A 2-week 'circuit breaker' could be coming after Christmas

[dancingstars]

Reported by The Times and The Guardian which means another NYE stuck indoors...

@Florianus

Yes but what did Boris do ?

I've got no idea if he even knew about the various parties. He doesn't live in No.10 which is a vast complex of rooms (you'd never guess from the narrow frontage, but it was formed from two large townhouses plus a huge mansion at the back). Some years ago it was said that 170 people worked in No,10 - probably more nowadays.

Even if he didn’t know he should know then when he found out kick off . You can’t go making these rules and fining public joe but your staff are having a party .

We all were pretty much compliant last year because hardly anyone had the new vaccines

Quite right, The80s, though with government having shot that bolt I really wouldn't expect "wait for the tweaked vaccines" to have much effect this time

Rightly or wrongly people put an awful lot of faith in them, and now we have another variant - which was always going to happen and will happen again - very many are saying "What was the point since we're no further forward?"

The trouble with hyping up a certain treatment, especially over something so emotive, is that it only tends to work once

@Sowhatifiam

We can’t and won’t keep locking down to protect these few it’s not possible and not to mention all the sacrifices financial / mentally etc

Lockdown was never about protecting the minority of people who are particularly vulnerable to covid.

Sorry it’s to protect the nhs I forget

It is so that people most vulnerable to covid don't all die at once and cause inconvenience to everyone else, in large part.

The real nub of the problem is having these dying people block up all the hospitals and all the mortuaries.

Also, if everyone has a nasty bug at the same time, it makes it hard for society to continue the way we all want it to.

On balance, it would be better if people didn't die, but it isn't really that worrying if thousands of people die over the space of a few months, we've mostly got used to that now, at least in the UK.

Yes, the govt over-sold the vaccines/freedom day as part of an attempt to find a post-Brexit "success" story. People believed them. Now what?

(I do agree that there are bots/shills on some of the covid threads, especially wrt schools closing.)

‘Protecting the NHS’ is one of the worst slogans ever.

It is not about protecting ‘the NHS’ but about protecting the country’s ability to treat us medically. I.E protecting ourselves.

It was conceived as a great idea by (moronic) focus groups who found that people weirdly revered the NHS.

Now, 18 months later, with people left to suffocate at home, waiting times at 8 hours in A&E and GPs who decided not to see patients any more, people have a very different perception.

So, people won’t stay home to protect the NHS, but they might to protect their own and their children’s lives.

If they want to lock down, they need to have very different PR and, to a man (and woman), stay at home themselves. And start fining and jailing the elite who get caught dodging it.

But I think they have shot themselves in the foot and it is too late.

@ChristmasRobins

Just wish we had some idea what the endgame is. Previously lockdowns etc were justified as we were waiting for vaccines and treatments. What are we waiting for now? What is being offered except an endless cycle of more or less restriction?

There is no end game with a coronavirus. We have to adapt our lives to be able to live with it. Otherwise this hamster wheel just keeps on spinning.

To adapt we really need to;

double/ triple our hospital capacity and invest in an army of nurses and doctors with Covid specialisms (higher pay too)

ventilate and space out classrooms, reconfigure the school calendar and curriculum and have specific Covid protocols in place for localised outbreaks

Adopt (improved) daily LFT testing for everyone

Figure out how long vaccine immunity lasts

Create a specific health service focused on long Covid sufferers

Wear face masks when out in public and respect space as the norm

Reconfigure capacity for theatres and public transport etc

If we don’t adapt- well we can just copy and paste these threads this time next year.

To be fair, the vaccines & boosters are a Very Good Thing (and saved a very large number of lives) the irreversible march to freedom less so.

If it's going to be helpful and keep the numbers in check then it needs to happen now, not after the whole country has gone mad mingling with other households.

@herecomesthsun

It is so that people most vulnerable to covid don't all die at once and cause inconvenience to everyone else, in large part.

The real nub of the problem is having these dying people block up all the hospitals and all the mortuaries.

Also, if everyone has a nasty bug at the same time, it makes it hard for society to continue the way we all want it to.

On balance, it would be better if people didn't die, but it isn't really that worrying if thousands of people die over the space of a few months, we've mostly got used to that now, at least in the UK.

The vulnerable know who they are and are acting to take care of themselves. We should have a society that protects them by keeping a health check on them, providing them with proper masks, delivering their shopping for them and allowing them to work from home if they can. The rest of us should be be able to live sensibly in a free and functioning society.

I think that the majority of people in favour of lockdown are entirely out for themselves, however much they dress it up as "protecting the NHS" and "saving lives"

As things turned out, so it seems were many who rushed to get the vaccines
In view of the many responses last year insisting folk had mainly done it "for the common good", it was amusing to see a recent thread where again and again posters said "I only bothered with it so I could go away!!"

