Britain Prepares to "Live with the Virus" and Remove Nearly All Covid Restrictions

[Ms Diddles]

Thanks Ms D, I was planning to eventually bring the lions back though (as long as they wore masks of course)

https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/30/us/new-york-public-library-lion-masks-trnd/index.html

[Herlock Sholmes]

https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/30/us/ne...rnd/index.html

There’s pretty much nothing that you can’t find on the net.

I should have mentioned an aardvark playing chess

[Svensson]

so how's everyone on the first rescriction-free day since March 2020 (Boris and Rishi are excused...)?

To me in Holland, not much has changed. Indoor dining is banned again and offices are closed again. Apart from that, shops are open (with maximum customers at any given time) and there is no mask requirement anywhere. Getting my second shot tomorrow and made the commitment to join the gym again on 01 AUG. The 16 month lockdown has not been kind on my waistline....

[Damaso Marte]

The more I read stories about the Delta Variant apparently spreading outdoors (at concerts, at sports events, etc.) and the more I read about the Delta Variant being able to infect the vaccinated, the more I believe Boris Johnson is basically doing the right thing here, with the only real quibble being on whether his timing is off by a few weeks.

If the Delta Variant is as contagious as it seems, we have two choices: live with it, or perpetual lockdown. Half-hearted measures like mask mandates, hand sanitizer, and moving indoor activities outdoor will be largely ineffective against this thing. Vaccines will prevent the vaccinated from having a serious case, but will not stop the spread of the disease as originally hoped. Short of literally locking down all human activity and forcing people to quarantine in their homes indefinitely, we're probably all going to be infected with Delta at some point, no matter what we do or what governments do.

So why not just accept this awful fact and allow people to live their lives normally, albeit with a slightly higher risk of death or long-term complications from infectious disease? The UK has one of the most vaccinated populations in the world so it's a great candidate for being one of the first countries to accept the new normal.

[String]

The more I read stories about the Delta Variant apparently spreading outdoors (at concerts, at sports events, etc.) and the more I read about the Delta Variant being able to infect the vaccinated, the more I believe Boris Johnson is basically doing the right thing here, with the only real quibble being on whether his timing is off by a few weeks.

If the Delta Variant is as contagious as it seems, we have two choices: live with it, or perpetual lockdown. Half-hearted measures like mask mandates, hand sanitizer, and moving indoor activities outdoor will be largely ineffective against this thing. Vaccines will prevent the vaccinated from having a serious case, but will not stop the spread of the disease as originally hoped. Short of literally locking down all human activity and forcing people to quarantine in their homes indefinitely, we're probably all going to be infected with Delta at some point, no matter what we do or what governments do.

So why not just accept this awful fact and allow people to live their lives normally, albeit with a slightly higher risk of death or long-term complications from infectious disease? The UK has one of the most vaccinated populations in the world so it's a great candidate for being one of the first countries to accept the new normal.

If the vaccination program was finished ie all people as could possibly be vaccinated over 12 and possibly younger after approval were vaccinated and cases were very low then this is the time to ease restrictions.
The way they are doing it now is throwing away any advantages of the vaccine for a few months so called freedom, many will get sick, die or get long covid for absolutely no reason. There is also the potential for a worse variant to emerge and as many scientists have stated if you want to breed a new variant this is exactly the way to go about it. The way it’s running we will be hitting September with over 100,000+ new cases per day with schools about to open. A lockdown is virtually guaranteed.
This is a political decision not based on any logic at all.

[Damaso Marte]

Interestingly, cases have begun to decline in the UK.

[String]

Yes good news, a few caveats. Schools closed for summer and Euro football over. They are also not including people who are reinfected in the figures. I think we need for some weeks to see if it continues.
I discovered the Zoe app that’s tracks covid and it’s giving a completely different rate of infection.
Unfortunately this government does not fill me with confidence in the accuracy of published figures.

https://covid.joinzoe.com/

[Yabs]

Regarding the lower figures, this should be taken partially into account…
The amount of tests being given is down by about 10%
Less tests of course equal less people to test positive.
Plus, historical positive lateral flow tests that were subsequently found to be negative are now being removed from the daily figures

[Pcdunn]

Dr. Anthony Fauci said if there was this much misinformation in the old days, we'd still have polio.

c.d.

Or this much disobedience. I saw a documentary on TV about the Spanish Flu epidemic in the 20th century. There were mask rules then that were enforced by a semi-fascist set of rules and watchdogs in the good old land of the free, USA.
Citizens were encouraged to report their neighbors for going out maskless.

Now? People on airplanes are brawling with cabin attendants that tell them to mask up. A concerned mother in Colorado admitted that the virus is a real problem, but believes she should have the freedom to send her kid to school without a mask. Sigh...