Friend saying she’s ignoring lock down from the end of the month.

[Covidcovid]

She’s always being very anti lockdown, citing mental health issues, etc and has just said from next week that’s it. She will do what she wants and take any fines.

I assume she just means visiting family because it’s not like she can go out for lunch or shopping. 🤷‍♀️

But I don’t understand her, she’s an intelligent person and an ex nurse. Her mum is currently very unwell in hospital with covid but she posted the other day that her mum has turned a corner and should hopefully be home soon. So surely she should see if it wasn’t for lockdown then there’s a risk people like her mum may not have got the treatment they needed because the hospitals would have likely being overwhelmed?

If it was me I’d be thankful there had been a lockdown because it wouldn’t have taken much more the way things were going for hospitals to not be able to,offer the current level of care......and in ICU even that isn’t optimal care with stretched ratios.

I don’t think she will be the last
People have had enough

She won’t be the only one I imagine. Some people are bored, some are at the end of their tethers, some have a poor understanding of risk. I can understand the “Fuck it, if I die I die” approach, I can see how people get there.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m angry and worried about lock down consequences. I just don’t see any alternative. At some point the govt are going to have to answer as to why they underfunded the nhs to such an extent it couldn’t cope. Especially when they’ve been warned for ages that there’s always the possibility of a big pandemic. They did nothing to prep for it and hoped it wouldn’t happen.

I keep thinking fuck in... but then wimp out!!

It’s gone on for sooooo long now it’s so hard to keep going.

I did break a rule last week and went round the side gate into my mums garden and sat 3m
Away and had a cuppa- which I took myself in a flask. So sad that was illegal.b

FFS I couldn’t be friends with her after that. As a nurse she should know better.

Everyone has their breaking point , many will follow . Mostly these are not evil people, they are just human beings that have had enough of being isolated.

I have found a big divide between people that are happy with lockdown , that live with their family and probably their normal lives tended to revolve around that anyway, and single people living alone that got all their social interactions from activities outside the home .

I never started following the rules, makes it easier when they reach the point of it being illegal to hug your mum.

Meh, let her. Shell join the herd soon enough.

@Dontforgetyourbrolly

Everyone has their breaking point , many will follow . Mostly these are not evil people, they are just human beings that have had enough of being isolated. I have found a big divide between people that are happy with lockdown , that live with their family and probably their normal lives tended to revolve around that anyway, and single people living alone that got all their social interactions from activities outside the home .

Yes this.

People are at breaking point.

Lockdown has ruined many people mentally, physically and financially. No end is in sight.

I have every sympathy with those at the end of their tether. I'm not far off tbh. Berating is and minimising the struggle just makes people feel more forgotten, less understood, and less inclined to continue to ruin their lives for the sake of all this.

Well if her DM has just had covid, I can see the logic in visiting her as she's unlikely to catch it again.
As for the rest - well she's kind of dependent on other people agreeing with her plans. I'm thinking come Easter I'll be done and definitely visiting DPs as they'll have had second jab of vaccine over a month earlier. For friends I see them outside separately as allowed anyway, and weather will be warmer in a couple of months so that's fine. Unless she knows lots of similar thinking people there's not a lot she can actually do.

I imagine lots more will do this and just factor in the cost of fines if by the slim chance they happen to get one, obviously not large breaches like parties and stuff like that but small family visits, not staying local for walks, that sort of stuff

Well her elderly dad lives with her elderly mum and he doesn’t seem to have caught it yet.

I have found that the people who’ve had relatives or friends who’ve had Covid and recovered are actually the worst for this. Which is ironic as like you say if there wasn’t the NHS capacity to treat those people they would have died. But unfortunately people seem to take them recovering as a sign that everyone is over reacting. It’s so selfish.

Can you try and encourage her towards lower risk things, like doing stuff outdoors where possible and keeping to as few people as possible?

I've seen quite alot of people saying March 1st is their limit. People who have been super strict about it so far too who are the first to shoot down anyone suggesting breaking a rule.
It seems people have truly had enough.

Of course she should, logically, be grateful for her mum's treatment and want to protect her dad, but people's emotional reactions aren't logical - I can imagine when her mum was very ill she realised how much time with her she'd missed over the last year. As people have said, there isn't actually much she can do (nothing unless others agree) anyway.

Oh dear. Don't people like your friend realise the whole bloody country feel this exact way, it's not like we actively enjoy sitting in our houses and not seeing loved ones. Why does she and others like her feel they're untitled to break the rules whilst the rest of us stay at home? If we all broke the rules the nhs would just collapse. People like this just annoy me and I think I'd struggle to stay friends with sometime with that level of selfishness tbh. And quoting mental health, doesn't she think that by now most of the population are struggling in the exact same way? She's not that special now is she 😏

I doubt the NHS will collapse if people travel 50 miles to go to a deserted National Trust place rather than walk the busy road near their house

Everyone has a breaking point. I’m far to rule abiding to do this yet but I’m sure the time will come when I do the same, especially since my children are suffering now and need MORE social contact than me.

@Hoiking

I never started following the rules, makes it easier when they reach the point of it being illegal to hug your mum.

Exactly that.

Also the NHS collapsing is bollocks to me. If it does become overwhelmed whose fault is that really? The government. They’ve been cutting services to the bone for years and now it’s on the brink of collapse because of that. So I can’t blame individuals who are reaching the end of their tether.

At some point the govt are going to have to answer as to why they underfunded the nhs to such an extent it couldn’t cope

They probably won't. Because countries we hold up as models of considerably better services, such as Germany, are also close to it at the edge of being overwhelmed (see speeches by Merkel in recent weeks). Ditto so many other European countries.

The state of your flood defences isn't ever going to be the key question when you're hit by a tsunami

What I think is the key question is how NHS returns to normal business, and deals with backlogs (which the public will clamour for, and rightly expect the swiftest possible progress on) when so many staff are utterly exhausted, basically spent and in need of recuperation themselves.

I've been really strict on following lockdown rules but after another stint in isolation where my son's test results have been lost (again) I'm getting really fucked off with it.

I'm doing my bit and trying really hard but it's hard to want to keep doing it when a year in the testing system is a fucking joke and the government have only just shut the borders. They're taking the piss and we're all suffering as a result.

I look at NZ and want to cry. They're having festivals and I still can't see my mum.

Not sure how much longer we'll all be able to take this.

Please excuse any typos or grammar fails from me today, I am hanging on to my sanity by my fingernails at the moment and am very rambling, sorry.

@DigitalGhost

I've seen quite alot of people saying March 1st is their limit. People who have been super strict about it so far too who are the first to shoot down anyone suggesting breaking a rule. It seems people have truly had enough.

Me too. I see people feeling this way. I do understand.

My own thoughts and feelings are beginning to shift too. My dad is lonely and has said he would prefer to die in his sleep than continue like this. My teenage son has become withdrawn, feels sad all the time, and it's tearing me apart.

I have had to continue working so I can't offer them the support that I need to, takings are down so I have lost all my savings and am struggling financially, I've slipped through the net of every available financial support scheme despite paying high level tax for over 30 years. I'm frightened of catching Covid whilst doing my job.

It's very hard, and we are lucky compared to many.