Until June?!

[Woman31]

Iv read today that these strict rules will be in place until June.

I’m going to go insane before then. How are people going to manage? Surely it can’t be that long? China didn’t take that long ?

My anxiety is so bloody high 😩

I have a very close friend working in ICU in a London hospital. Their oldest patient in there is 74 with the vast majority between 40-60 of whom many were previously well with no underlying conditions. This is affecting everyone simply because of the numbers of people being infected, before you stage a revolt have a think about what you will regret more.

And I don't see why people can't understand that societal and economic effects of not having lockdown

They didn't have lockdown for the Spanish flu, and the depression in the 1920s was horrific

They avoided such depression after WW2

Yep 6 month lockdown just won’t happen, the cost to the economy and society will be huge. Also by locking down we are just buying time, it’s not a long term strategy and never was.

Spain are looking at end of April release I read today. I think we are looking at mid or end of May for some kind of relaxing of measures. Everyone seems adamant schools won’t go back until September but as the research has shown children are not super spreaders of this disease and schools going back will help people get to work then I’m hoping June for schools for about 6 weeks.

This will inevitably lead to a second wave but it will be end of July/ August when the schools are closed anyway and we are not in flu season. Economy will suffer less with a second wave in August.

By this time and going in to autumn we may have an antibody test and testing levels will have increased. We will hopefully be doing contact tracing and isolating which will allow other members of the public to get back to work whilst isolating just a few.

@midgebabe we are going to run out of money and won’t be able to buy food. The government won’t pay furlough forever, then what are people supposed to live on?

I agree @Gin96

@Gin96 also agree there is a bigger picture here

It can't go on but it may well go on @Gin96 . And the government can't assume we will keep agreeing which creates a law enforcement problem.

I dont think it will go on in this form after it has been suppressed - that was the purpose of it.

Quite what measures will be needed and how people will cope with the fact that they may get it I dont know

@Ticklemeelmo are you seriously trying to suggest that 21 million people have died in China and they have somehow managed to cover that up??
I don’t doubt for a second that their figures are not to be relied upon but there is no way any country in the world could hide that many dead.

Spain have extended their restrictions until the end of April. They haven't said they are looking to end lockdown then. Similarly, Italy's restrictions have been extended till 13/4 but nobody thinks they will be lifted, or even relaxed slightly then.

They will pay furlough for as long as they want people to stay inside.

We are not talking forever. We are talking long enough to regain some control and strengthen our systems. The hints suggest 3 months.

China managed it in slightly less time but they dont allow rule breakers

We can not afford the virus to rip through the population unchecked any more than we can afford lockdown. In one case we say lives, in the other case I am not sure how many would die in total from the virus and all the other health conditions that would go untreated for the 2+ years it would take

If you, your family or the people you infect flouting lockdown would turn up at the National Health Service wanting an intensive care bed in the event that they had covid and needed one, you are obliged to follow the laws of the government providing the service and trying to make sure (a) the people providing the service aren't martyred (b) the service is there to provide.

You don't get to choose. And it's clearly a good thing you don't, because your indifference to the people who would care for you if you became ill us breathtakingly irresponsible and selfish.

You're extremely naive if you think the government is happy to prolong a lockdown. That Swedish scientist was particularly negative about the UK lockdown because it didn't start early enough.

On the subject of the Swedish scientist:

• Sweden is behind us. Check back in a month. *Sweden is a much larger country with a much smaller population. We'd need to be socially distancing just to replicate their 'normal'.
• Many eminent Swedish scientists have signed an open letter recording their concern that Sweden is putting lives at risk. But biased reporting means you don't hear much about that.

Yes, I was in favour of a very much earlier lockdown, because it might have worked (we are after all an island with defined controlled borders) and might have reduced spread enough to be worth the financial cost
This isn't. It is also an ineffective lockdown that masks a halfhearted policy of herd immunity that the government hasn't got the balls to be honest about. Our health service is in no way able to cope, but it won't be any better in two months time either (after all, it has had two months to prepare already and not achieved much). Strict rationing of care is looming and you are being distracted by blaming your neighbours for walking the dog too often. Whatever gets you through the day, but you are fooling yourselves.

I don't think comparing ourselves to others is good. I've been keeping all my anxiety and worry in for the past 3.werks - because I have a job and am not symptomatic so I told myself I'm luckier than most. My therapist pointed out that yes there's people worse off, there's also people better off and my feelings are just as valid as everyone. Ok so I havent lost a family member, which I am grateful for. It doesn't mean my feelings are any less valid than theirs.

I bloody hope it doesn't last until June. Although sadly I think it will.

