Anti lockdown protests yesterday.

[Tumbleweed101]

There is a lot being said on social media but not much in mainstream news which is interesting given how many people seem to have gone to the one in London at least. I understand there were some elsewhere in the country too.

Just curious if anyone took part
and what people think about the protests.

Sorry got a bit cross there

@mumsneedwine so when are people allowed to carry on with their lives, according to you? We have a vaccination program there to protect the old and vulnerable, infection and death rates are extremely low, but apparently not low enough? I dont really understand what you think people should do, hide away forever? Wait until there is zero covid?

Also you keep mentioning all the people you know who have had covid, and I am sorry for that, but if we are going to draw from our own experiences then I know one person who has had it. And I was talking to a friend yesterday who doesnt know a single person who has had it. I'm not saying that it means it's not real, but you seem to think your experience of it should influence me, rather than my own and that's just unrealistic.

@toffeebutterpopcorn

No vaccine in the world is 100% effective and nothing in life is totally without risk.

There is no such thing as 100% safety.

@toffeebutterpopcorn how much longer? What will give you peace of mind? An arbitrary date Boris gives you?

[quote millenialblush]@toffeebutterpopcorn if your MIL is high risk then she has the option of getting the vaccination. That's what it's there for. When are the lower risk allowed to carry on with their lives if threats not the case?[/quote]
If anyone high risk (or indeed anyone who needs urgent hospital treatment for whatever reason) has been vaccinated but needs hospital care for ongoing issues, they are going to struggle to get it if hospitals are overwhelmed with COVID cases

We have seen this twice in the UK now - hospitals had reached critical levels and were in emergency medicine mode. They were struggling to deal with non-COVID emergencies due to saturation by COVID patients.

I have no idea why people can't understand the necessity of gradually easing restrictions to avoid this happening again. We have not vaccinated enough of the population to avoid this happening yet, hence why mass gatherings are a bad idea.

Why does everybody think that Boris wants to keep us all in lockdown?

If anything the opposite is true.

Can't get money out of donors if their industries haven't been reopened.

EOHO2 coming soon..................

You really can't argue with stupid 🤷‍♀️

@millenialblush
What is it that you are waiting to get back so desperately that it cannot wait?

(Sorry that sounds stroppy, I don't mean it to but just want to know)

@millenialblush We know now the vaccines have a huge impact on transmission. Which means that once we hit a certain point of vaccination we should see domestic transmission chains break much more consistently than they are now - and we’re already seeing that impact.

We’re not terribly far away from that point now. We’re testing these theories as we go with gaps between relaxation of restrictions to make sure we’re right. So far so good (based on ONS, Zoe, name your favoured source of infection data).

It’s a bit petulant when we have more confidence than ever before that the U.K. is closer than most countries to massively cutting the risk of transmission through broad community immunity to say ‘no I can’t wait two months or so (less than that to June 17!), I wanna stop NOW.’

Why does everybody think that Boris wants to keep us all in lockdown?

Does no one remember the ‘all you lazy bastards wfh need to go back to the office NOW to appease our corporate landlord donors’ campaign of last September? That went well.

Does no one remember the ‘all you lazy bastards wfh need to go back to the office NOW to appease our corporate landlord donors’ campaign of last September? That went well
That was my point

@JassyRadlett
Ignore me I am a twat, you were agreeing with me

@millenialblush Well it's good to hear a first hand account. What I've read seemed as if it had been dictated by a committee. The star of David thing is such an obviously stupid and offensive comparison that it wouldn't at all surprise me if it was in fact a covert SAGE mission to discredit the entire idea of maybe having some questions about how we see society working in a future governed solely by health surveillance. But of course it's all just "oh they're so stupid protesting about restrictions that are on the way out". Yes, I very much hope they do look stupid in hindsight, my greatest fear is that they will look prescient.

@hepatocyte well I guess we will all be back here in 2 weeks then debating the massive spike in deaths and hospitalizations because of yesterday. Or not...

No worries @StarCat2020 😄

@Waxonwaxoff0

Seems a bit pointless to me as we are coming out of lockdown and Boris has said no planned delays to the road map. I support the right to protest though.

And you believe him ?

how much longer? What will give you peace of mind? An arbitrary date Boris gives you

I know you didn’t ask me but if you want a concrete date could we start with finishing vaccinating the people we’ve started with two doses before declaring everything’s done and dusted? My CEV df isn’t due his second jab for another month because the nature of his issues mean that mobility is an issue that proved quite difficult when we actually needed to get him to the location where a vaccine was. He’s not the only one whose only partially done. How’s that? Reasonable?

( @Terracotta9 although I feel I’m done with this particular line it’s been an interesting conversation)

@JassyRadlett it's not ending in 2 months though is it, that was the whole point of the protest! Vaccine passports are just a different restriction.

@Dolciedolly I believe we will come out of lockdown as planned.

[quote Waxonwaxoff0]@Dolciedolly I believe we will come out of lockdown as planned.[/quote]
And all restrictions removed ? They are people whose livelihoods are decimated etc

[quote millenialblush]@hepatocyte well I guess we will all be back here in 2 weeks then debating the massive spike in deaths and hospitalizations because of yesterday. Or not...[/quote]
What evidence do you have that makes you so sure if all restrictions were eased we wouldn't see exponential growth of cases?

I have never understood why posters think they know better than 100s of experts who are advising caution.

Easing all restrictions while we still have a large proportion unvaccinated will potentially cause another spike in cases. This is problematic for many reasons, including overwhelming hospitals, leading to unnecessary death and long term complications, but also because uncontrolled circulation of coronavirus is how new strains emerge. If a variant is emerges that is resistant to our current vaccines, it will be disastrous as we'll be (almost) back at square one.

@Dolciedolly probably not masks gone yet. But that's not lockdown and wearing a mask really isn't a big deal.

[quote Waxonwaxoff0]@Dolciedolly probably not masks gone yet. But that's not lockdown and wearing a mask really isn't a big deal.[/quote]
It is to me and a lot of people and business suffer enough is enough

@JassyRadlett it's not ending in 2 months though is it, that was the whole point of the protest! Vaccine passports are just a different restriction.

Which are entirely hypothetical but for international travel, and given the govt is currently trialling other methods of having large gatherings without them, they are likely only to be a last resort if the only choice is between vaccine passports and the events being banned.

But you weren’t saying ‘I can wait two months, but can’t stomach vaccine passports.’ You’re saying you’ve had enough ‘hiding and you’re ‘done’.

@Dolciedolly well you need to get a grip then if you think wearing a mask is a big deal. I wear one all day at work.

It's awful that businesses have suffered but they are all reopening now and will all be open by the end of June.