To think at this point they may as well just end lockdown?

[Ursula2001]

I'm not one of those corona moaners that gets enraged about people meeting two friends rather than the stipulated one for a socially distanced walk. Or people that sit in the garden with a mate rather than go to a busy park.

However, after returning to work a few weeks back I've noticed things change massively since the rules were relaxed. Of course, this was to be expected and the DC saga hasn't helped, but it seems that people are now pretty much going about their summer holidays as they usually would, aside from a bit of social distancing and not being able to go to the pub (although I've seen a good few people drinking pints in pub gardens this week, which makes me assume some pubs are allowing customers to drink their takeout on the premises - maybe this is a loophole as the bar is still technically closed).

I'm just not sure many people would be at much greater risk in a socially distanced office now after seeing the throngs of people out today. It would be better for the economy and from a selfish POV better for people like me - I've been out with our truck drivers doing site assessments this week and most of our customers are absolutely heaving (we do a lot of newsagents and supermarkets etc). Trying to park the wagon has been a nightmare and today's driver said that the daytime is pretty much as busy as normal now as lots of people who'd usually be at work are out buying booze and drinking it in the park. Certainly, a large proportion of people seemed to be walking out with packs of beer today (can tell from the way they stretch the plastic bag).

I'd sooner see these people back at work than thronging around the town centre, but of course that's a vested interested on my part. But for sure people are still just as cunty on the road as ever! All this saucepan bashing for key workers last night but nobody seems able to wait 30 secs for a truck to complete a manoeuvre without laying on the horn (too desperate to get back and drink the stuff we deliver!).

The inhabitants of our small village have been sensible, very low number of cases. Now it is rammed with people who are being paid not to work. They are coming everyday, parking every where walking on narrow paths in herds, no social distancing. There are no public toilets and the pub is shut.

I would imagine there is going to be human excrement everywhere.

25 young people sat together (basically on top of each other), in their swimwear, on our local common yesterday. It was like a bloody episode of love island.
Old and bitter

I agree rules are very relaxed compared to full lockdown and there's certainly a much lower level of compliance in a minority of people.

But we are absolutely nowhere near the level of freedom we had. People are not moving freely as they were before.

What we see in the media is the same 4/5 extremely popular tourist spots full. Full as we'd expect. It paints a picture that isn't representative of the country as a whole.

Where I live, on the coast, there are more people around rdue to the weather but the majority are still distancing.

I’m happy to continue to distance for a while longer. I don’t want to catch it or spread it to those who are vulnerable.

No I do not want to take the risk and act accordingly should there be a second wave

Why?

Because that second wave gets more and more likely the more people just take the risk

No other European country has relaxed lockdown rules with a level of infection as high as ours, yet they are still struggling to contain the infection, so we are the country most likely to have a second wave.

And the problem with that is that containing a second wave will be an enormous economic hit.

Basically, the higher the level of infection, the longer it takes to get under control and so the bigger the economic impact

If we get the infection lower now, then any outbreaks can be contained more easily. Because double 200 is a lot less than double 2000. The impact on hospitals it much less. 200 infections are more easily contra8ned, more likely to have a small geographic range , so that local short lockdowns will suffice.

But someone is so eager to move on, distract attention, that he is willing to sacrifice the lives and economy on a risky bet.

People in my area are still behaving. Granted when its warm and sunny its busier but people are still distancing. Dominic Cummings is an irresponsible arse but it doesn't make me think I want to behave like that too.
Agree with PPs point about individual responsibility.

@Bluntness100

The numbers are coming down but there are still 2-3 hundred deaths a day

No it’s not, in England it’s twenty odds. The numbers you see reported daily are not daily totals, they are simply what’s reported in that day. It takes time for them to notify family, get permission etc.

And people who have sadly died, have likely been in hospital for about a month.

It’s not deaths that’s the critical figure, it’s hospital admissions.

I'd swear you were a Govt Bot if I didn't know you had been posting since before C-19

It is not 20's in England. Why do you post nonsense?

Hospital admissions tell a part of the story, but not all of it, many aren't even getting to hospital - any reason you think they don't count? Even if you only include hospital deaths, it's still hundred, not 20's.

