Jus came on to see if anyone else was a bit WTF about the new encouragement to go back to work if you can't WFH being pretty much contradicted by the ONS statistics that this group, particularly men, are the worst risk for a fatal outcome if they catch the virus. It utterly undermines the briefing last night IMO and makes me wonder just how bad communication is between experts, the government etc.
It really does seem that a second wave is being deliberately engineered, but of course that goes the route of conspiracy thinking and we're not supposed to do that are we? Who or what are we supposed to trust - we can't trust the figures because of the shambolic testing regime, we can't know if all those reporting symptoms actually have the virus or a different virus due to lack of testing, in fact it seems all we really do know is we don't know much at all about the actual virus and so risk assessment is just virus roulette.
Yet we're being "encouraged" to overcome our fears and kickstart the economy, and the devolved governments approach being so different is very alarming. New cases have been reported in China and Germany now - but we're not going to start quarantining incoming travellers "just yet" - when surely this should have been the approach from February / early March - it's hardly rocket science that a world that turns on global air travel and movement of people at high volumes should first not just reduce that travel but monitor the travellers closely too.
Sorry if I am re-hashing things other posters have covered, but in the two weeks since my Mum died (cancer) I have been slowly becoming more aware of the outside world and it just beggars belief that there isn't a firmer sense of control of the situation from TPTB.
My area - thank God / chosen method of magickal thinking - hasn't been badly affected, but it seems we are being set up to take the blame for any rise of infections if we mix with family (still forbidden I know), yet surely the greater risk will come from the opening of workplaces where social distancing may not be 100% feasible nor adhered to.
I'm just flummoxed - I'll be sticking to the rules as I understand them of course, partly to protect the NHS and the vulnerable, and partly to avoid being fined - because that's another thing - raised fines??? With so many people already suffering financially, this move just seems to add insult to injury.
Again, apologies for the rant and thank you for your indulgence.