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

[user1477391263]

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?

D i wasn't strict last time but the damage to my teens was tough. No way would I follow a single rule. Absolutely not.

D.

And my DH is disabled with COPD But neither he (nor I) liked him being used as emotional blackmail to get others to comply with restrictions when ppl dont give a fuck about him the rest of the time. How others couldnt see this stuns me It really does. And for those who ask what would we do if a new virus targeted children go back and read @TheKeatingFive post.

I suspect they would try and force the child free by choice to keep the country running but i think this would be met with an outcry because they already do much to accomodate other peoples kids. Read any thread about bank holiday/Christmas working.

And the fact that we became a nation of scruffs while celebs were allowed to get their hair done AND get glammed up on Strictly and elsewhere .......the hypocrisy was off the charts. So they can fuck right off were this to happen again.

A - But only if people were turning into actual brain eating zombies, other wise D, and I might have a party or two in my office/free personal residence, conduct an affair, and drive to a castle for a day out.

B but not UK and had a far stricter lock down.

But let’s say it was a virus like Ebola where the death rate is almost 100% and the spread is high, I think it’s likely that people would think differently.

Yes, but the whole situation would be different then. Would essential workers be happy to put themselves at considerable risk to keep the show on the road for others?

My post very specifically talks about people deliberately being in contact with my very vulnerable child knowing they/their child has CP/covid/d&v.

That is selfish.

Some parents will justify that as protecting their child (one parent who concealed that 3 of their 4 children had chicken pox because their DD “really really wanted” to spend time with one of mine on her birthday - that’s the type of selfishness I’m referencing dealing with now) - which in some ways is understandable, but my annoyance that people around us no longer have basic manners with a heads up on illness is also understandable.

Some contact with ill people is inevitable. I had to take the gamble of my older children returning to school for their sakes for example.

but people are more selfish specifically now and that has made the world more dangerous for vulnerable people.

D. My feelings are that Boris would've voted d as well which is why he did such a bad job sticking t rules (not excusing his behaviour but I think it was revealing).
The long term impact financially, emotionally and mentally on this country, not to mention other health issues ignored doesn't justify the decision.

B

C. Would take the rules I like and mean I don't have to go into the office or do certain socialising and run with it.

B - I'm vulnerable but not massively so - but people I love have heart disease and COPD and I wouldn;t risk them

B, while screaming into a pillow.

I think people forget that Covid was killing and making very sick a lot of seemingly healthy people before we were all vaccinated. It would be bloody stupid to take the risk with a new disease.

C. Would take the rules I like and mean I don't have to go into the office or do certain socialising and run with it.

I've got to respect the honesty of this

D.

Depends whether I have a crystal ball to predict how it will mutate. Covid had and has a whole range of death rates.

B

If another pandemic affected kids, people would almost certainly follow any 'rules'.

Never, ever, ever, would I obey any restrictions or laws associated with any pandemic.

I just doubt this very much, if it was babies or children who were vulnerable and children's hospitals couldn't cope with huge numbers of extremely ill kids.

I think the majority of society would want to do what they could to reduce risk, and modify their own behaviours accordingly.

I’m a B with this caveat too.
My mum died in 2020, from cancer. Whilst I wish we’d been able to spend more time together, if she’d caught Covid from one of us whilst immune compromised we’d never have forgiven ourselves. I followed the rules as best as I was able for people like my mum.

Probably B/C for me. I'd likely follow the rules but with some minor relaxations.

"If another pandemic affected kids, people would almost certainly follow any 'rules"

Would that include workers at Amazon being expected to martyr themselves and risk their lives for the sake of your kids?

D

If children were at that much risk, the majority of society would modify their behaviours alright, but it wouldn't look like following the rules. It would look like many of the people who worked outside the home last time refusing to do so this time, and basic services collapsing. We wouldn't have an observed lockdown, we'd have massive civil unrest.

Depressingly I think covid has instilled a dangerous sense of confidence in a lot of people.

They feel justified because they were ok and most reasonably healthy people were ok (not forgetting those who died, of course, but most younger and healthyish people did recover) and now assume that it will be the same going forwards. That 'only' old or medically fragile people will be at risk.

So if (when) there is another pandemic, it will take a bit of time for the reality of what demographic groups are most vulnerable to pierce through the denial, I guess. Lots of people will not believe they or their children could possibly be at risk in any real way, because covid.

But as I say I think if children were dying in alarming numbers (god forbid) most people would become very cooperative and want to do what they could.

I would be a combination of C/D. I was very strict about complying during covid and I feel stupid and guilty about stuff my DD missed out on.

D.

I followed the rules last time, had my two vaccinations, stayed at home blah blah.

As a result I ended up losing my business that I’d worked so hard on. Four years of solid graft just gone.

B, but where I live the lockdowns were much stricter and much shorter. From the outside, the UK's lockdown rules looked wildly inconsistent and absurd, so I don't know if I would feel differently if I'd lived through those.