The way the Tory government are acting now makes it feel like all the lockdowns were a waste of time

[Poetrypatty]

Just lifting all the restrictions as if it was all a waste of time. It makes me feel like a mug for everything we went through, especially as they were having their parties and not even following the rules. I think it's bad for peoples mental health as well.

We are in a completely different situation now

A dominant variant that for most is very mild and high number of people having been vaccinated

Of course the lockdowns worked and were needed they are not needed now

@CorrBlimeyGG

Compulsory isolation might be gone but that doesn't make any difference when you are too unwell to go to work anyway.

Unfortunately it will mean those in the lowest income groups feeling they have to go to work however ill they are, as they need the money. Consequently they become more ill, and the consequences that go with it.

That's not any different to now. Many people didn't test as they couldn't afford the isolation.

@lioncitygirl

The £20 a box - you know in most parts of the rest of the world - people have always have to pay for these right? Who did you expect to pay for them?the tax payer? And how long did you expect the restrictions to last? Forever? This is something we will now have to live with - like SARS. 🤷🏻‍♀️

I was in Lisbon recently and they cost about 3-7 euros a box, why are they going to be so expensive here? Not good.

@MiddleParking

I guess that's how I caught it from someone who didn't self isolate.

Much more likely to be from someone who was unknowingly infectious before symptoms. It’s so weird to want to find someone to blame for you catching a virus.

Totally agree. The whole blame culture surrounding covid is so weird.

My oh passed it on to his mum, despite doing daily tests. They both tested positive on the same day. No one is to blame for a virus being a virus.

Tears just made people feel safer as opposed to actually being safer.

• tests

You have to use common sense . If I ever had a bad cold or flu I would not get near older relatives or young babies

But I thought the whole point was that you don't tend to get those without symptoms, whereas covid can be asymptomatic hence the tests.

I think people who can't afford to buy tests should be given them if they want some.

I know the lockdowns did have a point to them, what I was getting at is it just feels as if we have all been taken for a ride a lot -eg if you've just stayed in self isolating two weeks ago and now that's no longer a thing. Same as how lockdowns were oh so important, except not for the PM who wasn't even doing it.

One thing from this thread is though that he's divided people and improved his popularity a bit, and that's why I think he's suddenly dropped every measure, that and bringing on board some Tories who might have been wavering against him, not because of public health or scientific advice. I don't see why that's not obvious to everyone.

@Poetrypatty I think people who can't afford to buy tests should be given them if they want some.
How would you determine who can't afford them?
Some people will always try to get something for nothing and how would you assess this? Just as an example I know someone with a pension of around £80k a year who postponed an eye test as waiting an extra 6 months meant they didn't have to pay the NHS charge. Do you really think lots of people wouldn't claim they should have them without charge?

@Poetrypatty

If people want to test they can.

They won't be able to any more after what 5 weeks time. So it's just free for all after that. I feel sorry for shielding people and vulnerable people I really do.

Do these people get everyone they know to swab for all diseases, always?

Life is a series of risks from birth till death

Restrictions did the necessary 2 years ago and are now way more harmful than helpful from a population/ wide angle view (mental health, economy, social injustice, child safeguarding, education ... etc etc etc the list is massive!!)

I'm glad restrictions have gone

They should have gone much earlier IMHO

@OhWhyNot

We are in a completely different situation now

A dominant variant that for most is very mild and high number of people having been vaccinated

Of course the lockdowns worked and were needed they are not needed now

The issue is the next variant may not be milder.

@Poetrypatty

Free lateral flow test kits are still available - I ordered some 10 minutes ago.

Only in up till the end of March. Then there's no more unless you pay £20 a box nice little earner for someone

Those tests were costing the Exchequer (i.e. our children and grandchildren) £2bn per month. That's more than the cost of the entire country's police forces! I know that there are some who call for the police to be "defunded", but I don't think that spending the money on free covid tests is a valid reason to do so.

Yawn. You could say that about literally ANY communicable viral / bacterial / fungal / whatever disease

Are we all supposed to stay indoors forever?

While we are at it lets extend that logic and also ban cars and bikes and ....literally everything that could case damage to health or life ... which , as it turns out, is most things

Time to stop hiding behind the sofa and get on with life!

