So lockdown worked!

I would prefer a tough and quiet Christmas all round so that we can enjoy a riotous post vaccine summer celebration.

Infection rates rising around me in Kent.

I would have thought some areas may have achieved a level of herd immunity but not near enough yet

Please: not herd immunity again.....

Christmas here (Cornwall), will be at Easter.

Just read the experts like Ivor Cummins on lockdowns.

Robert F Kennedy Jr on vaccines - read insidethevatican.com/magazine/robert-f-kennedy-jr-on-coming-covid-vaccines/?gclid=Cj0KCQiAzZL-BRDnARIsAPCJs73Z0STbDhe1DztJCm_YlOGdEiDjBNVHLpntiZSrP9sHS-g6b_8bIvcaAqJMEALw_wcB

He says " vaccines are not safety tested, and people find that hard to believe, but unfortunately, it’s true."

"“None of the 72 vaccines now mandated for American children have ever been safety tested against a double-blind placebo”

'Kennedy is an environmental lawyer, the president of Waterkeeper Alliance, and the chairman of Children’s Health Defense. He has spent the past 15 years advocating for proper safety testing of vaccines. Robert has taken on the unenviable role of David fighting the pharmaceutical and big business Goliaths, including an enormous $2 billion victory against Bayer’s Monsanto and its popular weedkiller, RoundUp, for causing terminal Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma in consumers'

Research is essential ..........

Frankly a large minority (and growing) of the public, and even the MPs, seem to have had enough of the lockdown/tier systems and for Christmas it would appear that the majority of people would have broken the no mixing rules if Boris hadn’t relaxed them. Seems he had little choice if he wanted overall compliance of rules. However if people are naive enough to believe that the virus cares about that and that we won’t have to pay a price for this relaxation then they’re fools. The more people rush to shop and gather to give gifts and spend time with all of their usual friends and family, besides the very limited Christmas bubble rules, the more people will die and suffer afterwards.
I have been in utter shock at the amount of people who think they can bend the rules to suit their own needs since March and seriously wonder if we were at war with someone other than an invisible virus would we as a society be capable of making the sacrifices that were made (and sustained) during World War 1 and II. I’m beginning to doubt it.

We are nowhere near herd immunity!! If you take an area with a high number of infections, eg. 500 per 100,000, that is only 0.5% of that particular area, meaning 95.5% are not infected

I think everyone has their own 'plan' and most of us are more safety conscious than we are being given credit for. What the PM has done is given us some specified liberty. I think this will make life easier for the police and somewhat perplexing for many families. I certainly won't be doing any last minute mad shopping or shop hitting and I credit my fellow humans with some sense even when they do participate. I plan/hope to have a lovely time in the simplest of ways. Very much looking forward to it.

I’m afraid that, for the past 10 months I have been unable to credit many of my fellow humans with even a modicum of common sense....

Rates here (South Yorkshire) have come down and we’re returning to tier 3 so hopefully they’ll continue to fall......just in time for the free for all Christmas to push us into the 3rd wave. Madness!

NannyC2 Kennedy is a nutcase who has been disowned by his family. None of what he says is true.

Ivor Cummings is a Chemical Engineer who writes cookery books.

Googling is not research.

When we were in lockdown 1, I constantly saw posts from people who said they knew how to keep themselves safe and weren’t necessarily going to be following BJ’s orders.
The minute it is announced that you can mix over Christmas, social media is full of posts from people who said they aren’t going to go out whatever he says you can or can’t do.
In actual fact, there will always be those who will take care, stay home and not mix and those who, either because they think it’s a hoax, a BB plot to control us, a removal of their civil liberties etc., will go out and make merry regardless of the risk to their lives and the lives of their loved ones.
As a hospitality or business owner, I’d be hoping for lots of the latter group. As a grandma in the ‘vulnerable group’ I’ll be in the first group.
We have to do what we can, but at least we can come on here and vent our feelings to stop ourselves going crazy!

I think the most sensible advice I've seen re Christmas is that members of families who intend to get together at Christmas should self isolate for 2 weeks beforehand so as to cut the risk of spreading the virus to their relatives. I mean all risks to all relatives because although the risk to the elderly might mean the risk of them dying, the risk to younger people is of Long Covid, which can be a result of quite mild seeming infections but can be highly debilitating and even life changing. And it seems to me that this is a very unknown quantity at the moment because no-one knows how long lasting and damaging it could be.

And although it is obvious that if one is displaying covid symptoms one shouldn't meet relatives the danger is that covid can be infectious in people who have it but are not yet displaying symptoms. So better to be on the safe side and take sensible precautions in advance.

Of course lockdowns work, as do prisons - Burglars in prison are unable to break in to a house to steal.

The problem has always been, what happens when you let people out.....and they revert back to behaviour that got them locked down/up in the first place!

P.S. I don't know if it is lockdown working in our area, infections have been noticeably falling over the past couple of weeks, but we also seem to have a very good rate of compliance with mask wearing and social distancing.

You fail to understand. Mr J does have a plan and knows full well that only 70% or so will comply with the restrictions. He factors that in. That is why we have the tier system for the coming weeks. Some are quite hard done by on that front.

Just because we can , doesn't mean we should. Just saying.........

I agree with you Jan16

It is a fact that whatever the PM does he would be criticised by some.

Ever since the virus arrived back in the spring the government has had an incredibly difficult balancing act with trying to control the virus and save lives, yet at the same time trying to ensure that millions of people aren’t without a job when it all ends.

They have made mistakes along the line but so has virtually every other country.

It does indeed sound as if this lockdown has had the desired effect, but we can’t stay in lockdown until the vaccines have been rolled out.

Despite that some people feel it’s wrong for shops and restaurants to reopen.

It’s worth repeating- the government can’t win!

So far the only winners are the government ....taking democracy away and treating everyone like children ...it is time we took responsibility for ourselves and were allowed to decide how to live our lives safely and sensibly. Inciting mass hysteria is no way to govern a country. Of great concern to me is the mental health of isolated and lonely people...(having worked in the NHS in mental health before retirement) and also the fact that cancer and other illnesses have not been treated. The Nightingale hospitals were built to take COVID patient......and are lying virtually empty ...WHY ? disgraceful ......

You fail to understand. Mr J does have a plan and knows full well that only 70% or so will comply with the restrictions.

As his plan seems to include the virus taking 5 days off while everyone has a hooley with their relatives at Christmas I don't find it at all easy to have any confidence in it.

He doesn't seem to have considered new Year, either...

Alegrias2

NannyC2 Kennedy is a nutcase who has been disowned by his family. None of what he says is true.

Ivor Cummings is a Chemical Engineer who writes cookery books.

Googling is not research.

Exactly this. FFS stop thinking people who aren't epidemiologists/virologists know any more than anyone else.

^ The Nightingale hospitals were built to take COVID patient......and are lying virtually empty ...WHY ? disgraceful ......^

They're lying empty because there is no-one to staff them.

They're also unsuitable for covid patients, rudimentary separation of patients and no proper hospital standard ventilation, so lots of opportunity for those aerosols to hang around and infect more of the very scarce staff...

AlanaV - great to see someone with their eyes wide open who talks sense!

He doesn't seem to have considered New Year either.

So is that any great surprise?
The plan is that the country's measures over the period will be guided by the data. The restrictions for New Year will depend heavily on the number of infections.

What I fail to understand, and yes I don't know it all, how come with this latest shorter 4 week lockdown, where people have been less compliant and schools and unis still running, we have got the R rate down far quicker than last time when it took 12 weeks?