quarter the usual in March and April. Could I ask why you think it won't? The mental health implications alone have been horrific.
To be honest with you, I've no scientific data to back up my point (and usually that annoys me when I'm debating with someone so I'm sorry about that), but I just can't see the number being that high. And if it's a government report, then I automatically will ignore it - because anything that those lying ******** produce is automatically a work of fiction. So once again I apologise.
It was a report by Department of Health, the Office for National Statistics, the Actuary's Department and the Home Office. But whatever the number of people lockdown ends up killing, we have to accept that a choice was made to kill one group to save another based on similar reports. I honestly don't know if it was the right choice or not.
But surely the health care and elective deaths would have occurred anyway, lockdown or not. The NHS was barely coping due to treating Covid 19 and the situation could only have been worse without a lockdown. You only have see what happening in the US where even there the health care is on the brink of collapse. Trumps leadership has been akin to the grand old duke of York
Sorry I didn't explain myself with that statement. I meant that the half arsed lockdown has helped neither in that the vulnerable have still been exposed as either people can't be arsed to stay in or don't think they have to. I absolutely am not an advocate of no lockdown.
The length and extent of the lockdown may not have been necessary, we don't really know as the data seems to have been collated very poorly by PHE. I'm sure the one thing myself and @Fonzie can agree on is that the government response has been shambolic every step of the way.
I agree, but a shambolic response is better than no response at all as with the US and Trump. They are very fortunate that the pandemic is no longer killing people at the same rate as it did in Europe and New York
Good to hear from one of the main people involved and that CNN continue to promote the good news by talking to him regularly.
The problem is that long term effects can only be determined long term. We will only know if there's any complications a year after taking the vaccine by waiting a year after taking it, for example. This is why most vaccines have a multi-year testing duration.
That's why GMB was interesting this morning talking about if it should be compulsory. My opinion is people should take it even if they aren't at high risk because it protects those you come in to contact with who's health might not be good. Trust the science experts and not listen to the Facebook experts. However I don't think it should be mandatory as nobody should be forced to take something they don't want to.
But there’s no way to know if it’s safe after a year or longer except by waiting a year or longer. Nobody knows it’s safe, that’s the problem. I think it absolutely should be mandatory, but it shouldn’t be mass produced until it’s gone through normal testing...
The problem with vaccines and all medical treatments is the long-term effects. Thalidomide was a miracle cure for morning sickness - until after a few years they found a significant increase in children born with deformities. And with the serious potential long-term effects they have to be very careful.
But how long do you wait to see if there are any side effects? It’s the ‘ how long is a piece of string’ scenario. Are they really rushing this thing through or in reality have previous vaccine developments been extremely slow, due to lack of enthusiasm, demand or finance?
The 2019/20 winter was relatively mild in the UK (might also have had a less severe flu variant), leading to a lower than average mortality rate in the year to March. COVID then lead to a significant increase over average (~60-70,000) across the UK. And it has now dropped back towards normal. It could be that many of those that died of COVID would normally have died last winter or next. However, this doesn't account for the long-term health implications for those that have survived more serious cases.
I’m no expert but I don’t think thalidomide was a vaccine. Like comparing oranges with lemons I think.
