I honestly don't know if the government have done the right thing with lockdown. My opinion has changed from one extreme to the other, throughout the last year. I think we could have kept a lot of things open: shops, hairdressers and beauty salons probably didn't need to close, as with suitable PPE the risk is minimal, but it was definitely right to close restaurants, nightclubs, bars etc. when it became apparent cases were out of control. On the other hand closing more down than necessary might have made people take it more seriously and many businesses would have struggled anyway, as people stayed in more, even if they weren't forced to. Many other countries have done a similar thing, so we're hardly unique.
With every infection, there is a chance of mutation. There have been several nasty mutations already, some are more infections, some is killing children as well. Some might become so mutated, that the vaccines will be useless. We didn't know what was going to happen, and what will happen in the next years. I think the complete lockdown was very well justified, as we could end up with a something much worse than this.
The counterargument being all the damage to health caused by the lockdowns: increased stress, cancelled/missed appointments, people taking less exercise, due to being confined indoors, gyms being closed, reduced earnings leading to poorer diet etc. There have been far worse pandemics in the past, without such extensive lockdowns. Countries without such extreme measures have had lower deaths per capita, than others which have, like the UK, although not all populations are equal, so that's not clear cut.
The problem I have is, many of the measures taken don't seem to be guided by science. There was no evidence to suggest that shops and hair salons contributed significantly to the spread of the virus, especially with all the precautions taken: keeping customers 2m apart, masks, hand sanitiser etc. Most of the spread has been down to different households mixing indoors, in resturaunts, pubs, bars, homes etc. The only reason I can see for closing more than necessary was to scare people.
I see little point in debating the matter, as I've previously raised the same points as you, in prevous posts to other threads, so can see it from both sides. Ultimately we won't know whether it was right thing to do, or not, until this is over.
By the way, you're right to be concerned about children, but so far excess mortality in under 14s, in the UK, has been running below the 5 year average through 2020.
https://fingertips.phe.org.uk/static-reports/mortality-surveillance/excess-mortality-in-england-week-ending-01-Jan-2021.html#sectionhttps://fingertips.phe.org.uk/static-reports/mortality-surveillance/excess-mortality-in-england-week-ending-01-Jan-2021.html#section-7I just had my first Pfizer shot yesterday. I find the science behind the mRNA vaccines facinating, but if I weren't married, I wouldn't have been vaccinated yet. I'll turn 60 this year, have no chronic medical issues, and don't FEEL at risk.
People of all ages died because of this. And could be even scarier, the complications that they are reporting after mild cases. They report hearth damage, can cause strokes, seizures and Guillain-Barre syndrome... We dont even have a very good estimate how many people might die early after having just a mild case of this pandemic.
This is not the seasonal flu.
No, it's not seasonal flu, but the virus isn't inherently more deadly than influenza. It's just been causing more severe disease and death at the moment, because it's a novel virus, which the population lack immunity to. Influenza can also cause long term damage to internal organs and GBS, but it's less common, because we already have some level of herd immunity.
The new variant B1617 is able to spread FASTER, and also to younger people from the latest development in Singapore. I think it is best to get your first shot as soon as possible. Those who had 2 shots and got infected did not have to have O2 treatment. 1 shot seem to offer some protection against severity too.
It's not known whether it spreading amongst the young, is due to changes in the virus, or that young people work, socialise and mix more, than the old, who are generally more cautious. General poorer health and more co-morbidities such as diabeties and poor diet could explain the greater mortality rate in young people, in countries like India and Brazil.
I agree, everyone should get vaccinated, when given the chance.
The compliance level is very high here, the weak links here were not blocking South Asia region much earlier as our data show they were always the highest in our imported case for past weeks. We would expect number from neighboring countries to be the highest due to the quantity and proximity. Second weak link is to allow indoor dining especially at the airport.
People don't follow the rules so strictly in the UK and they've gradually been loosened over the last few months, but infections have continued to fall due to high levels of vaccination. Unfortunately our governement has also made the mistake of not stopping people coming from South Asia. It's very frustrating, considering we knew the B1617 variant was causing problems there, yet didn't do anything because there wasn't solid evidence to support it being more transmissible or deadly. It would have been better to err on the side of caution.
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