Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Covid

Mumsnet doesn't verify the qualifications of users. If you have medical concerns, please consult a healthcare professional.

Second Wave - Yes or No?

235 replies

MysticMeghan · 20/05/2020 21:52

So the papers are now full of warnings about a "deadly second wave" but if you ditch the articles and look at the comments 99% of people don't agree. People want lockdown over, they want to get out, they want things back how they were. Look at the beaches today.

Most people I know think it's going to peter out in the next few weeks. The tabloids seem to be going with this, but then they print whatever sensationalist crap sells newspapers, it's not necessarily true. Even my own friends think that in a worst case scenario few people might have mild flu like symptoms, it's not worth going crazy over, we're all over reacting and we've stuffed the economy and everyone's businesses and jobs for nothing. Just so the government can flex its muscles and control us. Many even think it's a conspiracy.

Justification for the "overreaction" theory seems to be that the Nordic countries haven't really locked down and only a few have died. Many European countries now opening up again with few ill effects and many tourist destinations in Spain etc.now looking to have a late tourist season.

In the UK we are constantly being reminded that deaths are going DOWN. Therefore it's ok.. "It's over" seems to be the prevailing theme. McDonalds and Burger King open again, people in England allowed to travel and taking full advantage, going to the beach, the park, hanging out with their mates. Prevailing theory seems to be that the experts over reacted and got it wrong, we all self isolated for nothing and the same experts warning of a second wave just want their 5 minutes of fame. Ignore them and lock them up. Most people don't know anyone who has had it or died of it and therefore the risk is small, it's just a bit of flu and people die of flu all the time.

Or....there might be a very deadly second wave after all, this is being glimpsed in China but is being covered up. Governments and companies are desperate to re-start economies so are taking the view that if a few more die who cares, they were probably old people who would have died anyway. And young people aren't affected so just put things back the way they were and if a few oldies die then just collateral damage.Oldies can stay at home if they're worried.

Which is it? I think the truth is somewhere in the middle. It IS a deadly disease, it's being desperately underplayed now in the interests of preventing economic ruin. I certainly think the British Media is being manipulated and that's why we have one story one day and a completely different one the next.

Am I the only person in the world who thinks that pubs and restaurants re-opening and global travel re-starting for the sake of keeping a tourist industry alive is a really bad idea?

OP posts:
Thread gallery
6
HorsesDoovers · 21/05/2020 23:27

And then when you saw the packed roads, car parks and beaches you would have turned around and gone home again. Otherwise you would indeed be an idiot, blindly following the bits of government guidelines that suited you and ignoring the rest.

HesterShaw1 · 21/05/2020 23:47

If we get a second wave of transmissions, which seems likely, we are much better placed to cope with it. They said at the start there would be repeated waves.

It's a novel virus pandemic. It will spread and some people will die. That's what viruses do Sad

Deelish75 · 22/05/2020 07:47

Given the streets, parks and beaches look like a perennial Easter Sunday, I would say the second peak may be as early as late June.

Agree.

I always thought mid-late July to coincide with the schools going back and some shops opening but now I'm not sure I think late June also.

Sunshinegirl82 · 22/05/2020 08:05

There is none of that here. People still mainly at home, parks have people in them but not particularly busy. Traffic still quite quiet. Hardly anything has changed since the lockdown was relaxed.

Drivingdownthe101 · 22/05/2020 08:14

Same here Sunshinegirl82. No different to the past 8 weeks as nothing is open.

Sunshinegirl82 · 22/05/2020 08:17

Well exactly! I appreciate if you live right by the beach you might be getting more visitors (and I don’t blame people really) but I live in a fairly standard market town. Unless you want to go to Sainsbury’s or Waitrose or the chip shop there is literally nothing open. I haven’t been to our high street since early March.

RhymingRabbit3 · 22/05/2020 09:55

If the Spanish flu is anything to go by
It isn't
Different virus
Different circumstances
Considerably different medical knowledge and research

KenDodd · 22/05/2020 10:27

I went to the beach yesterday. Drove over an hour to get there, well, I had to clear a garden in the town and stopped for lunch on the beach. Beach was empty. Well, it had a few small groups on it but each family had about 50m between them and the next group. I also live quite close a different stretch of coast. Beach has been busy(ish) recently but still loads of room, 25m between groups. Maybe I've been lucky?

stuckindoors77 · 22/05/2020 10:58

I went to the beach yesterday. Drove over an hour to get there, well, I had to clear a garden in the town and stopped for lunch on the beach. Beach was empty. Well, it had a few small groups on it but each family had about 50m between them and the next group. I also live quite close a different stretch of coast. Beach has been busy(ish) recently but still loads of room, 25m between groups. Maybe I've been lucky?

