Why not a short VERY strict lockdown now to nip in bid so to speak??

[shesellsseashells99]

Would it not make sense to act now with a very strict national lockdown for maybe 2 weeks? Instead of waiting until everything is out of control again....

Not read the full thread so sorry if I'm repeating anything, but people talk about not overwhelming the NHS as a reason to go into lockdown. Mental health issues are on the increase and will only get worse. Won't another lockdown overwhelm mental health services and force them to breaking point. After all mental health services are part of the NHS as well but again it's the forgotten service.

Given the WHO have predicted the pandemic will be over in under 2 years they clearly don’t share your doom and gloom. People will not SD or wear

The current phase yes but it may well reappear in 2014.

@felineflutter

Given the WHO have predicted the pandemic will be over in under 2 years they clearly don’t share your doom and gloom. People will not SD or wear

The current phase yes but it may well reappear in 2014.

Is that what they said or are you just making that up?

Do you mean 2024?

@Smallereveryday

All these people saying 'lock down didn't work' .. I disagree. Maybe my expectations were different but I never expected 'work' to mean eradication , it meant slow the spread and stop the hospitals from becoming overwhelmed.. we have more than 45k dead.. this is not an innocent sniffle to many. I assume all those who are 'fed up' haven't lost someone from it , many years before their time. ?

The other line ... deaths aren't increasing ! Yes they are. Go on the ZOE app.. get the facts. Yes they are currently low numbers because you don't die inside a week from Covid.. but come back and tell me the numbers are low in a months time .. when the hospitals are full of FLU patients AND Covid patience with hospitals unable to cope...

A second Mini lockdown of 2 weeks will slow the spread.. EXACTLY as it did last time (should have been earlier though) AND enforced much stricter.

.. and ANOTHER ... as the numbers rise again after it's finished .. and another ... continually until there is a vaccine OR a decent track and trace..

Schools should have been set up for part remote/part face to face in order to allow more distancing. Especially to protect teachers.

Without some very drastic decisions by those in charge we are in for a very very hard winter where the hospitals won't be able to help those with ANY illness .. simply because of overwhelming numbers.

It's basic maths. If R=1.4 now.. the only possible outcome is exponential increase. It cannot be any other way.

Society can’t function with endless lockdowns. Any “benefit” of that is not with the cost.

*not worth

I’ve not seen any pro lockdown supporters tell us what working parents (seemingly few on this site given the glee with which lockdown is embraced) do then - you do realise people were pushed to the edge before? But no, definitely should make a whole section of society’s mental health suffer AGAIN so no one dies of covid.

I think anyone who doubts that what we have coming is anything less that a catastrophe of huge proportions without immediate and drastic action needs to read this thread.

NHSers - how are we doing / feeling? Calm before the storm? www.mumsnet.com/Talk/coronavirus/4026357-nhsers-how-are-we-doing-feeling-calm-before-the-storm

Being 'pushed to the edge' simply isn't going to make any difference. Neither is being 'bored' of it. The ONLY thing that will make the impending storm better is for everyone to do EVERYTHING in their power to make sure they behave a responsibility as humanly possible.

WFH where it's possible.
Avoid public transport unless there is literally no other way to get to work.
Keep your social life restricted to minimal 'bubbles' (that also 'bubble' with you)
Don't go out unless you genuinely need to.

It's going to be tough. Really really tough, but it will end. The alternative (pretend it isn't happening) does not bear thinking about.

I don't get the idea of "strict". Last time some people were getting very exercised (no pun intended) by people going out for exercise, but was there one single documented case of someone catching covid from someone passing them running, cycling, or walking a bit too close?

There's no need for a strict lockdown - just wear your mask, stay away from people and don't start hugging everyone when you get drunk.

Also if you wear your mask you are also less likely to transmit cold and flu, which will also help the NHS, and also stop people's immune systems being weaker if they do come into contact with Covid.

And what happens in 2 weeks time! No. We should just be carrying on with ourlives now.

How about we learn to live with this because it's not going anywhere.

Schools should NOT have been set up for remote learning. Its the same point again and again/. Most parents WORK! They cannot facilitate this. We have to live with this virus. And get on with our lives. This madness needs to stop. History will judge this craziness so badly.

Again I have to ask what is the point of another lockdown?

Lockdowns don't stop/end the virus. We should accept this by now. We tried this with a long, full lockdown. The moment you start reopening, the virus spreads again. Countries who had lockdowns stricter than ours are also in the same position...

There is no logic in this. Repeating the same strategy that simply does not work.

What lockdowns do though is kill the economy, prevent people from receiving treatments for other conditions/having operations and it destroys our mental health...

The government needs to get the testing/track and trace working, keep people working from home and make masks compulsory. Or it needs to resign if it can manage things beyond gimmicky lockdowns...

As @Moondust001 wrote earlier:
I realise that this is perhaps too logical for many, but if those people need to shield, then they are going to be locked up anyway - along with everyone else (who isn't ignoring it anyway now). What sense is there in locking everyone up?

