Anyone else find this slightly dystopian now ?

[Whitechocolatemarshmallow]

We may be 'allowed' to see families etc. Over Christmas but should be expected to 'pay' for this with subsequent lockdowns, and hugging will be banned.

Now, there's talk of a 'freedom pass' for people who test negative twice a week to allow them to live a more normal life, which they will be able to present should they be stopped and questioned.

What's coming next, having to show proof of vaccination status ?
I'm no conspiracy theorist and i'm fully aware that Covid is real.

Why are we willing to give up our old lives like this ?

The ‘Freedom Pass’ idea is quite worrying.

There are other viruses that have been here for decades and we still don't have a vaccine for them, yet we have been able to come up with a Covid vaccine in a matter of months ?
The car ownership thing also unsettles me too. Moreso posts i've read on here where people demand that car ownership 'is deliberately made expensive and difficult".

It's not as exciting as your average dystopian film, but certainly feels quite grim. I'd be happier if I didn't feel the government were epically incompetent and robbing us blind. I feel like the future of the UK is quite uncertain.

@Whitechocolatemarshmallow God why do people like you repeat the same nonsense over and over for months. Its been explained many times how they came up with vaccines for this so quickly!

It’s the length of time these restrictions have been in place that is the issue. Yes, many elderly don’t have much time left. Children grow so quickly. Babies change so much in a year. Grandparents will have missed is much precious time with their grandchildren.

What I found disturbing on another thread was how so many people can’t accurately assess risk. Not leaving the house in case they catch ‘the virus’. Thinking it transmits from far away through fresh air. Blindly repeating ‘just stay the f home.’ Brainwashed. Very scary.

@HotSince63

I'm pretty horrified reading about the potential 'freedom pass' for which you'd have to be tested twice a week.

What's next, you'll have to wear a badge to identify your vaccination status?

Yes, it is horrifying. If the vaccine were available to everyone and was nearly 100% effective, then there is a case for it enabling things like foreign travel, but not basic things like medical/dental/eye care or education or access to shops etc. After all vaccination certificates are needed to travel to some countries, but there is no need to undertake that travel so doing so means you agree to the conditions. Normal life in the UK should not require certification.

The 2 tests a week thing is not even correct in scientific/medical terms. Plenty of people are currently getting admitted to hospital wards on the basis one a negative test and then subsequently testing positive and closing down whole wards. 2 tests is no safer - that just means that on 2 occasions you didn't produce a positive test. Nothing to say you didn't catch the virus 1 hour later.

It is all just a way to get people spending money, while superficially making things look virus-free, when in reality the virus doesn't look at a certificate and stay away from a host.

The country where we live has had 25, 000 deaths in a much larger, hugely varied population.
We had a very , very hard lockdown here, in which everything except food shops where closed.
No alcohol, no cigarettes, no takeaways of any kind, no dog walks, a curfew from 10- 5 every day, no flights allowed in or out, no coach journeys , no visits to parks, nothing, no one on the streets at all. Not a soul around, it was bloody awful but it worked, because it was hard.

@PattyPan

Yellow fever certificates have been about for years and no one kicks off about them. I don’t see how it’s any different to carry something showing your covid vaccination status.

Really? You genuinely cannot see any difference at all between this and a yellow fever certificate? I've got no idea if I've ever been vaccinated for that and certainly don't have a certificate nor has anyone ever asked to see it.

I agree with you OP but then I've been worried since March just how many personal freedoms would be taken from us. Now I don't think anything at all would surprise me.

@Whitechocolatemarshmallow

It's starting to get scary. People queuing like mindless zombies for an hour to get into Sainsbury's. Waiting to be told whether we are allowed to see our own parents or not. Women having to give birth alone. Having to leave your personal details to every pub or restaurant you go to.

"Starting" to get scary? It's been like that since March (or July for the restaurants)

How does banning alcohol and cigarettes help to control a virus ?
It can be dangerous and fatal for alcoholics to suddenly go cold turkey.
No dog walks is animal cruelty.
Quite scary to even read some of these posts demanding compulsory vaccinations for all.
"It's just a few weeks."
"It's just a few months. "
"It's just a year."
"Stay the f at home."
"Protect the NHS."

It's like mindless zombie chants, it makes me shudder.

The UK should have closed up completely like New Zealand did, it’s an island ffs ! No flights in or out. That was the first huge mistake, then the care homes and disabled being left to get on with it was a bloody scandal , incredibly cruel and stupid. How could no one see that the most vulnerable must be protected first?

@Jourdain11

It's also completely insensitive to people from other cultures; for example, Hindus who have just had a lockdown Diwali, and Muslims, who got no lifting for Eid.

