Do you think the Covid situation will ever deteriorate again so badly that we need another lockdown?

[goaskmum]

Posting here for traffic.

I’m in no way suggesting the situation will ever deteriorate and I’m in no way advocating another lockdown.

I’m genuinely curious though, do you think the situation will get worse again, perhaps in the winter, were the hospitals can’t cope and we end up back in lockdown again?

Or do you think because most people are immune to covid either through having it or being vaccinated that it will keep on getting better from here on and there will never ever be a single restriction imposed again?

YABU - there will never ever be anymore restrictions. It’s over
YANBU - there could very well be another lockdown in the future if it gets out of hand

The best thing anyone can do, and I have said this right from the start, is get healthy!

The vaccines aren't stopping people getting it, the lockdowns don't stop you getting it - you are going to get it, and so just get as healthy as you possibly can. If you are overweight, don't be. If you have (lifestyle related) auto-immune conditions, take steps to reduce your inflammation.

That is more sensible than relying on a vaccine every few months (which people on here assured me would never happen)

And for the people who come back and say "I can't get healthy I have xyz" - almost everyone can get healthier and for those who say they can't lose weight. OK. Sure.

Yep, but not this one

We're not talking about the current covid variant though or previous ones.

I'm sure people on here would be jumping up and down at the idea

However in the real world, I think the Government would have a seriously hard time enforcing it. I'm not shutting my business down again, they can fuck right off. I'm still trying to recoup the money we lost thanks to the other lockdowns.

Cases will probably go up in the autumn/ winter, but I doubt we'll have another lockdown. There's no money and would be low compliance, so I don't think they could even if they want/ needed to. We'll possibly see a return to masks, social distanceing and rules around international travel.

@Belladonna12

Two years on of on/off restrictions and after vaccines, most people have more sight of what lockdown’s actually like in reality plus are of the view that this is about as good as it gets for lowering the risk. I really doubt that saying “ah but your personal risk is now a bit greater than it was in March 2020” would change many minds.

What if your personal risk or your children's risk was a lot greater and the vaccine and treatments were not effective?

Then I’d still want to know what a lockdown would be for? I mean if vaccines and treatments weren’t working, then what happens at the end of the lockdown, given that we know lockdown won’t make covid go away?

I could see there being pressure for another lockdown if it was literally bad enough that bodies were stacking up in hospital car parks, and the current vaccines and treatments didn’t work, and there was a reasonable chance there would be vaccines and treatments that did work in the very near future. But then we’re into the very specific hypotheticals that seem pretty unlikely.

@Belladonna12

Yep, but not this one

We're not talking about the current covid variant though or previous ones.

We're talking about Covid 19, that's the only disease being discussed. The OP didn't mention any other, probably for the very obvious reason that there's no way of knowing what future pandemics and responses might look like.

We all know exactly who's been most at risk throughout this pandemic, from all variants. It's perfectly logical that people locate their views within the context of what's already been experienced and what is most likely.

Covid vaccines wear off and Covid is not yet endemic, like TB, where the risks are understood AND controlled.
It doesn't even need anew variant to be an issue, only enough peoples immunity to wane to become a bigger health issue.

@Sprogonthetyne

Cases will probably go up in the autumn/ winter, but I doubt we'll have another lockdown. There's no money and would be low compliance, so I don't think they could even if they want/ needed to. We'll possibly see a return to masks, social distanceing and rules around international travel.

Cases are already higher than ever at the moment. I think it was 5 million people in the UK currently with Covid. That's an enormous number. I can't see it getting much higher really, even in Autumn/Winter. The hope is that it's peaking now and will be forever a lot lower with a majority of the population having had covid and survived it. Pretty sure I saw a forecast a long time ago saying you needed something like 75% to have had it to get herd immunity where it becomes so rare those who havn't had it are unlikely to get it.

@stripeyflowers

I don't know. I just know whatever happens I'm living my life. The propaganda, manipulation, hysteria, hypocrisy and downright lying associated with the last lot is the best antidote to compliance. I wasn't suckered in the first time, either.

These threads always being out the 'cool girls'. Presumably the ones that were lucky enough not to end up in hospital or have loved ones die.

Dismissing what people suffered isn't cool, it's nasty.

@Polyanthus2

It will be what it will be

I am utterly sick of people discussing Covid - this person tested + but they were - at their earlier test, so and so has a cold but they thought it was covid, So and so is isolating, numbers are high at the nursery/school/hospital etc etc etc etc etc etc

I DO NOT CARE - let's just get on with life and make the best of it

If you're so sick of it, why open the thread & bump it up?

