How long are you expecting this to go on for?

[DennisReynoldsDuster]

Just curious. Friends seem to think it will all be fine again by May, I kind of feel like we will be lucky if we are “back to normal” by Christmas.

And by “this” I mean businesses shut and social distancing etc

I thought the June 2021 date was based on the amount of time it will take for a vaccine to be tested and made widely available.

It would be unwise to rely on China for statistics on this. Italy yes. Until a vaccine is licensed for use is available then the weak and vulnerable will be at huge risk. The vaccine is crucial.

China only started lockdown in mid-January. So they've controlled it in 2 months. They may have had more success in properly locking down than we will though.... And we don't know what's going to happen now some restrictions are relaxed (though some are still in place - I think including quarantining anyone flying in from abroad for 14 days)

@googlepoodle I don’t know any details yet, but we will be expected to help where we can. Some help will be using our own skills in govt agencies, some more basic like delivering food parcels. Aberdeen Uni workers already helping in hospitals to provide extra staff for portering, testing etc.

BTW it’s not just university workers who will be asked to do this, it will be many workers from large organisations.

It took my area several WEEKS to get back to normal after beast from the east and that was only less than a fortnight of snow!

Based on that I’ll be amazed if we’re back to normal by Christmas at the earliest...at which point sodding brexit round the corner!

“like the post 9/11 world was a different one to the one which went before.”

I’ve been thinking the same REM in my head (“it’s the end of the world as we know it”)

I think there will be some rules brought in to deal with this that will become permanent. And routines that will remain too.

“Only Robert Peston seems to be tweeting... "Hey folks? Do you realise..?" about the govt powers.”

Does that include the new sectioning laws? They’ve made it MUCH easier to section and detain people under mh reasons. Only 1 drs say so needed now.

Do you think all university workers will be kept on if there is unlikely to be classes from September?
I agree that suicide ratesare likely to rise sadly. Depression and loneliness from isolation, combined with having nothing to look forward to, extreme poverty for previously self-employed people and the weight of debt for closed business owners. Families confined together for long periods. Relentless stress for NHS workers. It's all very bleak.
We need to find coping mechanisms and take it one day at a time.

Wow! This is the level of madness out there?
12-18 months? What the hell fantasy do you guys live in? Do you not listen to anything?
Whitty said waiting for a vaccine was AN option but not the only one. Eradication was while theoretically possible very unlikely.

Boris said 12 weeks.

You think a bunch of 20 and 30 somethings are going to put their lives on hold for a year?
You think the rest of the world is just going to wait around?

12 weeks. 60%-80% infections 250k dead (down from 400k after flattening the peak)

You guys are getting lost in your echo chamber here. The world will keep moving.

The world isn't going to end (at least not for some people), but things are never going to be the same again. The collapse of civilisation happens fast. There are so many other things going on and at play here than the coronavirus. People thinking it's all going back to normal in May have no grasp at all of what is happening. It's a lot to take in, I don't blame people for their delusions right now.

It will be longer than May.

The elites have already buggered off to their private islands/Australia/New Zealand/underground bunkers. I think that might tell you something.

anyone in particular re 'elites'? Lord Sugar is in the US, not in a bunker though . What's your conspiracy theory then? Elites then come out and hire the desperate for work survivors, make yet more money?

Unfortunately we are a nation of utter morons. The sheer millions ignoring the advice are ensuring that this crisis is going to last a very, very long time. I have been shocked and appalled at people’s reckless, selfish and idiotic behaviour.

China is getting back to normal now. It took them 3 months.

There are tens of thousands of bunkers in the USA, I am sure Alan Sugar has a really good one. Some conspiracy theories are actually conspiracy fact.

China who dealt with this a lot better than us are just coming out the other side and they started self isolating back in November. 6 months at least I reckon

Honestly please stop with the scare mongering and lies. Comments like this are fake and will make people suffer further with their MH

I work and talk to China every single day. They started quarantining mid to end January. The reason the virus spread so quickly was that they were on Chinese New Year. Wuhan was locked down officially on the 23rd January. If the lockdown has worked - which we will know soon enough - then it has taken just over 2 months to get back to relative normality. At least until a new wave hits, if it does.

MN is full of lies but please be responsible with your posts when there will be people reading this forum that will be greatly affected by this mentally

mind well theory/fact, what is it? on the lines of what I said?
You need very solid mental health to last in a bunker!

looby is Wuhan still closed down? I mean not within it so much but for travel in/out?

Everywhere else in the Hubei province - which has suffered hugely with fatalities - reopened in the last week. Wuhan is due out of lockdown soon from what we know. Once the no new cases locally become a daily occurrence. Which is happening. At most I expect London to be on lockdown longer than the rest of the country as they’re so badly affected

It’s vital people do not make things up on when we will be back to normal. No one knows. But saying China was starting to isolate from November is irresponsible and not true

@mindproject what other things are at play here? What do you think is happening?

The amount of power the government has given themselves makes me uncomfortable andI agree with posters that life as we know it won’t come back exactly the same even if it’s just different habits etc. However I don’t think countries would tank their own economies in order to suppress the population - nobody has anything to gain from that surely

Things will change but we will adapt and the vast majority of us will be ok. The new normal will unfold, hopefully with huge amounts of healing - in terms of the environment and for us as individuals, spiritually. Changes can end up being good.

We have to show courage and work together. Once we get through this dreadful time, things will feel better for us.

Please don’t be defeated. Find your strength and support each other.

It's just hit me I may not be back in the classroom for a year or more.

This is a paper from the Govt advisors

I’m surprised about the universities not being back in September. I fully expected they would be - and schools.
I thought from the press conference the other day they were talking about an antibody test being developed in a matter of weeks which would allow testing to see who had had the virus. Then those people would be able to go back to work and we could start a bit of getting back to normal.

One year. At least. I don’t think the children will be back at school in 2020.

I think a war may come of this too. Maybe not this year but I do think in the next year or so.

Don’t be so ridiculous.