When will people be happy to start living with the risk of catching Coronavirus?

[wakeupitsabeautifulmorning]

Considering there possibly won't be a vaccination for quite some time, if at all, but things are going to have to start returning to normal for the sake of everything else - economy, education, other health issues etc. There is currently so much opposition to easing out of lockdown, people will have to get back to work and schools cannot be part time for years (childcare issues plus the massive impact on disadvantaged dc, plus the dc not engaging in home learning). Spoke to a few people today who are horrified at the thought of a return to normal as they are frightened of catching the virus. I was a bit surprised a they were under 35 with dc (no known health problems). It's like they think it's just going to miraculously vanish.

@PollyPolson I agree. People's confidence has been knocked by the lack of consistency of message and sheer ineptitude. Sure, if you are younger and have no underlying conditions, not in other at risk groups ie BAME, don't live with anyone who is, it's not such a concern, but if not it's prudent to be cautious. This applies to many people not in the shielded group.

Are those people who are happy for this to go on long term financially secure / working from home / have no money worries?

I’m ready to risk it.
I need to get my business open again.

Sometime back in the second week of April.

I will likely lose my job as no employer will want a long term shielder on their books. To get another one will be harder in the future as I'd have to say why I lost my job.

I still think the best way out of this both economically and health wise is to have an organised slower lifting of restrictions with a secure surveillance system in place.

Personally, all along, have never worried about catching the virus.

I think some commentators/ parts of the press have no idea of the long term effects of this lockdown.
A lot of charities, for example, that people rely on, will either go under or be massively reduced. Those whose income was reliant on the charity shops.
That's just one example.

We haven't given the scientists very long to find treatments and they need time to catch up imo. The Oxford trial is predicting a vaccine much sooner than 18 months and have rolled out even more trials this week. A hospital researching treatments predict an effective one after the summer. I understand it's hard but im going to continue to distance and socialise over the phone and via zoom or in a garden until those are developed. Yes it would be nice for a break from the kids but am happy to keep mine at home for the moment so small bubbles can be maintained for keyworker kids whose parents are going out to work, and for the years allowed back in (I could have a keyworker place). I'm not saying we should lock down forever but I do think we need to come out of lockdown with caution. Easy for me to say when I am not running my own business I know. But it's not just about who ends up in hospital but it can affect people's lungs or health for months, it's not just a quick flu that everyone is over in a week. I respect that not everyone else feels that way and that it is probably much harder for extroverts who might hate being at home or not socialising with lots of people.

I'd have partially agreed with you OP, except you lost me with your lazy thinking about school. Unions have not stopped anyone working. Government are leading this.

Of everything going on right now, catching covid is the thing I am least worried about. I'm worried about our finances, whether we will keep our jobs in the long term, my dc's education and lack of social interaction, my marriage, my mental health and I'm worried about one of us getting seriously ill from something other than covid (at least if it's covid then you're likely to get treated in hospital). Honestly if someone told me that we could get back to normal but I'd have to take my chances with covid first then I would gladly accept their offer

but it can affect people's lungs or health for months, it's not just a quick flu that everyone is over in a week

But that doesn't just happen with Covid! I had varicella pneumonia in 1996 after contact with a 3 year old who gave me chickenpox. I was in hospital for three weeks, 2 of them under ICU care. At one point, they didn't expect me to survive the night. It was over ten years before I would describe myself as healthy and the damage to my lungs is permanent. Life-changing effects of an illness are not new so why is Covid special?

I hate how if you are against 'going back to normal' you are classed as 'hysterical'

^ I hate the way that if you are less than enthusiastic about lockdown in perpetuity ‘we must be SAFE’ then you are dumb (everything ‘back to normal overnight’) or psychopathic (‘money over lives’). I want to be able to do safer things - have a picnic or visit family in the garden without worrying about snitching neighbours curtain twitching or being called a covidiot. I want children to be educated & people who need medical care to get it & I want there to be some way of mitigating the economic disaster - which will predominantly fall on the young - rapidly approaching. I want to feel that I can talk about complex issues of balancing risks without being called a denier or a murderer. I’m fed up of the sanctimony and I’m so depressed by people who are not at risk from this disease - “the virus does not discriminate’ bollocks - making it all about them rather that talking about those who are at greatest risk which is the 85yo with dementia in a care home.

