We cannot cancel life, to preserve every life

[Slytherin]

I actually find myself agreeing with a Tory for once...we’ve given up so much and the goalposts keep moving, yes it’s an unpredictable situation, but it’s also unsustainable long term. The idea that this summer will be possibly worse than last summer makes zero sense, when we have a vaccine roll out that far exceeds any other nation (except Israel) currently.
First it was let’s get the elderly and vulnerable vaccinated, then it was let’s get the over 50s vaccinated, now we’ve got members of SAGE suggesting restrictions have to continue until everyone, including children are vaccinated and beyond, because of the possibility of new variants. Professor John Edmunds said some would have to stay “forever” last night on Peston.

We must at some point live with an element of risk. I’m in no way suggesting we lift lockdown yet, but suggesting that things won’t have much improved by the summer, is, in my opinion encroaching into dangerous territory.

The government were over promising before, now they’re under promising. There’s got to be a middle ground, people’s mental health cannot sustain this level of pessimism and not having a single thing to look forward to. Everything gets dangled like a carrot, then taken away at the last minute. It’s beyond cruel.

Then it’s the mixed messages, Matt Hancock telling us he’s going on a summer holiday to Cornwall and he’s all booked up and Grant Shapps then telling nobody to even consider booking a holiday abroad or domestically this summer.

Yes, I support restrictions to save lives and support the NHS, but I don’t support the way the government are handling this once again. And I don’t support these restrictions indefinitely, especially when the majority of the at risk groups have been vaccinated.

www.channel4.com/news/we-cannot-cancel-life-to-preserve-every-life-tory-mp-sir-charles-walker-on-lockdown?fbclid=IwAR2RnQNKwJoQ4FSBxT9oTbwbFOCTWcIU9wD9WdYkTEA2sVlJ1posWZAfmsU

Why on earth would anyone imagine that this lockdown is going to continue for years ?
February is traditionally a shit month, but in a couple of weeks it will be March, betterish weather ( if you like wet and windy ), lighter nights, and Chocolate Fest sorry Easter to look forward to

I'm sick of hearing about long covid. Unfortunately, in life, sometimes people get sick. That is just what happens. The people that think we can just carry on with lockdown for the unforeseeable because of long covid are deluded

I agree, if we all stop doing things because of what might happen we would never get out of bed in the morning.

Agree. The average age of people who’ve died from Covid is older than average life expectancy. Death is part of life. People have to die of something.

But from what I've heard on the radio and tv in thelast few weeks from medically trained people, it's the 40''s 30's 20 age group and even some teenagers that are taking up many of the hospital beds at the moment, and are being iller for longer...
Has anyone else been picking up on this info?

Until it's your own family member

Oh behave with this emotional blackmail bullshit.

There won't be a person on here who hasn't lost a loved one. Covid doesn't trump everything else. It just doesn't.

If people can not accept living like this then perhaps it will be a case of let them learn the hard way. In all honesty I think this is the route we need to go down, we need to let it overwhelm the NHS to prove the gravity of our situation.

Those who are fed up of the pandemic need to understand how their opinion in this is irrelevant when it comes to a virus as malevolent as covid. Eventually the world will come to realise it’s a never ending battle.

You can be left wing and libertarian. It's like one of those diagrams with an x axis left to right and y axis authoritarian to libertarian

Thewiseone But most people it will be no more than a cold. And the vaccine reduces severity in those at risk. We could shut the world down for other contagious diseases, as every life is worth saving but we don't.

@PracticingPerson

Oh please not this again.

We will be locked down until the indicators are better. We will lift the restrictions slowly, more slowly than last year because we fucked it up last year. Probably still not as slowly as we should. If things go our way the unlocking will be smooth. If things don't go our way we will have to lock down again.

What more do people really think can be said? It isn't a conspiracy, a plot, a story, a plan, a hoax. It is just shit and we (humans as a whole) are not in control of when this ends. We may be able to gain control at some point, but right now, we are not in control.

This with bells on.

Also seriously a year in, how tf van people still spout this simplistic stuff 'The average age of people who’ve died from Covid is older than average life expectancy. Death is part of life. People have to die of something.'

It isn't just about the deaths, it is about the massive surges on the nhs, only now reducing. So no we don't just open up and end up where we were in Nov with everything soaring again. It has to be slow and controlled.

@Ylvamoon

I'm sick of hearing about long covid. Unfortunately, in life, sometimes people get sick. That is just what happens. The people that think we can just carry on with lockdown for the unforeseeable because of long covid are deluded

I agree, if we all stop doing things because of what might happen we would never get out of bed in the morning.

