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

This messaging from the government will backfire, I think most people were willing to limp along until end of March for the greater good. A week or so ago it was the scare telling us about the SA strain and door to door, when more people were getting tested but cases were still falling they then moved to the vaccine now telling us it had to be over 50’s, now it has to be every adult.

@BelleSausage

Could the troll farm that is creating these endless ‘let us go’ threads please go back to moaning about Brexit?

Honestly, what is winding each other up about this endlessly going to achieve. You’re just further depressing everyone. We have no control over the virus or the government response. Talk about something else!

You are on a thread telling people to talk about something else. Maybe do it yourself first.

@BelleSausage I wish I did work for a troll farm, at least I'd be getting some money.

I could just as easily accuse people I disagree with of working for the nudge unit.

@GetOffYourHighHorse

'They're not getting a comparable education to the one they were getting before. Belittling that is disgusting.'

Well if they don't get up and join live lessons they won't get any education will they?! but of course that will be everyone else's fault not the parents.

Insult me all you like, I have many daily challenges thanks.

Live lessons are the same as being in school then are they? And yes if they don't attend it is the parents fault, but if that's because they have to work or lose their home and not be able to feed their children then wtf do you expect them to do?

You might have challenges but presumably nobody's telling you that you're just being pathetic are they?

@needadvice54321 job seekers allowance then in the meantime

"What if you or a loved one needed cancer treatment, were in a car accident etc and died prematurely as a result of inadequate care because too many staff are off ill isolating or diverted to COVID hot wards?"

What if you or a loved one lost their job, home, life to the down turn in the economy?

Had the Government listened to SAGE/WHO/BMA from the outset of the Pandemic and taken their current measured, cautious approach

SAGE and WHO advice at the start of the pandemic was to mitigate, not to lock down.

job seekers allowance then in the meantime

JSA for people aged over 25 is £74.35 per week.

Are you for real?

@mamaatthegym yeah cos £342 a month is really going to subsidise those who’ve been earning around £40/50k isn’t it?

i just don’t get how no one is deserving of any sympathy unless they’ve died of fucking covid or work for the NHS?!

@EarlGreywithLemon

The problem is this - the genome of the virus has proven less stable than they thought and hoped at the beginning. If you lift restrictions and allow it to run riot among the unvaccinated under 50s, it will mutate- and one of those mutations could mean it evades the vaccines altogether. So we’d be back to square one. The solution is to vaccinate everyone (which we hope to do with at least one dose by September) - the vaccines should cut down transmission. Coupled with loosening restrictions very prudently and a good test and trace, that would keep numbers very low and significantly improve the odds that we don’t get a nasty mutation.

Or one of those mutations could mean that it becomes vastly more transmissible but also make people vastly less seriously unwell. It is possible that the more transmissible varients have been brought about by social distancing and lockdown. A virus is gonna do what a virus is gonna do to survive and multiply, by having made it harder to spread we gave it the perfect environment for the more easily transmissible version to dominate

But it isn’t going to be like this forever. Things are improving daily. I think we need to wait to see what the plan is later this month before we get too upset about the idea of being in lockdown for years.

That just isn’t going to happen.

@LucilleTheVampireBat

job seekers allowance then in the meantime

JSA for people aged over 25 is £74.35 per week.

Are you for real?

Hey, complain to BJ not me. Covid or no Covid people still need JSA. What did they live off if they lost their jobs before?

And if it does happen I will gladly join in protesting peacefully against it.

Also JSA is designed to be temporary not a permanent replacement for a full time income. Relates back to my previous point about sitting around waiting to starve after you lose your job. You adapt.

there are no jobs as half the industries are closed, bar work was once a quick fix for unemployment - closed
retail - closed

things are more expensive now, everyone’s stuck at home all day, heating bills and electric will be going up purely cos the electrics being used 24/7 opposed to this time last year when everyone was either at work/school/college

[quote mamaatthegym]@needadvice54321 job seekers allowance then in the meantime[/quote]
Perfect example of people not actually giving a fuck.

I don’t imagine having endlessly disrupted public services (people off isolating constantly etc), letting economically active people die of preventable causes because there aren’t enough ITU beds, and leaving many working age adults too unwell to work because of severe long covid/post-viral illness (and thus dependent on state support) would do wonders for the economy.

@bellver888

there are no jobs as half the industries are closed, bar work was once a quick fix for unemployment - closed retail - closed

things are more expensive now, everyone’s stuck at home all day, heating bills and electric will be going up purely cos the electrics being used 24/7 opposed to this time last year when everyone was either at work/school/college

There are not no jobs. There are less jobs. The economy will pick back up and those who lost jobs and took temporary jobs they didn’t like/paid less will be able to work again. It’s a solution, not a perfect one. But a solution nonetheless.

This will not last forever.

'Live lessons are the same as being in school then are they? '

Well no, who said they were? However staying in bed certainly isn't the same as being in school and I know kids who do just that. Please don't bleat on about mental health problems, there will be a percentage who have genuine issues but the majority will be just like the parents, sick of it all and cba. Which is understandable but don't complain about the lack of education if your (not you specifically, generally) kids don't even get up.

'will gladly join in protesting peacefully against it.'

Can't wait to see the ragtag bunch of mumsnetters outside Westminster with 'down wiv the pandemic' on their placards.

@Hammonds what would you rather people do?! Nothing?!

Relates back to my previous point about sitting around waiting to starve after you lose your job. You adapt

I'm not even fucking responding. You're like one of those "just forage for mushrooms" posters who pop up on threads where people are struggling to feed their children.

@pinkearedcow

Someone on this thread asked if people knew anyone who has died of covid. I do. A young woman of 37 who had just finished treatment for a type of cancer that has very good survival rates. She caught covid, had to be ventilated then died earlier this week. Her death from covid will probably be recorded as one of those "with underlying health conditions" which some people on MN say don't matter, because "they would have died any way".

Friend of friend, 38, perfectly healthy, two small children. Died in the autumn,

I lost my job because of Covid. But a lot of people on here are under the assumption that when you lose your job you sit there until you can’t pay your bills. Most people with their head screwed on will go out and find a new one even if it fills the gap temporarily.

But if demand for jobs exceeds the number of jobs available?

it might be temporary, but if id lost a £1400 a month wage and was now relying on UC I’d be abit pissed off given there’s absolutely no timescale of when it’s going to be over.

@LucilleTheVampireBat

Relates back to my previous point about sitting around waiting to starve after you lose your job. You adapt

I'm not even fucking responding. You're like one of those "just forage for mushrooms" posters who pop up on threads where people are struggling to feed their children.

I have a child and lost my own job due to Covid. I adapted. I provided an example of a perfectly legitimate (temporary) solution to people losing their jobs; you just don’t like it.