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Original poster

How long can we carry on like this for?

999 replies

Pseudosudocrem · 18/04/2020 09:35

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?

OP posts:
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10
Frompcat · 19/04/2020 21:44

I am salivating thinking about my favourite restaurants right now

Shell4429 · 19/04/2020 21:46

We recovered after WW2 and life actually improved in lots of ways. NHS, welfare etc. We need to get rid of the Tories though.

midgebabe · 19/04/2020 21:46

Out of curiosity do we know

How many people are out of work and or furloughed as a result of their business being forced to close ( pubs etc) ?

How many are furloughed when their business is permitted to continue ?

What percentage of the working population is still at work//working from home ?

Inkpaperstars · 19/04/2020 21:46

@Frompcat

Some people may have an individual experience that resembles cold or flu, but that does not mean the virus in its wider effect is like cold or flu.

midgebabe · 19/04/2020 21:47

We may have more beds

Do we have more nurses?

marinintheuk · 19/04/2020 21:47

If the figures do not start falling within the next few days then its game over.

Either we just get on with it and get back to work - the number who have died so far is about equal to a mornings worth of deaths worldwide, otherwise society will collapse and it will happen quickly as has happened in the past.

No economy = no NHS, no food, no education, no power, no water, no government, no nothing.

fishface1979 · 19/04/2020 21:47

Absolutely. We cannot let this drag on - the knock on effects could well be worse than the virus.

BeijingBikini · 19/04/2020 21:47

@5zeds that's a completely false dichotomy. I have a miniscule chance of dying from this virus, which I'm certain I already had, but on the other hand living in poverty would be almost certain to take a good few years off my lifespan. My mum, having lived through economic collapse, has said she would rather die than have her kids go through it.

For most people it is a bad cold or no symptoms. My friend's mum and brother had it, just like a cold, and she and the dad had no symptoms at all.

Inkpaperstars · 19/04/2020 21:49

Why is it hard to realise it's a balance. We need economy to fund the NHS but there is no point having an economy to support the NHS if there is no NHS either.

The stress that medics are under , the lack of PPE, even without the death rate we can't let this thing run unchecked and expect a functioning NHS

And the economic impact of an unchecked virus could be worse than the controlled outbreak. No lockdown would not mean a healthy economy.

Well said midge

BeijingBikini · 19/04/2020 21:49

We seem to think we are immune to hyperinflation, tanks on the streets, completely empty shops and mass homelessness just like we thought we were immune to the virus back in January. We're not, and the economic collapse would be worse than the virus.

Frompcat · 19/04/2020 21:50

If the figures do not start falling within the next few days then its game over.

They've already started falling as far as I can tell. Even accounting for the usual weekend lag, today's figures were low.

BeijingBikini · 19/04/2020 21:50

And our economy is not in great shape - our debt before this was 85% of GDP, and now the government can't sell enough bonds so it is basically getting BoE to print the money for them. That never ends well.

Inkpaperstars · 19/04/2020 21:51

the number who have died so far is about equal to a mornings worth of deaths worldwide

Sorry how does that relate to the rest of your post?

MaxNormal · 19/04/2020 21:51

Frompcat I'm with you on this having grown up somewhere with extreme poverty.
I can handle a period of skintness, of course, but losing my home and being on the streets?
I'd take my changes with the virus any day of the week over that.

Sunshine1239 · 19/04/2020 21:55

Deaths unfortunately aren’t comparable due to delays

Cases however were v high today - 3rd highest we’ve had

Inkpaperstars · 19/04/2020 21:56

All those talking about how dire it will be economically if we spend months in lockdown....has anyone in power suggested months of lockdown? I thought one of the key points of lockdown was to enable us to get the virus under a level of control which allows economic activity to resume as soon as possible.

By all means make the point about what would happen if lockdown were extended again and again...but until that appears a likely prospect it doesn't seem worth the endless repetition of the point. To read the threads on here you'd think it had been confirmed that lockdown will continue for two years.

marinintheuk · 19/04/2020 21:57

@Inkpaperstars

Because what we are doing worldwide is complete madness when you compare it to how many people die every day worldwide.

Deaths today = 150,000

Deaths for Covid 19 = 159,511

So just over a days worth of deaths worldwide.

Xenia · 19/04/2020 21:58

This will be different from after WII as we will be in a major depression with no money and even teachers and nurses will have much less pay and be paying an awful lot more tax next year unless we can stop lock down soon and get schools and nurseries open again.

People will also be more against each other as some have had state money and others have had nothing and lots have had no NHS help even when they called ambulances so know from cradle to grave despite its costing them a fortune it is certainly never there for them and won't want to pay for it anymore. The young have been sacrificed for a relatively few of the monstly old, sick and obese and will be fed up with that.

5zeds · 19/04/2020 21:59

@BeijingBikini I see so you think you’re going to survive. As it happens I’m in the same situation though less convinced that makes me invincible. What if your child/husband/parents/best friend die? What if all of them do? Do you still think that’s a fair trade for not being poor (and I know it’s significant poverty we’re imagining)?

Frompcat · 19/04/2020 22:00

All those talking about how dire it will be economically if we spend months in lockdown....has anyone in power suggested months of lockdown

No they haven't - I am largely responding to posters on here who have said "as long as it takes for people to stop dying".

etopp · 19/04/2020 22:01

Xenia is so very right.

midgebabe · 19/04/2020 22:01

Indeed Inkpaperstars

thewinkingprawn · 19/04/2020 22:01

I suspect people shouting for months of lockdown and no return to normality will change tune massively when furlough pay and all other government help stops in the very near future. Unless they are independently wealthy and do not need to work. I think it’s appalling actually that the vast majority of the workforce are really low risk yet we have been shut down for this. Of course there are examples of people of working age who it has killed which are high profile media because they are just that. Rare. I agree that shielding measures and financial support should be put in place for the vulnerable but really aside from that we should all be cracking on.

csigeek · 19/04/2020 22:01

@celan but we can’t go back now and we need to continue with this plan, it could have been done already but people can’t help themselves.

Frompcat · 19/04/2020 22:02

What if your child/husband/parents/best friend die? What if all of them do? Do you still think that’s a fair trade for not being poor (and I know it’s significant poverty we’re imagining)?

My grandmother lost her three year old twins in 1958, a couple of weeks apart. They died from conditions related to malnutrition. She literally could not feed her children. They had to eat animal feed, amongst other things.

People in this country often have no idea of what true poverty is. They think all it is is using the food bank for a bit and buying Tesco Value beans. It isn't. It is death.