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.

SO sick about hearing that younger people are fed up about not seeing friends. How many elderly people haven't even gone out since March? How many haven't even been able to even see relatives, never mind hug them. so all you youngsters get a grip & stop moaning, families were separated for YEARS during wars. To the rest of you, who say, F*k the Lockdown or don't even believe in this virus, I just hope you or your loved don't get it. It's due to Morons like you that we're not getting out of this mess- not the governments!!!

The trouble is that these days people don't know how to keep themselves occupied. I've filled the time reading all the books I didn't have time to read when I was at work, taken up studying learning Italian as I love going to Italy, and writing for my own amusement and letters to other people. I've knitted a few jumpers and next week I'm going to give sewing a go - a dress stitched by hand. Make the most of your 'me-time', I know it's hard sometimes but things could be worse.

After finding out my teenage daughter has been self harming due to lockdown. I have broken the rules once and allowed us to meet with another family in their house for dinner. We are repeating the offence again indefinitely. Neither of our families are seeing anyone else. My daughter’s self harming is a bigger threat to our family than COVID is and from this point on I will be breaking the law. I’m not proud of it but as a mum I’ve made the choice.

I think it’s likely to be her verbalising her frustration at the lockdown. We all say things we don’t mean. Sometimes it just feels good to rant!

Yes, look at New Zealand and I too want to cry. Yes, that have a smaller well spread out population but their cities are heavily populated. Their lockdown was strict, they acted promptly and decisively, and the population followed the rules. They now reap the benefits of doing that. I can understand how for some people it is becoming unbearable, many have a heartbreaking back story. Some people are fine, not on their own, with their families, working from home, saving money. It is definately a disease which hits lower income and deprived areas hardest.
I can well imagine that some people will massage the rules a little, using their judgement as to the risks etc. Every interaction is a potential infection though, so for that reason, I am trying not to interact with anyone outside the house, even shopping, I keep conversation to a minimum. However, I ache to see my children again, I long to hug them and hold them. But nobody is safe until everyone is safe. I am banking on mid summer being the time when we can at least have a massive hug fest. So, for that to happen, I shall meanwhile be very strict in all contacts with other people, one out of three have it without knowing. That might be me, so am also going to do fortnightly testing. We have to stamp it out completely otherwise for the rest of eternity we will be having peaks and troughs of high levels of infections. Hopefully though, most of us will be immunised, and hopefully no one will die from Covid.
Summer this year will be the best yet. The best IS yet to come.

@Silp

SO sick about hearing that younger people are fed up about not seeing friends. How many elderly people haven't even gone out since March? How many haven't even been able to even see relatives, never mind hug them. so all you youngsters get a grip & stop moaning, families were separated for YEARS during wars. To the rest of you, who say, F*k the Lockdown or don't even believe in this virus, I just hope you or your loved don't get it. It's due to Morons like you that we're not getting out of this mess- not the governments!!!

Has anyone on this thread said the virus isn't real? Or have they, rather, argued their various opinions on aspects of the lockdown/government measures that they think have been poorly executed or are unnecessary?

I see a lot of people discussing this in a civil manner, sharing facts and statistic. Then I see people like you hurling insults. Why are those who are skeptical of certain aspects of the way the pandemic has been handled able to discuss things in a polite manner, and then others are seemingly incapable of this?

Wipe the froth from your mouth and calm down for goodness sake.

@Heatheroo

The trouble is that these days people don't know how to keep themselves occupied. I've filled the time reading all the books I didn't have time to read when I was at work, taken up studying learning Italian as I love going to Italy, and writing for my own amusement and letters to other people. I've knitted a few jumpers and next week I'm going to give sewing a go - a dress stitched by hand. Make the most of your 'me-time', I know it's hard sometimes but things could be worse.

Hahahhaha. You don't have young kids, do you?

@Muncher75

After finding out my teenage daughter has been self harming due to lockdown. I have broken the rules once and allowed us to meet with another family in their house for dinner. We are repeating the offence again indefinitely. Neither of our families are seeing anyone else. My daughter’s self harming is a bigger threat to our family than COVID is and from this point on I will be breaking the law. I’m not proud of it but as a mum I’ve made the choice.

You should be proud of yourself. You're responding to a complex situation with a reasoned and balanced response. Nothing is black and white. In this situation your daughter's safety and well-being trump some lockdown rules.

@Ineke the vast majority of Brits absolutely followed the rules first time round. Apparently government was surprised by level of compliance. Shutting the airports at the same time might have got the numbers down quicker mind, or at least forcing those who arrived to do proper quarantine.
Not sure the NZ population is any more compliant than we are, had they been faced with almost a year of this now with mixed messaging and obvious loopholes - instagram influencers in Dubai for example - would they still be obeying all the rules ?

