Page 7 | AIBU to think I'd rather take my chances with the virus...

FractionalGains · 26/10/2020 20:31

@oblada

I don't quite get people who still follow the rules at this stage. I suppose it's easy enough for me anyway, I dont need to break the rules, as funnily enough whilst it's illegal for people in my area to meet with family (I'm also in tier 3), my family can come from abroad and be with us. My parents have come 4-5 times in the last 2-3 months, and my brother came for 1 week too, which I've been grateful for. My girls also went to my parents for 2 weeks over the summer. So yes March to July was pretty isolating but once the international flights were back on (and cheap) we certainly took advantage of it! It seems utterly bonkers that my friends cannot see their parents who live 5mins away. I don't think I would be following the rules if I was in that situation.

What do you mean they can come and be with you? You still aren’t allowed to have them stay or see them indoors are you? Or is there an exception for hosting people who have travelled in from abroad?

It’s a genuine question as I didn’t think we were allowed to see family from abroad any more than family down the road.

gjejgej · 26/10/2020 20:32

[quote EmeraldShamrock]Sweden's vunerable and elderly have been isolating with lockdown rules. They are not out of the woods never got out of it and have higher losses than their neighbours while their numbers are rising again.
They're only loosening the rules for the elderly now.
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/10/22/sweden-loosens-covid-lockdown-rules-elderly-vulnerable-due-mental/[/quote]
So they protected the vulnerable and allowed everyone else to live their lives as much as possible?

What a stupid idea!! They should have locked EVERYONE up!!

Freakeconomics · 26/10/2020 20:35

@gjejgej you sound delightful

Apologies for being so pedantic about little things like facts! Don’t let that get in the way of your rants and bad language and insults.

Inkpaperstars · 26/10/2020 20:35

When you say take your chances with the virus, I don't know what you mean. Do you mean, take your chances catching it and dealing personally with the infection? Or being part of a mass rejection of measures to suppress the virus, therefore taking your chances with exponential growth of infection to a natural peak? I think many people have failed to think through consequences of the last one on the economy, social interaction, schooling, all health provision etc etc. They just focus on what might happen to them if they got it, which frankly could be the least of their/your/our worries in the havoc of reaching a natural peak. I personally fear we might end up looking back on restrictions with a nostalgic fondness if we had to face that, which is a horrifying thought but may be true!

I do completely understand questioning whether the particular ways we are supposed to be trying to suppress it right now are the most appropriate ones. I don't know about that. It's a work in progress how we approach it I guess, and responsibility falls on the govt and on all of us, no matter what approach we take.

DeeCeeCherry · 26/10/2020 20:36

Agree OP. I wear mask and sanitise my hands. I still have to go to work. I still socialise, albeit socially distanced. I'm enjoying pubs with heated beer gardens and music at the moment. I refuse to spend my 1 life worrying about Covid, although I'm not critical of those who do worry. Vulnerable people should shield, I think. The rest of us who want and need to get on with life absolutely should, as best we can. I do wonder what the fallout of all this will be in terms of mental, emotional and financial well-being.

islockdownoveryet · 26/10/2020 20:36

@oblada

I don't quite get people who still follow the rules at this stage. I suppose it's easy enough for me anyway, I dont need to break the rules, as funnily enough whilst it's illegal for people in my area to meet with family (I'm also in tier 3), my family can come from abroad and be with us. My parents have come 4-5 times in the last 2-3 months, and my brother came for 1 week too, which I've been grateful for. My girls also went to my parents for 2 weeks over the summer. So yes March to July was pretty isolating but once the international flights were back on (and cheap) we certainly took advantage of it! It seems utterly bonkers that my friends cannot see their parents who live 5mins away. I don't think I would be following the rules if I was in that situation.

What ? You absolutely can't have family to stay , don't they have to quarantine you quarantine? It's mixing households how is it different if they are from another country? And we wonder why the virus spreads

Things like this make me mad people can jaunt to other countries but I can't see my family and friends and my job is at risk again.

etopp · 26/10/2020 20:37

[quote Freakeconomics]@gjejgej since the dawn of humanity you say? So no one ever panicked about

The Black Death
The Spanish flu
SARS
Swine Flu
Ebola
Yellow fever

And so on.

I think you will find they did panic and lock down areas and people died etc. This is just our first experience of a pandemic in our lifetime ( given SARS MERS and swine flu had a limited impact in Western Europe and were so severe spread and contagion was lower) right back to the Spanish flu.

So overall, you’re talking complete nonsense. Hope that helps.[/quote]
They didn't panic about these things because the fucking internet wasn't around.

The ridiculous overreaction to Covid has only been facilitated by the internet.

