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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

What if everyone in the world isolated for the same three weeks....

345 replies

Rissole · 02/12/2021 14:32

.....or whatever time period was deemed appropriate. Wouldn't that rid us of Covid once and for all as it would die out?

All we would have to do is get enough food in for the time period and stay in. A collective whole world self isolation. Job done!

OP posts:

Comedycook · 02/12/2021 14:57

*Most "reasonable" objections could be overcome though. Doctors/nurses etc could stay in hospitals"

This just wouldn't work. What about pregnant women? Should they live a the hospital in case they go into labour? What if you are at home during these three weeks and break your leg or have a heart attack? You'll have to go to the hospital...but you don't just need doctors and nurses in a hospital. You need admin staff, cleaners, porters, anaesthetists, radiologists. Are they all meant to live at the hospital too

trappedsincesundaymorn · 02/12/2021 14:58

@MorningStarling

It could be done, it's just there isn't the will to do it. Some people would flatly refuse to comply and it would be impossible to contain them.

Most "reasonable" objections could be overcome though. Doctors/nurses etc could stay in hospitals. If the fire service are called out, they and all involved are subject to another three weeks quarantine. I genuinely don't believe the argument that anybody doesn't have the room to store a three week supply of food - not the food they might like, but tinned and dried goods will suffice. If people can't afford to buy three weeks food in advance just provide every adult with three week's worth of benefit payments in advance. Would be cheaper than Covid.

Brilliant and how do you think the food will stay cold, or be cooked??? That electric grid doesn't man itself, or the gas pipes, or the water. Honestly some people need to start thinking more logically.

NuffSaidSam · 02/12/2021 14:59

I wonder how many people would do if all hospitals were closed to new admissions for three weeks and no paramedics etc. More or less than have died/will die of Covid?

Obviously it's never going to happen, but just as a hypothetical it is an interesting question OP.

HugeAckmansWife · 02/12/2021 14:59

morningstarling So who looks after the children of the doctors and nurses who are trapped in their workplaces? What do you do with children who won't eat dried lentils, porridge and tinned food? The food chain point is an excellent one. We do not have provision for everyone to hae 3 weeks of food all at the same time, and at he end, there'd be none waiting in the shops either. Ridiculous.

PastMyBestBeforeDate · 02/12/2021 15:01

Social care might be tricky. The carers who make house calls are going to have to pick a client, move in with them and hope the rest of their clients don't mind waiting to be got out of bed for 3 weeks.

XenoBitch · 02/12/2021 15:01

YABVU
It would be impossible. Would you be happy with no utilities for 3 weeks? No clean water, gas, electricity, internet etc.
No emergency services, no vet care for pets. You wont be able to 'Zoom' anyone. It would be hell for anyone living alone.
It is bonkers, and totally unworkable.

bumblefeline · 02/12/2021 15:02

I can't imagine poor countries agreeing to this unless their governments gave them all money. Highly unlikely when some are starving or at war.

trappedsincesundaymorn · 02/12/2021 15:02

Also what would happen to those relying on support from community care workers, if those care workers had to join the lockdown...can't change dressings via zoom.

Porcupineintherough · 02/12/2021 15:02

Well quite a large amount of people in the developing world would starve to death for a start...

trappedsincesundaymorn · 02/12/2021 15:03

Oh and no mobile phones or internet.

SickAndTiredAgain · 02/12/2021 15:07

Oh and homeless people - where should they all go? How should they eat?
And refugee camps. Huge groups of people living in close quarters where covid wouldn’t disappear in three weeks.

BritWifeInUSA · 02/12/2021 15:09

Because clean water magically appears in the taps? And dirty water magically disappears when you flush the toilet or drain a bath tub? And electricity magically appears on the wall sockets? Livestock feed themselves? Cows milk themselves? Crops planted and harvest themselves?

Jesus wept. People seriously think all we need to do is buy three weeks worth of pasta and toilet paper and all the world diseases are gone? I worry for the future…

x2boys · 02/12/2021 15:11

Quite apart from essential workers having to work ,we can't even get people to wear masks on public transport or social distance ,so how would we enforce these rules ?

Original poster

Rissole · 02/12/2021 15:12

OK so what if, just so we could be rid of it sooner, those that work in hospitals and the National Grid etc. stayed at work. No pain no gain sort of thing.

There are always going to be exceptions but this is an exceptional situation.

I would be happy to stay at my place of work for three weeks wearing full on PPE in case an emergency came in that HAD to be dealt with.

With LFT's and vaccinations and now drugs that stop it fully developing, I think something akin to a world wide lockdown at the same time would work to a degree.

OP posts:

Flapjacker48 · 02/12/2021 15:13

@Scoobydoowhereareyou21 Paramedics are of course vital, but society "falling apart" would not happen if their was no ambulance service for a period.

