End social distancing now - it’s time to get back to normal

[peasoup8]

Four deaths from coronavirus were recorded on 5th September - and yet the economy is on its knees, businesses are folding and my GP refuses to do face to face appointments because of the supposed risks posed by this “deadly” disease. Whilst I have every sympathy for the families of those who died, there are more people killed on Britain’s roads each day than there are from Covid.

People said there would be a massive spike in cases/deaths after the BLM protests and guess what - that failed to materialise. Central London was packed when I was there last weekend so nobody is taking the virus seriously anyway. AIBU to think it’s time we end this social distancing farce now and get back to normal, before more people lose their jobs and homes and the economy tanks still further?

It appears a lot of current cases are young people returning from abroad where they have been clubbing etc.

So hopefully we'll settle back down but if that is the case then it proves that SD is needed.

The thing is, I think we are reaching a point where we either say, carry on as we are, local lockdowns, possibly even national lockdown in winter, no gatherings, nothing in the, incredibly struggling and not helped by the recovery fund, entertaining industry, carry on with very limited healthcare, because covid is here and we don't yet have a credible vaccine.
Or we say, yes, it's still here, the number though on average despite the Daily Mail scaremongering are lower, we can maintain some social distancing, but for the most part unless you fall into an at risk category we have to get back to as far normal as we can because if we don't, People will be homeless, businesses are and will continue to fail, the jobless figures and benefits bill will be so high we can't manage it, and we haven't even hit Brexit yet.
It's one or the other really.
It's a stark choice and o wouldn't want to be the politician making it because you are literally damned if you do and damned if you don't. If Boris and Co had of attended the Cobra meetings and took it seriously in February, it probably wouldn't have been what we are all faced with, but hindsight is a wondrous thing and we can't dwell on the what ifs. People voted in a bumbling tool. I didn't personally.
If you look at Sweden though, everyone was looking at them like they were mad, but actually, they're nowhere near as bad off in any way that was predicted.
There's no right or wrong answer at this point, any death is a great tragedy, and could've been avoided. But when figures are released on how many people died with only covid and only in the 28 days before, it's far smaller numbers.

....we should all scrap social distancing, because nobody's even doing it any more, but it's horrible to live through even though we aren't living through it because nobody's doing it any more, because it's crippling the economy, even though nobody's bothering with it, and if cases were going to start rising again then they would have been rising by now because we aren't social distancing any more, so we should all stop the social distancing we're not doing;

I was going to post something very similar but you got there first... The irrationality of this argument seems completely lost on many though!

I think posters are being unduly harsh on the OP here.
Measures were introduced to try and stop the NHS being overwhelmed... not to stop every single case from happening. There would always be tragic deaths - that’s a fact of the virus (and indeed, of life)
We did that. We locked down to ‘flatten the curve’
The NHS is nowhere near to being at breaking point. And nor is it likely to be as we have testing capacity now that we just didn’t at the start. Plus, the fact that this had been circulating undetected since last year and it STILL took 5 months to get to lockdown point has to play a factor here.

It’s time to stop fucking about with phone appointments and that malarkey and start to live as normal as possible now (with mask wearing, local lockdowns where needed, SD and hand washing etc)

Of COURSE most of us want to get back to our normal lives. Of course we are fed up of this now. But there isn't an option to 'just go back to normal' right now.

It is common sense that ending social distancing won't magically send us back to normal while the virus is still around. And even if it wasn't common sense, we could look at the countries that did go "enough restrictions, enough fussing about coronavirus now, let's all move on" and see what happened there. Israel, lots of the US, Brazil. What happened there was not life going back to normal. What happened was that cases rose, and then hospitalisations and deaths rose, and as a result of that the economy is fucked, services close, people lose jobs, people's mental health tanks, schools close, it's all a mess.

So no, we cannot scrap social distancing because people are either in denial about what the alternative looks like or too stupid and selfish to care.

I want to be allowed back to work. I want to see my colleagues and clients. I want to not be “working “ from the kitchen. I want my family to live as a family again, not all in separate rooms on screens. I want my mental health back!
In my region, the infection rate is currently 17 per 100, 000.
More people are suffering from the “rules” than from the virus.

Measures were introduced to try and stop the NHS being overwhelmed..

