3 ms·

Whaaaat? U.K. government health officials are asking strong healthy people to get infected?

piker 7y ago
Rather, accepting that people will get infected and proposing that if it's limited to healthy people, the community will develop a "herd immunity" due to the healthy people's new immunity.
- killjoywashere 7y ago
  They actually said that? That's some next level fuck-it-I-don-t-want-to-be-in-charge-anymore attitude. Wow. Where's Churchill when you need him? Edit: yes, he said that. And more. Wow. https://www.ft.com/content/38a81588-6508-11ea-b3f3-fe4680ea68b5 https://www.ft.com/content/38a81588-6508-11ea-b3f3-fe4680ea6...
  - sgt101 7y ago
    I can't understand your reading of what is being said. Here is the quote : 'In another interview with the BBC, Sir Patrick said: “If you suppress something very, very hard, when you release those measures it bounces back and it bounces back at the wrong time.” He added: “Our aim is to try to reduce the peak, broaden the peak, not suppress it completely; also, because the vast majority of people get a mild illness, to build up some kind of herd immunity so more people are immune to this disease and we reduce the transmission, at the same time we protect those who are most vulnerable to it.”'
  - vidarh 7y ago
    Churchill was very much in favour of making callous tradeoffs if he believed it had long term benefits, e.g. the Bengal famine. Churchill incidentally happens to be one of Boris Johnsons great heroes.
  - pnako 7y ago
    Churchill is not exactly a good example of solid decision making.
- dTal 7y ago
  Bit of a trolley problem, when "accepting it" means "not trying very hard to stop it".
Angostura 7y ago
Absolutely not, there is still strong advice in terms of regular handwashing etc. Rather the government is saying that you have to time strong lock down procedures correctly. They are saying that outdoor gatherings such as you get at football matches don;t present a high risk (as long as you are washing your hands) compared to the risk of catching the disease from family members in doors. Moreover they argue that demanding a long-term lock (14 weeks for schools, according to their modelling) is problematic if you go too early - they want to time it to be just before the peak. Basically is playing chicken with an unrushing truck, but a game of chicken with a purpose behind it. The Chief Medical Officer Chris Whittey is an epidemiologist and I've only heard good things about him. I'm willing to take his advice. They government says it will be publishing the models.
- notahacker 7y ago
  Also worth noting that in his previous role in DFID Whitty coauthored papers advising the UK government funding isolation centres in Sierra Leone for Ebola, so it's unlikely that he has any particular radical bias against the efficacy of isolation as a disease prevention method.

Rather, accepting that people will get infected and proposing that if it's limited to healthy people, the community will develop a "herd immunity" due to the healthy people's new immunity.

killjoywashere 7y ago
They actually said that? That's some next level fuck-it-I-don-t-want-to-be-in-charge-anymore attitude. Wow. Where's Churchill when you need him? Edit: yes, he said that. And more. Wow. https://www.ft.com/content/38a81588-6508-11ea-b3f3-fe4680ea68b5 https://www.ft.com/content/38a81588-6508-11ea-b3f3-fe4680ea6...
- sgt101 7y ago
  I can't understand your reading of what is being said. Here is the quote : 'In another interview with the BBC, Sir Patrick said: “If you suppress something very, very hard, when you release those measures it bounces back and it bounces back at the wrong time.” He added: “Our aim is to try to reduce the peak, broaden the peak, not suppress it completely; also, because the vast majority of people get a mild illness, to build up some kind of herd immunity so more people are immune to this disease and we reduce the transmission, at the same time we protect those who are most vulnerable to it.”'
- vidarh 7y ago
  Churchill was very much in favour of making callous tradeoffs if he believed it had long term benefits, e.g. the Bengal famine. Churchill incidentally happens to be one of Boris Johnsons great heroes.
- pnako 7y ago
  Churchill is not exactly a good example of solid decision making.
dTal 7y ago
Bit of a trolley problem, when "accepting it" means "not trying very hard to stop it".

Angostura 7y ago

Absolutely not, there is still strong advice in terms of regular handwashing etc. Rather the government is saying that you have to time strong lock down procedures correctly. They are saying that outdoor gatherings such as you get at football matches don;t present a high risk (as long as you are washing your hands) compared to the risk of catching the disease from family members in doors. Moreover they argue that demanding a long-term lock (14 weeks for schools, according to their modelling) is problematic if you go too early - they want to time it to be just before the peak. Basically is playing chicken with an unrushing truck, but a game of chicken with a purpose behind it. The Chief Medical Officer Chris Whittey is an epidemiologist and I've only heard good things about him. I'm willing to take his advice. They government says it will be publishing the models.

notahacker 7y ago
Also worth noting that in his previous role in DFID Whitty coauthored papers advising the UK government funding isolation centres in Sierra Leone for Ebola, so it's unlikely that he has any particular radical bias against the efficacy of isolation as a disease prevention method.