How long can we carry on like this for?

[Pseudosudocrem]

Anyone else starting to wonder just how long we can carry on like this before everything irrevocably falls apart?

How will we ever recover as a country?

Beijing “ It's fine for us to sit at home as long as other people carry on working”

And funding the NHS.

It's hard, I'm happy to social distance for as long as needed but I have to work to pay bills
A lot of people seem to think that those shielding are living off benefits or don't work or are about to keel over any second, it's crazy!

thesedaysarescary

Perhaps if you could only see your children via video call, you'd start to understand why physical contact matters.

It is not a small sacrifice to lose everything that was keeping me going. And at the same time as losing hope for a future worth living. It's fucking huge.

How fucking dare you tell someone struggling with trauma and suicidal thoughts that their increased suffering is "for the greaer good".

So much this. Imagine we get a pandemic like this every few years, which is likely with global warming and an ever-increasing population. Are we going to lockdown every few years? At some point we have to just get on with it.

We haven't had a pandemic for about 50 years and no particular reason why one should occur more frequently. Regardless, it's not a good reason for not having lockdowns. If countries around the world had lockdown straightaway we wouldn't be in a situation. It was a refusal to do anything until it was too late because of the cost to the economy that has put Europe in this position in the first place. If we had acted sooner ultimately this would have had less impact on us.

If one thing's become obvious in all of this, it's that the whole 'Accepting Mental Health issues' trend was never anything more worthwhile than a passing fad on social media.

So true.

Client I dont think that at all. But if guidance is followed and extended, my shielding family member will see his career go in the toilet because his employer won’t have him in. I can’t see him myself, even with social distancing - not allowed to use public transport.

Last time I saw him, he was in tears saying “I don’t know when I will see you again.” He may never see his elderly parents again, I’m pretty sure of that though I’ve not said it to him.

MH1111 Whitehall estimated earlier this week that 150,000 people may die indirect as a result of the lockdown, way more than projected covid deaths

Why are they doing this then?

my point is, you should be free to shield or not. There are people in that group who would rather have a week of normal life than years of this.

But we are those people are free to make decisions for themselves, but like everyone else need to adhere to lockdown which is months not years. Shielding is a separate issue, do what you want within the confines of the bigger picture.

We've had bird flu, swine flu, SARS, MERS, Zika, Ebola, foot and mouth disease

Some of those were epedmics, and others actually didn't make much of a dent to 'normal' life here in the UK, aside from to those who lost loved ones. There is no reason to believe at this point that we will keep having global pandemics of this magnitude every few years, it's just weird scaremongering.

It's 20 pages on by now but what @HandfulOfFlowers said on page 1 sums it up for me.

How fucking dare you tell someone struggling with trauma and suicidal thoughts that their increased suffering is "for the greaer good".

Exactly. And to play devil's advocate, sacrificing the freedoms of the many for the lives of the few is technically not the "greater good", as the greater good in the past has been when lives of the few were sacrificed for freedoms of the many.

We have a choice. Maybe it's Sophie's Choice, but we we won't take no for an answer.

It's a damned site more than people had in WW2 - what would happen if they had said "we can't carry on"? It was tough shit. I often wonder how we would react if we were told we had to carry on for longer as we are.

But for what it's worth, I know we need to do something fast, but I'm not sure what. I still think we're lucky (entitled?) compared to so many across the globe in this pandemic without our luxuries (Africa/India).

@LilacTree1 oh not meaning you specifically just from comments I've seen
I get it, I'm alone at home and missing human contact, can't see parents but I'm too worried not to shield as I'm high risk for sepsis so pneumonia wouldn't be a great plan!
I don't know what will happen with my work, I need to earn money to pay my bills

We've had bird flu, swine flu, SARS, MERS, Zika, Ebola, foot and mouth disease. Every few years something new pops up.

No, this virus was clearly more dangerous right from the beginning. The other viruses were either less infectious or less deadly.

Good post Beijing

Why are they doing this then?

Because unfortunately they know that they would be widely criticized for having a high level of attributable and potentially preventable deaths; whereas a plethora of others resulting from it such as suicide, not seeking medical help when needed, deteriorating health by not being able to access treatment etc they won't be directly blamed for. That's the truth, disgusted as everyone doing their bit for the greater good, even if it means laying their life down for it.

Disguised*

Why are we any different? Why should we not lockdown when other countries are doing it?

Whitehall estimated earlier this week that 150,000 people may die indirect as a result of the lockdown, way more than projected covid deaths

Probably because the gov. think no-one will notice if hundreds of thousands slowly lose jobs/get heart attacks/cancer/commit suicide/become poor and lose health over the course of several years, but know there would be baying mobs if we had ICU scenes like in Italy. Populism. And basing actions of a scientific paper than did not take ANY economic considerations into account, no joke.

Client “ but I'm too worried not to shield as I'm high risk for sepsis so pneumonia wouldn't be a great plan! ”

Ditto. After 2 x pneumonia, I won’t accept intubation again. I’d rather live normally. You can choose to shield but the govt have put us all under lockdown. I hope they get what they deserve for this.

cross post @Thisisitisit but yes exactly

Tone Sweden haven’t locked down.

That's one country - France, germany, spain...

Neither have Brazil, Turkmenistan, Belarus, a lot of Asian countries. People there have freedoms and internet so I'm sure we will find out if they have "total carnage" and "bodies in car parks" like we were told we would have. I will eat my hat if they do, and I suspect it will come out that a lot of countries just over-reacted with lockdowns out of fear, but will be paying for it with more lives over the coming years.

I think we should lockdown into the end of May and then start gradually reopening shops with social distancing and other places that can also be opened safely. I think schools/pubs etc won’t be open for a good bit longer. My husband works in a restaurant and they are planning not to be open til October 😭

The numbers we are seeing now of deaths is awful but that is because the numbers of people who have been infected has been so high. 1% of a lot of people is still a lot. If social distancing measures bring the infection rate under control and the government can get its finger out with contact tracing/maintaining travel bans etc we may be able to keep infection levels much lower and then 1% of deaths, while still horribly tragic, is much lower in number of course. Combined with shielding and properly supporting the vulnerable.