AIBU to think in the future we will look back on this and think this was such a big overreaction?

[JUSTJUDY10101]

Preparing myself to get flamed for this.
Isn't it true that the majority of us will get mild symptoms and not even notice we really had it?
Yes hundreds of people are dying a day from it and yes they are not just numbers, but are they dying 'of' it or 'with' it?

People.die everyday, why have we locked down for this but we never did for the swine flu?

Is it worth ruining the economy for?

I just want other thoughts incase i'm just being stupid

@PastMyBestBeforeDate we shouldn't be tit for tatting at a time like this. Mental health has always been underfunded and I hope this kicks the government up the bum that money needs to be put into it

Yes this lockdown will have a mental health toll, but the alternative (more widespread infection and death) would also have a mental health toll.

Exactly. I don’t understand why this argument is always framed as deaths vs mental health. It’s not a straightforward choice between the two. Same with economic impacts. Allowing the virus to run rampant would also have serious economic consequences.

I agree

Everyone has done a good job in keeping others safe

There was always going to be a group that the rules didn’t apply to. Those who think ‘breaking’ the rules is ok.

There’s also a huge risk to key workers and their families - the reason it’s going to keep spreading

If we all ignored the rules the death rate would be a lot higher. Watching Sweden to see how it pans out for them.

Yes absolutely MH issues work both ways. And people with either type of anxiety should be given help and support. Aside from virtual appointments, MH workers count as essential workers. Or at least they should.

For anyone who's struggling with staying in a lot. If you're not vulnerable one thing you could do is apply for out of the home work. Supermarkets, delivery, etc. Care homes are probably looking for temporary workers whilst regular staff are off sick. Or volunteer. Join one of the Covid support groups and help the vulnerable with things like food shops and medication delivery.

Maybe people should try some Mindfulness and a bit of yoga.

MN is social media awash with ill informed nonsense.

I think it may be worse overall than you realise in that covid has caused a lot more Covid non related deaths amongst for instance cancer sufferers as a lot of normal NHS services are unavailable.

To me it is just flu albeit novel and maybe more deadly.

Throughout our history we have lived with plagues and pandemics but recently medicine and congenial living standards have extended our natural lifespan considerably.

Over population and global travel should be expected to elevate these pandemics to a more commonplace occurrence. I expect our lifespan to reduce to more historically normal levels. Either that or we will starve in our caves as civilisation takes a back seat.

I personally haven't broken any lockdown rules. Been at home for entire 6 weeks minus shopping,
I was just seeing other people's thoughts

just Judy I honestly can't see how people milling about shopping centres, which is amazingly what some people feel they need, will help their mental health. Will a KFC or a MaccyDs help their mental health? We are not being asked for much. Just to stay at home with the people we love

@Iamamoleinahole completely agree. I find it awful that other illnesses have been totally put aside because of this

@ThePlatypusAlwaysTriumphs i dont recall typing that people need a mcdonalds for mental health?

But if there had been more deaths do you not think there would also be mental health issues for those left behind, those worrying they might be next?

Just before schools were officially ‘closed’ many were already having to close or contemplating having to close as they didn’t have enough staff who were well enough to come to work. I assume other places of work would have ended up the same.

What do you think should have happened instead OP? Looking at the hotspots in this country most are where there is dense population. I am
assuming the crowded public transport doesn’t help. So if we had carried on as normal, what do you think might have happened?

OP you're allowed to go out for exercise as well as shopping. You can also drive somewhere local for your exercise if you want to go to a park or somewhere else nice. As long as you socially distance whilst out it's fine.

@ineedaholidaynow great questions and I honestly don't know. I have followed the lockdown rules and I was just wondering about other people's opinions.
We probably haven't overreacted as nobody knows what the future holds and whether Sweden's way of doing it was the right way etc.
It's just a wait and see thing,
But i was just interested in other people's thoughts on it as i've just read different articles today,
Sorry that i've offended some but genuinly just wanted opinions as I obviously have no idea

Anyway, i'm off to sleep,
Goodnight all and stay safe

No we won't. We will look back and marvel at how some countries in the west had forgotten how to respond to deadly infectious diseases.

what 'mental health issues"

keep hearing about those, so what, exactly.......or are you just repeating what you've heard op?

Well it looks like the UK might come out of this with the highest number of deaths in Europe mainly because your government was so slow to act as they thought it was no big deal

This, clearly. Including care home deaths our death curve is the steepest in Europe. Our inept govt severely under-reacted and look where we are.

So how is the lockdown affecting people's mental health? What can we not have or do that we used to?.

For myself, I don't see my dad. But I talk to him on the phone and have zoom meetings. I spend more time with my immediate family ( 3 teens) than I ever did. I am learning to appreciate the things that this has brought me. I'm actually seeing more of my friends and family than I ever did thanks to technology and the fact that we suddenly all want to connect.

I personally think we under reacted. Had we done more at the start we wouldn't be in the lockdown we now find ourselves in.

Exactly right, Platypus. Our crap government looks like achieving a brilliant double: huge unnecessary death rate and economic disaster.
If Johnson had enforced quarantine and border controls in February or even March, that would have slowed the spread of Covid-19 without doing any harm at all to the economy. All squandered by government stupidity.

That's not a party-political comment -- if Johnson had done the right thing, saved lives and livelihoods, I would be singing his praises.

I think that's the problem @cantory it seems from the news so many more people are out and about and the government seem quite unsure about what theyre doing themselves that some people see these images of people getting laxy over lockdown that it makes you think ' what the point' but that's how i felt today anyway,
But thank you to this thread, it's reminded me about what lockdown is for and i can see my thread title is a bit stupid now

I think it’s a nasty virus and an awful way to die and given the peak was the second week in April, we definitely acted too late for lockdown to be properly effective.

I do wonder though, if we could compare lockdown with no lockdown, if the final amount of people dying from it would be the same. Many people are going to catch it at some point? The only answer is to shield the most vulnerable until a vaccine can be rolled out.

@ThePlatypusAlwaysTriumphs A significant number of people who talk about their mental health actually mean things that make me feel better/that I enjoy.
I know some people who work with people with mental health issues and they have all reported that some people's mental health has improved during lock down. What we do know from other countries is that it is medics and care staff who are the ones most likely to be mentally affected negatively by what is happening.

If the deaths were anywhere in the range 600k to 1.8m what impact do you think that would have on the economy?

We will probably have millions of vaccine doses by the end of the year. My aim for this year is just to make sure all my family survive this time. If we all get through this alive, we can tackle any other issues that happen.

I don't know that it is an over reaction.

However, I do know that there will also be a lot of collateral deaths and lives shortened because of this impinging on other aspects of healthcare.

But it's probably Hobson's choice to a large extent. Cancer and other life or death care is suffering. But COVID 19 is an infectious disease. It would seem to be impossible to balance one against the other.

And that's not even beginning to address the economy and lives possibly being shortened because of that.