Social distancing to last all year

[Santastealer]

The media this morning are reporting on a report given to government saying social distancing will need to be in place all year and rules remain until December.

But what then? What do they expect to be different by September?

Last August I was able to go on holiday with my family as a group of 8, are thy suggesting this year this won’t be possible? If not why was it ok last year when we didn’t have vaccines but this year it’s not ok when we do?

I’m thoroughly fed up of not being able to see my family and I need to feel an end point is in sight.

@PerveenMistry

"Why not just buy the DC yoga mats for their birthdays? It'll make staying home so much easier after all!"

My coworker with three age 7 & under has them doing yoga 2x a day, actually. Says it's good for their mental health. In the photos she sends they seem to be doing fine.

...... you cant be a real person. You just cant be.

I am going to choose to imagine you are a 35 year old unemployed guy who lives with his mother and likes to wind people up online behind anonymous names because your life is so lacking in purpose that you get joy from pretending to be empty of all common sense.

If people think lockdowns and all these restrictions on our life will continue for years then there’s going to be some disappointed people.

It’s not economically possible. All we need is the pressure to ease on the NHS. We’re not trying to prevent cases it’s all about a functioning health service.

Once the vulnerable are vaccinated and the pressure eases things will open up. There’s some really promising stats on deaths and hospital admissions coming out of Israel at the moment.

@PerveenMistry

"Why not just buy the DC yoga mats for their birthdays? It'll make staying home so much easier after all!"

My coworker with three age 7 & under has them doing yoga 2x a day, actually. Says it's good for their mental health. In the photos she sends they seem to be doing fine.

Yes, a photo tells you all you need to know. And yoga is a substitute for friends, we know, you've said. Have you ever met a child?

@superram

Look at where holidaying in groups of 8 got us-back in 2 lockdowns. Some measures will stay in place for a good while.

Exactly!!!

Wombat In a few weeks and months we will be able to go out and see some people and be able to go to work and children will go to school. All of it will be a bit different to pre Covid, but extreme isolation and loneliness should end and the difficulties of not being able to go to work and home schooling should end. This should be enough to enable people to enjoy life. But if they persist if only looking for things they still cannot do and focusing on those they will be disappointed. But it's a mi duet where the grass is always greener elsewhere and in a different time and such people are often disappointed in life, rather than those who look for positives.

Things are very hard now. No one doubts that. They will get better...but restrictions won't all go immediately and some might be around for months or years. The choice is to enjoy life as they lift with what is available to us (and I think it will be enough) or to be determined to be disgruntled.

Its not just about children's parties or school. I haven't been able to do my sport competitively for nearly a year now, with no end in sight. That means I've lost much of my routine and social life. I know of 3 people within my sporting community, all single men, who have killed themselves due to the lonlieness and lack of structure. You only have so many good years in a sport, so losing a year or more is a significant proportion. Many elite athletes have given up on staying in the UK entirely, because the restrictions here are so strict. In other some other sports, professionals are talking about relocating permanently to continental Europe by buying bases there and selling up here, because they no longer see the UK as a reliable place in which to base themselves.

For single people, anyone unprepared to do sex talk on online dating has been pretty much condemned to staying single for a year now, again with no end in sight., other than a fortunate few. People have had cancer treatment and hip replacements cancelled. Some people have died due to that.

We desperately need an end to this continual restriction on freedom to ensure government excess death figures not looking too bad. It has been going on for far too long now. The people who are suffering most from the ongoing restrictions are those least at risk - children, people who do sport and who are healthy and fit and active. Thats really crazy when you think about it. No one minds for a few months, but to be locked down more heavily than anywhere else in Europe month after month after month is not on.

@PerveenMistry

"Why not just buy the DC yoga mats for their birthdays? It'll make staying home so much easier after all!"

My coworker with three age 7 & under has them doing yoga 2x a day, actually. Says it's good for their mental health. In the photos she sends they seem to be doing fine.

Well, exactly. The negative effects to children's mental health of not seeing or spending time with grandparents/peers, or perhaps living in a flat with no outside space and no money to put the heating on, or missing the educational and developmental aspects of going to school etc can easily be ameliorated by a simply buying a yoga mat. There's no excuse really. And parents stretched to fuck by wfh while simultaneously homeschooling three kids naturally have the time to fanny about saluting the sun, naturally.

