Lockdowns will not work now.

[OnionString]

The longer this goes on, the less people are going to abide by the "rules". Our lives and freedom have been taken away from us. Now we are getting back some, only for them to be snatched away. Our children education is ruined. Lockdowns only delay the inevitable. Instead of furlough, bike schemes etc, the government should have been ploughing all that money into recruiting nurses, doctors, carers, building even more temp hospitals to deal with the pandemic. Until the vaccine is ready (assuming the trials are successful) the virus is going nowhere no matter how many ridiculous rules we are told to abide by. Life has to go on for the majority, and yes this means sadly more deaths.

It’s mental health that’s screwed. I worked in that field and I can categorically tell you that we are in crisis.

It’s not actually about 14 weeks missed teaching, it’s about a year of your life when you are a kid or a teenager. It’s the extended period of time, not some sort of mathematical sum where you deduct days when you would have been on school holiday and divide by hours of sunshine.

It’s this sustained period of lack. And uncertainly. And yes, for y10 and 12, it’s hideous.

@CountessFrog

It’s mental health that’s screwed. I worked in that field and I can categorically tell you that we are in crisis.

It’s not actually about 14 weeks missed teaching, it’s about a year of your life when you are a kid or a teenager. It’s the extended period of time, not some sort of mathematical sum where you deduct days when you would have been on school holiday and divide by hours of sunshine.

It’s this sustained period of lack. And uncertainly. And yes, for y10 and 12, it’s hideous.

Well said

@Jrobhatch29 extremely well said. Baffles me how people can't see this.

Op you say in your opinion the same number of people will die anyway except stretched over a longer period...have you seen the excess deaths? England has the highest in Europe!

I do wonder why so few people in the UK (mainly England) realise how badly the country is doing compared to the rest of Europe. Most countries (including Spain) have managed to get their daily deaths down to tiny figures, yet it's not unusual to see the UK report over 100 deaths per day, even in July.

Why isn't this news? I've seen one report on the BBC news channel that properly addressed this a couple of weeks ago, but it was late at night and would have had a pretty small audience. The mainstream news channels are completely failing to report the reality.

Why isn't this news?

Because the government want people to say they don't want lockdowns, that they don't want protective measures so they can do away with them and blame it on the public.

OnionString in terms of importance, funding and support, Mental Health has always taken a back seat to physical health - I'm not saying it is right that it should do (it isn't) but more importance has always been placed on physical health, it isn't surprising that remains the case in a pandemic. So it isn't that people can't see it, it is that people don't feel it is as important.

If you're worried about your child's education then in sure you've looked into online schooling and tutoring?

You can Google what they need to know for GCSEs and then Google those topics and work with them on having an understanding, they'll probably end up with a greater understanding when they've had to learn for themselves instead of being spoon fed by teachers, it'll foster an ability to carry on learning throughout life.

Since the start of the pandemic I have said that I don't understand why they didn't just pause school for a year and pick back up where they left off, sure it would push everyone back a year but they don't deserve all this stress of trying to cram things in once they go back, the only good thing being that GCSEs are basically pointless nowadays, you just need them to get into colleges where most have an above C grade needed anyway, I'm sure after this there will be a lot of colleges making allowances due to the pandemic, I don't think it's the end of the world.

As for money and the economy it's a man made institute, they can print more money, tbf most of our money gets sent to stupidly rich people like Jeff bezos who hoard it, don't pay taxes and pay workers the bare minimum and keep the money they made in some off shore account somewhere without giving back to the countries they're insanely profiting off of.

I don’t think we need more empty temporary hospitals but I do think we need to prioritise children’s education.

Look to places such as Germany, as a country that opened schools as a priority.

@dotdashdashdash I get that the government don't want it reported, but it's the media's job to report the news and hold politicians to account. They are failing spectacularly.

I have 2 year 10’s

I’m not worried about their education.

In the long term they’ll be fine. Exceptions made, exams shortened or assessed by teachers. Or retakes.

I can’t get worked up about it.

I don’t think we need more empty temporary hospitals but I do think we need to prioritise children’s education.

definitely. The current strategy is all wrong. There is absolutely no planning going in to how to safely open schools, providing more space, more teachers etc. Just blind hope that a 17 year old is affected by COVID in the same way a 7 yo is because they are technically a child (even if physically they are not).

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

@VividImagination I came on to say exactly the same thing.
More treatments are being discovered and researched all the time which will help going forwards.

@CountessFrog

"It’s mental health that’s screwed. I worked in that field and I can categorically tell you that we are in crisis.

It’s not actually about 14 weeks missed teaching, it’s about a year of your life when you are a kid or a teenager. It’s the extended period of time, not some sort of mathematical sum where you deduct days when you would have been on school holiday and divide by hours of sunshine.

It’s this sustained period of lack. And uncertainly. And yes, for y10 and 12, it’s hideous."

I agreed with the first lockdown.
However I think the calculations on here of oh well if we deduct half term, bank holidays and school holidays then really your children have no right to have been affected by this crisis is just plain wrong.

Covid is responsible for the curtailment of normality on all our lives.
I have a mix of good and bad days coping but the being stolennof my human rights rant get lost on me.
This virus whether your Covid confident Covid terrified is what It is. Its a nasty virus that will kill a few and not others but increasingly seems to be leaving some long term potentially life long (we dont know yet as too early) damage to peoples hearts and blood/circulatory systems; even those that have only had a mild form of the virus.
Life as we knew it us fucked for the foreseeable future. All the ranting and raging on about human rights won't change that. Ignoring the guidelines will contribute to making the situation worse for longer and increase even stricter restrictions.