Imagine a pre-internet world (which I am old enough to remember). If everything had shut down (shops, yoga, chatting with friends - whatever you like doing), with absolutely no alternative but to sit at home with nothing to watch, nothing to do, nobody to talk to, you might have felt different about it all.

I would also ask you, given that my sector is fucked: how would you all have coped with lockdown, if you had no TV dramas, no Netflix, no radio, no online "substitutes" for attending a gallery or museum in person, no books, no singing.

The sector that has been most comprehensively fucked by lockdown has been a lifeline for so many people.

Try being one of the providers of this lifeline, and see how you feel.

Eckhart · 26/10/2020 20:38

*Where's the science? Where's the proof that any of this is working (it clearly isn't) but we flow.it anyway.

Overwhelming the NHS?? Yes, the Nightingale hospitals were overflowing weren't they... Oh wait, no they weren't*

Lockdown worked. That's why the hospitals weren't overwhelmed. We came out of lockdown, and cases went up, so we can either lockdown again, or leave some of us out of it, where cases aren't too high.

Which bit don't you get?

Not many of us like it. We just prefer it to passing around a nasty illness that has dire consequences for some.

Jaxhog · 26/10/2020 20:39

I'm sick of feeling like a prisoner in my own home.

Yes well so are we all. But many of us really have no choice due to our age or medical situation. I've been effectively a prisoner in my own home since March. That is SEVEN months, and probably another FIVE months if others don't buckle down and follow the rules. Is your social life really more important than my life?

ArcheryAnnie · 26/10/2020 20:39

Stay indoors if you are that bothered about catching it. Life is for living.

Halliehallie9828 I've already caught it, that's how I know how utterly shit and debilitating it is. I don't know if I will ever be fully well again.

And a civilised society doesn't say to it's citizens "if you want to be safe the only way is to barricade in your own homes, while the strongest get to roam free and do what they like".

SheepandCow · 26/10/2020 20:40

Yes the UK 'quarantine' is a (unfunny) joke.
It makes a mockery of our restrictions.

People can make their own way from the airports - often on busy public transport or cabs - to their UK destination. Hotel sometimes, but other times staying with family. Only the travellers need to quarantine even when sharing a house with others.

Gwenhwyfar · 26/10/2020 20:41

"I dont think anyone is happy for goodness sake!"

Oh, loads of people are happy about lockdown.
Just look at the Christmas thread where loads of them are looking forward to having a lazy Christmas and no answer given to what it's going to be like for single people on their own.

Rainbowllama4 · 26/10/2020 20:41

@Halliehallie9828 yes, life is for living but life is for living for everybody, not just for you and others who think like you. I think it would be very wise to back away from people who think like you. So incredibly selfish. And no I’m not scared, I’m not hiding away, I’m youngish and healthy, I doubt it would kill me but I care about others welfare and not just my own so I follow the rules. It’s not forever, it’s just for now.

etopp · 26/10/2020 20:41

@Eckhart

*Where's the science? Where's the proof that any of this is working (it clearly isn't) but we flow.it anyway.

Overwhelming the NHS?? Yes, the Nightingale hospitals were overflowing weren't they... Oh wait, no they weren't*

Lockdown worked. That's why the hospitals weren't overwhelmed. We came out of lockdown, and cases went up, so we can either lockdown again, or leave some of us out of it, where cases aren't too high.

Which bit don't you get?

Not many of us like it. We just prefer it to passing around a nasty illness that has dire consequences for some.

At what point do you imagine we won't be in this cycle of lockdowns, then?

IAintentDead · 26/10/2020 20:42

@User3billion

...than give up any more freedom?!

I'm in a tier 3 area and I'm so done. I'm sick of people in tier 1 areas preaching on social media about what we should and shouldn't be doing (especially given it can vary from one tier 3 area to the next). I'm sick of feeling like a prisoner in my own home. I'm sick of not being able to trust a single thing our government says.

I don't understand how we've got to a point in the UK, in 2020, where it's ILLEGAL to visit family we don't live with. And what's worse is that people are happy to go along with this! It's all kinds of wrong.

We deride other countries that deprive their citizens of their civil liberties and yet here we are.

I agree

And I don't believe it's for the greater good. Too many people are being hit with delayed cancer diagnosis and or treatment, too many people dying of other conditions because they're either scared to get help or the local NHS is not functioning for anything but Covid. There are too many people struggling with their mental health and too many committing suicide and there are too many people losing their jobs and facing financial ruin from job loss or business loss.

It's totally crap. The government have done such a good job of scaring people and seem to be following a sunk cost fallacy.

It's a virus, a serious virus but one that most people, even vulnerable ones, recover from. There is no way back whilst people are still so scared and I'm not sure how we get past that.

1600 people die on an average day in the UK. 1600 people, every single day. We will all die one day and we can only die once.

I don't know the answer but I am pretty sure what we are doing is not it.

