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.

“Key worker” or not do you not still need your husband to earn money?

I bet you’d be moaning if his boss also decided his job was “non essential” and made him redundant.

People still need to earn a living no matter how many people are dying.

But just because you HAVE to go to work, feed your your kids, pay your bills etc doesn’t mean there is no point cutting back other aspects of life does it? The reduced contact we are all having reduces the level of spread and the number of cases. Yes, it would be even further reduced if less people worked but it doesn’t mean lockdown is pointless

Sadly, I think your efforts are a waste of time, op. I agree with you.

@Dontforgetyourbrolly I think there is actually a majority of people who think that if the do x y and z, then the virus will go away with all their hard effort.

Well who’s going to pay your bills OP?

What you’re really saying is that you expect taxpayers of the future to fund your mortgage while you all stay ‘safe’ at home.

This is not a sustainable position as I’m sure you know if you step back and think about it.

@BillyAndTheSillies

DH and I both work in construction but office based. Last week was my second week back in the office after maternity leave. I tested positive yesterday. The office is the only place I've been.

No idea why DH could happily work from home earlier in the year but not now. I could easily work from home but the IT infrastructure is not set up to allow it.

Frankly it's shocking. And I'm pissed off at my employers - who are family - that put profits over their own family's health, let alone their other employees. It's disgusting.

It's opened our house to risk and putting others at risk. If I'm at work then we need childcare so we've had a nanny in and out. I'd have felt more comfortable using my own parents as a childcare bubble because at least I know what they do when they're not with us. But my Mum works in a school so she's at work. And my IL's are also both at work with myself and DH.

I partly agree with the op in that some people have no choice in their job. However there are lots of companies like that of the op's friend those of @BillyAndTheSillies who are makimg people come in to work when they worked from home In the last lockdown ok, even if it wasn't perfect

It is striking how little messaging, guidance and threatened sanctions is aimed at employers who flout the rules compared to individuals ( aka employees)

The difference in the way the government treat and talk to individuals and employers shows meore about this Tory government.than anything else. Where are the ads and letters to employers telling them it is THEIR RESPONSIBILITY to do everything possible to ensure as many employees as is possible work from home?

Keeping a viable business going through this pandemic is absolutely essential,; squeezing every ounce of profit out by refusing to invest in home working solutions or refusing to accept some potential temporary small reduction in productivity because of homeworking is not however essential at all

I'm horrified by the comment about SEN kids

I'm no longer shocked although the hypocrisy over having such little empathy for others but expecting them to do the "right thing" for you has been surprising.

As for the poster who’s husband works in a SEN school, what a vile individual you are.

We’re seeing people’s true colours now, for sure.

@Ostryga

Because as much as covid is awful and we need to get it under control, the fallout and effects from a floundering economy is going to kill far, far more people in the decades to come than covid has and will.

I despise the tories, but it is an extremely fine balancing act of having enough money to sort out what covid will leave behind. This is going to felt for a very long time.

But there are a lot of people who could be working from who aren’t.

Wow the comment about the children with SEN is disgusting. This situation really brings out the worst in people.

@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 😡

Does your husband know your vile, shitty, ableist attitude to the disabled children he is paid with taxpayer’s money to teach? What a repulsive thing to say. You should be ashamed.

I have 2 friends who were furloughed the first lockdown. 1 was made redundant so now has a job in a supermarket & is going out to work. The other is now back in work because you can't do it all from home & work has put covid measures in place. It's too simplistic to compare now to the the first lockdown.

@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.

You sound at breaking point and I hope you have support. A lot of people are breaking the rules but a lot are sticking to them also. I also feel depressed and in limbo, and I pray this is over soon.

Lets stick together in a social distance way, and maybe try to not watch the news so much? It all seems so bad. I always turn ovr when the bad stuff is on and it helps

@Shadysback

As far as I can see lockdown is working. Cases are down from 60 thousand a day a couple of weeks ago, to less than 40 thousand a day now. Unfortunately it will take a while for the number of deaths to start dropping, as we are still seeing the effects of when cases were at their highest. The number of deaths will follow the trend of cases and start to drop soon though, and thousands of people are being vaccinated every day. Stick with it, we are getting there.

Yeah, the current measures aren't the issue. Tier 4 tends to be enough to stop Covid getting out of hand in terms of infection rates and schools and colleges not being full helps further.