Comedycook · 02/12/2021 15:15

OK so what if, just so we could be rid of it sooner, those that work in hospitals and the National Grid etc. stayed at work

This is pretty much what we did in the first lockdown

Exhausteddog · 02/12/2021 15:16

As well as emergency services youd need people working in utilities (gas, power, electric, phone lines , water and sewage treatment, Internet and broadband)
And if anyone at a is leaving their house to go to work, transport workers will need to work, and garages, and the AA.
To stop the course of the virus, yes everyone staying inside would probably work... but its sn impossibility that everyone can.
....and slightly bemused that if it was actually possible no one else might have suggested it..?

BiBabbles · 02/12/2021 15:21

We would then have to essentially isolate longer while people dealt with and tested water systems in unused buildings, or there would deaths by legionnaires and similar.

This happened in my birth town when they came out of their first lockdown when on-going maintenance during the lockdown was skipped and water testing was scrimped on (and I know some places in the UK where reopening after first lockdown was delayed because they failed initial testings).

It would be great if there was a simple solution that could be done in a few weeks, but all of our systems and other needs are complicated.

XenoBitch · 02/12/2021 15:21

@Rissole

OK so what if, just so we could be rid of it sooner, those that work in hospitals and the National Grid etc. stayed at work. No pain no gain sort of thing.

There are always going to be exceptions but this is an exceptional situation.

I would be happy to stay at my place of work for three weeks wearing full on PPE in case an emergency came in that HAD to be dealt with.

With LFT's and vaccinations and now drugs that stop it fully developing, I think something akin to a world wide lockdown at the same time would work to a degree.

What would happen to the children of the people being made to stay in work?

Skyll · 02/12/2021 15:21

So I couldn’t get reviews following my recent surgery.

I’d likely get an infection that couldn’t be treated and I’d die. (I am already on antibiotics and I need reviewed 2 x a week).

How would I get my pain relief that I need to function!?

One less disabled person I suppose.

Giveaschitt · 02/12/2021 15:24

And who is manufacturing and delivering all the medicine and equipment needed for the patients in the hospitals? Are we supposed to somehow procure enough for 3 weeks all in one go, and find somewhere in the hospital to store it? Plus we need to make sure that everyone in the world has enough medication to last them as well - so a hefty stock of everyone's blood pressure medicine and insulin and B12 injections and all the other things people need regularly to survive.
What about the food - all very well and good suggesting people just lived in their work place, but how is it transported from the factories and farms to wherever it needs to be (people's houses? Hospitals? ). Even if your suggestion is that we all somehow magically get enough food to last us 3 weeks in advance (and have we all forgotten what happened when people tried to stock up like that...?), including apparently making sure that work places now have the means to feed their entire workforce for 3 weeks, what happens if some people run out earlier? Do we just let them starve?
Ambulances, fire engines etc - how are we powering them? Because they'll need fuel, and mechanics if they break down.. So if they need fuel, we need petrol stations to be manned, petrol tankers to be driving to keep them filled...

That's before we even get in to banks, or the post, or dealing with broken power lines or leaking water pipes or any number of things that could go wrong.

And just before I finish up - what about the people in domestic abuse situations? The abused children? Should we just lock them up with their abusers for 3 weeks with no means of escape?

HairyToity · 02/12/2021 15:28

DH is a dairy farmer. Whilst he could probably keep two metres from workers, vet, parlour engineer etc. - they'd all be handling same equipment. Would it be foolproof? Cows can't all be dried off for two weeks. They'd need someone to collect the milk, and factories to process it.

Lots of holes to two or three weeks self isolating. What if you had six kids all getting covid asymptomatically - could take weeks to go through them all.

trappedsincesundaymorn · 02/12/2021 15:29

One more from me....dead people, what do we do with them? I mean Johnson did say (allegedly) "let the bodies pile high" but even so.

VikingOnTheFridge · 02/12/2021 15:30

@Rissole

OK so what if, just so we could be rid of it sooner, those that work in hospitals and the National Grid etc. stayed at work. No pain no gain sort of thing.

There are always going to be exceptions but this is an exceptional situation.

I would be happy to stay at my place of work for three weeks wearing full on PPE in case an emergency came in that HAD to be dealt with.

With LFT's and vaccinations and now drugs that stop it fully developing, I think something akin to a world wide lockdown at the same time would work to a degree.

The billion plus people in the world who live hand to mouth are not an exception. There are almost certainly more people on the planet who can't afford to sustain themselves without working for 3 weeks than who can.

People in the UK for whom this might feasibly be possible and survivable, the likes of you and me, we're the exception.

DanglingMod · 02/12/2021 15:30

Yeah, another non-starter fact is that 3 weeks isn't long enough unless everyone locks themselves in separate rooms away from family members. I've known it take 7 weeks to go through a family of 6.

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