To be depressed that lockdown would happen again tomorrow if there was another new disease

[Pavementworrier]

We talk about all the things that are worse "since the pandemic"but government prep is based on all the same mad nonsense that caused the worsening

Grim

Of course people would comply if there was a nasty disease affecting the young. It’s just bravado to say no-one would. With Covid people were effectively self isolating well before the government decided to lock down. Not everyone of course but people were limiting their movements.

It’s very easy to say the government should have done this or that but this was a novel disease and people didn’t know what was coming. Mistakes were of course made but the decision-makers didn’t have a crystal ball. The biggest thing that should come out is that the nhs was (and still is) run too hot. There isn’t the flex or capacity to absorb something that isn’t bau and that is a critical risk to the national infrastructure as hospital capacity will always have to be a factor in how you make decisions.

Fair enough if you wouldn't isolate a bit but don't start moaning when you can't see a GP (all ill), the shop supplies start running low (supply chain all ill), bins aren't collected (staff all ill), and Aunt Sandra and your teens favorite teacher die unexpectedly young.

Pandemics don't come round very often. We knew they had almost cracked the vaccines within a few months. There's a lot worse things in life. Be glad you had a social life and family to get back to.

You felt rough for a few days; other people died horribly. But just do what makes you happy. So selfish!

With regard to PPE, rewind to 2019 when no one had heard of Covid and pandemics in general were barely on anyone’s radar.

If we found out the government were spending, say, £50 million a year on maintaining six massive warehouses full of cardboard boxes containing PPE (which, by the way, expire and have to be replaced periodically) would we have considered that a good use of taxpayers money?

Would we consider it money well spent if they were doing it now?

Yes that never made sense ,at one point in my town we were not supposed to be going to the neighbouring towns ,yet other peoole were happily jetting off on holiday.

I don't think we have the economic capacity to have another lockdown. The government just couldn't afford it even it they wanted to. The rainy day fund was used on the last one.

You are basing that on what we know about Covid now. In 2020 we didn’t know that Covid would evolve into what is now for the majority a short lived, recoverable virus.
If a new virus hits like Covid did in the initial months you would have no idea of the impact on the general population or how it would evolve.

Exactly. People would comply if it was something that had a high death rate across all demographics and especially children.

Would they comply again for something covid-like in its effects... I'm not sure. They may not initially but start to later if hospitals got completely overwhelmed.

But the point is that we don't know at the start how serious something like COVID is going to be. It was only as controllable as it was because we were able to develop a vaccine. If that hadn't happened the death rate would had been much, much worse. Perhaps next time it will take longer to do that?

This is also true. And lockdown requires the state to be able to pay a critical mass of people to stay out of the way.

We weren’t the only country that locked down either. What’s happening across the world will also have an impact.

And for those saying they won’t comply, that choice might be taken from you depending on how severe the illness.

Before lockdown was actually imposed due to COVID, many people were pulling children out of school after seeing what was happening in Italy etc

In the weeks running up to Christmas some schools have had to close fully or shut some classes due to so many staff off sick with flu. Schools have a helpline they phone to check what measures they need to take. So again, parents might not want schools to close if there is another pandemic but you can’t have schools open if you don’t have enough staff to run them

I also don’t understand people saying they’d only lockdown if it was affecting young people/children. So all parents would happily risk dying themselves and leaving their children as orphans if it meant their kids could carry on as normal? Or is what you’re really saying if it’s only affecting the elderly?

It depends what the illness is. It was the vaccine rollout that actually made a difference to Covid anyway.

And for those saying they won’t comply, that choice might be taken from you depending on how severe the illness.

Depends what you mean by comply. Obviously people can't go to things that are shut. But we couldn't possible, and didn't last time, manage to prevent people from socialising in private homes and quiet public spots. Or operating some businesses illegally. It seems obvious to me that when people say they wouldn't comply, they mean with the things they'd have power over.

A lot would go against it

I think people are forgetting the unknown factors when it started. We didn’t know how it spread. We didn’t know who would get it. We didn’t know what the death rate was or what the consequences were for those who recovered.

People were dying in numbers that overwhelmed hospitals. My relative worked in a non Covid ward but heard and saw enough to traumatise her.

Lockdown happened because of appalling scenes around the world. If those scenes happen again, we will lock down again.

So would I. I actually enjoyed it as did a lot of people i know.

I didn't have IBS in the pandemic when WFH, a lifetime of pain and daily discomfort didn't happen. And my running times were pretty good.

Most people would comply to a degree. I don't know anyone in real life who has even mentioned lockdown or covid at all in the last few years let alone with this attitude of "it was a terrible thing to do and I'd never do it again".

Nobody outside of what I saw on social media was complaining about it much while it was going on.

I would comply sensibly but without worrying too much as I did at the time. So going out for walks wherever and whenever I wanted but not washing the groceries etc.

If schools closed again then this time we would probably use DH's NHS employee status to get DC still in school which we didn't previously.

Lockdown worked though. Everytime lockdowns were relaxed hospital admissions rose shortly after.
Lockdowns gave hospitals much needed respite - I don’t think they could have managed otherwise.

You wouldn’t if it was a serious illness causing it and you could no longer get food because all the workers refused to go in. Or your electric and heating went off. It was lovely for people who didn’t need to work yet still got paid, and the fact it wasn’t that serious so those that did need to work still went to work. As others have pointed out, like fuck would anyone go to work in Tesco if there was a 50% or higher chance they’d die.

People won’t fall for it again.

People forget that the biggest fear was a high number of deaths. The health service couldn’t have coped, didn’t have a vaccine or enough of the other interventions to help huge numbers of people. Those who died all didn’t have an underlying illness. Memories are poor at remembering there were concerns about how the dead bodies could be stored before burial. Did any of us want to risk the life of our own family? As others have said, I’d love to hear your plan for a scenario where there’s such a risk to life.