Anybody got any good ideas as to how we beat/deal with this going forward?

vodkaredbullgirl · 22/08/2020 01:28

Im 50 and have worked through out the pandemic. Get tested every week, social distance, wear a mask at work. I hardly out, or if i do i wear a mask.

Original poster

waltzingparrot · 22/08/2020 01:51

Ok, you can join the first group

OP posts:

BadAbbot · 22/08/2020 03:23

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

BadAbbot · 22/08/2020 03:25

So you want a two tier society with some undergoing extreme measures and others undergo none

Is this humane?

The quote about judging a society by how it treats its most vulnerable springs to mind.

I’m worried we’ve become a bunch of right wing callous selfish ones.

The replies will confirm or deny this.

HarveySchlumpfenburger · 22/08/2020 04:14

The vulnerable section of society is about 30-40% of the population and masking up won’t solve their problem since the point of masks is to protect other people not the wearer.

By increasing the circulating levels of the virus to get herd immunity, 30-40% of the population are going to be unable to leave the house to go to work or go shopping. A lot of those people are going to be key workers such as nurses, doctors, teachers, shop workers etc which will lead to other issues. You can forget getting access to healthcare or schools being open full time. And that’s before you get to household members of the vulnerable bringing the virus into the house when they go out.

Finfintytint · 22/08/2020 04:28

There are plenty of 50+ who need to work now. Working from home is not always possible. DH is a key worker and 50 plus....do you think you should forego essential food items?

WombOfOnesOwn · 22/08/2020 04:32

It's already a "two tier society." Lockdown has made it so from the start.

Middle-class people are working from home and often have capabilities to make this time relatively nice: big gardens, the possibility of travel to somewhere with fewer restrictions, able to eat out and pay their way into recreational activities.

Then there's the working classes, doing the same jobs as before but now with public health measures in place that make these jobs harder and more challenging to morale. They don't have the ability to engage in the same kinds of paid recreation as the middle class. They don't have big gardens.

And every day, the working class is being told that it would be simply unforgivable for the god-anointed middle classes to have to go to work or take the slightest risk to their health by opening up public recreation and group activities.

Anyone who doesn't see that this has already created social tiers that are sowing division as we speak is blind to reality and blind to the classism of the lockdown system.

IdblowJonSnow · 22/08/2020 04:41

Wear masks in enclosed public spaces. Wfh where possible.
We need to have loads more testing routinely.
Local lockdown where necessary.
Kind of how it is now I guess but with more testing.

Finfintytint · 22/08/2020 04:43

Yes, certain professions are bleating about their risk when many key working food operatives have continued throughout, without the necessary protections just to keep people in dairy products that they just can’t do without.

nasiisthebest · 22/08/2020 04:48

How are you going to prevent the carers/ hospital workers/cleaners that visit the vulnerable often from getting Covid and infecting the vulnerable? Since they're working too and a lot presumably have partners and children?

HarveySchlumpfenburger · 22/08/2020 05:01

@IdblowJonSnow

Wear masks in enclosed public spaces. Wfh where possible. We need to have loads more testing routinely. Local lockdown where necessary. Kind of how it is now I guess but with more testing.

I really do wish our government would bring the symptom criteria into line with virtually everywhere else.

I can’t see what is to be gained by going into the winter without giving the full list of symptoms that ought to trigger a test and isolation. There’s an awful lot to be lost though.

TheClaws · 22/08/2020 06:19

Why don't they send all the 20-50 age group back into society (minus those with conditions/anxiety). In theory, if they catch it, it will likely be more like a bad cold and it seems many are happy to be shoulder to shoulder in pubs etc. They will be injecting money into the economy and building up herd immunity but the NHS could cope with the low numbers that would need help in hospital.. They would be able to see older family members with masks/distancing.

After all this time, you still believe that COVID is not much more than a bad cold? And you also confident enough to divide a population into broad age groups and suggest that COVID won't affect the lower group as much? (It can.) The NHS would be overwhelmed with cases using such an approach. Plenty of vulnerable are in that age group, too. Also, the over 50 group would be effectively isolated: I doubt they would wish to allow potentially-infected people into their homes even with masks and SD.

Savananan · 22/08/2020 06:21

@WombOfOnesOwn sums it up perfectly.

chantico · 22/08/2020 07:18

The over 50s are one third of the workforce.

