Further Restrictions 'Stricter than March' Needed

[Bewareoftheblob]

From the Telegraph today:

Sage advisers are calling for a lockdown tougher than the one seen in March as they argue the current restrictions do not go far enough.

Professor Susan Michie, a health psychology professor at University College London who sits on a Sage subcommittee, said more stringent action was needed.

While around 90 per cent of Britons are sticking to the rules there are also "more people out and about”, Prof Michie told the Today programme.

"It should definitely be tightened,” she said. "This is quite a lax lockdown because we’ve still got a lot of household contact, people go in and out of other’s houses. We should have stricter rather than a less strict lockdown than we had in March.

“You have this wide definition of critical workers and therefore you’ve got really busy public transport. There's also this new variant, and we have the winter season and the virus survives for longer in the cold.”

Link

Do you think they'll follow through with this? Reduce the amount of children in schools, ban support bubbles, heavier policing of people going about their daily lives?

For this to happen you would have to ban everyone from buying anything non essential.

I work in manufacturing, not food or medical. We are busier than we have ever been and are allowed to continue under government guidelines. In fact we are encouraged to. We obviously cannot work from home.

As long as people are allowed to buy non essential items online then the factories have to continue production.

despite the news people do not have the fear any more, it is not sustainable.

Sadly I think they will have to as sufficient numbers of people aren't obeying the law.

So we bring new rules in that people aren't going to follow makes sense

lockdown fatigue is real

DumplingsAndStew
With the economy being the way it is, I wouldn't be surprised if lots of mums of under 1s are back at work/wfh at the moment (including me).

My house is safer than DMs for a baby, and I breastfeed him on my lunch breaks.

There are many different 'bubbles'. Apparently Costa is allowed to open and everyone can congregate outside.

I can't believe people want even tougher measures... To what end? If tier 4 restrictions as they are now aren't enough, their is no hope whatsoever. Even the vaccines won't be enough once 20 million are done if the only way to stop this is to isolate everyone entirely. Cancelling support bubbles would be absolutely inhumane. Covid is important of course but it's not the only consideration to be given to absolutely everything.

This is quite a lax lockdown because we’ve still got a lot of household contact, people go in and out of other’s houses. We should have stricter rather than a less strict lockdown than we had in March

Wonder how she would suggest policing whose houses people go in and out of?

Tbh it's an(other) error on the government's part - they made us really scared early on, and it's impossible to maintain that fear for nearly a year. Our reserves are empty and we're all just trying to survive now.

@Snowrabbit

I can't believe people want even tougher measures... To what end? If tier 4 restrictions as they are now aren't enough, their is no hope whatsoever. Even the vaccines won't be enough once 20 million are done if the only way to stop this is to isolate everyone entirely. Cancelling support bubbles would be absolutely inhumane. Covid is important of course but it's not the only consideration to be given to absolutely everything.

It's really not that strict. We literally have a few months before warmer weather and more vaccines. Literallt lifesaving. It's so sad how late and slow this has all been.

I guess the March style lockdown managed to get the "old" variant relatively under control but with the new variant, presumably even the March style might not work?

i hate this blame culture,
i heard it was in kent, then hastings and now going north and south west,
how on earth?
is it travelling via pigeon?

@Skipsurvey

despite the news people do not have the fear any more, it is not sustainable.

I disagree - I am feeling more frightened now than at any time since the start of all this. I am terrified of catching it (because of my age).

how can you blame the government for making you really scared then and not now?

@Snowrabbit

I can't believe people want even tougher measures... To what end? If tier 4 restrictions as they are now aren't enough, their is no hope whatsoever. Even the vaccines won't be enough once 20 million are done if the only way to stop this is to isolate everyone entirely. Cancelling support bubbles would be absolutely inhumane. Covid is important of course but it's not the only consideration to be given to absolutely everything.