But honestly at this point I’ve accepted none of that will happen and people who aren’t bearing the cost of the disease or the lockdown will continue to feel smug & maintain they happy to continue making great sacrifices.

Laniaka

I agree-name calling against either view is unhelpful and divisive. It's turning into the new Brexit.

If we're all arguing between ourselves we are less likely to notice how shambolic the government is being over this.

We should be able to discuss this constructively.

Optimists and pessimists are both useful in a crisis and probably why these traits have survived over millennia.

I am happy to live with my own personal risk of catching the virus.

I admit that I would prefer not to catch an illness which includes pneumonia as a "mild" symptom and the months of recovery that can entail but I can live with it.

However I am not happy with the risk of too many of us catching it in a short period of time.

We need transmissions and the pool of infection to be low enough so that an effective trace, track and isolate program can operate. We need procedures and legislation to enable local lockdowns to curtail any outbreaks.

I don't think we are there yet.

My own feelings on personal risk are pretty irrelevant as to whether we should ease lockdown restrictions.

@FlamedToACrisp. If you are in England you can drive for a change of scenery, you can take a picnic to eat when you get where you are going, you don't need to exercise when you get there.

Now and for the last 2.5 months.

I already am.

I think it will be at least a year before we can all start living as we did before (and even then things will have changed irrevocably) and that's a very long time for the economy to take such a serious hit.

There is a lot of disingenuousness about this frankly. In the main, as it's the very lowest paid workers in society (lorry drivers, couriers, cleaners, bus drivers, factory and supermarket workers etc etc) who are keeping us all going atm, , those of us who are in the lucky position to be able to work from home should try and have a bit more patience and continue to do so and practice SDing etc, to make it safer for those who have no choice and are supplying us with essentials.

I very much agree with Dolorsit. Its not really about judging individual risk, it's about doing what is best for us all collectively.

And before anyone says "well, collectively, we need the economy to recover" yes we do but a second wave won't help with that either.

Waiting until transmission rates have reduced, proper track and trace systems are in place, and zapping the clusters is a sensible way to proceed imho.

People have forgotten the lockdown was to flatten the curve, not to eliminate the virus.

This a hundred times over. It is such an important point and we need to understand the extremely serious implications behind it.

Yes people do know it's serious situation and a crisis but I'm not sure everyone fully understands just HOW serious the situation is, the long term consequences and what is actually being said in the daily briefings, especially the early briefings back at the end of March.

It has been repeatedly said by governments and scientists, across the world, that there may never be a vaccine, that there may not be any long immunity after having had the virus, that we may never be able to return to the way we lived our lives before.

Have we heard any politician, on any side, or scientists say that one day these lockdowns will end for good? No, because the truth is it's a new virus and they simply do not know. There are no guarantees about anything

The way things stand at the moment I think lockdowns will become less strict, but it's possible may have to live with alternated periods of strict lockdown and periods of lighter lockdown for the foreseeable future and this is more or less what we we have been told right from the start

I'm not going in and out of lockdown for the rest of my life, I'd rather top myself.

The relevant question is not how many people would be happy to risk catching Covid 19, but how many people would be happy to risk passing it on to somebody who is more vulnerable.

The thing is, as taboo as it might be to say this, the vast majority of people are not going to be prepared to curtail their own lives and their children's lives indefinitely in order to save the lives of other people whom they don't even know. For a few months maybe, but forever? Forget it. Simply will not happen.

I'm not going in and out of lockdown for the rest of my life, I'd rather top myself

But a light lockdown might be all that is needed and just become social distancing measures. Meaning we can get back to some kind of normality. But with new hygiene practices and separation in public places. In shops, bars and hairdressers for example.

What's a light lockdown? If it involves only seeing my friends and family 2 metres away in the garden and never going to a restaurant again, I'm not doing it.

The thing is, as taboo as it might be to say this, the vast majority of people are not going to be prepared to curtail their own lives and their children's lives indefinitely in order to save the lives of other people whom they don't even know. For a few months maybe, but forever? Forget it. Simply will not happen.

Exactly this.

The relevant question is not how many people would be happy to risk catching Covid 19, but how many people would be happy to risk passing it on to somebody who is more vulnerable.

I suspect most people when they see their own health decline due to not being able to get proper treatment, their kids education and mental health suffer, and their jobs disappear won’t give two fucks.