Has their been a change of opinion about lockdown?

[Maryann1975]

So three weeks ago, all I heard about was why weren’t the government locking everything down quickly enough. There was such outrage about it at the time, how bad it was that the government hadn’t shut schools quickly enough, that people were still mixing and big events were still going ahead.

We are now at The start of week three of the ‘lockdown’ (which wasn’t really a full lockdown, But I’m not really sure what to call the period we are in) and people are desperately wondering when everywhere will reopen and seem to be desperate for the schools to reopen.

I’m wondering if the reality of ‘lockdown’ doesn’t fit with what everyone thought it would be (it’s quite hard dealing with dc every day with no break and no where to take them especially if you are having to work through out from home with the dc arguing around your feet). It’s really boring staying at home all the time, missing holidays, missing family, missing friends and gatherings, social interactions, No eating out, cinema, theatre, coffees etc.

Maybe there are two groups of posters and three weeks ago I mainly caught the pro lockdown group Posting and now I am just seeing the pro economy/lift the lockdown posts. I don’t know? I have also just had a group call with friends and it seemed to be that some thought we should be lifting lockdown pretty soon.

It just seems so contradictory from three weeks ago when people were clamouring for the government to take action.

@wonderstuff midwife checks where I am have just been moved to the hospital so they’re still happening, the community midwives gave mixed to be hospital based, and all urgent GP requests and 2WW patients are still being done, so there shouldn’t be too much missed, we can’t say none as there will always be something missed.

@Sittingonthedockofthebay. people are dying unnecessarily.

Is this true? Has the nhs been overwhelmed yet and ventilators/medicine/care are being rationed?

The plan is to stop the general population all getting the virus at once so that those seriously affected can be helped. People who sadly die despite best efforts have not died ‘unnecessarily’, or because the lockdown is not harsh enough.

For very vulnerable people the only option is to shield indefinitely until a vaccine/cure turns up.

Tbh I am rather enjoying it, me and dp work from home, daily yoga, eating less as thinking about food shortages, basically living mindfu

How very Mumsnet

FFS people, this is not a drill, people are dying unnecessarily, and we should all stay home and count our blessings.

People will die from suicide too. Many people will suffer being stuck at home with abusive partners, and many could die. Many children will suffer in ways that don't bear thinking about. Businesses will collapse, jobs will be lost.

Maybe you have lived a charmed life and can't understand that for some people there aren't a whole lot of blessings to count right now.

The impact of this on mh is huge and very worrying. It should not be glossed over and people should not be told to pull themselves together and be grateful they only have to sit on the sofa and watch Netflix (that one has been said a good few times).

COVID is not going anywhere for a long while. At some point we will all have to go back to work (those lucky enough to have a job to go back to) and children will go to school. The risk of COVID will be here for a good while yet, and I am not convinced lock down past May/early June would be beneficial when you weigh up all of the risks.

@U2HasTheEdge I agree with you completely.
There comes a point when the risk outweighs the benefit. Yes I get that people are dying but they also say lots of those people would have gone anyway but have been included because they had covid so the numbers are a bit tricky to breakdown.
Of course a short lockdown can help to take the edge off but be under no illusion that this will stop it, it’s just supposed to be reducing the amount of people in hospital at one time.
The results of an extended lockdown potentially outweigh the benefit of it, future education issues, mental health problems including deaths of young people who feel failed, money issues of not being able to feed your family and children, long term poverty, loosing homes, debt issues, kids being in awful situations with no way out, domestic abuse and suicide rates through the roof due to the above issues. So it’s not all black and white as just saying shut it all down, people will suffer and die not from covid if it continues for too long.
And yes, I think people may have been to quick to push and didn’t realise how it was really going to be. We can’t all stay like this for a long time it will destroy us in other ways

There will be children in disadvantaged homes who will never be able to catch up from this. And some will be being sexually abused, where they normally get a break at school. There will be a whole generation of issues that will come out in a few years.

I have no problem with the lockdown per se,apart from the fact that I can't see my Dd and Dgd,but I know that it will eventually finish,so I console myself with that.
What I DO have a problem with is the lack of planning. So many people are going 'fall through the cracks',whether it's cancelled operations (I've even heard of cancer ops being cancelled),people with severe mental health problems,people like my best friend who are not classed as 'vulnerable' but who is autistic,and has a cripplingly painful spinal condition and can't get priority for an online delivery slot and can't stand for ages in a supermarket queue because she is in so much pain,elderly people with no family to speak of and are too proud to reach out for help,the list is endless.

@SouthsideOwl viruses are not living 'things', they are non living cells that require a living host cell to thrive. I agree with the rest of what you said though.

@SpangleSparkle

Good post! It is certainly a most intersectional situation.

The lockdowns are definitely tough on some people in ways that will be impossible to endure for much longer.

Even during WWII people were free to move around and socialize, get help and support from family and friends.

