To ask whether you would support a further lockdown?

[lola777]

Posting here simply as I don't know if voting can be enabled outside AIBU.

Vote yes- You would support further lockdown of this extent
Vote no- You would not support a lockdown of this extent after the current lockdown period

Personally, I would be happy for restrictions to slowly be lifted after this. Amongst my friends, I feel I am in the majority.

I’ve not seen stats that show :
Normal year - number of deaths a month
Covid year - number of deaths a month.

Then we can make a decision as to whether lockdown should be continued.

Very sorry smile I forgot my place there for a minute. I forgot it's only those in favour of easing restrictions and ending lock down, who are happy to kill people.

/Sarcasm just in case anyone thinks for a moment i'm being serious.

It's the "preferring not to mind their children at home" bit. I love looking after him. It's just that until 4 weeks ago I had a job 2.5 days a week, NCT friends to see on the other days, and we occasionally had a babysitter in the in-laws. All gone now, the job permanently.

Really though it's not your post, it's a general attitude in others that wanting or in fact needing some company during long days of childcare is some kind of selfish luxury. All I'd really like in mid-May - and I'm sure many in my position whose mental health could be "saved" by this may agree - is the ability to see a select few locally while social distancing!

hammeringmyhead, why would you think 'preferring not to mind their children at home' applies to you?! Hell, you're exactly the kind of person I was thinking of that needs that respite care!

I'm hoping we get to the point (and soon), where perhaps the lockdown can follow what's happening in NZ, whereby people are able to 'join' their bubble with another couple of bubbles.

*I’ve not seen stats that show :
Normal year - number of deaths a month
Covid year - number of deaths a month.

Then we can make a decision as to whether lockdown should be continued.*

But this is exactly what the Office for National Statistics produce & announce very week. Excess mortality relative to the last 5 years (same week) is considerably higher than the deaths announced by the Government.

No-one wants to see children going hungry or people being homeless. But unfortunately too many of them voted for governments that were in favour of cutting benefit rates and not building social housing. They voted away the safety net that would have prevented that

Does this have anything to do with the point made by the poster about wanting lockdown to end so she can feed her family or is it just gratuitous political point scoring?

Well, if you express on AIBU that you are struggling with full-time childcare and nowhere to go, you're generally told that some people are doing full time childcare and working from home so suck it up. Or a keyworker will say they'd love to be at home and not have to send their child to nursery. Or, to be grateful I'm not dead or in Spain. I'm kind of operating in a permanent state of feeling guilty for feeling shite.

Well I'd never say that. This is hard. Really hard. It sucks. It's that much harder for you, that you have very wee ones, and are really feeling on the ledge mental health wise.

Part of my PND was that I had no social network, no family nearby (not that they'd have been any bloody use anyway), and so was doing it all on my own - with DH, but he had a job that was pretty full on. So I do kind of get it? But it's that you'd normally have that support and respite, and now you don't, it's been taken away?

but of the excess death upto end of last week more than a thousand were not sue to covid
unfortunately covid maybe something we have to learn to live with, there may not be an effective vaccine as there is no vaccines against some other corona viruses that cause the common cold and flu, there may be some effective treatments
it is like malaria, it is a risk but peope learn to live with it, the risk of a healthy child/ teenager dying of covid is lower than their risk of dying in a car accident ( 279 young people died in 2018) or suicide which was 187 last year
Covid lockdown can cause death rate to rise from other things due to delays in treatment cancer heart attacks strokes etc and from poor mental health as well as longer term PTSD poverty

bankruptcy redundancy etc are also linked to increased suicides as well these have to be balnced against each other
I think restrictions have to be lifted partially after 6 weeks, we need people working and [paying taxes in order to fund the NHS etc

@mbosnz Yes, absolutely - well, family is 200 miles away but I did have friends and a NT membership, plus time "off" at work. And for me personally to feel almost completely better and 100% able to cope for a few more weeks then it would only take a few tweaks to the lockdown restrictions. But when you say that you don't support the lockdown continuing on threads like this you get lumped in with the 20-person backyard BBQers who are just bored.

Can I ask, those who do not support further lockdown, if it is continued, will you abide by it?

Because I think the Government really does need to factor into its decision making process, the loss of appetite for continued compliance. Which could mean loosening up, or I guess it could mean becoming more heavy handed and punitive.

mbosnz I would certainly abide by it. I can't afford a fine or a criminal record.