Honestly, what planet are you on?!

There’s some really promising stats on deaths and hospital admissions coming out of Israel at the moment

Glad to hear that, Delatron. My big caveat has always been "what if the vaccines don't make enough difference?", so this seems like excellent news

That said, I'm not sure if Israel's population are on the whole younger, healthier and slimmer than ours ...?

Social distancing went out the window when masks came into effect anyway

Only for idiots

My teen DC have missed out on lots of things....but I do t think their lives are ruined or those things ar worth dwelling on.

They have missed milestone birthday parties of friends, have had their education during exam years interrupted, haven’t been able to continue with their activities that they enjoy which will probably mean they will never reach the level they might have otherwise, they haven’t seen their grandparents for 9 months and have really missed them.

BUT they will go onto have happy lives. They will get jobs and form relationships and be happy. Their teen years won’t have been the same as someone 5 years older, but their lives are not ruined.

And if in the next 2 years only some restrictions lift, the fact they might not go to nightclubs or on holidays abroad with their friends, which were seen as rites of passage, or have a gap year abroad, it just means their experiences will be different, but not life ruining.

It is about perspective and whether the negatives (of which there have been many) grind you down and feel as if they are life defining, or just brief moments in your overall life.

These kids have also learned IT skills they wouldn’t have learned otherwise, have learned domestic chores they wouldn’t have otherwise learned and many have chatted with family members far more on zoom than they ever would have spoken to them in normal times.

Why decide that the lives of children are ruined or irrevocably spoiled because they didn’t have a 7th birthday party, or get to go on the planned family holiday for Grannies 70th birthday, or that the fact they are not as advanced in their reading than they would have been if in school, or have spent lots of hours online playing on their phone or watching YouTube, is going to ruin their lives? They won’t ruin their lives. Their lives at this phase is just a bit different to that of other generations.

And what is the point of looking ahead and seeing that restrictions will be lifted but some will remain...and being devastated by that? When you know you WILL be able to start going out and seeing people and your children WILL go back to school and people WILL go back to work and businesses re-open, all if it bringing so much relief for us all, why focus instead on the fact that you might only be able to see people outside for a while, or a limited number of people?

We have to be willing to adapt and accept life will be a bit different. It doesn’t mean it can’t be good.

Most of stayed home last year OP it wasn't safe then. Glad you managed to get away though 🙄

Wombat These kids have also learned IT skills they wouldn’t have learned otherwise, have learned domestic chores they wouldn’t have otherwise learned and many have chatted with family members far more on zoom than they ever would have spoken to them in normal times.

A lot of them will have learned how to be solitary and rely on the internet instead of socialising. They will have missed out on most of the basic positive elements of social facilitation. In terms of sport, there will be a lost generation of athletes lost from certain sports, in some of these sports, if you don't start young enough, you simply never catch up. In other sports, so much effort is put into retaining athletes or recruiting from eg ethnic minorities that if you lose these hard won athletes, they never return.

Do you realise that a lot of what you write comes across as a bit like an attempt at brain washing? You are trying far too hard to convince by putting a positive spin on things, but its more like a hard sell for double glazing or a certain political ideology, rather than factual based evidence. In other words, its just not very convincing.

We have to be willing to adapt and accept life will be a bit different. It doesn’t mean it can’t be good.

Ever thought of starting a cult called "Happy Lockdowners" or something similar? It clearly suits you very well, but its a bit concerning how little empathy you have for all the many other people who are different from you who exist on this planet.

Framing things in terms of what is possible rather than what you can't do, costs nothing. But its not about that. Its just people having a massive strop because they can't do things as exactly as they want and can't complete the rigid tick sheet of experiences they had stuck in their heads.

@RedToothBrush

Framing things in terms of what is possible rather than what you can't do, costs nothing. But its not about that. Its just people having a massive strop because they can't do things as exactly as they want and can't complete the rigid tick sheet of experiences they had stuck in their heads.

Such as meeting a new partner, getting married and having children?

Being educated and sitting exams where you can do your best and be judged independently and fairly?

Going into university if a student?

Getting treatment for cancer or hip replacement surgery if in pain?

I know, how terrible. In actual fact, how fucking crass to compare such basic human rights to someone not having "an experience stuck in their head".

