Time to get real people

[cookingmywaythroughlockdown]

Ok I think it's time to get a grip on reality!

Coronavirus is pretty nasty but it isn't apocalypse now time. Most of us are going to get it at some point and we will be just fine. So will our families and friends.
The UK cannot stay locked down for much longer without producing a national disaster that will reverberate for decades. So - you will be going back to work, your kids will be going back to school. Wash your hands well and enjoy your lives.
I'm just so sick of the posts prophesying carnage and really enjoying competitive isolation. For most people living like this is borderline harmful. For some it is already actively harmful.

We have to come out from under the bed. Wear a mask, wear gloves if you like but be prepared to live a normal if socially distanced life.

All epidemics burn themselves out eventually. We are much better placed to treat and protect the vulnerable then ever before. At some point soon we have to just get on with it.

You might want to rethink your approach if you want to convince people.

@savehalloween I was being sarcastic.

I am one of the people in the 12 week shielding category. I don’t think people are taking this seriously enough. We been in lockdown for a few weeks. It’s not even a strict lockdown.

Compared to Spain and Italy our so called lockdown has been a holiday for most

I'm assuming OP you'll be as upbeat and breezy if someone you love gets this and dies painfully and alone in hospital?

To be fair OP, your title is incredibly pompous and patronising.

Agree with above comment.

I don’t disagree with a lot of what you said, but I was also put off by the thread title.

Feeding fear isn't helpful. Coronavirus doesn't affect people in the same identical way per case but we know mortality is low. We can't say what will happen to any individual. Locking down and shielding is the way we have temporarily adjusted to that situation. It doesn't solve anything for a country like the UK.
We need to start living with the fear or we will have a lot more to be scared of.

It's a good thing that people are so divided on this. Then when the lockdown is eased only half will rush out and half will remain cautious at home.

but we know mortality is low

Not sure someone of Pakistani heritage in the Midlands would be reassured about this because you say so.

OP I do slightly agree with you, I get where you're coming from. For now, lockdown is necessary and I get that. But we will have an end to it and when we slowly come out we need to enjoy our lives as normal. There is no point berating others for what they do, I'm certainly not going to berate couples for going to Tesco together. Coronavirus is here and we have to find a way to live with it. Hopefully we will get a vaccine sooner rather than later.

Absolutely agree OP.

Of course their are exceptions, those shielding etc but the vast majority of the public need to accept a certain level of risk and get on with their lives.

Also very frustrated by those who think a magical vaccine will be tested, produced, manufactured, distributed and administered within the space of a year. At which point we can all merrily dance our way to the restaurants, bars, airports etc that will have long ceased to trade, celebrating the mass economic failure created by their insistence to stay at home!

it’s hard to know what to believe. But I’m going with government advice thank you.

I agree. I hate every thing about this isolation, from queuing to get into supermarkets to my child's tears at missing her friends. And don't get me started on social distancing, what a farce. It's all so cruel and the worst thing is I think the response to the virus has been overblown and predicated on faulty predictions that have since been revised.

People die everyday, we need to get on with life rather than let fear reign over us. I can't believe what we have allowed to happen.

Speak for yourself.
A lot of people will have lost their jobs and not be going back to work.
some parents won't be sending their kids back to school as a gov experiment.
How do you know our families and friends won't die, it's not great being stuck inside and of course losing all your income. It's still better than death though.
Knock yourself out, go to work and if you have kids send them to school.
Don't whine if the second wave kills the kids rather than the grown ups.
That's' what happened with 1918 flu. First wave got the kids, second wave their parents.
Thanks for being so happy to take one for the team though.

If ‘most of us are going to get it’ we will not be ‘fine’ until there is a cure or vaccine. There would be hundreds of thousands more deaths.

The projected deaths of left to run unhindered was 250,000 for the U.K.
That would not include the deaths caused through a swapped NHS who couldn’t deal with other life threatening health conditions. That would be socially, economically and psychologically devastating. There has to be a middle ground that attempts to reduce the deaths without flatlining the economy for the next generation.

If left

@Devlesko people are losing their incomes BECAUSE of lockdown. Not in spite of it.

People will die. Nobodies ever claimed otherwise.

Guess what?

If lockdown continues, people will die.

Children are more susceptible to poverty and abuse than Corona, you know.

But who cares about them eh? Or abused women? Suicidal people? People with mental health issues?

As long as nobody gets Corona.

There is a much bigger picture here that so many of you are failing to see.

I was disliking your posts until you wrote "Boris hasn't met a situation yet he can't fuck up".

Couldn't have put it better myself.

Also, there's no proof that social isolation even works.

There’s not proof tinfoil hats help, but you might want to get one.

There would be hundreds of thousands more deaths.

Yeah, but that’s the old and sick people. We can sacrifice them because we want ‘Spoons to open again, can’t we?

How do you know it won't be kids dying in the second wave. In the 1918 flu epidemic nobody thought the parents could catch it as the kids were dying.
Some children are susceptible to poverty yes, it's awful. But aren't these offered a place in school currently?
There are some people with mh issues coping quite well, myself included.
Stop generalising about whole swathes of people.

I wouldn't have used some of your phraseology because I think it is rather provocative, but in general I am inclined to agree with your overall sentiments.

I do have very vulnerable parents and I am worried about them. However, this just can't go on indefinitely. The economy has largely tanked, people are losing their jobs and livelihoods despite the furlough scheme, people often aren't getting or seeking medical help for other serious conditions, or are only presenting at a late stage. So deaths from those conditions are starting to run at a higher rate than is normal or necessary.

The virus will be around for a while. The economy cannot remain tanked like this for too long. The NHS needs to start rowing back from being the National Covid Service, and in fact, I think I read recently that it is planning to do this over the next six weeks where it possibly can.

None of this means that I am dismissing or minimising the effects of Covid 19. I'm not. I'm scared for my own elderly parents if they get it. I still think though that we have reached the point of needing the exit strategy. We can't go on like this. We hope that a vaccine will be found and made available, but that will take probably around another year.

@Devlesko well I don't know for certain but considering its been mentioned that it's very unlikely to mutate into a more dangerous strain I think we can all agree that it suddenly becoming a child killing virus is somewhat unlikely.

Vulnerable children can go to school but it's widely reported that only a small % are actually attending.

Some people are coping. Many more aren't. Good for you that you're doing well - why don't you tell that to all the families that have lost people to suicide?

I mean their deaths don't count do they?

We need to start living with the fear or we will have a lot more to be scared of.

What is a bigger fear than a fear of dying or losing loved ones? There isn't one for normal people.