If we suddenly had to go into a 3 month lockdown again, how would you feel?

[LaurieFairyCake]

I think people would definitely comply. If it was Mpox I would want a smallpox vaccine as it's somewhat effective.

Unlike Covid, the Mpox Clade 1b virus can live on surfaces such as food packaging. If there was a widespread outbreak, exams would be the least of our concerns.

That’s not how viruses work.

Unfortunately not.

Last time round, lockdown probably killed my husband because of the restrictions around medical visits.

His kidney condition wasn't picked up until he was critical. By the time we got a housecall from our GP, he was lying on the living room floor. (It took about a fortnight for us to get the housecall.) It took 4 hrs for an ambulance to get here.

He got to hospital, survived that...but by then his kidneys were so bad he had to come off some of his heart meds. Subsequently had a catastrophic heart attack at home.

The police wouldn't allow my neighbour to come into the house when she saw the ambulance.

After I phoned round relatives and friends, a friend who was already in a bubble with her daughter said that I could stay at hers that night, provided I left early in the morning "so the neighbours don't see". I declined. Didn't want to get anyone into trouble.

When I found out about the parties, about the shenanigans in both Westminster and Holyrood, it left a bitter taste. I hope their balls shrivel.

I don't know what I'd do, but I can tell you this - I now have absolutely nothing to lose.

Exactly this! All very well for the WFH brigade!

I would! To be honest it's not much different from my current lifestyle as I rarely go out.

Wouldnt bother me... as I'm a nurse so would have to go to work anyway!

Despite work being absolutely horrible during that time, it actually helped me too as l still had inperson contact with people.

I was so exhausted on my days off that l didn't have the energy to go out anyway!

I think the point at which I decided to become one of the WFH brigade was the day in early 2021 when schools were threatened with legal action if they closed because schools were safe, so we all went into school, and then around 8 pm that day Boris Johnson told us all to stay at home. I WFH until 11 pm every day during that lockdown and started to look for permanent WFH jobs.

@AngelusBell
I remember that day too and also no longer work in a school. The way education staff were treated was appalling.

I'm an arsehole then.

The police attended my husband's death because - according to them - it was an "unexpected death at home".

They couldn't speak to our GP straight away because it happened during the night.

I believe that when they interviewed my GP, she tore them a new arsehole. I had explained about his medical conditions and his hospital stay, but they wouldn't accept that he was "under the care of a doctor". (She told them he was.)

They didn't want me to kiss him goodbye.

Because I have no immediate family of my own, I was left sitting in the house on my own.

Someone else of my acquaintance had a similar experience though - thank God - she has children and grandchildren and was in a bubble with her son's household.

Her husband died at home of cancer. She phoned her son in hysterics.

Their GP had attended had issued the death certificate and her husband had been taken away by the local undertaker. The police then arrived and berated her for having phoned the undertaker. They used the "unexpected death" line on her.

It was as if they were trying to catch ordinary people out.

I complied with ever regulation last time. I'm not sure that I would again.

I’d be quite happy. I had a great, calm, peaceful time. I went to working at home full time which I didn’t like, but was perfectly doable, and kept in touch with everyone online - which I also didn’t like, but was also doable. I would do it again. Many others had a different experience and would not comply again I think - I don’t see it happening again.

I was really scared that day. I carried on until July and just kept it out of my mind but have WFH since. I feel for NHS and supermarket staff who couldn’t lock down, it must have had a lasting impact on them.

I don't know the specifics of this illness.

But people would comply with a lockdown if it was a virus where children were at higher risk of death. Which is usually the norm with dangerous viruses but covid was the exception.

I don't think people would comply if it was another virus that mainly affected the elderly and those with existing health conditions, while children were largely safe. I would do it but I think most are sadly too selfish / have become disillusioned.

I’ve been in parts of the world where malaria (the REALLY bad falciparum type) is endemic and causes loads of deaths - including children. People take some precautions but do, ultimately, just get on with their lives, with a shrug.

Congratuwelldone, I wasn't given a choice. I'm chronically ill and immunocompromised, I was given the option of furlough or unemployment. I'm so sorry I didn't choose to starve just because some people had to keep working (and are still bitter about it four fucking years later).

