The Game of Lockdowns (That Doesn’t Work)

Over the last few weeks (almost a month now), my elderly mother’s aged care facility has been in a continuous state of lockdown. It seems as soon as they get a couple of cases (that is, as soon as a couple of residents test positive to you-know-what), the first reaction is to lock down the facility. Now I’ve been trying to rack my brain as to why they are doing this. Is it to stop the virus from getting out into the public? No, that can’t be it. I mean, the virus is already out in the public. Then the only other option is that they’re trying to stop the virus getting into the facility, but that’s completely failed. The day they locked down, they had 2 cases, now they have 13. Locking down hasn’t really done anything apart from allow the virus to spread in a closed environment. It’s also resulted in some very lonely people becoming even lonelier, because their family members aren’t allowed to visit them, and all group activities, excursions and social visits have been postponed.

Here is a picture of my mother taken last week. It was the only time I’ve been able to see her during lockdown, and the only reason that happened was because I was able to convince the staff to wheel her to a window, and her grandchildren and I were allowed to look in for a few short minutes. It’s almost cruel, isn’t it? It’s like we’re back at the height of the pandemic where loved ones weren’t allowed to get near one another.

So what is the point of the lockdown? Anybody? The only thing I can think of is that the aged-care facility feel obliged to do something. They feel pressured from society, or from the government, or whoever else to do something. But it clearly isn’t working. If it worked, why do they keep getting more and more cases every day?

Obviously, it’s easy to point the finger, but what’s the alternative? Well, I think the only alternative is to not lockdown. There seems to be no evidence that the lockdowns are helping. If anything, they’re kind of doing the opposite. It’s almost like they’re punishing the elderly residents by restricting their social activities. And they still have the virus!

So what’s the solution? Well the only solution in my mind is to leave the doors open, and just advise all visitors that there are positive cases in the facility. Leave it up to the visitors to decide whether they want to visit or not. But these continual lockdowns as long as anybody tests positive, is just stupid in my opinion. It doesn’t work. It doesn’t help the residents. It doesn’t help the guests. So why do it?

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Allégro by Emmit Fenn

Видео The Game of Lockdowns (That Doesn’t Work) канала Daily Insight