This is just depressing. Virus evading vaccine.😢

news.yahoo.com/amphtml/clinical-trials-raise-fears-coronavirus-040855671.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly90LmNvLw&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAACFkSBwhBtpoNqrgGDAf3raE0X1CM33WiF0eFKaRD0SXqFDryKkVqPTE1rsoYJ1eOMeqM7Vny2QBiM40ldCU464y56MjHITJgjqIwpofWCj_9W96f6vMIE0jKKY_vWPoa23dRriK0GdLU8lbt30OeCjSqFe9-rl3-0OqfgEDiuRG

"Honestly, what planet are you on?!"

The planet of competent, science-believing non-whiners.

There have been terrible consequences for lots of people of lockdown. I agree.

But the question in the thread was about a future with some continued restrictions. Things are going to get better and less restricted. For lots of the things that have been bad about lockdown, such as isolation, difficulties with homeschooling, there are going to be improvements.

My point is that if things largely return to normal, why is it that people fixate on the remaining restrictions, rather than seeing the positives of the lifting restrictions?

@PerveenMistry

"Honestly, what planet are you on?!"

The planet of competent, science-believing non-whiners.

Aka the planet of self centred heartless bastards.

Trust the gene genie it's not just you. I'm on your side and have agreed with everything you've said so far.

@StealthPolarBear

Trust the gene genie it's not just you. I'm on your side and have agreed with everything you've said so far.

Thanks! Its baffling to me that people think the issues created by this will be solved solely by yoga and positive fucking thinking.

A pp said why can't we appreciate what we can do, well I will when we can actually do things, and very much did appreciate the brief 2 weeks things were less restricted last year. A big difference this time is we all know the government are liars, we still don't know what restrictions are based on ie they will not give us numbers and we are all incredibly weary.

Maybe that makes me a "whiner" but id much rather associate with whiners and be able to talk about the actual issues at play than pretend it's all fine and dandy, because it's not.

@Puzzledandpissedoff

As they have said several times once we come out of this lockdown and vaccines have been given measures will be down to personal responsibility and not government regulations

We can only hope they mean it, though the fly in that particular ointment is whether the vaccines turn out to be effective enough
Profuse apologies for the DM link, but I was sent this earlier: www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9203279/Government-estimates-220-000-true-death-toll-pandemic.html
Having reportedly come from the government, this suggests to me something of a backtrack, as in "this can't go on so we need to find something to justify ending a lot of restrictions"

Thank you @Puzzledandpissedoff, and I agree with you that the government rhetoric looks like it might be starting, gradually, to change.

Apologies for my inability to link, but I also note the government has introduced legislation for something called the Debt Respite (Breathing Space) scheme, which will commence in May 2021. Basically giving those who have accrued debt during lockdown a 2 month period to catch up, without any kind of chasing or enforcement action allowed. This must be designed for post-lockdown - it doesn't make sense otherwise. Heartening to know measures are starting to be put in place for a post - Covid era.

My point is that if things largely return to normal, why is it that people fixate on the remaining restrictions, rather than seeing the positives of the lifting restrictions?

Why on Earth would the onus be on us to see the positives of only having some extra restrictions on our lives?

Is it really that difficult to stay home with books, phone, internet, tv, yoga mat, perhaps a garden

Some people on pre payment meters have spent hours , in some cases days, without electric/gas (because of Eons incompetence) let alone a fucking yoga mat. Im with E,on on a pre payment meter. MPs know fine well this is going on and dont care. So if my electric goes, so does my lockdown compliance.

I said :
"I know I'll be accused of doom-mongering, but what we're now doing plainly isn't working as cases rise and rise; however, we haven't got any alternative strategies,so SD, shut schools and shops- will have to continue."

And was told off, as cases are, apparently falling. At my local DGH hospital, they have the most people, ever, in with Covid.

First time around, 44 max. This time 110 today.

So tell me rates are falling.

@MiddleParking

My point is that if things largely return to normal, why is it that people fixate on the remaining restrictions, rather than seeing the positives of the lifting restrictions?

Why on Earth would the onus be on us to see the positives of only having some extra restrictions on our lives?

Because it's the adult approach to a crisis situation that affects many people a lot worse than it affects those griping about canceled birthday parties.

It would behoove many to get some perspective rather than acting the victim.

@PerveenMistry grow some backbone and brave the world. It’s great out here