Am I missing something? Everyone seems to have gone back to normal?!

[Aberforthsgoat]

So much traffic here today, we live on a main road and it's been quiet for weeks now but today it's suddenly back to how it was pre lockdown.
Loads of people out on the streets, in quite big groups, a massive load of runners in a group just gone by and earlier a huge group of cyclists
And I've not been watching out particularly we our living room looks out over the road and I've been stuck under DS with the windows open and just looked up when I've heard noise.
Do you think people have had enough and just gone back to normal after all the media articles this week?
Did I miss an announcement? Not being disingenuous honestly wondering, I can't find anything online

i'm shielding so we haven't been anywhere for weeks , its still quiet by my house and the big field / park we look onto .. i hope people arn't flouting the rules though as we will be lock down for longer although im actually enjoying it apart from missing my friends and family , its nice to have DH home and all the children and we are having a chilled , nice time mainly in the garden , eating outside , playing with the children , although i do desperately want my cleaner back ..

The people who are out are presumably exercising as they are allowed to do. The park was full today, which is totally to be expected with people exercising on a sunny Saturday.

Yes Gwen - the people I saw today in our park were waking and very spaced apart. Far more to park run alone usually.

Gil yep - but I guess we had more freedom to start with so different from sat France and Spain

Those who say they are going to go out and about and not observe social distancing rules because they are fed up of the mess the government is making are not really being logical. The coronavirus isn't suddenly going to become less dangerous because the government isn't managing things well.

I'd say they could be being more logical than you think. The Coronavirus isn't suddenly going to become less dangerous in a month. Or in three months. Or in probably eighteen months, to be honest.

The only thing that makes Coronavirus less dangerous for the very small % of people it is actually dangerous to, is if there is a proven effective treatment or a vaccine.

And that is probably eighteen months away.

Should everyone lock themselves in the house and never leave for 18 months? And even then, we don't know if there ever will be a vaccine, or an effective treatment. There's not an effective treatment for the common cold, remember.

Also, it is all very well to say that you personally are willing to accept a little more risk in order to be out and about a bit more. It doesn't work like that though. You exposing yourself puts others at risk too. You may not get a severe case of Covid19 but the 2 or 3 people you accidentally spread it to when you are grocery shopping before you get symptoms may be badly affected.

I am not the virus. The virus is the virus.

If people maintain good social distancing in shops then we're apparently safe anyway? If you are worried about your risk in shops then wear a mask, wash down your shopping. If you are in a high risk category you can choose to shield. Why does it matter if the person you catch it from in Asda themselves caught it because they went to see their mum, or because they ordered a chippy, or because they are still taking the tube back and forth to their non-essential job?

And further to that, if the two or three people they accidentally spread it to aren't very old or in the shielding group then their risk of being badly affected is absolutely tiny. If they are very old or in the shielding group then why are they in the shop? Because they've chosen to take the risk!!

You are acting like the lockdown was about nobody catching it, ever. It wasn't. That has never been the plan. We were locking down while we ramped up our capacity in the NHS and we've done that. We have the nightingales. They are empty.

I actually thought today was quieter than usual! I didnt have to queue for Sainsbury's, for the first time since lockdown began!

No. I'd be more annoyed if they fabricated a detailed plan of lifting lockdown to placate the impatient instead of watching to see how different countries attempt this and building the successful strategies in to their own plan.

@ellanwood Yeah everyone loves the great weather and its enjoyable when one’s out in it for daily exercise. I walk about 3 miles a day which takes about an hour but then it’s back to being stuck indoors (I don’t have a garden) while it’s beautiful outside. Whereas when it’s a rainy grey day there’s nothing better than being indoors. Plus I don’t mind a nice walk in a rain. I think i’m probably in the minority!

I'd say they could be being more logical than you think. The Coronavirus isn't suddenly going to become less dangerous in a month. Or in three months. Or in probably eighteen months, to be honest.

I agree that the virus remains the same in terms of its impact to an individual however that isn't the full picture as the statistical risk from the virus depends on other factors also.
If we maintain the lockdown until there are many fewer cases and have an effective track and trace in place then we can start to lift the lockdown with much less risk to any individual. Eventually we will be able to lead a much more "normal" life unless we are traced as a contact of someone with Covid19 when we will have to self isolate for a given period of time ( maybe 14 days)

If we lift the lockdown before these two things are true ( or too many people break the lockdown before this is true) the number of cases will be too high for track and trace to be effective and we will end up with numbers catching and dying from Covid19 growing exponentially agsin

Gil55 - our government aren't treating us like children. People are choosing to behave like children. The advice is pretty simple - stay home, socially distance, don't mix households. If anyone thinks that means that they should invite friends and family over to their house, then they're unbelievably stupid. Considering that covid-19 is a highly contagious fatal disease, people shouldn't repeatedly need the basic government advice in the first place. It's not rocket science.

I actually thought today was quieter than usual! I didnt have to queue for Sainsbury's, for the first time since lockdown began!