I’m very frustrated with the lockdown we have, more because dh is now in his 4th week of lockdown, me and the kids are in week 3, we haven’t gone anywhere apart from once a week to the supermarket and that is only one of us. But friends of ours are still going out working in not key jobs, one makes wooden doors, the other finished last Wednesday and worked for a car hire company. I obviously get that key workers are needed and crucial but it really seems to me that not everybody is following the same rules. We are struggling mentally, but it’s a struggle I am more than happy to cope with, but I just don’t get this half and half approach.

But @jenkel the country can’t just shut down entirely. How would you get your shopping if no one worked?

The reality strikes when someone you know gets it. My friend's healthy daughter in her 30s got it, and she needed an oxygen mask after 10 days. As did Boris. They didn't have 'underlying' conditions. It's a killer if you don't get oxygen or a ventilator.

I think peoples opinions will be biased depending on whether they can financially cope with what's been put on the table, whether they are in good health and whether they know anyone who has died or almost died from it.

I am struggling mentally with lockdown as someone who has never had mental health issues before. Not the mopey can't get out of bed feeling sad MH, but debilitating and frequent severe moments of distress and inability to cope or function. I know that I am not alone feeling this way, and yes I count my blessings everyday and keep busy, making myself do things, anything to blur it all out but it comes back strong and frequent. I have a loving family, and support. Many, many people will not. Many will be seperated from their kids, separated from their partners, seperated from their support networks.

Lockdown was never meant to be a long term measure, unlike the rest of the world, BoJo wants us to have have herd immunity. We will probably see the kids going back to school first for a while before the rest of the world gets back to some form of normality.

I agree with Pseudo. I see client after client with massive issues - no money at all coming in, business going bust, workers they really like having to be laid off and absolutely zero state help for many or people working fulltime from home with 2 toddlers (almost impossible so having to try to work 8pm to 3am when the toddlers sleep) and that kind of thing.

Others will just see happy stay at home housewives with rich husbands see ing a bit more of their spouse who is able to work from home and the home is some leafy suburb place with big garden.

urkidding, I don't agree Boris J had no reason to get it - he has struggled with his weight for years, whereas the other 2 men Matt Hancock and the medic who got it bout the same time are thin so did not have the breathing problem. I am not saying it is always as simple as that but it explains why BJ had it worse than the thin men.

I think the fatality rate is going to settle somewhere well below half a percent and the extent of the lockdown will be remembered as a farcical overreaction.

I guess the silver lining is that we will have had a trial run for our next pandemic, which almost certainly won't be so mild.

@MarginalGain
You are so right!. Gvt was pressured by hysteria of public opinion into closing schools -then the whole domino effect.
The only people I see out are elderly -who should by all accounts be the ones ‘shielding’ and the Lycra/clad runners and cyclists who never give a sh*t anyway. Let’s all get back to work and put it down to the same chosen reaction as Tulipmania.

chain reaction

This morning's news is so, so bleak.

I can't believe that people are so shortsighted as to just want a longer/harder lockdown. We've got to get back to work. This is a fucking disaster.

@MarginalGain I think that people feel that if only we lockdown for longer and harder the virus will go away and they’ll be safe? I Think you’re right in your view though.

I think that people feel that if only we lockdown for longer and harder the virus will go away and they’ll be safe? I Think you’re right in your view though.

And that’s been the huge problem with the communications around this - the idea we can stay in lockdown until it’s ‘safe’, that in 12 weeks we can send it packing, etc etc. People think we’ll do this and as long as we do it for a while it will be fine by September. That it’s some simple fix. You have people saying they won’t send their kids back to school until it’s ‘safe’ - what’s safe? Zero risk of getting it? That’s more than a year away, probably two.

Well, yes. You can see that on these very boards, the people who support a longer and harder lockdown seem to not really get that risk of dying from covid19 is not going to meaningfully change over the next 12 months (pre-vaccine).

It is likely that the death rate will go down for some causes of death - road traffic accidents, drink related (violent) deaths, work related deaths for example, but I am not sure that the rate of them are high enough to lower the overall death rate.

There are definitely concerns that many people will put off going to the GP (or find it impossible to get to a GP) for conditions like cancer where early diagnosis can have a significant impact on the outcome. Cancer survival rates over the next 5 years may be quite different as a result.

@Xenia

Yet next year I will be paying massively more tax so everyone sitting at home on furlough got to put their feet up this year.

If you’re paying massively more tax, that’s because you earn a massive amount of money in the first place. I’ll be happy to pay more tax if it means that people have the means to not starve to death.

And it’s fine to have a privileged existence but please try to have some awareness of other people’s lives.

Cancer survival rates over the next 5 years may be quite different as a result.

My mother's regular blood tests (in case her blood cancer comes back) have been pushed back two months. At the moment she is well but her particular cancer can reappear very suddenly and i am anxious about us missing this and only finding out something's wrong when bone lesions are already forming again.

That’s so worrying @Abraid2. I hope everything is clear for her - how horribly stressful.