@Muncher75

After finding out my teenage daughter has been self harming due to lockdown. I have broken the rules once and allowed us to meet with another family in their house for dinner. We are repeating the offence again indefinitely. Neither of our families are seeing anyone else. My daughter’s self harming is a bigger threat to our family than COVID is and from this point on I will be breaking the law. I’m not proud of it but as a mum I’ve made the choice.

That is absolutely the right choice

@Backbee

Maybe I'm a 'sheep' for believing. Maybe I'm stupid for believing my friends and family who work on the frontlines in the hospitals - the whole world is conspiring in a fake illness

So people cannot be against the way that the advertisements are weaponising people, without being non believers?

Precisely. This is the kind of simplistic thinking that gets us nowhere. I console myself that in real life, most people I talk to are centrists and understand the nuances in these kinds of situations.

TBH, my first reaction on reading the title was good for her!
I am reaching end of my tether too, missing friends and family, desperate to go out and do anything, My DD17 asked last weekend if she could come to asda with me as she hadnt been out since early December due to tier 4/self isolate/lockdown. It made me stop and think, how did we get to this?!
People will say shop alone and dont bring her with you but frankly I dont care because after over a month of just walking down the road with the dog she needed top get out even if it was just asda.
2 of our family of 6 had covid over xmas, thankfully not badly. The other 4 didnt get it at xmas even though we were living together, and in the case of me and DH even sharing a bed!
3 of us possibly had in it March/April as we had symptoms at that time but there was no testing so we cant be sure.
Both times it was teenager DC who had symptoms first and probably caught it from school/college or public transport but it seems strange to catch it like that but then living in close quarters in the same house doesn't mean you will all inevitably get it as each time it only struck some of us down.
The news tells you all the truly terrible worse case scenarios , which frightens people , when in reality most people have mild to moderate symptoms and fully recover or are asymptomatic

She's a twat. End of.

Your friend is of course daft, there's not much she can do anyone as everything is shut.

But this is going to be a growing issue country wide because yet again it's all been totally mishandled.

There is no end date, not even one where Boris says it's open to extension.
There is so much conflicting reports from Valance and Whitty, then Imperial college London, Cambridge and others of how deadly the new strains are or are not. Hancock is full of shit and about as believable as a slice of cake right now with the same amount of intelligence. The R rate given by government is often made up using 2 week old data, so whereas the government says it's at 1, some more up to date figures are saying a lot lower.
The msm is being utterly useless by ramping up the constant scare stories and new data and new evidence to sell my papers and get more hits.
The Vaccine roll out although doing well has already gone wonky because despite Pfizer saying the second doses should be no longer than 6 weeks, the government knows there is a shortfall so are extending that to vaccinate more People with the first dose, whilst old people are being sent back to care homes again thinking they can stop masks and social distancing but that's not the case.

Young people seem to be more susceptible to the new strains, yet for most of this they've been told it's not to protect them all the measures but to protect the elderly. To them, and many others, this is not a life anymore, it's an existence. My DD is very depressed. I can't sleep anymore. I'm worried about money, my business is finished. Our savings are done.

And it does not help when the media shows off New Zealand are back to normal (except they fail to mention their utterly screwed economy) and Wuhan having parties which just makes people bloody angry.

We need a clear, concise, exit strategy.
But today, it's been released that councils have been given powers to extend until July now. That's not going to help matters.

What annoys me is the Weddings task force set up by government told Guides for Brides that weddings from Easter will be fine with no restriction from May. Lots of brides to be like myself allowed ourselves a bit of hope. Yet since then it seems we were all lied to.

Personally I think this year could easily be a write off because Boris is a twat. He doesn't learn from previous cock ups, he makes them all over again.

It's a very dark time for many people, and I can't help but think empathy and compassion for each other is the only way forward. Not judgement.

I think that although some people have been more public spirited than others (volunteers at COVID vaccination degrees spring to mind), there are others who simply haven't been able.

I understand NHS workers who feel angry. I also understand everyone who feels angry. This is largely outside all of our control - it's a virus.

I know that there are some prima facie examples where the government has handled it badly, eg Cummings, the PPE procurement scandal. But they've also got some stuff right - a rapidly scaled up vaccination programme, financial support packages like furlough.

I think half the reason we're so badly affected is that were a densely populated cold country, with some of the smallest living spaces in the world, combined with a very individualistic culture. We can't see it from outside that bubble.

I'm past judging anyone, we've all hit the wall. Those of us that can carry on, will. Those that can't, I have no resentment against. Many people are still out there working in public spaces, exposed to massive risk. Good on them for that.

I generally don't agree with people breaking rules and putting others at risk.

However it occurred to me the other day that as my mum is in remission from cancer, we are effectively on borrowed time with her and have already spent a year not hugging her /being close for her own protection. Once she has had the vaccine I will be inclined to break the rules and see her as normal because I don't want to lose any more precious time as we don't know how much time we have left with her and I'd hate to look back and realise we spent her last two years not seeing her/hugging her. A lot of people must feel the same.

