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?

@MiniMaxi I am with you 100% but trying to get people to consider an alternative point of view is just pissing into the wind

You can't live scared forever. The economy has already been trashed. By all means let those who are frightened stay inside and self isolate by for fucks sake some of us are dying a slow death by now having no job, by having our operations cancelled etc. Strangle everyone with fear why don't you, just because you're afraid. Life is risk itself- let us get on with our lives, for fucks sake.

Well said!

And Matt Hancock is a fool if he thinks that appointments over the phone work well. If what you say is true, it sounds like he’s using Covid as a convenient excuse to cut vital and important services.

Also there may be 5 deaths now, but there were in excess of 40,000 overall since March - why would we want to just bin everything easy that stops spread (SD and masks) and go back to that?

The GP issue is separate - I had a phone appointment with my GP today and am going into the practice tomorrow (and it's not urgent at all). I suggest changing GP practice if they're this terrible (I used to be at one like this - so I moved).

Lemme get this straight

Virus hits UK. Shown to be deadly and very easily contagious. Exponential growth shows hundreds of thousands of JUST positive test results (not true number of cases of course), so country takes astringent measures to reduce virus spread.

Measures introduced are effective enough to dramatically reduce number of new infection rates and therefore death toll.

Your response to all that is to say "I can't BELIEVE all these freedom encroaching measures are in place for a virus that has only killed FOUR people today".

Cause and effect, come on it's not that difficult..

I'm also struggling with this at work. I have huge concerns about how the restrictions are affecting vulnerable children who are not getting the level of support they need.

"SD is not hard to do. It really isn't"

I disagree. Having tried to SD in corridors full of pupils who don't give a fuck about sd I find it impossible to keep 2m away from them. They are literally walking less than a foot behind me. Stick the same number of people in the same size building with the same time to do everything SD is out the window.

Same in the supermarkets for weeks now. You can't SD if most people around you don't even try to do it anymore

@Porcupineinwaiting I referred to MH as PP had posted about feeling suicidal due to the pandemic, I know of more people who have died through suicide during the last 6 months (including 2 teenagers)than I know of people dying of Covid. I suppose our thoughts and feelings just react to what we see going on around us.No death trumps another in terms of cause.

Attention everybody: we need to stop social distancing during a pandemic because someone on the Internet is upset with their GP.

You say that those that want to stay locked down should,

So what if it's your doctor who wants to stay locked down and your customers? Then even if you want to go back to normal you can't.

@YouJustDoYou

You can't live scared forever. The economy has already been trashed. By all means let those who are frightened stay inside and self isolate by for fucks sake some of us are dying a slow death by now having no job, by having our operations cancelled etc. Strangle everyone with fear why don't you, just because you're afraid. Life is risk itself- let us get on with our lives, for fucks sake.

It could be argued you’re the one who’s scared - scared of the changes that have happened in such a short space of time.

The measures found that are proven to work will be what facilitates what you’re arguing for. The evidence from spring shows us what your way results in.

It seems to me that those who have suffered as a direct result of covid (death or significant illness of them or family member) cant understand the equal suffering of those an indirect impact of covid (job losses, treatment delays, MH issues,poverty, abuse) and vice versa. We are ALL suffering in 1 capacity or another, the difficulty is finding a balance between the 2

I have and I do understand others are suffering as well . My mum died at the start of lockdown...the last day of March to be exact. She is still in a small box in a display cabinet at my dad's house because we cannot take her to where she wanted to be scattered, as gatherings are not allowed. We only had 3 people attend the funeral (which was the most inhumane measure this government brought in), to demand that we, as a family, cannot be together during her final send off is just too much. But we, like those suffering indirectly from covid, are expected to suck it up and just "get on with it", in order that people we don't know and who don't know us can feel safe and on top of that I was made redundant. I'm sure if some of the posters on here had suffered any of the things many people have either as a result of lock down or directly through covid, then they wouldn't be so glib with their replies.

The mental health aspect of lockdown is very real. I’ve lost someone this way recently. But the solution isn’t no social distancing, it’s funding mental health services properly so that people with MH problems have options.