No I think many people are sticking to the rules, the media have done this several times over they pick a busy spot, take a picture from the most dramatic angle then make us believe that every single person in the U.K. is sitting in the beach.

There are some idiots breaking the rules and some busy places as a result, but there's also a lot of people sticking to the rules and it's completely possible to find a quiet spot for a walk and a picnic.

bellinisurge · 22/05/2020 11:01

I'd say we should see how other countries are doing and if they are ok opening up, we should be. But the cack handed arse about face way that we dealt with it makes me think that we are uniquely vulnerable to fucking it up.

Lweji · 22/05/2020 13:05

Here in Portugal there's also some frenzy about beaches.
TBH, it's not something that I'm concerned with. Open air, windy, hardly any shared objects. Maybe shared toilets.
Unless we're talking about REALLY overcrowded beaches, or the public transport to get there, I don't think beaches will be a problem for transmission.

HesterShaw1 · 22/05/2020 13:19

Lweji stop being so damn sensible!

KenDodd · 22/05/2020 13:48

I don't think beaches will be a problem for transmission.
I don't either. I guess the science will tell us soon.

PickUpAPickUpAPenguin · 22/05/2020 17:47

I'm surprised that tube trains haven't caused an increase in cases but is this because the infected might live outside London so they are recorded as a case in Essex or wherever they live?

Lweji · 22/05/2020 19:32

I've read something recent about New York that blamed crowded housing more than crowded trains.

SophieB100 · 22/05/2020 20:29

Talking of beaches, our local ones were packed this week. This letter to our local paper by an A & E doctor might interest you:
www.edp24.co.uk/news/health/norfolk-doctors-coronavirus-warning-1-6664596

PrimalLass · 23/05/2020 08:38

Why do people think there won't be a second wave, when all the doctors, consultants, medics etc are saying there will be?

Because it isn't all. Watch the video I posted or just read the article, which takes 2 mins rather than 30.

2468whodoyouappreciate · 23/05/2020 08:47

I've j7st applied for a job as an NHS support worker (bank). They told me on the phone They are recruiting 300 of us for the expected 2nd peak. Thw6vecalready trained 200 and need 100 more of us.

So someonecdomewgere seems to be planning for a 2nd wave and if they did the first wave without 300 support staff then are they 3xoecting the 2nd wave to he bigger or will they be handling it differently to the first wave?

Tiramisuiloveyou · 23/05/2020 08:48

Well i do think their will be a second wave.

My boss and husband have had it, DD’s best friends sister and parents have had it, at least a couple of teachers at DD’s school had it, my father had it and died of it.

I have followed all the rules including not comforting or hugging my DM and family at my fathers funeral.

I think the press have changed tack as they are receiving mixed messages and to sell papers.

If i had young children I wouldn’t be in a hurry to send them back to school. Schools and teachers need to put systems in place ASAP to provide online learning especially for year 10, currently year 12 and year 11 when they go back as year 12.

2468whodoyouappreciate · 23/05/2020 08:50

Apologise for my awful typos Blush
I cut my hand yesterday and am all bound up. Literally sausage fingers!!!

CrowdedHouseinQuarantine · 23/05/2020 08:51

I dont think the virus has been eradicated. it will be back, I am fearful

CrowdedHouseinQuarantine · 23/05/2020 08:53

i am concerned about September, the winter months.
I believe those not wanting to send kids back to school now will definitely want to send them back in September

we are in a death rate comparable with Winter months at the moment, so what happens when it actually is winter.
I for one tend to get chest infections in october.

CrowdedHouseinQuarantine · 23/05/2020 08:57

it is not just the beach goers,
it will be the shops opening, hair dressers,
public transport.
lack of immunity due to having been in lockdown

Lweji · 23/05/2020 09:00

I dont think the virus has been eradicated. it will be back, I am fearful

Nobody thinks the virus has been eradicated. It's everywhere.
In many European countries it's low incidence now, but numbers are stable in countries like the UK and Sweden. Very far from having disappeared.

And it's going up in many countries outside Europe.

Please pay more attention to the news.

GoodGirlGoneBadd · 23/05/2020 09:04

I've j7st applied for a job as an NHS support worker (bank). They told me on the phone They are recruiting 300 of us for the expected 2nd peak. Thw6vecalready trained 200 and need 100 more of us.

I don't understand this. At the trust where I work, lots of us, including myself, were redeployed ready for the first peak. We weren't needed. I felt like a waste of time most days with nothing to do