When were those exact words, and what about?
Do you mean the below, different words? In a context that is fine, implying that we could lockdown? Full article here:
There was a time in a different world, a world that shook hands, met relatives and commuted to work, when none of this was obvious. When it wasn’t clear that the way to stop an infectious disease was to stop a society and the very idea was horrifying and unimaginable. “Of course we knew it was possi
www.thetimes.co.uk
In every crisis there is a turning point, that sets the path for what is to come. For Britain, now with one of the worst death rates in the developed world, that moment came eight months ago, in a fateful spring fortnight when the country debated whether or not to lock down, a fortnight of argument, dithering and sudden prominence of the epidemiological term “herd immunity”.
How does the man who, partly by chance, is now seen as the key scientist in that argument look back on 2020? What was going through his mind? And, the question history could well ask of Britain, why did we not lock down sooner?
It is possible now to retrace what was going on in those weeks, and the weeks before. In January, members of Sage, the government’s scientific advisory group, had watched as China enacted this innovative intervention in pandemic control that was also a medieval intervention. “They claimed to have flattened the curve. I was sceptical at first. I thought it was a massive cover-up by the Chinese. But as the data accrued it became clear it was an effective policy.”
Then, as infections seeded across the world, springing up like angry boils on the map, Sage debated whether, nevertheless, it would be effective here. “It’s a communist one party state, we said. We couldn’t get away with it in Europe, we thought.” In February one of those boils raged just below the Alps. “And then Italy did it. And we realised we could.”
That realisation was a fulcrum in British history, and in the life of Professor Ferguson.
On March 16, he and his colleagues gave a press conference. On the same day, Boris Johnson would announce the shielding of the elderly and vulnerable and an end to mass gatherings in a “national fightback against the new coronavirus”. It was the professor who provided the stark number. “Britain in lockdown,” was the Times headline. “Change of plan to save 250,000 lives.”
He was right about the 250k (in fact seemingly it would have been higher), proven by how we locked down a few times (albeit as reactive, not preventive) and still got to 150k. Nobody sane, on any model would have expected us to get to less than 250k by leaving everything open.
He had someone visit, in May (who he was in a relationship with seemingly, not that I care) and he himself had already had the virus, and had 2 weeks of isolation. To be honest, I'd trust him to be able to assess his own risk, but breaking the rules isn't ideal. He did resign for it though, unlike all the other rule-breakers.
You're blaming Ferguson for the pandemic/ farmers? What? If he had been listened to, earlier, and they had also not gone against sage in October-December then we would have been open months ago.
You're whinging about the wrong guy, had he been listened to more, then everyone would have been back to work earlier. The doubling rate was 3 days in March 20, yet it was taking 10 days to halve the cases we doubled (April/ May). For every 1 week he wasn't listened to, it cost us 3 weeks longer in lockdown. Most other places had similar graphs.
Now you're blaming Whitty, how? Wow, your level of understanding is shocking. He's been advocating for more measures all along, while BJ and the rest of his clowns have been pandering to people like you delaying lockdowns, and softer measures and the likes, you are your own problem, yet you don't even see it.
You clearly do not realise that Sage/ Whitty/ Valance/ Ferguson etc just provide the info and advice (largely stronger measures), and the government chose what to do with it, and it's them which have largely ignored it or used it in a reactive way, rather than a proactive way.
Do you really think those three were saying have two weeks in the pub, get hammered round your mates, go skiing, go to Cheltenham, pi$$ about for two weeks, back in March? You're clueless.
We've got one of the worst death rates from delaying lockdown in march 20, and again in October 20, and then coming out of it in December 20 when we still had 20k cases a day. I'll bet my hat you were all for all of that, hope you feel good about it