I Know How To Stop The Pandemic And Restore Sanity In Two Easy Steps.

[dave50]

Stop all testing and everyone stop using the NHS track and trace app. Result equals end of the pandemic.

[bobbinwales]

We seem to have gone off the point of stopping testing as being the main solution for eliminating the pandemic. 2 more weeks,

[New Judge]

//Why do people repeat the phrase ' trashing the economy' because we are not. Shops are open, pubs, Wimbledon., theme parks, house building...//

//Every other sector seems to be ‘business as usual’.//

I’m afraid both those remarks demonstrate a breathtaking lack of understanding. The hospitality trade (more than 3m direct employees plus 2m in the supply chain, 5%of GDP), in particular, is suffering enormously. Those establishments that have reopened (and many haven’t) are operating at considerably reduced capacity. Most of them can just about break even. City centres have become ghost towns with the WFH advice and the normal hospitality income there, both lunchtimes and evenings, will not simply be transferred to the suburbs. People go to bars and restaurants in towns and cities with their work colleagues. If those colleagues are spread to the four winds, the socialising will not happen.

Large sporting events are only permitted under special permission from the government. You can go to watch the UEFA final at Wembley with 60,000 others but you cannot go to watch your children win an egg and spoon race on school sports day.
The travel industry is on its knees and if not opened up soon parts of it will never recover. Some of its problems are caused by entry restrictions imposed by foreign countries but some of it is caused by the government’s ridiculous “Red/Amber/Green” nonsense. Meanwhile, 2,500 "VIPs" are alowed in for a week without quarantine to watch a couple of football matches.

The self-isolation legislation is causing enormous problems. People are being ordered to self-isolate when there is little or no risk that they may have contracted the virus and even if they do they are unlikely to become seriously ill; schooling is being crippled by large numbers of pupils being sent home at the drop of a hat.

Just because the pubs are open it does not mean that the economy is back to normal.

//We seem to have gone off the point of stopping testing as being the main solution for eliminating the pandemic. 2 more weeks,//

There is no intention of stopping random testing in two weeks time. So that said, how will its continuation “eliminate the pandemic”?

[teacake44]

^^ And on top of all that there's many that don't want to go back to work, well not until the free handouts dry up. :0)

[bobbinwales]

newjudge sorry if my post misled you, I didnt finsih hte sentence, i realise that. The 2 weeks was not about until testing stops it was dave50 what suggested stopping it), its roughly how much longer we got to wait until restrictions are due to be relaxed further so pubs can fully open if they want etc. I dont understand why people keep going on about lockdown wanting it lifted now, whats the point of going on about it, its going to be soon.

[New Judge]

//...whats the point of going on about it, its going to be soon.//

Because you could have said exactly the same thing four weeks ago. At that time the Prime Minister saw no reason to suggest that restrictions would not be lifted on 21st June. Nothing much changed in the intervening week before he announced they would not, after all, be lifted. Infection rates were rising but the rates forecast then are near enough what has transpired; he knew (or should have known) how many vaccinations were to have taken place.

I would not be at all surprised if the unbridled optimism that seems to have engulfed ministers again is tempered for some reason by next week. Meantime the hospitality industry is haemorrhaging around £200m a DAY. That's £5.6bn in the 28 days that the relaxation was postponed or just £3bn in the time left before that relaxation is currently due to take place. Hospitality hasn't just been closed for a couple of weeks. It was closed entirely for four months; open to outside customers only (with a "rule of six" from April) and is still suffering severe restrictions now, more than six months later.

[eve1974]

Stop the fear mongerinv in uk. The vaccine has now been offered to all the vulnerable and all over 40s (busy with the over 30s now I think).

So anyone that wanted a vac has had an option to get one and will have a large amount of protection (90pc less chance of hospitalisation after 2 jabs I hear?)

The nhs needs to get back to treating other illness too.

What I’m
Less gung-ho about it travellingX. As it is unfair to (potentially) take covid to countries that have very few vax.

[10ClarionSt]

From reading all the replies, the impression I get is that most people are going through all this and just saying "what if this?", "what if that?", "maybe this", "maybe that", "could be this", "could be that". Decisiveness abounds! Or is it just fear?

[jim360]

Sunk // We had a similar debate last summer here

https://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Society-and-Culture/Question1706898.html

It is interesting to read jim360s comments then, and compare them with what we know happened subsequently.//

Interesting in a good way, I hope...

[Peter Pedant]

// , "maybe that", "could be this", "could be that". Decisiveness abounds! Or is it just fear?//

or is it just people dont have anything better to do on a wet overcast Sunday

[Peter Pedant]

M ornin' Jim
how is the weather in Croatia?

have you been to Diocletian's pal-pal yet?

It is interesting to read jim360s comments then, and compare them with what we know happened subsequently.//

when the facts change - I change my mind, what do you do?
J M Keynes

[Peter Pedant]

keep the judges away from epidemiology
that's what I say

[New Judge]

//Or is it just fear?//

I don’t think it’s fear in the conventional sense, 10CS. I think it’s more due to the fact that the population has been successfully moulded into such obedience and complete compliance that many of them cannot now imagine anything else. Having been scared witless eighteen months ago (with repeated doses at regular intervals ever since) many people have become accustomed to being told that a disease which is currently accounting for less than ten deaths in a thousand (from all causes) poses such a threat to them. There are a number who have been heard to say that they will continue to walk about wearing muzzles even if they are no longer mandated and there has been a shift away from the health benefits of such a measure (which were dubious at best) to it being more "to provide comfort and reassurance).

Ministers have recently been on record as saying they could not believe what they got away with a year or more ago when the first lockdown was introduced. Nor could I at the time. But when I look back now and recall the campaign of blood-curdling fear and intimidation that was wreaked upon the population I am not so surprised. Now it continues from some quarters “just in case” (and there’s no other reason) so the lack of will among many to return to unrestricted life is unsurprising. I think I’ll take to wearing a crash helmet indoors in case a light bulb shatters and showers me with glass. This is leaving aside the fact that many people are being paid to sit at home doing nothing and seem perfectly happy in that situation whilst many others have taken on their employers’ responsibility to accommodate them whilst they work and are even happier, slopping about in their nightwear all day or going for a run.

It seems Mr Hancock’s escapade with his married mistress may have done the country some good. His successor, Mr Javid, appears to recognise the long term damage to the country’s health this nonsense is causing and, if his voice is heard, steps should soon be taken to cease most of the unnecessary restrictions that remain. But he will have to act quickly; replacement Ministers have a habit of talking a good talk when first appointed, only to come up short when taking their first walk a few weeks later.

//keep the judges away from epidemiology//

I think that’s probably wise, in the same way that epidemiologists should steer clear of the law. But it shouldn't prevent them having a view on it.

//…or is it just people dont have anything better to do on a wet overcast Sunday//

We’ll leave aside the fact that the bulk of this thread was posted yesterday when the weather was a little less inclement (well it was where I am, anyway)