Could it be that we are not going to be able to stop covid 19? A vaccine is very unlikely to be produced in the next twelve months. In reality the whole issue of testing and tracing is complex and in practice probably unworkable. Gradually more and more people are ignoring the guidelines to self-isolate and not gather in groups especially the under 50's who are the ones least likely to be affected.
Testing and tracing seems to have had some success in other countries. Didn't the government waste time in February and Early March with their ill thought out "herd immunity" theory until they realised that the population was not healthy enough for this to avoid an unacceptable death toll. Hence, they have been struggling to play "catch up" and cannot even suggest easing the current restrictions without risking a second peak.
Stop it? Now its amongst the population i believe its here for good and will probably rear its head every year like the influenza. The big win will be developing a treatment to help those inflicted with it as i reckon a vaccine will be hit and miss given how often the virus will mutate. Lockdown everytime there is an outbreak isnt sustainable. im no doc but thats how i understand it. Sucks but we need to adapt for it being here so it doesnt impact us.
When I have these thoughts and I’m sure we all do whether we are optimists, or pessimist I think about all the money and brain power going into this problem. Wouldn’t it be a miracle if they came up with a cure that works on all viral infections? The idea that you could have a cure for all bacterial infections like antibiotics was a pipe dream for the first half of the 20th century and yet they emerged with a remedy with a fraction of the effort that’s being put into this. Whether they do it or not, I’m sure there will be many spin off cures that will be discovered as a result of the scientific work that’s going on.
I believe they will find at least one way to protect us from the virus, but press talk of offices opening mid May and allowing a bubble of up to 10 friends from no more than two households to meet back up with look wide of the mark when deaths are still so high.
Maintaining the lockdown is the easy bit. Policing any loosening of the current situation will be very difficult. Politics aside, I do not envy those having to wrestle with this conundrum. At some stage the restrictions have to be relaxed. How to do this whilst keeping the death toll down and getting the economy moving is not something I would want to be involved with. I hope the mistakes made in the early days of this crisis are now a thing of the past.
We re lucky in some ways in that we can learn from other countries mistakes as they are ahead of us and will come out of lockdown before we will.
I know what you are saying but unfortunately the virus ran merry for 10 to 14 days while BoJo ummed and ahhed over when to press the button. Particularly dangerous when we are one of the most interconnected countries in the world in terms of air travel.
Being a bit sarcastic like Trump but in years to come there’ll be more dying of bleach poisoning than Covid.