Yes, there's a lag in the figures due to reporting, but it's not to the tune of several hundred. If you compare the number of 'daily deaths' reported to us and the ONS figures when they come out, there's not a huge difference.

The number of deaths registered in the UK in the week ending 15 May 2020 (Week 20) was 16,366 of which 4,210 deaths involved COVID-19

I don't know why you are so hell bent on continually minimising C-19.

Where we live, in a National Park, lockdown and social distancing have pretty much been respected by locals, but unfortunately not so much by visitors. When BJ relaxed lockdown to allow unlimited travel across England to beauty spots, the coast and countryside, it signalled the end of lockdown for many people, judging by the traffic and the crowds. The rapid and chaotic relaxing of lockdown since seems to be a BJ/DC crowd pleaser to distract the public and the media from the Cummings fiasco and delayed Track and Trace. It is too much, too soon and the rest of the UK are handling it better. We have been thrown a bone to make sure we do as BJ and DC want and 'move on'.

It does make me wonder if the government are better off opening everything up. With limited choice, it seems the majority of people will flock to places that are open. There is a park and dinosaur trail opening this weekend near me and it seems everyone can't wait to visit. If other local attractions were open too, it would mean people could be spread out more. If one thing comes from this pandemic, is that places like theme parks restrict numbers, it might make a day out there actually worthwhile rather than spending three quarters of a day in a queue. So many of my friends are desperate for a trip to Primark, I couldn't think of anywhere worse.

I haven’t seen this. More people are going to work because they now can do that means more people out in cars, walking to work, at bus stops etc. No pubs are open here,not for take away either. Why would you pay pub prices to drink at home?

@slipperywhensparticus

It's pretty pointless now anyway

Fortunately we didnt seem to get a VE day spike so maybe we wont get a second wave at all maybe it was never as contagious as they thought 🤷‍♀️ it's a new virus we know nothing about

It's only the 29th of May. 21 days is not enough to know either way whether VE Day caused a spike or not. Plus you need to consider that the R is currently stagnating, not decreasing, how much better a position we could have been in, if it wasn't for VEday celebrations & the loosening of restrictions.

We needed the R to be lower for the June 1 easing of restrictions, but BJ said J1 & he wasn't going to back down. Despite the science telling him otherwise.

@tttigress

I think we need shielding for older and at risk people then everything else should carry on as normal.

To be honest, that is what we should have done in the first place, instead of having a lockdown which is destroying the economy, the economic destruction will probably will more people in the long term :(

You don't think a virus killing hundreds of thousands of people would have had an effect on the economy?

You think practically every country in the world locked down for shits & giggles?

I think we need shielding for older and at risk people then everything else should carry on as normal. and how long exactly do people expect the shielded to shield? Because it always strikes me that it’s the non shielded who put out those kinds of comments.

As for blaming the government, DC, everyone else but yourself, no-one has held a gun to anyone’s head and said “you will now cease to social distance,” People refuse to do it because they want to. Pure and simple.

Second spikes and waves have been predicted for months now and they haven’t happened.

There is suggestion in some scientific circles that the virus is now predicted to burn out.

But even if that doesn’t happen, truth is that we all have to learn to live with this. Even the shielded.

People who are immunesuppressed/have other underlying health conditions need to take steps to protect themselves against certain conditions as it is.

The immunesuppressed are always at risk regardless of what they catch, and yet no-one expects them to stay locked up indefinitely.

I am shielded. I have a serious heart condition and need a transplant, but at the moment I’m in fairly decent health, if you can call it that.

I spent six weeks in hospital last year, had more than one cardiac arrest and an episode of cardiac shock. I had surgery which replaced the open heart surgery I was meant to have as I was so weak, I was told last year that I was in fact ineligible for a transplant and would be sent home to die. Fortunately thanks to the intervention of my new consultant that risk was reversed due to procedures I had and I am now able to be considered for transplant, and moreover, my life has improved immeasurably in the past year.

I am currently not going out but I’m damned if I came through the last year to spend the next indefinite period of time separated from my friends, family, partner, from the normal life the procedures I had last year were supposed to give me.

We’ve all got to die of something.

I will do my best for it to not be of this, but I’m not going to turn myself into a recluse otherwise I don’t have a life anyway.

