Nationwide 'circuit break' (ie stricter rules) being 'considered'

[PennyDreadfuI]

From the BBC

Usually if they say they're considering a thing it's probably going to happen - they seem to let these bits of information out to soften us up so it won't be such a shock when it comes to pass.

Ugh.

Mental health and suicides will triple if another lockdown

[quote Itsabeautifuldayheyhey]**@eufycurious

Yesterday they were denying rumours of a two week lockdown, now this. Why can't they just be honest about things instead of treating us all like children?
Because so many adults are behaving like children and ignoring measures the Govt have initiated for our protection?

Obviously the Govt has to consider all manner of scenarios to deal with the changing situation. Wouldn't you if you had to deal with a changing situation in, say, the workplace (yet alone one in which the population can transmit a deadly illness to others)?[/quote]
Act like children, get treated like children. Simple.

@NewStart2020MyArse

I am not sure exactly what they did in New Zealand, but will take your word for it that they did something like this.

As far as I know, they have had only 5 deaths in total, so I think they are doing rather well.

Sorry that’s a typo, they have had 25 deaths.

@annabel85

There should be a way of rewarding the areas that are behaving and keeping low rates, as an example to the areas misbehaving. Maybe tax rebates

By 'misbehaving' do you mean sending children to school? Eating out to help out? Returning to packed workplaces on packed public transport? Socialising and shopping to boost the economy? All things this useless government have told us to do?

Act like children, get treated like children. Simple

And how have we done that?

@annabel85

It’s not just about people ‘behaving’. We know that wealth is the best shielding strategy, because it enables things like working from home. You’ll just end up punishing people who work in high risk professions, eg in factories, as taxi drivers.

—-

Personally, I think the government’s messaging was completely undermined this summer by its own schemes (Eat Out to Help Out) and push for things like returning to offices. And for every person who says ‘oh, but all the restaurants I went to were impeccable with social distancing’, there’s another that was complete chaos inside. Ziryab’s buffet in Birmingham comes to mind... Added to that foreign holidays and our half-hearted quarantine procedure. It’s impossible to know what exactly drove the uptick in cases, but what’s clear is that we wasted the opportunity of really driving down cases in the summer.

At the same time, people absolutely need to take responsibility. How many threads have I seen on MN with people planning private gatherings of 50-100 people and the overwhelming response being ‘wind yer neck in’!

A 4 month lockdown didn’t do anything - here we are just a couple of months later watching cases shoot up again. How on earth is a 2 week lockdown going to suddenly drive cases right down again - surely they would just start increasing again afterwards. It seems pretty clear to me that lockdown was really a one off to try and plan and gather information, but is ultimately not really effective in making any long term difference to the virus levels?!

I agree with offices. I always said people should be encouraged to wfh for now - as in Scotland and Wales - but the commercial landlords have lobbied them.

Eat out to help out was misguided but they didn't anticipate people acting like savages.

Best way to get case numbers down is to stop testing so many people

A 4 month lockdown didn’t do anything - here we are just a couple of months later watching cases shoot up again.

Yes, now that people are being pushed back to commuting and working away from the home, pubs etc are open, schools are back...

@PennyDreadfuI

so many adults are behaving like children and ignoring measures the Govt have initiated for our protection

Measures like EOTHO? Telling people to go back to crowded workplaces on packed trains? Encouraging people to socialise to boost the economy? The shitshow that is testing? Measures like those?

Stop blaming 'the people' when from the outset government action/advice has been as clear as mud and utterly ineffective.

This is very true and the reason for low compliance.

@annabel85

I agree with offices. I always said people should be encouraged to wfh for now - as in Scotland and Wales - but the commercial landlords have lobbied them.

Eat out to help out was misguided but they didn't anticipate people acting like savages.

Where were people acting like savages?

Of course it was going to be popular. Half price food at a time when many people have less money, and haven't been able to socialise for months. Of course people were going to go out in droves. Who can blame them? Especially when they've been actively encouraged to do so.