And Bert driving 5miles.to a beach to walk his dog, Doris having 2 walks a day and angela collecting her kids from uni 300miles away, is not to blame for increased deaths. More likely its lack of funding and government incompetence. But let's all blame our neighbours hey. The secret police (spies in nazi Germany) that we all said we'd never let something like that happen. It's been a fortnight and we're turning on our neighbours. It's scary to watch how quickly human behaviour has changed

I agree we need to be sensible about this and an indefinite lockdown is not the way forward. There will be deaths and long term damage either way, but a generation of scared children who have missed school, a decimated economy and poverty will create far more deaths and burdens on our public service in the long run, which will most likely be cut to the bone once this has passed over. Lockdown is the correct course of action for now, but it is not a long term solution and we can't just lockdown and hope it goes away - it isn't going to, it is here forever now.

The best thing that would happen now is we can find a drug which can lessen the symptoms and improve recovery rates, but to say we will get to a point where nobody dies probably won't happen. I think unfortunately we will get to the point that we will have to have an acceptable level of deaths where restrictions will be lifted as keeping them in place will cause health problems elsewhere, including suicides. As someone pointed out upthread, lots of elderly who live alone will be inactive and this will have an affect on both their physical and mental health. Same for children who live in flats with no outside space. It is a horrible reality, but the government is having to make these difficult decisions.

It's Shit isn't it. M6.mood Gary's day to day. We are on day 22 in our house.
I have found 2 thing a that have really helped my MH.

1. Just get through the day. Font think about tomorrow or next week. Just get through this 1 day at a time. I try really hard to push thoughts like "I wish I could see x,go to y and do z" out of my head. I avoid thinking about when this will end. I force myself just to think of today. I try and remind myself all the times I felt tired, stressed and would have killed for s day to just be at home watching tv, chilling on mumsnet instead of my usual running around like a mad woman.

1. I don't really message text or what's app people now. I've taken to phoning people. Last week I spent 1 to 2 hours on the phone a few afternoons. I phoned my ex work colleagues (lost my job due to Corona) and we moan about the situation together, I phoned friends I'm intouch with on social media and drop the occasional message to but never actually chat. It was fab. We had such an amazing catch up. Lovely trips down memory lane. It's a real positive thing I found to do. Not many of us phone people these days, we all rely on FB etc to keep us upto date and use messages. A phone call, makes me feel I've had some proper social interaction.

I'm not saying this will solve all our worries or stresses but its helped ne massively. Ove had a tough time the past 4 weeks with big life changing events that just 1 in normal times would be horrendous but 4 things hzve happened pmus thus virus snd lock down. Ive had some very low days amd had to fivht hard yo syop mysrlf falling over that ledge. I know my post has gone off on a bit of a tangent but I just want to help the many people on here struggling with their mental health. The above hasn't solved any problems but it's got me through several days and that's several days closer to the end of all this.

Just a thought, but this China thing where millions of phone have gone off....could this have something to do with fear of being tracked through your phone? There has been talk of monitoring movement through phone masts, so maybe people are just switching off.

Lift quickly, get a new peak quickly, back to square one with overworked hospitals , lockdown, cancelled chemo etc etc

It won't be "back to square one" because a lot more people will be immune by that point. I agree that the LD needs to go on for a little while longer though.

A lot more people ...if we have 10,000 dead then that's 1 or at most 2 million infected and immune. That's not many in a population of ~70 million

It's no where near enough to have a significant slowing effect on the virus

got me through several days and that several days closer to the end

Totally agree .

I'm glad I'm not alone in wondering how long the furloughing can go on for. Surely they can't keep repeating it? My fear is like others that I won't have a job to go back to. So much uncertainty. That said I am lucky to be furloughed and not just let go.

Horrible times.

testbank

I agree with a lot of your post. But it's amazing how you seem to have missed the concept of flattening the peak. The NHS doesn't just want more time to prepare (and just because they were slow to do so at first doesn't mean they're not busy bunnies now as I think you must know-bit disingenuous, that). They want reduced numbers coming through the doors. A lockdown at any time helps with those goals.

And the NHS must have what it wants, in this instance. Otherwise you're sending people into a work in a situation that isn't manageable, they can't do their job and run a high risk of death. That's not acceptable.

I do get the whole concept of flattening it out. I just no longer agree that it is worth bothering. The nhs will be overwhelmed either way. Today, next week,next month. This is just window dressing and shifting the blame for that onto Doris and her dog, and those rowdy teens down the road. We have gone for the worst of both worlds: overwhelmed nhs and economic ruin. We set course for herd immunity two months ago, didn't hear too many of you complaining then when we didn't contact trace all those returning from Italy, didn't buy the ventilators with the EU, didn't buy the ppe. Or a year ago when we chose a government that doesn't invest in healthcare (ongoing choice that, for the last decade). That was our choice. No point all panicking now and crying that you didn't want it to go this way. Now we have a useless lockdown that pushes some deaths a month down the line and is utterly destroying our economy at the same time. What's the point?