Does anyone think a fourth national lockdown is inevitable?

[pulisa]

I don't see the point of continuing to release daily stats if we are all meant to be learning to live with Covid? Why not just alert those living in hotspots?

[Lencoboy]

I don't see the point of continuing to release daily stats if we are all meant to be learning to live with Covid? Why not just alert those living in hotspots?

A similar analogy being the fact that most of us already have no choice but to learn to live with crime whilst the nation's day-to-day crime stats most certainly aren't published on a daily basis.

Ditto for daily rates of say, job losses.

[MyNameIsTerry]

Lenco, the Vax rates have to change because they were based on adult population and now they have started jabbing younger people.

[Pamplemousse]

I would say it's inevitable. Only a fool would say "no more lockdowns". Oh, wait...

But as the British become ever more stupid, aided and abetted by such people as these -

https://arstechnica.com/science/2021...s-germ-theory/

- I doubt it would be enforceable, unless we put troops on the streets.

But Johnson would never do that as he hates being unpopular. Anyway, those that die "would have died anyway'.

[WiredIncorrectly]

More waves are a definite. We want to watch that the virus doesn't evolve into a nasty variant. I believe the fear of allowing the virus to circulate is this could happen. The concern for the Government is the strain on the NHS, but those numbers are rising too now so who knows what's next.

The media is awash with the Taliban news. The Government are hoping people continue as normal, and with the lack of reporting things "must be good". Which isn't the case.

I check daily stats, and while I don't worry, I do see things going south.

But keep this in mind, right now testing numbers are down, so the actual true case of positive cases isn't known. You can do some math to make a rough estimate, and it's higher than 33k cases Not sure if this has been done on purpose to keep the positive numbers lower. It's possible.

Check the testing graph from the official stats: https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/

Now isn't the time to bury heads in sand and hope it goes away.

[phil06]

Sadly Covid cases, hospitalisations and deaths in the UK are now all on an upward trajectory once again, plus there is now conflicting information about the efficacy of jabs from various media outlets with the BBC saying that jabs still remain mostly effective against the Delta variant but ITV implying that the amount of infections amongst both unjabbed and double jabbed is now pretty much even Stephens.

I know this is a highly controversial topic and I really can't help being so pessimistic right now but can anyone see a fourth national lockdown in this country coming in the not-too-distant future, especially as we're still endlessly fighting a losing battle against this wretched pandemic?

BTW, I'm on the fence right now and neither for nor against one.

Very good post I agree about the vaccines and absolutely no need for vaccine passports. We seem to be finding out more about delta in UK than world wide policy. Do I see another lockdown though? Hopefully not but Australia is stuck in lockdown after lockdown? They are now back peddling on booster jabs and they say that healthy people shouldn’t have got the jab hence the higher case numbers. Look at the mess in Israel with vaccines?

[phil06]

They've also messed around with the culminative stats for vaccinations once again today on the dashboard site, which means the total number of first jabs so far has now been reduced back down to 87-odd% whereas yesterday it was 89.6%.

Surely they did a very similar thing a few weeks back which again resulted in the total number of jabs being deducted from the tally.

Why they have to keep repeatedly chopping and changing is totally beyond me.

I was also having similar digs at ZOE a few weeks back over similar practices of endless chopping and changing.

Even Ferguson, the main mastermind behind our previous lockdowns announced a couple of weeks back that he doesn't believe national lockdowns would be warranted anymore, yet about 3 weeks or so previous he was one of a few professors warning us of the likelihood of 100k+ cases per day, but I wouldn't mind betting you he'll end up changing his mind and insisting in yet another national lockdown over the coming days, especially if things start getting really dire once again.

Little wonder I'm feeling so confused and despondent of late.

I never knew that perhaps they are meddling with the numbers then as I think more than ten percent have not had it I would say closer to 15-20%.

[phil06]

Exactly. It's as if many people have now simply stopped caring about Covid for good and reverted back to many of their old habits.

I am also wondering about both the boosters and the 'tweaked' jabs, both of which the govt and the media seem to have gone quiet over.

What the govt should have said regarding the prospects of any further lockdowns is 'hopefully not but we can never say never', rather than definitely 'never again'.

You're also right that it's perhaps time for me to chill out a bit and stop getting too embroiled in the daily stats, etc.

Given most people don’t get COVID twice don’t you think it will run out of people to infect eventually?

[MyNameIsTerry]

I never knew that perhaps they are meddling with the numbers then as I think more than ten percent have not had it I would say closer to 15-20%.

It's an average. Some areas have been well ahead for ages and some are well behind even now.

We are crawling up to 80% in my city. It looks like 20% of over 18s won't be bothering. If I look at my brothers it's 90%.

[MyNameIsTerry]

I thought Chris Whitty had already clarified this when it was first asked? No more lockdowns unless it changes and they are warranted.