THE flu in one form or another has been around forever. The flu vaccine has been around for decades.
According to the herd immunity theory, the flu then would have been eliminated long ago.
My belief is that we cannot rely on either the Covid-19 vaccine or herd immunity to get rid of the global pandemic.
I am also bemused about how often I hear that the NHS is on the front line in the fight against the virus.
The reality is that the NHS is the last line of defence and not the first.
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The first line must surely be our borders. Prevent the virus from getting a foothold in the first place. We ignored this by letting 21 million untested people enter the country.
The second line of defence is what we can do as individuals by following the basics of social distancing, hand-washing and mask-wearing.
Many people are ignoring these very simple and effective responsibilities due to an assortment of stupid reasons.
The third line of defence are the local initiatives such as lockdowns and such. In the spring most people were sensible and adhered to the rules and we kept the infection rate way down. Now we have people happy to challenge and often ignore the rules, and we see the infection rate climb once again.
If we let the virus get out of control then that is where the NHS joins the battle.
If everyone reverted back to the springtime attitude and again maintained social distance, washed hands regularly and wore masks where appropriate, we could again quickly reduce the infection rate.
Bearing in mind that we will soon be in the “flu season”, we could even reduce the expected high number of flu cases by sticking to the basic rules.
The flu is spread in the same way as Covid-19, so let’s kill two bugs for the price of one.
Harry Key
Largoward
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