Lockdown over sooner than we think - positive outlooks

[oldbeforem]

I keep reading threads about this lasting 6 - 18 months.

I have had an operation cancelled with no date for it to be rebooked.

I need to think positively and believe that this will be over sooner than we think!

Anyone agree?

My friends ds is in Japan and he's just posted a video ((pretty sure he's in Wuhan))

Pretty clever of him to be in Japan and China at once

Personally don't feel there has been enough done by the government for the elderly or people that have trouble getting about this is the age bracket that will be the most at risk. Isolation and the difficulty of getting their shopping.

I've seen a few people say that people with difficulty can leave a card in their window, green for ok and red for needing help, as well as there being Facebook groups that offer help. There isn't enough support though, I will do a bit of shopping for a couple of neighbors, but we all need to support one another at the moment

@RedToothBrush thanks for your reply, the country is France so they are ahead of us, maybe I can get out here within a few months hopefully brandishing a certificate saying I've had the virus.

Out THERE

I do hope that some of the "new" normal is a change for the better - business flights for example. They are usually totally unneccessary. No-one needs to fly to America for a 1 hour meeting. And I think every office job should have the option to WFH. But I don't think that it will become some blanket thing - clearly there are some meetings it helps to be there in person for, and some people who can't WFH permanently because they'll spend all day browsing the internet and get sacked.

I think we have to stay in lockdown for as long as it takes, however uncomfortable it may seem. There is absolutely no point in lifting restrictions too early only for the virus to take hold again. Better to weather it out to keep everyone safe and then hopefully life can go back to normal.

Surely we can only do this for 6-8 weeks before it starts to damage absolutely everything beyond repair. Even large retailers like next have stopped online shopping. More and more will follow this I have no doubt. People will need items of clothing even whilst we are in lockdown. What happens if you are pregnant. What happens if you need the next size up in baby clothes? What if your child needs new shoes fitting etc?

Not exactly essential for everyone either but haircuts, dentist appointments, people who need chiropodists etc? Can we really go months without these things?

What worries me more than anything is Corona has taken over. The drs surgeries don't want to see us. They have locked up. It's done over the phone etc. But what happens when your child has tonsilitis and you can't get them seen because of the risk. Smears are being cancelled. People will struggle to get appointments for that random lump, that random bleeding, that strange pain. I fear so many people will be missed who have other problems.

Mental health also. I think Boris is very aware of this and therefore has tried to give us excercise. But people being separated from families. Kids not being able to have birthdays. Elderly not having that Sunday roast with family. Children missing school friends. Adults missing friends too. If it wasn't for social media imagine how lost many would be.

I think 5 more weeks and then things will lift slowly. That would be six weeks of us all being home, not mixing, not going to work, school etc. I don't know what order things will reopen in. I think alot of entertainment will open much further along. But I imagine getting some people back to work and kids back to education will be a first priority. I'm not saying I'm right though! Although things will be very messy in six months if kids have forgotten how to socialise and be people outside the house. I think the parents will be a mess by then too. We will all struggle with the sudden demand to be normal again. I hope it's slowly lifted in may. I can live without many things but if my child can go back to school and we can just do that part of life again I'll be happy.

StormyClouds I’m really baffled by people who seem to believe that the only deaths will be people ‘who would have died within a year anyway’. Do you think that’s what’s happening in Italy right now? That the deaths there are just the elderly who only had a couple of months left in them? It’s just so clearly not the case - if the curve isn’t flattened, the consequences are dire.

Positivity, OP - the whole world is working on this. I have faith in the scientific and medical community globally to come up with a solution sooner than we think. I know vaccines can’t be rushed out and we will have to wait for the vaccine to come - but it will come. In the meantime, I believe there will be better treatment and crucially better testing that will help us to come out of lockdown. Even if we periodically have to go back into it. And having done it already, we will know how to handle it if and when we do it again.

Going back to normal - some things will have to change. And I hope some of those changes will be for a better society in the end.

I think what RedToothBrush advised about not putting time limits on it is such good advice. It doesn’t help us to agonise over how long it might last or to delude ourselves into thinking it will all be over in a couple of weeks. But it won’t be like it is right now forever.

There is absolutely no point in lifting restrictions too early only for the virus to take hold again. Better to weather it out to keep everyone safe and then hopefully life can go back to normal.

You've totally missed the point. Lockdown isn't to eradicate the disease - that's not possible unless we literally bolt everyone in their rooms, even key workers, and don't let people buy food. We'd also have to completely shut the border for years while every other country has it.

We will all get corona over the next year, or most of us. Lockdown is not to "Keep everyone safe". Lockdown, on and off, will spread out the infections so people have a hospital bed if they need one and we don't get it at the same time and have to queue in hospital car parks.

If this goes on for six months there will no longer be a government as everything will have collapsed before then.

There was an expert on the news today and he said a vaccine won’t be available for about 18 months

@Mumlove5

I’m sure millions have had Covid. It’s been circulating since Christmas...

We need antibody tests to see who has already had it, which is in the millions.

You make this claim twice. What is your source of your claim that millions in the UK have already had Covid-19? If it is true, where are the related figures for deaths, which would run into the thousands, not just 1,200? Why has the UK not reported this to the WHO and to the UK's neighbouring countries? Why is the UK only going into lockdown now if the situation has been apparent since Christmas? If the UK had this level of infection in December (about the same time as Wuhan) why has the virus not spread at the same rate as there and why was the NHS not overwhelmed by cases by mid-January?

By the time the vaccine comes out most of us will have had it already

If there have been 127000 tests and only 17000 confirmed - what did the 110000 have, that presented with covid 19 - like symptoms ?
I thought only those serious enough to be hospitalised were tested ( other than celebs) . Those figures don’t make sense.