Health and safety culture gone mad
.grow up Britain!

@tiredanddangerous

Every adult I know of who has had covid lately (and that's a lot - I work in a large secondary) has been very unwell with it. Compulsory isolation might be gone but that doesn't make any difference when you are too unwell to go to work anyway.

Not very different to any other virus then. If you're not up to working, you phone in sick. If it's just a sniffle you might go in.

Are we all supposed to stay indoors forever?

The thread is about testing, not lockdown FFS

Health and safety culture gone mad
Alright Alf Garnett

Tory policy has for years been literally killing off the disabled, vulnerable and poorest, this is an acceleration of that, as this will disproportionately impact those groups. Masks, testing and isolation should stay until the summer, but then that wouldn't appease the backbenchers to save Boris's job. And to think people vote Tory

Newsflash. They were a waste of time. They were an expression of ‘I’m alright Jack’ by the privileged elite that could afford to stay at home. While everyone else ran around after them.

@Alexandra2001

I do find it quite incredible that with deaths running at about 1000 per week and 10,000 in hospital, we all think CV has gone away and is just another mild winter illness or even like Flu.

As for the common sense of the british people? well lets get rid of speed limits and drink driving laws if we are so full of common sense!

Ah yes. When all else fails, up the ante on the hyperbole.

Fuck the people on the breadline who might have to choose between a box of LFTs and heating for a week, eh?

I was on a minimum wage, zero hours contract a few years ago. If I still was, like hell would I be testing in the first place and risk unpaid time off work.

labyrinthlaziness if the next variant isn’t mild then restrictions can be put in place. It was all die very swiftly before abs can be again as time goes on people will be more resistant to having restrictions put on them

We can’t live life on a possible issue that we may not have to face

It can all be done swiftly

Not die 😬

@Jellykat

Niden theres quite a lot Drakeford has done first over the last 2 years, i.e firebreaks etc and just because hes exercised caution doesnt make him a wuss! In fact the opposite as hes had the balls to do things slightly differently. Every single person ive talked to here, (and working in retail, ive talked to a lot of customers as well as family and friends) has agreed with his pathway so far.

That "firebreak" was a disaster, cases spiralled after it. The local lockdowns ("you can pretty much do whatever you like, just don't cross the boundary into the next county") were completely daft. Closing restaurants after 6pm made no sense. Banning drinking on licenced premises but at the same time loosening the travel rules so that it was legitimate to travel to Chester/Shrewsbury/Hereford/Bristol and get slammed, before coughing all over the train home was crackers.

I don't know in what circles you mix but around here his approach certainly isn't as universally popular as you are finding wherever you live. Opinion here is very much split.

But I thought the whole point was that you don't tend to get those without symptoms, whereas covid can be asymptomatic hence the tests.

You can carry colds and flu asymptomatically. That isn't unique to Covid.

@Unsure33

"How you can say lockdowns were a waste of time when the daily death rates were so much higher than now ? I don’t get your argument at all ?"

+++

You may feel that deaths rates are much lower now but statistically this is not true.
The 7 day average death rate on the 20th Feb 2022 was 126. This was higher than in the period 14th Match 2021 to 2nd Jan 2022.

Yet in the period 14th March 2021 to 2nd Jan 2022 there were still greater Covid measures in place than from this Thursday (mask wearing in stores, 14 day isolation, sporting events cancelled, furlough etc) .

. I fully get that Covid measures need to end at some point but I just want some honesty and rational as to when that point should be because it is most definitely not the death rate.

If it is because everyone is a bit fed up then at least be honest with the CEV and elderly and look them in the eye saying sorry "we recognise that we are throwing you under a bus but we've had enough of Covid measures".

I do find it quite incredible that with deaths running at about 1000 per week and 10,000 in hospital, we all think CV has gone away and is just another mild winter illness or even like Flu.

1,000 deaths per week due to Covid. 12,000 deaths per week due to other causes.

As for hospitals, this ICU doctor (no Boris fan) is pretty upbeat:
www.nomoresurgeons.com/post/positive

But I thought the whole point was that you don't tend to get those without symptoms, whereas covid can be asymptomatic hence the tests
OP How would anyone know that you don't get asymptomatic flu or volds? We have never obsessively tested for any other virus.