Originally Posted by
Turnleft080
Oxford epidemiologist pushes herd immunity. article in THE AUSTRALIAN 8th July. by Jacquelin Magnay
One of the worlds top epidemiologists has urged Australia to abandon a lockdown strategy against Coronavirus and look to the Swedish model
of developing herd immunity. Sanetra Gupta, professor of theoretical epidemiology in the department of zoology at the University of Oxford, says
Australia is adopting a selfish and selfish-congratulatory approach which is misguided and will have a negative long-term consequence and urged
the country to look at the latest evidence to decide it's tactics. She said the Australian government changed its approach and let the virus-which 80-90%
of the population will only get asymptotically spread naturally, with intense protections for those most vulnerable, it would in the long term help protect all
of the Australians from future viral threats and also avoid the most damaging short term economic impacts for the underprivileged.
The most recent scientific research shows that between 30-80% of the population has natural immunity to coronavirus because the body's T-cells
recognise the threat from having had other cold and flu viruses. Scientists believe having coronavirus causes people's immune systems to develop antibodies
and T-cell responses to future viruses. Professor Gupta said: " One of the reasons why I'm not worried about this virus is a running theme in research work
is how previous exposure to viruses protects you from incoming threats." She warned that suppression of the virus did not work and lockdown simply
resulted in some parts the population being more exposed to the virus when it next flared up. She said,"There is no way lockdown can eliminate the virus
and so it's not at all surprising once you lift lockdown in areas it will flare up again. That is what we are seeing in southern USA, and in Australia.
In places where it has already swept through, a proportion of people are immune and you are not seeing it come back."
She said instead of lockdowns governments should focus energies on shielding the elderly and those with comorbidities to protect them as much as possible.
Professor Gupta said countries that had closed off borders were not ensuring populations remained exposed to the virus at some point, but long term it was unsustainable.
"You can only lock down for so lock down unless you choose to be in isolation for eternity so that's not a good solution," she said.
She said Australia may think it is an effective short-term strategy but there are long term consequences. "Being self-congratulatory,'we have kept it out', is misplaced.
Professor Gupta said Sweden's measured social-distancing approach had offered greater protections for the entire region because Scandinavia now had high levels of immunity.
Professor Gupta said Swedes "have done quite well in terms of deaths". She said Denmark and Norway, which locked down and have had lower deaths rates, may yet find next wave difficult.
This now begs the question. Dan will flatten the curve, cases will slide down to a few after 6 weeks. Then the borders open, stage 3 abandoned
until another cluster breakout and hey presto we go into another 6 week lockdown. Victorians won't take that. The above article has to come into play.