[CliffordK]

Recent tests have shown that mothers who have been vaccinated against COVID-19 pass on immunity to their infants via breastmilk. So, yes, it is possible to "pass on" immunity while breastfeeding.

The immunoglobulins passed in milk, and in particular the early milk, colostrum, are transient in nature, and only last for a few weeks or months after lactation finishes.

I'm seeing notes of "shaping an infant's immunity", but it will take more research to indicate what lasting effects it has.

[acsinuk (OP)]

The mass vaccination programme in UK has reduced the risk of the NHS becoming overwhelmed which is all the politicians claimed to be concerned with at the beginning of the pandemic..
Governments are not responsible for stopping variants or second guessing what will happen next.  There are plenty of pseudo experts to forecast imminent doom and plenty of Health and Safety scare mongers to back up their unproven claims.
No more lockdowns please, unless the NHS can prove they are out of intensive care beds in which case some localised voluntary restrictions may be necessary.   

[Bored chemist]

Governments are not responsible for stopping variants

Yes they are.Who else would be?

[alancalverd]

Governments are responsible for public health. If a dangerous disease can be eliminated by quarantine, it is the duty and power of government to impose it. The cost of not doing so, or making a late and half-arsed attempt, has so far been over £350,000,000,000 of additional public expenditure - about £12,000 per taxpayer, for which you get nothing in return. As the money has been borrowed, you will probably pay back about twice that sum, assuming that you till have a job and are fit enough to work for the next 25 years.

An immediate lockdown with mandatory quarantine for all incoming travellers could have been implemented in December 2019 - January 2020 at a treasury cost of about £10,000,000, resulting in maybe 500 hospitalisations and not more than 100 deaths. SIngapore: 30 deaths to date,with a much higher population density and shorter lead time than the UK.

Chris Whitty said, in his first COVID press conference, "If people ask what all the fuss was about, we will have got it right".  They clearly haven't.   

Journalists comparing the UK response with the USA, Brazil or Italy, is as useful as comparing  Arsenal with your local factory team. If Man U/Singapore can do it, so should Arsenal/UK.

[acsinuk (OP)]

The mass vaccination programme in UK has reduced the risk of the NHS becoming overwhelmed
Governments are not responsible for stopping variants or second guessing what will happen next.  There are plenty of pseudo experts to forecast imminent doom and plenty of Health and Safety scare mongers to back up their unproven claims.
China and the US are not lockdown nationally, so unless the NHS can prove they are out of intensive care beds in which case some localised voluntary restrictions may be necessary we should get back normal life and let our children be properly educated with their own peer groups not isolated at home with mum. No nanny state nonsense please..   

[Bored chemist]

Governments are not responsible for stopping variants or second guessing what will happen next. 

Yes they are.
If not them, then who is?

There are plenty of pseudo experts to forecast imminent doom and plenty of Health and Safety scare mongers to back up their unproven claims.

Get a mirror; you are a pseudo expert making an unproven claim.

No nanny state nonsense please..   

Indeed; please stop the nonsense of calling this a nanny state,

[acsinuk (OP)]

The BBC news report is that dragonian restrictions are to extend to 19 July but  weddings and funerals would be allowed larger numbers PROVIDE people stayed 1 metre apart.
The 2 metre rule has then been replaced by a one metre rule.  This is hugely significant to theatres, pubs, cafes and sports arenas etc as at least we can double the amount of people that can meet in a restricted area.

[Bored chemist]

The 2 metre rule has then been replaced by a one metre rule.

Really?

[evan_au]

Governments are not responsible for stopping variants

It appears that the UK restrictions will continue for another couple of weeks, because the government didn't think it was responsible for controlling variants either.
- And now the Delta variant is out of control (surprise!)
- There wasn't much they could do about the Kent variant - it was first discovered in the UK
- But other variants could have been kept out with quarantine measures
- Or is the UK more closely tied to Europe than Boris wants to admit?

In implementing a policy of minimising economic disruption, the government has increased economic disruption - a classic policy backfire.
- While the voters may be impressed by policy speeches, viruses just ignore them...

I feel sorry for people in the UK - but you are still better off than the USA was last year...
- At least the UK has a public health system, regardless of what you think of it!

[alancalverd]

The 2 metre rule has then been replaced by a one metre rule.  This is hugely significant to theatres, pubs, cafes and sports arenas etc as at least we can double the amount of people that can meet in a restricted area.

quadruple. Doom.

[alancalverd]

Or is the UK more closely tied to Europe than Boris wants to admit?

The delta variant was identified in India, and was notified to WHO as spreading very rapidly. The corrupt, incompetent scum who govern this country politely offered all potential Tory voters of Indian descent two weeks to return home without quarantine before putting up the shutters. Not sure what the EU did, but it can't have been more stupid or dangerous, surely?

[vhfpmr]

There was a program about this on Radio 4 last night.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000wytt

[alancalverd]

Alan, if the Covid-19 virus only kills 1 person out of 30, according to your figures, what's the big deal?

1 in 25, not 30. As the "5 or less" checkout girl said to the man with 10 items "Are you from MIT and can't read, or from Harvard and can't count?"

Cars only kill one person in 25,000 each year. What's the big deal?

Anyway it seems that you have nominated your grandad for an early, painful, protracted and entirely avoidable death. Have you told him?

[acsinuk (OP)]

In H.G.Wells, "War of the Worlds", the aliens all died of a common cold!!!   Could it be our governments wearing a Health and Safety hat, are vaccinating us all into oblivion by refusing to let us build up our own immunity to flu and colds ??

[Bored chemist]

In H.G.Wells, "War of the Worlds", the aliens all died of a common cold!!! 

It's not really specified what microbes killed them.
Wells couldn't have blamed a virus since those were unknown when he wrote the book.

Could it be our governments wearing a Health and Safety hat, are vaccinating us all into oblivion by refusing to let us build up our own immunity to flu and colds ??

No
Nobody is going to vaccinate us into oblivion.
Your idea is silly because you don't seem to realise that the immune system that responds to the virus is the same as the one that responds to the vaccine.
That's why the vaccine often lays people low for a day or two.

Pleas try thinking things through before posting them

[alancalverd]

refusing to let us build up our own immunity to flu and colds ??

Vaccination is still voluntary. If you want to build up your own immunity by doing nothing, feel free to do so.

[acsinuk (OP)]

So, if vaccinations are only voluntary so then should social distancing be voluntary.  If you want to be masked up and keep 2 metres separation then that's fine with me but it should be voluntary not compulsory.
 I would prefer to have 1 metre separation to start to get back to normal thus getting cinemas and trains half full again.
CliveS

[alancalverd]

It takes two to tango. I don't want you within a meter or me, however desirable you might find my company.

[acsinuk (OP)]

At the moment the pharma industries are scaring everyone into believing that the latest Covid variant could develop into something big when most people just notice it as a common cold.  Are we all meant to self isolate if we catch a cold?  That is an excellent idea but not to track and trace everyone we have met in the last few days. 
Best thing is to stop testing everywhere except hospitals; as it is expensive and not beneficial to anyone

[Bored chemist]

At the moment the pharma industries are scaring everyone into believing that the latest Covid variant could develop into something big when most people just notice it as a common cold.

So, you don't understand that things change with time.
Do you not find that to be a problem?