What do they mean ‘social distancing in some form until the end of the year’?

[BuffaloCauliflower]

Just that really? What sort of level are they actually talking about? Surely the country will crumble, hospitality industry for one won’t survive if people can’t go out normally all summer and then Christmas time as well? The fallout will be far greater than the virus and the country will be bankrupt.

Anyone more knowledgeable than me able to contribute?

the virus is not going away though.

If they're all redundant, they're all applying to be housed and for benefits. There is no jobs to replace their jobs when a whole section of the economy is gone.

@BuffaloCauliflower but the point is it has been kept surplus by the measure we are following. If we stop following them it will spiral higher than it has done creating a second peak and therefore all of those will have to remain closed

The point of the furlough money was to prevent mass unrest.

Hong Kong is well ahead of us in the phase of this, and resturants are open but bars and clubs aren't. They have social distancing in place between groups of diners, ie tables are placed further apart. However, there is a piece of research published on a case where multiple tables of diners are affected and the researchers think it's linked to the flow of the air conditioning.

There are countries with schools going back with classes on alternative days. That could be one approach schools can take.

Since the UK is behind on many countries on timeline of this pandemic, we can watch what other countries do and see the effects the relaxing measure has.

One thing that is for sure is we won't be back to how it would be until there's a vaccine and a cure, as Chris Whitty already explained.

I am mentally preparing myself for things never going back to how they were

Gosh, aren't you a little ray of sunshine?

Pretty much NOBODY with any scientific expertise is saying that this is the new normal and we'll never be able to do things like seeing granny and going on holiday ever again.

@BuffaloCauliflower

if it leads to mass unemployment and poverty that’s no better than dying of the virus

This is the problem with speculation you seem to be so sure that very little is being planned regarding the above scenarios..granted we have less info from the govt but what we do know is that solutions /partial solutions are available for the above scenarios...how govt mitigate against those is up to them.

Your presumption that the economic effects and effects on mental health will be just as worse as the effects of Covid-19 is not grounded in any evidence.

We do know there is no solution/cure/vaccine whatever you want to call it for people.

From a completely selfish point of view it was supposed to be my wedding next week which obviously I've postponed. However only until the end of October, realistically if we have to move it again it's probably going to be 2022 as all the dates will have been taken by other people rescheduling. However if it goes on for the rest of the year the wedding industry might be decimated anyway so might be a moot point!

I would rather be poor and have my loved ones that be without them

Whilst I understand this sentiment, have you ever lived through not having the money to buy your next meal and feed your family? Because I have, and the thought of 10% maybe 20% of the country facing this prospect is utterly horrifying to me.

Think we might get a better idea by the end of the day. BBC just said Nicola Sturgeon is going to be talking about Scotlands exit plans today. 🤔

Lyricallie It might be a selfish one, but it's a good point to consider. There are a lot of people and businesses within the wedding industry who may end up out of a job or closing as a result of this. Also a lot of wedding venues rely on weddings in order to pay running costs, so these venues may be forced to close.

I saw that Sturgeon was going to start laying out plans.

Scotland and the rest of the UK have followed pretty much the same path through all of this. Much as the SNP like to do things differently, there is obviously a lot of coordination going on. Schools closed the same day, same 2m social distancing rules, same recommendations on exercise.

The main difference is our schools, end of term here is around 25th June, about 4 weeks earlier than England/Wales. Should, for example, the English authorities decide that schools go back for the last 5 weeks of term, there would be no point here as we'd almost be finished already. The Scottish education secretatry has already said his best guess for schools going back is that start of the new term in August.

GrimmsFairytales Definitely, I'm not sure about our venue I think primarily it's a music venue/music school so who knows if they'll make it through. A big issue we have is as it's a big Scottish wedding we were supposed to be having a ceilidh. So who knows, I mean even if we're allowed to have it how do you have a wedding with social distancing? Everyone sits apart and waves?

