Deaths everywhere, yet we are still going to work this morning. Why?

[TwirpingBird]

I am sitting here watching BBC breakfast with another harrowing video of ITU nurses at breaking point, ambulances lined up outside, 1800 dead yesterday, and headlines of 'lockdown isnt working', 'people arent complying' blah blah blah. Its all 'you need to follow the rules, you need to stay at home. I am seething.

My husband is leaving for work in an hour where he will enter 5 houses today to do completely non essential work because the government deem him a 'key worker'. My best friend will go to work in her office in a interior design company because she is a 'key worker'. Her husband will go to work giving quotes for kitchens in people's houses because his boss deems him a 'key worker'. None of my friends are on furlough. We are all seeing nobody outside of work. We are all sticking to the 'rules'. But how could we possibly expect the rules to work when everyone is still getting in their cars this morning?

I am raging angry. I am SICK and TIRED of being told 'follow the rules'. WE ARE!!! The rules make no bloody sense. And people are still dropping like flies, and experts are saying the lockdown isnt working, and the public are still being tarred as 'lacking empathy' because we are killing people. We are going to work! Kids are still in school! And then we come home and we do what we can but its never going to be enough. I am starting to wonder why I am bothering to hide myself away, managing a 2 year old and a newborn alone 5 days a week, naively thinking I am helping to manage transmission, when in reality its not helping at all because people are still at work.

Because if we want there to be anything left to save at the end of this shitshow, we need to retain some kind of functioning economy. Most businesses can’t afford another lockdown like the previous one. Covid is not the only consideration and it astonishes me that so many people think it is.

Cases are plummeting the restrictions are working. Deaths as a statistical measure to decide how bad things are are totally irrelevant - we know people will die. New cases is the key and then hospital admissions to determine capacity. Hospital admissions now seem to be plateaued/falling slightly, deaths will peak over the next couple of weeks. The Zoe symptom tracking data shows that people using the app who have symptoms has dropped 32% in a week.

@lovelemoncurd

I know. My husband leaves for work and has done every single day since last March teaching SEN kids in a PRU. They don't want to be in school. Their parents don't want them at home. So my husband has to put his life in danger because others don't know how to raise their children and our useless government can't make decent decisions 😡

What a dreadful and ignorant thing to say. I don’t even know where to begin with that. SEN kids are in school because it is to their benefit.

I work in construction but in sales. Absolutely super duper easy to do from home. However, a colleague of mine (who does exactly the same job as me) is claiming we're key workers, so is sending his kids to school and still goes into the office every now and then. Makes no sense.

I would also question where the deaths are occurring. According to the NHS England data there has not been a day when more than 800 deaths have occurred in hospitals. Where are the other 1000 coming from? Care homes? Where staff are being tested? Just makes me wonder if the data isn't telling the full picture.

@bbn81

I would also question where the deaths are occurring. According to the NHS England data there has not been a day when more than 800 deaths have occurred in hospitals. Where are the other 1000 coming from? Care homes? Where staff are being tested? Just makes me wonder if the data isn't telling the full picture.

Approx 1200 people died in care homes last week with Covid.

@DecemberSun my dp isnt a key worker. He has worked out of the house the whole way through, in line with the 'only go to work if you can't work from home message'. What do you mean by clearer definition of keyworker? That people who aren't shouldn't go to work?

@lightand ....no one can " stop" the virus so although the uk have made many mistakes during this past year you cant honestly expect them to eradicate a virus , any virus when these things evolve to stick around for millions of years . That is a silly thing to say .

@lovelemoncurd

I know. My husband leaves for work and has done every single day since last March teaching SEN kids in a PRU. They don't want to be in school. Their parents don't want them at home. So my husband has to put his life in danger because others don't know how to raise their children and our useless government can't make decent decisions 😡

That’s cruel. I’m sorry but these parents may have to go to work. They may not be able to support their children at home. I hope your H doesn’t have your callus attitude towards teaching children with very special needs. If he does he is in the wrong job and possibly married To the wrong person.

Quit your jobs?

Yes I’m off for a 9 hour stint in our non food retail store.....selling ‘essentials’ such as cushions, paint, flooring and cutesy storage. I’ll be assisting customers with the finer details of matching curtains and how to keep a plant alive whilst they are moving ever closer to me pulling mask under chin to explain the problem. I will be backing into the shelving as they approach until I’ve got nowhere to go and I have to put my hand up to say STOP! Pls get 2 metres back and no I can’t look at the image on your phone

They will then make a complaint about over the top covid rules

I will serve approx 50-60 people in this way today, then go home to my family. Marvellous

[quote LST]@DecemberSun my dp isnt a key worker. He has worked out of the house the whole way through, in line with the 'only go to work if you can't work from home message'. What do you mean by clearer definition of keyworker? That people who aren't shouldn't go to work?[/quote]
I guess I mean in the context of DCs in school, mainly. The loose definition means that classes are almost full in some schools and thus unsafe for children and staff.

