Has Covid-19 made you realise just how inherently selfish so many people are?

[Nicknamegoeshere]

It has me.
The world is a mess and most people only really care about themselves and their families.
Fed up to the back teeth of people trying to justify why they can't possibly do X, Y, and or Z.
Just be honest and say "Because I don't really care about passing this virus on, I'm not bothered about those more vulnerable than myself."

Yes, and often those same people are hard of thinking.

@MercyBooth
Yes. The plight of disabled people has been ignored for far too long. Even after we were condemned by the UN for the human rights failings of the benefit reforms cuts and private company 'assessements'. And there's a severe shortage of suitable (adapted, accessible, affordable) housing for the disabled.

Oh but it is about those type of situations.

No one knows if their health is suddenly going to give up, meaning their parents becomes a single parent.

No one knows that they wont be the victim of a massive scam that wipes out their savings. Or a bank going bust. Or their employer goes pop taking their pension with it. Or the partner they thought was their trustworthy soul mate decides to run off with the nanny. Or their parents/child become ill so they have to give up work to help care for them because they cant get adequate care through the system. Or their partner decides to just top themselves out of the blue after never speaking about their depression.

People end up in the situations they do by accident more often than not. They don't end up in them because they were stupid or didn't plan. Its often pure bad luck or a curveball that was something they never thought would happen 'to someone like them', until of course it does.

Its remarkable when you look through family history how this happens. Its a twist of fate in a single event or a series of events (like a pandemic or a war) which no amount of planning can stop which often leads to those type of scenarios.

It takes a certain type of arrogance to say that you because you have been prudent and 'done all the right things' that your life is perfect and if only other people had been sensible like you then they too would have avoided the shame and misery of x, y or z in life.

I saw this interview on BBC news yesterday. Partially sighted Linda and guide dog Iggy have been abused in shops and queues.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-54911640

Compliance to hard lockdown could have short-circuited it. Oh well.

Didn't work too well for Spain.

It is surprising how many people think that anyone who does not do what you want them to do is selfish. Everyone has different priorities and different breaking points. If someone's is different to yours it does not make them selfish.

I'm amazed how law abiding most people I know are.
To the extent of making themselves and their loved ones deeply unhappy.
Something has gone wrong that people are too frightened to use their common sense, and kept their children indoors, yes indoors, for weeks (we aren't allowed out, it's not safe)
And thought staying away from elderly relatives (travelling is selfish) the "right thing" to do.
I'm guilty of same knee jerk goody goodness in first lockdown and I look back and think why?? (Paralysing fear isn't being unselfish)

I know a few people who have gone from 'riches to rags ' (to change an old saying ) and it does change lives dramatically.
Nobody knows what's round the corner ( as this recent pandemic has flagged up )
A few people might be surprised to discover that claiming benefits are not a walk in the park as they might have thought before ( for example)

@Nicknamegoeshere

It has me. The world is a mess and most people only really care about themselves and their families. Fed up to the back teeth of people trying to justify why they can't possibly do X, Y, and or Z. Just be honest and say "Because I don't really care about passing this virus on, I'm not bothered about those more vulnerable than myself."

People are people, it's predictable behaviour, but what pisses me off is how people need to be babied and will only follow rules if they're enforced.

@justhetwoofus

I have a severely disabled son and a very elderly mum,and the way most people are treating this 2nd lockdown is appalling ..... I have to admit though....had I been young, I don’t know how I would have behaved!

The government were warned in March you'd only get one go at lockdown and people won't comply after that, so the behavioural scientists already know this stuff.

These pathetic measures are in no way lockdown anyway though and are pretty much pointless. Shutting the pubs when everyone is just doing what they want mixing in homes.

@PerveenMistry

Yes. Selfish and stupid.

Yes yes.

Out and about what im hearing is that its a bit much to expect people to give up Christmas when Bojo and co. didnt want to upset the rich by locking down earlier and cancelling Cheltenham . Then there is the fact that they gave T and T to their rich mates. People are fed up with making sacrifices and then being shat on , emotionally blackmailed and gaslighted (Cummings) People have had enough

@TheGreatWave

Compliance to hard lockdown could have short-circuited it. Oh well.

Didn't work too well for Spain.

They opened their borders. That, and the poor working and living conditions for their farm workers.

Professor Devi Sridhar, one of the scientific experts advising the Scottish government, explained it well. Continental Europe and the UK reimported Covid with the summer holidays.

One stricter but ultimately shorter lockdown - including restricted borders (exception essential travel like food imports) - was the the way to go. Not doing so has proved to be a false economy. Which Prof Sridhar has repeatedly explained.

Unfortunately lots of people are selfish. Covid hasn't changed that. Then again lots of other people aren't. Which helps to balance it out.

The blame for the ongoing dragged out mess we're in now is, however, down to government rather than the public.

They are employed by us to make the right (not necessarily always popular) decisions.

They failed to exercise foresight, or even hindsight, and wasted billions on a failed test, track, and trace and lost us several billion more to furlough fraud.