You’d be happy to risk ending up with Long covid?

Wow.

But from what I've heard on the radio and tv in thelast few weeks from medically trained people, it's the 40''s 30's 20 age group and even some teenagers that are taking up many of the hospital beds at the moment, and are being iller for longer

Despite what all the many "ITU nurses" on MN would have us believe, this isn't the case according to public health england.

Madinmarch I think that is what we are being told unofficially. If you look at the actual data it's not true.

@LucasLeesEyebrows now I think on it, your description is the more succinct!

@MadinMarch

Agree. The average age of people who’ve died from Covid is older than average life expectancy. Death is part of life. People have to die of something.

But from what I've heard on the radio and tv in thelast few weeks from medically trained people, it's the 40''s 30's 20 age group and even some teenagers that are taking up many of the hospital beds at the moment, and are being iller for longer...
Has anyone else been picking up on this info?

Again- if this is the case, we need to be vaccinating the young as a priority, don't we?

It can't be both ways. You can't put them to the back of the queue if they are indeed in danger. Whilst their grandparents are being vaccinated. And then ask the young to continue to live this horrendous existence once the elderly are vaccinated.

Oh jesus look who's here spreading 'wisdom'. Does a klaxon go off?? 🤦‍♀️

except many younger people who have survived are now ill with long covid

Not a good enough reason. A 20yo family member has been told her brain surgery on a tumour has been put off indefinitely.
My friends 42 yo dh has a lump in his testicle, has called his gp twice last week and this and hasn’t even had a callback. They’re worried sick.

There are just as many stories like this.

What makes you think we have the right to be in control of a virus? We need to get on with our lives with the virus as a part of our livrs. We need to stop hiding away from it. The vaccine will help a lot but ultimately we are not more powerful than nature. It's time to accept that now.

This is silly, we are in control of all sorts of things. If you're so keen to let nature take it's course, why don't you campaign to stop all cancer treatment too while you're at it?

Why is everyone so very angry now? I assume the psychological committee that feeds in to SAGE knows exactly why this is happening at this stage precisely but I don't.

Thewiseone Tbh I would risk Long Covid. Same as I've risked ME and post viral fatigue syndrome every winter.

@Tryingtryingandtrying

Thewiseone But most people it will be no more than a cold. And the vaccine reduces severity in those at risk. We could shut the world down for other contagious diseases, as every life is worth saving but we don't.

Suuurrreee. When you get it the first time.

What about when you’ve had it three, four, five times? What happens then? We’re one year in. Let’s see how cavalier some of you are in a couple of years time when the true scope is realised.

DC and I just had it. All of us. I'm
48 and youngest is 10. It wasn't much more than a cold with some loss of taste, even for me. How much longer can they pretend these restrictions are useful to the majority? My son hasn't been able to open his business and support his family as properly for more than a 2 months out of the past 12. He is at his wits end and I'm frightened for him. More frightened than I was of us testing positive for covid. Vaccinate the elderly then let us crack on.

@HexWitch I can't agree with you more. We have been locked down for weeks now for a cold whilst it is absolutely destroying my autistic DD's mental health. Absolutely ridiculous!

It isn't just about people dying though!
If we open everything up lots of people will get sick all at once and the infrastructure of the country will be in danger of collapsing!

We need to keep supermarket shelves stocked, public services running and the lights on - never mind the NHS!

If workplaces have people off sick, people isolating, people on compassionate leave because they have lost a family member then they will struggle to provide the services they do! This is happening at some Royal Mail places and we're in lockdown! Schools were closing before Christmas because too many teachers were off sick!
Could you imagine if the National grid went down? That's when the Civil unrest would start - not because people are fed up being at home watching Netflix!
Do you really think this Govt care about old and vulnerable people dying? They do not, they have let it happen over the last 10 years due to austerity without blinking an eye!
This is about the infrastructure of the Country!
Yes lockdown is awful and it's killing people but the alternative is worse - that's the only reason this is continuing!

The problem lies in the mixed messages that the government has sent out from day one
This, combined with the levels of entitlement and arrogance that some of the population have, are why we are here.

The government had almost zero strategy and has been gaslighting the public.
The entitled idiots of society refuse to follow even the simplest bits of government guidance and the law. In fact some on here think even expecting people to follow the simple rules (so not the hilarious mumsnet additional made up rules) is unreasonable and the would tell anyone who says otherwise where to shove their opinions.

Until the government has a strategy and people take personal responsibility, this is likely to go on for a while.