The UK returns to Coronavirus lockdown...

 

A man receives the vaccine in the UK. Reuters. 

UK Prime Minster Boris Johnson has announced that the country will return to lockdown until mid February. Reuters. Though the UK was the first Western country to roll out a vaccine the virus has spread far and wide, with a new, more contagious, variant of the disease coming out. Non essential businesses and schools will be closed with most students not able to attend school. The lockdown is likely to cause a major economic impact. Scotland and Wales have also gone into severe lockdowns. 

My Comment:

This is a huge deal as the UK is one of the first countries to return to severe lockdown. It is going to cause massive economic damage and will likely cause severe mental effects for the people of the United Kingdom. 

And it comes right after the UK began vaccinating their people. The vaccine will protect those people but it doesn't do anything to stop the virus for people that haven't been vaccinated. Indeed, there isn't a lot of evidence that the vaccine prevents infections, it instead stops symptoms and saves lives. 

The UK has a new more virulent strain of the virus. Though the news media has made a lot out of this new virus but I am not afraid of it. This was an inevitable effect of evolution, as the virus passes through more generations it will grow more virulent. The other side of that is that viruses usually become less deadly, though the media isn't mentioning that as a possibility. 

Indeed, a more virulent strain might be a good thing, especially if it is less deadly. If a lot more people get sick then we will reach herd immunity quicker. Combined with the vaccine it could mean that the virus will die out a lot quicker. The downside is that if you can't protect vulnerable people they could get sick and die. 

But the UK isn't doing that, it is instead locking down. There is an argument to be made for that as it would stop UK hospitals from being overwhelmed. I don't know if there is any evidence of hospitals being overwhelmed since the early stages of the disease.  

I personally don't think this is the right call. The disease is serious but it isn't anywhere deadly enough to justify shutting down an entire country. Maybe a short lockdown for a couple of weeks might be fine to allow the vaccine to be rolled out, but until February? It's going to destroy the UK economy... 

What really makes me nervous is that the UK will inspire similar action in the United States. Many of our Democratic Governors are more than willing to use the Coronavirus as an excuse to crackdown on their people, including my governor, Tony Evers. It wouldn't really effect me that much, I worked through the first lockdown, but a lot of people would be hurt by another lockdown.