The decision to end restrictions is dangerous and premature, unethical and illogical.

What a ridiculous set of statements, some are actually nothing more than guesswork, the fact that this is attributed to the lancet is frankly unbelievable!

It would surely be a very stupid person who would decide their view on health measures based on being Tory/Labour/whatever.
If I thought the Tory government was doing a great job on Covid, I'd say so.

I’m going to keep saying this. All three of the governments in the other nations of the UK, including Northern Ireland, which is a right wing government and socially conservative are not going with the English Government on lifting all restrictions. Is that political, or just common sense because they have listened to the experts more closely?

Daisymae. I agree totally. Long Covid in children could be awful. As a mother of a child whose had ME since age 12 and was isolated /unable to attend school, being so Ill, was home schooled and as a adult now still having trouble, this could be the next time bomb

Are you following me Lemongrove? ?

I'm a Scottish scientist, I guess that must really irk..... ?‍?

Annie1
Although Alegrias isn’t a Labour voter but SNP as she tells us ( which explains it) I would say that yes, we all have political bias, but still have differing views, ( just as the scientists do) on
How we should go about our daily lives with Covid around.

Although I’m still not going shopping etc when I do venture forth fully masked I see no evidence of people not living what looks like a pretty normal life compared to the first lockdown. There’s a steady stream of people driving past the house, people are walking by. Others are sitting outside the pubs. I’m not doing it myself but people are meeting inside people’s homes. If we carry on with social distancing and mask wearing there won’t be a flu epidemic this winter. Under the governments new strategy there could easily be a flu epidemic this winter especially if the vaccine used isn’t the right one. Hopefully the same measures will reduce noroviruses as well. We still all need to do everything we can to take pressure off the NHS so they can begin to get on top of the backlog of operations etc.

I’ve never voted Tory in my life?. But have voted Labour, Green and Lib Dem.

I've never voted Labour in my life. Just saying.

Not all scientists are what I would think of as having ALL the correct qualifications in order to lecture the general population. Did you all see how Susan Michie, a member of SAGE, reacted when Richard Madelely asked her why we should listen to her when her speciality is psychology which makes her a behavioural scientist not a Clinical scientist in the same field as Vallance, Whitby and Van Tam ( my favourite) Moreover, as Madeley asked her if her membership of the Communist party influenced her opposition to government policy. She was really annoyed with him for daring to suggest both that she was not medically qualified to make pronouncements as though she was in the same league as practising clinical scientists and/or that her political views were of a minority. We are all influenced by our political point of view so I vote Conservative although I am no fan of Boris and I always read WhiteWaterMarks and Algerias1 knowing that they are on the left. I must admit that I am surprised by just how many of us here seem to vote Labour! So really, while I read posts here, I am always aware of political bias and I am sure most of you are too.

Whitewavemark2 I also have clinicians in the family. I think exhaustion and sadness sums it up. And still people say this is all made up. Does anyone think the amount of protesting and of course 2 recently lost by elections are pushing the government into this position too soon? Those who have refused vaccines on the basis that Covid doesn’t exist are going to be at significant risk aren’t they?

Theoddbird

Damned if they do and damned if they don't. If we are going to open up the summer is the best time to do it. If we wait until Winter flu will be here on top of everything else. If you want to keep wearing a mask and keeping your distance etc you can....nobody is stopping you. The responsibility is your. So don't blame the government for not telling you to. You are grownups....

NOBODY IS DISPUTING THE "OPENING UP"!

Sorry that's in caps and "shouting", but I'm fed up of saying it. People are cautious, but it's the use of mitigations, such as face masks and social distancing, which is the main issue.

And, of course, schools and the vaccination of teenagers.

I really don't understand why it's difficult to see that if we go to a free for all without masks, etc, many people will have no choice but to shield themselves and cases will rise. There are still too many people who haven't been vaccinated - some from choice - but others because they are too young or they have a condition which means vaccinations won't work. In any case, we're beginning to see that vaccinations aren't 100% effective.

A&E apartments are already full. - one that works at 180 capacity reported that by 9am yesterday, there were 300 patients. For the past 6 weeks, the excessive levels of activity is creating a significant and sustained level of threat to patient safety.

