We get lockdown we get lockdown again!

‘A REAL MESS WITH NO SOLUTION IN SIGHT FOR MANY, MANY MONTHS’

IF there is any medium term solution to the Covid 19 crisis I’ve yet to hear it. We lockdown and the virus is held in check, we open back up and it flares, so we lockdown again. But are we faced with this seesaw in social mobility until the middle of 2021, or whenever a vaccine is widely available?

Will Britain, and Europe, be in this stop-start mode for the foreseeable future? A succession of Groundhog Days?

It’s the equivalent of the Dutch boy holding back the waters by keeping his finger in the breach. But in this case we don’t have the capability, at present, to repair or rebuild the dam.

We’re thankful that, because of our ‘isolation’, the Grimsby area has not faced the more draconian measures introduced in the North East and North West, but the tentacles of the virus are gradually creeping in. Schools, colleges and workplaces are reporting small scale infections, our football team one of the first to call off fixtures.

So will it be a case of when, rather than if, we suffer the same fate as Newcastle, Manchester and Liverpool?

And will the Government stick with local measures or eventually be forced to revert back to a national lockdown?

A lockdown in spring and summer was bad enough, but in the long winter months? That could be damaging to our mental health. Testing, tracing and isolating may keep the virus in check, but it will always be there and everyone who hasn’t had it will remain susceptible.

The majority, particularly the young, will not be seriously ill and they may think they can party with impunity, but others, maybe members of their own families, are particularly vulnerable. Humanity’s long term defence against the virus is herd immunity. There are two ways of getting the necessary antibodies We either have to get Corona and survive it or be immunised.

The Government steered away from a policy of herd immunity via infection not long after the start of the pandemic and has plumped for mitigation through lockdown in varying degrees, until the expected and hoped for magic bullet of the vaccine appears.

Even then, like influenza, the virus may evolve and come back in a different form, which may mean yearly infections or vaccinations, again just like the flu.

Meanwhile, sections of our economy crash, dole queues lengthen, the nation’s debts mount, student populations are ‘imprisoned’ and vital ‘other’ medical needs are not met. The real disaster, the hidden scandal more damaging than Corona, may be the thousands who die because they are not diagnosed or treated as the NHS focuses on the virus and the public is wary of going into hospitals.

It’s a real mess with no solution in sight for many, many months. Keep washing, masking and distancing folks!