I heard a very good analogy on a talk from John Campbell. Imagine all these strategies are slices of Swiss holey cheese, each measure, social distancing, mask wearing, washing hands, ventilation, isolation, track and trace, quarantine, testing. One slice is still full of holes, layer them up and eventually all the holes disappear. Every little action we can do does help prevent the spread of this virus.

[quote namechangeforthis24]@Paapa of course I understand that there is a huge recession/depression to deal with alongside the pandemic, but society is not going to collapse. I m old(ish) and have lived through recessions and like pandemics, they always end. Admittedly I know this one will be the worst of my lifetime, but hyperbole helps no-one.[/quote]
Which pandemic have you lived through? Because I’m getting on for 70 and this is the first one I’ve seen.

@Paapa

Japan's hospitals are in danger of becoming overwhelmed Remember how everyone said that the reason they'd not been hit as badly was due to their unselfish cultural norm of wearing masks?

Remember how Germany's track and trace program was praised to the hilt , and their success was credited to it?
Look at them now! They've gone into a 'mega lockdown' and are building camps for enforced isolation of those 'selfish' flouters!
Absolutely nothing about that is a bad idea, huh!?
Germany have at least realised that cloth masks are fucking useless, and so have banned them.
But, they're simply insisting on N95s and FFFPs masks instead!
Again, a plan with zero conceivable drawbacks !

If the masks aren't working, but it's immoral to not wear masks... the only possible answer is to - MASK HARDER YOU SELFISH ARSEHOLES!!

Oh look - New Zealand's quarantine procedure has failed yet again. Every three months or so that this happens, is it? And that's with only allowing returning Kiwis home.
But, never mind that it's obviously not a sustainable long term strategy. Ardern sure has her morals in the right place, and that's all that matters, right!?

Look at what The Japansese PM's advisors have told him.
'... advisers have warned the measures, which include asking bars and restaurants to close early and people to avoid non-essential outings, are unlikely to have much effect.'

Johan Giesecke, one of the architects of the Swedish response, said that the results will eventually be similar for all countries.

Lots of people knew this.
But, we have politicians governed by popular opinion, and 67 million Stacy-from-HRs screeched that to not try was immoral and heartless and wrong and cruel so something MUST be done, even if The Thing That Must Be Done was a billion times crueller, and could never possibly work!

Lockdown made sense to Stacy from HR. Stacy from HR did not really consider the multiple catastrophic harms from the response, because it is not in Stacy from HR's nature to do so. She was scared about the virus, and naive to the negatives.

Stacy still just sees things in terms of emotion and morals. She cares about her Dad not dying so that makes her A Good Person. Lockdowns make sense to her so that makes pursuing them in the idea of saving Dad A Very Good Idea.
Anyone not thinking the same is therefore SELFISH.

Stacy, and the politicians who caved to her, has quite possibly brought about the destruction of our society.

Totally agree! Paapa thank you! There are a lot of Stacey’s who like to judge on here!

They may not have sacked her , and if they have just contact the Metro newspaper or The Sun , Mirror and give them the story all you will have to do is send them a photo of your daughter looking sad and they will publish and name and shame the company

Paapa Another of the conspiracy twats who doesn’t know that Swine flu was not a novel Coronavirus but a flu virus that many people already had immunity to as a result of exposure to previous flu viruses. It killed young people who didn’t. The whole reason that Covid is so infectious is that we don’t have existing immunity.

And yes I do think New Zealand’s strategy (and Taiwan’s, Hong Kong’s, South Korea’s, Thailand. Vietnam, Singapore etc etc etc ) will keep them safe until they have the vaccine.

You know, given a choice between taking the advice of some deranged sounding anti lockdown randomer with a bad google habit, no ability to recognise the difference between a large number and a small one. and a moral vacuum, and actual Scientists (there is one in the next room four years studying for a first class master’s degree in Nat Sci and five more years working as a research Scientist and since the beginning of March a volunteered in an effective testing initiative with Cancer Research U.K. and now delivering the vaccine) I think I’ll go with the latter. Good luck with your further ramblings.....

I think if people get caught flouting the rules they get pushed to the bottom of vaccination queue. That might make them think.

I don’t agree that it is just the young age group saying about breaking restrictions I have heard many over 70’s saying they intend to. It may not be right but after being locked down for nearly a year and not knowing how long they have left anyway they want to live while they can.

@Muncher75

After finding out my teenage daughter has been self harming due to lockdown. I have broken the rules once and allowed us to meet with another family in their house for dinner. We are repeating the offence again indefinitely. Neither of our families are seeing anyone else. My daughter’s self harming is a bigger threat to our family than COVID is and from this point on I will be breaking the law. I’m not proud of it but as a mum I’ve made the choice.

Good for you. I hope your daughters mental health improves