I really hope you manage to hang in there hammeringinmyhead, and that lockdown ends soon, for you and all those suffering like you. I know how bloody lucky I am for how we're placed, and that for so many it's a very different and horrible situation. (And I'm still finding this to be a very sucky motor. . .)

Absolutely. Lockdown for however long it takes for us to make a vaccine that will immunise the entire population.

I get that It's not great being indoors all the time but we have to protect other people who can die from this disease. Read a book, learn a new language or watch Ted Talks online. There are loads of things you can do in the meantime if you get bored.

@Kasabian23 are you joking? We wouldn’t be able to pay for production of the vaccine if we did that, quite apart from anything else!

@Kasabian23 great, and do you have a magic money tree in your garden to pay for everyone to stay at home that long?

Lockdown for however long it takes for us to make a vaccine that will immunise the entire population.

Why are people still saying this?

There may never be an effective vaccine.

You can't lock down forever, that was never the purpose of the lock down. It was to help reduce the spread so the NHS was able to better cope with the situation.

@Waxonwaxoff0 now is the time for the government to step up and provide everybody with basic rations until we can find a way out of this mess.

One of the only good things to come from this I feel is that when this is all over we will have a massive demand for a more Socialist and United world government. Capitalism and Nationalism will be regarded as outdated.

Read a book, learn a new language or watch Ted Talks online. There are loads of things you can do in the meantime if you get bored.

Gosh.

There are loads of things you can do in the meantime if you get bored

Are you being purposely obtuse? It’s not about boredom. It’s about the fact people CANNOT afford not to work for the next two years or longer. What happens when everyone’s mortgage/ rent holidays run out after 3 months? What then. According to your plan there would be millions of families becoming homeless and would not be able to afford food. Great! That will really keep everyone “safe” won’t it? You realise in a scenario like this there would be riots too, and civil unrest and looting? The NHS would also collapse because it would have had no tax funding for 2 years so that and public services like the police and council services would also go.
But yes- why don’t we all just read a book! 🙄

We cannot lockdown until a vaccine is found! There might never be an effective vaccine. I’d abide by the lockdown for another 3 weeks but I don’t support it. I think people should continue socially isolating and be cautious, wear gloves, stay home if you feel unwell etc but we must get back to work or we’ll loose our company.

It’s not quite the right thing though to compare ONS figures to the same time last year. All we can do is look at number of deaths throughout the entirety of 2020 and compare that to other years so we won’t know anything for at least a year.

The reason I say this is because my hospital release the data daily. Every day this week, it’s been a maximum of 4 people - all exclusively aged 90+ and with significant underlying health conditions. So the “excess” death in my area may actually be negligible over the course of the coming months/next year.

I would also like to know why the daily deaths aren’t being publicised better. The reporting deaths are including deaths from at least 2 weeks ago in some cases whereas the deaths per date has shown a significant drop. This is hugely positive and should be discussed in the press briefings in aid of balance. The two nightingale hospitals in London and Birmingham have been empty. Again this is hugely positive because it shows that the contingency worked and the NHS was able to cope. What is the number of people leaving ICU and the number of people leaving hospital? For me I feel we should be told the positives to help people believe that what they are doing is making a difference.

However I believe they still want to present the worst case scenario because fear = continued compliance.

What I would like to see if an explanation of when lockdown could end. If the R number is now 0.7 then what are we aiming for to be safe? Are we aiming for 0.2? In which case how long will it take to get to that point? Are we aiming for a 14 day consistency of reduced cases/deaths? In which case when is the starting point? I feel that if we knew how close we are to being able to resume normality then people wouldn’t be feeling so antsy. I know that if I was told that we’re headed towards it I would feel better. Knowing how close you are to the “finish” line (and I say that broadly speaking as there will be no end to it) could be the difference between someone being able to cope or not.

I’m not a fan of Nicola Sturgeon but I appreciate the way she’s treating the Scots as adults and explaining the rationale and thinking behind things.

Read a book, learn a new language or watch Ted Talks online. There are loads of things you can do in the meantime if you get bored

I'll look forward to doing all that when I'm living in a cardboard box.

@Cantata
Well it’s not totally dumb- once you’ve read the book you could use the pages for loo roll!