Urban75 Home About Offline BrixtonBuzz Contact

Coronavirus - worldwide breaking news, discussion, stats, updates and more

We are not plagued by too many people here making stupid claims to back their anti-lockdown stances, but I'll highlight this anyway.

Since early in the coronavirus pandemic, critics of unprecedented lockdown measures seen worldwide have argued that these interventions cause more harm than the disease itself. But an analysis of global health data suggests there is little evidence to support the idea that the cure is worse than the disease.

 
It also contains info for people who may be confused about how much death things like flu cause.

“It is … one of the most compelling pieces of evidence to support the notion that the cure was not worse than the disease,” said Yamey. “It does seem that countries that acted quickly and aggressively often had fewer deaths than in previous years. One study showed that lockdown may have reduced annual mortality by up to 6% from eliminating flu transmission alone.”
 
We are not plagued by too many people here making stupid claims to back their anti-lockdown stances, but I'll highlight this anyway.



But they didn't look at cancer. There are millions of tumours growing every day...tumours which would have been treated or removed had it not been for lockdowns.
 
But they didn't look at cancer. There are millions of tumours growing every day...tumours which would have been treated or removed had it not been for lockdowns.
The levels of infection caused the disruption to healthcare, not lockdowns.

If you want to keep a health service going, and stop too many people from being afraid to come forwards for treatment, you need to keep infection rates down.
 
It's not that simple. Lockdowns discourage people from getting a diagnosis. From the Lancet:

a study estimated that 45% of those with potential cancer symptoms did not contact their doctor during the UK's first wave of the pandemic (March–August, 2020), citing reasons including fear of contracting COVID-19 and avoiding placing extra strain on the NHS. Consequently, suspected cancer referrals fell by 350 000 compared with the same period in 2019. Combined with interruptions in cancer screening programmes and delays in scans and diagnostics, a spike in late cancer presentations and diagnoses is anticipated, making some previously curable tumours more difficult to treat and, unfortunately, further excess deaths unavoidable.

 
Fear of contracting Covid and avoiding placing extra strain on the NHS are the reasons given there. Those happen without lockdowns, in fact they would be worse without lockdowns because the number of infections and the strain on the NHS would be worse without lockdowns.

By locking down late every time, the UK failed to reap all of the rewards of lockdown, getting the worst of both worlds in some ways at some stages.
 
Indeed the UK went further with messaging about protecting the NHS, leading to what was effectively a period of 'protect the NHS, die at home' during the first wave. This was a terrible attempt to manage demand, which went even further in some regions where, for a few crucial weeks at least, the threshold for hospital admission was changed to reduce demand.

These, along with the number of infections in the first wave, resulted in an especially notable level of total excess deaths during the first wave in England.
 
It's not that simple. Lockdowns discourage people from getting a diagnosis. From the Lancet:
a study estimated that 45% of those with potential cancer symptoms did not contact their doctor during the UK's first wave of the pandemic (March–August, 2020), citing reasons including fear of contracting COVID-19 and avoiding placing extra strain on the NHS. Consequently, suspected cancer referrals fell by 350 000 compared with the same period in 2019. Combined with interruptions in cancer screening programmes and delays in scans and diagnostics, a spike in late cancer presentations and diagnoses is anticipated, making some previously curable tumours more difficult to treat and, unfortunately, further excess deaths unavoidable.
That's not what that says. I suggest you try reading what you are quoting. The editorial only highlights there being a potential for a future increase in obesity-related cancers arising out of lockdown-related sedentary lifestyles for some.
 
The premiere of the Canadian province of Quebec has a novel way of using vaccination card.

He will start issuing them to his fully vaccinated citizens in late September/early October.

The cards will be used in the event of another lockdown.
Fully vacinated people will not have to be in lockdown.
They will be able to go to work and all the other perks that lockdown prevents.

How will that be enforced?
 
It's pretty shit but the idea of condemning a % of the young and/or unvaccinated population to long covid is very appealing to most western governments right now, UK leading the pack but Netherlands right there with them
 
Had the Tories kept the restrictions they could have used that as leverage to persuade people to get their jabs. Now they've opened up some people, dunno how many, will say why bother?
 
The Tories seem to have this concept that the British are incredibly passionate about our individual freedoms, that we wouldn't stand for being ordered what to do by the government - basically that we're the same as Americans. I don't see it myself, and I'm not sure where the idea has come from.
 
This seems to be a strange concept... I can't remember what it's called....
....
Trying to remember .....
....
....
It's on the tip of my tongue....
....
Oh yes leadership, that's it leadership.
Holding up a Neo-liberal cunt like Macron as a leader - fuck that.
No mention of why people may not be taking up vaccinations, no mention of what support measures the government is going to put in place to help people. In fact this position is the same as the UK governments - "personal responsibility"
 
The Tories seem to have this concept that the British are incredibly passionate about our individual freedoms, that we wouldn't stand for being ordered what to do by the government - basically that we're the same as Americans. I don't see it myself, and I'm not sure where the idea has come from.

It's not a belief, it a device not to take responsibility. For anything.
 
Interesting:


The author of that article ends up demonstrating via the following bit I'm quoting that the messaging in the USA has left people ill-prepared for the realities of how many vaccinated people will still catch it, and how some of them will still be hospitalised and die:

Though, the good news is that it’s mostly going to hit the unvaccinated.

The binary thinking on that has been strong there, and there is a limited window of opportunity to get lots more people there vaccinated before the realities of the more complicated picture make themselves apparent.

The author is probably correct to identify scary briefings about Delta as part of the cause of the Republican shift. After all it is hard to imagine too many complacent briefings about Delta being possible, given what a really big deal the increased transmissibility of that strain is.

The other aspect they seem to be missing out on is that this shift in Republican messaging comes at the same time that the president decided to actually try to do more about anti-vaccine propaganda.
 
Oh dear Biden has rather underlined my point about dodgy binary thinking about vaccines being enhanced by overly simplistic messages from authorities. I wouldnt want to be the one to have to correct this misleading impression later when the shit hits the fan.

 

When the gov`t is too scared to do the proper thing it`s nice to see the private sector taking the proper steps.

“We’re not forcing anybody, actually. We actually not making vaccines mandatory. We’re saying if you want to come on campus, you must be vaccinated.”
 
It's conserning there is no political opposition to populism at all while as a society we are fragmenting. Its a Breeding ground for fascism.
 
Back
Top Bottom