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.

Most of us are going to get it at some point and we will be just fine. So will our families and friends

Well aren’t you lucky!
Not all of us have loved ones who will survive this.

Nor am I trying to hone educate small kids whilst working. Lockdown is not uncomfortable for me.nut it hasn't to stop some time soon

Yep. I’m happy it hasn’t to stop. That will save my loved ones

OP so everyone should get it, lots of people die and are left with long term health problems?
Brilliant. Now ask yourself why no country in the world is doing that?

Sweden?

Lockdown should be scaled back. It probably won't be because Boris is in charge and he's never yet met a situation he can't fuck up...

The UK lockdown isnt much different to lockdowns in other European and international countries

Governments are taking advice from science. These are not government led lockdowns, they are science led lockdowns

It's simple. If we do not flatten the curve, our health services will be overwhelmed and there will be many more deaths

If we do not quarantine there will be many many more deaths. Quarantine is a tried and tested way of dealing with epidemics and has been used for many centuries

What makes you, and others, think you know better than the best scientific minds in the world?

What makes you such an expert on how to deal with this?

I don't deny that the government have made mistakes but they have an army of scientists and epidemiologists and statisticians at their beck and call. What are you basing your advice on? The fact that you are fed up with lockdown?

I agree Op. All those saying lockdown shouldn't be lifted, we are going to have to at some point soon. What is it you want? A vaccine...well it's being tried but who knows when it will actually be ready. In the meantime people do have to work, children do need to have some form of structured education, life has to go on. The constant "WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!!!!!!" rhetoric is verging on hysteria in some quarters. No we're not all going to die, many will but the vast majority won't, so yes we are going to have to live with it because what's the alternative? An impoverished, depressed tattered society just existing?

Antibiotics don't work for viruses do they?
All the medical advances won't stop people from catching it, they aren't a preventative.
They won't stop all people from dying, either.
I don't think you have a clue OP.

I think a lot of people think that this peak we have just had was always coming and it was always going to be the size it was, and that our government told us to all go inside at just the right time, like you would during a thunderstorm.

Definitely! It would be great to have some real people in charge.

And lots of countries are trying to stop people get it and dying while we wait for a vaccine that we can all be given.
A vaccine is being tested at the moment on volunteers.
But OP if you think everyone needs to get it, why don't you are your family pop along to the nearest care home and help out? No need to worry about PPE either of course.

In fact nobody needs PPE if everyone just has to get it and accept more people will die. NHS can change its guidelines so that nobody should wear PPE, that will save some money.

Spanish flu appreciate that that was pre antibiotics, ventilators, cpap, continuous cardiac monitoring and dialysis? Pre any form of enhanced medical care in fact?

And still 28k+ people have died so far.

I agree that lockdown must end, in a gradual and controlled way.

There seem to be people on here who think that the government or their company will pay them to stay at home until there is a vaccine.

Most people will get it at some point, and lockdown is about spreading the number of fatalities out over a manageable period.

But I disagree with those saying that lockdown wasn't needed, has gone on too long or that the virus was overblown. I'll take advice from WHO and world governments over a random on mn, unless you can prove you're a fully qualified virologist and can prove that your shaky grasp of exponential maths was an error.

While I appreciate the sentiment, I don't agree that anyone who is afraid of going to work or their kids going to school. My son is you're every day average kid until he gets an asthma attack. The thought of him getting this and struggling for breath kills me, as does the thought of my mother, who I haven't seen in 8 weeks, or my brother, who has a bad heart, or my aunt and uncle who are in their eighties ... I know of a student in her 30s, no underlying health issues who has died from this, and another 30 something who is still struggling a month after coming out of hospital. And you think people are being over the top and chances are most will be fine? Yes, some things need to start moving but others don't, not yet

If that's the conceptual model you have, it would make sense to you to come out when you think the thunderstorm has passed.

@trappedsincesundaymorn We are being told by the end of the year a vaccine should be available in millions of doses. It has been tested on animals with good results and is now being tested on humans.

I actually agree. I think if we can now be clearer due to greater knowledge of COVID 19 who falls into the vulnerable categories, the rest of us need to collectively get back out to work, earn money and divert what would have been furlough funds to protect the vulnerable while they shield and a vaccine is developed.

Carrying on as-is comfortably, is a privilege which isn't afforded to many. The wider impact on other economically vulnerable members of society, particularly children, absolutely has to be taken into account.

I don't envy anyone who has to make this decision. It's a lose lose.

Real people - how's about a few rounds of shots and a game of chicken on the A40?

Who's afraid of death? Not me!

I would like to agree with you but can't get the 28k+ deaths (as of today) and the doctors and nurses who have died trying to save lives out of my head.

The OP is right, we have to start paddling in the shallows soon. I have two sons with families, who will pay their bills, mortgages if they cannot get back to work soon.

Children need educating, and socialisation, teenagers need a life outside of home. Students need to get back to college.

I assume a lot more people will die before we find a vaccine. This will happen all over the world.

I am an oldie so higher risk but no longer working I have to be as careful as I can, but I cannot guarantee I will not catch it and die which is what frightens my children.

You get to do what's best for you but we should just get fucked over? We should be allowed to do what's best for us too.

It's not a question of anyone getting fucked over. The NHS is funded through taxation and taxation depends on people earning money. We are on lockdown to protect the vulnerable, but at some point we will have to start going back to work to protect the vulnerable.

However, lockdown won't end because 'people get real', it will end because the government loosens restrictions.

Can I ask where people are getting these predictions from that it will take decades to recover economically?

At work we were told the economy will take 7 quarters to recover. Sometimes I have seen longer in the papers -3-4 years, but not decades.

Also this wear a mask thing. I don’t think many employers are going to let workers in customer facing roles wear masks.

And countries who have a low level of deaths have pretty much done the opposite to the UK.
I think if we had had a harsh lock down early on it could have been shorter, saved lives and been better for the economy.
But it would have meant leadership from Boris which he seems incapable of.
I suspect bosses like Sports Direct boss is putting massive pressure on to get everyone back to work asap.

Carrying on as-is comfortably, is a privilege which isn't afforded to many.

Agree. Many people aren't covered by furlough schemes, and some people are living in conditions where prolonged lockdown would be either dangerous or unsustainable.

We are being told by the end of the year a vaccine should be available in millions of doses

The operative word there is should not will be. So what do you want to happen in the meantime? Stay locked down for the next 5,6,7, however many months it takes for a successful vaccine to be rolled out? How do you suppose that will work? How many lives are you willing to discount due to suicides, lack of cancer care, DV ? Or are those lost lives not important because it's only C-19 deaths that matter now?

Exponential growth of a virus...what impact will that have on educational neglect, the economy, and mental health? Let alone deaths from all causes. If you are suggesting that would have less impact than lockdown has then you need to give it more thought.

If you are not suggesting that, rather than we need to find a way to ease lockdown in due course while keeping R under one, then yes, that's already happening so you will be pleased to know the govt agrees with you.

We don't actually know what mortslity would be in a country with no healthcare available, ie one allowing continued exponential growth of cases. Funnily enough no one has been mad enough to try it yet.

Really not sure what the point you are trying to make is.