Should we have a full lockdown briefly now to slow down rises

[Worriedmum999]

Just musing really. Would it be better to have a few weeks of full lockdown now while furlough is still ongoing rather than needing to do one in a month or so as an emergency when 1000 people are dying every day, having to extend furlough etc.

If it’s planned then people can prep for it. Make it a really strict one. Have minimum shops open for emergencies with strict distancing. School well prepared to teach online for 2 weeks.

Might this give us the time to sort the testing backlog and increase them as promised? Give everyone the short sharp shock they need to take distancing/masks seriously again then reopen with clearer rules

Numbers today are Sunday numbers so obviously lower but cases are doubling every week so we have probably 5 weeks until we get to the numbers we had again at peak when 1000 were dying every day. Just because it’s mainly the young getting it now is why the death rate is lower. It’s slowly filtering through to the older people and care homes just like it did in February and we are sleep walking to disaster once again saying ‘it’ll never happen’.

If we do nothing (and the rule of 6 is practically nothing) we will end up having a long hard lockdown yet again. We will have to extend the furlough scheme for months and months as the alternative is civil unrest if people have no money. There is no alternative to lockdown. We can’t have the NHS overwhelmed and people dying in corridors.

More and more treatments are being trialled at the moment and the closer we are getting to vaccines so the longer we can stave off massive numbers of infected the better I’d have thought.

Obviously it’s not ideal but none of this is. Surely a planned, short lockdown to quash levels right back down would be preferable.

No, of course not.

The countries which had the tightest lockdown are now seeking the most resurgence. It's a bonkers idea.

As for the suggestion that they will reintroduce the "no contact with anyone outside your household" again, I live alone, and have zero intention of not seeing my boyfriend or mum again for weeks. Zero.

All this for a virus which has a mild effect on most people. Insanity.

With transmission within households, and amongst key workers, I doubt it would do much. You're not going to eliminate it in the UK, so it would just delay the winter wave. Plus Mumsnet would go insane. Probably best to wait and see how it goes. It might not be that bad.

Absolutely not. There will be no national lockdowns. Half the UK population are in areas with low cases and there are barely any deaths. Utterly ridiculous to even suggest it.

There is no alternative to lockdown.

Sorry, but that alone shows me you are being hysterical and haven't actually thought this through. There are many alternatives to lockdown. Lockdown was an emergency measure in an emergency situation. It will not happen again, however disappointing that may be to you.

Can I ask how you earn your living OP? Do you have a job which allows you to work through lockdown, or do you expect the state - ie current and future taxpayers - to pay you indefinetely?

I’d like to say that I shall enjoy coming back to this thread in late October/November when we are in full lockdown again. But I won’t as it will mean that many thousands of people will have lost their lives needlessly. Bit like the ‘it’s only flu’ brigade in February

I don’t think it’s a bad idea. Used to stall the inevitable, and get us closer to when there will be a vaccine without a ridiculous rise in numbers.

OP sound like she is wishing for 1000s of deaths...

No. 1 person died yesterday and they were in their 80’s.

@AmelieTaylor and as a single parent who can't work from home I can't afford for schools to close and go into lockdown. I need to work to feed my child. I'm sorry about your situation but my own family is my priority, not you.

No. I can control myself and my social distancing without having to stay in all the time.

I am not enjoying sitting a home for the record. I have an education business which has been decimated so, for me, schools staying open would be fantastic. Sadly I don’t think they will be able to. My husband will probably be made redundant soon so we are not sitting pretty.

And I like to think of myself as realistic rather than hysterical.

So hoping for more furlough money then.

@Worriedmum999

I’d like to say that I shall enjoy coming back to this thread in late October/November when we are in full lockdown again. But I won’t as it will mean that many thousands of people will have lost their lives needlessly. Bit like the ‘it’s only flu’ brigade in February

"Many thousands"?

Seriously?

Deaths have been in single figures for weeks now, yet you're forecasting 'many thousands' of deaths by October?

Get a grip.

It’s not going to happen.

Ok well I shall say no more. I shall return to the thread in a few months and eat humble pie if we are not in a worse situation than if we have locked down for a few weeks.

do people not understand what exponential growth means?

There is a lag between getting the virus and dying. I was just listening to a doctor on BBC, hospitalisations are rising, in a few weeks the death rate will be a lot higher and I believe that in another couple of months we will be right back to where we were in March. There will be no choice but another lockdown, whether we can afford it or not.

🙄

I would not survive another national lockdown, mentally or emotionally.

A week or two might just be ok but any longer than that with no end in sight and I'd be either sectioned or dead.

It's got to be localised.

There have been 15-20 cases in my region in the last week - that's in a population of over 370,000.

A lockdown would be insanely disproportionate here.

Deaths have been in single figures for weeks now, yet you're forecasting 'many thousands' of deaths by October?

A lot of experts and scientists are warning of this....

Sure, OP, we'll all huddle in our homes until the entire economy collapses, infrastructure breaks down, people begin to starve, payment systems fail, and the water and heating go off. Brilliant plan.

@amieejust

I would not survive another national lockdown, mentally or emotionally.

A week or two might just be ok but any longer than that with no end in sight and I'd be either sectioned or dead.

I could just about cope with three weeks, I think, but no more.

NO. Don't see people complying with another lockdown and not seeing their families and loved ones (and not fucking socially distanced). It's just stalling the inevitable. My own odds aren't the best due to my age, weight and underlying conditions but even with all that, the vast majority of those afflicted survive. This can't go on, causing massive unemployment and poverty. FFS.

No. A million times NO.