So - in summary:

I thought june 21st was the return to normal life.

I thought people wanted this.

Half of 2021 already lost
70% of 2020 lost.

How many more wasted days, weeks and months do we have left?

 

As it stands, the government have not suggested anything will change with their dates.

I'd hope most rational people would at least have some concern when the latest variant seems to be more transmissible, virulent and lead to an increase in hospitalisations by 2.6 times.

Lets wait and see. As it stands you can do huge amounts of things. And if that means keeping a short distance and having to wear a mask here and there, be grateful.

Some of us won't even have that option.

 

That's ridiculous. Doctors will always be able to make money as folk will.always be ill.

 

Pandemics like this should be politically neutral, those in power politically or scientifically all need to be scrutised.
There can be no good or bads guys. Fauci and WHO have been too close to China. Their relationships aren't neutral, they need looking at.

You need to look at each world government and their specialists in a neutral light. Only then can you give a rational appraisal of their actions.

In this country any negative feedback is dressed up as being unpatriotic.
In the US it might be the case that Trump was right about the cause of the epidemic but like our PM wrong in his approach over and over again.

Fauci wanted to take the right scientific steps and in most cases will have got it right. However he may have ignored the cause.

Either way genuine scrutiny must be accepted and implemented.

I'm extremely happy with the vaccine rollout, Kate Bingham did brilliantly working with the NHS. Our scientists have in most part be amazing. I honestly can't see any other positives unfortunately. The British people barring a few thousand idiots have rolled up their sleeves worked together and made the best out of situation with minimal support and guidance.

It would be nice to see politicians in power properly scrutinise their own party and government.

I can dream.

 

I'll need to take your word for that. But the decision on when to ease restrictions isn't just based on what is happening now, it's based on what would happen with the eased restrictions. There a many factors that would go into that, efficacy of the vaccines, how transmissable the virus is, % people in each age range fully vaccinated, % people in each age range with only one dose, % people without any dose, hospitalisation rate plus others.

Epidemiologists, NHS chiefs and ministers should be able to determine what hospital admission levels would go to if restrictions are removed, what the impact of that would be on hospitals and whether that is acceptable. It might be that that equation shows that it is the right time to end restrictions, it might not.

My problem is that I don't trust the Government to go through any kind of proper analysis to make a decision, and whatever they decide, if it proves to be right it will be more through luck than judgement.

 

Chapeltown Red - (the guy spent 5 months in Hospital with Covid and recently came home.)

If you're reading this thread hope you'e doing o.k and getting better.

 

It's really sad mate, you look at South East Asia and Oceania and see collaboration across the political divide. Most politicians normally wouldn't agree on anything but on issues like national health and financial stability they immediately got a consensus in place. They didn't care about media perception, in fact they involved the media to get a clear message across.

 

Anyway this has been a good topic,cannot wait for the one about banning smoking in certain places.Rock on

 

No, but we also don't throw in the towel and pretend it doesn't exist. If, and it is if because I have no idea, it's too risky to remove all restrictions then an alternative plan has to be in place. That might be speeding up vaccinating remaining adults that want it, it might be resources to local governments to support test, trace and isolate, it might be that more vaccines need to be distributed globally, it might be that it just needs an extra couple of weeks or so.

It just needs a Government capable of thinking things through.

 

He also lied about wearing masks last year , though he did admit it 6 months later . It's this sort of behaviour which leads to a right wing backlash . See the Obama years and the inevitable lurch to trump .

 

Yes Helen but unfortunately some will manipulate situations for their own gain. I can see Whitty and Vallance writing books in a couple of years. Maybe they'll even make it onto a socially-distanced, mask-wearing Strictly Come Dancing.

 

Every country that has had collaboration across the political spectrum have done so due to a lack of populist rhetoric undermining lockdowns and what needs to be done at every turn.

It’s as simple as that really. Politicians refusing to do what’s necessary either at all or until it’s too late is what’s caused the divide here and in the US.

And they continue to do so, especially in the US. I’ll use Rand Paul as the example because he’s already been mentioned in this thread. He’s recently launched a new fundraiser following his comments to and about Fauci, after he got a positive reaction from the right wingers.

I’m sure he’a got the countries best interest at heart though eh?

 

Dont mention Belarus and Sweden

 

To date from NHS digital deaths as percentage v age

0.05% 0 - 19 yrs
0.70% 20 - 39
7.19% 40 - 59
38.27% 60 - 79
53.80% 80+

 

Its just madness, as I say 90% of over 60's have been jabbed.

Who are we protecting?

 

12000 people younger than 60 died then due to covid. Is that acceptable?

 

Yes exactly. It's life, it's what happens. Viruses spread, always have and always will. The fact that we are seemingly hell bent on miraculously stopping this one from doing what viruses do at all costs is bonkers

 

That's exactly the point I made about politicians Rand Paul or otherwise. If you make what can be described as a worthwhile interjection, pushing greater transparency, don't milk that position for personal gain. Instead he should follow it up, and then make worthwhile representations for change which aren't political loaded and linked to party/self interest.
Soundbite politics pays, shows how far both US and UK have fallen.

On Rand Paul, I'm not a fan at all of his work. I much preferred his old man, he was a bit like Bernie Sanders in that he never really fitted into either of the 2 parties. You could never label him, he was socialist and Conservative sometimes on the same issue. Just thought differently about problems and how to fix them.

 

27% of the UK population is aged 40-59 (as of August 2020).

7.19% extrapolated to a full audience is a pretty frightening number of deaths. We have a vaccine which isn't 100% administered or effective and a variant that leads to increased hospitalisations with another variant thats suggested to be even worse, though there seems zero data on this as yet, so its impossible to form any opinion one way or the other.