How are they going to back pedal the fear?

[Heatheronthehill]

They’ve upped it so much recently.
I understand what they’re doing and why they’re doing it,
But so many people are terrified to leave the house (currently working as they want it to) but what happens when they want to ease restrictions and bring some of the economy back?
I’m worried that they’ve ramped up the fear so much now that people don’t actually want restrictions to ease, don’t want to go back to their ‘real life’.

AIBU?

I have never bought into the scaremongering -and iit astonishes me how easily people have been manipulated.
So many are innumerate and easily terrified by scare stats bandied around ‘30% more dangerous!!!!’ and don’t grasp that 130% of fuck-all risk is still fuck-all.
Or that average for death is exactly the same as the average death for bon-Covid.
And also those who parrot ‘cognitive dissonance’ because they think it makes them sem knowledgeable when they clearly haven’t faintest idea what it means

MN is not real life. It's largely curtain twitchers and shopping washers. I've never been scared and I don't know anyone who has either

I am not sure that it’s fear keeping everyone in. Most of my friends are following the rules and support lockdown because of a sense of responsibility to get things manageable and to do their bit. I don’t feel anxious about catching Covid but do feel strongly that I want to know I did everything I could to avoid contributing to transmission.

@EmmanuelleMakro odfod

EmmanuelleMakro

It’s not about personal risk of death. It’s about the number of people getting seriously ill or dying at the same time and the risk of that on our healthcare system and the economy.

We might all need an ambulance at any point - a slip down the stairs, a lurking aneurysm you didn’t know about, etc - that is the genuinely scary part for me. That I might need emergency health care but the system is so swamped I don’t get it.

@Waxonwaxoff0

I don't have "the fear" and never have to be fair. For those of us who still have to leave the house to work not much has changed day to day.

^ this.

I'd happily go out now and lick every table in the nearest wetherspoons, but I haven't ever had the fear either.

We have proven how easy we are to manipulate so I think once they dial down the terror messaging and flip the other way, most people will go along with it.

@Fizzybottle

MN is not real life. It's largely curtain twitchers and shopping washers. I've never been scared and I don't know anyone who has either

Clearly not if you’d spent five mins on here. 😂

@Msmcc1212

EmmanuelleMakro

It’s not about personal risk of death. It’s about the number of people getting seriously ill or dying at the same time and the risk of that on our healthcare system and the economy.

We might all need an ambulance at any point - a slip down the stairs, a lurking aneurysm you didn’t know about, etc - that is the genuinely scary part for me. That I might need emergency health care but the system is so swamped I don’t get it.

Yes, this.

I don't know anyone scared. The only people I know being cautious are those that have good reason to be (old or underlying health probs). The rest of us "ultra lefties" are gagging to go out. Though understand that until the vulnerable are vaccinated the fall out isn't worth my desire to getthe kids back to school, get pissed in a pub, go clubbing and go to my mates house.

Tbh the ridiculousness I see on here doesn't really translate into my real life. I've read all sorts on here, people feeling really guilty for going to the post box when they'd already been for a walk that day, people putting their letters in the oven, quarantining shopping in the garage for 72hrs, suggesting you put cheese in your coffee because going for milk isn't essential and so on... I mean honestly. Thankfully I don't think it's the majority but I've definitely seen it and I can't help but eye roll to be honest.

But in my RL, no one I know is acting this way. Most are just chomping at the bit to get back to normal and can't wait to get out of lockdown. I imagine most of my friends and family will be back in shops/pubs/restaurants faster than Boris can finish his sentence confirming they are back open!

I'm numb to it now. It doesn't mean anything after a year of scary headlines. The nation has been flooded with it. Tell me 8, 80, 8000 or 800,000 people died today and I'll just shrug and say 'huh' and get on with my day.

Not sure you should base your world view on the Guardian. That’s almost as full of shit as the DM and Sun etc 😂

Desperate to get out. Having been nothing but work, home, work, home, work, home since the beginning of this I am personally feeling isolated, alone and damn fed up.

But then when I am at work and I see patients suffering it puts me in a whole new mindset. It's incredibly jarring every time I switch between the two.

