Alex P

Thanks not sure why people found this so difficult to understand when it is as clear as day what I was talking about.

I can’t be bothered to explain further sorry.

Looking at Worldometer Russia have now performed 3.5 million tests. Does anyone know why their testing capabilities seem to be so far ahead?

Is this virus really the big one though, I think in the grand scheme of things this was a wake up for the big one that would wipe out all generations.

I don’t know what you want me to tell you, the article states that they are expecting to reach Herd Immunity in Stockholm by May whether it is true or not I don’t know I’m not a scientist. In regards to the government dates they are confusing for people, I understand them I’m saying the general public do not.

I agree with you that it was the governments job to know and be aware, the general public wouldn’t have expected it to be as bad as it got. I remember seeing the hospitals being built in China at the end of January and knowing it must have been extremely bad. However, given none of us have lived through a pandemic and didn’t understand much about viruses and science it was hard to imagine being in the situation we are in now. The problem arises in that people are paid to understand these things and still nothing happened until it was too late, surely the building of these large scale hospitals should have been a clear indicator. The people responsible to look after these things are more to blame than China.

To be clear I am stating the confusion is when the 3 weeks starts and next lockdown is announced. Hence if it was to end people think it would end on Thursday rather than this being announced on the Monday.

It is still confusing for the general public, I have seen countless posts where people believe we are getting the extension announced next Thursday

To give you a sample size I work in a team of 140 mostly under 40 and I’ve not heard one of them healthy say they will ruin their lives for the foreseeable staying inside for a virus with such low risk to the age group and likewise with anyone else in this age group that I know this covering both Scotland and England

I just have concerns about your state of mind long term I know you may be ok now but to do this for months and months on end you may not be.

I have read they also don’t want to release restrictions before Ramadan, which given the view on BAME individuals being most at risk probably makes sense as there would be family gatherings for Eid. Though you could argue these families will still meet anyway. If throughout May the European countries open up and there is no mass second wave then I don’t see how the government can justify this going on in its current form beyond June 1st. I’m feeling a bit better today as I know April is now over but we have another exhausting month ahead.

The guidance is shambolic, each European country has specific dates and I fail to see why the UK can’t do this also.

It looks likely it will be extended to 1st June. It is quite frustrating that we are told ‘3 week lockdowns’ which are technically 3.5 weeks by the time they get round to making the next announcement.

What are you planning to do long term then if a vaccine doesn’t happen will you never meet up with friends again? Do you have a job? I am just curious as to the mindset of people who are saying they will never socialise again.

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.aljazeer...7072044548.html

I have read conflicting articles so not going to go back and forth on this as it is boring now.

I assume they will review on Thursday then announce on Monday 11th taking us to 1st June. Which would then be 10 full weeks of lockdown by that point.

Germany has said its coronavirus reproduction rate is 0.76, well below the growth level of one, despite fears over easing of curbs. https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/business.fin...at-0-76-rki/amp

Have they not announced they are close to reaching heard immunity in Stockholm which would mean the peak has been and gone with a second wave not likely. 1,000 deaths in population of 2 million is a 0.0005% death rate. I’m failing to see your argument on that point.

A positive point away from all the doom and gloom, 1 million people have now recovered from coronavirus and the closed cases rate from recovery versus death has moved from 21% to 18% in the past couple of days after being stuck at 21% for several weeks. There has been a vast increase in recoveries which may be good news as experience with treating patients might be helping to treat future patients better and save more lives and or increase in testing.

I think one of the points Sweden are arguing is they will end up with similar comparable death rates without locking down as the virus is just going to come back when the lockdown are lifted. It is also hard to compare life with life when you do not know the end numbers of who will die as a result of extensive lockdowns versus who would die as a result of the virus, we have already seen the unexplained increase in deaths as a result of our lockdown. There is not really any winning in this situation. We won’t know which strategy was right until the pandemic ends. I do think New Zealand have backed themselves into a corner though, say no vaccine does appear what then they cut themselves off from the world for the rest of our days? I have read another article that goes into detail about how they are now in economic purgatory and as they will have to close off for a minimum of 18 months 20% of their workforce will be unable to work, they may look good now but we do not know the position they will be in in terms of the future.

How do we know Sweden are an anomaly when no other country is trying this strategy? Even if they have a lower population density, would you not expect Stockholm to have a much more tragic death rate than it currently does.

https://unherd.com/thepost/giesecke-stands-...e-will-go-down/ This article is quite good and provides Sweden’s approach and argument as to why it is correct it also implies New Zealand is screwed in the future. Challenged on the apparent success of New Zealand in eliminating the virus completely, with a highly interventionist approach, Professor Giesecke asked whether that will really look like success in the long term: Yes, it seems they have [suppressed the virus completely]. But what are they going to do now? To keep the country virus free, they will have to keep their borders closed. Everyone travelling in must be quarantined for 14 days before being admitted to the country, and if no good vaccine arrives, New Zealand will have to keep that quarantine for a long time. A very long time… What is clear is that extensive lockdowns are not sustainable and we do need to start working ourselves out of this or the future is going to be much worse for future generations.

Hasn’t this point been said 1 million times

Positive news from Spain today: Spain has announced a four-phase plan to lift one of the toughest coronavirus lockdowns in Europe and return to normality by the end of June. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said the lifting of the restrictions that have halted public life since March 14 and nearly paralysed the economy, will begin on May 4 and vary from province to province. The UK need to be announcing something like this next week.