Are people forgetting we are still in lockdown?

[Scousebird26]

Hi all!
Hope everyone is safe and well!

I don’t know if this is the same for anyone else, but I took my dog for a quick walk over the field today and it was just full of people enjoying the sun - I totally understand going for your daily excercise, but there was families having picnics, groups of people playing football, people on the streets talking to each other who deffo weren’t social distancing! It was like just an ordinary day!

I totally appreciate people are getting fed up, me included and there are many of times I’ve just thought fuck it, il go and visit family/friends but I haven’t. I don’t want to make this whole thing worse.

Is this the same in other home towns or has mine just forgot the situation we are all in?!

Unfortunately cases will likely rise again in a couple of weeks as a result of more and more people ceasing to social distance this weekend. We aren't even past the peak yet. Stricter lockdown coming our way in May/June? When I hoped, particularly for those in cities and with no private outside space, that we could avoid that with the current lighter restrictions staying in place for the longer term.

Feeling rather despairing about others selfishness but will continue to concentrate on my own family and what we're doing. Only me leaving the house/garden once a week for an essential supermarket trip. Going out in our small garden early morning and late evening for short periods to avoid neighbours and passers by.

@Carlislemum

What were you hoping to avoid? In the abscence of a vaccine and a national vaccination programme (which takes lots of time)..

What were you hoping? That if everyone stayed home COVID would go away and when they formally lift restrictions a bit, the risk of contracting it will be eliminated or reduced?

You do know that's not the point of lockdown?

It is those sorts of people that make me well, why the fuck shouldn't I go to the shop or walk the dog, if they can't stick to the rules. Why should I but I do it because if I catch it I will die. Healthy people don't seem to have respect for the vulnerable. And please themselves.

You've just said you want to do what you want, and the only reason you aren't doing what you want is because if you catch it you will die.

Then in the same sentence berating people for doing what they want because they don't have the but I will die.

Can you not see the hypocrisy in that you've just said if you weren't at high risk of dying you'd flout the shielding rules, but other people who aren't at risk of dying have no respect for wanting to flout the rules.

Okay then 👌🏻

So are we in agreement that people, by nature, only act when they perceive an immediate threat to them and the ones they care about...?

Same here. Just read that Wales are getting stricter l think.

Whereas in England life seems sort of normal. But death rates and cases are still high. I’ve been stuck in traffic today. I’m making and delivering scrubs.

2 weeks ago no one on the roads. Today stuck in traffic.

@Snyde.

Yes. The 'should I be quaranting my post, washing food with soap and water?' posts are usually from excessively anxious but low risk people.

The people shouting 'you're selfish and think you're special' because you ate some crisps on a bench or exercised twice in a day are often shielding or in high risk groups, have read far too much 'research' online and want to impose their imaginary restrictions on a nation to protect them personally. Under the guise of 'protecting the NHS'.

And they lack common sense and risk assessment.

Thinking if everyone stays in for months, it will all go away..

I played football on a big, empty field with DS today, dont see how that was doing anything wrong

@TimeForChange123 I fully understand the point of lockdown. I was hoping here in the UK we could avoid an even higher number of deaths/a prolonged peak/second wave/even tighter lockdown restrictions. Like I said I suspect restrictions will be tightened further this summer if many carry on as they are.

I'm pragmatic about the fact many aspects of life can't return to any sort of normality until an effective vaccine is widely available (Autumn 2021 onwards).

@Carlislemumof4 The people going out and about not following the advice are the sameness ones moaning that lockdown is causing terrible problems for people. They are either not able to understand or don’t give a damn that they’re the ones who may well prolong this for everyone

@Carlislemum

But what were you hoping for? was my clear question.

You were hoping people would adhere to lockdown and you seem to think that if they haven't, it may result in a stricter lockdown?

The goverment has been surprised by how compliant the country has been.

What were YOU hoping? Say if 100% people adhered to initial lockdown?. That COVID would go away? That it wouldn't be a problem anymore when restrictions are lifted?

Do you think the plan was no-one should get it ever? Or did you believe that it was to flatten the curve and protect the NHS from overwhelm, as we were told as a populace and that restrcitions will have to be lifted before a nationwide vaccine?