Funny how the narrative swings this way and that isn't it?

@vera99

It started with Thatcher "there's no such thing as society" and decades of hollowing out our civic society and here we are. Everyone for himself and the devil takes the hindmost.

I honestly don’t think that’s true for the vast majority. Most people complied with not seeing friends and family during the first and second lockdowns. Most people wear masks when told to Most people have had jabs when for many they are not at risk. But there is a limit to how much you can give to strangers you don’t know and society as a whole when it’s so adversely affecting your own lives and that of your family. The limit has never been tested before but it is sure being tested now.

Just to put things in perspective, last night my Dad pressed his emergency button as he couldn't breathe (he has advanced COPD and heart failure). We had an apology text from the ambulance service saying there were long delays. As it happened, my brother woke up and realised my Dad had taken his oxygen off and was confused, so he put it back on and he was fine, and he was able to cancel the ambulance. But it's pretty alarming that even with a patient who couldn't breathe there would have been a long wait to be treated. If the numbers go even higher, a lot of people needing life saving treatment, RTAs, choking children included, won't get it.

Maybe a lockdown just for those that haven't yet managed to get their 3 vaccinations, to protect them. And the clinically vulnerable.

@AlwaysLatte

Maybe a lockdown just for those that haven't yet managed to get their 3 vaccinations, to protect them. And the clinically vulnerable.

Yes like that’s going well in some European countries. It’s a disgrace and I hope it never happens here. I don’t know what’s happened to the world.

@AlwaysLatte

Maybe a lockdown just for those that haven't yet managed to get their 3 vaccinations, to protect them. And the clinically vulnerable.

I take it you are someone who is older and had the first 2 vaccines pretty early on then? So have been able to get a booster for some time? Good for you. Many people arnt able to get a booster yet because they only just became eligible when the rules changed from 6 to 3 months and are struggling to get time off work to stand in a 3 hour queue!

@AlwaysLatte

Maybe a lockdown just for those that haven't yet managed to get their 3 vaccinations, to protect them. And the clinically vulnerable.

Sod that for a game of soldiers!

I have had three vaccinations, but if I hadn't, I would be ready to murder anyone who said they were locking me down in order to protect me.

Yes like that’s going well in some European countries. It’s a disgrace and I hope it never happens here

If it's going well, what is the problem? Why is it a disgrace?

@Thewiseoneincognito Are you suggesting these things (daily tests, masks etc) in perpetuity or until some future point, and if the latter what is that point?

This is what I feel people are struggling with. If we could have honesty from the government along the lines of “we will need restrictions of some sort in perpetuity/for 10 years/whatever” then people could have meaningful views on what level of restrictions (and what level of deaths) they could accept. As it is, it feels like people are being asked to accept restrictions on the basis that they are time-limited when in fact they aren’t.

I think that the majority of people in favour of lockdown are entirely out for themselves, however much they dress it up as "protecting the NHS" and "saving lives"

So those not wanting a lockdown aren’t being selfish? - go back and RTFT and see how many people don’t want a lockdown because they have holidays booked or birthdays etc.

Although I don’t particularly want a lockdown I am not stupid enough to think burying our heads in the sand is going to make any difference.

It’s almost impossible to get a GP appointment and it’s hours long wait in A&E as it is.
Obviously the more cases = more hospitalisations.

I’ve worked whole time as can’t work from home or be furloughed as self employed - when jobs got cancelled I had to find different clients etc

Don’t work, don’t get paid, and Seiss was pathetic !!

Last Christmas we followed rules. Stayed home the 3 of us, me dh and dd

Cancelled seeing friends and family

Area south east was lockdown /t3 so wasn’t allowed to mix

Followed all rules

This year we will see family, might be my dads last Xmas he’s getting old , we are all triple vacs, we will all do regular of, we’ll do that anyway

Last year neighbours still had people round - was I pissed off

Yes !!!

I’ve always said herd immunity but obv lots of different variants now

The vaccine stops us from dying and using nhs services

Everyone needs to get it to run it’s course so lockdowns and circuit breakers aren’t going to help IMO

But I’m not a scientist

I would be ready to murder
Melodramatic!

Maybe a lockdown just for those that haven't yet managed to get their 3 vaccinations, to protect them. And the clinically vulnerable

Isn’t this basically what the covid passports are for?

@AlwaysLatte

Maybe a lockdown just for those that haven't yet managed to get their 3 vaccinations, to protect them. And the clinically vulnerable.

Er, I haven't managed to get my 3 vaccinations because it hasn't been 3 months since my second one, why should I be locked down for something that I can't help?