The point of closing schools was to stop the spread but schools aren't closed. There are too many children in school for there to be social distancing and so the infection will still spread.

Schools should only take the DCs of vital workers, NHS, police, teachers etc.

The thing during the first lockdown everything slowed down, & had an huge impact on the economy.

"That contraction was three times greater than the decline seen during the whole of the 2008 to 2009 economic downturn."

The gov don't want that again & many businesses can't survive that again.

Reading this astounds me.

I am on the Isle of Man, I know it can't be compared to any of the UK but the basic principle is the same.

We went into lockdown about two weeks ago because there were a handull of cases after none at all and no restrictions, masks or distancing for six months.

Community buy in has been huge. Places closed, everyone who can wfh did. Anything that isn't essential stopped, no travel other than for limited reasons. People have gone to prison for breaches.

I haven't left the house for ten days and barely a person has been past. We have had post and a gas delivery and that's it.

No cases in the community for 9 days now and fully expect an announcement about going back to normal later today.

I have no idea how you go about it somewhere the size of the UK but everyone needs to stay at home for a couple of weeks and break the infection cycle.

There just doesn't seem to be the willingness there to do it.

Unfortunately the perfect tine to do that was over Christmas when so many places were shut anyway.

I think the government need to crack down on employers . No more sharing vans etc. Not just guidance but into law. They can say they have made all worksites Covid secure but it just isn’t the case.

I now drive to work where I used to get public transport so increased car usage doesn't surprise me.

In the sw where I live apparently the r number is now .37 so it's working

@DecemberSun and what do you propose all the rest of us who have to go to work to keep the Ecomony going do with our children? All the construction workers , manufacturing workers etc. Should we all be placed on furlough for childcare reasons ?

@DecemberSun yes I do agree with that. I have 2 dc and I am trying to wfh ft and 'homeschool' them. I'd love my youngest who has just turned 7 to be in and because he is struggling so much and was behind his peers anyway we could probably get him a place as 'vulnerable' (teacher did confirm this), but we haven't because we don't want this to go on any longer than it needs to.

So my husband has to put his life in danger because others don't know how to raise their children and our useless government can't make decent decisions

I suggest he gives up his job.

If people aren't working, we can't pay for the NHS.

It needs to be a balancing act.

I can't work from home and I'm going out to work in a high risk environment. I don't want to sit at home on furlough or benefits, I'm glad I'm going to work.

Everyone can't expect to just stay at home and be paid to do so. Suck it up.

@TwirpingBird

You are helping to manage transmission by following the guidelines. It would be so much WORSE if you and everyone else just gave up and stopped following guidelines.
A couple of care homes have been doing well then recently a staff member brought the virus in and killed 11 residents. Where did the staff member get if from....
Most people are following guidelines and fed up, you are not alone. There are a few who are being stupid - the protesters denying the virus exists, the ones mixing in groups but most aren't. That's why the numbers of infections are falling again. The huge death rate is lagging behind. London should never have been in tier 2 then 3 that was a joke and a mistake that cost deaths. Restrictions should have been earlier, but they weren't. Eventually when this is over there will be enquiries about what went so wrong for our country.
Keep on doing you.

At least you own cars. I live in an extremely densely populated European city. Similar to London. Cars are barely used for commuting. Public transport looks exactly the same as pre-pandemic. A little emptier this month as schools are fully online.

People who can't work from home need to go to work, essential or not. We can't stop non-essential activity for years and years on end. I'm in a completely non-essential industry (which have not been banned in our lockdown), if we'd stopped working back in March 2020 the company wouldn't have survived. We'd all be out of our jobs. We're half state-funded, half private. The private side would've had to go into administration and that's 200 people without a job.

Social spread will happen regardless of non-essential workers staying at home. No hygiene measures in schools, people having dozens of support bubbles, arranging to meet family in shops... it'll keep happening.

Schools should only take the DCs of vital workers, NHS, police, teachers etc.

It's not as simple as that. I have a detective friend wfh should she have a place? Support school staff are helping with testing so need to be on site.

WOW how vile
"lovelemoncurd
My husband leaves for work and has done every single day since last March teaching SEN kids in a PRU. So my husband has to put his life in danger because others don't know how to raise their children and our useless government can't make decent decisions 😡"

SEN kids - parents don't know how to raise them.... what a nasty thing to say.