Also my opinion concerned gp. I would like to hear from the government the successes they have achieved with locking up the population time and time again given that their apparent justification for them has been based on dodgy models..dodgy data .dodgy tests ..promoting the vaccine but with no exit strategy with an end point of when our freedoms and basic human rights will be returned whether you CHOOSE to have the vaccine or not..
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Thankyou for taking the time to write this.
Absolutely grounding, and insightful.
I wish there was more of this reasonable opinion and plain statement of fact discussed or addressed in the general media. (The daily news is like watching a covid niche death cult and it’s very difficult to keep this pandemic in perspective as a result.) Or even on some of the other forums I’ve regretfully joined and where I just end up arguing with covid-deniers, anti-vaxxers and, yesterday, a Trump-supporting, covid denying, flat-earther 😩

Thanks again. If I were you, I’d be attempting to get this more ‘front page’ and, for what it’s worth, sending it to other media outlets as an opinion piece.

Thank you for your responses to my post offering a viewpoint from Victoria in Australia. It is good to have this discussion and I applaud @ConcernedGP and Lockdown Sceptics for taking the argument in new and fresh directions.

First up, I would just like to take @JMC a little bit to task and say that I don’t think it was very fair to criticize the author of the article. Her work would doubtless have carried the imprimatur of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners.

What should be clear after a year or more of this virus is that this is not a binary issue. There is no absolute right or wrong. Experience around the world has illustrations aplenty of clever actions and hapless missteps along the way.

This time last year, my family was at Bangkok Airport awaiting a flight back to Melbourne after holidaying over the festive period in Thailand. Everywhere we looked, people were wearing facemasks. Our temperatures were being checked as we went through Customs. There was a sense very early in the piece that the Asian countries were gearing up to tackle a global pandemic.

None of this was in evidence when we arrived in Melbourne the next morning. It was still very much business as usual. Indeed, COVID had barely entered the Australian lexicon at that point.

It took a few months and the dawn of a second wave of the virus before people here really started to take it seriously. And I get the sense that this is the point that the UK is at right now.

I used the reference to Newton’s Third Law quite deliberately. For every action there is indeed an equal and opposite reaction and with lockdowns there clearly are opposing opinions and impacts.

The irony is that both sides of the argument can be equally valid.

As for impacts, of course there is collateral damage, whether that be in general or mental health, in suicides, victims with pre-existing conditions wrongly being diagnosed as COVID deaths, or massive and as yet incalculable economic impacts.

There is clear evidence that some countries have utterly botched things up so far, while others have very effectively tackled the challenges of the virus. They don’t need listing here; you know perfectly well who they are.

I used the Victorian example simply because I have first-hand experience of it. Doubtless, a reader in Taiwan, for instance, could do exactly the same.

In essence, for and against arguments on lockdowns need to be accounted for without the acrimony that currently exists. I take issue with the Peter Hitchens’ of this world who try to dominate the narrative in a very singular way, without providing room for the other side to even complete their sentences. Oh, how I wish that his brother was still around to give a more measured and thoughtful response on these matters.

I smiled at @jmc’s likening of the Victorian Government's action to that of a Soviet Collective. I would not so much see it as a model in Soviet thinking, fundamentally I see it as a behavioral issue.

It all boils down to a question of good management from government and an appropriate and supportive response from the general public.

In Victoria, our second wave occurred barely two weeks after we had reopened from the first. So, coupled with an immense sense of disappointment, there grew a distinct public determination that we were not going to let this happen again. It must also be said that there grew a degree of anger and impatience towards the sceptics at this time.

The collective view became: Lockdown, masks and social distancing had better work… or else.

Quite honestly, I think that it was determination that drove the general acceptance of the government’s tougher measures. If they had failed, Victoria’s Labor government could have been doomed to opposition for decades.

For certain the economic impact has been severe. Empirical evidence would suggest that something like 20-25% of shopfront businesses remained closed after the government ended the lockdown. I’ve yet to see reliable figures for the broader business community in Victoria, but they will likely be horrible. On the plus side, many new, largely service-oriented businesses are emerging from the ashes and apparently thriving. So, it is not all bad.

So where are we today?

The vaccine is not being distributed yet. This is scheduled to commence in March.

We do however have almost total freedom to go out and socialise, to go to restaurants, shopping centres, cinemas, bars, etc. Schools are open. We must wear a mask and apply social distancing when we come into close contact with others, but this seems a sensible protection and a very small price to pay to reduce everyone's risk of infection.

Meanwhile, COVID-19 cases remain at zero or very close to zero. There have been sporadic outbreaks of the virus, though not large, usually down to people coming back to the country on repatriation flights. Everyone who comes into our country is immediately taken to a quarantine hotel for 14 days before being allowed to join the community after tests to ensure that they are free of the virus.

Having ostensibly beaten the virus (please note with emphasis, without a vaccine) by a well administered, well policed and well adhered-to lockdown, attention is now switched to border protection - stopping the virus from re-entering from overseas.

At a micro level, the water supply authorities are constantly monitoring household sewage to seek out the presence of the virus in the community. If identified, it is a matter of testing down individual lines to locate the source.

Tackling the virus in Victoria is no longer a case of fighting against overwhelming odds. It is more akin to swatting flies as they individually appear in your living room having flown through the window that is slightly ajar.

We await the vaccines, but already the indications are that we will have a high community uptake. We are told that once 70-80% of the population is inoculated, herd immunity should be achieved.

As things stand, we have no reason to doubt the Victorian authorities. So far, they have done pretty well.