The costs of lockdown

[madmarchmare]

I have been lucky during lockdown to have kept my job and not to have got ill....so far.

But the other costs to my family members have been huge

3 members of my family are self employed
My mums bridal business has gone to the wall
My dad, in his 60s, has developed claustrophobia
A close family friend has had a late cancer diagnosis with v poor prognosis
My 7 yo Ds has had ALL of this ophthalmologist appointments cancelled and is falling farther and further behind with his reading because his eyesight is so poor

Yesterday in the news I read of a huge rise of babies killed or harmed in lockdown

And yet to express any of this is akin to being some sort of right wing conspiracy theorist who is lacking in compassion. To suggest that social contact is important is seen as shallow and selfish.

Does anyone else feel like this?

Completely agree. Some perspective is needed. I’ve noticed far less compliance this time around though which is good. People are starting to ask questions and make their own decisions.

I agree fear we will look back and think what the hell were we doing (or made to do more like)

People asking questions and making their own decisions

Ie people ignoring the scientific / political consensus and doing what suits them as individuals with no regard for the society they live in. Forcing those more vulnerable to take ever greater restrictions due to the increased risk levels. Not giving a toss about cancelled operations. Nice .

@midgebabe

People asking questions and making their own decisions

Ie people ignoring the scientific / political consensus and doing what suits them as individuals with no regard for the society they live in. Forcing those more vulnerable to take ever greater restrictions due to the increased risk levels. Not giving a toss about cancelled operations. Nice .

I actually reluctantly support a lockdown as the least bad option but posts like this make little sense to me.

1. operations are cancelled all the time. As in all the fucking time. Loads of them. It’s not a new thing for covid. Most people don’t usually bother to pass comment on it.

2. saying people “don’t give a toss” about the downsides to no lockdown is like saying those who support lockdown “don’t give a toss” about double the number of serious incidents involving children which social services have had to attend to since visits reduced due to lockdown, or don’t give a toss about the loss of tens of thousands of jobs and the unquestionable consequent increase in poverty, don’t give a toss about all the people who will be made homeless once the moratorium on evictions is lifted, don’t give a toss about the deaths which will occur due to the recession, which if the past is anything to go by will be thousands upon thousands. It’s not about not giving a toss. There are no good options here. Whatever option you favour will result in awful human suffering of one kind of another.

3. saying vulnerable have to take ever greater risks is true, but you could flip it and say vulnerable people expecting evermore people to be unable to feed their children so that they don’t have to take these restrictions etc.

Basically, while I support the lockdown as being the best available option, I don’t agree with calling people who disagree selfish or saying they don’t give a toss about other people or anything like that. No easy answers here, and people can legitimately disagree.

@Torvean32

I dont blame the staff but I've found Gp care really poor since the original lockdown. I'd normally be seen once a month by a Gp , I've not been phoned once let alone called.

I've huge concerns about all the medical diagnoses that will be missed. We will never know the suicide rate due to lockdowns/lost jobs.
I'm worried about ppl trapped in abusive relationships.

I think we are allowed to have concerns other than just Covid.

I think that's a real shame but in a way seperate to the lockdown question.

Each GP surgery is basically a privately run operation. Some GP's have been excellent (mine for example who posted this on social media yesterday and have been available throughout).

It seems some badly managed(?) GP surgeries are using COVID as a smokescreen for doing less?

I agree OP.

@midgebabe illustrating my point exactly

2) saying people “don’t give a toss” about the downsides to no lockdown is like saying those who support lockdown “don’t give a toss” about double the number of serious incidents involving children which social services have had to attend to since visits reduced due to lockdown, or don’t give a toss about the loss of tens of thousands of jobs and the unquestionable consequent increase in poverty, don’t give a toss about all the people who will be made homeless once the moratorium on evictions is lifted, don’t give a toss about the deaths which will occur due to the recession, which if the past is anything to go by will be thousands upon thousands. It’s not about not giving a toss. There are no good options here. Whatever option you favour will result in awful human suffering of one kind of another.

Exactly

I agree,so manyproblems are being caused by the lockdown. Way exceed the good they do.

I am not complying this time,I will see my family and I will shop.People here in the Midlands where I live are not complying either.Good to see.

I heard someone speaking on the radio last week (I was at work, so I didnt hear who they were or what their status was) saying instead of throwing enormous amounts at furlough and self employment help it would be better directed (and cheaper) to improving testing and quicker results.
I've got no idea how they worked it out and whether it was true.
On this site I've read of people waiting 8 days for a negative result meaning however many adults not being able to work for a week when they potentially could have done. And I think a lot of people would be put off even taking a test if they had to wait a week for results.
I work in London (and luckily still have work despite doing something fairly non essential) but it's so depressing seeing shops, cafes, bars closed, a lot I presume for good, not to mention the west end being a ghost town.
Its all very well having a campaign for people to retrain but there will be a wealth of talent and people have trained for years to have really niche and valuable skills that I hope will be put to use again.
I dont know what the answer is. It's such a hard balance between keeping the nhs functioning at manageable levels but keeping other parts of life and jobs open.
I was really struck talking to an elderly relative recently who refused to go for a heart appointment because he was too afraid to use a bus or taxi to get to the hospital for fear if catching covid. He has barely left the house since March.

@FractionalGains excellent post and completely agree

Totally agree OP. Honestly don’t know how some people will cope if something really deadly comes along, god help us all then 🙄

The problems are not being caused by lockdown but by the virus & our failure to contain it when it hit our shores. You cannot live alongside this virus if you want functioning healthcare & economy.
I do not want lockdown. It’s a mental health, personal freedom & economy wrecker. But that is the position we are in because our govt didn’t act quickly enough.
We have not yet even seen the full impact of this virus but there’s a v good reason countries that have kept it out are not backing down from their zerocovid stance. You can’t now get entry to China if you have COVID antibodies...think about that. Countries that let it run rife are going to pay a very heavy cost in the longer term.

I agree with Madhairday, I don't think there are better alternative to this, I wish we did have other ways to keep everything going while containing/decreasing the spread.

@mac12 I agree with you.
Being angry about lockdown is really about how we all just want this to go away.
It's shit either way!

It's not lockdown that has caused those things OP - it's COVID itself. Staff have had to be redeployed and the hospital beds are full. People need to be spread out so infection rates don't increase further so appointments need to be spread out more.

I completely agree.

@PeonyandDahlia

It's not lockdown that has caused those things OP - it's COVID itself. Staff have had to be redeployed and the hospital beds are full. People need to be spread out so infection rates don't increase further so appointments need to be spread out more.

WTF? How the hell is someone knocking the living daylights out of his partner because that’s the way he handled the stress of his business going under, for example, because of Covid?

This today from UK Chief of Defense Staff - WW3 now more likely due to economic damage created by lockdowns covid. So there's a cheering thought.

www.itv.com/news/2020-11-08/covid-19-pandemic-has-made-world-war-iii-a-risk-uk-defence-chief-general-sir-nick-carter-says