Is there any point continuing the lockdown if no one is socially distancing?

[Notcontent]

I was in full support of the lockdown and in fact withdrew my dd from school a few days before schools closed. And I have been very diligent about complying with it. However, now that many of the rules have been relaxed, it feels like floodgates have opened and no one is bothering to comply.

I went for a run after work today and ran past two local parks. Both parks were heaving with people having picnics in large groups, children playing together, etc. It felt like a bank holiday weekend, rather than a Tuesday during a pandemic. Lots of people are also having parties and inviting friends over.

I know it’s complicated, but I am just a bit fed up, as the current situation may result in me losing my job (due to the economic impact) and is having other adverse impacts on my life, yet here all these people are having a jolly time, enjoying the fact that they don’t have to be at work. Sorry, just had to get that off my chest...

OP

Look at the peak figures and the date in relation to lockdown

Look at how government handled hospitals and care homes

Look at how they didn’t handle borders or quarantine

Look at how members of SAGE don’t believe in 2m

The question you should be asking is, was there any point in lockdown at all?
I lost my job already but honestly, look objectively at the information and not the stuff the government tell you.

Look especially at the NHS figures.

“ yet here all these people are having a jolly time, enjoying the fact that they don’t have to be at work.”

They’ll probably get canned soon as well. If they’re lucky enough to have friends nearby, let them enjoy themselves.

I agree that it feels like lockdown is pretty much over. For the first time I saw 2 large groups of teenagers wandering about, local park full of families, loads of pissed off looking people stood in a very long queue outside Sainsbos.
I’m not sure what to think. I really don’t want there to be a second wave - the first was bloody horrible and I say that as a nurse of 20 odd years ICU experience. I doubt that many of my colleagues could emotionally or physically deal with another onslaught like that again. I appreciate that transmission is less amongst children and teenagers and
I do think people are trying to socially distance. I’m also fed up of queuing for everything, would love a nice coffee in our local cafe and a mooch round Waterstones but equally I’d hate to get it. I suppose we’ll get a better idea over the next week or so when any increase or not in infection rates due to VE Day/ loosening of lockdown kicks in.

It’s continuing for me (certainly while I’m furloughed). A walk everyday and a weekly to the shop.
I’m not going near anyone unless I have to.

I’ve been really low so I can’t say this for sure as I didn’t go out

But I think a lot of people dropped SD after the Neil Ferguson incident, understandably.

Why understandably ? He was a dick and hypocritical to say the least. The basic instructions were common sense for the most part.

Op I feel the same. I’ve only gone out to the supermarket a few times, and the odd walk. No one else seems to be bothering around here, but I don’t like breaking rules. I wish he’d just say it could end. It does seem a bit pointless to me now.

Bertold if the man with the worst case scenario figures either doesn’t care or doesn’t believe them, why should anyone else?

It’s a bit like the if a tree falls in a wood does anyone hear it thing. Many People are still social distancing, and probably avoiding places where people are doing it less

It’s a tough one , i still could lose my job also as the industry i work in will be one of the last to get going so on the one hand I feel like I wish it would all just end go back to normal since a lot of other people seem to be but on the other people not social distancing mainly in outside spaces isn’t the same as having millions of people Suddenly in close contact Again in bars, restaurants , spirts venues etc etc etc

“ Many People are still social distancing, and probably avoiding places where people are doing it less”

Queues are long. People step into the road to avoid passing close on the pavement. Certainly still happening where I live.

*sports

Everyone I know is still adhering to the rules. I went to Tesco today and we were all as careful and mindful of each other as possible. Only a few cases in the area too.

I know what you mean op. My household hasn't socialised at all. The only place my 5 year old dd has been is walks in nearby green spaces. Some people we know are now driving over to meet friends and family.

Idiots will be idiots. Ending lockdown because of the idiots? Yeah, that makes sense.

We are a country of morons

@LilacTree1 He thought he could get away with it. Don’t know the exact circumstances but It doesn’t invalidate the whole concept of social distancing/lockdown which in my experience has worked.

