Dementors can dement but we'll keep it positive here

[hobnobsaremyfavourite]

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Dementor free zone

Yes. "It could be that they are reassured by the low death rate in their demographic group”.

Because most people are rational.

FFS, did they not think of the result of doing that people would be terrified to return to work and the impact on mental health. Seemingly not.

I have found my people!

MNHQ comment:
if we're too specific about threads it always ends in a bunfight and we'd then have to remove this thread
Well what was MNHQ doing when people were posting en masse drivel about how everyone would die and have to stay in for the next 3 years?? They've allowed this poison to make this site so toxic that a thread like this is seen as a breath of fresh air. Really disappointed in them.

It's all been pretty patronising and infantilising really hasn't it from the singing Happy Birthday and washing our hands to the threatening and Stay home save lives etc.

Could they not have just been serious but calm from the start. I guess hindsight is a fine thing

I don’t think Boris does ‘serious but calm’, unfortunately.

31 people have died in my area. That’s 0.01% of the population. I appreciate not everyone has had it, but even multiplying the risk by 100 it is still pretty tiny.

On the other hand, anecdotally of course, the number of people, and their children, struggling with their mental health at the moment is a good 50% of my cohort.

Exactly. I know precisely nobody that's had it. I know one person who might possibly have had it.

I know many, many people who are struggling with mental health. Many more who are or will struggle financially.

The mental and financial issues for me personally are much scarier than the virus itself.

Fairly sure I've had it and probably at least DD1. At the time I thought it was just an odd cold... DD1 went slightly blue around the mouth but she tends to with most colds anyway so this wasn't out of the norm. Felt meh for a couple of days and it's only afterwards I put two and two together.

In the meantime - the mental health implications of all of this have been taking their toll on me for weeks and weeks now.

31 people have died in my area. That’s 0.01% of the population. I appreciate not everyone has had it, but even multiplying the risk by 100 it is still pretty tiny.

According to that map in the metro paper yesterday the number of deaths in my area is zero.

I know of two people that have died of it. One had underlying health issues and one was 81.
I'm still not scared of going out but just have to be be sensible.

Hi, can I join please?

I’ve followed the rules, home schooled the children, potty trained the toddler, walked the dog at quiet times observing social distancing, given up my delivery slots, phoned elderly and vulnerable friends, clapped on thursdays, scrambled to sort childcare with a weeks notice (furlough ending abruptly - DH a keyworker) and am positive about going back to work and being useful there. Trying to be laid back and buoyant and not fighting the stuff I can’t fix. I’m no nhs hero but I’m doing my best... but then had some nasty passive-aggressive comments from neighbour next door because sometimes our children play in the garden and because their aggressive dog barks at us (which is also our fault )... now feel like a crappy person and trapped in my own home.

Normally I wouldn’t let things bother me (and presumably neighbour is just in a mood and furloughed so at home in the day when they wouldn’t normally be), but this covid dystopia makes your peace of mind really fragile.

I would love to join the positive/reality check brigade

Did it say "If you could see it, would you still go out?" My answer was, yeah

If we could see it I'm sure more people would go out - it would be really easy to avoid then, wouldn't it?

I'm still not really scared about catching it, think we had it after half term possibly. My other non related health problem is more of a concern for me, doesn't raise my risk from covid though. Just being female greatly lowers your risk for the virus, over 70% of those seriously ill have been men

Welcome Rumbas ignore the neighbours they sound like Dementors

Thank you I love my kids but I miss (adult) humans.

It’s easy to scare people, it’s an awful lot harder to unscare them. Look at the amount of damage Andrew Wakefield managed to do with his “vaccines cause autism” fake research. That was years ago, thoroughly discredited and people are still scared of giving their children the MMR. The government are going to have a hell of a job unscaring the country.

I have two people I kind of know who have had Covid, both survived, one is in their seventies. I kind of know one person who committed suicide, which was directly attributable to the lockdown’s effect on their mental health. That person had three children.

The issue with the potentially OTT messaging is that whatever message the government puts out is going to be consumed by a huge spectrum of people, from the really anxious who think they're letting in a deadly virus miasma by opening their windows, to the completely oblivious who would be carrying on as normal if it really was ebola. At the start of the lockdown when mortality seemed higher and we all had Italy fresh in our minds, they probably felt there was a limited window to stop the oblivious people causing huge swathes of illness and death in the immediate term, and preventing mass anxiety was secondary to that. It's not like they had loads of time to collect data on public opinion, so they made a best guess and accordingly calibrated the message more towards the "people will DIE, including YOU" end than the "don't panic unnecessarily" end. Problem is, now they've successfully terrified everyone - probably more than they intended to, if all the stuff about people being more compliant than expected is true - it's going to be really hard to walk that back.

BBC is now reporting that "It seems as though the lockdown has had the health-promoting effect of a good holiday"

Perhaps the slowing down of our frantic lives from our enforced lockdown, and even the cleaner air we are breathing from the reductions in traffic, are helping to keep us in finer fettle? Our slow living might be nurturing new healthier habits and lifestyles.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-52535044

Now that the chancellor has advised that furlough can't continue indefinitely, I wonder how many dementors will be complaining that they are expected to go back to work without a vaccine in place. And whether they will fall foul of the opposing camp of dementors who are insistent that the economy is now a smouldering wreck and will never recover...

I am really not surprised that a lot of people don't want to come out of lockdown. We live in a quiet neighbourhood, but even here the lack of traffic noise, drop in pollution, hearing the birdsong and watching nature thrive, not dealing with dirty, late trains and a big commute every day - what's not to like? If you are not financially impacted, there is a lot to be said for it. The PM's alleged bemusement about the huge buy-in by the British public says more about him that it does about us. Do these fools think that the populace like slaving away, day in and day out, just to avoid impoverishment and go an annual family holiday if they're lucky?

I can totally see your point everythingisginandroses. I guess the problem is a lot of people are still slaving away, just from home! DH’s already long working hours have massively increased since this all started, I barely see him from 7am-8pm, he’s holed away upstairs. Of course he’s pleased to still have a job but it’s been hard work.

You’re right though, I can totally see why people are quite happy with the situation!

Raab loving a bit of 'new normal' chat this evening.

Yes, I get your point too, Drivingdownthe101. I am WFH full-time and doing the same shifts as I would in the office, but I am very fortunate in that my work has experienced a massive but temporary drop in demand so things are quite relaxed. We all know that when lockdown ends demand will shoot back up and we'll be really busy (I work for a charity, so demand for our service is driven by need and external funding rather than people spending money). Some of my colleagues are climbing the walls with boredom and frustration, but I'm using this to change my life permanently,: getting ill and this weird time has given me the kick up the arse I needed (even though I didn't DIE, so maybe it was just a cold, etc). Again, I know how privileged I am!

My health is not improved by lockdown. I am drinking far more than I would usually. And most people I know are too! I also normally walk over a mile to and from the station on my commute. Although I am getting our for walks, it is nowhere near what I would normally do.