The Great Barrington Declaration

Has WHO got its knickers in a twist? No lockdowns, but no allowing it to spread for herd immunity either.

What to do?
agree
they seem to keep saying nobody/no country has got it right...so what should we do ?!
 
Well if you are going to cite the WHO as an authority this is their rebuttal of the concept of herd immunity...

The World Health Organization chief has warned against suggestions by some to just allow Covid-19 to spread in the hope of achieving so-called herd immunity, saying this was "unethical"...
Relying on naturally obtaining herd immunity in such a situation would be "scientifically and ethically problematic", Mr Tedros said.
"Allowing a dangerous virus that we don't fully understand to run free is simply unethical. It's not an option."
He pointed to lacking information on the development of immunity to Covid-19, including how strong the immune response is and how long antibodies remain in the body.
He also pointed out that it has been estimated that less than 10% of the population in most countries are believed to have contracted the disease.
"The vast majority of people in most countries remain susceptible to this virus," he said.

I'm not advocating Heard Immunity. I'm pointing out the devastation we are causing in other parts of the world due to our actions and I am questioning the morality of such actions in that context.
 
Has WHO got its knickers in a twist? No lockdowns, but no allowing it to spread for herd immunity either.

What to do?
The WHO are saying the lockdowns pause the spread but do not prevent it and are a short term breathing space while countries get their health services in order. Unfortunately our health services are structurally unfit for purpose so despite the vast amounts of money we spend on them we will be unable to get our act together. This is one of the many downsides of encouraging what are essentially public servants to have hero complexes. Because of our inability to restructure our health services and the unwillingness of those who work in it to engage in any real reforms not only are people dying in our country but we are now causing vastly more to die in other countries.
So, what do we do? Well to all those who work in the health service, from top to bottom, engage in structural and meaningful reform and stop causing needless death and suffering. That would be a good start.
 
So, what do we do? Well to all those who work in the health service, from top to bottom, engage in structural and meaningful reform and stop causing needless death and suffering. That would be a good start.

True, one avenue would be to abolish the two-tier system of subsidising private health insurance for nothing more than a que jumping system. The earnings available to medical professional practitioners is too good to turn down, leaving the public system in a constant state of neglect. As a former govt Minister said, who would pay private health insurance if the public system could provide the same service? Meaning, the public system has to be in a constant state of flux and deterioration, or at least perceiveably so, to make the private system attractive enough for people to cough up more funds.
 
True, one avenue would be to abolish the two-tier system of subsidising private health insurance for nothing more than a que jumping system. The earnings available to medical professional practitioners is too good to turn down, leaving the public system in a constant state of neglect. As a former govt Minister said, who would pay private health insurance if the public system could provide the same service? Meaning, the public system has to be in a constant state of flux and deterioration, or at least perceiveably so, to make the private system attractive enough for people to cough up more funds.
I don't care how the system is structured as long as it works. The Belgian healthcare system is said to be the best in Europe and it is almost totally publically funded but 80% privately delivered. That matters is good structures, good management and good oversight and no vested interest group with an effective veto over reforms. A two tier system isn't desirable but ultimately private health insurance policy holders pump billions of additional funding into the overall health system. I don't see that as a cost.
Two thirds of GP's are women but the majority of GP hours are worked by men. That means that female GP's are working an average of less than 18 hours a week. Of course they are perfectly entitled to do so but the State spend over a third of a million Euro putting through college so maybe a bit of gratitude would be appropriate. At the very least extremely lucrative GMS contracts should stipulate the minimum contact hours which must be worked each week.

I don't want to turn this into yet another thread about the health service but its gross inadequacies are at the heart of why we have to respond to the Covid19 pandemic in the way do are.
 
Last edited:
If anyone thinks that upon a vaccine being found and distributed globally that the economies of the world will start to return to the ways things were, I think they are deluded. Firstly, we cannot discount the emergence of a Covid20, or Covid2x

This is my biggest fear. That Covid19 turns out to be the first strain of multiple strains that mutate and emerge over the next decade or so

Denmark to cull mink herd after mutated strain found in humans
 
Back
Top