10m now unemployed or on furlough

First of all, you can't offer any guarantees, some people will no doubt still die. Just like they will do driving to work, just like they will do of the flu, just like they will do by running themselves over in their own car after eating too many baked potatoes if they're Brian Harvey.

Let me answer the questions in turn.

How do you guarantee the vulnerable get the care and supplies they need if the rest of the country is back to normal? There's far more chance of being able to continue to care for people, produce appropriate supplies and funding care in a functioning economy than in a historical depression, which your preferred Government policy . Let me ask you a question - how do you think we're going to fund the world's 5th biggest employer in 12-24 months time in the midst of a historical depression?

How do you guarantee the hospitals are not overrun when the 'young and healthy' all go out and catch COVID like good citizens? Have a look at the stats. Seriously, have a look at the numbers of young people getting ill and tell me you honestly think that that will happen.

How do you guarantee there are no long term effects for those that are being told to do an ostrich impression and pretend COVID doesn't exist? We can't. What's your alternative?

How do you protect those with undiagnosed health conditions? We don't. Just like we didn't before. What's your alternative - everyone is locked down for ever "because they might have undiagnosed health issues"

One more question for you - what do you want to do? When would you end lockdown, and under what conditions? ​

 

That's the issue for me - we have to do all we can to minimise the risk

"But you could go outside and walk under a bus". True, but when you go out, you look and listen both ways - you don't just blindly walk into the middle of Wombwell high street.

 

I'm a receptionist and I'm salaried. The same reason if someone comes to the desk with a query at 4:30pm. I can't say, "Oh sorry I've finished now". I've got to help them then get myself off.

 

Are you a receptionist at a brothel?

 

Rolls-Royce to cut 9,000 jobs amid virus crisis

 

I wish.

 

I spoke to one of my neighbours yesterday who I found out, amazingly, is related to one of the Nick's who Boris Johnson named his son after at St Thomas' hospital.
She was saying that he told her that as he walked around the ward of people seriously affected by Covid, the vast majority were either obese, diabetic, or both.
Really hope that one of the great 'takeaways' of this - no pun intended - is that the government gets a grip on Britain's **** eating habits. Queues for KFC FFS.
Taxes on sugar and crap food needed.

 

First of all, thanks for the answers. i genuinely appreciate it. It wasn't a comment to try and catch you out, it was a genuine question and I'm glad you took it as such.

On your first point, there's no rule book for what's going to happen in the tailwind of all this and I don't personally think that's something that can be planned for just yet. This is going to be a terrible recession but lets not forget that usually the reason recessions are so bad is that the country is in the shitter compared to other countries. This time every single country is in the same position and there's no telling what's going to happen. It's going to be hard, without a doubt, I'm not saying it's not. my point was more that if we allow all the 'young and healthy' to go out and catch the virus, there will be no care available for those that need it. They will not be able to go out to the supermarket because the virus will be everywhere.

How do you guarantee there are no long term effects for those that are being told to do an ostrich impression and pretend COVID doesn't exist? We can't. What's your alternative?
Do everything we can to limit the amount of people exposed. That should be the goal and it should have been since day 1. None of this Herd Immunity nonsense.

How do you protect those with undiagnosed health conditions? We don't. Just like we didn't before. What's your alternative - everyone is locked down for ever "because they might have undiagnosed health issues"
There wasn't a deadly virus going around before though, was there, that disproportionately affects those with health conditions. I'm going to bring my mate up again. He has massive health problems. Lung problems, heart palpitations. He has done for years. He's been checked out multiple times and they've never diagnosed him with anything. He's had all the scans, so he's confident there's nothing immediately going to kill him, but there's definitely an underlying condition there and if he caught this virus I have no doubt he would be very seriously ill.

One more question for you - what do you want to do? When would you end lockdown, and under what conditions?
I would not end lockdown (although I maintain that we have never actually locked down in the way we should have) until the daily infections drop down to double digits, allowing anyone to get tested at any time. I would also require contact tracing to be in place fully. I would then have 2 weeks forced quarantine on anybody entering the country. I would also ensure that all businesses adhere to social distancing where possible with unannounced spot checks. I would also require all to work from home where possible, as they already are. I would introduce a significant fine for anybody caught breaking the rules or even a prison sentence. I was reading about countries around the world and their lockdowns yesterday. The bahamas have a $10,000 fine plus 3 years in prison for anybody caught breaching the lockdown. Might seem harsh, but that's the only way to enforce it.

 

Is that someone who's in charge of all the comings and goings?

 

Cummings

 

Economies that acted fastest and "hardest" - Taiwan, South Korea, Vietnam - have seen an initial drop but an almost immediate bounce back once the restrictions are lifted. With the exception of tourism, most sectors in Taiwan increased in size from January to March after a fall in February and they've had 7 deaths from an island very close to China with a population of ~24m. The government immediately brought in restrictions on international travel and quarantine and issue all citizens with free face masks (3+ per week) which are mandatory in public.

Vietnam, a country with 96m people, reacted quickly and shut its borders with China and closed a lot of non-essential businesses. Most reopened in April and what was already one of the fastest growing economies in the world is expected to grow again this year. A country with 96m people and over 110m visitors each year has had 0 COVID deaths and comparatively minimal economic impact.

Laos, Cambodia, New Zealand, Australia, Slovenia, Denmark, Greece and others did the same to varying degrees of success and are looking to reopen.

The UK (see also France, Italy, Spain, Germany and a lot of the major countries in Europe and the Americas) were too slow to lockdown. We didn't and haven't learnt the lessons from Asia. We are a island and with an effective quarantine policy in February could have saved a significant number of lives - it is not unreasonable to suggest that would be upwards of 30000 of the 60000 excess deaths. And now we are trying to unlock too early and too quickly. The rate of infection is already increasing - from before the lockdown was eased - and I would be very surprised if we don't have another spike in the next week or two.

For those that want to open up and return to work. Would you be happy to wear a face mask in public? Have mandatory temperature checks on buildings? Have a functioning test, track and trace apparatus and the other requirements that have been shown to work, or do you just want things to return to normal.

I don't think any of us are arguing that we want to lockdown forever - but we want to unlock when it is safe to do so in a way that minimizes risk to as many people as possible.

 

We already tax sugar.

One of the great ironies of the lockdown was the number of people that now forced themselves to get outside and exercise for an hour a day who would normally have just sat on their couch and watched tv.

 

Yes I work and she doesn't claim unemployment benefits. I was just answering the question.

 

I'm at work and do 12,000 steps a day minimum because Bojo has knocked off my buses and only selected train services are running.

 

I would love to be back at work and not on furlough but the people I work with are classed as highly vulnerable

 

Thats some dance routine SD.

 

People travel from as far away as Dewsbury to see it

 

I think people from Dewsbury travel a lot, I mean I would if I came from Dewsbury.

 

That’s kinda my point, it’s technically correct that someone who works 1hr per week is ‘employed’ but if they’re claiming benefit, then they’ll still be asked to look for work till they get a ‘proper’ job, they won’t be treated as ‘employed’ by the job centre.

 

Does this mean that the highly vulnerable are continuing to work? Or is that you?

It might be too early for me, but that reads like you have been furloughed because you are fit and well - which seems a little backwards to me.