Nor do I try and make some sort of statistical remark to downplay their deaths like you did. I don't make light of deaths to prove some sort of point, unlike yourself.I don't see you comforting the other 1000+ people who died over those last 24 hours from non headline illnesses. That's a mighty fine high horse you have there ST.
Where have I made light of death? Quote me.
Totally understand, death is awful, and surely you can see that nobody is dismissing this as nothing. I think the thing is that people discuss restrictions as if they are cost free and the answer all the time, and the correct action in all circumstances to stop increased infection, almost with no though for the damage they cause and that perhaps that its even something to be considered at all. It disproportionately affects the young, it may not be immediately visible, but the impact of shutting down society will be felt drastically for years to come. For example with energy prices, whole Industries collapsing is seen by some as "just jobs, and not as important as stopping the spread" , but the impact of this is that peoples children have limited chances when they grow up and not be afforded the same life experiences as we had. Like it or not that has to be considered and taken seriously when making decisions on closing society, it has to be weighed up, it is not as binary as "let's just shut down for 3 months then start again". I feel as if people don't care one bit what the impacts of lockdowns or restrictions are, there's 2 sides to this, and for too long anything other than supporting restrictions has been seen as selfish, it isn't, not everyone who disagrees with restrictions is an anti vaxer who doesn't care about death, we just also happen to value other things that suffer because of them. I do care about others, I don't want to see anyone get hurt, I am over the moon with vaccines, happy to wear a mask, but I believe that we now have to put more value on peoples futures life chances and life quality than we have previously when making decisions about restrictions.
33k uk deaths from the asian flu, in spite of
absolutely nobody is doing either of these things, don't throw such silly strawmen out there
There are just as many people saying the exact opposite, that we should have no restrictions and just get on with things (and they've been saying it for the whole 2 years) as if that wouldn't have any negative impact either
I would totally disagree with this. No one is disregarding the problems restrictions cause, from loneliness to loss of business to prices rising and good being in short supply. However a balance has to be made between that and protecting the NHS, stopping it being over ran and excessive deaths occurring.
I get that, but society cannot be permanently run based on its health service capacity. We are a country with a health service, not a health service with a country. Every year since 2010 there has been a headline stating the immenent collapse of the health service, I believe that is true, but the point is that the headlines are no different now to what they were in 2010. Restrictions at this point delay and spread the spread to help health services cope, I'm saying that this is not the only thing in society that matters, and that is heighten more so now that we are dealing with a less serious varient. It needs to be considered rather than just dismissed for public health reasons.
Where did you get the 18,000 figure from? It is completely wide of the mark. This would equate to 6,570,000 people per year. Genuinely interested how you arrived at this figure.
I agree it isn't the only thing in society that matters. But a functioning health service is extremely important. Imagine being in a country were basic treatments can't be given? Which is what will happen if the NHS gets overwhelmed. As nice as it would be to all be free and keep peoples lives running as they were before. If it's at the cost of not being able to receive medical treatment, I don't think it's a cost worth paying.
how do you come to that conclusion considering one of the biggest issues is availability of hospital beds, and restrictions exist to reduce demand for those beds and drag down the peak? It's almost like you don't know what you are talking about
I don't think restrictions now would make much difference to deaths or buy time. The time for doing something has long since passed, would need to have been done about 3 weeks ago to have any meaningful difference. Older people and care homes are starting to be infected with covid now so we should know if Boris' gamble paid off in the next 2 weeks.
