Are you ready for another 6 months of restrictions ?

[Xtfc123]

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 ?

@Wigisfashion83

The likelihood of people actually having Covid in the first place and then it actually killing their parents is low. People seem to think Covid is a death sentence for people of a certain age.

I agree and it ya the media I was and still scared witless giving it to my parents

@Echobelly

In other words, next year won't be 'normal', but it will be much less restricted than this year.

Next year will be pretty much like July-August was this year once the clocks go forward but with hospitality opened up a bit more.

@Eng123

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.

It's an extroverts world, unfortunately.

@Burnthurst187

Anybody that thinks we'll be back to normal by the Spring will be in for a big shock. 2022 may be more normal but even then I'm not that confident. It will be a very gradual phasing out of things like distancing, masks, plastic screens etc. I think hand sanitizer is here to stay which I encourage tbh

A young girl at work came back this week, she's been off with her first baby since January. Coming back in must have been so strange, big plastic screens around her desk, one which system throughout, the canteen all socially distanced tables

Can you lend your crystal ball to others as you clearly know more than us

I think people are beginning to see through the government nonsense. All the guff about children not transmitting the virus - now they have mass testing in secondary schools. And wtf about Wales reducing the contact isolation period to 10 days but it’s still 14 in England? That’s nearly a full working week difference. Does the England virus have a more virulent long lasting incubation period? GCSE’s - same qualification but a completely different testing process between the two countries. Am losing patience with it all.

The more we comply the longer this goes on for.

Christ on a bike, this thread is depressing.

@Hapixmas

Yes, I AM fed up with restrictions. I am tier 3. Cases now 120 out of 100k. By the time tiers came back in, we were under 200 per 100k. Soooo fed up. Why do restrictions need to stay in place if people are vaccinated. Ludicrous

The tier system makes no sense.

I am in the Midlands and our cases are 198 per 100,000 yet we are tier two!

[quote wizzbangfizz]@HazeyJaneII I accept that but at what point are we going to be ok? as a PP said hospitals are no more overwhelmed than normal, our economy is on its knees - adults need go be able to make their own decision on risk. [/quote]
at what point are we going to be ok?
I don't know, no one does, because we are in an ongoing situation that no one on our life time has dealt with before.

adults need go be able to make their own decision on risk.
How do we assess the risk?

Do all adults assess the risk equally?

Some people assess the risk and do all the things the will hopefully protect against the spread of the virus, others think it's all a global conspiracy to reset the system and they won't be tricked into wearing muzzled, yada yada yada...

In a public health crisis our own risk assessment has a wider impact (e.g. 2 adults believe it's ok to send their kids to school whilst they have symptoms, they get tested and discover they are positive = 3 classes sent home to isolate as advised by phe)

The whole fucking year has sucked balls, but it is so depressing to have had the year we've had and then see people saying, 'well I've had enough, I'm giving up on the xx of xxx'.

The comparisons with Australia are boring and irrelevant and have been done a million times already.

Other than that, we have the usual MN 'Well, I care about others so I'll wear a mask for as long as it takes!" If it were only about wearing masks, we could all be as smug as them. In reality, people are losing or have lost jobs, businesses and the things which make life worth living for them. Not just 'stay at home and watch TV FFS!"

As for the OP, I guess it depends on what you mean by 'restrictions'. I can see some limitations on major events or international travel into the summer and beyond, but as soon as the most vulnerable have been vaccinated - around March? - then most restrictions can be gradually eased. MPs probably wouldn't vote for lockdowns beyond then. Those who want to continue to shut themselves up at home are of course, free to do so.

@CoffeeCreamandSugar the tier is not based solely on cases per 100,000. It's a complex algorithm that takes into account hospital capacity among other things, so an area with more capacity in hospitals could in theory have more cases per 100k because the NHS trust could cope with more patients needing care (that is a very simplified explanation, I'm not an expert on the finer details, but you could find more info online I'm sure).

The main aim of lockdowns and restrictions is to try to stop hospitals becoming overwhelmed rather than actually stopping the spread, the infection rates don't tell the whole story and can be quite misleading.

@IcedPurple

The comparisons with Australia are boring and irrelevant and have been done a million times already.

Other than that, we have the usual MN 'Well, I care about others so I'll wear a mask for as long as it takes!" If it were only about wearing masks, we could all be as smug as them. In reality, people are losing or have lost jobs, businesses and the things which make life worth living for them. Not just 'stay at home and watch TV FFS!"

As for the OP, I guess it depends on what you mean by 'restrictions'. I can see some limitations on major events or international travel into the summer and beyond, but as soon as the most vulnerable have been vaccinated - around March? - then most restrictions can be gradually eased. MPs probably wouldn't vote for lockdowns beyond then. Those who want to continue to shut themselves up at home are of course, free to do so.

I agree with all this.

I'm not too bothered about seeing family or friends so that wouldn't bother me (although I think it is affecting my parents' mental health more, but that is partly their choice - they didn't want to meet up even when restrictions eased over the summer). Quite happy just doing activities with my immediate family. We're currently in Tier 2 (London) and that level of restriction has been OK for us - leisure centres and venues still open, a bit annoying having to prebook everything but it just takes a bit of planning. Wearing masks etc is just an inconvenience but I put up with it to be able to go out to places.

Tier 3 would be much worse though as we have a toddler to entertain and I'd be miserable facing 6 months under those restrictions. I'm not really in a position to 'break the rules' as the rules that would bother me most are around the kind of businesses which have to shut (like soft play, pools) and I can hardly force them to open.

We know who this effects, is it time to ask all over 65s to lockdown (and support them to do so)

@Crazycatlady83 you’re talking about 20% of the population. Many of whom are still working, and if they’re not would like to be out contributing to the economy by spending money.

