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.

FFS. Yes, the virus predominantly kills elderly people or those with underlying health conditions.

And how many of us do you think might just be living with someone elderly or vulnerable? So we should just go ahead and catch it and potentially kill off our loved ones?

Why risk it, if by working from home and shielding the whole household I can avoid any of us catching it?

People are terrified. Social media doesn't help. On a local group today someone had posted something about how a leaflet had come through the door & the poster was in utter panic that he may catch It from the leaflet.

The voice of reason appeared & suggested if it bother him that much just put the leaflet in the bin & wash his hands.

I despair.

care to explain what the point of the lockdown was, and what the point of school closing was, if we just reopen now as if nothing has happened?

@ThatWasThat who is, ive lost track!

I work in education and I agree teachers are having a hard time with this. The problem is the parental pressure. Parents exert so much control in this country. Coupled with fear and what can only be referred to as an immoral media machine and you have a recipe for chaos. In fact, I blame the media response to this crisis for a lot of the problems.

@Khione
looks to me like they've achieved a level of herd immunity whereas the rest of us, haven't been exposed enough and have just about levelled off and have higher R rate than London.

What is your evidence for this? It's unbelievable that people are still spouting about herd immunity, when there is no evidence of this - WHO states that they cannot be sure that someone who contracted Covid has immunity.

Why risk it, if by working from home and shielding the whole household I can avoid any of us catching it?

I don't think anyone's saying the vulnerable and people they live with shouldn't be protected, but there's plenty of us not in that category who could be getting on with things where it's safer to do so.

I totally agree with you, OP, but more to the point so does our local GP - and yes, I did say GP

As he points out, the whole point of lockdown was supposed to be to keep the NHS functioning ... only it isn't functioning in any meaningful way any more

And neither is anything else

Spot on OP. Thanks for posting this I’m so relived there’s still sane people out there.

this has opened my eyes to supposedly mentally healthy people having utterly no resilience for anything... and I mean this lockdown not COVID.
COVID is a natural tragedy... like an earthquake or a tsunami... its effected us all and we have had to make big changes in our lives because of it.... no amount of bargaining is going to change what's happened and what weve had to do to deal with it. Yet there are people who just point blank refuse to accept anything has gone on... they want to act like it's just everyone being ridiculous... as though if they just believe that enough everything will go back to normal.
But it wont. Whatever we do there will be a recession now. If you open everything too early infection rates will go up there may be a second wave we may have to shut everything down again prolonging the economic hardship for people... and of course if we keep locked down now there will be economic hardship... all options are shit because this is a shit thing to have happened... people seem like children to me right now whinging on about how it's not fair and about their rights and all this bollocks....watching people in the US refuse to wear masks in shops etc.. they are like kids... it's ridiculous.... wheres everyones resilience?!?

People are really freaking out about being asked to cover their face with a piece of fabric wtf?? Its like people think they can argue and bargain with a virus... or pretend it isnt really there. Absolute madness the way people are reacting to this like they have absolutely no capacity for adapting to adversity in the slightest. Like all they can do is stick their fingers in their ears and try to just go on however they were going on before.
Acting like nothing is going on and we can just all go back to normal is to me the craziest stance on this. It may not have effected you personally and you may continue to be lucky in that respect but it has effected society as a whole and will continue to do so.

The younger generation will turn around in 10 years time and ask why did we ruin their education, their career opportunities, travel, massive taxes and debt? My just 18 year old has missed out on life events that just should not have been missed and can never be replaced. It’s not normal for a MN 18 year old to be around his parents so much. On his 18th he played Cluedo with his parents. It’s just so sad. For what?

@Tigresswoods that's hardly an unreasonable concern considering the information is so limited. my elderely family might be the same, I think its sad but I wont mock them for it.

RTA deaths in the UK in 2018
“The Department for Transport (DfT) has announced there were 1,784 reported road deaths in 2018”

Maybe if over 30,000 were killed every two months cars would be banned?
If they were that risky I would rethink driving my children around.

