So we are staying lockdown until June at the earliest?

[Mummypig2020]

Just seen on daily fail (sorry!) that Boris is going to announce that we will be lockdown until June at least.

Not sure if I can cope that long. 😩

went to work yesterday for the first time and it was business as usual. All the industrial units with people working sensibly And at a distance. Honestly I don’t think, unless they put military on the roads, that many will adhere to it.

Most businesses weren't stopped from working in the first place. They could stay open as long as they could observe social distancing. The list of businesses forced to close was pretty small (pubs, cafes, hairdressers etc). So, seeing businesses open and people working isn't breaching the rules or using loopholes or plain disobedience - it's doing what people have been allowed to do since day 1 of the lockdown if they can't work from home!

Government is stalling and obfuscating as they have no clue how to proceed

Yep. People will decide when the lockdown ends socially - it's already happening in a lot of areas. Many shops could reopen now, with distancing rules/queuing, no need wait for them to go bust.

They should also look at 'unlocking' some areas of the country - this is one time when places a long way from London have an advantage in terms of low infection.

Yes it has been extended until the end of June but what happens after that? This is why I think the government will have no choice but to send everyone back to work as they surely aren't going to pay out anymore in furlough.

First step is to get the businesses that didn't need to close in the first place open again.

Second step is to extend the scope of businesses allowed to open, such as garden centres.

Third step is to stop furlough for the business sectors allowed to open and only continue it for those forced to stay closed, such a pubs, cafes, hairdressers, etc.

Then see how things go.

Well I think our government will carry on with their policy of waiting for Nicola Sturgeon to decide what Scotland is doing and follow. So some sort of lockdown til June sounds likely.

@FliesandPies I'm pleased your customers are going by the guidelines, the ones I am experiencing are not and that's not being dramatic.

I went to check on our tiny little campsite we like to visit to see what their COVID page said. This was on the last day of March. I was pleasantly surprised to see that they were closing and the government advices suggested it would be until June the 12th. That's the only place I've ever seen a date for the possible end. Then tui said they would be potentially offering holidays in the same week..... so yeah, I'm going for 12th June

Good. I have a theory about this though and its not as black and white as it sounds.

What's that @redtoothbrush?

@TopBitchoftheWitches I don't work in a shop, that's my experience as a customer. It's dramatic for someone in a shop to say they are 'really scared'. If customers get too close you can tell them, politely, to stand back. You can also take some measures to protect yourself with gloves, mask, sanitiser. You can insist management take adequate measures to protect you - they have a duty of care.

In other words, you have some control over your situation. Those 'whining' as you describe it have no control - they have literally lost control over their lives and can only wait for the Gov to give them some hope. It is really really hard on some people - a lot of people actually - in different ways and a bit of common sympathy and decency shouldn't be too much to ask.

"The government have taken away our freedom" You think you're in prison 2beautifulbabs but really you've been allowed to sit at home relatively safely while other people took risks to supply you with everything you needed.

Hey, maybe we should reverse this? How about we conscript those complaining about their right to go out into helping out in their local hospital. Someone has to mop up stuff right and they don't really believe there's a risk anyway.

children not found to have passed virus

A shift in enforcement and interpretation. Encouraging reopenings slowly even though technically still in lockdown.

Call it soft easing of restrictions without everyone realising, so that people don't go nuts with parties etc and it gives the government the option of tightening enforcment if infection rates start to go up again, without too much political fall out.

Hey, maybe we should reverse this? How about we conscript those complaining about their right to go out into helping out in their local hospital. Someone has to mop up stuff right and they don't really believe there's a risk anyway.

The same hospitals that have cancelled thousands of appointments and treatment?

I can’t see it being relaxed any time soon, unfortunately.

It would just be the height of stupidity and a very very dangerous risk to take to do that at this point.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/30/coronavirus-scientists-caution-against-reopening-schools?CMP=ShareiOSAppp_Other

We're the third world highest and heading to have the highest death rate in Europe, the testing isn't happening anything like as it needs to.

This!

Sorry not read through the thread. I was sure - but perhaps I am imagining it - when lockdown began on March 23 newspapers were saying it would probably be 3 months, so I had always thought this level of lockdown would probably not change much until at least June.

children not found to have passed virus

And another article warning against it.

www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/30/coronavirus-scientists-caution-against-reopening-schools

It's fair to say we are still in the midst of the pandemic and nobody really has a clue yet to what is going on.

Here is a good article

A guide to making sense of a problem that is now too big for any one person to fully comprehend

So we've gone from children being 'super-spreaders' to them not passing on the virus at all??

Guylan

Me too.

Then come out slowly with social distancing still in place. Then you get accused of wanting to stay in lockdown till 2030.

Ivory tower? I wish. I'm in various supermarkets everyday with no ppe and customers treat us like shit, no ivory tower at all

Well if its so horrible, im sure there are many people out of work who will happily take your job so you can bunker down.
Get away from those selfish, nasty customers and you can take the easy - as you call it, stay home route

I feel for you lot in the UK, i couldnt imagine lockdown so long and so strict.
Im struggling with the Aus measures, SA at that, one of the more free states and we starting to ease things

I've said this before elsewhere but two crucial points:

If, as it is being suggested, obesity is linked to mortality we would expect to see a higher death rate in the UK than most other western nations bar the US. This means that measures the government put in place during the course of the crisis may, in the long term, make less difference than you think.

And secondly, this isn't an issue that we are at a point to assess how well or badly the uk has done. We are still in the midst of the problem. It could be a tortoise versus hare situation if hopes of a magic bullet vaccine appearing before Christmas don't appear. We could find that countries which haven't been badly hit don't see the risk as high and their behaviour is more lax in the next phase of the disease.

The other thing is in focusing on the lack of PPE as the cause of the higher death rate we run the risk of ignoring more ingrained economic inequality as a cause of health inequality (and obesity) as the real problem.

I do think a lack of PPE has been something that is inexcusable, but the focus on that rather than deeper issues within uk society leading to higher death rates is arguably the bigger scandal.

To be honest, I'd rather take my chances with Covid-19 then live like this. It's not living, just surviving and its miserable.

Obviously I feel for people who are vulnerable or who have lost their lives or loved ones or who are working in NHS or other settings which puts them at risk but this has been a huge struggle for me as I'm in a similar situation to the single mother mentioned at the start of the thread - two kids, working full time, Dad largely opted out of their life (he takes them one night a week). I would never ask to be furloughed as I think its going to be a straight path into redundancy and I'm terrified of the state of the economy after this. I'm also terrified what would happen if I lose my job and have no money. I've been trying to save up since my ex left but I was a SAHM for years before this so never had money of my own.

I think those are both excellent points redtoothbrush. The increased mortality rates for the overweight seem to have been seriously downplayed- but it does seem to be a very relevant factor - and I say this as someone who is something over the BMI normal range so I don't have an axe to grind about it.