Am I missing something?

[theginge]

I feel like I'm the only person wondering whether covid is the biggest threat now...

Everyone is worrying about lockdown being eased 'too soon' and for some I understand this is a valid concern. The deaths that have happened are really sad and it's horrendous for families to loose their loved ones but there seems to be little context. The general public have been scared by the media propaganda and have lost all ability to reason and self regulate.

My primary concern is the other effects this is having on life. My middle child is in reception and therefore entitled to return to school. He desperately needs it from a social and emotional point of view. The risks to me seem quite low (we live in a small village where there have been not a single case and the school is small and in the village)and our local hospital has never been working at capacity at anytime during this pandemic. The issue I have and the reason I've chosen to keep him off school is the way that schools will re-open. The school sent home a huge list of changes they will implement which in all honesty sound horrific. The children are being treated like leppars. This is going to have a huge effect on all of these children long term and (in my mind) be far more damaging than catching covid for us. What children need to protect them now is some normality.

My baby is 6 weeks old, he hasn't met any of our family. He is no longer a newborn and they have missed this - I can never get this time or opportunity back. Again, a huge sacrifice for what I deem to be a small risk.

My husband lost his job the same day as our baby was born - he was made redundant because his employer could no longer trade and the business collapsed. His job was skilled but very specific so will be difficult to find a new job in the sector.

Every measure in place seems to go against natural human nature and I'm just really fed up of making such big sacrifices for a virus that has a mortality rate of 0.2%.

The lockdown was put in place to not overload the health care system and not to get rid of the virus!!

Don't even get me started on the whole 'clap for carers' thing. It's just annoying and serves absolutely no purpose. Nobody has been forced into working for the NHS or in social care - it's 100% an informed choice (I'm a nurse and many of my colleagues are of the same opinion!).

Agreed

I agree as well even though I was a huge supporter of an early lockdown in the beginning. We’re in such a different place now. Not just allowing testing for those returning from China, it’s not new any more, we know children are mostly okay.

I'm very inclined to agree with you.

I agree. I was all for lockdown at the beginning but our quality of life is shocking. I'd rather be told the facts and left to make my own mind up.

I quite literally couldn’t agree more. I have one dc in primary and one ds in secondary school and neither are allowed back until September at the earliest and likely only part time for another year after that. I am just devastated for all children. Statistics in the future will almost certainly show that suicide and poverty killed far more than Covid 19 ever did.

I agree. My kids want to go back to school (they arent in the years due to go back) but I wouldnt want them too with all the proposed measures. I think it would be unsettling.

But your problem is with our government's incompetence not with people overreacting to it.

That. They've now fully fucked it by losing the public's trust. Literally every decision has been the wrong one.

And you cant say that your children are missing out on education, then also say that although schools are open, you're choosing to deny that to your children. They are flexible, they'll be fine.

I agree with you OP

I'm another one that agrees with you OP, not for myself but for the impact on my children and grandchildren. I don't think there should ever have been a lockdown for younger, healthy people as it wasn't them over running the NHS.

Agreed

We needed to lockdown at the start, probably a little earlier than we did (ie when we got that big announcement that over 60s shouldn't go on cruises) but that because we were dealing with so many unknowns and the consequences of getting it wrong could have been so much worse than what we've had.

We need to learn to live with the virus, now we know more about it and it is less of a threat. And we need to stop, as a society, looking through a very narrow lens and catastriphising about what we see, while ignoring the bigger threats creeping up on us while we're not paying attention.

My 16yo hasn't left the house for 10 weeks. He has no access to mental health care. His diet is crap and becoming increasingly restricted. I'm 50 and beginning to think I might outlive him.

@theginge

You are absolutely free to probe the downsides of lockdown, but please do so with accuracy. The overall mortality rate for coronavirus is 1.3%. Flu is 0.1%.

The latest research on this:

www.cathlabdigest.com/content/study-reports-staggering-13-death-rate-us-among-those-infected-who-show-symptoms

Totally agree

I agree.

I lost my job due to lockdown and experienced the worst MH of my life. Haven't seen any of the people that matter to me for months. I'm recently (ish) graduated and worry about my prospects for the future. I would have actually preferred an earlier lockdown if it had meant we'd be further along. Other countries seem miles ahead of us. The earliest we'll be looking at anything resembling normality is July probably. I thought it was something I'd get used to but two months on I'm finding it just as hard as two weeks in

OTOH, there has been pretty much a worldwide lockdown and I struggle to see why the whole world would have decimated its econonomies if it wasn't necessary.

I do feel like the government are kind of drip feeding us now though. It also feels like every 'update' is probably what people started doing a few weeks in advance anyway (sunbathing, meeting people in gardens SD.) I think I was probably a bit daft at the beginning though as I thought things would be more normal by June than they have turned out to be

Totally agree OP. as I've said numerous times recently....the problem with common sense is it's not very common. People are behaving as if there is some sort of black mist floating about.

Completely agree OP. Most of the people I know irl are of the same mind now too. I’m finding myself getting angrier by the day at the way this has been handled, especially the callous dismissal of children and young people in all this - there will be massive fallout from this in years to come. I can already picture much public hand-wringing over the physical, educational and mental health issues of the ‘Coronavirus Generation’.

Our government is truly, unforgivably incompetent and I have no confidence whatsoever that they have a coherent plan to get us out of this mess.

You're a nurse and you're asking these questions? I'm flabbergasted to be honest.

Yes, of course lockdown has had an impact on our daily lives but we will recover and bounce back from the impact of lockdown.

Unfortunately those who make up the horrendous number who have died will not.

I'm NHS also.....and a mother.....and shielding as a result of breast cancer treatment.....

People are behaving as if there is some sort of black mist floating about.

Yes - where Covid is concerned we’re pretty much back to medieval-style miasma theory.

@TempsPerdu

People are behaving as if there is some sort of black mist floating about.

Yes - where Covid is concerned we’re pretty much back to medieval-style miasma theory.

Really? How is this kind of statement helpful?

Couldn't agree more. What we are having to put our children through is fucking awful! For something that poses so little risk to them. The government have fucked up majorly with many things but people's disproportionate fear doesn't help matters. Every time I hear "we can't open schools until it's safe for the kids" I want to scream.

@mynephewR

I said the same thing to a friend earlier. Children were never not safe!

Entirely agree.

I'm so sorry that you've had to get through those early weeks with a newborn without wider support and that your partner has lost his job.

People are struggling as a result of lockdown in so many different ways, but unfortunately all a loud group of worried well can see are the tabloid headlines and stats they're interpreting badly.

I agree OP as does my partner.

We haven't seen each other for 12 weeks and it's really affecting his Mh - working from home and barely seeing anyone.

@WTF99

Because it’s true. There are people who are literally picturing clouds of Covid lingering in the air around them. You only need to read threads on here, where people are terrified of being passed within 2m by a panting jogger, or a teenager on a bike who might exhale at the wrong moment. When I’ve been out with toddler DD in her buggy people have literally leapt into bushes to avoid my ‘super spreader’ child. It’s utterly ridiculous.

The lady whose house backs on to ours has two under 10s. She isn’t vulnerable or shielding, but until yesterday they hadn’t left the house for 10 weeks, even for a park walk. Last night she posted on FB that they’d been for a walk around the block and her DD had sobbed all the way round. She’s now refusing to leave the house again, so terrified is she of the outside world. This is what we’re doing to our kids. The terror is out of all proportion.