I'm finding the reaction to covid utterly bizarre

[TheDailyCarbuncle]

If anyone had told me that healthy, fit people would willingly put their livelihoods at risk and deny their children an education for months on end, that they would send the country into recession putting healthcare, education and public services at risk for years and years to come to avoid getting a disease that had a very very small chance of killing them I wouldn't have believed it. If you'd said people would be afraid to talk to their healthy siblings I wouldn't have believed it.

I had measles in the 1980s as small child - the vaccination programme where I lived was slow to get off the ground - and it nearly killed me. In 1980 2.6 million people worldwide died of measles, a very large proportion of them children. No one ever considered a lockdown, it was never even suggested.

I think all the analysis of this situation in the coming years won't be about the pandemic, but about the contagion of fear that made people so terrified of something that wasn't a real threat to them that they created huge, long-lasting, in some cases devastating problems for themselves, problems that were nothing to do with their virus and everything to do with their reaction to the virus.

I feel the same OP. I'm increasingly concerned about the long term impact of lockdown.

But it’s the lockdowns around the world that have kept the number of deaths (relatively) low.

Ham-fisted responses to the virus maybe, and some countries have dealt with Covid much more intelligently and efficiently than the cluster of badly affected countries have, but the alternative would be / have been many more deaths??

The socio-psychological aspects of this are gobsmacking.

In the course of approximately 8 weeks we have completely changed the fabric of this society. Mind blowing.

(Given that countries like the UK have been unable to properly implement test, trace and locally quarantine)

YANBU. This is a virus that predominantly affects the elderly. It is beyond madness that India - a young country - imposed a nationwide lockdown. Millions will starve due to it.

@Dontknowhowtohelp1 I don't know how many times it has to be explained that the lockdown, in the UK at least, is not aimed at preventing deaths. Not at all. It's aimed at slowing down deaths. So people may not die now but they may die in December or sometime next year.

Covid is here. It's in the population. Like measles. Which still kills hundreds of thousands of people a year, and that's with a vaccine.

The media has a lot to answer for. And people frothing at the mouth about sending their kids back to school. It’s insanity. I am much more scared of that than the virus.

OP this is the best post I've seen in years.

But on MN and generally the U.K. this type of logical thinking is frowned upon so you'll probably get shot down.

I'm with you. The virus isn't going away so why on earth are people demanding we stay in doors until it does? People seem blind to the consequences of lockdown.

I agree. I suffer from anxiety and I do occasionally have waves of fear /panic, but I can recognise that it’s largely irrational and the statistical risk is small. But reading some of the threads on here and the more sensationalist tabloid headlines it would be easy to think this was an Ebola-level outbreak and simply stepping outside the house is risking life and limb.

I find it depressing the way as soon as someone asks a question or wonders about a certain scenario posters will immediately screech ‘no! It’s against THE RULES!!’ The worst thing is mindlessly parroting ‘stay home! Save lives!’ - it’s akin to sticking your fingers in your ears and just trotting out the government mantra.

There doesn’t seem to be any element of critical thinking or ability to risk assess. I’m not talking about wilfully flooring lockdown, having big gatherings or failing to take precautions but if someone proposes meeting their mum in the garden they’re met with an avalanche of don’t be so selfish, you’re bound to die, what if she needs the loo etc etc

The risks of outdoor transmission, if distance is maintained and precautions are taken, is pretty negligible. It’s actually a little disturbing that some posters are gleefully explaining gardens are forbidden because you can’t be ‘watched’ - god forbid people be relied on to be sensible. Some seem to be positively desperate for a quasi police state.

Yeh, ok. Go ahead and infect your family.

I don't think we agree with the point of lockdown op. It's not about the young, fit and healthy doing all that stuff you said to avoid getting it - it's about trying to avoid a situation where many, many old / vulnerable people are all needing treatment at the same time.

I really don't agree with how our government has gone about things but I do care about playing my part to minimise my risk of spreading the virus.

Many will disagree with me but it's just my opinion.

I agree. A short lockdown to slow it and not overload hospitals made sense, but the continuing situation is ridiculous and overblown.

But really we should have got a handle on it before it went this far. If Kerala can do it why couldn’t we?

Agreed OP. I am finding people’s terror at the thought of schools going back really bizarre. I’m far more worried about my DD’s mental health from spending months isolated from other children than her catching Covid. We are all going to have to accept a level of risk if society is to keep functioning - why can’t people understand this?

Yeah me too, I'm surprised by the number of young-ish, healthy as far as they know people who are completely freaked out by it. I'm early 50s and whilst I'm being sensible, I just feel that if I'm susceptible to it I'm probably going to get it unless I stay away from everyone for months, so I'm fairly pragmatic about the whole thing.

I agree with you. I've been saying the same thing since March. Utterly bizarre. And the problem is that in 5/10 years time when the next epidemic surfaces, the same will be expected, if not worse.

I've just come back from the supermarket- without a mask on. With people cowering away from me as I reached for the chicken. For gawd's sake, do we really think that people are radioactive?

Common sense has become a victim of this virus.

It's tricky. They needed to make people a little bit scared so they would take some sensible precautions, but now it's got out of hand. Fit working age adults petrified of catching it. It's ludicrous.

I think the penny will drop soon. We need to live with this virus.

May I ask ehat you docterates are in and how much you have studied the virus?

You appear to have greater access to data than I, or many others. Not many countries around the world happily tank their economy just to have an over reaction. But I will happily stand corrected with new evidence rather then personal view points.

Imagine how many people would have died in recent months if 75% of the world wasn't locked down.

This isn't about stopping those covid deaths that are sadly going to happen anyway . It's about stopping hundreds of thousands of unnecessary deaths of people who would only die because of overwhelmed health services.

Also, it's an unprecedented response from the WHO and world governments who wouldn't lightly decimate their various economies, so I think that they are probably right and the increasing numbers of internet randoms popping up to tell us we've over-reacted just because we managed to avoid bodies in temporary morgues and overflowing hospitals.

Yes I am aware that this government does not care about us - however, many people are planning not only not to overwhelm the NHS, but hopefully also not catch the virus itself. No matter what the government’s intention was. And continued social distancing, even if lockdown is eased, should hopefully help with that.

Are we really content with seeing 1% of our population die - not sure if that’s the exact fatality rate.

In any case this is a moot argument, this government is spectacularly incompetent and could have avoided both an economically damaging lockdown and our very high number of deaths.

However presumably Johnson will be voted in again.

Agree with you OP. It’s crazy. Beyond ridiculous.

And how about those people who fit the vulnerable or shielded categories. Is it okay for then to worry?

Why can’t people understand that if half a million extra deaths had occurred in a matter of weeks then that would also have played havoc with everyone’s physical and mental health?