I’ve never been scared because there’s fuck all about this phoney war to be scared of. I watched the ‘scary’ TV ad yesterday for the first time and felt anger at this shitty government’s appalling manipulation. The media are loving ramping up the terror of course, because that’s their job, and it’s worrying that some people don’t realise this, here and in RL.

But back to the thread title, expect more campaigns and I don’t think even this government would do another ‘eat out to help out’ campaign, when it was so derided and later discovered to cost us so much. Is ‘Stay out, help out’ coming this summer?

Im not terrified of covid, i am worried because 3 members of my family are ecv so weve followed guidance, not broken any rules and because im a sahm and dont have to leave the house i havent, however DP has still gone to work, kids were in school when it was open and will return when ita open again, when guidance changes i will be glad to get back to my normal life and i think everyone i know is the same. No one is cowering at home in fear we are just doing what we can to get through this period of time.

MN seems to be full of people either terrified of leaving the house or ignoring guidance because they are fed up, theres no middle ground but thats not my experience in real life most people are just plodding along.

I think it'll happen incrementally, but also quite quickly once the ball starts rolling.

There will be already is a huge collective will to get past this current situation.

There is also a pressing, and growing, economic need to restart and re-stimulate many sectors of the economy. Claiming Brexit as any kind of success relies on economic activity within the UK.

The narrative from the government, and the media, will change. When we stop seeing ticker tape counts of cases, deaths and hospitalisations on the front pages daily. The government will start talking up how many people have been vaccinated -- even more than it is currently doing. The press will start running feel-good stories about how Connie and Ronnie in the Shady Pines care home have had their vaccines and can sit at a table, share a pot of tea and some cake, and play cribbage again.

We might also start seeing some credible data that demonstrates the relative ineffectiveness of more restrictive lockdowns (Stanford University has already done this -- there will be more.)

The people whose fear of going out is totally out of proportion to their personal risk will rapidly find themselves in the minority. So the social pressure will shift towards connected society again.

Some people will want to remain shut away, and will be able to adjust their own lives so that they do. Whether that means they miss out will be entirely a matter for them.

Others will have to tackle that fear and rejoin society as and when they feel able.

About 1,400 people die every day in the UK under normal conditions, roughly two thirds of these from either cancer or circulatory illnesses (heart attacks and strokes). We don't see a daily count of cancer or heart attack deaths in the press, even though these combined would be about 900 or 1,000 a day. Most people go through their lives without thinking about it too much or hand-wringing that 'something must be done'. (Which is not the same as not caring.)

Whatever you think of lockdown, I think we can all agree that it's not fun, healthy or a realistic long-term solution.

I think people are itching to get out... But are scared of other people being there when they do. It's going to take a bit of time for people to learn to trust again.

About 1,400 people die every day in the UK under normal conditions, roughly two thirds of these from either cancer or circulatory illnesses (heart attacks and strokes). We don't see a daily count of cancer or heart attack deaths in the press, even though these combined would be about 900 or 1,000 a day. Most people go through their lives without thinking about it too much or hand-wringing that 'something must be done'.

Heart disease, cancer, etc isn't contagious though, is it? You can't "catch" it from being in close proximity to someone else. Most heart disease and some cancers are also, to an extent, caused by the person's behaviour, as are most road deaths (careless/drunk/drug driving etc.) In normal times, there aren't that many "healthy" people doing nothing wrong dying before their time! That's the difference - with covid, norovirus, etc., "innocent" people catch it from doing nothing wrong, just close proximity to others. The only way to solve the long term effects of anxiety etc is for people generally to have more space around them rather than being crammed together like sardines. And that wouldn't be a bad thing to help mitigate against future pandemics too.

They’ll do what they did in the summer - suddenly flip from stay home to eat out, loads of stories in the media bitching about office workers being too scared to get on the bus.
Then probably realise they’ve fucked it up and have to amp up the scare ads again

@Kazzyhoward

About 1,400 people die every day in the UK under normal conditions, roughly two thirds of these from either cancer or circulatory illnesses (heart attacks and strokes). We don't see a daily count of cancer or heart attack deaths in the press, even though these combined would be about 900 or 1,000 a day. Most people go through their lives without thinking about it too much or hand-wringing that 'something must be done'.

