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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To think easing lockdown on Monday is allowing a second peak to happen?

591 replies

Gawdsake2020 · 06/05/2020 13:02

Exactly that really. Still 4,000 odd infections a day, 600 deaths a day and there easing up on Monday.

OP posts:
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Yurona · 06/05/2020 17:26

What is the alternative? Staying in lockdown for longer kill people as well, and it will lead to even more hunger. There are already enough people who can’t feed themselves, abuse is going up, so is depression. All these things kill

Perfidy · 06/05/2020 17:27

We've got to learn to live with it. That means losing the stay at home message but having a more limited number of commuters, people continuing to work from home if they can, not opening mass leisure activities - what else can we do??

Weallhavevalidopinions · 06/05/2020 17:28

Answering this one:
"BeijingBikini Wed 06-May-20 17:14:13
Almost my entire family (young and old) is currently shielded. I find it deeply depressing how little value so many on MN place on their lives"

It is sad that almost your entire family have poor health. However, the whole country cannot sit around doing nothing until you decide it is ok... when exactly will you all feel it is safe for people to work and earn money to pay for food/bills/rent etc?

How many businesses have to fold before you deem it OK for people to start earning a living again?
Some people might not feel safe for 6 months/12 months/2 years... that doesn't mean that they are not valued just that the rest of the country has to get on living/earning a living/paying tax so the vulnerable (almost all of your family) can shield as long as you feel you need to.

MeganBacon · 06/05/2020 17:30

As long as people have access to healthcare, they should be allowed to make their own decisions. The R rate is not significantly different in Denmark than in Sweden in spite of different lock down habits. People are focussing far too much on whether or not to lock down and avoiding the uncomfortable truth that the same number of people will get it eventually irrespective of lockdown strategy. We should only lock down to ensure healthcare is not overburdened (which is actually what we did), and beyond that we should keep the economy going because poverty kills too, and that's where we are headed unless we all get back to work soon.

Russellbrandshair · 06/05/2020 17:32

Almost my entire family (young and old) is currently shielded. I find it deeply depressing how little value so many on MN place on their lives

I find it deeply depressing that you apparently don’t give a crap about people dying due to domestic abuse, poverty, and suspended health screenings due to lockdown. You aren’t the only person in the world who matters ffs. You have the nerve to call others selfish when you expect the entire world to revolve around you! Well copernicus called- apparently the world doesn’t revolve around you. HTH!

LellyMcKelly · 06/05/2020 17:33

It’s fucking nuts. The Irish who had a far better strategy all along, had a much lower death rate and aren’t planning on coming out until 18th May and then in 5 three week long phases. The lock down is to starve the virus. We know that herd immunity strategy without a vaccine is a stupid and dangerous policy. It’s why we have the highest death rate in Europe with few signs of it abating. Look at the state of the USA and the insane number of deaths caused by Trumps free for all strategy. We need someone to sort out this fucking mess before we start letting people out on the streets. Some dopey, semi working, overly invasive app is not the solution.

MsSafina · 06/05/2020 17:33

I had a text message from my GP Surgery today along the lines of I know we told you to stay away 6 weeks ago. If there's something wrong please let us know. Obviously they're sitting in the surgery twiddling their thumbs while people die at home.

minipie · 06/05/2020 17:34

I agree that an even longer lockdown will likely kill as many in the long term, if not more, than it saves.

To be honest I wonder if we are at that point already. Too late now, but the least we can do is get things moving and people back to work and school.

Booboodisney · 06/05/2020 17:35

@BeijingBikini you have to admit though that is unusual for an entire family to have one of the conditions on the shielding list, some of which are quite unusual. Unless there’s a genetic component which causes everyone to have needed organ transplant etc .

Bluntness100 · 06/05/2020 17:35

The lock down is to starve the virus

It’s really not. It’s to protect the nhs to ensure we don’t breach its capacity.

How can anyone be confused on this still?

GrumpyMiddleAgedWoman · 06/05/2020 17:36

We didn't have the highest death rate in Europe last I looked...

We've got to get back to having an economy at some point, otherwise poverty is going to kill people.

BlueBrian · 06/05/2020 17:38

As a person shielding I'm quite happy for the country to go back to work, as long they don't mind paying me enough to stay at home, and SSP doesn't cut it, I mean pay a realistic amount.

Biscuit0110 · 06/05/2020 17:40

noextreme our friends in Europe were hit with the virus a good ten days before us, so it stands to reason they will be ahead when it comes to reopening up.

No one can possibly say at this stage how this play out, we are seemingly short on history lessons. The second wave will almost certainly be worse than the first. Look at the graphs for the Spanish flu and you can see that the following waves are more deadly. So if we have any hope at all of having the resources to deal with the winter wave, then we best get the economy restarted.

Those that need to shield etc should continue, of course, the rest of us need to get back into the driving seat.

It is also deeply unhelpful comparing tiny little countries like Ireland with a population of 4 million (a large city in real terms) to the 66.6 million in the UK. You simply can not compare them - and we have over double their population just in bloody London ffs.

