What's the longest you will put up with restrictions?

[Papatron]

I'm just wondering where people think their breaking point will be with the virus restrictions. If the government extends the furlough scheme beyond April and says we all have to stay locked down, will you obey?
If we're still not free in June or July?
Personally I feel like I could just about take another 3 months maximum.

Are you being deliberately obtuse?

Does being rude come naturally, or do you have to get up early to practise?

There is no one definition of "as long as it takes". There is no definition of "safe". Everyone has their own take on what risk they are prepared to accept. So what "as long as it takes" means to one person is not the same as the next.

It's utterly meaningless and the ultimate in martyrdom and virtue-signalling nonsense.

Long as it takes here too.

And I have been affected massively, economically and personally, just to be clear.

If there was no vaccine then I'd still feel the same but be much more depressed about it.

But I think we need to hang on for longer.

It seems like the majority are in favour of continuing to lock down pretty much ad infinitum

Saying you will comply with the rules is not the same as being in favour of continuing lockdown. I obey the law because it's the law, not because I've picked which laws I'm in favour of. I will comply with lockdown regardless of whether I am in favour of it, because I'm a law-abiding person.

@AndcalloffChristmas

I don’t know why people are saying 40+ is higher risk? People in their 40s are generally fine after a flu like illness (so rotten but not hospital worthy) aren’t they?

There are various risks - death being only one.

I am worried about covid, even though I am statistically extremely unlikely to die.

I could tell you anything though @Puzzledandpissedoff - I don’t believe it makes as much of a difference as you think it does. I’ve worked throughout but if the schools are closed again long term I will have to leave because I just can’t facilitate home learning any other way because I can’t work from home. I’m preparing for this. I’m certainly not rich or even surrounded by safety nets of parents money etc. But then I believe this is the quickest way out of this and dropping these strategies will make it all last longer.

Fwiw I’m far more concerned about the economic impact of brexit than I am economic recovery from covid but it’s going to be nigh on impossible to untangle one from the other going forward. The tory’s will be happy about that...

I’m at my limit already to be honest. But my DP is frontline working with Covid patients so I stay quiet for him; we abide by the rules and I try and support him as much as I can. He’s struggling now

@RaspberryCoulis

Are you being deliberately obtuse?

Does being rude come naturally, or do you have to get up early to practise?

There is no one definition of "as long as it takes". There is no definition of "safe". Everyone has their own take on what risk they are prepared to accept. So what "as long as it takes" means to one person is not the same as the next.

It's utterly meaningless and the ultimate in martyrdom and virtue-signalling nonsense.

It isn't meaningless, it is just that it is acceptance of something that can not yet be defined.

'virtue-signalling' - what bollocks. At the moment I don't have a time limit, because it isn't predictable.

If you really need me to have a time limit - put me down for January 2072.

@RaspberryCoulis no, you just inspire me.

So you’re asking a question that you’ve already answered in your own mind then just continuing to shout it until someone posts what you want to hear?

What’s the point of that? Why not just say what you’ve got to say?

it’s ‘safe’ for any virus to circulate as long as there is enough medical support to deal with it

This is absolutely true in principle, but ignores the point that decades of mismanagement and ridiculous political decisions mean there'll never be enough medical support for everyone within the current system, so choices have to be made

I realise of course that thinking about long term issues doesn't help the situation right now, but does anyone really imagine this will lead to sensible changes within the NHS? They couldn't even get decent planning in place for the expected "winter wave", though some were quick enough to find ways to make extra money out of it

I find this a bizarre question.

Most of the restrictions are not something I can control. If schools, restaurants, shops, attractions are shut I can’t simply turn up and demand they let me in anyway.

The only rule I could break is seeing friends but tbh that’s a drop in the ocean if everything else is shut.

As long as I want to stay alive.