We have tried suppression. It hasn't worked. So actually yes - let's allow people who are vulnerable to shield if that is their wish, support them to do that, guarantee their income while they must shield, and the rest of us get on with life and herd immunity building. Because what everyone has done so far hasn't worked, and the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.

This is what needs to be considered.

We have tried suppression. It hasn't worked. So actually yes - let's allow people who are vulnerable to shield if that is their wish, support them to do that, guarantee their income while they must shield, and the rest of us get on with life and herd immunity building. Because what everyone has done so far hasn't worked, and the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.

Wrong ! Lockdown did work . It stopped the NHS being nearly overwhelmed. That was the point. Read the NHS worker thread from today. That's why it needs to happen again. COVID +normal flu season will be a catastrophe. The First wave came right at the end of flu season. This one is right at the beginning. A whole different ball game.

@Smallereveryday there is a limit to what most people, myself included, will do. I cannot work without grandparent childcare. I am NOT giving up my job, we couldn’t afford to live then.

An epidemiologist being interviewed on LBC today said a lockdown over Christmas would be far more effective than in October.

Christmas is peak time for all the respiratory bugs and viruses known to man to "do the rounds", when everyone gets together with family and friends in warm confined spaces without much fresh air.

I can vouch for that, DH and I both came down with dreadful chest infections a few days after having spent the day at relatives' house on Boxing Day when we were all couped up indoors eating and drinking - there were 8 adults and 5 children (and a dog!). In fact the dog was the only one who came out unscathed!

@daisychain01

An epidemiologist being interviewed on LBC today said a lockdown over Christmas would be far more effective than in October.

Christmas is peak time for all the respiratory bugs and viruses known to man to "do the rounds", when everyone gets together with family and friends in warm confined spaces without much fresh air.

I can vouch for that, DH and I both came down with dreadful chest infections a few days after having spent the day at relatives' house on Boxing Day when we were all couped up indoors eating and drinking - there were 8 adults and 5 children (and a dog!). In fact the dog was the only one who came out unscathed!

But compliance would be so low with a lockdown over Christmas that it wouldn't be worth the paper it's written on.

Because as soon as that finished we would be in the exact same situation again as we are now... It baffles me that people don't understand this

@Smallereveryday

All these people saying 'lock down didn't work' .. I disagree. Maybe my expectations were different but I never expected 'work' to mean eradication , it meant slow the spread and stop the hospitals from becoming overwhelmed.. we have more than 45k dead.. this is not an innocent sniffle to many. I assume all those who are 'fed up' haven't lost someone from it , many years before their time. ?

The other line ... deaths aren't increasing ! Yes they are. Go on the ZOE app.. get the facts. Yes they are currently low numbers because you don't die inside a week from Covid.. but come back and tell me the numbers are low in a months time .. when the hospitals are full of FLU patients AND Covid patience with hospitals unable to cope...

A second Mini lockdown of 2 weeks will slow the spread.. EXACTLY as it did last time (should have been earlier though) AND enforced much stricter.

.. and ANOTHER ... as the numbers rise again after it's finished .. and another ... continually until there is a vaccine OR a decent track and trace..

Schools should have been set up for part remote/part face to face in order to allow more distancing. Especially to protect teachers.

Without some very drastic decisions by those in charge we are in for a very very hard winter where the hospitals won't be able to help those with ANY illness .. simply because of overwhelming numbers.

It's basic maths. If R=1.4 now.. the only possible outcome is exponential increase. It cannot be any other way.

Go and study economics for a bit and then re read your plan.... The country would be on its kness!

@Smallereveryday

We have tried suppression. It hasn't worked. So actually yes - let's allow people who are vulnerable to shield if that is their wish, support them to do that, guarantee their income while they must shield, and the rest of us get on with life and herd immunity building. Because what everyone has done so far hasn't worked, and the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.

Wrong ! Lockdown did work . It stopped the NHS being nearly overwhelmed. That was the point. Read the NHS worker thread from today. That's why it needs to happen again. COVID +normal flu season will be a catastrophe. The First wave came right at the end of flu season. This one is right at the beginning. A whole different ball game.

Right. So we all have to keep doing this to keep the NHS going. For how long exactly? It’s ridiculous. I feel so sorry for the people who work in it but endless lockdowns can not possibly be sustainable.

Nobody who has even the most cursory understanding of exponential curves would say Lockdown didn't work.

Most of the deaths in April were infected in March. Without Lockdown the numbers would just keep doubling.

we put up with all that stress and misery to give the gvt time to get it's duck in a row and they've fucked up, didnt do things properly, covered up and fobbed us off.
I predict a riot

@Heffalooomia Totally agree, the public have lost trust in the Governments ability to deliver testing/track and trace. Why should they believe that another 2 weeks would give them time to get organised AGAIN!

@ChavvySexPond

Nobody who has even the most cursory understanding of exponential curves would say Lockdown didn't work.

Most of the deaths in April were infected in March. Without Lockdown the numbers would just keep doubling.

The peak was what, 8 April? Meaning that the people who tragically died then were likely infected even before lockdown. Given we’ve been told for months it takes 3 - 4 weeks on average to die.

I still don’t think lockdown worked. The people who didn’t get it and die then will get it and die when things open up.