It would've been far cheaper to have shut the borders (excepting essential travel) with proper quarantine, and provided a financial support package to the travel industry.

@MercyBooth That BBC story. How disgusting! Why would someone behave like that. Disabled people are vulnerable enough as it is.

@MercyBooth

Out and about what im hearing is that its a bit much to expect people to give up Christmas when Bojo and co. didnt want to upset the rich by locking down earlier and cancelling Cheltenham . Then there is the fact that they gave T and T to their rich mates. People are fed up with making sacrifices and then being shat on , emotionally blackmailed and gaslighted (Cummings) People have had enough

People have been asked to stop socially mixing now so cases are lower going into Christmas, rather than overflowing hospitals. They won't because they can't be arsed.

@MercyBooth

Out and about what im hearing is that its a bit much to expect people to give up Christmas when Bojo and co. didnt want to upset the rich by locking down earlier and cancelling Cheltenham . Then there is the fact that they gave T and T to their rich mates. People are fed up with making sacrifices and then being shat on , emotionally blackmailed and gaslighted (Cummings) People have had enough

The thing is, it won't be the government, Boris, or Cummings, etc who suffers if there's a 3rd wave.

They're guaranteed hospital beds if they need it, and likely the expensive drugs Trump got if required.

It will be everyday members of the public who suffer. Especially vulnerable people - the disabled, long-term ill, poorer people.
Nurses and doctors and other frontline staff too. At risk not only from Covid or Long Covid, but PTSD too.

www.google.com/amp/s/www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/10/31/traumatised-intensive-care-nurses-sectioned-wake-first-wave/amp/

you'd only get one go at lockdown
Australia had two. Melbourne's outbreak several months ago was tackled with a second lockdown. Their efforts have paid off. They, unlike us, get to enjoy a largely normal Christmas.

Fair enough they did a proper lockdown.
I agree with Professor Devi Sridhar that it's far better to do one proper lockdown than what we're doing. On off on off semi restrictions on off on off - with the consequent highest numbers of dead in Europe, enough Long Covid cases to need treatment clinics across the UK, and a ruined economy.

@Oblomov20

I always knew this.

Me too. What I didn't quite know was where I fell myself on the spectrum.

@Zxyzoey31

It is surprising how many people think that anyone who does not do what you want them to do is selfish. Everyone has different priorities and different breaking points. If someone's is different to yours it does not make them selfish.

Yes, and lockdown is obviously easier for some people than for others.

"I'm guilty of same knee jerk goody goodness in first lockdown and I look back and think why??"

Yes, I was very careful and worried about passing people in the street when we now know that isn't really dangerous.

[quote monkeytennis97]@ArtieFufkinPolymerRecords I guess as a secondary teacher I must fall into that category for you as I believe the return to education has been negligent on the government's part. However lockdown 1 meant I didn't see my DC for 11 weeks, any lockdown wouldn't give me a cost time. My mental health collapsed in lockdown 1 and isn't great at the moment due to not seeing my child. However schools (I'm talking secondary here) are drivers of the virus, they could be made safer. I think they should go to rotas but not to make my life easier (it wouldn't) but because of community transmission and safety,[/quote]
No, you don't, because I said Those posters on here who want everyone to stay at home for the next year, seeing no-one, because that's what suits them. I meant people who are happy to stay at home and not see anyone, safe in the knowledge that their livelihoods and mental health would not be affected.

I also didn't see my adult child, who lives in supported living, for 14 weeks during the first lockdown, and cannot see him now, because meeting one of us outside for a short time is just not something that he would cope well with, so I cannot wait for restrictions to ease.

Unlike you, I work in primary, so different challenges, but I absolutely feel the children benefit so much from being back, despite my colleagues and I having to manage things very differently to normal, and nothing would make me happier than being able to take our year 6s on their residential next summer.

@SheepandCow - nowhere will have a largely normal Christmas. Being trapped, with extremely few exceptions, within the borders of your own country, with close relatives living thousands of miles away, is not normal by modern standards.

And, of course, there are also the Australians unable to go home, trapped in foreign countries.

www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/nov/09/melbourne-restrictions-victoria-lockdown-rules-covid-19-metropolitan-metro-explained-what-you-need-to-know

People of Melbourne won’t be having a normal Christmas. They still have active covid cases and are living under restrictions - cannot leave Victoria and maximum of 2 visitors per day to a house. They still have active cases and have only just come out of lockdown so we can’t put them in NZ category yet.

I have to say I didn’t realise they locked down twice, but this second lockdown has been horrific. I’m reserving judgment on if it is worth the genuine suffering it has caused - it may well be, but I think it is premature to assess.

Yes

@Nicknamegoeshere

It has me. The world is a mess and most people only really care about themselves and their families. Fed up to the back teeth of people trying to justify why they can't possibly do X, Y, and or Z. Just be honest and say "Because I don't really care about passing this virus on, I'm not bothered about those more vulnerable than myself."

Yep