What if there's Not a second wave

[ButWhatiftheresNot]

Genuine question. I see so many posts about a second wave, some of which, to be honest, contain some very strident views predicting massive further deaths, lockdowns, nothing being normal ever again, Christmas is cancelled, you get the drift. It is almost as if some people are using this to bring out their inner domineering side - It WILL come, you MUSTN'T do that, etc.

But what if there's not a second wave, just local spikes and local lockdowns, like Leicester. All those predicting major doom and gloom, how will you feel about that? Relieved? Disappointed because you feel you've lost control and can't shout at others?

Just that really.

@Dollywilde

I bloody hate the dementors on here with the doom and gloom worst case scenarios. I’m living as close to a normal life as I can now - seeing friends, visiting family, going to the pub, weekends away etc.

At the same time I’m bracing myself for a second wave on the basis that forewarned is forearmed. Have my toilet roll and tin stash nicely topped up again in case people lose their minds like last time! We had a decent amount organised so had a relatively calm time avoiding the shops when it went mad in March/April. We’ll have a newborn if it kicks off again in winter so I’m determined to be prepared in case it happens.

The way I see it, if there is going to be a second wave I’m going to make the most of this bit of relief in the middle, and I’m going to make sure I’m prepared. But I very much hope there won’t be one

This.

I do think there is a group of people on MN and in real life who would like a second wave just so they can be 'proved right' about various things. It's a bit like when the schools partially opened on June 1st and all the people screaming about how it's not safe etc and June 1st is madness actually died down quite quickly when nothing major happened.

I do think that come winter it will be chaos again, so would like to make the most of things as much as possible now!

A second wave implies its gone and may come back. Its never gone away, thousands of people are dying each month, there will be mass unemployment and life will not be the same as it was for a'very very long time.

I am in Belgium. We have just started a second wave and it is mindblowing how quickly infections are rising.
There was talk of local spikes and local lock-down but this thing spreads so fast that I fear we are heading for a second total lock-down.
Tbh, I prefer a strick lockdown during August so that schools can re-open normally in September.
Lots of people travel by car 1000+ km so the virus is going to spread quickly across the whole of Europe.
I don't think there is any doubt THAT it will happen.

@FinallyHere

The lockdown suppressed the first wave. I think @Kazzyhoward is referring to the mythical “first” wave that occurred prior to this.

I think it's very important to think about "What if we are completely wrong?" Absolutely any of us could be, it's really not clear cut which way this is going to go. A curious thing about Covid is that how we feel about it feeds back into how we behave, which then determines how bad it actually turns out to be. It is not something that can exist on its own, only within us and how we act determines how it acts. We should all act on the basis that there may or may not be another wave and that both caution and a relative lack of it come with equal, but different, risks.

Folks were predicting a second wave after VE Day, Bournemouth, BLM protests, queues for Primark, pubs reopening...

I haven’t seen anyone say - phew I was wrong.

thousands of people are dying each month - we’re actually at normal death levels for the current time of year and have been for the past 5 weeks (source: fingertips.phe.org.uk/static-reports/mortality-surveillance/excess-mortality-in-england-latest.html)

there will be mass unemployment - only if we keep panicking like headless chickens and shouting ‘the end is nigh’ rather than sensibly planning to the extent we can

life will not be the same as it was for a'very very long time - well if you take that attitude then of course it won’t. Yesterday I went to the supermarket, filled up the car and went for a pub lunch with friends. Pretty standard Saturday for me pre-Covid.

bold fail above but you get my drift.

I'd be delighted!

Some people love a bit of negativity chat.

I don't think for one minute they actually want it to happen but just enjoy a doom and gloom gossip.

I think it's easier to talk negatively than positively and for some reason for some it's more interesting.

VettiyaIruken Sun 26-Jul-20 12:38:43
I never understand the accusations and insults hurled at people who are worried about this issue. Thread after thread of sneering. It isn't scaremongering to be scared. People aren't happy that others are dying.

To me the people sneering at those who are frightened were few and far between. What I don't like are those who, through fear or just plain meanness try to make everyone else as frightened as them. Fear is not to be sneered at in my view. Spreading fear is. Trying to shame people who are doing perfectly legal things is (How dare you visit a dying relative, how dare you book/go on holiday.) These are the people who disgust me.

Oh - And I hate to break it to you but we all die.

Chloemol Sun 26-Jul-20 13:03:12
All we can ALL do is follow the rules,

Is it?

something lots on MN are incapable of doing from seeing all the posts about can I just do .... and the use of ‘common sense’

I think we may disagree about the meaning of common sense.

Also abiding by the law is very different from what some on here have determined are 'the rules'.

If we're over the worst now I'd be very relieved, would throw a massive party to celebrate our safe passage through troubled times.

I'm pretty sure there are very few people who actually want a second wave, but many think it's inevitable. Sadly, what we want doesn't change anything, either way.