If you know the point of initial lockdown, what do you think that was?

Do you think given reducing death rates, many areas not dramatically effected and 40,000 free acute hospital beds, it's very unlikely that a small number of 'rule breakers' will cause another wave or stricter lockdown?

Especially since for every 'rule breaker' there are people like you who think they've achieved something by entire families only having one member leave the house very rarely.

@TimeForChange123

I'm having exactly the same argument with @twinnywinny14 on another thread who thinks everyone needs to follow the rules so we can get back to normal sooner.

It defies all logic.

Do they think people would be even contemplating breaking the rules, or worrying about their jobs if it was as simple as "strict lockdown for 12 weeks and the virus will be eradicated".

@Synde. I don't get it. There seems to be this idea if you follow the rules (usually MN rules) then we'll get back to normal. Don't and there'll be a stricter lockdown.

Where do they think COVID is going?

COVID will be there if we lift restrictions now or if we have them for another 3 months.

@SnydeValley as I said on the other thread, lockdown does not eradicate the virus, it keeps it low enough for the NHS to cope, meaning we all stand a better chance of being treated should we needn’t it for any reason (not just for COVID). If here is a second peak or the infection rate begins to rise then the lockdown will be extended and the current measures won’t be lifted. If the R rises above one there is no way any measures will be lifted and restrictions will remain or may even have to be tightened

If we hadn’t had this lockdown what would have happened? To the infection rate? To the death toll? To the NHS?

People round here are taking themselves out of lockdown
Today my back neighbours had a family party yesterday they had a big barbecue - no way was it only the people who live there

Two weeks ago in the supermarket the staff were really strict about one person one trolley - today not so much. The staff were standing chatting to each other and customers as if social distancing was over and I even saw two staff hugging

Roads are busy. Like a normal weekday
It’s what I’ve said for ages - people will get fed up and just stop ‘doing the right thing’

lockdown does not eradicate the virus, it keeps it low enough for the NHS to cope, meaning we all stand a better chance of being treated should we needn’t it for any reason (not just for COVID).

Yes yes we all know the rhetoric. It's rhetoric. Particularly the bit about the NHS being there should we need it for any reason. Will I just repeat the rhetoric to my grandma who is bleeding and in pain waiting on a hysterectomy? Or my daughter who has had two eye hospital appointments cancelled?

If there is a second peak or the infection rate begins to rise then the lockdown will be extended and the current measures won’t be lifted.

If extend the lockdown for 3 months then lift restrictions the rate will begin to rise and then we will have a second peak and more lock down. Rinse and repeat. Rinse and repeat.

The lockdown was supposed to be about protecting the buckling NHS, but the hospitals are empty? We have beds.

So it's clearly not really about a lack of beds.

My best guess is it's about a lack of staff. And nurses and doctors don't just materialise out of thin air (and neither do 66 million doses of vaccine). That timescale is years. Do we all just lockdown for years until the nurses are trained or the vaccine comes? Kids off school, whole industries wiped out, no one getting operations or screening or cancer care?

I would rather not have rhetoric, I'd rather see their actual plan for how they intend to get us out of this. Apparently it is contact testing, which will probably be half-arsed and mismanaged (like everything else) and will just end up with the virus running rife anyway.

@twinnywinny

That's not happened though really. The NHS has a previously unseen number of empty acute beds including Nightingale hospitals and has numerous non-COVID patients needing care who are unable to access it as it was cancelled as 'routine' and/or 111 is not referring seriously ill patients in need of treatment for suspected COVID which could be other serious conditions.

Will it get worse? In terms of COVID? Very possibly. Other non-COVID cases who need to access help and can't? Very likely.

At some point, the Government and NHS will have to look at what they did and hopefully, they will have just wasted money and resources based on what they thought at the time.

I won't blame them if they got it wrong and Nightingale Hospitals are empty or underused. Or that they cancelled a lot unecessarily. How could they know?

It is ikely that more non-COVID lives from NHS patients may be lost in the long term than those from COVID. But they aren't decisions i'd have wanted to make in an unprecedented situation.

