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Are you ready for another 6 months of restrictions ?

421 replies

Xtfc123 · 10/12/2020 19:33

Does anybody think that this will all be normal by March/April, no more masks or restrictions ?
Ready to 'do your bit' and not see family and friends and have restrictions on your lives until potentially summer ?

OP posts:
MadameBlobby · 10/12/2020 23:32

Hardly anything has been asked of most people.

I find this an intriguing perspective. Can you elaborate?

Meruem · 10/12/2020 23:37

I’ve probably been one of the few lucky ones in all this. Covid stopped a tax rule change being implemented in April that would have seen me lose £600 a month. It got deferred for a year which helped me a lot. It also extended my current work contract for various reasons. I was also very much struggling with my mental health before covid and in fact being isolated has been the best thing for my mental health. It gave me time to heal without any outside pressures. I of course feel huge empathy for all those negatively affected and for those people’s sakes I hope it is all over soon. But I cannot deny that for me personally the overall experience was actually positive. So I don’t really care, for my own sake, if it does go on for another 6 months. I only hope it doesn’t because I don’t want to see any more people lose their jobs, businesses, homes or to lose their lives to suicide or untreated illnesses. I suppose yes I am alright Jack, and do have an Ocado delivery pass! But it doesn’t mean I am totally unaware, unfeeling or uncaring towards others who have suffered.

Eng123 · 10/12/2020 23:44

My word there are a lot of drama queens on here. I feel very sorry for people affected by the loss of loved ones and facing financial hardship. For those that miss getting pissed in the pub or supporting vacuous fast fashion retail - there is more to life than shopping for clothes made for pennies in 3rd world economies!

Twillow · 10/12/2020 23:47

No, I don't think we will be back to normal, probably not even next year at all.
Yes, it's difficult at times, frustrating and can get tiresome.
No, I don't think it's an evil plot, having lost a younger family member to Covid after months in hospital I have no doubt it's real.

I don't understand why people who want to stop all restrictions and get back to normal don't question what the effects of the virus running unchecked around the world might be.
And I get rather angry with people who repost unchecked conspiracy-type posts on Facebook. The internet is there to look up most of the rubbish spouted and 99% of the time it's entirely misleading.

wigglerose · 10/12/2020 23:49

I reckon we've got another 10-12 months of this. It will take 6 months+ to fully roll out all of the vaccines, plus another 2-3 months of maintaining precautions until the government and SAGE are comfortable that the transmission rate and strain on the NHS is low enough to scale the precautions back.

kittensarecute · 10/12/2020 23:50

I cant do this for another year, i just cant.

Eng123 · 10/12/2020 23:53

I don't ever want to return to busy stuffy offices, I like WFH and limiting contact to those I want or must see. I know opinions vary but I resent being pushed back because colleagues like to natter.

MarshaBradyo · 10/12/2020 23:53

@wigglerose

I reckon we've got another 10-12 months of this. It will take 6 months+ to fully roll out all of the vaccines, plus another 2-3 months of maintaining precautions until the government and SAGE are comfortable that the transmission rate and strain on the NHS is low enough to scale the precautions back.
I don’t think it will be that long. MPs won’t vote for it if hospital numbers are down. The economic pressure is too great.
FifteenToes · 10/12/2020 23:56

I sympathise hugely with the people who have lost jobs and businesses. The more general quasi-libertarian outrage about having to suffer the life-shattering indignity of wearing a facemask just because it might save some fucker who you've never met and don't give a shit about from dying, not so much.

There's one thing I really don't understand though: The Tories are the party of the "strong economy". It's their brand, they get it into every possible sentence they utter. It was their justification for a decade of soul-destroying, life-destroying (for some) austerity. Never mind how true it is or isn't in practice; the principle of it is the cornerstone of everything they seek power for, from keeping CGT and corporation tax low, to maintaining enough tax loopoles that they billionaire backers can end up paying nothing, to running down the welfare state, NHS and state school system, to undermining trade union power etc. etc. So.....

Do people seriously think they would be taking a path like this, with the extraordinary economic consequences it entails, just for a laugh and because they enjoy the "power" it gives them over people, or whatever? Does it really make any sense that they would do this for any other reason than that they have analysed the available information about the likely consequences of NOT doing it, and they are catastrophically worse?

