Plan B

[edisonbulb]

Are they nudging us to plan B with the presser on Sunday the articles in the papers the headlines on Sky and BBC being the worst in Europe.

I can't see another lockdown happening but masks easy fix and work from home well for some.

I need to go to m&s but I'm really not happy to do that with the cases now. At least we stay 2 m apart in the office. This fucking virus😒

[quote bluetuesdayy]@PrincessNutNuts

SAGE today -

The NHS is 'highly unlikely' to be overwhelmed by Covid this winter even without restrictions, the Government's scientific advisory panel have insisted in advice that justifies No10's bold decision to reject immediately resorting to 'Plan B'.[/quote]
I'm not sure we read the same thing.

Where's that from?

[quote bluetuesdayy]@Parker231 do you really think deaths are 'incredibly high' ? Or have you lost all perspective of how many people die every day from a variety of things.

67 million people and 140 a day of Covid. 450 from Cancer.[/quote]
it is interesting where we shine our lens of attention, isn't it? Exposure to covid stats daily for almost 2 years has certainly done a number on us. We seem to have forgotten every other disease and issue in society.

Why we can't just have a measured approach without this constant churn of media hysteria and fucking social media bollox exasperates me. We could really, really do ok with this if there was a more balanced approach to it - why does it always have to be either or? It is also a pity we cant be trusted as a population to think for ourselves and make good decisions. We have become addicted to being spoon-fed what to think, feel and how to act.

@PrincessNutNuts telegraph

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/10/22/winter-covid-wave-wont-bad-last-year-even-without-plan-b/

[quote bluetuesdayy]@PrincessNutNuts telegraph

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/10/22/winter-covid-wave-wont-bad-last-year-even-without-plan-b/[/quote]
Ah, that explains the "thousands will die preventable deaths" aspect of government policy being glossed over in favour of calling it a "bold move".

@Pheasantlysurprised - I’m not hysterical about Covid deaths but many could have been prevented if the government had handled the pandemic differently. Why does the U.K. have so many more deaths compared with other comparable countries?

It seems to me that Boris and his friends have somehow managed to reach middleage without grasping the simple truths inherent in the old adage "A stitch in time saves nine".

At every step along the way, from the very emergence of the pandemic, the response has been to dismiss, downplay, deny, and delay. By the time action is taken... This will be no different.

I’ve no idea what restrictions will come in. But...
We’re in debt by trillions of pounds. Furlough has ended. We have a labour market shortage- lack of drivers, pickers, workers in the food and logistics industry.
Energy prices and fuel prices have gone up as has food.
How could a lockdown realistically happen without bankrupting the country? How could millions of people losing their jobs be any benefit whatsoever ? Not everyone can work from home... thinking retail and hospitality industry here.
The backlog of NHS non covid related issues would be greater than it already is.
And finally, wouldn’t people surely say enough is enough?

Imagine if restaurants had to close again this Christmas. It would be goodnight Vienna for lots of them, losing two Christmas consecutively.
The hospitality industry alone employs millions of people. As does retail shops.

Plan b isn't a lockdown though its smaller messages

But telling people to work from home encourages people not to go out, surely? It doesn’t make sense to say to someone , hey don’t go to the office, work from home.
But you can go to a restaurant or pub and be surrounded by complete stangers...
Telling people to work from home is kind of saying don’t go out...
People who work from home, aren’t going to spend money in a coffee shop, buy lunch, spend money on a train/ bus ticket etc etc.
Telling people to work from home,yet they can go to a football match, theatre, cinema doesn’t make sense to me...

@Dave20 but every little helps and the restaurants I go to we are still spaced , offices not so much and people are familiar so break the distancing.
Its only asking those that can and those that have the set up to do , so however you look at its not a lock down
Bringing in masks and wfh if possible and maybe even social distancing in pubs / restaurants between groups is simple not to intrusive measures , combined with half term it could help and better than the alternative of a lockdown or semi one like not mixing households etc in a few weeks
They are simple measures which can be achieved , not everyone who goes to work buys a coffee or a sandwich loads where I work bring in their own

I think the biggest concern regarding bring back any restriction is a time frame.if we bring them back now it may take 2 months to get cases down low again. Realistically I couldn't see them removing those restrictions until the spring so we're talking 6 months of restrictions.