What does that have to do with the topic of this thread?

*12:18BrokenBrit

I deeply despise this government and all they stand for. I also feel they have done a terrible job at managing every part of this pandemic.
However this really isn’t some great ploy or dystopian novel. Lockdowns and vaccinations are pretty essential for controlling a novel virus. No way have the governments round the world collaborated to each crash their economies with lockdowns for the sheer hell of wanting to control their citizens in some way.
Why would they do that?
Also this government can’t even plan a single rule change without it getting leaked to the papers, do you really think that we have thousands of people secretly in on some dystopian plot?
Pandemics do happen throughout history and with this one we may just be able to get through it by this time next year through science and rule following.*

I'm not entirely sold on the freedom pass story. For a start there is nowhere near enough capacity and quick turnaround for results. If you had to wait 48 hours for a result it would nearly be time for the next test?
Then if the vaccine is coming and effective, why would you need continual testing?

@PattyPan

Yellow fever certificates have been about for years and no one kicks off about them. I don’t see how it’s any different to carry something showing your covid vaccination status.

FFS

Also the repeated self isolation of children. They need an hour of exercise per day but now it’s ok for them to be kept inside for weeks and weeks. Some are on their 3rd/4th period.

Nobody is suggesting they should be going out to the shops but a quiet walk every day in the fresh air? How is it ok to shut children inside for weeks on end?

Totally agree OP
The criminalisation of travel in Scotland is the final step for me

@MrsGradyOldLady
A yellow fever certificate is a certificate to say you have been vaccinated against it. (It’s not part of the standard vaccines in the U.K. so you probably haven’t had it). You need one when travelling between certain countries where there is higher risk to stop the spread. Unfortunately the risk of spreading covid is high everywhere so the only difference is that you would need to present the certificate in more places.

The 2 tests a week thing equals freedom, apart from being based on incorrect scientific/medical assumptions, is also just increasing many people's risk level. To get these tests, healthy people have to go queue up and enter test facilities alongside ill people who are getting tested for symptoms - ideal way for healthy people to get infected.
Plus of course at the time of testing these previously healthy people will have a negative result - so get a certificate (if it's their second visit) incorrectly certifying that they are virus-free, despite having spent a probably prolonged time queuing and getting tested alongside symptomatic people. Great - that will go really well.

The alcohol and cigs ban was a bit of nonsense , as was the dog walking, but everything else worked, as it totally freed up the hospitals here who all worked together, private and public. It’s amazing to me that first world countries like the UK and US have handled this soo badly.

Don't you think the very idea of 'freedom passes' etc is quite odd and redundant if the end really is in sight?

With the timescales for the vaccine - it should be redundant, yes (and even if it wasn't, I don't think it's a good idea). But for some reason, the government is trying to appease people who lack even a nanosecond of patience for the restrictions. For all the complaining there is on here about freedom passes, there were threads on here as recently as last week calling for exactly that!

@Wendyhaus

Are we meant to whoop with joy that we can sit around a dinner table on 25th and tuck into that food while smiling and laughing with our "chosen" few festive companions? Then a few days later we are back in our prisons? Until when? weeks or months ahead and we may feel grateful we can once again be in the same room as a relative? I have never totally dismissed the conspiracy theories as I can see reason in some of them. Dystopia seems to be creeping upon us and it scares me.

Meanwhile it sounds like vaccinations will likely already have started by the time you tuck into your Christmas dinner. But then if you believe in conspiracy theories you aren't going to be wanting one I guess [shrug]

Exactly, it's disgusting. At least let children go for a walk outside or something.
Reading posts on here like "My son isn't allowed out of his room except to use the bathroom." It's just wrong.

I had a notification from the app saying I needed to self-isolate for one week due to a close contact. Not told who or where the contact was from. Uninstalled and reinstalled the app and it was gone.

@Whitechocolatemarshmallow

There are other viruses that have been here for decades and we still don't have a vaccine for them, yet we have been able to come up with a Covid vaccine in a matter of months ? The car ownership thing also unsettles me too. Moreso posts i've read on here where people demand that car ownership 'is deliberately made expensive and difficult".

Ownership of petrol and diesel cars is indeed deliberately being made more difficult. That’s not a secret and nor is the purpose - it’s to protect the environment and public health, hardly dystopian!

I cannot understand given the inconsistencies and arbitrary nature of the rules that there isn't greater resistance/questioning of the Government.

Freedom passes !!! What a lot of shit. It’s a back door way of getting ID cards , open to corruption and counterfeiting