I would just love it if those people on here who are adamant they know exactly how long this is going to go on for (both in the "just a short time" and "life will never be the same" camps) can just PM me the winning lottery numbers for next week if they can see the future on this one.

So much crap being talked with so much authority on all sides.

I'm focusing on dealing with the next 2 and a bit weeks till the lockdown review date - then I'll deal with what comes up next. I follow a general policy of "if Boris has combed the hair so it's not sticking up it's bad shit on the news" approach and I'm expecting the numbers to get a hell of a lot worse before they get better.

I am truly amazed at the amount of people who have misheard the news. Have you just read the headlines? Do you have selective hearing?!

Anyway my NHS consultant rebooked my next set of tests (250 miles away for me) for 4 months time. Pretty positive!

@GenderApostate19 other respiratory illnesses, like flu or pneumonia I guess. There are loads of illnesses out there that hospitalise people.

I hope most of us havn't had it by the time a vaccine arrives. Considering healthy young people are dying too it's not something we want to be catching. How many kids will be left without parents? I dread to think. I am terrified of catching this virus. All they do if you get breathing trouble is put you on a ventilator. It's up to your lungs and body to fight it. If your body doesn't then you die. There's nothing else they can do. I really hope millions don't get it. I'm also scared for my parents. I just find it all so scary.

@Havanananana

Because at first everyone thought it was the flu or pneumonia. Investigations are still being done to find out when Covid actually began.

“Adriano Decarli, an epidemiologist and medical statistics professor at the University of Milan, said there had been a "significant" increase in the number of people hospitalized for pneumonia and flu in the areas of Milan and Lodi between October and December last year.“

www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-italy-timing/italian-scientists-investigate-possible-earlier-emergence-of-coronavirus-idUSKBN21D2IG

@littlebitwooway we’ve also rebooked appts from July onwards, but it’s mostly with view that they won’t happen before then, although it’s also likely they’ll need rejiggling later. However you need to give people appts to keep them in the system. So you might get bounced again

@Mumlove5

So it's only one possibility that is being investigated. Not a fact.

Is your assertation that 'I’m sure millions have had Covid' based on any factual evidence or is it speculation?

So many people are just loving the drama of all this. They are literally relishing it

Ain't that the truth ... watch anyone wonder if it'll soon be over and you get:

Not until September
Summer 2021
18 - 24 months
Some future point measureable only in geological time

Of course we're all worried about this, but I'm just not sure how catastrophising helps

Glad to see a realistic and optimistic thread. Sad to see some couldn’t resist popping in with some crap though.

Jenny Harris said something interesting. The reviews will be every three weeks, likely for six months.

So I think there is sadly a good chance current lock down will be extended for another three weeks when this one is done. That’s another five weeks from now. By this point we will be heading to mid may, the nightingale hospitals will be up and running, anti viral treatments will be further on. Testing capacity will be much wider, so I’d guess that the restrictions ease gently at that six week stage.

People will be told to go back to work. Schools will be open for those who can’t work from home. But all social and hospitality venues will remain closed and social distancing will remain in place. The government will continue to pay only for the social and hospitality staff and they will remove support for all other staff who have been furloughed.

They will then continue to review that and decide after three weeks of eased restrictions, if they lift more or shut down again, based on what happens with the cases.

Jenny said life won’t return to normal for three to six months, possibly longer, with uncertainty in there, so I suspect if all goes well, social venues open at the end of June/early July, if not, they are the ones which will stay closed for longer.

So I think worst case, we get another extension for three weeks when this one is done, then slow easing of restrictions after this,

My daughters uni, she’s doing her Lpc, have told her any outstanding exams that need to be done in situ, they have been advised would likely be able to be held in July.

It's ok to be horrified at the thought of a few months, ignore the "get over it and suck it up" camp (worst expressions ever) who want you to feel guilty for not being totally ok and cool about the whole thing.

@MrsLangOnionsMcWeetabix

They did not say it’s likely to be six months or more, actually Dr Harries (deputy chief medical officer for England) said “We need to keep that lid on and then gradually we will be able to hopefully adjust some of the social distancing measures and gradually get us all back to normal,” Harries said...

“So I think three weeks for review. Two or three months to see whether we’ve really squashed it, with about three to six months ideally, and lots of uncertainty in that, but then to see at which point we can actually get back to normal. It is plausible that it could go further than that.”

Yep this IS what was said. I do wish people would quit the scaremongering.

@underneaththeash

I also think early June. We cannot (and shouldn't) keep this going for longer that that, the economic and social consequences would be enormous forever, not just the near future.

I think what we're doing for the next few weeks to allow the NHS to increase beds, buy respirators and spread things out a bit is a great idea, but we can't keep doing it forever.

Absolutely this.

As has been said by a number of people, the economy can't cope with any longer than a few more weeks - 6 tops. Also, China's lockdown/time before they started to get back to normal was 2 months, so I am pretty sure we will be returning to some semblance of normality by mid May. (Though the long-term effects - especially financial - will go on for quite a bit longer.)

I want it to end, as I am not really enjoying it massively! I don't have kids at home, and me and DH get on well, and have both been furloughed, and we will survive financially... And we STILL want it to end soon, as we are finding it restrictive and claustrophobic, and HATE not seeing our family/kids/friends. Also shopping is a pain, and is taking 3 times longer with queuing, and we can't get everything we want.

Heaven knows how people are surviving with kids in the house, or with bad relationships, and with no money coming in if they have been laid off. I really feel for them. I also feel sorry for people who have had weddings and holidays ruined, and who have had routine operations and procedures cancelled.