Eat Out To Spread The Virus About

[verdantverdure]

AIBU to think that it was basic common sense to know in advance that Rishi Sunak's Eat Out To Help Out short term boost for the economy would begin the covid second wave and kill tens of thousands of people in the U.K.?

YABU Who knew that packing out restaurants during an airborne pandemic would lead to infections and deaths?

YANBU Eat Out To Help Out was obviously going to cost British lives.

Most of the world went into lockdown because China did it that way first, and the rest went like dominoes. In the UK, we had a lot of pandemic planning but we didn't use it. Politically, lockdown became unavoidable and that's why we had it. Our government evidently didn't want to do it.

It may or may not be the case that it was the best of the bad options we were facing, that remains to be seen, but we locked down because China did it and many of the rest followed. It was a punt we took.

So what should we have done then?

I don't doubt a great deal of discussion happened, but one of the most interesting things about lockdown is how much it involved not following predefined processes. Our own UK pandemic planning simply didn't include it. That's not surprising really when you think how much it relied on the internetisaton of society. It just wouldn't have been possible before about what, mid 2010s?

Agreed not having a takeaway option was a large mistake. It was summer as well and so not bad to be outdoors or uncomfortable. I didn't agree with my taxes subsidising fast food chains either, though that is incidental.

Have you seen what some European counties did to children in lockdown? They are absolutely not doing just fine

The IMF has just warned that half the EU will be in recession by next year so definitions of "just fine" may vary.

@TheObstinateHeadstrongGirl yes, hence why I don't call the UK restrictions lockdown, which to me is an incorrect use of the English language.

I also feel that had there been prompt action in March 2020, face to face schooling at least one or two days a week could have returned in June or July, not September. The impact on children would have been much less.

I never really get this argument because it isn't covid rates that stopped all schools going back in May-June 2020. They were low by then.

Of all the messages that have been leaked, this one is the one you're most concerned with??

The virus was a total unknown quantity and killed many people in those early days.

It was correct to initially lock down whilst the situation was assessed.
Should god forbid there is another virus pandemic then lessons would be learned

It WAS harmless for most. The percentage of people who died is still low. Much like flu

That happens anyway. It’s the price we pay for a universal healthcare system

He’s dyslexic

This explains it all better than I could.

What contributed to the second wave more was the extended first lockdown- then deciding it was a great idea to send everyone back to school/work/college/Uni all at the same time in September - pushing an inevitable second wave in to the autumn-winter months when there is always more pressure on hospitals. You artificially suppress a virus and it comes back with a vengeance.. as we saw time and time again.

We used it a lot. It was an absolute relief to be able to have some level of normality. I was very nervous about covid, but it was all socially distanced, a lot of it outside and we really enjoyed it. I hope that iwas also a benefit to struggling business.

Errr.. no. Not to the extent that all elective surgery had to cease as there were no post operative beds or Dr/nurses available for the patients as they were taken up by those with covid.

Because Flu doesn't cause hospitals to become overwhelmed to the extent that all elective surgery was cancelled to accommodate the sick patients.

FFS 🙄😁
I'm with the poster who said it was needed for small businesses.
I went out quite a bit during Eat out to Help Out, there was complete social distancing, you weren't allowed to mingle etc, and to stay in your household group
Always felt safe.
I think lockdown has affected people's mental health more than we know

@FoxInSocksSatOnBlocks

Which healthcare establishment do you work in?

The hospital l work in was COMPLETELY overwhelmed. In the 23yrs l have worked there we have NEVER shut down Theatres so it would become an overflow ITU.

It was the most awful experience and the 2nd wave in January 21 was even worse.

Vicki Pryce wanted to shaft her husband; Isabel Oakshott helped VP do that & then VP went to prison for sharing his crime. THAT journalist. That's who MH chose to help write his book.

to OP re: you are being deluded to think EOTHO made that much difference to what was going to happen in British covid epidemic.

You’ve clearly never worked in a hospital in winter then.

Exactly. Even if we assume the first lockdown and the restrictions based approach were correct, the timing was still wrong. We knew full well the second wave was both inevitable and likely to be deadlier, Whitty told them that in what, February 2020? And rates were low by May and June. So the restrictions should've been lifted earlier.

The problem was though, they were worried about the political fallout of lifting restrictions then.

We enjoyed quite a few meals out on the scheme. We picked places we could eat outside. It gave us the confidence to get out doing things again.

When we caught Covid it was from DH's job as a key worker who couldn't work from home. We didn't catch it in a pub beer garden.

I have worked in an acute setting in hospital for the last 23yrs. We have never had to close Theatres ever before covid.

If Critical Care is full then we may get the occasional patient ventilated until a bed can be found. But never had 10 ventilated in Recovery and then 6 in the actual theatres too.

No . It's the ones that show that the UK Prime Minister still didn't understand pandemic maths towards the end of August 2020 when he had been having it explained to him for months.

He thought covid had the capacity to kill 33,000 people in the UK despite a death toll of 41,000 already.

He didn't seem to understand that numbers were currently low because lockdown had only ended three weeks previously,

Boris Johnson thought the 0.04 figure he quoted meant 1 in 2000 people would die, when it actually meant 4 in 100 people would die. So 3 million. Not 33,000.

It honestly beggars belief.