In the UK, Covid rules have changed 64 times in 10 months | Hacker News Reader

In the UK, Covid rules have changed 64 times in 10 months

theguardian.com

15 pointsjonplackett5 comments

I wonder why no-one is following the rules any more?

This sounds unreasonable, but it feels like a case where you don’t win either way.

Updating and changing rules reflects improving and novel knowledge. This is preferable to blindly following methods where disproved.

Rapid changes likely damage trust, increase confusion, and risk poor compliance.

A balance of the two is pragmatic, but it still seems to be new ground.

The thing is, the rules established at the start worked. Then they got loosened, things got worse, then they back pedalled to tighten up again. They already knew what would work back in March 2020. I always think of bill gates explaining how to prepare for a pandemic and how this advice should have been followed from the start. The rules imposed at the start worked and should have been only slightly modified with a tightening on borders and people movement. Planes should have been a no go unless for freight, likewise for tranpsort via ferry. But the uk just opened everything up over the summer, everything felt normal which obviously meant the virus would spread like normal. Then bam, it’s winter and we’ve killed 80000.

100,000 as of today.

The government had literally one job, don't have a spike during winter when the NHS is most hard up. Instead, we did exactly the opposite, because they didn't have a spine and cancel Christmas.

Basically they just lost everyone. The best explanation I heard was this quote, I forget by who-

"The government are now pulling on levers that they have not realised are no longer connected to anything"

Changing the rules may have made sense, but only if anyone was even remotely close to obeying them. I follow the rules as closely as I know how, and even I have been lost many times. Most people have completely given up.

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