(Poll) If a new disease with a similar fatality rate to pre-vaccination COVID appeared again…

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And the government started to issue instructions about rules, hand washing, masks, social distancing, not meeting up with people, and the like, similarly to what happened in 2020-21….

What would your response be?

A: I would follow the rules more strictly than I did last time (because WFH has made it easier OR because the deaths from COVID make me feel we should have been stricter last time).

B: I would follow the rules about as strictly as I did last time, for the most part.

C: I would follow some rules or follow most rules to an extent, but would be significantly less “strict” about this than I was during COVID.

D: I would be much, much less strict or would completely ignore most rules/instructions, insofaras I was able to disregard them.

I’m just trying to work out whether the COVID experience and aftermath has shifted the Overton window and made people more open to the idea of following rules etc. to contain infectious diseases, OR alternatively whether people have grown a bit more blasé about diseases, disillusioned about governments or concerned about negative aftermaths of pandemic control measures.

For what it’s worth, I’d be a C (although I was never very strict first time round either to be honest).

And MNHQ, can we please get a proper poll selection option that goes beyond YABU/YANBU options?

I was very strict last time.
C for me.

D. I followed them religiously last time. In hindsight I must have been mad.

Think I'd also go for this option but my dc is immunocompromised so we fully isolated for a lot longer and would do so again to protect dc. I might not feel quite as compliant if we didn't have the extra health worries.

I’m a C. I’d be very cynical about advice from our useless government, but at the same time I’m a rule-follower by nature so would find it almost impossible to completely rebel.

B - I was reasonably strict and made some hard personal sacrifices… I’d do it again if it meant I didn’t contribute to people dying unnecessarily.

D

D

Between C and D

A but I don't live in the UK. Our closed borders meant life was pretty much the same except for masks and social distancing. We did short periods of lockdown but nothing dramatic.

D

B, because I care about the vulnerable, even if our gov doesn't.

B except I would see my parents more than I did during the covid lockdown. Wearing a mask, hand washing, WFH, etc weren’t really a hardship for me.

Isn't that B?

Even though I'm married to a cev person and we follow the rules strictly, I would spend more time challenging the doomsayers and holier than thouers on Mumsnet who were constantly pushing "we're all going to die!" narrative and that a vaccine wouldn't ever happen and to "stay the fuck at home!" Especially as I'd be able to say that they did manage a vaccine for covid 19 pretty damn quickly.

D

Between C and D.

C but only because I have a compromised immune system so I would wait to see what my consultant had to say about the virus' impacts on people with my condition. HOWEVER I wouldn't expect others, especially the fit and healthy, to do the same as me. I'd be responsible for my own health and wouldn't want, nor expect, the whole population to lockdown. I always felt we should protect the vulnerable and those most at risk while allowing the rest of the population to continue as normal.

A

The government made a pig's ear of it, but if they had actually followed the science properly fewer people would have died, more would have been vaccinated and normal life could have resumed sooner

Hopefully the gov wouldn't use the dreadful 'look into her/his eyes' 'granny killer' 'report your neighbour/family/colleagues' ads again.

B

Which was strictly following the rules so A wouldn't be possible for me. The only time I broke the rules were when I could be sure there was almost zero risk.

One of the more unpredictable variables with epidemiology is human behaviour. I think it will be very hard to extrapolate from the COVID pandemic how successful measures like lockdown/social distancing would be in a future pandemic because people will behave very differently. Far easier to predict how a virus will behave...

Somewhere between B and C.

A.

The majority of deaths from Covid have been among the disabled, so its in my own best interests.
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)00625-5/fulltext

B

I would be C

i would use my brain to determine what seems safe rather than following extreme measures

so gel, mask if I’m coughing or around someone coughing in a bush area, washing my hands

I wouldn’t be happy about being locked down again at all

Agree. I fully supported and trusted our government and would do exactly what I was told again

D when I look back at the batshit things we did… Isolated indoors with a 2 and 3 year old for 4 weeks (2 weeks because 3 year old came into contact with a case at nursery, then 2 more weeks as I was having an operation) and seeing the damage it has done to them now they are older. Never again.