If I’m not making sweeping assumptions about your age group perhaps you’d be good enough to return the favour.

@IcedPurple

The comparisons with Australia are boring and irrelevant and have been done a million times already.

Other than that, we have the usual MN 'Well, I care about others so I'll wear a mask for as long as it takes!" If it were only about wearing masks, we could all be as smug as them. In reality, people are losing or have lost jobs, businesses and the things which make life worth living for them. Not just 'stay at home and watch TV FFS!"

As for the OP, I guess it depends on what you mean by 'restrictions'. I can see some limitations on major events or international travel into the summer and beyond, but as soon as the most vulnerable have been vaccinated - around March? - then most restrictions can be gradually eased. MPs probably wouldn't vote for lockdowns beyond then. Those who want to continue to shut themselves up at home are of course, free to do so.

Totally agree

For all the people putting an end date on compliance, why not just stop now if you feel so strongly? I think a lot of people are all talk when they say they’ll refuse to continue with whatever restrictions are in place. Most people don’t want to stand out and risk being called out on something as simple as wearing a mask.

I’ve lost a relative to COVID this year and know three other people that have died. To me it’s a no brainer not to see things through until enough people have been vaccinated when we’ve come so far. Yes, the likelihood of another person I know dying is small, but why take the risk now? What we’ve gone through would be for nothing.

There are so many people calling for things to go back to normal. How normal do you think it could be when there would be people dropping like flies in every industry? When you run the risk of not getting hospital treatment for you or your family as NHS staff are overrun with COVID patients?

I have friends in Italy and what happened there has shook people to their core. They were pleading with us to abide by the restrictions when we first went into lockdown. Unless you have personal experience of someone dying or have NHS worker family/friends it’s difficult to understand just how bad this has been. A lot of people think it’s been a total overreaction. Would every world leader really impose such restrictions on its citizens if it wasn’t completely necessary?

Unfortunately there are a lot of selfish people out there that aren’t considering the bigger picture. I just hope the vaccine can be rolled out quickly and that we can regain some sense of normality by the summer.

"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."

Completely agree @MercyBooth

Unless people with no children also didn't go to school I find it hard to sympathise with them wanting to close schools and deprive children of the education that they themselves had.

I have friends in Italy and what happened there has shook people to their core. They were pleading with us to abide by the restrictions when we first went into lockdown.

Looking at Italy's own second wave, either this shock resulted in no higher compliance or compliance makes no difference.

@Hardbackwriter

I have friends in Italy and what happened there has shook people to their core. They were pleading with us to abide by the restrictions when we first went into lockdown.

Looking at Italy's own second wave, either this shock resulted in no higher compliance or compliance makes no difference.

The main issue in Italy is multi-generation households. They all live with parents and grandparents until they get married. One of my friends is in his thirties and still lives with his parents and grandparents in a small house as that’s what everybody does there. The ones of working age still have to go out to work and get shopping so it’s much more difficult to protect their elderly.

@Hardbackwriter

Unless people with no children also didn't go to school I find it hard to sympathise with them wanting to close schools and deprive children of the education that they themselves had.

Well exactly... I suspect those people benefited from an education themselves.

And add to that the fact that the children potentially missing education now are the key workers of the future.

We know who this effects, is it time to ask all over 65s to lockdown (and support them to do so)

So how is that going to work? DH is 65 and self employed, if he can't work he'll lose his customers to someone who can. I'm 45, are you expecting me to stay at home indefinitely as well to 'protect' him?

The main issue in Italy is multi-generation households. They all live with parents and grandparents until they get married. One of my friends is in his thirties and still lives with his parents and grandparents in a small house as that’s what everybody does there.

This is such a stereotype! It might be true of some tiny community where your friend lives, but it really, really isn't universal. The idea that in the UK it spreads because people are selfish but in Italy it's because they have no choice is such weird self-hating bullshit - did you not see the Italian mayors begging people to abide by widely flouted rules? There have been protests against masks in Italy, too: euobserver.com/tickers/149347

Well i wonder how businesses feel now that yesterdays press conference proved that the November lockdown was all for nothing and the tokenism, YES tokenism of shutting them down for another month was exposed. Once you see that you cant unsee it.

The more we comply the longer this goes on for.
Sadly, I think there is a certain truth to this. The government are making the most of the public so far remaining docile, and are squeeeeeeeeezing (as Boris would say) every bit of compliance that they can out of the public, before they finally wake up.

Although they won't admit it, the government probably are afraid of at best, mass public disobedience, and at worst, riots, possibly on the scale of 2011, if people get really angry. So far, they have managed to avert this, with a good dose of spin, scaremongering, terrifying figures, scientists told what to say, hushing up the protests which do happen, carrot and stick messages, and lies (no wait, this saintly government never tells lies). Because the public are largely remaining docile and compliant, and Boris is probably breathing a sigh of relief about that every day, I believe the government are stringing out the restrictions for as long as they believe they can get away with doing so, before the public decide that enough is enough; they're probably praying that they can get enough vaccinations done to make the figures look good before a big public revolt. They know that they are on borrowed time with public compliance, but so far they have managed to keep the majority of the public blissfully duped and docile. So far those who do challenge the government are being labelled (by their fellow citizens) as "Covidiots", "Covid Deniers", "Granny murderers", but the tide is turning.

They probably have a backup plan (or is that giving them too much credit?) for when it looks like a public revolt might happen; they've probably decided which restrictions they can quickly jettison if they need to calm the public down. "Oh look, Uncle Boris is allowing all the pubs to open this weekend only!"