How long do you think the public majority (IRL) will put up with this for?

[Quit4me]

How long do you think public opinion and action will continue to support not seeing friends and family?
I’m asking based on your real life experiences (not mumsnet views)
I’m not after ‘I’m giving up my life for as long as it takes’ views here, or ‘I’m happy watching tv and hugging my yoga mat for years.
I’m asking for realistic views of 2021 and public opinion as the year goes on.

@OverTheRainbow88

Most people I know are being careful and sensible but not following all the rules

Most people I know are also taking this approach.

I think people will push through until Spring, I also think things will be much brighter by the summer. What won’t happen is the public ‘putting up’ with another long, dark winter if it all goes tits up again later in the year.

I don’t know but by summer holidays we will be seeing family. Not bothered about wearing masks or not doing any other activities will happily stay away from everyone else but need to see family other than my kids and husband. Can’t take much more of being on our own.

@Loopylobes

Are those saying they intend to break the rules considering a scenario in which a junior doctor is in an A&E packed with people dying of Covid and having to decide who is treated and who is sent home, not because they wouldn't survive treatment but because there isn't a ventilator available?

How about trucks driving down residential streets collecting the bodies which have been left outside front doors for days, as happened in Ecuador?

It doesn't seem like a reasonable price to pay for freedom from lockdown to me.

Erm 10 million people have been vaccinated so far. That’s 1/6 so you’re analogy is a bit --completely-- OTT.

As has been says several hundred times on these types of threads, the public will do what they can until it starts affecting Rhett mental health. At which point, they can’t be expected to put everyone above their own.

Again - the most vulnerable will be vaccinated!!

Most people i know are seeing their parents/siblings in their house. And me and others i know have decided around March/Easter time we will have a friend or two in the house.

Personally, once the vulnerable groups are all vaccinated I won't be social distancing any more from my family and friends.

Where I live we’ve been under strict local restrictions for nearly all of the year. People are only really complying with the restrictions that they don’t have a choice in i.e. not going to the closed pubs/shops. There are loads of places selling takeaway food/coffee/alcohol and the spaces outside them are rammed with big groups enjoying them. We went to a National Trust type place yesterday and they were selling food and drink to take out from the inside of their cafe for people to eat on the picnic benches outside - they had a tiny sign up asking people not to sit on them which staff and customers alike were happily ignoring, and the walking route was packed with groups too. We met up with a group of ten adults and seven children in the park today and there were loads of groups like ours. Whenever the police do come past the congregating areas they’re not the slightest bit bothered by al the groups. Everyone I know is still seeing at least their parents, if not other family members/friends indoors. People are religious about mask-wearing when it’s required - I haven’t seen one adult not wearing one in the supermarket since it became a rule. Using round here and the longer time we’ve been under restrictions for as an example, I’d say the answer to how long the public will put up with lockdown in any meaningful sense for is ‘not very long’. Incidentally, the local case numbers are and always have been comparatively low.

(Just to preempt the inevitable cries of ‘selfish’ - you really would be wasting your breath I’m afraid.)

I don't think everyone minds you not liking restrictions. I don't like the restrictions either, but I accept that they are necessary. It is ignoring the restrictions that people are criticising. Strange that you can't see the difference.

Exactly. The people who ignore the restrictions are those who are causing the lockdowns to be extended - strange that they can't see that either.

@OverTheRainbow88

Most people I know are being careful and sensible but not following all the rules

I think that's the case for most people.

If we followed the rules and the dates of the rules, we'd have not seen any family, even outdoors when it was allowed, for months and months because of our jobs.

@AlexaShutUp

I think the majority of people will continue to follow the rules for as long as it takes tbh. There is a minority who are choosing to ignore the rules already, and they will continue to do so. I guess their number may swell as time goes on, but most people I know are fundamentally decent and will continue to be responsible.

There comes a point when the decent thing to do is to open school and let businesses resume trading. There is no moral highground to be had in expecting a continual restriction of everyone's lives to protect the nhs/the vulnerable.

I think the unrest in mainland Europe will spread here once we are past easter if lockdowns arent lifted. Our vaccine rollout is the end game; once the vulnerable are jabbed, I will not accept living a heavily restricted life. If there is civil unrest, I will join. Otherwise when will it end?

I have no elderly parents that I’m protecting but I’ll continue following the rules as long as needs be because it’s the right thing to do and I give a shit about protecting other people. I don’t like the restrictions and I miss my family and friends - but I don’t think the govt have put them in place for fun.

Once my inlaws are vaccinated then I imagine we will see them. They miss our children so much.

Psychologists and anthropologists mostly agree it takes about 60 days for human beings as a species (rather than individuals) to adapt to a new situation, be that war, deportation, famine. In other words situations more serious than what we have now. So we adapt (or 'put up with') things more or less indefinitely.

Sadly, I think we know that the real alternative would be to let the virus run wild, let the NHS collapse and let many thousands more people die due to a lack of access to medical care, whether with covid or non-covid illlnesses. Many schools and public services would probably cease to function as sickness levels would be through the roof, but hey, at least we'd all be able to hug our grannies.