No amount of foot stamping or optimism can change the shit fact that this shitty virus is going to impact us all for a long time to come yet.

I thought the area under the "squashed sombero" graph at the beginning of this nightmare was equal to the area under the tall peak sombrero which meant the same number of people would die but spread over time so in more "maneagable" numbers if that's not too crude?

No, wrong.

Overwhelmed NHS = no treatment for some (over 60 shut out of ICU e.g. in Italy) = more deaths

Catching later = better treatment, better chance

www.pulsetoday.co.uk/news/lockdown-stopped-470k-covid-19-deaths-in-uk-say-researchers/20040960.article

www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/03/13/815502262/flattening-a-pandemics-curve-why-staying-home-now-can-save-lives

Research has shown that the faster authorities moved to implement the kinds of social distancing measures designed to slow the transmission of disease, the more lives were saved.

Like Jeff bezos
Hey Jeff how's it going with those recurring nightmares about pitchforks 🤣

So what I don't understand about these posts (of which there are a lot!) is how people think it would play out of restrictions were lifted. The impression is that it would all go back to normal with a few sick people.

It wouldn't - see the US and Sweden. They have not performed better economically. The jobs are still gone either way. Unless you plan to mandate people eat out/go to the office. Individual action will cause as much damage. Companies sent people to work from home long before the government mandated it and are not sending them back the way the government would like.

Also if we let restrictions go, more people would die due to overshoot - suggest you follow some pandemic modellers on twitter.

You are already alot less likely to die now than you were a few months thanks to dexamethasone. I personally am willing to give science time to improve the situation.

@CountessFrog

It’s mental health that’s screwed. I worked in that field and I can categorically tell you that we are in crisis.

It’s not actually about 14 weeks missed teaching, it’s about a year of your life when you are a kid or a teenager. It’s the extended period of time, not some sort of mathematical sum where you deduct days when you would have been on school holiday and divide by hours of sunshine.

It’s this sustained period of lack. And uncertainly. And yes, for y10 and 12, it’s hideous.

Absolutely this.

My mental health is already in tatters and I am worried about that of my previously very ill and anorexic 18 year old DD.

I almost lost my very frail and elderly parents without ever seeing them alive again during the first lockdown, and was also made redundant.

I would find it almost impossible to guarantee abiding fully by another lockdown. The first was very destructive.

By the way, a year 10 child is NOT a ten year old. They are 14 to 15 year olds and just short of GCSEs.

@hamstersarse

You are correct about my age, and yes I am aware of AIDS for which there is now a cure, and yes I am aware of other pandemics we have had across the world, but I still maintain that fir many people this is the first tine they have seen something like this that has really affected them personally

As regards children not socialising, adults also have that same issue, including me and my family but with Skype, zoom WhatsApp. Phone calls etc ( and for kids video games they can all join in with) it’s possible to maintain contact with friends, just in a different way, and only for a couple of months or so before they could meet up with one friend outside etc.

And yes selfish, if you have been asked to stay in to help hundreds of thousands not get a virus then I am happy to do that, if you are not then yes you are selfish, and one of the things this virus has shown is just how selfish some of the people living in this country have become. Luckily lots aren’t or we would be much worse of then now

Ventilators do work for some, and not for others, like any medicinal process

As to your last comment, words fail me

@Chloemol

Erm there is no cure for AIDS...it's treatable curable

It's treatable NOT curable

I think it’s more difficult now op yes, people have lost interest, and are able to contextualise risk.

Many will comply and many are still too scared to leave their homes, but for the vast majority unless it starts to be a serious increase in deaths they will just continue as is.

@OnionString

My son was really ill (reactive arthritis) and missed a 10 days in one term a couple of years ago. I automatically got a letter saying that his attendance had fallen below the 90 % (or whatever it was) and how studies have shown even missing 2 or 3 days a term can have an adverse effect on their education. But hey, months and months is just fine. Great. Fab!

But now all the students in his class will be in the same boat so the school will be working to make sure all of the students catch up.

In normal times, if one student misses a lot of school the rest of the class continues to move forward and the absent child falls behind their peers.

This is a different situation.

Education needs prioritising also. Years of budget cuts means we now have school buildings that are bursting at the seams. Class sizes at 30 plus. Teachers and pupils without the technology required to work properly from home. September will highlight this even further. I've known how bad it's got over 24 years of teaching, I hope parents can see it too.

I keep seeing people complaining about lock down, social distancing, wearing masks, restrictions on certain activities and how it's affecting many people and mental health is suffering, young people are suffering, which I'm sure is partly true. Then they conclude by saying, as op is, we should get back to normal and let the virus run through the population.

Could anyone explain to me how that will be better on people's mental health? Do you think kids will have a normal education when half of their teachers are off sick, some die, their friends and families get sick, some die, hospitals can't treat everyone who needs it - even for non Covid conditions and many die, shops can't operate because too many staff are sick and supply chains are disrupted due to sickness, essential services are disrupted due to sickness - op, can you explain to me how this is better than what's currently happening?

On whether lockdowns will work or not, I wonder how many have changed their plans based on the recent restrictions in those local areas.

Obviously when it’s something drastic like closing businesses or schools we don’t have a choice, unfortunately for the latter.