Would you be happy to lock down for the next two years?

[BirdieFriendReturns]

If the government restrictions stayed in place?

So until May 2022.

Hospitality is the 4th biggest employer in the uk - over 3 million work directly in that sector and a further 3 million are Indirectly employed. I haven’t even mentioned aviation etc. But you seriously think the government will furlough everyone for a further 2 years?

Furthermore - the wage costs for a restaurant run from 20-40%. If they are shut down for 2 years they will just never open and cease trading long before then anyway.

@Laniakea. Agree. It’s almost embarrassing to read how financially illiterate some people are. Jeffersona proposing to sacrifice millions of livelihoods of people who are at negligible risk of suffering from COVID shows a special kind of stupid.

I’m actually embarrassed for Jefferson.

I wouldn't want a complete lockdown for 2 years, normal medical services should be allowed to take place, dentist appointments, socialising is important long term, also I would love to see the nonessential businesses back for consumer confidence. I would be happy to wfh more often, and wearing face masks, and I will also consider not spitting in people's mouths in the future.

Well, that won't happen.
But since you asked, yes, if it was necessary, I would do a long lockdown. I have happily managed so far, I don't miss working one bit!! Sadly I don't have a garden but I do have country lanes and they have been totally empty so walks each day are fine.

However, I'm older with no partner and no small children at home. That makes it a lot easier for me. I would also support a continued lockdown for older citizens like myself to protect the younger generations who need to work.

But it won't be like that at all, so no decisions to make...

"If they are shut down for 2 years they will just never open and cease trading long before then anyway."

But reopening with all the social distancing rules will be as bad. You can't run a business like that.

I live near a football ground and there's a few pubs nearby who rely on the matchday trade. They'll be gone without furlough because nobody is going to a football match for another year or two, let alone social distancing.

Furlough is immaterial as wage costs aren’t as big as fixed costs. They will just cease trading/ go into administration as it is cheaper.

No

I have a remaining life expectancy of less than 20 years, probably less than 10 years of healthy life. Two years lockdown is a big slice of that.

No. Maybe if it was bubonic plague.

I’d walk in front of a bus or permanently impoverish myself for my children. I’m not throwing them or their generation under said hypothetical bus over a disease with a fairly low death rate that mainly kills the elderly. Happy to support those shielding, the rest of us need to get on with it. If we spent as much emotional energy as we do on Covid intensely studying everything that might kill us we’d never leave the house. Or for that matter eat so much junk food, smoke, drink, drive or any of the other stuff that might kill us.

No, the economy would crash and most people would be unemployed by then.

As long as the dentists started working again and the NHS offered a full service I wouldn't have a problem with lockdown.

No fucking way Jose

Having said yes for myself I wouldn't really want my kids to have to Iive being unable to go to the park and do their hobbies.

To stay alive and see my loved ones again,yes

No definitely not.

No.... I'm 25, I don't want to lose two years of my 20s. I just finished my apprenticeship after 4 years of uni. I've been in my first true job for just 5 months.

I'm happy for say, six months, but not seeing my family for 2 years (I live 300 miles away), not being able to change jobs, no travelling, not seeing my friends?

No I wouldn't be happy to lockdown for 2 years. Especially when, selfish as it is, I'm unlikely to die.

We wouldn't be made to do that anyway, the economy would collapse.

In addition to the lessons on economics, can we also make education in assessing and understanding risk mandatory?

No we wouldn't have an economy staying exactly as we are and without an economy no nhs , welfare etc
I don't think without a vaccine we will be back to totally normal in 2 years but not in situation we are now , and think we may see further lOckdowns if things spiral

I was really hoping that this global collapse of economies would be taken as an opportunity to change everything, from the ground up, so that we can become a society that is more focussed on what is best for the population as a whole, and get rid of this awful selfish 'what is best for me me me' society as it is now.

No. I'm becoming increasingly depressed and I am almost certain I will crack up completely very soon. I've been weeping for 'no' reason for the past 2 days

😂😂😂 That is hilarious OP. No way would there be anything like the compliance needed to make that happen. The risk averse won't be able to dictate the agenda anything like that long, they are already struggling.

No way, it’s been awful for my mental health and my relationship. 3 small kids at home, DH trying to work, probably going to lose his job so stressed out of his mind, me working too, not enough space in the house. I have loved being with the kids but it is very unhealthy for us

No way. Our dcs are missing out on so much already. It's been necessary, of course it has but it's right to start easing it now. It's going to be a very long road back to any sort of normality.
However, each to their own, if people don't want to go out & aren't relying on the government for money that's their choice.

Well, no one would be happy to do it, would they.

The reality is, we need a vaccine or a government with South Korean levels of competency. It shouldn't be necessary to lockdown for these lengths of time if test and trace is working efficiently. However if we can't sort that out then we're looking at carnage without lockdown. No, that's not too strong a word-watch an ICU nurse's account of what it's like in there before you start awarding penalties for mongering. Go and work in a care home and decide how scared you are and how complacent you think others should feel. Death from covid is by no means a rare, tolerable or normal aspect of life and it doesn't 'just' happen to the vulnerable.

So if you're asking, do I have so little faith in the government that I don't think they can sort out test and trace....I couldn't have less faith in the government's competence. I don't think they could find their way out of a paper bag. That's why I might consider locking down for that length of time. Also, like most of people, I have family members who are apparently fit and healthy but now would be considered at risk.

The fact that covid can redefine what vulnerability means should be a watching to anyone wishing to think of it as trivial. Across the population, it's so infectious and complications occur so often that it's not even manageable.

People seem to forget that we once had to 'lockdown' routinely if we'd been exposed to an illness with potentially serious consequences, causing great inconvenience. It was called quarantine and we just had to suck it up. You would have been run out of town for trotting down the high street saying you had scarlet fever but any one person's chances of dying from it were low and anyway, death was normal. But what else can we expect in a society where people are so absorbed with their own preoccupations that teachers routinely have to deal with outbreaks of d and v because some parents don't like the d and v rule? We're clearly expert at burying our heads in the sand when it comes to public health and preventative medicine.