@Papatron

It's true that we have no choice to some extent because we can't exactly force pubs and shops to open. But my compliance with the rules at this point is not because I agree with them but because I get the impression that the majority think the rules are worthwhile. There could be a tipping point where people begin by breaking the rules on going to each others' houses, gathering in groups etc. If the majority are breaking the rules and there are few who disapprove then a lockdown will be ineffective anyway and the voices of freedom will drown out the others. I've still got a job so I will be wary of getting into trouble but there must be plenty of people who have nothing left to lose by being disobedient.

If people start to increasingly break rules to the point where every other person is doing it then I’m sure the government will introduce more hefty fines and have more police patrolling. When you come on to Mumsnet and hang about on certain threads it can appear like there are a lot of rule breakers out there, but there seriously aren’t in real life. The vast majority are not happy or thriving with this new way of living, however we understand that there is no other option and as we could all need the nhs at some point and we really don’t want to make the situation worse for it. The majority also understand that it’s not the time to be selfish, but to work together as a large community and help bring the number of cases down and protect the vulnerable as this will be over soon. Seems a bit stupid to take risks and endanger your health now when the vaccine is here.

it’s ‘safe’ for any virus to circulate as long as there is enough medical support to deal with it

Only where we have reliable and non-damaging treatments, which we don't for covid. The after effects of being in ICU, on ventilation etc are enormous. Months of rehab for some.

This is a very naive view.

@DrRamsesEmerson

Hospitals are always hammered at this time of year, it would be really interesting to know how bad it is compared with a normal year once you strip out all the staff self-isolating (but not ill) because of Covid.

I don't think we are as bad as usual. Only 42 patients in ED this morning. I've never ever seen it that low. Apparently ITU have a lot of ventilated patients but the majority are non Covid from what I can see. We've not had the 'we are running out of capacity'emails in months

I don’t believe anyone wants to extend the restrictions beyond when they are necessary. I do t believe that I am in a position to make an accurate judgement about when they should end or that myself as an individual should just choose what suits me and my situation, regardless of the bigger picture.

I don’t believe there is any point in outta g a time limit on how long we will all comply. If somehow the vaccine vanished next week, then the restrictions could be lifted and that would be the end of it. If it mutates and gets much worse with death rates rising and spreading across the population and age groups, we might need tighter controls for much longer. The situation determines how long we need to comply for, not whether we like it or not.

It is incredible that with the huge rises in rates, some people are keen to reduce restrictions or only comply for a very short, time-limited period......as if it is sime5i g they can just choose totally regardless of what is happening with Covid.

It’s a bit like asking how long people in the early 1940s were willing to live in wartime. They had no choice, they just were living in wartime.

No-one has to like it. No-one has to find it easy or say it isn’t without all kinds of personal sacrifices and horrors. But it’s one of those things where everyone cannot simply choose for the self what suits them and their situation....surely no-one can believe that this is a satiation where everyone can make their own individual choices and that will reduce a pandemic?? I

42 and a half days is my limit, but in 13 days I'm going to start ignoring those pesky traffic laws. How can I get to places on time if I have to stop for people to cross the road. Who are they to tell me what I can do?

Of course despite some posters worrying about everyone being stripped of their property and other doomsday scenarios we're on our way to getting this under control now so we just need to hang on a bit longer.

We don't have to wait for everyone to be vaccinated and it need not be 100% effective. We just need to reduce the spread and the effects for it to be manageable.

I get that it's hard, but we can see an end in sight now.

And look on the bright side. We'll all be able to say to the next generation "You think you have it bad? We lived through the 2020 Pandemic!"

I want to see my friends, I want to open my kids sports club again, i want to go and get rat-arsed in a pub singing along to the live band, i want to go and eat at a restaurant till I'm so full my eyeballs pop out, i want to go to the cinema and watch the latest Marvel/DC release, I want to go and spend a stupid amount of money in Primark, I want to go back to my office and sing wildly in my car on the commute, I want to actually meet my team in person not hear voices over Skype, I want to take my kids to the arcade and watch them spank £15 of tokens on stupid games within 5 minutes.

