Hindsight - Back Where We Started

[NotAKaren]

Just wondering if in hindsight the relaxation restrictions over summer, particularly the much heralded air bridges allowing travel abroad for holidays and incentives such as Eat Out were all worth it considering we are back where we started. Would a more cautious relaxation have been better, meaning perhaps a more stable and manageable situation for households and businesses which was more sustainable over a longer period until we had a vaccine.

Yes it would. Problem with what happened over the summer, people pushed the boundaries. Even now ‘the rule of 6’ .... people seem to have forgotten that you are supposed to still ‘social distance’ from anyone in that 6 who isn’t from your household! People look for loop holes and find any excuse to do what they want rather than follow what they should do for the greater good.

We are not back where we started.

What makes you think we are back where we started?

A more cautious relaxation would definitely have been better. And I'm not just saying that with hindsight. Back in the summer I was concerned that the government was relaxing restrictions far too early. In particular, I think that if the rule of six had been in place at the time when the more severe lockdown restrictions were relaxed, it would have brought home to people that the virus was still out there and that it was still important to take care. Of course lots of people did realise that, but there are still far too many people who think only in terms of what's allowed rather than what is sensible.

might not be back where we started yet, but we are headed there

so many entitled idiots out there and plenty of them are on mn

Most places in Europe are seeing the same pattern as we are. It looks like a seasonal thing. I think more restrictions over the summer would have caused a lot of misery, and wouldn't have made that much difference to where we are now

It's quite comforting to believe that the increase in cases is down to "selfish" individuals ignoring the rules, hugging in pubs, in and out of each other's houses, attending illegal raves. It means that the situation can be remedied by those individuals acting more responsibly.

It's certainly more palatable than the reality, i.e. that the spread is mainly caused by people going about day to day business within the rules - going to work, going to school, living in a care home. And it's definitely better than realising the only way of stopping it is for us all to hide indoors until a vaccine or treatment saves us.

And it's definitely better than realising the only way of stopping it is for us all to hide indoors until a vaccine or treatment saves us.
I don't agree with this. A well functioning test and trace system allows life to continue on a relatively normal basis. Look at Germany or South Korea. Of course it also helps if you have a population that takes mask wearing seriously rather than one where wearing your mask under your chin is commonplace.

Easing wasn’t the problem. Easing everywhere when some regions still had high cases AND without a decent track and trace was the problem. If we had the rapid tests and tracing systems other countries have, we’d be in a much better place. I don’t know what we paid Serco £12bil for

Agree with that @Boracora.

I agree with @AlecTrevelyan006

More people are dying daily now than daily up to 26th of March so yes we are back to March sadly

Attached graph from worldometer UK showing death toll

Unfortunately, there's no precedent for something like this in recent times and hindsight is a great thing. The government are battling with a balance of Covid cases, mental health and the economy. In the ideal world, yes a more cautious approach would have been better, but it would have also helped if everyone followed the guidelines so we knew how well the guidelines were working or if they just needed tightening a bit.

Easing wasn’t the problem. Easing everywhere when some regions still had high cases AND without a decent track and trace was the problem. If we had the rapid tests and tracing systems other countries have, we’d be in a much better place. I don’t know what we paid Serco £12bil for

I saw this week that some consultants heading T and T were paid 7k A DAY!

On the news last night they said Heathrow was the first uk airport to do testing (for flights to Hong Kong, and Italy) .it cost £80 and you got your results in an hour. it was run by a private company. I suppose it is much easier to turn around a relatively small number of tests in a shot time scale

I think that if the rule of six had been in place at the time when the more severe lockdown restrictions were relaxed, it would have brought home to people that the virus was still out there and that it was still important to take care.
I think the rule of six, socially-distanced, would be fine if it was only mixing with the same 6 people. The fact that you can mix with 6 people for lunch, a different 6 people for dinner and then go and have drinks with a further 6 (for example) makes it totally ridiculous. You are indirectly connecting with all the other contacts of each of those people.

I think they sleep walked into the university re-opening to be honest.

The summer was the time for those who couid to have their circuses, cakes and ale.

Before the winter slog began again.

Suppressing it harder in the summer wouid have made no difference to a resurgence during the cooler damper winter months (I expect the worst will be in the peak flu months Jan-Mar) and wouid just have meant no-one got a break, and the year wouid have been even more of a grind than it needed to be

The government have made the same type of errors this time - too indecisive, too slow, too weak. Cases are doubling again so we can all see clearly where we are headed.

Yes, I think we eased too fast, a lot was around the rhetoric - talk of wanting 'bustle' and it being patriotic to go to the pub was both embarrassing and foolhardy.

But Serco T&T is the real scandal, what a shambles. £12 billion of public cash and only a half-arsed system to show for it

With the benefit of hindsight, kids should have gone back to school in the summer like the government wanted. At least ALL primary school kids anyway. It was a travesty they were kept at home for so long when we had a great summer where bugs and illnesses are generally not in circulation anyway. The media and teaching unions got away with far too much, it was a disgrace. It was well known everyone would be back in September ready for the start of flu season, why on earth they couldn't have gone back in the summer BEFORE everything else opened up is a crime.

@AlecTrevelyan006

It's quite comforting to believe that the increase in cases is down to "selfish" individuals ignoring the rules, hugging in pubs, in and out of each other's houses, attending illegal raves. It means that the situation can be remedied by those individuals acting more responsibly.

It's certainly more palatable than the reality, i.e. that the spread is mainly caused by people going about day to day business within the rules - going to work, going to school, living in a care home. And it's definitely better than realising the only way of stopping it is for us all to hide indoors until a vaccine or treatment saves us.

I agree with this, the spread worldwide this time round is similar. Even with vastly different population sizes, age structures, density, ethnicities, etc., we are all still struggling. At the moment, about all we can do is continue to do what we can, there will inevitably be many who think we eased too much or too soon, and those who don’t. I personally wouldn’t like the job of being in charge of any country, at the moment. A poisoned chalice, if ever there was one.

If you look at the data, the biggest mistakes were:

• To allow travel to/back from countries with a marked infection rate
• Allow unrestricted movement of all university students, all in one go, that's hundreds of thousands of young adults moving across the country within a short period of time, flat shared, etc.
• reopening secondary schools without how kids that age can transmit the disease and become vectors in their communities (primary schools not so much)

I am not sure how many cases have been attributed directly to restaurants but I think it's relatively insignificant compared to the rate of infections in educational institutions especially secondary schools, 6thform and universities. That's in my opinion where it has been very badly damaging.

@onedayinthefuture

With the benefit of hindsight, kids should have gone back to school in the summer like the government wanted. At least ALL primary school kids anyway. It was a travesty they were kept at home for so long when we had a great summer where bugs and illnesses are generally not in circulation anyway. The media and teaching unions got away with far too much, it was a disgrace. It was well known everyone would be back in September ready for the start of flu season, why on earth they couldn't have gone back in the summer BEFORE everything else opened up is a crime.

Completely agree with this. Massive failure in my opinion

Also agree with @AlecTrevelyan006

I’m afraid the only real way out of this is herd immunity, which is what the government wanted to do in the beginning. We will all have to either take our chances or face an entire lifetime living in limbo.