Are we locking down again?

[Dancerinthedark01]

And if so will they do more of the furlough and shutting things down?

Schools?

Please No!

I’m reading that this might be happening.

The NHS has been struggling for decades.

Absolutely. I'd have felt a 4 hour wait at A and E was a good outcome when my dcs were little. My 87 year old MIL fell and broke her hip pre-Covid and we waited 10 hours for an ambulance.

It hasn’t been struggling for decades. It’s been struggling for a decade.

They would have to bring back financial support if we locked down.
I think this winter flu making a comeback and covid will be too much to cope with.

@Iggly

It hasn’t been struggling for decades. It’s been struggling for a decade.

This. We thought it was underfunded before, then the Tories came back.

@Bordois

Wow, its been, what, 3 weeks since we last had one of these.

There will be those who insist (yet again) that a lockdown will definitely happen, those that say it won't, some dodgy stats, a bit of fear mongering, someone who knows someone who knows someone who is high up in the NHS / government who has been told to prepare for lockdown, a bit of name calling, some ripping the piss and then the thread will drop off the front page.

Or, the govt itself actually saying there may need to be the reintroduction of some restrictions as we go further into autumn winter. Which is what was actually said, and what people are talking about. You don't need to know people in the govt. It's on the news.

As pp said a wfh mandate to many on MN seems to be middle class people sitting at home while poor sods deliver them stuff

@Iggly

It hasn’t been struggling for decades. It’s been struggling for a decade.

Well 2 of my examples were previous decades. It wax definitely struggling then.

I do we’ve learnt anything, it’s that we just don’t know. If the NHS gets overwhelmed during winter then yes.

@Rosehip10

As pp said a wfh mandate to many on MN seems to be middle class people sitting at home while poor sods deliver them stuff

Quite. I can't believe how many people are still doing it. The no restrictions surely cuts all ways. If you don't have to wear a mask and can go to the pub with Covid, then why can't you go back to your workplace. I've spoken to 3 bodies this week, all of whom have "our operatives are working from home due to the pandemic"

But MN isn't real life, otherwise the world would be made up equally of 50% keyworkers and 50% wfh-ers who seem to spend their working day "presenting"

Did people use to "present" all day?

If we’ve learnt not ‘I do’

It hasn’t been struggling for decades. It’s been struggling for a decade.

My dm was taken to A and E in the 80s - seriously ill and spent several hours on a trolley in a corridor before she was seen.

Get all the DC vaccinated and job almost done.
If the govt. hadn't have messed up the roll out of the 2ndary school vaccinations, we wouldn't be in this escalating situation.
They had all summer to get parents to walk-in to clinics and get their teens vaccinated but they waited to do it alongside the booster program and are running out of resources.

Not full lockdown. Why vaccinate if you’re going to close everything again?

Vaccinations aren’t a destination, this is the kind of attitude that gets us into trouble. We needed to keep the momentum and get a step ahead of the next phase (boosters) not take foot off the gas. Truth is govt got bored as there were no more political gains to be made from the vaccination program once we established ourselves s as “world beating” so they lost interest and we’ve fallen behind.

I think they’ll bring bubbles back into schools, wfh, masks and restrictions on mass indoor gathering back quite soon. Half term will provide a bit of respite but I think December will be out of control after another six weeks with schools.

Personally I’d like to see bubbles back… I want kids to stay in school and don’t mind then giving up a bit of mixing etc to do so

Also, don’t forget that we haven’t really been in this position before, high cases before the winter has taken off. At the moment we can still ventilate abs lots of people are using outside space. Very soon when it gets cold we won’t be able to do that so whatever is going round, Covid, flu etc .. will accelerate

There's a worst case scenario plan on gov.uk to read. It's been there for a couple of months now. Media probably just found it

"but also we should try to achieve the kind of national mobilisation that we achieved in the first and second waves, where the public went out of their way to support and help the health service"

This pisses me off. We all stayed at home. Our children missed out on education. We got vaccinated. And now we are potentially being asked AGAIN to save the NHS by missing out on seeing our loved ones. The responsibility seems to be on us to curtail our lives and not the government or the NHS. The NHS are seriously over estimating how much good will is left towards them.

@Lovealovestory do you have a link please, I can't find it!

Something does need to be done to get us through winter. Bringing back lots of the measures would help before a lockdown.
So distancing, masks, bubbles, isolating households with cases and a clear message that if you are sick stay home or prove a test. So many with colds and bugs seem to know it’s not covid without a test

What does it say @Lovealovestory ?

I wish the media wouldn't try and panic is so much.
I hate uncertainty and the threat of lockdown is stressful.
Hoping to have restful peaceful half term and semi hibernate.
Might avoid the news today.

@bluetuesdayy The NHS are seriously over estimating how much good will is left towards them

This is really worrying to hear, what more can they do. Do you think the problem is that essentially boris has politicised the NHS?

@RoseStar they have 0 chance to people not socially mixing at Christmas in private homes for a second year running.

Our vaccination programme is currently a mess and needs attention. The boosters need to be run so that anyone 6 months out and in the first 10 groups can get one.

A halfway house decision was made on 12-15 year olds - that probably needs changing now and the decision to let them go to walk ins continued. Then move the school vaccination programme back to flu (as it should be)

Masks should probably never have been removed and wfh is a possibility (though does have downsides).

I will also say that wfh is something that has now gone beyond the pandemic. Spending time commuting when you can get your job done perfectly well at home means it has changed and will I think change going forward. Its not really related to Covid anymore.

Sensible mitigations in schools (year bubbles etc) also makes sense.

Vaccine passports - controversial but I think will be looked at

Anything beyond that no I dont think so

PPs are right. The NHS doesn't have the same fund of goodwill as eighteen months ago. A relation had an emergency ambulance attend at the weekend and was told they needed to see their GP as a matter of urgency. They are still waiting to be rung back, let alone actually being examined and referred.

@RoseStar I know it's not their fault, but it's not ours either. Should we all give the OK to staying away from friends and family every winter now? Miss out on half our lives with loved ones.