Quote Originally Posted by Fellbeast View Post
You’re possibly ‘glossing over’ the massive successes that lockdown has achieved in countries like Australia, New Zealand, China, South Korea...

The U.K. experience of lockdown has always been too late, too short and too relaxed (not closing access to overseas travellers etc). Equally quoting Sweden as an example of a country ‘not needing lockdown’ that has only one major city, very expensive alcohol, with not much in the way of binge drinking culture a la UK, with a population far wider spread out, with much better investment in social and community care, a people more inclined to follow rules and that are culturally less inclined to clump together and still has covid deaths at or about the same rate as America (and far higher than all of it neighbours who did utilise lockdown) is clearly not a great example
I'm not glossing over them. But apples and oranges. I try to look at areas that are more comparable and see what has worked and what hasn't.

I suggested way back in the Spring on here that there was probably increased community resistance in the Far East and South Korea with Japan - two countries - different approach - largely unaffected.

Western Europe so far there are few countries unaffected - really only Finland and Norway and remoteness might be a reason - but different approaches seem to yield the same outcome.

I was listening to an Aussie lady on the radio yesterday. She can't go back home. They have completely closed down along with NZ.
I recall in the UK listening to the Commons debates in April. Raab was inundated with enquiries from all sides of the house - can we please get our citizens back.
Labour, SNP, LibDem as well as Tories.
I wonder how they would have reacted had Raab taken the Aussy route and said no. They can stay where they are indefinitely.
I'm not sure the Aussie/NZ policy would work for us but maybe it would have. But I think it would have to have been done in January for it to have been effective in the UK - and then how would we have handled Ireland?

We are where we are, and without lockdown, with advise, I can't see we would have done worse. We might have done far better as resources could then have been more focussed on the vulnerable.