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Britain’s Covid Gamble, 100 thousand Cases A Day Soon?
Britain is rolling the dice, announcing that bubbles isolating student groups in schools will be scrapped along with mask wearing mandates and testing for Covid in schools are coming to a close.
And soon night clubs and mass gatherings will resume operations. There will be no social distancing rules. The Government wants to completely reopen everything and restrict nothing. Even people exposed to a positive Covid case, won’t isolate if they had 2 doses of vaccines. ‘Let it rip’ the Government has decided in a dangerous unprecedented experiment with public health.
It’s a massive high risk gamble, because Covid variants are mutating and constantly reducing vaccines effectiveness as seen in a study in Israel which shows the Pfizer jab blocks 64 per cent of infections, compared to 94 per cent in May before the mutant strain took hold. Ministers described the data as 'disturbing'.
In the latest 24 hour period 28 thousand people in Britain have been confirmed as catching Covid, and that’s climbing rapidly with cases up 49% in 7 days. But hospitalizations are only creeping up and deaths are about 37 a day. Potentially 2 million people living in Britain will get Covid this summer with 10 million people isolating in a 6 week period.
The Government, which has been accused of being reckless at the beginning of the pandemic, is saying the link between catching Covid and deaths has been largely broken because of the vaccines.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said, if now is not the time the lift restrictions when is? His Government is panicked by debt and growing bankruptcies and wants to put the pandemic behind them. Politics over health?
The British Medical Association and the Labour Opposition leader have called the lifting of mask rules especially disturbing, as cases of Covid are rising. The Government says it will be up to individuals to decide whether to wear a mask or not.
Many believe Britain is moving too fast, especially given the fact students have not received vaccines, and could be at risk for long covid.
The new Health Minister says England will be entering “uncharted territory” in its wholesale scrapping of Covid lockdown rules and infection numbers could easily rise above 100,000 a day over the summer, said Sajid Javid.
A week after saying theres no going back on lifting of rules on social distancing and mask wearing, Javid added some rules might have to be reimposed in the future.
So the Government’s so called “freedom day’ on July 19th is a step into the unknown. No pandemic rules and full throttle ahead into herd immunity by Britain which has had the largest number of deaths in Europe, and was always slow to lockdown and quick to minimize health risks.
The elderly are largely protected by vaccines, 95% vaccinated over 50’s, but many others will find themselves at risk by a virus that may have been created or super charged in a Wuhan lab.
And the Government is also dropping self isolation rules for anyone who was exposed to a close contact who got Covid, as long as that person has two vaccines. And anyone under 18 also won’t be required to self isolate, unless of course they test positive and then self isolation is advised.
No other Country has tried this. There is a huge risk to the public. Hospitals in England could soon face 2000 admissions a day and 100 daily deaths.
Prof Neil Ferguson, from Imperial College - whose modelling helped lead to the first nationwide restrictions - said there was the potential for the UK to have a 150,000 to 200,000 a day cases a day.
Parents will have to consider if they want to vaccinate children 12 years and up, and weigh that against any vaccine health risks.
Welcome to Britain, where the virus is being allowed to virtually run free and full throttle with uncertain consequences. It’s an English pandemic petri dish, with the British public the guinea pigs in a very big lab experiment that could go horribly wrong.
The Government argues continuing lockdown measures are causing mental health problems, delaying needed surgeries and crippling business, and Britain is tired of Covid restrictions. And, again it is banking on young people getting minor symptoms from the virus as its allowed to spread like wild fire.
But in this roll of the dice, experts warn the virus will have a massive playground to thrive and mutate, and if it mutates beyond the vaccine wall, Britain will find itself in a lockdowns with hospitals flooded and the death toll skyrocketing once again.
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Dana
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/06/covid-cases-rise-above-100000-a-day-sajid-javid-concedes-england
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/06/data-predicting-2m-uk-summer-covid-cases-prompts-health-fears