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UK risked all on virus experiment 3 minutes _____ How libertarian Johnson moved to lockdown Covid-19 revealed that some governments already had a health strategy based on risking, even losing, some of their citizens’ lives to preserve the national economy. The UK tried for a while to implement it. Science Photo Library · Getty UK prime minister Boris Johnson announced on 12 March a government strategy that was risky at best. As it was no longer possible to contain the spread of the virus, rather than impose radical lockdown measures as in Italy, Spain and some Asian countries, the UK would aim to ‘reduce the peak [of infection], not suppress it completely’ so as to ‘build up some kind of herd immunity’ in the population : there would be no home confinement, no school closures, and no ban on mass gatherings, notably football matches. The government’s expert advisors, not knowing exactly what proportion of the population would need to be infected to achieve herd immunity and stop spread of the virus, suggested a worst-case scenario of 80%. Once herd immunity was achieved, the UK could again prosper on the international stage without fear of further outbreaks. But Johnson admitted in his announcement that ‘many more families [would] lose loved ones before their time.’ Up to 500,000 people might die. Under pressure from the World Health Organisation (WHO), public opinion and many in the scientific community, Johnson eventually modified his policy. On 16 March he advised against attending mass gatherings and asked anyone with Covid-19 symptoms to self-isolate, though without significantly changing his position that the epidemic was inevitable. On 23 March, after widespread flouting of government requests for (physical) social distancing and with some London hospitals already at saturation point, he finally decided to impose a nationwide lockdown. >From a scientific viewpoint, the UK’s initial approach was not unreasonable. >Rather than seeking to eradicate the epidemic, it aimed to control the spread >of the virus through the population by concentrating infection among the least >vulnerable and asking those most at risk, the elderly and those with >underlying health conditions, to self-isolate for a long period; the immunity >acquired by those less at risk would then protect (...) Full article: 2 348 words. (11 <https://mondediplo.com/2020/04/02coronavirus-uk#nh11> ) Karl Polanyi, The Great Transformation, Farrar and Rinehart, New York, 1944. (11 <https://mondediplo.com/2020/04/02coronavirus-uk#nh11> ) Karl Polanyi, The Great Transformation, Farrar and Rinehart, New York, 1944. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "SERBIAN NEWS NETWORK" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/senet/02d801d60f30%24a636e2b0%24f2a4a810%24%40gmail.com.
