Once again, we are on the verge of an imminent national lockdown. Last night it was predicted that the government would announce a national lockdown next week, possibly until 1st December, with the aim of allowing us to enjoy a ‘normal’ Christmas. Too late, once again, Bojo Baggins and his band of merry men have dithered and pontificated for weeks over whether they should or shouldn’t make this drastic decision. It also begs the question whether there will be any significant benefit? Surely the only purpose it will achieve is to delay the virus for just a few weeks?
The first time around, depending on which experts you listened to, we went into lockdown a week too late and, had we begun a week earlier, the death rate would be have been significantly lower. Also, it was questionable whether the lifting of restrictions back in July when the government decided to do so, was too premature and left us with a higher likelihood of a second wave arriving, just in time for winter.
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to predict that several people, mixing in close proximity in a pub or restaurant, or thousands of students travelling across county lines to attend far-flung Universities, would have a detrimental impact by spreading CV19 further afield. And proving the point, hundreds of students have been locked-down in their halls almost from the moment they arrived, as the virus numbers began to spread simultaneously.
This time, apparently, schools and essential shops will remain open. Obviously, school children don’t suffer severely from CV19 (apart from the few who did and died, and those who continue to suffer), but am I mistaken in believing that all schools have a plethora of other people who work in their environments? Teachers, teaching assistants, caretakers, cleaners, dinner ladies, student trainees, cooks, apprentices, and of course the essential lollipop lady/man. Surely these people are all at risk of being passed CV19 from unsuspecting staff/children who may be carrying the virus unknowingly and asymptomatically?
One of the many recent things reported is that 9 out of 10 people who contract the virus do so from an unknown source, meaning they’ve contracted it from someone that didn’t know they were carrying it. Hence the spread is just as silent and deadly now as it ever was.
It’s also been recently reported that the annual flu jab given each winter to thousands of at-risk people, only actually gives immunity to 50% of people who chose to have it. Therefore, when the long-awaited vaccine for CV19 finally arrives this may well be the same. Those most in need of the long-awaited vaccine are the vulnerable and aged, and it’s already been suggested that elderly people’s immune systems do not respond well to immunisation. This doesn’t bode well for the success of the vaccine when it does finally arrive.
For weeks experts have been bandying around their opinions, and each time you read anything on any platform it’s immediately contradicted on another. Does anyone out there know what’s going on? Which of the zillion baffling statistics you see are the correct ones – as they often seem to be conflicting?
So, with the government in constant turmoil over what action to take, and experts in every field imaginable all piping up with their opinions, sadly it seems that the bottom line is nobody anywhere on the planet knows the answer.