The handling of this pandemic is psychological torture

[Redbrickwall]

Who agrees? I have never ever felt so continuously anxious in my whole life. It feels like psychological torture to live this way. There is no leadership, it feels like anarchy.

Literally we are told that test and trace will make life normal again, it doesn’t. Told it was 3 weeks to flatten the curve, told they’ll never lock down again, then told that they will, told that the tier system will stop full lockdowns, then told a November lockdown will save Christmas, then it won’t, told schools will open, told they might not, told they aren’t opening today at 5pm last night. Various MPs saying more restrictions coming, others saying tier 5. How many tiers can there be? Media leaks and drip feeding, terrified constantly incase we can’t work again and our home is lost. Told a vaccination will save the day, and then told it won’t...

Now hinting at more lockdowns but not actually telling us what it will be.

This is hell. This is torture. It can’t just be me? I will never forgive this government for the handling of this pandemic.

What plan was there? There never was a plan. ??

Do you mean there was never any planning or that there was never a single plan, never to be deviated from?

There obviously has been planning but the idea of a concrete unchanging plan doesn't fit the circumstances - a novel virus, doing what viruses do!

I don't understand the utter dismissal. It can't be easy to think that wat!

Totally agree, Op. I feel utterly ground down by it atm. The prospect of having to combine home-schooling and home-working again just feels like the last straw tbh...

I wouldn't call it torture, but this year has been a long grinding slog, and just as we were all tired and hoping it was nearly over...the new variant (and winter upsurge) has kneed us in our collective groin. It's natural to feel down about it all.

I'm no defender of this crappy government, but I suspect that even if they had handled it better, things would have been almost equally difficult. The current situation requires them to make it up as they go and the uncertainty is exhausting, but it won't be for long this time.

I thought the initial plan was “herd immunity”. Keep schools open, loads will die, but eventually they’ll be enough people immune to save us. That didn’t last long!

My SIL has just found out that her older child will have to go to school but her younger child will stay home.

oh! I see I have repeated a previous error.

I'll hide the thread and stop annoying you!

I agree op, it's shite.

I agree OP.
IMO we should have locked down hard (closed borders etc) in March; and certainly now, with the new variant - and now with the benefit of vaccines. A few months of extreme lockdown to get this under control and beaten. Instead we have what seems to me the worst of all worlds - long drawn out misery, in every way: mental, emotional, physical, financial etc.
And ZERO leadership. They are not leading, they are flailing around. I don't trust anything they say or do. They've fcked up so many times already.

I've heard this phrase "ahead of the curve" used so much.

And I've come to really understand what it means.

We are given daily data, we can see what's happening, and to some extent we now know what needs to happen.

But yet the government waits and waits whilst the public can see what's happening to finally announce it will happen.

And I'm beginning to believe it's due to ego.

Yes I agree, I’m not sure if it’s ego, incompetence or a power struggle.

Basically we all know schools will end up closing (whether we agree or disagree with this), it’s obvious as the measures taken so far haven’t helped, either because they weren’t sufficient or people weren’t following them.

But instead of saying that there’s a high chance schools will need to close, the government go the other way and say they’re definitely staying open and they’re safe.

Well we all know that nowhere is completely safe, so it means you start to ignore everything that they say as it makes them look incompetent.

What they should have done is predicted that this would happen and had contingency plans in place, pre agreed with schools.

Yes agree OP.

And there are enough countries that are doing it so much better to look at. Every time I speak to friends in other parts of the world I feel depressed at how much more awful it is here.

If they'd funded schools to be safer from Sept I don't think it's a given that they would have had to shut. And the government were told this over and over again by the scientists.

In other countries they've controlled levels to much lower rates through masks and SD (and / or blended learning) in schools.

I'm over in Australia and I can tell you now, to us and the rest of the world it looks like the UK government has handled everything much, much worse than anywhere else in the developed world

What, is no one paying attention to the US and other major economies of Western Europe?

I am a therapist and I agree. It’s a shambles. No one knows where they stand, or if they are coming or going. All this indecision does is seriously impact on people’s physical and mental health. It’s a sad day for politics. Instead of being proactive we are firefighting continuously and that’s a loosing battle

It’s only hell because we’re watching it develop before our eyes and every drip is broadcast and analysed to death on social media and in papers etc.

How do you think other massive events in the past might have played out if every person in the world capable of having their opinion heard on the internet, had their opinion heard on the internet? Churchill would have been lampooned. Hitler would have been considered the ‘wrong side of history’. Many countries censor what their people can read and post for this very reason. If you are too stressed out then the alternative is to only read one source of information. One you trust and only that. Then you might feel more in control.

It was always going to be like this when we decided we can beat nature.

The policy of deliberately inducing fear into people is a disgrace. THe reality was actually stated right at the beginning - this is a new virus, people will die, there isn't that much we can do about it.

But since then, we have transitioned into a total elimination policy which is entirely disproportionate and worst of all, futile, all driven by the fear that the govts deliberately whipped up in the people and the fear of not being elected ever again and going down in history as 'someone who murdered the grannies' for the politicians worldwide.

So what would you do that is different . Because for every single action you will propose and when you would do it about 50% will disagree.

@hamstersarse

So you are against lockdown and closures of schools even with the new strain?

Completely agree OP, I feel more anxious now than at the beginning of the pandemic. I have no faith in the government at all.

But as a scientist said this week we are fighting agains a democratic liberal society and even now people are not following the rules and it’s not to do with them being confusing , they just don’t want to follow them .

@LouLou198

What do you want them to do at this point in time ?

Full national lockdown that will affect people’s mental health and jobs even more ?

Or just keep to tiers ?
Or just not lockdown at all and get in with things ?

@BatleyTownswomensGuild

So you want schools open then ?

Australia's national pastime is criticising the UK isn't it?

@Unsure33 Give up being the government apologist. There have been plenty of threads where people have said what they would have done differently, go read them rather than minimising and detracting.

But as a scientist said this week we are fighting agains a democratic liberal society and even now people are not following the rules and it’s not to do with them being confusing , they just don’t want to follow them

I don’t think that’s terribly surprising.

We’ve been following them for a long time now.

They clearly aren’t achieving anything in the longer term,

They go against our basic human needs to spend time with friends and family. And a libertarian, individualistic culture that’s been established for thousands of years.

A smart approach would be factoring in the inevitable lockdown fatigue.

Full national lockdown that will affect people’s mental health and jobs even more

A short term full national lockdown would cause less harm than many more months of half measures. Didn't your 'scientist' tell you that?