How long will people agree to make these sacrifices for?

[DappledOliveGroves]

Inspired by another thread here.

Let's assume the vaccines don't do what they should - either because the virus mutates so rapidly or because our government can't manage to adhere to Pfizer's protocol and a lone dose does nothing to protect people.

Then what?

For all those champing at the bit for curfews, harsher lockdowns, further restrictions on civil liberties - I'm genuinely curious - how long are you willing to maintain this status quo?

Would you be happy to still be in this lockdown in a year? Two years? Five years? Even if the lockdowns are eased and clamped down again, would you be willing to accept rolling lockdowns as a fact of life with no end in sight? At what point would those wanting tougher restrictions decide they can't live like this anymore?

I will follow the rules the best I can as long as I'm advised to but the reality is that if the hospitality sector doesn't open up soon our county is fucked.

Ah, back to selfish I see.

Then there will be no point in hammering the economy will there? If people are mixing households as we know that’s where most spread is.

The government and all their behavioural scientists know full well most people have lockdown fatigue. And that is why this won’t continue until May/June despite what some probe want.

People

@Bluegrass She is actually, a really lovely lady. Super dedicated doctor, working long hours on a Covid ward while the rest of us sit at home ordering stuff from Amazon. Her life experience just means she happens to have a different perspective on Covid from you.

I’m so sorry about all the people that are desperately ill and don’t think that it’s nothing, doesn’t mean I would put up with Lockdown for several more years, I’d rather take my chances as I’d end up dead either way if not. At the moment we need to sit tight but it really isn’t about not getting to go to fucking soft play, how patronising.

If this actually went on for five years, repeated new mutations, ineffective vaccines? It’s likely that eventually one of the mutations would start to kill children. I think people’s reactions would be entirely different then. But after five years, we’d probably be looking at some degree of breakdown of civil society anyway, rather than whether individuals go to their sister’s for tea.

I've been touched by this pandemic and lost loved ones. They were elderly but it still hurts.
Boris's words back in March ' many will lose loved ones before their time' haunt me occasionally. Someone I know her partner is only 48 with covid and no underlying health concerns and it looks like he won't make it , sadly.
I understand the sacrifices made and I'm as fed up by the restrictions as everyone else is , but you can't help but feel for the front line workers and those that have lost relatives to this awful virus. We have been trying to protect the NHS and I feel it's worked , up to point, although I'm sure many trusts and employees may feel differently. It would have been so much very much worse without any restrictions at all and that's what keeps me going.
I feel for everyone just now and it is frustrating but there is a vaccine available now and things will look up in time I'm sure. You have to try and remain positive. I know it's really really hard.

@QuantumQuality

If this actually went on for five years, repeated new mutations, ineffective vaccines? It’s likely that eventually one of the mutations would start to kill children. I think people’s reactions would be entirely different then. But after five years, we’d probably be looking at some degree of breakdown of civil society anyway, rather than whether individuals go to their sister’s for tea.

Is a mutation killing children likely?

As I understood it mutations tend to be better at spreading themselves around but less lethal because killing your host isn’t a great survival strategy.

However, I agree, people will tend to only take something seriously if they can see how it affects them directly.

My limit is March. I’ll be back to work then. I’ve stuck to everything, my whole mat leave has been in this, hardly anyone has met my baby. I don’t care about going to a pub, don’t care if schools are open or closed, don’t care about going shopping. But I do care about seeing my family and I don’t think it’s morally right that it’s illegal to see close family in your own house. So we are seeing them in March, we have dates planned in and don’t care if we are still in lockdown. I’ve sacrificed too much already and not prepared to do much more.

I just sit here, day after day, with my jaw on the floor, that people are willing to have such a fundamental right - to spend time with others - taken away from them, with no exit plan

Me too. I also now understand how totalitarian regimes come into being.

It has affected me directly and I still won’t put up with it for years, this isn’t living.

If this was going to go on indefinitely and for a period of years, ie none of the things that I usually look forward to like socialising, gym, restaurants, running races, festivals, theatre (etc etc) we would just change our life entirely, go and live somewhere remote where those things wouldn't have been on offer anyway. Very much hope that won't be the case though. I don't think it can be because the government can't fund restrictions indefinitely. If the vaccine didn't work to control it and prevent hospitalisations overwhelming the NHS (which it should do) then the policy might have to be a long term expansion of healthcare capacity - tbh we need this policy anyway, the system needs to run with some slack rather than constantly pushed to the brink every winter even with regular seasonal flu.

To be honest I'm only prepared to do this until the summer. That's why I'd support tougher measures if needed, so we can actually get back to having a life. My brother is having his first baby in the summer and I am not going to miss out on anything else.

I am not that scared of Covid myself personally, although I am at slightly higher risk of complications due to underlying conditions. But overall I would probably be willing to take my chances.

