Why aren’t the government doing more?! Are they trying to achieve herd immunity?!

[bootsandcats08]

Why the heck aren’t the government doing more? Don’t you think it’s getting ridiculous now?!

UK to has had the highest cases in Europe!
Are we supposed to just live like RBI’s now? Accept it?!

Surely this is much much worse than in March and back then a lockdown was imposed!! Why aren’t they doing more?!

Are they trying to just achieve some sort of herd immunity???

@bootsandcats08 You guess wrong. I'm high risk and so is my DH.

@Sharpandshineyteeth

Because hardly anyone is dying from it. More people are dying of flu. We aren’t making any adjustments for flu.

Seriously? Consequences of lock down are one thing this is just ignorance.

@Aragog

In March the government said they'd have one chance at lockdown. Even then they knew that they wouldn't be able to get a second one through - the economy couldn't cope with it and people wouldn't comply in such high numbers.

Didnt whitty also say it could be a series of lockdowns and restarts for a while . He said early on at the start.

My memory fails me though. Does anyone else remember this?

It is not as black and white as either side would have it.

Firstly, the absolute number of cases is probs 30% of what it was pre the March lockdown and the rate of growth much lower.

In addition, the outbreaks do seem more localised and those areas are being locked down. The epidemic also seems to be more in younger, less vulnerable people, especially the universities .

So far, hospitalisations and deaths, although rising are both smaller in number relative to the number of cases and the trend upwards is lower.

We won’t lockdown purely on the basis of cases if deaths remain low and the NHS is coping comfortably.

However, if that changes, we will have to. We cAnnot live with a disease with a mortality rate of 0.4% (with full hospital treatment) if a significant proportion of the population is infected. It would neither be morally nor economically beneficial, contrary to those who believe we could carry on ‘living’ with a full blown uncontrolled Covid epidemic.

@BamboozledandBefuddled

Deaths happen every day. You don't screw everyone's life up because of them, while increasing deaths from other causes at the same time. Covid is NOT the only death that matters.

Course not but its all a knock on effect. Look at the thread on what Hancock said about cancer treatments being impacted.

It's like being in Feminist Chat over here these days. Helpful Larry mansplaining on every post. Having a break from feminism?

I agree to a certain extent with OP
I am probably a little higher risk being 39 going on to 40 soon, but other than age I have nothing else that puts me at higher risk. I still don’t want to catch the virus and pass on to my newborn or my DS who has asthma or my parents who are 56 yrs old and 65 yrs old.
Also someone mentioned about why we don’t worry about winter viruses. Well firstly I do and try to limit my chances of catching them. Secondly they’re not as risky as coronavirus is and the chances of me passing it to someone vulnerable and contributing to their death or hospitalisation is a lot lower. And lastly they are WINTER viruses unlike Covid which is here winter, summer, spring or autumn so surely we have to treat it differently to the ordinary winter viruses.
My biggest frustration is that the government is ignoring the fact that the highest rates of transmission is schools. People feel ridiculous following the guidelines to wear mask, distance, hand wash etc when their own children are spending the majority of their day without these measures in place. Seems pointless when our kids are going to pick up the virus at school and transmit it anyway.
The thing that annoys me is why we can’t the government allow parents that can keep kids home to do so? All schools have some sort of online teaching ongoing or in the process of being set up due to kids isolating for weeks, so why can’t parents who can teach kids at home be given the choice to do so. Surely that would help transmission rates and bring the numbers right down???? It also makes it safer for those children who have to go to school for parents to work as well as safer for staff.

By xmas when the hospitals are overflowing, people are dying in the street and there is anarchy then everyone will feel as anxious as you OP. All these ‘let’s get on with lifers’ are stupid. It would be lovely if we could but, with that much death, no one would have any access to healthcare and people would be scared to go out. They’ll be the first ones moaning as well when schools grind to a halt and have to close.

If you're scared to leave the house then don't, and let the rest of us crack on. I see no point in locking down areas with a lower incidence of this.

The countries that have least economic damage are those that have protected their population. However much some people want to kill people off I'm afraid most wont go out and spend if they think it may make them seriously ill. So if you want the economy to recover you do your best to keep cases down.

As for the NHS "coping" - every single covid case in hospital prevents at least one other people getting health care - and often more than that. Covid cases need more intensive care so occupy more staff and the staff are sometimes self isolating too. So if you want your cancer investigated, your baby delivered, your life saved if you have an accident - you put that at risk every single time you pass the virus on.

The ONS figures are out today. For the last recorded data (end of September) Covid accounts for 2% of deaths in England. 2%!!!!! That is all. I think yes we now have to take our chances....

I think we are not doing much because the UK has massively dropped the ball, we can't get the genie back in the bottle so it is either ignore it, and hope not too many people die, or face up to the enormous task and invest cash and effort.

I think pretending it is not serious is probably the only option that doesn't involve facing up to what a mess we've got on our hands.

So the national line is 'only a few people die' and ignore the rising death count

Lou Lou,

But is that 2% not because we are NOT taking our chances?

Look at NY or Italy at the peak.

