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?

@LilacTree1 Most people have chosen to avoid shops and bars and schools have closed. Read about the polio epidemics. People were terrified. People at the time talking about how businesses were going to close because everyone was avoiding all but essential purchases.

Has Britain ever quarantined healthy people in a civilised era before, say after universal suffrage?

@Blackbear19 It is different where you are then. I have been a bit aghast seeing building sites where there is zero social distancing.
And why would we get rid of our car? Surprised you are going to unless you need to financially. And most people are still driving to supermarkets where I live.

I was working in a big company that was thriving before this, had their best January ever, looking to expand my department etc. It's in one of the sectors that has completely shut and will be for some time. If this goes on for more than a few months, they will definitely shrink at best or go bankrupt at worst.

@Blackbear19 don't our universities rely on a huge number of foreign students? They probably won't be allowed to come here because of travel bans, or won't want to if it's all online learning. Lots of unis are already in the toilet financially with huge deficits.

@okiedokieme - you would not be breaking the rules. You are allowed to move to a different house in extreme circumstances. Your parents will be able to help ease your burden. Look after yourself.

@LilacTree1 Yes the UK has quarantined its population before. Scotland first introduced quarantine legislation in early 1500s, England in mid 1500s. This was because international trade brought diseases new to the population. There is a long history of quarantine. With polio at times infected people and their families were forcibly quarantined. We tested. We understood then how important it was. We are having to learn these lessons again.

Blackbear19
We were due a lease car on 3rd April
And our old was due to go back the same day but we still have it as they can’t collect it .

As they weren’t able to deliver it we were able to cancel the contract saving us £450 a month and insurance and a £3000 deposit

We both have a car each and this car was really my DH mid life crisis car 😂
So far we have been relatively unaffected by lockdown but we still want to end because of the huge damage it’s doing to business and people

A few of our friends have pubs and I don’t think they will survive if puns don’t open up soon but they will also lose their home as they live in the pub .

Most of the big pub landlords are only deferring the rent so when they do open they will have to pay back around a £1000 a week in rent as a minimum

And my grandmother talked to me years ago about the polio epidemics and how scared people were. I remember a teacher at school with the tell tale built up shoe that showed he had had polio.

@BeijingBikini Foreign students applying has already reduced because of Brexit. It was already set to cause some issues. But UK students will still go.

All, sorry, I followed that up with “ after universal suffrage” because I don’t count 1500s as periods when ordinary people were treated with respect.

Going for after universal suffrage is a stretch for respect.

But this is certainly the most appalling treatment of the population that anyone in my family can recall.

Covid19 is a virus. It's not going anywhere. The only way out is to shield the old and vulnerable and everyone else needs to get back to normal life. The media have whipped up hysteria and panic and it needs to stop now. I look forward to hearing about a realistic exit strategy and for everyone to accept that the damage being done to mental health, people awaiting cancer treatments, cancelled operations etc etc far outweighs the damage caused by this virus.

@Itsjustmee Wow £450 a month. Okay you are in a different financial league to us.

“ The only way out is to shield the old and vulnerable ”

This should be voluntary on their part. They shouldn’t be barred from doing anything.

@LilacTree1 Yes forced isolation of people infected by polio and their families. Not advice to self isolate, but taken away and physically isolated.

All, I said quarantine of healthy people.

There might be cases of that, I’m keen to know.

@LilacTree1 it is estimated that up to a third of the UK population is in a vulnerable group. Scientists are working to figure out who really is vulnerable. Because they haven't really that got that right.

All, that’s nothing to do with what I’ve said.

I’m going to use my virtual “hide poster” button that MN won’t give us. So bye, fare thee well.

@LilacTree1 Yes there are. But you want recent ones. And taking infected people and their non infected families and forcibly isolating is tougher on those people than is happening now.
We are doing this because we do not know who is infected. We can't only isolate infected and their families because we have no idea who is infected.

Remember why we have lockdown - to protect the NHS, not you.
The problem with this flu is that it is more contagious, it spreads rapidly given the chance. Without measures to slow spread, the NHS might get overwhelmed, people might be unable to get into a hospital.

So @Wannabangbang , if people don't follow lockdown policy, the epidemic won't last longer, it'll be over sooner because more people get infected sooner. The problem is whether more people die because the hospitals get full?
IMO govt has it wrong to enforce excessive lockdown such as no travel in cars, no going to parks or walks in the countryside, no going to non-essential work even if you work alone, etc. Most people, and especially the vulnerable, will voluntarily follow distancing, sanitary procedures, minimising contacts and even self isolation. The few who don't will make little difference. It's what the majority do that affects the statistics.
I think the reason for the draconian measures and dire warnings is to scare the bejeebers out of us, so that we won't question anything they do and afterwards will be grateful for their strong response, however bad things are afterwards.

Lockdown won't go on for ever. Printing money hits even politicians and their own standard of living will follow ours down. Deaths caused by lack of medical treatment for non-covid conditions and by suicides will start to outstrip covid related deaths. They'll find out that all those non-essential workers are not so non-essential. Non-selective lockdown will end.
But whether or not there is a vaccine it will become just another flu. Perhaps one of the more virulent ones, but not so different from the ones we get every year. We* will live with it and die of it, as we do with the other flus, which cause 30,000 deaths a year (out of the half million or so people who die each year.)
*Well, you will. I'm old enough not to have to worry about the future. I'm just sorry that the govt has sacrificed so much of your futures to try to keep a few old codgers like me going for a few more years (or maybe months, or even days.)

User “ I'm just sorry that the govt has sacrificed so much of your futures to try to keep a few old codgers like me going for a few more years (or maybe months, or even days.“

I really thank you for that.

My mum feels the same but also royally pissed off that she can’t see her friends and family.

You are allowed to travel to non essential work, but that point seems to have got lost in the tsunami of hysteria. Also, the police were questioning people on the Tube, which doesn’t help.

user Do you understand why some medical treatment is not happening. I know people this is affecting. Two reasons. One because there are not enough NHS staff. How would this change if there was no lock down? Do you think this would magically free up more staff?
Second reason is because their consultant thinks coming to the hospital is riskier than delaying treatment. This is because in the consultants opinion if they get covid 19 they will die. How would ending lock down change that?
Whether we are in lock down or not those people would still not have got treatment.

And on average 8,000 a people die of flu in the UK. We have had way more die already of covid 19 and that is with social distancing and a lock dowb.

Touching that you are happy to die for the sake of strangers though.

Although I do wonder at what age we should be happy to die for strangers? 90? 80? 70? 60? 50? What age are we when we become disposable and unimportant?

@BamboozledandBefuddled I agree, I am really worried about people being left until they are in such a desperate state before admission for Covid. I think it is having a very bad effect on survival rates, based on rising medical opinion about early intervention. I also completely agree about lack of non Covid health services. I just don't see how it could be better to let the virus rage unchecked though, it seems like all treatment would be worse then.

@LilacTree1
What would you and your family have preferred to see happen instead of lockdown? I would have preferred to see the govt behave very differently before lockdown, I think they could have done a much better job with contain and delay. But given that we were where we were with transmission and infection rates, based on that tragic reality...what would you have preferred? It seems that you are not just concerned about lockdown continuing, you obviously feel resentment at lockdown happening at all. So what was the preferred option? I am being very badly affected by lockdown myself with probably irreversible consequences, but I'm not managing to see any alternative.

I’m happy to die when my child is self sufficient and I’m done. I want to feel I’ve done ok and he’s ok then 🤷‍♀️

I don’t want to die, but I wouldn’t want a big stooshie to keep me alive.