Surely they can’t keep schools open as normal if cases keep going up like today!

[Worriedmum999]

My daughter went back to school last Thursday. She really needed to go as lockdown played havoc with her mental health. She was fine doing her academic work but she is someone who needs the social side of school.

We are a vulnerable family and, with this shitshower of a government, I had no faith that cases wouldn’t rise and I wouldn’t be forced to take her out of school again. But I cannot believe that she has been back 2 days and the jump in cases has been so huge. I honestly expected us to be able to get to half term. Of course deaths are going to rise now. Why wouldn’t we follow the pattern of the other European countries. Add to that the fact that people can’t get tested now and we’re fucked. And I’m so fucking angry and upset about the damage that this is doing.

What are the government going to do? Surely it will be impossible to expect parents to keep sending their children to schools when the death toll is huge again and the ICUs are full.

chance children and young adults are not dying from covid, nor are most middle aged, not even the healthy elderly are dying from covid!

So to lock down much of the population that will only have a mild case of covid if anything at all is pointless.

Those that are elderly and clinically at risk should of course be shielded as soon as it is necessary to do so, everyone/everywhere else including schools should stay open and continue as before, with precautions in place.

Sweden fortunately for us were the obvious test case for following this kind of model, they made a mistake with their care homes too, but I expect that most countries will be much more careful going forward with care homes and hospitals in particular, and we will carry on.

We can't afford to another lockdown even if we needed one.

Why on earth should we be closing schools when they have barely opened? Cases are rising and there may be difficult decisions to be made over the coming weeks, but schools absolutely shouldn't be the first to close. The idea that we should move immediately to full online learning for most secondary pupils and masks and SD for the youngest primary pupils is preposterous to me.

@TheSunIsStillShining, Yes. Our school has these plans ready to go. I was keen to start back with social distancing rather than their “all in together” strategy but it’s not too late to implement them before the winter.

@Worriedmum999

You said -
'Of course deaths are going to rise now'. - 2 people died yesterday

'Add to that the fact that people can’t get tested now and we’re fucked'. People can get tested now and we are not fucked

'And I’m so fucking angry and upset about the damage that this is doing.' - calm down and try to be rational it isn't good for your children to see a mother going overboard

'death toll is huge again and the ICUs are full' - the ICU's were never full the last time!

Seriously get some perspective, if not for you then for those around you!

cases in France is worrying,
our own cases are worrying

but look on the bright side, the hospital admissions are not worrying, nor are the deaths AFAIK
we are socially distancing, using masks, and washing our hands.
We can test if we have symptoms
There will be no national lock downs

@Pluckedpencil

And for the last time, the numbers are exponential. In two weeks we will have a spike like before. Deaths will be lower because the average age is lower, but the older people who aren't or can't completely shield will get it and die. It seems no one in the UK cares about people with medical conditions, when all they have to do is follow the social distancing rules.

I assume you mean positive tests by numbers, have they been increasing exponentially? They were high yesterday but up until then it was a pretty slowly rising number and without full data on how many are being tested, whether testing is targeted you can't really draw any conclusions.

There is 1 case in my local hospital

Are people asking for tests more now?
back to school/work.. have a test.
have a cough.. have a test

I believe it's right and proper that there should be online back up options for education, but these must be back up not default.

Flights to and from UK, gyms and swimming pools, pubs, bingo halls and holiday lets should all be closed before they are invoked. But of course they won't be, because pupils don't generate any tax revenue.

I can only hope that quality of online teaching will be better this time than it was last time - and yes I do appreciate nobody anticipated the situation, but in my job we've had to adapt how we do things at high speed, without additional support and we've managed it.

This time there should be some plans in place for online learning if needed - am in Scotland so originally they'd proposed this as the default.

I'm baffled by the selfishness that says the clinically vulnerable should just lock themselves away. How is that right or fair? They have been doing it for months, time they were allowed out and the rest of the population made it easier for them, not harder.

The elderly and vulnerable are just as entitled to a life as anyone else. Sacrifice has to be across the board.

Surely it will be impossible to expect parents to keep sending their children to schools when the death toll is huge again and the ICUs are full.

@Worriedmum999 ICUs were not full. The Nightingale Hospitals were empty and never used! All the private hospitals that had to be procured for Covid admissions were never used (and as a result of that many people will die because their treatment for cancer etc was postponed.)

Your idea of what has happened is not the reality.

The current increases are in clusters. Look at where they are- locations. Look at the behaviour of those communities and the young people in those areas.

You should be angry with people breaking guidelines, not the government.

Far too many people have become selfish and started to ignore guidance. That's the reason for the increase.

