With UK Covid deaths the highest in Europe, is this living with Covid?

Annaram1

Over 45000 cases a day is incredible!!! New Zealand and Australia had the right idea - lockdowns, and they conquered covid. They thought even a couple of hundred a day was too many. Why not here?

How long do you think the lockdown would need to last to bring infections down
Who is going to pay for it shutting down shops pubs restaurants ect
I think you will find that very few people are in favour of lockdown I for one am certainly not it’s a sticking plaster and does not work long term

Ah, so cases are going up because of people not wearing masks are they. One wonders what was the cause of rising cases last autumn when everyone was wearing masks? Could it be that wearing a mask or not wearing one makes absolutely no difference...

It saddens me that there are so many rising cases and that there are still a high number of deaths. Surely the point is that we should all be proceeding with caution. Much as the vaccination programme has been a great success it does not mean that we can all go about our daily business as normal. It is still out there and causing misery for so many. I shielded throughout lockdown and still am and am very careful if I go out. I hope I am respectful of others and I wish they would be the same.

Olive53

Ah, so cases are going up because of people not wearing masks are they. One wonders what was the cause of rising cases last autumn when everyone was wearing masks? Could it be that wearing a mask or not wearing one makes absolutely no difference...

To be fair nobody was vaccinated last autumn
Mask wearing will only have an impact if the great proportion of people are wearing one with few wearing them now I am not under the illusion that wearing a mask will protect me completely or little at all

Olive53

Ah, so cases are going up because of people not wearing masks are they. One wonders what was the cause of rising cases last autumn when everyone was wearing masks? Could it be that wearing a mask or not wearing one makes absolutely no difference...

No, it doesn't mean that at all. The majority of cases were caught in the home or in places where people were forced to be in close proximity to each other. In the home, many people let their guard down and didn't wear masks. Furthermore, masks are only one tool in the fight against Covid. Some droplets will still escape, but most of them will not be transmitted and will cause no further harm.

I believe the government were expecting another peak and wanted to try and hurry it over before the flu season started, hence the free for all. Unfortunately flu is already with us, early this year

No one reports on how many have Heart Disease, Cancer etc and the death rate on those daily, do we still need daily updates ?

Well yes Visgirl as we are still in a pandemic, we do. Are you suggesting that if we didn’t get a daily update and the number of cases and deaths went up, that ignorance would be bliss?

ReadyMeals

I believe the government were expecting another peak and wanted to try and hurry it over before the flu season started, hence the free for all. Unfortunately flu is already with us, early this year

If only there was an effective way of protecting ourselves from flu. Other than having the vaccine, sanitising our hands and wearing a mask…

Calendargirl

The deaths are people who tested positive for Covid in the last 28 days I think.

To me, that doesn’t mean they died of Covid, it means they died with Covid. And perhaps they had recovered from it, and died of something else?

Do other countries use the same system as we do ie deaths of people who dies within 28 days of having Covid? Or do they have a different method of defining a Covid death?

Maybe the government have missed a trick - perhaps if they were able to demonstrate that not only does wearing a mask help others, but it helps protect the wearer too? I feel that the message is always about protecting others if you knowingly/inadvertently have Covid - any idea how much protection you obtain by wearing a medical grade mask (as opposed to homemade fabric ones)?

marq66 Your figures are wrong, where on earth did you get them from!!

Loobs

Maybe the government have missed a trick - perhaps if they were able to demonstrate that not only does wearing a mask help others, but it helps protect the wearer too? I feel that the message is always about protecting others if you knowingly/inadvertently have Covid - any idea how much protection you obtain by wearing a medical grade mask (as opposed to homemade fabric ones)?

Well, there must be a reason why nurses wear them.

MayBee70

ReadyMeals

I believe the government were expecting another peak and wanted to try and hurry it over before the flu season started, hence the free for all. Unfortunately flu is already with us, early this year

If only there was an effective way of protecting ourselves from flu. Other than having the vaccine, sanitising our hands and wearing a mask…

Indeed- in France and Italy, and I believe in most European countries- mask wearing in public spaces, shops, transport, etc, is still mandatory and so is hand sanitising. And strict enforcement of 'vaccination pass' to access restaurants, cinemas, etc.

Our friends visited Pompeii last week and mask wearing was obligatory at all times even though the site is outside.

'And getting the numbers right is important or nobody will believe the points you make.' and 'Telling people that the death rate is 100 times what it really is can't be good for anyone's health.'

Thank you Alegrias, for putting my thoughts into words so clearly!

Sorry just remembered that I should have put quotations in italics rather than in quotation marks.

Whitewavemark2

Prof. Winston Graham has said that the government’s mistakes were catastrophic, with an abysmal and culpable level of unpreparedness, not experienced in most places in the developed world.

Who is Professor Winston Graham? Do you mean Professor Robert Winston or the author Winston Graham? or someone else? I feel we should know!

Now that our school is in 'outbreak' status, everyone has to wear a mask again all the time, except outside (I have kept my mask on regardless of government school 'rules' to the contrary). Windows must be opened, surfaces wiped. Despite alarming numbers of cases in pupils and staff, we are limping on until half-term rather than close sooner. Madness.

Presumably you are referring to lack of masks etc in ENGLAND other nations of UK still have mandated precautions in place

Nurses wear ordinary blue tupe masks to protect the patients. They wear the proper PPE to protect themselves when working with Covid-19 patients.

The numbers of covid cases has risen purely because most of the people in this country act as if the pandemic has disappeared. No masks, people hugging, no distancing. As soon as the government gave the option to stop wearing a mask, it was the green light to do so. The government has dealt with this virus abysmally from the get go and to my mind heads should roll.

The number of Covid cases has risen because there is virtually no mitigation in schools. Almost 50% of Covid cases have been in school age children since the second week of September. That's no coincidence.

As I have said on another thread DD is currently at home as GS1 has tested positive. She is a research scientist and she has been told to stay at home because the scientists she works with don't want to work with someone who has been in close contact with Covid. You'd almost think that scientists know more about it than politicians.

I refuse to hug anyone, not even my family! I was at a WI meeting where people were hugging and I just said “ No thanks” But I’m not a hugger anyway so am quite happy not to get too close to anyone apart from my immediate family.