In case anyone does want to read why the Government had got it wrong and have changed tack, this is the Imperial College paper. Its 20 pages long and goes on a bit, but basically says we were heading for 250k deaths as we'd have too many people needing ICU beds. The key chart is on page 13, I'll post it below.
What interests me is that under a suppression policy (the new plan, and what countries like China and S Korea who know what they are doing, have implemented) the deaths can still vary between 5k and 50k IF we do everything (right now we are not). The reasons for the big range are
a) we don't know the re-infection rate (could be a person infects 2 others, or up to 2.6 others) plus
b) it depends at what point the govt triggers Social distancing and school/university closure - they can do it when there are 60 cases a week needing an ICU bed, or at up to 400 a week.
Its also worth noting that if we only do case isolation + home quarantine + social distancing, the range is much bigger - 50k up to 120k deaths (varying according to the same parameters as above.
So I conclude:
- government must do all 4 measures - case isolation + home quarantine + social distancing + school/university closure
- we need to know they will trigger Social distancing and school/university closure as soon as there are 60 ICU cases a week
These are the two things I'll be looking for.
Finally, if like me you can't remember what all the terms mean:
case isolation - any suspected cases must immediately stay at home for 7-14 days
home quarantine - anyone living in same household as a suspect must also stay home
social distancing - irrespective of whether they have any symptoms all at risk groups (elderly, specific conditions, pregnant women - like my daughter FFS) should stay at home
school/university closure - what it says
https://www.imperial.ac.uk/media/im...-College-COVID19-NPI-modelling-16-03-2020.pdf
You must log in or register to see images