07-06-2021, 08:19 AM
(07-05-2021, 09:27 PM)Kit Kat Chunky Wrote: The relaxation of all rules does seem counter intuitive
This is where I am. I'm comfortable with giving people the choice to do certain things, if people want to go to the pub where there is unrestricted standing at the bar and mingling then that is ok, that comes with an obvious risk that they will take any virus away with them and continue the spread but that seems to be the way some people want it. I suspect the businesses will find that they won't get back to capacity because people will be uncertain and simply not go out, that is their choice. Having said that I see no logic in not mandating masks on public transport and in shops, there doesn't appear to be any downside to continuing to do that.
The other big question I have is for weeks Johnson has been proclaiming that this is irreversible, but logic tells me that it probably will need to have some form of reversing at some point in the next few months. When that point arrives, because of what has been said, some people will be demanding their civil rights and stating that they were told it is irreversible etc. and making it difficult to control any future issues.
The whole press conference last night was bizarre, we had Johnson stating that all restrictions are being removed and then Valance and Whitty telling us numbers are increasing in all metrics. Johnson's view is 'if not now. when?' but surely the answer to that is 'not when the numbers are going up'. Hospitalisations are going up at 20% each week at the moment, removing all restrictions logically says that there will be more spread and therefore more hospitalisations. If that continues at the current rate we will have 10k in hospital around mid-september, that will put strain on other services and put us back to cancellations of treatments causing more long term problems. If the removal of restrictions increases spread then we will get there sooner than September.
In Johnson we have a leader of extremes, he either gambles everything or nothing. In this case he is gambling everything on the chance that the virus spread will slow down as we reach herd immunity, lets hope he knows something that we don't and that it will be different this time, his experts didn't appear to have his confidence last night. We appear to be making the exact same mistake for the 2nd year running, opening up to get businesses back on their feet. We know where that went, those same businesses had more long term damage because of the opening up.
For what it's worth my view is continue with the current restrictions until we get over 90% of the population double vaccinated, then keep some minor impositions in place such as masks in public spaces with the exception of hospitality venues.