Tiny changes to critical factors can have gargantuan snowball effects, in a viral epidemic. The main reason the UK is one of the worst affect countries is that the government fucked up for just a few weeks at the beginning by not listening to the science and thinking they could handle it via "herd immunity". Current policy re tiers, schools etc. is designed to keep thing within a level the NHS can just handle (and has to keep changing because there are many unpredictable variables interacting in that). If those policies are abandoned, the result won't be a few more people with mild Covid. It will be something serious enough that the Tory party is willing to sacrifice practically its whole raison d'etre to avoid.

And then there's Brexit just round the corner, a move of the Tories' making ready to further devastate the economy just when it's already at its weakest. But that's OK, apparently, because they Tories really WANT to be fighting the next election having turned us into a third world hellhole with the living standards of Somalia and the economic credibility of Greece.

Seriously people, think about it please.

eeeyoresmiles · 10/12/2020 23:59

We have been told time and again that we need to “learn to live with the virus” but the government are putting no strategies in place to do this?

We are learning to live with the virus - that's what we're doing right now. Our lives right now are what learning to live with the virus in the UK in the first winter since it arrived looks like.

In the same way that in fire season people in Australia don't "learn to live with" the fire risk by just shrugging their shoulders and lighting campfires anyway, we can't "learn to live with" this virus by stopping taking precautions against it getting out of control.

Learning to live with it means taking precautions against infection rates getting too high. With luck we'll need fewer precautions in daily life once the biggest new precaution of them all, vaccination, kicks in. Ideally we'll never again have a proper serious lockdown like lockdown #1, but we'll have to wait and see how carelessly people behave before we can be sure of that.

MadameBlobby · 11/12/2020 00:00

Do people seriously think they would be taking a path like this, with the extraordinary economic consequences it entails, just for a laugh and because they enjoy the "power" it gives them over people, or whatever? Does it really make any sense that they would do this for any other reason than that they have analysed the available information about the likely consequences of NOT doing it, and they are catastrophically worse?

This is definitely true. There’s no way they’d be paying furlough etc if the financial costs of the pandemic being uncontrolled were less. They don’t care about 10s of 1000s of the vulnerable dying.

Nellee · 11/12/2020 00:16

Well the Tories chose Brexit that will screw the economy.

So why should they care to protect it from Covid? The Tories seem to be on a pathway of intentional destruction.

FriedPeach · 11/12/2020 00:36

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

sleepwouldbenice · 11/12/2020 00:39

This post is totally melodramatic
We will know much more in the next month as the vaccine options are clarified But broadly
Jan and feb will be pretty crap, they always are but with cases soaring and probably another lockdown which will be even longer due to idiots like those on this thread who don’t care. I think it will feel like the worst Lockdown though

Then next spring will see a gradual easing of restrictions but with much more in the summer than this year (eg overseas holidays but maybe still with masks in indoor places) with life pretty much totally back to normal in a year
Nobody ever lied about how bad this winter was going to be. You just had to listen.
Now the scientific solutions are kicking in (Far from perfect but better than nothing) thing will improve after winter
And fir those saying they don’t know if any people who trusted positive. Lucky you. 40 to 50 here easily in the last 2/3 months

AfterSchoolWorry · 11/12/2020 00:52

I'm not in the UK but once the elderly, healthcare workers and vulnerable are vaccinated, I'm done.

There'll be no more appetite for public cooperation after that. I have an only child who has suffered enough isolation.

Peoples patience for sacrifice isn't for ever. It's finite. I won't be entertaining any more restrictions after Spring.

Kokeshi123 · 11/12/2020 01:16

As the elderly and vulnerable are vaccinated, the risk is presumably going to become flu-proximate. I don't shut everything down for flu every year!

MercyBooth · 11/12/2020 03:10

a young, child-free person

@ArtieFufkinPolymerRecords Im a 47 year old child free by choice woman and i am wondering how much longer im being expected to make sacrifices so schools can stay open.