The problem is that if we all take this approach then hospitals will very quickly become overwhelmed, and that is what scares me more to be honest. I am pregnant and scheduled to have a planned section, I cannot deliver naturally and would be at risk of heart failure and other complications. Imagine if I went for my C-section and there was no space in the hospital and they had to turn me away? Told that i'd have to go and give birth at home alone because there's no doctors and no beds and they can't help me? Same if you were in a car accident etc.

If people actually did start rebelling en masse then this would be the situation fairly quickly. We would basically have no health system left to speak of. That is what motivates me more, protecting the NHS capacity.

@QuantumQuality

If this actually went on for five years, repeated new mutations, ineffective vaccines? It’s likely that eventually one of the mutations would start to kill children. I think people’s reactions would be entirely different then. But after five years, we’d probably be looking at some degree of breakdown of civil society anyway, rather than whether individuals go to their sister’s for tea.

That seems unlikely🤔 as I understand it the virus enters cells via the ace2 receptor, younger people have fewer of these and and in fewer of their organs as compared to older people

People taking about "massive riots" are keyboard warriors. What they will generally do is moan a bit more on MN and social media.

This is quite correct at the moment. But the question was how long this will last for; my answer is until this changes. Democracies only function by consent. At that level, it’s a purely practical question: the rights a d wrongs of it don’t come into it. The government was surprised by the level of compliance initially. My surmise is that that compliance is unlikely to continue indefinitely. I think the young people (most to lose and least to gain by the restrictions) will be the first to refuse to comply in large numbers and that this will be the tipping point.

I wish I could say that I'm suprised by the idiocy of people on this thread.

One sentence you're saying how sorry you feel for the NHS, how you know NHS staff who have PTSD, have quit or have become seriously ill. And the next you're saying you'd join in a massive riot which would spread the virus further and put even more strain on the NHS.

Maybe it's best that you all go and riot in a big field somewhere, and when you all catch it, you can deal with it yourselves.

No, I will not be willing to live like this for 5 years. NO fcking way.

I would join an anti lockdown group and protest if this happened.
My children have already missed a year of proper education. I'm not willing to sacrifice their entire future indefinitely. Not doing it.

@Rockettrain

I am not that scared of Covid myself personally, although I am at slightly higher risk of complications due to underlying conditions. But overall I would probably be willing to take my chances.

The problem is that if we all take this approach then hospitals will very quickly become overwhelmed, and that is what scares me more to be honest. I am pregnant and scheduled to have a planned section, I cannot deliver naturally and would be at risk of heart failure and other complications. Imagine if I went for my C-section and there was no space in the hospital and they had to turn me away? Told that i'd have to go and give birth at home alone because there's no doctors and no beds and they can't help me? Same if you were in a car accident etc.

If people actually did start rebelling en masse then this would be the situation fairly quickly. We would basically have no health system left to speak of. That is what motivates me more, protecting the NHS capacity.

Just to put your mind at rest, I had a baby in April at the peak of the first wave. It was made very clear to me that maternity provision was ring fenced. Resources are not taken from maternity to support Covid.

@CarolEffingBaskin

I'd rather curl up in a ball and expire than do this until Easter. My life has been utterly destroyed. DH lost his job, children with severe ASD had every tiny piece of support ripped away. I, who had very little 'for me' before now have absolutely nothing. Not even 5 minutes alone.

I'm beginning to think I'd like to go into the local covid ward to rub myself on them so I can die.

FAO @sadpapercourtesan. This is what you need to think about before coming out with offensive crap about lockdown being about soft play and coffee shops. I would never speak about your father as being “on his last legs”, that’s incredibly twatty. But so is minimising and dismissing the horrific impact lockdown has, particularly on the socio-economically vulnerable.

@CarolEffingBaskin I’m so sorry for your situation, it sounds unimaginably tough

I think very few people are saying they would riot as there would be little point to that. But seeing relatives I've scarcely seen for a year, yes once numbers go down I'll be doing that and letting my teenage son see his friends- yes again.

It's not up to you though is it Alexis my children have also missed a year of school as have the majority of kids I want them back in school more than anything but joining ant lockdown groups won't achieve that will it ?

@rookiemere

I think very few people are saying they would riot as there would be little point to that. But seeing relatives I've scarcely seen for a year, yes once numbers go down I'll be doing that and letting my teenage son see his friends- yes again.

Exactly. There’s a long term question by op and surely even the wtf are you saying posters wouldn’t do this for five years?

There won’t be riots now but mixing will start in summer. I just hope government opens what we need before this happens.

*I'm so sorry to read this. I wish there was something I could say or do that would help you. You sound broken sad

I'm in Lancashire - i'd happily meet you for a walk. Are you anywhere near me?*

I couldn't be further away if I tried, but I appreciate the thought, thank you. Yes, I am broken. But, I don't matter, because I don't have Covid. So ?