I genuinely hope you guys are right and we're all being daft, but looking at it rationally I thing you're determination that everything is awesome, says more about a person's inability to deal with the uncertainty, than it does about those expressing (reasonable) concerns.

Of course they're are extremes on both sides, somewhere in the middle is the perfect balance of caution and recklessness.

*your not you're (oops)

@IAintentDead

VettiyaIruken Sun 26-Jul-20 12:38:43 I never understand the accusations and insults hurled at people who are worried about this issue. Thread after thread of sneering. It isn't scaremongering to be scared. People aren't happy that others are dying.

To me the people sneering at those who are frightened were few and far between. What I don't like are those who, through fear or just plain meanness try to make everyone else as frightened as them. Fear is not to be sneered at in my view. Spreading fear is. Trying to shame people who are doing perfectly legal things is (How dare you visit a dying relative, how dare you book/go on holiday.) These are the people who disgust me.

Oh - And I hate to break it to you but we all die.

Chloemol Sun 26-Jul-20 13:03:12
All we can ALL do is follow the rules,

Is it?

something lots on MN are incapable of doing from seeing all the posts about can I just do .... and the use of ‘common sense’

I think we may disagree about the meaning of common sense.

Also abiding by the law is very different from what some on here have determined are 'the rules'.

This! Well said. Some people on here just love whipping up fear

Nobody wants a second wave but it is better to do all we can to prevent it / prepare for it than to stick our heads in the sand.

Bollocks on Mumsnet they are practically salivating over a second wave, just to be proved right.

There is also a lot of mask fetishism too.

We're surely looking at about the 18th wave aren't we after the too-busy tubes, the not-strict-enough lockdown, the Easter heatwave, the joggers and cyclists with their Covid-filled sweat, the old people daring to leave their homes, people generally not 'staying the fuck at home', the VE day parties, the BLM protests, partial school reopening, the constant flocking to beaches and general flouting of rules - apparently barely anyone follows them. And now some people have difficulties with masks.
I've probably forgotten quite a few but we are definitely all going to hell in a handcart.

This is the thing, there's a weird view from some posters that if you're not predicting a second wave, or going about your life completely within guidelines and not being very worried, thinking masks in many situations are pointless.. that somehow you think it's all gone away, lockdown was a waste of time, you think everythings awesome and/or you're stupid.

It doesn't mean that at all.

The doom mongers go too far the other way and in their rush to tell people they're ignorant or selfish, expose themselves as leaning towards their own 'conspiracy theories' or being unable to employ critucal thinking and risk assessment.

Freewillies do you not see any irony in accusing the "doommongers" of having a wierd view that everyone who doesn't agree with them is stupid, and then in the next paragraph, owning up to having the very same view about them?

I haven't seen anyone wishing for a second wave.
What I have seen is some people dreading one (including, you know... doctors and scientists)
And other people in full denial that it may happen (head in the sand "it just doesn't bear thinking about" wishful thinking), and building up a "doommonger" strawman to support their moral perspective (with zero objective facts to back it up)

OP, do you mistake warnings about a 2nd wave with people 'wanting' a 2nd wave? Is it because both words start with 'w'? Perhaps you should look for an online adult literacy classes instead of posting goady threads.

@nellodee

Maybe if I was all over threads saying that personally to posters..but i'm not. This is a thread actually discussing those 'kind' of posters, hence the comment.

I won't go along with the MN gas-lighting of pretending there aren't posters like that either.

[quote Freewillies]@nellodee

Maybe if I was all over threads saying that personally to posters..but i'm not. This is a thread actually discussing those 'kind' of posters, hence the comment.

I won't go along with the MN gas-lighting of pretending there aren't posters like that either.[/quote]
...
and I won't go along with the MN gas-lighting of pretending that there are more than a tiny number of people,
who are psychopathic enough to want thousands of deaths, just to be proved right.

There are a lot of MN posters who have major health anxiety and COVID has just sent them off the scale with irrational fears,
but they do not want this to happen

There are a large number of MNers who think leaving kids at home or in cars will lead to spontaneous combustion or abduction,
but despite the pages of alarmist posts of doom, noone alleges that loads of MNers want kids to burn to death or be raped.

My policy is:
Prepare for the worst, hope for the best;
keep listening to government & public health advice and carry on with enjoying as much of normal as possible within the rules

There is a sensible medium between the Doomsters and the Denialists,
both of whom I regard as "dementors," just with very different targets for their aggression

I think people are unhappy and scared and lonely, and that comes out in different ways. For some people, the doomsday attitude makes them feel more in control during a time of great uncertainty. Others genuinely believe they're helping to prevent a second wave by terrorising and/or shaming those who they believe aren't being careful enough.

I'm not saying they're right, far from it. But I'm pretty sure the dementors aren't enjoying themselves.