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!).

@BaronessBomburst that’s very interesting. I’m in a rural area of Scotland with very few cases and deaths and wondered why an approach similar to the Dutch couldn’t be used. I have 2 colleagues who have had it (patient facing nhs) both immunocompromised and both better and back to work within 3 weeks

I agree with the OP and others. I’m appalled that education seems to have changed overnight from a basic human right to a nice optional extra. It is in everyone’s benefit to educate the next generation. I don’t feel that children and young people have been spoken for at all in all this.

We could have avoided all of that, but MIL, FIL, and my grandma have to die.
Because that's what it boils down to.

It doesn’t really, because it is nowhere near certain that everyone older/vulnerable with the virus would die.

We could have avoided all of that, but MIL, FIL, and my grandma have to die. Because that's what it boils down to

Or we could have let the young and healthy carry on with life whilst just protecting those that are older and those with serious underlying health problems. We would have seen deaths in the hundreds, not tens of thousands, and would probably be pretty near the 60%-70% needed for herd immunity meaning your older relatives would now be able to venture out without fear. Neither young or old have won from the lockdown strategy.

We would have seen deaths in the hundreds, not tens of thousands, and would probably be pretty near the 60%-70% needed for herd immunity meaning your older relatives would now be able to venture out without fear. Neither young or old have won from the lockdown strategy.

It’s a mess isn’t it. Worst of both worlds right now. Although the human cost of hundreds of thousands dead doesn’t bear thinking about either

Hindsight is 20/20 . I don't personally think lockdown is useful anymore and I think it would benefit most people to get back to normal life, gatherings and all. We should not lockdown again. However, this was an unknown disease and delaying spread was absolutely essential to begin with. Now, the focus should be on clear communication with and effective policy making to protect the most vulnerable in society. Track and trace also needs to used effectively. Ultimately we cannot put all life on hold for a disease that is simply not that deadly. I don't say that lightly, I have a parent in a care home I've been terrified for them, but this isn't a sustainsble way to exist.

@ky07 and that’s just it, we are literally just existing at the minute and considering how short life is this is no way to continue

Hindsight is 20/20

Yes although my stance hasn't changed since before lockdown was announced. The statistics (the cohorts at risk etc) were all there from Italy and Wuhan at the beginning of March. If simple me could see that lockdown wouldn't solve anything, and that there would be untold collateral damage, I can't see why it was beyond the grasp of so many experts. I think they are just too cocooned in academic institutions playing with their mathematical models, that they have no understanding of 'ordinary' people and their lives.

@Thingybob The lockdown did serve a purpose though. If you claim everything would have been fine without it, no time to prepare was needed and numbers would never have become unmanageable, that's a rather dangerous thing to assume. I would not claim that even now, let alone based on what we knew 2-3 months ago.

I totally agree, I'm well over this bollocks and I'm now just seeing my family as normal because they all feel the same.

It's easy to attribute deaths to Covid now to justify lockdown (even deaths that were never tested, or died of something else, which is iffy). But say a person that owns a pub goes bankrupt because of lockdown, suffers from extreme stress, loses their home and goes into council living, overeats for 5 years to cope then dies of a heart attack - it will never be attributed to lockdown. Yet that would be the cause, and I 100% bet that the death toll of that will be higher in 10 years time. Poverty and unemployment are directly linked with worse health and more deaths.

I've always felt that everyone should take responsibility for themselves in life - we apparently live in a "democracy", yet I never agreed to sacrifice 6 months of my life to "save" people I've never met. And actually, I can't "save" lives by not going out - if people don't want to be infected, they should stay indoors and take whatever precautions they need to. It's not my job to protect you. Ironically it is the NHS's job to protect us, not the other way round!

Kids are going to be horribly affected by the effects of lockdown, whereas the death rate from covid for them is so small - they have more chance of dying from meningitis or falling down stairs.

It's also amazing how quickly everyone is willing to hand over their freedoms - I'm gobsmacked at people having not seen partners for 3 months. If I didn't live with my husband I would have visited him all through lockdown, risking a fine.