I am really proud of this country, the way we pulled together, the sterling job of the NHS, the carers, the supermarkets have been pretty amazing and the production has continued, and the government have done their level best in dire circumstances. So please do stop moaning and putting everyone down. In RL people have pulled together everywhere. Lets talk about that for a change!

totallyyesno · 06/05/2020 17:41

We didn't have the highest death rate in Europe last I looked...

Depends what you mean by death rate. If it's total deaths then we are at the top in Europe. If it's per million then we are in the first few - hardly great!

JoeExoticsEyebrowRing · 06/05/2020 17:43

The lock down is to starve the virus.

Nope.

vanillandhoney · 06/05/2020 17:43

We didn't have the highest death rate in Europe last I looked...

We have the highest number of deaths in Europe (currently over 30,000) and we're second in the world only behind America.

Per capita we're something like fourth. Behind Belgium, Spain and Italy.

totallyyesno · 06/05/2020 17:44

Also it is really worrying that the UK still has a really high daily total of deaths which suggests that there is a while to go yet before numbers start falling significantly.

BG2015 · 06/05/2020 17:45

Chris Dyson (well known HT from Leeds) has tweeted this afternoon that he's had a reliable source tell him that Boris is announcing what will happen regarding schools tomorrow!

Don't know how true this is!

MayDayFightsBack · 06/05/2020 17:46

I can't over the constant moaning about the lockdown from some people. Is it really so difficult to stay at home? Don't get me wrong, I am really worried about people in domestic violence and abusive situations who are locked in with their abusers but for ordinary people it surely isn't that bad?

Are so many people really that mentally fragile that a few weeks not being able to see relatives in person or go out when they feel like it is driving them to a mental health crisis? I am disabled with a chronic illness which means I have relapses and remissions. I've spent months and often years sometimes housebound (which is, in all effects lockdown) and have never had anyone else going through it at the same time as me so they can share the experience. Neither have businesses, colleges and other people adapted themselves to me being housebound so that it was easier for me. In fact, my first lot of being 'locked down' was in my mid teens, so when all my friends were learning to drive cars and going off to uni - experiencing freedom for the first time - my life just closed down. I managed.

This whole thing has been an eye-opener to me.

Elmerrrrrrrr · 06/05/2020 17:47

Are so many people really that mentally fragile that a few weeks not being able to see relatives in person or go out when they feel like it is driving them to a mental health crisis

Yes I am

Sorry for being an inferior person to you

JacobReesMogadishu · 06/05/2020 17:47

We’re going to have a second peak. I think we probably just need to get it over and done with while managing the peak as much as possible. So testing and tracing and isolating those who have been in contact. If done effectively it could keep the second peak to a manageable scale. I’m just not sure I trust the govt to be able to organise it well enough.

JoeExoticsEyebrowRing · 06/05/2020 17:47

It’s fucking nuts. The Irish who had a far better strategy all along, had a much lower death rate and aren’t planning on coming out until 18th May and then in 5 three week long phases.

You do realise this whole thing is far from over. When Ireland opens back up, there will be very little immunity within the population to slow transmission (if having Covid does give any kind of immunity - there is no reason to think it wouldn't right now, but it has not yet been proved) and we are all a long way off a vaccine. Plus as others have said, the population is much smaller, and outside of the cities the population density is far lower than the UK. And there is the economy to think about.

We won't know who had better or worse strategies for a long time yet.

duffeldaisy · 06/05/2020 17:48

I'm really at a loss. I honestly do not understand where all this 'we have to live with tens, possibly hundreds of thousands of people dying prematurely' is coming from.

As a society, we elect representatives. They are meant to represent us, to pass laws to keep us safe, to make life the best it can be for us all.
We should elect ones who genuinely understand us, who don't punish people for being poor or ill or elderly. And if we don't, we should make sure that those who are elected will not be again if they don't protect us.

Other countries are not losing as many people as we are. The people who are dying are not all in their 90s and keen to go anyway. We don't have to live with this. Proper lockdowns (including airports temporarily) can work to stop the virus spreading. Completely. So that we can sort out what were doing.

I really don't get the lack of horror at how this is being handled. How many people exactly have to die before this is seen as a real mess, and for people to stop calling for ends to lockdowns, and start calling for more support for those who are struggling?

TheHumansAreDefinitelyDead · 06/05/2020 17:48

MsSafina, all my friends who are GPS feel a bit embarrassed for sitting at home/office ...doing not very much

My sister is GP and says she feels embarrassed with the Thursday clapping as she does less work than normal. And meanwhile cancer patients have been going without treatment Sad

chunkycoke · 06/05/2020 17:49

Are so many people really that mentally fragile that a few weeks not being able to see relatives in person or go out when they feel like it is driving them to a mental health crisis

Yes, I have existing mental health issues which make me ‘mentally fragile’. Raising 2 young children completely alone in a 2 bed flat where I can’t even take them in a garden, after just breaking up with their DF who has decided not to even text to see how his children are has made me struggle to cope. I’d have felt better if I could see my family so they could offer me support, or a break would help right now.

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