Re:UK government advisor caught out by Wayback machine
by sideshowb on Tuesday May 26, 2020 @05:54AM
(#23309088)
I think it's more a case of social attitudes being about 50% split* between "follow all rules whatever" and "use them as guidance but apply your own judgement".
Of course when making the rules you should bloody well get them right in order to be fair to people with the first kind of attitude.
*if I remember correctly from my previous work on the british social attitudes survey
Re:UK government advisor caught out by Wayback machine
by cm2187 on Tuesday May 26, 2020 @06:09AM
(#23309179)
Absolutely. It’s like the imperial college guy. I think he deserves an outrage for his fantasist models, but him not respecting the lockdown after he recovered from covid, and could neither infect or be infected, is common sense. The lockdown was aimed at reducing the pace of infections, not to enforce some petty rules when they don’t make sense. The outrage is really only about loving the rule over what it is trying to achieve.
Re:UK government advisor caught out by Wayback machine
by aembleton on Tuesday May 26, 2020 @06:24AM
(#23309276)
> could neither infect or be infected,
Have you got a source for that? Sarah Gilbert, last month thought it was possible to be infected more than once: https://www.bbc.com/news/av/health-52344676/coronavirus-poss...
Re:UK government advisor caught out by Wayback machine
by Jefro118 on Tuesday May 26, 2020 @10:19AM
(#23311426)
Evidence from coronaviruses that cause common colds show the ability to be reinfected but even in that case immunity still lasts for months rather than days. In the case of a more severe disease like SARS, antibody responses have been found after 17 years. We don't know enough about Covid to make a good guess about immunity but it seems unlikely that someone could be reinfected days after recovering.
Re:UK government advisor caught out by Wayback machine
by cm2187 on Tuesday May 26, 2020 @06:30AM
(#23309325)
I am sure it is possible, but we haven’t seen any significant number of reinfection. There were stories in South Korea but apparently they concluded it was on account of unreliable tests.
And the questions about how long the immunity lasts are about how many months not how many days.
Re:UK government advisor caught out by Wayback machine
by Mirioron on Tuesday May 26, 2020 @06:21AM
(#23309256)
Sadly, when you have rules in society you will get people who will try to enforce those rules just because they are the rules. In some sense it is logical - this will get bad rules changed quicker, but in another sense it just causes harm to people.
Re:UK government advisor caught out by Wayback machine
by leakyPipes on Tuesday May 26, 2020 @06:43AM
(#23309440)
How did he know he actually had covid?
At the time, tests were strictly rationed to hospital patients and healthworkers.
Re:UK government advisor caught out by Wayback machine
by cm2187 on Tuesday May 26, 2020 @07:08AM
(#23309616)
He said he was tested:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Ferguson_(epidemiologist)...
Lots of people did follow the guidance despite it being really difficult for them to do so, and it's yet another story where it seems to be a case of 'rules for thee, but not for me'.
The right way to handle this would have been to confess and apologise and say it was a lapse of judgement - I think lots of people, understanding the difficult situation he was in would have accepted that. To brazen it out and claim it was good judgement and responsible behaviour is to admit that the government guidance and response as a whole was flawed.