I am going to do a thread of reasons to end the lockdown or at least go to stage 3.
NEASA employers assoc. surveyed its members & 86% of 10 000 people don't support lockdown.
People will end it anyway with black market hairdressers opening & people trying to survive financially
2. The science shows lockdown works if used to trace every infected person's contacts and isolate them all and cut cases as NZ and Korea did. SA didn't. We didn't use lockdown well.
Hospitals can only prepare so much too- unless we wait for 7 yrs to train more docs.
3. Health Minister Zweli Mkhize has said himself cases are spreading in the community - which means among people. Since 2 weeks into lockdown, there have been more than 7000 known new infections, thus it's not stopping the spread of illness. & we are under testing & undercounting
One of the prime places to spread illness is crowded places without ventilation. Taxis do this. Taxis run 70% full when College of Public Health says no more than 50% and strict sanitation procedures.
So there isn't lockdown where there needs to be anyway.
5. If you drive to Pretoria, CBD, Alex which I have or HIllbrow I am told- life is busy and crowded and normal.
We have an economic lockdown making people starve but not a real lockdown really. so virus is still spreading as the numbers show. Poverty also shortens life.
6. The disease will spread, then peak, then wane as viruses do and come back. we Cant be in lockdown for two years waiting for it to infect 60% of pop or as many as needed before there is widespread immunity.
It will spread. The SA govt is just making economy crash.
7. Poverty is directly correlated with a lower life expectancy. In about 70% of cases, COVID-19 literally kills people above age of 70 & above. Few SA citizens reach the age corona will kill them because poorer people live shorter lives. And now we are making poorer people poorer
8. Prof Karim and Prof Madhi, A-rated scientists who work in fields of infectious diseases think lockdown should end as the disease is and will spread anyway. They know irreparably damaging an economy doesn't stop illnesses and viruses spreading.
9. We are causing other illnesses and death through the lockdown as people avoid hospitals and healthcare.
TB tests are down by half. Measles vaccines are down. This means other diseases remain untreated. TB is our biggest killer and doctors are not picking up cases now.
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