Your plan would really stress the economy, and would take out valuable experience of those in their working prime.

Especially if you add all the 'flu jab' group - possibly several hundreds of thousands more.

And then decide what to do about the BAME community, as the nature of the additional risks which produces the higher death rates has not been bottomed out, and until known it would be pretty heartless not to protect?

Yes, definite economic collapse and horrible stresses on NHS, because of loss of experienced staff, so may other organisations would struggle too

Waxonwaxoff0 · 22/08/2020 07:34

My 51 year old mum is an NHS key worker, she's already had Covid and has antibodies. Locking her up wouldn't exactly be fair.

minnieok · 22/08/2020 08:14

Don't worry, we already have. Dp however is very offended at the 50 cut off mooted in the press, he has worked every single day during the outbreak and has had covid which was very mild.

minnieok · 22/08/2020 08:15

A balanced approach is needed with enhanced support for the truly vulnerable

Lemons1571 · 22/08/2020 09:19

What about all the vulnerable parents and those 50+ who do the school run? Will they be fined for not taking their children to school because they’re not allowed to leave the house?

user1471439240 · 22/08/2020 09:24

The over 50 argument is nonsense. The risk for all workers needs properly assessed, including the wfh contingent.
Link to Covid age calculator -
alama.org.uk/covid-19-medical-risk-assessment/

BamboozledandBefuddled · 22/08/2020 11:40

61 year old DH drives a loading shovel in a quarry. I think he's going to struggle a bit doing that at home so wtf do you suggest we would live on?

99victoria · 22/08/2020 11:46

How would you actually enforce this? Given the fact that I expect most over 50's wouldn't want to stay home and live in lockdown, how would you stop them carrying on with their lives as 'normal'?

ChavvySexPond · 22/08/2020 11:59

I am against shutting away millions of people for 2-3 years. (Or forever if the virus mutates into something worse)

I find it's only suggested by people who are generally against lockdown for themselves.

The answer to how to deal with the virus is to properly fight the virus.

This country needs to get a "can do" attitude and a functional test trace and isolate system.

Zero Covid is the way forward.

(Do please do at least a cursory google before you come in with a lazy, defeatist, negative knee jerk.)

TheDailyCarbuncle · 22/08/2020 12:14

@WombOfOnesOwn

It's already a "two tier society." Lockdown has made it so from the start.

Middle-class people are working from home and often have capabilities to make this time relatively nice: big gardens, the possibility of travel to somewhere with fewer restrictions, able to eat out and pay their way into recreational activities.

Then there's the working classes, doing the same jobs as before but now with public health measures in place that make these jobs harder and more challenging to morale. They don't have the ability to engage in the same kinds of paid recreation as the middle class. They don't have big gardens.

And every day, the working class is being told that it would be simply unforgivable for the god-anointed middle classes to have to go to work or take the slightest risk to their health by opening up public recreation and group activities.

Anyone who doesn't see that this has already created social tiers that are sowing division as we speak is blind to reality and blind to the classism of the lockdown system.

Very, very well said.

There is such nonsense being spouted about 'protecting the vulnerable,' when the majority of cases during the lockdown were vulnerable people, in hospitals and care homes, leading to a high number of deaths, while perfectly healthy low-risk middle class people cowered at home and wanged on about collective responsibility, never once giving a thought to the nurses, care home staff and food retail staff who had no choice but to carry on working. It's a bizarre sort of doublethink, where apparently it's absolute certain death if children go to school, but the thousands of workers who are actually dealing with covid day and in day out are somehow fine. I'd love to know what goes in people's heads (not really, it'd just fuck me off even more.)

Drivingdownthe101 · 22/08/2020 12:18

Well my 60 year old NHS worker mother who has already had covid (mildly) would probably object to not being able to work and therefore pay her mortgage.

Drivingdownthe101 · 22/08/2020 12:19

There is such nonsense being spouted about 'protecting the vulnerable,' when the majority of cases during the lockdown were vulnerable people, in hospitals and care homes, leading to a high number of deaths, while perfectly healthy low-risk middle class people cowered at home and wanged on about collective responsibility, never once giving a thought to the nurses, care home staff and food retail staff who had no choice but to carry on working

And 100% this.