@Tomatoesneedtoripen

Are people asking for tests more now? back to school/work.. have a test. have a cough.. have a test

You only have to recall the threads on here to see that people are getting tested for any and all symptoms which will mean that a number of mild cases that haven't been included previously are being picked up. That doesn't mean that the total numbers are higher than they were before, we need to look at random testing for that kind of detail.

It is also possible that the virus is weakening, no one is saying that publicly right now, for obvious reasons, but there is some evidence that it is not as virulent as before.

Everything's fine.

you cant blame people for wanting to mix
they have sacrificed for strangers

you cant blame anyone for wanting to live a little

cancer treatment has continued.

and the treatment, if needed, is better
although it doesnt seem to be leading to an increase in hospital admissions.

The elderly and vulnerable are just as entitled to a life as anyone else. Sacrifice has to be across the board

We can't sacrifice everyone including the economy and lock down healthy people for no reason.

The elderly can either carry on with their lives as before, or they can be very careful and take every available precaution to protect themselves, given their risk are so much higher. It should be a personal decision, an informed decision based on the facts made by the individual.

Everyone else carries on as before. We could have many decades or longer living with covid or variations of viruses, the quicker we are flexible and adapt to living with it, the better.

It is also possible that the virus is weakening, no one is saying that publicly right now, for obvious reasons, but there is some evidence that it is not as virulent as before.

Yes absolutely.

The situation unfolding in Europe can only really be explained by that OR the tests picking up large numbers of people who don’t actually have Covid in any clinically meaningful way.

Case numbers need to be viewed very differently to
How they were in March/April

@Friendsoftheearth

It is also possible that the virus is weakening, no one is saying that publicly right now, for obvious reasons, but there is some evidence that it is not as virulent as before.

It’s not economically viable

i dont think we carry on as before.
we still need to practice social distance/hand hygiene, mask wearing.

there was talk of closing the pubs when the schools opened, has that been shelved.

@Deadringer

The schools closed and we went into lockdown because this was a new virus, no one knew the effects of it or the likely outcome. For all the experts knew millions of people could be wiped out, but that didn't happen. Hospitals have come up with treatments that are working against the affects of the virus, vulnerable people are being protected as much as possible, and masks and social distancing are slowing the spread. This is all good news as far as i am concerned, we can live with this for as long as we have to.

Finally a sane, rational response. The amount of hysteria and hand-wringing on here is scary.

People could start following the rules. The pictures I see on social media with people hugging friends and sitting around restaurant tables, clearly not the same/two households and nowhere near 2m apart.

Maybe the adults could start being adults so our kids can get the education they deserve.

As for tests running out, we need people to stop requesting them when they have a runny nose because it "could be covid". It could, but its much more likely to be a cold. So just stay home for two days, see how you feel and move on if feeling better. Stop wasting tests.

Spain now has over 10,000 new cases a day and that is just those that have been tested, we know the true number is much, much higher but we have not seen waves of corresponding hospital admissions.
I understand many hospitals are preparing for the worst, that is prudent and to be expected, but reports there confirm that most cases are mild, much milder than before.

That might be because there are two strains of covid, one that is more deadly than the other, so it could be the weaker strain of the two is working its way through Europe. Or it might simply be that the virus is now naturally running out of steam.

It would be a shame to see the funding cut and the drive for a vaccine slowed because it is no longer the global priority it was.

5. Start re-framing the narrative to reflect what's happening: This is not forever! These measures are temporary and you have to stick to them. Instead of the flippant "just the flu, don't panic" or the over dramatic "we'll all die". And stop having bloody mental issues over every single little thing. Resilience and adaptability are key traits now more than ever. We should be showing these to our kids and that we will persevere and not show them the example that something comes up and we should be running for shelter because we "can't cope"!

I really agree with this particular point. I am quite depressed about my life (WFH staring at 4 walls, DS with mental health probelms etc) and want it to ne over but this way of framing my view is helpful.

Saying 'nothing is a problem just ignore it, it is all overblown' does not cut it for me. It is not a choice between everyone go back to school at once or 'all children stay home forever and have their life ruined' That sort of black and white thinking is positively harmful.

@Friendsoftheearth

The elderly and vulnerable are just as entitled to a life as anyone else. Sacrifice has to be across the board

We can't sacrifice everyone including the economy and lock down healthy people for no reason.

The elderly can either carry on with their lives as before, or they can be very careful and take every available precaution to protect themselves, given their risk are so much higher. It should be a personal decision, an informed decision based on the facts made by the individual.

Everyone else carries on as before. We could have many decades or longer living with covid or variations of viruses, the quicker we are flexible and adapt to living with it, the better.

You can't lockdown a large number of vulnerable people either. How is that fair?

Everyone has to make it easier for everyone else to have some quality of life. If that means you restrict your activities then so be it. The vulnerable are every bit as deserving of a life as anyone else.

So, so selfish.