AndrewJB wrote: ↑Thu Mar 26, 2020 12:48 pm
Not for the first time, you're grasping at extremes to make the government's actions seem reasonable. Read this article for a better understanding of how we could deal with this better:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... c-cummings
The most successful country so far has been South Korea, which has flattened the curve without restricting freedom unduly. They've done this by testing widely, and being firmly on top of the reality of how many people have the virus, where they are, and they also have the medical facilities and equipment to look after those who've caught it. We haven't been able to follow this path, because we haven't been able to test even nearly as much, and don't have the equipment or facilities (and those things themselves are scandals).
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... s-outbreak
So we really had no choice but to lock down, and even that hasn't been done to the degree it should. The fact tube trains are crowded is testimony to that. It's all been too little, and too late.
I'm not grasping at anything. I'm pointing out what the government said at the very beginning. The rationale behind it still stands good, although we don't know yet how successful, or not, it will be.
The problem with testing everybody is there aren't enough kits anyway. If you did take a test it only tells you if you have the virus today, it doesn't stop you going out and catching it 2 days later, 2 weeks later, or 2 months later. Therefore the testing would have to be continuous, that is simply unrealistic.
The people on the front line who come into contact with this on a daily basis, are the only ones that need to take regular checks, the rest of us should just carry out social distancing, and self isolate if you have any of the symptoms.
It goes back to the herd immunity. If we want the country to recover from this, then the more people who have had this virus, and recovered, the better. It doesn't matter if they've been tested, because for the vast majority of people it's nothing. It's no danger to them, but they are a danger to others. Follow the government guidelines and it will be contained, ignore them and anything could happen.