People with no children have spent decades...............

a. being told they are entitled to less benefits when unemployed because they dont have kids.
b. being told they are not entitled to decent housing because they dont have kids (ive actually heard people say that its terrible how families are having to live in shipping containers but its ok for single people and those without children)
c. People without kids being told/made to work the shitty shifts over Christmas, e,g, Christmas Eve, Boxing Day, etc, There are threads about it on here going back years

its not surprising there will be some resentment coming from some who feel they are being made to sacrifice things especially when all this is over it will revert back to type.

walksen · 11/12/2020 03:56

No. I will follow some restrictions but my work environment is very high risk for covid and I caught it after less than 8 weeks of being back at work. The majority of colleagues have had it too.

I personally know 2 people who have had covid twice and if it is possible to contract it twice I will, probably in around march/ April. The government do not care if my colleagues and I get covid. In the short term I am unlikely to transmit it and I won't cope stuck in the house like a hermit when infections are raging around me at work.

Inkpaperstars · 11/12/2020 04:28

I don't think it will all be normal by March/April...not sure why people would think that. But I do think that restrictions should be lessening, things should be improving. That will do me I think.. things may not be quite normal but they should be much closer to it.

Hyperfish101 · 11/12/2020 04:52

For all those saying people love the drama and restrictions, there are just as many posturing about how they are ignoring restrictions. Aren’t you clever?

I genuinely feel for people isolated and with enduring MH issues but there’s a huge swathe of people who are bleating about not being able to go to Primark or whatever. It’s pathetic. Especially when the end is in sight.

Keep ignoring restrictions, cases go up, more restrictions come in. Use some critical thinking skills maybe.

whatshalliget · 11/12/2020 06:01

@Thespidersweb

No I think we are going to have another year of it. I read an article at the beginning of the epidemic where a scientist said to expect it to be here for two years as that’s when it’s normally burnt it self out by.

We’ve been through many of these before. It’s not the first and won’t be the last. It’s not even the worst one we’ve had. It’s just that SM wasn’t around before and people just got on with their lives.

^ this
Dongdingdong · 11/12/2020 06:38

But then I really don't mind things like going to baby swimming lessons dressed ready to change at the side of the pool, wear a mask until in the pool, etc. I just don't see that as a negative restriction on my life as long as we get to go swimming.

What gets me with the mask wearing business is that a lot of it is such a fecking farce. Or does Covid magically cease to transmit when one is standing in a pool? Hmm

Userzzz · 11/12/2020 07:17

I don’t follow the rules and I will continue to do that. The more we comply the longer this goes on for. We have ruined the economy, people’s lives and livelihoods, and for what? A virus with an over 99% fatality rate. It’s fucking ridiculous.
I read that the US has seen a huge spike in child abuse cases, and this doctor said that it’s not kids that are coming into the emergency room with black eyes, these are children that are unconscious, near death. That is what throwing already low socioeconomic people into greater despair does. Those are the vulnerable !!!

Loopyloui · 11/12/2020 07:41

@kittensarecute I feel the same

Crazycatlady83 · 11/12/2020 07:42

@eeeyoresmiles

We have been told time and again that we need to “learn to live with the virus” but the government are putting no strategies in place to do this?

We are learning to live with the virus - that's what we're doing right now. Our lives right now are what learning to live with the virus in the UK in the first winter since it arrived looks like.

In the same way that in fire season people in Australia don't "learn to live with" the fire risk by just shrugging their shoulders and lighting campfires anyway, we can't "learn to live with" this virus by stopping taking precautions against it getting out of control.

Learning to live with it means taking precautions against infection rates getting too high. With luck we'll need fewer precautions in daily life once the biggest new precaution of them all, vaccination, kicks in. Ideally we'll never again have a proper serious lockdown like lockdown #1, but we'll have to wait and see how carelessly people behave before we can be sure of that.

Sorry I obviously didn’t make myself clear - I meant the government haven’t enacted strategies that work. There is absolutely no point telling people to socially distance from their loved ones long term - people haven’t managed to do it for 8 months, what makes anyone think they will do it long term?

My points with lockdown is they haven’t suppressed the virus, we are still being told hospitals will be overwhelmed - why are we doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result?