Yesterday UK had highest number of new covid cases of any country.

[Nick]

linked to Covid.

"He was looking at his COVID test results on his phone and got hit by a bus."

That's the bit I cannot accept, this tenuous link to COVID deaths. You either died from it or you didn't, surely it's that simple?

[johnofgwent]

Zero covid might not be attainable but it's still the goal that should be aimed for. Some countries will probably achieve zero covid eventually - New Zealand came close.

As for my original post - this is relevant . . . https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-58849024 This is about the UK being Europe's covid hot spot, with our daily deaths-per-million rate double those of Spain, Germany and France.

And that article dismisses that observation quite easily


"There are currently just over 100 deaths a day on average linked to Covid. That may sound a lot, but it is similar to what happens in a bad flu season for months on end"

[patman post]

Singapore's interesting — 120,000 cases, 142 deaths, and 95,000 currently recovered...
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/singapore/


New Zealand's figures are 4463 cases, 28 deaths, and 4116 currently recovered — but we don't yet know how many cases of any in the two countries are/were unvaccinated...
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/new-zealand/

[Scott777]

Singapore has over 85% jabbed, and I think they have defeated the lurgy.

[Scott777]

Zero covid might not be attainable but it's still the goal that should be aimed for. Some countries will probably achieve zero covid eventually - New Zealand came close.

Oh yes, and this graph definitely shows how close New Zealand is to zero Covid.  (It's ok, you just need to turn it upside down).  🤣

[Scott777]

The vaccination policy is correct. Now that almost everyone bar the tin foil hat brigade has been vaccinated, we need to just learn to live with it.

Thanks for clarifying your contradiction.  So, policy is correct, but policy is currently to vaccinate kids (the government going against the JCVI advice), which is clearly not learning to live with it.  I'm glad you kept that tin foil, because those aliens who you are getting advice from have got ray guns, so better safe than sorry.

[HDQQ]

So are you suggesting the official zero-covid policy is wrong?  Are you glad you didn't give me that tin foil? 

Zero covid might not be attainable but it's still the goal that should be aimed for. Some countries will probably achieve zero covid eventually - New Zealand came close.

As for my original post - this is relevant . . . https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-58849024 This is about the UK being Europe's covid hot spot, with our daily deaths-per-million rate double those of Spain, Germany and France.

[srb7677]

So are you suggesting the official zero-covid policy is wrong?  Are you glad you didn't give me that tin foil?  😁

The vaccination policy is correct. Now that almost everyone bar the tin foil hat brigade has been vaccinated, we need to just learn to live with it.

[Scott777]

we need to learn to live with it and accept that it is just another thing that will be going around which we risk catching from time to time.

So are you suggesting the official zero-covid policy is wrong?  Are you glad you didn't give me that tin foil?  😁

[srb7677]

No, they have not been successful. They have finally admitted their folly in thinking they could stop a virus from spreading by using lockdowns. All over the world it has been obvious that lockdowns do not work. Even the WHO do not recommend lockdowns.
Now Jacinda reckons the answer is "Jab and Test". She has put the country 18 months behind the rest of the world in attaining herd immunity, which we now have in the UK. One might argue that delaying might have saved lives for another 18 months or reduced the number who will die, according to them being vaccinated. However, the cost of the lockdowns and closing all the borders for so long has to be taken into account.
Zero Covid is a mythical policy, doomed to the annals of history.

I do not wholly agree. Lockdowns work to a limited extent in slowing down the spread of a virus which can in turn help to avoid health services from being overwhelmed. But they are enormously costly and not economically sustainable to keep doing.

So now that most people have received or at least been offered a vaccine which in most cases reduces the severity, we need to learn to live with it and accept that it is just another thing that will be going around which we risk catching from time to time. We just have to accept it as part of the new normal and get on with our lives. Voluntarily continuing to wear masks is the new normal for many of us too.

[Barry]

New Zealand has been very successful at containing covid but they've realised it's not going to be possible for one country to completely eradicate it without the rest of the world doing the same.

No, they have not been successful. They have finally admitted their folly in thinking they could stop a virus from spreading by using lockdowns. All over the world it has been obvious that lockdowns do not work. Even the WHO do not recommend lockdowns.
Now Jacinda reckons the answer is "Jab and Test". She has put the country 18 months behind the rest of the world in attaining herd immunity, which we now have in the UK. One might argue that delaying might have saved lives for another 18 months or reduced the number who will die, according to them being vaccinated. However, the cost of the lockdowns and closing all the borders for so long has to be taken into account.
Zero Covid is a mythical policy, doomed to the annals of history.

[johnofgwent]

I also know hospitalisations and daily deaths are declining slowly but around 100 deaths a day from covid is still a national disaster.

And this again must be challenged. Is this the ONS figure that requires a doctor to say they died OF covid, or is it the other ONS figure that says Covd contributed tote death
Is it the other figure supposedly used by PHE but not the weklsh variant for months where they include those who a doctior say died through COVID being the major underlying factor (this is how they measure the coffin dodgers who covid gets) or are you stil using the BBC figure that says if you get run over by a bus after walking back from the postbox where you posted your positive test sample then you died of COVID

[johnofgwent]

Yesterday UK had highest number of new covid cases of any country in the world

Did it really
So you beieve the American figures whoch ran at four times ours for five of the last seven days suddenly fell off a cliff for the last two
And you believe India where nobody givesa shit about 9% of the population are reporting accurate information ?

[Barry]

What I think is wrong is that now we're within sight of being able to 'live with covid', risks are being taken now with the health of people that who would probably be safe in a few months' time.

I'm not sure what you mean by this.
9 out of 10 of the population jabbed, the truly vulnerable have long since been double jabbed.
How would anyone be any safer in a few months, any more than they are now. Do you want more restrictions - if so, you are no liberal!

[Scott777]

Yesterday UK had highest number of new covid cases of any country in the world and yet there seems to be a huge amount of complacency.
On average the USA still has the highest number of daily cases but it's not unusual for the UK to take the unenviable top spot. The UK is usually the second highest, above Brazil and India. So some will blame the Delta variant which started in India, but that got a hold in lots of countries which seem to have got it under control better than we have

Compared to roughly similar sized European countries, UK is getting close to 10 times the number of daily cases and 5 times the number of daily deaths. This can't all be dismissed as 'we're doing a lot more tests'.

The vaccination programme here has been a success story but all other covid policies have been flawed. What's going on now is like the fire brigade packing up and going away when they've put out 80% of a fire at an explosives factory.

The government needs to be more pro-active in safety measures. The relaxation of social distancing advice and mask-wearing was wrong. But the people must take some of the blame. Too many people aren't observing precautions, which haven't become irrelevant just because Boris says we don't need them any more.

Here is your complete contradiction.  Vaccines = good, yet Covid cases = bad.  Yeah, right.  You me telling us next that cutting off your head is the cure for lung cancer.  It does stop the cancer spreading to your body.