Returning to school/work/university when told to do so is not 'acting like children', either.

@PennyDreadfuI Staff have issued some horror stories about working on those days.

New figures today showing there have been over 300,000 fewer cancer referrals and over 100,000 fewer treatments since March.

Where is the urgency regarding saving the lives of cancer patients, many of whom will be young and middle aged?

@annabel85 your posts make my spine tingle. the sort of person who would welcome a police state.

like something off the fucking hunger games, think for yourself you little drone

@Newgirls

I would prefer a more nuanced approach. Shut large pubs (yes spoons). Keep small indies open.

Well round here it's there small indies that have people packed in because bothered a feeling of everybody knowing everyone else .

Every Wetherspoons I've been in has felt perfectly safe . And I've even been refused entry to a local Wetherspoon because they had reached capacity . And this was at lunchtime not late evening and trouble )

@squashyhat same here. I’ve literally just paid off our holiday cottage to go and visit my sister near Aberdeen, I’ve worked in community nursing this whole time, followed the rules etc and now there is a chance I might not get?

@Fortyfifty same, rural area of Scotland that had had low cases/deaths throughout apart from small pockets which have been squashed quickly

"^I thought they should have done this, only stricter, back in March. If everyone planned in advance to stay at home for a specific 2 weeks, except for emergencies, then we would pretty much have wiped out the virus." ^
This will never wipe out the virus because we have a reservoir of infection in the healthcare sector and the minute lockdown ends the virus will repopulate.

I am also very tired of the retoric that it's the fault of the public for bad behavior. This is a virus. Spreading is what it does and it's very good at it. It doesn't matter what we do, as soon as we relax measures and live normally it will start up again. Without a vaccine there isn't a way to stop it, just control it locally. It isn't the fault of the public in general that it hasn't gone away.

@SellFridges

Trouble is, they’re running out of options and a firm, short lockdown seems to be one of the few things some people will pay attention to.

And for those saying it shouldn’t apply to places with fewer cases have a think about this one. I’m in Birmingham, massive rates if you look at the whole city. But in my LSOA (and most of the surrounding ones we have only had 4 cases since those maps were launched). So can we also get a reprieve from restrictions?

But the problem is that people travel so much across the city , and, compared to county areas , there is a large population in a relatively small area

@NotAnotherUserNumber
But what about Spain ? They had a really strict lockdown . Children not allowed out at all . Now look at their rates

@Ultimatecougar so true

@Ecosse

New figures today showing there have been over 300,000 fewer cancer referrals and over 100,000 fewer treatments since March.

Where is the urgency regarding saving the lives of cancer patients, many of whom will be young and middle aged?

Only Covid lives matter.

Didn’t you get the memo?

@Ultimatecougar

"^I thought they should have done this, only stricter, back in March. If everyone planned in advance to stay at home for a specific 2 weeks, except for emergencies, then we would pretty much have wiped out the virus." ^ This will never wipe out the virus because we have a reservoir of infection in the healthcare sector and the minute lockdown ends the virus will repopulate.

I am also very tired of the retoric that it's the fault of the public for bad behavior. This is a virus. Spreading is what it does and it's very good at it. It doesn't matter what we do, as soon as we relax measures and live normally it will start up again. Without a vaccine there isn't a way to stop it, just control it locally. It isn't the fault of the public in general that it hasn't gone away.

This bang on. You can have lockdown after lockdown - while there's even the tiniest numbers of infections, it will just come back.

We in the north east had the lowest numbers in the country just a few weeks ago. In August parts of Tyneside had zero cases. Yesterday we were put into lockdown.

Lockdowns don't eradicate viruses, nor are they designed to. They're a way of lowering infection rates to take the pressure off services for a time. But they're not a cure and they don't work long-term.

@annabel85 your posts make my spine tingle. the sort of person who would welcome a police state

Terrifying, aren't they. And tasteless.