What difficult questions? You asked some very basic ones that have been covered by scientific research which can be easily found online. I'll give you a clue though, anything that says Covid is a conspiracy is probably bollocks.
this is the one question that had me thinking...firstly, this was found in china (however it started) and was known to be very infectious so why were people allowed to fly all over the world to return home, especially when there was no way of knowing if they were infected/carriers. i might have bleated on about it too much but to me, you contain something in one or as few places as possible so it can be treated far easier...at the time they had no real true indication of how long the virus would last on surfaces or even if it had an incubation period yet thousands of people got on thousands of 'planes and walked through at least two airports every flight and i bet not a single 'plane or airport was scrubbed clean after each flight, then as soon as they hit that magical number of infections they allow people to jet away on holiday again only to 'discover' a new strain has been found in another country, then rather than stopping all flights and put everything they can in place to contain it...they give people a week or so before the new rules come in so they can all fly home to spread it further.
If I recall correctly, there were plenty of warnings about how infectious it was from scientists but governments weren't willing to listen. There was plenty of noise about it being similar to other coronaviruses that had emerged, such as swine flu. International travel wasn't banned when they were identified and the concerns just petered out. This was the only thing they had to compare it to.
i never said there were no warnings, my only point was that it was known to be very infectious yet governments around the world were quite happy to allow people in and out. take the local derby games, police found it was easier to segregate supporters and keep the away fans behind to allow the home fans time to get disperse, allowing them to mingle was a recipe for bother, take action to stop something at it's source and you save a lot of trouble imho.
The virus was probably dotted around the world even before the Chinese knew about it, never mind by the time they admitted to it.
Of course Covid is an illness - coronaviruses have been with us since the start of mankind. The main problems are around data Deaths - 'died within 28 days of a + test'. That doesn't mean they have died as a primary cause of Covid. Nobody knows the true death count for Covid Cases - the PCR and LTF are both inaccurate, due to false + and false - results. Again, we dont know the true count Hospitalizations - the reason for the first lockdown we were all told, and what has been quoted constantly since is 'dont overwhelm the NHS'. This has never been close to happening - the Nightingales were barely utilised for any medical reason at all. The NHS is 'always' busy in the winter also. If an organisation can't manage with billions of budget and over a million resources, then they need to be managed far better. Immunity - with natural immunity through your immune system, antibodies from prior infection and nearly 90% of the population having had at least 1 vaccine, then its impossible for the NHS to be overwhelmed now, when it wasn't without any of these mitigations being in place. Impacts - nobody has ever published any data relating to impacts from restrictions such as other health conditions being ignored, mental health patients, children losing education, economy etc etc. Covid is real and we all know vulnerable people who have passed because of it. Data, facts and evidence are all that matters - not assumptions and opinions.
ok, so was it better to then have thousands of people flying around the world therefore much harder to trace...or do you think it would have made more sense to keep those numbers to a minimum? just to be clear here, i am not an anti-vaxxer i have had my jabs and even though i detest masks i do wear one when i occasionally visit a shop, i think for safety's sake i can force myself to put up with one for the couple of minutes i am in there.
But this was always the problem wasn't it? It would have been sensible to cut it off at source (if that source was identifiable) but in this instance that would have meant putting a halt to all international travel and trade and effectively putting the entire world's economy on ice for an unspecified period of time. Could anyone really make that call when they knew so little about the virus and how dangerous it would be? Especially in light of the outbreaks of previous coronaviruses that turned out to be less problematic than original thought.
The concern with this new variant has been though that the vaccines and antibodies from prior infection wouldn't be effective against it. By the way, I think there has been quite a lot of work published on the impacts of the pandemic on things like the economy and mental health etc.
I don't think they weren't willing to listen,....indeed there are many who think they've listened to the medics and scientists way too much......but they just didn't know what to expect,and were therefore hesitant. I'm very critical of BJ Govt. across a range of issues,but i don't think we can levy much criticism at them for their response in March 2020. That's using hindsight imo.
They (The Gov.) were criticised for not acting swift enough in 2020 now criticised for acting too soon, lose - lose situation.
Its a balancing act. Rich people getting richer against number of deaths. A capitalist tightrope. If mortality was the main concern we'd all still be locked in our houses.
We had to cancel a Xmas holidya because all the new regulations they brought in with the threat of more regulations coming a day before we were due to fly. When we booked it, all you needed to do upon your return was a lateral flow test which seemed the appropriate way to do it, now its PCR test from your holiday place before you fly, then a PCR when you get home - all extra cash into some private firms pocket that are charging stupid rates. It all got too complicated and we both started to wish we hadn't bothered - so we postponed and stumped up admin fees to change it
Well said. Been saying for months now that the way they report the data needs to be updated - they haven't changed it since early 2020. To all intents and purposes (for data analysis only) the number of cases is irrelevant as is the numbers of unvaccinated people in hospital and dying. The key stats are: 1. Fully vaccinated people in hospital - specifically admitted to hospital with covid symptoms (and a subsequent positive test and admission to a ward) 2. Fully vaccinated people dying - specifically dying from covid symptoms not this wishy washy "died within 28 days etc etc" Anything else is background noise from a data analytics point of view - if we want to know the real story of how this pandemic is going then we need to focus on the relevant statistics otherwise we may as well start announcing confirmed cases of 'flu and deaths from 'flu (as well as other viruses)
