Is anyone actually going to follow the rules from spring?

[Cloudsurfing]

It will have been a year since being allowed to properly see friends and family. Even in summer last year you still had to social distance so seeing family was difficult, and some areas had tighter restrictions throughout. Everyone I know is going to see family and friends from spring, regardless of what restrictions there are. I am too. The government do know that most people won’t stick to it from then, right?

Is anyone on here actually going to not see family at that point? I know Mumsnet seems to be full of people who are happy to isolate for years if need be, but are you actually going to?

The vaccines prevent the majority of deaths and severe disease. What more are we aiming for now?

Exactly - that is good enough for me. I wonder how the “lockdown indefinitely to save the NHS” types think the NHS is going to be funded when there are no businesses left?

Watch that is a really clear explanation thank you.

I've had my vaccine as I work on a covid ward, honestly I've seen things in that place you'd never want to see.
I've followed the rules from the start as have my family. I do think it's like Groundhog Day and peoples mental health is suffering massively but I'm hopeful in a few months we'll be in a much better position.
So yes, I'll follow the rules

I'm going to see my family in an outside environment still keeping distance. I will let my kids play with their cousins. I won't think twice about seeing anyone outdoors and taking obvious precautions in fact. I've had covid so the likelyhood is that I'm immune for at least the next few months so that lowers the risk of spreading it even more. I'm not scared of getting it again but am mindful about passing it on.

No we won’t be. Enough is enough now

No. I will be travelling about 50 miles to meet my DS at some point around April so she can meet her niece (who will be 6 months by then). I will probably meet more friends outdoors with my DH so more than just one adult, maybe some indoors for a coffee while my toddler plays with their kid. Obviously if businesses are still closed I cant go for a haircut etc. My parents live abroad so won't be seeing them for a while.

DSis*

I'm one of the few non-medics in my family and friends, and we/they have all been sensibly breaking the rules for a while - anyone who tests positive for antibodies is then seen as fair game for mixing with, so we've been part of one giant bubble since last summer.
I'm 100% comfortable doing what they are comfortable doing, and I think it is quite telling that none of them are privately abiding my the rules, despite having to tow the party line when speaking to patients.

We all caught it before the first lockdown, and had incredibly mild symptoms, and our antibody tests have been positive since May 2020. We repeated them before visiting older relatives so we knew there was no risk of transmission from us.

In my wider group of friends, acquaintances, colleagues, friends of friends, I know 1 person who has died from/with Covid.
But I know 3 who have taken their own lives

So my personal data subset tells me the risk to mental health is 3 times more serious than the risk to physical health, which is why we've done what we needed to to safely stay sane

@strawberriesontheNeva

My family are overseas so I can't actually see them. I do think all this is ridiculous now. The whole 'isolation, stay home, protect the nhs' clearly isn't working'

It is working though - in most of the country the NHS is not overwhelmed and able to treat those that need ICU or oxygen etc. If there was no lockdown at the start of this year then more and more hospitals would have succumbed to the numbers with covid so something had to happen to prevent that.

The numbers have fallen in most of the country substantially and continue to fall so lock down does and is working! How can you not see that. It is working better in other countries that have had closed borders and a more strict lockdown but our version has reduced the numbers to relieve pressure on the NHS. The daily infection rate continues to fall due to less social interaction! I mean seriously do you actually think before making a statement?

What is now cyrstal clear, regardless of how you feel personally about the lockdown, MN has always been very supportive of the restrictions in the main, and if we are seeing a 50/50 result on this thread (and others) about continuing the lockdown into the spring you can be pretty sure that the government simply will not have the RL public support to continue - even based on this thread.

The support for carrying on is just not there.

We have plummeting infection levels, the R is well under 1, the hospital admissions have declined, a staggering fifteen million of the most vulnerable are vaccinated. Given all of these factors, they would be wise to choose a middle ground and start lifting some outside restrictions before the public do it for them.
It is far better to stay on the front foot and keep some authority than to see the lockdown slowly erode away, and then if in the worst case scenario we are back here again in the future - the gov will have some residue authority left.

I am sure they are being advised accordingly.

