To feel like we are just existing now

[Ghostlyglow]

In a miserable, joyless world of queues and masks. A couple of friends have lost their jobs this week. Where are we going with this?When will it end?

They all ready are, with the protests, what is the point.

I agree that we will look back at the remits were were /how were we so easily fooled into this lockdown.

the more successful the measures, the more people like you will pop up saying it was pointless. Thankfully opinions are not facts.

@Jeremyironsnothing
I'm not criticising the lockdown (per se)

@pigeon999
cam I don't think it is as simple as that. Heathrow is the largest aiport in the world, it is attached to one of the largest, populous world cities in the world by an underground system that is forever packed and boiling hot. The UK was always always going to be a big hitter. Least of all due to the numbers of British people that travel, the millions of visitors to the UK every week and the direct connections of skiing British families travelling to and from very infected regions at half term.

All the more reason for the Gov to have erred on the side of caution in feb and march. They did the precise opposite.

Have you had a look at what's happening in Brazil lately @BeltaneBride?

I am afraid I am enjoying my life a lot more. I love working from home, chilling out, going for the odd jog. Watching tv. Admittedly I don't have kids and so only have myself to worry about but I like the solitude and simplicity.

*Existing is better than dying

"You dont get to say that applies to everyone "

I find that when people disagree with that first statement it's never themselves that they picture dying. They are not offering to make the ultimate sacrifice to let life return to normal, they are just cool with other people dying so they can get back to their normal*

I can't speak for anyone else but when I say it I very much mean my own death. It's different for everyone but we all have a bar set to where we feel we are still getting a good quality of life or not.

I am luckier than a lot of people and I am thankful for everything I have but I am feeling more drained and hopeless the longer this goes on. If there was a definite deadline it would be a lot easier,; not knowing when, or even if, it will end is the main issue.

cam there is another scientific view on locking down early, too early, and that is society becoming exhausted with the restrictions (this has indeed happened) and the mental health impact, the impact on children. I believe they left it to the last minute so that they could make sure the lockdown worked at the very peak - this was key. You can't simply lockdown western countries for months and months on end, you will eventually get a backlash - as we are now seeing.

I think the timing in the end spot on, most people complied. You are assuming that people want and will comply with lockdowns. This is certainly not a given, and had never been tried before.

We were following the Swedish model, and when we see the second wave maybe that will make more sense to you.

I'm starting to go a bit... odd...

Like I had to psych myself up to go to the supermarket this afternoon. Not worry about the virus, just being out and around people.

For people who already have these issues they could be going through a crisis, with not much support available.

crystal I have felt like that on and off. A weird sense of being off balance and out of kilter. Like a strange dystopian film that is in fact our new reality. I would like to see more mental health support on the TV aimed at adults, and another for children helping people to make sense of these feelings and thoughts.

Even the adverts lately are freaking me out.

Everyone that needed one had a ventilator.

How is that true - people died at home, having not been allowed to go into hospital. Young, fit people before you say anything. Did the nurse from Goodmayes hospital not need a ventilator then, when he died at home having been refused hospital treatment?

Well it's certainly true that hospitals were so scared of being overwhelmed that they dealt with it by not letting people in. Those weere judgment calls made by nhs managers. They didn't get it right

I don't necessarily think it's fair to compare UK response to other countries at this stage. This is far from over.

Also the UK is not like other countries which are often touted as the forward thinking ones. Sweden doesn't have a major world hub airport with 3 planes a minute landing from all over the world. New Zealand has fewer people in the whole country than we have in London. People in Singapore live in a society where selling chewing gum is a crime, so they possibly are less likely to be bothered by a surveillance app. People in Korea suffer a massive problem of perverts putting spy cameras in toilets, so a bit of CCTV contact tracing might not freak them out.