Absolute idiocy. Just ignore covid threads. Stroping isn't going to stop them!

@TheRealityCheque

After the unnecessary shit-show of the past couple of years, it should be written into law that never again can our freedoms be removed in this way.

Lockdowns achieved nothing
Masks achieve nothing

WFH where possible is sensible, as is self isolating.

What UTTER nonsense to say lockdown achieved nothing. Were you under a rock?

@Theluggage15

It’s amazing how many threads are moved so promptly to the feminism section but this covid crap is allowed to clutter up aibu rather than going to the covid section of mumsnet.

It would have been more productive to report the thread & ask for it to be moved, than bump it by adding to it!

No. And I'll never wear a mask ever again.

We're talking about Covid 19, that's the only disease being discussed. The OP didn't mention any other, probably for the very obvious reason that there's no way of knowing what future pandemics and responses might look like.

The virus mutates and the illness so far has been quite variable as a result. We don't know that the high risk groups now will be the same in the future.

Then I’d still want to know what a lockdown would be for? I mean if vaccines and treatments weren’t working, then what happens at the end of the lockdown, given that we know lockdown won’t make covid go away?

Vaccines and treatments can be altered. A lockdown buys time to do that.

I think if any restrictions/rules come back in, it will be things like masks and self isolation. Maybe Covid pass things too.
I do not believe that a lockdown will happen again. Especially not after the hypocrisy some MPs displayed over the rules. I honestly believe that the vast majority of people would not abide by lockdown rules again. When you look back on it, it was bonkers.

The government have completely blown any chances of people complying 🤷‍♀️

I know I wouldn’t be willing.

No,
It has been recognised that the lockdowns were a big mistake and did much more harm than good.Apart from those who the tories gave big contracts to

@fUNNYfACE36
I thought that's what they said too that they didn't really do anything. But it was sort of brushed under the carpet.

Back in March 2020 I remember one of the first press conferences BJ was trying to resist lockdown and said something i can't remember his exact words but he made me think we'll all get covid and to make sure we were stocked up on paracetamol.

Then the attitude changed a week or two later and keyworker lists were announced.

One thing that will never be allowed to happen again is banning visitors from Care Homes in Scotland. Thanks to Ann's Law and her brave family who pursued it through the courts residents will always be able to have at least one named visitor.

I also remember someone suggesting to me that the British Government were keen to keep kids in schools in an attempt to build up some resistance to covid in children and their parents.
Because if the vaccines that were being worked on didn't work then there had to be a Plan B.

I highly doubt there will be another covid lockdown.
However, the inter connected world is a ticking time bomb. At some point another, much deadlier virus will emerge. Could be next week or in 50 years time. And at that point, yes, its likely that lockdown will happen. No-one can predict when or what this will be.

Lockdown are a policy choice. As long as the economy continues to deteriorate with high inflation and rolling product shortages no-one would dare consider it.
Lockdown compliance was contingent on massive wage replacement programs. How the heck would you run that now?
People could be dying in the streets and they'd just have to find another way to deal with it.

@Belladonna12

We're talking about Covid 19, that's the only disease being discussed. The OP didn't mention any other, probably for the very obvious reason that there's no way of knowing what future pandemics and responses might look like.

The virus mutates and the illness so far has been quite variable as a result. We don't know that the high risk groups now will be the same in the future.

Nobody said it was a certainty. We do however know exactly how the virus has progressed so far and who's been the most vulnerable. Additionally we know there has yet to be a strain that was vaccine resistant, and that we have a range of treatments now. We know what's more likely to happen, and it isn't a more lethal strain that primarily affects children whilst also being vaccine and treatment resistant.

So that still leaves us with the question of why the focus on a situation that's so very different from what we have so far encountered in just about every way, and why you continue to default to that when people point out why further lockdown in the Covid 19 pandemic is so unlikely.

We know what's more likely to happen, and it isn't a more lethal strain that primarily affects children whilst also being vaccine and treatment resistant

We don't know what's likely.

We do know what's possible.

To be clear, are you saying that a strain of the Covid 19 virus that doesn't respond to any of the quite effective treatments and vaccines we have now and that essentially reverses the pattern of all previous strains wrt who is most vulnerable is as likely as a new strain that does none of these things? I know it isn't impossible, but nobody thinks it is.

Sorry, was meant to say as likely or more likely there.