How can a country have a short, sharp COVID-19 epidemic then return to normal life?
Lockdowns should be early and sharp. Countries that had serious lockdowns such as S. Korea and China brought the infection under rapid control. Countries that had lockdowns before serious epidemics occurred stopped serious epidemics occurring. The scale of the epidemics in different countries has been largely defined by the number of cases at the start of lockdown.
Serious travel bans should be implemented at the start of an epidemic. The UK imported 20,000 COVID-19 cases, largely from the EU, which infected 50,000 other people. The initial large scale of the UK epidemic was due to a very tardy travel ban and lack of quarantine of arrivals which guaranteed a massive infection before lockdown.
Coughs and sneezes spread diseases. Face masks are essential, countries that made the wearing of facemasks in public mandatory seem to have reduced the scale of the epidemic below the level that might have been expected from the number of cases at lockdown (See Science Times Article). There is up to a 10,000 Euro fine for failing to wear a face mask in public in Germany. This was obviously going to work given that COVID-19 is a droplet borne infection. The continuing large scale of the UK epidemic is partly due to a cavalier attitude to face masks.
"The big mistake in the US and Europe, in my opinion, is that people aren't wearing masks," said George Gao, the director-general of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Telegraph.
The biggest rule for defeating COVID-19 is not to be defeatist. The UK scientific advice was that COVID-19 would never be beaten, it would be with us forever so the best that we can do is "herd immunity". Countries that have accepted this approach are looking like they will never defeat COVID-19. All of the actions taken in the UK are compatible with this approach: why test and trace contacts if the objective is to infect most of the population? Herd immunity does not need millions of tests, all that implementing herd immunity needs is to Protect the NHS from overload as the virus is allowed to run through the population. Why shut the borders if you are after herd immunity? Shutting borders will just slow down the inevitable. Face masks will just stop people from getting immune.
The elite British Corporate Establishment float about above the population and don't really care about them. A few of the elite, like Sir David Spiegelhalter are honest and openly say that the risk for young, well people from COVID-19 is very low so herd immunity is an option. They tend to make light of the fact that this policy will kill a very large number of those who are over 60 or who are immunocompromised. In contrast ordinary British people would willingly lose their livelihood to save their neighbour. The irony is that had the British Corporate Elite been less cocky and implemented policies to beat COVID-19 the disease would have been beaten by now and we would all be back at work.
This is not about Tory or Labour. Labour would have done the same as the Government. This is about the Corporate Elite itself which is embedded in Labour as much as in the Tories. Starmer is a member of the Corporate Elite and even attends Trilateral Commission meetings. The UK has a society where the hubris of those with money and power and especially education is intensified by the arrogance of intense classism. This combination makes our Corporate Elite unhelpful at best.
It is a century since WWI and people have forgotten how our own, special, classist Corporate Elite can kill ordinary people needlessly and without conscience by repeating and continuing mistaken policies.
You may be asking "Why the vitriol?". After 3 years of turmoil caused by the tantrums of the Corporate Elite over Brexit it is clear that their attitudes are a danger to this country. It is no coincidence that the group that kept the borders open with the EU and killed thousands was from the same social group as created the turmoil after the Referendum. Britain should always be on its guard against these selfish people.
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