If your main issue is with healthcare OP, then you should be in favour of increased measures to keep cases down. Cases rising will only limit access to healthcare further. As I said upthread, your GP should see you and yes, getting on to the practice manager absolutely can have an effect. What you are dealing with here is not an inevitable side effect of covid or the restrictions. My friend rang the doctor recently and in less than an hour recieved a home visit. I know people who have been quickly seen, investigated, diagnosed and started trestment for cancer all within lockdown. Don't stand for it.

It's ironic that you support the idea of letting those who are worried hide away and the rest get on with it. Has it occured to you that 'those who are worried' might include your GP and many other medics, teachers, utility workers, retailers, customers...

Back before lockdown businesses were already closing because people were worried and staying away, schools were already about to close due to staff absence, if cases start to rise that will happen again, and without any measures in place no one could blame essential workers for protecting themselves and their families.

Tell that to the people who have lost relatives.

@Concerned7777 yes and some of those feeling suicidal and quite a lot of those who will go on to struggle with their mental health will be doing so because they lost their parents/husband/sister/brother from COVID. One of my colleagues lost her grandmother and her aunt in April. Another friend's 29 year old cousin lost both parents over a 2 week period in NY. She's 29 and she was having to make Unsurprisingly, she's really struggling.

[quote PaddyF0dder]@peasoup8

Nah kiddo.

See, as someone who actually works in the health service and knows what this virus is like, I’ve kind of had it with pea brains online thinking their opinions are equal to the people who actually know about this. I’ve got more letters after my name than you have letters in you, and I can’t be arsed being polite with people like you at this point.

Now sit down, shut up, and let people actually competent for handling this situation do it. If there’s ever an emergency in something you’re actually qualified to solve, we’ll ask.[/quote]
👍🏻👏🏻👍🏻👏🏻

Does anyone who has been made redundant, or fears being made redundant, think their job would have survived exponential growth to a natural peak? Does anyone whose medical care has been postponed believe they would have received it during that time?

@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.

Hey hospital admissions has doubled since last week and so have cases.

I hope deaths don't follow but we need to remember low cases and deaths were because of SD etc.

Now weather is cooling and schools are back we need to watch France and Spain and be aware.

having to make end of life decisions for them..

Bloody, bloody phone

@peasoup8 I am not RTFT because I agree so very wholeheartedly with your OP.

I am desperate to get back to work, and to having some income in a sector which seems not to exist for this government (the most recent election was the first time I have ever not voted Conservative; it was because of Brexit, but the handling of Covid and the bastarding lockdown means I will never, ever vote Conservative again).

Agree with Tories the Gp thing is them.

I've been in for IUD and have ultrasound on a few weeks.
Also had blood test.

Ds has consultant apt in major Cory hospital in a few weeks.

@trappedsincesundaymorn

So cases have gone up whilst we are told that wearing masks prevents the spread? Not hugging your nearest and dearest prevents the spread, social distancing prevents the spread....so why with all these things in place are cases still rising? Surely if those worked then cases would be going down?

perhaps because lots of people freely admit to ignoring all the advice regarding the above and do it anyway??? Most spread is in households where no SD takes place and between young who think they are invincible and don't SD.

I really do struggle to believe how bad people are at interpreting data.

There will be a massive lag between cases increasing and deaths.

Firstly this wave started by the young behaving recklessly. However, it will infect the older and more vulnerable with a lag. Typical deaths due to Covid occur about 14 days after infection and these are reported with a lag.

So chances are the lag between a young person led spike and a significant increase in deaths reported is about a month.

In addition, you cannot have a society where the 50 (or even 60) plus demographic has to effectively isolate. Aside from this being extremely selfish, many of these are senior doctors, teachers and school leaders. Many grandparents also have a big role to play in childcare.

Allowing a massive second wave would not produce the result you want, OP, it will effectively shut the economy down.

If you are worried about access to healthcare and worried about the economy, ending social distancing and going back to normal won't solve that, it would exacerbate it.

All it will do is result in even more cases, which before long will result in more pressure on healthcare and more economic damage.

What you should be angry with the govt about is the fact that they did not take strong action soon enough, meaning we had a much larger outbreak (consistently mishandled) and much more of a lockdown. They have responded incredibly badly, but you can't reasonably react to that by trying to pretend the virus itself is no risk to all the things you want to get back up and running.