BuffaloCauliflower - how good do you think it would be for business if the only way the NHS could cope with covid 19 was by refusing treatment to covid 19 patients altogether? Do you think oeoplemwould flock back to social events without social distancing on that basis, for the good of the economy?

I like to be positive and think that people and industries will adapt. We have all adapted so much already.

Lots of clubs are operating over Zoom, etc, and I think that will increase, and people will start to view it as normal.

I imagine a lot of museums etc will remain closed, as they are publicly funded. But commercial venues, e.g. science centres, zoos, cinemas, etc, could maybe open to limited numbers with pre-booked tickets only.

Schools will work out a way, and I wonder if we will all view education much more flexibly when this is over. Workplaces will get used to WFH where possible.

If I had money to invest I'd be opening up a Drive In cinema.

The thing I worry about is when will it be viable for my mum to travel 4 hours each way on the bus to visit (or vice versa). Before she would do it for a day trip and think nothing of it. Now it seems unthinkable. A year seems such a long way away.

have you ever lived through not having the money to buy your next meal and feed your family? Because I have, and the thought of 10% maybe 20% of the country facing this prospect is utterly horrifying to me.

This

Has anyone ever lived through a health service ceasing to function?

Some people are such doom mongers. Of COURSE things will go back to normal eventually. This isn't the first pandemic we've ever had. We've had the bubonic plague, the Spanish flu. Both of which occurred before the NHS and before we had the science and technology that we have now. Both of which we recovered from. There will be a recession and it will take a while but things WILL go back to normal.

Speculation is pointless. The real game changer would be a safe, reliable vaccine. Clinical trials have started this week on the one from thenOxford group, and their lead says she is hopeful that they may be able to start rolling it out in September, starting with frontline health staff, if the trials go well.
The other potential game changer would be a reliable antibody test to see who is already immune. Such people could then safely return to work and social activities with no risk to themselves or others. We do have several versions of such a test already but they are not reliable enough to be safe. Telling someone they are immune if they were not, could be a death sentence. And also spread the virus again.

@Lyricallie I'm the same as you, mines spring 2021 - not sure whether to push it back, hope for the best or accept we might not get the wedding we'd always wanted / all our friends did! Small in the scheme of things, but still sad.

@MoltenLasagne I don't think people have grasped it yet, when they say 'well I'm staying inside until there's a vaccine' - there will be no economy and no money and people won't just be a 'bit broke'...

@PineappleDanish

There's always the 'life as we know it is over forever' brigade - based on what, I'm not sure.

Re Face masks-we seem to be the only country not advocating their use. I feel this is simply because our government didn't put enough in place for the nhs so they don't want us buying them. Simples

I'm making our own and we are going to start wearing them. What's the use of ignoring positive mask stories from other countries. If they help even just a small percentage why not wear one.

Our government have been wrong on many things starting with the herd immunity spin, so i don't believe what they say about masks not helping.

Look across at what they're doing/proposing to ease restrictions in Germany, Spain, Denmark, etc. That should give you a very good idea of what Chris Witty means by continued social distancing measures.

As well as soft level social distancing measures expect the shielding group to continue to be shielded until the treatment/vaccine is available. This is the group most at risk of dying from the disease regardless of how well the NHS is coping.

Waxonwaxoff0 - to be fair, even as recently as the 1918 pandemic, there was an awful lot less cancer treatment, no antibiotics, far fewer people living with serious chronic conditions, much smaller populations to sustain in the first place. So it’s a bit difficult to compare it to a modern day pandemic. And I wouldn’t fancy a plague scenario! That would take centuries to recover from.
That said, money is entirely manmade as a concept. It’s the capitalist system that is under threat, not the means to sustain lives. Either we have the capacity to provide food and shelter for everyone, or we don’t. Money is just one way of deciding who gets what.

Havent rtft but @midgebabe that's an excellent link, thank you.