Absolutely.....I can’t see what good a lockdown will do, or has done, without having an end game in sight. It’s just knee jerk reactions that make no logical sense whatsoever.
I guess the latest restrictions will further delay my cataract op too - I've been waiting 3 months for what is a 30 min op done as an outpatient, and the lack of sight in my left eye is really starting to affect my ability to work using a laptop
Watch it Stortford, Staines has been digging through his cutlery drawer and reading up on cataract ops....
Another month and I will have to go private - £2500 I'd prefer not to spend but it needs fixing. Until I got this I didn't appreciate how much it would affect my daily life
I don’t think it’s a secret but I’m hearing that certain hospitals are planned to be ‘COVID free’, and will not be accepting any patients with COVID symptoms. This of course frees them up to perform routine ops and to keep people like yourself travelling through the system, instead of experiencing massive delays and cancellations. In practical terms, and from an emergency point of view, I think this is pretty impractical and can’t see it working so expect a u-turn any time soon.
I'm not sure I am in favour of a complete lockdown. I certainly believe that the health service should be returned to as near as normal as possible. I've always said that I have doubts about the lockdown because of the unseen deaths it will cause in undiagnosed cancers etc. I suppose my main beef is with people not bothering to adhere to strict social distancing rules and I believe that's what's caused this second wave. However, I've always been suspicious of the total numbers of deaths and I think we're now seeing evidence that many of them shouldn't be attributed to Covid. I imagine all this shows why I flip flop on this issue almost daily. My main thought though is that I don't want to get it, so I will continue to do what I have to do to minimise getting it.
I agree on the emergency side However, for day ops - use a secure / designated area; all patients in by 0700; rapid COVID tests done on site; patients not allowed to leave until their op has been carried out
That pretty well sums it up for me. Talk of end goals is pointless and weighing evidence for or against. Few have the knowledge to be able to do that effectively. Ultimately I am concerned whether I will get it and whether by ignoring everything I don't want to hear and accept, I might pass it on to someone else be it a loved one or someone who is employed to treat me or look after me. If I did I would not be looking immediately to blame the government or others in authority for mixed messaging. How I react to the messages will be the cause if I catch it and transmit it. Personal liberty? I can live with the inconvenience of having to wear a face mask, keep my distance from others or be at home by 10pm. If I refuse to obey and take those risks , fine the state is entitled to deal with me in a proportionate and fair way. I am not a martyr and don't have a worthy enough cause which has been baked properly and is credible for people to rally around. I can be punished for my arrogance and selfishness I know from work that practically all my clients have returned to working albeit some do so from home and only go into the office when necessary to do printing. Most manufacturers spent the initial lockdown rearranging the workplace and working routines so that their employees could return to the workplace work safely. Having to take a vaccine? If it works and the risk of side effects is minimised no problem - it's not a matter of conscience or free will. That whole argument reminds me of the check list my consultant ran through with me about the risks of my treatment when I first got cancer so that they had my signed written informed consent. It started with the obvious one, it might not work and I might die and ended with the well known effect that I would probably lose my hair. To me it was a no brainer and the thought never occurred to me that it's my body and I will decide each and every time I had treatment whether I will consent to it.
On paper yes. However, and I’m looking at it from the emergency point of view, say I have a patient with severe SOB 3 mins from hospital that needs urgent assistance. Under those plans I couldn’t take the patient to that hospital if designated ‘COVID free’, but might have to travel another 10 minutes to the next available hospital, thus causing distress and possible death to the patient. Adding to that most emergency depts now already have segregation into ‘green’ and ‘red’ zones that make those departments as safe as possible.
With respect mate, and forgive me if I read your first paragraph wrong, but the ‘end goal’ is EXACTLY what we need to be looking at, and any half hearted measures or u-turns that are at the moment taking place are causing far more harm than good. In my opinion, we have to have the end game firmly in sight and make our mind up how we are going to try and achieve this.....either an absolute and total lockdown, thus stopping infection until a vaccine is found, tested and made completely safe (would you want your children/parents/grandkids vaccinated if it MIGHT be safe ?) or we go for a controlled ‘herd immunity‘, while protecting the elderly and weak. I totally disagree with the former, however I realise that this would at least be some kind of firm plan. They both have risks to the community, however the stuff that’s going on at the moment helps no one.
We've had an operational app on the go for a couple of weeks up here, but I've not downloaded it. I don't spend any more than a couple of minutes within 2 metres of someone (only at supermarket check out) so it wouldn't make any difference to me anyway
A second lockdown wouldn't work Staines because it wouldn't have the compliance of the population. The fact is that this second wave of infection has not been accompanied by a rise in the number of deaths or of cases classified as serious/critical - and this pattern is repeated in all other Western European countries. It is not a question of time lapse because the second wave actually began around the first week in August (the time lapse between the peak of infections and the peak of deaths was around 2 weeks during the first wave). Exactly why there is a discrepancy between new infection figures, hospitalizations and deaths is unknown - various answers have been put forward - but the logical outcome is that this virus will go the way of all other viruses and will mutate into a milder (just as infectious but less deadly) form, in the same way as happened with the Spanish, Asiatic and Hong Kong flu epidemics - which are still with us today ! The question is 'how quickly is it mutating' ? and 'is it happening already' ? At any rate it would be impossible for any Western Government to embark on a second total lockdown without an exit strategy against a background of very low fatality. In the end I think that the virus will bring itself to an end - I know that our ego would like to believe that we beat it but that is not how these things work. The question is - how quickly will it mutate into a form which is similar to seasonal flu and how will governments decide that this point has been reached.