Is Coronavirus the new Brexit? (Dividing opinion)

[mayoral]

So Brexit caused many arguments/debates amongst my family.

Now we argue about coronavirus. My mum is (quote) "shit scared" of coronavirus even though she's a fit and healthy 60yr old. She thinks schools shouldn't reopen till the new year and if they were open sooner and I was still a child she wouldn't send me in. She said she doesn't see herself travelling on a plane for a long time and is happy for lockdown to be extended until a vaccine is found because the mortality rate is "so high" and "worrying".

I, on the other hand, can't wait for schools to reopen and get on with my life. My DH is already planning some business trips to Asia over the summer to get his business moving again. We both think coronavirus is blown out of proportion and the mortality rate is tiny, and that far more people will suffer from financial issues, job losses, mental health problems etc. That's not to say we don't sympathise with lives lost or underestimate the need for the initial lockdown (to create spare capacity within the NHS).

We are having big arguments over C-19, throwing facts and figures at one another and it's dividing us. Just like the Brexit debate did.

AIBU to think coronavirus is the new Brexit in dividing opinion?

I agree with others that there needs to be a phased return, with an eye on what happens to the figures for the virus while that is happening.

GCAcademic makes a good point re Asian travel. Will he want to quarantine for two weeks to get in?

I think most people with a good idea of how business and trade etc work knew that Brexit was a terrible idea.

But with this I really have to put myself in the hands of government and its advisors. what the heck can I know about how best to manage a pandemic, and how to trade off economic and health considerations? during this period it's vitally important that government is subject to scrutiny, but also that the scrutiny is fair.

that's the key difference imo.

makes a good point re Asian travel. Will he want to quarantine for two weeks to get in?

A lot of Asian countries aren't even offering the option to get in via quarantine. The ones I was due to travel to have an outright ban on foreigners entering the country. To be honest, one of them (India), I really wouldn't want to go to now as there has been very ugly behaviour directed at foreigners for supposedly bringing the virus into the country.

Interesting GC I also very much agree with your post reviews tribes on SM, including mn. People can be unpleasant enough to further drive people apart, and stand their ground, but in rl conversations I haven’t had any of that (tg).

Especially this
In the real world, polling shows the majority are opposed to ending lockdown soon. It's certainly not the tight split of the Brexit vote. As someone has already had, social media (and I include MN in this), and increasingly the MSM, love tribes and actively try to shepherd us into one. There is no longer any nuance in public discourse, just two oppositional and simplistic positions.

It has the potential to cause arguments in my family. To avoid it I've disengaged a bit. I'm not in the best headspace to bite my tongue enough just now.
I'm a care home manager so have had the worst 7 working weeks of my life and right now, no end in sight. I've got my parents on one hand telling me how worried they are about me and on the other hand insisting that Boris is doing a great job. And my sister moaning about having to line up in shops but, aren't the government doing a great job and isn't it so important to clap for carers?

Meanwhile Im dealing with the effects of the governments 'great job' (not only on this but you know, on making sure social care is funded appropriately in the first place) , plus a staff team who are exhausted and in tears at some point most days. I've had weeks of trawling round to get PPE then having orders requisitioned for the pointless nightingale hospitals. I've been requesting testing for 7 weeks and got some-on Saturday. I've had sick residents that weren't deemed sick enough for outside medical help so have had to send care staff getting paid £9.11 an hour to deliver gruelling palliative care... the list goes on. I'm furious. And I can't listen to bullshit from family members who have no idea and won't listen or open their eyes.

Therefore I've had to limit family chat to the weather, what the kids are up to, and what we are having for dinner or else I will say some stuff that will cause a row.

Yes GhostOfFrankGrimes, yes!!

I think even if most people polled (who? They didn't poll me) were broadly in favour of lockdown, then those figures will slowly start to change day by day as more and more people are negatively affected by it. Eventually the scales will tip the other way and the new mantra will become 'back to work and school. Save the economy' etc etc

Phil “ m meant to be shielding. Im now getting texts from her signing off with "stay safe", FFS!!”

Reply with “stay sane”.

@LilacTree1 I like that idea, I'll do that when I respond later

Phil I’m sure you know, people generally see the word they’re expecting to see, so I’d capitalise “sane”.

@MurrayTheMonk

No words

Hope you have some decent people to support you in real life.

I think coronavirus has exposed the nonsense of brexit. You wanted to control your borders, you kept them open during the pandemic. You wanted british workers picking fruit, you couldn't find enough so flew in eastern Europeans. Britain had supposedly lost its identity but is now applauding foreign healthcare workers keeping brits alive. The economic damage of hard brexit was a price worth paying but the economic damage of covid is unacceptable.

Very well put, @GhostofFrankGrimes

@GhostofFrankGrimes

Spot on.

The economic damage of hard brexit was a price worth paying but the economic damage of covid is unacceptable.

Yes, but the economic damage of a hard Brexit was always meant to affect other people.

You really mean that nearly all of the governments of the world have wrecked their own economies for something which isn't really serious? That's what some of you are saying.