However let's just imagine of the slow down in case rises in the last couple of days and the decline today was actually a natural drop in cases due to increased immunity. Then we could essentially be down to low cases naturally in a few weeks without any restrictions.

If we artificially lower cases due to restrictions we don't really know where we stand immunity wise. People act as if they can just bring masks and work from home back for a few weeks but realistically it would go on until the winter has finished.

@Tuba437 at what cost though in lives ?
Just letting it spread?
What if half a hospital get it ? Who's dealing with the patients ?

There is no need for plan B it's the media scraremongering again to make sure eve time gets their booster and kids get vaccinated.

They cannot afford to close down pubs etc or furlough people again so that won't be happening.

I think that the higher cases go, the more people will naturally stop going to places anyway. Most people I know would choose to cancel a restaurant booking just before Christmas if they thought going would increase their chances of having to isolate and miss seeing their family over the Christmas period. That wouldn't help the restaurant much either.
Taking a few basic steps in a timely manner would surely benefit all.
And it's not true that people working from home will necessarily spend less. I've discovered some lovely sandwich shops etc near my home that I would never have found whilst going into the office.

If you artificially lower cases through restrictions then they’ll shoot up when you relax them. You get stuck in an endless cycle..

Working from home where possible and mandatory mask wearing should be enacted from today. It will give time for the 12-15 year olds and the boosters to take place and more people will have protection

@Parker231

Wfh would kill a lot of businesses reliant on office workers that have just started to get back up and running. I know a sandwich shop near mine has just brought workers back from furlough and is now looking to recruit again.

There is absolutely no need for restrictions when 95% of people have antibodies and hospitals are nowhere near overwhelmed.

My office is in City of London - I rarely bought a sandwich lunch when I was in the office but I’m still working from home (we have a hybrid model and can work where we want) and now often nip out to have a coffee at a local coffee shop.
For every Covid patient in hospital, it’s one less bed which could be taken by someone from the waiting list. DH is a GP and is struggling to get patients admitted for urgent treatment as there aren’t enough beds.

@Tuba437

I think the biggest concern regarding bring back any restriction is a time frame.if we bring them back now it may take 2 months to get cases down low again. Realistically I couldn't see them removing those restrictions until the spring so we're talking 6 months of restrictions.

However let's just imagine of the slow down in case rises in the last couple of days and the decline today was actually a natural drop in cases due to increased immunity. Then we could essentially be down to low cases naturally in a few weeks without any restrictions.

If we artificially lower cases due to restrictions we don't really know where we stand immunity wise. People act as if they can just bring masks and work from home back for a few weeks but realistically it would go on until the winter has finished.

This is it — restrictions make the data murky.

People suggest it'll avoid a lockdown. But more than likely it'll bring things down a bit, and a bit more, and a bit more. Soon it'll be coming to Christmas, and there'll be clamour to err on the safe side of not meeting up.

I'll be July again before we know it.

@Remmy123 plan b isn't closing down pubs though , its some minor changes
Closing down is what will happen if nhs becomes overwhelmed and in winter that doesn't take very much

When this annual message changes I might bother to take notice. Quite frankly, I think I’ve reached maximum tolerance to being told it’s our fault the NHS faces crisis again when the reality is that the government has consistently failed to invest properly in our healthcare system.
They told us all to get double vaccinated despite covid not affecting all age ranges the same and the vast majority of us did. Now they tell us we all need to get vaccinated again and we face further restrictions. My answer to both is NO.

But covid is supposedly meant to last forever , long term. Does that mean the government will bring in changes every winter? What will they do cancel Christmas every year?
Would people really allow another cancelled Christmas this year? Looking at worst case scenario.
What about the economy? There will be a time when there will be no one working to fund the NHS!
I don’t trust this government at all.

Look here things are going... deliberately drip feeding information getting ready to gear everyone up, so it’s not such a shock.Surely people have leant by now...