This lockdown will never be over for me until the schools reopen to some degree and we gain a bit of normality . We’re in Scotland so my 2 are back in August part time. It’s going to be a long 2 months for me and I’m one of the luckier ones, I’ve got a job and can wfh (with a 4 yr old climbing on my back).

My 4 yr old is so bored she’s begging to get to school. I don’t buy the whole parents should be able to deal with their child nonsense. This is an unnatural situation. Even if you are a SAMH in normal circumstances you can go out out to groups, soft play, meet other parents the kids go nursery/school etc. There is routine and normality. I don’t know how long they expect us to go on like this...

Saved 450,000 lives in the UK according to the BBC yesterday

LOL not according to the BBC.

According to Neil Ferguson.

The man who invented the 500,000 figure with his embarrassing model that has been roundly criticised for how crap the code was.

The man who has massively overestimated the death rate of other diseases including BSE and Foot and Mouth.

The man who called for a lockdown to avoid Swine Flu.

A total and utter charlatan.

A total and utter charlatan. He really is.

I'm quite happy to " just exist", because the alternative is a horrible illness or death

The alternative is a very slightly increased risk of horrible illness or death.

I would take my chances.

Most of all I hate the reporters marching around the country and trading on people's misery. They're alright. They have a job and they seem to be able to go wherever they like. Irrational view I know.

Strange that they published him in Nature then @Nihiloxica - peer reviewed, well respected journals rarely publish charlatans.

How about you show us your working for how many would die with no lockdown?

How about you show us your working for how many would die with no lockdown?

How about we ask Sunetra Gupta?

@Nihiloxica

How about you show us your working for how many would die with no lockdown?

How about we ask Sunetra Gupta?

But at least one of her hypothesis is unprovable. Her conclusion, that COVID19 isn't as serious as first thought and is on the way out, is based on the assumption that 50% of the population had had it before March. Now, antibody tests have proved that wrong but her reply is that antibody tests aren't reliable and people may have had a different immune response. So, her hypothesis is not testable so how credible is it?

That reply by Sunetra Gupta is solid scientific theory. See also Karl Friston.

@ShebaShimmyShake

I hate waking up. I get no pleasure looking after my daughter, I get no pleasure in working, I get no pleasure in my husband. I hate waking up and thinking how to fill the coming day. I'm done with shitty crafts and all the rest of it. Just done. For the first time ever, I wish I were single and without children so I could stay in bed all day and at least waste all this time honestly in the way I want to.

I feel exactly the same. I'm a sahm mum and we've been at home since 23rd March. Before this happened I have always been the type of person who needs alone time. I have not had 1 minute alone since March apart from when in the shower or bed. The weather's turned bad which is really not helping. Both my kids but particular my 6 year old needs entertaining constantly. It becomes very draining after all these weeks, every morning I wake up and I'm feeling more miserable. Each day is dragging. I'm sick of doing their work with them, I'm sick of playing with toys, sick of refereeing their arguments. I just want some time where I can enjoy the peace and quiet, read a book, take a nap, just anything not child related!

Not even 500000 have died in Brazil with a greater population than here and a president who has done fuck all.

Re number of deaths. Science is not black and white. There are even still some (admittedly very few, but some) scientists who deny anthropogenic climate change, on which we have decades of data. The decision to lock down was not based on 'science' but on a political weighing up of short term risk. Neil Ferguson does seem to have very strong traction and the modern world of SM and MSM fighting for attention does make his particular modelling tendencies (massive over-estimating) particularly newsworthy and for years he has been on the 'go-to' list of academics for the MSM.
In fractured societies where we have neocons facing off against liberalism, the political decision was bound to become a fight between 'good' (locking down =saving lives) vs 'bad' (not locking down=everyone dies). Just like Brexit.
Neither position of course was 'correct', but locking down society was certainly a very strong response and questioning either it, or less controversially its length, is absolutely valid. Neil Ferguson may have been right but there were many problems with his model and there are many opposing views from scientists of equal academic if not media standing.