Here is the set-up.
The technical issue of how much time a good roll-out would take (setting aside for now concerns about mismanaged roll outs) implies continued risk of virus spread and community transmission continuing through out the time frame, with the additional risk of more mutations that might confer an advantage to the virus.
It is not too late to prevent further avoidable fatality and long term illness for many millions of people by stopping the spread of the virus. We are still at the early stages. no more than 10% of people in USUK have been infected, according to various estimates - there are variations where surges have been concentrated in large urban settings.
Such a strategy - Zero Community Transmission - can only work when the population is fully supported by the state and by industry. Every gap in support undermines our collective safety.
We are all in this together and that demands that all of us are working together for the same goal.
Lack of adequate support drives industries to compete for support for themselves, rather than for the whole of society.
People trying to merely survive due to inadequate support, oligarchs trying to make profit and a government trying to manage a slow spread whilst grabbing more powers ain't gonna work.
The Wealthy
Billionaires can play philanthropy - and many do and quite a few are very focussed on providing support in a genuine and humane way. There's a lot more that can and must be done. But it is not to be left to individuals to take action.
There is resistance to a change in the existing systems of wealth creation, which is based on externalised costs, which creates their vast wealth. If all externalised costs were paid, such wealth would soon vanish and a new balance would emerge.
The poor and low income folk.
Externalised costs are the costs incurred in any activity that are not paid by those who are directing the activity - they are paid by others, by the environment and by the people.
Right now the US and UK Governments are externalising the cost of mismanagement of an epidemic to us the people.
Who is paying the price of mismanagement of the epidemic in the UK?
I have access to small garden, in a shared house, which I rent. That places me in a much better position than people renting an apartment in a block of flats or a high rise. That affords me a bit of leg room and a safety that others cannot access.
I am in a better situation that someone who owns their apartment, in a block, even as I am substantially poorer. I bless my good fortune, yet I am uneasy about that lack for so many others, living in London..
That seems unfair.
Who am I to deserve such good fortune?
The poor, the disabled, the vulnerable and other low income folk.
And then there's all those who are homeless, those who are struggling with mental health and chronic ill health, there are entire families living in small apartments, some in high rises that are known fire traps - for those people this situation is a double danger induced by UK Government policy decisions.
Then the 'key workers' the lovely folk in the super market I frequent, the drivers and stackers, the door staff - the risks they are exposed to, their dedication to ensuring we are fed and well supplied.
It is a burden not shared by Westminster elites.
That is unfair, it is an injustice.
It is unfair because the policy choices of USUK Governments are the root cause of the repeated lockdowns, one after the other. There is no other causation for that cycle.
The correct strategy is one lockdown, breaking community transmission fully, treating every case in isolation, quarantining borders, etc for at most 12 weeks (and if done well, it does work) and then maintaining surveillance systems that can jump on any new clusters, isolate them and suppress the transmission of the virus. I would go as far as to say to pay people to do that is the Governments responsibility, it's core duty of care. Once the community transmission is totally suppressed, then the community can re-open, safely.
Stopping the spread is spreading the love.
Repeated open/shut policies as a result of deliberate government policy choice and action creates more time for more viral mutations, which can increase the risks for everyone. It adds stress to people's lives in myriad of ways untold, unspoken, endured.
Healthy people are the major spreaders of the virus, not the chronically ill. Tourism and Business class travel mixed with mismanagement has transformed an epidemic into a pandemic. UK has imported and exported variants since the beginning of the epidemic. Refused to control the borders. How ironic after Brexit.
Is there a Vietnamese or New Zealand Variant storming across Europe or America?
Allowing the virus to reach that part of our population with immuno-suppressive conditions - 11,000,000 people in the UK, 83,000,000 in USA - creates another lengthy well for more mutation possibilities, in that the virus lives for much longer in such cases, and thus has more time for more mutations and the emergence of new tricks.
The adverse outcomes of the deliberate policy of USUK Governments is what forces us indoors - it's not the virus that is doing this.
It is not people's confusion, nor is it peoples 'bad' behaviour either that drives this vicious cycle. These are for sure real problems, yet the solution is not more confused Government 'guidance' that appears to be more about the Governments saving face than our welfare as a people. That is totally unfair.
The root of the problem is the USUK Governments deliberate active policy.
The mussed up hair, the blather, the messy suit and the portrayal of incompetence as a mask, a comfort, a soother rather than an accurate critical analysis. The taste of truth is bitter in his mouth.
Kindest regards
Corneilius
"Do what you love, it is your gift to universe."