You have made a couple of assumptions here which mean you haven't really understood my position....Well, at least not in respect to 'herd immunity'.

Firstly I've never supported the 'herd immunity' phrase as it's a very reductionist description of what occurs.

However it's central message was that we have to live with this disease until we cure it. We have done this with all previous diseases. This central point is just common sense and it'll be true for the next pandemic that turns up.....which perhaps might not be as infrequent as we had become use to.

Regardless destroying the world economy as a response to solve a pandemic, whose average death age is in the late seventies is utterly ridiculous as a response.

I have never suggested that measures shouldn't be in place in response to this virus. I'm just not supporting an economic lockdown.

My position is also the position of many other countries. Let's not forget that increasing the unemployment rate also increases deaths as a consequence. The argument that the cure is worst than the disease is one that needs to be had.

In our earlier exchanges I referred you to the different death rates in other countries and put forward reasons why that was. I would have hoped that this would have shifted your thought process as how best to tackle this but apparently you only wanted to obsess on the homogeneous points.....which while I agree with aren't going to make any difference in how we tackle this.

I'll state again, Japan isn't in lockdown. It has implemented sensible protective measures but it isn't self harming its economy and encouraging workers not to work.

Again, I'll make the relevant points. Japan is far far closer to China than us or Europe.

Japan has around fifty million more people than the UK. It has Tokyo, a far more densely populated capital city than most in the world including London.....People still working.

Japan has 43 deaths and 865 active cases.
The UK has 433 deaths and 7,659 active cases.

The UK is doing relatively better than most other European countries and yet we have 121 cases per million compared to Japan's 9 cases per million.

The responses of first world countries will be similar while they retain health response capacity. The real underlying reasons for these variations are given in the original video I linked you to......cultural behaviour....hygiene levels around people.

This is the changes that require implementation not lockdowns.....which will not only damage the western economy but prove ineffective once lockdowns have ended unless these requirements have been put in place.

The Chinese responded to threats to its health service by building temporary hospitals. This was an intelligent response and while I don't believe that fully teched up equivalents can be implemented here for several reasons we most definitely could expand upon our health service and invest in it much more over this period and indeed that's what is being done.....Probably knowing that when they release the brakes they need that capacity.

If I detailed what I think should have been implemented as a response that differed this post would be far longer but the video on Japan details common practice there which I would make compulsory here.

Edited by Stirlingsays (25 Mar 2020 2.50pm)

You forgot the 1990 fa cup semi final Stirling!

How is your holiday situation going?

I think you mean 'not existing'

Cancelled, inevitably! Got a full refund so will try and re-book for whenever this has all finally blown over.

Unfortunately that now means you've got 3 weeks of me working from home annoying you lot instead