Inkpaperstars · 26/10/2020 20:43

If I was in the street throwing knifes around then it would be wise to back up and stay away.

During the time it took for the police to arrive and arrest you, yes it would.

Stay indoors if you are that bothered about catching it. Life is for living.

What sort of life will you be living though? I think you can count out schools and the health service, since many staff there might be 'bothered about catching it' or off sick having caught it. You can forget local businesses, shops/entertainment etc, as both staff and customers there....as above. Utilities/national security...you won't need them, will you? You can certainly forget going abroad, no one would have you coming from an even more covid ridden UK.

etopp · 26/10/2020 20:44

Further thought. I have ignored the sodding lockdown since it was announced in March, because I don't have a death wish. Fortunately my non-resident long-term partner (non-resident, because XH abused our children, and there is no way I'm unsettling them any further) agrees with me about the stupidity of all this.

We are not meant to live in isolation.

JenniferSantoro · 26/10/2020 20:45

@Calledyoulastnightfromglasgow

Lockdowns don’t seem to work brilliantly do they, unless they are like the one we had at the start. Which fucks everything

I will not be told who I can have in my house and when - I have had enough. Many people I know feel the same. We don’t want wild parties - but we are seeing close family as this has gone on long enough

Do you think Covid only infects people that have been at wild parties, as opposed to sensible people who are breaking the rules because they want to see their families.

Inkpaperstars · 26/10/2020 20:46

Too many people are being hit with delayed cancer diagnosis and or treatment, too many people dying of other conditions because they're either scared to get help or the local NHS is not functioning for anything but Covid.

I just cannot believe we are still seeing posts like this at this point from people who want fewer measures to control the virus. To be fair, I know you are saying different ones...but you do see that rising virus cases will only make the above situation worse?

gjejgej · 26/10/2020 20:46

[quote Freakeconomics]@gjejgej you sound delightful

Apologies for being so pedantic about little things like facts! Don’t let that get in the way of your rants and bad language and insults. [/quote]
@Freakeconomics

I'm not being forced down this road by you.

Argue the point I was making instead of fatuous minutiae.

Halliehallie9828 · 26/10/2020 20:47

[quote Rainbowllama4]@Halliehallie9828 yes, life is for living but life is for living for everybody, not just for you and others who think like you. I think it would be very wise to back away from people who think like you. So incredibly selfish. And no I’m not scared, I’m not hiding away, I’m youngish and healthy, I doubt it would kill me but I care about others welfare and not just my own so I follow the rules. It’s not forever, it’s just for now.[/quote]
Oh well... people who think like me will carry on living then while you stay in. More fool you.

TheSunIsStillShining · 26/10/2020 20:49

I don't really get it. Adults should be able to go without meeting their parents f2f. I love my parents, we see them about 4 times a year (1700km) and miss them. But it's not the hug or the physical contact, but the emotional contact and constant communication that is important.
We haven't seen them since christmas, and they are sure as hell not popping on a plane to come over, so it'll be about next summer when I can first see them.
Yet we talk every week, sometimes have the camera on to show the new plants, how big their grandson is (172 cm, so not a small kid any more :)) andsoforth... not saying it's ideal, but we are grown ups, we'll deal with it.
So I'd really like people to grow up and stop whining.

Also: imagine this scenario 30 years ago, or 60, or 120 years ago. compared to that, having the internet, phones and cameras we should be quite okay.

Nettleskeins · 26/10/2020 20:49

Please don't forget to take Vitamin D. There is some evidence that those who are deficient or insufficient in vitamin D, can suffer worse from Covid. It can account for seemingly healthy young (er) people laid low by it.
Rupa Huq MP is campaigning for this to be a govt advisory linked to protecting population, not against getting it, but getting it badly.

Please take govt recommended dose, see NHS website, for winter months.

gjejgej · 26/10/2020 20:49

@ArcheryAnnie

Stay indoors if you are that bothered about catching it. Life is for living.

Halliehallie9828 I've already caught it, that's how I know how utterly shit and debilitating it is. I don't know if I will ever be fully well again.

And a civilised society doesn't say to it's citizens "if you want to be safe the only way is to barricade in your own homes, while the strongest get to roam free and do what they like".

@ArcheryAnnie

How is it fairer to restrict the lives of EVERYBODY instead of just the vulnerable?

Explain that one to me because it doesn't quite compute.

I guess it's okay if people lose their livelihoods/education/prospects so long as ArcheryAnnie feels safe. Fucking fantastic.

ArcheryAnnie · 26/10/2020 20:50

The callousness from some people on this thread is astounding. The "I'm all right Jack" attitude by people who don't seem to grasp that it's THEM and people like them, ignoring the rules, which will make this ghastly situation go on way, way longer than it needed to.