No (within reason). I feel the goalposts have somewhat moved in the last couple of weeks and I won't support continued restrictions at this level if over 50s have been vaccinated and hospital admissions are manageable. At that point, I feel it's time to start living again.

@nameandgamechange123 you pretty much described my exact situation. I imagine there's lots of people like us.. Have young kids, had covid, have been put last by the government and won't continue to put up with unnecessarily strict rules when the weather improves.

I can’t deny it’s getting really hard to follow the rules, but yes, we will. I am concerned that if we don’t, there will need to be more harsh lock downs and we’ll repeatedly be back at square one. Living with some restrictions, but seeing family in small groups/ outside etc will be better than being shut at home again.

My attitude is...we have come this far..whats a little bit longer...a year being restricted to throw it away now would just be stupid...

Yes. I haven't been able to see my elderly Dad (he's 87) since September because of tiers followed by lockdown. He gets regular visits from a carer and my siblings, however so he isn't suffering.

But the risks to him of throwing more people into the mix are too great.

Moreover, I'm almost 63 - I have to follow the rules to protect myself and my partner, who is 65.

@StealthPolarBear

Or do you accept that we as society live with a low level of risk for the convenience of many

Once the vaccine roll out has covered the most vulnerable in society and then continues onwards to those that want it I feel personally that the risk is low and things should ease. Locally we have an extremely low level of infection and was hoping for tiers again with only the very highest areas of infection having more restrictions.

The point of the vaccine is to reduce the severity and gradually life returns to normal for most. There is as you say risk in everything. Things need to pen up again now that this lock down has reduced the numbers to a manageable number

I'm also going to start letting my kids visit my parents who live in the same town. They're in their late 80s and have had both vaccinations, my kids haven't been into school since early December.

It's against the rules, I'm not going to pretend to justify it as caring for a vulnerable person. But I'm not going to beat myself up about it either.

@KriekAndWaffle

Are people genuinely believing all this guff about the “new strains”? Are we genuinely expected to believe that it’s only now once we have vaccines that there are “new strains” of concern?

I do believe there are new variants but also that they are being over egged to keep us in line.

Why are the new strains being used to 'keep us in line' - inline for what exactly?

Virus mutate you know it happens with all of them hence the need for a new flu vaccine each year. Some of the mutations might be milder and some not.

Again, please don't imply I am naive to the issues affecting the NHS. You know nothing about me, my area of work, my education etc.

I think anyone advocating further lockdown beyond what’s really necessary, isn’t getting the long term impact on the nhs.

I suspect many of us will feel a whole lot better when the schools reopen and our children at least will be getting a proper education.
We will see other parents (at a distance) and we will see each other for walks and coffee. The reopening will happen naturally from there.

I have and continue to follow the lockdown to the letter to protect others, not myself. I have done so for nearly a year.

I now need to repair my own life, my children's life and that is it now. I have done all I can do.

No I won't be. Though we're not already really with people who've had covid or the vaccination though obviously still mask-wearing and social distancing in public. My mental health has been appalling due to loss of business and no Govt support and having to do so much more caring for DM and cope with DD's mental health, and worries about my own physical health, I think I would have cracked without some human contact.

@Cloudsurfing

There will always be new variants, that’s been said from the start. It’s what viruses do. At the moment we have vaccines that work on the new variants, even AZ. That’s enough for now. They’re already working on a booster for autumn. We cannot lockdown forever because we’re scared of new variants. We need to open up and let scientists sort the vaccines so we have a booster each year. That’s how flu vaccines work.

No they didn’t say that from the start. They didn’t know that from the start. They knew it was a possibility. Only time could tell whether this specific virus would mutate and in what way.

Why would schools reopen when there's still some risk. Whatever it takes to reduce risk to zero, right?

@StealthPolarBear

You endanger yourself and others every time you drive on the roads. Are you planning to stop driving?

No, but I hope that there will be a bed available for me in ITU if I have a serious accident as a result of that drive. I'd prefer it if the ITU beds weren't rammed full of Covid patients. That's why I will continue to follow the rules.

No no no!

My colleague is dead. Not a bit under the weather with mild symptoms. Dead.

You are not more important than them. You are not more important than anyone else.