The problem is, we are paying for the inaction and dithering of December and the decision to place London into tier 2.

@MadameBlobby

“Key worker” or not do you not still need your husband to earn money?

I bet you’d be moaning if his boss also decided his job was “non essential” and made him redundant.

People still need to earn a living no matter how many people are dying.

Agreed, but surely as a one off and to bring things undercontrol and let the vaccinations ramp up people can all pull together for a couple of weeks.

O gt my population is different but by the end of next week I won't have had a penny of income for three weeks and will be further in debt.

The community have pulled together. Loads of people have been hit financially but people out of their house are very few and its worked.

A hard properly enforced lockdown for a couple of weeks would make a massive difference but needs everyone on board and people prepared to make sacrifices.

Therefore will never happen and things will drag on for months if not longer

But there are a lot of people who could be working from who aren’t.

But what is this based on? I've been told on similar threads that I should be able to do my job from home but I can't. People's opinions are often based on perceptions.

@lovelemoncurd

I hope your husband doesn’t have that attitude. A child with SEN in pupil referral unit needs teachers who will champion them not judge their parents.

A hard properly enforced lockdown for a couple of weeks would make a massive difference but needs everyone on board and people prepared to make sacrifices.

What is a hard enforced lockdown? I presume people still need food, heating, clean water. Look at the flooding in parts of the country, they need help.

Your thread is based on a misapprehension OP. The currently lockdown is visibly working - case numbers are coming down markedly week on week.

No doubt it would come down quicker if the Treasury shelled out the enormous sums necessary to put all non-essential workers who can’t wfh on furlough. It would also come down quicker if certain managers allowed their employees to wfh rather than insisting on office presence. But it’s not pointless and hopeless in its current form.

The case figures are dropping and hospital admission rate of growth slowing, indicating they will drop soon, followed by deaths. So it is 'working'. Tim Spector also said his Zoe data suggests rate of fall in cases is roughly same as in Lockdown 1, with the caveat that their data collection wasn't as robust then.

The bigger problem in my view is this isn't sustainable and how will we know if lockdown or vaccines are driving the fall?

@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 😡

I have a child who’s sen who’s in school part time . I can assure that it’s not that I don’t want him at home at all . The staff at my sons school do a amazing job and I can’t believe that any of them would have a opinion like you . I really hope it’s not your husband who thinks like this and if so he should absolutely re think his profession. As parents of sen children know it’s difficult enough to make others understand how hard it is bringing up these children what hope do we have if the staff are as ignorant.

Isn't this exactly what Witty said to expect though? That cases have come down but unfortunately we wouldn't see that occuring with deaths and hospital admissions for a little while afterwards whilst the downward trend filters through?

It doesn't mean lockdown isn't working. It is. Cases are falling. They are still high yes, but in the majority of councils across the country now, they are falling and more and more are joining that every day!

But we won't see that with deaths and hospital admissions, which they told us, until it works its way through because unfortunately there is a delay between catching and potentially being hospitalised and dying.

The definition of "key worker" needs to be crystal clear.
Employers need to stop being draconian and treat employees like adults.
People need to wear masks properly (lots of chin covering and little nose covering)
People who are struggling financially need support.
People who are struggling to home school need support.
Schools need funding for staff PPE and to allow safe distancing (as in sites need more classrooms/outdoor teaching spaces).
All contributory factors.

We’re seeing people’s true colours now, for sure.

This is one of the saddest things about the pandemic for me. So much judgement & such little empathy. I don't have a support bubble but can understand why someone needs one. I understand why a child might be better off in school. I can't be furloughed but think it was a good thing & don't understand why they are the new scroungers. I can understand why someone would go to work despite being told to self isolate.

What is a hard enforced lockdown? I presume people still need food, heating, clean water. Look at the flooding in parts of the country, they need help.

This has been brought home to me forcefully in that we have had flooding due to a burst pipe next door.

About 5 people have been in my house thus far to sort it out, but what’s the alternative? My small children living in a house with water gushing through their room?

The problem is, we are paying for the inaction and dithering of December and the decision to place London into tier 2.

This 100%.

Where I live we've been under additional restrictions since July and our cases are significantly below the national average and were a lower than london and other areas who were placed in Tier 2.
They should have never allowed London and Liverpool to be put into tier 2.