They're high-level population level situations and propsed decisions, especially when you're balancing the risk to the ecoonomy and unemployment, MH, abuse, DV, poverty etc. I would not want to be involved.

But..will it come down to 'that bloke next door played football with mates in the park - against the RULES' or 'Amy in her 50s with no underlying conditions next door looked after her daughters kids - against the rules!"

No. But it's convenient for the Government to make the public feel responsible for the nation "stay home, save lives, protect the NHS" and think their neighbour is going to cause the deaths of many, including HCPs (and many love an oppurtunity to monitor and report anyway) rather than query policies and plans.

That's my objection. That many of the minor, understandable and reasonable actions from an individual or family have become 'you are killing people'.

When they're not and never were.

Damned either way though aren’t they? It’s easy for the public to point the finger and blame the government for making the wrong decision. If they hadn’t have increased capacity and more people died as a result then they would’ve been slated for that, have empty beds they get blamed for wasting money and cancelling unnecessarily. I’m bored of arguing about tbh

I saw my mum and my sister today. They live together. None of us have been to a supermarket for 3 weeks, only on daily walks. In fact I often don't even go out for a walk.

Our town centre was like a normal Friday today apparently

I don't recognise most of these things. Here we are all doing as we're told.

It's declarations like that of Mimilamore above that make no sense. People saying it's like a normal weekday or there was normal amounts of weekday traffic. There is no way that can be true as no normal shops are open and even car parks in beauty spots are closed. I fail to believe that anywhere is just "like a normal Friday" with hour long tailbacks on motorways and people milling around shopping centres or inner city areas. People just like to be dramatic when they see 10 cars in a row, who are more than likely shopping or commuting.

Those frothing about what everyone else is doing...whilst they are clearly doing the same otherwise HOW could they see them? Makes me laugh...a lot

Yeah this puzzles me too! They can clearly see inside the supermarket, the motorway, the park, and all the surrounding roads just from their lounge window?! Their house must be ginormous! Either that or they are doing the exact same thing they are criticising others for 😆

Our town centre was like a normal Friday today apparently

I see posts like that all over our community FB groups and Next Door messages

DH has been out in our town centre on deliveries today. There’s about 5 shops open and the place was dead

Someone posted that they’d “heard” holiday homes were being got ready for 2nd homers and holiday makers - cue mass hysteria and panic

“Apparently” the beach I live opposite and can see from my house was like a “normal summer holiday” day today and the car park was “rammed” It wasn’t and the car park was locked weeks ago

The police post daily updates on their Facebook page complete with photos and they completely refute these claims

Yes, it’s a bit busier out there that it had been but there are people back at work, some are driving short distances to exercise, the volunteer programme is fully up and running here now, delivery slots are very hard to come by so people have to head out to the shops. It’s definitely not “heaving”

I fail to believe that anywhere is just "like a normal Friday" with hour long tailbacks on motorways and people milling around shopping centres or inner city areas.

Ah. See a 'normal friday' where I live is..fairly busy road but never enough for jams, just steady traffic, pain in the arse to cross though as..always, when you g to cvross loads of cars come from nowhere and any gaps become non existant for ages! People standing about in groups talking, often right in the middle of busyish paths. Kids running about.

Not normal as in..huge shopping centre normal. But normal as in normal for a small ish village on the outskirts of Durham. Very noticeable difference from a few weeks back. Our local town seems busier too than even usual, but I suspect thats because people are having to queue outside supermarkets, which makes it look a lot busier than it actually is as usually those people would be inside of course. We appear to have people bringing picnics..to sit on the benches in town..not even going to the huge park to do so, just sitting in the middle of the street where people normally sit to eat their greggs inbetween shops.

Loads and loads of congregations of elderly people. those are usually tucked away in coffee shops and stuff, but seems with those closed the meetings are just..again..in the middle of the street or on benches.

Only thing missing here seems to be groups of teens. Though they might be there, just better hidden!

(I wouldn't say we are quite at 'normal levels' yet here though. But definitely a large change from the 'new normal' we have been used to for a few weeks)