I don’t want tougher restrictions

But I accept that if we want to suppress the virus enough for the vaccination program to work before the NHS completely implodes under the pressure then things need to change and quickly.

@Funkypolar

Bagamoyo1 - M&S allows couples. It’s not illegal.

But inadvisable and unnecessary unless one of you has a disability.

I agree completely with those saying employers aren't helping. I sent an email to my manager yesterday asking if we could arrange a rota so we could reduce the number of people in the office by a third. She replied to say I needed to 'see the bigger picture' as receptionists, cleaners, nurses can't wfh it would be unfair to let us wfh. That's in complete contrast to what the government are saying! I can do all but 5% of my job from home.

@CKBJ

I posted this on another thread:

I think schools including nurseries should only offer places for NHS/Care/Police/Fire staff for the next 2-3weeks. As this would stop many people with children from working it would become a very harsh lockdown for 2-3weeks and therefore disrupt the covid transmission. Yes work places will suffer, including those that are critical, however with the way numbers are increasing it calls for drastic action. This should be known as Total Lockdown,we then revert back to the current lockdown and as soon as possible (End Feb/Mar) move the country back down the tier system.

If you don't include school staff in that, there won't be any school places.

Roads are busy. My local shops are quite busy. I roughly estimated yesterday that a fifth of all people in my local mall were not wearing masks. No one in shops adheres to the 2m distancing and shop workers don’t reinforce it at all. I’d say make it only one person on their own allowed in to shop. My neighbours are all breaking the rules too, and having visitors. I also know of many local families who are anti vax and they are having sleepovers for kids etc as they are going down the ‘just a mild flu’ route. I feel frustrated and angry.

Was doing some “ fb stalking” aka bored scrolling yesterday and noticed a friend of a friends profile. All public and she thinks this whole virus is a con, openly discusses this. Photos of her dancing on New Year’s Eve saying going to a house party later. Then mentions met loads of new people 😡 no one challenging her but two girls walking in middle of nowhere with a coffee get fined?!

@Pesopasodoble

I agree completely with those saying employers aren't helping. I sent an email to my manager yesterday asking if we could arrange a rota so we could reduce the number of people in the office by a third. She replied to say I needed to 'see the bigger picture' as receptionists, cleaners, nurses can't wfh it would be unfair to let us wfh. That's in complete contrast to what the government are saying! I can do all but 5% of my job from home.

You should report your employer.

Agreed I am getting more scared now. I'm actually less at risk now as was 3rd trimester pg before but there are just no beds left if you are one of the unlucky ones. And how do you know if it'll be you who gets the severe form? My 80+ grandad got Covid in the first wave. He was asymptomatic despite having so many bad health conditions (caught it in hospital when v ill with something else). My sister's 28 year old healthy friend caught it and died. Obviously these outcomes are less likely statistically but can still happen. How many healthy 28 yo die from flu?!

Work in a care home - def noticed more traffic still than first lockdown. Shopping yesterday lots of people still shopping in 2’s and whole families. Again I appreciate single parents can’t leave the children but it is noticeable compared to the huge effort people made last March to comply strictly.

@averythinline

I think they need to find away to make firms let people wfh when they can... I know many companies are making staff come in =even though they can and did wfh in the last lockdown ... even with more spaced out desks they are still inside and sharing kitchen/washroom facilities...because the MD doesnt like it... he likes seeing his staff! not sure what size company you call this 50 odd people... they paid a lot for the offices so wants to get his money worth... and he's not alone if you look around teh car parks etc they are much busier...

Abolutely this!! They need to start introducing fines for companies for making people come to the office where they can easily work from home and a number to report them. MDs got bored of letting staff wfh and now want office attendance despite a much higjer risk in this lockdown.

They can't enforce the rules so what is the point. People who are compliant are suffering, those who aren't are carrying on like normal. They can bring in more rules but they can't stop the mixing of households. You have people with numerous "bubbles", 6 degrees of separation comes to mind.