If you are cancelling plans/think we should have another lockdown

[Maddymorphosis]

Would you be prepared to do the same next winter, and the one after that and so on?
Last December I heard a lot of "It's just one year"
People not seeing family for "just one Christmas".

Are you prepared to do it again, and going forward maybe every time there's a new variant in winter?

I'm carrying on with all my plans, not that they were very huge anyway. If friends or relatives would prefer not to go ahead then that is their call and I respect it, but I personally won't be cancelling anything. I have done drinks out with friends planned for next week, meeting my sister for lunch, hopefully seeing in-laws over Xmas, will take kids to cinema etc.

OP why do you feel the need to judge others? If you're enjoying going out and having a good time, just get on with it and leave others to do what is comfortable for them. I expect that most people will have suffered hardship of one kind or another over the last 2 years and everyone has to deal with the current crisis in their own way.

The only reason I’m cancelling plans is to prioritise a christmas with family. Otherwise I’d be carrying on. In the same way we reduced contacts before our summer holiday. I absolutely do not think we are able to lock down every winter.

THEY HAD PARTIES while we all had shite xmas banned from seeing our families!!!! And they are going to do it again and people are going to fall for it again!!!! We trult have the government we deserve.

This seems to be the scenario for years to come. Variants get here and hits worse than in other places. It is such a drama because apparently we are a fatter nation and with an elderly population. I really can’t do another winter of this shit.

Not all of us had a shite Christmas from not seeing family. I like dh, the cat and three other people.

I think if we get through this wave plus booster I feel more positive it won’t be restrictions every time a VOC appears, esp at winter

Lets face it nobody wants another lockdown, but at the same time, nobody wants to see their families dying from this either, so if its needed, it's needed!

I have cancelled all plans for the foreseeable future, I have 3 vulnerable people in my house and I would much rather have Christmas with my family this year than risk catching it and having to isolate.

I don't think there should be another lockdown. However there is nothing wrong with people taking precautions that they feel comfortable with etc. eg if you want to cancel all plans then do so.

Personally i think you need to aim in the middle, as in being careful but not over socialising or living like a hermit either.

I think we all have different priorities .

I have a small family. My mum has dementia and is in a care home. I visit her weekly, Christmas won't matter whether it's December or January . I have one brother (not local) who I met up with a couple of weeks ago for the first time since first lockdown .

Plans for Christmas Day are a meal out with DH, DS and his partner . DS lives about a mile away and we
See him at least weekly . If we are unable to meet up Christmas Day, we will do it another time.

Plans I made for the weeks before Christmas involve meeting people I haven't seen for ages so I would rather prioritise those .

I really don't want to get Covid, but nor do I want to spend the next few weeks / months / however much time just sitting in the house like last year .

THEY HAD PARTIES while we all had shite xmas banned from seeing our families!!!! And they are going to do it again and people are going to fall for it again!!!! We trult have the government we deserve.
Boris and his crew are arseholes who have demonstrated they don't care about anyone but themselves. They've been hoping for herd immunity strategies for ages. There was the whole letting the bodies pile high thing and they prioritised wealthy people going to the races over public health.
They cared so little about schools and children's education that instead of putting in place appropriate measures, they stirred up hate towards education professionals and then because of government willingness to spread covid, schools ended up closed on site to millions of children for months.

If people judge the morality of their actions by whatever Boris does, they're foolish.

Yes I will cancel plans and have another lockdown as I'm terrified of the state the NHS is in and that it won't be there if my children need it. Also will do whatever it takes to protect schools.

I don't want to see any restrictions, we just need to crack on. Everyone has been offered the vaccine, the country cannot afford lockdowns, our children need to be in school.

@Immaculatemisconception

I don't want to see any restrictions, we just need to crack on. Everyone has been offered the vaccine, the country cannot afford lockdowns, our children need to be in school.

The country can't afford to surrender to the virus.

Schools are closing/partially closed/ doing quiet study in the sports hall supervised by any dbs checked random adult, or unsatisfactory teaching by an unsuitable substitute teacher now.

Covid is doing that. Covid is closing schools. Not lockdown.

But what if a new variant occurs every winter? Are people not worried that Christmas as we knew it is lost forever?
What if every Christmas a new variant some around ?
Would we have to go through this every year?
I’m amazed more people don’t see this Does anyone else think that Christmas as we knew it has gone forever?
And that the same will happen next year? Am I the only worried one on here?

@fournonblondes

This seems to be the scenario for years to come. Variants get here and hits worse than in other places. It is such a drama because apparently we are a fatter nation and with an elderly population. I really can’t do another winter of this shit.

I saw a post on here earlier on why African countries haven't really been in the media much with covid and someone said their Kenyan colleague said they don't care about covid over there, it runs rampant but no one is scared. They call it the fat white mans disease.....!!!

But the death toll isn’t like last year is it? Yes the new variant is contagious, but not as deadly as the first one? Or am I mistaken?
Again the hospitality industry that employs millions of people will take another blow.

**This seems to be the scenario for years to come. Variants get here and hits worse than in other places. It is such a drama because apparently we are a fatter nation and with an elderly population. I really can’t do another winter of this shit.

This exactly. Every November, the weather changes as we move to winter. A new variant will occur.
As you say, this is us for years to come.
Christmas as we once knew it won’t be the same again. Ever.

@Hearwego I totally agree.

It's a shocking thing to read but I heard someone say the other day there should be more to life than saving the organisation that is supposed to function to save us and the more I think about it the more I'm inclined to agree. We can't keep shutting down to prop up a badly run, badly funded organisation that no government is prepared to be strong over and admit that we have to move to a hybrid model of state/insurance style funded NHS care.

@Hearwego

But the death toll isn’t like last year is it? Yes the new variant is contagious, but not as deadly as the first one? Or am I mistaken? Again the hospitality industry that employs millions of people will take another blow.

Omicron has only just begun so the deaths will lag, perhaps revisit that thought in a months time.

As for the hospitality industry, they’re utterly screwed if we don’t introduce furlough. So many people are cancelling festive plans that it’s going to be impossible for most businesses to survive long term as Omicron circulates.

If it meant I was keeping myself and family safe then yes I would have every Christmas in isolation/lockdown whatever. I'm high risk, as is my son and daughter. My father is high risk also so I'd do whatever I could to look after everyone.

I know that others might not see it this way but each to their own.

It’s all well and good protecting the NHS, but at what cost? The cost of our kids education? The cost of millions being out of work?
We need kids to be educated to be future doctors. We need people in work to pay tax to fund the NHS.
What’s the point in the NHS if no one can pay for it anymore because the working population have being financially screwed.
Businesses are already on their knees and people are on the breadline.
Inflations going up, we need the economy to recover.
I dread to think of the future otherwise.

If you don't want to protect NHS capacity

What's your plan for if - god forbid - your DH is in a car accident, and needs an ambulance? Or your child is very ill and needs a hospital? Or your dad has a heart attack and needs a bypass?

Or you break your ankle?

Or you just need antibiotics or your baby comes early, or you have a mental health crisis...

What will you do when the NHS can't help you?

Everyone wants to protect the NHS capacity it isn't about that and it is wrong to say that - the fact is it isn't sustainable. The fact is we can't, and it has been on the brink for years because no government will face up to the hard questions and realities.

what willYou do when the nhs can't protect you

Pay? Use insurance? I had a friend who couldn't get a GP appt, she paid to go private and got an appt that afternoon.