There seems to be selective memories for how bad things have been for so many even before this. Poverty, massive rise in people needing to use food banks, cuts that directly affected the most vulnerable in the country.
Please don’t hark back at the system as it was, it was broken for so many of us. Things are likely to get worse now, because no one seems to be demanding change, change that would mean we have a better system for everyone. Take the government to task for the shit state that they’ve contributed to.

Stop blaming the people who are terrified, directly because of the government and media spin, and the huge lack of confidence in their ability to lead a dog let alone a country.

@Redolent

So you get an initial lockdown for a few weeks to protect the NHS- but surely you don’t think that’s sufficient right? The cases will shoot right back up if the R value goes back to where it was...

But the virus isn’t going anywhere. We will have to live with it. Deaths will happen, it’s a sad fact of the reality.

There may never be a vaccine so where does that leave us?

If there isn’t a vaccine- what should be done? Stay in lockdown indefinitely for years? Because what difference is there whether we come out of lockdown nor it in 6 months? The outcome will surely be the same.... as soon as lockdown ends deaths will go up...

@Coffeeandbeans for what, great question!

who know, its a six month old virus that we dont know much about yet.

I suppose if someone in their family were to die, as has had many thousands of times over, they might ask why we didnt take it seriously.

but thats because you assume you wont be affected, ever

THE VIRUS DOESN'T MOVE

PEOPLE MOVE IT

STAY HOME

As I was saying to someone recently the only numbers we get are deaths (and not all of them)

What about the impact of business criticality short staffed if we hadn't had lockdown

Would you stay off every time you had a cough for a WHOLE year?

There are other impacts of having not shut down other than death (which itself SHOULD be enough)

If I were to die next week, at 63, it wouldn't be a disaster. I'd leave my DH and a DC. Both are rational functioning adults. Get on with your life. Please. Passwords are on my phone... you can work them out.

@seasofchange not mocking him. Just sad that people are so utterly paralysed by fear.

People always talk about Sweden being different to the U.K. but that’s irrelevant. The same models that predicted hundreds of thousands of deaths in the U.K. also predicted devastation in Sweden if they did not do a very strict lockdown and also said that by the beginning of April it was too late anyway to make a big difference. And surprise, surprise, they did actually allow for the population density of Sweden in their model, same as they did for U.K.

They were completely wrong. Sweden never came vaguely near to the deaths per day or hospitals being massively overrun.

Sweden is doing the sensible thing, the sustainable method. They still have a functioning health service plus they don’t have an hysterical public or media. Lucky them.

Agree OP. The aftereffects of lockdown will be horrendous.

Yes @Redolent that is exactly what i said if you care to read my post.

So you are saying I should risk my child life or mine or dh or inlaws by sending my son to school btw he has lung problems the measles deaths now are the ones who parents dont think the child should be vaccinated

@Coffeeandbeans

Maybe if you explained to him that this is all because of a global pandemic that has killed 50,000 people in the UK (so far, not even over the first wave yet) he won’t be as angry as you yourself are. The last time something comparable to this happened was a century ago.

I’ll happily admit I’m frightened. This is a completely new disease and we have no idea what’s actually in store for us but I’m hopeful that countries have managed to find ways to slow the spread and scientists are funded like never before to find treatments and vaccines. I’m frightened about what the economy and my dd’s life are going to look like in six months time. I’m distrustful that our government is up to the challenge and concerned we’re also so reliant on the leaderships of other countries (I’m pretty sure there are many people abroad concerned about our part in containing the virus).

You know what absolutely fucking terrifies me though? Fucking extremists at either end spouting absolute bullshit to satisfy some egotistical desire to be right from the luxurious position of not having to take any responsibility for any of their opinions.

What I find very interesting is the number of people who don't understand risk, or risk assessments or statistics or psychology. Then they use that lack of knowledge to quote incorrect data and to start threads like this. It's fascinating.
I genuinely can't tell if they know they're posting lies and don't care or if they don't realise how little they know. It does give an insight into how Boris was voted in.