My DH has heart problems like many DH’s on here, we must all fervently hope that they are not rushed in only to be turned away during the following months.

An NHS consultant said”It feels inhuman,. Our emergency department is spilling over. Patients are scared, unsure of where else to go…”

Damned if they do and damned if they don't. If we are going to open up the summer is the best time to do it. If we wait until Winter flu will be here on top of everything else. If you want to keep wearing a mask and keeping your distance etc you can....nobody is stopping you. The responsibility is your. So don't blame the government for not telling you to. You are grownups....

lemongrove

The world and his wife have differing views on what to do at the moment regarding Covid, and this includes scientists.
If doctors and epidemiologists ( excuse spelling if wrong) had their way we would all be tucked up in our houses for the next two years, but they are not thinking of the economy going down the pan or how awful life would be, particularly the disabled and anyone in residential care as well as the rest of society. We simply have to try to live in the way we usually do, with those most at risk still being cautious.
If things escalate badly then another mild form of lockdown may become necessary, but we have to try this and Summer seems the best time to do it.

Where's your evidence for stating that doctors and epidemiologists would have people locked up?

It's a mistake to think that the economy doesn't depend on good health anyway.

Nobody is suggesting keeping restrictions, just mitigating risks, so there doesn't need to be another full scale lockdown.

K8tie

Unfortunately the two biggest studies surrounding the pandemic provided to us worldwide by The Lancet and The New England Journal of Medicine have been redacted . . . you only need to research to get a more balanced view as opposed to that of the main stream media that has been given to us world wide.
I have been preferring to check with the worlddoctorsalliance.com/
and with the Alliance for Human Research Protection
ahrp.org/the-lancet-published-a-fraudulent-study-editor-calls-it-department-of-error/
so as to come up with a more informed opinion.

Errr ... no. You are the one who has been misinformed. Before telling others to do their research, try doing dome for yourself from reputable sources.

The world and his wife have differing views on what to do at the moment regarding Covid, and this includes scientists.
If doctors and epidemiologists ( excuse spelling if wrong) had their way we would all be tucked up in our houses for the next two years, but they are not thinking of the economy going down the pan or how awful life would be, particularly the disabled and anyone in residential care as well as the rest of society. We simply have to try to live in the way we usually do, with those most at risk still being cautious.
If things escalate badly then another mild form of lockdown may become necessary, but we have to try this and Summer seems the best time to do it.

Alegrias1

growstuff

Alegrias1

Just a comment.

World Doctors Alliance is made up of many eminent scientists and medics.

Do we trust them?

World Doctors Alliance is a bunch of nutjobs.

Indeed. They absolutely are. But they are also a group of scientists and medics.

Just being a scientist or medic doesn't make you right

One would hope that ones doctor is nearly always right though!!

growstuff

Alegrias1

Just a comment.

World Doctors Alliance is made up of many eminent scientists and medics.

Do we trust them?

World Doctors Alliance is a bunch of nutjobs.

Indeed. They absolutely are. But they are also a group of scientists and medics.

Just being a scientist or medic doesn't make you right

Alegrias1

Just a comment.

World Doctors Alliance is made up of many eminent scientists and medics.

Do we trust them?

World Doctors Alliance is a bunch of nutjobs.

The last paragraph.

“(The government) is forcing (doctors) to play a zero-sum game in which every extra person with covid erodes a little more of our capacity to care for someone else without (covid). You are, in short, championing a policy that directly harms all patients, whether they have covid, cancer, heart disease, dementia, mental illness, a car crash or brain haemorrhage. It turns my stomach even to think about it”

This is what Johnson’s policy of herd immunity looks like.

I’ve just read the Guardian article about how overstretched the NHS.

One sentence stood out.

we are being set up to fail

The end result will be privatised health. That is a certainty.

Gray at. Great article in The Guardian. Thankyou

I have just checked on the World Doctors Alliance site. Then checked the contributors on Google. So before reading what they have to say, check their credentials.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jul/11/nhs-dropping-covid-restrictions-patients-backlog