To think "it's alright for you" for those who want lockdown for now until eternity?

[GlummyMcGlummerson]

I've seen, on both MN and social media, outrage after the PM announcement last night that strict lockdown won't be in place any more. Lots of sensationalist "great so now people can come to the Dales and kill us all" type posts. Furious that builders can go back to work and school children can go back to school in June to "kills us all". People are saying we should have lockdown until there's a vaccine, or until September. All these people on social media either:

• work from home anyway
• run their business from home
• didn't work anyway

AIBU in thinking "yeah it's alright for you!". Some of us need to return to work to keep a living and roof over our heads. I am furloughed until the end of the month but if my workplace can't re-open by around July then my job is basically fucked. I'm a single parent to 2, my ex runs a business that also relies on lockdown being eased, so if he loses his business then I lose maintenance payments.

I think it also shows a woeful misunderstanding of what lockdown is for. It wasn't implemented so that we could stay at home while the virus fairy magicked corona virus away. It was never the expectation that lockdown would solve the virus problem. There will be a second peak - NHS barely survives flu season as it is, it's important that the next peak doesn't coincide with the inevitable flu peak

All retail outlets are still offering non-contact sales and deliveries locally.

Yes, but they don't require the same level of staff as they did.

I worked retail up until January. The chain I used to work for had 50+ shops, and employed probably 400+ staff on the shop floor. Now? Zero. All the shops are closed. Their website is open but deliveries are all coming from the warehouse so no shop staff are required to work.

The warehouse is running on less than 10 members of staff, all of whom are working three days a week to allow for cleaning and social distancing.

They may be operating as a business but it's on nowhere near the same scale as it was before, hence they've had to furlough about 95% of their staff. If the shops are closed, they can't work.

I am not pretending everything is back as normal and all wonderful, but I genuinely do not know many people who are actually not working.

Maybe it's area dependent.

Well, there are a lot of businesses that are says that they're afraid that they might have to close down, so clearly there are some that are not carrying on working or at least at a reduced capacity. A lot of employees are furloughed, I know some who are. (Obviously children being at home is a factor there.)

Piccadilly, don’t you think there could be nuanced solutions to that? Leisure centres could open for people who needed access for rehab and similar medical purposes without opening for everyone?

Out of interest, do all the people who are celebrating going out and about, calling concerned people hysterical, and championing getting back to normal as soon as possible genuinely believe that living in England give us some special protection and that countless other countries who've had lower death rates, proper lockdowns etc were wrong and hysterical?

I'm furloughed. I work in manufacturing and we are only taking about 30% of our usual orders. People just aren't buying at the moment.

Lockdown was never supposed to stop us from catching it. It was to stop the NHS getting overwhelmed. It was never about us not catching it.

People need to resign them selves that they are most likely going to get it.

The type of stuff @OneandTwenty is talking about certainly isn’t happening everywhere and where it is, it involves a fraction of the regular staff and an even smaller fraction of regular turnover.

Our local restaurant is open for takeaway, but the owner and his wife and doing everything, none of the staff are working.

‘People need to resign them selves that they are most likely going to get it.’

I thought even without any social distancing at least 40% were estimated never to catch it? So with some measures in place, most people won’t catch it before a vaccine, if a vaccine is introduced in Summer 2021.

LolaSmiles and some countries never locked down, never did mass test and trace of hundreds of thousands and have lower death rates.

Which is why you can't and shouldn't make International comparisons.

So many demographics affect death rate. Population density, age, overall health, race, gender and so on.

It's like comparing a cow to a duck and asking why it doesn't quack the same.

You simply cannot assume a vaccine with ever be possible, and certainly not on a large scale by summer next year.

No one wants it to last forever. Just for it to be managed carefully and slowly to avoid another huge spike. And no its not just those who are wealthy or who can work from home who think that way.
My son owns his own business and has been unable to trade since the end of march and probably won't be trading again until the end of the year. He worked very hard to make the business a success. He has no other income but he also thinks we should only come out it lockdown when it's safe and then only slowly.
I am desperate to see my children and grandchildren. I hate lockdown I am losing money because of it. But I know now is not the time to ease up.
Johnsons speech last night was a shambles, and the new slogan ridiculous.

Lockdown was never supposed to stop us from catching it. It was to stop the NHS getting overwhelmed. It was never about us not catching it.

This isn't the whole story it was also to bring the rate down to managable levels so that fewer people would catch it. Ie to supress it so so fewer people catch it so it can more easily be managed. We are not at that low rate so If we come out too soon the rates will just rise again, the NHS will not be able to cope and we will be in an even worse position than we were in April. Economically and health wise.

If some want to isolate for their own personal reasons then of course that is their right. But we cannot stop others trying to get back to normal.

Totally agree.

Lockdown has far reaching affects not just related to corona.

Isn't the government just relaxing lockdown so.we hit the second peak before winter? They certainly aren't relaxing it because it's safe and the death rate is still awfully high.
People have a right to be scared. The virus hasn't gone anywhere. Rush back to work if you must/want/ need to but don't mock those who are being more cautious.

Lockdown has finished parties is just stupid though! Those people are the ones who could make the R rate increase though. Stupid idiots!

That and mixing households

‘You simply cannot assume a vaccine with ever be possible, and certainly not on a large scale by summer next year.’

Which is why I said if a vaccine is introduced not when.

We don’t know how many people will get it, but currently the very worse case scenario is predicted at 80%

Lockdown was never supposed to stop us from catching it. It was to stop the NHS getting overwhelmed. It was never about us not catching it

we got that - but looking at current figures, what makes you think the NHS is not going to be overwhelmed in a few weeks? That's the point

Yanbu

Completely agree! One of my ‘friends’ has ranted all over social media that anyone sending their child to school in June / July is neglectful and “poor kids” etc. She is well aware that I have been forced to send my to school throughout all of this as we are both NHS staff, no consideration whatsoever for how these comments make people in our situation feel.

Funny how all my friends who work in public sector jobs are in favour of this lockdown continuing...back in the real world, people need to make money

@OneandTwenty my son in law works for a large national furniture chain. Obviously all the stores are closed now. Yes, people can order online, but do you know how many employees it's taking to keep that going for the whole country?
Six. Six employees out of goodness knows how many nationally.

So some pubs are doing takeaway meals? I know of two in a five mile radius of me. And they're doing very little trade, and only a fraction of their staff are there for a fraction of the day.

All those people working in the stores in your local town centre. You think they'd working? All the staff in Primark or John Lewis or marks and Spencer (and all the others)? Of course they're not.

None of the restaurants in my town are doing takeaway. None. If they didn't do it before they're not doing it now.

I don't know what world you inhabit, but in mine there are many many people furloughed. And though they might be being paid for doing nothing at the moment, they're the people working for companies that may not survive this, so at the most risk of losing their jobs. So I for one don't begrudge them.

Funny how all my friends who work in public sector jobs are in favour of this lockdown continuing...back in the real world, people need to make money

This