Heart disease, cancer, etc isn't contagious though, is it? You can't "catch" it from being in close proximity to someone else. Most heart disease and some cancers are also, to an extent, caused by the person's behaviour, as are most road deaths (careless/drunk/drug driving etc.) In normal times, there aren't that many "healthy" people doing nothing wrong dying before their time! That's the difference - with covid, norovirus, etc., "innocent" people catch it from doing nothing wrong, just close proximity to others. The only way to solve the long term effects of anxiety etc is for people generally to have more space around them rather than being crammed together like sardines. And that wouldn't be a bad thing to help mitigate against future pandemics too.

We know how viruses work

But why should Covid deaths be more newsworthy than deaths from cancer and heart disease? Should deaths from AIDS also be featured on front pages, do you think?

I think I know what the OP is referring to.
People, on the whole, are good at keeping things together when they're battling through adversity.
There's a real sense of
Let's all keep our heads down and get through it mentality.
It's afterwards that stress and strains start to show. Fears and feelings that have been repressed for such as long time will come to the forefront
In the form of MH, physical and economic hardships.
and that's not even counting the effects on education
As an example, people were fairly healthy, mentally and physically during the war. It was in the years immediately afterwards (late 40s early 50s) that the adverse effects, in lots of varying forms,were really seen.
There's also a feeling having been institutionalised for a whole year. We've got too used to it and now we have to rejoin the Real World
I'm looking forward to things getting back to normal but I feel sligthly anxcious about it as well.

@Kazzyhoward

Heart disease, cancer, etc isn't contagious though, is it?

No, they're not. So what? These people are still dying. My point is that these deaths are not reported daily on the front pages, so the general population isn't confronted with a constant and ever-rising tally of death.

The only way to solve the long term effects of anxiety etc is for people generally to have more space around them rather than being crammed together like sardines. And that wouldn't be a bad thing to help mitigate against future pandemics too.

I agree with this in many ways I think one useful thing that could come out of this situation is more smart planning and consideration around especially urban density and space. That said, not everyone derives anxiety from proximity many people are quite happy in busy cities or surrounded by people. The live music industry, for example, wouldn't survive if lots of people didn't want to go to gigs and be crammed into a sweaty room with 1,000 other fans.

In normal times, there aren't that many "healthy" people doing nothing wrong dying before their time! That's the difference - with covid, norovirus, etc., "innocent" people catch it from doing nothing wrong, just close proximity to others.

Maybe you've worded this a bit clumsily but this opinion alarms me -- it's like you're dividing the world into the 'deserving' and 'undeserving' ill. People don't get sick because they did something bad. It reminds me of those appalling prejudiced arguments back in the 80s that purported that gay men were morally deficient, and that's why they contracted HIV. (Which as we know is completely false, not to mention viciously homophobic.)

I hope it doesn't go back to the way it was before. Commutes for the sake of it, people constantly driving everywhere, excessive drinking and drunken brawls, purchasing excessive stuff, long haul, multiple holidays abroad, etc etc.

I hope it makes people focus on family and friends, community, environment.

@Icenii

I hope it doesn't go back to the way it was before. Commutes for the sake of it, people constantly driving everywhere, excessive drinking and drunken brawls, purchasing excessive stuff, long haul, multiple holidays abroad, etc etc.

I hope it makes people focus on family and friends, community, environment.

You can bet the drinking will be excessive as soon as the pubs open.

Honestly it's not a problem.

I'd been practically shielding since early March (not because I'm CEV but I'm the next category down and really don't want to catch it).

However we've been financially impacted and it reached the point where the worries about losing the house grew bigger than the worries about catching COVID.

I started work in a lab which creates COVID testing kits. We do have PPE however we do also work shoulder to shoulder in a group of about 30 people.

I hadn't been within 2 metres of anyone but my husband for eight months.

It was extremely weird for the first hour or so but you adjust to things surprisingly quickly.

Unless someone has mental health issues such as health anxiety I don't think it will take much to get people out and about once it's safe to do so.