@AngelusBell @Macaroni46 I remember that day too, the constant adaption and expectation to educate hundreds of students from home on a lap top, rewriting materials constantly. And home schoiling. I would not do it again, the hypocrisy of the government means that so much good will has been lost I doubt many would trust them enough to comply. @WearyAuldWumman I am so sorry you hear about your loss. We lost a family member working in the NHS at that time to covid pre vaccine.

Listening to Radio 2 just now they are saying that this new variant can now be transmitted via contact that is not necessarily sexual. The bloke being interviewed, who was a university professor, did seem quite worried.

Looking at photos of the symptoms you can see why due to the weeping open sores on the face in particular.

Hope they are stocking up on the smallpox vaccine.

😂 more like the vaccine. Died suddenly as well

Hurry up lock us down and I want the monkey pox AstraZeneca too. 😂

I’m sorry for your loss.

Gosh the salivating over the idea of another lockdown and chance to judge other people is really rather unsavoury. You're essentially wishing for people to be made ill or dead so you can have a nice little furlough and bake banana bread and hope the weather's nice for it?!

At work we are still dealing with the fallout from the previous lockdowns - as a few (facts tweaked to maintain anonymity examples):
Families who are absolutely terrified we'd lock down again and they won't be able to see their relatives in supported living projects
People who lost their placements in various projects which folded due to the lockdowns
People who got out of their routine of attending day centres and replaced it by behaviours such as smacking their head onto a wall repeatedly - we're still trying to get some of these to even begin to access the community again
Missed annual health checks, missed diagnoses... dental backlogs so severe people removed their own teeth through pain. I know of at least one death in our service directly attributable to the fact we couldn't do face to face assessment visits at the time
Deaf clients who no longer are able to lipread as they were unable to do so during the pandemic (masks) and whose communication has plummeted as a result and behaviour has escalated as a result
Lots and lots of very confused people who could go out, then had to be in their rooms... then could go into the lounge but not outside.... then were in their rooms again for another outbreak... then all of a sudden they're on a bus to day centre which has gone all strange with these "bubble" things.... and then they can't go again - fucking HUGE for people to process if they've got a learning disability anyway
Families who were just about coping to start with, where staff at services like day centres were doing a lot of support and holding things together for them - who just disintegrated when left alone
Vulnerable adults open to abuse and exploitation as the usual scrutiny on them wasn't there.
Oh yeah and there were also a few teens with autism I know of who were military history fanatics suddenly home from school with hours to google "Nazis" on the internet with all the algorithmically generated can of worms that has the potential to unleash.
Plus student drop outs from crap online learning meaning less graduates coming through into healthcare so a lack of good recruitable candidates

...would really really appreciate the chance to clean up that previous mess before we generate any more if that's at all possible!

I feel these days like that episode of Red Dwarf where the polymorph has sucked up all the emotions of fear and anxiety about stuff and there's none left to be felt despite the media's best attempts to bring us a crisis or new threat every single week.

People being clinically vulnerable is exactly why we needed most of the population to be vaccinated, as well. It seemed to be hit and miss who was considered immunocompromised. My teacher colleague (former cancer, 2 lymph nodes removed) had an NHS letter from home on full pay. I (former cancer, 30 lymph nodes removed) had no such letter and went into school as my role needed me in. I’m not bitter about it at all but I was extremely relieved to get the vaccines.

Then in late 2022 I had a letter to say I was in a vulnerable group and could get free Covid tests if I had symptoms and antivirals if I had Covid. I would be much more cautious in future.

It made little difference to me as a healthcare worker.
I do think it made people less tolerant and if done again, I don't think people would comply and it would divide opinion.

For those who think a vaccine will be enough - that won't be the case with mPox.

The R number of the initial, less transmissible Variant was approximately 3.1, which would require 100 x (1 - 1/3.1) = 67.7% of the population to be vaccinated in order to have a stab at herd immunity.

Under the current Variant, take-up will likely need to be significantly higher.

We'll be needing Lockdowns.