@PrimeroseHillAnnie

I work for the NHS and still see what Covid can do first hand so perhaps I have a different perspective on this - so I will continue to follow the medical and scientific advice until there is an effective vaccine or no reported case of infection for 3 months. I also intend to find another job , hopefully in hospital or clinical administration. I guess it’s like being in a war, unless you were there you really don’t even have s clue. But that’s just my opinion, based on first hand experience.

🌷you're an angel for going into work through this. I don't blame you for wanting to find another job. Having seen what you've seen I'd be considering something entirely different!

It must be very hard to read/see people minimising the effects of C-19 & complaining about shite.

Thank you for doing what you're doing 🌷

I think it looks busy when you're out and about, but that's because people are doing their socializing outside. Which is actually a really good thing, as there is very little chance of catching the virus outdoors. What you don't want is people in pubs, parties or crowded trains or offices. The focus on staying outdoors creates this impression that everyone is back to normal, but in reality I think most people are still living very different lives. If that wasn't the case we'd be seeing much higher rates of hospital admissions

@Sweettruelies

People focused on the death figures - you realise that they are a reflection of around four weeks ago as that’s roughly how long it takes to die from this? Also there is a time lag with reporting in a lot of cases.

It took less than 4 days not weeks for my Mum to die of Covid

The government has taken the decision that having multiple waves and going back into a (shorter) lockdown is preferable to the riots likely to occur if we are fully locked down for 6 months. So they are relaxing the rules now for the summer. We will then need another lockdown in October - with schools closed a week either side of the half term (3 weeks).

@DysonFury

I think the Cummins saga was dropped to make people end lockdown themselves thus absolving Bojo of the responsibility of ending lockdown and the possible consequences.

I don't think it was, simply because of the damage it has done and would of necessity have to do to the Tories and Johnson in particular for it to work. But I certainly wouldn't have put the principle of it past them: I can see why you think they would.

If people have to go back to work and schools don’t open, how is anyone meant to stick to ‘the rules’. Some of us need childcare

People are generally still following the rules around here, though parks are busier and I can see that people are letting their kids mix more too.

There's still plenty of "lockdown" that's helping and being followed. No pubs, no big social gatherings, and more importantly (esp where o live) no thousands of people cramming themselves into trains everyday and then going to sit in offices with hundreds of other people.

No country has gone for 6 month lockdowns

Most have gone for slightly earlier, harder lockdowns to get the level very low to maximise chance of avoiding a second wave

Why do we have to be so arrogant as a nation that we do things our special way and ignore the costvto jobs, lives and society?

I'm not entirely sure how useful opening shops will be. If we can't do anything or go anywhere, what will people be buying? I think.we spend more money here on doing things and maybe eating out than buying stuff, but we can't go anywhere nice or do anything different. I still can't even visit family in Wales cos they live more than 5 miles away! Not much more, but that's our new rule. I can go to work in another country and mix with hundreds of others though.

I think we need shielding for older and at risk people then everything else should carry on as normal

So what happens to the millions and millions of these people? So they are literally impironsed I. Their homes (no daily exercise, essential shopping etc) while everyone goes about their business ?????????

Instead of having a clear, phased plan like other countries do with their colour-coded charts etc we get messages coming from the government in trickles: GET BACK TO WORK - you can worn from home I'd you can but we won't do anything about employers that don't allow this, you can drive anywhere you like for exercise. These are designed to end lockdown without actually saying it's ending. That way, if there should be a rise in infections they can absolve themselves of any responsibility by saying lockdown was still on and they never said otherwise so it's all the fault of the plebs if they didn't follow the guidance. If the rates of infection don't rise and the economy starts to pick up however, you can be in no doubt that they will congratulate themselves on their successful policy.

Woolly and vague is the way this government likes to operate.

@Bluntness100 all countries have the reporting time lag. I’m in Ireland and we have the same lag notifying getting permission etc - we also have more robust reporting of covid deaths than the UK. We locked down only a week earlier than you and our deaths are now around 0-10 daily and our new cases between 0-100 compared to hundreds of deaths and thousands of new cases in U.K. even when you adjust for population the U.K. are doing terribly and your R number just isn’t coming down. If I were over there I’d be very worried about how lockdown is being eased.