It is extremely frustrating.

I currently WFH supporting online learning 4 days a week and in school with key worker children 1 day a week. Other than that and a fortnightly shop, I haven't left my small flat (I live on my own) for the last 2 months and it has had some serious mental health implications (it wasn't great to be begin with having been orphaned a the age of 28).

It actually feels like I'm hurting myself for people who don't deserve it.

And I have been very diligent about complying with it.

That's great! Most people around here (85%?) have been complying.

But now we have to do our own risk/benefit analysis. As I've seen - increasingly - on MN: "You do you."

I'll admit my national culture is different, but it hasn't been a free-for-all in my community.

If your (collective you, not OP/PP you) MH is suffering, stick a toe out. Surely we can open up our countries and be sensible. It's kind of concerning how many intelligent people seem to think their government is going to think for them. How they possibly sustain that? Nations would have to devolve into a police state..!

I vote. I pay taxes. I take reasonable precautions. I make decisions based on unbiased research (and then I research some more, because they might be prejudiced...{confused]). And then I do all the other tings I am supposed to do

But so not perfect...

The government had to make ordinary, healthy people terrified of catching it in order to keep everybody going along with The Rules. If the raw statistics had been all we had to go on all along then the majority of people would have given up social distancing long ago.

And as all the posts on here demonstrate; everyone wants to think or portray that only thick, moronic idiots are breaking lockdown because that makes it far easier to insist that the clever, educated people are the ones who should stick with it, and therefore enable those who do so to preen themselves as falling within that group.

I don’t know a single person in my social group - among them epidemiologists and statisticians - who has ever gone along with social distancing, and I know who I’d rather trust. As a previous poster said, why on earth do people think that the experts behind the advice didn’t stick to it themselves?

Ferguson has already had COVID and hence is presumably immune

He still should have kept to the rules,
because it's not workable to have 2 sets of rules, one for the imune and one for those who can catch it

Strange that the epidemiologists in your social group don't agree with most of the other epidemiologists in the world about social distancing

SD includes measures like masks, encouraging WFH where possible, wider spacing of desks in the office, of restaurant tables and moving tables outside, banning large crowds at events

Lockdown is being phased out in stages on the continent, because it has served its purpose

• it was an emergency measure to deal with an epidemic out of control

It was the pause button to find out more about a "novel" Coronavirus

However, the UK government is waiting for its 5 tests to be satisfied before leaving lockdown
It still hasn't got reliable mass testing and contact tracing systems

In Germany, where I live, there are local lockdowns of towns with new cases - in care homes and meat processing plants
However, elsewhere schools, shops, gyms, restaurants have opened up again, with spacing, masks, moving outside, reduced numbers etc

People are sticking to SD very well here

You won't get everyone to abide by the rules of lock down,, unless they have had a family tragedy,and lost someone with the virus. The devil may care types, will always think they know best, and do whatever they want to do.

The majority where I live are sticking to SD. That isn't undermined by those who don't - in fact the government would never expect 100% compliance and the modelling is not based on that either.

*I currently WFH supporting online learning 4 days a week and in school with key worker children 1 day a week. Other than that and a fortnightly shop, I haven't left my small flat (I live on my own) for the last 2 months and it has had some serious mental health implications (it wasn't great to be begin with having been orphaned a the age of 28)."

You do realise you're encouraged to leave the house for the benefit of your physical and mental health? Please don't impose a stricter lockdown on yourself which isn't even being asked for

Maybe the people seeing you out running wonder how you are managing to go running without a care in the world.

People are suffering under lockdown even if you see them smiling.

I'm in Scotland and the English rules seem odd. You can meet one person from another household so why not meet everyone from that household? Once I'm able to meet a friend I'll be taking DD with me and no doubt we will dare to smile even though lockdown is actually hitting us hard. Presumably, if there are four different people in the house then if each of them meets one different person then the risks are the same or higher as meeting up with another family group.