If we hadn't had lockdown - what would life look like now?

[GrumpiestOldWoman]

On MN there are voices saying that the lockdown was an overreaction and advocating a much lighter touch. What do you think life would look like for you now if we hadn't locked down?

We are overpopulated here, our schools, hospitals etc were struggling before COVID. However, I just don't believe we needed to lock down for for as long as we did. The NHS needed time to prepare but they didn't need all that time. Behaviours were already shifting and if it weren't for the way our elderly were treated, by being turfed out of hospital and into care homes, we would have seen much less death. I'm seeing too many of my friends losing their jobs and how they are going to survive it, I don't know. It's very worrying.

That Swedish article is interesting.

@onedayinthefuture

We are overpopulated here, our schools, hospitals etc were struggling before COVID. However, I just don't believe we needed to lock down for for as long as we did. The NHS needed time to prepare but they didn't need all that time. Behaviours were already shifting and if it weren't for the way our elderly were treated, by being turfed out of hospital and into care homes, we would have seen much less death. I'm seeing too many of my friends losing their jobs and how they are going to survive it, I don't know. It's very worrying.

That Swedish article is interesting.

Totally agree. Discharging residents of care homes back was a mistake. It certainly wasn't intended maliciously. In the early days, patients who had 'recovered' from covid in hospital weren't considered infective and repeat swans weren't taken. There was also a pressure to have as many beds available for new admissions as possible.

In retrospect though this led to covid infecting many care homes residents (no care worker PPE contributed). This has led to a high death toll in U.K. which was avoidable

I cant imagine a scenario in which the UK opted to not have some form of lockdown so the question feels unanswerable to me
it feels as if we are being drawn into another polarisation scenario, it's vegans vs meat eaters/leaves vs remainers etc in another guise

[quote CarrieBlue]@SengaStrawberry ‘called out on strike’ has a totally different implication to ‘ballot for strike action’ as you well intended. Take your own advice.[/quote]
Oh piss off.

When lockdown happened I was 3 weeks away from going on mat leave. I’m assuming Chris Whitty would have still advised pregnant women to work from home so I would have been working from home then I would have been on mat leave.

If there was no lockdown I would have -

Potentially not have incurred and extra £5k worth of costs as I ended up paying for two sets of housing costs for an extra 5 months. We had been renovating a house and were due to move the Sunday after lockdown. However, the carpet I was due to have fitted on Saturday never turned up and I was left with partially fitted electric and plumbing in my kitchen.

Prior to coronavirus I was planning to have a home birth (which did happen) as I had a quick labour with DD (I had another quick labour) If there had been no lockdown the NHS could have been overwhelmed and my local Trust could have suspended home births and I would have had to go to hospital to give birth. The hospital could have been overrun and who knows what care I would have received (or I could have contracted CV in hospital). However, DH would have been at work if there was no lockdown. I’m assuming by this point (May) the virus would have been completely out of control so DDs grandparents wouldn’t have been able to look after her. DH would have been travelling back from work to get to me. Best case scenario would have been that DH made it in time so he could take me to hospital to give birth by myself in the overwhelmed hospital whilst he looked after DD. Worst case scenario would have been DH not making it in time due to me labouring quickly and me having to call 999 for an ambulance to catch the baby. If the ambulance service were overwhelmed with COVID patients I could have ended up giving birth at home with my toddler by myself.

@Heffalooomia

I cant imagine a scenario in which the UK opted to not have some form of lockdown so the question feels unanswerable to me it feels as if we are being drawn into another polarisation scenario, it's vegans vs meat eaters/leaves vs remainers etc in another guise

It wasn't intended to be polarising, lots of voices saying lockdown was unnecessary and only 50,000 people died which might be comparable to a bad flu year. I'm interested to know what people expect would have happened if we'd kept going as we were, to actually visualise what life would be like now.

only 50,000 died wow. The years not out yet.

Of course people want to think we'd be like Sweden - but we are not. We'd have been more like Brazil www.businessinsider.com/photos-brazil-mass-graves-experts-anticipate-covid-19-deaths-2020-5?r=US&IR=T

Food supplies would be intermittent and there might need to be formal rationing. We had food supplies but by now we'd be into the beans and chickpeas and I might well have murdered my OH for his complaints.

We'd have stopped donating to food banks and therefore there would be more poor people in our area starving.

At least some of my extended family would probably be dead.

Very interesting article that was linked, you definitely also need to read the comments listed after the article

The vast majority of us would still never have heard of Dominic Cummings

The days before lockdown the french said they would stop all cross channel ferries

So food and medicine would be quickly been in very short supply. We would also have lost our ability to export goods.

I would probably have lost a few of the older generation of my family. If my diabetic husband became ill it's likely that he would have been refused treatment as NHS resources would have been strongly rationed. Overall, 1 in 100 people would be dead ( could well be significantly more as fatality rate from covid and all other illnesses increased as services become overwhelmed ) and s8milar numbers may well be living with serious post viral complications.

Those with money would effectively lockdown anyway, protecting themselves as much as possible. And taking much money out of the economy. Those without would be forced to work. And coping with high inflation on food prices, further stifling the economy. Many would now be unable to work due to lasting covid effects. Others would be unemployed as a result of the economic crash , waiting on universal credit that was slower than normal due to increased load and increased staff sickness rates.