I cant do any of this. All because of a virus which isnt a DEADLY virus, its deadly to a very small proportion of the population, much like just about any other illness could be, for the majority it's a bad cold. Long fucking covid my arse, I had long glandular fever in the 90s and it took me years to recover but no one locked down then! The panic over the new strain which Chris "Doom Twin" Whitty has come out and said may be more transmissable but not more "deadly" and doesnt have different symptoms, which people on here seem to have hit panic stations about is insane. I just had covid last week, in East of England so chances are high it was the new super strain, and I'm 40, overweight and asthmatic with numerous health issues and an allergy list as long as your arm and I've had worse colds.

I'm done with this bullshit, but I dont have any choice but to comply because the government has waded in and taken that choice away from me. Like some kind of dictatorship. All hail the Covid Gods! For now a microscopic virus doing what viruses do now controls my life.

The second the government releases me from this purgatory you can bet your bottom dollar I'm out there and doing EVERYTHING!! Until then, I'll continue to fester in my 3 bed semi and get excited about another fucking walk.

You raise some interesting points @Puzzledandpissedoff. Unfortunately though, solving those issues takes time (not that I believe we will see any drastic changes) and is of very little use in the short term.

@inquietant

it’s ‘safe’ for any virus to circulate as long as there is enough medical support to deal with it

Only where we have reliable and non-damaging treatments, which we don't for covid. The after effects of being in ICU, on ventilation etc are enormous. Months of rehab for some.

This is a very naive view.

I was talking about aims. If we can reduce the amount of people becoming severely ill those pressures reduce. For the individuals who are particularly unlucky it’s still a concern but the aim is to keep those numbers to a minimum.

The goal with vaccines and a certain amount of other restrictions (masks, limits on crowds) is that we can get levels of infection to a manageable level for hospitals.

If we’re particularly lucky and have a vaccine that sterilises the virus or an amazing treatment is found then we can ease things further. Look at how much has already been achieved in less than a year.

I’m preparing for this. I’m certainly not rich or even surrounded by safety nets of parents money etc. But then I believe this is the quickest way out of this and dropping these strategies will make it all last longer

That's very honest of you, Cornettoninja, and I appreciate it and hope it all works out okay for you
However I worry about the consequences of the betrayal that's going to be felt by folk who've given up so much, when in time it's realised just what an overreaction it's all been. Of course by that time this government will be long gone, but the pain will continue and I don't expect people will be pleased about that

Even with the current restrictions it will feel easier once it is warmer and the days are longer so people are more comfortable being outside.

I don't think we are as bad as usual. Only 42 patients in ED this morning. I've never ever seen it that low. Apparently ITU have a lot of ventilated patients but the majority are non Covid from what I can see. We've not had the 'we are running out of capacity'emails in months

Where? London is facing running out of beds right now.

Interview this morning: twitter.com/bbc5live/status/1344543533173190663

@ivfbabymomma1 I feel the same. I am taking each day. If I dwell on all those that I love whom I haven't seen in ages, my eldest daughter being one of them, then I would crack. I don't see how we can be expected to keep away from loved ones for much longer past the spring. I'm hoping that better weather and vaccinations will mean the summer will be more or less like last summer. But yes I will obey restrictions. If I didn't then inadvertently caught it and passed it on to my family I would feel even worse. It is what it is xxxx

31 March 2021.

Until I can get on a plane and move to New Zealand or Australia where they have grown ups in charge who have implemented an effective public health strategy to suppress the virus and reduce the economic damage. Where they don’t ignore their public health resources a and funnel money to incompetent cronies, and do too little too late so that we have maximum lockdown, and maximum economic damage and deaths and then propose to cripple our exporters by dragging them out of the single market with days to plan for it.

Virtue signalling? Whole bloody continents are doing it. Perhaps the issue is with the selfish and the libertarians and those who ignore the experts in favour of nonsense they find googling in the internet.....