As well as staying home to protect the NHS I seem to recall there was a third part to the slogan......

keep social distancing where it is no hardship - the supermarket, pub etc, but places like doctors and dentists need to be back to normal now
albeit with masks (and everyone wearing them - no excuses)

I don't have a problem with telephone appointments as a triage. To be honest the amount of things people waste time of a GP for is pathetic. And most certainly most people don't need to be seen face to face. Having worked as an HCP for a number of years telephone triage could quite possibly the NHS from the huge amount of misuse it gets. That said if the GP couldn't ascertain enough information from the phone call then it should be followed up with a face to face appointment.

...we should all scrap social distancing, because nobody's even doing it any more, but it's horrible to live through even though we aren't living through it because nobody's doing it any more, because it's crippling the economy, even though nobody's bothering with it, and if cases were going to start rising again then they would have been rising by now because we aren't social distancing any more, so we should all stop the social distancing we're not doing;

Except many areas are still. My town is very compliant on the whole and numbers are very low.

But we also are able to see GP and have treatment, have hospital appointments, we can see dentist etc.

I totally agree some services really need to open but I don't agree that SD doesn't work.

Masks and SD compliance here seems to be having the right effect.

I don’t understand how we went from flatten the curve to where we are now, which seems to be in a perpetual stall mode...

I don’t think people realise

It’s the current SD that’s ruining lives

So people really think they’ll all have jobs by Xmas? Most companies are not operating full capacity

Half people on here could lose their jobs

Are people not worried? It’s the 2m rule which is destroying companies as they can’t fully operate

@Bouncycastle12

I don’t understand how we went from flatten the curve to where we are now, which seems to be in a perpetual stall mode...

to keep the curve flat.

@Bouncycastle12

I don’t understand how we went from flatten the curve to where we are now, which seems to be in a perpetual stall mode...

The strategy did seem to swing to stay under R equalling 1

From do not overwhelm NHS

I wonder how different it would have been if we’d started with the former as strategy

but places like doctors and dentists need to be back to normal now albeit with masks (and everyone wearing them - no excuses)

This. GPs not doing their job properly is simply going to force more people down to A&E - how is that fair or safe?

@Bouncycastle12

I don’t understand how we went from flatten the curve to where we are now, which seems to be in a perpetual stall mode...

The modelling done in early- to mid-March. There was a UCL paper on about 16th or 17th of March on this, plus the government was doing its own calculations too I am guessing.

'Flatten the curve' was about mitigation. Accept that the virus will work its way through the population, but slow the spread so it doesn't hit everyone at once and the health services don't get overwhelmed.

Then the virus hit northern Italy and it became increasingly obvious that this wouldn't work, there was no way to let it run through the population and also keep it from overwhelming hospitals. So we switched to 'suppress it with lockdown and then see if we can use widespread testing and contact tracing to stop it from taking hold again'.

I think the government should have been a lot clearer about its strategy too but that would have meant admitting they called it wrong and politicians would rather die, apparently

@peasoup8
"This. GPs not doing their job properly is simply going to force more people down to A&E - how is that fair or safe?"

My point was GPs are not doing their jobs at the moment and that will force people to a and E so GPs and dentists should be back to normal service now but wearing masks should be mandatory for all as that doesnt impact on their service provision

go's ARE doing their jobs properly op.....to NHS guidelines.

Problem with the pro lockdown crew is that cases will never be low enough for them. The only number they can cope with is zero - which means we’ll never be free of this nonsense

go's ARE doing their jobs properly op.....to NHS guidelines

Refusing a face to face appointment with a baby who needs to be seen is doing their job properly? Come on.

The hospital cases are not rising either. So we certainly won't see a sudden rise in deaths for a while if at all. Also people saying it's the highest infection since April or whatever - probably 50k infections a day back then but we never knew !

go's ARE doing their jobs properly op.....to NHS guidelines.

They're obviously not though, because there seems to be a huge disparity across the country. I've been for a smear, sons vaccinations, for a blood test, and for another appointment about something else- all face to face during lockdown. I don't know why anyone would find a GP refusing to see a baby face to face as acceptable.

@peasoup8

Exponential growth (look it up) will mean lots more deaths.

Oh come off it. I’ve been hearing that there’s going to be “lots more deaths” for weeks now and yet the latest death toll is 4.

Why would OP need to 'look it up'.

Totally agree OP too. Even when cases and deaths go up we need to get on with things now. I will always look out for and be wary of vulnerable or high risk family and friends etc but we can't carry on like this indefinitely.

@Emmie12345

Wow