Your Method Of Easing Lockdown

[naomi24]

Some people here seem to be in a permanent state of confusion over what I think are quite simple guidelines for the gradual easing of lockdown and for getting people back to work….so here’s their opportunity to shine. If you were in charge, how would you do it?

[Deskdiary]

Of course Parsley is correct, and it’s what I’ve saying for sometime now, we have to learn to live with, get on with life, and more importantly put the economy first.

It’s a cliche, but it’s a cliche because it’s true, we cannot allow the cure to be worse than the disease.

There needs to be perspective; the vast vast majority who are unfortunate to catch the disease will survive. Equally the vast vast majority who sadly succumb, do so because they are old and/or vulnerable. As of last week 0.0004% of the population who are under 45 had died, and no matter how the spin gets spun, that is tiny.

[jim360]

"We can't allow the cure to be worse than the disease" is becoming, a fear, a front to sacrifice more lives than are necessary. I don't for a second mean to accuse people who use it of being careless for the lives of others, but it is irritatingly vague. How do we measure these things? Where do you draw the line? How many people dying of Covid-19 is too many?

[woofgang]

and why do people under 45 appear to count for more than people over 45?

[Deskdiary]

You’re seeing something that I didn’t say woofgang.

I merely provided a stat.

[tamborine]

extend it till xmas - its great catching up with all Ive neglected...and being paid to stay home, wots to not like?

[woofgang]

deskdiary "and no matter how the spin gets spun, that is tiny."

[Deskdiary]

^^^your point being?

[NickorWan]

This from El Pais today.

'Only 5% of Spaniards have been infected with the coronavirus, according to the preliminary results of a study by the Carlos III public health institute, which took blood samples from nearly 70,000 participants.'

It is scary to think that the death toll, currently standing at around 27,000, could be from just 5% of the population.

[Baldric]

Carry on as normal, not a problem.

[ParsleyDumpling]

Jim, how many thousands of people die each year of flu, which we have vaccines for? People aren't being sacrificed, unfortunately death is a fact of life. We can try our best to reduce the numbers of people dying from this, and quite possibly future viruses, but we have to be realistic, sometimes, we don't always win. We just have to try to do the best that is reasonably practical (a risk assessment phrase), which means weighing up the pros and cons. In this case I would have to say that the economy has to take precedence. We have protected the NHS, now it is time to get back to some sort of normality and let the NHS protect us, as best it can.

[jim360]

Yes, that's a worrying development. I hope it's an underestimate, but we'll have to see. It's also possible though that the death toll wouldn't scale so neatly.

[woofgang]

PD we have excess deaths for the time of year. This is not flu.

[jim360]

The Coronavirus has already cost more lives in a month than most flu seasons do in a year. It's objectively worse.

[ParsleyDumpling]

woofgang, I didn't say it was the flu. My point was we have a vaccine for the flu, and people are still dying from it in their thousands every year. We don't have lockdown and social distancing to prevent people catching and dying from it. If the reports are to be believed our hospitals seemed to be overwhelmed most winters because of it. We have learned to live with the flu, and the tragic cost of life for those who die from it, we have to do the same for Covid 19.

[fiction-factory]

>The Coronavirus has already cost more lives in a month than most flu seasons do in a year

Yes, and that's with lockdown and shielding in place. Imagine what the excess deaths would have been if we'd just carried on as normal

[woofgang]

The US knows. They have been digging mass graves there.

[jim360]

A rough idea of how bad this could have been can be gleaned from taking the situation in New York State, which, per head, is the worst-hit major region in the world so far by official death toll. A quick, and admittedly oversimplistic, comparison suggests that if Covid played out in the UK as it has done in New York, we'd already be looking at around 90,000 Covid-related deaths, or between three times more than we've seen so far -- and, I should add, this wouldn't even have been the end of it.

Covid-19 is not world-ending but it is quite simply worse than the flu on any objective measure. It may not affect your decision to advocate a more rapid re-opening, but if you are going to take a risk assessment then you have to be more honest about the risk. The flu this is not.

[New Judge]

//...extend it till xmas - its great catching up with all Ive neglected...and being paid to stay home, wots to not like?//

Indeed. Wots not to like?

The problem is, whilst you've been rectifying your neglect somebody has to think about where the wages you are receiving for sitting at home comes from. I've just had builders in. They worked outside, they didn't need to come into the house, I left them a kettle and teamaking stuff outside, we kept our distance and adopted sensible precautions and the three of them worked their socks off for eight hours a day for the best part of a week. The tax they pay will go towards your "wages".

Obviously many people currently off work are not happy, especially if they are higher earners and they have bills concomitant with their income. Bit there is no doubt in my mind that a large number of people and their employers could have made arrangements for them to continue working. But they didn't. After all, wots not to like?

[Spicerack]

//>The Coronavirus has already cost more lives in a month than most flu seasons do in a year//

Don't think so.
Stands by for very selective answer.

[naomi24]

Woofgang,//The US knows. They have been digging mass graves there. //

They dug mass graves here too for Muslims who must be buried very shortly after death.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/11390879/mass-grave-london-coronavirus/