Thats because they are all out and about!
On my usual cycle route, which takes in about 5 miles of B road that ends on the A30, saw about 40 cars and vans in around 25 minutes.
Same as pre lockdown.

DIY stores opening, Macd's opening, allow non essential building works, drive to your place of exercise 7 factories/places of work repoening.

Regardless of what is actually said, the message is : Get out there!!!!

Odd really because the daily total over the last 7 days is still over 700 dead.

@succedaneum

Lockdown was not just about buying time to ramp up NHS capacity. No ramping up can ever create the capacity to cope with exponential growth of the virus. Lockdown is about stopping that growth and getting it to a level where, alongside other measures being prepared, it can hopefully be kept stable. R below one, in all settings. The further below one, the more options we have in how we open back up.

The cold hard fact is that when R is above one infections and deaths grow exponentially. No govt and no person can change that.

If people keep breaking lockdown to the extent that R in the community rises or at this point stops falling, it will be extended. If we have to start easing lockdown with R not as low as we could have got it with better compliance, then the lifting and easing will not be as much, we will have stricter long term measures needed to control it. Fairly counterproductive for people who want lockdown to end. They need to be complying in order for it to end.

Look at it this way...lockdown will be followed by a transition period with some measures still in place. The more people comply now and get R down, not only will that period come sooner but it will be a easier period with less strict measures needed. If we want a chance for life to be freer and easier in the medium term, we have do the work now.

We were locking down while we ramped up our capacity in the NHS and we've done that. We have the nightingales. They are empty

Naive.
We don't have the staff for the Nightingales, nothing else is happening in the NHS and we are leaving CV patients to self treat at home unless they become very ill.

New infections are still 1000s per day, 700 on avg have died each day this week and CV is running rampant through our community care system.

To ease off now will mean we will spend june/july and august in lockdown, instead of just May.

Went for a bike ride today. The traffic seemed like normal. When I went two weeks ago the roads were dead.

@CHARLonodn90 I also love walking in the rain! On warmer days I love to feel it on my face too

Unfortunately I have seen an increase in traffic here in Yorkshire ...also seen groups of older teens in cars in my neighborhood. Definitely not from the same household

Mac d’s are opening
Never saw that

We’re sticking to it but I don’t blame people feeling fucked off and that they’ve done enough to “protect the NHS” that the Tories have fucked over for years.

The fact that in the last week we have all noticed that there are more people on the streets out and about that is way above than the normal compared to the early days of lockdown does imply people think they are over the worst bit, and that they are fed up, and that they are not listening to current advice to stay home.
I fear this will cause us to stay in a longer lockdown due to the selfishness of these people. There’s no way the R Number will decrease with stupid selfish attitudes like this. Watch the infection rate rise again...

Went for mine and toddlers one walk on the sand dunes today and it was heaving, absolutely busier than previous weeks. Then again I don't know if it was those peoples only walk as well so I can't judge.
Mostly everyone I see is still respecting social distancing. Maybe all the panic buyers stock is depleting now? The initial fear is decreasing too?

@madein1995 I got hand sanitiser in M&S yesterday! Was stunned. There was quite a lot on the shelf - I only took one bottle as we are a small family and none of us working outside the home right now. Did quickly message my chum who is a nurse to ask if she wanted me to grab her some but she said she's got some earlier in the day!

I agree with @YogaFaker's post:

YogaFaker Sat 25-Apr-20 15:15:07
We are going to have to live with this

But living with this will HAVE to be different. This isn't like any old cold virus - it can kill far more effectively.

So we are all going to have to learn to behave in a far more careful way in public: not "soldiering on" if we've got a virus, not coughing & sneezing without using a tissue or our elbow, or adopting the very wise south east Asian politeness of wearing a mask if we have a viral infection.

We are going to have to think of others a lot more.

@theunquestionedanswer I agree with Toffee that this thread and many like it are probably FROM the govt in the first place we are a well known testing site for public opinion.

What difference is it going to make to infections if people drive to go for a walk, or walk straight out the door?

It makes quite a bit of difference to the people who live where the drivers have gone to. I ought to be able to go out for a walk where I live and hardly see a soul, but I can’t because it’s full of selfish twats who’ve driven up here from town. I live on the edge of a very small market town which is popular with tourists. It’s been empty apart from locals going to the food shops, but a friend told me today the car park is rammed.

“We have the nightingales. They are empty.”

Yes, because the govt forgot to magic up extra specially trained medical staff to run them. They’re not self sufficient hospitals but literally just extra space - and hospitals prefer to adapt overflow spaces in their own buildings rather than transfer patients AND medical staff to nightingales.

Went out for a walk this morning, first time in five days. It was a lovely day and there were a lot of people about, walkers and cyclists. Almost all seemed to be family groups apart from one gang of teenage boys on bikes, some of them wearing face masks. I live near a canal, and quite few of the barge people were around, sitting on or near their barges.

It rather sounds like you might be the selfish twat NaturalBornWoman - you own your house and garden (if you have one) - beyond that is public space and not your personal territory