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Covid

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

532 replies

TwirpingBird · 21/01/2021 06:56

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.

OP posts:
TwirpingBird · 21/01/2021 08:53

@thebestnamehere no unfortunately I have family abroad and just my DH. All my friends have bubbled with their family (understandably). Support isn't a luxury available to me.

OP posts:
gongsr · 21/01/2021 08:53

TheKeatingFive apparently so, or you should have dealt it with yourself. 🙄

gongsr · 21/01/2021 08:54

sorry for the shit situation

PortChee · 21/01/2021 08:55

@TheKeatingFive

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?

Oh I'm absolutely sure some people here would expect you to live with it yes 🙄 or whip out your toolbox yourself and sort it.
RedMarauder · 21/01/2021 08:55

OP @Ragwort what they don't want is people mixing socially and going out when it isn't needed in crowded places.

So they don't want us protesting, sitting on the buses for a few hours because we are bored of staying at home, going to a crowded supermarket for one item when you could get it from an empty smaller shop, etc.

They want us to do the minimum to keep society ticking over. This minimum is more than what they decided in the first lockdown.

gongsr · 21/01/2021 08:56

& also judge you for complaining about it because you know the War 🤦🏼‍♀️

TheKeatingFive · 21/01/2021 08:56

Oh I'm absolutely sure some people here would expect you to live with it yes

I’m immensely grateful they aren’t in charge!

x2boys · 21/01/2021 08:56

Lots of children with SEN are NOT IN SCHOOL ,I'm sick of reading vulnerable children with an EHCP are in school many SEN school,s are closed as they were in the first lockdown ,my son has severe autism and severe learning disabilities he goes to a special school for children with Complex learning disabilities it's not open .

Livelovebehappy · 21/01/2021 08:56

Infections are falling, but the reality is that we are never going to have zero infections, even with vaccinations, but the aim is to get down the figures of those who have to be hospitalised/get seriously ill with it. People die with normal flu, every winter, but it’s just something we have to live with. Same with Covid. I’m hopeful that once the elderly have been vaccinated alongside the clinically vulnerable, we can start getting everything back to normal. The majority of people still waiting for vaccines will mostly be safe from being seriously affected, although obviously there’s still going to cases where younger, healthy people may die from it.

PortChee · 21/01/2021 08:57

What do people mean when they say a 'hard enforced lockdown' what do you actually want to happen? Army on the streets? Doors boarded shut?

No one ever actually explains what they mean by it? Fine to suggest but how do you imagine it would be enforced practically?

gongsr · 21/01/2021 08:58

I've been waiting for months for that answer also perplexed by the "be more like China" cries

MadameBlobby · 21/01/2021 08:58

Also what is “essential”? My cooker has broken. I don’t really want anyone else in my house but I need to get it replaced so I can feed my family properly and I can’t do it myself

My mum is disabled and my dad has cancer so they can’t clean their home so need someone to come in and do it

tappitytaptap · 21/01/2021 08:58

People at my work are allowed to work from home and encouraged to do so. There are a few who say they have ‘critical’ reasons to be in which are mostly they don’t like working at home for whatever reason. It’s not all employers......

Teateaandmoretea · 21/01/2021 08:58

I don't understand why non essential work in people's houses is more important than children getting an education.

I won't watch the news, I just end up shouting at the telly. People hysterically screaming 'Stay home' oh get knotted, seriously. You try WFH for a year - a weekly trip to the supermarket is the highlight of my life.

CantBeAssed · 21/01/2021 08:59

I agree op, whilst im not a big fan of lockdown, if they have to be done they should be done right instead of the half assed effort made by some. I totally agree with sen pupils and key worker children should be able to attend school but question mark is over who is classed as "key worker". Too many workers are being put in this category when they are not and its hard to watch when the rest of us are doing what we can and making the sacrifices...it needs addressed or we will just keep going round in circles..

Teateaandmoretea · 21/01/2021 09:00

@PortChee totally and how long would this prison be for exactly? Like it or not Covid is an endemic virus that may well shorten all of our lives, not just those who are currently deemed 'vulnerable'.

Teateaandmoretea · 21/01/2021 09:01

@CantBeAssed we'll go round in circles until we accept the reality that Covid is going nowhere and hospitals will have to deal with patients long term as part of BAU.

PortChee · 21/01/2021 09:03

I feel like some people were expecting to wake up the day after lockdown was announced to there only being 2 new cases and 0 deaths.

Zippy1510 · 21/01/2021 09:03

Its because cases are falling indicating lockdown is working. The high death rates are due to the high numbers within the past few weeks- there is a lag from infection to death. So hopefully in the next few weeks the death rates will decline following the infection rate pattern. If they don't then I think we may be in for tougher measures.

PinkSparklyPussyCat · 21/01/2021 09:04

@MadameBlobby

Also what is “essential”? My cooker has broken. I don’t really want anyone else in my house but I need to get it replaced so I can feed my family properly and I can’t do it myself

My mum is disabled and my dad has cancer so they can’t clean their home so need someone to come in and do it

This is the problem, it’s impossible to define essential as what’s essential for one person is unnecessary for another.

I’ve got a surveyor coming in today as we’re extending the lease on our flat. If we wait it’ll end up costing us thousands in increased fees so essential to us that it’s done now (and him to earn money)

TheKeatingFive · 21/01/2021 09:06

I feel like some people were expecting to wake up the day after lockdown was announced to there only being 2 new cases and 0 deaths.

Exactly. Numbers are reducing. It takes time. The urge to panic and demand ‘tougher’ (totally unworkable) measures needs to be resisted.

User133847 · 21/01/2021 09:06

@SueEllenMishke

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.

The worst hit areas now are the ones left in tier 2 in December.

Tier 3 or 4 keeps it from getting out of hand, but once it's left to get out control then it's too late.

Draconian lockdowns aren't necessary, just put the controls in when cases surge. The government failed to do that in December and we are where we are as a result.

poorbuthappy · 21/01/2021 09:07

Ah I love it when the quit your job force come out.
Quit your job - find another job -
i assume these people are lucky enough to be sat on a pot of cash somewhere which will pay their bills and feed their family for a year.

If your employers tell you to go to work you have to go to work. Otherwise you will lose your job and there's people queuing up to replace you.
What don't people get about this?

lightand · 21/01/2021 09:07

@Teateaandmoretea
Totally agree. There will be some people who will never accept though.

Sparklingbrook · 21/01/2021 09:08

I think there's a weird attitude toward retail staff. Nobody seems overly bothered about them. People need food and other 'essentials' so they don't seem to mind that thousands of retail workers are putting themselves out there every day so that can happen.

I rang my parents yesterday and they had had to call the plumber out, I can't go and see them but the plumber (who goes in and out of houses all day) can.

It's all a bit strange.