//NJ, how many folk catch the flu or develop pneumonia each day in the UK?//
Not a clue I’m afraid (without looking). I provided the figures to put the Covid matter into some sort of perspective. Around 14,000 people die each and every week in the UK. In the last week of July 193 (1.3%) died either with or from Covid.
//A hard question to answer.It has been bad for the economy but that must be set against the,unknown, number of lives that have been saved.//
It must also be set against the (again unknown) number of lives that will be lost through the suspension of non-Covid medical treatment, danny.
//I'm classed as 'vulnerable' because of my age, but it is purely up to me to look after myself and do what I feel is best for me.//
The voice of reason from iluvmargie. Never before have governments tried to tackle a pandemic in this way and I hope that none ever do again. The trouble is there are too many people who expect to live forever courtesy of a government that will protect them from everything.
//People who don't think the virus is a problem have taken it very causally and spread it around, defeating the quarantine measures that may have otherwise seen the virus eliminated by now.//
There is absolutely no way that the virus would have been eliminated by now, whatever measures were taken. That needs to be unconditionally accepted.
//Australia had almost beaten the virus when two security guards supposedly guarding a quarantine hotel had sex with people they were guarding. Virtually every current case in Australia can be traced back to these idiots.//
How was it passed on to others, then, if everybody else was obeying the rules? The fact is that humans interact with each other and no government on Earth will prevent that.
//New Zealand went into lockdown early and hard, quickly eliminating community spread//
Indeed. And now they’ve got it back (having virtually destroyed their tourist industry upon which they depend heavily).
//How many do you think would have been dead without the efforts to slow the spread?//
I’ve no idea and nor have you or anybody else. By the time those 193 had become infected many of the most stringent restrictions had been lifted. I am by no means stupid; I simply have a different opinion. What’s more stupid than me simply stating a fact is to suggest the country can remain in some sort of economic torpor indefinitely - or “until the virus is eliminated” or "until a vaccine is found", whichever occurs first.
No, the lockdown, certainly the way it was done, was not worth it. The cost will continue to be counted very many years from now.