@EveryoneLoves09876 I know you weren’t addressing me, but I know someone who has had it (confirmed positive) she is an NHS nurse and her ONLY symptom was a loss of her sense of smell. Her husband got away with a mild cold and her son had no symptoms at all.

@BeijingBikini couldn't agree more!

Any post that starts with ‘I’m well over this bollocks’ during a global pandemic is not to be taken seriously. Sad little islander mentality.

I've always felt that everyone should take responsibility for themselves in life - we apparently live in a "democracy", yet I never agreed to sacrifice 6 months of my life to "save" people I've never met.

It doesn’t sound like you take responsibility for anything but yourself. Yet, I bet if you became ill, you’d be first in line for those health services that democracy offers you - including the people that staff them. Think a little more about what you’ve said.

Yeah all those pesky experts cocooned in universities who know nothing about ordinary people...so joe public knows more than an epidemiologist about transmission of disease ? Brexit debate all over again because obviously epidemiologists don’t have children or a life do they ?

I have a friend who has signs of cancer - his dad died of same cancer. Had to wait 10 weeks for urgent appointment because hospitals had cancelled them all locally despite not being busy with Covid. We need some perspective. Media has a lot to answer for.

@BeijingBikini I too am horrified at how easily everyone handed over their freedom without question. Honestly feel like I’m in a Margaret Atwood novel at the minute

@Bool yep they really need to be restarting screenings etc, surgeries that require icu have been cancelled even though my local hospital has only ever had 1 or 2 in with covid, no end in sight either

I take responsibility for me and my family just like everyone else should. Everyone is a saint now but no one gave a shit before covid came along.
Lockdown served a purpose (if you believe in exponential growth, read plenty of other Nobel prize winning scientists disagree) but the long term effects will be worse ten fold and children will suffer the most.

Yep I agree with the OP

I agree to a point @BeijingBikini I do think as part of a society we do have to do our bit to helping protect the vulnerable. It’s the extent of that now seemingly dragging on interminably I object to. I don’t see it as my job to “protect the NHS”. I’ve done my bit. And if the way the NHS is protected is by ignoring everyone else’s non CV needs then that isn’t sustainable either.

I also agree on how easy it’s been to get people to willingly relinquish their rights and freedoms whilst those in charge of making the rules continue to do what they like and ignore them. All a bit 1984.

I agree with the OP and glad to see many other posters agreeing too. Time to come out of lockdown and learn to live with this virus.

If anyone needs me I’ll be wearing a red dress next week and have off at the beginning of my name 😂 jokes jokes jokes

I agree.

Yet, I bet if you became ill, you’d be first in line for those health services that democracy offers you

No I wouldn't, I'd be at the back of a 4 month waiting list, then go in for a 10 minute appointment where the doctor fobs me off with leaflets. True story. Hospitals have been sat half-empty with nurses doing TikTok dances while people have been told they won't get an ambulance for Covid until they're blue and gasping for air - I wouldn't ever rely on the NHS sadly. The cost of lockdown will be far greater than the cost of Covid.

That 500,000 death prediction was from a discredited scientist, who broke his own recommendations, and used dubious code from 15 years ago that was unreviewed - and when he finally gave in to demands and released it, was heavily critiqued by other programmers as having a lots of mistakes. He was also responsible for the faulty predictions that caused millions of livestock to be slaughtered. Also, the way we record our figures (anyone with covid, even not tested, gets recorded as having died of covid) is very dubious.

Look at the countries that have done fuck all or been lax - Belarus, Turkmenistan, or even Sweden. Are their hospitals "swamped"? Are people dying in car parks? Have they run out of ventilators? Is there drone footage on YouTube of morgues being dug or mobile chillers driving in the street? If not, does that not imply that this virus didn't turn out to be the Black Plague that people were doom-mongering about? Yes, it's bad, but not worth shutting down society for months and causing the worst recession in 300 years.