See this is the bit that genuinely confuses me, that people can't see that without lockdown, there would have been effects anyway on infrastructure and business, because of the virus itself.
I know the mantra is "save the NHS, save lives" but don't the restrictions also save other things that we rely on from having so many staff off that they're closed, or if they can't be closed (like care homes) running dangerously understaffed?
The local pharmacy closed because all their staff tested positive, it took a day or so to find replacement staff to get it running again and more than a week to catch up.
I've read about social workers and nurses being drafted in to residential (run and staffed by care assistants) care homes because the staff have all gone down with it, bins not emptied because whole teams have got it, buses and trains withdrawn as there's no one to drive them.
Without lockdown and containing the spread to some degree, it seems logical that this would have happened on a far greater scale than it already is, and would have resulted in businesses closed and losing trade, essential services closed, or left with a handful of people trying to run them, as well as the NHS overwhelmed by numbers and collapsing.
That's not to say I'm loving lockdown or the effects it's having, but I do think the 'damage' would have been greater, faster, and without the support that's being given to those affected by lockdown.
To me it would have become businesses unable to trade, rather than not allowed to.

I think the lockdown should be lifted once the vulnerable groups are vaccinated plus a few weeks for the vaccines to take effect.
I'm sick of hearing that the better we comply, the sooner things will end.
Maybe that view had some credibility in the first lockdown (when we thought that test and trace may work- I think it's now blindingly obvious that it can't as so many are asymptomatic) but how does it work now? Even if cases are tiny at the end of lockdown they will grow again as soon as we unlock.
Either the vaccines work (and hopefully they will) or else we're going to have to live with this. We can't lock down again in my opinion unless we want to trash the economy, education, mental health, etc. etc.
If this continues beyond the spring I will definitely be protesting.
A genuine question though for those who say 'as long as it takes'- would you cope with another year, two years, until you lose your job, your home? What realistic end point do you have in mind?

I think most people I know will continue as they have over past year for many more months if they have to but that they will continue to bend some rules and break others in many cases. Most will take advantage of the options that exist in the legislation to see people and many will go beyond them a little bit. Some will go further in restricting themselves than us legally required. For example we have a childcare bubble and so see my parents briefly for drop off/pick up and obviously the kids see them loads. Many of my colleagues have similar arrangements and those that don’t are meeting someone 1:1 for a walk a couple of times a week or sitting in their garden chatting to a neighbour over the fence or seeing relatives while providing care/dropping off shopping etc. Those are all allowed and sometimes we also break the rules. For example sometimes when my parents drop the kids off they might have a cup of tea and use the loo before they go home & they live 45 minutes away from us which is a bit of a grey area, sometimes my friend takes her grandson for a walk round the park in his pushchair to give his mum a break for half an hour even though it’s probably technically not a childcare bubble as his parents aren’t working at the moment, sometimes my colleague has dinner with his elderly parents who are otherwise totally isolated even though it’s not strictly necessary as they could cook for themselves and just really need someone to shop and pick up prescriptions for them. On the other hand another colleague has a MIL who has stage 4 cancer and isn’t expected to live more than another couple of months but her and her OH and kids won’t go and see her even though it’s allowed under end of life exceptions as she’s already in a bubble with her other son and they think they shouldn’t risk it in case she contracts COVID.

I think spring and not much longer although if the vaccine drive is handled well this will extend tolerance but I think most people will be wanting a holiday and to see family by the summer - if they can still afford to.

As long as the government says is required; why wouldn’t they/we?

I will follow the rules for as long as it takes. All the elderly people I know and health care workers who are close to me have had their first vaccine and it has given me a big mental boost. I feel a lot happier knowing they are safer, it has made me realise how worried I have been about them subconsciously all along.

Everyone I know is broadly following the rules publically and being discrete where they're not, but little slips are creeping out, like today I saw post about a lovely socially distanced walk, followed by coffee at the friend's house.

I think a lot of people are starting to see parents now they've had their first vaccination. It will be interesting to see if there's a flood of hospitalisations of elderly people who've had their first jab. If there isn't people will, justifiably, think there's no need to stay away from their relatives.

It will get easier again as the Spring comes, I think most people will accept a loose kind of lockdown through the summer, if the case numbers show it's necessary.

A genuine question though for those who say 'as long as it takes'- would you cope with another year, two years, until you lose your job, your home?

Some of us have already lost our jobs. I have, but I still think the lockdown is necessary. I am hoping that the vaccines will provide a longer term solution, but time will tell.

@E17Stowmum

Psychologists and anthropologists mostly agree it takes about 60 days for human beings as a species (rather than individuals) to adapt to a new situation, be that war, deportation, famine. In other words situations more serious than what we have now. So we adapt (or 'put up with') things more or less indefinitely.

I think there is a caveat on that- *some* will put up with it indefinitely but others won’t

Alexa, I am sorry to hear that. I do think at some point soon- ish we are going to have to consider how long this can realistically continue.
If the vaccines don't have the desired effect, I don't think it's realistic to think we can go on like this indefinitely. And where is the end point? Most viruses have been with us for many, many years.
I hope you find a new job quickly.

I hope you find a new job quickly.

Thank you @Mydogdoesntlisten, so do I!

The things I want, I can’t get by breaking the rules

• I want kids to go to school (but can’t rebel and just make that happen)
• I want to see my parents who live in mainland Europe (but can’t afford the £1500 quarantaine on either side)
• I want to be able to play sport (but sport centres are locked, so rebelling won’t help)
• I want DC to be able to see their friends (but can’t make that happen if I wanted or not, they are 16 and 18 and sticking to the rules, I am proud of them but also sad for them)