What are you on about OP? There's no evidence that people with asthma are clinically vulnerable to covid (I have it myself, I've heard some say it may even be protective). Lockdown was only ever a measure to prevent the NHS being overwhelmed - we're nowhere even close to that yet.

@Spodge

If you're scared to leave the house then don't, and let the rest of us crack on. I see no point in locking down areas with a lower incidence of this.

Well that’s another stupid And selfish approach as other areas that have massive transmission will soon start sweeping into neighbouring areas with the same result. ALL areas are creeping up. We need to bring them all down in the least damaging way. We should have learnt last time that waiting until later on causes more hardship. Earlier mitigations are better.

@loulouljh

The ONS figures are out today. For the last recorded data (end of September) Covid accounts for 2% of deaths in England. 2%!!!!! That is all. I think yes we now have to take our chances....

This is totally illogical.

When 1000 people per day were dying, it wasn't 2%.

The only reason it is a low percentage of deaths now - although rising each day - is because of the restrictions in place.

We can't afford another lockdown.

I'm more concerned about keeping my job and keeping a roof over DS's head than I am about Covid. I do feel bad for people who are vulnerable but my immediate concern is my own family and I'm not prepared to put my home, my job and my DS's well being at risk again. I know plenty of others who feel the same.

@Tfoot75

What are you on about OP? There's no evidence that people with asthma are clinically vulnerable to covid

Have you looked at the NHS vulnerable category?! Asthma is listed!!

I’m in the clinically vulnerable group- I have Addison’s, lupus, asthma, pituitary issues etc etc. I’m nearly 40. I also have two children who are both back at school and a husband who works full time. Life must go on. We have to take risks every day to live. If you drive a car, cross a road or eat fatty foods you are taking a risk because doing those things means your quality of life is better for doing so. Same with Covid. You do all you can to reduce the risks but not to the point you have no life, otherwise life becomes pointless.

I could die from any of my conditions with or without Covid. I’m not going to stop living for something that may not kill me.

Because we live in a selfish society where people are only interested in themselves rather than the community they live in

Just look at all the posts on MN, or your local FB to see all the deniers, the people who are refusing to self isolate as required ( including Scottish MPs) the people who don’t think the rule of six applies to them, the kids who go out partying and all the rest of it, those who refuse to wear masks when there is nothing wrong,

To be honest I just do what I can, take care in what I do, follow the rules and hope for the best

And we have to be honest, until those selfish twats who do continually break rules, or don’t think it applies to them start to do as asked this mess will just continue. So by my reckoning we are in for the long haul here, and actually it’s not what the Government arent doing but what those selfish gits who don’t follow the rules are doing that’s the issue, and it’s them that’s allowing the impact on mental health, cancer treatment and everything else that’s stopped or slowed down

But there is no telling the stupid, all I can do is hope that those on here, and elsewhere, who continue to break the rules accept that they are all contributing to the fact this is going to go on for longer than necessary and they are impacting on someone’s else’s health

@Bagelsandbrie

I’m in the clinically vulnerable group- I have Addison’s, lupus, asthma, pituitary issues etc etc. I’m nearly 40. I also have two children who are both back at school and a husband who works full time. Life must go on. We have to take risks every day to live. If you drive a car, cross a road or eat fatty foods you are taking a risk because doing those things means your quality of life is better for doing so. Same with Covid. You do all you can to reduce the risks but not to the point you have no life, otherwise life becomes pointless.

I could die from any of my conditions with or without Covid. I’m not going to stop living for something that may not kill me.

@Bagelsandbrie

I really wish I had your attitude towards it!

In 2018 there were 27,295 people killed or seriously injured on the roads in Great Britain. What we didn't do as a knee jerk reaction was ban all vehicles on the road. We impose restrictions on who can drive what, at what speeds etc. we educate from a young age the safety factors etc.

Its what we need to do with Corona, it's not going away in the short term. You are right we need to learn how to live with it, as safely with the smallest impacts on daily life as possible.

We are in a different place to March, with better treatment and more available detection.

Its because there are only two ways out of this situation

a) vaccine
or
b) herd immunity

They cannot put all their eggs into one basket. If a vaccine does not materialise we need to be at least some way down the road to achieving herd immunity.

Lockdown merely suppresses a virus temporarily. It does not make it go away. If it did the months we endured from March onwards would have fixed the problem. Stricter early lockdowns in Spain and France didn’t make the second wave any less ferocious
The cold hard truth is that we have to find a way of living with it.
Unpalatable but no less true because of it. The government can’t fix this by locking down, it is now endemic. The best they and we can do is try and keep the levels at a manageable level for the NHS, while hoping and praying for a vaccine

I do think the government should bring back some restrictions (not total isolation) for those who were previously shielding due to vulnerabilities.

i have a friend who has really bad asthma, she is regularly hospitalised. She cannot drive and has been forced to get public transport to work. She feels she is risking her life every working day, as there are so many people on the bus without masks, often coughing.

I feel she should be able to stay at home on full pay until it is safe for her to get to work. The government appear to be very reluctant to make any small steps towards reducing the number of cases and it makes me wonder how bad things will have to get before action is taken.