Two week circuit breaker - who's in favour?

[zafferana]

Keir Starmer is in favour - so are you?

If they did it over the next two weeks I actually wouldn't mind that much, as it's half term.

I wouldn’t mind as it wouldn’t really affect me personally. However I wouldn’t be so enthusiastic if I had kids at school etc. So no.

Everything but schools and doctors closed - yeah.
Close all the vets and if your dog gets sick just put it out if it’s misery with a house brick

I say close all the farms. Let the food rot in the ground.

There are plenty of countries who have managed to keep it suppressed

Which countries would that be? Can you list three, with conditions similar to the UK.

North Korea doesn't count.

And defo close call centres.
If your internet/power/phone cuts out - well it’s only 2 weeks. Don’t be so bloody dramatic .

@HelloMissus

Everything but schools and doctors closed - yeah. Close all the vets and if your dog gets sick just put it out if it’s misery with a house brick

🙈 Yep. If you have a leak I'm sure you could sort it yourself with a bit of duct tape too!

My issue isn’t if we should or shouldn’t lockdown for two weeks but if we did what would be different after it? If the government can’t come up with additional strategies to help stop the spread then what would the gain be? The WHO have said this week they do not agree with strict lockdowns alone to fight the virus because it isn’t a long term solution (the first one was to buy time for the nhs and to get our house in order-we didn’t) and additional lockdowns could cause more harm than good. To sell it to the whole country the government needs a plan and a very good one not a load of “we can fight this” and we are spending xyz on a world class track and trace when it is near to useless.

Don’t see any reason why the water boards should carry on.
I mean who needs running water?

I'd rather have a circuit break now than at Christmas.

If we don't have a short lockdown now it will be a longer lockdown in 2021, or a lot more deaths.

Petrol stations? Close those germ spreaders.
No need for anyone to be on the roads.

We locked down for three months and bought six weeks. It’s never going to work

Exactly - only this time it's vanishingly unlikely that we'd "buy" even six weeks, because it's winter and compliance is dropping all the time

TV stations? FFS shut them down.
News is for the selfish. Don’t they even know there’s a pandemic.

@Puzzledandpissedoff

We locked down for three months and bought six weeks. It’s never going to work

Exactly - only this time it's vanishingly unlikely that we'd "buy" even six weeks, because it's winter and compliance is dropping all the time

We wasted all the time we gained by opening very fast.

After this circuit break, if it happened, we would go back to tier one anyway.

Eat put to help.out, overseas holidays, groups of thirty, weddings - 2021 if you're lucky!

I couldn't give a flying fuck what happens any more. Either way essential workers remain at massive risk.

“Eat out to help out, overseas holidays - 2021. That would be if there’s any restaurants or travel retailers left by then!

There will be people becoming contagious towards the end of the two weeks, especially if they catch it from someone in their household during the two weeks. The number of infected people who have no symptoms or whose symptoms don't meet the testing criteria is enormous, and even of those who are eligible for testing many are not tested or refuse to isolate after a positive result.

I think it would be a good 'dampener' though. One advantage I can see is that currently many families cannot visit elderly, isolated single grandparesnts due to concern over the high level of exposure they have to work/schools etc. If more people could isolate for two weeks they would have a chance at the end to do a visit with lower risk.

I am in total favour of a circuit breaker now, including halloween and guy fawkes, in favour of a christmas/ new year to hopefully look forward too.
Schools, supermarkets (services to the food chain) / hospitals all keep functioning. The majority of all else can & have proven to work adequately at home.

@ChardonnaysPetDragon

There are plenty of countries who have managed to keep it suppressed

Which countries would that be? Can you list three, with conditions similar to the UK.

North Korea doesn't count.

Wtf does 'condotions similar to the UK' constitute? That's just so you can say they don't count for spurious reasons

Anyway:

• Greece
• NZ
• Australia
• Germany
• Taiwan
• South Korea
• China
• Japan
• Finland

No. How will people pay their rent?

@Bouncycastle12

I keep thinking of that Robert Frost poem that goes “the best way out is always through” and can’t help thinking that’s where we’ve got to with this bloody thing. We’ve screwed it up too badly to try and actually get on top of and eradicate it (and no one in the government/scientists actually seems to be suggesting that is the goal anymore. They’re just vaguely delaying.

Robert Frost is right (and so are you, @Bouncycastle12)

One of the many, many things that pisses me off is that they've come up with a weaselly name for it ("Circuit Break"). This gives a second lockdown a sense of being a Thing - when it's just as nonsensical as the first one.

I suppose they could call it "Shaft Hospitality And The Self-Employed For The Second Time", but it doesn't have quite the same cutesy soundbitey appeal.

@EnolanotAlone

I am in total favour of a circuit breaker now, including halloween and guy fawkes, in favour of a christmas/ new year to hopefully look forward too. Schools, supermarkets (services to the food chain) / hospitals all keep functioning. The majority of all else can & have proven to work adequately at home.

Your right my DH can build cars in our dining room no bother

@ChardonnaysPetDragon what about Germany and Italy? Neither is perfect but doing considerably better than the UK.

@EnolanotAlone

I am in total favour of a circuit breaker now, including halloween and guy fawkes, in favour of a christmas/ new year to hopefully look forward too. Schools, supermarkets (services to the food chain) / hospitals all keep functioning. The majority of all else can & have proven to work adequately at home.

Sorry, but I'm so very angry about this.

Christmas is just another day. Lockdowns are fucking with entire livelihoods, not just one day. Our livelihoods don't slot neatly into "the rather boring bit between now and Christmas".

As for other people working adequately at home: how do hotels work from home? Restaurants? Clubs? Pubs? Holiday lets?

Tell me that comment was a very unfunny joke.

I'd be in favour of a short lockdown for my area (really bad) but not a nationwide one. And I'm not sure that would work.

After this circuit break, if it happened, we would go back to tier one anyway

Not after just 2-3 weeks we wouldn't ... not when we look at what's happened in Leicester and the like
I do agree some areas may have reopened too fast, but that certainly didn't apply to those who once had very low cases, and the only real way to prevent it spreading to those is to stop all public movement

And that's simply not going to happen (or be observed if it did)